You need to listen to the cosmic horror-comedy podcast Welcome to Night Vale
It's relatively rare for a podcast to last 14 years, especially a fiction one. In fact, as far as I can tell, Welcome to Night Vale is the longest continually running fiction podcast out there. (Some will argue it's actually We're Alive, but that has taken a few significant breaks between seasons.) The story of Night Vale, the titular desert town, now spans 12 seasons, over 280 episodes, three books, and at least 10 live standalone shows. While dedicating several hundred hours of your life to listening to every episode might seem like a big ask, I believe you'll be hooked once you dive in.
The show is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cran …
Microsoft’s first Windows 11 update of 2026 stopped some computers from shutting down
Microsoft released its first security update of 2026 for Windows 11 on January 13th. Just four days later, it was forced to release an emergency out-of-band update to fix some pretty serious bugs, the first one introduced.
The security patch was stopping some systems from shutting down or hibernating properly, and also preventing some users from logging in via remote desktop. The impact of the shutdown bug was limited to machines still running Windows 11 23H2, and only those running either the Enterprise of IoT editions. Still, this is just the latest buggy update that has forced Microsoft to issue an out-of-band update, something that use …
Here are the 10 deals worth grabbing from Best Buy’s winter sales event
Good deals are often hard to come by at the beginning of the year — which is precisely what makes Best Buy’s Winter Sale worth checking out. The ongoing sales event features discounts on everything from big-ticket OLED TVs to smaller electronics, including fitness trackers that can help you achieve your New Year’s resolutions. There are also solid deals to be had on laptops, Bose headphones, and other Verge-approved pieces of tech, many of which are matching their best prices to date.
The sale ends on January 19th, meaning you have the rest of the weekend to shop. Below, we’ve rounded up the deals — both big and small — that are genuinely worth your attention.
If you’re after a big-screen OLED, LG’s entry-level B5 Series TV remains one of the most affordable options available. And right now, it’s an even better value at Best Buy, where it has fallen to a new low of $1,499.99 ($1,500 off) in the larger 77-inch configuration.
Although it’s considered one of LG’s budget TVs and doesn’t get as bright as its pricier siblings, the B4 still delivers impressive image quality. You get rich colors, deep blacks, and great viewing angles, along with support for Dolby Vision. It supports Dolby Atmos, too, along with a solid set of gaming specs, including a 120Hz panel with a variable refresh rate, support for AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, and four HDMI 2.1 ports for connecting the latest consoles. It runs on LG’s webOS platform as well, which lets you take advantage of Amazon Alexa and provides easy access to popular streaming apps like Netflix, HBO Max, and more.
Sony Bravia 8 II OLED TV
Where to Buy:
Sony’s Bravia 8 II is also worth a look if you’re okay with splurging on a high-end TV. Named “King of TV” at the Value Electronics’ 2025 TV Shootout, Sony’s Bravia 8 II delivers one of the closest theater-level experiences you can get at home. And right now, you can buy the 65-inch panel for around $2,399.99 ($900 off) from Best Buy, Amazon, and directly from Sony, which is one of its better prices to date.
John Higgins, The Verge’s new(ish) TV reviewer, said that if he had to buy a TV today, this is the one he’d choose. It delivers deep blacks, excellent shadow detail, and some of the best image processing and upscaling we’ve seen, making lower-quality 1080p content look noticeably cleaner than on rivals. The Bravia 8 II also runs Google TV, which feels more intuitive and less cluttered than LG’s webOS, and features a 120Hz panel with two HDMI 2.1 ports for 4K gaming at 120Hz, plus two HDMI 2.0 ports capped at 4K / 60Hz. It doesn’t support Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync Premium, but for watching movies and TV shows, it’s one of the best OLEDs you can buy.
Read our full Sony Bravia 8 II review.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
Bose’s first-gen flagships are a replacement for the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 that offer a more travel-friendly design, spatial audio, better call quality, excellent comfort, and some of the best noise cancellation around.
Where to Buy:
If you’re looking for an excellent pair of noise-canceling headphones that are easy to take on the go, Bose’s first-gen QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are on sale in select colors for $279 ($150 off) at Best Buy, matching their all-time low. Bose is also offering the over-ear headphones at that price, though, again, only in select colors.
The original QC Ultra remain our favorite pair for travel, thanks to a foldable design that makes them easy to pack, a lightweight and comfortable fit, and battery life that lasts up to 24 hours. They also deliver top-tier ANC and pleasing sound, with an Immersive Audio feature that isn’t always consistent but works well when it does. Plus, you get a natural-sounding transparency mode for when you want to let outside sound in. If you’re fine skipping newer upgrades found in the second-gen model, such as support for lossless audio over USB, the first-gen pair are a great value — especially since they’re currently about $100 cheaper.
Read our full QC Ultra Headphones review.
Amazfit Active 2
The Amazfit Active 2 delivers outsized value for the price. It looks spiffy and has a wide array of health tracking features, plus built-in GPS and AI chatbots to provide extra context to your data. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
If you’re looking for a great all-around fitness tracker, the Amazfit Active 2 is still available for $84.99 ($15 off) at Best Buy, Amazon, and Target, which is just $5 shy of its lowest price to date.
The Active 2, which is currently our favorite fitness tracker, delivers far more than you’d expect at this price. It features a comfortable design with a chic stainless steel case and a bright, tempered-glass OLED display, along with up to nine days of battery life. It covers all the basics and then some, too, allowing you to leverage more premium features like menstrual cycle tracking, abnormal heart rate notifications, continuous heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, and detailed sleep tracking. You also get support for more than 160 sport types, including a strength training mode that counts reps for you, as well as offline maps with turn-by-turn navigation.
Read our full Amazfit Active 2 review.
Bose SoundLink Micro Portable Speaker (2nd Gen)
Where to Buy:
Speaking of Bose, Best Buy is also currently selling the latest Bose SoundLink Micro for a new low of $99 ($30 off), with retailers like Amazon and Walmart matching said price.
Bose’s pocketable Bluetooth speaker delivers solid sound for its size and even lets you adjust EQ through a companion app, unlike the first-gen model. It also offers up to 12 hours of battery life, recharges quickly via USB-C, and is surprisingly rugged thanks to an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. A built-in strap lets you easily attach it to a bag or bike, too, and if you already own a compatible Bose speaker or soundbar, you can pair the two together — or link a second-gen SoundLink Micro for stereo sound.
A few more ways to save
- You can buy Apple’s latest MagSafe Charger for $29.99 ($20 off) at Best Buy, which matches its lowest price to date. The 2-meter, magnetic charging puck can provide up to 25W of power when paired with a 30W USB-C adapter, assuming you have a compatible phone like the iPhone 17 or 17 Pro. It can also deliver the same wireless speeds to non-Apple phones that support the newer Q2.2 standard, like Google’s Pixel 10 Pro XL.
- Best Buy is selling the Shokz OpenFit 2 Plus in blue for $149.95, which is $10 shy of their lowest price to date. The wireless earbuds are nearly identical to the Shokz OpenFit 2 — they feature the same open-ear design, onboard controls, and dedicated bass speakers — only they add wireless charging and support for Dolby Audio.
- Samsung’s 128GB Galaxy S25 FE is available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Samsung for around $448.99 ($200 off), which is a new low price. The budget-friendly Android phone is nearly as slim as the Galaxy S25 Plus and carries the same IP68 rating for water and dust resistance; however, its triple rear camera setup isn’t as impressive as what you’ll find on Samsung’s higher-end models, even if it is decent. That said, you do get support for wireless charging and a large, 6.7-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
- Amazon and Best Buy are selling the latest 13-inch MacBook Air for $799.99 ($200 off), which is $50 shy of its best price to date. Apple’s entry-level Air is our top pick for most people, one outfitted with a speedy M4 chip that makes it well-suited for a host of everyday tasks. It’s better for multitasking than prior models, too, as it lets you connect two external displays with the lid open. It also features a 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam with a wider view, while continuing to deliver all-day battery life. Read our review.
- You can pick up the Polaroid Flip, our favorite retro instant camera, for $199.99 ($20 off) at Best Buy, which is one of its better prices to date. The instant camera delivers a nostalgic, old-school shooting experience, producing dreamy, vintage-style photos that are sharper and more consistently in focus than what you’ll get from other similarly priced Polaroid cameras. It also offers a few modern touches, including Bluetooth, USB-C charging, and a companion app that lets you tweak settings like exposure.
Kaoss Pad V is the first major upgrade to Korg’s touch-based effects in 13 years
The Kaoss Pad has seen many different iterations, but the mainline effect unit and sampler hasn't received an update since the launch of the KP3+ in 2013. Korg has finally given it the attention it deserves with the release of the Kaoss Pad V. Rather than a dramatic reimagining of what a Kaoss Pad is, the V takes the core idea - an effect unit with an X / Y pad for controlling parameters in a natural, performance-focused way.
The big innovation on the Kaoss Pad V is that it can recognize two fingers simultaneously to control two distinct sets of parameters, or even two entirely different effects. It also has a dedicated voice effects engine …
Why Coinbase derailed the crypto industry’s political future
January was going to be a landmark month for the crypto industry. The Senate would start negotiating the finer details of the CLARITY Act, a major law that would finally enshrine the fundamental structure of how the crypto market could legally operate in the United States: what digital assets counted as a security versus a commodity, what regulatory responsibilities companies had to abide by, what legal protections consumers could have. The House had already passed their version months ago. The White House was ready to sign it. Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on the bill's fundamentals.
And crypto, which had spent decades navigat …
Under Musk, the Grok disaster was inevitable
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on dystopian developments in AI, follow Hayden Field. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
You could say it all started with Elon Musk's AI FOMO - and his crusade against "wokeness." When his AI company, xAI, announced Grok in November 2023, it was described as a chatbot with "a rebellious streak" and the ability to "answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems." The chatbot debuted after a few months of development and just two months of training …
Disney deleted a Thread because people kept putting anti-fascist quotes from its movies in the replies
"Share a Disney quote that sums up how you're feeling right now!"
That's what Disney posted on Threads the other day, and people immediately replied with lines from Star Wars, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and even Mary Poppins. The throughline between all the quotes: they were pretty pointedly anti-fascist and clearly aimed at the current administration.
Apparently, Disney either couldn't handle the anti-fascist messaging of its own movies or was too afraid of pissing off the powers that be, because it quickly deleted the post. Thankfully, one resourceful Threads user recorded it for posterity, reminding us that yes, the human world is, i …
The Setapp Mobile iOS store is shutting down on February 16th
Setapp Mobile seemed like one of the many alternative app markets with promise that launched in the wake of the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). While the law may have forced Apple to allow third-party app stores on its devices, it couldn't make users actually embrace them. MacPaw, the Ukrainian developer behind the subscription-based Setapp, posted on a support page that it would be sunsetting the service next month and users would lose access to any apps:
Important: Setapp Mobile sunset notice
Setapp Mobile is scheduled to sunset on February 16, 2026, due to still-evolving and complex business terms that don't fit Setapp's current busi …
The LG C5 and Apple’s M4 Mac Mini are both steeply discounted this weekend
Happy Saturday, folks! This week, Best Buy kicked off its so-called “Winter Sale,” introducing a whole host of price cuts that range from not-so-good to legitimately great, at least for this time of year. We’ll be publishing many of the highlights in a dedicated news post tomorrow, though, per usual, not all of this week’s best deals revolve around Best Buy. Apple’s M4 Mac Mini, for instance, is receiving a $100 discount at Amazon and B&H Photo, while LG’s 65-inch C5 OLED TV is on sale at eBay for a little over a grand. There are also steep savings to be had on 45W power banks, the Beats Fit Pro, and more, so let’s dive in.
Mac Mini with M4
Where to Buy:
If you want a Mac and your budget is less than $500, your only real option — aside from going the refurbished route or picking up a model that’s several generations old — is Apple’s latest Mac Mini. Thankfully, the desktop machine makes for a truly excellent daily driver, one that’s currently on sale at Amazon and B&H Photo with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starting at $499 ($100), which is just $20 shy of its Black Friday low and about $30 less than its best price to date.
For most people, the 2024 Mac Mini is a far better (and more economical) choice than the latest Mac Studio. The tiny, M4-powered machine is an excellent value, even at full price, with three Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4) ports, a gigabit ethernet jack, a 3.5mm audio input, and an HDMI port. Its 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU provide fast, consistent performance for a wide range of tasks; however, keep in mind that you’ll need to bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse.
Read our full Mac Mini (2024) review.
Last year, we saw a spate of power bank recalls, including those from both Anker and ESR. I replaced one of my aging Anker models during that time with Iniu’s excellent Carry P51L-E2, which is on sale at Amazon for a new low of $18.86 (about $21 off) at checkout.
The 20,000mAh power bank isn’t particularly fancy, though it does output up to 45W of power and features a built-in, braided USB-C cable that doubles as a lanyard. You also get an extra USB-C and USB-A port, allowing you to juice your phone, tablet, a pair of wireless earbuds, and other small electronics at the same time. Now, if only Iniu could have packed the extra battery capacity into a charger as compact and colorful as the like-minded Pocket Rocket P50. C’est la vie.
Arguably the best TV deal you can find this weekend would be on the 65-inch Bravia 8 II, which is still hovering around $2,398 (over $1,000 off) at multiple retailers, including Amazon. But not everyone has that kind of money to throw around on an OLED panel, which makes the current discount on LG’s C5 more appealing. Now through January 20th, you can pick up LG’s 65-inch OLED TV at eBay for $1,197.59 ($1,502 off) when you use code FAVEFINDS20 at checkout.
Like prior models in the C Series, the C5 is all about value. The 4K set delivers the deep black levels and contrast for which OLEDs are known, and it features LG’s AI Picture Pro, which analyzes what you’re watching and adjusts brightness, resolution, and other settings to improve clarity. It also features a bevy of gaming-friendly features, including a 120Hz refresh rate, support for AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, and four HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing you to play current-gen titles in 4K at up to 120fps. It’s rounded out with HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, further enhancing color and contrast.
Having now used both the Beats Fit Pro and the new Powerbeats Fit as part of my weekly workout regimen, I can tell you with absolute certainty that there’s little difference between the two — well, other than the fact that the Powerbeats Fit retail for $199.95 and the last-gen Beats Fit Pro are on sale at Woot in select colors for $89.99 ($110 off) through January 31st. Beats’ latest workout earbuds also feature a smaller charging case and more flexible wing tips, I guess, but with the Fit Pro, you’re still getting solid noise cancellation, good sound, and all the Apple ecosystem tricks you’d expect for less than half the price.
Read our full Beats Fit Pro review.
More ways to save this weekend
- Elgato’s Stream Deck Plus is matching its all-time low at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo, where you can pick it up for $159.99 ($40 off) for a limited time. Like the standard Stream Deck, the Plus model comes with a slew of large, programmable LCD keys — eight, in this case — which you can use to automate a variety of tasks on your computer or control various smart home devices. The Plus comes with a few neat add-ons, though, specifically four knobs for making finer adjustments and a narrow touchscreen at the bottom for viewing tidbits of information at a glance. Read our review.
- If you’re a modern gamer with a soft spot for the Sega Genesis, 8BitDo’s M30 Bluetooth Controller is down to an all-time low of $20.98 ($4 off) at Amazon as part of an ongoing lightning deal. The inexpensive, retro-styled gamepad sports a similar layout to Sega’s iconic controller, only it comes with Bluetooth, 20 hours of battery life, and built-in buttons for quick access to the homescreen and snapping screenshots. It also works with a handful of platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac, and Android.
- Speaking of gaming, Steam’s weeklong Detective Fest is set to wind down at 1PM ET on Monday, January 19th. That means that this weekend is one of your last chances to pick up a copy of The Case of the Golden Idol ($8.99), Disco Elysium ($9.99), The Séance of Blake Manor ($14.99), Strange Horticulture ($6.39), or 2025 GOTY contender, Blue Prince ($19.79), at a steep discount.
All You Need Is Kill is a dazzling movie with the soul of a video game
While Hollywood has repeatedly tried adapting stories from Japanese manga, vanishingly few of them have been as good as Edge of Tomorrow - Warner Bros.' 2014 live-action film based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's sci-fi light novel All You Need Is Kill. Edge of Tomorrow wasn't a one-to-one translation of All You Need Is Kill's original story or its manga adaptation by Takeshi Obata, Ryosuke Takeuchi, and Yoshitoshi Abe. The movie was more militaristic and focused on humanity rallying against an alien invasion.
But Edge of Tomorrow understood that what made its source material so powerful was its imaginative exploration of what it means to be tenaci …