Many years ago, I built my first PC inside a repurposed Gateway chassis with just a regular old screwdriver and a grounding bracelet. I’ll spare you the ugly details, but let’s just say I wish I had tools specially made for the job. If you want to avoid pain in your own projects, you should consider picking up Hoto’s 48-in-1 Electric Precision Screwdriver set. It has everything you need to pry open gadgets for fine adjustments, yet costs just $69.99 ($40 off) on sale at Amazon and Walmart. That price matches the record low from Black Friday.

The cordless electric screwdriver is a bit skinnier but longer than some of the other Hoto variants we’ve recommended, which is what you want in tighter quarters. It offers two torque speeds, allowing you to dial it up for stubborn screws or down for softly reassembling fragile items.

Among the included magnetic screwdriver bits are half a dozen options with 45mm shafts for extra reach. You’ll get 20 more 28mm bits to cover a range of common screw heads. The package also contains a variety of spudgers, picks, priers, and tweezers, along with a suction cup, a magnetic pad that doubles as a ruler, and things to help you stay grounded to protect yourself and your electronics. Everything is neatly secured in the included storage case, which also has a dedicated magnetizer and demagnetizer, plus an external USB-C port to charge the screwdriver while it’s docked.

Other deals you might like

• Samsung just announced a blistering fast PCIe Gen 5 SSD, but if you’re buying an SSD purely for gaming, you can get by just fine and save money with the last-gen Samsung 990 EVO Plus. The 1TB model is down to $74.99 ($35 off) at Amazon, or you can step up to 2TB for $129.99 ($55 off) — both are new record lows. The M.2 NVMe drives are primarily limited to PCIe Gen 4 speeds, with read/write values of 7.2GBps and 6.3GBps, respectively. That’s still very fast for heavy file transfers and more than enough for SSD-optimized PC games to play their best. You can also install one inside a PlayStation 5 for expanded storage.
• Prime members can get Ugreen’s MagFlow 2-in-1 charging stand for $23.99 ($36 off) at Amazon, which is an all-time low price. It has a magnetic holder for your MagSafe iPhone, but note: it doesn’t have Qi2’s 15W charging speed. That might be fine if you’re just using it as a bedside stand for overnight charging, however. The stand features a ball join that lets you adjust the viewing angle. There’s also a Qi pad in the base to charge your wireless earbuds. Be aware that the package doesn’t include the required 20W wall adapter.
• The JBL Authentics 200 is available at a new all-time low of $199.95 ($150 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The smart speaker sounds really good for its small stature, but surprisingly, it doesn’t have a battery to make it truly portable like the bigger and more powerful Authentics 300 does, which is also on sale for a record low $299.95 ($150 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. Both take on a retro-inspired appearance, but include modern smarts with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in, plus diverse connectivity options including Wi-Fi (supporting AirPlay, Chromecast, and the like), Bluetooth, and aux. Read our hands-on impressions.

DJI has announced the third iteration of its drone-in-a-box solution designed for autonomous missions like safely inspecting power lines and emergency response. As with previous versions, the DJI Dock 3 is small enough to be transported in the back of a pickup truck, but it’s the first that allows DJI’s new Matrice 4D and Matrice 4TD drones to be launched from a moving vehicle using an optional gimbal mount accessory.

Although the company hasn’t revealed how much that special mount for mobile launches will cost, the new DJI Dock 3 will be available in two bundles priced for enterprise customers with sizable budgets. It can be purchased with the DJI Matrice 4D drone for $21,059, or with the Matrice 4TD for $23,409. Those prices don’t include installation, deployment services, or optional hardware upgrades and software features.

The new dock carries forward several features from previous versions like a built-in weather station, antennas, surveillance cameras, and an internal backup battery. It still needs access to power and the internet, but can be upgraded with a cellular 4G dongle for remote deployment.

The DJI Dock 3 has an improved IP56 rating for dust and water-resistance and its operational temperature range has been expanded to as hot as 50 degrees Celsius, or as cold as -30 degrees Celsius — although DJI says preheating will be needed when temperatures are that cold.

It can communicate with drones on missions as far as 10 kilometers away, but that range can be extended to up to 25 kilometers for fixed deployments (such as on a highrise building) through the use of relays mounted at elevated locations. But that’s assuming your local jurisdiction allows drones to be operated autonomously or at those distances. In the US, the FAA requires drone operators to obtain a Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver for remote operation at extended distances.

The Dock 3 is designed to work with new IP55-rated water and dust-resistant versions of the DJI Matrice 4 Series of drones that launched earlier this year. The Matrice 4D and 4TD both feature ant-ice propeller blades, 47 minute flight times, and a combination of wide-angle, medium tele, and telephoto cameras. The Matrice 4TD has expanded night time capabilities with the addition of an infrared thermal camera and a near-infrared auxiliary light for added illumination.

Amazon is making its foray into quantum computing with the launch of a new chip designed to make quantum error correction more efficient. In an announcement on Thursday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said the chip, called Ocelot, can “reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches.”

Quantum computing errors are one of the biggest challenges in the industry. Unlike traditional computers, quantum computing replaces binary 1s and 0s with qubits, a unit that can exist in multiple states at the same time. As noted by Amazon, qubits are “sensitive to the smallest changes, or ‘noise’ in their environment,” such as vibrations, heat, and electromagnetic interference, making it “extremely challenging to build quantum computers that can perform reliable, error-free calculations of any significant complexity.”

Instead of adding more qubits to correct these errors, Amazon built error correction into its Ocelot chip with what it calls “cat qubits” (named after the Schrödinger’s cat experiment). These qubits are supposed to reduce the amount of energy and resources used for quantum error correction as they “intrinsically suppress” certain kinds of errors.

“We didn’t take an existing architecture and then try to incorporate error correction afterwards,” Oskar Painter, Amazon Web Services’ director of quantum hardware, said in the press release. “We selected our qubit and architecture with quantum error correction as the top requirement.”

The approach differs from what Google and Microsoft are doing to reduce errors in quantum computing. In December, Google announced its Willow quantum computing chip, which can perform a computing challenge in less than five minutes. The company’s researchers also found that introducing more qubits into the system can help reduce errors. Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced its Majorana 1 quantum computing processor, which it claims can “scale to a million qubits on a single chip” while reducing errors.

Amazon says its Ocelot chip is still a prototype, but the chip’s more efficient architecture could potentially allow for smaller quantum computers that use less resources.

Crypto is, once again, exploding. Momentum born of a potentially friendlier regulatory atmosphere has met rising coin values, with Bitcoin more than doubling in value last year. Meanwhile, powered by advances to the underlying infrastructure, crypto is evolving beyond speculation and into real utility.  That’s driving new use cases for AI and enabling seamless experiences across gaming and more.

Saga has emerged as a key enabler of these shifts, providing scalable, on-demand blockspace for AI, gaming, and decentralized finance (DeFi). The company’s efforts are facilitating industry acceleration — “more, faster,” as Saga puts it — expected to continue throughout 2025. With that in mind, here are a few predictions for what’s to come.

AI will unlock new possibilities

Artificial intelligence continues to work its way into more and more of our daily lives. It’s getting better at automating tasks and enhancing our work, and continued investments will only keep growing AI’s influence. But when it comes to certain real-world datasets, AI runs into some limitations. It would never be trusted with the keys to its own bank account, for instance.

But its own crypto walle …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Hey, and welcome to Decoder. This is Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge. I’m guest hosting today’s episode for Nilay.

Today, we’re diving into the bromance between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, and more specifically, how it’s impacting the changing right-wing political movement here in the United States. 

There’s no better place to get that temperature check than the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. Musk showed up there this year for a wild interview — you may have seen clips of him waving around a literal chainsaw. 

Since Musk got close to Trump, I’ve been curious to know how MAGA diehards really feel about that relationship. I’ve also been wondering if this administration will go easier on tech companies now that so many of their CEOs have kissed the ring.

Thankfully, The Verge’s policy reporter, Gaby Del Valle, was on the ground for us at CPAC this year. As you’ll hear her say, she barely slept. But she got a front-row, fascinating look at how the world of MAGA really feels about Musk, his Department of Government Efficiency, and regulating big tech. Even if you’re already sick of hearing about the current state of American politics, I think you’ll learn something from our conversation. I know I did.

If you’d like to learn more about the topics we discussed in this episode, check out the links below:

• I cannot describe how strange Elon Musk’s CPAC appearance was | The Verge
• At CPAC, the world’s populists parrot the leader who inspired them | Politico
• Government still threatening to ‘semi-fire’ workers who don’t answer Musk email | The Verge
• Saying ‘no’ to Musk | NYT
• What that chainsaw was really about | NYT
• Sequins, merch, chainsaws: Trump’s return to CPAC | NYT
• Bannon calls Musk a ‘parasitic illegal immigrant’ | NYT
• New York got $80 million for migrants. The White House took it back | NYT
• Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE | AP
• National Park Service layoffs, hiring delays impact visitors | NPR

In 2022, I watched a video of mine and wanted to hide under a rock. My skin looked sallow, the dark circles under my eyes pronounced. Loved ones reassured me I was seeing things, but commenters confirmed my worst insecurities. While relating my woes to a friend, she interrupted my pity party to say I was using the wrong foundation color. Did I know my undertone? Choosing the wrong color, she warned, could make me look far more jaundiced on camera than in real life. 

About three years later, I finally found the right shade of foundation. I didn’t find it at Sephora, Ulta, or the K-beauty counter at my local H Mart. I custom-printed it using the $295 BoldHue.

BoldHue is a foundation printer that pairs with your phone. The back panel hides six cartridges: five for pigments (red, blue, yellow, white, and black), and a sixth containing a base with skincare ingredients, including glycerin, propanediol, vitamin E, vegan squalane, and antioxidants like tremella mushroom and rice bran extract. These are popular ingredients to hydrate and protect the skin. Unlike most commercial foundations, which use four pigments, BoldHue adds blue to the mix, increasing the number of possible shades. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Like its predecessor, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is bringing back three classic starter pokémon to get you started on your next adventure.

Though Pokémon Legends: Z-A will likely introduce a number of new creatures, Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile will be the first three partner pokémon you can choose between as you journey into the depths of Lumiose City. The starters were the stars of the Pokémon Legends: Z-A teaser The Pokémon Company debuted during this year’s Pokémon Presents. Details about the game are still sparse, but we now know a little bit more about how its battles will work.

Like other Pokémon games, you will be able to fight wild pokémon found throughout certain areas, but rather than just launching attacks turn by turn, Legends: Z-A will require players to think strategically about the range moves have and where their monsters are on the battlefield. The video — which focuses on how moves can have different effects and levels of damage depending on a pokémon’s position on the field — makes Legends: Z-A’s battles look a bit like fighting in Diablo. 

The video also emphasizes how, because the game is set entirely in Lumiose, many of the areas where wild pokémon can be found are special locations like alleys and rooftops, where the creatures are learning to cohabitate with humans. Like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, players will be able to catch monsters without battling in some cases by simply throwing pokéballs at them from a distance.

That mechanic, in particular, should make the game feel much more fluid than Scarlet and Violet, but we won’t know for sure until Pokémon Legends: Z-A debuts for the Switch family of systems sometime later this year.

To celebrate the day when Pikachu pika’d his way into our hearts and minds almost 30 years ago, The Pokémon Company held a Pokémon Presents showcase highlighting what games and experiences to expect in the coming months. There were updates on Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a new season of Pokémon Concierge, and a totally new multiplayer gameplay: Pokémon Champions.

While the reveal was light on the specifics, Champions appears to a game focused solely on battling. Players will be able to import their pokémon from Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, Pokémon Home, and other games into Champions to use in battles against players around the world. There are restrictions, however, on the pokémon you can use. The fine print says that not every pokémon available in Home and elsewhere will be available in Champions and those obtained in Champions cannot be ported back to Home.

It seems like Champions is a gamified version of the online battle simulators competitive Pokémon players use to test team composition and monster builds. The Pokémon Company was specific in that the game is coming to “the Nintendo Switch family of systems,” indicating this game might make an appearance on the forthcoming Switch 2. It’s also coming to Android and iOS.

Pokémon is a very malleable franchise, able to fit a wide variety of game genres that The Pokémon Company seems keen to experiment with. There was Pokken Tournament for the fighting game community, Pokémon UNITE for the MOBA fans, all the casual co-op and 1v1 experiences in the mainline games, and so much more. (Anybody remember Pokémon Conquest, the strategy RPG that was essentially Pikachu meets Nobunaga’s Ambition?) With Pokémon Champions, The Pokémon Company has found yet another way to reach gamers outside of its core games.

Sony is cutting the price of its PlayStation VR 2 headset in March. The VR 2 will be discounted to just $399.99, down from the original $549 pricing when it launched in February 2023. The headset will also see a price cut in Europe (€449.99), the UK (£399.99), Japan (¥66,980), and other regions.

Sony is positioning the price cut as a “fantastic time to dive into the exciting world of PS VR2,” but it also comes nearly a year after the company reportedly paused PSVR 2 production to clear excess inventory nearly . A Bloomberg report in March suggested Sony was trying to shift unsold inventory of the VR2 headset, and this fresh price cut suggests that the PS5 accessory still isn’t selling as well as Sony had hoped.

At $549, it was more expensive than the PS5 itself, and a lack of content has certainly held it back. The $399 pricing could certainly help shift units, particularly as you can also use the VR 2 headset on a PC now thanks to Sony’s $60 adapter. Sony is also reportedly working on Apple Vision Pro support for its PSVR 2 controllers, which we might hear about at some point this year.

Each Pokémon Presents stream is special in its own way, but we’re expecting big things from this year’s showcase given the imminent arrival of the Switch 2. A new console means a new generation of games like Pokémon Legends: Z-A and the franchise’s next mainline title. But there should also be some major updates for more casual games like Pokémon TCG Pocket, Pokémon Sleep, and Pokémon Go. We’ve already gotten a little (animated) taste of what Nintendo has been cooking up, but there are even more reveals in store, which you can follow along with right here.

• Pokémon Unite is leveling up with Alola’s coolest monster.
• Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s starters make their debut in new trailer
• Pokémon Champions gets right to the fights
• It’s almost pokémon time.
• Kick off Pokémon Day 2025 with this gorgeous short film
• Oh yes, wait a minute, Mr. Postmon.
• A pikat the new Pokémon game?

Instagram is reportedly considering spinning its Reels feature into a standalone short-form video app to take advantage of TikTok’s uncertain future in the US. Instagram head Adam Mosseri was overheard discussing the plans with staff this week according to an anonymous source cited by The Information.

The Reels app is reportedly part of a Meta initiative code-named Project Ray which aims to help Instagram better compete against TikTok. Plans include improving how Instagram content is recommended and bringing more three-minute-long Reels videos to users in the US. 

TikTok has around 170 million US users and still faces a ban after being given a 75-day extension by President Donald Trump in January. During TikTok’s temporary removal from app stores last month, Instagram released Edits — a blatant riff on the CapCut video editing app owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance — and allegedly tried to lure creators to its own platform with cash bonuses.

It’s unclear if Reels would still be integrated into Instagram if it does get its own separate app, but a dedicated short-form video platform would be closer to the curated scrolling experience provided by TikTok. This would be Meta’s second attempt to launch a direct TikTok competitor after releasing the standalone video-sharing app Lasso in 2018 — and later shutting the app down in 2020 to focus on Reels.

Xiaomi has announced its 15 Ultra flagship phone at a launch event in China, where it’s going on sale starting at 6,499 yuan (around $893). The Android phone joins the company’s Xiaomi 15 and 15 Pro, which went on sale there in October 2024. It is a mostly iterative upgrade on last year’s model, but the big change is the addition of a 200-megapixel periscope camera that the company says excels in low light. The 15 series, including the Ultra, is getting an international launch this Sunday, March 2nd, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Exactly which markets it will go on sale in remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet that this one won’t be coming to the US.

Xiaomi’s Ultra line has always been camera-centric, even more so than Samsung or Apple’s top models, and the 15 Ultra is no different. Like last year’s 14 Ultra, the quad rear camera is arrayed in an enormous circular module on the phone’s rear. It’s designed to resemble photography partner Leica’s dedicated camera hardware, right down to the two-tone silver and black finish, and compact “Ultra” corner logo found on one of the phone’s three versions. There are also simpler black or white models.

The 200-megapixel 4.3x periscopic lens follows similar periscopes in Vivo’s X100 Ultra and X200 Pro, and Honor’s Magic 7 Pro. This is a shorter zoom than the 5x periscope on the 14 Ultra, but uses a larger sensor, faster aperture, and higher resolution, which Xiaomi says results in better light capture, bringing improvements in zoom photography, especially in lower light. Xiaomi even codenamed the phone “Night God” internally, so low light photography is clearly a focus this year.

The other three rear sensors are all 50-megapixel, and are set up similarly to last year’s model, albeit with small variations. The most noteworthy change is to the main camera, which has dropped the variable aperture tech featured on the previous model in favor of a fixed — but fast — f/1.63.

The photography focus is enhanced by the release of Xiaomi’s third-generation Photography Kit, an optional extra that includes a case and a camera grip. Beyond a new red finish, not much has changed here either: the internal battery is a little larger at 2,000mAh (allowing this to double as a small power bank for the phone), and there’s a new thumb rest, but the core camera controls remain the same: a shutter button, video button, zoom lever, and exposure dial.

Beyond the inevitable upgrade to the current-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, there are few other upgrades or design changes. The 6.73-inch display is again 1-120Hz but a little brighter at 3,200 nits peak HDR brightness. An IP68 rating returns, too. The 6,000mAh battery is significantly larger, but the 90W wired charging and 80W wireless speeds are unchanged. As with other recent Android flagships, there’s still no sign of Qi2 adoption.

I thought the 14 Ultra was last year’s best phone camera by some distance, and my colleague Allison called it “a photography nerd’s dream,” so Xiaomi has set itself a high bar to live up to. This was such a strong camera, it’s understandable that the company has kept changes to a minimum this time around. But we’re looking forward to finding out whether its one big upgrade, the periscope, will deliver.

Europe has an electric bike problem. Direct-to-consumer e-bikes from inexpensive Chinese brands like Engwe and countless others can be easily purchased online despite openly flouting EU restrictions. They feature throttles and powerful motors that can be easily unlocked to far exceed the 25km/h (16mph) legal speed limit — no pedaling required.

Here in Amsterdam, cheap Super73-knockoffs ridden at almost twice the legal speed have made the city’s renowned bicycle lanes increasingly chaotic and dangerous. Across the Netherlands, over 10,000 of these electric “fat bikes” were seized in 2024. 

Engwe’s new Mapfour lineup is the company’s attempt at going legit by expanding from souped-up electric fat bikes and foldables into “premium commuter” e-bikes. And because they’re the first e-bikes that Engwe has designed exclusively for European roads, the company swears they can’t be unlocked for more speed.

I’ve been riding the new Mapfour N1 Pro model for the last few weeks. It lists for €1,899 (almost $2,000), or €1,799 during the initial launch — a price that brings heightened expectations. 

The N1 Pro is slathered in premium capabilities like GPS/GSM tracki …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The iPhone 16E is everything I love and hate about iOS. FaceTime at your fingertips. A reliable camera. Simplicity. Familiarity. They’re the pillars of the iPhone experience, and Apple’s newest phone has ‘em.

My husband picked up the 16E, concerned that he would have to “learn something new” to use it. He swiped around for a second and said, “Oh. It’s just like my phone.” It is just like his phone — a six-year-old iPhone XR — only updated with a few essential improvements (a faster processor, nicer screen, and a modern camera, that kind of thing) and little else.

That’s the other pillar of the iPhone experience: You get exactly what Apple gives you and nothing more. On Android, you can buy a $500 phone with a fast refresh-rate screen, two rear cameras, seven years of software support, and wireless charging. On iOS, you can buy this $599 phone with one rear camera, a standard 60Hz screen, wireless charging (but no MagSafe), and an ample but unstated amount of software support. Apple has no competition when it comes to phones running iOS. The company can gatekeep these conveniences behind a higher price tag, and that’s simply the way things will be. I’m …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The moment Vjeran and I got to the demo room at Framework’s San Francisco event, we knew right away — the mint and pink version of the Framework Laptop 12 was the one I wanted to touch, the one he wanted to photograph and film.

One of the women standing next to the demo stations thanked us for saying that out loud, because she wasn’t initially sure mint and pink would make the cut! She introduced herself as Esther Yen, the senior industrial designer of this entire laptop — and says they were the colors she had asked for.

Yesterday, Framework announced the 12-inch convertible notebook as its first attempt to fix budget laptops, by making them modular and repairable. (It’s kind of Framework’s thing, but this is its …

Read the full story at The Verge.

In late September, Automattic CEO and WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg started a public dispute with the hosting provider WP Engine, calling the company “a cancer to WordPress.” He accused WP Engine of not contributing enough to the WordPress ecosystem and profiting off of trademark confusion. As a result, WP Engine was blocked from accessing WordPress.org’s servers.

Automattic has since sent a cease and desist order to WP Engine to stop it from using its trademarks, while WP Engine has followed up with a lawsuit that accuses Automattic and Mullenweg of extortion.

The series of events set off a public battle that calls into question the boundaries between WordPress.com host Automattic, the WordPress open-source project, and the nonprofit that’s behind it.

Here’s all the latest news so far.

• A new lawsuit alleges Automattic must keep WordPress free.
• Matt Mullenweg lashes out at some WordPress contributors.
• Automattic cuts WordPress contribution hours, blames WP Engine
• Matt Mullenweg says it’s “hard to imagine” wanting to work on WordPress after WP Engine ruling.
• WordPress parent company must stop blocking WP Engine, judge rules
• WordPress.com’s owner launched a tracker for sites leaving WP Engine.
• WordPress cofounder asks court to dismiss WP Engine’s lawsuit
• WordPress reportedly asks WordCamp organizers to delete posts that “don’t align” with its views.
• “WordPress.org is not WordPress.”
• WP Engine asks court to stop Matt Mullenweg from blocking access to WordPress resources
• Automattic offered employees another chance to quit over WordPress drama
• Matt Mullenweg responds to David Heinemeier Hansson in their “respectful debate.”
• WordPress.org’s latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin
• “Automattic is completely out of line, and the potential damage to the open source world extends far beyond WordPress,”
• The latest volley in the WordPress beef:
• Matt Mullenweg: ‘WordPress.org just belongs to me’
• WordPress cofounder is paying employees to leave if they disagree with him
• The ‘WordPress’ fight is now a lawsuit
• Automattic demanded a cut of WP Engine’s revenue before starting WordPress battle
• The messy WordPress drama, explained
• WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a “cancer.”

Of the three major gaming consoles, the Xbox Series X / S may have the most diverse controller selection, but Microsoft’s basic Xbox Wireless Controller is still the best Xbox controller for most people. That’s mostly because it’s the cheapest one you can buy with native support for Xbox’s built-in wireless protocol (you can also use it with PC and mobile via Bluetooth or USB-C), but it’s also just really solid overall.

It’s hard to beat the value, especially when they’re on sale for as low as $39, just a few dollars more than their all-time low, as they are in select colors at Amazon and Walmart right now. That’ll get you the basic crop of colors such as black, white, and blue. You can spend a bit more to get the awesome translucent models, which are starting at $57.50 (about $12 off) at Amazon and Walmart.

The Xbox Wireless Controller isn’t loaded with fancy features and gimmicks like newer, more expensive controllers. You can’t easily remove or replace any of its parts, for example, nor does it have back buttons, sensitivity adjustments, or built-in means for customizing and swapping button mapping configurations. But it still sets the standard for how a controller should look, feel, and work. The ergonomic shape and button layout are still the most widely emulated of any controller, perhaps ever.

Some people still scoff that it doesn’t have a rechargeable internal battery, but that’s a point in its favor. Its versatile battery bay lets you either use standard AA batteries or slot in a rechargeable pack. Some of those batteries offer much more play time than controllers with built-in batteries. You’ll never have to plug it in or dock it if you have a charged spare handy, and you won’t have to dismantle an entire controller or shell out for a replacement once they run dry

Exposure to extreme heat could lead to faster aging, a new study published today in the journal Science Advances suggests. Older people living in hotter areas of the US showed faster aging at the molecular level than people living in cooler areas.

The study looked at measures of a person’s biological, or epigenetic, age, which is based on how a person’s body is functioning at the molecular and cellular levels and doesn’t necessarily match a person’s chronological age based on birth. Longer-term exposure to heat was associated with an increase in a person’s biological age by up to 2.48 years. The impact on the body is comparable to the effects of smoking, according to the study authors.

Extreme heat is already the deadliest type of weather disaster in the US, a threat that’s growing as climate change leads to more frequent and intense heatwaves. The new research shows how there are more subtle, insidious ways that prolonged heat exposure can affect the body beyond heat illness or stroke in the moment.

“We’re kind of surprised [at] how massive this impact could be,” says Eun Young Choi, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral associate at the University of Southern California. “The effects of extreme heat might not show up right away as a diagnosable health condition, but it could be taking a silent toll at the cellular and the molecular level which could years later develop into disability and disease.“

The research included blood samples collected from 3,686 adults aged 56 or older living across the US. The study authors compared those samples with heat index data, a measure of temperature and humidity, between 2010 and 2016. They found a correlation between greater exposure to extreme heat and a bigger jump in epigenetic age. A person living in a place where the heat index is 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above for half the year experienced up to 14 more months of biological aging compared to someone living somewhere with less than 10 days a year that hot.

“The thing that is interesting here is that a lot of observational data focuses on acute impacts of extreme heat exposure – this paper underlines that there may be chronic impacts on epigenetic age that are important predictors of adverse health,” Amruta Nori-Sarma, deputy director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE and assistant professor of environmental health and population sciences says in an email to The Verge.

Nori-Sarma and Choi say it’s important to keep in mind, however, that the study doesn’t take into consideration whether a person had access to air conditioning or other ways to stay cool. There’s room for more research into what factors might make an individual more resilient or more vulnerable to heat.

“Our finding doesn’t necessarily mean that every person living in Phoenix, Arizona, for example, has an older biological age. This is really an average impact,” Choi says. “Two people in the same neighborhood could have very different levels of personal exposure depending on whether they have air conditioning.”

That also shows that there are steps that can be taken to keep people safe in a warming world. Aside from stopping climate change, that can look like planting more trees and painting rooftops white to prevent urban areas from trapping as much heat, and opening up more public spaces where people can get access to air conditioning. Finding solutions gets easier to do when people are more aware of the potential risks. 

It’s technically already Pokémon Day in Japan, and while we’re still a few hours away from this year’s big Pokémon Presents showcase, there’s a new animated short film out that right now feels like the perfect way to get pumped up for whatever surprises Nintendo has in store.

Many of the Pokémon Company’s animated projects outside of the mainline anime have been fun explorations of what people and their pokémon get up to besides battling. But director Maho Aoki’s Dragonite and the Special Delivery also feels like a reminder to thank your mail carriers for all the hard work they do. Produced by CoMix Wave Films — the studio behind Suzume, Weathering With You, and Your Name — Dragonite and the Special Delivery tells the story of Hana (Riko Fukumoto), a young Paldean postal worker who dreams of becoming an expert deliveryperson.

While most deliverypeople get the chance to venture out into the world, as a letter sorter, Hana’s days are usually spent behind a desk with her partner Fuecoco. But when Hana happens to find an unaddressed letter from a young boy who is trying to wish his traveling father a happy birthday, she recognizes it as an opportunity to prove that she has what it takes to become one of the postal system’s greats like a certain friendly Dragonite.

The short spotlights how it takes all kinds of specialized human and pokémon labor to keep the inter-regional postal system running smoothly. Unsurprisingly, CoMix Wave’s take on the pokémon world is a visual delight that makes all of the short’s creatures look downright majestic regardless of whether they’re ordinary or legendary monsters. The short also features a sweeping shot of Kalos’ Lumiose City and quite a few pokémon capable of Mega Evolution.

Those details could be a nod to the location and mechanic both returning in Pokémon Legends: Z-A (and Flygon finally getting its due), but we won’t know for sure until tomorrow morning.

Amazon is bringing the new AI-powered Alexa Plus to a wide range of its existing Echo devices — but the upgrade will skip many of the earliest models. The majority of the company’s first-generation Echos won’t get support, according to the Alexa Plus FAQ page, though Amazon says they will continue to work with the standard Alexa.

Alexa Plus won’t support “certain older generation Echo devices,” such as the first-generation Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus, Echo Tap, Echo Spot, and Echo Show; the second-generation Echo Show won’t support it, either. Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt confirmed that is the full list of devices. If so, that still leaves many early Echo devices that will work with Alexa Plus.

That means I’ll be able to ask Alexa to book a restaurant reservation through my Echo Flex, the quirky modular Echo speaker that plugs straight into a wall outlet. And people can still get an AI-generated song piped through speakers they’ve connected their microphone-only Echo Inputs to. And if you have an ancient first- or- second-gen Echo Show 15 or newer Echo Hub, those will apparently get access to the AI-enhanced Alexa, too. Schmidt confirmed that each of those will be compatible.

Perhaps it’s a bummer that some of the older Echo devices won’t use AI to book reservations, track ticket prices, or generate fake songs. But at least they’ll still be able to do the old Alexa stuff, like turn on your lights or tell you the weather. And given rumors about the struggle Amazon has had getting Alexa Plus to work right, that might be a good thing, at least for a while.