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ADT’s new smart security system is now available nationwide. ADT Plus features new ADT hardware and integrates with Google Nest cameras and video doorbells, and the Yale Assure Lock 2. | Image: ADT

ADT’s long-rumored new security system is now live on ADT.com. Featuring entirely new ADT hardware and integrations with Google Nest cameras, smart speakers, and more, the new ADT Plus system has a distinctly Google Nest Secure look and feel (RIP). But how it will work in your home remains to be seen.
The company also announced that the Yale Assure Lock 2 will be the first smart lock compatible with Trusted Neighbor, its new feature that leverages technologies such as smart locks and facial recognition to make it easier for people you trust to get into your home in an emergency — or just to feed the dog.
If you have the smart lock as part of the system, you’ll be able to set it so that when your “trusted neighbor” comes to the house to help you out, the door can unlock automatically and the system disarm, then re-lock and re-arm when they leave.

Yale’s Assure Lock 2 (Z-Wave) will be the first smart door lock to work with ADT’s new Trusted Neighbor feature.

The new ADT Plus system is a significant shift for the company as it brings its professionally installed system and DIY system to parity. Now, you get the same hardware no matter which installation route you go.
ADT Plus replaces ADT’s Self Setup system, which launched in 2023 following Google’s investment in the company. It was offered for free to Nest Secure users when that service shut down and will continue to be supported.
According to ADT’s chief business officer, Wayne Thorsen, the technology behind the new system — which uses DECT Ultra Low Energy, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and BLE protocols — is able to integrate more deeply with hardware from smart home partners like Yale and Google, allowing for more advanced automation.

In an interview with The Verge, Thorsen said this is just the start of more intelligent integrations that will be coming to the new platform. The Z-Wave Yale lock is the first lock to be compatible, but Thorsen says there will be more options in the future.
The access feature allows someone you trust to disarm your system and unlock the door using the app or a key code based on parameters you set. These parameters can be time-based or — uniquely — event-based. So, you can set it to let Suzy in if a package shows up at your door and to let the plumber in if a leak detector is triggered.
It can also leverage the Familiar Face feature of Google’s Nest cameras and the Yale lock’s connection to the ADT system to have the home “magically” disarm itself and unlock the door when it recognizes a trusted neighbor.

Trusted Neighbor is a new feature in the ADT Plus app that lets you give friends and neighbors secure time and event-based access to your home.

The Yale Assure Lock 2 is being offered in a bundled starter kit for the new system, which regularly costs $658.98 but is launching with a 30 percent discount for $461.29. The Front Door Protection bundle includes the new base station, two door/window sensors, a Yale Assure Lock 2, and a Google Nest Doorbell (battery). Professional monitoring is $45 a month and includes a subscription to Nest Aware for event-based video recording (if you want 24/7 video recording, it’s an extra $7).
The premium Total Safety package adds a third door/window sensor, a motion sensor, three Google Nest Cams (Nest Cam indoor, Nest Cam indoor/outdoor, and Nest Cam floodlight), and three water temp sensors for $1,101.76 (reg $1,573.95). You can also build a package that starts at $269 for the base station and one door/window sensor.
The ADT Plus system can be self-installed and self-monitored. However, you have to pay for one month of monitoring to purchase the system — after that, you can self-monitor for free, according to the company. For professional installation, a 36-month monitoring plan is required.
Shades of Nest Secure

Image: Google Nest
Google’s Nest Secure home security system shut down earlier this year.

The new ADT Plus system borrows heavily from the much-missed Google Secure system. It has a similar-looking base station that features a backlit touch-button keypad with proximity sensing and the option of premium door and window sensors, similar to the Nest Detects that were part of Nest Secure. The sensor can be disabled with a button press — so you can let the dog out to pee without waking up the whole house — although it doesn’t double as a motion sensor like the Detect did.
Since Google’s investment in ADT in 2020, there have been several changes at the top of the company, with many Nest employees moving over from Google to ADT —including Thorsen and new CTO Gilles Drieu, who was director of engineering at Google Nest.
This all means the new hardware has Nest’s fingerprint all over it. I’m looking forward to testing it out to see if it’s a worthy Nest Secure successor. However, while ADT Plus works with Google Nest hardware, the company tells me it’s not compatible with the Google Home app — app control is only through the ADT Plus app.
As someone who has covered the smart home and home security for over a decade, I’m excited to see better integration and innovation between the two areas, which have been largely segmented to date. At the same time, it’s frustrating that this is all still locked within a closed ecosystem. It will be interesting to see where ADT, Google, and Yale take this.

ADT’s new smart security system is now available nationwide. ADT Plus features new ADT hardware and integrates with Google Nest cameras and video doorbells, and the Yale Assure Lock 2. | Image: ADT

ADT’s long-rumored new security system is now live on ADT.com. Featuring entirely new ADT hardware and integrations with Google Nest cameras, smart speakers, and more, the new ADT Plus system has a distinctly Google Nest Secure look and feel (RIP). But how it will work in your home remains to be seen.

The company also announced that the Yale Assure Lock 2 will be the first smart lock compatible with Trusted Neighbor, its new feature that leverages technologies such as smart locks and facial recognition to make it easier for people you trust to get into your home in an emergency — or just to feed the dog.

If you have the smart lock as part of the system, you’ll be able to set it so that when your “trusted neighbor” comes to the house to help you out, the door can unlock automatically and the system disarm, then re-lock and re-arm when they leave.

Yale’s Assure Lock 2 (Z-Wave) will be the first smart door lock to work with ADT’s new Trusted Neighbor feature.

The new ADT Plus system is a significant shift for the company as it brings its professionally installed system and DIY system to parity. Now, you get the same hardware no matter which installation route you go.

ADT Plus replaces ADT’s Self Setup system, which launched in 2023 following Google’s investment in the company. It was offered for free to Nest Secure users when that service shut down and will continue to be supported.

According to ADT’s chief business officer, Wayne Thorsen, the technology behind the new system — which uses DECT Ultra Low Energy, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and BLE protocols — is able to integrate more deeply with hardware from smart home partners like Yale and Google, allowing for more advanced automation.

In an interview with The Verge, Thorsen said this is just the start of more intelligent integrations that will be coming to the new platform. The Z-Wave Yale lock is the first lock to be compatible, but Thorsen says there will be more options in the future.

The access feature allows someone you trust to disarm your system and unlock the door using the app or a key code based on parameters you set. These parameters can be time-based or — uniquely — event-based. So, you can set it to let Suzy in if a package shows up at your door and to let the plumber in if a leak detector is triggered.

It can also leverage the Familiar Face feature of Google’s Nest cameras and the Yale lock’s connection to the ADT system to have the home “magically” disarm itself and unlock the door when it recognizes a trusted neighbor.

Trusted Neighbor is a new feature in the ADT Plus app that lets you give friends and neighbors secure time and event-based access to your home.

The Yale Assure Lock 2 is being offered in a bundled starter kit for the new system, which regularly costs $658.98 but is launching with a 30 percent discount for $461.29. The Front Door Protection bundle includes the new base station, two door/window sensors, a Yale Assure Lock 2, and a Google Nest Doorbell (battery). Professional monitoring is $45 a month and includes a subscription to Nest Aware for event-based video recording (if you want 24/7 video recording, it’s an extra $7).

The premium Total Safety package adds a third door/window sensor, a motion sensor, three Google Nest Cams (Nest Cam indoor, Nest Cam indoor/outdoor, and Nest Cam floodlight), and three water temp sensors for $1,101.76 (reg $1,573.95). You can also build a package that starts at $269 for the base station and one door/window sensor.

The ADT Plus system can be self-installed and self-monitored. However, you have to pay for one month of monitoring to purchase the system — after that, you can self-monitor for free, according to the company. For professional installation, a 36-month monitoring plan is required.

Shades of Nest Secure

Image: Google Nest
Google’s Nest Secure home security system shut down earlier this year.

The new ADT Plus system borrows heavily from the much-missed Google Secure system. It has a similar-looking base station that features a backlit touch-button keypad with proximity sensing and the option of premium door and window sensors, similar to the Nest Detects that were part of Nest Secure. The sensor can be disabled with a button press — so you can let the dog out to pee without waking up the whole house — although it doesn’t double as a motion sensor like the Detect did.

Since Google’s investment in ADT in 2020, there have been several changes at the top of the company, with many Nest employees moving over from Google to ADT —including Thorsen and new CTO Gilles Drieu, who was director of engineering at Google Nest.

This all means the new hardware has Nest’s fingerprint all over it. I’m looking forward to testing it out to see if it’s a worthy Nest Secure successor. However, while ADT Plus works with Google Nest hardware, the company tells me it’s not compatible with the Google Home app — app control is only through the ADT Plus app.

As someone who has covered the smart home and home security for over a decade, I’m excited to see better integration and innovation between the two areas, which have been largely segmented to date. At the same time, it’s frustrating that this is all still locked within a closed ecosystem. It will be interesting to see where ADT, Google, and Yale take this.

Read More 

Image: Apple

Apple’s iOS 18.1 developer preview comes with an AI-powered feature that lets you record and transcribe phone calls, as reported by MacRumors. Users with access to the beta can tap the new “record” button in the top-left corner of the call screen to keep an audio log of their call.
Once enabled, all callers will hear a message saying, “This call will be recorded.” The Phone app will then record the call, while automatically creating a transcription that will appear in the Notes app. In addition, users will also be able to access the full audio recording and an AI-generated summary of the call in the Notes app.
Apple first showed off phone call recording during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The feature seems useful for journalists who often conduct interviews over the phone and could even come in handy if you’re taking an important call from a doctor and want to remember exactly what they say.
Other Apple Intelligence features in the iOS 18.1 developer beta include natural language search in photos, email summaries in the Mail app, and an updated Siri design. While we’re going to have to wait a little longer to see an AI-supercharged Siri, Bloomberg reports this upgrade could arrive in 2025.

Image: Apple

Apple’s iOS 18.1 developer preview comes with an AI-powered feature that lets you record and transcribe phone calls, as reported by MacRumors. Users with access to the beta can tap the new “record” button in the top-left corner of the call screen to keep an audio log of their call.

Once enabled, all callers will hear a message saying, “This call will be recorded.” The Phone app will then record the call, while automatically creating a transcription that will appear in the Notes app. In addition, users will also be able to access the full audio recording and an AI-generated summary of the call in the Notes app.

Apple first showed off phone call recording during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The feature seems useful for journalists who often conduct interviews over the phone and could even come in handy if you’re taking an important call from a doctor and want to remember exactly what they say.

Other Apple Intelligence features in the iOS 18.1 developer beta include natural language search in photos, email summaries in the Mail app, and an updated Siri design. While we’re going to have to wait a little longer to see an AI-supercharged Siri, Bloomberg reports this upgrade could arrive in 2025.

Read More 

The Frame can easily pass for a traditional picture frame, which is part of its charm. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you want to help the student in your life feel a little more at home this school year, Samsung’s Music Frame is a unique piece of dorm decor that’ll do just the trick. And right now, the art-inspired smart speaker is down to $347.99 ($52 off) at Amazon, which matches the all-time low we last saw during Amazon Prime Day.

Samsung’s Music Frame is a lot of things. As the name implies, it’s a mountable 12.9 x 12.9-inch picture frame you can hang on your wall or rest on the included display stand. However, unlike the larger Sonos / Ikea Symfonisk frame speaker, you can customize Samsung’s speaker with physical photographs of, say, loved ones back home. You can even get creative and swap it out with physical art prints if you feel so inclined or outfit it with an alternative white bezel to better match your home decor.

Aside from being a sentimental, creative piece of decor, the Music Frame is also a wired speaker that can connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with support for surround sound when paired with one of Samsung’s new TVs or soundbars. It also boasts Dolby Atmos support for more immersive audio and a pair of woofers, tweeters, and midrange drivers, along with waveguides to help better disperse sound throughout a room. As if that weren’t enough, you can even control the speaker with just your voice thanks to its support for Amazon Alexa and Samsung Bixby voice assistants.

The Frame can easily pass for a traditional picture frame, which is part of its charm. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you want to help the student in your life feel a little more at home this school year, Samsung’s Music Frame is a unique piece of dorm decor that’ll do just the trick. And right now, the art-inspired smart speaker is down to $347.99 ($52 off) at Amazon, which matches the all-time low we last saw during Amazon Prime Day.

Samsung’s Music Frame is a lot of things. As the name implies, it’s a mountable 12.9 x 12.9-inch picture frame you can hang on your wall or rest on the included display stand. However, unlike the larger Sonos / Ikea Symfonisk frame speaker, you can customize Samsung’s speaker with physical photographs of, say, loved ones back home. You can even get creative and swap it out with physical art prints if you feel so inclined or outfit it with an alternative white bezel to better match your home decor.

Aside from being a sentimental, creative piece of decor, the Music Frame is also a wired speaker that can connect to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with support for surround sound when paired with one of Samsung’s new TVs or soundbars. It also boasts Dolby Atmos support for more immersive audio and a pair of woofers, tweeters, and midrange drivers, along with waveguides to help better disperse sound throughout a room. As if that weren’t enough, you can even control the speaker with just your voice thanks to its support for Amazon Alexa and Samsung Bixby voice assistants.

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There’s a bit of soldering involved with the mod, so Voultar will initially be only selling an installation service. | Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions

Nintendo sold over 49 million Super Nintendo consoles, but not all of them were created equal. A later hardware revision improved the quality of the SNES’ video output, and over three decades later, one modder has come up with a way to bring those same improvements to nearly every Super Nintendo ever released.
Zach Henson, a console modder who also goes by the name Voultar, has created a DIY modification kit for older Super Nintendo consoles called the Edge Enhancer. Expected to sell for around $60, the mod kit upgrades the console’s video output, making graphics appear much sharper and colors more saturated.
Although Nintendo made many revisions to the Super Nintendo’s hardware during the console’s production run, for retro gamers, there are essentially two versions of the SNES that matter. The original, which is now referred to as the SHVC or two chip model, and an upgraded version that came later, known as the 1CHIP model based on how Nintendo labeled its motherboard.
The two chip SNES featured a video digital to analog converter in its picture processing unit (PPU) that gamers have since discovered wasn’t able to quickly transition between different colors. This resulted in video output that tended to look soft or blurred because the graphics appeared to have a halo or shadow around them.
The problem wasn’t as noticeable in the ‘90s when everyone played on CRT TVs, but with a Super Nintendo connected to a modern display, the differences are more prominent.

Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions
A comparison between the quality of the video output on the two-chip Super Nintendo (left) and one-chip model (right).

For the later 1CHIP version of the Super Nintendo, the company merged the original’s two video chips and CPU into a single chip. It was a cost-cutting move to make it cheaper to manufacture the console, but the new components also resulted in video output that was much sharper with noticeably improved colors.
For retro gamers who prefer to play on original hardware, the 1CHIP Super Nintendo consoles are now very much sought after and can sell for well over $200. But demand could soon be waning thanks to this new upgrade kit.

Installing Voultar’s Edge Enhancer mod isn’t for beginners, as Tito Perez from YouTube’s Macho Nacho Productions recently demonstrated in a video. Not only does the SNES have to be completely dismantled, but there’s quite a bit of soldering required, and you have to remove the original transistors, capacitors, and resistors from the console’s motherboard.

Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions
On-screen text looks incredibly crisp on a two-chip Super Nintendo with Voultar’s Edge Enhancer installed.

A lot could go wrong when installing the various components needed for the mod. So while Voultar plans to eventually sell a DIY Edge Enhancer kit once the documentation and tutorials are finalized, it will initially only be available as part of a more expensive installation service that will ensure the upgrades are done correctly.
Pricing hasn’t been revealed just yet, but given that 1CHIP Super Nintendo consoles are becoming increasingly rare, the Edge Enhancer mod could still be much cheaper, even with the cost of shipping a Super Nintendo’s motherboard off to be upgraded.

There’s a bit of soldering involved with the mod, so Voultar will initially be only selling an installation service. | Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions

Nintendo sold over 49 million Super Nintendo consoles, but not all of them were created equal. A later hardware revision improved the quality of the SNES’ video output, and over three decades later, one modder has come up with a way to bring those same improvements to nearly every Super Nintendo ever released.

Zach Henson, a console modder who also goes by the name Voultar, has created a DIY modification kit for older Super Nintendo consoles called the Edge Enhancer. Expected to sell for around $60, the mod kit upgrades the console’s video output, making graphics appear much sharper and colors more saturated.

Although Nintendo made many revisions to the Super Nintendo’s hardware during the console’s production run, for retro gamers, there are essentially two versions of the SNES that matter. The original, which is now referred to as the SHVC or two chip model, and an upgraded version that came later, known as the 1CHIP model based on how Nintendo labeled its motherboard.

The two chip SNES featured a video digital to analog converter in its picture processing unit (PPU) that gamers have since discovered wasn’t able to quickly transition between different colors. This resulted in video output that tended to look soft or blurred because the graphics appeared to have a halo or shadow around them.

The problem wasn’t as noticeable in the ‘90s when everyone played on CRT TVs, but with a Super Nintendo connected to a modern display, the differences are more prominent.

Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions
A comparison between the quality of the video output on the two-chip Super Nintendo (left) and one-chip model (right).

For the later 1CHIP version of the Super Nintendo, the company merged the original’s two video chips and CPU into a single chip. It was a cost-cutting move to make it cheaper to manufacture the console, but the new components also resulted in video output that was much sharper with noticeably improved colors.

For retro gamers who prefer to play on original hardware, the 1CHIP Super Nintendo consoles are now very much sought after and can sell for well over $200. But demand could soon be waning thanks to this new upgrade kit.

Installing Voultar’s Edge Enhancer mod isn’t for beginners, as Tito Perez from YouTube’s Macho Nacho Productions recently demonstrated in a video. Not only does the SNES have to be completely dismantled, but there’s quite a bit of soldering required, and you have to remove the original transistors, capacitors, and resistors from the console’s motherboard.

Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions
On-screen text looks incredibly crisp on a two-chip Super Nintendo with Voultar’s Edge Enhancer installed.

A lot could go wrong when installing the various components needed for the mod. So while Voultar plans to eventually sell a DIY Edge Enhancer kit once the documentation and tutorials are finalized, it will initially only be available as part of a more expensive installation service that will ensure the upgrades are done correctly.

Pricing hasn’t been revealed just yet, but given that 1CHIP Super Nintendo consoles are becoming increasingly rare, the Edge Enhancer mod could still be much cheaper, even with the cost of shipping a Super Nintendo’s motherboard off to be upgraded.

Read More 

Some of the Apple Intelligence features previewed during WWDC 2024 | Image: Apple

Apple has just released the developer betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, giving users access to the company’s first set of AI features.
Some of the Apple Intelligence features arriving with the beta include Siri with an updated design and ability to maintain context across multiple requests, new Mail features like smart reply and email summaries, natural language search in Photos, and other tweaks, according to 9to5Mac.

To install these updates, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max or, for iPads and Macs, a system with an Apple Silicon chip. Once they’re installed, users will have to join a waitlist from the Settings menu of their device and wait for a notification that it’s ready for them to access, as seen in this screenshot from @iSWUpdates on X.

iOS 18.1 Developer Beta 1 (22B5007p) has been released. #iOS181 #iOS181Beta1 pic.twitter.com/C7sXaG36pr— iSoftware Updates (@iSWUpdates) July 29, 2024

At the same time that the first 18.1 previews came out on Monday, 9to5Mac reports Apple also released a second public beta for iOS 18, with some of the features seen in a recent developer beta, like RCS support on more carriers, a new set of CarPlay wallpapers, and the ability to use dark mode widgets while in light mode.
Bloomberg reported that Apple will likely roll out some Apple Intelligence features, like Siri’s larger AI overhaul, later, running well into 2025.
Apple first announced the AI features coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. It released the public iOS 18 beta on July 15th.
Apple hasn’t typically released the betas for follow-up software updates before the public launch of the initial version, which should accompany the launch of the iPhone 16 this fall. But splitting its AI updates into an 18.1 update and starting to test them with developers now could help the company quash bugs and test features before they become widely available, without any potential to impact the launch of phones and tablets as they start to ship with iOS and iPadOS 18.

Developing….

Some of the Apple Intelligence features previewed during WWDC 2024 | Image: Apple

Apple has just released the developer betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, giving users access to the company’s first set of AI features.

Some of the Apple Intelligence features arriving with the beta include Siri with an updated design and ability to maintain context across multiple requests, new Mail features like smart reply and email summaries, natural language search in Photos, and other tweaks, according to 9to5Mac.

To install these updates, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max or, for iPads and Macs, a system with an Apple Silicon chip. Once they’re installed, users will have to join a waitlist from the Settings menu of their device and wait for a notification that it’s ready for them to access, as seen in this screenshot from @iSWUpdates on X.

At the same time that the first 18.1 previews came out on Monday, 9to5Mac reports Apple also released a second public beta for iOS 18, with some of the features seen in a recent developer beta, like RCS support on more carriers, a new set of CarPlay wallpapers, and the ability to use dark mode widgets while in light mode.

Bloomberg reported that Apple will likely roll out some Apple Intelligence features, like Siri’s larger AI overhaul, later, running well into 2025.

Apple first announced the AI features coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. It released the public iOS 18 beta on July 15th.

Apple hasn’t typically released the betas for follow-up software updates before the public launch of the initial version, which should accompany the launch of the iPhone 16 this fall. But splitting its AI updates into an 18.1 update and starting to test them with developers now could help the company quash bugs and test features before they become widely available, without any potential to impact the launch of phones and tablets as they start to ship with iOS and iPadOS 18.

Developing….

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you’re a PlayStation 5 owner and are curious about VR gaming, now may be the best time to pick up Sony’s headset. The PlayStation VR2 is currently on sale for its lowest price ever, available on its own for $349.99 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from PlayStation or as a bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain for $399.99 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and PlayStation. The deal is part of the ongoing PlayStation Summer Sale, which runs through August 5th.

Now, it’s true that the PSVR 2 has some flaws — such as its reliance on a wired tether to your console — but it remains a state-of-the-art experience with 120Hz OLED displays, eye tracking, and one of the comfiest fits out there for a VR headset. The naked truth is that Sony doesn’t have a whole lot of exciting new upcoming VR game releases, which may be why it’s opening up compatibility to PC gamers with a $60 adapter that will ship on August 7th.
It’s hard to predict if selling a bunch of headsets to people with beefy gaming PCs will help Sony grow its ecosystem of games in the long run, but offering a big discount certainly doesn’t hurt. Read our review.

Anybody else got a case of the Mondeals?

In addition to the PSVR 2 deal, Sony’s Summer Sale is also offering rare discounts on the colorful PlayStation 5 console covers. Depending on the color, the covers sell for $44.99 or $49.99 ($10 off at either price) and are available in silver, red, blue, black, purple, light blue, pink, and a darker, maroon-like red. Just be sure to choose the one that matches what type of PS5 you have — standard, Digital Edition, or Slim. Read our impressions.
Amazon’s Echo Pop is back down to its best price of $17.99 ($22 off) at Best Buy. This is the kind of deal on the colorful smart speaker usually reserved for Prime Day and Black Friday. The tiny speaker has decent sound for its size and is the cheapest way to talk to Alexa and issue smart home commands with your voice. Read our review.
The Pixel 8A $449 ($50 off) is on sale for $449 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Google’s store. The midranger from Google nails most things you may want from an Android smartphone at a respectable price and is our choice for the best phone around $500. It features a very good camera, wireless charging, an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance, and a promise of seven whole years of OS updates. Read our review.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you’re a PlayStation 5 owner and are curious about VR gaming, now may be the best time to pick up Sony’s headset. The PlayStation VR2 is currently on sale for its lowest price ever, available on its own for $349.99 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from PlayStation or as a bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain for $399.99 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and PlayStation. The deal is part of the ongoing PlayStation Summer Sale, which runs through August 5th.

Now, it’s true that the PSVR 2 has some flaws — such as its reliance on a wired tether to your console — but it remains a state-of-the-art experience with 120Hz OLED displays, eye tracking, and one of the comfiest fits out there for a VR headset. The naked truth is that Sony doesn’t have a whole lot of exciting new upcoming VR game releases, which may be why it’s opening up compatibility to PC gamers with a $60 adapter that will ship on August 7th.

It’s hard to predict if selling a bunch of headsets to people with beefy gaming PCs will help Sony grow its ecosystem of games in the long run, but offering a big discount certainly doesn’t hurt. Read our review.

Anybody else got a case of the Mondeals?

In addition to the PSVR 2 deal, Sony’s Summer Sale is also offering rare discounts on the colorful PlayStation 5 console covers. Depending on the color, the covers sell for $44.99 or $49.99 ($10 off at either price) and are available in silver, red, blue, black, purple, light blue, pink, and a darker, maroon-like red. Just be sure to choose the one that matches what type of PS5 you have — standard, Digital Edition, or Slim. Read our impressions.
Amazon’s Echo Pop is back down to its best price of $17.99 ($22 off) at Best Buy. This is the kind of deal on the colorful smart speaker usually reserved for Prime Day and Black Friday. The tiny speaker has decent sound for its size and is the cheapest way to talk to Alexa and issue smart home commands with your voice. Read our review.
The Pixel 8A $449 ($50 off) is on sale for $449 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Google’s store. The midranger from Google nails most things you may want from an Android smartphone at a respectable price and is our choice for the best phone around $500. It features a very good camera, wireless charging, an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance, and a promise of seven whole years of OS updates. Read our review.

Read More 

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Twitch’s mobile app is getting a major update that puts its TikTok-like feed front and center. The company started testing the update earlier this year, and over the course of this week, the new app will roll out to all users on Android and iOS, Twitch says in a blog post.
The big change is that the new app will open on a feed of content you might like (a “Home” tab) instead of opening on the “Following” tab. The change follows a lot of steps in this direction from Twitch: the company announced an initial “discovery feed” experiment in August, and it rolled the feed out to all users in April as a “Feed” tab in the mobile app. Earlier this year, as part of his 2024 open letter, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy also discussed the company’s plans to make the discovery feed the “new landing experience in the app.”

More than 50 percent of Twitch users “primarily” watch Twitch on their phone, but “we need to make it easier for these viewers to find content when they visit Twitch and make the experience more fun so that they come back more often,” the company says in its blog post. The intention of the redesigned app is to make it “easy to find streamers that you already love while also exploring and discovering new streamers.”
The new app also has a Browse tab, an Activity tab to see notifications, a profile tab, and a plus button you can tap to access features like starting a livestream. If you want to see what’s going on from the streamers you follow, you can tap the Following feed in the upper-left corner.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Twitch’s mobile app is getting a major update that puts its TikTok-like feed front and center. The company started testing the update earlier this year, and over the course of this week, the new app will roll out to all users on Android and iOS, Twitch says in a blog post.

The big change is that the new app will open on a feed of content you might like (a “Home” tab) instead of opening on the “Following” tab. The change follows a lot of steps in this direction from Twitch: the company announced an initial “discovery feed” experiment in August, and it rolled the feed out to all users in April as a “Feed” tab in the mobile app. Earlier this year, as part of his 2024 open letter, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy also discussed the company’s plans to make the discovery feed the “new landing experience in the app.”

More than 50 percent of Twitch users “primarily” watch Twitch on their phone, but “we need to make it easier for these viewers to find content when they visit Twitch and make the experience more fun so that they come back more often,” the company says in its blog post. The intention of the redesigned app is to make it “easy to find streamers that you already love while also exploring and discovering new streamers.”

The new app also has a Browse tab, an Activity tab to see notifications, a profile tab, and a plus button you can tap to access features like starting a livestream. If you want to see what’s going on from the streamers you follow, you can tap the Following feed in the upper-left corner.

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Image: Sony

Sony Interactive Entertainment and Team Asobi — the developers behind the forthcoming Astro Bot — have teamed up to design and release a limited edition Astro Bot DualSense controller.
Just look at it. I need it.

The Astro Bot limited edition controller adds blue controller grips and sci-fi accents and features Astro’s signature pair of bright blue eyes on the touchpad that, based on the adorable trailer, appear to blink at you. (They better blink at you — what’s the point of the eyes if they don’t blink at you?)
Team Asobi has added a bunch of new interactions between DualSense controllers and the Astro Bot game, some of which I got to experience during my demo of the game at Summer Game Fest. The team has increased the number of textures you can feel through the controller like sand, glass, or metal. All of Astro’s new power-ups will have a distinct feel to them thanks to haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers. In the demo, there are little spark plugs you frequently have to pull out of the ground. The sound effects coming out of the controller combined with the slowly increasing resistance on the triggers made it actually feel like yanking on stubborn wires.
The controller will be available for preorder on August 9th in select countries, retailing for $79.99. Or you can try your luck buying it from select retailers worldwide on September 6th — the same day as Astro Bot’s launch.

Image: Sony

Sony Interactive Entertainment and Team Asobi — the developers behind the forthcoming Astro Bot — have teamed up to design and release a limited edition Astro Bot DualSense controller.

Just look at it. I need it.

The Astro Bot limited edition controller adds blue controller grips and sci-fi accents and features Astro’s signature pair of bright blue eyes on the touchpad that, based on the adorable trailer, appear to blink at you. (They better blink at you — what’s the point of the eyes if they don’t blink at you?)

Team Asobi has added a bunch of new interactions between DualSense controllers and the Astro Bot game, some of which I got to experience during my demo of the game at Summer Game Fest. The team has increased the number of textures you can feel through the controller like sand, glass, or metal. All of Astro’s new power-ups will have a distinct feel to them thanks to haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers. In the demo, there are little spark plugs you frequently have to pull out of the ground. The sound effects coming out of the controller combined with the slowly increasing resistance on the triggers made it actually feel like yanking on stubborn wires.

The controller will be available for preorder on August 9th in select countries, retailing for $79.99. Or you can try your luck buying it from select retailers worldwide on September 6th — the same day as Astro Bot’s launch.

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Image: Dinosaur Polo Club

Canceled video games are typically shrouded in secrecy, the kind of thing we only learn about via leaks well after the fact. But Dinosaur Polo Club, the indie studio behind the minimalist strategy games Mini Metro and Mini Motorways, has come out and revealed a recently canceled project in a refreshing bout of transparency.
The game was codenamed Magic School, and it was an attempt for the studio to branch out from the clean, streamlined experiences it has become known for. The problem? As the concept grew in scope, it became clear to the studio that a much bigger team would be needed, which led them to abandon it.
You can get a sense of what it would’ve been like in the footage above as well as from the concept images in the gallery below. (There’s even more over on ArtStation.)

“Ultimately, we simply did not see a path forward for Magic School,” studio CEO Amie Wolken said in a statement. “However, we still wanted to share the amazing work the team had produced over the course of prototyping.”
One silver lining: none of the team members working on the game are being let go. Instead, the studio says that the plan is “to redirect their skills to the new projects within their celebrated Mini series.”
While it may be disappointing that Magic School won’t ever launch — it sure sounds cool to me — it’s wonderful to see a studio be so open in such a tight-lipped industry. And for those who worked on the game, it’s a big bonus to be able to actually share the work they did on it, even if there’s no final product for people to play.
“So much great game development never sees the light of day because studios are often shy about sharing when things don’t go as planned,” added Wolken. “Instead, we are choosing to celebrate what we learned along the way and the incredible work from our team.”

Image: Dinosaur Polo Club

Canceled video games are typically shrouded in secrecy, the kind of thing we only learn about via leaks well after the fact. But Dinosaur Polo Club, the indie studio behind the minimalist strategy games Mini Metro and Mini Motorways, has come out and revealed a recently canceled project in a refreshing bout of transparency.

The game was codenamed Magic School, and it was an attempt for the studio to branch out from the clean, streamlined experiences it has become known for. The problem? As the concept grew in scope, it became clear to the studio that a much bigger team would be needed, which led them to abandon it.

You can get a sense of what it would’ve been like in the footage above as well as from the concept images in the gallery below. (There’s even more over on ArtStation.)

“Ultimately, we simply did not see a path forward for Magic School,” studio CEO Amie Wolken said in a statement. “However, we still wanted to share the amazing work the team had produced over the course of prototyping.”

One silver lining: none of the team members working on the game are being let go. Instead, the studio says that the plan is “to redirect their skills to the new projects within their celebrated Mini series.”

While it may be disappointing that Magic School won’t ever launch — it sure sounds cool to me — it’s wonderful to see a studio be so open in such a tight-lipped industry. And for those who worked on the game, it’s a big bonus to be able to actually share the work they did on it, even if there’s no final product for people to play.

“So much great game development never sees the light of day because studios are often shy about sharing when things don’t go as planned,” added Wolken. “Instead, we are choosing to celebrate what we learned along the way and the incredible work from our team.”

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Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool / Getty Images

X owner Elon Musk shared a deepfake video spoofing a campaign ad for Vice President Kamala Harris. It appears to violate the platform’s own policies against synthetic and manipulated media.
The video Musk shared on Friday alters a recent campaign video Harris released, one that makes it sound like the presidential candidate said things she didn’t. The manipulated clip has Harris saying things like she is “the ultimate diversity hire” and that she “had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden.” The original account that had posted the video labeled it, “Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY,” a disclaimer that might prevent it from violating X’s policies. But this context did not appear in Musk’s repost. Instead, Musk’s post simply showed the video, adding his own commentary: “This is amazing,” with a laughing emoji.
It’s just the latest example of how AI-altered media could play a role in this election cycle and how the law has not fully caught up to deal with it. Earlier this year, for example, a robocall that used AI to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice urged New Hampshire voters to stay home during the primary. And election officials are training for how AI could get in the way on Election Day or in the lead-up to it, while rules around AI disclosures in ads remain in development or pending votes.
This has left platforms like X responsible for coming up with their own rules around misinformation. Under X’s policies, “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm” is not allowed on the platform. X says it first evaluates if the content has been “significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated,” which it says includes “overdubbed audio” that’s been added or edited “that fundamentally changes the understanding, meaning, or context of the media.” Next, it considers the context, like whether it’s being presented as reality. And last, it determines if the content could lead to “widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm.” X says that satire doesn’t violate the policy as long as it doesn’t “cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.” Even a lenient reading of these policies would suggest that Musk’s post violated these rules.
The post is also the latest fire that X CEO Linda Yaccarino may be tasked with squashing after her boss’s actions. X did not immediately provide a response to a request for comment on Musk’s post.
Musk’s post is already getting pushback from the left. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote on Threads that if Musk’s post remains without context, X and Musk “will not only be violating X’s own rules, they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party.” Klobuchar has introduced legislation to require disclaimers on political ads substantially altered or generated with AI.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) also called out Musk’s post, writing on X that “Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,” adding that he’d be “signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.”
Musk responded to that post with a link to the original post of the digitally altered video that includes the parody label: “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.”

Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool / Getty Images

X owner Elon Musk shared a deepfake video spoofing a campaign ad for Vice President Kamala Harris. It appears to violate the platform’s own policies against synthetic and manipulated media.

The video Musk shared on Friday alters a recent campaign video Harris released, one that makes it sound like the presidential candidate said things she didn’t. The manipulated clip has Harris saying things like she is “the ultimate diversity hire” and that she “had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden.” The original account that had posted the video labeled it, “Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY,” a disclaimer that might prevent it from violating X’s policies. But this context did not appear in Musk’s repost. Instead, Musk’s post simply showed the video, adding his own commentary: “This is amazing,” with a laughing emoji.

It’s just the latest example of how AI-altered media could play a role in this election cycle and how the law has not fully caught up to deal with it. Earlier this year, for example, a robocall that used AI to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice urged New Hampshire voters to stay home during the primary. And election officials are training for how AI could get in the way on Election Day or in the lead-up to it, while rules around AI disclosures in ads remain in development or pending votes.

This has left platforms like X responsible for coming up with their own rules around misinformation. Under X’s policies, “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm” is not allowed on the platform. X says it first evaluates if the content has been “significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated,” which it says includes “overdubbed audio” that’s been added or edited “that fundamentally changes the understanding, meaning, or context of the media.” Next, it considers the context, like whether it’s being presented as reality. And last, it determines if the content could lead to “widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm.” X says that satire doesn’t violate the policy as long as it doesn’t “cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.” Even a lenient reading of these policies would suggest that Musk’s post violated these rules.

The post is also the latest fire that X CEO Linda Yaccarino may be tasked with squashing after her boss’s actions. X did not immediately provide a response to a request for comment on Musk’s post.

Musk’s post is already getting pushback from the left. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote on Threads that if Musk’s post remains without context, X and Musk “will not only be violating X’s own rules, they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party.” Klobuchar has introduced legislation to require disclaimers on political ads substantially altered or generated with AI.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) also called out Musk’s post, writing on X that “Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,” adding that he’d be “signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.”

Musk responded to that post with a link to the original post of the digitally altered video that includes the parody label: “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.”

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