You can wear the NotePin or clip it almost anywhere — which is pretty much its whole appeal. | Image: Plaud Kudos to Plaud for one thing: in a year otherwise marred by high-profile failures and oh so much AI vaporware, it made an AI gadget that does exactly what it claims to do and does it pretty well. The gadget is called the NotePin, and it’s a $169, pill-shaped voice recorder that can transcribe, summarize, and pull important information out of your audio. This is something current AI systems can actually do well! There’s good and mature tech at every step along the pipeline here, from tiny microphones to speech-to-text transcription to natural-language processing and AI summarization. The NotePin does it well.But the reason the NotePin works is also the reason I wouldn’t recommend buying one. AI voice recording is great and handy and... Continue reading…

The tech world is littered with well-meaning advice that might have been true at one point but has morphed into a mythological state. Some of these are more ingrained than others, whether they're about overclocking reducing your hardware's lifespan, 5G signals causing health issues, or that you're too small a target for cybercrime. Another widely accepted fact, if you can call it that these days, is that a wired network connection will be better for gaming than Wi-Fi. This used to be true, but advancements in Wi-Fi and a slowing of faster Ethernet adoption have flipped the script, and Wi-Fi is now a better option for online gaming.

A bottleneck is a term that you may often hear thrown around when it comes to gaming PCs. However, the term is also relevant to any PC, and it is caused when one component isn't quite up to the task at hand. This generally results in said component running close to or at 100%, causing other components to not run at their full potential. The end result of this is a loss of performance, which in most cases can be avoided.

A demo of Visual Intelligence from Apple’s iPhone 16 announcement video. | Image: Apple Apple’s new “Visual Intelligence” feature was one of the most impressive things shown at Monday’s iPhone 16 event. The tool lets users scan the world around them through the iPhone’s camera to identify a dog breed, copy event details off a poster, or look up just about anything around them.It’s a handy-looking feature that fits right in with the iPhone’s new camera button. But it may also be setting the stage for bigger products down the road: it’s the exact kind of thing Apple will need for future tech like AR glasses.It’s not hard to imagine how Visual Intelligence could help you out on a device that sees everything you see. Take the idea of learning more about a restaurant, like Apple showed for Visual Intelligence on an iPhone:... Continue reading…

Building your first home lab is always a thrilling endeavor. However, like any new experiment, its easy to stumble into common pitfalls that can turn your enthusiasm into frustration. In this guide, I will go over some of the common rookie mistakes to dodge while building your first home lab from scratch. These tips will ensure your home lab journey is smooth, productive, and, more importantly, enjoyable.

When it comes to Random Access Memory (RAM), it's imperative to know what specs your kit has. Capacity, frequency, and CAS latency (CL) timings are going to be the three biggest things you want to consider when trying to choose the best RAM for your PC. Of course, you will need to know what type of RAM is compatible with your motherboard, but once you know this, you can start looking into the best kit of RAM for your PC.

Image: The Verge The iPhone 16 lineup has 8GB of RAM, from the base model to the 16 Pro Max, and it’s all thanks to Apple Intelligence. Apple VP of hardware tech Johny Srouji confirmed as much in an interview with Geekerwan, published yesterday, that 9to5Mac spotted. Srouji explained in the interview that “DRAM is one aspect” when it comes to deciding hardware characteristics needed for Apple Intelligence, saying that the feature “led us to believe we need to get to 8GB.” He added that the extra RAM would also “help immensely” for tasks like high-end gaming on devices. Apple hadn’t previously stated how much RAM the iPhone 16 line has, but MacRumors discovered references to the 8GB number in Xcode after the phones were announced. Apple, which isn’t... Continue reading…

Single-Board Computers have changed a lot since the days of the first Raspberry Pi, though performance is still an area where most ARM-powered SBCs tend to falter. Even the all-powerful Raspberry Pi 5 can be brought to its knees if you try to build a resource-intensive project with the board. Thankfully, there are a couple of ways to grant some much-needed oomph to your adorable Raspberry Pi if you want it to perform better in your DIY projects.

Intel is having a rough time right now, so all eyes are on its more immediate releases to see if it can calm back some of its former pride. Fortunately, we don't have to wait for Intel to announce its products, as leakers have been hard at work supplying the internet with data on what the new chips will look like. A leaker has pulled back the Intel Core Ultra 200K final specs, and if it's to be believed, we're going to see something cool in a few weeks.

Image: The Verge Disney and DirecTV are back in business with each other after a carriage dispute that has kept ESPN, ABC, and other Disney-owned networks off of the cable provider since the beginning of September. ESPN and other channels Disney had blocked have been restored, giving DirecTV subscribers access, once again, to Monday Night Football, college football games, and other programming from Disney’s channels.As part of the deal, DirecTV will offer packages that include Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus as bundles or a la carte options. It’ll also include “Disney’s upcoming ESPN flagship direct-to-consumer service” when it launches, for no extra cost. And DirecTV will be able to “offer multiple genre-specific options — sports, entertainment, kids... Continue reading…

With the internet reeling after the announcement of a $699.99 PS5 Pro, people have been wondering what its competitors are planning. After all, if Microsoft and Nintendo can show up Sony with more affordable hardware, it could mean a big blow to Team Playstation's plans. If you've been wondering how much the Switch 2 may cost, here's some good news; not only is it pretty affordable for a next-gen Nintendo console, but it may be getting an announcement very soon.

Forgetting the password to your Windows laptop is an incredibly frustrating and worrying experience. The fear that you may be losing all your data is not something anyone wants to experience. Thankfully, Windows 11 allows you to recover your password or sign-in information if you've forgotten it.