Elden Ring Nightreignis a co-op, run-based take on Elden Ring, featuring bosses from other FromSoftware games, and while the game doesn't actually feature other players for you to duke it out with, the changes it makes to the Elden Ring formula feel inspired by Fortnite. The incredibly popular free-to-play battle royale has taken its fair share of inspiration from other video games, so it feels natural for Fortniteto influence other games. While FromSoftware superfans might bristle at the comparison, it's a positive one, as many of the aspects that feel like Fortnite are some of the more interesting aspects of Elden Ring Nightreign.

We've learned that the Switch 2 gives original Switch games a performance boost for no additional cost or download, but it begs the question: do these improved framerates and fewer stutters give Switch 2 players an edge when they play a competitive Switch game? While the answer is still up in the air, it turns out that using the Switch 2 to play Splatoon 3 does give players an advantage, albeit it's not quite a performance thing.

ESPHome has become one of my favorite tools for managing smart home devices. It gives me the ability to configure, update, and troubleshoot sensors and microcontrollers without needing to write firmware by hand. Once I saw how easily it integrates with Home Assistant and how much control it gives me, it became my go-to choice for nearly every ESP32 or ESP8266 project. Whether I'm deploying a temperature sensor or a complex multi-relay controller, ESPHome simplifies the process in ways that still surprise me.

Over the last few years, I've shifted most of my digital life onto servers I manage. My media streams through Plex, my notes live in a self-hosted editor, my files sync via Nextcloud, and even my password manager runs on hardware I maintain.

PC hardware has undergone a period of immense growth over the last decade. What was once a relatively niche hobby has exploded into a blossoming industry, and along the way, hardware itself was being innovated upon at a rapid pace. Now, the PC hardware industry has entered a period that feels a lot like stagnation, but who's to blame? Is it the manufacturers who are struggling to innovate? Or are our expectations as consumers becoming unrealistic?

I think a huge part of what makes a cyberdeck cool is what it's enclosed in. I mean, in theory, you could put a cyberdeck in any container with a hinge on it, but for some reason, I give additional points to any build that puts them in something really cool and special. Well, I don't think anything can get cooler than a metal Back to the Future lunchbox, so the fact that someone turned it into a fully-themed cyberdeck that looks like it came out of the movie itself is just icing on the cake.

Ah, Home Assistant, a wonderful piece of software that has enabled me to automate all kinds of things in my home thanks to the countless integrations available for it. It can simply do it all, from the weird and wonderful, like detecting an electric toothbrush to kickstart my day, to the entire automation of my lighting all around me. Oh, and now I'm using it to turn my lights into Morse Code communicators. That's... useful too, I guess?

Microsoft has been enhancing the Settings page on Windows 11. You'd be forgiven for not noticing, as the changes have been pretty slow and gradual and only in small bites. They usually involve moving something from the Control Panel to Settings in a bid to finally sunset the older application, but sometimes, we also see an effort to tidy up and streamline the process. Such is the case of a new change spotted in the works, which should make the Search options in the Settings panel a lot easier to use.

How small is too small for a computer? Trick question; there's never "too small." In fact, the smaller the better, especially if the computer comes with its own screen. So, when I heard that someone made a Linux computer that's smaller than a US passport photo, I had to check it out. This amazing device really pushes the limit as to how small a computer can get, and yes, it even has its own built-in screen that's surprisingly readable.

Creating a media server is a great way to access all the stored media content on your hard disk in a centralized manner. I have my fair share of free media, family events, and personal memories stashed in multiple hard disks and SSDs. It's tiresome to hook each of the drives to the PC or copy the media to the phone to view them, and Jellyfin sounded like a great idea to start.

Thanks to its unique tab management, robust theme engine, digital whiteboard, and smooth animations, Arc browser quickly gained popularity among enthusiasts. However, to everyone’s surprise, The Browser Company has ceased active development on the Arc browser. While they haven’t killed it outright and security updates are still coming, Arc won’t receive any new features. I found myself searching for an alternative, and then I discovered Zen.

Every device on the internet is identified by an IP address, which your Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns to your home network. This is essentially your "address" online, and ISPs assign these addresses to end users in one of two forms. There's a static IP address (permanent) and a dynamic IP address (changing), where a static IP stays the same every time you connect, and a dynamic IP address will change periodically. For context, most residential internet plans use dynamic IPs by default via the ISP's DHCP servers, and in nearly all cases, this is actually beneficial to users.