When first setting up your smart home, it can be easy to fall into the habit of treating your smartphone as the primary dashboard for your living space. Your smartphone isn't a domestic infrastructure tool. Forcing your home's lighting, climate, and security nodes to route through a handheld mobile OS creates a high-friction environment that can alienate guests. By demoting my Google Pixel to a passive backend tool and replacing it with deterministic physical edge controls, I eliminated the fatigue of constantly having to pick up my phone to control the lights. Instead, I've created an absolutely seamless and responsive set of automations.

When I finally upgraded to an OLED monitor with native HDR10 support, I expected to be blown away from the moment I powered it on. After years of hearing people rave about perfect blacks, dazzling highlights, and a level of image quality that my previous LED just couldn't have matched. So, the first thing I did was enable Windows HDR and launch my games. Apart from Windows immediately becoming washed out, I was still met with an experience that felt surprisingly (and disappointingly) inconsistent.

There has been an onslaught of useless AI apps recently. Search any app store for AI, and you will find hundreds of wrappers, questionable photo generators, and tools solving problems that never really existed in the first place. However, we have also got some genuinely useful AI apps that make everyday tasks considerably easier. I am not talking about the obvious options, like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. All three are useful, and I think most of us have at least one general-purpose AI chatbot installed on our phones by now.

OpenAI's first device is set to be a smart speaker that lets you talk with ChatGPT, according to a report from Bloomberg. The device apparently won't have a screen, but will use a camera and additional sensors to "understand" your environment.The report comes just days after Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI that accused the AI company of stealing hardware secrets. OpenAI, in a new statement on Tuesday, said that it is "not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit."Sources tell Bloomberg that OpenAI's device will also feature a rechargeable battery that will allow users to carry it with them. It will offer smart home contro …Read the full story at The Verge.

The CMF by Nothing Watch 3 Pro comes in four different styles. | Image: Nothing While most fitness trackers are losing the screens to keep the price low, the CMF by Nothing Watch 3 Pro is a bit different. The budget-friendly smartwatch with a 1.43-inch OLED display is even cheaper than usual at Amazon, where it costs $69 in every color (the price fluctuates between $79 and $99). Some notable specs include compatibility with iOS and Android, and long battery life of up to 13 days on a single charge. It’s great for workouts (with accurate, dual-band GPS, IP68 protection, and a heart rate sensor), but stylish enough to wear out to dinner. It currently costs $20 less than the screenless Google Fitbit Air.CMF Watch 3 ProNothing’s slick-looking budget watch features a 1.43-inch OLED display, 131 sports modes, dual-band GPS, and a four-channel heart rate sensor. It also delivers up to 13 days of battery life under normal use and supports all your typical app integrations (Strava, Apple Health, etc.).Where to Buy: $79 $69 at AmazonI’ve had trouble sticking with smartwatches in the past, but I picked up a Watch 3 Pro during a similar sale a few months ago, and I often reach for it over my beloved Casio GA-2100. It helps that I rarely have to worry about keeping it charged thanks to its impressive battery life. Even with the always-on display enabled, I can usually wear the Watch 3 Pro for two or three days of constant use before I have to charge it.The Watch 3 Pro has a big, eye-catching face, and is available in four different colors, each with their own bezel shape, detailing, and color-coordinated strap. The Nothing X app has a ton of different face options to choose from, with some that are heavy on complications, and others that focus on fun and style. I have the light green model and I’ve gotten quite a few compliments, although I also like the orange model for a more fitness-focused look. It’s a little large, which is my preference for watches anyway, but it does make it a little uncomfortable for sleep tracking.If $69 is a little too much, consider the CMF by Nothing Watch Pro 2, which is currently $39 (usually $55) at Amazon. The newer model has upgraded GPS, a more accurate heart rate monitor, longer battery life, and a slightly larger screen. But the older version uses the same app, and has swappable bezels to customize the look.

For as long as I can remember, gaming has been my favorite hobby. However, somewhere along the way, I realized I was spending more time trying to enjoy games than actually enjoying them. I'd install something new, play for an hour or two, close it, and wonder why in the world nothing was clicking for me anymore. For a while, I'd even entertained the dangerously defeatist thought that I'd outgrown gaming.

I've mostly used flagship motherboards throughout the years I've built my own PCs, but I've been using a midrange motherboard for the current build, and it was a mistake. The motherboard is the part that every other part of your PC depends on, and cheaping out comes with its own issues. There might not be issues with running your CPU and GPU, but with the rest of the platform, like fewer external and internal USB ports.

SpaceXAI's Grok Build AI coding tool was spotted uploading users' entire codebases to Google Cloud before it was reported, and the company turned it off. The Register reports that Cereblab published findings on Monday showing how the Grok Build CLI was packaging and uploading entire code repositories, "including files it was told not to open and secrets deleted from history," significantly more data retention than similar tools like Claude Code.The researchers say that as of Monday, their tests show SpaceXAI's servers returning a "disable_codebase_upload: true" flag, and the codebase upload "no longer fires." Elon Musk responded to the i …Read the full story at The Verge.

Windows 11 is getting a new recovery feature that could quietly reserve up to 50GB of storage on your SSD, and chances are you'll never notice it happening. For this update, Microsoft isn't exactly asking for permission or presenting a setup wizard the first time you boot into the update. There's a new feature that Windows wants you to have, and it simply turns itself on and gets to work in the background.

Self-hosting has changed the way I think about productivity software. Instead of adjusting my workflow around whatever a big tech company decides to offer, I can pick tools that solve a specific problem and run them on my own terms. That freedom is probably my favorite part of maintaining a home server.

Microsoft just released a long list of improvements for Windows 11 as part of its bigger patch Tuesdays, and that includes the ability to pause updates indefinitely, as reported earlier by Windows Central. This option rolled out to Windows Insiders earlier this year, allowing you to hold off on updates for up to 35 days and repeatedly extend the deadline after that.It comes as part of Microsoft's plan to revitalize Windows 11 with updates focused on addressing user complaints and improving performance. Microsoft patched a bunch of security issues with this update as well, which the company said we can expect to see more of in future releas …Read the full story at The Verge.

According to posts on Plex's official forums and on Reddit, the self-hosted streaming platform is down right now. Users state that they're unable to stream the TV shows and movies they're hosting locally on the platform.