As usual, 2025 was a year of deep congressional dysfunction in the US. But state legislatures were passing laws that govern everything from AI to social media to the right to repair. Many of these laws, alongside rules passed in past years, take effect in 2026 - either right now or in the coming months.As of January 1st, Americans should have the right to crypto ATM refunds in Colorado, wide-ranging electronics repairs in Colorado and Washington, and AI system transparency in California, among other things. But a last-minute court ruling offered a reprieve from one high-profile state law: Texas' App Store-based age verification rule.For …Read the full story at The Verge.

Betty Boop made her debut as an anthropomorphic dog in Dizzy Dishes. | Image: Fleischer Studios Some years ago, I was writing a science fiction short story in which I wanted to incorporate verses from a 1928 song, "Button Up Your Overcoat." However, when I sold the story, my editor told me that since the song was still copyrighted, it was safer not to include the verses. If I had written the story today, I could have used them - because the song passed into public domain two years ago.If you're looking for songs, books, or movies with content you want to use, you are probably examining which of your favorites are headed for the public domain. This year, copyrighted works created in 1930 (except for sound recordings, where the date …Read the full story at The Verge.

The ReSpeaker Lite is a single-board kit for building your own smart speaker, packing a dual microphone array, mute and user buttons, a 3.5mm out jack, a JST PH-2.0 speaker connector, and an XMOS XU316 audio processor. I previously connected mine to a CD wallet speaker that I took apart, but since I picked up a 3D printer, I wanted to take things up a notch. Now I've got a pretty decent looking speaker enclosure that looks good and sounds great, and I couldn't be happier.

If you've ever felt that your once-snappy SSD was suspiciously slow after years of use, you might be on to something. Although SSDs don't have moving parts that can age with time, other factors can contribute to sluggish performance. Due to the way SSDs store data in NAND cells, their performance can degrade over time if you don't bother with drive upkeep. Outdated firmware and insufficient cooling can also prevent your SSD from maintaining peak performance. It's worth checking your SSD and system for the following signs before you start thinking about replacing the drive altogether.

One of Square Enix's biggest franchises is the Kingdom Hearts series. The combination of Final Fantasy and Disney characters is a match that has generated a huge fan base, even though the pairing was very unlikely. Since the first game, the series has launched multiple sequels and spin-off titles, leading up to the development of Kingdom Hearts IV. But despite having seen the game a few times during various events, Square Enix has been very quiet about it since 2022. And many Kingdom Hearts fans are starving for details.

Thanks to my obsession with DIY projects and server experiments, I’ve tinkered with all sorts of virtualization platforms, container runtimes, and hypervisors over the years. These range from popular tools like Docker, Kubernetes, ESXi, and VirtualBox to quirky FreeBSD distros and obscure Unix-like operating systems. Then there’s Microsoft’s Hyper-V, a hypervisor that’s often frowned upon in the home lab community, especially when you run it on a resource-hogging Windows 11 host.

Every new year in gaming is supposed to be about progress. better visuals, smart AI, richer worlds, more convincing physics, and systems that finally feel like they're catching up to the hardware we've been buying. And yet, horror games, especially the big-budget ones, keep dragging along the same tired design tropes like emotional baggage they refuse to unpack.

LG is adding a karaoke-focused party speaker to its lineup of Xboom devices, which is built in collaboration with Will.i.am. Announced this week, LG says the Stage 501 speaker comes with an "AI Karaoke Master" that can remove or adjust vocals from "virtually any song," similar to the Soundcore Rave 3S.It can also adjust the pitch of the songs to make them more comfortable to sing, and it doesn't require karaoke-specific audio files to do so, according to LG. Like its predecessor, the Stage 501 features a five-sided design but comes equipped with upgraded dual woofers and full-range drivers that LG claims will deliver richer audio. The swap …Read the full story at The Verge.

Most of us, including myself, watch multiple hardware reviews before deciding what parts to buy for a new build or an upgrade. It feels like the responsible thing to do, especially if we want to avoid buyer's remorse down the line. Reviewers provide a clear structure, including FPS charts, thermals, power draw, and conclusions, that help us make confident decisions. But the thing is, those numbers can't fully predict how a part will actually behave once it’s installed in your system. And that's a factor many people overlook.

Most people use Docker for media or networking, but the container that truly took over my home management is an inventory tool called Homebox. It doesn’t do anything fancy; it just keeps track of what I own, where it’s stored, and when the warranty expires. It’s fast, private, and entirely self-hosted.

I'm far from the most adept Linux user, but I can handle my way around it through constantly trying out new things. One of those is Wayland. Now, by no means is Wayland something new and shiny. However, I've stuck to X11 because it works just fine for me as an occasional user. But lately I've been feeling the itch to give it a shot. Not because something was wrong with X11, but I should probably get a handle on what is shaping up as the popular choice. As it turns out, before I knew it, I was spending most of my time in Wayland.

We spend our days repeating the same keystrokes, whether it's muting and unmuting Zoom, opening specific folders, or typing out "Best Regards" over and over again. Opting for a macro pad can give you the luxury of one-touch to complete all of these tasks. However, macro pads have a premium price barrier. The Stream Deck or other high-end mechanical macro pads can cost you over $100.