Facebook and Instagram are breaching Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules related to the handling of illegal content, moderation, and transparency, according to a preliminary decision issued by the European Commission. TikTok and Meta have both also been found to be violating transparency obligations under the DSA. The Commission says that Meta is imposing “confusing” obstacles for Facebook and Instagram users to flag illegal content and challenge moderation decisions, finding that the platforms “appear to use so-called ‘dark patterns’, or deceptive interface designs” that can hinder the removal of content like child sexual abuse and terrorism materials. Meta and TikTok are also found to have “burdensome procedures and tools” in place that prevent researchers from accessing public data. Both companies are now facing fines of up to six percent of their annual worldwide revenue, pending an official ruling. The platforms can challenge the EU’s findings or take measures to address these concerns before the Commission issues a final decision.

The Steam Deck didn't invent the modern gaming handheld, but it sure as hell perfected it. Prior to the debut of Valve's game-changing (no pun intended) handheld, we only had the Nintendo Switch to speak of, and that left out a large section of gamers wanting to play PC games on the go. The Steam Deck gave people something they never knew they needed; its resounding success is all the proof you need. Even three years later, and despite a dozen more powerful PC gaming handhelds on the market, the Steam Deck remains one of the best out there. The gaming handheld market has stagnated, failing to eclipse Valve's affordable yet impressive offering.

The previous update for PowerToys added a handy feature called Light Switch. This tool would use your timezone to calculate when the sun will rise and fall where you live, then use that information to change your computer's theme on the fly. The idea was that Light Switch would engage Windows' light mode during the day, and when the sun set, it would then flip it over to dark mode.

Trump is demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a gilded grand ballroom. The president says taxpayers won’t be footing the $300 million bill and that private donors, himself included, will pick up the tab. Big Tech will be paying for a lot of it, if the list of donors released by the White House Thursday is anything to go by (though it does not say how much each contributed). Featured are some of the country’s biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Google-owned YouTube has already agreed to pay more than $20 million to the project as part of a controversial settlement to end a lawsuit Trump filed in 2021 and the companies are big donors to Trump’s “nonprofits.” Crypto is well represented, too, with donations from Ripple, Tether America, Coinbase, and both Winklevoss twins (Cameron and Tyler feature separately). Defense and telecom giants like Lockheed Martin, Comcast, T-Mobile, and Palantir also appear.

The Steam Autumn Sale has long gone, but it seems game companies aren't done giving us amazing deals on some stellar games. Only a few days ago did we see the entirety of The Walking Dead go on sale for $5 for the entire series, and now Titanfall 2 is getting in on the sale action. If you've never given Titanfall 2 a try but always wanted to, now's your time to strike, as it's currently $3 on Steam for the Ultimate Edition, which is the cheapest it ever gets on the platform.

Guess what’s one of the first things I check when planning my travel itinerary? Internet access. I’ve tried using USB 4G/5G modems with Raspberry Pi, but they turned out to be expensive, and mobile coverage wasn’t always reliable. These days, I don’t worry too much about public Wi-Fi networks, thanks to my VPN setup. But it gets tricky when I want to share that secure connection with friends or family.

The Home Assistant Yellow is no more. Nabu Casa, the company behind Home Assistant, decided it was time to end manufacturing of this smart home device that could power Home Assistant OS and handle all your IoT hardware. The primary reasons behind this decision were slowing sales and a difficult supply chain for sourcing components. The Yellow launched in 2021, and the self-hosting and smart home landscapes have altered since, making this hub a less viable option.

Hey, remember Clippy? Remember how much you loved that little fella? How people have only positive memories of the clip-shaped virtual assistant and don't find him an annoying scourge on an otherwise legendary OS? Well, Microsoft is trying to replicate that.

Windows has been around since 1985, so it should come as no surprise that the operating system is a veritable treasure trove of computer history. Windows has been home to hundreds of apps that no longer exist, but dozens are still available — and still functional — despite numerous iterations and system updates. And here's the kicker: many of these apps offer functionality unlike anything you can find, and they're more than worth the (slight) effort required to install and run them. Sure, something like Volumouse might not sport all the bells and whistles of a brand-new Windows 11 app, but it's still one of the best solutions I've found for controlling computer volume on the fly.

Back when I was in college, I relied only on good, old-fashioned handwritten or digital notes and the power of memory and conceptual understanding to crack evaluations. However, that was with a structured course and predefined study materials, which I must now curate independently as I continue self-learning through various hands-on hobbies. As such, mind maps have become a secret productivity weapon. I’m not talking about those over-engineered, color-coded monstrosities you see in corporate think tank sessions, but just functional, branched diagrams that help me logically structure a dozen interrelated pieces of information. Visually, it mirrors how I think about webs of connected ideas, not linear lists.

This is the best option if you're looking to grab some portable storage for cheap. External HDDs might not be the most popular option right now for storage, but it still has a place and easily beats out SSD storage when it comes to price per terabyte. With that said, you can now score this Seagate 2TB portable HDD for just $69, which is an absolute steal.

One of my laptops now serves as a dedicated Ubuntu machine, acting as a perfect test device for testing apps and self-hosted services. But there's a severe lack of disk backup and system image creation apps in the operating system. You can understand my frustration with copying each file from a directory to an external disk, which is not feasible for large copy operations. However, it's no longer a problem for me, as I use Clonezilla to create full system backups, saving me time.