When I first got into 3D printing, I couldn't really make anything more advanced than a 3D Benchy. However, for some, their introduction to the hobby is a lot grander than printing off some little boats. Take, for instance, this amazing VTOL project designed and created by someone with barely any experience in making things, which shows you that you don't need to have years of 3D printing experience to make the really big and cool things (although it does help).

Battery life is reduced, but Anker’s sleep buds could now be even better at blocking disturbing sounds at night. | Image: AnkerAnker has announced a new version of its wireless sleep buds that could be even more effective at delivering a peaceful slumber by blocking out disturbing noises using active noise cancellation. Previous versions of the Soundcore Sleep earbuds blocked external sounds passively using just a snug fit inside the ear, but the new Sleep A30 finally add ANC while still offering enough battery life to last the night.As with previous versions, Anker is making its new Soundcore Sleep A30 available for preorder through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that’s launching today, while full availability of the earbuds is expected sometime in August 2025 through Amazon and Soundcore’s online store. At $229.99, the Sleep A30 are quite a bit more expensive than last year’s $149.99 Sleep A20, but the earliest Kickstarter backers can get the A30 discounted to $139.The Sleep A30 earbuds are now 7 percent slimmer and feature a smaller design that ensures they don’t protrude from your ears so there’s reduced pressure while wearing them and laying on a pillow if you’re a side sleeper. To help you find a snug fit, Anker includes four sizes of silicone ear tips, three sizes of memory foam tips, and three sizes of ear wings.Anker claims the new Sleep A30 block up to 30dB of external noise, but the added ANC, which uses two mics positioned inside and outside your ears, does result in reduced battery life. The A20 could run for up to 14 hours on a single charge, but the A30 max out at up to nine hours on their own, or up to 45 hours with their charging case. However, that’s only when listening to white noise or other sounds designed to help you fall asleep that are stored on the buds themselves. When streaming music or podcasts from a phone, battery life is further reduced to up to 6.5 hours or 35 hours with the case.The Sleep A30’s charging case has been upgraded with what Anker is calling “Adaptive Snore Masking technology.” If it detects the sounds of snoring from another person nearby, it analyzes the volume and frequency of the sounds and generates “noise masking audio” that’s sent to the buds to help block it out.The new earbuds also feature sleep monitoring and sleep position tracking, allowing you to see how restful or eventful your night was through the Soundcore mobile app; a private repeatable alarm with snooze functionality; and a Find My Earbud feature should they fall out in the night and get lost in the sheets.

Nintendo has a long history with the Star Wars franchise. There have been many different games set within a galaxy far, far away across multiple Nintendo consoles, some of which went on to become iconic releases of their time. But while some classic Star Wars video games have gotten the remaster treatment and have been re-released on newer platforms, not all the popular games people want to see have made their way to current consoles. At the same time, a few newly released Star Wars have also been missing from the Nintendo ecosystem, despite finding big success on nearly every platform to date. Luckily for Star Wars fans, the Force is shifting things around and opening up the opportunity for more great Star Wars games to be where Nintendo fans are playing their games.

Home Assistant is a powerful tool that you can use to link up countless services in a way to take back control of your smart home and build it the way you like. It's not for everyone, but there's a massive community supporting it that consistently makes it easier to do various different things. It has complete voice assistant support, and I've built my own voice pipeline, for free, so that I control exactly how it runs and how it responds.

For years, like countless others, I trusted my digital life to Google Drive. It was my go-to hub for documents, photos, and everything in between. However, as I started filling it up with confidential media and documents, I started to have concerns about data privacy and wanted better control over my digital footprint. After much deliberation and research, I decided to uninstall Google Drive and started to find a cloud storage solution that truly aligned with my needs. That journey led me to Proton Drive, a service that ticked all the boxes for me.

A trusted note-taking app has become a crucial part of my memory and thought process. When Google announced NotebookLM, a new AI-powered notebook, I started to wonder: Is this another contender in the crowded space of digital note-taking? The answer, refreshingly, is no. NotebookLM isn’t designed to take on the likes of OneNote, Evernote, or Notion. Instead, it’s engineered to be a powerful partner that integrates with my existing notes to unlock deeper understanding and accelerate my research in no time.

In the PC hardware timeline, even 5 years seems like ages ago. After all, 2020 was the year when we were grappling with the GPU crisis, the RTX 30 series had just launched, and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D didn't exist. If you built a gaming PC during that year, you might be tempted to go for a platform upgrade or at least a few component upgrades. Hold your horses, however, because I'm here to tell you that your PC has more life left in it than you think. Assuming you built a mid-range to high-end machine in 2020, your 5-year-old PC isn't really "old" yet.

Lots of us may have old and dated tech lying around at home. Instead of letting them occupy space in the closet, it's best to repurpose them into something useful. That's exactly what I thought of when I found my dad's old laptop in the drawer. Ideally, I would have considered converting it into a home server or even the base for a home lab. But since it was my dad's laptop, I thought of restoring it in a way that he finds useful. He's an avid reader and has been eyeing a Kindle for the longest time. That made me wonder — what if I convert his old laptop into an e-reader, so he can download as many books as he wants and read them on a large display?

The tablet market is dominated by two brands, Apple and Samsung, with a few niche devices from other brands accounting for the remainder. However, the market position of the two giants has allowed them to increase prices without significantly improving the user experience. And that's left plenty of space for upstart OnePlus to bring its vision of what an Android tablet should be.

Working or studying when you have an endless source of entertainment sitting right next to you can be a nightmare. I've seen countless times where people come together as a study or work group to get stuff done, only to spend the time showing each other videos and discussing new media and getting even less done than before. Worst of all, sometimes you don't even realise you're spending a lot of time on your phone until it's 2 am. Oops.

When I first upgraded from a standard 60Hz monitor to a 144Hz panel, I was immediately blown away by the smoothness, responsiveness, and overall immersion. Besides the competitive advantage I experienced in popular games like Fortnite, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike, I was impressed by the buttery smooth animations and cursor movement in Windows. So, I started chasing monitors with higher refresh rates mainly for competitive gaming. However, the upgrade from 144Hz to 240Hz and 360Hz wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Yes, I did notice improvements, but they weren't significant enough to justify the premium price tags.

I'm no stranger to automation as I have a variety of tasks I automate with Zapier and IFTTT. I've enjoyed using these platforms because I could easily configure tasks without needing coding knowledge. However, there are drawbacks due to the limitations of free plans.