Have you been holding off on upgrading to the newer, AI-enhanced version of Alexa? If so, heads up: Amazon has been notifying at least some Alexa users that the Alexa+ update is coming their way, like it or not.  “We have exciting news,” the emails from Amazon say. “As a Prime member, you get Alexa+ for free and we will update the devices registered to this account to the new, conversational, and more delightful Alexa experience. The upgrade takes just a few minutes and won’t require any action from you.”  In the email, Amazon points out that you can revert to the old Alexa by saying, “Alexa, exit Alexa+,” although some users complain that, like a pushy customer service rep, Alexa tried to change their minds before switching back to the original version.  We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment.  The pace of early access invites has picked up dramatically since the initial months following the big Alexa+ rollout in New York City last February. As the year wore on, Amazon became more generous with the invites, and by the holiday season practically anyone who wanted to try Alexa+ could easily do so.  But there were also plenty of holdouts happy to stick with the “classic” Alexa, including those who have their smart homes set up just the way they wanted and feared having their automations disrupted.  Reactions to Alexa+ have been decidedly mixed, with some users pleased by Alexa’s new AI-enhanced smarts while others complaining that the revamped voice assistant still has problems with basic smart home commands.  I’ve been testing the new AI-enabled Alexa for months, and to me, it very much feels like a work in progress, with many of Alexa+’s most eye-popping agentic features still in the oven (it’s still a ways from being able to plan and book a night out with a date) while others do work as advertised (like Alexa+ triggering your robot vacuum if you say the carpets in a room “look dirty”).  Amazon has been careful to point out that Alexa+ is still in early access and that it isn’t charging for the revamped assistant yet.  Another key point is that you can, indeed, go back to the old Alexa if you want to. That’s not the case with Google smart speakers, which can’t be rolled back to Google Assistant once you make the switch to Gemini at Home.  This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

I’m gonna be honest: I had to pick my jaw off the floor after I spotted this deal. An RTX 5060 laptop for only $700? That’s a cutting-edge GPU with access to Nvidia’s DLSS 4 at a price that’s dipping dangerously close to “budget” tier—the kind of insanity I can get behind! Right now, Walmart is selling this Acer Nitro V 16S for 25% off, slashing its price down from its original $929 to one that’s far more affordable. You love to see it. View this Walmart deal At the heart of this system is an Intel Core i5-13420H processor, which was designed to smoothly run lots of apps, browser tabs, and gaming without slowing to a crawl. This gaming laptop features 16GB of RAM, just enough to handle Windows 11 without choking. (We wish it had more, but good luck with that at this price going forward due to the crazy RAM shortage.) There’s also a fast 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD on board for quick bootups, app launches, and file transfers. The laptop’s 15.6-inch 1080p display is about standard these days, though the above-average 165Hz refresh rate is anything but standard, translating into a responsive gaming experience with minimal ghosting. Then there’s the graphics performance thanks to the RTX 5060 GPU, which is more than capable of running all the games you love to play, plus most games that are coming out in the next few years. You can add a couple of extra displays to your setup via the Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI ports, and you also get three fast USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm audio jack alongside those. It’s a solid laptop and one of our favorites when it comes to budget gaming laptops, so take advantage of this Acer Nitro V 16S deal for just $700 via Walmart! This discount won’t be around forever. Save $229 on the Acer Nitro V 16S with RTX 5060 GPUBuy now from Walmart Read...

Samsung has dabbled in the smart speaker space before, but the company’s all-new Music Studio 5 and Music Studio 7 Wi-Fi speakers pose serious competition for the likes of Amazon, Apple, Bose, and Sonos—at least at the higher-end of the market. Unveiled this week at CES and planned for a March release, both models present a distinctively modern, “dot-faced” industrial design by noted French artist Erwan Bouroullec, along with some equally interesting features destined to set them apart from the pack. (Don’t get too excited about all the colors shown in the photo above, however; they’re just trial balloons. Initial shipments will be in black or white only.) Alexa, are you in there? While it probably won’t be there at launch—and voice assistants in general warrant  just a single mention in Samsung’s press release—I’ve been told the Music Studio 5 (model LS50H) and Music Studio 7 (model LS70H) will support Alexa+, the generative-AI-powered digital assistant that Amazon promises is more capable and more conversational than the original Alexa. Alexa Plus also provides advanced smart home control options and new capabilities, such as automatically ordering food it knows you’ll like from Uber Eats, or standing in a virtual line for concert tickets from TicketMaster while you do something less tedious.   Not an Alexa fan? The new speakers will also answer to voice commands spoken to Google Assistant, as well as Samsung’s own Bixby, which is optimized for interaction with other Samsung products. Spotify Tap and Spotify Connect The Music Studio series also works with Spotify Tap, which leverages Spotify Connect over Wi-Fi, so you can jump-start a favorite playlist with just a touch on the speaker cabinet—no need to pull out your phone. The spiffier Music Studio 7 is adept at delivering the new, lossless rendering of Spotify Premium music content, streaming FLAC files at up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz resolution, as well as other content at resolutions up to 24-bit/96kHz. A CES booth tender also told me that Music Studio buyers who adopt Alexa as their voice assistant will get Amazon Music as their default music-streaming service, while those who choose Google Assistant will get YouTube Music as their default. As for other services—Tidal, Qobuz, and what have you—I’m told they’ll be able to use those services’ respective apps, Apple’s AirPlay, or—ugh—a Bluetooth connection.   For those who don’t mind wires, the Music Studio 5 is equipped with a Toslink digital audio input, while the beefier Music Studio 7 boasts an HDMI port as well. I presume that will be HDMI ARC, but no one at the booth could answer my question for sure. I know for certain that up to five Music Studio speakers can be synchronized with recent Samsung TVs via Bluetooth, thanks to the company’s Q Symphony surround-sound processing. This will mix those speakers’ output with the TV’s built-in speakers. Q Symphony will also let you mix and match some Music Studio speakers with a Samsung soundbar and/or wall-hanging Music Frame speakers. Q Symphony smarts will tonally balance the bunch. Multi-room audio options Another option, for whole-home audio devotees, will be to stream music—the same or different tracks—to as many as 10 Music Studio speakers at once, including grouped speakers. Samsung’s SmartThings app will manage that trick. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to configure two speakers as a stereo pair, as both the Music Studio 5 and Music Studio 7 output two channels on their own. With its sculpted dome and sloped back, the smaller Studio 5 ($249) offers a more distinctive look than its core competition: the $219 Sonos One, Gen 2 and the $199 Bose Home Speaker 300. The Studio 5 packs two high-performance left/right front tweeters beneath a 4.2- inch woofer (Samsung’s people insisted on calling it a “subwoofer”). An integrated wave guide and dynamic bass control contributed to the bigger and better-than-expected performance I heard in the challenging environment of Samsung’s CES exhibit space, but I’ll reserve final judgement for a full listening session in private. The Music Studio 7 ($499) is an all-in-one,  3.1.1-channel, spatial-audio speaker featuring Samsung’s own signal-steering methodology (not Dolby Atmos). Its tweeters fire separate channel information from the front, left, and right sides, as well as the top the boxy, perforated metal wrapped enclosure, while a 5-inch front-firing, rear-ported) “sub” delivers all the non-directional low-frequency information. Samsung enhances the four-direction throw and clarity of the channels with what it calls Pattern Control Technology and AI Dynamic Bass Control. Samsung is clearly appealing to the same “I only have room for one box” music/smart home buffs who are also considering the rest of the spatial audio-adept, smart-speaker competition: the $479 Sonos Era 300, the $299 Apple HomePod, and the $220 Amazon Echo Studio. I can’t wait to hear what these puppies can do in the real world. This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

TL;DR: This is the lowest price ever for a lifetime license to SwifDoo PDF Pro — a full-featured, pro-level PDF editor for Windows. Have you ever opened a PDF and immediately felt your soul leave your body? Here’s some good news: you don’t have to wrestle with PDFs anymore. SwifDoo PDF Pro gives you all the editing, converting, signing, splitting, merging, compressing, and OCR tools you could possibly need—and this deal gets you lifetime access for the lowest price it’s ever been, just $24.97 (MSRP $129). Instead of bouncing between free trials, browser extensions, and random tools that “kind of” work, SwifDoo puts everything in one clean interface. Want to tweak text? Highlight and annotate? Merge 40 pages into one perfect file? Convert PDFs into Word docs that actually look like the original? SwifDoo makes it feel easy. Its advanced features are where it really shines: accurate OCR turns scanned documents into fully editable text, and the batch processor lets you convert, compress, split, encrypt, or print multiple PDFs at once. If you spend even a little time dealing with documents, a lifetime license for under this price is the kind of upgrade that pays for itself after your first painless PDF edit. Get lifetime access to SwifDoo PDF Pro for just $24.97 (MSRP $129) with code PRO for a limited time. SwifDoo PDF Pro: Perpetual Lifetime License for WindowsSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

For many people, a video doorbell isn’t just part of their home security system, it is the system. With a camera at the front door and an app on their phone, they jump to the conclusion that they’ll capture faces on the sidewalk, license plates at the curb, and anybody cutting across the lawn. Most doorbell cameras deliver far more modest real-world performances. They have a tight field of view that sees what’s directly in front of their lens; they’re built to frame a visitor’s face standing in front of the door, not the entire space around the door. That leaves blind spots that can surprise new owners: areas right at the threshold, where packages disappear from view; blurry depictions of passersby on the sidewalk or people walking up the driveway, because they’re outside the camera’s field of view; and side-to-side movement close to the door that slips past the edges of the frame. Doorbells still provide real awareness. But what they show is shaped by factors such as lens geometry, aspect ratio, motion-detection tech, and other factors–including AI in some cases. Let’s look at how those design choices define what your doorbell can realistically see–and what it can’t. Field of view Video doorbells that can deliver a head-to-toe view of visitors, such as the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus shown here, can also capture packages left on your porch.Michael Brown/Foundry Field of view–measured in degrees–describes the width of the viewing cone that spreads outward from the camera’s lens. This is the slice of the real world the lens can actually see. But field of view isn’t a single number. It’s split into two parts: horizontal field of view, which determines how much the camera sees from left to right, and vertical field of view, which measures how area it can capture between the ground and the sky. Most doorbells emphasize horizontal coverage. Specs commonly tout 130- to 160 degrees side-to-side, which helps pick up people moving along sidewalks, walkways, or driveways before they reach the door. That width provides useful context, especially on wide porches or corner lots where activity doesn’t always come straight in. Vertical coverage is often shortchanged. Many cameras capture much less than 90 degrees top-to-bottom, creating a wide but shallow image. Faces and torsos are centered neatly in frame, but the ground just below the lens is cut off. Packages placed against the wall vanish. Small kids or pets drop out of view as they get closer. Perspective compounds this. The nearer something is to the lens, the easier it falls outside that narrow vertical cone. So when deliveries disappear from recordings, the culprit is vertical cropping built into the lens design itself. Aspect ratios The Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro (Gen 2) delivers a 1:1 aspect ratio that can show packages left on your porch and visitors from head to toe.Michael Brown/Foundry Aspect ratio is simply the proportion between the width and height of the video image. It works alongside field of view to determine the final shape of what you see on screen. A camera can have a wide lens, but if the image format squeezes that view into a short, horizontal rectangle, the result is still an incomplete picture. Many early doorbells—and plenty of budget models today—use wide, landscape-leaning formats, including true 16:9 or similar ratios. That wide framing is good for seeing activity across sidewalks, driveways, or a front yard, but the tradeoff is vertical space. These formats crop the lower part of the scene, which often means the ground right in front of the door—where delivery packages tend to land—never makes it into the frame. Newer doorbells have shifted toward taller ratios like 4:3, 3:4, or even square, 1:1 formats, which devote more pixels to vertical coverage instead of the more horizontal spread. This enables true head-to-toe views, letting you see visitors’ faces, what they’re holding, and the area at their feet in a single frame. Resolution and digital zoom The higher the resolution your video doorbell can capture (i.e., the more pixels), the better the video will look when you zoom in to the max. The Nest Video Doorbell (wired, 3rd Gen) captures 2048 x 2048 pixels. Resolution is where marketing often overpromises and reality narrows the claim. Entry-level doorbells usually capture video in 1080p (about 2 megapixels). That’s fine when someone is standing right at the door but faces soften quickly past six to eight feet. Step up to 2K (roughly 3 to 4 megapixels) and you get noticeably cleaner facial detail at a distance. 4K (around 8 megapixels) can reveal finer features—sometimes even license plate characters—but only when lighting is good and the subject is already inside the camera’s view. Because doorbells use fixed lenses, there’s no optical zoom. When you zoom in on a doorbell image, the camera isn’t actually getting closer to the subject. It’s just enlarging a smaller portion of the image by cutting away the surrounding pixels. This is where the extra pixels in a higher-resolution camera really come into play. Higher resolution means more usable detail after zooming. When you crop into a 1080p image, details break down quickly into visible blocks. With 2K or 4K footage, there are more pixels to work with, so faces and other fine details hold together longer as you zoom. Motion detection Being able to set multiple motion detection zones lets you fine-tune the areas you want to monitor for motion. Higher-end models, like the Ring Battery Plus shown here, let you customize alerts based on how frequently motion is detected and what types of motion are detected.Michael Brown/Foundry Early video doorbells relied almost entirely on passive infrared sensors. PIR works by looking for rapid changes in heat combined with movement. It’s simple and power-efficient, but blunt. Wind-whipped bushes, passing cars, or a patch of morning sun warming the driveway can all trip the sensor and fire off an alert. Newer models layer in video-based detection. The camera feed itself is analyzed, locally on the device or in the cloud, to identify human shapes and movement patterns. Trained recognition models can also flag vehicles and pets instead of labeling everything as generic motion. That technology is what enables alerts like “Person detected,” resulting in fewer nuisance notifications and more meaningful alerts. But there are tradeoffs. Video analysis takes longer than raw heat sensing, so alerts can be slightly delayed. Detection depends on lighting and clear angles; backlighting or heavy shadows can throw it off. And small or partly hidden figures may simply be missed. Pre-roll video When a clip seems to start a few seconds before motion triggers, you’re seeing pre-roll video at work. Most doorbells don’t record continuously. Instead, they run a lightweight recording loop that stores a rolling buffer in small onboard memory—either local flash or a battery cache. Once motion is detected, the system saves that buffered footage along with the full recording, making it appear as though the camera was already rolling. On many doorbells, that pre-roll footage runs at reduced quality. It may be black and white, lower resolution, and lack audio. That downshift is deliberate. Continuous, full-quality recording would drain a battery doorbell in hours, rather than weeks. Pre-roll is the compromise—brief, low-power snapshots that provide just enough lead-in to show a person stepping into view before the main clip takes over. Night vision Night vision is a critical feature for a video doorbell, since you won’t want to keep your porch light on all night.Martin Williams/Foundry Most doorbells rely on standard infrared night vision. Small IR LEDs bathe the scene in light–invisible to the human eye–that reflects back to the doorbell’s sensor, producing a black-and-white image. Most IR systems can illuminate roughly 15 to 30 feet from the camera. That’s enough for the porch area, but not down the walkway or into the yard. IR has quirks, though. Objects close to the lens can wash out into a white glare. Fog, rain, or reflective surfaces scatter the light and create haze or sparkles that degrade clarity. That can result in an image that looks fuzzy or blown out right when you need it to be sharp. Color night vision tackles after-dark video differently. Video doorbells with this feature use sensors that are more sensitive to ambient light, preserving color. They might also include an LED spotlight that switches on in response to motion, lighting the scene when there isn’t enough ambient light. Spotlights can tip off prowlers–which might prompt them to beat a retreat–but they can also annoy your neighbors if they fire up at 2 a.m. Camera linking and multi-view triggering While video doorbell surveillance effectively ends at your porch, some Ring and Eufy systems support camera linking, where motion detected by one camera can triggers other cameras to begin recording at the same time. In this scenario, a doorbell alert might activate a side-yard or driveway camera, picking up an intruder as they move elsewhere on your property. This can fill gaps left by the doorbell’s narrow coverage and builds better movement timelines. But this isn’t the same as tracking, where you can follow a person’s movement without interruption from point to point. Most systems cap the number of linked devices; Ring, for example, allows up to three of its devices to be linked this way. Eufy and some other security cameras offer a feature that stitches the recordings from several cameras together, so that you get something close to an end-to-end recording of the path they followed around your home. Set reasonable expectations when you buy a video doorbell Video doorbells are effective security tools, but only inside the boundaries set by their lenses, sensors, and detection systems. Buying smarter starts with understanding what actually shapes the image. Look beyond headline resolution and focus on aspect ratio and vertical field of view. Think about how much zoom detail you can realistically get. Pay attention to how well alerts filter people from noise. Good security doesn’t come from expecting one camera to see everything. It comes from matching the right hardware to your space and building coverage around each device’s limits instead of assuming a doorbell alone can handle the whole job. This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best security cameras and video doorbells. Read...

The Logitech G502 Hero wired gaming mouse might’ve been around for a few years at this point, but it’s still one of the best gaming mice on the market—especially if you can get it on sale at a steep discount. It just so happens that this mouse is on sale right now. Get it for 49% off on Amazon, which brings it down to just $36. Wow! View this Amazon deal In our review of the Logitech G502 Hero, we gave it a stunning 4.5-star rating and our Editors’ Choice award. It has everything that made the original G502 great, except now with a Hero sensor for extra performance. The only downside is no wireless, otherwise it’s great. Let’s talk about that sensor. Logitech’s Hero 25K sensor delivers precise tracking and a sensitivity range up to 25,600 DPI, ensuring pinpoint accuracy when aiming in first-person games or selecting in fast-paced real-time strategy games. One of the key features of the G502 Hero is that you can customize it exactly how you need it, with an adjustable weight system with 5 removable 3.6-gram weights. You can fine-tune the balance and feel for your specific grip and play style. The 11 programmable buttons make for an additional way to customize actions, whether for specific games or for non-game tasks like app shortcuts and operating system macros. The memory in the mouse also enables you to store up to 5 ready-to-play profiles directly on the device, making it easy to swap between them on the fly. Who knew one of the best wired gaming mice on the market could be had for this cheap? Get the Logitech G502 Hero for $36! Wow! Save 49% on the Logitech G502 Hero while you canBuy now at Amazon Read...

MSI kicked off CES 2026 with two next-generation desktop lines – the MSI Aegis RS2 AI and MSI Vision RS AI – plus a new wave of QD-OLED gaming monitors under its MPG and MEG X brands. Whether you’re building a high-FPS esports machine, a premium AAA gaming rig, or a quiet creative workstation with room to upgrade over time, MSI’s new systems aim to deliver strong performance, lower noise, and long-term reliability. Key takeaways New desktops: MSI Aegis RS2 AI (gaming-first) and Vision RS AI (quiet, creator-focused) Core specs: Up to Intel® Core™ Ultra 9, Intel® Z890, and RTX 5070-RTX 5080 GPU options Cooling: CPU watercooling standard across configurations for quieter operation Upgradeability: standard form-factor, off-the-shelf components designed for easy maintenance New displays: MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 and MEG X QD-OLED monitors with HDR tuning, Uniform Luminance, burn-in protection, and DarkArmor Film with 3H scratch resistance and enhanced pure black levels MSI Aegis RS2 AI: Performance-first gaming desktops for 2026 MSI As prices for memory and storage skyrocket all over the world and DIY builders fret over getting the hardware they need for their next upgrade, you can beat the rush and the panic with an MSI Aegis RS2 AI or Vision RS AI pre-built gaming PC. With stellar performance for every kind of gamer in any kind of game, and everything creatives need to get to work, MSI’s next-generation PCs will set you up for many years of fast and fluid work and play for years to come. The Aegis RS2 AI can be configured with: CPU: up to Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 Motherboard: Intel® Z890 chipset GPU: From RTX 5070 (powerful mid-range) up to RTX 5080 (high-end performance) Aegis comes with options to build a high-frame-rate, competitive esports machine or a high-detail system designed to make the most of the latest AAA, immersive games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. MSI Vision RS AI: Quieter Creator-focused systems built to last MSI If you’re more interested in creating or playing with the latest AI language models, MSI’s new Vision PCs are a great fit. The CES 2026 Innovation Award winning Vision PCs combine high-powered components with ultra-low noise operation, tuned thermals, and an eye-catching aesthetic that lets you show your creativity off in true fashion. Available in white and black, with a gorgeous wraparound glass panel design, and packed full of high-powered components, this is a system that looks the part and walks the walk. View MSI`s Next-gen Vision AI Desktops Reliability and sustainability: Easy maintenance and future upgrades One of the most important factors in a desktop PC for creative hobbyists and professionals is reliability and sustainability. MSI heard that loud and clear with its Vision PCs and has built them around easy maintenance and longevity. Standard form-factor, off-the-shelf components mean you can easily: Upgrade components later without proprietary restrictions Replace parts more easily if something fails Swap and service components with fewer headaches Work inside the chassis comfortably thanks to the roomy internal layout It’s a system designed to stay relevant longer, and be easier to maintain over time. Foundry / Adam Patrick Murray Watercooling comes standard for quieter everyday use Whether you choose Aegis RS2 AI or Vision RS AI, CPU watercooling comes as standard, so you can enjoy a quiet experience designed to balance performance and acoustics, whether you’re gaming, working, or relaxing after a hard day of either. If you often have to use headphones because your fans are whirring and whining away and your coolers can barely keep up, switching to a cool and quiet Aegis or Vision system will make the world of difference. Built and assembled in the USA, MSI Aegis and Vision PCs are made fast and to a high-standard, ensuring your next gaming PC upgrade is everything you want and need, and a little bit extra, so you can enjoy one of the best gaming PC experiences out there. MSI MPG and MEG X monitors: big-screen HDR gaming with smarter tuning Foundry / Adam Patrick Murray Looking to upgrade your display in 2026? MSI’s new MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 and MEG X monitors are the complete package. These big-screen monitors come with the 5th-gen QD-OLED panel, which vastly improves text due to the RGB Stripe sub-pixel layout, and delivers next-generation picture quality, with sharper text and images with cleaner edges. The inky blacks and high contrast look fantastic, with eye-catching colors that really pop off the screen – especially in HDR mode. These are gorgeous OLED gaming monitors that will look fantastic for many years to come. View MSI`s Next-gen MPG Monitors AI smarts to power up gameplay Foundry / Adam Patrick Murray Meg X is MSI’s flagship gaming monitor, building in several exclusive AI features to boost your gameplay like never before. AI Scene is able to detect your content type and adjust the display settings to suit, while AI Gauge syncs relevant metrics like health or ammo levels with the SpectrumBar lightbar found under MEG X’s chin. Visuals are enhanced through AI Vision+ and AI Google, which improve visibility in dark areas, and during particularly bright scenes. AI can also help you find and destroy your enemies faster, with AI Tracker and AI Scope teaming up to automatically highlight characters onscreen and zoom in closer for improved aim. Foundry / Adam Patrick Murray Uniform Luminance and reduced ABL distractions MSI’s exclusive Uniform Luminance feature gives you complete control over how your games look and feel, with specialized modes that minimize the automatic brightness limiting (ABL) that can be so distracting with other OLED monitors. Anti burn-in protection with MSI AI Care Complete with all the latest anti burn-in technologies, MSI’s OLED Care 3.0 system adds AI Sensor, which automatically powers on or dims the monitor to extend panel lifespan and reduce the chances of image retention. 3H scratch resistance for peace of mind Worried about damaging your beautiful new monitor? No need. MSI’s latest OLED displays come with DarkArmor Film, which elevates panel protection with 3H scratch resistance. Even if you accidentally bump them or the kids get their fingers on them (somehow!), the worst it will come away with is an easy-to-clean smudge. DarkArmor Film also boosts pure black visuals by 40% for superior contrast, eliminating ambient light tints. Final thoughts With the Aegis RS2 AI and Vision RS AI desktops, MSI is targeting two audiences: gamers who want maximum performance and creators who want quiet power and a premium, upgrade-friendly system. Pair those systems with MSI’s latest MPG and MEG X QD-OLED monitors – featuring HDR curve control, burn-in protection, and scratch resistance – and you’ve got a full ecosystem designed for high-end gaming and creative work well into 2026. Read...

Jacob Tierney says the `sex forward` gay drama, which is released in the UK on Saturday, features elements of romance that don`t get taken seriously enough. Read...

Microsoft recently started offering users of modern SSDs an option to significantly increase their drive speeds. Specifically, this involves a performance boost for NVMe drives. NVMe stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express and is a particularly fast protocol for SSDs that communicates directly with the processor via the PCIe interface. Because of this, NVMe SSDs outperform conventional SATA SSDs. Until now, however, Windows didn’t offer a native driver for NVMe drives, which limited their performance. This changed in December 2025 when Microsoft announced Native NVMe for Windows Server 2025, which is also available on Windows 11. However, you must manually activate it yourself to take advantage of its benefits. Here’s how to enable it and whether it’s worth doing so. The advantages of Native NVMe According to Microsoft, here are the advantages: Massive IOPS increases: Actual performance limit of the hardware is fully unlocked. Lower latency: Shorter round-trip times for each operation. Higher CPU efficiency: More computing power for applications instead of storage overhead. Support for advanced NVMe features: For example, multi-queue and direct command transmission. In specific use cases, this could improve sequential speeds by up to 500 MB/s as well as up to 80 percent more IOPS. In addition, using the native driver should save up to 45 percent in computing power. These values may vary depending on your system and SSD type, of course. In general, however, users seem to benefit significantly from the performance boost—and all you need is a compatible NVMe SSD and Windows 11 25H2 to start taking advantage now. There are some caveats, though Before you turn this feature on, know that there’s a risk. According to some reports, problems can arise with certain SSDs. Some hard drive managers no longer recognize NVMe storage after the driver is enabled, while other drives disappear completely or get listed twice. In addition, in a few cases, there was higher CPU utilization and/or lag, especially in games that use DirectStorage. Apparently, there’s a compatibility issue here that needs to be investigated further. How to activate the NVMe boost To activate the new NVMe driver in Windows 11, you should first check the driver details section of your storage drive in Device Manager and ensure that your drive is using StorNVMe.sys. Otherwise, activating this driver will have no effect on your system. If compatible, there are two ways to activate the driver: Option 1: Windows Registry Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run window, then type regedit to launch Registry Editor. In Registry Editor, navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides. In this folder, right-click and add the following REG_DWORD values, each with hexadecimal value “1”: 156965516, 1853569164, 735209102. Restart your PC. If you want to undo the change, navigate back to the same folder and delete the three values. The change will take effect after restarting. Option 2: PowerShell Alternatively, you can use Windows PowerShell to enter the following commands (with admin rights): reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 156965516 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f ???????reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 1853569164 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides /v 735209102 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f Restart your PC. These two methods are currently the only ways to activate Native NVMe in Windows 11, as it’s actually intended for use under Windows Server. The performance boost is primarily aimed at businesses, but private users can also activate it to benefit. However, there’s no guarantee that every NVMe SSD will respond to the change in the same way. The potential problems described above may still occur. If this is the case, you should undo the change and wait for Microsoft to update the drivers before trying again. Further reading: Unlock more SSD performance with these 5 tweaks Read...

Finding a good gaming monitor upgrade that won’t drain your bank account may seem impossible at times, but you just have to be patient for a hot deal to show up. Today might be that day for you, with Amazon selling the 27-inch LG UltraGear 27GR83Q-B for just $277. That’s a massive 45% off its original $500 price! View this Amazon deal This is a stellar opportunity to get a mid-range monitor at a near-budget price. The LG UltraGear 27GR83Q-B features a 27-inch IPS panel that promises great color accuracy, comfortable viewing angles, and vivid contrast. The 2560×1440 resolution is extra crisp at this size, and it’s capable of a blistering 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time for super-responsive gameplay that’ll give you an edge on the competition. To eliminate screen tearing and stuttering, this display supports AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, which ensures the screen remains synchronized with your GPU for even more fluid gameplay. It also features both HDMI and DisplayPort, so you can connect it to your device with whichever cable you prefer, and it has several USB ports you can use to connect accessories and such. Whether you’re still stuck on a crappy 1080p monitor or want to elevate your existing 1440p display with a better refresh rate and other features, this is a fantastic get at this price. Snag the LG UltraGear 27GR83Q-B for $277 before this low price disappears! Save 45% on this 27-inch 1440p IPS monitor with 240Hz refresh rateBuy now at Amazon Read...