Just over a year after being sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of billions of dollars in Bitcoin, hacker Ilya Lichtenstein is free. Lichtenstein announced his release in a post on X, specifically crediting Trump: "Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can."Thanks to President Trump's First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can.To the supporters, thank you for everything.To the haters, I look forward to proving yo …Read the full story at The Verge.

xAI's Grok is removing clothing from pictures of people without their consent following this week's rollout of a feature that allows X users to instantly edit any image using the bot without needing the original poster's permission. Not only does the original poster not get notified if their picture was edited, but Grok appears to have few guardrails in place for preventing anything short of full explicit nudity. In the last few days, X has been flooded with imagery of women and children appearing pregnant, skirtless, wearing a bikini, or in other sexualized situations. World leaders and celebrities, too, have had their likenesses used in im …Read the full story at The Verge.

As a newcomer to the Linux scene (I don't even have my "1 year of Linux" badge yet), I never had the delight of using one in the late 90s to early 2000s. I kind of wish that I, at least, dipped a toe into the Linux scene at the time, because it'd be cool to see how the open-source operating system scene evolved over time.

We should get more information about the upcoming 2026 LG Gram Pro series at CES. LG is teasing the 2026 Gram Pro laptops that will be fully unveiled at CES, including what the company claims is the "world's lightest 17-inch RTX laptop." The LG Gram Pro 17 (17Z90UR) and Gram Pro 16 (16Z90U) will introduce a new ultralight "Aerominum material" developed by LG that aims to reduce a laptop's weight while reinforcing strength and scratch resistance.The LG Gram Pro 17 will feature a 2,560 x 1600 display, paired with Nvidia's RTX 5050 laptop GPU that has just 8GB of VRAM. LG claims it will still provide "ample performance for graphics-intensive tasks, content creation, and gaming." You won't be able to run most modern games …Read the full story at The Verge.

Fender Audio, the consumer electronics brand owned by the famous guitar maker, has announced its first pair of wireless headphones at CES 2026. What sets the Mix headphones apart from the competition are impressive battery life, a modular design that allows the ear cups and headband to be swapped to alternate colors, and a focus on longevity with a battery that's easy to access and swap.When they launch this year the Mix headphones will initially be available in olympic white and skyscraper black color options for $299.99. That's considerably cheaper than Sony's $450 flagship WH-1000XM6 headphones that debuted last May. We haven't had a ch …Read the full story at The Verge.

This GE Profile fridge has a patented “Scan-to-List” barcode scanner built in, designed to make it easy to add items to a digital shopping list. Have you always wanted to scan your groceries at home? If so, the newest smart fridge from GE Appliances is for you. There's a barcode scanner built into the water dispenser that works along with an interior camera and an 8-inch tablet to help you keep track of what food you need and add it to your digital shopping list. The GE Profile Smart 4-Door French-Door Refrigerator with Kitchen Assistant is being announced at CES 2026, which kicks off next week, and is slated to launch in April for $4,899 - $500 more than a comparable non-Kitchen Assistant model.A demo of the barcode scanner, interior camera, and table on the fridge. VIDEO: GE App …Read the full story at The Verge.

Tesla's sales fell in the fourth quarter of 2025, as rising competition and the expiration of the federal EV tax credit continued to sap the company's global ambitions. The sales drop has led to Tesla losing its title as the world's best-selling EV maker to China's BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year. The disappointing sales report raises the question whether Tesla can reverse its downward fortune and achieve its goals of deploying self-driving cars and humanoid robots, both of which have buoyed the company's valuation for many years. Tesla reported delivering 418,227 vehicles in the fourth quarter, down 15.6 percent compared …Read the full story at The Verge.

Clicks, the company behind the QWERTY keyboard case for your iPhone, Razr (2025), Pixel 9, and a few other smartphones, is back at it again -- and this time, things are even weirder.

Now that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has appointed a new CEO to run Microsoft's biggest businesses, he has a little more time on his hands for other adventures. Beyond focusing on Microsoft's technical work, Nadella is now turning to the ancient art of blogging to discuss Microsoft's year ahead and why he thinks everyone needs to move "beyond the arguments of [AI] slop vs sophistication."Nadella's first blog entry in "sn scratchpad" is all about Microsoft and other AI companies still needing to get a bunch of stuff right with AI. Chief among them is creating a new concept for AI that evolves the "bicycles for the mind" concept that Steve J …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Pebble Round 2 (pictured here in rose gold) ditches the OG Time Round’s chunky display bezel. It's time to reboot another OG Pebble smartwatch - specifically, the round-faced Time Round, which is getting a follow-up more than a decade after its original launch. The new Pebble Round 2 improves upon its predecessor with longer battery life and a larger 1.3-inch touchscreen display, ditching the chunky bezel that surrounded the original Time Round's 1-inch screen.The Pebble Round 2 works with iOS and Android devices and is available to preorder for $199, with shipping expected in May. This is the latest Pebble smartwatch to be relaunched by original Pebble creator Eric Migicovsky's new company, Core Devices, following the Pebble 2 Duo …Read the full story at The Verge.

There's a phrase that gets passed around the internet that goes "Linux is free if you don't value your time." The idea is that, while Linux comes at zero cost, you put in so much elbow grease into getting it to run properly that you spend more of your free time than if you used, say, Windows or macOS.

It probably doesn't occur to most people, but cheap or incompatible cables can easily sabotage your PC experience. Using the wrong type of cable can significantly impact the performance and safety of your components. In some cases, even the bundled cables can be the wrong choice if they're riddled with manufacturing problems. From display and GPU issues to Ethernet and power supply problems, the weakest link can often be the cable. On the surface, even cables that look identical can have underlying differences that you can't afford to ignore. Hence, it's imperative to get into the details when buying or choosing PC cables.