Piltch Point (Video)

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the newest STEAM toy from Sphero, the RVR (pronounced Rover). This new vehicle separates itself from the already crowded programmable vehicle kits in a variety of ways. First, and most obvious, is that the vehicle is desi

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the important things to look out for when purchasing a new computer. There are two ways to buy a new PC: pre-configured or self-configured. For the most part, pre-configured models are far less expensive than their custom

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the Artie 3000 drawing robot. Artie is a new entry in the growing list of kids STEM toys intended to help teach kids about computers, logic, and programming. These toys all take different forms, and Artie is unique in the

This week, Avram Piltch talks about how and why to overclock your computing device. So, what is overclocking? It is the process of changing the operating parameters of a component to increase its performance. While the main CPU is the most common to overc

This week, Avram Piltch discusses a pair of interesting science experiments that have been conducted by Tom's Hardware over the past few weeks. The first involves the publication's favorite tech gadgets: the Raspberry Pi. The site has done a lot of projec

This week, Avram Piltch shows off a preview of the newest addition to the Sphero lineup: the Sphero Mini Activity Kit. This kit builds on top of the existing Sphero Mini robotic ball, adding to it a variety of pre-planned activities that can be done with

This week, Avram Piltch tries something new and unboxes the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard live on the show. This keyboard is unique in that it is designed to be modular, both in itself and with accessories. The small-framed keyboard detaches in the middle, al

Modern games are fun, but there is something special about retro gaming. The simplicity of the games, the focus on fun over graphics, the limitation of the controls. These old games are just pure, simple fun. While you can play these games on a standard c

This week, Avram Piltch discusses one of the biggest changes in the tech space for 2019: the price of solid-state memory. Both NAND flash and standard SSD drives have come down significantly in price, making them a great option for upgrading an existing c

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the best technology to send your kids with when they return back to school. Whether they're returning to college or starting high school, certain technology pieces can enhance their learning.For those who already

This week, Avram Piltch is showing off the newest addition to the LEGO augmented reality family: LEGO Hidden Side. Unlike the set that Avram tested last year, this series of products has both cool LEGO environments and AR that is fun. First, Avram discuss

This week, Avram Piltch brings us up to date on one of his projects for his new favorite toy, the Raspberry Pi 4: the Picade by Pimoroni. This project features a 10-inch screen, mini arcade body, 6 player buttons, 4 utility buttons, and a joystick. The go

This week, Avram Piltch brings us the latest news on AMD's product launches. The company and its partners released new products based on the 7nm architecture. These products include the 3rd generation Ryzen processors, supporting motherboards, and new vid

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the newest entry in the Raspberry Pi family: the Raspberry Pi 4. While this new model was not supposed to come out until this year, improved processor sourcing made it possible to bring it to market significantly earlier

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the impending impact of the trade war between the United States and China. The US imposed a 10% tariff on imports from China a while back, but a new and stronger tariff system is going into place now. The new tariffs will

This week, Avram Piltch is back from Computex 2019 in Taipei with some of the best technology he and his team from Tom's Hardware encountered. From processors to computer cases, Avram's got it all.First, we've got the big announcements from AMD. In partic

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the new computer components that were announced this week. Starting off is Intel's 45-watt 9th generation H-series processors. The Core i9 (9980HK) now features 8 cores, which is more powerful than any mobile proc

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the HP Spectre x360 13" 2-in-1 notebook. This new model of the popular Spectre x360 series has some interesting new features. One of the most interesting, though seemingly simple changes, is the angled back corners. On th

This week, Avram Piltch shows off the brand new Hack Computer, a laptop designed to help teach kids about computers. There are two parts to the computer: the hardware and the operating system. The hardware is a quality laptop manufactured by Asus. Featuri

This week, Avram Piltch talks about the death of a product that never made any sense: the Intel Compute Card. This tiny computer was about the size of a credit card but required a docking station to be used. Intel believed that this platform was the futur

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the future of USB, known as USB4 (or USB 4). While not everything is known about the new standard, such as the final marketing branding, we do know some. For example, we know that USB4 will be capable of up to 40Gbps tran

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the history and milestones of the Raspberry Pi. It's hard to believe that its been 7 years since the original Raspberry Pi model released. In that time, almost everything has changed, except for the price of the computer.

This week, Avram Piltch talks about some of the new announcements from Microsoft at Mobile World Congress 2019. The must-anticipated second generation of the HoloLens was the star of the show. The new hardware is lighter, faster, and smarter. Dynamics 365

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the future of Raspberry Pi, as told by the CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading, Eben Upton. Eben is also the creator of the platform and plans the direction of the platform today. While the original Pi was designed specifically f

This week, Avram Piltch gives us a hands-on with one of our favorite CES 2019 devices: Sphero Specdrums. When most people think of Sphero, they usually think of round robots, but this product definitely breaks the mold. In fact, Specdrums is a color sensi

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his reactions to CES 2019 and what he sees as the trends that can be expected as we head into 2019. The real winner of CES, and possibly of the entire year, is AMD. As the company expands its reach and enhances its produc

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of his predictions for what we will see and, more importantly, what we won't see in 2019. Avram expects to see the price of SSD drop seeing around 10 cents per gigabyte, meaning that you will be able to purchase a 1

This week, Avram Piltch has a hands-on with a gaming keyboard he is currently reviewing for Tom's Hardware: the Viper Gaming V765 Mechanical Keyboard. This keyboard is designed for gamers, featuring a shorter actuation distance, making it easier to respon

This week, Avram Piltch talks about some of the Holiday deals that are still available. While Black Friday used to be a single day, it expanded into Cyber Monday, and today it encompasses nearly the entire month of December. Some of the deals that are ava

This week, Avram Piltch is here to help you prepare for Black Friday deals and duds. Every year, retailers rush to bring you deals on clothing, electronics, components, and more. However, some of these supposed deals are not quite the special they pretend

This week, Avram Piltch is here to help you prevent buying an SSDud. This holiday, SSDs are expected to drop in price greatly, but not every drive is a good price. Sometimes, a sale price is higher than the regular price at another retailer. Sometimes, a

This week, Avram Piltch shows off Samsung's most recent laptop: the Samsung Galaxy Book 2. This attempt at a Microsoft Surface rival skips an Intel chip and, instead, uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor. That means that this laptop does not come clos

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some stories of experiences PC refurbishers have had when opening up computers. Can you imagine opening up a desktop computer to find a loaded pistol instead of a CD drive? Or what about letting a collection of live roach

This week, Avram Piltch has all of the information about Intel's newest generation of processors: the 9th Generation Core, also known as Coffee Lake Refresh. There is a trio of processors, an i5, i7, and i9. The i9 is the most interesting of the lot, upgr

This week, Avram Piltch discusses one of the most recent products he has had the opportunity to review: the Kano Computer Kit Touch. In March, Avram introduced us to the Kano Computer Kit, and this new model addresses one of the issues identified in the p

This week, Avram Piltch shows you how to enable Dark Mode across a variety of platforms on your PC. The feature has come out of the darkness in the past year, with many developers building the feature into their software, even on the web. Windows has supp

This week, Avram Piltch discusses Windows settings to change. Some of them speed up your computer while others make it less annoying to use. Some of his suggestions are pretty straightforward, like unhiding file extensions and hidden folders. On the other

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his experiences in teaching his young son about electronics, robotics, programming and other STEAM-related topics. In the years the two have done projects together, Avram has learned a few things to look out for, as well

This week, Avram Piltch discusses one of the biggest costs in building your own computer: Windows. While Microsoft sells a copy of Windows 10 Home for $139, there are other ways to get Windows 10 going for little or no cost. Whether you repurpose an exist

This week, Avram Piltch discusses the legality of videogame ROMs and Nintendo's response to them. Previously, Nintendo has issued cease-and-desist letters to sites that host and distribute ROM files, but this week they ramped up their approach by suing. T

This week, Avram Piltch gives us a hands-on with the Elegoo EL-KIT-012 Smart Robot Car Kit V 3.0, an Arduino-powered robot kit he purchased on Amazon Prime Day 2018. The kit comes with everything you need to get started: an Arduino UNO, chassis, wheels, u

This week, Avram Piltch discusses his less than stellar experience trying to purchase a laptop for himself. Earlier this year, while at LAPTOP Mag, he gave the Lenovo X1 Carbon a perfect score. A few months later, he publicly purchased one himself. A big

This week, Avram Piltch is immersed in a personal experiment of technological discovery: using Linux full-time. While this is not his first time running this experiment, he has taken it to a new level. He is using a newer flavor of Linux, Mint, and has in

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the ways that you can make your computer faster. No matter how fast or slow your computer is, most of the time it is waiting on you, not the other way around. So, to make your computing experience faster, you need

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the best robots for kids of all ages. Whether your child is young and needs a device that doesn't require reading and gives a lot of assistance, or is older and wants to program with little to no help, Avram'...

This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the major advances that have happened in the world of processors in the past few weeks. He begins with the official release of Windows 10 on ARM, the new ARM-powered computers that run a complete version of W...

This week, Avram Piltch brings us the results of the LAPTOP Magazine Tech Support Showdown 2018. Once again, Apple takes the top spot, but they only took it by 3 points. Tying for #2 was Dell and Samsung. Coming in last was MSI. Avram tells us what w...

This week, Avram Piltch brings us the latest product he is reviewing for Tom's Guide: the Kano Computer Kit. This kit is designed to help children understand how a computer works by allowing them to build one. Once the computer is built, a large coll...

This week, Avram Piltch brings us a view from an event that most of us cannot attend: Toy Fair 2018. This year's event showed off a number of different and unique toys. One of the most interesting toys was a motion-controlled quadcopter: the Spin Mas...

This week, Avram Piltch has got some new advice to help you save some money if you are considering purchasing a new laptop or desktop computer. Companies offer all sorts of add-ons and configuration options, but for most people, there are some that c...