They say that Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer. I have my doubts given the less-than-balmy weather in many parts of the US this weekend, though that doesn’t mean it’s not an appropriate time to pick up some summer essentials — including a portable speaker / smart lamp like Govee’s Table Lamp 2 Pro. Right now, it’s matching its all-time low of $134.99 ($45 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Govee’s online storefront ahead of the holiday on May 25th.Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro X Sound by JBLWhere to Buy: $179.99 $134.99 at Amazon $179.99 $134.99 at Best Buy $179.99 $134.99 at GoveeGovee currently has several color-changing table lamps in its stable, with the Lamp 2 Pro being the most capable of the bunch. It essentially combines a color-changing smart lamp with a capable JBL Bluetooth speaker, resulting in a device that can blanket your home with glitzy RGB lighting effects while playing your favorite T-Swift or Bad Bunny cuts (or whatever the kids are into these days). It’s not waterproof, sadly, but it is relatively portable at just 5 pounds; it also features a 5,200mAh battery, which delivers around 4.5 hours of runtime per charge.For its 360-degree lighting array, the Lamp 2 Pro uses 210 LED beads, each individually controllable and capable of displaying both color and up to 600 lumens of tunable white light. There are a staggering 100 presents to choose from — all of which are strikingly vivid, 16 of which sync with music — and you can quickly swap between them using the Govee app over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (it also works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home). The Matter-equipped lamp also offers a slew of ambient sounds, from chirping birds and waves to a crackling fireplace, just in case you’d rather wind down than rave at the end of the night.As for the integrated JBL speaker, it’s good enough. It produces clear highs and decent mids, making it well-suited for listening to the radio or your favorite podcast. The bass response is pretty limited, though it does get loud enough to use for your next backyard shindig.Read our full Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro review.More Verge summer favoritesOwala’s FreeSip Sway, a frequent recommendation in our gift guides and my personal water bottle, is on sale at Amazon and Target in several vibrant hues for $27.99 ($7 off), matching its lowest price to date. Personally, I consider the 30-ounce drinking vessel to be the best of both worlds, as it features a built-in straw and a wide-mouth spout for when you prefer a swig. It’s also tapered just enough at the bottom that it fits in your standard cupholder, which was my biggest gripe with prior models.By most accounts, wildfire season in the American West is not looking good. However, if you are in a smoke-prone area or you’re simply not a fan of pollen, Coway’s Airmega Mighty AP-1512HH is available from Amazon, Walmart, and Coway for $159.99 ($80 off). That’s not the best price we’ve seen in recent months — it dropped to $154 toward the end of April — but it’s still a great price for an efficient air purifier with a relatively compact design and a three-stage filtration system, including a true HEPA filter.The Thermacell E90 Rechargeable Mosquito Repellent is down to $38.49 (about $17 off) at Amazon, which is the lowest price we’ve seen this year. The device’s 20-foot protection zone is probably one of the best solutions I’ve found for keeping unwanted bugs at bay, though I wish it came with more than one 12-hour cartridge and a charging dock like the E65 (also on sale at Amazon for $39.99). Still, you do get about nine hours of use per charge once topped off via a USB cable, which is plenty for surviving most summer evenings.

Google officially filed its appeal of the federal ruling deeming it an illegal search monopolist, arguing the decision "crashed" through legal guardrails. "Google just prevailed in the marketplace fair and square," it writes in its legal filing.Google had already said it would appeal the ruling, which includes both the August 2024 decision about its illegal monopolization and the September 2025 remedies decision that ordered it to share some search data with competitors. The appeal brief filed Friday gives more insight into how the company plans to fight Judge Amit Mehta's ruling."We are asking the court to overturn this flawed decision …Read the full story at The Verge.

On Thursday, Waymo customers opened up the app and noticed something unusual: no more freeway service. Trips that would normally take a few minutes on the freeway were suddenly projected to last much longer via local roads. The company later confirmed that it had suspended freeway driving across all of its US markets over concerns about construction zones. It had also paused service in Atlanta and San Antonio over lingering issues regarding flooded roads. The news comes after several of the company's robotaxis were spotted driving through flooded roads at elevated speeds in Texas, forcing Waymo to issue a software recall for its entire fle …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you’ve set your mind on putting together a NAS for your home lab, there are a bunch of factors you’ll want to consider. On the hardware front, the drive bays and Ethernet provisions are the most obvious factors you’ll want to keep an eye out for, with the RAM capacity being just as important for ZFS-powered pools. But the operating system you choose for your NAS matters at least as much as its specs, if not more.

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. It's now been more than a week since Trump Mobile announced that phones would "start shipping this week."Last week Trump Mobile announced that the T1 Phone was ready to start shipping by the end of the week. Almost two weeks later, there's no sign that's actually happened - and the company still hasn't shipped either of the two phones ordered by The Verge.Depending on where you get your news, you might believe the company when it says the phone has now launched: The phone is "here" according t …Read the full story at The Verge.

I like Claude Code, but I don't like its limitations. You're largely restricted to Anthropic's models like Claude Sonnet and Opus. They're excellent models, but they can get expensive quickly, even for relatively simple tasks. Claude Code is also closed-source. Whether you're an enterprise concerned about data governance or an individual who prefers transparent tools, that can be a drawback.

AMD officially confirmed on Thursday last week that FSR 4.1 will be coming to RDNA 3 GPUs in July 2026, with RDNA 2 hardware following in early 2027. It's a game-changing feature expansion by itself, but it becomes considerably more significant than the announcement lets on.

48,000 Samsung workers had threatened to strike unless bonus caps were lifted. | Photo: Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images Details have emerged about a tentative deal struck between Samsung and semiconductor employees who had threatened to strike. The deal reportedly makes some workers eligible for average annual bonuses of $340,000.The proposed 18-day strike had hinged on Samsung's bonus cap for employees in the semiconductor division and followed a substantial rise in the possible bonuses available to employees of SK Hynix, another South Korean chipmaker enjoying a boom thanks to demand for AI components.Under the terms of the new deal, Reuters reports that all ​chip workers will receive 50 percent of their annual salary as a regular bonus in cash. Further …Read the full story at The Verge.

Yusuf Mehdi launching Copilot Plus PCs in 2024. | Image: Getty Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, is leaving the company after 35 years. Mehdi announced his departure in an internal memo on Thursday, noting that he will leave Microsoft next year. He will remain focused on marketing for Windows, Copilot for consumers and the Microsoft 365 consumer business until 2027."As I thought about this decision, one thing was crystal clear: I want to ensure I have the time and space to set the team - and our mission - up for continued success," says Mehdi in his memo. "We are in the middle of an incredibly important moment for Microsoft and for our customers." …Read the full story at The Verge.

Like most developers, I have spent the last few months hunting for the ultimate VS Code successor. I have jumped between the slick context-awareness of Cursor and the command-line power of Claude Code.

Best Buy’s Memorial Day sale includes a good deal on a massive OLED TV. The 77-inch LG B5 is down to $1,499.99 (originally $2,999.99), and the purchase includes a $200 Best Buy gift card. I’m a 55-inch TV kind of person, but if you’ve got the budget — and the wall space — this is a great deal.LG B5 OLED TVLG’s B5 TV is a great way to get OLED picture quality for less. It features support for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, along with a 120Hz panel and four HDMI 2.1 ports for hooking up the latest gaming consoles. It also runs LG’s webOS platform, supports Amazon Alexa, and provides easy access to a wide range of popular streaming apps.Where to Buy: $2999.99 $1499.99 at Best Buy (77-inch, includes $200 gift card)The last-gen B5 is the more budget-friendly alternative to LG’s C5 OLED TV, kind of like how the iPhone 17E is to the iPhone 17. It has many of the same features, including small bezels, a stunning panel with infinite contrast ratio, and four HDMI 2.1 ports to let your consoles run wild at 4K with up to 120Hz refresh rate on the TV. However, it’s less bright than the C5, and isn’t as good at upscaling content. The C5 also has a faster 144Hz refresh rate, though I don’t think those features are worth its current $400 premium over the B5.If you’re having second thoughts about the 77-inch size, smaller sizes of the B5 are surprisingly affordable, too. The 48-inch model is $649.99, while the 65-inch model might just be the biggest OLED you can currently get for under $1,000.

Microsoft is rolling out Office app updates next week that allow users to disable a floating Copilot button. The button appeared in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in recent weeks, and floats above the bottom right-hand section of spreadsheets or documents. It has angered many Excel users in particular, because it obstructs cells and you can't fully disable it."While we are seeing increased engagement with Copilot in Office apps with this update, we are also hearing the need for more control over how Copilot appears," admits Katie Kivett, partner group product manager at Microsoft. "While one of our goals is to evolve Copilot to be more adapti …Read the full story at The Verge.