Google Calendar has been indispensable in keeping my life organized. Everything from my doctor’s appointments to meetings is thrown in there. Still, after being enlightened to the greatness of open-source, I began to wonder if there was an alternative that’s more private but equally feature-rich. That’s what got me researching a custom open-source workflow that could replace Google Calendar.

If you're serious about your home networking, there's a good chance that you've already thrown out your ISP-given router. While they're fine for general everyday use, they tend to fall apart once you try doing some serious stuff on them. That's why some enthusiasts decide to skip the router part altogether and instead opt for a mini PC to act as their networking hub.

No matter the job you work in, there's a good chance that the start of every day is pretty similar. You get to your computer, launch all your apps, and you start working. But that process of launching all your apps can be tedious in itself, and sometimes take longer than we'd like.

Setting up home internet is something anyone can do now, with a dollar-store router and an appointment with the ISP. Most service providers handle the entire setup for you as well, but there's a massive difference between setting up home networking, and doing a good job at it. It's a difference I see my friends suffer with every day, but the mistakes seem so simple and repetitive, I thought it's best to collate them here.

A few months ago, I got a MacBook on someone's recommendation. Familiarizing myself with a new operating system was tricky, but within a week or two, I knew more about it than I initially anticipated. macOS is certainly powerful, performance-driven, and user-oriented, but I still couldn't let go of my Windows laptop.

It's 2025, and PC gaming is in flux. New AI-powered technologies are everywhere, making AAA titles harder to run than ever before onaging GPUs. Any GPU with 8GB of VRAM or less is struggling with the latest titles, which try to stuff that VRAM full of textures while ray tracing and path tracing add to their troubles. And the rise in higher resolutions and refresh rates on gaming monitors continues to demand more than many older GPUs can handle.

Mini PCs really had a breakout year, with tons of different brands and configurations being made available. While they're perfect desktop replacements, it's the versatility that makes them so popular. You can use a mini PC as a legitimate desktop replacement, or have it part of your home lab.

I've switched between a few monitors over the years, eventually migrating from 1440p to a 49-inch super ultrawide. That thing was amazing. Having such an expansive view of not only your favorite game, but also all of your apps was nothing short of awesome. But it wasn't great for 16:9 content, namely movies and YouTube. Sure, black bars on either side weren't an issue, but it wasn't particularly great, especially when I wanted to do a little screen recording. No one is going to watch anything at 32:9. This is why I eventually decided to switch to a 4K panel.

We’ve seen Sony’s DualSense Edge discounted on a few occasions this year, and now it’s back on sale ahead of Black Friday as part of Sony’s ongoing holiday promo. Right now, you can snag the pro-style gamepad in either black or white at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $169 ($30 off), which is just $10 shy of its previous low. The black version of the DualSense Edge is seldom discounted by this much, so now’s a good time to pick one up if you prefer the stealthier look.Sony DualSense EdgeWhere to Buy: $199.99 $169 at Amazon $199.99 $169.99 at Best Buy $199 $169 at WalmartIf you spend a lot of time gaming on the PlayStation 5, the DualSense Edge elevates the experience by offering more customization than Sony’s standard DualSense controller. For starters, its deep software integration with the PS5 lets you create up to four profiles, each with customization options for button mapping, stick sensitivity, and assigning commands to the rear buttons. You can create separate profiles for Ghost of Yōtei and Arc Raiders, for instance, and swap between them on the fly without having to leave your game.In addition to custom profiles, the DualSense Edge lets you adjust the feel of the triggers (L2 and R2), so you can tailor them to specific play styles and games. You can set the triggers to be more sensitive for online shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, or less sensitive for racing games to achieve smoother acceleration and braking. Moreover, the Edge makes it easy to swap out stick modules in case one stops working.As much as we enjoy how much you can customize the DualSense Edge, though, it’s not without its faults. In his review, The Verge’s Cameron Faulkner found that the controller averaged only about eight hours of battery life on a full charge, which is worse than the standard DualSense controller. It does, however, come with a long charging cable that can lock into the controller, preventing it from accidentally being yanked out.Read our full DualSense Edge review.

Meta may have just released the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) at the end of October, but they’re not significantly different from the last-gen model introduced in 2021. The overall experience is very similar, which is why the original Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses remain a great buy, especially now that they’re on sale for an all-time low of around $238.99 ($60 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for Black Friday.Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1) smart glassesWhere to Buy: $299 $238.99 at Amazon $299 $239.2 at Best Buy $299 $239.2 at TargetLike their successor, the first-gen Ray-Ban Meta let you listen to music, snap photos, record 1080p video, and make hands-free calls thanks to a five-microphone array. You can upload the resulting photos and videos — and even livestream— to Facebook or Instagram via the companion app. The glasses also support a host of AI-powered features, letting you use your voice to take photos, pull up the history of a landmark, ask questions, or get recipes based on what’s in your fridge. They can even translate multiple languages in real time, helping you with Spanish, Italian, French, and other languages you may be less familiar with.Additionally, many of the same software upgrades currently slated to roll out to the Gen 2 model — including the new slo-mo and hyperlapse video modes, as well as the new “conversation focus” feature that boosts the audio of whoever you’re talking to — will also roll out to the original pair. The forthcoming software update, which is scheduled for the fall, will also improve the live translation feature by expanding it to support additional languages, including German and Portuguese.The biggest upgrade with the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 is that they have twice as much battery life: they offer up to eight hours of continuous use and a charging case that adds an additional two days of runtime, compared to 32 additional hours with the first-gen model. You’ll also get slightly sharper 3K video at 30fps, but since both models use the same 12-megapixel sensor, the difference isn’t all that significant.Read our full Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses review.

There's nothing worse for getting online than having slow home internet. This can cause frustration not only for yourself but everyone else who attempts to access their favorite app or service. We've seen what can occur when big companies like Cloudflare and Amazon have problems with their own infrastructure, so when it happens at home, I have a few tools at hand to quickly diagnose what the root cause is. If you've built out your home network or simply use an ISP-provided router, these handy pointers can help you get back online as soon as possible.

I’ve been using Windows 11 for many years now, but there are annoying drawbacks. After installing PowerToys, these annoyances were gone. For example, I couldn’t get my windows into the position I needed, previewing files was a hassle, and copying text from the web or screenshots brought along spacing and formatting I didn’t like. These setbacks weren’t dealbreakers for me, but together they wasted more time than I’d like to admit.