Storage failures can actually be quite difficult to predict. Whether it's a spinning platter or NAND flash, storage failures can feel like they hit out of nowhere, and the consequences can be disastrous. Besides backing up your data regularly, these 5 things should be part of your storage safety checklist, so you can catch any potential problems before they snowball into a dead drive.

My PC setup has undergone more outfit changes than a Taylor Swift concert over the years, and I am currently rocking an ultrawide QD-OLED panel. For the most part, I love it, and I'm not in any hurry to go back to dual screens, but occasionally I have pangs of regret when I bump into a use case that was easier to manage with two panels in front of me.

As I've been testing and playing around with smart devices at home, figuring out how they work and reverse engineering them to further integrate them into my smart home, I've been primarily using my old Google Pixel 8 Pro to capture Bluetooth data and scan devices. However, I recently came across the nRF52840, a Bluetooth-focused SoC supporting Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread, and more. Curious, I went ahead and bought the $25 Makerdiary nRF52840 MDK dongle, and it's one of the most versatile pieces of tech I own.

After jumping into the Proxmox rabbit hole ages ago, I began experimenting with virtual guests en masse. Now that I’ve finally put together a setup comprising my favorite LXCs and VMs on powerful PVE nodes (including cursed nested setups), I’ve realized the utility of maintenance apps. Documentation tools like Trilium Notes and NetBox help me keep detailed records of my experiments, while Proxmox Backup Server lets me preserve snapshots of my virtual guests.

On the left is a screenshot taken from a Nothing Phone 3 demo unit. On the right, one of the images can be seen on the Stills stock photo marketplace. Tech brand Nothing has been caught passing off stock images from professional photographers as samples taken by the Phone 3. Five sample images that Nothing claimed were captured by the device were actually licensed photos taken with other cameras.The photographer behind one of the images has anonymously confirmed to The Verge that it wasn't taken using the Phone 3, and that Nothing had purchased the image license via the Stills stock photo marketplace. The Verge has seen the EXIF file for the anonymous photographer's image, and can confirm it wasn't captured using the Phone 3. According to the EXIF data, it was taken in 2023, long before …Read the full story at The Verge.

Though Google advertises NotebookLM as an AI-powered personalized research assistant, I don't use it purely for studying and working. Lately, I've been trying to find more and more fun ways to use it once I'm done with my work and studying for the day.

"Agentic AI systems are being weaponized." That's one of the first lines of Anthropic's new Threat Intelligence report, out today, which details the wide range of cases in which Claude - and likely many other leading AI agents and chatbots - are being abused. First up: "Vibe-hacking." One sophisticated cybercrime ring that Anthropic says it recently disrupted used Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding agent, to extort data from at least 17 different organizations around the world within one month. The hacked parties included healthcare organizations, emergency services, religious institutions, and even government entities. "If you're a so …Read the full story at The Verge.

I'll say it out loud. Much as I love the functionality that Windows offers, I've never been the greatest fan of the operating system because of the sheer amount of maintenance it requires to keep running smoothly. All too often, I'll sit down to work and find a machine that is sluggish, reports full storage because it didn't purge cached files, or decides to install an update in the middle of a workday. It's annoying. For the longest time, I kept putting off maintenance out of sheer annoyance. But in Windows land, that doesn't float. And by the time I got around to it, I'd probably end up wasting half the day. That's a no-go for me. So, I've started using Windows Task Scheduler to handle the heavy lifting for me. Here's how.

One of the more interesting announcements to come out of Gamescom 2025 was the reveal of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. The game is set to come out in 2026, and borrows many gameplay elements from the Batman Akrham series, but gives them a complete LEGO makeover that grabbed the attention of everyone. Much to the delight of fans, the game will also pull inspiration from every part of the character's cinematic legacy and comic book history, with a big highlight revealed to be the Christopher Nolan Batman films. While LEGO Batman is set for a new adventure, there have been other franchises that LEGO fans have wanted to see adapted and handled in the same way as the LEGO Batman games.

The Linux world is full of interesting projects, all targeting different kinds of users and use cases. Sure, you have your run-of-the-mill distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint, but then are are also things like Proxmox, which have a much more specific purpose.

On Wednesday, 4Chan and Kiwi Farms, two of the most controversial social media sites on the internet, filed a federal lawsuit against the British government, arguing that the requirements of the UK's Online Safety Act infringe on their Constitutional rights as American corporations.In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, Preston Byrne and Ron Coleman, the team representing the two sites, said that their clients are being penalized by Ofcom, the agency that regulates online content in the United Kingdom, for "engaging in conduct which is perfectly lawful in the territories where their websites are based …Read the full story at The Verge.

We've covered various Amazon Echo replacements and Google Nest alternatives via a litany of ESP32-powered devices, and it's partially thanks to the relative simplicity of a voice assistant paired with Home Assistant that makes them possible in the first place. However, anything with a screen is a little bit more complicated, and so I set out to build a Google Home Hub replacement using a 7-inch ESP32-powered display, powered by ESPHome.