Mr. Lif’s Emergency Rations EP is post-9/11 hip hop at its most daring
There was a period in the early aughts when Definitive Jux (nee: Def Jux) seemed like it was going to be the future of hip hop. While the label featured plenty of experimental, boundary-pushing, and politically minded acts, Lif stood out as the most "conscious rapper" in the traditional sense. It was clear though, that label head El-P envisioned that as an important part of Def Jux's identity, as the first record it put out was 2000's Enter the Colossus EP, from Lif.
Mr. Lif's follow-up was 2002's Emergency Rations EP, a sort of place setter for the full-length I, Phantom just a couple of months later. It opens with a skit about Lif missing …
Where to preorder Grand Theft Auto VI
Rockstar's long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is launching November 19th, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X consoles. The game will be available digitally at launch, with physical cases containing codes, not discs, so your options for preordering are straightforward. The preloading phase for the game begins on November 12th, which should give you plenty of time to install the game.
There are two versions of the game to choose from, the $79.99 Standard and $99.99 Ultimate editions. Both include the same preorder perks. You'll get the Vintage Vice City Pack when the game launches. It's a set of in-game items that includes vehicles, we …
Infuriating Google commercial imagines the founding fathers embracing AI
"Group project, but make it 1776." That's how a new commercial for Google Workspace opens. And things only get cringier from there. The clip imagines what it would be like if the founding fathers turned to Google's collaboration tools and Gemini to help them draft the Declaration of Independence.
Ben Franklin texts Thomas Jefferson to check on the status of a draft, who takes a photo and uses AI to transcribe it into a Google Doc. Franklin and Adams hop in to make edits in suggestion mode, Gemini finds them a meeting time, takes notes during a Google Meet call, and then Nano Banana whips up a seal for the United States featuring a turkey ( …
The Sourdough Sidekick automates the boring bit of baking
Baking sourdough bread is inherently old-fashioned, relying on natural fermentation and wild yeast instead of the simple, predictable commercial stuff. So it might sound anathema to bring a gadget into the mix.
The trick to the Sourdough Sidekick - backed and branded by King Arthur flour - is that it promises to automate the boring bit of sourdough baking: starter management. It feeds your starter flour and water on a set schedule, ready for exactly when you want to bake, leaving you to focus on kneading, shaping, and the actual baking.
Like any single-purpose kitchen gadget, you'll have to be confident you'll get enough use to justify b …
How Keurig saved — and ruined — your coffee
Before Keurig, the coffee in your office was almost certainly terrible. Old, burned, made by someone who would rather poorly eyeball than properly measure. Just altogether gross. After Keurig? You could make your own coffee, a cup at a time, exactly when you needed it. The single-cup brewer was an elegant solution to an extremely common problem. At least, that's how it started.
On this episode of Version History, we dig into the history of the Keurig, and the ways in which the idea got vastly bigger than anyone expected. K-Cups and Keurig machines became ubiquitous in offices all across the US, then quickly began to invade our homes as well …
Vizio accidentally made the best dumb TV on the market
When I first started testing Vizio's 65-inch Mini LED Quantum TV, I thought the big story was that Vizio was back and that it had a quantum-dot TV for under $398 - the cheapest on the market. Vizio's been pretty quiet since it was acquired by Walmart in 2024, so putting out a TV with quantum dots, which allow for higher brightness levels and more accurate color, at a budget price seemed like a strong comeback.
But that's not the big story. While those two points are intriguing, the big news about the Mini LED Quantum TV is that Vizio accidentally made the best dumb TV on the market.
Xbox is a disaster
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the bleak state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Microsoft closed out Summer Game Fest with a bang. The company's annual June showcase was packed with crowd-pleasers: Halo, Gears of War, Fable, a translucent Xbox, and even some pleasant surprises like new Persona and Crazy Taxi games. It was the kind of event that harkened back to the boisterous days of E3, when the industry was in a healthier place an …
NASA launched an emergency mission to stop the Swift Observatory from crashing to Earth
The Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, but recent solar storms have pushed its orbit lower, and it's in danger of burning up in Earth's atmosphere as soon as this year. To try and stave off its demise, NASA has enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies. The company's Link spacecraft launched Friday with the goal of intercepting Swift, which has no propulsion system, and boosting its orbit back to its original position. Right now, Swift is circling at an altitude of 224 miles, and Link is aiming to raise that by about 150 miles.
Using a three-armed spacecraft to lift a satellite 150 miles higher into orbit is challenging enough, but the spee …
White House deletes thousands of web pages about energy conservation as heatwave slams US
The US Department of Energy reportedly deleted about 6,000 pages related to energy conservation as a historic heatwave tears across the country.
The deletion was suspiciously timed, following Republican outrage over Mayor Zohran Mamdani asking New Yorkers to help reduce strain on the grid by setting their AC to 78 degrees. Republicans like Ted Cruz (who has famously fled severe weather in his home state), Nikki Haley, and Representative Nancy Mace (South Carolina) quickly pounced, framing the request as socialism and an act of war on women in menopause (the Republican Party is notoriously concerned about women's health).
Of course, this i …
Matic’s robot vacuum is getting a $250 price hike in September
The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum by a pretty comfortable margin. If you’ve been thinking about buying one, you may want to plan on doing it sooner than later. The company will raise its price by $250 on September 9th, going from $1,245 to $1,495. Matic told The Verge that the new price reflects its rising costs for memory and other components for the vacuum, which it says are now tenfold.
Those who buy one directly from the company will get a year’s worth of replacement bags worth $96 at no extra cost. Each refill contains 12 bags, and they ship for free. Additionally, Matic has increased their return policy from 60 days to six months.
Matic
A different kind of robot vacuum and mop, Matic reinvents the floor cleaning machine.
Where to Buy:
Our reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy praised the Matic’s “human-like navigation,” noting in her review that it got stuck only twice during six months of use. In her cluttered (Jen’s words, not mine), three-story home with pets, thick rugs, and high transitions, it handled difficult layouts with ease while delivering powerful suction and a great self-cleaning roller mop. It’ll continue vacuuming even if its water tank runs dry, and it’s quiet enough to let it run without becoming a distraction if you work from home.
It also requires very little maintenance. Rather than relying on a big multifunction dock, it carries its own water tank and stores dirty water in a disposable bag, so you’ll only need to empty and clean its dirty water reservoir. It even drives itself to the sink when it needs more water. Unlike many competing robot vacuums, it can also operate entirely offline, with maps and other data stored locally instead of in the cloud.