The handheld gaming market is vastly different today. While there are plenty of options, their sticker prices feel like they belong in a different league than two years ago. It’s tempting to treat this supply-demand blip as a temporary situation and assume that MSRPs will drift down once component costs settle. That’s not how this plays out.

AI on the wrist is one such experimental feature. This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.For the past week, I've been testing the Google Pixel Watch 5. In many ways, it's a typical, modern smartwatch. In others, it feels like one part of a wearable future that's increasingly in flux. Everyone I've spoken to in wearable tech has roughly the same goal - soon, your tracker of choice will feature a helpful AI coach, "check engine" alerts that preventively flag hard-to-detect health conditions, and personalized health re …Read the full story at The Verge.

Clips of what appears to be Grand Theft Auto VI have hit the internet, possibly spoiling aspects of the game ahead of Rockstar Games' deep dive debuting on Netflix next week and its long-awaited launch in November.I've seen three clips seemingly showing off the game, though two have been pulled from the site I saw them on "due to a copyright claim." The first clip (now removed) was a quiet scene that mostly focused on Jason Duval, one the game's two protagonists, shooting a basketball into a hoop. Another clip (also removed) featured more of the crime-focused gameplay you'd expect from GTA, including Duval hitting a person with a wrench, a …Read the full story at The Verge.

The embargo has lifted on Google's Pixel 11 series, as well as for its Pixel Watch 5. Now we get to talk smack - just kidding, the new hardware is good. We have four reviews live on the site that you can peruse at your leisure. We're giving subscribers a chance to engage with us directly in an AMA later today. I'll be there (I reviewed the standard Pixel 11) to answer your questions, and so will David "11 Pro" Imel, Dominic "11 Pro Fold" Preston, and Victoria "Pixel Watch 5" Song.Subscribers, drop in your questions and we'll begin answering them at 3PM ET. We can't stop you from asking irrelevant questions, but we'll be prioritizing ones t …Read the full story at The Verge.

The iPad Air M4 in space gray. | Image: The Verge Almost everything with high-end memory or storage is more expensive these days, and tablets are no exception, so we’re glad to see that Amazon and Best Buy have the most recent 11-inch iPad Air with the M4 chip on sale for $649. That’s $100 lower than the new retail price that went into effect (alongside plenty of other Apple price hikes) in June. You can also grab the 256GB model for $749 (usually $849), and the version with a cellular antenna for $799 (usually $899).Apple iPad Air M4Where to Buy: $749 $649 at Amazon (128GB, Wi-Fi) $749 $649 at Best Buy (128GB, Wi-Fi) $899 $799 at Amazon (128GB, LTE)We reviewed the M4 iPad Air when it released in March, and found a very similar experience to the previous generation, for better or worse. The upgraded internals give the system a performance boost and better connectivity, like Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, but otherwise this update is short on notable or exciting features if you’ve used an iPad Air the past few years.Read our Apple iPad M4 Air review.Other deals to considerThe Garmin InReach Mini 2 is discounted to $249.99 at a variety of retailers, including Amazon, REI, and directly from Garmin. This compact device uses a satellite connection, which requires a Garmin InReach subscription, to provide emergency services, location sharing, and even text messaging when paired with smart device.Best Buy has the Anker 140W 4-Port Laptop Charger on sale for $55.99, a $24 discount off the usual price. With three USB-C ports and a USB-A port mounted on its bottom to prevent sagging in your outlet with multiple devices plugged in, you can easily charge a weekend worth of devices. The built-in display lets you check your total power usage at a glance, or make sure you’re charging at the right power level.Amazon is selling the Marshall Stanmore III Bluetooth speaker for $199.99, half off the usual retail price and matching the lowest price to date. While it doesn’t have a phono pre-amp, it does have RCA inputs for use with a properly-equipped record player, and vintage amplifier styling that helps set it apart from the crowd of other speakers.

Valve just leaked several new videos showing the Steam Frame's unboxing, setup process, and various accessories. The videos apparently appeared on the ARM Steam client following an update, but they were "quickly pulled after that," according to the Steam Hardware Updates account on X.The Steam Frame is Valve's virtual-reality headset that can stream games from a PC or play them locally. Valve first took the wraps off the headset last year, and it offers LCD screens with 2160 x 2160 resolution per eye, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and an up to 110-degree field of view. But these leaked videos offer a closer look at what it might be like to un …Read the full story at The Verge.

“Compute is an asset class! Compute is an asset class!” I continue to insist as I slowly shrink down and turn into a corncob | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images April - 1805Napoleon is master of EuropeOnly the British fleet stands before himCompute is now an asset classI see it is once again time to talk financial innovation. Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR are all working with Nvidia to put together $500 billion in financing to turn compute into an asset class."This is really the first time that technology chips have become an investable asset class," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said to CNBC. "These are revenue-generating assets now. They're productive, they're long-lived, they're fungible, they're flexible.""This is the very beginning, like what it was whe …Read the full story at The Verge.

Pixel phones have never been battery champions for me, but I had mostly learned to live with it. I blamed the usual suspects without realizing that some of Google’s own features were quietly adding to the drain. Once I started digging through their settings and disabled a few things I barely used, the difference was noticeable almost immediately.

Prime Air is launching in Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, and New York soon. | Image: Joseph Ciembroniewicz/Omaha World-Herald via Getty Images Amazon says its drone delivery service will reach "nearly 500 cities and towns in the United States" by the end of this year, increasing its coverage by six times compared to the current footprint. Prime Air deliveries will soon be launched in the Chicago, Illinois; Syracuse, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; and Boise, Idaho metro areas, according to Amazon's announcement, with "more communities to come later this year."These will join 11 locations across the US where Amazon already offers drone deliveries, with each Prime Air site serving an area of approximately 175 square miles. The service aims to quickly deliver packages o …Read the full story at The Verge.

With a looming IPO, intense competition from Anthropic, and Chinese and open-weight rivals nipping at its heels, OpenAI has plenty of reasons to move fast. Instead, it hit the brakes.On Tuesday, the company said it had slowed the pace of some AI development while it tightened security and safeguards. That included a two-week pause in reinforcement learning training on its "latest models intended for deployment," and an ongoing delay to its "largest planned frontier RL run."The decision is a very public test of an idea AI safety advocates have pushed for for years: that companies should be willing to bow out of the AI race and slow things …Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta AI can create content and make suggestions based on what it “sees” on your screen. | Image: Meta Meta is launching a new Mac app dedicated to its AI chatbot. In an announcement on Wednesday, Meta says you can share your window with its AI chatbot, which can provide suggestions, answer questions, or create content based on what's on your screen. Meta AI on the Mac also supports dictation across all apps.The launch comes as Meta makes its AI chatbot more like a productivity-focused assistant to better compete with its AI rivals - many of which already have desktop apps. You can share your window with Google's Gemini AI app, while OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude apps take things a step further by allowing the chatbots to take con …Read the full story at The Verge.

The WSL’s first official fantasy game is putting player photos front and center, which is less common than you might expect. | Image: WSL Football Most fantasy sports leagues suffer the same problem: retention. Leagues play out over months-long seasons, require regular attention, and can punish players severely for missing even a single week. I've started Fantasy Premier League (FPL) multiple times, but never finished a season. That's a problem for any fantasy league, but especially so for a new game in a growing sport, hoping to attract new fans who might grow along with it. And so when Manchester United take on London City Lionesses on the opening day of the Women's Super League (WSL) season next month, fans will have a chance to compete in a fantasy league that's a little differen …Read the full story at The Verge.