PCWorld January 2016

IF CURRENT PRICING trends continue, the conventional notebook hard drive could die by 2018, replaced with fast, slim, and increasingly cheaper SSDs. SSDs can generally transfer data faster and with less latency than hard drives, running silently and consuming less power. But they’ve traditionally been priced several orders of magnitude higher than a hard drive of the same capacity, limiting their use to higher-end PCs. Quietly, however, that’s changing. The flash vendors designing the chips used within SSDs have aggressively introduced technology that continues to lower their cost. Meanwhile, hard-drive vendors have spent the last 60 years whittling dollar after dollar from the cost of a hard drive, but face slowing price declines that should allow SSDs to catch up. Hard drives certainly aren’t going away—especially in desktop PCs, servers, and in devices…

MICROSOFT HAS GRUDGINGLY agreed to let current OneDrive users keep their 15GB of free cloud storage and 15GB of free Camera Roll “bonus” storage, rather than dropping you to 5GB as previously stated. Of course, there’s a catch: You have to be aware of the offer and willing to endure a bit of spam. To take advantage of the offer, visit this Microsoft page (preview.onedrive.com/bonus). Microsoft representatives said the company does not have a supplementary explanatory blog post or statement to add at present, but interestingly the URL suggests the page is still in preview phase. You’ve already navigated the first hurdle: Because users have to manually opt in to the offer, OneDrive users who are unaware of the deal won’t be able to take advantage of it. And there’s a small…

BUDGET PC BUILDERS are in for a treat: It’s been officially confirmed that you can now heavily overclock Intel’s cheap Skylake chips with a BIOS update. Tech site TechSpot confirmed (go.pcworld.com/skylakeoverclock) it through hands-on tests. The team overclocked a Skylake Core i3-6100 from its default clockspeed of 3.7GHz to 4.7GHz, after motherboard maker Asrock provided the team with a beta BIOS that required switching off the integrated graphics. Why this matters: Intel’s last few generations of chips have limited overclocking to pricier K-series CPUs. With an apparent workaround discovered, higher clock speeds and essentially “free performance” may become far more attainable for those who can’t afford a K chip. An overview of overclocking “Overclocking” is the term for running a CPU’s clockspeed above its rating from the factory. This may sound dangerous—and it can…

WITH HIGH-BANDWIDTH memory (go.pcworld.com/hibandwidthmem) in the bag and cutting-edge processor technology finally appearing on the horizon for graphics cards—all GPUs have been stuck on 28nm since late 2011—AMD’s gearing up for a major fight against Nvidia in 2016. But the nuts, bolts, and transistors are only part of the equation with modern-day graphics cards; the recently created Radeon Technologies Group (go.pcworld.com/radeongroup) is rolling out the rebuilt-from-the-ground-up software Radeon Software Crimson to accompany the new breed of AMD hardware. AMD’s first tease of Crimson was a run-through of the slick new Radeon Settings hub (go.pcworld.com/radeonhubtour) designed to replace Catalyst Control Center. (R.I.P.) At the time, AMD revealed some of the overt new features in Radeon Settings, such as per-game OverDrive overclocking settings and one-click Eyefinity multi-monitor configuration. More recently, AMD’s unwrapping the…

MICROSOFT’S BING HAS launched an election site for those who prefer their nuanced political positions boiled down into easy-to-read charts and graphs—and yes, Bing will try and predict the outcome at a later date. Not long ago, Microsoft launched the Bing Political Index, an informational box that will appear when users access the site through a direct link, Bing.com/elections. But a candidate-specific box will also appear when users begin searching for that candidate’s name, such as Donald Trump. The site lists the candidates alphabetically by name in a horizonal . carousel, with candidates who have withdrawn from the race (Bobby Jindal, at press time) at the end. Bing breaks down each candidate by their position on the issues, a timeline of key quotes and events, how the candidate has fared on Twitter…

FOR TODAY’S CRIMINALS, the Internet’s where the action is. Compared to traditional muggers and burglars, cybercrooks make more money with less risk. And that means that us honest folk have to be extra cautious. Protecting yourself in cyberspace is more complex than locking your door or keeping a hand on your bag. I’m concentrating here with protecting your Windows PC. 1: Antivirus: Whenever Windows is up, it should be running an up-to-date antivirus program. These work in the background, blocking not only viruses, but all sorts of malware. Check AVTest (go.pcworld.com/avtestwindows) to pick the best option. Better yet, read Ian Paul’s more detailed discussion (go.pcworld.com/bestantivirus). 2: Another-opinion malware scanner: Even the best antivirus program can miss an occasional attack. So, once a week, scan your PC with another program that scans only when you tell…