I have to admit, changing my workflow from pure VMs to a mix of containers was a big adjustment. It's not that I didn't want to learn Docker, but that my Proxmox server had plenty of power, so why change to a more efficient way of working when I was already used to one way of doing things? But I eventually relented and have seen the light of containerized workloads.

The AI Assistant is designed to be used without needing professional design experience. A new generative AI experience is coming to Adobe’s cloud-based Express design platform, enabling you to transform projects by vaguely describing what changes to make. Adobe describes the “AI Assistant in Adobe Express” launching in public beta today as a conversational creative agent that “empowers people of every skill level” to quickly create visual content, without having to understand specific design terms or creative tools.The feature is available as a toggle in the top-left corner of the Adobe Express web app. When activated, the usual homepage interface and tool options will be replaced by a chatbot-style text box, with options to make a new design or edit existing images. Users can surface a selection of curated presets by describing what they need to make, such as “fall-themed wedding invitation” or “retro-inspired poster for school science fair,” and edit their selection with natural language prompts.For users without professional design experience, the AI assistant is capable of making adjustments based on vague requests like “make this pop” or “give this a jungle theme.” Users can also specify specific parts of the design to change, such as replacing backgrounds, fonts, and individual elements or layers of an asset, leaving the rest of the design unchanged. The tool pulls from a variety of sources, including Adobe’s Font and stock image library, or generates image assets from scratch to match specific requests using Adobe’s Firefly AI models.An entire design can be created using the AI assistant, or users can toggle it off at any time to make manual changes using Express tools. It can also fulfill requests that would require a combination of Express tools, like resizing and reformatting completed designs, or converting them into animations.“You decide when and how to work with them. The experience is hybrid by design,” Adobe’s chief technology officer, Ely Greenfield, said in the announcement. “They act like capable teammates — taking on the work that distracts you from your craft, so you can accomplish more while staying firmly in creative control.This is the latest expansion of Adobe’s plans to integrate conversational AI assistants across its wider product ecosystem, which started with Adobe Acrobat last year. A similar chatbot-style editor is also launching in private beta for Photoshop, and Adobe says it’s working on making the Express AI assistant available as an integration for third-party apps like ChatGPT. The goal is that these Adobe AI assistants will eventually “work together seamlessly across your apps,” according to Greenfield, allowing them to eventually adapt to your personal style and anticipate the assistance you need in the future.

The new Insta360 X4 Air also has a larger sensor than the older X4. | Image: Insta360 Insta360 debuted its new X5 360-degree action camera just six months ago, but it turns out that the company still has plans for its predecessor. Today, it announced the Insta360 X4 Air, which is a lighter, smaller, and more affordable alternative to the $549.99 X5 that still offers 8K recording capabilities, but starting at $399.99. It’s launching today around the world through Insta360’s online store in graphite black and arctic white color options, but availability for the US and Canada is still “coming soon.”The X4 Air offers similar recording capabilities as the original X4, with 360-degree 8K videos maxing out at 30fps. But drop the resolution to 4K and the framerate maxes out at just 50fps, while the X5 and X4 can do 4K at up to 100fps for capturing slow motion clips. You’ll need to use the X4 Air in single-lens mode at 1080p to boost the frame to 120fps. The X4 Air also has reduced capabilities when capturing still photos. It maxes out at 29 megapixels, while the X5 and X4 both capture images at 72MP.Despite the slight performance reductions, the X4 Air features a pair of 1/1.8-inch sensors that are slightly larger than the 1/2-inch sensors used in the older X4 that Insta360 says should help it capture “better detail and more vivid color straight out of the camera.” But they’re both still smaller than the 1/1.28-inch sensors in the Insta360 X5, so if you plan on shooting in low-light conditions, then it might be worth the splurge and grab Insta360’s newest model instead.The real appeal of the new X4 Air is its size, although, despite its name, it’s not that much smaller than the X4 and X5. It’s about 10 millimeters shorter than the other models at 113mm tall, and at 165 grams, it’s 30 grams lighter than the X4 and X5, potentially making it a bit more convenient to carry around all day. Its smaller body does come with the compromise of a smaller 2,010mAh battery, with battery life falling somewhere in-between the X4 and X5 at up to 88 minutes when recording at 8K / 30fps.The removable lens guards introduced with the X4 are still available for the new X4 Air, but it also comes with user-replaceable lenses that can be swapped out in seconds which was one of the best features of the X5. The X4 Air is also waterproof to depths of up to 49 feet like the X5 without the need for a dive housing, and includes that action camera’s hands-free recording options including gestures, voice control, and the option to twist a selfie stick back and forth to begin capturing.

Recently, Halo Studios revealed that a remake of the first Halo game was coming in 2026. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a complete remake of the campaign mode of the first game in the series, giving a refreshed presentation and more to the original game that people loved on the first Xbox console. Although people expected this to happen for some time, many were excited to finally see it come to fruition as a return to the beloved parts of the Halo series. But there was one thing about the announcement from Halo Studios about Halo: Campaign Evolved that got a lot of attention: the game would be coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. That is a very big deal.

The average PC gamer retains their CPU for much longer than their GPU. Jumping to a new GPU usually gives a bigger return on investment, contributing to the longer shelf life of gaming CPUs. Professionals and productivity users who need to keep up with CPU horsepower stick to a more frequent upgrade schedule, and might even switch CPUs every generation or two if the generational gains justify the expense. Despite the longevity of CPUs, if your chip belongs to this list or is older still, it might be time to let it rest and switch to something new.

If you’re a developer, you probably use VS Code every day. Microsoft’s code editor is powerful on its own and packed with tools for most coding needs. But you don’t have to live with what the open-source tool brings out of the box. VS Code has a massive library of extensions that can expand its capabilities and boost your productivity. Not every extension will suit everyone, but there are a few that can make a real difference, at least they have for me.

The trackball’s scroll dial is now flanked by a pair of scroll wheels on either side of the mouse. | Image: Kensington Kensington has announced a new version of its Expert Mouse wireless trackball with a major facelift and some new functionality. The Expert Mouse TB800 EQ features a slimmer design than its predecessor with a new built-in wrist rest making it look more like the sleeker SlimBlade Pro that Kensington launched in 2022. But the svelter profile doesn’t come at the cost of features. When it’s available later this year with a price bump from $109.99 to $149.99, the new Expert Mouse will include even more buttons, and three scroll wheels.The new Expert Mouse maintains its predecessor’s dedicated scroll ring around the base of the trackball, while adding two additional vertically oriented scroll wheels found on either side. By contrast, the cheaper SlimBlade Pro has you scrolling by twisting its trackball.The ring’s functionality can be toggled between smooth vertical scrolling or stepping line by line for when you’re reading websites or documents, while the side wheels facilitate horizontal scrolling and zooming which can be useful for navigating the timeline interfaces of video and audio editing apps. If you don’t have a use for the scroll wheels, they can be disabled individually using three switches on the underside of the mouse.In addition to keeping the original  Expert Mouse’s set of four large programmable buttons surrounding its trackball, the new one has four additional buttons along the top. They come pre-programmed for controlling media playback and volume, but their functionality can be customized using Kensington’s desktop software.Instead of running on AA batteries, the new Expert Mouse comes with a rechargeable battery that Kensington says will keep it powered for up to four months. It connects to devices wirelessly over Bluetooth or using an included 2.4GHz USB dongle, but its USB-C charging cable also facilitates a wired connection to a computer if you’d rather not stress over battery life.

In an ideal world, every great Steam game would see rave reviews and lots of sales. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, some real gems find themselves falling through the cracks, and while they accrue a loving fanbase, it might not be as big as the developer initially hoped.

There's something about having a super-fast and reliable home network. It allows us to get much more done throughout the day and enjoy all our self-hosted services and content. Think about it. We're deploying containers left, right, and center, storing more data locally, and cancelling cloud storage subscriptions. Streaming services are also seeing a slight dip as subscribers grow frustrated with having to pay for numerous account subscriptions. It's almost becoming like the days of cable, but with a modern twist. That's why we should strive to have the best network possible to ensure everything can communicate without issue.

When you think about the Raspberry Pi, you’d probably imagine wacky computing experiments that are both fun to work on and add some utility to your setup. But considering the extra computational prowess in modern RPi boards, there’s a surprising number of cool DIY projects you can build with these miniature systems.

Switching operating systems is a big decision, especially if you are doing it after a long commitment to something like Windows or macOS. It's like stepping into uncharted territory, forgetting everything you've learnt until this point, and starting afresh. Switching to Linux might stem from an outdated system that cannot handle the latest Windows or macOS version, or a personal choice to keep the prying eyes of large corporations at bay. But it doesn't need to be overwhelming, troubling, or complex. There's a small learning curve, but once you overcome it, Linux becomes just like any other regular operating system.

Project Moonlight As Adobe builds AI assistants into each of its applications, the company is also building an AI agent on its Firefly platform to act as a centralized creative director for social media campaigns. Project Moonlight’s chatbot integrates with Adobe’s creative software apps and pulls from your existing social media channels to brainstorm and edit content that’s consistent with your personal style and voice.As seen in the above sample image, users describe their vision to the bot in text, and the AI assistant processes those ideas through Adobe’s other AI-enabled editing tools to create personalized images, videos, and social posts. Adobe says of the new AI agent:Project Moonlight is your personal orchestration assistant capable of coordinating across multiple Adobe apps and beyond. While each AI Assistant in our apps is an expert in its own domain—Photoshop for image editing, Premiere for video, Lightroom for photography—Project Moonlight operates like a conductor of an orchestra, bringing them all together in harmony. Just tell Project Moonlight what you need, and it unites our AI Assistants as one creative team to help you bring your vision to life. With Project Moonlight, you benefit from:• Context-aware creative intelligence: Project Moonlight connects to your Creative Cloud libraries and social accounts to understand your style, projects, and assets—surfacing personalized ideas and content that feel authentically you.• Conversational creation: Turn conversations with your agent into creative content. As you exchange ideas with your agent, it generates images, videos, and social posts aligned to your direction—taking you effortlessly from idea to execution.• Data-driven growth and strategy: Link your social channels to let your agent analyze performance, identify trends, and craft content strategies that grow your audience and strengthen your creative brand.Adobe is releasing a private beta version of Project Moonlight in the coming months to users who join the waitlist.