Spotify is testing a new audio mixing feature that allows you to customize track transitions for your playlists. Now rolling out in beta for “eligible Premium users,” the Mix feature provides an option to automatically blend transitions between tracks, or manually adjust aspects like volume, EQ, and effect curves while looking at waveform and beat data to create unique transitions.
This allows users to make songs flow into each other instead of just letting one track abruptly finish and another begin. It sounds like an easy way to experiment with basic audio mixing features before getting to grips with more extensive mixing software such as Apple Logic Pro, Reaper, or Audacity. You could use it just to enhance your own listening experience, or provide a better “DJ” experience when you’re in charge of the aux cable at parties or social gatherings.
Spotify says that Premium users can also collaborate with each other to create mixed playlists. It’s unclear when this feature will be available outside of beta, or which Premium users currently have access. Spotify says you’ll need to make sure your app is up to date, but I’m not seeing it available on my own premium account for iOS in the UK. I’ve asked Spotify for more details about availability.
Premium users who do have access to the Mix feature will see it appear in the toolbar on playlists that they have created. Alongside the “Auto” option to quickly create transitions, the customization options include presets for “Fade” or “Rise” to easily apply different transition styles. When you’re happy with the transitions for each track in the playlist, hit “Save” to listen to the results. If you want to listen to the unmixed version of the same playlist, you can toggle the transitions on or off by pressing the “Mix” button.
Robots are coming, but are we ready for them? All the big consumer tech companies are working on robotic companions for our homes. There's Amazon's Astro, Samsung's Ballie, LG's AI Agent, and whatever it is that Apple is dreaming up in Cupertino. Clearly, home robotics is approaching a major moment. But what will these robots actually do, and what do we really need them for?
This week on The Vergecast, the cofounder and former CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle (now CEO of robotics startup Familiar Machines & Magic), joins The Verge's smart home reviewer, Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, to discuss what the ideal home robot is.
We’re gonna hear about AI a lot on Wednesday. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Any way you look at it, Android is in the lead. Google has shipped actual AI features on phones. And I don't mean a silly AI image generator or a tool to rewrite your email like Shakespeare. I mean stuff that's actually useful: putting six different events from an email on my calendar in one fell swoop, or asking my AI to find something in my email. These things exist on Android, and Google's annual Pixel launch event on Wednesday, where it will unveil its new Pixel 10 phones, will no doubt underscore that fact.
But now comes the real question: does anybody care?
Google's early teaser ads for the Pixel 10 make it pretty clear how the comp …
The 4D V2’s camera can be mounted above or below the screen it’s pointed at. | Image: Nanoleaf
Nanoleaf has announced a new version of its 4D immersive TV lighting kit that includes an LED light strip adding an ambient glow behind your TV, connected to a camera that it uses to match what’s on the screen. As with the original that debuted in early 2023, the new Nanoleaf 4D V2 is a cheaper and simpler alternative to products that integrate with your home theater using HDMI, like the Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K that launched last year at $350 and has seen its price increase to as much as $385.
The Nanoleaf 4D V2 is available today through the company’s online store for $99.99, and will come to Amazon and Best Buy in September. That’s the same price as the original kit, but while Nanoleaf previously sold the 4D in two sizes for TVs up to 85 inches, the new 4D V2 kit is only designed for screens up to 65 inches.
Powered by a better color-matching algorithm, Nanoleaf says the included LED light strip and camera with the 4D V2 can make both whites and colors look brighter and more vivid. It features a new zigzag design that’s lighter and more flexible, so it’s potentially easier to install around the perimeter of the back of your TV without the need for supportive corner brackets. Like the original, the light strip can be trimmed with scissors to better fit smaller TVs, and the lighting effects will automatically readjust for the shorter length.
Both the light strip and camera connect to a small control box that can be powered over USB-C. It offers four modes, including ambient lighting with slower transitions or faster color changes that more closely mirror what’s happening on screen. The box also connects to Nanoleaf’s mobile and desktop apps, and using the company’s Sync Plus feature, it can control other Nanoleaf lighting products to expand your immersive TV experience to an entire room.
1kWh power stations like Anker’s new Solix C1000 Gen 2 are in the sweet spot for most people in need of a big-ass battery. Its long-lasting LFP chemistry and 2,000W inverter combine during a blackout to keep devices like a router, fridge/freezer, and some lights running for a few hours, and it’s portable enough for a weekend barbecue, outdoor movie night, or to drop into the car for an outdoor getaway.
And like all power stations it comes slathered in ports, including 5x standard wall jacks, 3x USB-C (2x 140W, 1x 15W), 1x USB-A, and 1x 120W cigarette socket to power devices like a portable fridge or coffee maker. It weighs 24.9 pounds (11.3kg), can function as a UPS when otherwise idle, accepts up to 1600W of charging power from a standard wall jack, and up to 600W from attached solar panels so it can function as a solar generator.
The Anker Solix C1000 Gen 2 portable power station is available for just $429 if you register interest before September 8th, after which it increases to $799.
Adobe is introducing a new Acrobat platform that combines the PDF app with its Adobe Express content creation service and AI assistants that can automate specific productivity tasks. Acrobat Studio allows users to upload up to 100 documents and consolidate the information together into a single workspace.
The idea is to evolve Acrobat beyond being a tool just for reading and editing PDFs, into a platform that supports a wider range of file types and productivity tools, including web pages and Microsoft 365 files. The platform enables users to work on multiple documents simultaneously without leaving Acrobat, using collaborative work environments called “PDF Spaces” that pull file and website information into “conversational knowledge hubs.”
These PDF spaces allow users to view and sign agreements for a project, consolidate research and notes, and use built-in Express tools to turn data into infographics or visual assets that can be shared with colleagues and clients.
Acrobat Studio also includes customizable AI agents in these PDF Spaces that build on previous AI featuresreleased for Adobe’s standard Acrobat software. The AI assistants can be used by individuals and teams to offer insights, recommendations, and notes, and can generate ideas and citations from the collated data.
Acrobat Studio is available globally in English starting today with unlimited access to PDF Spaces, AI Assistants, and Adobe Express Premium, and is offered as a separate subscription product that can replace Adobe’s Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro plans. Early access pricing begins at $24.99 per month for individuals and $29.99 per month for teams for an annual contract. It’s unclear what this pricing will increase to when the early-access offer expires on October 31st.
SoftBank will invest $2 billion into Intel as the struggling chipmaker pulls back on spending and lays off thousands of workers. In an announcement, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the investment aligns with the firm’s belief that “advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States.”
SoftBank’s investment in Intel makes it the sixth-largest shareholder, according to The Wall Street Journal. Last year, the Japanese investing firm committed to spending $100 billion in the US during President Donald Trump’s four years in office. SoftBank has already teamed up with OpenAI on Project Stargate, a $500 billion initiative to build a network of data centers in the US.
The news comes amid reports that the US government plans to take a 10 percent stake in Intel. During an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the “stake would be a conversion of grants” meant to “stabilize the company for chip production here in the US.”
It’s almost time for Geoff Keighley’s next major gaming show. The 2025 edition of Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event kicks off at 2PM ET today, and you can watch everything on the official livestream on The Game Awards’ YouTube channel. Ahead of the main event, there will also be a preshow at 1:30PM ET featuring “multiple new game announcements.”
Keighley has already teased a bunch of the games that will be featured, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Resident Evil Requiem, Ghost of Yōtei, and Ninja Gaiden 4. It seems like there’s even going to be an announcement about the highly anticipated HollowKnight: Silksong, which has been in development for years and is set to launch sometime in 2025. Expect some kind of announcement about the second season of Prime Video’s Fallout TV show, which premieres in December. There will even be a live performance of the excellent music from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Apple secures a victory in its fight against the UK’s encryption access demands.
The United Kingdom will no longer force Apple to provide backdoor access to secure user data protected by the company’s iCloud encryption service, according to US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
“Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside @POTUS and @VP, to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” Gabbard posted to X on Monday. “As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a ‘back door’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.”
This announcement follows the UK issuing a secret order in January this year, demanding Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted files uploaded by users worldwide. In response, Apple pulled the ability for new users in the UK to sign up to its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) encrypted iCloud storage offering, and challenged the order, winning the right to publicly discuss the case in April. Earlier this year, US officials started examining whether the UK order had violated the bilateral CLOUD Act agreement, which bars the UK and US from issuing demands for each other’s data.
This pressure from the US sparked reports last month that Britain would walk back the demands it issued to Apple, with one unnamed UK official telling the Financial Times that the UK “had its back against the wall,” and was looking for a way out. While it’s unclear if the UK would negotiate new terms with Apple that avoid implicating the data of US citizens, an unnamed US official told The Financial Times that such negotiations would not be faithful to the new agreement.
With the order now reportedly removed, it’s unclear if Apple will restore access to its ADP service in the UK. We have reached out to Apple for comment. The UK Home Office has refused to comment on the situation.
It’s been two and a half years since Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service got a big boost in graphics, latency, and refresh rates — this September, Nvidia’s GFN will officially add its latest Blackwell GPUs. You’ll soon be able to rent what’s effectively an RTX 5080 in the cloud, one with a whopping 48GB of memory and DLSS 4, then use that power to stream your own near-maxed-out PC games to your phone, Mac, PC, TV, set-top, or Chromebook for $20 a month.
The news comes with some caveats, but a bunch of other upgrades, too, the biggest of which is called “Install-to-Play.” Nvidia is finally bringing back the ability to install games without waiting for Nvidia to formally curate them. Nvidia claims that will double the GeForce Now library in one fell swoop.
No, you can’t just install any old PC game you own — but every game that’s opted into Valve’s Steam Cloud Play will immediately be available to install. “Literally the moment we add the feature, you’ll see 2,352 games show up,” Nvidia product marketing director Andrew Fear tells The Verge. After that, he says Install-to-Play will let Nvidia add many more games and demos to GFN on their release dates than Nvidia can manage on its own, just so long as publishers tick that box.
Currently, Steam is the only platform compatible with Install-to-Play, but Fear tells me many publishers tend to opt in through Valve’s distribution network, including Ubisoft, Paradox, Nacom, Devolver, TinyBuild and CD Projekt Red.
One important caveat is that Install-to-Play games won’t launch instantly like curated titles; you’ll need to download and install them each time, unless you pay Nvidia extra for persistent storage at $3 for 200GB, $5 for 500GB, or $8 for 1TB per month. Installs should be fast, though, since Nvidia’s servers are linked to Valve’s Steam servers. When GFN originally launched with a similar feature, I remember downloading games far faster than I’ve ever done at home.
And Nvidia has a new use for your home bandwidth, too. If you’ve got enough, GFN will also now let you stream at 5K resolution (for both 16:9 monitors and ultrawides) at 120fps, or at up to 360fps at 1080p.
There’s also a new optional Cinematic Quality Streaming mode you can toggle that Nvidia claims can reduce color bleed and restore detail to dark and blurry areas of a scene as it’s streamed over the net, and you can now stream at up to 100Mbps, up from 75Mbps previously, to help maintain that quality. (It uses HDR10 and SDR10, with YUV 4:4:4 chroma sampling, streamed over AV1 with an added AI video filter and some optimizations for clearer text and HUD elements.)
Plus, Steam Deck OLED owners will be able to stream at its native 90Hz refresh rate (up from 60Hz), LG is bringing a native GeForce Now app directly to its 4K OLED TVs and 5K OLED monitors — “no Android TV devices, no Chromecast, nothing, run it directly on the television,” says Fear — and Logitech racing wheels with haptic feedback are now supported too.
How much more performance will you truly get from an RTX 5080 in the cloud? That’s the real question, and we don’t have a clear answer yet. For one thing, Nvidia isn’t promising you’ll always have an RTX 5080-tier GPU for every game you play. The company’s $20-a-month GFN Ultimate tier will still include RTX 4080-class cards too, at least for the time being.
Fear says there’s no ulterior motive there — it’ll just take time for 5080 performance to roll out “as we add the servers and bring up capacity.” He also rattles off a laundry list of popular games that’ll have 5080 performance right away, including Apex Legends, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth Wukong, Clair Obscur, Cyberpunk 2077, Doom: The Dark Ages… you get the idea.
The other caveat is that while Nvidia claims its new Blackwell Superpods are up to 2.8 times faster at gaming, that’s only if you have DLSS 4 generating three fake frames for every real frame (4x MFG) and being OK with any resulting lag. We weren’t blown away with the uplift from RTX 4080 to RTX 5080 in our review of the physical card, and latency is even more important when you’re streaming over the net.
That said, Tom and I have been impressed with GFN’s latency in the past. I’ve parried Expedition 33 foes and Sekiro bosses with it — and in lightweight games, Nvidia’s latency may have gotten even better this gen thanks to partnerships with ISPs like Comcast, T-Mobile and BT for low-latency L4S tech and the new 360fps mode. The company claims the 360fps mode can deliver end-to-end latency of just 30ms in Overwatch 2, a game where you don’t need multi-frame generation (MFG) to get that many frames.
That’s more responsive than a home console — assuming you’re close enough and peered well enough to Nvidia’s servers to get 10ms ping, like I do in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The good news is, you won’t have to pay an extra cent for the RTX 5080 performance boost either way. GeForce Now Ultimate will remain $19.99 a month for now. “We’re not going to increase our price at all,” says Fear, in a group briefing. When I ask him privately whether Nvidia will increase it later, he can’t say, but claims GFN has only ever increased price when Nvidia saw a big increase in power usage or needed to rebalance currency exchange in some regions. “Nothing’s written in stone, but we’re saying for now no plans to make a price increase.”
Additionally, Nvidia is trying an intriguing new experiment that bakes GeForce Now into Discord so gamers can instantly try new games for free right from a Discord server, no GeForce Now login required. Epic Games and Discord are the first partners demoing the technology at Gamescom this week.
“You can simply click a button that says ‘try a game’ and then connect your Epic Games account and immediately jump in and and join the action, and you’ll be playing Fortnite in seconds without any downloads or installs,” says Fear. He tells The Verge that it’s merely a “technology announcement” as of today, but that Nvidia hopes game publishers and developers will reach out if they’re interested in potentially adding it to their games.
I’m looking forward to trying GeForce Now’s 5080-class servers when they launch in September, alongside the new 90Hz mode for Steam Deck OLED, and I’m curious whether the influx of games will finally make it feel like a true console alternative for me. One of my last big remaining reservations is how many of my Steam games are still missing.
Speaking of which, don’t expect to see Sony or Rockstar games like Grand Theft Auto on the service anytime soon. “I have no updates, they have chosen not to be on GFN, and you should go ask them,” Fear tells me.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 10, 2024: Laura Loomer arrives at Philadelphia International Airport on The Trump Organization’s Boeing 757. | Photo: Getty Images
For all the power she wields with the White House's affairs, Laura Loomer does not have the traditional tools that her rivals in the MAGA influencer industrial complex have - the highest follower count, the most political power, the most internet platforms, etc. But the fact remains that she's the influencer responsible for getting Donald Trump to fire over a dozen members of his administration (and counting) for the hazily-defined crime of being disloyal to MAGA. This is something that none of her peers, individually, have been able to do. But to understand how she operates, look no further than Loomer's latest attempted power play, which, …
The state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, alleging that the company has “permitted and perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive, directly contributing to the widespread victimization of minor children in Louisiana.”
Roblox sees more than 111.8 million daily active users, and it’s hugely popular with children, with users under 13 comprising nearly 40 percent of players last quarter. However, the platform has come under significant scrutiny over reported failures to protect children on the platform, with Bloomberg publishing a major report last year about predators on Roblox and the investment firm Hindenburg Research alleging that its research revealed “an X-rated pedophile hellscape.” In recent months, Roblox has taken steps to bolster its child safety features, including introducing parent accounts that can manage their child’s account and the ability for parents to block people on their child’s friend list.
But Louisiana alleges that Roblox’s “deliberate failure to implement effective safety measures to protect child users from well-documented predatory threats, along with its ongoing failure to warn parents and children of the foreseeable dangers posed by its platform, has directly facilitated the widespread sexual exploitation of minors and inflicted severe, lasting harm upon the children of Louisiana,” according to the complaint.
“Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,” Attorney General Liz Murrill says. “Every parent should be aware of the clear and present danger poised to their children by Roblox so they can prevent the unthinkable from ever happening in their own home.”
Roblox spokesperson Kadia Koroma sent the following statement about the lawsuit to The Verge:
The assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is categorically untrue. Every day, tens of millions of people around the world use Roblox to learn stem skills, play, and imagine and have a safe experience on our platform. We dedicate vast resources to supporting a safe infrastructure including advanced technology and 24/7 human moderation, to detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior — not only because it’s important to us but because it is such a critical issue and so important to our community. We dispute these allegations and we remain committed to working with Attorney General Murrill to keep kids safe.
While no system is perfect, Roblox has implemented rigorous safeguards—such as restrictions on sharing personal information, links, and user-to-user image sharing—to help protect our community. Unfortunately, bad actors will try to circumvent our systems to try to direct users off the platform, where safety standards and moderation practices may differ. We continuously work to block those efforts and to enhance our moderation approaches to promote a safe and enjoyable environment for all users.
Seven lawsuits regarding child predator issues have been filed against Roblox in a “little over two weeks,” Bloomberg reports.
This week, Roblox published a post on its website about why it removes what it describes as “vigilantes” who try to catch bad actors on Roblox by using tactics “similar to actual predators.” One user, who goes by “Schlep” and says on his X profile that he has contributed to “6 Roblox arrests and counting,” posted screenshots on X last week of what he says was a cease-and-desist notice by Roblox.
Apple’s latest AirPods Pro are receiving the biggest discount at 32 percent off. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge
If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-expanding AirPods lineup. Both the newer AirPods Max and AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) now consistently receive discounts, as do the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C. Events like Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday often bring the steepest discounts, though you can still find great deals throughout the year.
Below, we’ve rounded up the best deals currently available on each model, including both iterations of the AirPods 4, the latest AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Max.
The best AirPods 4 deals
Apple AirPods 4
Apple’s AirPods 4 improve on previous models with better sound, clearer voice calls, and an even more comfortable design. For $50 extra, you can purchase a model with active noise cancellation and wireless charging.
The fancier version of the new AirPods 4 offer support for active noise cancellation, a wireless charging case that can use either Qi or Apple Watch pads, and a speaker in the case that chirps to help you find it.
At its September 2024 event, Apple introduced the AirPods 4, a pair of wireless earbuds available in two variations: a $129 standard model and a $179 noise-canceling model. Both versions represent significant upgrades over the third-gen AirPods, with a more comfortable design and improved audio performance. They’re also better for taking calls thanks to Apple’s Voice Isolation feature, which focuses the mics on your voice so you can be heard more clearly in noisy environments.
The $179 AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation offer a surprisingly effective noise-canceling mode, a helpful transparency mode, and several other Pro-level features. The latest AirPods Pro do a better job of tuning out noise, but the AirPods 4 with ANC still do a good job of reducing sound. They also feature other perks formerly reserved for Apple’s top-of-the-line earbuds, including wireless charging and a case with a built-in speaker that allows you to easily track it down via Apple’s Find My app.
Given they’ve been out for nearly a year, we consistently see discounts on both versions of the AirPods 4. Right now, for instance, the standard AirPods 4 are on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $99 ($30 off), which is just $10 shy of their all-time low. The AirPods 4 with ANC, meanwhile, are matching their second-best price to date at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, where you can currently pick them up starting at $148.99 (also $30 off).
Apple AirPods Pro (second-gen) with USB-C charging case
The second-gen AirPods Pro improve upon Apple’s original pair with much better noise cancellation, sound quality, and onboard volume controls. The latest refresh also ships with a USB-C charging case, as opposed to Lightning.
In 2022, Apple released the second-gen AirPods Pro, which feature a similar build to the first-gen model but offer better noise cancellation, swipe-based controls, and an extra-small pair of swappable silicone ear tips for smaller ears. Apple followed up a year later with a minor refresh, one that features a USB-C charging case and an upgraded IP54 rating for water and dust resistance. The newest model also supports lossless audio when used with Apple’s new Vision Pro headset and doubles as a pair of FDA-approved hearing aids.
As far as deals go, Apple’s updated AirPods Pro with USB-C are currently available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $169 ($80 off), which remains the best price we’ve seen this year outside of Prime Day.
The AirPods Max aren’t the iconic in-ears that have become synonymous with the AirPods name. They’re large and luxurious, comprised of aluminum, steel, and mesh fabric that remains comfortable during extended listening sessions. They also sport excellent noise cancellation, Apple’s spatial audio feature, and expansive, balanced sound, even if they lag behind some of their peers when it comes to bass response and features. They’re not the best noise-canceling headphones for most people — blame the sticker price — but it’s hard to find a better pair of Bluetooth headphones if you’re an iPhone user.
Toward the end of last year, Apple replaced the first-gen Max with a new model that features support for USB-C charging and a few new color options. As of writing, they’re on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy in all six colors for $479.99 ($70 off) — not quite the $399 low we saw during Prime Day.
There's a meme currently going around Bluesky where people are posting their first purchases on Steam. Taking a look presents a neat time capsule, offering a glimpse of who we used to be. It also gives us a chance to compare our gaming habits now with what they were 10 or more years ago - that is, if you're one of the Olds that's been around that long. On a lark, I looked at mine and got the thrill of being able to place a date on when exactly my current life began.
Sometimes, examining your earliest Steam purchases presents as many questions as answers. My very first Steam purchases were made on December 25th, 2010, and were all over the …
In an email sent out to PBS station managers on Wednesday, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger announced that the organization plans to cut its budget by 21 percent in order to offset some of the financial damage being caused by the Trump administration’s campaign to stop public media from receiving federal funding that was originally distributed by the CPB. Because of the recently passed bill, PBS, NPR, and all of both organizations’ affiliates will no longer receive the $1.1 billion that was previously set aside for them to use over the next two years.
In addition to the budget cuts, PBS’ board of directors also voted in favor of lowering the overall amount of dues it collects from member stations across the country by $35 million dollars — a reduction of about 15 percent from the $227 million it originally budgeted for back in June. Additionally, PBS is giving its member stations more time to plan out how they will raise the funds necessary to pay their dues, which are determined by a formula that accounts for how much nonfederal funding they receive.
The move to lower dues is meant to make it easier for PBS member stations — which air programming like Sesame Street, PBS News Hour, and Finding Your Roots — to deal with some of their own financial burdens. But Kerger was also clear in her memo that PBS as a whole is fighting an uphill battle to stay afloat.
“We recognize that even with the dues reduction, adjusted payment schedule and efforts to raise funds for initial financial stabilization, we all face hard choices about the future,” Kerger said. “We are stronger together, and together, we will continue to stay focused on our mission.”
Though the CPB is set to begin winding its operations down at the end of September, PBS and NPR — which have both historically relied on federal funding to help fund programming and pay employees — are not going away, at least, not yet. Earlier this month, NPR said that it is cutting its own budget by $8 million and using that money to set up a “fee relief” fund to help smaller member stations meet their needs. But the CPB’s dismantling is going to put a significant strain on the US’ largest public media broadcasters, particularly for smaller member stations in more rural areas across the country. In PBS’ case, this new budget cut is also likely to lead to layoffs.
If you’ve ever juggled a phone, a smartwatch, and a pair of wireless earbuds, you know the struggle of keeping them all charged. Rather than go through the process of charging them one by one, a quality charging station can help you manage the chaos and reduce cable clutter. The Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station is a solid option for keeping your devices charged, and it’s currently matching its all-time low of $62.99 ($27 off) at Amazon and Anker’s online storefront — the same price drop we saw during Amazon Prime Day.
Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station (3-in-1, Dock Stand)
The 3-in-1 charger features a relatively compact design that’s about the size of a coffee mug. Front and center is a MagSafe / Qi2 charging pad that can quickly charge a compatible phone with an output of up to 15W. You can adjust the pad’s angle vertically up to 45 degrees, which is handy for viewing notifications or taking video calls. Just behind the main pad is a horizontal charging spot that supports fast-charging on newer Apple Watch models, including the Apple Watch Series 10, which can be charged from 0 to 100 percent in just over an hour. Additionally, the base of the charging station has a third pad for wireless earbuds.
If you decide to buy Anker’s 3-in-1 charging station, you won’t need to pick up any additional accessories to get started. That’s because your purchase includes a 40W USB-C adapter and a USB-C to USB-C cable — everything you need to top off your devices.
More deals to check out
If you’ve been thinking of adding something new to your anime collection, now’s the time to do so. Crunchyroll is taking 35 percent off more than 3,000 products through August 26th as part of its summer sales event, dropping the price of everything from manga and select Blu-ray titles to figures you can display on your shelf. Crunchyroll members can save up to 15 percent more on top of the 35 percent off, making it possible to stack for even bigger savings. Not sure what to get? You can save on Blu-ray copies of Perfect Blue, Your Name, Akira, and Cowboy Bebop.
The OnePlus Buds 4 are currently available for an all-time low of $99.99 ($30 off) at Amazon and OnePlus. The wireless earbuds feature an AirPods Pro-esque design, with a familiar stem and silicone tips for a more secure fit. They support features like active noise cancellation, hi-res and spatial audio, and are powered by dual 11mm and 6mm drivers in each bud. Additionally, each earbud stem features concave touch controls, making it easier to feel where you’re meant to swipe and tap. Read our impressions.
The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy recently went with her family to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where she was met by a brutal heat dome. Without AC and temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, they relied on the Koonie Camping Fan to stay cool. If you, too, are looking to beat the heat, this exact model is now 50 percent off at Amazon, dropping the price to an all-time low of $22.49 (about $22 off). The fan features a beefy 16,000mAh battery that doubles as a USB power bank, built-in lights, and a remote control. While the fan works well, it can be a bit noisy at night on its highest setting.
The nations of the world have been on the precipice of reaching a global agreement to curb plastic pollution for a few years now. Delegates from 184 governments met in Geneva this month to try to hammer out a final treaty, but in the end, they walked away without a deal.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Delegates have missed their 2024 deadline, which was extended to this round of talks. But no deal is better than a bad deal, environmental advocates say. The big schism was over whether the treaty should phase out the use of hazardous chemicals in manufacturing and set limits to how much plastic is actually produced. Countries where plastics and fossil fuels are big business — including the US and Russia — would rather just focus on managing and recycling waste, leading to the deadlock.
“We need to address unhinged plastic production.”
“We need to address unhinged plastic production,” Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, a delegate from Panama, said during a Thursday press conference before negotiations came to a close. “We’re not here to simply get to a deal. We are here to end plastic pollution.”
Plastic production has exploded since the 1950s, reaching 475 metric megatons a year by 2022. That’s the year that United Nations member states committed to developing a legally-binding agreement on plastic pollution.
The industry has also been facing increasing heat for peddling recycling as a solution. California filed suit against ExxonMobil last year over what it calls a “campaign of deception” about plastic recycling. It’s estimated that less than 10 percent of plastic waste has ever been recycled. The material is difficult and costly to rehash, and even products made with recycled plastic typically still need to be reinforced with freshly-made plastic.
Recycling, as a result, can fuel more production, says Mohamed Kamal, a waste management expert and executive director of the Egypt-based foundation Greenish who attended the talks in Geneva. “Recycling is a reaction to the generation of waste. It is not a preventive method,” Kamal tells The Verge. “You would want to prevent yourself from getting injured. You wouldn’t want to get injured and then react every time.”
A “high ambition coalition” of more than 70 nations, led by Norway and Rwanda, wants to go farther by addressing the entire lifecycle of the material, including restraining plastic production. Details on the next round of negotiations haven’t been decided yet, but they could take place later this year or next year.
“I feel more emotional than I have in the previous negotiations,” says Jo Banner, who co-founded the nonprofit The Descendants Project with her sister and has attended all of the plastics treaty negotiations to advocate for their community in Louisiana. It’s been nicknamed “cancer alley” since it’s considered a “frontline” community to the problem. There are around 200 industrial plants in the area connected to petrochemical and plastics production. Air pollution in Louisiana has been linked to higher cancer rates, particularly in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of Black residents and with higher poverty rates. A treaty that doesn’t pay any attention to the health risks caused by plastic production wouldn’t begin to help her community heal, Banner says.
“We are willing to go without [a treaty] than to have something that will continue to harm us,” she says. “I know it may seem like, in many ways, it is a failure. But ultimately … people from the frontline have been able to be on a global stage intervening for their communities.”
Anthropic has updated the usage policy for its Claude AI chatbot in response to growing concerns about safety. In addition to introducing stricter cybersecurity rules, Anthropic now specifies some of the most dangerous weapons that people should not develop using Claude.
Anthropic doesn’t highlight the tweaks made to its weapons policy in the post summarizing its changes, but a comparison between the company’s old usage policy and its new one reveals a notable difference. Though Anthropic previously prohibited the use of Claude to “produce, modify, design, market, or distribute weapons, explosives, dangerous materials or other systems designed to cause harm to or loss of human life,” the updated version expands on this by specifically prohibiting the development of high-yield explosives, along with biological, nuclear, chemical, and radiological (CBRN) weapons.
In May, Anthropic implemented “AI Safety Level 3” protection alongside the launch of its new Claude Opus 4 model. The safeguards are designed to make the model more difficult to jailbreak, as well as to help prevent it from assisting with the development of CBRN weapons.
In its post, Anthropic also acknowledges the risks posed by agentic AI tools, including Computer Use, which lets Claude take control of a user’s computer, as well as Claude Code, a tool that embeds Claude directly into a developer’s terminal. “These powerful capabilities introduce new risks, including potential for scaled abuse, malware creation, and cyber attacks,” Anthropic writes.
The AI startup is responding to these potential risks by folding a new “Do Not Compromise Computer or Network Systems” section into its usage policy. This section includes rules against using Claude to discover or exploit vulnerabilities, create or distribute malware, develop tools for denial-of-service attacks, and more.
Additionally, Anthropic is loosening its policy around political content. Instead of banning the creation of all kinds of content related to political campaigns and lobbying, Anthropic will now only prohibit people from using Claude for “use cases that are deceptive or disruptive to democratic processes, or involve voter and campaign targeting.” The company also clarified that its requirements for all its “high-risk” use cases, which come into play when people use Claude to make recommendations to individuals or customers, only apply to consumer-facing scenarios, not for business use.
Lamborghini makes fast cars; this is an indisputable fact. So when the iconic Italian automaker says it’s new plug-in hybrid is both “the most powerful V12 every built” and “the fastest Lamborghini ever,” you should pay attention.
At Monterey Car Week, Lamborghini unveiled its new Fenomeno plug-in hypercar that will be part of the automaker’s limited edition “Few Off” collection, which also includes notable entrants like the Sián and Countach. But before you reach for your wallet, you should know that this exclusive machine will cost a whopping $3.5 million. Just in case you’re worried about affordability.
If money is no option, then the Fenomeno is sure to impress when out on the track. The combination of 835cv from the naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 and a further 245cv from the three electric motors, the Fenomeno’s total power output registers as a blistering 1,080cv (a metric unit of horsepower that roughly translates to 1,065hp). That’s a clear step above the Revuelto’s 1,015cv (1,001hp) power output and a sign that Lamborghini’s hybrid models have some room to grow.
The Fenomeno also represents a record-smashing power-to-weight ratio of 1.64kg/cv, which Lamborghini says is the best in its 62-year history. Maximum torque is the same as the Revuelto: 725 Newton-meters at 6,750 rpm. And a zero to 100 kph (zero to 62mph) sprint will only take you 2.4 seconds — a tenth of a second quicker than the Revuelto. That might not mean much to the average person, but for real performance heads, every tenth of a second you can shave off makes a difference. The Fenomeno also has a top speed of more than 350 kph (218 mph).
Lamborghini says the increased power is possible thanks to the new 7kWh battery that is unique to Fenomeno. Up from 3.8kWh in the Revuelto, the new battery pack bestows the Fenomeno with a claimed driving range of just 20 km (12.4 miles) in electric-only mode, compared to just a few clicks in the Revuelto.
The Fenomeno features a monocoque chassis and exterior built entirely from carbon fiber, with carbon-ceramic brake discs for added stopping power. It rides on 21-inch rims at the front and 22-inch wheels on the rear, wearing Bridgestone Potenza Sport tires.
More aggressive in its styling than the Revuelto, the Fenomeno features two large air intakes on the hood derived from the Huracán GT3 race car, while its silhouette is inspired by the “long tail” of the track-only Lamborghini Essenza.
Naturally, the name was chosen as a nod to Lamborghini’s iconic bull logo, the company says:
The name Fenomeno comes, as per Lamborghini tradition, from a very brave and famous bull fought in Morelia, Mexico, in 2002. In a bullfight between two ‘toreros’, the bull was pardoned for the exceptional qualities it demonstrated. In both Italian and Spanish, Fenomeno means “phenomenal,” symbolizing something truly exceptional and unique.
Lamborghini only plans on making 29 Fenomeno hybrids — plus one for its own collection. But the hypercar’s design is meant to serve as a “design manifesto” for future Lamborghinis. When we’ll see a fully electric Lamborghini, though, remains a bit up in the air. In 2021, the Italian automaker outlined its electrification plans, which are supposed to produce gas-electric hybrid versions of its entire lineup. Following that, Lamborghini has said it will debut its first all-electric model sometime before the end of this decade.
We got a sneak peek of an electric Lamborghini with the all-electric Lanzador concept in 2023. Lamborghini initially planned to launch the production version in 2028 but pushed it back until 2029. Now it’s not clear if it will even arrive as a full EV. Lamborghini is also delaying its plans for an all-electric Urus and instead plans to release a performance version of its plug-in hybrid crossover.
In the meantime, these ultra-quick hybrids will have to suffice.
Tesla’s in-car visualizations for features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving might be getting an upgrade with a switch to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. As reported by Not a Tesla App, Tesla hacker greentheonly says they foundevidence of the change in Tesla’s 2025.20 firmware for Tesla Model S and Model X cars with AMD chips.
Unreal Engine is perhaps best known as a development tool for video games, but Epic has been making a bigger push as of late for automakers to use Unreal Engine. Currently, Tesla uses the Godot engine for the visualizations, according to greentheonly, so if Tesla switches to Unreal Engine, it would join a growing number of automakers that use Epic’s engine inside its cars, including Rivian, Ford, GMC, Volvo, and Lotus.
Tesla and Epic Games didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. This isn’t the first time the two companies have been connected to each other; Tesla’s Cybertruck was added to Fortnite last year.
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