This digest compiles the latest from The Verge.
Today’s The Verge Roundup
Meta’s legal defeat could be a victory for children, or a loss for everyone
28 Mar 2026, 2:00 pm by Adi Robertson
Is social media not just bad, but illegally bad? Should tech companies pay for making it that way? According to two US juries – and no shortage of outside commentary – the answer to both questions is “yes.”
Earlier this week, two juries – one in New Mexico, one in Los Angeles – held Meta liable for a total of hundreds of millions of dollars for harming minors. YouTube was also found liable in Los Angeles, and both companies are appealing their losses. In one sense, the decisions were surprising. Meta and Google operate platforms for transmitting speech and are typically protected in a variety of ways by Section 230 and the First Amendment; …
TikTok’s policy for AI ads isn’t working
28 Mar 2026, 2:00 pm by Jess Weatherbed
I’ve been struggling to tell whether the ads appearing in my TikTok feeds have been made with generative AI tools. As someone who spends a great deal of time scrutinizing images and videos for the usual “tells” that something was synthetically generated, some of the promotions I’ve seen have definitely sparked suspicion. For several weeks, I didn’t see any examples with the AI disclosure required by TikTok’s advertising policies, however, so I had no way of knowing for sure.
What irks me is that someone knows for sure if the content is AI-generated. They’re just not telling the rest of us. And if companies that claim to support AI-labelling …
Here’s what Verge readers are buying during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale
28 Mar 2026, 1:00 pm by Cameron Faulkner
We have a pretty good understanding of which deals Verge readers will gravitate toward. After all, what products and services resonate with our audience — and the quality of the deal itself — are what help us determine what to cover on any given day. And yet, we never know for sure how people will shop during shopping events like Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, which runs through 2:59AM ET on April 1st.
Apparently, many readers felt compelled to make quality-of-life purchases this year, the kind designed to make life run a little more smoothly. Things like a portable tire inflator, a lil’ switch-flipping bot, and an electronic screwdriver were among the most-clicked items (gathered through anonymous shopping data). If you’re the kind of person who enjoys knowing what deals others think are worth jumping on, we’ve rounded them up below.
Govee Table Lamp 2
Where to Buy:
AirPods Pro 3
Where to Buy:
Kindle Colorsoft (16GB)
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Keychron V1 Max
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Hoto 3.6V Electric Screwdriver Kit Pro
Where to Buy:
Sonos Ace
Where to Buy:
Anker 621 Magnetic Battery (MagGo)
Where to Buy:
Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener
Where to Buy:
SwitchBot Bot
Where to Buy:
ChomChom Roller Pet Hair Remover
Where to Buy:
Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip
Where to Buy:
Anker Nano 45W charger with display
Where to Buy:
Anker Qi2 15W wireless charging pad
Where to Buy:
Nuki Smart Lock
Where to Buy:
DJI Osmo Mobile 7P
Where to Buy:
Anker Nano charging station (6-in-1, 67W)
Where to Buy:
TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim (KP125M)
Where to Buy:
Glocusent Bookmark Style Reading Light
Where to Buy:
Hoto PixelDrive Cordless Screwdriver
Where to Buy:
PDP Riffmaster
Where to Buy:
AmFilm OneTouch screen protectors (two-pack)
Where to Buy:
Fanttik X9 Pro Portable Tire Inflator
Where to Buy:
Baseus Free2Pull Retractable USB-C Cable 100W
Where to Buy:
Birdbuddy Pro (solar)
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A classic Zelda-style adventure, but a lot more cozy
28 Mar 2026, 1:00 pm by Andrew Webster
The Legend of Zelda games are grand adventures, but they can also be very comforting, with quaint villages to explore and warm landscapes to take in. Under The Island takes that idea a step further. It still offers the sense of exploration and puzzle-solving that makes Zelda games so satisfying, but it also takes place in a cozy, lighthearted world with an energy reminiscent of Stardew Valley. It’s the kind of place you’ll want to hang around in even when you aren’t slaying monsters.
The game puts you in the role of Nia, a new resident on the seemingly normal Seashell Island. But soon it becomes clear things are much stranger than they appe …
The must-have app for frequent flyers
28 Mar 2026, 12:00 pm by David Pierce
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 121, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, good luck in the Elite Eight, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about Will Wright and sync music and the smartphone theory of everything, picking up The Soul of a New Machine again after hearing that Tracy Kidder died, adding SNL UK to my weekly YouTube clip rotation, watching all my favorite things collide when Hilary Duff went on Hot Ones, moving all my music into Parachord, playing with the NewsBlur Android beta, listening to the new podcast f …
Why OpenAI killed Sora
28 Mar 2026, 12:00 pm by Hayden Field
On Tuesday morning, everything was business as usual at OpenAI. By the end of the day, the company had announced that it would scrap its video-generation app, Sora, and reverse plans for video generation inside ChatGPT; it would wind down a $1 billion Disney deal; it would shuffle the role of a high-level executive; and it would raise an additional $10 billion from investors, adding up to more than $120 billion total for its latest funding round.
OpenAI is now in a frenzy to turn a profit, or at least lose less money. Since its launch, Sora seems to have taken up a massive amount of compute without the financial return to justify it. Indus …
Oppo made the best foldable phone, again
28 Mar 2026, 11:00 am by Dominic Preston
There are always a few reasons people give for not buying a foldable phone. Some – price, battery life, camera quality – are mostly a matter of manufacturers balancing spec sheets to offset the added cost of the folding hardware. Others – durability, size – were practical design problems that have mostly been solved. But the crease always felt different, fundamental: something that foldables would be stuck with no matter what.
Oppo disagrees.
It claims that the Find N6 is the first foldable with a “zero-feel” crease, one so subtle that you can hardly tell it’s there. And while there’s just a hint of marketing exaggeration there, Oppo isn’t …
Bluetti’s Sora 500 solar panel is incredibly powerful for its size
28 Mar 2026, 7:00 am by Thomas Ricker
We don’t review many solar panels at The Verge, but the tech inside Bluetti’s incredibly portable Sora 500 panel makes it worth a deeper look. The new N-Type panels made by Bluetti and others give you more bang for the buck, pound, and square inch. That’s a big deal for vanlifers like me who depend upon these beefy portable solar panels to extend off-grid stays.
In real-world testing, I saw Bluetti’s 500W panel deliver 509W to my van’s power station, allowing me to generate over 800W when combined with the three sad 140W monocrystalline solar panels I have installed on top of my van. That kind of stationary output is fantastic. I typically …
End of today’s The Verge roundup.
