Microsoft 365 had become a familiar part of our family's digital life, but I started wondering whether we really needed the entire package. With five people using different apps for different tasks, I wanted a setup that made more sense for how we actually worked. So I decided to explore alternatives instead of automatically renewing the subscription. I didn't expect every replacement to be perfect, but I wanted to see how far I could go without Microsoft's ecosystem. What surprised me most wasn't finding alternatives to its popular apps. It was discovering which part of the switch demanded the most effort.

Apple's App Store rules now more explicitly ban so-called "nudify" apps that generate intimate images of people without their consent using AI tools.The rule changes follow significant criticism toward Apple after X users used Grok earlier this year to make nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes, including minors. Apple didn't pull X or Grok from the App Store, though it told senators that it threatened to yank Grok. At Apple's WWDC event in June, protestors also called on Apple to "remove Grok, X, and all nudify technology from the App Store," and in July, a San Francisco city attorney ordered Apple to remove 13 "nudify" apps, which it said …Read the full story at The Verge.

Obsidian has grown in popularity, and the plugin library has absolutely exploded. It's grown by more than 3,000 plugins in the last few months alone, with options for nearly every niche or application you can think of. It's impressive, and it's always fun to browse the library to see what's new. But here's the thing: despite the plugin library's exponential growth, you really only need a few. By all means, install as many as you want — but if you're minimizing your vault, these are the four I'd keep.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 148, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're enjoying all your pumpkin-flavored everything, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about Marc Andreessen and the future of math and Mike Tomlin and Citizens United, reminiscing about the heyday of MySpace, sending this article to everyone as an apology for my bad texting, listening to the Pet Shop Boys' new Alan Turing album and Dwarkesh Patel's thoughts on AI, barely keeping myself from preordering an iPhone Duo, asking a lot of questio …Read the full story at The Verge.

A slow PC can turn even simple tasks into a frustrating experience. Apps take longer to open, Windows feels sluggish, and everything seems to take longer than usual. My first instinct used to be to blame aging hardware, but I've learned that it's worth investigating before spending money on an upgrade. Windows has plenty of ways to hide what's going wrong, and the built-in tools don't always tell the whole story. That's why I keep a few free utilities around to dig deeper, understand what's happening behind the scenes, and figure out what deserves my attention.

I use an aging Samsung smartphone that’s almost four years old now. I bought it in 2022, and it's slowed down over time. Samsung’s Galaxy interface isn’t helping much either. I want to optimize the phone so it handles my regular daily functions easily, including finding the right app, switching between apps, and keeping them organized. Although I can add a bunch of apps to the home screen, too many make it hard to find anything. So I have to be selective, keeping four or five apps on the home screen and depending on Galaxy’s app drawer to find the rest.

Ever since DLSS 5 dropped, I've been throwing it at any game that catches my fancy. I've "remastered" classic PS2 and PS3 games with DLSS 5, and AAA titles run pretty well with neural rendering despite my aging RTX 4070 Ti. In winding the clock back and remastering old games, I wondered what would happen if I threw DLSS 5's neural rendering layers on the pixelated worlds of some of the oldest games I'd ever played — my classic DOS collection.

The HomeView can simplify online recipe formatting into easy-to-follow steps. | Image: Apple When Apple revealed the HomeView to the world, it did so with an unusual ad for the company: Instead of pristine, polished tech in immaculate rooms, it's a three-minute look at the messy, frantic morning routine of a family of five. Apple's new smart display sits in the center of the chaos on the kitchen table, helping the family check their calendars, send messages, and pull up a French toast recipe in seconds, with simple, step-by-step instructions.The HomeView is just the latest in a long line of websites, browser extensions, and smart home gadgets with the same promise: that it can take an online recipe and strip it down to the essenti …Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple has finally announced its long-rumored foldable: the iPhone Duo.The new phone has a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display, a “nano‑texture” finish on the inner screen, and barely any visible crease. Instead of Face ID, it uses Touch ID on the power button. It has two cameras, a main lens and a wide-angle lens. Apple completely revamped iOS 27’s controls and apps for the foldable, including putting the dock on the side of the phone. And it has a flashy opening animation when you unfold the phone.The iPhone Duo a big new bet from Apple, though one that’s a little late to the game compared to competitors like Samsung and Google. The phone isn’t cheap: it starts at $1,999 for the base 256GB model, and the prices only go up from there. Still, Apple said that preorder demand was “extraordinary,” so it could have a hit on its hands.Here’s everything unfolding about the iPhone Duo. Apple says iPhone Duo preorder demand has been “extraordinary.” iPhone Duo orders are already delayed into 2027 The iPhone Duo is now available to preorder at $1,999 Prep your cart before iPhone Duo preorders open tomorrow Repairing the iPhone Duo’s folding screen costs as much as a new iPhone TCL’s paperlike OLED phone made me more excited for the iPhone Duo We unfolded the iPhone Duo Apple addresses iPhone Duo copycats The iPhone Duo’s hardware doesn’t look special, but its software might be How the iPhone Duo compares to other folding phones Verge staffers react to the iPhone Duo: What we love and don’t love Apple iPhone Duo launch event: The 5 biggest announcements Apple completely revamped iOS 27’s controls and apps for the iPhone Duo The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable

Upgrading a PC in 2026 means paying more for the parts that used to account for very little in the budget. Memory and flash manufacturers are pushing their capacity towards data centers, and consumer RAM and SSD prices have continued to climb with no end in sight. The silver lining in it all is that as old servers get refreshed, some of that hardware hits eBay and refurb sellers' shelves.

Modern digital life means paying monthly, or sometimes annual, subscription fees for a range of services you need, whether that's cloud photo storage, a password manager, or file sync tools. All of these software services are steadily creeping up in price each year.

The Steam Deck is a powerful device, and I'm not talking about the frames it can push in AAA gaming at all, at least not here. I've previously argued that the Deck beats a budget gaming laptop on long-haul trips, and most of what I argued came down to the form factor, since the handheld was the clear winner in situations where I couldn't find a desk to house the laptop.