This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they’re going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. This time last year, I’d cut […]
The Tetris: My Play Watch may look like an Apple Watch, but it eschews most of the functionality you’ll typically find on a smartwatch to focus on two things: playing Tetris and celebrating the game through a UI that’s thoroughly Tetris-themed. It’s very good at making you want to play Alexey Pajitnov’s iconic tetromino-stacking puzzler, […]
I asked a simple question at Google’s Project Aura demo last week. What do you call these things? To my surprise, multiple people launched into a vigorous discussion on the taxonomy of glasses-shaped face computers. It turns out “smart glasses” is out as a term. The term “AI glasses” is in. Kind of. Actually, it […]
Google has started to roll out the first update for the Pixel Watch 4 since the wearable launched last August. WearOS 6.1 is available for the Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4 models, but only the Pixel Watch 4 will be getting a pair of new one-handed gestures, while improvements made to smart replies are […]
Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble and the person leading its recent comeback, is very much in the business of making gadgets for himself. And he seems extremely into the one on his finger: It’s called the Pebble Index 01 (but we’ll just call it Index), and it’s a $75 ring meant to be worn […]
We thought Black Friday and Cyber Monday would bring the lowest prices of the year, but apparently not. Right now, you can snag Apple’s Watch Series 11 in the 42mm configuration with GPS for a new all-time low of $299 ($100 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. That beats the $70 discount we saw […]
Teased at Google I/O, Project Aura is a collaboration between Xreal and Google. It’s the second Android XR device (the first being Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset) and is expected to launch in 2026. Putting it on, I get why the term “smart glasses” doesn’t exactly fit. Is it a headset? Smart glasses? Both? Those were […]
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they’re going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. The other day I was staring […]
Smartwatches have become health gadgets. Over the last five years or so, Apple, Garmin, Google, Samsung, and practically every other company wanting to strap their wares to your wrist have emphasized exercise integrations, sleep tracking, hypertension monitoring, and more. The most expensive among these devices are also satellite communicators, because now that you have a […]
The last thing I need is a new Amazon Echo smart speaker. As The Verge’s smart home reviewer, I currently have a dozen scattered around my home for testing. But when Amazon’s Echo Frames smart glasses went on sale for $115 for Cyber Monday, down from $300, it was an offer my husband couldn’t refuse. […]