If you’re reading this, you’re likely one of the billions of people who work on computers all day long. Whether that’s from home or in a corporate office, the result is the same: too many hours spent each day sitting at a desk and staring at a computer screen. This can have adverse effects on your physical and mental wellbeing. Fortunately, there are some simple, healthy habits you can adopt to stay relatively healthy — and you really should adopt them sooner than later, before you’re in agony and trying to rewind time. Invest in the right setup from the start The first thing to get right is your setup, otherwise you’ll be fighting a losing battle from the start. Your setup includes everything you use while working on a PC: desk, chair, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. If you’re working in a corporate office, your options are likely limited as you’ll be stuck with the equipment provided by your company. But even then, you can always make some adjustments that improve your setup and make it better-suited to your individual needs. Tim van der Kuip / Unsplash You should make sure that your monitor is positioned correctly with the top of the screen level with your eyes. You should also invest in an ergonomic mouse that minimizes wrist stress, and you should make sure your desk, chair, keyboard, and mouse are positioned to maintain good posture throughout the day. In a nutshell, your feet should be flat on the ground, your head directly over your hips, your knees and elbows bent at 90 degrees, with your elbows touching the sides of your rib cage. If you work from home and need to kit out your own office, be sure to invest in the best equipment you can afford. Don’t cheap out on your office chair. (It’s true, those pro-tier office chairs are worth it.) It’s essential that every part of your chair is adjustable to fit your body frame and posture, especially the lumbar support for your spine. The importance of ergonomics in preventing pain and physical disorders can’t be overstated. For in-depth guidelines, check out New Hampshire’s Workplace Ergonomics Reference Guide (PDF). Maintain a proper posture Even with the right workstation setup, you still have to consciously maintain good posture at all times. The more you slack, the more you train your body into accepting bad habits. As someone who has worked from home for almost 20 years, believe me when I say this is crucial. There are plenty of times throughout the day when you probably feel like slouching your shoulders, reclining back in your chair, or even putting your feet up on your desk. But you must resist the urge! All of that will build up and lead to bad posture, even injury. Sitting like this will wreak havoc on your back, shoulders, and neck over time.Studio Republic / Unsplash The best way to maintain good posture at all times is to establish an ergonomic setup (see the previous tip) that organically encourages you to sit properly. Sitting in your chair should automatically put you in a good posture with your spine supported, your arms bent at the elbows, and the top of your monitor positioned at eye level. If your back hurts and you find yourself always slouching and leaning and sitting in bad posture no matter what you do, consider switching to a standing desk. It’s an investment, but it’s one of the best things you can do to curb back pain as a desk worker. Keep your workspace uncluttered The old adage “tidy home, tidy mind” suggests that living in a clean and well-organized environment is beneficial to mental health — and the same applies to keeping your workspace clean and tidy. Robert Bye / Unsplash According to Harvard Business Review, research suggests that maintaining a clean, tidy, and well-organized workspace can help you both physically (fewer germs and dust means you’re less likely to get sick from your work environment) and mentally (organized workspaces have been shown to reduce stress and increase productivity). Stay hydrated at all times Staying hydrated is important no matter what you’re doing, but it’s especially key when you’re trying to focus. When working at a desk all day, it’s easy to forget the need to replenish fluids. Staying hydrated generally means drinking water, but can also include tea and coffee as long as you don’t overdo the caffeine intake. Sarah Dorweiler / Unsplash Again, while proper hydration is non-negotiable no matter what you’re doing, it’s especially crucial for concentration. As numerous studies have shown, even mild dehydration can make you groggy, irritable, unfocused, unproductive, and lead to physical ailments. Take regular breaks throughout the day Taking regular breaks feels counterintuitive, but your body needs them. While you might be inclined to power through the day to get done as much as you can, you’d likely get more done with a few strategic breaks sprinkled in throughout the day. There’s conflicting advice when it comes to how many breaks you should take and how often you should take them, but don’t take that to mean nobody knows what they’re talking about. All the experts agree on this: a sedentary lifestyle shortens life and decreases quality of life. Computer workers are quite literally sitting themselves to death. Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash I do two specific things to protect myself while working on my PC: First, I schedule two extended breaks that split my day up into three blocks. Both breaks are spent away from my desk, and if possible, I try to take them outside to ensure I get some fresh air into my lungs. Second, as soon as I feel any kind of strain on my body, I stand up and move around for a minute or so. This doesn’t have to be anything too strenuous. Just the act of standing up and walking around can limber up your muscles/joints and get your blood circulating. Stretch and exercise regularly During your regular breaks, you shouldn’t be zoning out and doing nothing. Sure, grab a glass of water and hit the bathroom if you need to, but most breaks should involve stretching and exercise of some kind. Do exercises that work your abs, upper back, glutes, and hamstrings to encourage good posture and prevent muscular imbalances. Take a short walk and get those legs moving. Stretch out your hips, legs, shoulders, chest, and neck before they get too stiff. Exercises and stretches go a long way to helping you maintain fitness and flexibility. Studio Romantic / Shutterstock There’s a host of good advice online about specific stretches to do while working at your desk and how to avoid work-related injuries. But you should also supplement them with real exercise, either before or after work. That could mean going to the gym, or you could focus on bodyweight exercises from the comfort of your home. You might even try an exercise bike desk that also charges your devices. Follow the 20-20-20 rule for your eyes Here’s one aspect of health that many white collar workers often overlook, especially when you’re younger (e.g., in your 20s). You need to protect your eyes and minimize computer vision syndrome (also known as digital eye strain). G-Stock Studio / Shutterstock The 20-20-20 rule works by forcing you to relax your eyes. Your computer screen is only two or three feet from you, and it can strain your eyes to focus at that distance for extended periods. By focusing on something 20 feet away, your eye muscles can relax — and doing this regularly can help prevent tiredness, blurry vision, and headaches/migraines. It’s worth doing whether you have perfect vision or wear vision correction. Be aware of lighting and brightness levels Good lighting is a necessary element of any good workspace. This applies to both environmental lighting and the light being emitted by that screen you’re staring at for hours and hours every day. For environmental lighting, try to maximize natural light (i.e., sunlight) and supplement it with lamps if needed. Avoid going too bright or too dark, as both extremes will force your eyes to work harder. Try to position your light sources off to the side, not behind your monitor (so you aren’t staring into more light) and not behind you (so it doesn’t cast a glare on your screen that could strain your eyes). Zhyar Ibrahim / Unsplash As for your monitor brightness, there are two factors to consider: first, try to match its brightness to ambient brightness (i.e., not too dim and not too bright), and second, make sure it’s comfortable to your eyes. The best brightness for you will depend on your circumstances, and it might even change depending on the time of day. If your operating system has adaptive brightness or if your monitor has auto-brightness, consider using those features — but it’s possible they may not work well for you. If your eyes are still suffering and uncomfortable, switch to manual control and adjust your lighting as needed. Further reading: Tech gadgets that’ll supercharge your home office Read...

If you’re reading this, you’re likely one of the billions of people who work on computers all day long. Whether that’s from home or in a corporate office, the result is the same: too many hours spent each day sitting at a desk and staring at a computer screen. This can have adverse effects on your physical and mental wellbeing. Fortunately, there are some simple, healthy habits you can adopt to stay relatively healthy — and you really should adopt them sooner than later, before you’re in agony and trying to rewind time. Invest in the right setup from the start The first thing to get right is your setup, otherwise you’ll be fighting a losing battle from the start. Your setup includes everything you use while working on a PC: desk, chair, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. If you’re working in a corporate office, your options are likely limited as you’ll be stuck with the equipment provided by your company. But even then, you can always make some adjustments that improve your setup and make it better-suited to your individual needs. Tim van der Kuip / Unsplash You should make sure that your monitor is positioned correctly with the top of the screen level with your eyes. You should also invest in an ergonomic mouse that minimizes wrist stress, and you should make sure your desk, chair, keyboard, and mouse are positioned to maintain good posture throughout the day. In a nutshell, your feet should be flat on the ground, your head directly over your hips, your knees and elbows bent at 90 degrees, with your elbows touching the sides of your rib cage. If you work from home and need to kit out your own office, be sure to invest in the best equipment you can afford. Don’t cheap out on your office chair. (It’s true, those pro-tier office chairs are worth it.) It’s essential that every part of your chair is adjustable to fit your body frame and posture, especially the lumbar support for your spine. The importance of ergonomics in preventing pain and physical disorders can’t be overstated. For in-depth guidelines, check out New Hampshire’s Workplace Ergonomics Reference Guide (PDF). Maintain a proper posture Even with the right workstation setup, you still have to consciously maintain good posture at all times. The more you slack, the more you train your body into accepting bad habits. As someone who has worked from home for almost 20 years, believe me when I say this is crucial. There are plenty of times throughout the day when you probably feel like slouching your shoulders, reclining back in your chair, or even putting your feet up on your desk. But you must resist the urge! All of that will build up and lead to bad posture, even injury. Sitting like this will wreak havoc on your back, shoulders, and neck over time.Studio Republic / Unsplash The best way to maintain good posture at all times is to establish an ergonomic setup (see the previous tip) that organically encourages you to sit properly. Sitting in your chair should automatically put you in a good posture with your spine supported, your arms bent at the elbows, and the top of your monitor positioned at eye level. If your back hurts and you find yourself always slouching and leaning and sitting in bad posture no matter what you do, consider switching to a standing desk. It’s an investment, but it’s one of the best things you can do to curb back pain as a desk worker. Keep your workspace uncluttered The old adage “tidy home, tidy mind” suggests that living in a clean and well-organized environment is beneficial to mental health — and the same applies to keeping your workspace clean and tidy. Robert Bye / Unsplash According to Harvard Business Review, research suggests that maintaining a clean, tidy, and well-organized workspace can help you both physically (fewer germs and dust means you’re less likely to get sick from your work environment) and mentally (organized workspaces have been shown to reduce stress and increase productivity). Stay hydrated at all times Staying hydrated is important no matter what you’re doing, but it’s especially key when you’re trying to focus. When working at a desk all day, it’s easy to forget the need to replenish fluids. Staying hydrated generally means drinking water, but can also include tea and coffee as long as you don’t overdo the caffeine intake. Sarah Dorweiler / Unsplash Again, while proper hydration is non-negotiable no matter what you’re doing, it’s especially crucial for concentration. As numerous studies have shown, even mild dehydration can make you groggy, irritable, unfocused, unproductive, and lead to physical ailments. Take regular breaks throughout the day Taking regular breaks feels counterintuitive, but your body needs them. While you might be inclined to power through the day to get done as much as you can, you’d likely get more done with a few strategic breaks sprinkled in throughout the day. There’s conflicting advice when it comes to how many breaks you should take and how often you should take them, but don’t take that to mean nobody knows what they’re talking about. All the experts agree on this: a sedentary lifestyle shortens life and decreases quality of life. Computer workers are quite literally sitting themselves to death. Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash I do two specific things to protect myself while working on my PC: First, I schedule two extended breaks that split my day up into three blocks. Both breaks are spent away from my desk, and if possible, I try to take them outside to ensure I get some fresh air into my lungs. Second, as soon as I feel any kind of strain on my body, I stand up and move around for a minute or so. This doesn’t have to be anything too strenuous. Just the act of standing up and walking around can limber up your muscles/joints and get your blood circulating. Stretch and exercise regularly During your regular breaks, you shouldn’t be zoning out and doing nothing. Sure, grab a glass of water and hit the bathroom if you need to, but most breaks should involve stretching and exercise of some kind. Do exercises that work your abs, upper back, glutes, and hamstrings to encourage good posture and prevent muscular imbalances. Take a short walk and get those legs moving. Stretch out your hips, legs, shoulders, chest, and neck before they get too stiff. Exercises and stretches go a long way to helping you maintain fitness and flexibility. Studio Romantic / Shutterstock There’s a host of good advice online about specific stretches to do while working at your desk and how to avoid work-related injuries. But you should also supplement them with real exercise, either before or after work. That could mean going to the gym, or you could focus on bodyweight exercises from the comfort of your home. You might even try an exercise bike desk that also charges your devices. Follow the 20-20-20 rule for your eyes Here’s one aspect of health that many white collar workers often overlook, especially when you’re younger (e.g., in your 20s). You need to protect your eyes and minimize computer vision syndrome (also known as digital eye strain). G-Stock Studio / Shutterstock The 20-20-20 rule works by forcing you to relax your eyes. Your computer screen is only two or three feet from you, and it can strain your eyes to focus at that distance for extended periods. By focusing on something 20 feet away, your eye muscles can relax — and doing this regularly can help prevent tiredness, blurry vision, and headaches/migraines. It’s worth doing whether you have perfect vision or wear vision correction. Be aware of lighting and brightness levels Good lighting is a necessary element of any good workspace. This applies to both environmental lighting and the light being emitted by that screen you’re staring at for hours and hours every day. For environmental lighting, try to maximize natural light (i.e., sunlight) and supplement it with lamps if needed. Avoid going too bright or too dark, as both extremes will force your eyes to work harder. Try to position your light sources off to the side, not behind your monitor (so you aren’t staring into more light) and not behind you (so it doesn’t cast a glare on your screen that could strain your eyes). Zhyar Ibrahim / Unsplash As for your monitor brightness, there are two factors to consider: first, try to match its brightness to ambient brightness (i.e., not too dim and not too bright), and second, make sure it’s comfortable to your eyes. The best brightness for you will depend on your circumstances, and it might even change depending on the time of day. If your operating system has adaptive brightness or if your monitor has auto-brightness, consider using those features — but it’s possible they may not work well for you. If your eyes are still suffering and uncomfortable, switch to manual control and adjust your lighting as needed. Further reading: Tech gadgets that’ll supercharge your home office Read...

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You would think that Arm, which arguably has been the vanguard in the smartphone and PC industry push for improved power efficiency, would double down on that strategy in its plans for 2025. Actually, it’s sort of the opposite. PCWorld sat down at CES 2025 with Chris Bergey, senior vice president and general manager for Arm’s client line of business. Bergey is responsible for both the smartphone as well as the laptop and tablet business, where Arm’s designs are licensed by companies like Qualcomm and Apple, who tweak and eventually manufacture them as finished goods. Arm provides multiple types of licenses, but the two most common types are a core license, where a customer will buy a verified core that includes an Arm Cortex CPU, Mali GPU, or other intellectual property. Arm also sells architectural licenses to companies like Apple, which gives them the freedom to design their own cores from scratch, though they must be fully compatible with the Arm architecture. Arm’s RISC architecture is generally considered to be more power-efficient than the X86 architecture used by AMD and Intel, though it requires either that applications be natively coded for it or for an emulator like Microsoft’s Prism to step in and interpret the code for an X86 chip to understand. While the Arm chips are often more efficient — in terms of the work done per clock cycle (instructions per clock, or IPC) or per watt — they still can lag in overall performance. One exception has been Apple’s custom M4 chip, where its single-threaded performance is seen as especially competitive. In 2025, the plan is to improve Arm’s own cores, Bergey said. And the first goal is simply to run them faster. “We think that we are reaching, we’ve reached kind of IPC leadership, and now people are getting very aggressive on frequency, so we’re going to continue to really push there,” Bergey said. “We’re leading on IPC on some of the products in the market,” Bergey said. “But we’re clocking at a lower frequency than some of those products. And so what I’m just suggesting is — you know, IPC times frequency, right, gets you to [higher] performance. We want to continue to provide the highest performance Arm cores, so we’ll continue to make those investments.” Bergey said that Arm’s second priority is to accelerate AI workloads on its own designs, specifically on the CPU and GPU. On the CPU, that entails specific instruction capabilities that Arm is adding to the CPUs, progressing past Neon, its Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE), and 2021’s SVE2. These additional extensions will build off of SVE2 to accelerate some of these AI workloads, Bergey said. Arm also plans to make additional investments in its GPU business — and, like its more established competitors in the PC space, to use AI to improve graphics. “In a mobile handset, you can render at 1080p, 60Hz right? But you could also render at 540p, 30Hz, and use AI to interpolate.” That sort of approach should be very familiar to PC users who have bought graphics cards from AMD or Nvidia, and who will end up using technologies like DLSS 4’s neural rendering to ease the burden on a discrete GPU. In Arm’s case, using AI to interpolate or render an image is simply more power-efficient than directly rendering the image, Bergey said. “We’re going to be a leader in trying to bring total processing to the GPUs in a mobile environment,” Bergey said. Expect to see that as part of what Arm calls the Arm CSS for Client, its next-gen Arm compute platform. “Basically, we’re making it easier for people to put the technology together, and do so to maximize the performance,” Bergey said. “So if you need to maximize that frequency and get to a four-gigahertz design, we’re going to be able to provide you that recipe for some of the latest [manufacturing] nodes.” Arm’s litigation: It ain’t over ’til it’s over Arm normally enjoys solid relationships with its licensing partners — save for Qualcomm, and an ongoing lawsuit that has simmered since 2022. Last October, that suit boiled over after Arm cancelled Qualcomm’s architectural licensing agreement. But when the suit reached court, a district judge found in favor of Qualcomm in two of the three issues, including that Qualcomm proved that the CPUs acquired via Nuvia are covered by its architectural license, and that Qualcomm did not breach the terms of the Nuvia license it acquired. However, the jury could not come to a conclusion over whether Nuvia itself had breached the terms of its architectural license. According to Bergey, this leaves the case between the two companies “unresolved.” “It’s still an open issue that needs to be resolved between the two parties,” he said. He declined to comment further. Qualcomm, for its part, was undeterred. “We’ve made a public statement that we are happy with the outcome of the case, and [the court] upheld that we have the right to innovate and to the technology that we are bringing, the disruption that we are creating in the marketplace,” said Nitin Kumar, senior director of product management, at CES last week. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros App gives you an incredible amount of detail about operating conditions Clarifying agent dispenser is available as an option Cons Very expensive for its performance and results No more effective at capturing debris than “dumb” skimmers Prone to getting stuck by running into the pool’s walls Our Verdict Beatbot’s smart skimmer comes with a sky-high price tag, but aside from its competently designed app, it doesn’t outperform one of its simpler and much less-expensive competitors. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Beatbot iSkimmer Ultra Retailer Price $1,499 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket While testing the Beatbot iSkim Ultra, it occurred to me that a pool-skimming robot probably just isn’t a very good idea. I’m not saying that the Beatbot iSkim Ultra is a bad product per se, just that, for most pool owners, robotic skimmers probably aren’t a worthwhile investment. If you have a pool pump with a thru-wall skimmer, you almost certainly don’t need a robot for the job—unless perhaps you live in such an extremely tree-laden environment that the wall skimmer can’t keep up. Even then, I can’t see how you would ever be fully satisfied with your investment in a pool skimmer which, to be frank, isn’t cheap. A ‘rocket’ button lets you double the Beatbot iSkim Ultra’s speed, which is about as much fun as you can have around the pool without getting in. The Beatbot iSkim Ultra is technically the better of the two skimmers I’ve tested to date for Techhive, and yes that is damning with the faintest of praise. At $1,199, it’s considerably more expensive than the Smonet SR5, but it did only a slightly better job at cleaning the surface of my pool. The iSkim Ultra has more features—including some wireless features—and fewer bugs; but like the Smonet, it left an awful lot of surface debris untouched at the end of the day. Paddles on each of the iSkim Ultra’s front corners are intended to push leave toward its larger front paddle. Christopher Null/Foundry All pool-skimmer robots have a similar overall design, although the iSkim Ultra does feature a few extras to spice things up. Two small propellers in the rear of the device guide it around the pool, while the entire top of the skimmer features a 24-watt solar panel that allows it to recharge and run semi-continuously. If you need extra juice, a magnetic AC adapter can attach to the back of the skimmer to more quickly recharge its 10,000mAh battery. That’s a lot of juice, but the iSkim Ultra needs it. At 17 pounds, sans debris, it takes a lot of energy to move this robot through the water. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robotic pool cleaners. The most unique feature on the iSkim Ultra are its two side brushes. These are horizontal spinners mounted on the front corners of the device. When the skimmer moves forward, these brushes spin inwardly to scoop debris that might otherwise hit the edge of the robot toward the filter basket, which rides underneath the device. (An additional paddlewheel is mounted on the front of the basket, further attempting to gobble up floating debris.) As with Beatbot’s underwater robot, the iSkim Ultra can also be used to dispense clarifying agent as it moves around. In theory, the iSkim Ultra is extremely basic. Push the power button, place it in the water, and it’s on its way. The only other hardware control is an “action button,” which sets the unit to dispense clarifier if you have one of Beatbot’s $37 clarifying agent pods installed. (These are sold separately.) If the iSkim Ultra’s solar panel doesn’t keep it charged, you can plug this magnetic charger into an AC outlet.Christopher Null/Foundry Once it’s running, the iSkim Ultra jets around the pool until the battery’s dead, meandering about in what Beatbot calls an “S Shape” pattern but bouncing off the walls instead of turning before it hits them. In the dead of summer, with strong overhead sunlight or a full charge from a wall socket, you can expect 14 hours or more of working time—essentially running from dawn to dusk. But if you’re starting the day with a dead battery, and you’re facing a cloudy winter day, you might only see 3 hours of running time. During my two weeks of nonstop testing, I had three consecutive days where the robot didn’t run at all because it didn’t have enough solar-powered charge. Your mileage will (literally) vary widely based on your location and weather conditions. Either way, once the battery capacity hits about 10 percent remaining, the unit will enter a “seeking light” mode and then park itself once it’s found some sun. If that doesn’t work, it will simply wait for the sun to find it. The iSkim Ultra touts “20 high-precision sensors” and an AI algorithm that is supposed to help it “tackle every corner and obstacle.” And while it makes good time cruising the surface of the pool, it certainly came as a surprise on more than one occasion to find it running full throttle directly into the wall of the pool, attempting to blindly plow forward with its face smooshed against the tile when it instead needed to turn around. The Beatbot iSkim Ultra’s app reveals a host of data about its activities. You can also use the app to remotely control the pool cleaner.Christopher Null/Foundry The bigger issue, however, is one that impacts both the skimmers I’ve tested so far: They just don’t pick up much debris. Even when leaves were lying directly in the path of the iSkim Ultra, I would often—most of the time, actually—observe a small leading wave that gently pushed the leaves to one or the other side of the robot instead of sucking them underneath its body and into the filter basket. The corner-mounted paddles are supposed to help with this, but they were minimally effective at best, as leaves were still get pushed to one side and dodge the blades. Larger leaves would often get stuck in the paddle blades or wedged beneath them. The iSkim Ultra did, however, have a particular appetite for our floating pool thermometer, which got stuck underneath the robot and lodged in the blades of the front-mounted paddlewheel on a regular basis, causing it to stop running until it was manually freed. (I eventually took the thermometer out of the pool entirely during testing.) After 10 full days of running the robot, I was shocked to find only a few small handfuls of leaves in the debris basket (see photo). And this was during a period in which leaves were falling regularly and heavily into the pool from a nearby pecan tree. As was my experience with the Smonet skimmer, most of the leaves were ultimately collected by the wall skimmer, or they would sink to the bottom of the pool before Beatbot’s skimmer could get to them. The Beatbot iSkim Ultra sucked up surprisingly few leaves after 10 days of operation, and it wasn’t for a paucity of the debris.Christopher Null/Foundry I also tried testing with synthetic leaves, turning off the pool pump so the thru-wall skimmer wouldn’t pull them in. My results were only marginally better than I got with the Smonet skimmer, with the Beatbot capturing 40 to 45 percent of the test material. The rest sunk to the bottom of the pool. Like the Beatbot AquaSense Pro, the iSkim Ultra is a smart device that can connect to your Wi-Fi network. And since the skimmer stays on the surface, it can remain in contact with the network the entire time it’s operating. There are some really cool parts of the Beatbot app, including daily charts of running time vs. idle time, a running graph of solar recharging activity, and a timer system that lets you specify when you want the device to idle, if you aren’t comfortable letting it set its own hours. The skimmer can also be manually operated via remote control buttons in the app, and this function works surprisingly well. A “rocket” button even lets you double the unit’s speed, which makes for as much fun as you can have around the pool without getting in. Christopher Null/Foundry But I don’t know what to make of Beatbot’s estimate of the ambient air temperature, which invariably showed that the balmy Texas air was well below freezing. And yes, I had it set to Fahrenheit, not Celsius. As near as I can tell, the problem is that the app doesn’t know exactly where the robot is, allowing you to set the time zone but not your actual location. Could the app really assume that my “Chicago” time zone meant I was literally in Chicago? Conversely and confusingly, Beatbot’s measurement of the water temperature looked to be correct. As mentioned, I’m finding it tough to love any pool skimmer, but the iSkim Ultra’s sky-high price tag of $1,199 makes that calculus even more difficult. If you have an incredibly filthy pool and no thru-wall skimmer, a robot might make some sense to reduce the amount of manual skimming you have to do with a net. My advice, however, would be to stick with a more basic and much cheaper device for this task, such as the Smonet SR5. The iSkim Ultra’s bells and whistles just don’t add enough convenience, performance, or time savings to merit spending more three times as much. Read...

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Microsoft is currently focusing all they can on Windows 11. Not only did the company recently dub 2025 as the “Year of the Windows 11 PC Refresh,” but this year’s CES has been all about Windows 11 and the new Copilot+ PCs that Microsoft has been trying to push. All of this might come as a surprise, with some industry insiders over the past couple of years assuming that a new version of Windows (christened “Windows 12”) could be released as early as 2024. But now, the signs look bleak. Clearly Microsoft has been pouring all of its attention on the development of Windows 11 24H2, which ended up being the massive update that arrived near year’s end. That’s why sites like Windows Latest no longer believe that Windows 12 is being planned, at least for now. Too much currently depends on Windows PC users switching over to Windows 11 by October, when support for Windows 10 ends — and I think that’s exactly right, for various reasons. Related: The best tech at CES 2025 Users are reluctant to switch over It’s notable that Windows 11 continues to struggle to be recognized as the one and only version of Windows. Many users still prefer Windows 10, partly because Windows 11 has prohibitive hardware requirements, partly because the Windows 11 experience is less than ideal, and partly because users just don’t like change. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 still claims over 62 percent of worldwide desktop market share while Windows 11 lags behind at just over 34 percent. If you haven’t been able to convince these users to switch to Windows 11 by now, what else can you do? If they aren’t amenable to Windows 11, why would Windows 12 be able different? Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro For many, Windows 10 is simply familiar. It’s what they’re used to. They don’t want to deal with a new interface, missing functionality, and the trouble of relearning how to do the same things in another environment. And it’s so bad that many will likely stick with Windows 10 even after support ends and they stop getting security updates. Which spells a serious situation for Microsoft. The company needs to make Windows 11 more attractive so users will switch over, but those same users would be less likely to do so if they knew a “Windows 12” was right around the corner. So, the right move is to hold off and make sure not to announce it too early — or better still, keep it quiet. Windows 11 24H2 is a hot mess Another reason might be that Microsoft has had major problems with their massive Windows 11 24H2 update. In the weeks following its release in October 2024, new reports of bugs and crashes were popping up with alarming frequency, for users on all kinds of hardware. The developers at Microsoft have clearly had their hands full as they try to quash as many bugs as they can and rescue the unstable operating system for users. Those efforts continue to this day. But for those who aren’t yet on Windows 11, the problematic 24H2 update is a big red flag and microcosm of the greater Windows 11 experience. And for those who only recently switched over to Windows 11, this update is a hugely negative and staining experience. Announcing Windows 12 so soon after the Windows 11 24H2 debacle would surely be received poorly by users and critics alike. AI and Copilot+ PCs need more work We also can’t forget artificial intelligence, which has established itself as a major trend over the past few years — and Microsoft is certainly no stranger to that as it pushes for Copilot+ PCs even in 2025. At CES 2025, we saw that Microsoft wants to run Copilot locally on your PC, just one of the many steps the company is taking to embrace AI. But the truth is, Copilot+ PCs just aren’t good enough yet. And Windows 11 is, of course, closely linked to all of this. Users are still skeptical of flagship AI features like Windows Recall, and Microsoft still has a lot of work to do to make AI viable for users and also convince users that they can benefit from the company’s AI offerings. Until then, it seems unwise to split focus and push Windows 12 at the same time. Doing so would be like the company standing in its own way and botching its own chances at success. For all of these reasons, I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll see Windows 12 mentioned this year. Nor do I expect it in 2026, even if all remaining Windows users switch to Windows 11 by then. Right now, too much depends on the refinement and success of Windows 11 for it to be a good idea for Microsoft to pursue something as monumental as Windows 12. Further reading: How will NPUs and Windows AI grow in 2025? Read...

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The KB5048239 update for Windows 10 — which released a while ago on November 12, 2024 to make some improvements to the Windows Recovery Environment — is apparently causing headaches for some users. Anyone who tries to install the patch ends up stuck in a loop. Born’s Tech and Windows World blog has been getting emails from readers about the update, which installs correctly at first, but when Windows Update is opened again later, the same exact update is offered for installation. This occurs over and over again. Other system tools, like the Windows Event Viewer and Norton 360, show the update as successfully installed despite the issue. Similar reports can be found on the official Microsoft forum, where users describe the same problem across multiple different systems, with the first report submitted on January 10, 2025. Is there a fix for the update loop? As of this writing, the specific cause of the issue currently remains unknown. Meanwhile, the usual strategies to fix these kinds of problems — like restarting your PC or reinstalling Windows — apparently seem to have no effect. A lack of storage space has also been ruled out. Microsoft has not yet commented on the issue. If you’re affected, the only real solution at this time is to ignore the update until a fix is released. Given that this is a security patch, however, ignoring the update is less than ideal. To stay informed on progress, you can subscribe to the relevant forum post. Why is the update important? According to the support page, update KB5048239 is for Windows 10 systems that have an active Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). WinRE is used to restore systems that can no longer be booted properly. KB5048239 is a security update for WinRE that provides some improvements and extra security. In addition, users need at least 250MB of free disk space to install the update. Further reading: How to create a Windows 10 recovery USB drive Read...