after flying back from Vegas last week, I was just laid off from Inverse today. I'm open to connecting over email at [email protected] and I'm definitely still in the writing and editing space. Expect a more in-depth explanation coming soon in my Updater newsletter. shannonliao.substack.com

ash ticks every box: great reporter and writer, great colleague, great person, great ff8 appreciator

LG will soon let TV owners delete the Microsoft Copilot "app" that was added in a recent webOS update. Ensuing customer frustration went viral on Reddit, with many pointing to it as an example of tech companies forcing AI on them. Full story (gift link / free to read): tinyurl.com/2v24t8fr

A phone with genuine two-day battery life. And an ultra-smooth 165Hz display. And an IR blaster, meaning it can control any TV you point it at. The OnePlus 15 is a great Android phone. But you can't buy it in the US yet due to the just-ended government shutdown. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

YouTube will start using AI to automatically upscale millions of videos to HD and eventually 4K. A spokesperson tells me this *isn't* just limited to TVs: these "Super Resolution" upscaled videos are coming to mobile and the web. But will they look any good? TBD. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

pretty harsh to badmouth the watermelon after all these hours.

Who remembers?

New: Bose is shutting down cloud music streaming for its SoundTouch speakers. Customers who still own the products are very frustrated. I spoke with a longtime Bose customer who said his aunt and uncle — both in their 80s with dementia — still use and love their SoundTouch speaker today.

I reviewed the iPhone 17 Pro... and I reviewed the iPhone 17... and I reviewed the iPhone Air. Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup is its most impressive in a long time because the company shifted focus back to hardware. Full review: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

News: Spotify Lossless is here. More than FOUR YEARS since being announced, today the music streaming service is rolling out the higher quality — up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC — to Premium subscribers in select markets.

Instagram’s music library somehow leaked the 2025 mix of “Free As A Bird” by The Beatles from the upcoming Anthology reissue. It sounds amazing. What a difference from the original. Enhancing old recordings is proving to be one of the best uses for AI. Listen here: youtu.be/unJ7C8LCIlY?...

Oh wow, NYC.

The "we're just reinventing cable" thing really hits with this one.

the degradation / dismantling of Eater is such a damn shame. in a world of influencer- and bot-skewed restaurant ratings, googling "eater [city]" provided guidance from passionate locals with good taste; it was a cheat code for eating well wherever you traveled

This is one of the bleakest developments yet out of Vox Media. All the newsletters and podcasts in the world won't fix it. Sending my support to those who abruptly lost their jobs today — cruelly coinciding with Eater's 20-year celebration, no less. (www.eater.com/food-culture...)

Breaking: Sonos says price increases are coming for some products later this year due to tariffs hitting Vietnam and Malaysia. As for new hardware, @tconrad.bsky.social mentioned a "lull" in launches over next couple quarters with emphasis on software differentiation. Full story now on Bloomberg.

Photographers, tariffs have come for your beloved Fujifilm film simulations. The company raised US prices of most cameras and lenses on Friday, with popular models like the X-100VI and X-T5 now $200 more expensive than they were Thursday night.

It’s a music platform. Music is communal. Sharing music is a big reason Spotify is beating Apple at this game. Some things make sense to keep private unless you specify otherwise. (Venmo transactions!) I wouldn’t call public-by-default playlists terrible privacy. www.theverge.com/privacy/7163...

It's official: @tconrad.bsky.social is the new CEO of Sonos. He's got an excellent understanding of what the audio company's strengths are — and what they aren't. The app is in a far better place today than 14 months ago. Very interested to see what comes next. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Good photo, if I do say so myself.

They sound so damn good.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 are here. After a few slow years, the company is showing serious design ambition. The Fold 7 is extremely thin, and the Flip 7 has leapfrogged Motorola's Razr Ultra. My full story with @markgurman.bsky.social: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The last time I saw Oasis (at MSG in 2008), concert videos looked and sounded like this. Happy reunion day. Hope everyone in Cardiff has a brilliant time.

The Honor Magic V5 is one very, very thin foldable. Your move, Samsung. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Tonight I met someone who, it turns out, worked with and knew Chris Ziegler after The Verge/Apple fiasco. I’ve been wondering what happened to him for years. Chris was one of the funniest, warmest colleagues I ever had. He’s well these days. And happy. That’s all I wanted to hear and all I’ll say

Exclusive: VSCO is releasing its own camera app — the company’s first new standalone release in a decade. It’s called Capture, and it will let users pick from 50 of VSCO’s popular photo filter presets before snapping a shot. There’s a manual mode, too. US release is planned for later this summer.

Exclusive: Microsoft is planning to cut thousands of jobs, particularly in sales, as part of the company’s latest move to trim its workforce

Here's my review of the Nintendo Switch 2 for Bloomberg. Proud of how this one turned out. Give it a read. Also, what a photo, am I right? www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Who is responsible for this social media trend of putting some Canva graphic in the first slot and then a video in the second?

HDMI Forum really getting its moment of glory in the Switch 2 box.

My first review for Bloomberg is up today! Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge is refreshingly light in your hand (especially for a screen this big) and very powerful. But the battery tradeoff will be too much for some. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... More soon. 🎮 It’s a privilege to be part of this team.

The original 1989 was always better. Glad we’re all allowed to listen to it again.

Wow, totally missed another fitting Verge sendoff that happened Friday. @reckless.bsky.social please listen to (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? in its entirety and do a Vergecast review.

New: Sonos and Ikea are ending their "Symfonisk" partnership that began several years ago with bookshelf speakers, lamp speakers, and even picture frame speakers. No future products are planned. If you want them, now's the time to grab remaining stock.

Their press release proudly calls Polygon a "premium gaming publication" but Valnet literally refused to meet with me or answer a single question of mine throughout this process. They were wildly incurious about how a gaming publication even becomes "premium."

I’ve been a video game PR person for a long time and let me tell you that the team at Polygon have always been some of the smartest, thoughtful reporters in the industry. This is awful news and a massive blow to an already depleted industry.

Polygon was a great constant to have over the years, they did a lot of quality work and held themselves to a really high standard. Very frustrating to see sharp people with solid, institutional knowledge get tossed out like this.

After today, I am not employed! Not sure what the hell I'm going to do next but follow me on twitch and instagram (pizza_suplex_vevo) and stuff. twitch.tv/pizza_suplex

I'm no longer with Polygon. If you're hiring, please consider the many talented writers and editors now on the market. Every one of them deserves a spot on your staff. I won't be talking more about the sale because I wasn't involved. Going to hang out with my kid. Taking wins where I can.

New: Google is winding down software support for its earliest Nest Thermostats. The devices will still function, but customers won't be able to remotely control them from a phone anymore, leaving the thermostats much less "smart." More details on a classic Friday news dump below.

Has Google Photos on iOS gotten laggy for anyone else recently? There’s this slight delay whenever I tap on a photo before it expands. It’s constant. And slightly maddening. Dunno if a recent app update did this or what.

New: Sony's new top-tier OLED TV, the Bravia 8 II, is $500 more expensive than its predecessor in the US. Meanwhile, prices in Canada remain largely the same as two years ago.

A second disruption occurred at Microsoft's 50th anniversary event when an employee stood and yelled at all three of the company's past and present CEOs — Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella — about the company's AI dealings with the Israeli government. www.theverge.com/news/643777/...

Look, no disrespect intended to Getty or individual photographers, but I find this style of stock imagery to be so lazy and bland. Do editors at major media outlets really think someone Googling a company logo and taking a picture of it enhances whatever story these appear in?

Don’t know what it says about my life that I was legit excited to see a new Snapple flavor in the Duane Reade fridges.

New: Samsung rolled out a faulty firmware update this week that, according to many customers, has effectively bricked soundbars including the company’s flagship Q990D. Not good. www.theverge.com/news/630647/...

SCOOP: Sonos has canceled plans to release a streaming video player. The device, codenamed Pinewood, was already deep into development and was due to ship later this year. Now those who worked on it are being reassigned to other projects. www.theverge.com/tech/628297/...

Apple’s latest Mac Studio is a computer with unreal power. The M3 Ultra chip is overkill for many of us, but I’m having fun testing out all those cores and all that memory. We’re just getting started; you can’t review something like this in a few days. More to come! www.theverge.com/reviews/6274...

AEW pay-per-views are coming to Amazon Prime Video starting this weekend. also, I love that I have truly wild photos ready to go whenever we cover this company. www.theverge.com/news/624673/...