Despite plenty of open source and web app alternatives, Microsoft's software suites are still some of the most popular available today. In fact, over a billion people worldwide regularly use some sort of Microsoft product. And it’s no mystery as to why: Windows runs all the best applications and has the widest hardware support -- and Office is simply the most comprehensive productivity suite available today.

On many of the most popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, it's possible to log into your computer as a "root" user. The root user is one of the highest possible types of accounts you can use on any desktop or laptop that runs Linux. Consider it like the primary administrator. You'll get full administrative privileges on the entire system for editing configuration files and accomplishing other common tasks. It's not turned on by default, though, and will require some extra work. So, we're here to help with a look at how to unlock the root account and log in with it.

Google says that it’s taking measures to prevent spam and abuse on its messaging service. | Image: Google Google is cracking down on rooted Android devices, blocking multiple people from using the RCS message feature in Google Messages. Users with rooted phones — a process that unlocks privileged access to the Android operating system, like jailbreaking iPhones — have made several reports on the Google Messages support page, Reddit, and XDA’s web forum over the last few months, finding they’re suddenly unable to send or receive RCS messages.One example from Reddit user u/joefuf shows that RCS messages would simply vanish after hitting the send button. Several reports also mention that Google Messages gave no indication that RCS chat was no longer working, and was still showing as connected and working in Google Messages.Heads up: Users... Continue reading…

While you can use YouTube and Discord as cloud storage, you absolutely shouldn't. They're not meant for that, and in the case of YouTube, you actually end up with a negative compression ratio. However, you can use Telegram as cloud storage, and the company actually allows it.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Every time you install an app on your iPhone, it comes with permissions attached — permissions that determine what it can and can’t do. These permissions cover some pretty fundamental parts of iOS, including access to the iPhone camera, microphone, and current location. The permissions get asked for one by one as they’re needed, so you’ve got plenty of control over how your apps are behaving. But sometimes, especially when you’re in a hurry, it’s easy to accidentally give permission for an app to access data it doesn’t really require. Does your note-taking app really need to see your contact list, for example? As a result, it’s well worth your while to do a regular audit of these permissions just in case you’ve previously allowed a... Continue reading…

The world of data is an interesting one, and at the deepest level of any file stored on your computer is a string of 1s and 0s in a specific pattern that forms the file that you're looking at. All files can be viewed as binary, and this data can then be interpreted and stored in a variety of creative ways. For example, you can represent this data using pixels in a video and you can chop the files and reconnect them together again at any point.

We're witnessing the dawn of AI technology right now, and it's being integrated into various parts of our lives in ways we couldn't have imagined. It's true that AI was being used in some capacity in things like self-driving cars, voice assistants, and chatbots, but it wasn't as prevalent as today. It's one thing to have dedicated services like AI image generators. Still, it's completely different to have AI integrated directly into the products and services we use every day, like web browsers, many of which you may never have expected to become a reality.

Who says getting into tech needs to be expensive? If you want to try your hand at making a little robot rover, today's your lucky day. Someone has designed a rover that runs on a Raspberry Pi Pico, and you can get started with it for as little as $16.

February is a great time to be a fan of technology, because it falls right in the middle of two of the biggest consumer electronics shows of the year: CES and MWC Barcelona. That means the reviews team at XDA had its hands full providing great analysis of tech products, both new and old. If you missed anything, we've rounded up our top eight products that were reviewed in the month of February. From great laptops, to excellent power supplies, to superb chargers, we saw a little bit of everything last month. These products listed below are the ones that stood as the best in their respective categories, so you won't be disappointed by them. Without further ado, let's get right into XDA's favorite products from February 2024.

Image: The Verge Bad news for Roblox fans on Linux — the workarounds are dead. GamingOnLinux reports that the latest version of Roblox “forcefully blocks it from working with Wine,” throwing a “Wine is not supported” error message even when Roblox-specific tools like Vinegar and Grapejuice are added. Wine is the compatibility layer that lets many Windows games run on Linux systems.But Roblox claims it’s not personal. “Confirming there has been no change on our end to specifically block Linux or Steam Deck since Roblox never supported Linux or Steam Deck officially,” spokesperson Samantha Spielman tells The Verge. “We’re constantly improving our Hyperion anti-cheat functionality, so it’s possible whatever the author was doing was no longer compatible... Continue reading…

Image: Adrienn Szabo / Paramount Plus When Halo season 2 finally covered the fall of the planet Reach — a foundational, emotional moment in Halo lore — I figured that I’d write a few words of praise about it. But then I saw the episode after, “Aleria,” and that episode, not “Reach,” is the one that truly delivers a Halo experience worthy of the games yet so wonderfully unlike them.Spoilers for Halo season 2 to followOne of the elements missing from Halo season 1 was the camaraderie between Spartans. The first half of Halo’s second season better developed and defined the relationships of Silver Team (Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, Riz-028, Kai-125, and Vannak-134); specifically, Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac) and Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu), who were all but neglected in... Continue reading…

The Verge In a blog post, Microsoft gave users a sneak peek into Copilot for OneDrive, which it plans to release in late April. Copilot for OneDrive will take on the role of a research assistant of sorts, being able to both find, summarize, and extract information from a wide range of files. These include text documents (Word and rich text), presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDF files, and more. Users can ask Copilot to tailor summaries to their liking, such as only including key points or highlights from a specific section.We knew an AI overhaul of OneDrive was coming since last fall, when Microsoft announced the third generation of the cloud storage service. The company promised that AI would make searching for files easier and faster,... Continue reading…