Recent content by Shawn Knight

<h5><strong>Too Real:</strong> Microsoft has developed a new iteration of its neural codec language model, Vall-E, that surpasses previous efforts in terms of naturalness, speech robustness, and speaker similarity. It is the first of its kind to reach human parity in a pair of popular...

<h5><strong>In brief:</strong> The jack-of-all-trades OKPad from Bluegen is a convertible-style 2-in-1 sporting an 8.9-inch (800 x 1,280) IPS display in the usual position. A second screen – a 7.8-inch (1,404 x 1,872) e-ink panel – resides where you'd normally find the keyboard on an ordinary...

<h5><strong>Bottom line:</strong> Nothing's budget-minded sub-brand, CMF, has introduced its first mobile phone. The CMF Phone 1 is an entry-level handset that could finally take the concept of a modular smartphone mainstream. The price is right at $199, but will it make a splash in a cutthroat...

<h5><strong>In brief:</strong> Add Samsung to the small but growing list of storage makers that offer a 60 TB-class solid-state drive. The company's new BM1743 is a data center-grade SSD that utilizes Samsung's 7th-generation quad-level vertical NAND storage tech which nearly doubles the number...

<h5><strong>In brief:</strong> Microsoft company man Steve Ballmer's fortune has surpassed that of co-founder and onetime boss Bill Gates, making him the sixth richest person in the world with a net worth of $158 billion. Holding on to that Microsoft stock over the long term has paid off big for...

<h5><strong>Bottom line:</strong> Noctua has launched the follow-up to its legendary NH-D15 tower cooler, and it comes equipped with a pair of the company's cutting-edge 140mm round-frame fans. The original NH-D15 was considered by many to be the gold standard in CPU air cooling for years, and...

<h5><strong>What just happened?</strong> What's in a name, you ask? In the case of Nocs Design's latest wireless speaker, the answer is, "quite a bit." The Monolith Aluminum is a new portable speaker due out later this year from the Swedish audio specialist. The chassis is crafted from a single...

<h5><strong>Forward-looking:</strong> Researchers from MIT's Computer Science &amp; Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are developing a robotic grocery bagging system that could one day show up in your local supermarket. The creation, aptly named Grocery Packing Robot, is currently able...

<h5><strong>The big picture:</strong> Fujifilm has been around for over 90 years, but it was only after post-Covid TikTokers elevated its retro-themed X100 series that the company's modern camera division began to thrive. These days, the Japanese camera maker is struggling to meet demand for it...

<h5><strong>Wallet friendly:</strong> Valve's annual Steam Summer Sale has arrived and is ready to do battle with your wallet. Luckily, with plenty of steep discounts available, you might just survive with minimal financial casualties. </h5><p><img height="617"...

<h5><strong>Data destroyer:</strong> There are plenty of ways to go about securely disposing of files on storage drives, and some of them are more destructive than others. The <a href="https://www.techspot.com/news/102616-diskmantler-can-take-apart-hard-drive-little-8.html">DiskMantler</a>, for...

<h5><strong>The big picture:</strong> NASA has select SpaceX to help deorbit the International Space Station once the facility reaches the end of its operational life in 2030. Several strategies on what to do with the ISS once its clock runs out were considered including pushing it to a higher...

<h5><strong>Cutting corners:</strong> Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, have devised a way to run a billion-parameter-scale large language model using just 13 watts of power – about as much as a modern LED light bulb. For comparison, a data center-grade GPU used for LLM...

<h5><strong>Take a chill pill:</strong> Smack talk is inevitable when it comes to online, multiplayer games but in most cases, it doesn't escalate beyond name calling. Occasionally, however, disputes spill over into the real world. This is one of those instances. </h5><p><img height="1709"...

<h5><strong>What just happened?</strong> Motorola has introduced its version of a Bluetooth tracking tag designed to keep digital tabs on physical goods. The new Moto Tag utilizes ultra-wideband technology and runs on Google's Find My Device network, the search giant's answer to Apple's Find My...