I’ve been quiet for the last few months, but I can explain. I was tasked with testing several power stations, ranging from affordable to almost too expensive. The goal? Find a range of portable power stations for all budgets and use cases.Admittedly, testing took far longer than I expected. But, alas, here I am, ready with the first review born out of months of testing, frustration, and more testing.First up is the RAVPower Portable Power Station 252.7Wh Power House, a $179 powerhouse that looks more like a portable speaker than something you’d plug a 110v gadget into, or that could…

Want to maximize your desktop’s real estate? You have two options: an ultrawide monitor, or a dual-monitor setup. Either choice will massively expand the screen space at your command. But ultrawide and dual-monitor setups are not the same. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.  Here’s how to decide whether an ultrawide monitor or dual monitors is right for you.How wide is it? Everyone looking to buy an ultrawide monitor or dual monitors wants more usable display space. But how much do you gain with each scenario?A 34-inch ultrawide monitor, the most common size, is not as large you might think….

Adata’s XPG Gammix S70 Blade is the second fastest NVMe SSD we’ve tested, bettering Samsung’s excellent 980 Pro by a smidge—the drive it replaces in the number two spot. It’s also PlayStation 5 compatible and offers a large improvement in real world performance over its predecessor, the previously reviewed and fast-in-its-own-right XPG Gammix S70. This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best SSDs. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.To read this article in full, please click herePowered by WPeMatico

Popups within Windows are one of the operating system’s more polarizing features. If you’re not a fan, you may want to brace yourself, because Microsoft is testing whether or not to add even more to Windows 11. It might not be bad news, though.As part of the review notes for the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22458, Microsoft says that it’s including an enhanced Tips app for Windows 11, with more hints about how to use the new upcoming operating system. But Microsoft also says that it’s going to be scattering more of these hints around the operating system itself.To read…

Microsoft said Thursday that it plans to launch Office 2021, a standalone version of Office 365, on Oct. 5—the same day as Windows 11 releases. It will include some, but not all of the features of Microsoft’s perpetually-updating cloud productivity serviceMicrosoft will release Office 2021 for personal and small business users “later this year,” Microsoft said in a blog post in February. On Thursday, Microsoft added the ship date of October 5. Microsoft also did not offer any other pricing guidance beyond what it had said in February, which was that it did not plan to change the prices for this new release….

When Microsoft finally added virtual desktop support to Windows 10, my productivity instantly skyrocketed. Virtual desktops create secondary (and tertiary, and..) home screens for your PC, each running instances of its own software, that you can quickly hop between. They’re one of the best Windows 10 tools you may not even know about. But every time I profess my love for virtual desktops I inevitably get asked, “What do you use them for?”I can only speak to my own experiences, of course. I like segregating my work software from my play software, to resist the allure of Discord and GeForce…

For PC enthusiasts, the global chip shortages aren’t fresh news. Trying to get components for DIY builds or a even good pre-built PC at a decent price has been a wild ride since spring 2020, and laptops fly off store shelves as quickly as they arrive. But continuing to wait out all electronics purchases won’t pay off this holiday season—not with recent reports that even toys will be affected by the shortages when shoppers go on the hunt for gifts. Yes, children’s toys with electronic chips will be in short supply, according to Slickdeals.net. In its interview with the head of…

If you’re asking yourself if all USB-A to USB-C cables work the same, well, the short answer is no. Not at all.To illustrate our point, we reviewed two six-foot, gray-braided Amazon Basics USB-A to USB-C cables that look virtually identical and, surprisingly, cost virtually identical amounts. A USB 3.1 model cost $12.40 while a USB 2.0 model cost $11.90.Our prior evaluation of pure USB-C cables revolved around three features: Charging performance, data transfer performance, and monitor cable performance. But our testing of the USB-A to USB-C cables we’re comparing today showed they really only differentiate in one key area: data transfer…

Let’s get ready to rumble! Today we’re pitting the first two “sweet spot” 1080p graphics cards from this generation in an epic head-to-head showdown: Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 versus the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT.Mainstream options like these have historically been priced competitively to garner the attention of as many gamers as possible. With recent MSRP and street pricing raging out of control, are they still attractive choices? Which is the best graphics card for you: The RTX 3060 or the Radeon RX 6600 XT? Let’s look at their pricing, performance, and more to answer those questions.To read this article…

Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake processors aren’t upon us yet, but another price leak indicates they might indeed compete with AMD’s best CPUs, unlike current top-end Core offerings.The latest oopsie comes from retail IT vendor Provantage, which puts the top-end Core i9-12900K at $605. The IT vendor also lists the Core i7-12700K at $420, as well as a Core i5-12600K for $283.After news reports of the part numbers and prices surfaced, Provantage removed the listings. The latest leak follows reports two weeks ago—supposedly from European retailers—that placed the Core i9-12900K at $705, the Core i7-12700K at $495, and the Core i5-12600…