You are busy during the day with tons of tasks to complete. You want to discover ways to save time while using your Windows PC while working. The good news is that Windows has evolved, and Microsoft has included new ways to save you time with your workflow.

They say that three weeks is all it takes to build a habit. While it may seem simple, keeping yourself accountable for that duration can be challenging. That's where habit builders and trackers come in handy. There are several apps and programs that not only help you set goals but also track your progress towards them, thus helping you build habits. I personally use a habit tracker on my laptop to ensure I drink sufficient water on a daily basis, spend less time on social media apps, and overcome excessive procrastination.

Have you heard the news? A renowned leaker has claimed that a new Half-Life project is going through playtesting, hopefully, Half-Life 3. While that seemed like proof enough that Valve is working on something, another hint has just appeared from a more official source. The voice actor for G-Man has posted a video claiming that we'll be learning more about this new game this coming year.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images The US has issued sanctions on organizations in Russia and Iran for attempting to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that the groups tried to “stoke socio-political tensions” and influence voters.One group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, has ties to Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and built a server to host its own AI tools “to avoid foreign web-hosting services that would block their activity.” The organization then used these tools to “quickly create disinformation” that it spread across dozens of fake online news outlets, while also providing US-based companies with money to maintain its AI server and operate a network of “at least 100 websites” used in its campaign.Additionally, the Russian organization manipulated a video to “produce baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate”. In October, the US accused Russia of creating a video that attempted to smear Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz.The Treasury Department also sanctioned the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for planning to interfere with the election “since at least 2023.” In the weeks leading up to the election, the US Department of Justice indicted Iranian nationals accused of waging a cyberattack against President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, while OpenAI reported banning ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation.“The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley Smith, the Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in the press release.

The Cybertruck on fire. Alcides Antunes tells us he just happened to arrive at Trump’s hotel at the time of the explosion. | Image: Alcides Antunes A Tesla Cybertruck exploded just outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on New Year’s Day, law enforcement authorities have just confirmed. One person is dead inside the Cybertruck, and seven minor injuries have been reported, according to Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill. The FBI is also on the scene; authorities have evacuated the hotel and are looking for “secondary devices” just in case, but McMahill says “there does not appear to be any further threat to our community.” At around 8:40AM PT, a 2024 Cybertruck rolled up to the hotel lobby, according to authorities. “We saw that smoke started showing from the vehicle and then a large explosion from the truck occurs,” McMahill tells reporters. Fire crews were on scene within four minutes, and the fire was put out within an hour. Here is an alleged video of the moment of the explosion, seemingly captured via one of the hotel’s security cameras: New footage of the Tesla Cybertruck exploding in front of the Trump hotelIt looks like fireworks explodedThis was intentionalSomeone was sending a message to Trump & Elon pic.twitter.com/aTpe0oM6jg— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 1, 2025A single anonymous “official briefed on the probe” told ABC News that the Cybertruck contained a load of “fireworks-style mortars,” though it wasn’t clear to that official if the explosion was intentional. The video above does seem to show firework-like explosions, but we haven’t confirmed its source.Another video shared on X shows the truck engulfed in flames just outside the hotel’s lobby. Multiple eyewitnesses reported hearing at least one explosion, and we’ve embedded more of their videos further down this story.Cybertruck blew up in front of Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Those are our luggage by the door and that’s where we were when it happened. pic.twitter.com/KaVZXfGLNK— ayackle (@kaaaassuu) January 1, 2025It’s still not clear what caused the fire. “Right now we just don’t have a lot of answers,” says FBI special agent Jeremy Schwartz, the acting agent in charge. Authorities didn’t have any details about the dead person inside the Cybertruck; we don’t even yet know if they were the driver. “We are investigating a number of leads and I’m not prepared to release any of that information to you just yet,” McMahill says.Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims the explosion has nothing to do with the Cybertruck itself, saying the company was able to remotely access data from this specific Cybertruck to prove it wasn’t caused by the vehicle. “We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself,” he posted on X. (The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) didn’t respond to our requests for comment or to fact-check this.)We hadn’t previously heard the Cybertruck was rented; Musk says it was rented via Turo, a company that lets people rent out their cars like Airbnb lets them rent out their homes. He also now claims that “law enforcement currently believes [the explosion] was most likely intentional.”We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. https://t.co/HRjb87YbaJ— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025The news of the fire comes amid numerous reports about Musk getting closer to President-elect Donald Trump. Musk spent New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago and reportedly sat in during Trump’s dinner with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Musk has also been staying at a cottage on Trump’s Florida property since around Election Day, according to a report from The New York Times.It also comes amidst a terror attack in New Orleans, where a driver rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people in the French Quarter, killing at least 15; authorities in Las Vegas cited the incident as one reason they’re carefully checking for possible “secondary devices.” Musk points out that, like the Tesla Cybertruck, the F-150 Lightning used to kill 15 people in New Orleans was also reportedly rented out via Turo.Still, while authorities say they want Las Vegas residents to “stay away from the area,” Sheriff McMahill suggests the Vegas incident is probably over: “We believe everything is safe now.”Several others on X say they witnessed an “explosion” and captured videos of the rising smoke. Alcides Antunes, whose image tops this story, says the car first caught fire, then there were three big pops that might have been batteries exploding. Max Radford claimed there were multiple explosions; Stephen Felando claimed the windows shook violently on the 53rd floor of the building. Explosion at Trump International Las Vegas in the valet/check in area.No flames now, but what happened?? pic.twitter.com/020xIziMJ5— stephen felando (@felandostephen1) January 1, 2025I just saw an explosion at Trump Hotel in Las Vegas - multiple explosions- smoke, people running out and police cars & Fire truck arrive - it clear what’s happened! pic.twitter.com/JFPBKAxWoZ— Max Radford (@maxradford10) January 1, 2025“Ayackle,” who captured the lobby video, says the vehicle “lowered itself” shortly after pulling up to the lobby, then went boom. “It started off like colourful fireworks,” they wrote on X.“I and my husband were literally standing where the luggage is in the footage. I just saw it pulled up, and it lowered itself like a bus, and boom it goes. It first looked like fireworks or something but then I immediately feared our life thinking it could be a bomb and ran,” they added.Donald Trump has yet to make a public statement on the incident, but Eric Trump has weighed in: “Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism.”Umar Shakir contributed reporting.Update, January 1st: Added many more details, including direct from law enforcement, an alleged video of the moment of the explosion, and Musk’s statements about the rented vehicle.Correction, January 1st: Jeff Bezos is Amazon’s founder, but no longer its CEO as we originally wrote.

Photoshop has had competitors against it for years, and many often fall short compared to Photoshop’s power and historical development. With new and upcoming proprietary creative software like the Affinity suite, there are some that are dangerously close to being better than Photoshop. Pixelmator Pro gives Photoshop a run for its money with creative features, big-name development, and integrated AI.

A sojourn though the heaviest music I could find | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Tee Pee Records An attempt to crush myself to death. Read the full story at The Verge.

It’s hard to find open-source software that works on tablets like the iPad or Android tablets. While there are plenty of open-source creative design software, these are typically found exclusively for desktop use. There are some workarounds to using open-source software on tablets, as well as a handful made directly for tablet use, to allow you to draw freely on a self-hosted platform with no privacy concerns.

There's something fun about getting games running on devices they really shouldn't be on. It's why people have been getting Doom running on every device under the sun. Well, if you want to watch someone boot up a PS1 game on a Gamecube, today's your lucky day. The emulation community has managed to get OG PlayStation games running on Nintendo's purple box, and you can do the same if you're willing to put in the time and effort.

Illustration: Beatrice Sala The United States has arrested a US Army soldier and charged him with being part of a hacking scheme to sell and distribute stolen phone records. An indictment alleges that 20-year-old Cameron John Wagenius knowingly sold “confidential phone records” over online forums and other communications platforms last November.The indictment doesn’t detail the hacked material, but KrebsOnSecurity reports that Wagenius appears to be connected to a series of high-profile data breaches linked to the online alias “Kiberphant0m.” Kiberphant0m claimed to have hacked 15 telecom firms and was working with the person allegedly behind the Snowflake data breaches to sell the stolen information.In November, Kiberphant0m posted what they claimed were AT&T call logs for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s not clear if the data was genuine, but AT&T did suffer a major theft of customer data as part of the Snowflake account breaches last year. In 2023, the hacker is also alleged to have sold “remote access credentials for a major U.S. defense contractor,” according to Krebs.Krebs reports that Wagenius worked on communications at an Army base in South Korea. After the alleged leak of Trump and Harris data, Krebs did a deep dive into Kiberphant0m’s online communications and identified that they were likely a US soldier. In this latest report, Krebs spoke with Wagenius’ mother, who confirmed his connection to the alleged Snowflake hacker.Cybersecurity experts reportedly received harassment for trying to track down Kiberphant0m’s identity, leading to this incredible quote from Allison Nixon, the lead researcher at cybersecurity firm Unit 221B, who was part of the work. “Anonymously extorting the President and VP as a member of the military is a bad idea,” Nixon told Krebs, “but it’s an even worse idea to harass people who specialize in de-anonymizing cybercriminals.”

Popeye’s first appearance in E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre comic strip. | Image: King Features It’s a new year, and that means more works are headed to the public domain. This year, thousands of copyrighted works created in 1929, including the earliest versions of Popeye and the Belgian comic book character Tintin, are now free to reuse and repurpose in the US.Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of Public Domain has once again rounded up all the most iconic works that have been freed from the bounds of copyright, which also includes sound recordings from 1924. As pointed out by Duke Law School, 1929 was a particularly pivotal year for film, as it was the first with sound. These are just some of the works entering the public domain this year (you can view the full catalog here):The Skeleton Dance from Disney’s Silly Symphonies short film seriesAlfred Hitchcock’s first sound film BlackmailNacio Herb Brown’s Singin’ in the Rain and the film it appeared in, The Hollywood Revue of 1929On With the Show, the first all-talking feature-length film in colorWilliam Faulkner’s The Sound and the FuryAgatha Christie’s Seven Dials MysteryErnest Hemingway’s A Farewell to ArmsVirginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s OwnVarious works from Salvador Dali, including Illumined Pleasures, The Accommodations of Desire, and The Great MasturbatorThe list also includes Popeye, who first appeared in E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre comic strip, with a story titled “Gobs of Work.” But this Popeye isn’t the one that eats spinach to grow big muscles; the brawny sailor didn’t start eating spinach to gain strength until 1932 (though the very first Popeye could still pack a punch). “Everything that he says, all of his characteristics, his personality, his sarcasm… that’s public domain,” Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, told NPR. “The spinach, if you want to be on the safe side, you might want to wait.”The earliest version of the young reporter Tintin and his pup Snowy (or “Milou” if you speak French) from Hergé’s Les Aventures de Tintin are also headed to the public domain. But folks in the European Union, where protections apply throughout an author’s life and 70 years after death, will have to wait a little longer for a copyright-free Tintin. Since Hergé died in 1983, the EU won’t see Tintin in the public domain until 2054, according to Duke University.As with previous years’ works, this latest round of media could’ve appeared in the public domain much earlier, but US lawmakers in 1998 extended copyright protections to works from 1923 and beyond for an additional 20 years — conveniently protecting Disney’s mascot Mickey Mouse. But Disney couldn’t keep its iconic mouse all to itself forever, as the Steamboat Willie-era Mickey entered the public domain last year. We’re getting even more Mickey Mouse animations in 2025, including the short film The Karnival Kid, where Mickey Mouse dons his white gloves for the first time and speaks his first words: “hot dogs.”Just like with Mickey and Winnie the Pooh, we’re bound to see games and movies starring Popeye and Tintin as people try to draw attention with the freshly available characters. Even Netflix is preparing an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1929 novel The Seven Dials.There will be an even wider range of classic characters to use next year, with Betty Boop and Pluto set to enter the public domain in 2026.

Remotely managing your network-attached storage (NAS) doesn't have to be a convoluted process. All you need is a virtual private network (VPN), a specific branded app, or a reverse proxy and you're ready. Whether you should open up your NAS or local area network (LAN) is another matter, but if you've read through all the potential risks that come with doing so, we've got some excellent tools to help make this a reality. Even if this is your first NAS or server, you'll be up and running in no time.