My old Windows laptop from 2020 had been sluggish for quite a while now, and I had almost come around to accepting the performance decay of its aging hardware. Having a lighting-fast desktop right next to it didn't help, because I was constantly drawing comparisons that the old Lenovo has no business being on the losing end of. I had considered third-party "system boosting" tools, and briefly toyed with the idea of a clean Windows reinstall too. The former was ineffective, while the latter seemed like too much work on a machine with almost 5 years worth of data.

A year ago, Mercedes-Benz did the prudent thing and paused its EQ lineup of electric vehicles in the US. With customer demand drying up for luxury EVs, and federal incentives getting axed by vengeful Republicans, Mercedes put its first-generation EVs on ice.But then, in January, Mercedes quietly reintroduced the EQS brand in the US, with The Drive declaring that the "blobs are back" - a reference to the sedan's much-maligned jelly-bean shape that prioritized aerodynamics over a more traditional profile. But we didn't yet realize how back the EQS truly was.Today, Mercedes is reintroducing its electric sedan to a wary, cash-strapped market …Read the full story at The Verge.

This past Saturday at the Coachella music festival, Justin Bieber played the first of two headlining sets in a deal reportedly worth $10 million. It was his most significant solo performance in years. But Bieber spent some of his time on stage the way many of us do on Saturday nights: on YouTube. For some of the set, Bieber played parts of his older songs right off YouTube from a Mac laptop. Behind him, on the stage's screen, you could see YouTube's website as he searched for songs in real time and then put the videos on full-screen while he sang along on stage. "I'm sorry to cut it, but these are little snippets. I just want to see how fa …Read the full story at The Verge.

Last year, I was surprised to test out a couple of ReMarkable tablets and find that they're a fantastic way to take notes in a digital format that still feels analog and satisfying to use. But ReMarkable isn't alone in this market, and now that I got to try the new Boox Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi, I have to say I find it hard to recommend anything else.

My home media setup has been a work in progress for years now. I like something, discover something better, break things, and, occasionally, switch back. And for the longest time, the Nvidia Shield was the backbone of that setup. Between AI upscaling, long-term software support, and generally excellent hardware, everything just worked. That is, until it broke down by itself. Well, not quite as straightforward as that. Apps stopped working properly, playback would often jerk, and the box would need a restart. After half a decade of reliable use, the hardware was finally giving up the ghost. In a bid to get a similar set-up, I thought the solution was to recreate the old Nvidia Shield TV setup using newer hardware. Except that similar hardware is hard, if not impossible, to find. Yes, I tried the Raspberry Pi and Jellyfin or Kodi approach, but it wasn't for me. That approach just doesn't work anymore because you're too accustomed to the conveniences afforded by a commercial streamer.

Even if you have a mini PC, you likely still have cable spaghetti and a box taking up space where your coffee mug or a charging pad could go. The solution to all of this, if you have a mini PC, is to use the fact that most monitors have four threaded holes on the back, in the form of a VESA mount, that 90% of people never really use. Why buy an iMac with unupgradable parts when you can mount a high-performance mini PC to a monitor and get that all-in-one look with DIY freedom?

Coachella kicked off on Friday, and as usual, it's the place to be for online influencers looking to show off their memorable experiences at the festival. A quick scroll through my social media feeds has already shown me many uncannily attractive figures in glitzy outfits, posing for perfectly staged photographs with celebrities.Only some of these content creators aren't really there. They don't even exist at all outside of our screens. They're generated using AI tools.Faking Coachella attendance is nothing new - even real influencers have been doing so in recent years - but generative AI has now progressed to the point where it's become …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Flex PC rental service didn’t make it clear to customers that it wasn’t a “rent-to-own” program. | Image: NZXT NZXT and its business partner Fragile have agreed to pay $3.45 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the companies of attempting to "scam" consumers through their Flex PC rental service. The preliminary settlement was filed in a California District Court on April 7th to close a civil RICO case against the Flex program over allegations that it defrauded 19,322 customers through deceptive marketing practices and aggressive debt collection.The settlement was shared on YouTube by Gamers Nexus, with host Steve Burke noting that NZXT and Fragile are still offering PC rental programs under the new agreement. This follows Gamers Ne …Read the full story at The Verge.

After Netflix started cracking down on password sharing and Amazon started pumping ads for Prime Video content, I have had enough. Besides, hopping between multiple subscriptions was fueling my subscription fatigue. I had to prepare for an alternative before canceling them.

Microsoft just raised the prices across its line of Surface devices amid the global RAM shortage. Now, the 13-inch Surface Pro 11 and the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 cost $500 more than their original starting price, going from $999 to $1,499, as reported earlier by Windows Central.Last year, Microsoft stopped selling the $999 versions of the Surface Pro 11 and the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 in favor of the $1,199 models with more storage. At the time, it seemed like Microsoft was trying to make room for the cheaper 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop that launched last May. However, these newer devices aren't safe from the pric …Read the full story at The Verge.

Whether you've bought yourself a 34-inch ultra-wide monitor or a dual 27-inch setup, just so you can see more, you'll find that your main screen is probably still a mess of Slack pings, Spotify playlists, and hardware monitors. This creates major friction, as every time you Alt-Tab to change a song or check your CPU temp, you break your deep work flow.

Claude has been the AI tool everyone and their mother have been talking about lately. While only developers seemed to talk about it up until a few months ago, hundreds of thousands of everyday users have since flocked to it. There are a lot of factors contributing to this sudden uptick: the Pentagon x OpenAI deal, Anthropic's stance on AI safety, the fact that Claude keeps getting useful and practical features, Claude Code, and the growing sense among users that Claude simply gets what you're asking for.