If you've ever thought about recording your game footage, or wanted to stream your game sessions online, then a capture card is going to be essential. While there are plenty of great capture card options to choose from, we think Elgato offers some of the best that you can buy, with most of their cards delivering a good mix of features, while being extremely easy to use.

The United Kingdom’s mobile browser market is “not working well for consumers and businesses” according to a final report from Britain’s competition watchdog, which says that Apple and Google are largely to blame.An independent inquiry group has concluded its mobile browsers investigation for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), identifying Apple’s policies around iOS, Safari, and WebKit as making it difficult for third-party web browser providers to compete and restricting the market as a result. Google’s Android mobile ecosystem is also complicit in impeding competition, according to the CMA report, albeit to a lesser extent.The issues flagged by the investigation include Apple requiring all browsers on iOS to run on its WebKit browser engine, giving Safari preferential access to features compared to competing WebKit-based browsers, limitations placed on in-app browsing, and having Safari pre-installed and prominently displayed as the default browser on iPhones. While users can change the default iPhone web browsing app, investigators say that Safari’s designation as the pre-installed default on iPhones reduces user awareness of alternative apps.Investigators found similar concerns regarding Chrome being pre-installed as the default web browser on the vast majority of Android devices. However, the report notes that both Apple and Google have taken steps to make it easier for users to switch to alternative browsers since the investigation announced its provisional findings in November, which have “addressed some, but not all, of the concerns relating to choice architecture.”The investigation also found that revenue sharing arrangements that see Google paying Apple a significant share of search revenue in exchange for being the default search engine on iPhones was “significantly reducing their financial incentives to compete.”“Apple believes in thriving and dynamic markets where innovation can flourish. We face competition in every segment and jurisdiction where we operate, and our focus is always the trust of our users,” Apple spokesperson Julien Trosdorf told The Verge. “We have concerns with this report and believe the remedies it discusses would undermine privacy, security, and the overall user experience. We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to best address their concerns.”Google has yet to respond to our request for comment on the CMA’s report.The CMA has put forward potential remedies aimed at improving competition within the UK’s mobile browser market, which include forcing Apple to allow developers to use alternative browser engines on iOS, requiring Apple and Google to offer a browser choice screen during device setup, and prohibiting the Chrome revenue sharing arrangements between the two companies. These suggestions are currently unenforceable, however, that could change in the coming months.In January, the CMA launched separate investigations into Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems to decide whether to designate them as having strategic market status (SMS) under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC). Much like the Digital Markets Act (DMA) law introduced by the European Union, the DMCC allows UK regulators to make select companies with “substantial and entrenched market power” meet stricter antitrust requirements.SMS companies can be imposed with “conduct requirements” intended to address anticompetitive behavior, and risk fines of up to 10 percent of their annual turnover for violating DMCC rules. If Apple or Google are designated with SMS, the mobile browser investigation is encouraging the CMA to “consider imposing appropriate interventions,” similar to the suggestions it outlined. The SMS investigations into Google and Apple are currently ongoing and expected to conclude later this year.“Following our in-depth investigation, we have concluded that competition between different mobile browsers is not working well, and this is holding back innovation in the UK,” said Margot Daly, Chair of the CMA’s independent inquiry group. “I welcome the CMA’s prompt action to open strategic market status investigations into both Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems. The extensive analysis we’ve set out today will help that work as it progresses.”Update, March 13th: Added statement from Apple.

Modern gaming mice are packed with cutting-edge features, supposedly improving gamers' prowess and making them better players. While certain features, like wireless connectivity and ultralight designs, have undoubtedly benefited players, others are less useful and are more like marketing gimmicks designed to make sales.

Editor’s note: Ahead of Microsoft’s 50th’s anniversary, we’ve fixed the layout on this story — which we originally published in 2012 when Windows 8 launched. Now’s a good time to revisit our look at an operating system that helped shape personal computing over the years.Two years ago today, when Windows 1.0 celebrated its 25th birthday, we didn’t yet know what the future of Windows would hold. Now that Windows 8 is on the market, the original is more relevant than ever before. Today, Windows 1.0 turns 27, and despite the many ways computing has changed since its debut, the two operating systems have some surprising similarities. Let’s take a look at just how far we’ve come since Windows 1.0… and where Microsoft is retracing its own footsteps with the latest version of Windows.On November 10th, 1983, Microsoft announced Windows. For $99, it came with a notepad, calendar, clock, cardfile, terminal application, file manager, a game of Reversi, Windows Write, and Windows Paint. The original press materials, prepared using Windows Write, had this quote from Bill Gates:“Windows provides unprecedented power to users today and a foundation for hardware and soft …Read the full story at The Verge.

A 3D slicer is one of the essential tools that every 3D printing enthusiast needs in their arsenal. After designing your files in a 3D modeling program, you export them to the slicer, mostly in STL, OBJ, or 3MF format, which turns them into instructions that the 3D printer understands, called the G-code. The G-code contains commands like how the nozzle should move, speed settings, layer height, and temperature settings, together with other settings. Beyond slicing the file, a 3D slicer is also helpful for customizing the settings of your design to achieve the best results. Below are five popular free 3D slicers you can use in your next project.

Spectre Divide, a Valorant-like free-to-play shooter where you control two bodies, is shutting down just months after its September launch.“We were optimistic about the first week,” developer Mountaintop Studios says in a post. “We’ve had ~400,000 players play, with a peak concurrent player count of ~10,000 across all platforms. But as time has gone on, we haven’t seen enough active players and incoming revenue to cover the day-to-day costs of Spectre and the studio.”The studio expects to take Spectre Divide offline “within the next 30 days,” and it will refund all money since the game’s first season, which kicked off on February 25th. Mountaintop Studios will also be “closing its doors” at the end of the week, according to the post.“We pursued every avenue to keep going, including finding a publisher, additional investment, and/or an acquisition,” Mountaintop says. “In the end, we weren’t able to make it work. The industry is in a tough spot right now.”In December, Mountaintop CEO Nate Mitchell and Spectre Divide game director Lee Horn told The Verge that things were already dire, and that the game’s console launch and new season would be its hail mary play. Horn said that the marketing was working going into launch, but that server issues at launch axed its momentum. “Unfortunately, the game fell over on day one,” he admitted. Mitchell told us the game needed thousands of concurrent players if it was going to survive, or else the company would run out of money this year. Unfortunately, the game’s new season peaked at just over 1,000 concurrents on Steam, and has been downhill ever since; presumably, Mountaintop saw its multiplatform peak of around 10,000 players drop similarly.“If the players are enjoying the game… if they aren’t into season one, they way we hope they are, we’ll have to take a hard look at if we should keep going on as we are, or if players are telling us this isn’t what we want,” Mitchell told us in December. Apparently, Mountaintop did have to take that hard look, and this is its decision.The Spectre Divide shutdown follows the disastrous launch of Sony’s forgettable Concord hero shooter. Sony has since closed down Concord’s development studio and permanently shut down the game.Additional reporting by Sean Hollister

Digital asset management (DAM) tools are primarily for storing and managing images and video files, but not exclusively. You can also use DAM tools to store documents, audio, coding files, brand assets, and all other types of digital files types. Having a central system is a great way to keep your digital assets organizedwithout too many external tools involved. While you could pay for a solid digital asset management tool, there are plenty of open-source DAM systems you can use for better security in your management.

Parallels is one of the only officially supported ways (by Microsoft, anyway) to run Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac. It's easy to set up, supports ProMotion, integrates seamlessly with macOS, and even adds a feature called "Coherence" that will let your Windows apps show up as if they were regular Mac apps.

TriliumNext is arguably one of the best open-source note-taking apps out there. It works on Windows and Windows on ARM, macOS, Linux, and it comes with a ton of features you might not expect. A developer also created a Trilium Sender app for Android devices. However, the best thing about TriliumNext is that you can build a whole knowledge base and self-host notes. Here are a few reasons why you should self-host TriliumNext Notes, especially now that you can do that on an inexpensive device like a Raspberry Pi.

There are plenty of reasons why someone would opt for a mini PC over a regular-sized one, but I like to think that "being adorable" is one of them. Fortunately, the new mini PC by Aoostar checks that box for me. The Aoostar G-Flip is a cute little piece that combines a screen and a PC into one so it can become your next portable pal.

When it comes to Windows, there are always those who refuse any change Microsoft makes and would prefer sticking with the old versions of specific tools. But for me, I find that the new tools Microsoft provides are generally a good evolution of what came before, and the best example of it in Windows 11 is the Settings app.

Adobe Bridge is one of Adobe’s only free desktop software tools. It’s a digital asset management or DAM tool that allows you to preview, organize, edit, and publish your creative images and assets. It uses metadata tools, has Adobe integration with other software, and supports RAW image processing. Well, Adobe Bridge is still part of the Adobe ecosystem, even if cost-free DigiKam is an open-source digital management toolfor images and video files which offers plenty of the same features as Bridge, but it keeps your privacy and security intact.