The power supply unit (PSU) is one of the most essential components of any PC build. The PSU, as the name suggests, is what powers up everything inside your PC. Without it, nothing would work, and you would be left with a very useless and large paperweight. While it is essential, it is also one of the components that gets looked over quite a bit, and people even try to cheap out on their PSU, which is never advised.

Sony’s PSVR2 controller support may be coming to the Vision Pro through a special partnership. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Vision Pro could gain support for Sony PSVR2 controllers soon, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Apple and Sony apparently planned to announce support for the controllers “weeks ago” but have pushed back the rollout. Under this rumored partnership, Apple would begin selling Sony’s controllers, which aren’t currently available on their own.Sony has apparently been working on adding the support for months, while Apple has asked third-party developers if they would take advantage of Sony’s VR controllers. That’s potentially great news for Vision Pro owners who wish the headset had more gaming chops. (There are precious few good, native visionOS games — Thrasher, a mesmerizing game where you fling a giant worm / dragon thing around a psychadelic space using just hand movements, comes to mind.) Gurman writes that Apple also wants to use the controllers for more than gaming — the controllers will be able to navigate visionOS, and would offer more precise controls in apps like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Right now, you can pair a standard Bluetooth controller and navigate visionOS — tapping buttons to select things, scrolling with the analog sticks, and so on. They also work for gaming, but you’re mostly limited to iPad and iPhone games with controller support or made-for-iOS emulators or that native Virtual Boy one.Will this partnership bear fruit and help games actually flourish on the platform? I’m not immediately hopeful, given the Vision Pro’s sales and Apple’s track record of support from game publishers.Still, the Vision Pro is fundamentally different from Apple’s other devices, and VR is its own landscape. And there are signs the community wants this, with at least one fully-funded Kickstarter project to develop Meta Quest 3-style controllers, called the Surreal Touch, for the Vision Pro. Maybe the Vision Pro will get some great VR games — whether anyone will be around to buy them is another question entirely.

Image: The Verge X has given Grok a new AI image generator model called “Aurora” that seems to create far more photorealistic imagery than Grok’s other image generator, with similarly few apparent restrictions on what it will produce, TechCrunch reports. Like Grok, anyone can use Aurora. It lives in a new “Grok 2 + Aurora beta” option in the Grok model selector, though you’ll only get a few queries before you hit the X Premium subscription paywall and have to wait.TechCrunch found that the model, which X employee Chris Park posted is available this morning, was willing to create copyrighted characters and public figures, including Mickey Mouse and “a bloodied Donald Trump,” but that it “stopped short of nudes.” Its lack of restrictions isn’t surprising, given our experience with Grok’s other model. In another example highlighted by TechCrunch, an X user showed off AI-generated images of Ray Romano and Adam Sandler in the X post below — both realistic, but with some very obvious weirdness when it comes to human anatomy and continuity. Behold my images using the new Grok @grok image generator Aurora: 1. Ray Romano and @AdamSandler on a sitcom set pic.twitter.com/2V491RdjMF— Matt (@EnsoMatt) December 7, 2024

Manually combing through spreadsheets with large datasets can be a massive headache at times. Luckily, conditional formatting exists in Microsoft Excel specifically for this reason. This automation helps you visualize your spreadsheet in a completely different way, allows you to find important data quickly, and also makes your spreadsheet much more appealing to the eye. Excel even makes it easy to find - Conditional Formatting options are front and center on the Home tab.

Image: NZXT Gamers Nexus has released a video deconstructing NZXT’s defense of its Flex gaming PC purchase and rental program. In it, host Steve Burke says the company is still misleading customers, despite adjustments made in response to his previous video in which he called the program “a scam.”NZXT said in its response this week that it would clarify details about its Flex program, which Gamers Nexus had criticized for having specs that would change sometimes “day-to-day.” The company has appeared to update specs and performance numbers for its purchase builds. But Gamers Nexus reports it still spotted issues like inconsistent FPS numbers and a FAQ that implied NZXT’s for-sale Player: Three Prime build uses an RTX 4090 graphics card, despite its specs saying otherwise. The FAQ entry Burke mentions seems to be gone now, but as of this writing, there’s still an entry titled “What GPU is right for me?” that lists the RTX 4090 and its benefits. Such inconsistencies are a problem for potential customers, Burke says.The fact that NZXT misrepresented its product, even after its statement, as having a 4090 when it still had a 4080 Super ... seemingly indicates that even NZXT can’t keep up with its own specs changes. If NZXT can’t keep up with it ... how are they expecting the customer to keep up with it?Gamers Nexus offers other criticisms of the company’s rental program, from “improper packaging” damage fees with upper bounds that exceed the cost of equivalent non-rental versions of the PCs to the creator-based ad videos that continue to exist, despite the company saying it had “pulled all influencer-led Flex advertising.” NZXT did not immediately respond to our request for comment on the new video.Gamers Nexus said Thursday that it’s working on a deeper investigation, and its video today ends with Burke saying he’s received “a number of very concerning tips” from former employees and customers.

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 63, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, it’s a lot of stuff to watch this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about clog crime and bright headlights and Robert Pattinson, starting my 564th rewatch of Community, testing Sill as part of my news reading flow, taking copious notes on Mrwhosetheboss’ new office setup, watching a lot of videos about sports stadiums for some reason, trying out all of Esquire’s best podcasts of 2024, and continuing to eat too much Swedish candy. For journalism, I swear.I also have for you a great new feature for a great to-do list app, a new Peloton app, a comic book series worth your time, a couple of good tech-culture documentaries I think you’ll like, and lots more. We’re definitely in “new stuff to watch on cold evenings” season rather than “new apps and gadgets” season, but I’m not mad at it. It is cold out there. (As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be playing / reading / watching / eating / building / doing... Read the full story at The Verge.

Many aspects of Windows have remained relatively untouched for years, even in Windows 11. For instance, while other operating systems have made better and more visually helpful battery indicators, Windows has had the same old for who knows how long now. Fortunately, a hidden feature within the Windows 11 Dev build shows us what we might expect in the future, and it looks great.

If you're a big fan of Ubisoft games, you may have had a rough time getting them to run properly on Windows 11 recently. Users reported that the 24H2 update caused a wide range of issues with select Ubisoft games, including a black screen It got so bad that Microsoft delayed Windows 11 24H2 for affected PCs. Well, if your PC didn't get its 24H2 update because of this weird issue, it seems that Ubisoft and Microsoft are finally making progress, and some—but not all—gamers can now get the update.

DDR5 RAM is the latest standard for system memory inside desktop and laptop PCs, replacing DDR4. This new standard promises higher capacities, better efficiencies, faster speeds, and advanced features not typically found on older DDR4 RAM modules. If you're on the fence about deciding between DDR4 and DDR5 or want to know what you can enjoy by upgrading to a CPU and motherboard supporting DDR5, we've rounded up some reasons why DDR5 is better than DDR4.

There is no shortage of Excel alternatives out there. Every time a new Excel challenger arrives in the market, they come with tall claims to replace Microsoft’s legacy software. Declared dead countless times, Excel stubbornly refuses to fade away. Because beneath its seemingly simple interface lies a powerhouse of versatility and functionality that continues to prove invaluable for individuals and businesses alike. In this post, I will explore key reasons why Excel will never truly be replaced.

Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou. | Screenshot: YouTube There’s a lot of Star Trek: Discovery in the official trailer for the Star Trek: Section 31 movie that Paramount Plus just released — big drama, explosions, and some looming threat that’s “unlike anything that Starfleet’s ever seen.” The trailer shows off a little more of the film, with moody corridors, some sort of electrified space ball, and brief looks at the spaceships that the show will feature. It also devotes more time to characters besides Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Philippa Georgiou — namely Omari Hardwick’s Alok Sahar and Kacey Rohl’s future Enterprise C captain, Rachel Garrett. It’s still a mystery what trouble Emperor Philippa is leading her team into, though.Philippa will work with a team that also includes a pointy-eared alien named Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), an empath named Melle (Humberly Gonzalez), the exoskeleton-wearing Zeph (Rob Kazinsky), and a Chameloid shapeshifter named Quasi (Sam Richardson). Star Trek: Section 31 starts streaming January 24th on Paramount Plus.

While not as common anymore, dual-Ethernet port motherboards can still be found on the market. Some gaming motherboards have Gigabit and 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, with one being a Realtek NIC and the other being Intel. Most PC users might never have used a motherboard with two Ethernet ports, as a single port has become standard on consumer motherboards.