Twenty-five years ago, AMD released its Athlon XP processor line built on the Palomino core, which ran at lower clock speeds than Intel's Pentium 4 chips despite often matching or beating them in performance. To counter the industry's reliance on megahertz as a marketing yardstick, AMD introduced a Performance Rating naming scheme and the slogan 'Performance matters more than MHz.' Tom's Hardware testing at the time, led by Thomas Pabst, found Athlon XP chips beating higher-clocked Pentium 4 rivals in most benchmarks.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-09
A recent survey reveals that 78% of managers have used AI tools in the past year to assist with preparing employee feedback and performance evaluations. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of employees report using AI regularly at work, though only a small fraction are aware that AI influences their reviews. The impact on feedback quality varies, with some employees finding it more specific and actionable, while others see it as more generic and less useful.
zdnet.com
· 2026-10-07
A commentary piece argues that employee happiness has declined across many workplaces compared to earlier eras, drawing on the author's own experience reminiscing about a past employer known for high morale. The piece suggests this drop in joy is not just a wellbeing issue but one tied directly to business outcomes.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-07
An Android Authority columnist praises the Pixel 11 Pro's hardware, cameras and software but says testing uncovered three recurring weaknesses: inconsistent gaming performance, limited battery capacity, and slow wired charging. The writer cites a colleague's investigation finding that the Tensor GPU's rendering approach causes microstutters in games because it lacks native support for certain graphics features.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-05
Microsoft is broadening its Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) service beyond AMD Radeon GPUs to also support Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm graphics hardware on Windows PCs, with support arriving later in October. ASD streams precompiled shaders from the cloud rather than requiring each PC to compile them locally, a process Microsoft says it can shrink from several minutes to a few seconds. The feature currently works with Gears of War: E-Day and was confirmed by DirectX program manager Wendy Ho in a company blog post.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-05
A new set of patches to rustc and cargo, called 'Headstart' and enabled via -Zearly-metadata and -Zheadstart flags, lets dependent crates begin compiling against a dependency's early interface metadata (.early-rmeta) before that dependency's function bodies are fully type-checked. For cargo check, dependents can run to completion on this early metadata; for cargo build, dependents do their analysis early then wait for full metadata before code generation, releasing their job slot while waiting.
github.com
· 2026-10-04
A piece by former competitive archer Juan Carlos recounts how increased desire to win and public scrutiny can heighten stress and degrade athletic performance, using his own experience at the Spanish indoor archery championship as an example. He describes arriving as a favorite but facing added pressure as an outsider using unconventional training methods.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-02
An Android Authority writer describes keeping a four-year-old Nothing Phone 1 running after it reached the end of official software support. The fixes included a third-party battery replacement, switching to a slower 18W charger and thinner case to reduce heat, and moving to lighter, open-source apps to cut battery drain and improve speed.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-01
Android Authority ran a two-week reader poll asking Pixel owners whether Android 17 QPR1, which began rolling out this month, introduced new problems. Of 1,458 respondents, about 68% reported some new issue, with performance (19%), UI behavior (16%), display glitches (14%) and connectivity (11%) as the top complaints, while nearly a third said they saw no new problems.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-30
Rising memory and component prices are expected to push average computer prices up by as much as 20% by year's end. With new machines becoming less affordable, guidance is circulating on low-cost ways to boost an existing PC's performance, such as cleaning out dust, deleting junk files, and reusing spare parts.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-30
Engadget tested a midrange Dell XPS 13 with 16GB of RAM after reviewing the base $700 model, which ships with only 8GB. The reviewer found that even with no extra apps open, Windows 11 consumed over half the 16GB unit's memory at idle, suggesting the 8GB base model would leave little headroom for everyday use.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-29
Beats has released the 360, an over-ear headphone with a detachable headband and ear cups that let users mix and match colors and swap between two cushion materials: Performance Knit and UltraPlush. The design allows for easier cleaning and replacement of worn parts compared to most rival headphones.
wired.com
· 2026-09-29
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