Innovation keeps racing forward, yet a growing number of people are deliberately stepping back—especially as a constant onslaught of unwanted AI from every angle is being used as a corporate excuse to raise subscription prices for software we can't even own. They're trying to make it so nothing is ours anymore; everything is rented to us, from video games and SaaS to movies and books. Even hardware faces planned obsolescence, forced upgrades, and a long fight for the right to repair.

I've got a ton of hard drives, even in 2025, and I don't see that changing much in the years to come. I use mine mostly for archival storage, but I still have the odd one or two inside my desktop PCs for files that don't need SSD speeds. Over time, they need to be re-optimized for peak performance.

Nintendo is entering a new era. While most everyone associates the company with video games, for the last few years the brand behind Mario has been steadily expanding itself into something much larger."I think people view Nintendo as a gaming company, but we have always thought of ourselves as an entertainment company," Nintendo's senior managing executive officer, Shinya Takahashi, told me in 2023. Design legend Shigeru Miyamoto echoed the same idea at the opening of Nintendo's first museum last year. "What I wanted to express with this museum is that we are first and foremost an entertainment company," he said.To that end, Nintendo has entered into new areas like theme parks and Hollywood films. At the same time, it's now attempting to maintain its foothold in games with the launch of the Switch 2, a follow-up to its most successful home console to date. Each of these moves is a bold bet designed to broaden Nintendo's scope - but each one does that in the safest possible way.As Nintendo gets more ambitious, it's also getting less risky.The Switch 2 is the most obvious example. It's right there in the name. Instead of switching things up with a left field idea like the Wi …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Witcher 4 is still a long way out, with CD Projekt Red not even offering a release window or a look at gameplay for the highly anticipated sequel. But we do know the general setting, and we know that Geralt is hopefully enjoying retirement, as Ciri takes the leading role. The trailer makes it look like The Witcher 4 takes place a few years after The Witcher 3, one of the best single-player games of all time, with a slightly older Ciri, who is now a full-blown Witcher.

Last month, Donald Trump pushed the boundaries of government and financial ethics by announcing a contest: whoever bought and held the highest amount of the $TRUMP meme coin for an entire month would win an invite to a private dinner with the President. That dinner took place on Thursday at the Trump National Golf Course in Virginia, with attendees reportedly dropping nearly $394 million on $TRUMP in order to win the privilege. According to an analysis by The Guardian of the winners' wallets, over half of them lost money participating in this contest. But that's only if you're analyzing the wallets visible on the contest site's leaderboard. The real money was being made elsewhere."Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this"I interviewed an enthusiastic crypto trader who figured out how to win the contest without losing any money: buy enough $TRUMP to get onto the leaderboard - and then in a separate wallet on a separate exchange, buy $TRUMP perpetual futures that would be profitable if (or as he saw it, when) the value of $TRUMP dropped. Yes, he did The Big Short, except with Donald Trump's meme coin. "Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this," …Read the full story at The Verge.

As Valve rolls out official support for handheld consoles outside of the Steam Deck, we're seeing people compare Windows versus SteamOS performance on the same hardware. After all, if swapping operating systems scores you better framerates and less power drain, jumping ship for the performance gains alone would make a ton of sense.

You know, for a gaming controller, the NES Zapper was an impressive piece of kit. It may be pretty basic in today's standards, but given how it allowed people to "shoot" ducks on their screen all the way back in 1985, it certainly did a lot of things right.

Microsoft keeps encouraging users to install the latest version of Windows, or at least pick the one that is still eligible to get monthly security updates. In addition to new features, one of the reasons behind this is that the latest updates include fixes for newly discovered security threats and vulnerabilities. However, things can be a bit tricky with fresh Windows installs using ISOs.

When self-hosting as much as you can to save on cost, headaches, and keeping control of all of your data, you've likely come across network video recorders (NVR) solutions such as Frigate and Zoneminder. I've used the latter extensively for a few years, and only recently have I made the switch to Frigate, largely due to my esteemed colleague Ayush Pande's excellent coverage. These handy packages allow you to connect IP cameras and can track, monitor, and even alert you to various events.

Ask any productivity seeker about their favorite tool, and you’ll probably hear several note-taking apps come up in the conversation. Whether it’s keeping track of cool ideas, summarizing meetings, or documenting projects, note-taking utilities are a great fit for practically every user. That’s probably the reason why you’ll find a host of note-takers and to-do list builders in the computing space.

Converting paper documents into digital formats means you've got backups of your paperwork should you ever need them. It can also help you clear out a substantial amount of clutter from your home or office - perhaps a whole filing cabinet's worth.It's now easier than ever to scan documents using today's phones - a large flatbed scanner is no longer needed as it was in the past. Receipts, business cards, bills, and any other kind of printed material can be stored digitally.If you've got an iPhone, you can do this straight from the built-in Notes or Files apps. If those don't quite give you the features you need, there are third-party alternatives that will do the job as well.Scan documents with Notes or FilesThe process of scanning a document is similar in both Notes and Files. To get started in Notes, open or create a note, then tap the paperclip icon at the bottom, then Scan Documents. In Files, tap the three dots (top right), then Scan Documents.This gets you into the scanning interface. By default, you'll be in auto mode - frame the document in the camera viewfinder, and when it's lined up, a picture is automatically taken. Line up the next page, and after a momen …Read the full story at The Verge.

As policy makers in the UK weigh how to regulate the AI industry, Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and former Meta executive, claimed a push for artist consent would “basically kill” the AI industry.Speaking at an event promoting his new book, Clegg said the creative community should have the right to opt out of having their work used to train AI models. But he claimed it wasn’t feasible to ask for consent before ingesting their work first.“I think the creative community wants to go a step further,” Clegg said according to The Times. “Quite a lot of voices say, ‘You can only train on my content, [if you] first ask’. And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data.”“I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work,” Clegg said. “And by the way if you did it in Britain and no one else did it, you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.”The comments follow a back-and-forth in Parliament over new legislation that aims to give creative industries more insight into how their work is used by AI companies. An amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill would require technology companies to disclose what copyrighted works were used to train AI models. Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Elton John, and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the hundreds of musicians, writers, designers, and journalists who signed an open letter in support of the amendment earlier in May.The amendment — introduced by Beeban Kidron, who is also a film producer and director — has bounced around gaining support. But on Thursday members of parliament rejected the proposal, with technology secretary Peter Kyle saying the “Britain’s economy needs both [AI and creative] sectors to succeed and to prosper.” Kidron and others have said a transparency requirement would allow copyright law to be enforced, and that AI companies would be less likely to “steal” work in the first place if they are required to disclose what content they used to train models.In an op-ed in the Guardian Kidron promised that “the fight isn’t over yet,” as the Data (Use and Access) Bill returns to the House of Lords in early June.