It has been a pretty sweet year or two for fans of JRPGs. Everyone is raving about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 right now (and for good reason), but that doesn't mean we should forget about the titles that came before it. Before we even learned what the gommage was, we were tucking into the excellent JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio and its phenomenal soundtrack.

Although computing enthusiasts (myself included) tend to gravitate towards enterprise-grade equipment when building a server, you can put together a reliable home lab with just about any system. As a beginner, there’s a lot to learn from budget-friendly systems, be it second-hand PCs, SBCs, or even laptops (provided you’re willing to take the necessary precautions).

Intel surprised everyone with the launch of the Arc Battlemage graphics cards, and the Arc B580, in particular. This was a $250 (MSRP) graphics card capable of 1440p ray tracing in some of the latest titles, something that no one expected from Team Blue. The budget market was, more or less, abandoned by the competition, and Intel came in with a stellar GPU that promised greater things to come.

Look at your router. Now back to me. Now back to your router. And back to me. Your router isn't me, but it could be improved with a managed network switch. This is a smart switch that can provide additional bandwidth through more RJ45 ports and controls for creating virtual LANs (VLANs), managing and monitoring traffic, and setting priorities and other rules. Even if you don't plan to build out a home lab with countless servers and network-attached storage (NAS) enclosures, a network switch is worth considering for your home.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by browser tabs, frustrated by sluggish performance, or simply wanted a non-Chromium web setup, then listen up. I tried the Arc browser and loved its fresh take on web browsing. However, I ditched it due to uncertainty around its development. Then, a few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge and switched to Zen Browser. The immediate difference was astonishing. It’s one of those moments where the only regret I have is not making the change sooner.

Despite PCIe 5.0 SSDs not being worth it for most people, many of you might be rocking one on your PC. Gen5 SSDs are known for their blistering sequential read/write speeds that benefit large file transfers and professional workloads. What they're also known for is significantly higher operating temps compared to Gen4 drives, so much so that some Gen5 drives come with comically large coolers with fans. They're simply not capable of functioning normally without active cooling.

There are plenty of different cheap media streaming devices on the market, but if you're looking for one that offers some of the best features, then the Amazon Fire TV Cube is the way to go. Not only does it feature a stylish design that fits perfectly with any home theater setup, but it also packs more performance, ensuring that you're getting the best video and audio quality.

In just two months, an information-stealing malware called Lumma hit nearly 400,000 Windows PCs globally and stole passwords, credit cards, bank accounts, and cryptocurrency wallets. The malware was so dangerous to the extent that it allowed criminals to hold educational institutions ransom and wipe out back accounts.

I had been thinking about setting up some kind of NAS system for a while leading up to when I started my self-hosting journey just a few weeks ago. I knew I wanted to reduce my reliance on cloud-hosted third-party services, but everything was very foreign to me and I wasn't sure I'd get very far.

Microsoft employees have discovered that any emails they send with the terms "Palestine" or "Gaza" are getting temporarily blocked from being sent to recipients inside and outside the company. The No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) protest group reports that "dozens of Microsoft workers" have been unable to send emails with the words "Palestine," "Gaza," and "Genocide" in email subject lines or in the body of a message."Words like 'Israel' or 'P4lestine' do not trigger such a block," says NOAA organizer Hossam Nasr. "NOAA believes this is an attempt by Microsoft to silence worker free speech and is a censorship enacted by Microsoft leadership to discriminate against Palestinian workers and their allies."Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that it has implemented some form of email changes to reduce "politically focused emails" inside the company."Emailing large numbers of employees about any topic not related to work is not appropriate. We have an established forum for employees who have opted in to political issues," says Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw in a statement to The Verge. "Over the past couple of days, a number of politically focused emails have been sent to tens of tho …Read the full story at The Verge.

Computex is closely followed by all who love computers. There are a few worthy tech shows throughout the year, but none come close to some of the wacky and truly incredible devices we can feast our eyes on in Taipei each May (or June). For Computex 2025, we managed to spend some time gazing at some epic products from a variety of brands, including Asus, Intel, AMD, and HYTE. If you've struggled to keep up with everything hitting the floor, we've rounded up the very best for you right here with some awards for good measure!

I’ve used Windows Task Manager for years to quickly check what’s using up my system’s CPU or RAM. But after I started testing different types of software for my work, I occasionally faced system-level problems like apps that wouldn’t close, services that wouldn’t restart, and processes that looked suspicious but gave me no details. At such times, I realized the Windows Task Manager wasn’t sufficient for me. I wanted to understand why things were failing. I needed deeper process insights, better graphs, and tools to actually intervene when things went sideways.