Safety Check runs in the background and proactively keeps tabs on your passwords, your Safe Browsing settings, your Chrome version, your site permissions, your extensions, and potentially unwanted and/or abusive notifications. When Safety Check spots issues or areas with room for improvement, it'll let you know along with instructions.
Here's how to use Safety Check:
— phantomofearth ?? (@phantomofearth) May 13, 2025
Spotted by Twitter user @phantomofearth, the Insider Dev version of Windows 11 now has a "Transfer files to a new PC" option in Windows Backup. This new PC-to-PC transfer method requires both PCs—the sending PC and the receiving PC—to be on the same Wi-Fi network. The sending PC is given a special code to be entered on the receiving PC, which connects the two PCs and a
The best part about the Samsung Bar Plus—apart from its price—is that it can transfer files at up to 400 MB/s speeds, which means you can move large videos, archives, and folders in seconds. It's widely compatible with any modern device that supports USB-A, too.
This USB flash drive has a sleek design and a rugged metal casing that makes it more durable than most of its competitors. It's waterproof, shockproof, and built to withstand extreme temperatures, damage from magnets, and even X-ray machines. You can carry this thing anywhere you go, and it has a convenient keyring hole for looping onto a lanyard.
While 256GB is the sweet spot for many, if you need more or less, know that the other capacities are also on sale: the 128GB model is $15 (was $23) and the 512GB model is $63 (was $80). But for the best bang for your buck, get the 256GB model for $22 (was $40)!
The ProBook 460 G11 is purpose-built to tackle your entire to-do list, whether that includes sending out emails, planning complex work tasks, procrastinating on social media, bingeing your guilty pleasure reality TV shows on break, while juggling dozens of open apps and browser tabs. With its speedy Intel Core Ultra 7 155U processor, it'll deftly handle whatever you throw at it while still managing 12 hours of battery life on its modestly sized 56-watt-hour battery.
The 16GB of DDR5 RAM is pretty standard. It's about as low as we'd recommend for any modern laptop running Windows 11, and this machine comes with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed. The 512GB M.2 SSD leaves something to be desired, but it's plenty large as long as you aren't downloading tons of high-res video, and it's hard to ask for more at this price. If you really need more storage, add a fast external drive or two via the two USB-C and/or two USB-A ports.
The 16-inch 1920p screen is work-optimized, so you probably don't want to game on it. As for display connectivity, this laptop includes a full-sized HDMI port, and the aforementioned USB-C ports support video output. That means it can support triple displays for maximum productivity. While it lacks SD/microSD slots, you do get a LAN port and 3.5mm audio jack. And with its 0.43-inch thickness and 3.85-pound weight, it's
About a year ago, I was at my wit's end, scrambling for web advice on why I'm hurting and what I could do about it. Reddit users talked about how switching to a trackball mouse made all the difference for them, and I was intrigued. Hopeful, even. Sure, I was reluctant because I didn't want to waste my money or relearn how to work a mouse, but the pain was bad enough that I sucked it up and took a chance.
The Beelink SER5 mini PC is only $277.70 on Amazon right now, a lovely 23% discount on its original $359 MSRP. That's a more-than-affordable price for a decently powerful device that's great for daily work, fun, streaming, and even some light gaming.
I know what you're thinking. "This thing is tiny and cheap. How could it possibly perform well?" But Beelink's SER5 runs on a pretty speedy AMD Ryzen 7 5825U Pro processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD. That's more than enough to run Windows 11 without issue (Home edition comes pre-installed), but if you ever need even more power, you can later upgrade up to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD storage.
It also comes with dual 4K@60Hz support via full-sized HDMI and DisplayPort connections powered by integrated Radeon graphics, alongside three fast USB-A, a USB-C, a 2.5Gbps LAN, and a 3.5mm audio jack. And it truly is compact, able to fit under your monitor and take up almost no space on your desk. Use the included mounting bracket to attach it to the backside of a monitor even!
Get your own Beelink SER5 mini PC for $277.70 on Amazon while this deal still stands. It's close to the best price we've seen for it!
We've scoured the market for hidden gems: gadgets that will make you think "Wow, I didn't know I needed that, but it will make my life so much easier!" So, let's dive in and see what cool devices you'll be able to use your type-C cables and ports with.
Wowstick 1F mini electric screwdriver
See also: How to make Windows 11 look like Windows 10
While package managers have long been standard on other systems, they have led a shadowy existence on Windows.
Tools such as Iobit Software Updater, Patch my PC, Secunia Personal Update Inspector, SUMo (Software Update Monitor),
Intel executives said at Computex 2025 that it will begin manufacturing Panther Lake during the second half of 2025. However, according to PCWorld's Adam Patrick Murray, Intel executives said that Panther Lake will not be a socketed desktop part.
Intel showed off Panther Lake running in what it calls validation platforms or prototype PCs, as well as examples of the chip itself. As for Intel's next-generation "Nova Lake," processor, due in 2026, we asked about that chip, as well.
"You'll see Nova Lake on time," said Robert Hallock, Intel's senior director of technical marketing.
"Nobody expected Qualcomm, the cellular company, to have the leading performance on an SOC for a laptop in the PC space," Cristiano Amon, chief executive of Qualcomm, in a keynote address at Computex. "We're going to do that again, and it's going to be even bigger."
"You're going to see the next thing that we've been working on, the next chip for PC, and we're going to provide another breakthrough in performance," Amon added. "I promise you, you will be impressed."
Amon used his Computex presentation to laud the success of the Snapdragon platform, which has enjoyed stellar reviews, including from PCWorld, and won me over. Over 85 different PCs now feature members of the Snapdragon X platform, and Amon said over 100 should be in users' hands by next year.
To its credit, Qualcomm has moved quickly to shore up any holes in what it offers. App compatibility has been a concern, but Qualcomm seems to have mostly solved that problem. Growth in native apps have grown by three times, Amon said, and user time in native experiences has increased by 93 percent. Over 50 features take advantage of the Snapdragon's NPU, which has forged close ties with Microsoft in rolling out new Windows features.
Based on the numbers provided to press by GeForce product manager Justin Walker ahead of Computex, the RTX 5060 should be a middling generational performance upgrade. Look for it to be around 20 percent faster than the ho-hum $299 RTX 4060 it's replacing, or twice as fast in games that support DLSS 4. (That's because the RTX 4060's AI frame generation technology only supports a single AI-generated frame between GPU-generated frames, whereas the RTX 50-series can triple that.)
That's not the problem. The problem is the RTX 5060 only has 8GB of GDDR7 memory. In the year of Our Lord 2025, that simply doesn't cut it.
Tired of seeing your most recent Google search advertised back to you? AdGuard VPN is like locking your browsing in a digital vault without slowing you down. This VPN's no-logging policy keeps your data as private as a secret diary, and with Threat Protection and DNS leak safeguards, it's built to handle whatever the internet throws your way. Hurry and grab this deal for a five-year subscription on sale for $39.97 (reg. $359.40).
AdGuard VPN puts global servers at your fingertips, so you're free to explore all the content that used to be locked away. Say hello to high-speed, low-fuss browsing with a five-year AdGuard plan that's as secure as it is smooth. Its performance-focused protocols also mean you won't experience annoying lag while streaming, browsing, or downloading.
Beyond its VPN capabilities, AdGuard offers a complete security suite with Threat Protection and DNS leak prevention, helping shield your data from potential online threats.
We've also included some helpful answers to common questions about VPN shopping at the bottom of this article. Before you decide on a new VPN, be sure to check out our roundup of the best VPNs to help you choose the right service for your needs.
Note: Tech deals come and go quickly, so it's possible some of these VPN discounts will have expired before this article's next update.
Best VPN deals
NordVPN, now $3.99 per month for 24 months (70% off at NordVPN)
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The Samsung Fit Plus is small enough that it blends in with Bluetooth and wireless dongles, and it's so invisible that you'll probably forget it exists once plugged into your laptop. It may even end up being a permanent fixture in its port as it won't get in the way and might just be more convenient to just leave it plugged in all the time.
But it's not just small. It's fast. With read speeds up to 400 MB/s, it can stream 4K video files without issue and transfer large data files within seconds, not minutes. It's the perfect high-speed USB flash drive for laptops, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and even car audio systems. And it's pretty robust, too. The Samsung Fit Plus is waterproof, shockproof, magnet-proof, X-ray-proof, and secure even if you accidentally drop it.
With price drops on all the capacities from 128GB to 512GB, you can snag whichever one best fits your data needs. But be sure to grab it soon because we don't know how much longer these prices will last.
The new Copilot AI feature known as Windows Recall and the ability to use Phone Link in the Start menu have been mentioned in previous articles, so we don't need to mention them again.
One of the best improvements in the update is that Windows Search now supports AI, which means—among other things—that you can now use "natural language" in your search queries to find documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and images.
On the hunt for a compact computer you can take anywhere? This ASUS Chromebook is part tablet, part laptop. It has a touchscreen, 8GB RAM, and it just went on sale. Instead of paying $329.99, you can get one of these Chromebooks on sale for $179.99.
This Chromebook also comes with a detachable keyboard and a magnetic stand, so you can go from watching videos to knocking out emails without switching devices. The 10.5-inch WUXGA touchscreen is bright and responsive, and there's even a stylus included for note-taking or sketching on the go.
Under the hood, it runs on a MediaTek Kompanio 520 processor and includes 128GB of storage, plenty of room for apps, docs, and everyday tasks. Plus, it has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 for quick, stable connections whether you're at home or out and about.
Battery life clocks in at up to 12 hours, which should get you through a full workday or a cross-country flight without scrambling for an outlet. And the design is seriously durable. The chassis mee
Begin your investment journey by taking the 5-minute questionnaire to determine what your financial goals are. From there, you can use this stock picker to find profitable stocks—which also match your portfolio and investment goals—to invest your hard-earned dollars in.
Need extra assistance? You'll get access to your very own personal AI financial coach through Finley AI. This Open AI-powered assistant can provide real-time data access, portfolio analysis, strategic investment tips, risk assessment, and more so you can invest your money more wisely.
Once you've made your first investment, check out your portfolio to see how it's doing. You can even get stock market and investing education with the platform's in-depth explanations, expert-backed investment strategies, and by connecting with other investors through the communit
What's an endoscope camera? Think of a long, flexible tube with a camera and light attached to one end. In the medical field, it's used to look inside the human body—but for me, it's been an everyday game-changer for all kinds of practical uses.
Before I got this nifty little accessory
The $21 endoscope camera I ended up getting is one that connects to my phone via USB-C. Prior to this, I'd always fiddled around with a bulky standalone endoscope camera.
The housing on that standalone endoscope camera—with its large digital display and analog control buttons—was clunky with poor image quality. The pixelated black-and-white images were blurry and always had me wondering if I should schedule a visit with my eye doctor.
In addition, the cable for that camera was relatively thick and rigid, so I struggled to get it into the drainage holes of some vintage cars, for example. And whenever I needed to use the camera, the batteri
In early May, the company announced that it will acquire Frndly TV, the cheapest of all the live TV streaming services. For $9 per month, Frndly TV offers a bundle of channels you'd typically find in a cable TV package, including Hallmark, A&E, and The Weather Channel.
While it's normal for streaming platforms to offer their own free or premium streaming services, most aren't selling their own bundles of cable channels with optional DVR service. Roku is doing something pretty unusual here, and while it says it's just trying to boost subscription revenues on its platform, that doesn't sound like the whole story to me.
How Frndly fits in
Frndly TV is what's known in industry jargon as a "virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor," or vMVPD. You could also use the terms live TV streaming services, streaming channel bundles, or cable replacements.
Whatever the nomenclature, the point is that these are essentially cable TV packages delivered over the internet. You get a big bucket of cable channels, a grid-based channel guide to flip through, and DVR functionality for recording live airings and watching them at your leisure.
Most major streaming platforms have stayed out of this business, which involves cutting carriage deals with numerous TV programmers (and dealing with the risk of blackouts when renewal negotiations fail). It's a mes
Ads are the internet equivalent of mosquitoes at a summer picnic. They're annoying, follow you everywhere, and they literally suck. Pop-ups that try to get under your cursor, banners that block half your screen, and those unskippable video ads that plague YouTube… It sounds like you need a good ad blocker.
AdGuard works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices, and you only have to pay once to block ads on nine of them for life. It works best on browsers, and verified reviewers confirm that it blocks ads on YouTube, which seems worth the price alone.
But AdGuard doesn't just block ads. It also protects you from trackers, activity analyzers, malware, and even shady phishing websites (these are the culprits behind ads that know what you were just shopping for). It also has parental controls, so you can keep your children safe from the wild west of the internet.
Use code FAMPLAN by June 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get an
If you've ever worried about tossing your laptop into a backpack, spilling coffee on your keyboard, or watching your kid treat it like a frisbee, meet your low-stress companion: the refurb Lenovo 11.6? 100e Chromebook 2nd Gen, now just $54.99 (regularly $328.99) with free shipping.
This Grade A refurbished Chromebook looks and feels nearly new, but at a fraction of the price. And with its rubber bumpers, reinforced ports, spill-resistant k
Behind NymVPN is Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower from WikiLeaks. This says a lot about their level of ambition. This is not a VPN that compromises. It is a service based on the privacy technology of the future, where no one - even Nym - knows who you are.
From $4.54/month ( 5 months free!)
How it works
Many traditional VPNs save logs centrally. This means that your activity can be linked to you if they are hacked, or if someone forces them to disclose information. NymVPN instead uses a mixnet, a decentralized network that mixes your traffic with others in a way that makes it impossible to track what any individual has done.
This technology is especially useful in times of increased surveillance and censorship, as it makes it harder for hackers, government agencies and companies to monitor or restrict your internet use.
Three years have passed since the mega-merger that birthed Warner Bros. Discovery and led to a new name for its flagship streaming service. The Max brand was supposed to emphasize a breadth of programming beyond the HBO catalog, but Warner's executives now say the forthcoming rebrand (or unbrand) represents a return to quality over quantity.
This would be easier to accept if HBO's owners had any credibility left. But over the past few years, pretty much everything the Warner-Discovery merger was supposed to accomplish has failed. Now, the company can no longer articulate what it's aiming for, other than to squeeze a little extra profit from a flailing enterprise. It's as funny as it is sad.
Max's broken promises
Let's go back to when AT&T announced it would spin off WarnerMedia into a new company and merge it with Discovery. (The spin-off itself acknowledged that AT&T shouldn't have bought Warner in the first place, but that's a whole other story.) Here's what the companies' 2021 press release claimed the merger would accomplish:
Increase investments in original programming for its streaming services.
Enhance programming options "across its global linear pay
Over the last year or so, Arm has chosen the dreadful "CSS for Client" to refer to the processors it licenses for smartphones and PCs. Its CPUs have been known as a "Cortex," while it has branded its GPUs as Mali. Arm's customers sometimes to refer back to the Cortex brand, but are otherwise free to call them what they want.
What Arm is changing is the name of the platform, to signify what purpose the chips will be used for. Now, for example, an Arm core designed for mobile will be known as a "Lumex," while an Arm core designed for PCs will be known as "Niva."Arm will use "Zena" as its automotive brand, "Orbis" for IoT, and "Neoverse" for an infrastructure product.
Arm will also take a page from Dell, which ditched its iconic laptop brands for a more generic Pro and Pro Max nomenclature. Now, Arm will use "names like Ultra, Premium, Pro, Nano, and Pico to show performance tiers — making it easier for developers and customers to navigate our roadmap," the company said.
"This platform-first approach reflects the rapid conversion taking place to the Arm compute platform at the system level, not just the core IP," Arm said. "It allows our partners to integrate Arm's technology faster, with higher confidence, and with less complexity — especially as they scale to meet the demands of AI."
It's not clear what the new brands have to do with "AI," but at least they seem to have a bit
It's not just about chasing the flashiest specs — it's about finding the right fit for how and what you play. Whether you're after buttery-smooth 1080p gaming or maxed-out frame rates for competitive titles, there's something here for you. Sure, a good GPU is key (obviously), but don't sleep on display quality — a high refresh-rate can seriously level up your experience.
Every laptop on this last has been hands-on tested by our expert team, from graphics and screen quality to keyboard feel and ports. Let's find your match.
Once you add these games to your Epic Games library, you'll be able to keep them permanently. It's a darn good deal since Dead Island 2 normally costs $49.99 for the standard edition ($69.99 for the ultimate edition) and Happy Game costs $13.13. Big savings!
Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2 is a combination of zombie shooter and action role-playing that can be played cooperatively. You face off against hordes of zombies, either alone or with up to three friends, in an open world where players can complete various missions and challen
One reason given for the change was to eliminate the seconds display, which supposedly required extra processing resources and burdened the graphical user interface, preventing the PC's power saving mode from activating and thus causing a performance hit. (Prior to the update, the time display showed accurate to the second.)
Windows Latest now reports that Microsoft has decided to reimplement the clock's seconds display with the next cumulative update for Windows 10, after heavy criticism from users.
The relevant update is Windows 10 22H2 Build 19045.5912, also known as update KB5058481. According to the release notes, it's been made available to the Release Preview Channel for Windows Insiders and should be coming to all users with the optional update later this month.
Amazon is selling a Lexar 512GB microSD card for 46% off, making it even cheaper than the 256GB version on the same page. It's rated for 160 MB/s read and 100 MB/s write, so it's more than fast enough for most storage, photo, and video needs. (Maybe not for 8K cameras, though.) It's about as cheap as these cards get at the moment, and it's ready to slide into any Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, Android device, or laptop to instantly give you some extra breathing room.
This isn't the cheapest I've ever seen a 512GB microSD card, but it's the cheapest price for this particular one. It's a great way to expand storage space in almost any modern device, so get it for cheap while you can. Amazon has this marked as a discount, but there's no indication of how long the price will stay this low.
Get Lexar's 512GB microSD card for just $27Buy now on Amazon
So… if you're not yet using an SSD, what are you waiting for? If you already have an older SSD, you might consider upgrading it for the even headier performance offered by cutting-edge PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 designs. If your PC sports those technologies, of course.
That said, a premium drive may not deliver any more real-world performance than a bargain drive. Mainstream software, including Windows has yet to implement the numerous performance tricks, such as multiple queues, that NVMe SSDs offer.
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The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is expected to disappear from retailers over the summer, and it also appears that Microsoft currently has no intentions to launch a Surface Laptop Studio 3 in the near future.
Microsoft now seems to be focusing only on the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, with the other products in the Surface family having been slowly discontinued over the years. That list of defunct Surface products includes the Surface Headphones, the Surface Earbuds, the Surface Duo, the Surface Studio 2, and now the Surface Laptop Studio 2.
And it isn't all safe for the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, either. Earlier this month, after Microsoft announced smaller and more affordable Surface revisions, the company went ahead and eliminated lower-end Surface models to make room for them. They also said goodbye to the proprietary Surface Connect port in favor of USB-C.
German blog Borncity reports on this problem as it relates to German users, but there are also reports in the US, like the one by Windows Latest. The problem affects Windows 10 computers in companies as well as PCs used privately, and information from affected users can be found both in the Microsoft forums and on Reddit.
Without the BitLocker recovery key, Windows 10 remains locked and therefore cannot be used. Some affected users have to go through system recovery and restore their OS to a point in time before the update installation. But that's not all. Even after Windows 10 starts, some users are running into blue screen crashes.
As a workaround, it seems to help if you deactivate the "Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT)" option in the BIOS/UEFI. Instructions on how to do that have been provided by
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a public service announcement yesterday, stating that there's an "ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign" that's using faked audio to impersonate a senior US official. Exactly who the campaign is impersonating, or who it's targeting, isn't made clear. But a little imagination—and perhaps a lack of faith in our elected officials and their appointees—could illustrate some fairly dire scenarios.
"One way the actors gain such access is by sending targeted individuals a malicious link under the guise of transitioning to a separate messaging platform," warns the FBI. It's a familiar tactic, with romance scammers often trying to get their victims off dating apps and onto something more anonymous like Telegram before pumping them for cash or blackmail material. And recent stories of federal employees and bosses communicating over Signal, or some less savory alternatives, have given these messaging systems a lot of exposure.
Presumably, the scammers contact a specific target using an unknown number and pretend to be their boss or some other high-ranking official, using an attached voice message to "prove" their identity. These have become trivially easy to fake, as recently demonstrated when billionaires like "Elon Musk" and "Mar
I didn't click the TikTok link, but I did begin researching this product category, and discovered that, wow, electric scissors may be more useful than I expected. The most obvious benefit is that the cutting blade is fully electric-powered and attached to the end of a hand grip. This alone makes breaking down boxes for recycling a safer proposition.
With a box cutter, unless you're laying the cardboard flat on a level surface, you're likely wielding the sharp blade in a manner where it could potentially snag and slice into your leg. I mean, c'mon. Look at this guy at the 30 second mark.
But electric scissors, like the $46 Worx Zipsnip model I eventually bought on Amazon, afford you greater control and safety. I can hold a box in one hand, and the Worx in the other, and simply glide the scissors through the cardboard. The ease-of-use makes it a lot more convenient to break down boxes into multiple pieces—and that means I can pack more cardboard into the recycling bin.
Per Ars Technica, the first complaints from users losing their lifetime access began in March of this year. In April, users with lifetime subscriptions received an email stating, "To continue providing a secure and high-quality experience for all users, Lifetime Deal accounts have now been deactivated as of April 28th, 2025."
In response to a sudden wave—24 pages in total—of negative 1-star customer reviews on TrustPilot, a representative for the provider clarified, "In 2023, we acquired only the infrastructure and brand in a distressed asset sale after that company shut down. No contracts, payment data, or customer obligations were transferred."
VPNSecure has apologized to customers who were caught off guard by the sudden cancellations but reinforced its new position by saying it "never will" sell lifetime subscriptions.
The whole ordeal seems to have been bungled from the start, but the company drew further ire with the way in which it so abruptly cut subscriptions. While it may have mitigated some of these issues by giving more advanced notice of the cancellations, it was never going to be an easy pill to swallow for previous lifetime plan holders.
Adding insult to injury, there is no evidence that VPNSecure is offerin
Right off the bat, you can see how practical this thing is. It has four angle settings from 15 degrees to 33 degrees, and it uses an anti-slip material to prevent your laptop from shifting no matter the angle. It folds down into a compact size and it's easy to toss into your bag, able to be taken wherever you go with your laptop. And it's not just good for ergonomics but heat dissipation so your laptop doesn't overwork itself.
But the best part is that this laptop stand also doubles as a docking station with five essential ports. It hooks up to your laptop via USB-C, and then you can use the stand's two USB-A ports, HDMI port, and SD/microSD slots to connect extra drives and devices on top of whatever other ports you might have built into your laptop. The HDMI even supports 4K output to an external display.
Why buy a laptop stand and docking station separately when you can get them together at a better price? Get the Ugreen USB-C docking station laptop stand for just $34 while you still can!
First of all, it's not a straight matter of Bigger Bar Better. So simply shelling out the most you can possibly afford on a processor, or tracking down the one with the best benchmarks for your budget, might not be the optimal approach. More and faster processor scores are generally better, but that's a generality. Examining the subscores in PugetBench's Premiere Pro test breaks them down into Intraframe, LongGOP, and uncompressed RAW scores, different measures of performance based on how codecs are processing video.
Once again, I am not video editor — watch Alex's explanations for the technical details. But the gist of it is that how you edit your video, the hardware you use, the specific methods you choose between the different editing steps, affect which processor will be the ideal choice for you. For example, if you're using LongGOP heavily, shelling out for a processor with more performance cores probably isn't going to benefit you that much.
With a price drop this impressive, you really shouldn't sit around (literally) on your old chair when you have a chance to upgrade to an alternative that's comfortable, supportive, and affordable.
The Staples Hyken checks all the boxes for ergonomic comfort, complete with an adjustable headrest and armrests, customizable seat height, swivel and tilt settings, as well as the one key feature that you always need in a good task chair: dynamic lumbar support that you can adjust to fit your back just right. The breathable mesh seat and back are the cherry on top, keeping you cool during those hot summer days.
For remote workers and PC gamers on a tight budget, the Staples Hyken has become a go-to option, with its versatility and affordability praised across various communities on Reddit. What are you waiting for? Snag the Hyken chair for just $150 while you can! This deal expires tomorrow or when supplies run out, which could be sooner than later.
The Staples Hyken with dynamic lumbar support is 50% off
This thing is absolutely tiny, fitting comfortably under your monitor or even on your monitor's back if you use the VESA mount. Despite its size, it's still rather powerful, running on a Ryzen 7 5700U CPU and a hefty 32GB of RAM. That's more than enough to smoothly run Windows 11, apps, and browser tabs without choking.
The Kamrui E3B only comes with a 512GB SSD (boo), but it's pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro (nice). If you outgrow it and need more space, you can manually upgrade the storage up to 2TB and the memory up to 64GB, turning it into a real powerhouse. You can also get away with some light gaming thanks to the integrated RX Vega 8 graphics.
Lastly, the Kamrui E3B has solid connectivity with built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, plus numerous ports including HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C video for triple 4K@60Hz support along with six high-speed USB-A, a Gigabit LAN port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Overall, this is a fantastic mini PC for any budget, especially with this crazy discount. Get the Kamrui E3B for just $272 at Amazon, but don't forget you need both a Prime subscription—start a 30-d
A creator-class laptop splits the difference between a traditional productivity laptop and a gaming device, with a midrange GPU that can handle both tasks, and with decent battery life, too. In the case of the Acer Swift X line, the two laptops have identical measurements (12.69 x 8.95 x 0.38-0.71 inches) and weigh about 3.5 pounds.
What the Swift X offers is demure performance: It lacks the RGB keyboards of Acer's Predator lineup, and includes a haptic touchpad as an additional feature. A haptic touchpad is equally clickable all along its surface, with minimal effort. Acer even includes a stylus for taking notes on the touchpad or the laptop's 14.5-inch 2800×1800 OLED display, which delivers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That display appears to be just 60Hz, however.
The only difference between the two Swift X's is in the processor: The Swift X 14 AI features the choice of a Copilot capable Ryzen AI 300-series chip, from the AI 5 340 on up to the AI 9 365. Alternatively, the Swift X 14 includes either Intel's Core Ultra 225H, 255H, and 285H. All are members of Intel's Arrow Lake family, which can only provide 13 TOPS and do not meet Copilot requirements.
In a word? Tariffs. Acer's Aspire notebooks typically are its most affordable, so America's fluctuating import tariffs add a confusing wrinkle to anything Acer announces. As a result, Acer isn't announcing either the pricing or the ship date for its six new Copilot PCs. It is, however, disclosing what European customers will pay.
Acer's new Aspires are easy to understand: the company is shipping two notebooks, each with Intel's Core Ultra (Lunar Lake) series, the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, and the low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform inside. In each processor category, Acer is shipping both a 14-inch and a 16-inch version. All qualify as Copilot PCs.
Perhaps because of the price, Acer executives told us that the emphasis is on the Snapdragon-based Aspires. The 14-inch version will ship for 899 euros ($1,006) and will be available in June to European customers. Naturally, we just don't know what tariffs will do to your wallet.
All told, the Acer Swift Edge's magnesium-aluminum chassis eliminates the vast majority of the weight. At 2.18 pounds, this puts the emphasis on light, which should be one of the focus points for a laptop that is constantly dropped into a bag or backpack.
Acer's Swift Edge 14 AI (SFE14-51 and -51T) and the Swift Go 14 and 16 AI are among the number of laptops that the company is debuting at Computex in the thin-and-light category, along with the Swift X creator series and the cheaper Aspire notebooks as well. Acer is also launching updates to its Predator line of gaming notebooks, too.
I had a chance to go hands-on with the new Swift Edge in a preview of Acer's Computex lineup. The Swift Edge is incredibly light, easily drawn out and moved around with a single hand.
The real star of this Core Ultra (Lunar Lake) notebook may be its 14-inch screen, a 2880 x 1800 OLED coated with a Corning Gorilla Matte Pro finish. Laptop makers typically offer reflective screen which can mirror the light and background of your nearby environment. If you've ever worked in a library or cafe with overhead lighting, you'll notice it. On the other hand, a matte screen dulls all that, eliminating reflections and minimizing the reflected light. That's even more important with an OLED display, whose rich blacks tend to emphasize a reflective display.
Acer's Swift Go laptops, available in 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes, are a bit more conventional. Like the Swift Edge AI, these are Copilot laptops, so the Intel Core 200V chips (Lunar Lake) inside these Swift Go 14 AI and Swi
Acer also is announcing the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI, a slightly cheaper version, plus refreshes of the Nitro lineup that go as large as an 18-inch display.
Here's what you need to know about all three gaming laptops: Acer's 14.5-inch Predator Triton 14 AI is just 11mm thick at its thinnest point. Acer replaced the traditional liquid metal with graphene for improved cooling, and there's a haptic touchpad (with its own stylus!) for inking while you're on the go. Acer's new 14.5-inch Helios Neo 14 AI combines a Core Ultra 9 285H with an RTX 5070, and should cost a bit less. Acer also is shipping several versions of its Nitro gaming laptops, both 16- and 18-inch versions which focus on the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processors.
One of the questions I asked was if Acer is designing toward a price point, or to the component choices it deemed best for its users. Acer executives said they were making the latter choice, which might be one of the reasons that Acer is keeping the price and availability of the laptops mum for now.
"We will announce U.S. pricing, availability, and configurations closer to market availability in the United States/North America," Acer said in a statement. Acer did provide pricing and availability for Europe, which we've included here for comparison's sake.
Acer Predator Triton 14 AI
Acer's new Predator Triton 14 AI reminds me of a classical gangster: dark suit, dark tie, sunglasses, coolly confident. That's until th
In the best tradition of the show, grab a nice cold one (or your favorite snack food) as you down this info. It's Friday, y'all!
In this episode of The Full Nerd…
Wowstick 1F mini electric screwdriver
This deal on this two-pack of Anker USB-C cables won't last forever at Amazon, so hurry up and snag it for just $1 while you can. It's a brilliant price for long, fast-charging USB-C cables.
If you're like me, you have a box or drawer with dozens of cables. And while some cables have specific connections, like USB-C, my wired network (such as it is) is just a random collection of colored Ethernet cables with tiny little markings telling me what they can or can't do. How much data can that cable transfer? I had no idea. And that's bad.
I had never really thought about which Ethernet cables were being run between my cable modem, router, Xbox, and desktop PC. But I had performed speed tests more than once, and worried that my network was running slower than usual. And I also knew the problem: my network would run only as fast as its slowest segment.
If my Ethernet cables were transferring less data than my router or gateway, I was potentially wasting money. I didn't need to spend time researching the fastest mesh router or the best Internet gateway. If my cables were ancient, my entire network would be bogged down by my slowest cable. If my ISP quietly increased the speed of my broadband connection, I might not see any benefit. And I had already found an old Cat5 cable hooked up to my Xbox, a standard which had been basically extinct for about two decades. Ew!
Mercury Research released its report for the CPU market for the first quarter of 2025, and behind the numbers are multiple stories to tell. Arm's market share has finally broken into double digits. AMD, meanwhile, is all over the place: strong in servers, especially strong in desktop PCs, but unexpectedly weak in notebook shipments.
Overall X86 processor units declined, Mercury said. That's normal for the second quarter, as hardware sales tend to crest in the fall and drop in the spring or summer. (Mercury saves this precise information for its paid clients.)
Total X86 share — including PCs, embedded processors and systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) like game processors, again favors AMD, as it grew 1.5 percentage points to 27.1 percent. Intel holds the remaining 72.9 percent. Subtract embedded and SOC numbers, however, and AMD lost slightly, shrinking 0.3 percentage points to 24.4 percent and leaving Intel with the remainder.
The new feature, called "Peak Points," uses Gemini AI to analyze videos to find the most important, meaningful, and engaging moments that viewers are watching. Content creators are then able to place their ads at these exact moments to maximize viewership and engagement.
In the Chrome Releases blog post, Srinivas Sista names the two of the four fixed vulnerabilities that were discovered by external security researchers and reported to Google. Google classifies these two vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-4664 and CVE-2025-4609) as high risk. Google didn't provide details on the other two internally discovered vulnerabilities.
Google also released Chrome for Android 136.0.7103.125. This fixes the same vulnerabilities as the desktop versions. Google plans to release Chrome 137 at the end of May.
As a rule, Chrome updates itself automatically when a new version is released. However, if it doesn't, you can manually update via three-dot menu Help About Google Chrome.
Other Chromium-based browsers
The other Chromium-based browsers will be following suit with their own updates. Brave and Microsoft Edge are currently at the security level prior to this Chrome update, with both having switched to Chromium 136 in the first week of May.
Mount it on your helmet, put it on a stick, take it for a swim—whatever fun things you want to do this summer, this compact GoPro can record it all. Not only does the camera capture gloriously stable video in 5.3K resolution at 60 FPS (or 2.7K at 240 FPS), but it can automatically upload all footage to the cloud so you don't have to worry about it. With video stabilization, it's perfect for action-heavy sports and activities.
And while GoPros have always been pretty small, this model is even smaller. It's a miniscule square that weighs an equally miniscule 133 grams (or 0.29 pounds) and it's built to withstand falls, bumps, crashes, mud, snow, rain, dirt, and more. It can dive down to 33 feet in water and has a scratch-resistant lens. You'll need a microSD card for it (sold separately), but those are fairly inexpensive these days.
Don't wait until it's too late! Prep for the summer by grabbing this GoPro Hero11 Black Mini for $140 at Best Buy. That's a steep drop from its original $250 price tag and a deal you won't want to pass up.
This tiny 5K GoPro is a steal now that it's 44% off
We've seen affordable laptops of this type before, but at this price point you're usually only getting a Core 5 CPU and maybe half the RAM. If you want to run Windows 11 plus other apps smoothly, you're going to want at least 16GB of memory and a speedy processor like this. It's a solid combo that'll carry you through the day, whether you have emails to write, doomscrolling to do, or shopping to get done.
The IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a 16-inch IPS touchscreen display with a crisp 1920×1200 resolution and an office-level 60Hz refresh rate. With it being a 2-in-1, you can quickly shift between tablet and laptop modes thanks to the 360-degree hinge, and you can even prop it up like a tent for an angled display that's perfect when streaming Netflix or reading PDFs. Connectivity won't be an issue with this laptop either, which features two USB-A and two USB-C ports as well as an HDMI.
Quit hemming and hawing and grab this Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 for $549 while it's still on sale because this deal is bonkers!
The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 for $549 is a bargain
What was once a rumor back in March has now been confirmed by Google, who intends to incorporate its Gemini AI assistant directly into Chrome, reports Windows Latest. We'll probably learn exactly how it will all work at Google I/O 2025, which will be held on May 20 and 21.
From what we know so far based on leaks and rumors, the new feature is called GLIC (which stands for "Gemini Live in Chrome") and it comes with a new "Glic" section in Chrome's settings page. Toggling Glic causes a Gemini icon to appear next to the minimize-maximize-close window buttons, and clicking the icon launches Gemini in a floating modal. You'll also be able to configure Gemini to appear in the system tray as a convenient way to launch the AI assistant.
It seems the overall idea is to bring Gemini front and center while using Chrome, and that could be useful if you need answers to questions or want to run some AI prompts without leaving your browser.
Microsoft's own Edge browser, which is based on the open-source Chromium project, has been doing this since 2019. The code that attempts to relaunch Edge without the (typically unnecessary) elevated permissions was recently committed back into the base version of Chromium, which means we'll see it in a future update to the world's most popular browser.
Running a browser with elevated permissions is generally a bad idea, as BleepingComputer explains. It's just about the easiest way to get a sketchy download to lead to a full malware infection. This is a surprisingly good example of Edge contributing back into Chrome to everyone's benefit.
The change will be a subtle one for most users, and there are smart little touches that will keep things running smoothly. For example, it'll add a command line switch after an automatic relaunch to prevent an infinite loop of the browser restarting itself, and the change won't apply to Chrome processes launched in automation mode, which some programs need for critical functions.
But overall, it's a good thing. Again, the less you can use Windows with administrator privileges, the safer you'll be — and that's
I got hooked on cable management when building my first PC, which came with a baggie of those little plastic cable ties that need to be trimmed with scissors. I got a kick out of bundling my PC cables with those super-thin plastic ties, but something about them was a tad off—the plastic was too stiff, larger bundles were tough to tie together, and once secured, the plastic ties could only be snipped off, not readjusted.
This new feature can be found in the Settings app as a special FAQ section in the About page (accessible via Settings System About). In that FAQ area, you'll see expandable questions like:
"Am I running the latest version of the Windows OS? What is the latest Windows version?"
"How does having 8-16 GB of RAM impact my PC's performance? Can I run modern applications smoothly with this RAM capacity?"
"What is a GPU? I don't have a dedicated GPU, how does its absence impact gaming and graphical performance?"
"Is my GPU sufficient for high-end gaming and video experience? How can having a dedicated GPU enhance my experience and productivity?"
When you expand a question, Windows provides answers that are personalized to the very hardware in your system and will flat-out tell you if it's sufficient or insufficient for various scenarios. They're pretty generic, as you can tell, but the fact that they're tweaked and customized for your PC makes this feature pretty useful potentially.
What's not to love about this display? It has the gaming sweet spot resolution of 2560×1440 on a beautiful and color-accurate IPS panel, with a wide viewing angle and a fast 180Hz refresh rate. The 27-inch diagonal works well as either a primary or secondary display, and it has a 1ms response time plus support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync.
Connecting this monitor to your laptop or PC won't be a problem as it comes with two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort for wide compatibility. The two USB-A ports along the bottom edge are also useful for hooking up your keyboard and mouse (or whatever other peripherals).
Alienware gear doesn't usually fit into the "affordable" category, but this one does. Snagging this 27-inch 1440p 180Hz monitor for $220 almost feels like Black Friday come early. But if this particular model isn't the right one for you, check out these other great monitors we've tested.
Get this 27-inch 1440p 180Hz Alienware monitor for $220
Three years have passed since the mega-merger that birthed Warner Bros. Discovery and led to a new name for its flagship streaming service. The Max brand was supposed to emphasize a breadth of programming beyond the HBO catalog, but Warner's executives now say the forthcoming rebrand (or unbrand) represents a return to quality over quantity.
This would be easier to accept if HBO's owners had any credibility left. But over the past few years, pretty much everything the Warner-Discovery merger was supposed to accomplish has failed. Now, the company can no longer articulate what it's aiming for, other than to squeeze a little extra profit from a flailing enterprise. It's as funny as it is sad.
Max's broken promises
Let's go back to when AT&T announced it would spin off WarnerMedia into a new company and merge it with Discovery. (The spin-off itself acknowledged that AT&T shouldn't have bought Warner in the first place, but that's a whole other story.) Here's what the companies' 2021 press release claimed the merger would accomplish:
Increase investments in original programming for its streaming services.
Enhance programming options "across its global linear pay
One standout feature is the "Restyle Image" option. It lets you apply different artistic styles to your photos. For example, transforming your photos into lovely watercolor paintings. This feature really opens up a whole world of possibilities. In the following sections, we'll show you how to use each of them step-by-step:
1. Opening the photo viewer
First, open Windows Photo View. You can do this by searching for it in the Start menu or by double-clicking a JPEG or PNG file in File Explorer.
Right now, this Bosgame E2 mini PC is only $190 on Amazon. That's a dirt cheap deal considering what you get in the machine. It was already a pretty good grab at its original $240 price tag, but the extra $50 off almost makes it worthy of an impulse buy. Even if you have a solid main PC, you could set this up as a home media server or something. (Sign up for a free Prime trial to score this Prime-exclusive deal price.)
For less than $200, you're getting a PC that fits in your hand. You can tuck it away under a monitor and still have easy access to its many ports, or use the built-in VESA mount to attach it to the backside of a monitor and put it way out of sight. As small as it is, it supports triple monitor output (dual 4K@60Hz via HDMI plus 1080p@60Hz via USB-C video) along with four USB-A ports, a LAN port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Under the hood, it's equipped with an adequate AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor and a surprising-for-the-price 16GB of RAM, a 512GB M.2 SSD with Windows 11 Pro pre-loaded, and Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics for mild gaming. What takes this one step further, though, is that you can manually upgrade the memory to 64GB and storage to 4TB, so it'll last and you won't have to toss it in a year.
All in all, this is a brilliant budget buy that's cheap even for a market that's already quite affordable.
The NPU is a computer component designed to accelerate AI tasks in a power-efficient manner, paving the way for new Windows desktop applications with powerful AI features. That's the plan, anyway.
All PCs will eventually have NPUs, but at the moment only some laptops have them. Here's everything you need to know about NPUs and why they're such a hot topic in the computer industry right now.
What is an NPU?
NPU stands for neural processing unit. It's a special kind of processor that's optimized for AI and machine learning tasks.
The name comes from the fact that AI models use neural networks. A neural network is, in layman's terms, a vast mesh of interconnected nodes that pass information between them. (The whole idea was modeled after the way our own human brains work.)
An NPU isn't a separate device that you buy and plug in (as you would with a GPU, for example). Instead, an NPU is "packaged" as part of a modern processor platform — like Intel's Core Ultra, AMD's Ryzen AI, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus. These platforms have a CPU along with an integrated GPU and NPU.
NPU vs. CPU vs. GPU: What's the difference? Explained
For many years now, computers have been running tasks on either the central processing unit (CPU) or graphics processing unit (GPU.) That's still how it works on AI PCs (i.e., computers with NPUs).
The NPU is a computer component designed to accelerate AI tasks in a power-efficient manner, paving the way for new Windows desktop applications with powerful AI features. That's the plan, anyway.
All PCs will eventually have NPUs, but at the moment only some laptops have them. Here's everything you need to know about NPUs and why they're such a hot topic in the computer industry right now.
What is an NPU?
NPU stands for neural processing unit. It's a special kind of processor that's optimized for AI and machine learning tasks.
The name comes from the fact that AI models use neural networks. A neural network is, in layman's terms, a vast mesh of interconnected nodes that pass information between them. (The whole idea was modeled after the way our own human brains work.)
An NPU isn't a separate device that you buy and plug in (as you would with a GPU, for example). Instead, an NPU is "packaged" as part of a modern processor platform — like Intel's Core Ultra, AMD's Ryzen AI, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus. These platforms have a CPU along with an integrated GPU and NPU.
NPU vs. CPU vs. GPU: What's the difference? Explained
For many years now, computers have been running tasks on either the central processing unit (CPU) or graphics processing unit (GPU.) That's still how it works on AI PCs (i.e., computers with NPUs).
While ChromeOS may not be as customizable as Linux or even Windows, it offers plenty of power if you know what to do. After tweaking some of the more basic settings, here are the next steps you should take if you want to level up your Chromebook skills and do more with less.
Let's be real: AI isn't going anywhere, but your bank account might be if you keep paying for all these tools separately. That's why this new AI suite caught our attention. 1min.AI is a one-time payment that unlocks lifetime access to GPT-4, Gemini, Meta AI, and more. No subscriptions, no switching between platforms, just all-in-one AI firepower.
No need to learn to use a new AI. This all-in-one platform includes the same tools you already know and love. Or, if you aren't already familiar, they're easy to try out with 1min.AI's prebuilt AI templates for generating articles and images, conducting SEO research, or even transcribing audio.
1min.AI doesn't stop at creating new content. You can also edit existing
The reports stem from a post on the dark web, where an alleged hacker offered up supposed records from millions of Steam accounts, including one-time codes used for two-factor authentication (2FA). Sounds bad, right? Except when Twilio, the third-party service that powers the 2FA text message codes for Steam, was asked for comment, the company told BleepingComputer it had not found any evidence of a breach or leak.
In the meanwhile, however, multiple outlets have published the original claim—as well as a follow-up from X/Twitter user Mellow_Online1, who says they were told by Valve no relationship exists between Steam and "Trillio." (A possible typo, as Mellow_Online1 refers to Twilio in a follow-up post on X.)
So what's the deal? As BleepingComputer points out, this data could suggest a leak in the delivery system for text messages—one of three major reasons why security experts don't recommend receiving 2FA codes through SMS. (The other two? Someone could steal your phone number to receive codes, or they could redirect the codes to their own device without you knowing.) This is not a Valve problem, though. It's unfortunately a known weakness in how text messaging works.
A few years ago, you'd use the term, "Hey, Cortana" in Windows 10. But in Windows 11, Cortana has been replaced with Windows Copilot, and you can now interact with Copilot by saying "Hey, Copilot" instead.
Microsoft is testing the new feature within the Windows Insider program. If your PC is unlocked, and you've configured it to accept the "Hey Copilot" wake words, you can now interact with Copilot verbally. The Copilot UI will launch as a small microphone icon. Tapping the "X" next to it closes the conversation.
Here's how to configure "Hey Copilot" according to Microsoft:
Open Copilot
Tap your avatar in the bottom left corner
Tap Settings
Scroll down to Voice mode
Toggle "Listen for ‘Hey, Copilot' to start a conversation" on or off. It is off by default.
The user interface looks virtually identical to the way in which you interact with Copilot Vision, which is now set up to test as well. I tried going hands-on with Copilot Vision a short time back. While the concept is sound (and even works quite well in a few apps!), it still needs some fine-tuning in terms of recognition.
However, Microsoft announced this week that you can now interact with more than one app within Copilot Vision. Even better, Copilot Vision now provides the v
Space Marine II is based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Which, in terms of pop culture settings, is about as deep as it gets. Starting with a tabletop strategy game that was itself a spinoff, the setting has been going strong since the late 80s, with ten editions of the main game, all with deep accompanying lore; several alternate games (ditto); hundreds of novels; and dozens of video games. All of that is, to a greater or lesser degree, canon to the game's story. A story that takes place across literally millions of planets and tens of millions of years, dozens of human and alien species, psychic magic, demons, and sci-fi tech, all rolled together in one miserable, glorious heap of grimdark fiction.
It makes sense. One of the earliest uses of AI was to summarize documents and folders of documents, and there's only so many times you can ask it whether Spider-Man would beat Wonder Woman in a fair fight. It would be more productive for AI to collate and make sense of your own personal information, assuming you want to grant access to it.
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT can now connect to your OneDrive or SharePoint document libraries, assuming you're a paid ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Team user who lives outside the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK (via Windows Central). You'll obviously have to connect ChatGPT and give it permission to start poring over your cloud documents.
Specifically, you'll need to enable ChatGPT's "Deep Research" function, which normally scours the web for information. Now, it appears you can specify which folders in Microsoft's cloud services to make accessible to ChatGPT on a once-and-done basis. Click the "down arrow" to select either OneDrive or SharePoint, then log in to the Microsoft services. You can also go to ChatGPT Settings, then Connected Apps, Connectors, and click Connect next to Microsoft OneDrive (work/school).
From a privacy perspective, you're sharing the request with both OpenAI and Microsoft. "ChatGPT generates search queries from your prompts to locate relevant information within your connected Microsoft document libraries and sends these queries to Microsoft," said OpenAI.
Microsoft offers sparse details on the vulnerabilities in the Security Update Guide, but Dustin Childs goes into more detail in Trend Micro's ZDI blog with an eye for admins who manage corporate networks.
The next Patch Tuesday is expected to happen on June 10th, 2025.
Security vulnerabilities in Windows
A large number of the vulnerabilities—44 this time—are spread across the various Windows versions (10, 11, and Server) for which Microsoft still offers security updates. Although Windows 7 and 8.1 are no longer mentioned in the security reports, they could still be vulnerable. If your system requirements allow it, you should upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 before October to continue receiving security updates.
Zero-day Windows vulnerabilities
According to Microsoft, there are already attacks on a total of five security vulnerabilities in Windows, with the CVE-2025-30397 remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability
Thankfully, Winxvideo AI is a powerful all-in-one solution that not only uses advanced Artificial Intelligence software to upgrade the quality of your content but can rescue old photos and footage too. The newly updated version 4.0 also brings huge improvements to speed, plus a special price offer, so you can save both time and money while you upgrade your photo and video library.
Grab your discount on Winxvideo AI
Powerful AI tools that upgrade your videos
Winxvideo AI comes with an impressive array of features that can turn tired, old, blurry videos into something far more professional. For example, if you have footage of a significant event that was shot on an old device and only displays in low resolution, then the AI upscaling tool can cleverly convert it to 720p ,1080p or even 4K! It offers dedicated AI models for different video types - whether enhancing fine details, smoothing low-detail footage, refining animations, or upscaling photorealistic content.
AI Mode is an experimental feature that offers an AI-generated search experience powered by Google's Gemini 2.0 language model. Google spokesperson Ashley Thompson told The Verge that the search engine's AI Mode is currently only visible to a limited number of users in Google's experimental Labs environment.
It's unclear at this point when—or if—the redesign could become the new standard for Google Search. You can see some examples of the new design in the tweets below:
In fact, I could order a flying curry delivery if I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina—specifically, within four miles of the Arboretum Shopping Center—where DoorDash is now offering food deliveries via drone. You can choose from a limited selection of local eateries, including Panera Bread, Matcha Cafe Maiko, and Joa Korean. The latest expansion is part of a partnership with drone delivery company Wing. Deliveries are also available in tiny slices of Dallas-Fort Worth and southwest Virginia, after a pilot (ha!) program in Logan City, Australia.
Wing's drones are autonomous, according to the press release, needing no human pilots. The drones are pretty beefy, too. Promotional photos show a design with no less than 16 propellers spread across two struts and two wings, and it tucks the fast food package up underneath the main body. The bags are loaded by humans whil
I'd say aim for a laptop with a 1080p display and at least 8GB of RAM. That'll keep things running smoothly and make videos look good, too. You'll have to make a few trade-offs at this price, but we've done the hard work for you.
Below are our top-tested picks that prove budget laptops don't have to suck.
Why you should trust us: It's in our name! PCWorld prides itself on laptop experience and expertise. We've been covering PCs since 1983, and we now review more than 70 laptops every year. All of the picks below have been personally tested and vetted by our experts, who've applied not only performance benchmarks but rigorous usability standards. We're also committed to reviewing PC laptops at every price point to help you find a machine that matches your budget.
The best laptops under $500
Acer Aspire Go 15 - Best laptop under $500 overall
The head-spinning move, slated to take effect this summer, was announced Wednesday morning during Warner Bros. Discovery's upfront event in New York City, and the idea behind the re-rebrand is, well, I'll just let them say it:
"Returning the HBO brand to HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering. It is also a testament to WBD's willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach—leaning heavily on consumer data and insights—to best position itself for success."
Well, it's a testament to something, all right, if not Warner Bros.'s ongoing indecisiveness over what HBO Max—er, Max—ah, I mean HBO Max—should be.
The original decision to rebrand HBO Max as "Max" came after the 2022 merger between then-HBO parent WarnerMedia and Discovery, which formed a new media conglomerate called Warner Bros. Discovery.
Company execs wanted to merge Discovery's more family-friendly fare with HBO's signature adult programming, and the new name—Max—was intended to signal the streamer's "broader content offering." Put another way, while HBO and Discovery on their own offered "something for some people," the new Max would serve up "a broad array of quality choices for everybody."
But right away, the name "Max" just didn't sit right. Streamers kept calling it "HBO Max," new branding be damned, while Warner Bros. Discovery executives kept dithering over what was an "HBO" original and what was a "Max" original. For example, shows that were originally intended to be Max Orig
The new Copilot AI feature known as Windows Recall and the ability to use Phone Link in the Start menu have been mentioned in previous articles, so we don't need to mention them again.
One of the best improvements in the update is that Windows Search now supports AI, which means—among other things—that you can now use "natural language" in your search queries to find documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and images.
Christiaan Beek of Rapid7 says he has created a proof-of-concept ransomware that can hide inside a CPU's microcode, building on previous work that emerged when Google required AMD processors to always return "4" when asked for a random number. He claims that modifying UEFI firmware can install an unsigned update to the processor, slipping past any kind of conventional antivirus or OS-based security.
In a statement given to The Register, Beek says that Rapid7 won't release the tool. However, the implications of this possibility are significant. If your computer's CPU was infected to that degree, it would technically be possible to recover with official tools from Intel, AMD, et cetera. But it would be so involved, and your system would be so fully compromised, that you might as well just pull a Ron Swanson and yeet that thing.
Malware that can bypass the encryption in UEFI firmware is already known, though it's a lot more complex and involved than your typical dodgy download. CPU-level ransomware has not been seen "in the wild," and it seems likely that when and if it emerges, it'll be a state-level actor that exploits it first. That means your typical user prob
This confirms the rumors from last month. The layoffs are to take place in different regions across different employee levels and teams. "We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace," a company spokesperson told CNBC.
Microsoft plans to cut 1,985 jobs at its Redmond headquarters alone, 1,510 of which will be in the office. One aim is to reduce layers of management, the spokesperson said. Unlike the previous job reduction from January 2025 that hit "low performers," these layoffs are not performance-related.
It's currently unknown whether the Xbox games division will also be affected by the layoffs, but Microsoft has repeatedly cut jobs in the Xbox division in recent years.
These job cuts don't fit with the latest business figures. At the end of April, Microsoft reported a net profit of $25.8 billion for the quarter, which exceeded expectations, and also issued a positive forecast.
It may not be one of those huge ultrawide monitors on the market—it's "only" 27 inches—but it's a fantastic pick for high-frame-rate gamers. This LG UltraGear delivers a 2560×1440 resolution on a vibrant OLED panel with a blazing-fast 480Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time. It's all great, but that refresh rate in particular is chef's kiss.
This isn't the first 480Hz OLED monitor by any means, but as our testing shows, it delivers "class-leading" motion clarity that most competitive gamers will be happy with. All those action-heavy scenes will be smoother than ever, and this display comes with both AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync for minimal screen tearing.
No worries about connectivity either. You get two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 2.1, as well as two USB-A and a 3.5mm headphone jack. We'd have loved to see a USB-C on there, but it is what it is.
OLED monitors aren't cheap, especially the uber-fast ones. But if you wanted one, now's the time to get it. The 20% discount is solid and it's not every day you see a 480Hz OLED for only $800. If this one doesn't suit your fancy for whatever reason, you should check out our other picks for the
Prolific leaker @momomo_us showed off two screenshots of Lenovo LOQ (the company's more budget gaming brand) and Legion 15-inch laptops sporting 13th-gen Intel processors paired with not-yet-announced RTX 5050 cards. The pages were up on UK-based seller Laptops Direct, but appear to be down as of now. As VideoCardz.com notes, they're packing 8GB of GDDR7 video memory, matching the laptop version of the RTX 5060 and boasting a 2GB upgrade over the mobile RTX 4050. We don't know any other specs at the moment, but presumably it'll be a step down from the 5060 in at least a few metrics.
Less encouraging is the price. The cheaper of the two laptops was priced at £1,149.97. At today's exchange rate, that would put its USD price at $1,531. Ouch, especially considering that RTX 5060 laptops are allegedly going to start at $1,100. The existence of more expensive models doesn't preclude the existence of cheaper ones… but yeah, I wouldn't hold out hope for getting a newer Nvidia card in a laptop that dips below the four-figure mark anytime s
The Baseus Picogo is tiny enough to fit in the palm of your hand, which means it can slip into even the tightest pockets. The 10,000mAh capacity should be enough to recharge your phone about two times over, give or take depending on your particular model.
But the best thing about it is the built-in USB-C cable, which frees you from having to carry around a separate cord when you're on the go. When not in use, the cable plugs right into the power bank itself and turns into a convenient handle.
With up to 45 watts of charging power, the Picogo can charge flagship phones like the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra more than halfway in 30 minutes. And with the additional USB-C and USB-A ports, you can charge up to three devices at once. (When multiple ports are being used, the charging power is split between them.)
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The SK Hynix Beetle X31 is easily one of our favorite portable SSDs on the market, and we loved it enough to give it a 4.5-star rating and our Editors' Choice award in our hands-on review of it. It's a top performer among 10Gbps drives, delivering lightning-fast transfers via USB-C for all sorts of files, including those behemoth videos you're hoarding.
This external SSD is also small enough that it fits right in the palm of your hand, making it that much more portable and travel-friendly. It measures 2.91 x 1.81 inches—that's pocket-sized!—and it has a shiny golden exterior with rounded edges for that premium feel. Don't worry about dropping this thing because it's extra resistance against drops.
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What makes this laptop so magical? The gorgeous 16-inch IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate is definitely up there, complete with its 1920×1200 resolution that's perfect for on-the-go gaming. That's bolstered by the included GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. Now, that may not be the latest or greatest graphics card, but it's still powerful enough to play your favorite games or take on creative hobbies like video editing.
Then there's the speedy 13th-gen Intel Core i7-13620H processor and stunning 32GB of RAM. While the processor isn't surprising to see in a laptop at this price, the amount of memory certainly is. Between this and the RTX-powered guts, you're coming out a winner.
It's a great laptop with a great configuration, so if you've been looking for a strong laptop for work and gaming, get the Gigabyte G6 KF for $1,000 at Best Buy while this deal lasts! If you miss it, you can still score an excellent higher-end laptop from our best laptops roundup.
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In early May, the company announced that it will acquire Frndly TV, the cheapest of all the live TV streaming services. For $9 per month, Frndly TV offers a bundle of channels you'd typically find in a cable TV package, including Hallmark, A&E, and The Weather Channel.
While it's normal for streaming platforms to offer their own free or premium streaming services, most aren't selling their own bundles of cable channels with optional DVR service. Roku is doing something pretty unusual here, and while it says it's just trying to boost subscription revenues on its platform, that doesn't sound like the whole story to me.
How Frndly fits in
Frndly TV is what's known in industry jargon as a "virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor," or vMVPD. You could also use the terms live TV streaming services, streaming channel bundles, or cable replacements.
Whatever the nomenclature, the point is that these are essentially cable TV packages delivered over the internet. You get a big bucket of cable channels, a grid-based channel guide to flip through, and DVR functionality for recording live airings and watching them at your leisure.
Most major streaming platforms have stayed out of this business, which involves cutting carriage deals with numerous TV programmers (and dealing with the risk of blackouts when renewal negotiations fail). It's a mes
