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Chronicle launches AI agent to revolutionise presentations
Chronicle unveils its AI-powered presentation tool, enabling users to create polished decks in minutes, revolutionising visual storytelling and collaboration.

Crucial’s newest fast-and-tiny 1TB portable SSD is on sale for the first time
A bit of extra storage space is never a bad thing to have, especially if you have a laptop with limited storage that isn’t easily upgraded. In such cases, a portable SSD is a convenient and affordable option—more so when you can score a great deal like this 1TB Crucial X10 for $100 on Amazon. That’s a solid 29% off its original $140 price. This tiny little thing is compatible with just about any device you have, from Windows to Mac laptops, from Android gadgets to iPads, Linux, and more. As long as there’s a USB-C port, you can connect to it easily with the provided USB-C-to-C cable. It’s fast, too, so you won’t be twiddling your thumbs while moving files to and from it. It can reach read speeds up to 2,100 MB/s—nearly double the speed of comparable 1TB drives at this price—so it’s great for creators, gamers, students, and more. If you’re clumsy and always dropping things, you won’t have to worry about losing your grip on this portable SSD because it comes with drop resistance of up to 9.8 ft. It also has an IP65 dust and water resistance rating, so it can survive puddles and rain. And it’s seriously compact, so you can take it with you anywhere with ease. This is the first price drop since the Crucial X10 released last month, so don’t miss this chance to get a super-fast super-compact portable SSD at a great price. Buy it now for $100! Or if you need an extra-huge drive, the 8TB version is also on sale (for $440, was $780). This newcomer is a solid contender among the best external drives you can get. Get 1TB of super-fast, super-compact portable SSD storage for $100Buy now at Amazon

Not just passwords: 8 other details to save in your password manager
Some of the best reasons to use a password manager don’t involve passwords at all. Think of a password manager not just as a tool for storing your login credentials, but as a secure and searchable database for important personal info. No matter which password manager you use, chances are you could be doing a lot more with it. Here are some other types of data you can save in a password manager beyond just passwords. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Credit cards and banking info Your web browser and phone may already be able to auto-fill credit card details when shopping online, but adding credit card info to your password manager lets you access it from any web browser on any device. That’s helpful if you’re a frequent browser switcher like me. You can also use a password manager to store your banking account and routing numbers, so you don’t have to go looking for your checkbook every time a site requires a direct deposit. Standard form info In addition to your logins and passwords, password managers can also store your addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers, allowing you to populate various web forms with just a click or two. As with credit cards, you could always just use your browser’s auto-fill feature for this purpose, but browser auto-fill can easily become infested with garbage data, requiring regular maintenance to get rid of it. Passport numbers Jared Newman / Foundry If you travel abroad, you’ll inevitably have to fill out some kind of embarkation form online. Being able to easily look up and copy your passport number will make that process much easier. Consider saving the passport’s issue and expiration dates as well, so you can quickly look up when you need to renew. You might even expand to other state-issued identification, like your driver’s license. Library and membership cards If your local library supports checking out with an account number and PIN—as mine does here in Cincinnati—you can leave the physical card at home and go completely digital. Storing your library membership details in your password manager is also helpful when signing up for apps like Libby, Hoopla, Kanopy, and Freegal, which offer free digital content with your library membership. Software licenses Jared Newman / Foundry Instead of digging through your email inbox for desktop software licenses, create a login entry for each product and enter the license key where the password would normally be. If you save the download link in your password manager’s URL field, that’ll make re-installing the software easier as well. 1Password even has a dedicated Software License item type. Wi-Fi passwords I used to take pictures of Wi-Fi passwords when visiting a friend’s house or staying at an Airbnb, so I could quickly look it up when connecting additional devices. Saving that info to a password manager is a bit more secure, and it’s much easier to reference on subsequent visits. If you run a home media server or other application that uses a local IP address, consider storing that in your password manager as well. Important instructions A password manager can also help you remember where you (or a loved one) has saved important documents, keys, or other personal items. Create a secure note with the relevant details and/or instructions, then label it in a way that’s easily searchable. If your password manager lets you share logins and notes with others, you can make sure other family members have access to the same info. Knowing what’s saved where Jared Newman / Foundry Here’s a clever idea I spotted on Reddit: for password managers that support tags, you can use them to remember what type of information is saved with each account. For instance, you can tag which accounts collect your mailing address or your credit card, so when that information changes, you can quickly look up all those accounts and update your info. 1Password, Enpass, and KeePass all have tagging support built-in. For password managers that don’t, you can always add your own hashtags to the notes or title field instead. Protect your password manager Obviously, the more kinds of information you store in your password manager, the more you’re putting at risk if access to your vault becomes compromised. Some folks mistakenly believe password managers are dangerous for this reason, but it really just underscores the importance of a strong master password and two-factor authentication. Once you’re feeling confident about the security of a password manager, there’s no limit to what you can store in it. If you aren’t using one yet, it’s time to start—for free! Get started with one of our top picks for password managers that don’t cost anything. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday.

Apple and Google clash with police and MPs over phone thefts
The Met wants firms to block devices from accessing their networks, but they are concerned about fraud.

Udemy unveils AI Role Play for workplace skills training
Udemy launches AI-powered Role Play, enabling professionals to practise business skills through custom simulations and real-time feedback, boosting workplace training.

I’ve spent time with tech oligarchs – you have no idea just how weird they are
Like the rocket ships Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are shovelling money into, the tech being prioritised by Silicon Valley’s billionaires isn’t designed to save us. It’s meant to save them.

Why did Ncuti Gatwa leave Doctor Who, and is Billie Piper the new Doctor?
Fans have been left 'heartbroken' and angry at the surprise Doctor Who finale.

Coachella forces H from Steps' Welsh festival to change name
Steps star Ian "H" Watkins says Cowchella has been forced to rebrand as Moo-La-La Festival.

Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 review: A versatile, inexpensive touchscreen machine
At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Robust design with 2-in-1 versatility Enjoyable keyboard Good battery life Plenty of RAM, storage for the price Cons Design doesn’t look appealing at first glance Display could be brighter and more vibrant CPU, GPU performance doesn’t stand out Our Verdict The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 isn’t exciting, but it’s a well-rounded budget 2-in-1 that offers good bang for your buck. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today If you haven’t heard, Dell dropped a bombshell earlier this year. It announced the company has done away with its well-known Inspiron, XPS, and Precision brands and instead opted for an entirely new hierarchy. At the bottom of this hierarchy, you’ll find laptops like the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1. Last year, this would’ve been called a Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, and despite the change in name, it still fills its role of providing an affordable entry point into computing. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Specifications The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 that PC World received for testing is an entry-level AMD configuration with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 processor at its heart. Dell offers many different Ryzen AI processors, as well as Intel models, but this is among the least powerful configurations available. CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 (6 cores, up to 4.8GHz) Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 840M NPU: AMD 50 TOPs Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 60Hz WVA 300-nits touchscreen Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive Webcam: 1080p 30fps camera Connectivity: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 64 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.36 inch x 8.9 in x 0.65 in Weight: 3.51 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Price: $849.99 MSRP / $599.99 at time of testing (Best Buy) That’s reflected in the price. Although it technically carries an MSRP of $849.99 on Dell.com, which feels a bit steep, it currently sells on Best Buy for $599.99, which is among the lowest prices you can expect from a Windows laptop that has the most recent generation of AMD or Intel processor inside. While this is a sale price, the laptop was listed just a couple weeks ago—so I’d expect this “sale” to occur frequently. Despite its low sale price, the laptop doesn’t cut corners too closely. It still provides 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive. You can expect to pay higher prices if you do decide to go with a Plus 14 2-in-1 from Dell’s website. However, some of the models available on Dell.com offer a 1TB solid-state drive, and there’s also an option for a 2560×1600 resolution display on the Intel variant, which is an upgrade over the entry-level model’s 1920×1200 display. The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 is a good option for shoppers looking to snag a do-it-all Windows device on a tight budget. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith Budget Windows 2-in-1s aren’t exactly known for their riveting or dramatic design, and the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is no exception. It’s a simple, slim 14-inch machine that measures no greater than 0.65 inches thick, available in a silver or navy-blue colorway, neither of which is remarkable. With that said, it’s a well-executed laptop when it comes to build quality. Opening the laptop lid reveals a bit of display flex, but not enough to raise any concerns. It’s a similar story with the lower chassis, which does slightly creak if handled roughly but doesn’t visibly flex unless truly abused. I also like the materials used. I felt the plastics on the lower chassis had a nice texture to them and didn’t try to fake a metallic finish. The rear of the display panel, meanwhile, seems to be made of aluminum and offers a premium feel. Of course, as the name indicates, the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is a 2-in-1 device with a touchscreen, and the hinge allows the display to be rotated back 360 degrees for use like a tablet. It’s too large and heavy to be comfortably used as a tablet for any length of time, but the option is useful if you want to take notes or draw. Dell doesn’t include an Active Pen with the 2-in-1, but one is available for about $40. Owners can also rotate the display partway back to use the keyboard like a kickstand, which can be handy if you want to use the laptop to watch Netflix or YouTube. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s keyboard ranks among its best traits. The keys have good travel and a definitive tactile feel with a subtle, clicky bottoming action. I found the keyboard comfortable to use for long typing sessions. The comfort is aided by a good amount of palm rest space below the bottom of the keyboard. Keyboard backlighting is standard, and it does what it says on the tin. The touchpad is less remarkable, but also competent. It measures about 4.5 inches wide and about 3 inches deep. The touchpad felt responsive in my testing and handled multi-touch gestures well. However, some competitors—most notably, Asus—offer budget models with larger touchpads. Of course, since this is a 2-in-1 with a touchscreen, it’s possible to use the touchscreen instead of the touchpad. I personally prefer having the option to touch the screen over not having that option, if it doesn’t add too much to the price, and the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 is certainly affordable. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith Most Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 configurations have a WVA-LCD touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920×1200 and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. A 2560×1600 upgrade is available on some models from Dell.com, but PC World did not receive that display to test. Display quality is passable. On the plus side, the 14-inch display’s 1920×1200 resolution is quite sharp. However, the display is only rated for 300 nits of brightness, and on top of that it has a glossy coating that shows quite a bit of glare. That is a recipe for problems if you intend to use the laptop in a bright room or outdoors. Color performance is also mediocre. The display looks reasonably saturated and vibrant on its own, but if compared to an OLED display (which can be found on some price-competitive laptops, like the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x and Asus Zenbook 14) the difference is night and day in OLED’s favor. The same is true for contrast, since OLED displays have an effectively infinite contrast ratio that results in a deeper, more immersive image. To put it simply, the display is not among the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s strong points, and it’s the one feature that cuts strongly against a recommendation. If you want a budget laptop with a great display, this isn’t it. Audio quality is better, though still mixed. The speakers deliver good volume and clarity, especially with dialogue, which is more than can be said for many budget laptops. Throw a bit of bass at them, however, and distortion can result. Even the laptop chassis itself can vibrate, creating an annoying rattle. The speakers are good for podcasts and video calls, but not for games or music. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 comes with a 1080p webcam and a dual array microphone, both of which are common specifications for modern Windows laptops. The webcam is sharp, and the microphone picks up good audio quality with great noise rejection, especially if AI noise rejection features are enabled. The camera includes a physical privacy shutter, which is always nice to see. The one slightly unusual specification for the price point is the inclusion of a fingerprint reader on the power button in the upper left corner of the keyboard. It works well in most situations, although a bit of grime or moisture on your finger can fool it. So, don’t try to log in after taking a swig of Mountain Dew. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith Dell has a reputation for leaning on modern connectivity, and the 14 Plus 2-in-1 is no exception. It provides two USB-C ports, both of which offer power delivery and DisplayPort video connectivity, and both of which can be used to power the laptop with the included USB-C power adapter. They are joined by one USB-A port, an HDMI 1.4 port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Although I could nitpick about the lack of a second USB-A port, which means you’ll need an adapter if you happen to want to connect a wired keyboard and mouse, this type of connectivity is typical for a modern Windows laptop. When it comes to wireless connectivity, the laptop supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, which are the latest versions of the respective wireless standards. Although this is common for modern Windows laptops, at this price point you might end up looking at some older models from the 2024 or 2023 model years, and it’s likely they would not have Wi-Fi 7 or Bluetooth 5.4. Keep that in mind if wireless performance matters to you. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Performance The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 that PC World received for testing was an entry-level model with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 processor. This APU has a 6-core CPU and AMD Radeon 840M graphics. As you might expect, the entry-level CPU and integrated GPU result in modest overall performance. IDG / Matthew Smith PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, didn’t put the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 off to the best start. While the score of 5,579 isn’t bad for a budget laptop, it’s also a long way from what systems equipped with Ryzen AI 7/9 or Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors tend to achieve. The AMD Radeon 840M, which is relatively less capable than many IGPs today, doesn’t help matters. IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake, a heavily multi-threaded long-duration benchmark, is a bit more favorable. The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 churned through a transcode of a two-hour-long movie in 1,498 seconds using purely the CPU cores (i.e. without special encoding features enabled). That’s not a bad result for the price, and it places the Ryzen AI 5 340 in a similar league to the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V. IDG / Matthew Smith The Ryzen AI 5 340 delivers a respectable but hardly earth-shattering multi-core score of 7,993 in Cinebench R23. Although a long way from the top, this is again a decent result. The main issue here, I think, is the lack of cores. Six isn’t a lot in 2025, and Cinebench R23 does tend to make good use of available cores, whatever they might be. The Ryzen AI 5 340’s Cinebench R23 single-core score was 1,828, which is basically the same as the other processors listed in the graph above (they score between 1,700 to 1,900). This indicates the cores that are available are speedy. IDG / Matthew Smith As mentioned earlier, the AMD Ryzen AI 5 has AMD Radeon 840M graphics, which is much less capable than the more widely known and well-regarded AMD Radeon 880M and AMD Radeon 890M. Specifically, the Radeon 840M has just four graphics cores, a big cut from the 880M (12) and 890M (16). 3DMark Time Spy shows the result with a score of just 1,427. That’s much lower than an AMD Radeon 880M or 890M, as well as Intel’s Arc 140V or even 130V graphics. These solutions tend to score 3,000 to 4,000, as the graphs show. To be fair, you do often need to pay a bit more for them—and laptops with the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V are available for just a couple hundred dollars more. That’s not to say the Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 is hopeless when it comes to graphics and gaming. The 2-in-1 could comfortably play Grim Dawn, an action-RPG released in 2016, at 1080p and medium detail. If you want to play Diablo 4, though, you’re out of luck. It can technically launch and play, but in my experience no amount of fiddling with the settings made it an enjoyable experience. The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1’s overall performance is about what you should expect for the price. It’s worth mention, however, that Dell provides 16GB of RAM and 512GB of solid-state storage. It’s not uncommon for price-competitive 2-in-1s to only provide 8GB of RAM or 256GB of storage, both of which are a significant downgrade. These upgrades don’t necessarily improve benchmark performance, but do make the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 more usable day-to-day and over time. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Battery life and portability A 64-watt-hour battery powers the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1. That’s an average size for a laptop in this category, and while the AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 is miserly when it’s not under heavy load, it does struggle to compete with the latest Intel and Qualcomm hardware. IDG / Matthew Smith I measured a tad over 15 hours of battery life in PC World’s standard battery test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel. If 15 hours sounds like a lot, I agree. However, as the graph shows, a lot of modern laptops can achieve 18 to 22 hours on this test. The test result matched my subjective experience. I spent some of my time with the Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 traveling, and I found it could easily endure a day of mixed web browsing and writing, with occasional breaks, with 40 percent of the battery (or more) left once I arrived at a destination. I think the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1’s battery life is fine, and certainly more than a typical user is likely to need. Still, it appears that AMD’s Ryzen AI 340 is behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus and Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 where battery life is concerned. Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1: Conclusion The Dell Plus 14 2-in-1 is a good option for shoppers looking to snag a do-it-all Windows device on a tight budget. It offers versatile design, a nice keyboard, and well-rounded specifications while avoiding a major issue or downside that would take it out of contention. The Plus 14 2-in-1 is a particularly alluring when on sale for $599.99 at Best Buy, which is less than many comparable Windows 2-in-1s and laptops. While I would prefer to see a better display, or a slightly larger touchpad, I enjoyed my time with the 2-in-1.