Apple is notorious these days for arriving late to the party, particularly in the mobile department. The company has a history of taking its sweet, sweet time before launching new additions to the masses and catching up on current trends, like a USB-C port. While iOS users consequently miss out on the latest mobile technology available on some Android phones, they still get to enjoy a stable, familiar experience.

When it comes to the best coolers for CPUs and even GPUs, you have two basic options: air cooling or liquid cooling (also called water cooling). While both cooler styles ultimately use fans to cool off a heatsink in order to keep your computer chips from overheating, there's a difference in how each type gets the heat from chips into those heatsinks, and that difference makes a serious impact on performance.

Image: Sabotage Studio Sea of Stars is basically a modern-day SNES RPG. I had a sense that would be the case going in: it has pixel art clearly inspired by 16-bit classics, pits a ragtag group of adventurers against evil forces, uses a clever turn-based battle system, and is filled with stunning music (including a few tracks from Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda). But I was glad my hunch was right. I devoured Sea of Stars in a little over a week, and each time I booted it up, I felt like I was playing the type of old-school RPG I would have spent afternoons with as a kid.A lot of that nostalgia came from Sea of Stars’ gorgeous pixel art, which looks similar to games like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger but with an incredible amount of modern-day... Continue reading…

The Shadows of Change DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 provides a lot of fun and new toys to play with, but the steep cost will be off-putting for many.

This week we saw the EU classify Microsoft as a gatekeeper and Microsoft 365 go down. We also shared an exclusive look at what Microsoft plans to unveil at its upcoming Surface an AI event.

This one that I got off Amazon for $20 is alright. But it doesn’t do everything I need it to. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge I like big phones, but I cannot lie. They come with tradeoffs. Namely, despite having large hands and piano fingers, my iPhone 14 Pro Max doesn’t always feel secure in my grasp. That’s fine when I’m in bed, surrounded by soft blankets and pillows. It’s less fine when I’m trying to text one-handed on public transit or running errands.I first encountered this problem with my first Big Phone, the iPhone XS Max. Get a PopSocket, everyone said. So I did. I had to begrudgingly admit it worked, even if they were ugly as sin. I even upgraded to a PopWallet Plus. But like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun. I’d thought because my original PopSocket had never fallen off, the PopWallet Plus was safe. It was not. Photo by... Continue reading…

The latest iPhones tend to receive major software updates for around five years. And with every annual update, Apple usually introduces a ton of new features and bug fixes that make these devices stabler and more helpful. iOS 17 is the latest iteration of the iPhone's operating system, and below you can check how to install it on your iPhone using different methods.

Choosing a new laptop can be daunting because there are a ton of great laptops on the market from all kinds of companies and for all kinds of users. Even if you have a specific use case in mind, you'll likely have a lot of options. We've previously rounded up the best laptops for content creators, and if you're specifically into video editing, we have you covered there, too. Now it's time for the best laptops for photo editing.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge As you can imagine, there are a lot of interesting — and occasionally off-the-wall — conversations that take place on The Verge’s Slack channels, especially when the weekend is on its way. One of them occurred recently, when reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy happened to ask how many apps people had on their phones. The reaction was immediate — and actually rather telling. It turns out you can find a lot about a person when you talk to them about their phone — and their apps.If you’re at all curious about how many apps some of The Verge’s staffers have on their phones (and their excuses for that number) — read on.I currently have 31 apps on my iPhone 12 Mini. I’m pretty aggressive about only keeping apps that I actually use on a regular... Continue reading…

When Apple introduced MagSafe to the iPhone back in 2020, a lot of new features and great accessories became available. Even product categories that already existed were reimagined with Apple's magnetic connection system, like the portable charger and power bank. Previously, you needed to carry a portable charger and power cord to juice up your phone in a pinch. But with MagSafe, all that's required for emergency charging is a compact power bank no larger than your average bifold wallet. There are a lot of MagSafe power banks out there, including the subject of today's review, Casetify's PowerThru Power Bank.

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro may not be the latest Samsung wearables out there, but they remain two of the best smartwatches you can consider right now. Both bring a lot of meaningful upgrades over their predecessors, and they're worth considering if you're in the market for a premium Wear OS watch right now. The updates brought more durability, bigger batteries, and even some additional health-tracking features. They don't leave much room for complaints, but I wish Samsung had changed how you charge these smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch 5 series supports WPC-based wireless charging, which, in a nutshell, limits the chargers you can use with these watches.

The University of Oklahoma blocked TikTok on its devices and networks in December 2022. | Photo by Tharaka Basnayaka / NurPhoto via Getty Images When he first read the email announcing that public universities in Texas had been asked to ban the use of TikTok on their campuses, UT Dallas student Eric Aaberg feared the worst. As a full-time content creator with over 10,000 followers on the platform, the app was central to his life. Would he be forced to delete it? Would he be punished if he were caught using it?“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you serious?’” Aaberg recalls. “That’s so BS. There’s no way.” Then he learned the reality. UTD was making TikTok inaccessible on its campus-provided networks. For him, that was the extent of the ban. Aaberg immediately relaxed. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s nothing,’” he says. Texas is one of over thirty US states that have enacted restrictions... Continue reading…