I used to think of NotebookLM as one of those Google tools that seemed interesting at first, but not enough to open every morning. I could see the appeal, but I already had my tools for dumping my information and hoping it would help later. Everything changed once I tried using NotebookLM to pick a topic back up after leaving it alone for a few days. Now that I’m using it daily, I don’t have to reopen docs, go through tabs, and try to remember why I saved all this information in the first place. Now NotebookLM doesn’t feel like a demo. It’s the first tool I open every morning.

Spirit Airlines planes are parked on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 02, 2026 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. | Getty Images The ultra-low-cost air carrier Spirit Airlines shut down operations after 34 years in business and canceled all flights at 3AM ET on Saturday morning. Its website now redirects to spiritrestructuring.com, instructing fliers not to go to airports, with air traffic control records capturing controllers and pilots signing off to each other as its last flights came in for landings after the shutdown was announced. View this post on Instagram A statement on its website said that for people who purchased tickets directly, "Refunds for tickets purchased by credit card and debit card have been issued, and will be processed by …Read the full story at The Verge.

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez won a historic sum of $375 million in a landmark child safety case against Meta earlier this year. But the next stage of the fight could be even more consequential for Meta and the social media industry at large.Beginning Monday, attorneys for Meta and New Mexico will return to a Santa Fe courthouse for a three-week public nuisance trial, where they'll argue over the changes the AG wants the judge to order Meta make to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Those changes include adding age verification for New Mexico users, prohibiting end-to-end encryption for users under 18 and capping their use to 90 …Read the full story at The Verge.

The only C I ever got back in elementary school was in art class. I am, by every measure, terrible at design. Though I like to think that I have a good aesthetic sense, I'm not the greatest at actually bringing what's in my head to life. Over the years, I've really tried to hone my design skills.

I recently built a 10-inch e-paper dashboard for my 3D printer using Seeed Studio's new reTerminal E1003, and I was surprised at how much I loved it for what it was. It sat next to the printer, told me what I needed to know at a glance, and was an otherwise easy-to-ignore piece of tech. I liked it enough that I started thinking about where else an always-on panel like that might earn its keep, and the answer was obvious: a smart home. So, I rebuilt the dashboard from scratch, pointed at Home Assistant instead.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 126, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I need 10 or 15 skirts from Calvin Klein, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) Happy Ruthless Self-Promotion Week! We're dedicating almost all of this issue to the stuff we've been making recently. Personally, I've been reading about the Tesla diner and Dwarkesh Patel and The Rest Is History, starting a Ted Lasso rewatch to get ready for season 4, watching a robot injure Joanna Stern, continuing down the rabbit hole of gorgeous Japanese stationery, wondering if those cool shoes …Read the full story at The Verge.

I’ll never stop gushing about 2-in-1 USB-C cables. They’re really nice to have because, at this point, I’ve amassed so many devices that charge via USB-C. It’s also common for more than one to need to be recharged at a time, which is where they come in handy. I can charge my Nintendo Switch 2 and work-issued MacBook Air, or my Google Pixel 9 Pro and Kindle, without taking up more than one port on the power adapter.A couple of models that offer up to 140W passthrough charging speeds are currently matching their lowest price to date — including Anker’s braided option, which is available from Amazon and Anker in black or white starting at $14.99 ($3 off). If you don’t mind paying a bit more for a slightly longer cable, Native Union’s recycled 6.5-foot Belt Cable, which features an animal-free leather strap, is down to $23.99 ($6 off) in black or a zebra-like pattern directly from the manufacturer.Anker 140W 2-in-1 USB-C to USB-C CableWhere to Buy: $17.99 $14.99 at Amazon (four-foot) $19.99 $17.99 at Amazon (six-foot) $17.99 $14.99 at Anker (four-foot)While the two cables are slightly different lengths, functionality is identical. Both cables support USB 2.0 speeds topping out at 480 Mbps when connected to a data source, and only the first device connected to the two-headed cable can transfer data. They can also automatically allocate power across devices, depending on the speed of your wall adapter, sending more wattage to the higher-powered of the two devices you have plugged in.Native Union 140W 2-in-1-USB-C cableWhere to Buy: $29.99 $23.99 at Native Union $29.99 at AmazonThere are plenty of wall adapters that pair well with these cables, too, the kind that deliver zippy charging speeds to your connected devices. One example is Anker’s own four-port 140W charger, which offers three USB-C ports and a USB-A port. Normally $99.99, it’s currently down to $79.99 at Amazon for Prime members.

Talking about hard drives in 2026 might be a bit odd, but not everyone uses an all-SSD PC yet. Spinning drives were left behind by SSDs long ago, at least for primary storage, but they remain quite valuable for secondary and NAS storage. In fact, buying HDDs rather than SSDs in this market may be the smarter move, given the sky-high SSD prices. If your PC has one or more hard drives spinning away 24/7, you may be stressing them more than you really need to. Hard drives don't need to be operating at their maximum speed all the time, and can spin down when not in active use. However, Windows doesn't make this setting apparent, hiding it in the power settings, making it practically invisible to most users. Configuring this setting once you know where to look is pretty simple, so let's get into it.

It took me a while to get into Esoteric Ebb, a new CRPG from developer Christoffer Bodegård. The elevator pitch is basically Disco Elysium, but in the fantasy style of Dungeons & Dragons: You play as a cleric wandering around a small town who's trying to figure out, among other things, the mystery of why a tea shop in town exploded, and all the while, you're having conversations with different character traits in your head. Like Disco Elysium, you see the world from an isometric, top-down perspective. Also like Disco Elysium, Esoteric Ebb requires a lot of reading, weighing the opinions of your competing voices, and making some bold dice rol …Read the full story at The Verge.

We love PowerToys here at XDA, to the point where we often ask why Microsoft hasn't just added the entire suite into Windows 11 as official tools yet. I'm not exaggerating when I say that using Windows 11 without PowerToys means you're leaving some seriously nice features and tools on the table, and you really ought to give it a go to see what you're missing out on.

The Aura Aspen offers a bright, vivid display that looks surprisingly lifelike for a digital photo frame. | Image: Aura Aura’s digital frames are kind of like living photo albums that get better with time, which is why we often recommend them for Mother’s Day. They’re gifts that keep on giving, in a way, and right now, a number of Aura’s connected frames are on sale ahead of the holiday. One of the best deals is on the Aura Aspen, which is available for $199 ($30 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Aura, matching its all-time low.Aura AspenWhere to Buy: $229 $199 at Amazon $229 $199 at Aura $229.99 $199.99 at Best BuyAlthough you can preload Aura’s 12-inch LCD frame with photos before it arrives, what really makes the Aspen special is that loved ones around the world can add new images to the frame using the Aura app (or by text message). It also supports Live Photos and can play 30-second video clips — providing a personal touch that traditional frames and albums can’t offer — and allows you to add captions to each photo.The digital frame is designed to make it easy to display and manage those memories, too. It features adjustable slideshow speeds, automatic brightness that adapts to the room, and an in-app scanner that lets you digitize older printed photos. There are no subscription fees either, meaning you can upload unlimited photos via the Aura app or sync albums from iCloud, Google Photos, and other cloud-based services.Despite its connected functionality, the Aspen still looks and feels like a traditional picture frame, complete with an adjustable metal stand. The antiglare, paper-like display gives photos a more lifelike quality, and you can display images in either landscape or portrait mode. It’s 1600 x 1200 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio match most smartphone photos, too, so images fill the screen naturally without awkward cropping.Read our Aura Aspen hands-on impressions.Other Aura deals to considerAura Carver Mat (10-inch)The Aura Carver Mat features a 10.1-inch HD (1280 x 800) landscape display with a paper-like matted border. It displays photos, Live Photos, and 30-second video clips, all of which you can upload for free. It also includes portrait pairing, so you can showcase two vertical photos side by side.Where to Buy: $179 $159 at Amazon $179 $159 at Aura $179.99 $159.99 at Best BuyAura Walden (15-inch)The Walden is Aura’s largest digital photo frame, with a 15-inch HD (1600 x 1200) display. It uses a 4:3 aspect ratio and works in both portrait and landscape orientation. It also includes wall mounting and unlimited uploads via the Aura app and other services.Where to Buy: $299 $269 at Amazon $299 $269 at Aura $299 $269.99 at Best Buy

Microsoft has a user faith crisis on its hands, and it knows it. It spent the better part of 2025 trying to convince the Windows userbase to adopt Copilot across the operating system, including adding the AI assistant to as many Windows applications as it could. Unfortunately for Microsoft, its users weren't so keen on having Copilot in Notepad for whatever reason, and the company has since stopped its AI-fuelled conquest and has begun working on the core OS again.