My self-hosting journey started with a succession of Synology enclosures. And why wouldn't it? Back then, the platform was more open, and they offered excellent value compared to the competition. There was one problem, however: expandability. The first NAS had only four 3.5-inch drive bays, which soon filled up, and I needed to expand. Each successive NAS enclosure added a couple more drive bays as I upgraded, but I quickly hit a price ceiling and a limit on what the next upgrade could add.

Trump summoned tech leaders to the White House on Wednesday, March 4, 2026 to sign pledges committing their companies to foot the electricity bill for energy-hungry data centers.  | Photo: Getty Images Leaders from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon, and xAI met with President Donald Trump today to sign a "rate payer protection pledge." It's one way they're responding to growing bipartisan concerns about electricity rates rising as tech companies and the Trump administration rush to build out a new generation of AI data centers. "[Tech companies] need some PR help because people think that if a data center goes in, their electricity prices are going to go up," Trump said during the event. "Some centers were rejected by communities for that and now I think it's going to be the opposite."Trump signed a proclamation formally …Read the full story at The Verge.

I used to treat AI like a glorified search engine — something to help me draft a quick email or summarize an article. That changed when I started integrating AI directly into my Office suite.

Some folks are looking to go all out when it comes to protection while surfing the web. If you're not really sure how deep you want to dive, or just want something simple to start with, we think a VPN is going to be a good option. You get an added layer of protection that isn't complicated or expensive.

If you are tired of staring at a cluttered desktop, fighting with a sluggish File Explorer, or wasting 20 minutes on a task that should take two, you are not alone. While Windows is a powerhouse, you need third-party utilities to unlock its full potential.

Your smart TV likes to pretend that it's capable of running apps like a smartphone or PC, but it's more than likely horrifically underpowered, both in terms of software and hardware. I have a Samsung RU7100 from 2019, making it almost seven years old at this point. It's not ancient by any means, but it's notably behind the trend compared to newer screens. Still, this entry-level smart TV offered some impressive specs and experience at a reasonable price, and we decided to pick up the 65-inch model for the living room. Unfortunately, it turned out to be not that smart.

Today, Google killed its 30 percent app store fee, partially uncoupled Google Play from Google Play Billing after they were declared an illegal monopoly in the US, and much more.From July, depending on where you live, Google will now generally charge developers 20 percent for in-app purchases, or 10 percent for subscriptions - but it's also carving out several new categories of app which might pay differently. One of them is the mysterious new "metaverse browsers" category, whose details have been redacted. But Google is public that two other programs, Apps Experience and Games Level Up will let developers save up to 5 percent more of th …Read the full story at The Verge.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney might be one of the most outspoken people in the history of the world. He fought two of the world's most valuable and powerful companies almost all the way to the US Supreme Court, insulting them again and again: "crooked," "deceitful," "insanely sneaky," calling Android a "fake open platform," calling both companies "gangster-style businesses that will do anything they think they can get away with," telling me how Google's Project Hug was "an astonishingly corrupt effort at a massive scale."But Google has finally muzzled Tim Sweeney. It's right there in a binding term sheet for his settlement with Google. On March 3 …Read the full story at The Verge.

I used to assume the pressure I felt during the day came from the amount of work on my plate. But I noticed I had a pattern of opening a browser, a terminal, chats, notes, and before doing any meaningful work, I was arranging everything. Resize. Move. Line up. Adjust again. It was pretty constant.

A screenshot of the Call of Duty footage in the White House’s video. On Wednesday, the White House posted a video of actual military strikes on Iran in the style usually seen in Call of Duty highlight videos, and started the video with a clip from Call of Duty. The real-life footage of missiles and other munitions hitting targets in Iran shows clips seen in other Trump administration videos, like this one posted to the U.S. Central Command X account.Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue. pic.twitter.com/kTO0DZ56IJ- The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 4, 2026As noted by The Washington Post's Drew Harwell, the animation at the start appears to be from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III when a player activates a …Read the full story at The Verge.

Just like your motherboard, your SSD has firmware that governs every drive operation. You might never have updated your drive's firmware, or even have known it existed — you could be suffering due to outdated firmware without even being aware of it. Up-to-date firmware ensures your SSD isn't left behind when the manufacturer patches major performance and stability bugs. However, it's not just speed and efficiency that you lose out on; it's your data integrity. The effects of outdated firmware usually become apparent after a while, at which point it may be too late to save your critical data. Hence, keeping your SSD firmware updated is part of regular PC maintenance that no one should ignore.

John Abbamondi had orders to let the CEO of Ticketmaster down easy.In April 2021, Abbamondi was the CEO of BSE Global, the company that ran Brooklyn arena the Barclays Center. BSE Global's existing Ticketmaster contract would expire at the end of September, and Abbamondi and his team had evaluated proposals from SeatGeek, AXS, and Ticketmaster. The economics of Ticketmaster offer, according to Abbamondi, "was nowhere near as good as the other two." SeatGeek's technology was "superior" to Ticketmaster's on balance, on top of better financial terms including an equity stake in the company, the arena decided. It clinched their decision to go …Read the full story at The Verge.