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The surprise hit Nex Playground is the latest console to get a price hike

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Everything about video games is getting more expensive , and soon that will include a budget-friendly console. The Nex Playground - a Kinect-like device aimed at families that made headlines by outselling the Xbox over the holidays last year - will cost $299 starting on April 1st, a $50 bump. In a statement on the Nex Playground site , co-founder and CEO David Lee cited a number of familiar reasons for the higher price point: Over the past six months, the cost of key components - especially memory (DDR) and storage (eMMC) - has risen significantly across the industry. These increases are driven in part by the rapid expansion of AI infrastru … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/bm79vtJ

Disney’s big bets on the metaverse and AI slop aren’t going so well

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Less than a week into his tenure as Disney's newly-appointed CEO , Josh D'Amaro is already dealing with two separate crises that have cast a shadow over the company's future plans. OpenAI is shutting down its Sora image-generation program just months after Disney announced a $1 billion dollar collaboration to bake the tech into Disney Plus . And Fortnite maker Epic is laying off 1,000 employees at a time when we've heard basically nothing about the game studio's $1.5 billion investment deal with Disney to build a metaverse . Disney could still integrate generative AI into its streaming service, and we might end up seeing some version of the co … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/stIhOeS

Can you monitor a situation without monitors? The Polymarket sports bar tried

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Attendees wait in line outside the Situation Room by Polymarket pop-up bar in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, March 20, 2026. | Graeme Slona/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Hello and welcome to Regulator , a newsletter for Verge readers who are political junkies, and Washington insiders hooked on technology. If this email has been forwarded to you but you're not a subscriber, sign up here so you can get that pure, uncut Regulator every Wednesday, straight from the source (aka me). I was taking Friday off in Maine when two major pieces of tech news dropped: first, the White House released its framework for a comprehensive national AI bill with the intent of passing it through Congress. ( Hayden Field , our AI reporter, has a thorough analysis of it here .) Second (and clearly more important), Polymarket opened th … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/XuP3eHt

Apple is testing a standalone app for its overhauled Siri

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Apple's efforts to rebuild its Apple Intelligence AI platform will make its debut at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8th. A new version of Siri that transforms the voice assistant into a "systemwide AI agent with deep integration across applications" will be announced at WWDC 2026, according to a new report from Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman. The updated version of Siri will be more capable of controlling other apps and features of iOS and macOS and completing user-requested tasks using their personal data gathered from emails, messages, and notes. It will also be better at summarizing daily news from Apple News and will be able to pr … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/yi1Jj0P

Apple launches iOS 26.4 with AI playlists, purchase sharing, and more

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iOS 26.4 is here, and it comes with a bunch of small but notable updates. That includes a new Playlist Playground launching in beta in Apple Music, which uses AI to generate a song playlist - complete with a title, description, and tracklist - based on a text prompt. Apple Music is also adding a new concert discovery feature, allowing you to find nearby shows featuring artists from your library, as well as new ones recommended by the app. Other updates include full-screen backgrounds for album and playlist pages, along with a new Offline Music Recognition tool that "identifies songs without an internet connection and delivers results automa … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/3U4kCOx

The Lego Game Boy makes for a great gift, and it’s $10 off today

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The Lego Game Boy is a joy to assemble and display. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Deals on the Lego Game Boy are virtually nonexistent, save for the $10 discount that  Costco and Sam’s Club  offered their members when the set launched late last year. The deal is back — this time, at Kohl’s — and no membership is required to get $10 off. You can purchase the Lego Game Boy and have it shipped (or elect to pick it up in-store) for $49.99 when you use promo code TOYS10 at checkout. Lego Game Boy Where to Buy: $59.95 at Amazon $59.99 at Lego $59.99 $49.99 at Kohls (with code TOYS10) The Lego Game Boy is a 421-piece homage to Nintendo’s influential handheld from 1989. And, unlike most Lego sets, there are various ways to interact with the brick-based Game Boy that might evoke some strong memories if you ever owned this model. It features clickable buttons, a movable floating directional pad, and a set of Lego car tires that act as the Start and Select butt...

Two of my favorite color e-book readers are the cheapest they’ve been in months

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The Kobo Libra Colour features physical page turning buttons. | Image: Rakuten Kobo Color isn’t essential in an e-reader, but let’s be honest, it’s a nice perk that can bring digital books, magazines, comics, cookbooks, and other publications to life. The catch is that color ebook readers tend to be substantially pricier, which makes today’s deals stand out. Right now, the Kindle Colorsoft (16GB) and Kobo Libra Colour are matching their lowest prices to date, with the Amazon e-reader going for $169.99 ($80 off) at Amazon and Best Buy , and the Libra Colour going for $199.99 ($30 off) via Rakuten’s online storefront . Kindle Colorsoft (16GB) Where to Buy: $249.99 $169.99 at Amazon $249.99 $169.99 at Best Buy $249.99 $169.99 at Target Kobo Libra Colour Where to Buy: $229.99 $199.99 at Rakuten Kobo $229.99 $209.99 at Target $229.99 $209.99 at Amazon At their core, both are excellent e-readers with 7-inch, 300ppi E Ink displays, which drop to 150ppi when vi...