If I had to put a number to it, I probably test out half a dozen new apps and services on my home server every week. Some of them become a part of my workflow, most don't. But from the years of trying out new open-source apps and self-hosted services, I've had a very clear realization that usually it's the simplest tools that are the best. Most software today tries to be too much at once, and solve too many problems without being perfect at any. Whereas when I'm seeking an open-source solution, I'm trying to solve a singular problem. That's the appeal of 8mb.local. It's a self-hosted video compressor app that does one job with a singular focus and speed. The premise is extremely straightforward.

Windows 11 hasn't had the best of years. We've seen it break spectacularly a few times, such as when the Windows Recovery Environment stopped working properly. We also had a bit of an issue when people couldn't migrate from Windows 10 to 11 mere days from the end-of-life deadline.

Google is pushing back on viral social media posts and articles like this one by Malwarebytes, claiming Google has changed its policy to use your Gmail messages and attachments to train AI models, and the only way to opt out is by disabling “smart features” like spell checking.But Google spokesperson Jenny Thomson tells The Verge that “these reports are misleading – we have not changed anyone’s settings, Gmail Smart Features have existed for many years, and we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”You may want to double-check your settings anyway, as one Verge staffer also says they had opted out of some of the Smart Features, but had been opted back in to having them on. In January, Google updated its smart feature personalization settings so that you could turn off the features for Google Workspace and for other Google products (like Maps and Wallet) independently of each other. In addition to things like spell checking, having Gmail’s smart features turned on enables features like tracking orders or easily adding flights from Gmail to your calendar. Enabling the feature in Workspace says that “you agree to let Google Workspace use your Workspace content and activity to personalize your experience across Workspace,” according to the settings page, but according to Google, that does not mean handing over the content of your emails to use for AI training.

The Tapo RV30 Max Plus is down to $200 for a limited time, rendering it an even better value than before. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but it can also be the most exhausting. Between hunting for gifts and getting the house ready for guests, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Thankfully, we’re already seeing steep discounts on robot vacuums ahead of Black Friday, which can at least make the cleaning part feel a little more manageable.This year, some of the best midrange models — including Eufy’s X10 Pro Omni — have fallen to budget robovac pricing, meaning you can pick up a self-emptying dock or nab a robovac with high-end features like AI obstacle detection for well under $500. A few premium picks, like the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni and Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete, have also fallen to their lowest prices to date, allowing you to take advantage of self-cleaning mops, robotic arms, and other handy add-ons without having to spend north of $1,000.Below, we’ve rounded up the best deals on our favorite bots, from basic models that get the job done to powerful cleaning machines that can make the entire experience (almost) hands-free.Tapo RV30 Max PlusOur favorite budget-friendly robot vacuum offers high-end features, including room-specific cleaning, a capable mop, carpet boost, and smart navigation. It also features an auto-empty dock.Where to Buy: $329.99 $199.99 at Amazon (with code 30RV30MPLUS) $329.99 $199.99 at TP-Link (with code 30RV30MPLUS)The Eufy X10 Pro Omni, our favorite midrange robot vacuum / mop, is available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Eufy (with promo code WS24T2351) for $499.99 ($400 off), matching its best price to date. The X10 Pro Omni uses dual oscillating mop pads to thoroughly scrub your floors, and the included dock features heated mop drying to help prevent unwanted odors from building up. The robovac performs especially well on carpet and tile, delivers 8,000Pa of suction power, and offers reliable AI-powered obstacle detection, which is a rare feature to find at this price. Plus, it comes with a dock that auto-empties, washes, and refills itself.Narwal’s Freo Z Ultra, our No. 1 mopping vac for hard floors, is on sale for an all-time low of $719.99 ($780 off) at Amazon and Narwal’s online storefront. It builds upon the Freo X Ultra — which is also on sale for $519.99 at Amazon — with an auto-empty dock, better vacuuming with 12,000Pa of suction power, and improved obstacle avoidance thanks to a dual-camera system. It also includes oscillating mop pads that do a great job of scrubbing away dried-on messes, and the bot can even recognize different types of flooring and automatically adjust its pressure and the amount of humidity it delivers based on the type.Roborock Q10 S5 PlusThe Roborock Q10 S5 Plus delivers 10,000Pa of suction power and features a sonic mop that scrubs 3,000 times per minute. It also comes with a 2.7-liter self-emptying dock that can store up to 70 days’ worth of debris, along with room-specific mapping, no-go zones, and customizable cleaning schedules.Where to Buy: $549.99 $259.99 at Amazon $549.99 $259.99 at RoborockRoborock’s Saros 10R is on sale for $999.99 ($500 off) at Amazon and directly from Roborock, which is a record low price. The pricey robovac uses an AdaptLift chassis to help it climb over high room transitions, and can even lift its mop pads out of the way when they’re not needed. It’s also exceptionally powerful, with 22,000Pa of suction, lidar navigation, and a vibrating mopping pad.You can pick up Roborock’s Qrevo Curv for $799.99 ($800 off) at Amazon and directly from Roborock, which beats the robovac’s previous low by about $100. The Qrevo Curv is another robot that can climb stairs and move over room transitions up to 40mm high. It gets its name from its curved side brush — which helps prevent hair from tangling — and features 18,500Pa of suction power, in addition to a multifunctional dock and reactive AI obstacle avoidance via a built-in camera.Dreame X40 UltraWith a neat ability to remove and reattach its mop pads, the Dreame X40 solves the problem of vacuuming carpets (with 12,000Pa suction power) while also mopping hard floors. Its mops can also swing out and under low furniture, getting where most bots can’t reach.Where to Buy: $1199.99 $499.99 at Amazon $1199.99 $499.99 at DreameAmazon Prime members can currently pick up the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete on Amazon for $899.99 ($700 off), which is a new low price. It stands out with a roller-style mopping system that rinses and cleans itself in real time, along with a massive 30,000Pa of suction power. You also get AI-powered obstacle avoidance and a mop that detects carpet and prevents it from getting wet.The Dreame Matrix 10 Ultra is available from Amazon (for Prime members) and Dreame for $1,399.99 ($600 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen. Like the aforementioned Aqua10, it boasts 30,000Pa of suction power and AI-powered obstacle avoidance, but it adds a multi-mop switching dock that will automatically swap between nylon scrub pads, sponge pads, and heated mop pads depending on the surface. The dock also includes separate compartments with three cleaning solutions designed for pet odors, wood floors, and everyday messes.Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro OmniThe Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni features an extendable mop that can clean itself, just like its predecessor. However, it also features Ecovacs’ Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology, which optimizes the airflow path from intake to exhaust, rather than relying solely on suction power. Where to Buy: $1299.99 $699.99 at Amazon (with Prime) $1299.99 $699.99 at Ecovacs $1299.99 $699.99 at Best BuyThe SwitchBot S10 is currently on sale directly from SwitchBot for $360 when you use coupon code BFCM70, down from $1,199.99 and just $40 shy of its all-time low. The Matter-compatible robovac works with all major smart home platforms and comes with self-cleaning rolling mops, which will dry themselves with hot air after use. It also delivers up to 6,500Pa of suction power and offers decent AI-powered obstacle avoidance, though in our experience, it wasn’t always reliable. Read our review.You can buy the Eufy 11S Max for $139.99 ($100 off) at Amazon, which isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen but still the best price we’ve seen this year. If you’re looking for a dirt-cheap, basic bump-and-go bot, the discontinued 11S Max is a solid option. You won’t get bells and whistles like self-emptying bins or AI-powered obstacle avoidance, but you do get 2,000Pa of suction power, easily replaceable parts, and quiet operation. It doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi, either, but you can still start and schedule cleanings with the onboard buttons or the included remote.Roborock Saros Z70The Saros Z70 offers a built-in robotic arm that can pick up light items, including socks. It’s a powerful robovac / mop hybrid with 22,000Pa suction and dual spinning mop pads, which lift and detach automatically. Read our review.Where to Buy: $2599 $1299 at Roborock $2599 $1299 at Amazon

The Game Awards 2025 are right around the corner, and we all know how this goes now, don't we? Come December 11, we'll all scream about snubs, gasp at surprise winners, and argue on Reddit megathreads about who deserved what. But at the end of the day, that's not why we show up.

Microsoft is bringing the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE), which adds a console-like UI while navigating through your game library on a PC with a controller, to laptops, desktops, and tablets. FSE launched with the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, and it has so far only been available on PC handhelds.The expansion to laptops, desktops, and tablets is available as part of new Windows Insider Preview Builds on the Dev and Beta channels and for people in the Xbox Insider Program. To turn on FSE on your PC, “hover over the Task View icon on your taskbar and choose Xbox full screen experience,” Microsoft says. “You can also open Xbox full screen experience in Game Bar > Settings or by pressing Win + F11 to toggle the experience.”However, even if you’re a Windows Insider, you may not have the access to FSE right away, as Microsoft says the feature is “gradually rolling out” with the new Windows Insider builds. It also requires that you have the Xbox app from the Microsoft store.As of Friday, the company has started rolling out FSE to all Windows-based handhelds, too.

When I first started using NotebookLM, I made the same mistake most people make. I treated it like a glorified summarizer. Upload a PDF, ask it to condense 50 pages into bullet points, and call it learning. It felt productive in the moment, but a week later, I couldn't recall half of what I'd "studied." The problem wasn't the tool but how I was using it.

A Raspberry Pi can quietly transform an ordinary smart TV into a more capable and flexible entertainment hub. It reduces some of the frustrations of built-in apps and offers a smoother way to access content. It also opens the door to features that many streaming boxes simply do not provide. These changes make everyday viewing feel more convenient and more personal.

Early on, NAS felt like this mysterious gadget that is made for tinkerers who want to build everything themselves. I assumed it to be too complex to set up and quite expensive to maintain. It felt like a solution looking for a problem. However, after setting up my own NAS at home and living with it through all these years, that notion of mine has flipped on its head. It was a gradual conversion, but a lot of the things that I believed did actually change. And that’s where the actual learning began because almost everything I thought I knew about NAS was wrong.

Google and the Justice Department had their last chance to make their case before Judge Leonie Brinkema Friday before she decides whether Google needs to be broken up to remedy its ad tech monopoly.Brinkema expects to issue her ruling next year, but understands that “time is of the essence,” as Reuters reported. While the DOJ wants the court to force Google to sell its AdX exchange, and leave open the option to force a sale of its publisher ad server, Google argued that only behavioral changes were necessary to remedy the issues the court found with its business. Brinkema previously ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly in two ad tech markets and illegally tied together two of its tools. She was keenly aware that Google will likely appeal the case and noted the DOJ’s remedies “most likely would not be as easily enforceable while an appeal is pending,” Reuters reported. On the other hand, she said, behavioral changes could happen quickly, The New York Times reported.Timing was a crucial factor in another judge’s recent decision to rule against the government’s case accusing Meta of being an illegal monopolist. When the case was filed in 2020, TikTok was a far smaller rival than it was when the case went to trial earlier this year. Of course, that’s part of the reason the DOJ filed the Google ad tech case in the Eastern District of Virginia in the first place — otherwise known as the “Rocket Docket.”

While PoE can be very convenient, it's not always the cheapest option when it comes to hardware. Luckily, with Black Friday coming up, we're starting to see some awesome sales on some of our favorite PoE tech for home and office. With that said, if you've been thinking about building your own PoE surveillance system, we've found just the right hardware from Reolink, which is now on sale, providing plenty of different options.

I’m a fan of impulse-buying new hardware for my home lab as much as the next tinkerer. However, one of the most appealing aspects of home labs is their ability to accommodate any sort of hardware – be it an enterprise-grade rig or a budget-friendly Single-Board Computer. Heck, I began my journey into the wild world of servers and self-hosting with a nearly 10-year-old PC, which remains an important experimentation node to this day.