KB5064081 is now available as an optional update for Windows 11 24H2. “Optional” means that Windows 11 isn’t yet installing this one automatically on available PCs. It’s currently available in Windows Update but must be manually installed by users. (You can either search for it in Windows Update download it via the Microsoft Update Catalog.) Update KB5064081 brings a wealth of new features to Windows 11, including new personalized start page for Microsoft’s AI-driven Recall feature. The new page lets you check on your past activity and jump back into one of those tasks. There’s also a new navigation bar that allows you to switch between “Home,” “Timeline,” “Feedback,” and “Settings” pages. The “Recent Snapshots” section lists all current snapshots while the “Top Apps” and “Top Websites” sections list all current app activity, explains Windows Latest. Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro This update also adds a seconds display to the clock in the Notification Center, but you’ll have to enable it in settings for it to show. You’ll also have more settings for widgets on the lock screen, allowing you to change the size and position of widgets, plus remove any you don’t like. Other improvements include Microsoft refreshing and expanding the interface for Windows Hello, with the various authentication options now displayed in a modernized look. Microsoft has also revised the CPU display in the Task Manager so that CPU performance is now displayed identically in all areas. After installing optional update KB5064081, Windows 11 will have build number 26100.5074. If you don’t want to install KB5064081 yet, you can hold off until the next Patch Tuesday in September. At that point, KB5064081 will be turned into a mandatory cumulative update for all all compatible Windows 11 computers. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent 10Gbps performer, even with long writes Small even for a thumb drive Both Type-C and Type-A connectors Cons Slows down off secondary cache Our Verdict Not only is the X2 Max the fastest, most compatible (Type-A and Type-C) thumb drive I’ve ever tested, it’s among the fastest 10Gbps SSDs of any size I’ve tested. It’s not cheap, but its tiny-dancer excellence is worth the price. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Teamgroup X2 Max Retailer Price $69.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Teamgroup X2 Max took me by surprise. I was expecting a slowish commodity drive, as it’s as small as any thumb drive in my collection. However, when push came to shove, the X2 Max delivered superlative 10Gbps USB performance across nearly all of our tests — rivaling that of many significantly larger 10Gbps SSDs. In short, it’s a gem. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparison. What are the X2 Max SSD’s features? At just under 3-inches long, by 0.75-inches wide, by 0.25-inches thick — and including both a captive Type-C port and Type-A port — the X2 Max is outstandingly demure, even for a thumb drive. It’s so svelte it makes most of its ilk look chunky in comparison. The dual port types, shown below, also make it easy to use with virtually any USB-enabled device on the planet. Lightning connector Apple stuff of course excepted. The drive uses NVMe internals to operate at 10Gbps USB 3.2 speeds, with sustained transfers maxing out at just under 1.1GBps. Teamgroup wasn’t inclined to discuss the controller or specific type of NAND involved. However, given the excellent performance and ability to sustain reasonable transfer speeds over the long haul, I’m thinking state-of-the-art on both counts. There’s not specific durability (TBW) rating, but Teamgroup warranties the drive for a full five years, a munificent rarity for any external SSD. How much is the X2 Max? While it isn’t slow like a commodity USB stick, the X2 Max isn’t cheap like one either. 1TB costs $70, and the 2TB version we tested is $130. But you get what you pay for. This is not your father’s USB stick — it’s a full-on 10Gbps SSD in a tiny form factor. For, that, the price is right on. How fast is the X2 Max? The X2 Max benchmarked extremely well for a 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD in CrystalDiskMark 8, ATTO 4, and AS SSD 2. It also performed well in our main real-world transfers — most impressively, by not tanking as many SSDs do during super-long writes. In point of fact, the X2 Max is easily the fastest thumb drive I’ve tested, and faster than many of its larger 10Gbps brethren. While not light years better in CrystalDiskMark 8 than the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD and SK Hynix Tube T31, the X2 Max did best them overall in sequential transfers. Unlike many SSDs, the X2 Max doesn’t tank during super-long writes. Though it only took two out of the four contests, the X2 Max was highly competitive in all four. Longer bars are better. The one area where the X2 Max lagged behind its competitors was in random performance under CrystalDiskMark 8. Not disastrously so, but certainly noticeably — especially in the 32-queue write. Of course, I’m not aware of any real-world software that uses more than four queues. This was the one series of tests where the X2 Max fell short of the competition. Longer bars are better. The X2 Max was back to shining in our 48GB transfers. Note that there have been changes in the way I’m testing storage. Xcopy and our new favorite utility FastCopy are now used to show more of the true potential of the drives, and I’ve replaced the RAM disk with a 25GBps dual RAID 0 SSD array as the second drive in transfer tests. Read the “How we test” section at the end of the article for more info. While not total dominance, the X2 Max offers a nice uptick in real-world transfers over the competition. Shorter bars are better. Where the X2 Max really impressed me was with its sustained write performance. During the 450GB write (using Windows Explorer), the X2 Max did slow down, but not by that much — dropping from around 850MBps to between 500MBps and 650MBps. The same thing occurred when I wrote 950GB on top of that. Because of this, I’m not dead set on recommending the 2TB drive as the 1TB version (if it behaves similarly) likely won’t slow tragically either. Whatever you’re doing, Teamgroup… Keep on doing it. This is a total whoopin’ by the X2 Max in the 450GB write. The other drives slow to a much reduced pace when the secondary cache is exhausted. Shorter bars are better. Below is visual confirmation that the X2 Max doesn’t slow to an absurdly low pace during long writes as some SSDs do. Yes, the speed of the X2 Max drops during long writes, but not absurdly so as do many SSDs. As you can see above, where the X2 Max really separated itself from the pack was in the super-long writes — long a bugaboo of thumb drives and less expensive SSDs. The upshot being that this drive is good for prosumers and average users alike. Should you buy the X2 Max? Absolutely. If you want small and fast — it’s almost impossible to beat. Even forgetting the small, the X2 Max is more than competitive speed-wise with far larger 10Gbps SSDs. It ain’t cheap, but the best rarely is. Good on ya’, Teamgroup. How we test Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. SSDs involved in the test are mounted in a HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 adapter card. We run the CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what you’ll see under Window, as well as the far faster Xcopy to show what’s possible. The 48GB and 450GB write tests are written to/from a 25GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Highpoint 7604A. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk. Each test is performed on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND. Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know. Read...

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One of the things I love most about using a standing desk is how much it lets me move around. I can tap my feet, dance around, stretch, play balance games on my wobble board, dip aside for some exercise, or even stand on one leg like a flamingo. But there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to try: an under-desk treadmill. I loved the idea of getting in a few miles while typing away. Surely it’d be great for my health! So when I had the opportunity to test a WalkingPad Z1 folding treadmill for standing desks, I leaped at the chance! And I’m really glad I did because now I know what it’s like to walk for hours every day while working. It isn’t easy. I’m tired, I’ve fallen off a few times, and I find it annoying at times. I’ve certainly learned a lot from the experience. After a month of on-again-off-again treadmill-walking while I work, I have some thoughts. Here’s what the past month has taught me and whether I’ve decided to keep it or move on to something else. Walking is way harder than standing This might sound obvious—and perhaps I missed the forest for the proverbial standing-desk trees here—but I was surprised how tiring it was to walk than to stand. I like to think I’m pretty active at my standing desk, but using a rocker board or bouncing from foot to foot is not the same as straight-up walking. Not by a long shot. On my first day with the under-desk treadmill, I went about 40 minutes at just over a mile per hour—what I thought would be a sedate pace. It didn’t make me exhausted like I’d just worked out, but notably tired and side-eyeing my expensive office chair for a bit of rest. Don’t judge my cable management! I recently moved.Jon Martindale / Foundry I was hot, too. Not sweaty, but walking is technically exercise and this proved it. Keep that in mind if your usual home office attire is tight, or if you don’t like wearing footwear. You’ll want something breathable and something to keep your feet comfortable and protected. I also found it surprisingly tough to type while walking, at least when I first started. My typing accuracy went down and my typing speed fell enough to impact productivity on those first few days. It was frustrating, but a frustration worth pushing through because it only took a handful of sessions on the treadmill for it to become easier. (I previously used a rocker board at my desk so that could’ve helped me get acclimated. Your learning curve may vary depending on how active you are.) An under-desk treadmill is noisier than I expected, too. You have to consider the motor, the sound of actually walking on it, and the way it tonally shifts with each step. I had to wear headphones on the first few days just to block it out and maintain my focus. But you forget about it sooner or later About a week into my under-desk treadmill journey, something clicked. I was playing an online board game with some friends (our weekly Twilight Imperium session on Tabletop Simulator) and feeling a bit fatigued towards the end of a particularly grueling turn. That’s when I realized: I’d been walking on the treadmill for over an hour and a half. Of course, I hadn’t just fallen onto it by accident—I clearly set it up and meant to get some steps in while gaming—but what surprised me is just how quickly the time flew by. I was 324 calories down and several miles into a walking excursion I didn’t even realize I was taking. I wasn’t able to snap a photo of my extra-long Twilight Imperium walking session, so I took this one in a pinch. But I did use it for that long. Promise.Jon Martindale / Foundry This a-ha moment is when I finally saw the true strength of this standing desk accessory. Once it becomes part of your daily routine, it’s an incredible way to burn significant calories, get your steps in, and improve circulation in your legs, all without even realizing it. It’s pretty much pain-free exercising. Well, almost… Falling off is a real hazard There aren’t a lot of differences between a standard gym treadmill and an under-desk treadmill, but there are a few. The most important difference is that treadmills meant for standing desks are slower. They’re designed for walking, not running. It doesn’t matter how well-balanced you are—there’s no way you can productively reply to emails and Slack messages while hitting a 10-minute mile. Slow down, take a gentle pace, and let the calories burn on their own. Notice anything missing? That’s right. No handrails in case you stumble.WalkingPad But because they’re slower, under-desk treadmills ditch the handrails that you normally see on traditional treadmills, and their walking decks are narrower than you might expect. This creates a situation where if you get a little too focused on work, you could accidentally step off to the side, lose your rhythm, and stumble—or even fall. I’ve accidentally stepped off the belt and walked into my desk, or ended up with one foot being dragged while I try to recover from involuntary splits. It’s only happened a few times, mind you, but often enough that I’ve learned to be more careful. One time I even stepped backwards and broke the safety plastic that prevents anything from being dragged under the belt. I should probably fix that before my dog gets caught in it… Folding away is a must-have feature As slim and as low-profile as it is, my WalkingPad Z1 treadmill is still a hefty piece of kit. It measures 4.6 feet long and just under 2 feet wide, which is quite big for something that’s stuck under a desk—or, more often than not, pushed to the side when you aren’t using it. Workdays last much longer than walkdays, I’ve come to realize. Not only does it fold in half, but it’s pretty easy to move around in this state.Jon Martindale / Foundry But unlike many other under-desk treadmills, this model actually folds in half. Once folded, it flips into a much more manageable 2.5 feet long, and it also has nifty wheels that make maneuvering it very easy—and that’s despite its 51-pound overall weight. Getting it out of the way when unused would be a nightmare if it didn’t fold in half. It ain’t the holy grail, but it’s useful For many years, I looked to standing desk treadmills as the gold standard of home office tech. It’d burn serious calories, keep me from slumping at my desk, and help encourage blood flow in my lower extremities where varicose veins feel like an ever-present threat. But now that I’ve used one for a month, I don’t see them that way anymore. Standing desk treadmills are excellent, but you don’t use them all day. You can’t. I know there are ultra marathon runners who manage hundreds of miles over weeks of constant running, which is far harder than walking while working, but they destroy themselves in the process. I’m not looking to do anything like that. I think walking non-stop for 8+ hours a day wouldn’t be healthy—or sustainable—long-term. And even if I could manage it physically, I’d just get bored. That said, I’m going to keep using the treadmill. Perhaps for an hour a day, maybe two. But I’m not trying to win any work-from-home championships here. I’m just looking to up my steps, burn a few extra calories, and give me an alternative to sitting and standing so I can improve my back pain and overall posture. Read...

Replacing your laptop or desktop PC with a mini PC is a pretty smart move these days given just how powerful these tiny things have become. And the best part? Mini PCs are way more affordable. Just look at this Acemagic M1 mini PC that’s now just $440 on Amazon (was $800) thanks to a 25% discount plus a crazy $100 off coupon plus an extra 10% off on top of all that. That’s a darn good steal of a bargain! This Acemagic mini PC is a tiny beast with a jaw-dropping configuration for the price. Inside you’ll find it running on an Intel Core i9-11900H processor, a whopping 32GB of RAM, and a speedy 1TB SSD that’s large enough to hold all your apps, pics, vids, and more. It’s the perfect home office machine for work, leisure, hobbies, streaming, and more. Want to soup it up? It’s user-upgradeable to 64GB memory and 4TB storage! And it’s indeed a workstation winner for productivity fiends because it can support up to three 4K@60Hz monitors via its HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB-C video ports. It also has way more ports than any laptop, including six fast USB-A, 2.5G Ethernet, and 3.5mm audio. For wireless, it comes with built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. It’s a compact yet responsive machine and you’d be hard-pressed to find a laptop this good for anywhere close to the same price. Get the Acemagic M1 mini PC for $440 while this deal’s still available! This crazy Core i9 mini PC with 32GB RAM is a steal for 45% offBuy now at Amazon Read...

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Streaming images can really pop when the contrast-boosting Dolby Vision is on the case, but Dolby’s HDR technology is also the target of a frequent complaint: It’s too dark.  The issue arises because what content creators see in their production studios can differ greatly from what we see in our living rooms. Video pros work with calibrated reference monitors in perfectly lit conditions; we, on the other hand, watch on consumer TVs with many different makes, models, and display technologies and in myriad lighting environments, from a pitch-black room to a brightly lit kitchen.  That means content creators must take a one-size-fits-all approach when “grading” the brightest and darkest images of the picture for Dolby Vision, and in some cases, that means some viewers will be left straining to see what’s happening on their screens.  Now comes the next generation of Dolby Vision—the aptly named Dolby Vision 2—and with the help of AI, it aims to deliver more of a two-way approach (or “bi-directional” tone mapping, as Dolby is calling it) that can tailor Dolby Vision HDR images for your particular TV, and even according to the light in the room where you’re watching.  Debuting this week at IFA in Berlin, Dolby Vision 2 arrives with an important caveat: It will only work on forthcoming TVs with built-in Dolby Vision 2 circuitry. Hisense is the first TV manufacturer to get on board with the upgraded HDR standard, with its first Dolby Vision 2-enabled TVs to land “at a later date,” the brand says.  On the content side, CANAL+ is the first studio to pledge its support for Dolby Vision 2 on its upcoming movies, TV shows, and live sporting events.  Among Dolby Vision 2’s bag of tricks is Precision Black, a feature that measures the ambient light conditions in a content creator’s production area, embeds the information in the Dolby Vision stream, and then matches it with the display capabilities of a given Dolby Vision 2-enabled TV. That way, the images on your set can come closer to looking the way they do in the grading studio.  Taking things a step further is Light Sense, which tailors the HDR images even further by “capturing” the light levels in your living room via “advanced” ambient light detection. With Precision Black and Light Sense working in tandem (both are part of an AI-powered toolkit that Dolby’s calling Content Intelligence), Dolby Vision 2 aims to fix the “too dark” issue that’s been a nagging problem for the first major version of the HDR technology.  Another arrow in Dolby Vision 2’s quiver is Authentic Motion, which (according to Dolby) goes “beyond the benefits of HDR” to help deal with the “challenges of judder.”   Rather than being a ham-fisted motion-smoothing setting that can lead to the dreaded “soap-opera effect,” Authentic Motion allows video creatives to pinpoint “potential trouble areas” of a scene and “adjust the amount of de-judder for the specific shots or scenes they feel best match the look of what they’re trying in convey,” Dolby says.    In addition to straight-up Dolby Vision 2, there will also be a step-up Dolby Vision 2 Max that’s “designed to unlock the full capabilities and best picture quality on the highest performing TVs.” The specifics of Dolby Vision 2 Max will come “at a later date,” I’m told.  A Dolby spokesperson declined to speculate on when we might actually get to see Dolby Vision 2-enhanced videos at home. Read...

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