The yearly releases for Intel and AMD are almost done, with Arrow Lake receiving a lukewarm reception due to a mix of software and hardware snafus. AMD's 9000 series didn't fare much better, as while the CPUs are efficient and decently priced, they don't bring that much more performance than the previous generation. With this year being a reset of sorts in favor of more efficient CPUs, let's take a closer look at the two midrange CPUs, the Core Ultra 7 265K and Ryzen 7 9700X, to see which one is going to take the crown.

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 58, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, Batman forever, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Simone Giertz and billionaire assistants and Checo Pérez and Call Her Daddy, learning about “Earthrise,” listening to Quinta Brunson and Conan O’Brien talk comedy, trying to decide whether to get super into Bluesky or just quit social altogether, and throwing myself into baseball so I can pretend I know what I’m talking about during the World Series.I also have for you an excellent new VR game, a delightful new reading gadget, a nice RSS reader update, a new browser worth trying, and much... Continue reading…

A huge benefit of being a PC user is the ability to upgrade your machine to keep up with the times. It's one of the major advantages of custom PCs, as you can't always upgrade individual components of a pre-built PC. A lot goes into choosing which upgrades are worth it, but people sometimes end up splurging as soon as something new and exciting comes out. This can unintentionally cost you money, as you fail to fully optimize your PC upgrades.

It's the final weekend before Halloween is here! Are you doing anything for the season? Whether you've been busy planning your spooky parties or getting your costume ready, there has been plenty

Docker is one of the most popular tools for pulling, deploying, and managing containerized applications, and for good reason. Compatible with multiple operating systems, this container platform can work on pretty much every computing device under the sun, including the Raspberry Pi. Its also fairly lightweight and lets you access a massive number of community-created images from the Docker Hub.

Microsoft recently refreshed the Xbox Series X, and while it comes with multiple improvements to power usage, one thing has been taken away. The new base model Robot White Xbox Series X with 1TB storage is all-digital, so the Blu-ray drive has been removed. Sure, it's $50 lower in price for that, but it's a worrying trend when access to physical media is shrinking fast. To get an optical drive on the Xbox now, you have to pony up for the 2TB version, which costs $600, or buy the older and more power-hungry model while it's still available. With optical drives disappearing on laptops, and PC gaming handhelds all being digital only, it really looks like the end of the road for physical media.

RAM disks were all the rage when they first came out. They allowed users to use the extra RAM in their system to create a virtual hard drive. The idea behind it is that if the programs and files are already stored in the fastest memory possible on your system, you can save files instantly and have programs and apps load almost as quickly.

If you're getting the itch to upgrade your CPU, like many PC enthusiasts, you've no doubt been watching the releases of Intel's Arrow Lake and AMD's Ryzen 9000 series very closely. So you're probably already aware that both manufacturers have gone on a diet this year, with a push for more efficient CPUs instead of the generational performance boosts of prior releases. That means this year's best CPUs from Intel and from AMD might actually not be the best CPUs for you and the type of tasks you perform. The nuances of the conversation this year aren't just around new features or percentage performance increases, and many users can likely pause their upgrade for another few months at least.

Image: The Verge Google could preview its own take on Rabbit’s large action model concept as soon as December, reports The Information. “Project Jarvis,” as it’s reportedly codenamed, would carry tasks out for users, including “gathering research, purchasing a product, or booking a flight,” according to three people the outlet spoke with who have direct knowledge of the project.Powered by a future version of Google’s Gemini, Jarvis reportedly only works with a web browser (it’s tuned specifically for Chrome). The tool is aimed at helping people “automate everyday, web-based tasks” by taking and interpreting screenshots and then clicking buttons or entering text, The Information writes. In its current state, it apparently takes “a few seconds” between... Continue reading…

It seems that Intel has gotten itself into another rut. Tom of Moore's Law Is Dead previously claimed that Intel's Raptor Lake stability issues have come back from the grave to haunt Arrow Lake, and while there was very little reason to disbelieve him, I still had a shred of hope that things weren't as bad as they seem. Well, turns out, things were even worse; not only are reviewers reporting bad stability, but two more companies have reportedly expressed an interest in buying Intel.

Image: Finji I used to hate jigsaw puzzles. I thought they were frustrating, messy, and took way too long to solve. But my wife showed me how those parts of jigsaw puzzles can actually be fun: there’s something satisfying and meditative about working through those frustrations, sorting through the mess, and putting a picture together, one piece at a time, over the course of a few hours. (Or days.)The makers of Wilmot Works It Out, a new puzzle game, understand this, and everything about the game is designed to make solving puzzles fun instead of annoying.In the game, you play as Wilmot, an adorable white square with a face who has a puzzle-by-mail subscription. (He’s the same smiley square from Wilmot’s Warehouse, a 2019 puzzle game also made by... Continue reading…

Have you ever wished your Raspberry Pi board was floppier? If you do, I'd love to hear what project spurred you to think that way. In the meantime, you can check out this new crowd-sourcing project that claims to be the world's first flexible Raspberry Pi Pico, and you can snag one for cheap if you act fast.