Setting up a home lab is one task, but keeping it efficient and well-maintained is an entirely separate challenge. With tangled wires, dust, increased temperatures, and an ever-growing collection of hardware, it doesn't take long for your home lab to turn into chaos. It affects your productivity, damages equipment, leads to data loss, and ultimately spoils your digital sanctuary.

Are you checking out Windows 11 24H2? The long-awaited operating system was finally released, and from what it looks like, it's a pretty good upgrade. In fact, in our news coverage last week, we saw reports that 24H2 was running a lot better, even on unsupported hardware. However, there was a lot more news than just 24H2, so let's dip into the headlines of the past week.

I've been a longtime Microsoft Windows user for more years than I wish to count, certainly many more than the ten years since Windows 10 was released and introduced us to free upgrades. In that time, I've seen the change from running alongside MS-DOS to GUI refinements, missteps, and sidesteps, and the wonder of stability that is Windows 11. I've used every major version (yes, including Windows ME), but while Windows 11 crashes less often for me and lets me swap hardware with complete abandon, it's becoming more and more annoying to use. Things like how many years it's taken to move the Control Panel over to the Settings app, and it's still not finished, but that's a minor annoyance compared to these other issues that might make me move over to macOS for good.

While there is no shortage of photo editing tools out there, each promising to be the next best thing, I always find myself coming back to Adobe Lightroom. Although solutions like GIMP, Darktable, RawTherapee, and Photopea are capable on their own, its Lightroom which has been my trusty go-to companion for transforming those boring stills into stunning artwork.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge The iPhone 16, despite its marketing so far, still doesn’t have Apple Intelligence. That’s set to change on October 28th with the release of iOS 18.1, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. The update will bring with it AI-powered notification summaries, Gurman writes. Though he only lists that example, the iOS 18.1 beta has also included some Siri improvements (like understanding you better when you stumble over your words), along with writing tools and a new rainbow-colored glowing edge graphic when you summon Siri on a phone or iPad.Apple Intelligence only runs on the iPhone 15 Pro and up, but it’s also been available in beta for Macs and iPads with Apple silicon chips (M1 and and up), so even if you... Continue reading…

Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard for vector graphics for a reason. However, with a monthly cost of $23 (or $60 for Creative Cloud), many peopleparticularly hobbyists, students, or beginnersmay find they neither require nor can afford such a comprehensive solution. If you are looking to explore your design options, there is a whole world of powerful, free alternatives out there. That said, not every tool is capable enough to replace Adobe Illustrator.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 55, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready to ruin your phone’s storage, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about AI girlfriends and Bobbi Althoff and baseball pitchers, watching Nobody Wants This (my favorite new show in forever) and the new noodle-focused Chef’s Table (a long-standing fave), falling in love with Coldplay all over again, listening to John Oliver talk journalism, playing a lot of Alphaguess, and painstakingly moving all my junk to my new blue iPhone 16. It’s so pretty.I also have for you a handy new way to track your stuff, a great app for posting to social... Continue reading…

The old Mac Mini design may finally be on its way out after more than a decade. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple is planning to announce in late October that new Macs, including a rumored Mac Mini that’s about the size of an Apple TV, will be available to buy starting on November 1st. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who also writes in his Power On newsletter today that the iPad Mini is getting an overdue refresh — its first since 2021.The Mac Mini may be the most exciting of the updates, given the rumored significant physical revamp coming along with a new M4 chip. Despite its shrunken size, the M4 Pro version might have a healthy connectivity spread (albeit without any USB-A ports).Gurman writes that Apple will also announce M4 versions of the base model 14-inch MacBook Pro, as well as the high-end 14- and- 16-inch MacBook... Continue reading…

The cloud storage market is huge, and Dropbox is right near the top of the heap, with only Google Drive having more market share. While Dropbox's ease of use can't really be argued against, it is lacking in some areas, and the paltry 2GB of free storage without paying ever-increasing monthly premiums lags behind the competition. Even if you were a paying customer, the company has ended its unlimited tier after a few users abused their goodwill, and you might be looking for an alternative. To tide you over while you save for your own NAS to wean off cloud storage, here are a few other file-sharing services that give a more generous level of storage capacity for free.

Willem Dafoe in Nosferatu. | Screenshot: YouTube Can you feel it? There’s a slight chill in the air, the Sun is retiring earlier, and the leaves are beginning to change (at least in my Midwestern city). We’re wading right into the time of year when everyone starts posting the vampire Kermit the Frog meme to show how ready they are for Halloween. I’m even starting to eye that Shudder re-subscribe button.October has its own vibe at the cinema, and theatrical releases this month include Operation Blood Hunt, a movie about 1944 special forces fighting werewolves in the Pacific theater, and Seven Cemeteries, a Danny Trejo-starring film about a guy who hires a witch to resurrect his posse to save a woman’s ranch. And let’s not forget Rumours, which I’m very excited for. So I’ve got a... Continue reading…

Garmin makes some of the best fitness trackers and smartwatches on the market. Not only do they offer wearables with rugged designs, but you also get plenty of great health and wellness tracking features. Furthermore, the real highlight of most of Garmin's products is going to be all about the long battery life. While times can vary, many of Garmin's products can easily outlast wearables from Apple and Samsung.

The number of Wi-Fi 7 devices on the market is about to spike considerably, as the iPhone 16 range gets into more hands. That might make you wonder if all you need is a good Wi-Fi router or perhaps a mesh network to make your best home network. In theory, that might work, but no plan ever survives contact with reality.