The future is coming, and that means making sure you’re well-versed in AI usage for when it matters. And while there are all kinds of AI tools now, the most prominent one remains AI chatbots like ChatGPT. When I take a step back and look at my own AI chatbot use, that’s what I’m predominantly doing with it: educating myself. Sure, I’m learning new skills and finding answers to questions when my kids stump me, but ultimately what I’m doing when I play around with the likes of ChatGPT Plus and Copilot Pro is learning how to use AI, period. And now that these AI chatbots have come out with premium subscription plans with even more advanced features, I wouldn’t blame you if you’re confused about why they have paid plans, what the benefits are, and whether they’re worth paying for. Like it or not, AI is the future The latest AI chatbots are impressive feats of engineering and software development that build on decades of work in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks. But it’s still a bit of frontier. Many are still figuring out what they can do and how best to use them, and many others still dismiss AI as a passing fad to ignore. While I don’t think we’ve yet reached the point where everyone needs to know how to use AI for day-to-day stuff, it feels like that time is fast approaching. Being able to work with AI is going to be a necessary skill, akin to general computer use and not being an ass to your colleagues. But can you get by on the free versions of ChatGPT, Copilot, and the rest? Or should you pony up for a premium plan? Well, that depends! Free AI chatbots are good enough for most If you haven’t found yourself dabbling with AI yet, whether at work or at home, and you don’t feel much pressure from colleagues or friends or family to do so, then you’re probably fine just using the free versions if and when you get around to it. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence — they all offer free access with adequate capabilities, able to do all the basics you’d need to get your feet wet with generative AI chatbots. They can answer questions, generate draft text, create images from scratch, and ultimately help you familiarize yourself with using them. And over time, it’s possible — even expected — that advanced features that are currently premium-only will eventually be made free. Things like custom GPTs and Advanced Voice will become commonplace while other, newer features are introduced to paid subscribers. One major component of these AI chatbots is that you can communicate with them using natural language, so once you get the hang of how to give them the information they need to give you the response you want, it doesn’t matter whether you’re typing it or saying it. You don’t really need Advanced Voice — it just feels cooler and more futuristic. Of course, not all premium AI chatbot features are merely for aesthetics, convenience, or early access. There are some real reasons to pay up. Keep reading for aspects you might think are worth paying for. Related: Practical use cases for ChatGPT When are premium AI chatbots worth it? One interesting thing about AI chatbots like ChatGPT is that they can support different GPT models and even run custom GPT models. In essence, you can switch out the “brain” for another one, changing how it interprets your input to give you different output. Consistent access to the latest and greatest GPT models is worth paying for if you end up using AI chatbots a lot. The free versions are great for getting your feet wet, but they tend to run on older GPT models; as a premium subscriber, you can basically pay for better results — and in this case, better means more accurate, more reliable, and more useful due to improvements made to the underlying language model. For example, the latest GPT model offers much better coding capabilities compared to earlier ones, so it’s going to be more helpful if you’re trying to learn how to code with the aid of an AI chatbot. Similarly, an older GPT model might have outdated information or lack access to the latest developments, which could lead to wrong or misleading answers. If accuracy and guidance are important to you, then you might seriously want to consider paying for the latest GPT models. Moreover, some AI chatbots even let you create custom GPT models that are specifically tailored towards certain needs and tasks. For example, one custom GPT might be designed to teach the rules to board games, whereas another custom GPT might be configured to talk and behave like a condescending pirate. (You know, for funsies.) Access to custom GPTs is usually limited to paid subscribers, though. I might need a custom GPT to pretend to be the MU-TH-UR computer system from Alien, but do you? And if so, are you willing to pay for it?Jon Martindale / IDG Personally, I’m more of a stan for ChatGPT Plus, but there’s no denying that it isn’t as good as Copilot Pro when it comes to app integration, particularly with Microsoft 365 apps. If you’re a big Word, Excel, or Outlook user, you should really look into Copilot Pro’s capabilities and weigh whether you’d benefit from from it. Related: ChatGPT Plus vs. Copilot Pro, compared AI integration within specific apps won’t always be the way it is right now, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it’ll continue to improve, expand, and take over. You’ll be able to benefit from this shift sooner and over the long run if you take steps now to learn AI and become well-versed so you can more easily adopt newer advancements in the future. Another thing is that whether you’re using ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, or any other AI chatbot, premium plans typically remove (or at least increase) limits and grant priority access during peak usage times. That means you have assurance that you can use the tools of your choice whenever you want and that it’ll be consistent every time. On the other hand, if you stick with the free versions of these AI chatbots, you could get bumped for a premium user when the service is congested, or you might only be able to request a handful of prompts per day that aren’t enough to finish the task(s) you’re working on. Premium AI chatbots can be worth paying for, but only for some I don’t want to be “that guy” who says things like: “It’s only $20! You spend more on that on X, Y, Z…” Because I know that $20 is a lot, and who wants to shell out so much cash every month? Spending that much on an AI chatbot might be unjustifiable for you, especially if all you’re doing is having a bit of fun and familiarizing yourself with it. On the other hand, if you have money to burn, you could think about these novel premium features as “entertainment” and justify it as the cost of having fun with cutting-edge tech. But if there’s one group for whom premium AI chatbots are seriously worth it, it’s people who can make money with it. If you’re a creative, ChatGPT can help you brainstorm, write, edit, and think outside the box. If you’re an office worker, Copilot can drastically boost your productivity so you get more done in less time. If you’re a tech influencer, first-hand experience with AI is how you get the knowledge and expertise to do what you do. If you’re a job seeker, these AI chatbots can help you perfect your résumés and land better roles that pay more. In all of these cases, you’re likely going to cross whatever limits exist in their respective free plans, and you’re likely going to benefit from their advanced features that let you do more. For me, premium AI chatbot access pays for itself and then some, so it’s a no-brainer; if you can pay $20 per month and earn more out the other side, then that’s a sound investment. Plus, you can cancel as soon as you don’t need it. For now, premium AI chatbots don’t offer enough revolutionary features to be worthwhile for everyone. That’s on the developers, who still need to figure out what sorts of transformative features are needed to reach broader mainstream appeal. Until then, the free tier will likely remain more than good enough for most. Related: The truth of how people actually use AI chatbots Read...

The titans of the PC industry slugged things out in 2024, jockeying for dominance in the new AI era blossoming before our eyes. It was most evident in laptops: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips kicked off Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC era with long life and surprisingly competitive performance, only to be rivaled by Intel’s Macbook-killing Lunar Lake chips months later. AMD, meanwhile, focused on bringing high-octane speed to Copilot+ PCs, zigging for oomph while the others zagged to endurance. With competition flourishing, PCWorld expects to review over 120 laptops by the end of the year, by far a new high water mark! But laptops weren’t the only category laser-focused on innovation and performance. This year, cutting-edge monitors became the norm, Thunderbolt docks and SSDs embraced newer, faster standards, Intel and AMD launched overhauled desktop CPUs, gaming handhelds got truly competitive, and the software that runs on all that hardware kept getting better and better, too. You love to see it. With such a gluttony of choice, it became harder than ever for PC hardware and software to impress us. Few products earned our rare Editors’ Choice award. And only the very best of the best grace this list. Without further ado, this is the Best PC Hardware and Software of 2024, as chosen by PCWorld’s editors. Congratulations to the winners – with a field this crowded, they’ve definitely earned it. Best laptop: Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Read our review The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is one of the most well-rounded laptops we’ve ever tested here at PCWorld. You’re getting strong performance, phenomenal battery life (17 hours on a single charge!), and a vibrant 14-inch 1400p display to boot. It hits nearly every mark and is clearly the best laptop for most people. The aesthetics are a little bland, sure, but the hardware capabilities and marathon battery life more than make up for it – and a laptop that fits in with the crowd isn’t a bad thing. -Ashley Biancuzzo Best desktop CPU: Ryzen 7 9800X3D Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry It’s been a dour year for CPUs – AMD’s initial Ryzen 9000 lineup offered minimal performance uplift and suffered from (since-fixed) Windows-related performance woes, while Intel’s radical new Core Ultra chips wound up being slower than their predecessors in gaming. But things ended with a bang courtesy of AMD’s jaw-dropping Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Thanks to a second-generation V-Cache that eliminated the caveats required by earlier X3D models – the 9800X3D isn’t a drawback for productivity now! — AMD’s new gaming champion brought the heat against Intel. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D obliterates Intel’s flagship Core Ultra 9 285K by 25 to 30 percent on average, with the whupping hitting an almost unbelieveable 45 percent in Cyberpunk 2077. Madness! I can’t remember the last time I witnessed a hardware beat down this relentlessly violent. If you want the single best gaming chip you can buy, the Ryzen 9 9800X3D is it – by a whole hell of a lot. -Brad Chacos Best password manager: Dashlane Dashlane Read our review Best Prices Today: $4.99 at Dashlane As data breaches increase in number and severity, password managers have become ever more important. A good one makes staying on top of your online security easy—quickly creating strong passwords, alerting when one’s been compromised, and updating compromised or weak credentials. Of the options out there, Dashlane’s consistency and continual feature updates have helped keep it as a long-standing favorite among our staff. Its paid Premium plan includes passkey support, passwordless login, dark web monitoring, VPN access, and even real-time phishing protection. The latter two features are a proactive stance against other dangers to your password health—a welcome touch if your online habits would benefit from extra privacy and online protection, but you haven’t yet looked into a dedicated VPN or antivirus subscription. – Alaina Yee Best monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2724DE Dell Ultrasharp U2724D Read our review We knew this monitor was special when our veteran monitor reviewer, Matt Smith, described it as “arguably the most versatile monitor ever sold.” Say more! The Dell Ultrasharp U2724DE has what it takes to meet a user’s every display need, whether it’s as the command center of a busy workday, the canvas for content creation, or the means of losing yourself in a movie or game. The IPS Black panel gives the 27-inch screen incredible contrast, while a 120Hz refresh rate makes for great motion clarity. Add to that the oodles of ports, an attractive and functional design, and a reasonable price, and Dell’s stunner is definitely this year’s best monitor! – Katherine Stevenson Best desktop GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super Nvidia It was a slow year for graphics cards, but the GPUs we did get were welcome ones. Nvidia’s RTX 40-series Super refresh, announced at CES, righted the missteps made in the original 40-series lineup, lowering prices and beefing up specs where it made sense. The best of the bunch was Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4070 Super, which offers a super-sized performance boost over its vanilla namesake thanks to 20 percent more CUDA, ray tracing, and DLSS tensor cores, all at the same $599 price point as the original. Yes please! On top of best-in-class ray tracing performance, Nvidia’s also best-in-class software features (such as DLSS 3.5 ray reconstruction, dual AV1 encoders, and Nvidia Reflex, a must-have in competitive shooters) make the RTX 4070 Super shine bright in the most competitive segment of the graphics card market. What, that’s not good enough for you? The Nvidia RTX 4080 Super also earned an Editors’ Choice award for its all-around excellence, buoyed by a $200 price cut versus the original 4080. -Brad Chacos Best Chromebook: Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus Read our review From the versatile 2-in-1 design to the stunning touchscreen, the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus has a lot to offer. The Chromebook Plus models have really raised the bar in terms of hardware capabilities and the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus pushes the pedal to the metal even further. Not only is day-to-day performance zippy, but the build feels strong in both tent and tablet modes. The 360-degree hinge is especially unyielding, which is exactly what we like to see. The original $499 MSRP price is a little high for a Chromebook, sure, but the overall fit, finish, and firepower make it worth the extra cash. – Ashley Biancuzzo Best SSD: Crucial T705 Crucial T705 NVMe SSD Read our review Best Prices Today: $174.99 at Amazon The cutting edge in solid state storage is the PCIe 5.0 interface, and the SSD that sets the bar for this echelon is the Crucial T705. If it’s speed you’re after, this bad boy brings it – as in 14.5GBps sequential reading and 12.3GBps writing in our synthetic benchmarks. Real-world performance is also impressive. And the price for the Crucial T705 has come down considerably since we first reviewed it, to sub-$200 for 1TB, making this high-performance drive a no-brainer for speed freaks. – Katherine Stevenson Best VPN: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN Read our review It’s a tough ask to select the best VPN overall. There are so many factors to consider such as privacy, ease of use, server network size, unblocking capabilities, and speed. Everyone’s intended usage may vary and that needs to be taken into account. Will the VPN be used to get around location blocks for streaming, staying incognito online, torrenting, or something else—the list goes on and on. Many VPNs excel at a few of these functions, but seldom manage to shine across the board. Enter ExpressVPN. It’s one of the only services that consistently ranks highly across each category. That’s why, for the third year in a row, it’s my top VPN. Not only does it continue to be one of the fastest VPNs I’ve ever tested, but it has a huge server network, it’s dead simple to use, and comes with a sterling user privacy record. It also never fails to unblock streaming services and fully supports P2P. There might be services with more extra features, but none exemplify all of the elements of a great VPN like ExpressVPN. — Sam Singleton Best gaming monitor: MSI MPG 341CQPX MSI MPG 341CQPX Read our review Best Prices Today: $849.99 at Amazon | $849.99 at MSI If your primary purpose is gaming, the MSI MPG 341CQPX is the monitor you want, hands down. The 34-inch curved display stands out among a sea of other QD-OLED competitors by boasting a higher refresh rate (up to 240Hz), strong HDR performance, and an excellent range of connectivity including the ability to charge a laptop or phone over USB-C. Of course, with QD-OLED, incredible contrast and color performance are a given. With a vibrant and realistic image and smooth-as-butter motion clarity, this display was made for immersive entertainment. – Katherine Stevenson Best Windows backup: R-Drive Image 7.2 R-Drive Image Read our review Best Prices Today: $44.95 at R-tools Technology When it comes to backup, the most important feature is reliability. R-Drive Image, which has been in the backup game for years, boasts an unblemished record in this regard. Now at version 7.2, it’s more full-featured and capable than ever. It offers the range of backup duties: disk and partitions, files and folders, WinPE and Linux boot media creation, the works. You can save your backups locally, to the network, or to your preferred cloud storage. You can even replicate backups across multiple destinations. The interface is straightforward, and performance is speedy. There’s really no need to consider other options. – Katherine Stevenson Best Thunderbolt Dock: Kensington SD5800T Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Docking Station (SD5800T) Read our review Best Prices Today: $280.40 at Amazon Many laptop docking stations come and go across my desk, enough that I donate the remainder to my coworkers at the end of the year. Kensington’s Thunderbolt 4 dock, the SD5800T, was one I didn’t want to give up. I love docks that don’t sacrifice either flexibility or stability, and the SD5800T offers it all: support for up to four displays, USB-C and USB-A, charging capabilities (7.5W to a phone, just under 100W to a laptop). There really aren’t any compromises, at all. The only concern I had was its price, and that’s fallen to a wholly respectable $250 at press time. Absolutely recommended. – Mark Hachman Best external drive: Adata SE920 Adata SE920 USB 4 SSD Read our review Best Prices Today: $179.99 at Adata | $179.99 at Amazon If you want the very best external drive, look no further than the Adata SE920. It features the latest-gen USB 4 spec, making it capable of 40Gbps transfers. Within that class, it’s the fastest external drive we’ve tested. But that’s not all. The SE920 also looks badass – a welcome perk on a device that will live on your desk or accompany you out in the field. The enclosure consists of a latched, spring-loaded outer shell that can slide open about half an inch to activate an internal fan, which is effective at heat dissipation and quiet. How clever is that? – Katherine Stevenson Best gaming laptop: Alienware m16 R2 Alienware m16 R2 The Alienware m16 R2 has everything you could ever want in a gaming laptop, and unlike most gaming laptops, it can even work as your daily driver, far away from a power outlet. It offers exceptional gaming performance thanks to the RTX 4070 GPU, a wickedly fast display (240Hz!), and an efficient cooling system. It lasted 11 hours on a single charge, which is impressive, as most gaming laptops tend to die at the five or six hour mark. The cherry on top? It’s a great value for a gaming laptop, especially one with RTX 4070 graphics. – Ashley Biancuzzo Best wireless keyboard: Nuphy Air V2 Nuphy Air96 V2 keyboard Read our review Best Prices Today: $159.99 at Amazon | $167.53 at Aliexpress If you don’t need gaming chops, the wireless keyboard you want is the Nuphy Air V2, full stop. It’s low-profile and stylish, but still has great components and excellent typing. And despite being low-profile, it still has hot-swap switches and a surprising variety of options from both Nuphy and Gateron. Combine it with easy VIA programming and a selection of layouts, plus a pretty good price, and it’s easily outpacing the latest slim designs from Logitech and the rest. -Michael Crider Best feature-packed VPN: NordVPN NordVPN Read our review Each year NordVPN seems to find something new and exciting to add to its service. At this point, I find myself asking, what doesn’t NordVPN have? Not only do you get the VPN with an outstanding server network and lightning fast speeds, but you also have access to a whole slew of top-notch privacy and security extras. Its “Threat Protection” service gives you ad- and tracker-blocking, anti-malware download protection, and a malicious URL link-checker. Then there is an active Dark Web monitoring service and built-in file transfer feature called Meshnet. The list goes on and on. No other VPN is as rich in features as NordVPN, making it an easy top pick this year. — Sam Singleton Best PC gaming handheld: Asus ROG Ally X Calling the Asus ROG Ally X “just a refresh” of the original ROG Ally is selling it too short. Yes, the ROG Ally X maintains the same 1080p 120Hz screen and AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor as before, but almost everything else has been redesigned based off community feedback, which has lead to a much better experience. Quieter fans, two USB-C ports (one with USB-4/ThunderBolt support), and refined ergonomics are just a few highlights, but the main one is the upgrade in battery life. Asus summoned dark magic (and excellent engineering) to get battery life that finally rivals Valve’s Steam Deck — all without a major weight increase! Sure, the Steam Deck is the de facto mainstream handheld gaming PC option, but if you are looking for the absolute best of the best out there, it’s the ROG Ally X. Dual-boot Bazzite (a custom image of Steam Deck’s SteamOS) and you can get the best of both worlds! – Adam Patrick Murray Best laptop for battery life: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Read our review The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 ran for almost 24 hours on a single charge, a first here at PCWorld. Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off of the floor! In addition to the phenomenal battery life, it also has a diverse array of ports and is powerful enough to handle light to moderate workloads. It measures just 0.67 at its thickest point and yet Lenovo somehow squeezed in two USB4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI 2.1 port, and one 3.5mm combo audio. –Ashley Biancuzzo Best gaming headset: HyperX Cloud Mix 2 Wireless HyperX Cloud Mix 2 Read our review Most gaming headsets that claim to be versatile enough to be used as headphones fall somewhat short. With their large boom mic ports, obtrusive flip mics, or chunky earcups they’re obviously more at home in gaming dens. But not the HyperX Cloud Mix 2. This headset hides its mics stealthily in its earcups. It’s also a champion of portability being very compact and lightweight. The sound too is crisp and clear, with enough detail in the tones to make playing and listening a treat. Barely any clamp pressure in the headband and the headset’s soft leatherette ear coverings make it a comfortable fit that I can wear for hours on end. It also has awesome compatibility, connecting to almost all my gaming devices, plus my mobile devices. Suffice it to say, the Mix 2 is the only audio device I currently need. What’s also brilliant is that it has a 110-hour battery life, which means I can charge and then forget about plugging it in for days at a time. – Dominic Bayley Best gaming mouse: Lemokey G1 Wireless Lemokey G1 Wireless mouse Read our review Unboxing the Lemokey G1 Wireless, I was immediately surprised by its excellent maneuverability, which is smoother and faster than any pro gaming mouse I’ve ever used. If that impressed me right from the get-go – and then its devastatingly quick 8,000Hz wireless polling rate sealed the deal for me, making hitting targets a lot easier. With its lightweight design of just 1.94 ounces and smooth 30,000 DPI sensor with a maximum speed of 750 inches-per-second, this mouse gives me the edge I need to win one-on-one engagements in fast-paced games. It’s also the perfect size for my medium-to-large hand. For what I’m getting here I could have paid upwards of $150, but the Lemokey G1 Wireless is also a smashing bargain at just $69. – Dominic Bayley Best keyboard: Corsair K65 Plus Wireless Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard Read our review It came out all the way back in February, but the best keyboard of the year is Corsair’s K65 Plus Wireless. It’s hitting all the big trends, excluding only a (wholly unnecessary) screen. It packs a 75% layout inspired by custom builds, hot-swap capability, and high-quality switches that are great for both typing and gaming. It’s wireless, obviously, which many of these designs aren’t. And it’s about half the price of Razer’s excellent, but very expensive, BlackWidow V4 Pro 75%, and doesn’t try to convince you that a screen belongs on a keyboard. (It doesn’t.) – Michael Crider Best antivirus: Norton 360 Deluxe Norton 360 Deluxe This year proved the necessity of strong online security. Vulnerabilities are getting discovered and exploited faster, and the rise of AI tools is only fueling the onslaught. Solid antivirus software will shield you from the worst of it, whether that’s viruses, malicious websites, hackers on public networks, or use of weak passwords. And it’ll do so with little effort on your part. Sure, you could stitch together different free services, but most people find a comprehensive security suite far easier – and Norton 360 Deluxe is easily the cream of the crop. It simplifies online security at a fair price, with a slew of features that cover you across the board. Beyond stopping malicious software and websites in their tracks, Norton also provides key protections like dark web monitoring, a password manager, VPN service, parental controls, and 50GB of cloud storage for automated backups of important files. General utilities like file cleanup are even included, too. This level of comprehensive defense is rare among rivals—especially for how little Norton charges. – Alaina Yee Best webcam: BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro Read our review Best Prices Today: $199.99 at Adorama | $199.99 at Amazon The advent of personal streaming, content creation and work-at-home has meant that webcams have advanced massively from even a few years ago. BenQ’s IdeaCam S1 Pro is a fantastic example of this, with functionality that goes beyond just making you look good. This “4K” webcam has a lot to offer just on that front, with sharp, lovely images and utility software that’s truly a utility. But there’s more! A macro mode seems gimmicky, but it works great. There’s even a “measuring” mode that would work well for detail work. And there’s a big bonus: a remote control “puck” that seems like something BenQ would sell separately, but includes in the box. That’s real value. – Mark Hachman Best USB-C hub: Ugreen 9-in-1 Revodok Pro Ugreen 9-in-1 USB-C (Revodok) Docking Station CM615 Read our review Best Prices Today: $139.99 at Ugreen | $169.99 at Amazon Ugreen’s 9-in-1 Revodok Pro is a simple, straightforward, compact little dock that uses the free, downloadable DisplayLink utility as an intermediary. It’s great for office work, with the flexibility to accommodate a pair of either DisplayLink or HDMI connections. It offers two USB-A ports (for mouse or keyboard, say), Ethernet, as well as a USB-C port for a smartphone or other peripheral. USB-C hardware can be exceedingly simple, like a dongle, or with a much more robust feature offering. The Revodok Pro provides the essentials, trims the fat, and keeps the price affordable. 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Intel’s latest “Arrow Lake” processor wasn’t up to snuff. On Friday, a key executive promised to outline went wrong, and to fix it. On a podcast with Hot Hardware, Intel vice president and general manager Robert Hallock acknowledged that the Arrow Lake launch “didn’t go as planned.” That was evidenced in PCWorld’s Arrow Lake review and reviews by others. Hallock was frank about what Intel needed to do: explain what went wrong, either by the end of November or early December, and then work to fix it. “Here’s this old adage that we’ve talked about with journalists and hardware companies alike, that a new platform is hard,” Hallock said. “Anytime you radically overhaul anything, it presents new and sometimes unexpected challenges. And I think what people have been interested to hear is what happened. “And I can’t go into all the details yet, but we, we’ve identified a series of issues, multi-factor,” Hallock said. “They’re at the OS level, they’re at the BIOS level. And I will say that the performance we saw in reviews — to be very clear, through no fault of reviewers — was not what we expected, not what we intended. The launch just didn’t go as planned, and that’s been a humbling lesson for all of us, and has kind of inspired a fairly large response internally to get to the bottom of what went happened and to fix it.” Hallock said that, in one scenario, memory latencies climbed as high as 180 nanoseconds, rather than being closer 70 to 80 ns. “And that was so far off what we were anticipating or measuring,” Hallock said. “I want to be very clear that we are accepting and internalizing the faults that this is on us, and we need to make it right,” Hallock said. Ideally, Intel would do that by November 30, he said, but he said that the explanation could stretch into December. Games will specifically be addressed, Hallock added. “So those bars are going to be going back up to where they should be going,” he said. It’s not exactly clear what Intel will do to fix Arrow Lake. Firmware and driver updates will certainly be included, but Hallock didn’t go into specifics. Hallock declined to comment on the longevity of Arrow Lake’s socket, a position Intel has taken before. He also said that “reviewers didn’t have time” to test overclocking, something that he hoped reviewers would have had time to do. “My commitment to you guys and to reviewers at large and to users is we’re going to come back with a full audit, an itemized list, and we’re going to explain every single one of these,” Hallock said. “What was the performance cost, what exactly happened, and what we’re going to do to fix it.” Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Long 10-hour campaign Very well written Excellent actors who bring CoD to James Bond level Finally staged on a much larger scale again Beautiful locations: casinos, coastal towns, luxurious villas Booming 7.1 sound Graphically on a new level for CoD Cons AI glitches here and there when Sadam’s guard simply runs in front of our assault rifle Rare object pop-ins, for example in the Iraq level Our Verdict Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a genuine epic-action single-player experience with a campaign that’s not only the longest in the series’ history at 10 hours, but also full of Constant surprises. In addition to its thrilling action, the strong acting and the sometimes truly congenial mission designs are also impressive.Ultimately, Black Ops 6 delivers what we’ve been missing in recent years, complete with intelligent, emotional, and smart storytelling, well-written characters, and truly epic action that could well be a Game of the Year candidate. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The single-player campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn’t just a feast for James Bond fans. It has everything that makes CoD, CoD. The bombastic staging. The blockbuster action. The mass battles in Washington DC. The moment when a CIA black site is raided by special forces from a secret organization and half the government district is reduced to rubble. All classic stuff that’s great to have again. But it also brings the spirit of Sean Connery’s Bond, who could undress women with just one look, when we wrap a senator’s wife around his fingers or catch our good friend Bill Clinton red-handed at his governor’s party in the capital city. Keep reading for why we love Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s single-player campaign and how it seriously blew us away. The best campaign in a long time It’s a Call of Duty for James Bond fans. Not just action fireworks with huge battles, but also a smart espionage thriller with excellent actors.IDG We think of Roger Moore when we’re deliberately captured by a drug cartel, given a little tour of the mansion, and made to feel like the boss is in control, revealing his secret plans. That’s how James Bond used to be characterized. He didn’t always shoot and punch his way through, but instead infiltrated opponents undercover and elicited his adversary’s plans through dialogue. We really like this because Raven Software has tackled one of the major weaknesses of CoD campaigns in recent years: they were too samey, too familiar, too much of a copy of the better originals. MW2 and MW3 were 10 times more ambitious than their new versions, if we think of the invasions of Washington, New York, Paris, and Hamburg. CoD has lost its blockbuster epicness in recent years because the single-player campaigns were conceived far too small, too safe, too bland. They felt more like limited series, not Hollywood cinema. Black Ops 6 turns up the heat again. Almost every level has its very own atmosphere — the splendor of a casino here, Governor Clinton’s presidential campaign there — and we’re treated to stretch limousines, the Secret Service, and dubious politicians. Many missions have alternative endings If you want to, you can almost always shoot your way through. But there are also ways to act more like a gentleman agent. You know, Sean Connery instead of Daniel Craig.IDG What we really like is that the missions are designed as self-contained experiences that often contain multiple different endings. For example, we can play the Washington mission in Sean Connery style as a gentleman who organizes a few photos that show Clinton in bed with his secretary to thus obtain the photo that overcomes the retina scan at the entrance to a security center… …or play in a way that lures him into an ambush, knocks out his secret service, beats him up in the kitchen, to then get the needed photo. You know, the Daniel Craig way. With Black Ops 6 offering a whopping 10 hours of fun, you can expect plenty of high-octane moments — but the campaign also takes its time to savor moments.IDG Daniel Craig was an extremely rough Bond, one who favored brutal hand-to-hand combat over the good old Walther P99, one who was often quite bloody in the shower afterwards. He’s a new generation of Bond, not the cool Brosnan type who could fight his way through a ship, jump into the sea, swim ashore, and check into a five-star hotel wet in boxer shorts as if he owned the place. Raven Software likes to quote James Bond when appropriate: Casino Royale in this case. The iconic scene between Daniel Craig as 007 and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre is almost a 1:1 homage in its choreography.IDG In general, Black Ops 6 has a lot of replay value. If you want classic Call of Duty, you’ll get it. Just as Daniel Craig easily kills 50 Russian Speznas elite units within 10 minutes in the last third of No Time to Die, we can also shoot our way through if want to. This is much more challenging in Black Ops 6 than before, though, because the special units of the secret organization called Pantheon use their forces more intelligently, to quickly surround us and throw grenades at us or even seal off entire corridors with electromagnetic fields. But we can also take the stealth route with the silenced Glock, in Sean Connery fashion, posed for the cover of Dr. No with a silencer because he used it the most of all the Bond actors. And just as the mission design is smartly conceived, the story is just as well written. Very black-ops style, very opaque, with lots of players laying their cards on the table late in the game. A bit like Casino Royale, where Le Chiffre was also just the way to the big fish. Black Ops 6 delivers twisty storytelling Every action game fan needs to experience Black Ops 6. This is CoD‘s BioShock moment: so unexpected and it works so well, opening up a whole new storyline in a fun way.IDG Black Ops has always been the Inception of the CoD world. A mind-melting parade with brilliant storytelling, where we don’t know what’s going on for a long time or who we can trust, where friends become enemies faster than Adler smoked his cigarette. Black Ops 6 is generally well written and we like the pacing. It has no problem slowing down from time to time so that we can enjoy the magnificent levels and environments. The development team had a lot more time than usual — a whopping 4 years — and you can feel that in all the masterful details.IDG A lot of work has gone into the lavishly detailed Casino Luttazi. You don’t just want to shoot your way through it; you want to sit down and play poker there, like in Casino Royale. We also spend quite a lot of time in a villa where we get to know the team and Sev with a personal vendetta, a real quick-change artist who can go from an Afro look with Rasta curls to Mexican drug boss in two or three minutes. Like Halle Berry in Brosnan’s best film, Die Another Day. Black Ops 6 introduces many new characters, all of whom are well written and strongly acted. Former Stasi hacker Felix Neumann, for example, is played by Tom Wlaschiha, who has already made a big impression in Amazon’s action series Jack Ryan.IDG Then there’s the ex-Stasi code specialist Felix Neumann, who’s basically the Q of the troupe, the laid-back guy who always has a new toy ready for us but also likes to cook for the crew from time to time. Marshall is the classic US soldier. He’s a little too loyal, has often been screwed over by his country, but still wants to believe in the great cause. And there’s Adler, whom we knew as an older man but appears here as younger yet just as pissed off by Washington. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is all about epic action and is much bigger than its smaller-scale predecessors. These ambitions are evident in the storytelling, the sets, the action, but also the moments of surprise when friends become enemies.IDG And then there’s a story component that we’d rather not spoil, but will delight fans of the zombie storyline. It also involves brainwashing and mind manipulation, forcing us to ask ourselves: Are we doing this right now? Are we experiencing this right now? Is this just a hallucination? Let’s just call it Call of Duty‘s BioShock moment, and it makes this entry in the CoD franchise one that’s a must-experience. Great writing, strong acting, bombastically staged, all in a fantastic package. Our verdict on Black Ops 6 At last, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is once again a real action epic with a campaign that, at 10 hours, is not only the longest in the series’ history but also full of surprises and twists.This is a true James Bond-style espionage thriller that we can play loud, impulsive, and raw, whether as Daniel Craig’s Bond or as Sean Connery’s Gentleman 007. You can sweet-talk wives, catch politicians red-handed, outwit retina scanners with high-tech cameras, track down bodyguard routes, work with your brain instead of bullets.Black Ops 6 delivers much of what we’ve been missing in recent years. We get huge sets, like a Casino Royale-style casino where we don’t just shoot and blow up safes but also play poker like Bond against Le Chiffre. Recent CoDs have felt small, only taking place at a harbor or a military base; Black Ops 6 cranks it all up and more to great success. Read...

Today, the internet has become like water and electricity, a necessity for everyday life and something we take for granted. Most people never think about routers, network cables, frequency bands, and more as long as everything works. But wireless networks — Wi-Fi — are not flawless and few users have never had problems. Common problems include weak coverage in parts of the home, devices being disconnected and having to be reconnected manually, choppy music and video playback on connected devices, and slower-than-promised speeds on large downloads. By optimizing your router’s settings and placement in your home, you can achieve a more stable and faster Wi-Fi network. Often this is enough, but otherwise there is help from different types of networking equipment. Related: How to choose a new router and get started with important settings Optimal router settings Foundry Different routers offer different levels of customization for Wi-Fi settings, but the vast majority have at least the following settings: Channel width Channel width refers to how much of the available frequencies in a frequency band the communication between router and devices takes up. Narrow channels allow for more channels, which means that several different networks can operate simultaneously in the same location without interfering with each other. But wider channels mean more data can fit per transmission, resulting in a higher overall speed for connected devices — as long as the signal is strong enough. If your router can choose the channel width automatically, this is likely to give you the best results. Some routers can automatically vary the channel width to optimize the network. If you have to choose for yourself, or just want to test whether it can be useful, you can test from the top down — start with 160MHz in the 5GHz band and step down to 80- and 40MHz and see how it affects the experience of devices around the home. If your router supports the 6GHz band, you can probably push a little harder and choose the widest possible channels, but as radio is complicated, it’s always best to test the waters. Foundry Channel – manual or automatic Depending on the channel width, there are different numbers of channels to choose from. For example, with 160MHz channel width there are only three channels, while with 40MHz there are 14 in the 5GHz band. The 2.4GHz band can only use channels of 20- or 40MHz, and the normal one is 20Mz because it can fit three channels without overlap (channels 1, 6, and 11). In houses without interference, 40MHz can work. Normally, it’s best to let the router choose itself as it has a better idea of which channel has the least “noise,” but if you have coverage problems in a particular part of the house and can see that a neighbor in that direction is using the same channel as your router has chosen, you can try a different channel. TP-Link Combined or separate frequency bands Behind the scenes, Wi-Fi over 2.4GHz and 5GHz are completely separate and use different antennas, but normally the router creates a common network name (SSID) to which devices connect. Which frequency band they connect with can either be up to the device itself, chance, or the router (see below). This usually works well, but you may find it useful to choose two separate networks with separate names instead. This can be useful, for example, if you have smart home devices that only support 2.4GHz and are having trouble connecting (which is relatively common). It can also help if you have devices that insist on connecting to the 5GHz band even though the signal is weak due to an obstruction such as a brick wall or some other reason. Lower frequencies penetrate walls better, so the 2.4GHz band is often more reliable at a distance from the router. Band steering On networks that combine multiple frequency bands, devices or routers must choose which band to communicate in. Most routers have a feature called band steering that automates the selection based on various parameters. On newer routers from Asus, you can set how it should choose, but as you can see in the picture below, solid knowledge is required to do a better job than the router, if possible. The Quality of Service (QoS) function balances the network and ensures that no single device takes up all the bandwidth.Foundry If you have a specific problem, such as devices that insist on connecting on the 5GHz band even in parts of your home where the signal is so weak that the internet is slow, you can experiment with the settings. The Small Net Builder website has a good guide to Asus settings. Quality of Service gives all devices a chance Quality of Service, or QoS, is a feature found in many higher-end routers that balances the network so that no single device hogs all the bandwidth. Without QoS, a computer running Bittorrent, for example, with hundreds of active connections, can saturate the connection to the internet service provider on its own. QoS can also be used to prioritize certain types of traffic. Most typical are online games that require very short response times to mitigate lagging. Setting QoS to prioritize games reduces the likelihood that temporary spikes in network activity will cause games to hack. Video calling is also something that can benefit greatly from a QoS service in the router, as it requires both relatively short response times and a steady stream of data. Routers with large processors often do better without QoS than less well-equipped routers. Problems that can be solved with QoS are often due to something called bufferbloat, where the router queues up too many packets and can’t forward them all in a reasonable time. A faster connection won’t help, and incorrect router settings can make it worse. Bufferbloat test results from Waveform.Foundry You can test for yourself how much bufferbloat your router suffers from with tests at dslreport.com or waveform.com. Both give a rating, so you don’t need to understand all the numbers. But in case you’re wondering, it’s all about how much response times degrade when the connection is heavily loaded. Whether you have a lot of bufferbloat or not, you can try enabling QoS if your router has the feature, especially if you experience occasional problems with gaming or video calls. If you can’t find the settings for your particular router, search for “[router model] qos” and you’ll probably get both an answer to whether it has the feature at all and, if so, how to enable it. Change the order of priority in Adaptive QoS.Foundry As an example, take my newly purchased Asus router, which has a feature called Adaptive QoS. Here, I can choose one of five preset profiles that prioritize different things — gaming, streaming, general browsing, distance learning, or remote work. You can also set the prioritization order manually. I should point out, however, that Adaptive QoS is one of several features in Asus routers that require you to authorize security firm Trend Micro to collect data from you. Other router manufacturers may have other similar agreements for certain features. Netspot Map your home and find the radio shadows If you’ve tested out the best Wi-Fi settings on your router but are still having problems with slow internet, or devices occasionally losing connection in remote parts of your home, it might be time to look at upgrading your network. Before splurging on a new, more powerful router or any kind of extension, it’s a good idea to check what the signal strength is actually like in your home. There are a number of programs that can help you with this, such as Netspot. You will need a floor plan of your home and a laptop. Once you have installed the program and launched it, select the Survey tab and create a new project. Here you can upload an image of the floor plan or draw it manually. A calibration function ensures that the distances are correct, and before you start taking measurements, you can choose how large an area each measurement point should cover. I recommend the default setting. Then you simply carry the computer around to different locations in your home and let Netspot measure the signal strength. Click on the floor plan to show where you are at each measurement and on the stop button when you’re done. The results are displayed as a color chart of the floor plan, with warmer colors indicating stronger signals. Areas in blue show parts of the home where the router has difficulty reaching. Measuring many places around your home can give you a good idea of where it might make sense to place an extender, or whether a router with stronger antennas is likely to reach all corners. It can also help you spot poor router placement, and if you move it to a location that should provide better coverage, you can repeat the survey and check whether it actually did. Dmitry Didorov Reduce the load with cable connections If your problems don’t seem to be due to a weak signal, it could be that you are utilising the full capacity of your Wi-Fi network with many connected devices. If you have a large family where everyone watches a lot of streaming services, this can easily happen. An easy way to give the router and the devices that can only connect wirelessly some wiggle room is to connect desktop computers and other fixed devices with an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi. Televisions, games consoles, smart home hubs and media players often have a connector for network cables. If your router doesn’t have enough connectors, you can buy a cheap switch from Netgear or TP-Link, for example. A switch also allows devices connected to it to communicate directly with each other without going through the router, which can further reduce the load on it. For example, if you have a media library on a NAS device and stream from it to a TV or computer and both are connected to the switch, it can have a big effect on the speeds of the Wi-Fi network for other connected devices. Sabine Kroschel Get a Wi-Fi booster, repeater, or mesh Sometimes the only solution to Wi-Fi problems is to upgrade your hardware. There are different options depending on what you have today and what the possibilities are for running cables in your home, for example. Wi-Fi amplifier A Wi-Fi repeater extends an existing network by creating its own network with the same name (SSID). Newer models can connect either by cable or wirelessly. The latter is obviously more flexible, but offers slower speeds and longer response times as devices connected to the extension communicate with the router in two stages. TP-Link Repeater Wi-Fi repeater is the name of an older technology that is not as common today, where a radio intercepts the signal from the router and simply sends it out again. It rarely gets much better and I do not recommend it. Linksys Mesh With mesh routers, you place two or more base stations in the home, where one acts as the main unit and is connected to the broadband. They connect to each other wirelessly but do so either smarter or with separate antennas and channels so that that transmission doesn’t clash with the regular network. For those who have Wi-Fi problems with a regular router and want a simple solution, a mesh system with two or three base stations is often the simplest solution, but rarely the cheapest. Use Netspot to find the best placement of base stations, then just sit back and enjoy. Roadlight Some traditional routers now have a built-in mesh function so you can expand your network afterwards with compatible base stations. Asus, for example, has a feature called AI Mesh, while TP-Link calls its equivalent Onemesh. Both of these manufacturers are flexible with what additional devices you use as base stations, such as another regular router, a mesh router, or a dedicated Wi-Fi extender that supports the mesh system. Unlike regular Wi-Fi extenders, all devices in one of these mesh networks must be from the same manufacturer and support the mesh technology in question. One important thing to consider if you’re getting mesh is to position the base stations so that they have the best possible signal to each other. This means that their signals should overlap but not too much, and there should be as few walls as possible in the straight line between two base stations. Related: How to keep your home network secure: Smart tricks and settings Read...

Did you have “saving $500 on a high-performance gaming laptop” on your bingo card today? Well, you may want to pencil that one in because this HP Envy 16 gaming laptop is on sale at Best Buy for $1,000, a big 33 percent drop from its original $1,500 price tag. This isn’t just any laptop. It’s a speedy gaming machine that will have you enjoying your endless hours playing all sorts of games, powered by a GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card that can push graphics to the max. Those games are going to look good on its 16-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2560×1600 and refresh rate of 120Hz. The HP Envy is also great for general productivity and creative work, running on a fast Intel Core i7-13700H processor alongside 16GB of DDR5 RAM, promising snappy load times and high-performance multitasking with no lag. It’s capped off with a just-as-speedy 1TB SSD that’s plenty big to store all your photos, videos, apps, and games. Frankly, finding a laptop with this level of configuration at this kind of price is a rare and pleasant surprise. Don’t miss this chance to snag an HP Envy 16 gaming laptop for just $1,000 at Best Buy! Save $500 on this RTX 4060 gaming laptopBuy now at Best Buy Read...