Whenever an industry finds itself amid a supply shortage, prices are the first thing to rise, and interesting alternatives to everyday products are usually the next to appear. The PC storage market seems to have produced its own example. In a recent review of the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL, Notebookcheck found a 512GB NVMe drive from YMTC, which is a known Chinese NAND manufacturer.

Microsoft is testing a cleaner version of the Windows 11 search menu that strips it of recommended content and ads. In a blog post on Monday, Microsoft announced that it's rolling out the decluttered Search Box to Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel as the company looks to regain trust with users and fix Windows.One of the biggest changes is a revamped search homescreen that displays only your recent searches. Currently, when you open the search menu, it shows your recent searches alongside several distracting tiles on the right pane, containing things like the image of the day, daily quizzes, trending searches, and game recommend …Read the full story at The Verge.

Once you find a good controller, you really want to use it on every gaming device you own. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as plugging an Xbox controller into your Switch, so you're often hunting for workarounds.

Obsidian has been my go-to productivity app for a long time. I basically manage my entire life inside of it, whether I'm drafting a story or managing personal finances. When I first started using Obsidian, my vault was snappy, and I could open it up and jot down a quick note without an issue. Now, though, with thousands of notes and images stored inside it, opening my vault takes several minutes, and even switching to it isn't as fast as opening the native Notes app on my laptop.

The Shokz OpenRun Pro are great for outdoor workouts. | Image: Shokz Noise-canceling earbuds are great for flights and focusing, but they're not always ideal for outdoor workouts. The last-gen Shokz OpenRun Pro's open-ear design lets you enjoy music while staying aware of approaching cars, cyclists, and other potential hazards, and right now they're on sale for $109 ($50 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and B&H Photo. That matches their all-time low price, which we haven't seen since January.Shokz OpenRun ProWhere to Buy: $159.95 $109.95 at Amazon $159.95 $109.99 at WalmartUnlike traditional earbuds, the OpenRun Pro rests just outside your ears and uses bone conduction to deliver sound. That means you can listen t …Read the full story at The Verge.

Over the past few weeks, I've been doing a bit of cleaning around the house I grew up in. The amount of tech unearthed was astounding, with old PC builds, cell phones I'd never even look at now from decades ago, along with HDD and even some SSD storage.

Since I've had great success booting Linux from external drives, I decided it would be fun to try booting Windows 11 from an external drive as well. It turns out Microsoft developed a feature called Windows To Go to help you do exactly this. With Windows To Go, you can boot up a Windows instance on any computer, and the only thing you need to carry with you is a tiny USB drive.

OnePlus and its parent company, Oppo, plan to announce in the coming days that OnePlus brand will be leaving the US and European markets, according to a machine translation of a WinFuture report. Should the exit actually happen, it will mark a conclusion to months of rumors about the future of OnePlus. Android Headlines said in January that OnePlus was being "dismantled," though OnePlus, in a statement at the time, said that "OnePlus North America continues to operate, with full guarantee of users' after-sales support, software updates, and rights commitments."In March, 9to5Google reported that OnePlus might cease operations in global ma …Read the full story at The Verge.

Bluetooth is one of those features you'd expect to work perfectly on Windows by now, considering how long it's been around. And to be fair, I have no trouble connecting my AirPods Max, PS5 controller, or any other Bluetooth peripheral. That part has never really been the problem. Whenever I leave my PC idle for a while or wake it up from sleep, that's when things start getting weird. More often than not, I've had to turn Bluetooth off and back on just to get the device to reconnect.

AI browsers have already had their moment. Perplexity's Comet kicked most of it off, then OpenAI shipped Atlas, and by early this year Google had baked Gemini into a persistent sidebar in Chrome with an agentic auto-browse mode. So even Chrome kind of counts now, which says something about how quickly this category filled up. In any tech or AI boom, you're always going to end up sifting through a lot of nonsense to find the handful that are actually worth paying attention to.

Despite it being such a small device, the Mac mini with M4 chip is packed with ports. You get two USB-C ports in the front, along with a 3.5mm audio jack. Plus, three USB-C Thunderbolt ports in the back, along with Ethernet and HDMI. Not bad for a compact device.

The full DJI Mic 3 kit in its charging case. Smartphones these days have incredible cameras that are capable of taking smooth, sharp video, but the microphones are often lacking, to say the least. A wireless lavalier microphone can dramatically improve the audio quality of your videos, whether you’re the only one talking, or if you’re getting audio from multiple people. The DJI Mic 3 is one of the best options, and it’s currently discounted to $219 (usually $259) at several retailers, including Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Amazon. The bundle includes two microphones, a receiver unit that connects to your phone or camera, a charging case, power and audio cables, and four windscreens to reduce noise while recording outside.DJI Mic 3Where to Buy: $259 $219 at Amazon (Two transmitter kit) $259 $219 at Best Buy (Two transmitter kit) $259 $219 at B&H Photo (Two transmitter kit)DJI made a number of improvements to the Mic 3 over previous generations to flesh out the feature set and improve compatibility. The receiver stores 32GB of audio, up from 8GB, with support for both 24-bit and 32-bit floating points, and has a built-in screen for checking battery levels and connection status. The included magnetic clips let you easily attach the transmitters to clothing or hats.There are also features that help these microphones work in less-than-ideal recording conditions. They offer two levels of noise reduction, and active gain control to reign in any unexpected loud noises. Each microphone can run for about eight hours on a single charge, with the receiver at a slightly longer ten hours. The charging case provides at least two full charges for the set.