Technology

I’ve personally been a big downer on the Windows 11 experience, but I’ve seen enough from Microsoft that I’m hoping I can finally change my tune. In an extra-long blog post, Microsoft VP of Windows experiences Navjot Virk gave us a rundown of everything that’s coming to the age-old operating system, and it’s not just quality-of-life improvements that could make Windows 11 an OS you actually want to use. Microsoft has been planning these fixes for a while, and they’re available now in the Insider beta and will see a full release later this year. There are dozens of improvements, including the ability to move the taskbar to the sides like you could in previous OS versions. I’ve seen the promised land firsthand, and it’s a Windows 11 experience that may finally not suck. I’ve seen, though I haven’t yet played around with, several bits and bobs of revised functionality built into Microsoft’s OS. Namely, the new Search capabilities and Photos app are both completely redesigned, run faster, and offer more functionality than before. Search is especially better now.

News Summary: NVIDIA RTX Spark laptops are available today from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI — with additional systems to follow — bringing RTX acceleration and NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform to slim, premium Windows PCs for creation, gaming and local AI. RTX Spark delivers up to 1 petaflop of AI compute and up to 128GB of unified memory — enabling AI developers, creators and gamers to run frontier AI models locally, render 90GB+ 3D scenes and play AAA games at 1440p at over 100 frames per second, all on a slim, portable device. Day-one support across local AI agents, creative apps and major games helps users put RTX Spark to work immediately — from editing with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere to running Hermes and OpenClaw agents and playing titles including Gears of War: E-Day and NBA 2K27 with NVIDIA DLSS 5. NVIDIA today announced the availability of NVIDIA RTX Spark™ laptops, bringing together RTX graphics and NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform in slim, premium Windows PCs for accelerated creation, immersive gaming and powerful local AI — rolling out from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI.

The spirit of Christmas giving is returning to the Comox Valley as preparations begin for the annual Earl Naswell Christmas Dinner, a much-loved tradition dedicated to sharing kindness, compassion and a warm holiday meal with those who need it most. Each year, hundreds of volunteers come together to prepare, package and deliver Christmas dinners to individuals and families throughout the Comox Valley on Christmas Day. Last year, the dedicated team prepared an incredible 1,000 turkey and ham dinners, bringing comfort, connection and the joy of Christmas to our community.

This week’s Debrief features steel-frame-specific bag mounts, the Monochrome Holt 2.0, a SuperSomething Bike Check, Brody Leven’s Flaanimal, fresh videos, multiple events to follow live, and much more. Find it all here… The weekly Debrief highlights small but important bits of news, products, and things that caught our attention on the website, in the conversation, and elsewhere around the community. These include upcoming events and interesting items our readers shared in the comments. Check out this week’s findings below.

The e-paper industry is undergoing a pivotal transition from black-and-white to color. On October 15, at the 2026 Second E-Paper Ecosystem and Industry Integration Innovation Development Forum, E Ink Holdings and Hanwang Technology jointly unveiled the next-generation color e-paper technology E Ink Kaleido 4, alongside the world's first end product powered by it—the Hanwang M10C Gen 2 color e-paper office tablet. The move marks a substantive breakthrough in core metrics such as color performance, refresh speed, and dynamic display, as e-paper devices extend their target use cases from simple digital reading toward professional office work and information-intensive tasks. E Ink Holdings Chairman Li Zhenghao said at the launch that color e-paper continues to evolve toward richer, more natural color rendering, with E Ink Kaleido 4 delivering improvements in color performance, brightness, contrast, and dynamic display capability while preserving a paper-like reading experience.

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Early-access to the campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is out today and you might be wondering ahead of the game’s full release next week, if the campaign comes with co-op? Well, we’ve got you covered, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about this newest instalment to the rebooted Call of Duty franchise. And if you want to know even more about the game, then these articles might be for you:CoD MW4 preload time explained: File size and can you install it? Will CoD MW4 come to Xbox Game Pass at launch? Best weapons in CoD MW4 multiplayer betaWant to see this content? This page contains content provided by Google reCAPTCHA. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Google reCAPTCHA may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose 'Accept and continue' to allow Google reCAPTCHA and its required purposes. Does the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign have co-op? The campaign in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a solo experience, meaning it does not come with co-op.

Building on the original Essence Ceramica introduced in March 2025 and the distinctive Dark Matter meteorite dial that followed, Formex is back at work with a bolder take on its sports watch. Using motorsport as an inspiration, the new Essence Ceramica Dark Matter Redshift combines new finishes for the case, colorful accents and a powerful movement. And, as every Formex watch, it is feature-packed and designed to be both super practical and highly resistant. In line with the Essence Ceramica introduced earlier this year, the new Dark Matter Redshift edition is made entirely in black, scratch-resistant zirconium oxide ceramic. The case, equipped with Formex’s patented Case Suspension System (a suspended titanium container encircling the movement)and a screw-down crown, measures 41mm in diameter, a reasonable 11.2mm in thickness and, despite the rather large width, it is only 46.2mm lug-to-lug. Water-resistance is rated at 100m, and the watch features sapphire crystals on both sides, with multiple layers of AR coating.

From Brew to Urwerk, the world’s best brands delivered the goods. October 16, 2026Watch photos courtesy of brands. Want more insider watch coverage? Get Box + Papers, GQ's newsletter devoted to the watch world, sent to your inbox every Friday. Sign up here to get it free. Over the decade, New York Watch Week has grown from a tiny affair into a massive calendar of events featuring everything from massive luxury brands to the most exciting players on the independent scene. Most important for our purposes is that the event has grown large enough to demand that brands not only show up to meet collectors at functions like WatchTime and WindUp Watch Fair, but also reward us with brand-new pieces. There has been no shortage of great watches released this week by the likes of Ming, TAG Heuer, and Brew. To be fair, not all of the pieces below are technically NYWW releases, but this week has swelled enough that brands now stuff the calendar to take advantage of the extra eyeballs on the industry. Brew Metric Chrono TaxiSome of the releases below just happen to fall during this week and otherwise have very little to do with NYWW.

Last year, Asus and Xbox worked together to launch the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, and the latter is still one of the best handheld gaming PCs on the market right now. Not only is is great at playing games, but even amid the RAMpocalypse, the Xbox Ally X hasn't gone up in price and will still cost the same $999 that it did back in October 2025. While the Xbox Ally X is an incredible little device, its relatively small display has been outclassed by the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — even though they're much more expensive. But Asus took the 20th anniversary of ROG to update the Xbox Ally X with an OLED display, and it takes the handheld to a completely new level. With a better display and a new chassis comes a higher $1,299 price tag, but if you have the cash, that extra $300 is absolutely worth it. Same Guts, Different ScreenThe Xbox Ally X20 has a fancier looking chassis and a much nicer OLED display, but it's functionally the same handheld as the Ally X beneath the surface with no real difference in the specs. It's still rocking the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, along with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Strong multi-core application and local AI performance The HP OmniBook Ultra 16 helps introduce Nvidia’s RTX Spark platform of high-powered (and high-priced) laptops for creative pros and AI developers. Gamers, too, will find something to like with the OmniBook Ultra 16 and other RTX Spark laptops from Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI, but these are not gaming laptops first and foremost. Using Nvidia’s new RTX Spark N1X system-on-chip that integrates an Arm-based processor and Blackwell RTX graphics and can access up to 128GB of unified memory, these laptops are built primarily to power agentic AI and content creation workloads — and to bring would-be MacBook Pro buyers to the Windows side of the aisle.

Castlegar City Council has adopted a new technology policy that will cover both council and city staff. Some of the city’s policies on electronics use dated back to 1999, a time when cell phones had alpha-numeric buttons and didn’t have touch screens or cameras and iPads wouldn’t even be on the market for another 11 years.

NVIDIA on October 16, 2026, announced that RTX Spark laptops are available globally from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI, with prices starting at $2,599 and software support at launch spanning local AI agents, creative applications and major games. The systems are sold through the manufacturers’ websites and major retailers, with more systems to follow, and pricing and configurations differ by region. The launch lineup comprises the ASUS ProArt P14 and P16, Dell XPS 16, HP OmniBook Ultra and OmniBook X 14, Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n, Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra, and MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+ and Prestige N16. NVIDIA is also offering a limited-time promotion to new Perplexity users. NVIDIA’s RTX Spark product page lists retailers including Amazon, Ant Online, B&H Photo Video, Best Buy and Costco, along with October 16 launch events featuring live demonstrations in Taipei, Seoul, Beijing, Istanbul, San Francisco and Berlin. “RTX Spark brings the power of NVIDIA AI, RTX graphics and CUDA together with Microsoft Windows in one PC for creating, gaming and running personal AI agents,” NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said in the announcement.

It's almost iPhone Duo day, folks. Announced in September after years of rumors, Apple's first-ever foldable phone is now available for preorder ahead of its Oct. 23 release (though you probably won't get it that soon). The iPhone Duo features a passport-style design with a nano-texture inner display, a hidden selfie camera, a blazing-fast A20 Pro chip, and a hinge with a flexible graphite pipe inside — its secret to effective cooling. Mashable senior editor Stan Schroeder got to spend a little time with the Duo at Apple Park last month and said it "works amazingly well. "If you have any questions before preordering the iPhone Duo, we're got all the answers. As low as $799 with eligible trade-in and wireless plan