PCWorldの June 2022 の目次

Google has become synonymous with powerful search, incredible hardware, and quirky, fun technology. Unfortunately, that includes stretching the limits of privacy and a reputation for giving up on its product lines too soon. But these negatives notwithstanding, Google is at it again at its Google I/O event near its company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., enticing developers and consumers alike with a number of new hardware products, software and services. Yes, Google just revealed new Pixel phones, including the Pixel 6A and the Pixel 7. But those weren’t the coolest technologies Google showed off on Wednesday. The stuff below is even cooler. (And for more coverage, check out our stories on Google’s new privacy controls, the new Pixel Watch, and the new Immersive Mode in Maps.) IMMERSIVE VIEW IN GOOGLE…

Today, Dell announced the Dell Latitude 9330, a 13.3-inch convertible laptop optimized for videoconferencing, with controls baked into the touchpad and a camera that slides shut when not in use. The Latitude 9330, like many laptops, already includes universal mic controls in the row of function keys at the top of the keyboard. That key can be used to turn the mic on and off for all applications. But a secondary “key”—more like a region of the touchpad—can also be used to mute or unmute yourself during a video call. Three other webcam “buttons” can be used to open a chat window, share your screen, and enable or disable the camera. The Latitude 9330 will be part of the new generation of laptops that use Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake processor,…

The wait for AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D and its exciting new V-Cache technology is over. At long last, this revolutionary processor finally hit retail shelves on April 20. But unlike other Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, this particular chip shines in specific scenarios—and dulls a bit in others. Last week’s drop of independent benchmarks explains the full story, but you don’t have to comb through endless charts to understand the situation. We’ve pulled out the top pieces of information to get you up to speed quickly—and help you decide if the 5800X3D is for you. IT’S FAST IN GAMES… Among its fellow Ryzen 5000 CPUs, the 5800X3D takes the crown as the fastest of the bunch in gaming. At 1080p High or Ultra, it improves upon the standard 5800X’s performance by as…

The Dell U3223QE looks like any past Dell Ultrasharp monitor. But this one has a trick up its sleeve: It’s among the first monitors to use LG’s new IPS Black panel technology. IPS Black is a new iteration of IPS panel tech that promises to boost contrast by lowering the deepest, darkest shade of black the panel can achieve. SPECIFICATIONS The Dell U3223QE is part of the company’s Ultrasharp line of business and professional monitors. Ultrasharp is not the very best Dell offers in this field—that honor goes to Dell’s far less common Ultrasharp PremierColor line—but it’s a high-end display by most metrics. It has a 31.5-inch, 4K panel that promises to deliver up to 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Display size: 31.5-inch Native resolution: 3,840x2,160 Panel type:…

If you’ve had your eyes on Samsung’s fast USB 10Gbps T7 Touch, but you weren’t sure it was suitable for your rough-and-tumble environment, your conundrum is at an end. The latest iteration in the T7 series—the T7 Shield—is IP65 rated to withstand a wet weather and offers additional protection against shock (though admittedly, shock is a bigger deal for portable hard drives than it is for portable SSDs). This is another top-tier USB drive from Samsung. DESIGN The Samsung T7 Shield is a USB 10Gbps enclosure with an NVMe SSD inside. We’re a bit surprised the latest version didn’t opt for 20Gbps USB, though admittedly, such ports are pretty rare and will remain so until full USB4 implementations become the norm. The T7 Shield is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities…

There’s a neat symmetry to the 10th anniversary of Intel’s NUC, which was first revealed to the world in 2012. In ten years the NUC group (which stands for Next Unit of Computing) has sold over 10 million of its unique miniature PCs. If that surprises you, brace yourself: Those devices are split across a jaw-dropping 600 configurations. The scope and selection of NUC flies under the radar of even PC enthusiasts, who know NUC best for its eye-catching but relatively modest line of pint-size powerhouses. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Brian McCarson, vice president and general manager of Intel’s NUC group. “We’re just getting warmed up.” FROM CONCEPT TO REVOLUTION The NUC began with a simple concept. What if a desktop computer was just…smaller? Like, really…

Microsoft has been gradually edging away from Internet Explorer for years now. The company has instead been pushing the growth of its faster and more secure web browser, Microsoft Edge. In fact, Microsoft is officially retiring Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022. There’s no need to worry about those old sites that don’t work well on modern browsers, though. Microsoft Edge includes a feature called Internet Explorer Mode. This feature was primarily designed for businesses that need to load internal sites without having to update or redesign them, but it also works for the average person just wanting to experience older sites that haven’t been updated for modern browsers. To use Internet Explorer Mode in Edge, launch Edge and click the ellipsis (…) button in the top-right corner of the window. In…

Odds are good that if you have a desktop computer, you spend a lot of time sitting at your desk, either for business or for pleasure. So why shouldn’t your desk be as comfy and efficient as possible? While upgrading your computer can often take serious dough (especially these days), you can spend a lot less to improve your workstation itself in some surprising ways. Here are ten ways to improve your workstation for under $100, presented in no particular order. Most of these cost less than $50, and many are under $25! 1. A FANCY DESK MAT No matter what kind of mouse you use or what kind of desk you use it on, you need something in between to protect both of them. A $10 mousepad will do…

Intel has announced the 12th-gen Alder Lake-HX (12th-gen Core HX) processor series, splitting the difference between an extreme gaming processor and one designed for workstations and content creation. The flagship, the Core i9-12950HX, is the company’s first 16-core chip designed for laptops and will run as fast as 5GHz across its eight performance cores and eight efficiency cores. If the product designation sounds familiar, it should. AMD launched its own Ryzen 5900HX at CES in January, which they called the “world’s best processor for gamers.” While Intel isn’t making a similar claim, the company is saying you’ll see this chip in the most extreme gaming laptops as part of Intel’s H-series chips for enthusiasts. Daniel Rogers, senior director of mobile product marketing within Intel’s Client Computing Division, said that the 12th-gen…

Twitter’s reputation for being a place flooded with memes, hot takes, and abundant photos of meals isn’t unfounded. But there’s still a use for Twitter even if you don’t love arguing with internet strangers or wading through endless jokes. In fact, it can save you time and headache when used judiciously. Here’s how. 1. BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE Few things irritate (or spark full-on rage) as much as shoddy customer service. When chat or phone isn’t connecting you to anyone who can help, try Twitter instead. All kinds of businesses are easy to reach via Twitter, including banks and some utilities. You should first check a company’s tweets and replies to see if it responds to customer inquiries (and how quickly), but these days most companies do. Some even have dedicated…

GeForce Now is Nvidia’s cloud-based game-streaming service. For those who aren’t familiar with this concept, it means that Nvidia provides the hardware firepower via its own media servers. Instead of you installing a game to your PC and needing an expensive GPU to get the most out of it, you just need a strong, stable internet connection and a subscription to Nvidia’s service, which can range from free to $20 per month. Note: The games themselves are not provided at any subscription level—more on that point when we talk about games below. THE PLANS GeForce Now currently offers three tiers: Free, Priority, and RTX 3080. GeForce Now is currently the only major cloud gaming service offering a Free access plan. While many services offer a temporary free trial, the GeForce…

Keeping your Android phone secure without security software is doable, but for some people it’s just plain risky. That’s especially true if you open a lot of files on your phone from email or messaging platforms, or if you are, shall we say, a little too liberal with the kinds of apps you’re willing to install—even if they are from the Play Store. If you want to make sure your Android device is secure from these threats and others, an antivirus app can help. In fact, there are a bunch of completely free ones in Google Play, but you want to make sure you’re getting security from a known and reputable company. Because there’s only one thing worse than getting pwned by an app you downloaded from Google Play: getting…

Windows 11 isn’t bad. Yes, we’ve called Windows 11 “unnecessary,” and we still feel that the average person has no need to make the transition to an unfamiliar, restrictive operating system. But it would be unfair to say that Windows 11 hasn’t taken any steps ahead, either—yes, beyond Windows 10. So we’re calling them out, right here and right now. I myself use Windows 11 on a daily basis, as part and parcel of my coverage here at PCWorld. As part of our “Windows 11 at six months” reexamination of Windows, about the only aspect of Windows 11 that I refuse to use is the Start menu. It’s simply poorly organized and offers little value. I do think that eventually you’ll upgrade your PC to Windows 11 if you haven’t done so…

Traveling is once again becoming common these days, whether to far-distant locales for a vacation or just down to the local cafe to enjoy the ambiance. That means it’s time to bring back old familiar practices, too. Like everything else we’re having to relearn (how does small talk work again?), good practices security on public Wi-Fi might need a bit of a refresher. People can snoop on what sites you access, which is a privacy issue as well as a potential security problem. Here are four quick tips that’ll keep you protected while you’re out and about. BE MINDFUL ABOUT WHAT NETWORKS YOU JOIN Your first line of defense is wisely choosing the public networks you join, especially if you’re lax about your other protective measures. Anyone can scan the…

It’s very likely that the Microsoft Adaptive Mouse, Microsoft Adaptive Hub, and Microsoft Adaptive Buttons are the coolest PC peripherals Microsoft has ever made. The three PC peripherals were introduced at Microsoft’s Ability Summit, which showcases and elevates the ways the company is trying to make its technologies more accessible for those with disabilities. But what’s so fascinating about the new peripherals is that they can be universally beneficial to a variety of users. For instance, the Adaptive Mouse is actually modular, so that it can be swapped between right-handed and left-handed users simply by switching the thumb support. All three peripherals will be released later this year for an as-yet-undisclosed price, Microsoft said. Like many Microsoft hardware designs, the new peripherals build on work Microsoft engineers have performed previously.…

Amazon might be feeling the competition in the e-reader market for the first time since…well, ever. Kindle e-readers use their own proprietary Amazon format to display e-books, AZW3, which keeps most users from loading up a bunch of copyright-free books in the most common ePub format. But thanks to a new software rollout, the underutilized Kindle Documents Service now automatically converts ePub files to Kindle-friendly AZW3. Combined with the Send to Kindle tool, that makes it much, much easier to shoot an ePub file over the local Wi-Fi network to your Kindle reader in a few short seconds, either via the desktop or uploaded on the web. The change was spotted by Good E-Reader. It was previously possible to convert ePub files to another format, like Mobi, then manually transfer them…

It’s finally happening. After several years of teases, leaks, hints, and one extremely soft desktop graphics card, Intel’s debut Arc discrete GPUs are finally arriving in mainstream notebooks like the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro and Lenovo Slim 7i. But how well do they perform? To find out, I paid a visit to Intel’s Jones Farm campus in Portland, Ore., where Intel invited me to put an Arc A370M reference laptop (based off MSI’s Summit E16 Flip Evo) through the wringer. I was given a little more than an hour to test Intel’s entry-level GPU using benchmarks of my choosing, in a similar arrangement to our recent early performance preview for 12th-gen Core i9 laptop processors. Bottom line? Intel might just be getting started in discrete graphics, but Arc’s results are already…

A decade has passed since Lenovo introduced the first Yoga 2-in-1. Though Microsoft’s Surface devices set the trend, it was arguably the high-volume Yoga line that became the true vanguard of mainstream convertible design. Lenovo’s Yoga 9i 14-inch (2022) builds on this decade of experience in all the right ways. From the thin profile to the powerful internals, this year’s model delivers blazing-fast performance in a tiny package. Although the fan noise can be a bit loud and we feel as though it relies too much on USB-C, overall we were impressed with this machine. SPECIFICATIONS The Lenovo Yoga 9i 14-inch is among the first laptops with Intel’s new 12th-Gen Core mobile processors targeting thin-and-light machines. Though thin, the laptop packs four performance cores and eight efficiency cores for a…

Chrome Remote Desktop is the most obvious remote desktop solution for most users, and, as far as we know, the only solution for Chromebooks. It’s easy to use, it covers the basics including file transfers, and it offers both fixed remote control and one-off screen sharing for those don’t share your Google. It’s available on any operating system that supports Chrome, including iOS and Android. Chrome Remote Desktop has some limitations that will affect pros, but none that will significantly impact the majority of users. INSTALLATION AND DESIGN There are two ways to use Chrome Remote Desktop: by adding clients to your account and defining permanent PINs for anytime access, or by having helpees generate a one-time access code for a single screen-sharing (with control) session. The first example is…

Whenever someone sends me a question about how to fix their Wi-Fi, I wince. It’s not that I dislike helping people with their router problems. In fact, there are few geeky endeavors I find more rewarding than fixing Wi-Fi connection issues at a friend or family member’s home. But Wi-Fi has always felt more like a dark art than a science, and it’s an art that’s hard to conjure without being physically present. Potential points of failure are everywhere, and what works well in one home might not in another. Even the reviewers of networking gear can reach drastically different conclusions about the very same product. Wi-Fi is fundamentally at odds, then, with my desire to answer questions with specific recommendations. The best I can do is walk your through…