Innehållsförteckning för May 2024 från PCWorld

If you’re an AT&T subscriber, you might want to keep a close eye on your credit reports. The company has disclosed that approximately 7.6 million current account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders “were contained in a data set released on the dark web approximately two weeks ago.” While it’s unclear how the breach occurred or if it involves AT&T directly or one of its vendors, the company says it includes personal information such as names and Social Security numbers. A preliminary analysis appears to indicate that the data is from 2019 and earlier, though AT&T is still conducting “a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts.” The company reports the compromised data likely does not contain personal financial information or call history. AT&T says it does not…

Microsoft not only introduces new features or programs with Windows updates, it also removes obsolete functions. Many people don’t notice this until they need a specific feature or the outdated program. One example is WordPad, which will soon be removed from Windows, or Windows-to-Go and the Homegroup. If you use WordPad, you should look for a replacement in good time. In most cases, however, Microsoft does not remove features immediately, but instead marks them as “obsolete.” This means that no more improvements are being developed for these features or tools and that Microsoft will remove them from Windows in a future version. Here’s a list of the Windows features destined to get the axe soon. WORDPAD WILL NO LONGER BE PART OF WINDOWS Microsoft has announced that WordPad will be…

When Qualcomm showed off its benchmarks of its new Snapdragon X Elite chips last October, there was one flaw in its argument: Qualcomm was comparing the new Snapdragon platform to Intel’s older 13th-gen Core chips. That’s been fixed. Now Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon X Elite is faster than Intel’s new Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) chips, too. Last October, Qualcomm said that its Snapdragon X Elite could match the performance of the Intel Core i9-13980HX at 70 percent less power. Subsequent hands-off benchmarks of the Snapdragon X Elite appeared to bear that out. But Intel hadn’t launched its Meteor Lake architecture yet to provide a head-to-head comparison. Now it has, and Qualcomm is crowing once again. In a Monday afternoon briefing, Qualcomm executives provided the same sort of comparisons to Intel’s Core…

Tucked within Windows are different utilities to protect and manage your PC — but not all are easily found, much less in one spot or in an immediately understandable format. Independent antivirus software suites try to capitalize on this weakness, but Avira Prime stands out in the field for its approach. Rivals usually go with either a simplified or advanced approach to controls and utilities. Meanwhile Avira combined an extremely pared-down, newbie-friendly interface with a boatload of PC utilities that go startlingly deep. Not all these tools work out quite as well as advertised, but if you want to have PC maintenance demystified for you, Avira Prime can get you started — while still providing strong threat protection. WHAT DOES AVIRA PRIME INCLUDE? At the core of this security suite…

There’s been a trend of mid-tier laptop lines getting a glow-up. HP, Acer, and Asus have done it, and with the Inspiron 14 Plus 7440, Dell shows it has a knack for this as well. While the Inspiron name might call to mind drab, plastic work machines, the latest iteration breaks free from its roots in all the right ways. A dash of metal here, a more colorful display there, and unexpectedly strong performance and battery life all behind a $1,000 price tag make this a highly competitive looking machine. And with a bit of deeper digging, it’s clear that Dell has a massive success on its hands. SPECS AND FEATURES CPU: Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X-6400 Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc Graphics Display: 14-inch, 2240×1400, WVA Storage: 1TB…

If you’re like me and have multiple online storage accounts, you know that managing them via separate websites and clients is tedious at best. In my case, simply remembering what’s stored where can be a chore. That all ended when I discovered applications such as CloudMounter, RaiDrive, ExpanDrive, Mountain Duck, and Air Live Drive. These “cloud storage managers” integrate your online storage services, as well as FTP/SFTP and WebDAV connections, into your operating system’s file and folder manager: Windows Explorer, macOS Finder, etc. Each connection appears as pseudo local or network drive with an honest-to-goodness drive letter that behaves just like the real deal, albeit a tad slower. Yup, you can browse, copy, rename, delete, back up, etc. to your online services without firing up any additional software or a…

While cloud storage services are convenient for sharing files across all your devices, sometimes there’s no substitute for a local file transfer. That’s where LocalSend comes in. This free, open-source app uses your local Wi-Fi network to transfer files between practically any two devices. It’s much faster than uploading files to a cloud storage service and then waiting for them to download. Best of all, LocalSend works across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, so there are no ecosystem barriers to get in the way of sharing your files. (Looking at you, AirDrop.) SENDING FILES WITH LOCALSEND To use LocalSend, you must install the app on each of your devices. Head to LocalSend’s download page for the desktop versions, or use the direct app store links for iOS and Android. There’s also an…

This year everything is “AI,” whatever that means. Every new computer, game, software service, and soft-serve ice cream machine is apparently imbued with digital sentience, at least according to its branding. But when it comes to laptops and desktops, Microsoft has a very specific definition of “AI PC.” Surprise…it’s mostly branding. According to a presentation from Intel on Tuesday, which weirdly debuted Microsoft’s “requirements for an AI PC,” vendors will need three specific components if they want to advertise their new machines as such. One, “NPU, CPU, and GPU powered silicon.” Since that presumably includes integrated GPUs like Intel’s Xe systems, the NPU (neural processing unit) is the new hotness in question. What exactly is an NPU? That’s a bit nebulous at the moment. An NPU is a distinct (if…

Are you ready for PCIe version 6.0? No? Your motherboard doesn’t even have PCIe 5.0 yet, because you’re squeezing every last possible ounce of value out of AM4? Well too bad, because PCie 7.0 is now on the horizon. And while it’s still a ways off — the final version of the spec won’t be available until next year — the speed it’s offering will be mind-blowing. We’re talkin’ up to 512 gigabits of data per second when using x16 lanes on a fully-open motherboard slot, double the prospective speed of PCIe 6 and four times the speed of PCIe 5. So says the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG). The group has released its 0.5 spec for members, according to a public post spotted by AnandTech. PCI-SIG doubled down…

Though it’s intentionally simple and there are some excellent alternatives, Microsoft’s humble Notepad text editor has gained a massive following through sheer ubiquity. Today it finally gets a feature that even the best writers (and also I) can’t live without: spell check. The feature is now live in the latest Windows 11 Insider build. According to Wikipedia, the Notepad program is actually older than Windows itself, going all the way back to the Multi-Tool Notepad program that was included in the MS-DOS update which introduced mouse support in 1983. Then, as now, it was a faster and less resource-intensive alternative to Microsoft Word — and the fact that it was free with the operating system didn’t hurt. It’s since become a feature in every single release of Windows. The Windows…

Physically, Lexar’s SL500 portable USB 3.2×2 SSD makes its SL600 and SL660 stablemates look like chunky monkeys. Actually, measuring a mere 0.3-inches thick (less than 0.2 at the edges), by 2.1-inches wide, by 3.3-inches long, the SL500 make nearly all external SSDs appear chunky. As it’s also attractively styled, and weighs a mere 1.5 ounces, let’s just say the SL500 is a super model among external SSDs. FEATURES The SL500 is a super-slim, USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps) external SSD that comes in 2TB, and soon, 4TB flavors. It ships with a short Type-C to Type-C cable and is warrantied for five years. That’s a limited warranty that no doubt assumes that you won’t hit it with a sledgehammer, or write several petabytes of data to it. The drive ships formatted to exFAT, so it’s…

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office (nee True Image) is without question the most comprehensive suite of utilities for keeping your computer backed up and secure. It’s not even particularly close in fact. Marrying anti-malware and backup, as Cyber Protect Home Office does, might seem an odd choice at first. However, the ability to fire off a backup or shut off access to previous backups when malware is detected makes a whole lot of sense. I was a bit skeptical when the company first started down this path, now I’m completely on board. FEATURES There’s a lot to cover in a program as comprehensive as Cyber Protect Home Office. I’ll get to the malware protection in a bit, but first let’s talk about backup. The program creates image files from drives…

We all have expectations from our laptops. We want them to work snappily and let us get through whatever it is we’re trying to get through, be it a big work projector or the next level of our favorite video game. Sadly, there’s plenty of occasion for our laptops to let us down, running slowly and bringing all the smooth productivity to a grinding halt. Wrestling that performance back doesn’t have to be hard, and there are quite a few things you can attempt to boost your speeds for free. If you’re trying to get your laptop to run smoother and feel a little bit more like the day you first bought it (or you just bought one and don’t think it’s running as fast as it could), here are…

Moving your files onto a new PC is just one part of the puzzle. Sure, you’ll need a backup program or a cloud sync tool like Microsoft OneDrive to move files onto a new PC, but you’ll also need to install all of your favorite programs–and file backup tools won’t help with that. Windows comes with a hidden tool known as Winget that allows you to install your favorite applications in a snap. Spend a minute or two figuring it out and you’ll be able to quickly get up and running on any new PC without all of the tedious web-searching, downloading, and installing applications. And, if you’d like to also move large game downloads over quickly so you don’t have to download terabytes of game data again, Steam offers an easy…

New FCC “broadband nutrition labels” go into effect beginning today, forcing ISPs to disclose all of the normally hidden costs and speeds. And yes, the term “nutrition label” is accurate — they’re modeled after the list of ingredients you might find on a box of cereal, say, along with a breakdown of what you’re being charged. Those labels must be posted on the websites of ISPs as well as in retail stores. The labels also cover both wired and wireless broadband plans, so you should see them, for example, in a Verizon store. The idea is to allow consumers to know just exactly what they’ll receive when they sign up for broadband service — and what they’ll be charged for, too. The new labels won’t eliminate the fees that are…

In the old days, anyone could easily snoop on internet traffic. The data was unprotected, so everything getting passed between a computer and a server was out in the open, whether that was website text and images or your username and password. When universal encryption took over, it blocked spying—but unfortunately, bad actors evolved along with the increased security. One kind of attack is especially popular: First known as a man-in-the-middle attack (now referred to machine-in-the-middle, adversary-in-the-middle, or on-path attacks), it lets hackers insert themselves between your devices and the server they communicate with, in order to steal login information ad session cookies to then take over your account. It starts with you clicking on a phishing link, then entering your credentials on a fake copy of a legitimate website.…

AMD’s Ryzen mobile chips are increasingly competitive with Intel’s Core mobile lineup, and in recent years, AMD has taken a lead in some areas, such as battery life. The new Ryzen 7 8840HS is one of AMD’s best mid-range mobile processors yet, and it gives the Zenbook 14 OLED the edge it needs to stand out from Intel-powered competitors. SPECS AND FEATURES The laptop’s headline feature is certainly the AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor. This is a new chip from AMD, and it’ll be interesting to see how it performs relative to older AMD chips, as well as Intel’s new Core Ultra 7 series. CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon integrated Display: 1920×1200 OLED 60Hz touchscreen Storage: 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive Webcam:…

Photoshop Elements isn’t the cheapest photo editor available, costing $99.99, but it’s still great value for money as it’s able to use technology from the professional version of Photoshop to provide some really powerful tools for editing your photos and adding creative effects. Adobe also sells a bundle that includes both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for video editing for $149.99, which can save you even more money. (Read our review of Premiere Elements.) The key to Photoshop Elements’ success is that it manages to combine powerful editing tools with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for amateur photographers to achieve impressive results. Adobe’s 2022 version introduced new AI techniques – which Adobe refers to as Sensei – which could automatically perform editing tasks that might normally require hours of…

Until about 15 years ago, the term “laptop” meant one thing: a portable PC that unfolds to reveal a screen on one half and a keyboard on the other. But with the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, PC vendors’ subsequent push into touchscreen designs, and the continued maturation of the PC market, the definition of “laptop” has broadened. Choosing a laptop isn’t just about tech specs and build quality. It’s now about the fundamental shape of the thing. Let’s try to break it all down with a taxonomy for every kind of laptop you can buy today. CLAMSHELL LAPTOPS The most conventional category of them all, clamshells do not flip, bend, or transform. They merely focus on letting you work with a keyboard and trackpad (or mouse) with the…

Ransomware is nasty stuff. This type of malware encrypts files on your PC so that you can’t access them—unless you pay the attacker to unlock the data. In other words, your files are held hostage until you cough up the demanded ransom, unless you’re able to survive the ransomware attack using other means. CBS News just ran a cautionary segment on the Scattered Spider ransomware group, underscoring just how much damage ransomware can do—so it pays to be prepared. The hackers shut down Las Vegas casinos, causing millions in damage. Your personal computer is less of a target, but why tempt faith? The best defense against ransomware is avoiding sites and downloads riddled with it, but you can take other protective measures, too. Modern antivirus software often restrict which apps can…