We all want our PCs to be as fast as possible, and the internet is a valuable resource with plenty of tips on how to get the best performance out of Windows 11. But not everything you read on the internet is accurate, and many things that were once thought to be great pieces of advice don't really have the impact you might think.

With the latest Snapdragon X Elite, Intel Lunar Lake, and Ryzen AI 300 series, the AI revolution has officially arrived on Windows laptops. These companies are now shipping CPUs with dedicated NPUs (Neural Processing Units) with up to a staggering 55 TOPS (trillion operations per second). While they promise to redefine the AI landscape and how we interact with our PCs, there is a catch.

There's no universal answer to how much RAM you need in your computer. After all, it depends on what you need to do with your system. However, people often feel they need to upgrade their RAM when they notice it's always nearly running at full utilization. However, nearly full isn't the same as full.

Image: AMD Somebody goofed — and now AMD’s unannounced Ryzen 9000X3D desktop processors have been partially revealed. But like Intel’s new Arrow Lake desktop CPUs, it doesn’t look like they’ll be a huge performance improvement on their predecessors. If so, that’s a shame given how poorly received AMD’s Ryzen 9000 was, to begin with.According to slides from an MSI presentation published by HardwareLuxx today (via VideoCardz), the new chips may have respectable multicore performance gen-over-gen, with an eight-core 9000X3D outperforming a Ryzen 7 7900X3D by up to 28 percent in Cinebench R23. But they can offer as little as 2 percent gains in Black Myth: Wukong and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, according to MSI’s preliminary testing. And against the... Continue reading…

The Deebot X2 Omni. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Someone gained access to Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni robotic vacuums across several US cities earlier this year and used them to chase pets and yell racist slurs at their owners, reported ABC News in Australia this week. The outlet spoke with multiple Deebot X2 owners who say their Deebot X2s had been hacked in May, including Minnesota lawyer Daniel Swenson, who said he was watching TV with his family when a noise “like a broken-up radio signal or something” started coming from the robot’s speaker. He said after he reset his password and rebooted the robot, it began again, only this time the sound was clearly a voice — he guessed a teenager’s — yelling slurs. ABC News lists other, similar accounts from owners in El Paso and Los Angeles, the... Continue reading…

Meta has a suggestion for folks like me who forgot to go outside and look at the Northern Lights on Thursday night: just use AI to fake it! But Threads users who replied to Meta’s idea, posted along with three AI-generated images of the Aurora Borealis Meta last night, seem to disagree.Here’s Meta’s post:The images show the Northern Lights hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge, over a city skyline, and over a ferris wheel. It’s clearly meant to latch onto a trending moment of people posting their own pictures of the Northern Lights from the amazing and rare display of the lights, which plunged deep into the United States on Thursday night.Once you get past the first few comments from people sharing their own AI-generated Northern... Continue reading…

Everyone wants to get the most performance they can from their PC, and rightly so. Upgrading the components in your PC can be a great way to help with this, and the process doesn't have to be intimidating. It all comes down to knowing where you need the extra performance and what component can best help with this.

There's always a new gaming trend to keep an eye out for, and right now, that's Hall effect. The technology isn't new by any means, but it's now starting to take the gaming world by storm, hitting gaming handhelds, controllers, and even the best keyboards. Essentially, magnetic (Hall effect) keyboards use magnets and sensors rather than a direct electrical connection for actuation. This makes features like dynamic actuation points, Rapid Trigger, and Snap Tap possible. They're objectively faster than the top mechanical keyboards.

The new iPhone 16 is here, packing an A18 chip powerful enough to run Apple Intelligence features and a Camera Control button. Whether you've already purchased a new iPhone or you're still waiting until your great smartphone arrives, you'll want to make sure you have a case sorted out. Since there's the new Camera Control button, existing iPhone 15 cases won't fit the iPhone 16.

It's always a good idea to back up your PC occasionally. You never know when something will go wrong, so whether you're using Linux, Windows 11, or macOS, regular backups are a good thing. And if you're using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), it's also a good idea to back up your Linux instances.

Dell's XPS 13 is one of the most popular laptops in the world, and it's also one of the best. Whenever a promising new chip comes out (particularly from Intel), the XPS 13 tends to be one of the first onboard, and as a result, right now, we have versions of the XPS 13 that come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite as well as Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors.

The Google Pixel 9 is one of the best Android phones on the market, and while it's the cheapest phone in the new Pixel 9 series, it's arguably the best of the bunch in terms of value. It packs the all-new Tensor G4 chip, a stunning 120Hz OLED screen, and handy new AI-related features. It's simply a fantastic phone, and every great phone deserves a case that does it justice. There are countless cases out there that feature different materials, colors, and functionalities, but here are the best of the best. Also, keep in mind that the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro have the same form factor, so don't let that get in your way of picking a favorite case either way!