Gadgets

If you missed last week’s record-low Kindle Paperwhite deal, you can still buy the Kindle Paperwhite Kids for $154.99 ($25 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, matching its second-best price this year. Since it includes the same waterproof Kindle along with a two-year warranty, a year of Amazon Kids Plus, a case, optional parental controls, and no ads, it’s a great value for adults and kids alike.

Android Authority points to a report from Smartprix that says Nothing’s “repositioning itself as an AI-first company,” with a slate of upcoming devices that includes AI-enabled earbuds and a smart speaker from its CMF brand. Nothing’s also reportedly planning to launch a new smartwatch and second-generation Nothing headphones.

I’m not too proud to admit that I already went ahead and purchased the Lego Game Boy for $47.99 at Macy’s. This 421-piece set features buttons you can press, two game cartridges, and lenticular screens that almost mirror the real handheld. If you don’t want to pay for shipping, you may be able to get it shipped to a nearby store for free. Read our review.

This prototype is a fully functional Game Boy Pocket, with a removable Game Boy Camera module and interchangeable CS-mount lenses! It’s from 8-bit photog Crissa Graves, who previously made a Game Boy Camera that fully fits inside a cartridge. “You can still play Tetris and Pokemon one-handed,” she tells me — but no speaker.

Microsoft said Thursday that it’s been rolling the app out “over the past month” to supported TVs running Hisense’s VIDAA OS. The company announced earlier this year that the app was on the way.

The HoverAir Versa is the next entry from the flying selfie cam company. No date or price yet, but it should hit Indiegogo in August. I’d wait for retail: We liked X1, but X1 Pro had lots of early issues, and the company can’t legally ship its Aqua (or likely this Versa) to the US at all.

The event, taking place on September 16th at 7PM ET, will be livestreamed.

The wide foldable is here, and it’s glorious. The Verge’s Dominic Preston has been reviewing Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, and joins the show to explain what this shorter, wider device gets right, what it’s still missing, and why this looks like the right kind of foldable for most people. (Once the price comes down, anyway.) With a similar foldable iPhone likely coming soon, it’s shaping up to be a fun year of foldables.

The fifth Today I’m Toying With giveaway, that is. Technically, I set them live each Wednesday at 9AM ET. I recently heard back from the second winner, who says he loves the mystery gadgets he received — if you want to join him, you can enter every week!

If you’re starting to stock up for the school year, the Niimbot D110 Label Printer is down to $15.99 ($14 off) at Amazon and can help keep everything neatly labeled. The rechargeable printer pairs with your phone via Bluetooth, allowing you to quickly create custom labels for office supplies, pantry items, gadgets, and more using the included templates.

If so, that would be new — the FCC proposed a $25,000 fine against Xtra for failing to respond to its letters, and has since revealed plans to ban Xtra from importing and selling more of its existing cameras in the US. Xtra might be canceling its new DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Pro variant, too.

The team at Light has been working on minimalist phones for more than a decade. Its last device had a lot in common with a smartphone, but the newest model, the Light Flip, is something very different. Light CEO Kaiwei Tang explains why Light made a flip phone, how the world’s opinion of smartphones is changing, and whether you can cure your tech problems with more tech.

There’s a deal at Amazon that I wanted to share with you courtesy of Slickdeals. Granicell is selling a USB-C-powered battery charger (for AA and AAA-sized batteries) and including 16 batteries (eight of each size) for $14.99 when you enter the code VKAGYSFH at checkout.

World Cup cameo aside, we haven’t heard much since MWC, but Honor is gearing up to release the gimbal-equipped phone in China soon. It’s teasing the camera’s capabilities, including a 200-megapixel, f/1.6, 1/1.2.8-inch-type gimbal camera, and a separate 200-megapixel, f/2.6, 1/1.4-inch-type periscope. The gimbal itself will support automatic subject tracking and six different shooting modes.

Tech reviews are tricky beasts at the best of times. But things get a lot trickier when products like the Framework Laptop 13 Pro jump by $800 before they ever launch. When everything is expensive — and continually rising higher — what counts as good value?

Some of the biggest players in AI — in particular OpenAI, SpaceX, and Amazon — are heavily invested in creating a world after smartphones. They’re also all rumored to be building devices that sound a lot like smartphones. Verge contributor David Imel helps us figure out what these companies might actually be building, what an AI smartphone looks like, and whether anyone can unseat Apple and Google.

The company launched its Meta Glasses with a “more helpful” assistant powered by its new Muse Spark models, but now the upgrade is coming to its Ray-Ban Display glasses as well.

Twelve South’s PlugBug does more than power your devices. Thanks to built-in support for Apple’s Find My network, you can also track it and the gadget it’s charging while traveling. Right now, both the 50W model with two USB-C ports and the 70W four-port models are $30 off at Amazon, bringing them down to $39.99 and $79.99, respectively.

Not every gadget is waterproof, so Urban Armor Gear partnered with Dryout for a new collection of bags, pouches, and backpacks featuring pockets with absorbent liners that pull moisture away from drowned devices. They can be dried and reused similar to Bone-Dri’s products and are potentially a better alternative to a bag of rice.

The Air Zoom Hyperslide, launching on September 29th for $249, uses a pod from Hyperice to offer three levels of heat and vibration across the top of the foot, running in 15-minute cycles controlled directly on the pod or from its mobile app.