PCIe 5.0 SSDs represent the fastest consumer storage you can get your hands on. These Gen5 drives doubled the theoretical bandwidth compared to Gen4 drives, pushing it to 16GB/s (total for 4 lanes). You got SSDs boasting nearly 15,000MB/s transfer speeds, promising massive throughput for data-intensive workloads. These next-gen drives took a massive technical leap forward, but they targeted a problem most people didn't need solving. Gen4 drives were far from struggling when Gen5 drives came along, and they didn't even speed up the most common workloads in any meaningful way. Add to that the PCIe 5.0 premium and thermal challenges, and you can see why people consider Gen5 SSDs useless, at least for the time being.

Age prediction is rolling out almost globally, with users in the EU getting it ‘in the coming weeks.’ OpenAI has added age prediction features to ChatGPT, meant to identify and bolster protections for underage users. These age detection plans were announced in December alongside updated guidelines for interacting with teens, and follow a rise in similar age-gating efforts from online platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Roblox.ChatGPT's age prediction model works by examining behavioral and account-level signals, including a user's stated age, how old the account is, when the user is active, and usage patterns over time. Additional protections will then be applied to persons that ChatGPT estimates are under the age of 18, r …Read the full story at The Verge.

Whenever there's a sandbox game, there are people who want to mod said sandbox game. Whenever people get together to mod a sandbox game, they start adding things the game was never properly programmed to handle. And if they manage to succeed, we begin seeing some truly amazing things.

On a blustery afternoon late last year, on the lawn just outside City Hall in Rowlett, Texas, a strange-looking craft cleared the trees just before me. It hovered overhead for a moment before lowering a second craft on a thin rope all the way to a parched patch of grass. The little, white thing deposited a brown paper payload, then rode its tether back up to its waiting mothership, which turned and left. The experience lasted less than 30 seconds.This wasn't some UFO experience. This was a Zipline drone delivery, out in the real world, and that payload was my lunch. It was just one of the two million such deliveries this company has made s …Read the full story at The Verge.

Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. | Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images. Welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the technology and the tech bros upending American politics and the Trump administration. If you're not a subscriber yet, and you're interested in Silicon Valley's adventures in sausage-making, you should do so here! It's Q1! Surely the corporate budget will allow for it. Precisely one year ago, Steve Bannon, the powerful, populist MAGA podcaster, was thrilled at the sight of the Big Tech CEOs swarming around Donald Trump. In the days before his inauguration, the major players were visiting Mar-a-Lago, signing checks, even showing up to sit quietly behind him during his second …Read the full story at The Verge.

Ask any hardcore Raspberry Pi enthusiast about the accessories they pair with their single-board computer, and you should be prepared to hear a long sermon about all the HATs, adapter boards, and gizmos in their arsenal. Truth be told, I’m no different, as I’ve got a bunch of devices stashed in my home lab, including peripherals I bought simply because they looked interesting.

The SATs are one of the most important standardized tests in the US (and other parts of the world). While more and more schools seem to be going test-optional, the test still plays a meaningful role in college admissions and scholarships. Ultimately, tens of thousands of students prepare for the exam multiple times a year, often taking it more than once to maximize their chances of hitting a target score.

I'm guilty of it, and I'm sure many of you are in the same boat. Despite having decent gaming rigs and the money to buy the games we love, we probably spend less time gaming than ever. Family, friends, and responsibilities take up a significant chunk of our time, but even in our free time, we rarely sit down to properly enjoy a game like we used to. Instead, we spend hours browsing Steam and Epic Games Store sales, optimizing our hardware, and arguing with strangers on Reddit. If this isn't you, then you're in the minority, but most PC gamers I know suffer from this OCD. I hope we can all turn a new leaf in 2026, and start enjoying our gaming PCs for, well, gaming more than anything else.

Have you ever wanted to use an Xbox Series X gamepad with a Dreamcast? Maybe you'd like to use your child's Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Controller to revisit Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2?This is exactly what software developer Robert Dale Smith (@RobertDaleSmith) is making happen with his open source Joypad OS project (it was formerly called USBRetro). The core idea behind Joypad OS is to make any controller work with whatever system you want, whether that's using a Switch controller with a GameCube, or a Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 with the original Switch. Joypad OS aims to be universal controller firmware for adapters, controllers, and input setups across USB and Bluetooth.

Mornings used to feel like a stack of tiny decisions before I even had a chance to wake up properly. I bounced between apps, calendars, and notes, trying to remember what actually mattered that day. That constant switching drained my energy before I did anything meaningful. Once I started treating my morning like a sequence that could be automated with free tools, everything settled into a calmer rhythm. These five apps now handle the setup work for me, so my brain is free to focus on actually starting the day.

I'm not sure anyone saw this news coming, but the TV landscape as we know it could change considerably over the next year or two. Sony, the storied Japanese TV brand, has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with its Chinese competitor TCL. This potential partnership - with TCL set to hold a 51 percent stake and Sony 49 percent - has prompted speculation across the internet and I'm sure many meetings at a couple of other TV companies in South Korea.Before we get too apocalyptic and proclaim the end of Sony TVs, it's important to understand that this isn't a done deal. The memorandum of understanding indicates that the …Read the full story at The Verge.

OpenAI says it will minimize water use and pay for energy infrastructure upgrades needed to power its data centers. "We're being good neighbors," the company said, directly addressing the growing opposition to AI projects amid rising utility bills."We commit to paying our own way on energy, so that our operations don't increase your electricity prices," OpenAI said. The company promised to work with local communities to minimize the impact of its Stargate data centers. OpenAI was not specific but said plans could involve securing its own energy supplies or paying for local grid upgrades. OpenAI also highlighted the vast amounts of water …Read the full story at The Verge.