Most people still think of a TV as a display first and a computer second. That mental model is outdated, and companies know it. A modern smart TV is often less interested in simply showing you content than it is in learning what content keeps you in your seat. That’s why the industry has normalized a feature that sounds technical and harmless but works in a deeply invasive way.

When you think about home lab upgrades, you’d probably imagine faster NICs, enterprise-tier HBAs, VRAM-laden graphics cards, and other costly equipment. However, the real advantage of local experimentation servers is that you can toss practically any hardware into your setup and still find a couple of use cases for it. The same applies to home lab upgrades, as there are plenty of devices that can bring additional functionality to your setup without costing an arm and a leg. In fact, some of the best investments I’ve made for my tinkering setup last year didn’t even hit the $10 mark!

People don’t like that they can’t identify AI music. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge AI has touched every part of the music industry, from sample sourcing and demo recording, to serving up digital liner notes and building playlists. There are technical and legal challenges, fierce ethical debates, and fears that the slop will simply crush working musicians through sheer volume. Is it art or just an output? What exactly is “really active“? Whether it’s a new model or a new lawsuit, we’re covering it all to make sure you don’t miss any major developments. So follow along as we dig into the latest in AI “music.” Suno leans into customization with v5.5 The music industry has embraced a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about AI. North Carolina man pleads guilty to AI music streaming fraud. Apple Music adds optional labels for AI songs and visuals Qobuz is automatically detecting and labeling AI music now, too. This Chainsmokers-approved AI music producer is joining Google Google’s AI music maker is coming to the Gemini app Deezer opens its AI music detection tool to other platforms ElevenLabs made an AI album to plug its music generator Bandcamp becomes the first major music platform to ban AI content Universal Music signs a new AI deal with Nvidia Musicians are getting really tired of this AI clone ‘bullshit’ Get ready for an AI country music explosion 97 percent of people struggle to identify AI music, but it’s not as bad as it seems Warner Music Group partners with Suno to offer AI likenesses of its artists The music industry is all in on AI No, typing an AI prompt is not ‘really active’ music creation Suno valued at $2.45 billion in latest funding round as lawsuits loom. The human behind AI music artist Xania Monet, revealed. Suno’s upgraded AI music generator is technically impressive, but still soulless What happens when an AI-generated artist gets a record deal? A copyright mess Record labels claim AI generator Suno illegally ripped their songs from YouTube Can the music industry make AI the next Napster? AI music company Suno acquired a browser-based audio editing tool called WavTool. The music industry is building the tech to hunt down AI songs Sabotaging AI music with sick beats. YouTube’s new AI tool generates free background music for videos Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava on where to draw hard lines around AI in music Making human music in an AI world AI music startups say copyright violation is just rock and roll The music industry’s AI fight Listen to the AI songs music labels say violate their copyright. Warner Music Group’s CEO says we might see AI prompt-generated music really soon. AI-generated music isn’t just a copyright hazard. How AI is solving one of music’s most expensive problems

Juliette Gariépy’s Kelly-Anne is an uncomfortable mystery. | Image: Nemesis Films Productions It's rare for a movie to get technology right. And it's even rarer for that movie to be a thriller or horror, where realism takes a backseat to scares and tension. But Red Rooms mostly gets it. Nothing takes me out of a film quicker than a tech MacGuffin that might as well be literal magic. Yes, the phrase "dark web" will always sound a bit silly, but at no point during its 118 minutes does the tech become a distraction. It's not the tech that makes Red Rooms great, though. It's just something that could have easily tanked an otherwise excellent movie. What carries the film is the expert tension building by director Pascal Plante. The perf …Read the full story at The Verge.

Looking at your desk right now, you probably have a stream deck for shortcuts, a dedicated number pad that you rarely use, and a bulky volume knob. The issue with commercial control centers is that they are expensive, often coming in at over $150 and locking you into proprietary, resource-heavy software. You can easily fall victim to picking up multiple devices that you simply just don't need. However, by spending less than $20 on a few choice parts from AliExpress or Amazon, you can build a 6-key dual encoder keypad that does the job of all the devices I've named above with zero background CPU usage.

Aside from its solid compatibility with smart devices, Home Assistant has several tricks up its sleeve. Its trigger-action automation workflows are simple enough for beginners, while packing enough depth to keep tinkerers like yours truly hooked for a long time. Then there’s community blueprints, official (and third-party) integrations, and add-ons (or apps, as they’re called in recent releases).

Valve deserves a ton of credit for making Linux gaming not just viable, but actually good. SteamOS was a huge part of that; Valve spent a ton of time proving that a Linux-based gaming OS could be polished, approachable, and provide a genuinely good experience. The Steam Deck was the perfect canvas to showcase it, and despite being a handheld first, the desktop mode meant that you could use it as a desktop computer if need be.

My Linux PC wasn't broken. It just had this habit of taking its time, like it was stopping to tie its shoes on the way to the login screen. Some boots were quick, others dragged long enough to make me wonder if something had gone wrong. So I did what most people do, I rebooted, flipped a few switches I didn't fully understand, and then waited to see if it got better.

The latest app from the team behind Bluesky is Attie, an AI assistant that lets you build your own algorithm. At the Atmosphere conference, Bluesky's former CEO, Jay Graber, and CTO Paul Frazee, unveiled Attie, which is powered by Anthropic's Claude and built on top of Bluesky's underlying AT Protocol (atproto). Attie allows users to create custom feeds using natural language. For example, you could ask for "posts about folklore, mythology, and traditional music, especially Celtic traditions." To start these custom feeds will be confined to a standalone Attie app. But the plan is to make them available in Bluesky and other atproto apps. …Read the full story at The Verge.

My digital toolkit used to consist a range of specialized apps – one for capturing thoughts, another for project planning, and a third for long-form writing. I was convinced that it was the peak of productivity, but in reality, I was spending more time managing my tools than actually doing work.

It’s become a trend to blame Microsoft for every shutter and hang on a brand new Windows PC. For years, I was in the same boat. But after a recent clean install, I realized the problem wasn’t coming from Redmond — it was coming from me.

I didn't get into 3D printing because I wanted to replace online shopping. At first, I just wanted to make a few fun things and maybe solve the occasional household problem. Then I started noticing how many little PC accessories exist purely to make a desk setup feel less cluttered, less awkward, or less frustrating to use. Most of them are inexpensive, but they add up quickly when every tiny fix comes with its own product page and shipping box.