Gadget Guru’s magic box

Guru has had a Framework Laptop DIY Edition on loan for a little while and he feels it his duty as a serious journalist to put in ink his unwillingness to give it back. It’s just so cool, for so many reasons. You can pull out the ports, which are all in self-contained slot-in modules, and switch ’em around or replace them with extra storage. You can open it up with five captured screws and drop in whatever RAM or SSD you want to use, and every replaceable component inside is labelled up with where to get a new one. The screen is spiffy, the keyboard solid, it looks great, and it runs fast. Not a gaming laptop, but for work GaGu can think of nothing finer – this sustainable design is one every manufacturer should be looking at as an example because it’s brilliant.

GaGu’s own treat money this issue went on something a little less pricey in the form of a 2021 Kindle Paperwhite. This may not be news to you, but it was to him: e-ink has definitely come on a long way. The page, as it were, looks incredible, with basically no ghostly remainders of previous passages spoiling Guru’s reading; the fact that it is waterproof enough that he is now apparently able to fling it in the bath is a bonus. Do allow Guru to indulge in a tech support tale, however. Plugging the Paperwhite into his desktop PC saw it randomly and repeatedly connecting and disconnecting to USB, which seems to be a problem with certain internal USB controllers. The trick, if this affects you, is not to get stroppy with Amazon support.

Just plug it into a USB hub, or a different machine, and it’ll work. Not ideal, yes, but one you’ll have to suck up.