/Top Stories/ Last Updated: Thu, Jan 23rd, 2025 @ 4:05pm EST

The Verge

Justine Calma

Bill Gates’ nuclear energy startup inks new data center deal

A screenshot from a video of TerraPower’s groundbreaking ceremony for its demonstration project in Wyoming.

TerraPower, a nuclear energy startup founded by Bill Gates, struck a deal this week with one of the largest data center developers in the US to deploy advanced nuclear reactors. TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers (SDC) are working together on a plan to run existing and future facilities on nuclear energy from small reactors.

Tech companies are scrambling to determine where to...

ESPN.com

Brian Windhorst

Silver: NBA still exploring separate Euro league

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says the league still has serious interest in a separate European basketball league.

BuzzFeed - Latest

This Electric Ice Scraper Is "A Real Shoulder Saver." It's 42% Off Today But Time Is Running Out.

This electric ice scraper easily clears your car’s icy debris. It’s on sale for a limited time.

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The Verge

Dominic Preston

Android 16’s first public beta adds Google’s more limited take on live lockscreen notifications

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Android 16’s first public beta will start rolling out later today, bringing with it dynamic lockscreen notifications for ride-sharing and food delivery, following yesterday’s reveal of a similar feature in Samsung’s Galaxy S25 phones. The new beta also forces apps to be resizable, a move to make sure they run full-screen on tablets and foldables. This is expected to be the first of four public beta releases before Android 16’s full release...

The Verge

Jay Peters

Google’s Identity Check for Android keeps phone thieves out of your digital accounts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is officially launching a new Android security feature for Pixel devices with Android 15 to prevent phone thieves from accessing your digital accounts. The feature, called Identity Check, requires biometric authentication to access some account and device settings when you’re not at a trusted location (such as your home or your workplace).

“A stolen device in the wrong hands can expose sensitive data, leaving you vulnerable to...

The Verge

Gaby Del Valle

Fitbit fined $12 million for Ionic smartwatches that burned 78 people

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Fitbit is paying a $12.25 million fine over its Ionic smartwatches, which the company recalled in 2022 after reports that the watches’ lithium-ion batteries overheated and, in some cases, burned customers.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has provisionally accepted the settlement. The commission worked with Fitbit to recall 1.7 million Ionic watches in 2022 after receiving 115 reports of overheating batteries. Of those reports, 78 mentioned...

The Verge

Ash Parrish

Everything we saw at Xbox’s Developer Direct 2025

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Though Nintendo can technically claim it had the first big gaming news event of the year, at least Xbox’s Developer Direct actually showed off some games and let us know when we can play them. The showcase was anchored by deep dives into the biggest games coming down the green pipe like Doom: The Dark Ages and Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight, with a couple of surprises to fill out the nearly one hour-long runtime. Here are the highlights from...

The Verge

Mia Sato

Substack is spending $20 million to court TikTokers

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Meta and YouTube aren’t the only platforms looking to benefit from TikTok potentially disappearing — Substack wants in on the action, too.

The company announced Thursday it’s launching a $20 million “creator accelerator fund,” promising content creators they won’t lose revenue by jumping ship to Substack. Creators in the program also get “strategic and business support” from Substack, and early access to new features....

The Verge

Emma Roth

Perplexity now has a mobile assistant on Android

Image: The Verge

Perplexity has turned its AI “answer engine” into a mobile assistant on Android. The new assistant can answer general questions and perform tasks on your behalf, such as writing an email, setting a reminder, booking dinners, and more.

It’s also multimodal, meaning you can ask it questions about what’s on your screen as well as have it open your camera and “see” what’s in front of you. In an example shared by Perplexity, a user asks the assistant to...

SBNation.com

Jack Milko

St. Andrews hosting The Open in 2027 highlights how PGA Frisco stands out among legendary courses

The 18th hole during the second round of The 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews. | Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour via Getty Images

St. Andrews will again host The Open in 2027, which made us examine all four major venues for that year. One sticks out like a sore thumb.

Unlike the United States Golf Association (USGA), which has announced U.S. Open venues for the next 25 years through 2051, the R&A likes to wait until the last minute to unveil their host courses for The Open...

ESPN.com

Adam Rittenberg

Irish CB, first-round hopeful Morrison enters draft

Notre Dame cornerback Benjamin Morrison, whose 2024 season was shortened by an October hip injury, is headed to the NFL draft, where he will be a possible first-round pick.

ESPN.com

Jamal Collier

Spoelstra to Heat on Butler's ban: 'Get over it'

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra delivered a message to his team in the wake of another suspension for star forward Jimmy Butler, who will miss the upcoming two-game road trip in Milwaukee and Brooklyn as punishment for missing a team flight.

Mashable

Get a free $100 Amazon gift card when you pre-order the new Samsung Galaxy S25

GET A FREE $100 AMAZON GIFT CARD: Pre-order the new Samsung Galaxy S25 (128GB or 256GB, unlocked) and get a free $100 Amazon gift card. Orders are expected to begin shipping on Feb. 7.

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Mashable

Stop losing your stuff with a 4-pack of Apple AirTags, back down to their lowest price

SAVE $29.01: As of Jan. 23, get a 4-pack of Apple AirTags for $69.99 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $99. That's a discount of 29% and their lowest price yet.

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Mashable

Assassins Creed Shadows has a little something for everybody

It turns out the way to get me interested in a new Assassin's Creed (well, more interested than I already was) is to include features from the AC games I played 10 to 15 years ago.

To be a little more specific, Ubisoft's latest open-world stabbing simulator Assassin's Creed Shadows builds on the recent RPG-ish entries like Valhalla by incorporating mechanics and design philosophies from older entries like Brotherhood and Syndicate. From Valhalla, it borrows the idea of training and deploying...

Mashable

Phones with TikTok pre-installed listed for thousands of dollars on eBay

Sellers on eBay have capitalized on TikTok's uncertain fate in the U.S. by selling secondhand phones for thousands of dollars with the app pre-installed.

According to Wired, listings for phones with TikTok installed have proliferated on the online marketplace amidst the TikTok ban saga. On Jan. 18, U.S. users were denied access to the app with a pop-up saying, "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now." But the very next day,...

Mashable

John McAfee returns from the dead to promote a memecoin on Elon Musks X

If enough hasn't already happened this week – John McAfee is apparently back from the dead.

Well, his account on Elon Musk's X has been revived at the very least.

On Wednesday night, John McAfee's @officialmcafee X account started posting again even though McAfee himself was found dead from suicide in June 2021 in a prison in Spain while awaiting extradition to the U.S. 

To be fair, the X account belonging to the eccentric founder of McAfee antivirus hadn't been completely dormant since his...

Mashable

Social Security Administration axes pages referring to changing gender or sexual identity

Keen-eyed individuals spotted another blow to LGBTQ protections under the U.S.'s new presidential administration.

First flagged by Media Matters for America journalist Ari Drennen, the official page for changing sexual (or gender) identification on government documents — overseen by the Social Security Administration — has been removed from public view. The page currently displays an access denied notice that reads "You are not authorized to access this page."

SEE ALSO: ...

Mashable

Southern dogs experiencing snow for the first time is super heartwarming

I don't know if you've ever had the good fortune of seeing a dog discover snow, but it is pure joy. I remember my then-puppy's first snow like it was yesterday.

A rare snowstorm, however, has struck the southern U.S. — states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida — meaning many dogs are discovering snow. After all, how often does a pup in New Orleans get to see snow? In a time where you might need some cute videos — well, that time is pretty much any time — the snow in the...

BuzzFeed - Latest

The Oscars Finally Seem To Be Taking The Horror Genre Seriously. Thank God.

If Demi Moore can take this one to the finish line, it's not only a win for her, but for every overlooked horror performance from the last 10 years.

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