Setting up a new computer always feels like a fresh start, but the honeymoon phase ends the moment I realize the "out-of-the-box" experience is missing some essential shortcuts. As a writer, my day is all about flow. Any time I have to pause for a clunky system process or a repetitive manual task, it breaks my creative rhythm and adds unnecessary friction to my day.

A notable phone. "Someone might be watching everything I'm doing on my screen," I tell myself in public. Even when I'm doing nothing of consequence - just making my little Wordle guesses - there's a sense of unease that stays with me. It's never bothered me too much, and I generally save the sensitive stuff like banking for when I'm home, but I realize it's a feeling I've internalized whenever I'm on my phone in a crowded place. Using Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra for the past couple of weeks has offered some relief from that particular worry simmering in the back of my mind; it solves a problem I didn't even fully recognize until I started using it in my dai …Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple has spent the best part of a decade telling us the iPad would replace the computer, with its "What's a Computer?" advertising. As much as I hate to admit it, they were right all along, although not in the way that either of us envisioned it. It took a sea change in Apple's approach to the market to get to this point, and it's exciting to me.

Windows 11 has been having an awful time with updates recently. In January, it felt like a week hadn't gone by without something going wrong. While February seemed a little quiet, it seems the trend of strange Windows 11 bugs has continued into March. Microsoft has confirmed that some Samsung devices are getting a "C: is not accessible - Access denied" error after installing the latest Windows 11 updates.

I just got back from the GDC Festival of Gaming, a big industry-focused event in San Francisco that was formerly known as the Game Developers Conference. While the show is mostly about educational sessions and networking opportunities for working developers, there were also a bunch of games that I got to play. Here are some of my favorites, listed alphabetically. Best of all, these could all launch this year - hopefully well before Grand Theft Auto VI.At Fate's EndAt Fate's End is a gorgeous new action-adventure game from Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus all about grappling with sibling relationships through exploration and battles. I …Read the full story at The Verge.

Whenever I need to put an accent over a letter, I go through all the different ways of typing it that I know. I try holding down Alt+Gr and pressing the letter, I try mashing every Unicode combination I know by hand, and if none of that works, I end up Googling it.

If you're looking to go all out, you really can't go wrong with this Asus ROG Swift 32-inch QD-OLED monitor. Not only are you getting fantastic image quality, but there are also plenty of performance numbers too. Naturally, you're going to be paying quite a bit for this impressive monitor, with the usual retail price coming in at $1,299.

Monitoring energy usage was always something handled by the supplier, and it was no different in the UK. We had to submit regular energy readings for gas and electricity, which were then used by the supplier to calculate how much you've used. Then came smart meters, which provided these companies with reliable and accurate data on usage for each customer. It also allowed us consumers to view live data with small connected displays.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 119, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope your agents are well, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Pixar's future and flight MH370 and sports gambling and YouTube Face, finally digging into Dungeon Crawler Carl after you recommended it so many times, hoping Rooster keeps being as good as its premiere, buying a MacBook Neo I definitely didn't need, redesigning my Obsidian setup to James Bedford's specifications, testing the Fairbuds XL headphones, and putting away all my winter …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you ever want to get rid of a hard drive you've used, the first step has always been to wipe it clean. However, a quick format or "delete all" doesn't quite do the job. The go-to solution, for years, was DBAN. Wiping an external HDD before selling it last week, however, made me realize that things are no longer the same.

Building a ‘Private Brain’ is the ultimate power move for anyone tired of monthly subscriptions and privacy trade-offs. By using tools like LM Studio, you can transform your local hardware into a high-performance AI hub that rivals the industry giants.

Some European retailers have stopped selling certain headphones after an EU-funded study found that they contained hormone-disrupting chemicals. The study included leading brands such as Apple, Beats, Samsung, Bose, JBL, and Sennheiser. Online stores Bol.com, Coolblue, and Mediamarkt didn't respond to inquiries from The Verge about which headphones they pulled, but local news outlets report that they're among the retailers that have decided to yank some of the worst-scoring models off the market. The study authors analyzed 81 different types of headphones, and found that all of them contained at least traces of harmful chemicals includi …Read the full story at The Verge.