2025 still has four months left, but we don't have any more hardware launches scheduled for this year. So, I believe it's time to take out my notes and present my 2026 wishlist for the PC hardware industry. We got new GPUs from Nvidia and AMD this year, some more X3D CPUs from AMD, and some rumors of RTX 50 Super refresh coming later this year.

It's only been a couple of months since I first gave Linux a serious shot on one of my PCs, and since then, I've quickly grown into a big fan of it. These days, I would rather spend more time in Linux than on Windows, but of course, there are some things that make this impossible. Missing apps like Adobe Lightroom is a significant problem, and for many people, the same sentiment applies to something like Microsoft Office.

This Alienware gaming monitor is one that we loved, and it managed to deliver on all levels, which is why we decided to give it an impressive 9/10 score. Of course, the $900 price tag doesn't make it an easy purchase, which is why this current deal from Amazon that knocks $326 off is so important. For a limited time, you can grab this QD-OLED monitor for its lowest price, which makes it an absolute steal.

When I first started using Obsidian, I fell into the same trap many people do: I spent more time building the system than using it. My vault was a mess of half-baked ideas and an overwhelming number of plugins. I was constantly tweaking things and hoped that the ‘perfect’ setup was just one more change away, but I was wrong.

Before I moved away from Windows as my primary operating system, I fell in love with a tool called FancyZones. It's included in Microsoft's PowerToys suite, and if it's not clear, Microsoft also makes Windows 11. So, I always kind of wished that FancyZones would someday be implemented directly in Windows, and even wrote about that exact wish. I've also written about how I had to find alternatives to FancyZones when switching to other platforms, such as MacsyZones on macOS and the Tiling Shell extension for GNOME when I used Ubuntu.

It's the beginning of a month, and that also kicks off a fresh wave of features and updates for several Microsoft apps and services. This time around, the software giant has started with one of its popular tools on Windows: Microsoft PowerToys.

The update starts rolling out globally in September. Google is updating user profiles for its Play Games service on Android devices to display gaming stats, achievements, and social features. The changes include a suite of new capabilities for “showcasing and tracking your game progress and stats, new ways to build your gaming community, and allowing you to tailor your profile to your liking,” according to Google’s help page.The update will be applied automatically, and starts rolling out in most global regions on September 23rd, and on October 1st for users in the EU and UK. Google is also emailing Google Play users directly to notify them about the changes. When applied, Google Play Games profiles and features will start appearing on the Google Play Store to prevent users from having to switch between apps when managing their accounts. The unified update aims to help users who make their profile information public to connect with other players and track their gaming milestones. It’s unclear what this will specifically entail, but it sounds similar to how player information, gaming history, and achievements are currently displayed on Valve’s Steam service.

When I got both a Samsung tablet and phone, I was really surprised when I copied text on one device and it automatically beamed over to the other. It made me wish that Windows had a feature like that, where I could copy text either on my PC or my Android device and have it appear on the other. I couldn't find anything that did it automatically, so I had to settle for mirroring apps that could handle it for me.

I've never been a huge fan of cloud storage services in general. The idea that my access to my files is always dependent on an internet connection wasn't all that appealing, and the idea of paying a monthly fee for cloud storage was also not particularly enticing. I did do it for some time, though, because it's still the most convenient way for the average Joe to store files in the long-term.

Though Google announced NotebookLM as a Google Labs project under the codename Project Tailwind during Google I/O 2023, the AI research assistant only really took off once it added the Audio Overviews feature.

One of the first things I used to notice while going through the specs of a CPU was its clock speed, because it seemed like an easy way to judge single-core performance at first glance. Modern CPUs list both base and boost clock speeds on the spec sheet, but until recently, I always prioritized the latter as a gamer. It felt natural to assume that higher boost clocks meant better performance in the games I play. After all, if one CPU claims to hit 4.8 GHz while another tops out at 4.5 GHz, the difference should be obvious, right?

If you've played around with NotebookLM even a bit before, you've likely already realized how powerful the AI tool is. It's filled with the kind of practical features you look for in an AI productivity tool, like AI-generated podcasts called Audio Overviews, Khan Academy-like videos called Video Overviews, and one of my personal favorite features: Mind Maps.