NETWORKING

Cesar Gallardo/Getty Images Sometimes I need to jot down my thoughts but I don’t need a full-blown office suite or a to-do list. I might need to take notes on a book idea, a journal entry, or a stream-of-consciousness (a great exercise for writers). Or maybe a configuration file needs to be edited, and an office suite would wreck the formatting. When those times arrive, I always know what tool to turn to — a…

We conduct much of our digital lives on our phones, from online shopping and social media posting to bill paying and work emailing — which requires continuous access to a long list of passwords. The easiest (and most secure) way to keep track of logins, credit card information, and other sensitive data is with a password manager that integrates seamlessly on mobile, and there are a number of password management apps that work well for…

matejmo/Getty Images If you’re an ExpressVPN user, you have access to some new identity theft tools — and won’t have to pay anything extra for them. The company (which topped our list as the fastest VPN service) announced a trio of new services this week aimed at helping you before, during, and after an identity theft situation.  Also: The best VPN services (and how to choose the right one for you) Called Identity Defender, the…

Khanchit Khirisutchalual/Getty Images Excitement is over the top about all the marvels of today’s technology — artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, virtual reality, and connected enterprises, to name a few. However, without the right data, these initiatives are dead in the water. Two new surveys warn that companies still need to put their data houses in order, and as a result, aren’t ready to move forward with initiatives such as generative AI (gen AI).  There’s an…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET A good camera, photo skills, and a worthy subject are only part of the equation when capturing the perfect photo. Some factors are out of your control, such as objects or people in the background that you can not move but are in the way of your perfect shot. That’s where AI can help.  With Monday’s release of iOS 18.1, Apple introduced an AI-powered “Clean-up” feature, available in the editing section of the…

It wouldn’t be a long shot to say that Samsung is the most popular phone maker in the world, with a presence in almost every major market, including North America, Europe, and Asia. Over the past decade, the South Korean giant has introduced several lines of handsets, including the S series of flagships, the A series of value-driven phones, and the Z series of innovative foldables, all of which I’ve had the fortune of testing…

As a smartphone reviewer, I spend countless hours testing apps, making phone calls, accepting that AI features are here to stay, and snapping way too many food photos with the latest phones on the market. I’m basically best friends with my SIM card ejector — and I say that proudly. That’s also to say, among all the options from Android makers like Samsung, Google, and OnePlus, I’ve developed a good sense of which ones are…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET There’s a new MacBook Pro in town, and Apple is touting some of the most promising features and specs I’ve seen from the company. Sure, the Thunderbolt 5 port on the M4 Pro and M4 Max models will appeal to creatives and professionals who desire faster, more powerful data transferring, and the peak SDR brightness of 1,000 nits will satisfy any digital nomad. Still, I’m most attracted to a boringly awesome upgrade: battery…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET Day three of Apple’s “week of announcements” saw the news that many have been waiting patiently for: the release of the new MacBook Pro M4. The revamped MacBook Pro is stacked with updated hardware such as Thunderbolt 5 ports, a 12MP camera, a nano-texture display, and of course the much-anticipated M4 chip in one of three different chip configurations: the M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max.  All three have a 16-core neural engine…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Apple officially revealed the M4 MacBook series earlier today, but in the shadow of this announcement is other news that’s arguably just as important. The company has increased the base memory of its M2 and M3 MacBook Air models to 16GB of RAM. The best part? The starting price for these laptops remains $999. Also: Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022) review: Sleeker, faster – and more expensive The tech giant will not charge extra…