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Andrew Webster
Another handheld to buy this week.

If you haven’t scooped one up already, Panic says that its cute little Playdate is back in stock at the moment. The timing is good: a second season of games for the device is currently underway.

The best laptops you can buyThe best laptops you can buy
Buying Guide
Buying Guide
Antonio G. Di Benedetto and Joanna NeliusComment Icon Bubble
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Andrew Webster
The fest begins soon.

Summer Game Fest Live, the centerpiece of the new incarnation of E3, kicks off at 5PM ET, and you can watch along right here.

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Sean Hollister
Your Switch pad may need updates to work with Switch 2.

Our 8BitDo pads definitely needed them (they’re live!), and GuliKit has now announced its KK3 Max needs this one to unlock Amiibo support. (Yes, it’s the rare quality 3rd-party pad with working NFC for Nintendo’s figurines, and it’s in our best controller guide.)

Depending on your pad, some simply won’t pair with the Switch 2 at all, while others are missing some features. In general, Nintendo says original Switch controllers won’t be able to wake the Switch 2 from sleep.

Photo of Gulikit KingKong 3 Pro and KingKong 3 Max
Photo: Quentyn Kennemer / The Verge
The best smart locks you can buy right now

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Verge Score

Never get locked out again with a smart lock you can control from your phone, with your face, or with a touch of your finger.

Jennifer Pattison TuohyComment Icon Bubble
The best iPhonesThe best iPhones
Tech
Tech
Allison JohnsonComment Icon Bubble
Mission to Zyxx’s creators are laughing their way through the sci-fi spinoff boom

With their new spinoff podcast, the Mission to Zyxx team is building a bigger universe of improvised space adventures.

Charles Pulliam-MooreComment Icon Bubble
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Jay Peters
Microsoft Edge’s picture-in-picture mode is getting better controls.

“You can now easily pause, play, skip forward or backward, and seek via the progress bar right from the picture-in-picture window,” according to a blog post. I don’t use Edge, but these seem like good upgrades.

A screenshot of the picture-in-picture changes in Microsoft Edge.
Image: Microsoft
V
Victoria Song
Comment meatball!

Our sister site Eater just did a great deep dive into why you might be seeing people comment “meatball” and other foodstuffs on cooking creators’ social media. The short of it is AI recipe and link-sharing automations that help users avoid that pesky link in bio. That said, creators have mixed feelings over chatbots taking over their comment section.

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Jay Peters
More Amazon layoffs.

The company is laying off fewer than 100 staffers in its books division, Reuters reports. The company cut about 100 jobs on its devices and services team last month.

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Tina Nguyen
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is a NO on the GENIUS Act.

”It’s a huge giveaway to Big Tech,” the Missouri Republican and longtime foe of the tech giants, tells The New York Times. His concerns: tech companies would be able to issue their own stablecoins that would compete with the U.S. dollar, and it would incentivize these companies to collect more of their customers’ financial data. “It allows these tech companies to issue stablecoins without any kind of controls. I don’t see why we would do that.”

The Access-Ability Summer Showcase returns with the latest in accessible games

Summer Game Fest kicked off with an attempt to bring more information around accessibility.

Geoffrey BuntingComment Icon Bubble
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David Pierce
Watch this developer’s take on things ahead of WWDC.

Shawn Hickman, who makes an app I really like called Sofa, has eight developer-specific requests for Apple at WWDC. Some are technical, some are business-focused, some are pure vibes. Hickman is just one dev, obviously, but he covers bunch of frustrations I’ve been hearing for years. It’s a good frame ahead of next week.

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Andrew Liszewski
iFixit’s Switch 2 Joy-Con teardown tells a familiar joystick story.

Once again confirming what many original Switch owners feared, iFixit’s teardown of the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons reveals a familiar joystick design that uses a resistive material that could lead to joystick drift again if it wears down over time.

The new Joy-Cons also don’t look any easier to disassemble and repair. You’ll need a tri-point screwdriver to remove screws, and iFixit had to use a pick and isopropyl alcohol to dislodge the batteries.

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Mia Sato
Bad day for crafters and physical media lovers.

The company that owns the biggest sewing pattern brands — Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue — has been sold to a liquidator, per the Craft Industry Alliance. That’s troubling news for those of us that sew and prefer physical patterns, but there’s also a concerning knock-on effect: the company owns the last large-scale tissue printers in the country.

A few years ago I wrote about the painstaking efforts to preserve sewing patterns and fashion history. I suspect that work is now even more urgent.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is a big phone with small phone energy

8

Verge Score

The best ways to digitize your documentsThe best ways to digitize your documents
How to
The Verge’s guide to an easier move
John B. KennedyComment Icon Bubble
How to wall-mount your TV (and why you probably should)How to wall-mount your TV (and why you probably should)
How to
The Verge’s guide to an easier move
Antonio G. Di BenedettoComment Icon Bubble
T
Thomas Ricker
Aventon takes control of Gocycle e-bikes.

JW Zhang, founder of US-based Aventon, now has control over UK-based Gocycle — the financially troubled maker of premium, fast-folding electric bikes. “Aventon is going to help Gocycle unleash its true potential and bring more exciting products to people in the future,” said an unidentified Aventon spokesperson speaking to Cycling Electric.

What comes next is unclear, but it should accelerate global expansion for both brands once the deal is settled, and finally make Gocycle’s CX lineup of electric folding cargo bikes a reality.

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Jess Weatherbed
Switch up your webcam.

You can use your iPhone (and likely Android phone) as a webcam for the Switch 2 if you connect them via a USB-C to HDMI cable and HDMI converter cable — total cost about $30.

No need to buy a dedicated webcam just for the new console, which are typically worse than the cameras on modern phones anyway.

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Dominic Preston
Samsung leaks its own foldable names.

And no, they’re not exactly surprising. But even so, a Galaxy Store listing for “Samsung Internet Browser for Fold7 and Flip7,” spotted by GalaxyClub, does give the game away a little, especially since we’re not expecting the new phones to launch for at least a month.

Of course, that doesn’t preclude extra versions, like the Fold Ultra Samsung teased just this week, or its rumored cheaper Flip FE.

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Jay Peters
Black Myth Wukong is coming to Xbox on August 20th.

That’s exactly a year after its initial release in 2024 on PS5 and PC. I haven’t played the game myself, but my colleague Ash Parrish did last year.

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Jay Peters
AI Mode can now make interactive data visualizations.

Google’s new feature in Labs will create the visualizations to “help bring financial data to life for questions on stocks and mutual funds,” according to a blog post. You can ask Google a follow-up question, too, and “AI Mode understands what to research for you.”

Here’s a video of the feature, from Google’s post: