On the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne is home to many roboticists. It’s also home to many birds, which spend the majority of their time doing bird things. With a few exceptions, those bird things aren’t actually flying: Flying is a lot of work, and many birds have figured

When Sony’s robot dog, Aibo, was first launched in 1999, it was hailed as revolutionary and the first of its kind, promising to usher in a new industry of intelligent mobile machines for the home. But its success was far from certain. Legged robots were still in their infancy, and the idea of making an

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Humanoids Summit: 11–12 December 2024, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA Enjoy today’s videos! Step into the future

The ability to detect a nearby presence without seeing or touching it may sound fantastical—but it’s a real ability that some creatures have. A family of African fish known as Mormyrids are weakly electric, and have special organs that can locate a nearby prey, whether it’s in murky water or even hiding in the mud.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. ICRA 2025: 19–23 May 2025, ATLANTA, GA Enjoy today’s videos! NASA’s Mars Chopper concept, shown

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube announced a hefty subscription price increase this week that will shoot the monthly cost up by $10 to $82.99 on January 13th for existing members (or now, if you sign up today). Some subscribers are staving off the hike using the time-honored tradition of threatening to cancel,

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s Phone Link app is warning that Android smartphones using the latest version of Android 15 won’t display certain “sensitive” notifications, according to a post from Mishaal Rahman spotted by Windows Central. The warning is the result of an Android 15 privacy feature that automatically categorizes notifications like those

Illustration: The Verge This week, Google announced it’s rolling out ChromeOS M131 to non-beta users, bringing with it a handy “Safety reset” feature that lets Chromebook users reset their laptops without totally wiping them. The update also introduced a new “Flash notifications” accessibility option to help those who might not otherwise easily hear or see

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 64, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for some weird documentaries, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about raw milk and $HAWK and WhatsApp, watching

The Magic Mouse with USB-C was the tiniest revision. | Photo by Nathan Edwards / The Verge Apple is working on a redesigned successor to the Magic Mouse, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. This new mouse would address complaints some users have had, including that pesky charging port. Gurman writes