We at XDA love making stuff instead of buying them. After all, if you can make it, you can repair it or make a new one when things go wrong. So, when I saw an adorable home lab setup that you can 3D print yourself, you know I had to check it out.

Every so often, we see a wave of activity around cramming something that shouldn't be running in a specific document or app into said document or app. If you (like myself) had the naive thought that PDF files were static, boring documents that can't do things like, I don't know, play Tetris or something, then boy, do we have news for you. Someone has taken PDF tinkering to the next level and got Linux running within a document, and you can give it a spin if you don't believe me.

OpenAI has revealed another new agentic feature for ChatGPT called deep research, which it says can operate autonomously to “plan and execute a multi-step trajectory to find the data it needs, backtracking and reacting to real-time information where necessary.” Instead of simply generating text, it shows a summary of its process in a sidebar, with citations and a summary showing the process used for reference.Users can ask questions using text, images, and additional files like PDFs or spreadsheets to add context, and then it will take “anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes” to develop a response provided in the chat window, with promises that in the future it will also be able to include embedded images and charts. OpenAI also notes limitations for deep research, saying it can “sometimes hallucinate” and make up facts, struggle with telling the difference between authoritative info and rumors, and register how certain it should rate a response.Developing ways for generative AI tools to be more useful and worth paying for is the future companies like OpenAI have promised for agents, and it claims that deep research is capable of operating at the level of a research analyst. The demo video included here begins with a request for info on changes in the retail industry over the last three years, with a response that includes bullet points and tables.ChatGPT deep research exampleThis feature closely follows OpenAI’s launch of Operator, a tool that can use a web browser to complete tasks for you, and is similar to the Project Mariner research prototype Google showed off in December. Google’s tool is not available to the public yet, but deep research is launching “with a version optimized for Pro users today.”OpenAI is offering up to 100 queries per month for those paying the $200 monthly fee and “limited access” promised for Plus, Team, and eventually, Enterprise users, calling the ability “very compute intensive,” requiring more inference compute the longer it takes to research something. It also says that all paid users will get higher rate limits in the future when a faster, more cost-effective version is available.A press release says that the model powering deep research scored a new high for accuracy on an AI benchmark dubbed “Humanity’s Last Exam,” which asks for responses to expert-level questions. The OpenAI deep research model reached an accuracy of 26.6 percent with browsing and python tools enabled, well above GPT-4o’s 3.3 percent, and the next highest scorer, its o3-mini (high) model evaluated only on text, at 13 percent.

I’m a big proponent of “work smarter, not harder,” so I’m a fan of automation tools. I know I’m not alone in this and that many people want to make their daily routines easier by finding ways to do things faster. Whether you’re a busy professional or want to save time on personal tasks, automation can help you get more done.

As you venture deep into the self-hosting landscape, you’ll come across several unique services – some quirky, others practical. Equipped with a host of utilities, IT-Tools falls in the latter category and is by far one of the most useful services I’ve come across in my home lab journey. If you’re not familiar with it, here are three reasons why you’ve got to try hosting it on your home server.

To-do list-builders and note-taking apps provide an effective way to jot down your ideas and keep track of your essential tasks. However, many of the popular solutions require paid subscriptions to unlock the features. With your notes on external servers, you’ll have to contend with the lack of privacy as well.

For years, VBA (Virtual Basic for Applications) has been the go-to language for automating tasks and extending the functionality of Microsoft Excel. However, the rise of Python, coupled with its direct integration into Excel and powerful libraries like openpyxl, xlwings, and pandas, presents a compelling alternative.

Counter-Strike 2 is the best esport on the planet. Compared to League of Legends, Dota 2, Overwatch, Valorant, and countless others, I truly believe that it's the absolute best out there. I say this from a position of working a significant amount in esports, and even watching tournaments in other games too, like Valorant and Deadlock. I know how much of an audacious claim that is to some, but there are a lot of reasons why I believe it's the case.

Phone Link is a handy way to sync your Windows PC and your phone together, but sometimes Microsoft makes decisions that are just plain weird. For instance, if you wanted to unlink a phone, you had to remove it from your Microsoft account and couldn't do it via Windows. Fortunately, Microsoft is finally rectifying this with a new feature that's currently being tested.

Microsoft is getting ready to remove the VPN feature from its Microsoft 365 subscription later this month. Originally designed as a privacy feature, the VPN in Microsoft 365 utilizes the Microsoft Defender app to encrypt internet traffic and hide IP addresses. Microsoft is now removing this privacy protection feature from Microsoft 365 on February 28th.“We routinely evaluate the usage and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs,” says Microsoft in a support note spotted by Windows Central.Microsoft 365 subscribers will still get access to identity theft and credit monitoring in the US, but they’ll have to look elsewhere for VPN support. It’s clear that a lack of people using the privacy protection feature has led to Microsoft removing it, but the VPN in Microsoft 365 was never fully featured enough to be used widely. Microsoft restricted you to a 50GB monthly data limit, and the VPN automatically connected to a local region making it impossible to work around the geo restrictions people often use VPNs for.The removal of the VPN benefit in Microsoft 365 comes just weeks after Microsoft raised subscription prices for the first time in 12 years. Microsoft has bundled Office AI features into Microsoft 365 and hiked prices by an extra $3 month, but you can downgrade to a classic plan that maintains the existing price for Personal or Family subscriptions without the added AI features.

For anyone working in Photoshop, performance issues can be a frustrating obstacle to creativity. Laggy tools, long loading times, or even crashes during complex tasks can quickly derail your workflow and sap your productivity.

There are lots of reasons you might choose to use open-source tools, whether it’s to avoid the Adobe corporation and find the best open-source alternatives to Adobe tools, or because you want to be in control of your privacy and security. The future of creative tools and software lies in open-source options for many reasons. Open-source tools will never diminish your creativity or limit your results.