A trend in gaming that has mostly gone away is the special peripherals, usually in the form of novelty controllers, that sometimes come out alongside new games. The most popular of these, and the one responsible for their decline, are the Guitar Hero guitar controllers, which are almost life-size and shaped like a guitar. There are two major components that contribute to the cult classic status of some of these, which are usability and novelty. The best controllers were often one or the other, but the cream of the crop managed both. These days, the closest we have are the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons, or some of the classic controllers available for the Switch, like the GameCube controller. For this list, I went with ones that managed to do both, at least for some games.

Between the bulk of the '80s and the '90s, DOS was the way to go for gamers, and was the backbone of PC gaming. Sure, there were plenty of other consoles and platforms with tons of games, yes, but DOS was where the most innovation was happening. We're talking about experimentation with 2.5D and 3D space, first-person shooters on PC, massive city-building sims, point-and-click adventures, and so much more. Devs were building games for DOS while pushing boundaries, experimenting with new perspectives, mechanics, and genres, effectively laying down the groundwork for modern gaming as we know it today.

I'm not ashamed to admit that Google's AI-powered personalized research assistant, NotebookLM, is the only AI tool I heavily rely on. One of the reasons the tool works so well for me is because all its features seamlessly fit into my workflow. I'm a full-time student, and a lot of NotebookLM's features seem like they've been made with students (especially students like me) in mind.

After 40 years and six generations, 2025 marks the beginning of a new generation of the BMW M5: the G90 chassis. Featuring a ground-up redesign and a new plug-in hybrid powertrain, the specs are impressive. It's not just its horsepower and torque numbers but its curb weight of 5,390 pounds, too. That's no small figure, but the German brand's never held back in this department, and it has never greatly impeded the badge.Well, until now. There's a lot to like about the newest M5, especially in its corner-carving competence and how it acts around town solely propelled by electrons. But in other areas, this $123,275 super sedan lacks some nece …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's almost human nature to want to make the most out of our devices at this point, and no matter what, we're always looking at how we can optimize our computers (or even phones). One way we tend to do that is by reducing memory usage, but it's not always obvious how you can do that.

They say that hindsight is 20/20, and I couldn't agree more. At the moment, I never felt I was overspending on any of these components. In fact, I remember it as making smart decisions, buying only what I "needed," and spending more on the parts that deserved it. It's only after a long time has passed that I consider these purchases more expensive than they needed to be. Some of it has to do with bad timing, but most of it was me being impulsive. So, here are the five components that I spent way too much on, and what I should have done instead.

Quiet luxury. I've been using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 for a week, and I've run out of ways to say "It's so nice." It's not essential, or life-changing; it's nice.It's an understatement, though. Samsung joins the likes of Honor and Oppo in making a folding phone that's almost as thin as a regular phone, and it's a trend with real benefits. Compared to the previous six generations of Samsung folding phones, the Z Fold 7's inner screen feels like a bonus - one that doesn't require the sacrifice of carrying a bigger, bulkier device to get. It is thin. It is luxurious. Also: it is two thousand dollars.It's so nice. It's two thousand dollars. Somewhere in betwe …Read the full story at The Verge.

Every developer has their go-to tools, and for me, VS Code is the undisputed champion when it comes to Python. But it’s not just the editor itself that makes the difference; it’s the carefully curated collection of extensions that turns a good coding environment into a great one. I have experimented with many, and in this post, I’m eager to share the extensions that I use every single day to make coding in Python seamless, intuitive, and more fun.

An aerial view of flash flood damage along the banks of the Guadalupe River on July 11th in Kerrville, Texas. | Photo: Getty Images Flash floods have wrought more havoc in the US this week, from the Northeast to the Midwest, just weeks after swollen rivers took more than 130 lives across central Texas earlier this month. Frustrations have grown in the aftermath of that catastrophe over why more wasn't done to warn people in advance.Local officials face mounting questions over whether they sent too many or sent too few mobile phone alerts to people. Some Texans have accused the state of sending out too many alerts for injured police officers in the months leading up to the floods, which may have led to residents opting out of receiving warnings. And hard-hit Kerr County …Read the full story at The Verge.

How big a monitor is too big? Trick question; there's no such thing as a monitor that's 'too big'. However, the bigger the screens get, the higher the price rises, until you're looking at some pretty eye-watering MSRPs for some of the largest screens out there. So, when one of these screens goes on a huge discount, you're essentially getting all of the benefits of a huge monitor without the downside of a giant price tag.

I recently built an all-new overpowered server for my home labbing adventures, packing an Intel Core i7-14700K, an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and 64 GB of RAM. The goal was to replace my bare-metal TrueNAS system with a Proxmox-focused beast, but there was one problem: how was I going to move all of my data over? As it turns out, it was really easy and took less than half an hour to get everything migrated.

Running Frigate on hardware is more straightforward than you may immediately believe. It's not a taxing package, but running IP cameras and using detection algorithms is where your CPU can really bog down. Thankfully, most recent and moderately powerful mini PCs are up to the job. But what if you're building a home-based data center?