You can save over $50 on the latest pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which offer improved video quality and battery life. | Photo: Photo by Colt Bradley / The Verge If you’ve been curious about Ray-Ban’s Meta smart glasses, right now they’re on sale in Meta’s biggest deal event outside Black Friday. As part of the company’s Summer Sale event, which runs through May 26th, the original model is on sale starting at $224.25 ($74 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Meta, matching its best price to date. The newer, second-gen glasses are also discounted, and you can grab a pair for $322.25 ($57 off), which is a new low price, at Amazon, Best Buy, and from Meta.Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1) smart glassesWhere to Buy: $299 $224.25 at Amazon $299 $224.25 at Best Buy $299.99 $224.99 at MetaRay-Ban Meta Gen 2Where to Buy: $379 $322.15 at Amazon $379 $322.15 at Best Buy $379 $322.15 at MetaNo matter which model you buy, you’re getting largely the same core experience. As far as smart glasses go, both are pretty stylish and look like a normal pair of Ray-Bans. They also offer the same feature set, letting you snap hands-free 1080p photos and short videos as well as livestream straight to Instagram or Facebook. Both glasses also double as surprisingly capable open-ear headphones, with speaker quality that’s great for listening to music while letting you stay aware of your surroundings. You can also take calls through a five-mic array that does a good job of keeping your voice sounding clear.You also get access to all of Meta’s AI assistant features. If you’re planning to travel this summer, for example, the assistant can translate supported languages like Spanish, French, and Italian in real time, and answer questions about landmarks you’re looking at. They can also come in handy in everyday life, helping you brainstorm recipes based on whatever ingredients you already have in your fridge, reminding you about upcoming appointments, scanning QR codes, and more.The main difference is that the newer model shoots sharper 3K video at 30fps, up from 1440 x 1920 at 30fps, which translates to slightly sharper video and improved image quality. The Gen 2 also can last up to eight hours with heavy use, which is twice that of the original pair’s, and means you can likely comfortably wear them all day before recharging.Read our first-gen and second-gen Ray-Ban Meta glasses reviews.

There’s certainly some retro appeal to Insta360’s new action camera accessory. The pill-shaped Insta360 Go 3S 4K action camera launched in June 2024 as an updated version of the 2.7K Go 3 that debuted a year prior. While last year’s Go Ultra introduced a redesign with a larger sensor and higher frame rates, the Go 3S has stuck around as a smaller but still very capable alternative. To broaden its appeal, the action cam is now available with a new optical viewfinder accessory for framing shots when using it as a handheld camera, but you may be better off splurging on Insta360’s more expensive dock that adds an LCD screen.The Retro Viewfinder accessory is available today through Insta360’s online store on its own for $47.99, or as part of a new Go 3S Retro Bundle starting at $299.99 that includes the 64GB version of the action cam. That’s cheaper than the $349.99 Standard Bundle that pairs the same version of the Go 3S with Insta360’s Action Pod dock.Insta360 GO 3S Retro BundleWhere to Buy: $299.99 at Insta360 (64GB) $319.99 at Insta360 (128GB)As with most tiny action cameras, the Insta360 Go 3S lacks a screen of its own. You can connect it to a smartphone app to see live previews and adjust camera settings, but the Go 3S is designed to be mounted where you wouldn’t be able to see a screen (like atop a helmet) where it captures nearly all the action in front of you using a wide-angle lens.The new Retro Viewfinder is an attempt to repurpose the action cam as a handheld shooter that lets you frame subjects like a classic camera. It works similar to the Insta360’s Action Pod where the Go 3S slots into the front of the accessory. There’s no spring-loaded latches to keep it securely attached, but a strong magnet kept the camera in place during a vigorous shake test.Instead of holding the accessory up to your eye to frame shots, you hold it at chest level and look down into the viewfinder. The front panel of the Go 3S functions as your shutter button, snapping photos with a single press and starting and stopping video recording with a double press. It was designed this way to create a “vintage shooting experience inspired by classic film cameras,” according to Insta360.  And while framing and snapping photos this way does have some novelty (at one point I felt a little like Ansel Adams as I framed a row of community mailboxes instead of mountains), Insta360’s execution comes with some frustrations. The viewing angle is extremely limited, and tilting the Retro Viewfinder just 15 to 20 degrees front, back, or side to side results in you seeing nothing at all. The image in the viewfinder is also flipped horizontally. Even after a week of practice, I struggled to intuitively know how to move or adjust the angle of the camera to position a subject exactly where I want them in frame, or to just ensure a shot is level. The process still feels like trial-and-error.The Go 3S is an excellent camera, but its wide field of view doesn’t help the Retro Viewfinder. As a result, the accessory doesn’t provide an accurate preview of the photos and videos you’re capturing. Walking around my neighborhood one evening, I tried to snap photos that focused on tree lines and a beautiful cloudy sky but ended up with images that included random people, houses, and cars that I deliberately tried to keep out of frame. It’s easy to fix with a quick crop in the Insta360 app, but it feels counterintuitive for an accessory designed to make framing more deliberate. There’s still an element of shoot and see what you get.Framing is more accurate when capturing selfies with the Retro Viewfinder, but still tricky. You can use the front lens as a selfie mirror, but it’s difficult to frame photos because of dark reflections — especially indoors. Battery life is limited, even with an included clunky clip-on battery pack/charger that more than doubles the Go 3S’ battery life from 310mAH to over 700mAh. I was able to grab about 150 photos during an hour walk before the camera completely died. Capturing 4K video will drain it even faster, as does connecting it to the Insta360 mobile app.Changing any settings, including selecting film-emulating filters or different color profiles, requires a direct Wi-Fi connection to your smartphone. The Retro Viewfinder includes a hidden NFC tag that streamlines launching and connecting to the app with a tap (the process still takes about 15 to 20 seconds to fully connect), but it’s still far less convenient than pairing the action camera with Insta360’s Action Pod whose touchscreen provides on-device access to most settings.Turning the Insta360 Go 3S into a pocketable handheld camera is a clever idea given how popular tiny retro cameras like Kodak’s Charmera still are. But the execution here isn’t ideal. The Retro Viewfinder succeeds in making the Go 3S easier to hold, but its other functionality is often frustrating. On its own, the accessory is cheap enough to consider if you already own the Go 3S, but spending an extra $50 for a bundle with Insta360’s Action Pod will serve you better in the long run no matter how you plan to use the camera.Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge

ChatGPT has a few paid tiers that offer better response times, an expanded daily limit, and the latest language models. I used ChatGPT Plus for nearly six months while working on a social media content project that required extensive use of the AI tool. It was a simple workflow that involved fact checks, content ideas, and image generation. The free option was slow to respond, and the image generation times were abysmal, which prompted the team lead to allocate ChatGPT Plus subscription budgets.

The tyranny of software is almost over. Since the first computer programmers wrote the first computer programs, we, the users of that software, have been forced to live in the worlds those programs create. The features are the features. The design is the design. Want something else, something better? Learn to code, I guess.Until now, the people making a given piece of software - mostly well-paid professional developers - have rarely been the same as the ones using it: lawyers, doctors, churches, schools, me. (Where they overlap most directly is with developer tools, which are often the best and most passionately designed software you'll …Read the full story at The Verge.

Cloudflare was already handling my DNS, DoH, and tunnels. Tailscale handled the rest: CGNAT, remote homelab access, and phone-PC connectivity, and I had no major complaints. Then I asked myself, if Cloudflare was already handling most of the stack, did I still need another company handling remote connectivity?

The contextual suggestions feature has started appearing on some Pixel 10 series devices. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Google is rolling out a new AI-powered "contextual suggestions" feature to Android users that recommends actions based on your daily habits, Android Authority reports. The feature is designed to predict your next action based on your location and habits - such as allowing music streaming apps to suggest your usual playlist when you arrive at the gym for your regular workout.Contextual suggestions were previously available in the Play Services beta, but now Google seems to have expanded it to the stable channel. While Google hasn't announced that the feature has officially launched, some reporters at Android Authority and 9to5Google are see …Read the full story at The Verge.

In January, Colorado lawmakers introduced a proposal to make operating systems collect users' ages and pass them to app developers. The bill, SB26-051, had clearly been designed for commercial platforms like iOS and Android - one of numerous plans to age-gate the internet through users' devices. It was intended to provide information that would let developers disable age-inappropriate experiences for kids. But as it made the rounds online, Linux laptop maker Carl Richell read the proposal with dismay. Carl Richell is the founder and CEO of Denver-based System76, which also develops the Pop!_OS Linux distribution. The law, he realized, woul …Read the full story at The Verge.

I spent a long time building the gaming PC I wanted, iterating over the last decade and finally landing on a PC that the younger me could have only dreamed of. I've got an Nvidia RTX 5090 and an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and it handles every game that I throw at it without breaking a sweat. On top of that, I do a lot of local heavy computational workloads, like machine learning, data analysis, and development.

Microsoft first started opening up access to Claude Code in December, inviting thousands of its own developers to use Anthropic's AI coding tool daily. It was part of an effort to get project managers, designers, and other employees to experiment with coding for the first time, and sources tell me that Claude Code has proved very popular inside Microsoft over the past six months. Perhaps a little too popular, as Microsoft is now preparing to walk back its Claude Code push.I understand that Microsoft is planning to remove most of its Claude Code licenses and push many of its developers to use Copilot CLI instead. While Claude Code has been …Read the full story at The Verge.

Week after week, Anthropic's message limits have become harder to work around. For free tier users, the situation has been particularly unforgiving, as not only are they subject to reduced access during peak weekday hours, Anthropic's new higher usage limits announced last week would offer no relief whatsoever.

Google Maps is the default navigation app for most people, and the integration of Gemini has elevated the app's features and expanded its functionality. At the same time, it still has plenty of issues.

For the last week, I've spent every evening unwinding by speeding through the Japanese countryside, blaring Babymetal as I take in the sights. Forza Horizon 6 is ostensibly a racing game, one in which you play an up-and-coming driver intent on making a name for themselves. But, like the rest of the series, it's also an open world, one in which you can spend as much - or, in my case, substantially more - time exploring as you do racing. And it's that element that's substantially improved in Horizon 6. It's a combination of structure and setting: The fictional take on Japan isn't just the largest map in a Horizon game, but it's also incredibly …Read the full story at The Verge.