Sommaire pour January 2020 de PCWorld

Lost amid the 5G phone hype, analysts say, is a little-known fact: None of the high-priced 5G phones currently being sold in carrier stores can access both 5G mmWave and sub-6GHz networks. It’s one of the main reasons why you shouldn’t jump on the 5G hype train too early. But that will change during the first quarter of 2020, Qualcomm senior executives said during the company’s Snapdragon Technology Summit in Maui, Hawaii. As it stands now, 5G is basically an either-or proposition. The OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren Edition that T-Mobile announced as it “turned on” its 5G network on December 6 is a “lowband” phone, capable of accessing T-Mobile’s 600MHz 5G network. But it won’t be able to access the short-range, high-bandwidth, and extremely fast mmWave spectrum that Verizon is…

When the Pixel phone landed in 2016, the promise was that the handset would be continuously updated, not just with regular Android security and version updates, but with new features like Apple does with the iPhone. Over the years, Google has obliged by regularly bringing newer Pixel features to older phones, but it’s stopped short of delivering big feature-packed updates. That’s changing with the first ever “Pixel feature drop.” According to a blog post, the updates are already rolling out and involve two steps: a system update and app updates via the Play Store. It’s unclear whether the update is part of the December security update that began rolling out last week (and has yet to hit the Pixel 4) or a newer Android 10.1 update, but it should reach…

It’s that time of year again: Snow’s falling, chestnuts are roasting, and AMD’s huge annual update for Radeon Software is rolling out. While previous iterations focused on stuffing in new features—to such an extent that I wondered how AMD could further improve its already-outstanding graphics suite—AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition revolves around a gorgeous visual overhaul that puts everything you need in more obvious places. That said, it also comes with some helpful new additions that flesh out existing features, streamline your gaming experience even more, and in the case of the intriguing new Radeon Boost, can potentially supercharge your frame rates in fast-paced games. Adrenalin 2020 Edition can even act as a unified game launcher in an era of warring platforms. The days of Radeon software inferiority are over.…

Nvidia’s $160 GeForce GTX 1650 Super had a super bizarre launch. Its still-available predecessor, the $150 GTX 1650, skipped the vastly improved Turing NVENC video encoder and got pummeled in performance by AMD’s Radeon RX 570, a much cheaper GPU, all to let the card fit into the motherboards with no extra power cabling required. With AMD’s next-gen Radeon RX 5500 series looming, Nvidia revealed the drastically turbocharged GTX 1650 Super—but then failed to inform press of pricing or provide drivers for launch day reviews. Those are both extremely unusual moves, ones mirrored in recent history only by Nvidia’s attempt to bury reviews of the original lackluster GTX 1650. Because of that, we went so far as to recommend avoiding the new card until reviews surfaced. Even weirder? The GeForce GTX…

Creative’s T100 is the latest in the company’s much-loved T-series of PC speakers. From design to sound quality, it’s the best offering in that line. Not that I’m surprised. The company’s speakers are consistently among the best I’ve reviewed, and its Pebble system is currently our pick for Best Overall Budget Speakers. Each of the T100’s satellites is 8.5 x 3.5 x 4.8 inches (HWD) with a matte-black grille and gloss-black finish on the sides. The tops of the satellites are matte-black, and the right one features input source, volume, and power buttons. A pair of 2.75-inch full-range drivers with built-in digital amplifiers delivers up to 40W RMS and a peak power of up to 80W. In lieu of a subwoofer, the T100 uses BasXport technology to reproduce the bottom…

A year ago, I wrote these words: “Epic Games is creating a Steam rival and Valve should be scared.” And for good reason: The Epic Games Store debuted December 6, 2018 and upended the PC gaming market. Valve, once unassailable, suddenly seemed very vulnerable. Flush with Fortnite money, Epic provided the first real competition to Steam since its inception 15 years prior. What company wouldn’t worry? If I could amend that headline now though, I’d instead write “Epic Games is creating a Steam rival and Valve should be grateful.” Grateful, not because Valve fended off the newcomer and solidified its own position, but because Epic spurred Valve out of complacency. The Epic Games Store is better now—but so is Steam. As we look back on the past year, that might…

At last long last, Microsoft’s mobile OS experiment has come to an end. Support for the last version of Windows 10 Mobile died on December 10. Windows phones will still work, but the last wave of Windows Mobile devices running the last official supported version of Windows 10 Mobile (version 1709, the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update) won’t receive any more updates or patches for Windows 10 Mobile—features, security, or otherwise. Officially, it will cease to exist. If you’re a Lumia 640 or 640XL owner, you’ve already felt the touch of death: Support for those devices ended in June. But for the last hurrah of Windows devices, which included the HP Elite x3, Microsoft Lumia 550, 650, and the Lumia 950/950 XL; Alcatel IDOL 4S and 4S Pro; and the…

Let’s be honest: We’re a bit skeptical of the new Snapdragon 7c and 8c story, Qualcomm’s latest expansion of its Snapdragon Compute lineup into cheaper markets. But we had a chance to play around with them, and they’re…fine? At the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit in Maui, Hawaii, the company offered reporters a chance to try out a pair of 7c and 8c demo machines. Both of the units we saw were reference designs, with pre-production hardware. Miguel Nunes, senior director of product management for compute products, supplied us with a few more details about each chip. The 7c includes a pair of ARM Cortex-A76 “performance” cores, with six Cortex-A55 cores serving as the low-power “efficiency” cores. There’s an X15 LTE modem, too. The Snapdragon 8c uses four A76 and four…

Well, you can’t argue that Microsoft isn’t giving anyone enough notice. Microsoft said recently that it plans to shut down its Wunderlist to-do list service on May 6, 2020. You’ll still be able to use Wunderlist until then, though Microsoft is cutting off new signups. You’ll have the option to remove your data from Wunderlist—or, as Microsoft hopes, export it to the company’s own To-Do app. Microsoft originally bought the Wunderlist app in 2015, and then said in 2017 that it planned to phase out Wunderlist in favor of a similar, self-developed app called To-Do. Since then, To-Do has been developed and integrated within other apps, such as Outlook, to provide a more holistic note-taking service across multiple Microsoft apps. At the time, Microsoft said that Wunderlist would be maintained while…

The original plan, if I recall correctly, was to have the entire Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC by the end of 2019. Alas, that’s not going to happen. But 343 Industries did manage to get Halo: Reach out before the end of the year, the first Halo game to hit the PC since Microsoft’s ill-fated attempt to use Halo 2 to sell copies of Windows Vista back in 2007. So how is it? I won’t lie—it’s kind of janky. Given how many rounds of testing Reach went through this year, I expected a more exhaustive PC version. But it works! If that’s all you care about, if you simply need to satiate your nostalgia…well, you’re probably already playing. After all, Halo: Reach “reached” the top of the Steam sales…

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 (Core i7), also known as the Surface Laptop 3 for Business, finally delivers on what Microsoft has traditionally promised with its Surfaces: a great screen, a great keyboard, and great battery life. The Surface Laptop 3 with Intel’s 10th-gen Core i7 chip achieves roughly 10 hours of battery life. This is more than enough to get you through your workday, and significantly longer than what was achieved by the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 with AMD’s Ryzen 5 CPU, or the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 with Ryzen 7. Other than the CPU and storage variations, the Surface Laptop 3 units we’ve tested are largely identical. We still admire what AMD has accomplished with its current Surface Edition chips, and look forward to next year when its 7nm…

With Stadia, there are no easy answers. Every compliment I want to pay Google’s game streaming service—and there are quite a few actually—is shackled to a caveat, a complication, or a complaint. Sometimes all three. That’s a problem. The biggest problem, really. Google intended Stadia to simplify the way people consume games. No hardware! Play your games anywhere, at any time! And yet the reality, at least for now, is a labyrinth of potential pitfalls. Does Google Stadia work? Sure, under the right circumstances and with the right game. Will it work for you, though? That’s a harder question, or rather a hundred questions, any one of which could prove fatal to Stadia’s chances. Let’s dig in. THE BEST CASE SCENARIO Come November 19, those who anted up $129 for…

If you’ve even glanced at a tech blog this year, you’ve surely seen the term 5G. Hailed as the next big advancement in mobility, 5G will be an enormous breakthrough for smartphones and other connected devices, letting us download movies in a blink of an eye, while eliminating frustrating slowdowns once and for all. But just because you can buy a 5G phone right now doesn’t mean you should. Like all new tech, the earliest 5G phones are expensive and underwhelming, with soon-to-be-outdated parts and a vague promise of future-proofing. But all that’s going to change very soon. In 2020, the 5G vision will begin to take shape in a real way, and if you’re interested in getting on board, you’ll want to make sure you upgrade to the right…

Intel’s redesign of the thin-and-light notebook, known as Project Athena, may have struggled to be more than a name to most consumers. But Intel claims that its design partnership with PC makers has paid off in a way you might not think about: battery-powered performance. “Performance” is usually synonymous with plugging a laptop in. Unplugging a laptop usually translates to long battery life at the expense of a slower clock speed. But Intel unveiled battery-powered performance numbers alongside the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Conference to bolster its design chops. Intel already has about eighteen certified Project Athena designs in the marketplace, ranging from the Dell XPS 13 to HP Elite Dragonfly to the Lenovo X1 Carbon and the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex and Ion. With each, Intel and the OEM engineers work together to…

In a year that’s seen the death of Inbox, Google+, and the goo.gl URL shortener, not to mention the loss of free original quality photo storage with every Pixel phone purchase, Google isn’t putting its knives away just yet. Next to go is Google Cloud Print. Cloud Print has been around since 2010, but despite a fancy website and deep Android and Chrome OS integration, it never actually made it out of beta. And now it never will. Google has quietly announced that users have until December 31, 2020, to enjoy Cloud Print. When the calendar changes to 2021, “devices across all operating systems will no longer be able to print using Google Cloud Print.” That’s 12 months away, so it’s giving users lots of time to find something new, but…

It’s time to compare Apple’s iPhone to the leading Android handsets, and it should be a close race. From the launch of the first folding phone to the rise of 5G, dual screens, waterfall displays, and cameras, cameras, cameras, 2019 has delivered a dizzying array of new features. Apple may have surprised everyone with a price cut to its entry-level handset, but can it stack up to the best Android has to offer? Let’s go through the major specs and find out. THE PHONES Three phones compete against the iPhone 11 this year: Samsung Galaxy S10+: I chose this model because it’s cheaper than the official flagship Note 10+. Also, compared to the S10, it’s only $100 more and equipped with a much bigger battery. Google Pixel 4 XL: The newest…

While reviewing the LG Gram 17, one thought persisted: Why aren’t people freaking out over this laptop? Here we have a notebook with a gorgeous 17-inch display and monster battery life, yet at 2.95 pounds, it’s almost as light as a 13-inch MacBook Air. Factor in a cool and quiet chassis, a silky-smooth trackpad, ample storage, and plenty of ports, and you have a big-screen laptop with none of the usual big-screen trade-offs—well, aside from its steep $1,699 list price (though we’ve noticed a lower price on Amazon). To be sure, the LG Gram 17 isn’t perfect, because no laptop is. It doesn’t have the best keyboard, its design feels a bit bland, and speaker quality is downright terrible. But when you’re working in luxurious comfort on an almost desktop-sized…

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), like so many other open-source programs, started out as a student project at the University of California, Berkeley. It was developed by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis in 1995, and the first version (0.54) was released in 1996. As of the current version (2.10) GIMP has matured into a truly incredible photo-editing program. It’s not as complex as Photoshop, but it’s not as basic as PC Paint either. It rivals all the top dogs on the market today. Best of all, it’s free! If you’re coming at GIMP by way of Photoshop, however, you may be frustrated by the some of the differences. Here are a few user tips to get you started, whether you’re a rookie or a pro. TIP 1: READ THE TUTORIALS…