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Ledger’s new hardware wallet is an Android phone without the phone

15 October 2026 at 14:00
The Atom couldn’t have launched at a worse time for Ledger. | Image: Ledger

Ledger has announced its latest crypto-centric hardware effort, the Android-based Atom, a device that resembles a phone but is instead designed to be used alongside one. It arrives at a tricky time for Ledger, which has been forced to cease sales of some of its hardware across southeast Asia following hardware tampering in its supply chain, which has reportedly seen over $86 million worth of crypto stolen from across some users' accounts.

While Ledger's previous hardware wallet signers have been compact devices, running custom software and often with E Ink displays, the Atom is the spitting image of a regular Android smartphone. In fact it …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Fairphone’s latest repairable earbuds are smaller, lighter, and longer-lasting

14 October 2026 at 13:00
The Fairbuds 2 have had a total design revamp from the original pair.

Repairable, ethical phone brand Fairphone has released its second pair of earbuds. The Fairbuds 2 are just as repairable as the first generation, but deliver improved audio and almost twice the battery life. The Fairbuds 2 are out now in the UK and Europe from Β£99 / €119, and a US launch at $119 will follow on November 2nd.

The Fairbuds 2 have been redesigned from the ground up, moving to a stemmed design, available in black or green, and a case that's 37 percent smaller than the first generation. Despite that shrinking hardware, Fairphone has almost doubled the buds' battery life, which now totals 40 hours without active noise cancellation …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Android is the best and worst thing about Googlebooks

12 October 2026 at 16:00
I’ve been testing two Googlebooks: this Asus model, and HP’s too.

My first week with the new Android-powered laptops has been about as rocky as anyone's, but I've slowly learned to like them, even if love still feels a ways off. Every moment that's impressed me has been thanks to Android, whether I've been accessing a native version of a useful app or quickly checking my phone notifications from the laptop user interface.

But man, sometimes it just sucks.

Phone connectivity is flaky, app casting is awkward, and file-sharing seems to be flat-out broken. And that's just the interaction between a Googlebook and a phone - I have a whole other set of gripes about the limitations of native Android apps on a $ …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The OnePlus 16 is the company’s most interesting phone in years

12 October 2026 at 15:13

Today the OnePlus 16 launched in China, the company's first flagship phone since quitting both the US and European markets this summer. As luck would have it, it also looks like the company's best phone in some time.

Like most OnePlus phones, the 16 is positioned around performance, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset, and up to 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. That's backed up by an enormous 9,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, one of the biggest seen in any Android flagship yet. 100W wired and 50W wireless charging complete the power setup.

On the display front, the phone jumps to a 185Hz OLED panel for the first time. That'll no …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A week with Googlebooks: four notes from our testing so far

An HP Googlebook 14 laptop with the Android Play Store open.
Software, software, software. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Google's new operating system is off to a rocky start. The five newly launched Googlebook laptops have hardware that ranges from great to excellent, but the software in its current state is the weak point. There are four of us on staff at The Verge actively testing Googlebooks and, frankly, our internal Slack discussions have been mostly filled with collective venting of frustrations, disappointments, and bewilderment.

The promise of Googlebooks as a fresh and smartly designed alternative to Windows or Mac for Android phone owners sounds great, but there's more than just a few kinks and quirks to work out. Some of its issues and challenges …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google’s Pixel Buds update will put them to sleep along with you

7 October 2026 at 14:01
A hands-on photo of Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds.
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are getting all of the new features. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google has detailed an update bringing a slew of new features to its Pixel Buds 2A and Pro 2, which the company says are rolling out now. The new features were first teased in August.

The biggest update is Pixel Watch-powered sleep detection, rolling out to both pairs of earbuds. If you're wearing a Pixel Watch, the buds will now react when you fall asleep, by pausing music, silencing notifications, and turning off touch controls.

Several other updates are also coming to both the Buds 2A and Pro. Tap-to-mute allows you to mute or unmute your microphone with a quick tap during calls, though only when also using a Pixel phone, and you can n …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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