Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från PCWorld

Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel and a titan of the semiconductor industry whose “Moore’s Law” literally served as the measuring stick for the entire chip business, died Friday at his home in Hawaii. He was 94. Intel confirmed the news Friday afternoon, along with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which Moore and his wife founded in 2000. In 2017, The Chronicle of Philanthropy marked the two as California’s most generous donors, giving a total of $6.3 billion to “create positive outcomes for future generations.” Moore co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957, then left to co-found Intel with Robert Noyce. (Andy Grove is largely credited as being the third of the trio that was responsible for Intel’s success, but he joined on the day Intel was first incorporated.) Moore served as…

Last week Western Digital experienced a hack of its systems, prompting the company to pull its services offline—including its My Cloud backup and file access service. First disclosed on April 3, the outage began on April 2, as reported on the WD My Cloud status page. As of April 5, customers have still not received further clarification on when to expect restored access to their data. If you’ve been hit by this service disruption, you’re likely riding it out in one of two ways: frustratingly cut off from your files, or temporarily inconvenienced because your data isn’t readily available in the cloud. The difference? In the first scenario, My Cloud’s your only location for your data. In the second, you were following the rule of three. Your data needs backups—and…

You probably already know that 5G is a widely used abbreviation for a version of mobile network standards. You likely also know that it’s the most current standard in use. That “G” slapped next to the number means “generation.” It’s not a reference to the download or upload speeds you get on your cell phone. You may have seen the advertisements about Comcast’s new 10G Xfinity network blanketing the airwaves and other platforms. And since the Xfinity website doesn’t really clarify what “10G” means, you might assume that the company’s home internet service is a faster version of 5G. Even if you dig around and stumble upon Comcast’s corporate webpage about 10G, its reference to “multi-gig speeds” may not dispel that initial impression. That’s likely what Comcast’s marketing team wants…

AI art generators have moved from novelty to niche to even a commodity in just months, with numerous services promising the ability to create generative AI art instantly using natural-language text prompts. The very best AI art services offer superb imagery and superior tools, either for free or for a low price. Why use AI art? Many of us can appreciate a great painting, photograph, or drawing without having the ability to create it ourselves. We may also be able to describe what we want to see, and that’s where AI art comes in. Instead of searching for a piece of art that matches that description, the service actually generates it, matching what it knows of the scenes depicted in its image database and comparing them to the scene and…

Finally, Nvidia’s 70-class GeForce graphics cards get more than 8GB of memory. And finally, there’s a member of the RTX 40 series possibly worth buying other than the $1,600 flagship. Meet the 12GB GeForce RTX 4070. It hit the streets for $599 on April 13. The GeForce RTX 4070 delivers exceptionally fast 1440p gaming performance while sipping power, a combination that let Nvidia create an adorably tiny Founders Edition version of the GPU. Those frame rates climb even higher in games that support Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology, and astronomically higher in games embracing DLSS 3 Frame Generation—even with ray tracing flipped on. Exceptional software features like Nvidia Broadcast, Reflex, and RTX Video Super Resolution help sweeten the pot. The RTX 4070 may be worth considering, but it’s not a slam-dunk…

Like most big tech companies, Amazon collects large amounts of data on its users, in part for the purpose of targeting ads and training its Alexa voice models. Look in the right places, though, and you can minimize or prevent much of this data collection, or even opt out of Amazon’s targeted ads entirely. If you’re an Amazon customer in any capacity, it’s worth taking a minute to sweep through the company’s labyrinthine privacy menus and put some limits on the powers of its vast data collection apparatus. 1. OPT OUT OF AMAZON’S TARGETED ADS First, visit Amazon’s Advertising Preferences page and select “Do not show me interest-based ads provided by Amazon.” This will prevent the items you buy on the site from creepily following you around the web. While here,…

ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and Bard promise to transform your life using the power of artificial intelligence, through AI conversations that—just like those with a human being—can inform, amuse, and educate you. But how good are these new AI chatbots, really? We tested them to find out. We asked all three AIs a variety of different questions: some that expanded upon general search topics, some that demanded an opinion, logic puzzles, even code—and then asked them to be more creative, such as by writing an alternate, better ending to Game of Thrones and a Seinfeld scene with a special guest. We’ve included all of their answers, or as much of them as we could provide, and we’ll let you decide for yourself. One note: We have access to all three AI…

Microsoft 365 Copilot’s AI tools don’t seem particularly surprising for the company who originated Clippy’s helper bot. But applying AI and natural language to Microsoft Office feels like a profound, fundamental change that could absolutely transform the way you work. Microsoft 365 Copilot essentially injects AI into the various Office apps. You’ll still interact with them the way you normally would, but Copilot will also live in the toolbar atop those apps, and you’ll interact with it in a sidebar. If you’ve ever hauled a coworker over and told them, “Show me how to do this,” you’ll understand what Microsoft 365 Copilot can do. Except it will actually, you know, do it. It’s really the next generation of AI chatbots: not bots that talk to you like Bing Chat does, but…

Over the last few months, AI chatbots have exploded in popularity off the surging success of OpenAI’s revolutionary ChatGPT—which, amazingly, only burst onto the scene around December. But when Microsoft seized the opportunity to hitch its wagon to OpenAI’s rising star for a steep $10 billion dollars, it chose to do so by introducing a GPT-4–powered chatbot under the guise of Bing, its swell-but-also-ran search engine, in a bid to upend Google’s search dominance. Google quickly followed suit with its own homegrown Bard AI. Both are touted as experiments. And these “AI chatbots” are truly wondrous advancements—I’ve spent many nights with my kids joyously creating fantastic stuff-of-your-dreams artwork with Bing Chat’s Dall-E integration and prompting sick raps about wizards who think lizards are the source of all magic, and seeing them…

We’ve all been there—chilling at the local café, minding our own business, when some hip remote worker comes in with a MacBook Pro and starts working away. No judgment from me—I use Macs, Windows PCs, and Linux devices on the regular. But since Apple went with its own custom processors, those machines have proven hard for the PC industry to match. Not only are the latest MacBooks attractive, they boast surprising power and incredible efficiency, too. That’s why HP partnered with AMD to create the new HP Dragonfly Pro. This slim laptop packs the latest Ryzen processor, with 8 high-performance cores and powerful graphics, to take on the Mac. While you’ll need to decide for yourself if you’d rather have this over a MacBook, we found that this is a…

ChatGPT, a powerful language model chatbot developed by OpenAI, has revolutionized the way we interact with artificial intelligence. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can help you with a wide range of tasks, from answering trivia questions to composing poetry. Here are 10 wonderfully fun, awesomely practical ways to put ChatGPT to work. 1. CREATE FUN RECIPES One interesting thing ChatGPT can do is generate recipes based on user preferences, ingredients, or specific dietary requirements. Give it a starting point by providing certain information about the desired dish, such as the type of cuisine, the main ingredients you want to use, or any dietary restrictions you may have. ChatGPT will then provide a recipe with step-by-step instructions, ingredient quantities, and cooking tips. I asked ChatGPT to create a…

Look at the left side of your row of email in Gmail. See the star there? You can click on it to track different messages—things you want to follow up on, remember for later, or otherwise find quickly. If you’ve used it before, you likely only know it as a yellow star that you can toggle on and off. But did you know that other colors exist too, as well as other icon shapes that include different-colored exclamation marks, a checkmark, and a question mark? To expand your lineup of star types, click on Gmail’s gear icon, then choose See all settings. Under General, scroll down to Stars. By default, the “1 star” option will be selected, but you can instead choose the option for “4 stars” (yellow and blue…

The airport, the bar, the library—all places where your hard-working smartphone might need a little pick-me-up, and all places where free, public phone charging stations have been cropping up over the last few years. But according to a warning from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, you might be better off letting your constant companion run down to zero. A tweet from the FBI’s Denver field office (via CNBC) warns that “bad actors” have been infiltrating public recharging stations in order to load up spyware and malware on smartphones through the USB port. For hackers, getting instant physical, wired access to a device is basically the Holy Grail of information security…and the defeat thereof. It’s a technique informally known as “juice jacking,” something the FBI’s central website and various field offices…

We’ve all been there. You sign up for a free trial for something you need in a hurry, only to find out that it’s not everything it’s cracked up to be, and getting rid of it is a lot harder. This sort of thing has been associated with gym memberships and “music club” subscriptions for decades, but recently it’s become much more prevalent online, where you can sign up for something with a few clicks but getting rid of it requires a call to the company or an email to support. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is as sick of it as the rest of us. In a 3-1 vote, the FTC has proposed to amend a statute first put in place in 1973 to make unsubscribing from services easier and…

The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D’s launch at the end of February made one thing abundantly clear: The first of Team Red’s 7000-series 3D V-Cache processors were gaming monsters. Their extra additional layer of spicy L3 cache supercharged their performance. But the chip everyone was waiting on—the Ryzen 7 7800X3D—was still a question mark. Held until its April 6 launch, the $450 CPU is the “affordable” option compared to the $699 7950X3D and $599 Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and one that many gamers were eyeing with ready anticipation. We knew the 7800X3D’s technical details (which you can dig into via our YouTube coverage, but how it would slot on to the leaderboards was a mystery. Now with this chip on shelves, we finally know: Like its siblings, this processor is a beast. In fact…

To provide thorough protection, today’s security products must do more than just scan for viruses and malware. They need to check for harmful internet traffic, intrusive browser tracking, privacy issues, outdated software, and weak passwords, among other items. One product providing all that and more is Avira Prime for Windows. Designed for all supported versions of Windows, Avira Prime packs a lot into one program. Under the banner of security, the software includes the usual virus protection but throws in a software updater and a firewall. In the area of privacy, Avira Prime provides a file shredder, an identity-theft monitor, a password manager, and an online tracking blocker. And to help boost your PC’s performance, the program offers a driver updater, a battery saver, a duplicate file finder, a disk…

Some of my favorite tech tools are the ones I don’t use on a daily basis. I don’t pry open my laptop too often, for instance, but I’m glad to have the right tools at hand when the need arises. The same goes with various adapters, extension cords, cables, and battery backups. In the same way you might have a toolbox for handiwork, you might consider keeping a tech toolkit for maintaining, fixing, or improving your gadgets. That way, you don’t have to run off to an electronics store or wait for an Amazon order to arrive in your time of need. Here are seven tech tools I’m always happy to have at my disposal. 1. GADGET REPAIR KIT For less than $20 on Amazon, you can buy a small…

While Windows 11 provides a fine enough out of the box experience—terrible new task bar aside—it handles so much better after tweaking just a few settings as to make it feel more like the Windows of yore. No, I’m not talking about making Windows 11 look like Windows 10 through an extensive overhaul (though if you’re a Windows veteran, that’s worth doing). I’m talking about fast, simple changes that improve the feel of the operating system, turn off annoying ads, reduce the data you send to Microsoft, and more. Better yet, you can do them all in under five minutes—something I did mere weeks ago when I needed to pick up a Windows 11 laptop for some travel. Here are five Windows 11 settings worth changing immediately, with an added bonus at…