TechX Awards: The Most Innovative Products and Technologies of CES 2021

CES 2021 gave PCMag editors their first chance to vet candidates for our new Technical Excellence Awards, aka TechX.

World's Largest Dark Web Marketplace Taken Offline, Operator Arrested

WHAT'S NEW NOW / DARK WEB

MSI Alpha 15 (Late 2020): 2nd-Gen Evolution

REVIEWS / HARDWARE

HP Omen Spacer Wireless TKL Keyboard: Lacks a Few Features

REVIEWS / CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

How to Transfer Your Facebook Photos and Videos to Another Service

TIPS & HOW TOS / APPS

TunnelBear VPN: It's Just Right

REVIEWS / SOFTWARE

How to Secure Your Kid's iPhone

TIPS & HOW TOS / TECH PARENTING

Half of America Is Ready to Switch to Starlink Satellite Internet

WHAT'S NEW NOW / THE WHY AXIS

SilverStone Sugo 14: Mini-ITX PC Case

SilverStone’s new Sugo 14 PC case is an innovative mini-ITX model that can fit a surprising loadout of components inside.

HP Spectre x360 14: A Game-Changing Convertible

HP still sells the Spectre x360 13, but you can forget about it. The Spectre x360 14 is an elegant convertible laptop that ditches the older system’s 13.3-inch touch screen—and its familiar 16:9 aspect ratio— for a 13.5-inch panel with a squarer 3:2 ratio, for a superior view of text and web pages.

What's New in review

Papo of France creates highly detailed prehistoric animal figures (if not always the most scientifically accurate.)

The Thunderbird

Today we have an excellent, new kit based upon a scene from Ray Harryhausen's cowboys vs. dinosaur film, The Valley of Gwangi.

WHAT I DID ON MY LOCKDOWN

A tyrannosaur in the local area? How cool!

The Forgotten Dinosaur Art of Robert T. Bakker

A renaissance marks a shift in the attitudes and behaviours of an entire society.

Sauropelta

A flock of Deinonychus dart from the dense forest they had been moving through across the broad floodplain to the tree line on the far side.

Reminiscing Over Dinosaurus!

“Alive! After 70 million years! Roaring! Walking! Destroying!” (Ad line for Dinosaurus!)

Longisquama

“Determined to travel from the North Pole to the South Pole, Amos Barrett and his team of adventurers have arrived in the Late Triassic to drive the length of Pangea, the only time in the planet’s history when the continents had fused into one giant landmass.

How to Draw Dinosaurs

Putting it all together, the body of Ankylosaurus

Dinosauriana Imagined 13

Dinosauriana Iberiana (A Spain-ful Endeavor)

Tips to Help You Get Your Work Mojo Back

Do you ever wake up on a workday and say, “I don’t want to do it”? Is there a task you just can’t find the wherewithal to finish? Are you tempted to transition from working at home to taking a nap at home?

Tips to Boost Your Android Phone's Battery Life

A number of factors contribute to poor battery life on your Android phone. Thinner bodies, brighter screens, faster processors, more background software, and speedier internet connections all take their toll on phone batteries, though manufacturers are incorporating more powerful batteries to compensate. The Motorola Moto G Power has a 5,000mAh battery that can last for over 18 hours. Samsung’s Galaxy S phones, the most popular Android devices, can now last anywhere between 11 and 13 hours, depending on the model. Still, there are ways to get more out of any phone.

Steve Wozniak's New Startup Melds Blockchain and Green Tech

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has a new company that’s promising energy industry innovation through a virtual currency called “WOZX.” We know, it sounds weird. But Wozniak is hoping the new startup, called Efforce, will help stop climate change by promoting “green” energy-efficient technologies.

Heading Back to the Office: An Employee's Guide

Many businesses are preparing to transition employees back to offices, either to alleviate the stress of isolation or simply to stay afloat financially. Whatever the reason, keeping employees safe means employers must overcome a variety of hurdles, including adhering to new health and safety regulations that will likely include all-new considerations such as contact tracing and keeping employees properly distanced using space management tools.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HEALTH & FITNESS TECH - THE WFH (WORKOUT FROM HOME) EDITION

If the new year has you motivated to drop your quarantine 15 or take steps to boost your immunity amid the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no shortage of smart health and fitness technologies that can help you meet your goal.

Sensi Touch Smart Thermostat ST75: Versatile and Affordable

Smart thermostats make it easy to control your home’s heating and cooling system from just about anywhere, and the Sensi Touch Smart Thermostat ST75 is no different. But in addition to phone and voice control, it offers a responsive color touch-screen control panel. Easy on the eyes and simple to install, the ST75 is a bit more expensive than our Editors’ Choice winner for affordable thermostats, the Nest Thermostat ($129.99). That said, the Sensi model adds support for Apple’s HomeKit and Samsung’s SmartThings home automation platforms, as well as native Siri voice control, making it an excellent alternative to the Nest Thermostat for those who use any of those systems.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold: The Future's Not Quite Here Yet

It’s somewhat surprising that the world’s first foldable-screen PC is a ThinkPad. When foldable screens debuted on phones last year, they were expensive gimmicks with questionable durability. ThinkPads are mostly expensive laptops, to be sure, but they’re legendary for being the opposite of gimmicky and flimsy. Fortunately, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold has the benefit of years of testing and research, and, at least as far as physical design is concerned, this Windows tablet mostly lives up to its ThinkPad name.

Roku Ultra (2020): Feature-Filled Media Hub

Roku’s 2020 model of the Ultra media streamer is an iterative update to the line. The previous Ultra was already a powerful, feature-filled media hub, so the fact that the new model simply adds Dolby Vision support and faster processing isn’t a letdown. The Ultra can stream 4K HDR content, supports loads of apps and services, and its remote includes a headphone jack for privately listening to whatever you’re watching. It remains a top pick among high-end media streaming devices, but at $99.99, it feels a bit pricey compared with some other new models.

JBL Go 3: RIch Audio, Low Price

JBL makes lots of large, powerful Bluetooth speakers, but the Go 3 isn’t one of them. At $39.95, the Go 3 is about as portable (and affordable) as it gets—it’ll fit in any backpack or tote without issue. It’s also fully waterproof, making it ideal for outdoor use. There certainly isn’t any powerful bass depth coming out of a speaker this size, but the Go 3 does its best to muster some rich low-end presence at higher volumes. It could have longer battery life, but for the price, this a very solid value.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9310): Best Premium Convertible

With cutting-edge components and a sleek, sturdy chassis available in multiple color options and screen resolutions, the late-2020 reboot of Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 sets the bar for premium convertible notebooks. Intel’s latest “Tiger Lake” CPU and graphics options make the XPS 13 2-in-1 a top performer in its class. The battery life is impressive, as well. The starting configuration is a bit underpowered, but the premium for the wellequipped version reviewed here is reasonable. The system snags our Editors’ Choice award for best premium 2-in-1.

The Covid-19 Manhattan Project

Never have so many researchers trained their minds on a single problem in so brief a time. Science will never be the same.