At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent CPU performance Cooling readily keeps up with the internals Fast display Supports USB-C charging at 100W Cons Bulky and plasticky Speakers are grating at full volume So-so battery life for gaming laptops Our Verdict The Asus ROG Strix G16 isn’t the ultimate gaming laptop, but it delivers exceptional performance for its hardware, rivaling last-gen RTX 4080 systems. It’s not the sleekest, but it’s well-built and more affordable than Lenovo’s class leader. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus ROG Strix G16 Retailer Price $2,299 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) is a solid gaming laptop entering the mid-to-high range of the market, as it’s capped at an RTX 5070 Ti. It may not have the most elegant build, combining mostly plastics with an aluminum lid, and its IPS display isn’t quite as jaw-dropping as OLED rivals, but the Asus ROG Strix G16 puts up powerful performance for the money, proving itself a worthy rival to the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10, even if it can’t quite dethrone that beast. With a starting price of $1,599 and options up to $2,499, there’s a good bit of room to configure a system that suits your needs without going overboard. But as tested here at the height of the range, it’s one heck of a performer. Asus ROG Strix G16: Specs and features Model number: G614 CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D Memory: 32GB DDR5-5600 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti 12GB VRAM, (140-Watt TGP) Display: 16-inch, 2560×1600 IPS, 240Hz, 500 nits, 100 percent DCI-P3, G-Sync, Dolby Vision HDR Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p + IR  Connectivity: 2x USB4 (1x 100W PD support), 2x USB-A 10Gbps, 1x HDMI 2.1 FRL, 1x GbE, 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 6E 2×2, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition Battery capacity: 90 watt-hours Dimensions: 13.94 x 10.39 x 1.2 inches Weight: 5.22 pounds MSRP: $2,499 as-tested ($1,599 base) The Asus ROG Strix G16 comes in several configurations. A few come from Asus directly while some are exclusive to Walmart and Best Buy and have different displays from Asus’s direct offerings. All of them are built around AMD CPUs and RTX 50-series GPUs. Support for Wi-Fi 6E, dual SSD slots, 1TB of included PCIe Gen 4 storage, 90Wh batteries, and 280W chargers are all common among them.  The base model is a Walmart-exclusive, starts at $1,599, and includes an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX CPU with 16GB of memory, and an RTX 5060 GPU. The display here is a 1200p IPS panel with a 165Hz refresh rate, 300 nits of brightness, and 100 percent sRGB color gamut. Best Buy has two more models using the same display. These both come with an earlier AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX CPU. A $1,699 model includes an RTX 5070 and a $1,999 model bumps to an RTX 5070 Ti.  The rest of the configurations come directly from Asus and bump up to a 1600p, 240Hz panel with a 500-nit brightness level, G-Sync, 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage, and Dolby Vision support. They also get 32GB of memory. The first of these models is $2,199 and includes an RTX 5070. For $2,399, the GPU gets a further upgrade to an RTX 5070 Ti, but all else remains the same. Finally, at $2,499, we reach the configuration tested here. This bumps up CPU, swapping to an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D. These varied configuration and retailer options provide an interesting mix that should allow gamers to select their priorities. Walmart offers the cheapest entry point, while Best Buy’s options favor value on the GPU side, letting you land an RTX 5070 Ti for $400 less than Asus’s configuration. Meanwhile Asus’s configurations offer a higher-grade display for those who plan to do a lot of gaming directly on the laptop.  The ROG Strix G16 doesn’t just game—it competes, balances, and delivers where it counts. It’s not trying to win a beauty pageant; it’s here to dominate the leaderboard. Asus ROG Strix G16: Design and build quality IDG / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Strix G16 isn’t subtle about being a gaming laptop. From its textured and striped exhaust tail, the large grilles on both the sides and back, various branding on just about every surface, a completely over-engineered base plate (done up to look a bit like a motherboard with a CPU socket), and all the RGB lighting, it just about shouts “gamer.” The RGB even extends a bit beyond the typical keyboard backlight. A lightstrip stretches across the front edge of the laptop to cast a colorful glow in front of the Asus ROG Strix G16. The system is bulky, measuring over an inch thick, but it’s almost surprisingly light for its size. It weighs 5.22 pounds, which still isn’t light but is kind of light for a 16-inch gaming laptop. A lot of that weight and size is coming from the cooling system. The Asus ROG Strix G16 has ventilation wrapping around the back half of the base, completely spanning the rear and covering a portion of each side. There are even two little vents on a little hinge shelf above the keyboard. Asus uses a triple-fan arrangement to cool the internals, though one of these is quite small. With such wide ventilation, the system doesn’t have to go shrill during heavy gaming. It produces a light breeze sound that’s not unpleasant to hear even at an arm’s length With all that’s packed in, the Asus ROG Strix G16 ends up sturdy, with little flex to the base even though it’s all made out of ABS and polycarbonate. Only the display lid gets a touch of the premium with an aluminum cover. The ABS plastic on the bottom of the system feels rough and a little cheap, but still tough. There’s just enough flex from the display that it bends a little when opening or closing it with a hand on the corner, but a little lip at the top provides a more balanced point for opening and closing.  The Asus ROG Strix G16 comes with a beefy 280-watt power brick for charging, and it adds almost another 1.5 pounds to the package. On the bright side, 100-Watt USB-C charging is also supported if you want to use a smaller charger on the go.  Asus ROG Strix G16: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Mark Knapp Physically, the keyboard is a joy to type on. It has a satisfying, soft bottom out that makes for comfy typing. I was comfortably able to type at over 110 words per minute without feeling like I was rushing in Monkeytype, and managed a fair degree of accuracy.  It has a couple of downsides, though. Asus prioritized full-sized arrow keys, and it shrank the right shift key considerably in the process. I find myself regularly hitting the up arrow when I mean to hit shift, and instead of getting a capital letter, I start messing up a whole paragraph. As helpful as the RGB keyboard lighting is for seeing key legends in the dark, the slightly dark key legends when backlighting is off can make it a little hard to see the keyboard even in a well lit room.  Once in the course of my testing, in the middle of using it, the keyboard suddenly stopped working entirely. The trackpad still worked, but neither keys nor keyboard shortcuts worked. After plugging the system in and letting it restart, the keyboard resumed proper functioning, but it was an odd and upsetting experience nonetheless. I’ve never known a computer not to have the odd hiccup now and then, though, and as this wasn’t a recurring issue, I didn’t raise too much concern.  For gaming, the keyboard deck gets a little warm, but the palm area doesn’t, and the WASD keys are comfortable to rest on. Only the area around the number row and above heats up, as that’s where most of the heatsink sits. The Asus ROG Strix G16’s trackpad is reasonably spacious, pleasingly smooth, and offers a satisfying, soft physical click. t could be wider, but after experiencing frequent palm rejection issues on the Razer Blade 16’s ultra-wide trackpad, I’m not mad at Asus for keeping it modest.  The trackpad has a special function seen on a number of other Asus laptops. With a long-press  near one corner, it can turn into a number pad with illuminated characters and math function keys. It’s an interesting feature to have, but the beauty of a number pad is how muscle memory allows for touch typing, and this setup doesn’t really facilitate that quite as well.  Asus ROG Strix G16: Display, audio IDG / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Strix G16’s display is good overall. It has a lot going for it. For one, it delivered 480 nits of brightness in my testing, and that combines with a strong anti-glare coating that makes it easy to see in almost any conditions. The 2560×1600 resolution is respectably sharp, and it runs at a super-smooth 240Hz with only minor ghosting. It’s also wonderfully colorful, fully covering the DCI-P3 color space. Color accuracy wasn’t on point, though. The display also exhibits some annoying dimming behavior, slowing ramping the brightness up or down depending on the screen content. It doesn’t show up much while gaming or watching movies, but while browsing the web, where the brightness of content can change suddenly, it becomes distracting. The two down-firing speakers provide respectable, clear audio for voices, making for a good way to listen to instructional/educational videos or have voice calls. They pump out plenty of volume, but it’s a bit harsh at max volume. Dialed back, the speakers still provide ample volume and decent fullness without the same harshness. There’s even a bit of bass. Asus suggests they’re capable of Dolby Atmos audio and can play into virtual 5.1.2-channel surround sound, but that is extremely generous for speakers that barely manage basic stereo. Asus ROG Strix G16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The webcam on the Asus ROG Strix G16 is decent. It can get a little grainy in dimmer environments, but it does an impressive job with exposure. It manages to get most of the picture clear without overexposing. It’s not a master though, in extra-dim rooms with one strong light, it can run into overexposure in its effort to get the rest of the picture lit up, but even then it looks acceptable.  The microphones are solid. They pick up my voice loud and clear without too much room echo. They also do a good job cutting down on background noise. Even with a box fan running in a window nearby and construction outside, my voice remained clear without awkward compression or clipped words, and the fan itself was inaudible while the construction was reduced to subtle clinking.  Unfortunately, you’ll be relying on a password, PIN, or security key to log onto the Asus ROG Strix G16. It doesn’t feature any facial or fingerprint recognition technology.  Asus ROG Strix G16: Connectivity IDG / Mark Knapp Like most big gaming laptops, the Asus ROG Strix G16 provides a good smattering of ports. You’ll find two USB4 Type-C ports on the left side, and one of those supports 100W power delivery for charging without the G16’s beefy power brick (though don’t expect full performance while plugged in this way). There’s also a 3.5mm headset jack, HDMI 2.1 port, and Gigabit Ethernet port over there along with the main DC barrel jack. The right side of the laptop includes two USB-A 10Gbps ports. An extra USB-A port or SD/microSD card slot would have been nice to see. Unfortunately, Asus’s cooling design takes up the entire rear of the laptops and half of each side, so all of the ports are lined up along the front half of either side. I find this awkward when  plugging in multiple devices, especially if you plan to game that way, as you’ll have USB dongles/cables sticking out right where you’d likely want a mouse.  Wireless connections have been dependable. The system supports Wi-Fi 6E, letting you get a quick and stable connection or even step up to the 6GHz band for extra throughput. Tested on a normal Wi-Fi 6 network with fiber internet, the Asus ROG Strix G16 made the most of the speeds.  Asus ROG Strix G16: Performance The Asus ROG Strix G16 is no slouch. Of course it couldn’t be for the price it demands, but it’s making its components work for it. We haven’t tested a lot of systems recently that have closely matching components, but prior generation heavyweights like the Gigabyte Aorus 16X, Alienware m16 R2, and Alienware x16 R2 show what kind of performance gains this latest generation of hardware can deliver. And the RTX 5080-equipped Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 offers a look at how the Asus ROG Strix G16 stacks up to a laptop in the next tier up. While that Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 was $3,599 as tested, there is an RTX 5070 Ti configuration that goes for $2,849, making it more competitive with the Strix G16.  IDG / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Strix G16 immediately proves its competency in everyday tasks with a high score in PCMark 10, a holistic test that tasks the system with launching apps, web browsing, making spreadsheets, editing photos and video, and rendering 3D graphics. With a fast processor, GPU, and storage, the Asus ROG Strix G16 performs exceptionally, beating out all three 2024 systems and nearly keeping up with the pricier Lenovo Legion.  IDG / Mark Knapp A lot of that performance can be chalked up to the CPU. The AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D in here is a veritable beast. It manages to complete our handbrake encoding task in 9 minutes, stepping up considerably from even heavy hitters like the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H. It couldn’t quite match the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10’s Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, but the AMD CPU also has 8 fewer CPU cores, so the fact it comes as close as it does is still impressive. IDG / Mark Knapp Unsurprisingly, we see similar performance in Cinebench, with the Asus ROG Strix G16 slightly tailing the Lenovo Legion as both put up simply excellent performance numbers. And it’s not just multi-core performance. The Asus ROG Strix G16’s CPU has excellent single-core performance as well, again beating all of the other systems except the Lenovo Legion, which it narrowly trails. Since all 16 cores in this AMD CPU are performance cores and they prove so capable, it’s understandable how the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is coming close to the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (which offers an 8P+16E arrangement) despite having considerably fewer cores overall. IDG / Mark Knapp The Asus ROG Strix G16 also puts up excellent gaming performance. In 3DMark’s demanding Port Royal test, which employs a lot of ray-traced effects, the Asus ROG Strix G16 shows how much the RTX 5070 Ti steps up from the RTX 4070, even coming close to the RTX 4080’s performance. The RTX 5080 in the Lenovo Legion still distances itself in this test, though. The cooling in the Asus ROG Strix G16 also helps it maintain its performance. In 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Stress Test, which runs the benchmark sequence 20 times in a row, the Asus ROG Strix G16 maintained 97.7 percent consistent results.  IDG / Mark Knapp The results we saw in Port Royal line up closely with the Asus ROG Strix G16’s performance in Metro Exodus. The Asus ROG Strix G16 is capable of running the game smoothly even in its Extreme settings preset, again outpacing the weaker two systems, almost keeping up with the RTX 4080-equipped Alienware x16 R2, but still lagging behind the RTX 5080-equipped Legion.  IDG / Mark Knapp Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s benchmark shows that the GPU was the impediment for the Port Royal and Metro Exodus tests. This game is less demanding on the GPU, particularly as it doesn’t rely on ray tracing. And in this case, the CPU gets to help out more, letting the Asus ROG Strix G16 rocket ahead of the Alienware x16 R2 and come much closer to the Lenovo Legion than in the other tests.  That CPU performance can let the Asus ROG Strix G16 get in close to the RTX 5080-equipped Lenovo Legion in other cases as well. Running Cyberpunk 2077 with the Ultra preset (no ray tracing) at 1080p, the Asus ROG Strix G16 pulls of 137 FPS average to the Legion’s 151 FPS. That actually lets the Asus ROG Strix G16 beat the RTX 5090-equipped Razer Blade 16 due to that system being CPU-bound in that test.  Bumping up to 1440p or the monitor’s native 1600p sees more load shift to the GPU, and in those conditions the Asus ROG Strix G16 falls back a bit further from the likes of the Lenovo Legion and Razer Blade 16. It still performs well, but you’ll want to stick with 1080p/1200p if you plan to take advantage of the built-in monitor’s 240Hz refresh rate.  Asus ROG Strix G16: Battery life Gaming laptops are getting better at running on battery power, but they’re generally still not great. The Asus ROG Strix G16 fell just a few minutes shy of a six hour runtime in our local 4K video playback test, and that’s with the dGPU disabled, all keyboard lighting off, Airplane mode, and the screen set between 250 and 260 nits (and self-limited to 60Hz). Real-world use takes that even lower, with the laptop generally giving me 3-4 hours of everyday use. It’s still competitive for most gaming laptops, though the Razer Blade 16 recently impressed with over 10 hours in our testing.   The Asus ROG Strix G16 even tries to help conserve power. The system will pop-up a notification if an app is keeping the dGPU active while on battery power — useful! But that notification will take you to Armoury Crate, and from there, the “Stop all” button for ending those tasks that were using the dGPU doesn’t always do its job. Also, the system isn’t set up ideally for battery life. Nvidia Optimus was not enabled by default, and the “Optimized” setting in Armoury Crate was not active. It’s still possible for the “Standard” mode to turn off the dGPU on battery power, but there’s no guarantee it will, unlike the Optimized mode.  Asus ROG Strix G16: Conclusion The Asus ROG Strix G16 is a hit. It offers excellent performance, especially as configured, with its CPU helping make the most of the RTX 5070 Ti inside. This smart balance avoids CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p, giving it a leg up on plenty of its competition. The performance combines with an overall good package that benefits from a sturdy design, quality display, respectable speakers, and satisfactory connectivity. It’s a worthy rival to the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro 16 Gen 10. It’s a bit thicker, but lighter than Lenovo’s system, and it comes at a small discount for a comparable configuration from Lenovo. Read...

AMD’s hardware teams have tried to redefine AI inferencing with powerful chips like the Ryzen AI Max and Threadripper. But in software, the company has been largely absent where PCs are concerned. That’s changing, AMD executives say. AMD’s Advancing AI event Thursday focused on enterprise-class GPUs like its Instinct lineup. But it’s a software platform you may not have heard of, called ROCm, that AMD depends upon just as much. AMD is releasing ROCm 7 today, which the company says can boost AI inferencing by three times through the software alone. And it’s finally coming to Windows to battle Nvidia’s CUDA supremacy. Radeon Open Compute (ROCm) is AMD’s open software stack for AI computing, with drivers and tools to run AI workloads. Remember the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 debacle of a few weeks back? Without a software driver, Nvidia’s latest GPU was a lifeless hunk of silicon. Early on, AMD was in the same pickle. Without the limitless coffers of companies like Nvidia, AMD made a choice: it would prioritize big businesses with ROCm and its enterprise GPUs instead of client PCs. Ramine Roane, corporate vice president of the AI solutions group, called that a “sore point:” “We focused ROCm on the cloud GPUs, but it wasn’t always working on the endpoint — so we’re fixing that.” Mark Hachman / Foundry In today’s world, simply shipping the best product isn’t always enough. Capturing customers and partners willing to commit to the product is a necessity. It’s why former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously chanted “Developers developers developers” on stage; when Sony built a Blu-ray drive into the PlayStation, movie studios gave the new video format a critical mass that the rival HD-DVD format didn’t have. Now, AMD’s Roane said that the company belatedly realized that AI developers like Windows, too. “It was a decision to basically not use resources to port the software to Windows, but now we realize that, hey, developers actually really care about that,” he said. ROCm will be supported by PyTorch in preview in the third quarter of 2025, and by ONNX-EP in July, Roane said. Presence is more important than performance All this means is that AMD processors will finally gain a much larger presence in AI applications, which means that if you own a laptop with a Ryzen AI processor, a desktop with a Ryzen AI Max chip, or a desktop with a Radeon GPU inside, it will have more opportunities to tap into AI applications. PyTorch, for example, is a machine-learning library that popular AI models like Hugging Face’s “Transformers” run on top of. It should mean that it will be much easier for AI models to take advantage of Ryzen hardware. ROCm will also be added to “in box” Linux distributions, too: Red Hat (in the second half of 2025), Ubuntu (the same) and SuSE. Roane also helpfully provided some context over what model size each AMD platform should be able to run, from a Ryzen AI 300 notebook on up to a Threadripper platform. Mark Hachman / Foundry …but performance substantially improves, too The AI performance improvements that ROCm 7 adds are substantial: a 3.2X performance improvement in Llama 3.1 70B, 3.4X in Qwen2-72B, and 3.8X in DeepSeek R1. (The “B” stands for the number of parameters, in billions; the higher the parameters, the generally higher the quality of the outputs.) Today, those numbers matter more than they have in the past, as Roane said that inferencing chips are showing steeper growth than processors used for training. (“Training” generates the AI models used in products like ChatGPT or Copilot. “Inferencing” refers to the actual process of using AI. In other words, you might train an AI to know everything about baseball; when you ask it if Babe Ruth was better than Willie Mays, you’re using inferencing.) Mark Hachman / Foundry AMD said that the improved ROCm stack also offered the same training performance, or about three times the previous generation. Finally, AMD said that its own MI355X running the new ROCm software would outperfom an Nvidia B200 by 1.3X on the DeepSeek R1 model, with 8-bit floating-point accuracy. Again, performance matters — in AI, the goal is to push out as many AI tokens as quickly as possible; in games, it’s polygons or pixels instead. Simply offering developers a chance to take advantage of the AMD hardware you already own is a win-win, for you and AMD alike. The one thing that AMD doesn’t have is a consumer-focused application to encourage users to use AI, whether it be LLMs, AI art, or something else. Intel publishes AI Playground, and Nvidia (though it doesn’t own the technology) worked with a third-party developer for its own application, LM Studio. One of the convenient features of AI Playground is that every model available has been quantized, or tuned, for Intel’s hardware. Roane said that similarly-tuned models exist for AMD hardware like the Ryzen AI Max. However, consumers have to go to repositories like Hugging Face and download them themselves. Roane called AI Playground a “good idea.” “No specific plans right now, but it’s definitely a direction we would like to move,” he said, in response to a question from PCWorld.com. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Dual 3K lenses provide simultaneous, detailed views from two angles On-device AI detects people, pets, noise, and even a crying baby without a subscription Supports local storage up to 256GB, along with flexible cloud storage options Cons No automatic motion tracking Fire detection is still in beta and is not a substitute for dedicated sensors Our Verdict The Imilab C30 Dual is feature-rich indoor camera that delivers wide coverage, sharp video, and smart alerts—without charging extra for the essentials. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Imilab C30 Dual Retailer Price $89.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket We’ve reached a point where most indoor security cameras offer the same basic mix of features—HD video, motion alerts, and cloud storage—wrapped in a similar-looking plastic shell. The Imilab C30 Dual sets itself apart with a different approach. It’s an indoor camera with a (literal) twist: two separate 3K (3072 × 1728 pixels) lenses that let you monitor two areas at once, in high detail, from a single device. One lens is fixed for wide-angle coverage, while the other pans and tilts to cover the entire room. But it’s not just about the hardware. The C30 Dual adds a layer of on-device artificial intelligence that can detect people, pets, loud noises, and even a crying baby—all without any requirement to pay for a cloud subscription. That’s still a rarity in this category, where advanced detection features are usually locked behind a paywall. And with support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, plus local storage up to 256GB, it offers a surprising amount of flexibility without asking for monthly payments. Design and features The Imilab C30 Dual’s most compelling feature is right there in the name. One lens provides a fixed wide-angle view, giving you a consistent overview of the room. The other is motorized to pan 355 degrees and tilts 60 degrees, and it offers up to 6x digital zoom, letting you zero in on specific spots when needed. You get two perspectives at once, with no blind spots and no need to toggle between angles. The C30 Dual’s PTZ camera can pan 355 degrees and tilt 60 degrees to follow subjects or zoom in on specific areas. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Another feature you don’t often see at this price is a “virtual fence” that lets you draw activity zones within the camera’s view and receive alerts only when something crosses that boundary. Another setting, called Family Guard, sends a notification if no motion is detected during scheduled periods—useful if you’re keeping tabs on an elderly relative or latchkey kid. Fire detection–currently in beta, is an unusual feature that can send an alert if the camera sees flames or smoke, although you’d be wise to treat it as reinforcement to dedicated safety devices such as smoke detectors. The Imilab C30 Dual is easy to recommend, because this security camera delivers more than you’d expect for its price. You have two options for storing the camera’s recordings: You can provide your own microSD card—up to 256GB in capacity—for local storage (follow our advice for choosing the best microSD card for security cameras), or if you prefer the convenience of the cloud, you can use the Xiaomi Home app to sign up for a paid plan from Xiaomi (Imilab is part of the Xiaomi ecosystem). Two plans are available: Basic costs $4.99 per month and gives you 7 days of event video history and up to 50GB of storage, while the Pro plan bumps that to 30 days of rolling storage with unlimited space for $24.99 per month. A 90-day trial is available to test the service, but all core camera functions work fine without it. Setup and performance Getting the Imilab C30 Dual up and running is a simple process. The USB-C-powered camera can connect to either your 2.4- or 5GHz Wi-Fi networks, and it also supports Wi-Fi 6. This enables it to handle high-resolution streams without bogging down your network. You can place it on a tabletop or mount it to the ceiling using the included bracket, depending on your space and what angles you want to cover. Physical installation takes just a minutes. Once it’s powered on, setup continues in the Xiaomi Home app, which walks you through connecting the camera to your network. The Xiaomi Home app is clean and well-organized, with quick access to live feeds from both of the camera’s lenses and all its settings. From there, you can adjust motion-detection zones, review event clips, and receive alerts when something’s happening in the camera’s field of view. The Xiaomi/Mi Home app gives you quick quick access to live feeds from both lenses and all your camera settings. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry The camera performed well in my day-to-day testing. Both lenses deliver sharp, detailed video with minimal delay. The motorized lens moves smoothly and can be steered using the app’s pan and tilt controls to follow subjects as they move across the room. AI detection is generally accurate; people and pets were flagged correctly, and notifications arrived in real time without a flood of false alarms. The C30 Dual also performed well after dark. In low-light conditions, the it uses enhanced color night vision to capture full-color footage. When the room goes completely dark, it switches to infrared mode, using 10 built-in IR LEDs to deliver clear black-and-white video. That visual clarity is matched by solid audio performance. Two-way audio is clear enough to talk with someone at home or to get your pet’s attention when needed. The mic picks up sound well, and the speaker’s message gets across without distortion. The C30 Dual offers a couple of ways to protect your privacy. You can enable a built-in privacy mode to shut off the camera feed when you’re home. Imilab also says all video data is encrypted, which adds a layer of protection for anyone concerned about digital snooping. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of he best home security cameras. Should you buy the Imilab C30 Dual? The Imilab C30 Dual isn’t just a novelty, it expands your coverage without the need for a second device. And it’s rare to find key features like local storage and smart detection without needing to pay for a subscription. For everyday indoor monitoring—kids, pets, or general peace of mind—it’s an easy recommendation. The C30 Dual delivers more than you’d expect at this price, without nickel-and-diming you to be useful. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Powerful chip that brings the Switch 2 up to the level of a PS4 (Pro) Better frame rates and faster loading times Useful improvements such as HDR and 4K support Light and handy despite larger screen Cons Low battery power No OLED screen and therefore no real HDR in handheld mode Console edges are slightly sharp-edged and uncomfortable Our Verdict The Nintendo Switch 2 is a smart and meaningful upgrade, offering better graphics, faster load times, and modern features like HDR. But weaker battery life, an LCD screen, and a high price make it more suitable for hardcore fans than casual players. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The Nintendo Switch 2 officially launched on June 5th and aims to win over both longtime fans and newcomers. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Nintendo has opted to modernize the familiar concept of the original Switch. With significantly better hardware and detailed improvements, the Switch 2 feels like a thoughtful upgrade. But much like the PlayStation 5 Pro, the big question remains: Is it worth it and who is it really for? We break it down in our review. Nintendo Switch 2: A big boost in performance This time around, Nintendo installed more powerful hardware in the Nintendo Switch 2. Together with Nvidia, Nintendo installed a specially customized processor and GPU, which together deliver around ten times more power than the original Nintendo Switch. Both old and new titles benefit from this and now run more smoothly and with shorter loading times, even if not always at 60 fps. While titles such as Mario Kart World definitely reach the golden frame rate mark, other titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 are even more demanding, which means they tend to run at 30 to 40 FPS. However, the fact that Cyberpunk runs so well on the Switch 2 is a success in itself. And even with games like Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the higher FPS figures work wonders to significantly enhance the gaming experience. The use of DLSS plays a large part in making such performance possible on the Switch 2. Nvidia’s upscaling technology can generate more frame rates with the help of AI. However, image artefacts do occur from time to time as a result of the AI calculation, but these usually occur in the background and aren’t noticeable. The Nintendo Switch 2 comes with the console itself, two joy cons, a controller holder, the docking station and a power supply unit including charging cable.Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry In terms of resolution, the Switch 2 now delivers 1080p in handheld mode, which also ensures that you can feel a significant improvement in quality. In TV mode, however, it depends on the game which resolution is possible. While titles such as Mario Kart World run natively at 1440p, other games are only upscaled to this value. For the first time it’s possible to upscale titles up to 4K resolution. This is a significant improvement compared to the first Nintendo Switch, which reached a maximum of Full HD. This is remarkable, especially as the Switch 2 also supports HDR, which makes for really beautiful scenes in TV mode. Nintendo has also given the Switch 2 a full 256 GB of internal memory, which is significantly more than the meagre 32 GB of the first Nintendo Switch or 64 GB of the OLED Switch. This should give most people enough space to transfer their game library (or fill it with new titles). If required, the memory can also be expanded with a microSD card. Incidentally, not all microSD cards are now compatible with the console. With the Switch 2, the memory card must fulfil the microSD Express standard. The Nintendo Switch 2 is larger than its predecessor, and also larger than the OLED Switch (not pictured).Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry In terms of battery life, the Nintendo Switch 2 takes one step forward and two steps back. Even though the battery now delivers 5220 mAh instead of 4310 mAh, the battery life is noticeably shorter due to the higher performance. For demanding games, the console lasts just two hours, which can be a major disadvantage when traveling. At best, the console lasts six and a half hours, which is still not too much. The Nintendo Switch OLED, by comparison, managed four and a half to nine hours of battery life. So if you often play in handheld mode, you’ll get significantly less playing time here. Of course, this is less relevant in docked mode on the TV, but it still feels like a step backwards. The Switch 2 makes perfect sense as an upgrade, as it delivers many improvements that Nintendo titles urgently need… Unfortunately, the Switch 2 has not become a must-have despite some useful improvements. Nintendo Switch 2: Build quality and handling As usual from Nintendo, the workmanship of the Nintendo Switch 2 is of a very high standard. Everything looks very high-quality and the console feels really good in the hand, despite the larger form factor. Not much else has changed compared to the first Switch. In terms of design, the Switch 2 is very well done.PC Welt / Foundry The joy cons are also very similar, apart from the fact that they are now magnetically attached to the console. This works very well. However, be careful not to accidentally pinch a finger because that hurts like hell. If necessary, the joy cons can either be released at the touch of a button or you can pull them off directly with a little force. This is only recommended if you have a firm grip on the console, otherwise it will quickly end up on the floor. Conveniently, it’s also possible to put the joy cons on upside down. They then work just as well and the console simply rotates with them. Apart from that, there are only a few changes to the familiar design. The console is less colorful, as there are only a few blue and red accents instead of the completely colored joy cons on the first Nintendo Switch. However, we hope that Nintendo will release a few chic special editions in the future to spice things up a bit. Incidentally, Nintendo has not changed the sticks on the Nintendo Switch 2, which can still lead to the infamous stick drift. An omission that many rightly criticize, as the problem has been known for years. Nintendo Switch 2: The screen falls short We were somewhat disappointed when Nintendo announced that the Switch 2 would only have an LCD screen and not an OLED screen like the Nintendo Switch OLED. This was a real highlight and made games on the console look even more colorful and stylish, not to mention the better contrasts. Although Nintendo has installed a really good LCD screen (which at 7.9 inches is also significantly larger than on the first Switch), it still can’t keep up with a good OLED screen. The colors look good, but in a direct comparison you can tell that the OLED Switch is still ahead. The differences between the Switch 2’s LCD screen and the OLED screen aren’t easily visible, but they exist. The grass looks rich and green in both, though the Switch 2 is weaker in contrast.Foundry Anyone who played with the OLED Switch for a long time will notice the difference. It’s a real shame because Nintendo could’ve simply launched a more contemporary OLED version straight away. This would have at least justified the price of the Switch 2. In dark scenes, the picture lacks depth.Foundry However, the biggest weakness of the LCD screen becomes clear when you realize that one of the Switch 2’s functions is no longer available. This is because the highly praised HDR support is not guaranteed in handheld mode. While it’s certainly possible to use the technology in TV mode to achieve a wider range of color values and brightness levels, the latter in particular fall completely flat in handheld mode, as independent analyses show. In docked mode, the Switch 2 can receive and output HDR signals, but these simply cannot be displayed on the LCD screen. Ultimately, this means that good black levels and brightness values aren’t possible in handheld mode, especially where games have to support HDR in the first place. This only applies to a handful of titles. The Nintendo Switch 2 may therefore benefit from somewhat richer colors, but when it comes to contrasts, which are only achieved through deep black and white values, it cannot keep up with the almost four-year-old OLED Switch, which is an incredible shame. Nintendo Switch 2: Game lineup highlights At least Nintendo doesn’t let itself down with the selection of launch titles and presents its own releases such as Mario Kart World or Donkey Kong Bananza, which will be released in July, to show what the console is capable of. Mario Kart World is probably the Switch 2’s most important launch title.Foundry We’ve already had the chance to test Mario Kart World extensively, and the game looks simply fantastic. The new worlds are lovingly designed, with action happening everywhere on the tracks, and the characters and their animations look great. On some maps, high waves build up when a player’s blue tank crashes into a waterway, players behind can even feel the impact. Elsewhere, you speed over sand dunes, surrounded by sandstorms that impair visibility. Mario Kart also has an open world for the first time on the Switch 2, which is a special innovation for the racing game and probably wouldn’t have been possible on the original Switch. Just like the option to compete with 24 players instead of just 12, which is chaotic but fun. In the new Free Roam mode, you can explore the open game world of Mario Kart World, complete smaller missions and practice for the next race.Foundry In Donkey Kong Bananza, you can unleash your destructive fury and smash most of the map into its individual parts, which then fly around and have to be calculated accordingly by the console. Players who prefer less family-friendly titles will also get their money’s worth. Cyberpunk 2077 is an example of this, appearing directly as a launch title for the Switch 2. Other titles include Hitman, Hogwarts Legacy, Street Fighter, and Yakuza. However, Switch 2 games are notably more expensive. Mario Kart World costs up to $80, for instance. Nintendo will also offer free updates for some games you already own on the original Switch, allowing them to benefit from the Switch 2’s improvements. For other titles, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, this will require an additional charge (unless you already have the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass). Nintendo Switch 2: GameChat online function The new GameChat function is aimed specifically at online gamers and is designed to allow them to communicate with others directly via the console. No separate microphone is required as this is already built into the console. That said, a camera is required, which Nintendo also offers for for $54.99. GameChat can be selected via the new C button on the Switch 2 joy cons or the Switch 2 Pro controller. You can invite friends to join the chat and then play games like Mario Kart or Mario Party together in online multiplayer, which is a lot more fun as you can also see your fellow players. Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry The implementation of this function still seems rather rudimentary. You do have the option of blurring the background so that only the person themselves is clearly in focus. Even apps like Teams can do this much better. The console also provides little help on how to start an online game with the camera. The noise filtering during the game itself works quite well, which is why you have no problems hearing all participants in the conversation over their game sound. Nintendo has also deliberately chosen to blur the gameplay of the other participants so that you are less distracted. However, the blurred and choppy images are more distracting than less in our eyes. It’s also important to know that GameChat can only be used free of charge until March 31st, 2026. After that, it requires a paid Nintendo Switch Online membership. But the real question is: How much added value does GameChat bring? You can just use Discord or Teamspeak for free. This makes it seem like more of a gimmick than a real improvement. Nintendo Switch 2: How effective is mouse control? Another new feature of the Switch 2 is the ability to use the new, magnetic joy cons like a mouse with the help of special sensors. All you have to do is lay the joy cons flat. Although this mouse control works in principle with all games, it’s not always useful. In our preview of the Switch 2, which was created at an event, we were able to try out the function before release and felt it was more of a gimmick than a real selling point. High-caliber titles such as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond are said to make particularly good use of mouse control, but the game has not yet been released. Other titles such as Drag X Drive or Super Mario Party: Jamboree are already benefiting from the new technology, but these are only smaller mini-games. After all, shooters like Cyberpunk 2077 or strategy games like Civiliation7 can now be controlled properly on the console. Another use case for the function is the Nintendo eShop itself. Here you can use the mouse control to search for specific titles, which is much more practical than the normal input via the controller. Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry To use the joy cons as a mouse, you need a smooth surface with plenty of space–something not everyone has readily available. According to Nintendo, you can simply place the joy con on your lap, but this doesn’t work in practice. You also shouldn’t have sensitive wrists, especially if you already spend a lot of time on a PC. Your hands rest very uncomfortably on the joy cons when playing, which can lead to fatigue and pain after just a few hours. Nintendo does offer a solution (for an extra charge) in the form of grips where you can place the joy cons to make them feel more like a mouse. However, even this isn’t truly ergonomic and therefore not really recommended. To put it in a nutshell: The mouse control of the joy cons is clear and precise, as it should be. But it’s not a real game changer. It doesn’t turn the Switch 2 into a PC and feels like a quirky idea that offers real advantages for a few select titles, but no major added value overall. Nintendo Switch 2: Specs SpecsValueSize116 mm x 272 mm x 13.9 mm (with joy cons connected)Weight401 g (with connected joy cons: approx. 534 g)DisplayCapacitive touchscreen / 7.9 inch / resolution 1920 x 1080 / LCD screen with wide color spectrum and HDR10 support/VRR up to 120 HzCPU/GPUCustomized processor from NVIDIASystem memory256 GB (UFS)Communication functionsWLAN (Wi-Fi 6) / BluetoothVideo outputMaximum resolution: 3840 x 2160, 60 fpsSupports 120 fps when 1920 x 1080 / 2560 x 1440 resolutions are selectedAudio outputSupports linear PCM 5.1, output via HDMI cable in TV modeSpeakersStereoMicrophoneIntegrated microphone (monaural)ButtonsPOWER button / volume buttonsUSB ports2 USB Type-C portsHeadphone socket4-pin 3.5 mm stereo mini plug (CTIA standard)Card slotBoth Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch software cards can be inserted.microSD Express Card slotOnly compatible with microSD Express Cards (up to 2 TB)SensorsThe acceleration sensor, the gyro sensor and the mouse sensor are located in each Joy-Con 2 controller. The brightness sensor is located in the console.Operating environmentTemperature: 5 – 35°C / Humidity: 20 – 80%Internal batteryLithium-ion battery / battery capacity: 5220 mAhBattery life2 – 6.5 hoursCharging time3 hoursPower consumptionTV modeActive gaming: 19 W*2*3HOME menu: 8 W*3Sleep mode (WLAN is connected, wired LAN connection is not active): 0.5 WSleep mode (wired LAN connection is active): 5 WSwitched off: 0.5 WEstimated annual energy consumption*4: 14 kWh*5 / 50 kWh*6Data according to the manufacturer (Nintendo) Nintendo Switch 2: Conclusion If you’ve been itching to get the Nintendo Switch 2 since it was first announced, you’ve probably already pre-ordered or plan to buy it anyway. The Switch 2 makes sense as an upgrade, with better frame rates, faster loading times, 4K support, and more memory. While it’s not on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, it holds its own. Still, it’s not a must-have. The LCD screen, weak battery, and underwhelming features like mouse mode or game chat hold it back. If you’re unsure, it may be worth waiting for a Lite or OLED model to address its biggest shortcomings. Read...

ChatGPT still hasn’t fulfilled the most grandiose promises of its early days, and that’s something I’m mostly grateful for—largely because it has yet to replace me and my entire profession. But over the last few years, it has evolved more and more into the virtual personal assistant it always had the potential to be. Scheduled tasks are part of that. A scheduled task is an automated prompt that’s performed in the future and/or in a recurring pattern. You can do things like have the AI pop up and remind you to do certain tasks on certain days at certain times, give you a topical news briefing every morning, scrape and analyze data once per week, and more. And I’ve found it impressively useful. It’s only available through the o3 and o4-mini models, which means you’ll need to pay for ChatGPT Plus or higher—but scheduled tasks makes the price of a sub easier to swallow. Here’s how ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks helped me develop a healthier daily routine. Setting the stage for a successful day As a freelance writer, I’m blessed with work-life autonomy. No one expects me to clock in at a certain time every morning, nor am I expected to be on the clock throughout the day. I write mostly what I want, largely when I want, and as long as I get the work done within a reasonable time frame, I get paid for it. That suits me very, very well. And like most independent contractors, that leaves me at the mercy of my own self-motivation and ability to concentrate. I’ve long struggled with procrastination, though, and that’s why I loved scheduled tasks. My scatterbrain style somehow adores routine—if I can sink into one, I find it hard to stop. Scheduled tasks help me sink into routine. These email reminders are sent by ChatGPT as scheduled tasks. I appreciate that every alert uses a slight variation in text. It keeps me from glossing over them.Jon Martindale / Foundry For example, I struggle to just get started every day. With no hard schedule to stick to, it’s easy to let the work day slip away from me. What starts as a 9 AM morning becomes 9:30 AM start after a quick school dropoff, then 10 AM after a quick scroll of Reddit, then 10:30 AM after a quick dog walk, then 11 AM… you get the idea. So my first foray into ChatGPT being my virtual assistant was to establish a strong start to my days. I now have a daily 10:30 AM reminder: “If you haven’t started yet, it’s time to.” I should probably move that earlier, but I know myself—if it’s too aggressive, I’ll just ignore it. Better for it to be a last resort nudge than an obnoxious provoker. The results so far have been mixed. If I haven’t started work and I see the email come through, or the notification pops up within the app, it’s usually enough of a kick in the rear to put down whatever I’m distracted by. And the slight variations in the reminder messages make them harder to ignore than standard alarms and calendar events. But I’ll be honest: sometimes I just don’t care what ChatGPT wants me to do and prefer to keep wasting my time. Other days I’m already working when the alert comes through, to which I feel a bit smug. Eat that, ChatGPT. Keeping me consistent with my habits Where scheduled tasks are more useful, I think, is in the small things. The tiny habits we wish we could be more consistent with. The small-effort tasks that only take a minute or two but keep slipping your mind. I’ve had chronic back pain for years, so I rely on various tools and tricks to fix it and prevent flare-ups. ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks are the latest addition to that toolbox. I now have it toss me reminders twice a day during the work week to stretch and do some quick back and posture exercises, like holding a primal squat for as long as I can. A true-to-life model of what I look like without all my posture efforts.Igor Omilaev / Unsplash I’ve seen others use similar reminders to drink more water, to check in with friends or family, to let the dog out for a wee, etc. Others use it for less regular but more engaging reminders, like weather forecasts in the morning or suggestions for what to do every weekend. The point is, regardless of your particular needs and what you want to remember, ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks work pretty well for that—especially if you already use the app or web service for other stuff. I love it because it’s so easy to do Indeed, it’s the simplicity of scheduling reminders with ChatGPT that makes me continue using it. I don’t need a separate app and I don’t need to navigate calendar months. I just spin up a new chat, spit out what I want, and ChatGPT largely understands. Creating a scheduled task is so easy. There’s no reason not to.Jon Martindale / Foundry I can get a flash of inspiration in the middle of the night, throw out a garbled request to ChatGPT full of typos—though making sure to get the time and date of the prompt right, at least—and I know it’ll do a decent enough job of reminding me of what I’ve asked. And with email integration, I don’t even need to keep the ChatGPT app running. When I spot the email drop into my inbox, I scan the subject and I’m instantly reminded of what I needed to do. It doesn’t feel as intrusive as desktop notifications but it’s just as effective. How to start using scheduled tasks ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks are easy, but not quite as easy as it used to be. For some reason, OpenAI has hidden the feature behind opaque model names. It’s not available in the default 4o model. ChatGPT-4o might say it can schedule tasks, but if you try to get it to schedule something, it’ll tell you that it can’t (or that the feature is disabled for now). Instead, you’ll have to switch to either the o3 or o4-mini models (but not o4-mini-high), and then make your scheduled task request. Both o3 and o4-mini should be able to handle it no problem, and both will give you confirmation the scheduled task request is in place once complete. For scheduled tasks, you need access to o3 or o4-mini. That means you’ll need a paid ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Team subscription.Jon Martindale / Foundry As for the scheduled task request itself, you can pretty much word it however you want in classic ChatGPT style. “Set me a reminder to start work at 10 AM. Include a quick motivational quote to give me some pep.” is just as valid as “Remind me to work at 10.” The usual warnings of what you should never say to ChatGPT apply here. It probably won’t replace any productivity apps or services you already use, but if you’re already paying for ChatGPT’s other features and feel like you could benefit from these flexible reminders, you should definitely try ChatGPT’s scheduled tasks. They’ve been refreshingly effective for me. Further reading: I tried the $200/mo ChatGPT Pro so you don’t have to Read...

Chromebooks have been around since 2011, but they’ve undergone a serious transformation since the early days. They’re no longer the low-resolution, low-powered machines from the days of old. Now, in addition to the ones that fit the needs of casual users, a handful of them are capable of running games, a far-fetched idea at one point in time. Sure, you can probably do more on a Windows machine, but if you’re looking for something affordable and zippy enough for everyday tasks, a Chromebook might just be your best option — and a lot of the compromises these web-based laptops required in their earliest day no longer apply. Let’s dig in. Further reading: The best Chromebooks Chromebooks are more affordable With a couple of exceptions, Chromebooks are generally more affordable than their Windows counterparts. You’ll find most premium models in the $600 to $800 range. However, we’ve seen Chromebooks go on sale for under $200, albeit with some significant compromises. Most cost well under $500. You can point to two reasons right away. First, most buyers prefer a Core or Ryzen chip inside a traditional laptop, just to accommodate the additional performance Windows and its applications require (to run on the laptop, remember). Those chips cost money, more than the Intel Celeron or Arm chips commonly found in Chromebooks. Microsoft also charges for its Windows license, presumably (much) more than the Chrome OS that powers a Chromebook. Since Chromebooks are purpose-built for surfing the internet, they need less memory and storage than traditional laptops as well. PCWorld`s favorite budget chromebook Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook Read our review Best Prices Today: $319 at Best Buy | Not Available at Lenovo Chromebooks are designed for everyday users Chromebooks are designed with day-to-day tasks in mind. So, if you use your laptop for just browsing the web and watching Netflix, then you should consider picking one up. As someone who regularly uses a Chromebook for work and leisure, I find that performance is zippy enough for the kind of things I do. The Chromebook Plus models — such as our current favorite Chromebook, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 — promise better performance and displays as well as new apps and AI capabilities for around $400. In a nutshell, you’re getting better hardware and software, which sets a higher standard for Chromebooks from the get-go.  Having tested most of the Chromebook Plus models for the last couple of months, I can confidently say that performance is pretty fast across all of the machines. Even with up to 20 tabs open at once, I didn’t notice any lag. The bootup times are lightning fast, too. PCWorld`s favorite chromebook overall Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 Read our review Best Prices Today: $499.98 at Amazon Chromebooks are purpose-built for the web Chromebooks began life as little more than a web browser, in a world where the web was new and worth exploring. That still holds true today: Chromebooks often use the internet to access the same web services that live on your phone as dedicated apps. That’s perfectly fine. Web developers develop for both scenarios. On a laptop, yes, Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365 opens as a dedicated app, but the apps still encourage you to save to the cloud. However, you can still buy Microsoft 365 and work on a Chromebook instead. The difference is that you’ll be working in a browser instead, which is typically a cleaner interface. And because you’re working on the web, some of the latest features will arrive to you first, because they’re easier to deploy online. True, not every Microsoft 365 app works on a Chromebook. But these are typically the niche apps you can probably ignore: Visio, Project, and Publisher, among others. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook all work on the web, and thus on Chromebooks. You can game on Chromebooks now The first cloud gaming Chromebooks made quite the splash back in 2022. You can play the latest games by streaming them from the cloud. Just make sure you have a stable internet connection. The Acer Chromebook 516 GE, for example, even has an RGB backlit keyboard with the WASD keys highlighted. Its Intel Core i5-1240P CPU and 16-inch 2560×1600 120Hz IPS display provide the beefy feel you expect from a gaming laptop. The ports: USB-A port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack offer essential connectivity. With this class of Chromebook combined with a GeForce Now account, you can get your game on, no problem. PCWorld`s favorite chromebook for cloud gaming Acer Chromebook 516 GE Read our review Best Prices Today: $569.99 at Amazon Chromebooks run apps just fine Chromebooks come with a hidden talent: Virtually all modern Chromebooks support Android apps. Many Android apps are designed for phones and tablets, particularly games, which might look a little odd when formatted to a Chromebook screen. But any productivity apps will undoubtedly be designed to also be used on a Chromebook. Some Chromebooks can fold back into a tablet-like mode, too—giving you the best of both worlds. For years, Windows users have become accustomed to pointing out that a laptop can run just about anything. And that’s true, though the need to run dozens of small helper utilities has, at least anecdotally, diminished. But now that web-based tools and apps are common, web-based Chromebooks can do virtually all normal everyday tasks, with Android compatibility a useful extra you have in your back pocket if it’s needed. Chromebooks are pretty darn rugged Originally, Chromebooks were designed for the educational market. That means mostly kids were using them. Whether you work with kids or have little ones of your own, you’re probably well aware that they can be messy as heck. That’s why Chromebooks were often built with durable frames and spill-resistant keyboards. That’s still the case these days. In fact, whenever I put a Chromebook to the test, the build quality is the first thing I observe, and I’m often pleased with what I find. Acer You can easily restore a Chromebook If you have a problem with the Chromebook, it can be restored to the factory settings within minutes. I’ve power-washed a number of Chromebooks and I can do it with my eyes closed at this point. All you have to do is open the settings app, scroll all the way down, click on the advanced tab, and select the reset button next to the powerwash option. You don’t worry about losing your data or bookmarks, as everything gets stored in the cloud. Nothing beats a clean slate, that’s for sure.  Chromebooks expand now, too Chromebooks have a reputation for being a single-screen device, since they’ve been used in the classroom on a child’s desk. Most ship with either a dedicated HDMI port for an external display connection, or a USB-C port, or both. The latter is certainly sufficient for a single 1080p display, and possibly a 4K display, too. An external display might not be a necessity, but it’s a luxury you’d probably like to have as an option, and a Chromebook can offer that. While most Chromebooks don’t yet support Thunderbolt, you can use a USB-C dongle if a Chromebook has a USB-C port. At between $20 to $40, a USB-C hub or dongle is far cheaper than a Thunderbolt dock anyway, and perfectly suited to adding ports for external hard drives and storage cards. Acer Chromebooks can print Historically, Chromebooks have had a reputation for being incompatible with printers. And while that’s sometimes true, the blame is more with the printer. Many printers ship with all sorts of unwanted utilities to reorder ink and manage print formatting. Chromebooks try and do away with all that, and just print the page. If your printer allows that (Google’s list of compatible printers is extensive), you’ll have no trouble printing with a Chromebook. Related content I switched from Windows PCs to Chromebooks and haven’t looked back A beginner’s guide to using a Chromebook Are Chromebooks good for gaming? No… but actually also yes Can Chromebooks get viruses? It’s complicated Read...

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Google just announced a slew of features coming to Google Home, and one of them will come in particularly handy for Google TV users with Nest Cams guarding their households.  Coming soon, Nest Cam feeds will get picture-in-picture support on Google TV devices, perfect for keeping eyes on your home while streaming your favorite shows.   The long-awaited feature will make it easy to see who’s at your door while in the middle of a binge-watching session, and you’ll also be able to check the backyard or other Nest Cam-monitored areas without pausing the video.  Google TV devices will soon get picture-in-picture support for live Nest Cam feeds. Google The new picture-in-picture mode is coming first to the Google TV Streamer, and you’ll need to be in Google’s public preview program. You can sign up for the Google Home public preview right here.  Support for picture-in-picture Nest Cam feeds isn’t the only feature coming to Google Home this spring, with Google ticking off a laundry list of new items.  For starters, Google Home on the web is getting new functionality; namely, you’ll be able to control a wider range of smart devices from a browser, including smart lights, thermostats, and smart locks. Again, you’ll need to be part of the Google Home public preview to test Google Home’s new web features, at least initially.  Favorites in the Google Home app are also getting a facelift, complete with new and pinnable tiles for indoor temperatures, Wi-Fi actions, and whole-home lights on or off.  Automations will be getting easier too, with Google adding new starters and conditions to the Google Home app that should allow for more specific smart routines. You’ll also be able to employ presence sensing to trigger automations, perfect for setting smart routines to begin when someone’s home or when everyone’s away.  Returning to security cameras, Google says it’s boosted performance for the Google Home app’s video timeline for smoother scrolling, while adding the ability to quickly jump forward or backward 10 seconds by double-tapping the left- or right-hand side of the screen.  Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms will also get more attention in the Google Home app, with the addition of a revamped “experience” that offers “critical” alerts and heads-up alerts, along with the ability to run safety checks and hush a blaring alarm. The recently discontinued Nest Protect smoke alarm will get those features first.  This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best security cameras. Then there’s smart locks (I did say Google gave us a laundry list of features), with the Google Home app adding support for Matter-enabled locks from third-party manufacturers. That means you’ll be able to manage who can unlock your door, edit existing passcodes, and get lock notifications via the Google Home app. For now, support for Matter smart locks is in public preview.  Finally, a Home Summary widget that offers a “bite-sized” summary of your smart home—complete with events and “insights,” along with access to “relevant” controls—is coming soon, on an invite-only basis. Read...

Mozilla recently announced the discontinuation of Pocket and Fakespot features in Firefox as the organization wants to focus its limited resources on higher priority features in the Firefox web browser. But Pocket and Fakespot weren’t the last of the cuts. We recently learned that the Deep Fake Detector and Orbit extensions are also heading to an early grave. Specifically, these two add-ons will be shut down on June 26th, 2025, per the notices on their respective pages. Deep Fake Detector is an add-on for Firefox that uses the Apollo DFT engine to determine whether a text has been written by a human or an AI tool. Orbit is an add-on that can summarize articles and answer questions without sending your data to third parties. In other words, if you still use either of these two Firefox extensions, then you only have a few weeks left to find suitable replacements. Further reading: Firefox now has native user profile switching Read...

One of our favorite features in a laptop these days is an OLED screen because there’s nothing better than crystal-clear images with vibrant colors and perfect blacks. The beautiful Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is one such laptop, and right now it’s on sale at Best Buy for $1,100. That’s a hefty $250 off its original price, making it an even better value. We reviewed the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and loved it enough to give it a 4.5-star rating and our Editors’ Choice award. We praised it for its impressive battery life, beautiful display, and overall performance—and we loved it even at full price. The lack of an audio jack and USB-A ports was a downer, and it isn’t as “bendy” as the Yoga name would suggest, but those are minor nitpicks in an otherwise excellent laptop. While this laptop has some light gaming potential, don’t get it if that’s a top priority. The 3K OLED touchscreen is best for streaming and productivity, and this is a proper AI-ready Copilot+ PC thanks to its cutting-edge Snapdragon X Elite processor and amazing 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM. Other nice features include a 1TB SSD, three USB-C ports (two of which are USB4), Wi-Fi 7, and a 1080p webcam. It’s also quite portable at 2.8 pounds and just 0.59 inches thick. If you need long-lasting battery life, solid performance, and a travel-friendly build, all at a fantastic price, and if you don’t mind the lack of gaming prowess, then you can’t go wrong with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x for $250 off at Best Buy. Get it while this deal is still hot! We love this Snapdragon 3K OLED laptop, especially for $250 offBuy now at Best Buy Read...