5 reasons I’m concerned about Qualcomm’s Arduino acquisition (and 1 reason I’m not)

The recent news of Qualcomm acquiring Arduino has stirred both excitement and unease in the maker and open-source hardware communities. Reports suggest that Arduino will retain its brand, tools, and mission under the deal and will continue to support chips from multiple manufacturers. Even so, the move raises several concerns about the future of Arduino, especially for hobbyists, educators, and smaller developers. Here are five reasons why I’m personally worried about this acquisition, based on what’s been shared publicly so far.

Sophia Wilson
Atlanta

I ditched Docker Desktop for native containers and everything is better

I adore Docker and its containerization ecosystem as much as the next tinkerer. Between its simple commands, Compose functionality, and massive community support, Docker is easy to pick up for beginners and reliable enough to serve veteran project-building enthusiasts. But as someone who started with Docker and moved on to...

Sylvia Wallace
United States

Someone built a fully motorized Lego WALL-E controlled by a PS4 controller, complete with a built-in taser

One of the coolest things people who build stuff can do is bring something from fiction into reality. We've seen plenty of Pip-Boys and even a fully 3D-printed wearable suit of Doomguy's armor that used in-game assets for extra accuracy. One recurring trend is when people remake robots from movies...

Jane Smith
Los Angeles

Meta lays off thousands of employees to offset AI investments

Meta says it needs to “offset the other investments we're making.” | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Meta has reportedly notified thousands of employees that they've been laid off as the company attempts to compensate for its hefty AI investments. In an email from Meta management shared...

Daniel Martinez
Dallas

Outlook is Microsoft’s neglected masterpiece

There was a time when Microsoft Outlook was the undisputed king of Windows productivity — a fast, feature-packed native application that handled massive enterprise workflows without breaking a sweat.

Jane Smith
Los Angeles

Home a**istant on bare metal works great — until it becomes your entire home’s infrastructure

Before combining everything onto a few Proxmox-powered cluster nodes, I ran dedicated hardware for specific packages, be it Home Assistant and Frigate. The former was running on a compact mini PC, and by compact, I mean ridiculously small. It had an Intel chip, barely any RAM, and almost no storage,...

Alexander Pastor
Spain

The Flipper One is finally official, but Flipper isn’t selling it yet — they’re asking for help to build it

The Flipper Zero spent the past five years becoming the kind of device that people either own and love or have a strong opinion about despite never having touched one. It packaged NFC, sub-GHz radio, infrared, RFID, and a handful of hardware interfaces into a pocket-sized microcontroller toy that became...

Lotta Koivisto
Finland

You, too, can build this ESP32 ePaper device that tells your fortune

If you want to get started with both the ESP32 and ePaper displays, what better way to get accustomed to both than by a small, simple, yet endlessly fun little project? If you're on the hunt for something to make that doesn't take a ton of effort and gives you...

Emily Brown
Houston

Roku is offering up to 90% off streaming subscriptions, but you only have until Sunday

You know, there's always a big rush from retail companies to meet the demands of popular retail days like Black Friday. But what if a company just made up a day and then began celebrating it with deals? I mean, nothing's stopping a business from announcing that today's a special...

Michael Johnson
Chicago

In SpaceX’s IPO, Elon Musk is a risk factor

The SpaceX IPO is here, and it's more than just an historic public offering that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. It also reveals more ways in which Elon Musk's companies interact and overlap with each other, shuffling money around in ways that are often difficult to keep...

Aprígio Nascimento
Brazil

‘Fuck you, Bambu’: How one private message could change the face of 3D printing

Bambu Lab makes the best, most accessible 3D printers yet, but that reputation is suddenly under siege. It all started when Paweł Jarczak received a private message from the company on Reddit asking him to delete his code. Now the 3D printing community is lining up behind Jarczak to fund...

Olivia Miller
Seattle

I spent weeks chasing a DisplayPort problem that HDMI solved in seconds

DisplayPort has largely been the primary cable PC enthusiasts reach for, and for good reason. It has better bandwidth than the HDMI of its era, native VRR before HDMI caught up, and there's no royalty funny business or weird treatment of Linux drivers. When I upgraded from my 1440p IPS...