Tech

Original title: Silksong is only $19.99 Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry’s sequel to Hollow Knight that has been in development for seven years, is releasing later this week for just $19.99. Silksong’s highly-anticipated launch on September 4th comes with a modest $5 bump over Hollow Knight’s original $14.99 price tag. While Team Cherry could have charged more for Silksong, it’s essentially pricing it the same as the original when you factor in inflation over the past eight years. The team revealed seven years ago that it kept the Hollow Knight pricing low to ensure as many people played it as possible. “$15 US is actually quite a bit of money for many people, especially in other countries than the US,” explained Team Cherry cofounder Ari Gibson in a 2018 Reddit post. “Ultimately, our main interest is that as many people as possible play our games, and we want to price them such that players can do so.” The considerate choice on the p ...

Original title: Silksong is only $19.99 Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry’s sequel to Hollow Knight that has been in development for seven years, is releasing later this week for just $19.99. Silksong’s highly-anticipated launch on September 4th comes with a modest $5 bump over Hollow Knight’s original $14.99 price tag. While Team Cherry could have charged more for Silksong, it’s essentially pricing it the same as the original when you factor in inflation over the past eight years. The team revealed seven years ago that it kept the Hollow Knight pricing low to ensure as many people played it as possible. “$15 US is actually quite a bit of money for many people, especially in other countries than the US,” explained Team Cherry cofounder Ari Gibson in a 2018 Reddit post. “Ultimately, our main interest is that as many people as possible play our games, and we want to price them such that players can do so.” The considerate choice on the p ...

Original title: Is AI the end of software engineering or the next step in its evolution? The first time I used ChatGPT to code, back in early 2023, I was reminded of “The Monkey’s Paw,” a classic horror story about an accursed talisman that grants wishes, but always by the most malevolent path — the desired outcome arrives after exacting a brutal cost elsewhere first. With the same humorless literalness, ChatGPT would implement the change I’d asked for, while also scrambling dozens of unrelated lines. The output was typically over-engineered, often barnacled with irrelevant fragments of code. There were some usable lines in the mix, but untangling the mess felt like a detour. When I started using AI-assisted tools earlier this year, I felt decisively outmatched. The experience was like pair-programming with a savant intern — competent yet oddly deferential, still a tad too eager to please and make sweeping changes at my command. But when tasked with more localized changes, it nailed the job with enviable efficiency. The trick is to keep the problem space constrained. I rec ...

Original title: The 95 best Labor Day sales happening now Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, and while the prospect of cooler weather and shorter days can be a tough adjustment for some, at least there is always a great selection of deals to combat the post-summer blues. Lucky for you, we’ve gone ahead and rounded up the best discounts you can get on a variety of Verge-approved gadgets and goods, from earbuds and 4K TVs to the latest e-readers. Being that it’s now September, it’s also a good reminder that the holidays will be here before you know it. Thankfully, some gadgets — including the latest Kindle Colorsoft, the M4 MacBook Air 13, and Sony’s WH-CH520 headphones — have fallen to their lowest price to date, making now an excellent time to get a head start on your holiday shopping. After all, there’s no guarantee they’ll drop lower in price, even when Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around. Speaker deals JBL’s Flip 7 is on sale for around $129.95 ($20 off) at Best Buy, is on sale for around $129.95 ($20 off) at Amazon Walmar ...

Original title: The 28 best Labor Day deals you still can grab for $100 or less Labor Day has finally arrived, and after a week of early discounts trickling in, the sales are now in full swing. We’ve put together an expansive guide detailing nearly 100 deals we think are worth the money — including everything from big-screen OLED TVs to back-to-school essentials like the latest MacBook Air — but we also recognize that spending a couple a hundred dollars on a new gadget isn’t always feasible in these inflationary, tariff-riddled times. Fortunately for those on a budget, there are plenty of worthwhile deals to be had for $100 or less. To make sifting through them easier, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorites, including the latest Kindle, the entry-level AirPods 4, and Anker’s beefy Laptop Power Bank. We also pulled together a handful of excellent gaming deals, not to mention a steep discount on what has become our favorite budget video doorbell. Update, September 1st: Adjusted pricing / availability and added several new deals, including those for Anker’s Laptop P ...

Original title: The best Labor Day TV sales Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer, which is a bit sad, but it’s a great time to get a deal on a fancy, new TV. The US holiday is happening just before the start of the 2025-2026 NFL season, the World Cup qualifiers, and the lead-up to the MLB post-season games. This sports trifecta means you can take advantage of Labor Day sales on 4K TVs, whether you’re planning on hosting big at-home viewing parties, or you just want to tune in alone. Right now, you can save hundreds of dollars on high-end OLED TVs like Samsung’s S90D or Sony’s Bravia 8 II. If you don’t want to spend as much, you can pick up a 70-inch 4K TV from Insignia for well under $400. That’s just a taste, but we’ve got more deals below that should suit gamers, cinephiles and sports fans alike. Many of these TVs are at or matching their lowest prices, and, as always, there’s no guarantee that Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals will beat these prices. Insignia F50 Insignia’s massive 70-inch F50 4K TV is on sa ...

Original title: Apple Previews New Store With Unified Genius Bar and Pickup Counter Apple has previewed its third retail location in India, Apple Hebbal. The new store is located at Phoenix Mall of Asia in Bengaluru. Apple Hebbal spans approximately 8,000 square feet and is staffed by 70 employees representing 15 states across India, according to Apple. It joins Apple BKC in Mumbai and Apple Saket in Delhi. Apple Hebbal features a unified Genius Bar and Pickup counter, merging Apple’s technical support and online order collection services into a single area. This two-in-one area has rolled out in a handful of new and renovated stores over the past year. To mark the occasion, Apple released a downloadable set of exclusive wallpapers themed around the store’s peacock feather-inspired design, along with a curated Apple Music playlist featuring artists from Bengaluru. The store officially opens to the public at 1 p.m. on September 2. ...

Original title: Review: $399 Beosound A1 Portable Speaker Shows Why Bang & Olufsen Commands a Premium Bang & Olufsen recently released the third generation of its award-winning Beosound A1 portable Bluetooth speaker, and after playing with it for a good month, I’m scrambling to come up with negatives. Sure, at $399 it’s pricey, and this ultraportable unit from B&O is unashamedly pitched at the premium end of the Bluetooth speaker market, but the Danish high-end audio manufacturer’s principled attention to design and craftsmanship almost justifies the price alone. Fortunately, it sounds great, too. Design Taking the A1 out of the box, the first thing that strikes you is the compactness of the unit relative to its weight, especially given the materials used in its construction. At about 1.27 pounds (576 grams), it’s not the lightest ultraportable speaker I’ve held, but its beautifully minimalist ‘hockey puck’ design is disarmingly slight, partly thanks to designer Cecilie Manz’s decision to embed the power, volume, play/pause, and pairing controls around the rim, with the attached waterp ...

Original title: Survey: Nearly 70% of Users Plan to Upgrade to iPhone 17 A new survey has found that nearly seven in ten iPhone owners in the United States plan to upgrade to an iPhone 17 model, signaling strong demand ahead of Apple’s expected unveiling of the devices at its September 9 keynote. Smartphone price comparison platform SellCell surveyed over 2,000 U.S.-based ‌iPhone‌ users in August to assess upgrade interest and brand loyalty before Apple’s event. According to the data, 68.3% of current ‌iPhone‌ users intend to purchase an ‌iPhone 17‌ model at launch, marking an increase from 61.9% recorded ahead of the iPhone 16 launch in 2024. The iPhone 17 Pro and ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max models are expected to dominate early sales, accounting for 38.1% of planned upgrades. The standard ‌iPhone 17‌ is the choice for 16.7% of respondents, while 13.5% expressed interest in the all-new iPhone 17 Air, which is expected to feature an ultra-thin design. Only 3.3% of respondents indicated they are holding out specifically for a foldable ‌iPhone‌, which Apple has yet t ...

Original title: Report: Apple Demands Suppliers Switch to Robotics for Manufacturing Apple is significantly accelerating the rollout of automation and robotics across its manufacturing supply chain, DigiTimes reports. While Apple has advocated for increased automation in supplier facilities for over two years, sources familiar with the matter say that Apple now requires automation as a standard prerequisite for awarding manufacturing contracts. This is said to be part of a broader effort to minimize labor dependency, stabilize product quality and uniformity across different facilities, and reduce long-term production costs amid ongoing supply chain diversification away from China. Apple’s alleged automation mandate spans all major product categories, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Apple now purportedly expects suppliers to fund their own automation upgrades rather than rely on Apple to finance or subsidize the necessary capital equipment. This policy change diverges from Apple’s previous approach, where the company frequently invested in tooling and ...