Network-attached storage (NAS) devices are both powerful and versatile, allowing you to store just about anything on a compact platform while being able to run services and more. You can create a media server, security surveillance system, password manager, and smart home automation hub, to name but a few. Direct-attached storage (DAS) is more basic with a few drives and hardware-based RAID. While I typically recommend a NAS over a DAS since it can do much more, there are some reasons why you'd want to buy a DAS instead.

The fee creep is back. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Verizon customers will soon see yet another fee increase on their next bill, a game that wireless carriers love to play. As spotted by Android Police, Verizon customers on reddit noticed the small fee bump — just 20 cents extra per line. But it comes only a couple of years after a bigger increase to the “Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge” the company tacks onto monthly bills, and Verizon’s claim that it’s just the cost of doing business seems dubious at best.Verizon spokesperson George Koroneos confirmed the fee hike to The Verge, saying that “Starting December 18, the monthly Verizon wireless Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge will increase by $0.20 per line for mobile voice (basic phones, Second Number, smartphones, etc.) and data-only (hotspots, tablets, etc.) products. Verizon Home Internet services are not affected.” That takes the fee from $3.30 to $3.50 for each voice line on a plan and $1.40 up to $1.60 per data line.According to a Verizon support page, the fee “helps defray and recover certain direct and indirect costs we or our agents incur,” including network operating and maintenance costs. AT&T and T-Mobile have slightly different names for the same fee, and all make basically the same claim about offsetting the costs of running a wireless network. A more cynical perspective is that these wireless companies separate this fee from their monthly rate plan charges so they can raise rates without saying they’re raising rates. That was the basis for a class-action lawsuit against AT&T in 2022, which that company agreed to settle. It may just be 20 cents now, but that small increase adds up to a lot when you multiply it across millions of users. After all, Verizon only made $3.4 billion in net income the third quarter this year, down from $4.9 billion in the same quarter last year. And while the fee creep is nothing new, it’s yet another reminder of of the levers these companies can pull in order to pad out their bottom line.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Nearly two years ago, OpenAI said that artificial general intelligence, or AGI — the thing the company was created to build — could “elevate humanity” and “give everyone incredible new capabilities.” Now, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is trying to lower expectations.“My guess is we will hit AGI sooner than most people in the world think and it will matter much less,” he said during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday. “And a lot of the safety concerns that we and others expressed actually don’t come at the AGI moment. AGI can get built, the world mostly goes on in mostly the same way, things grow faster, but then there is a long continuation from what we call AGI to what we call superintelligence.”This isn’t the first time Altman has downplayed the now seemingly imminent arrival of AGI, which OpenAI’s charter once said will be able to “automate the great majority of intellectual labor.” He has recently teased that it could arrive as soon as 2025 and will be achievable on existing hardware. We at The Verge have heard that OpenAI intends to weave together its large language models and declare that to be AGI. At the DealBook Summit,... Read the full story at The Verge.

The keyboard space has been a bit lukewarm of late. We had previously gotten a flood of Hall effect keyboards, knobs and displays became more mainstream, and more popular keyboards now come with pre-installed foam and pre-lubed switches. After that, however, no major trend forward seems to have materialized. What is more concerning to me, though, is how big-name, established brands are cutting corners and launching arguably inferior keyboards compared to budget and upcoming brands.

The Strength Plus app isn’t Peloton’s first attempt at capitalizing on strength training. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peloton announced the launch of Strength Plus, a new standalone, audio-based strength training app. The app was introduced in a limited beta program earlier in September, but is now officially available. The Strength Plus app allows users to generate custom workouts by choosing workout length, equipment, experience level, and which muscle groups they want to focus on. It also includes multi-week programs curated by Peloton’s strength coaches, though workouts can be done at a user’s own pace. Strength Plus includes audio cues and tips from instructors, as well as a library of instructional videos demonstrating exercises and equipment setup. It’s more like a strength training playlist than Peloton’s typical classes, which have you follow an instructor as they do the workout in real time. It works with the Apple Watch and users can log weights and reps within the app. And, instead of being stuck with instructor-curated workout music, users can listen to their own music, audio books, or podcasts. This move isn’t surprising. Over the years, Peloton has repeatedly mentioned that strength training is its second most popular exercise type, though the company has had mixed success in capitalizing on it. In 2022, Peloton launched its own Guide strength training hardware, but it hasn’t taken off like its treadmills or bikes. When it revamped the Peloton app, it also added Peloton Gym workouts that catered to gym-goers with written workouts and video demos, though that wasn’t its own app, didn’t let you log reps, and didn’t include multi-week programming. Image: Peloton Peloton really wants to make strength training work. On paper, Strength Plus looks similar to other apps, most notably Ladder. (So much so, that Ladder has already clapped back with an entire Mac vs PC-style ad campaign.) The main difference is that Strength Plus leverages Peloton’s more widely known instructors. More broadly, this could be seen as an attempt to expand Peloton’s appeal outside the home — something the company has struggled to do after many people began returning to in-person gyms and classes once covid-19 lockdowns were lifted. Existing Peloton All Access, Guide, and App Plus members can access the Strength Plus app for free. For everyone else, Peloton is offering a limited $1 monthly promotional subscription for the first six months, and then $9.99 monthly after. For now, the app will also be iOS only. The Verge asked Peloton whether it plans to expand further to Android, but didn’t immediately receive a response.

Backing up your PC is one of the most important tasks you should do weekly. Ensuring you have a copy of all your data safely stored for quick retrieval can save time, money, and headaches. Self-hosting your backups can provide quick access to all your stored data even if your connection to the outside world drops. You'll save money compared to cloud-based storage subscriptions, learn something new about networking and server management, and can use network-attached storage (NAS) or server to move from simple data storage to running services.

The Growl trainer has a screen you can punch without regretting it later. | Image: Growl Growl is a startup launching a wall-mounted fitness device that uses a combination of projectors and sensors to give you a life-size boxing coach to train with. Unlike similar interactive trainers such as the Lululemon Mirror or Tonal, the Growl encourages physical interactivity with its screen that doubles as a punching bag you can actually hit. However, just like those smart home workout machines, it’s pretty expensive, even with the hardware costs spread across a monthly subscription.Pricing for unlimited family access is “anticipated” to start at $150 per month on a 48-month plan or $190 per month for 36 months when preorders open in April 2025. That puts the price tag at $7,200 for four years or $6,840 for three. That’s not far off from the $7,407 cost of a Peloton Tread Plus over four years, including monthly subscription fees, and as with Peloton’s hardware, you’ll own the Growl at the end of the subscription period. Image: Growl Growl uses projectors instead of LCD or OLED screens to create larger, more immersive displays. By using projectors instead of LCD or OLED screens, its makers say that the Growl creates a more immersive experience without adding extra size. (Although it stays mostly out of the way, its design is described as “compact as a wall shelf.”) Your progress and other useful metrics are projected on the walls around the Growl. At the same time, its main screen, which is essentially half a punching bag that the company says offers similar resistance to the real thing, displays a life-size virtual trainer that’s more engaging.The Growl detects when and where you’ve punched it using a series of infrared time-of-flight sensors, turning its flexible surface into a large touchscreen, while multiple cameras track your movements in 3D and provide real-time feedback using AI analysis.You can spar with the virtual trainer as they show you where to throw punches, or you can play interactive fitness games including a title that looks like the boxing equivalent of Beat Saber that has you punching a series of targets flying toward you.It’s not just designed to track how long you’ve worked out or how many calories you’ve burned. It can suggest how to improve your form and technique without ever having to step into a ring and risk getting punched back.

I’m sorry, I put that thing in what? | Image: Nissan Nissan put out a tutorial video for Ariya owners today that shows how to use a Tesla NACS adapter with the vehicle, and it includes a step completely out of left field: shove a small piece of plastic into your car’s CCS port before you connect the adapter.The Ariya is Nissan’s first EV with a CCS port, and the automaker just activated the vehicle’s ability to connect to Tesla’s vast Supercharger network in October. Other manufacturers have also adopted Tesla’s NACS standard, with companies like Ford and Rivian already shipping adapters to current EV owners. But none of those EVs need you to take a confusing extra step to make the adapter work.As explained in the video, the NACS adapter available through Nissan includes a “plug adapter” that must be installed into the hourglass-shaped cavity between the two DC pins at the bottom before charging at NACS-capable fast charging stations. Nissan assures the viewer that its “simple” and requires no tools. However, you will need to use the adapter it provides or from a US dealership, which may mean other third-party options like the Lectron adapter might not work. (Probably for the best, considering the Lectron adapter was recently recalled.)What’s odd about the Ariya’s charge port is that despite being a standard that works at many CCS-capable fast charging stations, there is some negative hollow space between the two direct current pins at the bottom that isn’t present on most other EVs. The plastic piece that Nissan wants you to stuff into the opening fills in the gap to look more like other CCS ports. We asked Nissan what the purpose of the opening is and why the insert is needed, but have not heard back at time of publication.Nissan’s other EV model is the pioneering Leaf, which uses the all-but-obsolete CHAdeMO standard and probably won’t get some magic adapter to connect to Tesla’s Supercharger network (although there are some CHAdeMO to CCS adapters now).EV ownership is already rife with competing standards, janky software, and fragmented confusion. Somehow, Nissan managed to add another step that leaves customers juggling multiple pieces of plastic just to get their $40,000 electric SUV to operate properly.

Intel pulled back the curtain on its new Battlemage GPUs yesterday, revealing two new cards that aim to offer a high-end experience at a cheaper price. The news is still hot off of the press, and Acer is already bringing its own take on the cards to the public. The company has announced two cards based on Intel's boards, and they'll be ready to ship very soon.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you keep your passwords stored on Apple’s iCloud, you can access those passwords on Firefox through an official iCloud Passwords extension, as spotted by MacRumors. However, the extension only supports macOS Sonoma or later, so you won’t be able to use it with Windows.If you do need to access your iCloud passwords on Windows, you can access them by downloading iCloud for Windows and the iCloud Passwords extension for Chrome or Edge instead. We’ve asked Apple if it plans to add support for Windows to its Firefox extension.Another developer originally made the Firefox extension, but Apple has taken it over, according to a notice on the extension’s GitHub page. Apple is “now the sole owners in charge of maintaining their own official iCloud Passwords extension,” the developer says. The extension’s repository and source code aren’t linked to it anymore except for “historical reasons.”

ComfyUI is a node-based Gradio GUI designed for generative AI models. It is one of the most versatile ways to generate AI images, video, and audio locally on your own hardware. Free from software censorship or subscription requirements, it offers thousands of nodes and AI models with exceptional user control. ComfyUI is an incredibly powerful tool for anyone aiming to stay ahead of the AI curve.

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge President-elect Donald Trump made two nominations Wednesday that will shape significant parts of his administration’s tech enforcement, if confirmed by the Senate.Former Republican Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins is Trump’s pick to lead the agency, replacing Biden-appointed chair and crypto foil Gary Gensler. The selection of Atkins, who co-chairs the Token Alliance at the Digital Chamber, a group dedicated to the use of digital assets, suggests a sharp divergence from Biden-era crypto policy. In his announcement, Trump says Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”Trump also selected Gail Slater to lead the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, which is currently litigating two anti-monopoly suits against Google, and a third against Apple, as well as reportedly probing AI-chipmaker Nvidia. Slater has previously worked at the Federal Trade Commission, in Trump’s National Economic Counsel, and most recently as Vice President-elect JD Vance’s economic policy advisor in his Senate office. She’s also worked at Fox, Roku, and the now-defunct Internet Association, whose member included several Big Tech companies.Trump is borrowing a favorite term of Marc Andreessen’s in with his reference to “Little Tech”In his announcement on Truth Social, Trump writes that, “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump is borrowing a favorite term of Marc Andreessen’s in with his reference to “Little Tech.” Andreessen — a venture capitalist and crypto supporter who publicly backed Trump in the election — has pushed for the recognition of a contrast between policies that benefit startups versus the largest tech players.Slater has historically worked across the aisle, having served as an attorney advisor to former Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill (who now works as Microsoft’s chief privacy officer). Her history working for Vance — who has publicly praised Biden’s FTC Chair Lina Khan for her aggressive approach toward tech — suggests Big Tech is likely to remain a key target of antitrust scrutiny in the years to come.