XDA

Mismatched drives from old PCs made my NAS more reliable than matched drives

Korbin Brown — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 16:00:21 GMT

When it comes to a NAS system, I've always been told it's best practice to use hard drives of the same size. Even better if they're the same manufacturer and model. That advice made sense at first, since you could expect consistent reliability and behavior across the whole batch of drives.

I turned my old Google TV box into the easiest way to play retro games on my TV

João Carrasqueira — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:30:23 GMT

There are plenty of ways to enjoy your retro gaming collection these days, and almost any device can handle retro gaming without too much of an issue. The problem with turning an old PC into a retro console for the living room is that it's still another big box next to your TV, and another outlet and HDMI port being taken. You probably already have a TV box and other devices connected, so adding more to the mix isn't exactly enticing.

I stopped buying cable organizers once I started 3D printing my own

Chandraveer Mathur — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:00:22 GMT

Managing a home office can be challenging if the desk where I get all my work done isn't immaculate. I am routinely bothered by stray cables and small items left out of place, and I am not a big fan of wireless devices because you still need to charge them every so often. Cables are a necessity to keep electronics powered and connected, but managing them is an additional step that saves you from eventually detangling that one cable you're tracing from the rat's nest behind your network switch, home server, or home office.

Most AI notetakers provide transcripts, but the Comu Action Pro finishes the work

Sponsored — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 14:51:47 GMT

Anyone who spends their day in client calls knows how it goes. The meeting wraps up, and then the real work starts. The CRM needs updating. Someone has to write the follow-up email. Decisions and deadlines need chasing, and an hour of loose conversation has to be turned into something the rest of the team can use, whether that's a set of notes or a slide deck for the next pitch.

I tried 3 privacy-focused Google Maps alternatives, and giving up Google was harder than I expected

Mahnoor Faisal — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 14:31:22 GMT

When someone hears the word AI, their mind typically gravitates toward ChatGPT immediately. You might not necessarily use it every day, and it might not even be your go-to AI tool. However, we've reached a point where ChatGPT has practically become synonymous with AI, regardless of how many alternatives are out there.

Samsung's Odyssey 3D G90XF monitor drops to $1,000 as it hits $400 off

XDA Deals Desk — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 14:17:01 GMT

For years, 3D gaming meant wrestling with heavy glasses or dealing with screen flicker that gave you a headache. Samsung is trying to fix that with the Odyssey 3D G90XF. As you might have guessed, the monitor doesn't come cheap, costing $1,400. However, Amazon is now offering a steep discount, dropping the price by $400.

This $30 Tapo C210 security camera has local ONVIF and RTSP, and it puts cloud-only cameras to shame

Jasmine Mannan — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 14:00:21 GMT

Mainstream consumer security cameras like Ring, Arlo, or Google Nest mean you buy the hardware up front, only to find that basic features like video history, person detection, and secure clips are locked behind a monthly SaaS subscription. These closed ecosystems force your video feeds through vendor-managed cloud servers, raising serious privacy concerns and rendering your cameras completely useless if your internet drops or the company sunsets the support.

Apple's tiny iPad Mini gets a bigger OLED screen and water resistance for the first time

Patrick O'Rourke — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:28:35 GMT

Just as rumors last week suggested, the redesigned 8th-generation iPad Mini (2026) has arrived ahead of Apple's "Pro and Tell" event on Wednesday, October 28th. The refreshed pint-sized tablet features a larger 8.5-inch OLED display, the A20 Pro chip, an improved front-facing camera, and, for the first time on any iPad, IP67 water and dust resistance.

Nvidia says RTX Spark games like an RTX 5070. I checked under emulation

Joe Rice-Jones — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:00:21 GMT

Nvidia's pitch for the RTX Spark is a bold one. At Computex, the company told press its Arm laptop chip games at around RTX 5070 level, with a 10 to 15% hit from emulation at most. That's a big promise, even for a chip Nvidia says will reinvent the PC for Windows on Arm, because almost every Steam game is built for x86 and has to pass through Microsoft's Prism translation layer first.

I use Google Maps for almost every drive, but I wish I'd found these 5 settings earlier

Parth Shah — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:30:21 GMT

Whether I am heading to a familiar destination, exploring a new city, or planning a long road trip, I rarely start my car without firing up Google Maps. Naturally, I assumed I had everything figured out. However, after digging deeper into the app’s settings, I realized I had been overlooking several useful options hiding in plain sight.