Having an old Android tablet lying around is an opportunity to find something new and useful to do with it. Tablets are one of those devices that often just get forgotten when you realize you don't actually need one. They're good screens for media consumption, but they're too big and clunky to really be used naturally in most situations, so they can go forgotten for a long time.

Remember tamagotchi? Those little digital pets really took the world by storm for a while, and they're still going to this day. However, unlike the early days of the digital pet, we now have the resources and the know-how to make our own tamagotchis. We can even make them open-source so people can tweak them the way they want.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg entered a downtown Los Angeles courthouse in largely the same way as all the attorneys, reporters, and advocates who'd come to watch his landmark trial testimony, but with one notable difference: he was flanked by an entourage that appeared to be wearing Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses. To get to the courtroom, he walked past a crowd of parents whose children died after struggling with issues they attribute to the design of social media platforms including those that Meta makes. He would spend the next eight hours often answering questions in his signature matter-of-fact (or less charitably, monotone) cadence, denying h …Read the full story at The Verge.

Phison is one of the leading makers of controller chips for SSDs and other flash memory devices - and CEO Pua Khein-Seng has now become a leading voice for just how bad the RAM shortage might get.Companies may need to cut back their product lines in the second half of 2026, and some companies will even die if they can't get the components they need, he agreed, in a televised interview with Ningguan Chen of Taiwanese broadcaster Next TV.While the interview's entirely in Chinese, friends of The Verge stepped forward to confirm parts of a machine-translated summary that's been making headlines. They also note, importantly, that it's the int …Read the full story at The Verge.

If the move from Windows 10 to 11 taught us anything, it's that companies are beginning to add limits on how old your hardware can be to run their software. Your PC could have the processing power to handle Windows 11, but as long as the CPU doesn't have TPM 2.0 on it, Microsoft deems it unworthy.

A large portion of my workflow is research, and I often use AI to jump-start the process. While I don't implicitly trust AI results, it does serve as somewhere to start, and I can dig deeper into the results after the fact. That said, I encounter situations where I'd like to take a conversation in two different directions, and that's hard to do while maintaining the overall context so far. Then I found RabbitMap, an Obsidian plugin that makes it possible to interact with AI directly inside Obsidian, all while tracking those conversations inside an infinite canvas.

We've talked endlessly about how PoE switches can really make a huge difference if you're trying to build out a home lab or connected home. Not only does it make it more convenient to power certain devices, but it can also cut down on cable clutter.

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.

I think one of the coolest elements of the DIY community is how determined they are to make something from fiction come to life. Does the main character in a movie use a cool device? You can make that cool device. Always wanted your own Pip-Boy from Fallout? Well, you're in luck; people have taken several tries at recreating the post-apocalyptic hardware in the modern era.

Last summer, Bria Sullivan was getting ready to launch her app, an adorable companion called Focus Friend meant to help people manage their screen time. Her outlandish dream was to get 100,000 downloads. She'd been building the app with Hank Green, a creator with a huge audience, so she thought maybe, maybe, Focus Friend could be a top-10 app in the productivity category. Even that felt like a stretch, though. "Our category has ChatGPT, it has Google," she says. "I mean, productivity includes Gmail!" Sullivan initially dropped the app into the iOS App Store without really telling anyone. But in August, thanks to a lot of promotion from Gr …Read the full story at The Verge.

For some people, one of the best upgrades they can make is changing to an ergonomic mouse. It's a simple change that can make a huge difference when it comes to reducing fatigue and stress on your arm and wrist.

Raspberry Pi is iconic and was a solid recommendation for learning and home projects. Whether it's a small server, a Home Assistant hub, or learning Docker, a Raspberry Pi earned its spot thanks to its affordable price tag for hobbyists and everyone interested.