It didn't take me long to fall in love with atomic systems. I gave them a try on a whim, and I ended up loving how they work and what they do within a week. In fact, being an ex-Windows user, it's really hard for me to go back to using Microsoft's operating system, partly because atomic Linux distros exist.

I've gradually gotten into the smart home game after seeing it more as a gimmick many years back. The entire ecosystem has certainly come a long way and is notably more useful with the daily runnings of the household, controlling everything from lights and sensors to door locks and even lawn mowers. I've got an entire home surveillance system hooked up to the wonderful aggregator platform Home Assistant, which makes managing the smart home an absolute breeze.

Most of the Adobe alternatives I try are open-source or indie projects. My Photoshop replacement stack heavily leans more open, accessible, and privacy-focused with tools like Photopea, Krita, Penpot, and Pinta. These are all great options and they deserve a shot, but I’ve started completely overlooking the consumer-focused, proprietary, and cloud-based tools. These tools are popular for a reason - they’re fast, polished, easy to use, and very capable of handling complex work.

Linux can often be intimidating due to the complexity of how everything operates and some of the potential risks involved with doing things you don't fully understand. Not only is it easy to mess up some system files, but the mere act of installing updates or apps can sometimes lead to compatibility problems due to how these changes affect system files. In that sense, it can be sort of similar to Windows and how it can get unreliable once you've been using it for a long time and installed a lot of updates.

In 3D printing, supports are easy to treat as a checkbox you tick when the slicer starts complaining. They feel temporary, and they usually end up in the trash, so it’s tempting to stop thinking about them the moment the preview looks “safe.” The problem is that supports don’t just hold plastic up; they also determine where your print will look rough, where it might warp, and where cleanup can cause damage. Once you notice that pattern, supports stop feeling like a rescue tool and start looking like part of the design.

I've spent years optimizing my task management system. I've toggled between Todoist's natural language input, TickTick's Pomodoro timers, and Notion's database views. I've color-coded priorities, set recurring tasks, and fine-tuned notification schedules. And somehow, I still ended up with so many overdue tasks staring at me every morning.

The PencilWash is designed to be lightweight and maneuverable. | Image: Dyson Dyson has announced an alternate version of its skinny PencilVac that's designed to clean spills and stains on hard floors instead of sucking up dirt and debris. Like the PencilVac, which Dyson called "world's slimmest vacuum cleaner" when it was announced nine months ago, the new PencilWash squeezes a battery, motor, and other electronics into its 1.5-inch-diameter handle. But it trades a dust bin for a water reservoir located in its larger cleaning head featuring a single floor-scrubbing roller.At 4.9 pounds without water or a low foaming cleaning solution in its tank, the PencilWash is slightly heavier than the four-pound PencilVac, but …Read the full story at The Verge.

There are games that become hits, selling millions, and then there are titles that simply reshape the medium. Over half a century of constant evolution and experimentation, gaming as a medium has matured rapidly in recent generations. We might see some rather amazing titles every once in a while that do everything right, but there hasn't been much game-changing, genre-inventing going on lately.

When PC hardware enthusiasts think of "future-proofing", they often think of a build with a beefy 1000 watt GPU paired with the best CPU available for a given socket. A build that's most definitely overkill for the current demands of the workloads they run, but will definitely last them for at least a decade into the future. Right?

I'm not in the habit of covering random Reddit projects, but this one is just too good to ignore. Reddit user AllTextAllTheWay encountered stutter with their Apple TV 4K (2022) while watching 4K movies through Plex. Instead of buying a newer version of Apple's streamer with a more powerful chip or switching to another streaming device, they took matters into their own hands.

If you were to mention on any Reddit forum that you're still running 8GB of DDR4 RAM with a Zen 2 Ryzen processor, you'd be met with a mixture of pity and confusion. You would likely be nudged towards a full platform overhaul, sold on a desperate CPU upgrade, or be taken as a foolhardy optimist. After all, 32 GB is the "bare minimum" and memory prices have touched the stratosphere, so, why bother?

Meta is planning to launch a smartwatch with health tracking and AI features later this year, along with an updated version of its Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, The Information reports. The smartwatch would arrive ahead of a pair of mixed reality glasses, code-named Phoenix, that Meta has reportedly delayed until 2027 amidst efforts to streamline the company's AR and MR roadmap. Meta previously scrapped plans for an earlier smartwatch in 2022 due to technical challenges and cost-cutting measures. If the new watch, code-named Malibu 2, comes to fruition, it would intensify competition with Apple, which is rumored to be working on a pa …Read the full story at The Verge.