The Surface Laptop Ultra ($2,599) is a thin, light 15-inch notebook aimed at creative professionals, offering a 15-inch mini‑LED PixelSense Ultra touchscreen with a taller 3:2 aspect ratio, 262 ppi and up to 2000 nits peak HDR brightness. It measures under 18 mm thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds (2 kg), comes in Platinum and a Nightfall finish, and adds a larger precision haptic touchpad (over 30% bigger) for finer cursor control. Battery life is described as “all-day” based on internal pre-release testing, and the compact charger is pocketable. Maker-friendly I/O includes USB‑C, USB‑A, full‑size HDMI, a headphone jack and a full‑size SD card reader so users can avoid dongles.
Performance centers on an all‑new NVIDIA silicon that combines an efficient CPU with an RTX GPU to deliver up to one petaflop of local AI compute, paired with up to 128 GB of unified memory to run larger models and datasets on‑device. A redesigned thermal system offers up to 2.5× the cooling capacity of the prior 15‑inch Surface, targeting sustained heavy workloads and AI‑driven creative workflows such as noise reduction, intelligent masking, video upscaling and code completion. The design is serviceable: user‑replaceable SSD, published repair guides, and replacement parts via Microsoft Store and iFixit. Hardware‑rooted security and Windows Hello facial authentication are included. Shipment requires successful FCC equipment authorization; accessories and some apps are sold separately.
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Pro Micro microcontroller can run a BASIC programming environment similar to 1970s computers, providing a nostalgic experience. The project demonstrates how to connect the device to a terminal emulator to emulate early home computer capabilities. (kevinboone.me)
Microsoft will release the Surface Laptop Ultra on October 16th with a starting price of $2,599. The device is described as Microsoft's most powerful Surface to date. (theverge.com)
eth68 is an Ethernet audio interface for Linux with very low latency of 3.620 milliseconds at 48 kHz, supporting multiple synchronized units. It offers balanced line inputs and outputs, MIDI connectivity, and compatibility with JACK and PipeWire audio systems. (naturalsystems.io)
Contactless switches like Hall-effect and TMR use electromagnetic or electrostatic sensing instead of metal contacts, offering potential durability and reliability benefits. These newer switch types are gaining popularity in high-end keyboards, although their practical advantages over traditional mechanical switches are subtle. (arstechnica.com)
Gigabyte B300 is an 8U rack-mounted server designed for data center use. It is not classified as a traditional personal PC or workstation. (gigabyte.com)
ESP32-C3 Adblock is a Pi-hole-like DNS ad-blocker running on a low-cost ESP32-C3 device without PSRAM, capable of blocking over 537,000 domains. It features a UDP DNS sinkhole and a web dashboard for management. (github.com)
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