TheVerge
Explore the fusion of technology, science, art, and culture with TheVerge's comprehensive coverage.
Nintendo Switch 2 preorders have sold out online across the major retailers selling them in the US. Walmart, Best Buy, and Target sold out of their inventory early Thursday morning, while GameStop says it sold out of online preorders hours after they opened at 11AM ET.
It’s not clear when — or if — the four retailers will reopen preorders down the line. You can still sign up for preorders directly from Nintendo, but you’ll need to ensure you have at least 50 hours of gameplay on the original Switch as of April 2nd, 2025 and have purchased a 12-month Switch Online membership. GameStop also says it has some stock remaining in-store.
Nintendo will start sending out its first round of preorder invites on May 8th before gradually opening it up to more people. But even then, Nintendo says you may not receive the Switch 2 on its June 5th release day due to “very high demand.” On Wednesday, Nintendo warned customers in Japan that it “cannot fulfill” all of the preorders it received in the country.
Nintendo pushed Switch 2 preorders in the US to April 24th due to concerns about tariffs. The Switch 2 still costs $449.99, but Nintendo raised the price of its accessories, including the Switch 2 Joy-Con, Pro Controller, Switch 2 camera, and its new amiibo.
GameStop's online Nintendo Switch 2 preorders went live at 11AM ET, and like the preorders from other retailers overnight, things immediately got off to a rocky start. Shortly after 11:30AM ET, some people reported that they were able to complete orders, including one Verge staffer. But GameStop announced at 1:49PM ET that online preorders had sold out.
"Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders have sold out online," GameStop said on X. "We will continue to squash bot and duplicate orders to reopen inventory. Preorders are still available in-store for the Nintendo Switch 2, the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart Bundle, games, and accessories."
Right when clock rolled over to 11AM, many of us at The Verge experienced issues with the website. At first, GameStop's website showed me a mostly-blank page - the only text on it was "Oops… Something went wrong" and a refresh button. Soon after, myself and other Verge staffers often saw Cloudflare notices on GameStop's website instead, including error notices that said the "web server is down" or that the site is exp …
Though Ryan Coogler's Sinners is crawling with vampires and steeped in supernatural mythology, the film's monsters are far from the most magical thing about it. Those aspects of Sinners' story are exciting, and they help illustrate many of its ideas about the US' legacy of racism. But in terms of showing you both the beauty and the agony of Black life in the 1930s South, there are few things in Sinners that are more powerful than its wide, majestic shots of the Mississippi Delta.
Those shots - of dirt roads that seem to stretch into infinity and sprawling cotton fields being worked by sharecroppers under the blistering sun - are part of how Sinners shows you the world its characters come from, and they're especially breathtaking when you see them on the big screen. But from each shot, you can also get a sense of the backbreaking misery that came with cultivating that land. When Coogler first reached out to Sinners' cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (The Sun Is Also a Star, The Last Showgirl), she understood that conveying those complicated feelings would be key to realizing his vision. And after having worked together on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Coogler had no doubt th …
After debuting a fun Piranha Plant-inspired alternative to Nintendo’s own $50 Switch 2 camera, Hori is back with another camera accessory for the console that’s less fun but more functional. Standing just shy of two inches tall and weighing 30 grams, the camera is small and light enough to be connected to the Switch 2’s top USB-C port without making the console feel top-heavy while playing in handheld mode.
Hori’s USB Camera for Nintendo Switch 2 is currently listed on the Amazon Japan website for 3,981 yen, or around $28, making it much cheaper than the company’s $60 Piranha Plant cam. It’s not known if the tiny camera will be exclusive to Japan, but since the Piranha Plant is already listed on Hori’s US website, there’s a good chance this one will also see wider availability. For now, only Amazon Japan has the new camera listed with a June 5th, 2025 release date.
In addition to being small enough to perch atop the Switch 2, the GameChat-compatible camera can also be attached to an included weighted base allowing it to stand alone on an entertainment center like Nintendo’s own camera is designed to. The base also has a fold-down support on the underside so you can sit the camera on the top edge of a TV, assuming that edge is thin enough.
Hori’s latest camera seems like a better alternative to Nintendo’s in terms of portability, but like the Piranha Plant it’s limited to a resolution of only 640×480 – a significant step down from the 1080p capabilities of Nintendo’s. That’s potentially enough resolution to match the quality of Nintendo’s camera when Hori’s is perched atop the Switch 2 and right in front of your face. But when it’s zooming in on you from across the room while the camera is sitting next to your TV dock, there will likely be a significant reduction in video quality while using GameChat.
Nintendo says “any compatible USB-C camera you’d like” will work with the Switch 2 so you can probably use the external webcam you bought for work. But the company also warns that “not all cameras may work as intended” and it has included a testing tool in the Switch 2’s settings to make sure. If you’d rather play it safe and know ahead of time, both of Hori’s cameras are officially licensed Nintendo accessories.
Netflix’s Love, Death, and Robots anthology series has always featured pretty stacked casts, and it doesn’t sound like the show’s next season is going to be any exception.
Along with a new trailer for the upcoming season, Netflix released a full listing of Love, Death, and Robots Vol. 4’s episodes detailing their plots and highlighting their casts. Director David Fincher’s episode “Can’t Stop” will recreate the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s 2003 performance at Slane Castle with digital puppets voiced by Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith. And “400 BOYS,” Canadian director Robert Valley’s episode about “a post-apocalyptic city where warring gangs follow a bushido-like code of honor,” will star John Boyega, Ed Skrein, Sienna King, and Rahul Kohli.
Chris Parnell, John Oliver, Fred Tatasciore and Rachel Kimsey will lead Patrick Osborne’s “The Other Large Thing,” an episode about a cat with plans for world domination. And, in an interesting change of pace for the series, Rhys Darby will star in “Golgotha,” a live-action episode from director Tim Miller about a race of aliens convinced that their messiah has been reborn on earth as a dolphin. Miller is also directing “The Screaming of The Tyrannosaur,” which will feature MrBeast and Bai Ling as two people watching gladiator dinosaurs fight to the death.
Melissa Villaseñor, Ronny Chieng, Amy Sedaris, Kevin Hart, Josh Brener, Nat Faxon, Niecy Nash-Betts, and Brett Goldstein will also pop up over the course of the new season, which should give you a sense of how all over the place it’s going to be. And featuring such an eclectic set of voices is probably going to make Love, Death, and Robots feel like a wild ride when it returns on May 15th.
Motorola is kicking off hot foldable summer in style — and a little early this year. This time around it’s offering not two but three Razr models with the introduction of the premium Razr Ultra. It comes with some notable upgrades, and all three phones get some quality-of-life improvements like a sturdier hinge. But the hardware updates are otherwise minimal while Moto leans hard into eye-catching colors and finishes for its fun flip phone.
Let’s just say it up front: the Ultra costs $1,299. That’s like, Samsung Galaxy Ultra territory, which is just a lot of money for a phone. For that price you get a generous 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage in the base model and a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which is the Android flagship processor du jour. The Ultra offers up to 30W wireless charging and 68W wired charging. It also has a slightly larger 7-inch inner screen than the Razr and Razr Plus, which gets a little brighter at up to 4,500 nits compared to 3,000 nits. Oh, and there’s a dedicated AI button, which… more on that in a sec.
The Ultra shares the same 4-inch outer screen size as the Razr Plus, but the Razr Ultra has some differentiating hardware in the camera department. The main, ultrawide, and selfie cameras each have 50 megapixel sensors. The Razr and Razr Plus also offer 50-megapixel main cameras, but the Ultra’s sensor uses bigger pixels: 2.0μm binned “quad pixels” versus 0.8μm on the other two.
Here’s the thing though: wood grain back panel. The Ultra gets some fun new finishes, including a real wood back panel that’s giving Moto X. More wood gadgets, please. There’s also something called Alcantara that you may have seen once upon a time on a Microsoft Surface. It’s a synthetic fabric with kind of a suede feel and comes in a dark green that I really dig, too. The Ultra also comes in a textured deep red finish and a magenta-ish pink that looks at home on the Razr line.
All three phones come with an updated hinge that uses titanium rather than stainless steel, and Motorola says it’s four times stronger than the previous design. It also reduces the inner screen crease when the phone is flipped open. I never found the crease too bothersome to start with, but it practically disappears on these new phones, and you can barely feel it under your finger. It’s kind of spooky.
All three Razr models come with an IP48 rating this time, like Samsung’s Z Flip 6 foldables. That means they’re fully water-resistant, but dust is still a concern. That “4” rating means the phones are protected against particles bigger than 1mm, but dust is smaller than that, so you’ll still want to be careful if you bring your Razr to the beach. Otherwise, the standard Razr and Razr Plus are pretty minor refreshes. The Razr Plus still uses a Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset like last year’s model, though the Razr gets a bump up from a Dimensity 7300X to a 7400X chipset.
Remember that AI button on the Ultra? Well, Motorola is formally introducing several AI features across the Razr lineup, most of which we’ve seen previously in beta. They’re all housed in an interface called Moto AI, which is available to all three Razrs — though only the Ultra has a physical shortcut button to get there. And honestly they look more promising than the usual AI gimmicks — though there are AI gimmicks here, too. I’m particularly interested to see how “Remember this” works. It’s designed in the same vein as Pixel Screenshots and Nothing’s Essential Space, offering a place to keep screenshots, photos, and notes handy without having to go find them in different apps.
You can ask Moto AI to “remember” something and then you can ask about it later. You can also prompt it with “Catch me up” to summarize recent notifications that came in while you were busy. Could be handy! Motorola has also announced a partnership with Perplexity, which you can access through Moto AI, and also helps power some predictive suggestions. But as with all AI features right now, we need to see if it actually does what it’s supposed to before getting too excited.
There’s no wood grain option on the regular Razr or Razr Plus, boooo, but there are plenty of new colors and finishes to choose from. Last year’s mocha mousse is back on the Razr Plus, and the standard Razr comes in a fun minty green that kept catching my eye at Moto’s launch event.
The non-Ultra Razrs cost the same as their predecessors — $999 for the 2025 Razr Plus and $699 for the Razr. All three phones will be available for preorder in the US on May 7th and go on sale May 15th.
Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Phones aren't the only gadgets that Motorola is announcing today. But whereas the new Razr foldables evoke a sense of nostalgia, its latest smartwatch and earbuds summon a powerful feeling of déjà vu. Handling the new Moto Watch Fit and Moto Buds Loop, it's like I'm looking at Motorola-flavored clones of the Apple Watch and the Bose Ultra Open. And wouldn't you know it, the placard near the Buds Loop demo models conveniently says "Sound by Bose."
I mean, just look at the Moto Watch Fit next to my Apple Watch Series 10. Motorola isn't the first smartwatch maker to copy Apple's design language - see Samsung's 2024 Galaxy Watch lineup - but it is disappointing when you consider the OG Moto 360. With a stylish circular face, it was one of the standout smartwatches in the early days of Android Wear. This new Moto Watch Fit is technically the first Motorola-made smartwatch in nearly a decade (the disappointing 2019 Moto 360 was actually made by a weird company called eBuyNow), but it's hard to find Motorola's DNA here.
On paper, there's nothing wrong with the Moto Watch Fit. It's just a little boring. It has all the components of a basic fitness tracker. There's a 1.9-inch OLED displa …
The first time I met Jon Friedman, corporate vice president of design and research at Microsoft, was in 2019 when he was spearheading a new open approach to design at Microsoft to make its hardware and software look like it came from one company. That's a largely successful work in progress, so these days Friedman has, like a lot of Microsoft employees, been focused on AI.
I spoke to Friedman last week, ahead of the redesigned Microsoft 365 Copilot app announcement, to get a better understanding of the impact AI is having on human designers and creators.
"The change is quite dramatic, and the opportunity is quite dramatic," says Friedman. "The job changed for us. The entire industry and Microsoft were trying to figure out what we can do with this new material that helps adapt computing to people, and it turns out you can do a lot and you can do a lot fast."
In recent months, Friedman's own job has changed because of AI, so he's focused on the content as well as its design. "Suddenly the design job is how do you edit," says Friedman. "Even my job over the past 6-8 months has become an editor-in-chief job of the product, not just the design leader."
As Microsoft attempts to bui …
The Switch 2 isn’t the only hardware launching on June 5th. Nintendo also plans to release a slate of new accessories for its upcoming gaming console, the bulk of which are now available for preorder at Walmart, Best Buy, GameStop, and Target ahead of their release. From a redesigned Pro Controller and cases to a camera that lets you host video chats with friends, each is designed to level up your gaming experience.
Sadly, President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff policy has resulted in slight price bumps on several Switch 2 accessories — including the aforementioned Pro 2 Controller. There’s no telling whether we can expect more price hikes down the line, either, meaning if you do manage to preorder a Switch 2 and want to pick up a second controller or another accessory to go with it, now might be the time to act.
Where to preorder controllers
Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller
The removable Joy-Cons are great for portable and wireless play, but their small, curveless design can feel cramped during longer sessions if you have larger hands. That’s why the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro controller might be worth a look, especially if you mostly game in TV mode. The upgraded version of one of our favorite Nintendo Switch controller features a few welcome improvements, including a pair of rear GL and GR buttons players can use to remap other controls. Nintendo has also finally added a 3.5mm audio jack, allowing you to pair it with a headset or a set of wired headphones. The gamepad even features the aforementioned “C” button.
You can preorder the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro controller for around $84 from Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.
Joy-Con 2 Wheel (set of two)
If you plan on picking up the new Mario Kart World, the Joy-Con 2 Wheels are worth a look. Simply snap the Joy-Con 2 controllers, which connect magnetically, into the steering wheel attachments before booting up your preferred racing title. The two-wheel set is currently available for preorder starting at $24.88 from Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.
Where to preorder cases
Nintendo Switch 2 Carrying Case and Screen Protector
The Switch 2 is a pricey gadget you’ll want to keep safe, so it’s a good idea to invest in a carrying case like the Nintendo Switch 2 Carrying Case & Screen Protector. We’ll likely see third-party brands release their own version in the coming weeks, but Nintendo’s proprietary offering is likely to be one of the few available at launch.
The bundle — which includes a console-only carrying case, screen protector, and cleaning cloth — is available for preorder for $39.99 from Best Buy and Target.
Nintendo Switch 2 All-In-One Carrying Case
Nintendo is also launching an All-In-One Carrying Case on June 5th, which is more spacious than the model mentioned above. The higher-end case features separate compartments for stowing the console and various goodies, including the Switch 2 dock, Joy-Con 2 controllers, cables, and up to six game cards. You can preorder it now from Walmart, Best Buy, and Target for around $84.
Where to preorder the Switch 2 Camera
Supposedly, you can video chat with friends via GameChat using any compatible USB-C camera, but Nintendo offers its own solution in the form of the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera. The 1080p camera is designed to sit on a stand, allowing you to display your face as a picture-in-picture overlay or as a dedicated video feed. A few titles, such as the upgraded version of Super Mario Party Jamboree, let you see your friends on-screen while you play. Some mini-games even incorporate the camera into the game experience itself.
The camera features an adjustable wide-angle lens, designed to capture groups of people in a single shot, as well as a “high-sensitivity image sensor” that automatically adjusts brightness levels. It also features a built-in privacy shutter and includes a USB-C charging cable, as well as support for TV, tabletop, and handheld modes.
You can currently preorder it for $54.99 from Best Buy and Target.
Update, April 24th: Updated to reflect current pricing and availability.
If you’ve got pets or kids, in addition to a vaccum, you may also have a carpet and upholstery deep cleaner like Bissell’s Little Green machine to deal with their worst messes. But with Eufy’s new Omni E28 floor-mopping robot vacuum you only need one device to get everything: it comes with its own deep cleaner integrated into the charging dock for dealing with messes the robot can’t reach or handle. Like the robovac, the dock automatically empties wastewater from the portable cleaner and ensures it’s always charged and full of fresh water for the next spill.
The Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni E28 is available now through the company’s online store for $999.99. If you’ve already got a portable carpet cleaner, Eufy also has a slightly cheaper version of the E28 without the integrated deep cleaner, but the $899.99 Omni E25 is currently only available for preorder with shipping expected sometime in June 2025.
As with other spot cleaners like Bissell’s, the Omni E28’s portable deep cleaner features a multi-function handheld tool on the end of a short hose that first sprays clean water to help loosen a spill or stain before sucking everything back up into a separate wastewater tank. Aside from the dock handling emptying and refilling the water tanks, it’s an entirely manual device designed to clean surfaces and areas the robovac can’t like furniture and stairs. However, if the bot spots a liquid spill on carpeting during a cleaning routine, it will alert you to use the deep cleaner.
For all other floor messes, the Omni E28’s robovac seems highly capable. It can automatically detect when it’s transitioned from hard floors to carpets and increases suction to up to 20,000Pa to pull dirt out of deep fibers, while a spinning brush on an auto-extending arm helps sweep dust and dirt away from corners and edges. Using a combination of LiDAR and an AI-assisted camera the robot can recognize and avoid obstacles and adapt its cleaning to 30 different kinds of dirt. After a cleaning it will even perform a dirt inspection using the camera to ensure no areas were missed.
For hard floors the Omni E28 uses a rolling mop spinning at up to 180RPM to scrub dirt and stains that can’t be sucked up, and it will automatically perform a second pass if the stain wasn’t removed the first time. Its 5,200mAh battery is rated for 110 minutes of cleaning when both vacuuming and mopping, or up to 180 minutes when only sucking up dirt.
Through Eufy’s mobile app you have access to the map of your home the robovac creates with up to five floors supported. You can program custom cleaning routines for specific rooms and times of day, or specify no-go zones for areas of your home the robot should avoid entirely during autonomous cleaning routines. The Omni E28 is also Matter-compatible so instead of reaching for your smartphone you can start a cleaning routine using voice commands through the Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa smart assistants.
In addition to emptying the robovac’s dirt bin into a three-liter dust bag that Anker says can last up to 75 days before needing to be replaced, the Omni E28 dock empties and fills the robovac’s water reservoirs, tops off its detergent tank, and cleans and dries its rolling mop with hot air that reaches 122 degrees Fahrenheit to kill bacteria and reduce odors.