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Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
You can soon color-match your MacBook Neo’s charger.

Satechi announced a collection of color-matched MacBook Neo accessories in July, but not a replacement charger. So Belkin is making its 30W BoostCharge Compact USB-C Charger available in new citrus, blush, indigo, and silver color options later this month for $26.99 to match Apple’s budget-friendly laptop.

<em>Belkin’s 30W USB-C charger will power up your MacBook Neo a little faster than the charger Apple includes.</em>
<em>A 2-meter long, color-matched braided USB-C to USB-C cable is included.</em>
<em>The four new color options include (from left to right) silver, blush, indigo, and citrus.</em>
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Belkin’s 30W USB-C charger will power up your MacBook Neo a little faster than the charger Apple includes.
Image: Belkin
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Belkin’s new magnetic stand sticks your phone to walls, windows, and mirrors.

When folded flat it won’t be as thin as magnetic grips from OhSnap or PopSockets, but Belkin’s new Compact Magnetic Ring Stand adds a suction mount so you can stick your phone to walls, mirrors, windows, dashboards, or any smooth, flat surface that ensures a strong seal. It’s expected to launch in November for $24.99.

<em>The stand is compatible with mobile devices supporting magnetic accessories including several versions of the iPhone, Google Pixel, and Samsung Galaxy phones.</em>
<em>The stand folds flat against the back of your phone when not in use, but it’s not as thin as competitor’s offerings.</em>
<em>It’s expected to launch later this year in black or white.</em>
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The stand is compatible with mobile devices supporting magnetic accessories including several versions of the iPhone, Google Pixel, and Samsung Galaxy phones.
Image: Belkin
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
You can drive Narwal’s first stick vac right into its auto-empty charging dock.

The Narwal V50 Cube pairs a 5.6-pound stick vac with up to 180 minutes of cleaning time (thanks to a second swappable battery) with a dock that looks inspired by Picasso’s cubism era. The dock can hold up to 100 days of debris, which is blasted with UV light to kill bacteria and reduce odors.

<em>Availability and pricing for the V50 Cube will be announced at a later date.</em>
<em>The dock’s angular design hides an auto-empty mechanism, a UV sterilization system, plus all of the vacuum’s cleaning accessories.</em>
<em>The dock stores and charges a second battery giving the vacuum up to three hours of cleaning time, depending on how dirty your floors are.</em>
<em>Similar to Dyson’s stick vacuums, the V50 Cube features a bright colored light to illuminate dust and debris on the floor.</em>
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Availability and pricing for the V50 Cube will be announced at a later date.
Image: Narwal
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Here’s the real Trump Phone.

It’s a customized Cisco and you can’t have it. Nobody tell Dom.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Govee doubles up on its permanent outdoor lighting.

The Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro sport a dual-layer design that allows “the upper and lower light zones to display different colors and effects simultaneously,” according to Govee. They’ll cost $499.99 for 100 feet when they launch on September 7th.

Govee is also releasing a new version of its COB Strip Light Pro, which costs $169.99 and uses a chip-on-board design to smooth out the spotty look of standard LED strip lights. They have slightly denser LED placement than the previous version.

<em>The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro.</em>
<em>The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro.</em>
<em>The Govee COB Strip Light 2 Pro.</em>
<em>The Govee COB Strip Light 2 Pro.</em>
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The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro.
Image: Govee
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Govee’s AI ceiling light will cost $400.

First revealed at CES, Govee’s Sky Ceiling Light uses AI to create “personalized lighting based on users’ moods and daily needs.” The 21-inch Matter-compatible light also automatically adjusts its color, temperature, and brightness depending on the time and weather. It launches on September 4th.

Image: Govee
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
The tenth TITW gadget giveaway has ten entries so far.

That’s how many realized they could enter to win before this weekly reminder! See, I give away gadgets every Wednesday, but you’ve got to enter each time. You can use email — see the official rules — as long as the subject line’s right. It’s not “Email Entry,” but rather “Today I’m Toying With Giveaway #10” this time.

Image: Gleam.io
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
The NBA suspends Steve Ballmer for a year and takes five draft picks over the Kawhi Leonard scandal.

The NBA has announced penalties from its investigation into cap circumvention allegations around the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard, and a string of companies that inked shady “endorsement” deals with the star: Aspiration, Daktronics, Boingo Wireless, and Lockton Insurance, as detailed in a report from the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

There are also fines ($30 million for the Clippers, $700,000 for Leonard), suspensions for two team execs and Leonard’s uncle, and the investigation is apparently ongoing.

THERE IS EVIDENCE OF THE CLIPPERS FUNDING AN ENDORSEMENT AGREEMENT The foregoing makes clear that the Clippers violated NBA rules in connection with the Boingo, Daktronics, and Lockton endorsement agreements with Mr. Leonard. Investigators note, however, that the Clippers’ misconduct may have been even more severe. As set forth above, the timing of the three endorsement agreements with Mr. Leonard coincides with each of the companies receiving multi-million dollar payments from the Clippers, purportedly in connection with business to be provided by these companies to the team. But these payments may in fact have been made principally to fund the endorsement deals with Mr. Leonard. Indeed, a credible witness with direct knowledge told investigators that the consulting agreement one company signed with the Clippers was in fact a ruse, designed and intended to be a vehicle for the team to provide the company with funds to be paid to Mr. Leonard. According to this witness, the company was willing to enter into such a sham consulting agreement based on the promise to win a much larger services contract with the Clippers. This confidential information came to investigators late in the investigation, and additional steps are ongoing to corroborate it.
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
The Athletic reportedly drops sports betting deal with Kalshi.

The union representing The New York Times staffers rallied against the deal, but a source tells Front Office Sports that the opposition “did not prompt or play any role” in the decision to abandon it. Kalshi and The Athletic continue to explore advertising and “other commercial opportunities,” Front Office Sports reports.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Packard Bell is back, and more colorful than ever.

Acer, which has owned the historic PC brand since 2008, has resurrected it in a line of cheap, cheerful, and exceedingly colorful hardware, ranging from a 14-inch laptop to a portable food steamer. It all goes on sale in Q4 this year, though for now it’s only hitting the market in Europe.

<em>The €499 DotBook is the most expensive part of the lineup by far.</em>
<em>So colorful!</em>
<em>The DotLine is a 4G feature phone, while the DotLook glasses have speakers but no camera.</em>
<em>These are the DotBass headphones.</em>
<em>This suitcase vinyl player has built-in LED speakers, but Bluetooth out too.</em>
<em>Weirdest of all, a portable mini-steamer for reheating leftovers, in partnership with Steasy.</em>
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The €499 DotBook is the most expensive part of the lineup by far.
Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Waymo is a magnet for parking tickets.

The robotaxi company has accrued more than 8,300 violations in San Francisco since January 2025, according to records obtained by Gazetteer. On average, that’s about 103 tickets a week. Most of the violations appear to be for parking in locations reserved for tour buses, obstructing traffic, or blocking bike lanes.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Jason Isbell sues Suno, but not for copyright infringement.

He filed the suit alongside Guy Forsyth, Eduardo Calle, and Camper Van Beethoven’s David Lowery. Interestingly, rather than filing a straightforward copyright case, the plaintiffs claim Suno imitates their voices and styles without permission. After a long intro that involves the Borg for some reason, the complaint says:

16. Suno claims users are blocked from using a specific name as a prompt, but that claim is false. In reality, Suno not only accepts names but also responds to the name with an output based on that musician’s identity. When Jason Isbell, the six-time Grammy-winning singer, including for Best Americana Album, was entered into v5 (as “jason isbell”’), Suno produced an Americana song called “Paper Bell,” imitating Isbell’s characteristic clear ma le vocals and country twang.’* Suno described it as “contemporary Americana singer-songwriter with fingerpicked acoustic guitar” and provided an image of a paper bell with a church and trees in the background, evoking a country scene.
Screenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Travel YouTuber Drew Binsky is the latest creator to strike a deal with Netflix.

A selection of Binsky’s videos will appear on Netflix starting September 19th, similar to the streamer’s deals with Kevin Langue, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, as reported by Variety. YouTube has reportedly offered creators millions not to cross-post their videos to Netflix.

Travis Larchuk
Travis Larchuk
Today’s Vergecast: What’s happening with US data centers?

Data centers have been a staple of Loudoun County since the early dot-com boom, but recent expansions have left some residents wondering how much more the county can take. Guest host David Imel talks to Lauren Feiner about today’s article detailing the buildout of “Data Center Alley,” what it means for residents, and what other counties reeling with similar buildouts can learn from it.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Samsung is getting in on the MacBook Neo competition.

Samsung announced a new Galaxy Book6 laptop at IFA. It’s a 14-inch notebook with Intel Wildcat Lake processors, starting with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. And it’ll start at $799.

It’s got more ports than the Neo and a much higher watt-hour battery. But, oddly, Samsung omitted the keyboard’s backlight just as Apple did. Not my top choice of things to copy, but okay.

<em>No extra fun colors here, just gray and violet silver — which I can’t help accidentally reading as “violent silver.”</em>
<em>Perfection apparently doesn’t require typing in the dark.</em>
<em>Solid ports, but <a href="https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-expands-the-galaxy-book6-lineup-making-galaxy-book-more-accessible" target="_blank">Samsung’s specs</a> don’t mention USB speeds. The video port is HDMI 1.4.</em>
<em>Wildcat Lake is a pretty power efficient chip, and the Galaxy Book6 has a sizable 61.2Wh battery with support for 45W charging.</em>
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No extra fun colors here, just gray and violet silver — which I can’t help accidentally reading as “violent silver.”
Image: Samsung
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Who leaves a pig head in the back of a Waymo?

Scratch that: who leaves two pig heads in the back of a Waymo? Throw-up, leftover joints, even the occasional doo-doo — I can understand how some of these things can be left behind for the robotaxi cleaner. But pig heads?

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Zoox goes to the airport.

The Amazon-owned robotaxi company was just approved to make passenger trips to and from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Airports can be chaotic environments, and regulators want to be sure that robotaxis won’t add to the chaos. As the first robotaxi company approved for airport trips, Zoox will have its work cut out for it.

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Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Wait, you’re telling me Star Wars: Zero Company could have been a Titanfall game?

In another timeline, anyhow. In court documents spotted by journalist Stephen Totilo, Bit Reactor co-founder Greg Foertsch claims he originally pitched a game set in the Titanfall universe, but Respawn asked him to make it a Star Wars game instead. Shooting clankers is great and all, but pretty please greenlight the airdropped robots, too!

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Googlebook app, “Look up,” shows up on the Play Store.

A Play Store listing spotted by 9to5Google said “Look up” allows you to “highlight a concept you want to explore, a new word, a trip destination, and more.” Screenshots captured by the outlet show the app pulling up a definition for a highlighted word, as well as showing tracking information for a highlighted flight number.

The app description and images have since been pulled from the listing.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
The Steam Frame will get color passthrough after all — with a snap-on aftermarket camera.

Leaked photos and demo videos claim the Arcturus Vision Camera works out of the box! Plug it into the Frame’s nosebridge port, and get 5K60 10-bit HDR color plus spatial video recording. Valve isn’t offering native color passthrough to keep costs down, but looks like its passthrough partner got the greenlight! No price yet.

A shiny horizontal camera bar atop the Steam Frame’s curved front lens.
The Arcturus Vision Camera, as leaked.
Image: Komodo Station leak