The OnePlus Pad 2’s Vibrating Stylus Feels Almost Like Writing on Paper The OnePlus Pad 2’s optional Stylo 2 stylus vibrates to simulate the feeling of pen on paper. With a larger 12.1-inch screen now powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform, the new OnePlus Pad 2 brings several performance upgrades to the company’s original tablet. But the most interesting is an optional new stylus accessory that simulates the pen on paper experience using vibrations. The new Stylo 2 stylus is now made with a leather-like material, offering improved grip, a jump from 4,096 to 16,000 levels of pressure sensitivity, swipe controls, and a linear motor inside that makes the tip vibrate to give you that feeling of a pen writing on paper. There are other improvements as…

The Best Prime Day Phone and Accessory Deals You Can Get Right Now Take a couple hundred bucks off the price of a Pixel 8. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge It’s the most Prime-iest day of the year, which is to say, Prime Day is back. Also back: some of the best prices of the year on phones and accessories. It’s an especially good time to stock up on things like chargers, cables, and stands, but if you’ve been waiting for a good price on a Pixel phone or one of Motorola’s new foldables, well, your patience is about to be rewarded. The Best Prime Day Samsung Galaxy Deals Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra - $XXX (Original price $YYY) Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 - $XXX (Original price…

Bird Buddy’s New AI Update Lets You Name Your Backyard’s Frequent Flyers Bird Buddy’s New AI Update Lets You Name Your Backyard’s Frequent Flyers The Bird Buddy smart bird feeder is getting a collection of new features as part of a recently announced Nature Intelligence update. The feeder’s ability to identify the species of a visiting bird is being expanded, and users will now get notifications when individual birds stop by. The company describes the Bird Buddy’s new Name That Bird feature as being a non-invasive form of bird tagging — a practice that usually keeps tabs on the movements of birds using trackers or tags physically attached to their legs. The Bird Buddy instead relies on images captured by the smart feeder’s camera and AI image recognition that can…

The Best Prime Day Deals for Some of The Verge Staff’s Favorite Gadgets The Best Prime Day Deals for Some of The Verge Staff’s Favorite Gadgets Amazon’s fall Prime Day event is underway! For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup. Every month or so, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff — whether it’s board games, smart tech, or kitchen gadgets. And the results are usually very different, very interesting, and a lot of fun. Since Amazon is currently pushing a lot of deals through its current Prime Day sales, we looked through some of our recent “favorites” articles and found deals on a lot of the devices we like. So we thought we’d list a few in case you have…

The Best Smart Home Prime Day Deals You Can Get Right Now The Best Smart Home Prime Day Deals You Can Get Right Now Photo by Alex Cranz / The Verge Amazon’s Prime Day 2024 runs Tuesday, July 16th, through Wednesday, July 17th, and is an excellent way to stock up on smart home gear. I spent hours sifting through the best deals to bring you my picks for the best bargains. Grab some serious bargains on robot vacuums, smart kitchen gadgets, and lots of smart plugs. Plus, smart lighting favorites Philips Hue and Lutron Caseta have some select savings on their popular products. Read on for all the latest deals, and be sure to check back, as I’ll keep this updated throughout the sale. Best deals on Amazon Echo…

The best Apple Watch deals for Amazon Prime Day The best Apple Watch deals for Amazon Prime Day The Apple Watch often sees its fair share of limited-time discounts throughout the year, but Amazon’s Prime Day offers a chance for someone to shop deals across most available models all at once. For this Prime Day, we’re seeing some worthwhile sales across the range of the 2022 Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 9, and even the pricey Apple Watch Ultra 2. Most of these require an Amazon Prime subscription, but Amazon’s excellent $100 discount on the Ultra 2 does not. While most Apple Watches are pretty similar at their core (iOS notifications on your wrist, fitness tracking, health metrics, etc.), it’s the extra features added or omitted from some models…

Picking the Perfect Portable Console Picking the Perfect Portable Console Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge We’re in the middle — or maybe just at the beginning — of a revolution in portable gaming. From the Switch to the Steam Deck to the Playdate to the Pocket, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to consoles that fit in your backpack. But what if you really only play one game, and that game doesn’t work on most of those consoles? You’re in for a lot of Wi-Fi testing, a lot of questions about remote play and cloud streaming, and some complicated buying decisions. On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Sean Hollister and Alex Cranz join to help us solve a very specific gaming problem. We start by talking…

Microsoft Faces UK Antitrust Investigation Over Hiring of Inflection AI Staff Microsoft Faces UK Antitrust Investigation Over Hiring of Inflection AI Staff UK regulators are now formally investigating Microsoft’s hiring of Inflection AI staff, months after most of Inflection’s staff joined Microsoft’s new AI division. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is now opening up a phase one merger investigation into the partnership, with a September 11th deadline over whether the investigation will progress into a second phase. If the case progresses to the phase two stage then it could present a stumbling block for Microsoft’s AI ambitions. The CMA last signaled a more in-depth review of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2022, eventually forcing the company to restructure its deal and give up key cloud…

Lucid Claims Its Air Pure Electric Sedan Is the Most Efficient EV Ever Made Image: Lucid Lucid claims it’s achieved a “landmark” 5 miles-per-kilowatt-hour efficiency with its 2025 Air Pure electric sedan, making it one of the most energy-efficient vehicles ever produced. When it starts deliveries, Lucid said it will have a record 146 MPGe and an EPA-estimated range of 420 miles. The Air Pure is Lucid’s most affordable model starting at $69,900. For the new model year, the battery was slightly reduced in size from 88kWh to 84kWh. It also includes the new energy-saving and cold weather-fighting heat pump technology that was first included with the company’s $249,000 “Sapphire” model and later added to the Touring and Grand Touring models. Lucid is taking a risk that luxury EV shoppers…

The Best Smartwatch and Fitness Tracker Deals for Amazon Prime Day 2024 The Apple Watch, and a bunch of Android smartwatches, are discounted for Prime Day. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon Prime Day 2024 is here, and with it, a whole bunch of deals on Apple Watches, Android smartwatches, or even just a regular ole fitness tracker. Fall product launches are right around the corner, but if you’re on a budget, now’s a great chance to snag discounts on higher-quality materials and last year’s premium devices. Wading through thousands of deals can be a pain, especially when you factor in the dozens of smartwatch models, sizes, colors, and materials. Never fear — we’ve already done that for you and compiled the best deals out there.…