When you need a streaming solution at home, it's easy to pick up a cheap streaming stick that does the job.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve integrated all sorts of cool gizmos into my smart home setup, and these range from smart plugs monitoring my entire home lab to DIY weather stations built from cheap ESP32 boards. On the security front, I bought several TP Link security cameras for my living space (and even ended up building a makeshift FFMPEG camera out of my ESP32-CAM module when I realized I was running short of one).

They’re far more powerful and fun than their bargain price suggests. | Photo: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge When I'm asked what to buy if you want to get into making electronic music, I often recommend Elektron's budget-minded Model:Samples and Model:Cycles grooveboxes. They don't grab headlines the way Teenage Engineering's gear or the Telepathic Instruments Orchid do, and even compared to the company's higher-end and more niche musical offerings like the Digitakt, Octatrack, or Tonverk, they're often overlooked. But as my collection has grown to include fancier and far more expensive instruments, I still find myself coming back to the Model series.Those looking to get their first groovebox are often drawn to more familiar brand names like Korg …Read the full story at The Verge.

It wasn't surprising to see Nvidia gatekeep 6x Multi Frame Generation behind its already scarce Blackwell cards, but it still was a little disappointing. Team Green had my hopes up when DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution arrived on every RTX card, so locking the frame generation capabilities felt like nothing more than the age-old segmentation.

New plugin support for CrossPoint Reader lets Xteink’s devices access DRM-protected ebooks. One of the big tradeoffs with Xteink's pocket-friendly e-readers is a lack of easy access to ebooks. On a Kindle or Kobo you can download tens of thousands of titles through each device's respective online bookstores, but with Xteink's devices you have to source DRM-free ebooks on your own. That's about to change, as the developers of CrossPoint Reader, a free alternative firmware for the X3, X4, and X4 Pro, are introducing support for third-party plug-ins that will expand the e-readers' capabilities. One of the first from the community will give the devices access to DRM-protected ebooks borrowed through OverDrive's Libby library app, or pu …Read the full story at The Verge.

They’re the Lennon–McCartney of overanalyzing pop music. | Image: Daniel Randall As if you needed more reason to love Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" beyond its pop perfection, it is also, according to lore, the genesis for Switched on Pop, one of the best music podcasts out there. Cohosts Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding obsessively dissect pop songs, from the theory behind their musical choices to their production techniques. If you're a student of pop music, then this is a must-listen podcast.Sloan is a composer and professor of musicology at USC Thornton School of Music, where he researches pop, but also jazz and even Tin Pan Alley. Harding is a songwriter, music journalist, and a professor as well. Their combined …Read the full story at The Verge.

Maximum camera. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge It wasn't long ago that shooting with a super high-resolution camera meant making serious sacrifices for the sake of all those megapixels. Enter the A7R VI.Sony's latest flagship high-res camera is a 66.8-megapixel spec monster. In addition to its modest bump in resolution from the last-gen A7R V, it uses a new sensor and processor that unlock nearly any kind of shooting - from sports and action to usable 8K video. It's a huge departure from years ago, when high-resolution cameras were slower, noisier, and more specialized as a result of all those megapixels. The A7R VI's fully stacked sensor and new Bionz XR2 processor allow it to shoot …Read the full story at The Verge.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 140, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, don't forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Will Ferrell and Fabrizio Romano and Heather Cox Richardson, scrolling and scrolling through Ordinary Abundance, watching Avatar Aang (which is as good as you said it was), finally getting proficient in CapCut, obsessing over the latest scandal unearthed by PTFO, rewatching Tires now that the third season is out, trying Spark's AI tools for solving my inbox (so far… meh), revisiting …Read the full story at The Verge.

Season two of Star Wars: Ahsoka is still months away, but Lucasfilm still took the opportunity to tease it a bit at D23. The company dropped the first trailer for the new season ahead of its January 20th, 2027 debut. The clip shows a darker, witchcraft-filled take on the Star Wars universe, with Grand Admiral Thrawn (blue skin, red eyes, and an unsettlingly calm demeanor) threatening to thrust the galaxy back into large-scale war after the fall of the Empire.Ryan Gosling also took the stage at D23 to tease the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter movie. Unfortunately, while some footage was shown, it was exclusive to those in the room, and Luca …Read the full story at The Verge.

Shawn Levy, Ryan Gosling | Image: The Walt Disney Company/Image Group LA The annual Disney fan event showed off the cast of Marvel’s X-Men movie, plus a new trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, and our first look at the VisionQuest TV show for Disney Plus. For Star Wars fans, there was a teaser trailer for season two of Ahsoka, plus a special look at Star Wars: Starfighter with an appearance from Ryan Gosling.Other new announcements included a few updates about Pixar, The Simpsons, Bluey, and others you can find below. Matt Groening lets slip that Simpsons: Hit & Run might be making a comeback Pixar is getting spooky in Ghost Market. Disney is making a Kingdom Hearts anime. The Bluey Movie teaser shows Keepy Uppy in Disneyfied CG. Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 and Starfighter get teased at D23 A new Avengers: Doomsday trailer focuses on Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom. The first trailer for VisionQuest reunites Paul Bettany and James Spader. Marvel reveals the new X-Men cast, including Inde Navarrette and Adam Driver Kingdom Hearts will be featured at Disney’s big D23 expo in August. Square Enix teases Kingdom Hearts 4 at Nintendo Direct

The new X-Men MCU cast on stage at D-23. | Image: Marvel Entertainment With Spider-Man: Brand New Day behind us, and its reveal of Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Marvel is finally ready to officially welcome the X-Men into the MCU. At the D23 event in Anaheim yesterday, the company revealed the cast for its upcoming, untitled X-Men film, which is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5th of 2028. Though, seeing as that's quite far into the future, we wouldn't be surprised if that date shifted slightly before then.In addition to Sink, the film will star Kit Connor as Scott Summers (Cyclops), Christopher Abbott as Charles Xavier (Professor X), Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Maya Boyd as Storm, and Inde Navarrette as Rogue. …Read the full story at The Verge.

The OhSnap Snap Grip Stand, in black and silver. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge I told myself I wouldn't buy an OhSnap accessory for my phone. Every one I'd tested was nice, but felt overpriced and slightly flawed. After I weighed in on the $40 Snap Grip 5 last year, I wound up sticking with my $25 Syncwire instead. But OhSnap's $50 Snap Grip Stand finally got me. To have a truly useful vertical stand and grip always attached to my phone, ready at a moment's notice? Heck yes. @verge My favorite phone grip is the one I never want to take off - because it's a great stand. The $50 OhSnap Snap Grip Stand is the company's best yet, effortlessly propping up phones vertically. It's still got double-sided magnet action and …Read the full story at The Verge.