PCWorld June 2022

Google has become synonymous with powerful search, incredible hardware, and quirky, fun technology. Unfortunately, that includes stretching the limits of privacy and a reputation for giving up on its product lines too soon. But these negatives notwithstanding, Google is at it again at its Google I/O event near its company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., enticing developers and consumers alike with a number of new hardware products, software and services. Yes, Google just revealed new Pixel phones, including the Pixel 6A and the Pixel 7. But those weren’t the coolest technologies Google showed off on Wednesday. The stuff below is even cooler. (And for more coverage, check out our stories on Google’s new privacy controls, the new Pixel Watch, and the new Immersive Mode in Maps.) IMMERSIVE VIEW IN GOOGLE MAPS Google Maps began…

Odds are good that if you have a desktop computer, you spend a lot of time sitting at your desk, either for business or for pleasure. So why shouldn’t your desk be as comfy and efficient as possible? While upgrading your computer can often take serious dough (especially these days), you can spend a lot less to improve your workstation itself in some surprising ways. Here are ten ways to improve your workstation for under $100, presented in no particular order. Most of these cost less than $50, and many are under $25! 1. A FANCY DESK MAT No matter what kind of mouse you use or what kind of desk you use it on, you need something in between to protect both of them. A $10 mousepad will do just fine, though…

It’s very likely that the Microsoft Adaptive Mouse, Microsoft Adaptive Hub, and Microsoft Adaptive Buttons are the coolest PC peripherals Microsoft has ever made. The three PC peripherals were introduced at Microsoft’s Ability Summit, which showcases and elevates the ways the company is trying to make its technologies more accessible for those with disabilities. But what’s so fascinating about the new peripherals is that they can be universally beneficial to a variety of users. For instance, the Adaptive Mouse is actually modular, so that it can be swapped between right-handed and left-handed users simply by switching the thumb support. All three peripherals will be released later this year for an as-yet-undisclosed price, Microsoft said. Like many Microsoft hardware designs, the new peripherals build on work Microsoft engineers have performed previously. In 2018, Microsoft…

Today, Dell announced the Dell Latitude 9330, a 13.3-inch convertible laptop optimized for videoconferencing, with controls baked into the touchpad and a camera that slides shut when not in use. The Latitude 9330, like many laptops, already includes universal mic controls in the row of function keys at the top of the keyboard. That key can be used to turn the mic on and off for all applications. But a secondary “key”—more like a region of the touchpad—can also be used to mute or unmute yourself during a video call. Three other webcam “buttons” can be used to open a chat window, share your screen, and enable or disable the camera. The Latitude 9330 will be part of the new generation of laptops that use Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake processor, including vPro…

Intel has announced the 12th-gen Alder Lake-HX (12th-gen Core HX) processor series, splitting the difference between an extreme gaming processor and one designed for workstations and content creation. The flagship, the Core i9-12950HX, is the company’s first 16-core chip designed for laptops and will run as fast as 5GHz across its eight performance cores and eight efficiency cores. If the product designation sounds familiar, it should. AMD launched its own Ryzen 5900HX at CES in January, which they called the “world’s best processor for gamers.” While Intel isn’t making a similar claim, the company is saying you’ll see this chip in the most extreme gaming laptops as part of Intel’s H-series chips for enthusiasts. Daniel Rogers, senior director of mobile product marketing within Intel’s Client Computing Division, said that the 12th-gen Core…

Amazon might be feeling the competition in the e-reader market for the first time since…well, ever. Kindle e-readers use their own proprietary Amazon format to display e-books, AZW3, which keeps most users from loading up a bunch of copyright-free books in the most common ePub format. But thanks to a new software rollout, the underutilized Kindle Documents Service now automatically converts ePub files to Kindle-friendly AZW3. Combined with the Send to Kindle tool, that makes it much, much easier to shoot an ePub file over the local Wi-Fi network to your Kindle reader in a few short seconds, either via the desktop or uploaded on the web. The change was spotted by Good E-Reader. It was previously possible to convert ePub files to another format, like Mobi, then manually transfer them…