Whenever you build a new PC, you need to decide which components you'll carry over to the next build, and which ones stay behind. While power supplies, storage drives, CPU coolers, and cases can often be used for 2–3 successive builds, other parts often rot in your drawer for years. Hoarding old components for "just in case" DIY projects erodes their value until it's too late to sell them and get back some of your investment. Retaining older components is understandable if you're a tinkerer or regularly repurpose old hardware. However, if you know you'll just sit with your old PC parts for years, it's best to sell them while you still have takers.

Google rolled out emoji reactions to personal Gmail accounts a little over two years ago, and I completely forgot about it until now - probably because the option is hidden within a small, smiley face icon beside the Forward button. But now, Google is bringing emoji reactions to all Workspace users by default on February 9th, reminding me of their existence (and all the times I could've replied with a "thumbs-up" instead of a full-blown message).Selecting the inconspicuous smiley face button displays a range of emoji you can use in place of a written response. If your recipient is another Gmail user, they'll see your reaction at the bottom …Read the full story at The Verge.

Well, it's time to get stuck in with 2026. Before we say goodbye to 2025, though, I think it's worth taking the time to look back at all the cool stuff that got made over the year. After all, we saw (and even made) some awesome DIY projects over the past year, and I think there are some that don't deserve to be forgotten. So, as one last hurrah to the world of ESP32 tinkerers in 2025, here are my favorite projects from that year.

I recently purchased a 3D printer, and I've been using it to print all kinds of things relating to my smart home and my workspace. From enclosures for my smart home projects to storage baskets and even small trinkets I can give to friends and family, I've been amazed at the utility I've already derived from it in such a short space of time. Smart home projects are the biggest reason I purchased it, though, as I wanted to build enclosures for the devices that I actively use on a day-to-day basis. After all, there's nothing really "seamless" about a bare ESP32 board and some wires.

On Thursday evening in Manhattan's Financial District, hundreds of protesters braved the cold to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after an agent fatally shot a woman at close range on Wednesday.Earlier that day, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's visit to One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan sparked protests outside the building. The day before, Noem had described Good's actions as an "act of domestic terrorism." The public video footage, in which Good appears to wave agents past her car and then begin to drive away, paints a starkly different picture.The moment when an ICE agent shot 37-yea …Read the full story at The Verge.

Towerborne, a side-scrolling action RPG published by Xbox Game Studios that has been available in early access, will officially launch on February 26th. But instead of launching as a free-to-play, always-on online game as originally planned, Towerborne is instead going to be a paid game that you can play offline."You will own the complete experience permanently, with offline play and online co-op," Trisha Stouffer, CEO and president of Towerborne developer Stoic, says in an Xbox Wire blog post. "This change required deep structural rebuilding over the past year, transforming systems originally designed around constant connectivity. The res …Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft is making it a lot faster and easier to add links to text inside Word documents. Instead of having to open a menu item to insert a link or use the CTRL + K keyboard shortcut, you can now simply paste a link on top of the text you want to hyperlink.This new feature reduces the amount of clicks you need to do an everyday task like linking URLs, and it works across Word for the web, Windows, and Mac. It's similar to the way WordPress any many other content management systems and text editors let you quickly insert links. Now we're just waiting on Google Docs to join the club.Microsoft has started rolling out this feature to all Wo …Read the full story at The Verge.

Every January, the world of consumer electronics heads to Las Vegas to spend the first full week of the year in the desert presenting, prodding, and gawking at all the new gadgets and gear debuting at CES. The show has once again delivered an avalanche of products, both innovative and vaporous, that will shape the industry in 2026. The Verge's team has been working around the clock to share the experience. Some of it wowed us while some of it weirded us out, but that's part of the fun of CES. After taking it all in over the past week, there are some gadgets that stood out from the rest. They innovated on an existing product, entirely ret …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's been a busy few months Amazon's Fire TV line. The e-commerce giant recently released the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and its new Vega OS operating system in an effort to curb the piracy that's rampant on the platform, alongside a refreshed Fire TV Stick line and a revamped mobile app.

Meta has forged agreements with three nuclear power providers in an effort to secure the vast amount of electricity it needs to power AI data centers. The agreements with TerraPower (which is backed by Bill Gates), Oklo (backed by Sam Altman), and Vistra are expected to deliver 6.6 gigawatts of energy for Meta's projects by 2035 - which is enough energy to power Ireland.These AI projects include Prometheus, the first of several supercluster computing systems, which is expected to come online in New Albany, Ohio, sometime this year. Meta is funding the construction of new nuclear reactors as part of the agreements, the first of which may co …Read the full story at The Verge.

While it might seem reasonable to enable every single graphics setting in a game (if your GPU supports it), some settings are better left alone. From visual distortions and post-processing effects to techniques aimed at minimizing artifacts, numerous settings ruin your gaming experience instead of improving it. Disabling them is almost always better, and you don't even need to worry about downgraded visuals, since many of these effects do little to add to the experience. As a bonus, you'll probably see an FPS boost in your games by disabling some of them, so it's a win-win in most cases.

The launch of an AI image editing feature on xAI’s Grok has caused chaos on X after it was used to generate a flood of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes. As Hayden Field wrote, “screenshots show Grok complying with requests to put real women in lingerie and make them spread their legs, and to put small children in bikinis.”UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the deepfakes “disgusting,” saying, “X need[s] to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.” X has slightly restricted the feature by requiring a paid subscription to generate images by tagging Grok on X, but the AI image editor remains freely available otherwise. No, Grok hasn’t paywalled its deepfake image feature UK Prime Minister says ‘we will take action’ on Grok’s disgusting deepfakes Europe demands X retain documents amid Grok’s undressing spree. X’s deepfake machine is infuriating policymakers around the globe Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it? Grok is undressing anyone, including minors