When I’m not writing or testing out yet another productivity app, I’m sitting through back-to-back classes, cramming for exams, or trying to figure out what an eigenvector actually is. To make all of this bearable, one of my favorite things to do is test out new tools that promise to make studying easier.

There were a ton of great announcements and reveals during The Game Awards 2025. New trailers for beloved franchises and fresh original ideas had everyone talking. Although many of the big surprises during the show most likely won't be arriving in 2026, the future of gaming is looking very bright. However, gamers who watched The Game Awards noticed a few missing games that had no presence whatsoever.

Tesla could be temporarily locked out of its biggest US market if it doesn't change deceptive marketing that exaggerates the self-driving capabilities of its cars, the California Department of Motor Vehicles warned on Tuesday, adopting the ruling of an administrative law judge. The DMV said Tesla's use of terms like "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving" to describe its advanced driver assist systems "is misleading and violates state law." The agency ordered a 30-day suspension of Tesla's license to sell cars in the state if Tesla does not fix marketing concerns surrounding the term "Autopilot" within a 60-day window.However, the DMV decide …Read the full story at The Verge.

A defiant Brendan Carr testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday in his first public appearance before lawmakers since threatening broadcasters who aired comedian Jimmy Kimmel's show. Over the course of nearly three hours, the Federal Communications Commission chairman ping-ponged between heated exchanges with Democrats and largely muted questions from Republicans. But at least some members of both parties expressed concern about regulators bending the First Amendment - though there's little sign it will have much impact on Carr.Taking center stage were comments Carr made in September in the wake of the public killing o …Read the full story at The Verge.

Black Ops 7 seems to be in a really strange position right now. There's no doubt that the game is selling, with people clocking hours into the FPS as is tradition with Call of Duty titles. However, we've also seen potential evidence that, while the game definitely moved units, it didn't move as many units as the upper management liked.

Most long-time Windows users have at some point used the "Battery Saver" feature (or Energy Saver as it's called on the latest iteration) on Windows, but very few know what it actually does. The common understanding is that battery saver lowers the display brightness and disables a bunch of non-critical services and apps to conserve battery. Other than that, it disables transparency effects, background apps, and non-critical updates, telemetry, and scheduled tasks.

I've been on a Tailscale kick lately, putting it on devices, containers, and really anywhere I can find that will let me install it. I've even self-hosted the control server with Headscale and know full well the utility of software-defined networking for keeping my data safe and accessible.

At first glance, Apple didn't change very much about the Apple TV 4K with the release of tvOS 26 this past fall. This isn't exactly surprising given the set-top box and its OS feel like they've become Apple's forgotten platform over the last few years.

People love to dunk on onboard Wi-Fi, but it's perfectly usable in most situations. You might avoid it for gaming or home lab transfers, but it's frankly more than enough for video calling, browsing, and working on online documents. No one's asking you to buy motherboards for the built-in Wi-Fi, but it's a convenient feature to have as a backup. If you're experiencing slow or inconsistent connection on your motherboard's Wi-Fi, a few tweaks can make it significantly better. Give each one of these a shot before you rush into that Wi-Fi adapter purchase.

Linux dominates the home lab conversation for good reasons. Containers, lightweight services, network appliances, and cost-efficient virtualization stacks are all areas where Linux feels like the natural default. But not every home lab is built around Docker and YAML files.

When I bought the Phanteks P500A in 2020, I didn't think about how much of a problem finding the original case fans would be down the line. Even though Phanteks sells its cases in my country, I still have to import the SK140 fans, and that gets expensive once you account for shipping and duty fees. So when a couple of my case fans started failing, I decided to replace them with aftermarket options to cut costs, which felt like a perfectly reasonable compromise at the time.

The Open Home Foundation is a big player in the smart home space, and ESPHome is one of the most influential software development packages in the space. You can define device configurations using a combination of YAML declarations and C++ lambdas, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for most people while still allowing for the deployment of incredibly powerful software. Because of that influence, it's often worth paying attention to what ESPHome and the wider Open Home Foundation ecosystem are quietly working on. One such project has now stepped into the spotlight: Sendspin, a new open multimedia streaming and synchronization protocol previously known as Resonate.