Microsoft has a vision for Windows: to incorporate AI into the OS so it can do things on its own with minimal user input. The more fancy way of saying it, as the software giant often does, is "agentic OS." There was a huge uproar from users when the company revealed its new "agentic OS" direction for Windows, to the point that Microsoft had to provide more clarity.

The refurbished PC hardware market has always thrived in enthusiast circles, thanks to the constant flux in component prices. One month, a GPU costs as much as a small car; the next, it's half the price, so naturally, buying refurbished often feels like a smart shortcut to better performance for less money. And in many cases, it just is: plenty of components age gracefully and offer fantastic value the second time around.

Depending on your life story, you might be a Photoshop person, a GIMP enthusiast, or a Photopea evangelist. You might be using a completely different graphics tool, but one thing that might have slipped your consideration is Paint.NET. You probably heard about it, and dismissed it as "Paint++", but that couldn't be more wrong. Paint.NET is a deceptively powerful and versatile tool, and its intuitive UI makes it far more approachable than Photoshop or GIMP. Being free makes it one of the most attractive graphics tools for those who don't want the cost or complexity of other tools, and are content with an easy-to-use yet highly functional alternative.

For decades, PC builders have used Crucial RAM sticks to power their PCs. However, as we've entered the AI era, said PC builders have been struggling to find specific components as interested parties begin hoovering up hardware to power their LLMs. At the start of the year, we saw a big GPU shortage to the point that new GeForce RTX cards were selling for ridiculous prices.

Getting gifts from your family and friends’ wishlists is easy, but getting them something meaningful will make them grateful forever. You'd be surprised how inexpensive it is to make your own cheap smart home sensors and make someone’s life a bit easier. With an ESP32 microcontroller and ESPHome, these cheap smart home sensors can be a catalyst in making a home smarter.

Every year, the nominations and winners at The Game Awards are guaranteed to be the cause of discourse online. Trying to judge the best games of the year with so many opinions being thrown around is a monumental task in of itself, let alone deciding which game represents the best aspects of the entire industry. And the 2025 show is no exception, with a highly competitive group of nominees for every category. But one game was left out of the coveted Game of the Year category, despite being nominated many times for multiple awards.

If you're a Google Home and Nest smart home ecosystem user, you're likely more than a little frustrated at this point. Over the past few months, especially as Google's attention continues to turn to Gemini, smart speakers like the Nest Audio have become unresponsive and terrible at controlling smart home devices. In my house, my various Nest Audio speakers have become so bad at turning my Philips Hue lights on/off that I've considered getting rid of them entirely for Amazon's Echo smart speakers.

For as long as I can remember, I have always set up my PC using a local account. It was because I prioritized privacy over a bunch of services I didn't really need, and I didn't want Microsoft tracking my usage patterns. But that changed with Windows 11, where Microsoft made it nearly impossible. Although there are still ways to set up Windows 11 with a local account, it's more challenging than ever. On earlier iterations of the OS, you could just choose "Local Account" during setup, but now, you need to run a command which, honestly, most Windows users are unaware of. Additionally, you can switch to a local account after setup, but that isn't a common choice either.

A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W draws so little power that it opens the door to projects you can run continuously without worrying about energy costs. It sits quietly in the background and does its job with a tiny footprint, which makes it perfect for small automations and sensors around your home. These projects show how much you can accomplish with almost no power use, and they all take advantage of the Pi Zero’s efficiency and flexibility in a meaningful way.

I've been using Proxmox for about six months now, though I've been following the project for much longer. I had a bare-metal TrueNAS instance that I never got around to migrating away from, but I finally bit the bullet at the start of last summer and began the painstaking process of moving all my self-hosted services over. In that time, I discovered something somewhat unusual on the surface: deploying multiple Linux Containers (LXCs) to host Docker made significantly more sense than using a single virtual machine.

Andrew Ross Sorkin and Dario Amodei speak onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit 2025 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 03, 2025 in New York City. | Image: Getty 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.Dario Amodei took the stage at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday to throw punches without naming names.The Anthropic CEO spent a good chunk of the interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin drawing a careful line between his company's approach and that of a certain competitor. When asked about whether the AI industry is in a bubble, Amodei separated the "technological side" from the "economic side" and then twisted the knife."On the technological side, I feel really solid," he said. "On the economic side …Read the full story at The Verge.

Unlike a robovac, Mirumi will never eat a sock or get stuck under furniture. | Image: Yukai Engineering Among a sea of new TVs, robovacs, and smart glasses, Yukai Engineering’s Mirumi was a unique standout at CES 2025 earlier this year. The tiny robot has no practical purpose other than looking adorable and bringing a smile to people’s faces by simulating an inquisitive personality. The company planned to release the companion bot sometime in mid-2025, but mere weeks before the year ends Mirumi is finally available for preorder through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.Yukai Engineering originally expected Mirumi to be priced at around $70, but a lot has happened around the world since January, and the tiny bot will actually cost about twice that. The earliest Kickstarter backers can preorder Mirumi with gray, pink, or ivory fur for 18,360 yen, or around $118 with discounts. If you drag your feet, the crowdfunding pricing will end up at 21,803 yen, or around $140, but that’s still discounted from the full retail pricing, which is expected to be $150.Following the Kickstarter there will be a bit more waiting, as Mirumi isn’t expected to ship until April 2026 at the earliest, but as with any crowdfunded product, it’s not a bad idea to brace yourself for delays.Instead of cleaning floors or mowing your lawn, Mirumi is positioned as a companion robot, but one that will benefit others more often. Using a long pair of arms the robot attaches to bag straps or handles and appears to curiously look around by turning and cocking its head from side to side.Using a distance sensor Mirumi can also detect nearby people and appear to focus its gaze and attention on them, but will also simulate the bashful response of an infant by shaking and turning its head away when someone suddenly appears or touches it. Mirumi isn’t overpacked with functionality, and that could be its biggest appeal. It just hangs out with you and quietly watches the world go by while occasionally brightening someone’s day with just a look.