If you've dipped your toes into the world of custom mechanical keyboards, you've likely heard whispers of QMK. For the uninitiated, QMK stands for Quantum Mechanical Keyboard Firmware. It is an open-source code bundle that resides in your programmable keyboard's microcontroller, acting as an intermediary between the keystrokes you make and the input of your computer registers. However, it is completely open-source and largely community-driven, meaning it's the ingredient that transforms a simple input device into a highly personalized tool, perfectly tailored to your comfort and preferences.

Xbox has declared that Game Pass is "not for everybody" and serves a particular purpose in the gaming company's ecosystem. The CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, spoke to Variety during an interview released on Tuesday (April 15) and broke down how Game Pass exists in the lives of the modern gamer.

If you've seen my previous pieces, you'll know that I have a huge affection for e-ink displays. Something about them gives off a classy and stylish look that I absolutely adore, and thankfully, the Raspberry Pi community seemingly agrees with me. There have been a ton of Pi projects that use these lovely displays, and there are always more to check out every month. However, they're not always in color; they're sometimes in black and white.

I have been 3D printing for a while now, and throughout, I have created my files for 3D printing using a 3D modeling program, as well as occasionally downloading them from 3D printing websites. It wasn't until recently that I acquired a MetroX 3D scanner to explore a new method for generating files for existing parts, then 3D printing them. Just like any other skill, mastering 3D scanning comes with its own learning curve. It wasn’t just about holding the scanner and moving it around the part or design to create a digital file. It’s more than that. I have learned valuable lessons since acquiring the scanner, which I wish I had known before getting started, and I have shared them below.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the White House on April 10, 2025. | Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty ImagesUS Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly shared details about the March 15th Yemen military strikes in another Signal chat with people who weren’t government officials, reports The New York Times. The chat included his wife and “about a dozen” others he knew personally and professionally, the outlet writes, citing conversations with four unnamed sources. The details he shared “included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen,” writes the Times, which notes the details were “essentially the same” as those shared in the Signal chat between Hegseth and other officials last month that included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added by mistake. But in this case, according to the Times, the chat was one that Hegseth made in January before he was Defense Secretary:Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat.The outlet’s sources told it that “Hegseth typically did not use the chat to discuss sensitive military operations and said it did not include other cabinet-level officials.” According to the Times, a US official confirmed the “informal group chat” but insisted no classified information had ever been discussed on it. The unnamed official wouldn’t comment on whether Hegseth “shared detail targeting information,” the story says.Other details about the chat mentioned by the Times include that Hegseth’s aides “had warned him a day or two before the Yemen strikes not to discuss such sensitive operational details in his Signal group chat,” and some encouraged him to move any work-related matters from the chat to his government phone, but he never did so.

When Intel Arc B580 came out last year, many reviewers, including our own Lead PC Hardware Editor Rich Edmonds, hailed it as an excellent value-focused graphics card. While Intel's B-series (Battlemage) GPUs are aimed at budget gamers, the company also has plans to compete with the likes of AMD and Nvidia in the premium GPU segment.

Many of Logitech’s products are pricier now than they were in the recent past. In a video published this week, YouTuber Cameron Dougherty detailed increases as high as 25 percent on the company’s PC and gaming accessories, including well-known Logitech gear like the MX Master 3S mouse.I took a peek at a few Internet Archive captures of Logitech’s current offerings to confirm the YouTuber’s findings, and sure enough, prices are going up. The MX Master 3S, my favorite mouse and the one I’m using at this very moment, now costs $119.99, a $20 increase from before. And on the keyboards side, for instance, the Pro X TKL has gone up to $219.99 from $199.99 before. One keyboard Dougherty calls out, the previously $27.99 K400 Plus Wireless Touch, went up by $7 to $34.99 — a relatively small increase that, at 25 percent, is one of the higher price bumps Logitech made.Dougherty notes a few products that didn’t see price increases, including the MX Ergo mouse and the G703 gaming mouse. And according to the video, a handful of products have actually dropped in price, like the Pro X Superlight mouse, which was $159.99, but is now $149.99. Logitech doesn’t seem to have …Read the full story at The Verge.

Home Assistant is a fantastic piece of software that forms the backbone of many smart homes, including my home. With a seemingly endless number of integrations, automations, and scripts on the internet, it's difficult to find something not supported by Home Assistant in some way. However, if you install Home Assistant OS or Home Assistant Supervised, you'll also get access to "Add-ons." These are containerized applications designed to work within Home Assistant, and there are some extremely useful tools available.

Meta is expanding how it uses AI to detect teens on Instagram — and, in some cases, will begin overriding account settings.Instagram announced it was using AI for age detection in 2024; the system looked for signals that users were under 18 years old, like if messages from friends say “happy 16th birthday,” for example (Meta also says it uses engagement data — people in the same age group often interact with content they see in similar ways). Teen accounts on Instagram are subject to more restrictive settings: by default, teen accounts are private, strangers aren’t able to send them messages, and Instagram limits what kind of content teens see. Last year, Instagram changed the settings for all teens on the platform so that safety features were automatically enabled.The company now says it will use AI to proactively look for teen accounts that have an adult birthday, and change settings for users it suspects are kids. In a blog post, Instagram says it will begin testing the feature today in the US. If it detects that a user is actually a child but the account says otherwise, Instagram will automatically place it under the more restrictive teen settings. Instagram acknowledges the possibility that the system will make errors — the company says users will have the ability to change their settings back.Meta has gradually offered more settings that it says will protect teens and kids on the platform, often in response to concerns from parents and lawmakers. Last year, the European Union launched an investigation into whether Meta was doing enough to protect the health of young users. Disturbing reporting into predators on Instagram targeting kids prompted a lawsuit by a US state attorney general. There’s also disagreement among tech companies — namely Google versus Meta, Snap, and X — over who should be responsible for keeping kids safe online. In March, Google accused Meta of trying to “offload” its responsibility onto app stores following the passage of a bill in Utah.

Like many of you, I used to feel locked into a cycle of paying for software, often for features I barely used. I decided to see just how many of my essential tools I could replace with free alternatives, and the results were astonishing. I successfully managed to reduce my monthly software expenses without sacrificing productivity or quality. Let me walk you through the exact free tools I now rely on and show you how you, too, can cancel those recurring costs and bring the monthly credit card bill down.

I always like to have a YouTube video going on my second monitor while I work. However, when I need to bring something up on the second monitor, I'll pop the YouTube video in a picture-in-picture window so I can keep watching. The thing is, it gets annoying to continually pop the player in and out of the window, especially when YouTube will automatically create a picture-in-picture if you do the same thing on mobile with a Premium subscription.

The internet is not the place we once knew. Every week, millions of people argue with AI bot networks and paid workers at troll farms like the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization based in St. Petersburg, which became known for state-sponsored online influence campaigns targeting the United States and Europe. At its peak, the IRA had 300–400 employees working in shifts, generating tens of thousands of posts per month with a $1 million per month budget. During high-profile events in the 2010s, up to one in three interactions on social media were inauthentic — now, with the help of AI, it's exponentially more.