Backups help you preserve your data when the main machine encounters a problem, and Windows 11 has multiple tools to help you do that in some form (on-device, external, or cloud). I used Macrium Reflect, a fantastic tool that met most of my needs, but it ended the free tier completely and lacked some trivial backup elements, forcing me to look for options.

Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome is officially over. In an update on Tuesday, Google Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez says the company has decided “to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome.”For years, critics have argued that Google’s Privacy Sandbox could harm advertisers and violate privacy laws, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told users to opt out of the program, saying it “is still tracking your internet use for Google’s behavioral advertising.” Last week, a US judge found that Google “willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts” in the advertising technology industry, and the competition regulator in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has been investigating its evolving series of proposals to address concerns that they might give Google an unfair advantage.Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative was announced in 2020 with plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome by default, similar to Firefox and Safari. It has made several changes to the initiative over the years, such as proposals like its Topics API to assign interests to users based on their web activity and other tools it said could target ads while still offering some privacy. But following years of delays and scrutiny, Google said last year that it would let users choose whether to opt into a cookie-less Chrome. Now, it appears the initiative has come almost completely to an end.“As we’ve engaged with the ecosystem, including publishers, developers, regulators, and the ads industry, it remains clear that there are divergent perspectives on making changes that could impact the availability of third-party cookies,” Chavez writes, adding that Google “will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies.”The Movement for an Open Web (MOW), which filed a complaint with the CMA about the initiative in 2020, said Google’s latest update is an “admission” that the Privacy Sandbox is over.“Google’s intention was to remove open and interoperable communications standards to bring digital advertising traffic under their sole control and, with this announcement, that aim is now over,” MOW co-founder James Rosewell said in an emailed statement to The Verge. “They’ve recognised that the regulatory obstacles to their monopolistic project are insurmountable and have given up.”

One of the most underrated titles of 2024 was Korean studio Shift UP’s character-action RPG, Stellar Blade. The title is a beautiful mix of character action and souls-like combat, and it deserves every bit of praise it has received in the past year since its release. However, it completely understated just how much greatness and potential is present in this title.

Some of the most interesting projects stem from giving old hardware a new lease of life. If you came across an unloved Nintendo Wii at a swap shop, what would you do with it? While some might take it home and play some Wii Sports on it, one person decided that they'd turn it into a web server. Best of all, you can actually visit the website the Wii is hosting, so you can read all about how the process works on the Wii itself.

Darth Jar Jar is a real boy, and they're finally getting an in-video game appearance for the first time ever—and it's in Fortnite. Fortnite and Star Warsare collaborating ahead of May 4th, 2025, also known and recognized as Star Wars Day, to celebrate the pop culture marvel with a slew of events, skins, and limited-time events in the acclaimed battle royale.

The iPhone 15 was one of our favorite phones on release, thanks to a bright and brilliant 2000-nit display, so you'll want to keep it safe with a great screen protector and a quality case. The iPhone 15 features the same 6.1-inch screen size we've seen on the base-model iPhone for a while, but Apple tweaked the dimensions between generations. That means that iPhone 14 cases won't be compatible with the new iPhone 15 smartphone, so you'll need to grab a new one. To help you out, we've rounded up a list of the best iPhone 15 cases you can get right now.

If you've been thinking about downsizing your desktop setup at home or work, a mini PC is going to be a great solution. Not only do you get tons of power in a compact size, but it also comes out to be quite cheap if you know when to pick one up.

The Game Boy may have retired decades ago, but that hasn't stopped people from making new games and cartridges for it. In fact, as the technology behind the portable console gets broken open, more and more indie developers can join in and create games and tools for the Game Boy. Take, for instance, the GBS Windows cartridge, which lets you run a faux version of Windows 3.1 on your Game Boy.

With its easy-to-use nature and rock-solid ecosystem, Docker has been my constant companion during the course of my home lab journey. But after trying out Podman earlier, I’ve switched entirely to the daemonless, rootless container runtime. Besides offering better security, Podman also brings pod support to the table, making it perfect when you want to host closely associated services on your production-grade workstation.

Apple and Meta are the first companies to be fined for violations under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission announced today that Apple has been served a €500 million (about $570 million) penalty after ruling that its App Store “anti-steering” practices failed to comply with DMA antitrust rules. Meta has been fined €200 million (about $230 million) following similar charges regarding Facebook and Instagram’s ‘pay or consent’ ad model. Both companies have been given 60 days to comply with the ruling, which in Apple’s case includes removing its restrictions on developers, or face the risk of periodic penalty payments. Apple has confirmed that it intends to appeal the ruling, and The New York Times reports that Meta plans to do the same.The DMA became law in May 2023, and is designed to increase competition across digital markets within the EU. Companies designated under the law as “gatekeepers” — Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Microsoft — over “core platform services” they offer must comply with rules intended to reduce anticompetitive behavior. Companies can be charged up to 10 percent of their annual global revenue for DMA violations, and up to 20 percent for repeat offenses.“Enabling free business and consumer choice is at the core of the rules laid down in the Digital Markets Act. This includes ensuring that citizens have full control over when and how their data is used online, and businesses can freely communicate with their own customers,” says Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy. “The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free choice from their users and are required to change their behaviour.”Apple was charged for violating DMA rules over App Store restrictions that prevented developers from promoting pricing or alternative distribution channels within their apps, or freely linking out to web pages where customers can pay or subscribe to their services. In its own compliance report, Apple says the compliance measures it has taken to open up its App Store place users and developers at greater risk, and that it will “continue to urge the European Commission to allow it to take other measures to protect its users.”The Commission says that the size of Apple’s fine “takes into account the gravity and duration of the non-compliance.” The company has also been ordered to remove the restrictions on developers linking out to and promoting other payment services.“Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free,” Apple spokesperson Emma Wilson told The Verge. “We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for. Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way. We will appeal and continue engaging with the Commission in service of our European customers.”Meta was charged for forcing Facebook and Instagram users to either pay a subscription fee to remove ads, or consent to having their personal data used for ad-supported versions of the platforms. To address the DMA compliance violations, Meta has allowed Facebook and Instagram users within the EU who don’t pay to remove ads to see fewer unskippable, full-screen “personalized ads.” Meta said in a compliance report published on March 6th that it has “continued to receive additional demands that go beyond what is written in the law” despite its efforts to comply with DMA requirements. “The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” says Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, in a statement. “This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service. And by unfairly restricting personalized advertising the European Commission is also hurting European businesses and economies.”The initial compliance investigations into Apple and Meta were announced in March 2024, alongside plans to investigate Google’s parent company Alphabet over concerns regarding treating its own services more favorably in Search rankings compared to services provided by third-party rivals. Like Apple, Google is also being scrutinized over “anti-steering” practices in its app marketplace — meaning behavior that market-dominating platforms use to dissuade consumers from using alternative services.The fines announced today are below the maximum penalties of around $16 billion for Meta and $39 billion for Apple based on 2024 earnings. The Financial Times reported in January that the EU was planning to soften its regulatory practices around Big Tech following an increase in pressure from the US, with the new EU Commission that took office in December reportedly being more focused on enforcing compliance than issuing hefty fines. Today’s fines were expected in March, but were reportedly delayed over fears that the decisions would escalate ongoing trade tensions. Apple is no stranger to EU antitrust penalties, having previously been fined €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) last year over the App Store’s anti-steering practices following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Spotify — a case that predates the DMA. Meta was also fined €797.7 million (about $840 million) in November last year for giving itself unfair market advantages by linking Facebook and Marketplace, and €1.2 billion (about $1.3 billion) in 2023 for transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US.These fines come as tensions are rising between European policymakers and US President Donald Trump, who has befriended deep-pocketed US tech CEOs that have likened EU fines placed against their companies to a form of taxation.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the phones being updated to One UI 7 now.Samsung is once again deploying its One UI 7 update to last year’s flagship Galaxy phones, with users worldwide reporting availability. The Android 15 update had begun rolling out earlier this month, only to pause for a week while Samsung rushed to patch a critical bug.Android Authority reports that Galaxy S24 series, Z Fold 6, and Z Flip 6 owners around the world, including the US, have once again begun receiving the update to the latest version of Samsung’s mobile operating system. Using the CheckFirm app we’ve verified that the update is already available to T-Mobile users in the US, while SammyFans reports that Verizon is also issuing the update now.One UI 7 began rolling out on April 7th, with the first US users getting the update three days later, but Samsung was forced to put a halt to the update program last week after a string of complaints from early updaters in South Korea who couldn’t unlock their phones. Samsung never officially confirmed the bug, but did acknowledge that the One UI 7 schedule was “being updated to ensure the best possible experience.”Samsung’s take on Android 15 was already later than expected, with developer access to the Google OS beginning in September 2024. While the Galaxy S25 phones and the latest Galaxy A-series models shipped with One UI 7, it’s taken until this month for older phones to receive the update. The next devices scheduled to receive it include the S23 series, the S24 FE and S23 FE, the Fold 5 and Flip 5, and the Tab S10 and Tab S9 lines.

The Raspberry Pi is more than just a tiny computer; you can use it to automate your daily life by scheduling essential tasks, such as backing up your files, monitoring your network, and even controlling smart devices at home. When I first started using the Raspberry Pi, I manually executed most scripts and programs. It worked for a while, but it was easy to forget something important. Once I discovered task scheduling, everything became much more efficient and reliable. Now, I rely on scheduled scripts to handle routine operations without constant supervision. Below, I’ll share several methods for scheduling tasks on a Raspberry Pi. I have tried them, and even though I mainly use cron jobs, you can you can review each one and choose the one that best suits your workflow and experience level.