The best deals on true wireless earbuds right now

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

When it comes to true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. Whether you need something with noise cancellation for your daily commute like the Apple AirPods Pro or a fitness-focused pair like the Beats Powerbeats Pro, there’s now a pair of wireless earbuds well suited for nearly every occasion. Some, like the UE Fits, even conform to the shape of your ear to provide a secure fit that’s uniquely yours.

Regardless of the brand or model that speaks to you, however, we’ve scoured the internet to find the best deals currently available on true wireless earbuds. Of course, if you’re still trying to find the right make and model for you, make sure to check out our guide to the best wireless earbuds, which...

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Amazon is teaming up with Dude Perfect for alternate Thursday Night Football streams

Dude Perfect is just one of the "multiple" alternate streams that will be available. | Image: Amazon

Beginning this season, Amazon Prime Video will be the exclusive home for the NFL's Thursday Night Football. But if you don't want to watch the main show featuring two of the biggest names in sports broadcasting, the company will be offering alternative streams, including ones starring the hugely popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect.

The Dude Perfect creators built their giant YouTube channel — it has 58 million subscribers — on things like outlandish stunts and trick shot videos, and it seems like they'll be bringing that same energy to their Thursday Night Football broadcasts. “Watch the guys predict what happens in the next play and welcome an entertaining parade of dunk tanks, pudding cannons, special guests, and the occasional world...

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Pinterest's new app is here to help you slap together and share a mood board

Image: Pinterest

Today, Pinterest has released a new app on iOS called Shuffles — a collage-style social app where users can create a digital mood board and collaborate with others on the platform, TechCrunch reports. As of today, Shuffles is available via invite, but you can request to be on the app’s wait list.

In the standard Pinterest experience, users have the option to save their content, create photo libraries of their pins, and also browse. The app has a number of built-in photo editing features like Cut Out to isolate single objects in a particular photo, Collage to overlap photos and mesh your ideas together, and Animate to put visual effects on objects.

According to TechCrunch, the app hails from Pinterest’s TwoTwenty incubator, which was...

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How to save battery life on your Android phone

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Once upon a time, phones such as the original Motorola Droid had interchangeable batteries. You could keep an extra charged battery on hand and swap them out when needed. It was a lot more convenient and lightweight than dragging around a heavy battery pack, and it kept the phone going strong over the course of the busiest workday.

But as phone designs changed over the years, swappable batteries were abandoned by phone manufacturers to keep their phones sleeker and accommodate wraparound screens. Improved battery technology means that most phones will get you through at least a full day’s use — unless you are watching a lot of videos or your device is a year or two old.

If your phone is running out of gas before you go to bed, you’ve...

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PSA: Check your email — Amazon is sending out invites to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series X

The Xbox Series X is now fairly easy to get, the PS5 is not quite the same. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Back in June, Amazon began offering invite requests for an opportunity to buy the hard-to-get PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles — allowing anyone to try their luck without the stress of a live restock and all the F5 spamming. Now, nearly two months later, Amazon has confirmed via its Amazon Games Twitter account that invites are finally going out for both consoles. These invites will be sent in waves, with another round expected to go out next week.

If you receive one of these invites, you will have 72 hours to make the purchase on Amazon’s site from the unique link in the email. Speaking from firsthand experience of the Xbox invite I received today, Amazon’s emails look a little generic — they’re simply from “Amazon.com,” and the...

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Meet Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' quirky cast of characters in this new trailer

Image: Netflix

Netflix introduces us to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' six title characters — David, Maine, Dorio, Kiwi, Pilar, and Rebecca — in a chaotic new trailer. The anime, which isn't expected until September, expands on the Cyberpunk universe in a new standalone story that takes place in Night City.

While I don't set my expectations particularly high for anime involving Netflix, Edgerunners is different. It comes from Studio Trigger, the studio behind Kill la Kill, and whose co-founder created Gurren Lagann. These are two of some of the most popular and well-known anime series (and two of my personal favorites).

In the trailer, you can clearly see Studio Trigger's bold and vibrant art style shine through, and I'm hoping it can provide a more creative...

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The US organ transplant network is built on shaky technology, reports say

Photo by BSIP / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The nonprofit that runs the organ transplant network in the United States has out-of-date technology and has never been fully audited by the federal government, according to a confidential report obtained by The Washington Post.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has two responsibilities: running the logistical system powering organ transplants and deciding how to prioritize organ distribution. The draft report, which was compiled by the White House’s US Digital Service in January 2021, recommended separating out those two elements under two different contracts,The Washington Post says.

UNOS gets around $6.5 million each year from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the transplant system....

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Russia is starting to beat Ukraine at electronic warfare, analysts say

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

As the Russian war in Ukraine drags on, electronic warfare techniques may be giving Russian forces an edge, according to some intelligence analysts.

In the latest phase of the war, which is now entering a sixth month of combat, various observers have noted that Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems are playing a greater role.

The EW designation refers to a range of hardware and software systems that can jam, intercept, or locate enemy communications. In June, the Associated Press reported that these systems were starting to be used more in eastern Ukraine, where shorter supply lines allowed Russian troops to move the specialized EW equipment closer to the battlefield. Ukrainian officials told AP that GPS jamming of drone guidance...

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Sennheiser Momentum 4 leak reveals a drastic design change and a lower price tag

Sennheiser Momentum 4. | Image: Canada Computers

The comfy, classy, premium build of Sennheiser's third-gen Momentum Wireless headphones earned them a spot on our list of the very best noise-canceling cans — but a Canadian retailer leak has just revealed their next iteration will be quite different when they launch later this month.

As you can see in the images above and below, the new Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless ditch the adjustable, foldable silver metal band and their whole "classic headphone look" for a swiveling earcup and rounded band design that makes them look a LOT more like competitors from Sony, Bose, Apple, and more. Seriously, just take a look at our list of the best headphones: pretty similar, no?

Image: Canada Computers

Box and what you get...

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Riot shows off a new character coming to its free League of Legends fighting game

Image: Riot Games

Riot Games’ upcoming League of Legends-themed 2D fighting game will be free to play and will include the League champion Illaoi as one of its playable fighters, the studio announced in an update on Monday.

The game was announced in 2019 under the codename “Project L,” and details are still relatively light — Riot hasn’t provided an official release date or even a release window. But in Monday’s update, Riot did share a very detailed explanation of what’s involved in bringing Illaoi, who has been playable in League of Legends for years, into Project L, and it’s interesting to read about how the team thinks about adapting a League character into a fighting game.

Image: Riot Games

Some concept art of Illaoi

The...

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Hyper’s new Thunderbolt hub ditches the giant power brick

No DC power brick required | Image: Hyper

Hyper, the company behind those stackable GaN chargers and powerful battery banks, is running a Kickstarter for a Thunderbolt 4 hub that's truly compact thanks to the fact that it doesn't need a massive power brick like the ones that weigh down other hubs. Instead, it plugs straight into the wall with a relatively standard figure-eight power cable, letting you add fast ports to your computer without eating up a bunch of backpack or desk space.

Despite the simplicity, Hyper says it'll still be able to provide up to 96 watts of power to your laptop, which is enough to power most laptops (if you have a gaming computer or a 16-inch MacBook Pro, though, it may still lose some battery while going at full-tilt). As with most Hyper products,...

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Discord overhauls its Android app so you won’t have to wait for new features

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Discord is overhauling its Android app in the coming weeks so that new features and updates arrive at the same time as iOS and desktop. If you’re a Discord Android user, you’re probably used to seeing new features not appear for months after they were announced on iOS, and we saw that most recently with the Server Profiles feature being available on iOS way before Android.

“Historically, work on the Android implementation of new features would often be delayed until desktop and iOS were completed, resulting in some features that launched first on one platform before eventually arriving on another one,” explains the Discord product team in a blog post.

Discord is switching to React Native on Android

Discord is switching to React Native...

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Sega’s Genesis Mini 2 will only get ‘a small number of units’ in North America

Sega

If you live in North America, it looks like it’ll be really difficult to get your hands on a Sega Genesis Mini 2. In a statement to Polygon, the company says that only a small fraction of the consoles will be available in the region compared to what was available for the Mini 1.0. Sega says that this reduction in stock is due to the continued semiconductor shortage affecting all kinds of consumer electronic goods since the pandemic slowed manufacturing down to a trickle and jammed up supply chains.

You can still preorder the console for about $100 plus a $21 shipping fee on Amazon.

The Sega Genesis Mini 2, the follow-up to 2019’s widely sought-after Sega Genesis Mini, will come with 50 games, including one that was previously unreleased...

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Amazon brings the mall to you with same-day GNC, PacSun deliveries

Image: Amazon

Amazon is partnering with select stores that we’re used to seeing in local shopping malls to offer same-day Prime deliveries. For now, this only applies to orders from PacSun, GNC, Superdry, and Diesel, but Amazon says it’s working on offering same-day deliveries from Sur La Table and 100% Pure in “the coming months.”

The service is also limited to certain cities, which include in and around Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Seattle, and Washington, DC. If you’re located near any of these areas, Amazon says you can now browse through and order a curated selection of goods from local mall stores on Amazon’s site.

Right now, Amazon’s selection of stores seems a bit slim. But if you need some vitamins or a...

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Visa could be liable for helping monetize Pornhub videos of children, says court

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A California judge is allowing a lawsuit against Visa to proceed, saying the company plausibly knew porn site operator MindGeek was monetizing sexual videos involving children. Judge Cormac Carney issued the ruling late last week in Serena Fleites v. MindGeek et al., rejecting Visa’s attempts to dismiss its portion of the suit. Carney says Visa plausibly “intended to help MindGeek monetize child porn” because it continued to offer payment processing services to the major tube site Pornhub despite knowing the site had failed to moderate videos of minors.

The ongoing lawsuit asserts that MindGeek, Visa, and others violated a series of laws including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and the California Unfair...

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Best gaming laptop in 2022: seven laptops to get your game on

The best gaming laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/ The Verge

The best gaming laptop at every size and price

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The M1 MacBook Air is down to its lowest price ever at Best Buy

The M1 MacBook Air remains an excellent choice for a powerful ultraportable. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Our Monday deals post is starting off strong with the M1-equipped MacBook Air, which is currently matching its best price to date at Best Buy. The retailer has discounted both the 256GB and 512GB configurations to $849.99 (normally $999.99) and $1,049.99 (normally $1,299.99), respectively. While it’s beginning to show its age a bit — especially with the recent release of the M2 model — the M1 Air still remains a terrific macOS laptop thanks to its speedy performance and excellent battery life. The 720p webcam is definitely a pain point for the last-gen machine, but at this price, you’ll have difficulty finding a laptop that can match the M1 Air, pound for pound. Read our review.

The Fitbit Versa 3 is currently our favorite Fitbit, one...

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What 21 billion Facebook friendships say about the economic ladder in the US

A dataset shows how many people have friends outside of their income bracket. | Image: Social Capital Atlas

Meta publicly released information on 21 billion Facebook friendships as part of a research project looking at economic inequality in the United States, the company announced today. Along with new insights into the intersection of money and friendships in America, the partnership between Meta and the researchers gives us another look at who Facebook is willing to share data with — and why.

The research team wanted to understand why people in some places in the US were more likely to move between economic brackets than in others. Using the information from Meta, along with other data, a research team built a dataset for a pair of studies on economic mobility, published Monday in the journal Nature. One study found that people who grow up...

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An update on review scoring

The most contentious part of any review is the numeric score that’s given to the product. which reduces our evaluation of how a product performs in what is often a very competitive space to a value on a 10-point scale. We have often talked about getting rid of our scores, but readers tell us they often look to the score first when reading a review and rely on scores for their purchasing decisions.

As a result, we take scoring very seriously here at The Verge. We know how much weight each score has on the perception of a product and how much conversation there is about Verge scores. Reviewers pitch scores to their editors and those scores are often hotly debated before we publish a review. Our aim is to make sure that the score provides...

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Pets get wearable fans to beat Japan’s heatwave

The dog days of summer, indeed. | Image: Sweet Mommy, ONEKOSAMA

Tokyo-based clothing company Sweet Mommy has a novel way to keep pets cool. Instead of romping in sprinklers or parking in front of the air conditioner, it’s created “air-conditioned pet clothes” called COOL DOG (though cats can wear them as well). The device is a wearable fan that can be fixed to a pet’s back and is designed to help prevent pooches from getting heat stroke during walks.

The fan, which launched at the beginning of July, uses two AAA batteries and weighs roughly three ounces. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, creator Rei Uzawa says the batteries should last for three months, provided you take a dog on a 10-minute walk twice daily. The fan attaches to a mesh doggy shirt, which then helps to circulate air...

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Spotify’s paying customers will soon get separate play and shuffle buttons

Image: Spotify

Spotify is fully separating its play and shuffle buttons — but only for Premium subscribers. Today, the company announced that it’s beginning to roll out individual buttons for the two functions, which will replace the combined play / shuffle button that’s currently at the top of playlists and artist pages. The change is expected to hit Android and iOS devices “in the coming weeks.”

“This new change will allow you to choose the mode you prefer at the top of playlists and albums and listen the way you want to,” Spotify wrote on its blog. “Whether you love the joy of the unexpected with Shuffle mode, or prefer listening to tunes in order by simply pressing Play, Spotify has you covered.”

Spotify’s penchant for shuffling tracks has, at...

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Sony says no one used its anonymous Accolades on PS5, so they’re going away

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony’s getting rid of Accolades, a PlayStation 5 feature present since the system launched, because apparently, no one uses it (via Eurogamer). In case you haven’t heard of it (which wouldn’t be all that surprising), Accolades is a way to anonymously reward other players online for being a “good sport,” “helpful,” or “welcoming,” which then appear on players’ profiles.

On a PlayStation support page, Sony says Accolades will disappear this fall, and its message is actually kind of sad. “The feature hasn’t seen the level of usage we anticipated, so we are refocusing our efforts,” Sony says. “We encourage the community to continue to send positive messages to one another.”

Image: Sony

The number of Accolades you...

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Eight photo-centric social sites that are not Instagram

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In a recent (and very funny) blog post, The Verge’s Liz Lopatto bemoans the ad-ification and TikTok-ification of Instagram and other social media sites. “Can someone just build a simple photo app that isn’t sleazy and let me know where it is so that my friends can join it?” she asks. And she apparently hasn’t been the only one — it’s gotten to the point where Instagram is starting to walk back some of its changes due to user complaints.

The comments section of Liz’s post soon became filled with various suggestions for alternative photo sites where you could post your cat pix and other cute / funny / beautiful photos and have your friends and family be able to admire and discuss them. I took a look at some of them (and some that I found...

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BMW recalls ‘small number’ of i4 and iX electric vehicles over potential battery fires

Photo by Roberto Baldwin for The Verge

BMW issued a recall notice for a “small number” of 2022 i4 sedans and iX SUVs due to the risk of battery fires. According to the recall, the high voltage battery “may have internal damage,” which can result in an electrical short circuit.

The recall only covers 83 vehicles that have been sold in the US, but BMW is advising owners not to drive them, to park them outside or away from other vehicles and structures that could catch on fire, and not to charge them. BMW dealers will replace the battery free of charge.

The recall was issued after BMW became aware of “a non-US field incident involving a 2022 BMW i4 eDrive40” last April. An engineering analysis found that debris, specifically pieces of cathode, were seeping into the battery...

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Now you can rewatch Game of Thrones in 4K on HBO Max

Image: Helen Sloan / HBO

The entire run of HBO’s Game of Thrones TV show is now streaming on HBO Max in 4K and HDR, joining the 4K and HDR-compatible movies on the service. You can watch all eight seasons with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, making for a nice way to bide the time before the series premiere of House of the Dragon on August 21st.

Only those who subscribe to HBO Max’s ad-free plan, which costs $14.99 / month or $149.99 / year, have access to the new formats. You won’t have to wait to see House of the Dragon in 4K, though — HBO says it’s debuting the Game of Thrones spinoff in 4K with support for HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos.

While Game of Thrones was already available in 4K on Blu-ray, streaming on HBO Max saves you from paying $150 or more...

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In Pennyslvania, campaign volunteers are getting a taste of gig work

Photo by Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Starting Monday, ordering a free “Josh for Governor” yard sign will be as easy as responding to a text message for Pennsylvania voters.

The Josh Shapiro campaign’s new voter outreach program mixes voter file data and gig economy-like delivery services to create “a universe that is primed” to accept good old-fashioned yard signs. By leveraging the campaign’s texting program, volunteers in the campaign’s textbanking program will ask voters directly whether they’d like to receive a sign to support the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

Once a voter accepts, their information is sent over to the campaign, where the data is sorted into delivery routes. Then, volunteers sign up for delivery shifts and receive a route through a “delivery...

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Star Wars spinoff Andor has a new trailer and a new premiere date

This morning, Disney released a new trailer for Andor, the next big Star Wars series on Disney Plus — and with it comes news that the show has been delayed by nearly a month. Andor was previously pegged for a premiere on August 31st, but the new clip says that it will debut with a “three-episode premiere September 21st.” The show is a prequel to a prequel, taking place before the events of the film Rogue One, which itself was set before the first Star Wars movie. It will once again star Diego Luna in the titular role of Cassian Andor, while the trailer also shows off the return of Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera.

The news comes as the pace of Star Wars shows on Disney Plus has been ramping up. Obi-Wan Kenobi just wrapped up in June, and...

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Things we’ve learned working from home

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge | Photography by Vjeran Pavic

When we started working from home in March 2020, many of us who had not worked at home before may have begun with certain assumptions about what it would be like and what we would need. It’s now over two years later, and while we’re now able to spend time in the office, most of us are spending the majority of our working time at home.

We asked The Verge staff members about what they’d learned about working at home. In response, people talked about the need to get away from the desk and to get away from work, the challenges of working in the same space with family, and various strategies for staying sane while staying in the house.

Here’s what they told us.

How I learned to stop worrying and love WFH

OK, I’ll admit it — I’m stubborn. I...

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How to troubleshoot your home’s Wi-Fi

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

The coronavirus pandemic is now in its third year, which means that many former commuters are now in their third year of working from home. Even folks who are back in the office a few days a week are often working from home more than they did before the pandemic started. If your Wi-Fi is flaking out, slowing to a crawl, or dropping at inopportune moments, here’s how to get it back in business, ranging from free and simple to complicated and kinda expensive.

Free options

Test your connection

Your first step is to understand the nature of the problem: is the internet bad throughout your home or just in certain areas or on certain devices? Does it cut out or slow down randomly throughout the day or only during certain activities? Is the...

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Google Search’s built-in timer has disappeared and no one’s saying why

Google Search’s timer feature in 2013 when it was first introduced. | Image: Google

Until recently, one of the most convenient ways to set a timer was to simply search for one on Google. Punch in a query like “10 minute timer” and, hey presto, you’d get a ten minute timer. But last month, reports started to emerge that this feature had disappeared from Google without warning. SEORoundTable was among the first to cover the missing timer on July 20th, citing tweets from around July 18th.

Although there are no shortage of timers elsewhere on the web (or provided as stock apps on iOS and Android) Google’s built-in version was a simple, accessible alternative. And, as well as the timer, there was also a stopwatch feature built into the same widget for when you need to count up rather than down. The feature dates back almost...

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