Must Have Products

Intel claimed Saturday that its new Iris Xe Max graphics can outperform Nvidia’s GeForce MX350 in gaming, and even top a GeForce RTX 2080 in some encoding tasks. How it does that—through power sharing, and an Intel technology called Deep Link—could make the package of an 11th-gen Core Tiger Lake CPU and an Iris Xe Max GPU a spec to look for in future laptops. Code-named DG1, Intel’s first discrete GPU since 1998’s Intel i740 will appear in mainstream thin-and-light PCs like the  Acer Swift 3x , Asus VivoBook Flip TP470, and Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1. The Iris Xe Max faces off against Nvidia’s GeForce MX350 and MX450 , both discrete mobile GPUs that split the difference between a gaming-class mobile GPU and the integrated graphics included in mobile Ryzen and Core processors. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2Jliewd

Google Meet has started rolling out a new feature that allows desktop users to change their backgrounds during a video call. The platform has introduced a set of default images that video callers can use to change the background. It includes office spaces, landscapes, and abstract backdrops. Google also offer the option to upload your own image as a background. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3jGdqOF

Alphabet's Google must tell a district court how it will respond to a federal antitrust lawsuit by mid-November, with the two sides making initial disclosures later in the month, US Judge Amit Mehta said in a brief order Friday. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/37W5Gpm

October may not have matched September’s deluge of product announcements, but it still brought a couple of zingers. We’ve highlighted the best of the bunch, along with a few items that launched this month so you don’t miss out. (Shortages are a real thing these days.) At this point, we’re starting to move past announcements into product arrivals. Still, a couple of major reveals happened. The biggest is AMD’s Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards—and the bold claim that its top-end card matches (and sometimes even beats ) Nvidia’s beefy RTX 3090. October 2020’s top product announcements AMD Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards AMD AMD's Big Navi graphics cards look like they'll give Nvidia a run for its money. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/34GUqLo

If you’re been trying in vain to buy an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 over the last month, now you’ll be able to miss out on a free copy of the hotly anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War , too. Kidding, kidding. But if you’re lucky enough to pick up one of Nvidia’s hard-to-get “Ampere” graphics cards (or a prebuilt PC with one inside) by December 10, you’ll get a free copy of CODBOCW (lol) too. As usual with this sort of deal, you’ll need to purchase your hardware through participating retailers. You can find a list of those on Nvidia’s dedicated Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War bundle page . To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jB7iHm

YouTube Music now lets you hide music videos that you have liked on YouTube. However, this doesn’t work both ways – the songs you have liked on YouTube Music will still show up on YouTube’s video platform. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2JmoQdR

Celebrating Halloween virtually, Google has brought the iconic “Magic Cat Academy” Doodle game back to its homepage. The game, which was originally launched in 2016, features a cat called Momo that is on her mission “to rescue her school of magic” from “mischievous spirits”. Apart from the Doodle game, Google has brought Halloween characters in augmented r... from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/31YpNzp

Google is also adding a new Data Alert feature on Android TVs to keeps you informed about your data usage while watching TV. These alerts will show up on the bottom of your screen, every time you use up a specified amount of data. Users can select when they want to see these alerts. There are options to get alerts when you use 100MB, 500MB, and 1GB of data can be chos... from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3kIBvFF

Add DirectX 12 Ultimate to the list of stickers and logos you’ll want to look for while buying PC hardware. In March, Microsoft announced DirectX 12 Ultimate , which encapsulates many of the next-gen PC hardware and Xbox Series X technologies that Microsoft is now explicitly encouraging consumers to buy: DirectX Raytracing (DXR) tier 1.1, Variable Rate Shading tier 2, mesh shaders, and more. DirectX 12 Ultimate didn’t  seem like a brand, just a collection of technologies governing the features of graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founder’s Edition , as well as AMD’s RX 6800 series, too. Apparently, Microsoft thinks differently. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jBigMY

Apple's iPhone 12 is so good, even Pro users might want to consider buying it. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/37SsI0f

The 2.1-channel MagniFi 2 soundbar from Polk Audio does a solid job at delivering virtualized 3D audio, but gets tripped up by its mediocre bass response. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3kIqWTd

Nvidia’s Ampere-powered $500 GeForce RTX 3070 plows through games just as quickly as the RTX 2080 Ti, last generation’s blistering $1,200 flagship, as we covered in-depth in our comprehensive Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition review . You need a pixel-packed monitor to get the most out of it, though. Most people stick to straight 1440p or 4K monitors, but if you prefer a more immersive experience, a 3440x1440 ultrawide display would also be a fine fit for Nvidia’s newest graphics card. 3440 ultrawide splits the performance difference between a 4k and 1440p display in terms of raw pixel count. We’ve previously conducted 3440x1440 ultrawide testing for both the $700 GeForce RTX 3080 and $1500 GeForce RTX 3090 . Here’s how the more affordable option in Nvidia’s RTX 30-series launch lineup stands up, both against those cards as well as the RTX 2080 Ti that Nvidia is so keen to compare it against. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3...

YouTube Music and YouTube Premium paid subscriber base hit three crore subscribers, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed while announcing the company’s quarterly results. The latest number shows an increment from the two crore paid subscribers announced late last year. Alongside YouTube Music and Premium growth, Pichai mentioned that YouTube TV surpassed the mark... from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2TC8yzh

Representatives of Paytm and Google on Thursday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee that is deliberating upon the various facets of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2JlL3bZ

Alphabet's Google said on Thursday it plans to launch a VPN service for consumers that would be available with certain subscription plans for its Google One cloud storage services. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3mB5rnP

Google-parent Alphabet said Thursday its profit climbed to $11.2 billion (roughly Rs. 83,300 crores) in the latest quarter, beating expectations, as ad spending rebounded after being hit by the pandemic. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/35L2F8F

Big Tech powerhouses delivered robust quarterly earnings reports, leveraging the needs of pandemic-hit consumers amid heightened scrutiny of their economic power. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3jKy14e

As Microsoft moves past the Windows 10 October 2020 Update, speculation has begun: What  is the future, exactly? A new Windows Insider build that  removes features is raising more questions. Microsoft released Windows Insider Preview Build 20246 into the Dev Channel on Thursday, with the usual caveat that the Dev Channel includes code that may or may not ever come to light. It’s possible, then, that removing some of the features Microsoft had previously tested simply represents a tidying up of sorts, or a recognition that they simply weren’t viable for future releases. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2HHbY14

With the pandemic still surging, your business has almost assuredly shifted toward remote work. Indicators show that this could well become the new normal, but does your organization have the right tools and hardware to accommodate this seismic shift without cutting into worker productivity? Even before COVID-19, IDC research showed that 62% of organizations surveyed had started allowing flexibility when it comes to remote work. This spring, everything changed when the pandemic triggered a near-global work-from-home mandate in near real time. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3eeNlF9

It’s tempting with the rapid rise of remote work due to COVID-19 to think that out of sight is out of mind when it comes to your PCs. If your employees can still hop on a video call, they must be working at maximum productivity. The truth is much more complicated. If your organization, like so many others, has a four-year PC refresh cycle, the new wave of remote work should, if anything, accelerate that cycle. Even before the current global health crisis, users were becoming  more mobile than ever before, raising risks around security, flexibility, efficiency and efficacy. While the precautionary and voluntary remote work continues, IT staff is also facing unprecedented challenges. Onboarding employees, supporting current ones, and maintaining systems for maximum productivity are challenges they are struggling to solve, all while trying to stay afloat with their higher-level duties. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/31UbjAw

As companies muscle through on-going economic and logistical shifts, many are recognizing the need for more robust and flexible mobile PC solutions to empower their remote workers. The changes have ushered in a need to get more out of a business notebook. With breakthrough performance, long-lasting battery life, and an array of professional manageability features that help enable secure and productive remote work without draining IT resources,  AMD Ryzen™ PRO 4000 series processors are defining a new standard for modern business PCs. These processors provide organizations with enterprise-grade computing horsepower in a sleek, mobile form factor, eliminating the need to choose between the flexibility of a laptop or desktop-grade performance. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3kAukzn

Intel confirmed that its 11th-gen next-generation desktop processor, Rocket Lake, will ship during the first quarter of 2021, and with double-digit IPC performance improvements. Rocket Lake-S, as Intel is referring to it, will include PCI Express 4.0, to boot. Intel added more details to its disclosure of Rocket Lake on October 29, disclosing the double-digit instructions-per-clock (IPC) performance improvements that the new desktop architecture, called Cypress Cove, will bring. Since Intel is referring to Rocket Lake as an 11th-gen part, Intel is essentially saying that the Rocket Lake-S family will deliver more than 10 percent more IPC performance than Ice Lake-S, which includes the Intel Core i9-10900K . In terms of overall performance, though, Intel was much more cagey, promising a rather obvious "better" generation-over-generation improvement. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jE4ysE

No, you didn’t wake up in 1999. But the next time you take a trip to a Verizon store, you’re going to see a new phone on shelves alongside the iPhone 12 and Pixel 5 that might seem like you traveled back in time. As part of the new Yahoo Mobile MVNO that launched back in March, Verizon is selling a new Yahoo phone for $50 with a very-90s purple back and a very-late-2000s mindset. It’s the first smartphone slapped with Yahoo’s branding and as expected, it’s loaded with Yahoo apps. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3ozhDr7

The GeForce RTX 3070 is a fantastic GPU, delivering face-melting performance on a par with that of the former $1,200 RTX 2080 Ti flagship for a stunning $700 less , as we covered in our comprehensive RTX 3070 Founders Edition review. Nvidia’s Founders Edition is a fine option if you plan to simply stick your graphics card into your system and get to playing. But if you want to push your hardware’s performance to the brink of what’s possible, consider EVGA’s GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra. Like the fantastic EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra , this 3070 incarnation costs a steep premium—$610, versus the Nvidia FE’s $500—but you’re paying for every overclocking-friendly feature you could ask for. While Nvidia shrank the RTX 3070 Founders Edition design, which affected noise levels, EVGA stuck to a beefy 3-slot build for the FTW3 Ultra, using heavy metal to tame the Ampere GPU inside. EVGA supplemented the massive cooler with all sorts of tools that make it easier to top the 3DMark leaderboards, l...

Microsoft on Thursday leaned more heavily into its support for “data types” within Excel, going beyond the staid concept of numbers and formulas to embrace a huge variety of elements that could reside within a single cell. Microsoft calls data types the “third dimension” of an otherwise two-dimensional Excel cell, and it’s easy to see why. In 2019, Microsoft introduced the first two data types: “stocks” and “geography.” If you input a stock symbol into a cell, and then identify it as a stock symbol using the  Data > Data Types > Stocks identifier, the term “MSFT” opens the door to numerous fields of live data which can be set as separate cells, columns or more. You can always get the latest data by tapping the “Refresh data” button within Excel. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jDXYm5

Google is experimenting with a new feature on the Play Store that will allow users to directly compare two or more apps, as per a report. The ‘Compare apps’ section appears on an individual app listing towards the bottom of the page and displays other popular apps similar to the listing. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3jEDhq6

If Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser fails to open your favorite sites soon, there’s a reason: Microsoft will block those sites from opening in Internet Explorer, and will require them to be opened in Edge instead. Although Microsoft has long tried to get rid of Internet Explorer for years for security’s sake, the ancient browser clings to 5 percent of the worldwide browser market . Preventing sites from opening within Explorer is a new way for Microsoft to “encourage” users to abandon Microsoft’s legacy browser and adopt Edge instead. The change, however, doesn’t actually mean that you have to stop using Internet Explorer; you just have to stop using the Internet Explorer browser . (We’ll explain.) To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2HHie9c

TVision by T-Mobile is cheaper and more flexible than other live streaming options. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2G9BQCr

This simple outdoor smart plug is hampered by erratic operation. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2HHQTUc

Google is renaming a button on Chromebook’s keyboard to ‘Everything Button.' The button was formerly referred to as the Search or Launcher button and is located between the Shift and Tab buttons on the left of Chromebook’s keyboard. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/31RoK4l

A US Senate hearing to hold tech companies accountable for how they moderate content turned into a political scuffle as lawmakers not only went after the companies but also attacked each other. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3kFhL5M

Google has launched a new campaign to counter the European Union's push for tough new tech rules and is lobbying hard against EU's digital chief and spelling out the costs of new regulations, according to a Google internal document. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3kEu6Hw

Beginning in late November, Google is making a small, but critical change to how Google Drive opens Microsoft Office documents, both on the web and on Chromebooks: They will open immediately into Office editing mode. Chrome Unboxed , which noticed the change to Google’s Workspace suite of apps, also correctly characterized the change as an essential one to how users interact with Microsoft 365 or Office documents within Chromebooks.  To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3mxgxKm

On December 31, Adobe Flash Player will go out of support. A new Windows patch, however, will allow you to get a jump on things. Microsoft detailed the process to remove support for Adobe Flash Player as part of a new support document , which links to the patch itself for various Windows platforms. As Microsoft warns, however, the process is a one-way street: Once installed, the patch cannot be uninstalled—though you could reinstall Windows if you were desperate. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3kCOGrV

Welcome back to the high end, AMD. For the first time since the days of the Radeon R9 290X—seven long years ago—AMD’s Radeon group is prepared to unleash enthusiast-level graphics cards that can do battle with Nvidia’s best and brightest. During the company’s second “Where Gaming Begins” event on Wednesday, AMD revealed a trio of Radeon GPUs based on a new RDNA 2 architecture, all armed with “revolutionary Infinity Cache” technology, sky-high clock speeds, and interesting synergies with Ryzen . They take direct aim at Nvidia’s RTX 30-series offerings, culminating in a $999 Radeon RX 6900 XT that seeks to seize the gaming crown from the monstrous $1500 GeForce RTX 3090 when it launches December 8—for $500 less than Nvidia’s beastly GPU costs. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3e4Z74N

Apple seems to be escalating its developments to build a search engine rivalling Google’s iconic Search. Although, the Cupertino company has been speculated to build its Google Search alternative for quite some time now, the latest presumption is based on the enhanced search functionality offered on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 that doesn’t require Google support to answe... from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34B9s5p

Apart from delivering intrusive ads outside the app, these 21 apps also frequently hide their icons so they can’t be deleted, and also hide behind relevant-looking advertisements which makes them hard to identify. Sensor Tower notes that these apps have been downloaded approximately eight million times so far. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2TtChum

Teach an old dog new tricks Image by Intel Free Press There’s a reason that unboxing videos and the phrase “new car smell” are firmly ensconced in the public groupmind. New stuff is exciting! New stuff is (theoretically) better! New stuff is just plain cool . To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jDsKLP

Q: Looking at common CPUs for PC building and the specs for the upcoming next-generation consoles, I’ve found myself wondering: Will we need 8-core, 16-thread CPUs for gaming soon? No, not in the near future. High core-count processors with simultaneous multi-threading may be more common now, thanks to AMD, but gaming won’t require today’s more expensive processors just yet. Single-threaded performance is still a strong factor, and also, game development take years. Titles launching soon have been influenced by common hardware of the past.  In the mid-to-longer term future, we will likely see an increase in games making use of more cores and threads—a growing number already exist in the wild, and PC hardware only continues to outdo itself every year. But the change will still be gradual for the reasons cited above. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3oygBeP

Google Drive on the Web will now open Microsoft Office files directly in editing mode. Workspace has also introduced an Enhanced Support level of service, which offers accelerated response time, advanced product knowledge, and third-party technology support. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34AJRJP

Apple Music version 3.4 has started rolling out to Android phones with the new features that come with iOS 14. The app gets a redesign and all the features that were being tested in the beta for iOS 14 have made their way to Android as well. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/35FwFTs

The new A19 color smart bulbs from Hampton Products are reasonably priced, but they only come in packs of four. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2HF9fp6

Pixel 5 users have been experiencing issues when placing their phones on the Pixel Stand, as per the Pixel support page and Reddit posts. The issue is that when the Pixel 5 is placed on the Pixel Stand for charging, the screen wakes up with full brightness at some point in the night, even when ‘screen off when dark’ feature is enabled. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/31KKj6D

Ubisoft has announced that its subscription service, originally called UPlay+, has been rebranded to Ubisoft+ and will be coming to Amazon Luna on November 10 and later on Google Stadia. The service will be available in beta on both platforms at launch and will allow gamers access to more than 100 games. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3ovqVnQ

YouTube Music is adding new ways to sort the music library for desktop. Users can now sort their library through three ways – recently added, A to Z, or Z to A. YouTube has also renamed its flagship playlist “Your Mix,” which features personalised music, to “My Supermix.” from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3mytsvx

Chief executives of Twitter, Facebook, and Alphabet’s Google will tell US lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that a federal law protecting internet companies is crucial to free expression on the internet, according to written testimonies from the companies seen by Reuters. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2HJqbuP

A wider viewing angle, simultaneous two-way talk, and outdoor weatherproofing are among the other new features. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/37NpDPg

The new Device Dashboard will be accessible from the navigation bar of selected Fire tablets. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3dZ1czo

Qualcomm said Tuesday that it will launch a series of four mesh WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E chipsets in time for new products to ship in early 2021. While Qualcomm showed a prototype of the new mesh nodes that are smaller than a smartphone, executives said that they expect users will need more mesh nodes than they did for prior generations. Qualcomm announced four new chipsets, part of what it’s calling its Immersive Home platform: the Immersive Home 214 and 216, as well as the Immersive Home 316 and 318. The chipsets were endorsed by nine router makers including Belkin, Netgear, TP-Link and Xiaomi, almost certainly implying that their devices will support the new chipsets. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/31LSoId

“Faster than the 2080 Ti.” That’s the promise Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made while revealing the GeForce RTX 3070 in September, and it’s a scintillating one. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti sat atop Nvidia’s RTX 20-series graphics card stack, offering performance as scalding as its $1,200 price tag. Could the $500 GeForce RTX 3070 and its new-look Ampere GPU really go toe-to-toe with the last generation’s luxurious flagship for a whopping $700 less? Spoiler alert: Yep. It wins some and loses some, but on the whole, the GeForce RTX 3070 is effectively just as fast as the RTX 2080 Ti in gaming (and much more so in some creative tasks) for well under half the price. And it absolutely smokes its RTX 2070 predecessor. That’s a massive step forward for PC gamers—but AMD’s counterpunch looms, with the Radeon RX 6000 series scheduled to be unveiled Wednesday. Whether the GeForce RTX 3070 continues to rock  oursocks in the wake of AMD’s announcement remains to be seen, but at least for one day, ...

The best laptops of 2020 are experiencing a seismic shift. First we saw the launches of AMD’s Ryzen 4000  and Intel’s Comet Lake-H mobile CPUs in January, marking a real fight for the first time ever: Ryzen 4000’s cores vs. Intel’s clock speeds. Then in September,  Intel launched its Tiger Lake CPUs for thin-and-light laptops , promising yet again that thanks to flexible clock speeds , it would hammer Ryzen 4000. Or so Intel says. Check out the latest news and reviews below our top picks.  To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2VwDY9f

The Chora's beautiful build and styling is outmatched only by its sonic punch. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3kKnmaU

Premium pricing makes this dimmer a bit of a tough sell. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/37MeeiK

US District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday set a status hearing on the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet's Google for Friday, October 30. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/35GJz3H

The gaming laptop landscape is experiencing an earthquake-like shift. With the near-simultaneous launches of  AMD’s Ryzen 4000  and Intel’s Comet Lake-H mobile CPUs, we have a real fight for the first time ever, focusing on Ryzen 4000’s cores vs. Comet Lake-H’s clock speeds. Meanwhile, Nvidia has unveiled a new generation of mobile graphics technologies. Check out our top picks immediately below, and keep reading to catch up on the latest news and reviews.  To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2HTbRN0

YouTube is rolling out a player page redesign and gesture controls to Android as well as iOS platforms. The aim is to make the video watching experience easier and communicating with them time consuming. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/35GwIhE

Google today said that it had met its goal of including recycled material in all its products ahead of schedule. It has also set new targets for reducing landfill waste at its assembly units and moving to plastic-free packaging. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3os0eQW

The Pixel 4a has launched at a pretty attractive price in India, but this puts it right in the OnePlus Nord’s territory. We compared both smartphones to see if we could pick a clear winner. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3jwuma0

Google Workspace is now rolling out new icons for Docs and Sheets as a part of an overhaul that was announced earlier this month. The new icons now have the shape of a full page, with a white background around it. The new design comes with version 1.20.422.01. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3dVSB0n

Time may not necessarily be money, but it still matters. Every second you spend wading through context menus or clunkily navigating Windows is a second you could be doing something you love instead. And with so much of modern life tied up in technology, those wasted seconds can add up fast. Now it’s time to reclaim those lost seconds, minutes, and hours. These simple Windows 10 tips and tricks aren’t glamorous and most aren’t even new to the Start menu-swapping October 2020 Update , to be honest, but when deployed together they can seriously streamline your workflow. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/35yq9Od

Microsoft, which scored a lucrative $10 billion government contract under the Trump administration, has emerged as the fourth largest contributor to Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden's candidate campaign committee, according to data from OpenSecrets, a website which tracks money in politics and campaign finance records. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3otXXog

Adobe Photoshop’s huge selection of Artistic Filters can’t possibly be covered in one story, but we can show you some of our favorites to help you get started. The real fun starts when you learn to mix them into new and even more astounding effects, such as Fresco and Paint Daubs together, or Poster Edges with Watercolors. In this story we’ll introduce, explain, and show examples of these amazing features. Click the links in the list below to get to specific artistic filters:  Colored Pencils Cutout Dry Brush Film Grain Fresco Neon Glow Paint Daubs Palette Knife Plastic Wrap Poster Edges What are Photoshop’s Artistic filters? In a nutshell, Photoshop Artistic filters are computerized, artistic techniques (or special effects) that enable you to create images that simulate artistic styles such as colored pencils, watercolors, chalk pastels, charcoal, pen and inks, crayons, and dozens of other artistic media. In the current version of PS, there are over 225 special ef...

This motorized smart shade protects your privacy without blocking any light or your view. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/31Jf3on

Smart, motorized shades and blinds cost a pretty penny, but do they ever bring the wow. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3gjMXWi

Now that Apple’s announced a new iPhone, and the company’s apparently planning to show off its Arm-based MacBooks mid-November, you can expect to see these clickbait headlines soon: “iPhone 12 is faster than Intel-based MacBook.” “Newest iPhone faster than fastest Windows ultrabook.” “Arm-based MacBook twice as fast as x86-MacBook” Of course, phone and laptop performance matter—but context matters, too. That’s why it’s important to understand how UL Futuremark’s new 3DMark Wild Life Benchmark works. Touted as cross-platform test, Wild Life can be run on Android , iOS and Windows. You can download it now to run on your phone or tablet for free. Windows users who have the Advanced Edition will get it as a free update from UL, Steam or the Green Man Gaming store. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3mnAlQy

GitHub, a Microsoft-owned code hosting platform, has removed the source code of a popular YouTube tool citing a request from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34v4g33

Google Pay for India (aka Tez) app for iOS is not available for download through Apple App Store for some time. The app is missing from the App Store and users are instead provided with few of its competitors including PhonePe and Paytm when particularly searching for Google Pay from India. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3kx8CMB

Google has removed three children’s apps from the Play Store after International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC) pointed out data collection violations. The three apps that were axed are – Princess Salon, Number Coloring, and Cats & Cosplay. Together, these apps saw more than 20 million downloads. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/31KSsIi

Sense is a bright-orange box that sits in your electrical breaker box and gives keen insight into your home's entire power usage. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2J25iLz

On June 6th you’ll finally be able to get Nvidia’s remastered Quake II RTX version for  free . And if you’re wondering just how fast the game runs, we just found out in the oldest-school way possible. First, to catch you up, Nvidia has taken iD’s classic 1997-vintage shooter Quake II and lovingly updated it with a fully path-traced renderer. While you might dismiss that as “just another game with hybrid ray tracing” support, this is much more than that. At this juncture of ray tracing hardware performance, most games use ray tracing sparingly and combine it with traditional raster techniques. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3mhAwg9

Before you even peel the plastic off your new iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro, read this setup guide. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2IXQ76e

The Google Pixel 4a continues the philosophy of keeping things simple, only this time with more competitive hardware and a more sensible price tag. Read our review to know if you should buy it. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34o6m4B

Q: Will an Intel Core i3 processor work for playing games? If yes, will it work if the PC only has 4GB of RAM? Compared to flagship processors with eight or more cores, contemporary quad-core Core i3 CPUs may seem too weak to handle games. If you have an older Core i3 chip with just two cores and four threads, it might seem even less capable. But you don’t need to have mid-tier gear for PC gaming. (In fact, we built a  $300 gaming PC using a processor that’s more budget than a Core i3 processor.) Your rig won’t be anywhere near as fast as if you had a Core i5 part, but you can still pair it with a graphics card. We suggest selecting a similarly affordable graphics card, with $150 to $200 as the maximum spent. Then tweak the settings until you find a good balance between visual quality and frame rate. Depending on the GPU and the game, you may need to dial down the resolution and/or graphics presets, but you should often be able to find a workable sweet spot. To read this arti...

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Gordon Ung , Alaina Yee , and Adam Patrick Murray dive into the supposed leaks surrounding AMD’s upcoming RDNA2 (“Big Navi”) video cards, Nvidia’s new Smart Portrait filter for Photoshop, and Sony’s teardown of its PlayStation 5 console. Big Navi might be huge—a supposed leak, revealed on Twitter, teases a top-tier card with monstrous specs. (One of the more tantalizing bits: an average clock speed of 2.4GHz during gaming.) Gordon picks apart the nuances of the numbers and puts it into perspective against Nvidia’s RTX 30-series cards. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3ks2a9F

So you’ve mastered Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts and Snap open windows like a boss. Now what? Windows 10 offers many other power tools for enthusiasts—if you know where to find them. Some are older , yet still obscure. Others are relatively new, added during the twice-annual major upgrades Microsoft’s been pushing out since Windows 10 launched over five long years ago (though most recent feature upgrades, like the October 2020 Update , tend to be minor). But all 10 of these little-used tricks and tools can help hardened PC users save time or eliminate headaches. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3kolhl9

The horror, the HORROR Image by Outlast 2 Horror games are a dime a dozen. Scary horror games, good horror games—well, those are much rarer. We’ve rounded up some of the best horror games ever made, running the gamut from big-budget extravaganzas released this very year to... text adventures. I’m serious. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2MRQBZP

Google Play Music has shut down for several users. The site, and in some cases Android app too, says that Google Play Music is no longer available, and suggests users to transfer to YouTube Music. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3kn1kuM

You don’t need to spend a dime to watch these fright-flick double features. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2TjZPlq

The sound quality is clean, clear, and bright, but the bass is generally weak. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3dSzi8g

Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) chief the agency believes US search giant Google has undermined competition, adding that the agency plans to present a case to its review committee this year. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34mQGyM

Intel continued its topsy-turvy 2020 by reporting stronger demand for its Tiger Lake CPUs than the company originally anticipated, even with an increase in its manufacturing capacity. However, the company’s profits and revenues declined. Intel said that the company now expects 100 notebooks based upon the 11th-gen Tiger Lake processor will ship by the end of the year, with about 150 in all if 2021 is included. Those 100 Tiger Lake notebooks doubled Intel’s original April expectations, executives said. About 40 of those notebooks will be qualified under the new Evo brand , the evolution of the “Project Athena” program. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3knExiy

Mojang said late Wednesday that the legacy, PC-centric Java version of Minecraft will now require a Microsoft account, a decision Microsoft says it’s making for security reasons and to ensure future compatibility. Mojang’s  Minecraft has always lived parallel lives: The legacy Java edition has always been much more open, permitting modding and more unrestricted gameplay. Meanwhile, the separate though related Bedrock version of the game—specifically designed for Xbox, Android, Windows 10 and more—has been more locked down, and already required a Microsoft account, too. To date, Minecraft is ranked as the most popular video game ever, with more than 200 million downloads.  To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2Tjxagi

Amazon still has the best speaker for smart home control, but it still trails Sonos and Google in musicality. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2TiPFBw

Apple has removed Stadium browser app that allows users to run Google Stadia on iOS devices. The company also shared some background on why it did so. Apple, citing a section in the App Store Guidelines, stated that the Stadium app “uses public APIs in a way that Apple does not intend.” from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3mcO4JG

The US Justice Department's nascent antitrust case against Google will get the attention it needs to succeed if Democrat Joe Biden wins the US presidency next month, antitrust experts said. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3mcTg0o

Apple isn’t supplying a power adapter with new iPhones anymore, so we’ve rounded up a list of our favorite ones. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3ofqg9Q

Acer’s Swift 3 poses one of the more difficult questions for a tech reviewer: How do you rate a 13.5-inch laptop that you really enjoyed using, yet whose performance is otherwise disappointingly weak?  This Swift 3 ticks all the other boxes that make for a great laptop: a beautiful screen, outstanding keyboard, and superb battery life.That's why we’re slightly puzzled at how both Acer and Intel (which provided engineering input to Acer as part of its “Project Athena” program, now called Evo), apparently let the Swift 3 go out the door with such poor performance. Keep reading to discover how we balanced the better and the worse. This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops . Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.   To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2IMPyfg

How to get CBS All Access for free every month from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2TiA7xn

Q: With the new consoles rewriting how hardware will be utilized, is having the higher bandwidth of PCI 4 going to be an important factor in future games? The specs for the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X include serious hardware—enough to make some DIY PC builders wonder if they’ll need the higher bandwidth of PCIe 4.0 to keep up with future games. The rationale: Game developers will treat the new consoles’ blazing-fast storage drives as the baseline. As a thought exercise—and a common one at that when planning out upgrades or a whole new PC build—it sounds like a compelling reason to invest in a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, despite a high price tag of $200 for a 1TB drive . To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/37ICaUb

Google Chrome is coming down hard on abusive notifications by bringing enforcements that explicitly discourage users to allow notifications from websites that have a history of sending messages containing abusive content. With Chrome 86, when Google will detect abusive notification content from an origin, it will automatically display the permission requests using a q... from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3m5XRkE

Interbrand has released its Best Global Brands of 2020 list and Apple still reigns supreme, followed by Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Instagram, YouTube, and Zoom have made the cut for the first time ever. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/37sdH5e

Google Pay is reportedly not working on some Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra handsets. Several users took to online forums to report the issue in the past few months. While it isn’t clear why Google’s payment app is failing on some Galaxy Note 20 Ultra phones, the problem doesn’t appear to be a universal one. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3mb1NAW

Google Workplace add-ons will be rolling out for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These add-ons will let users make use of third-party applications within Google Workspace itself, without having to switch from one app to another. Add-ons are customised applications that integrate with Google Workspace productivity apps. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/37HVD7t

Google's long-running business model based on free services and advertising will be put to the test in the landmark antitrust lawsuit filed this week by the US Justice Department. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34kG7w1

What was known previously as the Intel Xe HPG discrete graphics chip for laptops appears to be officially branded as the Iris Xe Max, and will appear in Acer’s latest Swift 3x laptop. Acer’s new Swift 3x (SF314-510G), announced Wednesday, lists the laptop’s graphics capabilities as the “Iris Xe Max,” the brand that PCWorld discovered in an Intel sizzle reel in September. The Verge was granted some hands-on time with the new device (but not permission to run any graphics benchmarks) and confirmed that the Iris Xe Max is indeed Intel’s new discrete GPU. It will be paired with Intel’s new Tiger Lake CPUs , specifically the Core i7-1165G7 and Core i5-1135G7 chips. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3ofygb6

If Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms have struggled in PCs, could they succeed within Chromebooks? That’s the question Acer’s new Chromebook Spin 5 asks, and the answer certainly feels like a “yes.” To date, Qualcomm has emphasized the performance of its Snapdragon 8cx and the related Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G platform, both chips that have tried to take on Intel’s Core i5 in the Windows PC space. When Qualcomm debuted the even slower Snapdragon 8c and 7c last December on a Windows PC, it was a head-scratcher: If the 8cx couldn’t compete, what was the justification for a slower, cheaper chip? To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/31twSrw

The Porsche Design Acer Book RS is a beautiful laptop with a lot riding on its slim shoulders. With a name like that (Porsche Design is owned by the same parent company as automaker Porsche AG), it is naturally expected to combine performance along with style. The lofty prices—$1,400 for the base model and $2,000 for the “premium package”—also carry some pressure to deliver. Will this product rise to defend its good name? Partner Acer’s considerable skill at making laptops is a solid starting point.  Announced Wednesday and available in December, the Porsche Design Acer Book RS does appear to bring sports-car flair. The lid for its 14-inch display is made of 3k carbon fiber for lightness as well as aesthetics. The all-metal, CNC-machined chassis has diamond-cut edges, an accent largely reserved for other premium products like the HP Spectre x360 14 .  To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jlFeHI

How Google grew from its idealistic roots into the cutthroat behemoth is a story shaped by unbridled ambition, savvy decision-making, technology's networking effects, lax regulatory oversight and the unrelenting pressure to perpetually pump up their profits. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2Tg220V

Intel’s latest power play isn’t about toppling AMD, but about energy efficiency. The company's new ATX12VO power supply standard  is designed to help desktop PCs meet increasingly stringent government standards on idle power consumption. ATX12VO does require a sacrifice. Newer power supplies will jettison support for old-school 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, and concentrate solely on producing 12-volt power. But after kicking the tires on a pair of ATX12VO motherboards as well as an actual ATX12VO PSU, we can say that the future of desktop PC power looks brighter—and your old-friend legacy parts aren’t moving too far away. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/31qdjAw

The latest Echo Dot is technically the best Dot yet, but only by a narrow margin. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/31oQFYX

This new zero-day vulnerability is reported to be a memory bug in the FreeType font rendering library. This was spotted being abused by a threat actor by the Project Zero team. Project Zero team lead Ben Hawkes advises other app vendors of Freetype to also adopt the emergency fix released on the FreeType website. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/34igWKu

Google is making it possible to manage access requests to Drive files directly on the email. You can review the request, choose the access level, and grant access from that email itself, through dynamic emails. The feature has begun rolling out and will work for Gmail users on Android, iOS, and the web. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/2TeO4fK

The US sued Google on Tuesday, accusing the $1 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech in decades. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/35lIpdo

Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2020 Update (20H2) will usher the new Microsoft Edge browser onto millions of PCs, while upgrading the venerable Alt + Tab shortcut with a needed new function. But Microsoft’s designers have turned the once-colorful Start menu into watery gruel with a less-than-impressive visual update. Update: The Windows 10 October 2020 Update is now available for you to download . All in all, the Windows 10 October 2020 Update is another in a line of anemic fall feature updates. And that’s okay!  We expected this . For the past two to three years, Microsoft’s major feature updates have coalesced within the “spring” releases, leaving mainly minor patches and quality updates for the fall release. (See the Windows 10 November 2019 Update .) This year is no different, though the small list of changes do allow for some interesting tweaks to your Windows 10 PC. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2FOc4TZ

Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 feature release, the October 2020 Update, is finally here. Microsoft said the latest release is available for download manually now, and it will be pushed to users automatically over the coming weeks. Microsoft finalized the October 2020 Update in September , when it pushed the “final” version of the update to its Insider beta channels. Now the company is rolling out the update to Windows users at large in the same way it’s deployed it in the past: launching it for “seekers” first. If you would like to install the new release right away, you’ll need to open the  Windows Update settings (Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update) and select  Check for updates.   To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2TboGrl

Intel, one of the biggest names in the flash storage and SSD business, announced Monday evening that it has sold all of its SSD operations to SK Hynix, a company even PC enthusiasts may not recognize. The sale, for a cool $9 billion, comes as Intel apparently exits what is increasingly becoming a commodity business. The sale is interesting because of the quality of what Intel is selling—and the length of time SK Hynix is waiting to get its hands on it. Intel makes some of the best SSDs we’ve reviewed —and some of the most expensive as well, like the Optane SSD 905P that’s over two years old and still sells for over $1,300 on Amazon . To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/35bWIBq

In a bid to curtail the power of the world’s largest search firm, the U.S. Department of Justice and several states filed suit against Google on Tuesday, alleging that the company illegally uses its dominant position in desktop search and mobile operating systems to prevent rivals from providing effective competition. “Two decades ago, Google became the darling of Silicon Valley as a scrappy startup with an innovative way to search the emerging internet,” the DOJ wrote in its complaint (PDF) , in conjunction with several states (though not California, where Google is headquartered). “That Google is long gone,” states the complaint. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2T8dTyh

Save your pennies if you want to adopt Nest’s sleek—yet limited—security offering. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3oa8Qf2

This addition to the outdoor Hue line will really draw attention to your garden (so make sure your plants look their best). from PCWorld https://ift.tt/37wsbkm

Philips takes its Hue smart lighting outdoors with this elegant and well-built pathway light. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/34gsSwl

“Frames win games,” Nvidia likes to say, but there’s more to esports domination than raw frame rates. How those frames get delivered matters too. Latency—the time it takes for an on-screen action to happen after you press a button—reigns supreme in the blink-and-you’re-dead competitive esports scene. If your game looks beautiful but feels sluggish, you’ll find yourself outgunned by rivals playing with crummy visual settings to increase responsiveness. Enter Nvidia Reflex, introduced alongside the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 . If you’ve heard of it before, you probably associate it with low-latency features being added to games like Call of Duty: Warzone, Valorant, and Fortnite . But Reflex is actually Nvidia’s overarching brand name for a wide range of new latency-obsessed tools. Yes, the Low Latency Mode being added to games is part of it, but on Tuesday, Nvidia and its partners are also rolling out blisteringly fast 360Hz G-Sync Esports monitors with Reflex Latency Analyz...

Compatible with 98 percent of water meters, Flume 2 solidifies its place as one of the best ways to keep tabs on your water usage. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/37lN8P6

LG tends to fly under the radar as a PC maker, yet its laptops—including the recently launched LG Ultra PC 17—are some of the most interesting ones around. Weighing in at 4.3 pounds, LG’s Ultra is surprisingly light for laptop with a 17-inch display and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card inside. It’s as if LG sized up its Gram 17 notebook, which at three pounds is perhaps one of the most underappreciated laptops on the market , and decided to make a version that plays games. The result is admittedly less breathtaking than the aforementioned Gram—it doesn’t quite feel like it’s defying physics when you pick it up—but also more practical. The Ultra’s 17-inch screen really shines when you’re using it for a round of Deep Rock Galactic or a run through Hades . While its performance has notable limitations, it's ultimately a careful balance with portability and battery life. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3jlJpDG

Music is not its forte, but this inexpensive gadget packs plenty of value into its small footprint. from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3j94XTK

Google continues to track you even if you explicitly instruct it not to, an independent software engineer and developer has claimed. Even if Chrome has been instructed in settings to delete all cookies and site data upon closing the browser, it allegedly wipes clean everything but the site data from Google’s own websites. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/31FE5VJ

Google Pixel 5 buyers have reported a small gap between its display and frame. The issue seems to have affected Pixel 5 users in multiple markets. The latest Google phone debuted earlier this month and went on sale in countries including Australia, Canada, and the US just last week. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/35et1zN

If you’re seeing Microsoft’s Office apps appear in your Start menu as web apps, you’re probably wondering why they’re there. The answer is, they’re not—and Microsoft is dealing with the problem. Last week, Windows Insiders began reporting that versions of Microsoft’s Office apps began showing up in their Start menu as Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs. But other users began complaining over the weekend that the PWAs were landing in their Start menu, as well—and they weren’t part of the Insider beta program. So what happened? To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/2FGjGb0

If you own a Windows PC as well as a recent iPhone, the U.S. government wants you to open the Windows Store today and make sure that you have the most recent version of the HEVC video codec . The U.S. government (specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) has warned that the Microsoft Windows Codecs Library includes a vulnerability that affects how it handles objects stored in memory. Specifically, a specially-crafted image file could be used to remotely take over your machine unless your PC is patched. To read this article in full, please click here from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3dI6oYo