Through more than two decades of travel for both work and leisure, my packing list has evolved from a random assortment of gadgets and accessories thrown together at the last minute into a refined checklist of gear honed by trial and error. The right packing list, I've found, can be the difference between a good trip and a great one. Or at least the difference between hectic trips to the local Best Buy and some extra time by the pool.My family's summer vacation this year will involve lots of hiking and exploring the great outdoors, but it will by no means be an attempt to disconnect from our favorite devices. Convenience, comfort, and peac …Read the full story at The Verge.

Our internet connection has been mucky lately and a few weeks ago it gave up properly. The connection went on Monday afternoon, came back briefly that Wednesday, then dropped again when a power outage kicked in. By Thursday I was relying on data but then the cell towers near me had gone down for a stretch during one of those power outages, and I'd been working off and on for two days without proper connectivity. None of this would normally be a great week, but I got more done than I expected to, and most of that comes down to having a local LLM setup that runs without the internet.

The crease isn’t quite invisible, but otherwise this feels like the complete foldable package — on the hardware side at least. On paper, the Honor Magic V6 sounds like a tremendous leap forward for foldable phones: It's the thinnest one yet, with the biggest battery, and the best water-resistance ever. In practice, only the bigger battery feels like a meaningful improvement. The other upgrades are only fractionally superior to what came before.This isn't entirely Honor's fault. It's getting harder to make a foldable phone stand out; even last year's offerings felt like complete flagship phones. Huawei's Pura X Max stood out for its odd new aspect ratio, which we're expecting to see both Samsung and Apple replicate later this year. Then there are the trifolds, whic …Read the full story at The Verge.

While gaming on Linux has come leaps and bounds since a decade ago, it's still not the perfect replacement for Windows. One of its biggest issues is with Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), a cheater prevention tool owned by Epic Games and runs on the kernel level. There have been some efforts to get EAC working on Linux, but given how Linux users have far more control over the kernel than Windows, some developers felt it too risky to publish their games on Linux, including Epic Games itself, which blocked access to Fortnite.

I have been experimenting with Claude Code and Google Antigravity extensively as part of my development workflow. I have used them to build an enterprise-grade tool. I would not credit the tools alone, though. There was plenty of human input involved throughout the process. Even so, working with them made me realize just how capable these tools have become.

Fox has announced that it's acquiring Roku outright, in a deal that values the streaming company at $22 billion.The deal will see Fox's TV networks and Tubi streamer combine with Roku's network of streaming devices, smart TV software, and The Roku Channel. The companies say in a statement that by combining they'll become the third-largest player in the US TV industry by viewing share.It doesn't sound like the plan is to build Roku and Fox into a walled ecosystem. The two companies are "committed" to keeping Roku an open-platform that works with other content providers, and to the "continued ubiquitous distribution" of Fox's own content. …Read the full story at The Verge.

The UK is the latest country to follow Australia in implementing a total social media ban for children under 16, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced. The ban, which could take effect from early next year, will be joined by wider measures that will also prevent children from talking to strangers in online games, livestreaming, or using sexual or romantic chatbots."Do we truly believe that social media creates a happy environment for our children? Do we truly believe that it's a place where they can feel safe?" Starmer asked during a press conference announcing the policy. "I don't think I even need to answer those questions, do I?"" …Read the full story at The Verge.

4K remains the endgame for PC gaming. Sure, there's 8K and even 12K around in the shadows, but 1440p and 4K are where most of the action takes place. I've long used 1440p, switching back and forth between a 4K panel, but I have since fully migrated to the higher resolution for all my interactive entertainment. 8K isn't anywhere close to being here yet, 1440p feels like a downgrade, and 4K is finally much more accessible for many gamers, myself included.

One of the biggest shames with the handheld console industry is what happens when a specific yet vital component breaks. Because everything is tightly packaged within a shell, something that should be easy to swap can become a death knell for the entire unit. Some people have found creative uses for busted handhelds, but ideally, people should be able to repair them at home.

I'm on my third (or fourth) Synology NAS enclosure, with a stretch of ownership going back nearly a decade. That's a long time for me to stick with any single manufacturer, but it became time to part. I've written about this switch before on many occasions, but now that I've made the switch, I firmly believe I did the right thing for my home lab.

The GeForce RTX 4070 officially turned three this April, and yet it feels as if it were yesterday when the Ada Lovelace GPU was announced. This isn't nostalgia talking, not in the slightest. Rather, it feels like there has been no significant shift in the experience of owning a GPU, no missing features, and alongside it, no reason to eye a potential upgrade over the past three years.

Building a web-based personal knowledge management tool sounded like the perfect test for today’s most capable coding agents. It was not just another landing page or basic dashboard.