"Developing superintelligence is now in sight," says Mark Zuckerberg, heralding the "creation and discovery of new things that aren't imaginable today." Powerful AI "may come as soon as 2026 [and will be] smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across most relevant fields," says Dario Amodei, offering the doubling of human lifespans or even "escape velocity" from death itself. "We are now confident we know how to build AGI," says Sam Altman, referring to the industry's holy grail of artificial general intelligence - and soon superintelligent AI "could massively accelerate scientific discovery and innovation well beyond what we are capable of doing …Read the full story at The Verge.

Sure, you can go all out when buying a laptop, but it becomes more challenging to find something that hits all the right marks while also staying on a certain budget. We think this Dell 15 manages to hit the sweet spot, delivering enough power and coming in at a price that's easy to afford. At just $400, you get everything you need.

It’s easy to see why everyone loves Figma - it’s very polished, feature-rich, user-friendly, collaboration-friendly, all of it. Before diving deep into design this year, I didn’t even realize it was the industry standard for product design and prototyping, and it is now actually preferred over Sketch by professionals. Even the free version is really powerful. You can handle most of the web or product design pipeline without paying for a subscription.

Have you ever done a grand reveal of something you've worked really hard on, expecting a ton of praise, but were instead met with indifference, or worse, disdain? Well, that's how I'm imagining how Microsoft is feeling right now about its grand Windows agentic reveal. It likely expected us to adore the idea of our Windows 11 PCs filling to the brim with AI agents, all of which are trained to help us get stuff done in the best way possible. Instead, we've told Microsoft where it can take its AI agents, and it's a little confused as to why.

When the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series was first released, they got scalped pretty hard. It was very difficult to find a card selling for MSRP, and whenever someone found a source of sensibly-priced cards, they'd get snapped up within moments. Fortunately, those days seem to be over (touch wood), as we're now seeing the RTX 50 cards selling for what they should be going for. Add the Black Friday sales on top of that, and suddenly you have a whole range of cards selling for prices we could only dream of seeing earlier in 2025.

Valve's recently announced Steam Machine spawned wide discussion across the PC hardware world, and while much of the conversation was cautious excitement over an Arch Linux-based machine in the living room, a lot of it also centered around the potential price-to-performance ratio the Steam Machine may offer. We don't know the pricing of the Steam Machine yet, but based on the specs, we can assume it won't follow a standard console pricing scheme.

Ikea’s introducing two new Bluetooth speaker designs next month. | Image: Ikea Ikea is launching two new Bluetooth speakers next month as part of a larger collection announced earlier this year, following the end of the company’s partnership with Sonos. Like the Blomprakt speaker lamp that launched in the US last month, both the new Solskydd and Kulglass speakers blend technology and design so they’ll function as part of a room’s decor while not filling it with music.“We’re treating speakers with the same care as the rest of the home, so they contribute to a room’s atmosphere and personality not only through sound but also through form, colour and character,” says Ikea product developer Sara Ottosson. The company collaborated with designer and colorist Tekla Evelina Severin to achieve that, resulting in devices that look nothing like what typically comes to mind when you think of Bluetooth speakers.The Solskydd is a family of round speakers in three different sizes that could be mistaken for serving trays. The smallest 8-inch model ($79.99) features a single 2.5-inch driver hidden behind a fabric wrap with an orange checkerboard-inspired pattern. Despite its size, it can output up to 80.5dB of sound and is the only portable option with a rechargeable battery that’s rated for up to 25 hours of playback.A slightly larger 11-inch version ($99.99) of the Solskydd pairs a 1-inch tweeter with a 4-inch woofer for up to 83.6dB of sound hidden behind a green fabric facade with brown and beige diagonal stripes. Like its smaller counterpart, it can be hung on a wall or attached to an included display stand. The largest 18-inch Solskydd model ($139.99) hides a 1-inch tweeter and two 4-inch woofers (producing up to 93.6dB) behind an orange textured finish and is exclusively designed to be wall-mounted. The two larger options offer three different EQ settings, while all three versions of the Solskydd are also available in clean white finishes if you prefer your speakers with a subtler design.In addition to Bluetooth connectivity, Ikea’s speakers support Spotify Tap so you can start playing music from where you left off in the streaming app, as well as multi-speaker connectivity. You can use two of them in a left-and-right stereo configuration to boost a TV’s sound, or connect up to 100 of them together and have them all play in sync to fill a larger space.If you want even more functionality, Ikea’s new Kulglass ($129.99) pairs a whimsical lamp featuring an ice cream-inspired swirl-shaped shade with a Bluetooth speaker in its base, packing a 1-inch tweeter and 3.5-inch woofer producing up to 82.6dB. Unlike the Solskydd speakers that rely on a pair of buttons for adjusting volume, the Kulglass lamps, available in two versions finished in shades of green or red, include a volume knob.Specific release dates in December 2025 will vary by country, but in the US the new speakers aren’t expected to be available until January 1st, 2026.

I don't know about you, but I think there's something special about loading an operating system onto a brand new SBC. To me, it feels like smashing a bottle against a ship before it's launched, an official "breaking in" of new hardware. And for a while now, people have relied on Raspberry Pi's official Imager to get an operating system on their SBC.

Dust accumulation is one of those problems most of us ignore until it starts affecting thermals and performance. At first, it's nothing more than a cosmetic issue, but over time, it slowly starts interfering with how efficiently components like your CPU and GPU dissipate heat. When dust clogs up intake filters and settles deep into heatsink or radiator fins, your fans will have to work harder just to push the same amount of air through the case. That translates to more noise, high temperatures, and less effective cooling overall.

It turns out that you can do more with Steam Deck parts than you may first assume. For instance, just over a year ago, we saw someone grab a busted Steam Deck off eBay, extract the still-good hardware, and then create a mini PC with it. It goes to show, just because a Steam Deck's screen is busted, it doesn't mean you can't put that perfectly good motherboard to use.

When Windows 10 went out of support last month, roughly ten years after release, many were confused about whether to upgrade or keep running their existing iteration. Experts who recommended upgrading to Windows 11 cited security as the primary concern. That got me thinking, aren't people still using Windows XP and Windows 7, operating systems that were released 24 and 16 years ago, respectively?

Everyone has their own preferences, but you really can't go wrong with an ultrawide monitor. While screen real estate is typically going to be the biggest benefit, the ultrawide aspect ratio is also going to allow for better use, allowing you to virtually place multiple screens side by side.