Image: Sony

Sony just announced the $699.99 PS5 Pro, a beefed-up version of the PS5 that includes a larger GPU and advanced ray tracing support. But if you want to play your physical games on the new console, you’ll have to pay extra: a disc drive isn’t included, so you’ll have to buy and install one separately for an additional $79.99.
“PS5 Pro is available as a disc-less console, with the option to purchase the currently available Disc Drive for PS5 separately,” Sony’s Hideaki Nishino writes in a PlayStation Blog post. That means if you are buying both the console and the disc drive together, you’ll be paying a whopping $779.98.
While very annoying — it sure seems like an expensive “Pro” console should come with a disc drive! — this move from Sony isn’t entirely out of left field. Sony first released the separate PS5 disc drive alongside the “slim” PS5 redesign, giving you the option of adding a drive to an all-digital PS5 slim if you wanted after the fact. (Sony also sells a PS5 slim with the disc drive included.)
The PS5 Pro launches on November 7th, and preorders start on September 24th.

Image: Sony

Sony just announced the $699.99 PS5 Pro, a beefed-up version of the PS5 that includes a larger GPU and advanced ray tracing support. But if you want to play your physical games on the new console, you’ll have to pay extra: a disc drive isn’t included, so you’ll have to buy and install one separately for an additional $79.99.

“PS5 Pro is available as a disc-less console, with the option to purchase the currently available Disc Drive for PS5 separately,” Sony’s Hideaki Nishino writes in a PlayStation Blog post. That means if you are buying both the console and the disc drive together, you’ll be paying a whopping $779.98.

While very annoying — it sure seems like an expensive “Pro” console should come with a disc drive! — this move from Sony isn’t entirely out of left field. Sony first released the separate PS5 disc drive alongside the “slim” PS5 redesign, giving you the option of adding a drive to an all-digital PS5 slim if you wanted after the fact. (Sony also sells a PS5 slim with the disc drive included.)

The PS5 Pro launches on November 7th, and preorders start on September 24th.

Read More 

The GMMK 3 is quite the modular mechanical keyboard, as its initialism-style name implies.

The GMMK 3 and GMMK 3 Pro are easy to configure and customize, though you can quickly blow your budget. The enthusiast mechanical keyboard scene has constantly evolving tastes and trends, and once you order a fancy bespoke board through a limited-run group buy, another one springs up for hyped-up fans to clamor over. Glorious is looking to streamline a touch of that fervor with a pair of new gaming keyboards, each decked out with a boatload of user-selectable customizations, and they may be perfect for the keyboard sicko-curious out there — no tedious group buys necessary.
The new Glorious models consist of two keyboards, the GMMK 3 (starting at $119.99 bare-bones, meaning no switches or keycaps included) and GMMK 3 Pro (starting at $239.99 bare-bones), with each available now in three sizes (full-size 100 percent, 75 percent, and 65 percent) and with either traditional MX style hot-swappable switches or magnetic Hall effect (HE) switches. Boards equipped with the latter are also compatible with MX switches, allowing you to use any of your existing collection, but the choices keep going if you want Glorious to build you something more unique through its new Boardsmith configurator site.

This build may not be everyone’s style, but the colorful dual-tone metal chassis really has some presence.

Boardsmith is where the real magic for the curious lies. It includes myriad options for all kinds of the GMMK 3’s internal and external components, and tinkering with wild (or ugly) configurations is half the fun of this keyboard. It’s like going to Porsche or Lamborghini’s site and seeing how ridiculous a supercar you can put together. You can customize the materials and colors of the top and bottom halves of the board’s chassis, switches, keycaps, cables, knobs, the switch plate (the supportive internal plate base that sits beneath the switches), gasket mounting materials (little swappable pegs that sit low inside the case to give the top deck and keys a firm or pillowy feel), and Glorious’ logo badges.
While there are many aesthetic choices to make based on colors and keycaps, the chosen construction of the board can greatly affect the typing feel and sound. This isn’t new if you already engage in any group buys from companies like Meletrix, Qwertykeys, or Owlab. The difference here is that Glorious has a greater focus on gaming and will build and ship your configured keyboard without making you wait the better part of a year. Plus, the keyboard arrives fully built, as opposed to a DIY kit.

Both sides of all GMMK 3 models have RGB accent strips.

The RGB across the board is bright and colorful, with this model’s white switch plate nicely spreading the light.

The process is also much more novice-friendly, as choices on Boardsmith have brief tooltips to help you weigh minutiae like switch plate material and Glorious’ various switches. It should be helpful for those without tons of prior mechanical keyboard experience. And if you end up with a bit of FOMO after your board arrives you can order additional parts to easily swap out yourself (including the whole top and bottom frames).
Glorious aimed to make the new GMMK generation fairly easy to open up and tinker around inside, with case screws accessible beneath rubber feet that pop off and back on. It’s a promise Glorious really delivered on, as the GMMK 3 is one of the simplest keyboards I’ve ever disassembled. Once you remove those case screws the chassis simply separates in half, and you instantly have full access to just about everything — without having to remove a single keycap or switch.
Lots of keyboards out there require you to remove all the keycaps every time you want to dive into it, and that’s a huge pain point if you’re a little lazy like me or don’t want to spend a chunk of time to test out one small tweak like seeing how your keyboard sounds with less foam. Here, you can be trying out mods or different gaskets in mere minutes.

Much of what Glorious is tapping into with the GMMK 3 and 3 Pro are the trappings of the enthusiast mechanical keyboard community, where feel, aesthetics, and sound are top priorities on boards used for typing and productivity. But Glorious’ pedigree comes from PC gaming (the brand’s name used to be the cringe-inducing “Glorious PC Gaming Race”), and the new GMMK boards maintain a gaming angle — particularly the Hall effect models.
If you opt for HE versions of the GMMK 3 or GMMK 3 Pro, you gain all kinds of unique tricks through the Glorious Core software. You can customize theactuation point from a range of a super shallow 0.1mm to bottoming-out at 4mm (the default is set to 2mm), and this can be set across the whole board or on a per-key basis. You can also set up to four bindings to a single key travel, two on the way down and two on the way up, with selectable actuation points for each. There’s a lot of fine-grained settings you can tweak and customize here, though Glorious Core is incredibly clunky and poorly designed (which is sadly par for the course among Glorious’ competitors like Razer and SteelSeries too). You can likely hammer your way through it with a bunch of trial-and-error testing, but it’s a far cry from the beginner-friendly intuitiveness of Boardsmith.

I’ve been testing a full-size, 100 percent GMMK 3 Pro in a highly-specced configuration with an all-metal case (it weighs a hefty 5.6 pounds), HE Fox switches (Glorious’ go-to for linears), 2.4GHz wireless, firm silicone gaskets, and FR4 switch plate. I usually prefer a deeper, punchier typing sound on much smaller boards, but this config has a half-throated clacky tone that’s softly deep upon bottoming-out but brighter when each key is released. It’s not quite the “raindrops on a window” sound that some people covet, but it’s playing in that ballpark.

The exact configuration of GMMK 3 Pro I’ve been testing, configured in Glorious Boardsmith.

I may personally loathe full-size keyboards (I’ve grown accustomed to the number pad-free life), but it’s cool to see a 100 percent board with so many customizable options and aesthetics. Most other “gaming” keyboards this size are ugly all-black or all-white monstrosities where RGB lighting is the only aesthetic color choice.
I’m coming away mostly impressed by the GMMK 3 Pro, but going all-out with the Glorious Boardsmith is going to really cost you. This board soared up in price to $490.99 once fully configured, which is a far cry from the starting kit price of $149.99 for a wired GMMK 3 complete with MX switches and keycaps, and getting dangerously close to Angry Miao territory. At least, if you go a little wild with the configurator and spend a lot on your dream GMMK 3 it seems you’re getting a quality keyboard with a smattering of the latest innovations in the mech keyboard space, as well as a two year warranty and actual customer service — not just a Discord server and a GitHub repository to sort through for DIY troubleshooting. You can come to the GMMK 3 for the specs and aesthetics, but you may want to stay for the simplicity and peace of mind.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The GMMK 3 is quite the modular mechanical keyboard, as its initialism-style name implies.

The GMMK 3 and GMMK 3 Pro are easy to configure and customize, though you can quickly blow your budget.

The enthusiast mechanical keyboard scene has constantly evolving tastes and trends, and once you order a fancy bespoke board through a limited-run group buy, another one springs up for hyped-up fans to clamor over. Glorious is looking to streamline a touch of that fervor with a pair of new gaming keyboards, each decked out with a boatload of user-selectable customizations, and they may be perfect for the keyboard sicko-curious out there — no tedious group buys necessary.

The new Glorious models consist of two keyboards, the GMMK 3 (starting at $119.99 bare-bones, meaning no switches or keycaps included) and GMMK 3 Pro (starting at $239.99 bare-bones), with each available now in three sizes (full-size 100 percent, 75 percent, and 65 percent) and with either traditional MX style hot-swappable switches or magnetic Hall effect (HE) switches. Boards equipped with the latter are also compatible with MX switches, allowing you to use any of your existing collection, but the choices keep going if you want Glorious to build you something more unique through its new Boardsmith configurator site.

Boardsmith is where the real magic for the curious lies. It includes myriad options for all kinds of the GMMK 3’s internal and external components, and tinkering with wild (or ugly) configurations is half the fun of this keyboard. It’s like going to Porsche or Lamborghini’s site and seeing how ridiculous a supercar you can put together. You can customize the materials and colors of the top and bottom halves of the board’s chassis, switches, keycaps, cables, knobs, the switch plate (the supportive internal plate base that sits beneath the switches), gasket mounting materials (little swappable pegs that sit low inside the case to give the top deck and keys a firm or pillowy feel), and Glorious’ logo badges.

While there are many aesthetic choices to make based on colors and keycaps, the chosen construction of the board can greatly affect the typing feel and sound. This isn’t new if you already engage in any group buys from companies like Meletrix, Qwertykeys, or Owlab. The difference here is that Glorious has a greater focus on gaming and will build and ship your configured keyboard without making you wait the better part of a year. Plus, the keyboard arrives fully built, as opposed to a DIY kit.

The process is also much more novice-friendly, as choices on Boardsmith have brief tooltips to help you weigh minutiae like switch plate material and Glorious’ various switches. It should be helpful for those without tons of prior mechanical keyboard experience. And if you end up with a bit of FOMO after your board arrives you can order additional parts to easily swap out yourself (including the whole top and bottom frames).

Glorious aimed to make the new GMMK generation fairly easy to open up and tinker around inside, with case screws accessible beneath rubber feet that pop off and back on. It’s a promise Glorious really delivered on, as the GMMK 3 is one of the simplest keyboards I’ve ever disassembled. Once you remove those case screws the chassis simply separates in half, and you instantly have full access to just about everything — without having to remove a single keycap or switch.

Lots of keyboards out there require you to remove all the keycaps every time you want to dive into it, and that’s a huge pain point if you’re a little lazy like me or don’t want to spend a chunk of time to test out one small tweak like seeing how your keyboard sounds with less foam. Here, you can be trying out mods or different gaskets in mere minutes.

Much of what Glorious is tapping into with the GMMK 3 and 3 Pro are the trappings of the enthusiast mechanical keyboard community, where feel, aesthetics, and sound are top priorities on boards used for typing and productivity. But Glorious’ pedigree comes from PC gaming (the brand’s name used to be the cringe-inducing “Glorious PC Gaming Race”), and the new GMMK boards maintain a gaming angle — particularly the Hall effect models.

If you opt for HE versions of the GMMK 3 or GMMK 3 Pro, you gain all kinds of unique tricks through the Glorious Core software. You can customize theactuation point from a range of a super shallow 0.1mm to bottoming-out at 4mm (the default is set to 2mm), and this can be set across the whole board or on a per-key basis. You can also set up to four bindings to a single key travel, two on the way down and two on the way up, with selectable actuation points for each. There’s a lot of fine-grained settings you can tweak and customize here, though Glorious Core is incredibly clunky and poorly designed (which is sadly par for the course among Glorious’ competitors like Razer and SteelSeries too). You can likely hammer your way through it with a bunch of trial-and-error testing, but it’s a far cry from the beginner-friendly intuitiveness of Boardsmith.

I’ve been testing a full-size, 100 percent GMMK 3 Pro in a highly-specced configuration with an all-metal case (it weighs a hefty 5.6 pounds), HE Fox switches (Glorious’ go-to for linears), 2.4GHz wireless, firm silicone gaskets, and FR4 switch plate. I usually prefer a deeper, punchier typing sound on much smaller boards, but this config has a half-throated clacky tone that’s softly deep upon bottoming-out but brighter when each key is released. It’s not quite the “raindrops on a window” sound that some people covet, but it’s playing in that ballpark.

The exact configuration of GMMK 3 Pro I’ve been testing, configured in Glorious Boardsmith.

I may personally loathe full-size keyboards (I’ve grown accustomed to the number pad-free life), but it’s cool to see a 100 percent board with so many customizable options and aesthetics. Most other “gaming” keyboards this size are ugly all-black or all-white monstrosities where RGB lighting is the only aesthetic color choice.

I’m coming away mostly impressed by the GMMK 3 Pro, but going all-out with the Glorious Boardsmith is going to really cost you. This board soared up in price to $490.99 once fully configured, which is a far cry from the starting kit price of $149.99 for a wired GMMK 3 complete with MX switches and keycaps, and getting dangerously close to Angry Miao territory. At least, if you go a little wild with the configurator and spend a lot on your dream GMMK 3 it seems you’re getting a quality keyboard with a smattering of the latest innovations in the mech keyboard space, as well as a two year warranty and actual customer service — not just a Discord server and a GitHub repository to sort through for DIY troubleshooting. You can come to the GMMK 3 for the specs and aesthetics, but you may want to stay for the simplicity and peace of mind.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Read More 

Image: Sony

The PS5 Pro is official. After months of leaks, Sony just announced a more powerful PS5 console during a special technical presentation. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5 console, says the PS5 Pro improves on the original console in three key ways: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and custom AI-driven upscaling.
The PS5 Pro will launch on November 7th, priced at $699.99, and it looks similar to the slim version of the PS5 — just like recent leaks suggested it would. It has three stripes down the side, and it doesn’t come with a disc drive. You’ll be able to purchase a 4K Blu-ray disc drive separately and optional console covers.
“It’s the most powerful console we’ve ever built,” says Cerny. The hardware upgrades inside will result in 45 percent faster rendering, according to Cerny, and should improve the detail of certain games and frame rates. One of the key reasons for the PS5 Pro is to allow PS5 Pro players to not have to choose performance modes over fidelity ones. “Players are choosing performance about three quarters of the time,” says Cerny.

Sony has upgraded the GPU inside the PS5 Pro with 67 percent more compute units that the current PS5 console, and it has 28 percent faster memory, too. That all adds up to the 45 percent faster rendering of games, and the ability to improve frame rates in titles without having to lose visual fidelity.
This extra power should also improve ray-traced games, with Sony suggesting that developers will be able to allow “the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.”
The PS5 Pro also includes Sony’s new AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) feature, which is essentially an upscaling technique similar to Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR to improve frame rates and image quality for PlayStation games. This custom PSSR upscaling is designed to replace a game’s existing temporal anti-aliasing or upsampling implementation.
Cerny briefly demonstrated a few games running on the PS5 Pro, including The Last of Us Part II with more detail while still targeting 60fps instead of the 30fps fidelity mode on PS5. Sony’s goal of fidelity-like graphics at performance frame rates will be available in games like Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Sony is also including a PS5 Pro “Game Boost” option which will apply to more than 8,500 backward compatible PS4 games for the PS5 Pro. “This feature may stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games,” says Hideaki Nishino, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s platform business group. “Enhanced Image Quality for PS4 games is also available to improve the resolution on select PS4 games.”
The PS5 Pro will also support Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, VRR, and 8K resolutions, and CNET’s Scott Stein, who got an early hands-on with the console, says it now comes with a larger 2TB solid state drive and swaps one of its rear USB-A ports for a second USB-C port instead. It’ll also still include an extra SSD slot for expansion, he says.
Games will need to be patched to take advantage of some of the PS5 Pro’s features, and Sony says developers are readying free software updates to existing titles that will be labeled as PS5 Pro Enhanced games — up to 50 of them by its November 7th launch, according to CNET.
The first PS5 Pro Enhanced games will include Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant, and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
Of the initial batch of titles, most should now simply feature 4K resolution and 60fps framerate, but CNET also got to try Gran Turismo 7 in a new 8K mode and a 4K ray-tracing mode. Developers can also reportedly add volumetric lighting or even show you more characters in the background of a scene.
The PS5 Pro is also compatible with the PlayStation VR2 headset — where Cerny told CNET it will eventually support higher-resolution games — the PlayStation Portal handheld, and existing PS5 controllers. Sony says it’s not changing the UI or network services for the PS5 Pro, so those will be identical to the existing console.
Preorders for the PS5 Pro will start on September 26th, ahead of the launch at retailers on November 7th.

Image: Sony

The PS5 Pro is official. After months of leaks, Sony just announced a more powerful PS5 console during a special technical presentation. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5 console, says the PS5 Pro improves on the original console in three key ways: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and custom AI-driven upscaling.

The PS5 Pro will launch on November 7th, priced at $699.99, and it looks similar to the slim version of the PS5 — just like recent leaks suggested it would. It has three stripes down the side, and it doesn’t come with a disc drive. You’ll be able to purchase a 4K Blu-ray disc drive separately and optional console covers.

“It’s the most powerful console we’ve ever built,” says Cerny. The hardware upgrades inside will result in 45 percent faster rendering, according to Cerny, and should improve the detail of certain games and frame rates. One of the key reasons for the PS5 Pro is to allow PS5 Pro players to not have to choose performance modes over fidelity ones. “Players are choosing performance about three quarters of the time,” says Cerny.

Sony has upgraded the GPU inside the PS5 Pro with 67 percent more compute units that the current PS5 console, and it has 28 percent faster memory, too. That all adds up to the 45 percent faster rendering of games, and the ability to improve frame rates in titles without having to lose visual fidelity.

This extra power should also improve ray-traced games, with Sony suggesting that developers will be able to allow “the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.”

The PS5 Pro also includes Sony’s new AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) feature, which is essentially an upscaling technique similar to Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR to improve frame rates and image quality for PlayStation games. This custom PSSR upscaling is designed to replace a game’s existing temporal anti-aliasing or upsampling implementation.

Cerny briefly demonstrated a few games running on the PS5 Pro, including The Last of Us Part II with more detail while still targeting 60fps instead of the 30fps fidelity mode on PS5. Sony’s goal of fidelity-like graphics at performance frame rates will be available in games like Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Sony is also including a PS5 Pro “Game Boost” option which will apply to more than 8,500 backward compatible PS4 games for the PS5 Pro. “This feature may stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games,” says Hideaki Nishino, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s platform business group. “Enhanced Image Quality for PS4 games is also available to improve the resolution on select PS4 games.”

The PS5 Pro will also support Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, VRR, and 8K resolutions, and CNET’s Scott Stein, who got an early hands-on with the console, says it now comes with a larger 2TB solid state drive and swaps one of its rear USB-A ports for a second USB-C port instead. It’ll also still include an extra SSD slot for expansion, he says.

Games will need to be patched to take advantage of some of the PS5 Pro’s features, and Sony says developers are readying free software updates to existing titles that will be labeled as PS5 Pro Enhanced games — up to 50 of them by its November 7th launch, according to CNET.

The first PS5 Pro Enhanced games will include Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant, and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

Of the initial batch of titles, most should now simply feature 4K resolution and 60fps framerate, but CNET also got to try Gran Turismo 7 in a new 8K mode and a 4K ray-tracing mode. Developers can also reportedly add volumetric lighting or even show you more characters in the background of a scene.

The PS5 Pro is also compatible with the PlayStation VR2 headset — where Cerny told CNET it will eventually support higher-resolution games — the PlayStation Portal handheld, and existing PS5 controllers. Sony says it’s not changing the UI or network services for the PS5 Pro, so those will be identical to the existing console.

Preorders for the PS5 Pro will start on September 26th, ahead of the launch at retailers on November 7th.

Read More 

Like past Pocket colorways, the GBC-inspired collection will be available in limited quantities. | Image: Analogue

Analogue is back with another collection of new colorways for its Pocket handheld, now drawing inspiration from Nintendo’s first color screen handheld. The Pocket GBC Colors Edition introduces six new colors — teal, berry, kiwi, grape, and dandelion — which were the five launch colors of the Game Boy Color in 1988, plus a gold version based on a special edition of the GBC created for Pokémon Gold.
The GBC Colors Edition collection will be available to preorder in limited quantities starting on September 12th at 8AM PT / 11AM ET for $249.99 each, with shipping expected within 24 to 48 hours.

To ensure the new collection was closely matched in color to Nintendo’s original hardware, the company used the highest-quality “equipment, tools, and processes to achieve accuracy,” says Analogue’s CEO and founder, Christopher Taber. Those processes included referencing Game Boy Color units from “different years of production runs” and taking measurements inside the handhelds, where the colors of the plastic housings hadn’t faded from extensive use and light exposure.
The Analogue Pocket originally launched in 2021 and has been able to play original Game Boy Color cartridges since its debut, as well as carts from other handhelds like the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and the Sega Game Gear (using an adapter). Since its debut, Analogue has introduced several special editions of the Pocket, including a glow-in-the-dark version, several with transparent shells, and an aluminum version with a steeper $499 price tag.
The company’s next product will be a recreation of another Nintendo console. The Analogue 3D is expected to have “100 percent compatibility” with N64 cartridges from every region along with 4K output. In addition, it should play games more accurately than emulators can since it uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, allowing it to function just like the original N64 hardware.

Like past Pocket colorways, the GBC-inspired collection will be available in limited quantities. | Image: Analogue

Analogue is back with another collection of new colorways for its Pocket handheld, now drawing inspiration from Nintendo’s first color screen handheld. The Pocket GBC Colors Edition introduces six new colors — teal, berry, kiwi, grape, and dandelion — which were the five launch colors of the Game Boy Color in 1988, plus a gold version based on a special edition of the GBC created for Pokémon Gold.

The GBC Colors Edition collection will be available to preorder in limited quantities starting on September 12th at 8AM PT / 11AM ET for $249.99 each, with shipping expected within 24 to 48 hours.

To ensure the new collection was closely matched in color to Nintendo’s original hardware, the company used the highest-quality “equipment, tools, and processes to achieve accuracy,” says Analogue’s CEO and founder, Christopher Taber. Those processes included referencing Game Boy Color units from “different years of production runs” and taking measurements inside the handhelds, where the colors of the plastic housings hadn’t faded from extensive use and light exposure.

The Analogue Pocket originally launched in 2021 and has been able to play original Game Boy Color cartridges since its debut, as well as carts from other handhelds like the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and the Sega Game Gear (using an adapter). Since its debut, Analogue has introduced several special editions of the Pocket, including a glow-in-the-dark version, several with transparent shells, and an aluminum version with a steeper $499 price tag.

The company’s next product will be a recreation of another Nintendo console. The Analogue 3D is expected to have “100 percent compatibility” with N64 cartridges from every region along with 4K output. In addition, it should play games more accurately than emulators can since it uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, allowing it to function just like the original N64 hardware.

Read More 

You won’t ever need to scrounge for a fresh set of AAs with this universal remote. | Image: Hama

Hama has announced a new 8-in-1 universal remote that can streamline your home entertainment system and save you from occasionally having to scrounge for a fresh set of batteries. The German accessories maker is using Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cell technology so the remote stays powered as long as it’s regularly exposed to light.
Details on what types of remotes Hama’s 8-in-1 can replace haven’t been shared yet, but the power generated by the solar cell located on top of the remote is stored in a supercapacitor instead of a rechargeable battery. The remote is expected to be available starting sometime in the second quarter of 2025 for €29.99, or around $33 SSD.
The company also plans to release an alternative to Samsung’s own solar-powered Bluetooth remote at the same time, priced at €39.99, or around $47 USD. Hama’s version replicates all of the functionality of Samsung’s, including voice assistance, but positions the solar panel on the top of the remote, instead of on the underside, so you don’t have to remember to flip it over to keep it powered.
Unlike the solar panels used to charge large backup batteries that work best in direct sunlight, Exeger’s solar technology can power smaller devices using the ambient light in a room, even if it’s just from a lamp. The company’s flexible Powerfoyle solar cells have already been integrated into products like wireless headphones, earbuds, and speakers by companies such as Urbanista but are especially well suited to devices like remote controls, which have much less power draw.
Companies like Ambient Photonics have previously announced similar solar power solutions for TV remotes, but Hama’s universal solution will be one of the first consumers can buy directly instead of getting it bundled with TVs or streaming boxes.

You won’t ever need to scrounge for a fresh set of AAs with this universal remote. | Image: Hama

Hama has announced a new 8-in-1 universal remote that can streamline your home entertainment system and save you from occasionally having to scrounge for a fresh set of batteries. The German accessories maker is using Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cell technology so the remote stays powered as long as it’s regularly exposed to light.

Details on what types of remotes Hama’s 8-in-1 can replace haven’t been shared yet, but the power generated by the solar cell located on top of the remote is stored in a supercapacitor instead of a rechargeable battery. The remote is expected to be available starting sometime in the second quarter of 2025 for €29.99, or around $33 SSD.

The company also plans to release an alternative to Samsung’s own solar-powered Bluetooth remote at the same time, priced at €39.99, or around $47 USD. Hama’s version replicates all of the functionality of Samsung’s, including voice assistance, but positions the solar panel on the top of the remote, instead of on the underside, so you don’t have to remember to flip it over to keep it powered.

Unlike the solar panels used to charge large backup batteries that work best in direct sunlight, Exeger’s solar technology can power smaller devices using the ambient light in a room, even if it’s just from a lamp. The company’s flexible Powerfoyle solar cells have already been integrated into products like wireless headphones, earbuds, and speakers by companies such as Urbanista but are especially well suited to devices like remote controls, which have much less power draw.

Companies like Ambient Photonics have previously announced similar solar power solutions for TV remotes, but Hama’s universal solution will be one of the first consumers can buy directly instead of getting it bundled with TVs or streaming boxes.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

News of a PlayStation 5 Pro could arrive right on time for the holiday season. Rumors of a PS5 Pro have swirled since earlier this year, with sources confirming to The Verge that developers are being asked to ensure their games are compatible with the improved system. On September 10th at 11AM ET, PlayStation is holding a “technical presentation” that appears set to confirm the console’s existence and souped-up specs, like a buffed GPU and faster CPU speeds.
The presentation will be hosted by PlayStation architect Mark Cerny and last a brisk nine minutes.
The rumor mill picked up steam last month with French tech site Dealabs claiming to have seen packaging for the Pro and sharing an illustration of what it supposedly looked like. Then, last week, Sony itself may have accidentally or on purpose shared what looked to be a PS5 Pro in its post celebrating 30 years of PlayStation history.
But now, Sony may put all those rumors to bed. Stay tuned here for all of the updates, and you can watch the livestream below.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

News of a PlayStation 5 Pro could arrive right on time for the holiday season.

Rumors of a PS5 Pro have swirled since earlier this year, with sources confirming to The Verge that developers are being asked to ensure their games are compatible with the improved system. On September 10th at 11AM ET, PlayStation is holding a “technical presentation” that appears set to confirm the console’s existence and souped-up specs, like a buffed GPU and faster CPU speeds.

The presentation will be hosted by PlayStation architect Mark Cerny and last a brisk nine minutes.

The rumor mill picked up steam last month with French tech site Dealabs claiming to have seen packaging for the Pro and sharing an illustration of what it supposedly looked like. Then, last week, Sony itself may have accidentally or on purpose shared what looked to be a PS5 Pro in its post celebrating 30 years of PlayStation history.

But now, Sony may put all those rumors to bed. Stay tuned here for all of the updates, and you can watch the livestream below.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet on the presidential debate stage for the first time on Tuesday night.
Though it’s technically the second presidential debate of the general election, it’s the first since Harris became the Democratic nominee, replacing President Joe Biden as the party’s candidate. That happened after Biden’s disastrous debate exacerbated concerns about his age, leading to a fracturing of support in the party and his eventual decision to step down and endorse his VP for the top of the ticket.
Tech isn’t likely to be a major focus of this debate, but since it’s one of the first opportunities we’ve had to hear from Harris since she took on the nomination, we’ll be listening for clues on where she falls on issues including antitrust, a TikTok ban, kids online safety, and more.
How do I watch tonight’s presidential debate?
This debate is being run by ABC News, so you can watch on ABC, the ABC News Live streaming service, Disney Plus, or Hulu. Other TV networks and channels will also simulcast the debate and provide streams on YouTube.
What time does tonight’s presidential debate start?
The debate starts at 9PM ET from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. There’s 90 minutes of debate time and two commercial breaks.
Who are the moderators?
ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis will moderate.
What are the ground rules?
Similar to the first debate, there will be no audience, and microphones will be muted unless it’s a candidate’s turn to speak. Only moderators can ask Harris and Trump questions, and there won’t be opening statements.
Candidates have two minutes to answer questions and two minutes to rebut. There’s also another minute to clarify or follow-up. They won’t have access to prewritten notes or their campaign staff onstage, but they will have a pen and paper to jot things down.
ABC said a virtual coin flip last week determined who will be at which podium and the order of the two-minute closing statements. Trump won the coin flip and chose to offer his closing statement last. Harris got to choose her podium position, which will be on the right side of the screen.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet on the presidential debate stage for the first time on Tuesday night.

Though it’s technically the second presidential debate of the general election, it’s the first since Harris became the Democratic nominee, replacing President Joe Biden as the party’s candidate. That happened after Biden’s disastrous debate exacerbated concerns about his age, leading to a fracturing of support in the party and his eventual decision to step down and endorse his VP for the top of the ticket.

Tech isn’t likely to be a major focus of this debate, but since it’s one of the first opportunities we’ve had to hear from Harris since she took on the nomination, we’ll be listening for clues on where she falls on issues including antitrust, a TikTok ban, kids online safety, and more.

How do I watch tonight’s presidential debate?

This debate is being run by ABC News, so you can watch on ABC, the ABC News Live streaming service, Disney Plus, or Hulu. Other TV networks and channels will also simulcast the debate and provide streams on YouTube.

What time does tonight’s presidential debate start?

The debate starts at 9PM ET from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. There’s 90 minutes of debate time and two commercial breaks.

Who are the moderators?

ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis will moderate.

What are the ground rules?

Similar to the first debate, there will be no audience, and microphones will be muted unless it’s a candidate’s turn to speak. Only moderators can ask Harris and Trump questions, and there won’t be opening statements.

Candidates have two minutes to answer questions and two minutes to rebut. There’s also another minute to clarify or follow-up. They won’t have access to prewritten notes or their campaign staff onstage, but they will have a pen and paper to jot things down.

ABC said a virtual coin flip last week determined who will be at which podium and the order of the two-minute closing statements. Trump won the coin flip and chose to offer his closing statement last. Harris got to choose her podium position, which will be on the right side of the screen.

Read More 

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Let’s be super clear about something: the iPhone 16’s “Camera Control” is very much a button. It’s a cool multipurpose button that has a lot to say about how Apple views cameras and AI and the future of how we interact with technology and the world, but a button just the same. And the new button may be the most interesting thing about the new slate of iPhones.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we gather a few hours after Apple’s latest iPhone launch to talk through all the new devices. We dig into the differences between the iPhone 16 and the 16 Pro and why fans of the regular iPhone might be in for a good year. We talk about the new cameras, the new colors, and the button. We talk a lot about the button.

After that, we talk about the new AirPods — either four new models or two, depending on how you measure — and whether Apple’s new hearing aid capabilities are truly going to be a big deal. We also talk about the new Apple Watches, which… well, they come in black now. That’s most of the story. But they look pretty great.
We also talk a lot about what isn’t shipping on these new devices: Apple Intelligence, the AI-powered overhaul that Apple hopes will convince you to upgrade and change your relationship with your devices. None of that is here yet. So why is Apple shipping its AI phones without AI? And when can we expect to see whether the upgrade is really worth it? We have some thoughts.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

iPhone 16 event: all the news from Apple’s keynote
Apple announces the iPhone 16 with a faster processor and Camera Control button
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro has a bigger screen, a new chip, and better battery life
iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max hands-on: don’t call it a shutter button
Apple’s Visual Intelligence is a built-in take on Google Lens
Apple Watch Series 10 announced with bigger screen and thinner design

Apple announces AirPods 4 with noise cancellation and better sound
AirPods 4 hands-on: noise cancellation for people who hate ear tips
The AirPods Pro 2 will soon double as hearing aids
iOS 18 will launch next week with new ways to customize your homescreen

Apple has a faster MagSafe charger to go with the new iPhone 16 phones
It sure looks like FineWoven is dead

Beats’ new iPhone 16 cases work with the Camera Control button

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Let’s be super clear about something: the iPhone 16’s “Camera Control” is very much a button. It’s a cool multipurpose button that has a lot to say about how Apple views cameras and AI and the future of how we interact with technology and the world, but a button just the same. And the new button may be the most interesting thing about the new slate of iPhones.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we gather a few hours after Apple’s latest iPhone launch to talk through all the new devices. We dig into the differences between the iPhone 16 and the 16 Pro and why fans of the regular iPhone might be in for a good year. We talk about the new cameras, the new colors, and the button. We talk a lot about the button.

After that, we talk about the new AirPods — either four new models or two, depending on how you measure — and whether Apple’s new hearing aid capabilities are truly going to be a big deal. We also talk about the new Apple Watches, which… well, they come in black now. That’s most of the story. But they look pretty great.

We also talk a lot about what isn’t shipping on these new devices: Apple Intelligence, the AI-powered overhaul that Apple hopes will convince you to upgrade and change your relationship with your devices. None of that is here yet. So why is Apple shipping its AI phones without AI? And when can we expect to see whether the upgrade is really worth it? We have some thoughts.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:

iPhone 16 event: all the news from Apple’s keynote
Apple announces the iPhone 16 with a faster processor and Camera Control button
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro has a bigger screen, a new chip, and better battery life
iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max hands-on: don’t call it a shutter button
Apple’s Visual Intelligence is a built-in take on Google Lens
Apple Watch Series 10 announced with bigger screen and thinner design

Apple announces AirPods 4 with noise cancellation and better sound
AirPods 4 hands-on: noise cancellation for people who hate ear tips
The AirPods Pro 2 will soon double as hearing aids
iOS 18 will launch next week with new ways to customize your homescreen

Apple has a faster MagSafe charger to go with the new iPhone 16 phones
It sure looks like FineWoven is dead

Beats’ new iPhone 16 cases work with the Camera Control button

Read More 

The first two Pixel Watches were playing catch-up. Now, Google’s starting to flesh out its wearable vision. Google was incredibly late to the smartwatch game — and it showed with both the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2. The first was a fancy Fitbit plagued by poor battery life and a host of odd quirks. The second successfully put its whole focus on addressing the foibles of the first. Both were competent smartwatches, but with the Pixel Watch 3, it finally feels like Google’s done playing catch-up.
Seriously, there are so many updates with the Pixel Watch 3 that I could easily spend 5,000 words simply detailing them all. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Instead, the updates fall into two buckets: refinement and expansion. About half are incremental tweaks that address previous issues and improve the experience. The rest take the Pixel Watch into newer territory, like more advanced running and better integration into Google’s ecosystem. Alone, these updates aren’t much to write home about. But together, you can see that Google isn’t just laying down the foundation anymore. It’s starting to take steps forward.

It’s the little things
If only you look at the Pixel Watch 3, it’s admittedly hard to see why this is a big leap forward. It looks just like last year’s watch, which looks like the one before that. But on the hardware front, Google basically made a bunch of little changes that add up to a sizable, overall improvement.
Take the displays. This year, they’re brighter at 2,000 nits and sport 16 percent smaller bezels. This isn’t something that’ll blow your mind, but it does subtly improve everything about the Pixel Watch 3. I’ve done about two dozen walks and runs with the Pixel Watch 3 so far, and the screen is much easier to read in direct sunlight compared to last year. Smaller bezels mean you can fit more information on both the 41mm and the new 45mm size. I appreciate all of that as someone with crap vision who spends a lot of time outside.

The 45mm (top) isn’t that much bigger than the 41mm.

And I appreciate the 45mm watch. The lack of a larger size was a major criticism of the first and second watches. This fixes that. As a bonus, this isn’t a behemoth 45mm watch. It wears small. I’m a card-carrying member of the Tiny Wrist Club, and even I have a hard time telling the 41mm and 45mm apart on the wrist. After two weeks of testing, I find I actually prefer the 45mm. Not only can I see more on the screen, but its 35 percent larger battery means I can go longer between charging.
That matters because battery life has been a thorn in the Pixel Watch’s side. This is the first year I’ve felt fully comfortable with the stated 24-hour battery life. A lot of that is because Google’s tripled down on battery life. Wear OS 5 and the new Actua displays are more power-efficient, and an improved battery-saver mode kicks in when you hit 15 percent. Plus, after three generations of waiting, we finally get an automatic bedtime mode so you don’t have to worry about battery drain while you sleep. You used to have to do that manually or sync with a Pixel phone’s bedtime mode. Now, it just works.

None of these add up to true multiday battery life on either watch, but it’s a dramatic change from the first gen and a moderate upgrade from the second. I used the same charging routine for both watches — a 20- to 30-minute fast charge while I shower. With the 41mm, that was enough to get me through the day, but occasionally, I’d be surprised with a low-battery warning before bed. With the 45mm, I’ve never had that happen. No matter when I check my wrist, I’m always comfortably around 50–80 percent. In a rundown test, I got a maximum of about 32 hours.
Smarter health and fitness
When the Pixel Watch first debuted, it was supposed to be a plus that Fitbit drove the entire health and fitness experience. The problem was the merger made for a messy Google-Fitbit smartwatch lineup. The Pixel Watch was the “smarter” flagship, while the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2 were fitness-first devices. What we really got were three arbitrarily nerfed watches that left people confused and cheesed. For better or worse, Fitbit’s been thoroughly Googlefied since then — and it’s made for a smoother experience. That, in turn, now allows the Pixel Watch 3 to stretch in some new directions.
Behold, this year’s boatload of fitness and health updates:

A new running dashboard with form analysis metrics
Custom running workouts
AI-generated daily running workout suggestions
Revamped Daily Readiness Score — no longer paywalled
New Cardio Load metric
Morning Brief
Loss of Pulse feature

The Pixel Watch 3 is a more capable running watch, but it’s still best for beginners and casual athletes.

Since day one, Fitbit’s main thing has been a streamlined, holistic approach to fitness tracking. It was founded on the idea of getting your steps in. Training is a different beast, and yet nearly all of these new features are geared toward that while still catering to beginners and a more casual athlete.
For example, the new running dashboard is designed to be more digestible than Garmin’s data dump while giving you a bit more context than Samsung or Apple. The AI-generated running workouts are a good example, too. The other day, I got recommended a roughly four-mile tempo workout… on a day I was scheduled to do one anyway. There was a card explaining why it was recommended — I’d been doing a lot of moderate steady-state runs and needed to zhuzh it up. I already know what I’m doing and like to take a more active role in my training. But for someone starting out or who has decision fatigue, that’s a neat option. The fact that your Daily Readiness Score and Cardio Load aren’t paywalled is another move in the right direction.
For me, the two primary fitness updates are Cardio Load and custom workouts. Cardio Load is basically Garmin’s Training Load by another name. It measures your seven-day cardio intensity versus previous weeks. The difference here is after a 14-day calibration period, you’ll get a target number to aim for. For example, I set my goal as improving my cardio fitness. Every day, I get a target that takes into account what I’ve been doing that week. Old hats confident in their programs might turn up their nose, but this is helpful context for folks just starting out.

Cardio Load is training load by another name.

You can program Custom workouts on the phone or the wrist.

Custom workouts are another must-have for anyone serious about training. I’m happy to see Google introduced them here, but there are quirks. Warmups and cooldowns can only be programmed by time, not by distance. You can work around it, but it’s annoying. It’s also a bit chatty for my tastes. Like other custom workouts, the watch alerts you when it’s time to move to a new interval or if you’re straying from target goals. I programmed a four-mile Tempo run based on pace, and you can bet the Pixel Watch let me know anytime I was a second outside my pace range. (My pro tip is to turn off voice alerts.) Software updates could easily fix these issues, so I hope Google gets on that quickly.
Lastly, I’d love to weigh in about Loss of Pulse, which calls emergency services on your behalf if the watch can’t detect your pulse. Alas, I can’t. Given the stakes involved, that’s a feature that requires regulatory clearance, and Google has yet to obtain it in the US. Even so, this is a feature that nobody else has yet. Sure, it builds on a foundation set by AFib and fall detection, but it’s also Google pushing in a new direction. There’s something to that.
Better with Pixel
The Pixel Watch 3 works best if you use a Pixel phone. I don’t love that. However, I also can’t deny that the Google integrations this time around were among my favorite features.
For example, the Pixel Watch 3 now has an ultra wideband chip that lets you automatically unlock your Pixel phone. It’s a little thing that makes life easier. (You can also unlock certain BMWs, but I use turn signals, so I can’t have a Beamer.) If you have a Google TV, your Pixel Watch can double as a remote control. Offline Google Maps are now a thing. As a journalist, I found it handy that I can now record calls or notes on the Pixel Watch and magically find it, plus the transcription, on my Pixel 8 Pro seconds later. As an extension of Call Assist, you can now tell people you need an extra minute to pick up a call.

I loved being able to see my Nest Doorbell feed from the wrist.

But the thing I found most useful was using the Pixel Watch 3 to control my Google-powered smart home. It’s much easier to unlock the front door for guests, turn on and off my office light, and adjust my aggressive Nest Thermostat. Plus, now you can view your Nest Doorbell feed directly from the wrist — an absolute game changer for me. My office is on the third floor. My FedEx delivery guy is unaware that patience is a virtue. The ability to say “Hold on, I’m coming down” from the wrist has saved me a lot of grief this review season.
I can’t underscore enough how big this feels. Apple’s seamless ecosystem experience is a big reason why people stick with the iPhone. This had some of that magic — and that’s major considering how much bigger Google Home is compared to Samsung’s SmartThings. This alone isn’t enough to overthrow Samsung’s chokehold on the Android phone market, but it’s definitely something that will make Pixel fans happier.

Recorder is an example of a Pixel phone-only feature.

The cynic in me knows the best smartwatch for you hinges on which phone you have. I can see the lock-in. But the optimist thinks this is Google’s ambient computing vision coming alive. It’s early days, and yeah, sometimes it takes a touch too long for my doorbell feed to pop up, but damn if it isn’t inching closer to what we thought smartwatches would be 10 years ago.
Honestly, I was never sure the Pixel Watch would get to this point. No one would’ve been shocked if Google threw in the towel after the first Pixel Watch or refused to put in years of work to compete with Samsung, let alone introduce new, industry-first features. But here we are, three years later, and I genuinely think the Pixel Watch 3 does certain things better than its rivals. Color me impressed and excited to see where the Pixel Watch 4 goes next.

The first two Pixel Watches were playing catch-up. Now, Google’s starting to flesh out its wearable vision.

Google was incredibly late to the smartwatch game — and it showed with both the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2. The first was a fancy Fitbit plagued by poor battery life and a host of odd quirks. The second successfully put its whole focus on addressing the foibles of the first. Both were competent smartwatches, but with the Pixel Watch 3, it finally feels like Google’s done playing catch-up.

Seriously, there are so many updates with the Pixel Watch 3 that I could easily spend 5,000 words simply detailing them all. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Instead, the updates fall into two buckets: refinement and expansion. About half are incremental tweaks that address previous issues and improve the experience. The rest take the Pixel Watch into newer territory, like more advanced running and better integration into Google’s ecosystem. Alone, these updates aren’t much to write home about. But together, you can see that Google isn’t just laying down the foundation anymore. It’s starting to take steps forward.

It’s the little things

If only you look at the Pixel Watch 3, it’s admittedly hard to see why this is a big leap forward. It looks just like last year’s watch, which looks like the one before that. But on the hardware front, Google basically made a bunch of little changes that add up to a sizable, overall improvement.

Take the displays. This year, they’re brighter at 2,000 nits and sport 16 percent smaller bezels. This isn’t something that’ll blow your mind, but it does subtly improve everything about the Pixel Watch 3. I’ve done about two dozen walks and runs with the Pixel Watch 3 so far, and the screen is much easier to read in direct sunlight compared to last year. Smaller bezels mean you can fit more information on both the 41mm and the new 45mm size. I appreciate all of that as someone with crap vision who spends a lot of time outside.

And I appreciate the 45mm watch. The lack of a larger size was a major criticism of the first and second watches. This fixes that. As a bonus, this isn’t a behemoth 45mm watch. It wears small. I’m a card-carrying member of the Tiny Wrist Club, and even I have a hard time telling the 41mm and 45mm apart on the wrist. After two weeks of testing, I find I actually prefer the 45mm. Not only can I see more on the screen, but its 35 percent larger battery means I can go longer between charging.

That matters because battery life has been a thorn in the Pixel Watch’s side. This is the first year I’ve felt fully comfortable with the stated 24-hour battery life. A lot of that is because Google’s tripled down on battery life. Wear OS 5 and the new Actua displays are more power-efficient, and an improved battery-saver mode kicks in when you hit 15 percent. Plus, after three generations of waiting, we finally get an automatic bedtime mode so you don’t have to worry about battery drain while you sleep. You used to have to do that manually or sync with a Pixel phone’s bedtime mode. Now, it just works.

None of these add up to true multiday battery life on either watch, but it’s a dramatic change from the first gen and a moderate upgrade from the second. I used the same charging routine for both watches — a 20- to 30-minute fast charge while I shower. With the 41mm, that was enough to get me through the day, but occasionally, I’d be surprised with a low-battery warning before bed. With the 45mm, I’ve never had that happen. No matter when I check my wrist, I’m always comfortably around 50–80 percent. In a rundown test, I got a maximum of about 32 hours.

Smarter health and fitness

When the Pixel Watch first debuted, it was supposed to be a plus that Fitbit drove the entire health and fitness experience. The problem was the merger made for a messy Google-Fitbit smartwatch lineup. The Pixel Watch was the “smarter” flagship, while the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2 were fitness-first devices. What we really got were three arbitrarily nerfed watches that left people confused and cheesed. For better or worse, Fitbit’s been thoroughly Googlefied since then — and it’s made for a smoother experience. That, in turn, now allows the Pixel Watch 3 to stretch in some new directions.

Behold, this year’s boatload of fitness and health updates:

A new running dashboard with form analysis metrics
Custom running workouts
AI-generated daily running workout suggestions
Revamped Daily Readiness Score — no longer paywalled
New Cardio Load metric
Morning Brief
Loss of Pulse feature

Since day one, Fitbit’s main thing has been a streamlined, holistic approach to fitness tracking. It was founded on the idea of getting your steps in. Training is a different beast, and yet nearly all of these new features are geared toward that while still catering to beginners and a more casual athlete.

For example, the new running dashboard is designed to be more digestible than Garmin’s data dump while giving you a bit more context than Samsung or Apple. The AI-generated running workouts are a good example, too. The other day, I got recommended a roughly four-mile tempo workout… on a day I was scheduled to do one anyway. There was a card explaining why it was recommended — I’d been doing a lot of moderate steady-state runs and needed to zhuzh it up. I already know what I’m doing and like to take a more active role in my training. But for someone starting out or who has decision fatigue, that’s a neat option. The fact that your Daily Readiness Score and Cardio Load aren’t paywalled is another move in the right direction.

For me, the two primary fitness updates are Cardio Load and custom workouts. Cardio Load is basically Garmin’s Training Load by another name. It measures your seven-day cardio intensity versus previous weeks. The difference here is after a 14-day calibration period, you’ll get a target number to aim for. For example, I set my goal as improving my cardio fitness. Every day, I get a target that takes into account what I’ve been doing that week. Old hats confident in their programs might turn up their nose, but this is helpful context for folks just starting out.

Custom workouts are another must-have for anyone serious about training. I’m happy to see Google introduced them here, but there are quirks. Warmups and cooldowns can only be programmed by time, not by distance. You can work around it, but it’s annoying. It’s also a bit chatty for my tastes. Like other custom workouts, the watch alerts you when it’s time to move to a new interval or if you’re straying from target goals. I programmed a four-mile Tempo run based on pace, and you can bet the Pixel Watch let me know anytime I was a second outside my pace range. (My pro tip is to turn off voice alerts.) Software updates could easily fix these issues, so I hope Google gets on that quickly.

Lastly, I’d love to weigh in about Loss of Pulse, which calls emergency services on your behalf if the watch can’t detect your pulse. Alas, I can’t. Given the stakes involved, that’s a feature that requires regulatory clearance, and Google has yet to obtain it in the US. Even so, this is a feature that nobody else has yet. Sure, it builds on a foundation set by AFib and fall detection, but it’s also Google pushing in a new direction. There’s something to that.

Better with Pixel

The Pixel Watch 3 works best if you use a Pixel phone. I don’t love that. However, I also can’t deny that the Google integrations this time around were among my favorite features.

For example, the Pixel Watch 3 now has an ultra wideband chip that lets you automatically unlock your Pixel phone. It’s a little thing that makes life easier. (You can also unlock certain BMWs, but I use turn signals, so I can’t have a Beamer.) If you have a Google TV, your Pixel Watch can double as a remote control. Offline Google Maps are now a thing. As a journalist, I found it handy that I can now record calls or notes on the Pixel Watch and magically find it, plus the transcription, on my Pixel 8 Pro seconds later. As an extension of Call Assist, you can now tell people you need an extra minute to pick up a call.

I loved being able to see my Nest Doorbell feed from the wrist.

But the thing I found most useful was using the Pixel Watch 3 to control my Google-powered smart home. It’s much easier to unlock the front door for guests, turn on and off my office light, and adjust my aggressive Nest Thermostat. Plus, now you can view your Nest Doorbell feed directly from the wrist — an absolute game changer for me. My office is on the third floor. My FedEx delivery guy is unaware that patience is a virtue. The ability to say “Hold on, I’m coming down” from the wrist has saved me a lot of grief this review season.

I can’t underscore enough how big this feels. Apple’s seamless ecosystem experience is a big reason why people stick with the iPhone. This had some of that magic — and that’s major considering how much bigger Google Home is compared to Samsung’s SmartThings. This alone isn’t enough to overthrow Samsung’s chokehold on the Android phone market, but it’s definitely something that will make Pixel fans happier.

Recorder is an example of a Pixel phone-only feature.

The cynic in me knows the best smartwatch for you hinges on which phone you have. I can see the lock-in. But the optimist thinks this is Google’s ambient computing vision coming alive. It’s early days, and yeah, sometimes it takes a touch too long for my doorbell feed to pop up, but damn if it isn’t inching closer to what we thought smartwatches would be 10 years ago.

Honestly, I was never sure the Pixel Watch would get to this point. No one would’ve been shocked if Google threw in the towel after the first Pixel Watch or refused to put in years of work to compete with Samsung, let alone introduce new, industry-first features. But here we are, three years later, and I genuinely think the Pixel Watch 3 does certain things better than its rivals. Color me impressed and excited to see where the Pixel Watch 4 goes next.

Read More 

The new pause option for iOS 18 can be seen here underneath the recording button. | Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

Apple has added a new Camera app feature in the latest iOS 18 beta that gives iPhone users a dedicated option to pause video recordings. The feature, spotted by 9to5Mac, is coming to all iOS 18-supported iPhone models when the OS update is released on September 16th, unlike the wider “Camera Control” tools that are exclusive to the iPhone 16.
The feature will finally enable iPhones to film multiple shots in a single video instead of the current process that requires users to take separate recordings that must be edited together. When updated to iOS 18, a pause button is added to the Camera app which changes to a Record button when users have actively paused their video recording. Users can also switch between camera lenses while a recording is paused if they want to adjust the zoom or focal length.
The pausing capability was added to the iOS 18 Release Candidate beta that Apple seeded to developers on Monday following the “It’s Glowtime” iPhone 16 event.

The new pause option for iOS 18 can be seen here underneath the recording button. | Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

Apple has added a new Camera app feature in the latest iOS 18 beta that gives iPhone users a dedicated option to pause video recordings. The feature, spotted by 9to5Mac, is coming to all iOS 18-supported iPhone models when the OS update is released on September 16th, unlike the wider “Camera Control” tools that are exclusive to the iPhone 16.

The feature will finally enable iPhones to film multiple shots in a single video instead of the current process that requires users to take separate recordings that must be edited together. When updated to iOS 18, a pause button is added to the Camera app which changes to a Record button when users have actively paused their video recording. Users can also switch between camera lenses while a recording is paused if they want to adjust the zoom or focal length.

The pausing capability was added to the iOS 18 Release Candidate beta that Apple seeded to developers on Monday following the “It’s Glowtime” iPhone 16 event.

Read More