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Dying Light 1 gets free audio and visual "enhancements" this week, but they won't be coming to Switch
Game Reviews

Dying Light 1 gets free audio and visual “enhancements” this week, but they won’t be coming to Switch

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It’s a big year for Dying Light; the open-world zombie series is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and developer Techland is marking the occasion with a variety of projects. That includes a newly detailed audio and visual refresh for the series’ debut instalment, which arrives in a free update – titled Dying Light: Retouched – this Thursday, 26th June.


“One of the best things about working with your own engine is that the people building it are just next door,” Techland explains on its blog. “Over the past couple of years, we’ve added a lot, customised a lot, and learned how to squeeze more from the tech we already have. One day, someone just started applying those learnings to some old assets – and it just clicked that we could do that across the whole game.”


As such, players can expect increased texture resolution and quality, as well as improved lighting and physics-based rendering. Techland also promises a new 8K Ultra shadow quality (“a lot of surfaces that previously looked rather flat now really pop out and get depth!”, it writes), and there’s an increased maximum level-of-detail option for those with hardware to support it, meaning Dying Light’s most detailed assets can now be seen much further away.

Dying Light 2 standalone expansion The Beast arrives in August.Watch on YouTube


As far as audio goes, original composer Paweł Blaszczak has remastered Dying Light’s soundtrack for the update, while new tracks and ambient sounds have been “woven in” throughout. That’s alongside “seriously juiced up… hit reaction audio in combat”, which is said to sound “more satisfying [and] more impactful.”


Techland does, however, take great pains to stress that Dying Light’s Retouched update is all about “enhancements” and is “not a complete overhaul or remaster.” Additionally, the “level of changes” players can expect will “vary by platform”.


Dying Light: Retouched launches Thursday, 26th June for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Notably absent from that list is the original Switch, which received an impressive port of Dying Light back in 2021, and Techland has confirmed to IGN the update is “not coming” to Nintendo’s platform. Don’t expect a version of Dying Light for Switch 2 either, as Techland says it has “no plans [to release one] at this moment.”


Instead, it’s apparently all-hands-on-deck for the studio’s upcoming 18-hour standalone adventure, Dying Light: The Beast, which launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 22nd August. And there’s more planned for the series beyond that; Techland previously revealed it’s working on “multiple unannounced projects” that “go beyond video games”, including board games, a webcomic series, merchandise, and “more”.



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Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights switched off during the day and illuminated purple at night
Product Reviews

Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights review: a fun way to light up your yard all night long

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights: two-minute review

TechRadar Smart Home Week

This article is part of TechRadar’s Smart Home Week 2025. From lighting and switches to robot vacuums and smart thermostats, we’re here to help you pick the right devices to make your life easier, and get the most out of them.

Nanoleaf specializes in energy-efficient LED smart lights, or the home, and now the garden too. Recently launched, these solar-powered outdoor lights are available in a two-pack for $49.99 / £49.99, or a six-pack for $139.99 / £139.99.

We tested the pack of two light clusters, which come in a long box along with two solar panels that can either be stuck in the ground or screwed to a fence with the brackets and screws provided (we tried both types of installation).

Alternatively, it’s possible to power the lights via a USB-C power socket on the solar panel if there isn’t enough power from the sun. I tested the Nanoleaf lights during an unusually sunny period in London, so I didn’t have to rely on an external power source – the sun’s rays were more than enough to keep the lights going all night.


You may like

(Image credit: Chris Price)

  • Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights at Nanoleaf for $49.99

Really, it’s best to think of each light as a bunch of eight flowers attached to a central stalk that sticks into the ground or a flowerpot. Two different sized tubes are provided depending on whether you want to have a long or a short stalk (we tried both).

What’s more, each of the flowers in the bunch can be adjusted to face whichever way you want, though they should be handled from the bottom closest to the stalk rather than the top of the stem next to the LED lightbulb.

Once the solar panels are installed where you want them, you can switch on the power using a button on the bottom underneath the actual panels and a green light will indicate you how much charge each of the lights has (four bars means it’s fully charged).

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Chris Price)(Image credit: Chris Price)(Image credit: Chris Price)

Using the bracket and screws provided, I installed one of the solar panels relatively high up on a south facing fence, angling the panel up to the sun, while the other was placed in the ground on a north facing fence. Needless to say, since I’m in the UK, the south-facing panel charged up much quicker, although both provided more than enough power for the LED lights to come on at night.

Of course, the real magic starts once it starts to get dark and the lights actually switch on to illuminate your garden – not until nearly 10pm in the summer in the UK, but much earlier in the winter.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Chris Price)(Image credit: Chris Price)

Unlike other Nanoleaf products, such as the Matter Smart Multicoloured Rope Lights, which connect via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, these lights are actually refreshingly old school. So instead of using a mobile phone connected to the Nanonleaf app for control, you use a conventional remote control instead.

Powered by two AAA batteries (provided), this looks similar to an Amazon Firestick remote. At the top are buttons for switching the lights on and off, while underneath there are controls for changing the color of the lights.

Pressing RGB toggles the lights to the next solid color, with options for decreasing and increasing brightness (marked with sunshine icons) on either side. In addition, you can choose warmer or colder whites. These are marked with thermometer icons with either a sun or a snowflake.-

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Chris Price)(Image credit: Chris Price)

Underneath the lighting options are timer settings (four-hour, six-hour and eight-hour timers are provided) as well as an ambient light sensor which will turn the lights on or off automatically at sunset and sunrise.

There’s also the option of toggling between 11 animated scenes with the different bulbs lighting up in an array of colours, like a sort of less noisy firework display.

It’s all great fun and overall we were pleased with the lights and the way they performed. Using a standard remote rather than relying on Wi-Fi control via a mobile phone will obviously suit many, especially those who struggle to get a Wi-Fi signal outdoors. The range of the remote also seems quite good (around 33 feet / 10 meters) so it may be possible to control the lights from indoors if you have a small garden or yard.

(Image credit: Chris Price)

However, there are a couple of small niggles. One of the problems we found is that experimenting with the lighting settings was a little bit tricky, especially in the dark when we weren’t able to see the remote control very well to make changes.

Ironically, given you shouldn’t need a smartphone to control the lights, we found we had to use the torch option on the phone to light up the display on the remote control. Also, it took a bit of getting used to all of the different buttons and what they each of them did. Personally, I found the brightly-colored animated scenes a little over-the-top for everyday use though quite enjoyed the solid colours and warm/cool whites the lights could offer. However, it is largely a matter of individual taste.

Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights: price and availability

  • $49.99 / £49.99 (two-pack)
  • $139.99 / £139.99 (six-pack)
  • Available direct from Nanoleaf

Available either in packs of two or six, the Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights represent pretty good value for money (I had been expecting them to cost nearly twice as much). Each of the units has eight bulbs and they are quite well made (they also offer IP65 waterproofing). They are available direct from Nanoleaf in the US and the UK.

Particularly impressive are the solar panels which, rather usefully, tell you how much charge they have as well as providing back up power via USB-C charging. And while obviously the garden lights aren’t as high-tech or as sophisticated as some smarter lighting solutions, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Finally, they also offer much more bang for your bucks than many standard LED garden lights, which often don’t allow for any customization at all.

Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Product name

Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights

Price

From $49.99 / £49.99

Total assembled height

37.4 inches / 950mm

Length of each stem

17.3 inches / 439mm

Solar panel dimensions (W x H)

5.2 x 5 inches / 132 x 102.5mm

IP rating

IP65

Brightness

50 lumens

Color temperature range

2,850 – 3,150K

Color channel configuration

RGBW

Charging methods

Solar, USB-C

Solar charge time

6-10 hours

Control distance

30 feet / 10m

Should you buy the Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights

Swipe to scroll horizontallyNanoleaf Solar Garden Lights score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Given all the elements that make up this two-pack, the flower-like Nanoleaf lights represent excellent value for money. In fact they’re not that much more expensive than two bunches of real flowers (much brighter too).

5/5

Design

Maybe it’s not for everyone, but I quite like the innovative design of the Nanoleaf lights. Particularly impressive are the stems which you can easily bend to the optimum position as well as the flexible mounting options for the solidly-built solar panels.

4.5/5

Performance

While many may prefer using a standard remote rather than a mobile phone app in the garden, it’s not always easy to make changes in the dark. That said, once up and running, the lights are impressive.

3.5/5

How I tested the Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights

  • I used the Nanoleaf solar garden lights for a week
  • I experimented with all the lighting options
  • I used in various configurations with different lengths of ‘stalk’, and both wall- and ground-mounted solar panels

Testing solar garden lights isn’t the most sociable of activities. After all, you can only really make changes after dark, which means testing after around 10pm when approaching the longest day in the UK. Also, as noted earlier, it’s not easy to make changes when you can’t see the remote very well in the dark, which is why I also had to use a phone to provide light.

Will I continue to use these lights long after the review has been published? (That’s always the real test of any review.) Yes I think so although I will probably keep them on a single white light setting rather than having them cycle through various colored scenes which can be a little over the top.

As my son said when he first saw the bright colored lights coming on in the garden after a night out: ‘Why has our garden been transformed into Love Island?’

Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights: Price Comparison



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Creating emotionally resonant content for a global audience in Sky: Children of Light
Esports

Creating emotionally resonant content for a global audience in Sky: Children of Light

by admin


Yingxian Lu is a content producer at Thatgamecompany, where she leads in-game event/season production and cultural localization for Sky: Children of the Light. Her work focuses on emotionally resonant, globally inclusive content. She previously led interactive campaigns at JD.com, and her work was also widely covered by media outlets in China.

In today’s global games industry, success isn’t just about going international – it’s about making players everywhere feel emotionally connected. As games like Sky: Children of the Light reach massive global audiences, we face a creative challenge: how do we design content that feels truly meaningful to people from widely different cultures, languages, and life experiences?

Image credit: Thatgamecompany

Thatgamecompany, the independent studio behind Journey, Flower, and Sky, is known for its emotionally rich, artful games that emphasize human connection over competition. Sky has received critical acclaim since its launch, including winning the Games for Impact Award at Gamescom 2023, and continues to earn praise for its innovative social gameplay and emotional depth.

The game has now surpassed 270 million downloads globally, with up to 8 million daily active users in China – a market I help support closely. Since joining Thatgamecompany in 2022 as a content producer on Sky, I’ve led the production of several major in-game events and season content, and have worked to localize emotional experiences in ways that resonate deeply with Chinese players.

My expertise has helped bridge cultural expectations, reduce misalignment across teams, and bring more inclusive, emotionally resonant content to one of Sky’s largest and most active player bases.

Leading with emotion, connecting across cultures

Sky’s core philosophy, shaped by our creative director Jenova Chen, is built on inclusivity. Players appear as ‘Sky kids’, characters without defined gender, age, or ethnicity. This design choice removes surface differences, allowing people to meet and connect as equals. It’s a space of quiet beauty and shared humanity.

Image credit: Thatgamecompany

That same philosophy guides our content design. At Thatgamecompany, we don’t start with features, we start with feelings. The first question we ask for every new event or season is: “What do we want the player to feel?” Should it be joy? Melancholy? Peace?

That emotional target becomes the foundation. And because emotions transcend language and borders, they’re one of the most powerful tools we have to build inclusive experiences.

“Because emotions transcend language and borders, they’re one of the most powerful tools we have”

This approach doesn’t make content creation easy, but it does make it honest. I’ve embraced this process in every project I’ve led, whether shaping the mood of an event, adjusting reward pacing to align with emotional beats, or proposing content adjustments based on cultural sensitivities.

Next, I’d like to share a few concrete examples of how this philosophy comes to life in our work.

A tale of two events: Global design with local meaning

One of my favorite examples is Days of Moonlight, a 2024 in-game event. It originated as a quieter counterpart to our lively Days of Sunlight event. During brainstorming, someone asked: “If Sunlight represents energy and activity, what would Moonlight represent?”

Image credit: Thatgamecompany

As a Chinese content producer, I immediately thought of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time of reunion, moon-gazing, and reflection. It’s a beloved tradition where families come together, admire the full moon, and eat mooncakes. I grew up celebrating it. It felt like a perfect emotional anchor for the event.

So while global players saw Days of Moonlight as a poetic seasonal celebration, Chinese players recognized something more personal: cultural validation inside a game they loved. That dual meaning made the event feel globally accessible yet locally resonant.

The response was overwhelmingly positive: players shared screenshots of moonlit gatherings, wrote stories inspired by the theme, and praised the emotional tone as peaceful and moving. It became one of the most discussed events on Chinese social media during its run.

Image credit: Thatgamecompany

We also added a riddle-writing feature, letting players create and guess riddles from one another. Originally, we planned to reward players for correct answers, but quickly realized the language complexity made that unfair. So we shifted the mechanic to reward participation instead. The fun stayed, the stress didn’t.

Not every idea lands as well. One summer, we introduced a marshmallow roasting prop, complete with firepit, roasting stick, and visual feedback. In the West, this evoked nostalgia and camping memories.

But in China, where roasting marshmallows isn’t a common tradition, the moment felt distant. That taught us that emotional references aren’t always as universal as we think – and why listening matters.

Bridging worlds: Production as cultural mediation

Sky’s success in China depends not only on our content, but also on how we work together behind the scenes.

I always try to think a few steps ahead: anticipating potential information gaps before they become issues, and constantly keeping our publishing partner’s needs in mind. Understanding what they care about helps me proactively surface details they might otherwise have to ask for, and ensures we’re aligned not just on output, but on priorities.

Image credit: Thatgamecompany

One of my key responsibilities is managing communication between our global development team and our Chinese publishing partner.

Before I joined, we sometimes had issues with content readiness and misaligned expectations, often caused by time zone gaps and language barriers. A 12-hour time difference can turn one decision into a three-day exchange. Miscommunication isn’t just inconvenient – it can directly impact the player experience.

To streamline collaboration and reduce costly miscommunication, we use a hybrid communication model that combines structured asynchronous documentation with real-time feedback loops. We also creatively used tools such as Slack bots to automate notifications and reminders, which helped maintain alignment across time zones and reduced avoidable delays.

“A 12-hour time difference can turn one decision into a three-day exchange”

Another ongoing consideration is navigating major holidays on both sides. For example, we’ve had to adjust production timelines around Christmas and Lunar New Year, which are the most important holidays in the United States and China, respectively.

This often means planning content windows well in advance, shifting internal milestones, or being flexible to respond quickly when plans change on short notice. These kinds of accommodations are vital for maintaining trust and momentum across regions.

In addition, we constantly need to factor in local regulations. For instance, China has strict playtime limits for minors, which directly affects how we approach scheduling, content pacing, and even reward structures.

These policy details might be overlooked if the team lacks regional awareness, so part of my role is to keep them visible throughout the design process.

Image credit: Thatgamecompany

This setup has helped reduce avoidable incidents and built stronger trust between teams. For a producer, communication isn’t just operational – it’s cultural infrastructure. When your game lives in many regions, your team has to think across those boundaries, too.

Looking ahead: Representation behind the curtain

In the industry, we often talk about diversity in character design. But for global games to thrive, we also need diversity in decision-making, in the rooms where creative calls are made, deadlines are set, and trade-offs are considered.

Being a Chinese producer working on a globally beloved game has helped me see things others might overlook – player expectations, emotional cues, even sensitivities around timing or symbolism.

I’m not the only one doing this work, but I know my perspective matters. That’s because content built for everyone starts with teams that reflect everyone.



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A close-up shot of James Bone in 007 First Light wearing dark sunglasses and a pink shirt in a tropical location
Product Reviews

007 First Light: Key details and latest news, summarized by humans

by admin



The cover’s blown on 007 First Light, IO Interactive’s stealth action game starring a young James Bond. After some teasing and years of quiet work on “Project 007,” we finally know what kind of game the Hitman developer has been cooking up for the iconic character. A short trailer that debuted during Sony’s June State of Play gave us a look at 007 First Light’s original version of Bond, the many locations the story will take us to, and a release date. Well, okay, a release year.

First Light’s announcement trailer has moments that look quite a lot like Hitman as Bond ducks behind cover and tosses objects at enemies, but it also seems to have the kind of explosive action setpieces ripped right out of the films. Unlike Agent 47, though, this baby-faced Bond has a lot to learn before he can truly take on the role of MI6’s spy extraordinaire.

Here are all the details we’ve been able to decode from Bond’s dossier so far.


Related articles

007 First Light release details

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

007 First Light will be released sometime in 2026 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. IO Interactive didn’t give an exact date at the end of the announcement trailer during Sony’s June State of Play, but it did promise to reveal more about it later this summer. The trailer also mentions that signing up for an IO Interactive account on the website will unlock the “On Duty” skin for Bond and the “Gilded Wraith” golden weapon skin—which are the kind of concrete in-game bonuses that make me think it’s far enough along that it’ll drop earlier, rather than later, in the year.

007 Fight Light trailers and gameplay footage

007 First Light – Announcement Trailer – YouTube

Watch On

A lot of details are packed into the opening conversation in 007 First Light’s announcement trailer. We not only get a sense of the tone IO Interactive is going for, but a broad picture of its version of Bond through the eyes of his handlers. They describe him as a “bullet without a target,” much like how creator Ian Fleming conceptualized the character back in 1953 as a blunt instrument wielded by the government. This Bond is young, naive, reckless, and unbelievably lucky when things go awry—a perfect lump of clay for MI6 to mold into a dashing killer.

The rest of the trailer plants the seeds for what kind of gadgets and weapons we’ll be able to use as we chase our target, rogue agent 009, across the globe. There’s a watch that sparks a jet engine in a dirt bike, detective vision for highlighting nearby enemies, some kind of pocket tranquilizer dart, a wristwatch laser beam, cars, boats, and a whole arsenal of guns.

Exclusive interview with IO Interactive

007 First Light: Exclusive behind the scenes developer interview – PC Gaming Show 2025 – YouTube

Watch On

We visited IO Interactive for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the development of 007 First Light. Check it out!

007 First Light story and setting details

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

We only have the announcement trailer to work off of, but thankfully it’s packed with hints at what we can expect as Bond earns his numbers in 007 First Light. MI6 recruits Bond after making a surprisingly heroic act on a mission in Iceland and fires him directly at rogue agent 009. The trailer shows several brief shots of all the places Bond will visit as he tracks his target down.

Here’s everything about 007 First Light’s story we know so far:

  • After losing his parents on a climbing expedition when he was 11, this version of Bond rabble roused through several boarding schools before ending up in the royal navy
  • The story is set in the modern day and begins with a 26-year-old Bond who’s picked up by MI6 after a heroic act during an Iceland mission
  • His mentor, Greenway, thinks he’s a risk, but reluctantly agrees to train him
  • Rogue agent 009 is his target and is described as a “master manipulator”
  • Bond will travel to several locations, including what looks like Slovakia and Vietnam
  • Familiar characters from the franchise will return, including M, Q, and Moneypenny
  • At some point Bond and Greenway will be tied up in a pit full of crocodiles

007 First Light gameplay features

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

The announcement trailer made it pretty clear that 007 First Light will be a third-person stealth action game that leans more toward the action. There will be a variety of levels set around the world with objectives to chase after. And once you finish the campaign, you’ll be able to revisit each mission with “additional modifiers,” much like Escalations in Hitman.

IO Interactive has been clear about one thing though: 007 First Light isn’t Hitman with James Bond. Agent 47 may be a trained killer like Bond, but his speciality is getting the job done completely undetected. Bond’s approach “has a lot more forward momentum,” narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg told told PC Gamer in an exclusive interview.

“You need a lot of patience to play Hitman,” Emborg said. “You need to be sitting there seeing the patrol—he goes over there, and he likes wine, and you overhear that thing. But Bond, he can also just walk through the front door. ‘I’m actually just going to go and talk to them. I’m just going to go punch him right now’.”

IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak told PC Gamer that there are “elements in the game that you would expect from IO Interactive—with the freedom of approach, solving puzzles in different ways, and social spaces that are very deep with rich crowds.” But despite having some major differences from Hitman, Abrak said that, for the team, 007 First Light is “all that skill, all that practice coming together and finally seeing the ultimate spy fantasy come to life.”

It’s frighteningly possible Bond knows what TikTok is

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

Look at him: He’s a barely-out-of-school twenty-something who probably grew up with an iPad. There’s no way he knows what a cassette tape is—which has me convinced he’s got TikTok installed on his phone. I just need one mission to involve Rainbolting the location of a target via someone doing a viral dance on a fake TikTok video.





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Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro X Sound by JBL review: light up your party
Product Reviews

Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro X Sound by JBL review: light up your party

by admin


The most surprising thing about Govee’s colorful smart lamp with a speaker built-in is that we didn’t get something like this sooner. We’ve had color-changing smart home lights that sync to music via an app, and we’ve had Bluetooth speakers with RGB lights — putting the two together feels like the natural next step.

The Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro X Sound by JBL ($179.99) combines snazzy lighting effects and decent sound into one fun, portable package. Unlike most RGB Bluetooth party speakers, it’s a functional lamp, and it also syncs with your smart home. And while it doesn’t pack enough power to rock a real rager, it’s the perfect size to add a little punch to your next gathering. It’s a smart light with party speaker aspirations.

$180

The Good

  • Vivid, colorful lighting effects
  • Can control the light with voice and automations
  • Can sync with other Govee lights
  • Speaker has strong mids and vocals
  • Built-in ambient sounds
  • Light supports Matter

The Bad

  • Limited bass
  • Indoor only
  • No AirPlay 2 support
  • No smart home support for the speaker
  • No handle

The speaker / smart lamp combo isn’t totally new; Ikea’s (now discontinued) Symfonisk Lamp had a Sonos speaker built in (though you had to put a smart bulb in it to have a smart lamp). Govee also has a floor lamp with a Bluetooth speaker. But its new table lamp is more practical, more portable (thanks to a 5,200mAh battery), and a lot more fun. Individually controllable RGB and tunable white LEDs offer both fabulous party effects and practical task lighting when needed.

The Govee Table Lamp does a nice job with tunable white light alongside fun, RGB effects.

An upgrade to Govee’s smart Table Lamp 2, the Pro was first announced at CES earlier this year and is now available to buy. It sits 10 inches tall, with a 360-degree LED array sitting on top of a 10W full-range 2.5-inch JBL speaker. The Pro’s big additions over the Lamp 2 are the speaker and the battery. It also has a larger base, a wider lamp, and a top speaker grille with buttons for power, volume, playback, and cycling through preset scenes.

The lamp features 210 LED beads that can display full color as well as tunable white light up to 600 lumens, bright enough for a reading lamp. The base includes RGB lights that sync with the main display.

The Lamp Pro 2 uses a standard barrel plug, but can also be powered by its internal battery.

The plug connects underneath, and there’s a cable channel. It also has squidgy “feet,” making it easy to set down on most surfaces.

The power button is a physical button; the rest are touch capacitive. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

It weighs just over 5 pounds and I could carry it comfortably in one hand. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The lighting effects, of which there are over 100 presets as well as 16 that sync with music, are controlled in the Govee app, over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. There are a number of built-in sound and light scenes. My favorites include Forest, with tweety bird sounds and luminescent greens and yellows; Wave, with its ocean acoustics and wobbly blue lights; and Sprinkle, which sounds like a gentle rainstorm with a lovely aquamarine light soup.

Of course, you can also stream any music you like to the speaker via a Bluetooth connection to your phone. Sadly, there’s no option to stream over Wi-Fi or AirPlay 2 support. Unlike some party speakers, only one phone at a time can connect to its Bluetooth radio. You can have it listen for music from your phone’s speaker, but that feels rather pointless.

Specs: Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro X Sound by JBL

  • Price: $179.99
  • Power: 5,200mAh rechargeable battery, barrel plug power adapter
  • Playback time: 4.5 hours on battery
  • Speaker: 10W full-range 2.5-inch speaker, with dual passive radiators
  • Light: 600 lumens, RGBICWW, 2700 to 6500 kelvins
  • IP Rating: Indoor use only
  • Dimensions: 6.1 inches in diameter, 10.1 inches high
  • Weight: 5.3 pounds
  • Connectivity: Matter over Wi-Fi, BLE (classic), Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz)

The dynamic lighting scenes roll, pop, twirl, blob, kaleidoscope, or spiral in sync with the music, and sync remarkably well to the beat (Govee claims a 32ms response time). The colors are vivid, and the effects are a lot of fun. Like a lot of Govee’s effects, some can be a bit intense, but there are several “soft” options, too. You can also create your own scenes.

When you’re done with dance parties, ambient options, such as a crackling fireplace or a soothing sunset, are nice, although the colors are still fairly intense. Settings for reading, work, and illumination make the lamp usable as a task light, too, and sleep settings with lullabies make this a nice addition to a nursery. Still, it’s too large and bright for bedside use, even at the lowest setting.

While you can use the lamp and app just with Bluetooth, connecting it to Wi-Fi lets you control the lamp through your smart home. It works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home over Wi-Fi, or you can add it via Matter to most platforms, including Apple Home. I added it to Apple Home and was able to turn it on or off, and change single colors with automations and voice — it responded instantly to Siri voice commands. There’s not currently a way to sync Govee’s scenes through Matter, though, so you’re limited to static lighting.

Smart lamp, standard speaker

The Govee Table Lamp is a similar size and shape to Apple’s HomePod smart speaker (left), but it has a smaller speaker grille and its main body is a plastic lamp.

This is a smart lamp, not a smart speaker. There’s no voice assistant, and you can’t control the speaker via smart home apps (although you can change songs with your phone’s voice assistant while connected over Bluetooth). It’s also a fairly basic JBL Bluetooth speaker. While it gets plenty loud, it has limited bass, but delivers clear vocals and decent mids — making it ideal for podcasts or radio.

Physically, it slightly resembles a full-size HomePod, but in sound quality, it’s more like a HomePod mini. It made a great exercise companion during my morning dance workouts, with Chappell Roan’s voice coming through clear and high as she hits those Pink Pony notes. Even cranked up to 93 percent volume, there was no distortion. But as mentioned, there’s hardly any bass. I tested it with Bad Bunny against a full-size HomePod; no contest.

I tested it with Bad Bunny against a full-size HomePod; no contest

You can pair two lamps together for stereo sound, and that’s your best option if you’re looking for a party atmosphere. On its own, it’s fine for a small gathering or to add some oomph to a workout, but for some real vibes, you’ll want two. I only had one unit, so I didn’t get to test this out. You could pair two HomePod Minis or two Alexa fourth-gen speakers together and get comparable sound for less money, but without the fun lighting effects.

The lamp isn’t weatherproof, but it is portable, thanks to its built-in battery. There’s no handle, so I had to sort of cradle it like a baby, but at 5 pounds, it’s light. I took it to the patio on a dry day, and my chickens joined the dance party.

My chickens got to enjoy an al fresco dance party.

For a more permanent outdoor party solution, something like the Sonos Move ($449) is a better bet, with bigger sound, longer battery life, and an IP56 rating. Or, if lights are a must, a proper party speaker like the JBL Pulse 5 ($249), which has built-in RGB lighting, an IP67 waterproof rating, and a nice big handle — but no Wi-Fi connectivity, so no smart home control.

I set an Apple Home automation that turns on the lamp when the porch door unlocks

I ended up using the Govee lamp mostly in my screened-in porch, listening to the news with morning coffee or enjoying music with an evening tipple, safe from the elements. I set an automation in Apple Home that turns on the lamp when the porch door unlocks, so it’s ready to go when we walk out.

The lamp can also pair with other Govee lights to sync them all to the music using its Dreamview setting. I have a tunable white set of Govee’s outdoor string lights on my porch, but if I had the RGB version, I could turn my porch into a party space.

Despite its world salad of a name, the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro X Sound by JBL is a fun, reasonably priced combo of music and lights. It’s not the best speaker out there, and it’s a shame it’s not more versatile (a handle and some weatherproofing would go a long way), but with its smart home control and impressive lighting effects, it’s a useful and entertaining gadget.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge





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Xbox's AMD partnership sheds light on the future of the division's ecosystem
Product Reviews

Xbox’s AMD partnership sheds light on the future of the division’s ecosystem

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Microsoft has no plans to get out of the console business anytime soon. The company has been reiterating for a while that it’s going to make at least one more generation of Xbox consoles. It’s now been confirmed that AMD will power the upcoming hardware, as it did with the Xbox Series X/S.

Xbox president Sarah Bond made the announcement in a short video. Under the multi-year partnership, Xbox and AMD are “advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation; to unlock a deeper level of visual quality; and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games,” Bond said.

A leaked presentation from May 2022 (which was part of the massive Xbox leak the following year) indicated that Microsoft had yet to make a decision about the processor and GPU for the next Xbox console(s), suggesting in one slide that it planned to strike an agreement with AMD to supply those and in another that it yet had to make an “Arm64 decision.” As we now know, the company is doubling down with AMD.

Microsoft

On the surface, the AMD agreement is the main news coming out of Bond’s announcement. But, if you read between the lines, there are lots of other interesting details to tease out from what she said in the short video.

For one thing, the AI aspect of Bond’s carefully crafted statement lines up with details in the leak (and other developments) about Microsoft embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning in future Xbox games, including for things like AI agents. So the company is likely to keep going down that path.

Bond said that Microsoft and AMD will “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room and in your hands,” implying that the company is planning more handhelds beyond the Xbox-branded ROG devices that are coming later this year. Those are also powered by AMD.

In addition, Bond said the next-gen of Xbox devices will maintain “compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games.” Xbox has made a commitment to backward compatibility, but that’s still welcome to hear.

Those are fairly interesting nuggets, no doubt, but there were two other things Bond said that I think are starting to shed more light on the future of the Xbox ecosystem. First, she said that her team is “building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.”

That “single store” phrasing is a chin stroker, especially in light of the new user interface Xbox is making for the ROG handhelds. The Windows-powered devices won’t only allow users to play games from the Xbox PC app, Xbox consoles via remote play and the cloud. They’ll integrate games from other PC storefronts, such as Battle.net (which is run by Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard), Steam, GOG and more. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass users have long had access to EA Play games as part of their subscriptions. Ubisoft+ is on Xbox consoles too.

Microsoft

Perhaps this concept of not being “locked to a single store” will start to work in other ways. Valve said a few years ago that it would be happy to integrate Game Pass into Steam, for instance. Likewise, Microsoft has said it would welcome Steam and the Epic Games Store app onto its PC app store (though Valve and Epic probably wouldn’t want to give Microsoft a cut of game sales). Maybe we might finally see those come to fruition in the next few years.

But how might those integrations work on an Xbox console? Bond hinted at that too. She said Xbox is “working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming.”

Sure, that could be a reference to PC gaming. But Bond didn’t explicitly state that, which has me wondering if the next Xbox console might be more of a Windows PC that sits under your TV. That would align with comments made a few months back by Jez Corden of Windows Central, who said the next Xbox is “a PC, in essence, but with a TV-friendly shell.”

As with the likes of the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs, this would potentially give game developers a specific set of specifications to work with (though ensuring their games are optimized for as many desktop and laptop configurations as possible will still be a complex task). Perhaps the user interface Xbox is debuting on the Ally X devices is a sign of things to come on larger displays.

Moreover, the Xbox and Windows teams are stripping out unnecessary aspects of the operating system in the Xbox Ally handhelds to make them run more efficiently. What’s to stop them from doing the same in the next Xbox console? That could enable Xbox to offer a more unified ecosystem across all platforms, while streamlining things for developers who want to make games for both PC and Xbox. Don’t forget that Microsoft has been making a real effort to make Windows run more smoothly on ARM-based processors as part of its Copilot+ PC push.

We might have to wait two or three more years to get a fuller sense of Microsoft’s vision for the future of Xbox consoles. But it certainly has the opportunity to knit its platforms more closely together and make playing Xbox (and PC) games across devices a more seamless experience.



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NFT Gaming

Coinbase Eyes SEC Green Light for Trading of Tokenized Stocks: Reuters

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In brief

  • Coinbase, America’s largest crypto exchange, said it is hoping for regulators’ approval to launch tokenized stocks.
  • The SEC back in May said it was interested in such an idea.
  • Tokenized stocks would mean equity in a company could move on a blockchain.

America’s largest crypto exchange Coinbase hopes to soon offer trading services for tokenized equities, according to a Reuters interview with the firm’s chief legal officer published Tuesday. 

Paul Grewal said that it was a “huge priority” for Coinbase to secure SEC approval to allow such assets to trade. In an X post afterwards, Grewal said that he was merely echoing a Coinbase position made public this spring. 

“We’ve been saying since earlier this year that [the SEC] should enable markets to unlock tokenized securities,” he wrote. 

Exciting? Yes. Important? Absolutely. But breaking news? Not exactly. We’ve been saying since earlier this year that @SECGov should enable markets to unlock tokenized securities. Tokenized debt, equity, and investment funds present an opportunity for tailored regulation for…

— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) June 17, 2025

Decrypt reached out to Coinbase for additional comment, but a spokesperson pointed to Grewal’s X post as its comment on the matter.

If approved, equities such as tech stocks would be tokenized and offered via blockchain networks, potentially leading to lower transaction costs and 24-7 trading, Grewal said. A tokenized stock is a digital asset that represents equity in a company.

Decrypt in April reported that SEC regulators at a digital assets roundtable said that the agency would be open to a regulatory sandbox for crypto exchanges to experiment with new offerings. This could include things like tokenized stocks, Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda said at the time.



Commissioner Hester Peirce, who heads up the SEC’s new crypto task force, said that “participating firms could see what works and what doesn’t, technically and commercially.”

Just last week, SEC Chair Paul Atkins affirmed that perspective, noting plans for an “innovation exemption” to let DeFi builders experiment on-chain with new products. The news was well received by traders, as Ethereum DeFi tokens broadly rose in value following the comments.

The SEC under the new Trump administration has taken a more crypto-friendly stance. Under Democratic ex-president Joe Biden’s leadership, the regulator went after top crypto firms with lawsuits for allegedly breaking securities laws.

But since U.S. President Donald Trump took charge on Jan. 20, the SEC has scrapped a number of those lawsuits. Trump campaigned on a ticket to help the digital asset space and received financial backing from industry leaders. 

Coinbase isn’t the only American exchange planning to offer tokenized stocks. Kraken in May said it would soon offer over 50 U.S.-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds to overseas customers using the Solana blockchain. 

Edited by James Rubin

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A dragon flying through the sky with a rider on its back toward a strange large round building
Product Reviews

Hello Games fans enter the early stages of Silksong syndrome after Light No Fire is a Summer Game Fest no-show

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In late 2023, Hello Games announced Light No Fire, a grand fantasy follow-up to sci-fi hit No Man’s Sky. The reveal promised a sprawling world—literally the size of our own Earth—to make your own in a survival adventure. It was a huge promise, perhaps too much for a studio with a history of overpromising.

Since then we’ve got nearly nothing. No more big promises, no more trailers. No fuel for some immense, terrible beast of a hype train destined to destroy itself upon release. Just some moderate fan art output.

Naturally, this is anathema to the modern gamer, who demands frequent development updates. I’m afraid, then, to report that Light No Fire watchers are likely entering the early stages of what I’m calling Silksong Syndrome—the uncontrollable craving that consumed fans of Hollow Knight after years with no major news about its expansion.


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The Light No Fire subreddit is a key place to see it in action, where a handful of posts speculate over year-and-a-half-old trailer stills and post cryptically about the “bacon” and post very sad images of facepalms and talk about “huffing copium” because they saw nothing Light No Fire-related during Summer Games Fest 2025.

“Now I understand Tweakers,” says one post among many.

I can’t really blame Hello Games for not saying too much because, again, it’s famous for that one time No Man’s Sky failed to meet the expectations its marketing and fan speculation built for it. (Though it has since become one of gaming’s most famous comeback stories.)

You can see everything we know about Light No Fire on our dedicated page for that. It’s interesting, but it’s not much. God help the early superfans of this game. They probably have a long road ahead of them.



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Orianna, from The Witcher 3 launch trailer
Gaming Gear

Why was The Witcher 3 so dark? ‘It’s dishonest to always show and paint the world in a positive light’

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As part of The Witcher 3’s 10th anniversary celebration, CD Projekt Red spoke to GamesRadar about the “secret sauce” that made its quests so special. Maturity was cited as the main ingredient by Paweł Sasko, a quest designer on The Witcher 3, because the majority of its developers were entering their 30s and 40s. Also, importantly, they were Polish.

“I would say we, as Polish people, are much more negative than western societies,” Sasko said. “We have a tendency to see glass half empty rather than half full. Part of creating mature entertainment is just realizing that not everything in life is going to go great. In all of our lives, horrible shit is going to happen.”

And there sure is a lot of horrible shit in The Witcher 3. Fetus zombie? Fingernail torture? Baby in an oven? The Witcher 3’s got it all. Sasko compared these elements of awfulness in CDPR’s RPG to the moment you come to terms with the fact your parents are one day going to die. “I’m a development psychologist,” he explained, “so I think about those things a lot. For me this moment of transition, of understanding that your parents are aging and they’re going to get sick and die, is a part of our human experience. It’s dishonest to always show and paint the world in a positive light.”


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“You cannot prevent your parents dying,” he went on. “You cannot prevent the fact that maybe the pet you spent 15 years of your life with has cancer. You cannot completely prevent this. [But it’s about] being thankful for everything you experienced. Even in this fucking dystopian horrible world of Cyberpunk, or this dark noir Witcher world, there are good people. There are good moments. There are friendships. There’s love! I think that’s the ambition: to encourage people toward this, and it might be a bit dark when I’m speaking about it, but I want to make sure that ray of sunlight is visible in our work.”

Like the scene in Seven where Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Gwyneth Paltrow just have a lovely dinner together, these shining moments of contrast are cast in stark relief because they’re surrounded by, in Sasko’s own words, “horrible shit”.



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Dying Light: The Beast is releasing 22nd August, revealed at Summer Game Fest
Game Updates

Dying Light: The Beast is releasing 22nd August, revealed at Summer Game Fest

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Dying Light: The Beast just got its release date revealed at Summer Game Fest. It’ll be launching on the 22nd August on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S\, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

The release date trailer we saw was packed with new gameplay, a variety of chases and parkour of course! It wouldn’t be a Dying Light without it. In addition we get some story hints about a fella called The Baron.

Watch the Dying Light: The Beast trailer here!Watch on YouTube

Those who pre-order Dying Light: The Beast will get the Hero of Harran bundle, which calls back to the original Dying Light. A nice bonus for long time fans of the series,

Dying Light: The Beast is a sequel / spin-off to Dying Light 2 with the protagonist of the first game making a return, able to mess around with plenty of gameplay improvements added with the second mainline game in the series.

One to keep an eye on for those who like first person action,and gruff main characters who’ll occasionally rage out and beat up on zombies.



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