Nintendo's Switch 2 is just around the corner, as we're approximately under a month away from the system's release. To get things in order, the Japanese company has been working hard with updates for the Switch 1 and existing Switch features to align with the hotly anticipated Switch 2. However, the user interface wasn't the only portion of the Switch that would be getting an enhancement before the Switch 2's June 5th release.

Hosting a party always sounds like a good idea — until it’s time to pick the music. Playlists are either too safe or too niche. And honestly, I’m not thrilled about handing over my phone every time someone wants to queue up a track.

In recent years, Nvidia has heavily marketed its DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation technologies with its graphics cards, especially for high-resolution 4K gaming. Although it's a clever trick that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to upscale lower-resolution footage, I'm not a huge fan of it. Yes, the output looks almost as good as natively rendered 4K footage, but upon closer inspection, you'll notice visual artifacts and ghosting, especially during fast-paced scenes. Frame Generation also adds latency, which is the last thing I want in competitive esports titles.

Two new features coming to Matter are designed to make setting up smart gadgets easier. Multi-device QR codes and a tap-to-pair onboarding via NFC are new options for adding devices like smart lights, plugs, locks, and more to a Matter home network. The updates are part of the new 1.4.1 specification for Matter announced today by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the organization that runs the smart home interoperability standard developed by Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, and others in the industry.With multi-device QR codes, a multi-pack of devices – such as four lightbulbs or a two-pack of plugs – can now use a single QR code. When that’s scanned into a Matter-compatible app, such as Amazon Alexa or Apple Home, it will set up all four bulbs at once, rather than you having to go through the setup four times and scan each code individually, which is the current process. NFC onboarding brings the option to skip the QR code and just tap or bring your phone near to a device to pair it to a Matter platform. This should speed up the process as well as make it easier to set up devices that have codes in awkward spots, such as lightbulbs, which have to be powered on to be paired. Trying to scan a code on a bulb when it’s already in the fixture can be tricky, not to mention painful to the eyes (speaking from experience). NFC set-up isn’t new; Apple has offered it as a way of adding HomeKit accessories for a while, and smart lighting manufacturer Nanoleaf also has it as an option on its devices. But it’s not widely used. Hopefully, the addition to the Matter spec will bring more adoption.A third update with 1.4.1 allows you to accept any terms and conditions a manufacturer requires directly from the smart home controller app you’re using to set up the device — such as Google or Apple’s Home app. Currently, if T&Cs are required, you’ll be kicked into the manufacturer app. Called Enhanced Setup Flow, this appears to be designed to meet regulatory requirements such as Europe’s GDPR, but it could be a step towards adding more manufacturer information in smart home controller apps, meaning less need to use third-party apps. We won’t see security cameras, smart speakers, or any new major features come to Matter until late 2025 at the earliestThe release of the Matter 1.4.1 spec and SDK means developers can now implement these features in their devices. However, it will still be a while before you see them on the gadgets you buy for your smart home, and it could be even longer before the smart home platform you use supports them.Anything that makes setting up a Matter device smoother is a welcome update. To date, the process has been very hit or miss for me, and I’m not alone. While things have definitely improved, easy setup is one of the core ideas behind the standard. It’s been over two years since Matter launched, and I would have hoped this would be solved already. These updates are very minor for a new spec release, which is why it has the 1.4.1 designation — the first dot dot release for Matter. The CSA confirmed this is its official spring release, labeling it Matter’s first “minor release,” and saying that they are still on a bi-annual release cadence following the 1.4 update in November 2024. This means we won’t see security cameras, smart speakers, or any other new device types or major features come to Matter until late 2025, at the earliest.While that’s disappointing for those of us watching Matter closely, it does jive with the CSA’s statement from earlier this year that 2025 is going to be a year of focusing on reliability and performance. What is Matter?Matter is a smart home interoperability standard designed to provide a common language for connected devices to communicate locally in your home without relying on a cloud connection. It is built to be secure and private, easy to set up, and widely compatible.Developed by Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung (and others), Matter is an open-sourced, IP-based connectivity software layer for smart home devices. It works over Wi-Fi, ethernet, and the low-power mesh networking protocol Thread. The standard currently supports most of the main device types in the home, including lighting, thermostats, locks, robot vacuums, refrigerators, dishwashers, dryers, ovens, smoke alarms, air quality monitors, EV chargers, and more.A smart home gadget with the Matter logo can be set up and used with any Matter-compatible ecosystem via a Matter controller and controlled by more than one system via a feature called multi-admin.Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and Apple Home are some major smart home platforms supporting Matter, along with hundreds of device manufacturers.

Bugs in Windows aren't entirely uncommon. Recently, we covered a Windows RDP security "bug" that Microsoft has acknowledged, but refused to fix. However, things can get even more problematic if operating system issues impact organizations, where operational infrastructure is critical to business viability. Unfortunately, one such issue is plaguing enterprise customers once again, where Windows Server components have broken after recent updates.

Vulcan’s force-sensitive arm can apply just the right amount of pressure to avoid causing damage.Amazon has announced a new AI-infused warehouse robot that it says has a sense of touch. This allows the Vulcan robot to pick and stow roughly three-quarters of the items stocked in the company’s warehouses, a task that was previously handled predominantly by human workers.“Vulcan represents a fundamental leap forward in robotics,” says Aaron Parness, Amazon’s director of applied science, in a press release. “It’s not just seeing the world, it’s feeling it, enabling capabilities that were impossible for Amazon robots until now.”Vulcan is not Amazon’s first robot capable of picking items up, but it is the first that’s dextrous and sensitive enough to maneuver goods inside the compact, fabric-covered compartments that the company uses for storage — which are themselves already moved around warehouses by a different fleet of robots. Vulcan uses an arm that Amazon says “resembles a ruler stuck onto a hair straightener” to rearrange any items already in a compartment and add new ones, with force sensors that help it know when it makes contact with an object and how much force and speed to use to avoid causing damage. A second arm includes a suction cup to grab anything it wants to take out of the pods, with an AI-powered camera to make sure that it hasn’t picked up multiple items by mistake.AI is integrated throughout Vulcan’s systems, which were trained on physical data including touch and force feedback. It also “learns from its own failures,” building up an understanding of how different objects behave when touched, so Amazon hopes Vulcan will become more capable over time.Amazon says that Vulcan is already operational in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany, where it’s processed half a million orders so far, and is primarily being used to pick items at the top and bottom of the eight-foot fabric stacks. That saves human workers from bending down or fetching ladders, which Amazon argues will improve worker safety and reduce injuries. Vulcan can apparently pick around 75 percent of Amazon’s stock, and will alert a human when it finds something it can’t pick up. “Vulcan works alongside our employees, and the combination is better than either on their own,” says Parness.“I don’t believe in 100 percent automation,” says Parness in an interview with CNBC that demonstrates Vulcan’s capabilities. “If we had to get Vulcan to do 100 percent of the stows and picks, it would never happen.”That could be cold comfort to the company’s one million warehouse workers, who may soon be outnumbered by the 750,000 robots Amazon says it’s deployed over the years. Vulcan will now join them, rolling out across Europe and the United States “over the next couple of years.”

Once you step foot in the note-taking landscape, you’ll be greeted with FOSS, freemium, and paid applications designed to help you record all your ideas. Whether you’re a self-hosting manic who prefers the privacy of FOSS services or a casual user who prefers convenience above all else, you’ll find plenty of note-taking solutions out in the wild.

Season 1 of Poker Face, Rian Johnson's eclectic crime dramedy starring Natasha Lyonne as a woman who can always tell when someone is lying, was one of Peacock's first truly fantastic series. Each Columbo-esque episode spun a uniquely wild tale of murder, mystery, and people realizing how different their understandings of the truth can be. And you could see that its massive cast of guest stars was having a ball hamming it up as ridiculous characters that felt like they were ripped right out of a game of Clue.Though every episode dropped Lyonne's character, Charlie Cale, into a new situation involving people she'd just met, Poker Face's first season was still very much a larger story about her being on the run and trying to stay one step ahead of shady figures from her past. The dangerous stakes of that narrative seemed like something that Poker Face might want to crank up when Peacock renewed the series for its second season.But when I spoke with Johnson recently, he told me that he was never all that interested in fiddling with the scope of Poker Face's narrative. For him, the joy of crafting Charlie Cale's story has always been rooted in figuring out how to create novel, emot …Read the full story at The Verge.

Back in the day, Microsoft didn't just sell Windows to you as is, but it also offered the option to enhance your experience even further with a set of add-ons called Microsoft Plus! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the name, though I'll avoid using it for the rest of the article). These add-ons would enhance the experience in all kinds of ways, either by adding new themes to the operating system or new tools entirely, like audio recorders, and more.

Sennheiser has announced the first pair of open earbuds as part of its affordable Accentum range, but just how much of a bargain they are depends on where you live. US customers will have to pay more, presumably to offset increased import costs thanks to Trump’s recent tariffs.The Accentum Open earbuds will cost $129.95 when they begin shipping to US buyers in early June, but cost less elsewhere. They’ll arrive in Canada at the same time for CAD$149.95 (about $109), and are available already in Europe for €89.90 (about $102) and the UK for £69.99 (about $93). Those European prices include sales tax, making the difference even more stark.For comparison’s sake, when Sennheiser launched the $199.99 Accentum True Wireless this time last year, they were priced at CAD$279.95 (about $203, converted at today’s rates), €199.99 (about $227), and £169.99 (about $227).  This is Sennheiser’s first pair of “open” true wireless earbuds, which don’t block the ear canal, allowing listeners to maintain awareness of their surroundings. They ape the original AirPods’ design, which audio manufacturers have returned to in recent years as an alternative to the total silence of active noise-cancelling models.The Accentum Open feature 11mm drivers and dual beamforming microphones for calls. Sennheiser says the buds last for six and a half hours on a single charge, with a total of 28 hours including the charging case. The fast charging delivers an hour and a half of playback from 10 minutes plugged in, and multipoint connectivity lets you connect to two devices simultaneously.

Patreon creators on iOS can now link fans to alternative payment systems.The latest version of Patreon’s iOS app allows creators in the US to accept payments outside of Apple’s App Store payment system. First seen by TechCrunch, the 125.5.0 update released on Monday enables Patreon creators to link out to web payments, avoiding the up to 30 percent commission that Apple charges on in-app purchases.This follows the Epic v. Apple ruling on May 1st that blocks Apple from imposing fees on purchases made outside of apps. The expected Patreon update joins Spotify, Amazon’s Kindle, and other apps that can now steer US users to better pricing and deals outside of Apple’s App Store without incurring a 27 percent charge from Apple.The new Patreon web payment option supports Apple Pay, credit cards, Venmo, and PayPal. The alternative checkout options are currently limited to fans purchasing new memberships and creators using the subscription billing model, which charges fans based on their sign-up date, according to Patreon. The company is working to include alternative checkout options for one-time payments “in a future update.”“This ruling is a huge moment for creators and fans, and we will continue fighting for a future where creators are in control, communities thrive, and professional creativity is possible for all,” Patreon said in a statement last week.

“Make me a fit that’s athleisure but elevated.” The kids are always saying this.Android's new design language looks extremely… Gen Z.That much is obvious from the concept images in the leaked blog post that surfaced today (published by Google, as it tends to do). While the theme is customizable, Google highlighted pink, purple, and coral throughout the interface. It's a decidedly younger, bubblier, and more fun design that screams "look at all this fresh paint!" and less "choose from one of these six popular shades of blue." Google's blog also confirms the push toward youth appeal. Fine; freshening up the interface every once in a while is a good and necessary pursuit. Aside from the inherent cringe factor when a group of designers tries to quantify youth appeal in bar graphs labeled "Coolness attributes," I can't shake the feeling that none of this matters much against Android's biggest hurdle in addressing the younger demographic: the iPhone. Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world. But here in the US, Apple owns a solid majority of all phones sold. The numbers skew even more heavily toward iOS when you look at younger demographics. A 2025 survey from investment bank Piper Sandler reports that 88 percent of teenagers polled own …Read the full story at The Verge.