The PC community is quick to brand older components "outdated" or "obsolete" long before their time has come. You might have done it yourself with air coolers, TN monitors, GTX graphics cards, Gen3 SSDs, or membrane keyboards years ago. Despite such components being perfectly usable in many scenarios, they're often considered out of date. Sure, you shouldn't buy them new in 2025, but that's no reason to discard them if you've already been using them for years. Here's my list of PC parts that were deemed "uncool" prematurely.

When your Chromebook starts getting long in the tooth, you might think of chucking it. However, there are ways to repurpose it for various tasks that can assist with your workflow, entertainment, and more. You might think yours is too old and needs to be recycled. But there are many ways to get more from it.

Once you start using Home Assistant at home, it’s hard not to go overboard. To make the most of it, I used Home Assistant to create a shared shopping list with my family to organize our home better. The idea was to bring some semblance to the chaos: random purchases to stock up the fridge or pantry, and other household items. From impulse buying to double-stocking, it was vexing for me to shop with my family.

Image: The Verge I jumped on the smartwatch bandwagon a bit late, but now I can’t go a day without mine. Beyond delivering helpful notifications, it’s perfect for setting timers, tracking workouts, and monitoring my sleeping habits (which are terrible). If you haven’t yet joined the smartwatch party or you’re looking to upgrade, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 7 is down to $199.99 ($100 off) in the 40mm / Bluetooth configuration at Amazon and Walmart. If you prefer a larger display, the 44mm model is on sale at Amazon starting at $229.99 ($100 off).While the Galaxy Watch 7 isn’t as flashy as other Samsung wearables, its more simplistic approach is part of its charm. It retains the signature circular design and slim profile of prior models, which remains a stark contrast to the adventure-ready Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s comfortable to wear while sleeping and working out — as our own Victoria Song noted in her review last year — and it comes with a selection of welcome features, including heart rate tracking, an Energy Score for gauging recovery, and FDA-approved sleep apnea detection.One of the new marquee tools of the Watch 7 is its AI-powered wellness insights, which provide personalized suggestions to help you hit your health and fitness goals. There’s also a 3-in-1 BioActive Sensor that can measure metabolic health thanks to an experimental advanced glycation end products (AGEs) metric, though both features were rather hit or miss in our testing. Of course, the wearable also offers a range of basic smartwatch features, such as the ability to stream music, send texts, and take calls when your phone is nearby.Despite its slimmer design, the Watch 7 offers around 24 hours of battery life with the always-on display enabled, though if you upgrade to the 44mm Watch 7, you can eke out a few additional hours. Samsung’s wearable also runs Wear OS 5, as of now, though we’re expecting the Gemini-powered Wear OS 6 to arrive via an update later this year. All that being said, the timing of these deals could indicate that a Galaxy Watch 8 is on the horizon. Samsung typically holds an Unpacked event in mid-July, and this year it may introduce a refreshed lineup of foldable and wearable devices.Other deals to check outAmazon’s Fire TV Soundbar Plus is down to an all-time low of $174.99 ($75 off) at Amazon. The 37-inch soundbar features three speakers, three tweeters, and two woofers, providing a nice upgrade over your TV’s built-in speakers. Plus, it supports Dolby Atmos for richer, more three-dimensional sound. A dedicated center dialogue channel promises you’ll actually hear what people are saying as well, allowing you to turn off closed captions, while its relatively compact size makes it a great option for smaller setups.The Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe is available from Amazon and Anker (with code WS7DV2DYGOBA) for $103.99 (about $46 off), matching its best price to date. The 3-in-1 charger is perfect if you own multiple Apple devices, allowing you to simultaneously charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. The primary wireless pad delivers 15W of power, with an adjustable viewing angle of up to 60 degrees. The Apple Watch charger, meanwhile, features a convenient slide-in and slide-out mechanism, while the AirPods charging pad can be accessed by angling the main charger. It also comes with a 30W USB-C charger and a 5-foot USB-C cable, so you’re ready to go out of the box.The Soundcore Select 4 Go is back down to its all-time low of $19.98 (about $15 off) at Amazon in select colors. The diminutive Bluetooth speaker is perfect for listening to your favorite playlist while relaxing by the pool, at the park, or in the bath. It features IP67 waterproofing, allowing it to withstand immersion in up to 3.3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes, thus providing peace of mind when used outdoors. A handy lanyard also lets you attach it to your bag or your bike’s handlebars, while the speaker’s 20-hour battery ensures it can keep the party going during all-day events.

I've fallen in love with the Nintendo Switch 2, but that's largely despite what the console is capable of, not because of it. I'm primarily a PC gamer, so as much as I've loved tearing through Mario Kart World, the lack of my Steam library has been a sore point. I normally reach for my Steam Deck when playing PC games on the go, but the Switch 2 has highlighted a few missteps with the original design that I hope Valve addresses with the Steam Deck 2.

Ray tracing made its way into gaming in 2018 with the launch of Nvidia's RTX 20-series graphics cards. At that time, the company made it seem revolutionary and promised a massive leap in visual fidelity. However, the first set of games with real-time ray tracing didn't impress me all that much because they all offered RT features selectively. It wasn't until Cyberpunk 2077's RT Overdrive update in 2023, which unlocked full ray tracing, that the improvements truly felt like a major leap.

The Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering set is here, and there's never been a more perfect assemblage of Magic cards. The set features cards taken from every mainline Final Fantasy title, including the two MMOs, so there's something for every generation of Final Fantasy lovers. And while Magic has featured other video game crossovers in the past (hello, Assassin's Creed and Fallout!), with the way this set is constructed, from card mechanics to art, you can tell this one is a developer favorite, sure to appeal to the massive chunk of people who love both games. But what if you don't inhabit the center circle in the Venn diagram of Magic and Final Fantasy lovers but are still interested in experiencing this set for yourself? Magic: The Gathering is an intimidating game, even if you're a seasoned player like myself. There are so many ways you can play, both in person and online, that it can be overwhelming to figure out the best way to jump in. So here's a few tips and tricks to playing the Final Fantasy Magic set. Be warned, though: this is the best-selling set in Magic's 30-plus-year history, and you will pay for the pleasure of this experience - if you can find the product to …Read the full story at The Verge.

Compared to OmniOS and TrueNAS Scale, Proxmox has a fairly straightforward UI, and you can get accustomed to its quirks after reading its massive documentation. That said, Proxmox tends to hide certain advanced settings behind a barrage of menus, which can be annoying to navigate when you’re just starting out. Likewise, certain features can only be enabled after executing a stream of commands inside your PVE node’s Shell interface.

There's a lot to love about open-source software, so much so that I've been actively trying to use and support more open-source projects. I currently self-host services like Immich and Automatisch, which are only made possible by the open-source nature of the projects.

When you start your self-hosting journey, it's not too difficult to keep track of everything. After all, you probably only have a single server with a few services; nothing too crazy. However, as my home lab has grown, I've simply found it too unwieldy to keep track of everything by myself. I've experimented with a few different self-hosted tools to try and keep on top of all of it, but in the end, I went back to Obsidian to track everything.

Stellar Bladehas finally come to Steam, after a year of PS5 exclusivity. The game has sold well out of the gate, clearing one million copies (via Game Donga) sold on Steam, bringing the total sales to over 3 million. This adds to the continued success of PlayStation during this console generation. The math suggests that Stellar Blade sold an additional 50% of its PS5 sales within a few days on Steam, making it a massive success for both PlayStation and developer Shift Up. As the game continues to sell on Steam, alongside its DLC that has been released since its original launch, it begs a question about PlayStation's current strategy. While console owners don't necessarily benefit from exclusives, since other people not being able to play something doesn't improve your own personal experience, did Stellar Blade and the PS5 benefit from the game being exclusive for a year or did exclusivity hold it back?

The release of the Nintendo Switch 2 has garnered a lot of attention among gamers looking for something new to dive into. While the console will be backward compatible with previous Nintendo Switch games, most people are excited about the new titles that will eventually come out for the new console. In addition, the Switch 2 feels like a better piece of hardware to play games on than its predecessor. But is this new Nintendo console something that gamers should be quick to get at the moment? The opening weeks of the Nintendo Switch 2 being available on the market show that gamers might be better off waiting a little while before getting it.