I've been a convert to curved monitors for the better part of a decade, and I won't go back. For me, they're easier to use as I don't have to squint to read the furthest edges on my preferred ultrawide aspect ratio, and are comforting with the implied circle from their curvature. They do have some unique characteristics due to their curve that could be the deciding factor, but they're ones that you won't find on any specifications sheet.

PC gaming handhelds aren't as hot of a topic as they used to be, with the initial buzz dying off, leaving many brands working on successors to popular models that are set to arrive this year. Of course, they are still a popular option if you're looking to game on the go, and don't want to buy a Nintendo Switch 2.

Comcast is changing its Xfinity plans nationwide to make them simpler — and it’s dropping data caps so that the plans have truly unlimited data.The company announced today that it will now offer four plans — 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 2 Gbps — across three different pricing tiers: an “Everyday Price” paid per month without a price guarantee, a lower price per month with a one-year price guarantee, and a price per month with a five-year price guarantee that’s slightly more expensive than the one-year option.The plans will include unlimited data with no data caps, spokesperson Joel Shadle confirms to The Verge. They’ll also come with an Xfinity WiFi Gateway and a free line of Xfinity Mobile cellular service for one year. If you’re currently on an Xfinity plan that’s not one of the four tiers, you can stay on it until you repackage your plan, spokesperson Rachel Zabinski Williams says. These updates follow Comcast’s announcement of the five-year price lock option in April. Comcast also recently started rolling out “ultra-low lag” technology in certain cities that could lower latency when using things like FaceTime or Nvidia’s GeForce Now.(Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.)

The zombie genre started all the way back in the 1980s with Entombed (1982) and Zombie Zombie (1984). Nowadays, the genre has a few prominent titles, but not every game has hit the mark. However, these six zombie games checked all the boxes and are always worth adding to your library.

Delta Camera recreates the low-res aesthetic of the Game Boy Camera. | Image: Riley Testut Riley Testut, the developer behind the robust Delta emulator app for iOS, announced a new iPhone app designed to replicate the Game Boy Camera accessory but with “features you’d expect from a modern camera app.” The Delta Camera app’s full feature list hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s currently available for beta testing to those who subscribe to Testut’s Patreon, which starts at $3/month, or $30.24/year, ahead of a full release later this year.View LinkThe app will replicate the low resolution and monochromatic aesthetic of the Game Boy Camera cartridge that debuted in 1998 with a 128 x 128-pixel CMOS sensor that could capture 0.001434MP images in just four shades of gray. The Delta Camera will allow the brightness and contrast of images to be adjusted and can capture multi-shot panoramas, but also adds manual exposure and zoom options, the option to use the iPhone’s front or back cameras, and full support for the Camera Control button introduced on the iPhone 16 lineup.It could be a fun solution for those missing the Game Boy Camera experience. The accessory is still compatible with modern handhelds featuring a cartridge slot like the Analogue Pocket, but an app version on iOS will make it much easier to share images and post them to social media.

When it comes to game servers, self-hosting them is always the best option by far when it comes to performance and cost. Many server providers are expensive for what you get, and the model that many of these companies use means that your server is almost certainly running in a virtual environment, sharing resources with countless other users, too. This can mean sudden lag spikes or even crashes in extreme cases, and for as long as I can remember, I've been self-hosting my own game servers and even a TeamSpeak server for nearly a decade at this point to get around those exact issues.

Marathon, Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter, has been delayed indefinitely, leaving one less PlayStation exclusive to look forward to in 2025. Announced in a blog post, Bungie delayed the game to continue developing it, improving the survival aspects and improving the intelligence of the AIs. While the delay of Marathon can be blamed on PlayStation's failing live-service push or Bungie's continued controversies, including a recent issue of Bungie using stolen artwork in Marathon (via PCGamer), part of the blame should be placed on the genre. Extraction shooters have become the latest cash cow, or at least perceived cash cow, for video game companies, but the current successful games in the genre suggest that extraction shooters won't be the next mainstream hit the way battle royales were before that.

When you’re building a Network-Attached Storage, choosing the right operating system is just as essential as picking out the correct hardware. Unraid and TrueNAS Scale are usually the distributions that most users flock to, and there are compelling reasons to go with either option. Unraid lies on the beginner-friendly spectrum, with enough applications and file systems to keep most NAS lovers satisfied, while TrueNAS Scale is a free OS that crams top-notch ZFS support with powerful RAID provisions and terrific virtualization performance.

GIMP has been my go-to editor for some time now. I mainly use it for image editing, but it has its place in my graphic design toolkit as well. As robust and versatile as GIMP is, it’s not the most intuitive or sleek program out there, so I set out to find something more suitable.

On nearly every Nintendo console since the release of the Nintendo 64, there has been a Super Smash Bros. game to come out for it. It's almost a guarantee that the series will be part of any new console that Nintendo releases. The last Smash Bros. release on the original Nintendo Switch was a massive success, which was the result of a culmination of every game in the series leading up to that point. Now that the Nintendo Switch 2 is finally out and Nintendo fans are looking for new games to play on it, it is inevitable that a brand-new Super Smash Bros. will come to the console in the future. But what that game is and what new things it will bring to the series is anyone's guess.

Microsoft is still updating the Xbox 360, nearly 20 years later. Earlier this week some devoted Xbox 360 users booted up their aging consoles to find that Microsoft had updated the home screen to finally resolve an issue with box art. But in addition to that fix, several users on Reddit, as well as Kotaku, have confirmed the update also adds some sizable ads for the Xbox Series X / S consoles to the 360’s dashboard, as spotted by TrueAchievements.Microsoft’s last major update to the Xbox 360’s dashboard came shortly after Microsoft shut down the Xbox 360 online store in July 2024, when it removed menus and tiles no longer needed. That update introduced a bug causing game thumbnails and box art to appear stretched and distorted on the home screen, but the bug has now been fixed.What’s less welcome are Microsoft’s not-so-subtle hints that it might be time for Xbox 360 owners to upgrade. The two different ads that now appear on the 360’s dashboard include one featuring an image of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles without any text, and one featuring a QR code that leads to the Xbox website with text encouraging players to “Experience next gen performance.”Clicking either ad does nothing at all. You’ll need to pull out your smartphone or grab a tablet to visit the URL embedded in the QR code, where you’ll be further enticed to upgrade to the latest Xbox model.The Xbox 360 remains Microsoft’s best-selling console to date, with around 84 million units sold since it launched in 2005. It remained popular long after the release of the Xbox One, and still held a sizable market share in countries like Mexico following the release of the Xbox Series X / S. Microsoft kept its online store running for an impressive 19 years, which is a good indication of how long it was actively in use.

The update aims to make it easier to use Gemini as a personal assistant without sacrificing your data privacy. Android users will soon be able to let Gemini control device features and apps with fewer privacy concerns. In an email seen by Android Police, Google recently notified Gemini users that it will start rolling out an update on July 7th that allows the AI bot to “use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.”Disabling the Gemini Apps activity setting stops conversations with the chatbot from being used to “provide, improve, develop, and personalize” Google products and AI models. It also currently prevents users from asking Gemini to perform tasks in connected apps, such as setting alarms, calling contacts, sending WhatsApp messages, and controlling media playback settings.The vague wording of Google’s message initially raised some confusion around whether the change would give Gemini unrestricted access to private data or system functions. Google later clarified that Gemini’s app connections can still be disabled at any time, and that the update “is good for users.” “They can now use Gemini to complete daily tasks on their mobile devices like send messages, initiate phone calls, and set timers while Gemini Apps Activity is turned off,” Google said in a statement to Android Authority. “With Gemini Apps Activity turned off, their Gemini chats are not being reviewed or used to improve our AI models.”The incoming change means that people can use Gemini like a personal assistant for their device without contributing to Google’s AI training datasets, just in time for Gemini to actually replace Google Assistant on Android devices later this year. Turning Apps Activity off will also stop Gemini interactions from appearing in the activity log, though Google notes it will still save conversations for up to 72 hours for security purposes, regardless of whether the setting is disabled or not.