The biggest con is this so-called Midnight Purple keyring is barely purple. It’s the iPhone 14 Pro Max Deep Purple all over again. In a somewhat controversial Vergecast episode, I declared that AirTags are a superior product to iPads. The iPad lovers roasted me across social media. I have heard and respect their opinions. But, I'm sorry - the second-gen AirTag has only deepened my conviction that the humble, $29 item tracker is one of Apple's most helpful gizmos.The new updates focus more on making a good thing better. There are upgraded ultra-wideband and Bluetooth chips that help extend the range by about 1.5 times. The chime has a new, higher pitch and is 50 percent louder thanks to a redesigned speaker. And you can now use Precision Finding for AirTags on an Apple …Read the full story at The Verge.

After using cable, DTH, and an LG TV for years, I finally bought my first "smart" TV back in 2020. My first impression was nothing but positive, thanks to the familiar Android experience that I was used to on my phone. There was no lack of apps, and the performance was fine, but the cracks began to show within a year. The TV felt like it was struggling to perform basic navigation, and launching & switching between apps became a major snoozefest. Resetting the TV helped a few times, but I soon realized the hardware and software were just too limited. It was time to make a change, and I finally bought the Apple TV 4K in mid-2024. Arguably the best streaming box on the market, it transformed my TV-watching experience. The responsive UI, reliable functionality, and privacy-focused package fit right in with my other Apple devices.

Most gamers don't even think about using integrated graphics because they already have a much more powerful discrete GPU. Once you install a graphics card, the iGPU feels redundant at best and pointless at worst. I'll admit that I had the same mindset when I used Intel CPUs in the past. Disabling the iGPU in the BIOS felt like a no-brainer, especially on a PC that I specifically built for gaming. In fact, I thought using the iGPU would unnecessarily raise CPU temps and power draw for no real benefit.

Linux desktops used to treat design as something you handled after installation finished. If the wallpaper was decent and the panel landed where your muscle memory expected it to, that was considered a win. Everything else was a pile of options, plus a quiet assumption that you would enjoy sorting them out. That era is fading fast. Today, more distros ship with a deliberate look, a consistent tone, and a clear opinion about how the desktop should feel.

Even when it wasn’t failing quietly, Ubuntu was throwing truly useless errors. | Image: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge It's a complete coincidence that I installed Linux around the same time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. A few months ago, I decided to breathe new life into a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that had been collecting dust for a couple of years. Despite its (at the time) high-end Core i7 CPU and 32GB of RAM, Windows was frustratingly slow on it. The fan was constantly at full throttle even when the machine was idle, and it regularly failed to install updates. So in early 2024, I gave up and switched to an M1 MacBook Pro. But I wanted to give my oldest child something to practice typing on. Plus, I'd been trying to find a suitable di …Read the full story at The Verge.

It’s the first weekend of February, which can only mean one thing: The Super Bowl (or “Benito Bowl,” if you’re mainly tuning in for the Bad Bunny-led halftime show) is upon us. The game is Sunday, February 8th, at 6:30PM ET on Peacock, NFL Plus, and on live services that include NBC. With that out of the way, I’m here to surface this week’s best deals. There were plenty of good ones, from cheap yet extremely handy two-headed USB-C cables and a $20 sci-fi first-person shooter PC game bundle to steep discounts on big OLED TVs that will impress people at your Super Bowl watch party.If you happen to be in the market for a 65-inch OLED 4K TV (can I come over?), the LG C5 is almost half off its original asking price of $2,699. Whether you buy one through Amazon for $1,397 or from Best Buy at $1399.99, there’s a good chance that you can have it installed by kickoff on Sunday. Amazon currently has fast shipping for this TV, and many Best Buy brick-and-mortar locations are likely to have this model in stock.LG’s C-series TVs are some of the most popular OLED models each year. With pixel-level brightness control, they boast excellent black levels and color accuracy, and are an incredible value for movie lovers, gamers, sports fans, and everyone in between. However, if you’re looking for the best of the best when it comes to brightness, Samsung’s pricier S95F beats the C5. And, while LG’s glossy screen looks fantastic, it’ll show more reflections than the S95F’s matte finish.LG C5 OLED TVLG’s midrange C5 TV is an excellent way to get OLED performance without paying top dollar. It has a good amount of brightness, excellent color accuracy out of the box, and great gaming features including 4K @ 144Hz.Where to Buy: $2699.99 $1396.99 at Amazon (65-inch) $2699.99 $1399.99 at Best Buy (65-inch)It’s been a while since we featured a good deal on Anker’s Laptop Power Bank, its 25,000mAh / 90Wh powerhouse that peaks at 100W when charging a single device (or up to 165W with two USB-C devices). Now, we’re featuring its best-ever price that’s currently happening at Newegg and through Anker itself. You can buy the black model at its all-time low price of $89.99 ($45 off) directly from Anker with code VergeYWP0QJDE.This power bank’s output speed, capacity, and selection of four ports (three USB-C, one USB-A) are good and all, but it’s the small details that make this one stand out. Notably, it comes with two built-in USB-C cables, one of which retracts while the other doubles as handle.Anker Laptop Power BankAnker’s 25,000mAh power bank sports two built-in USB-C cables (one of which is retractable), plus one USB-C and USB-A port. It tops out at 165W when charging two devices simultaneously, or 130W when charging three or four.Where to Buy: $119.99 $89.99 at Anker (black, with code VergeYWP0QJDE)For those who own an iPhone 12 or newer, or a Google Pixel 10, Belkin’s Stage Powergrip is exactly the accessory you may not have realized you wanted. It’s a 9,300mAh battery-equipped gadget that adds a camera grip to your phone, snapping on snugly with MagSafe or Pixelsnap magnets, depending on the device you have. It lets you snap photos with its dedicated shutter button, and the grip can swivel to let you get the types of shots you want without feeling like you’re endangering your precious phone. There’s been a deal happening all week on the black model, which costs $68.39 at Amazon (originally $79.99, the current cost of the blue and sand-colored options).Belkin Stage PowerGripWhere to Buy: $79.99 $68.39 at AmazonMore ways to save this weekendIf you have a gaming PC, or a handheld gaming PC like a Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally, I highly recommend buying a $20 game bundle currently available at Humble. The “Sci-Fi Shooters 2.0” bundle of Steam PC games includes Black Mesa (the fan-made, Valve-approved Half-Life remake), Doom Eternal, Prey Deluxe Edition, and a few other great titles. They’re all fun in their own ways, and none require a cutting-edge machine to run well. Some proceeds for your purchase will go to nonprofit organizations, including One Tree Planted and Cool Effect.I have one of Anker’s two-in-one USB-C cables in my home. Being able to charge two devices through one cable is very convenient, even if you aren’t constantly battling your partner for a turn at the charger. Most of us likely have more than one USB-C device we want to charge at any given time, and this cable lets you do just that. You can get the 6-foot braided cable at Amazon for $15.99, down from its original $19.99 price. The cable tops out at 140W passthrough for a single device, allowing for sufficient power to quickly charge a laptop, assuming your wall adapter is powerful enough.The last-gen AirTag Bluetooth tracker dropped to its lowest price yet. Granted, it’s not a huge price drop, but compared to their original $29, $17 a pop —their current price at Amazon and Walmart — is pretty good. AirTags are the best Bluetooth trackers for iPhone users. They provide accurate tracking through the Find My app, no matter what you attach them to. Many people stick them in luggage to be able to find bags more easily after a flight, but you can put them in any tote or container that you fear losing.

I'll be honest, I used to love reading NAS spec sheets. The longer the list, the better it felt. More features meant better value, right? After setting up a few NAS systems of my own and helping friends choose their first ones, that excitement wore off pretty quickly.

Over the past year, there has been a wave of smart devices from major brands like Belkin, WeMo, and Google Nest being retired or losing cloud support. Practically overnight, expensive tech suddenly became e-waste, and those who were invested in these ecosystems might have felt like they had to start completely from scratch.

Self-hosted AI has absolutely crossed the threshold from "fun toy" to "actually useful tool" thanks to quantized models and plugins that are surprisingly capable, even with modest hardware. Grabbing an old PC and loading a model grants you your own private AI assistant that doesn't phone home, and that's a powerful thing, but it's not the whole picture.

To preface this article, I need to make one thing very clear: I hate spending money. I'm a student, I work full-time, and if an opportunity ever passes me by to either make more money or save it, I will always chase it.

GOG recently posted a job listing for a senior software engineer focused on porting its Galaxy desktop client to Linux. Now, in reply to a Reddit AMA, the GOG team has revealed that work on native Linux support is already underway. It's still too early to give an ETA, according to the Reddit thread. But founder and CEO, Michał Kiciński, said, "personally, I'm a big fan of Linux." The job listing also calls Linux the "next major frontier" in gaming. It's obvious at this point that Linux is becoming an increasingly important part of the PC gaming landscape. Especially as Microsoft continues to frustrate users by cramming every nook and crann …Read the full story at The Verge.

PC components usually get outdated in a few years, at least if you listen to how new launches are marketed and how the community talks about them online. Every time a newer generation of parts comes out, anything older is treated like a bottleneck waiting to happen. For instance, once DDR5 went mainstream, people were quick to write off DDR4 as a dead platform, even though real-world performance didn't improve all that much. The same thing happens with older GPUs, which go from "good enough" to "not worth buying" almost overnight.