Networking isn't always the most fun thing to think about, but it's critical to making sure you practice good online safety and cybersecurity habits. In fact, one of the biggest tech mistakes people still make today is overly trusting public Wi-Fi networks. Even as I write this article, I'm looking back on all the times I've ignorantly connected to a Starbucks wireless network without taking the proper precautions to keep my data and devices safe. To avoid making the same mistakes myself and many others have made, I'm pitching a strange solution: take a router with you on vacation.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge I don’t know how people wear headphones in the summer heat. I’m strictly in earbuds mode when the temperatures climb this high. But no matter your preference, Amazon Prime Day is a great opportunity to upgrade your aging gear (and declining battery life) with the latest and greatest from Bose, Samsung, Sony, and plenty of other brands. For Prime Day 2024, expect plenty of deals that’ll have you considering an impulse purchase. Many of our favorite earbud and headphone picks are on sale at some of their lowest prices yet during the two-day event. Some products (like Apple’s AirPods and AirPods Max) are due for a refresh in the coming months, but there’s nothing wrong with picking up the current version — especially at some of these... Continue reading…

Image: Apple For years, I’ve kept a pretty spare iOS homescreen. Two or three rows of icons on the top of the screen, sometimes arranged in such a way that the app icon colors complement each other, and three apps in the dock. Because of Apple’s resistance to letting its users muck with the homescreen’s look and feel, I haven’t been able to make things quite as simple as I would like.I’ve looked at more customizable Android homescreens with jealousy. I’ve had an iPhone since the day the first one came out, and while Apple’s smartphones have since become wildly more powerful, capable, and larger, the company has forced me to organize my apps starting from the top of the screen for 17 years.Sure, my homescreen usually looked nice. But I’ve wanted... Continue reading…

Image: Porsche Porsche announced two new rear-wheel drive versions of the forthcoming Macan electric SUV, including a higher-powered, lighter-weight 4S model. Porsche said deliveries are expected to begin later this year. When it was announced earlier this year, Porsche said the Macan EV would come in two trims: the Macan 4 and the Macan Turbo, both of which sport dual motors for all-wheel drive. Now, the company is adding two more versions in the hopes of widening its appeal. Image: Porsche The RWD Macan will only have one motor located in the rear axle. It’s the same motor as the one used in the Macan 4, with an output of 250kW, or 335 horsepower. Porsche says it will use a 480-amp pulse inverter with silicon carbide... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The photos aren’t blurry! As a longtime iPhone user married to a longtime Android user, I’ve spent years sending and receiving photos that come through both postage-stamp small and about as sharp as a pointillist painting. But a few minutes after I installed the iOS 18 beta on my iPhone 15 Pro, I asked Anna to send me a photo, and what came through was the blissfully high-res photo I’d hoped for. That, right there, is what I call an upgrade.RCS support is just one of the new things coming in iOS 18, of course. At WWDC a few weeks ago, Apple talked a lot about homescreen customization, improvements to Siri, a revamped Photos app, and more. The company seems to have added support for RCS, a more modern and powerful messaging protocol that... Continue reading…

Image: Elgato Amazon Prime Day is just beginning, and Elgato is already dropping a sweet deal. Prime subscribers can get the limited-edition atomic purple version of Elgato’s Stream Deck MK. 2 for $124.99 ($35 off) at Amazon.Normally, the standard Stream Deck MK. 2 comes in black or white and sells for $149.99 (or discounted as low as $109.99 during its biggest sales promos), so there is a bit of a premium on the limited-edition model and its aesthetics. But this is the first (and possibly only) time the atomic purple model has been discounted. Elgato only sells this variant on Amazon, and it claims the individually numbered run will no longer be available once it sells out. So you may want to consider jumping on this if you love the recent r... Continue reading…

The hackers say they accessed Disney’s internal systems via an employee's compromised computer. | Image: The Verge Over a terabyte of data supposedly obtained from Disney’s internal messaging channels has been leaked online by a self-proclaimed “hacktivist group,” including login credentials, code, images, and information about unreleased projects.The anonymous group calling itself Nullbulge has claimed responsibility for the leak, alleging to have gained access to the company’s Slack messaging data via the compromised computer of a Disney employee. “Anything we could get our hands on, we downloaded and packaged up,” the group said on X, claiming to have obtained “1.1TiB of files and chat messages” from almost 10,000 corporate Disney Slack channels. Disney has since confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that it’s “investigating this matter.”N... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber rolled out a new update that lets users search average fares and wait times for planned trips in other cities. The company said it wants to give people who are planning trips or vacations more visibility into how much it will cost to book Uber rides when they get there. The update will give people access to fare and wait time details in approximately 10,000 cities globally, Uber says. The change rolls out starting on Tuesday, July 16th. To find these insights, you select the “destination” box in the “plan your trip” tab and scroll down to “search in a different city.” There, it will autofill some popular choices or allow you to type in your own destination. With the Summer Olympics set to begin later this month,... Continue reading…

Network-attached storage (NAS) is a great way to expand the storage capacity of devices at home or in the office. Running out of space on your smartphone or laptop? Set up a NAS and have them automatically back up data so you can clear space. A NAS enclosure such as the TerraMaster F4-424 Pro can also be used as a server, running various apps and services. Want to run your own media streaming service? That's possible. Configure home surveillance and storage footage? That too! The F4-424 Pro is a powerful NAS box and it's on sale right now for Prime Day.

Image: Xreal There are two possible paths for augmented reality devices. One path is the all-in-one approach, which you might call the smartphone path or the Vision Pro Path: you buy a full-fledged single device with everything you need, and when you need an upgrade, you buy a new one. The other path is the unbundled one: your AR system might be lots of devices rather than just one, and you’ll upgrade and swap things in as you need them. That path is more like building a home theater system than buying a new iPhone.The Xreal Beam Pro, which I’ve been testing for the last couple of weeks, is a big bet on unbundling. It’s a $199 Android device that looks and works like a smartphone but is intended to be used mostly as a companion to Xreal’s AR... Continue reading…

Every year, Amazon runs a huge series of deals in order to promote Amazon Prime from the 16th to the 17th of July. These Prime Day sales are extremely popular, and include a range of bargains across products from a huge range of companies and distributors.

Google Keep is one of the oldest note-taking tools out there. While some of the software solutions may confuse users with a complex UI, hidden toolbar, half-hearted AI integration, and other unnecessary tools, Google has followed a minimalistic approach to keep it simple for casual notetakers.