The year of 2025 was pretty eventful for Nintendo. Not only were there a variety of games released throughout the year, but their newest home console had finally arrived on store shelves. The Nintendo Switch 2 has since made waves in the video game industry by being a big hit with gamers, selling over 10 million units globally. And things are only looking better from here, as 2026 is coming up soon and there are more good things for the Switch 2 on the horizon.

Boot loops are one of the few PC issues that make even seasoned users break into a cold sweat. One moment your system is fine, and the next it won't stay alive long enough to reach the login screen. That's exactly what happened to me one morning, when Windows flashed the dreaded blue screen of death, stating, "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart," and instantly threw itself back into the same cycle.

The year's coming to a close, which means retailers are making one last push by offering deep discounts ahead of the holidays. So if you've been holding out, looking for that perfect laptop that fits all your needs, while also being affordable, the HP OmniBook 5 is going to be my pick.

If you haven't heard already, Zorin OS 18 celebrated one million downloads in the space of a month, with 78% of those downloads coming from Windows machines. That's a cool 780,000 downloads originating from a Windows machine, and it was a cool insight as to how people in Microsoft's ecosystem are beginning to poke a toe into the open-world side of things.

If you've been following the smart home space lately, you've probably noticed that the protocol wars are... complicated. You've got Zigbee devices that need a coordinator, Thread devices that need a border router, Wi-Fi devices that clog up your network, and now Matter is supposed to tie it all together. It's a mess, and picking the right protocol for your DIY projects can feel like choosing sides in a battle you don't fully understand. Enter the ESP32-C6, a $5-ish microcontroller that says "why not all of them?"

Picture moving into a new place and finally deciding that you're going to set up Wi-Fi correctly this time, so you have coverage all the way from your driveway to the backyard, with minimal dead zones even in the second-floor study. Reddit, popular media, and even XDA Forums will immediately point you to a mesh router system that promises extended coverage without the hassles of multiple internet connections, ISP router problems, and all that nuisance. A sleek set of white pucks from Google or Eero promises to blanket your home in high-speed internet, and yes, the dead zones disappear. However, one speed test from that guest bedroom in a corner would confirm you're barely scraping 150Mbps on a gigabit connection.

Every now and then, the gaming industry coughs up a relic from a bygone era. Something that instantly drags you back to the wild west days of PC gaming, when discovery felt organic, and passion alone could get a project noticed.

Google is a company that has an app for almost everything, pretty much like Microsoft. It offers the same suite of office apps as Sheets, Docs, Slides, and more. Google Drive takes the place of OneDrive, Google Cloud is an Azure alternative, and Gemini easily beats Copilot on the AI front. Google has always been an all-in-one company, but for the longest time, it didn’t have an IDE. I was always surprised that the search giant never built anything to go up against VS Code or newer forks like Cursor. Turns out they finally did, with something called Antigravity. Google describes it as “an agentic development platform, evolving the IDE into the agent-first era”. I tested these big claims, and it turns out they actually hold up.

We're clearly fans of home labs at XDA, but getting started can be a daunting task, especially if you've never set one up before. But with a little guidance, the process can be fairly smooth, allowing you to discover a new world of connected devices and services. While you can use a PC or laptop you already have, there are always cheap device options that can be used to run your home lab.

Following the recent retirement of former COO Jeff Williams, AI chief John Giannandrea stepping down, and the departure of head of design Alan Dye for Meta, Apple announced Thursday that environmental and policy lead Lisa Jackson is retiring and that Jennifer Newstead will replace Kate Adams as the company’s general counsel after Adams retires “late next year.”Jackson, technically “vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives,” will retire in “late January 2026,” Apple says. Newstead, who is currently Meta’s chief legal officer, will take over Apple’s general counsel role on March 1st, 2026, from Adams, who has been Apple’s general counsel since 2017.With Jackson’s retirement and Newstead coming on board, Apple is also making some organizational shifts and shifting some responsibilities to Williams’ COO replacement, Sabih Khan. As described by Apple:The Government Affairs organization will transition to Adams, who will oversee the team until her retirement late next year, after which it will be led by Newstead. Newstead’s title will become senior vice president, General Counsel and Government Affairs, reflecting the combining of the two organizations. The Environment and Social Initiatives teams will report to Apple chief operating officer Sabih Khan.Before joining Apple in 2013, Jackson led the EPA for part of President Obama’s time in office. Apple promoted Jackson to be policy lead in 2015. Adams came to Apple in 2017 after 14 years at Honeywell, according to Apple’s website.

I'll admit it; I adore boomer shooters. I've recently been clocking in hours on Captain Wayne: Vacation Desperation, and there's something about throwing the realistic, cinematic FPS games in the bin and blasting enemies for hours on end that feels refreshing. So, when I caught wind that the new Starship Troopers game would go a similar route, I knew I had to keep my eyes on it. Such is the case of Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War, which aims to bring some retro goodness to Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Many people still think the RAM speed that's mentioned on the box is what they get when they finish building their PC and boot it for the first time. After all, when you install a kit that proudly advertises 6400MT/s, it's only natural to expect your system to recognize and use that frequency automatically. But the moment you open Task Manager or head into the BIOS and notice a much lower number, the confusion sets in. It almost feels like you've got a faulty RAM kit or your motherboard isn't detecting it correctly.