Conversely, managing the context menu to work in your advantage can be a rewarding tweak to your operating system, or at the very least getting rid of the useless things that third party apps might have added there. Various tools have simplified the process of adding shortcuts to your frequently used software, utilities and visited destinations around Windows. Microsoft has already made it easy to access the different control panels and system management locations in Windows by right clicking the Start menu or hitting the Windows key + X on your keyboard, but there are plenty of useful items missing from the right click menus (right clicking on the desktop, on files and folders etc....

But for many people, spending $1,000 on a laptop is not feasible, even if high-end hardware is important. This is where the HP Envy 13 comes in: it packs hardware that’s comparable to a $1,000 laptop in a MacBook Air-like package, complete with a price that starts at just $800. In some ways, the Envy is the budget high-end laptop that price-conscious shoppers may be after. For $800, you get a very respectable collection of hardware....

The first-generation Dual Camera system used two 12-megapixel sensors, one for monochrome data, and the other for RGB. With the second-gen system in the Mate 9, the monochrome sensor has been upgraded to a 20-megapixel unit with an f/2.2 lens. The 12-megapixel RGB camera remains the same; it’s a Sony IMX286 1/2.9" CMOS with 1.25µm pixels, paired with an f/2.2 27mm lens. This camera solution has some advantages over a standard single-sensor setup....

The same commonality of design parameters which birthed the industry is also a driving ethos within product line evolution. Where incremental changes and imitation of an already successful design are low risk decisions, a profound change in design philosophy carries with it a greater possibility of financial uncertainty since increased research and development needs to translate into sales or brand elevation. A profound change in design philosophy can also usher in a design icon....

Instagram didn’t start asking new users to input their date of birth until 2019, and it only requests age verification when teens try to edit their birth dates to show they are aged 18 or older. It’s partly why 40% of children under 13 use the site and other social networks, according to a study last year. The current way Instagram carries out age verification is by asking users to send in pictures of identification, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate....

Intel’s laptop Arc GPUs were announced at the end of March, but they’ve only recently started trickling down to consumers in South Korea. Perhaps even more disappointing is the fact that only a few laptops from Samsung and HP are equipped with Team Blue’s dedicated GPUs, and even there we’re only talking about entry-level models like the Arc A350M and Arc A370M. Some have speculated that Intel wanted to achieve the promised Q1 2022 launch and stall the retail availability as much as possible while engineers perfect the software side of things....

Intel has already started shipping mobile Arc Alchemist GPUs for devices like the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i and Samsung’s Galaxy Book2 Pro, which pairs 12th generation Alder Lake-P and Alder Lake-U processors with an Arc A380 GPU. Early benchmarks from credible sources suggest the A300 series won’t blow socks off in terms of gaming performance, but they will be more battery-friendly than Nvidia and AMD alternatives. Gamers are mostly interested in the desktop A700 and A500 series Alchemist GPUs, which are widely expected to rival mainstream and upper-middle tier offerings from AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 lineup....

The AMD chip packs 6 cores with 12 threads, while the 12600K includes 6 P-cores and 4 E-cores for a total of 16 threads. The P-cores can clock as high as 4.9 GHz, while the E-cores cap out at 3.6 GHz, so clock speeds are very similar to that of the 12700K, there’s just 25% fewer P-cores, though the E-core count remains the same. The L3 cache capacity has been reduced to 20 MB as well....

The i7-11800H couldn’t outperform AMD’s equivalent Ryzen 5000 parts in the majority of productivity applications, and the generally higher pricing of the Intel platform weakened its advantage in gaming where Intel does well. The Core i9-11980HK is the top processor in Intel’s mobile stack, so we want to find out how it performs when compared against a Ryzen 9 mobile chip or Intel’s own Core i7-11800H which is a more mainstream offering usually available in the same systems....

Some of today’s smallest Mini-ITX cases, such as the Antec ISK 100, could be deemed too large for the DH61AG. After all, it can accommodate standard Mini-ITX motherboards and even includes its own 90-watt power supply with internal adapters. Again, it’d “work” for all intents and purposes, but it’d defeat the point of buying Intel’s thin platform. We did stumble upon the Mini-Box M350, which is priced at $40 and is designed specifically for Thin Mini-ITX boards....

This week, Intel announced its new Arc A-series dedicated GPUs for laptops, adding more competition for Nvidia and AMD. For now only the entry-level Arc 3 series are ready to hit the market, while the heavy hitters like Arc 5 and Arc 7 series which have more graphics cores, VRAM, and ray tracing units are set for a summer release. We’ll have to wait and see how they perform in the real world, but Intel is now officially the third player in the discrete GPU space, even if it’s off to a slow start....

Intel has been dragging its feet when it comes to its Arc Alchemist GPUs, but now we finally have an official launch date for the first chips in this family. According to Lisa Pearce, who is vice president of Intel’s Visual Computing Group, Team Blue’s first dedicated GPUs in the Alchemist lineup will debut on March 30. The company will hold a virtual event titled “A New Stage of the Game” at 8 a....

Intel’s Alder Lake platform is a solid choice for people looking to upgrade their aging PCs. That said, Team Blue’s 12th-gen processors aren’t exactly cheap, and you do need to buy a new motherboard. That, too, can get expensive depending on whether you want to use DDR5 memory, which is still priced way above decent DDR4 kits. Also read: Rob’s Alder Lake Windows 11 Rig Build Log According to a DigiTimes report (via Tom’s Hardware), several supply chain insiders have been told that Intel will cut Alder Lake CPU prices for OEMs by five percent in the coming months, and that includes mainstream Core i5 and Core i7 models....

When measuring Windows 7 multitasking performance the Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB was able to match the OCZ Vertex 3 240GB taking just 4.8 seconds to complete the task. This made it a fraction faster than other SF-2281 based SSDs that we have tested along with the Crucial m4 512GB. The single application loading performance of the Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB is lightning fast, though it is no more exceptional than that of other current generation drives that we have tested....

Jeep claims the Recon will have the ability to cross the Rubicon Trail and drive back to town on a single charge. The Stellantis-owned brand is also working on an all-electric Wagoneer. Codenamed Wagoneer S (which apparently stands for speed, striking and sexy), this premium SUV will feature an aerodynamic design targeting a range of 400 miles on a single charge. With 600 horsepower on tap, Jeep estimates I’ll be able to sprint from zero to 60 mph in roughly 3....

The typical thin and light sports either a 12- or 13-inch display, Intel’s Core i3 and i5 processors, 2GB to 4GB of RAM, 160 to 320GB of storage capacity. Dropping the optical drive for the sake of portability and using a low-voltage processor variant alongside a long-lasting battery is also a popular trend in this category but not necessarily the norm. Sony Vaio Z Series At just over three pounds, the latest Sony Vaio Z refresh packs some seriously beefy specs into the same beautifully designed form factor that characterizes this series....

Unfortunately, Lenovo does bundle its Erazer with moderate amount of bloatware/trialware. This is nothing that can’t be fixed with a few minutes of uninstalling though, so no permanent harm done. The worst example of this was a trial version of McAfee that nagged us every minute (literally) until we either bought or uninstalled it. I don’t know if this was a bug, but I couldn’t get it to shut up without removing it....

Some of the included games can actually be a lot of fun as I spent several hours playing Monopoly with friends on more than one ocassion. Everything here worked as it should and it’s a bit more convenient than playing the old fashioned way. Sticking with the games theme for a moment, the included gaming accessories worked as advertised. Lenovo Air Hockey was good for a bit of entertainment although the touch interface lagged behind a little....

The outer lid of the X220 gets the usual ThinkPad styling and smooth rubbery feel. Battery and sleep LED indicators are easily visible on the back of the lid. There are no LEDs or buttons across the front of the notebook with the lid closed – only a small notch to grip and open the screen. On the right side of the system is an SD card slot, always-on USB 2....

I’ll stop well short of doing a full-on review of Windows 8 but just note that if you are totally new to the OS, it will certainly take some time to get used to. I’ve had a little experience with Windows 8 beforehand but even still, it took a bit to get the hang of things initially. After a couple of weeks, however, I felt pretty well versed and even found that there were some things I preferred over the tried and true Windows 7 I’ve been using for years....