Windows has had a long history since its inception nearly 40 years ago, and for almost as long, it has offered a selection of wallpapers to choose from so you can decorate your desktop. The first couple versions of Windows didn't have a desktop the way we know it today, but starting with Windows 3.0, you could customize your desktop background with some images.

The iPad Air is an excellent iPad — and that’s all. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge The iPad Pro is a beast. The two-year-old iPad is more compelling than ever. So what is the Air even for anymore? Continue reading…

I would like to begin this review by admitting something to you. In my initial hands-on article about the 2024 iPad Pro (written after an hour of demos in a controlled environment), I raved about the new iPad Pro's sleeker form factor, superior OLED screen, and better accessories. While all of those praises are still technically true, now that I've had a week to actually use it, I am not sure if they make a big enough difference that M2 iPad Pro owners really need to upgrade.

Image: Rozetked It’s a day that ends in Y, so naturally, we’re dealing with yet another Google Pixel hardware leak. This time, the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL can be seen side by side in new images from Rozetked — a full five months before Google’s typical October release timeframe.I have many questions about how and why these units are out in the world so early, but here we are. And I know a lot of you are no doubt eyeing that regular 9 Pro, which will finally put Google’s very best camera chops into a normal-sized phone. Meanwhile, the 9 Pro XL looks a fair bit taller than Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max. Image: Rozetked Yep, that’s an XL-sized phone. l’m a bit curious as to whether Google will still call this a “camera bar”... Continue reading…

MSI Afterburner is one of those essential PC programs that needs no introduction. There's a good chance you've heard of MSI Afterburner, regardless of whether you are a casual gamer or a veteran building for years. It's compatible with most desktop and laptop graphics cards from Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, and its a fantastic tool that allows you to optimize your GPU's performance to meet all your gaming needs.

Photo by Stacy Revere / Getty Images Roku will exclusively stream Major League Baseball Sunday Leadoff games starting with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox on May 19th. The games will air live on The Roku Channel — no subscription or sign-up required.To watch the games, you’ll have to download The Roku Channel on your Roku device or TV. The app is also available on Amazon Fire devices, Samsung TVs, and Google TVs, as well as via The Roku Channel website. You’ll be able to watch replays of the games up to six hours after they end.“With free games available to anyone, MLB games on Roku will be widely accessible to fans,” Noah Garden, the MLB’s deputy commissioner of business and media, said in a statement. Roku will stream Sunday Leadoff games every week until... Continue reading…

Apple’s latest high-end tablet is a marvel of hardware design still in need of the software and accessories to really make it sing. But wow is it fun to use. Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images When New York City Mayor Eric Adams was first introduced to a representative from Evolv, the AI gun detection company, he was given a list of places the scanners could be used, including hospitals, schools, Times Square, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. What seems to have persuaded Adams, according to emails obtained by Wired, was Evolv’s disclosure of another major client: Disney.“As I mentioned, Linda Reid, VP Security for Walt Disney World (Florida) has known us since 2014 and deployed many of our systems at the Parks and Disney Springs,” Evolv co-founder Anil Chitkara wrote in an email to Adams’ office on February 7th, 2022. “They’ve had success screening for weapons with Evolv Express … There may be some interesting parallels... Continue reading…

Google has two big operating systems; Android and ChromeOS. The former is mostly found on portable devices, while the latter usually appears on larger devices like ChromeOS tablets, PCs, and laptops. And while the two of them happily live separate from one another, the tech giant wants both of them to work together well. This has prompted Google to show off ChomeOS running off of an Android phone, but don't expect to see it on your own portable devices anytime soon.

Over the years, Ive tested and reviewed many of the best gaming mice to find the perfect shape, size, and sensor for my tastes. As someone whos admittedly not a hardcore competitive gamer, I did this instead because Im a PC hardware enthusiast and wanted to see whats out there. It has been an unnecessarily expensive journey, but one that Ive thoroughly enjoyed.

The history of external GPUs, or eGPUs, is a convoluted one. Around six years ago, they were all the rage, with Thunderbolt 3 enabling an easy plug-and play solution for this kind of thing. But the market slowed down very significantly after a couple of years, presumably due to a lack of interest in the idea of having a giant box you need to connect to your laptop.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is testing a more robust search results page, including using generative AI. The feature appears to be a new and is called “search highlights.”A snippet of AI results appear at the top of some search results pages, and clicking into the section opens a new page with the full response. In quick tests, I was able to find AI results for queries about recipes or topics like “best laptops 2024.” Screenshot: TikTok Clicking the result takes you to a full screen page. A page explaining the results says that the material is generated using ChatGPT, and that TikTok displays the content “when [the algorithm] finds them relevant to your search.” The feature appears to be limited so far: not all queries have AI... Continue reading…