Ever since Google's browser took off in the internet scene, there's been a joke circling the internet where people say that Microsoft's default Windows browsers are perfectly fine at their job; after all, they're the best Chrome download managers out there. Well, it seems Microsoft didn't find the joke funny, as the company has been pestering Edge users who search for Google Chrome via Bing. If you've ever tried it yourself, you've likely noticed the headers and pop-ups that appear at every step, something Mozilla had grievances with.

As a tech blogger, my computer doesn’t just run programs; it runs my business. My entire workflow relies on rock-solid automation, including running nightly backups, cleaning up massive image folders, and executing custom scripts that process my blog drafts before proceeding. For years, I relied on the default Windows Task Scheduler simply because it was built in and familiar.

Google's AI-powered study tool, NotebookLM, has become a game-changer for me when I need to learn new skills. The combination of guardrails, the reference material you feed it, and the Gemini-powered chatbot makes it a powerful ally in comprehension. But what about skills that I already know?

When I first bought the Alienware AW3423DW curved OLED monitor in 2022, I was convinced it would benefit not only gaming but also productivity and everyday use. The idea of having a curved ultrawide screen wrap around my field of view was enough to convince me to splurge over $1,000 on it when it launched. I thought the curve would make multitasking feel more natural, reduce eye strain, and make games feel like they were drawing me into the scene.

For the longest time, I thought upgrading a NAS only meant adding more drives or expanding storage — after all, it has storage in its name, right? Faster disks and cache should speed up everything, and adding larger drives should solve my problem of constantly running out of storage.

There's a high likelihood that you still have an old USB relic rattling around in a drawer somewhere in the house. It could be that flash drive you've not touched in years, not even for reinstalling Windows, or the SD card reader you have no use for anymore, or even the USB coffee warmer that you used a few times and got tired of. Many USB-powered devices, whether functional or recreational, used to add a bit of flair and whimsy to the PC experience, but ever since some of them were made obsolete, things haven't been the same. I put together a list of five USB devices that I fondly remember, and I wish they would somehow re-enter the zeitgeist.

I thought I’d built the perfect Notion workspace. Custom databases, linked views, toggles within toggles, templates for everything from article ideas to grocery lists. It was beautiful — and completely exhausting. Every time I opened Notion to jot down a thought, I'd get distracted tweaking a property or fixing a broken relation. The tool designed to organize my life had become a second job.

If you ever need to duplicate a slide on PowerPoint, you've got the "Reuse slides" tool to save yourself some time. It's a really nice feature that allows you to snag specific slides, even from other PowerPoint presentations, and add them to your current deck. The obvious use case is reusing a slide from one presentation in another without having to remake it, but you can also grab slides with the same formatting and animations and then edit them to suit your subject matter.

If you've ever tried to connect to your home server from outside your network, you've probably encountered at least one of a few obstacles, such as firewalls, double NAT, ISP restrictions, or any other wide range of issues. That's why Tailscale's new "Peer Relays" feature is a game-changer, and while it's currently in beta, it might improve your network's connectivity dramatically.

Reading about NAS drives, I was led to believe that the perfect home server setup had to be complicated. After all, the more the lights, cables, and complexity, the more nerd points you get. I'm kidding, but building a dedicated Proxmox box running multiple virtual machines, Docker containers, backup scripts, and more taught me a whole lot about self-hosting. It looked great on paper, and made me feel like I'd built a data center in my home office. But the constant maintenance and effort needed to keep it running optimally is less than fun. Every small change required SSH access, configuration edits, and hope that I didn't break something I didn't quite understand. As good as Proxmox is, it requires a certain time commitment and willingness to learn when things go south. While the latter wasn't an issue, I just don't have that kind of time on my hands.

In all the years that video games have been a popular form of entertainment, there have been debates and discourse about various aspects of it. Different people take stands to support or represent their favorite games and brands that they enjoy, which can at times ignite into fiery debates between fans about what they love. This was often referred to as "console wars" in the late 80s and early 90s, after the rise of video game home consoles became a mainstream part of entertainment. Originally coming from the phrase "cartridge wars", it described the idea of fans taking sides to support their favorite console that they enjoyed playing games on.

If you've been seeing my articles on XDA lately, you'll know that I really like e-paper displays. While they're definitely not fit for every project (I wouldn't want to game on one, for instance,) they are very good at specific jobs. If you're looking for a screen that refreshes only once a minute or so and consumes as little power as possible, e-paper displays may be your best bet.