Gaming laptops can be expensive, especially if you're looking to get some of the best hardware that's available right now. Naturally, we don't want you paying top dollar for something like this, so we've found this great deal on this MSI laptop that's going to save you a ton of cash.

Server rigs are among the most sought-after equipment for home labs – and for good reason. Enterprise rigs not only come with more CPU cores, memory, and storage provisions, but they also feature ECC memory support, hot-swappable PSUs, and a range of other capabilities designed for complex projects.

The grand CES event is coming soon, and it's always a wild ride. We usually see a ton of powerful and amazing devices, but also our fair share of the strange and wonderful. Such is the case of a leak revealing that Lenovo is going to show off a new laptop that can extend its screen upward like a technological giraffe.

Obsidian, with its local-first approach, graph view, canvas, and Markdown support, initially seemed like the perfect note-taking haven. But as I started integrating it into my workflow, those shiny add-ons started losing their luster. From its basic mobile apps and a lack of toolbar to limited project management features, Obsidian left me wanting more. And while its plugin ecosystem is vast, relying on them for core functionality felt fragile. Here are the top reasons why I have started looking for Obsidian alternatives.

Cath Virginia / The Verge The European Union has published several recommendations for Apple to make iOS and iPadOS more interoperable with competitors following two separate proceedings launched in September, sparking concerns about user privacy from the iPhone maker. On Wednesday, the EU Commission submitted draft recommendations to Apple regarding changes that would make the iOS operating system more compatible with third-party devices like smartwatches, earbuds, and headsets. The Commission is also proposing measures to improve how Apple communicates with developers who make interoperability requests for iOS and iPadOS, including increased transparency around internal features and rejections. The EU’s proposed iOS interoperability measures cover interactivity features like automatic audio switching, background activity like maintaining Bluetooth and network connections, and notifications — which could address long-standing complaints from iPhone users who are unable to send quick replies from connected Garmin watches, for example. The EU also proposes several measures to improve iOS data transfer interoperability across Airdrop, Airplay, media casting, Wi-Fi sharing, and close-range file transfers, alongside device configuration measures covering proximity-triggered pairing and automatic Wi-Fi connectivity.Apple has raised concerns about the DMA’s interoperability mandates, as you’d expect. In a white paper published shortly after the EU’s announcement, Apple criticized “data-hungry companies” like Meta that have made numerous requests to access the iPhone maker’s software tools.“The security risks would be substantial and virtually impossible to mitigate”“Meta has made 15 requests (and counting) for potentially far-reaching access to Apple’s technology stack that, if granted as sought, would reduce the protections around personal data that our users have come to expect from their devices,” Apple said in the paper. “If Apple is forced to allow access to sensitive technologies that it has no ability to protect, the security risks would be substantial and virtually impossible to mitigate.”Apple doesn’t specify which of the EU’s DMA proposals it takes issue with, generalizing them in their entirety as a risk to user privacy. Meta has hit back about being targeted in Apple’s complaint and says the iPhone maker is being anticompetitive.“What Apple is actually saying is they don’t believe in interoperability,” an unnamed Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Every time Apple is called out for its anticompetitive behavior, they defend themselves on privacy grounds that have no basis in reality.”The Commission is requesting feedback from companies seeking interoperability with Apple by January 9th, 2025. The interoperability recommendations proposed by the EU Commission are subject to change depending on submitted feedback. The final, legally-binding measures applying to Apple are expected to be finalized before March 2025. If Apple doesn’t comply then the EU may launch a formal investigation next year, and could be liable for fines up to 10 percent of its global annual sales.

Back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Microsoft Office was the king of the business world. It crushed competitors like WordPerfect Office and Lotus SmartSuite, with no real challengers in sight. Then Google showed up with Google Docs and Spreadsheets — a pair of online tools for word processing and spreadsheets that let people work together in real time. Over time, these became part of Google Apps, later G Suite, and now Google Workspace, grabbing a sizeable chunk of the market.

The Windows Clipboard has come a long way since its early days. In previous versions, you could only copy one item at a time and paste it into a document or app. However, starting with Windows 10 in 2018, Microsoft upped the ante and added the cloud clipboard feature. It allowed copying up to 25 items, including text and images.

Some Samsung fridges are getting hybrid cooling tech in 2025. | Image: Samsung Samsung just announced new hybrid cooling tech coming to its refrigerators in 2025. They’ll use a traditional compressor alongside a new Peltier module — a semiconductor device that transfers heat from one side to the other when current passes through it. This approach results in a fridge that reduces temperature variations to keep foods fresher longer while better utilizing interior space, according to Samsung.The Peltier effect is something we’ve seen harnessed by wearable personal air conditioners, microclimate chairs, and hobbyist coolers in the past. This is the first time we can recall seeing it used in a full-sized refrigerator sold by a major brand.Samsung says the Peltier module is only called into action when significant cooling is needed. This might be after loading the weekly shopping haul into the fridge or when adding hot leftovers. In these situations the Peltier module works alongside the compressor to avoid a big internal temperature spike. Otherwise, the fridge relies exclusively on the compressor for optimal cooling efficiency. Samsung says its hybrid cooling tech will be introduced into a fridge (model RM80F23VM) that can be “recognized as the most efficient of Energy Star in 2025.”Samsung’s fridges featuring the new hybrid cooling tech will be available with 900-liter capacities. The company says they have a 25-liter increase in usable internal space as a result of using a Peltier module instead of traditional heating elements. And according to Samsung, its hybrid cooling can keep foods fresher for longer, with tests showing pork lasting 1.4 times longer and salmon 1.2 times. Expect to hear more from Samsung about its hybrid cooling fridges in early January when the big CES trade show kicks off in earnest from Las Vegas.

PC gaming has never been easier, with out-of-the-box defaults for most hardware that works well. But to get the absolute best out of our graphics cards, a few things can be tweaked even further. Whether your graphics card comes from AMD, Intel, or Nvidia, they all have an assortment of software features that can be changed to make the graphics driver work better for your needs without having to overclock your GPU. Once you've figured out which PC games to play, it's time to get those games running at their best.

National climate adviser Ali Zaidi speaks at the daily press briefing at the White House on January 26th, 2024, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images The Biden administration set ambitious new goals to slash US greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris climate accord, urging states and local governments to stay on course regardless of President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to purposefully ignore climate change.The nearly 200 countries that have joined the Paris agreement face a deadline in February to update their national climate plans. Biden’s team decided to put out its own plan before Trump steps into office, setting a new target today of cutting net emissions by 61–66 percent in 2035 compared to a 2005 baseline. It also sets a specific target of cutting methane emissions by at least 35 percent by the same date. Methane comes from livestock, landfills, and leaking oil and gas infrastructure and is an even more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and has vowed to pull the US out of the Paris agreement. So Biden’s last-ditch effort to keep the US on track to meet global climate goals is more symbolic — seemingly designed to encourage a grassroots movement in defiance of Trump’s national agenda.“Escape velocity, an inexorable path, a place from which we will not turn back”“Across the country, we see decarbonization efforts to reduce our emissions in many ways achieving escape velocity, an inexorable path, a place from which we will not turn back,” White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said in a call with reporters. It helps that new solar and onshore wind farms have become cheaper sources of electricity than coal or gas. Around 95 percent of new sources of electricity queued up to connect to US power grids is carbon-free — mostly solar and wind energy and batteries. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have also authorized hundreds of billions of dollars of funding for clean energy. Current policies put the US on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by around 40 percent by the end of the decade compared to 2005. That’s a big drop in pollution, but still shy of the initial goal Biden set upon stepping into office. Shortly after Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the US rejoined the Paris agreement (which Trump had previously pulled the US out of) and set a target of reducing emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. That’s in line with the pollution cuts needed globally to meet the most ambitious target in the Paris agreement, keeping global average temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above what they were before the Industrial Revolution.Keeping that global goal alive is increasingly dubious, especially since the US is the second-biggest climate polluter after China. The planet is about 1.2 degrees warmer today than it was before humans started pumping out massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions by burning fossil fuels. All that pollution has already triggered more intense storms, wildfires, droughts, and other climate disasters. And things could get worse with Trump’s plans to dismantle environmental policies, encourage the development of more energy-hungry crypto mines and AI data centers, and increase oil and gas drilling.Even so, Trump didn’t completely kill US climate action during his first stint as president. State and cities crafted their own climate plans and local leaders created a coalition called We Are Still In after Trump moved to take the US out of the Paris agreement. Thanks in large part to their work, the US still surpassed the Obama administration’s climate goal of cutting emissions 17 percent by 2020. Biden raised the bar with his climate goals, so there’s far more work to do to keep up the pace this time around. A University of Maryland analysis from September found that local action can reduce US greenhouse gas pollution by 48–60 percent by 2035 even without federal support.

While the market is full of purpose-built NAS enclosures, perhaps they don't suit your particular storage needs. Building your own NAS is a rewarding project that gives ongoing chances to learn more about networking, virtualization, and containers, and it can repurpose old hardware that you have lying around. You don't need that much to get started, either, but there are some things you should nail down about whether your existing hardware is up to the task or what you need to supplement it.

Microsoft Word remains one of the most popular tools for writing all kinds of documents. Whether it's a letter, a report, or a book, you can use Word pretty much anything, and its robust set of tools allows you to do all kinds of things. It's one of the most well-known tools in Microsoft Office, and for good reason.