Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i PCWorld

For some, two of the best products Microsoft ever produced are Windows Mobile and Windows 7—and support for both are ending in about a year’s time. Earlier this week, Microsoft reminded customers that official support for Windows 7 ends on January 14, 2020, even posting an official reminder page to encourage customers to hurry up and adopt Windows 10. Now is also the time for Windows phones to finally accept their fate: Windows 10 Mobile, version 1709, will lose support on December 10, 2019. At that time, Windows 10 Mobile users will no longer be eligible to receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft for free, Microsoft says. In other words, no new patches. Backups, at least, will persist until March 10,…

Stealing a page from Apple’s recent earnings warning, Intel blamed a lack of demand in China as one of the reasons for reporting healthy fourth-quarter profits that were nevertheless less than Wall Street expected. Intel’s fourth quarter, traditionally the company’s strongest, capped what Intel said was a record-breaking year in terms of revenue. But Intel blamed China, weakness in cloud-computing customers, a weakened modem market, and an inability to manufacture enough processors as reasons the company’s revenues did not meet expectations. Intel’s manufacturing woes have been a source of questions since 2018, as has been when Intel will name a replacement for Brian Krzanich, Intel’s former chief executive, who unexpectedly stepped down in June of 2018. Interim CEO Bob Swan addressed both issues, at least in part. Swan predicted that…

In a bid to fight fake news while on your phone, Microsoft’s mobile Edge browser on Android and iOS now includes the NewsGuard extension. The addition, noted by The Guardian, needs to be toggled on within the Edge settings menu to be enabled. Once it is, Edge will display a small shield icon next to the site’s URL in the search bar: a green shield with a checkmark for a trusted news site, and a red shield with an exclamation point inside of it for a site that NewsGuard believes isn’t always accurate. (Some sites haven’t been evaluated, and these will simply show a gray shield.) NewsGuard isn’t there to protect you from phishing or to alert you that the site may be hosting a bad ad that may infect your…

Radeon VII breaks new ground for AMD, and for graphics cards in general. It’s the company’s first truly high-end 4K GPU, capable of surpassing 60 frames per second at High or Ultra settings. It’s the first-ever consumer graphics card built using the next-gen 7nm manufacturing process, and the first to ship with a massive 16GB of ultra-fast high-bandwidth memory (HBM) (go.pcworld.com/hbdm). Radeon VII is even the first AMD graphics card that shifts away from reporting the GPU temperature alone to monitoring a more holistic array of 64 thermal sensors spread across the die. This is impressive hardware, the likes of which gamers haven’t seen before. It’s no GeForce killer, though. The $700 Radeon VII trades performance blows with the similarly priced Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and even the two-year-old GTX 1080 Ti.…

If there’s one antivirus suite that gets people excited it has to be Kaspersky. The popular suite from Russia-based company Kaspersky Labs is a favorite among tech types, and that’s despite the controversy from 2017 where the company was accused of being a tool of Russian intelligence. Then there’s Symantec’s Norton Premium Security, a go-to security solution for many years that’s still a great choice—and our current favorite antivirus suite. Both are popular choices for protecting your PC. Let’s take a look at how they compare in key categories in this head-to-head matchup. APP DESIGN The desktop apps for Norton and Kaspersky both offer an easy-to-understand interface employing mobile-style tiles. With Kaspersky, the primary screen has eight tiles representing various “modules” in addition to a More Tools button that leads…

It’s 2019, and we’re still waiting for a proper Wear OS watch that can take on the Apple Watch. Not since the original Huawei Watch has there been an Android wearable truly worth getting excited about. If anything, they seem to be getting worse. The latest Wear OS watches are thicker, clunkier, and slower they they’ve ever been, and most of them still barely last a day.   So maybe it’s time for a change. A big change. Instead of trying to chase Apple and offer an inferior version of its watch, Google should rethink not just Wear OS, but the whole idea of a smartwatch. In the latest episode of Android Confidential I propose three radical ideas for not just fixing Wear OS, but turning it into something completely…

While polishing your resume is still as much about relevant experience and skills as ever, finding a job now involves targeting the right keywords and SEO, too. That’s how Microsoft Word’s Resume Assistant can help: tapping LinkedIn to assist your work experience. Resume Assistant is now part of Microsoft Word, assuming you have an Office 365 subscription and subscribe to LinkedIn. It’s part of Microsoft’s combination of apps and services, and a key part of justifying Microsoft’s $26 billion purchase of the business networking service. It’s important to note that Resume Assistant doesn’t actually alter or correct your resume; it merely suggests ways to improve it. Resume Assistant can tap into other LinkedIn profiles and mine them for what made them successful. Be aware that there’s far more assistance further…

When Microsoft announced the standalone versions of Office last year, known as Office 2019, Microsoft’s attitude seemed decidedly lukewarm. We were wrong: Now it’s downright hostile. Microsoft released three videos recently to try and demonstrate that the AI-powered, always-updated version of Office 365 trounces the standalone Office 2019 in tasks ranging from automatically filling in geographic data in an Excel spreadsheet to automatically adding relevant skills to a Word resume that can then be sent to a recruiter. In each of the “showdowns,” Office 2019 forces the user to perform the tasks manually, while Office 365 either automatically performs the task or connects to the Internet to simplify it. According to Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, Office 2019 is “frozen in time”: “They [the Office 2019 apps] don’t…

After searching more than half a year for a new chief executive, Intel decided the best candidate was the guy already running the company: Robert “Bob” Swan, the “acting” and now permanent CEO. Technically, Intel promoted from within to hire Swan, who had served as the company’s chief financial officer since 2016. But Swan’s resume paints him as an outsider, with stints at fab tools maker Applied Materials, and nine years as the CFO at eBay. Swan has had CEO experience, but only running Webvan, an online grocery service that entered bankruptcy in 2001. There’s no question Swan comes as a surprise, as he was reported not to have wanted the job in the first place. “Swan told me that as he was in the interim CEO role, he started…

Amazon’s foray into the games industry is proof nobody can shortcut their way to a hit. It’s been fully five years since the online retailer, worth more than most (if not all) of the major video game publishers combined, announced it was going to start making video games. And it started so well! Amazon forked CryEngine into its own proprietary engine, Lumberyard. It hired Clint Hocking, hired Kim Swift—hired the sorts of people, in other words, that you’d want to see making games. Then it uh…lost Clint Hocking, lost Kim Swift, and canceled the only Amazon game we’d seen in action, the MOBA-esque sports game Breakaway. So what’s left? Well, New World. Announced at the same time as Breakaway, New World is an online sandbox set in the 17th century, a…

When the news surrounding the latest version of the Dell XPS 13 is its camera position, that’s both good and bad. It’s good because the camera’s one “feature” that some customers (and competitors) have used to batter what has otherwise been the most trend-setting laptop of recent memory. If you recall, the original Dell XPS 13 9343 from 2014 crammed a 13.3-inch laptop into the space an 11-inch laptop would normally occupy. Dell relied on “InfinityEdge” bezels to shrink the foot print of the XPS 13 to unbelievable levels. Just about every laptop maker now offers their own narrow bezel designs. But Dell’s implementation compromised convenience for slimness, moving the camera around the bottom bezel. No more. After years of mocking, Dell’s thrown in the towel and moved the camera above…

For years, Microsoft Surface fans have wondered two things: First, would Microsoft ever sell a standalone version of its massive Surface Studio display? And second, when would the company update its Surface Dock? The Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station answers both questions…sort of. Put simply, Kensington’s SD7000 features the “zero-gravity hinge” construction of the Surface Studio, but instead of a massive 25-inch, 4.5K screen, there’s a partial frame which can hold a Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro (2017), or Surface Pro 6. We’d call the SD7000 a sort-of hybrid between a tablet stand and a dock, which can also serve as an inking surface should you need that.   In some ways, the Kensington SD7000 reminds me of the first generation of Surface Pro docks, which “grabbed” each side…

If you’ve been watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix show, Tidying Up, you’ve no doubt caught the cleaning bug. Kondo’s organization method breaks down your clutter into five key areas: clothing, books, paper, komono (miscellaneous things), and sentimental items. Her mission is to “spark joy in the world through cleaning,” by throwing out anything that doesn’t make you happy. But while Kondo’s method may help keep your closets and cupboards clean, what about your phone? With six-inch screens and storage both on and off your device, it’s easy to fill up every digital nook and cranny with things you don’t need, don’t use, and just plain don’t remember. If you transfer Kondo’s concepts to an Android phone and think of clothing as apps, books as downloaded videos and songs, and so on,…

If you’ve bought a Blu-ray movie over the past decade and redeemed the digital download code, there’s a good chance it ended up in your Ultraviolet library. There’s an equally good chance that you’ve forgotten about it. The service has announced it will be shutting down on July 31, but you still have about five months to rescue them before they end up in digital oblivion. The first thing you need to do is log in to your Ultraviolet account. If you’ve ever redeemed an Ultraviolet code, you had to sign up for an account, so if you don’t remember it, try the Forgot Username Or Password link. Ultraviolet has been around since the release of Horrible Bosses in 2011, so it goes back a while. Once you’ve logged in,…

As data breaches become normalized, it’s more and more likely that your personal information may be exposed. But how will you know? In February, Google published a Chrome plug-in that will report if the login info you use in say, Yahoo, has been stolen. Google’s Password Checkup plug-in won’t do anything until it detects that you’ve logged in to a site whose data has been previously compromised. If a login and password have been found in the recent “Collections” leak of more than 2 billion usernames and passwords, a message will pop up warning that your information has been compromised. All told, Google has archived over 4 billion credentials that it feels have been compromised. Put another way, you can always manually check to see if your username and password has been…

When Opera announced that it was shutting down its VPN app for iOS and Android last year, it appeared as though it was gone forever. In fact, Opera directed users toward SurfEasy Total VPN with deep discounts on subscription plans. Apparently, Opera thought better of that idea, because it’s bringing its VPN back. There are a few caveats though. For one, it’s still in beta mode. For another, it’s only available within the full Opera browser (not Opera Mini) on Android phones. But otherwise, it’s just as free, unlimited, and easy to use as the standalone app that was shuttered in April. And it’s basically just like the desktop version except on your phone. To try it out, you’ll need to download the Opera browser beta, which is separate from the…

Intel’s crazy-ass 28-core Xeon W-3175X isn’t a CPU built for you, me, or most of us. Sure, Intel pitches it as a high-end workhorse: “Built for handling heavily threaded applications and tasks, the Intel Xeon W-3175X delivers uncompromising single and all-core world class performance for the most advanced professional creators and their demanding workloads.” But make no mistake, the 28-core Xeon W-3175X is a chip made to do one thing: make waves and push back at an increasingly assertive AMD. And it delivers—for a pretty penny. Fasten your seat belts, because you’re about to see some huge motherboards, a huger number of benchmarks, and the hugest desktop CPU price ever.   WHAT IS XEON W-3175X? If you’ve read reviews of Intel’s previous 18-core Core i9-7980X or 18-core Core i9-9980X that replaced…

Few things in technology are guaranteed to bring you actual joy, but Creative’s Super X-Fi just might qualify for that list. In short, the Super X-Fi distills decades of audio work into a tiny, portable dongle no bigger than a USB thumbdrive that transforms smartphone, laptop, or PC audio with “holographic audio,” according the company. While that sounds like a lot of superfluous ad copy, we have to admit that after weeks of using the Super X-Fi, the company is on to something. We’d almost believe Creative’s claim that it has found the “holy grail” of audio, but we’re disinclined to recall the Quest Knights just yet. GETTING STARTED The Super X-Fi features a USB-C port on one end, a standard 3.5mm analog jack on the other, and features volume,…

You just want to buy an SD (secure digital) card or microSD card for your DSLR, dash cam, drone, smartphone, or tablet. But one size doesn’t fit all. If the confusing array of memory card logos and specs has you pounding your head against a wall, we understand. We’ll give you the quick answers for the most common memory card uses. (Pro tip: Check your device’s manual for memory card recommendations.) If your needs are very particular, we’ve also delved deep into SD card standards to help you understand the difference between Class 10, V30, UHS-I, A1, and U3, so you can make the right choice for any device or purpose. SECURE DIGITAL (SD) CARD CHEAT SHEET Here are the short answers to determine which SD card to buy for…

If you don’t like the default voice of your Google Assistant, don’t fret, as it’s quite easy to change. There are 10 Assistant voices available—five male and five female—and here’s all you need to do to give it a new sound, or even accent.   METHOD 1: USE THE GOOGLE HOME APP First, find the Google Home app on your device, and open it. Next, look in the bottom right corner for the circular icon with a face inside it, and tap it. This brings up your account preferences. Tap Settings, and then on the next page tap Assistant along the top row. You should now see an option for Assistant Voice. Tap that option and you’ll land on a selector tool where you can choose between any of the…