In the world of PC hardware, features are a dime a dozen. And motherboard manufacturers will use any ridiculous nomenclature for supposedly game-changing features that are nothing more than wrappers for things that exist on every motherboard. Motherboard brands need to differentiate their products from the competition, but at what point does differentiation morph into meaningless marketing? For motherboard manufacturers, that point was left in the rearview mirror a long time ago.

The Trump administration has released a proposal to cut about a quarter of NASA’s 2026 budget, slashing both International Space Station crew sizes and the amount of research done there. At the same time, it sets up new funding that would likely benefit Elon Musk’s SpaceX by prioritizing human missions to Mars, and refocuses on “beating China back to the Moon.”The suggested cuts are part of President Trump’s budget proposal for next year. It would slash $508 million from the ISS, cutting its crew size and focusing its “reduced research capacity … on efforts critical to the Moon and Mars exploration programs.” It also cuts $2.265 billion from space science missions, and includes terminating things like the Mars Sample Return mission, the objectives of which it says would be achieved by human flights to the red planet. At the same time, the proposal offers $1 billion in spending on “Mars-focused programs,” with no specifics about where that money would go. As The New York Times writes, Musk’s SpaceX will “presumably” seek NASA funding to help with an uncrewed Starship flight to Mars that Musk has claimed will launch next year. Another $7 billion would be allocated to lunar exploration but suggests phasing out NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion capsule in favor of future commercial alternatives. It would end the Lunar Gateway program after the Artemis III mission, according to NASA.The plan cuts $1.161 billion from earth sciences, eliminating funding for things like “low-priority climate monitoring satellites.” And it would slash $346 million in spending on “climate-focused ’green aviation’” in favor of air traffic control and defense spending, as well as $143 million in STEM engagement programs.Russell Vought, director of the US Office of Management and Budget, sent President Trump’s budget proposal to the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Friday, writing that a “full fiscal plan” would follow. As Ars Technica notes, Congress will be responsible for actually writing the budget.Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at space exploration advocate nonprofit Planetary Society, told The New York Times that the proposal is “the largest single-year cut to NASA in American history” and that it signals that “America is done leading the world in space, that we are a nation turning inward.”

Apple is planning to shuffle its iPhone release schedule next year as it releases the first foldable iPhone to make things more manageable, reports The Information. The plan is for the foldable to come out with the iPhone 18 Pro and “Air” models, while the standard iPhone 18 gets shunted back to the spring of 2027, releasing alongside an iPhone 16E follow-up, according to the outlet.With the slimmer model in the lineup and a foldable expected in 2026, The Information says Apple needs to shuffle things around to keep a ballooning six-iPhone lineup manageable. As for what the foldable will look like, the outlet writes that Apple is going with a book-style form factor, rather than clamshell, with a 5.7-inch screen when closed and a just-under-8-inch display when open. Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously suggested it will be 4.5–4.8mm thick when unfolded and will use Face ID, rather than Touch ID.The report includes other tidbits, like that Apple will introduce a new battery case for the iPhone 17 Air, as its testing has apparently shown that, on its own, the phone’s battery life “will fall short of that of previous iPhones.” Also, The Information says the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max models will get long-rumored under-display Face ID sensors, leaving the devices with only a “small hole cutout in the top-left corner” for the phone’s front-facing camera.

Microsoft OneNote has been my loyal note-taking companion for years. I mastered it, navigated its quirks, and built my entire note-taking system around it. But as my needs grew, its limitations started to affect my workflow. That's why, after much consideration, I've made the switch to UpNote.

Polygon, The Verge's former sister site dedicated to covering gaming and entertainment, is now owned by Valnet, a company that owns more than 27 different brands covering gaming, entertainment, sports, travel, and more. The transition is, let's say, ongoing: a day after the acquisition, the site still said it was a Vox Media property, and the site's coverage continued more or less uninterrupted. But Valnet has indeed acquired Polygon, so to learn more about the deal, why the company acquired it, and the future of the site, I got on the phone with Valnet's head of mergers and acquisitions, Rony Arzoumanian.Polygon is a "triple-A gaming brand" that Valnet has been of "high interest" for "some time," Arzoumanian said. Valnet's gaming portfolio also includes GameRant, TheGamer, Fextralife, DualShockers, Hardcore Gamer, and OpenCritic. Arzoumanian said the company is "bullish" on gaming coverage. "We think Polygon has a lot of potential and could be much more."Valnet initiated the Polygon deal, and Arzoumanian said the conversations started a "few months ago." He declined to share the terms of the deal. Going forward, Valnet wants to ensure that Polygon has the "deepest" cove …Read the full story at The Verge.

Work remotely or want to access your home lab from anywhere securely? Unsurprisingly, Tailscale is the top recommendation for peer-to-peer VPN to juggle containerized servers and self-hosted apps back home. No one wants to take chances when sharing such resources with family, friends, or a small team. While Tailscale is amazing, Twingate lets you employ layers of user authentication and device verification to access resources from any location.

You might think of Microsoft Excel as just rows and columns, a place for basic calculations and simple charts. And while it certainly excels (no pun intended) at those fundamental tasks, the recent integration of Python has boosted its capabilities. I was skeptical when Microsoft first announced Python integration in Excel. However, after experimenting with it for a while, I've discovered a whole new dimension of what's possible within the familiar Excel environment.

A little over three Gs for capital-G Gamers.The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 is a gaming laptop, and it sure looks like one. It's an inch thick, weighs 5.5 pounds, and is awash in RGB lighting, stylized text, and curved plastic. This Aorus Master offers powerful hardware and a lovely high-res, high-refresh OLED display. It's the first of several laptops we're reviewing with the GeForce RTX 5080, Nvidia's second-fastest laptop graphics card of this generation. At $3,100, it's actually a few hundred dollars less than similarly powerful models from Razer, Lenovo, and Asus, and over a thousand dollars less than laptops with the RTX 5090, Nvidia's fastest GPU.But in exchange for being a little cheaper than its direct competitors, the Aorus Master feels a little cheap, and its built-in software includes a useless AI chatbot but no custom fan controls. And those fans get loud.Like the Razer Blade 16, the Aorus Master 16 comes with a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED display. The Aorus's panel isn't quite as accurate as the Blade's - with slightly lower color reproduction - but it's just as bright and about as pleasing to the eye in regular use. It's got punchy colors that aren't oversaturated, and its 2.5K resolution and maximum 240Hz r …Read the full story at The Verge.

Buying a gaming monitor in 2025 is both easier and tougher than before. On the one hand, you have more options than ever, with the quality of modern displays better than ever. On the other hand, comparing these excellent gaming monitors against each other to decide which one to buy requires serious effort, especially when you don't know which specs you need to look out for. That's why I've put this list together to list the most important specs that should factor into the decision, and the ones that are safe to ignore for gamers.

Windows includes many tools and features you can access out of the box. However, there are other tools and features you might not be aware of. Although not often discussed, these tools perform their intended functions effectively. They are uncomplicated built-in utilities that provide more functionality than you might be using.

While we all wait to find out what effect the upcoming — well, maybe upcoming — tariffs will have on prices, many of us are making mental lists of some of the items we might need that, hopefully, won’t demand a bank loan to be affordable. Last year, we asked the staff members here at The Verge whether they had any favorite items that cost $50 or less. This year, because things are getting more expensive, we thought about upping the limit to $75, but it turns out that our staff has a good instinct for finding great, low-cost tech gadgets, cooking gear, tool kits, and other items that not only don’t suck, but are actually good to own. With any luck, they’ll remain $50 or less — for now, at any rate.I have a tendency to hold on to my phones as long as they work reasonably well, and although I must admit I’ve been tempted by the Pixel 9A, I will probably still be using my Pixel 6 for a bit longer. The only issue that I’m starting to hit is battery life — after over three years of use, it’s not unexpected that I will sometimes hit the 20 percent mark toward the end of the day. So I recently realized that I’m going to have to start carrying around a portable charger.At first, I was going to go with the 20,000mAh Anker Zolo Power Bank, which had gotten a good number of recommendations. But it weighs over 11 ounces and when I dropped it into my bag, it felt like I had added a small brick. That’s why I traded it in for the less powerful but much lighter Anker Nano Power Bank, which plugs into my phone’s USB-C slot like a small add-on peripheral. The Nano weighs only 3.5 ounces and supplies 5,000mAh of battery power — enough to keep me going to the end of the day. And it comes in several pale colors (I chose Ice Lake Blue), which means I can see it more easily in the dark reaches of my bag. — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editorI spent the better part of a decade trying to find the perfect slim minimalist wallet for carrying a handful of credit cards, debit cards, and IDs, along with a small stash of cash. The winner, which I’ve been carrying every day for close to eight years now, is Magpul’s DAKA Essential Wallet. It’s made from a reinforced polymer fabric with welded seams that make it impressively durable. It’s also got an anti-slip texture that I find adds extra grip so I can easily extract it from even a tight pocket. I ended up buying three so I had backups when it eventually wore out, but am still using the original with minimal wear and tear. — Andrew Liszewski, senior reporterMy body composition has become about 70 percent egg in the blissful month since I bought this cooker. I never want to buy new countertop kitchen appliances, because almost every time I do, they end up dusty in the back of the cabinet, but I’m amazed by how useful this simple Hamilton Beach Egg Cooker is. I can prepare hard- or soft-boiled eggs to perfect consistency in minutes (with no cleanup!), and having it on hand has dramatically cut back on my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich habit. So it’s good for my cholesterol and my bank account. — Kristen Radtke, creative directorMy ToAuto soldering station spent a few years gathering dust, but I finally pulled it out of the closet when I started experimenting with game console repairs. It may not be a Hakko or a Weller, but for $55, it gets the job done. The station is perfect for a beginner like me, as it heats up to 842 degrees Fahrenheit, comes with numerous interchangeable soldering tips, has steel wool for cleaning, and features a handy rack to hold a spool of solder. So far, it’s helped me do things like solder an HDMI port onto a PS4 and install new batteries on old Game Boy games. I expect it’s going to come in handy for many future repairs, too. — Emma Roth, news writerThe Sound Pocket certainly isn’t the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker I’ve ever owned, but it’s currently the one I reach for first. The reason for that is pretty simple: it’s just so small. This is truly a pocket-size speaker, compact enough to carry in my jeans or tuck into the smallest pouch of my backpack, with a silicon loop on one end for strapping it to the outside in a pinch. It hardly delivers booming bass, but it sounds better than my phone, and is small and light enough that I can always justify packing it. It’s just about the only thing I’m guaranteed to bring no matter where I travel. — Dominic Preston, news editorI used to buy AA batteries in bulk to keep on hand for when my Xbox controller would die in the middle of a game. (And because I have two kids.) I’d resisted my friends’ suggestions to buy rechargeable batteries, thinking back to the old ones my parents used to have, with a big, bulky charging box that took forever. But then one night I came across these $30 paleblue USB-C rechargeable batteries. They’re great. Just plug them into a USB-C source using the included wire whenever you need to juice them up. They last long enough so that I’m not constantly swapping them out. And I can charge all four at once. I have the four-pack but there’s also an eight-pack and a 12-pack, which might be even more handy. — Todd Haselton, deputy editorThis is a sturdy stainless steel water bottle that keeps water cold as I sip it throughout my workday. What more could you ask for? I take it on trips, too, and while it’s got a few dents from some drops onto concrete, I don’t really care. If anything, the dents add some character and make it mine.— Jay Peters, news editorMy partner and I were coming back from dinner with a friend the other night, and as the bus roared away, he suddenly realized his wallet was no longer in his back pocket. We called the MTA the next day, and through some miracle, the wallet had been found, and we were able to drive over to the local bus depot and pick it up. But it occurred to me that if he had a tracker in his wallet, we might not have been as worried as to where it was. The next day, I ordered a Tile Slim for that wallet.I’ve actually been using Tile trackers for my own keys and wallet for a couple of years now (although they’ve thankfully only been needed to locate items misplaced in our home). So as nice as the folks at the MTA were — and they were really nice — hopefully, my partner’s new Tile Slim will ensure it’s our last visit there. — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editorTwo years ago, Verge managing editor Alex Cranz recommended this little precision screwdriver, spudger, and tweezer set in our under-$50 gift guide. I absolutely did not need one; my iFixit Mako 64-bit kit was and is still going strong. But at $25, I thought, “Why not give it a shot?” I was blown away. It really is a phenomenal selection of above-average tools for an excellent price. I love the short, front-heavy precision driver you get. It’s often the first thing I reach for when opening gadgets, because there’s no need to deal with an unnecessarily long screwdriver shaft between your torque-generating hand and your fastener. It feels more natural squeezing its knurled grip with my fingertips instead of my palm, while the extra diameter gives me a little more leverage than the iFixit Mako does, which comes in handy swapping parts in my PC. The three-inch long reach bits are great for deeply socketed screws in Nerf blasters or Dyson vacuums, too. For me, it just needs a pair of game-cartridge-opening Gamebits to make it a complete set, plus maybe a SIM card opener and a magnetic screw retrieval tool. — Sean Hollister, senior editorI can’t help but laugh every time I hear “Royal Kludge,” but this is truly the best folding Bluetooth keyboard I’ve used yet — because it’s the only multi-device keyboard I’ve tried that doesn’t fall off my lap! It’s also a mechanical keyboard with swappable keycaps, but that’s just the cherry on top. For me, the important bits are that it’s easy to type on, I can swap between multiple Bluetooth devices instead of re-pairing, I can plug it in with USB-C whenever Bluetooth won’t work, and it spans both my legs while folding vertically rather than horizontally, so it doesn’t just fall into the gap between my legs like so of many rivals do. There really aren’t a lot of multi-device wired/wireless hybrid keyboards out there with USB-C ports. This one’s chunkier than the competition, but at $55 it’s a great deal. — Sean Hollister, senior editor

Microsoft officially released Windows 11 version 24H2 (or Windows 11 2024 Update) in October last year with new features in File Explorer, an updated Start menu with Phone Link, and Power Settings interface, video call enhancements, and plenty of AI-related changes. While the update was meant to be rolled out to everyone gradually, it has been a turbulent rollout, with Microsoft rolling out the update to select eligible devices, then blocking it shortly afterward due to some bugs.