Computers

 Like most people, I was initially confounded by the switch to USB Type-C. The new charging and connectivity platform is appearing in newer smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs as a way to make devices sleeker, more versatile and help them to charge a lot faster. Is this really the one port to rule them all?

How would you define a “cool” tech gift? There are many ways, but by most definitions—including unlocking all new capabilities and breathing new life into a favourite device—a new component for your desktop computer definitely makes the cool gift list.

If you're looking to upgrade your gaming experience, build and new computer, or figure out which new gaming rig to buy, I'll give you some recommendations for the five best graphics cards for gaming this year.

As you no doubt know, when it comes to trying to pack the performance needed to undertake serious video gaming in a laptop, it comes down to a very tricky balance between speed and portability. Try to shove too much power in a gaming laptop and for all intents and purposes, it ceases to be a portable PC —heavy, bulky and with little battery life. Go too far in the other direction, though, and you end up with something that’s svelte but unable to play games on anything but the lowest settings. I just spent some quality time with a gaming laptop that manages to strike the perfect balance: the Eurocom M3. It’s a compact, lightweight laptop with the power to chew through pixels and polygons while keeping frame rates high. Eurocom says the M3 is the most powerful 13-inch notebook ever made and everything I’ve seen supports that claim.

Your ultimate desktop PC buying guide: Unveil essential features and key factors for the perfect choice, from sleek all-in-ones to high-performance gaming PCs.

Like many Canadians, I’ve spent the past few weekends spring cleaning. Something about being largely stuck indoors through a particularly long and harsh winter (including nearly a week without wired Internet access when an ice storm took out cable service in my neighbourhood) makes the first warm day of April seem like it’s past time to get things done. We open the windows, break out the rakes and start cleaning, indoors and out. Cars are washed, windows wiped and carpets shampooed. Since I have the cleaning bug anyway, this is the perfect time to clean my PC –also, both “inside” and out. The result will be a computer that’s faster, cleaner, more energy efficient, less cluttered and a pleasure to use.

 Got your eyes on a Surface Pro 4, but still have a summer vacation to pay for? With the Best Buy exclusive Acer Aspire Switch Alpha 12, you can have it both ways. It’s a budget-friendly prosumer 2-in-1, offering the full Windows 10 convertible laptop experience without breaking the bank.

Wireless networking can be confusing. There are many numbers and letters being thrown around and with Gigabit Wi-Fi just starting to appear in mainstream devices, there’s more arcane info than ever to keep track of. Dual-band, 802.11, a,b,g,n,ac, 1300/1900, 600/900, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, beamforming … What does it all mean? In particular, what is the difference between the previous top performing Wi-Fi standard (802.11n wireless) and the new champ (802.11ac)? In this post, I’ll break it down to the basics.  

When it comes to being hacked, most of us instinctively think of our computer and the internet. But did you know your PC’s wireless keyboard could be vulnerable to attack? It’s happened, and the results can be bad. That’s why you should ditch any older wireless keyboards you might have and upgrade to the security of one featuring Microsoft AES technology.

It doesn't matter if you're upgrading an old machine or building a new rig, let me show you how to choose the right CPU for your gaming PC.