The RVSolar System living its best vanlife. | Image: Bluetti It only took three years, but Bluetti is following EcoFlow’s lead with a fully integrated power system of its own to make vanlifers, off-grid cabins, and boats energy independent. The RVSolar System’s main advantage over bespoke systems is a relatively quick and easy installation, requiring just “30 minutes,” according to Bluetti’s announcement at IFA 2025. While it’s undoubtedly faster than installing a fully bespoke solution from Victron Energy, for example, the last time I installed EcoFlow’s comparable system, it took closer to five hours — and that was after several hours of planning, measuring, and double-checking. Thirty minutes is just the time needed to screw everything together, so there’s still a hint of truth here.Bluetti’s 48V RVSolar System is capable of 5,000W of max AC output or 1,360W DC. That’s plenty of power for everything from a roof-mounted air conditioner and induction cooktop to a 12V water pump and lighting system. It can be configured with a whopping 122kWh of Bluetti’s self-heated LFP batteries — enough for me to live and work off the grid for as long as 76 days, based upon the 1.6kWh average that I consume daily in my own van. As a bonus, Bluetti’s system also supports compatible third-party batteries, which is something EcoFlow can’t claim with its proprietary connectors.Maxing out a system with batteries will be overkill for most since these systems are designed to be easily rechargeable when out in the sticks. Batteries connected to the system can be recharged from a number of sources, including solar panels (up to 3600W), shore-power hookup (up to 5000W), a diesel generator (up to 5000W), and your vehicle’s own alternator (up to 1200W).The system is built around an RV5 Power Hub unit that houses all the devices, which typically have to be wired together separately in a bespoke installation. These include the DC-to-AC inverter to convert DC energy to AC power for the microwave or coffee machine, an MPPT solar charger to regulate solar panel input, a DC-DC charger to top up the batteries when the vehicle’s motor is running, and a DC converter to step down the voltage for 12V / 24V devices like lights, USB sockets, pumps, and modern A/C units. The kit also comes with a smart distribution panel for 8 AC and 20 DC circuits, with remote control over four of those AC circuits and six DC. You also get a wired 10.1-inch control screen that can be installed at a central location in the vehicle for remote monitoring and circuit-level control — functionality that’s replicated in the Bluetti app.The RVSolar System will be available globally on September 30th. Pricing information wasn’t available at the time of publication, but I’d expect it to be on par with Victron components, especially if it’s using third-party batteries.

With Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 almost here, it feels like the right time to sit down and revisit the biggest Call of Duty subseries — Black Ops. And while we're at it, why not take stock of the Modern Warfare subseries as well? These are the campaigns that have largely shaped FPS storytelling in the entire genre for better or worse over nearly two decades, after all.

Running a Plex server? Or, for that matter, any server, maybe a dashboard you need external access for, or even a personal website — port forwarding is one of the most common issues to come across. It sounds simple, and on paper it is.

For most people, chances are the built-in File Explorer on Windows 11 is everything they need. It does the job of managing files completely fine, after all. However, when you realize that there are a ton of alternative options out there, you quickly start to realize they offer features and improvements that make the experience so much better.

You don’t need to spend a fortune to create stunning photos. For years, the photography industry has convinced us that powerful editing tools come with a hefty price tag and a mandatory subscription. But what if there was another way? I decided to build a complete photo editing workflow using only free and open-source software. I've found that with several robust and flexible tools, it's possible to handle everything from RAW file management to professional-grade color correction.

USB sticks or flash drives aren't as popular as they used to be. With cloud storage and wireless data transfers now becoming popular, USB thumb drives have almost vanished. However, I still have a couple of them lying around that I wanted to put to good use. Since their storage capacity is too low, I explored alternative use cases for these USB drives. That's when it struck me that I could convert these USB sticks into a portable repository of apps and programs for troubleshooting issues with my computers, routers, and servers. Essentially, a USB drive that has all the important tools in one place.

Mini PCs are a great option for a home PC or work setup, offering the experience of a desktop PC without taking up as much space as a mid-sized tower with additional portability. While most folks won't commute with a mini PC, it is a possibility. And the PC itself being so small makes it easier to move in the event you need to change apartments or want to redecorate your office.

Despite all the heated debate on whether an Intel or AMD CPU and chipset is better for gaming, or whether 6-cores are enough for modern gaming, there's one major factor these debates overlook. It doesn't matter which chipset architecture you use, how many cores your SoC features, or even how many gigahertz your CPU's clock speed maxes out at.

I’ve always appreciated Google Keep for what it is: a no-frills, minimal tool where I can quickly dump my ideas, notes, and reminders. But even with such an efficient tool, my notes would still get buried in color-coded chaos. On the other hand, NotebookLM is great at tracking, analyzing, connecting, and surfacing information, but only if you actually feed it something useful to work with. So I thought, why not join the two to get the best of both?

Despite appearing rather complex at first glance, the Linux terminal is a nifty tool for most tasks, be it installing new packages or troubleshooting the most obscure errors. That said, enabling root privileges for certain actions can seem rather tedious, especially when you’re in the middle of setting up a complex app. If you’re an average user who leverages their Linux machine for everyday tasks, you might be tempted to simplify your experience by enabling root privileges for every operation.

A few years ago, artist Modern Biology became a viral sensation when he posted videos of himself controlling a modular synth with mushrooms on TikTok. Pocket Scion gives anyone similar capabilities, but without having to spend thousands of dollars on a Eurorack rig – and in a much more portable package. A core part of Modern Biology’s setup is a module called Scion from Glasgow-based Instruo. Scion turns biofeedback, whether that’s from houseplants or your own skin, into CV (control voltage) for controlling other synth modules in a larger setup. Touching two sensors to your hand or a mushroom completes a circuit, and then electrical fluctuations in that circuit can be used to trigger different notes, or change the cutoff on a filter, for instance.A little over a year ago, he approached Instruo about building something new. The fruit of that collaboration is the Pocket Scion, an affordable self-contained instrument that can turn small electrical changes from living organisms into MIDI data and create soundscapes using one of the four built-in sound engines. The Pocket Scion has a number of advanced capabilities too, including MIDI out for controlling external instruments. There’s also a companion app for Windows, macOS, and Linux that exposes sound design tools for creating your own synth patches, and can send data over Open Sound Control (OSC), which gives it control over a ton of audio and video programs like Max/MSP, Pure Data, and Unreal Engine for creating visualization or complex reactive art installations. It’s more powerful than you’d expect given its $149 price.The initial run of Pocket Scions sold out almost immediately. But you can place a preorder for when the next batch ships “early next week,” according to retailer Control Voltage.

No Other Choice. At my second day at TIFF 2025, the longest line I saw wasn't for a movie: it was for the Criterion Closet. The space is housed in a van so that it could make it up to Toronto, and honestly, it felt a little wrong to see the outside of it after watching everyone from Michael Cera to Hideo Kojima spend time in its cramped interior digging through Blu-Rays.The line was long enough that I didn't even bother trying to get inside, which is probably a good thing since I'd just be overwhelmed anyways. Besides, standing in that line would cut into my movie time, which is already a precious resource given there are so many things to check out.If t …Read the full story at The Verge.