The US government is bringing up Starlink adoption in the midst of tariff trade talks with other countries, according to a report from The Washington Post. In recent weeks, several countries have moved forward with licensing the Elon Musk-owned satellite internet company, including India, Somalia, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.Internal messages seen by The Post suggest that US embassies and the State Department are encouraging countries to make way for US satellite internet services like Starlink. The messages don’t promise lower tariffs in exchange for adopting Starlink, but “they do indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm,” The Post reports.Sources tell The Post that government officials in India rushed to secure regulatory approval for Starlink “with the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the administration.” This week, India cleared Starlink’s proposal, bringing it another step closer to establishing its service in the country.In a statement to The Post, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said “the only consideration in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with other countries is what’s best for the American people — which includes American companies succeeding at home and abroad” and that President Donald Trump “will not tolerate any conflicts of interest.” The State Department told the outlet that “any patriotic American should want to see an American company’s success on the global stage, especially over compromised Chinese competitors.” SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. In response to an earlier Washington Post article on the rapid global expansion of Starlink, several Senate Democrats called on President Donald Trump to investigate reports that Musk “used his government role to improperly advance his personal businesses abroad.”

Inkscape is a multifaceted open-source creative tool. You might consider Inkscape as the best alternative to Adobe Illustrator, but it stands as its own great tool, even without comparison. There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to Inkscape’s capabilities, and the project types you can use Inkscape for feel almost endless. You might not consider using it for more out-of-the-box creative projects initially. Still, Inkscape is my go-to for various projects for which I might’ve previously used multiple programs to get my final results. Keep all your projects within the same tool for an easier life by using Inkscape for each.

For most of us, CPU overclocking has become irrelevant, thanks to modern chips running close to their potential right out of the factory. That said, enthusiasts will always want to extract every ounce of performance from their CPU, which requires motherboards that are up to the task. Although most people only look at the number of VRM phases and the heatsink size on a motherboard to judge its overclocking pedigree, there's far more to the VRM if you're into serious overclocking.

The Razer Clio speaker is potentially a more comfortable alternative to wearing wireless headphones. | Image: RazerRazer has announced three new products today, including an alternative to wireless headphones called the Clio that’s designed to attach to your gaming chair and double as a head cushion.Powered by a 5,400mAh battery that Razer says is good for up to 14 hours of use, the Clio uses adjustable straps to attach to “most high-back gaming and office chairs” so that it’s positioned directly behind your head. Inside each of the cushion’s angled wings is a near-field speaker that uses a 43-millimeter driver paired with a passive radiator that work together to deliver “crisp, clear trebles and deep, punchy bass you can hear and feel.”The Clio speaker wirelessly connects to Bluetooth-compatible devices like smartphones, tablets, and handheld consoles, but is also compatible with Razer’s HyperSpeed Wireless protocol for a low-latency connection to a gaming PC. Support for THX Spatial Audio creates a more immersive listening experience when using the Clio on its own, but it can be paired with additional desktop speakers and used as a dedicated rear channel as part of a larger 7.1 surround sound setup.The Razer Clio wireless speaker is available for preorder now through Razer’s online store for $229.99 with shipping expected to begin on May 16th, 2025. Razer also announced a new lightweight Basilisk Mobile mouse and Joro wireless gaming keyboard,  which it says were created to pair with portable gaming gear “without compromising on performance.”The Razer Basilisk Mobile mouse weighs in at 76 grams and “boasts a compact, ergonomic design” designed to slip into pockets or squeeze into a laptop sleeve along with a computer. It supports wired, Bluetooth, or a low-latency Razer HyperSpeed Wireless connection to PCs with up to 105 hours of battery life with the latter, or up to 150 hours with Bluetooth.The mouse includes a four-way tilting scroll wheel with two scrolling modes: free-spin for more speed or tactile cycling for more precision. There’s a Razer Focus X optical sensor with up to 18,000dpi of sensitivity on the underside, while the mouse’s primary buttons use Razer’s Gen-3 optical switches boasting a 90 million click lifecycle.The Razer Joro ultra-portable wireless gaming keyboard uses a compact 75 percent layout and measures in at 16.5-millimeters thick and 374 grams in weight. As with most Razer products, it features RGB lighting that can be animated with various effects while still offering an impressive battery life of up to 1,800 hours when using its power saving mode.The Joro connects to devices with a USB-C cable or over Bluetooth and is not only compatible with both Windows and Apple devices including iPadOS and iOS, it also features secondary keys with macOS labels and a dedicated Microsoft Copilot Key. Laser-etched ABS keycaps help ensure longevity, and in addition to the keyboard being customizable, it can also store up to five different profiles locally, and switch between them as needed.The Razer Joro wireless gaming keyboard is also available for purchase now for $139.99 with delivery expected in mid-May 2025, but the $89.99 Razer Basilisk MobilePortable wireless mouse is still listed as “Coming Soon” on the company’s website.

If you've been up to date with your Microsoft news, you'll know that the company recently reported that its Copilot user count has plateaued. The service attracts 20 million users a week, which sounds impressive on paper; however, given how ChatGPT garners 400 million users a week, you can see how things pale in comparison. Not only that, but given how roughly 1.5 billion users use Windows, and Copilot now comes as default with Windows 10 and 11, you'd think that number would be a tad higher. But it's not going up.

It feels like we don't go a week without hearing of a company raising its technology prices. Given that the US government added huge tariffs to tech-critical components, it was only a matter of time until companies passed that higher production cost onto the consumer.

Over the course of my self-hosting journey, I’ve encountered a diverse set of applications, each fulfilling its unique role in my rat’s nest of a home lab. There’s my gaming suite, which encompasses everything from Minecraft servers running on my NAS to the Apollo+Artemis combo on my gaming rig. I’ve also got my Raspberry Pi-powered productivity server that rivals Office 365’s offerings without forcing me to pay monthly subscription fees. Likewise, I’ve configured a handful of virtual machines and containers for my coding projects and media consumption needs.

Apple is launching a new global Viral Chart playlist in Apple Music that consists of tracks people are discovering through the company’s Shazam service. The playlist, which is updated daily, shows the top 50 songs people have heard playing out in the real world and have logged through Shazam. You can see charts on Shazam’s website as well.The playlists use “Shazam’s data to offer a comprehensive view of today’s fastest-growing songs across the globe, David Emery, who works for Apple Music in the UK, says on Threads. Emery notes that charts reflect songs going viral on Shazam in “real time” and then ranks them based on “their weekly growth in Shazam volume.”As of writing, the top viral songs in the list include Shake It To The Max (FLY) [Remix] by Moliy, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, and Hot Together by The Pointer Sisters. On Shazam’s website, you can look at the rankings by country, if you’d like.

The Sega Dreamcast is one of the most beloved video game consoles ever. Many games released on the Dreamcast helped modern classics find their audience and become popular over the years. Unfortunately, the Sega Dreamcast was also the company's last home console with a major presence within the industry. Because of that, players are nostalgic about the console's library and hold it in high regard.

We like covering free Steam and Epic Games Store games here at XDA, but those aren't the only way to score quality titles for nothing. If yiou're a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you immediately gain access to Prime Gaming, which unlocks some special goodies like a free Twitch sub.

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud that led to “billions in losses,” the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.Celsius, which held $25 billion in assets at its peak, abruptly halted withdrawals and transfers during a broader crypto crash in 2022, locking up billions in customer funds. The firm filed for bankruptcy just weeks later.The DOJ charged Mashinsky with securities fraud in 2023, accusing him of misrepresenting Celsius’s business and finances. It also claimed Mashinsky artificially inflated the price of the platform’s token, CEL, by “spending hundreds of millions purchasing it on the open market.” Mashinsky pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of commodities fraud last December.Mashinsky’s arrest comes as the Trump administration takes a softer stance on crypto regulation. Last month, a memo obtained by The Washington Post revealed the disbandment of a DOJ division dedicated to investigating crypto firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped several cases against companies in crypto, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood.“Alexander Mashinsky targeted retail investors with promises that he would keep their ‘digital assets’ safer than a bank, when in fact he used those assets to place risky bets and to line his own pockets,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in the press release. “In the end, Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars while his customers lost billions.”

If you're about to build a PC for the first time, you'd be forgiven for making some common mistakes that first-time builders are prone to. However, even those with a few builds under their belt can sometimes forget some obvious or unsaid things, making mistakes that can range from annoying to disastrous. These mistakes aren't always written about in articles about annoying PC mistakes, which is why many users are still guilty of them in 2025.