With Gamescom now in full swing, companies are queueing up to show off their latest and greatest products to interested gamers. HP spared no expense this year, going all-out with a range of different products to satisfy every niche. The star of the show was the new Omen PC, which HP states is the first one of its kind that you can customize to fit your needs.

It’s great for a desk, bedside table, or just about anywhere around a home. | Image: Noamd Nomad may run its fair share of deals on its various phone cases and Apple Watch bands, but we rarely see steep discounts on its fancy, premium multi-chargers. But right now, the second-gen Base One Max is on sale in black or silver for $119 ($51 off) when you use coupon code VERGEB1M on Nomad’s site. The 30 percent discount is good through August 25th at 11:59PM PT.If you have a MagSafe-compatible iPhone and accompanying accessories like an Apple Watch or a set of AirPods, the Base One Max is a great 3-in-1 home charger that won’t look like an eyesore on your desk or side table. The hefty charger weighs in at 1.7 pounds thanks to its metal and glass slab-style construction, and it can simultaneously fast-charge a compatible Apple... Continue reading…

Image: Firaxis Games For the first time in the game’s 30-year history, leaders and civilizations can be chosen independently of one another. Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you want the old Sonos app back, it’s not coming. In a Reddit AMA response posted Tuesday, Sonos CEO Spence says that he was hopeful “until very recently” that the company could rerelease the app, confirming a report from The Verge that the company was considering doing so. But after testing that option, rereleasing the old app would apparently make things worse, Spence says.Since the new app was released on May 7th, Spence has issued a formal apology and announced in August that the company would be delaying the launch of two products “until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers, and our partners expect from Sonos.”Here’s Spence’s explanation as to why it can’t bring back the old app:The trick of... Continue reading…

There are a lot of Android phone makers, but two names stand out from among the pack: Google and Samsung. The Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy series have stood for years as the go-to flagships for smartphone users looking for a top-notch Android experience. The Galaxy S24, Samsung's latest base model flagship, hit the market earlier this year, and Google has just thrown back the curtain on its new flagship, the Pixel 9. This means Android fans now have two brand-name base model flagships to choose from, but which is more deserving of your cash? Let's take a look.

Photo by Sascha Thelen/picture alliance via Getty Images Geoff Keighley’s big Opening Night Live (ONL) show for Gamescom is back for another year. and we’re set to see some new looks at many upcoming games and hopefully a few surprises.The X account for The Game Awards — another big showcase hosted by Keighley — has already shared that we can expect to see Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, Marvel Rivals, Dune: Awakening, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Civilization VII. Keighley has used his own X account to tease that games like Squid Game: Unleashed, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, and Little Nightmares III will be at the show. Keighley also shared a mysterious post from Hideo Kojima about Death Stranding 2, so maybe we’ll see that game, too.How and when to watch... Continue reading…

How many of those $5 skirts do these retailers have to sell to pay their lawyers? | Image: The Verge The Shein complaint about Temu kicks off with a bang, accusing Temu of being “an unlawful enterprise built on counterfeiting, theft of trade secrets, infringement of intellectual property rights, and fraud” in just the first sentence. But I guess you have to go big when the lawsuit against you accuses you of using “Mafia-style” intimidation tactics.It gets worse, Shein alleges. Temu isn’t a marketplace at all. “It controls every aspect of its seller’s activity,” the complaint says. “It directs what products they can list and the prices for which they can sell; encourages them to infringe the intellectual property rights of others; and even prevents them from removing their products from Temu’s website after they have admitted to... Continue reading…

Image: Tesla A Tesla Semi truck crashed into trees and caught fire off the side of a highway in California early Monday, causing road closures on I-80 for almost 16 hours. As reported by KCRA 3 News, Cal Fire crews first headed to the crash site near the Nevada border after 3AM local time.As reported previously by Electrek, firefighters doused the Tesla Semi with thousands of gallons of water to cool its lithium-ion EV battery pack down to a manageable target temperature of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit while waiting for its cells to burn out. Around 4PM the crew got the batteries to a safer temperature and began work to move what was left of the Semi to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. The highway was fully reopened after 7PM.Westbound... Continue reading…

After the Steam Deck made a splash in the handheld console market, other companies have tried their hand at making their own Deck-like device. The question is, what operating system would these newly-created devices run? While Valve wasn't against the idea of bringing the Steam Deck's OS, SteamOS, to other devices, it was still a work in progress. As such, companies had to look elsewhere to power their device.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Disney has now agreed that a wrongful death lawsuit should be decided in court following backlash for initially arguing the case belonged in arbitration because the grieving widower had once signed up for a Disney Plus trial.“With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” chairman of Disney experiences Josh D’Amaro said in a statement to The Verge. “As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”The lawsuit was filed in February by Jeffrey Piccolo, the husband of a 42-year-old woman who died last year due to an allergic reaction that occurred... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Today, Google announced it’s making assigning group work in Google Classroom easier and faster with a new feature called Student Groups. Teachers will now be able to add individual students to predefined groups before creating and assigning group work.Google is entering this school year with a bunch of new updates for the now 10-year-old Classroom platform, like a new Education Navigator, a Read Along feature, and Dark Mode to the mobile app. But teachers have been waiting for something like Student Groups for a long time.Previously, teachers would need to create an assignment first and then individually add students to that assignment if they wanted to assign group work. For occasional group projects, this worked okay, but it was a... Continue reading…

Image: Bethesda Microsoft and Bethesda are officially bringing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to PS5 after it debuts first on Xbox. During Gamescom Opening Night Live, Bethesda confirmed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to Xbox and PC first on December 9th, before launching on PS5 in spring 2025.The confirmation comes months after The Verge exclusively revealed Microsoft was considering launching Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PS5. I wrote in February that Bethesda’s Indiana Jones game would have a rather short period of exclusivity, with Bethesda considering a PS5 launch months after the December 2024 launch on Xbox and PC.Sources familiar with Bethesda’s plans tell me the company has been targeting an April 2025 release for I... Continue reading…