One of the first things I used to notice while going through the specs of a CPU was its clock speed, because it seemed like an easy way to judge single-core performance at first glance. Modern CPUs list both base and boost clock speeds on the spec sheet, but until recently, I always prioritized the latter as a gamer. It felt natural to assume that higher boost clocks meant better performance in the games I play. After all, if one CPU claims to hit 4.8 GHz while another tops out at 4.5 GHz, the difference should be obvious, right?

The update starts rolling out globally in September. Google is updating user profiles for its Play Games service on Android devices to display gaming stats, achievements, and social features. The changes include a suite of new capabilities for “showcasing and tracking your game progress and stats, new ways to build your gaming community, and allowing you to tailor your profile to your liking,” according to Google’s help page.The update will be applied automatically, and starts rolling out in most global regions on September 23rd, and on October 1st for users in the EU and UK. Google is also emailing Google Play users directly to notify them about the changes. When applied, Google Play Games profiles and features will start appearing on the Google Play Store to prevent users from having to switch between apps when managing their accounts. The unified update aims to help users who make their profile information public to connect with other players and track their gaming milestones. It’s unclear what this will specifically entail, but it sounds similar to how player information, gaming history, and achievements are currently displayed on Valve’s Steam service.

Each of the three main console platforms has its own online services and versions of programs that cater to the players who frequently play games on it. But the one that ends up rewarding players the most is Xbox and its rewards program. Whether you find yourself buying many games for your Xbox Series X and PC, or simply enjoy downloading games to try out through Xbox Game Pass, gaming on Xbox can come with some nice perks. Both PlayStation and Nintendo have yet to find the right formula for balancing the time gamers spend on their services and how to keep them coming back for more. Even though I'm a big fan of all three of them, I find that the Xbox platform is the one that gives players the most for the time they put into playing the games they enjoy.

I have three separate servers at home, and while I was in the process of a migration, I had four servers in operation. All three of them are running Proxmox, though not as a cluster. That fourth server I used was a TrueNAS Scale machine that served as my introduction to home labbing, and that introductory piece now lives as a VM on one of my machines. Throughout it all, one piece of hardware has proved invaluable: my portable monitor.

Sometimes the best piece of gear is the one that you can afford and won't break the bank. If you've been looking for a cheap gaming monitor, we think we've found one with this ASRock gaming monitor that's just $138. It's now seeing a substantial discount on its retail price, and also offers everything you could want from a gaming monitor. But be quick, this is the lowest price we've seen for this monitor.

When I got both a Samsung tablet and phone, I was really surprised when I copied text on one device and it automatically beamed over to the other. It made me wish that Windows had a feature like that, where I could copy text either on my PC or my Android device and have it appear on the other. I couldn't find anything that did it automatically, so I had to settle for mirroring apps that could handle it for me.

Though Google announced NotebookLM as a Google Labs project under the codename Project Tailwind during Google I/O 2023, the AI research assistant only really took off once it added the Audio Overviews feature.

If you've played around with NotebookLM even a bit before, you've likely already realized how powerful the AI tool is. It's filled with the kind of practical features you look for in an AI productivity tool, like AI-generated podcasts called Audio Overviews, Khan Academy-like videos called Video Overviews, and one of my personal favorite features: Mind Maps.

It's only been a couple of months since I first gave Linux a serious shot on one of my PCs, and since then, I've quickly grown into a big fan of it. These days, I would rather spend more time in Linux than on Windows, but of course, there are some things that make this impossible. Missing apps like Adobe Lightroom is a significant problem, and for many people, the same sentiment applies to something like Microsoft Office.

2025 still has four months left, but we don't have any more hardware launches scheduled for this year. So, I believe it's time to take out my notes and present my 2026 wishlist for the PC hardware industry. We got new GPUs from Nvidia and AMD this year, some more X3D CPUs from AMD, and some rumors of RTX 50 Super refresh coming later this year.

It's the beginning of a month, and that also kicks off a fresh wave of features and updates for several Microsoft apps and services. This time around, the software giant has started with one of its popular tools on Windows: Microsoft PowerToys.

This Alienware gaming monitor is one that we loved, and it managed to deliver on all levels, which is why we decided to give it an impressive 9/10 score. Of course, the $900 price tag doesn't make it an easy purchase, which is why this current deal from Amazon that knocks $326 off is so important. For a limited time, you can grab this QD-OLED monitor for its lowest price, which makes it an absolute steal.