In the past few years, several arguments have been made against flash drives. While the logic behind it holds true in most cases, flash drives aren't altogether obsolete, and they don't seem likely to be anytime soon. That's because flash drives have distinct advantages over other storage media like SSDs, HDDs, and SD cards. I have all four, but most of the time I end up choosing the flash drive over anything else.

A lot of streaming services promote 4K Ultra HD, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos badges across their content, leading consumers to believe a $15/month streaming subscription provides the same visual and audio experience as cinema master prints.

There is a widespread assumption that if you want a reliable home network and maximum homelab uptime, you get a secondary internet connection. I did the same. When my homelab grew, I got a secondary line and routed everything through my ER605's dual-WAN setup. The setup worked as expected: the secondary backup line took over when the primary had an outage. But then I noticed something else: I had another connection on my secondary Galaxy phone, sitting mostly idle. I was paying for a plan I barely used. That was when I decided tomake that idle plan earn its keep.

When it comes to reminder and task management apps, it feels like I've tried everything out there, from mainstream options to open-source gems. I often struggle with the complexity of app UIs, or the lack of flexibility the apps provide.

Valve released Proton 11.0-1 as stable on July 7, 2026, rebasing Steam Play on Wine 11.0, and Wine 11.0 brought NTSYNC support along with the completed WoW64 architecture. If you game on Linux or plan to at all in the future, these updates were some of the most consequential things to happen in the last month with regard to your PC's future. If you notice, none of that has anything to do with distribution, nor do most of the other optimizations that have come along in the last few years.

Coding tools are meant to make coding easier for everyone, but nobody tells you that they're not just for coding projects. They're basically just LLMs with shell and file access and the ability to do things on your behalf. If that's not the definition of a productivity tool, then I don't know what is - it's just a productivity system wearing a coding label.

Notion was my go-to app for notes and documentation for years. Like many people, I assumed I'd keep using it because it had everything I could possibly need. But over time, my workflow started changing. I moved more of my apps to my own server and began questioning whether I really needed such a feature-packed platform for something as simple as managing knowledge. That led me to try Docmost. I wasn't expecting it to replace Notion anytime soon, but after using it for a while, I found myself opening Notion less and less until I eventually stopped using it altogether.

If you've ever paid attention to your graphics card's TGP, you would have gotten an idea about the maximum power the card is allowed to consume. Most gamers are clear about this, but what isn't as clear is that this TGP isn't the actual power limit of the graphics card. Tools like MSI Afterburner allow you to raise the power limit of your GPU beyond the "100%" value, and this directly impacts your gaming performance.

You have to imagine that the team at Game Freak is bursting with ideas. The studio puts out new mainline Pokémon adventures with a machinelike precision. But every so often it launches a curious experiment, whether it's an action title about a militarized elephant or turning horse races into a card game, showing that it's capable of more than the latest generation of pocket monsters. That's part of what makes the idea of Beast of Reincarnation so enticing. Here is an established studio breaking free of the franchise it has become known for to make its take on a blockbuster action game. Unfortunately new ideas are in short supply in Beast, an …Read the full story at The Verge.

After Sony declared that it was winding down the creation of physical discs, people began to worry about what that would mean for game preservation as a whole. Fortunately, while all this was happening, Microsoft was reportedly working on a way to make it easier to keep your collection safe. Rumors are claiming that Microsoft is working on a way to give you digital copies of your physical games, although the details are a bit hazy right now.

Google is rolling out an update that will finally allow you to connect your Fitbit workouts, steps, vitals, and other data to Apple Health, as reported earlier by 9to5Mac. With Google Health's 5.05 update, you can now tap your profile icon, select "Partner apps," and choose Apple Health to link your data directly.Previously, you could only import your Apple Health data into Google Health, but not the other way around. That meant using third-party apps - like Power Sync for Fitbit or Fitbit to Apple Health Sync - or some other kind of workaround to connect your Google Health information to Apple Health.Google Health replaced the Fitbit ap …Read the full story at The Verge.

Video chat with your friends or coworkers directly from the Samsung M80F. Samsung makes a variety of TVs and computer monitors, but if want both and you’re limited on space, you might want to consider the M80F. This capable 32-inch 4K panel combines features commonly found on both types of screens, and Amazon and B&H Photo both have it discounted to $349.99, where it’s usually $400 or much higher. In addition to acting as a standard 4K screen for your computer or console, the M80F has a full suite of video streaming apps you’d expect to find on a television, with picture-in-picture support for multitasking, plus a removable webcam for video chats.Samsung M80FWhere to Buy: $699.99 $349.99 at Amazon $699.99 $349.99 at B&H PhotoThe M80F has above-average connectivity for a monitor. In addition to the ports like HDMI 2.0, USB-C for charging devices up to 65W, and USB-A for your keyboard and mouse, you can also connect the Tizen interface to Wi-Fi to directly communicate with your network (it also supports Bluetooth headphones). Speaking of gaming, the M80F supports apps like Xbox and Nvidia GeForce Now, letting you pair a controller to the display to play games over the cloud. The VA panel is better suited for work than play, but HDR10 Plus support will help your movies and TV shows pop.My colleague Cameron Faulkner reviewed a previous version of the M80F and appreciated its versatility, but the $699.99 launch price was a bit off-putting, so a discount on a newer, improved model is definitely worth calling out.