Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass was supposed to be the shining ray of light for gamers who wanted value: an all-you-can-eat buffet of both triple-A and indie titles, including unlimited streaming, for a low monthly price. Then the “low” part of that equation started going away, culminating in a staggering 50 percent price increase in October 2025.
Reversing course — sort of — mere months…
Even trusted apps can spread PC malware now
April 22, 2026
You never click on links in email. You only install apps from known storefronts—Microsoft, Steam, etc. You add only browser extensions that have strong reviews and lots of other users. And yet, your PC could still be at risk of getting infected with malware.
Why? Hackers…
Norton VPN review: Simple, speedy, and better than ever
April 21, 2026
Norton has joined the growing list of security giants offering standalone VPN products. What was once a fairly basic add-on to its antivirus service, though, has evolved into something far more serious. Recent updates have brought meaningful performance gains, tighter…
Rising prices are the biggest tech story of 2026. Well, the biggest consumer tech story, anyway — the biggest story in a broader sense is “AI” in general. And that’s the answer to why prices are going up.
AI data centers are gobbling up memory manufacturing capacity. The trend is expected to continue for quite a while, and there’s almost no capacity left for consumer-level RAM and…
One of the keys to improving PC productivity is simply knowing a new tool exists. Easy, right? But it’s something that Microsoft and Windows has struggled with for years, and it finally seems like they’ve settled on a good method for alerting you to new features.
For…
Ransomware is nasty stuff. This type of malware encrypts files on your PC so that you can’t access them—unless you pay the attacker to unlock the data. In other words, your files are held hostage until you cough up the demanded ransom, unless you’re able to survive the…
Chrome is the most popular browser in the world by a country mile. With more than 77% of the browser market across all kinds of devices, it’s most people’s first choice—especially after a fresh Windows install. But Chrome isn’t some privacy-centric upstart that puts the user first. Just like Google’s “free” search engine, Chrome’s users are the product. The browser collects a lot…
Sometimes it feels like the PC case segment moves at a snail’s pace. The most exciting development I’ve seen in years is rear-mounted connections. But Cougar’s new MX600 MAX RGB case caught my eye as a PC builder focused on utility and performance. The fans are big…
If you’re trying to build a PC in 2026, I feel bad for you, son. I’ve got 99 problems… and most of them tie back to the same “AI” bubble that’s making computers ridiculously expensive. Though some older parts are also going up in price, many are falling back on…
“Everyday productivity.” “Value-orientated computing.” “Right-sized performance.” All of these are terms Intel is using to describe the Intel Core Series 3, Intel’s response to budget CPUs that are appearing in laptops like the Apple MacBook Neo.
Intel unexpectedly launched the Core Series 3, based on its excellent “Panther Lake” (Core Ultra Series 3) architecture and 18A…
