Microsoft announced a bunch of new in-house AI models at Build 2026, including a new "flagship" model: MAI-Thinking-1. It's an ambitious step into model development for Microsoft, which introduced its initial in-house models last year - before then, it had relied on OpenAI's models. The two companies recently renegotiated their deal to loosen ties.According to Microsoft, MAI-Thinking-1 is a "medium-sized model" that "matches leading models" on "key" software engineering benchmarks. Microsoft says the company "trained it from the ground up on clean data, without distillation from third-party models." As for other models announced today, t …Read the full story at The Verge.

Ask 3 home lab enthusiasts where to start your home lab, and you'll likely get three different answers. It could be a Raspberry Pi, a cheap N100 mini PC, or a used enterprise box off of eBay. All of those things are small, quiet, sip power, and are relatively low cost as an entry into self-hosting, but in my opinion, they're not the best place to start. For your first home lab, the better machine is probably already sitting in your closet. An old ATX tower is one of the best beginner home labs money can buy, and it's often overlooked as a starting point.

I like the UE Wonderboom 4 Bluetooth speaker so much that I bought two of them, though I wish I could have paid less for them. Fortunately, you can stock up on the cheap, so long as you like the color blue. The Wonderboom 4 is available in blue at Amazon for $51.49, and at Walmart and Best Buy for $51.99 ($28 off its regular price). That’s the lowest price we’ve seen yet for the waterproof speaker, with most of the other color options selling at a slightly higher (but still discounted) $69.99.Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4The Wonderboom 4 might feature a compact design, but it still delivers big sound for its diminutive size. It also carries an IP67 rating, meaning it’s both water- and dust-resistant (it can even float if you need it to).Where to Buy: $79.99 $51.49 at Amazon $79.99 $51.99 at Walmart $79.99 $51.99 at Best BuyDespite the Wonderboom 4’s compact size, the speaker sounds great, and is IP67-rated, meaning it can survive being submerged in water for a while. Although, its floatable design means that it’ll quickly return to the surface so you can put it back on dry land (it’s not meant to be listened to while in the water). If you have two of them, like me, they can be wirelessly paired together for stereo sound. With up to 14 hours of battery life per charge, the speaker will likely outlast your long summer outings. Other deals to considerHollow Knight: Silksong, the long-awaited sequel to Team Cherry’s 2017 metroidvania,  is discounted for the first time on the Nintendo eShop, bringing the price for the Switch and Switch 2 digital versions down to just $15.99 ($4 off). The difficult sequel pits players against relentless bosses and demanding platforming sections, and is great for anyone who loves a challenging side-scroller. Read our review.This MAG 272QP 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED gaming monitor from MSI is marked down to $339.99 ($60 off) for Costco members, its lowest price yet. It’s selling for around $400 at other retailers, so this is a good deal even if you have to get a Costco membership to snag. The monitor features a fast 240Hz refresh rate, plus FreeSync Premium and G-Sync support to keep the image looking smooth even if the frame rate fluctuates. In terms of ports, it offers two HDMI 2.1 inputs and one DisplayPort 1.4 port, plus a USB-C connection for DP Alt Mode, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The monitor includes a three-year warranty that also covers OLED burn-in.Fractal Design may be best known for PC components, but the case maker’s Scape wireless gaming headset surprised us with excellent sound and a sleek, refined aesthetic. They’re marked down to $169.99 ($30 off) at Amazon for Prime members, available in both silver or black finishes, with an included inductive charging dock. In addition to working with PC, we also got it working on a PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 with its included USB audio transmitter. Read our review.

Build 2026 is looking to be another AI-heavy affair. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is kicking off its yearly Build developer conference in San Francisco today, sandwiched between the recent Google I/O and Apple's upcoming WWDC event. While tickets to attend Build in person are sold out, the conference is being streamed for free online, with CEO Satya Nadella opening with a keynote at 12:30PM ET / 9:30AM PT.A cursory glance at the featured speakers and virtual sessions suggests that Build will predominantly focus on AI, which isn't surprising given this is a developer event in 2026. The keynote description also says that Nadella and Microsoft leaders will be sharing "how Microsoft is creating new opportunity for …Read the full story at The Verge.

My home lab has a habit of turning simple chores into small investigations. Checking backups, cleaning old project folders, auditing Docker Compose files, and making sure services still behave correctly all sound easy until they pile up. None of those jobs is exciting, but ignoring them is how small problems get promoted into weekend projects. I wanted scripts that could handle the boring checks without making me nervous every time I ran them.

Note apps have been part of my work for years, mostly because I write about software and keep testing new ones. There's also the UX angle - approachable tools are something I just enjoy poking at. Either way, cycling through all of them isn't realistic and committing to just one has always felt like a bad bet too.

Microsoft’s new Majorana 2 quantum chip. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft claimed last year that it had made a key breakthrough in quantum computing with Majorana 1, the company's first quantum processor. While physicists were immediately skeptical of Microsoft's claims, the software giant is announcing Majorana 2 today, the next generation of its topological quantum chip.Majorana 2 contains qubits, a unit of information in quantum computing much like the binary bits that computers use today, that are 1,000 times more reliable, according to Microsoft. It's a milestone that helps make quantum computing more reliable, thanks to the use of a new material stack and some help from Microsoft Discovery's agen …Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft just kicked off Build 2026 with a keynote from CEO Satya Nadella and other company leaders. As expected, it was filled with announcements, ranging from new Surface hardware to an always-on personal assistant and updates across Microsoft's in-house AI models.If you didn't watch the event live, you can catch up on all the latest news in the roundup below.A mini Surface PC designed for AI developmentThe Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is geared toward developers who want to run local AI models on their device, serving as a substitute for Qualcomm's canceled dev kit. It comes equipped with Nvidia's new Arm-based Spark RTX chip and 128G …Read the full story at The Verge.

This week at Computex in Taipei, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon C, a new chip aimed at laptops starting at just $300. With just one laptop announced and two additional OEM partners, details are scarce.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday creating a "voluntary framework" for AI companies to share their frontier models with the federal government before they're released "to promote secure innovation and strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure."The order says the US AI industry has succeeded in part "because we refuse to stifle this innovation with overly burdensome regulation," but that it also recognizes new AI capabilities come with security risks. Accordingly, it directs several federal agencies to come up with a framework to "assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models" before they're releas …Read the full story at The Verge.

I didn't buy a Bambu printer because I wanted another cloud device in my house. I bought it because I wanted fast, reliable 3D printing without turning every project into a maintenance ritual. For the most part, the hardware delivered on that promise almost immediately. The more I used it, though, the more I realized the printer's best qualities were buried under an internet-connected workflow I didn't fully trust.

When I wrote the news that Dell was announcing a new XPS 13 at Computex, I called it a MacBook Neo competitor. Now, I've actually gotten the chance to check one out, and I'm calling it a MacBook Neo killer. Honestly, it just seems to be equal or better in every way.