When you’re working remotely, you might sometimes get caught out with no way to charge your laptop on the go. Thankfully, you never have to worry about that again if you have a proper laptop power bank—like this one by Baseus that’s only $51 on Amazon (was $100). You’ll need Prime for this deal, but if you aren’t a member, you can always sign up for a free 30-day trial of Prime to unlock this price plus other perks.
The Baseus Blade is a no-brainer when you can snag it for nearly half off its original price. It’s faster than your typical power bank with 100W of charging output, and it has a large 20,000mAh capacity so it can fully recharge your laptop from zero to full and then some. Want to use it with your smartphone? It can recharge it nearly four times. And the Blade is super-thin at just 0.7 inches thick and super-light at about 1 pound, so you can slip it into any bag next to your laptop and won’t notice it.
You’ll find four total ports on this power bank—two USB-A and two USB-C, with the USB-Cs able to reach 100W each while the USB-A are limited to 30W. If you use multiple ports at once, the total charging power will get split up between them. Fortunately, the handy digital display shows you exactly how fast each port is charging at any given time, along with how much charging power it has remaining.
I have the second edition of the Baseus Blade and love it quite a bit, but mine is smaller and slower than this one. If I could do it again, I’d get this one instead now that it’s the same price. Take advantage of this Prime deal and get the Baseus Blade for $51! If you don’t have Prime yet, grab a free Prime trial to score this awesome price.
Get this ultra-sleek laptop power bank for nearly 50% off
Considering how often I’ve had to write about tariffs in the last few months, it’s no surprise that there’s a wave of lovingly retro hardware coming out of Computex 2025.
Like SilverStone, MSI is hopping on the retro bus with new GPU designs, marrying new RTX 50-series chips with coolers that look like they’re straight outta the aughts. PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray got to check them out on the show floor.
The RTX 5060 Ti “Twin Frozr 2 Retro Edition” is probably the more practical of the pair, with twin fans and an exposed heatsink, and should fit into just about any gaming PC build with minimal issues. But the more stunning of the pair is the RTX 5070 Cyclone, with a single fan dispersing heat through a massive copper heatsink. It’s a style you might remember from the GTX 400 series, waaaay back in 2010. The only bow to modernity is an LCD screen hidden on the interior hub of the fan.
Sadly, these designs are both one-offs, and MSI isn’t committing to building them for retail products. If you want to see it in reality, you’ll need to let MSI know and GET IN THE COMMENTS.
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When you’re upgrading your computer setup, one thing you should definitely put good money into is your monitor. OLED displays are one of the best steps up, but they can be pricey if you don’t catch them on sale. Fortunately, here’s an excellent one for you: LG’s 34-inch ultrawied OLED is down to $750 on Amazon right now. That’s a whopping $550 off its original price and cheaper than its previous all-time low.
This 34-inch LG 34GS95QE delivers a crisp and clear 3440×1440 “sweet spot” resolution, which makes it fantastic for everything ranaging from mundane spreadsheet work to streaming Netflix to immersive PC gaming. The OLED panel gives you deep blacks, vivid colors, and great responsiveness. Plus, the 800R curvature makes spending long hours in front of the computer easier on your eyes.
When LG made this monitor, they clearly had gamers in mind. You get a fast-but-not-too-fast 240Hz refresh rate and a 0.03ms response time for twitchy action games. It supports both AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync for minimal screen tearing, and the ultra-thin bezel maximizes your immersive experiences.
Connectivity-wise, this display has two full-sized HDMI ports as well as a DisplayPort input, plus a USB-A for connecting a peripheral. And if the stand isn’t to your liking, you can always hook it up to a monitor arm with the VESA standard 100x100mm mount pattern.
Do yourself a favor and jump on this ultrawide OLED gaming monitor for only $750 while you still can. Its price has never been this good! But if you still want to shop around, check out our picks for the best monitors.
Save $550 on this 34-inch OLED ultrawide gaming monitor
Finding a solid computer at an affordable price can be tough because they have to tick so many boxes, and you can’t always get everything you need within your budget. But with this discount, the Acer Swift 16 AI might be the unicorn you’re looking for. It’s now just $850 at Best Buy, which is a crazy $400 off its original price!
When we reviewed the Acer Swift 16 AI, it came close to being one of our favorites. We gave it a 4-star rating for its sleek and sturdy design, its sharp OLED display with 3K resolution, its lovely keyboard feel, and its long battery life. And keep in mind that this is a 16-inch laptop! Between that and the OLED panel, battery life usually suffers. But not here.
The laptop runs on a brand-new Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor that’s AI-ready and compatible with Microsoft’s Copilot+ features on Windows 11. It also comes with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD. All combined, this is the perfect workstation for daily work and browsing, with over 17 hours of battery life on a single charge. The Intel Arc integrated graphics are even good enough for some light gaming.
Other features of note include two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports (both on the same side), two high-speed USB-A ports (one on either side), a full-sized HDMI, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The laptop itself is 0.63 inches thin and 3.37 pounds light, making it perfect as a thin-and-light for portable productivity. Windows 11 Home comes pre-installed.
The Acer Swift 16 AI was a bit pricey when it first released, but it’s a darn good bargain now that it’s slashed down to $850! Take advantage of this deal soon because we don’t know when it expires. If you’re looking for something even better, check out the best laptops worth your money.
Save $400 on Acer’s AI-ready OLED productivity laptop
Software is complicated—and I say that with the confident authority of someone who struggles to string a few lines of HTML together. But my point is, it’s not uncommon for software updates to cause unexpected problems, as is the case with the newest version of the Firefox browser running on PCs with Nvidia cards. But worry not! Mozilla has fixed it. With more software updates. That’s how this stuff works.
The latest version of Firefox (version 139.0.1) fixes a bug that caused artifacts to appear when rendering on Nvidia GPUs, but only when using a multiple-monitor setup, and only if those monitors were set to different refresh rates. It’s a rapid patch from Firefox 139.0, a major revision that dropped back on May 27th. According to Tom’s Hardware, the new update dropped a blocklist that caused issues if you had 60 FPS media running on a secondary monitor.
As Nvidia is still far and away the most popular vendor for dedicated desktop graphics cards, and multi-monitor setups are getting more and more popular, I can see why this sort of thing was immediately spotted. Because I have an Nvidia graphics card, and multiple monitors, which have different refresh rates, and I often watch video on the slower one. Mozilla has been having some issues lately, but it’s good to see them tackle an issue like this so quickly.
Extends the range at which Blink Outdoor 4 cameras can be deployed
Can store motion-triggered video recordings on up to a 256GB microSD card
Much faster than the Blink Sync Module 2
Cons
Extended range functionality reduces video resolution, and is limited to two Blink Outdoor 4 cameras
Local storage still limited to 256GB
Our Verdict
If you’re using Blink home security cameras and you don’t already have a Blink Sync Module 2, the Blink Sync Module XR delivers a host of benefits.
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I’m a big fan of security cameras with the capacity to stream their recordings to local storage on my home network. Amazon’s Blink family of cameras, floodlight cameras, and video doorbells has long had one of the most inexpensive options thanks to its Sync Module series. And the all-new Sync Module XR is a significant improvement over the Blink Sync Module 2 that precedes it.
Most security camera hubs must be hardwired to your router or to an ethernet switch connected to your router, but the 3.25-inch-square, 0.75-inch-thick Sync Module XR connects to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network (5GHz networks are not supported). You can view live streams and recordings from up to 10 Blink cameras—one at a time—in the Blink app.
The Sync Module XR provides a superior means of storing video recordings from up to 10 Blink cameras.
Specifications
The Blink Sync Module XR is easy to set up; just scan the QR code on the bottom of the device to get started.
Michael Brown/Foundry
The XR in the product’s name is related to a new Extended Range feature that works with the latest generation of battery-powered outdoor cameras, the Blink Outdoor 4. When you connect one of these to the hub, you can choose between a Wi-Fi connection; Extended Range (XR), to reach cameras up to 250 feet from the hub; or Extended Range Plus (XR+), to service cameras up to 400 feet away. The latter two connections use a Blink-proprietary network operating in the 900MHz spectrum.
Note that these range estimates assume a single wall between the hub and the camera, and that you’re limited to using two XR-capable cameras with these settings. The longer-range features also entail trade-offs: Using an XR connection reduces video resolution from 1080p to either 720p or 360p, and using XR+ drops resolution down to 360p. You also lose the two-way talk feature with this setting.
Performance
You can install up to a 256GB microSD card in the Blink Sync Module XR for local storage of motion-triggered video recordings.
Michael Brown/Foundry
The Sync Module XR also provides a superior means of storing video recordings from up to 10 Blink cameras. Where you’d plug a USB thumb drive into the Sync Module 2, tempting curious toddlers to yank it out, this new model features a microSD card slot. You’ll need to provide the storage device in both cases. There’s been no improvement in capacity, however; the Sync Module XR still limits your storage to 256GB.
If you find you need more storage than that, sign up for a Blink subscription plan that provides 60 days of cloud storage for all your Blink cameras (30 days in the EU and UK) in the cloud. Subscriptions cost $10 per month or $100 per year. There’s also a $3/mo, $30/year plan, but that only covers a single Blink camera.
The Blink Sync Module XR supports up to 10 Blink cameras, but only two Blink Outdoor 4 cameras can use its proprietary extended range feature.
Michael Brown/Foundry
In addition to cloud storage, a Blink Subscription provides person detection (on cameras that support it), the ability to send video recordings via email or text message, extended live viewing (you get 5 minutes without a plan, and up to 90 minutes with one), automatic thumbnail image refresh, and a few other perks.
I had been using three of Amazon’s impressively inexpensive Blink Outdoor cameras (two 4th-generation and one 3rd-gen) for the past couple of years, along with a Blink Sync Module 2. The cameras deliver impressive battery life of nearly a full year on a pair of AA Lithium disposable batteries.
The Blink Sync Module XR comes with a power supply and a USB-A to USB-C cable.
Michael Brown/Foundry
Removing the old sync module and migrating the three cameras to the Sync Module XR was a snap. While I couldn’t migrate the old recordings to the new storage, I was able to plug the thumb drive I was using into my PC and watch the recordings and move them to my NAS box as unencrypted MP4 files.
This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras.
Should you buy a Blink Sync Module XR?
Anyone who owns Blink security cameras will benefit from adding a Blink Sync Module XR to their home security portfolio. The increased range promise is genuine, even if it does compromise video quality. While the Blink Sync Module XR doesn’t offer any more storage capacity than the Sync Module 2, it initiates live streams and plays recordings with much less delay than the older model did.
If you don’t already have a Blink Sync Module 2, the $20 difference in price between the second-generation model and the XR is fully justified. The calculus is a little more complicated for those who already own the earlier product. Personally, I don’t need the extended range, and the speedier performance and the support for a microSD card with the same storage limit as a USB thumb drive aren’t enough to justify the cost of the upgrade.
My bottom-line score, therefore, is from the perspective of a Blink camera owner who doesn’t want to pay for a subscription and who doesn’t own a previous-generation Sync Module.
Microsoft Edge Game Assist has worked its way through Microsoft’s development cycle, and has been released for everybody. It’s your new tool for solving those pesky puzzles in your favorite PC games.
Even though we associate “Microsoft” with “Windows,” Microsoft has numerous little platforms that it bolts features on to. Microsoft Edge Game Assist is one of these: It’s a specialized hint tool for Game Bar, a Windows gaming feature that’s been around for over half a decade with a steadily advancing feature set that includes performance tools, screen capture, and more.
Microsoft Edge Game Assist bolts Edge to Game Bar. Instead of forcing you to stop what you’re doing and start typing terms into search boxes, Game Assist “knows” what game you’re playing and opens up what you might call a specialized hint browser. I went hands-on with Microsoft Edge Game Assist in January, where I launched it alongside Baldur’s Gate 3 to see what sort of tips it could offer.
At the time, Microsoft Edge Game Assist supported just a handful of games. Now, the list of games that Microsoft Edge Game Assist supports has grown quite long from newer games like Split Fiction, Avowedand the “new” The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remasteredto more interesting strategic choices like Hearts of Iron IV. Each of the games has been enhanced with tips and guides, Microsoft says.
Personally, I find all of this fascinating, because Microsoft seems to be converging on an AI-powered game assistant that will steer you to some of your favorite games’ more challenging puzzles. Game guides are one thing; bringing them into the game is another. But combine this with the new (and somewhat mediocre) talents of Copilot Vision, and the future clearly is an AI assistant who can see what you see and offer advice. Give it a year or two.
The shooter genre sometimes feels oversaturated with games that, like Battlefield and Call of Dutyonly recognize serious campaign scenarios and lean far into gritty realism. This makes titles like the Borderlands franchise, which doesn’t take itself too seriously and is simply meant to be fun escapism, all the more refreshing.
Even more refreshing than the Borderlands games? Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsa 2022 spin-off that swapped out the familiar sci-fi planets and repetitive missions with a creative fantasy setting. Here you don’t fight against the usual Borderlands opponents but against goblins, skeletons, dragons, and other fantastical monstrosities.
The ingenious thing about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is that it wrapped itself up in a Dungeons and Dragons-esque plot in which the crazy Tiny Tina is in charge as she completely changes the rules of the game (or the surrounding levels).
If you want to try it out, you can grab it from the Epic Games Store for free and keep it forever. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands normally costs $59.99, but it’s been three years since its release and you may not want to pay full price anymore. It’s still worth playing, though, especially if you can snag it for free like you can right now. This offer is good for about a week.
Don’t miss your chance to get it for free
At the time of its release, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands received very good ratings and was particularly impressive for its colorful setting, which feels like a good round of D&D with friends. The levels and missions are imaginatively designed and provide plenty of variety.
The humor is completely over the top and not for everyone, but the popular loot shooter mechanics of the Borderlands series is carried over and keeps you motivated to play just a bit longer, collect just a few more weapons, and kill just a few more enemies.
If you fancy Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsall you have to do is log in to the Epic Games Store and grab the game by June 5th. Once added to your library, you can keep it forever.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
For years, Notepad has existed as a bare-bones text editor. No longer. Microsoft keeps adding to it, including a new update that includes capabilities that you might have expected in another Windows application, WordPad.
Microsoft said Friday that it is adding “lightweight formatting” in Notepad, including markdown input and file support, but also bold and italic fonts and even hyperlinks. They’re all accessible via a new toolbar that includes these new formatting options.
Microsoft didn’t indicate that it is testing the new Notepad or offering these features in preview, so presumably these updates will arrive on your Windows PC soon.
Two things seem to be going on here. In late 2023, Microsoft killed off WordPad, the rich text editor that served as a poor man’s alternative to Microsoft Word. (There’s a way to bring WordPad back, but you’d need access to an older version of Windows where WordPad still existed.) Traditionally, Notepad has been the Windows answer to a light text editor that coders can use or write in, although more sophisticated alternatives like vim exist.
It seems that Microsoft is adding more features to try and help those users, while moving towards a WordPad replacement.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is bringing the Edit app to Windows as well. Edit is an open-source app that was basically designed as a command-line interface, or CLI, and Microsoft specifically references how obtuse vim was to use when it announced it. Either way, by beefing up Notepad –heck, even with Copilot! — and adding the Edit option as well, Windows is offering a number of lightweight CLI and text-editing interfaces without bloating the operating system even further.
The personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales dating back to 2010, including criminal records and financial details, has been accessed and downloaded in a “significant” cyber-attack.
Officials admit that the data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers, criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments.
Lawyers said they had complained for years about the Legal Aid Agency’s IT system and were concerned that the cyber-attack would leave vulnerable claimants and those briefly represented by a duty solicitor open to exposure and possible blackmail.
Hackers have claimed that they accessed 2.1m pieces of data, a figure that has so far been unverified.
It is understood that authorities do not believe that the hack is the work of a state actor, and that it appears to be the work of a criminal gang.
A Ministry of Justice source put the breach down to the “neglect and mismanagement” of the previous government, saying vulnerabilities in the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) systems had been known for many years.
“This data breach was made possible by the long years of neglect and mismanagement of the justice system under the last government. They knew about the vulnerabilities of the Legal Aid Agency digital systems, but did not act,” the source said.
The MoJ said officials became aware of a cyber-attack on the LAA’s online digital services on 23 April but believed it had accessed data from legal aid providers such as solicitors’ firms, not from applicants. It is understood that officials discovered on Friday that it was much wider and involved applicants.
The LAA’s online digital services, which are used by legal aid providers to log their work and get paid by the government, have been taken offline. Legal aid providers will be given phone numbers or email addresses to contact as they seek payment for the next few weeks.
Officials are attempting to build an upgraded system over the next few weeks that will replace the hacked system.
The MoJ said: “We believe the group has accessed and downloaded a significant amount of personal data from those who applied for legal aid through our digital service since 2010.
“This data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers, criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments.
“We would urge all members of the public who have applied for legal aid in this time period to take steps to safeguard themselves. We would recommend you are alert for any suspicious activity such as unknown messages or phone calls and to be extra vigilant to update any potentially exposed passwords.
“If you are in doubt about anyone you are communicating with online or over the phone, you should verify their identity independently before providing any information to them.”
The MoJ has been working with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, and has informed the information commissioner.
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said it was aware of the incident.
The LAA’s chief executive, Jane Harbottle, apologised for the breach: “I understand this news will be shocking and upsetting for people and I am extremely sorry this has happened.
“Since the discovery of the attack, my team has been working around the clock with the National Cyber Security Centre to bolster the security of our systems so we can safely continue the vital work of the agency.
“However, it has become clear that, to safeguard the service and its users, we needed to take radical action. That is why we’ve taken the decision to take the online service down,” she said.
Harbottle said contingency plans were in place to make sure those in need of legal support and advice could continue to access it.
In 2023, the Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, called on the government to invest in the LAA digital system, saying the system was “too fragile to cope”. As recently as March 2024, the Law Society pointed to the “antiquated IT systems” of the LAA as “evidence of the long-term neglect of our justice system”.
Richard Atkinson, the Law Society’s president, said: “The fragility of the IT system has prevented vital reforms, including updates to the means test that could help millions more access legal aid, and interim payments for firms whose cash flow is being decimated by the backlogs in the courts, through no fault of their own.
“If it is now also proving vulnerable to cyber-attack, further delay is untenable.
“Legal aid firms are small businesses providing an important public service and are operating on the margins of financial viability. Given that vulnerability, these financial security concerns are the last thing they need.”
Helen Morris, a partner and the head of reputation management at the law firm Kingsley Napley, said: “Today’s data breach will be of concern to anyone who has been arrested since 2010 and who has had an application for public funding made in their name. This could include those who were initially allocated a duty solicitor, even if they then changed to privately funded advice.
“Such a breach is particularly concerning for those who were interviewed by the police but were never charged and the fact of the investigation never came into the public domain.
“The possession of this highly sensitive information in the wrong hands could make any individual subject to blackmail threats.”