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The event will once again be a virtual affair due to ongoing Covid-19 concerns. Only a handful of Google employees will be on hand live alongside select partners, we’re told. That’s fine, however, as the keynote will stream live on YouTube. On the hardware side, we could get our first official look at the Google Pixel Watch. A non-functional prototype of the device was recently found at a restaurant sporting a round form factor and a physical crown....

“Select” Windows 11 Insiders who install preview build 25120 should see a search bar near the top of the desktop. Unlike queries in a window’s taskbar, which look for apps, local files, and websites, the new search bar only seems to bring up web results. Using it may prove quicker and easier to access than booting up a web browser. Microsoft doesn’t say which browser the widget opens for results, which search engine it uses, or whether users get to decide....

As reported by The Register, web analytics service Statcounter, which has tracking code installed on 1.5 million websites, said Windows 11 was running on 16.93 percent of global PCs in December. That figure stood at 16.12% in November and 15.44% in October, so it is rising, albeit slowly. Windows 10, meanwhile, was installed on 68.01% of machines in December. Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Windows Version Market Share Steve Kleynhans, research vice president of Digital Workplace Infrastructure and Operations at Gartner, the market research firm whose reports appear regularly on this site, told The Reg that Windows 11’s numbers are pretty much what he would expect at this point....

The next challenge was screwing the board into place. This is usually simple but it’s more challenging with the Nebula because its top panel can’t be removed. The screwdriver we typically use was too long and my Bosch drill didn’t fit. I had to take a trip out to the shed to find a screwdriver that worked. With the motherboard, CPU/cooler and memory installed, we attached the front panel connectivity, lights and power button....

Over the past few years, several tech companies have been trying to move some of their manufacturing outside of China. Reshoring has proven a major challenge, so most companies have opted to take production capacity to neighboring Asian countries instead. That process hasn’t been without its own set of challenges, especially in the case of countries like Vietnam. Factory lockdowns over the past two years and a severe lack of local engineering talent have slowed things considerably....

For example, you can hook it up to a laptop for a dual-screen setup, or a console like the Nintendo Switch for a larger display, or even a smartphone. Overall it seems like a decent concept. We’ve looked at a few of Viotek’s gaming monitors and generally we think they are pretty good, so that got us curious. The LinQ Touch does live up to being portable. It’s 10mm thick which is around the thickness of a tablet, and the touch model weighs around 770 grams....

The seemingly harmless “helpers” advertise themselves as webpage modifiers, allowing users to change things like background colors and font styles on webpages they visit. However, under the hood, they have several malicious endeavors, including hijacking your search/browsing histories, inserting advertisements within visited pages, and side-loading malicious code without being detected. The result is a network of infected computers that hackers can use for other nefarious activities. All 30 of the identified extensions work in Chrome and Edge....

There Are New Gaming Consoles (That We Actually Want) Sorry, Nintendo, but last year’s Wii U launch was just a warm up for this year’s Black Friday, which will see a new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Unfortunately, scoring a console deal this month will be next to impossible; so, if you find either console at list price, that’s about as close to a “deal” as you’ll get. Alternatively, you can opt for console bundles, which will pair the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 with extra controllers, accessories, or games at a cheaper cost than purchasing each item individually....

It’s not surprising, therefore, to see the series turn into a cultural phenomenon that continues to generate blockbuster levels of hype with each new installment surpassing the last in making truckloads of money for publisher Activision. With its latest installment just out of the door this month, it seems like a good time to scratch the surface of this franchise that’s now become a sales juggernaut employing half a dozen development studios....

The Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H-WB performed very well in our Handbrake test, as did the Asrock Z77 Extreme6 and Intel DZ77GA-70K. Gigabyte maintained its edge in x264 HD Benchmark, though Asrock trailed just slightly. Intel was a bit further behind than previous tests but still near enough, while the ECS was substantially slower. Asrock’s contender managed to slip ahead of Gigabyte’s by a few seconds in TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, while Intel’s was 16 seconds behind and ECS’ was even further....

For instance, Asrock’s Z77 Extreme6 is a relative steal at just $175. While costing less, it delivers almost everything you’ll find on more expensive Z77 boards: a clean layout and solid build quality, tons of connectivity, a UEFI that’s powerful and easy to use (though it’s not the prettiest), as well as top-notch performance when it comes to speed and power consumption. Along with being the most affordable entry, the Z77 Extreme6 was the second best overclocker....

While it’s relatively easy to replace a broken device, the same can’t be said for the data stored in your machine. Most modern PCs rely on solid storage, which is great news because SSDs are more durable than HDDs. SSDs don’t have moving parts and they can withstand accidental drops and other shocks and vibrations in laptops better than HDDs ever could. However, SSDs can fail, too, as do other forms of flash memory....

The starting menu includes information such as UEFI version, south bridge stepping and memory specifications. The “Ai Tweaker” menu is where all the overclocking related options are kept, such as base clock frequency and core ratios. Above is a list of voltage options that are available in the Asus UEFI, by default they are all set to auto. There are also a great deal of memory timings available for fine tuning and Asus has split them into primary and secondary categories....

Interestingly the MaxxPI² CPU Mips and FPU Flops tests strongly favor the Asrock P55 Extreme whereas previous tests have not. Although the margins were minimal, the Asrock board appeared to have a slight performance advantage. Again it is the Asrock P55 Extreme that stands out amongst the pack delivering the best MaxxPI² Prime results, even if by minimal margins.

As we found back then, it doesn’t really matter if you are spending $120 or $250 on a P55 motherboard, they are all going to deliver about the same level of performance whether you work or play. Even the boards’ overclocking abilities were similar with the ECS P55H-A being the only exception. Still those looking to build an affordable Core i5 system with the ECS P55H-A, won’t be turning their noses up at a 3....

Of course the main advantage to having the MX150 is that it’s a lot faster than Intel’s integrated graphics. In the heaviest GPU workloads, the MX150 is about 2.3x faster than the UHD 620 integrated into the i7-8550U. This gives it a big advantage in applications that use the GPU: Premiere, for example, renders a 4K video with Lumetri effects 84 percent faster with the MX150 inside than just having the i7-8550U....

The Verge reports that Adobe is testing a free web version of Photoshop, accessible to any user in Canada with a free Adobe account. Currently, the app seems to be fully featured (for a web version anyway), including new functionalities Adobe just announced like Curves, RefineEdge, Dodge and Burn, and Smart Objects conversion. Adobe is branding the tool as “freemium,” and will eventually lock some features behind a paywall. It’s expected that Photoshop’s core functions will remain free to provide a more accessible entry point for the normally-expensive service, though for now Adobe hasn’t revealed what those “core features” are, when the paywall will arrive, or when the free Photoshop tier will expand beyond Canada....

Temperature wise, during an intense stretch of gaming where the fans are fired up, the CPU reaches around 80°C and the GPU 72°C, which isn’t too bad considering the high TDPs of both components. After lengthy sessions of gaming, the top few rows of the keyboard and the plastic above can get reasonably warm, up to 45°C in some spots, though I never found it too warm to handle during hours of gaming....

On the inside, Alienware’s notebook pairs range-topping Nvidia graphics with a muscular Intel processor and a fast screen with G-Sync. The rig we’ve reviewed came in with Nvidia’s RTX 3080 Ti and an Intel Core i7-12700H alongside 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD, it will set you back $3,499. As is to be expected, Alienware laptops aren’t particularly cheap. The most affordable x17 R2 still demands $2,249 from your wallet....