Need more ports on your laptop? There’s an easy solution waiting for you this Black Friday. All you need is this Ugreen Revodok 7-in-1 USB-C hub, and now’s a great time to nab it because it’s only $17 on Amazon (that’s 26% off) with this Black Friday deal. That’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen for this USB-C hub, and it’s a pretty darn good entry-level model. View this Amazon deal This small little accessory will open up all kinds of versatility on your port-limited laptop, allowing you to connect more types of devices and effectively making your laptop even better for productivity. This Ugreen hub (also called a docking station) plugs into your laptop’s USB-C port and offers the following: a 100W USB-C port for keeping your laptop charged, a USB-C port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port with up to 4K/30Hz support, and both SD and microSD card slots. This is a must-have gadget if your laptop lacks an HDMI port as it’ll allow you to connect an external 4K display for a multi-screen setup. It’s also great that this hub comes with card slots since those are definitely rare to see in laptops nowadays. Want to read the data off your dashcams, security cams, DSLRs, or even CPAP machines? Do it with this. We love seeing a Black Friday deal where the price drops well below the previous best price, and this Ugreen Revodok 7-in-1 USB-C hub is a good example of that. Grab it before this deal expires! Turn your laptop`s USB-C port into 7 ports with this $17 gadgetBuy via Amazon Read...

Plan will offer guaranteed payments for British startups making AI hardware Read...

If you’ve been waiting patiently for a lifetime Plex Pass discount following Plex’s massive price hike earlier this year, now’s the time.  During Black Friday week, Plex is unleashing a 40 percent discount on monthly, annual, and—best of all—lifetime Plex Passes. The discount is live now and runs through Tuesday, December 2.  That brings the price for a monthly Plex Pass down to $4.19, a $2.80 monthly discount, while an annual Plex Pass is dropping to $41.99 during the deal, down from $69.99. Those deals are for new Plex subscribers only, by the way.  The real savings, however, comes with the lifetime Plex Pass, which is just $149.99 during Black Friday week, a steep $100 off.  Both monthly and annual Plex Passes will renew at their regular rates, but a lifetime Plex Pass is—obviously—for life, meaning you’ll lock in your Black Friday savings permanently.  This marks the first significant price drop we’ve seen for a lifetime Plex Pass since Plex’s giant price hike back in March, when the cost of a for-life Plex Pass skyrocketed to $249.99, up from $119.99.  What’s a Plex Pass, you ask? It’s a subscription for Plex Media server users that boasts features such as DVR functionality, media downloads, hardware video transcoding, commercial skipping, and other benefits.  Most importantly, a Plex Pass is required to stream your Plex media content remotely over the internet, either for yourself or other users. (Remote Plex Media streaming used to be free, but Plex changed its policy when it imposed its big March price increase.) Without a Plex Pass, you can only stream your Plex media library over your local network.  Plex used to offer lifetime Plex Pass discounts on a regular basis, but that was before the price hike, and there’s no telling when we’ll see another Plex Pass deal like this. So if you’ve been looking to save on a for-life Plex Pass, now’s your chance. Get a lifetime Plex Pass for 40% offView Deal Read...

When downloading programs to your computer, the most convenient way is to use the Microsoft Store. This platform allows you to search for and install applications, similar to the Google Play Store and the App Store on your phone. However, the Microsoft Store has a limit of 10 connected devices. If you have more than 10 computers and other devices connected, you won’t be able to download additional programs. This prevent you from “sharing” your login with others, thus saving money on paid apps and subscriptions. Since most of us don’t use more than 10 computers, this isn’t a practical issue. If you reach the limit, all you have to do is unlink old computers (and other devices). You can do this without having access to the device in question. You can also remove devices directly from the alert list that pops up when you hit the limit. Simply select a device you no longer use and click Unlink. We’d recommend occasionally going in to clean this list as a precaution. Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo Go to account.microsoft.com and sign in with your Microsoft account (usually your Outlook, Live, or Hotmail address). Click on Devices in the left-hand menu to see all your connected devices and click on Info and Support to find out more about them. You can also completely unlink a device from your Microsoft account by tapping Remove device. To get the list of devices linked to Microsoft Store, scroll down to Device Management for Microsoft Store, and select Manage. You’ll now see a list of all the devices you’ve downloaded apps to, and as you may notice, it’s not always identical to the list in step two. To remove a device here, tap Unlink and then confirm with Unlink. Read...

The fact that most companies no longer ship power adapters with their tech may be a blessing in disguise. Why? Because you get to pick a proper charger from a trusted brand that’s much faster, better built, and more travel-friendly. This Anker USB-C wall plug is only $10 right now thanks to a stunning 57% discount (was $23) that brings the price down to the lowest I’ve ever seen for this model. View this Amazon deal This 30W GaN charger delivers fast charging for whatever device is plugged in, whether that’s your smartphone, tablet, earbuds, keyboard, mouse, or even your older-model MacBook Air. Due to GaN technology, it’s smaller and more power efficient than older power adapters, plus it generates less heat so it’s safer for day-to-day use. The prongs even fold in when not in use so you can easily take it with you anywhere. What’s nice about this deal is that this crazy price drop also includes a free 6-foot USB-C charging cable that lets you take full advantage of the charger. It’s wrapped in braided nylon and built to survive thousands of bends (so no worries about it fraying for years) and that length is perfect for using your phone in bed while it charges. A fast power adapter and cable for just $10? C’mon, you know as well as I do that this deal is awesome. Snag this Amazon Black Friday deal before it expires. Who knows how long it’ll stay in stock? Get this 30W Anker GaN USB-C charger for only $10Buy via Amazon Read...

This Black Friday is the perfect time to score a powerful yet budget-friendly mini PC that’ll do more than your aging laptop can. Mini PCs are some of the best bang for your buck, especially when they’re discounted! I mean, just look at this GMKtec M2 Pro S mini PC that’s only $360 right now (was $550). That’s a hefty 35% off! Thanks, Amazon. View this Amazon deal This compact computer is just what your home office needs—it has a strong configuration, it takes up very little space on your desk, and it’s extra affordable today. What more could you want? Powered by an Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor and 16GB of RAM, this mini PC can handle large spreadsheets, all your browser tabs, Netflix streaming, and Windows 11 without slowing to a crawl. The 512GB SSD is not only fast but also provides enuogh storage for all your apps, photos, and documents. If you need even more storage, just plug in an external drive through one of the many ports available. My favorite thing about this mini PC is the ability to connect multiple 4K monitors for boosting your productivity through greater screen real estate. With double HDMI and a USB-C video port, it supports up to three 4K/60Hz displays, which isn’t possible with most laptops (at least not without a high-performance hub add-on). Additionally, it features four high-speed USB-A ports for peripherals and drives, a 2.5G LAN port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. You can even mount it to any VESA-compatible monitor for an extra-clean setup. Compact, powerful, and affordable, the GMKtec M2 Pro S is a steal for $360 right now. Get it at this price while you can! This excellent daily driver mini PC is 35% off right nowBuy via Amazon Read...

One of the key differentiators between home security cameras and video doorbells has nothing to do with their specifications or even their performance. If you’re considering the long-term cost of ownership of a security camera, you’ll want to know three things: First, what functions are disabled if you don’t pay for a subscription? Second, what functions does a subscription add to the product? And third, how much will a subscription cost on a monthly or annual basis. If you’re wondering why you’d need a subscription plan in the first place, it’s because many–maybe even most–of the manufacturers in this space limit the capabilities of their products unless you pay extra for services. These subscription plans are invariably advertised as “optional,” and many of them are sold in tiers, with varying levels of features. But the bottom line is that you won’t get the full benefit of many brands of camera and doorbell unless you sign up for a plan. Arlo, Ring, and many others, for example, limit you to a real-time view of the scene in front of their cameras and doorbells unless you cough up for a subscription. If you want a recording of an event you weren’t around to watch in real time, you’ll need to pay for a subscription so you can store the recording on the vendor’s server in the cloud. Even cameras that feature local storage on a microSD card or a storage device on your home network might require a subscription to unlock features such as person, pet, and package detection; high-resolution video recording; AI image processing; and more. Let’s compare the plans and services from each of the biggest manufacturers, whose product lines have generally earned positive reviews from us. Our list is sorted alphabetically, but if you’re looking for a particular brand, check the table of contents in the left-hand margin. Arlo Secure Arlo cameras come with three cloud storage options, any of which will unlock crucial camera functions.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry When you buy an Arlo home security camera, video doorbell, or floodlight camera, you’ll get a 30-day free trial to Arlo Secure, which starts automatically after you set up the device. When the free trial ends, you’ll still be able to see a live view from the camera, the two-way talk feature will continue to operate, and you’ll receive notifications when the camera detects motion. The camera will also continue to work with smart speakers and displays, but you won’t be able to record videos and download those clips to share with other people unless you sign up for one of the following paid subscriptions: Arlo Secure Plus Cost: $9.99 per month for a single Arlo camera, doorbell, or floodlight camera (an annual $95.88 subscription effectively discounts that to $7.99/mo). If you have more than one camera, you’ll need to pick which one will be covered. Coverage for an unlimited number of Arlo cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras costs $19.99 per month (an annual $215.88 subscription effectively discounts that to $17.99/mo). Features: This plan gives you a 60-day video history along with the ability to define “smart activity zones” that will trigger push notifications when motion is detected. It also adds Arlo Intelligence, a set of AI-powered security features including “smart detection” (the ability to differentiate between people, vehicles, packages, and pets), facial recognition, audio detection, and the ability to receive notifications for events and scenarios you create, such as when you leave your sprinklers on or your garage door open. Your Arlo cameras can also recognize flames and will send you an alert if a fire breaks out in their field of view. Arlo Secure Premium Cost: $29.99 per month for an unlimited number of Arlo cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras (an annual subscription of $299.88 effectively discounts that to $24.99/mo. There is no single-camera plan for this tier. Features: Arlo’s top-tier plan includes everything in the Plus plan and adds “event captions” that describe what’s happened in a motion-triggered recording. You also gain access to Arlo Safe, a personal security smartphone app and service that can protect you and members of your family when you’re away from home. If you also own an Arlo Home Security System, this service tier includes professional monitoring that can summon first responders in the event of a police, fire, or medical emergency. You’ll also get cellular backup for your security system in the event your primary broadband connection goes down. sign up for an arlo secure plan Blink Amazon’s Blink cameras come with two cloud subscription options, one that’s priced per camera and one that’s a flat fee for unlimited cameras.Michael Brown/Foundry Amazon’s Blink cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras come with your choice of two monthly cloud subscription plans. One is priced per camera and the other is a flat monthly or annual fee for an unlimited number of Blink cameras. Without a paid subscription you will only be able to view your camera’s live feed–and only for a maximum of 5 minutes after receiving a motion-detection alert. Blink Basic Plan Cost: $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year per camera. Features: The Basic plan includes 60 days of rolling storage; Blink Moments, a feature that will stitch together multiple events captured by your Blink cameras into a single seamless video; “smart detection,” which sends a push notification when a person or vehicle is detected versus an object or animal (this feature is available only on certain Blink models); automatic local backups (if you also purchase a $50 Blink Sync Module 2 and a USB storage device to plug into it, or a $70 Blink Sync Module XR and a microSD card to plug into it); video sharing, and periodic photo capture. A paid subscription also extends continuous live viewing time from 5 minutes to 90 minutes. Blink Plus Plan Cost: $12 per month or $120 per year for an unlimited number of Blink cameras. Features: This plan includes everything in the Basic plan and adds the ability to temporarily pause motion alerts for up to 24 hours, entitles you to a 10-percent discount on additional Blink devices and accessories purchased on Amazon, and it extends the warranties on all your Blink devices for as long as you continue your subscription–provided each of those Blink product are under warranty at the time you start your subscription. Sign up for a Blink Subscription plan Eufy Cloud Backup Eufy cameras include local storage options, but they can also use Eufy a subscription plan to back up their video recordings to the cloud.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Eufy’s indoor and outdoor cameras, floodlight cameras, and video doorbells support local storage either through a small amount of onboard memory, a microSD card, or via Eufy’s HomeBase 3, a NAS-type device you connect to your home network that can host up to 16TB of user-provided storage (a hard disk or solid-state drive). Eufy also offers reasonably priced cloud subscriptions that add convenient access from anywhere you have internet access and are useful as a backup in case your local storage is stolen, damaged, or goes offline. Unlike most of its competitors, you don’t need a subscription to unlock any features of Eufy’s features–those are all included in the price of the product. Not all of Eufy’s security products are subscription eligible, however, so it’s best to check your model before you purchase a plan (which is accomplished in the Eufy app, not on their website). Eufy Basic Plan Cost: $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for one device; $7.99/mo or $79.99/year for two devices; $11.99 or $119.99/year for three devices. Features: The Eufy Basic plan unlocks rolling 30 days of storage for up to three devices. Eufy Plus Plan Cost: $13.99 a month or $139.99 a year Features: This plan covers all compatible Eufy devices (i.e., cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras), providing a rolling 30 days of storage for each camera. Get more information about Eufy Cloud Backup Eufy Professional Monitoring Eufy also offers two professional monitoring plans for its home security systems, but only the more expensive Plus Plan includes the level of service we typically associate with professional monitoring. While both of these services can dispatch first responders in the event of a police, fire, or medical emergency, the cheaper Basic Plan requires you to initiate the dispatch by pressing a panic button in the Eufy home security app. Confusingly, Eufy uses the same names for these service tiers, which are mutually exclusive to the camera services discussed above. In other words, if you want both cloud backup for your Eufy security cameras and professional monitoring for your Eufy home security system, you’ll need to sign up for two subscriptions. Eufy Basic Plan (professional monitoring) Cost: $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year Features: With this plan, you can summon an emergency dispatch in the event of a police, fire, or medical emergency by tapping a button in the Eufy security app (you’ll need to have one of Eufy’s home security systems, not just a Eufy security camera). Eufy Plus Plan (professional monitoring) Cost: $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year Features: This service tier is more in line with what we think of professional monitoring, because it doesn’t depend on the user to initiate an emergency dispatch. The monitoring service will contact you to verify an emergency if any of the sensors in a Eufy home security system detects an emergency, but if you don’t respond (because you missed the call, for example, or were out of range of cellphone service), the center will dispatch the appropriate response. Eufy’s service is one of the least expensive professional monitoring services we’re aware of, but remember that you’ll need a separate subscription for camera and doorbell coverage. The Plus Plan can also earn you up to a 20-percent discount on your homeowner’s insurance, and you can choose which sensors and cameras you want to enroll in professional monitoring. Sign up for Eufy Professional Monitoring Google Home Premium (formerly Nest Aware) Michael Brown/Foundry Google’s Nest cameras, doorbells, and floodlight cameras include more features than most of the competition before you need to sign up for a subscription. You’ll get the usual motion-detection alerts and on-demand live viewing, but those notifications will also inform you as to the source of the motion: a person, a vehicle, or an animal. You’ll also be notified if a package has been left in the cameras’ field of view. And unlike most vendors, Google also gives you up to six hours of 10-second event video previews for free. Most vendors, including Arlo and Ring, don’t give you any recordings at all unless you pay up. The specific features you get from the two tiers of Google Home Premium vary depending on the device you buy, with the most advanced AI features being limited to Google’s newest hardware. As of October 2025, that would be the Nest Doorbell (wired, 3rd gen) the Nest Cam Outdoor (wired, 2nd gen), and the Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 3rd gen). You can sign up for a 30-day free trial of either tier when you purchase a device. Google Home Premium (Standard) Cost: $10 per month or $100 per year for every Google device in your home. Features: A Google Home Premium (Standard) plan bumps event-based video history up to 30 full days, and it gives you a “whole-home history” detailing all the activity your Google devices have logged in the home. Your cameras can also learn familiar faces, so they can discern between family and friends versus strangers. And if you also have Nest smart speakers and displays, they’ll be able to listen for the sound of breaking glass and the sound of smoke or carbon monoxide detectors going off. You’ll also be able to make calls to emergency services local to your home (versus wherever you’re calling from at the time). Finally, you’ll get access to Gemini for Home, Google’s AI agent (and replacement for Google Assistant). Google Home Premium (Advanced) Cost: $20 per month or $200 per year for every Google device in your home. Features: Everything that’s included in Google Home Premium (Standard), but your event-based history is doubled to 60 days; plus, 10 days of 24/7 continuous recording for each of your Nest cameras and wired doorbells. You’ll also be able to ask Gemini to search your camera and doorbell history for specific events, you’ll get AI-generated event descriptions for events detected by your cameras and doorbells, along with daily recaps of recorded events. Sign up for a Google Home Premium account Ring Home If you want recordings from your Ring cameras and doorbells, you’ll need to sign up for one of the company’s Ring Home plans.Michael Brown/Foundry Ring Home is a three-tiered subscription service for Ring doorbells and security cameras. Various add-on services–including professional monitoring of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system–are also available, although not every add-on is available for every service tier. A free 30-day trials is offered when you activate a new Ring product. After the trial period, you’ll need to subscribe to continue using all of the product’s features. Without a Ring Protect Plan, you can only use your Ring device’s free features such as live video (up to 10 minutes at a time), text-only motion-detection push notifications, and two-way audio over a live connection. Ring Home Basic Cost: $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for one camera. Features: The Basic plan allows you to store 180 days of recorded video events for a single Ring doorbell or camera. It’s also required to enable most of your Ring product’s advanced functions, including person, package, and vehicle alerts; video preview alerts; Home and Away modes; the ability to download up to 50 videos at once to your device; and Snapshot Capture, which allows your camera to capture still images of its view at predetermined intervals so you can a view slideshow of what your camera sees between motion events. Doorbells also get Video Preview Alerts that deliver a short video clip along with the push notification when someone rings. Ring Home Standard Cost: $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for an unlimited number of Ring cameras and doorbells; plus, one additional feature for Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro systems. Features: The Ring Home Standard plan covers every Ring doorbell and camera at a single location. It offers the same features as the Basic plan, but extends your camera’s live viewing feature from a max of 10 minutes to 30 minutes and adds a new feature called Doorbell Calls. When someone rings your doorbell, it will call your smartphone and give you the option to speak to the person on your porch over a video call. With Live View Picture-in-Picture enabled, you can watch a live stream from any of your Ring cameras on your smartphone even while you’re using other apps. Log into your account at Ring.com and you’ll be able to stream live views from up to four Ring cameras simultaneously (in four windows on your web browser of choice). You can view a daily event summary in the Ring app that catalogs everything that happened that current day (when motion was detected, when people were detected, and so on). You can then drill down to see the recordings linked to those events. Owners of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system will get 24/7 backup over a cellular network for the security system only (the more expensive Ring Home Premium plan also includes 24/7 internet backup for the Wi-Fi router that’s integrated with a Ring Alarm Pro). Finally, the Ring Standard plan gives you a lifetime warranty on all of your Ring devices–provided the devices were still covered by Ring’s standard one-year warranty on the date your Ring Home subscription starts. Ring Home Premium Cost: $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year for an unlimited number of Ring cameras; plus, some additional features for Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro home security systems. Features: The Ring Home Premium plan gets you the same features as the Standard plan, but it adds some entirely new features, including 24/7 video recording to the cloud for up to 10 compatible, hardwired or plugged-in Ring cameras and doorbells (Ring lists the 24/7-recording-capable cameras on its website; not every model is capable). The Premium plan also lengthens your live viewing time from the 10 minutes you get with Ring Home Basic and the 30 minutes you get with Ring Home Premium to continuous viewing for as long as you maintain the connection. You’ll also get three AI-powered features, two of which were in beta as of this writing: Smart Video Search helps you find specific events in your cameras’ motion-triggered recordings. Video Descriptions (in beta) attaches text-based descriptions to your video recordings. And with AI Single Event Alerts (also in beta), your cameras will recognize similar motion events and send you a single alert summarizing all of them instead of bombarding you with multiple alerts. The last feature not dependent on your having one of the Ring Alarm systems is SOS Emergency Response. If an emergency arises or you need help, you can push the SOS button in the Ring app to request emergency services. If you own a Ring Alarm Pro home security system, which has an integrated Eero router, the Premium plan includes backup internet service over a cellular network, in case your primary broadband service should fail. Be aware, however, that this comes with a 3GB-per-month data cap and you’ll need to buy more data if you exceed that limit. You’ll also get Ring Edge, which lets you store security camera and doorbell recordings on a local microSD card plugged into the Ring Alarm Pro, and Eero Secure, router-based software that protects your network clients from online threats (an ad-blocker is also included). 24/7 Smoke & CO Professional Monitoring You can add 24/7 smoke and carbon monoxide professional monitoring that will dispatch an emergency response if any of your compatible Ring devices to any of the three Ring Home services for $5 per month. Ring Home add-on services Ring Home with 24/7 professional monitoring Cost: $10 per month in addition to whichever Ring Home plan you subscribe to (Basic, Home, or Premium). Features: This plan is relevant only to Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system users; as such, it’s not directly related to Ring’s home security cameras. With professional monitoring, someone in a central office tracks the status of your home whenever it’s in an armed state. Should the system go into an alarm state, they can either call you to check if everything is OK and summon an emergency response if you suspect a break-in, or immediately call the police (an option you choose when you set up the service). Professional monitoring can also be used for fire and medical emergencies. Ring Home with Virtual Security Guard Cost: $99 per month in addition to whichever Ring Home plan you subscribe to (Basic, Home, or Premium) and Ring professional monitoring. If you own at least one Ring camera, a Ring Alarm security system, subscribe to one of the Ring Home plans, and are enrolled in Ring’s professional monitoring plan, you can sign up for the Virtual Security Guard add-on service at an additional cost of $99 per month. With this plan, professional security guards will monitor the cameras you choose, during the hours you set, looking for suspicious activity. If they spot something, they can use the cameras’ siren and/or two-way audio to deter potential a intruder or vandal in real time. They will also contact you directly, via text message or phone call, and they can summon emergency services if warranted. sign up for a ring home plan Sign up for Ring Virtual Security Gurad SimpliSafe SimpliSafe offers two paid subscription plans; one allows you to monitor your own system, the other includes a professional monitoring service.Christopher Null/Foundry SimpliSafe offers four paid monitoring plans for its home security cameras. You can forgo one to save some money, but you will be limited to viewing your camera’s live video feed and arming/disarming its security system from the SimpliSafe App. SimpliSafe’s least-expensive subscription unlocks critical features such as push notifications and video recording, while its two Pro plans offer professional monitoring of a SimpliSafe security system and live guard monitoring of your outdoor cameras. Self Monitoring with Camera Recordings Cost: Around $10 per month. Features: As the name of this plan indicates, you are still monitoring your system via the SimpliSafe mobile app with this entry-level subscription, but you unlock additional camera features, including unlimited video recording, 30-day cloud storage, and instant alarm alerts pushed to your mobile device. In the event of an emergency, it’s up to you to call first responders. Core Cost: Around $30 per month. Features: This base plan comes with SimpliSafe’s whole-home professional monitoring service, so you probably want to be using your camera with one of the company’s DIY home security systems before you consider it. The crux of the service is 24/7 live guard protection; during an active alarm, professional agents can access your camera’s video feed and microphone and attempt to divert the threat. If they’re unsuccessful, they can dispatch police, and their verified report will likely result in a faster response. Similarly, agents can dispatch fire, or medical help after verifying an emergency. Meanwhile, you can still track camera activity on your own via the features unlocked in the self-monitoring plan; plus, you get a lifetime subscriber warranty on SimpliSafe hardware. Pro Cost: $49.99 a month Features: This plan includes all the features of the Core subscription and adds Overnight SimpliSafe Active Guard Outdoor Protection. This uses a combination of AI and live agents to monitor your outdoor camera(s) between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time to detect and deter threats observed outside your home. Pro Plus Cost: $79.99 a month Features: SimpliSafe’s top-tier plan includes everything in the Pro plan but extends Active Guard Outdoor Protection for your outdoor cameras to a 24/7 basis for users who want round-the-clock protection. Sign up for Simplisafe Self Monitoring with Camera Recordings Sign up for SimpliSafe professionnal monitoring TP-Link and Tapo Neither TP-Link nor its Tapo brand offer a complete home-security system, but its security camera monitoring subscriptions are very inexpensive.Michael Ansaldo/Foundry TP-Link and its Tapo brand of home security cameras are typical in that buyers can choose between a free self-monitoring plan that doesn’t include push notifications or cloud storage, or a paid plan that includes both. Many of its cameras, however, are equipped with microSD card slots that provide local storage for video clips–provided you supply the microSD card. Unlike Arlo, Ring, SimpliSafe, and Wyze Labs, TP-Link does not also offer a complete home security system, so it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring subscription either. Tapocare Cost: $3.49 per month or $34.99 per year for up to 10 cameras. Features: In the U.S., a Tapocare plan provides 30 days of video clip storage in the cloud, push notifications when the cameras detect motion and record video (including a snapshot from the video). Users can tag and sort their cameras’ recordings. Sign up for Tapocare Wyze Labs Wyze Labs is one of the few security camera manufacturers to off a free plan for storing video recordings in the cloud. It also offers two paid tiers that include additional features.Christopher Null/Foundry Wyze Labs offers some of the most inexpensive home security cameras on the market, and the same goes for its subscription plans. It even offers a free plan—the only major security camera brand to do so—that enables more than just your camera’s most basic features. Wyze offers five subscription plans in all: Wyze Cam Plus Lite Cost: Pay-what-you-want (including free). Features: You 12-second, event-based video clips, and 14 days of rolling cloud storage (meaning your oldest recordings get overwritten after two weeks). It also includes general motion and sound detection, AI-powered person detection, and cameras will listen for smoke and CO alarms sounding off and will send you an alert. On the downside, there’s a 5-minute cool-down between recordings, meaning the camera will ignore events in between recordings. The service is also limited to the Wyze Cam v1/v2/v3; Wyze Cam Pan v1/v2; and Wyze Cam Outdoor v1/v2 only. Sign up for Wyze Cam Plus Lite Wyze Cam Plus Cost: $2.99 per month per camera, $19.99 per year per camera. Features: This plan offers unlimited full-length video recordings with no cool-down period. You’ll also get 14 days of cloud storage for event recordings. Additional features include AI-powered detection for people, pets, packages, and vehicles, ensuring you’ll receive more accurate alerts. Sign up for Wyze Cam Plus Cam Plus Unlimited Cost: $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for all your Wyze Labs cameras. Features: This is the same plan as Cam Plus, but it covers all your Wyze cameras; so, if you have more than three or four, this plan is more economical than paying for each camera separately. Sign up for Wyze Cam Unlimited Our take Arlo’s $7.99-per-month single-camera subscription price is one of most expensive on the market, following a 60-percent price increase in January, 2024, but it doesn’t charge a lot more to cover an unlimited number of cameras–$12.99 per month–at least with its basic plan. Arlo’s unlimited camera plan costs $17.99 per month, but it also adds several features you won’t get with the cheaper plan. Arlo’s $24.99-per-month plan that covers an unlimited number of cameras and includes professional monitoring of the company’s home security system is much more reasonable, given that Ring will soon split its own professional monitoring service as a $10-per-month add-on to its other subscriptions. That said, Arlo’s home security system is much more basic than Ring’s and doesn’t incorporate other smart home elements, such as lighting. Blink has the least expensive per-camera plan, at $3 per month, and you get local video backups if you purchase the Blink Sync Module 2. The unlimited camera plan costs the same as Ring’s service at $10 per month. Unlike Arlo or Ring, Blink does not offer a complete home security system, although it does have a video doorbell and a couple of floodlight cameras. We’ve found that Blink’s product line delivers a lot of value for the money. Eufy has recently introduced several new advanced security cameras–indoor and outdoor models outfitted with both wide-angle and telephoto lenses–and everything in its lineup is affordably priced. The price for its subscription service is comparable to that of the competition, but its 10-camera limit could be an issue if you have a lot of cameras deployed around your home. That said, 10 cameras seems like a lot. It’s also worth noting that Eufy does not currently offer a professional monitoring service, since it doesn’t currently offer a complete home alarm system. A Google Nest Aware subscription for a single camera costs the same as Arlo’s, but since few households end up deploying just one camera or video doorbell, Google’s plan ends up being more affordable than most because it covers all the Google cameras, doorbells, speakers, and displays in your home. But Google no longer builds a home security system, so it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring service either. Ring has retooled its entire subscription plan, which will soon be called Ring Home (the old name was Ring Protect). Ring’s claim of “new features, new name, same price” claim is disingenuous at best. Its basic, single-camera plan retains the same price and does gain a new feature, and its mid-tier unlimited-camera plan gains two new features for the same price, but Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro users will now need to pay $10 per month for professional monitoring on top of whichever other service they choose. That means the price for Ring’s highest service tier will go from $19.99 per month to $29.99 per month. All that said, the Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro home security ecosystems are are more comprehensive than anything else and include indoor and outdoor smart lighting, smart entry locks, smoke detectors, and more, including certified third-party devices. Ring’s new $99-per-month Virtual Security Guard service will probably be of interest only to small business owners, but it’s available to homeowners who want that additional layer of real-time protection. SimpliSafe dispenses with the nonsense of a subscription for a single security camera, charging about $10 per month for full service of any number of its cameras. The company is also innovating with artificial intelligence and combining that with human monitoring of its cameras, although you’ll pay more for that feature (between $50 and $80 per month). If you invest in SimpliSafe’s full security system and want professional monitoring, that will cost between $32 and $80 per month. TP-Link/Tapo has one of the least-expensive subscriptions, but it doesn’t offer a professional monitoring option because the company doesn’t have a complete home security system on the market today; it only offers security cameras and video doorbells. Wyze Labs is another budget brand (Blink being the other), and we’ve had no complaints about the quality of its very well-priced hardware. Its $10-per-month plan for an unlimited number of Wyze cameras is on par with Blink; but unlike that budget manufacturer, Wyze also offers an affordable and complete home security systems with professional monitoring options starting at $10 per month. This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras and the best video doorbells. Read...

Scouring the Internet for fun, free websites to cure boredom is relatively easy these days. There’s so much on offer it’s not hard to find something to do. Take these three websites below for example. Bored Button If you’re feeling bored and want to pass some time, go to this website and click on the red button to surprise yourself with funny, interactive, and creative websites and games. Dominic Bayley / Foundry Good Tricks A compendium of magic tricks and magicians’ secrets. Learn tricks like the exploding Pringle trick or the anti-gravity card trick. Also see how David Copperfield does his amazing saw trick (don’t try it at home!). All the tricks are explained with easy-to-follow instructions. Dominic Bayley / Foundry ASCIIflow ASCIIflow is a web-based application that lets you draw ASCII diagrams. You can choose to draw freeform diagrams or select from a menu of characters to bring your creations to life. Just be sure you spend enough time drawing. I’ve learned that creating something that makes sense in the ASCII world is a lot harder than it looks. Dominic Bayley / Foundry That’s all we have for this round of Try This. For more recommendations be sure to subscribe to PCWorld’s Try This newsletter. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Good value on sale Lots of storage and RAM Aluminum chassis Cons Too expensive at MSRP GPU is very slow Dim display Our Verdict The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i is a 16-inch laptop that feels like a bargain if you can find it under $500. At under $500, this is a 4.5-star experience and unusually good value. At its full retail price, it’s not particularly impressive. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i Retailer Price $599.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i is a budget 16-inch laptop you might find for under $500. With a decent CPU, an aluminum chassis, a 1TB SSD, and 16GB of RAM, it’s an excellent value at that price. However, the full MSRP is supposedly $829. If you see this laptop at its full retail price, it doesn’t make as much sense. As I’m wrapping this review up, you can get it for $429. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Specs The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has an Intel Core 5 210H CPU. I’m not a huge fan of these chips, which I see popping up on lots of laptops lately. These are based on Intel’s older Raptor Lake architecture and they use more power and run hotter. They lack the neural processing unit found in newer Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips, so you can’t get those Copilot+ PC AI features Microsoft is spending so much time on. It also has a very slow integrated GPU that comes far behind what other modern laptops are capable of, so this machine isn’t ideal for even casual gaming. This machine’s 16GB of RAM feels great at the $429 mark. The 1TB solid-state drive also feels extremely generous at that low price point. Lots of laptops are more expensive and have smaller SSDs. Model: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i 16IRH10R CPU: Intel Core 5 210H Memory: 16GB DDR5-5600 RAM Graphics/GPU: Intel Graphics NPU: None Display: 16-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with 60Hz refresh rate Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p webcam Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (USB 5Gbps), 2x USB Type-A (USB 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 1.4b, 1x combo audio jack, 1x microSD card reader Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Biometrics: IR camera for facial recognition Battery capacity: 60 Watt-hours Dimensions: 14.03 x 9.87 x 0.67 inches Weight: 4.08 pounds MSRP: $829 as tested ($429 on sale) The bottom line is that the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i is an excellent laptop for under $500, but you should probably look elsewhere at $829. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Design and build quality Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has solid build quality. This machine has an aluminum chassis — no plastic — which makes it feel unexpectedly premium for a budget laptop. At 4.08 pounds, it’s a little on the heavy side, but it is a 16-inch machine. Our review model came in a “Luna Gray” colorway, and it’s a very standard Lenovo laptop design with nice rounded edges. It looks good, and the use of metal instead of plastic means there’s no weird creaking or flex here. The machine’s hinge feels extremely solid, so much so that I need two hands to open the laptop properly. It doesn’t move around as I type on it. The chassis feels designed and manufactured with more care than manufacturers normally put into laptops that cost less than $500. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Keyboard and trackpad Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has a full-size keyboard with a number pad, and it feels reasonable to type on. It’s not the snappiest keyboard, the keys feel a little “rubbery” when they bottom out. But I can type fast on it without any problem, and there’s good typing feedback. This machine’s trackpad is reasonable, although it’s perhaps a tad on the small side for a 16-inch laptop. The surface is responsive to slide your finger over. The click-down action is a tad loud — not ideal if you’ll be clicking your trackpad in a quiet room with other people around — and it doesn’t feel as satisfying as trackpads with clickier, crisper action. But it’s a reasonable trackpad, especially for a sale price around $429. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Display and speakers Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has a 16-inch IPS display with a 1920×1200 resolution. It’s nice and big and looks fine, although it won’t blow your mind. It has a standard 60Hz refresh rate, which is nothing unusually fast. At up to 300 nits of brightness, this display is on the dim side. Thankfully, because this isn’t a touch screen, this machine has a matte display and not a glossy one. This makes it more resistant to reflections — 300 nits of brightness on a glossy display is a real problem in challenging lighting conditions, but 300 nits on a matte display isn’t as bad. Still, this isn’t the ideal machine for use outdoors or in bright sunlight given the low maximum brightness. This machine’s speakers are loud enough, but they’re flat and the audio isn’t rich. There’s very little bass, even for laptop speakers. I recommend headphones or external speakers. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has a 1080p webcam. It’s a little noisy, and it made me look pale and not particularly lifelike in a sunlit room on a cloudy day. While it’s better than the 720p webcam you find on many less expensive laptops, it’s not particularly impressive. It does have a physical webcam shutter switch, which is great to see. The microphone setup on this machine is fine. It has good noise cancelation, but the speech it picked up was muffled. It’s usable for video meetings, but it’s not particularly high-end. This machine has an IR camera for Windows Hello, so you can sign into your PC with your face just by opening your laptop. It doesn’t have a fingerprint reader. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Connectivity Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has a good number of ports. On the left side, this machine has two USB Type-C ports (USB 5Gbps), a combo audio jack, and an HDMI 1.4b port. On the right side, it has two USB Type-A ports (USB 5Gbps) and a microSD card reader slot. This laptop charges via USB Type-C, so you’ll always be plugging the charging cable in on the left side. The ports are on the lower end in terms of specs: You don’t get Thunderbolt or USB4 here, and this is HDMI 1.4b instead of HDMI 2.1. This is fine for $429, but not ideal at $829. This machine supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. There’s no support for Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7, or newer versions of Bluetooth here. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Performance The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i delivered fine performance in desktop apps: Web browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, productivity tools like Word, and media apps like Spotify. While the Intel Core 5 210H is based on a somewhat dated architecture, it’s modern enough. And most modern CPUs are now reasonably snappy, especially when paired with an SSD and 16GB of RAM. We ran the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs in more detail. Foundry / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. With an overall PCMark 10 score of 5,697, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i is slower than higher-end laptops but put up good numbers against the Acer Aspire Go 15, a machine I thought was an excellent value. At its current price as I’m finishing this review, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i matches the Acer Aspire Go 15’s sale price. It’s a better pick if you can find it on sale — with a faster CPU and better performance. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i racks up a multithreaded Cinebench R20 score of 3,849. That’s far ahead of the Acer Aspire Go 15, a machine I thought was a great deal. You don’t need this kind of multithreaded performance for lightweight computer use, so this machine will deliver more performance than many need for a budget laptop. Foundry / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i completed the benchmark process in 1,703 seconds, which is over 28 minutes. That’s definitely on the slower side compared to many laptops, but this machine isn’t designed for long CPU-heavy tasks. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 1,181, this machine will not be suitable for lightweight gaming or professional apps that use the GPU. This older Intel integrated graphics is very slow. Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i delivered impressive performance for a $429 price and middling performance for a $829 machine. The main problem will be the GPU performance, so you may want to avoid this machine if you want to play games. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Battery life The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i has a 60 Watt-hour battery. That’s not the largest battery, and this Intel Meteor Lake-based Core 5 210H chip isn’t the most efficient CPU. While battery life is fine, it won’t necessarily get you through a workday. Foundry / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, which meant cranking this display’s brightness way up. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i lasted 636 minutes on average before suspending itself — that’s about ten and a half hours. It’s not terrible. But, since real-world use where you’re using apps and connecting to the internet will be lower, this machine will likely not be able to make it to the 8 hour mark for most people. Plan to plug it in regularly. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i: Conclusion The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i is a good budget laptop. There’s nothing particularly bad here — aside from the GPU performance — and some parts of the experience are legitimately great. For a budget laptop, an aluminum chassis, 1 TB SSD, and Core 5 210H CPU is incredible. At a $429 price point, it’s excellent. But is this really a $429 laptop? Laptop manufacturers want to have it both ways. They often set a high MSRP so they can sell a machine at a deep discount, making it look like an especially good deal. But then they want reviewers to judge the machine at its sale price and not its recommended retail price. The reality is that B&H Photo Video’s website says there is a “limited supply” at the $429 price and that it’s a “holiday savings” price, so you may see a much higher price in the future when you read this review. The bottom line is that the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i is an excellent laptop for under $500, but you should probably look elsewhere at $829. Read...

I took the plunge recently and made the decision to buy a gaming laptop after years of being a dedicated tinkerer with a desktop PC tower. The change was necessitated by me being on the road a lot and needing a mobile workstation; being a gamer, I wanted something I could play on in my free time. It turns out it was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Here’s why I decided to buy a gaming laptop instead of a new desktop. It’s more portable You definitely can’t beat a laptop for portability, which makes it the practical choice for long train trips, or even for shorter trips. Now that I’ve given my desktop the flick, I like the freedom of being able to work on my commute to the office. On the odd chance that I have a meeting out of the office, I can travel light, with just my laptop as my mobile note taker. It’s also great for organizing my life, since I can access my work and my games wherever I go. It only takes me a minute to disconnect my laptop and pack it away in my bag, too. It’s more convenient I used to be the type of gamer who would plan my PC builds right down to the smallest components. Nowadays though, I’m way too busy with work and prefer buying a laptop from a trusted supplier that I know will have all the components I want in it. The fact that my laptop is a plug and play device is a huge load off. I don’t have to worry about the components being installed correctly and working, because I know they will be. If there’s a problem with my laptop, I also know I can simply return the whole device and get a new unit rather than trying to diagnose what the problem was from among the different parts. Performance is still good When switching from my desktop to my laptop, I was worried that I’d be massively downgrading my performance, but that’s not the case. It’s true that my laptop’s mobile graphics card can’t compete with a full-sized desktop graphics card but in all other respects my laptop is a decent performer. I mainly use my laptop for work and video, and it can do those things just fine. I’m happy that it also plays most games well and it’s 144Hz display keeps motion looking buttery smooth. I know what its limitations are and I’m okay with them. Matt Smith / Foundry I have more desk space My tower was a true beast, and I’d get a kick out of showing it off to people, but its footprint was far too big for my desk. Because of its sheer size, it meant I was limited in what I could place around me. My 17-inch laptop, by comparison, has a much smaller footprint and takes up a fraction of the space that my desktop did. The extra space around me means I can fit external speakers and a desk lamp, which I couldn’t do before. I still use an external monitor when I want the desktop-like feel. It connects easily to my laptop and I get excellent graphics on it. I also have the option of connecting to an external keyboard or to use the one integrated into my laptop. It’s nice to know I can pick and choose between them at my whim. It works on the battery Being able to use my laptop off the battery has brought a new dimension to my work and play. It means I can use it anywhere — outside, inside, or even at my local library. Whereas before I’d be tethered to my desktop at home, which needed to always be plugged in to the outlet. Admittedly, I can’t play the latest triple-A titles because there’s not enough power for the GPU, but there are countless older more lightweight games that I can play off the battery that make for a highly satisfying gaming session. Even though I only get four hours of battery life, the convenience of being able to work and play wherever I like is one of the biggest selling points of my laptop. Related content Best laptops: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1, and more Today’s best laptop deals: Save big on work, school, home use, and gaming Good news! A gaming laptop can finally be your only laptop Read...