Some of the best productivity tools aren't the ones designed for the job I'm using them for. I have often picked up an app because it solves one specific problem, only to slowly adjust it around my own workflow. Open-source software makes this even more common because I can use a tool in ways its creators may never have expected.

The Lenovo 7i’s 360-degree hinges opens up new usage options. | Image: Lenovo Best Buy is celebrating Labor Day all week long with big deals, including a deep discount on the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1, taking its original $1,1199.99 price down to $749.99. It’s a capable configuration for the price, with a Core 7 Ultra 256V processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, and a 512GB SSD. The IPS touchscreen has a 1920 x 1200 resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate, good enough for scrolling, taking notes, or catching up on YouTube videos. It can be tough to find a laptop at this price that doesn’t cut corners, and this model fits well within our criteria for a laptop suited for school and casual use.Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1Where to Buy: $1199.99 $749.99 at Best BuyNotably, this model is a 2-in-1 and features a 360-degree hinge, letting you fold the device all the way around to use it like a tablet, or prop it up on a surface for watching content. With an advertised battery life of up to 12.5 hours per charge, you shouldn’t have any issues getting through a full day of classes and studying, or just mucking about on Reddit.

When finally making the jump to implementing smart home products, one of the most annoying factors I found hard to keep up with was constantly swapping out CR123A batteries or plugging in a range of my smart home devices when the batteries inevitably died.

Half the time you use any AI for something research-heavy, the opening exchange isn't the question you actually want to ask. Instead, it becomes a whole setup you have to curate first, usually into a folder or project with a system prompt and knowledge base, depending on the AI's workspace features.

Anthropic says its newest AI models, Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1, address criticisms from customers about price, data retention, and overzealous safeguards. The company claims Claude Fable 5.1 offers stronger performance than Fable 5, but costs around 25 percent less typically and up to 45 percent less for complex agentic tasks, thanks to reduced pricing on cached data that was already processed and stored.Along with the announcement, a slew of early impressions popped up, including from Every CEO Dan Shipper, who claims, "It's the strongest coding model we've used, but now it's fast, token-efficient, and crucially actually speaks like a norm …Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple Maps has officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. The company joins Google in re-labeling the Great Lake following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in the midst of a trade dispute with Canada.The Canadian version of Apple Maps still shows "Lake Ontario" when panning over the area, while international versions of the app show both names, according to Bloomberg. Google updated its map shortly after the name change went live in the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), but Apple waited a bit longer.Both Apple and Google changed the name of the Gulf of Me …Read the full story at The Verge.

My home lab started as a small side project with very little actually riding on it. It was a space for me to spin up VMs quickly for my schoolwork, and maybe the occasional game server. Now, it houses my primary NAS, which acts as my photo library, storage for recordings, important files, and my media, all of which demand more of the on-board gigabit NIC.

After an unreleased OpenAI model wreaked enough havoc to make international headlines, OpenAI delayed the development of a different unreleased model suite, Astra, in order to shore up its safety work, the company wrote Tuesday in a blog post.In July, an unreleased OpenAI model broke out of its restricted environment, finagled its way into internet access, made it possible for AI agents to secretly conspire under the company's nose using a secret message board, and hacked into the network of AI lab Hugging Face. The attack sparked weeks of discussion and controversy inside and outside the AI industry, and AI leaders treated it as a "warnin …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's not a great time to be a gamer of any capacity. PC hardware prices are on the rise, console prices are slowly increasing, and GTA 6 has proven that people are willing to shell out $100 for a game.

When I first switched over to Windows 11, I realized how cluttered Microsoft's newest OS had become. Between pre-installed AI that I didn't want to use, widgets that promoted clickbait, and prompts to try Microsoft services, I felt inundated with unnecessary content that pulled my focus away from being productive.

Google has reportedly been reaching out to a number of Hollywood's biggest studios, hoping to strike licensing agreements that would allow it to train its AI models on copyrighted material in exchange for massive piles of cash. In theory, these deals would be a win-win: a huge financial boon to the studios that would also give Google a significant advantage in its race to outpace other AI companies. But while there's little downside for Google, these deals pose a distinct set of risks to each of the studios that might be thinking about going all-in on AI. Getting into bed with Google this way might benefit Hollywood in the short term, but …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Dell XPS 13 is a slim, sleek laptop with a great display and plenty of power under the hood. For a limited time, you can get it for $300 off the laptop directly from Dell, which is an impressive deal if you're looking to buy a new laptop.