With RAM and storage prices going through the roof, prebuilt devices are becoming more and more attractive, especially if you're looking to start a new project at an affordable price. That's where mini PCs are pretty much the best way to go right now, providing plenty of power and versatility, along with a price that's hard to ignore.

The OhSnap Snap Grip 5 next to a Syncwire magnetic ring. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge In 2022, we called a simple magnetic ring from Anker the best MagSafe phone grip, but things have evolved dramatically since then! You can buy two or even three magnetic rings joined at the hip these days to wield your iPhone, recent Pixel, or really any phone if you stick a magnetic case or included mounting ring on the back. But the best I've yet tried are the double-sided $15-$25 Syncwire Magnetic Phone Ring Holder - and, more recently, the $40 OhSnap Snap Grip 5. @verge Just when I thought I'd found the perfect PopSocket alternative for my phone, the fifth-gen OhSnap Snap Grip came along. The magnets are so good now! It's so thin! …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you ask anyone at XDA what to put on a media center, we're very likely to point you toward Kodi. We're still using Kodi way into 2025, and we've even picked Kodi over other apps in the same space. So, when a new update comes out, you know we have to check it out.

Like millions around the world, I always ran ad blockers and tracking blockers within each browser. Pi-hole came and went, as well as a few other options for network-wide coverage, and still, I stuck to my guns with localized management. That was until I revamped the home lab and started to mess around with Pi-hole. All was well until I looked at what else the OPNsense firewall could run. That's when I stumbled onto AdGuard Home.

Graphics cards are getting more powerful, packed with fancy features like AI upscaling and ray tracing. However, as they get better, they also get more expensive, with some of the best RTX 4090 models coming in at over $2000. While the RTX 4090 delivers absolutely exceptional results, the power it provides is only potential, with so many other factors contributing to whether your graphics card can deliver its full output.

TikTok has finalized the deal to sell its US business, according to reports from Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. They report that a memo from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees on Thursday said the deal will close on January 22nd, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX owning 45 percent of the company, while its China-based parent company ByteDance will hold 20 percent.The remainder of the company will be held by "affiliates of existing ByteDance investors," Axios reports. TikTok briefly went dark in the US in January as the divest-or-ban law came into effect. Throughout the year, President Donald Trump granted TikTok a s …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's easy to forget about your router if everything is working fine. But upgrading occasionally can be a good idea, especially if you're looking to get added benefits like better speed and range. While there are new technologies always on the horizon, we think that going with a Wi-Fi 6E router is going to be a good middle ground.

Self-hosting has always been a big part of how I manage my digital life. I try new self-hosted tools, swap out services, and fine-tune my setup to keep everything fast, private, and under my control. For the longest time, StirlingPDF felt irreplaceable in my productivity stack, one of those rare tools that just stayed. But then I stumbled upon BentoPDF, and everything changed. What started as a quick test turned into a complete shift in how I handle PDFs every day. The more I used it, the more I realized: this wasn’t just an alternative; it was an upgrade for my workflow.

If you’re lucky enough to have a bit of time off around the holidays, we have great news: Steam’s annual winter sale kicked off today, and will run through Monday, January 5th at 1PM ET. Now’s a great time to stock up on some of the best games of 2025 at a solid discount, or add some classics to your backlog if you’ve got a hole in your library. Thousands of games are on sale, but we’ve picked out some highlights to help you get started. We were surprised to see Hollow Knight: Silksong for $15.99 ($4 off) given its modest price and how recently it came out. You can also pick up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for $39.99 ($10 off), Silent Hill F for $41.99 ($28 off), and Assassin’s Creed Shadows for $34.99 ($35 off). These games are all on sale just a few months after their release. Some of the most notable remakes and remasters of 2025 have also been discounted. You can snag Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles for $39.99 ($10 off), Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter for $44.99 ($15 off), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 for $29.99 ($20 off), Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for $35.99 ($24 off), and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater for $41.99 ($28 off). These titles are worth trying even if you’re familiar with the originals. Steam’s sales are an opportune opportunity to pick up older titles that have stood the test of time, some of which you can get for under a couple of bucks. Too many great games fall into that category, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t call your chance to grab Stardew Valley for $8.99 ($6 off), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition for $9.99 ($30 off), Slay the Spire for $2.49 ($22.50 off), Resident Evil 4 for $15.99 ($24 off), Castle Crashers for $1.49 ($13.50 off), Bastion for $2.99 ($12 off), and To the Moon for $1.99 ($8 off). You can go even further back in the history of gaming and pick up collections of 8- and 16-bit games, including the chance to pick up Mega Man X Legacy Collection for $7.99 ($12 off), Castlevania Anniversary Collection for $7.99 ($12 off), and Contra Anniversary Collection for $7.99 ($12 off). There’s a little something for everybody in the sale, and we encourage you to mix and match contemporary and classic games to avoid getting bored.Hollow Knight: SilksongWhere to Buy: $19.99 $15.99 at SteamHollow Knight: Silksong is a tough-as-nails Metroidvania whose boss battles and platforming sequences reward your tenacity as you slowly get better. As Hornet, you’ll cautiously ascend to the top of the world, using weapons and traps to take down over 200 enemies and more than 40 bosses. Be mindful that letting your guard down can be lethal. If you haven’t gotten around to playing the original Hollow Knight, you can pick it up for $7.49 ($7.49 off) during the sale. Read our hands-on impressions. Silent Hill FWhere to Buy: $69.99 $41.99 at SteamSilent Hill F is an exceptional survival horror game set in 1960s Japan. Protagonist Hinako Shimizu is a high school student who has to defeat actual monsters with whatever weapons she can find while also wrestling with inner turmoil caused by familial trauma. Her personal growth, a great script, and terrific score may compel you to replay the game to see all five of its possible endings. Read our review.Resident Evil 4Where to Buy: $39.99 $15.99 at SteamIf you prefer a healthy dose of action in your horror games, the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 is an excellent choice. Federal agent Leon Kennedy is sent to retrieve the president’s daughter from a remote Spanish village, and ends up uncovering a murderous cult and plenty of gnarly monsters. The original game’s story has been fleshed out, and its script has been reworked without losing all of its campiness. Read our review.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33Where to Buy: $49.99 $39.99 at SteamClair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG with an engaging battle system that rewards you for mastering its dodge and parry system. Pulling off the right parry, which takes time to learn, and you can turn the tide of a battle. The game has an atmospheric soundtrack along with a story our reviewer found heart-wrenching, stirring, and humorous. It won Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards, too. Read our review. Assassin’s Creed ShadowsWhere to Buy: $69.99 $34.99 at SteamAssassin’s Creed Shadows has two big strengths: Its setting (medieval Japan) and its two lead characters, Naoe and Yasuke. Each character has a unique gameplay style, which gives you a couple of ways to approach each situation stealthily or by using brute force. Shadows’ open world is huge, and the little activities we found on our way to the big quests, and codex entries offering exhaustive details about the game’s setting made it fun to traverse. Read our review.

It was very surprising seeing a new video game release that was based on the 90s action movie classic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Luckily for me, and every other action movie fan out there, Terminator 2D: No Fate was a fun adaptation of the iconic movie that looked fantastic. Being able to play as Sarah Conor, the T-800, and John Connor through an experience that had the look and atmosphere which made the film so heavily beloved was fun and engaging. It not only gave us the best scenes in the movie, but it mixed things up with a few extra layers that made me wish we had a game like this back when the movie was first released in 1991.

NotebookLM is fantastic at one thing: helping you make sense of large amounts of information in a short amount of time. All I have to do is feed it my documents and weblinks, and it will summarize everything in plain language. I also use it to question my own knowledge with features like quizzes and flashcards.

This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.By all measures, Meta's Threads app had a very good year. The app was Apple's second-most-downloaded iOS app of the year, trailing only ChatGPT. Threads now has 400 million monthly and 150 million daily active users."There are consumers who are ravenous to consume the content."That growth is still coming mainly from Meta's other platforms. "We do a lot of work in Instagram and Facebook to show off what's going on in Threads," Connor Hayes, the head of Threads, told me this week. The playbook: s …Read the full story at The Verge.