Every week, I repeat an embarrassing number of tasks that require almost no thought. I mean things like sorting files, checking my inbox, tracking phone, credit card, and other bills, and more. I have never liked doing these, so I decided to automate them with a shell script. I have managed to build a single automation system that tidies my files, processes emails, updates financial and health trackers, and even prepares a weekly agenda. It does this by connecting to services including Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, and Standard Chartered Bank, and using scheduled jobs to run the right tasks at the right time.

Home Assistant is quite the compelling smart home platform. It can bring together all of your smart devices, be it Philips Hue bulbs, Sonoff Zigbee smart plugs, and Sonof speakers. With Home Assistant fully configured, it's easier than one may initially believe to create the ultimate interactive home. That said, there's one area where things can get a little messy, and that's controlling everything. The official apps are brilliant on the smartphone, but having an old Android tablet can make all the difference, especially if you use it for security.

Microsoft has started rolling out an emergency out-of-band update to fix problems with its record-breaking September patch Tuesday update. The software giant patched nearly 1,000 flaws in its biggest update ever this month, but it also introduced some bugs that have affected businesses, developers, and gamers.The September patch Tuesday affected folder shares on Hyper-V-based Linux virtual machines, Remote Desktop Services sessions, and some USB audio devices. Microsoft's out-of-band update, released yesterday, addresses these issues across Windows 11 versions 26h1, 25H2, and 24H2. Microsoft has also released updates for Windows Server 202 …Read the full story at The Verge.

When Nvidia's 616.56 driver landed on my Nvidia App at the end of August, I installed it the way I'd installed every single Game Ready driver, which was, without a second thought. That very same evening after work, I booted Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 like I always do, but after a few minutes of flying, I started seeing strange artefacts across the screen. A few minutes later, the game dropped me on the desktop, ruining over 30-ish minutes of progress.

Most plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) today get an average of around 30-50 miles of battery-only range: decent, but not mind-blowing. With hybrid sales dominating the market today, Volvo is out to prove that its PHEVs can push the limits of what's possible.Today, the Swedish automaker revealed the updated PHEV versions of its popular XC60 and XC90 SUVs are its first "long range plug-in hybrids," delivering class-leading ranges of 78 miles and 73 miles, respectively. That's more than double the electric range of previous PHEV variants. The numbers are still preliminary and based on EPA testing standards. But if confirmed, they would …Read the full story at The Verge.

Researching and saving things is a pretty standard part of my workflow. Be it articles I want to read, tutorials for projects, just interesting projects and software to write about, and more. For a long time, my workflow revolved around Pocket. But with Pocket no longer a thing, I've tried to look up a proper alternative. I even tried using bookmarks, but that got out of hand pretty quickly.

Now that Valve has finally launched its entire 2026 hardware lineup - the Steam Controller, the Steam Machine, and today's Steam Frame - are we any closer to a next-gen Steam Deck handheld? Valve isn't saying so yet. The company is figuring out "how and when we can deliver something like that," Valve designer Pierre-Loup Griffais now tells IGN.Valve has been clear for years that 1) a Steam Deck 2 will indeed happen, and 2) it's not coming until Valve finds the right chip. The original Steam Deck worked because it delivered the right combination of price, performance, and battery life, and Valve has repeatedly said it won't sacrifice effici …Read the full story at The Verge.

General Motors is polishing up the software experience in its bestselling trucks in an effort to reduce the amount of dangerous tapping and swiping that's required to access the most-used controls. It's also giving Apple CarPlay and Android Auto spiffy new picture-in-picture displays - which is notable given GM's previously stated hostility to phone mirroring in its electric vehicles.When the next-generation interface makes its debut on the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and 2027 GMC Sierra 1500 later this year, vehicle owners will see a number of changes, including slick new graphics for its advanced driver-assist system, animated transiti …Read the full story at The Verge.

When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, and SpaceX head Elon Musk loosely agreed over the weekend to slow down AI development, skeptics spotted an ulterior motive immediately. The AI titans had declared that their aim was to "pace the frontier," signing on at least partially to a proposal for embedding third-party auditors, regulating domestic labs, and reaching a global slowdown agreement. Their critics, however, argued they simply wanted to stop would-be competitors, kneecap the open-source movement, and avoid real legal safeguards - some dubbed it an outright "cartel." The truth …Read the full story at The Verge.

AI coding tools are getting quite good at building websites, but I wanted to know which current model can nail all the little details that I ask for in a prompt. So I gave Claude Code, Codex, and Google Antigravity the exact same challenge: rebuild a website from the same brief, with no extra hand-holding along the way.

Another Patch Tuesday has come and gone, so you know what that means: more weird Windows 11 bugs. We've already seen the latest patch break WSL and Claude Cowork functionality due to issues with Plan9. Now, Microsoft has confirmed that anyone who downloaded the latest update may have issues copy-pasting in Excel.

Every Windows user on the planet has been familiar with the Recycle Bin for years now. Its name itself has led me to believe that it's the final stop for anything I delete from Windows. By and large, I've always assumed that emptying the Recycle Bin meant that the files were gone, with the only exception being specialized recovery software.