If you’ve been complaining to everyone who will listen about the speed (or lack thereof) of your internet, it looks like someone important may have been listening. Comcast announced that it will be increasing download speeds for its customers in 14 states across the northeastern region of the United States, ranging from Maine to Virginia. If you’re an Xfinity internet user, you should soon be seeing an increase in internet speed, regardless of which of the four tiers of service you’re currently subscribed to. That said, there will be variations in just how much faster your internet gets depending on how much you’re paying.
Folks who are subscribed to the premium plans, “Blast” and “Performance Pro,” can expect their download speeds to jump from 200 to 250 Mbps, and 150 to 200 Mbps, respectively. The more standard “Performance” tier will see its speed jump from 25 to 60 Mbps (which is technically the largest percent increase), while the most basic “Starter” tier will see a 50 percent increase from 10 to 15 Mbps.
Best of all, you won’t have to pay extra to get extra-fast internet. According to Comcast, as a result of this adjustment, 80 percent of Xfinity internet customers will soon be enjoying internet speeds of at least 150 Mbps. The speed increases are slated to begin rolling out over the course of April and in order to actually see the differences go into effect, you have to restart your modem.
If you’re not in the Northeast and wondering why you’ve been left out of this recent act of kindness, Comcast has the semblance of an answer for you. A spokesperson noted that it’s quite common for the company to implement changes first in a particular region before going national with a new plan. Folks in the Midwest actually received a speed increase in 2017, though the improvements were not exactly in line with these latest changes. In any case, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the speed increases will soon roll out across the rest of the U.S., too.
As for the folks in the Northeast, keep in mind that while your download speeds will increase, there is no word on whether or not there will be any change in your upload speed.
Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.
Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).