When we think about improving our PC's airflow, the first thing that usually comes to mind is buying more fans, better coolers, or even switching to a completely different case. That's completely reasonable because your cooling hardware is the most obvious part of the equation. It's true that better or bigger coolers and fans can help, but you don't always have to spend money to improve airflow inside your PC. Most of the time, even cheap fans can comfortably move enough fresh air through the case if they're configured properly.

Xbox is getting ready to launch its Gaming Copilot AI assistant on "current-generation consoles" this year, according to a report from GamesRadar. Sonali Yadav, Xbox's product manager for gaming AI, revealed the news during a panel at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), adding that the company will also add the assistant to "more services that players are playing." Microsoft has been working on its gaming-focused Copilot assistant for months now, with the company launching it in beta on the Xbox mobile app, Windows 11, and Xbox Ally handhelds. Players can use their voice to call upon the Gaming Copilot if they get stuck in a game, and th …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you've been on the lookout for a new smartwatch, we think the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is going to be a great way to go. Not only are you getting a watch with a sleek and lightweight design, but it's also packed with features.

Mobile gaming has come a long way over the course of the last decade or so, but we all know that smartphones simply can’t match the visceral, tactile feel you get while playing with a dedicated controller. Luckily, Backbone makes some excellent mobile options — including last year’s Backbone Pro, which is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target right now for $139.99 ($30 off), its second-best price to date.Backbone Pro mobile controllerThe Backbone Pro is an excellent mobile controller that retains the same overall design and feel as the company’s cheaper model, only with some comfort-boosting improvements. It features a built-in battery and Bluetooth support, so you can use it for gaming on the TV, computer, VR headset, or handheld PC.Where to Buy: $169.99 $139.99 at Amazon $169.99 $139.99 at Best Buy $169.99 $139.99 at TargetIn many ways, Backbone’s latest mobile controller is merely an updated take on what came before. The handheld device consists of two oblong halves with an extendable strip of plastic in the middle, allowing you to use it with Android devices and iPhone 15, 16, and 17 series phones. It plugs into your phone’s USB-C port and, once connected, you can game with two full-sized ALPs thumbsticks, a responsive D-pad, and A, B, X, and Y buttons. It also features two programmable back buttons, a 3.5mm headphone jack, better ergonomics than your phone, and averages up to 40 hours of battery life on a single charge.The hardware is only part of the equation, though. Backbone’s intent with the Pro is for it to function as a more universal gamepad, and as such, the company’s software pulls together games from Apple Arcade, Netflix, Google Play, and other services into a singular app, allowing you to discover and launch games with little fuss. What’s more, you can use it to stream Xbox or PlayStation games — either from your console or the cloud —and connect it to a wealth of other devices via Bluetooth, including your PC, Steam Deck, and Apple devices like the iPad and Mac. Sure, the beefy controller looks a little awkward when you’re using it without a phone, but it’s a small price to pay for its added versatility.More ways to save todayNothing’s latest CMF smartwatch, the CMF Watch 3 Pro, is still available from Amazon and Nothing in a multitude of colors for $79 ($20 off), which is about $5 shy of its best price to date. It’s pretty slick-looking for a budget watch, with a 1.43-inch OLED display, 131 sports modes, dual-band GPS, and a four-channel heart rate sensor. It also delivers up to 13 days of battery life under normal use and supports all your typical app integrations (Strava, Apple Health, etc.), though the lack of customizable bezels — a hallmark of the Watch Pro 2 — certainly does sting a bit.If you missed your chance to play Hogwarts Legacy upon its debut in 2023, Amazon and Walmart are both offering the Nintendo Switch 2 version for $29.99 ($20 off), an all-time low. The Switch 2 version is a substantially better port than the original in terms of performance, and while I found the open-world RPG to be a little generic / dated at times, diehard Harry Potter fans will surely appreciate the ability to roam around Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and all the fan-favorite locales from the landmark book series.Govee’s quirky Outdoor Garden Lights are currently on sale at Amazon and Govee’s online storefront for $99.99 ($70 off), matching the all-time low we last saw during Christmas. The stemmed, color-changing smart lights support 64 preset RGBIC scenes and carry a robust IP66 rating, meaning you shouldn’t have to worry about using them outside year-round. Plus, they support the newer Matter standard, allowing you to control them with smart home platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

My Downloads folder has become the Wild West. I have dozens (okay, hundreds) of different files that accumulate on a monthly basis. These include heaps of generically named screenshots, random PDF files, more ZIP archives than I can count, and even a few installers I grabbed but never ran.

It's only been a year since Digg founder Kevin Rose, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and a few others announced the link-sharing site would relaunch, promising a "social discovery built by communities, not by algorithms." Now, two months after opening its Reddit-like platform to the public, Digg is announcing a "hard reset" that's shutting down operations and will "significantly downsize the Digg team." When they announced its relaunch, Rose told The Verge that AI could "remove the janitorial work of moderators and community managers." Now, the new Digg's CEO Justin Mezzell writes in a note pinned to the homepage that, "We knew bots were …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you've been part of the PC building scene, you've seen it take a lot of hits. It always recovers, but with each successive crisis, something crucial is lost. Since the pandemic, it feels like we've been living through one hardware crisis after another, with only slim windows of normalcy peppered in between. In the last six years, new standards in terms of pricing, availability, and generational improvements have been forced on PC gamers. However, the latest AI-powered hardware shortage feels different. The AI craze is more than a bubble; it's a fundamental shift in manufacturer priorities. Even if we see this one through by 2028, PC building will never be the same again. It will still exist, but expect to see it morph into an altered hobby, meant for a different kind of consumer.

Instagram will no longer support end-to-end encrypted messages starting May 8th. In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby Luce says the platform is discontinuing the feature because "very few people" were using E2EE in their DMs.Instagram has begun notifying impacted users about the change inside its app, and has also posted an update to its support page, suggesting that users download E2EE chats and images before it discontinues the feature, as spotted earlier by PiunikaWeb. "Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp," El-Kassaby Luce adds.After bringing E2EE to Wh …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you spend any time writing, designing, or just documenting things on your PC, screenshotting becomes one of those small but essential tools. I didn’t think much about it for as long as I’ve had my PC, and just used whatever Windows gave me, which is the Snipping Tool. It worked well enough for the captures I needed, so I didn’t really question its functionality or try to configure it.

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. This week, I wanted to see how Trump Mobile stacks up to its conservative carrier competition.Trump Mobile isn't unique. I mean, it is in some pretty specific senses - it's not every day the president's family launches a phone company while he's in office - but it's far from the first company to offer a mobile carrier targeted at the conservative crowd. In fact, there's a rich history of smaller networks trying to make their money from patriots, Christians, and Republican voters. Like Trump Mobile, they're all MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), carriers that …Read the full story at The Verge.

I'm not entirely sure why the Pixel 10A exists.Google hasn't upgraded the chipset, cameras, or battery in the new phone, and the tweaks it's made elsewhere are minimal at best. The flatter camera island is good, I guess! In one sense this isn't a big problem: The Pixel 9A is an excellent device, and for the last year was easily the best phone you could buy for $500 in the US. The new 10A is available to buy now at that same great price ($499 for 128GB of storage or $100 more for 256GB), but with the 9A still on sale, and dropping in price, there's one big question: Why not just buy the 9A - which is almost the same phone - for $50 less? G …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you haven't tinkered with them before, Windows' power plans are a great way to customize how you want your PC or laptop to behave under certain conditions. For instance, perhaps you want your laptop to enter sleep mode faster when it's running off the battery versus off the mains, so you don't end up losing a ton of charge because you forgot to close the lid before you did something.