Microsoft is famous for its groundbreaking products like Windows and Office, which set the standard and are preinstalled on the best laptops because of their capabilities. These and other Microsoft products, like the latest AI tools and Outlook, get all the attention, and it's easy to forget the ones that didn't do well for one reason or another.

The second-generation Chromecast was a colorful delight.Reports are cropping up today that second-generation Chromecasts and music-streaming Chromecast Audio devices are failing, displaying an error on the device they’re trying to cast from that seems to imply the streamers may no longer be supported, reports 9to5Google.Text from screenshots of the error posted to Reddit reads, “Untrusted device” and continues, saying the device “couldn’t be verified. This could be caused by outdated device firmware.” Understandably, people are concerned that Google has decided to send the streaming pucks, both quite old now, to the Google graveyard. As 9to5Google points out, the company hasn’t said it is deprecating the two, as it did for the original Chromecast in 2023. At least one member of the Chromecast community says they have reached out to Google support and were told that the company is aware of the issue and is awaiting a fix. Google didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.Google discontinued the Chromecast line in August last year but said that it was still offering “continued software and security updates to the latest devices.” If we are approaching the end of the line for the two devices being affected today, it would be a small bummer, especially when it comes to the Chromecast Audio. There are better alternatives to it these days, but none, I’d say, with quite as much charm as Google’s little vinyl record-shaped music streamer.

You're looking to flesh out your storage capacity and just checked your favorite online retailer for prices. After recovering from shock, one easily learns just how expensive this hobby can become, with drive prices reaching the thousands, depending on specs and storage type. It doesn't have to cost you a small fortune as there are some ways to save money without missing out on anything vital. Purchasing external enclosures with installed drives for "shucking" is one way, which involves extracting the drive and using it in a network-attached storage (NAS) device or server.

Do you often struggle with tedious setups, deal with software dependencies, or worry about data privacy? Here is where Docker comes into play. It simplifies your digital life, boosts your productivity, and helps you reclaim control over your applications. I will share a curated selection of Docker containers that have fundamentally changed how I approach development, productivity, and personal data management.

We've talked a lot about the RTX 50 series here at XDA, but most of the cards we've seen are on the high end of the power spectrum. There have been rumors that Nvidia plans to release an RTX 5050 card, which aims to be a more budget-friendly option for gamers who don't need the most powerful cards on the market. Now, said rumors have seemingly come true, as details of an RTX 5050 have popped up online.

We've covered a few projects that use eyeballs for creepy effects. For instance, we saw this large eyeball that can speak to you and this portrait that watches you wherever you walk. While these projects are a ton of fun, they may be a little difficult to apply to a bespoke project that you're working on.

Immich and DigiKam are two of the most popular open-source photo storage tools, but they offer different ways of storing and managing your visual files. Whether you want a quick setup with the guarantee of open-source security, or you want to host your own server in order to manage your photos, ensuring that everything is your own responsibility during every step, DigiKam and Immich provide the choice. These photo management tools are popular for open-source users and have similar features.

Neil doesn’t seem very nice.Death Stranding’s sequel continues to look absolutely bonkers. The upcoming game — known as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — got a fresh trailer and a long-awaited release date of June 26th during a presentation at SXSW.The PlayStation 5 exclusive will cost $69.99 and is available for pre-order starting on March 17th. Those who buy the Digital Deluxe Edition ($79.99) or Collector’s Edition ($229.99) get early access starting on June 24th.Hideo Kojima presented the 10-minute trailer, which opens on two characters — one is Neil, who is played by Italian actor Luca Marinelli — arguing with each other. Following that, there’s plenty of Sam (Norman Reedus) navigating the wastes with his BB and his cargo, facing bad weather, an avalanche, and the series’ signature horrific monsters. The game has a lot of star power, with the trailer highlighting characters like Fragile (Léa Seydoux), Tarman (George Miller), Higgs (Troy Baker), Tomorrow (Elle Fanning), Dollamn (Fatih Akin), Rainy (Shioli Kutsuna), The President (Alastair Duncan), Lucy (Alissa Jung), Heartman (Nicholas Winding Refn), and Doctor (Debra Wilson). Near the end, the trailer shows Neil donning a bandana that, as IGN notes, is very reminiscent of Solid Snake, the lead character of Kojima’s famed Metal Gear Solid series. The shot is creepy, with quick flashes showing his face intermittently replaced with a skull. Kojima also announced “The Strands of Harmony World Tour,” a Death Stranding concert tour that will visit 19 cities and feature the music of Death Stranding, performed by a live orchestra and singers. That begins on November 8th, 2025, in Sydney, Australia.First announced in 2022, On the Beach is a direct sequel to 2019’s Death Stranding, a game that saw Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima branch out with a new studio. The original’s success led to a director’s cut, multiple ports, and an upcoming live-action film made in partnership with A24. The studio is also working on a pair of other projects, with the Xbox horror game OD, which stars Sophia Lillis and Hunter Schafer, and an “action espionage” codenamed PHYSINT.

Nvidia's RTX 50 series recently dropped, bringing with it quite a lot of disappointment and reigniting hope for AMD's Radeon 9070 cards. While Nvidia claimed "4090 performance" out of the 5070, that was only with the company's controversial mutli-frame generation. Alongside that, all of the cards are basically impossible to obtain, with sky-high prices to boot. However, that's not all of the controversy, and one particular point of contention with the series has me seriously worried for the future of Nvidia's GPUs.

A mockup of the iPhone 17 Air from YouTube channel iDeviceHelp.Apple is expected to release its thinnest phone yet later this year with the iPhone 17 Air. Rumors have held that the phone will be thinner than the 6.9mm iPhone 6 was, but recent leaks give us a better idea than we’ve had before of what to expect.Rumors of the iPhone 17 Air’s dimensions have ranged over the last several months, but a recent one from leaker Ice Universe puts it at just 5.5mm thick, something that Ming-Chi Kuo predicted in January. Another analyst, Jeff Pu, said before that it would be more like 6mm. But where Kuo said the phone will have a 6.6-inch screen, Ice Universe says it’ll actually be 6.9 inches like the iPhone 17 Pro Max — they say both phones will have the same “length, width, screen size, and bezel” as the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Later, they posted a video showing an apparent render of the device.Exclusive: iPhone 17 Air will take my money away, which is very attractive and can be used as a great queen model. pic.twitter.com/hdctu3mtXr— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) March 7, 2025On Friday, YouTuber iDeviceHelp posted a video in collaboration with leaker Majin Bu, who published similar-looking renders last month. iDeviceHelp claims to be showing mockups of the standard, Pro Max, and Air models “based on internal documents.” The video lingers on the edge of the phone at moments, and I was immediately struck by how much seeing it reminded me of looking edge-on at the 5.1mm 13-inch M4 iPad Pro, the one Apple device thinner than this is rumored to be. It’s hard not to also notice the Google Pixel-like camera bar stretching left-to-right on the back of iDeviceHelp’s mockups of the iPhone 17 Air and Pro Max. It’s unclear whether the bar is functional or just Apple trying out some new aesthetic, but I welcome it all the same, if for no other reason than my iPhone 15 Pro is so dang floppy when laying on its back on my desk. iDeviceHelp demonstrated with the 17 Pro Max mockup that the bar seems to help there. But in both cases, the rear cameras themselves still stick up out of the bar, so it may not be perfect. Oh well, maybe next year.As for the rest of the design, these renders and mockups appear to show it with buttons in all the same places as current iPhones (not counting the iPhone 16E, which lacks the Camera Control button), along with a USB-C port and speaker holes on the bottom. The phone is also expected to have a Dynamic Island and Face ID on the front. We won’t likely know for sure how close the renders are until September, when Apple typically reveals its latest batch of flagship iPhones.

To say my gaming setup is outdated is an understatement. My build is filled with old PC components, some of which are almost a decade old. Meanwhile, the general appearance of my rig betrays the truth that it has been updated and expanded over time with mostly second-hand accessories and components.

Single-board computers (SBCs) are used for plenty of uses, and they've found a permanent home in the home labs of many of our writers and readers. One of those popular uses is the DNS-based ad-blocking Pi-hole, which doesn't necessarily need the power of the Raspberry Pi 5 to run, but will do its best to keep every device on your home network free from ads. It'll also try to block any URLs that go to known malware sources, which keeps everyone safer. But for all it can do, it's not a complete network security solution, and there are some cracks in its virtual armor. It's still a fantastic addition to your other network security options, but here's why it's not the only thing you need to be running.