There are three great advantages of getting into tinkering. The first is that you never have to purchase a simple device again; you can just make it yourself. Second, if your device ever breaks, you know exactly how to fix it. And, arguably the most important point, you can stick an e-Ink display on it. Because why wouldn't you want an e-Ink display? They're great.

Microsoft's Office 2019 apps for Mac will stop working next month, because the company isn't renewing a certificate that validates Office licenses. Owners of Office 2019 for Mac are being warned they'll have to purchase Office 2024 or a Microsoft 365 subscription if they want to continue editing documents.Microsoft previously promised that "all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function," when it announced end of support in 2023. The company then quietly updated that support note last month to remove the mention of apps continuing to function, replacing it with "Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps won't lose any data."Starti …Read the full story at The Verge.

Used enterprise SAS drives are one of the best-kept secrets in the home lab world, featuring massive capacity, excellent reliability ratings, and prices that make new consumer NAS drives look like a rip-off. With that said, they're a completely different animal to SATA drives that most people start with, and the amount of effort and cost it takes to go from finding and ordering drives to actually getting a working NAS using SAS is a bumpier road than people suggest. I learned most of this the hard way on my own build, and if you plan to go down the same path, these four pieces of knowledge will be instrumental.

Siri, are you there? Parents want one thing, and one thing only, out of AI: to add a list of soccer games or "spirit week" theme days from an email or a poorly formatted flyer onto their calendar in one shot. And I have good news for parents with iPhones - the new Siri can finally do this.After stumbling through its first launch of an AI-imbued Siri, Apple is trying again. The newly upgraded Siri AI can chat with you about what might be killing the roses in your yard, put together a shopping list for the hardware store, and set a reminder to lay down some compost in that flower bed. It can reference information in your email and calendar to make its recommenda …Read the full story at The Verge.

For years, Arm gaming handhelds have come with an asterisk attached. They're brilliant at Android games and emulation, but if you want to play your actual PC library, the answer has typically been an x86 machine. In other words, something like a Steam Deck, a ROG Ally, or any machine with an AMD or Intel chip inside. Arm was for the phone-shaped stuff, and x86 was for "real" PC gaming, and that split has felt permanent for a long time.

Waymo has a lot of experience building virtual systems to help its autonomous vehicles better understand the real world. It built realistic 3D worlds to better anticipate natural disasters and unpredictable edge cases. It created a virtual representation of a hyperattentive driver to test against its own autonomous vehicles in a series of simulated scenarios to see which is better at crash avoidance.Now, in a new research paper published today in Nature Communications, Waymo describes a new computer-based cognitive model that explains how human drivers make split-second decisions to avoid crashes. The company thinks the new model will serv …Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta has been ordered by the European Commission to restore free WhatsApp access for chatbots made by rival AI providers while the regulator finishes its antitrust investigation. The rare interim measure announced on Tuesday was deemed necessary "to prevent serious and irreparable damage to competition" in the general-purpose AI assistant market.This is only the second time that the EU has used the emergency power in more than 20 years, Politico reports. It follows the launch of a formal investigation in December 2025 into whether Meta was abusing its market dominance by banning third-party AI chatbots from its WhatsApp messaging platform. …Read the full story at The Verge.

Chinese EV colossus BYD has announced plans to speed up its conquest of the European auto market with the rollout of superfast Flash Chargers across the continent. BYD has already installed the first new chargers in Germany and the UK, and plans to roll out 3,000 across Europe by the end of next year.At an estimated cost of €580,000 (about $670,000) per charger according to the Financial Times, that would mean a total spend of roughly $2 billion to install the network. The 1,500kW charging stations are significantly more powerful than Tesla's 500kW V4 Superchargers, though Tesla already has 20,000 chargers installed in Europe. BYD, which h …Read the full story at The Verge.

The verdict on whether or not AI will fully replace our workforce depends on who you ask. Some people will say that it's just a matter of time until AI agents are doing everything we do but faster, while others will argue that LLMs will see a permanent spot as a tool for workers, instead of replacing them.

The RAMageddon crisis has got Microsoft rethinking its Xbox console hardware business. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball have both revealed this week that Microsoft is reevaluating plans for its next-generation Project Helix console and exploring "radically different" console business models in the meantime."We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping, and we are very cognizant of the ways in which we need to change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it's flexible," said Ball in an interview with The Game Business …Read the full story at The Verge.

What good are our AI tools if they can't complement some of the most structurally repetitive tasks in our workflow? After all, that was a key part of the promise long before any of these utilities landed in our productivity stacks, and even now, it remains the most practical test for whether they deliver on it. If you look at some of the most common research tasks, like compiling weekly reports, pricing roundups, and even academic tasks like developing literature reviews, you'll notice the methodology behind them largely remains the same in almost every cycle.

The Mobi Fold feels like a full-sized mouse when opened and includes a touch panel for scrolling. Logitech finally announced its new ultraportable travel mouse following leaked marketing images that spoiled the surprise last month. As the name implies, the Mobi Fold is a compact mouse that can  fold in half using a hinge that can pivot about 130 degrees. At $79.99 in graphite, off-white, lilac, and sand color options, the Mobi Fold isn’t Logitech’s lightest or cheapest mouse, but it’s definitely one of its smallest and a well-featured alternative to your laptop’s trackpad if you can get used to some unconventional ergonomics.The arch-shaped Mobi Fold looks similar to other folding devices, like the Surface Arc mouse. But while Microsoft’s design folds flat, making it thinner and easier to slip into a pocket or bag, the Mobi Fold is more like a clamshell cellphone. And even though it doesn’t snap shut with a satisfying clunk, it feels durable. Logitech says the hinge was “tested to withstand 15 years of daily use.”That hinge, along with more than half the mouse, is wrapped in a silicone skin that improves grip while semi-protecting it from drops. Where it covers the hinge you’ll find a pleated design that expands and stretches when the mouse is folded in half, so there’s no risk of pinching. At 79 grams the Mobi Fold is a few grams heavier than Logitech’s Pebble Mouse 2 and the bare-bones M196 that I’ve been recently traveling with. When folded, the mouse is a little over three-quarters of an inch tall and about 2.6×2.5 inches in size, making it feel seriously compact. It reminds me of some wireless earbud cases, but a bit thinner.Logitech claims the Mobi Fold’s rechargeable battery will power the mouse for up to one month on a full charge, while a 1-minute quick charge will keep it going for up to 22 hours. It’s getting a global release. which means we can probably thank recent EU regulations for a removable cover on the underside allowing that rechargeable battery to be replaced in the future.The Mobi Fold isn’t designed to entirely replace a full-featured desktop mouse, but it offers enough functionality and customizability to be a solid trackpad alternative. There’s a 4K DPI optical sensor on the bottom and a pair of left and right mouse buttons on top with a multifunction touch panel between them. That panel’s behavior can be changed using the optional Logi Options Plus software, so swiping your finger up and down either causes websites and documents to zip by or a more leisurely line by line scroll. The top and bottom of the touch panel also function as two additional clicky buttons. You can customize their functionality using Logitech’s app, but by default they function as forward and back buttons while browsing.A single button on the underside of the Mobi Fold is used to connect and cycle the mouse between up to three different devices, and I had no difficulty connecting it to a couple of laptops and an iPad. Instead of a dedicated power button, you turn the mouse off by folding it in half. I found that while scrolling with the touch panel remains active when you’ve picked up the mouse to fold it, all of the buttons are disabled. That should prevent accidental presses and clicks because you’ll absolutely be pressing them as you fold it.If portability is your ultimate priority, the Mobi Fold is an excellent way to keep a mouse on hand. You’ll just want to take some extra time to get comfortable using it.While Microsoft’s aptly named Arc mouse features a gracefully curved arch that contours to your hand, the Mobi Fold feels more like you’re resting your hands on two sides of a piece of cardboard that’s been folded in half. Its buttons and touch panel are also completely flat, and I’ve come to realize I’m a mouse user who prefers to frequently lift and reposition a mouse instead of moving my entire arm to push it around. The Mobi Fold’s thin design made it hard to do that as I struggled to find a sturdy place to grip it on either side.For $80, the Mobi Fold delivers an impressively portable mouse that also offers more than just basic functionality. I will always choose a physical wheel over a touch pad for scrolling, but I’d happily endure finger swipes given how small this mouse folds up. While I’d still opt for my laptop’s touchpad, the Mobi Fold is an excellent accessory for taking advantage of the iPad’s recent multitasking upgrades.Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge