Piltch Point (Audio)

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the most influential technology of the past decade . While some products produce a short-term change to an industry, others have long-lasting effects. In the past decade, there have been several massive moves that will likely never be reverted. One of the most influential products of the decade was the AMD Ryzen 1800X processor. The product stood head and...

This week, Avram Piltch talks about technology that he has been interested in for decades: alternate typing tech. Imagine you are at a trade show, waiting in line for a presentation, and you want to get some work done. Sure, you can use your phone and try and type something of consequence, but that's going to be infuriating (we've tried it). You could bring a tablet, but you still might have issue...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the ups and downs between buying a pre-made PC from a vendor or building your own from components. It's the age-old question in computing - do you save the time and buy a PC, or save the money and build it yourself? As it turns out, the price differential between a pre-made and a custom-made PC is not as great today as it once was. In fact, in Avram's research , t...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the newest STEAM toy from Sphero, the RVR (pronounced Rover) . This new vehicle separates itself from the already crowded programmable vehicle kits in a variety of ways. First, and most obvious, is that the vehicle is designed for all terrains. That means that it isn't limited to being used inside, but can be used outside, and even in the grass. This isn't the onl...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the important things to look out for when purchasing a new computer. There are two ways to buy a new PC: pre-configured or self-configured. For the most part, pre-configured models are far less expensive than their custom configuration counterparts. For example, if you head to a manufacturer's website and look at their laptops, several of them offer the ability to...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the Artie 3000 drawing robot . Artie is a new entry in the growing list of kids STEM toys intended to help teach kids about computers, logic, and programming. These toys all take different forms, and Artie is unique in the field. This product is a robotic drawing product, which allows the user to program its movements to produce a drawing. While Artie is cute, som...

This week, Avram Piltch talks about how and why to overclock your computing device. So, what is overclocking? It is the process of changing the operating parameters of a component to increase its performance. While the main CPU is the most common to overclock, you can also overclock your graphics card, or GPU, and your RAM. While not long ago the process of overclocking was difficult enough that o...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses a pair of interesting science experiments that have been conducted by Tom's Hardware over the past few weeks. The first involves the publication's favorite tech gadgets: the Raspberry Pi. The site has done a lot of projects using the board, but this one was unique. Rather than building something with it, they waterproofed it and used it completely submerged underw...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off a preview of the newest addition to the Sphero lineup: the Sphero Mini Activity Kit. This kit builds on top of the existing Sphero Mini robotic ball, adding to it a variety of pre-planned activities that can be done with the ball. These activities give new owners ideas of things that can be done with their ball. This has long been a leading problem with robotic to...

This week, Avram Piltch tries something new and unboxes the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard live on the show. This keyboard is unique in that it is designed to be modular, both in itself and with accessories. The small-framed keyboard detaches in the middle, allowing you to use it as a standard ergonomic keyboard, or configure it however is convenient and comfortable for you. But, the split keyboard des...

Modern games are fun, but there is something special about retro gaming. The simplicity of the games, the focus on fun over graphics, the limitation of the controls. These old games are just pure, simple fun. While you can play these games on a standard computer, the experience is just better in the environment the games were designed for, whether that be the living room or an arcade cabinet. Luck...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses one of the biggest changes in the tech space for 2019: the price of solid-state memory. Both NAND flash and standard SSD drives have come down significantly in price, making them a great option for upgrading an existing computer. Many of us have an older laptop that is simply too slow for everyday use, but removing a traditional spinning hard drive or a hybrid dri...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the best technology to send your kids with when they return back to school. Whether they're returning to college or starting high school, certain technology pieces can enhance their learning. For those who already have a laptop, there are a few items that can make using it a little better. For example, an external keyboard makes typing those long papers le...

This week, Avram Piltch is showing off the newest addition to the LEGO augmented reality family: LEGO Hidden Side. Unlike the set that Avram tested last year, this series of products has both cool LEGO environments and AR that is fun. First, Avram discusses the sets themselves. With 8 in total , they vary from the simpler Graveyard Mystery to the more complex and beautiful Newbury Haunted High Sch...

This week, Avram Piltch brings us up to date on one of his projects for his new favorite toy, the Raspberry Pi 4: the Picade by Pimoroni . This project features a 10-inch screen, mini arcade body, 6 player buttons, 4 utility buttons, and a joystick. The goal is to create a fully functional arcade cabinet that can run one of a variety of system emulators. Because this model is designed for the Rasp...

This week, Avram Piltch brings us the latest news on AMD's product launches. The company and its partners released new products based on the 7nm architecture. These products include the 3rd generation Ryzen processors, supporting motherboards, and new videocards. The biggest release is the Ryzen 3000 series, the latest refresh in the company's processor lineup. The new processors are the first pro...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the newest entry in the Raspberry Pi family: the Raspberry Pi 4. While this new model was not supposed to come out until this year, improved processor sourcing made it possible to bring it to market significantly earlier than expected. The newest model is a welcomed update to the Raspberry Pi 3, with the ability for more RAM, faster processing, and updated ports....

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the impending impact of the trade war between the United States and China. The US imposed a 10% tariff on imports from China a while back, but a new and stronger tariff system is going into place now. The new tariffs will be 25% on billions of dollars worth of products, and will almost immediately be felt by consumers. These new tariffs were felt in full force dur...

This week, Avram Piltch is back from Computex 2019 in Taipei with some of the best technology he and his team from Tom's Hardware encountered. From processors to computer cases, Avram's got it all. First, we've got the big announcements from AMD. In particular, the 3rd generation Ryzen processors. In addition to the Ryzen 3, 5, and 7, this year they have introduced the Ryzen 9, sporting a 12-cores...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the new computer components that were announced this week. Starting off is Intel's 45-watt 9th generation H-series processors. The Core i9 (9980HK) now features 8 cores, which is more powerful than any mobile processor in history. The Core i5 and Core i7 feature 4-cores and 8-cores, respectively. These procs are still running on the 14-nanometer architectu...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the HP Spectre x360 13" 2-in-1 notebook. This new model of the popular Spectre x360 series has some interesting new features. One of the most interesting, though seemingly simple changes, is the angled back corners. On these corners, which are cut at a 45-degree angle, house the power button and charging port. This minor change is a nice design change but also has...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the brand new Hack Computer , a laptop designed to help teach kids about computers. There are two parts to the computer: the hardware and the operating system. The hardware is a quality laptop manufactured by Asus. Featuring a 1080p screen and lightweight design, it feels at home in the $299 price point. As for the operating system, it is a Linux build with tools...

This week, Avram Piltch talks about the death of a product that never made any sense: the Intel Compute Card . This tiny computer was about the size of a credit card but required a docking station to be used. Intel believed that this platform was the future of integrated devices, like smart TVs and refrigerators, but manufacturers never agreed. "Secure computing" also didn't pan out as a business...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the future of USB, known as USB4 (or USB 4). While not everything is known about the new standard, such as the final marketing branding, we do know some . For example, we know that USB4 will be capable of up to 40Gbps transfer rates, equaling what Thunderbolt 3 supports currently. It will also support a smart switching capability when using both video and data ove...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the history and milestones of the Raspberry Pi. It's hard to believe that its been 7 years since the original Raspberry Pi model released. In that time, almost everything has changed, except for the price of the computer. The original intention was to build only about 1000 devices, with the hope of getting more applicants to Cambridge University. Things changed re...