When populating your network-attached storage (NAS) with drives, it's important to consider hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). These are excellent for reliably storing lots of data and are specifically designed for use inside NAS devices. Another medium that can be used to expand your NAS's capacity is the trusty USB drive. Many prebuilt turnkey NAS enclosures have a few USB ports available, but here are some reasons why you shouldn't rely on USB drives for storing data long-term.

Image: Riot Games The League of Legends universe is expanding once again — this time with a physical card game. Riot Games announced today that it’s developing a physical trading card game set in the League universe. The game is currently known as “Project K,” and Riot says it’s working with an unnamed partner in China to release the game there in early 2025. As for a global release, Riot says, “We are taking our time to find the right publishing partners.”There aren’t a lot of details about Project K. According to Riot, the game “has unique gameplay and is best when played with friends and in person,” and development is being led by director Dave Guskin and producer Chengran Chai. You can get a sense for the game in the images below:Of course, this is far from the first spinoff from League. So far, that has included mobile games like Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift, the Netflix series Arcane, and the competitive fighting game 2XKO, which is expected to launch next year. Not all of these bets have paid off. In January, Riot announced that it was cutting more than 500 jobs, which included shutting down Riot Forge Games, a publishing label for indie games set inside of League. Also impacted was Legends of Runeterra, a mobile card game that launched in 2020, which Riot said “hasn’t performed as well as we need it to.”The Project K news comes as card games are having another moment, led largely by the new smartphone version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge iFixit now sells genuine Xbox parts you can use to repair your Xbox Series X or S and offers official guides to help with fixes. You can browse what’s available from iFixit’s Microsoft Repair Hub. “We’re excited to be working with Microsoft to keep Xboxes running longer and out of the waste heap,” Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit’s director of sustainability, says in a statement to The Verge. “We now offer official Microsoft parts and step-by-step repair guides for Xbox Series S and Series X, including both the all-digital and disk drive editions.”iFixit’s Microsoft Repair Hub also features iFixit’s parts for repairing Microsoft Surface devices, which it started selling in 2023. “Since we launched our Surface parts collaboration with Microsoft last year, we’ve been helping our customers repair their own Microsoft laptops and tablets — and it’s awesome to be able to offer Xbox owners the same opportunity,” Chamberlain says.Microsoft isn’t the only gaming company that iFixit has partnered with; iFixit sells nearly every part of the Steam Deck and offers a bunch of repair guides for Valve’s handheld PC, too. Microsoft itself offers first-party parts for the standard and Elite Series 2 Xbox controllers.iFixit also offers genuine repair parts for Google’s Pixel phones and the Pixel Tablet. The company had sold genuine parts from Samsung, but that partnership ended earlier this year.

Would you install SteamOS on a Steam Deck alternatives if you had the chance to? Valve has dropped a few hints here and there that it plans to bring SteamOS to other devices, but nothing concrete has appeared. However, the company has revealed a new hint in its branding documentation by adding a new "powered by SteamOS" logo.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Following news that foreign hackers may still be in US telecom networks, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new rule that would require telecom companies to secure their networks from “unlawful access or interception of communications.” It would also force providers to submit an annual certification to the FCC stating they have implemented a plan to counter cybersecurity threats.On Wednesday, US officials recommended Americans use encrypted apps to make phone calls and texts in response to the ongoing infiltration of telecom networks linked to the Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon. Deputy national security advisor Anne Neuberger confirmed that at least eight telecom providers have been impacted by the hack, as reported by Bleeping Computer.“We cannot say with certainty that the adversary has been evicted because we still don’t know the scope of what they’re doing,” Neuberger said during a press briefing, Bleeping Computer reports. Neuberger added that the attack has been going on for “likely one to two years” but doesn’t “believe any classified communications has been compromised.”The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Chinese hackers had broken into AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen’s networks and even targeted members of President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaigns. In a letter on Wednesday, Senators Eric Schmitt (R-MO) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch to investigate the DOD’s “failure to secure its unclassified telephone communications from foreign espionage.”If the FCC’s proposed rule is adopted, it will go into effect immediately.“While the Commission’s counterparts in the intelligence community are determining the scope and impact of the Salt Typhoon attack, we need to put in place a modern framework to help companies secure their networks and better prevent and respond to cyberattacks in the future,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in the press release.

Cable clutter can be annoying, especially if you're someone that has a lot of devices to charge at once. That's where a compact and versatile charging station can be really helpful, providing tons of ports and power in a concise space. Of course, Anker is going to be one of the premier options when it comes to charging accessories.

Illustration: The Verge Google is making it easier to switch off personalized search results thanks to an option that sometimes appears at the bottom of the results page, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable. After searching for something, scroll all the way down and look for a link to “Try without personalization.” Click or tap that and Google will load a new page without personalized results.The link might not be present for you in all searches. Some results for me include a message at the end of the results page that already says “Results are not personalized.” This might be user error — maybe I have other settings that prevent it from appearing or am not using the right queries. But I did get the option to turn off personalized results much more often for searches on my iPhone than on my Mac, for some reason.“This change makes it easier for people to get an accurate understanding of whether their results have been personalized, while also providing them with the opportunity to explore non-personalized results,” spokesperson Ned Adriance says in a statement. “We also make it easy for people to adjust their personalization settings at any time.” Adriance adds that “while we previously showed this information in About this result on individual results, this display is more accessible and clear.”You have already been able to get unpersonalized search results for a very long time; as Search Engine Roundtable reported in 2007, you can see unpersonalized results by appending a parameter, “&pws=0,” to the end of a Google search URL. You can also turn off personalized search from your Google account settings. Update, December 5th: Added context from Google.

Image: Bethesda The game’s most interesting bits are trapped in cutscenes while its boring bits are the stuff you actually have to play out. Read the full story at The Verge.

David Sacks speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention. | Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump says that VC and All-In podcast co-host David Sacks will be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” The appointment of Sacks, who hosted a $300,000-a-person dinner at his San Francisco mansion to fundraise for Trump’s campaign, follows the appointment of fellow PayPal mafia member Elon Musk to co-lead the “Department of Government Efficiency.” According to Bloomberg, like Musk, Sacks will be “a special government employee” who can serve up to 130 days a year without divesting or publicly disclosing his assets.Here’s what Sacks will be tasked with in his role, according to Trump:In this important role, David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas. He will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship. He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.Trump says Sacks will also head up the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, an independent advisory committee that exists today. In a second Truth Social post, Trump highlighted Sacks’ history at PayPal (where he worked with Musk) and his founding of Yammer, which Microsoft bought for $1.2 billion in 2012.Sacks is a vocal, longtime supporter of Musk. He’s an investor in SpaceX and played a key role in Musk’s takeover of Twitter. His VC firm, Craft Ventures, has backed tech firms like the AI enterprise startup Glean and Palantir, the Peter Thiel-founded government contractor. Sacks has also become an influential figure in the Republican Party. He spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention and was at Mar-a-Lago on Election Day.Shortly after Trump announced his appointment, leaders from key AI and crypto companies, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, rushed to X to congratulate Sacks. “Great pick,” wrote Coinbase COO Emilie Choi. “@DavidSacks was in crypto early and has a nuanced understanding of the space. Time to build in the US!”Update, December 5th: Added more info about Sacks and responses from tech leaders.

Two more OS upgrades are on the way for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Owners of Pixel 6-series, 7-series and Pixel Fold phones can look forward to a couple extra years of OS upgrades than initially expected, as discovered by Android expert Mishaal Rahman and confirmed by Google on X. When they were introduced, Google originally promised three years of OS upgrades and five years of security patches for each device, starting from the time they went on sale. But a quiet update to a support page confirms that these phones will get two additional OS upgrades, giving them a full five years of OS and security support that “may also include new and upgraded features with Pixel Drops.” That, my friends, rules.Google’s three-and-five policy wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best either — after the Pixel 6 arrived in 2021, Samsung did one better by offering four years of OS updates for the Galaxy S22. Google got its act together with the Pixel 8, announcing a class-leading seven years of OS and security update support. Which is great! But you wouldn’t blame a Pixel 6 or 7 owner for feeling like they were unfairly left behind. Google seems to be making up some of the shortfall by offering these additional OS upgrades, and it’s a welcome change.And ICYMI, #PixelFold along with #Pixel6 and #Pixel7 generation users will now get two additional years of OS updates! This extended support will total five years starting from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US: https://t.co/Y50A92TiqC— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) December 5, 2024Of course, an ‘OS update’ isn’t quite what it used to be — for better and worse. Google is emphasizing pushing out more updates across older versions of Android through its Play framework. That’s a great thing, but it does mean that the yearly OS upgrade isn’t quite as important as it once was. The company can also gate certain features to pricier or more recent models, as it has with Night Sight Video and Zoom Enhance. Google’s mention of new features via Pixel Drops for the next couple of years is promising, though.Going by Google’s original schedule, the Pixel 6 should have gotten its last OS platform upgrade with this year’s Android 15. Inquiring minds wondered if something was up when the Pixel 6 series was deemed eligible for the Android 16 beta, and now we know: Pixel 6 phones are on track to get Android 16 and 17 when they become available. Not too shabby.

There are plenty of great Wi-Fi router options on the market. But if you're looking for one that's easy to set up and handles all the hard things on its own, then the Eero Max 7 is going to be for you. In our review, we loved that it was relatively compact, offered excellent speeds, and the software was easy to use. Of course, we did complain that it was pretty expensive, which would make most people shy away from it.

As a PC user, you probably already appreciate the crucial role of a power supply unit (PSU). It's not only responsible for routing the correct voltage to every component inside the PC, but also keeping everything operating at peak performance. Without adequate and clean power, your CPU and GPU can easily encounter issues that you might fail to diagnose at first glance.