Lego’s Smart Brick is here, and it transforms these new Star Wars sets
Lego's new Smart Brick is a pretty big deal. It packs a miniature computer, a microphone, and NFC tech into a classic 2×4 Lego brick, which can power all sorts of new experiences with select sets. It has so much promise that we awarded it "best in show" at CES 2026, and now, eight Star Wars-themed sets that support the Smart Brick (and include it, in some cases) are now available.
Three of them include at least one Smart Brick, along with a charging cradle and cable, while the rest are merely "Smart Play compatible," meaning they're BYOB (bring your own brick). The interactivity of the NFC tags and the smart minifigurs won't be possible unl …
Soundcore’s Space 2 are an evolution of its budget headphones
We finally have an update to the Soundcore Space One that launched two and a half years ago. At MWC 2026, Soundcore has announced the Space 2, which will be available in the US on April 21st in three colors - linen white, jet black, and seafoam green - for $129.99. That's $30 more than the Space One's original price.
According to Soundcore, the Space 2 have had a full-band noise cancellation upgrade with the focus of those improvements on the low-frequency sounds we all generally use ANC headphones to block - things like airplane, train, and bus engine sounds while traveling. The Space 2 use the same number of microphones as the Space One f …
Honor claims its Robot Phone will launch later this year
Honor has revealed more details of its so-called Robot Phone at MWC 2026, and finally showed a working unit in action alongside a dancing humanoid robot. Specs are still thin on the ground, but the company has confirmed it plans to release the phone in the second half of this year - though I've been told that will only be in China.
The Robot Phone doesn't quite live up to the name - really it's a smartphone with a gimbal-stabilized camera arm crammed into the back. Honor has now revealed that the main camera will have a 200-megapixel sensor, and is built into what it says is the smallest 4DoF gimbal system in the industry, though those are …
Resident Evil Requiem leans too much on the series’ past
Resident Evil turns 30 this year. The series is full of history - the new Resident Evil Requiem is technically the ninth mainline game, but there are a bunch of spinoffs, remakes, movies, and even a TV show - which can make it fun to follow for fans. But it's also intimidating for people like me who haven't played everything. The latest release, Resident Evil Requiem, tries to appeal to both sides by starring a new character, the cowering FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, and a series favorite, action hero Leon Kennedy.
Initially, it really works: the first half of Resident Evil Requiem is one of the freshest horror games I've ever played. But as t …
How MLB can make baseball relevant on a fast-changing internet
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the contemporary attention economy, follow Mia Sato. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
"KING BASEBALL, monarch of the American sport world, is sick," a New York Times story on the disappearance of amateur and small town sandlots begins. Hundreds of thousands of fans attended the opening games of the season, and star players are making bank in huge stadiums. "Nevertheless the critics say that his Royal Highness is indisposed."
The story is from 1925. But it read …
Meta won’t let morality get in the way of a product launch
There's never been a better time to add facial recognition to everything! The public at large is gradually becoming numb to our Palantirized surveillance state, and American communities are responding to the militarization of federal law enforcement with their own increasingly intricate webs of sousveillance.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are sleek, unobtrusive wearables with front-facing cameras and a passthrough display in the right lens that can show maps, texts, social media posts, and more. Name Tag is a new feature that uses facial recognition to identify people you see in real life through the glasses. Perhaps the glasses would have soun …
Honor’s Magic V6 is the first foldable with an IP69 rating
For the third year running, Honor has announced what it says is the world's thinnest book-style folding phone. For the second year, it's combined that with the biggest battery in any foldable too. This year, for its third and final trick, the company went ahead and made sure it was the first foldable with an IP69 rating too.
The Honor Magic V6 was announced at MWC in Barcelona today, though Honor has played a bit fast and loose with timing to guarantee those three records: the V6 won't go on sale in China until some time later this month, and the international release is still months away, in the second half of the year, so Honor isn't sayi …
Polymarket defends its decision to allow betting on war as ‘invaluable’
Polymarket has been allowing people to bet on when the US would strike Iran next. Obviously, now that it's actually happened and people have died, the prediction betting market is feeling some pressure. The site has been at the center of controversy before, including suspicions of insider trading on the Super Bowl halftime show and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In a statement posted on its site, Polymarket defended its decision to allow betting on the potential start of a war, saying that it was an "invaluable" source of news and answers, before taking shots at traditional media and Elon Musk's X. The statement reads:
…The Rubin Observatory’s alert system sent 800,000 pings on its first night
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's automated alert system is online and already bombarding astronomers with things to look at in the night sky. The system went live publicly on Tuesday, February 24th, and on the first night dropped some 800,000 alerts about asteroids, supernovas, and feasting black holes. And that number is only expected to climb to the multiple millions per night.
The observatory released the first images taken with its car-sized Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera in June of last year. But researchers and stargazers have been eagerly anticipating the launch of this system. Every night, the camera captures about 1,0 …
You can still grab great deals on Bose headphones and Astro Bot this weekend
Welcome to the weekend, friends! While the rest of our team was checking out Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy S26 lineup and prepping for Apple’s “special experience” next week, we’ve been sifting through Woot’s “Video Games for All” sale and a truly weird slate of deals that, frankly, don’t have a throughline. (Some of us have also spent the last week unpacking what Huel is, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Here’s what we can tell you. If you’re thinking of picking up the Galaxy S26 Ultra at launch, putting in your preorder now isn’t a bad idea. It’s also a great time to pick up the midrange QuietComfort Headphones and what many of us at The Verge consider to be the game of 2024: Astro Bot. And who doesn’t want to save on a slick handheld vac?
Now let’s get to it.
If you’re craving a little peace and quiet, Bose’s QuietComfort Headphones are currently on sale at Amazon in multiple colors for $199 ($150 off), which is the best price we’ve seen this year.
The standard QC Headphones are essentially a refresh of the last-gen QC45s with some new software tricks, including the ability to adjust noise cancellation levels and set custom listening modes. That being the case, you still get up to 24 hours of battery life, excellent comfort, and multipoint support, making it easy to switch between Bluetooth devices on the fly. They lack Bose’s immersive audio mode and the higher-quality Bluetooth found in the newer QC Ultras, though, as well as support for lossless audio over USB-C. Then again, that probably shouldn’t come as a surprise given they’re retailing for $250 less.
Bose QuietComfort Headphones
Where to Buy:
As we alluded to earlier, Samsung announced its Galaxy S26 lineup this week. There are already plenty of preorder deals to consider, but one of the best comes courtesy of Amazon, which is throwing in a $200 gift card alongside a free storage upgrade when you preorder the 512GB Galaxy S26 Ultra starting at $1,299.99. Other retailers are also running promos ahead of the phone’s March 11th release date, mind you, though they’re not as impressive; Best Buy is only providing a free storage upgrade, while Samsung is offering a mere $150 in credit.
While the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus both feel like underwhelming, iterative updates, the 6.9-inch Galaxy S26 Ultra actually impressed our resident phone reviewer, Allison Johnson. That’s largely because of the new Privacy Display, which can help shield your screen from people sitting near you (if desired), and a more powerful camera array that should improve low-light performance. Plus, like the rest of the S26 lineup, the Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which supports more advanced generative AI tools and a souped-up version of Gemini that can carry out certain tasks in third-party apps on your behalf. No one likes calling an Uber themselves, anyway.
Read our S26 Ultra hands-on impressions.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Where to Buy:
You can still grab a physical copy of Astro Bot at Walmart for $32.99 ($27 off), an all-time low. The fantastic PlayStation 5 exclusive — which won Game of the Year at the 2024 Game Awards — has players take on the role of Astro, a lovable robot who sets off on a space adventure after his crew is lost in a sudden attack. Despite the prior game being a pack-in title for the PS5, Team Asobi’s full-sized sequel brims with inventive platforming, whimsical power-ups, and a kind of lighthearted fun that recalls the best of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Thankfully, it never feels outdated, even if ‘90s vibes are totally there.
Read our Astro Bot review.
If you’re looking for a relatively compact handheld vacuum that can reach into car crevices and suck up crumbs on your desk, Fanttik’s foldable Fold V10 Apex is still on sale at Amazon for $85.49 (about $65 off), matching its best price to date.
Fanttik’s 17,000Pa vac features an extendable nozzle that pivots up to 210 degrees, along with a built-in LED light to help illuminate the dark corners of your vehicle. An onboard display, meanwhile, indicates the remaining battery life and suction mode, as well as the status of the washable filter. It also comes with a range of useful add-ons, including an upholstery tool, two brush heads, and an extendable hose with a crevice tool for hard-to-reach areas. It even charges via USB-C, making it easy to juice after the battery runs out in about 30 minutes or so.
Read our recent profile on Fanttik.
Fanttik Fold V10 Apex Foldable Car Vacuum
Where to Buy:
More ways to save this weekend
- You can pick up five second-gen AirTags for $99.99 ($24 off) at Costco, though non-members will have to pay a $5 surcharge. That’s the first discount we’ve seen on Apple’s latest location tracker, which builds upon its predecessor with an upgraded ultra-wideband chip and extended range, allowing for more precise tracking from up to 50 percent farther away. It’s also better at locating items in multi-story homes, and the built-in speaker is up to 50 percent louder, making it easier to hear. Read our review.
- AOC’s 27-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor (Q27G41ZDF) is on sale for $379.99 ($170 off) at Best Buy, which is its lowest price to date. The 1440p display is a great entry-level OLED, with a sharp 16:9 panel and a speedy 240Hz refresh rate. As a QD-OLED monitor, it delivers the deep blacks and vibrant colors the technology is known for, along with G-Sync compatibility to help reduce screen tearing. It also includes a three-year warranty for added peace of mind.
- You can snag the Sharge Pixel 100 from Amazon (with Prime) and Sharge for $69.90 ($30 off) right now, which is its lowest price to date. The small, retro-inspired GaN charger delivers up to 140W of power, which is enough to charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 50 percent in about 25 minutes. It also features three USB-C ports for powering multiple devices, along with a customizable dot-matrix display that shows the real-time wattage for each port.