It’s small, it’s relatively quiet, it has a handy sleep mode with remote wake-up, and the front tiles are even rotatable. The Framework Desktop is a great fit for a living room.
I've long dreamed of doing all my gaming on PC - a single platform that's easily upgradeable and lets me play my overstuffed Steam library wherever and however I like. The Steam Deck is a fantastic handheld, but for my living room, I want something more powerful that works as well on my TV as it does at a desk. Believe me, I've tried. Gaming laptops are noisy and awkward, desktops are too chunky, and Windows is annoying to navigate without a keyboard and mouse. I had hoped that Valve's Steam Machine experiment was my ticket, but it crashed and burned long ago. Nothing's ever been as easy as a PlayStation 5.
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on deep-sea mining and critical minerals, follow Justine Calma.The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepbackhere.
How it started
This is not how I thought things would go down when I started covering deep-sea mining. I knew that impatience and greed could have unforeseen consequences for life that depends on healthy oceans, including humans. I just didn't foresee Donald Trump coming back to blow up international negotiations meant to make sure no single government screws up a resource so vital to …
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 95, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, new gadget season is starting, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
Bose’s entry-level soundbar features a compact design, making it a great fit for small bedrooms. | Image: Bose
If you’re looking to upgrade your movie night, a soundbar is an easy way to beef up the audio. While there are some high-priced options out there, you don’t have to spend a lot to actually hear a movie’s dialog. Right now, the Bose TV Speaker is down to $163.45 (about $115 off) at Amazon, the lowest price we’ve seen yet.
The Bose TV Speaker is a solid starter soundbar that can easily integrate into existing setups with a simple one-cable connection (via optical or HDMI). At under 24 inches wide and around two inches tall, the soundbar features a small footprint, yet it delivers a rich, immersive sound thanks to its three-speaker setup. For more bass, you can press the “Bass” button on the remote, while a dedicated dialogue mode further elevates what people are saying, allowing you to finally turn off the subtitles.
Additionally, the Bose TV Speaker has Bluetooth connectivity, so you can use the soundbar to listen to music or podcasts. While it lacks more premium features like Dolby Atmos, Bose offers some of our favorite noise-cancelling headphones and earbuds, so you can expect a similar level of quality in its home audio products.
Other weekend discounts
Twelve South’s 4-foot PowerCord is currently down to an all-time low of $26.86 (about $13 off) at Amazon. The PowerCord combines a USB-C cable and a 30W wall adapter, so you no longer need to carry them separately. It supports Power Delivery 3.0, providing fast charging to the latest smartphones — it can charge an iPhone 16 from 0 to 55 percent in just 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the PowerCord features a durable braided cable that connects to the bottom of the adapter, so it doesn’t awkwardly poke out from the wall.
There are several great controllers for the Nintendo Switch 2 beyond the Switch 2 Pro Controller. One of them is the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller, which is currently down to $59.99 ($10 off) at Amazon — a few bucks more than the all-time low we saw over Prime Day. The controller packs more reliable TMR joysticks, Hall effect triggers, extra R4 / L4 bumpers, and rear paddle buttons. It also comes with a 2.4GHz dongle and charging dock, making the controller easy to charge between gaming sessions.
If you’re not quite ready for a full-fledged smartwatch, the Casio G-Shock Move DW-H5600 is a nice compromise — and it’s currently down to $183.72 (about $115 off) at Amazon, the best price we’ve seen all year. The DW-H5600 includes a sensor that can measure your heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen levels, and active time. It can also feed you basic smartphone notifications, so you can keep tabs on incoming calls and emails.
Not all of The Verge’s staff live in the US. For example, news editor Dominic Preston is based in London and is, as he says, “responsible for keeping our news coverage ticking over in UK mornings before the US team comes online.” He also curates our new Verge Daily newsletter and covers Android phones, especially all the models that don’t launch in the US.
And outside of work? “I’m a bit of a food obsessive,” he says, “and run a newsletter called Braise where I review London restaurants and cookbooks, and occasionally try my own hand at recipe writing. That means I spend most of my free time cooking, eating, or thinking about food, and so also a decent amount of time in the gym trying to make up for that.”
Where is your workspace located?
This is an office that I share with my partner in our flat in London. It used to be a second bedroom, but now we’ve kitted it out with two desks and a sofa bed for the occasional times we actually have guests to stay. My partner is a PhD student, so her working hours are a bit unpredictable, and split between here and school — which means that 90 percent of the time I’ve got the office to myself.
Could you tell us about your desk(s)?
We both have standing desks. Mine is an Autonomous SmartDesk 2 that’s electronic and automatic, hers an old pneumatic model by Bakker Elkhuizen that they don’t make anymore, which annoys her because it requires a bit of effort to shift up and down. They’re both decorated with self-healing cutting mats, which are still occasionally used for arts and crafts (or as the backdrop for my productphotos) but mostly double as giant mouse mats.
You have both a chair and a walking station. What are they, and how well do they work for you?
The chair is a secondhand Herman Miller. It actually used to be my partner’s, while I sat in a big Duelhawk Jet Black PU gaming chair (also no longer available), until we each realized we preferred the other’s seat and swapped. I’m old enough, and sore enough, to be willing to invest a little in the chair I’ll be using every day anyway.
The walking pad is a pretty cheap one from Mobvoi. I actually bought it immediately after reading a piece by my colleague Victoria Song on a different Mobvoi model, and following her advice I’ve made no attempt to touch its smart features or track my workouts; so far it’s served me well. I just use it as slow as it goes, and try to spend as much of every morning walking on it as possible — on a good day I’ll rack up two or three hours of steady walking time; on a bad day I’ll keep putting it off until the coffee hits and never quite get going. Either way, I let myself sit down for the afternoon, which is more likely to be concentrated writing time — I find it hard to do anything too creative or complicated while walking at the same time.
(I know, I know, my cable management isn’t great. I tend to be very tidy, but cables are one of the few things I absolutely don’t have the patience to organize. Sadly, having a standing desk really lays bare those sins, so I may have to force myself to get better about it.)
Here’s the long one: tell us about the various tech devices you’re using.
My current setup is slightly awkwardly trapped between my work and personal computers, though I have some plans in the works to improve it.
My work machine is an M2 MacBook Air, which lives propped up on a Ugreen laptop stand. It’s connected to the monitor on the right, a cheap 24-inch QHD Philips model that I bought in 2020.
The confusing part of my setup is that second monitor, an embarrassingly old Acer one. That’s because I’ve also got a desktop PC that I use outside of work, and that connects to both monitors. At the end of the work day I can flip the MacBook shut, and my personal setup is good to go. It’s all unnecessarily cluttered, though, especially since the MacBook can’t support both external monitors at once, so this year’s big upgrade will probably be a 32-inch 4K monitor to replace the pair of them. I’ll happily take any recommendations from the comments!
My keyboard is the Logitech MX Keys S, which I love. I’m as much of a sucker for a good mechanical board as the next guy, but I love low-profile, full-size keyboards, and good mechanical options in that space are few and far between. I used to use a Hexgears Venture, but I ran it into the ground eventually, and this has served me well since.
The mouse is also Logitech, though it isn’t my usual one. I picked up this MX Anywhere 3S a while back to use when I’m traveling to trade shows and product launches, and usually have the larger MX Master 3S on my desk. Sadly the left button on that has given up the ghost, and I’m holding off on replacing it in the hopes that the long-rumored MX Master 4 is about to launch.
Continuing the Logitech theme (I’m just now realizing quite how much of my desk setup was built by them), I have an old Z337 2.1 speaker system that just barely fits on the desk right now (another reason I need to switch to a single monitor), and a Brio 500 webcam that I mostly like for how easy it is to flip the built-in privacy shutter.
Everything connects up through an Anker Prime USB hub that’s almost certainly more powerful than I need it to be, but has lots of front-facing USB ports for charging my array of phones, helped by a Xiaomi 50W wireless charging stand, which made more sense when I was using a Xiaomi 14 Ultra as my main phone, but is slightly wasted now — other phones don’t hit that max charging speed.
I tend to have a rotating cast of phones floating around my desk, though this is relatively tidy for me — on messy days I can have up to five or six handsets taking up space. Beyond the Vivo X200 Ultra I used to take these photos, you can see the Fairphone 6 and Huawei Pura X, the two phones I’ve most recently been testing for reviews.
Tell us about your camera collection.
I decided I wanted to try out film photography back in 2019, because I was spending a lot more time writing about cameras as part of my phone reviews and using cameras as part of my job. I figured film would be a good way to make myself learn more about the core principles.
I picked up this Canon EF on eBay. It’s a ’70s SLR with a metal body, which means it’s heavy but is built like a tank — I suspect it will outlast me. It came with a Canon 50mm lens, and I’ve gradually picked up a few cheap options to go with it: a 28mm wide-angle, a 35-70mm for when I want flexibility, and a 70-210mm telephoto I bought specifically for a safari in Kenya a couple years back. I always tell myself I’ll buy better-quality lenses when I’m a good enough photographer to get the most out of them, but I’ll probably just have to bite the bullet eventually.
The microphone living alongside them all is the Rode NT-USB, which I use for podcasts and videos, though I’d like to get a boom arm for it so I can store it around the desk.
You’ve got a lot of toys and games on those shelves! How long have you been collecting them?
This is a really motley assortment of things I’ve collected over the years — some bought, some gifted, some acquired from an old office clearout. There’s more dotted around the rest of my apartment, though my girlfriend is on an (understandable) mission to concentrate it all in the office.
Do you have any favorites?
I’m an absolute Alien obsessive, and I actually have two full-size facehuggers, one plushie and one vinyl, which I adore. There’s also a (sadly not full-size) power loader from Aliens, which I can’t get enough of. Elsewhere in the apartment I have a few original ’90s Street Sharks and Small Soldiers action figures, which are still waiting for the right shelf to display them on.
The board game collection is small but steadily growing. I’ve been playing a lot of Gloomhaven over the last year or so, though Betrayal at House on the Hill is probably the game that gets broken out most often. I’ve also got a healthy collection of D&D 5e and Alien RPG sourcebooks — I can strongly recommend the latter, and that’s not just the fanboy in me speaking!
She’s actually a recent addition to my desk. We’ve had the cats for a couple of years, but in the last few months Noodle has decided she really wants to hang out with me while I work, and will happily lie down on my keyboard to do so. We set her up with a little blanket bed instead, which she now sleeps in about half the day, though she still isn’t above a keyboard nap when the mood strikes. The biggest surprise to me is that she doesn’t seem to mind the standing desk going up or down while she’s on it, which I expected would cause a bit of panic.
The Fairphone 6 arrives almost two years after the 5, a testament to the company's approach to the upgrade cycle. If anything, I suspect the company would be frustrated if Fairphone 5 owners were considering a new model already - these are phones to keep, to repair, and to hold on to until the bitter end.
The newest Fairphone continues the company's commitment to user-repairability, long-term customer support, and ethical production. That means compromises for the consumer: You'll find more powerful phones with prettier displays and more capable cameras for less money. But this year those compromises are smaller and easier than ever before, …
Ninja Gaiden is having a renaissance. The last mainline entry was originally released more than a decade ago, but by the end of 2025, there will be three new Ninja Gaiden titles. Two are 3D: Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a modern-day remaster of Ninja Gaiden II released earlier this year, and Ninja Gaiden 4, co-developed by PlatinumGames and set to release in October. But there's a new 2D game, too. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a retro-styled side-scrolling platformer from Dotemu and the developers of Blasphemous - and it absolutely rips.
In Ragebound, you play as Kenji Mozu, a young ninja trained by usual series star Ryu Hayabusa. Early on, Kenji's …
After the United Kingdom began enforcing its sweeping Online Safety Act in April, British regulator Ofcom served violation notices to three notorious sites: 4chan, Gab, and Kiwi Farms, each of which risked multimillion-dollar fines. Late last week, Preston Byrne, a First Amendment lawyer representing them, struck back. Byrne announced he would sue Ofcom in US federal court and added an unusual request. He called on the Trump administration "to invoke all diplomatic and legal levers available to the United States" to protect his clients from the OSA's reach.
Byrne's request could put a trio of sites known as hotbeds of violence, harassment, …
Apple is suing a former employee on the Apple Watch team who left to join Oppo, alleging that he “conspired to steal Apple’s trade secrets relating to Apple Watch and to disclose them to his new employers.”
Ahead of starting his new job at Oppo, the employee, Dr. Chen Shi, attended “dozens” of meetings with technical members on the Apple Watch team to learn about their work and downloaded 63 documents “from a protected Box folder” that he loaded onto a USB drive, according to the lawsuit. Shi allegedly sent a message to Oppo saying that he was working to “collect as much information as possible” before starting his job. And he searched the internet for terms like “how to wipe out macbook” and “Can somebody see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?” from his Apple-issued MacBook before leaving the company.
Shi was formerly a sensor system architect at Apple, and the company says he had “a front row seat to Apple’s development of its cutting-edge health sensor technology, including highly confidential roadmaps, design and development documents, and specifications for ECG sensor technology.”
He now heads up a team working on sensing technology at Oppo — which Apple says it learned because of “messages he left on his Apple-issued work iPhone.” In his resignation letter to Apple, Shi said he was leaving “due to personal and family reasons.” Via that iPhone, Apple also says it found messages from Oppo demonstrating that it “encouraged, approved, and agreed to Dr. Shi’s plan to collect Apple’s proprietary information before leaving Apple.”
When The Verge tried to contact Oppo for comment, the email bounced back because the mailbox was full.
Trump revealed the news during a briefing about the World Cup. | Photographer: Annabelle Gordon/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Image
The US is investing $8.9 billion into Intel, but most of the funds come from money that the government was supposed to pay the embattled chipmaker anyway. In an announcement on Friday, Intel said the federal government will fund its investment using the remaining $5.7 billion in grants it hasn’t yet received under the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act, in addition to the $3.2 billion received as part of the Secure Enclave program.
President Donald Trump confirmed the investment during a press briefing before the formal announcement, saying Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan agreed to give the government a 10 percent stake. Earlier this month, Trump called on Tan to resign over his ties to China, and today he positioned the deal as a way for the executive to “keep his job.”
Trump told reporters that he floated the offer during negotiations with Tan. “I said, ‘I think it would be good having the United States as your partner,’” Trump said. “They’ve agreed to do it, and I think it’s a great deal for them.” Intel has already received $2.2 billion under the CHIPS Act.
The government’s investment in Intel “will be a passive ownership, with no Board representation or other governance or information rights,” according to Intel. “We are grateful for the confidence the President and the Administration have placed in Intel, and we look forward to working to advance U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” Tan says in the press release.
The confirmation of the deal comes just days after SoftBank announced plans to invest $2 billion into Intel to “further expand” chipmaking in the US.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at the government’s potential investment this week, saying during an interview with CNBC that it “would be a conversion of grants” meant to “stabilize the company for chip production here in the US.”
It doesn’t seem like this is the end for Trump’s approach to deal-making, as he said during the briefing that “he’ll do more of them” in the future.
Update, August 22nd: Added information from Intel.
Netflix has already faced backlash over the use of AI in What Jennifer Did, director Jenny Popplewell’s 2024 true crime documentary that seemingly used AI-generated images in place of real archival photos. That documentary stood out as a shining example of gen AI’s ability to distort reality in situations where people are specifically looking to be told the truth about something. Now the streamer is taking steps to avoid similar problems.
This week, Netflix published a post on its Partner Help Center hub detailing its guiding principles regarding gen AI and the situations in which it is ok with production teams using the technology. In Netflix’s view, gen AI tools are “valuable creative aids” that make it easier for “users to rapidly generate new and creatively unique media (video, sound, text, and image).” Because the gen AI space is moving at such a breakneck pace, however, the company felt that it was important to outline the rules it expects its partners to follow if and when they use these tools.
“To support global productions and stay aligned with best practices, we expect all production partners to share any intended use of GenAI with their Netflix contact, especially as new tools continue to emerge with different capabilities and risks,” the post explains. “Most low-risk use cases that follow the guiding principles below are unlikely to require legal review. However, if the output includes final deliverables, talent likeness, personal data, or third-party IP, written approval will be required before you proceed.”
Netflix’s gen AI best practices are predicated on five specific guidelines that it sees as being “essential to act responsibly when employing generative workflows.” Netflix says:
The outputs do not replicate or substantially recreate identifiable characteristics of unowned or copyrighted material, or infringe any copyright-protected works
The generative tools used does not store, reuse, or train on production data inputs or outputs.
Where possible, generative tools are used in an enterprise-secured environment to safeguard inputs.
Generated material is temporary and not part of the final deliverables.
GenAI is not used to replace or generate new talent performances or union-covered work without consent.
Netflix also says if its partners are confident that they are following those guidelines, they only need to tell their designated company contact that they intend to use gen AI. But if partners are unsure or know that they’re not adhering to the rules, they should escalate to your Netflix contact for more guidance before proceeding, as written approval may be required.”
The post repeatedly stresses that while Netflix is very open to its partners using gen AI in a number of ways, it wants them to be mindful of the potential legal risks they might wander into by not running their plans by management and the company’s legal team beforehand. The post also makes a point of emphasizing that Netflix believes “audiences should be able to trust what they see and hear on screen.” And given gen AI’s potential to “blur the line between fiction and reality or unintentionally mislead viewers,” the streamer wants its partners to tread carefully.
Though the post does not mention production costs, all of this comes just a few weeks after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that the company remains “convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper.” Soon after, Sarandos began pointing to Netflix’s new Argentinian sci-fi series The Eternautas an example of how gen AI could be used to bring a show in under budget. And now it seems like Netflix is very keen on other creative teams embracing that kind of workflow.
Bluesky will block access from Mississippi IP addresses in response to a new state law requiring age verification and parental consent for underage users. The decision, outlined in a blog post, will stand until courts decide the fate of the law.
“Mississippi’s approach would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky,” says the post, in ways that rules like the UK’s Online Safety Act (which Bluesky complies with) don’t. The law, HB 1126, “would block everyone from accessing the site — teens and adults — unless they hand over sensitive information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to keep track of which users are children.” In the UK, by contrast, users are only blocked from accessing direct messages and sensitive content unless they undergo a verification process using a third-party tool. “Building the required verification systems, parental consent workflows, and compliance infrastructure would require significant resources that our small team is currently unable to spare as we invest in developing safety tools and features for our global community, particularly given the law’s broad scope and privacy implications.”
HB 1126 is one of numerous attempts to age-gate social media in the US, but most similar laws have been blocked under court challenges as likely unconstitutional. HB 1126 went into effect thanks to an unexplained decision by the Supreme Court earlier this month, rejecting an emergency request to block it while a legal challenge progresses. A concurring opinion from Justice Brett Kavanaugh acknowledged that the law probably violated the First Amendment but said the plaintiffs had not sufficiently demonstrated harms. While the court has said that age verification can be used to block minors from accessing explicit sexual content without unduly burdening adults’ access to information, there’s no precedent extending that option to social media in general.
Now, however, Bluesky users who log in from inside the borders of Mississippi (without a VPN, anyway) will be met with a message explaining the decision. The decision applies specifically to the Bluesky app; other apps and services on the decentralized AT Protocol will make their own calls about access.
“Child safety is a core priority, and in this evolving regulatory landscape, we remain committed to building an open social ecosystem that protects users while preserving choice and innovation,” the post says. “We’ll keep you updated as this situation develops.”
Meta is partnering with Midjourney to “license their aesthetic technology” for use in its own models and products, Meta’s new chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, announced on Friday. The partnership involves a “technical collaboration between our research teams,” Wang said, suggesting the deal involves more than simply using Midjourney’s existing product across Meta services.
Wang didn’t specify the terms of arrangement. Meta spokesperson Ashley Gabriel declined to comment and pointed to Wang’s posts. Midjourney didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Meta has been investing heavily in its AI “superintelligence” efforts as of late to catch up to rivals like OpenAI and Google. Mark Zuckerberg has personally worked to poach AI researchers from other companies with humongous offers — Wang only joined Meta after it paid $14.3 billion to acquire 49 percent of Scale AI, the company he co-founded.
The partnership with Midjourney ties directly into Meta’s goals for AI imagery across its services. The Meta AI app is built around a feed of AI-generated images and videos. Facebook has added a button to create AI images when you go to make a new post. There are options to generate AI images within chats in WhatsApp and Instagram, too.
Midjourney got on the map for its AI image and video generation tools. As Meta works to build out features like the Meta AI app’s social feed, it’s easy to imagine Meta relying on Midjourney’s tech to help people make better-looking photos and videos.
“We are incredibly impressed by Midjourney,” Wang says. “They have accomplished true feats of technical and aesthetic excellence, and we are thrilled to be working more closely with them.” The two companies will share more about what they’re working on together “soon.”
Even with the partnership, Midjourney remains “an independent, community-backed research lab” with “no investors,” founder and CEO David Holz says.
Fidji Simo is wrapping up her first week at OpenAI, where she is expected to oversee most of the company's roughly 3,000 employees.
To investors and partners, OpenAI leaders have been describing the former Instacart CEO as the kind of steady hand the company needs. Her mandate is clear: turn a chaotic, unprofitable startup into a disciplined, publicly traded tech giant. On paper, she seems well-suited. She lived through Facebook's hyper-growth era in the early 2010s, helped take Instacart public, and knows the advertising industry inside and out - experience that will be valuable once ads arrive in ChatGPT.
The Sonos Roam 2 is already $40 off ahead of Labor Day, dropping it to $139.
Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, and while the prospect of cooler weather and shorter days can be a tough adjustment, at least there is always a great selection of deals to combat the post-summer blues. You’ll have to wait until September 1st to celebrate the actual holiday, sure, but in the meantime, we’ve gone ahead and rounded up the best discounts you can get so far on a variety of Verge-approved gadgets and goods, from earbuds to the latest e-readers.
Being that it’s nearly the end of August, it’s also a good reminder that the holidays will be here before you know it. Thankfully, some gadgets — including Sony’s WH-CH520 headphones, Roborock’s 35A robot vacuum, and TP-Link’s X55 Wi-Fi routers — have fallen to their lowest price to date, making now an excellent time to get a head start on your holiday shopping. After all, there’s no guarantee they’ll drop lower in price, even when Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around.
Like its predecessor, the Sonos Roam 2 is a compact and travel-friendly Bluetooth speaker that easily syncs up with Sonos’ home audio ecosystem via Wi-Fi. While it looks much like the original, the Roam 2 has some small quality-of-life improvements, like a separate button for Bluetooth connections. Read our hands-on impressions.
Sonos’ Era 100 smart speaker is a replacement for the older Sonos One, utilizing two tweeters (left and right) and one larger woofer. In addition to Wi-Fi, the Era 100 also supports Bluetooth audio and line-in playback via an optional 3.5mm to USB-C adapter. Read our review.
JBL’s Flip 7 is on sale for around $129.95 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and B&H Photo, matching its second-best price to date. The Bluetooth speaker is dustproof, waterproof, and comes with an interchangeable clip and loop, so you can attach it to your bag. It’s a mono speaker, but you can pair two together for stereo sound, and it’s rated to last up to 16 hours per charge while in Playtime Boost mode.
Ultimate Ears’ Megaboom 4 is a 360-degree Bluetooth speaker that’s currently available at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo for $169.99 ($30 off), which is the second-best price we’ve seen this year. It carries an IP67 rating, can float in the water, and lasts up to 20 hours per charge. The button on the top can even be programmed to start a playlist on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Music.
Amazon Echo Dot (fifth-gen)
The fifth-gen Echo Dot touts a temperature sensor, better sound, and faster response time than the prior model. It can also act as an extender for your Eero Wi-Fi system. Read our review.
The 2024 Beats Pill offers improved sound, USB-C, and native support for Find My and voice assistants on both iOS and Android. It also bests the previous model with double the battery life (24 hours) and IP67 water resistance. Read our review.
The latest Beats Studio Pro feature improved noise cancellation, sound quality, and comfort. They also support lossless audio over USB-C, making them the first Apple headphones to do so. Read our review.
The Sonos Ace are the company’s first set of wireless headphones. They feature a premium, comfortable build and active noise cancellation, along with compatibility with Sonos Arc and other Sonos soundbars. Read our review.
Sony’s budget-friendly WH-CH520 are matching their all-time low of around $38 ($31 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The on-ear headphones can tap into Google’s Find My Device network and support multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, so you can keep them paired to two devices simultaneously. They also support Fast Pair on Android and can last up to 50 hours per charge, which is impressive for a pair of budget-friendly cans.
Bose noise-canceling QuietComfort Earbuds are some of the best mid-tier earbuds we’ve tested, and they’re currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart for around $149.99 ($30 off), matching their second-best price to date. The wireless earbuds are comfortable to wear, and last around eight hours per charge with ANC enabled. We liked the way they sounded out of the box and appreciated their five-band EQ, which allowed us to tune them to our tastes. Read our hands-on impressions.
Beats Studio Buds Plus
The Beats Studio Buds Plus offer better sound and noise cancellation than the original pair, and they now come in a unique translucent color option. Read our review.
Sony’s WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones still offer plenty of bang for your buck with excellent ANC, lively sound, and lengthy battery life. They’re not the company’s latest, but they remain an excellent buy. Read our review.
Bose’s QuietComfort Headphones, which replace the QuietComfort 45, have adjustable noise cancellation and the ability to set custom modes. However, they lack immersive audio mode and the higher-quality Bluetooth found in the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.
Tovala’s smart oven / air fryer combo is designed to be used in conjunction with its scannable meal kits, which let you make tasty meals in about 20 minutes. Right now, you can get it for free when you buy it from Tovala and order meals six times over six months. Each meal costs around $12.99. Read our review.
Blink’sOutdoor 4cameras can beef up your home’s smart security system, and right now you can get a pair at Amazon for $89.99 ($90 off), which is the best price we’ve seen since Prime Day. The 1080p security cameras are weather-resistant and can last up to two years before their AA batteries need to be replaced. Clips can be stored in the cloud for a subscription fee, or locally using its Sync module (included) and a flash drive. Blink’s five-camera bundle is also on sale for $199.99 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
Whisker’s Litter Robot 4 can automatically clean itself by sifting waste from litter, minimize odors, and keep track of your cat’s weight, which you can check in Whisker’s app. It was designed to accommodate cats of many breeds and sizes, and it works efficiently enough to be used daily by four cats. A bundle that includes the machine and a three-year extended warranty is currently going for $699 ($100 off) at Whisker’s online storefront.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium
The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is an excellent option for adding smarts and some style to your HVAC system. As well as being a smart way to control your energy use, the thermostat can also act as a video intercom for Ecobee’s excellent doorbell camera and an indoor air quality monitor.
This is a great wired doorbell camera, and the only one that can use an Ecobee thermostat as a video intercom, making it a no-brainer for Ecobee households, as long as you can hook it to your doorbell wiring.
Mammotion’s Yuka Mini 500H is a robotic lawnmower that looks (and works) like a robot vacuum, and it’s currently on sale at Amazon for an all-time low of $649 ($449 off). It uses AI and sensors to map out your yard, avoid obstacles, and find the most efficient route to mow. The 500H can keep track of up to 15 “work zones” and move between them independently; it can also run for up to 55 minutes per charge.
If you want smart lighting without replacing all the light bulbs in your home, Lutron’s Diva is a great smart home addition that’s on sale for $99.95 ($25 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Once installed, you can dim your lights or turn them on and off using the switch, an included remote, or an app on your phone. It’s also compatible with all the major smart home platforms, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home.
Ring Battery Doorbell (2024)
The 1080p camera on Ring’s latest Battery Doorbell has improved color night vision and a taller, head-to-toe field-of-view for package detection than the previous model. It also features better battery life and push-pin dismounting.
The Ring Alarm 14-Piece Kit has all the sensors and accessories you need to protect a two- to four-room house. You can also opt for 24/7 professional monitoring by signing up for a Ring Home subscription, which costs between $10 and $25 a month, depending on which plan you choose.
Roborock’s QV 35A is available for an all-time low of $439.99 ($159 off) from Amazon and Roborock. The robot vacuum mop / combo uses lidar to construct a 360-degree map of your home — allowing it to create a more efficient cleaning route — and works on hardwood, carpets, and rugs. Dust and dirty water are deposited into containers in the included charging base, which Roborock suggests you should empty weekly. You can even set the QV 35A, which offers 8,000Pa of suction power and a pair of self-washing mopping pads, to run on a schedule via its accompanying mobile app.
Eufy’s Robot Vacuum C10 is a slim robovac that’s designed to clean under furniture, and it’s down to a new low of $199.99 ($280 off) at Amazon and Eufy’s online storefront (with code WS7DV21XNS06). The vacuum maps out your room to avoid obstacles, and you can set no-go zones to avoid certain areas entirely. Debris is deposited into a 3L container in its charging base, which Eufy says needs to be replaced every 60 days. You can also schedule a cleaning with Eufy’s app or your voice using Alexa or Google Assistant.
Echo Show 5 (third-gen)
The newest Echo Show 5 is just as small as its predecessor but features updated mics and a speaker system that delivers double the bass and clearer sound quality.
Samsung is offering a free 65-inch U8000F TV when you purchase select 98-inch (or larger) TVs. The QN80F features a 120Hz 4K panel, a custom-designed processor for AI upscaling and color optimization, and built-in Alexa support.
The Bravia 8 II was chosen as the “king of TV” by a panel of judges (including TheVerge’s own Nilay Patel) in Value Electronics’ 2025 shootout. The OLED TV has excellent color accuracy, a bright panel, and a 120Hz refresh rate.
Samsung’s 98-inch DU9000 is a massive TV that’s back down to its all-time low of around $1,897.99 ($600 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The set has a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR Plus support, and a direct-lit panel for more even brightness. It also has an AI processor to adjust its picture and brightness settings automatically, and upscale low-resolution video to look nicer on a big 4K screen. If you have a Q-Symphony-compatible soundbar, the DU9000 will even integrate its built-in speakers into the audio system.
If you need a 4K TV for a smaller space, Sony’s 43-inch K43S30 is available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart for around $448 ($51 off), an all-time low. It has a 60Hz direct-lit panel that’s great for casual gaming or TV and movie streaming, and includes access to Sony Pictures Core, an exclusive streaming service that lets you watch movies in ultra high quality. You can use Google Assistant to search for content or control compatible smart home accessories with just your voice.
Tablet deals
iPad (2025)
Apple’s entry-level iPad is an excellent tablet for casual use. Its high resolution screen is great for watching video, and its A16 processor is fast enough to handle light games and productivity apps. Read our review.
The 2023 Amazon Fire HD 10 sports a 10.1-inch, 1080p display and 3GB of RAM, which is plenty if you’re streaming or browsing. It’s lighter than the last-gen model, too, and comes with support for both the Made for Amazon Stylus Pen and Amazon’s handwriting recognition technology.
If you prefer Android to iPadOS, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 FE is down to $429.99 ($70 off) — a new low price — at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The tablet has a 10.9-inch 90Hz screen, 128GB of storage, an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, and comes with the S Pen. Having a stylus in the box is convenient, and the tablet’s Handwriting Assist feature can help your notes look neater. If you circle an image on the screen, the tablet will automatically start a Google search to bring up more information.
The TCL Nxtpaper 14 is a 14.3-inch tablet designed for drawing and note-taking, and it’s on sale for an all-time low of $369.99 ($70 off) at Amazon. The tablet features a 2.4K matte display and comes with a T-Pen Stylus that features more than 4,000 pressure levels, so you can get precise strokes when sketching. Its Ink Paper and Color Paper modes also adjust the colors to look more like actual sheets of paper, which can help when reading or writing.
Amazon Fire Max 11 (64GB, with ads)
Amazon’s highest-end tablet features an 11-inch LCD display with 2000 x 1200 resolution as well as options for an add-on keyboard and stylus. Read our review.
The Venu 3S remains our favorite Garmin smartwatch. It’s a comfortable wearable with up to 10 days of battery life and a vibrant 1.2-inch OLED display, not to mention solid sleep tracking, Atrial Fibrillation detection, and a built-in EKG reader. Read our review.
Google’s Pixel Watch 3 is bigger and brighter than its predecessor. It also features more advanced running capabilities, offline Google Maps functionality, and deeper integration with other Google devices. Read our review.
BioLite’s portable FirePit Plus cuts back on unwanted smoke, functions either as a charcoal or wood-fueled grill, and fans the flames via a large battery pack and built-in fan.
Jackery’s Explorer 1000 v2 is a great tool to keep campers on the grid, and it’s currently available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Jackery for around $448.99 ($351 off), its lowest price to date. The portable power station features a 1070Wh battery, along with three AC outlets, a DC output, two USB-C ports, and a USB-A port. It’s powerful enough to run small appliances — or recharge your phone, tablet, or laptop several times over — and can be fully recharged in about an hour and a half (or less with emergency charging enabled).
Garmin’s inReach Messenger Plus is a satellite communicator that allows you to send text, pictures, or voice messages from remote areas, and it’s going for $449.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, REI, and Best Buy. It has a 1,600-character or 30-second voice clip limit, but that’s enough to get a message through in case of an emergency. The rugged gadget can also last up to 25 days on a single charge, and its IPX7 rating means it’s protected against dust and water. Just note that you’ll need a Garmin subscription, which starts at $7.99 a month, to use it.
Starlink Standard Kit
Starlink’s Standard Kit comes with both an antenna and a router, which allows you to easily connect your devices to a satellite-based internet connection. Download speeds up to 280Mbps are possible, but will vary by region, subscription tier, and weather conditions.
If you’re planning a late-summer camping trip, Osprey’s Transporter Roll-Top Pack is down to $82.18 ($82.82 off) at REI when you use the promo code LABORDAY2025. The 20L backpack is made from a PFC-free, water-repellent material, and the top rolls up and stays shut with a buckled strap to prevent water from getting in. It also features a large main compartment, a zippered pocket that can accommodate a 16-inch laptop, and water bottle pockets on both sides.
Breeo’s X24 Smokeless Fire Pit is down to $509.15 ($81 off) at Amazon and from Breeo, matching its best price to date. The fire pit is made from Corten Steel and features a raised air vent and perforations near its rim to provide continuous airflow, which keeps the fire alive and re-burns the wood to reduce smoke production. Breeo says the fire pit’s material will patina over time, so don’t be alarmed if it changes color after a few uses. If you have additional space, Breeo’s X30, which is designed to accommodate eight chairs around it, is also on sale for an all-time low of $1,189.15 ($210 off) at Amazon and from Breeo.
Miscellaneous deals
Mill Food Recycler (second-gen)
Mill’s latest Food Recycler works overnight to shrink your food scraps by 80 percent and convert them into compost, which you can then use for gardening or dispose of responsibly. It has a 6.5-liter capacity, which Mill says takes roughly four weeks to fill, and eliminates most odors.
Current’s Model P Smart Pizza Oven runs on electricity, gets up to 850 degrees Fahrenheit, and can cook a pizza in two minutes. Its companion app lets you customize your cook based on your pizza style and thickness. Read our review.
The 2024 Kindle Paperwhite is one of our favorite e-readers, and you can get one in like-new condition for $106.99 ($37 off) at Amazon. It has a seven-inch E Ink touchscreen, 16GB of storage, and a battery that can last for weeks. It has faster page-turn speeds than other e-readers, too, and has increased contrast that can make reading graphic novels or image-heavy books more enjoyable. Read our review.
You can sign up for an annual MasterClass subscription, which provides unlimited access to over 200 courses taught by experts, for $60 ($60 off) via MasterClass right now. Courses can be streamed on the MasterClass website or via an app for your phone, tablet, or streaming device. You can also download video or audio versions of them on mobile devices for offline consumption.
Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station (3-in-1, Dock Stand)
Anker’s MagGo Wireless Charging Station features a MagSafe charging stand, a Qi wireless charging pad, and an Apple Watch charger. It should charge all three devices at their top speed simultaneously, and comes with a 40W USB-C power adapter and cable.
The Insta360 Link 2 offers the same auto-swiveling design as its predecessor in a smaller form factor. It also offers a slate of new features, including group tracking and no-follow zones.
You can pick up a three-pack of TP-Link’s X55 Wi-Fi 6 routers for an all-time low price of $139.99 at Amazon and B&H Photo. The routers can create a network that covers 6,500 square feet, deliver speeds up to 3,000Mbps, and connect to up to 150 devices. TP-Link routers have been easy to set up and maintain in our experience, which makes them a great “set it and forget it” solution for networking problems.
If you have a smaller space, a single Eero 6 Mesh Wi-Fi router may be sufficient, and you can pick one up for $74.99 ($15 off) — which is lower than its Prime Day price — at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy. The router can create a network covering up to 1,500 square feet, connect to 75 devices at once, and deliver speeds of up to 900Mbps. If you move to a larger place, you can pick up an additional router (or two) to expand your network. A bundle that includes one router and two extenders is currently going for $159.99 ($40 off) at Amazon and B&H Photo, if you need a larger network now.
Expect record-breaking temperatures to change the workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today in a new report. When workers don’t have adequate protections from heat stress, their health and productivity suffer.
It’s a risk employers and lawmakers have to take more seriously if they want to keep workers safe and businesses prosperous, the agencies say. That means finding ways to adapt in a warming world, and paying close attention to groups that might be more vulnerable than others.
“Without bold coordinated action, heat stress will become one of the most devastating occupational hazards of our time,” Joaquim Pintado Nunes, chief of the branch responsible for occupational safety and health at the International Labour Organization (ILO), said during a press briefing.
“One of the most devastating occupational hazards of our time”
More than 2.4 billion people around the world — 71 percent of the working population — experience workplace heat stress, according to estimates from the ILO. Each year, 22.85 million occupational injuries and 18,970 fatalities are linked to excessive heat at work. The report also says that worker productivity falls 2–3 percent with every degree increase above 20 degrees Celsius in wet-bulb globe temperature, a measure that takes humidity and other environmental factors into account.
Record-shattering temperatures are already setting new norms for people in the workplace. Last year was the hottest year on record yet, but perhaps not for long, as planet-heating pollution continues to rise. The past decade, from 2015 to 2024, also marked the warmest on the books.
A healthy person at rest can regulate core body temperature to between 36.5C and 37.5C (97.7–99.5 Fahrenheit). That gets harder to do the hotter their environment is, or if they’re engaged in physical work or wearing gear that limits the body’s ability to cool itself down when sweat evaporates from skin. A person’s core body temperature shouldn’t rise above 38C (100.4F) for prolonged periods during work shifts, the WHO/WMO report says.
The effects of heat stress can start off mild, leading to heat rash, cramps, or fatigue that a person can recover from if they have enough time to cool off, rest, and rehydrate. But prolonged or extreme exposure might escalate things, and can result in heat stroke and even neurological dysfunction that could impair a person’s ability to seek help.
Heat happens to be the leading weather-related killer across the globe. People with certain chronic conditions, children, and older adults who can’t regulate their core body temperature as efficiently as others are more vulnerable. First responders and folks who work outdoors or indoors with equipment that releases heat (stoves or furnaces, for example) also face heightened risks.
There needs to be more education and awareness around heat stress in the workplace, the WMO and WHO urge. Preventative measures include boosting warning systems for heat waves, similar to warnings people might receive ahead of other environmental disasters. Employers should plan for longer or more frequent breaks, and can redesign uniforms and workplaces to keep workers cooler. They should also have plans for what to do in case of heat-related emergencies.
Lawmakers can get the ball rolling on this work by introducing policies that standardize these kinds of solutions. In the US, the Biden administration proposed new protections for workers last year in an effort to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths on the job. A heat index of 90F or higher would trigger 15-minute breaks every couple of hours for certain jobs, for instance. But we’ll have to see whether those proposed measures will survive the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.
The biggest step that businesses and policymakers can take, of course, is to slash fossil fuel emissions causing global warming. Otherwise, all we can do is keep playing catch-up as the mercury rises.
“Climate change is reshaping the world of work,” Pintado Nunes said.
In January, one of the wildest Intel prototypes I witnessed at CES was a giant handheld gaming PC with an 11-inch autostereoscopic (read: glasses-free) 3D screen, detachable controllers, an Intel Lunar Lake chip, and a dedicated toggle to switch between 2D and 3D modes.
Co-developed by Intel and Tencent Games, it was called the Sunday Dragon 3D One and dubbed an experimental product. But now, Abxylute, the company best known for kickstarting a $199 cloud gaming handheld, tells The Verge that it will actually sell this massive Windows handheld as the Abxylute 3D One.
It should go on sale in late September or early October for a price under …
Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 feature that will let you resume using your Android apps right on your PC. The capability is gradually rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels, and only supports the Spotify app for now.
If you’re in the test, you can try out the feature by linking your Android phone to your PC, and then opening up a song on Spotify’s mobile app. From there, Windows 11 will display a “Resume from your phone” notification alongside the Spotify icon and a prompt to “Continue on this PC.”
Once you select the notification, your PC will open Spotify’s desktop app — or prompt you to install it if you haven’t yet — and continue to play the same song from your computer. Microsoft first showcased this feature during a (now-deleted) Build 2025 demo. It sounds pretty similar to Handoff on macOS, which lets you resume your activity on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch on another device.
Microsoft doesn’t say how it plans to expand this Handoff-like feature in the future, but I could see it becoming helpful if you want to continue an activity that you started on your phone, like reading an article or writing an email, on your computer.
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.
Login
