Welcome to The Drive, a weekly column looking at some wacky, interesting, cool, and pivotal things within the tech space! Curated by PC Hardware Lead Editor Richard Edmonds through almost two decades covering the sector. Think something should be covered? Hit me up at [email protected]!

Image: Disney Star Wars spinoff Andor is finally coming back for its second and final season on Disney Plus April 22nd, 2025, Disney announced during its D23 event in Brazil yesterday. And in a clear nod to Rogue One, the 2016 film it’s setting up, it has a new logo with the subtitle “A Star Wars Story.”The new season will complete the so far excellent story of Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) transformation from street rat to hard-bitten rebel alliance spy in the lead-up to the events of Rogue One. Its 12-episode run will be broken up into blocks of three episodes, each covering three-day events taking place in a four-year period, as TheWrap notes. On April 22, 2025, #Andor returns to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/c6P3pdNBi6— Star Wars (@starwars) N... Continue reading…

One of the big parts of parenting is teaching our kids how to behave in various situations, and that also includes the digital realm. Whether they're using a laptop for schoolwork, a Chromebook for in-class assignments, or using their first smartphone, it's important that our kids know how to stay safe online. Part of this is using inbuilt parental controls to limit exposure to the more salacious parts of the internet, but it's also about talking to our kids about ground rules, how to spot scams and other issues, and most importantly, that they can always come to us if they feel unsafe wherever they are.

Donkey Kong Country gets a Nintendo Direct showcase on Monday. | Image: Nintendo Nintendo says it’s finally going to show off the long-awaited Donkey Kong Country area of Super Nintendo World in a Nintendo Direct stream on Monday at 5PM ET. It’s an encouraging sign for the theme park expansion devoted to Mario’s first nemesis, the opening of which was delayed earlier this year. Nintendo first confirmed that it was building the area, which will feature a mine cart rollercoaster ride, back in 2021. Nintendo and Universal Studios showed the region off — or a digital render of it, anyway — earlier this year, and confirmed that when the Orlando, Florida version of Super Nintendo World opens on May 22nd, 2025, it will have all of the same attractions as its Osaka counterpart.As for Nintendo Switch 2 news, well, don’t get... Continue reading…

The first part of Wicked, starring Ariana Grande (left) and Cynthia Erivo (right) will arrive in theaters on November 22nd. | Image: Universal Pictures Barbie producer Mattel has issued an apology after customers spotted its Wicked edition dolls listed an adult website on the packaging. The toy merchandise mistakenly directed customers to the homepage of the Wicked Pictures pornographic movie studio, instead of the correct WickedMovie.com URL.“We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this,” Mattel said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children.”Mattel said that the dolls, which have been released to coincide with Universal’s film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical, are “primarily sold in the US” and that the error was a “misprint.” It’s unclear... Continue reading…

Darktable is an open-source photo-editing software. It allows professional photographers to be a deeper part of the process of editing compared to those who use programs like Lightroom, Affinity Photo, or Luminar Neo. There are some great open-source creative tools, but Darktable is incomparable for the process of editing beautiful imagery.

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple has begun selling repair parts for iPhone 16 and 16 Pro phones on its self-service repair store. That includes replacements for commonly damaged parts like cameras, displays, and back glass, and follows the release of official Apple iPhone 16 repair manuals in September, as MacRumors notes.A replacement camera assembly will run you $169 for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus or $249 for the 16 Pro and Pro Max. And new displays range from $279 to $379, depending on the model. Batteries are either $99 or, for the 16 Pro phones, $119. And if you don’t have the tools, you can always rent out one of Apple’s heavy, specialized repair kits for $49.Taking on a DIY iPhone repair isn’t quite as dicey as it once was, thanks to Apple’s gradual shift... Continue reading…

With much of what we do taking place online, its no surprise that our personal information, including phone numbers, is constantly at risk of exposure. With robocalls, spam, phishing scams, and even targeted harassment on the rise, a publicly listed phone number can quickly become a major headache. Fraudsters and telemarketers often use People Search Sites or data brokers to obtain phone numbers, adding to the frustration.

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Popular music changes all the time, but there’s been one consistent element in practically everything released in the last two decades: Auto-Tune is everywhere. What started as a simple audio processing tool in the 1990s has become the dominant force in music. Artists are training to sing with Auto-Tune; songs sound like Auto-Tune. Like it or hate it, Auto-Tune is everywhere. And to be clear, most people like it.On this episode of The Vergecast, the second installment in our series about the future of music, music journalist and Switched on Pop co-host Charlie Harding tells us the story of Auto-Tune. (Disclosure: Switched on Pop is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network, as is The Vergecast.) It starts, of all places, in the oil and gas... Continue reading…

With its powerful linking capabilities, graph views, Markdown support, and focus on local storage, Obsidian has surely taken the note-taking space by storm. But like any software, its not a one-size-fits-all solution. Whether you want a better user interface, out-of-box features, or crave an open-source solution for transparency, there is a whole universe of Obsidian alternatives waiting to be explored.

Photo by Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM via Getty Images Amazon’s next ideas for growing its grocery business could blur the lines between Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh by enmeshing the two businesses’ fulfillment networks in a new set of experiments, according to The Wall Street Journal. Amazon has reportedly started shipping Whole Foods products from 26 Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers and plans to build a microfulfillment center at a Pennsylvania Whole Foods Market and stocking it with Amazon Fresh household goods and groceries. Another part of the plan includes an experimental “Amazon Grocery” inside a Chicago Whole Foods that offers brands and groceries that the upscale store wouldn’t normally carry, according to WSJ. The goal of the tests is to give Amazon customers a way to buy... Continue reading…

When youre attempting to build your dream NAS, there are plenty of permutations and combinations you can try out for the hardware. The same can be said for software, as theres a staggering number of operating systems that can turn your newly purchased NAS components into a powerful storage server.