When I first got a smart plug, I used it to remotely turn devices on and off. Soon enough, I had access to detailed energy consumption reports for appliances that were connected to it. It was all I needed at that point: an automation tool for dumb appliances around the house, say portable fans, lights, and more. But then it hit me, if a smart plug could remotely control power, track energy usage, and show the active power draw, it would be more useful as a troubleshooting tool.

For all the excitement around AI, one question keeps coming up: how much of your data are you willing to hand over in exchange for better answers? The latest cloud models are incredibly capable, but they work by sending your prompts and context to someone else's servers. Local models solve that problem, but they often come with their own limitations.

Over the past year, we've seen more and more Linux projects ditch X11. Whether it's a distro dropping support or a desktop environment moving to a full-Wayland implementation, development teams are banking on X11 compatibility tools to keep people's legacy apps alive as they move to a new frontier. While KDE Plasma hasn't completely axed X11 support yet, there are plans for 6.7 to be the last release with it, as the stats show that people just aren't using X11 as much anymore.

I have been a long-time user of ChatGPT and Claude, but never considered the paid tier worth the price. Since my daily workflow doesn't demand anything more than basic title ideation and article research, a regular subscription wouldn't have made sense. Well, that was until I realized what I could unlock by paying for Claude Pro. My partner had recently started using it to create surprisingly detailed and customized apps that were both delightful to use and more advanced than what I expected from Claude. The Pro tier was necessary to access Claude's real potential and bypass the brutal rate limits of the free tier I was on. So, I bit the bullet and decided to create some apps of my own. After only a few hours of detailed prompting and feeding my likes and dislikes to Claude, I created two pretty impressive apps to help me with meal and movie recommendations every day. Since these apps were completely tailored to our tastes, the output was almost always accurate. I'm now convinced enough to continue my subscription for a few more months at least.

When I used Lossless Scaling for the first time in my life, I was amazed. The first thought that occurred to me was that frame generation, as a technology, had been successfully democratized. A $7 utility on Steam had done what the incumbent semiconductor giants wouldn't, which was, to bring frame generation to hardware they had already written off. Eight years later, I'm convinced I was right.

When we talk of desk upgrades, what usually comes to mind is a monitor arm, cable management tray, or monitor light bar. You might even include a better chair, a larger desk, or a deskmat on the list. However, the desk upgrade I "discovered" was already part of my setup for many years — I had simply never considered it. My monitor's built-in USB ports were something I never thought of using. On my previous monitor, I was used to plugging in my peripherals directly to the motherboard. There was no lack of USB ports, so the monitor's USB hub went unused for years. It was only recently that I discovered its oft-ignored benefits, and since then, even my wireless peripherals have the monitor's USB hub to thank for their excellent connectivity. Even if your motherboard has a few vacant USB ports, I recommend leaving them free for your high-bandwidth devices. Use your monitor's USB ports to the fullest for peripherals that don't need as much bandwidth. You'll also have a cleaner desk as a bonus.

Unlike DLSS, DLAA never really seemed worth it in the kind of AAA games that I played. The whole appeal of DLSS is that it gives higher frame rates while still looking almost as good as native resolution. DLAA, on the other hand, expects you to give up a bit more performance for slightly better image quality. Considering native 4K is already demanding even on high-end GPUs like the RTX 4090 and 5090, especially in newer open-world AAA titles, it felt like an unnecessary trade-off.

Agentic AI is the hot topic right now, but no matter how powerful those agents get, they're limited by what they can access. If you're anything like me, you know the pain of dealing with overstuffed email inboxes, no matter how many filters you put in. The idea of sorting through your email as if you were chatting to an assistant is enticing, but have you thought about what you're giving away by doing so?

Valve now says that the delayed Steam Machine PC and Steam Frame VR headset are set to launch sometime this summer. In a Thursday blog post detailing its Verified programs for both pieces of hardware, Valve concludes by saying that "We're excited for players to try your titles on the new Steam hardware once they launch this summer."When the company originally announced the Machine and Frame alongside its new Steam Controller late last year, it said that it would start shipping the new gadgets in early 2026. But in February, the company announced that the ongoing memory and storage crunch had forced it to revisit its pricing and shipping pl …Read the full story at The Verge.

Indigo, citrus, and a touch of blush. It’s a Neo cocktail. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The MacBook Neo is Apple's cheapest laptop, its most colorful, and its easiest to repair in years. That means owners can buy replacement parts in all four of its available colors and swap them in on their own. So that got us thinking: What if we bought a Neo just to see how funky we could make it look with official parts?I ordered an indigo Neo to tinker with, and some spare parts from Apple's self-service site.I opted for a replacement trackpad and bottom case in blush, and USB-C ports and keycaps in citrus. My goal was to make it as mishmash-y as possible without changing out more labor-intensive parts - like the top case or lid, whi …Read the full story at The Verge.

On paper, Brave sounds like a great browser. It runs smoothly, has built-in security tools, and has a privacy-focused design. However, over the years, the Brave team has slowly added features to its browser that people aren't too fond of. If you're someone who doesn't like all of the things Brave has added, you can now download Brave Origin, a slimmed-down version without all the bloat. Oh, but you have to pay $60 to get it.

Back in 2002, Porsche fans sputtered with rage as the Cayenne made its debut at the Paris Motor. More than 20 years later, Porsche now sells more SUVs than anything else in its lineup. Last year, the Macan and Cayenne accounted for 62 percent of all Porsche sales. Now, these SUVs are trolling traditionalists in a whole new way: They've gone electric, with a Cayenne Electric joining a smaller plug-in Macan. And the Cayenne Coupe Turbo is fast enough to have 911 owners looking over their shoulders. Even Porsche's hardcore fans, the kind who attend Lollapalooza-type festivals to worship a bygone age of air-cooled engines, have to give the Tur …Read the full story at The Verge.