It’s hard to believe, but Pickr is ten this year, and its creator is almost at 20 years in the industry.
Yes, the domain you’re technically looking at — which is the beta site for the full site — turns ten this year, bringing with a good decade of reviews information and experience to the Australian tech news and reviews scene.
There are obviously things we could do to celebrate the birthday. We could have prizes. We could have cake.
We’re not really doing any of that.
With Pickr’s 10th anniversary, we’re releasing additions to the site that not only make technology research a little easier, but also allow people to get to know the writers a little better, and trust them more.
Yes, that word was plural. While Pickr is mostly one person, we’re trying to come up with ways to get more people on board in the coming months. Like support, it’s a work in progress, but Pickr’s new features lay the groundwork.
Here’s what some of them are, and some examples.
A helper tool, minus the letter e
Easily the biggest feature of Pickr at 10 is something that aims to help finding and comparing reviews quickly. That’s a problem with a big reviews site, because content appears often and disappears into the site all too easily. It means finding the gear you want to compare isn’t as easy as it should be.
This is where the Helpr comes in.
Built from a concept and article Pickr practically launched with, the Pickr Helpr uses filters to surface up to three products arranged in good, better, and best. There’s no AI, and users can change the budget by modifying the filter themselves.
Best of all, every item in the Pickr Helpr has actually been reviewed, so you can see why we gave it the scores we did.
We can also use this system for comparative analysis in stories, with the technology being supported from within articles.
Easier recommendations
We’ve even added a better look at recommendations, something Pickr makes when a product goes above a grade of 4.25 through reviews and testing.
Previously, the Pickr Recommendations page would just show the reviews that were getting flagged as recommended, but our new system goes deeper.
Now instead of simply highlighting the stories, we’re highlighting the products complete with their prices. Readers will be able to see whether a recommended product matches their budget early, fitting the concept in with the Pickr Helpr tool more firmly.
Table of contents on every review
Pickr’s reviews are big. Sometimes they’re so big, that you need a table of contents to help you get around.
It’s not unusual to find a table of contents page on a reviews site, but rarely does it stick to the side as you scroll. We added that last year, but it didn’t work on mobile.
After a few months of trying to patch it in, we opted for a new approach, redesigning the site entirely.
That led to the first version of this site, which now shows a table of contents for mobile and desktop regardless of what you use, and allows readers to quickly jump from one section to another.
AI and accessibility
As part of the new site, AI is being used not for writing, but for the speaking of articles. Specifically to talk as if the author is talking to you.
Pickr last year rolled out a feature that included the ability to turn its written articles into articles spoken by the author. Back then, we used ElevenLabs, and the costs began to add up. Fast.
This year, Pickr uses its own platform called Speak, which comes with the ability to turn quotes into secondary voices, akin to Media Watch reciting quotes.
For instance, if we publish quotes from a press release, those quotes can be read in someone else’s voice.
“This was the quote that someone important had planned to say,” said the spokesperson for the company we’re talking about. “I really loved how they added this feature. It made the site seem more distinct, and infinitely easier to access at the time.”
We’ve done this partly for accessibility, and partly to show how AI can be used positively on a publication. Not for image creation or nonsense article writing, or even for SEO; there’s none of the AI silliness here.
We’re using AI to help people hear the writing through the author’s voice, and articles with the AI converted audio will appear in a play button at the top left on desktop or at the bottom on mobile as you scroll.
You can even try it with this very article.
AI voice reads that won’t kill the planet
One factor about AI that seems impossible to ignore is that using AI kills the environment thanks to excessive use of energy and water, one for powering and the other for cooling. That’s not a good thing.
For AI to evolve, the processes need to get better, so we’re running Pickr’s Speak system on a local server powered by solar and home energy. The system doesn’t use excess electricity and uses no water cooling at all.
It’s a step in the right direction for AI usage on websites.
Bookmarking research
Another step in the right direction is helping people with their research by keeping their thoughts in one place. In web browsers, there’s already a process for that with bookmarks, but let’s be real: no one ever checks that.
So we’re adding bookmarks to articles and reviews on Pickr, allowing anyone and any browser to bookmark something they like to come back to.
You don’t need to register. There’s no sign up. You just start bookmarking, and the little bookmark icon at the top menu will light up when you have them, showing you when you bookmarked something.
Think of it like a treasure chest for the research you’ve been running.
Trusting the team
Your research is only good if you trust the people doing the research, so this year, we’re giving you reasons to trust them.
Learn about authors by diving into more detail about them, such as their music tastes, where they game, and the other social networks not run by tech bros with questionable sense of ethics. Plus a direct link to how you can support an author directly if you want to.
We’re even surfacing what the author uses, so you can see what they swear by. It’s one thing to say a reviewer likes a piece of gear, but another to see what they’re using as their daily driver.
Pickr is offering that in 2026 and beyond. Because research is worthless unless you can see the person doing the research and reviews is a real human, flesh and blood.
Try it by looking at Leigh’s author profile.
“Give me a little bit more”
Much like when Sam Reich asks his comedians to give him a little bit more on Make Some Noise, so too are we giving users a little bit more.
In categories, they will have more to offer than simply the latest posts, with places to start, including guides and links to comparisons using the Pickr Helpr. Try one of our test categories.
In search, queries that match recent reviews will surface those first, and then dive into the rest of the topics related to the search. Most people come to Pickr for reviews, so we’re delivering that. Try it.
Even browsing Pickr this year will feel like you get a little bit more, as if the site is fresh and changed every time. Part of what does this is a system that changes the header style based on the type of article you’re looking at.
News looks like something. Reviews look like something else. Opinion pieces start off a different way, and so do buyers guides. You may even find video previews as you simply scroll.
It’s not just another blog, that’s for sure. We’re giving you a little bit more.
A cleaner look with less stress
The other major change is to fonts, because while Pickr has long been about minimalism and clarity, readability is a core focus. As such, we’ve shifted to a font literally designed to make reading comfortable and provide less visual stress.
After researching long term readability and visual acuity, Pickr is using the Lexend font family for headings and body copy, while keeping its semi-custom font for its logo.
Lexend is literally built to keep people reading without eye stress, and can improve proficiency and comfort using a font that combines aspects of sans serif and serif in a way to promote healthy, active, and comfortable reading.
And we’ll support it day and night with custom colour switches that trigger based on the mode of your device that you can also override.
Still no ads
And yep, there are still no ads.
We’re Australia’s only award-winning ad-free tech news and reviews site, and there are no ads. They get in the way of reading and research, and we’re not doing that.
That doesn’t mean we don’t want to make money. We want nothing more than to have money and hire other writers, and if you’re reading this, it means you’re one of our preferred people and clients.
Pickr’s Next website — this one — is a prototype site and intentionally noindexed. It’s a test site made for people like yourself to read and see the future of the publication. But it’s also one that wants to grow, and means if you like these sorts of people focused developments that puts information at the front, it helps to support the journalists and publications making them.
It is disingenuous to simply ask readers for support when companies see the benefits, as well. If you agree with this logic, then please consider supporting Pickr.
What else?
With that message out of the way, rest assured that this update is only one of the updates on the cards for this year. More is on the way, but it takes time.
Pickr is starting 2026 with a better design, more comprehensive research tools, easier readability, and more radio spots, too. It’s one of Australia’s most trusted technology reviews sites, and we have more coming.
We’ll let you know what’s on the way soon enough.
