Voice assistants have been part of the phone experience for so long that most of us don't really give them second thought anymore. Google is now pulling the plug on the biggest one though. Google Assistant is going away on September 4, 2026, and there's no toggle back to it once your phone flips over.

I've spent enough time letting my calendar tell me what I should be doing next, only to realize that a calendar is really just a list of commitments. It knows when a meeting starts, but it doesn't quite know when I am at my most productive, what I can manage to fit between two calls or before lunch, or when I'm asking too much of my own self.

As we're gearing up for back-to-school season, Google is rolling out a new dedicated student hub in Gemini. It's a one-stop repository for collecting research in a study notebook, creating flashcards, taking practice quizzes, and more. Google is also enhancing its study notebooks with support for graphs and images. It can even add test dates and deadlines to your Google Calendar based on your syllabus.Google is also adding Deep Research to Gemini Live. You can ask Gemini to generate complicated research reports and talk through the results. If it's taking a while, you can close the chat and lock your phone screen, and Gemini will let you k …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is the last thing you think of when you want to host something useful. I can relate to that thought process as I own a couple of Raspberry Pi Zero 2Ws. The low-end hardware on one of the cheapest SBCs isn't a lucrative proposition while building home servers. You aren't completely wrong because the device struggles with almost every popular tool you've heard of. Try deploying a media server like Jellyfin, or a local cloud server tool like NextCloud, and it absolutely chokes the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W.

It’s a camera. It’s a drone. But HoverAir doesn’t want it to be a drone where the FCC is concerned. | Image: HoverAir HoverAir drones always have intriguing gimmicks. This one folds flat to fit in your pocket. This one can land on water. Another can charge inside its carrying case. But the brand's latest trick might be its riskiest: it's attempting to sneak a drone past the FCC.In December 2025, the US government banned future foreign drones from reaching our shores, and HoverAir's floating Aqua drone was one of the first casualties. But this time, brand owner Zero Zero Robotics might have found a loophole: its latest $750 Versa drone isn't a drone, it claims, but rather a DJI Pocket-style mini steadycam with optional snap-on propellers that let it fly. …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Nvidia Shield TV Pro is one of the greatest consumer hardware products ever made. Nvidia hasn’t refreshed it since 2019, yet it remains more capable than almost every Android TV box I have tried.

In order to beef up its ability to accurately measure viewership data in the streaming era, Nielsen is moving forward with a plan to use more information gathered from its partners' wearable devices.Today, Nielsen announced "a number of key enhancements" that are being added to its data capturing process ahead of the upcoming fall TV season. As of August 31st, Nielsen's co-viewing data will now include information obtained from smart-watch like gadgets that Neilsen's research panelists wear in their homes. The Portable People Meter (PPM) Wearables - which Nielsen first began deploying nationally in 2016 to bolster its audio, local TV, and …Read the full story at The Verge.

I’ve been making small changes to my workflow lately, mostly by replacing tools I’ve relied on for years with simpler alternatives. I enjoy experimenting with open-source apps and self-hosted software because they give me more control while often fitting better into the way I work. Still, there was one change I had kept putting off. I had thought about making it several times, but always found a reason to leave things as they were. Recently, I finally decided to stop procrastinating and make the switch. It turned out to be one of those changes that makes your workflow feel simpler almost immediately.

This Acer Nitro 31.5-inch gaming monitor perfectly blends performance and value. It features a 180Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and a discounted price of $190. Best Buy is slashing the price by $270, which is well below its MSRP of $460. It's one of the best prices that we've seen.

Although Proxmox ships with terrific virtualization and LXC management tools, there are certain projects that may require a Docker instance. Perhaps you’re new to Proxmox Virtual Environment and want a familiar method for spinning up free and open-source tools in containers. Or maybe you’re looking to deploy an obscure service that doesn’t have dedicated LXC packages or fails to install as an OCI-based container on Proxmox.

Troubleshooting is the part and parcel of owning a PC, and with modern computers, you just don't know when you'll be made to put that hat on. Maybe you were tinkering with the BIOS to squeeze a little extra performance, or maybe you were just trying to boot into your system on a regular Tuesday. The problem is that more often than not, the problem won't explicitly announce itself or detail the root cause, and you will be made to make educated guesses at every turn.

Most of us stream content through a smart TV or attached device and scan through settings to ensure security and privacy settings are enabled. However, if you have a Roku TV with an attached over-the-air (OTA) antenna, cable box, or other HDMI inputs, there's one hidden setting I missed.