Pierce Allen

I write about AI, tools, and tech for people who just want to know whether something is worth their time — often with a China angle, because that's where a lot of the interesting hardware shows up first. Everything here comes from hands-on use, and when I haven't tried something, I say so. No sponsored posts, no affiliate links.

Google Gemini Auto Browse: What It Is and Why It Matters

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Browser window on a dark background with a glowing mouse cursor

I’ve been watching Google’s AI rollout for a while now. Every few weeks, there’s a new announcement. Usually, it’s about some feature that’s technically impressive but feels a bit… distant. Like, cool, but am I actually going to use it? Then I saw the news about Chrome’s Gemini integration expanding, and specifically, the new Auto … Read more

Someone Kept Triggering WordPress Password Reset. So I Killed It

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Glowing padlock with a shield icon above it on a dark background

Got a bunch of these emails this morning. “Password reset request for your account.” Over and over. From my own site. I didn’t ask for any of them. Someone, or something, was poking the “lost password” button on piall.com. Annoying? Yes. Scary? Not really. At least not after I looked closer. Here’s the thing. WordPress … Read more

How Claude’s Invisible Watermark Works, and It’s Not Zero-Width

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Claude welcome screen on a phone beside the Claude wordmark

So Anthropic started watermarking every Claude output. And honestly? I had the same thought everyone else did. When I first heard about it, I assumed they were doing the usual trick. Zero-width characters, invisible Unicode, weird spaces that look normal but aren’t. That’s what every other “watermark” has been. That’s what I would have done … Read more