Moto’s Tag 2 tracker is $20 for a limited time
Announced at CES 2026, the Moto Tag 2 has finally arrived in the US. The Bluetooth tracker with improved battery life over its predecessor, plus UWB sensing for more accurate tracking, is available through Motorola’s site at a special $19.99 launch price (originally $29.99). There are plenty of trackers for Android owners to consider, but the Tag 2 seems tough to beat at this price. It supports Google’s Find Hub network, has an IP68 rating, and runs off a replaceable CR2032 coin battery that can last up to 600 days.
Moto Tag 2
Where to Buy:
The Moto Tag 2 has a built-in speaker that can sound off at up to 77 decibels. The tracker itself has a button that can be set to do several things, and is configurable within the Moto Tag app. Pressing the button can help you find your phone nearby. It can also trigger your phone’s camera shutter. A Bluetooth tracker doesn’t need most of these features to be good, but the Moto Tag 2 has them anyway.
Netflix is using an AI-generated Gene Wilder voice in its Willy Wonka reality show
A new teaser trailer confirmed that Wonka's The Golden Ticket will premiere on Netflix on September 23rd, following its Squid Game reality show in the trend of creating real competitions based on fictional torture scenarios. While the sets seen in the trailer are real and not some Glasgow-style AI fakes, the voiceover is AI-generated.
Deadline reports that Netflix worked with AI audio company ElevenLabs with consent from Wilder's family, after working on productions re-creating the voice of Michael Caine and Stan Lee. It also continues Netflix's 2021 partnership with the Roald Dahl company, and is separate from the Charlie vs. the Chocolat …
Rockstar workers push to unionize ahead of GTA VI’s launch
Workers at Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar Games have submitted a request for their union, the IWGB Game Workers Union, to be voluntarily recognized, according to a press release. The request follows Rockstar firing more than 30 staffers last year in a move accused of being "union busting."
According to the release, IWGB members have been "actively" organizing since 2019 and "claim they now represent a significant proportion of the workforce across each of the studio's sites in Edinburgh, Dundee, Lincoln, Leeds and London." As the union has grown, "Rockstar has already made improvements to workers' conditions including unprecedented …
Google’s killing off Tenor GIF searches in other apps
The GIF-picking interfaces in some of your favorite online platforms might look different going forward, as Google prepares to shut down the Tenor API today. While the Tenor website, along with its searchable GIF library, will remain live, platforms like X, Discord, Bluesky, and WhatsApp that previously integrated the API are now having to migrate to alternative GIF picker services.
Google acquired the Tenor GIF platform in 2018. Both its website and API allow users to search for GIFs using keywords, similar to competing services like Giphy and Klipy. Google will continue using Tenor across its own services, including Google Messages and Gb …
Xbox weighs canceling Blade game and shuttering Arkane
Microsoft is set to announce a wave of layoffs for its Xbox studios and employees next week. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that the layoffs will lead to studio closures or spinoffs, potential mergers of studios, and canceled games.
I understand Microsoft is currently weighing closing at least five studios, including the developers behind Marvel's Blade. Sources tell me Microsoft wants to cancel Blade as part of a wave of cost cuts and job losses that are planned for the company's Xbox gaming division.
Developed by France-based Arkane Studios, best-known for the Dishonored series, Blade was originally supposed to de …
The Bose Soundlink Max is $120 off ahead of the July 4th weekend
The Bose Soundlink Max is usually $399, but has been on steep discount this week at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Bose for $279. This Bluetooth speaker has a big and bold sound, with a wide soundstage that impressed us in our review. It’s great for the outdoors thanks to its IP67 rating, meaning splashes and sand won’t affect it. The built-in battery lasts up to 20 hours on a single charge, and the speaker can top up your other devices as needed from its USB-C port.
Bose SoundLink Max
Bose’s SoundLink Max improves on the smaller flex with true stereo sound — and very powerful sound at that. It’s got a removable handle for easy transport, and there’s an aux input for playing audio when you want to listen at a higher quality than what Bluetooth can deliver. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
The SoundLink Max sounds excellent, though it’s missing a few features we expect to have with any Bluetooth speaker that has a premium price tag. For example, you can’t use it as a speakerphone for calls (it lacks a microphone), and it doesn’t support Wi-Fi, so you’ll have to connect with either Bluetooth or a 3.5mm cable. The speaker’s colorful finishes are attractive, though in our review we noticed that its surface scratches easily and may show wear over time.
Read our Bose Soundlink Max review.
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- Prices for memory and storage are still generally ridiculous compared to what they sold for last year, but you can save a bit of cash on the 2TB WD Black SN850X NVMe drive. Staples has the internal M.2 2280-sized SSD on sale for $329.99, about $20 cheaper than other retailers like Amazon. The heatsinkless SSD is a great fit in PCs that support the storage type, as well as PlayStation 5 consoles. Though, we recommend a cheap heatsink if you’re installing it in a console.
- You can buy a two-pack of Anker Zolo magnetic wireless chargers at Amazon for $23.99 (usually $39.99). Each of the Qi2 chargers supports up to 15W wireless charging, and can snap onto MagSafe-ready iPhones with ease (iPhone 12 and newer, with some exceptions). The chargers have a five-foot USB-C cable for easy charging at home or in the car, but don’t include a power adapter.
- Amazon has the Lego Technic 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) on sale for $111.99, a $28 discount from the usual price. This 1,410-piece build features working front and rear suspension, moving pistons in a six-cylinder engine, special risers that lift the back end so the car can drift when you push it around, and a ton of little details for fans of the series to discover.
What is a quantum computer good for? Absolutely nothing — yet
To this day, we have yet to see a quantum computer conclusively perform a single useful task. Existing machines are simply too small and error-ridden to solve commercially relevant problems. That hasn't stopped Donald Trump's science adviser from promising a "quantum computer powerful enough for scientific discovery by 2028" and Trump from issuing a new executive order to speed up the US quantum computing industry in its competition with China, both on June 22nd.
Companies drive the hype, too. In June, Microsoft announced a new quantum computing chip named Majorana 2. It claimed the chip was a hardware advancement that accelerates its timel …
Libby will filter out AI content, kind of
This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.
"AI is the new frontier for us," says Marc DeBevoise, who took over as the new CEO of OverDrive last week. OverDrive is best known for the ebook lending app Libby that is available through tens of thousands of public libraries. Like the rest of the digital publishing industry, it's poised to face massive disruption from a huge wave of AI-generated books.
To prepare for the AI onslaught, Libby is now getting ready to introduce AI content controls, allowing readers to select in t …
The Supreme Court stops Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, ruling 6-3 against President Donald Trump's effort to end the longstanding constitutional right via executive order.
Birthright citizenship dates back to Reconstruction. Under the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to guarantee citizenship and equal protection to the children of formerly enslaved people, anyone born in the United States "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" is a citizen.
Trump issued the executive order, titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," just hours after being sworn back into office in early 2025 - and the administration was almo …
iPhone 18 Pro ‘drop test’ leaks get yanked from X
Videos purporting to show the iPhone 18 Pro undergoing a drop test were removed from X shortly after they surfaced, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. An account imitating leaker EvLeaks was suspended from X after sharing the clips, while the post was removed as well, with X saying it "violated" the platform's rules.
Another leaker, IceUniverse, also shared the clips. In a post on Weibo, IceUniverse showed a screenshot from X indicating the post had been taken down, alongside the machine-translated caption: "Apple has already started blocking the leaked data on Twitter."
This still hasn't stopped the clips from spreading, though, as other ac …