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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Roborock finally brings a roller mop to its flagship robovac.

The company’s Saros 20 Flow goes on sale today for $1,499.99 (down from $1,699.99). At 3.53 inches tall, it’s one of the slimmest roller mop models, and with 36,000 Pa suction, camera-based obstacle recognition, and the ability to climb multi-layer thresholds, this robot should be able to get the job done. I got a first look at IFA last week and plan to test it soon.

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<em>Instead of spinning mop pads or its signature VibraRise flat pad, Roborock’s latest robot vacuum uses a self-cleaning roller mop to scrub floors.</em>
<em>The Saros Flow comes with a new RockDock station that cleans and dries the mop with hot water and warm air and empties its bin.</em>
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Instead of spinning mop pads or its signature VibraRise flat pad, Roborock’s latest robot vacuum uses a self-cleaning roller mop to scrub floors.
Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Is Big Tech’s AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel?

Major AI companies want to ‘pace the frontier’ — but their proposed solutions need real teeth.

Hayden Field
Travis Larchuk
Travis Larchuk
Today’s Vergecast: Who is the $1,059 Steam VR headset for?

Sean Hollister got his hands and face on Valve’s new VR headset, the Steam Frame. It’s expensive, starting at more than $1,000. It’s buggy — he and CNET’s Scott Stein both felt like beta testers as they reviewed it. But it’s also full of interesting ideas, including the promise that Steam games could one day come to your mobile phone. This week on The Vergecast, Sean and Scott discuss who exactly this device is for, in a world that mostly seems to have moved on from VR.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
X and SpaceXAI have “resolved their claims” against Apple following a 2025 lawsuit.

xAI’s original lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI alleged “anticompetitive conduct” over Apple and OpenAI’s deal to integrate ChatGPT into iOS. Monday’s dismissal filing, reported on by Reuters, specifies that X and SpaceXAI “do not seek to dismiss its claims against” OpenAI.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Steam Frame AMA time.

I’m hopping in now to answer your questions, and I’ve got a Steam Frame on my desk to spot-check answers, too!

Travis Larchuk
Travis Larchuk
The Vergecast hotline is ready for your AI questions.

AI doomerism broke containment last week with an Anthropic researcher’s proclamation that there’s a >10% chance AI could kill all humans within the decade. The Vergecast is recording an all-AI hotline with senior reporter Hayden Field, and we want to hear from you. Comment on this post, e-mail vergecast@theverge.com, or call us at 866-VERGE-11.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
See what it’s like to use the Steam Frame.

Did you think the Steam Frame was a VR headset? As I explain in my review, it does a lot more. Here, step into the lenses with me and I’ll show you. (Also on YouTube, if you’d rather!)

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Automattic’s board is reportedly out, after Matt Mullenweg’s 33 hour departure.

Following a very Sam Altman-ish arc, TechCrunch reports that Mullenweg’s return as CEO of the parent company for WordPress has come with the departure of the board that had voted to put him on a paid leave of absence.

It notes changes to public bios for Toni Schneider and Sue Decker, and that an internal announcement may come today — if anyone has more info, we’re all ears.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
The Steam Frame’s modular attachments are already intriguing.

Wish Valve’s headset let you see your surroundings in full color instead of monochrome? In my hand is the $150 Arcturus Vision Camera, which can solve that (see images below). Need more battery and better audio? Pop the compute core into Valve’s upcoming “Enthusiast Kit” to add twin stackable magnetic batteries, premium off-ear drivers, and more.

<em>The Arcturus Vision Camera accessory.</em>
<em>Plugged in.</em>
<em>A 1080p screen capture of what I see with the stock monochrome cameras.</em>
<em>Now with the Arcturus Vision Camera</em>. <em>The screenshot doesn’t do justice to the higher resolution you get, though</em>.
<em>You can remove the Steam Frame’s compute / optics core after undoing three latches.</em>
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The Arcturus Vision Camera accessory.
Photo: Kelsey McClellan / The Verge
The Dell XPS 13 is the first real competitor to the MacBook Neo

8

Verge Score

Even the base XPS 13 is an excellent laptop. But you’re still gonna want the 16GB model.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto
The Steam Frame is made for irresponsible hardware nerds like me

5

Verge Score

Valve’s new headset is another joyous piece of early access hardware.

Sean Hollister
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Hori’s new modular arcade controller lets you swap in a joystick, trackball, or paddle.

The Hori Arcade Classic Pro, now available for preorder in Japan for around $260, features a pair of modular slots where you can install a standard 8-way joystick, a paddle, a trackball, or a rotating loop lever stick. It’s compatible with PC and the Switch 2 and could be a great solution for playing a wide variety of classic arcade titles.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Amazon Air will “pause” operations with carrier tied to the Miami plane crash.

Reuters quotes Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel saying that, “….we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the ​surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, ​the operator of Flight 7598.”

So far, the NTSB reports that despite warnings about speed, “There was not a consistent verbal response to the comments about speed” from the plane’s pilot before it overran the end of the runway on September 6th, killing five people.

Picture of investigators in NTSB shirts approaching a flame and impact-damaged “Prime Air” plane.
NTSB investigators at the site of the 21 Air Flight 7598 runway excursion at MIA
Image: NTSB
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
But will there be BEES?

From April 2nd-4th, Oprah Winfrey’s AHA — an immersive experience that blends music, visual art, and storytelling — will be showing at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Adam Conover explains how YouTube ruined everything
Play

The comedian, podcast host, and, yes, YouTuber on the state of media today.

Nilay Patel
TC Sottek
TC Sottek
“I alone can fix it” strikes again.

Trump may have lost the aggression of David Sacks as AI czar, but he’s now picking up the baton. In another all-timer posted to Truth Social, Trump says the only guardrails AI needs can be provided by his “high IQ.” This comes right on the heels of AI leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who Trump maligns in his post, stating they want to slow down AI development for safety reasons.

Opposing AI and data centers? That could now make you look “treasonous” in Trump’s warped world.

Trump post to Truth Social: “The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades! The Trump Administration has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,“ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” - and we will continue to do so! We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
One of the best documentaries about gen AI is finally coming to YouTube.

Director Valerie Veatch’s excellent Ghost in the Machine documentary digging into the origins of generative artificial intelligence is set to make its debut on the PBS Documentaries YouTube channel this evening.

The gen AI Kool-Aid tastes like eugenics

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Leaked images reveal a new design for Fairphone’s next wireless earbuds.

First announced during the Fairphone 6 Plus launch last month we finally have more pics of the Fairbuds 2 that will launch later this year thanks to leaks shared by NieuweMobiel. Pricing and the level of repairability still isn’t known, but the redesigned Fairbuds 2 appear to have a stubby stem and a larger charging case.

The actual release date isn’t known yet, but the Fairbuds 2 will carry forward a <a href="https://news.halloffame.workers.dev/2024/4/9/24125089/fairbuds-fairphone-noise-canceling-earbuds-battery-replace-repairability">modular repairable design like the originals</a>.
Color options may include black and green like the <a href="https://news.halloffame.workers.dev/tech/980876/fairphone-6-plus-us-t-mobile-amazon">Fairphone 6 Plus</a>.
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The actual release date isn’t known yet, but the Fairbuds 2 will carry forward a modular repairable design like the originals.
Image: NieuweMobiel
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The Delta emulator devs are already working on support for the iPhone Duo.

In addition to a “Delta Duo” teaser recently shared on Threads, lead developer Riley Testut told Retro Dodo that “the plan is to have dedicated support for the Duo in Delta” and the work they did “making sure that Delta worked with resizing and multi-window support back when Stage Manager first debuted for iPadOS”is already proving beneficial for the upcoming Duo support.

The Delta emulator logo shown on half open iPhone Duo.
Image: Delta
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The iPhone Duo’s front screen accommodates thick cases with an optional extended border.

To ensure content isn’t obscured and all swipe gestures still work while using a protective case, the iPhone Duo includes a new “Shift Left Edge” setting spotted by Nicolas Lellouche after Apple’s event last week. Turning it on increases the narrow black border on the left edge of the Duo’s front screen.

A person holds the iPhone Duo closed in two hands with the iOS settings screen displayed.
Screenshot: X
Tom Warren
Tom Warren
Microsoft adds Grok to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Microsoft added SpaceXAI’s Grok models to its Foundry service last year, and now it’s expanding the access to Copilot itself. Grok models can now be used in Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the model picker interface for Microsoft Frontier users. Microsoft says it’s starting with a preview release to “gather feedback.” This means Office Copilot users can now pick between OpenAI’s GPT models, Anthropic’s Claude models, and SpaceXAI’s Grok models.

Grok inside Microsoft Excel.
Grok inside Microsoft Excel.
Image: Microsoft