IT General

I got into radio and music production at a very weird time. For a while, I rocked a TASCAM PortaStudio for my personal recordings. When I got into college and started working in radio, it was all physical digital audio workstations and programs like Adobe Audition. When I no longer had access to professional-grade equipment and software, Audacity just hit a sweet spot for me. Whether it was recording my own songs, digitizing my LPs, or doing voice work, it was always there for me. Naturally, I was pretty excited when I heard about Audacity 4, one of the biggest updates to the software in some time. It was fantastic before, but its newest features are really going to give other professional DAW (digital audio workstations) a run for their money.

I’ve been a devout Android user for nearly two decades, but I never even toyed with the idea of building an app until this year. Google’s AI integration in Android Studio makes it accessible to anyone, and custom widgets are a great place to start.

Ever since I've been using Linux as a daily driver, I haven't really considered dropping Mint for something else. Don't get me wrong. I have a machine running Debian, a machine running Arch, and I still use Red Hat and Ubuntu at the office. So I'm very much in the Linux world. But I recently discovered an OS that gives Mint a run for its money (at least for my work): CachyOS.

The internet is full of a lot of garbage, but there’s also some incredibly useful information out there. Home Assistant has a native integration that can scrape information from some websites and extract specific values. I scrape data from several different sites, and once I've got the data into Home Assistant, there’s a lot I can do with it.

I've been a PC gamer for well over a decade. It's safe to say I've spent collectively over $10,000 on various gaming desktop builds over the years. But, I recently moved from my full-size superpowered custom-built desktop to a mini PC—and I love it?

The nation-wide grounding of American flights grabbed all the headlines yesterday, for good reason, but it wasn't the only anomalous event on Friday the 13th. 

Before the FAA mandate brought all air travel to a screeching halt, West Coast travelers experienced flight delays out of fear that falling debris from the recent SpaceX launch might damage a plane. 

The launch of Starship, SpaceX's largest interplantery rocket yet, capable of carrying up to 100 people on long-duration flights, involved incredible feats of engineering, but also necessitated shedding incredible amounts of debris to achieve escape velocity. Much of that debris ends up in orbit, as "space junk," but much also comes crashing down to Earth, and any problems in the launch would have likely also created significant danger, not only to air traffic but even pedestrians.

Thankfully no harm was done and after a short delay, primarily impacting flyers out of and into Hawaii, flights resumed until the larger, nation-wide shutdown. 

SpaceX's Starship test flight concludes later this afternoon, so if you want to watch the attempted catch of the mega-rocket, here's how you can live-stream it.

Waiting in line to pick up your kids from school can be excruciatingly dull. Many people spend the time scrolling through social media, but there is a ton of content out there that you could be watching that doesn't demand all of your attention or much of your time. Rather than doom-scrolling, these series are the perfect way to kill some time.

SpaceX is attempting rocketry history on Saturday, and you can watch it from the comfort of your home.

Elon Musk's spacefaring company launched a test flight of its Starship craft on Friday evening. There were multiple objectives for the mission, including the deployment of Starlink satellites, but two goals stood out above the rest: Guide the rocket booster to a pinpoint landing minutes after launch, and then do the same with the Starship itself a day later after it's done orbiting the Earth. That has never been done before.

SEE ALSO: Why tech stocks are down today, including Nvidia, SpaceX, AMD, more

The first goal failed, with the booster ultimately landing in the Gulf of Mexico, but the second objective is being livestreamed on X. According to Space.com, SpaceX will do a final point-of-no-return check at about 2 p.m. ET, where it will decide whether or not to go through with this objective or just splash down in the water. If the company decides to go for it, the landing will happen a couple of hours later, shortly after 4 p.m. ET.

If you don't have anything better happening on a Saturday afternoon, there are worse ways to spend that time.

I got fed up with OneDrive running out of room and Windows Backup not working well for me. So, I decided to try a new piece of software that completely changed how I backed up my computer: Duplicati.

The consumer 3D printer market is dominated by filament deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers that take spools of filament and turn them into objects by melting and reforming that material. Resin 3D printing works in a similar way, except objects are “grown” from a vat of liquid resin and hardened using light.

Save $30: The Nintendo Switch 2 is available for $469 at Woot. This deal is live through Nov. 30 or until sold out. The console rarely goes on sale and is usually listed for $499, making this a 6% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Nintendo Nintendo Switch 2 $469 at Woot!
$499 Save $30   Get Deal at Woot!

Struggling to get your hands on the Zelda edition of the Switch 2? How about grabbing a discounted Switch 2 instead, weeks ahead of Black Friday?

Yes, you read that right. Nintendo's console rarely goes on sale — and even less so since its $50 price hike in September — yet Woot is offering a brand-new Nintendo Switch 2 for $469. That's a $30 price drop from the usual $499, bringing it closer to its former $449 list price. Admittedly, it's not a huge discount, but again, it's rare. The console has dropped in price a grand total of zero times since its price hike.

For comparison, the Switch 2 is holding firm at $499 on Amazon and Best Buy.

Going into my fifth year covering Black Friday at Mashable, I can confidently say that gaming console deals can be a tricky one during the shopping holiday. A lot of folks wait until sales kick off to grab deals, meaning if there is an impressive price drop, it sells out fast. I would expect this situation to be even more competitive during the year of RAMaggedon.

In other words, sneaking in and grabbing some savings ahead of time on a truly excellent console is a great way to go this holiday season. Just make sure to grab it while supplies last, or before Nov. 30 when the deal expires, if stock is still available.

Desk space is a limited and highly valuable resource. If you have a gaming PC, you know how quickly accessories, peripherals, and gadgets pile up. Fortunately, with a single accessory, I managed to move most of the clutter off my desk without sacrificing functionality or convenience.

It took some time, but One UI 9 has finally started to roll out to a swath of older devices. You don't have to have a brand-new flagship Galaxy device to get the update anymore, which is good news for me and my S24 FE. Even mid-range A-series devices and some tablets are now gaining access to the swath of new features.

Smart home gadgets can make your life easier, but it’s easy to end up with a home full of gadgets that all do different jobs. Using Home Assistant, I’ve managed to replace several gadgets with tech that I already own.

Apart from the physical ownership and preservation aspects, one of the big reasons I love to collect DVDs and Blu-ray discs is the inclusion of extra features. I'm a sucker for "making of" segments, bloopers, and who doesn't love a nice documentary-style featurette?

Let's be honest: even though 3D printing is awesome and you can use it to print repair parts or make useful objects, we don't generally think of what these machines spit out as "expensive."

For most of us, Gigabit Ethernet is more than enough for our needs. Even if you have a NAS or a home server, you’ll likely max out gigabit bandwidth only when copying large files. Those of us who do need something faster can go up to 10G Ethernet via good old RJ45, which tops out at about 1.25GBps. That more or less covers every type of home setup.

Back at the start of the century, you could play a game just by entering two words into Google Search. Like seemingly all things, it was soon completely ruined by Google changing its search algorithms. A quarter of a century later, I managed to recreate my own small version of Googlewhacking.

I’ve been very critical of Google’s automation tools on Pixel phones. It’s one area where Samsung Galaxy devices blow them out of the water. Thankfully, an incredible suite of tools called “Essentials” is the cure I’ve been looking for.

Most 3D printer owners are probably familiar with the constant desire to design, download, and print anything and everything you can. While this shows an admirable commitment to the hobby, it’s not always the right call.