The process of shucking hard drives from pre-assembled external storage devices is a complicated one, as there's no guarantee the drive that's removed will be one worth the price of the enclosure. And while it could be viewed as a deal compared to the price of network-attached storage (NAS) and server-specific storage, it's usually seen as a gamble. That is until you reach a certain capacity threshold where it starts to become a necessity to shuck.

A bulldozer plows through land during construction for a section of border wall near Santa Elena Canyon on August 14, 2026 in Big Bend National Park, Texas. | Photo: Brandon Bell via Getty Images About 22 miles south of the former mining town of Patagonia, Arizona, down a winding, unpaved mountain road that passes cows grazing on open range, stands a cottonwood tree believed to be at least 200 years old. The "grandmother" tree, as some locals call it, is imperiled and already showing signs of stress, almost as if it knows its fate. The leaves are yellowing prematurely, falling to the ground at the height of summer. On July 27th, a construction crew felled three neighboring trees to build an extension of President Donald Trump's wall along the US-Mexico border.An activist climbed up the last tree standing two days later and ever sin …Read the full story at The Verge.

Anthropic has clarified how it's planning to apply invisible watermarks to Claude-generated text in order to comply with Europe's AI transparency rules. On Friday, Anthropic announced that Claude's text marking system is "a version of the SynthID-Text approach" - an open-source watermarking technology developed by Google DeepMind that creates detectable patterns using wording probabilities.This watermarking feature, alongside C2PA support for Claude-processed images, is being introduced to meet Anthropic's obligations under the European Union's AI Act, which requires synthetic audio, image, video, and text to include machine-readable marks …Read the full story at The Verge.

You can do a lot with a single ESP32, but what if you got six of them working in tandem? Well, as one tinkerer has shown us, you can host a website off them. Not just a regular server, though; a server that can detect when a blade goes down and automatically recover itself in three seconds. And the best part is, it's all open-source.

When Microsoft demanded that PCs installing or upgrading to Windows 11 required a CPU that supported TPM 2.0, some people (including myself) made the jump to Linux to keep our older systems ticking over.

Subscriptions are a growing menace, and every popular tool or service has one, but multiple plans. Each one of them tries to appear unique by adding a couple more features than the cheaper one, and adding sharing and collaboration options. But if I started paying for every trivial computer task like converting a PDF file or editing it, my wallet would bleed dry. Companies have also become pushy with marketing tactics and abrupt price changes, all of which make you wonder whether it's worth paying at all.

Self-hosting can look far more complicated than it really is. Once you start exploring it, you quickly run into dozens of applications, setup guides, configuration options, and tools that all seem worth learning. I felt the same way when I started running services on my own hardware. There was always something new to figure out, and it was easy to spend more time learning the infrastructure than actually using the software I wanted. Over time, I realized I didn't need to master every part of the self-hosting ecosystem. I needed one solid foundation that could help me confidently approach new services.

The smart speaker market is more or less dominated by major tech companies: Apple, Google, Sonos, and Amazon. But WiiM’s powerful 100W Sound smart speaker is an attractive alternative because it’s not locked down to play nicely with select music services. It supports over 20 services, and it sports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 and ethernet, giving you multiple ways to connect. Additionally, it taps into standards used by other speakers, including Chromecast, Spotify Connect, DLNA, Alexa Cast, and more (AirPlay 2 is off the table, though its Pro Music Streamer supports it). In other words, it can be added to multi-room setups you may already have in the Google Home or Amazon Echo ecosystem.The black and white versions are rarely discounted, but they’re each 15 percent off at Amazon and directly through WiiM. Normally $299.99, they’re $254.15.WiiM Sound Smart SpeakerWhere to Buy: $299 $254.15 at Amazon $299 $254.15 at WiiMWiiM also makes the Sound Lite, which is also discounted by 15 percent. Originally $229, it’s $194.65 at Amazon and WiiM. It has the same dimensions, connectivity and performance output as the Sound (plus, the ability to use AI to adapt its sound quality to your room), but it lacks the 1.8-inch touch display that can show off album art, and there’s no voice remote included — those are around $33. That said, you can wirelessly pair these speakers and other recent WiiM products to each other to build a surround sound setup. Read more in our coverage.Other great Verge-approved dealsAll colors of Apple’s AirPods Max 2 over-ear, noise-canceling headphones are down to $429 at Best Buy as part of its 60-year anniversary sale. Originally $549, this sale brings them down to their second-best price, only bested by Prime Day’s $399 deal. Amazon has fewer colors available at this price. In our review, John Higgins praised their improved sound quality and noise cancellation effect, but wished certain things about it had changed. At their original price, he would have liked a proper carrying case included with purchase. But, at least with this discount, you can get a nicer case with the cash you’ll save.Look, sometimes you just need a cheap TV, not an amazing one. If that’s you, there might be a 58-inch Hisense 4K QLED Roku TV that’ll do. Normally $399.99, the QD5 is down to $189.99 at Best Buy. It doesn’t seem particularly impressive, but it’s a feature-packed TV at a good price. Beyond having built-in Roku guts for streaming movies and TV shows, it supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10 and HLG, and its game mode supports variable refresh rate and auto low latency mode (though, it tops out at 60Hz refresh rate).We highlighted a deal on the Godox ES45 key light recently, and the deal is back on at Amazon. The $20 off sale brings the powerful key light setup down to $119, and while it doesn’t match Elgato’s Key Light one-for-one with specs, it’s a great value that costs $60 less. It has adjustable color temperature and brightness, and its settings can be easily tweaked with its controller, which gets recharged by sticking magnetically to the back of the light. A key light is great for adding a strong light source to your room. It can be used to light you directly, or aim it at the wall to be softly illuminated in light that bounces off.

Apple's changing its rules for data collection consent prompts after Germany's Federal Cartel Office accused Apple of giving the prompts a design that favored its own apps. Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompts reportedly cost social media apps nearly $10 billion when they launched with iOS 14.5, making cross-app tracking of users largely opt in. But as a designated "gatekeeper" under the EU's DMA rules, it is facing additional scrutiny over whether the program provides a level playing field. The regulator says the prompts steer users away from agreeing to let third-party apps use their data, while encouraging them to give consent for …Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft does a great job of adding new features to Windows 11. However, most of them, users don't want or need. Copilot is the low-hanging fruit of needless junk that has invaded virtually all aspects of Windows 11. Then there are things the OS can't do that users want. Luckily, there are 20-year-old tools to fill the gap.

The greatest invention in pet tech in recent years is the litter robot. A machine that scoops your kitties' poop so you don't have to - what else could a cat owner possibly want? How about insights into your kitty's litter box usage that could flag health issues? Sign me up. But I have two feline friends… No worries, kitty facial recognition can handle that. At least, that is the idea behind the Litter-Robot 5 Pro, the highest-end model from the OG robotic pooper scooper company Whisker. Boasting a dual camera system and an array of sensors to literally sniff out your cat's deposits, all wrapped up with AI algorithms and machine learning, …Read the full story at The Verge.

Meet Noodle and Loaf, aka Carb Cats. | Image: The Verge, Getty Images Like the pets of any self-respecting millennial, my cats have their own Instagram account.Noodle and Loaf - aka Carb Cats - aren't exactly celebrities. But they are used to having their photos taken a lot. Between their Instagram account, my regular need to test smartphone cameras, and the fact that they are two adorable idiots, I've taken on an unofficial household role as pet photographer. I know I'm not the only one. It's become standard practice to maintain a camera roll full of blurry bleps and dozing dogs. But pets are rarely easy to photograph. They're usually small, fast, and don't take direction well. Here are a few ways to impr …Read the full story at The Verge.