Photo by Sheena Vasani / The Verge Skip Crossrope unless you really love skipping rope. Like everybody else, my New Year’s resolution was to work out more. After moving to a new city, I fell out of my workout routine, and it didn’t help that the gym chain I belonged to was now a 30-minute drive in Los Angeles traffic. So I started researching workouts I could do from home. Jump roping is fun and a great, full-body cardio workout that can also improve agility and coordination. So when I heard the $199 Crossrope AMP Jump Rope Set would quantify the experience and help me incorporate strength tra ..read more

OnePlus could be a strong alternative to Google or Samsung for Wear OS smartwatches. At the end of February, a large package arrived on my doorstep. Inside were 11 boxes containing the same version of the $299.99 OnePlus Watch 2. My eyes watered and I whispered, “Not again.” This was a shipping accident. My box had 10 more watches than I needed for a review. It happens and normally doesn’t hold any larger meaning. But I was nervous because the original OnePlus Watch was by far the worst smartwatch I’ve ever had the misfortune of reviewing. Everything that could go wrong did. The fitness and he ..read more

Photo by Go Takayama for The Verge Hundreds of cables. Hundreds of thousands of miles. The internet runs, in vastly more ways than we realize or think about, through a series of garden-hose size tubes on the ocean floor. Without those tubes, the modern world sort of collapses. And the folks responsible for keeping them functioning have bigger, harder, stranger jobs than you might think. On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk to The Verge’s Josh Dzieza, who has been reporting on the undersea cable world and just published a feature about some of the folks who keep it running. It’s a story wo ..read more

The Soundcore Sleep A20 are decent passive earbuds that are great for side sleepers, even if Anker overpromises. “Sleep when you’re dead” was the rallying cry of my youth. But now, in the soft haze of dull middle age, I feel like I’ll die without enough sleep. That’s why I took interest in the new Sleep A20 earbuds from Anker’s Soundcore brand, which promise “pressure-less comfort for side sleepers.” I, like many, fall asleep listening to podcasts. It’s either that or let a three-pound hunk of fat and neurons lodged in my skull harass me about the future. But my Apple AirPods Pro, like most tr ..read more

Which is the best bet to bedazzle your backyard? I’ve tried lots of different ways to light up the patio in my backyard so I can enjoy sitting outside into the wee hours. Everything from fairy lights to path lights to standard string lights has been wrapped around the myrtles or dug into the borders. But none have survived more than a couple of scorching South Carolina summers. So, I was excited to test two new smart outdoor string lights from Nanoleaf and Lifx. The Nanoleaf Matter Smart Multicolor Outdoor String Lights ($129.99 for a 49-foot string with 20 bulbs) and Lifx Outdoor SuperColor S ..read more

For $699 and $24 a month, this wearable computer promises to free you from your smartphone. There’s only one problem: it just doesn’t work. The idea behind the Humane AI Pin is a simple one: it’s a phone without a screen. Instead of asking you to open apps and tap on a keyboard, this little wearable abstracts everything away behind an AI assistant and an operating system Humane calls CosmOS. Want to make a phone call, send a text message, calculate the tip, write something down, or learn the population of Copenhagen? Just ask the AI Pin. It uses a cellular connection (only through T-Mobile and ..read more

The new 2024 VanMoof S5 in Amsterdam where the majority of this UK-owned company still works. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Big question: can you trust the new company to build a better S5 and A5 electric bike? Trust is a tricky thing, and VanMoof’s new owners are about to discover if they’ve earned it now that the re-engineered S5 and A5 e-bikes are back on sale. For €3,298, you can buy the light gray models in the key markets of the Netherlands and Germany. Sales will expand to more European countries over the next month as the company more than doubles its network of service and sale ..read more

The Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 is the company’s first motion sensor that doesn’t require a Zigbee hub. Aqara’s Thread-based Motion and Light Sensor P2 ($33.99) has been on my smart home wish list since it was announced way back in 2022 — and now, it’s finally here. My home runs on motion sensors, and I’ve been using Aqara’s Zigbee-based ones for years. They’re among my favorites due to their low price, small size, simplicity, and rock-solid reliability. But they require a hub, which adds complexity and makes them harder to recommend. What makes the new P2 different is that it uses Matter ..read more

The ad campaigns for the Medicube Age-R Booster-H eventually wore me down. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge It’s got nothing to do with whether it works. It’s how I’m trapped in TikTok’s neverending product-recommending algorithm. Every few weeks, I’ll get a sudden deluge of influencers on my For You Page talking about the same product. Sometimes, it’s Lenovo earbuds or a dupe of a Dyson stick vac. Most of the time, it’s skincare products. I’ve managed to resist most temptations thanks to a strict skincare budget — but for about a year, the algorithm won’t stop hounding me about one produc ..read more

These buds are a more comfy replacement for a chest strap. For once, I didn’t have to worry about a fiddly fit getting in the way of heart rate tracking. I was a little skeptical of the $329.95 Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds. Other earbuds I’ve tested with heart rate tracking were fiddly. The workout tracking could be well-intentioned but a bit hit-or-miss in practice. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the Momentum Sport buds delivered what was promised — a simple way to view real-time fitness metrics without sacrificing sound quality. Most fitness buds have extra bass, a more secure fit ..read more