Anker’s beefy Laptop Power Bank has returned to its Black Friday low
As you might expect, things have been relatively quiet on the deals front since Black Friday, particularly when it comes to discounts on charging accessories. Thankfully, Anker’s aptly titled Laptop Power Bank is once again on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $87.99 ($47 off), which matches the record-low price we last saw at the end of November. Anker Laptop Power Bank Where to Buy: $119.99 $87.99 at Amazon $119.99 $89.99 at Best Buy $119.99 $87.99 at Walmart Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock for the past several years, you’re probably aware that Anker makes an ungodly amount of charging accessories. The portable A1695 “InstaCord” has quickly become a favorite among Verge staffers, however, owing to the fact that it comes with a retractable USB-C cable and a second that doubles as a handle, both of which are bidirectional and allow for passthrough charging. The 25,000mAh / 90Wh power bank also sports a USB-A port and...
As you might expect, things have been relatively quiet on the deals front since Black Friday, particularly when it comes to discounts on charging accessories. Thankfully, Anker’s aptly t**led Laptop Power Bank is once again on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $87.99 ($47 off), which matches the record-low price we last saw at the end of November.
Anker Laptop Power Bank
Where to Buy:
$119.99 $87.99 at Amazon
$119.99 $89.99 at Best Buy
$119.99 $87.99 at Walmart
Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock for the past several years, you’re probably aware that Anker makes an ungodly amount of charging accessories. The portable A1695 “InstaCord” has quickly become a favorite among Verge staffers, however, owing to the fact that it comes with a retractable USB-C cable and a second that doubles as a handle, both of which are bidirectional and allow for passthrough charging. The 25,000mAh / 90Wh power bank also sports a USB-A port and an additional USB-C port, allowing you to charge your phone, a MacBook Pro, and up to two other devices simultaneously. In terms of output distribution, Anker’s 600-gram Laptop Power Bank can deliver up to 165W when two devices are plugged in, or up to 130W when charging three or four gadgets. It’s carry-on compliant, too, meaning you shouldn’t have any trouble getting it through TSA while traveling, which isn’t the case if your charger is above the agency’s 100 watt-hours threshold for carry-on devices. It even features a built-in LCD display, allowing you to quickly view the remaining charge, overall power output, battery temperature, and other info at a glance.
More ways to save today
The Bose SoundLink Home has fallen to around $179 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is about $15 more than its all-time low. It’s a bit more limited than other speakers you might get at this price — there’s no water or dust resistance, for example, and the battery tops out at 9 hours — but it still offers great sound for its size, supports USB-C audio in, and features a handsome, mid-modern look that few speakers can match. Read our review.
If you own an older TV that lacks built-in support for streaming apps, Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $24.99 ($25 off), a mere $1 shy of its best price to date. The small HDMI stick supports 4K resolution and all your major 4K HDR formats, not to mention Roku’s TV interface, which remains the gold standard in terms of simplicity. It also draws power directly from your TV, allowing you to skip the cable.
Microsoft jacked up the price of the Xbox Series X in mid-September; however, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart are now selling the company’s latest gaming console for $599.99 ($50 off). It’s certainly not the cheapest we’ve seen it go for — hell, it once dropped to $340 at Best Buy — but it’s likely the best price we’re going to see until the ongoing tariff situation in the US is resolved and prices begin to come back down. Read our review.
Elon Musk’s attempt at an AI Wikipedia hasn’t been updated in months
xAI's Grokipedia, an online encyclopedia with AI-generated articles that Elon Musk once promised would be a "massive improvement" over Wikipedia, apparently hasn't been updated since April 24th, according to a report from Lawfare. "As far as we can tell, no entry has changed in more than three months," Lawfare said....
xAI's Grokipedia, an online encyclopedia with AI-generated articles that Elon Musk once promised would be a "massive improvement" over Wikipedia, apparently hasn't been updated since April 24th, according to a report from Lawfare. "As far as we can tell, no entry has changed in more than three months," Lawfare said.Grokipedia launched in v0.1 in October 2025 with an initial batch of 885,000 articles, and is now on v0.2 (released in November 2025) and has more than 6,000,000 total articles, according to grokipedia.com/live. But that live page also has a section titled "Recent changes to…" with a message under it that reads "No live edits av …Read the full story at The Verge.
Emily Brown Houston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
That old tablet in your drawer is the smart home dashboard you keep meaning to buy
Having smart devices in your home can make life a lot easier, but once you have a few, you may start wishing you had a dedicated device to control them. And there are some devices out there that sell themselves as just that — dashboards for your smart home.
Having smart devices in your home can make life a lot easier, but once you have a few, you may start wishing you had a dedicated device to control them. And there are some devices out there that sell themselves as just that — dashboards for your smart home.
Sophia Wilson Atlanta
Published by: aplhsindia.in
My decade with Synology is over — a networking company just proved there’s a better way to build a NAS
For years, Synology was the safe bet for home NAS enclosures. And like many of you, I went with the safe bet for the best part of a decade. But things change, and my home storage needs changed. It’s not even because Synology became actively hostile to users, although that’s...
For years, Synology was the safe bet for home NAS enclosures. And like many of you, I went with the safe bet for the best part of a decade. But things change, and my home storage needs changed. It’s not even because Synology became actively hostile to users, although that’s certainly been on my mind, but because the all-in-one NAS formula stopped making sense to me.
Venla Tervo Finland
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Someone built a Steam Machine face plate that lets you stick your Steam Controller onto it
Valve has been pretty open about what people do with the faceplate of their Steam Machines. In fact, it made the designs for an e-ink front display open-source so you can make your own at home. Now, someone has made their own faceplate that can hold a Steam Controller in...
Valve has been pretty open about what people do with the faceplate of their Steam Machines. In fact, it made the designs for an e-ink front display open-source so you can make your own at home. Now, someone has made their own faceplate that can hold a Steam Controller in place while also charging it using the official puck.
Olivia Miller Seattle
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Nintendo beats earnings thanks to US tariff refunds it won’t share with gamers
Nintendo has smashed its first-quarter earnings estimates for the fiscal year, bolstered by strong games sales and US tariff refunds, though its customers likely won't receive anything from the latter. In its latest financial results, Nintendo reports that operating profits soared to 142.5 billion yen (about $902 million) between April...
Nintendo has smashed its first-quarter earnings estimates for the fiscal year, bolstered by strong games sales and US tariff refunds, though its customers likely won't receive anything from the latter. In its latest financial results, Nintendo reports that operating profits soared to 142.5 billion yen (about $902 million) between April 1st and June 30th, compared to 56.9 billion yen (about $360 million) for the same quarter last year - an increase of 150.5 percent.This spike is partially attributed to a boom in game sales, with Switch 2 software sales increasing by 9.2 percent compared to the previous year, and software for the original Sw …Read the full story at The Verge.
William Garcia Boston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Sony proves it’s not reversing its decision as warnings about physical discs appear on new PS5s
After Sony revealed that it would ramp down disc production in 2028, gamers began making their voices heard. The idea was that, if they showed enough support, Sony might rethink its strategy and roll back its decision. Unfortunately for fans of physical libraries, it seems that Sony has already doubled...
After Sony revealed that it would ramp down disc production in 2028, gamers began making their voices heard. The idea was that, if they showed enough support, Sony might rethink its strategy and roll back its decision. Unfortunately for fans of physical libraries, it seems that Sony has already doubled down on its plan, as new PS5s now show a warning about going digital-only.
Sophia Wilson Atlanta
Published by: aplhsindia.in
A Windows 11 service you never asked for is making your laptop run warmer and die sooner
Have you ever wondered why your laptop is running warmer than you'd like? You might think it is just the hardware struggling to run the apps you are using. But it is also Windows itself that is causing it — even on high-performance systems.
Have you ever wondered why your laptop is running warmer than you'd like? You might think it is just the hardware struggling to run the apps you are using. But it is also Windows itself that is causing it — even on high-performance systems.
Sophia Wilson Atlanta
Published by: aplhsindia.in
4 Android widgets I use every day on my Pixel that aren’t from Google
When you buy a new Pixel phone, you are likely — or even pushed — to install and/or use preinstalled Google apps and widgets. However, there are several widgets that I use nearly every day that are not created by Google. In many cases, they work better than the typical...
When you buy a new Pixel phone, you are likely — or even pushed — to install and/or use preinstalled Google apps and widgets. However, there are several widgets that I use nearly every day that are not created by Google. In many cases, they work better than the typical Google ones you are expected to use.
درسا کوتی Iran
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Someone made a system that loads their Steam games using floppy disks, and it’s pretty genius
As everyone debates Sony's recent decision to go digital-only, people have been finding fun ways to turn their Steam library into a physical form. We've already seen someone turn SSDs into Game Boy cartridges that load a game when plugged in, which was pretty wild by itself. Now, someone has...
As everyone debates Sony's recent decision to go digital-only, people have been finding fun ways to turn their Steam library into a physical form. We've already seen someone turn SSDs into Game Boy cartridges that load a game when plugged in, which was pretty wild by itself. Now, someone has devised a system where you can load a Steam game with its corresponding floppy disk, and as you may have guessed by now, it uses a bit of trickery to get everything working.
Emily Brown Houston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
After a week in Zed, I couldn’t go back to how slow Cursor had become
I prefer Cursor over VS Code because it is more agentic, and its $20 subscription gives me generous usage limits that let me get actual work done. I am comparing Cursor with VS Code because both are based on the Electron framework and are similar in speed and performance. They...
I prefer Cursor over VS Code because it is more agentic, and its $20 subscription gives me generous usage limits that let me get actual work done. I am comparing Cursor with VS Code because both are based on the Electron framework and are similar in speed and performance. They take longer to open files and folders once you have a significant number of extensions installed. They also consume a lot of RAM.
Olivia Miller Seattle
Published by: aplhsindia.in
The empty PCIe slots in your PC can do more than hold a graphics card
When I built my first PC, I figured the PCIe slot was useless outside of plugging a graphics card, and I went my merry way after tossing my pixel-pushing companion into the rig. Unfortunately, this trend continued for longer than I’d like to admit, until I ran into a situation...
When I built my first PC, I figured the PCIe slot was useless outside of plugging a graphics card, and I went my merry way after tossing my pixel-pushing companion into the rig. Unfortunately, this trend continued for longer than I’d like to admit, until I ran into a situation where I needed extra adapter cards after my motherboard’s I/O ports proved to be inadequate for my tinkering misadventures.
Olivia Miller Seattle
Published by: aplhsindia.in
OpenAI says Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit is ‘rotten to its core’
OpenAI has asked a federal judge to toss out Apple's landmark lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets, describing the allegations as "meritless." In a motion filed yesterday to dismiss the complaint, OpenAI says that Apple is mischaracterizing both the actions of the AI startup's employees as theft,...
OpenAI has asked a federal judge to toss out Apple's landmark lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets, describing the allegations as "meritless." In a motion filed yesterday to dismiss the complaint, OpenAI says that Apple is mischaracterizing both the actions of the AI startup's employees as theft, and "generic" product development information as "trade secrets," adding that Apple made no reasonable efforts to maintain such secrecy.The dismissal request is in response to a lawsuit filed by Apple in July, alleging that former Apple employees that went on to work for OpenAI stole confidential documents to further OpenAI …Read the full story at The Verge.
