Innehållsförteckning för April 2023 från PCWorld

If you’re interested in trying out the far future of Windows features—say, Windows 12?—the new Windows Insider “Canary” channel may just be right up your alley. Microsoft debuted the fourth new Windows Insider Channel on Monday morning. “Canary” joins the other Windows Insider channels as a way for you to try out new features before they arrive on Windows 11. Typically, the arrangement goes as follows: Release Preview is for code that’s just about to be released, while the Beta Channel is code that’s definitely scheduled, though a bit further out. The Dev Channel and the new Canary Channel are more experimental. Microsoft “relaunched” the Dev Channel on Monday, with an eye toward enthusiasts who want to try out new code that may never see the light of day. “Canary”…

Not sci-fi, but real life: Samsung introduced a voice-cloning feature for their new Galaxy S phones this week. Train the Bixby mobile assistant on your S23, S23+, or S23 Ultra phone, and it’ll successfully mimic you during calls. This duplication is sold as a way to answer calls whenever you’re unable to talk—you instead type answers and the phone reads them to the other party in your voice. But there’s a flip side to this stuff of sci-fi dreams. AI-trained voice imitation can be also used for nefarious purposes, as Motherboard demonstrated the very same day as Samsung’s news. Using AI-generated imitations of his voice, writer Joseph Cox breezed through his bank’s automated voice verification system. Experts have warned for years of voice authentication’s weaknesses; long before AI-based tools, they could…

The first time I ever saw Nvidia’s AI-infused DLSS 2 technology in action, I said it works like black magic. Leveraging the dedicated AI tensor cores in GeForce RTX graphics cards let Nvidia run supported games much faster than before with little to no visual downgrade. Today, Nvidia is unleashing those same tensor cores on web videos with RTX Video Super Resolution after unveiling the feature at CES 2023. I spent the weekend playing around with the technology and I’m thrilled to report that while there are a few minor DLSS-like caveats to be aware of, RTX Video Super Resolution is an absolute game changer on par with DLSS. If you watch web videos regularly, it’s a compelling reason to consider Nvidia over AMD if you’re shopping for a new graphics…

NordVPN is one of the most well-known VPNs with a massive user base. The trusted premium service is notable for its excellent speeds, a generous and wide server spread, and an impressive set of security features. And in its aim to be more than just a VPN, the service has expanded into a larger umbrella organization known as Nord Security, offering other services such as the NordPass password manager, NordLocker for secure file storage, and business tools like NordLayer and NordWL. FEATURES AND SERVICES Let’s get this out front right now: NordVPN is one of the largest and most well-funded VPNs around. It has a user base of over 14 million and is only one part of the larger conglomerate known as Nord Security. As one would expect, it has all…

Packing a competent CPU and GPU into a machine priced around $1,000 or less is difficult, and most laptops in this category make similar compromises. The MSI Katana GF66 12UD doesn’t buck this trend, but solid performance can make it a wise choice when the price is right. This particular rig offers strong performance, plentiful connectivity options, a reasonable price point, and more. Let’s get right into it. SPECS AND FEATURES The MSI Katana GF66’s specifications are typical for a high-performance yet budget gaming laptop. It cuts costs with the Intel Core i7-12650H CPU, which has six performance cores and four efficiency cores, and an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU. CPU: Intel Core i7-12650H Memory: 16GB DDR5 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti Display: 1,920×1,080 144Hz Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen4 M.2…

AI is already here—and it’s not just services like ChatGPT, Bing, or the upcoming Google Bard. Developers have already infused AI into products you use every day, with further improvements to come. That’s a scary concept to some. AI can make “dumb” devices smarter, but at the cost of knowing more about you and your daily lives. AI isn’t perfect, either—and our tolerance for its mistakes is evolving, just as the technology is. However, manufacturers across the board will continue to use AI in a bid to keep improving their products. Let’s throw some light on just where AI is already touching your daily life, and new services that can help you improve it further. 1. YOUR SMARTPHONE CAMERA’S PORTRAIT MODE Let’s start with one you already know. Traditional “dumb”…

If you’re used to working with multiple computer monitors at your desk, traveling with a laptop can be tough. Suddenly, you’re back to the single-screen lifestyle, and on a cramped laptop display to boot. Fortunately, though, there’s a free way to use old iPads, Android tablets, or even other laptops as extra monitors for your Windows PC. The solution is a utility called Spacedesk. It may not be the only multi-monitor software out there, but it’s the most versatile free option I’ve found so far. INSTALLING SPACEDESK FOR WINDOWS Spacedesk consists of two parts: Its Driver software runs in the background on your PC and connects to your other screens. You can install it from the Spacedesk website. Note that you’ll need to make a firewall exception for Spacedesk to…

HP’s “dynamic security” prevents you from using third-party ink with HP printers. While HP does this to “protect the quality of our customer experience,” being able to buy cheaper, non-HP ink can save you money. So how can you use third-party printer ink? We have a solution for at least some models. Unfortunately, HP’s dynamic security isn’t new. HP began the practice of banning unauthorized printer ink in 2016 with a firmware update that prevented the use of third-party ink. That hasn’t stopped consumers from being outraged that they can’t do what they want with printers they purchased and buy whatever third-party ink cartridges they want to use. Last week, the topic of HP dynamic security surfaced again when users on Reddit discovered—or rediscovered—the fact that HP uses what is essentially…

Great Value, Kirkland, Signature Select, Husky—house brands, copied or repackaged products sold under a store’s own label as cheap alternatives to name brands have a long and storied history at retail. But perhaps no company has embraced the idea as completely and ruthlessly as Amazon has in the digital age. The corporation’s Amazon Basics brand will sell you everything from diapers to dining sets, and now it’s expanding into desktop PC components. The first individual computer part to get the Amazon Basics label is a CPU cooler, a rather unassuming little number selling for $26.99 in the US. It boasts a relatively compact design for full-size desktops, with four heat pipes and a single RGB 2000RPM 100mm cooling fan. It’s compatible with the latest Intel and AMD CPU sockets: LGA…

Pasting plain text in Windows isn’t as easy as in browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Pressing Ctrl + Shift + V to dump out a clean copy of your clipboard isn’t universally supported, so you’ll often wind up with HTML links and formatting gunking up your pasted text, which you need to manually remove. But that’ll eventually change if you’ve got Microsoft’s awesome PowerToys tool installed: As reported by Neowin last week, a new feature called PastePlain has shown up on GitHub as part of the project. Based on PowerToy’s existing Text Extractor utility, it should work just as described. Any formatting—bold, font size, highlights, and so on—will get stripped when you paste text using a keyboard shortcut. The default will be Ctrl + Win + V, but you’ll be…

Does the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra justify its $300 price tag? That was our question, and undoubtedly yours as well. Our answer? If you own an older laptop, absolutely. But the 4K-capable Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra also offers a noticeable upgrade compared to even the latest webcam hardware. You’ll look like a pro while using this camera. Razer’s Kiyo Pro Ultra claims to offer DSLR-like image quality, and its massive 2-inch-diameter lens certainly reminds you of that right out of the box. In practice, the webcam holds up to its claims. Simply be aware that it doesn’t do quite everything, and one shortcoming in particular might leave you wondering why. Most of the devices we feature in our list of the best webcams step down considerably in price—as does this webcam’s…

Easy to use and rich with features, Dashlane meets all our requirements for a top-tier password manager. But Dashlane goes beyond just managing your login credentials, providing insights for how to think smarter about security. Dashlane’s strength has long been its elegant web portal interface. A vertical toolbar on the left makes it easy to access your logins, secure notes, payment data, and other information. When you select one of these options, all the associated entries are displayed in the main workspace as tiles or a list. Each tile has its own fly-out menu from which you can view, edit, delete, or securely share that entry. Dashlane also offers browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Safari that offer most of the same capabilities as the portal. I used the…

If you use your laptop day in and day out, it’s likely a breeding ground for bacteria and other nasty things. From sticky keys to accumulating dust, things can get real gnarly, which is why it’s important to clean your laptop on a regular basis. My husband has a compromised immune system, so I try to keep my laptop as clean as possible to help fend off any potential viruses floating around. Whether you’re trying to stay healthy or can’t stand the sight of those dust bunnies, I’m going to show you how to safely clean your own device. Read on to learn more. 1. SHUT DOWN YOUR LAPTOP AND UNPLUG IT FROM THE WALL This step is self-explanatory, sure, but it still needs to be stated. Make sure you…

Whether you’re shopping, doing research, or just looking to settle a debate with friends, Google is probably one of the first places you turn to for answers. But with billions of results at our fingertips, finding the information we need can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, there are a few tricks and tips you can use to make your Google search more efficient and effective. Here are a few of the best ones. 1. SEARCH A WEBSITE FOR EXACT KEYWORDS Some websites don’t have great built-in search functions, which can make it hard to find something you’re searching for on that particular site. Google, being the sophisticated search engine that it is, can do just this. The search query you use is site:website.com keywords. So,…

It seems like it’s taken forever for the latest and greatest storage standard to release an updated spec, but the wait is over. Gigabyte’s Aurous Gen5 SSDs, which appear to be the very first PCIe 5.0 M.2 drives to hit the market, are now available for purchase. You can get this super-fast drive, rated for read speeds up to 9,500 megabytes per second, right now…if you can find it in stock and you’ve been saving your pennies. The Aurous Gen5 10000 comes in both 1TB and 2TB capacities, with that massive passive cooler included in the package (you can install it in an 80mm M.2 slot with or without the cooler). According to Tom’s Hardware, the retail price of the 2TB capacity was briefly shown at $350 on Newegg…before it instantly…

Are you tired of hearing about AI features coming to your favorite apps and tools? Well too freakin’ bad—here’s Google jumping on the bandwagon. In a sprawling AI topic post this morning, the company announced artificial intelligence text generation going into some of its most commonly used productivity tools, including Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Chat. If that sounds like “all the stuff Google makes to rival Microsoft Office,” it’s not a coincidence. Google is clearly trying to get ahead of its workspace rival, since Microsoft is set to announce new AI features at its Future of Work presentation just two days from now. Google recently showed off Bard, its conversational AI, quickly following Microsoft’s integration of ChatGPT with the Bing search engine. To its credit, the AI…

In recent years, two has been a good number for AMD—more specifically, for the second generation of its CPU architectures. What the company began in the first gen, it pushes forward in some substantial way in the next round. We saw this during the company’s comeback on desktop, and then its surge forward on laptops. Now Team Red’s doing the same with its innovative 3D V-Cache offerings. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D, AMD’s first 3D V-Cache processor, launched last summer. Layered with additional L3 cache, it was a gaming monster, but limited to the single 8-core offering. When AMD’s own Ryzen 7000 series chips and Intel’s impressive 13th-generation Raptor Lake parts launched last fall, the 5800X3D still held its own against them in games, but lagged significantly in workstation tasks that lean heavily on…

As Adobe Acrobat alternatives go, Nitro PDF Pro sits near the top of the heap. The multi-platform editor is rich with advanced tools and business-ready features but intuitive enough for even beginners to use. All that power comes at a premium, though, making Nitro PDF Pro one of the pricier PDF editors in our roundup. The features that have long made Nitro beloved by users are all still here in the latest version. You get a complete set of content editing tools; review and markup features; form fill and signing capability; and multiple security options for sensitive documents including permissions, password protection, and data redaction. It’s easy to add interactive elements like hyperlinks, images, or document files to your PDFs. You can also add, remove, and edit bates numbering to legal…

Windows 11 may have switched to once-yearly major updates, but that doesn’t mean new features can’t show up more often. Case in point: On March 14, Microsoft dropped a massive “quality update” for Windows 11 that’s absolutely brimming with fresh goodies to play with, after a surprise reveal in February. My colleague Mark Hachman covered everything new in the March 2023 Windows 11 quality update (also called “Moment 2”), then went hands-on with several of the new features. There’s a lot of new stuff that simply isn’t relevant to me, such as better AI tools on Qualcomm-powered PCs, tweaks to the native Teams chat experience, Facebook widgets, improved tablet behavior, and so on. But there are several nifty new features with a broader appeal that I can’t wait to try out—and…

For the ultimate example of a simple tool with hidden depths, look to the desktop web browser. You needn’t be a tech whiz to know the basics of how to visit a website or search the web. Even the notion of opening, closing, and rearranging browser tabs is pretty straightforward. But behind those basics are all kinds of powerful features that make web browsing more efficient. Below are 10 essential browser tricks that everyone ought to know. Note that most of these features work in any web browser, whether it’s Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Chromium-based browsers (such as Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi). 1. LEARN SOME SHORTCUTS While most web browsers offer dozens of keyboard shortcuts, chances are you’re not going to remember them all. Here are a handful of…