The Google TV Streamer now costs $50 more
Google raised the price of its 4K streaming box to $149, up $50 from its original $99 price. The new price is currently live at the Google Store and Best Buy, but Amazon appears to still be offering the original price.
The price hike comes just a couple of weeks after Google launched its new lineup of Pixel 11 phones with a $100 price hike over their Pixel 10 counterparts.
The Google TV Streamer originally launched in 2024 and doubles as a smart home hub. It isn't the only streaming device getting more expensive - component shortages have been driving up prices on everything from laptops to game consoles. Earlier this month, Amazon incre …
JMGO’s very bright all-in-one projector looks ideal for gamers and sports
JMGO's 4K 120Hz Iris Ultra Max all-in-one Google TV projector is now available outside China. It gets its name from a new dual-iris system that lets it produce an impressive 10,000:1 native contrast, according to JMGO. It boosts the contrast - always an issue with projectors - by placing two separate physical apertures (irises) along different points of the internal optical path to control light scatter and brightness far more aggressively than a single iris can. It also promises to produce a very bright 6,500 ISO lumen image from its triple-laser light engine.
Last year at IFA, 6,000 lumens from an all-in-one projector was breaking new gro …
FTC lawsuit alleges Amazon has been ‘secretly and systematically’ overcharging for ads
The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon for allegedly using a "secret ad surcharge" to drive up prices for ads on its website and app. FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson claims in a blog post on the lawsuit that the higher advertising prices "were largely passed on to American consumers." According to the complaint, Amazon violated the FTC Act and over a dozen state laws. This lawsuit comes almost a year after Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle an earlier FTC lawsuit over Prime subscription practices.
In Amazon's "second price" auctions for ads on its platform, the winning bidder is supposed to only pay one cent more tha …
I went to the loneliest baseball game on Apple Vision Pro
This weekend, I strapped on an Apple Vision Pro to watch a baseball game in immersive virtual reality for the first time. It was technically impressive, visually pretty remarkable, and also didn't make that much sense.
Apple and Major League Baseball chose a classic match-up of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees for the first of its series of four games streamed on the device. I do not review tech for The Verge, but I do watch a lot of baseball - if there's a game on and I'm at home, it's likely on my television. If this is the future of sports, live events, and wearable technology in general, I'd like to see what all the fuss is a …
Alienware’s budget-friendly QD-OLED is discounted for the first time
While memory and storage prices are still high, there are still good discounts on other gaming-related hardware. Take Alienware’s AW2726DM, for example. Dell is selling it for $319.99, a $30 break from the usual price of $349.99. The 27-inch gaming monitor features an QD-OLED panel for deep, immersive black levels, and quantum dots for full and vivid colors. With a 240Hz refresh rate for super smooth gaming, and AMD FreeSync Premium Plus to keep your frames per second and refresh rate locked together, this monitor is a great, budget-friendly choice for PC gamers who don’t want to compromise on contrast and fast response times.
Connectivity is a bit limited, with a DisplayPort 1.4 port that supports up to 240Hz at 2560 x 1440, and two HDMI ports that support up to 120Hz at its peak resolution. While some other screens have USB hubs or audio connections, they aren’t necessary for PC gaming, and sometimes add to the cost. The included stand has adjustable swivel, height, pivot, and tilt, with a 100 x 100 VESA mount in case you want to mount it to a monitor arm or use a different stand. It also sports a lengthy three year warranty with coverage for burn-in.
Read our Alienware AW2726DM hands-on.
Car owners want tech they can ignore
Automakers keep shoving more tech into their cars, despite evidence that consumers are increasingly fed up with huge screens and glitchy software. In fact, the features that car owners appreciate the most happen to be the ones they barely notice, according to the latest tech survey from JD Power.
The consumer research firm surveyed 68,084 owners of new 2026 model-year vehicles after 90 days of ownership. The survey touched on 40 automotive technologies covering comfort and convenience; connected vehicles; driver assist; electric vehicles; and smart vehicles.
The features that scored the highest were the ones that were the most inconspicuo …
Phil Schiller is leaving his biggest jobs at Apple
Longtime Apple executive Phil Schiller is stepping down from his role as the head of the App Store and Apple events, according to a report from Bloomberg. Following the change, Schiller will keep his Apple Fellow title and continue "working on unspecified initiatives," Bloomberg reports.
Schiller initially joined Apple in 1987 and became the company's head of marketing in 1997. He helped launch the App Store alongside Steve Jobs in 2008, but only started heading up the store in 2015. Over the years, Schiller has played a role in the development of many of Apple's products, including the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Macs, and has presented severa …
Markiplier is now GoPro’s biggest shareholder
YouTuber Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach has invested enough in GoPro to become its single largest shareholder, with an 8.5 percent stake in the company, Bloomberg reports. Speaking to Bloomberg, Fischbach said he thought GoPro "seems undervalued" and sees his investment as "part of a larger mission to make filmmaking more accessible," following the release of his first feature film, Iron Lung, earlier this year.
Fischbach posted a video last week praising GoPro's new Mission 1 ILS camera and comparing it to the pricier Red Komodo-X, saying he plans to use the Mission 1 ILS in future movies. It includes an affiliate code for the new camera, bu …
Read Tim Cook’s final message to Apple staff as CEO
Steve Jobs' successor carried the torch of the iPhone and built Apple into a global powerhouse with few rivals. Since becoming CEO in 2011, Tim Cook has led the company to become one of the most dominant forces in the daily lives of billions of people. Today is his last day as CEO.
We'll have a lot to say about new Apple CEO John Ternus a …
Debian won’t ban AI code from its Linux distribution
Debian voted to allow developers to use AI tools in their contributions to the Linux distribution's "development, maintenance, [and] documentation." The new policy on AI acknowledges that "responsible" use of AI can improve developers' productivity, and goes on to say, "generative AI is neither exempt from nor subject to special rules beyond the standards already expected of Debian contributors."
The project's voting developers considered several other proposals on how to handle AI, including some that would have banned contributions made using AI tools. As It's FOSS reports, some users and contributors aren't happy with the policy, includi …