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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...

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...

Apple will soon bring advertisements to its Maps app on mobile and the web, according to a report from Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman . The ads, which Apple could reportedly announce this month before rolling them out in the summer, could allow businesses to pay for the highest spot in search results on Apple Maps. That means if one restaurant secures the winning bid for the word "sushi" or "pizza," its location could receive priority in search results over other relevant businesses, as reported by Bloomberg . The setup is similar to how advertising works on Google Maps, which also allows businesses to pay for a higher rank on search results. The m … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FxzkKHL

Govee has announced a new set of outdoor string lights that allows for more color customization than competitors' products , as well as the company's existing color-changing set . Similar to its Outdoor UpDown Wall Light introduced in July 2025 , Govee's new Outdoor Chromatic String Lights don't limit you to just one color per bulb. You can customize each individual one with multiple colors, gradients, and animated effects. Available starting today through Govee's online store and Amazon, the Outdoor Chromatic String Lights are available in two lengths: a 32-foot option with 10 bulbs for $169.99 and a 65-foot version with 20 bulbs for $299.99. … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nQD7iZg

The Galaxy S26 series like these Ultra models pictured will be the first Samsung devices to support the AirDrop sharing feature. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung is bringing AirDrop support to the Quick Share feature on Galaxy devices, starting with the S26 series. The new AirDrop feature will begin rolling out in Korea starting today, according to Samsung , with US devices seeing the option sometime later this week. It will arrive in more regions and on more Galaxy devices "at a later date," including the rest of North America, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan. This update will allow Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra owners to effortlessly share files with Apple devices over a fast wireless connection. With this, Samsung is now the second Android smartph … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/E4aUR2u

First came the AI beauty pageant. Then the AI music contests. Now, there is an award for AI Personality of the Year - perhaps the inevitable next step for the AI influencer economy as it transforms from quirky novelty into a serious and lucrative industry. The contest, a joint venture between generative AI studio OpenArt and AI-powered creator platform Fanvue, with backing from AI voice company ElevenLabs, opens on Monday and runs for a month. The organizers said it is intended to "celebrate the creative talent 'behind' AI Influencers" and recognize their growing commercial and cultural clout. Contestants will compete for a total prize f … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HJdEync

Siri, can you tell me where I belong? | Image: DEEWEE Last week's recommendation , Sotomayor's Wabi Sabi , has a very particular vibe that you don't find in a lot of records. One of the few things it called to mind was 2022's Topical Dancer from Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, which I ended up revisiting this week a lot. The two records don't seem particularly alike on the surface. But they're both rough around the edges smash-ups of electronic and organic elements packaged for dancefloor abandon. The way the sounds and rhythms click together feels very much of the same ilk. There are, of course, differences. Significant ones. Adigery and Pupul draw more heavily from rock and early electroni … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FVThIRo

Sonos is no stranger to the occasional sale. The iconic audio company routinely runs sales around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, and the Super Bowl, though it’s rare to see substantial discounts on its portable speakers outside of tentpole shopping events. Fortunately, if you have no interest in the Sonos Move 2 or forthcoming Sonos Play , the Sonos Roam 2 is currently available from Amazon , Walmart , and Sonos for $139 ($40 off), which is just $5 shy of its lowest price to date. Sonos Roam 2 Where to Buy: $179 $139 at Amazon $179 $139 at Sonos $179 $139 at Walmart The original Sonos Roam was by no means a bad speaker, but the quality-of-life updates on the Roam 2 are genuinely meaningful, particularly if you were the kind of person who constantly struggled to pair the first-gen model with anything via Bluetooth (guilty as charged). The latest Roam has a dedicated pairing button on the back — meaning you don’t have to hold down the power button for a set period of...

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about online age verification and your privacy, follow Emma Roth . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Virtual private networks, or VPNs, weren't always used to access region-locked Netflix streams, bypass censorship online, or to prevent your internet service provider (ISP) from tracking your browsing history. It took years for VPNs to become the technology we know today, which provides an encrypted connection between your device and a private server, while conce … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6lKRD8y

Halide running on an iPhone. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Lux Optics co-founder Sebastiaan de With made headlines when he joined Apple in late January. The company was behind Halide , one of the most popular photography apps for the iPhone, which gained a cult following for its robust pro-level controls. Apple was apparently a big enough fan that it tried to acquire the developer last summer. Those talks never bore fruit, and eventually the company simply hired de With. At the time, it was widely believed that Apple had poached him from Lux. But new allegations from a lawsuit filed by co-founder Ben Sandofsky in the California Superior Court of Santa Cruz claim de With was fired for financial misc … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/YgQ6dDk

Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro, told Digital Foundry that ML-based frame generation tech is coming to "PlayStation platforms" in the future, letting the game console use AI to imagine new frames between the ones it's actually rendering, which can create smoother perceived image quality while (typically) introducing some amount of lag. At least, that's how it works on PCs, where critics call them "fake frames." It's not clear whether Cerny means he'll bring it to the PS5 Pro , which just got better AI upscaling with an upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technique, or whether it'll have to w … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/0lQxzEe

Microsoft has faced a breakdown of trust in Windows 11 and a backlash over AI additions to its operating system in recent months. After promising to rebuild trust in Windows earlier this year, Microsoft's Windows chief, Pavan Davuluri, is now revealing the company's plan to fix Windows 11 - and there are a lot of changes on the way. "Over the past several months, the team and I have spent a great deal of time analyzing your feedback," says Davuluri in a blog post committing to Windows quality improvements. "What came through was the voice of people who care deeply about Windows and want it to be better." Windows 11 will start with a first … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/AtJ0RVf

The MCON includes an adhesive-backed ring for phones that aren’t MagSafe- or Pixelsnap-ready. | Image: OhSnap The MCON is the closest to a Swiss army knife that a controller can be. No, it doesn’t contain a can opener, but it makes up for it with a surprising array of features. Once you attach your MagSafe- or Pixelsnap-ready phone to the top plate, pressing a button along its top edge satisfyingly pops your phone up to reveal a full suite of controls, including TMR sticks made by GameSir. The MCON launched for $150, but you can get it for $99.99 through its manufacturer, OhSnap — the same amount that backers paid for the “super early bird” discount during the MCON’s 2025 Kickstarter campaign. OhSnap MCON controller Where to Buy: $149.99 $99.99 at OhSnap I only recently received an MCON controller for testing, but it didn’t take long to appreciate that its button layout is a bit more ergonomically-friendly than other phone controllers I’ve tried. I’m also a fan of the MCO...

For almost two hours last week, Meta employees had unauthorized access to company and user data thanks to an AI agent that gave an employee inaccurate technical advice, as previously reported by The Information . Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said in a statement to The Verge that "no user data was mishandled" during the incident. A Meta engineer was using an internal AI agent, which Clayton described as "similar in nature to OpenClaw within a secure development environment," to analyze a technical question another employee posted on an internal company forum. But the agent also independently publicly replied to the question after analyzin … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HUvWAFi

It’s 2026, and that means Apple sells MacBooks equipped with not just its capable M-series processors but A-series chips that were previously exclusive to the iPhone. With the MacBook Neo starting at $599, the company now offers a wider range of options with more sizes and price points than ever before, all of which run the company’s newest operating system, macOS 26 . Purchasing a new MacBook is easy if all you want is an affordable laptop. But if you have more specific needs and use cases that require a lot of power, or if you want to connect multiple 6K displays, it gets more complicated. That said, finding a deal on a relatively speedy model is surprisingly easy if you know where to look. These days, it’s not uncommon to see various MacBooks discounted by up to $800, although the quality of deals fluctuates frequently. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished options directly from Apple is another way to save money without waiting for the changing deal winds to blow your way. It’...

Robinhood is now beta testing a Twitter-like social media platform it calls Robinhood Social. The trading-focused platform was announced last September at the company's HOOD Summit, but it's rolling out to 1,000 people who attended the event and will expand to "an additional 10,000 customers over the coming weeks," according to Robinhood. On Robinhood Social, which, based on screenshots, looks a lot like Twitter or Threads, users will be able to create a profile, make posts about their trades, and complete trades from their feed. The company is also promising to launch additional features during the beta, including news feeds and "the abili … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HOu8miZ

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the AirPods Max 2 . The forthcoming over-ear headphones build on their predecessor with an H2 chip that powers a range of new features; however, they still don’t offer the sort of cross-OS compatibility you’ll get with a modern pair of Beats headphones — including the Beats Studio Pro , which are on sale at Amazon , Walmart , and Best Buy for an all-time low of around $169.95 ($180 off) in the run-up to Amazon’s annual Big Spring Sale . Beats Studio Pro Where to Buy: $349.99 $169.95 at Amazon $349.99 $169.99 at Best Buy $349.99 $169.95 at Walmart Although they’re undoubtedly getting a little long in the tooth — the Beats design hasn’t fundamentally changed since 2017 — the Beats Studio Pro remain a solid pair of platform-agnostic headphones, particularly at this price. They offer one-touch pairing with both iOS and Android devices, along with support for Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find Hub networks, allowing you to locate them a litt...

Starting Tuesday, Spotify users will have access to "Exclusive Mode," a new feature in the streaming service's Windows app that can help maximize audio quality by giving the Spotify app full control over your device's audio processing. According to Spotify, "your computer may alter audio before it reaches your DAC by resampling it, mixing other system sounds in, and changing the volume." Turning on Exclusive Mode prevents this, which Spotify says allows for "Bit Perfect playback." Exclusive Mode is currently only available to Spotify Premium users on Windows, but Spotify says it will also be coming to the Mac app "in a future release." To … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/LU5Mfc8

Ikea’s new smart bulbs, sensors, and remotes use Matter-over-Thread to connect to any compatible ecosystem — including Apple Home and Amazon Alexa. In theory. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Ikea's new Matter-over-Thread products were supposed to prove that the smart home could be cheap, accessible, and reliable. The highly anticipated line - which includes sensors , remotes , smart plugs, air-quality monitors , and smart bulbs - has most everything you need to build a smart home, with prices starting at $6. It's an exciting idea, but it's still not ready for primetime. When I first got the Ikea devices in January, I had a lot of problems connecting them to my main platform, Apple Home. And it turned out I was not alone. Reddit forums and user reviews were full of reports of onboarding and connectivity issues. Many people were str … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/lzNsAJ7

The Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni offer a range of smarts for a relatively affordable price. | Image: Ecovacs If you like the idea of spring cleaning but not the part where you actually have to clean, both the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni and newer  X9 Pro Omni  have dropped to their lowest prices to date ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale , which officially kicks off on March 25th. The X8 Pro Omni is available for $599 ($501 off) from Amazon , Best Buy , and Ecovacs , while the X9 Pro Omni is on sale for $679 ($621 off) at the same retailers ( Amazon , Best Buy , Ecovacs ). Deebot X8 Pro Omni Where to Buy: $1099.99 $599 at Amazon $1099.99 $599 at Ecovacs $1099.99 $599 at Best Buy Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni Where to Buy: $1299.99 $679 at Amazon $1299.99 $679 at Ecovacs $1299.99 $679 at Best Buy Both robot vacuums are packed with smart features designed to reduce the time you spend cleaning. Using lidar and a 3D camera for mapping, they can deftly nav...

Olaf, a Disney Imagineering robot that will greet guests at Disney parks. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge You know Olaf. Before KPop Demon Hunters , before the Wicked movies, it was Disney's Frozen that blasted show tunes like "Let It Go" and "Into the Unknown" into our lives. My little girls loved belting those tunes. So when I met Olaf, the Disney Imagineering robot, I kept thinking: I can't wait for my kids to meet him too. It's a weird thought, really, because this Olaf isn't a "he" and can't carry on a conversation. Why do I keep thinking "I met him" when he's largely a remote-controlled puppet teleoperated by a Steam Deck gaming handheld? @verge Is this the best robot Disney's ever made? Frozen's snowman Olaf will soon greet guests … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/w7xQkSV

So when exactly is smut considered porn? | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images OpenAI's delayed "adult mode" for ChatGPT is expected to support saucy text conversations at launch, but not the chatbot's ability to generate images, voice, or video. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal , an unnamed OpenAI spokesperson described content that will be provided by the upcoming feature as smut rather than pornography, allowing ChatGPT users to generate textual chats with adult themes. The feature was initially announced in October, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claiming that the company had managed to mitigate enough of the "serious mental health issues" with its AI model to relax safety restrictions and introduce " erotica for ver … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wb7Fxgk

Arielle Duhaime-Ross does a bike tune-up. | Photo by Evan Ortiz / The Verge One of the first major crashes I experienced as a chronically ill person happened on an unusually sunny January day in New York City. It was 2023, and I was riding my bike with a friend, flying high from the exercise. We'd covered just over 40 miles on mostly flat ground, a longish ride, but not out of ordinary for me. And that's when it started. About 15 minutes from my apartment, my body gave out. At first it was just my head - it grew hot, and within minutes, my brain felt like it was on fire. Pretty soon, the rest of my insides were burning up, too. As the skin on my arms and face turned red, and my limbs grew heavy, I felt bewildered. … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/FbX27dU

Aether OS puts a full-fledged desktop in your browser that ties directly into the AT Protocol . That means it connects to your Bluesky account and other public records. It offers a pretty full suite of apps , 42 in total, covering text editing, task management, and social media. There's even a rudimentary tracker for making chiptunes, a DAW, and a video editor. Of course, part of the appeal is also the cyberpunk good looks that draw obvious inspiration from The Matrix . Right now, the project is in alpha, and there are a lot of rough edges. Documentation is also basically non-existent. So, if you get stuck trying to use an app, you're kind … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/HRcAikt

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the slow-motion disaster of live-service games, follow Andrew Webster . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Two years ago, I stood at the top of the iconic red stairs in Times Square to experience the weirdest concert of my life. As glowing butterflies flitted about the various screens, a crowd steadily grew, knowing something was happening, but unsure of what. Then a countdown started, and a minute later one of the screens opened up, revealing Ice Spice and, later, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/zUQR5O9

Last fall, President Donald Trump's executive order raising the fee for H-1B visas to $100,000 - like many of his immigration policies - led to near-immediate chaos. Thousands of workers who had flown overseas to renew their visas ended up stranded abroad . Details about who would be affected only emerged after the fact. Six months later, the disorder from the initial announcement has mostly subsided. The H-1B registration season for the next fiscal year has just begun. With H-1B applications open until March 19th, it's unclear what effect, if any, the new rules will have on hiring, immigration, and the workforce, but experts are warning the … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/aqy3isd

In September, Donald Trump claimed that "the United States is getting a tremendous fee " for brokering the TikTok deal. Now sources tell the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that fee is expected to be in the range of $10 billion. The money is supposedly being paid by new investors, including Oracle and Silver Lake. Reports are that $2.5 billion was already paid to the Treasury when the deal closed on January 22nd. The rest will be paid out in installments. This is the latest example of the Trump administration inserting itself into private business in unprecedented ways, including taking on a 10-percent stake in Intel last August, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/i6ocpgN

According to Reuters , Meta is looking to offset spending on AI and data centers with a massive round of layoffs. Sources familiar with the matter say the company could lay off as much as 20 percent of its staff, eliminating roughly 15,800 positions. That would be the largest series of layoffs at the company since it terminated 22,000 workers over just a few months between November 2022 and early 2023 . Word of the potential downsizing comes after Meta signaled that it was all but giving up on VR and the Metaverse , slashing budgets and closing studios . Instead, the company has been spending big to attract AI talent , build data centers , and ac … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/V7RMywf

It's only been a year since Digg founder Kevin Rose, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and a few others announced the link-sharing site would relaunch, promising a "social discovery built by communities, not by algorithms." Now, two months after opening its Reddit-like platform to the public, Digg is announcing a "hard reset" that's shutting down operations and will "significantly downsize the Digg team." When they announced its relaunch, Rose told The Verge that AI could "remove the janitorial work of moderators and community managers." Now, the new Digg's CEO Justin Mezzell writes in a note pinned to the homepage that, "We knew bots were … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/AHgoLN4

Instagram will no longer support end-to-end encrypted messages starting May 8th. In a statement to The Verge , Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby Luce says the platform is discontinuing the feature because "very few people" were using E2EE in their DMs. Instagram has begun notifying impacted users about the change inside its app, and has also posted an update to its support page , suggesting that users download E2EE chats and images before it discontinues the feature, as spotted earlier by PiunikaWeb . "Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp," El-Kassaby Luce adds. After bringing E2EE to Wh … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Ytw6IPh

I'm not entirely sure why the Pixel 10A exists. Google hasn't upgraded the chipset, cameras, or battery in the new phone, and the tweaks it's made elsewhere are minimal at best. The flatter camera island is good, I guess! In one sense this isn't a big problem: The Pixel 9A is an excellent device , and for the last year was easily the best phone you could buy for $500 in the US . The new 10A is available to buy now at that same great price ($499 for 128GB of storage or $100 more for 256GB), but with the 9A still on sale, and dropping in price, there's one big question: Why not just buy the 9A - which is almost the same phone - for $50 less? G … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/vYMgdwy