It doesn’t happen often, but Apple’s vaunted reality distortion field snared me today…almost. Because, wow, that purple iPhone 12 looks good.My heart skipped a beat when Tim Cook introduced the purple iPhone. Even though I’d never buy a Mac, I’ve been a devoted iPhone user for over half a decade now, and purple has always been my favorite color. (It’s the color of kings, y’all.) The Apple sizzle reel even played with “Candy Man” crooning in the background, and let me tell you, I love me some sweets. This iPhone was made for me my brain whispered, already eyeing its…

Windows 10’s Microsoft Store has always been terrible. It was terrible when it debuted as the “Windows Store” alongside Windows 8. It remained terrible when the name changed to align with Microsoft’s now-defunct physical stores. It’s so terrible that I’ve refused to use it for years, spurned by its crap-tastic mobile-centric curation and disastrous PC game management features. But nearly a decade after its launch, and after several years of almost active neglect, there may—may—be hope on the horizon.“Microsoft is working on a brand-new Store app for Windows 10 that will introduce a modern and fluid user interface, as well…

Microsoft’s research team has used science to prove what we already know—too many back-to-back meetings can wear you down—and is promoting an Outlook feature to build in scheduled breaks.Microsoft used EEG sensors to measure the brain waves of several study participants, noting how the beta-wave activity associated with stress increased across four successive 30-minute meetings with no breaks in between. But when Microsoft re-ran the tests with an additional ten-minute buffer period between the meetings, stress levels dropped, and participation increased. Microsoft A stressed-out brain exhibits higher levels of beta waves, indicative of stress.To read this article in full, please…

Amazon is selling the TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Power Strip for $25.Powered by WPeMatico

The fresh features may be arriving a bit later than their usual holiday time frame, but AMD’s massive annual update for Radeon Software is finally here, and it’s a doozy. Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 21.4.1 builds atop new features introduced alongside the recently launched Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, seriously beefing up the capabilities of AMD’s awesome Link streaming feature, adding more performance metrics for AMD’s Ryzen processors, smoothing out the streaming experience, and more.The refreshed application should provide a significant quality-of-life improvement for Radeon gamers, especially if you’ve gone a long time since updating your drivers. The best…

You can use these handsome Bluetooth speakers as a stereo pair, or grab the rechargeable right-hand speaker for some on-the-go tunes.Powered by WPeMatico

If you’re not sure what you want to back up, where it is on your device, or just want to avoid the pressure of trying to figure it all out—Backblaze is the online backup service you want. It offers unlimited storage, and backs up everything important automatically, plus everything else if you want it to. Given the unlimited storage, it’s inexpensive compared to the competition—check out all our reviews in our online backup roundup.Note: For more about data backup, see our best free backup software/services and the best Windows backup software roundups. Features There’s not a whole lot to the Backblaze interface,…

This dimmer depends on the presence of at least one Brilliant Control panel inside your home, but the system’s reliance on a Bluetooth mesh network is a weakness.Powered by WPeMatico

“What graphics card within my budget gives me the best bang for my buck?”That simple question cuts to the core of what people hunting for a new graphics card look for: the most oomph they can afford. Sure, the technological leaps behind each new GPU can be interesting on their own, but most everyone just wants to crank up the detail settings on Cyberpunk 2077 and get right to playing.Gaming GPU cheat sheet Our quick-hit recommendations:Best budget GPU: GeForce GTX 1650 Super [amazon.com] Best 1080p GPU: GeForce GTX 1660 Super [newegg.com] Best 1440p GPU: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti [bestbuy.com]  Best 4K GPU: GeForce RTX 3080Remove…

If you’ve been unable to secure a graphics card in these trying times, you’re about to gain another gaming alternative. Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service will land on PCs, iPads, and iPhones in limited form on April 20, expanding beyond its initial Android-only offering.“Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin sending out invites to select Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to start testing the Xbox Cloud Gaming limited beta for Windows 10 PCs and Apple phones and tablets via web browsers,” Microsoft’s Catherine Gluckstein said in the announcement. “We’re launching xbox.com/play where invitees can play over 100 Xbox Game Pass titles through Edge,…