I’ve been using Google Docs since I was in school. It’s mostly been for my own personal stuff - notes, projects, essays, assignments, lists - but also hunting down public docs for research purposes. Docs is one of the top document apps out there because of how easy and intuitive the interface is, plus it syncs with the rest of your Drive automatically. But therein also lies the problem - everything lives in the cloud. And the more I learn about data privacy, the more uneasy I feel about that.

The more I dive into the world of home labs and self-hosting, the more I realize one thing. Far too many of my secrets are stored in plaintext in Dockerfiles, k8s, virtual machines, and the other programs I'm using. I don't like this, even if it's on hardware that's inside my home, so I went looking for a secrets manager that I could use instead. The problem is that most are focused on the enterprise environment, which means subscription pricing.

If you want your PC ready to go as soon as you come back to use it, you probably put it to sleep rather than shutting it down. Sometimes, though, putting your computer to sleep doesn't work like you want it to. This usually means going to sleep or waking up from sleep when you didn't want it to. The behavior is usually caused by Windows tasks, drivers, or devices that can prevent (or wake your PC up from) sleep.

The sheer convenience of using it makes many pick smart devices and sensors off the shelf. When the cost starts compounding, most folks hit the brakes on their dream smart home project. Also, I realized that I was locked into a smart home ecosystem. If you’re willing to build a smart home from scratch or a few devices, I recommend using ESPHome and Home Assistant together.

You know, third-party modifications for Windows 11 have been looking pretty good right about now. The operating system has had its fair share of weird issues over the past few weeks, including the File Explorer dark mode flashbanging people without warning. And while I'll always be the first to recommend that people migrate to the one OS that sends dread down every Windows user's spine, some people don't have the choice. So, the next best thing is to tweak Windows 11 to behave.

With 2025 coming to a close and 2026 on the horizon, fans of Star Wars are still waiting for the next major video game release. At the moment, there are a number of projects in the works at various studios, but only a handful of them are known to have made any real progress. Unfortunately, some of them have since been canceled or faded far into the background, with little to nothing known about them. Luckily for Star Wars fans, there are still things to look forward to as we go into 2026 and beyond.

Pre-built NAS models are the default choice for a lot of people just getting into the NAS world. Popular brands like Synology and Terramaster offer a good starting point with great hardware and software combo that is ready to go. You just have to pop in a couple of drives, and you’d be good to go. You are greeted with an easy-to-use interface that holds your hand every step of the way. It feels more like setting up a Windows laptop than putting together your own desktop from scratch.

The holidays have a way of sneaking up on us. One minute you're trick-or-treating with your kids, and the next you're panic shopping in a Buc-ee's gift aisle. But it doesn't have to be that way. With the right cheat sheet, you can keep the holiday spirit high and stress levels low.Fortunately, we did some planning on your behalf. As much as we love playing with the latest gadgets and gizmos here at The Verge, we also love recommending them. That's why, after consulting with our expert team of writers and editors, we've compiled a medley of gift ideas that won't be regifted come this time next year - from noise-canceling earbuds and e-reade …Read the full story at The Verge.

I spent half a decade pouring my life into Notion. From project management to daily journaling, every piece of information lived within its block-based architecture. Yet, despite its flexibility, I began to feel the friction: data felt isolated on Notion’s servers, performance lagged, and my knowledge base was structured more like a filing cabinet than a connected brain.

Warner Bros. has an infamous history of being bought by other companies and then quickly ending up back on the market after its new owners realize how difficult it is to capitalize on a legacy production studio's assets. Those challenges are part of what doomed WB's mergers with AOL and AT&T, who bought the studio in attempts to reinvent themselves. But WB's latest acquisition deal - this time with Netflix for $83 billion - feels like it has the potential to turn out differently because of how much of a major player within the entertainment industry the streamer has become. It also signals just how far Netflix has come: in less than two deca …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's really hard to pick out a Christmas present for someone into SBCs. Whatever you pick, they either don't need it, can't use it, already have it, or, if you're really lucky, you get something they want.

Once I started discovering what all my NAS is capable of, I wanted to move all my existing tasks to it, from backups and media streaming to file syncing and even storing surveillance footage. It was the benefit of having everything in one place, turning the NAS into a pro-level machine that I’ve always wanted it to be.