When Adam Mosseri took over Meta-owned Instagram as CEO in 2018, the app was experiencing what he'd later call "concerning" drops and plateaus in user engagement, thanks partly to fierce competition from a new app: TikTok. Instagram estimated in 2019 that 23 percent of the decline in time spent on Instagram in the US was due to TikTok. Bytedance's video app kept expanding through the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. "We can't explain it all, but what's clear at this point is that we need to adapt, and do so quickly," Mosseri wrote to his team in March 2020. Instagram needed to recover, he testified Thursday in a DC courtroom, because "you're either growing, or you're slowly dying."Mosseri described the dire situation while testifying in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust trial against Meta, where the government alleges the company illegally monopolized the market for personal social networking services, a category that it says includes Snapchat but not more entertainment-focused apps like YouTube or TikTok. Mosseri's testimony highlighted how much Instagram sees itself as in competition with TikTok, but it also showed that even as entertainment content becomes a larger port …Read the full story at The Verge.

I've used a lot of routers throughout my time on the internet, from ISP routers that have locked-down services to routers I kept way longer than I should have. Still, on every one that I could change settings on, I've always changed the same set of security settings before starting to use the internet. These core settings go a long way toward making your home network more secure and cut off access to botnets, automated hacking, and more.

The Sega Dreamcast is one of the most beloved video game consoles ever. Many games released on the Dreamcast helped modern classics find their audience and become popular over the years. Unfortunately, the Sega Dreamcast was also the company's last home console with a major presence within the industry. Because of that, players are nostalgic about the console's library and hold it in high regard.

Take-Two and Rockstar have announced that Grand Theft Auto VI won't be releasing until May 26, 2026, leaving a massive hole in the 2025 video game release calendar. While there won't be anything on the same scale as GTA VI, there are still massive and exciting games coming out this year. As for what can fill that void, we've got games about crime, great open worlds, and massive scale to try and satisfy the blockbuster cravings the decade-long wait for the next Grand Theft Auto has caused. Here are the games you can check out.

Apple is launching a new global Viral Chart playlist in Apple Music that consists of tracks people are discovering through the company’s Shazam service. The playlist, which is updated daily, shows the top 50 songs people have heard playing out in the real world and have logged through Shazam. You can see charts on Shazam’s website as well.The playlists use “Shazam’s data to offer a comprehensive view of today’s fastest-growing songs across the globe, David Emery, who works for Apple Music in the UK, says on Threads. Emery notes that charts reflect songs going viral on Shazam in “real time” and then ranks them based on “their weekly growth in Shazam volume.”As of writing, the top viral songs in the list include Shake It To The Max (FLY) [Remix] by Moliy, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, and Hot Together by The Pointer Sisters. On Shazam’s website, you can look at the rankings by country, if you’d like.

With summer steadily approaching, you might already be making plans for upcoming trips. And while you'll already have plenty of tech with you for the adventure, there's a good chance that a travel router isn't part of your current setup. Now, we know what you're thinking, and yes, many places already provide free Wi-Fi.

The Raspberry Pi might not seem like a powerhouse, but that’s precisely what makes it perfect for running small, single-purpose Docker containers. While full servers tend to be underutilized when handling simple tasks, the Pi hits a sweet spot where performance meets efficiency. If you’re looking to streamline your home lab or just want more out of your little board, these containers are tailor made for ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi.

As far as PC overheating is concerned, SSDs are often the last components you think about. CPUs and GPUs are usually the ones that you need to worry about. However, if you've been running your SSD without a heatsink, and suddenly start noticing some unusual behavior, it might be time to slap on a heatsink. High-performance SSDs, whether Gen4 or Gen5, can require a heatsink to stay cool and avoid thermal throttling. If your NVMe SSD never came with a heatsink and your motherboard doesn't have one either, you might have to consider an aftermarket one.

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud that led to “billions in losses,” the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.Celsius, which held $25 billion in assets at its peak, abruptly halted withdrawals and transfers during a broader crypto crash in 2022, locking up billions in customer funds. The firm filed for bankruptcy just weeks later.The DOJ charged Mashinsky with securities fraud in 2023, accusing him of misrepresenting Celsius’s business and finances. It also claimed Mashinsky artificially inflated the price of the platform’s token, CEL, by “spending hundreds of millions purchasing it on the open market.” Mashinsky pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of commodities fraud last December.Mashinsky’s arrest comes as the Trump administration takes a softer stance on crypto regulation. Last month, a memo obtained by The Washington Post revealed the disbandment of a DOJ division dedicated to investigating crypto firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped several cases against companies in crypto, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood.“Alexander Mashinsky targeted retail investors with promises that he would keep their ‘digital assets’ safer than a bank, when in fact he used those assets to place risky bets and to line his own pockets,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in the press release. “In the end, Mashinsky made tens of millions of dollars while his customers lost billions.”

With technology advancing at a rapid pace, mini PCs have received quite a huge boost when it comes to computing power, making them viable options for those that don't have a lot of space. Of course, if you get the right combination of specifications, there's good chance that you'll never go back to a regular PC.

Netflix is removing the last two shows listed on its Interactive Specials page: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, reports What’s on Netflix. The two specials will be pulled on May 12th, 2025, according to the publication, so if you want to watch them, you’ll want to catch them soon.Bandersnatch wasn’t Netflix’s first interactive special, but it was arguably the platform’s most famous. It was a dark, choose-your-own-adventure-style movie, and after it launched, Reddit detectives immediately went to work to decode the many choices throughout the film. (Though it didn’t work on every device that could play Netflix.)As of late, however, Netflix has been moving in a different direction with its interactive experiences, focusing more on its mobile games library (which has a Black Mirror-themed game) and testing cloud-streamed games over TVs. The new design for Netflix on TVs was even created in part to help people better find games they might like.The removals perhaps shouldn’t be surprising following Netflix’s decision late last year to pull all but four of its interactive specials from its catalog. “The technology served its purpose, but is now limiting as we focus on technological efforts in other areas,” spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher told me ahead of those removals.The other two interactive shows that stuck around were Ranveer vs. Wild with Bear Grylls and You vs. Wild. What’s on Netflix says they were removed in January of this year, but I’m seeing noninteractive versions of the show available to watch.Netflix spokesperson Jessica Braslow declined to comment.

A network-attached storage — or NAS for short — may sound like something only IT folks would use. But there are plenty of home NAS models that blend so well into your everyday digital life that you’d wonder why you didn’t get one earlier. A NAS doesn’t just give you peace of mind with backups — this small box can literally save the day when something goes south one random evening, like your laptop crashing or someone accidentally deleting years of photos. And no, you don’t have to be a techie to take advantage of a NAS and its various (almost magical) perks.