Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i PCWorld

As the Trump administration’s trade war oscillates, tech manufacturers are trying to deal with the unpredictable nature of an economy held hostage to a single man’s whims. But smaller, more niche businesses simply can’t deal with the uncertainty of prices that might double tomorrow—so they’re out, at least as far as shipping to customers in the U.S goes. The latest example is Keyboardio, a custom keyboard shop run by two people in California. Keyboardio specializes in the kind of gorgeous, wood-cased ergonomic designs that always draw crowds at keyboard meetups. But because essential parts like PCBs come from China, even if their wooden cases are sourced from American wood, both the standard tariffs and the crackdowns on de minimis shipping exceptions make it impossible to remain profitable for U.S. sales, as…

Google has a monopoly, and that’s the official line of the US federal government. In fact, it has two of them, losing two separate antitrust cases that threaten to cripple the tech giant. The Department of Justice has proposed forcing Google to sell or otherwise divest itself of the Chrome browser as the first and preferred remedy. But who would buy it? Unsurprisingly, there are beaucoup business beaus lining up around the block for this browser bachelorette. We’ve already heard that ChatGPT maker OpenAI is very interested, as testified in court by an executive. And another notable name in the AI space, search engine Perplexity, told a judge much the same thing. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo, which almost feels like legacy media at this point, would also be interested if Chrome…

Are you tired of paying more and more for video games? Too bad. Game prices from major publishers have been creeping up for the last few years, with plenty of gamers spotting a recent jump in Nintendo’s first-party prices. Microsoft’s Xbox brand is following suit, and it’s not even waiting for a new console launch to do it. As of today, U.S. prices of every current Xbox game console have shot up. IGN reports that the base model Xbox Series S with 512GB of storage is now $380 (up from $300), and the Series X gets a $100 bump across the board, with the top-end 2TB model going from $600 to $730. Some Xbox controllers—still the de facto standard for PC gaming—are bumping up by $10, while the much-loved Xbox Elite…

NordVPN is one of the most well-known VPN services with an absolutely massive user base. The trusted premium service is notable for its excellent speeds, an enormous server network, and an unrivaled set of security features. In its aim to be a one-stop shop for all your security needs, the service has expanded into a larger umbrella organization known as Nord Security, offering other tools such as the NordPass password manager, NordLocker for secure file storage, and business tools like NordLayer and NordWL—many of which are offered with subscriptions to the higher tiers of NordVPN. NordVPN in brief P2P allowed: Yes, on dedicated servers Simultaneous device connections: 10 Business location: Panama Number of servers: 8,000-plus Number of country locations: 118 Cost: $12.99 per month, $59.99 for one year, or $83.43…

There’s a lot to like about outdoor TV antennas. They offer better and more stable TV reception and usually bring in more channels than indoor models, which is why we always recommend them, but they won’t win any neighborhood beauty contests. The Televes Dinova Boss Mix isn’t beautiful, but it does look very different from a typical antenna and is likely to stand out much less when mounted on the roof or the side of a house. It can also be installed in an attic (if you don’t have a metal roof) for even less visual distraction, albeit at the cost of some reception. SPECIFICATIONS The antenna is enclosed in a white plastic shell with a built-in bracket on the rear for mounting on a pole. You’d typically mount it…

It’s never easy to decide what to pack for a trip. Whether you’re packing light for some quick business or heading out on the next big family vacation, it’s important to bring the right tech. Here at PCWorld, we’re continually testing the latest gadgets to sort the good from the bad. This means we’ve had the opportunity to find the best tech gear and accessories built for travel.  From voltage converters to noise-canceling headphones, we’ve curated a list of the very best tech gear to optimize your next travel experience. The items below are worthy of any packing list and will help you prepare for anything you may encounter on the road—or in the sky. MANAGE ELECTRICAL NEEDS WITH A VOLTAGE CONVERTER Bestek Universal Travel Adapter 220V to 110V When…

By this point, you’ve probably heard of passkeys, a much simpler (and more secure) alternative to passwords. You don’t have to memorize anything or mess with complicated mixes of numbers, letters, and symbols. Plus, they’re phishing resistant—an advantage given the increase of scams on the web. People I speak with are usually sold on this idea but often don’t know how to get started. But it’s dead easy. You just have to pick a way to store your passkeys. Here’s a brief overview of the different options: Your smartphone. This one’s seamless, especially if you’re most often on your phone instead of a laptop or PC. Creating passkeys is generally automated when initiating the process from a mobile app or browser. This works for both iOS and Android. Your tablet.…

Smaller Surfaces have finally arrived. Microsoft is announcing smaller, less powerful revisions of the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet and Surface Laptop, all built around a more conservative version of Qualcomm’s battery-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip. Smaller doesn’t necessarily mean dramatically cheaper, however. And while earlier reports said Microsoft would ship both devices with 12-inch screens, that’s not quite what we’re getting. The new $899 13-inch Surface Laptop is very similar to the existing 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7, which actually ships for as low as $999.99 with a Snapdragon X Plus chip inside. Meanwhile, the smaller 12-inch Surface Pro will cost as little as $799.99, below the $999.99 Microsoft charges for its existing 13-inch Surface Pro 11 with a Snapdragon X Plus inside. As you’ll see below, you’re getting a lot less.…

Microsoft’s controversial Windows Recall has now been generally released, and it poses as much of a risk to your privacy as it could be a boon to your productivity. Recall is just one of several new features that either have arrived or will be arriving on Copilot+ PC, Microsoft said in late April. Recall, Windows’ improved semantic search, Live Captions, Cocreator, and Restyle Image and Image Creator within Photos are now all available for Copilot+ PCs that include Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs as well as PCs with qualifying processors from AMD and Intel. A few features—Click to Do, Live Captions, and Voice Access—are available for Copilot+ PCs running on Snapdragon, but support for AMD and Intel chips isn’t quite available. For Microsoft, the release of these AI-powered features is cause for…

Cybersecurity can be complicated. (I sat in on a penetration testing session during the RSAC’s cybersecurity conference this week, and I don’t envy them their jobs.) But not all of it is—especially when it comes to big wins for us everyday users. Take a look at the big red arrow on the page opposite. It’s pointing to the Administrator account. That is what David Weston, CVP of Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft, says is the biggest security threat to your PC. The reason: Admin permissions are a major opportunity for hackers. Think of it like your house—once someone’s inside, they can go into any part of it and mess around. In particular, if you use an Administrator account daily, then remote access to your PC is possible—and those two…

Sightful’s Spacetop, a gigantic augmented-reality supplemental monitor for your PC, succeeds as a concept. But it still needs some fine-tuning before you’ll be completely happy with it, especially at the price Sightful is charging. SO, WHAT IS THE SIGHTFUL SPACETOP EXPERIENCE? Imagine looking through a swim mask at the night sky, made up of a regular grid of small stars. Upon this grid floats a small taskbar and various Windows windows, which you can move around and drag, just like a desktop. Spacetop functions as a massive virtual screen that seamlessly replaces your laptop’s monitor. Look up, down, and to the sides, and you can see your windows and apps. There’s a small floating taskbar for in-Spacetop navigation. You can run Teams or Slack in one corner and Outlook in…

Sonnet’s Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock carves out a new tier in both price and performance, blowing away conventional Thunderbolt 4 docks as a new tier of ultrapremium Thunderbolt 5 docking stations takes hold. I fully expect more Thunderbolt 5 docking stations to be released. Hopefully, their performance meets or even exceeds that of the Sonnet Echo 13, which should place among the best Thunderbolt docks we recommend you buy. Sonnet’s dock is the second Thunderbolt 5 docking station I’ve tested, and the first with an integrated SSD. The integrated SSD drives up the cost substantially, but its performance sits well above a conventional external SSD. (Intel’s original reference design included an integrated SSD, my contacts say, so some manufacturers followed suit.) It’s a smart decision, nevertheless, and one that is…

Are you getting used to Windows 11 but wish it was a bit faster? Do you feel like your computer has become slower or starts up unusually slowly? Follow along and I’ll go through various tricks that can speed up your system. UNINSTALL UNNECESSARY PROGRAMS If you’ve bought a new computer with Windows pre-installed, chances are the manufacturer has included a bunch of programs, often completely unnecessary or pure junk. But even if you installed the system yourself, Windows 11 comes with a lot of programs you may never use. Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps, where you’ll find a complete list of installed programs (Microsoft, like Apple, has started calling common computer programs “apps”). Click the “more” button to the right of a program you want to remove…

If you’re a smartphone owner—and chances are that’s everyone reading this—you’ve probably encountered an eerie but all too common scenario: One day you’re talking about a random topic while your phone is next to you, and the following day you notice ads start popping up related to that same topic. It’s unsettling. How do these ads know what you were talking about? Your smartphone may be the culprit. Every smartphone has its built-in microphone constantly turned on in order for the virtual assistant to hear your voice commands. So could it be that these devices are also secretly eavesdropping on your conversations in order to serve you ads? Here’s everything you need to know, plus a simple test to find out. FIND OUT IF YOUR PHONE IS LISTENING TO YOU To…

Microsoft has a branding revolution sitting in its back pocket, and I don’t think the company realizes it. When Microsoft previewed its upcoming Windows AI experiences alongside a smaller Surface Laptop and Surface Pro (see page 10), it did so by showing off what it presented to the public: a collection of experiences that could take advantage of the NPU within Copilot+ PCs. One of the most important experiences is the agentic AI that’s coming to the Windows 11 Settings menu. Agentic AI will allow Windows to basically research, troubleshoot, and solve your PC problems for you. If your screen is too dim, Windows will show you how to adjust the brightness. If the font is too small, Windows will show you how to enlarge it. More importantly, Microsoft says that…

Google said Thursday that it has begun migrating its “AI Mode” out of its experimental Labs effort and into the real world. Google said that a “small percentage of people” in the “coming weeks” will see what Google calls AI Mode, or entirely AI-generated responses to queries users ask. It’s Google’s response to services like Anthropic, which “answer” queries using AI, slurping up and regurgitating answers that others have already provided. Google first began revamping its search algorithm in 2023, when it started aggregating AI-powered summaries of, say, the best laptops. AI has been used elsewhere by Google services like Chrome to sum up web pages as well. (The Department of Justice is attempting to break up Google, including spinoff its Chrome browser [see page 17], as punishment for forming what…

Lenovo’s Legion laptop family has been setting a high bar for gaming laptops over the last few years. While the Legion 9 series may be top dog in that family, the Legion Pro 7 series tends to mark a balance of class-leading performance, build quality, and value. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10 continues that legacy nicely, offering extreme CPU and GPU performance, all in a robust chassis with an excellent display. With a starting price of $2,849 and a bump up to $3,599 to get the RTX 5080-equipped system tested here, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10 is solidly in the high-end gaming laptop category. But from our first benchmark to the last, it wastes no time cementing itself as one of the best gaming laptops…

The wait may be over at last…assuming you’ve been waiting for new Nvidia graphics cards that don’t cost $500 or more. The RTX 5060 Ti recently launched officially, and Adam and Will in the PCWorld labs got their hands on both of them. Check out how they performed in the latest YouTube video. Sadly, the only review units Nvidia sent out were variations on the 16GB version of the RTX 5060 Ti. The 8GB version should be on store shelves, at least theoretically and for a few seconds before it sells out, but it didn’t look like many reviews were popping up on launch day. But the good news is that the 16GB version, which has an MSRP of $429 (yeah, we’ll see about that), is pretty darn good. In…

Around two-thirds of all internet users use Google Chrome, according to StatCounter. That’s about 3 billion to 4 billion people! And yet many Chrome users still aren’t using Google’s browser to its full potential. Chrome works well out of the box, but if you delve just a little deeper beneath the surface, you’ll find plenty of Chrome features that you might find helpful but aren’t using yet. These features aren’t going to radically change your life, but they’re practical. Some are small and easy to enable, while others are more work but worth the effort. Here are some key Chrome features that are worth trying out to see if they improve your day-to-day web browsing experience. USE MULTIPLE USER PROFILES Chrome has built-in support for user profiles, where each profile…

Unless you fly strictly under the radar, your Facebook account has valuable data about you—like who you speak with the most and what you talk about. It can also be a treasure trove of other personal details like your family members, close friends, and social plans. You should be the only one to control your account. To ensure this, periodically verifying that everything’s secure is a wise idea. How? Primarily, you’ll want to look over the devices logged into your Facebook account. If someone has stolen or compromised your password, it’s possible that they are lurking in the background. Perhaps it’s a hacker looking for data to use for a scam or extortion, but don’t discount romantic partners, roommates, family, and friends, too. You can use a PC or a…