Computing

Despite the fact that solid-state drives (SSDs) read and write data much faster than mechanical hard drives do, the PlayStation 4 and even the PlayStation 4 Pro still come with the latter. Fortunately, Sony made the PS4 hard drive replaceable, so users can expand the console’s internal storage or, better yet, swap out the mechanical drive with a faster-loading solid state drive. Here’s a glimpse at what an SSD can do for you, and instructions on how to upgrade your PS4 hard drive yourself. If you don’t want to go through the process of opening up your PS4 to replace the hard drive, you can also upgrade your storage space by using an external drive. We cover how to do that in the last section of this guide. SSDs vs. mechanical hard drives Before we swapped out the PS4’s hard drive with an SSD, we tested the hard drive that the system came with by measuring the amount of time the PS4 needed to boot up to the screen where the OS asks you to press the PS button on … [Read more...] about How to upgrade your PS4 hard drive from mechanical to SSD

Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards might have new, stiff competition from AMD’s RX 5700 cards, but at the top end it still rules the roost when it comes to performance. With new Super cards replacing the dwindling stock of RTX 2070 and 2080 cards, it’s a great time to buy a new graphics card. But which should you pick? To see which represents the best high-end GPU offering out there, we pitted the RTX 2080 Super vs. RTX 2080 vs. RTX 2070 Super. Want a broader selection of GPUs? Here are the best graphics cards you can buy right now. Performance We’ve had our hands on almost every RTX graphics card since they released, including the latest of the Nvidia Turing refresh cards, the RTX 2080 Super. Before we look at how they perform in the real world, let’s take a look at the specifications, which paint a pretty clear picture of what we can expect from these cards. RTX 2080 Ti RTX 2080 Super RTX 2080 RTX 2070 Super RTX 2070 RTX 2060 Super RTX 2060 GPU … [Read more...] about Nvidia RTX 2080 Super vs. RTX 2080 vs. RTX 2070 Super

Prime Day 2019 is wrapping up, but if you’re still looking to pick over what’s left of competing sales or you just didn’t have a Prime membership to take advantage of those Amazon deals, the show’s not quite over yet. A number of mid-July promotions from other retailers are still going strong (at least for a little while longer), and this gives you more time to jump on some post-Prime Day deals like the Dell G5 15 mid-range gaming laptop that’s now on sale for an entry-level price. Most budget-friendly laptops come loaded with 8GB of RAM and entry-level graphics cards like the AM Radeon RTX 570/580 or the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050/1050 Ti. These aren’t bad specs at all for casual gaming and even for running newer titles at decent settings, but for most gamers, it’s not a bad idea to spend a little more on something like the mid-range Nvidia GTX 1060 and 16GB of RAM. The Dell G5 15 stands well above most “cheap” gaming laptops with its … [Read more...] about The Nvidia GTX 1060-powered Dell G5 gaming laptop is $320 off

Spotify is the best thing since sliced bread — at least, according to us. It’s affordable, touts one of the largest catalogs of on-demand music in town, and offers customers the option to download individual tracks and entire playlists for offline listening. Before you can start downloading songs from Spotify, you need three things: a) A Spotify Premium subscription to activate the download button; b) a connection to the internet to download the tracks; and c) a computer or mobile device to store them on. All set? Let’s get to work. Desktop Step 1: When viewing a curated playlist you’d like to download, click the button marked Follow, which is located directly to the right of the Play button. Otherwise, the download option will not be available. Step 2: Next, toggle the Download slider in the upper-right corner of any playlist. The playlist will start to download, but keep in mind that it may take a little while depending on how large the … [Read more...] about How to download songs from Spotify

Why are we stuck with the QWERTY keyboard? The history of the most commonly used keyboard layout is a sometimes murky story of commercial opportunism, critics with ulterior motives and the stubborn persistence of an idea that's seen off hundreds of supposedly superior competitors Technology 25 April 2019 By Graham LawtonTechnology often contributes new words to the English language: television, hoover and iPod to name a few. But none have origins quite like the word QWERTY. As one of the world’s most ubiquitous technologies, used by billions of people every day, we rarely give a second thought to computer keyboards. But behind the ordinariness and familiarity there’s something very odd about them. Why are the letters arranged that way? The world’s love–hate relationship with the QWERTY keyboard began in a small workshop in Milwaukee in 1866. That was where a publisher called Christopher Latham Sholes began work on an invention he hoped … [Read more...] about The truth about the QWERTY keyboard