Summary The Chromebook Plus program was announced by Googlein late 2023. Simply put, it’s a set of hardware specifications that, if met or exceeded, ensure a laptop running ChromeOS offers an above-average user experience. Here’s how it’s different from a regular Chromebook. How Do Chromebook Pluses and Regular Chromebooks Differ? Low-end Chromebooksmay not be very snappy or future-proof. Chromebook Plus models promise to offer a superior user experience. They do so by meeting (or surpassing) a number of hardware requirements—more on that in a bit....

Quick Links Summary We’re always advised that we need to make regular backups, to different media, and with one copy offsite. The Linux rclone command is an easy way to create and maintain offsite backups. What Is rclone? If you’re familiar with thersync command, it’ll be immediately apparent thatrclonewas inspired by rsync. The rsync command is a tool that lets you synchronize the contents of two directories. As long as you’ve got write access to the target directory, rsync will synchronize the contents of the two directories....

Quick Links ChatGPT is an impressive AI chatbot, but digital assistants aren’t new—Siri and Google Assistant have been around for years. People say these assistants feel “dumb” now, and they lost the “AI race,” but their demise has been greatly exaggerated. ChatGPT is Not an Assistant ChatGPT and other AI chatbots—such asBing ChatandGoogle Bard—have some things in common with “virtual assistants”—Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa. They are all based on artificial intelligence andmachine learning, but they function in very different ways....

Tabletop gaming has always relied on the sale of physical items like books and miniatures, so that the companies that support these games can stay in business. At the same time, there’s a long tradition of tabletop players making their own stuff to use for playing at home, and in some cases even at events. However, with the advent of 3D printing, and especially cheap high-quality FDM printers, there’s some controversy in these communities, and it’s not clear how it will be resolved....

Quick Links Summary Jellyfin is like Plex in that it’s installed as a server and accessed via client apps and via streaming devices, but it’s completely free to use and open-source. Move over Plex, there’s a new media streaming powerhouse in town. Not only does Jellyfin pack in many of the same features as Plex, but it also doesn’t put any of its features behind a premium upgrade either (and it’s open-source to boot)....

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K For just a little more money than the Fire Stick TV Lite, you can get the Fire Stick TV 4K, which offers a Dolby Vision upgrade and TV controls on the Alexa remote. With 4K streaming, it’s much more futureproof. The newest Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale for an impressive 50% off. This high-quality streaming device usually costs $49.99, but for a limited time, you’re able to get it for just$24....

Summary If your iPhone supports Apple Intelligence, Siri can turn to ChatGPT for help in case Apple’s assistant is unable to answer a query itself. But it turns out that you can do the same on any iPhone, just by using one simple phrase. How Siri Uses ChatGPT With Apple Intelligence If you’re using an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model, your phone is capable of runningApple Intelligence....

Summary GPUs are becoming heavier and heavier every generation, and while the Founders Edition of NVIDIA’s RTX 5090 might be considerably smaller than its predecessor, it doesn’t seem to have made a dent on the sizes of third-party SKUs. So much so, that some of them have started to pack gyroscopes. The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090, a third-party SKU of theNVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, reportedly integrates a Bosch Sensortec BMI323 inertial measurement unit (IMU)....

The Apollo program was NASA’s mission to put humans on the moon. Over 11 years, it achieved 6 lunar landings, and its success is deeply embedded in history and pop culture. But I bet there are a couple of things you didn’t know about it. 1NASA Almost Chose the Wrong Way to Land on the Moon When engineers at NASA were planning the Apollo mission, they had to figure out the “how” of putting astronauts on the moon....

Germany makes some of the finest premium vehicles in the world. In particular, their sedans and coupes have set benchmarks that the rest of the world constantly aim to meet. New German cars, however, can be expensive, making the used market your friend if you’re on a budget. Some of the most iconic sports sedans and premium saloons have come out of Germany, with the likes of the BMW 3-Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class bettering most of their rivals....

Quick Links Technology lovers can be hard to shop for. They tend to enjoy the process of finding the perfect product on their own. If you’re attempting tobuy a techy giftfor a techy person, you better do it right. The trick to shopping for a tech lover is to lean on things with general appeal. Don’t try to pick out something specific like asmartphoneor a pair offancy headphones. People who are interested in technology usually will research and buy those products for themselves....

Quick Links Small businesses thrive on efficiency, and one of the cornerstones of a successful business is communication. Through its integrated features,RingCentral MVPcan give your small business large-scale functionality without all of the added overhead. If you’re looking for a new way to improve how you communicate with your team and clients, here are five reasons why you should look to RingCentral. Fewer Missed Calls Missing a call can sometimes mean missing a sale, but you’re not always by your business phone....

Quick Links When it’s time for monitor shopping, one of the features I always look for is USB passthrough—built-in USB ports that relay data and power back to the PC through a single connection. It’s a small but incredibly convenient feature that essentially turns the monitor into a mini USB hub. Since my PC’s back and front USB ports are essentially permanently occupied, having these extra USB ports in such a convenient spot is quite handy....