Google is bringing Canvas to everyone in the US using AI Mode in Search. The feature opens up a dedicated workspace within its AI-powered search tool, allowing it to use the latest information from Search to organize plans, develop tools, and draft documents in a panel alongside your chat.Though Google initially launched Canvas inside its Gemini app as a way to create documents and code in real-time, it later tested the feature in AI Mode - but only for visualizing travel plans. Now, you can use Canvas in AI Mode for tasks related to creative writing and coding, too, giving you the ability to view an AI-generated dashboard laying out infor …Read the full story at The Verge.

Google's NotebookLM can now turn users' research and notes into fully animated "cinematic" videos, going a step further than the original video overview feature Google introduced last year. Previously, video overviews could only generate narrated slideshows, but the upgraded video overview feature uses a combination of Google's AI models, "including Gemini 3, Nano Banana Pro and Veo 3," to generate animated visuals based on the content of users' notes. Google says Gemini "determines the best narrative, visual style and format, and even refines its own work to ensure consistency" when generating the videos.This is the latest in a string o …Read the full story at The Verge.

Downdetector and Speedtest - the free platforms that allow people on the web to quickly check internet speeds or see if an online platform may be down - will soon have a new owner. On Tuesday, the consulting and IT services provider Accenture announced that it has agreed to acquire the Ookla-owned platforms from Ziff Davis for $1.2 billion, as reported earlier by Reuters.In the press release, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet says the company will use Ookla's products to capture data that will help "clients across business and government scale AI safely." Ziff Davis, which owns CNET, IGN, and Eurogamer, acquired Ookla in 2014. Ookla's other produc …Read the full story at The Verge.

Tesla, Ford, and Volvo occupy the top three spots in a new ranking of 18 global automakers based on their efforts to eliminate carbon emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains. Toyota, meanwhile, lurks near the bottom of the list, underscoring the persistent difficulty in getting the world's largest car company to clean up its supply chain. The rankings were compiled by Lead the Charge, a global coalition of leading climate, environment, and human rights organizations that includes the Sierra Club, The Sunrise Project, and Public Citizen, among others. This is the fourth edition of the coalition's …Read the full story at The Verge.

Home labs come in so many different shapes and sizes, and as is the case with modern PC builds, shape and size is rarely a great indicator of overall performance or capability. Of course, there are limits to what you can do within a certain physical space, but for the most part, a home lab that's built from a spare laptop, small NAS enclosure, and an old gaming PC can be just as capable as old enterprise gear. A rack necessitates a certain form factor for your hardware, and unless you're planning to expand in a way that a rack would make logical sense, it's the last thing most people need for their home lab, especially if you're just starting your journey.

Powered by the new M5 chip, Apple’s latest MacBook Airs are more powerful than ever with double the base storage (512GB), but they also cost $100 more than their predecessor. Fortunately, though, we’ve found a few ways to save. Best Buy is offering the new 13-inch M5-powered MacBook Air for $1,099 with a $50 gift card and the 15-inch for $1,299 with the same perk ahead of their March 11th release date. That said, if you’d rather spend less and don’t mind buying last year’s model, Amazon’s also selling the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM for an all-time low of $1,099, matching the price of the new 13-inch Air.13-inch M5 MacBook Air (512GB, 16GB RAM) with $50 gift cardWhere to Buy: $1099 at Best Buy (13-inch)15-inch M5 MacBook Air (512GB, 16GB RAM) with $50 gift cardWhere to Buy: $1299 at Best BuyBefore Apple announced the new MacBook Air on Tuesday, the M4-powered MacBook Air was the model we recommended for most people. Even with the introduction of the cheaper MacBook Neo, the Air is still the better choice if you want more power. We haven’t tested the new M5 version yet, but the changes between the two Air models appear relatively minor on paper, so the overall experience is likely to feel very similar. No matter which MacBook Air you choose, you’ll get a thin, lightweight laptop that’s more than powerful enough to handle everyday work and play, and even some light gaming or video editing.  Both also offer excellent battery life that should easily last well over a full workday, along with a 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam.15-inch MacBook Air (M4)Where to Buy: $1399 $1099 at Amazon (16GB RAM, 512GB SSD)Aside from the newer chip, the biggest differences between the M4 and M5 models largely come down to connectivity. The newer models support faster wireless standards like Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Both M4 and M5-powered 15-inch models also feature a larger display and a six-speaker sound system instead of the four-speaker setup on the 13-inch Air.Read our Apple MacBook Air M4 review.

I've always had a thing for portable game consoles.

I've been using Docker for years. It's simple to use, a popular choice in the self-hosting communities and has made ensuring that deployments remain consistent across my various NAS boxes seamless. It's hard to get over the fact that it takes just a handful of commands to get my preferred services up and running everywhere. But while working straight with Docker easy enough, I've come across enough quirks for me to consider alternative options.

The Kobo Remote is small and lightweight, but large enough to be comfortable to hold. Does anyone really need a remote for a device you’re already either holding or using at arm’s length? E-readers have saved us from the risk of paper cuts and the burden of physically turning pages, but Kobo is making it even easier by releasing a wireless page-turning remote. The Kobo Remote might be indulgent and basic, but it’s all about maximizing convenience, and at the end of the night when I’m looking to unwind with a good book, that’s exactly what I want.Wireless remotes for e-readers aren’t a new idea, but none of them just directly connect to Kindles and Kobos, despite recent versions of those e-readers now supporting Bluetooth. You either need to jump through hoops to modify the software on your e-reader to make it connect to specific third-party remotes, or settle for a remotely operated accessory that attaches to an e-reader and physically taps the screen to turn the page.Clip-on page turners have always felt too cumbersome and complicated to me. I’m probably not alone, because shortly after it launched last November, the $30 Kobo Remote quickly sold out and remained out of stock for several months. It wasn’t until late January that I was finally able to buy one, and while I think Kobo could have squeezed in a little more functionality, both my wife and I have readily embraced the remote.At just shy of 4 inches long and about the size of a pack of Juicy Fruit, the Kobo Remote is a lot smaller than I was expecting. It feels even smaller in my large hands, but at the same time big enough to comfortably hold and operate, and to not get lost in the bedsheets if dropped. The remote includes an optional wrist lanyard, which on more than one occasion has prevented it from going missing when I’ve fallen asleep reading.There’s no rechargeable battery, but Kobo says the included AAA should last for months. The remote will only connect to Kobo devices that support Bluetooth for audiobooks, but the pairing process is as painless as connecting headphones. Once paired, the remote automatically reconnects when your Kobo wakes, requiring just a second or two before it’s ready to go. If you want to connect it to a different e-reader, a button on the front edge of the remote manually activates pairing mode.The remote has two clicky buttons. The larger one goes to the next page, and the smaller one flips back. They’re  easy to differentiate by touch — in addition to the size difference, one button is concave, while the other is convex — but you can’t customize their functionality. It would be nice to be able to press and hold either button to increase or decrease screen brightness, or make font size adjustments. And my wife, a voracious consumer of audiobooks, was disappointed to find she couldn’t use the remote’s buttons to adjust the volume or pause playback — they only skip forward or back 30 seconds at a time.Is the Kobo Remote a must-have accessory for every Kobo user? Probably not, but we’ve already found several scenarios where it’s been a welcome upgrade. My wife, who uses her Kobo mounted to a bedside stand, can now read books while staying completely cocooned under the covers. I prefer reading while laying on my side and can now prop my Kobo up on my nightstand and flip pages without having to awkwardly reach over. Kobo RemoteWhere to Buy: $29.99 at Rakuten Kobo $32 at AmazonThe remote has also made reading on the treadmill easier. And for Kobo e-readers lacking buttons, it can facilitate page turns while wearing gloves during a chilly morning commute, or save your screen from greasy fingerprints while snacking. It’s an accessory that’s all about comfort, ease, and convenience, and these days I’ll take about as much of all of those as I can get.Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge

Synology has been the default recommendation in the NAS space for years, and for good reason. DSM is polished, the ecosystem is mature, and there's a massive community behind it. But if you've been paying attention to Synology's recent trajectory, you'll know that the company has been making some questionable decisions. Drive restrictions, underwhelming hardware, price hikes, and the removal of features like hardware HEVC transcoding have left a lot of long-time users feeling like they're paying more for less. And at the same time, competitors, like Ugreen, have been ramping up fast.

The Last of Us Part I. | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment The near future of game consoles could look a lot like the past. Once a hallmark of the industry, over the last few years console-exclusive games have steadily become rare, as the likes of Sony and Microsoft experimented with offering titles on multiple platforms. Heck, who knows what an Xbox even is anymore? But it seems that the experiments haven't paid off. Signs are pointing to the return of exclusives, as companies lean on other ways to entice new audiences.The most obvious indication of this shift comes from a Bloomberg report that Sony is pulling back from releasing its big PS5 games on PC, much in the way that it scaled back its li …Read the full story at The Verge.

In November, Epic and Google jointly proposed a settlement that would change Android's fate globally without cracking open Google's Android monopoly quite the way it otherwise might. Today, Google has decided it's not waiting for that settlement to be approved: it's moving forward with many of its proposed changes right now, rolling them out globally through 2027 - and we spoke to the heads of Android and Epic Games about the changes.By June 30th, Google writes, it will lower most app store fees in the US, UK, and European Economic Area to 20 percent or less, down from 30 percent. By the end of the year, it will launch a "Registered App St …Read the full story at The Verge.