This is actually tidier than my desk normally looks. It took way too long, but Roland finally caved and gave the people what they want: a proper analog successor to the iconic TR-808 drum machine. The 808's sound, especially the kick drum, is embedded so deeply in the DNA of modern music that it would be a gross disservice to try and boil its influence down to a single sentence or a list of artists. (Note: Not all of the songs linked necessarily use an actual 808, but they at least feature samples or approximations of its sounds.)But, in typical Roland fashion, the company didn't just re-create some iconic analog circuits. No, the TR-1000 also has digital emulations of other classic Roland d …Read the full story at The Verge.

Many of us never think about the router after the ISP configures it for the first time. It blends in with the house like furniture, and only gets noticed when something isn't working. While the ISP-provided router is functional and mostly fine for its intended purpose, it's far from the device you'd ideally want running your entire home network. You might not even realize the number of basic features missing or locked down on your ISP router. Add to that the high probability of it having subpar hardware, an older Wi-Fi standard, and an unreasonable amount of control over your own network, and you begin to see the point of replacing it altogether.

Notion and Google Docs are both solid tools. I used to keep Docs in a pinned tab in my browser at all times so I could instantly write and take notes alongside my research in the browser. However, Docs leans too heavily on cloud dependency, and Notion also uses a cloud-only model. I wanted a tool that gives me more ownership of my data and control over how it’s accessed.

When you first kick off your self-hosting journey, Docker tends to be the recommended go-to, and a Docker container manager tends to be the recommended app. While you can obviously handle everything through the CLI and Docker Compose, a Docker container manager just makes everything easier with a straightforward interface that makes managing and installing new apps much easier. Portainer is a popular choice here for its versatility and plethora of features. That's exactly why I started using it.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is the prominent headline these days, and I get why. It’s faster, it feels more modern, and it has a momentum that makes every older board look like a compromise. Still, the Raspberry Pi I actually rely on day to day is the Raspberry Pi 4, and that choice has less to do with nostalgia than it does with outcomes. When I need something to stay online, behave predictably, and quietly do its job, the Pi 4 keeps earning its spot.

While YouTube Music is a decent music streaming platform, it has always lacked one key feature Spotify and Apple Music have offered for years — the ability to start a playlist on desktop and carry it over to your phone seamlessly, whether it's on Android, an iPhone, or on the desktop (via 9to5Google). Thanks to a recent update, YouTube Music subscribers can now start a song or podcast on desktop and shift over to their phone and not lose their spot in the content as long as they're signed in to their account (this works in reverse, too).

Notion is understandably the go-to for many productivity enthusiasts; it’s quite flexible and has that all-in-one appeal. AFFiNE improved on that for me with a more streamlined interface, faster performance, the whiteboard canvas, and the focus on local-first data and ownership. This is why it’s become my top pick over Notion for managing my notes and projects. Overall, depending on your needs, both apps are great. But they can also be heavier than necessary for day-to-day note-taking.

An open-source AI agent that "actually does things" is taking off, with people across the web sharing how they're using the agent to do a whole bunch of things, like manage reminders, log health and fitness data, and even communicate with clients. The tool, called Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot), runs locally on a variety of devices, and you can ask it to perform tasks on your behalf by chatting with it through WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord, and iMessage.Federico Viticci at MacStories highlighted how he installed Moltbot on his M4 Mac Mini and transformed it into a tool that delivers daily audio recaps based on his activity in his calend …Read the full story at The Verge.

Self-hosting your own services can seem intimidating, especially if you’ve never dabbled in containers or virtual machines before. But most of the popular FOSS tools are easy to deploy and ship with sleek interfaces that you can get accustomed to in no time. Home Assistant is one such utility that, despite being packed to the brim with handy features, is easy to work with even when you’re a complete beginner.

If you've ever felt that the standard Nvidia Control Panel plays things a little too safe and feel like taking the tweaking and tuning to the next level, a lightweight, open-source utility may be just what you're looking for.

Windows hides many features that most people never know about, and sometimes that's for the better. Not everyone needs the Task Scheduler, Event Viewer, or Performance Monitor. And those aren't even the most obscure examples.

If you want something new to replace your desktop PC, but don't want to go down the mini PC route, this HP OmniDesk might be for you. It's perfect for someone who just wants to get the basics down and doesn't want to spend a lot of money.