SSDs are pretty reliable, especially when compared to a spinning HDD, but they still have a finite number of rewrites they can withstand before they start to fail. This is on a cell-by-cell level, not necessarily the entire drive getting bricked after a while. SSDs store data in different ways with several different options: Single-Level Cell (SLC) or Multi-Level Cell (MLC), which can be broken down into Triple-Level Cell (TLC), and Quad-Level Cell (QLC). SLC is known to be the most durable, but also the most expensive, while QLC offers tons of storage with slightly less durability.

When Google, along with a consortium of other companies, announced the open-source operating system we call Android way back in 2007, the world was paying attention. The iPhone had launched the same year, and the entire mobile space was wary of the rush of excitement around the admittedly revolutionary device. AOSP (Android Open Source Project) was born, and within a few years Android swallowed up market share with phones of all shapes and sizes from manufacturers all over the globe. Android eventually found its way into TVs, fridges, washing machines, cars, and the in-flight entertainment system of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Over the years, many note-taking tools such as Bear, Obsidian, Roam Research, and more have adopted Markdown formatting by default. Among them, Obsidian stands out for several reasons, such as a clean UI, robust plugin store, rich theming engine, graph view, backlinks, and more.

The Frame can easily pass for a traditional picture frame, which is part of its charm. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you want to help the student in your life feel a little more at home this school year, Samsung’s Music Frame is a unique piece of dorm decor that’ll do just the trick. And right now, the art-inspired smart speaker is down to $347.99 ($52 off) at Amazon, which matches the all-time low we last saw during Amazon Prime Day.Samsung’s Music Frame is a lot of things. As the name implies, it’s a mountable 12.9 x 12.9-inch picture frame you can hang on your wall or rest on the included display stand. However, unlike the larger Sonos / Ikea Symfonisk frame speaker, you can customize Samsung’s speaker with physical photographs of, say, loved ones back home. You can even get creative and swap it out with physical art prints if you feel so... Continue reading…

The Apple HomeKit compatible Logitech Circle View Doorbell is still alive and buzzing. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Apple HomeKit users can breathe a sigh of relief. Logitech’s Circle View Doorbell and Circle View Camera, an indoor/outdoor security camera, are still being manufactured and sold — despite a comment from Logitech’s CEO saying she thought they were “pretty much gone,” although she would need to “double-check.”The Circle View lineup represents two of just a handful of security cameras compatible with Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service. If they went away, it would be slim pickings for smart home users who like the security and privacy features of Apple’s video services. @decoderpod Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber said the company’s smart home products may soon be discontinued to focus on its three core categories. #logitech #home #... Continue reading…

You're going to get better value from a desktop gaming PC, but if you're someone that doesn't have a lot of space, or wants to take their PC gaming action with them while on the go, then there's no better option than going with a gaming laptop. Of course, you could also go with a PC gaming handheld, but the sheer power of a gaming laptop is going to go unmatched. With that said, the only hurdle here is that gaming laptops don't come cheap. And if you're in the market for one, you'll know how expensive they can be.

Image: Apple Apple’s iOS 18.1 developer preview comes with an AI-powered feature that lets you record and transcribe phone calls, as reported by MacRumors. Users with access to the beta can tap the new “record” button in the top-left corner of the call screen to keep an audio log of their call.Once enabled, all callers will hear a message saying, “This call will be recorded.” The Phone app will then record the call, while automatically creating a transcription that will appear in the Notes app. In addition, users will also be able to access the full audio recording and an AI-generated summary of the call in the Notes app.Apple first showed off phone call recording during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The feature seems useful for... Continue reading…

The best Apple Watch models have been waterproof for years, so you can wear them while swimming or showering without running into any problems. However, a feature called Water Lock can be switched on for extra protection. While Apple changed the way Water Lock works with watchOS 9, it is still found in earlier watchOS versions as well as in the latest watchOS 11. If you want to use Water Lock on your Apple Watch to prevent water from causing accidental screen presses or to eject water from your smartwatch, these are the steps for using it.

ADT’s new smart security system is now available nationwide. ADT Plus features new ADT hardware and integrates with Google Nest cameras and video doorbells, and the Yale Assure Lock 2. | Image: ADT ADT’s long-rumored new security system is now live on ADT.com. Featuring entirely new ADT hardware and integrations with Google Nest cameras, smart speakers, and more, the new ADT Plus system has a distinctly Google Nest Secure look and feel (RIP). But how it will work in your home remains to be seen. The company also announced that the Yale Assure Lock 2 will be the first smart lock compatible with Trusted Neighbor, its new feature that leverages technologies such as smart locks and facial recognition to make it easier for people you trust to get into your home in an emergency — or just to feed the dog. If you have the smart lock as part of the system, you’ll be able to set it so that when your “trusted neighbor” comes to the house to... Continue reading…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images A federal judge in New York ruled that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can’t search travelers’ phones without a warrant. The ruling theoretically applies to land borders, seaports, and airports — but in practice, it only applies to New York’s Eastern District. That’s not nothing, though, since the district includes John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, the sixth-busiest airport in the country. Nationwide, CBP has conducted more than 230,000 searches of electronic devices between the 2018 and 2023 fiscal years at land borders, seaports, and airports, according to its publicly available enforcement statistics. The ruling stems from a criminal case against Kurbonali Sultanov, a naturalized US citizen from Uzbekistan, who was ordered to... Continue reading…

There’s a bit of soldering involved with the mod, so Voultar will initially be only selling an installation service. | Screenshot: Macho Nacho Productions Nintendo sold over 49 million Super Nintendo consoles, but not all of them were created equal. A later hardware revision improved the quality of the SNES’s video output, and over three decades later, one modder has come up with a way to bring those same improvements to nearly every Super Nintendo ever released.Zach Henson, a console modder who also goes by the name Voultar, has created a DIY modification kit for older Super Nintendo consoles called the Edge Enhancer. Expected to sell for around $60, the mod kit upgrades the console’s video output, making graphics appear much sharper and colors more saturated.Although Nintendo made many revisions to the Super Nintendo’s hardware during the console’s production run, for retro gamers,... Continue reading…

Image: MysteryLupin (X) Google appears to be preparing to launch a fourth generation Nest Learning Thermostat. Details on the thermostat first leaked last week, and now the same leaker has posted more documents on X that show this new model will have a customizable home screen, a new “Dynamic Farsight” feature, and a “borderless” display.The leaks detail a “high-res borderless display” which looks like it will allow the UI of the Nest Learning Thermostat to extend into the area that was typically a black bezel on existing third generation units. Other leaked images show UI elements that appear much closer to the bezels of the display, too. Image: MysteryLupin (X) The leaked specs of the fourth generation Nest Learning Thermostat. D... Continue reading…