One of the best things you can get for your sanity and your device’s health is a good charger block—something fast, something versatile, something with safety features like temperature monitoring. The Ugreen Nexode is a great option, especially now that it’s on sale for $34 on Amazon. That’s not only a lovely 38% discount off its MSRP, but also the lowest price I’ve ever seen for this model. View this Amazon deal This is a multi-port power adapter that’ll make you forget all about juggling multiple chargers and adapters, which can be a huge inconvenience whether you’re at home or traveling to hotels, Airbnbs, etc. With four ports—three USB-C and one USB-A—you can charge up to four devices at once, everything from phones to tablets to earbuds to headphones, all at the same time. And with a max output of 100 watts, it’s even enough to charge a lightweight laptop. (Ugreen claims it can charge a MacBook Air up to 55% in just half an hour.) Built with GaN technology, this charger is better than older power adapters because it’s smaller (fits in the palm of your hand), faster, and more efficient (produces less heat). The foldable plugs make it ideal for travel as your other gadgets won’t get scratched up in your bag, nor will the prongs catch and potentially break. The GaN tech also brings in plenty of safety features and dynamic temperature sensors. Now, there’s only one catch with this deal: it’s a Prime-exclusive discount. But it’s okay if you don’t have Prime yet—you can still score this all-new low price with a free 30-day Prime trial. Start your trial and grab this compact 4-port USB-C charger for $34 before this deal expires! Save 38% on this versatile and fast USB power adapter for 4 devicesBuy now at Amazon Read...

Smart home and home security service provider Vivint today released the results of a study analyzing how home life has evolved over the past five years. One of the most interesting findings was that 53 percent of homeowners think the smart home is still too expensive, even though 55 percent nonetheless plan to buy one or more new smart devices over the next 12 months. When Vivint asked 5,000 homeowners about the future of the smart home and which categories they were most excited about, 37 percent named security and protection. One in five respondents (20 percent) said they intended to purchase an outdoor security camera, and 20 percent planned to buy a smart doorbell in the next year. That said, more than half of respondents—53 percent—said the cost of attaining a smart home was their number one consideration. Ease of installation and day-to-day use of a smart home system were also major impediments, with 20 percent of respondents saying there are too many smart home apps and ecosystems, and 18 percent citing a lack of compatibility with their existing devices as a barrier to buying new devices. Vivint says security is the primary reason the smart home is becoming a mainstream phenonenon. Vivint Vivint Home Protect and Home Protect Pro Vivint already offers our favorite professionally installed smart home system, but it can be expensive. The package we reviewed earlier this year cost about $2,800; plus $55 per month for professional monitoring.  Vivint renamed that service Vivint HomeProtect Pro in November and launched a new, lower-cost version—dubbed simply Vivint HomeProtect—at the same time. While the company still doesn’t have a DIY-install option to compete with the likes of SimpliSafe or the DIY version of the ADT Smart Home Security System we reviewed in October (our review system was professionally installed), Vivint Home Protect looks to be very affordable, and it includes the same professional monitoring service you get with the more comprehensive Pro version, which includes smart home features as well as home security. Vivint Home Protect costs $199.99 with free installation, but you’ll need to commit to a 36-month contract for professional monitoring at $24.99 per month. A starter kit includes a Vivint Security Hub, a keypad for arming/disarming the system, three door/window sensors, one motion sensor, and a Vivint yard sign. You’ll control the system with the Vivint app on your smartphone. If contracts give you hives, you can opt to pay $349.99 for a Vivint Home Protect System, plus $199 for installation and pay $29.99 per month for professional monitoring on a month-to-month basis for as long as you want it.   Buyers of either package can add one of each of the following devices when they place their order: a Vivint Smart Thermostat ($200); a Vivint Doorbell Camera Pro with a chime extender ($250, plus $7/month for cloud recording and playback); and/or a Kwikset  model 620 Z-Wave smart lock, available in four finishes (starting at $180). The doorbell will cost $310 if it’s ordered after the contract is signed, and there will be installation charges for any devices ordered after the system’s initial setup. If you want to step up to the company’s complete smart home/home security system, Vivint Home Protect Pro includes the Vivint Smart Hub touchscreen panel, four door/window sensors, one motion sensor, and a Vivint yard sign. The Pro version also supports smart lighting options as well as indoor and outdoor security cameras, in addition to Vivint’s video doorbell. That system starts at $599.99 for the hardware—including installation—and professional monitoring starting at $44.99 per month. If you’re not familiar with the concept of professional monitoring, the service involves the company you contract with monitoring your home security system for police, fire, and medical emergencies, and dispatching local first responders in the event of a break-in or other crisis as triggered by a door/window sensor, smoke detector, or a similar device. Most services also have provisions for you to contact the monitoring office for help directly. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Small thumb drive form factor Both Type-A and Type-C connectors Affordable 10Gbps performance with everyday operations Cons Writes slow to a crawl off secondary cache Connector covers aren’t captive Our Verdict For everyday write operations, this versatile (Type-A/C) thumb drive SSD delivers the goods. But it’s slow as molasses (on a very cold day!) when it runs out of secondary cache. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Addlink P50 thumb drive SSD Retailer Price $66.44 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket I’ve seen quite a few USB thumb drives lately sporting dual Type-A/Type-C connectors on either end — it’s become a popular way to assure connectivity across the largest number of devices. The Addlink P50 reviewed here is another such tiny, lightweight beastie that performs around the 10Gbps median — with normal amounts of data. However, write speed drops drastically (an understatement) when it runs out of secondary cache. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparison. What are the Addlink P50’s features? The P50 is a USB 3.2 10Gbps (Gen 2) thumb drive with a Type-A connector on one end and a Type-C connector on the other. Both are covered by removable end caps to protect the connector/s not in use. The P50 is 3-inches in length, 0.75-inches in breadth, and roughly 0.4-inches in thickness. Weight is 16 grams (0.6 ounces). Our unit was rendered in steel blue with brown tinted end caps. If I have any complaint about the solidly constructed P50, it’s that the end caps aren’t captive — i.e., they’re very easy to misplace. At least for hasty, forgetful folk such as myself. The Addlink P50 with its end caps in place. Addlink warranties the P50 for three years, which is the norm for affordable external storage. No TBW rating (terabytes that may be written before read-only) was provided, but given the light-duty role, the drive should hold up for a decade at the very least. How much is the P50? At the time of this writing, the P50 was $66.44 in the 500GB capacity, $104.44 for the 1TB version we tested, and $188.44 at the 2TB level (Amazon). That’s about what you’ll pay for the 10Gbps competition. Why the 44 cents when not a percentage discount? Couldn’t tell you. But no doubt, a calculator was involved. How fast is the Addlink P50? For normal operations, the P50 is largely on par for a 10Gbps USB SSD/thumb drive. That said, the only 10Gbps drive (including all types) it actually beat overall was the 1TB PNY Duo Link V3, and it didn’t do so by very much. The P50’s CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential throughput numbers were good, if not up to the 2TB Teamgroup X2 Max’s. The P50’s CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential numbers were good, but not up to the Teamgroup X2 Max’s. Longer bars are better. CrystalDiskMark showed the one area where the P50 really lagged behind the Duo Link V3 — random ops. Then again, so did the X2 Max. The P50 fell well behind the Duo Link V3 in CrystalDiskMark’s 4K tests, though so did the X2 Max. Longer bars are better. With normal large transfers (48GB is about a dozen 1080p, full-length movies), the P50 was within spittin’ distance of the X2 Max and sometimes the Duo Link V3 — depending on the test. Note that if you’re not using the time-saving FastCopy, you should be, though it’s of far more benefit with internal NVMe. The P50 was okay in our 48GB transfer tests, but not quite as okay as the X2 Max. Shorter bars are better. The Addlink P50 shares a not-so-wonderful trait with the PNY Duo Link V3 — it’s dead slow once it runs out of secondary cache. It took about eight minutes for the P50 to write the first 270GB of our 450GB file. Not bad for 10Gbps. However, it then took the better part of two hours to write the remaining 180GB. Argh! Write speed during this second phase hovered around 25MBps. Occasionally bubbling up to around 70MBps, but not for very long and often dropping to 5MBps. This is almost two hours folks. You do not want to exceed the P50’s secondary cache if you are in a hurry. Shorter bars are better. Though the Teamgroup X2 Max was a 2TB drive, even off-secondary-cache speed only dropped to around 675MBps — far faster than either of the other two drives shown. Further illustration of the 1TB P50’s yin and yang performance is shown below. It’s good (for 10Gbps) until it’s most decidedly not. The P50’s write performance is very good (for 10Gbps) until it’s most decidedly not. Overall, for the vast majority of users and nearly all normal write operations, the P50 is just fine. But if you want to fill it every time you use it, get something else. You might consider the 2TB version for more time on secondary cache; don’t opt for the 500GB version that will run out of secondary cache in half the time shown above. Should you buy the P50? For light-duty storage and transport, the P50 is fine. However, despite the Addlink hype about AI and 4K video, prosumers looking to offload hefty amounts of content should look elsewhere (X2 Max). Or at least to the 2TB version, which won’t run out of steam as quickly. How we test Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 5600MHz modules (128GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated into the motherboard and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in an Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card sitting in a PCIe 5.0 slot. We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we report only the former) to find the storage device’s potential performance. Then we run a series of 48GB transfer and 450GB write tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible. A 25GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk serving that purpose. Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND. Our testing MO constantly evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those are gathered using the current hardware and MO. Read...

Regardless of workarounds and likely teething problems, the impact of the law will be measured not over days and weeks, but over the much longer term. Read...

Mangopay hires former Spotify and GoCardless executive Andy Wiggan as Chief Product Officer to drive wallet-first growth and crypto expansion. Read...

iFixit, which has become known for its teardown videos and repair solutions, is launching a mobile app with a twist: AI assistance to complete repair jobs you normally wouldn’t be able to do. While the iFixit app for both Android and iOS will be free, the new FixBot may not be. The company’s plan is to make it free for now, then split it off into a free tier with access limits and then a paid Enthusiast tier with voice and document upload, according to the company. That tier will cost $4.99 per month or $50 per year, the company said. If you’ve heard of iFixit, it’s probably in the context of the detailed teardowns of popular devices like Apple iPhones and other consumer gadgets. What iFixit learns in those teardowns, however, contributes to both thousands of repair guides on the site for you to review and download. The iFixit site also maintains a database of parts and tools, all of which will be in the app as well. But the iFixit app also includes two neat additions: the FixBot application as well as a battery health intelligence application. The whole point of iFixit, however, is do-it-yourself repairs. The iFixit site has existed as sort of a text-based alternative (aside from the teardown videos) to how-to videos on YouTube. The site shines when the number of devices is small and/or popular. You’ll find detailed guides to repairing an Apple Mac Studio or a Microsoft Xbox Series X; however, the laptop repair section simply gets bogged down by the incredible variety of offerings from, say, HP. The same goes for the site’s section on car repair. ifixit Fixbot: the chatbot mechanic What the Fixbot app promises to do is essentially replace ChatGPT. LLMs, or “generative AI,” are trained on a vast corpus of knowledge, so Copilot or ChatGPT can try to answer questions about the causes of the French Revolution, the lifecycle of a starfish, or how best to code an application. The FixBot app is essentially AI trained on the iFixit site itself, so that any questions you might have will hopefully be a more efficient manner of searching the site itself. According to iFixit, the Fixbot application will help you identify what you’re fixing and what needs to be fixed, based upon information you provide and questions it might ask. Obviously, FixBot will try and point you to an existing guide if one exists. iFixit “We spent over a year building a custom retrieval system that searches our entire library in seconds,” Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, said in a blog post. “And an evaluation harness that tests FixBot against thousands of real repair questions, so we catch the bad answers before you do. We created a database with millions of pages of documentation; the data sheets and service manuals and specification tables that the rest of us only look at when we’re desperate. FixBot will find the right PDF manuals, look deep inside, and surface the answer on page 576. It’ll even cross-reference part numbers against your specific model.” The app allows you to describe your problem via text or even voice — the latter’s the most useful when your hands are full or you’re leaning over a malfunctioning appliance. You can also upload a photo of the interior of your malfunctioning gadget, and let FixBot help diagnose what you’re looking at. The other interesting thing that the iFixit app can do is to give you an estimate of your phone’s battery capacity, in real time. Like any battery, your phone’s battery degrades, so that the total capacity at “100 percent” becomes less and less over time. shrinks In a laptop, that’s relatively simple: you can use the Windows’ battery report tool. In a phone, it’s a bit more complicated. The iFixit’s app tracks the first time that your phone was first used, and the current capacity versus the total rated capacity. Divide one by the other, and you can get a measure of your phone’s battery health — and an indication on when you might consider replacing it. iFixit The challenge is accuracy. iFixit says that Apple doesn’t make its data available via an API that the company can access; Samsung’s software is reserved for its own service and repair centers. Still, the company promises that you’ll at least get a basic explanation of your phone’s health. iFixit might not have the answer you’re looking for, because of all the varied appliances, cars, and gadgets available. But it’s a free app that benefits you immediately with the phone battery monitor. I’ll be downloading it onto my phone. Read...

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From sound quality to connectivity, the right features in PC speakers can make all the difference in how you enjoy your music, movies and games. Here we highlight five important features to look for that will help you make an informed choice. 1. Superior sound quality It’s important to focus on sound quality to identify the best computer speakers for your needs. A high-quality sound should emphasize a wide range of frequencies. The frequency response refers to the range of sounds produced by your speakers measured in hertz (Hz). Ideally what you want is a wide frequency response of between 20Hz to 20kHz in good-quality speakers. You should also check the accuracy of the sound reproduction. What you’re looking for is a distinct lack of distortion. You want to hear a clean, clear sound free from unwanted artifacts that can muddle your listening experience. By choosing speakers with minimal distortion, you’ll benefit from more authentic audio playback, allowing instruments and vocals to shine through as intended by the artist. 2. Versatile connectivity Assessing connectivity options is vital to ensure your speakers are compatible with your existing devices. Speakers can connect through various methods such as USB, Bluetooth, or traditional audio jacks. If you frequently switch between devices or use multiple platforms, look for speakers that offer versatile connectivity to streamline your experience. If you want to be moving your speakers around a lot, consider a wireless setup that also makes using them with your smartphone effortless. You’ll ideally want to consider the ports available, whether the speaker has AUX, USB, or optical ports, as these will determine how well your speakers integrate with your devices. Compatibility with HDMI ARC can be a game changer for those with TVs because it allows you to control your TV and speakers through a single remote. 3. Adequate power You need to select speakers with the right wattage for your space for an optimal sound experience. To do that, consider the dimensions of your room and how much sound it can accommodate without losing clarity or depth. Smaller environments can get away with speakers with 20 to 50 watts of power. While larger rooms may need 100 watts or more to adequately fill the space and prevent sound from being muted. Understanding your room’s acoustics is equally important. Rooms with hard surfaces can amplify sound making lower wattage speakers perform better, while rooms with soft surfaces may benefit from a higher wattage to create a balanced sound. You should aim to get speakers to fill the room with sound without being cranked to maximum power which can distort the sound quality. By doing so, you can enjoy a more comfortable and enjoyable listening experience that suits your specific environment. Pexels: Marinko Krsmanovic 4. A good design and build The design and build of your speakers can influence both the aesthetics of your speaker but also how they perform. Ideally you want speakers that blend seamlessly with your décor and enhance your environment’s overall look. To that end look for finishes and styles that resonate with your taste. Durability is also important, particularly regarding the materials used in their construction. High-quality materials not only prolong the life of the speakers, they also improve the sound performance. For example, wooden enclosures are tough, but they also resonate better than plastic, producing warmer and richer sound profiles. Then again, aluminum or reinforced plastic is super strong and can protect against wear and tear and extend the life of the speaker. 5. Value for money Finding the right balance between price and value is key when selecting PC speakers. While it’s tempting to go for the cheapest option, speakers will vary in price considerably due to differences in their sound quality, build, and other features. That’s not to say that the most expensive are always the best. You should consult product reviews like the ones in our article about the best budget computer speakers and make an informed decision before buying any speaker. Before you begin shopping it’s important to determine your budget. Computer speakers range from budget-friendly models under $50 to high-end options exceeding $500. Knowing how much you’re willing to spend enables you to focus on models that offer the best features within your range, ensuring that you don’t overspend or settle for less-than-ideal performance. Related content I ditched my PC speakers for a soundbar and never looked back Please stop using your monitor’s crappy built-in speakers How we test PC speakers at PCWorld Read...

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TL;DR: Scan anything with your phone using SwiftScan VIP, now only $41.99 for a lifetime subscription when you use code SCAN at checkout (MSRP $199.99). If you’ve ever tried to “just take a picture” of a document with your phone and ended up with a crooked, shadowy, barely readable mess, you’re not alone. Most cameras are great for photos, but terrible at behaving like scanners. The fix isn’t more equipment — it’s smarter software. SwiftScan VIP is an intuitive scanner app for Android and iOS devices. It uses your phone’s camera to create high-quality scans of any document, and a lifetime subscription just went on sale for $41.99 with code SCAN (MSRP $199.99). Once you open the app, SwiftScan automatically detects the edges of your document, captures the image, and cleans it up with built-in tools like blur reduction and color optimization. The result is a clear, properly aligned scan that looks like it came from a real scanner, not your phone. You can save your scans as PDF or JPEG files and send them via email, upload them to the cloud, or even fax them directly from the app. SwiftScan also lets you edit your scans. You can sign, highlight, redact, or annotate files. You can merge pages, rearrange them, or remove them completely. It even uses OCR to make your scans searchable by keyword, which is helpful if you scan frequently and don’t want to scroll through dozens of files. Use code SCAN at checkout to get a SwiftScan VIP lifetime subscription for $41.99 (MSRP $199.99). SwiftScan VIP: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...