When I first started using NotebookLM, I thought I had it all figured out. I imported every document I could find, highlighted every interesting phrase, and asked it relevant questions. However, I quickly realized that without a strategy, this powerful tool was just another place for my notes to get lost. So, I took a step back, learned from my mistakes, and discovered how to truly harness NotebookLM’s potential.

Many people have an older GPU lying around, likely taken from an older PC or retired following an upgrade to a newer, shinier GPU. However, that old GPU doesn't just have to sit idle, and there are ways to make it work for you. What that looks like depends on your needs and the services you use, but these are some of the ways you can use an older GPU and make it an invaluable part of your computing life again, and can be done on any old GPU.

Now that we're about halfway into the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, we can take stock of his administration's destruction of online environmental resources. It's worse than last time. It's also, seemingly, just the beginning - paving the way forward for the president's polluting agenda.A watchdog group that monitors publicly-available environmental data has recorded 70 percent more federal website changes during Trump's first 100 days in office in 2025 compared to the start of his first term in 2017. Federal agencies are taking broader swings to ax public resources from their websites this time around, the report sh …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you’re looking for a fun, budget-friendly way to spend your weekend, your Raspberry Pi has you covered. Even with just a few dollars and basic components, you can build projects that are surprisingly useful, educational, or just plain cool. These ideas are great if you're new to the platform or simply want a quick win without a big investment. All of them can be done with items you probably already have or can find for under $5.

Creating seating arrangements can be pretty stressful; the empath part of me strives to find the perfect seat for every person even if it's a nearly impossible task. If it's for a big, meaningful event, I get even more anxious. When you find the right place for everyone, though, it's even more satisfying than a great jigsaw puzzle. Chasing that feeling is what Is This Seat Taken? is all about - and it does so in a low-stakes and relaxing way.In Is This Seat Taken?, your goal is to place people who are tiny geometric shapes into the right seat that meets their needs. In a bus stage, for example, a triangle character may want to sit near a w …Read the full story at The Verge.

I initially used the Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit on my first Pi Zero 2W, but that experience wasn't good. The OS wasn't bad, but the hardware wasn't the most responsive, given the visually heavy nature of the OS. I switched to DietPi a few weeks later, and it was a perfect distro with the latest 64-bit Debian version. It has a blend of CLI and Whiptail menus that doesn't feel too technical. DietPi packs additional tools that make the regular jobs much less painstaking for an average Joe like me.

Unlike VirtualBox, VMware Workstation Pro, and other Type-2 hypervisors, you’ll typically set up virtualization platforms on a bare-metal system and use web UIs to access them from another device over a local network. Modern virtualization platforms like Proxmox have surprisingly robust web interfaces, to the point where you can essentially deploy all your server projects from their menu-driven UIs without ever using the terminal or an SSH connection to execute commands.

This EcoFlow portable power station was a huge help in making sure my family didn’t breakdown during sweltering temps in the Tennessee mountains. | Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge I recently returned from a family camping trip to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I live in South Carolina, so in mid-July, a trip to the mountains is usually an excellent way to seek out cooler temperatures. Not this year. Thanks to this summer's heat dome, I was facing a week of feels-like temperatures upwards of 100 degrees - and no air conditioning. I went into planning mode. We were camping in our Rockwood Mini Lite RV, which meant we had a fridge, access to power outlets, and water. But the campground didn't have electrical or water hookups, so we needed our own power and some portable cooling. Normally, y …Read the full story at The Verge.

Returning to work or school from summer vacation is never easy, but the Aura Aspen could help you hold onto your favorite memories by putting them front and center. And right now, you can pick up the digital photo frame for around $199 ($30 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Aura, which is a new low price. Aura AspenThe Aura Aspen digital frame lets you upload photos via the companion app, cloud services, or email from anywhere. Its 12-inch LCD display features slim bezels, a 4:3 aspect ratio, and an antiglare screen that mimics the look of real photos.Where to Buy: $229 $199 at Amazon $229 $199 at Aura $229.99 $199.99 at Best BuyFor a digital photo frame, the slim, 12-inch Aura Aspen looks remarkably traditional. My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy found its paper-textured, anti-glare matte display and 1600 x 1200 resolution makes pictures appear sharp and lifelike, while the 4:3 aspect ratio means most smartphone shots should fit perfectly. It even comes with its own adjustable metal stand that looks like one you’d find on a regular photo frame.But unlike a normal photo frame, this one could be a gift that lets you keep on giving. Like other Aura digital photo frames, you can update it anytime with new photos, whether you’re sending pics of the grandkids to mom’s frame or beaming a college student the latest pictures of the family pet. Just upload pictures via the companion app available on iOS and Android, sync them automatically via iCloud Photos or Google Photos, or email them and they’ll appear. What’s more, you can also add text captions, display Live Photos from your iPhone, and even showcase 30-second videos that play sound.Read our hands-on impressions of the Aura Aspen.Three more deals to kick off your weekendNow through August 13th, Woot is discounting a number of refurbished Kindles and Amazon Fire HD tablets. You can, for example, buy the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite with a 90-day warranty starting at just $89.99. Woot is also taking an additional $5 off when you apply the promo code FIREFIVE, saving you $65 over buying the latest model. At 6.8-inches, the last-gen e-reader is slightly smaller than its 7-inch successor, but otherwise is very similar with IPX8 water resistance, a crisp 300ppi display, and an adjustable warm white frontlight that makes it easy to read at night. Read our 2021 Kindle Paperwhite review.Garmin’s inReach Mini 2 is on sale for $332.50 ($67 off) while the Garmin inReach Messenger Plus is $427.50 ($72 off) from Wellbots exclusively for our readers when you apply the code VERGEGARMIN5. Those are some of the best prices to date on the small satellite communicators, which lets you text, share your location, receive weather updates, and send SOS alerts to Garmin’s emergency dispatch center when you don’t have cell service. The Plus offers the same functionality, but also lets you share photos and voice messages. Just be aware you’ll have to pay a $7.99 monthly subscription fee to use any of these features, though.The Satechi Magnetic MagSafe Wallet starts at $27.99 ($12 off) at Amazon, which matches its best price to date. The vegan leather wallet can hold up to four cards and folds out into an adjustable kickstand, allowing you to take video calls or stream in landscape or portrait mode. It also includes NFC passthrough, so you can tap-to-pay without pulling out your credit card.

In the aftermath of itch.io pulling the sale of over 20,000 pages of adult content, the creators of that work are left feeling betrayed, exhausted, and fearful. The number of platforms that permit the sale of adult material is shrinking, and there's no guarantee the ones that remain will still permit it in the future. But now, with their livelihoods at stake, many creators and their communities have begun to push back and search for new ways to thrive."Before [itch.io], the NSFW comics community would grouse and complain and share feelings of anxiety," said Brad Guigar, a smut comic artist. "This time around, we're actually doing something …Read the full story at The Verge.

Kennedy asserts that wearables will help Americans “take control” of their health. It’s not that simple. I keep hearing the same sentence repeating in my head."My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years."RFK Jr., our current secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said this at a congressional hearing at the end of June. Wearables, he said, are key to the MAHA - Make America Healthy Again - agenda. Kennedy positioned wearables for Americans as a means of "taking control" or "taking responsibility" over their health by monitoring how their lifestyle impacts their metrics. In the hearing, he also cited that his friends had shed pounds and "lost their diabetes diagnosis" thanks to devices like con …Read the full story at The Verge.

Over the decades I've been into computing, I've been an early adopter of many networking features, but I've always had to balance budgetary constraints with the needs of the devices on my home network. Plus, I never really stayed in one place long enough to want to wire up my home for fast Ethernet. Instead, I prioritized mobility and wireless stability, and it's taken me some time to unlearn these ways now that I'm more settled.