The hottest Hardware Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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I Turned an ESP32 into a Thermal USB Webcam

atomic14 • 519 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. An ESP32 microcontroller can be turned into a USB webcam that works as a thermal/infrared camera.
  2. The device captures infrared/thermal images instead of normal visible-light video, letting you see heat signatures.
  3. Full DIY build instructions and details are available online for anyone who wants to reproduce the project.

NCR Tower 1632

Computer Ads from the Past • 896 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. The Tower 1632 was a compact, under-desk microcomputer built around the Motorola 68000 that ran an enhanced UNIX, supported up to 16 users, had 256KB–2MB of memory and expandable disk storage up to about 1GB, and was sold to OEMs for roughly $12,000.
  2. NCR shifted its organization to push decision-making down to plant and product managers and act more entrepreneurial, enabling faster development and release of systems like the Tower 1632.
  3. Hardware and software features like Multibus I/O, power-fail memory recovery, IP protection, and multiple communications options looked strong on paper, but users reported unreliable or outdated OS releases, slow or failing disks, weak driver support, and difficult file transfers that limited real-world use.

AI #148: Christmas Break

Don't Worry About the Vase • 2553 implied HN points • 25 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. AI capabilities are accelerating fast — models like Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT‑5.2‑Codex are getting much better at long‑horizon, agentic coding and benchmarked tasks.
  2. Policy and public opinion are catching up: states are passing laws like New York’s RAISE Act and voters broadly favor federal AI regulation, even as industry and politics push back.
  3. The social and safety picture is messy — AI is disrupting jobs and media (deepfakes and a lot of low‑quality 'slop'), and aligning and reliably monitoring smarter systems remains hard despite improving interpretability tools.

AMD's Ryzen 7 9850X3D: A Review

More Than Moore • 186 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is basically a higher‑binned 9800X3D with faster clocks, but it only delivers tiny performance gains while drawing significantly more power and costing more.
  2. AMD’s 3D V‑Cache really helps CPU‑bound, cache‑hungry games and makes memory speed matter less, but it doesn’t improve compute‑heavy workloads and offers no advantage for AI paths that need an NPU.
  3. On value, the 9800X3D or cheaper Intel options give better performance‑per‑dollar, so most buyers should pick the cheaper chip and spend any savings on other parts like memory amid volatile DRAM prices.

I've no idea why I fixed this...

atomic14 • 866 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. A problem got fixed even though the reason for the fix is unclear.
  2. The method used is discouraged and not something others should copy.
  3. It shows quick, hacky fixes can sometimes work, but they’re risky and shouldn’t replace proper solutions.
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The AI Device Wars Just Kicked Off In A Big Way

Big Technology • 2627 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Apple's design leader moving to Meta might signal a competitive shift in AI devices. This could lead to intense rivalry among tech giants like Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Google.
  2. The race for creating the next big AI device is heating up, with companies focusing on wearables like smartglasses rather than traditional phones.
  3. Good AI models are crucial for the success of these devices, and the competition will depend on who can improve their AI systems the most.

The Weekly Kaitchup #62

The Kaitchup – AI on a Budget • 159 implied HN points • 11 Oct 24
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Avoid using small batch sizes with gradient accumulation. It often leads to less accurate results compared to using larger batch sizes.
  2. Creating better document embeddings is important for retrieving information effectively. Including neighboring documents in embeddings can really help improve the accuracy of results.
  3. Aria is a new model that processes multiple types of inputs. It's designed to be efficient but note that it has a higher number of parameters, which means it might take up more memory.

The Sequence Radar #820: GPT-5.4, Cursor, and the New Desktop

TheSequence • 126 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. AI is shifting from interactive copilots to autonomous, always-on agents: GPT-5.4 can directly control desktop apps and Cursor Automations runs background coding agents that act like parallel coworkers.
  2. Big players are optimizing for speed, cost, and multimodal power: Google’s Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and Nano Banana 2 deliver fast, low-cost reasoning and image generation for high-volume workloads.
  3. The open-weight ecosystem is under strain as talent and research models face corporate pressure: Alibaba’s Qwen team departures show how reorganizations focused on monetization can jeopardize open innovation.

ComputerWorld Interviews Lotus' Mitch Kapor (1985)

Computer Ads from the Past • 768 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Lotus is shifting from a one-product company to building multiple product lines and services, leveraging its large installed customer base and investing in AI-powered textual productivity tools.
  2. The company is moving toward service-oriented offerings and wants to protect its economic interest with a mix of copy-protection, negotiated site licenses for large customers, and industry-backed hardware solutions like lock-and-key standards.
  3. Lotus expects competition from big vendors and startups but emphasizes staying focused on serving customers and shipping the right products rather than treating business as a war.

Benjie's Humanoid Olympics: Part II

General Robots • 732 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Robotics is progressing faster than expected, so more difficult, real-world challenges are needed to keep driving breakthroughs.
  2. The new tasks emphasize dynamic movement, fine fingertip dexterity, tool use, and whole-body manipulation through everyday activities like catching eggs, cooking, folding sheets, hammering, and getting into a car.
  3. A competition framework awards medals and asks teams to demonstrate success with videos, inviting community participation and leaving some earlier challenges still unclaimed.

AI #147: Flash Forward

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1747 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. AI capabilities are leaping forward fast, with new models trading off speed, cost, and raw intelligence to become genuinely useful for coding, research, and image generation in everyday workflows.
  2. Safety and alignment are still acute problems: models are showing jailbreaks, backdoors, deceptive behaviors, and the ability to amplify biological and cyber risks, so technical and policy defenses are urgently needed.
  3. Policy, economics, and public opinion are in flux — governments, companies, and the public are scrambling over regulation, chips and data centers, IP deals, and job/privacy worries, but many proposed frameworks look weak or self-interested.

An Interview with AMD CTO Mark Papermaster

More Than Moore • 583 implied HN points • 29 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Long-term engineering bets on chiplets, Infinity Fabric, advanced packaging, and tight foundry partnerships let AMD move from a CPU maker to a full-stack competitor across CPUs, GPUs, and AI infrastructure.
  2. AI is changing chip design itself — teams are adopting AI-native tools and agentic verification to get designs right faster, while keeping general-purpose CPUs/GPUs alongside specialized accelerators for changing algorithms.
  3. Growing power and bandwidth needs for AI force system-level innovation — rack-scale co-design, liquid cooling, heat-spreading tech, and eventual photonics are becoming as important as raw chip performance.

The race for "AI Supremacy" is over — at least for now.

Marcus on AI • 23595 implied HN points • 26 Jan 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. China has quickly caught up in the AI race, showing impressive advancements that challenge the U.S.'s previous lead. This means that competition in AI is becoming much tighter.
  2. OpenAI is facing struggles as other companies offer similar or better products at lower prices. This has led to questions about their future and whether they can maintain their leadership in AI.
  3. Consumers might benefit from cheaper AI products, but there's a risk that rushed developments could lead to issues like misinformation and privacy concerns.

Under the microscope: Battle Arena Toshinden Remix (Saturn)

Rings of Saturn • 87 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Three hidden cheat functions were found that unlock bosses, enable a special-attack input, and open a scene-test mode; they must be entered at the title screen in a specific sequence and often require soft-resetting between entries.
  2. The codes operate by incrementing in-game memory counters and flags, so entering one code enables the game to accept the next rather than being isolated menu tricks.
  3. The NTSC-J version uses different button sequences (and needs the second controller for the scene test), so the exact inputs depend on the game's region.

THE GUEST WHO NEVER LEFT

Big Tech • 515 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Apple’s ecosystem is a seamless, closed park that keeps people and their data inside, making it easy to stay and very hard to leave.
  2. Devices constantly gather deep biometric and behavioral data and run on-device models that predict and nudge your choices, turning helpful features into forms of control.
  3. Both users and developers live in repeating loops of updates, approvals, and signed keys, so creators and guests alike are trapped in a system that controls narratives and access.

Digital Servo Systems' Foot ^Control

Computer Ads from the Past • 768 implied HN points • 17 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. A small company sold a Foot ^Control device that let users press the Control key with their foot so they wouldn't have to move their hands while editing, aimed especially at software like WordStar.
  2. Digital Servo Systems was formed in California in late 1983 by Dennis Pfister, Kenneth Goss, and Jeffery Robinson but was dissolved by March 1986 and left little public trace.
  3. Dennis Pfister published a Byte magazine article showing how to add a foot-operated Control key, the device was reportedly priced under $40, and there are few reviews or patents documenting its history.

On shovels, Nvidia, and the AI Gold Rush

Marcus on AI • 2410 implied HN points • 20 Nov 25
đź’Ľ Business Hardware
  1. Nvidia reported excellent earnings that briefly lifted the stock, but the opening gains evaporated and the share price was down later in the day.
  2. The market reaction was highly volatile and uncertain, and nobody knows whether the stock will head up, down, or stay sideways next.
  3. Even with strong results, lingering concerns about outlook or valuation persist, so investors remain cautious.

MacBook Neo: Key Developments at a Glance

philsiarri • 67 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Apple launched the MacBook Neo as its cheapest Mac laptop at $599, using a phone-class A18 Pro chip with a 13‑inch display, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB base storage option.
  2. The Neo creates a new entry point in Apple’s lineup, effectively replacing the M1 MacBook Air’s role and widening the gap between budget, midrange, and high‑end MacBooks as other models get pricier.
  3. Reactions are mixed — some see the Neo as a smart move to fill a neglected price segment, while others read the low price as an economic caution; Apple also appears to be treating Neo as a platform for low‑cost experimentation with future features like touchscreens and newer chips.

Interview with Steve Wozniak after Jobs' Departure (1985)

Computer Ads from the Past • 1152 implied HN points • 30 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Apple made strategic and product mistakes by overinvesting in niche machines like the Apple III and Lisa while neglecting expandability, compatibility, and ongoing R&D for its best-selling lines.
  2. Woz left to build Cloud9 as a small, engineering-driven company focused on simple, user-friendly consumer products like a programmable universal infrared remote, preferring hands-on design and staying private.
  3. The personal computer market is saturating and likely to consolidate around a few big players; standardization, compatibility, and meeting real user needs matter more than raw specs, and downturns can be a good time for focused startups.

Amazon Basics vs SanDisk: I Cut Them Open

atomic14 • 346 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. AmazonBasics microSD adapters are positioned as budget products and may be "built to a price," meaning they can be lower quality or less durable.
  2. A broken AmazonBasics adapter was opened up and repaired to inspect how it’s constructed and where it fails.
  3. The comparison with SanDisk frames a look at differences in build and reliability between a low-cost brand and a well-known manufacturer.

AI #146: Chipping In

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1433 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Frontier AI models have suddenly become far more capable and useful for everyday work and as agents, but they still make mistakes, behave inconsistently, and can hallucinate.
  2. Policy and national-security choices are racing to catch up — selling advanced chips to adversaries, military adoption, and proposals for federal preemption are raising urgent questions about export controls, oversight, and long‑term risk.
  3. AI is already reshaping jobs and public opinion: many workers use AI but hide it, people fear displacement, and shifting funding and regulation will determine whether the gains are widely shared or cause harm.

Drones and Lasers - what could possibly go wrong?

atomic14 • 519 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Pairing drones with lasers can be exciting but brings real safety and legal risks.
  2. Buying a big batch of parts from overseas often leaves you with a chaotic pile of gear and forgotten items.
  3. This is typical maker/DIY territory — hands-on tinkering that can lead to unexpected results.

Ho Ho Ho, Groq+NVIDIA Is A Gift

More Than Moore • 980 implied HN points • 25 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. NVIDIA paid about $20 billion to license Groq’s hardware and hire its leadership and key staff, buying physical assets while Groq keeps its IP and stays independent to run its cloud and regional deals.
  2. Groq’s chip is a 144-way VLIW design with only on-chip SRAM (~230 MB), which gives extremely fast single-user inference but forces large rack counts and high power to run big models, and its promised 2nd‑generation 4nm product hasn’t clearly appeared yet.
  3. Groq raised large funding and secured major Saudi commitments, and this deal signals NVIDIA is doubling down on accelerating AI inference at scale by consolidating talent and hardware capabilities for the competitive cloud and enterprise AI market.

Train Surgery

atomic14 • 692 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Four AA batteries were replaced with a single 18650 Li‑ion cell plus a charger/protection/boost module set to about 5.5 V, making the train rechargeable.
  2. A potentiometer was put in series with one speaker lead to act as a simple volume control, and a homemade knob was added so the control is accessible from outside.
  3. The conversion achieves rechargeable power and adjustable volume, but the drivetrain’s plastic gears still make loud mechanical clatter at low volume.

Learning Assembly for Fun and Profit

The Chip Letter • 12886 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Learning assembly language can help you understand how computers work at a deeper level. It's beneficial for debugging code and grasping the basics of machine instructions.
  2. There are retro and modern assembly languages to choose from, each with its own pros and cons. Retro languages are fun but less practical today, while modern ones are more useful but often complicated.
  3. RISC-V is a promising choice for learning assembly language because it's growing in popularity and offers a clear path from simple concepts to more complex systems. It's also open-source, making it accessible for new learners.

Vote for the January 2026 + Post Topic

Computer Ads from the Past • 384 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. A poll is open for plus subscribers to choose the January 2026 post topic, so readers can vote on what gets written next.
  2. The three candidate topics focus on vintage computing: a mouse, a CP/M helper program, and a flight simulator.
  3. Each option is shown with scans from old magazines, and more related articles are planned to follow soon.

Extending the demo: Last Bronx (Saturn)

Rings of Saturn • 101 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. The Last Bronx Flash Saturn disc demo is a real-time auto-demo that runs the game engine but ignores controller input, and a patch can re-enable player control so you can actually play the preview build.
  2. The hack works by changing a few memory bytes to flip CPU/player flags, altering the match state so it advances instead of showing Game Over, and skipping a problematic function call (NOP) that would otherwise freeze the demo.
  3. This demo is an earlier build with missing or placeholder content: several stages or objects are absent or reused, some character models and colors are incomplete, and menus like mode select and staff credits are not present.

Huang's Law

The Chip Letter • 6115 implied HN points • 18 Jun 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Huang's Law suggests that the performance of AI chips is improving much faster than what we used to call Moore's Law. It claims chips double their performance every year or so, which is a big leap forward.
  2. This new law emphasizes performance improvements related to AI, unlike Moore's Law, which was mostly about the number of transistors. It's all about how quickly these chips can process complex tasks.
  3. However, some experts think Huang's Law might not last as long as Moore's Law. While it's exciting now, it's still uncertain if this rapid improvement can continue in the future.

It's time to leave Substack

Garbage Day • 5581 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Consider leaving Substack due to moderation and trust issues.
  2. MatPat from Game Theory is stepping down from hosting videos after contributing to media culture.
  3. AI hardware startups are facing challenges, including layoffs, in their race towards innovation.

Four Things: What Do These People Know That We Don't?

State of the Future • 29 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. AI builders expect rapid, widespread disruption of white‑collar work, so societies will need to adapt fast to avoid big economic and employment shocks.
  2. The next big gains will come from orchestration, not just bigger chips or models — combining diverse hardware and specialised components will be a key competitive edge.
  3. Models and models' outputs are now attackable and competitive assets, so security and new architectures (many small agents checking each other) are becoming essential to reduce errors and theft.

Investigating an "evil" RJ45 dongle

lcamtuf’s thing • 10815 implied HN points • 17 Jan 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Claims of widespread supply-chain attacks are often exaggerated. It's usually easier to steal passwords or trick people into downloading malware instead.
  2. The investigation revealed that the 'evil' RJ45 dongle was actually just a routine device with a self-extracting driver, not a malicious tool.
  3. It's good to stay cautious about hardware from unknown sources, but for most home users, this type of device is likely safe enough.

Congrats to Sunday Robotics for winning the Bronze Medal for Rolling Matched Socks

General Robots • 732 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. They scale teleoperation data collection by sending thousands of gloves to people’s homes, with 500+ active collectors, which gives much more diverse and easily scalable data than robot farms.
  2. The robot design prioritizes safety and reach — back-drivable limbs and a low tipping hazard combined with a 2.13 m workspace and the ability to lift 6 kg at about an 80 cm reach.
  3. Simple, well-engineered hands (two fingers with two DOFs and a fixed thumb) deliver versatile, precise grasps in real tasks like table clearing and making espresso, though live demos can still trigger occasional failure modes.

Issue #118

Infra Weekly Newsletter • 13 implied HN points • 14 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Postgres can be turned into a high-performance time-series platform by using extensions that automate time partitioning, offload cold data to Iceberg/S3, and process append-only data incrementally so older data remains queryable without bloating the database.
  2. Infrastructure buying is trending toward flexibility: disaggregated, modular stacks let compute and storage scale independently, validated configurations reduce migration risk, and Ethernet + NVMe/TCP is reducing reliance on Fibre Channel SANs.
  3. Autonomous AI agents can collaborate to evade safeguards and exfiltrate secrets when given adversarial prompts, creating a real security risk that needs stronger controls and defensive design.

Weekly Top Picks #111: Davos Edition

The Algorithmic Bridge • 244 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. The newsletter is back with a tighter format: news will be organized into seven fixed categories so each item becomes part of a clearer, ongoing story. The writer plans to keep some room for surprises but wants more order and relevance.
  2. AI is reshaping power and wealth because advanced models need massive compute and electricity, which creates winners and losers and fuels geopolitical fights over chips and access. Big product claims from companies (devices, robotaxis) are plentiful but deserve healthy skepticism.
  3. The social impacts of AI are urgent and mixed: there are real worries about job displacement, serious safety problems like models acting as suicide coaches, and cultural shifts as AI takes over work that’s centered on language.

Why Meta's AR/VR Dreams Need China's Goertek

ChinaTalk • 326 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Goertek is more than a parts supplier — it assembles Meta’s headsets, runs centralized procurement, and manages a huge network of component makers, giving it outsized influence over costs and timelines. This makes it hard to replace even though its direct component value looks small.
  2. Meta is trying to diversify suppliers and move some production out of China, but swapping individual components isn’t the same as rebuilding an entire supply chain, so true decoupling remains difficult.
  3. Key XR parts like waveguides, pancake lenses, and optical engines are yield-constrained and dominated by a few firms (notably Goertek and Sunny Optical), creating capacity bottlenecks that drive shortages and limit product availability.

5 ultra-petty tech gripes that are ruining my life

Odds and Ends of History • 670 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. iPhone lock-screen playback controls now make it too easy to accidentally skip or scrub audio because tap-to-wake and always-on displays cause unintended taps, which is especially painful for long podcasts.
  2. This could be fixed with small changes like requiring a longer press for playback buttons and adding a playback history so you can jump back to where you were.
  3. Little UX annoyances like this spoil otherwise useful features; they’re easy for companies to fix and matter a lot to everyday users.

Many Small Steps for Robots, One Giant Leap for Mankind

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 226 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Robotics will advance by taking many small, practical steps across a spectrum of task variability instead of waiting for one giant breakthrough. Deploying robots in real-world jobs and iterating from failures is how capabilities and economic value expand.
  2. The key bottleneck is high-quality, robot-specific data—especially intervention data captured on the actual hardware in real environments. Getting paid deployments is the most effective way to collect that data and speed up learning.
  3. Vertical integration plus small, task-tailored models is the pragmatic path to value today: controlling hardware, data, and software lets teams adapt fast, run cheaper and faster models for real use cases, and build customer moats even if big general models eventually emerge.

What Happened to My Search Engine?

The Honest Broker • 22939 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Technology is getting worse, not better, in software, hardware, and web platforms.
  2. The origin of search engines like Yahoo shows a shift from community-oriented, user-empowering ideals to profit-driven models.
  3. Current search engines lack user privacy, sell private information, and prioritize profits over user experience.

Physical Intelligence Sweeps Humanoid Olympics

General Robots • 348 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Hardware
  1. Physical Intelligence submitted robots for 11 humanoid Olympic events. They achieved these capabilities much sooner than expected, showing rapid progress in robotics.
  2. Many tasks that seemed to need special touch sensors or extra finger joints were actually solvable with standard grippers and cameras, and wrist force-torque sensing appears to help. This suggests clever hardware-software integration can overcome perceived limits.
  3. Teams make different trade-offs: some use more dexterous hands to collect teleoperation data while others add wrist force-torque sensors humans can’t provide. Those choices change what sensor data and training each approach can use.