Every new year in gaming is supposed to be about progress. better visuals, smart AI, richer worlds, more convincing physics, and systems that finally feel like they're catching up to the hardware we've been buying. And yet, horror games, especially the big-budget ones, keep dragging along the same tired design tropes like emotional baggage they refuse to unpack.

I have always prided myself on my PowerPoint skills, but after integrating Copilot into my workflow, I have realized that skill was mostly just wasted time. Initially, I was skeptical about using AI in my slides. Then, I gave Copilot a rough outline and watched in real-time as it structured my narrative, visualized my data, and polished the design before I could even finish my coffee.

The ReSpeaker Lite is a single-board kit for building your own smart speaker, packing a dual microphone array, mute and user buttons, a 3.5mm out jack, a JST PH-2.0 speaker connector, and an XMOS XU316 audio processor. I previously connected mine to a CD wallet speaker that I took apart, but since I picked up a 3D printer, I wanted to take things up a notch. Now I've got a pretty decent looking speaker enclosure that looks good and sounds great, and I couldn't be happier.

One of Square Enix's biggest franchises is the Kingdom Hearts series. The combination of Final Fantasy and Disney characters is a match that has generated a huge fan base, even though the pairing was very unlikely. Since the first game, the series has launched multiple sequels and spin-off titles, leading up to the development of Kingdom Hearts IV. But despite having seen the game a few times during various events, Square Enix has been very quiet about it since 2022. And many Kingdom Hearts fans are starving for details.

Thanks to my obsession with DIY projects and server experiments, I’ve tinkered with all sorts of virtualization platforms, container runtimes, and hypervisors over the years. These range from popular tools like Docker, Kubernetes, ESXi, and VirtualBox to quirky FreeBSD distros and obscure Unix-like operating systems. Then there’s Microsoft’s Hyper-V, a hypervisor that’s often frowned upon in the home lab community, especially when you run it on a resource-hogging Windows 11 host.

While some people choose to self-host everything they can, I continue to pay for services I could set up myself.

Most people use Docker for media or networking, but the container that truly took over my home management is an inventory tool called Homebox. It doesn’t do anything fancy; it just keeps track of what I own, where it’s stored, and when the warranty expires. It’s fast, private, and entirely self-hosted.

GPU pricing hasn't made sense in a while, and the MSRPs no longer reflect the needs of everyday gamers and creators. Between AI-driven demand, supply constraints, and manufacturers chasing enterprise margins, consumer cards seem to have become collateral damage in a market that is built more around availability than a consumer value proposition.

Marvel fans are going to have to prepare themselves for a big year in 2026. Not only are there going to be a few massive movie releases for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but for Marvel games as well. Multiple projects featuring Marvel Comics heroes are in development, with a few planned for release sometime in 2026. My anticipation for them is staggeringly high.

Most of us, including myself, watch multiple hardware reviews before deciding what parts to buy for a new build or an upgrade. It feels like the responsible thing to do, especially if we want to avoid buyer's remorse down the line. Reviewers provide a clear structure, including FPS charts, thermals, power draw, and conclusions, that help us make confident decisions. But the thing is, those numbers can't fully predict how a part will actually behave once it’s installed in your system. And that's a factor many people overlook.

Running a speed test and seeing the exact speeds you're paying your ISP for is always a good feeling, but that feeling subsides quickly once you start experiencing issues in real-world network loads. Choppy video calls, spiking latency in online games, and sluggish responses from cloud apps can all be symptoms of a bigger problem. Your network looks fine on paper, but in practice, it's unreliable.

Petkit has announced two new automated machines at CES 2026 designed to feed and care for your pets using AI-powered cameras that track their behavior and provide health insights that may otherwise go unnoticed. Launching sometime in April 2026, the Petkit Yumshare Daily Feast is one of the first automatic dispensers that works with wet food. The machine can provide up to 7 days of meals and uses an NFC-based tracking system to automatically remove a serving if it hasn't been consumed after 48 hours. UVC lighting helps sanitize the delivery of fresh meals, while an AI-powered 1080P night vision camera with a 140-degree field-of-view tracks …Read the full story at The Verge.