Hard drives and even the best SSDs don't always work as intended, there are some telltale signs. Your Windows install may start acting off or some things may just not work. These are warning signs you should pay attention to, and if you see them, you should try to fix these issues as soon as possible.

Cath Virginia / The Verge The European Union has officially adopted a new set of right-to-repair rules designed to encourage people to repair broken devices, rather than replace them. One of the rules extends a product’s warranty by one year if it’s repaired while still covered.The European Union already requires companies to offer a two-year minimum warranty on products, but these new rules take things a step further. Even after the warranty period ends, companies are “still required to repair common household products,” including smartphones, TVs, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and other items. If a product breaks while under warranty, consumers can choose between a replacement or a repair. If they choose to repair, the warranty will be extended for a... Continue reading…

Eight years ago, Valve began offering no-questions-asked refunds for any game you buy on Steam — as long as you asked for that refund within 14 days of purchase and hadn’t played more than two hours of a game. But when Valve started letting you play games ahead of their release dates with its “Early Access” and “Advanced Access” programs, it introduced a loophole: people could play for many, many hours ahead of launch and still request a refund after. Today, Valve’s closing the loophole: Your Advanced Access and Early Access playtime now counts against the two-hour refund limit.Here’s what Valve’s updated refund policy says about that as of today:REFUNDS ON TITLES PURCHASED PRIOR TO RELEASE DATEWhen you purchase a title on Steam... Continue reading…

Adobe claims its new VideoGigaGAN generative AI model can upscale video clips more consistently and in higher quality than other VSR methods. | Image: Adobe Adobe researchers have developed a new generative AI model called VideoGigaGAN that can upscale blurry videos at up to eight times their original resolution. Introduced in a paper published on April 18th, Adobe claims VideoGigaGAN is superior to other Video Super Resolution (VSR) methods as it can provide more fine-grained details without introducing any “AI weirdness” to the footage.In a nutshell, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are effective for upscaling still images to a higher resolution, but struggle to do the same for video without introducing flickering and other unwanted artifacts. Other upscaling methods can avoid this, but the results aren’t as sharp or detailed. VideoGigaGAN aims to provide the best of both worlds —... Continue reading…

As we near the end of the month, Microsoft is rolling out its April optional update for Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2, and with it comes the introduction of recommended apps in the Start menu. That's another way of saying you'll now see ads for other apps in your Start menu, at least occasionally. The update is a preview of the Patch Tuesday update for May, so these changes will be coming to everyone soon.

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images A bill that would force China-based company ByteDance to sell TikTok — or else face a US ban of the platform — is all but certain to become law after the Senate passed a foreign aid package including the measure.It now heads to President Joe Biden, who already committed to signing the TikTok legislation should it make it through both chambers of Congress. The House passed the foreign aid package that includes the TikTok bill on Saturday.Once signed by the president, ByteDance would have up to a year to complete a sale of TikTok or face an effective ban for the platform in the US. The bill gives ByteDance an initial nine months and gives the president discretion to extend it another three should there be progress toward a deal. Still,... Continue reading…

That’s a nice looking charger. | Image by Elago MagSafe isn’t a particularly controversial standard, but I’ve heard people grumble about it. They get upset because it doesn’t charge quite as efficiently as an old-fashioned cable and they get annoyed that any phone case needs to be MagSafe-compatible. But could charging by cable provide you with something as stupidly fun as this new phone stand from Elago?The Elago MagSafe MS W5 Charging Stand is a mouthful of a name for what’s just a Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP shaped MagSafe stand. Do the buttons and switches work? No! Does it fold close? Absolutely not! It’s merely a piece of plastic you slot a MagSafe charger into. It’s so simple you could probably 3D print something similar at home. Image by Elago Don’t... Continue reading…

The app recommendations in the Windows 11 Start menu. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu.“The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps,” says Microsoft in the update notes of its latest public Windows 11 release. “These apps come from a small set of curated developers.” The ads are designed to help Windows 11 users discover more apps, but will largely benefit the developers that Microsoft is trying to tempt into building more Windows apps.Microsoft only started testing... Continue reading…

A small-board computer (SBC) is a compact system that can run the same software as a desktop PC on some Linux flavor or Windows. They're capable devices with powerful processors, upgradable and expandable parts, and healthy modding ecosystems. You can find SBCs powering surveillance systems, media centers, and storage solutions. It's possible to transform an SBC into a network-attached storage (NAS) server where you can store backups, sensitive data, and more. Compared to pre-built NAS enclosures from Synology, Asustor, and other brands, this could save you money.

An Apple AirTag is arguably the best Find My tracker for iPhone users, featuring many offerings and a wide coverage range. One of the handy features available on iPadOS and iOS 17 is the ability to share an AirTag with another user who also has a vested interest in keeping track of it. It allows up to six people to track the same AirTag from their iDevices simultaneously. To share an AirTag on your iPhone or iPad, follow the easy steps listed below.

Image: Mercedes-Benz AG Mercedes’ box-shaped luxury off-roader finally gets an electrified makeover. Continue reading…

The Model 3 might get an affordable younger sibling in 2025. | Image: Tesla Tesla says it will build more affordable electric vehicles — perhaps as soon as 2025 — refuting recent reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had canceled plans for a cheaper “Model 2” vehicle in favor of getting a robotaxi out the door. But Musk didn’t clarify whether the lower-cost EV would be a brand new model for Tesla or simplified versions of its current vehicles.“In terms of a new product roadmap, there’s been a lot of talk,” Musk said during the company’s first quarter earnings call, addressing the concerns investors have expressed over the past month about the delayed plans for a low-cost EV. “We’ve updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models.” Musk said we might see the vehicles in early 2025, if not... Continue reading…