I’ve reviewed lots of laptops powered by Intel CPUs over the last year, and I’ve had gripes. The Core Ultra Series 2 generation was a branding mess with its mix of Lunar Lake, Arrow Lake, and Meteor Lake architectures. But at CES 2026, Intel turned a corner. Intel Core Ultra Series 3—codenamed Panther Lake—looks like it’s actually a coherent platform to go toe-to-toe with AMD and Qualcomm. Intel seems to have its swagger back, too. Intel had TSMC manufacture its Lunar Lake CPUs last generation, but Intel is now back to manufacturing its own CPUs again. This year, Intel struck a huge deal with Nvidia and the US government became a large shareholder in its operations. Despite recent struggles, the big chipmaker shouldn’t be written off yet. I didn’t have the opportunity to benchmark any of these new Panther Lake-powered machines at CES, so stay tuned for that once we get our hands on review units. But I’m still impressed—and here’s why. Battery life and performance in one Intel’s Lunar Lake was a strange beast. Made by TSMC instead of Intel, it was Intel’s attempt to jump on board the power-efficient laptop revolution, complete with onboard memory that couldn’t be upgraded, a speedy NPU for running overhyped Copilot+ PC AI features, and a surprisingly capable integrated GPU. Mark Hachman / Foundry But Lunar Lake’s big limitation was multithreaded performance. It came far behind Arrow Lake and even Meteor Lake CPUs in our Cinebench and Handbrake benchmarks. That’s why most laptops I reviewed throughout the year eventually went with Arrow Lake or Meteor Lake chips. Yet, while those offered stronger performance, they sacrificed battery life and also ran hotter than Lunar Lake. With Panther Lake, Intel says we should expect more than 50 percent better multithreaded performance over Lunar Lake and Meteor Lake, with 10 percent less power usage than Lunar Lake. Intel also claims that Panther Lake’s performance is similar to Arrow Lake. This time around, it sounds like we’re getting both battery life and solid multithreaded CPU performance in the same hardware package. (Want to dive deeper? Learn more about Panther Lake’s technical details.) New integrated GPUs look impressive Intel has been hard at work on upgrading its integrated graphics over the last few years, and it’s now marketing its new Arc B390 iGPU as being on par with Nvidia’s RTX 4000-series discrete graphics cards. We benchmarked the hardware at CES 2026… and it’s close! With Lunar Lake, Intel delivered seriously impressive integrated Arc graphics—but Lunar Lake wasn’t the place for serious iGPU upgrades. Lunar Lake was focused on battery life and not CPU performance, which meant Intel’s best-performing integrated graphics was paired with a CPU platform that struggled in multithreaded performance. Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake had even worse iGPUs. Benchmarking Intel’s Panther Lake with Cyberpunk 2077.Mark Hachman / Foundry By bringing Intel’s fastest iGPUs together with an even faster CPU, Panther Lake promises to power laptops with impressive gaming performance on integrated graphics. That’s something a few PC manufacturers were eager to tell me about at CES 2026. Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 hardware could power PC gaming experiences without a discrete GPU. Companies like HP were showing off demos of PC games running on Intel’s new iGPUs. Competing with AMD in handhelds With Panther Lake, Intel is talking about bringing more competition to the gaming handheld space. Steam Deck-style handheld gaming PCs largely use AMD processors, and there’s speculation that companies like Valve may release hardware with Arm chips in the future. Intel had so much swagger that one executive even talked smack at CES 2026, accusing AMD of “selling ancient silicon” for handhelds. Intel is promising custom Panther Lake hardware for the gaming handheld market—something that could be seriously impressive, considering how good Intel’s integrated graphics are getting. AMD disagreed (naturally), saying Panther Lake would come with a bunch of baggage and be a bad fit for handhelds. We’ll see who’s right after the hardware is released. I’m just excited to see more competition. NPUs that catch up to Windows 11’s minimum specs While lots of PC manufacturers are still eager to talk about Copilot+ PCs and AI laptops, Microsoft looks like it’s moving on from its NPU obsession. Companies like Dell are shifting away from AI laptops, too. The NPUs Intel has been shipping for the last few years have been far below Microsoft’s minimum specs. After Microsoft announced back in May 2024 that Copilot+ PCs would require an NPU with at least 40 TOPS of performance, Intel has mostly been shipping laptop hardware with 13 TOPS NPUs—far short of Microsoft’s minimum target. Only Lunar Lake and now Panther Lake cleared the floor for Copilot+ PC features. Meanwhile, all Qualcomm Snapdragon X hardware met the minimum, and AMD’s Ryzen AI CPUs delivered solid performance on a traditional x86 platform with the NPU specs Microsoft asked for. Matthew Smith / Foundry It’s been a big black eye for Intel that most Intel CPU-powered laptops still don’t meet Microsoft’s minimums for these hyped AI features, over 18 months after Microsoft’s announcement. The good news? Most PC buyers don’t care much about Copilot+ PC features, and Microsoft now appears to be deemphasizing them. But at least Intel has finally caught up to Microsoft’s minimum specs. Renewed focus on manufacturing process Intel’s choice to outsource Lunar Lake manufacturing to TSMC was a huge shift in its priorities. Up until then, the company had always manufactured its CPUs in its own foundries. Intel even threatened to abandon manufacturing going forward. Back in July 2025, Intel said it would give up on its next-generation 14A manufacturing process if it couldn’t find a customer, and some speculated that Intel could abandon its own chip fabrication processes. The US government took a stake in Intel a few weeks later, and I’ve always wondered if that dire announcement to shareholders was a negotiation move. Intel signaled that its US-based manufacturing business was struggling and soon after landed the federal government as a shareholder. Now, Intel’s CEO said at CES 2026 that it’s very excited about investing in its 14A process. It’s a huge shift from how the company was acting just last summer. Panther Lake is the first product built on Intel’s 18A manufacturing process, and Intel is no longer depending on TSMC. Intel is also abandoning some of the weirder decisions of Lunar Lake. For example, Panther Lake no longer has on-package memory. In a world where RAM is driving up the price of PCs, that’s valuable. Will Intel’s “Core Ultra Series 3” be watered down, too? While Intel is cleaning up its naming a bit, I’m a little concerned about one thing: does “Core Ultra Series 3” mean anything this time around? A year ago, “Core Ultra Series 2” meant “Lunar Lake”… until Intel released a bunch of Arrow Lake and Meteor Lake chips with Core Ultra Series 2 branding, muddying the brand. Now, at CES 2026, everyone seemed to be using “Core Ultra Series 3” as a stand-in for “Panther Lake.” But will Intel once again release older architectures with Core Ultra Series 3 branding in the coming year? Will we get another round of rebranded Meteor Lake chips? Or Lunar Lake chips? If so, “Core Ultra Series 3” might not mean anything. Either way, Intel’s hardware platform feels like it’s getting where it needs to be. The company is combining performance with battery life, delivering serious integrated graphics power, making its own CPUs, and no longer issuing dire warnings that it may abandon its future manufacturing processes. I look forward to reviewing Panther Lake-powered PCs because they sound impressive. More competition is always good for PC users. Read...

Betterworks launches its AI-native NextGen platform, adding 400+ features to turn everyday performance data into real-time workforce insight. Read...

Months ago, Microsoft announced that every Windows 11 PC would be an “AI PC”, even the non-Copilot+ ones. Then why was everyone pushing Copilot+ AI PCs at CES 2026? The industry finally caught up to Microsoft’s Copilot+ requirements—with a big NPU push from Intel in particular—but Microsoft didn’t explain why we should care. I saw a wave of Copilot+ PCs at CES 2026, but it felt like they were chasing an AI PC strategy that Microsoft has already abandoned. With Microsoft now downplaying NPUs and few applications taking advantage of them, the great NPU push doesn’t feel very important. That’s especially true since the Windows AI Foundry will use GPUs and CPUs for AI applications instead of NPUs, as the initial Copilot Runtime did. NPUs seem less necessary to the future of AI on Windows, even as they’re starting to pop up everywhere. Did Microsoft get distracted just as its PC hardware partners crossed the finish line? At CES 2026, NPUs finally feel fast enough When Microsoft unveiled Copilot+ PCs, the company required NPUs capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This was a huge blow to Intel. Most Intel-powered machines have been shipping with NPUs capable of 13 TOPS at best, aside from Lunar Lake-powered machine with NPUs capable of 48 TOPS. 2024 was “the year of the AI PC,” but even throughout 2025 most laptops I reviewed couldn’t muster the specs needed for AI features on Windows 11. I spoke to PC manufacturer PR people who showed me the new versions of laptops I reviewed last year. “And it’s a Copilot+ PC,” they say proudly. It seems they’ve finally caught up to the requirements. The NPUs everyone’s talking about at CES Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) hardware is the big advance at this year’s CES, given that Intel was so far behind on NPUs before. Core Ultra Series 3 has a 50 TOPS NPU and also promises big improvements to multithreaded performance, but we’ll have to run our own benchmarks to see just how big an upgrade it is in practice. While Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware was Copilot+ PC-capable, it was severely limited on multithreaded performance, which meant that an Intel laptop had no hope of running Copilot+ PC features unless you were willing to make big performance sacrifices and prioritize low power consumption and long battery life. Foundry / Mark Hachman AMD’s Ryzen AI 400 series hardware includes an NPU capable of 60 TOPS, and it’s coming to both laptops and desktop PCs. While AMD has been delivering capable NPUs for a while—unlike Intel-powered laptops—it’s an increase from the 50 TOPS NPUs in the Ryzen AI 300 series. However, with so few applications taking advantage of the NPU, that bump of 10 TOPS won’t be noticeable to the average laptop buyer, even if it looks like an upgrade on a spec sheet. Qualcomm is extremely proud of its TOPS speeds, highlighting that the Qualcomm Hexagon NPUs on Snapdragon X2 Elite and Snapdragon X2 Plus hardware deliver 80 TOPS of performance. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X platform was the big launch partner for Copilot+ PCs, and Qualcomm is once again ahead. But as it was during the flashy Copilot+ PC launch, there still isn’t a great argument for NPUs just yet. All those new processor platforms are now delivering fully capable NPUs that will end up in laptops from all the big PC manufacturers. Going into 2026, Copilot+ PC-capable NPUs are finally becoming much more common. But will it matter? All Windows 11 PCs are now AI PCs Back in October, Microsoft revealed its plan to make every Windows 11 PC an AI PC. Here’s what Yusuf Mehdi told reporters at the time: “We did all of this years of work that let us get to the point of understanding what’s the right way to bring AI in. We’ve learned a lot from that—you know, what features resonate. And one of the big things that I think really came to us is, while Copilot+ PCs really are the tip of the spear and are gaining, you know, fast traction, the big thing was, let’s bring that AI capability to all Windows 11 PCs and make it really simple for anyone to try it. So, that has been the big thing.” As we turn the corner and head into 2026, it doesn’t sound like Microsoft is all that excited about NPUs anymore! And that’s without even mentioning the Windows AI Foundry. Developers can use it to write AI apps that perform inference on GPUs, CPUs, or NPUs. It replaces the Copilot Runtime, which required an NPU on Copilot+ PCs. Copilot+ PC features haven’t taken the world by storm I was in a Lyft earlier this week in Las Vegas. After asking me what I did for a living, the driver mentioned he was still using Windows 11. “There’s probably a newer version by now, right?” No, I explained: Windows 11 is still the latest version. You get some extra AI features if you have a newer PC—but only certain newer PCs. On those Copilot+ PCs, you don’t get extra Copilot features. Instead, you get minor features like Windows Studio Effects webcam effects, image generation in the Photos app, Windows Recall for searching your PC usage, and Click To Do for taking basic actions on text. Chris Hoffman / Foundry Based on Microsoft’s talk about delivering more AI features to all Windows 11 users, I don’t expect NPUs to become the crown jewel of the Windows AI experience in the future. If anything, I expect the opposite: I can picture a Windows 11 update that delivers Copilot+ PC features to a wider variety of machines, letting your PC’s GPU power features like image generation and text summarization. That’s what I hope to see. Microsoft should’ve never required NPUs for Copilot+ PC features. Even my $3,000 gaming PC still can’t run Copilot+ PC AI features, which is astonishing considering the fact that a speedy discrete GPU is still the best way to run more “serious” AI tools like LM Studio. Further reading: The 10 best laptops at CES 2026 Read...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says we shouldn’t think of LLM output as “slop.” You know, AI-generated content, the thing that’s making the internet worse in every measurable way, and causing consumer electronics prices to skyrocket? So it would be a real shame if you installed an extension in your browser that changed “Microsoft” to “Microslop” all over the web. Yes, installing “Microsoft to Microslop” would be a naughty and entirely cynical response. Especially if you, say, used Edge’s Chromium base to install it in Microsoft’s own default web browser, Edge. That would just be twisting the AI-generated knife, wouldn’t it? “Screw you Satya Nadella. Learn about Barbara Streisand,” writes the developer on the Chrome Web Store, who freely admits they are “managing my levels of spite.” I can relate. They add that the extension only visually manipulates the page, so it won’t break links, or collect or store any user data. Amazon/Microslop If Nadella and/or Microsoft are feeling particularly touchy about being called sloppy or any derivative thereof, they have only themselves to blame. Nadella himself claimed that 30 percent of the software company’s code is now AI-generated. That’s amidst a massive user pushback, as the don’t-call-it-a-forced-migration from Windows 10 to 11 has angered both regular consumers and businesses, the constant insertion of Copilot “AI” into every part of Microsoft’s business causes headaches and privacy concerns, and software subscription prices rise as Microsoft tries to force people to buy Copilot services. All the while…it seems that almost no one is actually using Copilot. Local “AI” applications using all the NPUs in new Windows laptops are still extremely limited, and Dell has figured out that even people who want to use “AI” will just open up a browser and go to ChatGPT. So yeah, it’s understandable why people are calling the company Microslop after its CEO blared out a tone-deaf declaration. I first heard it on the CES show floor, while I was trying to find a single new product that didn’t have “AI” features jammed into it for no discernible reason. Windows Latest spotted the browser extension, but here’s a fun bonus: a guide that will remove all Copilot features from Windows itself, among others. Read...

When Dolby Labs announced Dolby Vision 2 in September 2025, I didn’t really get it. The original Dolby Vision was easy to understand: If your TV and streaming content supported it, you’d get a brighter picture with more color detail, particularly in shadows and highlights. I remember being blown away by the technology when it first debuted at CES 2014, especially compared to the 4K displays and curved panels that TV makers were hyping up at the time. The improvements Dolby Vision 2 promises aren’t as straightforward. While Dolby’s initial press release uses all kinds of jargon to describe the new format (with terms like “Content Intelligence” and “Authentic Motion”), the tangible benefits are tougher to parse. Fortunately, CES 2026 provided an opportunity to see Dolby Vision 2 up close, compare it with the original Dolby Vision, and get some questions answered. While Dolby Vision 2’s benefits are a bit murkier, they at least address some annoyances with streaming video today. Dolby Vision 2 deals with HDR’s darkness issues HDR (high dynamic range) is a feature in many modern TVs that allows for greater differences between the darkest and brightest parts of an image, with more color detail in between. With HDR, for example, a scene depicting an explosion will exude more vivid reds and oranges, instead of blown-out whites, while HDR in a shadowy scene will be rendered with evocative blue and green hues, instead of just depicting a muddy gray. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But with every HDR format—the original Dolby Vision along with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma)—a common complaint is that dark scenes can look too dark. Dolby’s solution is to gather more data about how the content was made—for instance, the creator’s choice of reference monitor, or how much ambient light was in the color-grading room—and adjust brightness on playback accordingly. The idea is to compensate for the difference between what creators see in their expensive editing suites and what viewers see on their TVs at home. Jared Newman / Foundry “We know exactly what shadows were meant to be seen, and not,” said Dolby’s director of business strategy, Jonas Klittmark. Dolby Vision 2 aims to make HDR look better on cheaper TVs While the original Dolby Vision typically required a mid-range or better TV, Dolby is optimizing this new version for cheaper sets through a new tone-mapping engine. This combines additional metadata from creators with local tone mapping, which makes more granular adjustments to the colors of each pixel. Local tone mapping is the process of analyzing the wide range of color of brightness in an HDR image, and then compressing that data into a form that the TV you’re watching can actually deliver. In a demo at CES, the result was a noticeable difference on what Dolby claimed was a $250 TV that didn’t have any local dimming zones. Next to a comparable set running the original Dolby Vision, the new version produced more vivid colors. Jared Newman / Foundry “The new engine is just much more capable of holding onto the goodness of the original HDR source, even on a display that’s quite limited in its capabilities, like this,” Klittmark said. That same tone-mapping engine also gives Dolby Vision 2 a neat new trick: It’ll let users control the intensity of the HDR effect through a slider in their TV settings. Users might want to increase the effect in a window-lit room with lots of reflections, for instance, or dial it back if the picture seems too eye-searingly bright. Dolby Vision 2 allows for smoother motion (without overdoing it) One of the most intriguing Dolby Vision 2 features has nothing to do with HDR at all. Instead, it’s a feature called “Authentic Motion,” which makes for a less jerky picture in scenes with fast motion (the industry refers to this visual jerkiness as “judder”). Unlike the much-maligned motion smoothing effects on most smart TVs, which can be so smooth that it looks like you’re watching a soap opera, Dolby’s feature applies just a small amount of frame interpolation in certain scenes, based on metadata delivered by content providers. In a CES demo, Dolby showed a movie scene in which the camera swept across the room without the usual judder, but in a way that still felt cinematic. “In Dolby Vision 2, we’re dynamically through metadata setting the de-judder just enough to take the edge off of the judder, so that it doesn’t bother you anymore,” Klittmark said. Dolby Vision 2 Max Alongside the standard Dolby Vision 2, there will also be a fancier version called Dolby Vision 2 Max. While both versions will have mostly the same features, Dolby Vision 2 Max will further adjust the picture based on a TV’s ambient light sensors; for example, it will help to avoid scenes that look overly dark. This is effectively an evolution of Dolby Vision IQ, an extension of Dolby Vision that is available in many of today’s mid-range to high-end TVs. More importantly, Dolby believes Max will serve as an overall indicator of TV quality, in the same way it believes Dolby Vision once did. When Dolby Vision first arrived in the mid-2010s, many TVs promised HDR compatibility, but weren’t bright or colorful enough to make HDR video look good. Dolby Vision support became a useful proxy for knowing if you’d get a decent HDR picture. Now that Dolby Vision 2 is heading to lower-end TVs, Dolby hopes the “Max” label will help delineate TVs with superior picture quality. “Dolby Vision 2 Max is for premium TVs, and it will basically replace Dolby Vision in the market,” Chris Turkstra, Dolby’s vice president of home devices, said. “Dolby Vision 2, which you can think of as a standard version of Dolby Vision, that will attach to new TVs that don’t have Dolby Vision today.” It’ll be a while before Dolby Vision 2 matters While it’s worth being aware of Dolby Vision 2 as more TV makers and streaming services get on board, it’s still early days for the format. So far, only three TV makers have committed to supporting Dolby Vision 2: Hisense will offer it in its top-shelf RGB MiniLED TVs for 2026, TCL will have it in its high-end X11L SQD Mini LEDs and mainstream C series sets, and Panasonic will bring it to several new OLED TVs. In other words, the promise of Dolby Vision 2 in low-end TVs isn’t materializing anytime soon. Meanwhile, three other major TV manufacturers–LG, Samsung, and Sony–have not announced their Dolby Vision 2 intentions. Samsung, for one, doesn’t support any version of Dolby Vision today–most likely because it doesn’t want to pay royalties to Dolby. On the content side, Peacock is the only streaming service on board with Dolby Vision 2, which it will support along with the original Dolby Vision for live sports. Given that content makers must also support Dolby Vision 2 in the editing process, it might be a while before more streamers decide to throw their weight behind it. Dolby Vision 2 probably won’t be a factor for anyone thinking of buying a new TV in 2026. But as the format becomes more common in the years to come, it’s something you’ll want to think about, especially if, like me, you finally understand it. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

A proper fast-charging power adapter is one of those essentials you shouldn’t overlook. Right now, the Ugreen Nexode model is currently 40 percent off, the best deal we’ve seen so far, bringing the price down to $33.24 at Amazon. View at Amazon It’s not just that this charger is fast, it also features four ports all your gadgets. There are three USC-C ports and one USB-A, giving you plenty of ways to charge everything from your laptop to your smartphone, earbuds, and smartwatch. If you’re only using a single port, the top two USB-C ports can deliver up to 100W, perfect for your laptop. If all ports are in use, the top port maxes out at 45W, the second at 30W, and the other two deliver 10.5W each, so you’ll need to be mindful which cable goes to which device. Built with GaN technology, the charger outperforms older power adapters by being smaller, faster, and more efficient. Its foldable plugs make it ideal for travel, as the prongs won’t catch, bend, or break. Grab the Ugreen Nexode charger for $33.24 before this deal ends. Charge four gadgets at once with this 40% off power adapterBuy now at Amazon Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Free 10GB plan Affordable monthly and yearly plans Attractive, easy cross-platform client software Virtual drive allows access directly from Windows Explorer Versioning for both sync and backup Cons No online editing Limited preview compatibility File retention settings are global, not per job Our Verdict Icedrive is one of the slickest online storage services available. There’s no online editing, but there are online previews, sharing, and competitive pricing. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Retailer Price Icedrive $6 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Icedrive online storage Retailer Price Icedrive $6 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices There are a lot of choices in online backup these days, so users can pick and choose the easiest and most affordable. Icedrive competes well on both fronts — proving to be one of my favorites to use. This is my second review of the service, with a look at some features that were formerly in beta. Color me impressed. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best online backup services to learn about competing products. What are Icedrive’s features? As with any online storage vendor, Icedrive’s primary feature is providing an offsite repository for your files. However, it also sports collaboration features such as file sharing, public links, and file requests (others asking to see your files). In addition to its facility for syncing files, Icedrive’s client-side software provides an optional virtual drive. You can change the drive letter but it defaults to I: (Icedrive, “I:”, get it?), which is good enough in my book. Icedrive in action under Windows. The virtual drive acts as a local portal to your online files, as well as an encrypted folder that utilizes a secondary password or passphrase that you define. Icedrive doesn’t have access to this passphrase, so don’t lose or forget it. iOS and Android apps are also provided, so you can back up your phone or other mobile devices. My one caveat here is the lack of a Sync tab as on the Windows client. Instead mobile backups (it’s not traditional sync) are defined under the settings tab — the last place I looked. Icedrive on and iPhone Speaking of such, in addition to the two-way syncing virtual drive, Icedrive’s Windows client offers what it calls “Full sync” and “Backup.” The former is two-way sync and the latter is one-way sync. Both use versioning, which is a bit odd for two-way sync. File versioning can serve as a kind of ad hoc backup: Older files are kept just in case. Icedrive does it better than most. Instead of moving the older file to a visible sub-directory, or renaming the older file and leaving it in plain view (this can get messy with a lot of versions), it retains the files out of sight. IceDrive was very quick to spot new and changed files. Shown are the older versions of this test file. Sync is enhanced with the choice to delete files locally (or not) after they are deleted online (mirroring the online version), and to delete files online (or not) after they were deleted locally (mirroring the local data repository). Select both and you’re in effect doing “Full sync,” or two-way sync. Alas, the delete options are not available on a per-sync job basis — they apply to all sync pairs. Icedrive offers an online document preview feature that handles many common types. PDF, JPEG, MP3, Wave, and even FLAC/OGG/M4A (lossless included) play just fine, so an A for audio file support. It still, however, will not correctly display my Excel spreadsheets. No editing of said documents is available, so if you’re looking to work online, Icedrive is likely not your cup of tea. At least for now. That said, Icedrive doesn’t make claims in this regard. As simple storage with easy access, it’s a winner. How easy is it to use Icedrive? Icedrive is easy to get up to speed with, once you understand all the sync/backup options. If you know the ins and outs of sync already, that shouldn’t take long. The Icedrive virtual drive for macOS and Linux relies on the public domain macFUSE driver — a separate download. OpenDrive for Apple machines also relies on this macOS extension, which seems to work well. To access your encrypted folder from the “local” I: drive, you must enter the passphrase online, then open the local client and under the Mount tab, choose Crypto Lock, and enter the passphrase. Simple, and after that, it’s all transparent. Icedrive is easy to get up to speed with, once you understand all the sync/backup options. Icedrive’s Encrypted folder provides a private second layer of security for important or sensitive data. Dragging a few files to the IceDrive Virtual Drive is certainly the easiest way to upload them, but there’s local caching going on so you can eat up disk space (especially important with internal SSDs) in a hurry. You can move the cache file to an external location, and there’s also an “upload” context menu option that bypasses the major caching and copies the files directly online. Sadly, this context menu item is not available for the Mac. On that platform you’ll need to upload using a sync pair to avoid local caching. Icedrive’s virtual drive is your window into your online storage. Some is cached locally, Note that you can set the online storage as read-only if you want to be sure files don’t get mucked up. How much does Icedrive cost? The five-year plans that the company once featured are gone, while the monthly and yearly options remain. Simpler is generally better when you’re trying to support a large number of users, no doubt. The five-year plans have been dropped in favor of pure annual and monthly rates. The monthly plans as of this writing are $8 for 1TB and $20 for 5TB, while annual prices at the time of this writing are: $29 for 2TB (discounted from $99), $49 for 4TB (discounted from $159), and $99 for 6TB (down from $269). The discounted yearly plans I saw are outstanding values and there’s always the free 10GB plan (without the encrypted folder) so you can kick the tires. Note that the discounts are only good for the first year you use the service, and the above offers may only be temporary. Don’t just click blindly through on my reporting. And while the discounted plans are excellent deals, the normal fees are on the pricey side. How does Icedrive perform? Any online storage service will of course be limited to the upload/download bandwidth of your broadband connection. That said, the program was quite speedy in my testing under Windows, and without throttling the rest of the system. It also found new versions of files quickly and synced them to the cloud in darn close to real time. Nice. The experience was largely the same with the macOS version, with the exception that the IceDrive client tended to thwart my attempts to shut down the computer. I had to use “Force quit” on the program on several occasions. Also, the “pause backup” button was sometimes less than responsive. Basically, the Mac client needs to poll the system for OS commands more often. No biggie, but annoying. Should you sign up for Icedrive? Icedrive is easy to use, versatile, and its pricing is quite competitive — when discounted. Drop a half star from the rating at the normal prices. But it’s still definitely worth a look-see. Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...

TL;DR: This MS Office offer gets you lifetime access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more for just $34.97 (MSRP $219.99). Holding off on upgrading Microsoft Office because you don’t love the idea of ongoing subscriptions? This deal will have you pleasantly surprised. Right now, you can get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows for $34.97 (MSRP $219.99)—an 84% savings on a suite most people rely on every day. Office 2021 Professional brings together all the core apps in one familiar package: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access, and the free version of Microsoft Teams. It’s designed for professionals who need reliable tools for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and data—without reinventing how Office works. The interface stays familiar while adding performance improvements and smarter design tools. Excel handles large datasets more smoothly, PowerPoint makes building polished presentations easier, and Word offers better formatting controls so documents look as good as they read. This is a one-time purchase installed on one Windows PC, and the license is tied directly to the device—not your Microsoft account. That means no renewals, no surprise charges, and no pressure to upgrade later. This suite of apps offers long-term value for anyone who wants dependable productivity software without recurring fees. Pick up Microsoft Office 2021 Professional on sale for $34.97 (MSRP $219.99). Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime LicenseSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Clean overall design Can control GE Cync bulbs and fixtures, even if they’re not wired to the switch Doesn’t rely on a smart home hub Can work on 3-way/4-way circuits without needing companion switches Matter certified Cons GE logo on the cover plate is unappealing Large proportions and pigtails might complicate installation You’re paying for 3-way/4-way functionality whether you need it or not Our Verdict This simple dimmer gets the job done and is particularly attractive in homes that have other GE Cync products, but its large size and pigtails might complicate installation. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Smart Switch Retailer Price $25.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices GE Lighting’s Cync brand takes a much-needed break from its typically overdesigned and overcomplicated in-wall switch design strategy with this release, a mercifully clean, almost elegant, smart dimmer. Don’t let its mouthful of a name, the GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Smart Switch, sully your initial opinion. As with the GE Cync Keypad Dimmer I reviewed in December 2025, this is a product that makes the most sense for participants in the GE Cync ecosystem who have multiple GE Cync products in the house. That said, it’s also an affordable option for anyone who needs a smart 3-way or 4-way dimmer, because unlike most similar products, you won’t need companion switches at the other ends of that circuit. The GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Smart Switch can control other GE Cync devices even if they’re not physically wired to the switch. Now, if you don’t need a 3-way dimmer, there are plenty of less expensive alternatives; the Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch Dimmer S505D, costs just $19, for example. Tapo’s 3-way dimmer, on the other hand, costs about $33). In terms of quality, it compares favorably with such higher-end smart dimmers as the $75 Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer (which requires the Lutron Smart Hub, but integrates many more types of smart home devices–despite not supporting Matter) and the $39 Leviton Decora Smart Wi-Fi 2nd Gen (model D26HD; we reviewed the first-generation model DW6HD in 2021). Specifications The GE Cync Paddle Dimmer comes with adhesive labels you can use to identify the wires in your box, wire nuts for making connections, and a cover plate with a mildly obnoxious GE logo.Christopher Null/Foundry The switch supports Matter-over-Wi-Fi with its integrated 2.4GHz Wi-Fi adapter and is compatible with the Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings ecosystems. It’s also compatible with GE’s Savant smart home system for those undertaking professional installations. The switch can be assigned to a group in the Cync app, which means that it can control other devices even if they aren’t physically wired to the switch. Installation and setup The back of the switch is identical to the Keypad Dimmer, with five pigtails that you’ll connect to your household wiring. In addition to load, line, ground, and neutral wires, a fifth traveler wire is only used for multi-way setups. The wiring is straightforward for single-pole setup, and a substantial wiring diagram in the box can guide you through more complex installs. Multiple wire nuts are included, but as with my Keypad Dimmer install, I needed to use some of my own to complete installation; namely, to tie into the fat bundle of white neutral wires in my electrical box. The dimmer has pigtail wires for line, load, neutral, ground, and a traveler wire for 3-way circuits. Its large size made for a tough fit in my electrical box.Christopher Null/Foundry After wiring up the switch, I managed to get everything in place inside my box, although the electronics portion of the unit doesn’t appear to be any smaller than the Keypad switch. Nonetheless, those five pigtails and the ensuring wire nuts take up a lot of space, and getting everything situated just so to ensure the switch is flush against the wall might be a challenge if you aren’t lucky the first time around. Again, I had better success with this process than I did with the Keypad and was able to mash everything into place without too much trouble. The included cover is a two-piece affair. A bracket mounts on top of the switch with two tiny screws, and a cover plate snaps on top of it, hiding those screws. The GE logo on the cover plate is small but not small enough; corporate branding is not a design feature I ever want on my light switches. The switch can be installed using the Cync app or bypassed in favor of a Matter setup. Since the switch is so simple, there’s no huge reason to use the Cync app if you don’t have a lot of other Cync gear in the house you also want to control. That said, the app is needed for firmware updates and other management, so you’re probably best off starting there either way. I didn’t have any issues with onboarding, though initial Matter configuration can be a bit slow. Using the GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Smart Switch The GE Cync app is easy to use, and if you set the dimmer up to use it–versus controlling it via Matter–you can unlock lots of features for controlling other GE Cync devices.Christopher Null/Foundry As mentioned, this is a simple dimmer: The central paddle’s looks are deceiving: It is not a rocker that toggles from on to off and vice versa; it’s just a button that depresses slightly at the bottom and bounces right back. Tap it once to turn the light on—or off—and that’s it. A mechanical slider on the right side of the switch moves smoothly up and down to control brightness dynamically; a row of seven white LEDs on the left-hand side of the switch give you a visual indicator of where things stand in relation to maximum brightness. These LEDs can be set to briefly display or remain on permanently as a switch finder in the dark. I didn’t encounter any trouble using either the switch or the app, and I found its dimming features worked perfectly well and fluidly with LED bulbs. This is where the GE logo belongs: on the switch itself, before you install its blank cover plate.Christopher Null/Foundry The switch can be assigned to a group in the GE Cync app, which means that it can control other GE Cync devices even if they aren’t physically wired to the switch. This is helpful if you want to control, say, both overhead lights, lamps, and/or undercabinet or undershelf lights in the same room using a single button on the wall. GE’s TrueImage feature also works with the Paddle Dimmer, and as with the Keypad it’s a fanciful but fun add-on. To set it up, you snap two photos of your lights, one at full brightness and one at zero. The app then merges the two photos; as you dim and brighten the lights inside the app, the photo of the lights in the app dims and brightens accordingly. It’s one of those tools that makes more sense when you see it in action. It’s a surprisingly effective addition to the feature set. Should you buy the GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Smart Switch? As I’ve already discussed, the GE Cync Paddle Dimmer Smart Switch is just a little more expensive than competing products from the likes of TP-Link (Kasa Smart and Tapo), Meross, or Treatlife, but it’s a lot cheaper than what you’ll find from high-end competitors such as Leviton or Lutron, and it works about as well as anything else I’ve tested. However, as with the Keypad Dimmer, there’s nothing overly special about it to justify choosing it over another name brand dimmer, unless you already have a heavy investment in other Cync-brand gear. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart dimmer switches. Read...

With the most recent update to Firefox 147, you can enjoy a number of new features and improvements. Safe Browsing v5 improves privacy protection, picture-in-picture mode for videos has learned a new trick, and the developers have once again fixed several security flaws. Mozilla doesn’t plan to release Firefox 148 until six weeks from now, on February 24th. Then the question will arise again as to whether Mozilla will oncea gain extend update support for Firefox 115 for Windows 7 and 8 and macOS 10.12 to 10.14. What’s new in Firefox 147? The picture-in-picture mode for videos, which has been available for years, can now be activated automatically as soon as the tab with the video is no longer in the foreground. When you bring the video tab back to the foreground, Firefox exits picture-in-picture mode. (You may have already observed similar behavior on YouTube.) Also, the Mozilla developers have aligned the performance of video playback on AMD GPUs with that of Intel and Nvidia graphics. Support for Safe Browsing v5, a Google feature, drastically reduces the number of cloud queries. With Safe Browsing v5, Firefox maintains a regularly updated local list of known fraudulent or dangerous websites. Firefox compares URLs to be accessed locally with this list, meaning that the address is not sent over to a cloud service. Security fixes in Firefox 147 Mozilla lists at least 16 vulnerabilities that have been fixed in its Security Advisory 2026-01 report for Firefox 147, classifying six of the externally reported security vulnerabilities as high risk. Four of these relate to ways of breaking out of the browser sandbox. The vulnerabilities could be exploited to inject code and execute it on the system. No attacks on any of the vulnerabilities are known to date. The last two entries in the report list an unspecified number of internally discovered vulnerabilities, which are summarized under CVE-2026-0891 and CVE-2026-0892. They also affect Firefox ESR and Thunderbird. Some are considered high risk, while others are only medium risk. Firefox ESR and Tor Browser updates In addition to Firefox 147.0, ESR versions 140.7.0 and 115.32.0 are also available, although the latter is only available for Windows 7 and 8.1 and macOS 10.12 to 10.14. In these versions, Mozilla’s developers have fixed the above-mentioned vulnerabilities that are already present in the well-established code of these browser generations. The latest Tor Browser 15.0.4 is based on Firefox ESR 140.7 and includes the NoScript 13.5.7 extension. Tor Browser 13.5.27, based on Firefox ESR 115.32 and including NoScript 13.5.7, is only available for users of Windows 7 and 8.1 and macOS 10.12 to 10.14. The Tor Project now hosts NoScript for its browser itself. This can be recognized by the fact that the NoScript version has the suffix “.1984,” like the current version 13.5.7.1984. (George Orwell sends his regards.) Otherwise, it’s identical to the version on Mozilla’s Add-ons store. Thunderbird 147.0 and 140.7.0esr have also been released. Here, too, the developers have eliminated one or two security vulnerabilities that the mail program inherited from Firefox. Read...