The secret story of the vocoder, the military tech that changed music forever

The secret story of the vocoder, the military tech that changed music forever

The vocoder was never supposed to be a revolution in music. It wasn’t supposed to be anything in music, really. Its development began a century ago, when an engineer at Bell Labs was looking for a simpler way to send phone calls across copper telephone lines. The engineer, Homer Dudley, built some pretty neat technology…

The pint-sized Sonos Roam 2 is more than 20 percent off this weekend

The pint-sized Sonos Roam 2 is more than 20 percent off this weekend

Sonos is no stranger to the occasional sale. The iconic audio company routinely runs sales around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, and the Super Bowl, though it’s rare to see substantial discounts on its portable speakers outside of tentpole shopping events. Fortunately, if you have no interest in the Sonos Move 2 or forthcoming Sonos…

The AirPods Pro 3 are $50 off right now, nearly matching their best-ever price

The AirPods Pro 3 are $50 off right now, nearly matching their best-ever price

Less than a week ago, Apple announced the forthcoming AirPods Max 2, a pair of over-ear headphones that leverage the company’s H2 chip for AI-powered live translation, conversation awareness, and a host of newer features. However, if you’re okay with a pair of earbuds, the AirPods Pro 3 offer access to all the same features…

Here are 20 of our favorite outdoor deals from REI’s Member Days Sale

Here are 20 of our favorite outdoor deals from REI’s Member Days Sale

REI’s latest sale is in full swing. The outdoor retailer’s exclusive shopping event runs through Monday, March 23rd, bringing with it a batch of discounts on Garmin watches, tents, portable stoves, and a slew of Verge-approved goodies. As expected, most deals are available only to REI members; however, you can still join the co-op for…

Oeuf is a punishing platformer in a cozy shell

Oeuf is a punishing platformer in a cozy shell

The funny shape of eggs is the curious lifeblood of Oeuf, the new physics platformer by prolific developer Increpare Games. In a gaming landscape saturated with complex systems dropped into simple games, that grapples with metaphor within straightforward narratives, and that is desperate to bring cinematic sensibilities into gaming, Oeuf only asks that you briefly…

Dreame’s self-cleaning L10s Pro Ultra is nearly $1,000 off its original list price

Dreame’s self-cleaning L10s Pro Ultra is nearly $1,000 off its original list price

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale doesn’t kick off until next week, but the retailer is already dropping a host of good deals, especially on robot vacuums. We recently saw Ecovacs’ Deebot X8 and X9 Pro Omni drop to $599 ($501 off) and $679 ($621 off), respectively; however, if you’re looking for a cheaper robot vacuum /…

Future Sony PlayStation games will use AI to imagine new frames

Future Sony PlayStation games will use AI to imagine new frames

Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro, told Digital Foundry that ML-based frame generation tech is coming to “PlayStation platforms” in the future, letting the game console use AI to imagine new frames between the ones it’s actually rendering, which can create smoother perceived image quality while (typically) introducing some…

Microsoft is ending the Windows Update nightmare — and letting you pause them indefinitely

Microsoft is ending the Windows Update nightmare — and letting you pause them indefinitely

In 2015, Microsoft decided that you shouldn’t be in control of updating your PC anymore. At first, it seemed like a good idea to keep malware at bay – but soon, users discovered their computers were automatically shutting down and erasing work in the middle of the day. Then, Microsoft abused its power to install…