Mark Hachman

Senior editor at PCWorld. Formerly: PCMag, ExtremeTech, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK. Dad, sci-fi nut, Domer, A's fan. On the Sky app and 🧵, too. (Same name.)

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

I have to maintain a presence on social platforms for work, but I'm revolted by Musk's Nazi salute at the inauguration. The vast majority of my interactions and content will be on BlueSky: https://t.co/EuouQAHOQk

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

There's a lot of reasons to enjoy the free Vivaldi browser. And yeah, ads pay my bills. But, man, Vivaldi's latest browser version just blocks everything.

https://t.co/Lpt75Cw7NU

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

If you're tired (as I am) of a lot of prerecorded "press conferences," the Windows Insider event this past week was a breath of fresh air. And it's for everyone! You could have gone!

(There's one more.)

https://t.co/gu2GipNV5h

[Abhishek B R @abhitwt]

Every company’s AI workflow rn be like 😭💀

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

IDC is predicting holiday PC sales will plunge 20 percent compared to last year because of ongoing memory concerns. https://t.co/1bczj8pDyq

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

This story is a conversation my colleague Alaina Yee had with the Microsoft Surface team at Build (I ended up with a virtual pass, long story) but starts with a clarification if you want a Surface RTX Spark Dev Box. #msbuild

https://t.co/18iyjxBNlo

[Jacob Freeman @GeForce_JacobF]

Playing Alan Wake 2 (Native Arm!) on Surface Laptop Ultra powered by RTX Spark! 1600p resolution with Ray Tracing and DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction 👀

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

Oh man, is Intel pulling a Rambus again?

https://t.co/yM5gv3bYMn

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

At Computex, Intel and Phison are teaming up to improve a big problem with local AI: you can't run large enough models. Their solution: using a high-performance SSD to cache tokens.

The catch? Well, you know. https://t.co/yM5gv3cwBV

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

This is something different: Microsoft is noodling around with a potential PowerToys addition that could turn the bottom of your screen into animated pixel art. #msbuild
https://t.co/WY8kDiNVmD

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

One is for the desk (Mediatek), and one reinvents the access badge (via Qualcomm).

All of this accesses agents remotely. Interesting idea.

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

Project Solara by Microsoft appears to be Microsoft's entry into smart devices, one for the desk, powered by Mediatek and Qualcomm. "Think of it as a secure ambient device for work."

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

My colleague Michael Crider is writing up Microsoft's mini-PC version (the dev box) of the RTX Spark notebooks announced earlier this week. I think it's a smart idea, and might make more sense than a laptop, especially if you buy into the always-on agentic AI concept.

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

This is one of those weird tech things: right now, the champion of local personal AI agents is Nvidia. The champion of personal cloud agents is Google. (Among others, and set aside the whole utility argument for a second.)

Both products are named Spark.

https://t.co/I80myXeSD2

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

👀You know how everyone's obsessing over the Apple MacBook Neo's price point? Dell is launching an XPS 13 at the same $599 price!

https://t.co/q5gGf6LBnI

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

What will it cost? How powerful will it actually be? There's lots to talk about with the Surface Laptop Ultra. https://t.co/ZASG8gOD4X

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

Microsoft's Surface lineup has been deadly dull for years now. The new Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia's powerhouse RTX Spark chip changes all that. But there still substantial questions.

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

Nvidia and Microsoft both have a vision for agentic PCs. But we've never seen an always-on laptop chewing away at agents.
https://t.co/HiFg3k1d6q

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

Nvidia's new graphics-heavy RTX Spark platform for PCs, and its new Windows on Arm N1X CPU, have been anticipated for some time. But Nvidia has something new planned for the PC.

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

Nvidia RTX Spark and N1X coverage over on BlueSky. Welcome to the Windows on Arm PCs.

[Mark Hachman @markhachman]

AMD's AM4 platform just refuses to die! AMD has a new AM4 X3D chip...and is that a new GPU, too? #computex
https://t.co/A6SM6de8uf