'Buyer's remorse' is a feeling that many PC builders and enthusiasts are all too familiar with, and it's no wonder that many gamers make upgrade decisions they later come to regret. With hundreds of components to pick from, dozens of new standards, and the entire internet shouting conflicting and contradictory advice on popular online forums, even experienced builders fall into patterns that waste money and marginally improve performance.

Now that we've had a lot of time to play around with AI-generated code, people are asking themselves: does letting an LLM program for you improve productivity? Right now, it seems like a strange mix of "Yes" and "No." While it does allow people with zero programming skills to create an app with ease, the code itself isn't always the best it can be. While vibe coding is perfect to see how a program could behave, it's not ideal for actually shipping the product.

Real ones will know that Mount Rainier looks too big in this image, but the re-creation of a Washington State ferry in this AI image is uncanny. This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on smartphones and digital imagery - real or otherwise - follow Allison Johnson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.How it startedRemember the early days of AI image generation? Oh how we laughed when our prompts resulted in people with too many fingers, rubbery limbs, and other details easily pointing to fakes. But if you haven't been keeping up, I regret to inform you that the joke is over. AI image generators are getting way better at creating realistic fakes, partly thanks to …Read the full story at The Verge.

An Xbox Ally in front of an Xbox Ally X. I still wouldn't buy an Xbox Ally, and I still don't think the tweaked version of Windows that shipped with it is ready for primetime. The Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) needs work. But two months after I panned the cheaper $600 white Xbox Ally and wasn't quite sold on the $1,000 black one, one of my most-hated Windows issues is getting better.I didn't stop testing these handhelds after my October review; I've been playing Hollow Knight: Silksong and Blue Prince on them ever since. I installed FSE on an MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, too. And after too many updates to count, I'm finally beginning to trust two of these handhelds to save my game (an …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Game Awards this year was filled with many big announcements, including a few that were based in a galaxy far, far away. While rumors and whispers about new Star Wars games being at the show were lingering around online, nobody knew for certain what would be announced, if anything at all. But luckily for Star Wars fans who tuned in, they got a big surprise that many were not expecting. Not only are we heading back to the Old Republic, but for an all-new adventure that is a spiritual successor to one of the best Star Wars games ever made.

When Nvidia introduced multi-frame generation alongside the RTX 5000 series, many were skeptical because the original DLSS frame generation we got with the RTX 4000 series wasn't all that great. From latency issues to visual artifacts during motion, it never felt stable enough for competitive games. I immediately assumed multi-frame generation would only make that worse. However, after trying it out on a 360Hz monitor, I have to admit that it can be handy sometimes.

I recently went through a major self-hosting session and downloaded the most talked-about, high-expectation tools in the community. However, it quickly turned into frustration. Within minutes, or at best, a single day of testing, several of these high-touted applications failed to deliver on core promises due to clunky UIs, resource consumption, or unnecessary complexity.

When someone asks you the time, how precise are you? I'm usually someone who gives the full time, like "six twenty-two." However, I know some people who will go with the easier "about twenty past" or even "near enough to half-past." And as much as I like saying the exact time down to the minute, there's something very human about giving a 'fuzzy' answer instead.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 109, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're staying warm, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Google Maps and shopaganda and life as a pop star, finally getting to watch F1 now that it's streaming, rewatching the first two Avatars ahead of the next one's release, pretending the new Taylor Swift tour doc is a reasonable replacement for actually seeing the tour, buying a bunch of Ikea smart buttons now that they're on sale in the US, playing with the excellent new Obsidian up …Read the full story at The Verge.

Right now, Valve fans have three burning questions on their mind: when will the Steam Machine release, how much will it be, and when are we finally getting our mitts on the white whale of gaming, Half-Life 3? Well, if industry insiders are to be believed, Valve is planning to answer all three of these questions in one fell swoop. Whispers are claiming that Valve plans to make Half-Life 3 part of the release package for the Steam Machine, but things have been a little too hairy on the hardware front for the company to make a move.

NotebookLM has been on everyone’s radar this year, and it’s easy to see why. It’s probably the best tool out there right now for researching and learning thanks to its insanely good synthesizing capabilities. It’s so pivotal to many of our workflows; I even use it alongside my design apps, as well as to take care of boring everyday tasks.

I've made many PC building blunders in the past, but one thing I've never done is attempt to future-proof a build. The idea behind future-proofing is to buy more than you need right now to avoid premature upgrades in the future. It might make sense on the surface, but it is ultimately a flawed concept. No matter what you buy, it is bound to become outdated much earlier than you anticipate. It could happen due to performance leaps, platform changes, or new features that don't exist right now.