If you’ve been itching to upgrade your 21-inch or even 27-inch monitor to something bigger, or if you need a new monitor for that dazzling new mini PC you just ordered, then you should absolutely check out this Acer Nitro 34-incher that’s on sale at Best Buy. It’s currently half off, down from its original price to an insanely affordable $210! View this Best Buy deal The Acer Nitro ED340CUR is a superb budget gaming monitor, with its 34-inch diagonal and crisp 21:9 ultrawide 3440×1440 resolution. You’ll have a ball with this display whether you’re gaming or streaming media, especially the former with its 120Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. Though not exactly top-tier in specs, it’s a true bargain when you can snag it at this low of a price. Seriously, it’s only $210! This Acer monitor has a gentle 1500R curve for reduced eye fatigue as it wraps around your vision, plus HDR10 for excellent contrast despite its VA panel. Other nice features include AMD FreeSync Premium for reduced frame stutter, a 100×100 VESA mount to put it on a monitor arm, and double HDMI plus DisplayPort as connection options. Monitors in this range normally sacrifice something big, like sticking to 21-inch or 24-inch sizes or lesser refresh rates, but more importantly you just won’t find a 1440p ultrawide at this price. This is your chance to get it for just $210 at Best Buy with this early Black Friday deal! Save 50% and score this 34-inch 1440p ultrawide for an insane priceBuy via Best Buy Read...

Gemini for Home has only been working on Google’s Nest smart speakers for a month, and users are still getting used to what costs extra and what doesn’t. But Gemini surprised some Google Home users recently when it suggested an upsell for an old Google Assistant feature that should be free.  A Gemini for Home user complained on Reddit that Gemini on their Nest Mini speaker declined to give a definition of a word, saying instead that “Live conversations are only available if you buy the Premium subscription.”  Now, it is true that Gemini Live, the freewheeling conversational mode that allows you to have back-and-forth chats with Gemini, requires a paid subscription.  Specifically, you’ll need to pay $10 a month for Google Home Standard, which also includes 30 days of video history for Nest cameras, intelligent camera alerts, the AI-enhanced Gemini for Home assistant, and the ability to create Google Home automations using natural language queries. (There’s also a pricier tier that we’ll get to in a minute.)  But during its big Gemini for Home reveal in early October, Google promised that any standard duties previously performed by the soon-to-be-legacy Google Assistant would still work for free, and that includes defining and translating words.  Luckily, a Google rep joined the chat (as reported by Android Authority) with an explanation:  We are aware of an issue where Gemini for Home incorrectly states that a subscription is required for certain translation and definition queries. We are working on a fix as soon as possible and will provide an update once it rolls out. Thank you for your patience.  Phew!  Still, the kerfuffle underlines Gemini’s growing pains as it makes its way to Google’s smart speakers, as well as the lingering confusion over what’s free and what costs extra for Gemini for Home users.  Google has previously warned users that Gemini for Home might behave in unexpected ways, such as forgetting what was said in previous chats or allowing recent banter to affect its subsequent responses. And yes, Gemini for Home is prone to hallucinations, as are all other LLMs.  Then there’s the fact that a fair number of Gemini for Home features cost extra, while the vast majority of Google Assistant’s functionality was free. Aside from the aforementioned Google Home Standard, there’s also the $20-a-month Google Home Advanced tier, which adds AI-generated descriptions to Nest Cam video events and serves up a Gemini-composed “Home Brief” that summarizes key smart home events of the past 24 hours, among other features.  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

Hammerspace launches version 5.2 of its Data Platform, boosting AI and HPC performance, expanding cloud support, and enhancing security features across environments. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent stand with plenty of ergonomic adjustment Great color performance Good motion clarity with up to 210Hz refresh rate Cons HDMI ports limited to 144Hz No USB connectivity Limited contrast ratio Our Verdict The KTC 27M1 is a good choice if you want a do-it-all budget monitor that’s solid for both gaming and productivity. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: KTC 27M1 Retailer Price $229.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Buying a budget gaming monitor (or any budget monitor!) isn’t easy, as you face literally hundreds of displays with nearly identical specifications. The KTC 27M1 manages to stand out from this crowd with several unusual features. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good choice if you want an inexpensive do-it-all monitor. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best gaming monitors for comparison. KTC 27M1 specs and features The KTC 27M1 is a 27-inch gaming monitor with a 2560×1440 resolution. It also supports a refresh rate up to 210Hz alongside Adaptive Sync, FreeSync, and G-Sync. In short, the display specifications cover everything I’d expect from a budget gaming display, and then some. Display size: 27-inch 16:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 2560×1440 Panel type: Fast IPS-LCD Refresh rate: 210Hz Adaptive sync: Yes, Adaptive Sync, FreeSync, G-Sync HDR: Yes Ports: 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x 3.5mm headphone Audio: 2x two-watt speakers Extra features: Ergonomic stand, headphone hanger, shielding hood Price: $229.99 retail However, the KTC 27M1 expands its appeal with several added features. It has a headphone hanger and a display hood (though the hood isn’t perfect, as I’ll discuss in a moment). The ergonomic stand also provides more adjustment than most available at this price. Speaking of price, the KTC 27M1 retails at $229.99 on Amazon, which is competitive. Less expensive monitors are available but typically stick to 1080p resolution and/or a lower refresh rate. Most 1440p monitors with a 180Hz to 240Hz refresh rate retail for $180 to $250. KTC 27M1 design The KTC 27M1’s design seems typical at first glance. It’s primarily made from matte-black plastic and includes a few subtle design flourishes, including a silver strip on the rear with “Key to Combat” engraved on the right side. It’s all rather normal for an inexpensive gaming monitor. However, a few oddities stand out. The stand is slightly slanted away from the user. That’s a bit odd, but it actually has an advantage. This design places the monitor slightly further away from the user, which is handy if your desk is narrow. The stand also has a clicky swivel operation with a wide range of operation (60 degrees in either direction) and a carrying handle. Matthew Smith / Foundry The monitor has a hood, too—kinda. A display hood is a shield that attaches to the top or sides of a display. It’s normally meant to reduce ambient light on a display so that the image looks brighter and more accurate. And that’s kind of true here, too, except that the hood is missing the top. It still does reduce ambient light a bit, but I’m a bit puzzled why the top of the hood is absent. Getting back to the stand, it’s great. The base is small and flat, yet the stand offers a wider range of ergonomic adjustment than most monitors. In addition to up to 120 degrees of swivel it also offers 40 degrees of tilt and150mm of height adjustment. It can pivot 90 degrees into portrait orientation, too. Most competitive monitors also offer ergonomic adjustment, but the 27M1 moves more than most. A 100x100mm VESA mount is also available for use with third-party monitor stands and arms. Oh, and the rear of the monitor includes a headphone hook. It feels flimsy but it does the job. The KTC 27M1’s stand is great — it’s small and flat and offers a wider range of ergonomic adjustment than most monitors. KTC 27M1 connectivity KTC’s unusual yet arguably advantageous choices continue with the monitor’s connectivity. It has two HDMI 2.0 ports and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports for a total of four video inputs. Most budget monitors only have two or three video inputs. It’s not all good news, though. The HDMI 2.0 ports only support a refresh rate up to 144Hz at 2560×1440. To be fair, it’s likely those ports will be used with game consoles, which don’t exceed 144Hz anyway. The monitor also has a 3.5mm headphone jack. There are no USB ports, though, which is a minor disappointment. A USB 2.0 port is included but only used for firmware upgrades. KTC 27M1 menus Like most monitors, the KTC 27M1 has a joystick tucked around the right flank for navigating the on-screen menus. It’s responsive and easy to reach, though the same is true with other monitors. The menus are well-labeled and have a bold, high-contrast font that I found easy to read. The menu system provides an acceptable range of image quality options. These include four precise gamma presets, though the color temperature presets only target vague labels such as “Warm” and “Cool.” The monitor also has six-axis color saturation calibration. The monitor has an sRGB color gamut preset, but doesn’t offer a preset for AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, Rec.709, or other common color gamuts. Matthew Smith / Foundry There’s also a typical range of gaming features such as an on-screen crosshair, timer, and FPS counter. A 4:3 aspect ratio mode is available, too. While the on-screen menu system is good, the KTC doesn’t have a Windows or MacOS app that can be used to control the monitor’s features. That’s a feature that better-known brands, such as Alienware and Asus, can offer. KTC 27M1 audio The KTC 27M1 has a pair of 2-watt speakers but, as is usually true for a monitor (at any price), they’re not great. They aren’t loud even at maximum volume and have a thin, tinny sound. The speakers are fine for listening to a podcast, perhaps, but not a good fit for gaming. KTC 27M1 SDR image quality The KTC 27M1 has a 27-inch IPS-LCD display with a resolution of 2560×1440…and those specifications actually don’t say much about the monitor’s image quality. IPS-LCD displays can vary a lot in brightness, color, and contrast. So, how does the KTC 27M1 perform? Matthew Smith / Foundry KTC comes out guns blazing with a maximum SDR brightness of 535 nits. That’s a huge level of brightness and, frankly, way too bright for most situations. However, if you need a monitor to use in a very bright room, the KTC 27M1 could do the trick. The monitor also has an anti-glare finish to reduce glare. Unfortunately, the brightness is also a downside. Why? Because the monitor’s minimum brightness dips no lower than 85 nits. That might be too bright if you use the monitor in a very dark room. Matthew Smith / Foundry I measured a maximum contrast ratio of 1520:1 at 50 percent of maximum brightness, and that contrast ratio was consistent at different brightness settings. A contrast ratio of 1520:1 is good for a budget IPS-LCD display. The monitor’s black levels are noticeably elevated, though, so the display suffers the “IPS glow” problem which causes dark scenes to look hazy and gray. However, as the graph shows, the same is true for other IPS monitors in this price bracket. The Lenovo Legion R27fc-30 deserves special mention due to its much higher contrast ratio. That’s thanks to the monitor’s Vertical Alignment (VA) panel, a type of panel that has better contrast and is the second most popular option, after IPS, for a budget monitor’s display panel. However, as the other graphs show, the Legion falls short in some other areas—so there’s a bit of a give and take. Matthew Smith / Foundry The KTC 27M1 offers a healthy color gamut that comes in at 100 percent of sRGB, 94 percent of DCI-P3, and 89 percent of AdobeRGB. While this isn’t top-tier performance in 2025 (many monitors can hit 95 to 98 percent of DCI-P3 and 90 to 95 percent of AdobeRGB), this is a good level of performance for a budget monitor. It’s also enough to make games look vivid and saturated. Matthew Smith / Foundry Color accuracy brings more good news, as the KTC 27M1 delivered a frankly shocking level of color accuracy. While color accuracy is generally great even among inexpensive IPS-LCD displays, the KTC 27M1 stands out with top-tier color accuracy performance. That’s not to say the image quality is perfect. I measured a default gamma of 2.3, which is off the target of 2.2 (and this was in the monitor’s gamma 2.2 mode). Color temperature was also way too high at 7700K, off the target of 6500K. Using the Warm color temperature mode only lowered the result to 7100K. So, if you prefer a warm image, you’re likely going to need to do some additional software calibration. Sharpness is fine but not exceptional. The monitor’s 2560×1440 resolution works out to about 110 pixels per inch. Obviously, that’s not as pixel-dense as a 4K monitor, which provides about 163 pixels per inch. At this price, though, 1440p is a fine resolution. It’s also a good fit for gaming, in particular, because 4K resolution is much more demanding on GPU hardware than 1440p. While it has oddities, such as the unusually high minimum brightness and rather cool color temperature, the KTC 27M1 offers good SDR image quality overall. It is strongest in color performance and accuracy but also provides exceptional brightness. I was rather pleased with the image quality in most situations, as it struck me as vivid and alluring. KTC 27M1 HDR image quality The KTC 27M1 can display an HDR signal, but HDR is not promoted in the monitor’s marketing, and the monitor lacks VESA DisplayHDR certification. It’s no surprise, then, that the monitor’s HDR leaves a lot to be desired. HDR scenes look a bit brighter than in SDR, but the monitor lacks both the brightness and contrast to provide the extra detail HDR is supposed to offer in bright portions of a scene. The color gamut also isn’t wide enough to handle HDR content correctly. However, the same is true of all budget monitors. You’ll need to spend more on an OLED or Mini-LED monitor, such as the Acer Predator X34 X0, if you want good HDR performance. KTC 27M1 motion performance The KTC 27M1 can reach a refresh rate of 210Hz with overclock, or 200Hz without. That’s an unusual number, but I didn’t notice anything unusual about the monitor’s motion clarity. The 210Hz refresh rate can provide excellent fluidity in fast-paced games and leads to a responsive, immediate feel. Keep in mind, however, that the maximum refresh rate is only available over DisplayPort. HDMI is limited to 144Hz. The monitor also supports Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync, and Nvidia G-Sync for smooth frame pacing. It worked as expected in my testing with an AMD Radeon 7800 XT. This is table stakes for a gaming monitor, though. KTC provides an enhanced pixel response time mode, which boosts clarity but can also cause distracting artifacts and an over-sharpened look. It also has an MPRT mode that inserts black frames between regular frames to reduce motion blur. One downside of MPRT is that it reduces perceived brightness by roughly half, but the KTC’s extreme brightness means that isn’t really an issue. With that said, MPRT is something of an acquired taste, as it can create a “double image” effect. While the KTC 27M1’s overall motion performance won’t win awards, it’s solid for a budget gaming monitor. Fast-paced games look reasonably crisp and details are usually legible, though fast text or tiny interface elements (like HP bars) can be a bit hard to discern. It’s a big leap from any 60Hz display and competitive in the budget gaming monitor arena. Should you buy the KTC 27M1? While it’s not the best pick for every game, the KTC 27M1 has good image quality and unique features that help it stand out. Like most IPS-LCD monitors, the KTC 27M1 has a modest contrast ratio and has trouble handling dark scenes. The 27M1 also lacks USB connectivity and doesn’t have a software utility for controlling monitor options. Yet the KTC 27M1 strikes back with an excellent stand that has a wide range of ergonomic adjustment, a total of four video inputs, and strong color performance. It has a display hood, though it only covers two sides of the monitor. I think the KTC 27M1 is a particularly good choice if you want a do-it-all budget monitor for gaming and work. It offers the ergonomic adjustment and color accuracy shoppers might look for in a budget content creation monitor alongside enhanced motion clarity and fluidity. Read...

Official support for Windows 10 was discontinued last month, but despite that, there are features from the older OS that are still missing from Windows 11. One such feature? The detailed calendar view in the taskbar. Fortunately, this one’s coming soon! Microsoft announced during yesterday’s Ignite 2025 presentation that it will be adding a new “Agenda view” to the taskbar calendar that helps you streamline your day and prepare for meetings. The Agenda view will give you a quick chronological overview of upcoming events in your calendar, and you’ll be able to hop into meetings directly from this new view. Windows Insiders will be the first to get access to the Agenda view starting in December. Microsoft did not mention when the feature is expected to come to the general public. Read...

If you’re in the market for a daily driver laptop this Black Friday, stop what you’re doing because one of the best deals I’ve seen just landed at Walmart. No, I’m not exaggerating here. Just take a look at this 16-inch HP OmniBook 5 and tell me it doesn’t get you excited! Normally $939.99, this awesome laptop is now just $449 with this hefty 52% discount. Act fast and save a whopping $491 while you can. View this Walmart deal How often do you see a mid-range laptop go on sale for over half off its original price? That’s what makes the Black Friday season so special, and this laptop deal is one you don’t want to pass up. It’s a relatively powerful machine that’s perfectly capable of handling your daily tasks while browsing, streaming, working, creating, and more. Equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor with next-level AI processing capabilities, this OmniBook 5 qualifies as a Copilot+ PC and can access all the AI features in Windows 11. It also has 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM for speedy app performance and multitasking, so it won’t slow to a crawl even under the pressure of Windows. And though the 512GB SSD could be larger, it’s plenty spacious as long as you aren’t hoarding tons of video files or archiving enormous projects. The 16-inch display is nothing to turn your nose up at, either, delivering visuals in gorgeous 1200p resolution that’ll make everything look crisp and clear. While HP claims over 16 hours of battery on this machine, you probably won’t get anything close to that… yet even at half the stated battery life, you’d still be getting a plentiful 8 hours. And with 0.7 inches of thickness and a weight of 3.97 pounds, it’s not bad to lug around. All in all, this is a phenomenal laptop for students and remote workers on the go, offering powerful performance at a super affordable price without sacrificing portability. If you get it now for $449 at Walmart, the return window ends on January 31st. If you’re still shopping for other affordable options, see our favorite laptops under $500. This powerful HP laptop is extra budget-friendly now that it`s 52% offBuy via Walmart Read...

For the last few years, the term “AI PC” has basically meant little more than “a lightweight portable laptop with a neural processing unit (NPU).” Today, two years after the glitzy launch of NPUs with Intel’s Meteor Lake hardware, these AI PCs still feel like glorified tech demos. But local AI is here! And it’s impressive. It just has nothing to do with NPUs. Indeed, if all you have is an NPU, you’d think local AI has failed. The reality is that local AI tools are more capable than ever—but you wouldn’t know it because they run on GPUs instead of NPUs. NPUs were supposed to usher in a new era of local AI on laptops and PCs. Turns out, the big push for NPUs has failed spectacularly. NPUs have failed to deliver local AI (so far) Neural processing units work. They can even power some interesting little features and gimmicks. But we were promised an age of NPU-driven AI PCs that ran powerful and game-changing local AI tools. Two years later, that marketing dream is a near-complete failure. Yes, you can use a variety of Copilot+ PC features in Windows—like Windows Recall, which snaps images of your PC’s desktop every five seconds. There’s also the image generator in the Photos app, which can generate some truly horrendous looking pictures. Chris Hoffman / Foundry There are some useful bits, of course. Windows Studio Effects is nice for polishing up your webcam video, and semantic search will make it easier to find files on Windows. But these neat little perks are far from the kind of powerful “run full-featured AI on your PC” experiences we were sold by the excited AI PC marketing. Remember when Microsoft declared 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC”? What happened? What’s worse, Microsoft is already pivoting away from an NPU-centric approach with Windows ML. Since developers aren’t writing apps with NPUs in mind, Windows ML will let developers write AI apps that run on CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs. But Microsoft has a big problem: local AI is here and it’s pretty good, but the most popular apps don’t use NPUs at all. They may never even transition to Windows ML. Microsoft has been acting like it’s ahead of the game, but the company’s bet on NPUs means the company has been left behind. The local AI ecosystem is building on Windows without using any Microsoft-provided AI hooks. Uh oh. Local AI is already here—for GPUs If you have a gaming PC and you’re wondering just how good local AI is, try downloading LM Studio. In just a few clicks, you can be running a local LLM and using an AI chatbot that runs entirely on your own hardware. In many ways, this is the dream of the NPU-powered AI PC: a local AI tool that people could start using in a few clicks without any technical knowledge. Well, it’s here. Sort of. Like many other AI tools, LM Studio mainly supports GPUs but also has a slower fallback mode for CPUs. It can’t do anything at all with NPUs. Similarly, other well-known local AI tools like Ollama and Llama.cpp—a backend that many other tools rely on—have no support for NPUs. Here’s what a model running on my GPU had to say about this article. Good luck getting this from a model running on an NPU.Chris Hoffman / Foundry These tools work impressively well, yet they don’t work with NPUs at all. Why didn’t Microsoft or Intel hire an engineer or two to integrate NPU support into the open-source tools people are actually using? If a fraction of the money spent on marketing NPU-powered “AI PCs” went to actually making NPUs useful, I’d be singing a different tune. Long story short: if you want to run local AI on your own hardware, steer clear of so-called “AI PCs” with NPUs. What you really want is a gaming PC with a powerful GPU—ideally one by Nvidia, since local AI tools are still written with Nvidia hardware in mind (thanks to Nvidia’s CUDA). AnythingLLM is an exception While trawling the web to find out if there were any popular local LLM tools that supported NPUs, I discovered this one: AnythingLLM. This tool has an NPU backend that supports the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU on Qualcomm Snapdragon X systems. But that’s it. No support for NPUs on Intel or AMD systems. Qualcomm has an excited blog post talking about this software. When I downloaded it to try it out on my Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered Surface Laptop, I ran into a Windows SmartScreen warning—that’s the kind of error you see when you download a rarely used program that Microsoft’s security defenses aren’t familiar with. No wonder NPUs didn’t take off if developers have to rewrite their software for Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD NPUs. That’s a non-trivial issue.Chris Hoffman / Foundry What does that mean? Here’s the single most polished solution for running local LLMs on an NPU… and no one is using it. It’s so off the beaten path that it trips Windows’ security warnings. AnythingLLM is only one example of the problem. There are other apps that supports LLMs, but they’re mostly confined to developer tech demos. For example, Intel has OpenVINO GenAI software intended for developers, but it’s nowhere close to the “just a few clicks” experience of LM Studio and other popular GPU-based local AI tools. NPUs were supposed to be mainstream, but GPUs are winning What’s funny is that NPUs were supposed to democratize local AI. The idea was that GPUs were too expensive and power-hungry for local AI features. So, instead of a PC with a discrete GPU, people could run local AI features on a power-efficient NPU. GPUs were the “enthusiast” option while NPUs would be the easy-to-use “mainstream” option. That dream hasn’t just failed to materialize—it has totally collapsed. If you want easy-to-use local AI tools, you want a PC with a powerful GPU so you can use the “just a few clicks” tools mentioned above. If you really want to use local AI on a lightweight laptop with an NPU, you’ll either have to dig through obscure tech demos designed for developers or be limited to the handful of Copilot+ PC AI features built into Windows. But those features are toys compared to the kinds of local LLMs that anyone with a GPU can run in LM Studio—in just a few clicks. Even if we’re just talking about AI-powered webcam and microphone effects, the free and easy-to-use Nvidia Broadcast app delivers much more powerful effects than Microsoft’s Windows Studio Effects solution… and all you need is a PC with a modern Nvidia GPU. Microsoft shot itself in the foot Since the launch of Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has repeatedly told the people who are actually using local AI tools (like LM Studio, Ollama, Llama.cpp, and others) that AI PCs aren’t for them. Microsoft was very clear that built-in Windows AI features should only run on NPUs and aren’t suitable for use on GPUs. Even if you care about local AI, Microsoft says you can’t have built-in Windows AI features on your NPU-lacking PC. I found that out the hard way with my $3,000 gaming PC that can’t run Copilot+ features. As a result, local AI users have responded by ignoring the AI features built into Windows. Or in other words, Microsoft has created two different local AI experiences: The NPU-powered Copilot+ PC playground full of little tech demos that don’t do much. People with these “AI PCs” are largely unimpressed and think local AI can’t do much. The GPU-powered PC experience full of open-source tools that Microsoft ignores. People using these “AI PCs” realize that local AI is interesting, but they don’t engage with any Microsoft AI tools. What a complete mess. If Microsoft, Intel, or another big company had paid software engineers to focus on integrating NPU support into existing local AI tools with real-world adoption, perhaps we’d be in a different spot. Instead, I’m left looking at the great NPU push and concluding that it was just marketing that failed to deliver on what it promised. It’s no wonder that Microsoft is now talking about how “every Windows 11 PC is becoming an AI PC.” But what does that even mean? You still need a powerful GPU for real local AI. If Microsoft wants to make every Windows PC an “AI PC” by talking up the cloud-powered Copilot chatbot, they could have done that years ago—but that wouldn’t have helped the PC industry sell so many “AI laptops.” It’s the great NPU failure—the big push for NPUs has amounted to diddly-squat. If you want local AI, just get a PC with a powerful GPU. You’ll be disappointed if you try taking the NPU path. Read...

When Amazon first launched the Echo smart home speaker and the Alexa voice assistant, I was excited beyond belief. It felt like a true evolution in tech, something straight out of the science fiction from past decades. Here it was, a real product you could buy and own. Sure, the Echo itself was ostensibly just a speaker, but the Alexa ecosystem underpinning it made it so much more than that. It was smart, it was functional, and it was a step in the right direction for forward-thinking people keen to build a smart home. But now, a decade on from its launch, it feels like the Alexa platform has run out of steam. I used to use my Echo all the time, but not anymore. Here’s what happened and what could get me back. I was an Alexa early adopter The first Echo speaker I bought was the tall, plasticky, first-generation model that came to the UK in 2016. I then bought a second-generation model for my office a year later. Finally, I received an Echo Studio as a Christmas gift in 2019, which took pride of place in my living room and relegated the original Echo to my bedroom. Over the years, I’ve used my Echo speakers for all kinds of stuff. The main one has always been listening to music, especially during the COVID lockdowns when I was confined to my house for long periods. Being able to ask Alexa to stream (or switch) songs on Spotify by simply uttering a command was a godsend. It really helped pass the time. But I’ve also used Alexa to convey weather forecasts for the week ahead, give me rundowns of news headlines of the day, explain the meanings of words and concepts, answer simple off-hand questions that pop into my head, and even play games every once in a while. Dave Parrack / Foundry And it’s not like I’m a full-blown smart home geek! I loved the idea of a smart home but never fully embraced the concept, yet even I got to do cool stuff with some smart light bulbs controllable via Alexa. For example, I programmed them to come on at specific times of day throughout the year. Yeah, I got a lot of use out of my Echo devices. I’m using Alexa and my Echo speakers less These days, I really only use my Echo speakers to listen to talk radio (via TuneIn) and music (via Spotify Premium). All the other novelty stuff gradually lost their luster and fell by the wayside. The biggest reason for this has been the advent of generative AI and the speed at which it has evolved in just a few short years. LLMs like ChatGPT make Alexa feel dull and limited by comparison. I can ask ChatGPT pretty much anything I want and it’ll have an answer—an answer that may not be entirely correct and needs double-checking, but most of the time it’s accurate enough to pass. I can hold full back-and-forth conversations with AI in ways that would make Alexa jealous. I’ve written a few articles about different ways to use ChatGPT, including mundane tasks ChatGPT can handle for you and fun things you can do with ChatGPT when you’re bored. My colleagues have also written about using ChatGPT to improve your life and other practical uses for it. Dave Parrack / Foundry I’ve also grown more concerned over the privacy implications of an always-on and always-listening smart speaker in every room of my home. While Amazon wants to assure us that Alexa is only listening for its wake word, it’s hard to shake that unsettling feeling. And if you check your voice command history in the Alexa app, you may be surprised at some of the things it has picked up over the years. (That’s what actually led me to mute the microphones on my Echo devices until I need them.) Overall, I simply find that my Echo speakers and Alexa are now overshadowed by other options. Where I was once excited to explore new Alexa skills and features, I now just default to using it for the boring basics as I’ve always done. I can’t even remember the last time I cared to seek out a new Alexa skill to install and use. Will AI make Alexa relevant again? I’m unconvinced that Amazon will be able to bring Alexa and its Echo range back to where they once were. Sure, millions of people own one (or more) and have them plugged in somewhere at home. But I suspect that, like me, many people have stopped using Alexa. Amazon’s next big hope is Alexa+, the next-generation AI-powered version of Alexa that was announced in February 2025. Currently in Early Access, it promises to be a lot more like ChatGPT and other LLMs: more conversational interactions, personalized memories that are retained across devices, more context awareness, with higher ambitions than the first (and current) iteration of Alexa. Ben Patterson got to try Alexa+ and came out with mixed takeaways. Alexa+ is slated to cost $19.99/month and will be compatible with most Echo devices beyond first-generation models. Or, if you have Amazon Prime, Alexa+ will be included as a “free” perk, giving current subscribers yet another reason to keep paying for the service. Amazon Amazon’s Echo line is still the most popular smart speaker brand in the US and elsewhere, so these devices aren’t going anywhere. But since Amazon doesn’t share sales figures for its products, we don’t know how it’s trending. Amazon may still be moving plenty of units, but are buyers even using Echo for Alexa and smart home controls? Or simply as smart speakers? (They’re admittedly quite good as the latter.) As for me, I’m cautiously hopeful. My Echo devices are mostly gathering dust now, and they’ll remain that way until the whole Alexa ecosystem is upgraded. I wonder if Alexa+ will be that upgrade? I won’t be able to find out until it leaves Early Access. Until then, Alexa just isn’t capable enough… and the privacy concerns are real. Further reading: Alexa’s big AI makeover: 8 key things to know Read...

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Microsoft Support operates an X/Twitter account called MicrosoftHelps to help users with problems, highlight features, and explain technical bits. Typically, Windows 11 takes center stage there, as Microsoft wants to showcase the current Windows generation and spread it further. However, Microsoft Support recently focused on Windows 10 of all things. Although Microsoft wants to move away from this now-unsupported version of the operating system, many satisfied Windows 10 users remain loyal to it. And that’s much to the annoyance of Microsoft, who continues to aggressively promote Windows 11. Here’s what happened: In a recent post, MicrosoftHelps wanted to highlight the Night Light feature of Windows, which adjusts the color temperature of the screen to reduce blue light. It’s believed to help relieve eye strain and improve sleep hygiene. Turning on Night Light while we`re working is easier than wearing blue light glasses ??Switch it on to help ease ?? strain: https://t.co/KjFAsE8blJ pic.twitter.com/nCubLboDaC— Microsoft Support (@MicrosoftHelps) October 20, 2025 But the GIF used in the post shows the Windows 10 Action Center. As you might know, Windows 11 doesn’t have an Action Center and instead uses a separate Quick Settings panel and a Notification Center. The alt text of the GIF reads: “Graphical depiction of turning on the night light setting on a Windows PC.” Apparently, a standard “Windows PC” is still one that runs Windows 10 according to this GIF! It’s currently unknown why MicrosoftHelps didn’t use Windows 11 for the illustration. Read...