Netflix is poised to purchase Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming business after being selected as the winner of the bidding war for the media giant. The two companies will now move forward into exclusive deal talks, TheWrap reports, likely including a $5 billion breakup fee in case regulators block the buyout.Netflix reportedly offered $30 a share for the studio and its streaming assets, which include HBO Max and the rights to brands including Harry Potter and DC Comics. Netflix’s bid won out over interest from Comcast and Paramount, fresh from its own merger with Skydance, though early interest had been reported from Amazon and Apple, too.Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was open to an acquisition in October, months after announcing plans to split the company in two: the studio and streaming business on one side, and cable on the other. While Paramount, which had three early bids rejected, had reportedly hoped to buy both halves of the company, Netflix is focused on the studio side.Any deal will have to clear regulatory hurdles, with opposition already reported from the Department of Justice. And if it goes through, Netflix will have to adapt to a new role in Hollywood, running one of the largest and oldest studios, including the theatrical business it’s historically shied away from.

The year's coming to a close, which means retailers are making one last push by offering deep discounts ahead of the holidays. So if you've been holding out, looking for that perfect laptop that fits all your needs, while also being affordable, the HP OmniBook 5 is going to be my pick.

The year of 2025 was pretty eventful for Nintendo. Not only were there a variety of games released throughout the year, but their newest home console had finally arrived on store shelves. The Nintendo Switch 2 has since made waves in the video game industry by being a big hit with gamers, selling over 10 million units globally. And things are only looking better from here, as 2026 is coming up soon and there are more good things for the Switch 2 on the horizon.

Boot loops are one of the few PC issues that make even seasoned users break into a cold sweat. One moment your system is fine, and the next it won't stay alive long enough to reach the login screen. That's exactly what happened to me one morning, when Windows flashed the dreaded blue screen of death, stating, "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart," and instantly threw itself back into the same cycle.

Google is a company that has an app for almost everything, pretty much like Microsoft. It offers the same suite of office apps as Sheets, Docs, Slides, and more. Google Drive takes the place of OneDrive, Google Cloud is an Azure alternative, and Gemini easily beats Copilot on the AI front. Google has always been an all-in-one company, but for the longest time, it didn’t have an IDE. I was always surprised that the search giant never built anything to go up against VS Code or newer forks like Cursor. Turns out they finally did, with something called Antigravity. Google describes it as “an agentic development platform, evolving the IDE into the agent-first era”. I tested these big claims, and it turns out they actually hold up.

You know, I get it. Sometimes you come up with a great idea, take a note of it, sleep on it, then wonder why you even bothered writing it down. Well, it seems that Dell, after introducing its big product line naming shake-up in January of this year, has gotten cold feet about a part of it. If a recent leak is to be believed, the company is changing its Dell Pro Max branding back to the Precision name, and honestly, I support it.

We're clearly fans of home labs at XDA, but getting started can be a daunting task, especially if you've never set one up before. But with a little guidance, the process can be fairly smooth, allowing you to discover a new world of connected devices and services. While you can use a PC or laptop you already have, there are always cheap device options that can be used to run your home lab.

AirDrop is one of the best iOS features, bar none. It's an incredibly easy way to transfer files from one device to another, especially if I've taken pictures that I want to save to my desktop without using a go-between like Google Drive or sending comically large emails. The problem, of course, is that it only works with iOS and macOS devices. Enter LocalSend, an open-source alternative to AirDrop that works cross-platform and grants the same functionality without locking it to a specific OS.

Following the recent retirement of former COO Jeff Williams, AI chief John Giannandrea stepping down, and the departure of head of design Alan Dye for Meta, Apple announced Thursday that environmental and policy lead Lisa Jackson is retiring and that Jennifer Newstead will replace Kate Adams as the company’s general counsel after Adams retires “late next year.”Jackson, technically “vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives,” will retire in “late January 2026,” Apple says. Newstead, who is currently Meta’s chief legal officer, will take over Apple’s general counsel role on March 1st, 2026, from Adams, who has been Apple’s general counsel since 2017.With Jackson’s retirement and Newstead coming on board, Apple is also making some organizational shifts and shifting some responsibilities to Williams’ COO replacement, Sabih Khan. As described by Apple:The Government Affairs organization will transition to Adams, who will oversee the team until her retirement late next year, after which it will be led by Newstead. Newstead’s title will become senior vice president, General Counsel and Government Affairs, reflecting the combining of the two organizations. The Environment and Social Initiatives teams will report to Apple chief operating officer Sabih Khan.Before joining Apple in 2013, Jackson led the EPA for part of President Obama’s time in office. Apple promoted Jackson to be policy lead in 2015. Adams came to Apple in 2017 after 14 years at Honeywell, according to Apple’s website.

I'll admit it; I adore boomer shooters. I've recently been clocking in hours on Captain Wayne: Vacation Desperation, and there's something about throwing the realistic, cinematic FPS games in the bin and blasting enemies for hours on end that feels refreshing. So, when I caught wind that the new Starship Troopers game would go a similar route, I knew I had to keep my eyes on it. Such is the case of Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War, which aims to bring some retro goodness to Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Microsoft is finally updating the design of the Run dialog prompt in Windows after more than 30 years. After committing to adding a dark mode to Run, Microsoft is now testing a refreshed design that makes it fit with the aesthetics in Windows 11. X user Phantomofearth discovered the modern Run dialog in the latest preview builds of Windows 11.The overhauled Run prompt looks a lot more like a modern launcher, but it functions exactly as Run always has. The Run command has been part of Windows since Windows 95, allowing power users to launch apps with shortcuts like “mspaint” for Microsoft Paint, “calc” for calculator, and “dxdiag” for the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.If you’re not a fan of the overhaul you’ll even be able to toggle the modern Run dialog on and off in the advanced system settings of Windows 11. Microsoft hasn’t officially announced this modern Run prompt, but I’d expect we’ll see it show up officially in builds in the coming weeks.Raycast just launched on Windows recently, providing Microsoft’s operating system with a powerful launcher, clipboard manager, shortcut system, and more. I’m hoping it’s enough to push Microsoft into taking the time to turn Run into a modern launcher like it has been doing with Command Palette and PowerToys Run in recent years.

Picture moving into a new place and finally deciding that you're going to set up Wi-Fi correctly this time, so you have coverage all the way from your driveway to the backyard, with minimal dead zones even in the second-floor study. Reddit, popular media, and even XDA Forums will immediately point you to a mesh router system that promises extended coverage without the hassles of multiple internet connections, ISP router problems, and all that nuisance. A sleek set of white pucks from Google or Eero promises to blanket your home in high-speed internet, and yes, the dead zones disappear. However, one speed test from that guest bedroom in a corner would confirm you're barely scraping 150Mbps on a gigabit connection.