Everything is online these days, including our toasters and doorbells. And while smart devices are convenient and occasionally energy-saving, they also pose a risk of compromising our personal data. Security breaches in smart homes occur all too frequently, and your Internet of Things (IoT) devices may expose sensitive data that can be harvested by companies without you ever realizing it. A 2023 study by New York University found that IoT devices inadvertently expose personal information that can make it easy to identify your household.

The EVO fighting game championships are the biggest event for the fighting game genre. It gathers some of the greatest players from around the world for a few days to celebrate fighting games, as well as compete for world titles and big prizes. But within the history of the prestigious fighting game tournament, there are specific games that have become synonymous with the event. They attracted the biggest audiences and injected unparalleled levels of hype for spectators watching the competition unfold. Some of the craziest moments and memorable times are tied to the ongoing legacy of fighting game releases that have become popular over the years.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A hadn't been out even a few hours before the tweets started rolling in: Shiny pokémon don't despawn. You can walk away from a shiny, and it'll still be there when you come back. To shiny collectors, this is big news. In other Pokémon games, like Scarlet and Violet, pokémon despawn after you get a certain distance away from them or trigger a loading screen. I've missed out on my fair share of shiny pokémon this way, my heart sinking as I spotted them right before they disappeared forever. You can still miss out on shiny pokémon in Z-A, but we'll get to that in a bit.I first discovered the new spawning mechanics mysel …Read the full story at The Verge.

The latest Motorola Razr is $300 off in multiple colors. | Image: The Verge If you’ve been thinking about buying a foldable phone that truly stands out, few models can rival the 2025 Motorola Razr Ultra, which is currently on sale at Amazon and Best Buy with 16GB of RAM and 512GB starting at $999.99 ($300 off), its lowest price to date.If you can’t tell from the image below, Razr’s latest handset boasts a unique wood grain back panel, which makes it one of the best-looking phones you can buy. It’s not just about looks, though; the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset makes it incredibly fast, and it still manages to last a full day on a single charge. It also features two displays, specifically a 7-inch 1224p inner display that unfolds and a 4-inch 1080p outer screen that’s perfect for checking notifications. It even features a dedicated AI button for accessing notification summaries and live transcriptions, as well as support for 68W wired and 30W wireless charging.As for durability, the Ultra carries an IP48 rating, meaning it should be able to withstand a meter of water for up to 30 minutes; however, we’d advise being careful around dust and sand, neither of which it’s fully protected against. That said, Motorola does promise three years of OS and security updates, which, while not as impressive as newer foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 (which comes with seven), is still respectable. Read our full Motorola Razr Ultra review.Motorola Razr Ultra (2025)Where to Buy: $1299.99 $999.99 at Amazon (512GB) $1299.99 $999.99 at Best Buy (512GB) $1299.99 at Motorola (512GB)If you thought Amazon’s most recent Prime Day event was a good time to pick up a Bluetooth speaker, you’ll be pleased to hear that Marshall’s Emberton II is actually cheaper now than it was last week. Right now, it’s on sale at Best Buy and Amazon (for Prime members) for $94.99 ($85 off), which is just $5 shy of its best price to date.Although Marshall’s last-gen Bluetooth speaker is pretty basic, it still manages to deliver multi-directional stereo sound with a vintage-style design that resembles the company’s signature guitar amps. You can pair it with other compatible Marshall speakers, and the companion app offers adjustable EQ settings. Its long battery life and IP67 rating make it a good choice for outdoor adventures, too, though you’ll miss out on a couple of newer features found on the Emberton III (including a built-in mic for taking hands-free voice calls). Otherwise, though, it’s a stylish, great-sounding pick suitable for all sorts of occasions.Marshall Emberton II speakerWhere to Buy: $179.99 $94.99 at Amazon (with Prime) $179.99 $94.99 at Best BuyUgreen’s Revodok Max 8-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station is small and lightweight enough to fit in a work bag, yet powerful enough to turn a laptop into a desktop-like workstation (at least as far as ports are concerned). And right now, it’s available from Amazon and Ugreen for $169.98 ($80 off), matching its best price to date.Ugreen’s 8-in-1 dock outfits your Windows or macOS machine with eight extra ports, including four Thunderbolt 4 ports, each of which can supply up to 85W of power using the included 140W GaN charger. It’s a shame it doesn’t include built-in SD card readers or audio jacks, but it does include a gigabit ethernet port and three USB-A ports, so you can connect to everything from dual 4K monitors to older accessories, all through a single hub.Ugreen Revodok Max 8-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Docking StationWhere to Buy: $249.99 $169.98 at Amazon $249.99 $169.98 at UgreenA few more deal standoutsAnker’s 7-in-1 Nano Charging Station — which is also great for charging multiple gadgets — is on sale for an all-time low of $59.99 ($30 off) at Amazon and Anker’s online storefront (with promo code WS7DV2GZULDK). The 100W station can charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 50 percent capacity in just over half an hour and comes with a pair of retractable USB-C cables, three AC outlets, a USB-C port, and a USB-A port. Its built-in LCD screen also shows which ports are in use and how much power they’re pulling.If you’re in the market for a great pair of gaming earbuds, the SteelSeries Arctis Buds are an easy recommendation, especially now that the white model with PlayStation connectivity is down to an all-time low of $127.99 ($73 off) at Amazon. The wireless earbuds deliver fantastic sound and come with Bluetooth support and a 2.4GHz transmitter, so you can connect them to your PC, Mac, and PlayStation 5. They’re lightweight and comfortable to wear, too, and benefit from good noise cancellation, a helpful transparency mode, and a wireless charging case. Read our review.The Crafting Table is Lego’s first Minecraft set for adults, one you can pick up at Amazon and Target for $71.99 ($18 off), its lowest price to date. The 1,195-piece kit resembles a classic Minecraft crafting table on the outside, but opening it up reveals a mini world with 12 biomes, including Cherry Grove, the Deep Dark, and Lush Cave. It also comes with eight buildable Minecraft figures —  Steve, Alex, a skeleton, a witch, a Creeper, a villager, a cow, and a pig — each of which detaches, so you can display the figures anywhere.

I have been a fan of David Lynch ever since a friend's older brother interrupted a 13th birthday celebration to insist we all watch Eraserhead. In the realm of horror movies, it's a common way to be introduced to a seminal film: be it in a friend's basement, illicit underage viewings, or a stray recommendation from a pot-smoking sibling. It feels apt, then, that my first introduction to Easy Delivery Co. was a friend insisting I drop everything because a game exists that lets you play as a cat driving a kei truck.I admit, those two things don't immediately correlate. But it's clear that Lynch, particularly Twin Peaks, was a major influence …Read the full story at The Verge.

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) SSDs are among the fastest storage solutions available today. These drives have completely changed the way modern systems handle storage. Whether you're booting your OS, playing games, launching high-end applications, or working with large files, NVMe SSDs offer lightning-fast response times that easily outperform traditional SATA SSDs and, of course, HDDs. However fast they are, NVMe drives still need some basic care to stay that way.

Diagnosing a PC performance issue can be tricky, especially if you suspect memory is involved. Chances are, you've heard the advice of "just add more RAM", which is a blanket fix that's as old as PC hardware. It's been around since the days of XP, and it's not entirely incorrect. Modern systems are far better at managing memory than they used to be, and adding more RAM often does little unless you’re running into specific bottlenecks. Heavy multitasking and professional workloads require boatloads of memory; if your PC is used for more than just gaming, you might need to add a couple of sticks to your system.

TiVo could have been a contender. In the 2000s, TiVo reached heights few companies ever achieve. Like Google and Xerox, its name became a verb. People had to "TiVo" the new episode of Battlestar Galactica or game 4 of the Red Sox vs. Cardinals, not "record" it. While it didn't invent the DVR, TiVo popularized it and many of the features we would eventually take for granted, like the ability to pause or rewind live TV, and watch one program while recording another. Those features were covered in the now infamous US Patent 6,233,389 - better known as the Time Warp patent. TiVo spent a good chunk of the 2000s and early 2010s defending its intellectual property through a serie …Read the full story at The Verge.

Battery development in the GM Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center. | Image: Steve Fecht / General Motors Inside General Motors' fast-growing battery labs in suburban Detroit, scientists and engineers are analyzing stresses on lithium-ion cells: desert heat, arctic cold, jungle humidity, enough charging and discharging for a half-dozen Frankenstein reboots. For The Verge's exclusive tour of these secretive labs, I watch researchers peer at cell chemistries down to the atomistic level, using electron microscopes. Others work at a larger scale, all the way up to the Megashaker. Inside a cavernous hall, an enormous sliding test chamber envelops one of GM's double-stacked, 205-kilowatt-hour battery packs - the type that powers hulking models like …Read the full story at The Verge.

As part of its NES40 collection, 8BitDo’s Ultimate 2 controller is getting its most dramatic makeover yet. | Image: 8BitDo Forty years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System launched in North America, and to help celebrate the anniversary, 8BitDo has announced a new NES40 collection. It features updated versions of three of 8BitDo’s existing products, including its Ultimate 2 wireless controller, Retro 87 Keyboard N Edition, and Retro Cube Speaker.The updates made to the N40 version of 8BitDo’s Ultimate 2 controller are mostly cosmetic, but it now features a black-and-gray design with bright red buttons and a charging dock that matches the aesthetics of the NES console. The controller will also include four swappable joystick caps while its grips are printed with dates that correlate to launches of notable Nintendo and 8BitDo products.Functionality is the same as the original version of the Ultimate 2, including the TMR joysticks, Hall effect triggers, a ring of color-changing LEDs around the base of each joystick, reprogrammable bumper buttons, an extra pair of buttons on the back, and compatibility with the Switch, Switch 2, and Windows devices. The 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller – N40 is available for preorder starting today for $79.99 and comes with 8BitDo’s Retro Receiver for wirelessly connecting it to an original NES, and a 2.4GHz adapter providing a faster wireless connection for gaming. It will be released on November 15th, 2025, but will be limited to only 1,985 units.For the new 8BitDo Retro 68 Keyboard N40, the updates are the opposite. Despite being a little more compact than 8BitDo’s first mechanical keyboard because it features a 68-key layout instead of 87, the new N40 version looks very similar to the original but includes some significant hardware upgrades. The entire keyboard, including the shell, keycaps, and buttons, is made from aluminum alloy, and 8BitDo has switched from Kailh’s clicky Box White V2 switches to its linear Box Ice Cream Pro Max switches. The Retro 68 also includes a much larger 6,500mAh battery boosting usage to up to 300 hours between charges, and it comes with the original’s oversized programmable Super Buttons accessories that now wirelessly connect to the keyboard instead of being tethered by a 3.5mm cable.The Retro 68 N40 keyboard is more than twice as heavy as the original, weighing in at a beefy 2,200 grams, and considerably more expensive. The Retro 87 debuted at $99.99 in 2023, but the new Retro 68 will be available for preorder starting today for $499.99 and is expected to ship sometime in January 2026.The 8BitDo Retro Cube 2 Speaker N Edition also looks nearly identical to 8BitDo’s Retro Cube Speaker that has been NES-themed since it first launched in 2016. But the new version introduces dual stereo speakers with music and gaming modes, a built-in microphone, a larger 2,000mAh battery offering up to 30 hours of playtime on a full charge, and the option to switch to a 2.4GHz connection instead of Bluetooth using a bundled dongle. Its USB port has been upgraded from Micro USB to USB-C, but the speaker can be charged by simply placing it on a new wireless dock that’s included.The original version launched nearly a decade ago for $35, while the new Retro Cube 2 speaker is available for preorder starting today for $49.99 and is expected to be released on December 8th, 2025.

Can you tell if I’m looking at a display, or just pretending for the camera? Outside a florist-cum-coffee shop in upstate New York, a row of vintage cars gleam in the sun. It's unseasonably warm for early October, so there's a veritable crowd of car enthusiasts snapping photos of Ferraris, Porsches, and a vintage Alfa Romeo. Patient girlfriends and wives roll their eyes, sipping on maple matcha lattes and eating pumpkin spice donuts.And then there's me. At my side, my right hand is twitching like I'm a wizard casting a spell. I'm hunched over, bending my head as I stare at a lime green Lamborghini, shouting, "WHAT MODEL CAR AM I LOOKING AT?" (The lot is quite loud, given that several car dads are revving like Dom …Read the full story at The Verge.

I used to keep every note, draft, project, and list inside Notion. All my pages lived in one workspace, but it quickly became like a messy pile of digital junk. Notion has a lot of muscle, but it can still feel like dragging a suitcase of bricks because there’s just so much going on at once. So a tool that was supposed to help me organize my life just ended up being another point of friction.