Some Verge-favorite gadgets are cheaper during Prime Day 2025
Every month, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff — whether it’s tech, kitchen tools, or camping gear. What they answer gives us some interesting insights into what the folks here like to use when they’re at the job or enjoying some time off. Now that Amazon’s Prime Day sales have come again, we’ve looked through some of our recent “favorites” articles and found deals on a lot of the devices we like. So, we thought we’d list a few in case you have read about them in the past and thought, well, that sort of sounds good, but it’s a bit pricey. (Or — that’s pretty cheap, but maybe I’ll wait until the price goes down even more…) Here some of our staff’s most-liked gear that is now on sale during Prime Day. CamelBak Hydrobak hydration pack Where to Buy: $60 $39.26 at Amazon $65 at CamelBak If you’re itching to get out...
Every month, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff — whether it’s tech, kitchen tools, or camping gear. What they answer gives us some interesting insights into what the folks here like to use when they’re at the job or enjoying some time off.Now that Amazon’s Prime Day sales have come again, we’ve looked through some of our recent “favorites” articles and found deals on a lot of the devices we like. So, we thought we’d list a few in case you have read about them in the past and thought, well, that sort of sounds good, but it’s a bit pricey. (Or — that’s pretty cheap, but maybe I’ll wait until the price goes down even more…)Here some of our staff’s most-liked gear that is now on sale during Prime Day.
CamelBak Hydrobak hydration pack
Where to Buy:
$60 $39.26 at Amazon
$65 at CamelBak
If you’re itching to get out on a bike ride even when it’s 85-plus degrees, you don’t want to be stuck without an adequate supply of water. I only have room for one drink holder on my bike, so I’ve found that it’s just far more convenient to carry water on my back with the aptly named CamelBak Hydrobak hydration pack. It’s a lightweight backpack that holds up to 1.5 liters of water, which it says is enough for a two-hour bike ride.The backpack also comes with a handy straw that you just lift up and drink from, preventing you from having to stop and drink from your water bottle (unless you’re coordinated enough to take a sip while riding, which I am not). It also keeps your water relatively cool even when the sun is beating down your back.Aside from storing water, there’s a zipper pocket where you can store car keys, your ID, and other small items. It’s not just ideal for biking, either. Many people use the CamelBak Hydrobak on long hikes, runs, and even for music festivals. — Emma Roth, news writer
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4
Where to Buy:
$99.99 $69.99 at Amazon
$99.99 $69.99 at Best Buy
I try to bring a Bluetooth speaker everywhere with me when the weather’s good. A pool party, a park day, a golf outing, a hang on the back patio — it’s all better with music! There are obviously lots of good speakers out there, but for me the UE Wonderboom 4 is the perfect one. It’s only $100, it’s small but loud enough to work just about anywhere, its battery lasts all day and then some, it’s waterproof, and it floats. (All the colors look nice, by the way, but… get the blue one.) There are fancier speakers with more features, and the $200 Megaboom does sound a lot better, but I keep a Wonderboom in my trunk, and it has made me the party hero more times than I can count. — David Pierce, editor-at-large
Thermacell E55 Rechargeable Mosquito Repeller
Where to Buy:
$34.99 $17.68 at Amazon
$29.99 at Thermacell
My biggest deterrent to spending some time outside are bugs, mosquitos specifically. I wish they’d bug off. They have me looking like I’m doing interpretive dancing to avoid being poked. Thankfully, a gadget that I got last year has made it so that I don’t need to be (as) protective of my exposed skin.Thermacell makes rechargeable and refillable mosquito repellers. I got the E-Series model, which creates a safe zone where you likely won’t be bitten. It lasts a little over five hours per charge, meaning I get more than one use out of it before needing to charge it again. Just be sure not to use it in an environment where there isn’t proper ventilation; Thermacell notes that its ingredients shouldn’t be a concern for people or pets, but I don’t want too much insecticide around my loved ones — or my food. — Cameron Faulkner, commerce editor
Anker Nano Power Bank
Small, convenient 5,000mAh charger with foldable USB-C connector; marketed for later iPhones but usable for Android phones as well.
Where to Buy:
$29.99 $23.99 at Amazon
I have a tendency to hold on to my phones as long as they work reasonably well, and although I must admit I’ve been tempted by the Pixel 9A, I will probably still be using my Pixel 6 for a bit longer. The only issue that I’m starting to hit is battery life — after over three years of use, it’s not unexpected that I will sometimes hit the 20 percent mark toward the end of the day. So I recently realized that I’m going to have to start carrying around a portable charger. At first, I was going to go with the 20,000mAh Anker Zolo Power Bank, which had gotten a good number of recommendations. But it weighs over 11 ounces and when I dropped it into my bag, it felt like I had added a small brick. That’s why I traded it in for the less powerful but much lighter Anker Nano Power Bank, which plugs into my phone’s USB-C slot like a small add-on peripheral. The Nano weighs only 3.5 ounces and supplies 5,000mAh of battery power — enough to keep me going to the end of the day. And it comes in several pale colors (I chose Ice Lake Blue), which means I can see it more easily in the dark reaches of my bag. — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor
Hamilton Beach 3-in-one Egg Cooker
Cooks up to seven eggs three different ways; comes with an omelet bowl that also steams vegetables.
Where to Buy:
$20.99 at Hamilton Beach
$20.95 $19.99 at Amazon
My body composition has become about 70 percent egg in the blissful month since I bought this cooker. I never want to buy new countertop kitchen appliances, because almost every time I do, they end up dusty in the back of the cabinet, but I’m amazed by how useful this simple Hamilton Beach Egg Cooker is. I can prepare hard- or soft-boiled eggs to perfect consistency in minutes (with no cleanup!), and having it on hand has dramatically cut back on my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich habit. So it’s good for my cholesterol and my bank account. — Kristen Radtke, creative director
Hydro Flask Standard Mouth Water Bottle (18 oz)
Stainless steel 18-ounce water bottle with double-wall vacuum insulation.
Where to Buy:
$29.95 $23.49 at Amazon
This is a sturdy stainless steel water bottle that keeps water cold as I sip it throughout my workday. What more could you ask for? I take it on trips, too, and while it’s got a few dents from some drops onto concrete, I don’t really care. If anything, the dents add some character and make it mine.— Jay Peters, news editor
Instant Pot Duo Crisp
An 8-quart 11-in-1 air fryer and electric pressure cooker that air fries, steams, slow cooks, sautés, dehydrates, and — in other words — gives you a world of cooking features on your counter.
Where to Buy:
$129.99 $89.99 at Amazon
For the past few years, the Instant Pot has been a staple in my kitchen. From making rice to slow-cooking stews and even frying up chicken, it can do just about anything. The best part is that the Instant Pot can cook most recipes in a fraction of the time it would take in the oven or on the stove. Rice, for example, takes just six minutes to cook (not counting the amount of time it takes to build pressure), and there’s no fussing with covering the pot or adjusting the heat. Sometimes, it’s just easier — and much less stressful — to let the Instant Pot take the wheel. — Emma Roth, news writer
Braun MultiQuick 5 Vario Hand Blender
Lightweight, 21-speed hand blender that’s easy to use and put away.
Where to Buy:
$69.95 $49.99 at Braun
How often do you blend things? Is it never? Maybe the reason is that taking out, a**embling, and cleaning up after a normal blender is just way too much work. Do you know how many sauces I’ve thickened since getting an immersion blender? This thing is small, quick to set up, and you can mostly clean it with just a blast under the faucet. You’re going to blend so many things. — Jacob Kastrenakes, executive editor
Gripstic bag sealer 12-pack
This reusable sealing rod locks air and moisture out to prevent your snacks from going stale, prevents freezer burn, and keeps food fresh longer.
Where to Buy:
$23.95 at Gripstic
$23.95 $18.99 at Amazon
It’s kind of weird how much I like our Gripstics. Bag of chips open? Quick, grab a Gripstic. Kids vibing between two different cereals this week? A well-placed Gripstic will ensure they don’t get all squishy. Tiny package of chocolate chips you used for a recipe that is now kind of open in your cupboard for who knows how long? Just fold the top over, slide a Gripstic on it — the small blue one, thank you — and stop worrying so much.I don’t know about you or your family’s shopping and eating habits, but try as we might to shop on the outside walls of the grocery store, we inevitably come home with many products packaged in single-use plastic bags. That in and of itself is a frustration, only compounded by those same products going bad if they’re not stored properly. The Gripstics are a simple solution to this universal problem, and one that I’m certain has paid for itself many times over. — Christopher Grant, group publisher
Robocopy is still the fastest way to copy thousands of files on Windows, and I wasted years not using it
Windows is a bundle of both CLI and GUI tools. We use the GUI ones more because they serve a broader use case and are convenient to use. For file copying and moving, I hadn't ventured much outside the usual Ctrl + C and V, and the on-screen copy and...
Windows is a bundle of both CLI and GUI tools. We use the GUI ones more because they serve a broader use case and are convenient to use. For file copying and moving, I hadn't ventured much outside the usual Ctrl + C and V, and the on-screen copy and paste options in the context menu. The options work fine for multiple files and large files, and with the new dialog boxes and graphical representation of copying speed, it's hard to complain.
Olivia Miller Seattle
Published by: aplhsindia.in
My favorite Notion alternative isn’t Obsidian, it’s something I can actually self-host
When people talk about replacing Notion, Obsidian is usually the first app that comes up. I tried it too, and while it's an excellent note-taking app, it wasn't the replacement I was actually looking for. I wanted something that felt closer to Notion while giving me complete control over where...
When people talk about replacing Notion, Obsidian is usually the first app that comes up. I tried it too, and while it's an excellent note-taking app, it wasn't the replacement I was actually looking for. I wanted something that felt closer to Notion while giving me complete control over where my data lived. That search eventually led me to AFFiNE. After using it for a while, I realized it offered a better balance between flexibility, ownership, and everyday usability for my workflow. AFFiNE has become my favorite Notion alternative, rather than the one most people expect.
Daniel Martinez Dallas
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Meta ordered to pay an additional $567 million in public nuisance ruling
Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million in the second phase of New Mexico's landmark child safety case, bringing total charges to nearly $1 billion for being a "public nuisance." In a ruling published on Thursday, the Santa Fe district court found that Meta's platforms are a "significant contributing...
Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million in the second phase of New Mexico's landmark child safety case, bringing total charges to nearly $1 billion for being a "public nuisance." In a ruling published on Thursday, the Santa Fe district court found that Meta's platforms are a "significant contributing cause" of a teen mental health crisis affecting public health and safety throughout New Mexico."This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world's largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence," New Mexico Attorney G …Read the full story at The Verge.
Jane Smith Los Angeles
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I ran a local LLM entirely off a NAS, and it turned my storage box into an AI-hosting workstation
Ever since I got into hosting my own large language models, I’ve tinkered with AI inference engines across multiple devices. So far, my RTX 3080 Ti remains my primary choice for deploying the Qwen3.6-35B-A3B for coding-heavy tasks using MoE offloading, though I’ve also had decent experience using Gemma-4-26B-A4B and GPT-OSS-20B...
Ever since I got into hosting my own large language models, I’ve tinkered with AI inference engines across multiple devices. So far, my RTX 3080 Ti remains my primary choice for deploying the Qwen3.6-35B-A3B for coding-heavy tasks using MoE offloading, though I’ve also had decent experience using Gemma-4-26B-A4B and GPT-OSS-20B on old Pascal-era graphics cards.
Michael Johnson Chicago
Published by: aplhsindia.in
You, too, can 3D-print this mechanical bouncing DVD logo for unlimited fun
The problem with watching the DVD logo bounce around the screen is that, at some point, someone's going to actually want to watch a movie on that screen. But what if you had a homemade mechanical device that endlessly bounced a DVD logo around a screen so you could celebrate...
The problem with watching the DVD logo bounce around the screen is that, at some point, someone's going to actually want to watch a movie on that screen. But what if you had a homemade mechanical device that endlessly bounced a DVD logo around a screen so you could celebrate corner hits forever? Well, that's exactly what this 3D-printable project lets you do.
John Doe New York
Published by: aplhsindia.in
My USB devices weren’t charging until I tried a USB Type-A port instead
It's not news at this point that USB hasn't exactly been able to deliver on its lofty promises and goals. The "Universal" part of that acronym doesn't always hold up when it comes to power and data transfer speeds.
It's not news at this point that USB hasn't exactly been able to deliver on its lofty promises and goals. The "Universal" part of that acronym doesn't always hold up when it comes to power and data transfer speeds.
Olivia Miller Seattle
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Why does Apple keep banning Telegram, but never X?
For roughly an hour this week, Telegram vanished from Apple's App Store. Even during that blip, it was a stunning absence for such a major app: an avenue of communication for more than 1 billion users around the world, used widely as a secure platform for people who live in...
For roughly an hour this week, Telegram vanished from Apple's App Store. Even during that blip, it was a stunning absence for such a major app: an avenue of communication for more than 1 billion users around the world, used widely as a secure platform for people who live in countries under censorship. Apple later revealed that it had removed the app due to the presence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and restored it once that content was removed.But the decision once again stirred up questions and confusion about Apple's moderation policies and how it treats different companies. And one company in particular sprang to many people's m …Read the full story at The Verge.
Miriam García Spain
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I bought cheap server hardware for my home lab, and the electricity bill taught me an expensive lesson
Having built my first home server using components cobbled together from older builds, I realized fairly quickly that an experimental workstation doesn’t need cutting-edge specs to drive my virtualization projects. As time went on, I started grabbing outdated machines from flea markets, and with a little coat of Proxmox, they...
Having built my first home server using components cobbled together from older builds, I realized fairly quickly that an experimental workstation doesn’t need cutting-edge specs to drive my virtualization projects. As time went on, I started grabbing outdated machines from flea markets, and with a little coat of Proxmox, they became reliable nodes for my home lab, self-hosting, and DevOps experiments.
Michael Johnson Chicago
Published by: aplhsindia.in
This ESP32 handheld is a retro emulator, FM synth, and Guitar Hero clone controller all in one
One of the best parts of being an adult is realising you have the money and the know-how to acquire all the things you coveted as a child. But what if you could make a device that put everything you ever wanted into one handy portable device you can take...
One of the best parts of being an adult is realising you have the money and the know-how to acquire all the things you coveted as a child. But what if you could make a device that put everything you ever wanted into one handy portable device you can take wherever you want? That's exactly what one Redditor did when they made an ESP32-S3 handheld that combines several uses into a single device.
Emily Brown Houston
Published by: aplhsindia.in
I turned a nearly 10-year-old laptop into the most useful machine in my home lab
Despite spending my teenage years drooling over enterprise-tier hardware, my current home lab mostly consists of consumer-grade systems, with the only outlier being a Xeon workstation from 2016. In fact, running a few Proxmox experiments on my old gaming PC proved that I don’t need top-of-the-line specs to access its...
Despite spending my teenage years drooling over enterprise-tier hardware, my current home lab mostly consists of consumer-grade systems, with the only outlier being a Xeon workstation from 2016. In fact, running a few Proxmox experiments on my old gaming PC proved that I don’t need top-of-the-line specs to access its virtualization features, and today, I’ve got everything from mini-PCs and thin clients to x86 single-board computers fueling my tinkering escapades to some extent.
John Doe New York
Published by: aplhsindia.in
Trying to explain One Night Only’s tech-enforced s** dystopia
From the omnipresent One Night Only trailer, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the movie glosses over its terrifying and absurd premise - in otherwise normal modern New York, single people can only have sex one night a year - to deliver an entirely traditional romantic comedy. I'm here to...
From the omnipresent One Night Only trailer, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the movie glosses over its terrifying and absurd premise - in otherwise normal modern New York, single people can only have sex one night a year - to deliver an entirely traditional romantic comedy. I'm here to report that it does not do that. No, the film is very much about life under Sex Purge Law, but where you might expect questions of politics or religion or fear or humanity, there are instead questions of boning. Questions like "Who should I do sex to and why?" are explored in an episodic format that sees two special hot people (Monica Barbaro and Call …Read the full story at The Verge.
Daniel Martinez Dallas
Published by: aplhsindia.in
OpenAI and Anthropic’s models attacked real companies during safety tests, and most victims never noticed
The most capable AI models on the planet have started breaking into companies that never agreed to be part of any test, and in most cases, nobody at those companies noticed until a person at one of those companies reached out to let them know. In the span of just...
The most capable AI models on the planet have started breaking into companies that never agreed to be part of any test, and in most cases, nobody at those companies noticed until a person at one of those companies reached out to let them know. In the span of just a couple of weeks, three separate organisations disclosed that models undergoing cybersecurity evaluations had escaped or wandered out of their test environments and attacked real systems on the open internet, despite nobody instructing them to. Each one believed, or talked itself into believing, that it was still playing a game.
