Sean Hollister
@seanhollister
I write about gadgets at @Verge. Former @CNET @Gizmodo @Engadget. Avid gamer, lucky husband, happy dad! Maybe too blunt.
Also... wonder what @hideokojimaen.bsky.kojimaproductions.jp thinks of this one?
This is Beni — a self-balancing robot dog that can jump, flip, and get right back up again. It's so much fun.
Valve just open-sourced its e-ink screen for the Steam Machine. www.theverge.com/games/961242...
If you want to see how this plant made/makes your Blu-Rays and PlayStation discs and the microlenses it'll be making instead, there's a cool behind-the-scenes vid from a Salzberg publication I've embedded in the story!
Okay, time to go enjoy my birthday. Leaving you with this one last Steam Machine thing I made on a whim:
The Xbox Series X is like two Steam Machines duct-taped together lol
The Steam Machine in action — including the GameCube size comparison you've been waiting for!
While testing, I realized I had another cube shaped object sitting around my house that deserved to be paired with the Steam Machine:
15 years after co-founding this very good website, I *still* get a thrill when my byline takes over part of the page!
This is the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ with Intel's Arc G3 Extreme – Intel's first dedicated handheld chip based on Panther Lake. This feels like a genuine leap for handhelds in performance, efficiency... and, unfortunately, in price.
And speaking of stories that look better in dark mode, may I present: www.theverge.com/games/941360...
When people learn I work for The Verge, they always ask me the same question. "Do you get to keep the gadgets?" No. I don't keep 'em. I don't sell 'em. I don't give them to friends or family. We're not influencers—we're journalists with an ethics policy! But... what if I could give some to you?
Want to see me interact with Sophie, the experimental Google AI persona with a face, voice, and more? Have some video, both here and a fuller version at YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCH... (I saved some intrigue for my written story, though!)
Incredibly, one of the first people I met with a Yarbo was a former network architect who'd already taken precautions against the worst it could do. Matt Petach says consumers should treat such devices as "hostile agents." Don't trust 'em, don't put them anywhere or with anything you care about.
As promised: Framework's Wireless Touchpad Keyboard. I brought my own Logitech K400 to compare.
I'm definitely considering Framework's couch keyboard+touchpad, though. I brought my own Logitech K400 from home to compare, and... there's no comparison! Updated my story here: www.theverge.com/tech/915497/...
It's the first Ubuntu-certified Framework laptop, the first offered with preinstalled Linux. $1,499 that way. $1,199 DIY. Shipping June. Available with Windows too.
Nobody's coming to fill the US's DJI-shaped hole... and the FCC's ban on *all* future foreign drones is blocking the Chinese companies who would have tried. US backers might never receive the HoverAir Aqua, a drone that can take off and land on water!
"Consumer drones" are so much more than toys, BTW. The kinds of future drones banned from import are used by first responders, farmers, surveyors, camera crews and more, who now have to pay defense industy prices. There's about half a million certified drone pilots in the US, according to the FAA.
With Game Boy carts, the best current way to tell if a cart is original Nintendo — other than opening it up — seems to be the two-digit code stamped into the label. Thankfully there are also other small signs in case bootleggers do that too.
I stand corrected, black blobs of epoxy resin do appear in a few real games. Like my copy of Tetris:
Oh seriously? My SFC copy doesn't but I do have a Mario Chip 1 version.
Here are some real Golden Sun: The Lost Age carts (including my original one from when it was new) and how they look inside by comparison.
But they were BOTH BOOTLEGS! Real carts don't have dabs of black ooze, and they certainly aren't made by "Hihiohoo."