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How to Make Your Android Phone Less Annoying
It’s hard to unplug these days. PCs, tablets, smartphones—even a large selection of home appliances—can wirelessly connect to the internet at the push of a button. Devices buzz with emails, notifications, and status updates at all hours of the day, making it hard to concentrate. Your Android phone is no exception—but there are ways to make it less annoying.
Lenovo Yoga 9i (15-Inch): A Competent Convertible
We recently reviewed the 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i, a compact convertible laptop with plenty of upside, but maybe you’re in the market for something a little larger. Its big brother, the 15.6-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i, brings the same high-quality hybrid form factor to a roomier display. Of course, the increased size makes the larger Yoga a little unwieldy as a tablet, but it also delivers more power. (The hybrid’s snappy Intel Core i7 H-Series CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics will impress.) Long battery life and an included stylus sweeten the pot for what is a good if not standout convertible. The premium HP Spectre x360 15 remains our favorite big-screen 2-in-1 machine.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: High-Quality Superzoom
It’s like an anime title: “Galaxy S: Redemption.” The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is, by and large, what the Galaxy S20 Ultra should have been. It’s a solid and premium-feeling phone with a unique (for the US) superzoom camera, a gorgeous screen, future-forward network chops, and it retails for $300 less than the S20 Ultra. Right now it’s almost too far ahead of its time, as some of the networks it supports aren’t widely available. But if you have cash to spare, it’s worth considering as an investment in the future.
Amazon Halo: Shines as Activity and Sleep Tracker
Lots of fitness trackers can measure your calories burned, heart rate, and steps. With the Halo, Amazon wants to give you greater visibility into your overall health, along with actionable insights to help improve it. The Halo does an excellent job of monitoring your activity and sleep, and its companion app gives you access to a wide range of workouts and wellness programs. In addition, the Halo can analyze the tone of your voice to tell you how you sound to other people and measure your body-fat percentage based on images taken with its app. These two features are a bit gimmicky, but the Halo band is otherwise useful when you’re looking to move more and improve your shut-eye.
What Is C-Band, and What Does It Mean for the Future of 5G?
What's New Now / 5G
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.
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.
Boston Dynamics' Spot Robodog Finds Work on a BP Oil Rig
Boston Dynamics’ four-legged canine-inspired Spot is by no means an old dog, but that doesn’t mean it can’t learn new tricks. The 55-pound robot, unveiled in 2016, has boarded BP’s Mad Dog oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, where it will master tasks including reading gauges, finding corrosion, mapping the facility, and sniffing out methane, according to Reuters.
CAN THIS AI HELP SMOKERS QUIT?
While COVID-19 remains an occupying force in our world, and a viable vaccine is still out of reach, dealing with the pandemic comes down to mitigating health risks while coping with stress. If you’re a smoker, that’s going to be tough on both accounts. This isn’t the Mad Men era; everyone knows the risks of tobacco use, but cessation of addictive substances isn’t easy.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (for PC): Another Winner
The Assassin’s Creed series has taken us to numerous historical settings since its 2007 debut, including Ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, and Revolutionary War-era America. The newest installment, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, details the Viking invasion of 9th Century England from the perspective of history’s most notorious raiders. Though Valhalla doesn’t introduce anything wholly new to the series, it’s an excellent PC game that follows in the footsteps of its equally exceptional predecessors, Origins and Odyssey.
Microsoft Xbox Series X: An Impressive Console
The newest Xboxes are here, packing plenty of power into boxier frames than ever. Microsoft’s entries into the latest console generation are the Xbox Series X, reviewed here, and the Xbox Series S ($299).
2020's Most Common Passwords Are Laughably Insecure
Chances are that if a password is easy for you to remember, a hacker can easily crack it. And despite years (and years) of tech companies warning consumers to use hard-to-crack passwords, plus two-factor authentication, people are still using laughably insecure codes.