Piltch Point (Video)

With any new version of Windows comes an updated UI. Windows 11 has introduced some of the biggest UI changes since Windows 95 (with Windows 8 set aside since Windows 10 undid almost all of that paradigm). Avram has been living inside of the latest Windows 11 build and has some of the most important changes, as well as ways to restore previous Windows UIs (for now). With change comes discomfort fo...

Recently, Tom's Hardware has begun covering 3D printers. As such, Avram has been doing a deep dive into the world of 3D printers and what it takes to use them effectively. What he has learned is that they are not exactly straightforward, but also not exactly complicated. There are choices that need to be made, processes that need to be followed, and you'll be able to accurately predict the end res...

This week, Avram Piltch talks about the newly announced Windows 11 (Sun Valley), the new features, and the confusion around the release.

If you use a computer, you've experienced some sort of a crash. Even Apple, despite its marketing, experiences hardware failures, software conflicts, or driver issues. But, there's a very famous and painful type of computer failure that nearly everyone is familiar with: the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). This is the screen that Windows shows when something has gone tragically wrong. To recover from...

If you follow the cryptocurrency world, you've likely encountered Chia - the new currency that works differently from all the others. Normally, coins are mined through a process called "proof of work." This requires a lot of computing power, which in turn requires a lot of electrical power. The reward is a coin in the corresponding currency, whether it be Bitcoin, Etherium, Doge, or others. But Ch...

Tom's Hardware was founded 25 years ago and made a major impact on the internet. In the years since the first article was published, a lot of things have changed in the computer industry, while other things have remained mostly unchanged. As part of the anniversary, Avram decided to look back on the industry, rather than the site, and show how the industry has progressed. For example, let's look a...

In January, Avram introduced us to the new Alienware m15 and m17 R4 . This gaming laptop is considered to be the best performing laptop for gaming on the market today. But, like almost all gaming laptops, the biggest issue is the keyboard. Gamers tend to prefer a mechanical keyboard, but that has generally not been available on a portable rig. Thanks to a new set of switches from CherryMX, however...

As the global chip shortage continues to affect product availability, finding certain technology products is getting more difficult. Whether you are looking for a new Radeon RX 6900 XT videocard or an Xbox Series X, you're up against limited inventory, high consumer demand, and scalpers . All of these conditions are adding to the overall challenge of acquiring one of these products. Obviously, if...

This month marks the 1 year anniversary of "15 days to slow the spread" and it has brought with it a number of new challenges. For many people, it was the first experience of working from home instead of going into an office. That change in paradigm created a need to rethink our homes, as well as the tools that we use to get through our workday. The most important recommendation has been to carve...

In April 2012, Avram's son was born. This got him thinking about what technology and related industries we were using at the moment that his son would never use , or would never be a part of his normal life. Obviously, with Avram's job, there was always the possibility that these things would be around, but not because it's normal. As his birthday approaches, as does the 25th anniversary of Tom's...

This week marks the 9th anniversary of the launch of the first Raspberry Pi computer. In the following years, this tiny computer has had a huge impact on the computing industry. That could explain why the company has sold over 38 million units. As one might expect, demand increases every year, with 2020 being the biggest year on record. The company sold 9 million units during the last year, accoun...

Lenovo has recently released what it calls "ThinkPad's lightest laptop ever" - the ThinkPad X1 Nano. This new laptop comes in at just under 2 pounds (1.99 pounds). This model falls into the company's productivity category, featuring an 11th Gen Intel vPro processor, with a variety of speeds by model. They range from a Cor i5-1130G7 on the base model up through a Core i7-1180G7 on the top model. As...

A few years ago, there was a lot of interest in mining cryptocurrencies using consumer hardware. This created a run on videocards, because GPUs work better than CPUs for mining. Over the past few years, however, that interest has waned because consumer hardware is no longer the best way to do it. Instead, professional miners use ASIC miners, which are devices designed specifically for mining. Howe...

Alienware has long been known as one of the best brands for gaming computers, and the newest version of the Alienware M17, the R4. In the gaming laptop space, there have been two directions manufacturers have gone - make them very portable at the expense of speed, or very fast at the expense of portability. The M17 R4 definitely goes with the latter, because this beast is HEAVY. Coming in at 5.51...

Raspberry Pi has long been the gold standard in learning platforms for programming, particularly when it comes to interacting with hardware. Robotics classes have used them, Internet of Things classes have used them, and a lot more. But, the platform has always been a lot more expensive than that of Arduino, because it is a fully functioning platform on which you can program itself. But, the organ...

2020 is (thankfully) almost over, and that means that it is time to look back at the year and find the things that had a positive impact on the tech industry. While there has been no end of negativity, from product scalpers to toxic streaming , there have been some extremely bright spots. The best CPU of the year is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. While the entire 5000 series of processors have been great,...

One of the most anticipated games of 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 , has finally hit the street after several release delays. However, despite these delays, the game has launched with some high profile bugs. One of these bugs can force the game to crawl even if you have some of the most powerful system processors available. But, what hardware do you need to play the game well? Jarred Walton at Tom's Hardwa...

Over the past few months, the tech world has fallen victim to a problem that sneaker collectors have been dealing with for years - automated scalpers. There are services available that, for a fee, will scour the internet looking for the product of your choice and will purchase them for you. Some people may use this to acquire the product for themselves, most use it to turn around and sell a high d...

Artificial intelligence is a big part of the software world today. Whether it's the iPhone using it to determine the most optimal way to charge the device to preserve the longevity of the battery, or an automated vehicle looking for pedestrians and other obstacles in the road, it seems that the technology is being used everywhere. As a software developer, particularly someone getting started, it c...

During Apple's "One More Thing" Event this past week, Apple talked a lot about its new M1 processors and the first Macs to be released using them. The company went into detail about the specs of the processor , but they left more questions unanswered than they actually addressed. One of the things mentioned and completely glossed over was Thunderbolt 3. Many people were curious about what the diff...

It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. That is if you are hoping to build a high-performance gaming PC. Some of the best PC components have either just been released or will release in the very near future. However, it is nearly impossible to get them. AMD announced its new line of hardware. The company claims that the new line of video cards will compete directly with their NVIDIA equ...

Kids are often interested in the newest and most exciting things, and these days that is advanced electronics. In past years, electronic learning kits were available from places like RadioShack, and they offered all of the parts, pieces, and instructions to build something, such as a radio. These days, those kits are old news, with more advanced and more universal kits being available. One upcomin...

Earlier in the year, NVIDIA released the NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit , a $399 developer board aimed at artificial intelligence development. While the device offered 8GB of RAM, it does run nearly $400. The recently announced Jetson Nano 2GB Developer Kit is here to try to fill a middle ground in both price and specs. The new nano computer, which is also intended for artificial intelligen...

While many of us have been staying home, technology vendors have still been hard at work bringing new products to market. While the most noteworthy have been Microsoft and Sony with their next-generation consoles, we have also seen a ton of new high profile PC components, with more to come. The NVIDIA GTX 3900 and GTX 3800 videocards have already cemented themselves as the new must-have components...

Prime Day, which is Amazon's annual celebration of itself, is a great opportunity to find some big deals at retailers across the internet. While the event itself is Amazon-branded and only applies to Prime subscribers , other retailers take advantage of the attention to sales and run their own promotions. While the event usually takes place in the Summer, Amazon delayed it this year because of the...