It had been going on for as long as I remember becoming interested in gaming — the Console War between the Sony PlayStation and the Microsoft Xbox. Now, something my teenage self could never have fathomed, is seemingly coming to pass. The entire idea of console generations — a clean, cyclical reset every seven or eight years — might actually be dying before our eyes.

After so many years of watching Mac owners use Arm-based processors, Windows mini PC fans have been waiting for their turn. That wait is now over, after seeing laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X systems-on-a-chip running Windows on Arm released over the last year. The $604 Lenovo ThinkCenter Neo 50q uses the entry-level Snapdragon X SoC, and brings all the benefits of Arm to the desktop for Windows users. This is the first mini PC using Arm that didn't come from Apple, and that makes it all the more special.

A lot of non-coders and people unfamiliar with the app development scene often confuse Git and GitHub, but only the latter is the online code repository for inscrutable projects. That's one half of the story, but Git is where all that code gets written, merged, and maintained. It's a free, open-source version control system designed to track changes in files that are usually code. But here's the secret I wish I'd learned years ago: at its core, Git is a version tracker for documents, and it absolutely does not care if those documents are complex code or your weekly grocery list.

Google is rolling out a new cloud-based platform that lets users unlock advanced AI features on their devices while keeping data private. The feature, virtually identical to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, comes as companies reconcile users’ demands for privacy with the growing computational needs of the latest AI applications.Many Google products run AI features like translation, audio summaries, and chatbot assistants, on-device, meaning data doesn’t leave your phone, Chromebook, or whatever it is you’re using. This isn’t sustainable, Google says, as advancing AI tools need more reasoning and computational power than devices can supply. The compromise is to ship more difficult AI requests to a cloud platform, called Private AI Compute, which it describes as a “secure, fortified space” offering the same degree of security you’d expect from on-device processing. Sensitive data is available “only to you and no one else, not even Google.”Google said the ability to tap into more processing power will help its AI features go from completing simple requests to giving more personal and tailored suggestions. For example, it says Pixel 10 phones will get more helpful suggestions from Magic Cue, an AI tool that contextually surfaces information from email and calendar apps, and a wider range of languages for Recorder transcriptions. “This is just the beginning,” Google said.

Disney’s spat with Google’s YouTube TV over a new content distribution contract is costing the entertainment giant $4.3 million a day in lost revenue, Morgan Stanley estimates.That’s $30 million a week as the blackout of channels including ABC and ESPN stretches into its 12th day, Variety reports, though the analysts expect Disney and Google to reach a resolution by the end of the week. The dispute is also costing Google — Variety reports that a Drive Research survey of 1,100 US consumers found 24 percent canceled or planned to cancel their subscriptions.More than 20 Disney-owned channels went dark on YouTube TV after their contract expired at 11:59 PM ET on October 30th. While Google accuses Disney of pulling its channels from YouTube TV as a “negotiating tactic,” and says its terms would rise prices for YouTube TV customers, Disney says Google is “refusing to pay fair rates” for its content. Google has been giving $20 credits to its subscribers during the blackout, but it remains to be seen which will end first: the Disney-Google blackout or the government shutdown.

After moving from Windows 10 to Linux, I quickly found a new home in Fedora KDE Plasma. It does what I want, it's very stable, and I really like how it automatically keeps the last three OS versions, so you can use those if something breaks in the newest build. However, I also knew that Fedora comes in a few flavors, and I really wanted to try a different one on my laptop and see what it's like compared to my current workstation.

When I started self-hosting, it was for work. I wanted to understand the concepts and services available in order to write about them, which meant that I focused on services for articles I was writing at first.

I upgraded my gaming PC this year after finally settling on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Radeon RX 9070 XT. I don't typically have the latest and greatest hardware, but I decided to go all-out with the CPU for gaming and workflow. The GPU is one of the best AMD has to offer, though it still pales in comparison to Nvidia's flagship GeForce RTX 5090. Still, I managed to find a way to upgrade the entire setup for less than $25, and all it took was hunting down a gorgeous mousepad with decent build quality and fabric to allow my mouse to glide across the surface. I think I did a solid job with this Japanese-inspired mousepad from Desero.

Well, it's that time of the month again. Patch Tuesday has come around, and we've got a bunch of Windows 11 features to check out. It's also a little sparse in content, because this is the first Patch Tuesday since Windows 10 fell out of support. So, we're only going to be seeing security updates for it at the absolute best.

Google is releasing an update for Pixel phones with an interesting feature in the mix: notification summaries. Apple notably had plenty of trouble implementing its version of this AI-powered feature, and Google is taking a cautious first step by deploying it only for chat conversations. It’ll arrive as part of this month’s Pixel update for Pixel 9 series phones and newer — with the exception of the Pixel 9A.Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman shared a deep dive of the feature in August when code for it appeared in an Android 16 beta. As Rahman described, summaries are limited to chat apps for now, and only for longer conversations. As AA’s C. Scott Brown points out, limiting summaries to longer pieces of information means the system has more context to work with and could reduce the kind of swings and misses that Apple’s AI has made in the past. Google also says that December’s update will take things a step further, automatically sorting your notifications and silencing those that are lower priority — a problem Apple is throwing AI at, too.Google expanded its scam detection feature in messages beyond Pixel phones earlier this year. Now, Pixel 6 phones and newer will expand scam detection beyond Google’s Messages to some third-party chat apps including Telegram and Discord. The notification itself includes a badge labeling it as “likely scam,” and tapping the notification triggers a system pop-up encouraging the user to exercise caution. Google is expanding access to scam detection for calls, too, bringing it to Pixel 9 owners (9A excluded) in the UK, Ireland, India, Australia, and Canada.Meanwhile, back in Google’s own messaging app, users will be able to “remix” photos with AI right inside Messages. This update extends beyond Pixels to the broader Android ecosystem, though it’s limited to English and the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, and New Zealand for now. Additionally, the Pixel 6 and newer will give priority to chat notifications from your Messages VIPs.

Black Friday is almost here, which means plenty of great deals on some of our favorite tech. However, that doesn't mean you need to wait until Black Friday weekend to shop, because we're already seeing some great discounts. For a limited time, Amazon is dropping the price on this LG 34-inch OLED gaming monitor by over $700. That means you're getting one of the best prices we've seen in quite some time, which is just a few dollars above the lowest price ever recorded. So if you've been thinking about a new monitor, this one might have your name on it.

A new State of Play showcase took place today. Hosted by the famous Japanese voice actor Yuki Kaji, it focused on games from Asian developers. It's aptly titled State of Play Japan, and is the first PlayStation presentation to bear that specific name.