Mini PCs are great for fitting into a tight desktop workspace, that’s why a lot of them can be mounted to the rear of a monitor on a VESA plate. But in order to turn it on, you still have to, well, turn it on. What if you could do that like a modern TV with a console or sound bar, just by pressing the monitor’s power button? This little MSI mini PC does just that. Adam Patrick Murray has the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG in the PCWorld Labs, and like he’s done with the last few mini PCs, he’s taking it apart in our latest PCWorld YouTube video. The outside has a few interesting features, including a fingerprint scanner on the power button and a header port so you can run a secondary power button on a cable. The inside is a little funny, because there’s an internal speaker mounted to the bottom tray, something you don’t always see. With an Intel Lunar Lake laptop chipset (Ultra 7 258V in this case), you get memory that’s included on the CPU itself, so the only things the user can service are the SSD (standard M.2 2280) and the Wi-Fi card. The rear of the device holds its unique selling point: an HDMI port with CEC functionality. “Consumer Electronics Control” just means that a few things can be done over HDMI, including a full power on and off for either component. With a compatible monitor that can handle HDMI 2.1 and CEC, you can press the monitor’s power button and the PC will start. With the Cubi mounted to the rear of said monitor, you’ve basically just rolled your own all-in-one desktop PC, like the iMac or similar designs. Neat! This is definitely focused on the business market, possibly for use in an area with multiple users who won’t need to reach around to adjust things. (The integrated speaker makes a little more sense in that regard.) The MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG doesn’t appear to be on sale in the US just yet, but it should be coming before too long. For more looks at the latest mini PCs, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube and check out our weekly podcast The Full Nerd. Read...

In the days leading up to a potential blackout of NBC channels on YouTube TV, NBCUniversal made a seemingly outlandish claim. “Google, with its $3 trillion market cap, already controls what Americans see online through search and ads—now it wants to control what we watch,” the company said. While NBC did not elaborate on what exactly that meant, we’ve since learned that Google (which owns YouTube TV) wants to fundamentally change how programmers like NBC distribute video in the streaming age. In addition to carrying NBC’s broadcast and cable channels, Google also wants YouTube TV to serve streaming content from Peacock, NBC’s separate streaming service. (For now, the companies have agreed to a short-term deal extension to avoid a blackout.) Why is this a big deal? If Google gets its way, it will give customers one place to watch all of NBC’s programming, tearing down a longstanding divide between pay TV packages and standalone streaming services. While that ultimately makes sense for viewers, it’s probably not something NBC and its programming peers want. What the YouTube TV and NBC dispute is about As I often tell folks who are trying to cut cable TV, streaming TV options typically fall into two buckets. The first bucket includes standalone streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Peacock. They offer a mix of original and library programming, including exclusive shows and movies that aren’t available on cable. The second bucket consists of live TV streaming services, also known as cable replacements, or vMVPDs in the TV industry (the acronym stands for virtual multichannel video programming distributor). These services replicate the cable experience with a big bundle of live TV channels, cloud-based DVR service, and a library of on-demand programming. YouTube TV is the largest of these services with an estimated 10 million subscribers. Others include Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and Sling TV. The distinction between these buckets used to be pretty clear, but in recent years the lines have blurred. Standalone streaming services increasingly carry content that was once exclusive to cable channels, and live TV providers have started bundling up access to individual streaming services that have their own exclusive programming. (DirecTV, for instance, offers a bundle of entertainment channels, Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max for for $35 per month.) These changes are happening because traditional pay TV bundles are becoming worthless for anything but news and sports. The best new shows moved over to standalone streaming years ago, so distributors want to bundle up those services as a way to preserve value. But surely you can see the problem, right? If YouTube TV starts offering bundled access to services like Peacock, people might spend less time using the actual YouTube TV app. The future could be one in which subscribers must sign into a bunch of different apps to watch everything that comes with a YouTube TV subscription, which isn’t great for YouTube and isn’t ideal for viewers either. Enter “ingestion” So when Reuters’ Aditya Soni and Puck’s John Ourand report that YouTube TV is seeking “ingestion” of Peacock’s content, they mean that YouTube wants to solve the problem of sending subscribers elsewhere. YouTube TV doesn’t want to just bundle Peacock subscriptions with its service, it wants the full Peacock catalog to be available directly inside YouTube TV. NBCUniversal doesn’t like that idea. It wants people spending time inside the Peacock app, where it can collect viewing data, make more money from targeted ads, and promote more Peacock content. When the company says Google “wants to control what we watch,” it’s likely alluding to YouTube being in control of the experience, plus all the advertising and data collection that comes with it. (Also, NBCUniversal is owned by Comcast, which has its own plans to aggregate streaming content, so it might not want to cede ground to a competitor.) Not every programmer is entirely opposed to “ingestion.” Philo, for instance, says it will bring HBO Max and Discovery+ content into its own app early next year, and Fubo will add ESPN+ programming to its app in the coming weeks. Amazon has also built a thriving business selling subscriptions to other streaming services (including Peacock’s ad-free tier) and offering their content through its own Prime Video app. Still, programmers are unlikely to give up complete control of their content to third-party aggregators, which means skirmishes like the one between YouTube TV and NBC will keep happening with each new carriage renewal. While Hollywood loves to complain about how streaming destroyed the pay TV bundle, it’s not all too eager to let streaming companies build it back up again. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming insights. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Competitive handheld performance Big and beautiful OLED display Detachable controllers Surprisingly quiet Cons Expensive Windows isn’t ready for handhelds yet Glossy display isn’t ideal in direct sunlight A little heavy Our Verdict The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is an awesome handheld gaming PC with the best display you’ll find on a handheld gaming PC. The hardware is excellent, but the high price and the Windows 11 experience are huge drawbacks. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo Legion Go 2 Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is a high-end handheld gaming PC that outshines the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X in many ways. The huge 8.8-inch OLED display is beautiful, and you’re getting everything from a built-in kickstand to detachable controllers for flexibility. For a handheld gaming PC, this is great hardware. There are two huge elephants in the room here, so let’s get them out of the way so I can review the Lenovo Legion Go 2 for what it is. Lenovo Legion Go 2: The elephants First, Windows 11 still isn’t ready for a gaming handheld. When I reviewed the Lenovo Legion Go S, I noted how much of a mess the interface is compared to the Steam Deck I own. For example, Windows 11 has a “gamepad” keyboard layout that lets you navigate with the on-screen keyboard with the joysticks, but it’s not activated by default. You have to tap into the little settings menu in the on-screen keyboard and turn it on before you can use said on-screen keyboard with the joysticks. Many people will miss this buried setting. Why is this not activated by default on a handheld gaming PC? Windows 11 is full of issues like this. The good news is that Microsoft is making Windows better for handheld PCs, but the bad news is that Legion Go 2 owners will have to wait for the fix. The Legion Go 2 will get it in “Spring 2026.” If you want it sooner, you’ll have to buy Asus’s ROG Xbox Ally, which will be available in mid-October, shortly after the launch of this Lenovo’s Legion Go 2. I haven’t yet gone hands on with ROG Xbox Ally console, but from a user experience standpoint, I imagine its optimized Windows experience for handheld PCs is going to be much better than the Legion Go 2 at launch. (There’s already a leaked way to enable it on any handheld, but your mileage may vary.) The second elephant in the room is pricing. The Legion Go 2 we reviewed is $1,349 at launch, and the base model starts at $1,099. Handheld PC gaming started off with surprisingly affordable hardware, but this device costs more than many gaming laptops. It’s a premium device. Tariffs are almost certainly to blame for part of this. But deals can still be found — as I write this, it’s the Steam Autumn Sale and you can grab a base-model Steam Deck for $319.20. You’d have to really want higher-end hardware (without a polished operating system experience) to pick this over a Steam Deck. However, if you are looking for a high-end handheld experience and you don’t mind the extra expense — and if you know what you’re getting into with the Windows operating system quirks on a device like this one — this handheld combines the latest high-end handheld-optimized hardware with a beautiful OLED display in a nice form factor, and I really enjoyed playing with it. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Specs The Lenovo Legion Go 2 has an AMD Ryzen Z2 processor with AMD Radeon 890M-class graphics. I reviewed the $1,349 model, which comes with AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme hardware and 32GB of RAM. Bear in mind that the base model comes with AMD Ryzen Z2 hardware and 16GB of RAM, so it won’t perform at the same level. Under the hood, this is RDNA 3.5 — the same graphics you’ll find in Ryzen AI 300 series (Strix Point) laptops, but tuned for a handheld where power usage is critical. There’s a lot to like here: The RAM is soldered, but the internal SSD is user upgradable. Plus, this machine’s USB4 ports mean external GPUs are a possibility. Model number: Lenovo Legion Go 2 83N0000BUS CPU: AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme Memory: 32 GB LPDDR5x-8000 RAM Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 890M NPU: None Display: 8.8-inch 1920×1200 OLED display with touch screen and up to 144Hz variable refresh rate Storage: 1 TB M.2 SSD Webcam: None Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (USB4), 1x combo audio jack, 1x microSD card reader Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 74 Watt-hours Dimensions: 11.64 x 5.38 x 1.66 inches Weight: 2.03 pounds MSRP: $1,349 as tested Lenovo Legion Go 2: Design and build quality Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is made of black plastic — Lenovo calls this color “Eclipse Black.” It’s a thoughtful design that feels good to hold, and the plastic is high-quality. Lenovo has really gone above and beyond thinking through ways to make the hardware better than many competing consoles, including the Steam Deck I own and the Legion Go S I reviewed. The Lenovo Legion Go 2 isn’t trying to be the lightest console — it has a big 8.8-inch OLED screen — so it’s no surprise it’s a little on the heavy side. But the extra weight is a fair trade for the higher-end hardware and larger screen. For example, you can easily detach the side controllers like you’re using a Nintendo Switch. The Legion Go 2 also has a built-in kickstand, so you can easily prop it up and use it on any surface. The power button has a built-in fingerprint reader so you don’t have to tap a PIN into the sign-in screen each time you wake the console. While the side controllers are detachable, you have to press a button on the back of each one to detach them. While attached, they feel incredibly secure. Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Legion Go 2 isn’t trying to be the lightest console — it has a big 8.8-inch OLED screen — so it’s no surprise it’s a little on the heavy side. At 2.02 pounds (compared to 1.41 pounds for a Steam Deck OLED), that’s a real factor. It’s not that it’s too heavy to hold, but the weight discourages me from holding it in certain positions for extended periods of time. But the extra weight is a fair trade for the higher-end hardware and larger screen. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Joysticks, controls, and trackpad Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Legion Go 2 touts Hall Effect joysticks for a smooth experience and no stick drift, and they feel great. The buttons on the Lenovo Legion Go 2 feel great. Lenovo has also added a few extra buttons for accessing Legion software features, the desktop, and Alt+Tabbing between apps. On the top of the handheld, you’ll find power and volume buttons. The right controller can be used in “FPS Mode” — you detach it, snap it into a base, and flip a switch on the bottom. Then you can hold it and move it around. While it looks like a joystick, it’s more like a virtual mouse. I didn’t find it particularly ergonomic in my experiments with it, but perhaps you’ll love it if you put some time into learning it. This handheld also has a good-size trackpad on the right controller, and it’s just the right side and shape to use the mouse with your thumb. After the extremely tiny trackpad on the Lenovo Legion Go S, this one feels excellent. But it’s not like a Steam Deck’s trackpads — there’s no haptic feedback here. It’s a convenient way to accomplish some mouse input, but I wouldn’t want to use it all the time. The display here is also a touch screen with multi-touch. That’s often critical for navigating Windows, but it does mean you’re encouraged to put fingerprint smudges on the display. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Display and speakers Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Legion Go 2’s display is one of its standout features. It’s an 8.8-inch OLED screen on a handheld PC. What’s not to like? I’m not sure I’d even want a larger screen than this one when I’m holding it this close to my face! With HDR support and up to 1,100 nits of peak HDR brightness and a variable refresh rate up to 144Hz, it’s beautiful. And the display doesn’t seem to massively cut into battery life, either. The battery life was ticking down at a reasonable rate that felt similar to other gaming handhelds I’ve used, despite this higher-end display. While this is a vivid OLED display, it has a glossy surface. It’s prone to reflections in bright environments like direct sunlight. If you’ll be using this as a handheld console outdoors in challenging lighting environments, that’s going to be a problem: You may want to look for a device with a more anti-reflective screen. But glossy screens look beautiful in the right lighting, and this one is no exception. Foundry / Chris Hoffman The HDR support was another place where Windows 11 doesn’t make sense on this handheld: By default, Windows disabled HDR on this device while it was unplugged “to save battery life.” That’s yet another example of Windows not understanding these devices. The speakers here are great for gaming. They had more than enough volume, and the chunky sounds of firing a shotgun in Doom: The Dark Ages were satisfying. Naturally, there’s not a lot of bass in a handheld console. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Microphone and biometrics The Lenovo Legion Go 2 has a dual-array microphone setup. The microphone sounds fine, and the audio is clear enough for in-game chat on a handheld gaming device. It’s a little muffled — this doesn’t sound like a high-end business laptop mic picking up crystal-clear audio for Zoom meetings. But it’s plenty good for voice chatting while gaming. There’s no webcam on the Lenovo Legion Go 2, but you probably wouldn’t want one and it might be a challenge to fit it into the bezel. Lenovo put a fingerprint reader into the power button, and it works extremely well. When you wake the Legion Go 2 by pressing the power button, it can instantly sign you into Windows with Windows Hello. You just have to rest your finger on it for a split-second longer. It makes the experience of waking the console fast and streamlines a major pain point Windows 11 has on a gaming handheld. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Connectivity Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo Legion Go 2 has two USB Type-C ports, and both of them are USB4. You’ll find one on the top of the handheld and one on the bottom. It comes with a USB-C charger, so it’ll charge through one of these ports. Because these are speedy USB4 ports, this handheld should be ready for external GPUs, too. Aside from the two USB-C ports, you’ll find a combo audio jack and a microSD card slot on the bottom of the handheld. That’s it, and it’s plenty of ports for handheld gaming PC. If you want more ports when using it at a desk, you can connect a dock to the USB-C port. This device has both Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. I’d prefer to see Wi-Fi 7 at this point, especially in a premium $1,349 handheld gaming PC, but most people don’t have Wi-Fi 7 yet anyway. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Performance The Lenovo Legion Go 2 had solid performance. I was able to play Doom: The Dark Ages, and while I prefer shooting demons with a higher FPS, it was technically playable. Treating this like a console, I fired up games like Sonic X Shadow Generations and saw buttery-smooth performance. The reality is that, while handhelds are improving a lot, their graphics performance is far from high-end desktop or laptop GPUs. If you’re mainly looking to play the latest high-end, most-demanding games, these may not be ideal. But the hardware here offers incredible smooth performance in older games. I was impressed by how quiet the fans stayed, even in demanding games like Doom: The Dark Ages. The speakers could easily drown them out, and the console itself stayed comfortable, with cool air being sucked in on the underside of the device and blown out the vents on the top. Playing a lightweight 2D game like Deltarune, they were so quiet I could only just barely hear them once I muted the game. As always when we review gaming PCs, we ran the Lenovo Legion Go 2 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. The results show us how it performed against previous generation hardware (I benchmarked the Lenovo Legion Go S) as well as modern gaming laptops. Spoiler: It’s a big upgrade over the last Lenovo handheld I reviewed. In many workloads, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme hardware in the Legion Go 2 was often nearly twice as fast as the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go hardware in the Legion Go S. Foundry / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. This is designed as an overall system performance benchmark, but CPU performance is a big factor. With an overall PCMark 10 score of 7,285, overall performance was quite good. The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme hardware here is substantially ahead of the lower-end AMD Ryzen Z2 Go hardware in the Lenovo Legion Go S. It scored on par with lower-end gaming laptops. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. The Lenovo Legion Go 2 with its eight-core Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU produced a multi-threaded score of 5,239, a huge jump over the Legion Go S. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t catch up to larger and more power-hungry gaming laptops, but this is very respectable for a handheld PC. Foundry / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the PC’s cooling kick in, and many PCs will throttle and slow down under load. The Lenovo Legion Go 2 completed the encode process in 1,076 seconds, which is nearly 18 minutes. That’s only a bit slower than gaming laptops with AMD Ryzen hardware. It’s also a massive improvement over the Legion Go S’s performance here. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark, just like we do on gaming laptops. First, we run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With an overall 3DMark Time Spy score of 3,984, the Lenovo Legion Go 2 showed substantial improvements over the Legion Go S. The HP Elitebook X G1a in the chart here isn’t a gaming laptop, it’s a premium business laptop with a similar GPU. That’s a perfect example of what you’re getting here — higher-end integrated graphics from AMD. Compared to gaming laptops with beefy discrete GPUs, this machine is far behind on GPU performance. But that’s the idea. It’s designed for handheld use, possibly away from an electrical outlet. Big gaming laptops need to be plugged in to deliver solid gaming performance. Foundry / Chris Hoffman After that, we run the benchmark built into Shadow of the Tomb Raider, an older game, but one that’s very useful for comparing performance across hardware. With an average FPS of 40, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was playable on the highest settings here, unlike on the Lenovo Legion Go S. You’ll get even smoother performance if you nudge the settings down, but once again this is a great example of the relative performance of a handheld vs. a traditional gaming laptop. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Finally, we run the benchmark in Metro Exodus. This is a very demanding game, and we run it with extreme detail settings. With an average FPS of 14 in our standard benchmark, the Lenovo Legion Go 2 was substantially faster than the Legion Go S here — nearly twice as fast. But you can see how much faster gaming laptops are. Overall, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme and its Radeon 890M-class graphics delivered solid performance for a handheld gaming PC. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Battery life The Lenovo Legion Go 2 has a 74 Watt-hour battery along with AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme hardware, which can operate between 15W and 35W of TDP. The precise battery life you’re going to get will heavily depend on how you use the handheld. A less demanding game will use much less power. Also, you can configure power usage by pressing the button at the top of the right controller and choosing your preferred thermal mode. “Performance” will deliver more hardware power for gaming but drain the battery faster, for example. Depending on the game you’re playing, lower thermal settings may be just fine. Foundry / Chris Hoffman For our standard Windows PC battery benchmark, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the PC suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any PC since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The Lenovo Legion Go 2 lasted 796 minutes in this test — that’s over 13 hours and beats even the HP Elitebook X G1a, which is a business laptop. This hardware can really scale down and sip electricity when you aren’t playing demanding games. Lenovo Legion Go 2: Conclusion The Lenovo Legion Go 2 is a high-end handheld gaming PC. The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor and its Radeon 890M-class graphics delivered solid performance and efficiency for a handheld gaming PC, the screen is big and beautiful, and the hardware is well thought out. You get detachable controllers and a kickstand for extra flexibility, too. But, between the Windows handheld experience and tariffs driving up the cost of hardware, Lenovo is fighting an uphill battle here. At $1,349, you could currently buy a $999 gaming laptop and a $319 Steam Deck and come out ahead with a more powerful laptop at your desk and a more lightweight handheld for on-the-go gaming. But if you want a handheld gaming PC with higher-end premium hardware — that 8.8-inch OLED is nice — and you’re willing to wait for an improved software experience or deal with the realities of Windows 11 today, you’ll be happy with this, assuming you’re ready to spend this much cash. Read...

About a month ago, I received a scam email that almost tricked me. It purported to be from PayPal, alerting me to an almost $1,000 charge that was “logged to a new profile.” The message implied that some kind of crypto wallet was connected to my account, and it provided a number to call if I didn’t recognize the activity. Normally I’d disregard this kind of message as obviously fraudulent, but I saw that the email came from a legitimate @paypal.com address. It also included a “set up your profile” button at the bottom, which my browser showed as a link to PayPal’s actual website. I eventually deduced that this was, in fact, a scam and I could safely disregard the email. But making that determination required looking deeper than the usual tips about how to spot fraudulent messages. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. A closer look at the scam email The scam email. Note the verified PayPal email address.Jared Newman / Foundry As CyberGuy’s Kurt Knutsson reported in late June, PayPal is in fact generating these emails… but at the behest of scammers who are abusing the site’s secondary address and profile tools. A couple of Reddit threads have more details on how it all works. But if you don’t have the time, here’s the gist of it: The attacker creates a PayPal account for the express purpose of scamming people. The attacker adds a secondary user or new address to the account, but instead of entering an actual username or address, they insert a message about how you need to call PayPal (with a bogus phone number) about the activity. The attacker then intercepts the email that PayPal sends for this activity and re-transmits it to potential victims, exploiting a known flaw in how email authentication works. In other words, while a legitimate address change would prompt an email that said “Address Updated: 123 Main Street,” these scammers are intercepting and producing PayPal-verified messages along the lines of “Address Updated: To ensure the security of your account, call PayPal at (scammer’s phone number goes here).” The resulting email comes from a real PayPal email address and has a high chance of getting past spam filters, but the message inside is completely bogus. If you call the fake customer support number, the attacker will encourage you to install remote desktop software, which they’ll use to take over your computer and wreak all kinds of havoc. Where conventional wisdom goes wrong It’s unclear to me why PayPal is allowing this. If a PayPal user wants to add another address or user profile to their account, you’d think there would be some character limit or address check to prevent spammers from inserting fake multi-sentence messages in their place. (PayPal did not respond to several requests for comment.) But that’s also beside the broader point, which is that the conventional advice for detecting phishing scams may not always apply. Microsoft, for instance, says you can spot scam emails by looking for incorrect email addresses or suspicious links. That advice wouldn’t have helped here. Even when I took the extra step of inspecting email headers, Gmail reported no issues with the message’s DKIM or DMARC authentication. It was, in fact, a verified PayPal email. What you can do about it Fortunately, a lot of the other common advice about spotting and avoiding email scams still applies in any scenario: Assume it’s a scam: It’s natural to panic when you get a message about unexpected activity on your account, and this can lead to rash actions and mistakes. For any account-related email or text message, your default posture should be suspicion. Investigate the fake support number: When I searched the web for the phone number in the fraudulent PayPal email, I found it on Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker site, which reported on the exact kind of bogus email I’d received. When in doubt, visit the real website manually: Don’t call the number or click the login button in a suspicious email. Instead, type the company’s website URL directly into your address bar or look up its official customer support number. (Beware when searching on Google for the support number, as that can lead to more scams.) Look for other warning signs: In my case, the PayPal email had a bunch of other suspicious red flags: Weird grammar, like this: “If fine, you may ignore. Auto pending bill accepted from this account.” Unrecognized “to” email address: While the email came from PayPal, it was addressed to a “receipt3” at a domain I didn’t recognize. Generic greeting: Ironically, PayPal’s email footer includes a note that says “Emails from PayPal will always contain your full name,” but this one didn’t. (Some phishing schemes do include personal information gleaned from the dark web, but generic messages are even more likely to be scams.) Get a second opinion: One neat use of AI tools like ChatGPT is to post a screenshot of a suspicious email and ask if it’s legitimate. The AI bot will likely pick up on all the above factors and confirm that it’s a scam. ChatGPT identifies the scam (except the DKIM records were correct).Jared Newman / Foundry Treat remote desktop software as a giant red flag with air horns and streamers attached to it: If a supposed support representative—whether for PayPal or otherwise—tells you to install software to help them diagnose the problem, you’re almost certainly about to unleash untold damage to your computer and to your digital life as a whole. Take a breath: Scam emails tend to encourage immediate action in hopes of inducing a panicked reaction. My main advice here is to stop, breathe, collect your thoughts, and never act on impulse. (Even the most experienced security pros can fail to do this sometimes.) If I hadn’t taken a beat to think it over, this PayPal email might’ve gotten me. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Read...

Zyxel Networks launches six affordable WiFi 7 access points for SMEs, expanding its portfolio to 13 models for diverse business environments. Read...

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If you want your household to be on the cutting edge of AI, Microsoft has a deal for you: Microsoft 365 Premium, which combines the Family plan with Copilot Pro. At a new price of $19.99 per month, Microsoft 365 Premium sounds simple enough. Previously offered only to business users, it’s now available to consumers as well. There’s also a twist: Microsoft said it’s canceling the $20 Copilot Pro subscription entirely, which reduces the standalone value of Copilot and M365 considerably. Essentially, Microsoft 365 Premium combines Copilot Pro with Microsoft 365. On the Office side, you’ll get access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, all with Copilot Chat built in and 1TB of storage. On the AI side, subscribers will get access to “extended” AI usage limits for GPT-5 and 40 image generation, plus the Actions, Researcher, and Analyst agents. A Microsoft blog post compared Microsoft 365 Premium against ChatGPT Plus, making it clear where the company is feeling the heat. Microsoft says that the same Microsoft 365 Premium subscription can be used at home or at work, where it benefits from Enterprise Data Protection in Copilot. There’s a small catch for existing subscribers. If you upgrade, your subscription won’t carry over entirely. Instead, you’ll be “credited” with a number of days on the new Premium plan for your existing Microsoft Personal or Family subscription. You can find the details on Microsoft’s dedicated page for upgrading an existing 365 subscription. If you choose to stay on the Microsoft Family and Personal tier, the company is adding some bonuses, including 40 image generation in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Copilot; unlimited use of Copilot Voice in the app; and Podcasts, Vision, and Deep Research in Copilot. Read...

Windows 11 version 25H2, the next major feature update for Microsoft’s operating system, started rolling out in waves on September 30. Despite being categorized as an “enablement update,” the scope of the changes is considerable. The basic architecture remains identical to version 24H2, which means there are no new hardware requirements. If you don’t already have Windows 11, or just need a new license, you can grab it for 50 percent off on the PCWorld Software store right now. For all systems that are already running on Windows 11 24H2, the upgrade requires minimal effort. A small enablement package activates the new functions without the need for a complete reinstallation or in-place upgrade. This procedure not only saves time, but also significantly reduces downtime. Devices with older versions such as 23H2 or Windows 10, on the other hand, must go through the classic, more extensive upgrade process. Windows Latest Thanks to the “Shared Servicing Branch”, many new features are already distributed in 24H2, but are deactivated until the Enablement Package activates them. Users benefit from around 40 percent smaller update packages thanks to the combination of servicing stack updates and other cumulative updates, which further shortens the installation time. New start menu with extended control options The revised start menu is one of the most visible changes in 25H2. It shows the pinned apps at the top, a section with recommended content such as recently used documents or programs in the middle and the complete app list below. The latter can be displayed in three modes, as a category view, as a compact grid, or as a classic list. Users can control the scope dynamically using buttons such as “Show all” or “Show less”. New personalization settings allow more pinned apps to be displayed by default or recommendations to be hidden completely. Frequently used and recently installed apps can also be displayed or hidden as desired. Companies benefit from the largely retained basic structure, as adjustments to documentation and training material are minimal. Restrictions still exist. Categories cannot yet be renamed or created, drag & drop currently only works from “All” to “Pinned”, and touch navigation currently lacks support for swipe up gestures. The start menu is supplemented by the option to display system folders such as “Settings” or “Explorer” as fixed icons in the bottom bar, which enables quick access to frequently used functions. Further reading: Windows 11’s new-look Start menu is a huge upgrade. Let’s dive in Direct integration of smartphones via Phone Link With the new start menu integration of “Phone Link”, the connection between PC and smartphone takes center stage even more. Users can exchange files between PC and mobile devices via drag & drop, send images from Explorer directly “to my phone” or retrieve messages and content from the Start menu. The setup requires a Microsoft account for the app, but not for the Windows login. In private households, this simplifies the management of media and documents; in companies, it enables uncomplicated connection of service devices. Content can be synchronized via local networks or even mobile data connections. The implementation is considered to be more stable than in previous pre-release versions, in which Phone Link was often prone to errors. Windows Customizable widgets on the lock screen The lock screen display can be expanded with widgets, including weather, stock market prices, countdown counters or customized information sources. These elements can be customized to keep important data directly in view without unlocking the desktop. A new feature is the “Discover widgets” function, which displays suggestions for other available widgets and simplifies the selection process. For companies, this can be a way of providing employees with status information or appointments, while private users can keep an eye on birthdays or deadlines, for example. Currently, changes only take effect after a restart, which is likely to be optimized in the final version. Optimized energy management and performance diagnostics A new mechanism for throttling the CPU during idle phases reduces power consumption and extends battery life, which particularly affects mobile work devices and notebooks. In addition, Windows automatically records diagnostic data when the system reacts slowly. These logs can be sent to Microsoft via the feedback hub in order to identify the causes of performance problems more quickly. For the user, these are stored locally in the system under “%systemRoot%\Temp\DiagOutputDir\Whesvc” and are only transmitted when feedback is active. Extensions in the file explorer and in the search The File Explorer displays person icons in the “Recommended” area under the “Activity” column to make it easier to recognise who has recently worked on a file, but only when using a business or school account. In the search options, the direct link to the Bing search history has been removed; instead, access is centralised via the data protection dashboard. This change reduces redundant menu items and bundles data protection controls in one place. Higher quality system drivers through CodeQL analysis Higher quality standards will apply to driver signing in the future. Every kernel-mode driver (except graphics drivers) must pass a CodeQL scan before WHCP certification. This analysis uncovers potential errors or security gaps at an early stage and forces manufacturers to rectify them before the driver is released for Windows. This means more stable systems for OEM manufacturers and companies and a lower crash and incompatibility rate for private users. AI-supported functions and Copilot optimizations New functions are activated on devices with NPU, the so-called Copilot PCs. These include image descriptions for screen readers, live subtitles with translation options (currently still with crash problems), and intelligent text actions in “Click to Do”. The latter enables context-dependent processing of text content, such as recognizing and automatically processing certain entries. In addition, the search field in the top bar of “Click to Do” has been removed to simplify the interface. Users report long waiting times when using the app for the first time after model or build updates, which must be taken into account in corporate environments during rollouts. A new addition is the option to enter your own words in the Windows dictionary, which offers clear benefits for both private writers and companies with industry-specific vocabulary. Quick Machine Recovery and gamepad control of the on-screen keyboard With version 25H2, Windows 11 will receive an extended self-repair function, which will be introduced under the name “Quick Machine Recovery”. It builds on the Windows Recovery Environment, but extends it with the ability to automatically obtain updates or repair scripts from the Internet to resolve boot problems. If the system recognizes repeated boot errors, it automatically switches to the recovery environment, establishes a network connection and searches for suitable corrections via Windows Update. Administrators can specify whether this process should take place completely without user intervention. Activation is possible both locally, for example via configuration using Reagentc and XML files, and centrally via Intune policies. Parameters for waiting time, restart intervals and even WLAN login data can be predefined so that devices without a LAN connection can also be integrated. In Home editions, cloud-supported repair will be active by default in the future; in Pro and Enterprise environments, it must be specifically enabled. After a successful repair, Windows restarts automatically; if the repair is unsuccessful, the cycle is repeated according to the defined specifications. Thanks to this automation, Quick Machine Recovery reduces the administration effort and significantly shortens downtimes in both company networks and private installations. Thomas Joos New data protection dialogues and administrator protection 25H2 comes with revised data protection dialogues that offer more transparency when applications access data and system functions. An additional protection mechanism has been introduced for administrators, which makes unauthorized changes to the system more difficult and provides greater protection for security-critical actions. This gives companies an additional layer of security without having to resort to third-party solutions. Thomas Joos Further functional improvements and known problems Taskbar scaling adapts better to different display sizes and DPI settings. Context menus in Explorer have been optimized, new sharing options have been added, and Voice Access has been further developed. Support for Chinese and Japanese has been expanded, and in the settings under “Privacy and security” you can now see which applications are accessing Windows generative AI models. In current builds, this display is already visible in the user interface, but the full functionality will only be activated in a later update. Further adjustments relate to the toolbox, which has been improved in terms of its operation and integration. Microsoft has also fixed several bugs, such as truncated content in the notification center when the clock display is activated or a problem with dbgcore.dll, which could cause explorer.exe and other applications to crash. Known problems still exist, however: the Xbox controller can trigger a bug check on some systems when connected via Bluetooth. The Microsoft Changjie input method currently works incorrectly, which can be avoided by resetting to the previous IME version. In addition, Windows 11 25H2 supports touch keyboard control with a gamepad for the first time. This function, originally planned for 24H2, allows the on-screen keyboard to be operated without a mouse or touchscreen, which can be relevant in special application scenarios, such as on console-based workstations or for accessibility adaptations. Update strategy, insider options and rollback Microsoft emphasizes stability in 25H2. Many functions are already included in 24H2 and are only activated with the Enablement Package. For private users, this means a smooth upgrade without long installation times; for companies, it means the option to test only the new functions instead of recertifying the entire system environment. The update follows the shared servicing branch approach, which has also been used for previous upgrades, for example from 22H2 to 23H2. Mark Hachman After the official release, Microsoft offers a time window to leave the Windows Insider program and receive regular updates again. It’s also possible to completely reset 25H2 to 24H2 by uninstalling the Enablement Package without reinstalling the operating system; all 25H2 functions will then be deactivated immediately. Read...

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