The new standard aims to provide improved stability for devices in congested networks. It feels like the rollout of Wi-Fi 7 is barely out of the gate, but TP-Link is already making advancements towards the next generation of connectivity. The company announced on Monday that it has successfully tested an early prototype of Wi-Fi 8 hardware, marking a “critical milestone” in its development.While the test is light on details, TP-Link says it has validated the Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn) beacon and data transfer capabilities, proving its viability for future consumer products. The prototype hardware was developed through a “joint industry partnership,” according to TP-Link, and the company expects consumer devices to be available ahead of the standard being ratified, which the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) expects to be finalized by 2028.In a July blog post breaking down the new standard, Qualcomm explains that Wi-Fi 8 aims to keep devices online and stable, rather than chasing faster bandwidth speeds. Like its predecessor, Wi-Fi 8 will utilize 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands with a theoretical maximum channel bandwidth of 320MHz and peak data rate of 23Gbps, but aims to improve real-world performance and connection reliability.The goal is to provide better performance in environments with low signal, or under high network loads, where an increasing number of devices are sharing the same connection. Wi-Fi 8 can theoretically manage more devices at once, and reduce lag when positioned further away from your router or moving around your home. That should provide users with a smoother gaming and streaming experience, and prevent freezes, drops, and “robot voice” from occurring during video calls.“Wi-Fi 8 marks a fundamental pivot — moving beyond peak speeds to prioritize reliable performance in challenging real-world conditions,” Qualcomm said. “It’s designed to bring Wi-Fi closer than ever to the reliability and responsiveness of wired infrastructure.”

Slack is testing an update for Slackbot that transforms it into an AI assistant. Presently, it operates as a tool for delivering reminders and notifications. With the update, Slackbot can create custom plans tailored to your workspace, sift through a mountain of messages, gather information from a range of Slack channels, and more.“Slackbot today is fairly rudimentary,” Rob Seaman, Slack’s senior vice president of enterprise product, tells The Verge. “But what we’ve done is we’ve actually rebuilt it from the ground up as a personalized AI companion.”As part of the pilot, Slackbot will appear as an icon next to the search bar at the top of the workspace. Clicking into it will open a DM-like panel on the right side of the screen where you can enter prompts like “What are my priorities for today?” or “Find the latest updates on a project.” The new Slackbot will draw from your conversations, files, and workspace to provide personalized assistance.In a demo seen by The Verge, Slack showed how the AI-upgraded Slackbot can perform more complex tasks, such as organizing a product’s launch plan inside a Canvas by gathering information across different Slack channels, as well as help create a social media campaign using a brand’s tone. But what seems even more helpful is the new Slackbot’s ability to search through a workspace using natural language. That means if you’re looking for a document but can’t nail down the specific keyword it was attached to, you can ask Slackbot something like “Find me the document that Jay shared in our last meeting.” It can also tap into Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to coordinate and schedule meetings with colleagues. This adds to the other AI-powered features Slack has integrated into the platform, which can already summarize threads and channels as well as decode company jargon. “We’ll keep putting those little touches there where they make sense, to save users a click,” Seaman said when asked about the future of these features. Slackbot’s existing features — like its automated messages or custom functions in response to commands — will remain available as well.Companies can choose to opt out of using an AI Slackbot, but individuals in the workspace can’t. Slack’s AI features operate through Amazon Web Services’ virtual private cloud, “meaning that no data leaves the firewall, no data is used in the training of the models at all,” according to Seaman.The upgraded Slackbot is already available for 70,000 employees at Salesforce (Slack’s parent company), and now the company is testing it with other customers as well. It plans to introduce the new feature to everyone at the end of the year.

At the time of writing, we are just two days away from Windows 10 falling out of support. After October 14th, people who want to stay within Microsoft's ecosystem will either need to continue their Windows 10 support using the extended support plan or upgrade to Windows 11. However, doing the latter may be a little trickier than we'd like.

Halloween is the perfect excuse to fire up your 3D printer and fill your home with creepy, creative decorations. The best part is that many of the most impressive designs don’t require much filament or fancy materials, meaning you can bring the haunted house vibe to life without spending more than a few dollars. Whether you want to terrify trick-or-treaters or add a fun, eerie glow to your living space, prints like these are quick, affordable, and delightfully spooky.

I’m constantly searching for the next great productivity hack, which is how I landed on an AI experiment that turned out to be great: pairing NotebookLM with Grok. On one side, you have NotebookLM, the research assistant, which is grounded in your sources. On the other hand, there is Grok, the brilliant conversationalist known for its creative range and takes.

There was once a time when all high-end CPUs required a liquid cooler to prevent thermal throttling and deliver optimal performance under sustained load. If you were building a powerful system centered around a power-hungry chip, it meant installing a 360mm AIO to keep it reliably and sustainably cool during intense gaming sessions or a long day of 3D editing, rendering, or running simulations.

Do you have a Wi-Fi 7 router? Personally, I don't really do any heavy lifting over Wi-Fi; if I'm downloading anything big, it's gonna be over Ethernet or bust. However, I am looking at those new Wi-Fi 7 routers and thinking about grabbing one, even if it'll only really see use with my phone.

If you spend any time scrolling through keyboard forums or watching custom build videos, you’ve probably heard the term “gasket mount” whispered with a certain reverence. It’s often presented as a premium, endgame feature that separates the basic typing tools from the truly bespoke, but it gives me immense joy to see this one feature proliferating across entire model ranges, irrespective of price. However, it is a feeling that cannot be quantified objectively in the same way I can compare GPUs with benchmark scores, VRAM, and clock speed. That doesn't mean one ignores the entire design philosophy of gasket-mounted mechanical keyboards, because the term refers to more than just one simple mounting style.

When you stare at so much text throughout the day, it’s easy to lose sight of the important points. However, when you turn your notes into visuals, you see patterns and a clear direction. There are Obsidian timeline plugins to choose from, but I chose Chronos Timeline for its customization and control. The setup is quick, and a dedicated support page provides the information you need to learn how to create timelines.

Looking at ways to safeguard your long-term storage against data loss? You're likely considering some form of RAID configuration, but what if there was another way? There are numerous other solutions, and SnapRAID is one of them. Like every backup storage program, it's not perfect, but SnapRAID can provide some benefits over other types for network-attached storage (NAS). If you plan to store media files and other data with infrequent changes, this could be the ideal solution.

If you already live by your Google Calendar, there's a good chance it's an integral part of running your day. I know it's mine. Meetings, workouts, reminders, even downtime. I'm a big fan of time blocking and Google Calendar helps me be more productive. It knows my schedule better than any smart assistant could, and certainly better than even I do. But as someone who works from a home office, I also need a set-up that's conducive to my specific needs. What if there was a way to feed my Google Calendar events to Home Assistant and build automations specifically tweaked to my life's live calendar updates? Well, you can do just that. And it's not very difficult to accomplish, either.

It isn't rare to see someone praise the living daylights out of a game, while still mentioning that they did, in the beginning, almost quit said game. That's right — some of the games we revere as masterpieces today aren't perfect from start to finish, or if they are, they don't always get the message across from the starting line itself.