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You’ve heard of a watch, right? And you’re likely fully aware of smartwatches, and how the two differ. But you may have also read about hybrid smartwatches. Confused as to what a hybrid watch does? We’re here to explain everything, from what a hybrid smartwatch is and what they can do, to a few examples of the best out there.

What is a hybrid smartwatch?

A hybrid smartwatch is a fusion between a regular mechanical watch and a smartwatch, in that it combines some connected features with traditional watch mechanics. It doesn’t have a touchscreen, doesn’t usually require charging up every day, and doesn’t look like a piece of technology. It looks like a normal watch. If the Apple Watch, Samsung Gear Sport, or touchscreen Android Wear watches like the Emporio Armani Connected, don’t appeal because they don’t really look like watches, then the hybrid is your gateway to the smartwatch world.

Show, don’t tell

The best way to understand what a hybrid smartwatch does is to see and play around with one. The above photo shows off the Fossil Q Crewmaster. We chose it as our example because the design is based closely on an existing Fossil watch, which the company chose to augment with smart connected features. You can see it has an analog dial, traditional watch styling, and it’s slim and stylish.

It’s smart because it has Bluetooth connectivity built-in, and it pairs with your smartphone through an app. The app is available for iOS and Android, which means there’s a high chance whatever phone you have works with the watch. It’s not like the Apple Watch, which only works with the iPhone.

What does a hybrid smartwatch do?

The vast majority of hybrid smartwatches share similar functionality. A hybrid watch will track your steps, while the app works out calorie burn and activity time. Some watches will also track your sleep, but it’s not as common considering most people are unlikely to wear the watch 24-hours a day. The watch will alert you of notifications on your phone with vibrations, and some kind of visual hint about which app is alerting you.

The method for notification alerts varies. Fossil, for example, makes the watch hands zip around to point at a single number, which you designate to a certain app or contact when you first set up the watch.

For example, if email notifications are linked to the number 3, the hands will move to 3 o’clock on the watch and will linger there long enough for you to take a glance. Other watches do it it different, such as the NYSW GTS Activity Tracker, which has a dedicated sub-dial for notification alerts. Hybrid watches from Guess and Martian have a small LCD screen for alerts.

You can also expect features like alarms, world time zones, and a programmable button that can be configured for different functions. This can include working as a remote shutter for your phone’s camera, for music control, or to make your phone ring in case you can’t find it.

Don’t expect most hybrid smartwatches to run apps, have watch faces you can change, or include more complex features like a heart rate sensor (though there are some like the Nokia Steel HR).

No charging?

Because most hybrid smartwatches don’t have a touchscreen, they don’t consume anywhere near the same degree of energy as one that does. Paired with Bluetooth Low Energy, a hybrid smartwatch can usually survive on a coin-cell battery, and therefore doesn’t require nightly charging.

The battery can last up to six months before it needs replacing, which can be done at home, and for a very low price. This makes hybrid smartwatches perfect for anyone that wants to avoid owning yet another device to recharge every day.

Anything else?

Because a hybrid smartwatch doesn’t deviate very far from traditional watch styling and design, you get many of the benefits associated with mechanical watches. Almost all are water resistant, and usually down to at least 5ATM (underwater up to 50 meters), not just a simple IP68 rating (limited to about 1.5 meters), and the standard size lugs mean you can pick and choose your own straps. Also, because the designs are more watch-like, there’s greater choice for women in the hybrid smartwatch world.

Finally, because hybrid smartwatches aren’t as technically complex as a full smartwatch, they’re often much cheaper.

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Beware the signs of a potentially malware-infested PC: slower-than-usual performance, the recent occurrence of lots of pop-ups, and other weird issues. It’s possible your system has been infected by a virus, spyware, or other nefarious entity—even if you have an antivirus program installed. Yes, out-of-the-ordinary behavior is sometimes the result of hardware issues, but it’s best to first rule out malware if your PC is acting up. Here’s a step-by-step guide for taking action.

Step 1: Enter Safe Mode

Before you do anything, you need to disconnect your PC from the internet, and don’t use it until you’re ready to clean your PC. This can help prevent the malware from spreading and/or leaking your private data.

If you think your PC may have a malware infection, boot your PC into Microsoft’s Safe Mode. In this mode, only the minimum required programs and services are loaded. If any malware is set to load automatically when Windows starts, entering in this mode may prevent it from doing so. This is important because it can make removing the nefarious files easier since they’re not actually running or active.

You may find that your PC runs noticeably faster in Safe Mode. This could be a sign that your system has a malware infection, or it could mean that you have a lot of legitimate programs that normally start up alongside Windows. If your PC is outfitted with a solid-state drive it’s probably fast either way.

Step 2: Delete temporary files

Now that you’re in Safe Mode, you’ll want to run a virus scan. But before you do that, delete your temporary files. Doing this may speed up the virus scanning, free up disk space, and even get rid of some malware. To use the Disk Cleanup utility included with Windows 10 just type Disk Cleanup in the search bar or after pressing the Start button and select the tool that appears named Disk Cleanup.

Step 3: Download malware scanners

Now you’re ready to have a malware scanner do its work—and fortunately, running a scanner is enough to remove most standard infections. If you already had an antivirus program active on your computer, you should use a different scanner for this malware check, since your current antivirus software may not have detected the malware. Remember, no antivirus program can detect 100 percent of the millions of malware types and variants.

There are two types of antivirus programs. You’re probably more familiar with real-time antivirus programs, which run in the background and constantly watch for malware. (Another option is an on-demand scanner, which searches for malware infections when you open the program manually and run a scan. You should have only one real-time antivirus program installed at a time, but you can have many on-demand scanners installed to run scans with multiple programs, thereby ensuring that if one program misses something a different one might find it.

Step 4: Fix your web browser

Malware infections can damage Windows system files and other settings. One common malware trait is to modify your web browser’s homepage to reinfect the PC, display advertisements, prevent browsing, and generally annoy you.

Before launching your web browser, check your homepage and connection settings. For Internet Explorer right-click the Windows 10 Start button and select Control Panel, then Internet Options. Find the Home Page settings in the General tab, and verify that it’s not some site you know nothing about. For Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, simply go to the setttings window of your browser to check your homepage setting.

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If you’ve noticed any unexpected reboots or PC instability as a result of the recent Spectre patches, there’s a solution: Microsoft has issued an emergency Windows patch that rolls back the recent Spectre mitigations.

Confused? It’s a bit complicated. After the intial Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilites were disclosed, both Intel and Microsoft hustled out patches to mitigate the problem. Unfortunately, Intel’s latest microcode updates—and the BIOS updates from PC makers based upon them—were themselves buggy, causing instability, reboots, and data loss in some PCs.

Microsoft’s latest patch (KB4078130) allows people with affected systems to download the patch via the Microsoft Update Catalog, which disables the mitigations for the “Spectre variant 2.”

Note that the patch notes specifically state that you should run this patch “if you are running an impacted device” (emphasis ours). In other words, if your system is working normally, don’t bother downloading this patch. This is what Microsoft calls an “out of band” patch, and it doesn’t appear that it will be made available via Windows Update, either.

Why should you consider it? Intel has warned previously that the faulty patch can sometimes cause data loss and corruption, and Microsoft is saying the same: “Our own experience is that system instability can in some circumstances cause data loss or corruption,” the patch notes state.

There’s another wrinkle, though. As part of the patch, Microsoft is allowing users to edit the Windows registry to toggle the mitigations on or off. (Instructions are here.) It’s possible to toggle Microsoft’s patch off, and then, when Intel solves its own patching problem, re-enable it. That scenario is actually what Microsoft recommends—again, only if you’ve noticed system instability and want to take action against it.

Toggling the mitigations on and off is also a feature of the latest InSpectre utility.

What should you do? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. But we can tell you what we’re doing: if a PC is working as expected, we’re leaving it patched and in place. If you’re backing up your data (to the cloud or an external drive) chances are your most crucial data will be saved in case your system goes down unexpectedly. Obviously, install Microsoft’s emergency Windows patch if you’re running into system issues. There’s no perfect solution—if you’re more paranoid than we are, feel free to deploy the patch even if your PC hasn’t hiccuped.

Good luck, and be sure to check out PCWorld’s guide on how to protect your PC against Meltdown and Spectre. Operating system updates are just one part of it.

As Bleeping Computer noted, system makers such as Dell and HP also advise rolling back their own BIOS patches to an earlier version, which they’re redeployed. It’s all horrendously confusing for consumers and IT organizations alike. Fortunately, at least, there haven’t been any public cases of these vulnerabilities being exploited, Microsoft says.

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Apple revealed Wednesday a plethora of new features and upgrades coming to the iPhone and iPad with the iOS 11.3 upgrade due out in the spring.

Most notably, Apple is adding setting allowing iPhone owners to disable a performance downgrade meant to prevent unexpected shutdowns in older iPhone models with aging batteries. The features comes after Apple was criticized for meddling with iPhone performance without customer consent; a pair of California residents even filed a class action lawsuit against the company over the issue. Apple has since apologized, lowering the price of iPhone battery replacements from $79 to $29. The ability to turn off this performance-altering feature will be found in the Battery section in the iPhone’s Settings menu.

Apple’s iOS 11.3 upgrade will also have a feature called Health Records, a one-stop-shop for iPhone owners to view their collective health data from participating medical providers. As its name implies, the app keeps track of a user’s health records so that they can see information like allergies, recent or upcoming procedures, medications, and lab results all in one place. Apple says this information is protected by encryption and requires a passcode to view.

Apple is making some improvements to its ARKit augmented reality platform as well, which it launched in the fall with iOS 11. The augmented reality software will now be able to recognize vertical surfaces like walls and doors, whereas it previously could only identify horizontal objects such as tables and floors. It will also be able to learn the position of two-dimensional objects hanging on a wall, like posters and signs, which Apple says developers could use to add interactive augmented reality elements to movie posters or museum exhibits.

iOS 11.3 will also bring changes to Messages, which will allow users to chat with businesses to schedule appointments, make purchases with Apple Pay, or ask other questions. This feature will be launching in beta in iOS 11.3 with support for companies like Hilton, Discover, Lowe’s, and Wells Fargo. Facebook has made a similar push with its Messenger app, particularly by adding a new feature that makes it easier for Messenger users to discover businesses that are active on Facebook’s messaging platform.

Other new features in iOS 11.3 include four new Animoji characters — a dragon, a bear, a skull, and a lion — and updates to Apple Music and Apple News.

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A computer mouse translates the movement you make with the mouse over a surface into actions of the cursor on the computer screen. The original mechanical mouse has given way to optical mice and laser mice. What is the difference between them? For the average user, the answer is there isn’t much of a difference in how it will work for most purposes. It may come down to cost, as an optical mouse is usually less expensive than a laser mouse.

Illumination Source Is the Difference Between Optical and Laser Mice

Optical and laser mice differ by the types of technology they use to track movement. The optical mouse uses an LED light as an illumination source, while the laser mouse, as its moniker indicates, uses a laser for illumination. Both use CMOS sensors, a tiny, low-resolution video camera such as in our smartphones, to take photos of the surface it’s on and to use those to determine movement.

Higher DPI With Laser Mouse

Laser mice have a higher dpi, which means that they can track more dots per inch, which in turn means that they’re more sensitive. But while this may have been an issue in the past, both optical and laser mice are now able to hit high dpi marks, and your average user will never notice the difference. Gamers and graphic designers may still perceive one and have personal preferences for a device. Optical mice have a resolution around 3000 dpi, while laser mice have a resolution around 6000 dpi.

Surface Vs. Deeper Illumination

Meanwhile, optical mice mostly sense only the top of the surface they are on, such as a fabric mouse pad. But the laser light looks more deeply, so it is more likely to sense peaks and valleys in a surface, giving it a jittery movement at slow speeds. It’s picking up too much useless information.

Optical sensors have less than a one percent variation in tracking at different speeds, while laser mice can have five percent or more variation. An optical mouse works well on a mouse pad or any non-glossy surface. A laser mouse will work on any surface. If you plan to use the mouse on glossy surfaces, you may want a laser mouse.

The different performance of a laser mouse at different speeds is noted as acceleration. Your hand movement translates into a different distance of movement by the cursor if you move it at a slower or faster speed. It is the resolution error versus speed as the laser mouse picks up more noise or less noise in the image of the mousing surface at different speeds. This can be annoying for someone who is gaming or trying to draw graphics.

Which Mouse Should You Use?

If you are trying to decide which mouse to buy, an optical mouse is likely to be less expensive. A laser mouse might be preferred if you are going to use it on a variety of surfaces.

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Read/write speeds are a measure of performance on a storage device. Tests can be performed on all sorts of them, such as internal and external hard disk drives, solid-state drives, storage area networks and USB flash drives.

When checking the read speed, you’re determining how long it takes to open (read) something from the device. The write speed is the opposite – how long it takes to save (write) something to the device.

How to Test Read/Write Speeds

CrystalDiskMark is one free program for Windows that tests the read and write speed of internal and external drives. You can choose a custom size between 500 MB and 4 GB, to use random data or ones or zeros, as well as the drive to test and the number of passes that should be performed (more than one provides more realistic results).

ATTO Disk Benchmark and HD Tune are a couple others.

Read and write speeds are typically recorded with the letters “ps” at the end of the measurement. For example, a device that has a write speed of 32 MBps means that it can record 32 MB (megabytes) of data every second.

If you need to convert MB to KB or some other unit, you can enter the equation into Google like this: 15.8 megabytes per second to kilobytes per second.

SSD vs HDD

In short, solid state drives have the fastest read and write speeds, outpacing hard disk drives.

Here are a few of the fastest SSDs and their read and write scores:

Samsung 850 Pro:

• Available Capacities: 128 GB – 1 TB
• Interface: SATA III 6 Gbps
• 550 MB/s read (256 GB)
• 520 MB/s write (256 GB)

SanDisk Extreme Pro:

• Available Capacities: 240 GB – 960 GB
• Interface: SATA 3-6 Gbps
• 550 MB/s read
• 520 MB/s write

Mushkin Striker:

• Available Capacities: 240 GB – 960 GB
• 565 MB/s read
• 550 MB/s write

Corsair Neutron XT:

• Available Capacities: 240 GB – 960 GB
• 560 MB/s read
• 540 MB/s write

Hard disk drives were first introduced by IBM in 1956. An HDD uses magnetism to store data on a rotating platter. A read/write head floats above the spinning platter reading and writing data. The faster the platter spins, the faster an HDD can perform.

HDDs are slower than SDDs, with an average read speed of 128 MB/s and a write speed of 120 MB/s. However, while HDDs are slower, they are cheaper too. The cost is about $.03 per gigabyte versus an average $.20 per gigabyte for SSDs.

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Streaming is a technology used to deliver content to computers and mobile devices over the internet. Streaming transmits data – usually audio and video, but increasingly other kinds as well – as a continuous flow, which allows the recipients to begin to watch or listen almost immediately.

The Two Kinds of Downloads

There are two ways to download content over the internet:

1. Progressive downloads
2. Streaming

Streaming is the quickest way to access internet-based content, but it’s not the only way. Progressive download is another option that was used for years before streaming was possible. In order to understand what streaming is, where you use it, and why it’s so helpful, you need to understand these two options.

The key differences between progressive download and streaming are when you can start using the content and what happens to the content after you’re done with it.

Progressive downloads are the traditional kind of download that anyone who’s used the internet is familiar with. When you download an app or game or buy music from the iTunes Store, you need to download the entire thing before you can use it. That’s a progressive download.

Streaming is different. Streaming allows you to start using the content before the entire file is downloaded. Take music: When you stream a song from Apple Music or Spotify, you can click play and start listening almost immediately.

You don’t have to wait for the song to download before the music starts. This is one of the major advantages of streaming. It delivers data to you as you need it.

The other major difference between streaming and downloads is what happens to the data after you use it. For downloads, the data is permanently stored on your device until you delete it.

For streams, the data is automatically deleted after you use it. A song you stream from Spotify isn’t saved to your computer (unless you save it for offline listening, which is a download).

Requirements for Streaming Content

Streaming requires a relatively fast internet connection – just how fast depends on the type of media you are streaming. A speed of 2 megabits per second or more is necessary for streaming standard definition video without skips or buffering delays. HD and 4K content requires higher speeds for flawless delivery: at least 5Mbps for HD content and 9Mbps for 4K content.

Live Streaming

Live streaming is the same as the streaming discussed above, it’s specifically used for internet content delivered in real time as it happens. Live streaming is popular with live television shows and special one-time events.

Streaming Games and Apps

Streaming has traditionally been used to deliver audio and video, but Apple has recently implemented technology that allows streaming to work with games and apps too.

This technique, called on-demand resources, allows games and apps to include a core set of features and functions when the user first downloads them and then to stream new content as the user needs it.

For example, a game might include its first four levels in the initial download and then automatically download levels five and six when you start playing level four.

This approach is useful because it means downloads are quicker and use less data, which is especially important if you have a data limit on your phone plan. It also means that apps take up less space on the device they’re installed on.

Problems With Streaming

Because streaming delivers data as you need it, slow or interrupted internet connections can cause problems. For example, if you have streamed only the first 30 seconds of a song and your internet connection drops bfore any more of the song has streamed to your device, the song stops playing.

The most common streaming error that crops up has to do with buffering. The buffer is a program’s temporary memory for streamed content. The buffer is always filling up with the content you need next. For example, if you watch a movie, the buffer stores the next few minutes of video while you’re watching the current content. If your internet connection is slow, the buffer won’t fill up quickly enough, and the stream either stops or the quality of the audio or video is reduced to compensate.

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Do you need a UPS? How much will a battery backup protect your computer?

A battery backup, or uninterruptible power supply (UPS), is primarily used to provide a backup power source to important desktop computer hardware components.

In most cases, those pieces of hardware include the main computer housing and the monitor, but other devices can be plugged into a UPS for backup power as well, depending on the size of the UPS.

In addition to acting as a backup when the power goes out, most battery backup devices also act as power “conditioners” by ensuring that the electricity flowing to your computer and accessories is free from drops or surges.

If a computer is not receiving a consistent flow of electricity, damage can and often does occur.

While a UPS system is not a required piece of a complete computer system, including one as part of yours is always recommended. The need for a reliable supply of electricity is often overlooked.

Uninterruptible power supply, uninterruptible power source, on-line UPS, standby UPS, and UPS are the different names for a battery backup.

Popular UPS manufacturers include APC, Belkin, CyberPower, Tripp Lite, and Ultra, among many others.

Battery Backups: What They Look Like & Where They Go

The battery backup sits between the utility power (power from the wall outlet) and the parts of the computer. In other words, the computer and accessories plug into the battery backup and the battery backup plugs into the wall.

UPS devices come in many shapes and sizes but are most commonly rectangular and freestanding, intended to sit on the floor near the computer.

All battery backups are very heavy due to the batteries located inside.

One or more batteries inside the UPS provide power to the devices plugged into it when power from the wall outlet is no longer available. The batteries are rechargeable and often replaceable, providing a long-term solution to keeping your computer system running.

The front of the battery backup will usually have a power switch to turn the device on and off and will also sometimes have one or more additional buttons that perform various functions. Higher-end battery backup units will also often feature LCD screens that show information about how charged the batteries are, how much power is being used, etc.

The rear of the UPS will feature one or more outlets that provide battery backup. In addition, many battery backup devices will also feature surge protection on additional outlets and sometimes even protection for network connections, as well as phone and cable lines.

Battery backup devices are manufactured with varying degrees of backup ability. To determine how powerful of a UPS you need, first, use the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator to calculate your computer’s wattage requirements. Take this number and add it to the wattage requirements for other devices you would plug into the battery backup. Take this totaled number and check with the UPS manufacturer to find your estimated battery runtime when you lose power from the wall.

On-Line UPS vs Standby UPS

There are two different types of UPSs: A standby UPS is a type of battery backup that’s similar to an on-line uninterrupted power supply but doesn’t go into action as quickly.

The way a standby UPS works is by monitoring the power that’s coming into the battery backup supply and not switching over to the battery until it detects a problem (which can take up to 10-12 milliseconds). An on-line UPS, on the other hand, is always providing power to the computer, which means whether a problem is detected or not, the battery is always the computer’s source of power.

You can think of an on-line UPS as if it were a battery in a laptop. While a laptop is plugged into a wall outlet, it’s getting constant power through the battery which is getting a constant supply of power through the wall.

If the wall power is removed (like during a power outage), the laptop is able to remain powered on because of the built-in battery.

The most obvious real-world difference between the two types of battery backup systems is that, given the battery has enough power, a computer won’t shutdown from a power outage if it’s plugged into an on-line UPS, but it might lose power (even if just for a few seconds) if it’s attached to a standby UPS that didn’t respond to the outage quick enough… although newer systems can detect a power issue as soon as 2 ms.

Given the benefit just described, an on-line UPS is normally more expensive than a line-interactive UPS.

More Information on Battery Backups

Some battery backup systems you find may seem pointless because they only supply a few minutes of power. But something to consider is that with even 5 minutes of extra power, you can safely save any open files and shut off the computer to prevent hardware or software damage.

Something else to remember is how frustrating it is for your computer to immediately shut off when the power turns off for even a few seconds. With the computer attached to an on-line UPS, such an event may even go unnoticed because the battery will have been providing the power before, during, and after the power break.

If your laptop has ever gone to sleep or shut down on you after you’ve stopped using it for awhile, but only when it’s not plugged in, you’re familiar with the fact that battery-powered devices can behave differently than desktops.

This is due to built-in power options in the operating system.

You can set up something similar on a desktop computer that uses a UPS (if the UPS is able to connect via USB) so that the computer will go into hibernation mode or safely shut off if it switches over to battery power during an outage.

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