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To get started with competitive Pokémon battles, all you need is your phone. But to compete at the highest level, like at the Pokémon World Championships, you're going to need a Switch. And there doesn't seem to be a good reason why. Battle simulator Pokémon Champions originally launched on the Switch and Switch 2 in April, with the mobile version following in June. The experience is nearly identical across the game's versions; since it's cross-platform, the choice really comes down to what devices you own and whether you prefer tapping or using a controller. I find myself playing Champions on my phone more often just because it's always in … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/yvpGTQz

EcoFlow’s high-end, weatherproof, plug-in solar kit with integrated battery. | Image: EcoFlow This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on e-bikes, power stations, and how to work anywhere , follow Thomas Ricker . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started With a deep breath, I took the cable seething with 800W of solar power and plugged it directly into a standard wall jack in my home. Nothing sparked, nothing smoked, and by the end of that sunny summer day, my electricity bill had dropped to nearly $0. As unnerving as it sounds to treat a common household power outlet as a power input , these DIY plug-in sol … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Xu9iBIz

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. | Getty Images During Naomi Osaka's match against Anastasia Zakharova at this year's US Open earlier this week, a gaggle of ring light-wielding influencers who were packed in a luxury suite became enough of a distraction that the umpire paused the match and repeatedly asked them to quiet down. Elsewhere in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, other creators could be seen asking US Open staffers to take full-flash photos of them while Osaka and Zakharova were playing. Last month, United States Tennis Association (USTA) media operations director Jeanmarie Daly said that the US Open was "almost doubling" the number of content creators it was app … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/h6a7IgH

A collection of headphone manufacturers and fans come together for their love of great sound. | Image: CanJam Global I've been reviewing headphones for a long time, and I've listened to everything from the barely serviceable to multi-thousand-dollar open-back headphones. But recently I've been uninspired by the state of mainstream options. Most are perfectly good - great, even - but they lack a distinct character. Something to remind me why I fell in love with headphones to begin with, landing me in this crazy career. I needed some revitalization. I needed to see something cool. I needed to be around other people with an emotional connection to headphones. I needed to go to CanJam. CanJam is a small audio show produced by Head-Fi.org , the largest audio-fo … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/105BTqN

It's Bullitt meets Christine meets Waymo. A new short film imagines a San Francisco car chase where the other driver isn't human - and the car may be trying to kill you. That a robotaxi can now be cast as the villain with almost no explanation says something about the present moment. Autonomous cars have gone from sci-fi curiosities to fixtures in some American cities, where they've become stand-ins for anxieties about AI job displacement, Big Tech surveillance, and machines making decisions once left to humans. Road Rage , the planned short film awaiting $40,000 on Kickstarter to fund production, leans into all of it. The film pits Joa, a … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/A9JgSRq

Just hours after OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra , CEO Sam Altman was already apologizing for what he describes as a "messy rollout" after paying users expecting access to the new frontier model were left waiting. The company hailed the model as a "generational leap in capability" on Thursday and described it as the start of "the AGI era," a fuzzy and poorly-defined term tech executives nevertheless insist on using to promote their products. It said Astra would roll out to some enterprise customers - specifically those with access to its Daybreak cybersecurity platform - that day. This would expand to include all Plus, Pro, Business, and Enter … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/mFZ2ITA