I've been big on the Home Assistant train for a while now, and I've been slowly migrating all of my cloud-based services, where I can, to self-hosted alternatives. I started with basic controls for my smart lights, advancing further and further until I had a full-fledged setup capable of replacing all that I could. I'm practically there now, and I couldn't be happier. While my Google Home Hub is still hooked up for now, I use Home Assistant's "Okay Nabu" a lot more these days than "Hey Google".

The Apple Mac Mini is one of the most powerful mini PCs that you can buy, handling pretty much everything you can throw at it with ease. The good news is that it doesn't cost all that much for the base model, coming in at just $599. The even better news is that you can now score a $100 discount, which brings it down to one of its best prices yet. So if you've been thinking about grabbing a mini PC and want to go all in with something new, the Mac Mini is going to be right up your alley.

The developer toolkit is constantly evolving, and for those of us working with containers, finding the right desktop environment is crucial. For a long time, Docker Desktop was the undisputed champion. However, as the ecosystem matured and Kubernetes became a central pillar of modern application development, along with changes in Docker Desktop’s licensing, many began searching for alternatives that offer more flexibility and a more open-source approach.

Microsoft Word was my go-to writing app for typing documents and stories, but I eventually moved on to Google Docs due to its simplicity and cloud-based design. Google Docs isn't bad, but I found another app that has a more streamlined design and gives me the freedom to work without invasive spelling and grammar-checking tools. I'm always looking to improve my productivity and switched to QuillSpace because it removes all distractions so I can work in peace.

Amazon has announced the dates when its annual Prime Day deal extravaganza will kick off, and it’s happening for much longer than usual. It starts Tuesday, July 8th, at 3AM Eastern and lasts through Friday, July 11th, at the same time. And, instead of being a two-day event that’s exclusive to Prime subscribers, it’s happening for four days in 2025. We will, of course, be reporting for deal duty for the duration, supplying only on the discounts that matter to Verge readers.Four days is a very long time, and we currently don’t know if Amazon plans to blast out the majority of good deals on day one, or divvy them out evenly across the event’s duration. At least, it will attempt to organize the deals with a new “Today’s Big Deals” feature for subscribers, which recaps the biggest deals across various categories.We expect to first see deals arrive on Amazon’s own suite of devices, including Echo smart speakers, smart displays, and other smart home gear. This includes its Kindle lineup, as well as its Fire TV streamers and TVs that run its entertainment-focused OS. Amazon teased some of its early deals beginning soon, which include its lowest price yet on the Blink Mini 2 two-pack as well as the Ring Battery Doorbell bundled with the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus. It also plans to offer the eero 6 Plus mesh Wi-Fi router system, the Fire HD 8 Plus tablet, and more products at up to half off.Once Prime Day begins, deals will expand to include other popular manufacturers that Verge readers care about. Every company under the sun typically takes part in Prime Day on both big-ticket gadgets and affordable tech. We’ll be covering the best deals on TVs, laptops, headphones, tablets, video games, PC accessories and components, and so much more. To reiterate, Prime Day deals are only for Prime subscribers, so you’ll need a subscription to participate (even if it’s a trial). For those who are between the ages of 18 and 24, you can get a six-month subscription for free, with it renewing after that period at $7.49 per month (half the normal cost of Prime).If you’re unsure as to whether you’ll have time to peruse all of the deals with us, you can opt to get a tidy email digest of only the top deals, both on a regular basis and during Prime Day, by subscribing to our Verge Deals newsletter below.

Whether you're upgrading to a new PC or buying a single component, you can never really avoid every single one of these hidden traps. No matter how many times you've done it before, upgrading a PC inevitably comes with unspoken biases and rules that you impose on yourself. This leads you to overpay for performance you don't need, and build with components you didn't research enough before buying. On the other end of the spectrum, you could end up cheaping out on the stuff that truly matters. So, here are the top traps to avoid when buying new components for your PC.

I've known about Resizable BAR for years, but never bothered with it until now. One of the things stopping me was the fact that my main SSD was formatted in the MBR standard instead of GPT. To use ReBAR, I needed a GPT-formatted drive; otherwise, I couldn't use UEFI, and therefore, Resizable BAR. I recently updated my motherboard BIOS and finally decided to check if Resizable BAR would be worth it.

Would you purchase a specific brand's GPU because it came with diagnostic LEDs that warned you if your card's power supply wasn't doing so hot? Galax banked on this when it created its take on the GeForce RTX GPUs. Using some pretty clever tech, its last range of cards displayed a visual warning signal when something was going wrong. Fortunately, this same feature has made its way onto Galax's RTX 50 series, too, and given the reports of cards melting power cables, this feature could potentially help you spot the issue before it does too much damage.

Daily puzzle games are seemingly everywhere right now, and starting today, you’ll be able to add a new stop to your puzzle rotation: The Atlantic.The publication is launching a new hub for its growing game offerings, including already available games like Bracket City and Caleb’s Inferno Crossword Puzzle, as well as some new puzzles. You’ll be able to access the hub on both the web and in The Atlantic’s app.Caleb Madison, The Atlantic’s director of games, gave The Verge a demo of most of the games available in the hub ahead of today’s launch:Bracket City, which The Atlantic licensed earlier this year, requires you to solve clues nested in brackets that eventually resolve into a fun fact about that day in history.Stacks, a new game, is kind of like Tetris meets Wordle, Madison says. You have a bank of words that you have to place in the correct order, on top of letters already on the board, to form other words. In Fluxis, another new game, you try to figure out words that build off the previous word and incorporate some kind of characteristic. Madison showed me an example of needing to build an adjective off the word “checkerboard” — he went with “arduous.”Caleb’s Inferno Crossword Puzzle, which is already included in the monthly Atlantic magazine and available online, is last game Madison showed me. Caleb’s crossword is a narrow rectangle instead of a square, but as you move farther down the puzzle, the clues get more difficult to solve. Madison doesn’t necessarily see The Atlantic’s games as replacing your visits to other daily puzzles. “I think people have a pretty ravenous diet for new games, so I don’t think coming to The Atlantic precludes any of these other amazing games that are at The New York Times or Apple News or LinkedIn,” Madison says. “What I feel like The Atlantic has to offer that’s different from those publications is a little bit more of a bespoken, artisanal aesthetic.”Madison also tries to bring an “aesthetic narrative component” to games to help them feel “immersive and special.” Bracket City, for example, has some city-themed elements sprinkled throughout, like the “fan mail” email being [email protected] with The New York Times, some aspects of The Atlantic’s games will only be available if you’re a paid subscriber. Bracket City and all of its archives are free. The full archives for Stacks, Fluxis, and The Atlantic’s daily mini crossword will be behind a paywall, however; nonsubscribers will only have access to the three most recent puzzles for those games. All of the Caleb’s Inferno crossword puzzles are exclusive to subscribers.Madison says he has “a lot of plans” for more games, including long-form games of some kind. “I’m trying to make no assumptions as to what that would look like and just forge forward creatively to see what a more layered day-to-day experience would be like.” He didn’t want to give anything specific away, but he says, “I am excited to innovate in the game space and bring unique and authentic, long-form game experiences to The Atlantic users and to people online.”

Tinder is no longer just a platform for solo dates. The company has announced a new “Double Date” feature rolling out in the US that will let you invite a friend to find — and match with – another pair.The feature lives within a new “Double Date” icon in the top-right corner of the app, where you can invite up to three friends to create pairs with. You can both scroll through a feed of paired profiles, which appear side by side with photos and descriptions. A match is created when one person from both pairs swipes right. Tinder will then open up a group chat with all four users.The update should help Tinder gain an edge over rivals as the dating app industry continues to experience a slump. It will also allow Tinder to compete directly with platforms built for double dates, like Doubble and Fourplay.Cleo Long, Tinder’s head of product marketing, told The Verge that the platform has been testing the feature in Europe for a “couple of months,” adding that it’s meant to help relieve dating pressure, especially among younger users. “This is a social-first experience that’s really meant to help relieve some of the pressure that we know a lot of Gen Z experiences with dating by making it more social, more fun, and bringing your friends in to help reinforce that comfort piece,” Long said.Double Dates builds on some of the other social features Tinder has rolled out in recent years, including a feature that lets you share the details of your dates with other people, as well as a way for friends or family members to find matches for you. Tinder plans on rolling out Double Dates globally in July.

The contract is estimated to complete in July 2026.OpenAI is officially on the Pentagon’s payroll. The Department of Defence announced a $200 million contract with OpenAI to provide the US government with new artificial intelligence tools, including those used for proactive cyber defense.In a post outlining its latest contracts, the DoD said that OpenAI “will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains.” The work will primarily be completed in the Washington, DC region with an estimated completion date of July 2026.OpenAI said in a new blog post that the DoD contract is its first partnership under a new initiative to provide its AI technology to workers across federal, state, and local governments. The company is offering custom models for national security on “a limited basis,” according to the announcement, with OpenAI saying that all use cases must comply with its policies and guidelines. OpenAI’s current usage policy bans its services from being used to “develop or use weapons” and “injure others or destroy property.”“This contract, with a $200 million ceiling, will bring OpenAI’s industry-leading expertise to help the Defense Department identify and prototype how frontier AI can transform its administrative operations, from improving how service members and their families get health care, to streamlining how they look at program and acquisition data, to supporting proactive cyber defense,” OpenAI said.This isn’t the first time OpenAI has bedded down with the military, having entered a partnership with Anduril Industries in December 2024 to integrate its AI software into the defense tech company’s counterdrone systems. The new one-year DoD contract is antithetical to earlier versions of OpenAI’s terms of service that banned its technology from being used for “military and warfare” — a prohibition removed by the company last year. OpenAI’s DoD contract is the latest of several efforts to bolster military efforts with AI technology, with the US having renamed the AI Safety Institute earlier this month to focus on combating national security risks instead of overall safety. Rival AI developer Anthropic announced an AI model with looser guardrails for US defense and intelligence agencies on June 5th, Google removed commitments in February to not use AI in ways “that cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” and Meta started allowing the US government to use its Llama AI model for “national security applications” last year.

It's finally happening — we have a modern, AAA James Bond game on the way, and I couldn't possibly think of a better developer team for the job. IO Interactive, the makers of the Hitman games, are at the helm, and in 2026, the Danish studio will give us what is going to be perhaps the definitive Bond game. After all, there's no better DNA than the World of Assassination games for 007 First Light.