When I spin up a new Home Assistant instance, there are a few add-ons I don’t wait to install. These tools make configuration easier, unlock extra features, and give me more control over how I interact with my smart home. They don’t require much setup and deliver a significant return in terms of flexibility and reliability. Whether I’m building something new or restoring from backup, these are always part of the foundation.

"I want to make a big announcement," said Faryar Shirzad, the chief policy officer of Coinbase, to a nearly empty room. His words echoed across the massive hall at the Bitcoin Conference, deep in the caverns of The Venetian Expo in Las Vegas, and it wasn't apparent how many people were watching on the livestream. Then again, somebody out there may have been interested in the panelists he was interviewing, one of whom was unusual by Bitcoin Conference standards: Chris LaCivita, the political consultant who'd co-chaired Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. "I am super proud to say it on this stage," Shirzad continued, addressing the dozens of people scattered across 5,000 chairs. "We have just become a major sponsor of the America250 effort." My jaw dropped. Coinbase, the world's largest crypto exchange, the owner of 12 percent of the world's Bitcoin supply, and listed on the S&P 500, was paying for Trump to hold a military parade.No wonder they made the announcement in an empty room. Today was "Code and Country": an entire day of MAGA-themed panels on the Nakamoto Main Stage, full of Republican legislators, White House officials, and political operatives, all of whom pr …Read the full story at The Verge.

Mechanical keyboards have become increasingly common, thanks to falling prices combined with a surge in choices and an ever-improving typing experience. Compared to membrane keyboards, mechanical keyboards have a lot more going on underneath — discrete switches, extra layers of foam, plates, gaskets, stabilizers, and more. Despite many mechanical keyboards being fairly robust, you can still damage your keyboard if you tend to be careless at your desk. Not all of these habits will inflict lasting damage, but they're all enough to ruin your prized keyboard in other ways.

ESPHome has become one of my favorite tools for managing smart home devices. It gives me the ability to configure, update, and troubleshoot sensors and microcontrollers without needing to write firmware by hand. Once I saw how easily it integrates with Home Assistant and how much control it gives me, it became my go-to choice for nearly every ESP32 or ESP8266 project. Whether I'm deploying a temperature sensor or a complex multi-relay controller, ESPHome simplifies the process in ways that still surprise me.

Creating a media server is a great way to access all the stored media content on your hard disk in a centralized manner. I have my fair share of free media, family events, and personal memories stashed in multiple hard disks and SSDs. It's tiresome to hook each of the drives to the PC or copy the media to the phone to view them, and Jellyfin sounded like a great idea to start.

Elden Ring Nightreignis a co-op, run-based take on Elden Ring, featuring bosses from other FromSoftware games, and while the game doesn't actually feature other players for you to duke it out with, the changes it makes to the Elden Ring formula feel inspired by Fortnite. The incredibly popular free-to-play battle royale has taken its fair share of inspiration from other video games, so it feels natural for Fortniteto influence other games. While FromSoftware superfans might bristle at the comparison, it's a positive one, as many of the aspects that feel like Fortnite are some of the more interesting aspects of Elden Ring Nightreign.

The thermal paste that comes pre-applied on your GPU out of the factory doesn't last forever. Just like how you apply fresh thermal paste on your CPU every couple of years or so, you need to reapply the thermal paste on your GPU as well if you wish to maintain peak thermal performance. However, most people don't really do this, and that's mainly because disassembling a graphics card isn't as straightforward as unmounting a CPU cooler. More importantly, there's always the risk of potentially damaging your expensive GPU.

Ah, Home Assistant, a wonderful piece of software that has enabled me to automate all kinds of things in my home thanks to the countless integrations available for it. It can simply do it all, from the weird and wonderful, like detecting an electric toothbrush to kickstart my day, to the entire automation of my lighting all around me. Oh, and now I'm using it to turn my lights into Morse Code communicators. That's... useful too, I guess?

The Wholesome Direct is always full of cute and charming games to keep an eye on for the future. But it's also a great place to find things to play now - and that's especially true this year. The 2025 edition of the livestream showcase included a number of games that released during the show itself.So if you like what you see, there's no wait at all.Camper Van: Make it HomeFinally, a game that combines designing your own house with going on a road trip. Camper Van: Make it Home is exactly what it sounds like. On the design side, you're able to customize a tiny home camper and make it appropriately cozy, but the developers say it will also take you on "a journey of self-discovery."Fireside FeelingsThis game seems designed entirely around comfort. You play as a cute little animal and spend your time curled up around a fire, chatting with friends, and guiding the conversation as you get pulled into a bigger story.InstantsPuzzle game meets scrapbooking. Here the goal is to organize a huge cache of family photos, and as you do, discover their history and story. "Inspired by the way elders pass down family history using pictures to support their storytelling," the develope …Read the full story at The Verge.

PC hardware has undergone a period of immense growth over the last decade. What was once a relatively niche hobby has exploded into a blossoming industry, and along the way, hardware itself was being innovated upon at a rapid pace. Now, the PC hardware industry has entered a period that feels a lot like stagnation, but who's to blame? Is it the manufacturers who are struggling to innovate? Or are our expectations as consumers becoming unrealistic?

Thanks to its unique tab management, robust theme engine, digital whiteboard, and smooth animations, Arc browser quickly gained popularity among enthusiasts. However, to everyone’s surprise, The Browser Company has ceased active development on the Arc browser. While they haven’t killed it outright and security updates are still coming, Arc won’t receive any new features. I found myself searching for an alternative, and then I discovered Zen.

I love an organized desktop. There's just something about a cluttered screen that makes it harder to stay focused on the task at hand. It's like the knowledge of the clutter sits at the corner of my mind, taunting me. Or maybe I just get distracted easily.