I feel bad for motherboard makers. Short of your power supply, it's probably the most mundane component in your PC, and with stiff competition in the market, brands like MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, and ASRock need to pack in more features to separate their offerings from the rest of the market. Some of those extras are good, but there are plenty of motherboard features that just aren't worth the money.

For decades, Google has had the lion's share of the search engine scene. And while nothing has outright topped it yet, one search engine has been slowly chipping away at its dominance and has actually risen to 1/8th of the total amount of web search activity on the internet. ANd if you're thinking it's DuckDuckGo, then allow me to be the one to break it to you that it's not. It's Bing.

In the grand AI race, all sides are trying to get their LLMs working on the weakest, cheapest hardware possible. The weaker the hardware, the less power is required to run the LLMs. But how about getting an AI model running on hardware that came out in 1982?

Do you use the Microsoft Authenticator app? It's a pretty handy way to automatically autofill your details and make logins a lot quicker. If you liked using it, I'm afraid to say that Microsoft is on the cusp of getting rid of it forever. And while the Redmond giant plans to continue allowing people to save passwords and use autofill, you'll need to do it through Edge instead.

Your NAS operating system is a treasure trove of customization options and a myriad of settings that make a lot of things possible. But it’s easy for certain things to fall through the cracks — and if one of those is small yet critical, it could leave your NAS exposed to potential security risks. These tiny little settings can make or break the security system you’ve built for your NAS if you leave a low-hanging loophole in plain sight. Below are some important settings on your NAS that you must check to close such security loopholes.

Whether your home lab is still in the virtual planning stages or has grown into a cluster of mini PCs, soon enough, you'll want a way to connect to it remotely. After all, there's not much point in self-hosting services to improve your life if you can't access them when outside.

I like to think that I have pretty decent cybersecurity practices. I use MFA or 2FA on everything I can, passkeys on every service that supports them, have authenticators set up for Blizzard, Microsoft, Steam, and other accounts, but I still got hacked on Steam. Or more precisely, I got phished on Steam, sent to a fake Counter-Strike 2 event page, and tricked into putting in what I thought were Steam OpenID login details. Except, of course, they weren't.

If you're planning to dip your toes into the world of 3D printing, there are several beginner-friendly 3D printers you can buy. Most of them are quite affordable, lowering the barrier of entry for anyone who wants to experiment with printing useful objects for the house or gifts that can save you money. Among them is Creality's Ender-3 3D printer. It's now in its third iteration, with multiple models in the lineup. Both the Ender-3 V3 Plus and the Ender-3 V3 SE are default recommendations for most people looking for a budget-friendly 3D printer. But are they any good? The short answer is yes.

I’ve spent years exploring different tools to improve how I access and experience my ever-growing library of games. After trying countless platforms and streaming solutions, I’ve landed on what I believe is the most powerful duo in self-hosted gaming: Apollo and Artemis. These two open-source applications have completely transformed my setup, delivering seamless game streaming, personalized control, and a sense of ownership that no off-the-shelf product has come close to offering.

While SteamOS is nearly ready for a public beta, so that we can all enjoy Valve's gaming-focused Linux distribution without needing a Steam Deck, it's not the only way to play on a gaming-focused Linux distro. The Proton project works on any Linux distro, so conceivably you can run any of your favorites, but there are other gaming-tweaked OSes that are well worth checking out.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 81, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy Finally Feels Like Summer Week to at least everyone who lives near me, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about tech bro group chats and the history of ChatGPT and The Rest is History, wondering if maybe I should buy a Xiaomi car while simultaneously configuring a Slate Truck I never end up reserving, marveling over Steven Soderbergh's filmmaking skills, testing out the Limitless Pendant, hanging out in courthouses for US v. Google, and dusting off my Mario Golf skills thanks to the recent N64 update in Delta.I also have for you a great new companion to a great power-user Mac app, the best Marvel movie in years, a new phone and new headphones to try, some weird AI and some good AI, the highest-tech planter you've ever seen, and much more. Let's dig in.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be watching / reading / playing / buying / building / listening to / throwing in a tote bag this week? Tell me e …Read the full story at The Verge.

You should at the very least try configuring a virtual machine (VM) on Windows or macOS with a Linux distro, if you consider yourself a software enthusiast or wish to get into development. There are a few reasons why this can open new doors for not only allowing you to learn new things about an operating system (OS) you've likely never interacted with, but also work on the backend that powers most of the world's hardware. If you wish to become a budding developer, here's why Linux is the way to go, even if it is through a VM.