With RAM and storage prices going through the roof, prebuilt devices are becoming more and more attractive, especially if you're looking to start a new project at an affordable price. That's where mini PCs are pretty much the best way to go right now, providing plenty of power and versatility, along with a price that's hard to ignore.

It's easy to forget about your router if everything is working fine. But upgrading occasionally can be a good idea, especially if you're looking to get added benefits like better speed and range. While there are new technologies always on the horizon, we think that going with a Wi-Fi 6E router is going to be a good middle ground.

Ever since I've started using Linux, I've wished to be able to switch to it full-time, at least on my Windows PCs. However, there have always been some barriers in my mind — after all, not every Windows app is available for Linux. And one of the last holdouts for a while was image editing, because there really isn't a good competitor to Photoshop out there, and certainly not a free one.

A few days ago, Mozilla appointed a brand-new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo. As part of his big introduction, Anthony made it clear that he was very interested in exploring AI solutions for Firefox, but also made sure to mention how he understands that not everyone is keen to use LLMs in their browser, and will thus keep the process as transparent and customizable as need be.

Like millions around the world, I always ran ad blockers and tracking blockers within each browser. Pi-hole came and went, as well as a few other options for network-wide coverage, and still, I stuck to my guns with localized management. That was until I revamped the home lab and started to mess around with Pi-hole. All was well until I looked at what else the OPNsense firewall could run. That's when I stumbled onto AdGuard Home.

Thermal paste has an interesting reputation in the PC hardware space. Its application method is something that was incredibly divisive in the 2010s, but more recently, it's becoming more of an afterthought. It’s treated as both a consumable and a performance upgrade, something that supposedly dries out, degrades quickly, and quietly sabotages your CPU temperatures if you don’t stay on top of it.

Another year has almost passed us by, and it's time to round up the worst PC hardware launches, trends, and realities that we witnessed in the last 12 months. The year was relatively thin in terms of new products since neither Intel nor AMD released any new desktop CPU lineups. Still, we had enough drama and mayhem to last us well into the next year (and maybe even beyond that). From motherboards killing CPUs and GPUs missing crucial internals to disappointing products and worrying trends, the year had it all. While we wait for the next year to bring new products (and problems), let's nurse old wounds as we look back at the year that was.

Self-hosting has always been a big part of how I manage my digital life. I try new self-hosted tools, swap out services, and fine-tune my setup to keep everything fast, private, and under my control. For the longest time, StirlingPDF felt irreplaceable in my productivity stack, one of those rare tools that just stayed. But then I stumbled upon BentoPDF, and everything changed. What started as a quick test turned into a complete shift in how I handle PDFs every day. The more I used it, the more I realized: this wasn’t just an alternative; it was an upgrade for my workflow.

A Falcon 9 launched 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit on December 1st, 2025. | Image: SpaceX SpaceX says it has lost control of a Starlink satellite that's now falling back to Earth after suffering an anomaly. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, "venting of the propulsion tank," and "release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects," suggests the anomaly was some kind of explosion. SpaceX says it poses no threat to the crew of the ISS and will burn up in the atmosphere "within weeks."This mishap comes a week after SpaceX reported a near miss with a Chinese satellite. On December 17, Starlink experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, resulting in loss of communications with the vehicle at 41 …Read the full story at The Verge.

There's something about retro projects and Raspberry Pis that just go hand-in-hand with one another. One of the more prevalent use-cases I've seen involves turning the SBC into a retro gaming console, as it's small enough to fit in a tiny case yet powerful enough to emulate the classics.

Graphics cards are getting more powerful, packed with fancy features like AI upscaling and ray tracing. However, as they get better, they also get more expensive, with some of the best RTX 4090 models coming in at over $2000. While the RTX 4090 delivers absolutely exceptional results, the power it provides is only potential, with so many other factors contributing to whether your graphics card can deliver its full output.

It was very surprising seeing a new video game release that was based on the 90s action movie classic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Luckily for me, and every other action movie fan out there, Terminator 2D: No Fate was a fun adaptation of the iconic movie that looked fantastic. Being able to play as Sarah Conor, the T-800, and John Connor through an experience that had the look and atmosphere which made the film so heavily beloved was fun and engaging. It not only gave us the best scenes in the movie, but it mixed things up with a few extra layers that made me wish we had a game like this back when the movie was first released in 1991.