When it comes to operating systems, conversations tend to revolve around three major names: Windows, Linux, and macOS. And if you want a free, open-source OS, then those based on Linux are really your only option. Meanwhile, there's a project that doesn't get nearly enough attention, despite being one of the most interesting pieces of software out there: ReactOS.

We love NotebookLM here at XDA. There isn't a week where someone in the team isn't playing around with it and finding new ways to boost their productivity with the handy app. Turns out, letting an AI manage your project notes and documents essentially turns it into a first-class assistant that helps you with your workload.

Nearly 17 years after Dyson first announced its Air Multiplier fans - one of its first big consumer products after vacuums - the company has miniaturized their design to create a handheld personal cooler called the HushJet Mini Cool. Like Dyson's larger Air Multipliers, humidifiers, air purifiers, and heaters, the HushJet Mini Cool doesn't have any visible spinning blades to nick fingers or get tangled up in clothing or jewelry. All of its moving parts are safely hidden away, which is important because, like Dyson's hair dryers, the HushJet Mini Cool is made to be held.A brushless 65,000rpm DC motor produces a blast of air at speeds of up …Read the full story at The Verge.

It doesn't take much to transform your display into a smart TV. Just pick up any streaming media stick of your choice, plug it into the HDMI port of your display, and you're good to go.

150Nm of raw climbing assist. | Image: Amflow Amflow, the e-bike brand spun out of DJI, is back with two impressive electric mountain bike ranges built around its incredibly dense Avinox motors. The e-MTBs aim to break the traditional tradeoff between power, range, and weight.Even better, if Amflow's bikes don't appeal to you then over 60 other e-bike makers have adopted Avinox drive systems, including Canyon, Mondraker, and Pivot. That should give you ample choice and puts competitors like Bosch firmly on notice.The flagship Amflow PX (weighing around 20kg / 44lbs) and the Amflow PR (weighing around 22kg / 49lbs) are powered by Avinox's new M2S and M2 drive systems, delivering up t …Read the full story at The Verge.

As the very device that got me into single-board computers, DIY projects, and (to some extent) the Linux ecosystem, the Raspberry Pi holds a special place in my heart. I’ve written dozens of articles centered around my Raspberry Pi 5 and Zero boards here on XDA, and even though I went down the home lab route a few years ago, I still use my pint-sized companions a lot in my tinkering adventures.

Repurposing old PC components is always recommended, but sometimes, you can't figure out anything useful for hardware you're no longer actively using. That's what happened with my 250GB SATA SSD when I switched to NVMe storage years ago. The SATA drive was the first SSD I had ever used, and it transformed my PC experience. After the move to NVMe, though, the SATA SSD remained unused for years. Windows 10 was my primary OS, but when I needed to install Windows 11 for work, I finally found a good use for the SATA SSD. It was just large enough for a Windows partition, plus it saved me the hassle of dual-booting Windows 10 and 11. Additionally, the old drive was perfect as a testing ground for stuff I didn't want running on my primary NVMe SSD. I could also use the SATA SSD as an external or recovery SSD in the future, provided it remains healthy enough.

Well, it's official; we've finally gotten to the point where we can just have an LLM dawdle around and do its own thing for our amusement. Granted, watching an LLM make something can be really therapeutic, especially when you're making something yourself. It makes for a nice body-doubling companion you can always rely on.

In case you have been living under a rock these last few months, I'd like to inform you that things are bad in the PC hardware right now. What started six months ago with a DRAM shortage snowballed into higher-than-ever RAM and SSD prices. By the time the year was done, we saw GPU price hikes, too, as VRAM got more expensive and manufacturers stopped caring about consumer hardware. Unlike previous hardware shortages, this AI-induced crisis feels unprecedented, and all signs point to at least 2–3 more years of doom and gloom. In short, 2026 is one of the worst years for PC hardware in recent memory. And MSI confirmed as much when it called it the "most challenging year since the company was founded."

If you're looking for a Windows computing device that's compact, powerful, and versatile — the Asus ProArt PZ13 is going to be for you. We got some hands on time with this model, and for the most part, we were pretty happy with what it offered.

Google's Gemini is getting a feature called "notebooks" to help you organize things about certain topics in a single place while using the AI chatbot, the company announced on Wednesday. You can pull in things like files, past conversations, and custom instructions into notebooks that Gemini can then use as context while you're talking with it. Notebooks sound a lot like ChatGPT's Projects feature, which launched in 2024 and similarly lets users store things about a certain topic in one spot. Google says to "think of notebooks as personal knowledge bases shared across Google products, starting in Gemini." Gemini's Notebooks also sync with …Read the full story at The Verge.

Adobe’s subscription pricing has always been a sore spot, but it hit even more when I did the math on what I’d spent over the years. This was not just for Photoshop, but I’ve rotated through several apps and packages. And I’m not even a professional editor, this was purely a hobby habit, so it made no sense to keep paying. I couldn’t give you the exact amount, as I don’t remember the details myself, but my hobby probably cost me close to $2,000 over several years.