Some Steam achievements are tough. Others? They’re downright ridiculous. These aren’t just about grinding XP or finishing a story; they’re brutal challenges that test your patience, skill, and maybe even your sanity. Here are the rarest, most absurdly difficult achievements you can try to earn on Steam, if you dare.

Mark Zuckerberg’s AI hiring spree is costing a lot of money. His investors don’t care.Meta’s stock price shot up over 10 percent on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected earnings. Revenue generated in the second quarter was $47.5 billion, up 22 percent from a year ago. Daily users across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp grew to almost 3.5 billion. Meta also warned Wall Street that it would spend more on data centers and hiring next year. In response to all this, the company’s valuation increased by over $175 billion, or more than 12 Scale AI deals.”Our business continues to perform very well, which enables us to invest heavily in our AI efforts,” Zuckerberg said during today’s earnings call. Meta’s cash cannon is now fully pointed at his new moonshot of achieving superintelligence, or as he puts it, AI that “surpasses human intelligence in every way.” He bragged about providing the richly compensated members of his new superintelligence lab “access to unparalleled compute” for training new models that will “push the next frontier in a year or so.” Zuckerberg’s last moonshot was the metaverse, which came up only once at the very end of today’s earnings call. It’s too early to compare the two projects, but they share a key similarity: they need the kind of funding that only a company like Meta can provide.Where AI differs from the metaverse, however, is that it appears to be already improving Meta’s ads business. A new AI model for delivering ads has driven approximately five percent more conversions on Facebook and three percent more conversions on Instagram, according to CFO Susan Li. Large language models are also starting to power how posts are ranked in feeds across the company’s apps, including Threads. While Meta is still spending heavily on the metaverse (it’s on track to spend a total of $100 billion on its Reality Labs division this year), there’s no mistaking the fact that AI is officially Zuckerberg’s top priority. This time, though, he’s playing catch-up in a heated race, not trying to invent a new platform from scratch. The stakes are much higher, even if he’s playing the game with house money.

If you're on a Windows 10 PC and your computer doesn't match the requirements to upgrade to Windows 11, Microsoft would prefer that you purchase a new one. However, it's not your only option; some people have come forward and devised ways to install Windows 11 on a PC while dodging the system requirement check, allowing any PC, TPM 2.0 or not, to use the operating system. And with Windows 10 falling out of support this coming October, we'll only see more and more people take that avenue.

It's no secret that I adore projects that use e-ink displays. There's just something about their appearance that I really love, and I'm always on the hunt for new projects that use this cool tech in all kinds of different ways. Because as long as you don't need to refresh the screen a ton, you could try putting an e-ink display on anything, really.

In examples like those garlic knots on the bottom left, Uber Eats’ AI would have to generate sections of the food itself. The menus on your next Uber Eats order may be embellished using generative AI. The food delivery service is rolling out new features that aim to help businesses advertise and communicate with customers, which include  AI additions to menu descriptions, food photos, and review summaries, along with a live chat tool and payments for user-submitted photos.The AI tools can be used to generate descriptions for menu items and summarize customer reviews to quickly highlight feedback regarding areas of the business that need improvement. Uber Eats also says it’s using AI to “detect and enhance low-quality food images” on menus, either by making changes to lighting, resolution, and framing, or editing the food onto different plates or backgrounds. The example images provided by Uber Eats suggest that this feature may also use generative AI to make adjustments to the food itself, such as expanding it or filling in any gaps when digitally re-plating.For menu items that don’t have any images at all, Uber Eats will also now allow customers to upload a photograph of their own order when leaving a review. The feature is launching globally, and can be accessed by tapping the “add photos” option on the rate order screen. Customers in the US, UK, Canada, and Mexico may receive a payment in Uber in-app credits if their photos are published.Lastly, Uber Eats is introducing a new Live Order Chat feature that allows businesses to contact customers directly to help resolve any issues with orders before they’re sent out. Once an order has been received, merchants can then initiate real-time communications to clarify any special requests, check dietary or allergy requirements, or inform them of out-of-stock items to discuss alternatives.The user-uploaded images and Live Order Chat features could provide customers with a better idea of what to expect from their orders before they arrive at their door. AI-generated and manipulated content can be unpredictable, however, and we won’t know how reliable these tools are until they start appearing on menus.

Although large language models are getting all the attention these days, AI image generation has been quietly picking up momentum. Since I already self-host LLMs to avoid those limitations, I figured I might as well do the same for image generation. Running everything locally would give me better privacy, more flexibility, and zero wait times. That’s when I came across Stable Diffusion Web UI, a completely open-source frontend that makes local image generation surprisingly easy.

All of us have a digital footprint in the online world. Whether you use services like Google Workspace for work or Outlook for your emails, these are all online tools that send data to remote servers. While that's not necessarily unsafe since the data is encrypted, letting a third-party handle your data can always be risky — especially with sensitive documents and files. That's when I realized the importance of self-hosted apps and services, and made the switch soon thereafter. I now have a self-hosted home lab with my entire digital life offloaded onto it. Apart from enhanced data control and privacy, I enjoy benefits such as offline access to several services, long-term cost savings, and complete flexibility in tailoring services to meet my needs.

It can be incredibly deflating to unbox your shiny new (or pre-owned) GPU, plug it in, install all the drivers, and fire a game up only to be disappointed by the level of performance. You even did the requisite research on the best GPU for your system. Perhaps there was a smudge on your glasses when you were reading those benchmark charts, but if you're sure you should be seeing more performance, it's likely to be one of these 4 issues.

When we talk about a "smart home," people often fall into one of three camps. The first camp is made up of those who love the idea of their home being truly "smart", being able to automate their day in a way that makes life easier. The second camp is simply made up of those who don't care, haven't heard of it, or feel as if it's not worth the money. The third camp, meanwhile, is typically made up of those who vehemently hate the idea, pointing to the invitation of potential tech problems into your home, vendor lock-in, and data collection. Futurehome, a Norwegian-based smart home company, has recently given firepower to that latter camp.

Microsoft first started using the "Xbox PC" term in a blog post announcing the Gears of Wars remaster in early May. It was a new branding effort designed to signal that games are available on PC through its own Xbox PC app and store. The Xbox PC branding didn't last long though, as Microsoft has now started using "Xbox on PC" instead. Which one is it, Microsoft?The Xbox PC branding has been picked up by third-party publishers, with Focus Entertainment using it for a gameplay trailer in early June. Then on June 25th Microsoft introduced the Xbox on PC branding for its Hellblade II Enhanced announcement, but confusingly used both Xbox PC and …Read the full story at The Verge.

After playing Death Stranding 2 and calling it my 2025 game of the year, I've been moving heaven and earth to get my friends to play the first game, especially if they had written it off for whatever reason.

E-ink displays look great, and Home Assistant is a really handy way to keep your smart home ticking over, so why not combine the two? Smart home displays don't usually need to update a ton of times every second, so you can get away with using an e-ink display without sacrificing too much.