I'm an everywhere gamer, with my collection spread among several consoles, a towering gaming PC, Android and iOS devices, and a handful of PC gaming handhelds, like the ROG Ally X. I've always gone to the platform that has the games I want to play, or the way I want to play them, so that I always have entertainment wherever I may be.

When we think about computer operating systems, we tend to think about relatively modern versions—after all, we're pointed at the next iOS, Android, Windows, or macOS releases as if what came before is now gone. In a way, that's true, as modern operating systems are generally a far cry from those from even a decade ago, but what if I told you that there's a widely-used operating system that dates back to the early 1970s, and it's in devices that you might be sitting next to right now.

The Doom series has always been gaming royalty — it’s one of the most important games that changed the medium forever. 2016’s reboot and 2020’s Doom Eternal — both fantastic FPS games and even better Doom games — reinvented and cemented the franchise’s modern identity — a breakneck, ultra-violent ballet of speed, strategy, and hellish spectacle.

Considering I'm somewhat of a PC Luddite, and avoid updating my BIOS, Windows, or drivers unless it's critical, flashing my GPU BIOS was certainly out of the ordinary. I've known about custom vBIOS for a while, and how it can increase performance by tweaking the stock power limits or clock speeds, but I decided to actually do it only recently. My existing graphics card is starting to show its age, and I wanted some extra performance.

A mannequin explodes as part of a live demonstration warning consumers of fireworks hazards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) held this educational event on June 29, 2023. | Photo by Getty ImagesOn Friday, Donald Trump abruptly removed the three sitting Democrat appointees on the five-person U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — the independent watchdog agency that issues recalls and regulates everyday products, including consumer electronics. With no apparent cause for removal, the firings violate existing Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1935, as did Trump’s removals of the Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) back in March.The firing comes in the wake of a draft budget proposal that would have eliminated the CSPC, whose commissioners are bipartisan by law and who serve five-year terms. The proposal would have instead rolled the commission’s regulatory powers into the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by a political appointee — presently, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.The Washington Post reported that the firings came shortly after the three Democrats on the commission — Richard Trumka, Mary Boyle and Alexander Hoehn-Saric, all Biden appointees — voted to publish safety standards for small lithium-ion batteries used in electric bikes and electric scooters, with the two Republicans voting against it. The report specifically noted that these batteries have a record of catching on fire and “resulting in at least 39 fatalities and 181 injuries nationwide.”The following Thursday, two members of DOGE appeared at the CPSC’s offices. The next day, Trumka and Boyle received letters notifying them that they were fired. Hoehn-Saric did not receive a letter, but according to The Hill, he and his staff found themselves locked out of the building. All three members released statements saying that they planned to appeal their firings to the courts and that Trump had acted illegally. The three members received support from Consumer Reports, which stated in a press release that the firings were “an appalling and lawless attack on the independence of our country’s product safety watchdog.” Rather than state a cause for removal, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt once again reiterated the White House’s position that the president “has the right to fire people within the executive branch.” In March, the president fired the Democrats serving on the Federal Trade Commission, another independent agency, in contravention of the longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Humphrey’s Executor, which limits presidential power to remove officers at independent agencies — like the FTC — that have authority delegated to them from the legislative branch. The White House has consistently asserted that the president has the power to fire anyone under him, and Trump’s Department of Justice has announced its intention to overturn Humphrey’s Executor at the Supreme Court. The new Republican chair of the FTC has also publicly backed this interpretation of the Constitution. Fired FTC commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya have since sued the administration. The Supreme Court has previously signaled a willingness to overturn its own precedent in favor of expanding executive power, but the FTC case has not yet reached the court. Humphrey’s Executor remains the law of the land for now, though that could very well change in the near future. But that only makes it all the more baffling as to why the president is, once again, illegally firing commissioners of independent agencies. 

Smartwatches have come along way since the first Apple Watch arrived on the scene more than a decade ago. However, despite how ubiquitous they’ve become, they’re still nowhere near as discrete — or long-lasting — as a smart ring like the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Thankfully, if you’re looking to ditch the watch, Samsung’s first-gen smart ring is available with a $100 gift card at Best Buy and Amazon, where you can pick it up in a variety of sizes starting at $299.99 ($100 off), an all-time low.In many ways, the Android-only Galaxy Ring is more of an accessory for existing Samsung users than it is a standalone device. It’s not as a capable as the Oura Ring 4, our No. 1 pick for the best smart ring, though it does showcase excellent hardware and comes in wide ranges of sizes, from 5 to 15. Plus, unlike the Oura, the Galaxy Ring provides standard activity and sleep tracking without requiring you to pay a monthly fee. That’s a boon for anyone with subscription fatigue.In terms of basics, Samsung’s IP68 water-resistant ring can measure your blood oxygen level, skin temperature, heart rate, and track your steps and workouts. That being said, you’ll need a Galaxy phone to leverage all of Samsung’s ecosystem-centric tricks, including the ability to access insights about your quality of sleep and Samsung’s Energy Score feature, which attempts to quantify your fatigue levels. If you own a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 or Ultra, you’ll even get several additional days of battery life, thanks in part to the way Samsung’s Health app prioritizes which device’s sensors to pull from.All that is to say that the Galaxy Ring remains best suited for existing Samsung users, rather than those tapped into other ecosystems. But if that’s you, the current promo is the best deal we’ve seen.Read our full Samsung Galaxy Ring review.More deals and discountsThe holidays might be a ways off, but that also means it’s the best time of the year to load up on discounted decorations. Right now, for instance, Govee’s 50-foot Outdoor Dots String Lights are on sale at Amazon for an all-time low of $89.99 ($90 off) — the lowest price we’ve seen on the Matter-compatible, smart LED string.I’m a firm believer in bone conduction headphones like the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, which leave your ears more exposed while working out. Thankfully, if you haven’t tried them before, they’re available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $139.95 ($40 off), matching their all-time low. The latest open-ear Shokz still offer big sound and plenty of bass, only this time around, they now support USB-C charging and AI noise cancellation. Read our review.The Xbox Series X version of Metaphor: ReFantazio, a game that deftly build upon a winning RPG formula with a powerful narrative and harrowing turn-based combat, is going for $24.99 ($45 off) at Woot this weekend. It was easily one of our favorite games of 2024, even if it does feel like a remixed Persona title. Read our review.

The paid release of Deltarune, Toby Fox’s episodic Undertale spinoff, will be available for most people at the same time the Nintendo Switch 2 launches in Japan, Fox says in the Deltarune newsletter for May 2025. Deltarune’s first two chapters, released in 2018 and 2021 respectively, were free, but this new release, which adds chapters 3 and 4, will be a paid version that costs $24.99. How the release timing will work is a little confusing, but let me explain. For PS4, PS5, Steam, and the original Switch, Deltarune will launch on June 5th at 12AM in Japan, which translates to June 4th at 11AM ET / 8AM PT for people in the US.The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Deltarune, on the other hand, will launch at midnight local time in most regions on June 5th. This decision actually means that people in New Zealand or Australia who get a Switch 2 at midnight have a slight head start. “But, for convenience’s sake, we’re just going to ignore you guys and pretend that the game is not out… Meanwhile, don’t say anything about it please,” Fox says.Future updates to Deltarune will be added for free, Fox said in a newsletter last month, and the Switch 2 version will have a special room that takes advantage of the console’s mouse controls.

No matter what device you have, this Lexar 2TB M.2 SSD is going to be the perfect storage upgrade. Not only are you getting tons of space, but you're also getting an SSD that delivers excellent performance as well. Best of all, it's not all that expensive thanks to a recent 22% discount that drops the price down to just $130.

You probably know what goes into buying a new GPU. You need to know what kind of games you'll play, what resolution you'll play at, and how much you want to spend before you can make a good purchase decision. However, you should also know what not to do. While you might be focused on GPU specs, it's also critical to avoid some buying mistakes that can come back to bite you. I learned the hard way not to get bogged down by brands, variants, and unimportant specs when upgrading my graphics card. Here's why you should avoid these GPU buying mistakes.

Tech event season is in full swing. This week, Stripe and Figma gathered thousands of people in downtown San Francisco for their respective conferences. I caught up with Figma CEO Dylan Field after his opening keynote at Config, where he announced the most significant product expansion in the company's history. Below, you'll find our chat about how he sees AI fitting into Figma after a rough start to integrating the technology last year, the new areas he's targeting to grow the platform, and more. And keep reading for how Meta is turning up the heat on its AI team, my thoughts about this week's OpenAI news, and more…"Design and craft are the differentiator"These days, it seems like Figma has the entire creative software industry in its sights.On Wednesday, CEO Dylan Field walked onstage in front of about 8,000 people at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to announce four new products: a ChatGPT-like prototyping tool, a website builder and hosting platform, an AI-branded ad tool that's similar to Canva, and an Adobe Illustrator competitor.The last time I interviewed Field, he was resetting Figma's internal culture after its $20 billion sale to Adobe was blocked. When w …Read the full story at The Verge.

After years of Windows 11, Microsoft is finally taking a wrench to the Start menu. While not everyone dislikes it, it's definitely one of the sore spots people have when upgrading from Windows 10 to 11, given the lack of customization you have versus the older Windows version. Now, the company has broken down the reasoning behind its new Start redesign, giving everyone a sneak peek into what they can expect from it.

PS5 users can now buy games in the PlayStation Store using a new payment method: Apple Pay. You could use Apple Pay in the browser or via the mobile app already, but now the method joins other on-console options like using a saved credit or debit card, and PayPal.As reported by 9to5Mac, you may now see a new option for Apple Pay available at checkout. It’s using the QR code-style method that Apple introduced on iOS 18 last year, and also lets you buy things on third-party browsers like Chrome. The PlayStation support page for using Apple Pay has more information on which regions this works in, which includes the US.Once you select the game you want on your PS5, choose Apple Pay, then scan the code on your TV screen with your iPhone. iOS will then pull up a checkout screen that lets you confirm the transaction. And if you’re an Apple Card user, that means your PS5 purchases are good for 2 percent cash back as well. 9to5Mac also says Apple Pay may come to PS4 consoles as well after a future software update.