After years of hype, AR glasses are finally on the horizon. Snap says its next-gen smart glasses will launch in 2026. Meta has already sold over two million of its Ray-Ban smartglasses. And it’s reportedly working on a new version instead of next updating its Quest line of VR headsets. Apple is rumored to be quietly working on its own version. These will be much less obtrusive than big VR headsets—they look (mostly) like regular glasses and promise real-time translation, video calls, and turn-by-turn directions, all floating in front of your eyes.
It sounds amazing. But will people actually wear them?
We’ve already seen how virtual reality (VR) goggles, while fun for gaming, are not yet regularly used by most people. Typically, people are wowed by the technology, but don’t want to strap something to their face that cuts them off from the real world. Think of it like an amusement park. It’s really great and fun, but you wouldn’t want to go every day or every week.
I’ve used both the Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 VR headsets. Both are fun, but even if they were lighter and cheaper, they’re a niche product because they’re a big thing strapped to your head. AR is much more subtle—but it still involves wearing something on your head.
For AR glasses to go mainstream, they need to solve real problems—without being awkward or invasive. Think language translation while traveling, guided workouts, hands-free help for delivery drivers, or facial recognition to remind you who that work associate is. It could be an easy way to interact with ever more ubiquitous AI tools. But wearing something on your face is much more difficult and personal than wearing a watch. If the tech feels weird or doesn’t match people’s personal tastes, it won’t be widely used.
For now, the promise is exciting. The reality? Still very much TBD.
I’m getting back into making short videos—something I haven’t done in a while—and the TRMNL e-ink display caught my attention as a fun tech gadget.
What TRMNL Does
TRMNL is a 7.5-inch e-ink display designed to show you information without the distraction. There’s no touchscreen or interface to get lost in—just a clean display that pulls bitmap images from their servers every 5 minutes to an hour.
This isn’t meant for real-time updates. You won’t use it as a clock or for urgent notifications. Instead, it’s perfect for the kind of information that’s useful but not urgent: weather, calendar events, web stats, and other ambient data.
The Experience
Setup happens through their website where you can add plugins for weather, calendars, and dozens of other services. The open-source ecosystem means techies can build custom plugins, but it works great out of the box for everyone else.
The hardware feels solid with good build quality. The battery lasts 1-3 months since e-ink only uses power when the display changes. You can wall mount it with command strips or use the included stand.
Why It Works
At $140, TRMNL avoids the subscription trap that plagues other smart displays. The plugins are free forever, and the company makes money through device sales rather than monthly fees. There’s also an option for a slightly larger battery for $10 extra.
The development community appears active and committed for the long haul—a refreshing change from products that get discontinued after a year or two.
The Real Appeal
TRMNL succeeds because it knows what it isn’t. It’s not trying to grab your attention or pull you into endless scrolling. In a world of notification chaos, having a device that simply informs without intruding feels almost radical.
If you’re interested, you can use promo code “techdc” for $15 off. I’ll get $5 toward future TRMNL purchases if use that code. Thanks for helping me buy more of them!
After six years with the same sensor, Ricoh has finally announced the GR IV – and the photography community couldn’t be more excited about this pocket-sized powerhouse getting an upgrade.
What Makes the GR Series Special
If you’ve never heard of the Ricoh GR series, here’s what you need to know: these cameras pack an APS-C sensor (the same size found in many professional cameras) into a body smaller than most smartphones. The result? Professional-quality photos from a camera that actually fits in your pocket.
Unlike phone cameras that rely heavily on computational photography to enhance images, the GR series produces what many photographers call “real photos” – images with natural contrast, authentic colors, and that classic film-quality.
I’ve used both the GR III and slightly more zoomed in GR IIIx for family portraits and street photography, and there’s something magical about the images it produces. When I compare photos from my GR to those from even the latest iPhones, the difference is immediately apparent. The GR captures authentic skin tones and natural light in ways that phone cameras, despite all their AI processing, simply can’t match.
Why the GR IV Matters
The GR III, launched in 2019, has been beloved by photographers but limited by its aging 24MP sensor, especially in low-light situations. The GR IV addresses these pain points with significant upgrades:
26MP sensor upgrade: A small jump in resolution. This will give a more flexibility for cropping – particularly useful for a fixed-lens camera.
Improved low-light performance: After six years of sensor technology advances, expect much better high-ISO performance for those dimly lit restaurants and evening street scenes. This is what I’m most excited about. The GR III is super noisy at even 6000 ISO, as one would expect from an old sensor.
5-axis image stabilization: The GR III had 3-axis stabilization, but the additional axes should mean sharper handheld shots, especially in challenging conditions.
53GB internal storage: No more worrying about forgetting your SD card. You can shoot immediately out of the box.
Enhanced connectivity: Better WiFi and a new companion app should make transferring and sharing photos easier.
The Reality of GR Photography
Here’s what every potential GR owner needs to understand: this isn’t a camera for every situation. You won’t be shooting sports or wildlife with it. The fixed 28mm equivalent lens (or 40mm on the x line) means you need to move your feet to compose shots.
But for street photography, travel, daily documentation, and casual portraits, the GR series is unmatched in its combination of image quality and portability. There’s something liberating about having a truly capable camera that you can slip into any pocket.
What This Means for Current GR Users
Ricoh is discontinuing the GR III in July 2025, but the GR IIIx will continue production “for the time being.” For those of us who prefer the 40mm focal length of the IIIx, this lmeans waiting for a GR IVx – which, based on Ricoh’s release pattern, probably won’t arrive until 2027 or 2028.
The Bottom Line
The GR IV represents exactly what the photography community has been waiting for: a meaningful upgrade to one of the most beloved compact camera series. In an era where phone cameras dominate casual photography, the GR series continues to prove that there’s still a place for dedicated cameras that prioritize image quality over convenience features.
For photographers who value authentic image quality, appreciate the craft of photography, and want professional results in an incredibly compact package, the GR IV can’t come soon enough.
I recently finished a Lutron Caseta light switch setup. When people ask about smart light switches, I always steer them toward Caseta. Why? As opposed to Philips Hue or other bulb solutions, Caseta has the smarts in the switch, not the bulb. This makes more sense for many reasons. First, if the tech smarts fail for some reason, the light switch is still a real light switch. Second, you can choose any bulb you’d like, with particular warmth and quality you choose. And third, in my experience Caseta is more dependable and bulletproof than other solutions.
Smart lights aren’t a necessity and many folks won’t find any utility in them. I enjoy being able to hook them up to smart speakers such as HomePod. This makes it easier to turn on and off lights if you’re running around and have your hands full. It’s also easier to set up automations for when you’re out of town. They even can be set up with sensors to automatically turn on. All of these are minor improvements though, so this is still a nice-to-have, not a critical part of your technology.
There are other switch based solutions, but Lutron is a big name that has been doing this for a while. I wholeheartedly recommend them. (Not an ad)
I recently helped set up a new house with cables including long HDMI cables that would not be easily replaceable after drywall went up. We wanted the latest HDMI 2.1 cables, which are capable of at least 40Gbps bandwidth. To do this for long cable runs, we needed expensive optical cables. Since these cables needed to work, we had to test them. To do so, we purchased a receiver that we planned to buy later anyway, the Denon AVR-X6700H.
Denon AVR-x6700h HDMI Cable Diagnostic
If you press the back button (below and left of the circle) and up cursor button (part of the circle) on this receiver, an “installer” secret menu item appears, a diagnostics mode. This can test cables and show the throughput achieved by the cable.
We’re glad that we ran those tests. Two of the cables we purchased failed the full HDMI 2.1 spec by not achieving 40Gbps:
There are a couple of tells for which cables fail in this list. First, the failing cables are 50-60% the cost of the passing cables. Second, the failing cables have the word “con” in their name.
We were able to switch out the failing cables before the drywall arrived. If you’re looking to test cables and you need a receiver, the new Denon lineup does an impressive job.
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