I grew up using a Windows PC, became intimately familiar with macOS throughout my adolescence, and discovered Linux in my post-secondary education. Being able to use all 3 is a nice luxury, and as a result, switching operating systems is something I've grown accustomed to. I recently made the jump to using Linux full-time on my main workstation, and while it's been mostly smooth sailing, I recently rediscovered my MacBook Air as a medium to get out of the house to get some work done. Using it has made me realize that, in all honesty, (almost) everything I want out of an OS is present on macOS.

It's been a busy few months Amazon's Fire TV line. The e-commerce giant recently released the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and its new Vega OS operating system in an effort to curb the piracy that's rampant on the platform, alongside a refreshed Fire TV Stick line and a revamped mobile app.

The tech moguls in happier times (at Trump’s inauguration.) Since X's users started using Grok to undress women and children using deepfake images, I have been waiting for what I assumed would be inevitable: X getting booted from Apple's and Google's app stores. The fact that it hasn't happened yet tells me something serious about Silicon Valley's leadership: Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are spineless cowards who are terrified of Elon Musk.Here's the relevant Apple App Store developer guideline: "Apps should not include content that is offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, in exceptionally poor taste, or just plain creepy." Huh! How about that. They sold their principles for power …Read the full story at The Verge.

Whenever you build a new PC, you need to decide which components you'll carry over to the next build, and which ones stay behind. While power supplies, storage drives, CPU coolers, and cases can often be used for 2–3 successive builds, other parts often rot in your drawer for years. Hoarding old components for "just in case" DIY projects erodes their value until it's too late to sell them and get back some of your investment. Retaining older components is understandable if you're a tinkerer or regularly repurpose old hardware. However, if you know you'll just sit with your old PC parts for years, it's best to sell them while you still have takers.

The launch of an AI image editing feature on xAI’s Grok has caused chaos on X after it was used to generate a flood of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes. As Hayden Field wrote, “screenshots show Grok complying with requests to put real women in lingerie and make them spread their legs, and to put small children in bikinis.”UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the deepfakes “disgusting,” saying, “X need[s] to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.” X has slightly restricted the feature by requiring a paid subscription to generate images by tagging Grok on X, but the AI image editor remains freely available otherwise. No, Grok hasn’t paywalled its deepfake image feature UK Prime Minister says ‘we will take action’ on Grok’s disgusting deepfakes Europe demands X retain documents amid Grok’s undressing spree. X’s deepfake machine is infuriating policymakers around the globe Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it? Grok is undressing anyone, including minors

Every January, the world of consumer electronics heads to Las Vegas to spend the first full week of the year in the desert presenting, prodding, and gawking at all the new gadgets and gear debuting at CES. The show has once again delivered an avalanche of products, both innovative and vaporous, that will shape the industry in 2026. The Verge's team has been working around the clock to share the experience. Some of it wowed us while some of it weirded us out, but that's part of the fun of CES. After taking it all in over the past week, there are some gadgets that stood out from the rest. They innovated on an existing product, entirely ret …Read the full story at The Verge.

I recently purchased a 3D printer, and I've been using it to print all kinds of things relating to my smart home and my workspace. From enclosures for my smart home projects to storage baskets and even small trinkets I can give to friends and family, I've been amazed at the utility I've already derived from it in such a short space of time. Smart home projects are the biggest reason I purchased it, though, as I wanted to build enclosures for the devices that I actively use on a day-to-day basis. After all, there's nothing really "seamless" about a bare ESP32 board and some wires.

Google rolled out emoji reactions to personal Gmail accounts a little over two years ago, and I completely forgot about it until now - probably because the option is hidden within a small, smiley face icon beside the Forward button. But now, Google is bringing emoji reactions to all Workspace users by default on February 9th, reminding me of their existence (and all the times I could've replied with a "thumbs-up" instead of a full-blown message).Selecting the inconspicuous smiley face button displays a range of emoji you can use in place of a written response. If your recipient is another Gmail user, they'll see your reaction at the bottom …Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta has forged agreements with three nuclear power providers in an effort to secure the vast amount of electricity it needs to power AI data centers. The agreements with TerraPower (which is backed by Bill Gates), Oklo (backed by Sam Altman), and Vistra are expected to deliver 6.6 gigawatts of energy for Meta's projects by 2035 - which is enough energy to power Ireland.These AI projects include Prometheus, the first of several supercluster computing systems, which is expected to come online in New Albany, Ohio, sometime this year. Meta is funding the construction of new nuclear reactors as part of the agreements, the first of which may co …Read the full story at The Verge.

On Thursday evening in Manhattan's Financial District, hundreds of protesters braved the cold to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after an agent fatally shot a woman at close range on Wednesday.Earlier that day, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's visit to One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan sparked protests outside the building. The day before, Noem had described Good's actions as an "act of domestic terrorism." The public video footage, in which Good appears to wave agents past her car and then begin to drive away, paints a starkly different picture.The moment when an ICE agent shot 37-yea …Read the full story at The Verge.

While it might seem reasonable to enable every single graphics setting in a game (if your GPU supports it), some settings are better left alone. From visual distortions and post-processing effects to techniques aimed at minimizing artifacts, numerous settings ruin your gaming experience instead of improving it. Disabling them is almost always better, and you don't even need to worry about downgraded visuals, since many of these effects do little to add to the experience. As a bonus, you'll probably see an FPS boost in your games by disabling some of them, so it's a win-win in most cases.

The "Lego Ruler". | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge We just gave the Lego Smart Brick our Best In Show award at CES 2026, and I wanted to stop by The Lego Group's suite to get a last glimpse before I left Las Vegas.To my surprise, the company showed off one more feature I didn't see during my first demo, perhaps the most impressive one should these bricks make their way to adult builders: precise distance measurement.Lego Group design manager Maarten Simons whipped out a "Lego ruler" made of standard Lego bricks divided into segments that were each 10 Lego studs, or roughly 8cm (3.15 inches) long. He attached a Smart Brick to one end of the ruler, and dragged a second Smart Brick along it …Read the full story at The Verge.