Image: ESPN ESPN is testing an AI-generated avatar with the Saturday college football show SEC Nation. Dubbed FACTS, it’s going to be “...promoting education and fun around sports analytics” with information drawn from ESPN Analytics, which includes data like the Football Power Index (FPI), player and team statistics, and game schedules. We haven’t seen the avatar in action, but it sounds like a bot-ified version of stats encyclopedia Howie Schwab, who was ESPN’s first statistician and eventually the star of a mid-2000s game show, Stump the Schwab.ESPN has already brought generative AI to its website with AI-written game recaps. FACTS is still in development, and there’s no word on when it could make its first appearance on the network. FACTS... Continue reading…

How much you should pay for anything isn't an easy question to answer. Everyone has a different definition of "value" and "worth," but in the world of PC hardware, particularly for gaming CPUs, the answer is rarely "the most expensive CPU is the best."

Illustration: The Verge Google Workspace is rolling out a Gemini-powered AI image generator directly in Google Docs that lets you quickly whip up visuals for your writeups. Essentially, it's a clip art maker that follows in the footsteps of Microsoft’s AI-generated art feature in its Office products.Google’s image generator in Docs is available to paid Workspace accounts that include the Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium, or Google One AI Premium add-ons.Those with the new feature can find it under Insert > Image > Help me create an image, which results in a “Create an image” sidebar where you can type in a description of what you’d like to make. It also provides a drop-down to select an art style with options such as “Photography” or... Continue reading…

Image: Valve Half-Life 2 is getting a major update in celebration of the classic title’s 20th anniversary. In addition to Steam Workshop support directly within the game, Valve has fixed bugs and restored some content, added new graphics settings, updated gamepad controls, and a whole lot more. You’ll also be able to get the game for free on Steam through November 18th at 1PM ET. After that, it will cost $9.99.Valve is also now including the Episode One and Episode Two expansions with the base game. They’ll be accessible from the Half-Life 2 menu, and Valve says that “you will automatically advance to the next expansion after completing each one.” You’ll also be able to access the Steam Workshop within the Extras menu, which means you’ll no longer... Continue reading…

In which various government bodies fight over “permissionless” assets | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Securities and Exchange Commission wants to “unilaterally wrest regulatory authority away from the States” when it comes to crypto, according to a lawsuit from 18 states. These states want to halt the SEC’s enforcement actions, so they can manage crypto regulation instead. Also named as a plaintiff on the suit is the DeFi Education Fund, a special interest lobbyist.Controversial SEC chair Gary Gensler is named in the suit, along with other SEC commissioners. Gensler’s treatment of crypto during his time as chair has made him a punching bag for the industry — and for Republicans such as president-elect Donald Trump.There has been an ongoing turf war over crypto regulation. Until this point, the two major contenders were the... Continue reading…

If you're the type of person that loves to play games but doesn't like spending $70 on every new title that comes out, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate might be for you. The service has access to over 100 games, which can be played on Xbox consoles, PC, smartphones, tablets, streaming devices, or through the cloud on a compatible web browser. The monthly subscription service grants access to a variety of games from developers like Bethesda Softworks, Activision Blizzard, EA Games, and more.

There is no shortage of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) tools out there. For months, I bounced between note-taking apps and PKM systems, always feeling like something was missing. Then I stumbled upon Capacities, and after trying it out for a couple of weeks, it feels like the missing puzzle piece to my brain. Capacities isnt just another note-taking tool; its a powerful, interconnected workspace that's transformed how I learn, think, and create.

Whether you self-host a website from your NAS or host it in the cloud, you'll still need a snappy domain name to use for it. That's an easy thing to say but a tricky thing in practice, because most of the short or one-word URLs are owned by other people. Even if these domains are just parked, they could be worth a tidy sum, as short URLs are easy for people to remember, and they can make or break your site's success. So, if you're building your company's brand and want one of these parked domains, the only way to get them is to fork over almost unthinkable wads of cash to the existing owner.

Network-attached storage (NAS) can interface with hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). These two technologies differ in operating and storing data. Older mechanical HDDs use motors and spinning platters with magnetic heads whereas an SSD is a newer technology and relies on electronic chips and cells to store data. HDDs have a maximum bandwidth of around 550MB/s under the right conditions whereas the fastest PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs top out at 15,000MB/s but SSDs are considerably more expensive than mechanical drives. When looking at new drives for your NAS, here are some reasons you should consider using SSDs.

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp dropped the most “I can’t believe this wasn’t already there” feature this week: message drafts. Now, WhatsApp lets you know if you have unsent messages typed up in chats so you know to get back to them later.To let you know about a draft, messages you’ve started writing will show a green and bold “Draft” word followed by what you’ve typed up. That way, you can ponder about finishing it when you open the app and not accidentally ignore your friends (though you still purposefully could, I guess.)Drafts also end up at the top of the chats list, so you don’t have to scroll to search for lost ones. The feature is now available in the app worldwide, Engadget reports.WhatsApp announced in July that it had hit 100 million monthly... Continue reading…

If you're not familiar with PhantomOfEarth on X (formerly Twitter), you will be soon enough. This digital sleuth is always hot on the heels of Windows Beta branches and digs through the files to locate any hidden features that haven't been enabled yet. Now, they're back again with a new Windows 11 feature that's posed to make sharing files a lot easier.

When deciding which services you wish to run on your NAS, the question of installing apps as normal or using some form of virtualization and containers will likely require answering. Should you fire up virtual machines (VM) or install Docker containers? There's no correct answer as it depends on how you wish to approach service deployment and management. VMs and Docker containers are both excellent routes to take and each has its pros and cons. While I recommend using Docker whenever possible, a VM can also make sense for NAS services. Here's why you should use Docker or VMs for your apps and services.