As an industry, video games are pretty young. However, within the short time that gaming has been around, it has given birth to characters that have significantly impacted entertainment. Whether it was during the heyday of arcades or the excitement of home console wars, gaming has always resonated with people through its colorful characters on full display. Some characters have grown to become iconic, turning into symbols of nostalgia or clear ideas that players connect with on a personal level. They aren't just characters within their own games, but rather mainstays of gaming culture.

I'm an avid photographer who clicks using both my smartphone and camera. Since I use different devices, I prefer shooting in RAW so that I can match the colors later on when editing the photos. I've been using Lightroom for all my color grading needs over the years, and it has fared well. However, the subscription costs started bothering me, especially since I don't click or edit photos as often anymore. So, it didn't make sense to continue paying for a service I didn't use regularly. So, I canceled my subscription and started looking for free alternatives. While several options don't need a subscription, I settled on Darktable.

For some people, a new PC build isn't done until all the wires and plugs are hidden away. That way, you just have the computer, the screen, and any peripherals; a very clean, sleek look. But what if you wanted to go one step further and hide the PC itself?

Modern productivity workflows often revolve around getting your work done within the conglomerate of some big-tech company's ecosystem. You'll often be forced into using it if your company does, but for personal use, you have more control over where you store your data and collect your ideas. Google is one of the most pervasive companies in this regard, housing personal email, web browsing, document editing, photo storage, and not to mention the Android ecosystem. I use Google's products in many facets of my personal life, and once I realized just how tight their grip was on such a big portion of my online activity, I wanted to make a concerted attempt to de-Google my life.

The PC has always been a tool of expression for PC builders. It's not just made up of parts containing transistors, capacitors, and circuits. It's a canvas that tech enthusiasts use to tell a personal story, and this naturally opens the door for aesthetically-minded parts and technologies. This is why PC mods like CCFL tubes, UV lighting, and EL wires were a thing, and why RGB lighting became such a big hit with PC builders.

There are just so many things about a mini PC that are alluring. Not only do you get excellent power, but it also comes in a compact size that's perfect for any workspace. We've seen a lot of great models roll out over the past year, but Apple's Mac Mini really has to be at the top of the list, really excellent bang for your buck.

Smart devices seem good until you buy them and realize each needs a separate app to function and monitor. In my case, I have a few security cameras from one brand, and I intend to add a few Wi-Fi bulbs in some spots. Home Assistant was a perfect fit for this use case because it would let me connect and manage multiple devices, irrespective of brands, in a single dashboard. While there are multiple ways to use Home Assistant, including an old laptop, a VM, and more, I wanted to put my tiny Raspberry Pi Zero 2W to the test.

Microsoft is rolling out a monthly update to Windows 11 that includes some important updates to HDR support in the operating system. The updates allow you to keep HDR disabled across the whole of Windows, but still stream HDR video in all its glory, alongside more control over Dolby Vision.The latest KB5058499 update is available to all Windows 11 users right now if you’ve enabled the “get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option in Windows Update. Once it’s installed, you can now toggle the ability to stream HDR video option even when HDR is disabled in Windows, allowing you to view HDR content from apps like Netflix or websites like YouTube without having to enable HDR throughout Windows.Microsoft is also updating Windows 11’s HDR support to allow you to independently toggle Dolby Vision support in content or throughout Windows. Dolby Vision used to be forced on inside Windows if you enabled it on your monitor, so it’s nice to have the option to be able to toggle it on or off.These new options are great for people who simply disable HDR in Windows because of its patchy support. I personally disable HDR in Windows and use the keyboard shortcut (Windows Key + Alt + B) to enable it in games that properly support it, simply because I rely on a variety of content capture tools for screenshots and screen recording that produce a washed out image because they don’t properly support HDR or provide a way to capture individual SDR content.While HDR support in Windows has improved over the past year thanks to the latest batch of OLED monitors, I’d still like to see game developers and Microsoft take HDR more seriously. Auto HDR is great for games, but it’s still a really fiddly and manual process to get HDR to work well across a variety of apps and games in Windows.

I have a lot of storage accumulated over the years. From old HDDs and SSDs, I've got terabytes of storage just lying around. With some of them, they're simply just older storage drives I used myself, but with others, they're drives that were given to me by friends or family, often removed from machines that were used in their respective companies. Because of this, many of them are old, and some of them still contain data that may be important to retrieve or pass back to the original owner before I can wipe them.

Healthcare company Kaiser Permanente is dealing with a system outage that is forcing its hospitals and pharmacies to fill out prescriptions with pen and paper — and is slowing down services at other parts of the company, too.“Kaiser Permanente is currently experiencing network interruptions, at one of our data centers, which is impacting some of our applications,” Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Kathleen Campini Chambers says in a statement to The Verge. “All of our clinical facilities are operational. However, members may be facing delays in certain services such as lab, radiology, and pharmacy online and in our facilities. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience. Our technical teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Members can go to kp.org for updates.“The company is also showing alerts on its regional websites, including for Northern California and Oregon / SW Washington. “At this time, you may not be able to access some features on our site, including e-visits, billing, message center, and records,” Kaiser Permanente says.One Verge staffer saw the problems firsthand today while trying to get a prescription filled at a Kaiser hospital pharmacy. They said all the pharmacy’s systems were down, including payment terminals, and that the pharmacists had to fill out a point-of-sale form to fill the prescription. Staffers at the pharmacy warned about long wait times, saying it could take an hour to fill a simple prescription.A thread on Reddit also includes reports of issues from places like Southern California and Maryland. Kaiser Permanente has also been replying to users on X, saying that it is “aware of the system outages” and that it is “working to restore services as soon as possible.”Update, May 28th: Added statement from Kaiser Permanente.

I really like it when people take older tech and give it a modern-day remix with some new hardware. There's something about preserving the "spirit" of a piece of retro electronics while also giving it some nice quality of life features for the modern day that really pleases me. As such, when I saw that someone had constructed an HP bubble display clock and added Wi-Fi capabilities to it, I knew I had to check it out further.

Musk waves goodbye to the Trump administration after four months of government meddling.Elon Musk’s official role within the United States government is coming to an end. The billionaire Tesla CEO announced his White House departure in an X post on Wednesday night, thanking President Donald Trump for the opportunity to “reduce wasteful spending” by leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk wrote, saying that his position as a special government employee was coming “to an end.”Musk’s departure was expected. He had announced plans earlier this month to step away from government and spend “a lot less” on US political campaigns, having invested nearly $300 million into Trump’s Presidential run. He’s also pledged to spend more time on Tesla, with his controversial political stint having likely contributed to the EV maker’s spiralling sales. The role of special government employee also comes with a 130-day time limit — a deadline that was fast approaching if DOGE’s establishment on January 20th is considered Musk’s start date.A White House official told Reuters that Musk was being off-boarded on Wednesday night. The publication reports that Musk didn’t formally discuss his departure with Trump before announcing it on X, and that his exit was decided “at a senior staff level.”Musk is parting ways with the Trump administration a day after criticizing the President’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” in an interview with CBS, saying the landmark tax legislation would increase the federal deficit and undermine his cost-cutting efforts at DOGE. During Trump’s campaign, Musk initially pledged that DOGE would cut at least $2 trillion in federal spending before later slashing its targets to $1 trillion and then $150 billion. The DOGE website currently claims to have saved $175 billion, but that figure should be taken with a fistful of salt given previous exaggerations.