Operating systems have really grown over the past few decades. Old Windows operating systems used to weigh in at the hundreds of megabytes, and now we have Windows 11 taking up 9GB of space for no reason. However, one operating system has gone the other direction and managed to squeeze itself down onto a single floppy disk.

The Windows Forecast is a look at the future of Windows that comments on the latest news for Windows Insiders, as well as other major announcements in the Windows space each and every week. My name is Joo Carrasqueira, and I've been covering the world of Windows professionally since 2018. If there's something you'd like to see covered, you can reach me at [email protected].

Starship preps for its fifth flight test. | Photo: SpaceX SpaceX plans to launch Starship for the fifth time tomorrow, October 13th, during a 30-minute launch window that opens at 8AM ET. That’s after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared today that the company has “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight,” reports Reuters. The company will livestream the launch, starting about 35 minutes before liftoff. You can catch that on SpaceX’s website or its X account, as well as in the X TV app.Watch Starship's fifth flight test https://t.co/LVrCnTv797— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 12, 2024SpaceX’s goal for tomorrow’s flight is to return the Super Heavy booster to its launch site, which hasn’t happened before. It’s shooting for... Continue reading…

Whether you're using one of the newest Macs with macOS Sequoia or an older Mac with a hard drive, having a data backup solution is a must. Luckily, all Mac desktops and laptops come with Time Machine a native backup utility that can automatically save your data at selected intervals. In this guide, we'll show you how to set up Time Machine, and make sure you're covered in the event something goes wrong with your computer, storage drive, or macOS instance.

The new iPhone 16 is here, packing an A18 chip powerful enough to run Apple Intelligence features and a Camera Control button. Whether you've already purchased a new iPhone or you're still waiting until your great smartphone arrives, you'll want to make sure you have a case sorted out. Since there's the new Camera Control button, existing iPhone 15 cases won't fit the iPhone 16.

Meta has a suggestion for folks like me who forgot to go outside and look at the Northern Lights on Thursday night: just use AI to fake it! But Threads users who replied to Meta’s idea, posted along with three AI-generated images of the Aurora Borealis Meta last night, seem to disagree.Here’s Meta’s post:The images show the Northern Lights hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge, over a city skyline, and over a ferris wheel. It’s clearly meant to latch onto a trending moment of people posting their own pictures of the Northern Lights from the amazing and rare display of the lights, which plunged deep into the United States on Thursday night.Once you get past the first few comments from people sharing their own AI-generated Northern... Continue reading…

With the latest Snapdragon X Elite, Intel Lunar Lake, and Ryzen AI 300 series, the AI revolution has officially arrived on Windows laptops. These companies are now shipping CPUs with dedicated NPUs (Neural Processing Units) with up to a staggering 55 TOPS (trillion operations per second). While they promise to redefine the AI landscape and how we interact with our PCs, there is a catch.

The Deebot X2 Omni. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Someone gained access to Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni robotic vacuums across several US cities earlier this year and used them to chase pets and yell racist slurs at their owners, reported ABC News in Australia this week. The outlet spoke with multiple Deebot X2 owners who say their Deebot X2s had been hacked in May, including Minnesota lawyer Daniel Swenson, who said he was watching TV with his family when a noise “like a broken-up radio signal or something” started coming from the robot’s speaker. He said after he reset his password and rebooted the robot, it began again, only this time the sound was clearly a voice — he guessed a teenager’s — yelling slurs. ABC News lists other, similar accounts from owners in El Paso and Los Angeles, the... Continue reading…

Notepad on Windows has been a mainstay app of Microsoft's operating system since 1983. Thanks to a recent Windows 11 update, there are plenty of new features to take advantage of. Whether you need to jot down some notes during class or finally write that novel you've been dreaming of, Notepad is a solid app to consider.

Even the best graphics cards these days aren't just about raw performance features like ray tracing, frame generation, and upscaling techniques are just as important. If you have an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU, then DLSS (deep learning super sampling) is one of these new techniques you can use to improve your experience. It's an AI-powered upscaling technology that's exclusive to the RTX series, meaning you can't use it on AMD GPUs.

Setting up a home office goes beyond just sticking a desk in a corner. Such an arrangement leads to chaos and a lack of productivity. The key is to create an environment that balances focus, creativity, and efficiency. In this post, I will share essential tips to transform any corner of your home into a productivity powerhouse, helping you get work done and achieve a work-life balance in no time.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge WordPress.org has taken over a popular WP Engine plugin in order “to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem,” WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced today. This “minimal” update, which he labels a fork of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, is now called “Secure Custom Fields.”It’s not clear what security problem Mullenweg is referring to in the post. He writes that he’s “invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines,” in which the WordPress team reserves several rights, including removing a plugin, or changing it “without developer consent.” Mullenweg explains that the move has to do with WP Engine’s recently-filed lawsuit against him and Automattic.Similar situations have happened... Continue reading…