We have a lot of network experts and enthusiasts here at XDA, and we talk a good bit about how setting up your home network the right way is important. From VLANs for your smart devices, setting up guest networks, and so on, there's quite a lot you can (and sometimes should) do to make sure your network is optimized as possible.

We've seen Sceptre showcasing its cheap monitor before, offering impressive value thanks to great prices. But this one has to be an absolute must-have for those on a tight budget, with the monitor featuring a large screen and pretty good specifications for just $178.

Extraction shooters are in a weird place in 2025. A lot of people, myself included, have expressed concern more than a few times about how the looter-shooter genre is becoming overly saturated, and that perhaps we might not need any more new ones to come out and possibly become obscure soon after. However, along comes Embark Studios' Arc Raiders, and it completely flips the script, making me happily eat my words with a new extraction shooter that is incredibly polished, impressively optimized, and overall, just a fantastic product altogether.

NotebookLM has become the backbone of most of my projects. I use it for studying, condensing YouTube videos, research, and even journaling. One area where it’s really shown promise is in helping me learn new tools. Learning any new software, whether a simple video editor or a complex project manager, can often mean hours of trial and error. And I don’t always have the time for that, so I’ve been getting help from NotebookLM to speed things up.

It used to cost a small fortune to buy anything made by Alienware, but now, you can pick up some excellent hardware for a price that's really unbelievable if you can manage to find it on sale. That's the case with this 27-inch gaming monitor that manages to deliver on all levels, while also being relatively affordable.

High-end motherboards provide the most fertile ground for manufacturers when it comes to marketing meaningless features. Enthusiasts might know how to differentiate between marketing fluff and genuinely useful features, but motherboard brands know how to trick everyone else into buying more motherboard than they'll ever need. Repackaging old features under new and impressive names, adding "gaming" to almost everything, and overusing the term "AI" have now made motherboard marketing go off the rails.

Keeping a daily log in Obsidian is one of the best ways I’ve found to stay organized, track progress, and document ideas, but remembering to create a new note each morning often disrupted my routine. I already rely on Home Assistant to automate so many parts of my day that it felt natural to let it handle my journaling routine too. By combining automation with note-taking, I could remove the friction from the process without sacrificing the structure I like.

If you were around during the days of dial-up internet, first of all, I'd like to tip my hat to another tech oldie. I hope your back pain medicine is working okay. If you weren't, then you likely don't know about the sound of dial-up.

As a student, AI has been most helpful for me in my study sessions. Before everyone comes at me, I don’t mean using AI to cheat my way through exams or have it solve entire assignments for me. Instead, I mean using it as what it’s meant to be: a tool that simply helps me understand things better. I use AI tools to break down complex topics that I didn't quite understand during class, give me quick explanations before an exam, test my understanding of concepts I've already studied, and more.

There are some really stellar examples out there of games that don't need to be graphically intense to be good. A ton of the cool low-poly PS1-esque games come to mind, for example. However, nothing proves that a game can be good and still run on a potato than West of Loathing, where the art style is stick figures. Yeah, you won't need a 5090 for this one.

Jay Parikh in 2018. | Photo: Andrej Sokolow / Getty Images This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.To understand how Microsoft sees its role in the AI race, look at what was announced at the company's GitHub Universe developer conference on Tuesday in San Francisco.The event marked a turning point for one of Microsoft's most important but often under-analyzed assets. GitHub, which is used by more than 180 million developers, wants to be the central platform for AI coding agents. Its new Agent HQ interface lets outside coding assistants, including OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code, plu …Read the full story at The Verge.

Tim Cook says Apple has plans to embed more third-party AI tools into the company’s operating systems. “Our intention is to integrate with more people over time,” Cook said in an interview with CNBC. Apple has already embedded ChatGPT into Siri, with a Google Gemini integration said to be in the works, along with rumors swirling about a partnership with Anthropic and Perplexity.This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about third-party integrations, as Apple software SVP Craig Federighi said last year that the company “may look forward to doing integrations with different models like Google Gemini in the future.”Cook also said that Apple is on track to release an AI-upgraded Siri next year, adding that “our intention is to integrate with more people over time.” Apple is “making good progress” on Siri, he added during an earnings call on Thursday, noting that AI acquisitions are still on the table. “We are open to pursuing M&A [mergers and acquisitions] if we think that it will advance our roadmap,” Cook said, echoing a statement from July.The news comes as Apple releases its fourth quarter earnings results, which revealed that the company raked in a record $102.5 billion over the past few months, marking an eight percent increase when compared to the same time last year. Even with last month’s launch of the iPhone 17, Apple has yet to realize its plans for AI, which is supposed to bring an enhanced Siri across its devices. A recent report from Bloomberg suggested that Apple could partner with Google to build an AI search tool for Siri. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also confirmed last year that the company is working on Gemini support for the iPhone.Sales from the iPhone 17 lineup likely only make up a small portion of Apple’s overall $49.03 billion in iPhone revenue. The new lineup includes the iPhone Air — Apple’s thinnest device yet —  along with the upgraded iPhone 17 and 17 Pro. This year, Apple brought some features previously reserved for its Pro-level iPhones to its entry-level device, including an always-on display with ProMotion support for smoother scrolling.Apple’s Mac revenue rose to $8.72 billion, and it reported $6.95 billion in revenue from iPads. Apple’s services division, which includes subscriptions to Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Fitness Plus, and Apple Arcade, grew to $28.8 billion.Apple also just released an upgraded iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and a Vision Pro headset, each with an M5-flavored spec bump. Rumors indicate that the company is getting ready to release a budget-friendly iPhone 17e next year, too.Update, October 30th: Added context from Cook.