Computers

In an unwelcome surprise, the FCC has placed all foreign-made routers on the so-called Covered List, effectively banning new products from sale within the United States. The decision follows the FCC’s National Security Determination, which concluded that routers used by homes and home offices could be attacked by foreign actors. As a result, “routers produced in a foreign country” will be…

Over the past few months, Microsoft senior executives have quietly made a promise to me directly, as well as to other journalists: They’re going to improve Windows. Today, they’re making that same commitment to the public, with an emphasis on “performance, reliability, and craft.” In a highly detailed memo, Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Windows + Devices…

Intel is joining Microsoft in releasing precompiled shaders for its own graphics cards, which will save you time in loading and then playing PC games. Intel said earlier this week that it will store precompiled shaders in the cloud, and then download them when needed to your PC. Intel debuted the technology inside its Intel graphics driver 32.0.101.8626, which includes the first iteration of what…

Do you need a lot of storage? Well, then, you’re going to have to pay for it—and you’ll be paying a lot more than you would have a year ago, as “AI” data centers gobble up a bigger and bigger share of the industry’s output of memory and storage. But even the most lavish among us would probably wince at dropping nearly $16,000 USD on an M.2 drive, even if it does have a capacity of 16…