I recently tested out the Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro, which features a built-in Bluetooth speaker with audio from JBL. I lamented the lack of internet streaming capabilities for a smart speaker, given that Bluetooth audio was the only way to stream music to it. Well, I've worked out a solution, and it's surprisingly perfect, if a bit overengineered. I'm using my old phone as a proxy with a Snapcast client, which in turn routes the audio to the speaker. And it all works through Home Assistant and Music Assistant.

I'm usually at my desk for hours a day and can't work without a dual-monitor setup as it significantly improves my efficiency. I use my 17-inch laptop as my primary display, and I pair it with either a 27-inch gaming monitor for daily use or a 15.4-inch portable monitor when I'm on the go and working in coffee shops.

As someone who uses Home Assistant all the time, one of the most challenging (but fun) aspects of the software platform is figuring out ways to integrate it into my existing hardware and software services. As I've gone further down the rabbit hole, I've found increasingly weird and interesting ways to make it work, and one of my favorites has been the implementation of a "game mode." There are two separate ways to make this work, and I combine both of them to work with both Steam and non-Steam games.

Microsoft's PowerToys offers plenty of handy features, some of which are so powerful that they can replace built-in Windows functionalities. One such capability in PowerToys is the ability to instantly launch apps and commands through its Run utility or the relatively new Command Palette (also known as CmdPal), as both can launch things faster and more accurately than the Windows Start menu.

Remote access tools are nothing new, but few offer the same level of control and reliability that PiKVM brings to the table. With a Raspberry Pi, a bit of DIY effort, and the right accessories, you can build a hardware-based KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) over IP solution that lets you take control of your PC as if you were sitting in front of it. That includes BIOS-level access and rebooting, not just remote desktop sessions after the OS loads. For home office users, tinkerers, or anyone who runs a headless system, it can be a game-changer.

There's a certain kind of heartbreak only '90s gamers know — the kind that comes from getting hopelessly addicted to a brutally difficult game you downloaded from a random CD that came with a magazine, only to never beat it. For me, it was Claw. A 2D platformer about a pirate cat in search of the Amulet of Nine Lives. Claw wasn't your average platformer with a basic premise, no. It was soul-crushingly difficult, and gloriously punishing.

Nothing ruins an already-stressful trip to work than a traffic jam, and that goes double when you're already late. However, these days, we have a ton of technology to help us not only spot jams as they occur, but also find alternative routes around them so we can get where we have to go faster and avoid adding to an already dire situation.

Here's the thing: I have the memory of a goldfish but juggle a lot simultaneously. This combination is, well, a complete disaster without some kind of support system. I've tried creating to-do lists to track every single aspect of my life, using personal knowledge management tools like Notion and Obsidian, and even tried setting endless reminders on my phone. But, none of it really stuck. Everything either felt too scattered or just too overwhelming to maintain.

We're currently at an exciting time in the world of Windows users. Windows 10 falls out of support in four months' time, and we're seeing two sides try to win over the people who are still using Microsoft's older operating system. On one side, you have Microsoft, which would really prefer it if the hangers-on either upgraded to Windows 11 or purchased a new PC if their current hardware doesn't support the newest operating system. On the other side, you have the Linux community, which is tempting people with a free operating system change without the need to purchase new hardware.

Google’s head of Android has said that the company plans to combine its mobile operating system with ChromeOS, the software that currently runs across Google’s Chromebook laptops.Sameer Samat, president of Google’s Android ecosystem, told TechRadar that “we’re going to be combining Chrome OS and Android into a single platform.” Samat, who’s responsible for Android’s implementation across mobile, wearables, XR, TV, and auto, added that he’s “interested in how people are using their laptops these days,” suggesting he may be adding a new string to his bow.The comment is the closest thing yet to official confirmation of a change that’s been rumored for months. In November 2024 Android Authority reported that Google is “migrating ChromeOS over to Android,” with the aim of competing with the iPad. That process may have already begun, with Google itself announcing last June that ChromeOS will now be “developed on large portions of the Android stack.” Chromebooks can already run many Android apps.Meanwhile Android is getting a little closer to ChromeOS this year with new features including a desktop mode, resizable windows, and improved support for external displays. Google bringing its two operating systems under one roof makes a lot of sense on paper, allowing it to speed up feature development and work on improving functionality on tablets, where both its current OSes lag behind Apple’s iPadOS. Then again, that’s been true for a while — a merger of the two platforms was reported ten years ago in 2015, and The Verge wrote that it “makes perfect sense to bring them together” two years before that. This is a change that’s been a long time coming, but that means it might be a long time still.

Usually, deciding on which monitor to get comes down to various factors. Except, that's not what I did the last time I got one. I had one overarching consideration for my purchase, and that was that it had to be OLED. It could be QD-OLED or OLED or WOLED, but it had to be self-emissive without a backlight.

I'm not much for productivity-focused software, but there's one utility that's redefined how I use my PC. It's called Espanso, and it's a text expander. Type in a trigger word (or series of characters), and Espanso will step in and swap it out with whatever you want. Replace ":poke" with "Pokémon," or save some time by replacing ":greeting" with a stock email template. That's the basic idea, but Espanso goes much further.