If you’ve got a spare PC gathering dust, there are plenty of ways to put it to good use. Thanks to the myriad NAS operating systems out there, it’s easy to convert your old desktop into a robust storage server.

With its interactive graphs, rich plugin store, Markdown support, and canvas, Obsidian has emerged as a powerful tool for organizing and connecting ideas. But if you truly want to harness its full potential, explore the Dataview plugin. It’s a game-changer add-on for your vault to transform your static notes into a dynamic, interconnected knowledge base. It lets you effortlessly query, sort, and filter your notes, revealing hidden connections and insights.

Microsoft’s Phone Link app. | Image: Microsoft Samsung’s upcoming One UI 7 update will no longer support the DeX app on Windows. A footnote on Samsung’s UK site, spotted by Android Authority, reveals the DeX PC app “will end support from One UI 7 version,” with Samsung encouraging users to use the Link to Windows feature instead to take advantage of similar functionality with Microsoft’s Phone Link app on Windows.The DeX app for Windows, not to be confused with the broader DeX platform that turns your phone into a PC, lets you mirror your phone screen to a PC and easily drag and drop files between the devices. It’s very similar to Microsoft’s Phone Link app, which Samsung and Microsoft have collaborated closely on in recent years, so it makes sense that Samsung is favoring... Continue reading…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple has quietly delayed its plans to support robot vacuums in HomeKit. After announcing earlier this year that Apple Home would finally support robot vacuums with iOS 18, MacRumors has spotted that Apple has updated its HomeKit website to note that the robot vacuum integration won’t be available until early 2025.The website had previously mentioned that HomeKit would be updated by the end of 2024, with some hoping that robot vacuum support might sneak into the iOS 18.2 release this month after originally missing the initial iOS 18 launch. If you’re waiting to ask Siri to get your robot vacuum to clean your room then you’ll now have to hold on for a few more weeks or months. Image: Apple You’ll soon be able to use... Continue reading…

As miserable as the experience can be, it's possible to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. While Windows 11 now shows a watermark warning if your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirement, you get a full-fledged operating system with minimum loss of features. But if you're looking for something more fun, a famed Windows tinkerer has managed to boot Windows 7 on less disk space than you'd ever imagine.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo: Getty Images In the wake of high-profile hacks affecting hundreds of millions of Americans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing a rule limiting data brokers’ ability to sell Americans’ sensitive personal and financial information.Under the proposed rule, data brokers that sell information about consumers’ income, credit history, credit score, or debt payments would be considered consumer reporting agencies. As such, they’d be required to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a law limiting how these agencies can obtain and use the information provided in consumer reports. In other words, they’d be treated like credit bureaus and background check companies, which already have to comply with the FCRA.During a... Continue reading…

Image: Ford Ford continues to exhibit a dedication to diversifying its EV lineup in Europe — a dedication that, frankly, I wish could also be applied here at home — with the reveal of the new all-electric Puma Gen-E.The Puma is a familiar nameplate in Europe, as the automaker’s bestselling vehicle there since it surpassed the Fiesta in sales in 2021. Now, it’s getting a fully electric powertrain to complement the hybrid EcoBoost options that were added four years ago. The small, sporty Mustang Mach-E-looking subcompact crossover will get 376km (233 miles) on a full charge, can charge from 10 to 80 percent in 23 minutes when hooked up to a 100kW DC fast charger, and will accelerate from zero to 100km/h in a not-totally-disappointing eight seconds.Storage is a key selling point for the Puma Gen-E, with Ford promising extra space in the extremely compact trunk thanks to something the company is calling the “GigaBox.” It’s basically an extra storage space underneath the floor of the trunk for additional items, a feature found in most EVs today but of added relevance to the Puma thanks to its small stature. Ford says the GigaBox can hold 145 liters (five cubic feet) of storage, which is a bit more than what most vehicles offer and certainly bigger than the 2.8 cubic feet of space offered by the gas-powered Puma’s understorage. How small are we talking for this subcompact? The Puma Gen-E is 4,214 millimeters (165.9 inches) long, 1,930mm (75.9 inches) wide, and 1,555mm (61.2 inches) tall. That’s smaller than the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV and by far the smallest vehicle in Ford’s lineup. Storage is a key selling point for the Puma Gen-ETo compensate, Ford is giving its electric Puma a facelift in a variety of ways, including a very literal facelift with a new Mustang Mach-E-inspired shield design replacing the traditional grille. It’s also getting “unique alloy” wheels for an added “electric vibe” that come in two sizes: 17 inches for the standard trim or 18 inches for the Premium version. Image: Ford Inside, a 12.8-inch center display will run on Ford’s Sync 4 operating system (no Android-based Digital Experience in Europe yet) and supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Ford is clearly hoping that the small, sporty Bumblebee yellow Puma Gen-E can lift its sagging fortunes in Europe after the company was forced to idle the plant in Cologne where it makes the electric Explorer and Capri. The company also recently laid off 14 percent of its workers in Europe, with most of the cuts affecting operations in Germany and the UK. Ford says the Puma Gen-E will go into production at its assembly plant in Craiova, Romania, using electric drive units built in Halewood, England. The new EV is available to order today and will begin to make deliveries in spring 2025. Pricing has not been announced yet.

Illustration: The Verge Based on testing done by Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism researchers, OpenAI’s ChatGPT search tool has some issues when it comes to responding with the truth.OpenAI launched the tool for subscribers in October, saying it could give “fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources.” Instead, Futurism points out that the researchers said ChatGPT search struggled to correctly identify quotes from articles, even when they came from publishers with arrangements to share data with OpenAI.The authors asked ChatGPT to identify the source of “two hundred quotes from twenty publications.” Forty of those quotes were taken from publishers who’d disallowed OpenAI’s search crawler from accessing their site. Yet, the chatbot confidently replied with false information anyway, rarely admitting it was unsure about the details it gave:In total, ChatGPT returned partially or entirely incorrect responses on a hundred and fifty-three occasions, though it only acknowledged an inability to accurately respond to a query seven times. Only in those seven outputs did the chatbot use qualifying words and phrases like “appears,” “it’s possible,” or “might,” or statements like “I couldn’t locate the exact article.” Image: Columbia Journalism Review ChatGPT was fully or partially wrong more than right, but almost always confidently so. The Tow Center test’s authors documented ChatGPT search results that misattributed a letter-to-the-editor quote from the Orlando Sentinel to a story published in Time. In another example, when asked to identify the source of a quote from a New York Times article about endangered whales, it returned a link to a different website that had wholly plagiarized the story.“Misattribution is hard to address without the data and methodology that the Tow Center withheld,” OpenAI told the Columbia Journalism Review, “and the study represents an atypical test of our product.” The company went on to promise to “keep enhancing search results.”

If your router had a severe security vulnerability, and it was a router that was still being updated within the last decade, you'd probably expect it to still receive an update to fix whatever the security vulnerability was. After all, Microsoft has even done that a couple of times with Windows XP when critical exploits like WannaCry are discovered in the wild. However, that isn't the case with D-Link, and if you're an owner of an older router, then not only are you vulnerable to a remote code execution attack, you'll need to purchase a whole new router to make yourself safe.

Consumers have had their hands on Copilot+ computers for almost six months at this point, and during that time, Microsoft has found itself in a firestorm of criticism regarding the announcement of its controversial Recall feature. Originally announced in May of this year, Recall is an AI tool available for Copilot+ capable PCs that saves snapshots of all your activity and allows you to trace back to that snapshot just as you left it.

Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images The Department of Energy preliminarily approved another loan to help fund the construction of electric vehicle battery factories in the US. This time, a joint venture between Stellantis and Samsung SDI will receive $7.54 billion to build two EV battery plants in Kokomo, Indiana. The project is expected to create 3,200 jobs, as well as 2,800 operations jobs at the plants and hundreds more at a nearby supplier park. The conditional loan commitment will provide $7.54 billion — $6.85 billion in principal and $688 million in capitalized interest — to StarPlus Energy LLC, which is jointly owned by Stellantis and Samsung SDI. The loan will come from the DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program, which was resurrected by President Joe Biden in 2022 to help fund the developing EV manufacturing industry in the US.The project is expected to create 3,200 jobs, as well as 2,800 operations jobsMuch like the $6.6 billion loan conditionally approved for Rivian last month, the new loan to StarPlus Energy will need to beat the clock if it's going to finalize its approval before Donald Trump takes over the White House. Trump has promised to reverse or cancel much of the spending by Biden on EVs once he assumes office. He has said he will kill the $7,500 tax credit for new EV purchases, as well as wipe out the rest of the spending from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Assumedly, that will include the ATVM loan program as well — even though it predates the IRA.The loan program attained almost mythical status in the EV startup world thanks to its timely $465 million loan to Tesla in 2009, which is credited with helping save the company from an early death. But the program went fallow during the first Trump administration with a number of cash-strapped EV startups getting no response to requests for funding.Biden brought the program back in 2022 with a $2.5 billion loan to a joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution to help fund the construction of a new lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility. Since then, the program has made other commitments, including $9.2 billion to a joint venture between Ford and SK Innovation and $2 billion to Redwood Materials.The Stellantis-Samsung plants are the latest beneficiaries of the program. According to DOE, the StarPlus project will produce about 67 GWh of batteries, enough to supply approximately 670,000 vehicles annually when it's operating at full capacity. Stellantis, which owns brands like Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram, and international brands like Peugeot and Fiat, is going through some corporate upheaval that could determine its ability to meet the program's demands. The company’s CEO, Carlos Tavares, recently announced that he would step down amid a sharp decline in sales in the US and abroad. And Stellantis is struggling to keep pace with its competitors in the shift to electric- and software-defined vehicles.

Image: Nintendo Though it started out pretty chill, over the years, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp steadily became bloated with monetization. There were all kinds of things to spend real money on, including loot boxes for unlocking rare items. When I logged in to the game last week after months away, my screen was dominated by notifications vying for my attention, most of them involving spending some kind of cash.That’s what makes the new paid version of the app so intriguing. The original Pocket Camp has technically shut down, replaced by Pocket Camp Complete, which gets rid of all the in-app purchases in exchange for a one-time fee. (It’s $9.99 at launch on both iOS and Android, which will jump to $19.99 in January.) And without the looming specter of having to spend real money, this version of Pocket Camp is a whole lot more relaxing.Fundamentally, the game is the same. You’re tasked with running a campground for a bunch of friendly animals, which involves designing various spots for them to hang out, while also doing traditional Animal Crossing activities like fishing and catching bugs. The game allows existing Pocket Camp players to transfer their saves — all you need to do is link a... Read the full story at The Verge.