This was another busy week in tech, with a major update for Visual Studio Code rolling out, Amazon changing its DRM for Kindle books, changes to Plex servers, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.
The Big News
Visual Studio Code just got a huge terminal upgrade
Visual Studio Code just released its November 2025 update, version 1.107. There are more improvements for AI coding agents and TypeScript support, but I'm mostly excited about another change: a much more powerful terminal. Continue reading…
Plex is overhauling custom metadata providers
Plex is now testing a new framework for custom metadata providers, giving you more options for adding titles, cover art, and other information to your movie and TV library. It's now in beta testing with a planned rollout in January. Continue reading…
Amazon will let you download books without DRM
Amazon is finally making a huge, consumer-friendly shift for e-book owners, announcing that you will be able to download your DRM-free Kindle books directly in EPUB and PDF formats. This comes after Amazon has tried for so long to prevent everyone from downloading its books. Continue reading…
COSMIC desktop for Linux exits beta with Pop!_OS 24.04
System76 has been working on its own desktop environment for Linux, called COSMIC, intended to fully replace GNOME Shell on the company's Pop!_OS distribution. Now, the COSMIC desktop environment has finally reached stable status. Continue reading…
Gas engines are making a comeback—and not just in America
As governments keep rethinking their rules around vehicle emissions, buyers are rethinking what they want to drive. Continue reading…
Obsidian 1.11.0 brings markdown links to properties and safer renaming
Obsidian 1.11.0 Early Access is officially rolling out. It completely changes how you access your notes on the go, thanks to a massive focus on widgets and deep system integration across both iOS and Android. There are also many upgrades for desktop users. Continue reading…
Kali Linux 2025.4 arrives with GNOME 49, KDE Plasma 6.5, and much more
Kali Linux, a popular Linux distribution for cybersecurity research and penetration testing, just revealed the Kali Linux 2025.4 release. This new build has updates to GNOME, KDE, and Xfce desktop environments, improvements for virtual machines, and much more. Continue reading…
This new slider phone is giving me retro gaming vibes
Retro gaming is pretty popular these days, with fans everywhere buying handheld consoles or gaming phones. But what if someone combined the two? After months of teasers, the popular gaming handheld manufacturer AYANEO just unveiled the all-new Pocket Play. A sliding Android phone with physical controls reminiscent of the Sony Xperia Play. Continue reading…
KDE brings new features to Dolphin, Kate text editor, Photos, and other apps
KDE Gear 25.12 is now available and comes with a substantial list of quality-of-life enhancements to essential apps like Dolphin and Kate. If you’re running the KDE Plasma desktop environment or using a GNU/Linux distribution, you should check out these updates. Continue reading…
The WiiM Sound Lite smart speaker brings hi-res audio to tight spaces
WiiM is releasing the WiiM Sound Lite, a minimalist, high-resolution smart speaker built specifically for whole-home audio integration. This is excellent news for anyone already invested in the WiiM ecosystem, or for those looking for a compact speaker that doesn’t skimp on sound quality. Continue reading…
This enclosure turns NVMe SSDs into 64 Gbps external USB drives
If you need the fastest possible speeds for external storage, Hyper might have the tool for you. The company's new HyperDrive enclosure uses USB4 V2 to turn any NVMe drive into a high-performance external drive, but you'll have to pay a hefty sum for the privilege. Continue reading…
New Xfinity TV plans drop annual contracts and bundle equipment
Xfinity is completely refreshing its national video plans, introducing all-in pricing, and officially dropping annual contracts for new and existing customers. Every new package now comes standard with an included X1 4K TV box and the company’s voice remote. Continue reading…
Third-party speakers are finally getting Gemini for Home support
Google is dramatically expanding the early access program for its new Gemini for Home voice assistant. This expands availability to millions of users and adds support for third-party speakers. This is great news for anyone who owns a non-Google smart speaker and felt left out of the initial rollout. Continue reading…
HBO Max is getting a price cut for Verizon subscribers
In a rare piece of good news for streaming subscribers, HBO Max is actually getting cheaper for certain Verizon customers who currently use the service as an add-on perk. Seeing a price cut in the streaming world is almost unheard of these days, but this price cut is rolling out now. Continue reading…
Home Assistant's new ZBT-2 antenna is now available on Amazon
Home Assistant and Nabu Casa released the ZBT-2 adapter back in November, which adds Zigbee, Thread, and Matter to any Home Assistant server. Now you can buy one right on Amazon. Continue reading…
Update Notepad++ now to fix a dangerous security vulnerability
The popular Notepad++ text editor has been hijacked to spread malware, due to a security vulnerability in the app's update mechanism. If you have the app installed, make sure you have the latest version to stay safe. Continue reading…
Notepad++
This security-focused Linux distro is switching to KDE
The team behind Parrot OS (often shortened to Parrot) has announced the beta release of Parrot 7.0. The update, now in testing, brings several upgrades and improvements to the distribution that emphasizes security, including a switch to KDE Plasma as the default desktop. Continue reading…
Ring doorbells can now identify faces
Ring has started rolling out its AI-powered facial recognition feature, Familiar Faces, to video doorbell owners across the United States. This addition means your smart doorbell can now identify your visitors, a major step forward for personalization that also brings significant privacy concerns. Continue reading…
Firefox's local page translation finally arrives on iPhone and iPad
Local page translation is one of the best recent additions to Firefox, but iPhone and iPad owners haven't been able to try it out. That's finally changing with the release of Firefox 146, and Mozilla is throwing in a few other minor improvements. Continue reading…
Google Photos wants to be a serious video editing app
Over the last year, the Google Photos app has seen a series of redesigns. The image editor was one of the first things to be refreshed, and now Google has moved on to videos. If you’ve been relying on third-party apps like CapCut for simple video edits, get ready to tap the “Uninstall” button. Continue reading…
Amazon is getting a price tracker with automatic ordering
Amazon is rolling out new shopping features for its AI-powered Alexa+ assistant, most notably a price tracker that automatically purchases items when they drop to a specified price. This removes the need to constantly refresh pages waiting for a deal, because it will give you updates on changes. Continue reading…
Spotify's latest update is copying YouTube Music
Spotify has slowly expanded beyond audio, most notably with video podcasts, and now music videos are now rolling out to more subscribers. It looks a lot like how YouTube Music works. Continue reading…
Pebble's next product is a smart ring that remembers things for you
If you’re anything like me, you know how important it is to get ideas and to-dos out of your brain so you actually remember them later. After bringing the iconic smartwatch back this year, Pebble is hoping its next product will help in these situations. It’s a smart ring called the Index 01. Continue reading…
Firefox is getting a long-awaited display upgrade on Linux PCs
Firefox 146 is rolling out, bringing a major, long-awaited display improvement for users running Linux with the Wayland compositor. The newest build now natively supports fractional scaling on Linux, which should make the rendering experience much better and snappier. Continue reading…
Mozilla Thunderbird 146 is rolling out: Here's what's new
Thunderbird, the desktop mail client developed by Mozilla, just released two new updates. Thunderbird 146 is rolling out today in the stable channel, and for those of you who need stability above all else, Thunderbird ESR just got an update to version 140.6. Continue reading…
This new mini PC has four NVMe slots and dual Ethernet LAN
Network attached storage devices have become increasingly popular as people search for alternatives—or supplements—to their cloud storage subscriptions. That is where a new mini PC released by Youyeetoo, which is designed primarily for use as a miniature NAS, can shine. Continue reading…
PhpStorm 2025.3 arrives with full PHP 8.5 support and a new theme
PhpStorm has stuck around as one of the best PHP development environments, and now JetBrains has released a new major version. PhpStorm 2025.3 is now available with PHP 8.5 support, a new theme, Claude agent integration, and much more. Continue reading…
PyCharm 2025.3 update adds faster Python project management, free Jupyter support, and more
Visual Studio Code and other lightweight editors might be the most popular choices for Python programming, but JetBrains PyCharm is still great for complex projects and debugging. The latest update is merging the Community Edition and Pro versions, and it brings along a few new features and improvements. Continue reading…
JetBrains GoLand 2025.3 is here to upgrade your Go programming
JetBrains might be best known for its IDEA, PyCharm, and WebStorm integrated development environments, but it also has one for Go language development: GoLand. The latest version can help you hunt down resource leaks, code with multiple AI agents, use Terraform files, and much more. Continue reading…
DirecTV is ditching external boxes on these TVs
DirecTV is finally making its streaming experience better for LG owners by launching a dedicated app that eliminates the need for an external set-top box. The new DirecTV app is now available for LG Smart TVs made in 2021 and newer, provided they are running on webOS 6.0 or higher software. Continue reading…
IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3 arrives with more free features, full Java 25 support
JetBrains has released IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, the first version of the new unified IDE for Java development. It's combining the Community Edition and Ultimate builds into one package and adding a few new features on top, including full support for Java 25. Continue reading…
Your Blink camera alerts are getting a big upgrade
Blink, the Amazon-owned company known for its affordable smart home security cameras, just announced a big upgrade to its camera software. Do you ever wish your cameras were a bit more descriptive with alerts and notifications? If so, you'll be happy to hear about these new features. Continue reading…
Google Chrome is getting smarter autofill
Google Chrome is rolling out updates to its autofill feature, giving the browser much deeper access to the data stored in your Google Account and Google Wallet. This move means consolidating even more of your personal information under Google's umbrella. Continue reading…
