If you work from home on a PC, you have probably been tempted to play games while working, but that's often easier said than done. Most games require a bit too much attention to make them something you can do while also working. It usually ends up as something you do instead of working, but there is a genre of game that is much easier to do while working. Those are idle games, games where progress can be automated, and you instead only have to give directions. It lets you check in every few minutes on your second monitor, or in some cases, the bottom of your main monitor. The best idle games on Steam are indie games, games that only cost a few bucks but can provide plenty of needed distractions from your work without fully disengaging. Presumably, a AAA idle game doesn't make much sense, since I'm not sure what the extra budget would get you, but indie developers have come through.

One name is popping up a lot across tech startup social media right now, and you might've heard it: Soham Parekh. On X, people are joking that Parekh is single-handedly holding up all modern digital infrastructure, while others are posting memes about him working in front of a dozen different monitors or filling in for the thousands of people that Microsoft just laid off.From what social media posts suggest, Parekh is actually a software engineer who seems to have interviewed at dozens of tech startups over the years, while also juggling multiple jobs at the same time. Several startups had this revelation on July 2nd, when Suhail Doshi, fo …Read the full story at The Verge.

If I had to pick just one AI tool to use, my top choice would be Google’s AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM. It has the right set of features to genuinely boost productivity, it’s grounded in your own sources, and the free version is more than enough for the average user.

A Freedom of Information Act request has produced letters that the US Department of Justice sent to Google, Apple, Amazon, and several other companies in order to assuage their concerns about breaking a law that banned US web services from working with TikTok.The documents — obtained by Zhaocheng Anthony Tan, a Google shareholder who sued for their release earlier this year — show Attorney General Pam Bondi and her predecessor Acting Attorney General James McHenry III promising to release companies from responsibility for violating the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which required US companies to ban TikTok from app stores and other platforms or face hundreds of billions of dollars in fines. The law was intended to force a sale of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, due to national security concerns.Additionally, the letters say the Justice Department will step in to prevent anyone else from attempting to enforce penalties, a promise that includes filing amicus briefs or “intervening in litigation.” McHenry apparently sent the first round of letters on January 30th, ten days after Trump signed an executive order delaying enforcement of the law, which took effect the day before his inauguration. A series of follow-up letters were sent by Bondi, including a round dated April 5th, just after Trump extended the delay on enforcing the law to mid-June.The letters’ existence was known, but until now, their text had not been released. The full list of recipients includes the operators of app stores, cloud hosting services, and more:AppleGoogleAmazonMicrosoftAkamai TechnologiesDigital Realty TrustFastlyT-Mobile USOracleLG Electronics USATrump has since issued a third extension, which expires in mid-September, while promising a sale of TikTok by ByteDance to a non-Chinese owner remains underway. It is unclear whether any of the orders have a valid basis in law.View Link

Notion is one of the most powerful apps for productivity and planning. Whether you want to take a quick note, create a workout plan, fix your diet, or even manage your tasks, Notion has a template for all of them. Along with that, there's also a side of Notion that's rather unexplored — the ability to publish your Notion documents on the web. This creates a host of possibilities, like creating a portfolio or a landing page that has all your vital information in one place. Once you create a landing page, you can use it to apply for jobs, get people to subscribe to your services, or just let the world know more about what you do. It's also the best way to convince potential clients to hire you, if you're a freelancer like me.

Although certain PC components can last for well over a decade, others can meet their end after a few years of continuous use. Storage drives are one such lineup, and no matter how well you care for your data-storing drive, it’s bound to ascend to tech heaven after dutifully serving your Network-Attached Storage unit.

I've been a Plex user for a long time, but I recently decided to explore other options. It's not that Plex is a bad platform, but the recent changes to its free plan and the price hike on the paid plan pushed me to look elsewhere. I tried Jellyfin, which comes the closest to what Plex offers, but what really stuck with me was Kodi. Some might say I'm stuck in the past, that Kodi's UI is outdated, archaic, and sluggish, but based on my use case, I've had a positive experience. I'm happy to ditch Plex for it.

It's that time again: for a third year running, the summer is looking pretty great for streaming some science fiction. There's just something about cool fictional futures that's a good fit for hot summer days spent indoors, and it seems the various streaming services agree. It's been a pretty good year so far for the genre, with the return of Severance, Andor, and Black Mirror. And that momentum looks like it will continue through the next few months; we've already seen strong debuts for Murderbot and Ironheart, while other shows like Alien: Earth and The Institute are on their way, as well.Here are some series to keep an eye on.Murderb …Read the full story at The Verge.

For how ubiquitous battery tech is in modern life, there sure are a ton of myths and straight-up misinformation about them. Whether powering the best laptops, fantastic PC gaming handhelds, superb smartphones, or giving us range anxiety in EVs, without lithium-ion technology, portable electronics would have stagnated.

I was 2 years old when, in the year 2000, right at the turn of the century, my father brought home a brand-new, state-of-the-art HP Brio desktop. That PC became my lifeline, especially since I both discovered and fostered a love for all things gaming on that little PC with all of 64 MB of RAM and an Intel Pentium III CPU.

We're coming up to Windows 11's fourth birthday in October, and still, to me, it doesn't feel like all of the features are truly there yet. The biggest bugbear for me is the lack of customization with the Start menu and the taskbar, something that has had specific customization options in prior versions of Windows, which seemingly vanished in 11 without any sign of them getting readded any time soon. As such, Windows 11 updates are less about celebrating what's new and more about being happy with features that should have been there from the start, which is a little depressing.

The Republican-controlled US Congress has passed a budget bill that includes cuts to social programs like Medicaid and more funding for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside provisions that discourage wind and solar energy production. Passed after a marathon debate in both houses, it will allow President Donald Trump to realize policy goals he’s so far attempted to push through executive orders and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump intends to sign the bill in a 5PM ET ceremony on Friday, July 4th.The new budget moves funds away from Medicaid, clean energy tax credits, and other public services and toward Trump’s attempt to mass-deport both documented and undocumented immigrants. The bill extends a number of tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy Americans while reducing spending and eligibility for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), likely kicking millions off both programs despite objections from some initial Republican holdouts. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who ultimately voted for the bill, expressed concerns that “we can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities.” During a period of intense demand for electricity — including from companies like Meta, OpenAI, and other Silicon Valley AI giants — the budget also makes it more difficult for wind and solar companies to receive tax credits. It winds down tax credits for EVs, likely rendering electric options more expensive for car buyers. And it requires the FCC to sell 800MHz of spectrum that will likely be drawn from the 6GHz band, which is currently left free to provide more capacity for Wi-Fi services.While much of the budget fight concerned Medicaid and the national debt, there were also protracted negotiations over a planned 10-year moratorium on states regulating AI systems. Lawmakers ultimately voted against that rule, which was opposed by not only Democrats but many state-level Republican politicians. An excise tax on wind and solar power companies that couldn’t meet strict requirements barring “material assistance” from certain foreign entities including China was similarly removed, although the bill still deals a serious blow to the renewable energy industry. Congress also scrapped a ban on Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care, though it will deny Medicaid funding to reproductive health care group Planned Parenthood.Meanwhile, the budget provides $45 billion for immigration detention facilities and around $30 billion for ICE personnel and operations costs, on top of tens of billions of dollars in other immigration enforcement-related funding that the nonprofit American Immigration Council says will overall make ICE “the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the entire federal government.”This increase will allow Trump to continue an ever-expanding mass deportation program, which has seen masked ICE agents target immigrants in workplaces, courtrooms, and on city streets. The administration has widened its net to catch not only undocumented residents, but people who hold visas or green cards or were granted temporary protected status, as well as naturalized citizens; Trump mused earlier this week that his “next job” could be expelling native-born citizens for crimes like murder and said he would consider deporting his former “First Buddy” Elon Musk. Since the Supreme Court recently denied a nationwide injunction on Trump’s termination of 14th Amendment birthright citizenship, the administration could even target a freshly created class of stateless newborn babies later this month.In addition to expanding arrests, the funding will likely also help continue the creation of new surveillance and detention systems, like a centralized national citizen database that has been reportedly constructed with help from DOGE. As Congress debated the budget bill this week, Trump toured a newly opened Florida detention center built with FEMA funds; the rapidly erected facility — which Republicans celebrated by releasing merchandise with the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz” — flooded during a rainstorm soon after.