Have you given the Mass Effect trilogy a try? If you haven't, I really recommend that you give it a shot. As much as people had complaints about how the trilogy came to an end (and honestly, I don't blame them), the series is still a stellar range that I believe everyone who's into the sci-fi genre should try at least once in their lives.

Docker Swarm is a crafty method that creates and controls a cluster of PCs. I have a single Pi running multiple containers, but the hardware tends to budge under heavy load. I considered leveraging cluster computing by bundling many systems, including a spare laptop. The idea was to learn and experience cluster management firsthand and deploy resilient containers. Even if one node goes down, I can access the service without any issue.

The StanbyMe 2 becomes the SitbyMe 2 once you detach it from the rolling stand. | Image: LG LG’s StanbyMe 2 has all the ingredients of a good follow-up gadget: the 27-inch display is 1440p instead of 1080p, and instead of being trapped on its rollable stand, the screen is detachable for you to use wherever and however you want. It can hang on the wall if you buy a compatible strap, or you can rest it on its included folio cover, much like you would a tablet. It also has more ports beyond the one HDMI port and one USB-A port in the original model. You’ll get USB-C for connecting laptops, too. Its built-in battery can power the screen for up to four hours, and you can recharge it with a power bank so long as it can provide at least 65W charging speeds.We knew earlier this month that the StanbyMe 2 would be coming soon, but LG waited until it was available to share that it costs $1,299.99 — $300 more than its predecessor did at launch. Just as with the original StanbyMe, I have to take a moment to resist the urge to call this a terrible value, since OLED TVs and brilliant monitors are readily available well under $1,000. But for those who were, at least, mildly enthused about a major manufacturer putting a screen on wheels, perhaps the added versatility in the StanbyMe 2 makes it worth actually considering for your home.As if one rolling screen wasn’t enough for 2025, LG’s Smart Monitor Switch is another option, although it only works while connected to a power outlet. Similarly, it costs $1,299.99, but it has a bigger 31.5-inch 4K IPS touchscreen display, as well as a stand that offers more points of articulation. It’s more flush with ports, offering three USB-C ports with 65W Power Delivery, and two HDMI 2.0 ports.

Microsoft Edge's tactics to keep people from swapping browsers are pretty well-known by now. While the browser will never explicitly block you from downloading a rival browser, it will definitely kick and stomp its feet about it and beg you to stay with Edge. It has gotten to the point where other browser developers are getting a little peeved over how Microsoft is handling things, and in early 2024, we saw Mozilla complain about how Edge badgers users when downloading a different app.

Microsoft has used a variety of tricks to convince people to keep using the defaults of Bing and Microsoft Edge in Windows over the years, including modifying Chrome download sites and using malware-like popups. Now, Opera is fed up of what it calls Microsoft’s “manipulative design tactics” and filed a competition complaint in Brazil today, alleging that Microsoft is using anti-competitive practices to steer people toward using Edge.“Microsoft thwarts browser competition on Windows at every turn,” says Aaron McParlan, general counsel at Opera. “First, browsers like Opera are locked out of important preinstallation opportunities. And then Microsoft frustrates users’ ability to download and use alternative browsers.“Opera’s complaint alleges that Microsoft ignores a user’s default browser choice in a variety of ways, from opening PDF files or links in Outlook and Teams, to opening links through Windows features like Search or Widgets. Opera also notes that Microsoft uses “obtrusive banners and messages discouraging users from downloading alternative browsers at the very moment they are searching for those browsers on Edge.“Opera filed its complaint in Brazil because it’s one of the company’s main markets. “Opera is already a major success in Brazil: it is the third most popular browser in Brazil and has millions of loyal users in Brazil who actively choose it, despite Microsoft’s tactics,” McParlan says. “The complaint, which concerns practices implemented globally by Microsoft, presents an opportunity for Brazil to be a leader on this international issue.”If Opera is successful with its complaint, it wants remedies from Microsoft, like allowing PC manufacturers to preload alternative default browsers, a halt to blocking consumers from downloading other browsers, and an end to “dark patterns that push users towards Edge.” Opera also reveals that Microsoft requires OEMs to “deliver S mode devices as a condition for rebates on a Windows OS license,” which is another practice it wants to see outlawed.While the complaint will be handled by Brazil’s competition authority, it’s part of a broader effort from Opera to challenge Microsoft’s Edge practices around the world. Opera unsuccessfully challenged the EU’s decision not to designate Microsoft Edge as a gatekeeper under its Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules last year. Microsoft escaped the designation, but it still had to make changes to Windows in EU markets in response to the DMA. These changes have led it to stop bugging Windows users about Edge.“We believe that Microsoft’s conduct, including the changes that it has announced in Europe, are insufficient to attain effective compliance with the DMA,” McParlan says. “In this context, and as part of its global efforts to ensure free and effective consumer choice, Opera has appealed before the EU Courts the European Commission’s decision not to designate Edge as a ‘gatekeeper’ service under the DMA.”Not only has Microsoft used Windows to urge people into switching to Edge in the past, the company also created a spoofed Google UI to try and convince Bing users they were using Google earlier this year. The search results looked a lot like Google, complete with a custom search bar, a Google Doodle-like image, and some small text under the search bar just like Google Search. Microsoft quickly killed the plug on its spoofed Google UI once people started noticing it.Opera also has a history of complaints against Microsoft’s browser behavior in Windows. It originally filed an antitrust complaint with the EU in 2007, which eventually led to the browser ballot screen being created — allowing Windows users to pick one of the 12 most popular browsers rather than defaulting to Internet Explorer. Microsoft had to keep the browser choice screen in Windows for five years, but it was fined $730 million in 2013 for failing to include the ballot in Windows 7 Service Pack 1.

It's hard to believe Windows 10 is already ten years old, and set to reach the end of its life later this year. This version of Microsoft's operating system came at a near-perfect time. With my own laptop and off to college for the first time, I was completely engrossed in tech for the first time and just becoming a Windows enthusiast, not just on PCs, but also on phones. I was there since the first day of the Windows Insider Program, and feverishly followed every new build up to the official launch, and well past that.

Lovense, the maker of internet-connected sex toys, left user emails exposed for months — even after it became aware of the vulnerability. In a blog post spotted by TechCrunch and Bleeping Computer, security researcher BobDaHacker found that they could “turn any username into their email address,” which they could then use to take over someone’s account.Though BobDaHacker initially disclosed this vulnerability to Lovense in March, the researcher claims Lovense waited months before fixing it, and still hasn’t fully addressed the issue. Lovense is behind a range of sex toys that users can connect to the internet and remotely control via its app, which came under fire for a “minor bug” in 2017 that recorded users’ sex sessions.As outlined in BobDaHacker’s post, the security researcher noticed something strange in the app’s API response when muting someone: it presented their email address. BobDaHacker then figured out that they could take advantage of this vulnerability by sending a modified request to Lovense’s servers, tricking it into returning the target user’s email address. BobDaHacker even developed a script that they say can convert someone’s username into an email address in less than a second. “This is especially bad for cam models who share their usernames publicly but obviously don’t want their personal emails exposed,” BobDaHacker writes. To make matters worse, BobDaHacker later discovered that they could take over a user’s account with their email address and an authentication token generated by Lovense. BobDaHacker initially reported these vulnerabilities in partnership with the Internet of Dongs, a group that aims to make internet-connected sex toys more secure. However, the security researcher says Lovense didn’t immediately fix the issue. Instead, Lovense claimed that the account takeover bug was fixed in April, even though BobDaHacker said it wasn’t, and that a fix for the email leak issue would take 14 months to roll out.“We also evaluated a faster, one-month fix. However, it would require forcing all users to upgrade immediately, which would disrupt support for legacy versions,” Lovense said, according to BobDaHacker. As noted by BobDaHacker, security researchers reported the same account takeover bug to Lovense in 2023, but the company appears to have closed the bug without actually fixing it.In a statement to Bleeping Computer, Lovense says it has submitted an app update “addressing the latest vulnerabilities” to app stores. “The full update is expected to be pushed to all users within the next week,” Lovense says. “Once all users have updated to the new version and we disable older versions, this issue will be completely resolved.” Lovense didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. 

Despite appearing intimidating at first glance, containerized services are pretty easy to deploy, especially with all the home lab tools at your disposal. Sure, running Docker/Podman commands via a terminal is the ideal way to go about building your container library, but they can seem a tad too difficult if you’re not even accustomed to CLI-heavy utilities, let alone server distros. Their desktop variants of Docker and Podman can help newcomers out quite a bit, but containerization platforms further simply the esoteric art of self-hosting by providing a neat UI to grab templates and deploy them inside containers – all with the press of a button.

Hit is one of the best things to come from Linus Torvalds, if you exclude Linux. This version control system is excellent for developing software and collaborating on other code and solutions. Whether you happen to be building a website or creating a new Linux distro, Git is great for version control, history, branching, and completing the project with minimal fuss. GitHub is one of the more popular platforms for hosting Git repositories and projects. It's fantastic, but it happens to be owned by Microsoft and has a limited free tier.

YouTube videos with strong profanity in the first seven seconds (words like “fuck”) are now eligible for full monetization, according to a video from Conor Kavanagh, YouTube’s head of monetization policy experience. Previously, these kinds of videos were only eligible for “limited ad revenue.”  Changes to YouTube’s inappropriate language policies have long been a sore spot for creators. In November 2022, the company began to potentially limit ad revenue if profanity was used in the first 8–15 seconds of a video. ProZD, whose real name is SungWon Cho, published a video where, after waiting 15 seconds, he called the policy change “the dumbest fucking shit I’ve ever heard.” (He later said that the video was demonetized.) YouTube adjusted its policies in March 2023, including allowing videos with profanity in the first 8–15 seconds to be eligible for ad revenue.I asked ProZD his thoughts about Tuesday’s change. “It’s about fucking time.”The company originally restricted monetization for videos with swearing at the start of videos to “align with broadcast standards,” Kavanagh says. “Advertisers expected ads on YouTube to have distance between profanity and the ad that just served.” However, “those expectations have changed,” he says, “and advertisers already have the ability to target content to their desired level of profanity.”While the only specific example of “strong” profanity Kavanagh provides is “fuck” —  he says that YouTube defines “moderate profanity” as words like “asshole” or “bitch” — “you get the idea,” he says.YouTube will continue to limit monetization if you use moderate or strong profanity in titles or thumbnails. Videos with a “high frequency” of strong profanity are also still a “violation” of YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines, Kavanagh says. “You have to pick and choose your fucks carefully.”

You're probably familiar with the Internet Protocol. After all, it's the "IP" in IPv4 and IPv6. The set of rules that routes data across networks so that it gets to the correct destination. The protocol says how to divide the data into smaller packets for transmission, and how to address them for transport, just like sending a physical packet through the mail. It's most commonly thought of in relation to the Internet and transmitting data over Ethernet or Wi-Fi, but there are many other things it gets used for.

For years, clock speed ruled the roost. It was the one metric you could point to, devoid of context, to say one component was "faster" than another. It's literally right there in the name. Clock speed directly shows how quickly your components are running; how many instructions it's able to execute in a second. And yet, today, clock speed is one of the least important specs you can pay attention to.