Whether recycling through local channels or selling a drive or PC, you'll need to ensure it's wiped to protect yourself from someone else accessing personal data. A quick format won't cut it here. We need to perform some heavy cleaning to ensure no data can be recovered without going to great lengths. But your passwords, photos, and browser history aren't generally worth the effort. For the most paranoid, the best way to protect your data on an old drive is to keep it and repurpose it for something else, but this includes purchasing a replacement. Let's take a look at some of the best ways to safely wipe a drive.

SSDs are the way to go if you're looking to upgrade your laptop or PC. Not only are they compact, they also usually pack good performance, especially when you're talking about M.2 SSDs. Of course, you're going to have different levels of performance depending on the price, which is why going with the best will often cost a lot more.

The voltage regulator module (VRM) takes the direct current from the PSU through the motherboard and converts it down to smaller voltages for the GPU, RAM, and CPU. It's a vital part of the system since it's responsible for supplying the two components with a reliable electricity supply. You've likely seen power phases thrown about with marketing, but there's much more to the VRM than how many phases a motherboard has. Here are a few reasons why the quality of VRM matters inside your PC.

Microsoft added support for iPhones in the Phone Link app last year, allowing users to make calls and send messages from their PCs. However, the Phone Link experience for iPhone isn't on par with Android, as some notable features are missing in iPhone with Phone Link. On the bright side, things are improving, as Windows PCs are now friendlier and closer to iPhone devices than ever, thanks to a new file-sharing tool.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge WP Engine just won a preliminary injunction against WordPress parent company Automattic. On Tuesday, a California District Court judge ordered Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with its plugins.The preliminary injunction comes after WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, filed a lawsuit that accused Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, of “multiple forms of immediate irreparable harm.” It later asked the court to stop Mullenweg from restricting WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org.Mullenweg waged a public campaign against WP Engine in September, accusing the service of misusing the WordPress trademark and not contributing enough to the WordPress community. After blocking WP Engine from WordPress.org’s servers, Automattic took control of WP Engine’s ACF Plugin.Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín found merit in WP Engine’s claims that Automattic’s actions harmed business relationships, saying Mullenweg’s “conduct is designed to induce breach or disruption.” As for Automattic’s argument that blamed WP Engine for relying on WordPress.org to power its business, Judge Martínez-Olguín didn’t find it very compelling. “While Defendants characterize WPEngine’s harm as self-imposed because it built its business around a website ‘that it had no contractual right to use...’ Defendants’ role in helping that harm materialize through their recent targeted actions toward WPEngine, and no other competitor, cannot be ignored,” the ruling states.The Verge reached out to Automattic and WP Engine with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.The ruling found the WP Engine showed it will suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief, while also impacting members of the WordPress community. Under the preliminary injunction, Automattic will have to take down the list of companies it displayed on a site it created to track outgoing WP Engine customers, as well as remove the checkbox that asks WordPress users to verify they’re not affiliated with WP Engine when logging in.

Hey, remember when I covered the e-paper Raspberry Pi clock, and I said that I have a soft spot for that sort of tech? Well, it seems the SBC community has come out in full force to make more of them, much to my delight. This time, someone is showing off a color e-ink display that shows off infinite images of flowers, and I really hope this becomes a trend.

Unlike the pixel-pushing components of your gaming PC, storage drives don’t have a wow factor associated with them. But you’ll have to treat them with the same amount of care to keep your battlestation in tip-top shape.

Image: FTC President-elect Donald Trump has selected Andrew Ferguson to be the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Ferguson will take over for Lina Khan, who has earned praise from Vice President-elect J.D. Vance for her efforts to fight big tech.“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump says in a post on Truth Social. According to a document obtained by Punchbowl News’ Ben Brody, Ferguson’s pitch for the job included intentions to “reverse Lina Khan’s anti-business agenda,” “hold big tech accountable and stop censorship,” and “protect freedom of speech and fight wokeness.” The document also said Ferguson would “fight back against the trans agenda.” Ferguson was first sworn in as an FTC commissioner in April, but Trump says that Ferguson will begin his role as chair on “day one” of his administration.“At the FTC, we will end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech,” Ferguson writes in a post on X. “We will make sure that America is the world’s technological leader and the best place for innovators to bring new ideas to life.”Trump also announced that he is nominating Mark Meador, currently a partner at an antitrust law firm, to be an FTC commissioner.

Adobe Express is one of Adobe’s most versatile tools. Not only does it have an integration with other Adobe software including Acrobat and Illustrator, but it also features useful video and animation tools. If you’re trying to replace your Adobe workflow with open-source alternatives, there are questionable choices for like-for-like Adobe Express alternative software. You’ll have to sacrifice some things to achieve an open-source version of what Adobe Express offers you.

This is the tablet you want to get if you're looking to get one of the best experiences on a budget. Not only is the iPad one of the best tablets on the market, but support for the tablet is through the roof thanks to an abundance of apps that can be found on Apple's App Store.

I think one thing everybody knows about me is that I'm a gamer. I compete in Counter-Strike extensively, and I play other games like Valorant to a pretty high-level too. However, what I could never get into was MOBAs. Titles like League of Legends and Dota could never grasp me in the same way that a good FPS could, and even games like Overwatch or the recently released Marvel Rivals I've discovered are simply not for me. However, one game that has captured me to a degree no game has in a long time is Valve's Deadlock.

A great gaming monitor is integral to enjoying your gaming PC to the fullest. Despite having the latest and greatest hardware, if your monitor cannot handle your CPU and GPU's output, all that power goes to waste. Your gaming monitor should at least be able to drive your preferred resolution and in-game settings in the FPS range your GPU is generating.