Netflix is poised to purchase Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming business after being selected as the winner of the bidding war for the media giant. The two companies will now move forward into exclusive deal talks, TheWrap reports, likely including a $5 billion breakup fee in case regulators block the buyout.Netflix reportedly offered $30 a share for the studio and its streaming assets, which include HBO Max and the rights to brands including Harry Potter and DC Comics. Netflix’s bid won out over interest from Comcast and Paramount, fresh from its own merger with Skydance, though early interest had been reported from Amazon and Apple, too.Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was open to an acquisition in October, months after announcing plans to split the company in two: the studio and streaming business on one side, and cable on the other. While Paramount, which had three early bids rejected, had reportedly hoped to buy both halves of the company, Netflix is focused on the studio side.Any deal will have to clear regulatory hurdles, with opposition already reported from the Department of Justice. And if it goes through, Netflix will have to adapt to a new role in Hollywood, running one of the largest and oldest studios, including the theatrical business it’s historically shied away from.

If you run a Linux home lab, you know the importance of backing up your data. The appeal of self-hosted FOSS tools is high among home lab users, and BorgBackup often ranks among the best open-source backup options. It's not a new or particularly flashy tool, but it's one of the most trusted and robust backup tools on Linux. For those who prefer a GUI instead of the command line interface (CLI), Borg Web UI takes BorgBackup's utility to another level, thanks to an intuitive and beautiful web interface. You can use all of BorgBackup's deduplication, encryption, and storage-efficient features with this seamless web interface.

For years, the Raspberry Pi sat at the center of countless home labs because there simply wasn’t anything else in its price range that could compete. It became the default choice for hobbyists who wanted to run containers, self-hosted apps, and small network utilities without dedicating an entire PC to the job. That era had a certain charm and a sense of scrappy experimentation that made the Pi feel special. Today, that feeling remains, but the hardware landscape around it has changed in ways that are difficult to ignore. The arrival of cheap Intel N100 mini PCs didn’t just disrupt the home server market; it transformed it.

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.

You know, I get it. Sometimes you come up with a great idea, take a note of it, sleep on it, then wonder why you even bothered writing it down. Well, it seems that Dell, after introducing its big product line naming shake-up in January of this year, has gotten cold feet about a part of it. If a recent leak is to be believed, the company is changing its Dell Pro Max branding back to the Precision name, and honestly, I support it.

The new hub centralizes account support options. Meta on Thursday announced it is launching a new, centralized support hub for Facebook and Instagram, acknowledging that getting help hasn’t always been as easy as it should be. The space will bring together all the support features users of both networks need to report account issues or recover one they’ve lost access to.“Getting help with your account should be simple and accessible,” the company explained, adding that it’s aware “support hasn’t always met expectations.” The update is rolling out globally to users of both social media platforms on iOS and Android.Meta said it is also working on an AI assistant “for instant, personalized help” with things like recovering your account or updating settings. Initially, this will only be available to Facebook users, but Meta said it is “exploring bringing it to our other apps in the future.”As the hub is accessed through the Facebook or Instagram apps, it’s not clear how helpful it will actually be if you’re already locked out of them. Meta said it’s improving the account recovery process though, using AI to make it easier to find the right recovery options and help the company better detect devices and locations where you’ve used the apps in the past.

Bookmarks are one of those things that get out of hand very quickly, especially if you’re easily distractible. I never planned on the chaotic folders and layout of my Brave browser bookmarks; this is just what I ended up with by hitting Ctrl + D on every single thing that piques my interest. When I read an article that might be useful later on, or come across new design tools that I’ll never actually get around to trying, I just save it wherever and forget about it. I even use bookmarks as a way to “remember” which grocery items to order, only to never look at them again.

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 European Union has served Elon Musk’s X with a €120 million (about $140 million) penalty for violating the bloc’s digital service rulebook, including over the “deceptive design” of its blue checkmark. Today’s announcement marks the first time that a company has been fined under the landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) law for curbing “illegal and harmful activities” on online platforms, and follows the EU launching a multifaceted investigation into X in December 2023.“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement. “The DSA protects users. The DSA gives researchers the way to uncover potential threats. The DSA restores trust in the online environment. With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability.”In July 2024, the EU preliminarily ruled that X was failing to comply with obligations around advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and “dark patterns” — deceptive interface features designed to trick users. X’s blue checkmark system was specifically called out for deceiving users by allowing anyone to pay to be “verified,” making it harder to determine the authenticity of X accounts.The EU can charge companies up to 6 percent of their global revenue for DSA violations. As X is a private company — purchased by Musk for $44 billion in October 2022 and again by his artificial intelligence company, X AI, in March 2025 for $33 billion — it’s unclear what its potential maximum penalty could have been. X can appeal the fine, or could still reach a settlement with the EU by implementing changes that satisfy DSA compliance concerns.European lawmakers had deliberated how large a fine to issue according to The New York Times, reporting that regulators sought to make an example of X as a warning to other companies while weighing the risks of sparking retaliation from President Donald Trump amid ongoing trade disputes. Musk alongside the leadership of  US tech giants have encouraged the President to stop the EU from taking advantage of their companies.The 2023 investigation was also launched to scrutinize X’s moderation practices and the dissemination of illegal or harmful content on the platform, which is currently still ongoing and could incur further penalties.The EU has criticized X over rising levels of disinformation following its acquisition by Musk. In January, EU lawmakers pledged to “energetically” push the X investigation forward over concerns with Musk’s promotion of Germany’s far-right party leader on the platform. Musk has used X to rally behind other far-right personalities and sparked outrage after pulling a controversial gesture during his speech at Trump’s inauguration.Developing…

Microsoft is finally updating the design of the Run dialog prompt in Windows after more than 30 years. After committing to adding a dark mode to Run, Microsoft is now testing a refreshed design that makes it fit with the aesthetics in Windows 11. X user Phantomofearth discovered the modern Run dialog in the latest preview builds of Windows 11.The overhauled Run prompt looks a lot more like a modern launcher, but it functions exactly as Run always has. The Run command has been part of Windows since Windows 95, allowing power users to launch apps with shortcuts like “mspaint” for Microsoft Paint, “calc” for calculator, and “dxdiag” for the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.If you’re not a fan of the overhaul you’ll even be able to toggle the modern Run dialog on and off in the advanced system settings of Windows 11. Microsoft hasn’t officially announced this modern Run prompt, but I’d expect we’ll see it show up officially in builds in the coming weeks.Raycast just launched on Windows recently, providing Microsoft’s operating system with a powerful launcher, clipboard manager, shortcut system, and more. I’m hoping it’s enough to push Microsoft into taking the time to turn Run into a modern launcher like it has been doing with Command Palette and PowerToys Run in recent years.

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.

AirDrop is one of the best iOS features, bar none. It's an incredibly easy way to transfer files from one device to another, especially if I've taken pictures that I want to save to my desktop without using a go-between like Google Drive or sending comically large emails. The problem, of course, is that it only works with iOS and macOS devices. Enter LocalSend, an open-source alternative to AirDrop that works cross-platform and grants the same functionality without locking it to a specific OS.