Breaking up Google's ad tech monopoly is, apparently, like going to Mars or trying to replace Michael Jordan - dubiously possible and a huge amount of work.Those were some of the analogies witnesses testifying in Google's defense told a federal judge this week as the company mounts its second attempt to stave off a break up. After successfully beating that fate in the Justice Department's Search case, Google made its case to Virginia-based District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema to let it keep its ad tech business intact too. Along the way, Google witnesses argued it need not give up monopoly power to restore the competition it damaged, and t …Read the full story at The Verge.

My job involves testing a lot of software, many times whole new operating systems. I've also been fortunate enough to review quite a few mini PCs I still have lying around, and because of that, I have a lot of choice when the time comes to test this software.

Acer has made many Spin-series Chromebooks before, and despite flaws, this is one of its best yet. I was cautiously optimistic about Acer's Chromebook Plus Spin 514 when I tested a preproduction model last month, but the final unit is here now and it sticks the landing. Well, mostly.Acer's latest convertible Chromebook has zippy performance and oodles of battery life, along with a good touchscreen with stylus support. But crappy speakers and no fingerprint sensor make its $700 price tougher to swallow, and prevents it from dethroning the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, our current favorite Chromebook.Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2025)Score: 7ProsConsExcellent battery lifeSpeedy performanceStylus supportCrummy, muffled-sounding speakersN …Read the full story at The Verge.

There's a lot of math in diet culture. It's all numbers - calories in, calories burned - and a constant tally running in one's head. In some ways, disordered eating can be considered a disturbed sort of strategy game, which is precisely why Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson's Consume Me works so well. The autobiographical game detailing Hsia's teenage years is a darkly funny, honest peek into the desire to shape one's life and body through food.Food in Consume Me - tomatoes, kale, and pasta rendered as Tetris blocks - are assigned "bites," a stand-in for calories. Jenny's (the character, not the developer, who we'll refer to using her last na …Read the full story at The Verge.

Spotify has found itself the target of artists' ire for many reasons over the years: poor audio quality, terrible payouts, giving Joe Rogan millions of dollars… the list goes on. But recently it's been CEO and founder Daniel Ek's extracurricular activities that have been cause for consternation. Over the past few months his funding of German defense company Helsing through his investment firm Prima Materia has been the final straw for many acts, including Hotline TNT, Massive Attack, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Deerhoof, and more. Then, on Tuesday, Ek announced that he would be stepping down as CEO. Neither Ek nor Spotify gave any indicat …Read the full story at The Verge.

Obsidian is a very feature-packed app, but it can get messy if you’re not careful when setting up your first vault. This can happen when you read about its best features and rush the setup, so you end up with a huge set of notes to try Graph View. Without a few simple habits, you may waste valuable time cleaning things up later.

Why just post a photo when you can encourage all your friends and followers to engage with it? Have you tried simply uploading a photo to Instagram lately? It's a minefield. Is that a Story, a Post, or a Reel? Do you want to add music? A caption? A prompt, which is… different than a caption, somehow? How about a poll? A fundraiser? More text, but this time on top of the image? Share it to Facebook? On and on and on. I have a simple request to anyone at Meta who is listening: please, just give us our photo sharing app back.The current Instagram app is more like three or four apps in a trenchcoat. There's the grid, which is probably what anyone over the age of 35 thinks of as Instagram. Then there's Stories - shamelessly copied from S …Read the full story at The Verge.

If you're upgrading your PC, chances are you now have some older, spare components lying around. While you can toss these in the recycling bin to get rid of them, sell them, or pass them on to a friend or family member who could use some new hardware, those options just aren't enjoyable and, in some cases, may be difficult. Not all recycling centers will take old PSUs, after all.

One of the biggest wins for Microsoft Teams is that it's easy to use, but you still need to know some of the important tricks for flawless communication. However, since Microsoft keeps updating Teams with new features and improvements, you also need to keep learning about those to get the best experience. And the best part is that Microsoft is quite open about telling the world what Teams features it's currently working on and when to expect them.

In the early 2000s, the alarm bells had already been sounded for approximately a decade that IPv4 addresses were running out. Its 4.3 billion possible addresses, considered unimaginably large, suddenly looked very finite, and the standardization of IPv6 was a process undergone from the mid 1990s up until its publication in 1998. Yet just a few years later, in the mid 2000s, rumors circulated that China was working on IPv9. The problem, though, was that no international body recognized it, and it seemed drastically different from the rest of the wider internet.

Last week at the Zurich Film Festival, Eline Van der Velden - founder and CEO of AI production house Particle6 and its subsidiary talent studio Xicoia - said that a number of talent agents had expressed interest in working with Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated "actress" created by the companies. Van der Velden has not gone into detail about which agencies might be contemplating whether they should bring Norwood (and by extension, Xicoia) on as clients. But simply saying that agents have come knocking was enough to get the entertainment industry trades buzzing and posting stories about how Norwood came to be.Norwood is the first of many lifel …Read the full story at The Verge.

The robovac comes with a dock that can refill itself using its built-in water tank. Robot vacuums that mop well rarely come cheap, but thankfully, some of our favorite models are receiving a significant discount ahead of Amazon’s next Prime Day event next week. Right now, the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni and the newer Deebot X9 Pro Omni are on sale at Amazon for Prime members for $799.99 ($300 off) and $899.99 ($400 off), respectively, which is the lowest price we’ve seen on either model.The Deebot X8 Pro Omni is an excellent robot vacuum and mop hybrid, with an extendable roller mop that can apply up to 4,000Pa of pressure and reach into tricky spots, including corners. The nifty roller mop can also clean itself while tidying up your home, and the vac comes with a compact multifunction dock, one that can refill the robovac using an integrated water tank and move dirty water into a separate waste tank to prevent it from dragging stains across your home.As for vacuuming, the X8 Pro Omni boasts a powerful 18,000Pa of suction, along with a great anti-tangle brush that’s less prone to getting stuck in clutter. The hefty vac also relies on lidar and a 3D camera for mapping, allowing it to detect and avoid obstacles, adapt to various edges and baseboards, and navigate corners rather effectively. It supports Matter, too, meaning it’s compatible with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for hands-free voice control.Deebot X8 Pro OmniWhere to Buy: $1399.99 $799.99 at Amazon (with Prime) $1399.99 $839.99 at Evovacs $1399.99 $839.99 at Best BuyThe newer Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni, meanwhile, is nearly identical to the X8 Pro, except it comes with some minor improvements that render it an even better cleaning machine. Although it offers slightly less powerful suction at 16,600Pa, it introduces Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology, which optimizes the airflow path from intake to exhaust instead of relying solely on suction power. This allows more air — and therefore more dust and debris — to move through the system, resulting in a deeper clean if you’re willing to pay $100 more.Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro OmniWhere to Buy: $1299.99 $899.99 at Amazon (with Prime) $1299.99 $944.99 at Ecovacs $1299.99 $944.99 at Best Buy