Purchasing a turnkey network-attached storage (NAS) enclosure can prove challenging, much as it can with a desktop PC. There are various specifications available, not to mention brands and price points. Is a more expensive prebuilt NAS model guaranteed to outdo a cheaper alternative? What about the operating system? Does it matter when choosing a NAS? To help clear some things up, I'll run through what you should look for when purchasing a prebuilt turnkey NAS from a brand such as Asustor or Synology.

My productive workspace felt cluttered with multiple apps, with each serving a specific purpose. Then I decided to adopt Notion – an all-in-one productivity software that promises to replace all the existing tools. From crafting simple to-do lists to constructing project dashboards and even hosting basic websites, Notion’s versatility is tempting.

Unlike a decade ago, it's much easier to find authentic reviews, benchmarks, and advice on PC hardware. Still, some performance myths refuse to die, whether due to questionable forum posts or misinformation repeated in YouTube comments. Some users stick to long-held beliefs while others refuse to change their opinions in the face of overwhelming evidence. I've picked seven such PC performance myths that are still far too common in the community. You might be surprised to know that you believe in some of them yourself.

Stellantis says its solid-state batteries are getting closer to reality. The parent company of brands like Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and many others is working with startup Factorial on the new batteries, which have just been successfully validated for automotive use and will be installed in a demonstrator fleet in 2026. Most EVs use “wet” lithium-ion batteries containing liquid electrolytes to move energy around. Solid-state batteries, which have been slow to come to market, promise faster charging speeds, more capacity, and longer range vehicles.Stellantis and Factorial call the new packs Factorial Electrolyte System Technology, or FEST, arguing that unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, the solid-state batteries have higher density and can support faster charging. Think 15-90 percent in just 18 minutes at room temperature. Factorial’s technology uses a lithium-metal anode (the “positive” charge side of the battery), quasi-solid electrolyte, and high-capacity cathode (the “negative” side).Stellantis says its 77Ah FEST cells have demonstrated an energy density of 375Wh/kg with over 600 charging cycles, “a milestone for large-format lithium-metal solid-state battery.” In addition to faster charging speeds, the solid-state batteries can also deliver higher power output with discharge rates up to 4C, for greater EV performance. Factorial’s cells can also work under a variety of weather conditions, including extreme cold and extreme heat. The company says the batteries perform well in temperatures ranging from -30°C to 45°C (-22°F to 113°F).“Battery development is about compromise. While optimizing one feature is simple, balancing high energy density, cycle life, fast charging, and safety in an automotive-sized battery with OEM validation is a breakthrough,” said Siyu Huang, CEO of Factorial Energy, in a statement. “This achievement with Stellantis is bringing next-generation battery technology from research to reality.”Stellantis’ announcement is a sign of progress, and it’s not the only company making some. Hyundai is a Factorial investor, and so is Mercedes, which said it would have Factorial’s semi-solid-state batteries “in EVs on the road in 2026,” according to Reuters. Honda plans to introduce solid-state EVs in the latter half of the decade, while Toyota’s roadmap includes mass-producing solid-state batteries that enable more than 621 miles of range by 2028. And Volkswagen is working with Quantum State, which just logged its own milestone. But the US is in danger of being lapped by China, where companies like CATL and BYD have been teasing new tech that allows EVs to fast charge in just five minutes.

If you're looking for something new to play, but you'd rather not burn a hole in your wallet, purchase brand-new games, why not give the Epic Games Store a look? In a bid to keep up with its behemoth rival Steam, Epic occasionally gives out games at no additional cost. Once you claim them, they're free to play forever, but they're only available at the low, low price of nothing for a short period of time, so you have to snap them up as they appear.

Listen up. If you're perfectly happy with your ISP's router, then I have one question for you—well, two, really—because I want to know how long you've had that router and what download speed you're paying for. Oh, and if you hate money because there's every chance your ISP has been charging a monthly rental fee for that router for years, and they're not likely to stop, or offer you an upgraded router now they've got new gear in.

Switch 2 preorders are sold out online everywhere. But some people have managed to snag one using once conventional but now antiquated means: going to GameStop and preordering one in store. In addition to offering online preorders for the Switch 2, its Mario Kart World bundle, and the various Switch 2 accessories, GameStop also allowed customers to preorder the console in person when stores opened for business on April 24th. With the advent of ecommerce, preordering video games in a brick-and-mortar store has become a quaint practice that’s fallen out of fashion; something looked upon with nostalgia for the midnight releases of years gone by. But for many people, physically preordering a Switch 2 was the best and easiest way to secure one. I should know — it’s how I got mine.I missed the midnight commencement of online Switch 2 preordering for retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and others. Knowing GameStop opened its online preorders at 11AM ET on April 24th, I thought I might give it a go there, but it was not to be. GameStop’s later preorder launch was just as chaotic, frustrating, and fruitless as it was for the other stores. But then I remembered seeing a post on Bluesky from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. “About 40 people waiting on line here at my local GameStop for 80 Switch 2s. Better odds than the website!” he wrote. I saw that my local GameStop on Howe Road in Akron, Ohio, opened soon, and I was no more than a 15-minute ride away. So I packed my wallet and my dog Bu and went down there only to be greeted by a line full of people, some of whom had been waiting for days.“It’s been unbelievably busy,” one GameStop employee told me. He said that people started lining up earlier in the week but he discouraged them from camping for multiple days overnight. “We had six waiting yesterday,” he said.Other than that small number of campers, most people I spoke to who were waiting in line had only arrived a few hours before the store opened. Nearly everyone owned a regular Switch and was excited by the promise of an improved console. “The Switch 1 is so awesome and we’ve been waiting for a Switch 2 for seven years now,” one woman at the front of the line told me. “I have to upgrade, there’s no other way around it,” said another Switch 2 hopeful. Everyone I spoke to was enthusiastic about the console and when I brought up its price they still didn’t seem phased.“That doesn’t bother me, I got more than enough money,” said one man. Others mentioned the state of the US economy and with inflation impacting consumer goods across the board, the price of the Switch 2 itself seemed reasonable. “The OLED Switch when it launched was $350,” said another man. “One hundred dollars more, almost 10 years later, not that bad.”And while the price of the console doesn’t much bother this Akron crop of Switch 2 enthusiasts, the rising cost of games was another matter entirely. “The pricing for the games is a little steep for my tastes,” said the lady at the front of the line. I followed up by asking if that would impact her spending habits on games in the future. “No. The price is not going to affect that, it’s just going to make me upset.”That was the sentiment of most everyone I spoke to. Nintendo’s pricing makes sense given everything going on with inflation and tariffs, and even if the higher prices do sting, it’s Nintendo. “I think it’s worth it,” a mother told me as she was waiting in line with her son and husband. Mario Kart World was the first game out of everyone’s mouth when I asked what they were most excited to play at launch. Everyone in line was hoping to score the Mario Kart World Switch 2 bundle that essentially gets you the game at a $30 discount. Every so often, a GameStop employee would take a tally of the customers who wanted a bundle. He’d point to a person in line — who was well ahead of me — and say, “you’re the last.” According to a sign on the door, that location had been allotted 44 bundles and 19 regular Switch 2 consoles. But throughout my time in line, I overheard them say to customers that they expect to have more units available to be purchased when the console launches on June 5th. Since everybody wanted a Mario Kart bundle, I resigned myself to only getting a regular Switch 2 — a far better prospect than the one I faced this morning of not getting any Switch at all. But as the line moved, the employees found more and more Switch 2 bundles. Finally, during one of the tallys, one employee pointed to me and said I would be the last one to get one.And I did. With Bu strapped ever so patiently to my back, I preordered a Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle and threw an extra five bucks down on Donkey Kong Bananza. I shouldn’t be all that surprised this worked out as well as it did, sometimes the old ways simply work best.

Meta is ramping up efforts to rid Facebook of spammy content, the company announced on Thursday. It’s cracking down on accounts that try to “game” the Facebook algorithm with lengthy posts and numerous hashtags.The platform is also taking action against accounts that create posts with captions completely unrelated to an image. Now, if Meta catches an account with these types of posts, the company will limit their content to followers only, and they’ll no longer get paid for their posts. In an example shared by Meta, the company shows a spammy post containing a picture of a dog alongside a completely unrelated caption with the “Top 10 #AIRPLANE Facts.” Another example includes a lengthy post that describes how great cars are, with several hashtags like “#VIRALCONTENT,” “#LIKEFORLIKE,” and “#BOOST,” listed at the bottom.“Spammy content can get in the way of one’s ability to ultimately have their voices heard, regardless of one’s viewpoint, which is why we’re targeting the behavior that’s gaming distribution and monetization,” Meta says. The update comes just weeks after Facebook launched a Friends-only feed, which cuts out algorithmic recommendations.Meta may also limit the reach of users who create “hundreds of accounts to share the same spammy content,” and will make them ineligible for monetization. Most of these accounts create spammy posts in an attempt to get more followers, increase views, “gain unfair monetization advantages,” according to Meta.Additionally, Meta will decrease the visibility of comments identified as coordinated fake engagement. It’s also testing a feature that will let users tell Facebook if a comment isn’t useful, and added a moderation tool that lets page owners detect and automatically hide comments from users that appear to be impersonating someone else.

Google’s AI Overviews in Search now have “1.5 billion users per month,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement as part of Alphabet’s Q1 2025 earnings.Google started to widely roll out AI Overviews last May. Despite some awkward suggestions found shortly after their launch, the company has continued to expand upon the tool with updates, showing AI Overviews for more types of queries, and even officially adding ads as it aims to compete with other AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity.AI Overviews are just one of many AI tools the company is working on; in Q1, it rolled out features like the Gemini 2.5 Pro experimental AI model, a feature that lets you make AI podcasts from Gemini’s Deep Research tool, and the Gemini-powered ability for Google Maps to scan screenshots to help you plan trips.Google also announced in March that it would be officially dumping Assistant for Gemini on mobile “over the coming months,” and on today’s earnings call, Pichai said that “tablets, cars, and devices that connect to your phones such as headphones and watches,” would be moved over to Gemini later this year.On the hardware front in Q1, Google announced the Pixel 9A, though it didn’t launch the phone until April 10th due to a “component quality issue.”During Q1, Google earned $90.2 billion in revenue, a 12 percent increase year-over-year. In its earnings release, Pichai also highlighted that the company passed 270 million subscriptions, a figure that’s “driven by YouTube and Google One.”One thing looming over Google right now, however, is the possibility that it will be broken up due to major losses in antitrust cases brought against the company by the US Department of Justice. The remedies trial following the ruling that Google is a monopoly in search is happening now, while Google lost its ad tech monopoly case in a ruling announced last week.The company’s earnings call kicked off at 4:30PM ET.

Preorders for the Nintendo Switch 2 have finally gone live at multiple retail outlets. Gamers who have been eagerly awaiting the successor to the Switch now have a chance to secure one of their own. But it's been anything but a smooth experience for most people looking to pick up Nintendo's next console.

Volkswagen isn’t typically mentioned in conversations about robotaxis, but the German auto giant has been quietly working on its own self-driving technology for over a decade. And now the company is ready to deploy its first autonomous vehicles on Uber’s ridehailing platform, starting with a commercial robotaxi service in Los Angeles in 2026. The vehicles will be VW’s ID Buzz electric minivans equipped with self-driving sensors and software developed by subsidiary Moia. The long-wheel base version of the Buzz can seat at least seven passengers, so VW is clearly trying to maximize its ridehailing potential. The goal is to ultimately have “thousands” of vehicles operating in multiple US cities over the next decade, the automaker says. VW will begin testing the service later this year, using vehicles with safety drivers behind the wheel. The company says it will only proceed with fully driverless operations after receiving the necessary permits and clearance from regulatory agencies. VW will begin testing the service later this year, using vehicles with safety drivers behind the wheel.VW has been testing its self-driving technology in the US for a number of years. It deployed autonomous Buzz vehicles in Austin, Texas, in 2023, after a number of years testing them in Germany. The vehicles it tested in Austin use technology developed by Mobileye, the driver-assist sensor and software company owned by Intel, as well as sensors like cameras, radar, and lidar. VW has said that it will put the vans in service as a ridesharing fleet under its subsidiary Moia, which has been operating a fleet of electric vehicles as part of its “ride-pooling” service in Hamburg since 2017. VW’s autonomous driving software is developed by another subsidiary, Cariad, which has gone through numerous leadership shakeups in the past year.VW has dabbled in autonomous driving for years — but not without setbacks. VW has in the past partnered with self-driving startups like Aurora and Argo, the latter of which was forced to shut down after the automaker, along with Ford, pulled its funding. “Volkswagen is not just a car manufacturer—we are shaping the future of mobility, and our collaboration with Uber accelerates that vision,” said Christian Senger, CEO of Volkswagen Autonomous Mobility, in a statement. “What really sets us apart is our ability to combine the best of both worlds—high-volume manufacturing expertise with cutting-edge technology and a deep understanding of urban mobility needs.”Meanwhile, Uber has been on a streak of striking deals with AV operators as it seeks to become a one-stop shop for robotaxis and autonomous delivery vehicles of all brands. In addition to VW, Uber has partnerships with Waymo, Motional, Avride, and WeRide for self-driving cars, and Serve, Cartken, and Nuro for delivery robots.

Donald Trump will sign an executive order that will target online election fundraising platforms that may allegedly process foreign campaign donations – an action specifically aimed at curtailing the activities of ActBlue, the primary online fundraising platform for the Democratic Party. Politico first reported that the executive order was imminent, was aimed at launching an investigation into ActBlue, and would involve Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department. NBC confirmed the report shortly after, saying that the order was related to “how the platform verifies and reports its donors and users.”The move comes after months of House Republicans demanding evidence from ActBlue that demonstrated it was able to prevent donations from foreign actors, an accusation ActBlue has vehemently and repeatedly denied. (According to the Federal Election Commission, federal law prohibits foreign nationals and governments from financially contributing to anything connected to a U.S. election, including political parties.) But the MAGA scrutiny of ActBlue went viral in March after Elon Musk accused ActBlue-linked groups of secretly funding the protests taking place at Tesla dealerships across the country. The House Judiciary Committee soon upped the heat and released a report earlier this month accusing the platform of allowing fraud to run rampant on the site.According to a running tally on its website, ActBlue has raised over $16.8 billion for Democratic candidates and causes since its launch in 2004, and has reportedly raised over $400 million in the past three months since Trump was sworn into office. In a letter sent to Democrats on Wednesday anticipating the executive order, ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones called the reports a “strategy of distraction and exhaustion.”The organization does, however, have its own internal crisis to handle: in March, the New York Times reported that at least seven senior officials had resigned since the 20204 election concluded, for reasons not immediately made clear to the staff.