Forget email surveys or long calls spent on hold. Voicebox lets people send customer feedback by recording a voice note on their phone. Some of the hottest software this year revolves around capturing voices . Whether it's the sharp dictations of Wispr or the always-listening ears of Granola, voice-centered software currently feels inescapable. Voice dictation is getting so sharp, in fact, that I often write drafts in my notepad and then dictate aloud to my laptop.

Take full control of your desktop alerts by sending yourself recurring reminders and custom notifications triggered by specific events. While there are plenty of ways to limit notifications on our digital devices and avoid distraction overload, there's nothing inherently wrong with these alerts. They just need to be well managed and kept in their place. Keeping notifications useful and timely can help you get more done in the day, not less, and Windows 11 comes with built-in tools for setting up custom notifications that run on a schedule you specify. You can use these scheduled notifications however you want.

I was initially enamored with the beta version of Apple's revamped smartphone assistant. As the full release approaches, I've forgotten Siri AI even exists. When I first tested the developer beta of Apple's Siri AI by taking it as my tour guide around San Francisco, I was convinced the overhauled smartphone assistant would be an " everything tool " on the iPhone. The answers felt reliable enough and more helpful than previous versions of Siri. Also, the chatbot-style app for Siri felt very sleek, very Apple-y. Over the next month, I kept experimenting with the Siri AI in the iOS 27 beta .

The Watch World Went Crazy This Week. The main action took place at Geneva Watch Days, but others dialed in remotely to make sure it wasn't just a Swiss party. While Watches and Wonders every April is undoubtedly the watch world's main event of the year, Geneva Watch Days--which inauspiciously launched in 2020, the year Covid was declared a pandemic --is now establishing itself as a serious follow-up. Big brands can hold back key releases and gain valuable space to shout about new pieces away from the horological hubbub of W&W. A second bite of the marketing apple in the latter half of the year seems like a good idea, as Swiss watch exports declined again in 2025 after a drop in 2024.

The US government is investigating whether the Cybercab, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, meets vehicle safety standards. Tesla's Cybercab, a distinctive two-seater without a steering wheel or brake pedals, is set to start picking up members of the public in Austin, Texas, this evening. But the vehicle is already under investigation by the US federal government, which is probing whether it meets federal safety standards. The investigation comes just hours after the electric automaker welcomed hundreds of fans to downtown Austin to ride in the driverless Cybercabs. Tesla plans to deploy the vehicles on its Robotaxi ride-hail network, which is currently operating in a handful of cities in Texas and Florida.

Job seekers are trying to game the application process using AI. It's not working, and not for the reasons you might think. Jodi Beggs' résumé got dinged for being two pages long. She used her middle initial on one document but not another, which also cost her points. If she changed "percent" to the % sign, her score went up. Beggs, a data scientist and job seeker, got this feedback from an online system that compares a job description with an applicant's materials to assess how well they match up.

An invite-only event in Austin, Texas, kept online fans in the dark for hours. A Tesla launch event tends to cause a hoopla. Fans crowd into an event space; loud electronic beats are the warm up act. Finally, the star himself, the ringmaster of this electric circus, CEO Elon Musk, emerges to a roar. There are demos, powerful verbs, and sometimes, a "one more thing," a last-minute surprise product unveiling.

At IFA 2026, Nvidia and its partners showed off the first RTX Spark-powered laptops and mini PCs, designed to run AI models right on your computer. Three months ago, Nvidia took the wraps off its RTX Spark "superchip" and a handful of future laptops that would use it. It felt like a consequential moment in the history of the PC, despite all the questions that remained. And now, as announced at the IFA 2026 tech show in Berlin, we've had our first hands-on look at one of these laptops, as well as some announcements around RTX Spark-powered mini desktop PCs. Demand for running agentic AI workflows like OpenClaw locally on your computer keeps rising, and these new PCs look like they are designed specifically to feed it.