The Freestyle Plus still looks like the original 1080p Freestyle projector. | Image: Samsung The Freestyle Plus all-in-one portable projector features 430 ISO lumens, or "nearly twice the brightness of the previous generation," according to Samsung. Great! But also a little strange since both the original and second generation Freestyle projectors listed "550 lumens" on their respective spec sheets. See, projector makers are notorious for playing fast and loose with the lumen spec. So much so that Epson has been on a legal rampage over the last few years. As a result, companies like Anker, Yaber, AAXA, Xgimi, AWOL vision… even Dr. J have all been forced to restate brightness measurements in industry standard ISO lumens. That's goo …Read the full story at The Verge.

Thanks to my obsession with DIY projects and server experiments, I’ve tinkered with all sorts of virtualization platforms, container runtimes, and hypervisors over the years. These range from popular tools like Docker, Kubernetes, ESXi, and VirtualBox to quirky FreeBSD distros and obscure Unix-like operating systems. Then there’s Microsoft’s Hyper-V, a hypervisor that’s often frowned upon in the home lab community, especially when you run it on a resource-hogging Windows 11 host.

Running a speed test and seeing the exact speeds you're paying your ISP for is always a good feeling, but that feeling subsides quickly once you start experiencing issues in real-world network loads. Choppy video calls, spiking latency in online games, and sluggish responses from cloud apps can all be symptoms of a bigger problem. Your network looks fine on paper, but in practice, it's unreliable.

Starlink satellites with solar arrays deployed. | Image: SpaceX After one of its Starlink satellites exploded and another narrowly avoided colliding with a Chinese satellite, SpaceX says it will lower the orbit of thousands of Starlink satellites to increase safety.Of the over 9,000 Starlink satellites currently operating in low Earth orbit, SpaceX says it'll lower about 4,400 from 550km above the Earth's surface to about 480km in the months ahead. This ensures the satellites deorbit faster when something goes wrong or when they reach end of life, and it also reduces the likelihood of collision since "the number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations is significantly lower below 500km," …Read the full story at The Verge.

Every new year in gaming is supposed to be about progress. better visuals, smart AI, richer worlds, more convincing physics, and systems that finally feel like they're catching up to the hardware we've been buying. And yet, horror games, especially the big-budget ones, keep dragging along the same tired design tropes like emotional baggage they refuse to unpack.

The ReSpeaker Lite is a single-board kit for building your own smart speaker, packing a dual microphone array, mute and user buttons, a 3.5mm out jack, a JST PH-2.0 speaker connector, and an XMOS XU316 audio processor. I previously connected mine to a CD wallet speaker that I took apart, but since I picked up a 3D printer, I wanted to take things up a notch. Now I've got a pretty decent looking speaker enclosure that looks good and sounds great, and I couldn't be happier.

After years of using Windows, I decided to give Linux a try. I knew it wasn't an easy path and that there would be a learning curve, but I couldn't ignore the privacy concerns with Windows. Linux, on the other hand, being open-source, seemed like the best alternative. I tried a dual-boot setup with both Linux and Windows 10 installed on my laptop. While the initial Linux setup was a breeze, it was the post-installation experience that made me realize why Windows continues to dominate the market, despite Linux offering so many advantages over it. Yes, I do acknowledge that Linux is more privacy-oriented, but there are areas where Windows has a clear edge, and that, too, where it matters the most, at least for regular users.

GPU pricing hasn't made sense in a while, and the MSRPs no longer reflect the needs of everyday gamers and creators. Between AI-driven demand, supply constraints, and manufacturers chasing enterprise margins, consumer cards seem to have become collateral damage in a market that is built more around availability than a consumer value proposition.

Petkit has announced two new automated machines at CES 2026 designed to feed and care for your pets using AI-powered cameras that track their behavior and provide health insights that may otherwise go unnoticed. Launching sometime in April 2026, the Petkit Yumshare Daily Feast is one of the first automatic dispensers that works with wet food. The machine can provide up to 7 days of meals and uses an NFC-based tracking system to automatically remove a serving if it hasn't been consumed after 48 hours. UVC lighting helps sanitize the delivery of fresh meals, while an AI-powered 1080P night vision camera with a 140-degree field-of-view tracks …Read the full story at The Verge.

I have always prided myself on my PowerPoint skills, but after integrating Copilot into my workflow, I have realized that skill was mostly just wasted time. Initially, I was skeptical about using AI in my slides. Then, I gave Copilot a rough outline and watched in real-time as it structured my narrative, visualized my data, and polished the design before I could even finish my coffee.

Marvel fans are going to have to prepare themselves for a big year in 2026. Not only are there going to be a few massive movie releases for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but for Marvel games as well. Multiple projects featuring Marvel Comics heroes are in development, with a few planned for release sometime in 2026. My anticipation for them is staggeringly high.

While some people choose to self-host everything they can, I continue to pay for services I could set up myself.