Earlier this week, when it seemed as though TikTok’s fate in the US would actually be decided by April 5th, everyone — from Amazon to the founder of OnlyFans — was coming out of the woodwork to buy it.As it turns out, none of them had a chance. And now, thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariff war, no one may get to buy TikTok. People familiar with the matter tell me that, despite all of the bids for the app, the White House was only seriously considering an Oracle-led consortium, which included many of ByteDance’s biggest investors who were set to roll their stakes into a new, US entity. The proposal, which would have licensed the app’s algorithm from China and shuffled some shareholder money around to make TikTok look more independent from ByteDance, was set to be announced before President Trump went nuclear on tariffs. As others have reported and I’ve independently confirmed, his tariff announcement on Wednesday torched any immediate chance of the TikTok proposal being blessed by the Chinese government. On Friday, less than an hour after Trump said he was pushing back the clock on banning TikTok by another 75 days to finish working out a deal, ByteDance …Read the full story at The Verge.

Today is Windows' 50th birthday! Did you get something nice? If you forgot all about it, don't worry; it seems that Microsoft is in a giving mood and has instead granted us a lovely gift to celebrate. You can now snag some really nice wallpapers to celebrate the occasion, and each one comes with its own light and dark variant to suit your computer best.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has infiltrated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an agency that has a say over resources Musk needs or could benefit from for some of his private sector business, The Verge has learned. Three people who have been identified as DOGE staffers are listed in a public directory called “Finding People at the FCC.” Tarak Makecha, Jordan Wick, and Jacob Altik are all listed in the FCC directory, with email addresses associated with the agency. Each is listed under the office “OCH,” which in other agency documents refers to the Office of the Chairman.Makecha is a finance executive who, according to LinkedIn, has most recently worked in a drone detection software company and previously worked at Tesla. Makecha has reportedly been involved through DOGE at OPM and the State Department. Wick is a former Waymo engineer who’s reportedly been given access to systems at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Altik is a lawyer who’s reportedly been involved at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Are you a current or former US federal government worker? Reach out securely and anonymously with tips from a non-work device to Lauren Feiner via Signal at laurenfeiner.64.DOGE has recently expanded into other enforcement agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, as The Verge reported earlier on Friday. The FCC’s authority over radio, TV, broadband, and satellite intersects with Musk’s businesses, like granting certain permissions for SpaceX’s Starlink operations. Its role as a regulator and enforcer also means it stores information on SpaceX and its competitors in order to make decisions. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said that Musk would recuse himself from potential conflicts. The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about what the DOGE staffers’ role will be at the agency or what restrictions there will be on their data access.

If you're looking to get the most from your monitor, going with an ultrawide is going to be a great option. Of course, the only problem is that most ultrawide monitors are pretty expensive. Luckily, this one from LG is now seeing a heavy discount that brings it down to just $550. This is the lowest price we've seen for this model, so it's a great time to pick one up.

Remember zombie games? Back in the early to mid 2010's, zombie games were all the rage. The genre was bustling, with plenty of incredible titles, some of which are still being played to this day.

What's better than a fidget toy? A fidget toy you can 3D print. That way, when you inevitably break it from playing with it for the 1,000th time, you can just make a new one and get back to fidgeting. If your fingers itch for something to pick at and you have a 3D printer, then boy do I have the project for you. Someone has uploaded the plans for a ton of little fidget toys that play a brief section of famous video game tracks when you strum your finger along the top, and they seem to be an absolute breeze to print and assemble.

After Nvidia released the RTX 5070 and 5090, we got a taste of just how high GPU prices can get, with the latter going for $2,000 as a recommended retail price. Despite the price tag, people were snapping up cards so quickly that companies had to mark them up at a pretty steep rate. Good luck actually finding a card selling for $2,000.

No gaming PC setup is complete without a set of gaming peripherals to go toe-to-toe with the action. While I started my PC journey with cheap no-name peripherals, I elevated my experience to quality models not too long ago. From a budget Cooler Master keyboard to premium mechanical keyboards, and knock-off headphones to high-quality gaming headsets, I've used them all.

Whether it’s a time-lapse camera, Python-based crowd analyzer, or full-fledged drones, modern Raspberry Pi boards pair well with projects involving camera modules. NVR setups, in particular, benefit from the small form factor and low energy consumption of these miniature boards, especially if you’re planning to put together a surveillance system for your surroundings. Once you arm your Raspberry Pi with Frigate’s terrific NVR provisions, you can even turn it into a wildlife monitoring setup.

The world of smart home devices is awesome but a little bit scary, given the many different competing connectivity standards. Building your own smart home hub is a great way to control multiple standards from the same box. One of the most compatible wireless connectivity standards is Zigbee,a low-power wireless protocol for networking IoT devices, although it's not that widely used anymore.

Mini PCs aren't a necessity or an option with nearly as much choice as a mid-tower assemble-it-yourself machine when you're out shopping for a computer upgrade. I have one each of a laptop, mini PC, and mid-tower that I use in rotation, and doing so offered a fresh perspective into why you shouldn't dismissively ignore the handful of adorable and tiny computers you can just plug in to fire up. Besides the general readiness to hit the ground running, there are several (albeit niche) use cases where I've found the smaller form factor to excel.

Hey, would you look at that—I'm writing yet another post about ePaper devices. I really love this technology, so when I saw that Seeed was releasing its own smart home display based on it, I knew I had to check it out. Best of all, it's actually not that expensive, and comes chock-full of a ton of handy features.