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Having decided that it was time for a big group test this issue, we decided to do two, just for you, and to push ourselves just a little further. Portable SSDs was the easy one (p68). This type of product is often overlooked though it’s one most peop

Editorial Editor: Ben Mansill ben.mansill@futurenet.comSenior Journalist: Shaun PrescottSenior Journalist: Lindsay HandmerSenior Journalist: Chris SzewczykGroup Art Director: Troy Coleman Contributors Desire Athrow, Jon Bailes, David Crookes, Tim D

Download these APC exclusives free from: www.apcmag.com/exclusives Whether you want to convert PDF documents into a Word format DOC/ RTF or convert Word documents into PDF - PDF Conversa provides the necessary tools. PDF to Word: Convert existing PDF

Everything you need to know from the month in tech AMD ripped the covers off four new 4nm Zen 5-powered Ryzen 9000 processors in the Ryzen 9, 7, and 5 families at Computex 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan, touting that the new Zen 5 architecture will deliver a

It’s easy to forget, but we live in a time of cosmic greed. It’s starting to resemble a self-consuming, ritualistic self-destruction. For those in the business of “content” – a term that basically means everything and nothing nowadays – the mask is s

The race between AMD and Intel has heated up in the past few years as Ryzen processors have become increasingly competitive. The amount of headroom for overclocking has shrunk in response, and it seems motherboard vendors may have tweaked settings a

Chipmakers and laptop manufacturers like to throw around terms like revolutionary or transformative, but with Qualcomm’s imminent entry into the PC market with its Arm-based Snapdragon X CPU family, coinciding with announcement of Microsoft Copilot+

AI, everywhere, all at once. That, in a nutshell, is what’s happening to the computing industry. The PC, inevitably, is not immune. Later this summer, you’ll be able to buy a machine that officially qualifies as an ‘AI’ PC, according to no lesser an

The right to protest is an extremely important part of modern society. In the pantheon of the checks and balances that are required to keep everyone moving in the same direction, protesting has always been vital. Of course, some protests have horrifi

Find the best deals on new gear at getprice.com/au STUNNING CREATIVE POWER A reasonable processor upgrade to device with an impressive screen and unparalleled battery life. The new M3 3nm processors is more efficient, so you’ll be able to run the sa

PRICE $219 WEB apple.com/au Were it not for the “Pencil Pro” branding printed on the end of it, you could easily mistake Apple’s new stylus for its predecessor, the Pencil 2. However, the Pencil Pro introduces four major new features . The first is

Apple is no stranger to legal and regulatory challenges, but things have gone up a gear recently. Those actions were predominately based in the EU. Now, though, the US justice system has its sights on Cupertino. On 21 March, the US Department of Just

27in MONITORS$249 | acer.com We know that not everyone has hundreds of dollars to spend on a monitor, and that some people prefer to buy a pair for an extended desktop. And you’ll struggle to find a better budget choice than this Full HD 27in panel.

27in MONITORS$229 | acer.com You can usually be confident of aggressive pricing from Acer, and it doesn’t disappoint here. The next cheapest 4K screen, BenQ’s PD2706U, costs $739, while the BenQ BL2790QT costs $459 and includes a mere 1440p panel. No

27in MONITORS$459 | benq.com There’s a lot to like about this 27in, 1440p monitor. Especially for owners of Apple laptops, as BenQ goes out of its way to colour-match its output with MacBook screens via the M-book mode. And that’s just the start: the

27in MONITORS$739 | benq.com If you’re a graphic designer but your budget doesn’t reach Eizo levels, then there are some extremely compelling reasons to choose the BenQ PD2706U. Let’s start with the obvious: this is a 27in 4K screen, so that means yo

27in MONITORS$839 | viewsonic.com As a rule, we’re fans of 1440p 27in screens. They feel more spacious than 1080p rivals, making it a pleasure to work on two windows side by side, and text looks sharp. This is one reason the BenQ BL2790QT wins a Reco

27in MONITORS$284 | techinn.com The ProLite XUB2763HSU-B1 has one obvious rival here: the Acer Vero B277. Both include a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS panel and both lean heavily on their green credentials. In the Iiyama’s case, that means the plastic is 85% PCR

As with all our testing, where possible we use a mix of real-world and technical tests to determine the quality of our products. Here, that means using each monitor as our daily work screen to see not just how enjoyable it is to look at but its usabi

I’m in a privileged position. For some reason tucked deep into my psyche, I love testing new monitors. In this Labs, I’ve tested 11 very different blighters, and apart from unpacking and packing them (let’s not talk about my back), it’s been a pleasu

1TB,$120 | crucial.com READ 447MB/sec WRITE 412MB/sec The first thing you notice about the Crucial X6 is how small it is; not far off USB thumb drive size (69 x 64 x 11mm). The second thing is its price, which is among the lowest in this test. A fact

1TB, $199 | crucial.com READ 1,951MB/sec WRITE 1,619MB/sec The X10 Pro is one of this month’s top-end drives thanks to its support for USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports. That’s great if you have them, or USB 4, but if not then your read and write speeds will r

1TB, $147 | amazon.com.au READ 1,017MB/sec WRITE 934MB/sec Integral Memory may not be a household name in the global storage market, but this British company has carved a niche and its products are sold on Amazon in Australia. The similarity of the S

1TB, $168 | amazon.com.au READ 1,931MB/sec WRITE 1,732MB/sec It may be only by one gram, but the SlimXpress Pro can claim to be the lightest USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 drive on test. Integral claims read and write speeds of 2,000MB/sec, and it came close to t

1TB, $120 | kingston.com READ 1,005MB/sec WRITE 927MB/sec Arriving 18 months after the XS2000, there are only two real differences to note between the drives: that the XS1000 comes in black and that it uses the USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 standard rather than th

1TB, $159 | kingston.com READ 1,958 MB/sec WRITE 1,711 MB/sec Many larger portable SSDs include an adapter board to connect the NVMe SSD to the USB interface, but Kingston’s XS2000 includes a streamlined internal design to reduce the size, weight, po

1TB, $190 | amazon.com.au READ 1,997MB/sec WRITE 1,746MB/sec Unlike many portable SSDs that shove Pro into their name, the Lexar Professional SL600 is genuinely aimed at professionals – primarily photographers and videographers. This 64g device, comp

1TB, $168 | amazon.com.au READ 1,928MB/sec WRITE 1,732MB/sec The Lexar SL500, like the SL600, is part of a new generation of ultra-slim portable SSDs aimed at professionals needing to travel light while capturing and editing images and videos on the

1TB, $299 | amazon.com.au READ 1,581MB/sec WRITE 1,513MB/sec The Rocket Nano V2 is a curious drive. Sabrent obviously spent considerable time and effort constructing a robust enclosure, even bundling a silicon bumper you can wrap around its aluminium

1TB, $169 | samsung.com READ 955MB/sec WRITE 867MB/sec The Samsung T7 is one of the older drives here, having been released in 2020, but thanks to regular price cuts this USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 drive can still compete with the best. The 500GB model is $149,

1TB, $299 | samsung.com READ 447MB/sec WRITE 447MB/sec Eight terabytes. Support for that huge capacity is what marks the Samsung T5 Evo Portable SSD out from all the others, even if it’s also outsized physically at 17mm thick, 95mm long and 40mm wide

1TB, $249 | samsung.com READ 1,899MB/sec WRITE 1,814MB/sec Although it shares the same slim, rectangular design as the T7, the much more recent T9 differs from its sibling in two key ways. The first is that Samsung embraces the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standa

From the front lines of the Australian PC market AI is on everyone’s mind, but currently AI is all processed in the cloud. Microsoft is trying to shift this paradigm by having edge compute devices (the PCs, tablets, phones and laptops you use) also

PRICE $2,349 WEB tinyurl.com/APC534ca This snowy system keeps things chilly thanks to a relaxed Ryzen 7 5700X CPU, which can get hot but only sips 100W in peak operation. That can easily be dissipated thanks to the full-front facia intake fans and th

Microsoft redesigned Task Manager in Windows 11 22H2 by moving the tabbed options from the top to the left, and adding icons to represent each one. If you don’t like this design, you can easily go back to the old Task Manager – as still seen in Windo

Brave 164, released in March, makes further improvements to the browser’s AI assistant Leo. When you click the ‘Show sidebar’ button in the top-right corner, the chatbot now launches by default, which saves you having to open the sidebar first to cli

One of the best new features in LibreOffice 24.2, released in February, is a revamped ‘Notebookbar’ layout in Writer. Unlike several larger menus on the toolbar, this view rearranges the buttons, tools and options into tabs, similar to the way the cu

Google has updated its Photos app with a useful feature called Photo Stacks, which keeps your pictures better organised by grouping similar shots. Instead of showing multiple photos of the same subject, taken seconds apart, Stacks presents them as a

PRICE Free PLATFORM PC WEB bit.ly/LimbFromLimb There’s a simple, repetitive card game at the heart of Limb From Limb, but as the name suggests, with a grisly flourish that adds a layer of queasy tension. Every time you draw the wrong card, your chara

• 2x Pi Pico or Pico W• Android or Apple phone/tablet• 2x half-size breadboards or one large• A 100 Ohm resistor (brown-black-brown-gold)• Handful of M2M jumper wires• Code: tinyurl.com/APC534pico Oscilloscopes are expensive and largely reserved for

PRICE Free PLATFORM PC WEB bit.ly/Crawl I can think of few things worse than shuffling around in a cramped, pitch-black cave, which of course makes it the perfect setting for a horror game. Here you’re crawling, literally crawling on your belly aroun

PRICE Free PLATFORM PC, browser WEB bit.ly/PickPoke This is a game entirely about moving tokens around, as you drag them onto choices to make your way round a fantasy city. A singleplayer roguelite, it has the spirit of a tabletop RPG. The table is e