Charlie Brown

Valve announced a new privacy feature for the Steam client today that lets players choose whether certain games they buy and own are visible to others on the platform. According to the update announcement, starting today, Steam beta testers will be able to mark games as private to keep them, well, private. You can mark … Read more

Toward the end of Baldur’s Gate 3, widely considered the most outstanding video game released this year, you can literally go to hell. If you do, you’ll have a showdown with the game’s equivalent of the devil, a charismatic yet demonic trickster who calls himself Raphael. It’s one of the toughest, most dramatic encounters in … Read more

MIAMI (AP) — Electric scooter company Bird Global announced Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to stabilize its wobbly finances. The move marks a sobering comedown for a formerly high-flying startup that was trying to make it easier to get around big cities in an environmentally friendly way with its … Read more

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new changes to the regulations it currently enforces under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), seeking to further limit the collection and use of children’s data by tech companies, especially when used for targeted advertising. “Kids must be able to play and learn online without being endlessly … Read more

Artificial intelligence cannot be legally named as an inventor to secure patent rights, the UK supreme court has ruled. In a judgment on Wednesday, Britain’s highest court concluded that “an inventor must be a person” in order to apply for patents under the current law. The ruling comes after the technologist Dr Stephen Thaler took … Read more

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry’s victory against Mirror Group Newspapers on Friday over what a British judge called “habitual” illegal activity is a landmark moment in the long and twisting saga of lawbreaking by Britain’s tabloid press. Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged … Read more

With the holidays now just around the corner, everyone is double-checking their lists and figuring out the fastest way to get those gifts in time. Thankfully, many retailers are offering generous shipping policies for their products, with some offering free two-day shipping or even same-day delivery if you pay extra. And just in case the … Read more

The time has come: our list of the 20 best games of 2023 is now live. I can’t remember a year with such an embarrassment of riches to choose from, and the diversity of this list really reflects that. Most outlets – and players – appear to have divided themselves along the lines of Team … Read more

The Federal Trade Commission is proposing sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how online companies can track and advertise to children, including turning off targeted ads to kids under 13 by default and limiting push notifications. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parents’ … Read more

This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more. Hello! Apologies for the late send, I have been buried in Hot Pod Summit prep. I promise it will be worth it! We’re putting together a great lineup for 2024. We’re still working on our invitation list — if you’re interested … Read more