I've been using AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini for tasks from coding to organizing my messy file folders, but I realized I haven't done any fundamental testing of how they behave when given the same tasks. Sure, I've given them similar tasks to handle, but not the exact same ones, to see how the output matches up.

Move over GeForce RTX 5090, there's a new king in town. That's the Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Workstation edition, which is more powerful (and much more expensive!) than the RTX 5090. While the 96GB of ECC-capable VRAM is designed for AI, CAD, 3D modeling, and other professional workloads, the first question I had was "can it game?"

It’s no secret that VS Code has been the undisputed king of my dock. It’s a reliable, extension-heavy powerhouse that handles everything from quick edits to full-scale projects. But thanks to its major 1.0 release, Zed has officially transitioned from a promising experiment to my primary development environment.

Ask the average person what they use AI for, and they'll probably rattle off the usual suspects: drafting emails, writing up quick LinkedIn posts, summarizing meeting notes, maybe debugging a line of code, and generating images. From creating images of you hugging your past self to turning yourself into a Pixar character to designing entire product mock-ups and marketing assets, AI image generation is essentially no longer a party trick.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is still the default answer when somebody wants a small Linux board, and for good reason. However, there's a much smaller, much cheaper board that beats it on several of the specs enthusiasts care about most: the newly released Orange Pi Zero 3W. It's roughly the same physical size as a Raspberry Pi Zero, runs an octa-core Allwinner A733 with up to 16GB of LPDDR5, has a Vulkan-capable PowerVR GPU and a 3 TOPS NPU on board, and starts at $25 for the 1GB model.

If you use Windows 11 on a laptop, the Touchpad gestures can be a lifesaver. With just a swipe of a finger (or two, or three), you can perform tasks that would otherwise require a mouse to use. They're great for power users who want to get more done faster.

When I first got the RTX 4090 in 2022, I paired it with a 4K/160Hz IPS monitor because I knew it was powerful enough to handle almost any game I threw at it. Moreover, at that resolution, the GPU is usually the limiting factor, so I didn't have to worry about any other bottlenecks in my build. A couple of years later, though, I wanted a faster monitor purely for competitive gaming, so I got the Alienware AW2725DF 360Hz OLED.

Owning two high-end GPUs is a huge luxury, and it's not lost on me that during these trying times for PC enthusiasts, having even one current-gen card is an amenity. I'm blessed enough to play with hardware for my job, and being able to have two systems running the latest cards from AMD and Nvidia has taught me something valuable about GPU purchases. I picked up the RX 9070 XT first, drawn in by AMD's value pitch and the promise that RDNA 4 had finally closed the gap. The RTX 5080 came later as an addition to my test suite, and while the RX 9070 XT is undoubtedly the stronger card in a value sense, seeing both side-by-side in person showed me that software is genuinely worth paying extra for in a GPU.

When you're making stuff with teeny-tiny hardware, a Tamagotchi is just one of many things you can make with it. I mean, it makes sense; it's pocket-sized, it makes for an engaging project, and once you're done, you have a cute little fella to take care of. Sounds like a win on all fronts, if you ask me.

The Linux desktop has improved in plenty of visible ways over the last decade, from better hardware support to cleaner app stores and smoother graphics stacks. Those changes matter, and they’re usually the ones that get the most attention. But the bigger shift is quieter than that. Linux got better when it stopped making every routine decision feel like a test.

How small a computer do you think you could make? What if you could make something that featured a processor, a small e-ink display, and an NFC chip that all fit on something that is literally the size of a credit card? And if you could, what on Earth would you even use it for?

It's both really easy and quite difficult to forget that Windows 11 is built on some very old code. It's at its easiest to forget when you're using the newer, more polished features in Windows 11. Then you open up Control Panel, and bam, it feels like you stepped back a few decades. The OS is a mix of legacy and brand-new code to help Windows 11 keep up with the demands of the modern-day person.