When it comes to building a PC, seasoned veterans know that the tools in your toolkit are just about as important as the components you are using to build your PC. There's no real definitive answer as to which tools you need, and in most cases you can get by with a decent screwdriver. However, the more tools you have, the easier things will be and the better your PC will look when it is done.

Kubernetes has been an industry buzzword for a decade, leading a container orchestration revolution in how we run and deploy applications on bare metal and in the cloud. But is Kubernetes overkill for your home lab? Yes, but that's never stopped us from delving into other excesses like ex-enterprise networking gear.

T-Mobile would just love to sign you up on one of its new plans. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is once again shuffling its 5G internet options, adding a streaming bundle to its priciest plan and introducing a new mid-tier option. The new plans start at $50 per month (including an autopay discount) and become available starting December 11th. Importantly, it seems that prices are staying consistent with T-Mobile’s previous 5G Home Internet options — if you’re new to T-Mobile. Discounts for existing customers with a T-Mobile voice line aren’t quite as generous with the new plans. The new T-Mobile Rely Internet plan costs $50 per month for new customers, which is what T-Mobile charges now for its Home Internet Unlimited plan. Current T-Mobile customers will pay $35 per month, which is $5 more than the $30 a month promo the company is offering now. Unlike the pricier plans, Rely includes a previous-gen 5G router. The next step up is a new T-Mobile Amplified Internet plan that costs new customers $60 a month with autopay or $45 with a T-Mobile voice line. It comes with T-Mobile’s newest 5G gateway; the small business version of the plan includes a mesh access point, too. Image: T-Mobile I love a comparison chart. The new top tier plan, All-In, includes the latest router and a streaming bundle with ad-supported Hulu and Paramount Plus Essential. It’s still $70 per month to new T-Mobile customers, but current customers will pay $55 per month — again, not quite as good as the $50 per month promotional price on the outgoing Internet Plus plan. T-Mobile spokesperson Katie Brinton tells The Verge “There are no changes for existing customers” on the outgoing plans. The Home Internet Backup plan is also sticking around for anyone who just wants an option when their primary Wi-Fi goes down.Wireless carriers in the US are leaning into fixed wireless internet as a way to make the most of the 5G spectrum these companies have acquired at great cost. T-Mobile has been at the front of the pack with 6 million wireless internet customers, according to its October 2024 earnings release. But its net internet customer additions were down year-over-year, something T-Mobile’s earnings factbook attributes partially to “Increased deactivations from a growing customer base.” A fresh batch of internet offers with extra streaming services included look like they’re a key part of T-Mobile’s strategy to keep pushing forward in the category.

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re unsure what to gift the father figure in your life this year, we have more than a few suggestions. Read the full story at The Verge.

The number of generative AI tools has grown significantly, almost to the point of market saturation, with new AI platforms and features appearing everywhere. Every company seems eager to integrate AI in some way, but few tools stand out in both accessibility and capability. Adobe Photoshop’s Firefly AI is a familiar choice for creatives, offering AI features within a widely popular platform. Stable Diffusion, while less well-known compared to names like Midjourney, can be run locally, is highly customizable, and is free, giving creatives unmatched control over their projects.

2024 has been either a good year or a bad year for Surface fans, depending on which range they liked the most. For example, we saw the Surface Laptop 7 and the Surface Pro 11 release, but we also had to say goodbye to the Surface Studio 2+ and any future entries to the range. Now, it seems that 2025 has more exciting news for Surface fans, including a new 11-inch device.

I've built a couple of Ryzen-based PCs at this point, with my most recent putting the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D at its core. In doing so, I remembered just how much of a nuisance Ryzen machines can be to build, and while it's not difficult, you need to be especially careful about how you build it. While there are optimal ways to build a PC, typically you can suboptimally build a PC with an Intel CPU and not face immediate problems.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft’s first Copilot AI-ready Surface laptop arrived earlier this year, and now Windows Central reports that the rest of the lineup is due for a refresh in 2025. According to the report, we can expect new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop computers — and we’ve already seen a possible prototype pop up in October — with Intel Lunar Lake chips, that will be Copilot Plus PCs with AI features, just like the current Snapdragon versions. That would make them the first Intel-powered Surfaces with the label after Microsoft didn’t extend the label and those features to the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6. Those machines had Intel Metor Lake chips with NPUs that didn’t meet the necessary mark. The new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are also expected to get anti-reflective screen coating, and the Laptop version might get a card reader and 5G options.It also says the Surface Laptop Studio is due for an upgrade from the current model’s 13th-gen Intel chips that could use Intel or AMD. Whatever the case, I hope it will have better battery life than we saw in our review of the current model. Meanwhile, Microsoft confirmed to Windows Central that the Surface Studio 2 Plus all-in-one is g... Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If I told you that Valve could make a play to dethrone the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox in your living room this next year while simultaneously challenging the Meta Quest as the gamer’s VR headset of choice, would you believe me? Because Valve may have a lot of SteamOS hardware on the way.If there’s fire where we currently see smoke, Valve is currently preparing a wireless VR headset codename Deckard, a pair of trackable wands codename Roy, a Steam Controller 2 gamepad codename Ibex, and a codename Fremont living room console too. (That last one now looks likelier than it did yesterday.) And Valve has also now seemingly revealed plans for partners to create third-party SteamOS hardware too.It won’t be easy to take on Sony, Microsoft, or Meta. Those companies have a lot to lose, and they’re deeply entrenched. But the Steam Deck has revealed a massive weakness in each of their businesses that may take them years to correct — the desire to play a huge library of games anytime, anywhere. And while they figure that out, Valve may be building an entire new ecosystem of SteamOS hardware, one that could finally let PC and peripheral makers tap into the huge and growing... Read the full story at The Verge.

Arm CEO Rene Haas. | Getty Images / The Verge Arm CEO Rene Haas has a unique, bird’s eye view of the tech industry. His company’s chip designs are in the majority of devices you use on a daily basis, from your smartphone to your car. The SoftBank-backed company he leads is worth almost $150 billion, which is now considerably more than Intel.With the news earlier this week that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger “retired” and Intel is evaluating its options for a possible spinoff or outright sale, I wanted to hear what Haas thought should happen to his longtime frenemy. There were reports that he approached Intel about buying a big chunk of the company before Gelsinger was ousted. At the same time, Arm is also rumored to be eyeing an expansion into building its own chips and not just licensing its designs. Haas and I touched on all that and more in an exclusive interview earlier today, which will air in full on a future episode of Decoder. (You can listen to my episode about AI spending in the enterprise that just came out as well.) In the meantime, I wanted to give subscribers the first peek at the highlights from my conversation with Haas.The following interview has been edited and condensed:On what he makes of the Intel... Read the full story at The Verge.

Gaming headsets are pretty expensive if you're looking for one with great qualities. Luckily, these ones from Logitech are now on sale, and are actually some of the best ones you can buy if you're looking for great headsets on a budget. For a limited time, you can score the Logitech G435 Lightspeed with a huge discount, with Amazon knocking at whopping 54% off, coming in at just $37.

Your PC will make noises when operating. This can be in the form of coil while, disk arm movement, or fans. Depending on which component is creating the most noise, there are ways to help mitigate this annoyance. It's important to work out why your PC is making noise to begin with. This is usually due to insufficient cooling, which can be caused by dust buildup or inadequate fans. Other times, your GPU driver could be at fault with unoptimized fan curves. Here are some things to try out when attempting to hush your computer.