For the average consumer, the router's position in the house is probably the Wi-Fi variable they're most familiar with. It's simple to grasp, quick to test, and genuinely matters for coverage and speed. That said, a central router position isn't enough for a snappy Wi-Fi connection.

A lot of content on LinkedIn might seem like AI slop, and now, you'll be able to report those posts. As part of a series of updates to reduce the volume of AI slop on the platform, LinkedIn is introducing an actual button that lets you flag a post as something that "Seems like AI slop."The new feature is part of a broader push to reduce the volume of apparent AI slop on the platform. AI detector Pangram recently found that 41 percent of longform LinkedIn posts were flagged as being completely generated by AI, as reported by 404Media."AI slop is a top priority for all of us," chief product officer Hari Srinivasan says in a post. "We reall …Read the full story at The Verge.

Following March's big 2026 Pixel Drop, some Pixel users reported experiencing an issue where the smartphone's battery drains rapidly while the phone sits idle and is basically doing nothing.

Neither artificial nor intelligent. I am not by any means an expert at finance but I think I do now have some advice for people who are: Do not name your hedge fund anything that will be hilarious if it blows up. Don't use a name like "Long-Term Capital Management" or "Amaranth Advisors" (named for the floral symbol for immortality). Certainly do not call yourself "Situational Awareness," which might as well just be "Hubris, Inc."Anyway, Situational Awareness, the hedge fund started by a 24-year-old former OpenAI employee that focuses on artificial intelligence bets, has sold most or all, depending on who's reporting, of its entire public stock portfolio to Ken Griffin's Cit …Read the full story at The Verge.

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch 9. | Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge The Galaxy Watch 9 launches on August 7th, and not only does Costco have the best preorder incentives we’ve seen so far, the watch is also discounted. The deal includes the 40mm Watch 9 in cream or graphite, two wireless fast chargers for the watch, and a $50 Costco gift card, all for $339.99 — $40 less than the list price for the watch on its own directly from Samsung. The discounted price erases the $30 gen-to-gen price bump, and the extra chargers and gift card further sweeten the deal. If you aren’t a Costco member, a year of membership is only $65, which is less than the value of the free items in this purchase.Samsung Galaxy Watch 9Where to Buy: $379.99 $339.99 at Costco (with $50 gift card and two chargers)There are some changes to the new watches from the Watch 8. The brand says the new chip, a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite, is built specifically for AI performance, and there are new health tracking features, plus better battery life, to boot. We got to spend some time with the Watch 9 and Watch 2 Ultra at Samsung’s July 2026 Unpacked event, so make sure to read our initial impressions of both watches if you’re curious about how the upgrades feel ahead of their early August launch.

Revisiting games from PC gaming's golden era with titles like Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Bioshock, and Stalker can sometimes feel a little bit disappointing when firing them up on your modern gaming PC. Fond memories are replaced with the painful reality of launching those same games on a 2000 Windows 11 desktop rig.

Buying multiple lamps for different rooms can get expensive. Govee’s rechargeable Table Lamp Classic gives you one lamp you can use throughout your home instead of getting one for every room, and right now it’s down to $59 ($21 off) at Amazon. That’s just $4 shy of the all-time low set during Prime Day, and the smart lamp’s second-best price to date.Govee Table Lamp ClassicWhere to Buy: $79.99 $59.99 at Amazon $79.99 $63.99 at GoveeBecause it’s cordless, the lamp is surprisingly versatile. You can use it to brighten your desk during the day, keep it by your bedside at night, and even carry it to the patio for dinner (just don’t forget to bring it back inside if it’s expected to rain, as the lamp isn’t weather-resistant). A built-in 4,800mAh battery powers the lamp for up to 30 hours with colored lighting enabled, or about five hours when using bright white light, so you don’t need to worry about staying near an outlet. Despite being small and light enough to carry from room to room, the Table Lamp Classic offers many of the same smart lighting features found on Govee’s bigger lamps. It lets you tweak the color temperature, cycle through 72 preset scenes, and sync the lighting to your music, making it easy to match the mood whether you’re studying, unwinding, or enjoying a date night. If you have something more specific in mind, Govee’s app can even generate a custom effect from a short text prompt. Since it supports Matter, you won’t have to reach for the Govee app every time you move the lamp to a different room, either. Instead, you can control it with your voice through your favorite smart home platform.

You can't go wrong with a Samsung gaming monitor for $150. This model, the Odyssey G5, features a 27-inch 1440p screen, 180Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time. You also get impressive colors and contrast, with support for HDR10. If you've been looking for a gaming monitor that won't break the bank, this one is going to be it.

Apptronik’s Apollo 2 robot takes a baseball glove off of a shelf. | Image: Google Google DeepMind says the latest version of its Gemini Robotics AI model can "control entire humanoid robots." While the previous model focused on controlling a humanoid robot's upper body, Gemini Robotics 2 now supports "whole-body motions" ranging from its feet to fingertips, according to an announcement on Thursday.The new model will allow humanoid robots to perform a wider range of actions, as it allows them to walk, crouch, stretch, and manipulate objects. Videos shared by Google show how Apptronik's Apollo 2 robot can bend over to pick up a watering can, as well as find and take specific items off a shelf. Though Google DeepMind not …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's a weird time to learn to program. Apparently, all code will be written by AI soon, but experienced developers aren't so sure. Even Linus Torvalds is not immune to backlash for calling AI a tool developers can use. However, beyond the argument about whether you should use AI at all, is how to use it to complement learning rather than hinder it.

The latest discovery from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is a field of honeycomb-shaped polygons covering a Martian valley called Valle Grande. As Gizmodo reports, Curiosity has snapped pictures of the unusual terrain texture before, called polygonal fractures, each about 1.5 to 3 inches wide, but NASA says it's previously only found them in small patches, "nothing on the scale discovered in Valle Grande." Curiosity captured a 360-degree panorama of the "sea of polygons" on June 19th and 20th (Martian sols 4,930 and 4,931) that shows the texture spreading out in all directions. Project scientist Ashwin Vasavada says the Curiosity team "measur …Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple's iPhone and Mac sales are on the rise even as a global memory shortage squeezes device makers. In its third-quarter earnings report released on Thursday, Apple revealed that iPhone sales jumped 22 percent to $54.25 billion and Mac sales increased 29 percent to $10.35 billion, driving the company's overall revenue to $109.4 billion.The company expects supply chain constraints to worsen in the coming months. During an earnings call, Apple chief financial officer Kevan Parekh said Apple expects "supply constraints to increase significantly" in the next quarter, adding the shortage will impact the iPhone, Mac, and iPad. Meanwhile, Apple …Read the full story at The Verge.