You might've noticed a pretty huge shift in the way the average user uses AI between 2022 and now. I'm not really talking about using it for more advanced workflows and relying on it more. That was bound to happen. In late 2022, we got our first real look into what AI was when OpenAI launched ChatGPT publicly, and now practically every tool is just an AI tool in disguise. That part of the story has been told over and over again. The shift I'm highlighting here, though, is this: if you use AI for anything more than the occasional search-replacement question, you're almost certainly paying for it now. In fact, you might be paying for two or three different tools, because each one has carved out a specific thing it's best at.

An exceptionally weird controversy has come back to haunt Cox Media and a pair of marketing firms, which claimed they were secretly listening to users via phones and smart devices - despite little evidence they actually could. On Thursday the Federal Trade Commission announced that Cox, MindSift, and 1010 Digital Works would pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations that they were in fact lying about spying on people to target ads.As chronicled by Techdirt a couple of years ago, Cox publicly boasted about a system called Voice Data back in 2023, telling potential digital marketing clients they could ensure "every casual conversation be …Read the full story at The Verge.

In the last few years, DLSS is becoming one of the settings most gamers instinctively look for whenever they launch a demanding AAA title, especially if it features an open-world setting and supports ray tracing. After all, Nvidia has improved DLSS to the point where the upscaled image looks almost as good as native while boosting your frame rates. So there's really no reason not to take advantage of it.

AI is promising, but it's also reaching a point where it's no longer very economical to run, especially at scale. Even consumer-focused AI subscriptions are becoming expensive. For example, Claude's higher-tier plan starts at $200 per month, which is not the kind of subscription fee you typically see in the consumer market.

Our car dashboard has become the final frontier for our digital attention. Apple CarPlay is a powerful tool, but without a deliberate setup, it can quickly become just another screen competing for your focus while you are behind the wheel. That’s why I have streamlined my interface to prioritize only what is essential: seamless navigation, effortless audio control, and glanceable information.

A new tool has dropped that lets users rip proprietary optical media for a wide range of retro consoles, including the GameCube, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, and more, so you can back up your games without delving into the murky waters of piracy.

If you are looking to upgrade your PC, storage shouldn't be your next priority, especially if you are already using an NVMe SSD. At a time when SSD prices are near an all-time high, you should focus on better storage organization. Modern SSDs are already fast enough, and a hardware upgrade won't bring any meaningful or noticeable change to performance for the average user, but better organization can.

Over the past six months, I have been convinced that my router was quietly dying. The pages loaded slowly, video streams buffered every minute, and video calls often dropped. Whenever that happened, I’d run a speed test, take a screenshot of the results, and send it to my ISP, who simply suggested, "Did you try turning the router off and on again?"

While troubleshooting what I thought was a DisplayPort issue with my Samsung Odyssey G8, I switched to HDMI using the cable marked "HDMI 2.1," which matches my display's spec. The panel lit up, the resolution was correct, and at first glance, nothing seemed wrong, but when I noticed the refresh rate was capped well below the panel's advertised 4K 240Hz spec, I knew the cable was at fault. Upon inspecting the rest of my HDMI cable collection, I noticed most cables I own aren't capable of the top-end of HDMI 2.1 spec, despite the fact that they came bundled with HDMI 2.1-capable devices.

I'll admit, when I first added Tailscale to my home lab, I was only using it for secure remote access. That's a perfectly good use for it, and likely the one most have heard about, but it's only the tip of the iceberg. Not long after, I was running it connected to every container, device, router, and pretty much everything else.

Adobe and I parted ways a while back, but even before that my Photoshop tab was never really the only one open, there was always some or other editor I was poking at. One of them was Pixlr, which I'd honestly forgotten about in the sea of new editors over the years. It's changed quite a bit since I first stumbled across it. Of course, the main driver for this change was AI, and it's now considered an AI editor.

Pi-hole is one of the best upgrades you can make to your home network if you have a device capable of self-hosting it. There are other alternatives, of course, like AdGuard Home, but Pi-hole has a very easy-to-understand UI that makes it one of the better options out there.