The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently released an update to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image format, one of the most popular image formats for web content. Tom’s Hardware writes that this is the first time the W3C has updated the file format since 2003. The PNG image file format was originally launched in 1996, but this is only the third version ever. New features in the latest version include support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, animation via animated PNG (APNG) files, and storage of EXIF metadata. The W3C decided to update the file standard after another group within the consortium—working on time-based text such as subtitles, captions, and audio descriptions—realized that PNG files needed HDR support. The newest version of PNG is already supported by popular web browsers including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as creative editing software such as Adobe Photoshop and Da Vinci Resolve. Read...

Microsoft recently published a new blog post that confirms what has been suspected since March: the next version of Windows will be called Windows 11 25H2 and it will be more of a minor update. Microsoft compares Windows 11 25H2 with version 23H2, which was way more manageable than the mess of 24H2. But “minor” doesn’t mean it won’t have any new features. On the contrary! What’s new in Windows 11 25H2? Even though the Windows 11 25H2 update is expected to be only around 1 MB in size, Microsoft is still preparing a few adjustments for Windows 11 with it. These adjustments include a new Start menu with a grid and category layout, as reported by Windows Latest. Users will then be able to categorize their apps themselves into specific groups—for example, creative apps, games, streaming, social media—to access them more quickly. However, a certain number of apps must be present in a category for it to be visible. Windows Latest There will also be a new feature that throttles your CPU usage when you’re idling or away from your PC for a long time. The main goal here is to reduce power consumption and extende battery life. The first Windows 11 Insiders can already test 25H2 via the Canary Channel. Previously, there were some serious bugs that affected the OS’s stability, causing Microsoft to pause testing for a while. The good news is, updating to Windows 11 25H2 is a lot simpler and more straightforward than it has been in the past. You only need to restart your system once to get the new version. Still, Microsoft recommends updating to 24H2 first before stepping up to 25H2. Why is Windows 11 25H2 a minor update? As Windows 11 25H2 doesn’t contain any far-reaching changes for the operating system, Microsoft is not calling it a complete feature update. That would set expectations too high. It’s also natural that the next Windows 11 version update would be somewhat smaller again, given how tumultuous the 24H2 update turned out to be, causing numerous problems for users that had to be repeatedly rescued via emergency updates and rollout blocks. All the new features introduced in 24H2 will, of course, be included in 25H2. Users who are lagging behind will therefore receive a large package anyway if they haven’t been keeping up to date. It’s likely that Microsoft will finalize and deliver Windows 11 25H2 to users in October 2025. Support for Windows 10 was supposed to end at that time, but Microsoft also recently announced an extra year of free Windows 10 security updates… with a catch. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Great battery life Good desktop performance Solid build quality NPU for Copilot+ PC features Cons Price feels high when higher-end laptops are often on sale Dull display Tinny speakers Slow GPU Our Verdict Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 3x delivers great battery life and capable day-to-day performance, but the hardware makes a lot of compromises. That’s a tough sell when higher-end Copilot+ PCs with faster CPUs and better displays often drop to this price on sale. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x is an ARM-based laptop with the new low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip. Thanks to Snapdragon, this machine has excellent battery life for its class and an NPU for the shiny Copilot+ PC features Microsoft is releasing. It’s the lowest launch price for a Snapdragon X Copilot+ PC I’ve seen yet. The build quality and design are good, too. But the compromises here would feel a lot more justifiable at $599 than $749. Still, this machine beats the Intel variant — no question. The big problem is that this laptop is launching a year after the first Snapdragon X Copilot+ PCs, with slower internals than those in earlier models. At this machine’s initial retail price, it’s competing with Copilot+ PCs with stronger hardware that have been out for months and are frequently on sale for a similar price. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Specs The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has the same lower-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 CPU I initially reviewed in Asus’s featherlight $1200 Asus ZenBook A14. It makes much more sense here in this $749 machine than that $1200 machine. (Qualcomm initially said it hoped this CPU would power $600 laptops.) While this laptop’s price makes a lot more sense for this CPU, it’s still worth noting that this is a newer, lower-end Snapdragon X SKU. It’s slower than the Snapdragon X Plus chips that Qualcomm initially released. Here’s the official product matrix. As it shows, Snapdragon X ranks at the bottom of the pack with the slowest CPU (up to 3 GHz) and the slowest GPU (1.7 TFLOPS). Qualcomm talked up GPU performance and gaming a lot when it launched the Snapdragon X platform, and you should be aware the GPU in these machines is much slower than Qualcomm’s marketing might lead you to believe. However, this machine does have the NPU all Qualcomm Snapdragon X PCs come with. That means that, unlike with the Intel variant, you are getting Copilot+ PC AI features on this machine. This laptop has a 256 GB SSD, but it comes with a second SSD slot so you can install another SSD if you need more storage later. Model number: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x 15Q8X10 CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5x RAM Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno X1-45 NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (up to 45 TOPS) Display: 15.3-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with 60Hz refresh rate and touch screen Storage: 256 GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD Webcam: 720p webcam with privacy shutter Connectivity: 1x USB Type-C (USB 5Gbps), 2x USB Type-A (USB 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x SD card reader, 1x combo audio jack, 1x power connector Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader for Windows Hello Battery capacity: 60 Watt-hours Dimensions: 13.52 x 9.51 x 0.7 inches Weight: 3.42 pounds MSRP: $749 as tested At $749, the compromises — the display, speakers, webcam, and GPU in particular — feel like they add up fast. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Design and build quality IDG / Chris Hoffman The 15-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a top made of aluminum and a bottom made of plastic. While plastic isn’t the most premium material, it looks good and feels fine. From a distance, the design looks similar to Lenovo’s more expensive laptops to me, especially thanks to the aluminum lid. There’s nothing particularly wrong with a good plastic laptop, and the design and build quality here are both good! There’s no weird flexing as you hold the laptop or open it up. The “Luna Gray” color scheme here looks nice, too — it’s more silver or light-blue than gray in the right lighting. At 3.42 pounds, this 15-inch laptop could be a little more lightweight if it was made of more expensive materials. But the weight is totally fine, and the 0.7-inch thickness is reasonable too. The software is a bit obnoxious out of the box, as it tends to be on consumer Lenovo laptops. For example, McAfee antivirus pops up and encourages you to buy a subscription. You can uninstall this stuff, but the laptop would feel better out of the box without it. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a fine keyboard, complete with a number pad. I like having the number pad when there’s room. 15-inch laptops tend to include a number pad since they have more space, but some people might want a roomier keyboard without that number pad. Lenovo makes lots of good laptop keyboards, and this keyboard feels okay, but it’s lower-end and more budget-focused than the options in more expensive premium laptops. As in the Intel-powered Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 model, there’s some mushiness to the keys. When I type, I notice the plastic around the keys push downward into the machine when my finger goes all the way down on a key. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but this is one of the mushiest keyboards I’ve used on a Lenovo machine. It’s one of those touches that makes the machine feel more budget than premium. But it’s usable and comfortable enough. The trackpad feels solid, too. It’s a plastic surface rather than a premium glass one, but it’s responsible and smooth, with a fine click-down feel. It’s positioned further to the left than on most laptops. If you find yourself using your touchpad with your right hand, that may be a little inconvenient. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Display and speakers IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x’s 15.3-inch 1920×1200 IPS display is the weakest part of the experience. At 300 nits, it’s on the dim side on paper. In real life, it feels not just unusually dim, but also dull. I cranked this one up to 100 percent brightness and still want it to go higher. The display does have an anti-glare coating that works nicely to avoid reflections, so it arguably needs less brightness than glossy laptop displays that are more vulnerable to glare. The 60Hz refresh rate is also the bare minimum, here — but 60Hz isn’t a major issue compared to the other problems with the display. This is a touch-screen laptop, too. That’s a nice feature to have. The speakers are lacking, too. They’re on the quiet side, but the biggest problem is that the audio quality is tinny. I listen to both Steely Dan’s Aja and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky on Spotify when I review laptop speakers. The instrument separation in Aja and the bass in Get Lucky were both on the bad side as far as laptop speakers go. I’d get a good pair of headphones if you want to listen to music or watch media. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x includes a 720p webcam, which is a surprise since the Intel variant I recently reviewed included a 1080p webcam. The webcam just isn’t great in 2025 — 1080p webcams have largely become standard. The webcam produces an image that’s lower-detail and more washed out than the average 1080p webcam on a newer laptop. Still, it’s fine — if you just need to participate in an occasional video meeting, webcam quality isn’t necessarily the most important factor on a machine like this. The IdeaPad Slim 3x does have a physical webcam shutter switch above the display — that’s always a privacy feature I’m thrilled to see. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x’s microphone didn’t do a great job, either. It picked up my voice without background noise, but the sound was unusually quiet and sounded a little low-quality. I would aim to use an external mic in calls and voice chats if you opt for this machine. This machine doesn’t have an IR camera for facial recognition with Windows Hello. Instead, it has a fingerprint reader at the right side of the laptop, below the Enter key on the number pad. The fingerprint reader works fine, and some people will prefer it to facial recognition hardware. That’s a matter of personal taste. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Connectivity IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a decent number of ports for a budget-focused laptop, just like the Intel variant does. On the right side, this machine has a USB Type-A port next to a full-size SD card reader. On the left side, Lenovo includes a power connector (Lenovo doesn’t include a USB-C charger, which is a surprise for a Snapdragon laptop) along with a second USB Type-A port, an HDMI 1.4 out port, a USB Type-C port, and a combo audio jack. With so many laptops supporting faster USB speeds and HDMI 2.1 out, the port selection does feel a bit lower-end. Thanks to the Snapdragon hardware here, this machine does support the future-proof Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards. (The Intel variant, with its previous-generation platform, doesn’t offer these.) Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Performance While the Snapdragon chip here is the lowest-end one available, this machine still performs fine in day-to-day use. While the CPU speed is a bit lower, the biggest performance drops are in multi-core performance (this chip has fewer cores) and graphics performance (the GPU here is substantially slower than on higher-tier Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite chips.) Those aren’t the most important for typical desktop productivity performance. While app compatibility has improved with Windows on ARM, it still isn’t perfect. Personally, all the desktop apps I use regularly run fine — aside from OBS Studio, which has an experimental build that should run. We ran the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. However, bear in mind that some of our benchmark tools — like PCMark 10 — don’t run on ARM PCs. IDG / Chris Hoffman To get an idea of CPU performance, we run Cinebench R24. Unlike many benchmarking tools, this runs natively on ARM PCs, so we can compare performance across the x86 and ARM platforms without Microsoft’s Prism translation layer getting involved. Cinebench is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. Since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x scored 711 in the Cinebench R24 multi-threaded benchmark. That’s substantially faster than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 variant with the Intel Core 5 210H hardware and not too far behind the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus variant with faster Snapdragon hardware. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop — not even by Snapdragon laptop standards — but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. First, we run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. This particular benchmark runs through the Prism translation layer as it’s not ARM-native. Despite that translation layer slowing things down, the Qualcomm GPU here scored 1063, which was only a little slower than the integrated Intel graphics in the Intel variant. This benchmark reflects how GPU-accelerated apps perform in the real world, as most apps and games aren’t available in ARM-native versions. IDG / Chris Hoffman We also run 3DMark Night Raid, which runs natively on ARM laptops. With the Prism translation layer getting out of the way, the Qualcomm Adreno GPU here produced a score of 16677. That’s substantially faster than Intel’s integrated graphics. However, as you can see in both the Night Raid and Time Spy benchmarks, this is unusually bad compared to other Snapdragon laptops. If you plan on using the laptop for gaming or GPU-accelerated professional applications, I would strongly encourage you to look for a laptop with faster graphics hardware. Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x did fine, delivering decent desktop performance in the desktop apps many people use all day — browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, productivity apps like Microsoft Word, and collaboration tools like Slack. But it will lag behind in more demanding workflows — especially anything that needs graphics acceleration. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Battery life The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a 60 Watt-hour battery. Combined with a power-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor, this ARM-powered Windows PC should have great battery life. And it does. IDG / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the laptop’s display to 250 nits of brightness for this test. This is the 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 3x lasted an average of 982 minutes before suspending itself — that’s over 16 hours. While you can get a few more hours of battery with a more expensive Snapdragon or Lunar Lake laptop — those will often have larger batteries, which means longer life — this is a great number for a budget laptop. There’s a good chance it will last for an entire workday — depending on how demanding the applications you use are and how long your workday is! Notably, it’s nearly two times more battery life than the similar Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 and its Intel Core 5 210H processor delivered. That’s a huge improvement. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Conclusion The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x is a tough laptop to pass judgement on. If this was one of the $600 Snapdragon laptops we were promised by Qualcomm’s marketing push, I think it would be compelling. At $749, the compromises — the display, speakers, webcam, and GPU in particular — feel like they add up fast. On the other hand, this machine is worlds better than the Intel variant I just reviewed. You’re getting a faster CPU, faster GPU, much longer battery life, Wi-Fi 7 support, and an NPU for Copilot+ PC AI features. The laptop runs cooler and quieter. I’d much rather have the Snapdragon hardware in this chassis than that particular Intel chip. While I haven’t seen another Snapdragon laptop or Copilot+ PC with a starting retail price this low, you can often find laptops with more impressive hardware on sale around the $749 price point. Some of the competing models that frequently drop to that price even have beautiful-looking OLED displays. But, on a good sale, this machine could be an amazing deal if you want an inexpensive ARM laptop running Windows. Read...

Microsoft formally announced the next version of Windows 11 on Friday, Windows 11 25H2, and indicated that the upgrade will be much simpler than its predecessor. Windows 11 24H2 will be administered via what’s known as a “shared servicing branch,” which is the normal way for Windows to be updated. Microsoft simply takes the code that your machine lacks and sends it down to your PC via Windows Update, reducing the total download size by about 40 percent, Microsoft said. In early 2025, Microsoft rolled out an update to Windows 11 24H2, which required a much more intensive process. Microsoft called that rollout a full code swap, and when I performed the upgrade myself, it took as long as just under two hours on an older machine. That process essentially swapped all of the existing code for a total update. Since Microsoft is returning to a shared servicing branch, you can expect the update to move much more quickly. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that it will quietly download the Windows 11 25H2 components, then turn them on via an enablement package. Once the code is enabled, all a user has to do is reboot to “turn on” the new code. If you go to Windows Settings > System > About, you can see the new version, Microsoft said. Microsoft didn’t say when Windows 11 25H2 will officially roll out, but history says that it will probably be in September or October. Microsoft isn’t saying what new features will be rolled out as part of Windows 11 25H2. The company released two test builds for Windows 11 this week, one offering a dashboard for its Recall technology as a passkey integration with 1Password. Read...

Combining unbeatable resilience, smart features and polished design, the A5 Series makes high-performance essentials accessible to everyday users, without the premium price tag. Read...

Confluent Cloud unveils new features blending real-time and historical data to enhance secure, intelligent AI agents and analytics for enterprises. Read...

If you’re still using WinRAR, you should update to version 7.12 as soon as possible. A vulnerability labeled CVE-2025-6218 was recently discovered in older versions of the popular Windows file compression tool. The security vulnerability in question can reportedly be exploited by hackers to bypass the app’s built-in security features, increasing the risk of malware execution, reports BleepingComputer. The issue was first reported on June 5th, 2025 through the Zero Day Initiative, and WinRAR released a fix for it with version 7.12 beta 1 on June 24th, 2025. The release also addresses two other minor issues. “When extracting a file, previous versions of WinRAR, Windows versions of RAR, UnRAR, portable UnRAR source code and UnRAR.dll can be tricked into using a path, defined in a specially crafted archive, instead of user specified path,” writes WinRAR in its changelog. In other words, files could be secretly extracted to system directories and other sensitive locations, allowing hackers to execute malicious files in unwanted places. Though there are no known instances of this exploit being attacked in the wild, you should update WinRAR immediately to stay safe. Read...

Adding a search field to your spreadsheet can greatly improve data navigation and usability. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a dynamic search box that filters data based on your input, using Excel’s built-in features and Developer tools. To create a search field in a spreadsheet, you must first activate the Developer tools menu. To do this, go to Options > Customize Ribbon on the File tab. In the Customize Ribbon column, check the box next to Developer tools and select OK. Next, switch to your spreadsheet containing your data. Make sure the first row has header data describing the content of each column. Select all the data and convert it into a smart table by pressing Ctrl + T. Confirm the table area by clicking OK. Then, in the Table Design menu, give your table a name under Table Name, such as Data. Now you can create a search field to filter the data in your worksheet. In this example, it will search the Department column of your data. Use this trick to create a search field in a worksheet. In this example, it can search the Department column of the data above.IDG Switch to an area next to the table and insert the search field there. Go to Developer tools > Insert > ActiveX Control, and select the Text Field icon. (Hover over the icons with your mouse to see their names; in our test system, it’s the fifth icon from the left in the first row.) Place the text field next to your table. Right-click the text field, select Properties, and under LinkedCell, enter the cell behind the search field — for example, B7. Next, click Developer Mode in the Developer tools menu to anchor the new search field. Copy the header data from your table and paste it below the search field. Then, write the following formula in the cell directly below the first header cell: =FILTER(data;data[department]=B7; “Nothing”) The FILTER function follows this pattern: Matrix, include, [if_empty]. Matrix is all the data the filter should output. Include specifies which rows to show based on the condition. [If_empty] defines what to display if there are no matches. In this example, the table is named Data and defined as the matrix. The search filters the Department column, showing only rows where the value matches the input in cell B7. If no rows match, it displays “Nothing”. Read...

Beginning on June 30 of this year, residents in Wyoming are going to lose access to the adult site Pornhub. Earlier this year the Wyoming state legislature passed HB0043, an over-18 age-verification law designed to prevent minors from viewing adult content. Unfortunately, it also stands to compromise the privacy of all legal visitors to the site, as well. The law is set to take effect on July 1, 2025, and Pornhub’s parent company Aylo will begin restricting access to its adult sites for residents in Wyoming in protest on June 30, 2025. Aylo and other privacy advocates claim that these laws violate free speech, and infringe on personal privacy protections. By forcing individuals to hand over personally identifiable information to third parties, it creates the environment for potential government overreach and data misuse. This ban is just the latest following a trend that has seen more than 19 states lose access to the incredibly popular NSFW site. Similar bans occurred in March of last year when access was blocked to residents in Texas, in June when Indiana, Idaho, and Kansas also lost the ability to visit the site, in July for Nebraska, in October for Alabama, and in January of this year when Florida was hit with the ban hammer as well.  For legal-age Wyomingites looking to access the site, this is disruptive to say the least. Fortunately, there’s an easy workaround: using a VPN. Simply download and install your preferred VPN, connect to a server in a state that isn’t blocked, and enjoy the content. Below you’ll find my top picks for VPNs to access Pornhub (or other Aylo owned adult content) if you’re in Wyoming where access will be blocked. And for even more great options, check out my list of the best VPNs overall. NordVPN – Best overall NordVPN Read our review Best Prices Today: $3.39 at NordVPN (Monthly) NordVPN is my overall top pick for VPNs. It comes with a ton of great features including wide device support, ad- and tracker-blocking, and plenty of domestic and international servers—with coverage in most U.S. states. It also boasts the fastest connection speeds, meaning you won’t need to lower your video quality to a resolution that makes it look like the important bits are blurred on purpose. NordVPN has one of the widest platform support networks as well, so you’ll be able to view whatever content you wish no matter the device. ExpressVPN – Runner-up ExpressVPN Read our review Best Prices Today: $4.99 at ExpressVPN ExpressVPN is a close second to NordVPN, falling a hair behind by being not quite as fast and having a fewer extra features. Those are just minor issues, though, and shouldn’t take away from ExpressVPN still being one of the best VPN services on the market. It also consistently has great speeds, so you can stream in HD to your heart’s content. Plus, it works with nearly every device and has one of the best user-privacy records around. Mullvad – Best for privacy Mullvad Read our review Depending on what you’re looking for from a VPN, Mullvad might actually be your best option. Not only is it in my top five services for overall speed, it most importantly earns top marks for privacy. Mullvad takes every effort it can to know as little about its users as possible. The service won’t ask for an email address or name and it even accepts payments via mailed cash if you want. Plus, it costs a mere $5 per month regardless of the plan you choose. Proton VPN – Best free VPN ProtonVPN Read our review Best Prices Today: $9.99 at Proton VPN While I don’t usually recommend that anyone use a free VPN due to their proven security and privacy risks, Proton VPN is one of the exceptions. This service from the well-known Swiss-based Proton brand has to-date a spotless track record for user privacy. It’s also completely free of ads. Just like all free VPNs, there are limitations, but thankfully Proton VPN keeps them relatively manageable. For no cost whatsoever you’ll get a one-device connection limit and access to five servers located in different countries around the world (including the U.S.). It doesn’t impose any speed or data limitations on these free servers either—something that’s unheard of with other free VPNs. Read...

I’ve decided to test a radical change to my living room streaming setup. For years, I’ve used an Apple TV 4K for streaming, and while it’s been a great device overall, I’ve always wanted to try swapping it for a home theater PC. In my early cord-cutting years (circa 2010), I used a cheap Intel Atom-powered Lenovo nettop (now obsolete) to access Hulu’s website (still free at the time) and avoid its subscription fees on connected TV devices. Plugging a cheap mini PC into your TV today could yield similar advantages. This experiment could fail for a variety of reasons, and I’ve already hit some snags in my initial setup. But if it works, it could offer a lot more control over the streaming experience along with some potential cost savings over time. The case for a home theater PC (in 2025) I’m going into this mini PC experiment with a bunch of use cases in mind: Ad-skipping powers: With a desktop web browser, I can use MultiSkipper to fast-forward through commercials on Hulu, Peacock, Tubi, and other ad-supported streaming services, and I can use uBlock Origin to avoid ads on YouTube. This could save a lot of money as ad-free streaming subscriptions get more expensive. The MultiSkipper browser extension.Jared Newman / Foundry Password sharing: Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing doesn’t apply to website or mobile app use, presumably because it’d be tricky to block out-of-home use on portable devices. Watching on a PC could make account-splitting easier, especially as more services follow Netflix’s lead. Unrestricted multiview: Picture-in-picture is a mess on streaming platforms, with inconsistent support across apps and devices. That’s not an issue on PCs, where you can just open up more browser windows or use the handy picture-in-picture Chrome extension. This could really come in handy during March Madness. Watching two videos at a time is no problem on desktop web browsers.Jared Newman / Foundry Unlocked playback speeds: Some videos just don’t need to be watched at regular speed, but with the exception of YouTube, most video services don’t let you speed up playback on smart TVs and streaming devices. By contrast, Netflix’s web version has built-in speed controls, while the Video Speed Controller extension works across a broad range of sites. Streaming guides galore: While most streaming platforms offer guide features for tracking shows and finding new things to watch, they don’t work with every streaming service and they tend to be loaded with ads and upsells. On a PC, you can take your pick of streaming guide sites such as Reelgood, JustWatch, Trakt, and Plex Discover. More entertainment options: With a mini PC setup, I’m looking forward to using some apps that aren’t available on an Apple TV, such as Nvidia GeForce Now and Plexamp. The hardware The Beelink Mini S12 Pro’s HDMI outputs connect direclty to the TV.Jared Newman / Foundry I didn’t want to spend a lot on this endeavor, nor did I want a noisy desktop PC that takes up a lot of space. That led me to Beelink’s Mini S12 Pro, whose $169 street price is only a little higher than the nicest streaming players, and its footprint isn’t much larger either. While its Intel N100 processor is lightweight, it supports 4K HDR video, comes with Windows 11, and includes a fairly generous 16GB of RAM and 500GB of storage. Similar products abound from other mini PC vendors, but I’ve had a positive experience using a slightly pricier Beelink SER5 Ryzen-based PC as my everyday computer and decided to stick with a brand that I know. One caveat: The Mini S12 Pro doesn’t support HDCP 2.2, which Netflix requires for 4K HDR video. The SER5 doesn’t have that limitation, but I stuck with the cheaper model for reasons I’ll explain below. The trade-offs While I’ve barely started using this new setup, I’ve already encountered a few issues. The biggest problem is inconsistent 4K HDR video support on streaming sites. Netflix technically supports 4K HDR in Microsoft’s Edge browser, but even on Beelink’s higher-end SER5, it refused to budge beyond 1080p. Amazon Prime and Max don’t support 4K or HDR on PCs at all. That said, I only upgraded to Netflix’s Premium tier with 4K HDR (which costs $25 per month, instead of $18) for testing purposes. Max charges extra for 4K HDR as well, and vast swaths of other streamers’ catalogs are limited to 1080p anyway. Surround sound can also be an issue on streaming sites, but my living room setup is stereo-only anyway. Using an air mouse may be as close to the remote control experience as it gets.Wechip The other obvious issue is usability. Keeping a mouse and keyboard in the living room is out of the question, and while I’m looking into air mouses with small built-in keyboards, like this one, navigating a desktop interface will be less ideal than clicking around on a real remote. This will take some finagling, and the rest of my family will likely need to switch over to the Apple TV or the Google TV software built into our television. Follow up! I solved my TV streaming problems with this $30 keyboard In other words, this won’t be an ideal solution for everyone, and it might not even work out in the Newman household. If this whole TV experiment fails, I’ll likely repurpose the little Beelink PC as a cheap way to play with some Linux distributions; if it succeeds, it could be much a more liberating way to access streaming content. I plan to report back soon with new tips and findings either way. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...