No DVD drive in your laptop? Grab this USB add-on for just $20

Most modern laptops lack an optical drive, yet CDs and DVDs are still used in many households, whether for playing old movies, installing older software, or even for making physical backups. An external DVD drive is an uncomplicated and practical solution for those things. And right now, the best-selling external DVD drive on Amazon is […]

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Microsoft’s ‘My Apps’ tab brings other storefronts to handheld PCs

Microsoft has begun testing out multiple storefronts and applications from within the Xbox app, letting handheld PC players as well as those who own Windows 11 test out the ability to download games from other services. The “My Apps” tab within the Xbox PC app allows gamers to load applications outside of the Xbox ecosystem,

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How much power and water does AI use? Google, Mistral weigh in

How badly does AI harm the environment? We now have some answers to that question, as both Google and Mistral have published their own self-assessments of the environmental impact of an AI query. In July, Mistral, which publishes its own AI models, published a self-evaluation of the environmental impact of training and querying its model

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Fitbit’s AI health coach is the first I might actually be interested in

I’m not a fan of AI health and fitness features. Not only do they regurgitate Captain Obvious-level summaries of what you just did, but the “insights” are so generalized that a Google search is often more helpful. So it was with great skepticism that I walked into a demo to learn about Fitbit’s forthcoming AI-powered

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Google snuck a new smart speaker into its big Pixel event

Over the past several months, the question surrounding Google’s next smart devices hasn’t been when they will arrive, but if they will arrive.  After all, Google’s been slowly but steadily discontinuing older smart products (the Nest Protect, the Nest x Yale Lock) while leaving their replacements to third parties. At time same time, its aging

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