The version of AOL that still exists after two decades of media mergers offers a Chromium-based $6.99-per-month browser called AOL Desktop Gold.

In a video posted today, YouTuber Michael MJD tours the app, which is full of ads, subscription offers, turn-of-the-century AOL-style icons, and dated email templates. It even has the old “You’ve got mail!” sound clip!

Bleeping Computer points out why so many of those phishing texts about packages or unpaid tolls urge you to reply with something like a “Y” these days.

It’s because when the iOS Messages app’s “Filter Unknown Senders” option is on, links from those senders are disabled by default. Replying activates the link so you can tap it, which savvy Verge readers know you should never, ever do.

Kevin O’Leary recently joined Frank McCourt’s bid to buy TikTok. Now, with TikTok facing a ban in one week, the Shark Tank host is playing golf with the President-elect. Hmm.

The change would show a completion date beneath a task in Google’s to-do list app, according to code spotted by Android Authority in a recent build.

The outlet spotted some other tweaks being tested, like buttons for going to a task from the list-reordering screen and a new sort-by-title option.

Every year toward the end of our trip to CES, the Verge staff in Las Vegas get together for a team dinner before we head back home.

This year we filmed that dinner, and I moderated a little chat about the trends, vaporware, and other memorable tech from the show floor.

Called the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI Plus, it’s basically the NUC 14 Pro AI in a translucent case. That color E Ink display on top is customizable, as Good e-Reader calls out. Asus says users “can generate AI images” on the display using a built-in app.

We’ve asked Asus for more info on its availability.

Citing conditions at sea that “are still unfavorable for booster landing,” the company posted that it’s pushing the mission back 24 hours to a three-hour launch window starting Monday at 1AM ET.

It’s the second delay since its January 10th target. Blue Origin will likely livestream the launch on its website and YouTube channel. See our write-up below for more mission details.

From Sebastian Staacks of the There Oughta Be YouTube channel, Game Boy Slideshow Generator converts images into grayscale and color slideshows for the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, or anything else that can play a Game Boy ROM.

Your web browser handles the conversion locally, Staacks says. When it’s done, you can run the resulting ROM using one of the ways he lists here.

Mullenweg wrote in a blog post today that he had deactivated the WordPress.org accounts of several contributors, including two — Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi — who have plans for a new WordPress fork, reports TechCrunch.

Both indicated a willingness to spearhead the next WordPress update yesterday, following Mullenweg’s announcement that Automattic is drastically scaling back its involvement in the open-source project.

CES 2025 officially wrapped up yesterday, but there was so much stuff that our team saw and wrote about and...smelled while on the ground in Las Vegas.

If your plans this weekend include catching up on all the news you may have missed from CES, there’s no better place to start than our annual best of video!

Although it’s “not decided at the moment,” Jeep’s Eric LaForge thinks the Recon EV “will be a strong alternative to Wrangler” in the European market, according to Autocar.

The company is already preparing to replace the Grand Cherokee with the all-electric Wagoneer S in Europe this year as it works to make EVs 100 percent of its sales there by 2030.

Meet Julien Navas, dressed as a Conehead wizard to promote VideoLAN’s new automatic subtitle generation and translation for VLC.

I tracked down the colorful character in the French section of Eureka Park in the dying moments of CES 2025.

Here, I saw Ricky Gervais’s Golden Globe speech being translated into Japanese in real-time, locally and offline — a feature the team says is coming to VLC later this year.

“After years of pretending to be Democrats, Big Tech leaders are now pretending to be Republicans, in hopes of currying favor with the new administration,” he says in a post on X. “Beware of the scummy monopoly campaign to vilify competition law as they rip off consumers and crush competitors.”

I’m guessing this is partially about Mark Zuckerberg’s recent actions.

When Roy Austin was hired to run a new civil rights team in 2021, the company called it “an incredibly important role for Facebook and for the tech industry.” Now, Austin announces he is leaving on the same day that Meta is ending all DEI programs.

In his farewell post, Austin notes that members of his team will “continue their work” in different parts of the company. “Building for everyone, listening to everyone, and meeting the needs and expectations of our global community is pretty much impossible,” he says.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) CFPB is requesting comment on a new proposal to “clarify what rights are available to consumers, including gamers, under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act,” according to a blog post.

Wired has a great summary of what it all might mean.

They’re “oftentimes netting thousands of dollars per deal,” Bloomberg reports. OpenAI and Google are apparently among the companies paying for the video footage.

One of his private jets just took off from West Palm Beach after arriving yesterday.

On the way there, he stopped in Austin, Texas for an interview with Joe Rogan, where he got into more detail about his MAGA-fueled changes at Meta — the latest being his decision to end the company’s DEI programs. I’ve confirmed he’ll also attend Trump’s inauguration alongside other tech CEOs.

Altman donated personally to Trump’s inauguration committee, and Meta as a company donated to the committee. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also plans to be at “some of the surrounding festivities,” Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg reports:

The measure about Apple’s diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts urged the company to consider abolishing the program because it may discriminate against employees and draw lawsuits. The company said the proposal was an inappropriate attempt to restrict Apple’s business operations and that it already assesses legal and regulatory risks.

ThirdReality’s MK1 Magic Keyboard ($80, launching March) is a Matter smart button. Ingenious!

The function keys are programmable buttons. Just press to activate a scene or control smart devices like lights through Apple Home, SmartThings, or Home Assistant. Mechanical keyboard / smart home nerds rejoice!

Tiffany Cianci was finishing a TikTok live stream to 70,000 people when we met in the elevator after a press conference. She was in good spirits even after camping out in her van outside the Supreme Court beginning at 2 AM. “I don’t see it as hopeless right now, and I don’t think that they’ve already decided,” she says. Creator and petitioner Tim Martin also feels “very excited and optimistic” after today’s oral arguments, saying their attorneys “did an incredible job.”