Piltch Point (Audio)

This week, Avram Piltch talks about some of the new announcements from Microsoft at Mobile World Congress 2019. The must-anticipated second generation of the HoloLens was the star of the show. The new hardware is lighter, faster, and smarter. Dynamics 365 brings an added benefit of hands-on tutorials, while new Azure capabilities make it easier to deal with pinning virtual objects. The new hardwar...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the future of Raspberry Pi, as told by the CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading, Eben Upton . Eben is also the creator of the platform and plans the direction of the platform today. While the original Pi was designed specifically for a limited audience at Cambridge, the current Pi (the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ ) is widely available, and the platform has sold over 24 million units...

This week, Avram Piltch gives us a hands-on with one of our favorite CES 2019 devices: Sphero Specdrums . When most people think of Sphero, they usually think of round robots, but this product definitely breaks the mold. In fact, Specdrums is a color sensing ring that allows you to play music. Simply place the ring up against something of a particular color, such as the included mat, and your phon...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his reactions to CES 2019 and what he sees as the trends that can be expected as we head into 2019. The real winner of CES, and possibly of the entire year, is AMD. As the company expands its reach and enhances its product offerings, chief competitor Intel is struggling to keep up. Intel has had production issues and has not been able to keep up with demand, leadi...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of his predictions for what we will see and, more importantly, what we won't see in 2019. Avram expects to see the price of SSD drop seeing around 10 cents per gigabyte, meaning that you will be able to purchase a 1 terabyte drive for around $100. This should start a trend in laptops replacing their built-in drives to SSD, even on less expensive machines. He...

This week, Avram Piltch has a hands-on with a gaming keyboard he is currently reviewing for Tom's Hardware: the Viper Gaming V765 Mechanical Keyboard . This keyboard is designed for gamers, featuring a shorter actuation distance, making it easier to respond quickly while gaming. The switches are an uncommon white, which makes they click, but not require as much pressure to actuate. But it is also...

This week, Avram Piltch talks about some of the Holiday deals that are still available. While Black Friday used to be a single day, it expanded into Cyber Monday, and today it encompasses nearly the entire month of December. Some of the deals that are available expire on Cyber Monday, there are still a ton of deals that you can get for yourself or a loved one right now.

This week, Avram Piltch is here to help you prepare for Black Friday deals and duds. Every year, retailers rush to bring you deals on clothing, electronics, components, and more. However, some of these supposed deals are not quite the special they pretend to be. In fact, it is not unusual to find a price that is higher than it is on a normal day. Or, more commonly, it is still not as great of a pr...

This week, Avram Piltch is here to help you prevent buying an SSDud. This holiday, SSDs are expected to drop in price greatly, but not every drive is a good price. Sometimes, a sale price is higher than the regular price at another retailer. Sometimes, a drive that is inexpensive, is that way because it is not a quality product. Luckily, there are some great ways to spot a bad deal before you spen...

This week, Avram Piltch shows off Samsung's most recent laptop: the Samsung Galaxy Book 2. This attempt at a Microsoft Surface rival skips an Intel chip and, instead, uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor. That means that this laptop does not come close to the Surface Pro 6's performance or capabilities, though it does come close to the price. This below entry-level runs $1000 - an insanely hig...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some stories of experiences PC refurbishers have had when opening up computers. Can you imagine opening up a desktop computer to find a loaded pistol instead of a CD drive? Or what about letting a collection of live roaches escape from a computer, only to have them infest your office? Those are just some of the bizarre and unpleasant experiences that refurbishers...

This week, Avram Piltch has all of the information about Intel's newest generation of processors: the 9th Generation Core, also known as Coffee Lake Refresh. There is a trio of processors, an i5, i7, and i9. The i9 is the most interesting of the lot, upgrading the previous model, which had 6 cores, bringing an additional 2, for a total of 8. The launch did not come without controversy, however, as...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses one of the most recent products he has had the opportunity to review: the Kano Computer Kit Touch. In March, Avram introduced us to the Kano Computer Kit , and this new model addresses one of the issues identified in the previous model: a lack of touchscreen. Most kids expect a screen to be touchable and making a kids device that required a keyboard and mouse was...

This week, Avram Piltch shows you how to enable Dark Mode across a variety of platforms on your PC. The feature has come out of the darkness in the past year, with many developers building the feature into their software, even on the web. Windows has supported the feature since Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8, but the capability is gaining wide adoption now. Luckily, Avram's got the process for Wind...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses Windows settings to change . Some of them speed up your computer while others make it less annoying to use. Some of his suggestions are pretty straightforward, like unhiding file extensions and hidden folders. On the other hand, some are more controversial, like disabling User Account Controls, garnering dozens of comments within hours on Tom's Hardware.

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his experiences in teaching his young son about electronics, robotics, programming and other STEAM-related topics. In the years the two have done projects together, Avram has learned a few things to look out for, as well as some best practices that have worked to keep his son involved and excited, including working with physical elements, like Arduino, as opposed...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses one of the biggest costs in building your own computer: Windows. While Microsoft sells a copy of Windows 10 Home for $139, there are other ways to get Windows 10 going for little or no cost. Whether you repurpose an existing activation key or purchase it wholesale, Avram's got some ideas to decrease the cost of your build.

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the legality of videogame ROMs and Nintendo's response to them. Previously, Nintendo has issued cease-and-desist letters to sites that host and distribute ROM files, but this week they ramped up their approach by suing. The suits bring back the topic of whether or not ROMs are legal. Tom's Hardware's Scharon Harding spoke to legal experts to arrive at a consensus:...

This week, Avram Piltch gives us a hands-on with the Elegoo EL-KIT-012 Smart Robot Car Kit V 3.0 , an Arduino-powered robot kit he purchased on Amazon Prime Day 2018 . The kit comes with everything you need to get started: an Arduino UNO, chassis, wheels, ultrasonic distance finder, IR controller and more. One oddity is that the instructions come on a DVD, but thankfully the company also offers th...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his less than stellar experience trying to purchase a laptop for himself. Earlier this year, while at LAPTOP Mag, he gave the Lenovo X1 Carbon a perfect score . A few months later, he publicly purchased one himself . A big part of his decision was the laptop's keyboard, a feature which is always important for him. Unfortunately, the experience of purchasing this l...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his experiences at Intel Developer Forum 2014. With announcements ranging from the Galileo successor Edison development board for Internet of Things devices, to the next Core family, Sky Lake, Avram was there for it all. Have you ever thought about a necklace that can tell you your mother's mood? How about a desk that can charge all of your devices wirelessly? A U...

This week, Avram Piltch talks about some inexpensive ways to upgrade your existing or future gadgets. From memory cards for your phone to an SSD for your laptop or desktop, and even RAM upgrades, Avram has some great ways to make your gadgets work harder for you.

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the technology products we already know about and predict we will see during September and October. Among these products are the iPhone 6 (or whatever they decide to call it), the Moto 360, a new entry in the Surface family and the Lumia 730.

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his list of some of the worst gadgets of all time. Some of them make the list because of a terrible launch partner (Microsoft Kin + Verizon), while others make the list for being completely useless. If there weren't products like this, we would be out of a job, so let's dive in.

This week, Avram Piltch talks about mobile battery life and reveals that, through LAPTOP Magazine's extensive testing, T-Mobile phones last longer than their competitors. This information is based on identical handsets, such as the Galaxy S5 and HTC One, tested in multiple cities.