Author: alex

LG’s UltraGear evo: flashy 5K and AI upscaling — convincing solution or marketing theater? I’ll be blunt: on‑display AI upscaling built into a monitor is the kind of idea I both want to love and want to interrogate hard. LG’s UltraGear evo lineup promises 5K panels, on‑device AI that upsamples frames (supposedly letting you delay a GPU upgrade), and wild form factors from a 27‑inch MiniLED to a 52‑inch 1000R wrap. That’s sexy on paper. But CES is the place for demos — I need to see artifact behavior, latency and real workload results before I stop recommending GPU upgrades. AI upscaling can be useful, especially when GPUs get expensive. My skepticism comes from two places: one, how often does vendor AI introduce strange artifacts or temporal instability during fast…

Why I say buy capacity, not benchmarks, for Switch 2 microSD Express I’ll be blunt: microSD Express is necessary for the Switch 2, but it’s not a speed arms race for most people. These cards are new, expensive, and in real gameplay tests the differences between them are often a few seconds — not something you’ll actually notice while playing. That means capacity and price matter far more than shaving a couple seconds off load times. SanDisk and Lexar are consistently solid and benchmark well, but cheaper options like Samsung, PNY or even the Onn card hold up in real use. If you’re transferring huge games frequently, the SanDisk can save a few minutes. If you just want space for a backlog, buy the largest card you can afford at…

User asked for research on perplexity about the latest daily AI news (Claude, OpenAI). Collected tasks: - Summarize what 'perplexity' measures in language models. - Discuss limitations of perplexity for news/real-time evaluation. - Propose additional metrics and methods for assessing model behavior on daily AI news (hallucination rate, factuality, model drift, robustness, safety signals). - Suggest experimental setups and datasets to measure these metrics in practice (time-stamped news corpus, human eval, claim verification, calibration tests). - Provide quick tooling pointers (fact-check APIs, embedding search, model eval frameworks). - Deliver in concise bullet points and recommended next steps. Output type: research brief for tech-savvy audience.

Why I think Apple is pushing users to iOS 26 — and why that worries me I’m skeptical: Apple released iOS 26.2 to fix several serious security vulnerabilities, then simultaneously pushed iOS 18.7.3 as a companion update. That sequence reads to me like pressure — not just protection — for users to move off the older iOS 18 and onto iOS 26. On the surface, patching security holes is obviously the right thing to do. My problem is the optics and the mechanics: if critical fixes are effectively available only to users who upgrade, Apple risks creating a two‑tier ecosystem where staying on older releases is unsafe unless you accept the company’s upgrade timetable. What happened: Apple issued iOS 26.2 with fixes for major vulnerabilities; iOS 18.7.3 was also released…

Why I think Germany’s revived data‑retention plan is a privacy step backward I’m not a fan of surveillance creep dressed up as public safety. The German government is reportedly pushing to force ISPs to store the IP addresses they assign to users for three months so law enforcement can追踪 online crime. That sounds efficient on paper — but I’m worried about the real-world privacy, security and civil‑liberties tradeoffs. This idea has bounced around for years and even hit roadblocks at the EU level. Storing months of IP logs creates a tempting trove for attackers, insiders and overreaching investigations. If logs aren’t tightly controlled, encrypted and subject to independent audits, they become a liability, not a tool. What the draft proposes: ISPs keep user‑assigned IP addresses for three months (reportedly) to…

Last-minute holiday gifts: stop panicking and buy smarter I’ll be blunt: I don’t feel bad for last-minute shoppers — but I do admire the energy. If you’re racing the clock, stop hunting for the perfect thing and pick something that actually arrives. Shipping deadlines matter more than your taste at this point. Here are the carrier deadlines you need to know if you want packages to arrive before the holidays: USPS: Ground Advantage — Dec 17; Priority Mail Express — Dec 20 UPS: Three‑Day Select — Dec 19; Next Day Air — Dec 23 FedEx: Ground Economy — Dec 15; First Overnight — Dec 23 Amazon Prime: Order by Dec 23 for many Prime‑eligible items If you want my no-nonsense strategy, follow it: buy small, prioritize sellers with fast shipping,…

Why I think Waymo getting stranded in San Francisco is a reality check I’m not shocked, I’m annoyed. Several Waymo vehicles ended up stuck at dark intersections during San Francisco’s power outage, waving hazard lights like confused lawn ornaments. The company paused ride‑hail services — sensible — but the images of self‑driving taxis stranded in busy streets raise a real question: what happens when the tech meets messy, networked infrastructure? Waymo says its system "responds to signs and signals," which is great until signals vanish. Human drivers improvise — they look, gesture, negotiate with other drivers. Autonomous stacks need robust fallback logic and clear rules for ambiguous situations. Stopping and waiting is safe, but it’s not practical for dense urban traffic or when vehicles block intersections. What happened: A PG&E…

Why I think Google delaying Assistant’s retirement is embarrassing — and unsurprising I’m not fooled by Google’s PR line about making the Assistant→Gemini switch "seamless." Delaying the transition into 2026 tells me they shipped features before they honestly tested them across the wildly fragmented Android ecosystem. That’s product theater, not engineering rigor. Gemini on Pixel already exists, sure — but rolling a new assistant into millions of different phones is the kind of operational headache most companies only admit after a mess. I expected friction; the only surprise is that Google sounded so confident about a 2025 cutoff in the first place. What Google announced: The Assistant→Gemini upgrade timeline is being pushed past 2025 so the company can "ensure a seamless transition." Device requirements: Upgrades need Android 10 or newer…

Netflix acquires Ready Player Me to bring cross‑game avatars to its games Netflix has acquired Estonian avatar startup Ready Player Me, a company that builds cross‑game avatar technology designed to let players carry the same digital persona between different titles. The deal will fold Ready Player Me’s roughly 20 employees into Netflix’s games team; one founder, CEO Timmu Tõke, will stay on after the acquisition. Ready Player Me’s selling point is developer‑friendly avatar tooling and AI that can automatically adapt avatars to different games’ art styles and rigs. That makes it easier for studios to support a shared avatar system without heavy manual work. Why Netflix bought Ready Player Me Netflix is focusing on approachable multiplayer and IP‑based games rather than high‑budget AAA projects — avatar tech fits social and…

ExpressVPN holiday sale: Huge savings on 2‑year plans (plus 4 free months) ExpressVPN is running a substantial holiday promotion: two years of service plus four bonus months for just $101 — a steep discount from the regular ~$392 price. The deal applies across ExpressVPN’s new multi‑tier structure, with the Advanced plan (the mid tier) highlighted in the coverage. Key pricing examples from the sale: Basic: ~$2.79/month (78% off) — supports 10 simultaneous devices. Advanced: ~$3.59/month (74% off) — supports 12 devices and includes extras like a password manager on some tiers. Pro: ~$5.99/month (70% off) — top tier with 14 simultaneous devices and additional features. Why ExpressVPN is worth considering Engadget reviewers praise ExpressVPN for its high performance, fast speeds, easy-to-use apps and broad global server network — features that…