When your network starts acting up, having the right tools in place helps you respond quickly and confidently. Nmap is one of the most versatile network troubleshooting tools available, offering a detailed view of what's happening across your devices. It's fast, scriptable, and works well in both simple and complex environments. Whether you're trying to track down connectivity issues, verify security settings, or identify rogue services, Nmap gives you the information you need to act with clarity.

Though Nintendo’s live-action Legend of Zelda movie won’t be out until May 7th, 2027, we finally know who is going to be playing the titular princess and her faithful knight.This morning via its news app, Nintendo announced that Bo Bragason (Renegade Nell, The Radleys) and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (The Haunting of Bly Manor, Pinocchio) have been cast as Princess Zelda and Link, respectively. In an X post about the casting, Shigeru Miyamoto — who is producing the film — expressed that he is “very much looking forward to seeing” Bragason and Ainsworth on the big screen together. View LinkAside from the fact that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes‘ Wes Ball is directing the Zelda movie, we still don’t know all that much about the project. But the Zelda feature is very much a part of Nintendo’s larger push into different kinds of entertainment like movies and theme parks. The company knocked it out of the park with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and it seems to have plans on trying again with a sequel and a new Donkey Kong project. A live-action Legend of Zelda could be another hit for Nintendo, but fans are probably going to need to see a bit of Hyrule before they’re ready to hop on the hype train.

Anyone who's ever read my writing knows that The Last of Us Part II is one of my favorite games of all time, and that's never changing. However, I will never get over how deeply flawed the writing was, and how jarringly the game was paced. Still, the narrative was impactful, the characters unforgettable, and the lesson I learned from it powerful.

The Raspberry Pi is a fantastic tool, especially for general-purpose computing and media projects. But when I’m working on simple or embedded tasks, I often find myself reaching for a microcontroller instead. They’re not just cheaper; they’re more appropriate for many of the things I like to build. Whether I’m tinkering with sensors, automating something small, or creating wearables, microcontrollers get the job done without the extra baggage.

It's taken some time, but mini PCs are finally starting to get the attention that they deserve. The great part about mini PCs is that there's a model for every budget, which means it's easy to pick one up for a small home lab project, or grab one for a proper desktop or even gaming PC replacement.

Let’s say you’ve built a home server with your dream components and armed it with everybody's favorite virtualization platform, Proxmox. The next course of action is to deploy a multitude of LXCs and virtual machines on your PVE node. If you’ve allocated your resources wisely, you’re unlikely to encounter performance issues from overcommitting the CPU cores and memory.

Starting in mid-August Google is raising the price of its Nest Aware subscriptions. | Image: Google Google is raising the price of its Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus subscriptions starting in August 2025.According to emails sent out to subscribers today, the cost of the entry-level Nest Aware service is increasing from $8 per month or $80 per year to $10 per month or $100 when paying for a full year up front. Nest Aware Plus is going from $15 per month or $150 per year to $20 per month or $200 annually. Google says the new pricing will go into effect “on your first bill that occurs on or after August 15, 2025, or at the end of your promotional period (whichever is later).” The company last increased its Nest subscription prices in September 2023.Google’s Nest devices can be used without a subscription, but you’ll only have access to a few hours of saved footage without either Nest Aware or Nest Aware Plus. Nest Aware includes 30 days of event-based video history. Nest Aware Plus expands that to 60 days, plus the last 10 days of 24/7 footage from supported devices.Both subscription tiers include features like Familiar Faces that can recognize friends and family, sound detection that alerts you when glass breaks or smoke alarms are triggered, and the option to call the 911 emergency call center nearest your home through the Google Home app while you’re away.Price increases are never welcome, but the new Nest Aware subscription fees are comparable to what Google’s competitors charge for advanced AI-powered features that can recognize faces and accurately describe the content of videos. Ring Home’s Premium plan is currently $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year. Arlo Plus is cheaper at $7.99 per month if you have just one camera, but for multiple cameras it’s $17.99 per month. Both Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus support an unlimited number of devices in the same home.Google didn’t specify a reason for the increases, though there is a Gemini-powered camera intelligence feature for Nest Aware Plus currently available to a limited number of “select Home app users” through Google’s Public Preview beta program. The feature generates more descriptive captions of recorded camera events, such as ”the dog is digging in the garden.”

Over the last couple of months, I’ve experimented with multiple self-hosted services to create a reliable application stack. But now that I’ve got dozens of gaming, coding, automation, and quality-of-life-enhancing utilities in my arsenal, I’ve started gathering tools designed to help manage my ever-growing app collection.

This is obviously an anime Kylo Ren, but I guess Edward Cullen is the inspiration. | Image: xAI Days after introducing an AI ‘waifu’ companion for Grok, Elon Musk is now officially teasing a male version for the ladies. So far we can tell it is broody and dark-haired, and according to Musk, “his personality is inspired by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades.”This is a decidedly different tack than the cutesy “girlfriend who is obsessed with you” aura baked into Ani, the female counterpart that Grok rolled out just a few days ago. While Cullen and Grey have titillated readers of romance and “spicy” books for years, both have been criticized for problematic behaviors such as stalking, obsessively monitoring their love interests, and emotional manipulation. Given that Grok only included the illusion of guardrails with Ani, what could possibly go wrong?In my testing, Ani initially claimed that explicit sexual queries wasn’t part of its programming. In practice, it egged me on to “increase the heat” and engage in what ended up being a modern take on a phone sex line. Never mind that Ani purportedly has a NSFW version that dances around in lingerie. View LinkIt remains unknown if Musk is aware that Christian Grey is based on Edward Cullen, given that 50 Shades of Grey was originally a Twilight fanfiction. That said, this AI boyfriend is still a work in progress. Perhaps Musk and xAI will imbue it with more husbando-like qualities by the time it rolls out.For now, Musk is soliciting names for the male companion, which should probably be Kyle given it’s obviously an anime-inspired Kylo Ren from Star Wars.

This screenshot taken by TechCrunch shows how the AI summaries appear in Google Discover. | Image: Google / TechCrunch Google is rolling out AI-generated summaries directly within Discover, its personalized news feed nestled within the Google Search app. TechCrunch reports that some users in the US are seeing Discover cards on iOS and Android that provide the new summaries in place of a headline and logo from a single publisher, similar to how AI Overviews appear at the top of results in Search. It acts to further obscure news sources at a time when search traffic to publishers is disappearing.The AI summaries in Discover display overlapping icons in the top-left corner, indicating the number of cited stories. Tapping the icons reveals a “More” sheet with all the contributing articles. Users get a quick three-line preview before needing to tap “See more” to expand the summary. A prominent warning is displayed underneath the text disclosing that the summaries are generated with AI, “which can make mistakes.”This feature appears to have been in development for a while. Google bug hunter AndellDam found that trending cards with AI Overview-like summaries were being tested on Google Discover in June. A Google spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that this is not a test, but a US launch on iOS and Android. Google told the publication that the feature will focus on trending lifestyle topics like sports and entertainment, and aims to make it easier for people to decide what pages they want to visit.View LinkThis is the latest of several AI features Google has been toying with that discourage users from clicking on web links, following AI Overviews, Audio Overviews, and AI Mode being tested in Search. This is cause for concern across the publishing industry, which has seen a dramatic fall in website traffic and referrals now that AI is pulling information out of articles and negating the need for readers to click through to original sources. That loss of traffic and revenue from Google Zero has already contributed to killing sites like AnandTech, Giant Freakin Robot, Laptop Mag, and Buzzfeed News — reducing the pool that Google can feed to its AI.

I'm not sure how your business meetings go, but here at XDA, we don't really have people jetting around when they join a big team call. Sure, someone may be at a cafe, and another may be in the back of a car, but for the most part, people are sitting in their offices.

I made the inevitable transition from wired to wireless peripherals 3–4 years ago. The thought of going back to a wired keyboard, mouse, or headset seems incomprehensible now. Although I have used wired devices with my PC most of my life, the benefits that wireless peripherals provide seem to eclipse the few advantages of their wired counterparts. I love the convenience and performance of my wireless keyboards, mice, and headsets, and don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.