Adobe Acrobat has been my default PDF tool for years, but I started wondering if I was paying for far more than I actually needed. Most of my PDF work is pretty routine, so installing another heavy desktop application didn't make much sense to me.

Every time there's a power cut, there's a part of me that wishes my computer was flame-powered. Sure, changing the fuel out mid-game would prove to be a challenge, but it'd save on the electrical bills. Well, it turns out someone has actually made a computer that runs off the heat from a flame, and while it won't power your gaming rig any time soon, it's still a really cool little invention.

There's something really cute about retro hardware that has been shrunk down. Even as a set piece, they can be great little reminders of how far we've come with tech. However, miniaturised gadgets that now serve another purpose are even cooler, such as this alarm clock that's based on the classic Linksys WRT-54G router.

Rockstar has officially published its "extended look" at Grand Theft Auto VI on YouTube and on its website, as promised. The in-depth preview, which "entirely" features footage captured from the PS5 version of the game, initially premiered on Netflix at 3PM ET. But because Rockstar allowed creators to post reaction videos, you've technically been able to watch the video on YouTube before the studio's official upload.The nearly 27-minute preview largely focuses more on atmosphere, protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, and highlighting locations in the game instead of diving deep on specific game mechanics. It feels more like slices of …Read the full story at The Verge.

I love using Obsidian. This very article was written up using Obsidian notes and then an initial draft, making the app central to both my work and leisure. But like most productivity apps, even ones as feature-rich as Obsidian, struggle when it comes to using them on multiple devices. Synchronization is available via Obsidian's developer as a cloud-based subscription, but I wanted something I managed myself for free. Turns out, it's incredibly simple and takes a few minutes to get up and running.

The first thing most of us do after building a PC is boot into the BIOS and change some settings before we even install Windows. We do that because motherboard manufacturers tend to play it safe with their default settings, which makes sense given how many different hardware configurations they need to support. After all, peak performance can't come at the cost of stability when those default settings serve as a decent starting point for just about everyone.

I think I know why Rockstar Games debuted its "extended look" of Grand Theft Auto VI on Netflix instead of immediately dropping it for free on YouTube. Unlike most video game trailers, the almost 27-minute preview of GTA VI felt more like a slice of a prestige crime drama than any video game trailer that I've ever seen. To make a new game that lasts another decade or more and potentially rivals the success of its predecessor, Rockstar is clearly trying to further blur the lines between Hollywood and video games. The line between games and movies has been getting consistently fuzzier. Look no further than this year's James Bond game, 007 Fi …Read the full story at The Verge.

Nobody really needed another desktop operating system, especially one devoted to carrying forward an OS whose commercial story ended more than two decades ago. Windows, macOS, and Linux already have the software libraries, hardware support, and development communities that make them the obvious choices for almost everyone. Haiku is at a huge disadvantage before it even reaches the desktop, and I went into it expecting more of a curiosity than something I’d want to keep using. Instead, I kept finding small reasons to boot it again, mostly because it feels unusually fast, focused, and opinionated about what a desktop computer should be.

Ever since Microsoft introduced the Phone Link app, the company has been hard at work adding as many interactions as possible between your phone and your computer. However, it doesn't quite support every potential feature that you can do with other apps and services. Fortunately, Microsoft seems to be rectifying that, as someone has spotted development code that appears to add the ability to turn off your PC with your phone.

On Thursday, a judge ruled that the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic earlier this year was unconstitutional, delivering the AI lab a win in a monthslong rollercoaster of a battle with the Trump administration. The lawsuit, filed in March in a California district court, accused the Trump administration of unlawfully retaliating against Anthropic for setting "red lines," or unacceptable military use cases of its AI technology. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Judge Rita F. Lin, a district judge in the northern district of California, wrote in the ruling …Read the full story at The Verge.

Confusion is a generally accepted side effect of mystery box shows. They slather on secrets with the promise of a satisfying payoff in the end, and sometimes the cast and crew even have a hard time following what's going on. But even by the standards of the genre, Dark Matter is extreme. Its multiversal premise, which involves a man kidnapping a version of himself from another world, can be hard to wrap your head around, and as the first season went on, things only got harder to follow. With the return of the show for season 2, I have both good and bad news: The show is more dramatic and thrilling than ever, while also being ever so much har …Read the full story at The Verge.

Setting up a home sever is one of those projects that can look gargantuan from the outside looking in, but in reality, it can be done in a weekend. The hard part isn't the initial installation, but all the small decisions you make in the first few hours. Most of them don't seem consequential in the moment, but almost everything I did wrong with my first setup was due to a few of those small initial decisions. If I were to go back in time to give myself advice before starting, these are the five tips I'd give.