LG’s new microwave mounted above its range, thereby ‘eliminating the need to bend down and check the oven manually.’ | Image: LG LG has responded to Samsung in the battle to slap displays on every home appliance you own, culminating in the LG Signature microwave which puts a superfluous 27-inch LCD touchscreen and speakers into an appliance you probably don’t even need. LG says the microwave’s display provides “an immersive entertainment experience” that’ll surely prevent the onset of buyer’s remorse at having overpaid for a potential advertising machine centrally located in your kitchen. And when paired with LG’s oven, it “conveniently shows the cooking progress of dishes in the range, eliminating the need to bend down and check the oven manually.”In 2023, LG announced plans to transform its hardware-based business into a platform-based service model that continuously generates profits. In September, the company started displaying full-screen ads on its idle televisions. Image: LG LG’s latest Signature devices. The company’s second-generation Signature lineup of Wi-Fi appliances continues the tradition of putting a giant transparent OLED “Instaview” touchscreen on its fridge, alongside smaller LCDs on its washer and dryer. LG’s Signature displays can be used to operate the local appliance, access entertainment, and control devices in the LG smart home. The announcement follows Samsung recently announcing a wider variety of display choices on its home appliances, ranging from 4.3 inches all the way up to 32 inches. It’s all part of the company’s strategy to put “screens everywhere,” instead of easy-to-use buttons and dials that rarely fail and are cheap to replace.LG hasn’t announced any prices, countries of availability, or shipping dates for its new Signature lineup of appliances. But we’ll surely learn more when everything is demonstrated at the giant CES show which kicks off on January 7th in Las Vegas.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is the latest entry in the uber-popular SBC lineup, and it packs enough upgrades to make it a worthwhile addition to any tinkerer's workshop. From its superior quad-core Arm Cortex A76 processor to the new PCIe Gen 2 interface and a dedicated power button, this powerful little SBC is not only great for hobbyist projects, but can also serve as a portable PC for everyday tasks.

Intel's new Battlemage GPUs are now out in the wild, and if the company's own reports are to be trusted, they seem to be selling more of them than expected. It's a nice story at the end of a rough year for the chip giant and a close shave for its GPU department: there were rumors that Intel would shutter its entire high-end graphics card venture if Battlemage flopped. Fortunately, that seems to have been averted, as the company is reportedly planning a 24GB version for 2025.

You know, I kind of forgot that Half-Life 3 (or Episode 3, for that matter) was one of gaming's longest-standing memes. There was a time when Valve CEO Gabe Newell couldn't so much as cough without people believing it was a reference to Gordon Freeman's newest adventures. However, that old flame has once again reignited, as Valve is reportedly bringing people in to playtest an early build of Half-Life 3.

Notion is one of the most popular organizational and productivity platforms available, recently surpassing 100M users. Its block-based system is highly flexible, allowing users to create customized solutions for managing data. Whether used as a time tracker, project management tool, CRM, event planner, or simply for organizing notes, Notion enables users to build systems tailored to their needs. This broad applicability made it an appealing choice when a multimillion-dollar outdoor advertising company approached me to design a custom system.

Windows is a versatile operating system that allows you to install software from official and third-party sources to enhance its usability. Most users only rely on popular apps like MS Office, Photoshop, Chrome, and more for their work or leisure on Windows PCs. However, there are numerous lesser-known apps that can significantly boost your productivity, efficiency, and overall experience of using Windows OS.

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/06/29: Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a press briefing at office on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. | Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images New York governor Kathy Hochul signed landmark climate legislation into law last week, showing how states can keep holding polluters accountable even when President-elect Donald Trump rolls back environmental protections.New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act will require the biggest multinational oil and gas companies to contribute to a fund that’ll be used for infrastructure projects meant to protect New York residents from increasingly dangerous climate disasters like storms and sea level rise. “New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world”Trump will soon step back into office and is expected to dismantle existing climate policies and gut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), having openly disparaged clean energy and federal environmental regulations on the campaign trail. So for the next four years at least, Americans will have to rely on local and state efforts like this to deal with the pollution from fossil fuels that’s causing climate change. “New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” State Senator Liz Krueger said in a statement after Hochul... Read the full story at The Verge.

DJI’s new fast car charger connected to a DJI power station. | Image: DJI DJI has quietly introduced a powerful new car charger for its giant portable batteries. The $299 / €269 Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger can charge the company’s expanding lineup of power stations at up to 1000W from your car’s alternator when the engine is running.This new class of (nearly) do-it-yourself alternator chargers are having a moment now that the most popular makers of solar generators and power stations have embraced DC-to-DC chargers. I wouldn’t have survived without one when remote working from my van last summer.Once the Power 1kW is mounted inside your vehicle and connected to the car’s battery via the included 5m (16 feet 5 inches) fused cable, it then connects to the proprietary SDC port of the dongle-happy DJI Power 1000 power station I recently reviewed. It’ll also charge DJI’s 2048Wh Power 2000 Expansion Batteries when daisy-chained together with SDC cables for up to 11kWh of stackable storage capacity. The Power 1kW can also be configured to reverse-charge your car’s battery to prevent battery drain.At full power the DJI Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger can charge the Power 1000’s 1024Wh battery in just over an hour’s drive. However, out of the box the Power 1kW is pegged to 500W of charging output. To reach 1000W you have to purchase yet another dongle — the $25 DJI Power Dongle — and then adjust the setting to 1000W in the app. Fortunately, DJI is bundling that dongle as a “free gift” with new purchases of the DJI Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger, at least in the US.DJI’s announcement follows the arrival of the 800W EcoFlow Alternator Charger I reviewed last summer and the new 560W Bluetti AC500 announced in the fall (review is coming). EcoFlow’s charger, like DJI’s, uses a proprietary connector making it best suited to charge its own giant batteries, whereas the Bluetti AC500 can charge solar generators and power stations from nearly every manufacturer, but at half the rate of the DJI. Of course, all this assumes that your vehicle is fitted with a high-capacity alternator that can spare the amps.

The motherboard takes a full-size 24-pin ATX power link from the power supply, which handles most functions on the PC. Still, there's also a dedicated central processing unit (CPU) connection, usually located in the top-left, between the voltage regulator modules (VRMs) and rear I/O. Sometimes, you'll see more than two headers, consisting of an 8-pin and 4-pin or two 8-pin links. The question is; do you need to use all available headers or would using the standard 8-pin setup suffice for most PC builds and for the system to run stable?

Modern Windows laptops are designed to handle a variety of tasks, from light work like calculating to heavy workloads like gaming. But when it comes to leaving your machine ON all the time, the decision isn't as simple as it might seem.

The state of PC gaming doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, considering the string of broken launches, cash grabs, and straight-up scams we've had to deal with in the last few years. Despite having more powerful hardware and advanced development techniques than ever before, AAA games are increasingly characterized by unoptimized performance and visuals that seem to be going backward.

It's the end of the road for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, which debuted in 2019. The best drives are hitting the limit of what's possible with PCIe 4.0, which begs the question: how much faster is Samsung's 990 Pro than the 980 Pro, two of the best drives on the market, and which one is the best overall for laptops and desktops? For most users, thankfully, the choice won't be difficult to make.