Accessory Reviews | The Verge

Forget expensive sleepbuds. Buy this pillow instead

2026-07-24T05:47:42-04:00

This “piercing pillow” also works great with earbuds you probably already own.

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 …

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Orchid is a delightfully retro and approachable hipster synth

2026-07-19T10:58:03-04:00

A modern tribute to electric chord organs which were basically giant harmonicas connected to a fan. | Photo: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge

In 2017, I bought an old Magnus chord organ off Craigslist for $10. It's one of my favorite music gear purchases. Electric chord organs let you play full chords with just a press of a button, making them perfect for aspiring singer-songwriters or fooling around at home. But chord organs largely fell out of favor in the '80s, as digital keyboards like those from Casio grew in popularity.

The Telepathic Instruments Orchid attempts to recapture some of that simple parlor instrument magic. Just like those vintage electric chord organs, the Orchid allows you to play rich chord progressions without having to master a ton of theory or complex fing …

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Are you filthy enough for a $700 portable shower?

2026-07-11T02:47:04-04:00

A luxurious hot shower anywhere you go.

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 th …

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Fi’s Starlink-enabled pet tracker found my dog when LTE couldn’t

2026-07-08T10:48:23-04:00

Gus, the wirehaired pointing griffon, models the Fi Ultra while overlooking Charleston Harbor.

Fi Ultra is the first Starlink-enabled pet tracker you can buy. It expands on GPS and LTE trackers, adding automatic failover to T-Mobile's T-Satellite-branded direct-to-cell service when venturing into cellular dead zones. That lets owners tap into SpaceX's constellation of low Earth orbit Starlink satellites to track their pets anywhere in the US. But it comes with a few tradeoffs based on our early testing, including relatively poor battery life for a pet tracker.

Built to fit "adventure dogs of any size," according to the company, the Fi Ultra is designed to be compatible with the dog collar or harness you already use. It costs $199 for …

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Qi fan fan

2026-07-04T05:30:57-04:00

The Kuxiu D5 keeps Qi-compatible phones cool while also charging a watch and earbuds.

Despite my initial skepticism, I'm now sold on wireless Qi chargers that add integrated fans to keep your phone cool while charging. I figured they'd be too loud, or too weak, or too gimmicky, but I'm a convert after spending a week with the new $59.99 Kuxiu D5 Qi2.2 charging dock. Its active cooling system has kept my phone from heating up, unlike every other Qi charger I've tried. Good thing, given my own history with an overheating phone.

Last year I fried the logic board on my titanium iPhone 15 Pro. I was on a sweltering train and trying to edit a 4K video on my phone, which was charging from a magnetically attached Qi power bank. Oof, …

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SwitchBot’s Standing Circulator Fan is worth fighting for

2026-06-20T06:30:50-04:00

I’m a fan.

I can't remember the last time I got excited about a fan. Normally, I just buy whatever Vornado or Dreo model fits my budget, but that was before I started testing the battery-powered Standing Circulator Fan from SwitchBot.

As the name indicates, the SwitchBot fan is a 3D circulator - a fancy way of saying that it can tilt up, down, left, and right to push a decent amount air around a room. It looks okay, despite all the plastic, is relatively quiet, runs for hours on battery, has an integrated nightlight, transforms from a desktop to standing fan in seconds, and works on its own or as part of a smart home. There's a lot to like here.

Over …

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Kaleidescape’s movie player blows streaming, and your wallet, away

2026-06-18T19:03:00-04:00

The Strato E player (here with a Mini Terra Prime server on top of it) is smaller than a Blu-ray disc collection, but you can get a lot of 4K discs for $3,000.

We've lost something in the past 15 years. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple; they've all convinced us that streaming is the best way to watch movies and shows at home. With everything at our fingertips, there's no need to run to Blockbuster for the weekend's entertainment, or wait for a DVD rental to arrive in the mail. And going to the movie theater is a luxury - one that keeps getting more expensive.

But we were, all of us, deceived. We traded quality for convenience. And while TVs have improved drastically, we feed them inadequate, bitrate-starved, internet-throttled streams that won't let our fancy screens show their full potential. Blu-r …

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This portable light is great for way more than camping

2026-06-12T15:41:54-04:00

It's intended for camping, but BougeRV's T1 light is so versatile that it also makes for a great summer travel companion that'll continue to light the dark corners of your life long after you return. I used it for a few months during a recent road trip in my camper van, and it's the light I keep reaching for again and again now that I'm home.

The telescoping light features three articulating LED arms that together direct up to 3,000 lumens of white, warm, or red light in any direction you want. It can illuminate an area over 1,000 square feet and function as a flashlight, a mood light, and a 57Wh USB-C power bank that can deliver up to 30W …

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I went to the woods to drink surprisingly great espresso

2026-06-11T14:55:55-04:00

With summer's return, I'm again reminded of my limits as I head into the great outdoors: I can put up with a heavy, uncomfortable backpack, bug bites, mud, and even bland dehydrated food, but I will not forsake my morning brew.

I've tried every imaginable coffee gadget in my half-century of camping. These range from simple drip systems when ultralight backpacking, an AeroPress when not weighing every gram, French press plungers when assisted by bicycle, and small countertop coffee makers when adventuring by van. Yet I keep returning to handheld espresso makers whenever possible for reasons of taste, convenience, and - let's face it - gadget …

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JMGO’s N3 Ultimate projector is the new portable 4K champ

2026-06-07T09:59:28-04:00

The N3 Ultimate doesn’t mind being off center. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Sorry Anker: JMGO now makes my favorite flagship portable projector.

The N3 Ultimate is an excellent portable 4K projector that defeats moderate ambient light at severe placement angles and can rival more expensive home theater installations at night. After a few weeks of testing, I think the raw adaptability exhibited by the JMGO's N3 Ultimate justifies its current $2,399 price ($600 off its $2,999 list).

Modern all-in-one projectors built around Google TV are already super accommodating when it comes to placement. Set one down on a living room table or campsite rock and it will begin searching for a screen or blank wall while avoiding o …

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