Google started rolling out Chrome 88 this week, and while browser releases usually herald what’s new, the most noteworthy change in this update is what’s not included. Chrome 88 lays Adobe Flash and the FTP protocol to rest. RIP circa-2000 Internet.Neither comes as a surprise, though it’s poetic that they’re being buried together. Adobe halted Flash Player downloads at the end of 2020, making good on a promise made years before, and began blocking Flash content altogether a couple weeks later. Removing Flash from Chrome 88 is just Google’s way of flushing the toilet.On the other hand, FTP isn’t dead,…

Q: What are the best options for a pre-built desktop PC? My parents need a new computer, but building them one isn’t an option, as I don’t live in the same state. All they do is surf the web and play an ancient card game, so I don’t need to buy them much.A: Since this question can be interpreted as either one about best form factors or best vendors, I’ll tackle both topics. In regards to the best types of pre-built PCs, the easiest option is an all-in-one computer. Having the system components housed within the monitor simplifies setup and thus…

Quality over size is our usual mantra, but vendors don’t generally offer their best technology in TVs smaller than 55-inch class.Powered by WPeMatico

They sound great, but “AI-powered” audio smells like hype to us.Powered by WPeMatico

January has barely begun and we already have our first heavyweight smartphone battle of 2021. Samsung has released its lineup of Galaxy S21 phones a little earlier than usual this year, and it’s clear they have Apple’s newest phone in its sights. Samsung hasn’t reinvented the S21 as much as it’s retooled it to take on the iPhone 12, with a lower price point, sharper design, and some new camera tricks. Here’s how the two $800 phones stack up.To read this article in full, please click herePowered by WPeMatico

On Tuesday night, MediaTek launched the Dimensity 1100 and 1200, a pair of smartphone chipsets that aim to challenge the best that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon smartphone chipsets have to offer.MediaTek released just two performance benchmarks to support its claims. But the specs of both the Dimensity 1100 and 1200 CPUs match up well against the Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm’s recent smartphone launch, with even higher clock speeds. There’s a good chance that you’ll have either one or the other in your next phone.While Qualcomm tends to dominate the market for smartphone chipsets that cover premium phones, MediaTek is actually the largest smartphone…

Switching to a solid-state drive is the best upgrade you can make for your PC. These wondrous devices obliterate long boot times, speed up how fast your programs and games load, and generally makes your computer feel fast. But not all solid-state drives are created equal. The best SSDs offer solid performance at affordable prices—or, if price is no object, face-meltingly fast read and write speeds.Many SSDs come in a 2.5-inch form factor and communicate with PCs via the same SATA ports used by traditional hard drives. But out on the bleeding-edge of NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drives, you’ll find…

Surprise! Out of nowhere, Intel killed its entire lineup of Optane SSDs for desktops over the weekend, signaling the end for the Optane 800P, 900P, and 905P, as well as the Optane Memory H10, as spotted by Tom’s Hardware. The radical Optane drives were so durable and ultra-fast that we maintained a discrete section for them in our guide to the best SSDs, but the brand doesn’t have the same staying power as the hardware itself, it seems.Don’t expect replacements either. “Intel will not provide a new large capacity Optane Memory SSD as a transition product for the client market…

Samsung’s been at the top of the SSD storage food chain since the day the company entered the market, and the 870 EVO honors that tradition. It’s the fastest SATA SSD we’ve tested, it’s available in up to 4TB of capacity, and it’s exceedingly affordable given its speed. Specs and pricing The 870 EVO is a 2.5-inch, SATA 6Gbps SSD employing Samsung’s own TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit) V-NAND. The company is typically coy as to on the actual controller technology or the number of layers, but it’s likely an in-house Samsung-designed controller with, judging from the capacities, 92 or 96 layers.The drive…

Roughly a month after launching the Snapdragon 888 for next-gen smartphones, Qualcomm decided to go back to its earlier Snapdragon 865 to tweak it once again, resulting in the upgraded Snapdragon 870. The only gotcha? A lack of Wi-Fi 6E.In a nutshell, the new Snapdragon 870 is a faster version of the original Snapdragon 865. Qualcomm corralled a number of its partners to endorse the new 870 chip, including OnePlus. Devices based on the Snapdragon 870 will be released this quarter, Qualcomm said.To read this article in full, please click herePowered by WPeMatico