My old phones replaced three smart devices in my Home Assistant setup
…got dedicated hardware, getting the assistant to work with all the entities in HACS can be a pain – even more so when you want to build a voice-controlled setup that uses…
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Smart home devices are sneaking around your Pi-hole, and your dashboard won't catch them
…As we've covered before, smart home and IoT hardware can often be among the worst offenders. They're either developed for reliability over control, have a cloud-first design, and offer…
I used this utility to gain complete control over my GPU that Nvidia deliberately hides
…Power users, however, have always played a different game, and if something exists that can give them more control over their hardware, they will always jump at it, including yours truly. The…
You can build a Steam Machine right now, but Valve's optimization is the part worth waiting for
…The company is actually wanting to expand its hardware line-up for 2026, consisting of the Steam Machine itself, a new Steam Controller, and the Steam Frame. Valve went from having no…
Microsoft is finally tackling Windows 11’s driver problem
…periodic stability fixes, a pullback on its Copilot AI push, easier update control, and more. At Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC 2026) , the tech giant announced its Cloud-Initiated Driver…
Steam Machine Verified just made the mini PC the most interesting gaming device of 2026
…The hardware is probably what people will talk about first, but the Verified badge is the real selling point that makes the whole thing usable. The hardware is good enough, but not…
I switched back to OrcaSlicer for my Bambu printer, and the cloud integration changes everything
…He's written for Macworld , Tom's Hardware , groovyPost , The Mac Observer , and more before beginning here at XDA. Sign in to your XDA account For a while, using a Bambu printer…
I stopped trying to replace my Nvidia Shield and built something better instead
…extra hardware in the chain either. And yes, it supports Plex streaming too. There's a significant quality-of-life improvement that's hard to ignore, because everything is essentially controlled with…
Used enterprise switches are absurdly cheap, and they unlock features home routers can't touch
…because network hardware is made to work with and build upon other hardware. Ex-enterprise switches fill in that feature gap, with LAGG, VLANs, network monitoring, per-port controls, and more. That…
Building my own NAS taught me why prebuilt enclosures are holding you back
Rich Edmonds Apr 9, 2026, 8:01 AM EDT Richard is the PC Hardware Lead at XDA and has been covering the technology industry for almost two decades. He's been building…