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How to use your Steam Deck as a PC controller
The Steam Deck is also a great controller, and you can even set it up as a controller for your PC. Here's how.
The Steam Deck is a great console, and part of its greatness is its awesome controller. Inspired by the original Steam Controller, it has two haptic touch pads, four back buttons, gyro support, all in addition to the typical buttons you get on a controller. The quality of the Deck's controls is great, and it's a shame it's limited to just the Deck itself.
Linux for beginners: Everything you need to know to get started
Linux can seem intimidating at first, but it's not as complicated as you might think. Here's the beginner's guide to Linux.
In the mainstream, we often think of Linux as the techy alternative to Windows, and it kind of is, but don't think it's just for programmers and engineers. Today, if you can use Windows to any decent level, it's totally possible to get into Linux with only a little extra learning. If you're not familiar with Linux and want to get acquainted, here's everything you need to know.
4 reasons why a 32:9 monitor is perfect for a desktop setup
My current setup includes three standard monitors, and a big 32:9 screen would be perfect for increasing my productivity.
I've mentioned this a couple of times in reviews, but my desktop setup is kind of a mess. Getting work done efficiently requires a lot of screen space, but having three separate monitors is not an approach I love. It's become especially hard since I reviewed the LG UltraWide 49WQ95C, a 49-inch monitor with a super ultrawide 32:9 aspect ratio. Suffice it to say, having to return that review unit was a big bummer.
Why every thin and light laptop should have 5G in 2023
Cellular connectivity has become commonplace on mobile devices from watches to tablets. Thin-and-light laptops are the next step.
5G connectivity has become commonplace in 2023, with even budget devices offering support for the wireless standard in some cases. Before that, a slew of mobile electronics supported some type of cellular connectivity. It started with mobile phones, of course, but then stretched to tablets and even smartwatches. But there's a natural next step to the emergence of cellular connectivity across mobile electronics, and it's taking longer than expected.
In the Apple vs Meta battle, the Vision Pro still has a long way to go
Apple might have made quite a statement with its entry into the VR market, though taking the lead will take more time
Apple and Meta have never been closer as companies. Now that Apple has the Vision Pro, it can compete in the same industry as Meta with its Quest headsets. Previously, we discussed how Apple's Vision Pro headset could disrupt the VR industry and could capitalize on Meta's privacy woes. Apple's reputation in this space is objectively superior to Meta's. So, it already has a strong win in their inevitable battle.
4 reasons why you should build your own mechanical keyboard
For one, you'll get a much better keyboard as a result!
I've been using mechanical keyboards for as long as I can remember, but it wasn't until recently that I started building custom keyboards instead of just buying them off the shelf. In fact, my quest to find a good mechanical keyboard ended only after I built one myself.
On this day, Steve Jobs resigned from Apple (and was named CEO 12 years later)
Steve Jobs is forever enshrined as the leader of Apple, but it wasn't always that way. On this day, he resigned from the company he helped found.
Tim Cook has led Apple for over a decade now, and he's done a pretty good job, helping it become the first trillion-dollar company ever. Many of us still think of Apple as Steve Jobs' company, since he helped Apple rise through a few dark periods to create successful products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and more. But before the late Apple co-founder was enshrined as a legendary technology CEO, Jobs resigned from the company he helped found 28 years ago to this day. Perhaps more surprising is that he was re-hired as Apple's boss 12 years later as part of a high-profile acquisition.
36 years ago, Apple released what would be the last Apple II personal computer
On this day, Apple released the last computer in the Apple II family, which was the company's first personal computing hit.
Apple created the first widely successful personal computer with the Apple II, which sparked a lineage of great Macs and PCs. But on this day in 1986, the company released its final iteration, called the Apple IIGS. It was the family's most powerful computer and had already been on the market for six years, so why did Apple abandon its claim to fame at a time when it arguably had the most potential? It had to do with Apple's direction not only in the personal computing space but as a technology company as a whole.
40 years ago, Osborne Computer declared bankruptcy due to poor planning
Osborne Computer was on the rise, but the company's lack of foresight led to its untimely demise and coined the term "Osborne effect".
History is filled with stories of companies that went under due to a clear lack of foresight, but not many failures get to be as recognizable as that of Osborne Computer Corporation. You may have heard of the "Osborne Effect", referring to how quickly a company can crash and burn by getting customers interested in a product that doesn't exist yet. That term was coined some 40 years ago, after Osborne Computer filed for bankruptcy on September 13th, 1983.
10 useful Windows command line prompts you should try
While you can always use the Windows 11 Settings app or the Task Manager for common things in Windows, the Command Prompt has nifty tricks, too.
These days, you might be used to diving into the Windows 11 Settings app or the Task Manager for things like checking on your disks and even killing unresponsive apps. But, before we had fancy graphical user interfaces on Windows, you had to use the Command Prompt and a command-line environment.
The slow and painful death of Xbox Kinect
The Xbox Kinect caused quite a stir when it debuted in 2010, but subsequent versions of the camera failed to make any kind of dent
Back when it was announced in 2009, Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360 seemed like a worthy rival to Sony’s Move controller and the Wii Remote. Unlike its competitors, Kinect wasn’t just a game controller that could sense your wrist movements; it was a full-blown camera with infrared sensors that was capable of capturing the movements of your entire body. This would enable all kinds of cool ways to interact with games.
What is Active Noise Cancelation?
If you've ever wondered what active noise cancelation is, then you've come to the right place.
Active Noise Cancelation is a majorly sought-after feature on earphones and headphones, and for good reason. It removes a lot of outside noise from your listening experience, making it both significantly more peaceful and easier to listen at lower volumes. However, how noise-canceling works on headphones like the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless and the Sony WH-1000XM5 is a bit of a mystery to many. We sat down with Christian Ern, a Principal Product Manager of Consumer Headphones at Sennheiser, at this year's IFA 2023 to help break it down.
Air cooling vs water cooling: Which is the best option for you?
For cooling CPUs and GPUs, there are two basic options: air and liquid. Here's how each cooling style measures up.
When it comes to the best coolers for CPUs and even GPUs, you have two basic options: air cooling or liquid cooling (also called water cooling). While both cooler styles ultimately use fans to cool off a heatsink in order to keep your computer chips from overheating, there's a difference in how each type gets the heat from chips into those heatsinks, and that difference makes a serious impact on performance.
5 reasons you shouldn't upgrade to AM5 yet
AMD's AM5 socket and Ryzen 7000 CPUs might be all the rage but you shouldn't upgrade yet. Here are 5 reasons why
After teasing its long-awaited platform refresh at CES 2022, AMD showed off its Ryzen 7000 CPUs and the AM5 platform at Computex a few months later. The company brought next-gen DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 support to its desktop processors and overhauled its socket layout, shifting from a PGA socket on the previous AM4 platform to an LGA socket on AM5. After the tremendous success of the AM4 socket, consumers waited to see exactly what benefits the new platform would bring.
5 reasons why Linux is good for gaming in 2023
Linux may not be the best OS for graphically demanding games, but it has become a lot more accessible over the past years
Windows has long been hailed as the best operating system for gaming, easily beating Linux and macOS when it comes to running the latest graphically-intensive games. But it's not quite as cut and dry these days. Linux gaming has come a long way since the early 2010s when most Windows-based 3D games used to run at drastically reduced framerates on the open-source operating system. In fact, Linux is now a viable platform for gaming, so maybe it's time to give it a shot.
5 apps you should use on your Chromebook
You don't need to stay in Chrome all the time. Check out these great Android, web, and Linux apps for your Chromebook.
Whether you just purchased a new Chromebook to move away from a Windows laptop or are just a fan of ChromeOS, we have one piece of advice: You don't have to use Google Chrome all the time.
5 reasons Vivaldi should be your web browser
You may not have heard of it, but Vivaldi is the best web browser for a few reasons. Here are some of my favorites.
There's no shortage of web browsers out there, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses to take into account when you choose one for yourself. Most people will probably be familiar with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox, but if you ask me, the best browser you can get is Vivaldi. Haven't heard of it? You came to the right place.
Why APUs can't truly replace low-end GPUs
Replacing low-end GPUs is like replacing cheap cars with scooters and saying it's actually better
Recently I wrote about how the demise of the budget GPU posed a big problem for PC gaming, namely that having to spend an extra $100 to $200 just to buy the cheapest GPU would be a serious hurdle for many gamers who simply don't have as much as others. Without newer budget models to replace older ones, these gamers would inevitably get left behind, finding their options to be inadequate for the latest and even sort of recent PC games. It could even harm the PC gaming ecosystem as a whole if these gamers are squeezed out of PC and switch to consoles.
Why I haven't upgraded my GPU in almost three years
Between weak generational upgrades and niche features, I'm just not as compelled to upgrade as I used to be.
I have an RTX 3060 Ti in my desktop today, and I've had it for nearly three years, which is the longest amount of time I've ever stuck with a GPU. After getting my very first GPU (the R9 380 4GB) in 2015, I upgraded it about every two years: to an RX 480 in 2016, an RX Vega 56 in 2018, a GTX 1080 Ti in 2020, and an RTX 3060 Ti in 2021. With the completion of the RTX 40 and RX 7000 series, I have quite a few options for new cards, too.
On this day in 1995, eBay launched as an 'honest and open marketplace'
28 years ago, eBay started off as AuctionWeb and sold its first item: a broken laser pointer.
Over a Labor Day weekend in 1995, 28-year-old Pierre Omidyar began writing code for a website that would initially be called AuctionWeb. It was meant to offer an "honest and open marketplace" that would connect buyers to sellers directly. AuctionWeb went live on Sept. 3, 1995, with the first item purchased being Omidyar's broken laser point for $14.83. Omidyar reached out to the buyer asking if he had accidentally purchased the defective item. He learned that the transaction was intentional because the buyer wanted the spare parts to build his own.