Sommaire pour September 2021 de PCWorld

Samsung has a fever, and the only prescription is—more foldable phones. The biggest name in Android phones has announced the third generation of its foldable Galaxy smartphones: the Galaxy Z Fold3, a flagship model that opens like a book, and the smaller Z Flip3, a less expensive model that opens vertically and hearkens back to the flip phones of the early 2000s. Both phones include new features to improve durability, which may help mitigate public perception that foldable phones just can’t withstand the rigors of, well…repeated, incessant folding. And you’re going to want a sturdier phone, given Samsung’s price tags: $1,800 for the Galaxy Z Fold3 and $1,000 for the Galaxy Z Flip3. Preorders run through August 26, and if you do take the plunge before then, you can get…

If you’re not happy with the look and feel of Windows 11’s overhauled Start menu, a fix is coming—not from Microsoft, but from Stardock’s new Start11 app. This isn’t the first time Stardock has come to the rescue. The studio makes a living off improving the look and feel of Microsoft’s operating systems with tools like Groupy and Fences. Start8 gave Windows 8 a Start menu, and Start10 updated Windows 10 with a Windows 7–themed Start menu, too. Now Stardock has set out to polish the Windows 11 Start menu and its search capabilities. Our hands-on with the official Windows 11 beta shows how Microsoft has shaken up not only how the Start menu looks, but also its location. Currently, there’s a utilitarian matrix of icons in the Windows 11 Start menu, which…

Microsoft recently released Windows 365 business pricing, telling us a little more about what Microsoft’s “PC in the cloud” will cost. Right now, this cloud-based version of Windows is an enterprise product, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that a version of Windows 365 will eventually land in consumer PCs. But what then? Windows 365’s business plans give us some hints. If nothing else, any curious Windows user should be looking at Windows 365 for glimpses of where Microsoft is taking the broad Windows platform and Cloud PCs. Microsoft isn’t afraid to migrate its products to and from the cloud for both enterprise and consumer users. Exhibit A: Microsoft 365 (once called Microsoft Office) runs on your PC, the Web, and mobile apps. Exhibit B: Microsoft has already…

AMD promised the Radeon RX 6600 XT would deliver “epic” 1080p gaming, and the company’s latest graphics card delivers that in spades. This RDNA 2-powered GPU doesn’t just blow past the Radeon RX 5600 XT it’s replacing, but also skirts by the Radeon RX 5700 XT—a graphics card not one but two tiers higher than the 5600 XT was. This is impressive stuff. The Radeon RX 6600 XT will absolutely scream when paired with a high refresh-rate monitor. On the other hand, that lead diminishes more than you might expect when you bump up the resolution to 1440p. That’s due to some key tweaks introduced in the Radeon RX 6600 XT’s memory subsystem and its implementation of AMD’s radical new Infinity Cache. You also can’t ignore the sticker price: The Radeon…

OnlyOffice is a business-class productivity platform designed for internal team collaboration. While most of its products are targeted at small and enterprise businesses, it also offers a Microsoft Office alternative for home use. It’s unique in that it includes document, spreadsheet, and presentation editors in a single desktop app. It works with most popular file formats, including DOCX, ODT, XLSX, ODS, CSV, PPTX, and ODP. Best of all, it’s free to use on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. HANDS-ON Like most Office alternatives, OnlyOffice hews to the Microsoft ribbon interface. The tabbed toolbars are uniform across all three editors. Home is where you’ll find editing and formatting tools; Insert allows you to add images, shapes, and other elements to your document, spreadsheet, or presentation; the Layout tools control page margins,…

Whether it’s fairly new or old, sometimes you buy a device and then…it sits. Maybe you don’t like it, or maybe you find something better. Regardless, if you want to free up some space and recoup some of your initial investment, you have several options. You can go about it in one of two ways: either through a buyback service like Decluttr or Gazelle, or through an online marketplace like eBay or Facebook Marketplace. (To learn more about the distinction, see our primer on how to sell old tech.) THE BEST WEBSITES FOR SELLING TECH Online marketplaces come in several flavors—some are auction based, others use a fixed price. Some limit transactions to local, in-person exchanges, while others focus on online sales. You can choose the type of interaction and level…

Windows 10 will begin blocking “potentially unwanted applications”—bundled apps that you probably don’t want—by default, Microsoft says. The new practice commenced in early August. Microsoft announced the change in a support document noted by Windows Latest. If you download a lot of third-party utilities, you may already have run into a potentially unwanted application (PUA), also called a potentially unwanted program (PUP). The terms most often describe a bundled piece of adware, or—worse—a small additional application that slowly mines cryptocurrency in the background. You might not even know where the PUA comes from. Sometimes it might be the developer itself that added the PUA for additional revenue, or a site that aggregates the utilities and provides them for download. Either way, the PUA is an app you never asked for…

Intel recently stated that it is completely changing the way in which generations of its microprocessors have been defined, discussed, and evaluated, paving the way for chips to be measured in angstroms, not nanometers. Specifically, Intel is rewriting the terminology associated with its process technology, it said at an “Intel Accelerated” presentation. Going forward, Intel’s 10nm “enhanced SuperFIN” technology will now be called “Intel 7,” mentally placing it on the same tier as the same 7nm process technology AMD uses for its Ryzen chips. Intel began signaling this shift in March, but now it’s official. It’s a branding exercise, but with technical reasons behind it. For years, one way in which chip giants like Intel and AMD have defined the evolution of their products has been through process nodes or…

The HP Elite Folio wraps vivid display options, 4G and 5G connectivity options, and all-day battery life within a lightweight, stylish design. It is clearly a winning design when it comes to mobility. The 2-in-1 laptop’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G processor has its caveats, though. Its performance still can’t compete with that of modern AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processors, and software compatibility issues persist. These limitations may be tough to tolerate considering the Elite Folio’s premium price tag. BASIC FEATURES HP’s Elite Folio is available in either an 8GB RAM/16GB SSD fixed configuration on HP’s website for $1,889, or a configurable Elite Folio option that begins at $1,895.04. It’s worth noting that while the first option appears to be ready to ship, selecting the configurable option puts the…

If you like your dash cams small and unobtrusive, easy to use, with good day and night captures, then Garmin’s tiny, $130 Dash Cam Mini 2 is what you want. It’s so minuscule, it was completely hidden behind my MX-5 Miata’s dwarfish rearview mirror. That’s small. DESIGN AND FEATURES When we say small, we mean small: The Dash Cam Mini 2 measures a mere 1.23 inches wide by 2.1 inches tall by 1.5 inches deep, including the lens body, and weighs in at around an ounce. Garmin calls it car key size, but it’s walnut size in my book. Seriously, without a mini-USB cable attached, it’s easy to lose track of this tiny bit of tech in your backpack. I did—twice. Then I started leaving the cable attached. Said USB…

Electronic gear improves our lives, but it doesn’t often come cheap—bot for the big-ticket items, anyway. Laptops, TVs, desktop PCs, and smartphones still command hundreds of dollars. But you can save money on them if you know how to shop smart. Using these three strategies, you’ll be able to find deals before they become widely known. Our tips also help when you’re hunting for discounts on less popular items that don’t go on sale as often. Plus, they apply year-round, with an increased chance for major wins during big sale periods like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. 1. USE A PRICE MONITORING SERVICE Sites like Camelcamelcamel.com and Keepa.com don’t just show historical price information for products. If you install their affiliated browser extensions, you get instant, easy access to their price…

Battery life is an often vague and nebulous concept. In theory, it can be represented by a single number, but in practice, literally hundreds of factors can shorten or lengthen endurance. That’s frustrating when you’re trying to gauge the battery life and health of your notebook, especially if you’re trying to determine whether it’s time to buy a new laptop. Windows has a secret feature called Battery Report that can help. It’s what we use while testing notebook endurance at PCWorld. Here’s how to access Battery Report and understand what it reveals about the state of your laptop’s battery. HOW TO CREATE A BATTERY REPORT Battery Report is not a new feature, but it has remained under the radar because there’s no way to access it through Windows’ settings menus.…

The OnePlus Nord N200 5G took me by surprise. It costs just $240, yet I can’t believe how many great features it shares with the OnePlus 9 Pro, which costs almost four times as much. If you want fast 5G speeds and a great Android OS experience on a budget, then the N200 is worth a look. You can see the OnePlus Nord N200’s budget bones in the specifications below. Don’t be expecting the highest-end processor, gobs of RAM, or a luscious AMOLED display, such as the one you’ll find on the OnePlus 9 Pro. However, the N200 is still well sized, fairly thin and light, and adequately equipped. Price: $240 or $9/month (for 24 months) at T-Mobile and other carriers Size: 163.1x74.9x8.3 mm Weight: 189g Screen: 6.49-inch, 1080x2400 IPS 90Hz…

In 2021, crime doesn’t pay if you can’t be found on Google. That’s apparently what the creators of the new MosaicLoader family of malware discovered. PC security company Bitdefender recently published a whitepaper detailing the new malicious software that lures users to download it via paid ads…for pirated games. Bitdefender says MosaicLoader is delivered through downloaders that victims “seemingly” find when searching for pirated software such as games and other applications. It’s no secret that malware creators often target people downloading cracked software, but what’s interesting about MosaicLoader is how hard it works to avoid detection and how problematic it can be. “We named it MosaicLoader because of the intricate internal structure that aims to confuse malware analysts and prevent reverse-engineering,” Bitdefender said in a blog post. MosaicLoader does a number…

Framework wants you to take its laptop apart and repair it. Seriously. While most laptops are difficult, even impossible, to repair or upgrade, not only can this debut product from Framework be dismantled and upgraded, but the company actually encourages you to do it. We took an early-production Framework laptop for a whirl. While we have some issues with certain design choices, we have to say it’s refreshing to see a laptop made for upgrading and serviceability. For example, most laptop bezels and bodies are held together with plastic latches that snap the keyboard deck onto the bottom. While you can usually snap the two together after opening it to, say, swap out the SSD, do that enough times and the plastic latches will eventually break. Framework addresses this by…

The Seagate FireCuda 530 is currently the fastest NVMe SSD on the market. It not only bested the best of the rest in our real-world and synthetic benchmarks, but did so by a healthy margin in several tests. If you can afford it and you can find it, you won’t regret buying it. DESIGN AND SPECS The FireCuda 530 is a 2280 (22mm wide, 80mm long), PCIe 4 x4, NVMe SSD. Seagate, like many other vendors these days, is loath to reveal the fine details of its SSDs, so we’ve taken to stripping off the labels and reading the chip numbers. The 2TB model I tested has 2GB of SK Hynix DDR4 primary cache. It uses a Phison PS6108 controller, and it stores bits on 176-layer 3D Micron TLC (Triple-Level…

AMD is at last putting its latest generation of Ryzen 5000G APUs in the hands of DIY builders. These processors, with Vega-powered integrated graphics, let you play games without having a discrete GPU—a very welcome alternative after months of waiting for the sky-high prices on graphics cards to drop. Of course, this generation also provides the best performance you can get from a CPU. But perhaps you don’t relish the idea of chasing after yet another component likely to be in high demand. Or maybe you don’t want to deal with building your own PC right now, period. You’re in luck. You can find these two chips, plus the even more affordable Ryzen 3 5300G, in prebuilt machines right now. Here’s the best of the bunch, plus what you need to…

Can an iPad replace a laptop? That’s a question with an obvious answer: Yes, it can. It has a screen, runs apps, and can connect to the Internet. The real question is not whether an iPad can replace a laptop, but whether you can use it for that purpose without rage-quitting Google Docs and chucking it out a window. Again, the answer is yes—but it does take some effort, in both your setup and how you use your iPad. A KEYBOARD AND AN APPLE PENCIL ARE MANDATORY You’ll need a keyboard to use your iPad as a laptop replacement. I’m biased, of course, as you can bet I didn’t write this article on my iPad’s touchscreen. Still, nearly everyone needs to write or respond to emails, social media posts, and…

Windows 10 comes preloaded with a number of different font types (based on which language package you’re using), but you can also find a ton of different types of fonts (both free and paid) online. Installing these fonts on your Windows 10 PC is pretty simple. Here’s how. INSTALL FONTS USING THE SOURCE FILE You can quickly install a font using the font file’s context menu. When you download a font from the web, more often than not the files come in compressed ZIP folders. In this case, unzip the compressed files by right-clicking the folder and then selecting Extract All from the contextual menu. Next, decide where you want to unzip the files. Click Browse in the window that appears to open File Explorer. Once File Explorer is open, choose…