Yesterday, in a Chromium blog post, Google announced that Chrome has achieved “the highest score ever” in the Speedometer 3 benchmarking assessment, making it one of the fastest browsers in the world. Thanks to a number of optimizations, the Chrome web browser has become 10 percent faster than it was back in August 2024, which results in “better browser experiences” and “deeper enjoyment of what the web has to offer.” Of course, even with this progress, there’s still plenty of room for further improvement in Chrome’s performance. Speedometer 3 is a benchmark that measures performance across various web browser use cases, including HTML parsing, JavaScript and JSON processing, DOM manipulations, CSS layout calculations, and pixel rendering. In theory, a higher score should correlate to a better user experience while navigating the web. Chrome has been heavily criticized over the years for feature creep, slowdowns, and taking up too many system resources, so these gains are welcome. However, it should be noted that there are other factors to consider when choosing a web browser, including features, security, privacy, etc. Even if a browser that scores well on Speedometer 3, it may not be the best browser for you. Further reading: The best browsers for security, privacy, and features 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...

Chorus said the outage was `the result of human error during planned works, which resulted in one of our core ethernet routers for the Wellington region being isolated from our network`. Read...

More than 100,000 customers in Wellington and nearby areas lost fibre for more than an hour on Friday morning. Read...

Connections were reported to be coming back online. Read...

About 90% of the connections in Wellington and nearby areas lost fibre for more than an hour. Read...

Disney is in a bind. The company is struggling to keep its streaming subscriber numbers up after years of price hikes, but it also wants to spend less money producing new content that might draw more people in. The solution? Perks! Disney is making a big to-do about its new “always-on” perks programs for both Disney+ and Hulu. In a press release, the company boasted of “rewards ranging from one-of-a-kind experiences and limited-time sweepstakes to everyday savings and special discounts.” But despite the grand proclamations, the perks program is pretty much an empty gesture, full of sweepstakes you’ll never win and cross-promos that ultimately lead to the customer spending more money. If Disney really wants to reward subscriber loyalty and incentivize year-round subscriptions, it needs to try a little harder. Oops! All upsells Part of what Disney is offering is just a set of free trials to other services. Those include six months of DoorDash’s DashPass, three months of Clear+, and two months of Super Duolingo. Not all of these offers are new or unique. I spent two minutes searching the web and found a promo code for the same three months of Clear+ (MDGP25EN2CC8C6, if you’re wondering), with no Disney+ subscription necessary. DoorDash regularly hands out its own extended trials (including the same six-month offer with Roku last year), and you can’t redeem a new trial from Disney if you’ve ever enrolled in DashPass before.. All of these trials also require payment info up front and the services will auto-bill you at the end. If you don’t cancel the trials before they’re over (or sign up with a limited-use payment card), you’ll eventually be paying full price just like everyone else. Disney’s shopping discounts aren’t much better. There’s a 15-percent discount on Funko and Loungefly store items—barely more than the WELCOME10 code that works for anyone—and a 20-percent Adidas store discount that’s only available with an Adiclub membership, which requires handing over a bunch of personal info. (Amusingly, Disney-branded items are also on Adidas’ long list of discount exclusions.) Once you get past all the cross-selling, you’re basically left with a handful of digital items in games like Disney Emoji Blitz and access to a few Disney-related sweepstakes (which you can also just enter by mail without a subscription). With the fine print noting that “millions of internet users” could participate, your odds of winning a Disney cruise or Comic-Con tickets are pretty slim. Perhaps Hulu’s promise of “exclusive” perks “inspired by” shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Only Murders in the Building will fare better, but Disney hasn’t explained what those are going to be. For now, the perks program serves little purpose beyond getting you to spend more money on unrelated products and services. Coming soon: An undefined celebration of totalitarian theonomy, and also Bob Dylan.Jared Newman / Foundry What real loyalty rewards could look like In theory, it makes sense for Disney to offer streaming subscribers a little extra for their loyalty, especially during the slow summer months when new content isn’t flowing. But those perks should be more relevant for Disney fans or at least have some real lasting value. Instead of just offering the same kind of extended trials you can get anywhere, for instance, how about offering ongoing discounts that accrue for longtime subscribers? Instead of a few meaningless mobile game trinkets, how about giving Disney fans some actual games, with redemption codes for titles from the vast Star Wars and Disney back catalogs? Perhaps Disney could throw in some theme park perks as well. A free churro or two would be a far nicer gesture to longtime Disney+ subscribers than a modest discount on a DoorDash-delivered burrito. Better yet, Disney could offer discounts on Disney+ and Hulu themselves. That’s what DirecTV does with its own perks program, which rewards customers with tokens that accrue over time. Customers say they’ve been able to redeem these tokens for monthly bill credits and movie rentals, among other things. Disney might not feel like it needs to try all that hard while its profits are up, but subscriber numbers have been wobbly. While Disney+ added 1.4 million subscribers last quarter, that was aided by a deep four-month discount promotion that ran through most of March. Disney+ lost 700,000 subscribers at the end of last year, and the company projects only a “modest increase” next quarter, despite an ongoing crackdown on password sharing. But in that case, let’s not pretend Disney’s new streaming perks program is anything but the bare minimum in terms of effort. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter weekly newsletter to get more streaming advice every Friday. Read...

ChatGPT is rapidly changing the world. The process is already happening, and it’s only going to accelerate as the technology improves, as more people gain access to it, and as more learn how to use it. What’s shocking is just how many tasks ChatGPT is already capable of managing for you. While the naysayers may still look down their noses at the potential of AI assistants, I’ve been using it to handle all kinds of menial tasks for me. Here are my favorite examples. Write your emails for you Dave Parrack / Foundry We’ve all been faced with the tricky task of writing an email—whether personal or professional—but not knowing quite how to word it. ChatGPT can do the heavy lifting for you, penning the (hopefully) perfect email based on whatever information you feed it. Let’s assume the email you need to write is of a professional nature, and wording it poorly could negatively affect your career. By directing ChatGPT to write the email with a particular structure, content, and tone of voice, you can give yourself a huge head start. A winning tip for this is to never accept ChatGPT’s first attempt. Always read through it and look for areas of improvement, then request tweaks to ensure you get the best possible email. You can (and should) also rewrite the email in your own voice. Learn more about how ChatGPT coached my colleague to write better emails. Generate itineraries and schedules Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re going on a trip but you’re the type of person who hates planning trips, then you should utilize ChatGPT’s ability to generate trip itineraries. The results can be customized to the nth degree depending on how much detail and instruction you’re willing to provide. As someone who likes to get away at least once a year but also wants to make the most of every trip, leaning on ChatGPT for an itinerary is essential for me. I’ll provide the location and the kinds of things I want to see and do, then let it handle the rest. Instead of spending days researching everything myself, ChatGPT does 80 percent of it for me. As with all of these tasks, you don’t need to accept ChatGPT’s first effort. Use different prompts to force the AI chatbot to shape the itinerary closer to what you want. You’d be surprised at how many cool ideas you’ll encounter this way—simply nix the ones you don’t like. Break down difficult concepts Dave Parrack / Foundry One of the best tasks to assign to ChatGPT is the explanation of difficult concepts. Ask ChatGPT to explain any concept you can think of and it will deliver more often than not. You can tailor the level of explanation you need, and even have it include visual elements. Let’s say, for example, that a higher-up at work regularly lectures everyone about the importance of networking. But maybe they never go into detail about what they mean, just constantly pushing the why without explaining the what. Well, just ask ChatGPT to explain networking! Okay, most of us know what “networking” is and the concept isn’t very hard to grasp. But you can do this with anything. Ask ChatGPT to explain augmented reality, multi-threaded processing, blockchain, large language models, what have you. It will provide you with a clear and simple breakdown, maybe even with analogies and images. Analyze and make tough decisions Dave Parrack / Foundry We all face tough decisions every so often. The next time you find yourself wrestling with a particularly tough one—and you just can’t decide one way or the other—try asking ChatGPT for guidance and advice. It may sound strange to trust any kind of decision to artificial intelligence, let alone an important one that has you stumped, but doing so actually makes a lot of sense. While human judgment can be clouded by emotions, AI can set that aside and prioritize logic. It should go without saying: you don’t have to accept ChatGPT’s answers. Use the AI to weigh the pros and cons, to help you understand what’s most important to you, and to suggest a direction. Who knows? If you find yourself not liking the answer given, that in itself might clarify what you actually want—and the right answer for you. This is the kind of stuff ChatGPT can do to improve your life. Plan complex projects and strategies Dave Parrack / Foundry Most jobs come with some level of project planning and management. Even I, as a freelance writer, need to plan tasks to get projects completed on time. And that’s where ChatGPT can prove invaluable, breaking projects up into smaller, more manageable parts. ChatGPT needs to know the nature of the project, the end goal, any constraints you may have, and what you have done so far. With that information, it can then break the project up with a step-by-step plan, and break it down further into phases (if required). If ChatGPT doesn’t initially split your project up in a way that suits you, try again. Change up the prompts and make the AI chatbot tune in to exactly what you’re looking for. It takes a bit of back and forth, but it can shorten your planning time from hours to mere minutes. Compile research notes Dave Parrack / Foundry If you need to research a given topic of interest, ChatGPT can save you the hassle of compiling that research. For example, ahead of a trip to Croatia, I wanted to know more about the Croatian War of Independence, so I asked ChatGPT to provide me with a brief summary of the conflict with bullet points to help me understand how it happened. After absorbing all that information, I asked ChatGPT to add a timeline of the major events, further helping me to understand how the conflict played out. ChatGPT then offered to provide me with battle maps and/or summaries, plus profiles of the main players. You can go even deeper with ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature, which is now available to free users, up to 5 Deep Research tasks per month. With Deep Research, ChatGPT conducts multi-step research to generate comprehensive reports (with citations!) based on large amounts of information across the internet. A Deep Research task can take up to 30 minutes to complete, but it’ll save you hours or even days. Summarize articles, meetings, and more Dave Parrack / Foundry There are only so many hours in the day, yet so many new articles published on the web day in and day out. When you come across extra-long reads, it can be helpful to run them through ChatGPT for a quick summary. Then, if the summary is lacking in any way, you can go back and plow through the article proper. As an example, I ran one of my own PCWorld articles (where I compared Bluesky and Threads as alternatives to X) through ChatGPT, which provided a brief summary of my points and broke down the best X alternative based on my reasons given. Interestingly, it also pulled elements from other articles. (Hmph.) If you don’t want that, you can tell ChatGPT to limit its summary to the contents of the link. This is a great trick to use for other long-form, text-heavy content that you just don’t have the time to crunch through. Think transcripts for interviews, lectures, videos, and Zoom meetings. The only caveat is to never share private details with ChatGPT, like company-specific data that’s protected by NDAs and the like. Create Q&A flashcards for learning Dave Parrack / Foundry Flashcards can be extremely useful for drilling a lot of information into your brain, such as when studying for an exam, onboarding in a new role, prepping for an interview, etc. And with ChatGPT, you no longer have to painstakingly create those flashcards yourself. All you have to do is tell the AI the details of what you’re studying. You can specify the format (such as Q&A or multiple choice), as well as various other elements. You can also choose to keep things broad or target specific sub-topics or concepts you want to focus on. You can even upload your own notes for ChatGPT to reference. You can also use Google’s NotebookLM app in a similar way. Provide interview practice Dave Parrack / Foundry Whether you’re a first-time jobseeker or have plenty of experience under your belt, it’s always a good idea to practice for your interviews when making career moves. Years ago, you might’ve had to ask a friend or family member to act as your mock interviewer. These days, ChatGPT can do it for you—and do it more effectively. Inform ChatGPT of the job title, industry, and level of position you’re interviewing for, what kind of interview it’ll be (e.g., screener, technical assessment, group/panel, one-on-one with CEO), and anything else you want it to take into consideration. ChatGPT will then conduct a mock interview with you, providing feedback along the way. When I tried this out myself, I was shocked by how capable ChatGPT can be at pretending to be a human in this context. And the feedback it provides for each answer you give is invaluable for knocking off your rough edges and improving your chances of success when you’re interviewed by a real hiring manager. Further reading: Non-gimmicky AI apps I actually use every day Read...

TL;DR: Block all ads on nine devices with AdGuard’s Family Plan on sale for $15.97 (88% off) through July 20. Ads are the internet equivalent of mosquitos at a summer picnic. They’re annoying, follow you everywhere, and they literally suck. Pop-ups that try to get under your cursor, banners that block half your screen, and those unskippable video ads that plague YouTube… It sounds like you need a good ad blocker. AdGuard works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices, and you only have to pay once to block ads on nine of them for life. It works best on browsers, and verified reviewers confirm that it blocks ads on YouTube, which seems worth the price alone. But AdGuard doesn’t just block ads. It also protects you from trackers, activity analyzers, malware, and even shady phishing websites (these are the culprits behind ads that know what you were just shopping for). It even has parental controls, so you can keep your children safe from the wild west of the internet. Don’t let ads suck the fun out of the internet. Use code FAMPLAN by July 20 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get an AdGuard Lifetime Family Plan for $15.97. AdGuard Family Plan: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Even though the crypto mining boom has largely passed, cryptocurrency scams still remain out there. Since crypto wallets often come in the form of a web browser extension, so do crypto scams—and Mozilla has spotted hundreds of them trying to get onto the official repository of Firefox extensions. Now, a new tool that automatically scans for them exists. So sayeth a new Mozilla blog post, spotted by BleepingComputer. Exactly how the automated system determines that a newly-posted extension is suspicious isn’t elucidated… but I suppose spelling it out would just give scammers an easy way to circumvent it. If the system spots enough red flags, it holds the extension for human review, after which the extension can be approved or tossed out. At the moment, the system is only applied to “wallet” Firefox extensions, though I have to assume there are other systems in place for more general threats. Firefox is one of the last major browsers that still isn’t based on the open-source Chromium, the root project for Google Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge, so extension developers already have to target it narrowly. Of course, this system only protects users who are going through Mozilla’s official repository of Firefox extensions at addons.mozilla.org. Hackers and scammers can—and often do—entice unwary users to download extensions from third-party sites. Downloading from official sources (like the Chrome Web Store for Chromium-based browsers) doesn’t automatically protect you, but it’s generally a safer bet than downloading and installing extensions from elsewhere. Read...