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Maybe it’s not enough for your daily driver laptop to only handle your productivity apps, stream 4K video, and juggle dozens of browser tabs. Maybe you want to do some gaming, too, but without burning a hole through your wallet. In that case, you’ll love this deal on the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9 for only $879 at B&H right now (was $1,100). This laptop configuration is more than capable of day-to-day performance, including gaming. The on-board GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card strikes a good balance for anyone who enjoys moderate gaming at an affordable price. You won’t be able to crank those settings up to Ultra, but you can still push enough frames on the 15.6-inch IPS display at 1080p to take advantage of the 144Hz refresh rate. Under the hood, you’re also getting a decent Intel Core i5-13450HX mobile processor, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Would we love more memory and storage? Of course. But at this price point with the RTX 4060, you can’t ask for too much—and this combo is enough to smoothly handle Windows 11 plus apps and browser tabs without choking. RAM and storage are user-upgradeable with two slots each, so that’s nice. But don’t expect more than a few hours from the 60-watt-hour battery. For productivity and gaming at a good price, you could do a lot worse than this. Snag the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9 gaming laptop for $879 before this deal expires! If you want a laptop that’s even more of a rocket, check out our roundup of the best tested laptops worth getting. Save $200+ on this Lenovo gaming laptop with RTX 4060Buy now from B&H Read...

If you’re still using the wall plugs (also known as power blocks, power adapters, and charger blocks) that came with your devices, you probably need to upgrade. Those things tend to be slow, and you’ll be surprised by how much faster you can charge—or in the case of this Ugreen wall plug, how much faster you can charge four devices. It’s only $26 on Amazon right now, which is 40% off and the lowest it’s ever been. This Ugreen Nexode 65W model can charge your smartphone in a blink and can take your MacBook Air to 50% in about half an hour. You can also use it with a ton of other gadgets, including your Nintendo Switch, tablet, wireless earbuds, and more. There are four USB ports on this thing: three USB-C and one USB-A. Two of the USB-C ports can deliver 65W max each, while the third USB-C caps out at 30W and the USB-A port reaches up to 22.5W. (That’s when each port is used on its own, though. When multiple ports are used at once, the total charging power gets split between them.) Even so, it’s faster than most phone charger blocks, which cap out around 5W to 20W. Not only is this Ugreen power adapter suitable for simultaneously recharging all your gear, but it’s a GaN model. We love GaN chargers because they’re smaller, faster, and don’t produce as much heat. Between the small size and the foldable prongs, you can take this with you anywhere. It’s great for both home and travel use. Start fast-charging all your devices with this Ugreen Nexode 65W 4-port wall plug for $26! This limited-time deal won’t last forever, and this is the best price it’s ever been so now’s the time to jump on it. Save 40% on this speedy 4-device USB wall plugBuy now at Amazon Read...

Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus interesting news from across the web. This week, we’re still riding high from visiting Micro Center on opening day, but not so excited that we can’t talk shop (or complain) about SteamOS and USB-C headaches. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! In this episode of The Full Nerd… In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith recap our Micro Center tour, dig into GeForce Now on SteamDeck, lament about SteamOS testing, and kvetch about Windows’ proposed USB-C fix. Alex Esteves / Foundry In the words of a TFN fan, Micro Center is awesome. Adam, Will, and I went to look for ourselves during the grand opening last Friday, and not only did we find scores of components, but we ran into more than one viewer just browsing the aisles, too! (It’s pretty fun standing next to Will when someone tells him they’ve followed his work for more than a decade—you can simultaneously see the delight at the introduction, and also the dismay at the indirect reminder of his age.) Keep an eye on the PCWorld YouTube channel, as we’ll be posting our interviews and store walkthrough there. Brad is off on vacation this week, but both he and Adam had many good things to say about GeForce Now on the Steam Deck. For Brad, the proof in the pudding was Doom: The Dark Ages, which is atrocious on the Steam Deck. Think frame rates in the low- to mid-20s in sparse tutorial areas. (Choice quote: “[It feels] like the Doom Slayer is a container ship you’re trying to steer while blackout drunk. Hard pass.”) But play it through GeForce Now, and the experience flips 180 to beautiful graphics and buttery smooth gameplay.For Adam, the main sticking point is the game support—and when asked, I admitted to reservations around the subscription format. But largely, this feels like a win for anyone who wants the portability (and lower price) of a Steam Deck, plus the ability to dive into games with tough performance requirements. (Also, a good internet connection and positioning relative to the GFN servers helps, as Will notes.) Adam is still a bit grumpy about SteamOS’s wider launch, as the topic returns for a second week in a row. This time around we dive deeper into the history, with me explaining to Adam why I have a more patient outlook, a decade after the Steam Machine initiative. (Will shares my patience, a possible indicator of our collective trauma.) The pieces on the board feel like they’re in a better position this time around—stronger user awareness and interest, the right hardware, and more polished software. We also stray into discussion about Linux (among other things…), making this surprisingly the longest segment of this week’s episode. Despite our SteamOS chat dominating our conversation, most of our fire and vitriol apparently was saved for our discussion about Microsoft’s plan to bring some uniformity to USB-C ports on Windows 11 machines. A good idea, but what starts as a grudgingly positive outlook quickly turns into a complaint session about USB-C cables and how their specs aren’t clear. As Will says, we could buy a cable tester (as Gordon did), but most people won’t. Why can’t manufacturers (or device makers) throw us a bone? Disappointed you missed the live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time!  And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s wild nerd news Not the RTX 5090. ð?? JamesFerg650/Reddit Hardware launches, rising prices, postage-sized vintage hardware reproductions—I spent a lot of time reading in fascination. My favorite? An Ars Technica writer’s touching tribute to a favorite local Radio Shack-esque store, currently facing economic troubles. AMD’s Radeon 9060 XT is generally a win: The mid-range has needed a graphics card like this, especially in counter to Nvidia’s RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti. But not all reviewers are happy with the pricing—the MSRP appears to be another aspirational number for now. Will AM4’s stunning run come to an end because of DDR4 RAM prices? Between reduced production, trade war fallout, and economic uncertainties, DDR4 memory prices have shot up as much as 50 percent recently. That could have sad effects on our good ol’ reliable pick for budget PC builds, which leaned on AM4 mobos. Some may celebrate this change, but I’m gonna be pouring one out. This CD ripping software makes me feel nostalgic: Also old, because in getting an update after 16 years I had to do uncomfortable arithmetic. If I have to suffer, I may as well do it with you all, while also giving a well-deserved shout out to a fellow writer, who gave us this gem of a line: “Please excuse the rest of the linked developer’s page being mostly about dolls.” I would not answer my door for a robot delivery person: Amazon is apparently testing the use of “humanoid robots” for dropping off packages. You know when you’d hide as a little kid when you saw something that didn’t look right? That’d be me. Also, those robots will definitely get messed with by randos. Dozens of sealed Zotac RTX 5090s contained…backpacks: This nasty switcheroo dimmed the shine of Micro Center’s new store opening—buyers of the $3,000 Nvidia flagship GPU at the new Santa Clara, CA location opened their 5090 boxes to discover rolled up bags instead. The story’s still unfolding, with the last development being that this appears to originate at Zotac’s factory. (Buyers were made whole, too.) Meta spied on Android users’ private browsing, even in incognito mode: I feel both vindicated and irritated that I’m justified in my refusal to install Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Google and Mozilla have pledged to disable this behavior, but if you’re on Android, be wary of Meta apps. (Maybe also consider Firefox with the uBlock Origin add-on installed, too. It’s a thing for Android.) This Radio Shack/science outlet/curio collection store is in trouble, and it’s sad to see: We nerds lost something special when Radio Shack withered away and then finally died. Hearing about how this small chain of stores that’s been keeping that spirit alive, with its own quirky personality, struggles to stay in existence hurt. As do my memories of walking through aisles of wires and connectors, seeing the promise and potential for more. Modder straps CPU cooler to Nvidia GTX 960 with a 3D-printed bracket, breaks 3DMark benchmark record: We debate a lot on the show about specs and limitations, so this bit of fun news was the perfect anecdote to internet cynicism. Sometimes the answer to “Why not…” is just perfect. A Polish engineer created a postage-sized 1980s Atari computer: It’s not often a project immediately puts a smile on my face, but seeing this itty-bitty reimagining of a classic PC managed to do so. Former PCWorld contributor Benj Edwards, who wrote about retro hardware for us, also dives into the fascinating history of the Atari in the Soviet era, too. That’s all for this week—stay tuned for those Micro Center videos, which include interviews with Linux users (yep!) and a showcase of a very special keyboard we found in the store. -Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. Read...

Having a full Windows 11 taskbar at the bottom of my display seems like a waste of space to me, seeing as I tend to pin just a few icons to it – my browser, Word, Teams, and Zoom. In fact, the taskbar just obscures part of my wallpaper, takes my focus off the apps I’m using and makes my desktop look banal – like everyone else’s. That’s why I’ve now made it transparent and I’m loving the minimalist vibes I get. Windows 11 offers a native transparency in Settings > Personalization > Colors, but it’s more of a frosted glass effect that doesn’t really give me what I’m looking for. To make the taskbar fully transparent and achieve a cleaner aesthetic I use the TranslucentTB app, which you can download for free from the Microsoft Store. It’s an open-source tool developed for Windows that lets you adjust the opacity and color of your taskbar. What to do: Download and install the TranslucentTB app. Click the System Tray Arrow next to the OneDrive icon on the Windows taskbar. Now find the TranslucentTB icon (TB) and click on it to open it. In the menu, navigate to Visible Window and select clear from the drop-down menu to make the taskbar transparent. You can choose to apply other effects in Visible Window, like make the taskbar blurry or change its color. Navigating the settings menu in TranslucentTB.  Dominic Bayley / Foundry If you find the above doesn’t work, you might need to tweak your Security and Privacy settings in Windows to allow the app to run properly. You can do that by typing Win + I then navigating to Privacy and Security > Windows Security > App and Browser control and allowing permissions. TranslucentTB also lets you select the dynamic behavior of the taskbar so that it changes depending on what you’re doing. For example, you can make it so that the taskbar becomes transparent only when a window is maximized, so be sure to play around with the many options you get to personalize it. That’s all for now. If you want more awesome tech tips like this one, be sure to subscribe to our Try This newsletter. Read...

If you’re tired of bulky desktops and laptops hogging your workspace, a mini PC makes perfect sense. And don’t worry about sacrificing performance! Mini PCs may be tiny, but they pack more power than you’d get in a comparably priced laptop. Right now, this GMKtec M3 Plus mini PC is only $440 on Amazon, an amazing 25% off (was $590). I know what you’re thinking: “$440 isn’t exactly cheap.” And you’re right. But when you see the specs inside, you’ll be tempted for sure. You can’t find this kind of config in a laptop under $500. For starters, I’m talking about an Intel Core i9-12900HK processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Yep, that’s a fast mobile CPU and a ton of memory for the price, plus ample storage space that also boots up your system and launches apps in a snap. If you ever outgrow this system, you can also upgrade the RAM (up to 64GB) and SSD (up to 2TB). There’s no dedicated graphics card in this tiny device, but it does have upgraded Iris Xe integrated graphics which can handle some light gaming, 4K video media, and some creative tasks. It can also power up to three 4K@60Hz monitors via dual HDMI and a USB-C video port, making it a solid machine for multitasking productivity. It’s also loaded with ports: three fast USB-A 3.2, one slower USB-A 2.0, a 2.5G LAN, and 3.5mm headset jack, plus Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. What’s not to love? At this price, you’re getting a whole lot—may more than you’d get with a laptop. If you don’t need the portability, then it’s a no-brainer. Get the GMKtec M3 Plus for $440 on Amazon before this limited-time deal expires! Save 25% on this powerful Core i9 mini PC with 32GB RAMBuy now at Amazon Read...

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