Articles by Mark Tyson, News Editor

Mark's enthusiasm for computers dampened at an early age by the rubber-keyed Sinclair Spectrum 48K and feelings of Commodore 64 envy. However, in the mid-80s, hope in a digital future was rekindled by the purchase of an Atari 520 STe. Since that time Mark has used a multitude of computers for fun and professional endeavors. He often owned both Macs and PCs but went cold on the former after OS9 was killed off, and warmed to the latter with the introduction of Windows XP.

Early work years were spent in artwork and reprographics but in the late noughties, Mark started to blog about computers, Taiwanese food culture, and guitar design. This activity led to a full-time position writing about breaking PC tech news for HEXUS, for the best part of a decade. When HEXUS was abruptly closed, Mark helped with the foundation of Club386, before finding a new home at Tom's Hardware.

When not wearing through the keycap legends on his PC keyboards, Mark can be found wandering the computer malls of Taiwan's neon-lit conurbations and enjoying local and international cuisine.

Articles by: Mark Tyson

xTool says its 01 Omni Printer can ‘print it all’ — firm steps into the world of UV printing for output on 'all surfaces' at up to 5mm thick

By Mark Tyson published 30 June 26

Flexible UV printer that can produce vivid, detailed, and textured output on almost any surface starts at $1,699.

AMD engineer 3D-prints Steam Machine-a-like with diagonal mobo mounting — parts include a Mini ITX motherboard, RTX 5060, and a flex ATX PSU

By Mark Tyson published 28 June 26

The Terk Box v1.1 looks like the closest DIY alternative to Valve's Steam Machine yet. 3D print source files are available.

Japanese firm launches hyper-realistic capsule toy PC parts ‘you can assemble and play with’ — tiny motherboards, cases, and CPUs are coming after Tarlin inks collab with the ‘big four’ PC parts makers

By Mark Tyson published 28 June 26

A Japanese capsule toy maker has announced an official collaboration with ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, and Intel to make tiny PC components that buyers 'can assemble and play with.'

A pair of Corsair DDR Memory Modules. Model CMX512-3200C2PT

RAM crisis provokes enthusiast to try Windows 11 on DDR1-era hardware — other key vintage components included the Core 2 Q6600 and ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP

By Mark Tyson published 27 June 26

Enthusiast demos Microsoft’s newest OS running 'completely stable' on a Core 2 Quad Q6600, using a DDR1 motherboard, supported by an ATi Radeon HD 4650 AGP graphics card.

RAM crisis bites Apple as unprecedented Mac and iPad price rises arrive — cheapest MacBook Pro price hiked by $400 to $1,999

By Mark Tyson published 25 June 26

Apple has made the unprecedented decision to hike the prices of all its current computers and tablets with some entry-level model prices up as much as $500.

Geekom Prime Day deals take up to 34% off a new mini PC with our exclusive promo code — Get an AMD or Intel mini PC for less now

By Mark Tyson published 24 June 26

Deals Mini PC specialist Geekom has stuffed its Amazon webstore with a multitude of diminutive computers with discounts as deep as 34% off.

The Swiss army knife of USB DVD drives is on sale, also features a built-in M.2 SSD slot, USB hub, and SATA hard drive dock — $26 for DVD writer and hub, $39 gets an added SATA or M.2 SSD dock

By Mark Tyson, Paul Alcorn published 23 June 26

Deals Portable DVD writers with flash media reading and SATA drive docking abilities are on sale at Amazon Prime Day 2026.

California drivers accuse gas station operators of using AI to boost pump prices — lawsuit seeks damages for antitrust violations

By Mark Tyson published 23 June 26

Californians pay the highest gas prices in the U.S. and a proposed class action says that the issue has been exacerbated by an AI-tool that smartly squeezes customers for the best profits.

Tanson 71-in-1 cordless screwdriver toolkit

Get a half-price precision electric screwdriver set for PC builders and DIYers — ultimate Prime Day 71-in-1 set slashed to under $50

By Mark Tyson published 22 June 26

Deals The TanSon Precision Electric Screwdriver 71-in-1 cordless rechargeable 3.7V portable repair tool set has been slashed from $99.99 to $49.99 for Prime Day.

Quake changed gaming forever 30 years ago today — seminal title established online multiplayer culture and made 3D graphics accelerators essential PC components

By Mark Tyson published 22 June 26

id Software’s Quake remains an influence on online gaming and 3D graphics to this day.

Ludicrous $999 Steam game lasts just 10 minutes — ‘Congratulations On Your Purchase’ is pure conspicuous consumption with its golden ticket Steam Achievement

By Mark Tyson published 22 June 26

In this ‘game’ you walk a red carpet into a palace to see your name alongside other luxury devotees of Veblen economics.

Dramatically redesigned GMKtec EVO-X3 shown bearing Lisa Su’s signature of approval — flagship AI mini PC workstation is built around AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 'Strix Halo' processor, again

By Mark Tyson published 21 June 26

GMKtec's dramatically redesigned EVO-X3 'Strix Halo' Mini PC gets Lisa Su’s signature of approval.

Age of Empires II’s goats used as AI building blocks to build a neural network — goaty experiment mocks the idea of chatbot consciousness, Microsoft AI researcher’s project makes an absurdist point about AI consciousness

By Mark Tyson published 21 June 26

People seem all-too-ready to anthropomorphize LLMs and AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, reckons a Microsoft AI researcher.

Rare ASML Special Edition Monopoly board unearthed in social media trade — enthusiast swaps 2007 employee gift for High-NA EUV Lego kit

By Mark Tyson published 20 June 26

We just witnessed a significant semiconductor industry related non-cash trade deal take place on Twitter/X.

Banned Book Library in a smart lightbulb

Researcher turns wi-fi smart lightbulb into a Banned Book Library — open source project makes digital books available via a server and open Wi-Fi access point hacked into an ESP32-powered bulb

By Mark Tyson published 20 June 26

A security researcher has added another dimension to smart lightbulbs by stealthily adding what they call a 'cyberpunk digital dead drop' full of 'banned books.'

Retro pirate gets two-year suspended jail sentence for being stuck in the past, burning and selling remix CDs of famous artists — four-year investigation into copyright infringement on 40-year-old medium began in 2018

By Mark Tyson published 18 June 26

A UK man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to the unauthorized mixing and selling of music CDs, and thus breaking copyright laws. It is 2026.

Digital entrepreneur creates humorous 'physical NFT minting device' using a Raspberry Pi in quest for 'infinite money machine' — contraption trained on M3 MacBook can generate an NFT in 3 seconds, has so far sold one for $9.92

By Mark Tyson published 18 June 26

An enterprising young man aims to catch up with the collective wealth of Elon Musk, and his first money spinner is a portable NFT minting gadget.

Nvidia reveals AI robots that taught themselves to install GPUs into motherboards — video shows robot ‘solve high-precision tasks like… installing GPUs all by itself’

By Mark Tyson published 17 June 26

Nvidia showcases agentic robots that can teach themselves high-precision and dexterous tasks - like PC building - in the real world.

Commodore announces Linux-based flip phone with ‘no social media, no browser’ — the Callback 8020 will be available in five retro colorways starting at $499, runs 99% of Android apps

By Mark Tyson published 16 June 26

After some teasing and a couple of red herrings Commodore today unveiled a retro-styled flip phone dubbed the Callback 8020.

Cancelled Xbox 360 version of GoldenEye 007 gets recompiled for PC — ‘No emulator, the game runs as a real native executable,’ insists dev

By Mark Tyson published 15 June 26

GoldenEye Recomp v1.0 has been released, providing 'a native PC port of GoldenEye 007 built by statically recompiling the original game into C++' with no emulation involved.

Google Chromebook marks its 15th anniversary — slow feature rollouts and a canceled Steam beta leave it largely stuck in classrooms

By Mark Tyson published 15 June 26

Today marks 15 years since the first Chromebooks hit the market.

Steve Jobs presents the Apple Power Mac G4

Apple made marketing gold from the export ban on Power Mac G4 'supercomputer' in 1999, 'for the first time in history a personal computer has been classified as a weapon' — Pentagon banned sales of the 400 MHz G4 in 50 countries when it launched

By Mark Tyson last updated 14 June 26

In the context of the recent tech export bans, we look back at the Apple PowerMac G4 export ban from 1999 and Steve Jobs making marketing gold from the situation.

Artifacts rescued from an abandoned warehouse in Germany

Computer History Museum recalls ‘astonishing’ retro haul recovered from abandoned German warehouse — over 2,000 artifacts spanning the 1930s to 1980s required seven tractor-trailers after a WWII bomb scare

By Mark Tyson published 14 June 26

The Computer History Museum recalls one of its biggest ever retro treasure troves. This ‘astonishing’ haul was rescued from an abandoned warehouse in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, Germany.

Hardcore SpongeBob speedrunners smudged Xbox optical disks with sweat and grease to exploit 'lag clip' trick — filthy smeared disks cut gameplay times in ultimate pursuit of speed

By Mark Tyson published 14 June 26

A grease smear-induced optical disc reading quirk can save speedrunners lots of time in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom on Xbox.

Dev releases ‘unblockable’ ASCII video stream software, stoking fears of unstoppable ads — delivers 360p video at 30 FPS and acts as a ‘bridge for AI’

By Mark Tyson last updated 13 June 26

A new and unique video streaming solution is pitched as a 'high-performance, real-time ASCII video rendering engine' that can be used to broadcast 'an unblockable video stream.'

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