Valve finally brought back the Steam Controller this year. The second-generation pad launched on May 4 at $99, with twin trackpads, magnetic TMR thumbsticks, four back grip buttons, and the little 2.4GHz puck that doubles as a charging dock. It sold out in under an hour, and by the afternoon, the $99 SKU was gone. People were experiencing transaction errors mid-purchase and eBay listings were already sitting at $230 to $250. Valve has since opened a reservation queue, but if you missed the first drop, you're now waiting in line.

Your security cameras will watch for specific events and then trigger whatever actions you need automatically. | Image: Google Google Home is rolling out a new Gemini-powered automation feature that can trigger smart home routines based on what your security cameras can see. This is one of several updates announced yesterday for Gemini for Home, including enhanced voice command support and general stability improvements, following its early access launch in October."We are introducing a brand-new starter that lets you design automations based on visual insights," Google said in its announcement. "Because your cameras can now actually understand what they see, your smart home can automatically react to almost anything happening around your home."The feature is cu …Read the full story at The Verge.

As a hardcore member of the FOSS faction, I’ve migrated almost all essential services from cloud platforms to a self-hosted setup, and there were plenty of benefits with this approach. For starters, I don’t have to waste extra bucks on subscription fees or paid licenses just to unlock paywalled features. Likewise, since my data remains entirely on my local servers, I don’t have to worry about large corporations gaining access to private files and using them to train AI features that nobody asked for.

Temu has been fined €200 million (about $232 million) by the European Commission after it found that consumers are "very likely to encounter illegal items" on the popular Chinese e-commerce platform. According to the commission, Temu breached Digital Service Act (DSA) rules by failing to identify and assess the systemic risks of illegal products being offered on its platform and the resulting harmful impact on its customers.The EU launched its formal DSA investigation against Temu in October 2024, and issued a preliminary ruling in July 2025 that found Temu isn't doing enough to keep illegal products off its ultra-cheap marketplace. As par …Read the full story at The Verge.

You can enter your own prompt, or select from the suggested options provided by YouTube. | Image: YouTube YouTube is launching a new AI feature that creates a personalized video feed based on descriptions of what you want to watch. In its announcement, YouTube says custom content feeds can be built around your specific interests, moods, or favorite topics, which you can then pin to the top of your YouTube homepage - making it easy to jump back into the feed.This feature is currently rolling out with English language support to YouTube users in the US who are signed in on the YouTube mobile app or desktop. To access it, click on the "Your custom feed" tab at the top of the YouTube homepage and enter a prompt description into the AI text box. Fo …Read the full story at The Verge.

I first realized there was an issue with Kia's flagship EV9 when I tried to unlock my car last year. The hulking three-row SUV was sitting on my driveway completely dead. The key didn't work, the app connection to the car was gone, and I was already late to an appointment. Luckily, I had prepared for such a scenario, after reading about widespread 12-volt battery issues with the EV9. I managed to open the car with the manual key that Kia supplies and access the frunk to reach the 12V battery and use a booster I had purchased to jolt it back to life. Like many ICE cars, a 12V battery powers most of the low-voltage electrical systems in a ve …Read the full story at The Verge.

There are so many cloud AI models available now, coming from a wide variety of publishers. Sometimes I liken it to the choice of streaming platforms. How should anyone know which one to bother using, and more importantly, which one is worth paying for? Well, if we're using the streaming platform analogy, the best thing to do is check out the catalog and see if it appeals to you.

I've always been skeptical about frame generation, so much so that for the first couple of years, I didn't even bother testing it on my RTX 4090 outside of benchmark runs. Sure, it was impressive to see the FPS counter almost double while monitoring in MSI Afterburner, but games never felt like they were actually running at those frame rates. I couldn't get past how my inputs always felt a little bit off, but I now know that's because I was judging frame generation almost entirely through the fast-paced shooters I play most often.

The AI coding space has become a noisy, subscription-heavy mess. Every week, a new tool claims it will make you a 10x engineer, leaving developers to sift through endless benchmark charts that rarely translate to everyday coding.

The precious… I mean Oura Ring 5. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Wherever I go, whatever I do, people point at my finger and ask, "Is that an Oura Ring?" Lots of people find they like the design, and they tell me why they're thinking about switching to a smart ring from a smartwatch. But the people who scrunch up their noses? They usually say something along the lines of, "Hm. Maybe when it's lighter or smaller."Good news. The newly announced $399 Oura Ring 5 is both. It's 40 percent smaller than the Oura Ring 4, measuring 6.09mm wide (down from 7.9mm) and 2.29mm thick (down from 2.88mm). Depending on the size, it weighs from 2 to 2.69g. You'd think it might be hard to notice much a difference between t …Read the full story at The Verge.

A 3D printer is easy to treat as a hobby machine first. It makes toys, desk gadgets, cable clips, decorative parts, and the occasional thing that looks useful until it sits untouched for six months. I thought of mine that way for a while, even when I was printing technically practical parts. Then something broke, and suddenly the printer didn’t feel optional anymore.

For a few glorious years, a $399 portable gadget could run almost anything you'd want to play. In 2022, the Steam Deck finally made PC gaming portable and affordable. I played through the vast majority of Elden Ring on a Steam Deck, agape that such a rich world could comfortably fit between my two hands. Today, that Steam Deck experience starts at $789 - nearly double the price. Similarly, a Nintendo Switch cost $299 at launch - but after Nintendo's Switch 2 upgrades and "changes in market conditions," the starting price of today's Nintendo handheld gaming experience will soon be $499, more than a disc-less PS5 cost at launch. You mig …Read the full story at The Verge.