Editor profile

Ben Funk

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Ben has been fascinated by technology since he got a Commodore VIC-20 as a child in 1984. By day he's a software developer working in education technology, and at night he's a husband, dad, musician, gamer, and freelance technology writer. If he's not at his PC, Ben can be found hanging out with his family, gaming on a vintage Sega console, or grippin' and rippin' with his beloved Paul Reed Smith guitar. 

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Recent posts

Apple's iOS 14.5 was supposed to let users take back control over their data, or so the narrative goes, by preventing apps from tracking their every move. Apple has been banging that privacy drum for a long time now, and customers have... Read more...
It was just earlier this month that IBM announced an incredible manufacturing breakthrough with its 2-nm manufacturing process that crammed 50 billion transistors into the size of a fingernail. While that's still a future-looking... Read more...
Apple has garnered a lot of praise for its M1 SoC, which is quickly spreading throughout its entry-level Mac family, and even the iPad Pro. While the performance and efficiency aspects of the chip are unquestionable, there have been... Read more...
Over the last eight months or so, segment by segment, AMD's various Zen 3-based processors have taken the world by storm. High performance servers, desktops, and notebooks all feature AMD's flagship silicon, thanks in no small part to its... Read more...
Back in The Day, figuring out which PC processor was better for gaming was a matter of architecture and clock speed. More megahertz on a fast CPU architecture generally also meant that the CPU would be better for a whole host of tasks, in addition to games, versus a lower clocked chip. An... Read more...
First of all, we'd like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and all women who have invested their time and talents into the children in their lives over the years. We don't know where we'd be without you.  There's serious... Read more...
Cryptocurrency mining seems to be just one factor behind the shortage of graphics cards on the market today, and many gamers have rejoiced at anything that might make cards more accessible. Limiting mining on consumer cards is a big deal... Read more...
Normally when people think of "business-class laptops" they envision moderately powerful systems that handle office productivity tasks and web browsing duties with plenty of performance to keep employees productive, but without frivolous cost-adding features. On the flip side, workstations... Read more...
AMD's 300-series chipsets, including the B350 and X370 among others, had an incredible run of CPU support in their four years on this earth. While it was a little late to the party, most X370 and B350 motherboards received official support... Read more...
After a full year of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we wondered if Nintendo would keep the same old holiday celebrations or wrap them up in a fresh coat of paint. It's pretty unusual for a game with not much multi-player appeal to... Read more...
The detachable hybrid 2-in-1 laptop category may sound somewhat exotic, but these convertible tablet PCs aren't exactly a new thing. Hybrid devices with keyboard docks -- either first-party or made by other manufacturers -- are available that run Android, iPad OS, and of course Windows 10... Read more...
When it comes to password management, users really have just a handful of options, and all of them have their caveats. If we choose to just use memorable passwords and recycle them between accounts, one account becoming compromised can... Read more...
Digital assistants are designed to make our lives easier and fit naturally into our lives. Whether it's the Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Apple Siri, voice commands are just a keyword away. However, some voice prompts like "Hey... Read more...
There's a struggle deep within every portable PC between the need for maximum performance and a desire for longer battery life. Reduced power consumption is why modern processors spin down to very low frequencies when they're not busy. At... Read more...
At CES 2020, ASUS unveiled the ROG Zephyrus G14, which as its name implies is a 14" gaming notebook. It was our first experience with Zen 2-based APUs from AMD, particularly the 35-Watt Ryzen 9 4900HS. That processor had eight cores with AMD's best CPU architecture at the time, and despite the... Read more...
Over the last few years, AMD has made big changes to its Radeon Software control panel on an almost yearly cadence. This time around it's been a little longer than that, as those updates typically launch around the end of the year, though... Read more...
Mining cryptocurrency is just one small part of the problem that plagues the semiconductor industry related to chip shortages, with the increased demand for GPU compute power. However, NVIDIA has been catering to this market in hopes of... Read more...
Last year's Overwatch League was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that temporarily pumped the brakes on some interesting AI projects, as well. At the time, Blizzard and IBM were set to announce that Big Blue was about to become... Read more...
The 20-year span between 1985 and 2005 saw the release of literally hundreds of classic game titles that were -- and are still -- beloved by millions of people around the world. From Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, to modern... Read more...
After a lengthy technical preview, Parallels has officially released Parallels Desktop version 16.5 which includes official support for Apple's latest Macs. That includes support for the 2020 Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro which... Read more...
In 1984, Hasbro and Takara-Tomy released The Transformers upon an unsuspecting world, and this six-year-old was hooked. Led by Optimus Prime, a red and blue cabover Peterbilt semi truck that turned into a friendly alien robot, the Autobots... Read more...
Whether it's playing Duck Hunt on the NES with a Zapper or pumping quarters into Area 51 or Time Crisis in arcades, just about everyone is familiar with light gun games. The simplicity of these games is born from their "on-rails" design... Read more...
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