When Microsoft launched its foray into the handheld market scene, it had a bit of a problem. The company really wanted to use Windows 11 as the base operating system for the hardware, but people quickly learned that deleting Microsoft's OS and installing SteamOS made the handheld feel instantly snappier and with better in-game performance. Given that Microsoft was cooking up its own official handheld entry at the time, it was bad news.

Horror games are experiences that are best played in the late hours of night, with the lights off and nobody around. It helps set the mood for the way these games prey upon everyone's fear of the unknown, and the flight or fight response that's so easily triggered. For most people, this can be too much to deal with, but for others who love a good fright, it can be the most fun they've ever had. The reaction that one gets when a monster jumps out at you, or you know something dreadful is inbound, makes up what people love about these kinds of games.

Keep burning through your video generation allowance on Sora? No problem, OpenAI now lets you buy extra credits to make even more AI videos. That’s good, because the company says it expects to reduce free allowances at some point in the future.Bill Peebles, who leads the Sora team at OpenAI, said the video platform’s economics are “currently completely unsustainable.” Power users “clearly” aren’t satisfied with the number of free generations they get each day — 100 for users of the higher-end Pro model and 30 for everyone else — so Peebles said OpenAI is going to let creators “get as much usage as they want to pay for.”Ten extra video generations will cost $4, according to Sora’s listing on Apple App Store, though the number of credits used per video depends on “length, resolution, and other factors,” according to OpenAI’s support page. If you hit your free limit, an option will come up to buy more through the App Store. Credits last for 12 months, and if you want to you can also use them on OpenAI’s coding platform Codex. Peebles warned people are going to start hitting that limit sooner in the future. “Eventually we will need to bring the free gens down to accommodate growth,” he said. “In the meantime, enjoy the crazy usage limits.” He didn’t provide details but said OpenAI will “be transparent as it happens.” The decision to charge for video gens comes amid a broader push to monetize and scale Sora and cultivate what OpenAI hopes is an emerging AI-powered creator economy. OpenAI has been steadily adding features to achieve this, such as clip stitching and leaderboards for popular videos and cameos, its legally contentious term for a feature that lets users create deepfake avatars of themselves, others, and original characters, which other creators can use in their own videos. Sora’s going to pilot monetization for creators “soon,” Peebles said, imagining a “world where rightsholders have the option to charge extra for cameos of beloved characters and people.” The feature has been expected for some time, particularly given the company’s efforts to move on from its original hands-off approach to copyright and likeness, which flooded the platform with questionable depictions of fictional characters like Pikachu and SpongeBob and “disrespectful” deepfake videos of public figures like Martin Luther King Jr.

If you have a home lab, you probably think first about servers, networking gear, and SBCs. Those are all great tools, but they live mostly in the digital world. A basic Arduino board, like the Uno or Nano, adds something different. It connects software logic to real-world results in a way that feels tangible, immediate, and creative. Once you start using one, it quickly becomes a core part of your tinkering toolkit.

Like most people, I use YouTube for educational and entertainment purposes nearly every day, and I’ve learned a lot thanks to it. Most of the software I use today I actually learned by watching YouTube tutorials. The problem with learning from YouTube is that it gets overwhelming fast. Playlists help me sort the mess a little, and some creators also put out structured courses that you can watch from start to finish. But I tend to get off track quite easily because, for one, my attention span. But also, not every piece of content will apply to my learning style or current situation.

There is a lot of home networking advice that involves purchasing “prosumer” or enterprise-level networking gear to maximize your network, and while yes, you can buy that gear for discounted rates, it’ll still cost you. The truth is, you don’t need prosumer gear or even the newest equipment to build a high-functioning network.

When most people think of Trello, they picture agile sprint boards and team collaboration sessions. I used to think the same way until I realized I was overcomplicating my personal productivity with a scattered mix of apps.

Rockstar Games, the developer of Grand Theft Auto VI, fired between 30 to 40 employees on Thursday, as previously reported by Bloomberg. According to the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), all of the employees fired were part of a private trade union Discord chat and were either already union members or attempting to organize a union at Rockstar. “Rockstar has just carried out the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry,” IWGB president Alex Marshall said in a statement provided to The Verge. Alan Lewis, head of global corporate communications at Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive, responded, telling The Verge the firings were “for gross misconduct, and for no other reason,” without elaborating further. The firings were spread out across Rockstar offices in the UK and Canada. They come just seven months ahead of the release of Grand Theft Auto VI. The game’s launch was originally scheduled for this fall, but a few months ago, Rockstar delayed its release until May 26th, 2026, saying, “We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.” Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) president Alex Marshall:“Rockstar has just carried out the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry. This flagrant contempt for the law and for the lives of the workers who bring in their billions is an insult to their fans and the global industry. Despite this calculated attack on workers organising for a collective voice and to improve their difficult working conditions, the Rockstar Union remains undeterred. They will keep organising for respect and better conditions whilst continuing to pour their blood, sweat and creativity into games that are loved by millions.The IWGB will pursue every legal claim possible to ensure our members are reinstated and receive interim relief.”Alan Lewis, head of global corporate communications at Take-Two Interactive:“We strive to make the world’s best entertainment properties by giving our best-in-class creative teams positive work environments and ongoing career opportunities. Our culture is focused on teamwork, excellence, and kindness. Rockstar Games terminated a small number of individuals for gross misconduct, and for no other reason. As always, we fully support Rockstar’s ambitions and approach.”

I built my home lab solely to embark on distro-hopping (mis)adventures. But over time, I began using my server nodes for other purposes, including building wacky computing projects and sharpening my DevOps skills. Running FOSS apps is also one of them, and since I often encounter new self-hosted services while researching for new articles, my application stack tends to grow with each passing week.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has been steadily working to deprecate the Control Panel, moving key functionalities to the more modern Settings app. While I am all for user-centric changes, this transition from Control Panel to Settings misses the mark in many ways.

If you're looking for a new USB-C charger, there's a pretty good chance you're not looking at one from Apple. However, the brand makes some pretty good accessories, with its chargers offering reliable power that's perfect for high-power devices like laptops, tablets, and some phones.

While the average desktop user probably doesn't need PCIe 5.0, let alone PCIe 6.0 or 7.0, there is one place where even those interconnect speeds aren't enough. The servers that power generative AI, and other high-performance computing workloads need fast lanes between memory, other peripherals, and the CPU, and PCIe isn't enough on its own.