PC Magazine August 2020

I’m writing this column as I sit on my living-room couch, which is also my dedicated workspace in my New York City microapartment. That’s just to point out that remote work is still very much with us, and it looks like that isn’t ending anytime soon. In fact, I’m pretty sure things will never go back to the way they were before COVID-19. PCMag has tons of tips and guidance for home workers (which you can find in our June “Work From Home” issue and online at https://www.pcmag.com/series/how-to-work-from-home). And going with that theme, we are very aware that home internet service is more important than it ever has been because of our teleworking. A reliable, fast connection is essential for many kinds of work—video conferencing, streaming anything, sharing large files, and…

Just shy of two years into its lifespan, Canon’s full-frame mirrorless camera system is starting to take real shape. Two new camera bodies introduced in July are squarely aimed at pro photographers and serious hobbyists. There’s a slew of new lenses, too, but we’ll first turn attention to the EOS R5 and R6. The EOS R5 is the higher-end of the pair, a high-resolution model with a 45MP sensor; the R6 offers much of the same functionality, but captures the world at 20MP instead. EOS R5 Canon has teased the features of the EOS R5, but now all the cards are on the table. The full-frame camera is built around a 45MP full-frame image sensor, supports 8K Raw video capture, and, in a first from Canon, mounts its image sensor on a 5-axis…

Lego’s Mindstorms kits have stood out as some of the best robotics and programming education tools for years. They’ve also been some of the slowest to evolve, with the most recent kit, Lego Mindstorms EV3, coming out in 2013. Now, after seven years, Lego has finally unveiled a new Mindstorms kit: the Lego Mindstorms Robot Inventor. The Robot Inventor kit lets kids (adults too) build five different robot models out of 949 pieces, including a four-legged walker and a bipedal wheeled robot that can give high-fives. All the robots can be programmed to perform tricks—grabbing items, firing plastic projectiles, avoiding obstacles, and playing various sports with a ball. The kit includes four low-profile, medium-angular motors; a color and light sensor; and a distance sensor, which work together with the Intelligent Hub block…

Watch out for emails claiming to offer a “COVID-19 bonus.” According to Microsoft, a pair of hackers has been using the term to trick business employees into handing over access to their email accounts. The company gave details of the phishing attacks, which have been attempting to take over Microsoft Office 365 accounts from business users across 62 different countries. Microsoft has been observing the hacking group’s phishing scams since December. It initially used generic business subject lines, such as “Q4 report — Dec 19.” But more recently, the hackers have been exploiting the pandemic to manipulate users into opening malicious emails, including the term “COVID-19 bonus” on links or files attached to the emails. “Once victims clicked on the deceptive links, they were ultimately prompted to grant access permissions to…

Olympus, which has been a standard bearer in the imaging industry for the past eight decades, announced plans to sell its camera business to another company, Japan Industrial Partners, Inc (JIP). The deal isn’t yet completed but is expected to go through by the end of the year. In the film era, Olympus rolled out iconic models such as the compact, half-frame PEN series, and the OM SLR line. It continued these lines into the digital age, leveraging the Micro Four Thirds lens mount and sensor format to deliver a line of compact, sturdily built interchangeable lens cameras, as well as a line of rugged, waterproof models under its Tough banner. The camera industry has suffered in recent years. Smartphones have gotten better at taking pictures and have replaced pocketable point-and-shoot models…

In my opinion, Sniper Elite 3 isn’t a fantastic game. The parts that work are the ones that clearly received the most effort and attention: the countless opportunities for players to snipe Nazis from creative vantage points and watch the resulting slow-mo carnage. But that singular focus only serves to make the rest of the stealth game surrounding it seem that much more uninspired. It’s not something I would normally be interested in for very long. But because Sniper Elite 3 is on the Nintendo Switch, I’ve played far more of the game than I would have otherwise, taking potshots on the train during the morning commute (when I still had those) or in between weekend errands. The open-world North Africa levels may seem like a poor man’s Metal Gear Solid…