Last January at CES, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi declared 2024 the “year of the AI PC.” And whether you believe that prediction came true or not—many new PCs come with AI-accelerating neural processing units (NPUs) onboard, but far from all of them—you can’t deny that Microsoft did try very hard to make it…
We might expect someone like Dylan, immersed as he has always been in folk songs, old standards, and American history, to bemoan the corrupting influence of new technology. And he does offer up some quotes in that vein. For example: Everything’s become too smooth and painless… The earth could vomit up its dead, and it…
Nvidia is reportedly gearing up to launch the first few cards in its RTX 50-series at CES next week, including an RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070. The 5090 will be of particular interest to performance-obsessed, money-is-no-object PC gaming fanatics since it’s the first new GPU in over two years that…
Fewer bricks, standardized “fast charging” The most significant impact this USB-C requirement has had so far is on Apple, which, while initially resisting, has gradually shifted its products from its proprietary Lightning connector to USB-C. Its latest iMac comes with a Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad that all connect via USB-C. The firm…
Interestingly, Samsung’s announcement today only mentioned the release of a 27-inch, 4K resolution 3D monitor, despite Samsung teasing a 37-inch version in August. It’s possible that the larger version didn’t work as well and/or that demand for the larger size would be too small, considering the high price and limited demand implications of a glasses-free…
I’d describe myself as a skeptic of the generative AI revolution—I think the technology as it currently exists is situationally impressive and useful for specific kinds of tasks, but broadly oversold. I’m not sure it will vanish from relevance to quite the extent that other tech fads like the metaverse or NFTs did, but my…
John Lopatka, a former consultant to the FTC who now teaches antitrust law at Penn State, told ProPublica that the Microsoft actions detailed in the news organization’s recent reporting followed “a very familiar pattern” of behavior. “It does echo the Microsoft case” from decades ago, said Lopatka, who co-authored a book on that case. In…
That’s about all I need from a “mix up your takeout and use the right apps” app, one made mostly for me, my spouse, and nearby friends and visitors. Pretty much anything you’d find useful while sitting down at a spreadsheet, you can also make useful through a little phone webapp. Joyful overkill I went…
What’s interesting about the typing feel of this keyboard is the use of low-profile keycaps despite the keyboard supporting full-height mechanical switches. I’m curious if the pairing results in the keycaps feeling too thin or unstable while typing. Other Icebreaker specs include a “silicone dampener integrated into the bottom lid both supporting the PCB and…
Two main reasons those gas pockets appear in turtles are plastics and boat strikes. When a turtle consumes something it can’t digest—like parts of fishing nets, plastic bottles, or even rubber gloves (yes, there was a sea turtle found with a rubber glove in its intestines)—it sometimes gets stuck somewhere along its gastrointestinal tract. This,…