It’s already raised over $700,000 on Kickstarter. | Image: Bastl Make no mistake, the Bastl Kalimba is a synthesizer, you just play it like a kalimba. Its tines don't really make much sound. There is an internal mic that you can blend in for a little acoustic spice, but it's mostly driven by the synth engine that combines physical modeling and FM. The tines are actually touch and velocity-sensitive triggers. And, while it can sound somewhat like a real kalimba, it's a lot more sonically versatile and offers features you can only find on a synth.Beyond the synth sounds that range from pluck to pads, there are also built-in effects covering basic spatial effects like delay and reverb, as well as distortio …Read the full story at The Verge.

First there was Ship of Harkinian and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and next came 2ship2harkinian (clever name, right?) and Majora's Mask. Now, a GameCube and Wii classic,The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, has been given the fan-made PC port treatment.

I can’t wait for a proper full length. | Image: Blitzcat Records I've got to thank my oldest friend and concert buddy, Tim, for turning me on to this one. Ashnymph is a London band that blends post-punk melodies with Krautrock rhythms and industrial grime. Their debut EP, Childhood, drifts between dreamy vocals buried in layers of reverb and four-on-the-floor dancefloor pounding. It's a thrilling opening salvo from a band that feels on the cusp of a major breakthrough.Childhood opens with an ambient recording of someone walking down a hall (I think), and some swirling synth noise before the first song, "Island in the Sky" kicks off properly with a motorik beat and bass throb. The thin, digitally manipul …Read the full story at The Verge.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it: Google's AI efforts are something I've always had a complicated relationship with. Their journey has been interesting, to say the least. They began with whatever Bard was, which eventually led to the rebrand to Gemini, and I still think their main consumer-facing AI products are still finding their footing. ChatGPT is still the default the average person reaches for when they think of AI, Claude has built its own loyal following among more technical people (and well, everyone now), and Gemini is just...there.

Substack, the once buzzy newsletter platform, is losing a new swath of writers to rival platforms most people haven't heard of. Just last month, The Ankler, one of Substack's most popular publications, left for a platform that gives it more control over its site. Others who have departed Substack within the past year voiced similar complaints and cite the platform's increased focus on social features as well as a pricing model that puts a chokehold on their business.Substack faced talent drain in 2024 linked to its platforming of Nazi newsletters, but now it's not just the platform's stance on hate speech that's driving away creators.Sea …Read the full story at The Verge.

The desk-friendly Cricut Joy 2 comes in multiple colors. | Photo: Sheena Vasani / The Verge I've always been skeptical of products that claim to help you lead a more creative life. But one recently won me over. I've spent three weeks with the Cricut Joy 2, a smart cutting and drawing machine that made it easy for me to get back into making stickers, cards, bookmarks, and more.The small $99 gadget isn't perfect, but its capabilities and app-provided templates were just what I was looking for. Caregiving, self-criticism, and mental health struggles have made it tough to tinker and doodle like I used to, and yet the Joy 2 clicked with me. It doles out quick wins when you're in the mood to create.I've been testing the Cricut Joy 2 …Read the full story at The Verge.

The weekend when I made a segmented home network live using OPNsense on a mini PC, I felt genuinely proud. Separate VLANs for IoT devices, trusted machines, and guests. Solid firewall rules to safeguard my home network. Smart devices are isolated in their own subnet, away from primary machines.

Whether you're building out a home theater experience or want the best picture for your gaming PC, OLED is often cited for its color reproduction and viewing experience. And well, it is, until it isn't. Cryptic comment, I know, but it'll make sense. See, OLED is hard to manufacture reliably, and the panels that make it off the line are near-perfect.

I’ve been trying to build websites for quite some time now. The first website I built was a tech blog that I started as a passion project back in 2019. After that, I tried building a portfolio website, a few tools, and some other small projects, but I never really succeeded in getting things to the point I wanted. It usually takes a lot of effort just to get a site up and running.

When Google first announced Gemini integration inside Google Maps, I honestly thought it was just another AI feature companies add because every app now needs “AI.” I expected a chatbot inside Maps and nothing more.

My Linux journey started with Ubuntu as a test operating system. I played around with hypervisors to get any Linux or alternative OS working. Back then, it wasn't about learning it but simply discovering what a Windows alternative looks like. Slowly, it became a part of my college curriculum, and I used it on both college and personal computers. But today's Ubuntu is wildly different from what I tried 11 years ago. Its design, feature set, and overall package try to appeal to a bigger audience.

I was a very early adopter of the AM4 platform because, at the time, I was part of AMD's influencer team, received pre-release hardware, and was physically at the Zen launch event. At the time, it was a huge jump from the older Intel platform I'd been using, which had DDR3, PCIe 2.0, and a short expected lifespan because of Intel's release cadence. I used that hardware until very recently, and only upgraded when my daily tasks felt slower to accomplish.