Gadgets

Gadgets

Frequent flyers develop rituals. Not superstitions, but systems, small corrections built over dozens of boarding passes and red-eye recoveries that separate a tolerable trip from a miserable one. The gear that survives this process tends to be invisible in the best sense: compact enough to vanish into a carry-on, functional enough to earn its pocket space, and designed with the kind of restraint that does not scream "gadget" at TSA.

Laptop cooling pads have been around for decades, and the idea has always been simple: provide extra air to blow through a laptop that's otherwise restricted by its own cooling system. In theory, more air means lower temperatures-and, ultimately, better performance. This is the whole idea of the power modes that exist in Windows, which ramp up the RPMs (rotations per minute) of the fans to add more air to both improve performance.

Since every planet spins at a different speed, the gears are built with different ratios: Earth takes about 24 hours to spin once, Mars takes about 24.6 hours, Jupiter spins much faster, and Saturn spins fast too. Because of this, each dial shows the real day cycle of that planet, so the clock doesn't calculate time digitally.

The new camera features, on the other hand, are neither of those things. They're something worse. Something scarier. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss the new phones, then dive into the ways in which the S26's AI camera features seem to be clearly designed to change the whole idea of what happens when you try to take a picture.

This is perhaps the biggest challenge the industry has faced since its inception. This is not just a temporary situation. This is going to result in a structural reset of the entire industry, in terms of size, in terms of competitive landscape, of the product mix and also on the price.

Phil Spencer, the longtime face of Xbox, announced he's retiring last week. He'll be replaced by Microsoft's former CoreAI CEO Asha Sharma, instead of his longtime deputy Sarah Bond, who plans to leave the company. Will this change actually help the beleaguered Xbox division, or is it another example of Microsoft shoving AI into everything?

We welcome today's decision and look forward to our ongoing collaboration with local officials to bring a fully functioning Google Maps to Korea. However, the approval is contingent on the condition that strict security requirements are met, restricting Google from displaying sensitive military sites and longitude and latitude coordinates.

The first change you'll notice from the previous generation Pixel Buds Pro is that the newer model is much lighter, and the buds are 27 percent smaller. As a result, these are an excellent choice for anyone with small ears, and they stay put super well.

VTT's test does show ultra-fast charging capability. It does not, however, address many of the critical details that battery experts consider essential for validating solid-state battery technology, particularly regarding cycle life and performance at the pack level.

This is the best-looking power bank we've tried, and the price comes within $10 of the lowest we've tracked. The transparent housing and triangle shape are cool, but the battery also performs well, with a 24,000-mAh capacity, a maximum output of 170 watts, and even a little bit of water resistance.

From the moment I completed Google TV setup and started watching the TCL X11L I was amazed. I could immediately tell it's the brightest TV I've had in my home, but it was the color vibrancy that I found most impressive. The colors we're all most familiar with - skin tones, the sky, green grass and trees - all look as close to realistic as I've seen on a TV.

Most of the screens that you encounter everyday is always fighting for your attention, always buzzing, glowing, pulsing with red notification badges designed to hijack your focus. The TRMNL X, a 10.3-inch e-ink smart display priced at $219, takes the opposite approach entirely. It just sits there, calm and papery, waiting for you to glance over when you're ready.

Honor achieved the Magic V6's crease-less display without compromising other parameters like its thin and light design, battery capacity, and performance. Honor previously confirmed that the V6 will feature IP68 and IP69 ingress protection, which would make it the first foldable to feature that level of durability.

AI momentum is accelerating in the second half of the year, leading to record AI server orders of $12.3 billion and an unprecedented $30 billion in orders year to date. Dell also raised its full-year FY26 revenue guidance to $111.2 billion to $112.2 billion, representing approximately 17% growth year-over-year.

Connectivity is a must-have feature for Midnight. Starlink is uniquely built to deliver it. The move, an industry first, will bring stable, reliable, and high-speed connectivity to Archer's vehicles courtesy of Starlink's low-Earth-orbit satellite internet systems.

Streaming in 4K requires a huge amount of bandwidth, and some wireless networks just aren't up to the task, particularly if your TV isn't near your router. A true dual-band Wi-Fi setup in the Roku Ultra helps ensure a stutter-free experience on all of your favorite streaming services. If you really hate buffering and dropped connections, there's an Ethernet port around back for a wired hookup, something most other streaming devices can't claim.

In a post on X, Realme India's official account confirmed that the Realme 16 Pro and 16 Pro+ will now receive four years of Android OS updates and six years of security patches. At launch, the company had promised three years of Android updates and four years of security support.

Current smartphones lock you into a particular set of hardware features. To get new hardware, you have to replace the whole phone. This concept system lets you add and swap components on a day-by-day and even minute-by-minute basis depending on what you need.

The vivo V70 comes in Passion Red and Lemon Yellow colors with two memory options - 8GB/256GB priced at INR45,999 ($505/€430) and 12GB/256GB priced at INR49,999 ($550/€465).

The two are definitely launching soon, though, and today their mandatory EU Energy Labels have appeared. These show 52-hour battery life for the A57 and 53 hours for the Galaxy A37, and both phones will be IP68 certified for dust and water resistance. That's up from IP67 on their predecessors.

The Unix UX-1519 NEOM power bank is different as it takes industrial design into the mix of solid functionality, often customary to a battery bank. The 10,000mAh battery bank for your power-hungry gadgets delivers 22.5W fast charging for compatible devices, never letting you down when on-the-go.

About 80 or 90 percent of people are using a case, and cases with magnets are very popular these days. Samsung would rather use that extra height to give the phone a larger battery or make it thinner.

Leaked images of the device show it attached to both a keyboard and controllers, with a hinge in the middle of the POLED display, allowing it to unfold from 7.7 inches to 11.6 inches. Users can attach the controllers with the display folded or unfolded, use the display in a vertical split screen mode, or attach it to the keyboard for laptop mode, for a total of four different form factors rolled into one device.

Anxiety tools have a strange habit of making things worse. Fidget spinners draw stares across a conference table, breathing apps demand screen time mid-conversation, and wearable buzzers pulse on your wrist where anyone paying attention can spot them. The very act of reaching for help becomes another source of self-consciousness, which is the opposite of what someone in the grip of a social anxiety episode needs.

Leaked images show what could be Lenovo's next gaming laptop: the Legion Go Fold. According to the leaks, the Go Fold can be used as either a very awkward-looking Steam Deck-like handheld gaming PC, complete with controllers on either side, or you can fold it up into a few different configurations, including a laptop mode.

At about 18 kilograms, roughly 40 pounds with its battery included, the As2 is compact enough to move through tight spaces, yet built to handle a standing payload of up to 65 kilograms. That's more than 143 pounds sitting on top of a 40-pound robot, which is genuinely impressive and a little hard to picture until you actually see it in action.

For $20,000-or a $499 per month rental fee and a six-month commitment-the lanky robot can do simple tasks around the house, such as unloading the dishwasher and watering plants, and can answer your questions through its built-in large language model.

If it's speed you want for sports or action shots of your kids, models like Canon's R50 can shoot bursts as fast as many high-end cameras. Creators, meanwhile, can choose Sony's ZV-E10 for vlogging jobs. There are also great, and cheap, models in the action and gimbal camera categories.

The new Cricut Explore 5 is 30 percent "more compact" than the Explore 4 that launched a year ago, without reducing the size or types of materials the machine can handle. Despite being up to an inch smaller in some dimensions compared to last year's model, the Explore 5 can still cut over 100 different materials, including cardstock and vinyl, up to 12 inches wide.

Ambient's Dreamie offers many of the conveniences of a smartphone-connected device - highly customizable alarm schedules, a library of soundscapes and noise masks, Bluetooth so you can connect earbuds and podcasts (soon). But it is phone-free every step of the way, with all controls and features built-in so you don't end up getting sucked into a doomscroll while you're trying to wind down.

The third-party market in 2025 is no longer playing catch-up. It's producing controllers with drift-proof magnetic sensors, modular physical architectures, trigger calibration measured in millimeters, and battery lives that nearly triple what Sony ships as standard. The gap has flipped.