When Microsoft announced its latest round of Xbox price bumps in June, it only gave US pricing. Now we know the pricing increases for the EU and UK, and they're dramatic. Depending on the model, Xbox prices are increasing by up to €200 or £170. The 1TB Xbox Series X with a disc drive is going up by over 30 percent from £499.99 / €599.99 to £669.99 / €799.99. The 512GB Xbox Series S is getting a price increase of over 43 percent, jumping from £299.99 / €349.99 to £429.99 / €499.99.
While other consoles have received price bumps as RAM and storage prices skyrocket due to demand from the AI industry, none have been quite as dramatic as Microso …
The 15-inch Skylight Calendar 2 can stand on a table or mounted to the wall. | Image: Skylight
The start of a new school year can feel hectic, as parents juggle their kids’ classes, extracurriculars and sports on top of work, appointments, and other responsibilities. It’s easy for things to slip through the cracks, but Skylight’s shared smart calendars can help keep everyone on track, and from August 2nd through August 9th they’re up to $90 off.
The sale includes the 10-inch Skylight Calendar for $119.99 ($50 off), the 15-inch Skylight Calendar 2 for $259.99 ($20 off), and the 27-inch Skylight Calendar Max for $479.99 ($90 off). The 10-inch model takes up the least amount of space, though the newer, larger 15-inch Calendar 2 features faster performance, a brighter display, and swappable magnetic frames. The 27-inch Calendar Max, meanwhile, offers the sharpest and largest screen and must be mounted to the wall (the other models can stand on a table or be mounted), making it the easiest option for large families to view from across the room.
Regardless of which model you choose, every Skylight Calendar includes the same set of organizational features. Each member of your household can have their own color-coded profile, and each can sync events from Google, Outlook, Apple, Cozi, or Yahoo calendars. You can also create shared lists for groceries, chores, and other to-dos that everyone can access from the calendar or the companion mobile app, and even send your grocery list to Instacart with a couple of taps. Built-in weather forecasts also can help you plan around upcoming events, and you can also share calendar access with family members and trusted contacts.
You get even more perks if you subscribe to the $79 per year Plus Plan (the first month of the service is free to try). Skylight uses AI to automatically turn emails, photos, flyers, and spreadsheets into calendar entries. It also adds meal planning, tools for assigning and rewarding completed chores, and a mode that displays your photos like a digital picture frame.
Tough sell. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
The HP HyperX Omen 15, which I first saw at CES, replaces the HP Victus 15, a longtime bestselling budget gaming laptop. The Victus cost just $800, or less when on sale, and was a good entry point to decent laptop gaming.
The Omen 15 has nice little upgrades over the Victus. Its RTX 5050 Laptop GPU can play 2026's latest games, albeit on low-ish settings. But it's also got a brighter 16:10 aspect ratio display with higher refresh rate, and a 1080p webcam to make it a little better for non-gaming stuff.
I'd call it a working-class gaming laptop, but thanks to RAMageddon, the Omen 15 starts at $1,200 - a far cry from the $800 that made its …
Illustrators have spent years sounding the alarm about generative artificial intelligence startups training their models on artists' work without permission. They've pointed out how the practice is tantamount to theft, and in response, many gen AI boosters have argued that it's necessary for the technology's evolution. This has led to contentious legal battles, but it's also given rise to a new wave of AI startups like Pippa that market their services as being more ethical than the competition.
Like most companies selling access to text-to-video models, Pippa's main product is short bursts of user-generated footage that can be cobbled toget …
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on smartphones and Android, follow Dominic Preston. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepbackhere.
How it started
Believe it or not, it didn't all start with Samsung. Royole, a now-bankrupt manufacturer of flexible displays, was the first to release a commercial folding phone, the "charmingly awful" FlexPai. Samsung's first Galaxy Fold followed a year later, plagued by a variety of faults that saw review units break within days. That launch went so badly that it prompted Chinese riva …
Android Headlines claims to have the specs and price for the entire Pixel 11 lineup. What the site shared basically lines up with everything else that we've heard in the lead-up to the August 12th event. The Pixel 11 is expected to get a $100 price hike, starting at $899, but will come with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB in the base model. While the entire lineup will sport the new Tensor G6 and Titan M3 chips, the base model Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL are both getting that rumored RAM cut to just 12GB, along with price increases to $1,099 and $1,299, respectively.
The Pixel 11 will supposedly ditch the telephoto lens and settle fo …
Angela Nissel smiles through the pain. | Image: Angela Nissel
Angela Nissel's latest book, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead, is my kind of memoir. Sure, it's a deeply emotional tale about caring for a terminally ill parent. But it's delivered with the sort of gallows humor that I often turn to to get me through tough times.
Of course, that sort of dark humor should come as no surprise from Nissel. She first made a splash with The Broke Diaries, which grew out of a blog she kept in college detailing her daily struggles and, at times, embarrassment at being a broke student. Eventually she went on to produce and write for hit shows including Scrubs and The Boondocks.
That cover art is almost certainly AI, too. | Image: Fenix Flexin
Fenix Flexin is best known as a member of Shoreline Mafia, a rap duo from Los Angeles. But he's recently found solo success with the track "Rubberz," which has climbed to number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100. Almost immediately, though, questions were raised about the song's origins, with many speculating that it was largely, if not entirely, generated by AI. Fenix has denied those accusations, but done little to dispel them.
Part of the suspicion is certainly due to the fact that the song is a dramatic left turn. Fenix has primarily trafficked in trap-influencedWest Coastrap. "Rubberz," on the other hand, is heavily influenced by '80s UK s …
A bootleg of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was up on X for over seven hours before eventually being pulled. During that time, it reached over 5.9 million accounts and accumulated over 143,000 likes. Other accounts have reposted the leaked film, but none have lasted particularly long, as Disney now seems to be on top of issuing takedown requests.
The leak is unlikely to slow down the box office juggernaut, which is already shattering records. It raked in $72 million in previews this week. The previous record holder was Avengers: Endgame, which grossed $60 million during its previews way back in 2019. Endgame went on to set staggering records for …
Donald Trump speaks during the House Republican Party member retreat. | Image: Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
The FBI, the EPA, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have stopped short of officially blaming Iran for a spate of cyberattacks on Minnesota's water systems, but consensus is that Iran is likely behind them. That, of course, hasn't stopped Donald Trump from sharing his own theory - that Governor Tim Walz is to blame and telling reporters that "I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack."
Trump's comments come shortly after the FBI issued a warning that the cyberattacks on American infrastructure were spreading to other states. In Minnesota alone, at least 30 community water systems had been targeted in what a …
Oli Freke is a musician and journalist whose works have appeared in Sound on Sound, The Quietus, and Mixmag. This has included using math to explore the melodic potential of the Western 12-tone scale and deep dives on effects plug-ins. He's even written a book tracing the evolution of the synthesizer from 1963 through 1995, charting the change from analog to digital and back.
His new project is Beat Gems, a coffee-table visual history of drum machines from publisher Bjooks. Like other Bjooks titles, Beat Gems is loaded with gorgeous photos, fascinating historical tidbits, and practical advice for making the most of your gear, whether it's …
Teenage Engineering’s OP-XY has a huge number of functions. | Photo by Terrence O’Brien / The Verge
With elements from synthesizers, loopers, and effects pedals, Teenage Engineering’s devices lie somewhere between musical instrument and modern art. These grooveboxes, as they’re often called, are capable of helping you producesongs in real time from a single unit, with an eye-catching design language. A wide swath of the brand’s offerings are 30 percent off at Guitar Center when you use code TE30, atAmazon when you click the on-page coupon for whichever product you’re interested in, and B&H Photo (discount applied automatically at checkout). The terms for the Amazon coupon claim it will run through August 8th, 2026, while Guitar Center deal is listed as “limited time.”
The OP-XY is one of the flagship units, which my colleague Terrence O’Brien described as a “greatest hits tour for Teenage Engineering.” Normally $2,299, the discount code brings the price down to a more palatable $1,609.30, which is a lot cheaper, but still pretty pricey for an aspiring musician. That said, it’s loaded with features for both production and live performance, and has a premium, durable build quality that reflects its price point. It’s currently sold out at Amazon, but in stock and discounted at Guitar Center and B&H Photo. Read our Teenage Engineering OP-XY review.
The model I’m most tempted by is the EP-40 Riddim, a compact sampler with a library of over 400 built-in synth settings and effects particularly well-suited for producing dub and reggae music, plus 128MB of storage for your own loops and recorded sounds. It’s a bit less intimidating for a beginner than the OP-XY, both in terms of price point and features, and itstighter genre focus may help concentrate your efforts and onboarding. Normally $329, the EP-40 is $230.30 at Amazon, Guitar Center, and B&H Photo during the promotion.
Warner Bros. Discovery has filed suit against Amazon, accusing it of illegally poaching employees, including Pia Barlow, former senior VP for originals marketing. In the complaint, Warner says that "Amazon has chosen to ride on the coattails of other well-established Hollywood mainstays," and that it engaged in a "lawless employee shopping spree." Deadline reports that Francesca Orsi, HBO's head of drama series and films, is believed to be one of the other Amazon targets.
Barlow is set to begin a new position as Amazon's head of original series marketing on August 3rd. According to Warner's suit, Barlow was under contract until October 31st …
Last month, Louisville, Kentucky-based creator Luke The Maker showed off a bizarre, 3D-printed, pistol-shaped case design for the popular minimalist Xteink X4 e-reader. The X4 lies vertically atop the plastic gun's slide, with a cutout on the side to access its buttons. Though the frame was digitally modeled after a real gun, this "case" can't shoot bullets. Squeezing the trigger does nothing at all. He calls his contraption the "Gundle."
In a post showing off the wacky accessory, Luke (whose last name is Blackford) can be seen flipping through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and J.D. Sali …
What Surrounds Us takes its title literally. You play as a circle surrounding a hole in its middle - it looks like a donut with frosting. You work together with other sentient moving circles, sometimes helping them joyfully meet with others. And you traverse a large map that's composed entirely of, you guessed it, a series of circles. But the circles everywhere aren't just an artistic choice; they underscore the game's themes about working in connection with the environment and the things around us.
Despite the trippy design, What Surrounds Us has a familiar format. I kept feeling echoes of The Legend of Zelda as I trekked across three dist …
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 137, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy phone season, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This “piercing pillow” also works great with earbuds you probably already own.
Tech companies love to sell us expensive gadgets to solve all of life's little problems. Sleepbuds sold by the likes of Anker and Ozlo are a good example. These miniature marvels of engineering sit flush in the ear, and allow side-sleepers to doze off listening to podcasts, audiobooks, music, or white noise without annoying their partner. But why pay over $200 for a second pair of highly specialized buds when you can spend a fraction of that for a product that never needs charging, never loses its Bluetooth connection, and won't need replacing in a few years after the battery wears out?
Piercing pillows, as the name suggests, promise pain …
Remember when Meta was planning to charge a $20 monthly subscription fee for the smart glasses feature that lets people hear each other more clearly - even though that feature runs locally on your glasses and doesn't require the cloud? Meta has paused those plans, spokesperson Tyler Yee confirms to The Verge.
The company is not giving up on the idea of a subscription fee for certain features - that's still moving forward. Yee confirms that "some premium features will be subscription-based over time."
But Conversation Focus, the accessibility feature, "will remain available for free through our Early Access Program for early testers while w …
Meta's smart glasses have been a PR headache for the company. Public backlash has been swift, and fierce; people are concerned about the erosion of privacy and expansion of surveillance. Some especially bad actors are using the glasses to film themselves "pranking" random strangers. Women have become unsuspecting social media content for men filming themselves hitting on them without their knowledge. When your product is being referred to as "pervert glasses," you have a problem on your hands.
On Thursday, Business Insider reported that Meta was taking the fairly extraordinary step of banning some content filmed with Meta glasses from the c …
Qualcomm sent a letter to customers on Friday warning of plans to increase its prices by "a percentage in the double digits," Bloomberg reports. The price hikes will go into effect starting with products shipped after September 1st.
Qualcomm claims it has "exhausted its ability to absorb higher costs from suppliers," as ongoing component shortages continue to drive up prices. The company also said it attempted to source components from alternate suppliers prior to announcing the price hikes.
As Bloomberg notes, Qualcomm's price increases will likely have a ripple effect, particularly for smartphones. Qualcomm's chips power everything fro …
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