Valve is now selling refurbished Steam Decks

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Valve now sells “certified refurbished” Steam Decks that cost less than if you bought the handheld gaming PC brand new. Valve promises the refurbished Decks are “fully tested at Valve facilities” and offer “the same 1-year warranty as a new Deck.”

If you want to order a refurbished Steam Deck, check out Valve’s Steam page for the devices. As revealed in listings that appeared ahead of the official launch, the refurbished units offer some nice savings over the prices of new ones:

• 64GB: $319 refurbished versus $399 for new
• 256GB: $419 refurbished versus $529 for new
• 512GB: $519 refurbished versus $649 for new

Valve cautions that “supplies are limited” and that it expects them to “come in and out of stock as available,” so depending on...

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Netflix’s new virtual game controller iOS app hints at TV gaming

Netflix game controller App Store listing on iPad. | Screenshot by Umar Shakir / The Verge

Netflix has launched a mysterious new gaming controller app for iOS on the App Store, as reported by TechCrunch. The free app, simply called “Netflix Game Controller,” can be downloaded now and says you can “connect to your TV to play” but doesn’t yet have a listed compatible game.

The app’s description says that you’ll be able to use it to play Netflix games on your TV. “Coming soon to Netflix,” the description says. “Play games on your TV with the Netflix Game Controller. This Game Controller app pairs with your TV and allows you to play games on Netflix using your phone or mobile device.”

If you download and launch the app, it asks you to choose a game on your TV and follow directions to connect, which currently does not do anything....

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For this startup, Nvidia GPUs are currency

An exciting breakthrough in GPUs that isn’t really about computing. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Gather around, children. We are about to discuss some financial innovation: using computer chips as collateral for loans.

CoreWeave, a cloud computing startup backed by Nvidia and Magnetar Capital, has secured a $2.3 billion debt facility using Nvidia’s sought-after H100 GPUs as collateral. The company intends to use that money to purchase more high-end chips, among other things.

If your head hurts, let me try to sum this up: Nvidia invested in CoreWeave, which is reliant on Nvidia products, and now those Nvidia products are being used as collateral to buy… what is most likely more Nvidia products. Fantastic.

CoreWeave is a company that came from basically “nowhere”

I find this striking! First of all, these are chips that are collateral,...

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KQED acquires studio behind Glynn Washington’s Snap Judgment

The podcast cover art for Snap Judgement. | Image: Snap Judgement

This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

Got a very packed issue of Hot Pod for you today. To start off, I have a scoop for you about KQED’s acquisition of Snap Judgment Studios, which produces the shows Snap Judgment and Spooked. I’ll also dive into why Apple Podcasts got fined by a court in Moscow. Also, Audacy held an earnings call last week but very much kept it on the down low — I’ll break it down below.

Finally, be sure to check out my story in The Verge about The Unwell Network, a new Gen Z-focused podcast venture by Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper. Cooper’s controversial podcast often gets criticized for being light on substance — but the show regularly beats Joe...

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Valve is seemingly gearing up to sell refurbished Steam Decks

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Valve might sell refurbished Steam Decks sometime soon. The creator of the SteamDB database tweeted Monday about “certified refurbished” Steam Decks in all three storage offerings, and deals maestro Wario64 tweeted screenshots of the listings soon after (via Gizmodo). Unfortunately, as I write this, Wario64’s links redirect to Steam’s main landing page, and it doesn’t seem like the links were accessible for very long.

If Valve’s refurbished Steam Decks do go on sale at the prices in Wario64’s screenshots, they’ll offer some nice savings over the prices of new ones:

• 64GB: $319 refurbished versus $399 for new
• 256GB: $419 refurbished versus $529 for new
• 512GB: $519 refurbished versus $649 for new

Refurbished Steam Decks are going up on...

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The best smartwatches for Android users

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Wear OS is much better than it used to be, so there’s never been a better time to consider a smartwatch.

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Mew and Mewtwo are coming to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The Pokémon Company’s teaser for this week’s Pokémon Presents stream definitely made it seem like Mewtwo might be making an appearance, but it wasn’t really clear where or how. Turns out, the legendary monster’s on its way to Scarlet and Violet’s Paldea region, and it’s bringing a powerful little frenemy.

Ahead of Scarlet and Violet’s The Teal Mask DLC dropping, the legendary pokémon Mew and Mewtwo are being spotlighted in the fairly self-explanatory Get Mew & Mewtwo! in-game event. Beginning today, players can receive a Mew with a random Tera type by using the Mystery Gift code “GETY0URMEW.” Despite only being level 5 when you first receive it, the Mystery Gift Mew will have a variety of unique stat boots that go into effect whenever it...

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While the best iPad deals usually come around during major sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and even last month’s Amazon Prime Day, you can still find plenty of great discounts at all times of the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere that you may be interested in.

Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available,...

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The best wireless earbuds to buy right now

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The best from Apple, Bose, Samsung, Sony, Beats, Google, and more

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Two old-school Pokémon games just came to the Nintendo Switch

Image: Nintendo

Pokémon fans of a certain age have cause for celebration. No, the Pokémon Red / Blue games are not getting a full remake, and no, they’re also not getting ported to the Switch. Instead, announced during today’s Pokémon Presentsevent, Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Trading Card Game are coming to Nintendo Switch Online.

Pokémon Trading Card Game was released on the Game Boy Color in 2000 and was the first video game-ification of Pokémon_’_s paper trading card game (better known as Pokémon TCG). There were 226 cards in Pokémon Trading Card Game that were from the first three sets of the real-life TCG, including cards exclusive to the game. Back in the day, you could play against your friends using the Game Boy link cable. But if you wanna...

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Dish is merging with a satellite internet company to boost its 5G network

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Dish Network will merge its operations with EchoStar, the satellite internet company that runs HughesNet. The merger is meant to provide more financial flexibility for Dish as it seeks to become a major competitor in the wireless service business, the co-founder and chairman of both companies, Charlie Ergen, told The Wall Street Journal. After the merger, EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan will serve as president and CEO, while Dish CEO Erik Carlson will make his exit.

EchoStar and Dish were originally part of the same company, operating under the EchoStar name. In 2008, the company renamed itself Dish and split its satellite internet wing off under the EchoStar brand. Today’s merger reunites the two, which are still each under the purview of...

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There’s no AI without the cloud, says AWS CEO Adam Selipsky

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge

Today, I’m talking with Adam Selipsky. He’s the CEO of Amazon Web Services, or as it’s usually called, AWS. AWS is quite a story. It started as an experiment almost 20 years ago with Amazon trying to sell its excess server capacity. And people really doubted it. Why was the online bookstore trying to sell cloud services?

But now, AWS is the largest cloud services provider in the world, and it’s the most profitable segment of Amazon, generating more than $22 billion in sales last quarter alone. By some estimates, AWS powers roughly one-third of the entire global internet. And on the rare occasion an AWS cluster goes down, an unfathomable number of platforms, websites, and services feel it, and so do hundreds of millions of users.

Adam was...

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Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s DLC has a release date and a bunch of new monsters

Image: The Pokémon Company

After months of leaving everyone guessing just when exactly Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s two-part DLC would finally hit the Nintendo Switch, the first half of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero finally has a release date.

During today’s Pokémon Presents stream, The Pokémon Company announced that The Teal Mask, the first half of Scarlet and Violet’s major DLC drop, is set to debut on September 13th and will introduce a host of new gameplay features as well as multiple new pokémon. A new trailer for the DLC details how players will travel to the land of Kitakami as part of a joint school trip that coincides with a local festival celebrating the Loyal Three — Kitakami’s legendary trio — and Ogerpon, a new masked legendary monster.

The trailer...

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Apple’s first trailer for The Changeling teases a haunting tale about parenthood

Image: Apple

Apple TV Plus has revealed its first trailer for The Changeling, an eight-part series premiering on the service on September 8th. The trailer offers up a haunting glimpse at a man’s nightmarish journey to find his wife following the birth of their first child.

The Changeling is based on a novel of the same name written by Victor Lavalle. It stars LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta, Sorry to Bother You) as Apollo and Clark Backo (Letterkenny, Confession) as his wife Emma. In its official synopsis, Apple describes the series as a “fairytale for grown-ups,” involving a “parenthood fable and a perilous odyssey through a New York City you didn’t know existed.”

The Changeling also stars Adina Porter, Samuel T. Herring, Alexis Louder, Jared Abrahamson,...

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AI regulation is taking shape, but startups are being left out

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In the world of generative AI, it is the big names that get the most airtime. Big Tech players like Microsoft and lavishly funded startups like OpenAI have earned invitations to the White House and the earliest of what will likely be many, many congressional hearings. They’re the ones that get big profile pieces to discuss how their technology will end humanity. As politicians in the US and beyond grapple with how to regulate AI, this handful of companies has played an outsize role in setting the terms of the conversation. And smaller AI players, both commercial and noncommercial, are feeling left out — while facing a more uncertain future.

Big AI — a term that’s long overdue for adoption — has been actively guiding potential AI...

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The first PCIe Gen 5 drives are here and fast, but do you have a need for speed?

The latest PCIe 5.0 drives.

The first PCIe Gen 5 solid state drives (SSDs) are starting to hit the market with big promises of speed boosts. I’ve been testing Crucial’s T700 PCIe Gen 5.0 NVMe solid state drive over the past few weeks alongside Seagate’s latest FireCuda 540 in an effort to discover if this latest generation of storage will change PC gaming or how it could improve workflows for those who work with large files daily.

PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs are at the very early stages of life, with Crucial and Seagate part of a handful of manufacturers to actually sell this storage in stores right now. PCIe Gen 5 is expected to deliver theoretical read speeds of 14,000MBps for NVMe SSDs, compared to the theoretical maximum of 8,000MBps on PCIe Gen 4 drives. That’s a 75...

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Some of Weta’s powerful VFX tools will soon be available for everyone

Image: Unity / Weta Digital

Unity is releasing some of the specialist 2D and 3D tools from Weta FX — the visual effects company behind Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and James Cameron’s Avatar movie franchises — to artists across the wider VFX industry under a new Unity Weta tools division. Unity revealed during its Siggraph 2023 keynote that some of Weta’s industry-leading compositing and character creation tools will be coming to its Unity real-time game development engine, almost two years after Unity acquired Weta’s VFX division back in 2021.

The Weta tools being released into public beta under the new division include add-ons for Wig 1.0 (used to create hair and fur in Autodesk Maya), Eddy 3.0 (used to process volumetric effects like smoke or fire in Nuke),...

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Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series review: refined, but not revolutionary

Samsung focuses on refining a tried-and-true formula, but how much longer can it afford to coast?

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WhatsApp’s screen-sharing feature is leaving beta

You, too, will be able to share a presentation about a 30.46 percent increase in graphs. | Image: Meta

WhatsApp’s latest feature is the ability to share your screen during video calls, similar to what’s already available via video conferencing services like Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams. In a press release, the Meta-owned service says the feature is available via the “Share” icon, after which you’ll have the option of either sharing your entire screen or a specific app. There’s also a new landscape mode coming for video calls on mobile.

Meta’s press release highlights how the feature can be used for “sharing documents for work, browsing photos with family, planning a vacation or shopping online with friends, or just helping grandparents with tech support.” Its release comes as part of a wave of new WhatsApp features this year that...

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Apple and Samsung line up to invest in Arm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Arm, the SoftBank-owned chip design company, is already lining up major investors. Apple, Samsung, Nvidia, and Intel all plan on buying stakes in Arm when it goes public in September, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.

The British chip designer plays an integral role in the technology industry. It specializes in licensing chip designs to companies, allowing the world’s tech giants to manufacture semiconductors in their own factories and apply customizations. Some of Arm’s biggest customers are the companies that plan on investing in it: Apple, Samsung, Nvidia, and Intel have all used Arm architecture in their chips.

Asreported by Nikkei Asia, Arm will sell each company stakes worth “a few percent each” to help stabilize its stock...

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It’s time to change how we cover Elon Musk

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

This is Platformer_, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer._ Sign up here.

Today let’s talk about a wild weekend of backtracking at the company formerly known as Twitter — and how it should inform the way we cover Elon Musk and his frequent promises in the future.

On Sunday, Musk said in a post on X that the “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on .”

He added: “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”

This all came as a surprise to Mark Zuckerberg. Behind the scenes, the billionaire’s teams had been negotiating for weeks to nail down details of the fight. Zuckerberg had proposed a date: August 26th, as he would later share on Threads.

But Musk begged off, saying he...

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Apple’s iPad Mini is $100 off

The 8.3-inch iPad Mini is like a tiny version of the latest iPad Air. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

As we highlighted yesterday, a bunch of Google gadgets are currently on sale, likely in celebration of the tech giant’s upcoming anniversary. Chief among these is the Pixel Tablet, which is down to $439 ($60 off) for the first time. However, although it’s a good tablet, it may not be the best option if you use your tablet largely for reading or aren’t heavily invested in Google’s ecosystem. Instead, you might want to take a look at Apple’s latest iPad Mini, which is on sale at Amazon in its base configuration with 64GB of storage and Wi-Fi for $399.99 ($100 off). That’s $20 shy of its all-time low and its second-best price to date.

Apple’s 8.3-inch tablet is oft-considered the “middle child” in Apple’s lineup. It’s got the smallest...

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The $219 WiiM Pro Plus is a modern audio streamer for your existing hi-fi

A small price to pay to preserve some retro charm, especially compared to purchasing a new Sonos ecosystem. | Image: Linkplay

Linkplay Technology has launched the WiiM Pro Plus, a successor to the company’s impressive WiiM Pro audio streamer that’s designed to easily modernize your existing audio equipment without breaking the bank. The $219 WiiM Pro Plus is available now on Amazon, providing an easy and affordable alternative to complicated Raspberry Pi hacks or expensive Sonos gear.

According to Linkplay, the “Plus” in the name indicates superior audio quality compared to its WiiM Pro predecessor thanks to a better ADC (analog-to-digital converter) for line input and a premium DAC (digital-to-analog converter) for output. The WiiM Pro Plus features a built-in AKM 4493SEQ DAC and a TI Burr-Brown Audio PCM1861 ADC that can achieve up to 192kHz / 32-bit digital...

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GM says all of its EVs will be able to power your home by 2026

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

General Motors announced that all of its electric vehicles will have bidirectional vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging capabilities by model year 2026.

The first vehicle to be released with bidirectional V2H charging will be the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV, followed by the 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, 2024 Chevy Blazer EV, 2024 Chevy Equinox EV, 2024 Cadillac Lyriq, and the upcoming Cadillac Escalade IQ (which is getting a proper debut later this week).

The revived Chevy Bolt with Ultium powertrain was not included on the official list, but Derek Sequeira, director for EV ecosystems at GM, said that, as a future Ultium model, it would very likely include bidirectional charging as well.

Adding bidirectional charging powers will be “a...

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Dough is standing up a 32-inch 240Hz 4K OLED monitor for 2024

A render of what the 32-inch OLED might look like. | Image: Dough

The product’s not even half-baked yet, but that isn’t stopping Dough — the ~~bread~~ gaming monitor company formerly known as Eve has just announced what it claims will be the first 32-inch 240Hz 4K OLED monitor in the entire market.

Saying I’m skeptical doesn’t come close to cutting the mustard. Even if we forget about Dough’s old track record — which you definitely shouldn’t — this is a company that confidently told us it would ship a 27-inch OLED monitor this July but is currently targeting no sooner than October. Asus, Acer, Corsair, and LG have already shipped monitors with the same 27-inch panel inside — why wouldn’t they beat Dough to 32 inches, too?

In other words: you should take Dough with a pinch of salt.

But like Dough’s...

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How to set up a Matter-over-Thread device in your smart home

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

You may have heard about this new smart home standard Matter and how it will make it easier to buy and set up connected gadgets. Not only that, but those gadgets should now work with any phone, voice assistant, or smart speaker, using any smart home platform — Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, or any other Matter-compatible option. If you got excited and went out and bought a new smart plug or smart light bulb to give this a whirl, you may have picked up one that uses Thread, one of the two wireless protocols Matter uses (the other is Wi-Fi). So, now what?

While Matter is supposed to make everything about the smart home easier, there are still some growing pains, especially regarding Thread — hey, the smart...

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Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper is starting her own podcast network

Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network will live within the media company Trending. | Image: The Unwell Network

Spotify’s leading female podcaster is branching out. Alex Cooper has launched a new Gen Z-focused podcast network called The Unwell Network, according to an announcement viewed by The Verge.

The new company will be a subsidiary of Trending, the media company that Cooper launched this year with her partner Matt Kaplan. Alix Earle and Madeline Argy — two TikTok personalities mostly popular with an audience born after Y2K — have come on board to host shows. Unwell has nabbed Studio71 former senior director of operations Moorea Mongelli to serve as its president.

“We’ve curated a slate of hosts we know will transform long form content as we know it. Our team is delighted to bring the Gen Z audience content tailored just for them,” said...

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ChargePoint is spending millions to boost station reliability to ‘nearly 100 percent’

One of ChargePoint’s EV chargers. | Image: Getty

ChargePoint, which bills itself as the world’s “largest and most open” charging network for electric vehicles, is announcing a series of new initiatives to improve the reliability of its 245,000-strong network of chargers. “We expect these multimillion dollar investments to deliver network reliability of nearly 100 percent once fully implemented,” the company writes in a press release.

The announcement comes as US drivers of electric vehicles continue to have issues finding reliable places to charge their cars when away from home. One study from last year found that one in five respondents were not able to charge their vehicle after arriving at a station, with the majority blaming chargers that are malfunctioning or out of service.

“...

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Fortnite’s new Jujutsu Kaisen anime collab adds themed outfits and quests

Image: Epic Games

Fortnite’s new v25.30 update released Tuesday adds a new anime crossover with Jujutsu Kaisen. Alongside some themed outfits you can buy in the shop, the update adds a special series of quests you can complete to earn in-game rewards. And while you’re running around the island while the crossover is going on, you’ll be able to find cursed llamas that give you powers you might be familiar with from the anime.

The official rollout of the crossover isn’t really a surprise; Fortnite itself posted a teaser video featuring four Jujutsu Kaisen characters on August 1st. And it’s just the latest of many anime crossovers that have shown up in the game — in the past, characters from series including Dragon Ball, Naruto, and My Hero Academia have...

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EU joins threat to Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma acquisition with new probe

The EU's investigation joins similar assessments already underway in the US and UK. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

The European Union is launching an in-depth antitrust investigation into Adobe’s bid to acquire product design platform Figma, warning that the deal could “reduce competition in the global markets for the supply of interactive product design software and for digital asset creation tools.”

The Commission now has until December 14th to decide on the next steps. These might involve demanding remediations to approve the deal, block the merger from going ahead entirely, or give approval if the EU’s early concerns are shown to be groundless.

In a press release, the European Commission outlined the transaction's potential impact on the supply of interactive product design tools and digital asset creation tools as its primary concern. The...

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