Gadgets

PC owners who like spooky games owe it to themselves to play Alan Wake 2, no matter the price. Thankfully, the price is awfully low right now. Originally $50, the Epic Game Store-exclusive title is $11.74 at Fanatical for a digital code. It’s part of developer Remedy’s connected universe of games, which Control Resonant is the next addition to.

I’ve never enjoyed the regular maintenance of a fish tank, so I prefer the approach that Peter and Filip from the YouTube channel, CPSdrone, took. They spent three months engineering custom 3D-printed mini submarines that zoom around an aquarium like fish and autonomously dock themselves to wireless underwater chargers.

There are already smartphones that can wirelessly charge at 50W using proprietary fan-assisted chargers, but the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) recently met at Xiaomi’s headquarters in Beijing to discuss the tech requirements behind a future version of the Qi standard that can accommodate the higher rate, according to IT Home.

The BlackBerry-esque Communicator has a nifty homescreen based on the minimalist Niagara Android launcher, a fingerprint sensor built into the space bar, and a removable back panel that certainly hints its battery might be easy to replace. It’s still on track to ship in Q4 for $499.

Ever since Google added magnetic Qi2 charging to the Pixel 10 line, we’ve been waiting for another Android manufacturer to follow suit. Motorola may be first, with the Edge 70 Max spotted on the Wireless Power Consortium certification database with MPP25 support — which should mean 25W charging with built-in magnets.

Yesterday we reported that images showing an iPhone 18 Pro drop test had leaked online following a data breach at one of Apple’s manufacturing partners — and now some video footage has appeared too. These clips, originally shared by an X account imitating the well known leaker EvLeaks, could be an early look at the upcoming iPhone flagship.

The gadget is called the Codex Micro, and it’s being shown at the AI Engineer World Fair, where it’s being described as a keyboard that’s “designed to supercharge people’s Codex usage,” according to OpenAI spokesperson Dominik Kundel.

You can grab both Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Nintendo Switch for $49.99 (usually $69) from Woot as part of the retailer’s Summer of Gaming Sale. Both games come loaded on a cartridge, and Switch 2 owners can download a free performance-boosting update. Reads our hands-on.

While existing Matter-friendly smart ceiling lights from Lifx and Aqara are $95 to $150, SwitchBot launched a 2,000-lumen 12-inch option for $49.99, and a slightly brighter and larger 3,200-lumen 15-inch model for $79.99. Both include full color plus warm or cool white lighting, dimming, 26 preset scenes, and eight lighting effects.

It may never come to the US, but LG announced its new HomeBot AI Objet Collection Roni robot vacuum in South Korea today. Its charging/cleaning dock can be hidden in kitchen cabinetry (requiring some reno) but there’s also a standalone dock that looks like a nondescript side table.

If you’re trying to cut down the amount of time you spend on YouTube, there’s at least one more video you should watch. Modder Throaty Mumbo has built a custom cartridge that can search and stream YouTube on a Game Boy Color. The quality and experience look awful, but it works.

The upgraded StanbyMe 2 Max TV that was unveiled in April is now available to buy in the US for $1,299.99. The 32-inch display provides up to 4.5 hours of battery life, and can be rotated into landscape or portrait orientations when attached to its rolling stand, or the built-in folding stand at the rear.

With its Vision Pro headset suddenly even more expensive, and plans for smart glasses apparently in the works, Bloomberg reports Apple is losing Paul Meade, the hardware VP who was in charge of those projects. The report says he’ll reunite with former Apple designers, including Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey, at OpenAI, which purchased their startup last year, as the executive shakeup under new Apple CEO John Ternus continues.

At Aftermath, Chris Person (who else?) explains how to hack together a bootleg Steam Machine using a cheap castoff cryptomining GPU. It’s a high-effort, low-cost build made possible by 3D printing, open platforms, and a host of enthusiasts working together. And the power of Linux, of course.

It features the same 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 display as the original, but Ayaneo’s new Android 13-based Pocket Micro 2 includes a faster Snapdragon 865 CPU paired with an Adreno 650 GPU, recessed TMR thumbsticks with glowing LED bases, and improved tiered shoulder buttons. It’s now available for preorder starting at $239.