Piltch Point (Audio)

It's no secret that we are becoming a society of content creators. From services like Twitch and Facebook Gaming to YouTube and Facebook, there are a ton of ways that people can create content that others can enjoy. And, in the last few years, live video has become the creation method of choice. But, when doing live video, there are a lot of challenges that can occur. Add to that our current envir...

One of the side effects of the pandemic and more than one shutdown in China has been an increase in prices for PC components. Some have gone through the roof (like power supplies), while others are nearly impossible to acquire (such as webcams). But, pricing and availability issues do not make it so that people don't need to upgrade an existing PC or build a new one. Because of that, Avram built t...

If you spend any time on streaming sites like Twitch or YouTube, or on game chats on PlayStation or Xbox Live, you know that the communities can be incredibly toxic. Between children screaming racial slurs and adults making sexist remarks, it can be dangerous to the mental health of content creators and gamers. This week, in an op-ed written by Natasha "Zombaekillz" Zinda , she discussed the probl...

It's long been accepted that Intel integrated graphics were the worst possible situation when buying a laptop. In some cases, it seemed like it could barely keep up with the tasks of Windows, let alone any programs on top of it. For sure, no one has ever associated Intel graphics with gaming, but that might be changing with Intel's new family of video cards called Intel Xe. The family has a number...

Ever since the beginning of the international lockdown, several products have become difficult or impossible to find. One of the most high-profile products that are in short supply is webcams. The most sought after webcams are the Logitech c920 and the Razer Kiyo . Because they are the top-rated webcams, they were the first to disappear. Other manufacturers have made webcams in the past, but a who...

Right now, a lot of tech-based industries are seeing massive shake-ups, but none are quite as prominent as what is happening within the processor and circuitry industry. The most visible has been the rise of AMD. While some of this market share increase has been because of quality design from AMD itself, another cause has been the slip of Intel in its competition. The two companies have spent deca...

The world may have some new rules this year, but it doesn't change the fact that school is going to be starting soon. This might involve being in person or, more likely, distance learning, especially in the first few weeks or months. That means that your needs may be different for the 2020 school year from years past. So, what are the best options to improve learning in 2020? As always, anything t...

For years, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been one of the best-rated laptops by Tom's Hardware and Laptop Magazine. This is because of the first-class keyboard, high-quality screen, and a price that makes it all worth considering. The newest version of the laptop, the 8th Generation , is out and it maintains the best parts of its predecessors. While this is the 8th generation of the laptop, it...

One of the most interesting new technologies we experienced at CES this year was in the form of GaN chargers. That is because, not only is the technology fascinating, it makes for some incredibly practical products. Using this technology, for example, manufacturers can produce laptop chargers that are less than a quarter of the size of a traditional power brick. The new chargers are so small, in f...

It has been a year since the Raspberry Pi foundation released the Raspberry Pi 4 . In that time, the upgraded hardware configurations have allowed the platform to expand into even more project and computing environments. But, with increased ideas comes increased resource demand. To respond to that new demand, a new configuration was released that has 8GB of RAM. Previously, the largest configurati...

Intel has released its newest processor, the Comet Lake-S Core i9-10900K. This new processor is intended to help fight off the rising threat of AMD's Ryzen processors. AMD has seen a huge rise, especially in the realm of high core count. The new Intel processor attempts to match this move, by including ten cores and, out of box clocks in at 4.9 GHz. Obviously, with specs like that, the processor i...

NVIDIA has added a new developer kit to its hardware lineup, called the Jetson Xavier NX. This new board is designed to allow developers to integrate artificial intelligence skills into a hardware project without the need for internet access or custom-designed hardware. Built in to the kit is a couple of common demoes, such as human detection, skeleton mapping, and attention tracking. In addition...

Whether you're a regular maker or you're looking for new things to try while in lockdown, the Raspberry Pi is a great platform to expiriment with. This board is made for both prototyping as well as learning, and this week, Tom's Hardware has some great advanced projects as well as simple projects . In the more advanced project category, there are truly a ton of interesting and unique projects. Som...

When you think of the greast rivalries of the world, you might think of Holyfield and Tyson, or Axl Rose and Vince Neil. But, in the world of technology, there might not be any more interesting rivalry than AMD and Intel. For decades, these two companies have produced the vast majority of processors. For desktops and laptops, these two companies have owned the market. In the server market, Intel h...

Since the beginning of the lockdowns, certain products have been in short supply. The most publicized have been toilet paper and hand sanitizer. However, there have been tech products that have been depleted as well - particularly webcams. But, since webcams themselves are difficult to acquire, people have looked for alternatives that can get you up and running for your next conference call. Durin...

These days, we definitely live in interesting times. Much of the world is completely shut down in an attempt to keep COVID-19 under control. Some people have lost their jobs, some have been furloughed, while others have shifted to working from home. No matter the scenario, many people still need to purchase things, including electronics. For some of us, it's about reworking our offices to allow us...

While interest in desktop PCs has waned in recent years, those who are still interested in desktops often build them themselves. That gives the ability to not only have the PC you want, but also to use it as an art piece. There are PC builders who go all out and customize their cases, turning them into spaceships or even scenes from videogames. However, that is not in the cards for everyone. One t...

The Dell XPS 13 has long been considered to be one of the greatest lightweight laptops on the market. The company regularly updates the computer with new features and hardware options. This year's upgrade, which just went live from Dell, has made a number of high profile changes, all for the better. A number of the changes are around the screen. The first and most welcomed change is the removal of...

The Folding@Home program is a distributed computing platform that is dedicated to finding cures for some of humanity's biggest health problems. The program was started to run predictive algorithms on the folding of proteins. When proteins fold incorrectly, it can cause serious and longterm medical issues. However, over the years, the program has taken on additional issues, including computational...

This week, Avram Piltch has some suggestions on how to improve your life if you have to work from home. While most people don't work out of their homes, that could be about to change. Over the past week or so, many companies have started suggesting that employees work from home because of fear over the COVID-19 coronavirus. But working at home is not as easy and straight forward as it might seem....

This week, Avram Piltch talks about some of the best and most unknown aspects of the Raspberry Pi computer. The Raspberry Pi entered the market 8 years ago, but with a different purpose than most might think. It was originally intended for Cambridge University, with a planned production of about 1000 units. Today, the brand has sold 31 million units - far more than the organization ever expected t...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses whether or not it is worth upgrading your video card. Sure, your existing computer might have the ability to take the newest and most exciting video card, but is it worth the upgrade cost? Tom's Hardware recently released a video card lookup to help you determine what video cards are compatible with your system. However, the most important question to ask yourself...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses a new feature in Microsoft Excel: XLOOKUP. Now, we don't usually show off things like Microsoft Office functions, but this one is truly special. The predecessor to XLOOKUP, which is VLOOKUP, is the third most used function in Excel, and XLOOKUP expands on its capabilities by removing a number of limitations. Both functions allow you to combine data from different...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the long-awaited launch of Nvidia's cloud gaming service GeForce Now.

This week, Avram Piltch talks about the Intel NUC and the future direction of the product line. In the past, the company has released a limited array of models and configuration options to correspond with its processor upgrades. While the line has never been incredibly popular, it has been consistently stable. This year, the company announced a change of direction, but one that is also familiar. T...