TL;DR: Create a white label website, automate communication, and more with Sellful’s AI, now $399 (reg. $1,497) for life. Calling all small business owners or entrepreneurs—are you juggling multiple roles in marketing, invoicing and sales, and/or customer outreach? You might be feeling stretched thin, but you don’t need to rely on a third party to perform those tasks for you. Meet Sellful, an AI-powered platform designed to help small businesses and agencies streamline their operations, providing a single, organized space for you to manage daily growth tasks, automate outreach, and even create a website. Get lifetime access while it’s available for only $399 (reg. $1,497). Sellful is designed to relieve business owners and entrepreneurs of many of its day-to-day tasks. Check out what the software can help you with: Website building: Use the white label website builder to create a page for your brand or a client. You’ll be able to develop sales funnels, landing pages, and more in seconds with the help of Sellful’s AI. Have the platform handle customer relationships and automate several customer-facing tasks, like communication, outreach, etc. Receive payments quickly and securely through payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. Have the AI assistant and chatbot handle customer inquiries with a positive attitude. Get assistance with managing internal processes like employee recruitment, payroll, and more. Grab a Sellful lifetime subscription, now $399, to organize and grow your business.   Sellful – White Label Website Builder & Software: ERP Agency Plan (Lifetime) Only $399 at PCWorld StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

OPINION: If your identity is tied to your business shutting the company is to lose part of yourself. To abandon what defines who you are. Read...

I’ve been using Windows for as long as I can remember. It was on the very first PC I recall using, literally on my father’s knee. But I don’t need it anymore. That’s a weird thing to say as a writer for a site named PCWorld. But it’s been a long time coming, a slow mix of broad tech trends, feeling betrayed by multiple brands, and a little bit of intention on my part.  To be clear, I still use Windows. It’s what I’m using right now to type this, on a beefy gaming desktop I assembled myself, with triple monitors and all sorts of googaws attached. But I don’t need all that anymore, and for the first time in my adult life, I can see myself transitioning to an entirely different operating system.  That’s a big deal for me, and I suspect I’m far from alone. Microsoft might want to make a note of it.  Why I don’t need Windows So here’s what I mean when I say that I don’t need Windows anymore: Every tool, program, and piece of information I rely upon is now essentially separate from whatever machine I’m using at the moment. I’m writing the words you’re reading right now in Google Docs. When I’m done, I’ll edit them in WordPress. Throughout my work day I’m talking with my coworkers and bosses on Slack, I’m chatting with my friends via text, WhatsApp, and some other platforms. I’m managing my own to-do list in Google Keep, updating my work tasks in a tool called Monday, and checking personal and professional email in Gmail and Outlook, respectively. I’m keeping an eye on news and social trends in BlueSky and The Old Reader for RSS.  I still use local files, of course. But they’re all backed up weekly via Backblaze and accessible wherever I go, with whatever hardware I have to hand. Most of the time I don’t even need that. Aside from installed game files, the odd business/tax document, and a huge library of photos, both my own and my family’s, I barely even think about the storage on my PC.  Michael Crider/Foundry Here’s a screenshot of my main Windows taskbar: Vivaldi, Gmail, Outlook, the PCWorld logo for WordPress, a certain green “P” I’ll address shortly, Slack, Explorer, Monday, Google Keep, Google Docs, YouTube. If you haven’t spotted the common thread here: every single one of these experiences is either a web tool or has a web interface. I use my favorite browser, Vivaldi, to access almost all of them, usually in a progressive web app (PWA) or merely a shortcut wrapper without a full browser interface. It’s one of my most essential features of modern browsers, allowing me to separate these tools more easily and focus on them when I need to.  Every one of them is accessible on the web, and on other platforms. I can use all of them on a tablet or even my phone, and most of the time not lose any functionality. In fact even though I work from home, I access a lot of that on my phone during the day, on the same platforms. At this point Windows is basically just a means for accessing the web in a comfortable way, on expensive hardware I’m familiar with. I think a lot of users feel the same way, especially younger folks who grew up post-iPhone. Further reading: The best Chromebooks we’ve tested Photoshop was the last holdout The very last domino to fall in this chain was image editing. I’ve been using Photoshop for over 20 years. Since I learned it in a high school media class, it’s been incredibly difficult to break myself of the reliance on it for creating article header images or editing review photos. Not that I didn’t want to — I’ve had a chip on my shoulder for Adobe for almost as long, especially after it transitioned its extremely expensive Creative Suite software to an even more expensive Creative Cloud subscription setup. It reeked of “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”  I liked owning Photoshop, and I was not and am not happy that the option was taken away. Until a few weeks ago I was still keeping an ancient copy of Creative Suite 6 from 2012 (the last time it was offered as a real purchase) alive and kicking. I’ve tried alternatives many times, including the tastelessly-titled GIMP, Affinity Photo, and Pixlr X. All are pretty good tools, but to my shame, I kept crawling back to the familiarity of Photoshop.  Foundry My memory, both conventional and muscle, made it difficult to use any of these programs, even though each one of them covers the vast majority of Photoshop’s core functions. I’ve spent years of my life using Photoshop, a few of them using it for up to eight hours a day in a print shop. It’s a hard experience for me to quantify if you’re not married to a piece of software like that — imagine it as the feeling you get from wearing someone else’s prescription glasses. It’s that kind of functional discomfort.  I’m fairly certain Adobe banks on this, and that’s why you can access Photoshop and other programs at a huge discount if you’re a student or otherwise working at a school. To paraphrase Aristotle, “Give me a high-schooler until they are 17, and I will show you the foundations of a life-long subscription customer.”  But after a long-overdue Windows reinstallation, I decided to forego the hassle of getting my trusty, rusty copy of CS6 operational. Instead I tried out Photopea, an online raster image editor with a shameless and wonderful clone of the Photoshop interface.  Attack of the Clones I’ve tried Photopea a few times before, with this exact aim in mind. And I couldn’t quite get it to stick. To be honest I can’t recall if it was a lack of performance in the tool, or simply that it wasn’t as capable as CS6 even over a decade later. But whichever part of the equation has changed — the performance in a modern browser on a powerful desktop, the server-side performance, or the image editing options being improved — it just clicked.  Now I’m using Photopea (pronounced “photo-pee” if you’re wondering, but the creators don’t really care) in place of Photoshop for all my work purposes. I don’t even have the latter installed, though I still have my copy just in case. I’m paying $5 a month for the ad-free version of Photopea, which still rankles my “just let me buy it” heart a bit. But the fact that it’s completely free with ads, not to mention far, far cheaper than an Adobe subscription even if you banish them, is a balm to my skinflint soul.  Photopea’s interface apes Photoshop closely enough that I can use it without problems. And yes, I used it to edit this story’s header image, and even this screenshot. Photopea And after all, Photopea is a web tool hosted on a server — it at least has a basic justification for charging a subscription. Nothing stops Adobe from selling a stand-alone, non-subscription version of Photoshop. Except greed. Photopea is a clone of Photoshop, not a perfect replacement. There are things it can’t do, notably load up custom fonts without a lot of extra steps, that would make it unsuitable if I were still doing graphics full time. And to be perfectly honest, I’m not quite as good at it as I used to be with Photoshop. Some of the effects I’d throw together with ease just don’t look as good. That could be equal parts my own unfamiliarity with the deeper tools and the web-based program’s lack of Photoshop’s most powerful, deeply buried options. Maybe I’ll get back to my old expertise in time. But I’m not a graphic designer anymore. I’m a keyboard jockey who needs a lot of cropping for PR images, a bit of background work, clone-stamp and color adjustments for original photos, that sort of thing. And I can do all that, without sacrificing speed or most capability, and without local software. I can do it on any machine, from a laptop or a tablet or even my phone in a pinch (with a mouse and keyboard), and I can log in on all of those to get access to it ad-free.  Samsung Oh, and even if you prefer to pay Adobe’s exorbitant prices, you might still not need a local installation of the program. Photoshop has an online version now, very similar to Photopea, included with the subscription. Everything I need to do my job, and most of whatever else I want, is completely divorced from Windows. Or if not divorced, then at least amicably separated. I realize that a lot of people got to this place before I did, people younger than me, older than me, both more tech-savvy and less. But it still feels like a personal milestone. Gaming still lives on Windows…for now I’m still using Windows 11, warts and all, even while I moan about ever-encroaching advertising in allegedly premium software, not to mention the hard upsell for “AI” tools I don’t want. These are where Microsoft is hoping to get that real (read: recurring) money out of me, and where I refuse to let it go. But Windows is still my personal and professional home, even as I increasingly “live” on my phone, just like everyone else.  Gaming is a big part of this. I own a Switch and a PS5 and a nice tablet and a few other wingdings for games — over a recent vacation I even played through Skies of Arcadia to the end on an Android emulator. But PC gaming is where I really sink my teeth into the medium, and that’s unlikely to change. Not just because I like building desktop PCs (again, check the name of the site up top!), but because Steam is my primary means of acquiring and playing games.  Lenovo/Valve And even that is not a sacred cow I’m unwilling to eat. Valve is making Steam its own OS, spreading into hardware from partners like Lenovo and Asus, and I think it has a legitimate shot at dethroning Windows as the home of PC gaming. To say nothing of trends that let you access your games anywhere, including Nvidia’s cloud-powered GeForce Now (which plays my Steam games!) and Microsoft’s own Xbox Game Pass streaming. I’ve used both of them on the go, enjoyably if far less smoothly than on my fancy-pants desktop at home, and been keenly aware of their platform-agnostic nature.  I played the PC version of Fortnite, complete with mouse and keyboard, by using my Samsung phone’s DeX desktop mode, a USB-C monitor, and GeForce Now. Hey, at least one tiny sliver of the future doesn’t suck.   A new world of options This newfound freedom is liberating, if only in a consumer sense. For the first time I can seriously consider a Mac or a Chromebook laptop, safe in the knowledge that everything I need will be accessible with barely even an adjustment to my routine. An iPad Pro, while not my first choice, would probably be doable. I could even see myself trying out Linux on the desktop, though I confess I’d probably keep it dual-booting at first. And maybe using SteamOS or a derivative like Bazzite, just to satiate my degenerate gaming needs.  I don’t need Windows anymore. There’s a pretty good chance you don’t, either, or at least that it’s easier than ever to work around it. I think you should keep it in mind…especially if you’re a Microsoft executive who wants me to buy a new laptop.  Further reading: Windows survival skills: 8 things every PC user should know how to do Read...

TL;DR: Save over 80% on 1min.AI’s Advanced Business Plan, now $79.97 (reg. $540) for life—now’s your last chance. Remember when AI first came onto the scene? Some people were obsessed, but others (perhaps like yourself) hoped it was just a fad. Regardless of your attitude, it’s clear that AI is here to stay. If you haven’t looked into how AI can make your workday easier, it may be time to learn how to use the chatbot. While AI can save you time at work and make repetitive tasks less annoying, where do you start? Begin by using 1min.AI, the ultimate beginner-friendly AI tool. It offers a collection of the top AI models, like ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and more, and lifetime access to the Advanced business plan is now less than $80. Need assistance with article writing or another boring task? It’s simple with 1min.AI’s selection of chatbots, and you don’t even need to switch between tabs to use all the different AI models. Check out how easy it is to get AI to complete tasks like image generation: Select a tool like the AI image generator. Type in a prompt of what you’d like the final result to look like. Be specific as you can for best results.   Hit “Create image.” If you’re not happy with the end product, you can always tweak your prompt. Grab this 1min.AI lifetime subscription for just $79.97 until tomorrow, March 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT.   1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime Subscription Only $99.99 at PCWorld StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

After a long run, Google is sunsetting two of its signature Nest products and consequently withdrawing as a manufacturer in two key smart home categories.  Google has just announced that it’s discontinuing the 10-year-old Nest Protect and the 7-year-old Nest x Yale lock. Both of those products will continue to work, and—for now—they remain on sale at the Google Store, complete with discounts until supplies run out.  But while Google itself is exiting the smoke alarm and smart lock business, it isn’t leaving Google Home users in the lurch. Instead, it’s teeing up third-party replacements for the Nest Protect and Nest X Yale lock, with both new products coming from familiar brands.  First up is the SC5 Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm from Residio-owned First Alert, which matches most of the same functions as the aging Nest Protect.   Like the Google smoke detector, the First Alert SC5 can send mobile alerts in case of a fire of CO event, along with voice alerts, “heads-up” early warnings in case the unit detects an “emerging” smoke situation, and the ability to trigger other nearby and compatible smoke alarms in case of an emergency.  The Wi-Fi-enabled First Alert SC5 is compatible with the Google Home app as well as existing Nest Protect alarms, meaning you can easily add the First Alert detectors to your home even if you already have Nest Protect units set up.  Available in both battery-powered and hardwired versions, the First Alert SC5 will hit retail in the “coming months” for $129.99, Resideo said.  Next comes the Yale Smart Lock with Matter, which is designed to blend in nicely with Google’s Nest Doorbell.  The Yale Smart Lock with Matter connects via Thread and offers up to 12 months of battery life. With its integrated Thread radio, the new Yale lock can seamlessly connect with other Matter devices and Thread border routers, and it can also integrate with Google Home, Alexa, and Apple Home thanks to the Matter protocol.  Capable of being unlocked via app, entry code, or a traditional key, the Yale Smart Lock with Matter is set to arrive this summer, according to Yale.  While both the existing Nest Protect and Nest x Yale lock will continue to operate and receive security patches, those who purchased the second-generation Nest Protect near its 2015 launch date should probably replace the product anyway. That’s because the CO sensors in carbon monoxide detectors like the Nest Protect have a roughly 10-year life expectancy.  Nest Protect and the Nest X Yale lock were two of the oldest products in Google’s smart home lineup, and both were showing their age.  The second-gen Nest Protect, for example, was only recently integrated into the Google Home app, marking one of the last Nest products to make the transition from the legacy Nest app.  Three years ago, owners of the Nest x Yale lock found themselves in a jam after the Nest Hub Max dropped its ability to connect the lock to Wi-Fi. Google ended up handing out free Nest Connect hubs to Nest x Yale users to bridge the gap. Read...

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Some business owners attempt to avoid liability by declaring bankruptcy and forming a new company with the same leadership. Read...

Pigment has unveiled Analyst Agent, its inaugural AI tool, aimed at empowering senior executives to enhance business strategy amid evolving market conditions. Read...