You've just picked up a bleeding-edge 14GB/s PCIe Gen 6 NVMe. Your first instinct is to clone your operating system onto it. Stop right there.

Less than a week ago, Apple announced the forthcoming AirPods Max 2, a pair of over-ear headphones that leverage the company’s H2 chip for AI-powered live translation, conversation awareness, and a host of newer features. However, if you’re okay with a pair of earbuds, the AirPods Pro 3 offer access to all the same features for less — especially given they’re currently on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for $199.99 ($50 off), matching their second-best price to date.AirPods Pro 3Where to Buy: $249.99 $199.99 at Best Buy $249 $199.99 at Amazon $249 $199.99 at WalmartFor iPhone owners, nothing else really compares to the AirPods Pro 3. Apple’s latest pair of premium earbuds deliver the best active noise cancellation and richest sound of any AirPods model to date, combined with a more comfortable, angled design that fits securely and naturally in your ear canal. They also feature a new XXS ear tip size and a more robust IP57 rating for sweat and water resistance, making them better suited for long-distance runs and various gym activities.Speaking of workouts, the Pro 3 can also pull double duty as a fitness tracker, thanks to a built-in heart rate sensor that works with Apple’s Fitness app to track calories burned across more than 50 workout types. It’s a welcome addition if you don’t use an Apple Watch; however, it may not be as useful for those who already own and rely on Apple’s wearable for its health tracking and wellness features.Lastly, as mentioned up top, the AirPods Pro 3 also boast an H2 chip, allowing for the aforementioned real-time translation features and Apple’s newer Voice Isolation tech, which uses machine learning to isolate and enhance voice quality by removing unwanted background noise. That’s on top of their seamless integration with other Apple devices, mind you, which lets you take advantage of automatic device switching and a Find My-compatible charging case.Read our full AirPods Pro 3 review.Other AirPods dealsAirPods 4Where to Buy: $129 $99.99 at Amazon $129 $99.99 at Walmart $179 $148.99 at Amazon (with ANC)Apple AirPods MaxWhere to Buy: $549 $449.99 at Amazon (USB-C) $549 $449.99 at Walmart (USB-C) $549.99 $449.99 at Best Buy (USB-C)

Whether you can afford one or not, consumer SSDs selling for nearly thrice the price is good for no one except the manufacturers. Over the last six months, SSD prices have shot up in response to the DRAM shortage. Manufacturers have shifted production to satisfy data center demand instead of the less profitable consumer segment. With brands exiting the segment altogether and indicating things might not improve until 2028, those building a new PC or upgrading their storage have been left in the lurch. In this scenario, used enterprise SSDs have become highly attractive for buyers who don't want to burn money on overpriced consumer drives but still need reliable storage. Enterprise SSDs are not only longer-lasting than consumer drives, but also more affordable on the used market. They're especially relevant for NAS and home lab users with demands for vast amounts of performant storage.

Halide running on an iPhone. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Lux Optics co-founder Sebastiaan de With made headlines when he joined Apple in late January. The company was behind Halide, one of the most popular photography apps for the iPhone, which gained a cult following for its robust pro-level controls. Apple was apparently a big enough fan that it tried to acquire the developer last summer. Those talks never bore fruit, and eventually the company simply hired de With. At the time, it was widely believed that Apple had poached him from Lux. But new allegations from a lawsuit filed by co-founder Ben Sandofsky in the California Superior Court of Santa Cruz claim de With was fired for financial misc …Read the full story at The Verge.

I've mentioned before that, in the past year, I switched to Linux after using Windows pretty much my whole life. And I'm very happy to have made that transition, but one thing I've learned is that Linux can be a little more finicky than Windows in how it wants you to approach things.

The ubiquitous nature of USB-C really didn't arrive a second too soon. Pretty much all modern devices now use some form of USB-C, and in terms of the connector shape itself, that's great, but there are many different standards packed into USB-C that make it a deceiving cable to use. The name "USB-C" only describes the connector shape, not what the cable can actually do. The USB Implementers Forum is very clear about that: USB Type-C is not the same thing as USB4, USB 3.2, or USB Power Delivery, even if those technologies can all use the same port.

GPU shopping the last few years hasn't been straightforward, even if you pretend the current AI-induced DRAM price hike didn't happen. Pretty much every major GPU launch has been marred by stock issues, leading to many paying higher premiums for new cards. Despite that, I still bought a new GPU in 2025: a Sapphire NITRO+ RX 9070 XT.

It feels like recently the "Ring Free" home is becoming a badge of honor for privacy enthusiasts. While Amazon's doorbell defined the category, a series of 2024-2025 price hikes and high-profile privacy controversies like the Search Party AI backlash of early 2026 have driven a mass migration towards local-only systems within a smart home.

Over the years, I’ve managed to build a reliable self-hosted arsenal that includes everything from productivity services and network tools to smart-home-centric utilities and wacky containerized apps.

Over the years, there have been plenty of solutions for running Android apps on your PC, especially on Windows. Microsoft took its own whack at it with the Windows Subsystem for Android on Windows 11, but even before that, we had solutions like BlueStacks that enabled the same thing, and usually better.

Remember how much you loved Clippy, the overly enthusiastic Office '97 helper, who only wanted to fulfill his role as the best paperclip on your desk? No? Was I the only one? Anyway, his pre-programmed responses were helpful enough for the time being, especially if you didn't know how to use Microsoft Office.

While storing credit and debit cards is what Google Wallet is most known for, the app can actually do a lot more than that. In fact, if you're like me, contactless payments might be the last thing on your mind when you open up the app.