Having built my first home server using components cobbled together from older builds, I realized fairly quickly that an experimental workstation doesn’t need cutting-edge specs to drive my virtualization projects. As time went on, I started grabbing outdated machines from flea markets, and with a little coat of Proxmox, they became reliable nodes for my home lab, self-hosting, and DevOps experiments.

Despite spending my teenage years drooling over enterprise-tier hardware, my current home lab mostly consists of consumer-grade systems, with the only outlier being a Xeon workstation from 2016. In fact, running a few Proxmox experiments on my old gaming PC proved that I don’t need top-of-the-line specs to access its virtualization features, and today, I’ve got everything from mini-PCs and thin clients to x86 single-board computers fueling my tinkering escapades to some extent.

Firefox had been my default browser for so long that I never really thought about replacing it. Whenever I tried another browser, I always ended up coming back. That changed when I decided to give Zen Browser a try. I expected it to be another Firefox alternative that I'd use for a few days before uninstalling. Instead, it slowly became the browser I open for everything. Before I realized it, Firefox was no longer my default choice. Here's what made Zen Browser stand out and why I think it's one of the most underrated browsers you can use today.

We live in the streaming age where movies and TV shows are available with a click of the remote. It's more convenient than manually dealing with physical media. However, nothing is more annoying than a service removing content I enjoy. So, I have my most cherished content on Blu-ray.

A six-bay NAS is easy to understand at a glance. You load it with drives, build a storage pool, install the services you need, and start throwing data at it. That’s a big part of the ZimaCube 2’s appeal, but the drive bays aren’t the part I keep coming back to. The two PCIe slots inside are much more interesting because they leave room for the ZimaCube 2 to become something quite different from the NAS you bought on day one.

AirPods Pro 3 | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Best Buy kicked off a sale on Apple products with discounts on its latest smartwatches to phones. Another deal that caught our eye is on the latest AirPods Pro, Apple’s flagship wireless earbuds, which are down to $189.99 ($60 off), with retailers like Amazon and Walmart matching the price. That’s their lowest price since Prime Day in late June, and just $20 shy of their all-time low.AirPods Pro 3The AirPods Pro 3 have a new design that improves their fit, superior noise cancellation, better bass, and fairly accurate heart rate sensors. Read our review.Where to Buy: $249 $189.99 at Amazon $249 $189.99 at Walmart $249 $189.99 at Best BuyThe AirPods Pro are our favorite wireless earbuds to recommend for iPhone owners because they offer better sound quality than Apple’s entry-level AirPods. Our A/V reviewer John Higgins uses them more often than other pairs because of their, praising their excellent audio, best-in-class active noise cancellation, and just how easy they are to use. They also provide a tighter fit, making them more comfortable for some people, especially during workouts.Beyond how good they sound, they offer a number of perks for Apple users. They can automatically sync with other Apple devices you’re signed in on, so you can move from taking a call on your iPhone to watching a show on your iPad. They also feature a built-in heart rate sensor that works with more than 50 workout types in Apple’s Fitness app, so you can use them as a fitness tracker of sorts. Read our AirPods Pro 3 review.

Docker has been my go-to tool for self-hosting ever since I started building a home lab. It made deploying new applications incredibly simple, so I rarely considered using anything else. That changed after I started exploring Proxmox LXC containers. I initially expected them to be a lightweight alternative to virtual machines, but they ended up becoming my preferred way to run most of my self-hosted services. They offer the isolation of separate systems without the overhead of full VMs, while keeping everything easy to organize and manage. I now choose Proxmox LXCs over Docker for most of my home lab.

Google is set to host its next live Made by Google hardware launch event on August 12th, and the company says in a new video that comedian Trevor Noah will be hosting the show.The video indicates that the event will feature other celebrities and influencers as well, including Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper (who was at the 2025 event), Indian cricketer Shubman Gill (who has starred in Pixel ads), Japanese actress Ayami Nakajo (who has also starred in Pixel ads), and NBA star / Google Performance Advisor Stephen Curry. (Cooper and Noah are also bringing shows to YouTube.)Jimmy Fallon hosted the show last year, an event that my colleague V …Read the full story at The Verge.

The AI device OpenAI is developing with former Apple designer Jony Ive is "essentially a smart speaker without a display" that's battery-powered, doughnut-shaped and roughly the size of a hockey puck, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. The device, expected to launch in 2027 for a price over $300, reportedly "will have a unique look, complete with moving parts," including some that will move on their own to show when the device is responding or interacting with the user, along with lights, a camera system, and other sensors.Gurman's sources also say the "battery-powered" device is designed to be "easy to carry around the home wit …Read the full story at The Verge.

When people talk about replacing Notion, Obsidian is usually the first app that comes up. I tried it too, and while it's an excellent note-taking app, it wasn't the replacement I was actually looking for. I wanted something that felt closer to Notion while giving me complete control over where my data lived. That search eventually led me to AFFiNE. After using it for a while, I realized it offered a better balance between flexibility, ownership, and everyday usability for my workflow. AFFiNE has become my favorite Notion alternative, rather than the one most people expect.

The most memorable PC I've had was the one I bought in 2013, and it stayed with me till 2023, until I built my new PC from scratch. Over the course of a decade, this PC went through three GPUs, two CPUs, and even a motherboard upgrade, evolving with the times (and, of course, my bank balance). This PC was never really finished, and it almost felt like a sibling that grew up with me in the same house.

This Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x laptop features a beautiful display, a slim design, and comes in at a price that's easy to afford right now. The usual $1,300 price tag is now slashed by $500, bringing it down to just $800 for a limited time. We don't think you'll be disappointed with what this has to offer, especially at this price.