The rounded corners treatment is coming to Windows 11’s hardware indicators, replacing the Windows 8-era vertical black bar for controlling things like volume and brightness that we’ve been used to for almost a decade. Included in Microsoft’s latest Insider Preview, the modernized indicator removes the numerical value for added minimalism and now appears horizontally just above the Taskbar. The updated look for these controls honors OS dark/light modes and now closely matches their appearance under the Quick Settings panel....

Since Microsoft finalized the Xbox Series X design, which probably happened about a year or more before the console actually shipped, semiconductor technology has improved. What was new back then isn’t up-to-date now. That’s just how technology works. Microsoft is certainly aware of this, hence why it’s probably developing new chip revisions for the Xbox Series consoles as we speak. Sometimes, these revisions only result in cost optimizations for the company, but there are cases where users can directly benefit from them....

Last month brought news that the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) feared that Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard could lead to competition concerns within the video game industry. The regulator said that if Microsoft didn’t submit a proposal to assuage these worries, the CMA would open an extended stage 2 phase of its probe in which the acquisition would face increased scrutiny. Microsoft decided not to offer any remedies to the CMA, leading to the phase 2 investigation....

The Surface Book is a laptop first and foremost. The device comes with a solid keyboard base, rather than a thin keyboard cover. When the two parts are connected, the Surface Book looks just like a laptop, but at the click of a button the display can be removed and the device used as a free-standing tablet. As Microsoft hopes that the Surface Book will finally be the hybrid that tempts traditional laptop users, there is no shortage of performance hardware inside....

According to a report from analytics company Trendfocus (via Tom’s Hardware), Microsoft is pushing those OEMs who use HDDs as the primary storage device in pre-built Windows 11 PCs to switch to SSDs. It’s even set a deadline for when it wants the transition to take place: 2023. Exactly why Microsoft is doing this isn’t clear. As Tom’s notes, there’s no minimum requirement for an SSD in Windows 11, only that the PC running the operating system has a 64 GB or larger storage device....

I’m left-handed. Yet when it comes to computers, like most other lefties I know, I use a mouse with my right hand. It’s just…how I was taught. So I’ve never seen the need for a mouse that tries to somehow accommodate both normal humans and sinister mutants. I mean, let’s look at the situation here. This is a review for a gaming mouse. Not a $10 Logitech mouse for your Dad’s computer....

Samsung has included the Game Optimizing Service (GOS) on its phones since 2016. It pre-emptively reduces the SoC’s workload in games, but also in apps like Netflix and Spotify to prevent overheating and to lengthen battery life. All phones have power management software with a similar purpose, but GOS attempts to conceal itself by triggering only while apps on a pre-written list are running. Previous Galaxy S devices have had better cooling than the S22, making GOS less noticeable....

The camera here falls somewhere between “fine” and “very good” in most conditions. It doesn’t reach the same heights as the top flagships, like the HTC U11 and Galaxy S8, but it does a decent job for a mid-range handset and doesn’t embarrass itself against competitors like the OnePlus 5 and Xiaomi Mi 6. The main strong point here is the automatic HDR mode, which does a fantastic job of improving dynamic range and contrast during difficult high-contrast situations....

At number one on the top 10 highest-paid YouTubers of 2021 list is MrBeast, who earned $54 million. That’s almost double what 2020’s top earner Ryan Kaji received ($29.5 million). A significant part of the $54 million comes from the 10 billion views of his channel. Still, the MrBeast Burger app and menu also played an important role, as it’s available in 1,600 restaurants in the US and has already sold five million sandwiches....

The service builds on the browser’s existing Firefox Relay product, which stops users’ inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages by giving them virtual email addresses. Mozilla product manager Tony Amaral-Cinotto writes that it has blocked more than 1.3 million unwanted emails since launching in 2020. The new Firefox Relay phone masking feature is primarily designed for those times when you’re signing up for loyalty programs, booking a restaurant reservation, or making purchases that require your phone number with companies you suspect may use it for marketing or sell it to other entities for the same purpose....

A red light means the battery is below 10 percent, blue is less than half capacity and green means you’ve got more than 50 percent. While it’s true that most modern digital cameras are capable of charging the battery within them when plugged into a power source, it’s also true that many serious photographers go through multiple batteries during a photo shoot. Not having to haul around a proprietary battery charger could lessen your daily loadout and eliminate any concern about losing your charger....

And yet there was another slice of the market that Nokia hadn’t touched, until now. Throughout the past year we’ve seen companies try and pry the large-screen crown away from Samsung’s Galaxy Note line, but the likes of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and HTC One Max have failed to make a serious impact. Nokia is hoping that their Lumia 1520 will give the Note 3 a run for its money, especially with its impressive spec sheet....

Nvidia revealed the RTX 4000 series last week, including the RTX 4090 with its 76 billion transistors, 16,384 CUDA cores, and 24GB of GDDR6X memory. But all that power doesn’t come cheap. Thankfully, a team-up with CD Projekt Red means Cyberpunk 2077 players have a chance to win one of three special-edition cards. According to the terms and conditions, the competition involves taking the most creative and original screenshot of Cyberpunk 2077 and sending it via a Twitter reply....

While we feel the truth might lie somewhere in the middle, it is time to take another look at the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480/470 vs. ATI Radeon HD 5870/5850 comparison. The GeForce 400 series, particularly the GeForce GTX 480, is a serious piece of hardware that at least on paper should leave the Radeon HD 5870 dead in the water. Our first go at this board revealed that while it was priced ~20% higher than the Radeon HD 5870, on average we only saw a 16% performance increase based on the dozen games included in our benchmarking phase....

The GeForce GTX 590 surprised us in Metro 2033 as we found it to be 20% slower than the Radeon HD 6990 at 2560x1600. Nonetheless, it maintained a 62% lead on the GeForce GTX 580, 77% on the HD 6970 and it creamed the HD 5970 by a 96% margin. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat has an official DirectX 11 benchmark tool, but we decided to dump that in favor of Fraps....

Like most graphics cards, the GTX 660 Ti struggled to deliver decent results when running Crysis 2 at 1920x1200 in DX11 with high-res textures, but its 37fps average was respectable enough, being 6% faster than the HD 7870 and on par with the 7950. The GTX 660 Ti managed a healthy 51fps in Dragon Age II, a whopping 38% faster than the HD 7870 and 31% faster than the 7950, while being only 4fps (7%) behind the GTX 670....

Metro was must tighter in the high-end sector but again the new GTX 980 swept aside the competition with 54.5fps at 2560x1600, making it 8% faster than the Radeon R9 290X and 11% faster than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti. Although the GTX 980 was 13% faster than the GTX 970, the cheaper Maxwell part still cleaned up beating the Radeon R9 290 by a 7% margin. In Tomb Raider, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti already had the edge over AMD’s R9 290X competition, but the GeForce GTX 980 amplifies that margin....

Our overclock netted us 20% more performance at 2160p in Tomb Raider, taking the average frame rate to 72fps, which is 6% faster than the Titan X. When testing our overclocking with Thief we saw a 17% performance jump, as the GeForce GTX 980 Ti was now able to average 40fps, making it 5% faster than the Titan X. Finally we see an 18% performance increase in Crysis 3, taking the average frame rate from 28fps to a much smoother 33fps....

It used to be that even the latest AAA titles would recommend a GTX 1060 or 1650, the top two most popular cards on the Steam survey. Several recent games, however, have started to recommend newer, more powerful GPUs like the RTX 2070 (Dead Space) or even the RTX 3070 (Plague Tale Requiem). Buying a new graphics card is more expensive than ever before, especially if you’re aiming for a high-end GPU....