VS Code is full of features some of us never use, and one such feature I discovered very recently is the task runner. It’s one of those features that quietly changes how you work once you start using it properly. Most people open a terminal, type the same commands every day, rerun scripts manually, switch between windows, and waste time on repetitive setup. Task runner automates all of that directly inside VS Code.

Some home lab services earn a dangerous reputation for being simple. You install them, point them at the right devices, confirm the dashboard loads, and then mentally file them under “handled.” That sounds comforting, especially when your home lab already has enough blinking lights, dashboards, containers, and mystery alerts demanding attention. The problem is that the services most often described as “set and forget” are usually the ones quietly sitting closest to the foundation.

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about how AI is seeping into our daily lives, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it startedIn 2021, McDonald's became one of the first major fast-food chains to greet customers with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru. It started small, deploying the voice-ordering technology at 10 of its locations in Chicago. McDonald's developed its drive-thru tech after acquiring Apprente, a startup focused on voice-based, conversational technology in 2019, and later wor …Read the full story at The Verge.

Claude Design has been out for a month now, and after finally getting my hands on it, I have no doubt that it has the potential to change the visual design environment, or at the very least, make design far simpler than it is now. Powered by Anthropic's most capable vision and reasoning model to date, the Opus 4.7, the feature is currently available in research preview for all Claude Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise users.

Fujifilm’s X Half digital camera wasn’t designed to replace your main camera, though you’d be forgiven for assuming it was with its ludicrous $850 price. However, the company recently reduced the MSRP to $649.99, and is now knocking an additional $100 off through June 28th. That means you can grab the X Half in its base configuration for around $549 at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy. Adorama is also discounting it to the same price and throwing in a free accessory pack, which includes a 64GB SanDisk SD card and a camera case.Fujifilm X Half digital cameraWhere to Buy: $649.99 $549.99 at Amazon $649.99 $549.99 at Best Buy $649.99 $549.99 at Adorama (with accessories)The X Half isn’t like most other digital cameras. It’s a feature-light shooter designed to evoke the feel of a half-frame film camera, one that can capture 18-megapixel stills you can style in numerous ways. You can add film simulations, filters, and grain. Digital diptychs are also possible, complete with the option to have the date baked into the photos. In short, it’s incredibly fun, but it lacks features you might be used to in modern cameras, including the ability to take RAW images, a hot shoe for attaching accessories, and an electronic viewfinder.When we published our hands-on impressions last year, former Verge supervising producer Vjeran Pavic called the X Half both whimsical and refreshing. Its vertical 1-inch sensor and fixed 32mm equivalent f/2.8 lens are capable of capturing great shots, but the pocket-friendly camera was designed with point-and-shoot simplicity in mind. Pavic enjoyed taking “scrappy, quick photos” with it, as did our own Antonio Di Bennedeto, even if he was turned off by the original price.

It finally happens: a smart plug goes offline, and you're not sure which one. You open your router dashboard and you're greeted by a list of devices with names like "ESP_88bc," "Android_4f91," and three separate entries that just say "Amazon Echo." You know one of those plugs controls the lamp in the office, but which IP address belongs to which physical device is anybody's guess. What should take two minutes turns into twenty, and you haven't even touched a cable yet. Your gear can be the smartest, your setup can be the sickest, but it's only as organized as you make it. Taking the time to label things both physically and digitally saves so much grief later on, and it should be the first thing you do when you first set up your smart home.

Kudos to the designer of that horrifying golem. | Image: Shudder Hokum recently hit theaters, and it's already outperforming box office expectations. If this Kubrick-referencing haunted hotel flick starring Adam Scott was your introduction to director Damian McCarthy, do yourself a favor and go watch his previous film, Oddity.If you prefer to go in blind - the ideal way to watch any movie - Oddity is available to stream on Hoopla, Kanopy, Hulu, and Shudder.Warning: Spoilers ahead.Like Hokum, Oddity takes place in a sprawling Irish countryside location. They both traffic in similar kinds of scares - cursed objects, the occult, isolation, dark corners, and sketchy men living outside the norms of socie …Read the full story at The Verge.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivered the commencement address at the University of Arizona on Friday. And, as his speech veered into talk of AI, he was repeatedly drowned out by boos. AI is already a contentious topic, and it's not surprising that those about to enter a ravaged job market feel particularly negative about it.Schmidt acknowledged the anxiety, according to Business Insider, saying fears "that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create," were "rational." But Schmidt's frustration was also palpa …Read the full story at The Verge.

A week before the ElliQ robot arrived, a neurologist told me we need to rebalance my mom's life. Her Parkinson's disease medication had steadily become less effective over the previous month, and with it, she had slowly stopped doing many of the things crucial to managing the disease - exercising, socializing, and engaging in hobbies. The result was a rapid, noticeable decline. As my mom's primary caregiver, I was open to any help I could get. And surprisingly, ElliQ did help in a way I never expected.Before increasing her medication dosage again - something that can come with serious side effects - her doctor wanted us to see whether life …Read the full story at The Verge.

After years of using ChatGPT and Claude, I'm finally starting to dabble in local LLMs. I'm not replacing cloud AI yet, but running Qwen2.5 or Llama 3.2 on my PC comes in handy when I don't want to hit message caps or censorship walls. You might think that running an LLM locally requires significant compute, but even an old GPU can handle several smaller models. I can't expect Claude-like intelligence from my local AI setup, but it's surprisingly good for general queries, document analysis, and productivity tasks, once I have the right tweaks dialed in. I was on the lookout for a cheap card to act as my dedicated local AI GPU, and was curious how low I could go. Fortunately, even an 8GB VRAM GPU that's several generations old has enough power to host 7B–8B models. I got a pre-owned RTX 3060 12GB, and it cost me much less than upgrading my primary GPU to one of the latest high-end models.

When Amazon first introduced the Kindle Scribe, it was a quantum leap for E Ink. It brought one big feature that nobody else had: a stylus to scribble annotations or notes on documents, and the ability to save them and forward them to other people. I got one early and loved it, but it didn't take long to find the limits. Most of that was down to how locked down the Kindle software is, as I could only use the stylus where Amazon wants me to, which often wasn't where I wanted to use it.

Apple is hoping that its record on privacy can be the differentiator on the AI front, and maybe even buy it a little slack as it continues to lag behind the competition. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the more chatbot-like Siri set to debut in iOS 27 will include the option to autodelete chat histories. Users will be able to save conversations for 30 days, one year, or forever. That's in stark contrast to the other major players in the space that generally only offer temporary incognito chats, if that. It appears Apple is betting that people are willing to give up some convenience in the name of greater privacy, as anxiety around AI …Read the full story at The Verge.