3D printing can be time-consuming, particularly with larger models or intricate designs, but minor adjustments and strategic planning can significantly reduce print times without compromising the final appearance. This allows for shorter waiting times and consistent results, benefiting those who enjoy experimenting with new materials and designs by enhancing creativity and productivity. Adjusting variables in slicing software or printer settings allows you to achieve a more efficient workflow without sacrificing details.

A couple of days ago, we reported that a Windows update had resulted in printers printing gibberish for no apparent reason. These types of bugs are not entirely uncommon on Windows, which makes sense given that it's a monolithic piece of software with years-old code running on over a billion devices. Recently, multiple users also claimed that the operating system is falsely flagging some harmless hardware monitoring applications as malware. While the initial understanding was that this issue was being triggered by a Windows bug, it appears that this is not the case after all.

Microsoft Excel is an undisputed king when it comes to working with numbers and data. Whether you're a student or a working professional, you may be using Excel in your daily life to make calculations, segregate data, or create dashboards with live data. These use cases generally give you a rough idea of Excel's capabilities and the various formulae you can use inside a spreadsheet. However, did you know there are several lesser-known things you can do inside Excel? While playing games and tracking workouts are aimed at everyone, there are a few Excel formulae aimed at making the lives of students a lot easier.

After just over two decades of operation, 14 of which were under Microsoft's ownership, Skype is finally shutting down. At its height, it was the multimedia messenger app to be on, but years of Microsoft not quite knowing what to do with it had it lagging behind every other communications app. When it disappears in May, you'll never have to sit through advertising inside your messaging app. Just kidding, we're pretty sure those are getting added to Microsoft Teams soon, but until then you've got time to test out some alternative messaging apps that all do what Skype used to, only better.

You'd be forgiven if you don't remember the golden age of Telltale Games. At one point, it felt like a narrative juggernaut that nobody could challenge when it came to creating story-based games. Alas, those days have since passed, but the amazing games that Telltale created are still available to purchase.

Microsoft adds powerful features to PowerToys almost every month along with bug fixes and improvements with a new version. And a lot of the time those changes come to people's attention before Microsoft officially adds them to PowerToys. One major highlighting feature in the last PowerToys release (version 0.89) was the transcoding feature, which the company announced well before making it availbale.

Chrome has been my default browser for as long as I remember, but this doesn't mean that I think it has all the features of a perfect browser. In fact, I think that because of its dominance in the browser market, the app is actually lagging behind in some ways.

We often marvel at the user-friendliness and advanced features of the latest tech products, and don't consider how we got to this stage. Things were different just a few years ago, and it's taken years of evolution to get gaming monitors, wireless keyboards, and other hardware we now take for granted.

There are a lot of great gaming mice on the market, but there are also a ton of cheap gaming mice as well. So no matter your budget, there's always going to be something out there for you. Of course, with the latter category, there's a lot of junk to sift through, but we think this one from EVGA is going to be a good option, especially at its current discount price that brings it down to just $10.

Samsung’s flagship soundbar, the HW-Q990D, is being rendered useless for some owners after a faulty firmware update that the company rolled out this week. The sheer number of reports on Samsung’s community forums, Reddit, and AVSForum confirm that something has gone very wrong with the premium Dolby Atmos system in recent days. The issue isn’t limited to any specific region, with customers in the United States, Austria, the Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries all sharing in the frustration.Customers say the soundbar has gone unresponsive and that none of the usual factory reset methods are working; affected units are also inaccessible via Samsung’s SmartThings app. The device powers on, but appears to freeze on the TV eARC input — with no sound output to speak of. The culprit seems to be the latest firmware release, which is version 1020.7. Many Q990Ds are set to automatically install new updates, which has led to widespread complaints about the bad software over the last several days. If you’ve got a Samsung soundbar, it might be wise to disable automatic updates for the time being until this situation has cleared up. There are scattered reports of the same bug impacting other Samsung models like the HW-Q800D and HW-S801D, but the bulk of complaints pertain to the Q990D. It’s one of the most well-reviewed soundbars on the market, so this is an unfortunate development.The Verge has reached out to Samsung for comment. Apparently some customers have already been instructed to send in their Q990D hardware for repair. That seems like a worst case scenario, so hopefully Samsung will have an easier, at-home solution once it realizes the scope of this problem. Can the malfunction be resolved with another firmware update in the coming days? Stay tuned.Thanks for the tip, Eric.

Thunderbolt 5 is here, and we're starting to see new drives hit the external storage market. They're pricey, as is always the case with new technology, but you could enjoy speeds up to 6,000 MB/s, making it almost as fast as the best PCie 4.0 internal M.2 SSDs. But why should you be excited about Thunderbolt 5 for storage, and will it completely transform how we use storage on supported systems? I've rounded up some points on why I'm stoked for next-gen external storage.

For years, 4K gaming has been this elusive dream that budget gamers have been chasing every generation. Many powerful GPUs came and went, but building a gaming PC capable of smooth 4K gaming on a reasonable budget seemed impossible. Till last year, you had to pay at least $800 for the GPU alone (RTX 4070 Ti) to ensure a smooth 60+ average FPS (native) at 4K ultra/very high settings in the latest titles.