I was already a big fan of SwitchBot’s big circulator fan I recently reviewed, and now we’re getting the SwitchBot Battery Circulator Fan 2 Pro. Priced at $119.99, it ditches the height-adjustable stand but increases battery life, throw distance, and wind speed while adding native Matter-over-Wi-Fi, allowing it to join your smart home without needing a separate SwitchBot Hub.

The compact Fan 2 Pro is designed to be carried anywhere and move air around medium-sized rooms, a balcony, or family tent. It features a big 3,600mAh battery for up to 70 hours of very quiet (21dB), cordless operation at low speed, or four hours on max. It can operate even longer when connected to a USB-C power bank or large power station. The blades, filter, and front & rear housing are fully detachable for easy cleaning, and there’s even an integrated nightlight.

The Fan 2 Pro can move air up and around thanks to its ability to continuously oscillate 90-degrees vertically and horizontally. It has the highest maximum wind velocity (6.5 m/s or 21.3 ft/s) and the longest throw distance (33.5m or 110ft) of any SwitchBot fan to date. It does, however, move slightly less volume (477 CFM vs. 489 CFM) than the original Battery Circulator Fan it replaces, but easily… blows the Standing Circulator Fan away (323 CFM). 

Availability of the SwitchBot Battery Circulator Fan 2 Pro is limited to North America. The UK and European model will arrive later with a built-in negative ion generator designed to reduce airborne dust and static electricity.

Tech companies love to sell us expensive gadgets to solve all of life’s little problems. Sleepbuds sold by the likes of Anker and Ozlo are a good example. These miniature marvels of engineering sit flush in the ear, and allow side-sleepers to doze off listening to podcasts, audiobooks, music, or white noise without annoying their partner. But why pay over $200 for a second pair of highly specialized buds when you can spend a fraction of that for a product that never needs charging, never loses its Bluetooth connection, and won’t need replacing in a few years after the battery wears out? 

Piercing pillows, as the name suggests, promise pain relief for anyone with a freshly pierced ear. They feature cutouts that suspend the ear while sleeping, to avoid putting pressure on the sensitive tissue. I’m here to tell you that they also work great with bulbous AirPods, Galaxy Buds, Pixel Buds, and any other modern earbuds you might already own.

There are dozens of piercing pillows to choose from in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and firmness. I bought the $55 Ear Pillow from Blissbury for a few reasons, primarily because it has two ear cutouts for added flexibility. 

I sleep in two side positions. One I like to call the authoritarian cuddle, where my bottom arm is fully extended under one side of the pillow while my top arm strangles the other side. The second is just an unsprung fetal position. Blissbury’s piercing pillow accommodates both positions nicely.

I also like that the cutouts fall just below the centerline allowing the holes to align naturally with my ears when the pillow is nestled up against my shoulder. That makes the earholes relatively easy to locate when tossing and turning at night.

The memory foam used in the Ear Pillow also suits my preference for a relatively thick, firm pillow — though I do wish it was as firm as the $59.99 Ikea Klubbsporre pillow it replaces. The Blissbury’s thickness is adjustable between 4 and 5 inches using a removable insert. The outer cover of the Ear Pillow can be removed and washed as required.

The Ear Pillow is 26 inches (66cm) long and 15 inches (38cm) wide, which makes it slightly narrower than a US Standard pillow. That means a Standard pillowcase will sag a bit, which is good because the extra fabric can be stuffed into the earholes. I use mine with a pillowcase that matches my bedding because I’ve been told that’s what full-grown adults do. Blissbury ships the pillow with foam fillers for the holes in case the Ear Pillow ever gets demoted to a guest pillow.

Sleepbuds might still be the way to go if your partner snores, however. I found the Soundcore Sleep A30’s masking algorithms to be very effective at canceling out light to moderate snoring. Just know that even the latest sleepbuds often require side-sleepers to adjust their pillows just so to make sure the pressure isn’t too acute and the audio isn’t muffled. 

I’ve been a dedicated user of Anker’s A30 sleepbuds for almost a year. After a bumpy start, a flurry of firmware updates corrected most of the early issues. But there’s no amount of software that can overcome the inherent limits of devices that require drivers and batteries that are much smaller than traditional earbuds. Having spent a week with the Blissbury pillow, I now feel silly for spending 4x the amount on earbuds that are inferior to the AirPods Pro I already owned.

The makers of consumer electronics would love for us to believe that only they can smooth out the friction of modern life. But sometimes, all you really need is an oddly shaped piece of foam.

All photos by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

SpaceX’s latest residential dish — the Starlink V5 — is now available in “select areas.” It’s notably smaller and lighter than the V4 dish with improved power efficiency. It’ll be available in more places as SpaceX ramps up production to meet global demand. The company notes that Starlink V5 is not intended for in-motion use — for that you’ll have to wait for the revamped Starlink Mini teased alongside the V5 last month.

Here’s a comparison of how the V5 dish stacks up to the older V4, with full specifications available here.

Actual speeds are not guaranteed and depend upon which service plan you sign up for and factors like time of day, capacity, and local congestion. Regardless, people will not be happy to see that slightly lower peak download speed.

Hot showers, like electricity, are a luxury that’s easy to take for granted. That all changes after a few nights camping at a music festival, a week toiling at a backcountry job site, or overlanding all summer in the great unknown. An itchy scalp and the vague smell of warm clams suddenly make the idea of spending hundreds on a portable shower seem less absurd. 

I’ve been testing the Hottap Go from Australia-based Joolca while vanlifing to shower after surfing and to wash up after cooking. It features a 12L integrated water tank which is an improvement on other portable showers that require an external container and long, cumbersome hose that’s easy to trip over. The Hottap Go also recirculates the water until it reaches your chosen temperature. This slows things down a bit, compared to “instant” portable showers, but it doesn’t waste water since it won’t produce an initial shock of cold water that’s usually sprayed into the ground.

The $554 Hottap Go requires an external 12V power source, but in the US Joolca sells a 12V / 5A $165 power bank that attaches magnetically to the case. In Europe I had to roll my own with an €85 (about $100) power bank found on Amazon. The result is a true, fully self-contained hot water system that can be taken anywhere.

Joolca Hottap Go portable shower

Score: 8

Pros	Cons
All-in-one solution for hot showers anywhere Water tank large enough for two showers All accessories and attachments store inside the unit No water wasted unlike competitors Temperature remains steady	Very expensive Battery is optional and attaches to the outside of the case Have to wait a few minutes to heat up Water pressure is just okay

Where to Buy:

• $599 $554 at Joolca

To clear up any confusion right away: the Hottap Go requires electricity to power the integrated water pump and display but it heats the water with propane gas. It works with standard 1lb propane canisters out of the box, and larger tanks with a hose and regulator you must provide.

One thing I love about the Hottap Go is that the hoses, battery, showerhead, and gas canister can all be stored inside the water tank when not in use for easy portability and storage. I also like that the flow-adjustable showerhead comes with a magnetic holder. Taken together with its approach to preheating the water through recirculation, it’s clear that Joolca’s product designers have learned from the shortcomings of the current crop of portable propane showers.

To shower, you first attach the quick-release hoses for the gas and showerhead, plug the shower into a 12V power source (power bank, power station, or the cigarette plug inside your car), set your desired temperature and wait. The unit will begin heating and recirculating the water until a series of beeps indicates that the target temperature is reached. I brought tap water up to a hot 47C / 117F (per the display) in exactly four minutes, which was just enough time to gather everything I needed to shower outside my van with my modesty preserved. 

On one windy day at the beach, I noticed the Hottap Go had to keep reigniting, despite its leeward venting. It failed so often that I saw an E3 error message on the display. Repositioning the shower out of the wind kept the flame lit. The handle on top makes it easy to move, and the seal around the lid ensures that water won’t slosh onto the ground or your power bank. Otherwise, the Hottap Go always lit and stayed lit without issue during my testing.

Joolca says the Hottap Go is good for two “great showers” or a single “long, luxurious one.” I was able to take two functional yet satisfying showers from its full 12L (3.2 gal) water tank, making liberal use of the on/off switch on the showerhead to conserve water while lathering.

Water flow is just okay, even at maximum setting. It’s strong enough to penetrate long, thick hair when shampooing but it’s not going to jettison grime from my mountain bike, for example. The magnetic holder is strong and the showerhead feels good in the hand with a nicely positioned on/off switch. Adjusting the flow rate dial is a two-handed operation, but mostly I just left it on max.

If you’ll only use it once or twice a year, then spending over $554 for the Hottap Go portable shower doesn’t make much sense, especially when tankless portable showers like BougeRV’s cost half that. I much prefer the Hottap Go’s recirculating water tank, performance, and overall convenience, though I do wish the optional $165 magnetic power bank was included in that price. Still, for vanlifers like me or anyone who regularly spends days away from plumbing, $719 can be easily justified for what could be the best portable hot water shower available.

Photos by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Imagine an e-bike motor that lets you select your preferred pedaling cadence and then automatically adjusts the gears to keep your legs spinning at that exact speed, no matter how steep the hill gets — all without a fragile derailleur or heavy multi-speed cassette to maintain. Prefer manual control? No problem, you can have as many gears as you like in whatever ratio makes you feel most connected to the terrain. That’s the e-bike motor announced last week at the big Eurobike trade show in Frankfurt, by not just one company, but two. 

Pictured above is the MG Concept. It’s a Motor Gearbox Unit, or MGU, from Avinox, the DJI spinoff that’s upending the electric mountain bike (eMBT) industry. Avinox burst onto the scene two years ago with the launch of its impressive M1 drive system that packed unprecedented power inside a mid-drive motor that’s smaller, lighter, and cheaper than anything provided by competitors like Bosch or Specialized — and Avinox just launched the upgraded M2-series two months ago. The MG Concept takes things a step further by combining an electric motor with an automatic gearing system inside a single, compact housing that lets bike makers do away with derailleurs and cassettes. 

Avinox wasn’t alone, either. The MG concept debuted alongside the very similar X-series MGUs also announced last week by newcomer Gobao. These next-generation motors could fundamentally alter how standard e-bikes are built, despite both getting their start in cutting-edge electric mountain bikes that can easily cost $10,000 or more.

Like Formula 1, eMTBs are a tech proving ground for manufacturers whose customers are willing to pay top dollar for a measurable performance advantage. Advances in eMTBs eventually trickle down to the rest of the bicycle market, as we’ve recently seen with the new Amflow TL “eSUV” built around a traditional Avinox M2 motor, derailleur, and cassette.

Existing MGUs, like those made by Pinion, already integrate the gearbox inside the motor housing, but they still rely on a finite number of fixed, discrete gear ratios. The innovation behind both Avinox’s MG Concept and Gobao’s X-series motors is an integrated eCVT (Electronic Continuously Variable Transmission) that adds a layer of computerized precision to eliminate the stepped nature of mechanical shifting.

Both of these new motor gearbox units with integrated eCVTs feature infinite gear ratios that adjust continuously and seamlessly, meaning there are no fixed steps between gears (unless you want them). You can define as many virtual gears as you like with your preferred gear ratios. The system constantly evaluates your speed, pedal pressure, and the terrain in real time. The motors also feature an auto mode that keeps your legs pedaling at a constant cadence, delivering a ride similar to the “stepless” shifting experience I enjoyed in 2023, when I first reviewed a bike fitted with Enviolo’s mechanical CVT.

E-bikes built around these new motor gearboxes should benefit from a more durable transmission that requires far less maintenance, gears that can quickly shift under heavy load or at a standstill, and improved handling by moving the transmission mass from the rear wheel to the bike’s center.

The Avinox MG was developed in partnership with Canyon, Commencal, Forbidden, and Mondraker, who all had prototype eMTBs on display at Eurobike — three with chains, and one with a belt drive. Gobao used a self-branded e-bike at the show to demonstrate pre-production prototypes of its motor. First ride reports found both MGUs to be very impressive, and better and quieter than existing Pinion MGUs.

And while targeting electric mountain bikes for now, if this new breed of MGUs prove reliable and affordable, expect the motors to migrate to commuter, cargo, and family e-bikes over the next few years.

Gobao says it’ll begin mass production of the X1 (120Nm of torque / 1200W max power) and X1P (150Nm / 1500W) in February 2027, according to Bikebiz, and is targeting eMTBs and categories spanning “urban, trekking, cargo, and SUVs.” Avinox is offering fewer specifics, committing to a launch sometime in 2027. Its production MG motor is expected to produce about the same max torque and power as Gobao, and be “easily adapted to eMTB, eTrekking, eSUV, eGravel and other bike models.”

I personally can not wait. I’m so done with snapping and bending derailleurs on rocks and urban bike racks and digging mud and grit out of cassette cogs. It’s time for a simplified drivetrain for people who need to climb hills or carry a heavy load, even if it’s only to bring the kids to school up a paved road instead of a double-black trail.