It finally happened. After years of going head-to-head against each other, going in different directions, often meeting, but always being two distinct IPs, Battlefield and Call of Duty met once again this year. Battlefield 6 became the series' strongest return to roots in a very long while, while Black Ops 7... did its own thing. Still, despite this longstanding "rivalry," there was only ever one clear winner when it came to constant sales and big numbers, and that was Activision's Call of Duty.

Holiday shopping on a budget can feel constricting, especially if you've been invited to a white elephant or need a last-minute stocking stuffer. The good news is that, with this guide, you can leave that stress behind.Whether you're aiming for something practical or fun, we've found plenty of great gifts for under $25 - heck, we found several under $10 - that don't scream "I bought this at the gas station on my way over." You might not expect to find a worthwhile Nintendo Switch / iPad-compatible controller, a 4K-ready streaming stick, or a waterproof speaker in this guide, but here we are. And that's just the start. Mini Buddha BoardY …Read the full story at The Verge.

Hello and welcome to Regulator. If you're a subscriber, you are stalwart and true, and if you're here from the internet, prove your chivalry and worth by subscribing to The Verge here. (And if you're David Sacks: we said what we said.) As of Tuesday, President Donald Trump has committed to signing some sort of executive order that would do something that would give him some federal control over AI regulation. I state this in the vaguest of terms for two reasons: First, there's still no good constitutional rationale for an executive order to override laws that states pass for themselves, let alone on artificial intelligence, and the vers …Read the full story at The Verge.

There's an old saying on the internet: If it has a screen, it can run DOOM. At this point, it's not even a joke, to be honest. It's a scientific constant. For over three decades, players have found increasingly deranged ways to make id Software's 1993 masterpiece run on devices that were never meant to display anything more than a pixelated clock. What this has resulted in is a bizarre yet brilliant catalog of ports that straddle the line between technological marvel and trashpost energy.

If you're having a stressful holiday season, the answer is McDonald's - at least, that's what a now-removed AI-generated ad suggested, as reported by Futurism. Set to a song calling holiday season "the most terrible time of the year," the ad shows AI-generated people falling victim to a slew of wintery woes, including family dinners, shopping, caroling, baking cookies, and putting up a Christmas tree, each of which goes wrong somehow. The ad concludes by telling viewers to "hide out in McDonald's until January's here." McDonald's has unveiled its own AI-generated Christmas ad that somehow looks even worse than Coca-Cola's.Terrible AI vi …Read the full story at The Verge.

Some ESP32 boards become community favourites because they're small, cheap, or easy to flash. The ESP32-A1S (known also as the "AI Thinker") became popular for a different reason: it promised an audio-capable board on a budget years before the modern wave of ESP32-based smart speakers, dev kits, and AI modules. But despite being one of the few ESP32 boards designed from the ground up for serious audio work, featuring an onboard ES8388/AC101 DAC/ADC, dedicated amplifier circuitry, headphone jack detection, and a layout meant for real playback rather than just experimentation, it never quite earned the mainstream recognition it deserves.

Building an SFF PC is no easy task. But the satisfaction you get at the end when it's all complete makes it worth the extra effort. If you've been thinking about building an SFF PC of your own, we think this Gigabyte motherboard is a good place to start, offering a size that's easy to work with and delivering features that should satisfy most people. The best part is that it's actually quite affordable as well, coming in with a stellar discount that knocks 38% off its usual retail price, dropping it down to just $150.

The Department of Defense is announcing its own "bespoke" AI platform, GenAI.mil, and Google Cloud's Gemini will be the first AI tool available on it, according to a press release.Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (who has dubbed himself Secretary of War, though the name has not been legally changed by Congress) promised that the platform "puts the worlds [sic] most powerful frontier AI models directly into the hands of every American warrior" and will "make our fighting force more lethal than ever before." In a video, Hegseth says that "the future of American warfare is here, and it's spelled A-I." Today, we are unleashing https://t.co …Read the full story at The Verge.

For Microsoft, Copilot is its golden goose. As the AI model race heats up, Microsoft sees its Copilot project as nothing but beneficial, to the point where it finds it confusing that people don't want Windows 11 to be completely agentic.

The idea of the perfect home media server often starts with excitement and quickly goes into an endless cycle of manual maintenance. After all, you shouldn’t have to be a full-time system administrator just to ensure your favorite shows and movies are available in the best quality.

If you're someone who likes dissecting every piece of technology that you come across, especially older retro tech, then keep an eye on this newly revealed Steam game. At the Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards 2025 Edition indie game showcase, I Am Future developer Mandragora and Hello Neighbor publisher tinyBuild revealed ReStory, which is set to launch on Steam in 2026.

Tailscale might be known for remote access with TLS baked in, but it can be so much more. The software-defined networking system the developers have built enables easy management and hardware-agnostic networking that's secure, scalable, and superb.