PCWorld July 2025

Whether you embrace it or not, AI is shaping the future of Google Search. Google is bringing AI Mode to Google Search for every U.S. user. Google in May 2024 launched AI Overviews, which aims to answer your question before showing the traditional list of links. AI Mode is the next step: From what Google has shown, the list of links will disappear entirely, replaced by tiny link icons that link back to the information Google is slurping up. Google’s Liz Reid, a Google vice president and head of Google Search, said that AI Overviews totals 1.5 billion users and will be expanded to over 200 countries. At the beginning of May, Google migrated AI Mode out of its Labs environment into a small subset of users in the real world and…

#playALLYourgames, proclaims the first bit of marketing copy for the ROG Xbox Ally, the third-gen Asus handheld PC that’s also borrowing Microsoft’s Xbox brand. “This is an Xbox,” declares the very next line. The design even gets a new, dedicated Xbox button right on its face. But between the bombastic branding and the lack of the familiar bottom taskbar on any of the promotional images for this redesigned gaming gadget, it’s hard to tell that this is, in fact, a Windows-powered gaming PC. Asus and Microsoft seem far more interested in talking about a revamped full-screen interface for the dedicated Xbox app and the accompanying Game Bar than the underlying operating system that lets you play all your games. It’s the defining feature of most handheld PCs versus Valve’s Linux-powered Steam…

At Google I/O 2025 in May, we saw some pretty exciting innovations. In addition to a new AI search in Google (see page 7) and the ability to try on clothes virtually before you buy them, one improvement stands out for how it protects users who might be using inadequate passwords. It isn’t too difficult to come up with a strong password, but you need a unique password for every single account if you want to be truly safe on the web. One way to offload that burden is to use a password manager that stores your unique login credentials and enters them for you, relieving you of the need to memorize anything. Google Chrome already has a built-in password manager that can detect weak passwords as well as compromised passwords that…

Arm-based Windows laptops running Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are all the rage, at least if you hear it from Microsoft or its manufacturing partners. But they aren’t exactly affordable, or even a good value compared to Intel or AMD. But the newest mid-range offerings from HP will start at $800, paired with 16GB of RAM. That’s a number that makes my eyebrows pop up. The OmniBook 5 14 (ugh, not great names, folks) is getting that impressive base price, offering an 8-core Snapdragon X Plus processor, 16GB of RAM, and a rather paltry 256GB of storage in that introductory $799 price. Upgrade options include a faster Snapdragon X (sans Plus) processor, 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage, though we don’t yet know how much those will run you.…

When it comes to phones, most software is updated through a unified process. With an iPhone, you get all your operating system updates from Apple and all your individual app updates from the App Store. Android phones are similar, if slightly more fragmented. Now what if Windows worked in the same way, centralizing all your software needs and updating everything in one spot? Microsoft wants that. Microsoft product manager Angie Chen announced the new Windows Update orchestration platform (a classic Microsoft name if ever I heard one) via the IT Pro blog. There’s a lot of technical jargon on the page, but it boils down to this: Developers will be able to join the platform to deliver software updates for just about anything from within Windows—from the tiniest programs to…

Valve’s beloved Steam Deck is a delightful little device that makes PC gaming possible anywhere, but it suffers from some significant limitations. The Deck’s custom AMD Ryzen “Aerith” processor requires severe graphical sacrifices to hit playable frame rates in intense games—if you can run them at all. When you’re playing, you’ll blow through the battery in just a few hours. And while non-Steam games can be added to the Deck, it requires wonky technical workarounds that normie gamers probably won’t bother to troubleshoot. Enter Nvidia’s new GeForce Now native app for the Steam Deck, available now. If your internet signal is strong, and you pay for a premium GeForce Now subscription with advanced prowess and features, Nvidia’s app transforms the Steam Deck from a delightful device into an utterly magical one.…