I've been a Windows loyalist for as long as I can remember. My first PC came with Windows Vista – which means I can’t quite claim veteran status like those who’ve used every major version, even Millennium Edition – but I’ve had my fair share, having used every iteration since Vista.

I've been self-hosting apps on my NAS for a while now, and one of the things that has been a pain to handle is accessing those services outside my network. I've set up several reverse proxy options, and none worked properly, partly because I don't have a static IP and DDNS is hit-and-miss.

At present, Notion is one of the most widely used tools among individuals and corporations, thanks to its multifunctional abilities. Not only can it be used as a simple note-taking tool, but it can also function as a personal knowledge management system, a database of company assets, and a portal to create and host landing pages. Of course, it can also be used for a myriad of personal tasks, such as planning a holiday or creating to-do lists. However, the primary concern with Notion is that it isn't open-source; you're relying on Notion's servers to sync your data. This isn't ideal if you plan on inputting sensitive data into the platform. Owing to this, I started hunting for an alternative that I could self-host -- even on my NAS.

A former DoorDash delivery driver pleaded guilty this week to conspiracy to a wire fraud conspiracy that scammed DoorDash out of over $2.5 million, the US Attorney’s Office in California’s Northern District announced on Tuesday. He and others made it happen over a period of months using fake customer accounts, deliveries that never happened, driver accounts, and access to DoorDash employee credentials.Here’s how the Attorney’s office describes the scheme. The driver, Sayee Chaitainya Reddy Devagiri, placed expensive orders from a fraudulent customer account in the DoorDash app. Then, using DoorDash employee credentials, he manually assigned the orders to driver accounts he and the others involved had created. Devagiri would then mark the undelivered orders as complete and prompt DoorDash’s system to pay the driver accounts. Then he’d switch those same orders back to “in process” and do it all over again. Doing this “took less than five minutes, and was repeated hundreds of times for many of the orders,” writes the US Attorney’s Office.Devagiri faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and is scheduled for a status hearing in September. He and four others were charged in August for their roles in the scheme, which prosecutors say was carried out between November 2020 and February 2021. The DoorDash employee whose insider credentials they used, Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn, was charged separately in 2022 and pleaded guilty the following year, the Attorney’s Office wrote in October.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are often advertised as an all-in-one privacy solution, but this reputation has largely been built as a result of aggressive marketing by VPN providers. Companies like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark routinely promote their services with bold promises of total privacy and anonymity. In truth, a VPN is not a magic shield for all aspects of your digital life. It's important to know what they actually can and can't do, as otherwise, you may be lured into a false sense of security.

The Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 16-inch (2025) is a perfectly acceptable laptop, with the best parts of every other Lenovo consumer laptop wrapped in a midrange bow. It can take a bow, as well, because the versatile convertible goes into presentation mode or tablet mode, and that's the most exciting part about it. Starting at $1,000, it's what you'd expect from a midrange laptop, but that's okay because it's what you expect, with no hidden gotcha moments.

Gaming as a hobby has been rapidly getting more expensive in recent months, with the introduction of $80 games thanks to Mario Kart World from Nintendo. Nintendo isn't the only gaming company that is finding a way to squeeze more money out of the consumers who are still willing to buy video games and not just exclusively play free-to-play games. According to a prominent and reliable Call of Duty leaker, the next entry in Activision's — and, by extension, Microsoft's — yearly FPS title will include some unfavorable changes to its battle pass. Combine that with Microsoft announcing that some of its games will be $80 this holiday, and Call of Duty fans may be in for an expensive time this holiday. The Ghost of Hope on X shared that Call of Duty 2026, expected to be Black Ops 7, will change how limited-time events work moving forward, limiting access to them based on whether you have the paid battle pass.

CPU benchmarks do matter, but it's easy to be misled by them. Every time a new CPU arrives on the market, there's a flood of benchmark charts showing how the latest chips stack up to the old guard. Maybe two chips trade blows across a series of tests, or maybe one comes out as the clear victor. It's important not to get too lost in averages and percentages, though, lest you leave with the wrong impression.

Have an old network-attached storage (NAS) system and are wondering what to do with it? Recycling the enclosure is one option, but have you thought about building out a home lab, getting into development, backing everything up onto cold storage, or even running a game server or two? That's what you can do with an old enclosure. While recycling is great for recouping some cash or protecting the environment from waste, there are some cool ways to get more from your old electronics. If you're set on recycling the NAS, we'll also give you some helpful pointers on what to do before getting rid of it.

Ever since I built my first gaming PC, looked at the underperforming Intel stock CPU cooler, and realized I needed to buy yet another component, I've been using AIO liquid coolers of one size or another. At the time, it was a Corsair 240 mm AIO, as there weren't many options. That actually didn't fit my motherboard properly, so I got a Swiftech model, and to cut a long story short, it leaked. Not once, not thrice, but four times, leading them to send me a completely different model to replace it.

Yesterday, Reuters ran a story with the headline “Weeks after Amazon’s Alexa+ AI launch, a mystery: where are the users?,” in which it detailed its difficulty locating first-hand accounts of the AI-upgraded assistants’ use online. The Verge asked Amazon about the story, and the company has responded to say that the idea that Alexa Plus isn’t available is “simply wrong.”Here’s the company’s full — and rather strongly-worded! — statement on the matter, provided by Amazon spokesperson Eric Sveum via email to The Verge:It’s simply wrong to say that Alexa+ isn’t available to customers—that assertion is false. Hundreds of thousands of customers have access to Alexa+ and we’re constantly inviting more customers that have requested Early Access.Sveum also shared the below screenshot of what the email invite should look like.Alexa Plus is Amazon’s generative AI-updated version of Alexa, which it announced in February is free to Amazon Prime subscribers or $19.99 a month otherwise. While Reuters doesn’t say Alexa Plus isn’t available to customers yet, it does quote an analyst who said, “There seems to be no one who actually has it.” The outlet also reported that its efforts to find any real-world Alexa Plus users came up empty, writing that it had “searched dozens of news sites, YouTube, TikTok, X, BlueSky and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, as well as Amazon’s Twitch and reviews of Echo voice-assistant devices on Amazon.com.” It added that it spoke with two people who’d posted on Reddit claiming to have used Alexa Plus, but that they “did not provide Reuters with hard evidence and their identities could not be corroborated.”Still, Engadget reported today that a wave of emails had gone out on Friday, inviting Amazon Alexa users to try out Alexa Plus. The outlet also reported that an Amazon spokesperson had told it “hundreds of thousands” of customers have tried the assistant. Amazon started rolling out its early access program to a few customers at the end of March. At the time, it was missing features like the ability to order takeout from Grubhub using conversational context, or identify family members and remind them about chores. A page on Amazon’s website notes that some features are still “coming soon,” like being able to access Alexa Plus in a web browser or on a Fire TV or Amazon tablet. The company has said it’s prioritizing those who own certain Echo Show devices above others.

Since I'm a freelancer and I contribute to multiple publications, it's extremely vital for me to stay organized. I need to keep track of all the articles I've pitched to the different publications I write for, to ensure I deliver my work within the stipulated duration, and that there are no conflicts between all the pitches for the different websites. Now, there are several tools available for this sort of workflow. There's Asana, Trello, and a bunch of other software that I already use, since they are also used by the companies I work with. So, I wanted a different app to consolidate all my tasks into one.