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Amazon’s Smart Thermostat is on sale for just $58

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Amazon’s Smart Thermostat looks surprisingly nice for such a cheap gadget. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge If your electricity bill climbs every summer, a smart thermostat could help keep cooling costs in check. The Amazon Smart Thermostat is an excellent option for its price, especially today. It’s down to just $57.99 at Amazon as a part of Amazon’s early Prime Day sale, which is the best price we’ve seen since Black Friday. Amazon Smart Thermostat Where to Buy: $79.99 $57.99 at Amazon $79.99 at Best Buy $79.99 at B&H Photo For a smart thermostat that costs under $100, the Amazon thermostat offers a lot of helpful features. One of its most useful is its ability to  learn and adapt to your routines, reducing the need to constantly tweak the temperature yourself. It’s also compatible with most 24-volt HVAC systems, and adjusts itself accordingly depending upon whether or not you’re asleep or at home. The app lets you creat...

The best early Amazon Prime Day deals so far

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The products pictured here aren’t on sale, but we certainly hope they will be soon. | Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Amazon’s earlier-than-usual Prime Day doesn’t begin until June 23rd, but there are several even earlier deals on must-have products that you can check out right now. To name some examples, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 are selling at their cheapest-ever price. Also, you can grab Ring’s latest battery-powered doorbell for $60 off and it includes a free Indoor Cam Plus with purchase. While the pre-Prime Day deals are looking good so far, you may not see the brands or products you’re looking for — hopefully, those deals will come later in June. Still, we’ve only included early deals that meet the criteria we hold for all our commerce coverage: they’re good products sold at attractive prices. We’ll update this post frequently ahead of Prime Day. Logitech MX Master 3S The MX Master 3S is a favorite among many Verge staff members because of...

Honor’s Magic V6 sets three foldable firsts

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The crease isn’t quite invisible, but otherwise this feels like the complete foldable package — on the hardware side at least. On paper, the Honor Magic V6 sounds like a tremendous leap forward for foldable phones: It's the thinnest one yet, with the biggest battery, and the best water-resistance ever. In practice, only the bigger battery feels like a meaningful improvement. The other upgrades are only fractionally superior to what came before. This isn't entirely Honor's fault. It's getting harder to make a foldable phone stand out; even last year's offerings felt like complete flagship phones. Huawei's Pura X Max stood out for its odd new aspect ratio, which we're expecting to see both Samsung and Apple replicate later this year. Then there are the trifolds , whic … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FIpKcw0

Under-16 social media ban announced by UK government

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The UK is the latest country to follow Australia in implementing a total social media ban for children under 16, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced. The ban, which could take effect from early next year, will be joined by wider measures that will also prevent children from talking to strangers in online games, livestreaming, or using sexual or romantic chatbots. "Do we truly believe that social media creates a happy environment for our children? Do we truly believe that it's a place where they can feel safe?" Starmer asked during a press conference announcing the policy. "I don't think I even need to answer those questions, do I?" " … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/1t8oU65

The FBI built a small town to simulate cyberattacks

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There’s also a fake power company to jack up prices thanks to the fake data center. | Image: FBI Last year, the FBI opened a Cyber Range in Huntsville, Alabama, for simulating cyberattacks. Think of it sort of like the famous Hogan's Alley , but for modern digital crime training. It's a massive 22,000 square-foot replica of an entire town, complete with a convenience store, gas station, hospital, and even fully furnished houses. It's a training facility where the bureau can recreate real-world scenarios for training and research purposes. All of the various buildings and facilities are hooked up the way they would be in a real town. There's even a small data center with over 200 servers that can be hacked, infected with malware, and stu … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/P8LGl1c

China may have accessed Mythos

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According to a new report from Semafor , the White House's decision to impose export restrictions on Anthropic's Mythos was driven in part by fears that it had been accessed by a group linked to China. If the Chinese government actually had access to Mythos 5 or Fable 5, it would present a serious national security risk. The government could also attempt to reverse engineer the model through distillation , a method in which a "student" AI is trained on a more advanced model to replicate its behavior. The White House has not confirmed this report, and a post on X by Trump advisor David Sacks did not mention China. Instead, Sacks focused on a r … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/5YT8wvX

Solid-state batteries still aren’t ready, but gels are

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This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on e-bikes, power stations, and how to work anywhere , follow Thomas Ricker . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century, and that's a problem. From exploding e-bikes in stairwells to lithium-ion power banks combusting midflight , the volatile nature of traditional liquid electrolytes has become an undeniable public safety hazard. In 2025, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) i … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/lVk4Rbf