Whether you find yourself travelling abroad for pleasure or business, you'll likely interact with a server or two. This could be for streaming media, writing up a document or two, loading up your passwords and account credentials, or even backing up your mobile devices and freeing up some space. What if I told you that it's possible to self-host much of what you'd likely use while away from home? Here are some of the best self-hosted apps I use while away — and you can too!

Just like the PC ecosystem, the NAS landscape is teeming with cool operating systems, each adding some unique functionality to your storage server. But once you fall down the slippery slope of NAS distros, you’ll come across operating systems that ship with premium licenses. And I don’t just mean distributions that require a paid subscription to unlock all features either; there are a couple of operating systems that won’t work unless you drop some dough on a license.

Windows 11 is a powerful operating system, but like its predecessors, it requires awareness of privacy and security. There are features you should disable and stop using if you are concerned about privacy. Data on Windows can be shared or harvested in several ways, but you can prevent these actions from happening. Unless you want to create a local account (which becomes more difficult with each update), you can improve your Windows privacy by avoiding these features.

Personally, I've never really used photo mode in a video game. Okay, sure, I've booted it up in a few games, moved the camera around, fiddled with the filters and all that, but I never stop in front of a beautiful scene and think "Man, I hope this game has a photo mode to capture this moment." Maybe I'm just a grouchy curmudgeon.

Storage drives don't last forever, even if we wish they would. Hard drives and SSDs can last a long time if used carefully, but they'll eventually wear out and fail. Unlike hard drives, which give audible warning signs, solid-state drives can fail without any visible or audible warning signs, but sometimes you get lucky and notice issues before the drive dies.

Whether you’re hiking a mountain trail, flying overseas, or camping off-grid, having the right tech can make or break your trip. Good travel gear is lightweight, multipurpose, and durable. The focus here is convenience, entertainment, and peace of mind without overstuffing your bag. These are eight essential pieces of tech that should be in your backpack for any adventure.

When shopping for new storage drives, you can choose between a hard disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive (SSD). Both have advantages and drawbacks for storing data inside PCs, servers, network-attached storage (NAS), and other hardware. I needed to expand (and replace) my storage pool in my primary storage device, and I ended up opting for a few 16TB HDDs rather than moving into 2025 with an all-SSD array.

Writing about PC hardware every day, some things can slip through the cracks when it comes to implementing them on my own PC. One of these is storage, or more specifically, how to protect your data from an SSD that's going bad (or was a poor choice in the first place). Recently, I had an old SSD fail overnight, taking all the data of my secondary PC with it. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the warning signs, nor did I have any backups. Suffice it to say that you should learn from my mistakes instead of making your own.

At its now-annual Tudum event, Netflix revealed new trailers for some of its more anticipated feature films.That includes the very first teaser for Guillermo del Toro’s live-action take on Frankenstein, which stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles Dance, and Christoph Waltz. It starts streaming in November, and is the latest project for del Toro on Netflix, following a stop motion Pinocchio and his anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities.Also at the show was Wake Up Dead Man, the third entry in the Knives Out murder-mystery series, and a follow-up to 2022’s Glass Onion. Director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig return, and they’re once again joined by an all-star cast. That includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.Along with the very brief teaser trailer, Netflix confirmed when Wake Up Dead Man will be streaming: December 12th.Going in a completely different direction was latest trailer for Happy Gilmore 2, the follow-up to the Adam Sandler comedy from way back in 1996. The sequel will be one of Netflix’s big swings for this summer. It streams on July 25th.And if you haven’t seen enough of Squid Game’s third season, we also got one more trailer ahead of its premiere on June 27th, which will mark the end of the series.And to round out the night, here are the first six minutes of the first episode for season 2 of Wednesday, which streams on August 6th.

After months of teasing the arrival of a certain human-reindeer hybrid in the next season of its live-action One Piece adaptation, Netflix has finally revealed its take on Tony Tony Chopper and the actress who will be bringing him to life.Today during this year’s Tudum event showcasing all of Netflix’s upcoming projects, the streamer announced that actress Mikaela Hoover (The Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) has been cast a Tony Tony Chopper, One Piece‘s anthropomorphic reindeer who joins the Staw Hat Pirates on their search for the Grand Line. In addition to Cooper’s voice, a digital capture of her facial performance is being used to create the show’s CGI character.Iñaki Godoy (Monkey D. Luffy), Mackenyu (Zoro), Emily Rudd (Nami), Jacob Romero (Usopp), Taz Skylar (Sanji), Ilia Isorelys Paulino (Alvida), Jeff Ward (Buggy), and Michael Dorman (Gold Roger) are all returning in One Piece‘s second season. But the show is also set to introduce a number of new characters from the comics like Charithra Chandran as Miss Wednesday, Joe Manganiello as Mr. 0, Katey Sagal as Dr. Kureha, and Lera Abova as Miss All Sunday.Though Netflix has committed to quite a bit more One Piece, the second season doesn’t have a solid release date just yet. But the streamer plans for new episodes to debut some time in 2026.

Just one day after Elon Musk’s public departure from his role as a White House employee, the Trump Administration pulled its nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman to become the new NASA Administrator. First reported earlier on Saturday by Semafor, citing anonymous sources, the move has been confirmed by White House spokesperson Liz Huston. The New York Times reports, based on three unnamed sources, that Trump “told associates he intended to yank Mr. Isaacman’s nomination after learning that he had donated to prominent Democrats,” including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. Isaacman, the billionaire founder and CEO of a payments company, Shift4, has purchased several spaceflights from Musk’s SpaceX. He flew on the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, and again last year on Polaris Dawn, completing the first commercial spacewalk. As noted by Space.com, the White House also released an in-depth version of its NASA budget request for 2026 on Friday, proposing to cut its funding by nearly one-quarter, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion, with funding for science programs dropping by 47 percent. In a statement released Friday, The Planetary Society called the budget justification “an extinction-level event for the space agency’s most productive, successful, and broadly supported activity: science,” that “wastes billions in prior taxpayer investment and slams the brakes on future exploration.”Now, without Isaacman in place, Ars Technica quotes an unnamed former senior NASA leader who said the request is “just a going-out-of-business mode.” In a statement emailed to media outlets including NBC, Huston wrote, “It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon.” Despite being unable to confirm to the Senate whether Musk had been a part of his job interview, he had appeared set for an approval vote to replace former Florida Senator Bill Nelson. According to the NYT, Isaacman was informed of the decision on Friday and declined to comment when reached by phone.

Home automation is more powerful than ever, and choosing the right platform can make or break your smart home experience. I’ve worked with both Home Assistant and Hubitat and found that while Hubitat has its merits, Home Assistant consistently offers more control, flexibility, and long-term satisfaction. Whether you’re new to smart home tech or you’ve been deep in Zigbee and MQTT for years, here’s why I think Home Assistant is the better choice.