Many designers have that one paid tool they swear by to bring their work to life, but I wanted to challenge that and run real-world projects with nothing but free tools. I’ve tried all of them, from open-source and self-hostable to proprietary, but there’s one tool that managed to do everything I needed — Figma.

Microsoft is starting to roll out lightweight taskbar apps for Microsoft 365 users on Windows 11. These taskbar apps will automatically launch at startup and provide quick access to contacts, file search, and calendar straight from the Windows taskbar.The Microsoft 365 companion apps, as Microsoft calls them, are starting to roll out to business users of Microsoft 365 this month. The People companion provides a browsable org chart, as well as the ability to look up anyone in your company. You can also quickly start a Teams message or call with a contact, or email them directly.The File Search companion is designed for quick access to Microsoft 365 files from the Windows 11 taskbar. You can search by file name, author, or other keywords to find files across OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook. There’s also an option to preview a file before you open it, and plenty of filtering and sharing options.The Calendar app is a quick view of a Microsoft 365 calendar from the taskbar, where you can see upcoming events, search for appointments, or join meetings.All three apps have been in beta in recent months, after Microsoft originally announced them at its Ignite conference last year. They are now heading to all business users of Microsoft 365 as part of a general availability release this month. The apps will be automatically installed as long as Microsoft 365 apps are installed on a Windows 11 system. IT admins can prevent the automatic install of these Microsoft 365 companion apps, and end users can stop them from automatically launching at startup.

Collector’s editions are meant to celebrate a game’s launch, giving players something tangible to remember it by. While most contain art books, steel cases, or statues, some publishers go all out, creating premium packages worth hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars. Here’s a look at some of the priciest game editions ever made and what made them so special.

It's sometimes difficult to believe it has been almost two decades since I left the British education system. Although technology played a vital role during my earlier years in life, what was available on systems at school pale in comparison to today's standards. Then there's the hardware at home. I had a Tiny PC desktop available but it could barely run modern software and there was no access to means for self-hosting anything. So, here are some apps and services that could have helped me get through studies that I recommend to those going back to school.

With Windows 10's end-of-life date fast approaching, it's time we made a choice as to what to do with our older machines (that is, unless that one guy's lawsuit manages to win). If you're like me, you've decided that you want to ditch Windows 10 and go with Linux instead.

Rockstar Games is adding Nvidia’s DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation support to Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced today. Nvidia is also releasing a new Game Ready driver today that will improve Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced performance, as well as support the enhanced version of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II that’s available today.The DLSS 4 upgrade to GTA V complements the game’s existing ray tracing capabilities, by allowing RTX 50-series owners to enable Multi Frame Generation and generate additional frames to make the motion of gameplay look smoother.Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Enhanced also has DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, as well as a new Dark Rot game mode that debuts with this enhanced version.You can download Nvidia’s new 580.97 Game Ready driver direct from Nvidia’s website.

On Monday, Ford introduced an innovative new manufacturing process that it says will help make its EVs more sustainable, more desirable, and more importantly, more affordable. The timing couldn't have been worse. EV tax credits were set to expire at the end of September. President Trump's trade war was tilting the balance in favor of China's EVs. And automakers are beginning to delay and even cancel some planned models. Ford seems to realize its timing is unfortunate. Throughout their announcement, the company's top executives kept hammering one salient point: this was going to be really hard, success was far from guaranteed, and in fac …Read the full story at The Verge.

I've built, upgraded, and benchmarked dozens of PCs over the decades I've been into computing. Back when you had to set individual drive jumpers and airflow for cooling wasn't a consideration, to the relatively plug-and-play nature of PCs today. Whether you're using the best GPUs, the best gaming CPU, or something more modest, most of the PC building experience is codified, and has tons of specific how-to explainers if you get stuck. But for all the advancements in making things easier for the builder, some things remain irritating in every build I've done, and I honestly can't figure out why these are still problems.

Like many avid Windows OS users, I was also a big fan of Windows XP. There's no exaggeration in saying that it's one of the major reasons Microsoft is a household name among PC users.

Taylor Swift at NFL Game. Taylor Swift leaned into her love for symbolism with the announcement of her dozenth album, titled The Life of a Showgirl. TS12 was introduced in a teaser — already viewed over 65 million times — for the next episode of the New Heights podcast airing Wednesday, hosted by boyfriend Travis Kelce and his big brother Jason. Tay extracted the $29.99 album from a briefcase but the artwork was blurred out ahead of tomorrow’s reveal. It’s already up for “pre pre-order” in a variety of formats over at taylorswift.com.The New Heights podcast consistently ranks in the top 10 on Spotify and Apple charts and this will certainly give viewership a bump. It’s the kind of masterful brand crossover that reportedly elevated NFL viewership and merch sales. Sometimes love is also, but sometimes it’s also good for business. View this post on Instagram A post shared by New Heights (@newheightshow)

For a little while, we've seen Microsoft rolling out a new blue screen of death to Windows 11. Well, we say "blue screen," but in truth, the new adjustments makes the display go black instead. It's part of Microsoft's mission to make it easier for people and businesses to get their systems back up and running.

There’s a sore loser in this popularity contest. Elon Musk says that his artificial intelligence company xAI “will take immediate legal action” against Apple for allegedly manipulating its App Store rankings to the advantage of rival AI apps. In a series of X posts on Monday night, Musk suggested that Apple was “playing politics” by not placing either X or xAI’s Grok chatbot in the App Store’s list of recommended iOS apps, and that he had no choice but to file a lawsuit.“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk said. “Why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps?,” the xAI CEO asked Apple in another post, which is now pinned to his profile.Musk provided no evidence for his claims, and it’s unclear if he has made good on his threats and filed the lawsuit yet. The Verge has reached out to xAI, Apple, and OpenAI for comment.At the time of writing, ChatGPT is listed as Apple’s top free iPhone app in the US, with Grok ranked as the sixth. China’s DeepSeek AI briefly managed to take the top App Store position from ChatGPT in January, however, disproving Musk’s claim that it would be impossible for other AI apps to do so.Accusations of meddling from Musk are ironic, given allegations about alterations made to X after he acquired the company in 2022, then known as Twitter. A research study in 2024 suggested that X’s algorithm was manipulated to boost posts from Musk’s account. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to Musk’s posts by sharing a Platformer report from 2023 that similarly found Musk had a system built to promote his X posts to the entire platform’s userbase. In June, the “maximally truth-seeking” Grok chatbot was also found to be consulting Musk’s opinion before providing answers to controversial questions around topics like Israel and Palestine, US immigration, and abortion.This isn’t the first time that Musk has beefed with Apple and OpenAI. Musk was an early founder at OpenAI, and previously targeted the AI startup via lawsuits and a unanimously rejected $97.4 billion buyout offer after taking issue with its pivot to being a profit-driven business. Following OpenAI’s partnership with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads, and Macs last year, Musk threatened to ban Apple devices at his companies if OpenAI’s tech was fused with Apple’s OS.