When looking for computer parts, it's natural to look for good deals. Whether you're looking for a pocketable and portable SSD to store your files between devices or SSD storage for your game library, you want the best value you can find. You might see listings for budget-friendly SSDs that are almost too low to be true, and in some cases, they are.

Anker’s Soundcore Bluetooth Speaker was recalled due to a fire hazard. Anker is recalling its Soundcore and PowerConf Bluetooth Speakers after receiving 33 reports of the speakers’ lithium-ion batteries overheating and, in some instances, emitting smoke or causing small fires. The affected models — A3102016, A3302011 and A3302031 — were sold exclusively on Amazon in 2023 and cost between $28 and $130, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Approximately 69,000 speakers were sold in the US, and an additional 9,764 were sold i Canada.Anker and Amazon have contacted all known purchasers, according to the CPSC. The affected speakers can be identified by an SN code that is printed on the underside of the speakers. To check whether your devices were affected, type the SN code on Anker’s website. Anker said it will offer free replacement speakers to those affected.Consumers who own the recalled speakers are advised to stop using them immediately, power them off, and disconnect them from chargers or other external power sources.

Hey, remember when Microsoft revealed that huge batch of Copilot features in early October? If you don't, one of the nuggets within the big list of planned tools was something called "Copilot Vision," which could scan a webpage and allow people to ask questions about it. At the time, Microsoft hadn't given an exact release date for Copilot Vision; however, the Redmond giant has now announced that a "limited number of Copilot Pro subscribers in the US" can now give it a shot.

Building your network-attached storage (NAS) is a great way to create somewhere to stash files and backups, but it's also a platform for hosting services such as media streaming and even home surveillance. It's not the most efficient way of running services, however, compared to something like Proxmox. Proxmox is a fantastic virtualization platform that can handle anything you throw at it. This includes the aforementioned services, as well as NAS operating systems. Yes, you can run a NAS as a virtual instance through a VM. Here's why and how to do it.

If you've been keeping up with handheld console news, you'll know that MSI has been brewing something in its labs. The last time we checked in on them, they discussed making a Lunar Lake upgradein June. If you've been holding out for that, we have some good news for you: the company has released two new consoles that add AI to its previous range.

An administrator account on Windows 11 comes with several perks and privileges. Admins can update security settings, install or remove apps, and make other system adjustments without encountering permission errors. As a new administrator, the first thing you'll want to do is change your administrator name on your PC.

Prologue: Go Wayback. | Image: Krafton It’s been a while since we heard from Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, best known as the creator of the global battle royale hit PUBG. But now, Greene’s studio, PlayerUnknown Productions, is detailing what it’s working on — and there are multiple games in the works, all pointing toward a big final project.First up is a game called Prologue: Go Wayback!, described as a “single-player open-world emergent game within the survival genre,” which was previously teased in 2021. The big hook, it seems, is technical, as the game is being built with “machine-learning-driven terrain generation technology, allowing the instant creation of millions of maps.” Prologue is expected to launch in early access on Steam in 2025, following a series of playtests. To showcase what players can expect, the studio is launching a free tech demo on Steam today called Preface: Undiscovered World. You can check it out right here.According to the studio, these games are building blocks on the way to a more ambitious game currently codenamed “Artemis,” which will be a “massive multiplayer sandbox experience.” Greene previously talked about Artemis back in 2022; it was originally billed as a game with NFT support, though today’s announcement has no mention of NFTs. Here’s Greene on what players can eventually expect as the studio builds toward its big game:My vision for Artemis is challenging, but we plan to take it one step at a time and the three games aim to give us a solid tech foundation on which to scale up. After Prologue, two more games are planned for release in the coming years, each addressing critical technical challenges that will bring the studio closer to the final product. With Prologue, we aim to engage players and introduce them to the emergent mechanics and expansive worlds we’re developing.Greene first stepped away from PUBG with a new studio in 2019 — it was known under the name “PUBG Special Projects” — and two years later announced that he was leaving PUBG parent company Krafton to go independent. “Today, I’m excited to take the next step on my journey to create the kind of experience I’ve envisaged for years,” he said at the time.

Whether you are a student, busy professional, entrepreneur, or a remote worker, a laptop plays an essential role in your workflow. But what if your trusty device is secretly harboring malicious software? Such bogus and corrupt files can hijack your entire device, steal data, affect performance, and even render it unusable. The good news is that you don’t have to be a cybersecurity expert to spot the signs.

When you’re attempting to build a virtualization server, there are a myriad of operating systems to choose from, ranging from Proxmox to Hyper-V. But if you’re fond of traversing through the expansive recesses of the Internet, you may come across some truly unique platforms. Harvester is one such operating system that's typically designed for home servers and large-scale operations rather than consumer-tier experimentation rigs.

Display technology has changed a lot in the last few years. Many of the growing pains felt by both LCD and OLED displays have come and gone, and these technical strides have resulted in more good options for the average consumer. It's an excellent time to be in the market for a new display, but there's one type of display that really hasn't aged all that well.

If you're a gamer, you've probably heard of high-refresh rate monitors. Your typical monitor will refresh 60 times per second or every 16.67ms. This is good enough for a decently smooth experience, but nowadays, a 60Hz monitor isn't good enough for a lot of people. With the rise of 144Hz, 240Hz, and even 360Hz monitors, you might be considering picking up one, but here's what you need to know first before you get one.

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the company’s search engine will “change profoundly” in 2025. “I think we are going to be able to tackle more complex questions than ever before,” Pichai said during the NYT’s DealBook Summit on Wednesday. “I think you’ll be surprised, even early in ‘25, the kind of newer things Search can do compared to where it is today.”Pichai also responded to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s comment from earlier this year, in which he said Google should’ve been the “default winner” in the AI race. “I would love to do a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft’s own models and our models,” Pichai said. He added that Microsoft is “using someone else’s models,” alluding to the company’s partnership with OpenAI.“When I look at what’s coming ahead, we are in the earliest stages of a profound shift,” Pichai said. “I just think there’s so much innovation ahead. We are committed to being at the state of the art in this field, and I think we are.”Google started its big AI overhaul of Search this year, which included the addition of AI search summaries and a Lens update that lets you search the web with a video. The company is also preparing to launch a major update to its Gemini model as it aims to compete with Microsoft, OpenAI, and the AI search engine Perplexity.