Every bulb on Govee’s new outdoor string lights can display multicolor effects
Govee has announced a new set of outdoor string lights that allows for more color customization than competitors' products, as well as the company's existing color-changing set. Similar to its Outdoor UpDown Wall Light introduced in July 2025, Govee's new Outdoor Chromatic String Lights don't limit you to just one color per bulb. You can customize each individual one with multiple colors, gradients, and animated effects.
Available starting today through Govee's online store and Amazon, the Outdoor Chromatic String Lights are available in two lengths: a 32-foot option with 10 bulbs for $169.99 and a 65-foot version with 20 bulbs for $299.99.
…Samsung adds native AirDrop support to Galaxy S26 devices
Samsung is bringing AirDrop support to the Quick Share feature on Galaxy devices, starting with the S26 series. The new AirDrop feature will begin rolling out in Korea starting today, according to Samsung, with US devices seeing the option sometime later this week. It will arrive in more regions and on more Galaxy devices "at a later date," including the rest of North America, Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan.
This update will allow Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra owners to effortlessly share files with Apple devices over a fast wireless connection. With this, Samsung is now the second Android smartph …
AI influencer awards season is upon us
First came the AI beauty pageant. Then the AI music contests. Now, there is an award for AI Personality of the Year - perhaps the inevitable next step for the AI influencer economy as it fights for legitimacy amid an onslaught of AI slop and grifters and transforms from quirky novelty into a serious and lucrative industry.
The contest, a joint venture between generative AI studio OpenArt and AI-powered creator platform Fanvue, with backing from AI voice company ElevenLabs, opens on Monday and runs for a month. The organizers said it is intended to "celebrate the creative talent 'behind' AI Influencers" and recognize their growing commercial …
Topical Dancer is propulsive, playful, and political
Last week's recommendation, Sotomayor's Wabi Sabi, has a very particular vibe that you don't find in a lot of records. One of the few things it called to mind was 2022's Topical Dancer from Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, which I ended up revisiting this week a lot.
The two records don't seem particularly alike on the surface. But they're both rough around the edges smash-ups of electronic and organic elements packaged for dance-floor abandon. The way the sounds and rhythms click together feels very much of the same ilk.
There are, of course, differences. Significant ones. Adigery and Pupul draw more heavily from rock and early electron …
Crimson Desert dev apologizes for use of AI art
Reviews of Crimson Desert have been mixed, but the bigger issue for the game has been the discovery of what appeared to be AI-generated assets in the final release. Now the developer has acknowledged that AI art was indeed used during the game's creation, but says that it was intended to be replaced before release. In a statement on X, the company said it was conducting a "comprehensive audit" to identify and replace any AI-generated content.
The company apologized for both its inclusion in the final release and for not being more transparent about its use during development. "We should have clearly disclosed our use of AI," it said.
The …
The best deals you can already grab from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale
Amazon’s Prime Day sale may arrive earlier than usual this year, but there’s a deal event happening much sooner: Amazon’s annual Big Spring Sale, which is happening March 25th through the 31st. While it won’t be as big as Prime Day or Black Friday, it does offer you a chance to save money at a time when US tariffs have effectively increased the price of many gadgets and goods over the course of the past year.
Dozens of excellent deals — some of which we haven’t seen in months — are already starting to pop up. Some items, like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max, have dropped to their best price since Black Friday, while a few others, like the new Echo Dot Max and Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni, have fallen to new low prices.
You don’t need a Prime membership to take advantage of many of these deals, either. Retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are also matching Amazon’s pricing in many instances, so you can choose where you want to shop. We’ve rounded up some of the best deals we’ve spotted so far and will continue updating this post as more arrive.
Speaker deals
Echo Dot Max
The Echo Dot Max features a flat design and a redesigned sound system, which delivers nearly three times the bass as its predecessor. It also offers improved conversation detection and better noise filtering, thanks to Amazon’s new AZ3 chip. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Sonos Move 2
With double the battery life of its predecessor and better-sounding stereo audio, the Sonos Move 2’s improvements don’t stop there. It supports line-in audio, can stream Bluetooth audio to other Sonos speakers, and more. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- The Amazon Echo Studio is on sale for $189.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which matches its all-time low price. Like the smallerr Echo Dot Max, the Echo Studio supports Alexa Plus and is compatible with Matter, Thread, and Zigbee so it can double as a smart home hub. Unlike the Dot Max, though, it supports spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, delivering fuller, room-filling sound. In our tests, it even sounded better than Apple’s second-gen HomePod. Read our review.
- If you’re looking for a relatively affordable Bluetooth speaker, you can pick up Soundcore’s tiny Select 4 Go at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Soundcore (with code WS24A31X1USC) starting at $24.99, which is $5 shy of its best price to date. The portable, IP67-rated waterproof and dustproof speaker can float in a pool and lasts up to 20 hours on a single charge. You can also charge it via USB-C or pair it with a second Go speaker for richer, stereo sound.
Ultimate Ears Miniroll
The UE Miniroll is a funky, disc-shaped Bluetooth speaker that can get surprisingly loud — especially if you make use of its support for Auracast, which lets you pair it with other Miniroll speakers. It provides up to 12 hours of continuous playback, and thanks to its IP67 rating, it’s ready for your next pool session.
Where to Buy:
Sonos Roam 2
The Sonos Roam 2 is a compact and travel-friendly Bluetooth speaker that easily syncs up with Sonos’ home audio ecosystem via Wi-Fi. While it looks much like the original, the Roam 2 has some small quality-of-life improvements, like a separate button for Bluetooth connections.
Where to Buy:
Headphone and earbud deals
Sonos Ace
The Sonos Ace are the company’s first set of wireless headphones. They feature a premium, comfortable build and active noise cancellation, along with compatibility with Sonos Arc and other Sonos soundbars. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Beats Studio Pro
The latest Beats Studio Pro feature improved noise cancellation, sound quality, and comfort. They also support lossless audio over USB-C, making them the first Apple headphones to do so. Plus, like other Beats headphones, they offer native support for a range of iOS and Android features. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- The Beats Studio Buds Plus are on sale in several colors for $99.95 ($70 off) at Amazon, which is one of the better prices we’ve seen. In addition to offering a stylish translucent option, the noise-canceling wireless earbuds come with four swappable ear tips for a more secure, comfortable fit. They’re platform-agnostic, too, and can last up to nine hours on a single charge. They also offer IPX4 water resistance, making them suitable for workouts and light rain. Read our review.
- The Beats Solo 4 are down to $129.99 ($70 off) at Amazon in several colors. This is the best price we’ve seen so far this year, though it’s nowhere near the best-ever price of $79 we saw during the holidays. These wireless headphones lack active noise cancellation, but they do support lossless playback over USB-C (or 3.5mm) for detailed, clear sound, along with spatial audio. They’re also platform-agnostic, and can last a whopping 50 hours on a single charge. Read our review.
AirPods Pro 3
The recently released AirPods Pro 3 have a new design that improves their fit, superior noise cancellation, better bass, and fairly accurate heart rate sensors. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2
Significantly smaller and lighter than their predecessors, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 also offer stronger noise cancellation, a crystal clear transparency mode, and lengthy battery life. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- You can currently purchase Sony’s WH-1000XM5 for $278 ($122 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. Although we saw them drop to as low as $205 in recent months, that’s still one of the better deals we’ve seen on the over-ear headphones, which still offer terrific sound and great noise cancellation despite being a last-gen model. The newer XM6 improve on both fronts and feature a foldable design, but the XM5 remain a great investment when you can find them on sale. Read our review.
- Sony’s WF-C510 are on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo for around $48 ($20 off), which is the best price we’ve seen. The IPX4-rated buds offer up 11 hours of playback, multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, and a helpful transparency mode, which is a nice perk given that most cheap pairs of closed-style earbuds skip out on the latter feature in attempt to keep costs down.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (second-gen)
Bose’s redesigned QuietComfort Earbuds deliver terrific active noise cancellation that outperforms most competitors. They also offer wireless charging and multipoint support right out of the box. Read hands-on impressions.
Where to Buy:
Smart home deals
Echo Show 8 (2025)
The updated Echo Show 8 features an 8.7-inch display with 720p resolution, wider viewing angles, and higher contrast. It includes a 13-megapixel camera, new stereo speakers, and supports Alexa Plus, while doubling as a smart home hub with support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Echo Show 11 (2025)
The Echo Show 11 features an 11-inch screen and 1080p resolution. It includes Alexa Plus and can be used as a smart home hub with support Thread, Matter, and Zigbee smart home protocols. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- The Echo Spot is on sale for $49.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is $5 more than its best price to date. The tiny, Alexa-enabled gadget features a customizable 2.83-inch screen that can display a slew of info at a glance, such as the weather and various reminders, and it serves as a handy alarm clock for your bedside, should you need one. It also sounds surprisingly good for its size and lets you control compatible smart home devices with your voice, including your lights. Read our review.
- You can buy two Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim smart plugs on sale for $21.99 ($8 off) at Amazon, which is $2 shy of the bundle’s all-time low price. The basic plug lets you add smart features to traditional gadgets like fans and lamps, and it offers energy monitoring, so you can keep tabs on how much power you’re consuming — which is helpful if you’re trying to cut down on your electricity bill. It’s also compatible with Matter, meaning you can connect it to multiple smart home platforms for voice control.
Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip
Kasa’s aptly titled Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip features six smart outlets with surge protection, each of which can be individually controlled via Amazon Alexa or Google Home. It also has three non-smart USB-A ports for powering phone chargers and other small devices.
Where to Buy:
Deebot X8 Pro Omni
The Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni features an extendable mop that can clean itself and 18,000Pa of suction power. It also comes with a multifunction dock that can refill the robovac using an integrated water tank and move dirty water into a separate waste tank to prevent it from dragging stains across your home.
Where to Buy:
- The newer Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni is also available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Ecovacs for $679 ($621 off), which is its best price to date. It’s very similar to the aforementioned X8 Pro Omni, but it’s able to capitalize on Ecovacs’ Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology, which can suck up dust and debris more easily for a more thorough clean.
- The Dreame L10s Pro Ultra is on sale for around $349.98 ($50 off) at Amazon and directly from Dreame with coupon code L10PUXM. The robovac / mop hybrid offers a respectable 7,000Pa of suction along with an extendable mop that can reach closer to edges. Its self-cleaning dock washes the mop pads with hot water and dries them with hot air. Plus, it can empty its own dustbin, refill its own water tank, and even automatically dispense cleaning solution.
Google Nest Thermostat
Google’s Matter-compatible Nest Thermostat is a simple thermostat with a minimalist, mirrored-finish screen. It doesn’t automatically adjust to your habits, but it’s easy to install, controllable with your phone, and compatible with most HVAC systems. It also supports the new Matter standard, unlike the Nest Learning Thermostat. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Streaming and soundbar deals
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (second-gen)
Amazon’s highest-end streaming stick supports Wi-Fi 6E and offers double the storage of its predecessor. It also displays widgets and artwork when idle, while continuing to offer a terrific selection of streaming apps. Plus, it runs on the new and improved Fire TV OS, which makes it easier to find something to watch.
Where to Buy:
Sonos Beam (second-gen)
The Sonos Beam (second-gen) is a compact soundbar that supports Dolby Atmos and can stream music from a plethora of services. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus is also on sale for $24.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which matches its lowest price to date. Like the 4K Max above, Amazon’s mid-tier streaming stick runs on the redesigned Fire TV OS and supports Dolby Atmos, but it offers only half the storage (8GB) and supports Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 6E.
- The latest Amazon Fire TV Cube is also on sale for $99.99 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The fast streaming device supports Wi-Fi 6E along with Dolby Atmos and all the major HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, and features an HDMI input that lets you connect devices like a cable box or game console. It also pulls double duty as a decent sounding speaker with support for Amazon Alexa, so you can control smart home devices and even navigate the Fire TV interface with your voice. Read our review.
Other Verge-approved deals
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:
Hoto 3.6V Electric Screwdriver Kit Pro
Hoto’s rechargeable screwdriver is ideal for small repairs. It offers three torque modes, a rotational speed of up to 220rpm, and a helpful circular LED for illuminating dark spaces. Meanwhile, the durable case holds all 25 steel bits and an extension bar for getting into hard-to-reach places.
Where to Buy:
- Insta360’s Antigravity A1 is available starting at $1,279 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Antigravity’s online storefront through April 16th for the “Standard” set, which includes Vision Goggles, a remote control, a battery, a carrying case, and four spare propellers. The 360-degree drone can shoot 8K video at 30 frames per second, with the goggles letting you see exactly what the drone sees while it’s flying, providing you with a first-person view. As of February, you can use the goggles to practice flying without sending the drone into the air. In April, additional software updates will add voice controls, timelapse photography, and fun virtual effects.
- Google’s Pixel 10 is on sale starting at $549 ($250 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is its best price so far this year and $100 more than its all-time low. Compared to the recently released Pixel 10A, the 6.3-inch Pixel 10 offers a more advanced camera system that includes a telephoto lens, as well as support for Qi2 wireless charging with built-in magnets. It also features a 120Hz display and runs on Google’s Tensor G5 processor while offering 12GB of RAM. The phone also offers additional AI features like Magic Cue, which can offer relevant suggestions depending on what you’re doing on your phone.Read our review.
Hoto PixelDrive
Hoto’s latest electric screwdriver delivers an adjustable 6Nm of torque, along with a built-in pixelated display that lets you check the battery life and other info.
Where to Buy:
Fitbit Ace LTE
The Ace LTE sports some of the same hardware found on the Google Pixel Watch 2 and a variety of step-activated games, which can help motivate your child to keep moving. It also offers calling, messaging, and location sharing when you sign up for a monthly or annual data plan. Read our hands-on impressions.
Where to Buy:
- The Epicka Universal Travel Adapter is on sale for $15.99 ($7 off) at Amazon, which is its best price in months. The adapter features four built-in plugs that work in more than 200 countries and regions, along with four USB-A ports, a USB-C port, and an AC socket so you can charge laptops, phones, cameras, and more.
- The Hoto Mini Bike Tire Pump is on sale for $41.98 ($18 off) at Amazon and The Home Depot, which matches its best price to date. The palm-sized device can quickly refill bike tires up to 150 PSI, inflating a 700×23C tire from flat to 80 PSI in about a minute. Powered by a 2,000mAh battery, it can inflate up to eight flat tires per charge, and it automatically shuts off once it reaches your preset pressure.
- The Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker (6-Quart) is on sale for $99.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, which is $40 more than its all-time low but still the best price we’ve seen in months. The versatile multicooker can pressure cook, slow cook, sauté, steam, and more, and the six-quart capacity is large enough for family meals or to do a ton of meal prep. It also offers 15 one-touch cooking programs and an easy-to-read display that shows cooking time, temperature, and pressure.
Anker 621 Magnetic Battery (MagGo)
Anker’s 621 Magnetic Battery is a slim, 5,000mAh charger that can attach magnetically to the back of any MagSafe-ready iPhone.
Where to Buy:
Kindle Colorsoft Kids (2025)
Like the standard model, Amazon’s kid-friendly Colorsoft comes with a seven-inch color display and waterproofing. The 16GB e-reader also offers parental controls, a two-year warranty, a protective cover, and a year of Amazon Kids Plus.
Where to Buy:
PDP Riffmaster
PDP’s Riffmaster is a wireless guitar accessory compatible with Rock Band 4 and Fortnite: Festival. It has two sets of color-coded buttons you can press to hit notes as they appear on the screen, a built-in 3.5mm audio jack for connecting headphones, and an analog stick to help you easily navigate through each game’s menus.
Where to Buy:
- The PDP Afterglow Wave controller is on sale for $39.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, which matches its all-time low. The wireless Nintendo Switch gamepad is a colorful (and affordable) alternative to Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller, featuring eight customizable RGB lighting zones and four preset lighting modes. It also offers a pair of programmable rear buttons and built-in motion controls, along with a battery that lasts up to 20 hours on a single charge.
- The DJI Osmo Mobile 7P gimbal stabilizer is on sale for around $99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Adorama, which is also its best price to date. The smartphone gimbal doubles as a selfie stick with a built-in tripod and telescoping arm. It can automatically follow you, adjust framing of your shots, and even start or stop recording with a wave of your hand. You can also pair it with one of DJI’s wireless mics, making it a handy tool for vlogging or filming on the go.
Xbox Wireless Controller
The official Xbox Wireless Controller has a dedicated share button for saving clips and screenshots and sharing them online, Bluetooth support, and a USB-C port for charging up Microsoft’s play-and-charge rechargeable battery.
Where to Buy:
Carrera Smart Glasses with Alexa
Amazon’s smart glasses let you play music, make hands-free calls, and use the Alexa voice assistant on the go. They don’t sound as good as the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and Alexa can be a bit hit-or-miss, but they still look stylish and at least offer solid call quality. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Update, March 22nd: Updated to reflect current pricing / availability and several new deals, including those for the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds and Google’s entry-level Nest Thermostat. Brandon Widder also contributed to this post.
Musk says he’s building a Terafab chip plant in Austin, Texas
Elon Musk announced plans to build a Terafab plant in Austin, Texas, that will be jointly run by Tesla and SpaceX. The goal is to eventually build chips at scale for robotics, artificial intelligence, and space-based data centers for Musk's various companies.
Musk has expressed concern, as have other executives, about the chip industry's ability to keep up with demand as the AI industry has boomed. But building a chip fabrication plant is complex, requires billions of dollars, many years, and a ton of specialized equipment. And, as Bloomberg points out, Musk "has no background in semiconductor production and a history of over-promising on g …
The secret story of the vocoder, the military tech that changed music forever
The vocoder was never supposed to be a revolution in music. It wasn't supposed to be anything in music, really. Its development began a century ago, when an engineer at Bell Labs was looking for a simpler way to send phone calls across copper telephone lines. The engineer, Homer Dudley, built some pretty neat technology that could both capture and synthesize the human voice.
As so much great tech does, the vocoder immediately took on a life of its own. It played a key role in World War II, enabling secret communications across the ocean. And then, only a few years later, it started to become a musical phenomenon. At first, a few artists wer …
The pint-sized Sonos Roam 2 is more than 20 percent off this weekend
Sonos is no stranger to the occasional sale. The iconic audio company routinely runs sales around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, and the Super Bowl, though it’s rare to see substantial discounts on its portable speakers outside of tentpole shopping events. Fortunately, if you have no interest in the Sonos Move 2 or forthcoming Sonos Play, the Sonos Roam 2 is currently available from Amazon, Walmart, and Sonos for $139 ($40 off), which is just $5 shy of its lowest price to date.
The original Sonos Roam was by no means a bad speaker, but the quality-of-life updates on the Roam 2 are genuinely meaningful, particularly if you were the kind of person who constantly struggled to pair the first-gen model with anything via Bluetooth (guilty as charged). The latest Roam has a dedicated pairing button on the back — meaning you don’t have to hold down the power button for a set period of time just to sync it with a new phone — while still letting you tap into Sonos’ larger ecosystem of products via your home’s Wi-Fi network.
Sound quality remains unchanged, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The first-gen Roam was one of the best-sounding speakers in its class, with pleasantly crisp vocal performance and enough depth to satiate most folks, especially when Sonos’s automatic Trueplay room optimization tool did its job. It’s a bit of a bummer that the USB-C port remains strictly for power, and that battery life tops out at 10 hours, but I’d venture that most folks are simply going to be using it at the park or simply for an afternoon at the pool. After all, it has IP67 waterproofing, which means it can withstand up to 30 minutes in 3 feet of water.
Perhaps best of all, though, Sons claims to have made some tweaks and optimizations under the hood to ensure battery performance holds up in the long run, which was a crux of the original model. I haven’t had the Roam 2 long enough to say for sure, but so far, so good.
Other Sonos deals to consider
AI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the games
AI was everywhere at the GDC Festival of Gaming this year. Vendors at the event pitched generative AI tools for things like making AI-driven NPCs and even entire games from a chat box. On the show floor, I spent 10 minutes playing a demo of a pixel-art fantasy world generated by Tencent's AI tools. In a briefing with Razer, I watched an AI assistant for QA automatically log issues in a shooter game. And there were many talks about AI, including a standing-room only presentation by Google DeepMind researchers about playable AI-generated spaces.
But there was one key place where AI was missing: the games themselves. Of the many developers I s …