Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2017 i PCWorld

Tech and trends that will affect you today and beyond. INTEL HAS ANNOUNCED ship dates for its Core i9 chip family, but enthusiasts aren’t going to like it. The company is staggering the release dates over several months, and it’s saving the best—the monster 18-core Extreme Edition—for last. At the E3 show in Los Angeles, Intel said the lower-end 4-core, 8-core, and 10-core Core i9s would be available in June. The midrange 12-core Core i9-7920X will come next, shipping in August. The fastest of the Core i9 family will go on sale in October. Specifically, the 14-core Core i9-7940X, the 16-Core Core i9-7960X, and the 18-core Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition will be available about the time you’re planning your Halloween costume. The delay until fall for the highest-end Core i9…

SAMSUNG JUST ANNOUNCED the world’s first FreeSync 2–enabled PC monitors, the 27- and 32-inch CHG70 and the utterly massive 49-inch CHG90 ultrawide display—which is essentially a multi-monitor setup without multiple monitors. Samsung’s displays extend the battle between AMD’s FreeSync and Nvidia’s G-Sync (go.pcworld.com/afs) technologies to the budding field of high-dynamic range (go.pcworld.com/hdrr) monitors. Nvidia’s already teased several G-Sync HDR gaming monitors (go.pcworld.com/gm) from Asus and Acer, though none are actually available to purchase just yet. Like those G-Sync HDR displays, these Samsung panels were built for buttery-smooth gaming. They pack HDR, QLED quantum dots (go.pcworld.com/qd), wide 178-degree viewing angles, and a significant 1800R curvature, along with blazing-fast 144Hz refresh rates and 1ms response times. A four-channel scanner’s also in place to minimize motion blur and ghosting. Those impressive specs are…

Make smart purchases, stay safe online. JUST BECAUSE WINDOWS 7 is close to eight years old doesn’t mean you still can’t find ridiculous bugs that can crash your PC. Russian-language site Habrhabr.ru (go.pcworld.com/hab) recently published one such bug that apparently causes problems if you simply visit a website, as first noticed by Ars Technica (go.pcworld.com/at). The problem also affects Windows 8 and Vista PCs, but Windows 10 PCs are unaffected. Here’s how the bug works. All a naughty website has to do is use the character string “$MFT” in the directory name where a website keeps its images. Windows expects to see the four characters $MFT only in a special metadata file on your PC. When it sees those characters as a directory name, however, it causes enough problems that…

APPLE CEO TIM Cook spent less than two minutes talking about Apple TV during the company’s WWDC keynote, but that was enough time for two revelations: First, Apple’s TV guide app now pulls in movies and shows from more than 50 streaming video sources. Second, Amazon Prime will become one of those sources when Amazon launches an Apple TV app later this year. Apple’s TV app (go.pcworld.com/tva), which arrived last fall, is supposed to solve streaming video’s “what to watch” problem. Instead of making people bounce between apps, it provides a central hub where users can catch up on their favorite shows and get recommendations on more things to watch. The TV app worked with 37 content sources at launch, and the list has grown by about 15 apps since.…

WE’VE NEVER SEEN anything quite like the Surface Studio. No other all-in-one boasts a massive 28-inch 4.5K touchscreen that glides down to serve as a digital easel, a Surface Pen for inking, and an optional Surface Dial that you can spin and tap to navigate menus. Presto! You’re a digital creator. We applaud this refreshing example of what a PC could be, and we’ll talk a lot about the new things it can do for you in this review. But we also expect the Studio to be more than just an aspirational machine that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars more than its competition. In real life, it still needs to be a productivity PC, a decent gaming platform, and the embodiment of the Windows 10 Creators Update. We’ll…

AMD’S NEW RADEON RX 500-series offers some of the best bang-for-buck graphics cards (go.pcworld.com/bfb) around, but so far, PCWorld’s reviews have mostly focused on custom versions with beefy coolers and premium prices, like the $300 Asus Strix RX 580 Top OC (go.pcworld.com/ast) and $260 Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+ (go.pcworld.com/srx). What if you’re looking to upgrade your PC while keeping costs as low as possible? Enter more budget-friendly models like Sapphire’s new Pulse series. The Pulse cards are designed to give gamers “great value for money,” according to Sapphire, and at prices just above AMD’s baseline MSRPs. There’s only one way to know whether that’s more than mere marketing fluff: taking it to the test bench. Meet the Sapphire Pulse series Sapphire sent over a pair of Pulse cards for review:…

THE WINDOWS 10 Creators Update (go.pcworld.com/cup) has a new feature that’s supposed to be easier on the eyes and help you fall asleep after a long night of web surfing. It’s called Night Light (go.pcworld.com/nlt), and the feature restricts blue light emanating from your display by changing its hue. Studies have shown that blue light at night suppresses melatonin production more than other colors, and shifts the body’s circadian timing, thereby disrupting the sleep-wake cycle. Prior to Night Light, users had to turn to third-party software such as the always popular f.lux (justgetflux.com) to address this issue. To activate Night Light, open the Settings app, and then go to System > Display. At the top of the screen under the subheading Color, you’ll see the Night Light slider to turn…

TAWFFIC ABDUL WAHAB’S external hard drive stopped showing up on his system. Not a great thing to have happen. However, unlike with an internal hard drive, he’s not necessarily looking at an expensive recovery bill. Note: The following is for external drives that are out of warranty and/or without a recovery contract. Use those if they apply, though warranties generally don’t include recovery. If you need the data, you might want to try these tricks anyway. Falling bridges How can I recover a dead drive, you say? Well, external drives utilize what’s called a bridge board to handle communications between the USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt controller and the native SATA that the drive understands. Sometimes, it’s this bridge board that fails, while the drive inside remains perfectly usable. A third-party Kingwin 2.5-inch…

WHOA. IF YOU thought Microsoft’s Windows 10 Fall Creators Update seemed somewhat lackluster so far, Microsoft just revealed a service pack’s worth of additions as part of Windows 10 Build 16215: dictation, predictive typing, a Find My Pen mode, full-screen Microsoft Edge, and tons more. Essentially, Microsoft appears to be bringing some of what’s best about Windows 10 Mobile (which received a few bug fixes) to the Windows 10 desktop, improving the way in which Windows uses pens and camera input, and adding literally dozens of small refinements across the board, including elements of Microsoft’s new Acrylic UI. Why this matters: Build 16215 points toward a Fall Creators Update that will bring a lot of welcome improvements and flesh out features that have remained minimal so far. Microsoft’s blog post…

HEADSET PRICES HAVE come down drastically in the past couple years, but one company has ignored that trend: Astro, known still for its $200 A40 and $300 A50 even as the competition’s raced to the bottom. It appears the tides were too strong to resist though, as recently Astro announced its budget-friendly A10 headset. At $60, it’s both Astro’s least expensive headset and instantly one of the cheapest in the entire industry. Not that there weren’t compromises. I’ve spent some time with the A10 so far and…well, I can’t say I love the look of it. It’s recognizably Astro, but looks every bit the cheap A40 it is. Other budget-friendly headsets, like the Razer Kraken 7.1 (go.pcworld.com/rk7) and HyperX Cloud (go.pcworld.com/hxc), manage to appear high-end while still retailing under $100.…

IMAGINE BUYING A brand-new home and needing to install your own electrical and plumbing infrastructure. That’s what it’s like today when it comes to home networking. It’s a DIY affair in which you need to provide your own equipment and figure out the best place to set it up. That could become a thing of the past thanks to the Wi-Fi Alliance’s (wi-fi.org) new Wi-Fi Certified Home Design program. Homebuilders participating in the Wi-Fi Certified Home Design program will follow Wi-Fi deployment guidelines to determine the optimal locations for wireless access points (APs). The goal is to eliminate dead spots and provide coverage everywhere inside the home—including the garage—as well as in outside areas such as the patio. Professional design and installation while the home is being constructed should deliver…

TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS In this section, hardware & software go through rigorous testing. SET MICROSOFT’S SURFACE PRO (go.pcworld.com/sp17) next to its predecessor, the Surface Pro 4, and I defy you to tell the difference. With the same dimensions and weight, the two are virtually indistinguishable—a kickstand that reclines further and a few cosmetic changes are all that separate them. What sells the new Surface Pro, though, is on the inside: a dramatic upgrade to the processor and graphics that propels it to the head of the 2-in-1 class. Microsoft built the Surface Pro around a new 7th-generation Kaby Lake processor and its associated Iris Plus integrated graphics, and boy, do they shine. Especially in graphics, the new Surface Pro (2017) almost doubles the performance of the two-year-old Surface Pro…

INTEL’S OPTANE MEMORY gives mainstream users a rare first bite at the bleeding edge of technology. No matter how much hard-core PC enthusiasts yell, scream, and gnash their teeth, they’re not going to be using this as stand-alone storage just yet. Instead, Optane Memory debuts as a caching drive that can—at times—make a hard drive competitive with even the fastest SSDs. If this seems too good for your dog-slow drive to be true, don’t worry. We ran the benchmarks, and you can see the results for yourself. You can also see the caveats in the system requirements, which unfortunately bar the vast majority of PCs from this speedy upgrade. Setting up Optane Not everyone will be able to run Optane Memory. Essentially a 32GB or 16GB M.2 module that supports…

IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY left your USB-C laptop charger during a layover at Batman Airport (yes, it’s real), consider yourself lucky, because you now have an excuse to upgrade to a much sexier, much lighter power brick, like the FINsix Dart-C (available for preorder for $100, go.pcworld.com/dartc). I can’t confirm FINsix’s claim that this is “The World’s Smallest Laptop Charger,” but damn, is it small (approximately 2.5 x 1 x 1 inches) and it punches well above its weight. As its name implies, the Dart-C is a USB-C Power Delivery (PD) charger, so it’s compatible with most devices that use the reversible USB-C port. A second USB Type A charging port is integrated into the cable. The placement of the second port looks clumsy but fortunately doesn’t add much to the…

MICROSOFT RECENTLY UNVEILED a helpful new addition to its family features that are part of your Microsoft Account. Users who need it can now get a shared family calendar on Outlook.com. Prior to this, Family settings were mostly for managing the activity of children, such as limiting screen time, viewing activity reports, or finding their device locations on a map. Adults in the family, meanwhile, were merely administrators of their children’s computer access. The addition of a family calendar changes that. The shared calendar is created automatically as part of connecting a family to your Microsoft Account. To get started, go to account. microsoft.com/family (go. pcworld.com/amf) and create your family. The process is very simple. To add an adult, click the Add Adult icon, enter their email address, and click…

XBOX ONE X..That’s the official name Microsoft has given to Project Scorpio, the upcoming 4K-ready Xbox One successor that took center stage at Microsoft’s recent E3 2017 press conference. It will, in Microsoft’s words, be “the most powerful console ever.” That was Microsoft’s main message for the show, repeatedly emphasizing the Xbox One X’s advantages over the competing PlayStation 4 Pro (without ever mentioning its rival console by name, of course). And it sure is a powerful console. Read on for details on pricing, availability, specs, noteworthy features, and compatible games. Price, release date, and availability During its E3 press conference, Microsoft touted a “worldwide” release on November 7 for the Xbox One X, but the company has so far listed prices in only five currencies: $499 USD, £449 GBP,…

GOOGLE WANTS YOU to find the best apps faster, so it's introduced a new section to the Play Store called Android Excellence. The banner on the Editor’s Choice page will spotlight apps and games that “deliver incredible user experiences on Android, use many of our best practices, and have great design, technical performance, localization, and device optimization.” Recently, Google spotlighted the winners of its second annual Google Play Awards. Several of the apps are, not surprisingly, represented on the Android Excellence page. Google says this list will be updated quarterly with hand-picked selections from its editorial team. Check out the first round of apps and games below: Android Excellence Apps AliExpress (go.pcworld.com/aex) by Alibaba Mobile B&H Photo Video (go.pcworld.com/bhpv) by B&H Photo Video Citymapper (go.pcworld.com/cmp) by Citymapper Limited Drivvo (go.pcworld.com/drv)…

Watch the video at go.pcworld.com/gbvid SAMSUNG’S GALAXY BOOK is a 2-in-1 tablet with a detachable keyboard that gets pretty much everything you care about right. Its price, performance, and battery life are all among the best we’ve tested. While it lacks the razzle-dazzle of flagships like the new Surface Pro (go.pcworld.com/spr), it’s still the sort of all-around performer that will attract a buyer looking for good value. Samsung’s only real swing and miss is a somewhat gimmicky integration with its Galaxy smartphones, which replaces the Windows Hello features that are becoming more common. Price: Galaxy Book’s value proposition While some competing 2-in-1 products we’ve reviewed cost upwards of $1,400, the version of the Samsung Galaxy Book we tested ships for $1,300. The price includes 4GB of RAM and a 128GB…

Watch the video at go.pcworld.com/u11vid THE ANNALS OF Android are littered with one-and-done gimmicks that were originally hailed as the next big thing. Indeed, from slide-out game pads to built-in projectors, way too many Android phones have included features that never caught on. So, will the new Edge Sense feature in the HTC U11 meet a similar fate? Probably. But the U11 is still a great phone that’s fun to use. A more pocketable version of the ill-conceived U Ultra (go.pcworld.com/uu), HTC’s newest flagship isn’t just another spec’d-out handset with good looks and a great camera. The new Edge Sense feature lets you launch apps and actions by squeezing the sides of the phone. It’s a gimmick for sure, but one of the funnest gimmicks ever to grace an Android…

WHEN I FIRST heard about the Petnet SmartFeeder, I bristled. How could something so basic as feeding a pet be in search of a smart solution? I deposit a half-cup of dry kibble in my dog’s bowl twice daily—done and done. Is no human endeavor sacred? Okay, maybe a tad dramatic. I can see that there are times when an automatic pet feeder makes sense: an unpredictable work schedule, say, or an impromptu invite, either of which could step on the toes of your pet’s meal time. The SmartFeeder (which retails for $149) can dispense a precise measure of your dog or cat’s food at preset times of your choosing, and then let you monitor and revise the feedings via a companion app. Fido or Fluffy stays sated when your…

I DELETED GOOGLE from my life, and I can show you how to do it, too. After being a devoted Googler for many years, I realized putting all my data on one platform had its downsides. A couple of factors in particular drove me to make a clean break. Deleting Google for privacy and security The appeal of escaping Google comes down to privacy. Google collects an alarming amount of data (go.pcworld.com/aada) about you. It’s safe to say that if you’re not a paying customer then you’re the product (go.pcworld.com/ytp) being sold, and that’s Google’s business model. Security goes hand-in-hand with that. I’m sure Google’s servers are closely guarded, but I still didn’t want all my data to be concentrated in one place. To Google’s credit, the company gives you…

HASSLE-FREE PC BY IAN PAUL CREATING A USB thumb drive loaded with Windows 10 installation media is very easy thanks to Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool. With a prepared USB drive you can install the latest version of Windows on a new PC or have an install drive at the ready (go.pcworld.com/hai) should your current rig start to malfunction. If you’ve never used the Media Creation Tool, however, even this simple process might be a little overwhelming. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a Windows 10 USB drive with the Media Creation Tool. The first thing you need to do is go to Microsoft’s dedicated website for Windows 10 downloads, and click Download Tool Now to grab the Media Creation Tool. Now would also be a good time to insert…