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The Google Pixel Watch 5 may have been spoiled by… the creator of Borderlands

Images showing what is claimed to be the Pixel Watch 5

We may just have gotten an early look at the Google Pixel Watch 5 - and from an unusual source. Randy Pitchford, the creator of the Borderlands game franchise, posted a pair of images of a watch on X, saying that his friend found it underwater while scuba diving near Saint Martin, as reported earlier by Kotaku.

"He noted that the reverse of the watch indicates that it is a Google Pixel 5, which has not yet been announced, let alone released," Pitchford writes. "It seems to be fine. The face indicates an empty battery, but seems to have enough reserve power to display the correct time." After putting out a call to find its owner, Pitchford s …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Pebblebee’s Halo can help track lost items and keep you safe, and it’s on sale for $50

If you’re planning to travel this summer, both a Bluetooth tracker and a personal safety device can come in handy, especially if you’ll be exploring on your own. The Pebblebee Halo combines those two gadgets into one, and it’s currently on sale for $49.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, which is the best price we’ve seen. Amazon is also throwing in a fourth Halo for free when you buy three as a part of a limited time promotion.

Pebblebee Halo

Where to Buy:

Whether you’re touring a new city or heading back to your hotel after a night out, the Halo can help in a variety of situations. Like the Pebblebee Clip 5 — our favorite AirTag and Tile alternative — the rechargeable, water-resistant tracker does a good job of accurately helping you keep tabs of bags, wallets, keys, and other valuables. It offers up to 500 feet of Bluetooth range and taps into both Apple’s Find My network and Google’s Find Hub, so you can locate items even further away.

What really sets it apart is that it’s also a personal safety device. With a quick pull, you can trigger off a piercingly loud 130dB siren, bright strobe lights, and automatic location sharing with one trusted contact. If you’d like to send your real-time location to multiple contacts at once, you’ll need Pebblebee’s Alert Live subscription (which costs $24.99 a year), but the good news is the service is included free for the first year, making the Halo an even better value at this price.

Read our hands-on impressions of the Pebblebee Halo.

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This could be Windows’ M1 moment — but expect it to cost a ton

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds up two RTX Spark laptops at Computex 2026

Nvidia's announcement that it's getting into the consumer laptop chip space with RTX Spark is huge. Apple has proved for years that Arm-based chips can perform incredibly well while also delivering great battery life - at least on the Mac. In the Windows world, performance hasn't fully matched up under Qualcomm chips, mostly in the graphics department. There's clearly still untapped potential, and Nvidia seems to be promising to deliver it.

This could be Windows' moment to blow us away with a new generation of supremely capable chips, much like Apple's back in 2020, with the introduction of the M1. But why does this launch feel simultaneous …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Sony’s new fight stick and gaming monitor launch in August

Sony is sharing new details about some of its upcoming gaming-focused hardware, including pricing and August launch dates for its FlexStrike fight stick and its 27-inch monitor.

The FlexStrike fight stick will be available starting August 6th - the same day as the new PlayStation-published fighting game Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls - and will cost $199.99. Preorders begin on June 12th at 10AM ET. Initially, the FlexStrike will work just on PS5, but Sony says that PC support will be rolled out sometime after launch. The stick will come with a sling carry case and a built-in rechargeable battery.

Sony goes into more detail about the fight st …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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An affordable, long-lasting AirTag alternative is $15 right now

Gaze into the orb. | Image: The Verge

There are many solid Bluetooth trackers for iPhones that tap into Apple’s expansive Find My network. Some are thin, some are a bit chunkier. And, evidently, some look like tiny soccer balls. Ugreen’s FineTrack 2 glows in the dark, and it has a loud 110-decibel alarm when you need to find it. It’s just $14.99 at Amazon for Prime members (originally $19.99). Ugreen also sells it for $14.99 through its site.

Ugreen FineTrack 2 Bluetooth tracker

Where to Buy:

Instead of offering replaceable coin batteries, like many trackers do at this point, the FineTrack 2 has a built-in, non-rechargeable battery that can live for up to seven years. Some may consider that a flaw, but it’ll be nice not to have to worry about replacing its battery for a long while. The ball-shaped tracker also features IP68 water and dust resistance, and includes both a short and long lanyard you can swap out at your leisure.

Other deals to consider

  • Google’s Pixel Buds 2A, its latest entry-level wireless earbuds, are down to $109 at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy, which is their second-best price to date. They’re stacked with more features than their 2021 predecessor (not to mention cooler colors), including active noise cancellation, transparency mode, and spatial audio. That’d be enough to make them worth the sale price, but they also feature IP54 protection against sweat, and up to 20 hours of total battery life with the charging case. At $80 more, the pricier Pixel Buds Pro 2 deliver slightly longer battery life, a wireless charging-ready case, and loud noise protection. Read our review.
  • Here’s another deal on headphones: Bose’s first-gen QuietComfort Ultra over-ear wireless headphones are available refurbished in black for $188 (originally $449, but regularly $329 new) at eBay. Notably, Bose is the seller here, and it claims the headphones are in “pristine, like-new condition,” and will arrive in new packaging complete with all accessories. The first-gen QC Ultra headphone are still spectacular when it comes to sound quality, comfort, and for canceling out sounds. The highlight improvements of the $399.99 QC Ultra (Gen 2) include slightly more battery life per charge, lossless audio over USB-C, and an improved transparency mode. Read our review of the first-generation model.
  • Samsung recently debuted a fleet of gaming monitors, and it’s offering perks for early adopters. One of the most affordable options is the $899.99 27-inch Odyssey G8 G80HF 5K model. If you buy it now through Samsung, you can choose either a $200 Samsung gift card to use on a future purchase, a Music Studio 5 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker, or the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro wireless earbuds as your free gift. Its specs are unique compared to other 5K monitors in that it can support 5K at up to 180Hz, or swap to 1440p at 360Hz (most 5K models top out at 60Hz). Plus, its 218 pixel density matches that of the Apple Studio Display and other 5K monitors. Oddly, though, the G80HF lacks a USB-C port for easily connecting a MacBook. Read our 2026 Apple Studio Display review.
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Strava blames zero-code AI apps and scrapers as it tightens API access

The Strava logo against a black, orange, and gray background.

The popular fitness-tracking platform, Strava, is restricting access to its API as part of efforts to clamp down on AI scraping, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. Developers who want to build an app using Strava's data now need to pay for a flat $11.99 / month subscription.

In an update on its developer hub, Strava blames the change on "zero-code AI tools" that allow users to quickly create apps that "hammer" APIs. "We have felt this firsthand - developer applications to our program are up 448% year-to-date, API intermediaries have violated policy terms, and scraping attempts have degraded platform performance for everyone," the company wr …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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The best fans to keep you cool in 2026 – tried and tested

As temperatures soar across the UK, chill your space – and avoid energy-guzzling aircon – with our pick of the best fans, from tower to desk to bladeless

The best portable neck and handheld fans

Our world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they’re stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.

Get a good fan and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Aircon is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity … and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.

Best quiet fan for the bedroom and best overall:
AirCraft Lume

Best fan for cooling:
Dreo TurboCool misting fan 765S

Continue reading...

© Composite: PR Image

© Composite: PR Image

© Composite: PR Image

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These are the first Nvidia RTX Spark laptops

Six up the upcoming Nvidia Spark laptops from Microsoft, Dell, MSI, and more, expected to launch in fall 2026.
A lot of details are still under wraps, but at least we know what the new Nvidia Spark laptops look like. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia has officially entered the world of consumer laptop chips with the RTX Spark, and several device makers already have hardware lined up for it. Microsoft, Asus, HP, MSI, Lenovo, and Dell are expected to launch RTX Spark laptops sometime this fall, and some of those partner companies have shared details about what we can expect.

The common feature shared by all of the upcoming launches is that Arm-based Nvidia RTX Spark superchip, though several variations are in the pipeline. The flagship version unveiled by Nvidia at Computex includes 20 CPU cores, 6,144 GPU cores, and 128GB of LPDDR5X memory - making it near identical to the GB10 ch …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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This is the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia RTX Spark

A shadowy image of a Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra against a gradient gray background.
This shadowy render is the best glimpse Microsoft is giving us so far. | Image: Microsoft

Once upon a time, Microsoft had to write off $900 million betting an Arm-based Nvidia chip could power its first flagship Windows portable, the original Microsoft Surface. But today, it's trying again. Microsoft and Nvidia have just announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a computer with a new Arm-based Nvidia chip at its core.

There's a lot we don't know about the 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra, such as its final specs or the foggiest idea of what it might cost. But Microsoft is promising it's the most powerful Surface, period: "This is the most powerful thing we've ever made," Microsoft Surface boss Andrew Hill replies, when we ask how it stac …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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