PCWorld January 2025

One day after Bloomberg’s initial report, it’s now official: The Department of Justice has requested that the judge in the antitrust case order Google to divest itself of the Chrome browser. The prosecutors are also suggesting that Google be forced to offer its search result data to competitors in a syndication model and no longer bundle Search with the Android mobile operating system. The original story continues below. Back in August a U.S. federal court found Google guilty of violating anti-trust laws, and the fallout could be the biggest antitrust action since the breakup of AT&T and Bell way back in the 1980s. But exactly what the enforcement action will look like is still very much up in the air. Recent reports indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice is…

There is no joy in Mudville Intel’s corporate headquarters. The company has had an epically horrible year, with widespread issues plaguing its flagship chips, massive upswings from rivals AMD and Nvidia, and a stock downturn so dramatic it’s been called one of the worst performers in the industry. So maybe it isn’t surprising that CEO Pat Gelsinger is leaving. The announcement was made via press release, calling the move a retirement. Two current executives, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, will function as co-CEOs while Intel’s board searches for a more permanent replacement. While Gelsinger has only been CEO since February 2021, he began working at Intel in 1979 as a technician, was instrumental as a programmer and architect for many notable Intel chips, and was a vice president by…

Microsoft is positioning its contentious Recall feature for Windows 11 as a headline capability for Copilot+ laptops. So it’s kind of weird that when the previously delayed tool went live, it only did so for x64-based machines and not the Arm-based Snapdragon laptops that made such a splash earlier this year. Well, if you have one of those, you can now try Recall via the Windows Insider program. Microsoft just announced that Recall, which records pretty much everything you do on Windows, is now available to Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs. You’ll need to get on the Insider Program (a fancy title for a beta) and join the Dev Channel if you want to see what all the hubbub is about. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to get back off when the updates reach…

The next generation of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 8, is currently being developed behind closed doors. This time, the emphasis isn’t on pure speed, but instead on improving the user experience. Wi-Fi 8, known right now as IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability, still remains years away. Wireless technology is in a constant state of improvement: Each progression in the evolution of Wi-Fi takes several years to discuss, approve, and then deploy. Wi-Fi 7, the current standard, hasn’t even been formally ratified quite yet. But that’s not stopping the development of Wi-Fi 8 behind the scenes, and we already know some details. MediaTek’s Filogic wireless division has released some of what you can expect, with the caveat that final details won’t be nailed down until the final specification is released around Sept. 2028.…

Along with millions of other people who no longer enjoy the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, I recently switched from X to Bluesky. I still have an account on X, but it’s pretty much inactive now that I’m spending my time on Bluesky instead. And despite having been present on Twitter since 2007, I’ll delete my X account at some point. There’s a lot to love about Bluesky, and it truly feels like a return to the glory days of Twitter, but there are also some obvious issues that may turn you off if you’re switching from X. Here are some things you might want to consider before switching to Bluesky. LOVE: IT LOOKS LIKE THE TWITTER OF OLD Bluesky’s layout, interface, and user experience are pretty much…

Your email address is a liability when yet another of your accounts get hacked. After your login credentials are leaked, attackers can use those same credentials to try logging into different services across the web to see what else they might unlock. But there’s a better way—and Google seems poised to bring it to the masses. As spotted by Android Authority, a new Shielded Email feature in the Gmail app for Android devices is seemingly on the way. It would let you create disposable email addresses, temporary burner email addresses that forward email to your real account. My colleague Michael Crider covered how Shielded Email could serve as a defense against spam, but there’s another payoff to this privacy protection: stronger online security. Using a random, unique email address for…