A lot of smart home marketing still assumes you own the walls, the wiring, and the patience to drill into both. It treats home automation like a renovation project, not a lifestyle upgrade. That framing leaves out a huge group of people who still want convenience, comfort, and a little more control over their space. Renters, apartment dwellers, and anyone living somewhere temporarily are not excluded from the category.

If you spend thousands on a Dolby Atmos soundbar and thousands more on an OLED TV, but you're still using a cable designed for the original Sony Walkman era to connect them, then your surround sound is probably being very severely limited. The TOSLINK (optical) cable is the legacy port of the audio world.

When most people think about mesh extenders, they think no cables, quick setup, and instant coverage. That’s how they are marketed. That assumption of no cables is exactly where the problem begins. When you avoid cables, the extender talks wirelessly to the main router. And without a wired backbone, performance depends entirely on the wireless link’s quality.

Walmart bought Vizio in 2024, and now it's taking the next steps to formally fold the TV maker into itself by phasing out Vizio accounts. Now, when you purchase a new Vizio TV, you'll be asked to sign in or create a Walmart account. Customers will have the option to merge their Vizio account, if they have one, with their Walmart account. Your only other option will be to simply delete it.According to an email sent by Vizio, customers who choose to delete their account will have 30 days to request a copy of any data related to the account, after which it "may no longer be available." The email also said that while the option to merge accoun …Read the full story at The Verge.

A site called PSprices has been tracking prices on Sony's digital game store and noticed something unusual: some games were being offered at different prices to different users. What's more, those offers are tracked in the PlayStation API with experiment identifiers like IPT_PILOT and IPT_OPR_TESTING.Dynamic pricing is nothing new and is used across a number of industries. But it's often met with backlash and isn't typically found in online game stores. According to PSprices, Sony is running A/B testing on prices for over 150 games in 68 regions, though the US doesn't currently appear to be part of the experiment. For now, at least, Sony i …Read the full story at The Verge.

I unplugged from the cloud for a week as an experiment. No default apps. No “just sign in with Google.” If I could self-host it, I would.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 118, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, please take my Switch away so I can get some work done, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about moon factories and railroad monopolies and backing into parking spots, finally digging into the Acquired podcast archives, taking tons of notes on Michael Pollan's new book about consciousness, watching everything Look Mum No Computer has ever made, breaking my computer trying to get the Obsidian CLI to work for me, giving the Zen Browser another try a …Read the full story at The Verge.

Last year, VS Code announced it would retire the original Docker extension and replace it with Container Tools. That transition is now complete. The old Docker extension has effectively turned into an extension pack that installs Container Tools for core container management and Docker DX for deeper linting support.

This has been a week to remember here at The Verge. MWC 2026 in Barcelona lead straight into Apple’s week of product announcements. There was truly something for everyone, whether you’ve been wanting a company to make a phone that can start fires, or had your fingers crossed for a brand-new MacBook model that costs just $599.99. It was also a great week for gaming, with the launch of Slay the Spire 2 on Steam as an early access game, plus Pokémon Pokopia on Nintendo Switch 2, and Marathon on PC and PS5.It was also a pretty good week when it comes to deals, especially if you’re in the market for new hardware. You can nab a free gift card with a preorder of early 2026’s most anticipated tech launching on March 11th, including Apple’s new MacBooks, plus Samsung’s lineup Galaxy S26 phones. Let’s not forget that Google’s Pixel 10A launched this week, and the gift card promo for that is happening through March 11th. Here are this week’s best deals.March 11th is a big day for tech launches. That’s when every product that Apple announced this past week will ship and hit shelves, including its M5-powered MacBook Air, its MacBook Pro models equipped with the M5 Pro and M5 Max processors, its affordable new MacBook Neo, the M4 iPad Air, plus two new Studio Displays. But wait, there’s more! Samsung’s Galaxy S26, the S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra launch that day, too.With a couple exceptions (the Studio Displays and the iPad Air), you can get a gift card when you buy any of those products right now. Best Buy is the source for gift cards on most of Apple’s latest gear (including $25 with the MacBook Neo, $50 with the MacBook Air, or $100 with the MacBook Pro), while you can get one with any of Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 phones at Amazon (ranging from $100 to $200, depending on the model). Let’s not forget about the Google Pixel 10A, which launched March 5th and includes a $100 gift card through March 11th at Best Buy and Amazon.MacBook Neo (with $25 e-gift card)For a limited time, you can get a $25 gift card at Best Buy when you preorder the MacBook Neo.Where to Buy: $599 at Best Buy (256GB) $699 at Best Buy (512GB) $599 at Amazon (256GB, no gift card)Spring is in the air, and that means the return of many things: warmer weather, beautiful green leaves on trees, and bugs. Alright, I’m not excited about bugs, but I am excited about the return of the creatures who feast a lot of them — birds! I’m tempted to get a camera-equipped bird feeder this year, in part to let my toddler get a close look at hummingbirds, and one of the most appealing models out there is 37 percent off. Birdbuddy’s Smart Hummingbird Feeder Pro Solar is down to $189 at Birdbuddy and just $10 more at Chewy.This model is powered by its solar panel, which works even on cloudy days (it can be recharged via USB-C if where you place it doesn’t get enough sun). Its motion-activated camera can capture 5-megapixel stills, slow motion footage, and HDR video of hummingbirds doing their thing. While these birds are often too quick to fully appreciate with the naked eye, this feeder will give you access to view them leisurely from the company’s companion app. There’s a Birdbuddy Premium subscription that starts at $69.99 per year that lets you name birds and track returning visitors, plus other features, but the base bird-viewing experience doesn’t cost extra.Birdbuddy Smart Hummingbird Feeder Pro SolarWhere to Buy: $299 $189 at Birdbuddy $299 $239 at Amazon $299 $199 at ChewyIf you’re into first-person shooters, you’ve probably heard of — and possibly already own — Marathon, Bungie’s anticipated PvPvE multiplayer title that’s a modern remake of one of the studio’s first games in the 1990s. The game just launched on PlayStation 5 and PC for $39.99, and you can get a small deal on the Steam PC version. Fanatical is selling Steam keys for $34.39, which is a 14 percent discount. Nothing huge, but it’s a nice price cut.Several of us here at The Verge are playing Marathon, and are digging it so far. Its art style is unlike any other game, and admittedly, it has me strongly considering buying an OLED gaming monitor to enjoy. I need to see those neon colors pop.MarathonWhere to Buy: $39.99 $34.39 at Fanatical (Steam)Other great deals you might have missed this weekThere’s a new M4-equipped iPad Air coming out on March 11th. While you won’t get a gift card for preordering one, you can save a bit of money off the retail price. Right now, the 128GB / Wi-Fi model is available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart starting at $559 ($40 off), while the LTE config is selling for $709 ($40 off) at Best Buy. If you want more storage space, Amazon and Walmart are also both selling the 11-inch model with 256GB and Wi-Fi for $649 ($50 off). The larger 13-inch variant, meanwhile, can be found at the same retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, in its base configuration with Wi-Fi and 128GB of storage starting at $749 ($50 off).Over the Garden Wall is a beloved cartoon with narrative ties to Dante’s Inferno that ran on Cartoon Network in 2014. At long last, it’s coming to Blu-ray on April 7th, and you can save a smidge on preorders through Gruv if you’re a first-time customer. Use the offer code FIRSTGRUV15 at checkout to knock the cost from $19.99 to $17. The cast is stacked, with voices provided by Elijah Wood, Melanie Lynskey, and Christopher Lloyd, to name a few.Bose’s Ultra Open earbuds are down to their lowest price at Amazon, selling for $199 (originally $299). Unlike most earbuds, these clip around your lower ear, with the audio driver leaving your inner ear partially exposed so you can hear outside noises. This Ultra Open is great for people who want to go for a walk or run outside without cutting themselves off to hearing potential oncoming hazards, and they provide better sound quality than bone conduction headphones, which don’t cover your ears at all. This is a price that I bet my former colleague Chris Welch would have been happier with when he reviewed the Ultra Open in early 2024.

There are a lot of games that try to emulate The Legend of Zelda, but few that manage to capture that spirit in such a small, concise package as Ratcheteer DX. The postapocalyptic game only takes a few hours to complete, but over that span it nails the classic Zelda vibe almost perfectly, offering a real sense of adventure along with the satisfaction of figuring things out on your own.The game is set in a bleak future when most of humanity is hibernating beneath the Earth's surface in order to wait out an ice age. To keep things going, mechanics are awakened every so often to perform maintenance on all of the machinery that keeps everyone …Read the full story at The Verge.

When PCIe 5.0 Gen 5 SSDs started coming out in 2023, I was genuinely excited by their theoretical bandwidth claims, just like most of you guys. As someone who jumped straight from an old SATA drive to the Corsair MP600 PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive, I've already experienced what a real storage leap feels like. When Windows boot times reduce by five seconds, you notice it immediately. And when games take a few seconds less to load, you genuinely feel like the upgrade was worth your hard-earned money.

The woman at the door wore a plush lobster headdress. She sat in the front hallway of a multistory event venue in Manhattan, beside a bundle of wristbands. If she granted you one, the world of ClawCon beckoned behind her - full of vibey pink and purple lighting, lobster claw headbands, multicolored name tags, sponsor information stations, and a demo stage underneath a skylight. Hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate OpenClaw, the AI assistant platform created by Peter Steinberger in November 2025. OpenClaw (previously known as Clawdbot and Moltbolt) has quickly become popular in the tech industry for being open-source, in contrast …Read the full story at The Verge.