When putting together and running a home lab, looking for ways to reduce overhead and improve performance is of the utmost importance. One way to do so is by harnessing a technology called SR-IOV, or Single-Root I/O Virtualization. SR-IOV allows you to pass-through PCIe devices to multiple VMs at once, while maintaining a high level of performance and low latency. Here are 4 reasons why you might want to use SR-IOV in your home lab setup.

Building a Network-Attached Storage device can be an enjoyable project, regardless of whether you’re a casual user looking for a network-wide file-sharing and backup server or a tinkering expert who wants to experiment with different RAID configurations, network shares, and a host of other features. But if your NAS setup seems too underwhelming for your needs, you could scale this project up by designing a dedicated Storage Area Network for your home lab. If you’ve already built a NAS using TrueNAS Scale, OpenMediaVault, or another dedicated OS, you can follow these tips to transform it into a SAN system.

As a PC gamer, you might have already heard about DirectStorage. Announced way back in 2020 by Microsoft, DirectStorage is an API that aims to significantly reduce game loading times, improve GPU performance, and reduce CPU overhead, mainly on Windows 11. While DirectStorage was publicly released to developers in March 2022, gamers have yet to see the technology deliver the transformative benefits Microsoft had promised years ago.

The Verge X has substantially raised the price of its top-tier user subscription in multiple regions to help bolster the platform’s creator payouts. The increase for Premium Plus came into effect on December 21st according to X, raising prices in the US from $16 per month to $22, or from $168 to $229 for annual subscriptions.Many European countries like France, Germany, and Spain are impacted by a similar increase, taking monthly prices from €16 to €21. Monthly subscribers in Canada (currently paying $20), Australia ($26) and the UK (£16) will also see pricing increased to $26, $35, and £17 respectively. The higher pricing is immediately applicable to new subscribers, with existing users grandfathered into their current rates until January 20th. X’s basic subscription tier remains unaffected.The pricing changes for US subscribers are the highest increase introduced since Elon Musk purchased the social media platform in 2022. X gave several reasons to justify the price hike, citing that Premium Plus is now completely ad-free — which it described as a “significant enhancement” to the current user experience.X also references changes made to the X revenue sharing program in October, saying that subscriptions “now more directly fuels” creator payouts to “reward content quality and engagement rather than ad views alone.” Premium Plus subscribers will additionally receive priority user support, access to additional features like X’s Radar trend monitoring tool, and higher limits on the platform’s Grok AI models.

For the most part, routers are in a great place right now, with mesh systems being the pinnacle, with the ability to deliver excellent speeds, along with plenty of coverage. Perhaps the only downside of going with a mesh system is that it can be kind of expensive. Thankfully, there's a good deal on this Eero mesh router system right now that comes with three devices.

While Windows remains a dominant operating system, you don’t have to be locked into Microsoft's suite of applications. If you are tired of relying on Microsoft apps that eat up your subscription dollars and limit your control, explore open-source alternatives that offer freedom, flexibility, and powerful features without the price tag. In this post, I will go over the five robust open source solutions that can replace your everyday Microsoft staples.

Welcome to The Drive, a new weekly column looking at some wacky, interesting, cool, and pivotal things within the tech space! I'll also highlight anything noteworthy from XDA reviews published in the week.

Sometimes you have to sift through a ton of files to find what you need, and opening each one with its intended app can waste a lot of time, especially with different file types. The good news is that Windows File Explorer has a built-in tool that lets you preview files without the hassle of launching full applications. Plus, there are a few other neat tricks in Windows to make viewing files super easy. Here are four ways to view files in Windows without using their applications.

Image: Canoo Days after furloughing dozens of its employees without pay, EV startup Canoo told the remainder of its staff they will be on a “mandatory unpaid break” through at least the end of the year, TechCrunch reported Friday. A company email seen by the outlet said employees would be locked out of Canoo’s systems by the end of Friday, with their benefits continuing through the end of this month.The report follows Canoo’s announcement last week that it was idling its Oklahoma factories and furloughing employees while it worked “to finalize securing the capital necessary to move forward with its operations.” As TechCrunch notes, the company reported that it had only about $700,000 left in the bank last month.Also on Friday, the company announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split, effective December 24th. Canoo says the consolidation aims to keep its stock listed on the Nasdaq exchange and attract “a broader group of institutional and retail investors.”Canoo was founded in 2017 to sell electric vans and trucks to adventure-seeking customers but has mostly only ever made vehicles for the US government. As The Verge’s Andrew Hawkins wrote last year, analysts have warned of its risk of insolvency as it’s teetered on the edge of running out of cash since 2022. Canoo has lost a steady stream of executives since then, including all of its founders and, more recently, its CFO and general counsel.

Although emulation is often regarded as a niche subset of gaming, it has plenty of perks, including platform independence, game preservation, and the ability to incorporate QoL mods into your favorite console-exclusive titles. While old-school SNES, GameBoy, and Atari systems can be emulated on practically any device, the hardware requirements blow out of proportion when you try running titles designed for the newer consoles.

Most users gravitate toward consumer-grade NAS models when shopping for a new NAS (network attached storage) unit for homes or small businesses. These devices cater to the average user’s needs, such as backing up personal files or streaming media. On the other hand, enterprise-grade NAS solutions serve businesses with extensive data storage and management loads. While enterprise NAS units offer more storage space and advanced capabilities, they may not always be the better choice for every scenario. Here are eight key differences between consumer and enterprise NAS devices that you should be aware of when weighing your options.

Excel is a great way to store and analyze multiple points of data in a single spreadsheet. But once your spreadsheet gets big enough, it can be difficult to visualize all this data effectively. That's why it may be useful for you to take a look at your data in a different way, so that you can easily identify the information you need without scrolling through all the cells manually.