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I’ve been reading ebooks on Kindles for close to 15 years now, swapping them out every so often when newer and better versions come out. Throughout that time, I’ve tried all sorts of Kindle cases to protect my precious. But it wasn’t until last year that my reading experience got leveled up in an entirely new way with one simple $15 buy.

I’m talking about a Kindle case with a built-in elastic hand strap. Yes, yes, I know—it sounds unremarkable. Trust me, I was skeptical of it for a long time myself. But once I gave it a try, suddenly all of my “reading yoga” became a lot easier. No matter what weird position I ended up in, I could still grip my Kindle and read comfortable.

Sometimes I put my whole hand through the strap, other times I just hook a finger through it. Either way, it works. The beauty of this case’s design is that the strap goes straight down the middle, so I can use either left or right hand without issue. I’ve seen other cases where the strap is off to one side, but I like the flexibility in switching hands when I want to.

Honestly, of the many Kindle cases I’ve tried over the years, they mainly focus on protecting the screen than maximizing my comfort as a reader. And guess who ends up dropping her Kindle on her face more often than she’d like to admit? Me, that’s who. The built-in hand strap seems like a small thing, but the impact has been huge for me.

Okay, so why not use a clip-on elastic hand strap that you can put on and take off on demand? How is a case with a built-in strap better? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an example of one such grip belt that I’ve used with my Kindle before:

Gabriela wander / FOUNDRY

These are actually pretty great! You can position them however you want, whether diagonally across the device or down the middle. But in order for the straps to stay in place, they need tension, right? What I noticed is that when I put my hand through it, the hooks press into the sides of my Kindle, and even though they’re only plastic, they caused marks and imprints—not acceptable to me, especially with a pristine device.

I also want to mention that there are Kindle cases with built-in kickstands AND hand straps, but I don’t like them for two reasons. First, the kickstand usually adds extra weight and that’s more of a net-negative to my reading comfort. Second, the kickstand usually pushes the strap to one side or the other, whereas I prefer my strap down the middle.

So, I think I’ve found my ideal Kindle case—and it only cost me $15 on Amazon. It’s one of the best Kindle upgrades I’ve ever made, and it has transformed my reading comfort more than I ever expected. If holding your Kindle while you read is a pain, try out this case!

If you’re looking to get a computer with a great performance without selling a kidney, you should look into mini PCs because these things deliver lots of power at a great price. The Kamrui AM21, for instance, is only going to cost you $360 now that it’s 25% off on Amazon.

As tiny as this PC is, it’s packed when it comes to what’s under the hood. An AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX on a device that can fit in the palm of your hand? Yes, it’s true, and it’s what makes it ready to tackle your entire workload or your next passion project. The AM21 also features 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, which is pretty darn good for the price. But if that’s not enough for you, you can always upgrade it to 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD. Now that’s a powerful combo!

There’s no dedicated graphics card, but you can get away with light gaming and video editing with the integrated Radeon 680M graphics. It’s powerful enough to connect up to four(!) 4K@60Hz displays via the two HDMI ports plus DisplayPort and USB-C video. Other niceties include four high-speed USB-A ports, double LAN, another USB-C for data, and a 3.5mm headset jack. It’s a multitasker’s dream!

A powerful machine like this for just $360? That’s way better than you’d get in a comparable laptop, and good luck finding a full-blown desktop PC at this price. Get the Kamrui AM21 on Amazon before it expires!

Get a 25% discount on this Ryzen 9 mini PC with quad 4K support

PC gaming modders love to stuff gaming PCs into things that aren’t gaming PCs. I love a build that hides all the PC parts in a desk for a sleek “invisible” setup. But can you hide one under your… ahem… posterior? One YouTuber managed to do just that, stuffing a full desktop gaming PC (or at least its parts) into an office chair.

The Basically Homeless channel (via PCGamer) went with a Mini-ITX build and ran the power and data cables up through the base, with enough slack that the sitter can still get a bit of literal wiggle room. Most of the primary components are directly under the seat cushion thanks to a lot of customizations on the base with elevated spacers. The GPU can sit off to the side thanks to a PCIe riser.

Combined with a flex server power supply, some 3D printing, and a bunch of trial and error, the finished product is surprisingly sleek. A custom-printed housing hides all the guts, grants access to the I/O ports, and allows enough airflow to keep it from dying. I love the way the USB ports pop out in the spot where the chair can be fitted with a footrest.

With an AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D CPU, a low-profile RTX 4060 graphics card, and 64GB of RAM, the end result is beefy in terms of actual gaming power. And while the chair looks a little thicker than a normal chair, I’d never suspect that there’s a chunky gaming PC hiding in there. It’s super-sleek with all the cables running through the base. And at the end of the video, Basically Homeless combines the whole thing with a head-mounted VR display for the ultimate seat setup.

Ridiculous? Yes. This thing seems to have taken weeks of effort for an aesthetic result that’s only good for, well, a YouTube video. But I have to respect the engineering and the sheer audacity of it.

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.

For more of the coolest stuff from Computex, subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube and watch our weekly podcast The Full Nerd.

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.

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.

Specifications

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

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.

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 4^th-generation and one 3^rd-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.

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.