Buying multiple lamps for different rooms can get expensive. Govee’s rechargeable Table Lamp Classic gives you one lamp you can use throughout your home instead of getting one for every room, and right now it’s down to $59 ($21 off) at Amazon. That’s just $4 shy of the all-time low set during Prime Day, and the smart lamp’s second-best price to date.

Govee Table Lamp Classic

Where to Buy:

• $79.99 $59.99 at Amazon
• $79.99 $63.99 at Govee

Because it’s cordless, the lamp is surprisingly versatile. You can use it to brighten your desk during the day, keep it by your bedside at night, and even carry it to the patio for dinner (just don’t forget to bring it back inside if it’s expected to rain, as the lamp isn’t weather-resistant). A built-in 4,800mAh battery powers the lamp for up to 30 hours with colored lighting enabled, or about five hours when using bright white light, so you don’t need to worry about staying near an outlet. 

Despite being small and light enough to carry from room to room, the Table Lamp Classic offers many of the same smart lighting features found on Govee’s bigger lamps. It lets you tweak the color temperature, cycle through 72 preset scenes, and sync the lighting to your music, making it easy to match the mood whether you’re studying, unwinding, or enjoying a date night. If you have something more specific in mind, Govee’s app can even generate a custom effect from a short text prompt. Since it supports Matter, you won’t have to reach for the Govee app every time you move the lamp to a different room, either. Instead, you can control it with your voice through your favorite smart home platform.

For years, we've heard rumors of a new home hub device from Apple, meant to take on smart home devices like the Google Nest Hub Mini and Amazon's Echo Show. Besides "HomePod with a screen," details have been sparse. But now, a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman sheds some light on the alleged device, as well as a potential release window.

According to Gurman, the new smart hub will feature a 7-inch square display and a brand-new operating system based on Apple's tvOS, with "grids of icons, widgets and apps" reminiscent of iOS and even WatchOS. It will reportedly feature the revamped Siri AI at its core, along with video chat, security, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Nanoleaf’s Blocks Combo XL Smarter Kit is a fun back-to-school buy that can add pops of customizable light and storage to your wall. It combines colorful smart lighting panels with a low-profile shelf and pegboard, and right now you can buy the kit for half off at $99.99 from Nanoleaf, which marks a new low price.

Nanoleaf Blocks Combo XL Smarter Kit

Where to Buy:

• $249.99 $99.99 at Nanoleaf

The kit can hold up to 6.6 pounds and 3.3 pounds, respectively, making them handy for holding headphones, controllers, notebooks, a tablet, a small plant, or a couple of books. It comes with both large and small modular light panels that glow from edge to edge, and they can be rearranged or expanded down the line to create a design that’s unique to your space. 

Of course, the light panels support custom lighting scenes, and Nanoleaf’s app has a feature called Paint Tool that lets you set where each color appears. AI Magic Scenes can also generate color palettes from a word or phrase, or you can browse thousands of community-created designs in the app.

Beyond adding some personality to a dorm room or apartment, the lights can make movie nights, gaming sessions, and listening to music more enjoyable by mirroring your screen’s visuals or syncing with tunes. They work with other Nanoleaf lights for a more immersive lighting experience, as well, and you can also control them over Wi-Fi using the Nanoleaf app or with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Alternatively, a physical controller is included if you’d rather not reach for your phone.

Split between buying a smart calendar, a kitchen TV, a smart home hub, and a smart display? Amazon’s Echo Show 21 is all of those things in one, with a huge 21-inch screen. You can use it to control your smart lights, glance at recipes, watch TV shows, and more. Currently, Best Buy and Home Depot have the product on sale for $319.99 (usually $399.99), matching the lowest price we’ve seen to date.

Amazon Echo Show 21

The Echo Show 21 can act as the centerpiece of any burgeoning smart home. The 1080p smart display is a Matter and Thread controller, meaning you can locally control compatible devices using voice commands or a range of widgets. Its built-in auto-framing camera also facilitates video calls. Plus, it has decent speakers for music and other features shared among Alexa displays.

Where to Buy:

• $399.99 $319.99 at Best Buy
• $399.99 $319.99 at Home Depot

The Echo Show 21’s smart home controls are unique to it and the smaller Echo Show 15 that’s just $20 cheaper. They boast support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, providing seamless control for numerous devices. The included voice remote can’t interact with widgets or Alexa skills, but you can use it to control your streaming services or other media. There’s a built-in 13-megapixel camera, too, in case you want to video chat with a pal, with auto-framing to keep you centered even if you’re rushing around the house.

The panel is designed to mount on the wall, but if you’d rather set it on a counter or bookshelf, Best Buy is selling the adjustable stand for $99.99 (usually $124.99). The stand tilts up to 30 degrees, and swivels a full 360 degrees in case you want it in the center of your room, or on a kitchen island.

Clap on. Clap off. Well, more like, Clap, pause for half a beat but no longer because otherwise it'll stop hearing you, clap again because you waited too long, clap louder and faster, that didn't work, clap two more times, and suddenly: on. The Clapper didn't always work - and even when it did, it might fry your gadgets in the process - but it managed to become a big hit anyway.

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of The Clapper, from its beginnings as The Great American Turn-On to its debut alongside one of the great advertising campaigns of all time. The Verge's David Pierce and Victoria Song are joined by Allison Marsh, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Although most of Prime Day’s unusually good Philips Hue deals have ended, a few remain, and some, including the black Philips Hue Twilight Sleep and Wake-Up Light, are even cheaper. None, however, have fallen to a new all-time low price like Philips Hue’s Essential starter kit. Right now, you can buy a bundle containing four white and color E26 bulbs and a Hue Bridge for $79.99 ($40 off) at Amazon. Since that’s the same price as the two-bulb Essential starter kit, it’s like getting two bulbs for free.

Philips Hue Essential starter kit,

Where to Buy:

• $119.99 $79.99 at Amazon (four-pack)
• $119.99 at Philips Hue (four-pack)

Each of the color-changing bulbs can display millions of colors or tunable white light ranging from a warm 2200K to a cooler 6500K, while producing up to 800 lumens of brightness. The Hue app also offers a preset lighting scenes for everything from movie nights to the holidays, though you can also create your own. Meanwhile, the included Hue Bridge lets you control the lights when you’re away from home, create schedules, connect up to 50 lights throughout your home, and set automations so they can, for instance, turn on automatically when you arrive home. It also allows you to control the lights through all the major smart home platforms, thanks to Matter compatibility.

As Philips Hue budget-friendly kits, there are a few premium features they lack that are worth mentioning. Most notably, the bulbs only dim to two percent instead of 0.2 percent. Philips Hue also doesn’t guarantee they’ll match the color accuracy of its flagship bulbs across generations. If you’re simply looking to fill your home with colorful smart lighting at a reasonable price, though, those differences may not matter much to you.