A mousepad may not be the most exciting part of your PC setup, but this humble accessory is crucial to enhancing click accuracy and delivering finessed gaming inputs. As much as we’d love to simply point out one mousepad as the best option for any use, there is a surprising amount of nuance to choosing the best mousepad for your specific needs. There are several key factors to consider, such as size, material, and what kind of computer mouse you use. On top of that, there are extra features to consider, such as wrist rests and RGB lighting. Join us as we navigate the best mousepads of all shapes and sizes.

2024 LG Gram Pro | LG Ahead of CES 2024, LG is debuting new laptops in its ultra-light LG Gram and LG Gram Pro series. If you’re in the market for OLED displays and better graphics, take a look at the 2024 LG Gram Pro lineup. As our review last year noted, the biggest difference between the Pro and standard laptops last year was the graphics — much less the look and feel. For a more visible difference, we’ll keep an eye out for their more fashion-forward cousin, the LG Gram Style. For 2024, there’s the Gram Pro 16 and 17, and the LG Gram Pro 2-in-1 (more on what those two things are later). The Gram Pro 16 is available in either the standard Wide Quad or with an OLED display, as well as the 2-in-1. The 2-in-1 doubles as a laptop and a tablet, featuring a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The FDA is warning Amazon to do something about “bootleg Viagra” found on its platform, misleadingly disguised as men’s energy or health supplements. In a letter to Amazon dated December 20th, the agency threatened legal action and listed seven different products available on the e-commerce platform with ingredients found in Viagra and Cialis. With outlandish names and brightly colored, cartoonish labels, it would be hard to confuse them with real-deal prescription drugs. But a recent investigation by the FDA found several supplements or powders sold on the e-commerce platform contained either sildenafil or tadalafil (the active ingredients in Cialis and Viagra) and failed to disclose it: MANNERS Energy Boost, Round 2, WeFun, Genergy,... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge A recent discussion among friends wondered if anyone really used ringtones anymore. The idea was that most people (those who still use their phones to hold verbal conversations) either go with whatever ringtone their phone comes with or just use vibrations. Once upon a time, ringtones were a thing. You could use them for amusement. (My favorite was a bored voice that said, “Ring. Ring. Ring.”) You could use them to know who was calling without having to look at the phone (so you knew when to pick up and when to let it go to voicemail). Now, maybe, not so much.Still, Google recently added a bunch of new ringtones to its Pixel phones, so presumably, some of us are still playing around with these sounds. In case you count yourself in... Continue reading…

Composite image of a Toyota Corolla and Tesla Cybertruck after the accident. | Image: u/boddhya (Reddit) After Reddit user boddhya posted two pictures of a Cybertruck accident, the California Highway Patrol confirmed to The Verge that units responded to a two-vehicle accident on SR 35 (Skyline Boulevard). It occurred in this area south of Page Mill Road, which Google Maps lists as Palo Alto, around 2:05PM local time and involved a 2023 Tesla Cybertruck carrying three people that appears to have been hit by a 2009 Toyota Corolla driven by a 17-year-old.Tesla’s Cybertruck delivery event raised questions about the design and what would occur in an impact with other cars or pedestrians. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that anyone involved in this incident suffered major injury as a result.CHP:Our preliminary investigation indicates a Toyota... Continue reading…

Game optimization is a more relevant topic now than it ever has been since we're seeing more demanding PC games that can bring even the best graphics cards down to their knees. I wish there was an easier way to optimize games on the PC than painstakingly tweaking settings to see what sticks, but that's not the case. Each game is a little different, meaning they react to changes and run differently on many PCs, making it a struggle to know what to start.

Although it's certainly possible to play certain high-end games on Apple Macs, the platform still isn't the most desirable when it comes to playing the latest AAA games on your PC hardware. While the silicon chips boast respectable specifications, they still fall behind the latest offerings from other vendors, especially since many gaming titles don't even offer native support for Cupertino's hardware. Apple is looking to remedy this problem to some extent through a Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK), but it's clear that there's still a long way to go before Macs become the platform of choice for gamers. In a new interview, Apple executives have now outlined some efforts to make its hardware and software a force to be reckoned with in the AAA gaming space.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to upgrade its Surface lineup with new AI-enabled features, according to a report from Windows Central. Unnamed sources told the outlet the upcoming Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will come with a next-gen neural processing unit (NPU), along with Intel and Arm-based options.Microsoft’s Arm-based devices will be powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X chips, Windows Central reports. These PCs, codenamed CADMUS, will reportedly be designed to run the AI features Microsoft is packaging into a future release of Windows. They’ll also come with improvements to performance, battery life, and security on par with Apple silicon, according to Windows Central. Meanwhile, the Intel version of the devices will... Continue reading…

The Windows AppX Installer spoofing vulnerability has been used by malicious actors for quite some time. Microsoft documented it as CVE-2021-43890 a couple of years ago. Back then, attackers were crafting packages containing ransomware that was distributed by exploiting this vulnerability, with Microsoft recommending customers to either install the latest version of the Installer or disable the ms-appinstaller protocol using Group Policy completely. Now, Microsoft has once again issued guidance regarding the vulnerability following a recent resurgence in its exploitation.

It's almost the end of the year and Microsoft has today published some stats about the usage of its Edge browser globally in the year 2023. Although Edge isn't exactly the most popular browser right now, the Redmond tech firm regularly adds new features to it in order to entice new customers. Now, Microsoft has shared some statistics that may attract more users to try out its web browser.

Are you into web development or complex DevOps? Well, if you're using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu, you'll probably need to use the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Command Line Interface (CLI) at one point. You're not going to get this by default on Ubuntu, so you'll need to install it manually through the terminal, allowing you to interact with AWS services using complex commands and text.

Back in 2020, Google was sued in a $5 billion lawsuit claiming that the company harvested the data of its Chrome customers even if they were using the browser in incognito mode. The claimant argued that services like Google Ad Manager and Google Analytics still collected information about the preferences and browsing activities of the user and while they were not tied directly to a profile, a user could still be identified by augmenting this data with previously known information about online habits. After about three years, Google has now agreed to a settlement in this landmark case.