“Pick-your-own” promotions are a personal favorite of mine, so I’m stoked to see the return of Amazon’s deal that lets you grab three 4K Blu-rays, standard 1080p Blu-rays, or DVDs for the price of two. All you have to do is add any three items included on this page and head to checkout, after which point you’ll find the cheapest of the three to be free. Just a note that playing a 4K Blu-ray requires a PlayStation 5 with a disc drive, an Xbox Series X, or a standalone 4K Blu-ray player — such as this high-end Panasonic model that’s currently 23 percent off.Included in the list are some of our favorite movies of 2024, including Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, The Substance, and Alien: Romulus. The page has other titles you might be interested in, like the recent 4K re-releases of Kill Bill Vol.1 and Vol. 2, the steelbook version of Akira, Prey (an incredible Predator spin-off), the 4K version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a whole lot more.

After delivering a new “open” AI model with better performance on a single GPU, Google has now introduced an update to the AI models for its products with Gemini 2.5, which combines “a significantly enhanced base model with improved post-training” for better overall performance. It’s claiming that the first release, Gemini 2.5 Pro experimental, leads competition from OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and DeepSeek on common AI benchmarks that measure understanding, mathematics, coding, and other capabilities. The new model is available to access in Google AI Studio or for Gemini Advanced subscribers in the app’s model dropdown menu.The company is also touting Gemini’s native multimodality as an advantage, as it’s able to interpret not just text, but also audio, still images, video, and code, and says that a 2 million token context window is “coming soon” to help it process more data. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis called Gemini 2.5 Pro “an awesome state-of-the-art model, no.1 on LMArena by a whopping +39 ELO points, with significant improvements across the board in multimodal reasoning, coding & STEM,” in a post on X.Google says it’s jumped forward in quality because Gemini models are now “reasoning” models that process tasks step-by-step and make more informed decisions, which they say results in better answers and responses for complex prompts. Now, the blog post reads, “…we’re building these thinking capabilities directly into all of our models, so they can handle more complex problems and support even more capable, context-aware agents.” One demo video shows 2.5 Pro using those reasoning capabilities to program a video game based on a single prompt:

Building a home lab from scratch is always an exciting endeavor. It’s a playground for tech enthusiasts and IT professionals. But like any ambitious project, it’s packed with potential pitfalls. I learned this the hard way through a series of missteps and a fair bit of frustration. Allow me to share the most significant mistakes I made while building my own home lab. My goal is to save you from similar headaches and provide a roadmap for a smoother, more efficient home lab building experience.

Who doesn't love a good multi-monitor setup? After you get into the flow of using two, you get that itch to go into three, four, or even more monitors. Unfortunately, the more monitors you add, the harder it can be to get them wired up. That's why Plugable has introduced the USBC-7400H4, which helps you get everything connected with ease.

As alternatives to Photoshop, Photopea and GIMP couldn’t be more different from one another, despite both making good replacement tools. These two are often found in most lists of Photoshop alternatives, and for good reason. They can offer you different creative tools based on your own needs for your creative projects. While both are free to use, they come from different funding backgrounds and platform availability, too. They could both replace your Photoshop workflow, but which one would be best at it?

Game Informer is back, and so is its entire staff. On Tuesday, editor-in-chief Matt Miller announced that Gunzilla Games has acquired the rights to the gaming magazine, helping to bring the site and its archives back online.GameStop, which previously owned Game Informer, shut down the beloved magazine last August and laid off its entire staff after a more than 30-year run. The team teased a comeback last week, and has already published a series of new reviews for titles released during the magazine’s hiatus, along with a belated list of the best games of 2024.Its new owners, Gunzilla Games, is a game developer based in Europe that’s currently working on a battle royale title called Off the Grid. Miller says the magazine will continue operating as an independent editorial outlet under a new entity called Game Informer, Inc. “Our intent is to continue to focus on highlighting the coolest games, celebrating the history and legacy of the gaming industry, and shining a spotlight on the creators and players who are charting its future,” Miller says.In addition to bringing back its website, Game Informer plans to resurrect its print magazine, too, with “new membership and subscription benefits.” Though Game Informer currently isn’t offering a subscription just yet, you can sign up for an account on its website to receive updates, as well as gain access to the magazine’s archive. Game Informer will continue updating its site with news, reviews, previews, features, event coverage, and more starting today.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is the highly anticipated successor to the Nintendo Switch. Many have been wondering what functionality the next console will have and, more importantly, what games they will be able to play on it. There is no denying that Nintendo has had many popular titles over the years, and some of those have been ported over to Nintendo Switch Online or NSO. Despite adding games from the original NES and Super NES, Nintendo has yet to add any games to NSO that were on its arguably most popular console, the GameCube. Now that the Nintendo Switch 2 is on the way, it is the perfect time for Nintendo to finally stop holding out and add the GameCube to NSO.

Windows can be frustrating, and it's only natural to want an alternative, especially one that isn't tied to Microsoft. That's where ReactOS, an open-source version of Windows that closely resembles the functionality of classic Windows, comes in. After more than three years without a significant update, ReactOS is finally back, with its latest release, ReactOS 0.4.15, now available for download.

Harper Stanfield and Suzanne Englot took park in the in the National Day of Action joining EPA workers across the US protesting cuts to the agency.Environmental Protection Agency workers took to the streets across the US today to protest drastic cuts President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE have made at the federal agency whose mission is to “protect human health and the environment.” Musk, the face of DOGE and the target of growing protests at Tesla dealerships, was a bigger name at the rally than Trump. “How do you spell corruption? E-L-O-N” workers and their supporters chanted at a picket line in front of a federal building in New York City. Some held signs with “this man is not our boss” written in red over a sketch of Musk’s face. More than 150 people rallied with picket signs chanting “Move, DOGE, get out the way,” to the tune of a Ludacris song, and “What do we do when clean land/air/water/science is under attack? Stand up, fight back!”The workers, represented by union AFGE Council 238, held marches in 8 cities as part of a ‘National Day of Action.’ Plans to dismantle much of the agency and weaken protections against pollution put Americans at risk, EPA workers warn.“I work on enforcing regulations that deal with hazardous waste and toxic substances, which is work that I feel is not a partisan issue.”“I work on enforcing regulations that deal with hazardous waste and toxic substances, which is work that I feel is not a partisan issue,” says Suzanne Englot, an attorney who works in enforcement at the EPA. “Everyone wants to make sure that hazardous waste and toxic substances are properly regulated, disposed of, stored and all of that. But in these times, it makes me nervous that things are going to change.”The EPA, under Trump’s executive orders, is now barred from taking any enforcement or compliance actions that would “shut down any stage of energy production” unless there’s an “imminent and substantial” health threat, according to a memo that EPA leadership issued on March 12th.On the same day, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced what he called “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” proposing rollbacks on dozens of rules meant to curb pollution from power plants, oil and gas refineries, chemical plants, cars and trucks, factories, and more.The Trump administration has also moved to shutter the agency’s scientific research office and environmental justice offices. Trump has mused about cutting the EPA’s budget by 65 percent. Around 1,100 probationary employees at the EPA received notice in January telling them the agency “has the right to immediately terminate you.” A federal judge later ordered the Trump administration to rehire hundreds of workers who had been laid off at the agency. And the White House faces more legal challenges over its dismantling of federal agencies and deregulation spree.    Both Trump and billionaire-backer Musk complained about regulations slowing companies down during last year’s election season. “It costs much more to do things environmentally clean,” Trump said in an interview with Joe Rogan on October 25th. “We’ve got to have sensible spending. And we’ve got to have deregulation …. I’m pro-environment, [but] I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry because they’re keeping civilization going right now,” Musk said in his X interview with Trump on August 12th. Musk later wielded a chainsaw “for bureaucracy” at the Conservative Political Action Conference stage last month.  “Elon is perpetuating a climate of fear and targeting federal workers and the mission that they carry out to protect human health and the environment,” EPA environmental engineer Harper Stanfield told The Verge at the rally in New York City. “We can’t let EPA be silenced by billionaires.”Trump has accepted tens of millions of dollars in funding from the oil and gas industry. Elon Musk spent more than $250 million helping Trump get elected. The president then handed Musk the power to dramatically makeover federal agencies through his post leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In an email to The Verge, the EPA said that it’s “listening” to employees and made cuts to comply with Trump’s agenda to eliminate programs it considers diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.Stanfield and Englot said at the rally today that they’re calling on Congress to act as a check on the executive branch, and asking people to reach out to their elected representatives to support the EPA’s work. “Democrat, Republican, independent, whoever it is, everyone is impacted by this,” Englot says. “EPA’s work touches everyone’s lives.”

AT&T will cut its autopay and paperless billing discounts in half starting April 24th. In a statement to The Verge, AT&T spokesperson Kyle Loomis confirmed reports that customers enrolled in the program will get $5 off their monthly bill instead of $10 when paying with a debit card.AT&T is also doing away with the existing $5 discount for paperless and autopay customers with a linked credit card. The discount will now only apply to customers who have an AT&T Plus Card from Citi. AT&T will continue to offer a $10 discount to customers who use their bank accounts for autopay.Loomis said AT&T is making the change to “align with others in the industry.” It doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, as T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T have all already lowered autopay discounts for customers paying their bills with a credit card, while Verizon halved discounts for more people last year.

The Colorsoft is like a souped-up Kindle Paperwhite, but that isn’t such a bad thing.When we reviewed the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition late last year, one of our biggest gripes was the e-reader’s initial starting price of $279.99. It’s a high price to pay for an ebook reader, particularly given its smaller 7-inch display and lack of stylus support, but those shortcomings are more forgivable now that the ebook reader is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for an all-time low of $224.99 ($55 off).At its core, the Colorsoft is really just a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition with a color screen. It’s the first Kindle to utilize E Ink’s color screen technology, which provides more vibrancy than Kobo’s like-minded Libra Colour — even if the 300ppi resolution is halved in color mode. The resulting contrast and color make browsing and reading books (or comics!) more pleasant and engaging, but don’t expect the kind of glossy, high-res images you might get on a dedicated tablet with an OLED or LCD display.That said, the Colorsoft benefits from all the upgrades you’ll find on Amazon’s newer Kindles, as well as a slew of recent software updates. It features an auto-adjusting front light, robust IPX8 waterproofing, and faster page-turning performance than prior models. You’ll also get up to two months of battery life and wireless charging, not to mention a healthy 32GB of storage and zero ads. It’s the e-reader to get if you want a color screen and want to stick with Amazon.In fact, it’s the only one.

Everyone is annoyed with spam (and phishing) in their inbox. It clogs up your inbox, wastes space, and requires unsubscribing and filtering. But did you know you should never delete spam messages? The scammers are targeting and unsubscribing, which could also trigger ransomware attacks. Yes, spam can actually be helpful (as odd as it sounds) when scammers target users by improving the safeguards against it. So, instead of just deleting spam, report it instead to help prevent future problems.