Kampan/Shutterstock You want your solar investment to provide energy benefits for as long as possible. So when you have to choose between thin film solar panels and monocrystalline solar panels, you will want to choose the latter. Historically, monocrystalline lasts longer than its thin-film alternative and also works more efficiently. It is not uncommon for manufacturers of these panels to offer 25 to 40 year performance warranties on their products, giving you confidence that your system will operate efficiently for years to come. When it comes to blue or black…
Author: Amelia Scott
Apple’s next-generation AI dictation feature for iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air is not enabled by default in the first developer beta of iOS 27. Apple says the new AI-based dictation system offers “a major improvement in accuracy,” with more reliable capitalization and on-the-fly punctuation than the existing dictation system. The feature runs on Apple’s new AFM 3 Core Advanced model, which is a 20 billion parameter natively multimodal system that uses a sparse architecture, activating only one to four billion parameters at a time depending on demand. To fit such a large model to a smartphone, the entire model…
Matthew G. Eddy/Shutterstock AI data centers consume a lot of power to run each computer within them. All that energy can burn hot and gallons of water are used to cool it. An Amazon report reveals how much water the company uses in its data centers. It turns out that’s a lot, and the tech company presents it as a positive, but there’s a lot more to the data when put under the microscope. Amazon claims the company’s data centers are “seven times more water efficient than the industry average.”…
LUCKY4UU/Shutterstock We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. A good pair of audiophile headphones can be quite an investment. So it is wise to do your research before making a purchase. For example, if you look at which headphones are or are not worth your money, you may find that there are certain brands of headphones that consumers strongly advise others to avoid. However, even if you are considering buying new headphones or earphones from a reputable brand like Bose, you may still have a few questions…
Bengali Press/Shutterstock Spotify originally had a blue dot on the bell icon that indicated whether new songs or episodes had been released since your last visit. Dubbed What’s New, it was the easiest place to find relevant releases without relying on Spotify’s algorithm or suggestions. Although Spotify is one of the best music streaming services, overreliance on suggestions is one of the main reasons users left Spotify. When the What’s New notification first launched, it was based on the creators or artists you follow. Today it means something a little…
Apple will unveil the Apple Watch Ultra 4 alongside an Apple Watch Series 12 later this year, according to BloombergIt’s Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman mapped out Apple’s product roadmap for the rest of the year, including the Phone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and the company’s first foldable iPhone. “This multitude of devices is also expected to include an Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4,” Gurman said. Apple doesn’t release a new Apple Watch Ultra model every year. The Ultra launched in 2022, followed by an Ultra 2 in 2023. In 2024, the only…
José Adorno/BGR If you feel like your MacBook is getting hotter and hotter, there could be several reasons. First of all, most users who complain about their Macs overheating own Intel laptops; the latest generations of these computers from 2016 to early 2020 have been particularly plagued with overheating issues, which we’ll get to later. If you have a MacBook M1 or newer, it could overheat when you put too much strain on the machine, especially if it doesn’t have a fan, like the MacBook Air models. Still, in general,…
St.art/Getty Images Offline music is making a comeback, and if you’re about to break free from streaming platforms and store your music locally (or if you’re just looking to use your soundbar’s USB port to listen to a few tunes), you might be confused about the different audio formats available and which one is best. At first glance, the best audio files are those with a higher bit depth and sample rate (16-bit/44.1 kilohertz and above). Lossless formats like FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and uncompressed audio such as WAV…
Vlado85rs/Getty Images If you’ve bitten the bullet on one of the major VPN services, you probably have access to some pretty robust protocols. Generally speaking, most of them will work out of the box, without having to change any router or Internet settings. But what happens if you’re using a VPN that relies on an existing protocol and you’re having issues with your connection? In this case, a VPN passthrough is probably something you should go by on a first name basis. The aptly named router setting allows certain VPN…
Jittawit.21/Getty Images Electronic devices, especially smart and connected devices, tend to consume electricity even when they are turned off, usually because they are in sleep mode. To prevent them from consuming power, you should completely unplug them from an outlet. This goes for just about anything that uses power in some way, including unused USB chargers (which actually waste power), as well as smart plugs that use electricity when turned off. But this doesn’t just apply to chargers and electrical devices, like sockets, it also applies to televisions, household appliances,…