Did you manage to catch all the cool tech news that happened over the last week? I can't blame you if you didn't; with Thanksgiving now come and gone, the dust settling from Black Friday, the Cyber Monday deals on the horizon, and the Christmas bells ringing in the distance, it's pretty easy to lose track of everything happening. Which is a shame, because this week saw a ton of great news hit the grapevine.

Over the past few years, mechanical keyboards have gained more attention, with more people being curious about the experience and how it compares to a traditional keyboard. Of course, if you're on the fence, it may be hard to see the benefits of a mechanical keyboard without actually using one long term.

2024's Black Friday is in the books, but that doesn't mean the deals must stop. After all, we have until midnight on Cyber Monday before the price drops truly stop. As such, if you missed out on grabbing a new laptop for less on Black Friday, it's definitely not too late to snap one up now. If you want some inspiration, here's some; you can pick up a laptop that was released only five months ago at a $250 discount if you act fast.

Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Image: Getty Images In a new motion filed late Friday in his lawsuit against OpenAI, Elon Musk’s attorneys have asked for a preliminary injunction to stop OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit enterprise, reports TechCrunch. They also asked the judge to forbid the company from continuing alleged practices that they say violate US antitrust laws.Musk’s lawyers claim that because of CEO Sam Altman’s alleged self-dealing, OpenAI “will likely lack sufficient funds to pay damages” if Musk wins the suit. The motion follows reports of OpenAI’s intent to become a for-profit business and that it recently began early talks with regulators to move its structural change forward. As for antitrust claims, Musk’s lawyers allege that OpenAI and Microsoft “told... Continue reading…

When it comes to productivity software, hearing the term "open-source" can be a turn-off for some. Giving up software capability to save a few bucks or to preserve your privacy is not a trade-off some professionals are willing to take. The good news is, that compromise hardly exists anymore. There are a ton of excellent open-source options out there that rival even the best paid productivity software, and here are my top picks to definitely consider weaving into your workflow.

Image: Elen Winata for The Verge Just because it’s Saturday doesn’t mean the deluge of deals on laptops, headphones, and other Verge-approved gadgets is letting up. Continue reading…

The be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5 is a fantastic CPU air cooler. In my review, I praised the cooler for handling even the more powerful processors from AMD and Intel. While it's no "affordable" option for keeping temperatures in check, it's also not the most expensive air cooler and is well worth the asking price. For Cyber Monday, you can enjoy a full 20% discount on the listing price, bringing be quiet!'s premium cooler down to a low $72.

Hey, remember that leak that happened yesterday that pinned an Intel Battlemage release date on December 3rd? It turns out that the leak was a lot more accurate than we had first assumed. Intel has stepped up to the podium and declared that we'll learn more about the GPUs this coming Tuesday, but that hasn't stopped a leaker from revealing even more information about the GPUs.

For someone buying their first mechanical keyboard in 2024, the market is flooded with countless options for every budget, form factor, and style. However, if you want to go with an established brand without spending a ton, the Corsair K70 core TKL is one of the newest entrants in the affordable segment.

When storing data and backups outside of devices, you have a few options. First is a singular external drive, which is fantastic for quickly moving data between devices. But should you require more storage space and don't wish to rely on a compact portable drive, direct-attached storage (DAS) is an external enclosure that can be filled with drives. Then there's network-attached storage (NAS), which is essentially DAS but with more ports, network connections, an OS, and other internal components. Finally, we have a storage area network (SAN) that's more advanced and designed for serious data work. Here's what separates these three methods of storing data.

If you're someone that sits for hours at a time at their desk getting work done or playing games, a comfortable chair is something that you should probably consider. Of course, these can be quite expensive, with some superb ones easily costing over $500. Not everyone is willing to pay so much, and we understand that, which is why budget options are always a great way to go.

Chat and messaging programs have come a long way since the days of MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and ICQ. In recent years, Discord seems to be one of the most popular programs to use, especially for gamers. It has a lot of features, from voice and video calls to in-app streaming and file sharing. Discord's popularity comes from its ease of use, features, and massive communities it offers. These days, even a lot of manufacturers have their own Discord server, as it allows them to stay up to date with their customers and provide better support.