This was another busy week in tech news, with new hardware from Razer and HyperX, a Linux Mint beta release, another upgrade for Home Assistant, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.
The Big News
Verizon’s Visible Carrier Finally Has Group Plans, With a Twist
Verizon’s budget pre-paid carrier Visible has never offered family plans, so the potential price savings slowly evaporates as you add more phone lines. Thankfully, that’s finally changing, as the carrier rolls out an ‘Inner Circle’ group option. Continue reading…
Home Assistant’s New Z-Wave Adapter Can Reach a Mile Away
Home Assistant has officially released the Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2. This is a new Z-Wave adapter that looks like a major upgrade for anyone using Z-Wave devices in their smart home. It’s a complete redesign from the stick form factor of older adapters and has a standalone antenna and base. Continue reading…
Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” Beta Has Arrived: Here’s What’s New
You can now try out Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” right now, since the beta version has officially been released for public testing. This is a long-term support release, which means it will get security updates until 2029. The new version is built on an Ubuntu Noble package base with a Linux kernel 6.14. Continue reading…
Syncthing 2.0 Is Here to Upgrade Your Cloud-less File Synchronization
Syncthing, the cross-platform file synchronization tool that doesn’t need cloud storage, has finally released its big 2.0 update. The new version has some great performance and reliability improvements, updated terminal commands, and much more. Continue reading…
You Can Now Buy Certified Renewed Foldable Phones From Samsung
As cool as Samsung’s foldable phones are, their price tags are decidedly not cool. We’ve long preached that you don’t need to buy a Galaxy Z Fold or Z Flip brand new, and now you’ll have a more official and dependable option for buying a second-hand foldable. Continue reading…
Apple Watch Just Brought Back This Health Feature
Apple’s long-lost blood oxygen tracking feature for its smartwatch is finally coming back to the United States after a long legal battle. The Apple Watch sensors will now collect the data and then send it to a paired iPhone to be measured and calculated. Continue reading…
VirtualBox 7.2 Finally adds Full ARM-on-ARM Virtualization
VirtualBox, the free and open-source virtual machine manager, just got another update. VirtualBox 7.2 just arrived with better ARM host and guest support, interface improvements, and more. Continue reading…
BlackBerry Classic Revived: Android-Powered Q25 Pro Now Available
BlackBerry hasn’t been around for nearly 10 years, but the brand name still holds some weight today. There’s a growing group of people who long for the days of simpler devices with physical keyboards. A company is hoping to cash in on that by modding the BlackBerry Classic with Android and selling them online. Continue reading…
Thunderbird Mail Is Getting Closer to Full Exchange Support
The Thunderbird development team is pushing forward with a lot of new features and fixes. The team has a lot of progress to show for it with Exchange support and handling user feedback on the Account Hub. Most importantly, the team is laying the groundwork for a major overhaul of the message database. Continue reading…
Razer’s Latest Mechanical Keyboards Are Ultra-Thin
If you want a mechanical keyboard, you don’t have to go for the ones with full-size switches and keycaps. There are tons of low-profile options that are just as clacky, even as they might have a tad less travel. Now, Razer’s latest keyboards are here, and they’re as thin as they get. Continue reading…
Google Photos Adds New Create Tab Full of Fancy Features
After a big Google Photos revamp in May that cleaned up the user interface and simplified the bottom bar buttons, Google just added a new “Create” tab to Photos packed with a ton of helpful AI features. If you’ve ever wanted to turn a photo into a video or easily create animations, now you can. Continue reading…
Haiku OS Is Getting More Helpful Changes
If you’ve researched alternative operating systems that are not Linux-based, you’ve probably come across Haiku OS. If you’re using it, or if you’re considering it, you’ll be glad to know that it has gotten a lot better over the past month. Continue reading…
HyperX’s Latest Headsets Have Great Battery Life
An often-overlooked part of many people’s gaming setup is the headset, but it’s an essential one if you play online games and if you play with friends a lot. Now, HyperX’s latest headphones are here, and they’re really good. Continue reading…
HyperX Just Unveiled an SM7B-Like Dynamic Broadcast Microphone
HyperX is introducing two new “studio-quality” gaming mics—the $230 FlipCast Microphone, which features XLR connectivity alongside USB, and the more modest $60 SoloCast 2 Microphone. Both mics launch this August, though HyperX hasn’t specified the exact launch date. Continue reading…
Starlink Lowers Dish and Internet Prices, but There’s a Catch
Starlink, the satellite internet service provided by SpaceX, has quietly lowered its prices to attract new customers. If you’ve considered trying out Starlink but don’t want to pay the huge hardware fee to get started, we have good news. Elon Musk’s Starlink is now offering new customers the hardware at a 50% discount and cutting the cost of monthly internet service. Continue reading…
Google’s Sensitive Content Warnings Start Rolling Out in Messages
Google Messages has been on a roll lately, delivering exciting new features and constantly updating the app with experience improvements. In April, we mentioned that Google was testing a new Sensitive Content Warning system for images, and now it’s finally rolling out to everyone. Continue reading…
Microsoft’s Idea for Windows Sounds Like a Copilot OS
Microsoft has published a new interview with the head of Windows, Pavan Davuluri, where he shared some interesting details about how Windows is going to change in the future. He wants Windows to more closely integrate with AI technology, unsuprisingly. Continue reading…
Google Is Planning to Fix the Find My Device Network’s Biggest Problem
The first trackers to support Google’s new Find My Device network all had one blatantly obvious problem: very few Android phones had opted in to the network. This made it essentially useless for finding items, but Google appears to be addressing this shortcoming. Continue reading…
The Latest Google Messages Bug Has People Seeing Double
If you love being the first to try new Google Messages features, the beta program is a great way to do it. However, the price to pay for getting early access means dealing with the occasional bug. The latest one is giving people a case of double vision—sometimes even triple vision. Continue reading…
Gemini Is Getting Two New Privacy Features You’ll Love
The uncomfortable truth about an AI chatbot is the more it knows, the more it can help—which is the whole point of these things existing. Of course, you may not always want your weird questions to be part of your digital record. Gemini is getting new features for this very reason. Continue reading…
This E-Paper Smartwatch Just Got a Lot Closer to Release
Pebble is so back. Not only is the original creator back to making more modern versions of the watches, but the new company, Core Devices, also got back the Pebble trademark, so the iconic brand is also living on. Among the latest devices is a long-overdue Pebble Time 2, and now, we can have a better look at its finalized design. Continue reading…
Excel’s Python Integration Is Getting New Image Features
Microsoft just announced new feature for Python in Excel that lets you analyze images in your spreadsheets. You no longer need outside tools—you can manipulate, analyze, and pull information from images directly in Microsoft Excel on Windows, Mac, and the web. Continue reading…
The New PowerToys Update Is a Lot Easier to Navigate
PowerToys just dropped its latest update, version 0.93, and it’s full of great changes. The big improvement is that the dashboard has a redesigned Command Palette that looks so much better, but many of the tools are now faster and better than before. Continue reading…
New Xbox Policy Will Make It Easier to Find New Games
Microsoft is finally taking action against spam game bundles that have been clogging up the Xbox Store. The company is cracking down on developers who have been using a shady tactic to flood the store with multiple, slightly different versions of the same game in bundles. Continue reading…
You Can Finally Get the One UI 8 Beta on the Galaxy S24
After a short delay and a few days later than expected, Samsung is finally ready to deliver the Android 16 beta to more Galaxy devices. As previously announced, Samsung has released the One UI 8 (Android 16) beta for the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Z Fold 6, and more. Continue reading…
Your Sony TV Might Be Next To Get Android 14
Android 14 is probably a name you haven’t heard in a long time, but with Google officially skipping Android 15 on TVs, it will jump straight from 14 to 16 when the time comes. In the meantime, 14 is still rolling out to many models, and now, Android TV 14 is landing on a bunch of Sony TV models. Continue reading…
You Can’t Buy This Linux Phone Anymore
Pine64, the creator of the PinePhone line of Linux-focused smartphones, is apparently killing off the Pro edition of the PinePhone. You can still get the original PinePhone though. Continue reading…
Please Don’t Buy This “Privacy-First” Phone
Privacy-focused phones are not a new concept, even as they might be a little gimmicky and silly. You need to make a lot of uncomfortable compromises to go truly locked down. Another one of those privacy-first devices has just popped up, but you should probably not buy this one. Continue reading…
Razer’s New PC Controller Has Super-Fast Response Time
Razer has released the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC, a brand new wireless controller designed for competitive PC gaming. This controller is packed with top-tier features that you expect from a brand name like Razer, but the price tag matches the features. Continue reading…
T-Mobile’s New Budget Phone Has Five Years of Updates
Finding a good budget phone can be a challenge, but there are some neat options out there. T-Mobile’s Revvl line is a pretty good option for those wanting to save a buck, and the newest member is here—and while I think there are still some better options, there are a few reasons why this could also be fine for some. Continue reading…
Sling TV Lets You Watch Movies and Sports All Weekend for $10
Sling TV is one of the best live TV streaming services for shows, movies, and sports, and now it has all-new options for those who only need TV for a day. If you don’t want to pay for a full subscription but want a day or weekend to binge-watch shows and live sports, Sling has you covered. Continue reading…
Excel Has a New Way of Explaining Formulas To You
A lot of AI features are pretty unnecessary and sometimes invasive. But many can actually be genuinely useful. Many of Copilot’s features are regarded by many as gimmicks, but one of the most useful ones just got a lot easier to access. Continue reading…
This Linux Workstation Laptop Has an RTX 5090 Inside
Kubuntu Focus, the manufacturer that makes Kubuntu Linux-only PCs, has announced a new workstation-level laptop, the Focus Zr Gen 1. The heavy-duty laptop is meant to be a desktop replacement with its dedicated GPU options. Continue reading…
Word, PowerPoint, and Excel Are Getting Better Drawing Tools
Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint all have built-in pen and drawing tools, but they can be a bit lackluster, especially if you’re accustomed to OneNote or real digital art software. Thankfully, Microsoft is starting to test a few much-needed improvements. Continue reading…
GNOME’s Matrix Messaging App Is Getting New Features
Fractal, the Matrix client developed for the GNOME desktop environment, just got updated to version 12 today. It includes several new features and improvements you can try out as you talk to people across decentralized Matrix networks. Continue reading…
ESPN and Fox Will Bundle Their Streaming Bundles
If you are looking for yet another streaming subscription service, both ESPN and Fox will be launching new platforms in the coming weeks that are perfect for sports fans. Today, in a surprise turn of events, the two companies announced they’ll let you bundle them together for one monthly fee, saving you a bit of money. Continue reading…
This New OneNote Feature Fixes a Common Complaint
OneNote is finally getting a “paste text only” feature on Windows and Mac. This is a long-requested feature, and it’s great because you no longer have to manually clean up ugly fonts, awkward background colors, and weird styling that you copied from a website or a different app. Continue reading…
Calibre eBook Manager Now Supports the Latest Kobo eReaders
Calibre is one of those apps that isn’t flashy, but it’s invaluable to the people who use it. Version 8.8 has just been released on the tails of 8.7, and this update brings some nifty new features that make it even better. Continue reading…
This MacBook/iPad Hybrid Looks Pretty Cool
While Apple wants people to use iPads as computers, they’re not even remotely close to Apple’s actual computers, Macs. Someone has taken it upon themselves to change that up, though. Continue reading…
Paramount Plus Is Getting UFC Matches
Paramount Plus is now the exclusive home for all UFC events in the United States, following a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with TKO Group Holdings. Starting in 2026 and at least until 2033, you’ll be able to watch UFC content on Paramount+. Continue reading…
Handbrake Video Converter Gets More Presets and Bug Fixes
HandBrake, everyone’s favorite free and open-source video converter, just got a big update. In its first update in seven months, the latest Handbrake v1.10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux gets even better presets for Discord users, Linux-specific improvements, and a load of bug fixes. Continue reading…
Windows 10 Will Keep Microsoft Edge (and Maybe Chrome) Until 2028, at Least
Windows 10 will reach the end of mainstream support in October, but not every application and game will stop working at that time. Microsoft has now confirmed that its Edge browser will continue receiving updates on Windows 10 until “at least October 2028,” and Chrome might follow suit. Continue reading…
TikTok Might Ask You to Verify Your Age, Even in the US
The days of just putting in a fake birth year on TikTok are over, because it looks like the platform is asking for age verification in the United States. A few users are reporting that there are age checks, with a creator getting a threat of account deletion over this. Continue reading…
AOL Dial-Up Internet Is Dead
Remember the times when you had to make sure no one in your household was using the phone before logging online? The age of dial-up internet is distant now, with broadband and fiber internet being present in most households, but the service has been kept around. Now, though, it’s going offline in less than a couple of months. Continue reading…
The Other Stuff
Apple’s big software updates for the year are getting closer to release. This past week, the third public betas for iOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, and iPadOS 26 arrived, with more bug fixes and tweaks to the Liquid Glass redesign. However, there are still bugs abound—LowEndMac pointed out an alarming issue with excessive SSD writes after updating a Mac to the latest beta.