Innehållsförteckning för December 2025 från PCWorld

Panther Lake, the next generation of Intel’s Core Ultra series of laptop processors, is nearly here. But what is it, exactly? Intel spent several days explaining the fine details of Panther Lake to journalists at a recent press event, including its new compute cores, graphics cores, NPU AI, and wireless. If you’re interested, PCWorld has a deep dive into all of Panther Lake’s technologies. But if you just want the basics, stay here. Here’s what you need to know about Intel’s Panther Lake chip, in brief. 1. EXPECT PANTHER LAKE IN 2026 Intel executives talked about some of the details of Panther Lake themselves. But the details that matter to laptop buyers (speed, price, and which laptops will have them) will have to wait for CES 2026 in Las Vegas…

Now that Microsoft is almost but not quite forcing you to upgrade to Windows 11, it’s time for the company to take break, let you settle in, lay off some of the heavy-handed marketing that’s been its staple for the last two years…Ha, just kidding. It’s actually burying users under more Copilot features and integrations. Try to contain your excitement. In a sprawling marketing post recently, Microsoft announced a bunch of new features for Copilot…not a single one of which requires a laptop or desktop that meets the Copilot+ requirements. “Copilot now connects you to yourself, to others, and to the tools you use every day. It’s there for you, helps you stay organized, and even supports your health,” says the blog post from Microsoft’s CEO of AI. Here’s a…

Microsoft’s Xbox brand is not doing great. Despite being a pillar of the modern gaming landscape, it seems like Xbox consoles are inconsequential thanks to stiff competition from within and without. Nintendo and Sony are playing to their strengths, and Microsoft itself seems more interested in pushing a platform and subscription than in maintaining its shrinking portion of the market. Add to this huge price increases, for both consoles and the linchpin Xbox Game Pass itself, and it’s not exactly happy days in Redmond. Into this fractious and uncertain landscape landed the Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld, and the more souped-up version, the ROG Xbox Ally X, in mid-October. Launched at $600 and $1,000, respectively, these gadgets are some major firsts for Microsoft. They’re the first Xbox portable devices, even if their…

Picking up the Logitech MX Master 4 for the first time, I’m struck by how well it fits in my hand. Its shape is just right, with a slope that allows the wrist to rest naturally and the thumb to fall onto the buttons. It’s a mouse that feels long enough to keep your fingers from hitting the touch buttons—something that has annoyed me on many other models. The MX Master 4 isn’t about speed or RGB lights, it’s about comfort, precision, and getting work done. The surface is solid, the materials feel premium and the clicking sounds are almost nonexistent. The right and left buttons are extremely quiet and very sensitive, which is perfect in open-plan office environments but takes some getting used to. I quickly realize I’m pressing…

Budget gaming laptops are in a pickle. Gamers often expect them at a price around $1,000 or less, but between rising GPU prices and internal trade wars, shipping a laptop with discrete graphics for under $1,000 isn’t easy. The result is laptops like the Lenovo LOQ 15. It’s successful in delivering solid game performance for the price, but Lenovo cuts a lot of corners to make that possible. SPECS AND FEATURES The Lenovo LOQ 15’s specifications feel built around the Nvidia RTX 5060, which takes center stage. The AMD Ryzen 7 250 is an acceptable processor, but based on the older Zen 4 architecture, which has consequences when it comes to performance. Model number: 15AHP10 CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 250 Memory: 16GB DDR5-5600 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5060 8GB (115W TGP)…

AutoHotkey (AHK) is a free and simple yet powerful Windows scripting language. It doesn’t get a lot of press these days, but Windows geeks used to love writing and swapping AHK scripts. You can learn AHK and write the scripts yourself if you want to—the AutoHotkey documentation is pretty good—or you could use an AI tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and so on to do the work for you. Well, that’s what I did. Months ago, I vibe-coded a script that changes how scrolling works on Windows. (Vibe coding is when you use prompt instructions to generate code via AI.) I still use it every day because it’s a huge help on my desktop PC’s big monitor. With AI, creating the script took less than an hour. All I…

Over time I’ve learned quite a lot of useful shortcuts for Windows. Shortcuts can save a lot of time, so I’d like to share some of them with y’all. You could call these “power shortcuts” because you’ll find yourself using them all the time. POWER SHORTCUTS Win + A: Opens quick settings panel Win + N: Opens notification center Win + U: Open Ease of Access settings Win + Ctrl + D: Create a new virtual desktop Win + Ctrl + F4: Close the current virtual desktop Win + Ctrl + Q: Open Quick Assist (for remote help) Win + Shift + M: Restore minimized windows Win + Spacebar: Switch input language or keyboard layout Ctrl + Shift + N: Create a new folder Alt + Enter: View file or…

October 14 officially marked the end of full support for Windows 10, a whopping decade after Microsoft debuted the operating system. You’re probably aware of this already, as Microsoft has been begging, pleading, cajoling, and almost demanding that Windows 10 users switch over to Windows 11 by upgrading to a new device or updating their operating system (if their hardware supports it). But if you haven’t done anything about it yet, you probably should. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know and what to do about it. YOUR OPTIONS FOR WINDOWS 10 You don’t have to leave Windows 10 if you don’t want to. Hundreds of millions of PCs (about half of them, in fact) won’t stop working just because of a specific date on the calendar. This…

Microsoft’s next Xbox will run Windows, a report says, blurring the line between PCs and consoles and making the latest Xbox Ally X the model of what Microsoft hopes to achieve in gaming. Windows Central, which has established some good sources inside the console space, claims (fave.co/4orEByV) that the next Xbox will run Windows, with an Xbox Full Screen Experience layered on top. Given that Microsoft has already established a close working relationship with AMD, those chips should be inside the console as well, with backward compatibility going all the way back to the Xbox 360, the site says. Microsoft hasn’t explicitly said that the next Xbox would run Windows, though the company hasn’t really tried to hide it, either. In June, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that the Xbox team…

Microsoft’s release of its Limited Edition Crocs has moved out of beta and into general release. The $79.95 customized Crocs are now available in several sizes. Originally, Microsoft had made the Limited Edition Crocs available in October, timed with the company’s 50th anniversary celebration. The “shoes” were originally made available as part of a Microsoft-sponsored sweepstakes. However, the footwear has now become a viral hit of sorts. “Based on the incredible response and positive engagement across social media, we’re thrilled to share that the Microsoft Limited Edition Crocs Bundle officially drops globally beginning today,” the company said in an October 1 blog post. The Crocs ship in a Windows XP-inspired theme. It’s based upon the Bliss background, inspired by a photograph from Charles O’Rear taken just a few miles from…

Keter is the latest manufacturer to take a shot at ending the epidemic of porch piracy plaguing online shoppers. Its Keter Package Delivery Box is the most basic solution I’ve tested—there’s no smart lock, no broadband connectivity, and no delivery notifications. What it lacks in technology, however, Keter’s box makes up in practicality. SPECIFICATIONS Like the garden sheds that Keter is best known for, the Keter Package Delivery Box is fabricated almost entirely from resin, with metal handles on its lid and door, and a hasp for a user-provided padlock. It arrives as a 41-pound flat pack and takes about 45 minutes to assemble (I missed an early step in the illustration-only instructions, so it took me considerably longer because I had to partially disassemble it to fix my error).…

SwitchBot is known for manufacturing quirky smart home products, and its SwitchBot K20+ Pro Patrol Kit is certainly no exception. One part mini robot vacuum cleaner and mop, one part automated security guard, it promises to clean your floors while patrolling your home with an indoor security camera mounted atop a piggybacked mobile base—like a triple-decker bus. Yes, it’s a weird combo, but it works—although it won’t in every home (I’ll get to that later). The bundle reviewed here includes the tiny SwitchBot K20+ Pro robot vac and mop, its self-emptying base station, a mobile dock that can host various accessories, and a SwitchBot Pan/Tilt Cam Plus 3K security camera. You’ll also need to have the $120 SwitchBot Hub 3 Matter-certified smart home hub for everything to work. FEATURES AND…

I know I’m not alone in the frustration that comes from dreaded Windows updates hitting at the worst times. The small, incremental updates aren’t too bad, but the larger updates that turn up every so often can be a real source of stress—that is, until you choose to be proactive and take control of them like I eventually learned to do. To be clear, Windows updates are important. Without them, you leave your PC open to malware, instability, and performance issues. (That’s why the end of Windows 10 support is such a big deal and why you should only stick with Windows 10 if you have extended support.) We recommend keeping your Windows PC updated whenever you can. Fortunately, while Microsoft is in charge of releasing the various Windows updates,…

For one reason or another, we’ve all become very familiar with Zoom calls in recent years. Although we thankfully don’t need to use them quite as much as we used to, they’re still an important part of many people’s work and socializing. Unfortunately, Zoom isn’t 100% private, and there are ways nefarious individuals and organizations can use your calls to steal your information, identity, or private data. Fortunately, however, there are ways in which you can protect yourself and make Zoom more of the secure platform it can be. Here are some of our top tips. USE A MEETING PASSWORD The most important safeguard you can have in place to protect you, your meeting participants, and any information and data shared there, is to put a password on your meeting…

Here’s an unsettling development in this episode of “Everyday Tech Can Do Things You Probably Never Imagined”: In the future, anyone who regularly walks past a café or restaurant with public Wi-Fi could be identified—even without a smartphone in their pocket. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have discovered that commercially available Wi-Fi routers can recognize and identify individual people based on signal changes. All that’s required is for other devices in the vicinity to be connected to the router. Professor Thorsten Strufe from KASTEL—the Institute of Information Security and Dependability at KIT—explains that the propagation of Wi-Fi radio waves can be used to create an image of the router’s physical environment and the people in it. This works in a similar way to cameras, except radio waves are used…

With so much of our lives wrapped up in digital identities and platforms, you might want to spare a thought as to how your loved ones can get into things like your bank accounts or social media after you pay your coins to the ferryman. Password manager LastPass has a feature that can pass your credentials on to your next of kin…and, unsurprisingly, it’s being exploited by phishing scams. It’s a sneaky and distasteful campaign, starting with an email spoofed from “alerts@lastpass.com” that claims someone uploaded a death certificate to request access to your LastPass account. That’s an alarming thing to read if you’re still alive, so you might just lower your defenses long enough to click on the link to “lastpassrecovery[dot]com” in the phony email that claims to stop the…

The Acer Aspire Go 15 is a 15.6-inch budget laptop that delivers great value for your dollar. With reasonable desktop performance, a nice 1080p display, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage, there’s a lot to like here. But the Aspire Go 15 won’t pass for a premium laptop any time soon. Acer’s choice of budget-tier N-series Intel CPU and a small battery are compromises that were likely necessary to hit this price point. You’ll notice this compromise in day-to-day use. SPECS The Acer Aspire Go 15 pairs an Intel Core i3-N355 CPU with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512 GB SSD—that’s a good amount of RAM and storage for a $499 laptop. It’s available from both Best Buy and Target. While I was wrapping up…

  The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQDPG is one of two new 500Hz QD-OLED monitors that were launched in close succession (the other being Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF). An OLED monitor capable of 500Hz was a dream a decade ago, but now it’s a reality, and the results are spectacular. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best gaming monitors for comparison. SPECS AND FEATURES The headliner here is obviously the refresh rate, which can hit a maximum of 500Hz. That’s an incredibly high refresh rate for any monitor, and a new height for OLED—though a few other companies, like Samsung, also offer a 500Hz OLED display. Display size: 26.5-inch 16:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 2560×1440 Panel type: Samsung QD-OLED Refresh rate: 500Hz Adaptive sync: Yes, Adaptive…

As an IT expert, I’m used to building digital fortresses. Firewalls, virus scanners, complex passwords, two-factor authentication: My tech life is a high-security zone. I thought my physical home was, too—at least until I went into my garage one morning and realized the brackets for my planned solar-panel installation, which had been stored on a pallet in front of it, were missing. Foil cut, opened, and stolen. In the middle of the night. After the initial anger and the police report, my rage gave way to cool analysis: It was time to invest in more security. But my goal was to spend less than $500. BURGLARS ARE AT THEIR PEAK IN AUTUMN The risk of burglary increases dramatically during the darker months of the year, when dusk can set late…

Keyless systems are supposed to make driving more convenient. However, it’s precisely this technology that has become one of the biggest security risks in modern vehicles. Criminals are increasingly using radio devices to extend the signals of car keys and unlock vehicles without their owners realizing. This method is particularly widespread at night and in parking garages. The good news? A simple piece of aluminum foil can help protect your car from such attacks. Here’s how it works and what you can do. HOW KEYLESS CAR THEFT WORKS A smart key (also known as “keyless go” or “passive keyless entry”) continuously transmits an RFID radio signal that’s recognized by your car. As soon as the key is within range, you can unlock, enter, and start the car without pulling the…