Are you not a fan of Windows 11's Start menu? Don't worry; you're in good company. Such good company in fact, that an employee within Microsoft agrees that Windows 11 deserves a better Start menu. Ever since its launch, Windows 11 has had a subpar Start menu, to the point where Microsoft could learn from third-party apps on how to improve it. However, Microsoft hasn't seemed too bothered to do anything to it. So, here is why I agree that the Windows 11 Start menu sucks.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the first big smartphone release of the year to ring in the flagship smartphone race for 2024. This top-of-the-line phone in the Galaxy S lineup brings a bunch of small yet noteworthy improvements to the table, making it a compelling option to consider. From top-notch internals for solid performance to a versatile set of cameras and the ever-improving S-Pen stylus, it's all here in its best shape and form. But you know what's still the same about this S24 Ultra flagship? Its massive footprint!

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S24 series, including the S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra. The phones come with newer processors, better AI capabilities, and brighter displays, making them some of this year's top Android smartphones. As expected, these phones come in different sizes, with the S24+ being the middle ground. It offers everything the S24 has, such as an excellent camera array and Gorilla Glass Victus 3 protection, while being more affordable than the S24 Ultra.

Knowing the temperature of your PC components can be very important in diagnosing certain problems with your laptop or PC, whether it's just performance or some kind of crash that might be happening. When components overheat, they tend to throttle, which can cause issues in games and other programs. Even worse, high temperatures can damage your components over time. If you want to keep an eye on the temperature of your GPU in Windows 11, there are a few ways to do that.

Sometimes you have to put yourself through something painful just to recognize how good you have it. There’s a lot to be gained from enduring the most disheartening shit possible: Want to hear depressing news? Want to feel anxious and unsettled? Want to walk away feeling hopeless and cynical about the world?That’s the experience of watching Threads, the 1984 television film that is now streaming as a part of Criterion Channel’s new Postapocalyptic Sci-fi series. (Sorry, did you think I was talking about a different thing called Threads?) Directed by Mick Jackson and written by novelist Barry Hines, Threads was a cultural phenomenon in the UK when it aired on the BBC. Depicting the aftermath of nuclear fallout with unflinching clarity,... Continue reading…

Illustration: Beatrice Sala 2023 was a big year for ransomware groups, even as law enforcement around the world continued to crack down on attackers.Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, the threat intelligence firm, found a 49 percent bump in victims reported by ransomware leak sites, totaling nearly 4,000 posts to those sites from different ransomware groups. Unit 42 said the uptick was due to the massive impact of attacks that exploited zero-day vulnerabilities, which are security flaws that developers have yet to identify. They pointed to the MOVEit Transfer software hack that the US government has connected to the CL0P Ransomware Gang, as one example. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency estimated that hack compromised more than 3,000 US-based... Continue reading…

Intel unveiled its Meteor Lake laptop processors alongside a Raptor Lake Refresh last year, and with it came a renewed commitment to the company's process node roadmap that it first published in 2021. In that roadmap, the company states that it wants to clear five nodes in four years, something that no other company has achieved in years. Intel's own roadmap states that it aims to achieve "process leadership" in 2025. Process leadership, by Intel's standards, is the highest performance per watt. What does the journey to the best CPU look like?

The Bambu Lab A1 3D Printer in question. | Image: Bambu Lab Bambu Lab is officially recalling all A1 3D printers (not counting the A1 Mini). The company “strongly” urges owners to stop using it for safety reasons after it was alerted to “unstable temperature readings” that it first traced to a faulty heatbed cable last week, as reported by Tom’s Hardware. After further investigation, Bambu says “less than 0.1% of all the A1 printers sold” are affected by the problem, but it can’t say with 100 percent certainty what the cause is, so it’s offering a full refund to any A1 owner who wants it.The company isn’t recalling any other printers in its lineup, so if you own an X1 series, P1 series, or the A1 Mini that our own Sean Hollister called “almost the easy button” of printers.Here’s a TL;DR of... Continue reading…

There's nothing like putting on your favorite music and really just immersing yourself in the moment. While a quality set of wireless earbuds are good, you're not going to be able to top a pair of great noise-canceling headphones — especially ones like the Bose QuietComfort 45s. The Bose QuietComfort 45s are some of our favorite headphones thanks to their superb sound and amazing noise-canceling abilities. While they were pretty pricey, coming in at $329, they are now down to their lowest price ever, with a discount that knocks 40% off, coming in at just $199 for a limited time.

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 24, 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 Kyle Chayka’s great book about algorithms, Filterworld, getting nostalgic about Tecmo Bowl, seeing if this show can get me into NASCAR like Drive to Survive got me into Formula 1, catching up on old Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend episodes, spending too much time debating whether I want a Vision Pro, trying to make my basement look more like Peter McKinnon’s studio, and trying desperately to figure out why everyone’s so worked up about rice cookers.I also have for you a new AI search... Continue reading…

Image: Bethesda Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones game is also tentatively set to launch on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console. We got our first glimpse of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle during Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct event last month, where it was announced for Xbox and PC. A source familiar with Microsoft’s plans tells The Verge that Bethesda is also considering bringing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to PS5.A new multi-platform approach for certain Xbox games is emerging inside Microsoft, we’re told, with the company weighing up which titles will remain exclusive and others that will appear on Switch or PS5 in the future. Indiana Jones appears to be part of this new wave of multi-platform games.While Bethesda will launch its Indiana... Continue reading…

Image: Square Enix Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is nearly here. It’s coming February 29th, and yes, we will find out what happens to Aerith unless the game’s producer was playing us. But we won’t have to wait that long to get a taste, because Sony will release a playable demo as soon as tomorrow, February 6th. That’s the word from Wario64, who spotted a trailer for the demo on PlayStation Network, one you can watch below — and the news that the demo will let you “step into the shoes of either Cloud or Sephiroth during the Nibelheim episode.”PSN confirms that a Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo is coming tomorrow (says it's "out now" but I think the trailer was meant for tomorrow)"...allowing you to step into the shoes of either Cloud or Sephiroth during the... Continue reading…