This TikTok video from Tawny Platis is making the rounds, and for very good reason! It seems she’s the robotic voice behind a few of the most infuriating automated voices in our lives — and despite her incredible range, companies apparently still ask for these specific tones. Don’t miss this video from her as well.
They join our Best Monitor of CES, the $1,199 Alienware AW3225QF — though both the Asus and MSI panels are flat rather than curved, and add single-cable 90W USB-C docking and passive cooling. They’ve all got three-year burn-in warranties, though.
The Asus costs $1,299, while the MSI is just $949. Both companies announced availability today, but it depends on region: I’m only seeing notify me buttons for now. This HP is still on the way, too.
One of the weak points in the experience on a ROG or the Lenovo [Legion Go] is Windows. How Windows works on controller input only on that kind of DPI, on a smaller eight- or seven-inch screen. That’s a real design point that our platform team is working with Windows to make sure that the experience is even better.
Does that mean handheld mode isn’t just a hackathon project anymore? There was that Xbox app compact mode...
Remember Lego Masters Australia finalist Nick Lever’s amazing custom Nintendo Game Boy MOC? I built one to personally confirm its excellence.
But Lever wasn’t done: his new v7 instructions lets the D-pad move, the contrast knob spin, and reduces the bill of materials. Enough to justify opening mine up again, I’d say.
Oh, BTW... he’s now got Lego Game Boy Color MOCs too! Check one out at the end of my gallery below.
Valve Prism: the standalone Valve VR headset we’ve been waiting for? This convincing-at-first-glance site shows a chunky, heavy (850 grams!) headset with Vision Pro-caliber Micro OLED displays and claims of untethered PC-like graphics performance.
A quick jaunt into the site’s HTML code, though, repeatedly suggests the name of the company is “VaIve.” As in Vaive. As in, it includes a sans-serif letter that rhymes with “eye.”
The website also claims it offers “50-point lips, jaw, teeth, and tongue tracking.”
Update, 7:30PM ET: “Nope, this is NOT us,” Valve confirms.
I’ll have a bit more to say about this printer later in the week — but I wasn’t going to miss showing off the Cocoa Press for Valentine’s Day!
“It’s not you, it’s us! And it’s an unfortunate technical error that we’re in the process of fixing,” writes Meta’s Andy Stone.
In the meanwhile, here’s a stopgap:
Originally, Microsoft made it hard — but not impossible — to install Windows 11 on older machines. That’s reportedly changing. Bob Pony:
So HUGE discovery found in Windows 11 Version 24H2, since build 25905.
A CPU with the instruction “POPCNT” IS NOW REQUIRED!
“That effectively bars mid-2000s Intel Core 2 Duo systems and early Athlon 64-era PCs from booting Windows 11 at all,” writes Ars Technica.
