tech trends

With the release of Windows 11 23H2 Beta build 22635.5025, Microsoft continues its steady and nuanced experimentation with everyday features that aim to reshape the Windows user experience for Insider Program users, marking small but meaningful advances on its iterative journey. This build...

Change is an inexorable force in technology—one that regularly reshapes the platforms, tools, and even communities that define our digital lives. For nearly a decade, the Windows Central Podcast has used Skype to bridge the miles between hosts and listeners, becoming almost synonymous with the...

A new wave of changes is coming to the Microsoft 365 app experience for Windows users, and it is poised to leave a significant mark on the relationship users have with their documents—and with Microsoft’s own OneDrive cloud storage platform. From March 2025, Microsoft will begin a carefully...

Xiaomi 16 Pro: Lighter, Cooler with 3D-Printed Mid-Frame In a move that could redefine not only smartphone design but also set new expectations for high-performance hardware, Xiaomi’s upcoming 16 Pro is rumored to feature a revolutionary 3D-printed metal mid-frame. Based on the insights of...

Microsoft’s ambition to reshape our relationship with our digital past took a major leap this week, as Windows Recall finally emerged from its extended cocoon and landed on Windows 11 devices worldwide. For months, Recall has sat at the center of heated debates about privacy, productivity, and...

Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to reinvent the familiar battery icon in Windows 11 represent more than a subtle facelift—they signal a renewed determination to place clarity, usefulness, and modern aesthetics at the heart of the Windows visual experience. For many, such a refresh might seem...

Another one bites the dust at Redmond, with Microsoft announcing its soon-to-be fond farewell to the Windows Maps app: a cartographic casualty that, depending on whom you ask, conjures either a moment of nostalgia or a blank stare of "Wait, we had a Maps app?" For seasoned Windows watchers and...

Not content with letting you paint your desktop in weird pastel hues or chasing you down with AI-powered widgets, Microsoft is now ready to add a little more, shall we say, color, to your conversations—by letting you toggle off the profanity filter for voice typing in Windows 11. That’s right...

In the ever-capricious world of SQL Server management, where every version number is both a badge and a potential migraine, Devart has dropped its latest update like a tactical nuke: dbForge Tools for SQL Server 7.1 is here, bringing support for SQL Server 2025, the SSMS 21 Preview, and the...

Amara’s Law claims we wildly overestimate technology’s impacts in the short term and epicly underestimate them in the long term—AI is currently doing its best to validate both sides of this paradox. On one hand, hype-mongers assure us that prompt engineering will soon be a more marketable skill...

A funny thing happens on the road to making technology more “human”—we start running into all the awkward little edges of real humanity. Case in point: Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider Preview builds have given voice typing a long-overdue upgrade. For years, if you pressed Windows+H to...

It’s finally happening: Windows Recall, Microsoft’s most controversial AI tool since, well... Clippy, has strutted onto the Copilot+ PC stage after a year-long intermission layered in drama, hot takes, and a not-so-little detour through the privacy minefield. Yes, the digital paparazzi of...

If you thought your PC already knew a little too much about you, strap in, because the age of Copilot+ PCs has arrived—and they’re not just smart, they’re a little bit psychic. Gone are the days when your computer was content to silently judge your 137 open browser tabs; now, with the latest...

It’s finally time to put away the confetti, cancel your weekly Windows Maps app party, and come to terms with the quiet demise of a true Windows Phone relic: the Maps app in Windows 11 will soon be as useful as a paper clip in a thunderstorm. Mark your calendars for July 2025, when Microsoft...

Picture this: Microsoft, the tech behemoth known for everything from Windows to—occasionally—a dancing Clippy, decided to unveil the next phase of its marketing storytelling for the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. But here’s where even the most eagle-eyed technophiles missed a beat: the slick...

We’re poised at the edge of a digital renaissance, where your desktop PC is about to go from humble Excel wrangler to all-seeing, AI-powered productivity champion—a transformation not unlike Clark Kent ducking into a phone booth and emerging as Superman, minus the questionable spandex. Welcome...

Open your Edge browser, click the familiar new tab button, and instead of the usual MSN barrage assaulting your eyeballs with “shocking” news stories and viral cat hacks, you’re now greeted with a much quieter (and frankly more existential) prompt: “How can I help you today?” That’s...

The world of Windows is full of surprises—none more so than the unexpected appearance of the infamous Blue Screen of Death. While historically a harbinger of system crashes and lost work, Microsoft's latest redesign breathes new (and yes, even green) life into this once-dreaded error screen...

In an unexpected twist that only the universe—or perhaps the marketing division at Redmond—could orchestrate, millions of Americans are being offered the golden ticket: a free upgrade to Windows 11. The Great American Windows Swap Microsoft, not exactly known for subtlety, is nudging (okay...

Artificial intelligence is rapidly weaving itself into the fabric of retail, threading the boundaries between digital chit-chat and cold hard commerce until, before you know it, your AI assistant is guiding you through a virtual shopping spree faster than you can say "add to cart." Decoding the...