Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Whenever Netflix raises its prices — which seems to happen roughly as often as Ben Affleck falls in love with an A-list celebrity — the company always gives the same reason. It needs the extra money, you see, in order to keep investing in the kind of programming and product its 302 million subscribers demand. That’s how the standard monthly price of ad-free Netflix jumped from $7.99 to $17.99 over the course of the last 13 years, including a $2.50 jump just announced during the company’s recent earnings report. There’s still a $7.99 monthly plan, of course, but that one includes ads — and it’s a dollar more expensive than it was a week ago.But let’s be real with each other. You want to know why Netflix keeps raising its prices? Because it can. Because Netflix won. The rest of the streaming industry is competing ferociously over a finite pool of money, dealing with carriage disputes because of dwindling subscriber numbers, and panicking over the future of TV. Netflix is the future of TV. Over the last couple of years in particular, Netflix has gone from a solid streaming service to a practically unavoidable, virtually uncancellable part of mainstream culture. It has developed a... Read the full story at The Verge.

Path of Exile 2 has been in early access for about a month, and fans of the top-down RPG genre are in love with it. Many flocked from Diablo IV to PoE 2 within days and haven’t looked back. The player count for Diablo IV has plummeted, while Path of Exile 2’s has skyrocketed far beyond what anyone expected. Fans have rallied behind the ARPG, with some referring to it as a staple in the genre, especially on PC.

It can feel magical when it works, but often Live AI feels more like Captain Obvious. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Live AI is neat, but the problem is knowing when (and why) you’d want to use it. Read the full story at The Verge.

If you've ever been stumped on what a word means in a Microsoft Word document, Smart Lookup always has your back. The handy tool makes it really easy to look up definitions of a word and also powers the software's thesaurus feature to find more ways to express what you're saying. If you get a lot of use out of Smart Lookup, I'm afraid to say that Microsoft is now getting rid of it, and you may not like what comes next.

The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge It might be time for a more unified platform. Read the full story at The Verge.

I've never had great luck with giveaways or sweepstakes, and frankly, I stopped participating in them years ago. On a fateful day in June 2022, however, I decided to enter an online PC building contest organized by WD and Nvidia. Like always, I didn't really believe I'd win something, but a few weeks later, it became a reality. My tale is 2 years old, but better late than never as they say.

A home server can be a powerhouse for convenience and entertainment. But managing it can feel like a daunting task. Here is where Docker comes into play, which effortlessly runs applications in isolated containers and boosts efficiency and security. In this post, I will dive into the most useful Docker containers that will transform your home server into a productivity machine, a media streaming hub, and a fortress of digital security.

Are you tired of juggling endless research materials? If you often struggle to keep track of your notes, PDFs, and images, Tropy is the perfect solution for you. It’s a powerful and intuitive organizational tool to help you manage everything in one place.

The SuperStation One comes in three colors, including translucent blue. | Image: Retro Remake Retro Remake’s Taki Udon announced last night that preorders had opened for the SuperStation One, a clone of the PS One variant of the original PlayStation. The $149.99 Founders Edition preorders are sold out already, but you can still preorder the standard $225 SuperStation One for $179.99 right now, with shipping expected in “Q4 or Earlier.” While the SuperStation One looks like a PS One — complete with ports compatible with the original PlayStation controller and memory cards — it plays more than just PlayStation 1 games. It’s a custom MiSTER field-programmable gate array (FPGA) machine, as Polygon points out. That means rather than emulating game consoles, its hardware can actually function just like those consoles, with cores ranging from the Atari 5200 and NES to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Introducing the SuperStation one. An open-source PS1 FPGA gaming console that supports original games, memory cards, and controllers. Load games from a disk or a backup. Region free. Supports all MiSTer FPGA cores, including N64 & Sega Saturn.Learn more: retroremake.co— Taki Udon (@takiudon.bsky.social) 2025-01-26T01:02:28.357ZRetro Remake currently offers the system in black, gray, and translucent blue. It comes with a 64GB Micro SD card and has three USB-A ports, an ethernet port, and an NFC reader that you can use to trigger specific games to load. It uses USB-C for power.On the video side of things, the SuperStation One will have an HDMI port, along with VGA, DIN10, composite, and component ports geared for retro gaming setups. You’ll also find a 3.5mm audio jack and a digital audio port. Finally, there’s an expansion slot to support Retro Remake’s planned SuperDock accessory that adds a slot-loading disc drive, a 2280 m.2 SSD bay, and four more USB-A ports. That’s not up for preorder yet, but you can put down a $5 preorder deposit for it with an order of the SuperStation One.This is Retro Remake’s first console, though the company plans to make more later, as Udon told Time Extension last week. The company has released other products, including a DIY kit for upgrading the Nintendo Switch Lite to an OLED display.

If you're looking to boost the quality of your video calls, then going with a new webcam is going to be the best answer. While there are lots of choices out there, we think the Obsbot Tiny 2 is a great option, as it's currently one of the best webcams that you can buy right now. Not only does it deliver great video, but it also captures great audio as well.

While people usually get started on a project to solve a problem or explore a new place, some of them are done because "well, why not?" For example, someone has devised a way to store and retrieve data from their PC to a cassette tape with the aid of a 56K modem, and while it's a ton easier to just stick the file on a USB drive and call it a day, you can't deny that this method is pretty darn cool.

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 68, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you’re staying warm and sane, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Kieran Culkin and insomnia and the eBay for fancy startup stuff, finally watching The Wild Robot, thinking a lot about my shopping habits while watching The Mega-Brands That Built America, adding a bunch of Baseus retractable cables to my travel kit, playing an amazing browser-based rendition of the Atari game Pitfall!, testing out the new Spark calendar for Android, and trying to copy Babish’s delicious-looking breakfast sandwich.I also have for you the biggest new phone in the Android world, the GPU every gamer’s going to want, an impossible test for AI tools, a clever Google alternative, and much more. It’s been a somewhat quiet week for new stuff, honestly, since it’s both post-CES doldrums and utter political chaos. But we’ve still got great stuff to talk about! Let’s do it.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / cooking / downloading / building... Read the full story at The Verge.