2024 is shaping up to be an excellent year if you're on the hunt for the best new CPU. We're expecting Intel to release their 15th-gen Arrow Lake CPUs later this year, but AMD looks like they're already prepared for that move. At Computex 2024, Team Red unveiled the all-new "Zen 5" Ryzen 9000 series. The new desktop CPUs will feature a 16% boost in IPC, a potentially cheaper price, and the same core count as the Ryzen 7000 series.

A Network-Attached Storage (NAS) system is one of the best means to back up data. Sadly, even the best NAS setups are susceptible to unforeseen errors like running out of space mid-operation or sudden drive failures. In such events, your best bet is to manually remove the old HDD and slot in a brand-new one.

Image: The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 43, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been reading about memexes and telepathy and John Lennon’s wristwatch, watching Presumed Innocent and Ren Faire, testing Genspark for AI search stuff, redoing my homescreen with Dumbify, and experimenting with overnight oats in an attempt to make mornings less chaotic. (Turns out, peanut butter makes pretty much everything 20 percent better.) I also have for you a new tech podcast, a couple of handy new gadgets, a new calendar app, the game that will take over your weekend, and much more. Let’s get... Continue reading…

After months of hype, the Snapdragon X Series and Copilot+ laptops are finally here. We're entering a new era of AI PCs, as is evident with the highly impressive Surface Pro 11. However, the journey we've taken to get here has been anything but smooth. Microsoft had quite a PR catastrophe with Recall, their biggest Copilot+ feature. On top of that, Copilot+ features are only limited to certain laptops with a Snapdragon X Series chip for now.

If you just purchased a new printer or want to hook up an old one to your new laptop, then you're in luck. Windows 11 makes the setup process really easy. Most printers are plug-and-play, so once you connect it to your USB port (or USB dock) on your laptop, you'll be good to go. But just in case that doesn't go as planned, or you run into issues, we have a look at how you can add a printer on Windows 11.

If you weren’t able to catch the season two premiere of House of Dragon last weekend, now is your chance. | Image: Ollie Upton / HBO There’s no denying that streaming services just keep getting more expensive, with Peacock and Max being the latest streamers to raise prices across their ad-free plans. We’re also seeing a number of services — including Max — dropping support for free trials, ensuring no one other than paying subscribers can access their trove of content. Fortunately, if you haven’t previously subscribed to Max, you can sign up for a rare weeklong trial through the end of today, June 23rd. Admittedly, a week isn’t enough time to burn through Max’s extensive back catalog of original programming, which includes newer shows like Hacks, the animated sci-fi epic Scavenger’s Reign, True Detective: Night Country, and last year’s excellent adaptation of The... Continue reading…

For the past two weeks, I’ve been editing in the newest version of Final Cut Pro for the iPad. For many professionals, the original release of this app last year missed the mark. Its tools have just been too limited to use on a daily basis. The new version doesn’t necessarily change that — but despite my many frustrations, I’m finally discovering the joy of using it.The new version of the app, confusingly named “Final Cut Pro for iPad 2” (it is for all current iPads, not the iPad 2), came out this week. And perhaps the biggest new feature in this year’s release isn’t entirely a Final Cut Pro feature: it’s a brand-new app that integrates with it.The new Final Cut Camera is a standalone app for your iPhone that offers advanced camera... Continue reading…

Although Microsoft offers some of the best productivity and communication apps, they are not for everyone. Besides, these apps require a Microsoft 365 subscription to unlock more features. Fortunately, there is no shortage of alternatives to popular Microsoft apps. You can explore some of the robust tools from Google and other companies to easily replace most built-in Microsoft apps on your laptop.

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge For months, I’ve been thinking about selling my PlayStation VR2. After a damning scoop, I’m finally ready to let it go.Months ago, I stashed the PSVR 2 away in a closet. I hadn’t played it for a very long time, but I hoped Sony might release new games that would make me want to bring it back out. Based on Android Central’s reporting, I should let those hopes go: apparently, Sony has cut funding for VR games and has just two more PSVR 2 titles in the works. Two!The future of the headset has been grim for a while. Earlier this year, Sony laid off developers at Firesprite, the studio that made Horizon Call of the Mountain. It closed its London Studio, which made PlayStation VR Worlds, a game that came bundled with the original PSVR. Since... Continue reading…

Dr Disrespect at a golf tournament in January 2024. | Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images Twitch abruptly banned one of its biggest stars — Herschel “Guy” Beahm, better known by his persona Dr Disrespect — in 2020 without a word of explanation. Now, four years after Beahm’s permanent ban, two former Twitch employees have come forward to describe events they say contributed to his removal from the platform.One former Twitch employee, who asked to remain anonymous citing the potential risk to their career, told The Verge that Beahm had used Whispers, Twitch’s now-defunct messaging system, to exchange messages with a minor and initiate a conversation about meeting up at TwitchCon. The employee worked on Twitch’s trust and safety team at the time of the ban in 2020.Their comments corroborate a post from Cody Conners, a former... Continue reading…

The first wave of Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered laptops has arrived, and based on our early hands-on experience, they're among the best laptops you can get. We're analyzing two of them today, one from Microsoft and the other from HP, both great brands. The Surface Laptop 7 is powered by Arm-based chips for the first time, and now has a 13.8-inch and 15-inch option. It has also received a glow-up, with slimmer bezels to give it a more modern feel. The HP OmniBook X is replacing our beloved HP Spectre x360 in the lineup, although it's no longer a 2-in-1 device but a standard clamshell design. Both of these premium laptops have touchscreens and similar internals, so which one is the better buy?

People really, really want Wordpad back. When Microsoft released Windows 11 24H2, it added a few new features and removed some old ones, including getting rid of the free word processor that has been around for years. Notepad has already superseded Wordpad, and there are plenty of other free word processors out there you can use instead, but people aren't happy with letting Wordpad go just yet. Someone has found a way to bring Wordpad back onto Windows 11 24H2, and you can do the same if you want this member of the Windows old guard back.