PCWorldOctober 2024的目錄

Berlin’s annual IFA electronics show isn’t typically a hotspot of PC news, since it follows hot on the heels of the computer-centric Computex in June. Instead, it’s usually more of a mobile and smart home event. But not this year! Intel used IFA to launch its hotly anticipated Lunar Lake Core Series Ultra 2 processors, packing a radical new architecture and seriously improved graphics chops. Not to be outgunned, Qualcomm revealed new 8-core variants of its Snapdragon X PC chips, aiming to bring multi-day battery life to sub-$900 laptops. The result? A flood of laptop announcements at IFA 2024. With so many notebook reveals crammed into such a short time span, however, the deluge felt a bit samey at times—but not with the delightfully unorthodox systems below, which lean on surprisingly…

The new Apple Intelligence within the new Apple iPhone 16 provides a surprisingly practical approach to AI. It’s straightforward, helpful, and well, boring—a stark contrast to Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs, which position themselves as the cusp of a revolutionary new era of computing, complete with a mandatory new keyboard button. Apple, which touts itself as the foundation for creative work, could have used AI to allow creatives to generate “photos” of imaginary objects, as Google’s Pixel now does. It could have used AI, either running locally on in the cloud, to produce AI-generated art, or AI-produced facsimiles of celebrity voices. It did none of that. Instead, the Apple iPhone 16 uses AI as a productivity tool, first and foremost, with a focus on supercharging existing features with machine smarts. Apple is…

Qualcomm launched a pair of 8-core variants of the Snapdragon X Plus Wednesday at the IFA show in Berlin in early September, expanding the reach of Windows on Arm products into what it says will be the $700 to $900 range. The Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chips, as they’re known, are also referred to by their cryptic product numbers, the X1P-46-100 and X1P-42-100. They sit at the bottom of Qualcomm’s hierarchy of Snapdragon X Elite processors, just under the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus chips that launched earlier this year, with a far smaller amount of cache memory. Qualcomm chief executive Cristiano Amon launched the new chips at a press conference in advance of the IFA show. “We have been on this journey to bring personal communication to personal computing systems,” he…

Adata makes very competitive SSDs, such as the Adata 970 I reviewed last fall. The drive maker stays that course with 970 Pro, while straying from the norm in a couple key ways. This SSD’s test results were a generally excellent yet mixed bag—it aced the 450GB write and multiple-queue CrystalDiskMark 8 tests, but slowed during the 48GB transfers and single-queue exams. FEATURES The 970 Pro is your standard 2280, NVMe M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD. One way it varies from the norm, and presumably earns its “Pro” moniker, is with its large heatsink cooled by a fan. You can see the power connector for the fan, as well as the rather beefy heatsink in the image above. The 970 Pro also differs from the no-Pro 970 by using an InnoGrit IG5666…

SteelSeries’ 2.0 speaker system, the Arena 3, made a great first impression on me with its clear, detailed sound and a power profile that can easily fill up a room with immersive audio. Its useful mix of wired and wireless connectivity conveniently took care of my gaming and other audio needs. It was also a cinch to set up and use. Read on to find out more. DESIGN AND SIZE Pulling the Arena 3 system out of the box, I noticed two things: Firstly, the two speakers are of medium height—they measure 4.13×7.72×4.97 inches, with each of the two units about the size of a cantaloupe. That makes them a lot bigger than other 2.0 speaker systems like the Creative Pebble Pro. Secondly, the all-black design with simple black-on-black SteelSeries…

Robot vacuums have become a staple in many homes, offering a convenient way to keep floors clean with minimal effort. But getting the most out of your robot vacuum isn’t as simple as pressing “start” and walking away. A little strategy is needed to enhance its performance, extend its lifespan, and ensure your floors are as clean as possible. Whether you’re a new owner or a seasoned user, these practical tips will help you maximize your robot vacuum’s effectiveness and make it a trusted household helper. 1. PLACE THE CHARGING DOCK IN AN ACCESSIBLE LOCATION It might seem like a small detail, but the location of your robot vacuum’s charging dock can make a huge difference in terms of battery life and cleaning efficiency. Place the charging dock in an…

It’s the same thing every vacation: The photo collection grows and grows and grows, with dozens of photos added every day. The easiest way to back up your photos is via cloud storage; you can then store them in Apple’s iCloud, on Google Drive, on Microsoft OneDrive, or in the online storage of a third-party provider. However, this is only a temporary solution, because after your vacation you should review the pictures on your home PC, sort out duplicates and unsuccessful ones, and edit the others if necessary. If you only have the limited data quota of free storage available, you will have to move files saved online to your PC from time to time anyway and archive them there. When moving and deleting files in the cloud, you can…

If you’re wondering why you need Intel’s latest Core Ultra laptop processors, code-named Lunar Lake, the answer isn’t a simple one. If you want to buy a Lunar Lake laptop, however, you’ll probably understand the differences between the various chips almost immediately. Intel unveiled the Core Ultra Series 2 at a launch event in Berlin in early September. In total, there are nine new Lunar Lake processors, which will have begun shipping inside laptops from PC makers like Acer, Asus, HP, and Lenovo by the time you read this (they were scheduled to launch September 24). A few months ago, Intel unveiled the guts of the new Lunar Lake architecture, offering a sneak peek into how much performance it will offer and how much power it will consume. Today we…

Time has run out—Kaspersky antivirus finished its U.S. shutdown in September. In June, the Russia-based company was classified as a risk to national security, resulting in a ban on operations inside the U.S. and on any hardware owned by U.S. residents. If you’re still using Kaspersky, you’ll need to remove the app from your PC and switch to replacement software that will continue to get regular updates. For free users, the simple choice is to fall back to Windows Defender, while paid users get an automatic rollover to rival company Pangos’ UltraAV software at no cost. But should Windows Defender lack features—or UltraAV’s lower prominence cause concern—and you want a closer replacement for Kaspersky and its features, you can try one of the options below. BEST AV REPLACEMENT FOR KASPERSKY STANDARD PLAN…

Google is changing how Chrome extensions work on the desktop and Chromebooks. While the Manifest V3 changes are billed as ways to improve safety and efficiency, the way they also limit the way ad-blocking extensions like uBlock Origin currently work has drawn a lot of criticism. I’m sure the fact that Google is the world’s biggest advertising company has nothing to do with it. Personally I’d recommend changing browsers. Chrome has been getting under my skin lately, so that’s exactly what I did, and there are plenty of alternatives that will remain compatible with current Chromium extensions for longer than Chrome itself. But if you want to stick with Chrome (or you’re using a Chromebook and you don’t really have a choice), here are four alternatives that have already been upgraded…

The Acer Nitro 14 is a gaming laptop that’s all about value. I have a soft spot for this type of laptop: Expensive gaming laptops are impressive, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money for a great gaming experience. There’s something beautiful about any laptop that delivers solid performance at a low price. But you’ll have to accept some compromises to keep the price down. SPECS The Acer Nitro 14 includes an eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU. AMD launched the Ryzen 8000 CPUs back in December 2023. It’s not one of AMD’s latest Ryzen AI CPUs, which are just rolling out, but it’s a solid CPU with reasonable gaming performance, as we’ll see in the benchmarks. The Nitro 14 also includes an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU,…

The Dell XPS 13 (9345) takes most of what we already saw in the Dell XPS 13 (9340)—-a thin, light, and stylish system that focused a little too much on style and not enough on substance next to its competition—and loads it with new brains in the form of a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. While the Intel-powered XPS 13 was already on shaky ground, the shift to Snapdragon only gives this new version even less stable footing to compete with the many great laptops out there. Snapdragon might promise advanced AI capabilities over the current field, but with so many AI capabilities in wait-and-see limbo, it’s probably worth waiting and seeing if the impending AMD and Intel mobile chips don’t just catch up on the NPU front and then continue…

As a tech journalist who also runs a free tech advice newsletter, I maintain a pretty lean operation. I’m always buying more tech for “research purposes,” but I’m reluctant to pay anything close to full price when I do. Waiting around for deals is one way to defray the costs. But what if I need something now? Or what if the deals aren’t good enough? That’s when I turn to the used, refurbished, and open-box markets. If you know where to look—and what to look for—you can essentially will your own price cuts into existence and still get good-as-new gadgets. Here are my go-to sources for acquiring used, refurbished, and open-box gadgets on the cheap. At the end of this article, I also share a few tips and warnings to…

Never before has it been easier to clone a human voice. New AI tools can take a voice sample, process it, copy it, and say anything in the original voice. It’s been a thing since as early as 2018, but modern tools can do it faster, more accurately, and with greater ease. Don’t believe it? OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, presented a project this year that showed how it’s possible to clone a voice with nothing more than a 15-second recording. OpenAI’s tool isn’t yet publicly available and it’s said to have security measures in place to prevent misuse. However, Eleven Labs offers a similar service—you can clone a voice from a one-minute audio sample for just $6—and this one is available to everyone. You can see how this…

When Windows 10 launched, its new Settings app was slated to eventually take over for the Windows Control Panel—and yet that conglomeration of settings is still very much alive and kicking. Talk of its impending demise has never gone away, though, with new chatter surfacing recently. Most Windows users probably are fine with that move. I am not. Sure, the Windows Control Panel looks like a relic. It gets less use than its successor. And its layout isn’t always the fastest to navigate. But the Settings app is an imperfect replacement. For starters, it’s missing the full range of settings available in the Control Panel. (That’s a failure on Microsoft’s part, and one that’s lasted for almost 10 years at this point.) The interface isn’t always the easiest to quickly…

In 2023, Microsoft announced that the Mail, Calendar, and People apps on Windows were officially coming to an end and would be replaced by Outlook for Windows. Those apps are still available on the Microsoft Store, but only until December 31, 2024. From then on, we’ll only have Outlook for Windows—and up until now, that’s been a sore point for many users who have criticized the newer app’s lack of many features from the older apps. But it seems as if Microsoft has listened and taken the criticism to heart. According to Windows Latest, you can expect to see around 30 new features added to the Outlook app later this year. The new features will include support for PST files, better control over email retention lengths, and the ability to…

Sometimes you get a laptop that exceeds your expectations in surprising ways. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 (just Yoga 9i from here on out) does exactly that. Look at it and you might think it’s just another 2-in-1 laptop folds around to tablet mode. But this laptop has a party trick that I absolutely love. That isn’t to say the Yoga 9i is perfect, of course. What you have, as is the case with every laptop, is a bundle of compromises, a device that asks: What’s most important to you? If it’s gaming, you give up battery life. If it’s productivity, you give up fun. And if it’s sleek portability, like the Yoga 9i, you give up ports and spacious keyboard. SPECS If you’re going to spend $1,500…

The flood of ultrawide monitors with a Samsung QD-OLED display panel has turned into a tsunami. Every monitor maker has at least one, and many have several. However, the new MSI MPG 341CQPX floats atop this deluge with several features that few, if any, competitors offer. That includes a 240Hz refresh rate and a USB-C port with 98 watts of Power Delivery. The MPG 341CQPX isn’t perfect, but its advantages are notable. SPECS AND FEATURES At a glance, the MSI MPG 341CQPX’s specifications look a lot like those of competitive QD-OLED monitors. It’s a 34-inch panel with a resolution of 3440×1440, it supports Adaptive Sync, and it has a wide variety of ports, including USB-C. Display size: 34-inch ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3440×1440 Panel type: QD-OLED Refresh rate:…

Two years ago I weighed 330 pounds. That’s just shy of 150 kilograms, if you’re not using Freedom Units. On August 7 my scale showed 229.4 pounds (104 kilos). While that’s by no means slim for a 5-foot-10 man, and I intend to lose more, I think it’s fair to say I’m now closer to “chunky” than obese. And a small but meaningful part of that weight loss is thanks to a VR game. Since I know a lot of you are scanning this article and just want me to get to the point: It’s Ragnarock. That’s the VR game. You can buy it on Steam, the Meta Quest Store, or the PlayStation Store. There are demos to try out on all platforms. Now stick around if you want the…

Ah, it’s good to be a god. That’s what they say, right? While you may not be a deity in your own right, you can be something of a god when using Windows 11—by enabling the hidden God Mode. God Mode isn’t unique to Windows 11. In fact, it’s one of those little-known functions that were carried over from previous Windows versions, and it only persists to this day for who knows what reason. With God Mode, you’re able to open up the operating system and tweak settings that are normally stashed away beyond reach. You’re able to tinker and tweak to your delight, and there are some useful commands and tools for everyday users as well. Becoming one of the pantheon isn’t as difficult as you might think. With…