Although I’ve started reducing the VS Code extensions in my coding arsenal, I consider some of them borderline essential for my programming tasks. For example, I continue to rely on extensions for C++, Python, Terraform, Ansible, and other coding/IaC languages I use to train my DevOps skills. Likewise, I’ve got Container Tools for my self-hosting experiments, while Prettier makes my terribly formatted code a bit more readable.

I bought the UGREEN DXP4800 Pro NAS expecting it to behave like a better storage box. That was the sensible role for it, at least on paper. It had room for drives, enough performance to handle my files, and a more appliance-like personality than the random assortment of mini PCs and Raspberry Pis that had accumulated around my home lab. What I didn’t expect was for it to start swallowing jobs I used to reserve for dedicated machines.

NAS boxes with dual Ethernet ports are common enough. When I spotted one on my Synology box, I just assumed that it was meant for office setups or more comprehensive enterprise networking. As it stands, one cable was good enough for me, and the network speeds maxed out at gigabit transfer speeds were more than enough for quick file transfers. Over time though, I've been using my NAS as more than just a storage box. It's also become my secondary PC, handling all the home server needs.

A Pixel Watch 4 running Wear OS 6, not Wear OS 7. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amid the flurry of today's Google I/O announcements, Google shared details about Wear OS 7, the next major update to its smartwatch platform. To help you keep track of things like deliveries and sports scores, Wear OS 7 will get the iPhone-style Live Updates that were introduced on Android last year - which can appear on your watch or your smartphone - and you'll also be able to track automated tasks that an AI is working on right from your watch.Wear OS is also getting an upgrade from its widget-like Tiles for glanceable information. With the new update, Google is adding "Wear Widgets" to the platform, which look more like Android widgets …Read the full story at The Verge.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a big selling point for a messaging app. E2EE allows two people to chat on an app without people spying on what's being said, including the company hosting the service. And while it can make it near-impossible to track people misusing the service, it does mean people can chat without fear of their data being exposed.

At launch, Continue On will only allow you to move tasks from a phone to a tablet. | Image: Google Google is adding a new Android feature that resembles Apple's Handoff, allowing you to start a task on your Android phone and continue it right where you left off from a compatible tablet. "Continue On" is designed to eventually be bidirectional, but Google says that at launch it will only support tasks moving from a smartphone to a tablet. Android tablet users will see the Continue On icon in the dock suggesting the most recently used app from their phone, assuming it's also installed on the tablet.It should allow Android users to directly open documents they were working on, or jump straight into the email they just had open. In some c …Read the full story at The Verge.

I am dying to know how much money Plex is about to make the next six weeks charging people to stream their own video from their own homes. Today, it's giving every prospective customer until July 1st to lock in a lifetime subscription at today's rates - before it triples the price to $750. Plex already more than doubled the price of a lifetime Plex Pass subscription from $119.99 to $249.99 last March, and it'll triple again on July 1st to $749.99. At that price, you'd have to subscribe for 11 years (at the current annual rate) to make the lifetime sub worthwhile.Plex isn't choosing the new number because it expects you to pay $750. In a …Read the full story at The Verge.

The "Code" in Claude Code is really doing the tool a disservice. From the name, most people assume that they point it at a codebase and ask it to fix something. That's a perfectly reasonable way to use it. But I've been throwing increasingly unrelated tasks at Claude Code for weeks, and it's become clear that it can do so much more than its name suggests. I now think of it more as a context-aware terminal agent, which also happens to be great at coding.

It's no secret that I love my Steam Deck, and one of the things that makes it better is the plugins supplied by Decky Loader. It's even better on more powerful hardware like the ROG Ally X if you install SteamOS, because it gives you more computing grunt to run your games, on top of the boost from Linux's lower resource usage.

There are a lot of desktop environments out there, but only a few can claim the title of being truly beautiful. One of them is Deepin, a Chinese-based DE that also has its own distro. We've given the distro a try in the past and found that it "looks more beautiful than anything Microsoft or Apple ever made."

Samsung Electronics workers attended a rally outside the company's semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek on April 23rd, ahead of the planned strike. | Photo by SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images More than 47,000 Samsung Electronics workers are gearing up for an 18-day strike after bonus payment negotiations between the company and its union collapsed. The strike is set to start on Thursday and will be limited to Samsung's domestic chipmaking plants, raising concerns around the already constrained production of memory chips amid the ongoing shortage.While the union had agreed to mediation proposed by South Korea's National Labor Relations Commission (the details of which have not been made public), management at Samsung Electronics rejected the deal without explanation, Nikkei Asia reports.As part of its demands, the Samsung unio …Read the full story at The Verge.

The era of ultra-high performance Mercedes EVs is here. The German automaker finally revealed its new super sedan, the AMG GT 4-door coupe, with technology borrowed from the automaker's XX concept that last year made history by driving 24,901 miles in under 8 days at Nardò Ring in southern Italy. With the production model, Mercedes rethought its approach to motors and batteries in the hopes of delivering a high-performance vehicle that could go toe-to-toe with even some hypercars. The new AMG GT utilizes three axial flux motors developed by Mercedes subsidiary YASA, delivering up to 1,153 horsepower and 1,475 lb-ft of torque. Mercedes clai …Read the full story at The Verge.