GoKawiil
Tech News
A hands-on roundup highlights Good Lock modules that let Samsung Galaxy owners customize their phones beyond what One UI offers by default. Key examples include Display Assistant, which sets screen timeout and refresh rate per app, and Sound Assistant, which allows individual volume levels for each app.
Amazon has discounted Samsung's 25-inch Odyssey G4 gaming monitor to $189.99 from its $279.99 list price, a 32% cut that beats the previous 2024 low of $219.99. The 1080p IPS panel supports a 300Hz refresh rate along with G-Sync Compatible and FreeSync Premium adaptive sync, and holds a 4.8-star buyer rating.
Smart TVs running WebOS, Google TV, Fire TV OS or Roku OS use standby mode to install software and app updates in the background rather than forcing users to wait through updates at power-on. OLED TVs specifically rely on standby to run pixel-refresh routines that prevent image retention and burn-in, a process that gets interrupted if the set is shut down or unplugged too soon after use.
Newegg is selling Acer's Predator X27U (model F5bmiippruzx), a 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED monitor with a 500 Hz refresh rate and DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, for $509.99, a 36% discount. Acer reused the X27U name for this revised, improved panel, so shoppers should be careful not to confuse it with the earlier version.
Google has updated its Pixel Weather app to include a refresh button on the larger home screen widget, letting users manually pull the latest conditions instead of waiting for background updates. The company also removed the left/right arrow buttons previously used to scrub through hourly and daily forecasts within the app. The changes appear in version 1.1.20260716.979549101 of the app.
Apple's Background App Refresh feature, found in Settings > General, lets iPhone users control which apps can update content while running in the background. Users can toggle it for Wi-Fi only, Wi-Fi and cellular, or turn it off entirely, and can also customize it on a per-app basis. Importantly, disabling this setting does not stop an app from sending notifications.
The FBI has charged Terry "Jiajia" Liu, a Customs and Border Protection IT supervisor in Calais, Maine, with stealing processors, memory, and hard drives from at least 46 Homeland Security computers across three border facilities. Liu allegedly replaced the components with cheaper, often outdated parts and traded the originals to Newegg's trade-in program for store credit, causing an estimated $105,800 in damage.
Nintendo has enabled variable refresh rate output for Switch 2's TV mode through a new firmware update, requiring an updated dock to work. The feature was originally promised at launch, then quietly removed, before a job listing hinted Nintendo was still developing it for TV play. The same update also adds a handheld boost toggle, Mii editor changes, and full system transfer between Switch 2 consoles.
An analysis breaks down why cheap and expensive smart TVs differ mainly in their system-on-a-chip, which handles video decoding, upscaling, and app performance. Budget TVs often lack AI-assisted upscaling, are capped at 60Hz refresh rates, and tend to run menus and apps more slowly, while pricier models handle 120Hz output and sharper image reconstruction.
An analysis compares using televisions versus dedicated monitors for computer use, focusing on refresh rates, input latency, and color depth. It finds monitors generally offer higher refresh rates, lower latency (1-4ms vs 9-12ms on TVs), and better color support at lower price points than comparable TVs.