Windows may be almost 39 years old now, but many of the features available in Windows 11 have their roots in the past versions of Microsofts flagship OS. Take the iconic Start menu, for instance. First implemented in Windows 95, it has become a stable UI element of the Windows ecosystem.

When you're looking for a great computer to use on the go, detachables are worth looking at just as much as the top iPads are, but it's tough to beat a full-featured Windows tablet like the ThinkPad X12 or the Latitude 7350. These machines blend the best of the tablet and laptop worlds.

A gaming PC isn't really complete without a few must-have PC gaming apps. Every gamer will have a different set of apps that they deem absolutely essential, without which their gaming PC can't function (or so they believe). I'm not going to get into what you should or shouldn't install on your gaming PC. Instead, I'll just share the apps that happen to be regular fare on my personal gaming PC.

Image: NASA Voyager 1, the farthest human-made craft from the Earth, is finally sending back data from all four of its scientific instruments, NASA said this week. That means the agency is once more receiving its readings on plasma waves, magnetic fields, and space-bound particles.Voyager 1 stopped sending back good data in November, and fixing it was fraught as engineers had to wait 45 hours to hear anything back. In April, the agency got it to start sending back health and status information, then science data from two of its instruments in May. Now, NASA says Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles from Earth, is “conducting normal science operations” and the agency just needs to resync its timekeeping software and do some maintenance on a... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The thinness of the OLED iPad Pro is only the beginning of a renewed effort by Apple to make increasingly thin computers, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. The company plans a “significantly skinnier” iPhone 17 and is also working on shaving off some of the thickness of the MacBook Pro and the Apple Watch, he writes.It’s not the first time we’ve heard about a new, extremely thin “iPhone 17 Slim,” as The Information and multiple supply chain analysts have reported that this phone is on its way, possibly at a higher price than the existing iPhone 15 Pro Max. I haven’t seen concrete rumors about just how slim it will be, but it could have a 6.6-inch display and a smaller Dynamic Island. P... Continue reading…

You have probably read countless PC build guides suggesting various configurations for various budgets right from an entry-level gaming PC to an enthusiast gaming rig. But, it begs the question, "What would be the ideal budget for a modern gaming PC?"

Image: Apple Siri may do more than make the edges of your iPhone a glowy rainbow when iOS 18 drops this fall. Apple Intelligence features won’t be out until 2025 for anyone not testing them in beta this year, but reports suggest that Siri itself will still get natural language updates and other key features before the year is out.For instance, users will be able to type to Siri without diving into accessibility settings, and it will be more conversational, understanding you even when you trip over your words, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Image: Apple Apple could offer instructions for how to do things in iOS this year. He also writes that Siri will “have greater knowledge of... Continue reading…

A McDonald’s in Pittsburgh. | Photo: Paul Weaver / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images If your local McDonald’s has been getting your order confidently wrong with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru, I have good news for you: The company is ending the program for now. The company told franchisees that it’s winding down an AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM “no later than July 26th, 2024,” according to trade publication Restaurant Business. The company will reportedly remove the tech from the over 100 restaurants it’s been testing the system in after partnering with IBM in 2021. It’s not clear why the company is ending the IBM deal, though. It told Restaurant Business it was testing whether the voice ordering chatbot could speed up service and that the test left it confident “that a voice-ordering solution for... Continue reading…

Windows 11 is one of the most common operating systems used by modern PCs and laptops. While the operating system is great, the default apps on Windows aren't always the best. This is usually the first thing that users change on their OS. When you use Windows you get a slew of free applications, like Microsoft Edge, the Mail app, and even apps like Paint and even a free video editor, Clipchamp. While most of these apps are easy to uninstall or change from the default, there are more intrusive apps like Dropbox and Teams which require some deeper settings changes.

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 42, 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 writing about Excel, reading about tin foil hats and the song “Smooth,” obsessing over Francis Ford Coppola’s note-taking system, watching Anyone But You, Hit Man, and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol because I had a bunch of plane rides, and debating buying Jabra headphones even though Jabra is quitting the headphone game.I also have for you a new minimalist phone, a book to read, a documentary to watch, a fun hack for your Rabbit R1, and much more. Let’s get into it.(As always, the best... Continue reading…

With Apple's WWDC 2024 event now over, the entire XDA team can take a break after weeks of huge announcements by the biggest tech companies in the world. And while there was a lot to talk about from Apple's camp, that doesn't mean that the rest of the world stood still. Amidst the iOS and macOS announcements, we saw someone revive a printer with a Raspberry Pi and Arm declaring that it wants all Snapdragon X Elite laptops destroyed. Regardless of if you skipped WWDC or you saw nothing but Apple news, here's our top five news pieces of the past week.

WWDC 2024 has come to a close, with the Apple HQ finishing its yearly session of becoming a hub of activity and workshops for a full week. For those who couldn't make it, the star of the show was definitely the keynote on Monday, which dove into what Apple has planned for the future. And the star of that show was Apple Intelligence, the company's answer to competitor services such as Microsoft's Copilot. The company showed off a ton of cool features, but don't expect them to arrive soon, as a renowned Apple reporter claims some tools won't arrive until 2025.