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The Toronto International Film Festival is almost like a preview of the movie slate for the next few months — and this year I’m watching as much as possible to give you all the scoop on what’s ahead. To do that, I’ll be writing a dispatch covering every movie I’ve seen that day, which will run daily throughout most of the festival. That includes bigger movies you probably already know...
Everyone basically agrees: if you want people to transition from polluting gas guzzlers to electric cars, you have to make them more affordable. The luxury EVs, with their big battery packs and fine leather interiors, are all well and good, but if you really want to move the needle on EV adoption, we need more entry-level options. And so far, we’re lacking.
Volkswagen hears this, and is...
When director Rian Johnson introduced the new Knives Out film on the third day of TIFF 2025, he exclaimed: "we're going back to church."
By that he meant that Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Benoit Blanc mystery, would harken back to the origins of the whodunit, and in particular the gothic vibes of Edgar Allan Poe. And now that I've seen it, I have to say that Johnson pulled it off: the new...
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on all things at the intersection of environment and technology, follow Justine Calma. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Some stories that I've worked on as an environmental journalist still haunt me. One of the...
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 96, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, has your inbox been as busy as mine the past few days?, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
Over the past two weeks, I've been testing this wildly customizable keyboard with an attachable trackball, reading the first Dungeon...
A few years ago, artist Modern Biology became a viral sensation when he posted videos of himself controlling a modular synth with mushrooms on TikTok. Pocket Scion gives anyone similar capabilities, but without having to spend thousands of dollars on a Eurorack rig – and in a much more portable package.
A core part of Modern Biology’s setup is a module called Scion from Glasgow-based...
No Other Choice.
At my second day at TIFF 2025, the longest line I saw wasn't for a movie: it was for the Criterion Closet. The space is housed in a van so that it could make it up to Toronto, and honestly, it felt a little wrong to see the outside of it after watching everyone from Michael Cera to Hideo Kojima spend time in its cramped interior digging through Blu-Rays.
The line was long...
When I was 16 years old, I wrote my first fanfiction. It was a crossover fic where the cast from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy gave the anime dog demon Inuyasha a makeover. It was stupid and poorly written, and yet, to this very day, I remember it fondly. This is exactly what it's like playing Super Robot Wars Y - an exceedingly silly, nonsensical plot featuring characters that have no...
The RVSolar System living its best vanlife. | Image: Bluetti
It only took three years, but Bluetti is following EcoFlow’s lead with a fully integrated power system of its own to make vanlifers, off-grid cabins, and boats energy independent. The RVSolar System’s main advantage over bespoke systems is a relatively quick and easy installation, requiring just “30 minutes,” according to Bluetti’...
A screenshot from Panic’s Herdling game. | Image: Panic / Okomotive
Herdling is a slow game about herding fuzzy animals through a vibrant natural world. That may not sound particularly exciting, but I found it to be a perfect game to unwind with after a stressful day.
In Herdling, you play as a kid who makes friends with and shepherds large fluffy creatures called Calicorns, which kind of...