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You can now use the Game Boy Camera with your phone

Several smartphones showing screenshots of Epilogue’s Flashback app being used with the Game Boy Camera.
You don’t need a Game Boy Camera or a GB Operator dock to use Epilogue’s new Flashback app. | Image: Epilogue

The $50 GB Operator is an accessory that lets you connect, play, and authenticate Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges on PCs and other devices. Now it's getting some new functionality for the Game Boy Camera. After turning the Game Boy Camera into a charmingly awful desktop webcam two years ago, device-maker Epilogue has just released an iOS/Android mobile app so you can take photos while the Game Boy accessory is connected to your smartphone through the GB Operator.

The Game Boy Camera was a terrible camera even by 1998 standards when it was released. It captured 0.01434-megapixel images in just four shades of gray an …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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HBO Max’s annual plans are 28 percent off right now

Screenshot from the movie Sinners featuring Michael B Jordan.
You can stream Sinners and other recent Oscar winners for less with HBO Max's sale. | Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The easiest way to save on a streaming service is often to pay for a year upfront, which HBO Max is currently making a lot cheaper. Through July 15, 2026, new and returning subscribers can get 28 percent off any of HBO Max’s yearly plans, bringing the ad-supported tier down to $78.99 ($31 off) per year, the Standard plan to $132.99 ($52 off) per year, and the Premium tier to $164.99 per year ($65 off). That’s up to 40 percent less than paying month to month.

All three plans include access to HBO Max’s extensive library of movies and TV shows, including films from Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, A24, Studio Ghibli, and Turner Classic Movies. Subscribers can also stream recent Oscar winners and nominees like titles like Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Marty Supreme, alongside other HBO Max originals. On the TV side, you’ll also get access to popular series like The Pitt, Hacks, Euphoria, and Heated Rivalry, as well as longtime favorites such as Game of Thrones, Friends, and The Big Bang Theory. 

The biggest differences come down to features. The ad-supported Basic plan lets you stream on up to two devices simultaneously, while the Standard plan lets you download up to 30 shows and movies  for offline viewing. It also includes access to live sports from the likes of the MLB, U.S Soccer, college football, NHL, and more. The Premium tier lets you stream on up to four devices at once, supports 4K and Dolby Atmos, and increases offline downloads to 100 titles.

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Snap’s Specs look good on nobody

Snap's new smart glasses are probably the most impressive bit of face-computer technology we've seen. They're not VR-headset huge; they don't have a big charging puck; thanks to Snap's many years of AR lens development, they're likely to have a lot of features right out of the box. (Yes, they're $2,195, but that may just be what all this tech costs right now.) Snap is clearly at the front of this race.

And then… you see the pictures. The pictures of Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wearing the new Specs, as the enormous and heavy stems smash down on his ears. The pictures of models and athletes wearing Specs, carefully posed to hide the obvious weigh …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Wearable glove turns data into heat and touch for more personal insights

University of Adelaide researchers have developed a wearable glove that uses heat, touch and physical objects to transform data into a sensory experience. The prototype, called ThermoPhy, was developed as part of a remote internship run by the Australian Research Center for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE) at the University of Adelaide.

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This robotic self-driving toilet comes to you

A person steadies themselves using the arm of the Xiaoban robot toilet.

During a recent expo in Shanghai that focuses on elderly care, assistive devices, and rehabilitation medicine, a Chinese company called Yueban debuted a smart toilet that does something we haven't seen before; it comes to you. The autonomous self-driving Xiaoban toilet was designed to improve accessibility for those dealing with mobility issues due to age, injuries, or disabilities. It's expected to sell for ¥28,999 yuan in China, or nearly $4,300, according to IT Home, but global availability hasn't been confirmed.

The Xiaoban toilet uses technology similar to what's found in the most advanced robot vacuums. A suite of sensors, including l …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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A year of Walmart Plus is half off ahead of Prime Day

Walmart Plus logo on a graphic blue and yellow background.

Do you often find yourself shopping at the big blue, or perhaps you’re just looking for an alternative to Amazon? Either way, Walmart is currently offering a year of its Walmart Plus subscription for $49, which typically costs $98. The membership includes perks like free delivery on orders over $35, free next-day and two-day shipping from Walmart.com when available, and free home pickup for returns. Importantly, it also grants you early access to sales, including the upcoming Walmart Deals starting on June 22nd that coincide with Prime Day 2026.

Walmart Plus

Walmart Plus is a membership program that offers exclusive benefits, like free delivery from your store, free shipping with no order minimum, and more.
A Walmart Plus stock image with groceries and other kitchen items.

Where to Buy:

In addition to the aforementioned shopping perks, the subscription bundles in a handful of other offers and memberships. For instance, you can choose from either ad-supported Paramount Plus or Peacock, with the option to switch every 90 days. You’ll also get a Pawp membership for remote veterinary care, discounts on gas at Walmart and Sam’s Club, and even a free Whopper with any purchase from Burger King every three months.

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The Verge’s guide to Amazon Prime Day 2026

Gadgets laid out in a grid

Amazon Prime Day 2026 lifts off on June 23rd and will hopefully deliver the best deals of the summer. We’ve been covering the most notable pre-Prime Day discounts happening, and come next week, we’ll be bringing you many more deals — ones we can’t tell you about just yet. As usual, expect to see price drops on a range of product categories, including smart home, headphones, smartwatches, monitors, 4K TVs, outdoorsy gear, and more. The sale will conclude at 3:01AM ET on June 27th.

We’ve put together this package so you can see all of our sprawling coverage in one convenient place. It contains not just our favorite one-off deals and category roundups to come, but also some shopping tips that might help you price-match purchases, and be the first to find amazing deals.

Category Deals

Breakout Tech Deals

News and Tips

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The 16 best robot vacuum deals available during Prime Day

Narwal Flow 2
The Narwal Flow 2 is down to a new low price. | Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

If you’ve been wanting to buy a robot vacuum but have been put off by how much it can cost to get a good one, now is not a bad time to start looking. We’re now on day two of Prime Day, and Amazon, along with retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, is offering discounts on several models we’ve tested from brands like Roborock, Dreame, and Shark. Whether you’re looking for a basic robot vacuum that can cut down on the amount of vacuuming you have to do or a high-end model that can wash and dry its own mop pads and climb over room thresholds, there are deals available across a wide range of price points.


Roborock Saros 10

Roborock’s Saros 10 combines powerful 22,000Pa suction with excellent dual spinning mop pads that do a great job tackling dried-on messes. It can also automatically leave its mop pads at the dock before vacuuming carpets. The newer Saros 20 offers more powerful suction and can tackle taller thresholds, but the Saros 10 is still a great cleaning machine.

Where to Buy:

  • The Roborock Q10 S5 Plus is down to $264.99 ($285 off) at Amazon, which matches its lowest price to date. The Q10 S5 Plus is one of our favorite budget-friendly robot vacuum / mop hybrids, combining good AI-powered obstacle avoidance with automatic carpet detection. It also features a vibrating mop that does a solid job scrubbing hard floors while lifting itself over rugs, and the set includes a self-emptying dock for added convenience. It can’t match the suction power or tall threshold-climbing abilities of pricier models like the Saros 20, but this is a good value under $300.
  • The Tapo RV30 Max Plus is another excellent budget-friendly option that’s on sale. It includes a self-emptying dock and costs $199.99 ($200 off) at Amazon. You don’t get AI-powered obstacle avoidance with this one, and its 5,200Pa suction isn’t the most powerful we’ve seen, but it’s still a capable cleaning machine with a wide mop pad that performs surprisingly well. The RV30 Max also offers excellent lidar-based navigation, support for room-specific cleaning, and Matter compatibility, allowing you to control it through all the major smart home platforms.

Eufy Omni C28

The Eufy Omni C28 combines excellent mopping performance with a small self-cleaning dock that’s well suited for apartments and other smaller spaces. It navigates around furniture and into tight areas with ease, while its roller mop does a great job cleaning hard floors.

Where to Buy:

  • Dreame’s X60 Max Ultra is on sale for $1,344.99 ($355 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date. We highly recommend the Dreame X60 Ultra for homes with lots of carpet, as it combines powerful 35,000Pa suction with dual rubber brushes that excel at lifting hair and debris. It can also climb over tall thresholds and thick rugs with ease, while its spinning mop pads do a good job on hard floors and automatically detach when vacuuming carpet. Other highlights include quiet mop washing and drying along with a slim design that can fit under low furniture.

Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow

Roborock’s first roller-mop robot vacuum, the Curv 2 Flow, features flagship specs at a mid-range price. Including excellent mopping, a retractable mop cover, 20,000Pa suction, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and a compact design.

Where to Buy:

  • You can pick up the Dreame X60 Max Ultra’s predecessor, the Dreame X50 Ultra, for $849.99 ($750 off) at Amazon, which is $50 more than its best price to date. While its 20,000Pa suction isn’t quite as powerful as the X60 Ultra’s and it can’t tackle especially high thresholds as well, it’s still an excellent robot vacuum-mop hybrid. Its edge cleaning also isn’t quite as effective as the X60 Ultra’s, but you’re otherwise getting many of the same features for a lot less.
  • Dreame’s L40 Ultra Gen 2 is on sale for $384.99 ($265 off) at Amazon and directly from Dreame with code L40UGWS. It delivers powerful 25,000Pa suction, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and a self-cleaning dock that empties the dustbin, washes the mop, and refills its water tanks. Unlike the X50 Ultra, however, it lacks the ability to climb high thresholds or stairs.

Narwal Flow 2

Our pick for the best robot vacuum-mop if you have all hardwood floors is the Narwal Flow 2. A superb mop with a wide flat roller pad and an excellent vacuum, the Flow 2 also has top-notch navigation and obstacle detection. Its sleek base station is also less of an eyesore than most.

Where to Buy:

  • The original Narwal Flow is available for $649.99 ($500 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date. Like the Flow 2, it offers a self-cleaning roller mop along with a dock that automatically empties the dustbin and washes the mop and a tangle-resistant brush. The tradeoff is that it lacks the Flow 2’s upgraded AI-powered obstacle avoidance, uses lower-temperature water when washing the mop, and delivers slightly less suction power.
  • You can buy the SwitchBot K11 Plus on sale for around $189.99 ($210 off) at Amazon and directly from SwitchBot with code PDDAY53, which is $10 more than its best price. It’s a tiny bot with an equally small self-emptying dock, making it a great fit for smaller spaces. Its suction power tops out at 6,000Pa, but it’s still an effective cleaning machine with a rubber roller brush and a single side brush that does a solid job picking up dirt, dust, and debris from both hard floors and carpets.

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone

Ecovacs’ latest flagship robot vacuum and mop can pretreat stains, keep carpets dry with a smart mop cover, and deliver powerful 22,000Pa suction. It also comes with an all-in-one dock that automatically empties the dustbin, washes the mop with heated, pressurized water, and refills its water tanks.

Where to Buy:

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni

The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni features an extendable mop that can clean itself, just like its predecessor. However, it also features Ecovacs’ Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology, which optimizes the airflow path from intake to exhaust, rather than relying solely on suction power.

Where to Buy:

  • The Dreame L10s Pro Ultra is down to $349.98 when you buy it at Amazon, matching its best price to date and $950 less than its original launch price in 2024. Despite its age, it still offers a self-cleaning dock that can wash and dry its mop pads, dispense cleaning solution, refill its water tank, and empty its dustbin. It also features AI-powered obstacle avoidance. Its 7,000Pa suction is lower than Dreame’s newer models, and it can’t climb tall thresholds, but it’s still a lot of robot vacuum for the price.
  • The Shark Navigator Robot Vacuum RV2110 has dropped to $179 ($121 off) at Amazon. While we’ve previously seen it go for as low as $129.99, that’s still a notable 40 percent discount on the basic bot. The Navigator uses lidar-based navigation to create a map of your home and is equipped with a brushroll designed to minimize hair tangles.

Update, June 24th: Adjusted prices and availability and added deals for the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow.

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Intelligent, but not conscious: A warning about AI chatbots

Have you ever said "thanks" to ChatGPT, or "please" to Claude? Maybe you're just being polite, showing some civility to a helpful and eloquent conversational partner. You may even consider politeness a safe choice, just in case machines someday reveal that they were conscious all along and decide to take revenge on those who were rude to them.

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Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft bundle is almost half off for Prime Day

The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft e-reader sitting next to the Kobo Clara Colour displaying a Spider-Man comic.
The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft e-reader (left) sitting next to the Kobo Clara Colour displaying a Spider-Man comic. | Photos by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge

Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft Essentials Bundle is on sale for $182.97 (originally $334.97) as an early Prime Day deal, the lowest price we’ve seen for the combo. Unlike other Kindles, the Colorsoft’s color E Ink screen is great for comic books and graphics novels, illustrated books, or just perusing book covers while deciding what to read next. It shows deep black lines and borders, high saturation, plus it has a faster refresh rate than other similar options. 

The discounted bundle includes the 16GB e-reader, a leather cover in ruby or walnut, and a USB power adapter, and is available exclusively to Amazon Prime members.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Essentials Bundle

A close-up of the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft e-reader with a Spider-Man comic on screen.

Where to Buy:

A color e-reader is great for more than just comic books. Readers can highlight text in four different colors, then filter and search between them, and the color panel gives you plenty of options for contrast and boldness. Additionally, the Colorsoft is water resistant, with an IPX8 rating that means it’s safe to use by the pool and can be rinsed if you have a mishap with a beverage. Like other Kindles, the Colorsoft should run for weeks on a single charge, if not longer, depending on usage.

Read our Kindle Colorsoft review.
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The best LED face masks in the UK, tested: 12 light therapy devices that are worth the hype

They claim to fix fine lines, blemishes, and redness – but which stand up to scrutiny? After consulting dermatologists and putting them to the test, we have crowned a brand new number one

• The best anti-ageing creams, serums and treatments

LED face masks are booming in popularity – despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products to hit the market. They claim to either reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots or calm redness, with some even combining different types of light to enhance the benefits.

However, it’s wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I interviewed doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices work.

Best LED mask overall:
CurrentBody Multi Light Therapy LED mask

Best budget LED face mask:
Silk’n LED face mask 100

Continue reading...

© Composite: PR Image

© Composite: PR Image

© Composite: PR Image

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The Echo Dot Max is cheaper than ever in an early Prime Day sale

Echo Dot Max
The Echo Dot Max comes in a variety of fun colors, including purple. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

We’re seeing good early Prime Day deals ahead of the event next week, and unsurprisingly, some of the best deals are on Amazon’s own devices. Several Echo speakers have dropped to new low prices, including the Echo Dot Max, which is on sale for $64.99 ($35 off) at Amazon.

Our smart home reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy named the Echo Max her top pick among Alexa speakers, calling it “Amazon’s best all-around smart speaker.” The elegant, fabric-wrapped speaker delivers plenty of bass, and comes with its own dedicated tweeter and woofer that provide crisper sound than its predecessor. It’s also faster and more responsive, with Amazon’s AZ3 Neural Edge processor helping it hear voice commands more accurately, even if you’re speaking from across the room or over background noise.

The Echo Max also doubles as a capable smart home hub with support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, allowing you to connect and control a wide range of compatible smart home devices from brands beyond Amazon. It also supports Alexa Plus, Amazon’s more context-aware AI-powered voice assistant, which can handle multiple requests at once. That means you can do things like dim the lights and lock the doors without having to issue separate commands. In our reviewer’s testing, Alexa was even able to turn off the hallway lights, adjust the upstairs thermostat, and start a robot vacuum in the kitchen all at once.

Read our Echo Dot Max review.
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Can anyone look cool wearing Snap’s $2,000 glasses?

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wearing the Snap Specs.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wearing the Snap Specs. They’re not the worst on him, but bold fashion rarely makes for mainstream success. | Screenshot: CNBC

Yesterday, Snap debuted its new $2,195 Specs glasses. In an interview with CNBC, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel described the Specs as something the company had been working on for more than 12 years, an attempt to "bring computing into the world" and "make it more human." He positioned them as a device to help people stay more connected to the world around them instead of looking down at their phones. People, he said, are tired of screens.

While Spiegel was speaking, I was struck by how, whenever his head moved, the light caught the lenses just so, revealing the hidden outline of the Specs' display. It was ironic that Spiegel was talking about scr …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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