Extraction shooters are in a weird place in 2025. A lot of people, myself included, have expressed concern more than a few times about how the looter-shooter genre is becoming overly saturated, and that perhaps we might not need any more new ones to come out and possibly become obscure soon after. However, along comes Embark Studios' Arc Raiders, and it completely flips the script, making me happily eat my words with a new extraction shooter that is incredibly polished, impressively optimized, and overall, just a fantastic product altogether.

When you think of "machine learning," you probably think of GPU clusters crunching terabytes of data, or at the bare minimum, the likes of a singular humble RTX 5090 being used for data processing. But the truth is, ML doesn't have to be heavy, or even power-hungry. Enter TinyML: a branch of machine learning designed to run directly on microcontrollers like the ESP32.

High-end motherboards provide the most fertile ground for manufacturers when it comes to marketing meaningless features. Enthusiasts might know how to differentiate between marketing fluff and genuinely useful features, but motherboard brands know how to trick everyone else into buying more motherboard than they'll ever need. Repackaging old features under new and impressive names, adding "gaming" to almost everything, and overusing the term "AI" have now made motherboard marketing go off the rails.

There are some really stellar examples out there of games that don't need to be graphically intense to be good. A ton of the cool low-poly PS1-esque games come to mind, for example. However, nothing proves that a game can be good and still run on a potato than West of Loathing, where the art style is stick figures. Yeah, you won't need a 5090 for this one.

While Microsoft has done its best to make an impact in the handheld world, we've seen evidence time and time again that the best thing people can do with their brand-new Windows 11 handheld is to, well...uninstall Windows 11. From there, you have a few choices, such as grabbing SteamOS and slapping it on your device. However, if you're a big fan of Fedora Linux, you also have the option of grabbing Bazzite.

One of the central tenets of my productivity workflow is that the fewer times I have to switch between app windows, the better. I've been replacing my desktop apps with Terminal-based ones, including being able to browse and watch YouTube from the command line, and it's made my workflow more streamlined.

Sometimes, the perfect conditions for a killer Steam sale match up. Sometimes a game goes on sale because it's having a "free to play" campaign for a limited time, and sometimes a game goes on sale because it just received a huge update. However, what about a game that went on sale because it got a big update, it's having a free trial period, and it's the cheapest discount we've ever seen the game go for?

As a student, AI has been most helpful for me in my study sessions. Before everyone comes at me, I don’t mean using AI to cheat my way through exams or have it solve entire assignments for me. Instead, I mean using it as what it’s meant to be: a tool that simply helps me understand things better. I use AI tools to break down complex topics that I didn't quite understand during class, give me quick explanations before an exam, test my understanding of concepts I've already studied, and more.

The Task Manager isn’t managing its tasks. | Image: Tom Warren / The Verge If you’re a Windows 11 user who frequently uses the Task Manager tool, you should probably avoid Microsoft’s latest OS update. Reddit users and my colleague Tom Warren are reporting that a bug in the optional Windows 11 KB5067036 update is causing Task Manager to duplicate itself when they attempt to close the app, impacting computer performance.The bug is breaking the “X” button to quit Task Manager, preventing the app from shutting down and instead keeping it running in the background. Repeated attempts to open and close the app result in multiple instances that can eat up your CPU and RAM resources.According to the KB5067036 change log notes, the update includes a fix for Task Manager that resolves some apps not being grouped with their processes, but mentions no other Task Manager changes. Microsoft hasn’t acknowledged this new bug at the time of writing, and the KB5067036 log still says that the company “is not currently aware of any issues with this update.”We have reached out to Microsoft for further information.Thankfully, Windows Latest and Reddit user BNSoul have found a temporary workaround. Individual Task Manager instances can be closed by selecting the “End task” button on the app instead of clicking the “X” button, or users can run taskkill /im taskmgr.exe /f in the Windows 11 Command Prompt to shut down all of the Task Manager instances simultaneously.

If you were around during the days of dial-up internet, first of all, I'd like to tip my hat to another tech oldie. I hope your back pain medicine is working okay. If you weren't, then you likely don't know about the sound of dial-up.

It used to cost a small fortune to buy anything made by Alienware, but now, you can pick up some excellent hardware for a price that's really unbelievable if you can manage to find it on sale. That's the case with this 27-inch gaming monitor that manages to deliver on all levels, while also being relatively affordable.

Jay Parikh in 2018. | Photo: Andrej Sokolow / Getty Images This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.To understand how Microsoft sees its role in the AI race, look at what was announced at the company's GitHub Universe developer conference on Tuesday in San Francisco.The event marked a turning point for one of Microsoft's most important but often under-analyzed assets. GitHub, which is used by more than 180 million developers, wants to be the central platform for AI coding agents. Its new Agent HQ interface lets outside coding assistants, including OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code, plu …Read the full story at The Verge.