Brian Fagioli

For some millennials, YouTube stars are more important than popular pop musicians or famous Hollywood actors. Older folks may not understand this phenomenon, but it actually makes a lot of sense -- YouTube is a platform where many young people spend their time.

Today, Google announces that it is making YouTube even better. The service can already stream video in 4K, and is available on countless devices, but now the videos are gaining High Dynamic Range (HDR) support too. This means the content will be presented with better contrast and more vibrant colors. Of course, the benefits will only be relaized with displays that support HDR.

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Neil Young is one of my favorite musicians. He is second only to Joni Mitchell for touching my heart and soul. Surprisingly, I haven't listened to his music for well over a year. Why? He pulled his tunes from streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music. He claimed that he did this because he was dissatisfied with the sound quality of these online platforms.

Quite frankly, I was very angry with Young for this move. True, he was totally within his rights to remove his music catalog, but many fans -- such as yours truly -- were perfectly happy with the sound quality. Now, after a long absence, Neil Young returns his music to services like Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify and Apple Music.

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While many people buy pre-assembled PC gaming machines nowadays -- including diminutive mini variants -- there is still much to be said for building your own computer. Selecting your processor, chassis, PSU, and memory can be extremely rewarding. You get the opportunity to create your vision, and sometimes it can be more cost-effective too.

Today, G.SKILL unveils some system RAM which should make PC builders absolutely giddy. The company's latest member of the Trident Z family is a four-module 64GB DDR4 kit. What makes it so special? It can run at an insanely fast 3600MHz!

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Last month, Canonical released a beta of Ubuntu Core 16. This is not a typical Linux distribution, but instead, one that is focused on Internet of Things and the cloud. What makes the operating system particularly interesting is the use of "Snaps" -- an ingenious modular way of handling software. It combines applications and dependencies into one convenient package.

Today, Ubuntu Core 16 achieves final release status. You can download it immediately for free for PC, Raspberry Pi, and more. With all of the IoT-related botnet news nowadays, this is arriving at the perfect time.

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While the Android smartphone market was starting to feel stale, there have been many great offerings lately, such as LG V20, Google Pixel, and the LeEco Le Pro3. In other words, it is a great time to be buying an Android handset.

Today, Huawei adds another remarkable-looking Android smartphone to the list -- the much-anticipated 'Mate 9'. The 5.9-inch 1080p screen should look great, and the company promises two days of use from the 4,000mAh battery -- plus fast-charging, of course. It even has 4GB of RAM standard, plus 64GB of storage. Will consumers embrace the premium dual-sim device?

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It used to be that if you wanted a powerful gaming PC, you would need a monstrous tower with many loud fans. Nowadays, you can build a Mini-ITX system that offers impressive specifications in a tiny package.

What if you want something even smaller? Zotac has a new VR-Ready mini PC that is shockingly tiny. Inside the diminutive 'MAGNUS ERX480' barebones box is an Intel Skylake Core i5-6400T and an AMD Radeon RX480 (4GB GDDR5 256-bit). It supports DDR4 RAM (1866 or 2133) up to to 32GB and an M.2 connector for storage. For convenience, it can also be had with both RAM and storage installed from the factory. You can choose to have Windows 10 pre-installed too.

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November 8, 2016 is Election Day, and I am excited. While neither of the two major presidential candidates are exceptional in my eyes, I have decided on one of them. It is my responsibility and duty as an American to vote, and when I cast my ballot for her/him, I will do so proudly -- not holding my nose as I pull the lever.

If you are still undecided about choosing a candidate, or simply don't know where to go to vote, I have good news. Twitter is making it all very easy. Simply direct message the @Gov account, and you can obtain useful information. You can also use the #Election2016 hashtag when tweeting about the election.

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Having a removable battery in a smartphone can be convenient, but portable USB battery packs have made that concept obsolete. Investing in extra batteries which are designed for only one specific device can be costly and wasteful when you change phones. A USB pack can be used with many devices, making it a good investment.

Today, Belkin announces one of the most elegant such products -- especially for Apple device owners. You see, the 6,700 mAh 'Valet Charger Power Pack' can charge both iPhone and Apple Watch. In addition to a USB port, it offers wireless charging for Apple's wearable, making this an indispensable tool to keep in a bag. It does not come cheap, however.

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Windows 10 Mobile is a solid smartphone operating system with two big flaws -- lack of both apps and developers. This has lead to such low market share, that many consider Microsoft's mobile operating system to be irrelevant. With that said, not everyone needs a lot of apps. If you mostly do things like text messaging, surfing the web, and accessing email on the go, a Windows 10 device is a brilliantly secure way to do so.

Today, Alcatel officially announces the previously leaked IDOL 4S with Windows 10 (there is an Android version too). Not only is the inexpensive device beautiful, but chocked full of solid specs and wonderful features too. Best of all, it comes with a virtual reality headset in the box!

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When people think of health, they often forget about sleep. This is unfortunate, as getting meaningful nighttime rest is an important part of a healthy life. The problem? Fitness wearables that double as sleep-trackers have a fatal flaw -- if you wear them day and night, when the heck do you charge them? This was my problem with Microsoft's (now-canceled) Band -- I wanted to wear it at night, but on some evenings, I couldn't, as I had to charge it.

A company called "Hello" brilliantly solved this dilemma, by offering a dongle that connects to your pillowcase (called "Sleep Pill"), which then transmits to a nightstand device (called "Sense"). A mobile app (for Android or iOS) allows the user to interface with it all. The sleep system not only tracks your movements, but things such as noise, light, and temperature too. I've been testing Sense by Hello, and I have been loving it -- I highly recommend it. Today, the company unveils an upgraded model called 'Sense with Voice'. As you can guess, yeah, it offers all-new voice controls, but the new model offers much more than just that, including additional sensors!

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Believe it or not, I am still amazed by the small physical size of microSD cards. I am from an era where 100MB Zip Disks were revolutionary, so having multiple gigabytes on a card that is smaller than a postage stamp is mind-blowing.

Today, Kingston Digital announces a waterproof Class 10 UHS-I microSDXC card with a massive capacity -- 256GB. If you do not need such a large capacity, however, do not worry -- the company is also offering this line of cards in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB. Since some SKUs are being sold with a full-size SD adapter, it will work brilliantly with cameras, smartphones, drones, and more. Best of all? It comes with an impressive lifetime warranty.

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While the PlayStation 4 can be cracked open for storage upgrades, the Xbox One cannot. Luckily, Microsoft went an arguably better route -- USB storage expansion. This way, users can connect a second drive, while still utilizing the internal drive too.

Today, Seagate announces a new external SSD for the Xbox One. The unimaginatively named 'Game Drive for Xbox SSD' uses flash storage rather than a mechanical spinning hard drive, which should improve game load times.

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Finding the perfect Linux-based operating system or desktop environment can be a very long journey. Hell, some folks chase the dream forever, sometimes never settling on just one. This is because there are just too many wonderful choices. Even though I love GNOME, for instance, I sometimes find myself tempted by something different.

A Linux distro that always interests me is Bodhi. This Ubuntu-based operating systems is designed to be lightweight, meaning even those with old hardware can have a solid experience. Much of this is thanks to the use of the Moksha desktop environment, which is a fork of the older Enlightenment E17. The DE isn't just light on resources, but quite functional and beautiful too. Today, Bodhi 4.0.0 sees stable release, with the newest version of Moksha, 0.2.1.

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The new Apple MacBook Pro looks to be a wonderful laptop, but understandably, not everyone is impressed. The "Pro" moniker literally means "professional", and there are some concerns from that segment. Some photographers, for instance, will be very hurt and disgusted by the lack of an SD card slot. More importantly, the computer maxes out at 16GB of RAM -- many pro users want 32GB or more, which is not possible on the new machine, sadly.

While you might expect some of these disappointed Apple loyalists to turn to a Windows machine -- and I'm sure some will -- some are turning to an unexpected alternative -- Linux. You see, immediately after the Apple Keynote, famed Ubuntu laptop and desktop seller, System76, saw a huge jump in traffic from people looking to buy its machines. The traffic was so intense, that it needed to upgrade servers to keep up!

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Apple's newest MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has four Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) ports, making it amazingly versatile. While all the ports can charge the device, they can all transfer data and video too.

If you are investing in Apple's latest pro laptop, and you need blazing fast external storage, LaCie has a Thunderbolt 3 product that will make you giddy. Called "Bolt3", it offers 2800MB/s read, and 2200MB/s write. The beautifully designed drive also has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you can daisy-chain to other devices, such as displays or additional storage.

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