Microsoft 365 is arguably the most popular productivity suite, but regardless of your opinion, it's lately been suffering from various issues quite frequently, disrupting users' workflow. For example, last month, Microsoft Teams momentarily prevented users from sharing files. While issues like these are usually fixed within a few hours, Microsoft can take months or even years to address what users ask of it, which are mostly feature requests and improvements.

Chapter 14: Spire of Nerathul in Doom: The Dark Agesis the biggest level in the game so far. If you thought chapter 6 was huge, wait till you get to the fourteenth level, which throws everything at the player from on-foot battle arenas, to dragon mount segments.

They look like normal sunglasses in the render, with what appear to be cameras in the hinges and nose bridge. | Image: XrealThe Google smart glasses era is back, sort of. Today, Google and Xreal announced a strategic partnership for a new Android XR device called Project Aura at the Google I/O developer conference.This is officially the second Android XR device since the platform was launched last December. The first is Samsung’s Project Moohan, but that’s an XR headset more in the vein of the Apple Vision Pro. Project Aura, however, is firmly in the camp of Xreal’s other gadgets. The technically accurate term would be “optical see-through XR” device. More colloquially, it’s a pair of immersive smart glasses.Xreal’s glasses, like the Xreal One, are like embedding two mini TVs into what looks like a regular — if a bit chunky — pair of sunglasses. Xreal’s previous gadgets let you plug into a phone or laptop and view whatever’s on the screen, be it a show or a confidential document you want to edit on a plane. The benefit is that you can change the opacity to view (or block out) the world around you. That’s the vibe Project Aura’s giving off, too.Details are sparse — Xreal spokesperson Ralph Jodice told me we’ll learn a bit more at Augmented World Expo next month. But we know it’ll have Gemini built-in, as well as a large field-of-view. In the product render, you can also see what looks like cameras in the hinges and nose bridge, plus microphones and buttons in the temples.That hints at a hardware evolution compared to Xreal’s current devices. Project Aura will run a Qualcomm chipset optimized for XR, though we don’t know exactly which one. Like Project Moohan, Project Aura is counting on developers to start building apps and use cases now, ahead of an actual consumer product launch. Speaking of, Google and Xreal said in a press release that Android XR apps developed for headsets can be easily brought over to a different form factor like Project Aura.Back when I first demoed Android XR, I was told that while Google had built prototype glasses, the plan was to work with other partners to produce a viable product. That demo also made it abundantly clear that it viewed XR devices as a key vehicle for Gemini. So far, everything we know about Project Aura is aligned with that strategy. Meaning, Google’s approach to this next era of smart glasses is similar to how it first tackled Wear OS — Google provides the platform, while third parties handle the hardware. (At least, until Google feels like it’s ready to jump into the fray itself.) That makes a ton of sense given Google’s fraught history with smart glasses hardware. But given the momentum we’ve seen through Project Astra and now, Android XR making it into the main Google I/O keynote? “Google” smart glasses are back on the menu.

Single Board Computers (SBCs) like Raspberry Pi are small devices that appear complicated at first glance. I first learned about them in my college lab sessions. I never thought of it as anything more than a fancy project with no real use for home setups. They appeared complex to set up and use, and didn’t appear as usable as Windows or any other popular PC OS. But when I re-explored them a few years later, most of the myths about SBCs were completely false.

Microsoft is starting to integrate AI shortcuts, or what it calls AI actions, into the File Explorer in Windows 11. These shortcuts let you right-click on a file and quickly get to Windows AI features like blurring the background of a photo, erasing objects, or even summarizing content from Office files.Four image actions are currently being tested in the latest Dev Channel builds of Windows 11, including Bing visual search to find similar images on the web, the blur background and erase objects features found in the Photos app, and the remove background option in Paint.Microsoft is also planning to test similar AI actions for Office files soon, enabling you to summarize documents stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, or quickly create AI-generated lists from files. These Office AI actions will be limited to Microsoft 365 commercial subscribers with a Copilot license, and consumer support is “coming later.”It’s not clear if these AI actions can be disabled in the context menu, but they also join an “Ask Copilot” option that Microsoft added to the right-click menu of the File Explorer recently.Alongside the AI-powered shortcuts in File Explorer, Microsoft is also testing some visual changes to the widgets feature in Windows 11, “with a more organized, personalized, and engaging feed,” according to the Windows Insider team. “In addition, we are introducing Copilot-curated stories into the feed.”This latest Dev Channel build also includes a new “User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management” feature, which Microsoft describes as an OS-level change to reduce power consumption on laptops and tablets. “After a period of inactivity on your PC, Windows now conserves power by automatically applying efficient power management policies,” says the Windows Insider team. “This happens seamlessly to save energy while you’re inactive, with full performance instantly restored the moment you get back to it.”

Lian Li unveiled some new hardware at Computex 2025, and one of its PC cases stole the show for us, the Vector V200. This impressive piece of engineering is an updated Vector V100 with an LCD screen, touch panel for powering the system and adjusting the lighting effects, and an unobstructed view into the system. Utilizing L-Connect 3, Lian Li was able to craft one clean-looking chassis for even beginners putting together their first PC to create something truly special. As well as the V200, Lian Li also showed off some killer power supplies. Yes, you read that correctly, Lian Li teased some interesting PSUs.

I've been using Google Photos to back up my pictures for close to a decade now. For the most part, I've had a seamless experience doing so, since the app automatically backs up photos shot on my phone in the background. Whenever I need to access my gallery, I can either use the app or fire up Google Photos on the web. However, there are two issues with a service like Google Photos. One -- you need to pay for cloud storage beyond a certain capacity, and two, your data is uploaded to remote servers, so there's always some sort of risk involved. Owing to this, I started looking for alternatives that tackled both these issues.

Renewable energy has driven a manufacturing boom in the US, but that’s all at stake as Congress weighs cuts to Biden-era tax incentives.Solar, wind, and battery companies have announced plans to either create or expand 250 manufacturing facilities since August 2022. That’s when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), considered the biggest federal investment to date in climate and clean energy. If those projects are up and running by 2030, they would collectively create more than 575,000 jobs and contribute $86 billion annually to gross domestic product, according to a report published today by the American Clean Power Association (ACP). Republican districts benefit the most from the IRA’s clean energy tax credits. But now, GOP lawmakers could take away those tax incentives if they follow through with President Donald Trump’s plan to pass a “big, beautiful” spending bill that would rollback what he calls a “green new scam.” “Republican districts benefit the most from the IRA’s clean energy tax credits”Red states are home to 73 percent of active facilities, according to the ACP. And already, solar, wind, and battery manufacturing supports 122,000 full-time jobs. Solar manufacturing employed the biggest share of Americans, some 75,400 people. Solar was the fastest-growing source of electricity in 2024, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration, accounting for 81 percent of added annual capacity. Costs for solar and wind have fallen dramatically for decades, with utility-scale solar now the cheapest source of electricity in most parts of the world. Despite that growth, supply chains for solar energy have been concentrated in China and beset with concerns about forced labor and human rights violations, particularly in the Xinjiang region. The Inflation Reduction Act was meant to supercharge domestic manufacturing, largely through tax credits. And it was starting to pay off. Manufacturing capacity for solar modules grew 190 percent in the US last year, according to a separate report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and research firm Wood Mackenzie.Those tax credits are now in the crosshairs of a Republican-controlled Congress trying to ram Trump’s agenda into a sweeping spending bill. A draft bill from the House Ways and Means committee last week proposes phasing out the advanced manufacturing tax credit (45x) and other tax incentives for renewables established in the IRA, and would add stipulations in the meantime that would make it difficult for projects to qualify for credits.If those proposals are ultimately signed into law, the US clean energy industry will see job losses as factories shut down, MJ Shiao, ACP Vice President of Supply Chain and Manufacturing said during a press briefing last week.“What we have seen from these texts from House Ways and Means, it basically goes too far, too fast,” Shiao said. “The manufacturers that were being supported by these incentives, and frankly, were trusting that the government was going to honor these incentives, you know, they’re getting the rug pulled out from under them.”

Watching your home lab grow from a modest single-server setup to a dedicated experimentation and self-hosting workspace can feel extremely gratifying. Besides adding extra computing prowess for your DIY, extra rigs let you tinker with high-availability clusters, and you can even arm them with some services that you’d typically want to avoid running on your main workstation.

Boss fights are a staple of video games. Whenever we reach the end of a level, there's always one final enemy waiting for us that's stronger than the rest. They might have more health, a variety of new attacks, or even a completely different look to indicate they're not your typical bad guy. And more often than not, they can be taken down with a smart strategy and quick reflexes to overcome the challenge they present. But then there are those boss fights that go beyond what anyone would expect to encounter. They're not like the other baddies that have come before. These boss battles are just built differently.

A cheaper plan is also available, but only to existing All Apps subscribers.Some of Adobe’s most expensive Creative Cloud subscriptions are about to get even pricier for users in North America. Starting from June 17th, the Creative Cloud All Apps plan will be renamed Creative Cloud Pro for users in the US, Canada, and Mexico, adding a bunch of generative AI perks in exchange for bumping up subscription costs.The pre-tax monthly price for individual Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers on an annual contract will increase from $59.99 to $69.99, or from $659.88 to $779.99 annually. The monthly price for rolling, non-contracted subscribers will jump from $89.99 to $104.99. Contracted prices for teams start at $99.99 per month, up from $89.99, while student and teacher plans will jump from $34.99 to $39.99 monthly on renewal.The new Creative Cloud Pro plan provides access to the same Adobe apps and features as the previous All Apps plan, alongside some new additions. Users will have unlimited credits for powering generative AI image tools like Photoshop’s Generate Fill, and 4,000 monthly credits for “premium” AI video and audio features like Generative Extend in Premiere Pro. The plan also includes the ability to select third-party generative AI models like OpenAI’s GPT and Google Imagen, and access to Adobe’s in-beta collaborative whiteboard app, Firefly Boards.“We want to empower you with more time to explore ideas and create, so we’re focused on continually upgrading your apps’ performance, delivering innovations to your core workflows, and integrating generative AI-powered capabilities across Creative Cloud and through our new Firefly app that make you more productive,” Adobe said in its announcement. “Today, we’re sharing updates to our Creative Cloud offerings to reflect our continued innovation and commitment to providing you the best tools for bringing your visions to life.”The previous All Apps plan will no longer be available following the switch, and existing subscribers will be charged the increased price on their next renewal date. These changes only apply in North America, and Adobe says it isn’t planning to make name or pricing changes in other regions “at this time.”Adobe is also offering a stripped-back “Creative Cloud Standard” plan for users who don’t need its generative AI offerings. Starting at $54.99 per month for contracted subscribers or $82.49 for rolling users, the Creative Cloud Standard plan is nearly identical to the current All Apps plan, but reduces the previous 1,000 monthly generative credit allowance down to 25. Users also won’t have access to premium web and mobile app features that are unlocked for Creative Cloud Pro subscribers. Not only is Adobe defaulting current All Apps subscribers to the more expensive AI-laden plan, compared to the Standard offering that’s closer in price and features, but this new Creative Cloud Standard offering is only available to existing subscribers, forcing new customers to take the more expensive AI-focused plan.Adobe’s All Apps plan was a poor investment for most individual users anyway, as it’s rare for one person to need more than 20 apps that target such a wide variety of creative industries. Still, some existing All Apps subscribers aren’t too pleased with the changes, if the reactions on Adobe subreddits are any indication. Canva attempted to make similar AI-driven price increases last year, which were later softened due to backlash from its users, so we will have to see if Adobe sticks to its guns.

Securing your home network is more critical than ever, as the Internet is a scary place full of terror, and automated tools have made the job of cybercriminals even easier. Setting up a powerful firewall like OPNsense will do most of the work for you, at least once you've set it up.