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How to Check Your Hard Drive's Health

Your hard drive hasn’t been acting the same lately. It’s starting to make clicking or screeching noises, it can’t seem to find your files, and it’s moving really slowly.

iStorage DiskAshur M2: A Wealth of Security Features

The DiskAshur M2 from iStorage excels at the primary mission of any security-focused SSD: making sure that no unauthorized person can ever get their hands on your data.

MSI Cubi 5 10M: Peppy, Quiet Mini PC

Call it a tale of two mini PCs. In many ways, the MSI Cubi 5 10M is the opposite of the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini 5i we tested just before it.

Apple AirTag: Great for iPhone Users

You’ll never lose your keys in the couch cushions again.

WELCOME TO THE VIRTUAL HUMANS FACTORY

Medical trials are risky business. Human subjects eager to help researchers find cures or treatments for life-threatening ailments put their trust in medical professionals. But what if these trials could be conducted without human testers?

LG Gram 17 (2021): Light Weight, Giant Screen

The case for choosing a laptop with a jumbo screen—one larger than 15 inches—has never been stronger. The much-improved LG Gram 17, with a gorgeous 17-inch QHD display, is exhibit number one.

How to Make Your Windows PC Boot Faster

Computers have come a long way since the beige boxes of old, but even with speeds measured in gigahertz and gigabytes per second, they still involve some occasional waiting.

DIGITAL DETOX 2021 Is It Time to Put 6 Feet Between You and Your Personal Tech?

Online socializing, remote learning, and working from home have changed our minds, bodies, and behaviors—for better and otherwise. It’s time to take stock of our relationship to personal technology and the growing need to distance ourselves.

Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen): Now With Sleep Tracking

The original Nest Hub was a perfectly capable smart display, but as Google’s only model, it felt a bit lacking compared with Amazon’s Alexa-powered lineup.

OnePlus 9 Pro: Excellent Performance, Display, and Camera

The OnePlus 9 Pro smartphone delivers a streamlined flagship experience to T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers, finally catching up to its competitors. The phone itself is light in the hand, and the user experience is weightless as well.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15-Inch): Excellent Choice

The 15-inch version of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 offers one of the most refined computing experiences of any Windows laptop. With two color options and excellent build quality, it’s a standout big-screen notebook.

DJI Air 2S: Upgraded Camera and Obstacle Sensor

For all intents and purposes, the DJI Air 2S is last year’s Mavic Air 2 with an upgraded camera and obstacle sensors, expanded automatic camera movements, and the robust safety features and quality that have made DJI the market leader in aerial imaging.

Dell Inspiron Desktop (3880): Basic, But Does the Job

The Dell Inspiron Desktop model 3880 is a modest general-purpose budget desktop that will blend into any home-office setup. You’ll find few frills—note the simple, super-compact design and the lack of USB Type-C ports—but the system does the job for everyday multitasking with its Core i5 processor and built-in Wi-Fi.

10 Simple Ways to Make Better To-Do Lists

How effective is your to-do list? Does it help you plan your day and nudge you to prioritize the right tasks? Or is it a never-ending inventory of tasks you feel guilty for not having done yet, and now you’re not going to do any of them? A good to-do list should serve you. You should not be at its mercy.

Wyze Robot Vacuum: Affordable and Smart

Looking for an affordable robot to clean your floors? The Wyze Robot Vacuum offers a lot to like, including 2,100Pa of suction power and a laser sensor for mapping your home, a feature typically found only in more expensive models.

Here's Why Bill Gates (Still) Prefers Android to iPhone

When it comes to the great iOS-versus-Android debate, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates knows which side he’s on.

Samsung SSD 980: A Stellar Mid-Tier Option

The new Samsung SSD 980 enters the field of internal solid-state drives with some pretty stiff goals to meet.

How to Spot and Avoid Credit Card Skimmers and Shimmers

The moment I realized how woefully insecure credit and debit cards are is still vividly clear.

TCL 43S435: As Affordable as a New TV Gets

TCL is no stranger to budget-friendly TVs, and the company has consistently impressed us with its 6-Series, which offers excellent performance for a reasonable price.

Disinfect Your Phone and Electronics

Once again, though, these aren’t normal times—so if you want to de-germify, grab the same solution you made for your phone, spray it on one of those disposable microfiber cloths, and wipe down the entire surface. The same goes for over-the-ear headphones.

HOW TO SPRING CLEAN YOUR DIGITAL LIFE

Spring’s a time of new beginnings, regrowth, and hope! So it’s a great time to give all your tech—both physical and virtual—a good, thorough scouring. Read on to find out how.

Break Away From Android and iOS: 7 Free Open-Source Mobile OSes

Silicon Valley has long preached that technology, not truth, will set you free. The jury is still out on that. For instance, although smartphones have dramatically changed our world, they come with some serious drawbacks. Centralized app stores mean that useful apps can vanish in a heartbeat, while apps themselves use the sensors on these devices to monitor much of our lives. Perhaps worst of all, most of these devices cost plenty, yet they aren’t expected to function for more than a few years.

Asus ZenWiFi AC (CT8): Reliable Home Network Protection

These days, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) mesh systems have taken a backseat to those that use the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology.

Acer Aspire TC-895-UA91: Budget PC Editors' Choice

The Acer Aspire TC-895-UA91 is, in many ways, just what most budget desktop shoppers are looking for.

10 Ways to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal

Browsing slowed to a crawl, the inability to stream, dropped Wi-Fi signals, wireless dead zones—each of these problems is maddening in a world where getting online has become, for some, as necessary as breathing (well, maybe not that critical—but still important). When the only way you can get decent reception is by standing next to your wireless router, our tips can help.

Microsoft's Viva Aims to Make Remote Work Easier

While many companies are still mastering the art of working from home, Microsoft recently introduced its virtual solution: The Viva employee experience platform helps folks learn, grow, and thrive, even from their kitchen tables. Powered by Microsoft 365 and Teams, Viva makes it easy for customers to merge existing systems and tools with fresh features for a more accessible, discoverable workplace.

What Is Clubhouse? The Invite-Only Chat App Explained

Wondering why you’re hearing a lot about Clubhouse lately? We can partially blame Elon Musk: By popping up in a Clubhouse room in February, the world’s richest man (for now) brought the service a lot of attention. Here’s what you need to know about the exclusive chat app.

How to Set Up and Optimize Your Wireless Router

Although manufacturers have been making installation utilities easier to use, getting the best out of your new wireless router usually means delving a little deeper than the standard installation routine will go. Just because you’ve plugged everything in and all the blinking lights have turned green doesn’t mean your network’s performance or its security are as strong as they could be. Follow these basic steps to properly configure your router and optimize your wireless network.

How to Troubleshoot Your Internet Connection

Do you have a full house of social distancers working, gaming, streaming, and news binging, all at the same time? Before you schedule a service call with your cable company, check out our tips for troubleshooting your internet connection.

What Is Wi-FI 6E?

If you’re in the market for a new router or any device that uses Wi-Fi, you should first understand the new Wi-Fi 6E standard and what it means for the future of wireless networks at home and in offices around the US. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a group of Wi-Fi platform vendors that work with the FCC and electronics manufacturers to set standards for Wi-Fi technology, announced the Wi-Fi 6E designation in 2020 for any IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) products that support 6GHz wireless spectrum. Essentially, this means Wi-Fi 6E enables faster speeds and lower latencies than Wi-Fi 6 and earlier iterations.