Nowadays, we all look for the latest software, sleek interfaces, and web apps, and it’s easy to forget the unsung heroes of productivity that have quietly stood the test of time. Microsoft had a big share of discontinued apps along the way, but some of them were really great for their purpose and some might be even better than the modern apps we have today. Here, we take a look at a few of the heroes from the early digital era.

A few days ago, we covered all the new features that Microsoft added to Teams during the month of January 2025. That change log also mentioned a new calendar experience that is coming to Teams, and it now seems like the Redmond tech firm has finally made the enhancement available for Teams customers. In a recent blog post, Microsoft has announced the general availability of the Outlook calendar in Teams.

Obsidian has become a popular note-taking and personal knowledge management system tool in quick time. This is primarily because it has a clean interface that’s distraction-free, while also having a bunch of useful features that traditional word processors lack. However, there’s one feature on Obsidian that’s missing – the ability to sync notes across all your devices for free.

Waymo’s robotaxis in Austin will be co-branded with the Uber logo.Uber is getting ready for the launch of Waymo’s public robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, prompting customers to join a list of people interested in riding in the Alphabet-owned company’s AVs when they finally go live. It also revealed photos of the new co-branded robotaxis that will operate across a swath of the Texas capital as part of the new service. Currently, Waymo isn’t open to the public in Austin. The company’s driverless vehicles are only available to a small group of people who joined Waymo’s waitlist to become early testers of the service. Waymo has not said when the service will open up to the broader public, but reading between the lines of this Uber announcement, it sounds like it may be soon. (A spokesperson for Waymo didn’t respond to a request for comment.)When it does launch, Waymo’s vehicles will be available exclusively on Uber’s app in Austin. The two companies first announced their partnership to put Waymo’s robotaxis on Uber’s app back in 2023. They ran a short-lived pilot in Phoenix and now plan on launching the first official version in Austin, with Atlanta to follow.Waymo’s own ridehail app, Waymo One, will not be operational in Austin. Customers who open Waymo One will be redirected to Uber’s app. To prepare, Uber is asking customers in Austin to indicate their interest in being passengers in Waymo’s fully driverless (the company calls them “rider only”) vehicles. In the app settings under “Preferences,” customers can choose to join the “interest list” to get updates about Waymo’s launch and increase their chance of being paired with an autonomous vehicle when the service goes live.The co-branded vehicles will also soon be spotted tooling around Austin without a driver behind the wheel. The vehicles will only operate within a geofenced 37-square-mile swath of the city that includes Hyde Park, Montopolis, and downtown.Uber customers that get paired with a Waymo will “pay the same rates as UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric,” the company says. (Ride prices for all ridehailing, robo or otherwise, fluctuate based on traffic and the time of day.) Those fares will be provided upfront before customers accept the ride, and once the vehicle arrives, customers can unlock and start the ride from the Uber app. (There’s also a “start ride” button in the vehicle.)The two companies will share the responsibilities of running and managing a fleet of autonomous vehicles. Uber will use contractors for vehicle cleaning, repair, and other general depot operations, while Waymo will handle roadside assistance (when the robotaxis inevitably get stuck) and customer service. They will obviously share in the costs and the revenue produced by the robotaxi service, though both companies have declined to share the split.Waymo currently operates its own Waymo One ridehail service in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles; it recently hit the milestone of operating 150,000 rides each week in all three cities. Studies have shown that Waymo has better customer retention than human-powered ridehail services like Uber and Lyft.

Did you manage to score an RTX 5090 during the release windows? There's a good chance that you didn't; after all, the card is suffering from a major stock issue right now, and people speculate that new ones won't become available for months. Well, if you're stuck with an old card for now, you can at least take solace that the 5090 series is having a weird bricking issue, and nobody quite knows why they're breaking.

Even die-hard PC fans will agree that the 2024 Mac Mini is the mini system to beat right now. Packing Apple’s M4 silicon in an enclosure the size of a dinner plate, it chews through light to medium creative workloads in near silence. Best of all, it starts at just $799, making it a fantastic choice for both a home PC and a budget content creation rig.

Security and smart home products are often overlooked, and only really come to the attention of consumers after something has occurred. While not necessary, these products can put your mind at ease, and can often become lifesavers in your time of extreme need. While smart locks are a great way to keep your home safe, we think that smart cameras are an even better investment.

Getting the most out of your setup or home office includes accessorizing. While you want to make sure your PC or laptop offers the performance you need, there are some things you can get to make your home office more enjoyable. Of course, everyone has different needs, so don't just buy things on a whim, make sure you thoroughly look into the items before you purchase to make sure they will work for you and your setup.

Network-attached storage (NAS) is not limited to simply storing files and backups, although that's precisely what you'll use the device for. These powerful servers can also run apps and services. Are you tired of paying out for Microsft 365? Run your own online collaborative tools, office apps, and email server. Ready to cancel Netflix? Fire up Jellyfin and create a media streaming platform for all your purchased content. You can even use the same NAS device to block advertisements and other unwanted elements.

If you've made any storage upgrades recently, you may have come across PCIe 5.0 SSDs. They're pretty fast, but right now, upgrading to them doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's a lot more money for little benefit, and the major drawback of their power consumption and heat generated makes them difficult to actually use at full pelt. With the PCIe 6.0 specification being published by PCI-SIG, it's possible that it's going to run the exact same risk of being too hot to handle, or worryingly, even more so.

Automation helps streamline repetitive tasks and improve productivity, and the Windows Task Scheduler is one of the most commonly used tools for this purpose. While it does the good job for simple task automation, its functionality is quite limited when compared to more advanced automation tools like RoboTask.

When we discuss hardware, it's easy to get mixed up in both x86 and Arm and forget that there are alternatives out there. For example, the RISC-V standard provides an open-source framework for hardware, but there wasn't a great deal of support for it. Well, that has just changed, as Framework has announced a RISC-V mainboard you can grab for your laptop right now.