The Verge·Saturday, December 13, 2025

The Verge - Saturday, December 13, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

A Kinect for kids is outselling Xbox to become the hot console this holiday

It's a small sample size, likely driven by Black Friday discounts and temporary virality, but the Nex Playground has gone from little-known console curiosity to best-seller. It's now on track to quadruple its sales from last year. According to research firm Circana, the Playground was the second best-selling console in the US for the week ending November 22nd, and third for the week ending November 28th. In October, it wasn't even mentioned by Circana's video game analyst, Mat Piscatella. The c

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Slab is the first MIDI controller built exclusively for Serato Studio

Music making is always better with hardware. Native Instruments and Ableton have had incredible success with their custom MIDI controllers that integrate with their DAWs (digital audio workstations), Maschine and Live, respectively. Native Instruments' Maschine (yes, it's the name of the hardware and the software) and Ableton's Push are pretty much the gold standard for integration between music-making software and hardware. Serato is hoping it can capture even a sliver of that magic with its

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This $1,500 robot cooks dinner while I work

The Posha robot chef can autonomously cook a meal from scratch. As I'm sitting in my office writing this review, delicious, cheesy, garlicky scents are wafting up the stairs. I can hear whizzing and whirring, and the occasional clunk, as a robot chef in my kitchen is making macaroni and cheese. Its app tells me there are three minutes left in the process, and based on the snapshot it's showing, the dish looks like a creamy pile of cheesy goodness. I'll be heading out the door shortly to pick

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The Nex Playground and Pixel Buds 2A top our list of the best deals this week

The Nex Playground is a compact, cube-shaped console that’s currently on sale for $50 off. | Image: The Verge The Nex Playground is apparently one of the hottest consoles this holiday season thanks to its kid-friendly games and fun, motion-controlled gameplay. And now through December 14th, the cube-shaped console is on sale for its Black Friday low of around $199 ($50 off) at Amazon. There are some other great deals still available you might have missed this week, too, including a sizable dis

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The best thing I bought this year: a portable mechanical keyboard

A keyboard perfect for barside writing. As a writer, I take the tools of my trade relatively seriously. I’m not crazy enough to drop $3,600 on a keyboard, but I also find typing on a MacBook for extended periods of time deeply unsatisfying — and distracting. So this spring, I started looking into distraction-free writing setups, which included an e-reader / writer and a mechanical keyboard. I started with the Boox Palma 2 because its E Ink screen and limited connectivity could make it a solid

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Sektori is psychedelic, tough as nails, and worth the pain

Sektori is an old-school twin-stick shooter. Created by a former developer at Returnal studio Housemarque, it puts you in the role of a little ship that blasts through swarms of enemies, and you have to weave through them to get upgrades to help you survive. Often, my runs end after less than a couple minutes, like a retro arcade game. But creator Kimmo Lahtinen brilliantly weaves modern ideas from roguelikes with pulsing visuals and music that make Sektori a mesmerizing experience. A key part o

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Here are the shipping deadlines to get your holiday gifts on time

Amazon Prime members may be eligible for free same-day delivery. | Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Let’s face it, the same thing happens year after year. Things get busy with work, school, and life in general until you’re suddenly up against the clock as you race your gifts to your local post office, FedEx store, or UPS location. We’ve all been there, but we’d like to help as you plan your next move and begin sending out your holiday packages. If you intend to send your gifts via traditi

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The Verge’s 2025 holiday gift guide

The holidays have a way of sneaking up on us. One minute you're trick-or-treating with your kids, and the next you're panic shopping in a Buc-ee's gift aisle. But it doesn't have to be that way. With the right cheat sheet, you can keep the holiday spirit high and stress levels low. Fortunately, we did some planning on your behalf. As much as we love playing with the latest gadgets and gizmos here at The Verge, we also love recommending them. That's why, after consulting with our expert team of w

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The best instant cameras you can buy right now

Even with the ability to take excellent photos with our phones and instantly share them across the world, there’s something magical about the old-school instant camera. With just a click of a button, you can capture a moment in a photo that you can see and touch almost immediately. Images captured by an instant camera aren’t as pristine or perfect as those produced by modern digital cameras, but their soft images and imperfections are often a big part of the allure. Yet not all instant cameras a

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Parents call for New York governor to sign landmark AI safety bill

A group of more than 150 parents sent a letter on Friday to New York governor Kathy Hochul, urging her to sign the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act without changes. The RAISE Act is a buzzy bill that would require developers of large AI models - like Meta, OpenAI, Deepseek, and Google - to create safety plans and follow transparency rules about reporting safety incidents. The bill passed in both the New York State Senate and the Assembly in June. But this week, Hochul reportedly p

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