Firms spend millions on data sovereignty and rate awareness high, yet Kiteworks survey finds persistent breaches and cross-border exposure. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Amazing software utility package 4K, 1080p/60Hz options AI glowups work Smooth, configurable zoom PDAF autofocus Cons Magnetic connection to the mount is a bit flimsy Stick-on privacy shutter Our Verdict This tiny little 4K webcam asks for a few dollars more than its competition, but it’s worth it. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Obsbot Meet 2 Retailer Price $129 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Obsbot Meet 2 may be the tiniest 4K webcam I’ve ever seen. Mounted on your laptop or monitor by a magnetic mount, the Meet 2 delivers surprisingly solid quality for such a tiny device, though the company insists that a stick-on privacy shutter is more effective than a flip-over lid. The camera comes in three different colors: gray, white, and a faintly metallic “aurora green,” and can either use the Windows settings for camera controls or Obsbot’s own utility software. Inside the box is the webcam, the mount, and a USB-C to USB-C cable that stretches a very generous 4.5 feet. (Obsbot also tosses in an USB-A adapter for older laptops.) The Meet 2 offers up to 4K (30Hz) at the top end, with various lower resolutions (including 1080p, at both 60Hz and 30Hz) as you step down. The Meet 2 features what’s known as Phase Detection Auto Focus, or PDAF, a very quick way to pick up and focus on your face. The Meet 2 also does a stellar job of cropping into your face, providing up to 4X digital zoom, which is more than what you’ll need for a standard video call. I’m not a huge fan of the Meet 2’s mini-magnetic mount, though it does have one advantage that other webcams do not: Three out of the four sides of the webcam are magnetic, so the webcam can sit in landscape mode or rotate into portrait mode simply by picking it up and repositioning it. The magnetic grip is strong enough to hold the webcam tight on the mount when connected to a monitor or fixed display, though you’ll have to be mindful of its grip on a laptop: Moving it quickly around might cause it to wiggle or even fall. Since the Obsbot Meet 2 is magnetically mounted, it’s easy to pop on and off.Mark Hachman / Foundry Some webcams use an angled “jaws” mount, so that the webcam sits flat and a hinged jaw supports it by leaning back into the display. In this case, Obsbot added an extra “lip” or flat surface to the top of the mount, upon which the Meet 2 magnetically attaches. It works just fine on a desktop monitor or display. On a laptop, though, the weight of the cable always threatens to yank the webcam off, especially as you’re orienting it for the first time. It’s a weak point. The Meet 2 camera itself also includes the standard threaded hole so that it can be screwed into an external mount, if that’s your preference. In part, the fragility is a consequence of the webcam’s small size. It only measures 1.78 x 1.4 x 0.87 inches and weighs about 1.5 ounces. The Obsbot Meet 2 is a little fragile with its magnetic connection to the mount.Mark Hachman / Foundry Again, I’m not a huge fan of the privacy protection, which requires you to snap on a small privacy cover that’s held magnetically. Of course, you can also lose the privacy protector, too, if you put it down and it disappears into the clutter. You’re probably better off sticking it to the side of the camera itself, or underneath the mount. That worked well. Windows can be used to control the webcam itself — complete with upcoming controls for pan and tilt — or you can use the Obsbot software. Previous Obsbot webcams, like the stellar Tiny 4K, used a swiveling AI gimbal to literally follow you around the room. The Meet 2 is fixed, with no pivot points for it to do that. But it can use the 4K resolution to crop and zoom and “follow” you as you move, or accommodate either tight shots on just you or a group of people in frame. Here, it really can’t do too much beyond what even Windows’ “panning” capabilities can handle. Obsbot continues to offer one of the most sophisticated software utility packages of any webcam I’ve tested, and the company puts an amazing amount of work into the various options. The only hitch is that the Obsbot Center control software might not allow you to preview any changes while another Windows app that uses the camera is open. Obsbot Control isn’t necessary for the camera to work, and the package is 450MB by itself. But it lures you in with its convenience alone. There are menus galore to dive into with the Obsbot Meet 2, as well as ways to give yourself a little glow up before your next video call.Mark Hachman / Foundry Samsung began offering “beauty” options ages ago, but Obsbot provides them by the truckload: options to slim your face, add virtual blush and eye shadow, adjust the position of your nose, even rotate your eyes. Want your eyes to sparkle? Obsbot’s software allows you to do that. Filters? Of course. There are packages for both women and men, and that’s not even including the tweaks you can make to your virtual appearance while standing up. About the only deficiency I found is that the software seems to be packaged for all of Obsbot’s cameras, so certain functions (like the gimbal on Obsbot’s Tiny cameras) are there but unavailable. I also wasn’t able to force the webcam to lock on or zoom in using gestures. Yes, it does sound like overkill. And it is, in places: You really don’t need to dial up the “smoothing” features unless you want your face to look artificially young. Accept yourself for who you are, even if this webcam encourages you to touch things up here and there. Obsbot Meet 2: (Superb) Performance Inside the Meet 2 is a 1/2-inch CMOS sensor and ƒ/1.8 large aperture — perhaps not the most powerful in the industry, but capable of delivering great visuals nevertheless. The camera did a very nice job picking up my face, lit with my monitor and some ambient light down in my office. Just tweaking a filter here and there improved it even further, perhaps indicating that AI has a future in webcams. I probably should smile for these photos, but I really think the color and lighting are great. Well done, Obsbot Meet 2.Mark Hachman / Foundry I turned off all of the assistance in shooting photos, however, as I normally do. Upstairs in my living room, lit by all natural light, the Meet 2 also performed well. I figured that while my sofa pillows did a nice job conveying colors, a more unified color card would be a better solution. Everything looks good, to my eye. I didn’t notice as much difference as I thought I would between the 4K and 1080p resolutions. I liked how this webcam made me look just using the 1080p, 60fps/Hz preset. I’ve always been a fan of zooming in a bit, and the sliding zoom controls on this webcam do an excellent job of allowing you to tweak things as you’d like. Clouds and rain darkened this shot, but the Obsbot Meet 2 still looks pretty good.Mark Hachman / Foundry Obsbot has a pair of of omnidirectional mics inside the Meet 2, and I thought they did a very nice job of capturing my voice and eliminating background audio. Since most people naturally focus on the image quality, the audio is where some webcams skate by with poorer quality. The Obsbot Meet 2 offers images that rank just under the category’s best, a function of excellent hardware and an integrated software package that ranks second to none. Should you buy the Obsbot Meet 2? Yes. There are two sticking points: the mount (fine for the camera, but a risk to be yanked off by the cable) and the lack of an integrated privacy shutter. Otherwise, the superb software package and controls, plus the webcam itself, more than make up for it. The Obsbot Meet 2 may be somewhat on the pricier side for a 4K camera at roughly $100. You can go cheaper and still buy a 4K webcam. But I suspect that the Obsboot Meet 2 might make it into the ranks of PCWorld’s best webcams, even so. Read...

You generally want the latest drivers for anything connected to your PC, especially a high-powered graphics card for beefy PC games. While Nvidia is generally pretty reliable when it comes to this stuff, the latest update was a bit of a miss—and that’s according to Nvidia itself, as it rolls back the newest GeForce driver. According to an update issued yesterday at 2 PM Eastern US time, the Game Ready and Studio 595.59 WHQL has an issue with GPU fan control. The newest version of the driver had specific Game Ready tweaks for Resident Evil Requiem and Marathon, both highly-anticipated recent releases. Windows users can roll back the driver within the official Nvidia app, or just uninstall it manually and download the previous release (591.86 from January) from the Nvidia website. Fan control is kind of a big deal, since it’s cooling a part that could cost four figures. And some users spend a lot of time tweaking fan settings manually for better noise or performance. But according to some users, it wasn’t the only problem with the latest release. VideoCardz documents issues with boost clocks, broken HDR, and sleep resume on some displays, and a handful of other small bugs. It looks like this one definitely needed a little more time in the oven. Read...

If you’re always traveling outside your office and you absolutely hate working on a lone laptop screen, then a portable monitor will work magic for you. I know because I have one myself! Something very similar to this InnoView 15.6-inch model that’s 40% off on Amazon. Normally $99.98, you can now score it for just $59.96! But you have to be quick because this deal ends in less than 24 hours. The 15.6-inch IPS panel on this monitor delivers beautiful colors and excellent color accuracy (in case you’re doing photo or graphic work), plus good contrast and wide viewing angles. The 1920×1080 resolution is pretty standard, offering crisp text when reading PDFs and Word documents while being spacious enough to comfortably juggle multiple apps. It’s also great for streaming Netflix and YouTube! The beauty of this portable monitor is that it’s plug-and-play. It connects to your laptop via USB-C and draws power via USB passthrough. Your laptop will need to support Thunderbolt 3 or 4 or USB-C DP Alt-Mode for this to work. Don’t have that? No worries! You can also opt to connect via HDMI for video and USB-C for power via a power adapter (not included, but you likely have one lying around). It’s very light and slim, measuring just 0.2 inches thick and weighing only 2.7 pounds. Slip it into your bag right next to your laptop and be on your merry way. It comes with a protective case that’ll keep it safe from scratches, and that case doubles as a stand so you can prop it up and read/watch comfortably. And it’s not only for your laptop! You can also use it with your Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck to game on the go. This 15.6-inch portable monitor is a must-have for any laptop owner, if you ask me. Now’s the perfect time to snag one for yourself because it rarely goes on sale for cheaper than this. Get it now for $59.96! Save 40% on this 15.6-inch 1080p IPS portable monitorBuy now at Amazon Read...

Upwind plugs its CNAPP into AWS Security Hub Extended plan to feed runtime data into findings and streamline cloud security procurement. Read...

When you travel outside your home country, you quickly realize that you can’t use the same power plugs all around the world. Up until now, to charge your USB devices, you needed an adapter that converts your power plugs into the type used by the country you’re in. But not anymore! With the Anker Nano Travel Adapter, you get a 5-port charging solution that works in almost any country worldwide—and right now you can score it for just $19.99 on Amazon. The Anker Nano 5-in-1 Travel Adapter has four different sets of retractable outlet prongs: US, UK, EU, and AU. When retracted, the adapter is super compact and easy to throw into any bag for travel, and you won’t have to worry about it snagging or scratching anything. What’s great about this adapter is that no matter which regional outlet you’re plugged into, you now have access to 5 different ports: 2x USB-C ports, 2x USB-A ports, and an AC outlet for anything else that isn’t USB. The USB-C ports are fast-charging at up to 20 watts, so you’ll be able to recharge your phone back to 100% in no time. If you plan on traveling to Europe, the United Kingdom, or Australia, you’re going to want this. It’ll make your time there way more convenient and give you peace of mind. Get it now for $19.99 while it’s on sale! This Anker Nano 5-in-1 Travel Adapter is now 23% offBuy now at Amazon Read...

Perplexity just launched Perplexity Computer, another agentic AI tool except this one acts as a kind of digital coworker. It can perform multi-step tasks on your behalf by employing several subordinate AI agents that work together to plan and deliver finished results. For example, Perplexity Computer can create dashboards, apps, presentations, and other projects by dividing the work between different sub-agents. The tool employs several different AI models simultaneously, including Claude Opus for reasoning, Gemini for research, and other AI models for images, video, and faster subtasks. Unlike OpenClaw, though, Perplexity Computer runs entirely in the cloud in a controlled environment, which reduces the risk of the AI affecting your local PC and files. The disadvantage is that it’s more limited compared to agentic AI tools that run directly on local hardware. Perplexity Computer is currently only available on the Perplexity Max plan, which costs $200/month. Read...

More and more AI tools are now becoming agentic, meaning they can perform actions on your behalf. Microsoft really wants to get in on the fun and hopefully convince users that they should switch over to Copilot, and they’re doing so with a new agentic AI tool called Copilot Tasks. Microsoft describes Copilot Tasks as a to-do list that handles all the tasks for you. You can ask Copilot Tasks to take care of recurring tasks, such as creating a weekly plan every Monday or picking out the most important emails in your inbox every evening and suggesting replies. Copilot Tasks will also be able to do things like plan, book, send out, and collect invitations to birthday parties, keep track of your paid subscriptions and cancel the ones you don’t use, and find, compare, and book the best tradespeople as needed. Microsoft states that these agentic AI features are still a “research preview,” so it may be quite some time before they’re actually launched to the general public. If you want to try out an early version of Copilot Tasks, you can sign up for the waiting list. Read...

RAM shortages, SSD shortages, Nvidia shortages, possible shortages of Intel CPUs — 2026 is off to a rough start, if that’s not enough, consider what AMD and Intel have to offer us in new desktop processors throughout this year. It’s not much at all. After a thrilling launch of its Core Ultra 300 (Panther Lake) chips, Intel is looking ahead to its upcoming “Arrow Lake Refresh” processors. But, as the name suggests, there might not be a whole lot there. Even AMD’s Ryzen AI 400 (Gorgon Point) chips, which include options for desktop PCs, also look like an incremental update. Now, rumors have surfaced that the chips consumers should really care about. The upcoming Intel “Nova Lake” desktop processor, which was originally due at the end of 2026, as well as AMD’s “Olympic Ridge” with Zen 6, might launch in 2027 instead. That leaves DIY builders with what, exactly? Not much in the way of new chips during 2026. Instead, the vibe is looking backwards. Intel has previously said that consumers were seeking out older, more powerful chips. AMD’s AM4 platform is being asked to hang on for just a while longer, while consumers scramble for (somewhat) cheaper DDR4 memory and mine yard sales for older hard drives. To think! “My main takeaway is that people have become very accustomed to the PC waterfall: getting more performance every year at the same price,” said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research. “That’s not going to happen this year. If you want performance, you’re going to have to pay for it. And if you’re trying to stay at the same price, you’re not going to get the same kind of performance boost.” Does it all leave you with a slightly sour taste in your mouth? Let’s recap what we can expect in desktop PCs for 2026, based on what we know now. Intel: Arrow Lake Refresh Officially, Intel has not announced anything regarding the Arrow Lake Refresh. A key leak occurred earlier this month, when retailer Newegg reportedly published details of three Arrow Lake Refresh chips on its site: the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus ($357.12), the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus ($245.92), and the Core Ultra 5 250KF ($227.38). (The “Plus” helps identify the new chips.) Whether those prices are accurate or not remains to be seen. Intel’s original desktop Core Ultra (Arrow Lake) PC processors.Alex Esteves / Foundry We know a bit more about the top-end 270K Plus via a public Geekbench listing, as published by Tom’s Hardware. It’s a 3.70GHz chip with a total of 24 cores, with (presumably) 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. (Geekbench, a benchmark, typically requires anyone who uses its benchmark to publish results to a searchable, public database.) That’s slightly more than the existing Core Ultra 7 265K, the Arrow Lake processor, with 8 performance cores and 12 efficiency cores. It also has a top (not base) clock speed of 5.5GHz. Intel charged $394 for that chip at launch, incidentally, though Amazon now sells it at a 30 percent discount (about $280). The Geekbench benchmark indicates that Arrow Lake Refresh will be a socketed processor compatible with the Socket 1851 socket used by the original Arrow Lake processor. That means consumers will be able to replace the older chip with the newer. But will the performance justify the upgrade? Let’s look at what we’ve seen. The first Geekbench score reported for the 270K Plus Arrow Lake Refresh chip was 3,235 for the single-core benchmark and 21,638 for the multi-core score. Unfortunately, it’s possible to find 265K scores that are higher than this. However, when comparing a sample 265K score from about the same timeframe as the 270K Plus submission (assuming similar driver software), two sample systems using the same motherboard generated single-core scores of 2,647 and 3,081 and multicore scores of 16,632 and 21,592. All this means is that there could be considerable variance. That’s between a five and 20 percent difference in the single-core result between the older Arrow Lake and the latest Arrow Lake Refresh, and a 0.2 percent to 26 percent difference in the multi-core score. (This could also be testing on wall power versus battery.) That’s a huge swing. The earlier Arrow Lake really didn’t offer a clear advantage over its predecessor. Will Arrow Lake Refresh be any different?Adam Patrick Murray & Will Smith / PCWorld You may have thought, as I did, that Arrow Lake sold poorly based on the chip’s poor reviews and customers asking for older Raptor Lake chips instead. That’s not true, McCarron said. Arrow Lake was overshadowed in part by how successful and profitable the older 13th- and 14th-gen Core chips were, but when Intel migrated the manufacturing node to its server chips, Raptor Lake went with it, leaving Arrow Lake instead. And it sold, but not as well as Raptor Lake. “I don’t think Intel really needs to do anything [with Raptor Lake Refresh],” McCarron said. “I’m sure people would like the power consumption to be different, or its performance to be different, but they don’t have to do anything, as it’s already happening.” Still, people apparently bought Raptor Lake because it was there. Twitter/X leaker @momomo_us puts the launch date of Arrow Lake Refresh on March 23. We’ll see if the new chip is as successful. AMD: Ryzen AI 400, plus more of the same AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series (both the 9000X chips as well as the market-leading X3D series like the Ryzen 9 9950X3D) aren’t going away; they’ll carry AMD through 2026 in the desktop space. They’re the clear leader in performance right now, and one of the few risks customers face is that for some reason they’ll sell out, as they did initially. Otherwise, AMD’s market share has steadily risen thanks to these excellent chips. There’s just one thing: they’re old, relatively speaking. AMD launched the Ryzen 9000 X3D at the end of 2024, and the killer Ryzen 9 9950X3D dropped a year ago. But just one chip, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, was announced at CES, and it’s unclear if any more will arrive anytime soon. They’re all based on Zen 5 and the scariest rumor of late has been that the “Olympic Ridge” desktop debut of Zen 6 will have to wait until CES 2027 for an introduction. That’s a loooong way away. AMD Instead, there’s the Ryzen AI 400, which also traverses the mobile space as well as the desktop. AMD has confirmed that socketed Ryzen AI 400 processors for desktops would arrive as well. Historically, this has been a bit of a gray area. Intel promised us that we’d see a desktop version of its Core Ultra 100 series, Lunar Lake, then clarified that it would just mean a soldered-down version for all-in-ones instead. (And if there were, there weren’t many.) AMD has said the Ryzen AI 400 / Gorgon Point will be available for traditional socketed desktops, specifically the existing AM5 socket. AMD launched seven Ryzen AI 400 chips at CES 2026, including a pair of HX processors at the top end. It’s not clear whether they’ll all be available on the desktop. In any event, little has changed from the admittedly good performance of the Ryzen AI 300, which slightly exceeded the rest of its competition in the mobile space. All of AMD’s Ryzen AI 400s include up to 12 cores and 24 threads, and all use the Zen 5 architecture. Save for a faster memory speed and more AI TOPS, there’s not much difference from the earlier chip. Desktop PCs with a Ryzen AI 400 inside them will qualify for Copilot+ status, but Microsoft has basically granted Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite most-favored-nation status in that regard. From a performance standpoint, we know something about these chips, too. The Geekbench database also includes a number of benchmarks for the 10-core Ryzen AI 9 465, all running on the Asus Zenbook S16. The scores imply that the laptop was tested on battery and on wall power: as high as 1,538 on single-core testing, versus 9,001 on multicore. On what appears to be wall power, the most recent score at press time was 2,841 for single-core performance, and 13,705 for multi-core. If true, that’s pretty bad news for AMD on paper compared to Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh: 2,841 vs. 3,041 (single-core) and 13,705 vs 21,592 (multicore). Ryzen would give up an advantage in single-core applications, such as running the operating system, unzipping files, and some games, as well as a big gap would exist in multithreaded applications. It’s unclear, of course, if these numbers will hold up in real-world testing. Given that AMD has already announced the Ryzen AI 400 chips, we’d expect them to officially launch soon. The sleeper here could be another AMD chip entirely: the Ryzen AI Max+, which has appeared in both laptops and tablets as well as desktops like the Framework Desktop. However, my review of the Framework Desktop and its superb Max+ 395 chip inside it was performed in the halcyon days of last August, when AI was taking hold but there was still enough RAM to go around. The AI Max+ chip I reviewed was designed to gobble up RAM — 128GB (!) of LP-DDR5X (!) soldered to the motherboard (!) — which seems kind of insane right about now. The AI Max+ certainly wins on paper, but in the real world it suffers from the same problems other desktop PCs do. Are Qualcomm or Nvidia wild cards? Not likely Can Qualcomm zoom in and save the day? Well, maybe — but so far, any promises it has made about socketed desktops haven’t materialized, and we have yet to see the Snapdragon X2 Elite, either. A big wild card is the Nvidia N1 and N1X. Supposedly, the partnership with Mediatek and its Arm core will produce the first laptops this year, but both companies have been very silent about the N1 and its high-performance offshoot, the N1X. It’s likely that Panther Lake was designed knowing the N1 would eventually challenge it. But still — laptops. An N1 mini PC sounds quite reasonable, but still isn’t the traditional desktop you might be hoping for. Otherwise, things are still rough. The price of DDR5 DRAM may have plateaued a bit, but it’s still roughly five times what it once was. DDR4 isn’t much better and can vary depending on capacity and speed. SSD prices aren’t getting any better, either. According to PCPartPicker’s storage trends, you’re essentially paying double what you would have in November, when we warned that you had better grab what deals you could find on storage and memory before they disappeared. You’re probably aware that hard drives are selling out, too. That’s not to say that desktop PC sales will suffer. In fact, Mercury’s fourth-quarter data shows that availability was better in desktops than laptops, McCarron said. Corporations will still refresh their PCs, just because they have to. Instead, we’re moving to a supply-constrained market, he said, where people will buy what they can, not what they want. Grim. Budget PCs will be especially vulnerable, McCarron predicted, and someone looking at a low-end PC should investigate a refurbished computer instead. In a word, it’s bleak. Unless you have a couple of bitcoins burning a hole in your wallet, building a desktop PC in 2026 seems like a lost cause. With what’s going on in the mobile space — with Panther Lake, the Nvidia N1, and maybe Qualcomm’s next-gen X2 Elite — maybe it’s worth calling 2026 the year of the laptop, instead. Read...

These days, you don’t need a pricey laptop or desktop PC to get your work done, to explore your hobbies and passions, or to waste time online with social media and Netflix. You can get all that done with a mini PC for a fraction of the cost, without sacrificing anything important. Today, Amazon is selling one such mini PC with a huge discount. The Kamrui Pinova P2 normally retails for $759.99, but right now you can snag it for just $499.99. That’s a hefty 34% off on a surprisingly powerful mini PC that will blow you away with what it can do. The Pinova P2 is a powerful pick, running on a speedy Intel Core i5-12600H processor alongside a massive 32GB of RAM. That’s a combo that can handle any task you need on a day-to-day basis, and it’s enough to smoothly handle Windows 11 without choking. The 1TB SSD on board also comes in handy, providing ample storage and fast system boots, app launches, and file transfers that’ll save you loads of time. With support for triple 4K/60Hz displays via HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C video, this mini PC has all you need for proficient multitasking. Connectivity is no problem, either, with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless internet and 6x super-fast USB-A ports for external drives, accessories, and peripherals. It’s a winner’s PC. You do not want to miss this one, especially with the current RAM and SSD shortage driving up prices on PCs and hardware. Score this powerful mini PC for just $499.99 while you can! If you do miss it, you might still be able to score another in our roundup of best mini PC deals. Save $260 on this Intel i5 mini PC with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSDBuy now at Amazon Read...