TL;DR: Save hundreds per year with this $84.97 bundle of Adobe Acrobat Pro (three years) and Microsoft Office (lifetime). So, you’re tired of paying subscription fees for the software you know you’ll need every day? Stop and find a deal that can help you save. With our exclusive productivity app bundle, you can get three years of Adobe Acrobat Pro for $84.97 (typically $19.99/month) and a lifetime of Microsoft Office 2021 as a bonus. That’s insane savings. Adobe Acrobat Pro gives you three full years of pro-level PDF editing, conversion, and protection — all offline, without needing cloud access. Whether you’re editing text and images, securing sensitive files, or converting PDFs into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, Acrobat Pro has the features you’d expect from Adobe, minus the subscription fee. On top of that, you get Microsoft Office Professional 2021 as a lifetime license. That means Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access are yours permanently with a one-time install on your Windows PC. No ongoing payments, just the complete productivity suite most professionals rely on daily. Stop renting your tools and own them outright. Don’t miss your chance to get this bundle at an all-time low price during our early Black Friday sale: $84.97 for Adobe Acrobat Pro and Microsoft Office (MSRP $543.99) Adobe Acrobat Pro + Microsoft Office Professional License BundleSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Smart plugs come in two categories: on/off devices that can control lamps as well as small appliances, fans, and space heaters, and dimmers that control a lamp’s brightness as well as turn it on and off. Leviton makes some of our favorites in both categories, and Amazon has knocked 25 percent off the price of the Leviton Decora Smart Dimmer Plug, bringing its final price down to just $18.74. Beyond its excellent build quality, this smart dimmer is particularly appealing because it can also be controlled by Leviton’s Decora Smart Dimmer Companion to create a wireless 3-way circuit. So, not only can you control the plug with Leviton’s app on your smartphone—or create a schedule for it to operate on—but you can also use Leviton’s Dimmer Companion (which gets a 9-percent discount for Black Friday) as a physical remote control. Most people mount this second device to a wall on the other side of the room or at the end of a hallway or stairway; the remote has a range of 50 feet. Used this way, the battery-powered Companion looks just like a hardwired in-wall switch, complete with a trim plate. The Decora Smart Dimmer Plug connects to your Wi-Fi network, eliminating the need for a smart home hub or bridge, and it can also be controlled with voice commands from Alexa, Gemini, or Siri. And if you’re looking for a smart plug to control your outdoor holiday lights this season, Amazon has also knocked 25 percent off the price of the Leviton Decora Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug, bringing its price down to $37.60. It has all the same smart features, and it can be remotely controlled with the wireless Decora Smart Switch Anywhere Companion. Save 25% on the Leviton Decora Smart Dimmer PlugView Deal Read...

TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Dual-lens design eliminates blind spots Strong 2K image quality with color night vision Affordable price for wide coverage Cons Subscription required to enable smart alerts Power cord is on the short side Our Verdict The Wyze Duo Cam Pan delivers impressive coverage and solid performance for less than $70, making it one of the best values in Wyze’s growing security camera lineup. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Wyze Duo Cam Pan Retailer Price $69.98 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Wyze Labs built its reputation on a simple formula: deliver more features for less money. The new Wyze Duo Cam Pan takes that idea literally. Instead of one lens trying to keep up with everything that moves, this camera has dual 2K lenses—one fixed, one that pans and tilts—to cover twice the ground. The result is a single device that eliminates blind spots whether it’s watching your living room or your entire yard. Design and features The Duo Cam Pan looks like something between a periscope and a small robot. Two lenses are stacked vertically, one on a rotating base that can pan a full 360 degrees and tilt up to 180 degrees. The other camera stays put, maintaining a fixed view of the overall scene. The idea is to mount it on a corner and monitor both sides of a yard, or put it in a large room and catch every bit of activity without blind spots. Both of the Wyze Duo Cam Pan’s cameras deliver sharp, clean 2K video with accurate color accuracy and high detail. Each lens records in 2K resolution and supports color night vision. The moving camera can follow a person across the frame or sweep through multiple zones using Wyze’s Pan Scan feature, which lets you define up to four waypoints for automatic patrol. Two small spotlights and a 100dB siren provide a basic deterrent for unwelcome visitors, while the two-way audio lets you ward them off with your voice, or communicate remotely with delivery people or family members. It has an IP65 rating, which our IP code decoder tells us means it’s impervious to dust ingress and that it’s protected against water jets coming from any direction (i.e., a garden hose with a jet nozzle, but not a pressure washer in close proximity). The Wyze Duo Cam Pan can be mounted on an exterior wall, with its dual lenses positioned to monitor separate areas for broader home surveillance. Wyze The camera supports a user-provided microSD card in capacities up to 512GB, allowing you to record continuously, no subscription required. You can also opt for Wyze’s cloud storage plans if you want off-device backup. The entry-level Cam Plus plan adds 14 days of event recording and smarter motion alerts (person, vehicle, package, and pet) for $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year, while Cam Unlimited extends those features across your whole Wyze camera fleet for $9.99 a month or $129.99 a year. For heavier users, a Cam Unlimited Pro plan bumps event history up to 60 days and includes AI video search and emergency dispatch and costs $19.99 a month or $259.99 a year. The camera also supports Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, and Wyze’s own automation system, so it can trigger lights or other cameras as part of a broader smart home/home security setup. Setup and performance Setting up the Duo Cam Pan is accomplished through the Wyze app, which walks you through Wi-Fi connection and checks for firmware updates before finishing setup. Mounting is equally straightforward. The base attaches to a plastic screw mount and all the necessary hardware is provided. Indoors, it’s stable enough to just set on a shelf or table. In either case, you’ll need to install it within about four feet of an electrical outlet to accommodate its short power cable. Both cameras deliver sharp, clean 2K video with accurate color accuracy and high detail. Daytime footage looks bright without being oversaturated, and the color night vision retains more natural hues than you’d expect at this price. The spotlights are small but surprisingly effective at brightening a dark entryway or yard, and they activate quickly when motion is detected. The Wyze app offers many customization options for both camera lenses. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry The panning lens can sweep across a wide room in seconds and can track a person or pet smoothly from one side to the other. Tracking accuracy was solid in my testing, and the camera’s motor was virtually silent. The fixed lens provides helpful context while the panning lens is in motion, so you always have one stable view even when the other is moving. Together they cover an impressive amount of space without obvious blind spots. The motion sensor does a great job of detecting nearby people and objects, and push notifications arrived within a second or two of an event. The Wyze app supports activity zones that let you mask out areas you don’t want the camera to monitor to help filter out unwanted triggers (e.g., bushes and tree branches swaying in the wind). The app operates as the camera’s control center, with live feeds stacked one above the other and a toolbar positioned along the bottom. The toolbar provides easy access to Pan Scan waypoints, recording controls, and an event history. A deep settings menu offers customization options for just about every camera feature, and each lens has its own motion-detection and spotlight settings, so you can fine-tune them independently. Should you buy the Wyze Duo Cam Pan? At $69.98, the Wyze Duo Cam Pan lands in the sweet spot between Wyze’s single-lens Pan Cam v3 and the kind of multi-camera setups you’d need for comparable coverage. The Duo Cam Pan’s dual-lens setup is practical, not gimmicky, and it delivers broad, flexible coverage on a budget. If you’re already using Wyze gear—or just want one camera that can do the work of two—it’s an easy recommendation. This review is part of techHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. Read...

QLEO quantum emulator now features GPU acceleration and full NVIDIA CUDA-Q support, boosting simulation speed over 100 times for researchers and developers. Read...

For a while now, it’s been possible to right-click on a file in Windows File Explorer and select the Ask Copilot option, which launches the Copilot app with the file in question as part of the prompt. But it seems this isn’t enough for Microsoft. According to Windows Latest, a new feature called “Ask Microsoft 365 Copilot” is currently being planned for a future release. Ask Microsoft 365 Copilot will appear in the Home tab of File Explorer as a new option when you hover over individual files. This option will apparently be better optimized for Office files, offering better results overall. All users will be able to access this feature regardless of chip type (Intel, AMD, Snapdragon). On top of that, Copilot+ PCs will also gain a new AI feature called “Universal Writing Assistant” that appears as a pop-up when interacting with text fields on web pages. The assistant will be able to proofread, correct errors, and even rewrite entire chunks of text. The new features are currently being tested, so expect them to be launched after the end of the year. Read...

If you’re looking for a new gaming mouse, you’ve probably looked at all of the options out there–maybe you’ve made up your mind. Before you pull the trigger, you’ve got to take a look at the list below, which covers some of the most common mistakes made when buying a gaming mouse. It may even save you from making a bad decision. 1. Don’t fall for marketing fluff Just because a gaming mouse like the Logitech Pro X2 Superstrike has a maximum DPI of up to 44,000, it doesn’t mean it’s any better than one with a DPI of 3,200. Manufacturers have been hyping up mouse sensitivity for a while now, but truth be told, it doesn’t make much of a difference beyond a certain point. You can just as easily play and win with a mouse that has 12,000 DPI as you can with one that’s maxed out to 40,000+ DPI. The same goes for polling rates. Tests show that mice running at 4,000 Hz or 8,000 Hz are only a few milliseconds faster than those running at 1,000 Hz. Even then, it’s unlikely human reaction speeds are fast enough to take advantage of that difference. So, it’s important to not get caught up in the marketing hype. 2. Getting hung up on weight A lot has been said about mouse weight and how gamers are looking for the lightest mice they can find to improve their movement speed. But truth be told, anything below 80 grams feels kind of similar and won’t make much difference. That is, unless you go for the extremely lightweight chassis of the 49-gram MM720 by Cooler Master, which really feels like you’re moving air. Even more important than overall weight are the balance adjustments manufacturers are building into lightweight mice these days. Be sure to scan the marketing materials for any mention of those. 3. Wired mice have pros and cons It’s safe to say that in 2025, wireless mice have no compromises compared to wired mice when it comes to input lag and click latency. In fact, multiple studies show that wireless mice actually outperform wired ones. That’s as long as you use the 2.4GHz signal rather than Bluetooth, which can also compete with wired mice on speed. That said, wired mice still have advantages. Some of them are cheaper, lighter, and don’t require charging. Pexels: Andrey Matveev 4. Check the size There are a heap of different designs out there, so assuming a mouse will fit your hand, match your grip style, and feel comfortable can often lead to a mismatch. You should measure your hand against the mouse’s dimensions and read up on the latest reviews. You can also check out online size charts like the one from Rocket Jump Ninja to get a better understanding. 5. More features isn’t always better We tend to think more is always better, but that’s not always the case when it comes to gaming mice. Just because a mouse has a gyroscope or a 12-button hot-swappable side plate doesn’t mean it will be more competitive. That’s especially the case if you don’t see yourself using those features. You may as well save $50 on the purchase price and buy a cheaper one. I remember getting sucked in by a big MMO mouse with 20+ buttons only to find out later that I never used half of them. Now I’ve swapped to a minimalist Razer Cobra Pro for most of my gaming needs and couldn’t be happier. Related content: Best wireless gaming mice 2025: Tested and approved What DPI is good for gaming mice? Do I need a gaming mouse with a 4K polling rate? Read...

Whether you’re just getting started with home security or bolstering your existing Ring system, the Ring Indoor Cam is an essential part of any Ring-protected abode, and it’s getting a sweet 50-percent discount for Black Friday.  During Amazon’s Black Friday Week, the Ring Indoor Cam is selling for just $24.99, half-off its list price and matching its all-time low.   The Ring Indoor Cam is an absolute classic when it comes to security cameras—a rock-solid workhorse that gets the job done with a minimum of fuss while delivering excellent quality for the price.   Boasting 1080p video quality with a 143-degree field of view, the Ring Indoor Cam offers two-way voice chat, color night vision, a built-in siren for scaring off intruders, and a privacy cover that blocks the lens and automatically deactivates the camera.   A 6.5-foot micro-USB cable lets you connect the Indoor Cam to a power outlet (an optional 10-foot cable is also available), while the adjustable base lets you orient the camera just the way you like, whether you’ve placed the unit on a tabletop or mounted it on a wall.  You can expand the Ring Indoor Cam’s capabilities with a Ring Home plan, which adds features such as 180 days of video history, person, package, and vehicle detection, and video preview alerts. Ring Home plans start at $4.99 a month (for a single camera or doorbell), with the pricier Home Standard plan ($9.99/month) covering all your Ring cameras and doorbells while adding multi-camera viewing, extended live viewing time, and a daily events summary, among other things. The top-tier Ring Home Premium plan ($19.99/month), meanwhile, adds AI-generated video descriptions that you can search using natural-language queries, 24/7 recording, one-button access to emergency first responders from the Ring app, .  I’ve previously reviewed the Ring Indoor Cam, and I’d recommend it without hesitation to anyone getting started with home security—and for just $24.99, you might want to get two.  Get the Ring Indoor Cam for 50% offView Deal Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Large touchpad compared to alternatives 16-inch 1200p display at a low price Lots of physical connectivity Good battery life for a budget gaming laptop Cons Sub-par CPU performance Terrible audio quality from built-in speakers Wireless connectivity stuck on the Wi-Fi 6 standards Slightly more expensive laptops offer better value Our Verdict  The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a budget gaming laptop with ok game performance and good battery life (for a gaming laptop). Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Acer Nitro V 16 AI Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Shoppers looking to buy a laptop with Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics for around $800 or less have few options—one of which is the Acer Nitro V 16 AI, which retails for about $799 online. Although it provides acceptable performance for a budget machine, its day-to-day usability and battery life are what sets it apart from the pack. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Specs and features as-tested The Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s specifications make the laptop feel like a vessel for the RTX 5050 8GB GPU. The AMD Ryzen 5 240 CPU is among the least capable in AMD’s line-up, and the laptop makes do with only 16GB of RAM as well as a 512GB solid state drive. Model: ANV16-42 CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 240 Memory: 16GB LPDDR5-5600 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5050 8GB NPU: Up to 16 TOPS Display: 16-inch 1920×1200 180Hz IPS-LCD display Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 solid state drive Webcam and microphone: 720p webcam with dual-array microphone Connectivity: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, 1x microSD card reader, 1x Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45), 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: None Battery capacity: 76 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.2 x 10.9 x 0.92 inches Weight: 5.38 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Price: $899 MSRP / $629 to $799 typical retail This is a common strategy for a budget gaming laptop. Most competitors, from the Asus ROG TUF line to the Lenovo LOQ 15 and Dell G15, also rely on entry-level CPUs and have 16GB of RAM alongside a 512GB solid state drive. You’ll usually need to pay about $1,000 if you want 1TB of storage (in a laptop with an Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU, at least). The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a respectable budget gaming laptop that provides decent game performance and surprisingly good battery life. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Design and build quality Foundry / Matthew Smith The Acer Nitro V 16 AI doesn’t make much of an impression. It’s a black laptop with a subtle metallic luster adorned only with a chrome “N” on the lid, which is the logo for Acer’s Nitro sub-brand. Besides that, there’s not much to say about the laptop’s style. It’s simple but inoffensive. Opening the laptop will reveal a couple subtle touches, though none are all that attractive. The Nitro logo is engraved into the palm rest, along with the phrase “Victory starts here” engraved just below the numpad. Build quality is acceptable. Quickly opening the laptop’s lid reveals obvious display flex, but the lower chassis is solid when the laptop is picked up from a corner or edge. Keyboard flex can be found if you try but it’s not a problem in normal use. As with most budget gaming laptops, the Nitro V 16 AI isn’t small. It measures over 14 inches wide, nearly 11 inches deep, and almost an inch thick at its thickest point. It also weighs 5.38 pounds. With that said, most gaming laptops of this size are at least this heavy (over six pounds is not uncommon). Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Keyboard, trackpad, mouse Foundry / Matthew Smith I found the Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s keyboard to be merely functional. The laptop’s size provides a good amount of room, which Acer uses to squeeze in a numpad. However, the spaces between each key are large, which in turn means the keys are smaller than you might expect. This is most noticeable for the right side Shift key, and left-side Tab and Control keys, which are tiny. Annoyingly, the Microsoft Copilot key is one of the largest keys on the keyboard. This is odd because, despite its name, the Acer Nitro V 16 AI doesn’t qualify as a Microsoft Copilot+ PC. Though the key layout does the keyboard no favors, it’s balanced by the fundamental advantages of a larger, thicker laptop. Keys have a good amount of key travel, the overall size of the keyboard is spacious, and the palm rest offers a good amount of room. I was able to hammer out a few thousand words in comfort. The touchpad is an advantage. It measures about five inches wide and a little more than three inches deep. Alternatives like the Lenovo LOQ 15 and Dell G15 have noticeably smaller touchpads that feel cramped by comparison. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Display, audio Foundry / Matthew Smith The Acer Nitro V 16 AI ships with a 1920×1200 resolution IPS-LCD display that can achieve a refresh rate up to 180Hz. The 16-inch 1200p display is worth special mention. Most budget gaming laptops still use a 15.6-inch 1080p display. Compared to these, the Nitro V 16 AI provides a slightly taller display with more usable space. It’s not a big deal in games but it makes the laptop more enjoyable for web browsing and work. IPS-LCD displays tend to have lackluster contrast and color when compared to OLED alternatives. That translates to relatively dull, flat image quality. With that said, the IPS display is good enough in most situations. The contrast issue only becomes obvious when the laptop is used in a dark room, as darker scenes appear gray and hazy. The image is sharp and bright and the display has a semi-gloss coat that resists reflections. You may still find the display difficult to see if you sit near a large sunlit window, however, and outdoors use isn’t comfortable even with the display at its maximum brightness. The same is true for other budget gaming laptops. Motion performance is decent. The 180Hz refresh rate provides fluid, responsive motion when games render at a frame rate close to the panel’s maximum refresh rate. Motion clarity is decent with good detail across a scene, but small elements like fonts or HP bars can still be difficult to make out. G-Sync is absent, unfortunately, which means you’ll need to use a game’s V-Sync setting or risk unsightly screen tearing. Audio quality is a problem. The built-in speakers aren’t loud even at maximum volume. Despite that, I often noticed an unpleasant rattling sound caused by vibrations in the laptop chassis when the speakers were at high volumes. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics You’re not going to want to take video calls on the Acer Nitro V 16 AI. The laptop has a barebones 720p webcam with a soft, grainy image. It’s a basic experience excused only by the fact most competitive budget gaming laptops also have a 720p webcam. The dual-array microphone is a bit more usable, but not by much. It picks up audio that’s crisp, clear, and loud enough to be usable on Zoom or Google Meet. But, once again, this is a minimalist experience. Biometric login is not supported. This, once again, is typical for a budget gaming laptop. Very few offer a fingerprint reader or IR camera for facial recognition. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Connectivity You’ll find plenty of ports lining the Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s flanks. The left side provides Gigabit Ethernet, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, 3.5mm audio, and a microSD card reader, while the right side offers two more USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports. The rear includes HDMI 2.1, USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, and a barrel plug connector for the bundled 135-watt power brick. The USB-C port can be used to charge the laptop, though it doesn’t provide as much power as the 135-watt power brick. While the Nitro V 16 AI’s physical connectivity is solid, it’s not unusual for the category. Most budget gaming laptops have a similar number and configuration of ports. The microSD card reader is the only physical connectivity option that’s unexpected. Wireless connectivity is disappointing, as the Acer Nitro V 16 AI only supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. This puts it two generations behind the latest Wi-Fi standard and a generation behind the latest Bluetooth standard. I wouldn’t call it an immediate problem, as Wi-Fi 6 is still rather quick and new standards are backwards-compatible, but this could make the laptop’s Wi-Fi connectivity feel outdated more quickly as new standards emerge (Wi-Fi 8 is already announced). Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Performance The Acer Nitro V 16 AI that I received for review had an AMD Ryzen 5 240 CPU. It’s a low-end CPU in AMD’s current line-up. It has the AMD Zen 4 architecture (a step behind the latest Zen 5) and a total of six CPU cores with hyper-threading for a total of 12 threads. The maximum boost clock is 5GHz. That’s paired with the Nvidia RTX 5050 with 8GB of VRAM and a maximum graphics power of only 95 watts—fairly low for a modern Nvidia mobile GPU in a dedicated gaming laptop. 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive round out the specifications. Foundry / Matthew Smith First up is PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark. Here the Acer Nitro V 16 AI provides a good result of 7,259. That defeats the Alienware 16 Aurora and older HP Victus 15. On the other hand, there’s still a huge difference between the Acer Nitro V 16 AI and alternatives with a more power-hungry processor, such as the Lenovo Legion 5i with the Intel Core i7-14900HX. Foundry / Matthew Smith Cinebench 2024, a heavily multi-threaded CPU benchmark, reaches a modest score of 685 on the Acer Nitro V 16 AI. That’s not a huge surprise because, as mentioned, the AMD Ryzen 5 240 is towards the lower half of AMD’s product stack. Still, there’s significant gap between the Ryzen 5 240 and other CPUs you might find in budget gaming laptops, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 250 and Intel Core 7 240H. Foundry / Matthew Smith Handbrake is another multi-threaded CPU benchmark, but one with a longer duration. This test once again puts the Acer Nitro V 16 AI towards the bottom of the pack, though the margin of its defeat is smaller than it was in Cinebench 2024. I think it’s clear the AMD Ryzen 5 240 is not a performer in CPU tests. It’s fine, but it’s easy to find a gaming laptop with a faster CPU even in the sub-$1,000 price bracket. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is aimed at gaming, however, so how does Nvidia’s RTX 5050 8GB perform? Foundry / Matthew Smith 3DMark places the RTX 5050 where I would expect it. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a fair bit quicker than the HP Victus 16 that PC World tested with an RTX 4050. However, new laptops with an RTX 5060 prove quicker. The margin of victory for the RTX 5060 is often slim, though, depending on the laptop used for comparison. The Lenovo LOQ 15 leaps ahead, but the Alienware 16 Aurora with RTX 5060 is only about 10 percent quicker in 3DMark benchmarks. Foundry / Matthew Smith Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an older game that just about any modern gaming laptop can handle, and the Acer Nitro V 16 AI is no exception. It achieved an average of 120 frames per second. As the 3DMark test results suggested, the Acer Nitro V 16 AI is not as quick as RTX 5060 laptops, but has an advantage over the older RTX 4050. Foundry / Matthew Smith Metro Exodus, though also an older game, remains extremely demanding if the Extreme preset is used. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI can’t even crack an average of 40 FPS. To be fair, though, most RTX 5060 laptops also barely exceed 40 FPS. And the Nitro V 16 AI once again shows a decent lead over the HP Victus 15 with the older RTX 4050. Foundry / Matthew Smith We round out things with Cyberpunk 2077. While the Nitro V 16 AI is definitely less capable than RTX 5060 machines, the RTX 5050 allows Acer’s budget gaming laptop to hit an average of 72 FPS at 1080p and the Ultra preset. In general, a pleasant 1080p/60 experience is possible on the laptop even without the use of DLSS, which was not active for this test. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI’s overall results are about what I would expect. Nvidia’s RTX 5050 8GB is an entry-level part and, predictably, it doesn’t quite match the performance available from an RTX 5060—though the two are often close. If you’re upgrading from an older RTX 3050 or RTX 4050 laptop you will see a noticeable improvement. Pricing doesn’t work to Acer or Nvidia’s favor, however. Laptops with the RTX 5060 are barely more expensive than the Acer Nitro V 16 AI. Lenovo’s LOQ 15 is a good example of this, as it can retail as low as $809.99. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Battery life and portability The Acer Nitro V 16 AI has a 76 watt-hour battery. That’s a modest size for a gaming laptop (though typical for one priced below $1,000). You might expect battery life to be awful, but here the Nitro V 16 AI is able to pull off a surprise. Foundry / Matthew Smith Our standard battery rundown test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel, ran for over 12 hours before the Nitro V 16 AI had to call it a day. As the graph shows, that’s a much better result than is typical for a gaming laptop—at any price. Several factors combine to help the Nitro V 16 AI pull this off. It has support for Nvidia Optimus, which turns off the discrete GPU when it’s not needed. This transfers work to the AMD Ryzen 5 240, which is a miserly chip for a gaming laptop. I suspect the 1200p IPS LCD also helps, as it should draw less power than the higher-res OLED display you’d find on a more expensive gaming laptop. While this result is excellent, remember that battery life will vary depending on how the laptop is used. Gaming on the laptop will engage the Nvidia GPU, which in turn can drain the battery in under two hours if you’re playing a demanding game. Real-world use will also tend to be less than the benchmark suggests, depending on what you’re doing. Still, I experienced real-world battery life of roughly eight hours in a mix of web browsing and writing in LibreOffice. That’s not bad for a budget gaming laptop. Acer Nitro V 16 AI: Conclusion The Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a respectable budget gaming laptop that provides decent game performance and surprisingly good battery life. I also like the laptop’s 16-inch display with 1200p resolution, which is a step up from competitors with a 15.6-inch 1080p display. Other advantages include a wide range of physical connectivity and a decent touchpad. However, the AMD Ryzen 5 240 doesn’t post great results in CPU tests and the laptop has to make do with just 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The built-in speakers are a miss, too. I recommend the Acer Nitro V 16 AI over most of the budget gaming laptops I’ve tested or used in 2025. It’s among the more affordable entries in this arena and manages to avoid issues (like short battery life and a sub-par display) that impact competitors including the Lenovo LOQ 15 and HP Victus 15. Also keep a sharp eye on price. Though it has an MSRP of $899, the Acer Nitro V 16 AI is currently $629 on Walmart, compared to $799 on Amazon. The Nitro V is worth an extra half-star when on sale below $700, as it’s a great value at that pricing. Read...

Online security used to be simple. All you needed was a good password and, in the early days, you didn’t need a ton of numbers, letters, and special characters to achieve that goal. No need for antivirus software to verify you were logging into legitimate sites, either. Privacy also wasn’t quite as fragile as it is today. Your email wasn’t constantly being lost to yet another data breach. But AI has helped hackers and criminals become sneakier with their attacks, so now the recommendations for best security practices have become more sophisticated, too. Currently, experts recommend the use of unique, random passwords (and the more characters, the better) plus two-factor authentication as a strong baseline. (Passkeys also work great.) But you can go further—and companies on the frontlines of cybersecurity have made that easier.  the best ANTIVIRUS SUITE Norton 360 Deluxe Read our review One such step is called masked email. (You may also hear it referred to as email masks or email masking.) It formalizes a long-available feature known as email aliases as a privacy and security measure. A randomized email address is created to hide (aka mask) your true email address for an online account. Any correspondence sent to the masked email address gets forwarded to your actual inbox. The sender doesn’t know about the email’s final destination. They’ll only find out if you accidentally reply to a message as your main account. The benefits are twofold. You get better privacy, because the more you use different masked email addresses (ideally, one per online account), the more you limit the potential damage of the information leaking in a data breach. That email address won’t work on other websites as a login ID or for a password reset. Nor can someone take over the address as they could with an actual account. It’s just a forwarding address, and a disposable one at that. Masked email vs email aliases Masked email is a more specific (and automated) take on email aliases. Mozilla / PCWorld If you already filter your incoming email and/or guard against spam by using email aliases, masked email may sound like an empty marketing term for a familiar feature. But there is a slight difference—email masking is a narrower use of email aliases, with a particular style in how the aliases are created. With masked email, the focus is on auto-generated random, unique identifiers. Think 4k9xkeo@emailservice.com or even siftflask.3242@emailservice.com. You don’t need to come up with your own aliases, thus streamlining their use. The suggested aliases also completely obscure your email address, unlike with inserting periods into your username (e.g., random.username@gmail.com) or adding a + sign and an extra phrase (e.g. randomusername+alias@gmail.com) don’t achieve. You should also get streamlined controls to block incoming mail or disable the forwarding address if it gets flooded with unwanted email. The result is a faster, easier way to maintain anonymity in your contact info—and for sites that default to email addresses as usernames, your login info too. With the added benefit of integration with some browsers and password managers, email masking saves time and reduces the hassles of the DIY route. Ways you can start using masked email Some email providers offer masked email as part of their plans. Fastmail takes that one step further by offering integration with password managers like 1Password and Bitwarden for super-simple creation and storing of aliases.PCWorld Two common ways to get email masking is through an email provider or a dedicated service. Email providers offer the feature as an integrated part of the service. Access often requires a subscription, though. Only a few providers offer masked email, typically bundled into paid plans (e.g., Apple iCloud+, Fastmail, Proton Mail). That said, Proton Mail does offer basic hide-my-email aliases for free to all users, and prices otherwise start as low as $0.99 USD per month (iCloud+). a password manager that supports email maskS 1Password Read our review Dedicated services can be used with any site, main email address, browser, password manager, etc. You create an account using the email address you want to receive the forwarded email, and then create masks through the web interface or a browser extension. Some services also offer premium plans that allow sending and replying from an email mask, support larger file attachments, and generate email masks for multiple email addresses. All email masks are managed through the service, which is less convenient than with an email provider. You won’t have a single spot to control your direct and forwarded email. To really simplify using email masks, choose a service that integrates with a password manager. Once you connect your email account or masking service, you’ll be able to create the email masks directly within the password manager. It eliminates the need to copy and paste the new forwarding address when saving login info. Currently 1Password has a partnership with Fastmail, and Bitwarden has relationships with Fastmail, SimpleLogin, Addy.io, DuckDuckGo, Forward Email, and Firefox Relay. Apple users can use the company’s Hide My Email feature; email masks automatically save to iCloud Keychain if you actively use the latter. Alternatively, you can pick a password manager like NordPass or ProtonPass that directly handles email mask generation. Free email masking services SimpleLogin is the most generous with the features available to free users. SimpleLogin / PCWorld While getting masked email through an email provider usually costs money, dedicated services usually offer a free plan. They’re more limited in scope but still a great start. SimpleLogin offers 10 free forwarding addresses. There are no bandwidth limitations, and forwarded emails can be up to 25MB each. The service also allows you to reply to email from an alias, too. Firefox Relay lets you create just five free forwarding addresses, with a 10MB size limit per email and no bandwidth limitations. You can’t reply to email on the free tier, however. This service makes the list for a couple of reasons: It works across devices, and upgrading to the paid tier with unlimited addresses and the ability to send email from aliases is just $12 per year. (You will need to switch to Firefox if you want to use the browser extension for maximum ease of use, but that’s not a bad thing given Firefox’s greater commitment to privacy.) Addy.io allows you to create unlimited “standard” email masks. These are based on your Addy.io username, however—so if you want more privacy, you can then use one of your 10 free shared domain email masks. You can send and reply from your aliases, too. The catch: You’re limited to 10MB (yes, megabytes) of bandwidth per month. The company estimates that to be roughly 140 emails max. (Start adding in attachments and that drops very, very fast.) Live exclusively in Apple’s ecosystem? Sign in with Apple is a free way to get started with the company’s take on email masking.PCWorld Apple users also have an alternative option called Sign in with Apple. For apps and websites that allow you to sign in with your Apple ID, you get access to a limited form of Hide My Email, the company’s email masking service. Apple will generate a random forwarding email that will pass messages from the site or app to your Apple ID’s linked email address. Unlike the version of Hide My Email that comes with iCloud+, you can’t change the generated aliases or create ones independently. Also, as a general security note, signing in with this method can carry risk, since anyone with access to your Apple account could also then access linked services and apps, too. P.S.—Unique user IDs help online privacy and security, too The general concept behind masked email can be applied to creating user IDs, too. For sites that ask you to create a dedicated username (e.g., randomuser1), going with a new identifier each time makes it harder for people to track you across the web. Unauthorized access to your other accounts is less likely, too, when your username and password are different for every site and app. And you can combine masked email with a unique user ID so that you’re really hard to trace—useful when signing into sites that have yet to implement passkeys, a more secure alternative to passwords. (Or when, in the name of saving your future bacon, you still keep a username/password combo as secondary method of logging into an account with passkeys enabled.) Sounds complicated? This is why a password manager is so handy. It lets you continually level up your security with very little mental burden, especially if you pick one with support for email masking and passkey storage. Choose a paid password manager or a free one—either will make life easy. Read...

ThoughtSpot has unveiled StartupSpot, a programme offering early-stage firms AI analytics integration for USD $12,999 per year, aiding data-driven product features. Read...