There are few better feelings than a group chat with your friends blowing up randomly, each person adding joke after joke, and you can’t help but laugh at the chaos. Over the years, I've inevitably had a bunch of these chats.

My smart home had a problem. No, it wasn't the myriad of devices from different manufacturers, although that was making it worse. It was that every device on my home network was implicitly trusted once I took the steps to connect it, leaving my home with any number of unpatched or unreported security holes. The more I learned about cybersecurity, the less I liked the idea, and that got me thinking about solutions.

If you're a long-time Windows user and you're something of an IT expert, then you're likely familiar with SysInternals. It's a set of tools developed by Mark Russinovich — initially before he joined Microsoft — and it provides some functionality that end users weren't always meant to have, making it possible to view advanced information or test specific scenarios. The tools were so popular that Microsoft acquired Russinovich's company and continued developing the suite well into the modern age.

PC case design has always been a bone of contention, with buyers torn between choosing a functional box for their components, and a centerpiece for their desk setup that performs as good as it looks. That might be why déjà vu hits when I scroll through Amazon or Best Buy. It’s a stagnant parade of tempered glass rectangles and mesh fronts. This got me thinking if we're here because design has matured around PC component size standards, or if brands are just afraid to shake up the status quo. Sure, the case stopped being just a shell and became a conversation starter and expression of personal style, but now all of them do that.

I need a break from Call of Duty’s most popular two series. While the Black Ops and Modern Warfare series are home to some of the best games bearing the Call of Duty name, they both feel played out at this point. Following Black Ops 7’s disappointing launch and some discouraging rumors that next year’s game is yet another Modern Warfare game, I’m starting to feel burnt out by these series.

It’s long been known that X (and Twitter before it) is a major venue for foreign influence campaigns to meddle in American politics. Much of the focus has been on Russian troll farms, which the US government has targeted on several occasions. But the launch of X’s About This Account feature may have revealed the scope and geographical breadth of its foreign troll problem.Almost immediately after the feature launched, people started noticing that many rage-bait accounts focused on US politics appeared to be based outside of the US. Profiles with names like ULTRAMAGA🇺🇸TRUMP🇺🇸2028 were revealed to be based in Nigeria. A verified account posing as border czar Tom Homan was traced to Eastern Europe. And America_First0? Apparently from Bangladesh. An entire network of “Trump-supporting independent women” claiming to be from America was really located in Thailand. Threads quickly started growing, collecting all the pro-MAGA trolls that claimed to be American, but were really foreign actors from every corner of the globe. Some right-wing personalities were quick to jump on evidence that many left-wing X users were also not who they claimed to be. In no time at all, X was flooded with people calling out the seemingly endless list of fake and troll accounts focused on stoking political anger. Shortly after the feature launched, X removed information about where accounts were created. And disclaimers were placed on locations for where accounts were based, noting that travel, VPNs, and proxies could lead to inaccurate data. This is certainly true for some accounts, however, it’s extremely unlikely to be true for even a majority of those being called out.Some of these troll accounts are likely state-sponsored influence campaigns. Foreign entities like Russia and China have a vested interest in sowing chaos in the American political system. But it’s also likely that many are driven by monetary gain. While earnings from monetization on X can be paltry by Western standards, it can be life-changing in developing nations.

In April, Elon Musk began backing away from his role as head of DOGE. By June, he was more or less fully gone from DC. In his wake, he left a power vacuum and significant ill will that has apparently led to the dissolution of DOGE eight months before its charter expires. To call Musk’s DC tenure contentious would be an understatement. As a man accustomed to getting what he wants and functioning as a powerful executive, he swept through Washington with a figurative chainsaw, slashing budgets, firing workers, and making audacious power grabs. Musk’s brash behavior angered government employees and alienated would-be allies, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Eventually, the bad blood reached a fever pitch, and Musk had a minor physical altercation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Politico details the stunning fallout. By late May, DOGE and Musk had lost favor with President Trump, and White House aides began pushing back more forcefully against the fledgling government agency. When Musk was officially given a farewell by the White House on May 30th, it also pushed out his right-hand man, Steve Davis.But Davis, an engineer who had worked closely with Musk for over 20 years, including at DOGE, simply refused to leave. He stepped in to try and take the reins, but this didn’t sit well with many of the remaining DOGE staffers. But others remained loyal, essentially splitting the department in two. When those uncomfortable with Davis’ leadership, given that he was no longer a government employee, tried to plan for DOGE’s future without him, Davis accused them of staging a coup. The White House quickly rooted out his loyalists, putting an end to Davis’ brief attempt to consolidate control in less than two weeks. What followed was a series of restructurings, changes in leadership, and ultimately, the end of DOGE as a centralized organization. When Reuters reached out to the White House to ask about the status of DOGE earlier this month, it was told, “that doesn’t exist.” Musk rode into Washington with big ambitions of slashing government spending by trillions of dollars. Instead, during his brief time in DC, government spending actually increased, and he left behind many burned bridges.

The Windows XP era is now a part of history, and you can't get it from the official sources to run on your main PC. You shouldn't, even if it's become available, but it's always fun to go down memory lane and try things that spark nostalgia. We at XDA love to install retro Windows operating systems like Windows XP, but only on a virtual machine.

When you try out a browser, you immediately start using the most popular features. You also learn how to use the ones you depend on the most, but then get caught up in your usual routine and stop exploring what else they can do. Comet browser has great functions that I use every day, such as Spaces for organizing tabs and multitasking, and a Voice assistant.

For years, “future-proofing” has been one of those ideas that gets thrown around constantly in PC building circles. Spend more now, the logic goes, and your rig will last longer. You’ll avoid participating in expensive upgrade cycles, sometimes dodge teething issues, and even save some money in the long run.

Ever since Halo: Campaign Evolved was announced, I’ve been thinking about what’s next for Halo as a franchise. There’s the high-level stuff, like the long-rumored multiplayer-only game or a brand-new Halo title that features both a robust campaign and sizeable multiplayer offerings. That said, there are some smaller-scale steps Halo Studios could take to regain some goodwill.

Last year, HP joined the fray of laptop manufacturers that changed their branding, so the OmniBook X Flip is the new name for the Spectre x360 (which we've always loved). We gave the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 our top accolades for laptop of the year in 2024, and now we've got the next tier down under testing. And you know what, to get to the lower price point, HP really hasn't changed that much.