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Bose SoundLink Home review: a speaker that’s all about looks

2024-12-26 21:00:00

This Bluetooth speaker’s design is a breath of fresh air, but Bose skimped on some features that are usually standard at this price.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Squid Game season 2 is a brutal remix of Netflix’s biggest show

2024-12-26 16:00:00

A photo of Lee Jung-jae in season 2 of Squid Game on Netflix.
Image: Netflix

After years of brand tie-ins and ill-conceived spinoffs, the series is back — and it’s just as tense as ever.

Read the full story at The Verge.

What podcasts looked like in 2024 — literally

2024-12-25 23:00:00

Photo collage showing how podcasts looked in 2024.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

These days, podcasts are going video, and there are a number of visual trends we’ve noticed — some good, some not so much. We’ll show you.

Read the full story at The Verge.

2024 has been an amazing year for roguelikes

2024-12-25 22:00:00

Photo collage showing The Verge’s favorite roguelike games of 2024.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

This year showed that a roguelike can be almost anything.

Read the full story at The Verge.

There’s a reason Metaphor: ReFantanzio’s battle music sounds as cool as it does

2024-12-25 01:00:00

Key art from Metaphor: ReFantanzio featuring a blue haired boy wearing a white coat sitting on a throne behind the text “Metaphor: ReFantanzio” with a small woman with red hair in the foreground.
Image: Atlus

Metaphor: ReFantanzio is one of 2024’s best games racking up a stack of Game Awards including best RPG, best art direction, and best narrative. But one category in which Metaphor particularly stood out was its music. The soundtrack, produced by Shoji Meguro – the long-time music director of the Persona series, is one of the outstanding achievements in video game music this year, particularly its battle theme which became a viral hit. In an interview with The Verge, Meguro talked about his work on the Metaphor soundtrack including what went into what is perhaps the coolest piece of video game battle music ever made.

Meguro, known for his work producing the pop-y, jazzy vibes of the Persona soundtracks, acknowledged that Metaphor’s heavy orchestral / choral sound is not something Persona fans would expect from him and definitely outside his own wheelhouse. He said in order to effectively change gears from Persona to Metaphor, he had to relearn classical music theory.

“But that’s what makes creating this score so exciting,” he said. “When I was first told about Metaphor: ReFantazio, I was told it would be an epic, high-fantasy RPG. And immediately I heard the sound of great...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Kobo’s Elipsa 2E, an excellent e-reader for taking notes, is down to its best price

2024-12-25 00:38:13

The new Kobo Elipsa 2E on a desk surrounded by papers.
Kobo’s Elipsa 2E is a good e-reader that offers an intuitive note-taking experience. | Image: Kobo

Amazon might have released a new Kindle Scribe earlier this month for $399.99, but after testing it, I still don’t think it can compete with its rivals. If you’re looking for a good e-reader with more useful note-taking capabilities, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is still one of my favorites, and it’s down to an all-time low of $349.99 ($50 off) at Amazon or Target. Rakuten Kobo will also throw in $10 in credit when you buy a $50 gift card, which you can use toward buying books or styli.

If you’re the type of person who likes to scribble in margins while reading ebooks, you’ll likely prefer the Kobo Elipsa 2E. The Elipsa 2E lets you directly write on ebook pages, taking notes in margins or anywhere else you’d like, just as you would on paper. The new Kindle Scribe lets you directly write on pages, too, but it’s a lot more complicated and you can’t even circle phrases or words.

The Elipsa 2E also offers other helpful features beyond just a more natural note-taking experience. It boasts double the storage (32GB) as the entry-level Kindle Scribe, for example, and accurately converts handwriting into typed text faster than the Scribe. The biggest drawback, of course, is that it doesn’t natively support Kindle ebooks, so you’ll have to convert your library if you want to read them from your Kobo device.

Just a few more deals

  • Sony’s WH-CH720N noise-canceling headphones are currently down to just $74.99 ($75 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is their all-time low price. Their noise cancellation isn’t as effective as rivals like Sony’s WH-1000XM5, but for the price, they do a decent job of tuning out noise. They also deliver good sound, support for multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, and up to 35 hours of continuous playback, rendering them a great option if you’re on a budget.
  • If you’re in need of USB-C chargers, you can buy the Anker PowerPort III and the eco-friendly version of the 30-watt Anker 511 Charger bundled together for $24.99 ($29.99 off) from Best Buy. Both are USB-C chargers that’ll quickly power up your phone, laptop, tablet, and electronics, but the 30-watt Anker 511 Charger is smaller and thus more portable with a single port. In contrast, Anker’s PowerPort III is a 65-watt wall charger that lets you quickly juice up to three devices at once.
  • If you’re looking out for porch pirates, the Blink Outdoor 4 camera is on sale for $49.99 ($50 off) — one of its better prices to date — at Amazon with a Sync Module 2 included. Blink’s 1080p security camera offers better image quality than its predecessor, two-zone package detection, and an impressive two years of battery life. You don’t need a premium subscription to record motion events either, thanks to the included Sync Module 2, which lets you record motion-activated video locally (with a USB stick) for free.