It looks like Apple Music is getting a new icon

Apple Music’s iconic red app icon has reportedly been replaced with a black-and-white version in the latest iOS 27.2 beta, 9to5Mac reports. The eighth note on the icon also appears to have a slightly sharper angle than the original. A new Apple Music logo was also spotted last month on the Apple Music Hall website, so the company could be refreshing its app icon to match.

According to 9to5Mac, the new icon is a black music note on a white background in light mode, or the opposite in dark mode. The icon’s not the only thing that’s been drained of color, either — 9to5Mac also says Apple Music widgets now have black backgrounds and the app now uses a splash of blue in the tab bar to show the active tab.

A user on X shared images of the new icon in the different color modes, including the tinted version. So if the new monochrome version of the app makes it to a public iOS release, you might be able to use the tinted homescreen option to make it look a bit like the previous red version again.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/1010619/apple-music-new-icon-ios-27-beta



Shopify opens its catalog up to more AI agents

More AI agents will soon be able to browse and purchase from Shopify listings, marking an expansion of the company’s agentic commerce ambitions.

Shopify announced Tuesday it will let shoppers configure their AI agents to purchase products on their behalf, giving more agents access to over a billion listings in Shopify’s catalog. (The catalog consists of both items on and off Shopify storefronts.) In September, Shopify announced it was partnering with Meta to allow its Muse agent to browse and purchase items on a human’s behalf; now, shoppers can use any agent without a partnership integration.

To set up the feature, customers connect an agent with their account on Shop, a Shopify-owned platform that consolidates orders, tracks packages, and recommends products. Like the Muse partnership, customers use the one-click Shop Pay feature to check out within the conversation with the agent. Orders placed through the agent are funneled back to the Shop app. Shopify is marketing the feature as a “personal shopper” that humans can give rules to, like setting budget guardrails or only displaying products with fast shipping. Buyers must approve each purchase.

E-commerce has become one of the battlegrounds in the era of AI — it’s no coincidence that many demos of agentic tools end with a transaction, whether it’s buying clothing, booking a flight, or ordering takeout on a human’s behalf. The tech industry, including big commerce players like Google and Amazon, are investing in AI-driven shopping tools where the end goal is an “agent” purchasing things for a human user. It’s also the basis of an ongoing fight between Amazon and AI companies like Perplexity — and more recently, Meta’s Muse — over whether agents should be able to shop on a customer’s behalf.

https://www.theverge.com/news/1010365/shopify-opens-its-catalog-up-to-more-ai-agents



Xbox is officially embracing the chaos of AI-powered game ports


Retro gaming is going through a wild time at the moment, thanks to decompilations and recompilations that are letting gamers port classic titles to new devices, or merge code from two different games into a single new experience. Microsoft has witnessed skateboarding being modded into Call of Duty and Halo being played in a web browser, and the company is now officially embracing the chaos of this new AI-powered era of game modding.

Microsoft is putting together a new Xbox Labs group to explore the rapid emergence of these mods, many of which use AI models to help modders remix games in ways we’ve rarely seen before. Xbox Labs will be a “sm …

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/news/1010406/xbox-labs-game-decompiling-emulation-exploration



The Nothing Headphone A are half off for the first time


The Nothing Headphone A in white on a wooden desk with the carry bag off to the side and an open laptop behind.
The Headphone A keep the shape and style of Nothing’s over-ear design, but with an opaque instead of transparent case. | Photo by John Higgins / The Verge

One of the best deals we’ve seen today bundles together a great pair of headphones with a solid album. When you add the Nothing Headphone A in black or white and the CD version of the Charli XCX album Music, Fashion, Film to your Amazon cart, you’ll save 33 percent on your order, bringing the total down to $97.52. That’s lower than the best price we’ve seen for the headphones on their own, which retail for $199, and you get a free album to boot. The other colors also qualify for the discount, but have a higher starting price, so the discounted price will be higher as well.

Nothing Headphone A

Nothing’s second over-ear headphones may not offer everything found on the pricier Nothing Headphone 1, but you do get physical controls, good sound, and more than five days of battery life per charge. Their design is also a bit more discreet, for better or worse. Read our review.
The Nothing Headphone A with its carrying bag, 3.5mm cable, and USB-C cable on a wooden desk with an iPhone nearby.

Where to Buy:

We reviewed the Nothing Headphone A when they launched earlier in 2026, and praised them for their physical controls, IP52 dust and water resistance rating, and excellent battery life. They have a more subtle design than other Nothing products, opting for an opaque housing instead of the translucent shells on other Nothing headphones.

Read our Nothing Headphone A review.

https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/1010384/nothing-headphone-a-charli-xcx-deal-sale



Russian bot farms are still trolling, even after Ukraine’s drone strikes on Yandex


UAV Pilot Training In Ukraine

Days after Ukrainian military drones took down several Russian data centers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that the campaign had hurt Russia’s disinformation efforts. “It suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social platforms,” Zelenskyy said Monday. “There was less hate, less division, and fewer provocations.”

Zelenskyy isn’t the first to assert that the drone operation, which targeted data centers belonging to the Russian technology company Yandex, has cut down on spam and disinformation campaigns fomented by Russian bot farms. Social media users have claimed they’ve noticed less traffic on posts by MAGA-affiliated a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/news/1010424/yandex-drone-strike-outage-disinformation-zelenskyy



Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics hires Doug Field as president


Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics announced the appointment of Doug Field as president in a major coup for the EV company’s secretive robotics startup.

Field was a VP of special projects at Apple, where he was the de facto head of the company’s ultimately unsuccessful Project Titan effort to make an autonomous electric car. He had a previous stint at Apple as VP of Mac hardware engineering, but he left the company in 2013 to become Tesla’s chief vehicle engineer, where he helped oversee the Model 3 sedan. He left Tesla in 2018 and rejoined Apple. In 2021, Field was hired by Ford to run the automaker’s electric vehicle and software division, a p …

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/transportation/1010050/rivian-mind-robotics-hires-doug-field-ford-tesla-apple



I don’t miss the camera on the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses


The other day I whizzed past several people while running in the park, my playlist blasting at full volume. The next morning, I smiled at a barista while ordering a caramel apple-flavored matcha latte. Afterward, I sat on a park bench reading a book, called up a pal to chat about her recent trip to Prague, and then asked my Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses what meetings were coming up on my calendar. The chipper AI voice said I hadn’t connected my Google Calendar yet (I had) and asked if I would like help connecting. I sighed and then asked it to play an upbeat song. It picked Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”

These past few days, dozens of people …

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/1009128/ray-ban-meta-audio-glasses-review-smart-glasses-headphones-wearables



The feds are looking into reports of Tesla’s robotaxis speeding through school zones


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s evaluating allegations that Tesla’s 1,000 or so robotaxis using its automated driving system are exceeding “posted speed limits in active school zones.” Waymo’s robotaxis have also faced similar inquiries, including for illegally passing school buses and hitting a child near a California elementary school.

NHTSA:

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a DP on September 23, 2026, requesting an investigation into model year (MY) 2026 Tesla Robotaxis (Model Y and Cybercab) with the Automated Driving System (ADS) engaged. The Petitioner alleges that the ADS exceeds poste …

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/transportation/1010364/tesla-robotaxi-school-zonespeeding-investigation



The Xteink X4 Pro is a great, tiny e-reader, and it’s cheaper than ever


Xteink X4 Pro
The Xteink X4 Pro is still matching its Prime Day price. | Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge


If you’re looking for an e-reader that can easily fit in your pocket (or snap onto your magnet-equipped phone), the tiny Xteink X4 Pro might be worth a look. It features a 4.26-inch, 800 x 480 E Ink display, making it significantly smaller and thinner than Amazon’s smallest six-inch Kindle. It’s also quite a bit cheaper. Right now, you can pick it up for $84.15 ($25 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date.

Xteink X4 Pro

Where to Buy:

The X4 Pro brings several welcome upgrades over its predecessors, including a touchscreen that gives readers another way to interact with it. It still has physical page-turning buttons, though. There’s also a new touch-sensitive button below the display for quickly returning to the home screen, along with a built-in light with adjustable brightness and color temperature, so you can read in the dark. It ships with the excellent CrossPoint Reader software, which makes navigating your library and reading books a much better experience than on previous Xteink models we’ve tested, though it’s still not quite as polished as Amazon’s software.

Understandably, not everyone is a fan of Xteink’s decision to swap the X4 Pro’s USB-C port for a proprietary charging connector. If you can look past that, the X4 Pro is a great, little e-reader that features magnets that let you attach it to compatible smartphones, just like previous models. The magnetic connection is stronger this time around, though we still wish it were a little more secure. All the same, my colleague Andrew Liszewski still considers the X4 Pro the best tiny e-reader you can buy, calling it a device he “won’t leave the house without.”

Read our hands-on impressions.

https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/1010276/xteink-x4-pro-e-reader-deal-sale



Facebook will let you customize your feed algorithm using AI


A screenshot of Meta’s Your Algorithm feature in a menu on Facebook

Facebook’s new “Your Algorithm” feature will let you directly add and manage topics you want to see in your feed and Facebook Reels. Meta says your recommendations “respond right away” after you make updates using the new feature by hitting “interested” or “not interested” for different topics. Your Algorithm previously launched on Instagram earlier this year, and Meta also launched a similar “Dear Algo” feature on Threads.

Facebook users will be able to access Your Algorithm or select “interested” or “not interested” from the three dots menu on individual posts. The “interested” and “not interested” buttons may also appear under posts, an …

Read the full story at The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/1010344/meta-facebook-your-algorithm-ai