A year ago, Google came under fire after a judge ruled that it was holding a monopoly. While that was the easy part, the hard bit came next: how do you "de-monopolise" Google? The judge had a few ideas as to how it could cut up its iron grip on the market to make things fairer for its competitors, and as you might imagine, Google wasn't a big fan.

If your PC is running a bit hot, you may be thinking about upgrading your case with a new AIO cooler, more fans, or a giant heat sink. And while those options will work, they can get a bit expensive. They may also take up more space in your case than you really want to lose. While you could despair at this point, there is one niche PC cooler upgrade you can snag for $20 or less that will get you the cooling boost you need without taking up extra space in your tower or setting you back a pretty penny. In fact, you can find some options for as low as $10.

Even when people begin referring to you as an expert coder, those dreaded red squiggly lines popping up in VS Code every few minutes is something that never really goes away. Now, I’m nowhere near an expert coder, and there are times when I can barely finish a few lines of code without being greeted by yet another red squiggly line.

Ever since Valve released SteamOS for handheld manufacturers to use as they please, we've slowly been seeing companies adopt it as an officially supported OS on release. Now you don't have to strip out the pre-installed operating system manually and hope that SteamOS works with your new hardware; now you can purchase a handheld with Valve's OS right out of the box.

It looks just like the current Predator Helios 18 laptop, but the new 18P model has a 4K screen and even higher-end graphics. Acer is refreshing some of its gaming laptops for IFA 2025, with a big new Predator Helios 18P AI at the high end and pair of more affordable Nitro V 16 models.The Predator Helios 18P will have up to an RTX 5090 GPU and Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, though in any configuration it should come with a 18-inch 4K / 120Hz Mini LED display and two Thunderbolt 5 ports (among many other ports). The 18P’s availability and North American price is still TBD, but it’s sure to be up there since it’ll start at 4,999 euros. At the more affordable end, the new Acer Nitro V 16 and 16S are launching in October and November, respectively. The 16 starts at $999.99 / 1,299 euros and the slightly smaller and lighter 16S starts at $1,099.99 / 1,399 euros. Both 16-inchers can go up to an Intel 270H processor and RTX 5070 GPU.

There are laptops out there with power adapters heavier than this entire 16-inch laptop. Acer is announcing a new Swift Air 16 at IFA 2025, and it’s an absolute featherweight of a 16-inch laptop. Weighing in at 2.18 pounds / 0.99kg with an IPS display or 2.43 pounds / 1.1kg with its optional OLED, the Swift Air is lighter than even a 13-inch MacBook Air. It also packs more ports than the MacBook, and will start at a lower price of €999 when it launches in November. (North American availability and pricing is still TBD.)It kind of boggles my mind that the Swift Air 16 fits this much screen into such a light package, as it’s even lighter than the LG Gram — a laptop defined by its lightness. But the reality checks start coming in once you notice some of the Swift’s specs, like its thickness of 0.63 inches / 15.9mm (0.65 inches / 16.5mm for the OLED version). By contrast, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs are just 0.44 inches and 0.45 inches, respectively.Also, while the Swift Air’s AMD Ryzen AI 300-series chip options will be more than competent for everyday productivity tasks, I’ve seen firsthand that Apple’s M4 chip outperforms them while maintaining better battery life. The Swift Air’s starting config will come with a Ryzen AI 5 330 chip, and the top-end version uses the Ryzen AI 7 350. I tested the latter chip in the latest Framework Laptop 13 and it’s very capable, even for a touch of light gaming.But the parts of the Swift Air 16 that give me the biggest pause are its HDMI spec and battery size. It’s got a decent port selection with two USB-C, one USB-A 3.2, and a 3.5mm audio jack, but its video-out port is HDMI 1.4. That’s very outdated for 2025, when you expect just about any $1,000-plus laptop to drive an external monitor at 4K / 60Hz or greater. HDMI 1.4 can only do 4K at a sub-par 24 or 30Hz. And while the Swift’s starting IPS display has a respectable 1920 x 1200 resolution at 60Hz and the optional OLED sports a 2880 x 1800 resolution with 120Hz refresh, the laptop’s battery is only 50Wh. That’s a smaller capacity than the 13-inch MacBook Air, and much smaller than the 75Wh battery in the Acer Swift 14 AI I tested earlier this year. That 14-inch Swift cousin has great battery life for a machine sporting AMD’s more power hungry chips, and the large battery was a big reason why. Acer’s own promotional materials rate the Swift 14 AI at “up to 27 hours battery life” in a video playback test. The Swift Air 16’s rated battery life in similar video playback tests? Just 13 hours — less than half. Ouch.Oh, and did you notice the Swift Air’s gapless keyboard?I’ve already poked plenty of holes in the hull of the Swift Air 16 before it’s even taken its maiden voyage. But I’m still interested to see it shove off, and I’m hoping it’ll land on our shores here in the US. Despite my concerns, it’s an intriguing machine. And I’m all for a company taking some chances. But naming your laptop “Air” is going to draw the inevitable comparisons.

I don't know about you, but I have to stay extra vigilant when it comes to fetching my laundry. All it takes is one moment where I tune out for a little while, and I find myself sorting through stone-cold clothes that have been sitting in the washer-dryer for an hour.

I took the Spin 514 for an early spin, and I’m looking forward to testing it further. Acer's new Chromebook Plus Spin 514, announced at IFA 2025 in Berlin, is the company's first laptop to use the Arm-based MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 processor. That chip was used in the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 that launched earlier this summer, and it was key to delivering excellent performance and marathon battery life in that fanless laptop. I dubbed the Lenovo "the new king of Chromebooks," and this $699.99 Acer, launching this month, seems poised to be a solid alternative - especially if you prefer a touchscreen convertible and don't mind hearing a fan on occasion.Acer sent me the new Chromebook Plus Spin 514 for early testing, and a …Read the full story at The Verge.

This sure does look exactly like every other Nest Cam out there. Google is overdue an update to its smart home setup, and now we know when it’ll come: October 1st. The company has teased some sort of launch or announcement for that day, promising that “Gemini is coming to Google Home.”The company announced Gemini for Home at last month’s Made by Google event, promising early access would begin in October, so a dedicated event with more details before things kick off makes sense. Google’s AI assistant will eventually replace Google Assistant across the smart home, theoretically enabling natural language interactions and more intuitive controls.We’re not only expecting an assistant announcement. Google’s teaser includes a glimpse of a Nest Cam, and while it looks the spitting image of existing hardware, we expect it’s a new model, rumored to launch soon alongside a new Nest Doorbell, both featuring 2K camera support. There’s also the small matter of the unknown Nest speaker glimpsed during the recent launch stream, which we expect to be at the center of Google’s new home hardware.Is that you, Gemini? Come in and make yourself at Home 🏠 Sign up for updates: https://t.co/V85WgPJvQN pic.twitter.com/JJaVRW385A— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) September 2, 2025

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner fired by President Donald Trump without cause, can at least temporarily return to work while her legal case plays out. This happened once before when Slaughter briefly returned to her office months after Trump claimed to fire her, when US District Court Judge Loren AliKhan found her dismissal unlawful. Trump broke with decades of Supreme Court precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor, preventing presidents from firing independent commissioners without cause. But her return was short-lived — a few days later the appeals court temporarily paused the order reinstating Slaughter.This latest order, approved 2-1 by a panel of appeals court judges, dissolves that stay and lets Slaughter get back to work until they decide on the merits of the case. While the majority judges don’t actually rule on the case, they write that the government is not likely to win, since “any ruling in its favor from this court would have to defy binding, on-point, and repeatedly preserved Supreme Court precedent.”

Thinking about building a new PC from the ground up? Well, Intel's latest chip might be just what you're looking for, especially when you can grab it for its lowest price yet at just $259. With this promotion, you're getting Intel's Core Ultra 7 265K, which's a very powerful CPU, and perfect for someone that's looking to start something new.

The Amadana 27ART0 P1. | Image: Acer Did you know Acer acquired a Japanese design firm called Amadana late last year that makes classy coffee gear, retro calculators, air purifiers, and all manner of minimalist low-fi tech? Neither did I till today — but it goes a long way to explaining why a few of Acer’s new monitors at IFA 2025 are leaping off the page. Unfortunately for stateside readers, Acer has no current plans to ship its Amadana branded products below in the US. The 27-inch 27ART0 P1 desktop monitor — whose display is just 8mm thick — and the 16-inch, 1.4-pound 16APM1QJ portable monitor, are headed to EMEA regions in Q1 for €169 and €119 respectively.They’re not heavy on tech, anyhow: they’re 1080p IPS screens, at just 250 nits of brightness, and only the desktop monitor reaches 144Hz. The portable panel, with USB-C and mini-HDMI input, is limited to 60Hz, though both monitors offer variable refresh rate.But the Acer CE270U Z, below and atop this story, will come to North America for $700 in Q1, and feature a 26.5-inch 1440p OLED panel at 280Hz. It also has AMD’s flavor of variable refresh rate (FreeSync Premium Pro) and peak brightness of 1000 nits in HDR (250 nits typical), with two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4. Here’s a look at some earlier Amadana products, courtesy of Acer. Amadana writes that it’s named after a location in Japan’s Edo period where fine lacquerware was sold.