Microsoft’s Xbox reset is pivoting Obsidian to make Fallout instead of Avowed
As part of Microsoft's big Xbox "reset," which includes layoffs affecting 3,200 staffers, jettisoning studios, and shifting investments to focus on "higher priority projects," Obsidian Entertainment is changing its plans. The studio, behind games like Grounded and The Outer Worlds, is starting work on a new Fallout title and has canceled "multiple projects," including a sequel to last year's Avowed, according to Bloomberg.
Despite the success of the Fallout TV show, which is getting a third season, Xbox hasn't released a new game in the series since 2018's Fallout 76. Josh Sawyer, Obsidian's studio design director, will head up the new Fall …
America’s cheapest new EV is smaller than a ping-pong table and tops out at 19mph
When searching for an affordable electric vehicle these days, there are always tradeoffs. How much range are you willing to sacrifice, how much leg room and storage space, how many features, in the pursuit of that magic sticker price that won't break the bank?
The Fiat Topolino is basically the ultimate embodiment of those tradeoffs. For the dirt cheap price of $13,995, you get a top speed of 19mph, an all-electric range of 46 miles, and a wheelbase that's barely longer than one and a half king mattresses. In fact, the Topolino is less of a car and more of a micromobility vehicle.
Fiat isn't trying to hide that fact. In it's announcement t …
Cockroaches will learn to fear my SwitchBot Bot Rechargeable
A little robotic switch-flipper has become my sidekick in combating cockroaches. Before I got the SwitchBot Bot Rechargeable, I'd tiptoe through the dark every morning, hoping I wouldn't step on one of those terrible bugs scurrying around as I made my way to the light switch across the room. Now I'm ready for battle before I even enter the room because I can switch it on from afar, thanks to the $33.99 SwitchBot Bot Rechargeable.
The small gadget attaches via adhesive near a switch or button and uses its tiny robotic arm to physically press or pull it for you. You can automate anything with physical power buttons, from coffee makers, light …
If Microsoft sold off Xbox, who would even buy it?
This week, Microsoft took a huge ax to its Xbox business. The company announced that it would be laying off 1,600 workers now, 1,600 more over the next fiscal year, and that it would be shedding four studios. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma hasn't been shy about why she's making such dramatic cuts, saying in a memo that the business is "not healthy." Speaking to Fortune, she said that "we simply spread ourselves too thin."
Given the scale of the changes and Xbox's currently vague strategy of focusing only on big games, it's unclear just what the future of the platform is. As Microsoft invests much of its resources into everything AI, a struggling cons …
Twelve South’s AirFly Pro is a great travel companion, and it’s on sale for $40
If you’ve got a summer trip coming up, the last-gen Twelve South AirFly Pro is one of those gadgets that can make a long flight feel a little shorter. It lets you use your wireless headphones with in-flight entertainment systems, and right now it’s on sale for $39.99 ($15 off) at Amazon. That’s the best price we’ve seen all year and just $7 shy of the all-time low we last saw in January 2025.
For just $5 more than the AirFly SE, the Pro adds a handful of useful extras, one of which is support for both Bluetooth transmitter and receiver modes. That means you can use your wireless headphones with an airplane’s entertainment system during a flight, then stream music from your phone to compatible wired speakers and sound systems once you’ve landed.
Unlike the SE, it also supports two pairs of Bluetooth headphones at once, so you can share a movie or podcast with a travel companion. Plus, its 25 hour battery life should be enough to last through even the longest international flights.
The AirFly Pro is useful in other ways, too. During your vacation, you can use it to connect your preferred music streaming service to an older rental car stereo, or your ear buds to a Nintendo Switch. Once you’re back home, it can also connect your wireless headphones to compatible gym equipment and other devices with a standard 3.5mm audio jack.
ChatGPT’s upgraded voice mode is better at shutting up
OpenAI is overhauling ChatGPT's voice mode with a new model that it says is more like "talking to another person." The new GPT-Live-1 is designed to interrupt you less and will also wait for you to continue speaking if you pause mid-conversation.
During a press briefing, OpenAI research lead Kundan Kumar called GPT-Live-1 the company's "smartest voice model" yet. It will automatically pass your queries to its best text models, like GPT-5.5, when it needs to reason or search the web, allowing it to more quickly transition from researching the topic you've asked about to talking about its findings. The upgraded model will also supplement conv …
This jumping $800 robot camera dog filled me with joy
What if you had a drone that wasn't a buzzy, annoying fly people wanted to swat - but rather a cute dog that runs and jumps? What if it could do tricks on command and film your tricks as well? What if it could get right back up after a nasty-looking crash, dozens of times in a row?
The first time I saw Beni on Instagram, I immediately thought it was AI video slop. Surely consumer robots aren't that smart and agile in 2026? Then I took the real robot for a spin. Truth is, Beni does need work. But my first two-hour demo was so much fun, I badly want one for myself.
The whole Pixel line could get more expensive this year
Google's upcoming Pixel lineup might cost more than last year's. A report from Dealabs spotted by 9to5Google suggests that Google could raise the starting price of its 41mm Pixel Watch 5 to $399, while adding LTE could bump the price to $499.
That's a $50 jump from the base Pixel Watch 4, which starts at $349 for Wi-Fi and $449 for LTE. Meanwhile, the larger 45mm Pixel Watch 5 is rumored to cost $429 with Wi-Fi only, or $529 with LTE, marking a $30 increase from the previous generation.
A separate report from Dealabs details the potential European pricing for the Pixel 11. The report suggests that Google could drop the lowest 128GB storage …
Gaming laptops are too expensive right now, but this one’s a good value
It’s not a great time to shop for a gaming laptop. The unprecedented rise in cost for RAM (and storage to a slightly lesser extent) has made laptops with low-to-midrange specs cost much more than they should. Recent deals on gaming laptops worth your attention have been uninspiring, but one recently caught my eye: MSI’s Katana laptop with a 15.6-inch 1440p display, Nvidia’s RTX 5060 GPU, a fast Intel Core i7 CPU, and the pairing of 16GB DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD costs $1,133.67 at Amazon.
It’s a little painful to be able to recall a time when you used to be able to sometimes find the 4070 or the 5070 GPU variants in laptops around this price point, but those times are behind us for now (but hopefully ahead of us, too, sooner than later). Regardless, the Katana is a good value if you’re shopping in the $1,100 ballpark. I particularly like that its screen has a fast 165Hz refresh rate, and that it’s not hurting for ports. In addition to its barrel plug charging port, it has three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port that can output video, an HDMI 2.1 port supporting up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz output, Ethernet, and a headphone jack.
While RAM is bananas expensive right now, the Katana supports up to 96GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 6,000MHz via two user-accessible slots. It has just one M.2 SSD slot, though. All of the specifications are listed on MSI’s site.
Other Verge-approved deals for your consideration
- You might already have a good Ethernet switch, but maybe you’ve been kicking around the thought of upgrading. Ugreen’s 10-port gigabit switch doesn’t seem all that remarkable, if not for the fact that eight of its ports support power over Ethernet (PoE). More smart home devices are launching with support the tech, which lets you power devices and supply internet connectivity with a single cable. The switch — now down to $37.97 at Amazon (it fluctuates between this price and around $50) — can deliver up to 60W to certain devices, and it’s over $20 less than TP-Link’s similar model. If you don’t envision using this feature, you can get a switch without PoE for much less money.
- Hold onto your shells: the limited edition bundle of the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy from the 1990s is down to $39.09 at Amazon and Walmart. Containing each of the films in 4K Blu-ray (Dolby Vision and HDR10-compatible) would be enough for me at this price, but the set contains a bunch of extras that fans like me will likely enjoy. It contains posters, cards, and other physical trinkets, plus director’s commentaries, interviews, and lossless audio. I wonder how young is too young to show these movies to my kid. I adored The Secret of the Ooze as a youngster.
- Lastly for today, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is $55.99 at Steam during the platform’s summer sale through July 9th. But you can get it for $10 less at Newegg. The online retailer is offering this price when you use the code 5DSUMMER at checkout. The PC port came out several months after the PlayStation 5 version launched, yet it’s great to see that it’s already more affordable to buy on Steam than a physical pre-owned copy for PS5 at GameStop. PC players can enjoy 21:9 aspect ratio support, plus a host of graphical improvements not present in the console version. Read our review.
Fi’s Starlink-enabled pet tracker found my dog when LTE couldn’t
Fi Ultra is the first Starlink-enabled pet tracker you can buy. It expands on GPS and LTE trackers, adding automatic failover to T-Mobile's T-Satellite-branded direct-to-cell service when venturing into cellular dead zones. That lets owners tap into SpaceX's constellation of low Earth orbit Starlink satellites to track their pets anywhere in the US. But it comes with a few tradeoffs based on our early testing, including relatively poor battery life for a pet tracker.
Built to fit "adventure dogs of any size," according to the company, the Fi Ultra is designed to be compatible with the dog collar or harness you already use. It costs $199 for …