Gadgets

Buds Neo, that is, which are being teased by Nothing’s budget-friendly CMF sub-brand, just two weeks after it launched the CMF Clip Pro open earbuds. It posted the below image on X yesterday as a “hint of what’s next.” A new video posted today also shows colorful Smart Dial charging case configurations, and a short message: “Buds Neo. 20 August.”

Given it’s a minor hardware refresh of last year’s Fairphone 6 it comes as no surprise that the new Fairphone 6 Plus (the company’s first smartphone it will sell directly in the US) was awarded a perfect 10/10 score in iFixit’s teardown test. Disassembly of everything from camera modules to the screen was straightforward using just basic tools.

Most of Google’s products are still manufactured in the country, but Nikkei Asia reports that all production of Pixel phones, watches and earbuds will leave China starting in 2027. Google started this exodus in 2019, shifting to building production capacity in Vietnam and India instead, as have Apple and Microsoft in recent years.

Find Hub on Google-powered smartwatches now includes a separate Find People app. As 9to5Google notes, it’s barebones: it shows a list of everyone you’re sharing location with, but to actually change any settings or see their location on a map, you have to open your phone. Perhaps there’s more to come.

Probably not as cool as the sweet sammies that gadget maker Brendan Carberry is carrying around. He’s built a battery-powered “quick attach” refrigerated storage solution for ice cream sandwiches that magnetically clips onto a pair of jorts, keeping the treats chilly on hot days.

Ploopy just announced the A Plus trackball, the successor to the open-source, 3D-printed Adept. It has six buttons, two dials, a wrist rest, and RGB LEDs. It goes on sale on August 19th starting at $99 CAD (about $71 USD). Ploopy.

You can already get multi-port desktop USB-C chargers with a status screen from companies like Satechi, Baseus, and Anker. What sets Ugreen’s new $199.99 Nexode Pro 300W apart is that in addition to six USB-C charging ports and a USB-A port, it includes a barrel-style port that can deliver 240W to a beefy laptop.

Qualcomm has now shared that its Snapdragon C laptop platform is built on a 6nm process, with an 8-core CPU and support for up to 16GB of LPDDR5X memory. The budget laptops are obviously not powerhouses, especially with Qualcomm positioning them against Intel N250 devices instead of Intel’s Core lineup or the MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro chip.

Its new C100 8K Giant Custom Macro Pad packs 100 keys (sitting atop swappable Keychron Apex switches) into a 10x10 grid that will take a sizable bite out of your desktop. It’s available now for $64.99 and features an 8,000Hz polling rate and per key RGB lighting that you can potentially use to differentiate what each key does.

But also pricier. The HydraSense is a new countertop water filter that dispenses water with a button press, filling your cup or bottle in seconds.

Sales dropped 64% year-on-year in Q2, according to research from Counterpoint, as manufacturers raised prices or simply stopped shipping cheaper models. Samsung and Motorola have been the only brands to benefit, as smaller companies became unable to undercut them on price. That helped both grow their market share in prepaid phones.

We live blogged almost 90 minutes of a show that was, honestly, better than expected. Our video team cut it down to eight.

The Made By Google keynote, hosted by Trevor Noah, kicks off at 6PM ET. Stay tuned to this website starting at 5:30PM for our live blog. Victoria Song will be there live, with Jay Peters, Jake Kastrenakes, and myself following remotely. Let’s see what happens.

The seventh Today I’m Toying With giveaway is live. Each week, I give away gadgets from my TITW videos, because I can’t ethically keep them! You can enter each new giveaway at theverge.com/TITW (or by email, see the rules) starting 9AM each Wednesday; I draw a winner a week later.