According to The How-To Geek, Ubiquiti announced a new UniFi travel router aimed at fixing spotty hotel Wi-Fi, while postmarketOS 25.12 brought major updates to Linux phones with more hardware support. Google agreed to pay $630 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit over its Play Store, potentially paying out to users who made app purchases in recent years. On Christmas Day, Ruby 4.0.0 launched with experimental features like the ZJIT compiler, and Jaguar quietly built its last-ever gasoline-powered car. Google also began rolling out the ability to change your primary Gmail address without creating a new account, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation released Imager 2.0.3 with performance and security fixes.
The Infrastructure Shuffle
Look, the travel router news is cool, but the real story for tinkerers is happening in the server closet. We’ve got two major NAS OS updates—CachyOS teasing a dedicated version and OpenMediaVault 8 dropping on Christmas Eve. And that new Raspberry Pi expansion board with 14 USB ports? It’s basically a sign that the Pi 5 is being pushed into serious, weird duty as a compact server or media hub. These aren’t just hobbyist toys anymore; they’re becoming legitimate, low-power nodes for home labs and small businesses. The barrier to entry for self-hosted infrastructure keeps getting lower, and that’s a fantastic trend.
The Google Rollercoaster
Here’s the thing about Google this week: it’s a perfect microcosm of the company’s chaos. On one hand, they’re cutting a check for $630 million because of their monopolistic control. On the other, they’re finally giving users a simple, humane feature they’ve begged for for nearly 20 years—changing a Gmail address. And then there’s Assistant. Remember when Gemini was supposed to kill it in 2025? Yeah, that’s not happening. They’re backtracking. It feels like three different companies operating in the same skin. The payout is huge, but will it change anything in the Play Store’s walled garden? I doubt it. It’s a cost of doing business, not a change of philosophy.
The Linux Everywhere Agenda
This week felt like a coordinated push for Linux on everything that isn’t a standard desktop. Phones with postmarketOS? Check. NAS boxes with CachyOS and OMV? Check. Even the Amiga’s filesystem, via an emulated driver. The postmarketOS update is particularly interesting because it’s not trying to be Android. It’s carving out a niche for actual, desktop-style Linux on a pocketable device, which is a wildly different goal. It’s still for enthusiasts, but the progress is real. And with Elementary OS 8.1 and Linux Mint 22.3 beta also getting updates, the desktop side isn’t standing still either. The ecosystem is bubbling with quiet, steady progress.
Odds, Ends, and Endings
So many little stories with big implications. Valve discontinuing the cheapest Steam Deck? That’s a major bummer and solidifies a higher entry price for PC handhelds. The rediscovery and digitization of UNIX V4 after 52 years is a huge deal for tech historians—it’s like finding a missing chapter in the bible of modern computing. And Jaguar ending gas cars? It’s the end of an era, but it also feels late. In the fast-moving EV world, they’re playing catch-up from a standing start. Finally, that FiiO MP3 player that’s also a USB DAC is a great example of a niche product finding its audience by blending nostalgia (a CD-style design) with high-end modern utility. A weird week, but a fun one.
