For many years, I used to manage my Windows setup in the traditional manner — installing apps one by one, customizing the environment, and manually checking for updates. It worked, until it didn't. System reinstalls, updates, frequent app conflicts, and overall disorganized configurations began to disrupt my workflow, resulting in a loss of productivity.

Laptops are our trusty companions, whether we're working, studying, or binge-watching our favorite shows. But much like any reliable partner, they need attention and care to perform at their best. Unfortunately, neglecting essential maintenance tasks can turn a well-oiled machine into a sluggish, chaotic mess. Here's how my oversight landed me in laptop turmoil, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes.

Nvidia has released another hotfix driver that primarily addresses bugs and crashes with its RTX 50-series GPUs. The 576.26 hotfix driver is based on the 576.02 driver release earlier this month, which itself included a large amount of fixes for bugs and crashes.This latest hotfix driver includes all the fixes in the 576.15 hotfix that was released last week, including a fix for the newly introduced GPU temperature bug. It also addresses flickering issues in Forza Horizon 5, track corruption on Forza Motorsport, and Black Myth: Wukong randomly crashing on RTX 50-series cards. There are a variety of fixes for Red Dead Redemption 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Dead Island 2, and Resident Evil 4 Remake on RTX 50-series GPUs, too.Nvidia has also included yet another supposed fix for black screen issues plaguing a range of LG monitors when using DisplayPort 2.1 mode. There’s also a fix for “grey screen crashes with multiple monitors” and “momentary display flicker occurs when running in DisplayPort2.1 mode with a high refresh rate” on RTX 50-series cards.This is the fifth time Nvidia has released a hotfix driver over the past couple of months, which is a highly unusual amount and speaks to the persistent bugs and crashes that Nvidia GPU users have been reporting since the release of the RTX 50-series in January. I wrote last week that Nvidia’s GPU drivers are a mess, and just a week later we already have another hotfix that attempts to address the latest problems.It’s a far cry from three years ago when Nvidia was proudly boasting of its driver quality, and mocking AMD for releasing beta drivers. “We don’t release sub-par beta drivers with minimal testing, let alone multiple conflicting beta drivers forked from different development branches that support different games and products, which confuse customers,” said Nvidia in April 2022.

Poker Face’s Natasha Lyonne has a new project in the works that seemed poised to become a case study in the debate about how and whether Hollywood should be using generative AI.Lyonne is teaming up with technologist and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier to produce a new sci-fi film that will feature elements generated by AI models. Titled Uncanny Valley, the feature will tell the story — which Lyonne co-wrote with The OA’s Brit Marling — of a teenage girl whose life is turned upside down by a popular virtual reality game. In addition to directing, Lyonne will star in the film alongside Marling. The film’s more fantastical visuals are being developed by Asteria, a new AI-focused production company Lyonne co-founded with her partner, director / producer Bryn Mooser (Body Team 12, Lifeboat). In a statement about Uncanney Valley, Lyonne said that collaborating with Marling and Lanier was an “endlessly inspiring” experience, and likened the film to a Wachowski project.“Imagine if Dianne Wiest and Diane Keaton, at their loquacious best, decided to take a journey through The Matrix for sport, only to find themselves holding up an architectural blueprint, and you’ll have a sense of the adventure we’ve been on,” Lyonne said. “Coming together as a trio in cahoots with the astounding imagineers at Asteria, to worldbuild this film at scale, has been a synergistic dream come true.”Asteria is trying to differentiate itself from other AI entertainment outfits by emphasizing its use of Marey, an AI model created by generative text-to-video startup Moonvalley. Moonvalley markets Marey as of the first truly “clean” AI models due to it being trained entirely on licensed material whose original creators were properly compensated. Uncanny Valley does not yet have a production timeline, and there’s no word on whether Asteria intends to debut the film theatrically or on a streaming service. But news of the project’s existence comes at a time when it has become increasingly clear that Hollywood is open to the idea of working with AI companies, and incorporating the technology into their production workflows despite concerns about its exploitative potential. Last month, more than 400 artists signed an open letter slamming OpenAI and Google for insisting that they should be allowed to train their models on copyrighted material as “a matter of national security.” And in 2023, the threat of AI being used to create digital replicas of / replace living actors was one of the contributing factors that ultimately led to an industry-wide strike.Because Marey is purportedly trained on footage that Moonvalley compensated the original creators for, Uncanny Valley could sidestep some of the issues posed by other types of AI. But what’s not at all clear is whether this kind of workflow might produce a movie people actually want to see, and if the project has any real legs beyond making for a solid bit of tech hype.

Saying the PC hardware industry isn't doing so hot right now is the understatement of the year. The latest Nvidia and AMD graphics cards are still marked up by 15–100% over MSRP, and stock levels aren't remotely close to where they should be. In the CPU department, gaming chips like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D are either out of stock (at the time of writing) or out of reach of the majority anyway.

Choosing the right monitor can be challenging due to the countless models available on the market. Monitors are available in various sizes and resolutions, with many designed for a specific type of user or task. Entry-level options are usually fine for basic office work and other daily tasks. However, competitive gamers will want a high-refresh-rate model, while creators might prefer an OLED monitor with exceptional color accuracy for animation or graphic design.

There's just something really cool about people making really, really tiny devices for the sole purpose of making them. If you're making a notetaker, for instance, you'll at least want some real estate to, you know, type comfortably on. Or, you can squish all that hardware down to the size of a matchbox and roll with it, because why not?

Since Slate Auto came out of stealth mode last week, the internet has been abuzz with speculation about the finer details of the ultra-barebones electric Truck, which is set to cost just $20,000 when it enters production next year - assuming our federal EV incentives are still in place by then.One of those questions was where Slate will build the thing, with a TechCrunch report suggesting a factory in Indiana. Today we can officially confirm the details. Slate Auto will retrofit an existing 1.4 million square foot factory in Warsaw, Indiana, where the company plans to eventually produce 150,000 Trucks annually.If you missed all the excitement last week, Slate's Truck is a radically simplified EV with 150 miles of range, a barebones machine that could be considered a minimum viable car. It has no touchscreen, no radio, no power windows, and no paint. Slate Auto will retrofit an existing 1.4 million square foot factory in Warsaw, Indiana.Those were some of the concessions required to make an EV that inexpensively in the United States, but some of those seeming compromises enable a uniquely streamlined production workflow.Because the Truck doesn't have paint, Slate Auto's f …Read the full story at The Verge.

I’ve been a member of the home lab faction for a while now, and have tested numerous server operating systems using my device collection. Having tried several permutations and combinations, my dual-Xeon Proxmox server has remained the centerpiece of my experimentation lab. While its energy consumption leaves a lot to be desired, it’s capable of running everything from NAS distros, firewall setups, and self-hosted app stacks to virtual machines that can handle demanding games.

The 27 Project Kuiper satellites were carried into LEO by a United Launch Alliance rocket on Monday.Amazon’s Kuiper broadband internet constellation is starting to take shape, with its first batch of satellites shipped and deployed into space on Monday. The launch is just the first of 80 that Amazon has lined up to take all 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of the retail giant’s effort to compete with Starlink — SpaceX’s market-dominating satellite internet business.The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying Amazon’s first 27 Kuiper satellites was launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7PM ET on April 28th, after its first attempt on April 9th was scrubbed due to poor weather conditions.“While this is the first step in a much longer journey to launch the rest of our low Earth orbit constellation, it represents an incredible amount of invention and hard work,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on X. “Am really proud of the collective team.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by United Launch Alliance (@ulalaunch)The Kuiper satellites were deployed 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth, and Amazon has confirmed that the satellites are successfully activated and communicating with ground systems. If all goes to plan, Amazon said it expects to start providing “high-speed, low-latency” satellite internet to customers “later this year.”“This launch marks the first step towards the future of our partnership and increased launch cadence,” ULA CEO Tory Bruno said in a post-launch statement. “We have been steadily modifying our launch facilities in Cape Canaveral to support the capacity for future Project Kuiper missions in a manner that will ultimately benefit both our commercial and government customers as we endeavor to save lives, explore the universe and connect the world.”The $10 billion Project Kuiper plan was announced in 2019 and is now under a deadline from the US Federal Communications Commission to have 1,618 satellites deployed by mid-2026 — half of its total constellation, but significantly fewer than the more than 7,200 satellites that Starlink already has in operation. By contrast, SpaceX announced yesterday that it had completed its 50th Starlink mission of 2025, passing a total milestone of 250 dedicated Starlink launches to date. The company is currently aiming to have 12,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, but already has regulatory approval to expand to 34,400 satellites. Amazon is one of several companies, including France’s Eutelsat and China’s Spacesail, seeking to provide a viable alternative to Starlink’s network, but SpaceX has a substantial head start — and low-Earth orbit is already starting to look pretty cluttered.

SpaceX is now offering 12-month residential service plans that bring the price of the dish and router — normally $349 in the US — down to $0 in select markets, without increasing the monthly fee. You have 30 days to test or return the kit for a full refund, but after that there’s some fine print to be aware of. If you change the service address or cancel service, for example, you’ll be hit with a change fee equal to the cost of the hardware but prorated over time. Some subscribers will also be slapped with a one-time “demand surcharge” of around $100 in areas where SpaceX sees high usage.Nevertheless, for many, this might be a good deal. At my home in the Netherlands, for example, the Standard Kit costs €349 under the normal Residential plan costing €50 per month. The new 12-month commitment plan brings the hardware cost down to €0 without increasing the monthly fee. The change fee is listed at €349. Presumably, SpaceX did the math and found that bringing in more monthly subscribers by lowering the barrier to entry offsets any losses on the hardware sideThe 12-month residential plan has been quietly advertised in some countries over the last month but now Starlink is promoting it globally. It’s available in select markets in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and nationwide in most European countries. In Croatia, the plan only applies to the smaller and slower Starlink Mini kit.

Apple has quietly launched a new website called “‎Snapshot on Apple” that presents viewers with a carousel of celebrities and information on where you can find their work across the company’s services.The website, spotted by 9to5Mac reports, presents two slowly moving rows of celebrity images, with no way to manually scroll or search them. In total, we have counted 36 profiles, including Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, Matt Damon, Serena Williams, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake.The more useful part of the site is when you click into the cards. Each one takes you to a mini-profile of the celebrity and presents you with names and images of content they’re featured in with links out to Apple’s TV, Music, and Podcasts apps. They’re a bit like Apple-specific versions of the Feature.fm or Linktree pages that artists use to direct fans to their latest work.For instance, if you explore Zendaya, the page says that she’s an American actress and singer, and includes a “more” button that can bring out her full text profile. Under that card you can click to access content Zendaya is in, like Spider-Man: No Way Home, or her Podcast appearance on The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert.For now, Apple’s Snapshot seems like an unfinished product or perhaps something that’s meant to be part of an upcoming app or feature.