I had a desktop gaming rig built for me about 10 years ago. I chose large and chunky parts, which the tower reflected in its sheer enormity. The size of it meant that it was never going to be something I could place on my desk without it looking out of place. It was heavy too. But the base was skinny, so it wobbled when I moved it. I figured if it fell off the side of my desk it was going to cause some serious damage — if not to me, then my floor. So, under my desk it went to live, and it stayed there next to my legs as I played endless rounds of Day of Defeat. The position worked from a practical point of view, in that I had more space to spread out on my desk. I was glad it wasn’t blowing hot air anywhere near my face, too. Overall, I was happy — I had a solid, reliable workhorse that wasn’t an eyesore or a drop hazard. Fast forward six months, and one day I messed all that up when I moved it to get to my AC outlets. The move caused the four tiny feet on the rig’s underside to fall off, first the two on the back and then the two on the front. I thought that was no big deal. It’s not like I needed them to run my games, so I chose to just leave them off. But without those tiny feet to lift the tower an inch off the floor, my PC had to rest on my fluffy carpet. It was probably a year after that, that I started getting throttling problems and big temperature-rise alerts in my PC stats — but I didn’t know why. Had I pushed my fans too far by overclocking, or was something else to blame? A friend diagnosed the problem after running some diagnostics: It turns out I had turned my rig into a dust bucket with my shoddy careless placement on the carpet, such that for the last year it had been pulling in every spec of microfiber, disintegrated skin cells, pollen, and fur from my American Shorthair that it possibly could. Pexels: Atahan Demir Needless to say, it was now chock-full of the stuff — especially the fans. There was so much fluffy dust in there that I could seriously have opened my own ceiling insulation business; it took more than a whole day’s work to clean it all out. Another thing… my PC was so far backed up against my wall that airflow through the rear vents was almost nonexistent. I’ll round up my story by saying that I now know how important it is to find the right place to place my PC. So, I’ll leave you with a few PC placement dos and don’ts that I now go by to keep them running smoothly. The Dont’s of PC placement Place it on carpet when any vents on the underside are going to be blocked and prevent air circulation and where your rig is going to be susceptible to getting dust inside it. Place it so far back against a wall or other object that air circulation at the back is going to be stifled. Place it too close to heaters, hot lights, or other sources of heat. Cover it with anything like a blanket. The Dos of PC placement Place it on a desk or shelf or on a PC stand. Some users like a desk that’s separate from their own desk so that they can free up space. Placing it on a non-carpeted floor is okay too, preferably with elevation. Clean dust out of your gaming rig at least once a year. Related content 6 big PC hardware myths, exposed How to check your PC’s CPU temperature 7 advanced tools every PC enthusiast needs in their toolkit Clean up cable clutter: These tricks create beautiful cord order Read...

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For better or worse, laptop docking stations have generally been “dumb” devices. Synaptics and its customers are hoping to change that. Right now, there are two main technologies that “compete” in the docking stations space: USB4 (which Intel puts its own spin on with its Thunderbolt 4 technology) and DisplayLink (a technology Synaptics bought in 2020). Thunderbolt supplies more raw bandwidth to docks, while DisplayLink uses compression technologies to deliver a high-speed video experience that approximates Thunderbolt. Normally, the best Thunderbolt docks compete against DisplayLink docks, and it’s easy to get lost in the raw horsepower that a Thunderbolt dock offers. Synaptics, however, believes its high-speed signaling finesse can give it a leg up in future devices. Synaptics sells its DisplayLink chips to dock makers like Anker, Kensington, Plugable, and Ugreen, making Synaptics the key chipmaker in those docking stations. Although Synaptics does plan a major expansion into the “competing” USB4 technology, it recently showed off a dock concept at a tech exhibition at its headquarters (in San Jose, California) this week, which turned the dock into something like a thin client with basic video and possibly even apps living at the edge. As of now, perhaps the closest approximation to Synaptics’ vision would be the Anker Prime Charger, a 250W USB-C charging dock with an integrated display. But Synaptics was especially proud of its Astra series of IoT SOCs, whose SL2610 series leverages a “Kelvin” NPU that Google contributed to the industry as an open-source design. What do you get when you take a regular dock and add an Astra? A “smart” dock. A Plugable concept docking station with an Astra chip connected.Mark Hachman / Framework Synaptics showed off some office applications, consumer applications, and video all running on an Astra development board connected to a Plugable DisplayLink dock. At CES 2026, the company expects to show off some LLM AI models running on top of that, said Ganesh Tekkatte, director of product marketing at Synaptics. “It’s a traditional dock, but it’s now also an AI-enabled dock,” added Harsha Rao, vice president of high speed interfaces and distributed compute at Synaptics. Synaptics calls this “edge AI,” and it was a key focus for the demonstrations that the company showed off. It all sounds somewhat familiar, with one demonstration showing gesture controls being used to control a consumer video streaming device, with visual recognition coming next. That’s a feature we’ve seen before with the Microsoft Kinect (though, years later, Synaptics can now do it far smaller and for far cheaper). Another opportunity is the automotive space, where your car could recognize you and adjust your seat, heating, and entertainment options differently than with other drivers in your family. In the PC market, Rao said an intelligent dock could replace a business PC in a hotel’s conference center or hotel room, or in a shared business environment. Putting intelligence in a dock could solve three problems: diagnosing any problems that the user might have right at the edge; intelligent bandwidth monitoring and management; and failure analysis of accessories connected to the dock. Intelligent bandwidth management could be an interesting feature, since DisplayLink usually works with a generic 10Gbps USB-C port rather than a specialized Thunderbolt connection. Rao said the dock could recognize that certain apps (like email) could always be routed to a connected 1080p display while more intensive apps (like CAD) be directed to a 4K display. “And the idea is that you could connect that with an on-screen display, because nobody wants to use the joystick [on the back of the display],” Rao said. Rao also said Synaptics is also working on a USB4 solution, which will debut in about a year and a half. He called DisplayLink a “poor man’s GPU, and said that the market was moving toward a more universal USB4 solution that could provide a cost-effective solution to Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 5. “And now is the time for us to do that.” Edge AI via sight and sound Synaptics also showed off its vision for universal presence detection using the Astra chip. Presence detection is nothing new—in Windows (Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options), you might see an option for “dynamic lock,” which uses a paired Bluetooth phone to detect when you’re nearby. But Synaptics is working with Dell’s Pro series laptops to integrate a presence-detection sensor with the webcam, and is working with Lenovo to add presence detection to Lenovo’s displays as well. Synaptics showing off universal presence detection.Mark Hachman / Framework In the demonstration, the presence detection simply identified which of two displays the user was looking at, and blurred the other. Synaptics has also implemented gesture control for moving the screen and controlling volume function, though its customers aren’t obligated to use it. One of Synaptics’ customers used the webcam for presence detection, but Synaptics would prefer a dedicated edge sensor that could provide the same function for about 20 cents more and up to 50 milliwatts. Synaptics also showed off how a smart display could sense the “owner” of the display and prioritize their voice during a video call. Edge AI can be sued to “lock on” a speciifc user.Mark Hachman / Framework Again, this all feels somewhat familiar. Brian Krzanich’s tenure at Intel was marked by BMX bikers performing stunts on a CES stage, and claims that edge sensors would supply the data for which Intel’s CPUs constantly clamor. “We are the only company that can actually put a solution mindset to this,” Rao said. “What I find out with my docking customers is what their compute needs, then we go talk to the processor [team],” Rao said. “Intel can not do that. The edge is not just coming with a sledgehammer and saying, we’ve got a processor. We actually go to there and say, what is the solution that I can solve with all the LEGO blocks we have?” Read...

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If you’ve been using a Roku player or smart TV over the past year or so, you’ve probably noticed some big changes on the home screen. What used to be a straightforward grid for all your installed apps has now become a mishmash of menu options, shortcuts, and content recommendations. While you can still simplify the Roku home screen with some settings tweaks, the trend is clearly toward stuffing it with content that makes Roku money. So here’s my counterproposal: Instead of keeping up the pretense of a simple home screen, Roku should just toss it in favor of something more useful. In fact, Roku already has a perfectly good starting point lurking in a different part of its menu system. Roku’s What to Watch menu is a better home screen you access Roku’s What to Watch menu from the left-hand sidebar.Jared Newman / Foundry Click over to Roku’s left-hand sidebar menu and you’ll see a “What to Watch” section among the increasingly numerous options (which themselves are partially obscured nowadays by a banner ad). When Roku added the Watch to Watch section in 2022, it wasn’t all that useful. Mostly, it was just a way for Roku to recommend more ad-supported content, both from its own Roku Channel and other free, ad-supported streaming sources. Over time, though, What to Watch has improved in a few notable ways: The Continue Watching row lets you quickly resume what you’ve been watching from across different streaming services, including Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, and Peacock. You can bookmark movies and shows for later—either from search or other parts of Roku’s menu system—by adding them to a Save List that appears in the What to Watch menu as well. The Your Apps row at the top of the screen lets you jump directly into apps you’ve already installed on your Roku device. What we have, in other words, is a nearly complete menu system. From a single screen, you can launch apps, pick up where you left off, and discover new things to watch. It’s also arranged in a way that actually benefits users, with content they’re watching and saving prioritized over anything promotional. Roku’s Save List is a great feature, but saved items only appear in the What to Watch menu, not on your home screen.Jared Newman / Foundry If it were up to me, I would simply make this What to Watch menu the default Roku screen, perhaps fleshing it out with quick links to Roku’s live TV and Sports menus. The layout is very much in line with what most other streaming platforms offer today, although Roku’s version is simpler and cleaner than the likes of Google TV and Amazon Fire TV. Roku needn’t ditch the app grid entirely. Instead, it should give the What to Watch section an All Apps button at very front of the Your Apps row, and have it link to a straightforward list of apps, without all the cruft that Roku has been adding lately. By defaulting to a richer and more useful content hub, Roku can free up the app grid to serve its original purpose. Why won’t Roku do this? Everything you need in one place, including shows-in-progress, recent apps, and saved items.Jared Newman / Foundry Part of me was hoping Roku would announce this kind of home screen shake-up as part of its fall software announcements earlier this week. Instead, the company announced some more modest updates, including a new AI-powered voice assistant and a way to tune your home-screen recommendations. I’m not too surprised. The company tends to be conservative with software changes, and the app grid has always been a defining Roku feature. Throwing it out or making it less prominent might confuse some users and invite a backlash. Still, Roku could easily mitigate this by letting users choose their default home screen. Keep the app grid by default for existing users, but let those of us in the know switch to the What to Watch menu instead. Over time Roku could move new users over to the Watch to Watch menu and present a choice to existing users as they set up additional smart TVs or streaming players. Roku’s Home screen, now filled with junk.Jared Newman / Foundry It’s not as if the app grid is sacrosanct for Roku. The addition of recommendation tiles, genre-based menu options, and shortcuts show that Roku itself wants to get away from the app paradigm and make its home screen more content-forward. Doing so helps serve Roku’s business goals of upselling subscriptions through its billing system and promoting ad-supported content. But Roku already has a better version of that idea elsewhere in its menu system, one that’s also more useful for its users. With the What to Watch menu providing a better launch experience, Roku should stop patching up the home screen with Band-Aid measures and finally perform the necessary surgery. the best value in roku media streamers Roku Streaming Stick Plus Read our review Best Prices Today: $38.50 at Amazon And sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV insights. Read...

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