IT General

Buying a sports car usually means accepting one painful reality: depreciation. Most performance cars lose value quickly, especially once newer and faster models arrive. While practical cars like the Toyota Corolla are famous for holding their value well, enthusiast cars typically sit on the opposite end of the spectrum.

When Volvo launched the first-generation XC90 at the 2002 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it was, as the Scandinavian automaker described it, the most flexible vehicle they had ever designed. While its contemporaries were often truck-based and arguably cumbersome, the XC90 rode on a car-based platform that felt like a sedan (one of the tag lines was “drives like a car, but loads like a wagon”).

You can program without programming tools, and integrated development environments (IDEs) are popular among developers. I take a different approach. I treat my Linux system, with its array of programming tools, as an IDE in itself.

I've been using Google Messages since it launched in 2014 and replaced the old Android messaging app. Despite having it on my phone for so long, it took me a while to discover everything it could do. I missed these features for a long time, and if you're only using the app for basic messaging, you might have too.

Everyone in tech has heard of the 3-2-1 backup rule. It's the kind of advice that gets repeated so often it starts to feel like background noise, the digital equivalent of "eat your vegetables." It's simple, it works, and it has saved countless people from catastrophic data loss.

Regardless of whether or not anyone wanted such a thing, Prime Video is turning into TikTok.

Amazon announced in a press release on Friday that the Prime Video mobile app has a new feed for Clips, which are short, shareable video clips taken from Prime Video content. This feature was first created with NBA games broadcast on Prime Video in mind, but this new development expands it to presumably include shows like The Boys and other Prime originals. Users can access the Clips feed by scrolling down on the home page to the Clips carousel and tapping any Clip.

From there, Clips can be shared with other users by copying and pasting a link. Users can also like Clips or use them as a gateway to access whatever show or movie is on display in said Clip. Right now, the feature is available to "select customers" in the United States on Android, iOS, and Fire Tablet devices. It'll become available to more people over the summer.

“As a first-stop entertainment destination, Prime Video offers customers a vast selection of premium content, and we want to make it as easy and seamless as possible for them to discover what's most relevant," Prime Video executive Brian Griffin said. "Clips gives customers a whole new way to browse with short, personalized snippets tailored to their interests. Whether they have a few minutes to scroll or are looking for something to watch when they have more time, entertainment is just a tap away.”

The TikTok comparison is obvious, though it should be noted that it doesn't sound like users can create their own Clips, at least at this time. In other words, this is mostly just another way for Amazon to market Prime Video content to users. React accordingly.

I'm mostly a Roku and media PC user, so my Fire TV sticks aren't my primary setup. Still, I've got two Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max devices in the house, and after digging into what my Roku boxes were collecting, it felt worth taking a closer look at what Amazon was doing on its side.

People think of Motorola phones as having clean, minimal software similar to Google’s, but there’s more than meets the eye. You’ll find a surprising number of gestures exclusive to Motorola phones, and they’re very useful.

NAS units are great. They're small, energy-efficient, and easy to get running right out of the box. If the only thing you want is a backup solution for your files, and you're not picky about cost, they're a good option. However, if you want a real homelab, you're much better off picking up some secondhand components instead—your machine will be more powerful, and you'll learn more in the process.

When you had to wait for a mechanical hard drive to load your operating system and applications, fast start-up made sense. Today, however, Fast Start-up isn't worth the trouble. I've seen it cause all sorts of strange problems that were difficult to narrow down.

Walk into any showroom today, sit inside any car, and you are likely greeted by a massive glass touchscreen—or two, or even three. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at an EV, a hybrid, or a traditional internal combustion vehicle: touchscreens have taken over.

Resident Evil: Requiem already had plenty of meat on the bone, between a decently sized campaign and plenty of post-game goodies to chew on. Now, a couple of months after launch, it's gotten some pretty fun-sounding free DLC.

Capcom released a surprise update this week that included an action-packed new mode called Leon Must Die Forever. Unlocked after you finish the main story, Leon Must Die Forever is a gauntlet of high-octane action challenges starring everyone's favorite former rookie cop, Leon S. Kennedy. Capcom's official description makes it sound pretty straightforward: kill more difficult-than-usual enemies within a time limit, fight bosses, unlock enhancements, and try not to die, despite the mode's name.

"Fight your way through areas you’ve visited previously throughout the game and defeat the final boss, all with stronger enemy variants, five increasingly difficulty ranks, and a race against the clock! Fill your enhancement gauge by defeating enemies in order to unlock Leon’s “enhancer abilities” exclusive to this game mode," Capcom's press release said.

Capcom has always had a habit of adding cool, stripped-down action-based modes to Resident Evil games that are meant to be played after finishing the story. Traditionally, they're usually called some variant of "Mercenaries," but the company went with the infinitely more fun Leon Must Die Forever for this one. If you're like me and you're still itching to roundhouse kick zombies and mutilate them with a hand axe despite having finished the story, maybe check this one out.

Most people open Notion, create a few pages to jot down notes, feel good about it—and never go any further. I did the same for longer than I’d like to admit. However, you aren’t really using Notion unless you’re using databases—that’s when you truly see what the app is capable of. This piece walks you through what databases are, how they work, and the system I built around them that genuinely changed my workflow.

I've always loved messing around with smart home tech and have a lot of it in my home. However, if I could go back in time, there's one decision that I made early on that I would do differently.

Did you know that Amazon Prime Video has the second most subscribers among streaming services? Prime Video has more than 200 million subscribers, which is second to Netflix's 325 million. Prime Video might not have as many prestige plays compared to HBO Max and Hulu, but it does have its fair share of hits. The two that instantly come to mind are The Boys and Reacher, two action series that have dominated Prime Video’s streaming charts.

These days, mesh Wi-Fi networks are both common and affordable. Anyone who wants the power and convenience of mesh technology can have it, but it hasn't been this way for long. In 2016, Google showed the way when it came to how mesh could and should work, and in many ways no one has really done it better since.

I try to avoid Google apps wherever possible, which increasingly means seeking out alternatives to the most basic apps whenever I buy a new Android phone. Fortunately, there's a single open source app suite that is a one-stop-shop for app replacements: Fossify.

I'm not currently a KDE user—I prefer GNOME, but I'm happy to give kudos where kudos are due. I've used KDE on and off over the years, and Dolphin remains the cream of the Linux file manager crop. GNOME Files serves me well, but Dolphin shows me how my file manager could serve me better.

Are you a new homeowner or aspiring DIYer looking to invest in a few good tools while making smart choices? If so, there's one Ryobi tool I bought for projects and home improvement that is not only the best value, but really made things start clicking.

When I first built my homelab, I did what most people do—I put everything on one machine. My NAS, my services, my containers—all of it running on the same box. It made sense at the time: why buy two machines when one can do the job? But eventually, I started to see the issues this supposed “optimization” introduced. Here are the three main reasons I decided to separate my NAS from my homelab.