Powerade is appropriate for World Cup athletes, but unless you’re also sweating buckets, water is usually enough. | Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.Europe is melting, the eastern US is currently trapped in a "heat dome," the Midwest has the corn sweats to look forward to, and if you've never felt the oppressive, sticky misery of monsoon season in Asia - consider yourself blessed. But as folks duke it out on social media about who has it hotter (and whether air conditioning is ethical), it's time to address a nonnegotiable truth of surviving summer: hydration.Surely, stayi …Read the full story at The Verge.

Despite the fact that smartphones have become impressively capable shooters, standalone point-and-shoot cameras are enjoying a renaissance. The tiny Kodak Charmera is still wildly popular, while influencers are scrambling to find aging Canon cameras on eBay. Godox, a company best known for its photography lighting products, is the latest to join the simple camera craze, but its new C100 stands out from the crowd by skipping a color preview screen for a transparent LCD that doubles as an optical viewfinder.Although the C100 product page on Godox's website is thin on technical details, including its sensor resolution and video capabilities, …Read the full story at The Verge.

I've burned through a frankly embarrassing number of AI coding tools this year, along with an even bigger heap of tokens. Along the way, I fell hard on the side of terminal-agents, wired up to a local LLM or two to help me limit my token burn. I've built agentic workflows that code and test without me, but I have to admit that sometimes I like the feel of a more traditional IDE.

A simple home NAS doesn’t need to be complicated. For most people, the ideal setup is a box with a few drives, a clean web interface, some shared folders, and enough reliability to keep family photos, backups, and media files from scattering across random USB drives. That’s why prebuilt NAS systems are so appealing. They make storage feel like an appliance rather than another home lab project that will eat up half a weekend.

At the event "The Briefing: AI for Science" earlier this week, Anthropic announced Claude Science, a new "AI workbench for scientists" that pulls fragmented tools and datasets into one environment, and generates figures and visuals. Anthropic, already dominating the industry with its popular coding tools and powerful AI models, framed the launch around what it says is AI's potential to "dramatically accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and the development of healthcare interventions," and touted a long list of biotech and pharma customers already using Claude. Anthropic also went a step further, saying it would develop drugs of its …Read the full story at The Verge.

Smart home devices are already pretty handy thanks to their remote management tools, and voice assistants push their convenience to the next level. Google Home and Alexa+ are among the most common voice assistants in smart home setups, but despite their inherent benefits, I avoid them like the plague these days.

It's a big year for America. It's the semiquincentennial, otherwise known as America250, and the United States is cohosting the World Cup. But spectators at these events - and the millions of people who live in the cities hosting them - may not realize that they, too, are being watched.From Kansas City to New York, the US cities hosting the World Cup have been ramping up their surveillance capabilities in the months leading up to the tournament. Security measures are at an all-time high in Washington, DC, which isn't hosting the World Cup, but is home to a series of spectacles this summer. The Fourth of July festivities in the nation's cap …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Fire HD 8 that launched in 2024 was the last new addition to Amazon's budget-minded tablet lineup, but the company has quietly updated the Fire HD 10 that debuted the year before. In 2023 it was offered with multiple storage configurations that each came with 3GB of RAM, but the 32GB version now ships with 4GB of RAM, and a small price bump from $139.99 to $154.99.The Fire HD 10 with 64GB of storage still only comes with 3GB of RAM and the other specs for both tablets remain the same, including a 10.1-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 display, a 2GHz eight-core processor, a 13-hour battery, and expandable storage through a microSD card. The refreshe …Read the full story at The Verge.

In the AI slop-loaded, algorithm-powered modern reality, trends come and go - and the tech industry is no different. For the last few years, The Verge staff has compiled a selection of things that are IN for summer and OUT for summer - and each time there are some strong feelings. (Here are the last two years' predictions.) Let's do it again!Mia Sato, senior reportINOUTMotion sickness glassesAI "pervert" glassesFiberProteinBootleg sports merchOfficial tech company merchFloating in waterTouching grassMeredith Haggerty, editorINOUT The great New York renaissanceThe Great American State FairThe Knicks garbage canTaylor Swift's MSG weddi …Read the full story at The Verge.

YouTuber Jon Prosser has finally filed a formal response to Apple's lawsuit made against him and another defendant over allegedly stealing iOS secrets. In his response, Prosser denied that he "planned or participated in any conspiracy or coordinated scheme" for the "purpose of injuring Apple." However, Prosser admitted to recording a FaceTime call showing unreleased iOS software and sharing revenue from his YouTube videos about the leaks with the person who showed him the information. Prosser also argued that the other defendant "is completely responsible" for the alleged disclosure of trade secrets.Last July, Apple claimed in its lawsuit …Read the full story at The Verge.

Ultrawide monitors aren't for everyone, but it's the best way to get the most screen real estate in a compact footprint. While there are lots of choices, we think Samsung makes some of the best if you're looking for something higher-end. Naturally, this generally means paying higher prices, unless you're able to find a good deal.

Unlike most phones, the T1 still ships with a charger. Trump Mobile seemingly isn’t too worried about e-waste. Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. One year on, our phones have finally arrived.12 months, 16 days, 21 hours, and 54 minutes after I first heard about Trump Mobile's T1 Phone 8002 (gold version), I'm finally holding one in my own hands.That's right, The Verge's Trump phones have arrived. And yes, I do mean phones - we have three of them: We ordered two, paid for two, and received three, all of which were sent to the wrong address. You can't beat service like that.My phone came with a free Trump Mobile SIM card, even though I've not signed up to the company's mobile plan, plus an A4 quick start gui …Read the full story at The Verge.