For many months, AMD offered a special treat to enthusiasts wishing to run AI chatbot LLMs on their PCs: configurable VRAM that significantly improved performance. Now Intel can say the same. Bob Duffy, who oversees Intel’s AI Playground application for running AI art and local chatbots on your PC, tweeted that the company’s latest Arc driver for its integrated GPUs now offers a “shared GPU memory override” that offers the ability to adjust your PC’s VRAM, provided that you have a supported processor. This is a big deal for AI and even some games, though not an obvious one. Until now, laptops with an Intel Core processor split the available memory down the middle, assigning half to the PC’s operating system and half to VRAM. If you owned an Intel Core laptop with 32GB of memory, 16GB of it would be assigned to AI and games. AMD took a different route: Although a Ryzen laptop would generally do the same by default, users could either use AMD’s Adrenalin software or the laptop’s BIOS to manually adjust the VRAM. In day-to-day office work, the split means little. But to an AI model, more VRAM theoretically means more performance. In my tests with AMD’s Ryzen AI Max in March, for example, simply reallocating 24GB of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet’s available system memory to VRAM boosted performance by as much as 64 percent in some AI benchmarks. A similar test with 64GB of memory inside the Framework Desktop significantly boosted performance in AI art, chatbots, and some games. To an AI model, VRAM is basically system memory. More VRAM means that you can run a larger AI chatbot with a greater number of parameters. In general, the AI with the largest number of parameters gives you the most insightful responses; more VRAM also allows for a greater number of tokens to be processed, both as input and as the response the AI chatbot provides. Bigger numbers are better, basically. Placing the Shared GPU Memory Override feature inside the Intel Graphics Software package means that you’ll be able to reassign free RAM to serve as VRAM before you load up an AI chatbot. Although I haven’t tested the new software myself, I would assume that the default behavior is to leave a minimal amount of RAM (8GB is typical) for Windows, and assign the rest to VRAM. For now, this is a manual procedure, although it seems likely that Intel’s AI Playground and Intel’s Graphics Software package would work together to reassign memory when the latter package is booted. The only problem is that reallocating memory typically requires you to reboot your PC. Note that this only works with laptops with an integrated Arc GPU, not discrete cards. You’ll still need to buy a laptop with a substantial amount of memory to be able to take advantage of the new capabilities, and users are reporting (via VideoCardz) that it only works with Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 processors, not the “Meteor Lake” chips inside the Intel Core Ultra Series 1 lineup. However, this is a big boost for Intel laptops that’s long overdue. Read...

I’m a creature of habit, and nothing gets my endorphins flowing like daily smart home routines that run like clockwork.   Over the years, I’ve set up an elaborate array of smart automations that control my lights, switch fans on and off, take charge of my robot vacuums, and warn me about rogue water leaks (the latter of which has yet to happen, thankfully). Indeed, I depend on these eight smart routines for keeping our household perfectly lit, clean, and protected from water damage and backyard threats.   Here’s a rundown on the smart automations that I absolutely, positively depend on. While they’re probably not perfect for you, they might spark some ideas for automating your own household.  Wake-up routine When it‘s triggered: Weekdays at 6:10 a.m., weekends at 7:45 a.m.  What it does: Gradually ramps up the brightness of the smart lights in our two bedrooms  Why it’s important: It ensures our household sleepyheads don’t binge-snooze their alarm clocks  I’m an early riser, but my wife and teenage daughter will snooze their alarms to infinity if you let them—and that’s a problem, given that they need to be wheels-up for work and school by roughly 7:30 in the morning. That’s why the wake-up routines for our smart lights (Philips Hue, in our case) are so critical. On weekdays, the bedroom lights switch on automatically at 6:10 a.m.–not all the way, mind you, but at the very lowest brightness setting, almost like a nightlight.  Ever so gradually, those bedroom lights ramp up their brightness, and within five minutes, they’re glowing in a sunrise-like warm glow at a full 100-percent power.  As soon as the bedroom lights are all the way up, our other upstairs lights gradually start turning on, too, and within five minutes they’re also shining at full brightness.  Those wake-up automations make a huge difference when it comes to getting our tushies out of bed in the morning. It’s one thing to snooze your alarm when it’s almost completely dark inside; it’s quite another when you can sense the bright lights even through your closed eyelids.  Backyard floodlight routine When it‘s triggered: Sunrise and sunset  What it does: Keeps the glass door to our backyard illuminated at night  Why it’s important: I like keeping would-be intruders on their toes  We’re lucky enough to live in a Brooklyn apartment with a (small) backyard, but it gets awfully dark out there at night—pitch black, actually. The way into the backyard is through a glass door through our kitchen, and initially, I found the complete darkness out there to be pretty unnerving.   That’s why an outdoor floodlight that covers the path leading to our backyard was one of our very first smart home purchases in our current apartment, and I quickly set up an automation that turns the floodlight on at dusk and off again at dawn.  This smart floodlight gradually comes on at dusk and fades out at sunrise thanks to a smart routine. Ben Patterson/Foundry Like our wake-up lights, the automation for our backyard floodlight ramps up and down gradually. So if we’re sitting in the backyard having dinner, we might not even notice the light coming on as the sun begins to set, while the fading light blends nicely with the sunrise.  Mid-morning dining room and bedroom routine When it’s triggered: At 8 a.m. every day  What it does: Tunes lights to a daylight hue  Why it’s important: Makes it feel like daylight is streaming through a window  Our Brooklyn brownstone has a classic New York railroad-style layout, with bedrooms on either end and the kitchen and dining room in the middle. That means the bedrooms and kitchen (thanks to that glass door to the backyard) get natural light, but the dining room doesn’t have any windows at all, save for a murky skylight (the landlord has yet to clean it, and I doubt they ever will).  So while our wake-up light routines do a great job of getting us out of bed in the morning, their warm color temperature tends to give our rooms a golden daybreak or cozy nighttime feel. Personally, I prefer the cooler look of daylight when dawn gives way to late morning or afternoon, and that’s where our daylight routines come into play.  I like the look of natural light in our windowless dining room (our kitchen is in the foreground), and a smart lighting routine makes it happen.Ben Patterson/Foundry Every day at 8 a.m., the lights in our bedrooms and the dining room turn to a cooler daylight temperate, roughly 5,000 Kelvin. (A warm-white bulb shines at about 2,400K, while hospital lighting is usually tuned to 6,500K.) The beauty of the cooler daylight look is that when I sit in the kitchen looking into our dining room, it almost looks as though there’s light shining through a window, and that makes our railroad apartment feel a tad more open.  (Note: Many smart lighting ecosystems have circadian rhythm-style light modes that automatically tune the white-light color temperature according to the time of day; the Apple Home app, for example, calls it “Adaptive Lighting.” I prefer setting my own custom daylight temperature routines, but I suggest giving the circadian rhythm modes a try if they’re available to you.)  Robot vacuum routines When they’re triggered: At 7:05 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. on weekdays  What they do: Sweep our basement floors and mop upstairs  Why they’re important: We get clean floors with practically zero effort  There was a time when I dreaded spotting the crumbs under our kitchen table and despaired at the dust bunnies accumulating near our washer-dryer combo in our finished basement. But now that our robot vacuums are on the case, our kitchen floors are almost always spotless, and those dust bunnies downstairs are history.  I have elaborate routines set up for pair of robot vacuums (one upstairs, the other downstairs). First thing in the morning on weekdays, the basement Roomba does its business, tackling different areas depending on the day; our laundry room on Mondays, the pantry area on Tuesday, the office on Wednesdays, and so on. A little later, after we’ve finished breakfast, the upstairs vac goes to work, mopping up the kitchen on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays (it gets dirty in there) while scrubbing the bedroom floors on Tuesdays and the hallways twice a week.  With our robot vacuums following their daily routines, I can look under our kitchen and dining tables with pride rather than shame.Ben Patterson/Foundry All that meticulous work happens without any of us lifting a finger; the bots just do their business, often when no one is even around. (OK, the vacuums do require some maintenance, especially the mop.) And with our vacuums following their daily routines, I can look under our kitchen table with pride rather than shame.  Fan routines  When they’re triggered: At 5 a.m. in the morning and 11:30 p.m. at night  What they do: Control our kitchen, downstairs, and office fans  Why it’s important: They help keep our home cool without running up our electrical bills  We don’t have central air in our Brooklyn apartment; instead, we have A/C units in the front and back bedrooms, and that’s it. We don’t even have overhead fans, and the one tiny office window in our basement means there’s hardly any air circulation down there at all.  That’s why we depend on a trio of floor-standing Vornado fans to keep us cool during the summer months and to keep the air flowing even when it cools off. We used to leave the fans running day in and day out, but that began to feel wasteful and expensive from a power bill standpoint.   Vornado fans are efficient, powerful, and relatively quiet, but they’re not smart—or at least, they weren’t until we connected them to smart plugs and wove them into some automations. Now, our fans run only from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. That’s probably not good for a huge cost savings, mind you, but every little bit helps.   The routines for our smart plug-connected fans help to keep us cool without running up energy bills.Ben Patterson/Foundry Office routines  When they’re triggered: 7 a.m., 7:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. daily  What they do: Control the smart lights in the office  Why they’re important: They set the mood for day and night  Like my dining room lights in the mid-morning, I like the lights in my office (three light strips and a Hue Iris) to shine in a daylight color temperature when I’m working during the day—they just make me a little more energetic and cheerful. That office daylight routine kicks off at 7 in the morning each day.  In the evening, though, it’s time to dial things down a bit, and since my office is visible from the basement home theater where we unwind after dinner, I want those office lights dimmed but not totally dark. So at 7:30 p.m., the office lighting scene switches to a groovy purple mode that keeps it from being distracting while we’re streaming Netflix, yet bright enough to see what you’re doing.  Then when it’s later still, I set the office lights to fade to a night mode, with the Hue Iris set to a nightlight mode (so you can find your way to the office bathroom if you need to) but otherwise completely dark, perfect for an evening movie.  Nighttime kitchen routine  When it’s triggered: 11 p.m. each night  What it does: Turns off all lights except the over-counter light strip, which fades to a deep blue Why it’s important: Keeps the kitchen lights almost completely dark at bedtime  We’re all pretty good about turning off the kitchen lights after dinner, but the main “off” smart switch near the kitchen door still keeps the over-counter light strip on at about 50-percent brightness and a warm color temperature.   When it’s really time for lights-out, there’s another light scene I prefer—one where the light strip fades to blue, allowing for a bare minimum of counter illumination but otherwise keeping the kitchen almost completely dark (aside from the glow of the aforementioned floodlight outside).  It’s easy to forget to turn that particular light scene on (I call it “Kitchen Cool”) before going to bed (it requires either using an app or pressing a middle button on the light switch), so I created an automation that triggers the mode each night at 11 p.m., typically just after we’ve all gone to bed.   Water leak sensor routine  When it’s triggered: If there’s ever a water leak in the basement  What it does: Sounds an alarm and turns our bedroom light all the way up  Why it’s important: I hate waking up to a pool of water in the office.  Here’s a household smart routine that’s actually never been triggered, or at least not unless I was testing it. We used to have a flooding problem in our basement—not catastrophic flooding, mind you, but we would sometimes get about a half an inch of water or so after a heavy thunderstorm, and the water typically flowed into the office first. Not fun.  This water leak sensor will warn me if water ever seeps into my office again.Ben Patterson/Foundry We did eventually convince our landlord to shore up the backyard water drainage (so no flooding since then, thankfully), but as an extra precaution, I installed a smart water leak detector in the office. If the sensor detects any water seeping in, it will not only sound a built-in alarm, but also turn our bedroom lights all the way up, perfect for alerting us to a leak even in the dead of night. Read...

It looks like nature is healing. Slowly, ever so slowly, OLED gaming monitors are starting to go back down to their 2024 prices. I wouldn’t call $450 “cheap,” but it’s at least more affordable than it was a little while ago. Today, you can pick up an AOC 27-inch 1440p OLED gaming monitor from Amazon for $120 off its standard price. We’ve featured AOC’s Agon Pro AG276QZD2 before, it’s one of the more affordable options in this space and it goes on sale frequently, but I haven’t seen it go this low since well before Prime Day. As a 27-inch 1440p option with 240Hz of refresh, it’s hitting just about the baseline for current OLED upgrades. That speed should make your gaming PC sweat if you turn all the settings up on a recent triple-A game, especially if you turn on Nvidia G-Sync. Sadly, a lack of USB-C options (there are two USB-A ports) means this OLED is best suited for desktop PCs, not laptops. But with double HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, it’s a welcome companion for any game consoles that happen to be on your desk, too. Oh, and the VESA mount means it’s perfect for adding on a monitor arm. Amazon says this is a “limited time deal,” but there’s no countdown so I assume it’s allocated a specific amount of monitors to sell at this price. But if you’re not fast enough to grab one, don’t fret—I’ll bet there’ll be something in this same range coming down the pipe before too long. If it’s not precisely what you’re looking for, check out PCWorld’s picks for the best monitors on the market. Get an AOC 27-inch 1440p OLED gaming monitor for just $450Buy now at Amazon Read...

Logitech’s MX Master series of mice are some of the most beloved on the market, but they don’t come cheap. If you’re willing to settle for an older model, today you can get one for just $50. Lenovo’s online store is selling the MX Master 2S for just $49.99 with a coupon code. The MX Master 2S came out in 2018, a gentle refresh of the iconic design with compatibility for Logitech’s multi-device Flow software. It’s got all the big features of the series, including that big, comfy shape, a secondary scroll wheel for your thumb, tons of programming options for the many buttons, and compatibility with 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth. While 4,000 DPI on the sensor isn’t exactly gaming-grade these days, the Darkfield tech is good enough to track on glass. It should last up to 70 days on a charge, too. You can read PCWorld’s full review here. All that being said, you might want to pass on the Master 2S if you’ve gone all-in on USB-C since this one recharges with a Micro USB cable that can be harder to find these days. Newer MX Master designs have USB-C charging, quieter clicks, and scroll wheels that can dynamically switch between clicky and fast scrolling. I’m not a fan of the Master 2S’s stacked thumb buttons, and there’s an unofficial MX Master 4 mouse that’ll probably arrive sometime later this year. It has three thumb buttons in what looks like a more comfy arrangement. But that’ll be well over the $100 mark when it comes out, as are the current models. If you’re deal hunting, then you can thank the forum posters over at SlickDeals. They found that if you use the coupon code MX2S at checkout, you can cut the price in half. Even for an older design (still a brand-new unit), it’s a great deal. Use coupon code MX2S to get the MX Master 2S for 50% offBuy now from Lenovo Read...

Not all PC gamers are obsessed with hardware and performance… which is kind of like saying not all Porsches are fast. If you’ve dropped four figures into a machine specifically to play games, you probably want to quantify at least some of that performance. The latest Steam beta has improved its in-game overlay performance monitor, and according to Valve, it’s even better than the one in Windows. Well, the part that monitors your graphics card, anyway. In the notes for the latest Steam beta release, Valve says it uses a new method to compute GPU utilization—one that’s been optimized to more accurately reflect changes when other processes beyond the game you’re playing utilize the GPU. (More common now as browsers and apps are optimized for more powerful graphics cards, including integrated graphics.) As PC Gamer notes, the tool will sometimes report higher GPU utilization than the built-in monitor in Windows Task Manager, which Valve claims “appears to also under report in similar situations to our prior implementation.” Granted, unless you really know your computer science, you’ll have to take Valve’s word and trust that its implementation is interested in showing you data that’s fully optimized for gamers. Other changes in the beta include various bug fixes and wider format Steam game store pages that should look better on bigger monitors. Exactly when these changes will make it to the wider Steam release wasn’t shared, so presumably they need a bit more testing. Read...

According to an internal Meta policy document, leaked to Reuters, the company’s AI guidelines allowed provocative and controversial behaviors, including “sensual” conversations with minors. Reuter’s review of the policy document revealed that the governing standards for Meta AI (and other chatbots across the company’s social media platforms) permitted the tool to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate false medical information, and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.” The policy document reportedly distinguished between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” language, drawing the line at explicit sexualization or dehumanization but still allowing derogatory statements. Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity, but claims that it “removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children.” One spokesperson also said that Meta is revising the policy document, clarifying that the company has policies that “prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors.” Nevertheless, the authenticated document was reportedly “approved by Meta’s legal, public policy, and engineering staff, including its chief ethicist, according to the document.” Read...

If you’re still using only your laptop’s single screen when you’re on the go, you’re missing out! It’s time to finally get a portable monitor so you can be more efficient with work, streaming, browsing, what have you. Once you start using one, you’ll never want to go back. Now’s a great time to get one, by the way, because Arzopa’s S1 Table portable monitor is just $70 on Amazon, down from its original $110. You’ll need Prime for this exclusive price, but don’t worry if you aren’t a member. Start a free 30-day Prime trial and score this deal while you can! This travel-friendly portable monitor features a 15.6-inch IPS screen with a standard 1080p resolution and a 178-degree viewing angle, delivering the vibrant colors and sharp details you need for Netflix, spreadsheets, social media, and whatever else you’re doing on your laptop. With full-featured USB-C video ports and a Mini HDMI port, it’s easy to connect and widely compatible with laptops, tablets, phones, and even your Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck. The Arzopa S1 Table is uber portable, too, measuring just 0.3 inches thick and weighing only 1.7 pounds. It slips neatly into any bag right beside your laptop, so you can take it anywhere hassle-free. It also comes with a smart cover that serves a dual purrpose: it protects the screen during travel and acts as a kickstand to prop up the display. This is a must-have accessory for any laptop user, especially now that it’s on sale. Snap up this Arzopa S1 Table portable monitor for $70 before this awesome price expires! And remember, if you don’t have Prime, you can still score this deal with a free 30-day Prime trial. Save 36% on this portable 1080p laptop monitor with smart coverBuy now at Amazon Read...

Ever since Microsoft killed WordPad in 2024, the much-simpler Notepad app has been receiving several new features—almost as if it’s evolving into a better, more modern version of WordPad. Meanwhile, Microsoft is introducing an even simpler text editor called Edit. Some of the recent additions to Notepad include spell check, AI-generated text, and Markdown formatting—and the improvements aren’t done yet. The latest news is that Notepad will soon have updated context menus in Windows 11, reports Neowin. In Notepad version 11.2507.26.0, which is currently rolling out to Windows Insiders, the updated context menu now matches the look of Windows 11 24H2’s context menus, with quick actions for Copy, Cut, Paste, Select all, and Delete, plus other actions like Write, Rewrite, Summarize, Define with Bing, and more. You can technically get this new version of Notepad on non-Insider versions of Windows 11, but the steps are somewhat complex. It’s likely that this new version of Notepad will be rolled out to the general public in September or October. Read...

BlackWidow is Razer’s best-known series of gaming keyboards, and for years they’ve all used Cherry-style mechanical switches, as do most gaming keyboards at this point. Customers who want sleeker, low-profile designs often look to the DeathStalker line. But the BlackWidow is now getting some low-profile love too, thanks to new switch designs. It comes in standard and TKL (tenkeyless) layouts. According to Razer’s promotional material, the BlackWidow V4 Low-Profile HyperSpeed keyboards deliver all the same performance as their bigger, thicker stablemates while cramming parts into an 18.5mm-thick body. That includes custom, low-profile switches in linear, tactile, and clicky varieties (yellow, orange, and green, respectively), two layers of foam for vibration and noise isolation, PBT keycaps (finally!), 2.4GHz and Bluetooth multi-device wireless, and a 980-hour battery life. Razer Naturally, Razer’s Chroma lighting is in place, and you can save up to five profiles to local storage. Razer also says that these new BlackWidow keyboards can handle the contentious “snap tap” feature, a near-instant response tool that generally requires adjustable actuation. Razer claims to have implemented it all via software, but some gamers are unconvinced. It’s a sleek design, to be sure, and I appreciate that the easy-to-use wide volume wheel is in place. But compared to other members of the excellent BlackWidow V4 series, I have to say there are a couple of notable omissions. These new, low-profile switches aren’t hot-swappable, meaning you’re stuck with Razer’s switches after you buy. And yes, there are plenty of low-profile keyboards that include that feature, which I consider essential in a high-end keyboard. It’s got just 1000Hz for polling, which is fine for us mere humans, but super-sweaty gamers might demand more. Razer They’re also very expensive. The TKL version is $200 and the full-size will run you $230. That’s in line with the DeathStalker series, but 200 bones is still a lot to ask for a keyboard without hot-swap capability. Read...

The German car-maker says its `optional power upgrade` is designed to give customers more choice. Read...