For a few weeks now, we've been throwing around the term "Windows K2." On the surface, it sounds like a whole new version of Windows, but the truth is, it's a little more scaled back. A while ago, an insider claimed that Windows K2 was Microsoft's initiative to redirect attention to Windows 11's major pain points after the company awoke from a years-long Copilot stupor. We also knew that a movable Taskbar was "priority 0" as the company aimed to repair the most glaring issues first and foremost.

After years of sticking to Windows 10, I finally switched to Windows 11 a while back. This was a forced upgrade since I wanted to use my new OLED display's HDR capabilities to the fullest, and also because Windows 10 entered EOL status back in October 2025. I assumed I would have to make peace with some amount of bloatware and the questionable design choices in Windows 11, but I was wrong. With debloating tools and Windows mods making it possible to remove almost everything annoying about the OS, I didn't have to suffer in silence. I could also disable data tracking, advertisements, tips, and suggestions, and whatever else Microsoft calls its shady data-collection tactics. Only then did Windows 11 start to feel like an OS working for me instead of the other way around.

I love Home Assistant, and it's become an essential part of my smart home ever since I first tried it a couple of years ago. Recently, however, I was having an issue with my home lab, where Home Assistant is installed, which was constantly being loud for reasons I couldn't understand.

It's getting harder and harder to find a monitor that doesn't have some flavor of OLED panel, which is a good thing because the technology is getting better and better. That leaves monitor manufacturers having to differentiate in other ways, like this Lenovo Yoga Pro 27UD-10.

The Acer Nitro Blaze Link might run on Linux, but it's no Steam Deck. Acer says it's a "streaming-first handheld and companion device," like a PlayStation Portal for your PC. Announced ahead of Computex on Friday, it's launching in Q4 2026 with a 7-inch (1920 x 1200) display, Wi-Fi 6, just 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 8GB of eMMC storage. That's technically not even enough RAM to run Stardew Valley, but the Blaze Link isn't meant for playing games locally. Logitech launched a similar handheld a few years ago, the Logitech G Cloud, that cost $350, included 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and ran on Android. It was a tough sell at that price consi …Read the full story at The Verge.

I don't know if you still remember, but Nvidia made a big deal about ray tracing when it launched the RTX 20-series GPUs back in 2018. The company's CEO, Jensen Huang, even said, "Computer graphics will never be the same again." At the time, a lot of us bought into that idea. The demos did make it look like the next big leap for gaming, with realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections. Then, when games started coming out with ray tracing, we quickly realized how much performance we had to compromise to get those visual improvements.

Canva and Anthropic have been working together for a while now, and if you've used the two in tandem via the Canva connector, you already know how interesting the pairing can be for ideating and generating visual designs through Claude on its chat interface. The collaboration has steadily deepened over the past few months, and the latest step might be the most consequential yet.

This week, an AI training startup called Shift said it would clean New Yorkers' homes for free. It has plans to expand into other cities as well, including London, and looking around my flat, I get the appeal. But there's a catch. There's always a catch. In exchange for the cleaning, Shift wants footage of its cleaners at work: scrubbing dishes, wiping counters, dusting tables, mopping floors. It wants everything. Video of all the boring domestic labor we'd happily outsource if we could - and that robotics companies are racing to teach machines to do so they can sell us something to do it for us.That's harder than it sounds. Unlike cha …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Pentagon awarded SpaceX a $4.16 billion contract to build missile-tracking satellites linked with President Donald Trump's planned "Golden Dome" defense system, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. In an announcement on Friday, the US Space Force says the sensor-equipped satellites will allow it to detect and track targets from space.The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX - which recently filed for what could be the biggest initial public offering ever - already has contracts with the Space Force to develop other parts of the Golden Dome. Similar to Israel's Iron Dome, Trump's pricey defense system would identify and take down missiles and other airb …Read the full story at The Verge.

Whether it’s Perplexity’s reliable and transparent nature or Claude Code’s programming capabilities, there’s no denying that cloud-based large language models can be a godsend for productivity. Most cloud LLMs ship with beginner-friendly UIs, and the fact that you don’t have to put in extra work just to get them up and running makes them pretty convenient for the average user.

It looks like Microsoft and Nvidia are working on something really big.

A smart TV is generally the default choice for anyone who wants a screen for casual gaming, streaming, and everything in between. Some of the upper-end options make things easier by pairing solid speakers with a good display, but the day-to-day experience doesn't tend to be dramatically different from that of a mid-range option.