Readwise is pretty solid for what it does. It keeps your reading highlights in one place and helps you surface them instantly. It just makes it easy to remember what you read and keep track of important snippets, whether for research or personal purposes. And it has superior integration, letting you sync it with nearly every app under the sun - Kindle, Apple Books, Pocket, Medium, NotebookLM, you name it. The problem is that Readwise is a paid service, so it starts becoming one of those subscriptions you only pay because you’re used to having it in your reading kit, not because it’s necessarily making your reading life better.

Hoto exists because someone got bored.CEO Lidan Liu, the company's founder and a notable industrial designer, tells The Verge she was tired of advising from her consultancy Designaffairs China. I have to build something on my own, she thought. And back then, she was spending a lot of time in her workshop surrounded by the same old tools."The tool industry, it never changes, the products are boring, very masculine and very much designed for professional users," Liu thought. "We can start something new." So she founded iMonkey Technology, which later became Hoto, short for "Home Tools." She didn't have to build it alone. She knew a cofou …Read the full story at The Verge.

Hoto exists because someone got bored.CEO Lidan Liu, the company's founder and a notable industrial designer, tells The Verge she was tired of advising from her consultancy Designaffairs China. I have to build something on my own, she thought. And back then, she was spending a lot of time in her workshop surrounded by the same old tools."The tool industry, it never changes, the products are boring, very masculine and very much designed for professional users," Liu thought. "We can start something new." So she founded iMonkey Technology, which later became Hoto, short for "Home Tools." She didn't have to build it alone. She knew a cofou …Read the full story at The Verge.

Raspberry Pi projects can leverage the computing chops of the tiny SoC to build something very cool. In my college days, it was mostly about attaching a sensor to the Pi and then creating a device out of it. But as the computing prowess of Raspberry Pi grew, it became a perfect fit for self-hosted services. You can run customized operating systems on it, or apps that can help you switch to privacy-focused alternatives and save a lot of money on subscriptions.

Every once in a while, some piece of smart home tech launches that's genuinely different to those that came before it, and one that I came across at this year's Maker Faire in Shenzhen is the Astrion remote by Sanytron. Astrion is a dedicated universal remote built specifically with Home Assistant users in mind. Sanytron is a Chinese company that specialises in human–machine interaction hardware for smart homes and custom install systems, and the Astrion is a remote designed to look like a regular TV remote.

Cloud gaming and in-home streaming have come a long way, but the hardware you choose still affects the quality of the experience. Many people reach for a Chromecast running the Steam Link app because it is widely available and easy to set up. That approach works for casual sessions, and it is good enough for streaming older or slower-paced titles. Once you try pushing higher bitrates or more demanding games, the limitations become apparent.

Poco is at pains to admit that this “denim blue” version of the F8 Ultra includes no actual denim fabric. Xiaomi spin-off brand Poco has partnered with Bose to help its new F8 phones stand out in an increasingly crowded market. Both the F8 Pro and F8 Ultra feature stereo speakers designed collaboratively with the audio company, and the Ultra goes one step further by including a subwoofer too.Both new F8 phones feature the same dual stereo speakers tuned by Bose, though you’ll have to buy the Ultra if you want the benefits of the subwoofer as well, which Poco says delivers “deeper, more impactful bass.” Additionally, there are two sound profiles tuned by Bose engineers: a Dynamic mode that delivers extra bass, and a Balanced option that emphasizes vocals and a more even soundstage.“By combining Bose’s expertise in acoustic engineering with Poco’s innovation in design and technology, Poco F8 Series achieves a level of clarity and depth that redefines what’s possible in mobile sound,” said Nick Smith, president of audio technology and chief strategy officer at Bose.The two phones are otherwise fairly typical affordable flagships. The F8 Ultra has a more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, with a large 6.9-inch OLED display, triple 50-megapixel rear camera, and wireless charging. The F8 Pro uses last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, a smaller 6.59-inch screen, and downgrades to each of the three rear lenses. Both have IP68 ratings though, plus batteries bigger than 6,000mAh, which should deliver decent longevity.The F8 Pro starts from $579, while the Ultra is available from $729, though a $50 early bird discount is available at launch. The two phones were announced alongside a pair of sub-$400 tablets, the Pad X1 and Pad M1, both of which lean on high resolution displays and Dolby Atmos speakers to serve as good value entertainment options.

Somewhere along the way, upgrading a PC stopped being a modest indulgence that could be justified with a wink. In 2025, it feels more like stepping into a car dealership, reviewing your financing options while pretending you totally meant to look at the model that costs just as much as your monthly rent. A simple GPU refresh has drifted into the luxury-good territory, leaving the average gamer or creator wondering when their harmless hobby started requiring the financial composure of someone applying for a small loan.

It's no great secret that I'd work entirely from the Windows Terminal if I could. I've customized its look and feel, and swapped a bunch of resource-hungry apps for TUI versions. I've done the same for my Linux distros, and it just feels like home. Maybe that's because I started my computer journey on ProDOS and MS-DOS, so I learned the command line before anything else.

When I upgraded to the Alienware AW2725DF 360Hz OLED from the Zowie XL2546K last year, I expected a big jump in motion smoothness. The 240Hz panel was already pretty fast and ideal for competitive gaming, but I wanted to experience what the next step actually felt like, especially since I mainly play esports titles like Valorant and Counter-Strike 2. After using a 360Hz monitor almost every day for a year and a half, I can confidently say that the upgrade is not as impressive as I thought it would be.

Open your Task Manager right now, and sort it by memory usage. If your PC looks anything like mine, you'll likely see a familiar set of rogue applications towards the top, mostly comprised of chat apps, note-taking tools, and password managers. Chances are, your most RAM-hungry applications situated at the top are Electron-based applications. Or applications based on another, similar, framework, such as Tauri.

As 2025 winds down and 2026 stares right at us with its mountain of new releases, hype cycles, and the inevitable chaos of gaming discourse, I can't help but think about one thing. We gamers love this medium, but also find all the ways in the world to collectively self-sabotage the joy out of it.