There's nothing more frustrating than having a big Youtube binge or a movie night interupted by buffering. Slow internet, poor connection, or a slow device can all contribute to ruining your streaming experience at home, whether its on your PC, phone or TV.

Windows 11 is the latest version of the most popular operating system in the world, and as long as you have a supported PC, it's very easy to install. But therein lies the problem: Windows 11 has significantly higher system requirements compared to previous versions of Windows, so there are a lot of unsupported PCs you can't install it on.

Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images Your vote matters. Here’s how it will change the future. Continue reading…

The free PowerToys install for Windows provides several useful tweaks and new features to Windows. Quite a few of these will really boost your productivity. Microsoft PowerToys is a set of free, open-source utilities developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems. These tools are designed for power users, offering advanced features and customizable options that arent built-in to Windows. Youll find utilities like FancyZones for window management, PowerRename for renaming files in bulk, and a Keyboard Manager for remapping keys. Lets look at what features you should enable in PowerToys to maximize your productivity.

Welcome to The Drive, a weekly column looking at some wacky, interesting, cool, and pivotal things within the tech space! Curated by PC Hardware Lead Editor Richard Edmonds through almost two decades covering the sector. Think something should be covered? Hit me up at [email protected]!

UMG and AI company Klay are forming their own foundational Music-generating AI model. | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Image Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a new deal centered on creating an “ethical” foundational model for AI music generation. It’s partnered with a company called Klay Vision that’s creating a “Large Music Model” named KLayMM and plans to launch out of stealth mode with a product within months. Ary Attie, its founder and CEO, said the company believes “the next Beatles will play with KLAY.”The two say the model will work “in collaboration with the music industry and its creators,” without many details about how, while Klay plans to make music AI “more than a short-lived gimmick.”This is how the companies explain their shared goals:Building generative AI music models ethically and fully respectful of copyright, as well as name and... Continue reading…

Besides giving you a sense of gratification, self-hosting serves many practical purposes. Not only do you save money on subscription fees, but running FOSS apps on your local devices also prevents third-party firms from gaining access to your private information. Whats more, you dont need a powerful NAS or an enterprise-grade server to host many of the popular services.

Holidays are typically associated with joy, family gatherings, travel, and the creation of lasting memories. However, they can also present financial challenges, especially when you are not into budgeting but should be. Overspending is a common concern, leaving many with a post-holiday debt hangover. If you want to take control of your holiday spending, this budget planner is right for you.

Alright, so it's not summer anymore, and perhaps you've already packed your grilling stuff away. However, if you're still in the mood to cook some meat, or you just want a project you can work on until the sizzling hot days come back, why not check out this cool wireless barbecue thermometer? It was built from the ground up using a Raspberry Pi, and its designer was nice enough to share their process with anyone interested.

I've taken a keen interest in mini PCs over the last year or so, and I've reviewed multiple tiny or compact computers in that time, mostly from companies like Geekom and Minisforum. And I love a lot of those computers, but the device that really kickstarted all of this was the Khadas Mind, which I first reviewed last year, and revisited earlier this year when the Mind Graphics add-on released.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple’s unusual approach to an October event is skipping the event and just announcing some forthcoming announcements. Continue reading…

When recording a video of a DIY project, its important to capture multiple angles or perspectives. This means multiple cameras and sometimes a computer for each. That can get expensive, so one engineer developed a modular multi-camera project that uses inexpensive SBCs to get the perfect camera angles. Since he used Raspberry Pi for the setup, its called the RasRig. Lets take a look.