The Verge

We’re all impatiently awaiting Nintendo’s next console, but in the meantime, it’s been quite the sendoff year for the Switch.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon’s finally added a key feature to the Scribe, but it has a long way to go before it’s actually useful.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple is no longer selling its iPhone SE and iPhone 14 series in Europe — the last phone models with Apple’s proprietary Lightning charging port — as the EU shifts to a common charging solution built around USB-C. EU Directive 2022/2380 goes into force today in an effort to reduce e-waste and solve market fragmentation.

A spot check by The Verge shows the iPhone SE, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, and the Lightning-based Magic Keyboard have been pulled from Apple’s online stores in The Netherlands, France, Norway, and Germany. Those same devices are still for sale in the US and other countries outside the EEA’s 30 member states. A new iPhone SE with USB-C and other upgrades like an OLED display is rumored for 2025.

In addition to requiring a USB-C port on a wide range of devices sold in the EU from December 28th, 2024, the Directive also requires devices that support fast charging to support the USB PD standard, allows for the unbundling of charging bricks from retail devices, and helps consumers to better understand the power requirements of the devices they’re buying through improved labeling.

President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to let him negotiate a deal to save TikTok from an imminent US ban.

In an amicus brief filed to the court, Trump says he “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office,” and that he “alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform.”

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments that a bill passed by Congress banning TikTok on national security grounds violates the First Amendment. The bill gives wide latitude to the president to delay its enforcement if there’s progress being made towards a deal that ensures TikTok isn’t fully controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

But the deadline for that determination is January 19th, which is one day before Trump is set to be sworn in.

In his Supreme Court filing, Trump asks for the bill’s January 19th deadline to be stayed, arguing that the deal he’d negotiate “would obviate the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment question presented here on the current, highly expedited basis.”

He offers no details on what said deal would look like, though it would likely have to involve ByteDance selling a signification portion of its ownership in TikTok to an American company.

Trump argues that having over 14 million followers on TikTok, along with his ownership of Truth Social, gives him unique ability to “evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech.” He also cites Brazil’s temporary ban of Elon Musk’s X as an example of “the historic dangers presented” by a government banning a social media platform.

While Trump pushed aggressively for a TikTok ban during his first term, he changed his tune after his campaign successfully used the video app during the 2024 election. He recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago and told a crowd that “maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while.”

There’s still plenty of political pressure to enforce a TikTok ban, however. A group of senators and congressmen, including Mitch McConnell and Ro Khanna, filed petitions on Friday, joined by 22 U.S. states and former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, urging the Supreme Court to reject TikTok’s appeal.

Between the Apple Watch Series 10, the Ultra 2, and the second-gen SE, there are more options than ever. We’ll help you sort through them.

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If you’ve been waiting patiently to see how Matt Reeves’ story for The Batman continues once the reboot’s sequel arrives, you’ll have to wait a little longer. It was once set to open October 2nd, 2026, after an initial delay caused by the Hollywood writers’ strike derailed Warner Bros. plans to release it in 2025, but the studio has now announced that it’s pushing The Batman Part II even further back to October 1st, 2027, according to Variety.

It appears the most recent shift could be strategic. Variety adds that Warner Bros. has rushed to fill that October 2nd, 2026, slot with an unnamed film featuring Tom Cruise and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.

While that sucks for fans of the bat, one nice consolation is news that Bong Joon-Ho’s Mickey 17 is coming even sooner than expected; it is now scheduled for March 7th, 2025, after delays of its own caused the original 2024 release to slip. Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson (who also plays Bruce Wayne in The Batman Part II) and is directly inspired by the Edward Ashton novel Mickey7, which follows a willingly and literally disposable employee through his many doors of death. Also starring in the film are Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Thomas Turgoose. Warner Bros. reportedly swapped its release date with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which now opens April 18th, to give Mickey 17 more time on Imax screens.

Whether you want a basic fitness tracker or a smartwatch, there’s a Fitbit for everyone — though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit.

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Do Kwon, the co-founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, will be extradited to the US to face federal fraud charges, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. The Montenegro Ministry of Justice announced the decision on Friday, which comes more than one year after the authorities arrested Kwon in the country.

Kwon faces charges in the US and South Korea after the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister token Luna crashed in 2022, causing investors to lose $40 billion in the process. Both countries have issued extradition requests for Kwon, and have been awaiting Montenegro’s decision for months.

“It was concluded that most of the criteria provided for by law support the extradition request of the competent authorities of the United States of America,” a machine-translated version of Montenegro’s Ministry of Justice’s statement said. It doesn’t say when Montenegro plans on releasing Kwon to the US. As noted by Bloomberg, it’s also unclear whether this decision is final, since Montenegro ruled to extradite Kwon to South Korea in August.

Federal prosecutors in New York charged Kwon with wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation last year. In June, Terraform Labs and Kwon agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion to settle a separate lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and other members of President-elect Donald Trump’s Silicon Valley coalition are clashing with the MAGA movement’s hardline anti-immigrant faction, and it’s allegedly resulted in Musk stripping far-right critics’ verification badges on X.

The conflict centers on Musk and Ramaswamy’s recent praise for foreign tech workers, beginning soon after Indian immigrant Sriram Krishnan joined the team of Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks. It’s pitted Trump’s tech mogul donor class against his older network of far-right influencers like activist and Trump companion Laura Loomer while escalating into racist rhetoric against Indian Americans in particular. The ugly, extremely online fight between the American far-right influence network parallels the immigration debate currently being hashed out more quietly in Washington.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric was a cornerstone of Trump’s pitch to voters; on top of promoting false, racist rumors about immigrants and promising mass deportations that could destabilize the American economy, he’s expected to revive an H-1B visa crackdown that he imposed during his first term. At the same time, Trump is leaning heavily on...

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If you need help shedding pounds from all the junk food you indulged in over Christmas, music is a great activity motivator — which is why wireless earbuds are a useful investment. Luckily, today the Beats Fit Pro — our favorite pair of earbuds for working out — are matching their all-time low price of about $149 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

The Beats Fit Pro offer a wide range of features that’ll help you keep motivated while working out. They sport excellent noise cancellation and a transparency mode that sounds natural, so you can tune distractions out and allow outside sound in when needed. They’re also designed for vigorous workouts, with built-in wing tips to keep them firmly in place and IPX4 rating for water resistance.

Even more conveniently, the wireless earbuds offer a host of Apple-centric features typically reserved for AirPods, like support for head tracking spatial audio, Find My, and automatic device switching. They also work well with Android devices, though you won’t be able to take advantage of native Android features like Fast Pairing that are found in newer models like the Studio Buds Plus. All in all, these are a fantastic pair of fitness-friendly earbuds that most people will find helpful, even if they do lack a wireless charging case.

Read our Beats Fit Pro review.

Some more ways to save

• Epicka’s Universal Travel Adapter has returned to its all-time low price of $19.99 ($5 off) at Amazon. The all-in-one adapter features four USB-A ports, a single USB-C port, and one AC socket, allowing you to simultaneously charge smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other gadgets. The adapter also works in over 150 countries, ranging from the UK and Canada to Japan, China, Australia, Argentina, and more.
• You can buy two Meross Matter Smart Wi-Fi Plug Minis at Amazon starting at $26.99 ($8 off) while a bundle of four is on sale for $38.99 ($11 off). That’s some of the best prices we’ve seen on the plugs, which add smarts to lamps, TVs, blenders, coffee makers, and other traditional gadgets. Most notably, they’re compatible with Matter, so you can connect them to a wide a range of smart home platforms.
• Target is still selling the green Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Instant Camera Gift Set for $79.99 ($10 off) and throwing in a $5 gift card. The instant camera is my top pick for most people, as it’s easy for all ages to use and prints relatively true to life photos. The bundle also includes a pack of ten sheets, a photo album, camera case, and stickers, making it an excellent value all around even if you just plan on gifting it to yourself.