With so many different laptop choices, it's pretty easy to find something within your budget. Of course, I like to look for something on sale, because a steep discount can bring a laptop that was previously out of reach, easily within your budget. Every week, retailers like Best Buy and Amazon offer hundreds, if not thousands of discounts on all types of products.

On Thursday afternoon, after agreeing to a short extension while they continued negotiations, NBCUniversal and YouTube announced a new carriage deal to keep the network’s channels live on the streaming TV service. If the process sounds familiar, it’s because the same thing happened the last time their contract was renewed in 2021.They didn’t reveal the dollars involved, but a press release mentions that it includes an agreement for some full TV shows, clips, and highlights on regular YouTube, as well as confirming the relaunch of NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) after it shut down four years ago.“We’ve secured long-term access to our full portfolio of broadcast and cable networks on YouTube TV, and we’re advancing our Peacock strategy with an upcoming launch on YouTube Primetime Channels and ongoing presence on Google TV,” said NBCUniversal exec Matt Schnaars.The details revealed today are:A multi-year, long-term commitment for carriage of NBCUniversal’s full portfolio of networks on YouTube TV, including NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, E!, Oxygen True Crime, MSNBC, USA, Syfy, and UniversoLater this fall, NBCUniversal will be launching the new NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), which will be available on YouTube TV, allowing fans to enjoy a broad range of NBCUniversal’s robust sports programming. NBCSN will complement the prominent sports properties presented year-round on the NBC broadcast networkPeacock will be available in the coming months as a subscription through YouTube Primetime ChannelsA long-term agreement for short-form clips, highlights, and shows from NBCUniversal’s premium programming on YouTubeFilms and TV shows from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will continue to be available to buy or rent on Google TV, YouTube TV, and YouTube, as well as iconic library films from NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution being available to stream via SVOD on YouTube Premium and AVOD through YouTube Free Primetime ContentA multi-year extension of Peacock’s availability across Google’s Android platforms, including Google Play and Google TVAs Awful Announcing points out, while NBCUniversal has been snapping up sports broadcast rights for Peacock, relaunching the NBCSN channel to put it in subscription packages could let it make money from people who don’t sign up for Peacock after it spins off its other cable networks with Versant.

Oh how I miss the time when game demos were all the rage. When they were our one and only avenue into a new game, without massive marketing campaigns with tens of trailers or deep dives. These demos gave us a glimpse of a new game, and we played them a hundred times over, poring over every frame and pixel because that's all we got before a full game came out.

If you haven't heard yet, Microsoft recently increased the price of its Ultimate tier to $30 a month, which was a 50% increase over its previous $20 price tag. People quickly discovered that you could still purchase prepaid cards that could be redeemed for an Ultimate subscription for $20.

Home Assistant can completely transform your home into one that's truly smart and helpful. It can automate plenty of mundane tasks and allow you to live more, without having to worry about all the little things throughout the home. Everything from automatically cycling lights, firing up heating, and even managing how much power specific devices use through monitoring, it's possible to create quite a versatile and interactive platform for controlling almost everything.

Unboxing a brand-new SSD is a special joy for any PC builder or gamer that promises lightning-fast boot times, nonexistent loading screens, and a snappier system overall. That persists, irrespective of whether you're upgrading an old machine or adding faster storage to your gaming PC. Sadly, it's easy to fall for fakes dressed as deals from Samsung, Crucial, or WD, in a market swimming with counterfeit drives. They're usually hiding slow, unreliable, and downright fraudulent hardware under the heat spreader.

I usually try to self-host as many tools as possible, but until recently, I didn't see the point in doing so for an AI tool. The common reasons for self-hosting, such as privacy, security, control over your data, and air-gapped networks, are all valid, especially for enterprise or information security (infosec) use. Outside of those cases, though, it is harder to see the practical benefits of running AI tools locally. I decided to try it anyway by self-hosting an AI-powered research assistant called Maestro, and I quickly understood why it matters.

Videos are always more fun with loved ones, and games that specifically play off of teamwork are always a hit with me. However, none quite manage to achieve the level of quality that It Takes Two manages. Developed by Hazelight Studios, it was the second game the studio ever released, and all of its games have a two-player focus where you have to work together to beat the game. What I'm trying to say is, if you're looking for an awesome co-op experience with someone, It Takes Two is definitely up there for recommendations.

Apple has removed the “Waze but for ICE sightings” app ICEBlock from its App Store, as reported previously by Business Insider. A post from its developer relayed Apple’s App Review message about the ban, saying, “We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to ‘objectionable content.’ The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin. We have responded and we’ll fight this!”The ICEBlock app rose to the top of the App Store’s charts this summer after being targeted by Trump administration officials, with US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling it an “obstruction of justice,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming it was “not a protected speech.” We just received a message from Apple's App Review that #ICEBlock has been removed from the App Store due to "objectionable content". The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure from the Trump Admin.We have responded and we'll fight this! #resist— ICEBlock Official (@iceblock.app) 2025-10-02T22:27:09.813ZToday, Bondi took credit for the app’s removal, saying to Fox News Digital, “We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so. ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.” ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron is quoted in the same report saying, it counts over 1.1 million users, and that “Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.”Apple made similar claims in 2019 when it removed HKMap, an app that allowed Hong Kong protesters to trace the movements of law enforcement, with CEO Tim Cook telling employees that “over the past several days we received credible information, from the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.”At the time, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle spoke out against “Apple’s censorship of apps.” A letter signed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) said, “Cases like these raise real concern about whether Apple and other large US corporate entities will bow to growing Chinese demands rather than lose access to a billion Chinese consumers.”Now, the Trump administration is restricting speech as part of a push against a vaguely defined threat of “antifa.”As Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong wrote earlier today:Antifa, as described in the national security presidential memorandum (NSPM), is both everything and nothing. It is in forums and social media and in-person meetings. It is in educational organizations and nonprofit institutions. It is protests (“riots”) not just in Portland, but in Los Angeles as well, whether against Trump’s immigration policies or, separately, “anti-police and ‘criminal justice’ riots.” It is the doxxing of masked and armed ICE agents. It is the “rhetoric” on the bullets alleged to be engraved by Charlie Kirk’s killer — referring, it seems, to an unused bullet casing with a video game button combo on it.So antifa could be a kid in a black mask tossing a brick at a CCTV camera at an ICE facility. Antifa could be the grandma on the sidewalk holding a sign reading “DONALD TRUMP IS A FASCIST.” Antifa is ACAB. Antifa is Fuck ICE. Antifa is No Kings. Antifa might be a reading group, a teach-in, an Instagram solicitation for mutual aid. Antifa could be the ICEBlock app, and the App Store could be providing material support for terrorism.The ICEBlock app is intended to be used to anonymously report sightings of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and see sightings reported within a 5-mile radius. It says it offers a “completely anonymous and secure” platform without the developer storing any information that is enabled by Apple’s ecosystem, and reverse engineering by at least one researcher confirmed it doesn’t share your data directly.However, others have criticized its messaging, like the developers of Android-based GrapheneOS, who said the developer may be “misguided about the privacy provided by iOS.” Security engineer and journalist Micah Lee called the app “activism theater,” saying many of Aaron’s claims in a speech about the app and its security were false, and noted that a server he operated was running outdated software with known vulnerabilities.Apple has not yet responded to requests from The Verge for an on-the-record comment about the ICEBlock removal.

Are you not a fan of Windows 11's Start menu? Yeah, me neither. It feels like a big downgrade from Windows 10, and I'm a little peeved that Microsoft hasn't spent some time on adding some of the basic features to it.

This is one of those laptops that's perfect if you're looking for something that's all screen. Despite there being a ton of different laptop options in 2025, it's still rare to find one with a large screen that exceeds 16 inches. It becomes even harder to find one if you're looking for one on a small budget. Luckily, this one from HP has it all, and delivers it at a budget-friendly price of just $350.

For years, Zapier has been the undisputed gateway to business automation. However, its expensive, task-limited pricing model can be a bottleneck for some. That’s why I went searching for the alternative the power users and developers have been quietly building: Activepieces.