The smart home hub is a consumer product category where the device can look like so many different things. Depending on ecosystem and brand, there can be multiple different avenues to take, and when it comes to Home Assistant, that number only gets larger. While purpose-built hardware has its benefits, the humble dedicated computer can be one of the best ways to host it, and that old laptop you have lying around is possibly the best suited out of the available options.

You've just bought a brand-new modern controller, such as the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C I just picked up to replace an aging Xbox One gamepad. Once connected to your PC, you notice something a little strange. It's not showing the buttons present on the new gamepad in games, but those from an Xbox 360 gamepad. The reason is actually really simple (and fairly clever). Instead of complicating matters by fully supporting each and every gamepad ever released, XInput from Microsoft is utilized to ensure just about any gamepad will work with Windows and beyond.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 141, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I'm newish here too, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been getting back into the Installer groove, trying out some ergonomic Switch 2 grips I bought on Etsy, researching bike stuff because I'm about to get a Velotric e-bike, inching my way through the fourth book in The Dark Tower series, trying to figure out what feels off about Sonic in the new Fortnite season, wondering why Mark Zuckerberg needs a castle, and swatting at a few too many flies that have snu …Read the full story at The Verge.

The US Department of Justice announced on Friday that TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2024 over allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleged that TikTok collected data from children without notifying parents or obtaining consent and did not delete the accounts when parents requested.TikTok is set to pay $300 million right away and will pay a further $100 million "upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly," the DOJ says in a press release. The settlement is "one of the largest recoveries ever o …Read the full story at The Verge.

LinkedIn actually announced a "Seems like AI slop" button on July 30th, and the company says that a lot of people have already used it. According to a Thursday post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan, "over a million people" have clicked on the button, which is accessible from the three dots menu on a post. LinkedIn announced the button a few weeks after AI detector Pangram determined that 41 percent of LinkedIn's longform posts were flagged as fully AI generated, which 404 Media reported on. Alongside the AI slop button, LinkedIn introduced "new and improved" classifiers to identify posts as AI and removed a feature that would "en …Read the full story at The Verge.

The creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds, is no stranger to using AI to fix problems. Not only has he allowed AI-written code submissions to the kernel (as long as the person running the agent takes full responsibility for any issues it has), but he has gone on record saying that he's ignoring anyone who argues against its use.

I enjoy my Android/Google TV so much that I abandoned Fire TV sticks. However, Google's own Streamer device isn't always an ideal solution for my streaming needs. It has many glitches that other modern streaming devices don't. From flickering screens to random reboots and user interface lag, it seems the company hasn't maintained the device well.

The HoverAir Versa. | Image: HoverAir I am so sorry, fellow US gadget fans: the FCC's drone ban appears to have struck again. The HoverAir Versa - a baby steadycam with snap-on propeller wings that transform it into a drone - has already stopped taking US orders just three days after its Indiegogo debut, and may be forced to abandon shipping plans in the US.HoverAir is now telling backers it's only shipping its camera to the US, not the piece that turns it into a drone, "due to a few remaining logistics updates with the Flight Kit." But those "logistics" may actually be a euphemism for "we've been banned by the federal government." The FCC's database no longer has an entry for …Read the full story at The Verge.

Adding an SSD cache to a storage array sounds like one of those upgrades that should be immediately obvious. Put flash storage in front of a bunch of mechanical drives, flip the right settings, and the whole thing should feel faster. That was more or less what I expected, and I spent too much time at first looking for a dramatic before-and-after result. What I got instead was narrower, but also more useful once I stopped judging the cache by the wrong workloads: it helped with the small, repetitive storage tasks that made the array feel slow, while leaving plenty of other things almost completely unchanged.

Microsoft Publisher is finally being taken out behind the barn in October. While I didn't need its services often, it always came in handy when I did need to design something. Yes, I'm aware Canva exists, and InDesign too, but they don't offer the same experience (and they're aimed at different kinds of users). I decided to start looking for a replacement for Publisher before I had a pressing need for it.

For those who use Adobe Creative Cloud, the full suite can cost $60- $85 a month and add up to over $1,000 a year, plus forced AI bundling andcontroversial Terms of Service updates.

There comes a point in every PC's life when it starts to feel slow, and shortly after, annoying to use. My AM4 gaming rig with a Ryzen 5 1600 and an RTX 2070 Super could still run most software and a number of games, but not nearly as well as I'd like it to. Every Windows update, boot sequence, and app launch delay served as a constant reminder that time has passed the PC by.