For a whole generation of Brazilian kids, the Nintendo Entertainment System was never called that. It was the Phantom System — a console released by Brazilian electronics company Gradiente in 1989. It came in a shell originally designed for the Atari 7800, used a Sega Mega Drive controller, and played both NES and Famicom cartridges. The motherboard was reverse-engineered in-house and didn’t use any of Nintendo’s proprietary chips. It wasn’t licensed. It wasn’t official. But in Brazil, it was the NES.

Buying a giant battery for the next blackout or off-grid adventure can be daunting, especially when hundreds or even thousands of dollars are on the line. Get it wrong and you’ve either spent too much money for something you’ll never use or discover that you didn’t buy enough capacity to keep your most important devices running. To get it right, you need to become intimate with the watt-hour (Wh).The watt-hour is a measure of capacity, or how much electrical energy a battery stores. If you know how much power — measured in watts — your devices consume, then the Wh rating of a battery lets you quickly calculate how long those devices will run. For example, a typical LED light bulb requires about 10W to illuminate. So a 1000Wh (1kWh) battery can run that bulb for 100 hours because Wh divided by watts gives you the time.For context, the average US home consumes about 889kWh per month, or about 29.2kWh per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration. During a blackout, you’d need about $15,000 worth of batteries on hand to keep it running for just one day (based on a rough average of 50 cents per Wh of battery capacity). But that’d be silly because you …Read the full story at The Verge.

The laptop market has exploded in recent years, driven in part by the increasing consumer demand for slim, high-performance gaming laptops. Unfortunately, despite all the advancements made in their hardware, the battery life of gaming laptops seems to have plateaued. While the performance of gaming laptops seems to be getting better every year, their batteries often feel like they’re getting worse, not better. So, let’s break down the reasons why your gaming laptop’s battery can’t keep up with your gaming needs.

Up to 140W off a USB-C PD 3.1 laptop charger you might already own. | Image: AmplerAmpler made one of the first modern e-bikes I ever tested, and now it’s selling the first commercial electric bikes — the Nova and Nova Pro — I’m aware of that can be charged over a USB-C port integrated right into the frame. Hell, that same jack will even charge your gadgets in a pinch, but not in the US because this e-bike is for Europe only.Estonia-based Ampler is best known for making reliable direct-to-consumer e-bikes from its home in Tallinn using decent, mostly off-the-shelf parts that can be serviced at any local bike shop. Adding USB-C charging from a laptop charger you might already own makes a ton of sense as Europe standardizes on the port to eliminate redundancy and reduce waste. It also makes it easier to find a compatible bike charger if you leave yours at home.You can charge the relatively small 48V 336Wh integrated batteries (removable for service only) on the Nova series e-bikes from zero to full in as little as three hours from a USB-C PD 3.1 charger operating at up to 140W. That’s very respectable. Some e-bikes fitted with a battery this same size can take five hours or longer to refill from chargers with proprietary connectors, and others fitted with larger batteries and 300-plus-watt charging bricks can bring that down to around two hours. Fortunately, 240W USB-C chargers are now starting to ship, so USB-C is well in position to compete. Ampler has also tested its bikes to work with less capable Ikea and MacBook chargers that support the older USB-C PD 3.0 spec. If you don’t already have such a charger, Ampler will sell you its own 140W USB-C PD 3.1 charger for €80 (about $87). And while the USB-C port is bidirectional on the Nova series, it’s only capable of charging your USB-C gadgets at a modest 15W. Both the €2,990 (about $3,230) Nova and €3,490 (about $3,770) Nova Pro are available in step-through and step-over frames in three sizes to accommodate most riders, with EU standard 250W motors maxing out at a basic 25km/h. They’re essentially improved Stout and Stella models designed to be more compatible with accessories like U-locks, third-party saddles, and child carriers. The base Nova model is fitted with wide 27.5-inch tires and depends on an oily chain and derailleur for its nine-speed transmission. The Nova Pro, however, is the bike I’d opt for, with its slightly larger 28-inch wheels, Gates Carbon belt drive, and a 10-speed Shimano Deore drivetrain baked into the hub.Both the Nova and Nova Pro are available to preorder starting today in the UK, EU, and Switzerland, with shipping set to begin in June. Ampler is backed by official service centers in Germany and a network of “Ampler Friendly” workshops scattered around Europe. Each bike comes with a two-year warranty and a 14-day return policy.

I'd be lying if I said I never wished to have an RTX 4090 (or a 4080 Super) in my gaming PC. In fact, I was sure I'd upgrade from my RTX 3080 to the RTX 5080 this year, but that dream stands ruined for now. High-end and flagship GPUs are some of the most coveted components by PC gamers, and garner the most hype because of it. It's also the reason scalpers make merry during every GPU launch, but, well, scalpers gonna scalp.

We all have our favorite video game franchise that regularly gives us polished titles filled with hours of fun and unforgettable moments. But sometimes, even the most beloved series can crash and burn with just one bad release. Whether it's through poor decisions, technical disasters, or just missing the mark completely, some games have seriously damaged their franchises. From Duke Nukem Forever to Mass Effect: Andromeda, these games are reminders of how quickly things can go wrong for a gaming franchise.

Every time I see “mAh” on a consumer product, I cringe. Megahertz are starting to bruise, too. That’s because the most critical components of portable gadgets — batteries and processors — should really be measured in watts: it’s the one common spec that gives you a real idea of what your device can do.With watts, you can tell how much literal power is under the hood — how much energy is provided by your battery and how much is coursing through your chip. Watts determine whether there’s enough cooling to let that processor run free, instead of overheating and throttling prematurely. Watts can even tell you how much battery life you have left, based on the watt-hours (Wh) of battery remaining and the wattage at which your device is draining. You can do it all with elementary school math — so why aren’t watts everywhere? Consumers are regularly exposed to wattage measurements when buying light bulbs or reading their power bills. But many gadget manufacturers insist on measuring their batteries in milliamp-hours and their chip speed in megahertz or gigahertz, neither of which are a good measure of a device’s true power. The Steam Deck gaming handheld is my go-to exampl …Read the full story at The Verge.

A screenshot from the Palworld dating sim, called Pal♡world! ~More Than Just Pals~.The developers of Palworld and PUBG: Battlegrounds have announced details of dating simulators set in the universes of their respective games.The Palworld dating sim, technically called Pal♡world! ~More Than Just Pals~, was actually announced ahead of April Fools’ Day last year. But yesterday, developer Pocketpair released a second trailer for the game and published an official Steam listing, so it seems like it’s a bit closer to actually releasing.According to the Steam page, “You, the protagonist, enroll as a transfer student in the prestigious Palpagos Private Academy. You will meet unique friends (pals) and enjoy school life through friendship and romance. It’s up to you whether you stay friends with the pals, develop romantic relationships with them, or even dismember and eat them.”Pal♡world’s initial trailer stated the game would release on an April 1st, 2025, but the newly launched Steam page says its release date is “to be announced.”PUBG’s dating sim, called “Winner Winner Romantic Dinner,” is an April Fools’ Day promotion that will let you get to know the game’s weapons as characters that have been personified.“‘Winner Winner Romantic Dinner’ is set in a high school within the PUBG universe, where players take on the role of a student preparing for a school festival,” according to a press release. ”The game features characters inspired by PUBG’s iconic firearms, with branching storylines that lead to multiple unique endings.”The PUBG dating sim will be available from April 1st to April 29th.

Although they’re typically associated with file-sharing and backup tasks, operating systems designed for Network-Attached Storage servers can tackle a variety of other workloads. Home Assistant is one such project that offers a neat way to monitor, manage, and automate smart gadgets and IoT paraphernalia in your living space.

Zuck bought himself a position of honor at Trump’s inauguration. | Image: Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty ImagesMark Zuckerberg — having spent months cozying up to President Donald Trump — will now be looking to reap the benefits as European tech regulators bear down on Meta. The EU is expected to impose fines against the social media giant any day now, having preliminarily ruled in July 2024 that Facebook and Instagram’s “pay or consent” advertising model violates the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).Zuckerberg was swift to congratulate Trump following the election results in November, making several journeys to Mar-a-Lago, tithing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, and embedding himself as one of several wealthy US tech leaders to foster an oligarchy around the President. Meta’s policies have also evolved to embrace Trump’s playbook, having appointed UFC CEO and noted Trump supporter, Dana White, to its board, alongside ditching third-party fact-checkers and disbanding the Meta diversity team.Under the DMA and Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU can financially penalize Meta up to ten percent of its annual revenue — $16 billion based on the company’s 2024 earnings — for failing to comply with regulatory requirements that Zuckerberg has accused of “institutionalizing censorship” across social media platforms. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta is worried that the expected DMA ruling against Meta’s “pay or consent” model could impact its European revenue, which accounts for almost a quarter of its overall earnings, by forcing the company to allow European users to limit personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram for free.Zuckerberg has already voiced his distaste for EU regulations, having called for Trump to prevent the EU from fining American tech companies over antitrust violations in January. The Wall Street Journal reports that Zuckerberg has also directed Meta executives in recent weeks to push US trade officials to help the company fight against the anticipated EU fine. Zuckerberg himself paid a visit to Washington in February to beg officials for help.The EU is under pressure to scale back penalties against US tech companies or risk further retaliation atop of the tariffs that have already been threatened by the Trump administration. We’ll see how effective Zuck’s bootlicking has been when the EU renders its imminent decision.

There are lots of great ways to upgrade your storage. But if your device can't accept an SSD or HDD, then a microSD card might be the way to go. Not only do you get plenty of different storage options, but you can also choose the performance level as well, which can be a big deal depending on the device.

ChatGPT’s latest image generator — which has gone viral for its ability to generate uncanny recreations of Studio Ghibli art — is now available for everyone, after OpenAI initially delayed the rollout beyond its paid tiers following heavy demand.CEO Sam Altman announced on X that the image generation update has “now rolled out to all free users.” There are usage limits, though ChatGPT itself doesn’t elaborate  — saying only that free users have “limited access” to image generation. Altman has previously posted that the free tier would get three image generations a day, however, and that’s exactly what the tool allowed before telling me to pay up.Powered by the company’s GPT-4o model, the updated image generation initially launched on March 25th, and was always planned to be available across the ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and Free subscription tiers. The free rollout was delayed just a day after launch, as Altman joked that “our GPUs are melting” following high demand. At one point ChatGPT picked up a million new users in a single hour.Yesterday OpenAI completed a new funding round that saw it raise another $40 billion, the largest funding round for a private tech company in history, leaving the company now valued at $300 billion.