In mid-2022, I won a PC building completion organized by Nvidia and WD, and I got the opportunity to take home the very PC I built. Except for the RTX 3080 and the WD Black SN770, I had free rein to pick whatever components I wished for, provided I stayed within the $1,800 budget. While I couldn't choose a Ryzen 7000 CPU due to a hard deadline (the Zen 4 launch was still 2 months away), I was extremely happy with the Ryzen 7 5700X.

Meta is reportedly preparing a higher-end version of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with a built-in screen to launch as early as by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports.The new glasses, codenamed Hypernova, can run apps and display photos, all controlled using hand gestures and capacitive touch on the sides of the frame. Bloomberg reports that the screen will only be visible on the right lens at the lower-right quadrant, and is best viewed when looking downward. When the device is turned on, a home screen appears and displays icons horizontally, similar to a Meta Quest.Hypernova will also feature an improved camera compared to the current model, and will continue building upon the idea of having an AI chatbot on your face, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg says that Hypernova will cost over $1,000 and could sell for as high as $1,300 to $1,400. For comparison, the current Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses start at $299.Meta is reserving advanced augmented reality technology for its still-in-development Orion glasses. In contrast, the Hypernova will target the “mid-tier” smart glasses shown off in droves at CES, such as the Rokid Glasses that display green text.However, the Hypernova will command a higher price tag than other options, likely since it will come with the Orion’s “neural” wristband controller, codenamed Ceres. Meta is also working on a next version of Hypernova, with the codename Hypernova 2, that will have two screens, Bloomberg reports. The company is apparently planning to launch Hypernova 2 in 2027.

I have always been on the hunt for the perfect digital workspace. I want to create a place where ideas seamlessly connect, information is easily retrievable, and productivity flows effortlessly. Like many, I tried countless note-taking apps and PKM systems, each promising to be the answer. Yet, something always felt missing.

Hard drives and SSDs have a habit of failing at inopportune moments (although when is a good time for storage to fail?), underscoring how important having a regular backup strategy is for keeping your data safe. While there are plenty of backup programs available, from specialized server backup solutions for VMs to solutions for single programs, the professional world tends to lean on open-source backup solutions.

Ask any note-taking enthusiast about their favorite app, and the name Obsidian is bound to pop up in the conversation every now and again. In addition to its vast plugin collection, Obsidian includes a ton of tools to organize your notes and customize every aspect of the note-taking app. Plus, it’s compatible with multiple backup options, so you don’t have to worry about losing access to your precious notes.

Laser engraving can transform plain objects into personalized works of art in a short amount of time. Even minor adjustments in your settings can bring out sharper details, cleaner lines, and a consistent finish on all kinds of materials. By finding the right balance between speed, power, and other key settings, you can enhance the overall quality of your creations. These choices ensure that your equipment functions smoothly while delivering the results you envision.

If you're looking for portable storage that's compact, rugged and lighting quick — the SanDisk Extreme portable SSD is going to be for you. This portable SSD is a fantastic piece of hardware, with a 4.6-star rating with over 75,000 reviews on Amazon. While it has a retail price that sits at $700, it can now be had for much less thanks to a $220 discount that knocks it down to just $480. This is the lowest price we've seen for this drive, so get it now while you still can.

U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in the White House Oval Office on March 13, 2025. | Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images<br>Last week, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz inadvertently invited a journalist to a Signal chat discussing a planned military strike. Today, a new Washington Post report says that he has also discussed “sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict,” using his personal Gmail account.Waltz, along with other members of the National Security Council, used Gmail “for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies,” according to emails the Post saw, with headers showing that others on the emails used their government-issued accounts. Waltz also had “less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail,” like his schedule and “other work documents,” some unnamed government officials told the outlet. The Post quotes National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes saying, “Waltz didn’t and wouldn’t send classified information on an open account,” and that Hughes says he’s “seen no evidence of Waltz using his personal email as described.”The Post’s report puts the adviser’s communications practices back in the spotlight after Waltz invited The Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal chat about a military strike in Yemen that took place later that day. Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated that the incident probably won’t be criminally investigated in response to questions at a press conference Sunday night, while suggesting that people should be discussing “what was in Hillary Clinton’s home,” seemingly referring to the personal email server scandal that cropped up late in her last Presidential campaign.Since then, a Wired report detailed how his public Venmo account had revealed “the names of hundreds” of his associates, including journalists and military officers. And like most of us, personal online account info for Waltz and other Trump administration officials has been found in online database leaks, including “several passwords for Waltz’s email address,” writes Spiegel International.

Could it be? A wireless plan that doesn’t suck?Visible, the budget wireless brand owned by Verizon, is offering a new premium plan that looks like a heck of a deal compared to its parent company’s offerings.The new Visible Plus Pro plan (I didn’t say the name was good) costs $45 per month. For that price you get unlimited 5G Ultrawideband (UW) data, which is an awfully good deal when you consider that Verizon’s own entry-level unlimited plan, Unlimited Welcome, starts at $65 per month and doesn’t include 5G UW.This new Plus Pro plan also comes without throttling. Many lower-cost carrier plans and MVNOs tend to offer a certain allotment of “premium” data. Once you exceed your allowance, you might see slowdowns at times when the network is busy. But Visible’s fine print states that both its Plus and Plus Pro plan are “not subject to any data prioritization limitations.” So that rules.It gets better: the Plus Pro plan includes unlimited hotspot usage at up to 15 Mbps. Verizon’s basic plan doesn’t include any hotspot data, just the option to add it for an extra $10 per month. There’s also 4K video streaming and service for one cellular smartwatch included. You can probably guess what I’m going to say next, but just to reiterate, Verizon’s basic unlimited plan doesn’t include any of that.This would all be less of a good deal if Verizon puts Visible traffic on a lower network tier than its own postpaid customers. Network operators commonly put different kinds of customers on certain service tiers called Quality of Service Class Indicators, or QCIs. This helps with overall traffic prioritization when there’s congestion, usually putting first responders on the fastest tier.Verizon didn’t immediately respond to my question about Visible Plus Pro’s QCI, but Android Authority’s comprehensive comparison between Visible and Verizon suggests that Visible’s premium plan is actually assigned a higher-priority QCI than Verizon’s Unlimited Welcome — at least, that’s been the case in the past. We’ll update this article if Verizon responds to our request.It’s all too rare to read about an ISP’s new plan and think “Huh, that sounds like a good deal, actually.” But that’s the case here, even after going through the fine print.

I run Windows 11 on most of my devices these days because I use a few creative programs daily that don't have a Linux alternative. That wasn't always the case, though, and for many years, I dual-booted Linux and Windows on my laptop. I truly believed it was the best of both worlds, being able to switch between the two operating systems with a simple reboot, and when I had issues, I wrote them off as my incomplete knowledge or user error.

Some Google Pixel users have found that their At a Glance widget has been showing outdated weather forecasts, as reported by Android Police. But the company says in a statement to The Verge that it’s addressing the issue.According to one user on Reddit who has been dealing with the problem, “the current temperature is fairly accurate, but the expected high/low forecast hasn’t been correct in the past week.” The expected temperatures in the weather app itself were also accurate, they said.Another user on Google’s support forums said that their Pixel 8A’s lock screen was showing “the weather for the correct location, but in the morning it shows yesterday’s forecast as the temperature ‘today’ and in the evening it shows today’s forecast as the weather ‘tomorrow.’”In a statement this afternoon, Google spokesperson Matthew Flegal says that “we’re currently rolling out a fix for an issue causing outdated weather forecasts on the At a Glance widget for some Pixel users.”

Adobe has been the industry standard for years because few other free programs can measure up. One of those solid competitors is Photopea, which offers many similar tools with the same capabilities for free. But its true strength lies in its hidden capabilities; a handful of advanced tools that put the program on par with Photoshop. I think these tools deserve to be spotlighted.