Inhaltsverzeichnis für December 2019 in PCWorld

AMD officially unwrapped two new Threadripper 3 CPUs with 24 and 32 cores, respectively, on November 7. The company also announced an unlocked Athlon and said its 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X will finally go on sale on November 28. The two new Threadripper CPUs are the biggest news. AMD will sell a 24-core Threadripper 3960X for $1,399. The chip is built on a 7nm process, features 140MB of cache, and will have a base clock of 3.8GHz and boost of 4.5GHz. The 32-core Threadripper 3970X, priced at $1,999, arrives in the wake of much undue hand-wringing that AMD would only go to 24 cores. Both CPUs will go into AMD’s new TRX40 platform using the new sTRX4 socket. The use of a new socket essentially means the original X399 chipset,…

Microsoft plans to announce a boatload of new capabilities to Office, search, and Edge at its Ignite conference, including rollout plans for its Chromium-based Edge browser, a tool to read your email aloud in the Outlook app, corporate insights driven by Microsoft Search, and more. But subtle improvements like natural-language queries in Excel may prove more significant. Microsoft has arguably struggled to align search and the web with its traditional Office silos of spreadsheets, presentations, and documents. Now, executives say they’ve cracked the problem. Microsoft hasn’t lost its idealistic view of the Internet, dating back to Internet Explorer’s “beauty of the Web” campaign. But today, the web provides more opportunities and more challenges to solve, said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft’s Modern Life & Devices Group,…

Anybody can become a Twitch star, but getting set up can be complicated, especially on the PC. While console gamers can start streaming quickly, configuring a Twitch stream on your PC involves using third-party software, ensuring all your hardware is detected, wading through audio and video mixing, and more. It’s not that hard, but it sure does involve some busywork. But Twitch’s own Twitch Studio software, which launched in open beta today after a closed beta period, aims to simplify the process and get you streaming to the masses quickly. Twitch Studio includes a guided stream setup that automatically detects your camera, microphone, monitor resolution, and streaming bitrate. It also includes customizable templates, overlays, and integrated alerts to make your stream look as slick as possible with minimal hassle. And since…

Brave Software’s new Brave browser, which has emerged out of a long beta into a full-fledged Brave 1.0 release, works in two ways: As a privacy-minded browser that does everything it can to minimize your footprint on the Web, and as a convoluted means of paying people who provide you the content that you read daily. It’s been literally years since Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and the co-founder of Mozilla, first spoke to PCWorld about trying to balance privacy and ensuring that those that created content were paid for their efforts. The compromise was what Brave Software now calls the Basic Attention Token, or BAT, which leverages the Ethereum blockchain as a unit of virtual currency. Brave not only allows you to accumulate BAT, via ads that slide…

Those looking for solid productivity power, a roomy screen, and a comfortable keyboard should give the Lenovo IdeaPad S340-15IWL a fair shake, but make sure you pick up the right model. While we were pleased with the benchmark results for the S340-15IWL ($730 list, but generally closer to $500 online), the configuration we tested comes with a cut-rate TN display saddled with poor viewing angles. You can upgrade to a superior IPS panel for a modest amount of cash (as in $40 or so) while keeping the same internals, so you have options. A svelte design rounds out the package, although we do wish Lenovo had managed to wring a little more life out of the S340’s battery. PRICE AND CONFIGURATION Lenovo’s 15-inch S340 line includes models ranging from $630…

The HDMI audio/video interface standard is everywhere: TVs, set-top boxes, media streamers, Blu-ray players, A/V receivers, gaming consoles, camcorders, digital cameras, and even a few smartphones. You’ll also find an HDMI output port in most consumer desktop and laptop computers, as well as an input port on many all-in-one PCs, to enable a gaming console or a set-top box may use its internal display. Given HDMI’s ubiquity, you might have forgotten about the other digital audio/video standard: DisplayPort. Though you’ll find it alongside HDMI on most late-model, high-end video cards, as well as in Macs and laptops marketed to business users, it rarely appears in Windows PCs aimed at consumers. It’s also rare as hen’s teeth in consumer electronics devices. Both HDMI and DisplayPort can deliver high-definition digital video and…

You have many choices among photo editing software programs, whether it’s Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, Paintshop Pro, GIMP.net, and more—all of which now have very similar feature sets. These basic photo editing tips will help you work in pretty much any application available. 1. WORKING WITH LAYERS IN PHOTO EDITING The “magic” of Photoshop and its clones is the Layers feature. It’s analogous to color separations, where each of the four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) in the four-color process are printed on separate plates, then printed on top of each other to create a full-color image. Each “CMYK plate” is a layer in the four-color process. When you open a photograph in Photoshop, it has only one layer, the background layer, and it’s called a flattened image. If…

While Android has come a long way in its fight against so-called “bad actors” in the Play Store, Google isn’t able to stop every malicious app from making its way inside. So it’s stepping up its efforts with the formation of a new App Defense Alliance with some of the biggest names in mobile security. The partnership brings Google, ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium together to augment Android’s Play Protect malware scanner that’s been in effect since Android 8 Oreo. Built to run in the background, Play Protect regularly scans the apps in the Play Store and installed on your phone for known malware and alerts users to their existence. The only problem is, it’s not very good. According to AV-Test’s bi-monthly antivirus review, Play Protect scores dead last in protection and…

Apple has announced the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, which replaces the 15-inch models in Apple’s laptop lineup—and delivers some welcome updates to boot. I have a loaner unit and have already begun testing, so stay tuned for my final review. In the meantime, check out my first impressions here. The short story? This new 16-inch MacBook Pro—which is available for order on Apple’s website, and should now be available for sale in the Apple store—doesn’t completely rewrite the MacBook story, but it’s definitely better in some key areas. KEYBOARD CHANGES Critics, rejoice: Apple dumped the butterfly-mechanism keyboard that it’s been using in the MacBook Pro since 2016. The new 16-inch MacBook Pro keyboard uses a scissor mechanism, and is based on the keyboard for the iMac and iMac Pro. This…

Google’s Pixel Buds, first released in 2017, couldn’t compete with better offerings from dedicated bud manufacturers, and stacked up even more poorly against Apple AirPods. But Google has announced a Pixel Buds update slated for Spring 2020, and if its Made By Google presentation is any indication, the company is intent on making the new version a major technological make-good. The original Pixel Buds delivered access to Google Assistant, but the implementation was clumsy, requiring tap prompts. The new Buds, though, promise hands-free access to Assistant, letting you ask for walking directions, control your music playback, and translate languages in real-time (among other tasks) with just a verbal “Hey Google” prompt. Google says the new Buds will include “on-device machine learning chips,” suggesting Assistant tricks should improve over time. Bluetooth…

The Google Pixel 4 XL can lay claim to the only real smartphone breakthrough of the year: a shrunken radar chip that’s so advanced it can detect when you reach for your phone so you’ll never have to stare at a blank screen. It’s a delightful feature that makes phones with ambient or always-on displays feel like they’re stuck in the past. Combined with Face unlock, the Pixel 4’s Motion Sense technology makes me feel like the phone anticipates all my moves, and this truly saves time by limiting how often I need to tap the screen. Before you even unlock it, the Pixel 4 XL exudes futurity and sets you up for an experience unlike anything you’ll find on a Galaxy or iPhone. Unfortunately, the rest of the Pixel…

When Microsoft began calling for people to test its Project xCloud cloud gaming service last month, I was skeptical of how it would perform over the toughest stress test you can throw at it: a cellular connection. That’s why I was surprised at how well it works. I’ve been trying the Project xCloud beta off and on for more than a week now. Keep in mind that Microsoft is actually testing two betas at the moment: Xbox Console Streaming, where you’re streaming games you own from your Xbox to a mobile phone or tablet; and Project xCloud, which takes a pre-selected batch of four games and allows you to play them over a wireless connection. I’ve tested only the latter, though the former is now live for Xbox Insiders. LET’S…

Why does Microsoft think you need the Windows 10 Your Phone app? Because it preserves the most important functions of a phone: access to your photos, messages, notifications, calls, and even your phone’s home screen—without the need to remove your phone from your pocket. That might sound ridiculous, but think again: Once you pull your phone from your pocket, you’re instantly lost in messages, email, Instagram—all of these distracting from your focus and flow while working on your PC. Theoretically, you could refuse to open Outlook on your PC and use your phone instead. But you don’t, right? Because the PC is much more convenient—and, in certain situations, playing with your phone is also quite rude. Your Phone’s functionality is essentially complete, but the landing’s been a little rough. You’ll…

The new Google Assistant is one of the marquee features of the new Pixel 4, with a less-intrusive interface, rapid-fire responses, and smarter integration with Android 10. But even if you have a Pixel 4, you might not be seeing it due to Google’s restrictions on how and when you can get it. So if you’re still seeing the old Assistant, here’s how to get the new one. CHANGE YOUR LANGUAGE The new Assistant is U.S.-only at launch, but that doesn’t mean you have to live in the United States to get it. Just head over to your Assistant settings and change the language to English (United States). That should trigger the new Assistant on your Pixel 4 even if your location is elsewhere. TURN ON GESTURE NAVIGATION Google…

Google quietly made Chromebooks a substantially better value this week by adding virtual desktops and click-to-call capabilities to Chrome OS, and extending the support lifespan of existing Chromebooks by about a year. Google recently announced that it’s begun pushing Chrome OS 78 to Chromebooks. The updated OS includes three new key features: virtual desktops, called Virtual Desks; click-to-call connections to Android phones; and simpler connections to printers. Virtual desktops have already appeared in Windows, of course, as part of Task View, which can be accessed via the Windows taskbar. In Chrome OS, the way to access Virtual Desks is through a button in the upper right-hand corner, or by using the Shift + Search + = (equal sign) shortcut. You can switch from Desk to Desk by using the Search…

In October, Nvidia Super-fied its GeForce GTX 16-series graphics cards, with the mass-market upgrade following in the footsteps of its beefier RTX Super siblings—and running defense against AMD’s impending Radeon RX 5500 series. The GeForce GTX 1660 Super has launched (we’ve already reviewed it), bolstered by some killer new software features in GeForce Experience. Let’s start with the new hardware before diving into the software improvements. The $229 GeForce GTX 1660 Super largely mirrors the specifications of the spectacular original GTX 1660: clock speeds, CUDA counts, texture units, die size—the underlying graphics processor remains identical in the Super. The key difference? Memory. Nvidia swapped out the slower GDDR5 memory of the original GTX 1660 for cutting-edge GDDR6 VRAM in the new GTX 1660 Super, and oh, what a difference it…

HP’s Omen 17 gaming laptops have a reputation with us that can be summarized in four words: solid performance. Shockingly affordable. That’s particularly true for the Omen 17. Is it a looker? Debatable. Is it the best gaming laptop? Definitely not. But HP always manages to cram more hardware than you’d expect under the hood, then sell the Omen 17 way below market rate. I’m not sure how HP pulls off this bit of wizardry, but it’s made the Omen 17 a hit. And the trend continues, as the 2019 model we’re testing (poetically monikered the 17-cb0040nr) packs in some of the latest and greatest CPUs and GPUs for hundreds of dollars less than the competition. FEATURES AND OPTIONS Okay, latest and greatest might be a bit of an overstatement.…

Google’s Pixelbook Go is a perfectly good Chromebook, and that’s exactly what the company set out to create. Eight years into the Chromebook’s existence, the category is still dominated by small, super-cheap laptops. Google has previously tried to inspire greater things with halo models—the super-premium Chromebook Pixel of 2013, and the stylish Pixelbook of 2017. But most users couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for them. “We heard loud and clear that people loved the design and wanted a lower price,” said Matt Vokoun, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management for Create Hardware. Enter the Pixelbook Go, a laptop with a careful balance of quality features and economical compromises. Its $649 starting price (via Google) is still somewhat high—and the top-end model will cost $1,399. Still, it could bolster a sparse “middle…

Let’s just say no to tall phones, right now. I’m looking at you Samsung, Moto, and Essential. It’s been a rocky 12 months since Samsung first teased its folding phone, with a sneak peek at the Infinity Flex display at 2018’s developer’s conference. But that’s not slowing the company down. At 2019’s keynote in late October, Samsung showed off a new display concept that flips the folding phone concept on its head. Literally. The new display folds open like a wallet, rather than a book, to reveal an ultra-wide inside screen. I’m not talking about a 16:9 phone like the Sony Xperia 1. Think more 25:9, like the candy-bar phones of old. Just, you know, with no buttons and a very tall screen. To promote the new concept, Samsung touted the device…

Hey PC gamers: Your body may be ready for all the blockbusters dropping just in time for the holiday season, but your PC might not be. Today’s games gobble up storage like it’s going out of style: Rockstar’s hotly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2 finally made its PC debut today, but you’ll need 150GB free to install it, while last week’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot needs even more: 175GB! Dedicating 325GB to just two games is enough to make any SSD beg for mercy. If you’re scrounging for storage space to fit these behemoths, WinDirStat can help. Here’s how I described it last time I recommended the tool, in the wake of Grand Theft Auto V’s gargantuan-for-the-time 60GB PC release (oh, how naïve we were): “WinDirStat is a free tool—donations…