Convertible laptops provide the best of both worlds for those looking for power and portability. While there are a lot of great options like the Surface Pro, the price of these devices can get pretty expensive when you start to add in the cost of all the accessories.

SSDs have replaced hard drives as the de facto standard for most use cases, but they're not perfect. Unlike hard drives, SSDs have a fixed lifespan due to the nature of flash storage. This lifespan is often communicated to the consumer using various ratings by the manufacturer, or you can use third-party tools to get a rough idea of your SSD health.

If you've finished up Baldur's Gate 3 and you're on the hunt for something else, why not give Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader a try? This CRPG tells a story in the thick of Games Workshop's famous sci-fi world and is well worth a look if you're a fan of either the genre or Warhammer in general. Fortunately, if you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you can give it a shot at no extra cost very soon.

Microsoft Excel is an extremely powerful spreadsheet tool that you can use for data crunching, as well as crafting lovely Valentine's messages. In the past few months, Redmond has added support for the Python programming language in Excel, along with tons of other capabilities. Now, the company is going one step ahead by adding advanced data ingestion and analysis techniques in Excel.

Google Photos and Dropbox are good cloud-based options for photo and file storage and management, but using an open-source management toollike DigiKam is a better choice. Not only is DigiKam totally free — unlike the upgrades you’ll undoubtedly need with proprietary options — but its open-source development means you’ve got more control, privacy, and security options, too. Available on many platforms with many customization options, DigiKam should be your new photo manager of choice.

Eufy’s newest smart lock adds palm unlock and a digital peephole.Anker’s smart home arm, Eufy, has announced its first smart lock that uses palm vein recognition to unlock your door. The $399 FamiLock S3 Max is also a video doorbell with a 2K-capable camera and an interior screen that shows a live video feed through the door lock. The S3 works over Wi-Fi 6 and supports Matter for integration with most smart home ecosystems, including Apple Home and Amazon Alexa.Palm unlock is a new biometric feature on residential locks, joining fingerprint unlock and facial recognition as new ways to access our homes. Philips, TCL, and TP-Link Tapo all recently launched models that unlock by waving your hand over an infrared sensor. Research shows that palm vein recognition is more accurate and secure than fingerprint readers, in part because it works by recognizing that blood is flowing through your veins.Most people who want a smart lock for their home probably aren’t worried about James Bond-style villains swiping their dead fingers, but there are practical reasons families might find palm unlock a better fit. Some younger kids and those with older hands can find fingerprint readers finicky, and a hand wave requires less precision than hitting a small fingerprint reader. Although it still requires your hand to be free, which the other new unlocking method, UWB-unlocking, doesn’t.The FamiLock S3 Max supports up to 50 different palm prints — according to Eufy, the prints are stored locally on the device. In addition to waving, you can also use a keycode on the touchscreen keypad, the Eufy app, or a physical key to unlock the door. The S3 has a 15,000mAh removable rechargeable lithium battery, plus the option of providing extra power with four AAA batteries. Eufy says this keeps the device online while you’re charging the main battery. Eufy promises between six and 12 months of battery life, depending on use. The lock also has the highest ANSI/BHMA Grade 1 certification,The 2K camera has a 150-degree vertical and 180-degree diagonal field of view for a head-to-toe perspective of your porchThe S3’s 2K camera has a 150-degree vertical and 180-degree diagonal field of view, providing a head-to-toe perspective that should be able to see packages on your porch as well as people. With 8GB of onboard storage, there’s no required subscription for viewing recorded footage. The camera can connect to Eufy’s hub, the HomeBase 3, for smart alerts, facial recognition, and increased local storage and works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart displays. It’s worth noting that Eufy had serious security and privacy incidents in 2022 around its cameras. The company published a new set of privacy commitments on its website last year, following working with cybersecurity experts.If you don’t like relying on an app or smart display to see who’s at your door, the S3’s screen shows a live feed on the door lock (there’s also a cheaper version without the screen for $349). Eufy says the screen will turn on within one second of the camera sensing motion, so you can more easily see who is at the door before opening it, which should be quicker than pulling up the Eufy app on your phone. This “digital peephole” could also be useful for family members in the house without access to the app, such as a child or a babysitter. Lockly announced a similar smart lock with a screen at CES earlier this year. Its Vision Prestige uses facial recognition to unlock but it isn’t launching until Q4 and will cost $499. Eufy’s FamiLock S3 Max launches on March 17 for $399 on Amazon and Eufy’s online store, but existing Eufy customers can pre-order now on eufy.com for a $70 discount.

There are many aspects of Windows 11 that draw the ire of its users for one reason or another. Whether it's the forceful push to sell you on other Microsoft products, lack of customization options out of the box, or some of the privacy-invasive features, there's quite a bit users don't like. One of those problems is the fact that you need to use a Microsoft account when setting up Windows 11, a requirement that has only become more strict as time goes on.

Laptop gaming has come a long way in the last decade. With the efficiency advancements in mobile processors and continued innovation in the graphics space, gaming on the go has never been more viable. That being said, some games still require a more intentional approach to performance in order for them to be playable. With these 7 tweaks, you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your gaming laptop.

PC upgrades are often called out for being largely unnecessary and overpriced, unless you're an enthusiast who has to have the latest and greatest always. Let's be honest — 95% of us don't even need the latest mid-range GPU, 8-core processor, or ultra-fast DDR5 RAM for our gaming PCs. Still, many of us spend countless hours daydreaming about expensive upgrades instead of focusing on the most important ones.

Are you tired of subscription fees draining your wallet? I have been there. While there is no shortage of excellent productivity apps on Mac, most of them run on a freemium model. However, I believe that productivity doesn’t have to come with a price tag. That’s why I have ditched paid apps and built a powerful, efficient workflow using entirely open source tools.

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 over a year ago, but it seems like customers as well as some software vendors are not ready to give up on it just yet. In the past few months, we have seen users utilize third-party applications to run modern software on Windows 7, and even witnessed a modding enthusiast boot up the operating system on less than 100MB of disk space. Now, another vendor has announced an extension of support for the old, but still popular, operating system.

Is it bad that one of the most exciting features coming to Windows 11 (for me, at least) is an improved battery indicator? I didn't know I needed one until Microsoft stated that they were working on it in the beta builds.