Can you ever really say you have enough storage space? As soon as you think you do, you end up needing more somewhere… like in your phone, your tablet, your dashcam or security cam, your Nintendo Switch, or what have you. Well, now’s a great time to grab an extra card or two because the Samsung Pro Plus 128GB microSD is on sale for $14.99 (was $22.50) on Amazon with a lovely 39 percent discount. The Samsung Pro Plus is perfect for adding more storage space to your various microSD-compatible devices. With impressive read speeds of up to 180 MB/s and write speeds of 130 MB/s, it’s capable of recording 4K video without stuttering or losing frames. It’s also fast enough to run software (like games) with good performance. But how will you read and write all that data if your laptop doesn’t have a microSD card slot? No problem! This card also comes with a USB-A adapter so you can use it with pretty much any device. Built for durability, it’s protected against water damage, extreme temperatures, X-rays, magnets, and physical drops, so your data stays safe. Between the performance, reliability, and free adapter, this deal is a no-brainer. Get the Samsung Pro Plus 128GB microSD card for $14.99 and take advantage of this opportunity while it’s still around! Get this 128GB microSD card with free USB-A adapter for 33% offBuy now at Amazon Read...

If you’re in need of a powerful daily driver PC for your home office but don’t need all the extraneous bells and whistles that come with full-blown gaming PCs and laptop workstations, then you should look to a humble but mighty mini PC. Something like this Geekom AX8 Max mini PC that’s now on sale for $528.99 (was $749) on Amazon. That’s a lovely 29 percent discount on a miniature powerhouse! Running on a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS processor and a chunky 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM as well as a spacious 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, this mini PC will serve you well in all you do. It can smoothly handle Windows 11 Pro (which comes pre-installed) and it can even do some modest gaming thanks to the built-in AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics. Want to push it even further? You can add an AMD eGPU via USB4! The Geekom AX8 Max is a multitasker’s dream because it can support up to four high-res monitors—two USB4 ports can each handle up to 8K@30Hz and two HDMI ports can each handle up to 4K@60Hz. Other ports include five high-speed USB-A, a slower USB-A for peripherals, two fast 2.5Gbps Ethernet, and a 3.5mm audio jack. You also get built-in Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity. Thanks to its impressively compact design, you can tuck this thing beneath your monitor, push it to the corner of your desk, or even mount it to the back of any VESA-compatible monitor thanks to the included VESA plate. It may be small, but it’s powerful and versatile. Don’t pass up this opportunity! Get the Geekom AX8 Max for $528.99 while you can because this limited-time deal won’t last forever. Save 29% on this awesome Ryzen 7 mini PC with 32GB RAM and quad 4K supportBuy now at Amazon Read...

If a hacker gained access to your Microsoft account, they could download your OneDrive files, bypass your Windows PC’s security, and potentially even track your laptop’s location using GPS. But security isn’t the only reason to tweak your Microsoft account settings—some of them also affect your day-to-day privacy, too. Hey, I’ll be honest: I found some surprises in my own Microsoft account settings recently, and that’s why I want to share these tips with you. For example, I had no idea Microsoft was sharing my personal data with third-party partners for advertising-related purposes. Some of these tips are straightforward, others are less obvious. To find your Microsoft account settings, head to account.microsoft.com and sign in with your Microsoft account credentials. Control which apps can access your data You can give third-party apps direct access to your Microsoft account. That one email tool you used back in 2018? Yeah, it might still have access to your Microsoft account emails. Lots of other online account systems, like Google accounts, work the same way. (It’s called OAuth.) Chris Hoffman / Foundry To see the list of apps with access, navigate to “Privacy” and then click “App access.” Click the “Details” button next to each app to see what details you’ve shared with that app. Click “Don’t Allow” to remove an app’s access to your account data. If you’ve played a lot of games on Xbox Game Pass—as I have—this list will likely be long and messy. I had over 100 entries here, and most were Game Pass games. That makes it hard to spot potential threats. It would be nice if Microsoft offered better filtering, but no such luck. Disable personalized ads and third-party data sharing If you haven’t configured this yet, Microsoft is likely using your personal data to show you “relevant” ads that might interest you. Personally, I don’t mind personalized ads. But I was surprised to learn that Microsoft was sharing data “with third parties about [my] activities associated with Microsoft services, websites, and apps.” I don’t know what that means exactly, and I don’t want to find out. No thank you. Chris Hoffman / Foundry To turn these settings off, click “Privacy” in the sidebar, and then click “Personalized ad settings.” Disable both “See ads and offers that interest you” and “Share my data with third parties for personalized ads.” Say no to email spam If you want promotional emails from Microsoft, that’s fine. If you don’t, you’ll need to turn them off—they’re apparently on by default! To find this setting, head to “Settings,” then “Privacy,” then “Promotional communications.” Turn off the various options here. (I found another surprise here, with my account being opted into the “Microsoft 365 Relationship Marketing Program” for some reason.) Double-check recurring subscriptions Is Microsoft planning to bill you for something? You might as well check while you’re here. Whether it’s Xbox Game Pass or Microsoft 365, it’s easy to end up with sneaky recurring charges—especially if you buy subscription codes at a discount and would rather not pay the higher price directly to Microsoft on renewal. Click “Subscriptions” in the sidebar and check if there are any surprises. You can click “Manage” and then “Turn off recurring billing” to turn off any subscription you’d rather not automatically keep paying for. If you do want to keep some recurring subscriptions, it’s worth checking that your payment methods are up to date while you’re here. Enable two-step verification Two-step verification is critical for the security of any online account. You’ve probably heard it before, but it’s true and worth repeating. If it isn’t on yet, you really should enable it. To find these settings, click “Security” in the sidebar and then click “Manage how I sign in.” Look for “Two-step verification” under the Additional security section. If it’s not activated, turn it on. Set a backup email and phone number While you’re checking the status of two-factor authentication, consider adding a backup email address and phone number. If you only have a single backup method—like a phone number—then you’re vulnerable to getting locked out of your account. Ensure your Microsoft account has an alternate email address and phone number in your control. Make sure you still have access to them. These options can be found on the “Manage how I sign in” page under “Ways to prove who you are.” Consider replacing your account password (but maybe not) Microsoft now offers passwordless accounts. You can remove your account password on the “Manage how I sign in” page simply by clicking “Turn on” under the Passwordless account section. If you do this, your account won’t have a password anymore and you’ll need to authenticate using an alternative method going forward. Alternative methods include the Microsoft Authenticator app or device-based Windows Hello biometrics. Chris Hoffman / Foundry Personally, I haven’t made the leap yet. With two-step verification enabled, attackers already need both your password and something else (like your phone) to sign in. Plus, there are still recovery processes that may let an attacker gain access to your account via SMS or email, so passwordless isn’t as locked-down as it might sound. And I’m wary of the potential incompatibilities that a passwordless account can have when when signing into my Microsoft account in, say, older applications. Passwordless accounts probably are the future, but it’s not fully baked yet. Up to you if you want to dive in or wait. Clean up your activity history Microsoft keeps tabs on your “activity history,” meaning how you use its apps and services, how you browse, and how you search. If you care about your privacy, you probably want to clean that up. To do that, click the “Privacy” tab and look for the options under “Empower your productivity,” such as “Browsing and search.” You can click an entry in the list and then click “Clear all activities” to erase everything in that category. After you do, Microsoft will ask if you’d like to automatically clear the data on a rolling basis, ensuring Microsoft isn’t storing a decade’s worth of all those accidental Bing searches you performed when you actually meant to launch an app from the Start menu. Prune your devices list Microsoft remembers all the PCs and Xboxes you’ve signed into. To see this list, click “Devices” in the sidebar. You can even find a device remotely if you’ve activated the “Find my device” feature on it—assuming the remote device has an internet connection and is powered on. There’s a good chance you have a long list of devices you no longer own here—even if you don’t review laptops professionally like I do! It’s worth going through the list and removing the ones you got rid of years ago. Check recent sign-in activity, too While you’re poking around in your Microsoft account settings, go ahead and check your recent account sign-in activity. To find it, click “Security” in the sidebar and then click “View my sign-in activity.” Chris Hoffman / Foundry Check the entries here and verify there isn’t anything you don’t recognize. If you don’t see anything out of the ordinary, your account is likely secure and hasn’t been compromised. But if you see anything weird, it’s time to lock down your account security further. To do that, click the “Secure your account” link under “Look unfamiliar?” and Microsoft’s website will walk you through the process of changing your password and adjusting security settings. Account settings often hide surprises I was startled by some of the things I found when digging through my Microsoft account settings—like that third-party data sharing option, which happened to be activated by default! It’s a good reminder that we should be regularly reviewing account settings for all our important online accounts. For more firsthand PC explorations, experiments, and tips, subscribe to Chris Hoffman’s newsletter: The Windows Readme. Read...

Greetings from Maryland, where I’m currently visiting family and using one of the best impulse buys I’ve made in recent memory. I’m taking about those cheap portable monitors that go on sale for about $50 on Amazon, available under a variety of unrecognizable brand names. The one I got is made by BIGASUO (a name I can’t stop saying), but you can find seemingly identical models from the likes of FANGOR and MNN. They all serve the same basic purpose as a travel-friendly way to add an extra screen to your laptop, and they all have the same basic features: 15.6-inch 1080p display USB-C or Mini HDMI input Built-in speakers Audio jack for headphones or external speakers A detachable folio stand Some variants, such as this one by the unfortunately named Dopesplay, have actual built-in kickstands instead of folio cases that double as makeshift stands, but otherwise appear identical. Are these monitors great quality-wise? Of course not. But they’re cheap, light, and versatile. They’re also refreshingly free from a lot of modern tech baggage. I’ve had a great time finding ways to use mine. Allow me to convince you why you should get one of these, too. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. How does a portable monitor work? These portable screens work a little differently than full-sized monitors, mainly because they don’t have regular HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA inputs. To connect these monitors, you have a couple options: USB-C to USB-C data cable. This provides power and video to the portable monitor through a single cable, but requires your computer to support video output through a USB-C port. (Modern Macs can do this, and many recent Windows laptops are catching up.) Mini HDMI to HDMI. For computers with HDMI outputs, you can send video to the portable monitor via Mini HDMI, but you’ll need a separate USB-C cable to power the monitor as well. A single USB-C data cable can provide video and power, or you can use the Mini HDMI and USB-C power ports instead.Jared Newman / Foundry Note that these travel-friendly displays don’t have built-in batteries, so they must draw power from either your laptop or an outlet. The lack of a battery makes the monitor lighter, but if you’re using the USB-C to USB-C connector, you’ll likely want to keep your laptop plugged into its own power source for lengthy computing sessions. My BIGASUO monitor included all the necessary cables, but they’re on the short side. To lengthen the connection distance, you’ll either need an HDMI extender or a USB-C to USB-C cable with 10 Gbps transfer speeds. (A basic USB-C charging cable won’t suffice for video connections.) What is a portable monitor good for? The most obvious use for a portable monitor is the main one: while using a laptop on the go, you can attach the portable monitor, prop it up with a stand, and have two screens instead of one. If you’ve never used a dual monitor setup before, this can be a revelation in itself. It’s nice being able to reference a document on one screen while writing on the other, or use one screen just for things like email and Slack while freeing up the main screen for more important tasks. I’ve also managed to prop up my BIGASUO monitor in portrait mode, which can be a bit precarious at times but does make my mobile workspace a bit more compact. (You can rotate the monitor orientation in system settings on both Windows PC and Mac.) Beyond the dual-screen setup, I’ve also experimented with: Turning a phone into a computer: Paired with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, your phone can become a makeshift portable desktop. Samsung’s Galaxy phones are especially well-suited with Samsung DeX, which launches a desktop-like environment when the phone connects to an external display. (You can even use the phone screen as a touchpad.) Plugging a separate USB-C charging cable into the monitor will send a charge back to the phone so you don’t waste battery life. A Samsung Galaxy Fold7 running DeX mode on the monitor, with the phone as a touchpad.Jared Newman / Foundry An extra (or alternate) desktop display: You don’t have to use a portable monitor on the road. I’ve been plugging mine into my desktop gaming PC in the basement while my son occupies the TV with the PlayStation 5. (We have plans to play Fortnite together this way but haven’t gotten around to it yet.) A bigger portable video screen: I’ve connected the portable monitor to my Steam Deck for a bigger view of the action, and I can envision plugging it into a phone or tablet to watch movies in bed or on a plane. A portable monitor just works In the past, I’ve written about using a tablet as an external monitor—and that’s still a viable option. Portable monitors are larger than most tablets, though, and they’re also less finnicky to set up. Not to get overly philosophical here, but portable monitors also remind me why I get excited about technology to begin with. Unlike so many other tech products today, a portable monitor is a no-fuss device that just works when you plug it in, asking nothing of you in exchange. There’s no pairing process, no login procedure, and no privacy policy to accept. I often hear folks pining for a dumb alternative to modern smart TVs—if you ask me, that idea is alive and well in portable monitors. But the biggest endorsement I can offer is this: my wife, after borrowing my portable monitor a couple days ago, now wants one of her own. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Read...

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Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the burning topics on our YouTube show or fresh news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! It turns out a lot of people don’t understand passkeys.  I learned this after last week’s show, when people on our Discord server began chatting about our recap of best practices for online security.  Our group brought up plenty of technical points, being the awesome nerds they are. But as the conversation unfolded, misconceptions cropped up about passkeys and how they work. That surprised me—as did learning more than one of my colleagues doesn’t quite get them, either. I ended up following up on the topic this week, in one of my longest-ever responses during a Q&A segment. I spent a lot of time preparing the breakdown, which covers a very simple overview of asymmetrical public-private encryption keys (aka public-key encryption), then dives into nuances of what passkeys do and don’t protect against. This deeper look got me thinking. Typically, more tech knowledge simplifies problems. You can figure out solutions faster and more efficiently. The familiarity helps you know which details to prioritize and which to disregard. This instance is a rare occurrence of the opposite—where familiarity breeds a demand for perfection. One common criticism of passkeys is their inability to mitigate all security weaknesses. For example: Passkeys don’t protect against session hijacking. Another is the perceived lack of universal use. “Passkeys lock you into a single ecosystem” can be found in multiple comments in Discord, Reddit, and forum discussions. I find these arguments specious, to be honest. Session hijacking is outside the realm of authentication. And the restrictions around passkey portability are part of the original design, balanced by the ability to generate multiple passkeys for a single account. I get where they come from, though. People with technical knowledge have lived in a world with passwords for so long—and they know the ins and outs of the security weaknesses—that it’s hard to think outside that space. We’re all tired of the constant breaches, password rotations, and time spent minimizing damage to our daily lives. A perfect solution would be really nice. A password + 2FA via a security key is as good as a passkey, but let’s be realistic about how many people use hardware keys.YubiKey But let’s not miss the forest for the trees. Many people do not use secure passwords. Fewer still use two-factor authentication. And yet even a slimmer portion bother with third-party password managers. Why? Good password security takes effort. Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer to the complexity. Passkeys eliminate much of that mental overhead. They require no memorization, hook into the ecosystems most users are already committed to, and lean on understandable systems (e.g., using a fingerprint to approve passkey use). And users won’t need to cycle their credentials whenever a breach happens.  Can passkey implementation be improved? Absolutely. Do you need to change your system of password + 2FA if you already have an established system you trust? Not at all. Should that stop the recommendation of passkeys by the tech savvy to others, particularly everyday users? Hard no. I believe that when we look at tech, we need to be evaluating products, services, and standards on how well they achieve their intended function—not just how well they execute it. Sometimes, making this call will require us to see the world in ways completely opposite from our viewpoint. In this episode of The Full Nerd In this episode of The Full Nerd, Alaina Yee, Brad Chacos, Will Smith, and Michael Crider chat about the possible reason behind Windows 11’s recent SSD issues, tech products that disappoint us (and why), and more. I also slipped in that, uh, thorough overview of passkeys during the Q&A segment. We also learned that Will just “doesn’t like to feel.” (Is this the natural result of earning more life experience?) Despite the lack of positivity on feelings, he spread delight when telling us about a Twitch streamer who plays games on unexpected makeshift controllers. Pomegranates. How to play Overwatch with bananas?Willis Lai / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows, too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now! 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 scintillating nerd news Here’s how I know I had holiday brain last week: I forgot to mention Will & Adam’s livestream of building in Teenage Engineering’s nifty transparent plastic case! Good thing I realized my error, because this week’s boatload of news almost flooded it right out of my brain. By the way, I’m really crossing my fingers on the first-gen Lenovo Go dropping in price this fall. Please please please. ????????R?? Wait, I can fix my lack of skill with free software? I’m all ears about this Mouse Pointer Crosshair tool, Microsoft, especially since I’m already a PowerToys fan. (I’m pretty sure I won’t get to use this in games, but a gal can dream.) Wide handheld is wide: My PCWorld colleague Mike Crider nails the standout feature for this custom handheld gaming PC. I can see why he wants one. I still have clickwheel iPods. Hmmmm: Digital preservationists are performing such important work. It’s not just about nostalgia—having tangible, interactive evidence of what came before keeps our history so much alive. I love this Pinball coding goof: Technically, developer Dave Plummer didn’t make a true mistake, since we never can predict what changes will make our projects suddenly act wonky. But this Windows NT-era game accidentally running for a time at 5,000 fps on multicore processors is pretty great. How much can we trust encrypted messaging? If this accusation against Meta about WhatsApp’s security is true, the answer appears to be ‘not as much as we believe.’ (Remember folks, never share things in writing if you want to be sure they can’t come back to haunt you.) Please alert my coworkers that I’m not weird: At least, not for thinking 64GB of memory is a reasonable upgrade. If the base is now 32GB, doubling it isn’t that much of a stretch. Google says the open web is in “rapid decline”: Anyone else find this concerning? (Also, hmm, just whose focus on AI could be causing this?) Lenovo I’ve wanted the Legion Go 2 for ages: OK, I didn’t want the actual Legion Go 2, which only just got announced. But I have waited with fortitude for a successor to the affordable 8-inch Windows 8 tablets of yore. And while I’d love an OLED screen and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, what I’m truly eager for is the first-gen Go dropping below $500 on Black Friday. (Fingers crossed.) Windows license resellers might get slapped down: A lawsuit in the UK could have ramifications for those cheap licenses some DIY builders like to use. Uh oh. Passkeys could’ve possibly stopped this disastrous phish: Malicious JavaScript code popped up in a set of trusted packages with more than two billion downloads per week—and it happened because the maintainer of the code had his credentials (including 2FA code) successfully phished. A security key could have helped stop the attack—but so too a passkey, were it an option. Anthropic got hit with a $1.5 billion fine for stealing: I’m glad for copyright law, because using pirated works to train AI was appalling. (Hiss.) Just $5 for this incredible thrift store find: In this week’s installment of, “We love thrift stores,” someone found a RTX 3060 12GB card for just $5. And it works. (Redditor satviktyagi’s comment in this thread is perfection, by the by.) I’m a simple person. You put sparkly effects in Portal, I play it again: I wouldn’t say I’m in the “farm-to-table frames” camp (i.e, Team Raw Raster Performance), but I don’t yet stan Nvidia’s RTX features. But seeing the Portal screenshot with remix particles caught my attention. It’s shiny. (Sparkly.) Catch you all next week—I’ll be eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Lemokey X0 gaming keypad upgrades. PC gamers need to work their marketing campaign, for real. I would have switched ages ago if the slogan had been “Bend games to your will.” Though I guess “Console players suck” does redirect attention from needing customized gear to land headshots. ~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...

I like downloading relaxing 4K flyovers and beachscape videos that create a calm, tranquil mood. I’ve tried downloading them with a bunch of different apps in the past but most of the these turn into malware after a while and become impossible to use. But not so with an app called 4K Video Downloader Plus. It’s a cross-platform app that lets you save high-quality videos from websites like YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, SoundCloud, Facebook, and Twitch, and unlike most of its competitor apps, it’s very stable to use and works like a dream. Apart from one-click downloading of videos from multiple websites, the app lets you do a bunch of other cool things. You can save playlists, channels and search results, and even save accompanying audio tracks in different languages. 4K Download You can also extract annotations and subtitles from videos and save them separately. The app also has a built-in browser, which means you can search video and audio without ever having to leave the app. Right now, it does cost to purchase a license to 4K Video Downloader Plus. Lite access starts at $15 for a single device, while a top tier bundle that gives you access to all the applications on three devices costs $65 for a one-time lifetime fee. That’s all for Try This. If you’d like more tips and tricks, be sure to sign-up to our PCWorld Try This newsletter. Read...

Kyndryl Consult and VML Enterprise Solutions have partnered to enhance customer engagement using AI, data, and modern infrastructure across industries. Read...