Sean Hollister
The Verge
California, United States
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Past articles by Sean:
Modular gaming handheld.
If you took a Framework Mainboard, added a battery, screen and speakers, and stuck it all inside a case with slots for a pair of Nintendo Switch-style detachable Bluetooth controllers, you wouldn’t just have a poor man’s Lenovo Legion Go. You’d have a gaming portable you can upgrade, potentially year after year, just by swapping that mainboard out. Why do I bring this up? Well: → Read More
Google’s Fitbit Charge 6 will finally bring the physical button back
9to5Google is reporting that a Fitbit Charge 6, coming this year, will bring back the physical button. We panned the Fitbit Charge 5 because of its confusing touchscreen user interface and the 4 and 3 for the capacitive key. → Read More
Google’s Pixel Tablet has an unusual amount of air inside.
We knew the Pixel Tablet didn’t exactly belong in the premium Pixel lineup, but I didn’t expect it’d be quite this hollow in iFixit’s teardown photos! Ars Technica takes a harsher tone than I would; More battery would be nice, but I’m on board with a single layer of components as long as repairs are easy. Lots of glue here despite no water resistance, though... → Read More
And speaking of incredible arms...
Have we figured out yet whether Cloud’s arms are... augmented... in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth? Jay and I were just talking about a very important investigation he conducted back in the day. → Read More
The new GoPro can give you Mrs. Incredible arms (or, you know, huge field of view).
Becca goes all elastic to show off the Max Mod 2. It’s a $100 interchangeable lens that’s the most exciting part of the $400 GoPro Hero 12 Black — because it adds a 177-degree field of view. → Read More
Get your cheap SSDs while you can? Samsung’s slashing NAND production by 50 percent.
Memory chips are big business for Samsung, but a glut recently saw the company’s total profit fall 95 percent. Now, the company’s reportedly cutting NAND production by half to juice those prices — which means all-time low SSD deals won’t last. (via Tom’s Hardware) → Read More
Framework’s barebones single-board computer now starts at just $199.
Framework sells its modular laptop motherboard a la carte to fulfill DIY desktop and cyberdeck dreams — and now, it’s selling off extra stock of these 11th Gen Intel Core models at deep discount. You’ll also need storage, memory, and possibly ports (it’s only got four USB-C by itself). There’s also this neat transparent $39 Cooler Master case if you want to DIY an unofficial Intel NUC. → Read More
My kids love Furby — send help
Furby, the animatronic plush toy, has traded Furbish for English and ditched the screens and Wi-Fi. It’s now more doll than robot — but perhaps that’s just fine? → Read More
The EVGA situation is more complicated than we imagined.
Turns out the statement that “Our Taiwan office is still operating and Kingpin is still with EVGA” is not good enough to explain what’s going on. Two weeks ago, Steve at GamersNexus revealed that there was no next project for the company’s motherboard BIOS team — they’re leaving. Steve tells The Verge two have since been hired by other vendors, Kingpin is entertaining offers, and sources say… → Read More
EVGA says no, its entire Taiwan office did not just resign.
EVGA, once but no longer a video card company, was rumored to be exiting motherboards too — Korean overclocker SafeDisk claimed he’d heard the entire Taiwan office had resigned, including EVGA resident overclocker Vince “Kingpin” Lucido. But EVGA just gave TechPowerUp this statement: VideoCardz has pulled its story on the rumor. → Read More
Reddit’s AI porn ban has a carveout for Rule 34
Reddit has added an explicit carveout to its Content Policy that allows “AI-generated sexual media that depicts fictional people or characters.” Rule 34 is alive and well. → Read More
AMD’s bang-for-the-buck gaming chip is so good the company will barely let you buy it.
Tom’s Hardware is spreading the good word about the Ryzen 5 5600X3D, a $229 AM4 chip so strong AMD is only selling it in limited quantities to gamers who physically visit a Micro Center store. A little bird tells Paul Alcorn it’s not a binned 5800X3D — it was intended for full launch before “business factors” intervened. Note: if you’re not buying for games, the 5600X is currently on sale for… → Read More
Please don’t click the stupid AI-written Gizmodo / io9 post — not even for LOLs.
James Whitbrook, io9’s top editor, was almost completely blindsided by the story, which — spoiler alert — claimed to be a chronological list of Star Wars films but was not even in chronological order. When CNET pulled this crap, its entire newsroom unionized. io9 owner G/O Media is already unionized, though — and its union is asking that you don’t click the story, or any other story with a… → Read More
Steam Deck hits 10,000 games.
Note: Valve’s “verified” and “playable” lists of titles haven’t always been reliable, since Valve doesn’t playtest the entirety of a game last we checked. Also, some verified games run at 30fps and/or drain battery quick. But it’s a good ballpark. For me, it never ceases to amaze: We now live in a world where a Linux handheld can competently play Windows games. → Read More
The Stream Deck is getting a paid app store later this year
Elgato general manager Julian Fest says a paid Stream Deck app store is coming later this year. The Corsair-owned Elgato already has a “store,” but it’s just plug-ins and icon packs you can download for free. → Read More
The Game Boy that survived the Gulf War has been removed from Nintendo New York
Until recently, the flagship Nintendo Store at New York City’s Rockefeller Center housed an original Game Boy that, it claimed, survived a bombing during Operation Desert Storm. → Read More
Someone’s about to be IRL Gollum.
The One Ring card — which automatically became the rarest in all of Magic: The Gathering because Wizards only made a single copy found only in expensive packs — has been graded. The search is over. Collectors have promised millions of dollars to whoever finds it. → Read More
Jsaux’s RGB transparent back cover for Steam Deck is $40 next month.
They tell us the $40 PC0106 has its own battery, but it’s not clear what kind. Is that a USB-C port and a button on the back to fire up the LEDs, right beneath the Deck’s volume keys? Seems like! We’re asking. More here, including Jsaux’s new RGB dock — which has an expanding stand so it can work with other handhelds as well. → Read More
Jsaux’s ultimate RGB dock stretches to fit Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more
Remember the new Jsaux RGB dock? Turns out it’s got a push-to-open expanding stand that fits not only the Steam Deck but also the Asus ROG Ally and other handhelds. → Read More
We need Google Reader more than ever.
I feel Epic CEO Tim Sweeney very strongly on this. But there’s an way for web browsing to feel much less horrible: RSS. What if, say, a big internet company facing an existential crisis and growing trust issues decided to reverse its mistake and bring the beloved product back? What if they built in — I don’t know, not like they’ve ever done this before — a way to pay creators? Imagine the… → Read More