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Google has announced that it will no longer be bringing new Nest Thermostats to Europe due to the "unique" requirements of heating systems in the region. The company launched its redesigned fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat in 2024.
"Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes," Google says. "Therefore moving forward we'll no longer launch new Nest thermostats in Europe." The third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Thermostat E will continue to function, receive security updates and be sold while supplies last. If you're in the market for a new thermostat that works with Google Home, though, you'll have to turn to a third-party option.
Besides leaving behind a whole continent's worth of customers, Google announced that it's also ending software support for a few older Nest devices. The first and second generation Nest Learning Thermostats, along with the second generation model released in Europe, will no longer receive software updates or connect to the Google Home app starting October 25, 2025. Google says any routines you've programmed will still work and you can manually adjust the temperature on the Nest Thermostat themselves, they'll just otherwise become a bit less "smart" after October.
As a consolation, Google is offering $130 off a new fourth-generation Nest Thermostat to affected customers in t
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Why you should trust me: Here at PCWorld we've been testing computer hardware, software, and services since the 1980s. For my part, I'm continually testing all of the major VPNs on the market and many lesser-known services in order to curate a list of the very best VPNs across a variety of categories. Below you'll find my favorite VPNs, and below those, helpful advice about what to look for when choosing a VPN on your own.
If you're looking to use your VPN for more than streaming, be sure to check out our comprehensive roundup of the best VPNs in all categories, as well.
NordVPN - Best VPN overall for Netflix
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Chromebooks are generally less expensive than Windows laptops and they're largely virus free. Heck, with cloud gaming, you can even play the hottest titles on some of them. The only problem? Typing "Chromebook" into a search bar opens the floodgates to countless choices. To simplify things, we've put together a list of Chromebooks that PCWorld has personally tested and reviewed.
If you'd still prefer a Windows laptop, check out PCWorld's roundup of the best laptops available today.
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 - Best overall Chromebook
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On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the rumored look of the iPhone 17 "Air" and iPadOS 19's major productivity update.
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For years, the mantra in the tech world has been, buy the latest and greatest. The newer, the better. And for some companies, like AMD and Qualcomm, that's been true.
Not anymore. Intel told Wall Street analysts Thursday that it's selling out of its "Raptor Lake" processors and that the process technology they're built upon, Intel 7, is constrained. Put another way, Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner told analysts that Intel is selling more of its years-old 12th- and 13th-gen Raptor Lake (and Raptor Lake Refresh) chips than Lunar Lake.
That's embarrassing, to be sure. But it caps off years of struggles, which some might say date back to Intel's inability to move off of the 14nm node for several generations. Is it any surprise that Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, believes that Intel's organizational structure is bloated?
Maybe, but to most people in technology, the answer is simple: if you deliver processors that don't improve over their predecessors, why should you expect customers to buy your newest and most expensive chips? Instead, they'll turn to your older, cheaper processors. And that's what Intel says is happening — especially with the tariff typhoon blowing hard.
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But who would buy it? Unsurprisingly, there are beaucoup business beaus lining up around the block for this browser bachelorette. We've already heard that ChatGPT maker OpenAI is very interested, as testified in court by an executive. And another notable name in the AI space, search engine Perplexity, told a judge much the same thing. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo, which almost feels like legacy media at this point, would also be interested if Chrome becomes available.
That's three potential new homes for the world's most popular browser. But it's important to note that federal judge Amit Mehta hasn't yet made a determination on how Google will be punished for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Just because prosecutors suggest breaking off Chrome doesn't mean that he'll agree it's an appropriate end. And whatever happens, Google will certainly exhaust its legal options with enough money to make Solomon blush. Google losing control of Chrome is not a foregone conclusion, even if it feels that way from recent reports.
But let's proceed under
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Original story from April 16, 2025: If you're still using Microsoft's classic Outlook app for your emailing needs, you may have noticed that your computer hardware behaves a bit strangely when using the app—most notably when typing.
Earlier this week, Microsoft issued a warning and confirmed that the classic Outlook app can cause your computer's CPU usage to skyrocket. Processor usage can spike by 30 to 50 percent when writing an email, and also increase your computer's power consumption. It's implied that this is a bug, but the root cause isn't yet known.
The company says there isn't yet a direct solution to the problem, but notes that the issue only affects versions of classic Outlook on the Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, and Insider channels, after updating to Version 2406 Build 17726.20126 or later.
If this issue is causing you significant trouble, you can work around it by switching your classic Outlook app to the Semi Annual Channel. Instructions on how to do that can be found in
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Manufacturers in India would need to double production to meet US iPhone demand—and the shift still wouldn't solve Apple's China problem.
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It can be hard to let go of old tech, but there are ways to make money and help the planet. Plus, Apple has a recycling promotion with discounts on accessories.
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 Apple is accelerating its manufacturing shift away from China, with plans to assemble all U.S.-bound iPhones in India by the end of 2026, according to a new Financial Times report.
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Photos of memories you'd prefer to forget might appear on your iPhone. Here's how to stop it.
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Slate is an American electric vehicle (EV) startup, and it's far from the only one. We've seen almost every company that tried to follow in the footsteps of Tesla stumble and fall, dealing with the realities of a hugely competitive market that's very difficult to break into. But Slate has the eye of the car-buying press because it's shooting for a small, low-cost pickup truck, something that American buyers have been desperately missing for a long time. It probably doesn't hurt that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is a high-profile investor—that'll get you some headlines.
The Slate pickup, with a name the same as the company, is aiming low. And I mean really low. The base model is expected to debut at $27,500 or so when it hits the streets in 2026, which would make it $20,000 if the US federal EV tax credit holds. (That seems pretty optimistic at this point.) But even without the credit, it would be cheaper than the Ford Maverick, the least expensive pickup truck on the US market right now. (Miss me with the "it's not a truck" arguments. Again, the site is called PCWorld.) And it would be the cheapest electric pickup by far, with the F-150 Lightning starting at around $50,000.
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Those waiting for a good deal on Apple's latest M4 MacBook Air should check out Amazon now. The online retailer has the new MacBook Air for $100 off, down to $899 from $999, which is the best discount we've seen. At the moment, the discount is only available on the midnight color option.
Apple only released the MacBook Air M4 in Mid-March and it's already our pick for 2025's best MacBook overall. We gave it in a 92 in our review thanks to features like its 13.6-inch liquid retina display and slim build — it weighs 2.7 pounds and is 0.44 inches thick. But, it's the M4 chip that really gives this MacBook Air a boost. The 13-inch model has a 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. Plus, it lasted over 18 hours while playing HD video.
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Meta is finally acknowledging that Facebook's feed is filled with too many spammy posts. In an update, the company says it plans to start "cracking down" on some of the worst offenders. "Facebook Feed doesn't always serve up fresh, engaging posts that you consistently enjoy," the company writes. "We're working on it."
Specifically, Meta says it will lower the reach of creators that share posts with "long, distracting captions" as well as posts with captions that are irrelevant or unrelated to the shared content. These accounts will also no longer be eligible for monetization. Likewise, the company says it's taking "more aggressive" steps to combat "spam networks that coordinate fake engagement." This includes making comments from these accounts less visible, and removing Facebook pages meant to "inflate reach." Meta is also testing a feature that allows users to anonymously downvote comments in order to flag them as not "useful."
The update comes as Meta is trying to revamp Facebook to make it more appealing to "young adults." The company recently brought back a tab for friends content, in an update Mark Zuckerberg described as making the platform more like "OG Facebook." Notably though, Meta's update doesn't mention one of the more persistent forms of engagement bait that's emerged on Facebook over the last year: AI slop.
The phenomenon, which has been
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Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner told analysts on Thursday that Intel sold more volume in its Raptor Lake chips than Lunar Lake, suggesting that customers preferred the higher-performance Raptor Lake chips that debuted in 2023 versus the latest Lunar Lake chip that launched last September.
Meanwhile, Zinsner suggested that Intel's future is extremely uncertain, due to the Trump administration's varying economic policy. "The very fluid trade policies in the U.S. and beyond, as well as regulatory risks, have increased the chance of an economic slowdown with the probability of a recession growing," Zinsner said. "This makes it more difficult to forecast how we will perform for the quarter and for the year, even as the underlying fundamentals supporting growth I discussed earlier remain intact."
Zinsner also gave an enormous range for the company's spending plans of between $8 billion and $11 billion, because Intel doesn't know what the future of the CHIPS Act might be.
Older, cheaper, higher-performance Intel CPUs are the favorite
The surprise, however, was how Intel's customers are dealing with tariffs — simply buying older products instead. Intel executives said that the Intel 7 process — the foundation of the Raptor Lake chips — was constrained, and so was production of the chip itself. That's because customers
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 Netflix today announced that it is introducing a new subtitle option that only shows subtitles for spoken dialogue, aimed at those who don't need captions, but prefer to watch movies and TV shows with the subtitles turned on.
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 As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch today, we thought we'd take a look at what Apple has in store for the next-generation version of the device that's coming this fall. The Apple Watch Series 11 doesn't sound like it's going to be a groundbreaking anniversary device, but Apple could surprise us.
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Adding words to our chatbot can apparently cost tens of millions of dollars. But some fear the cost of not saying please or thank you could be higher.
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When the Apple Watch launched, it was unclear if smartwatches would pan out. Ten years later, Apple has a $100-billion hit that reshaped the watch industry and ushered in a new age of fitness tracking.
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Trump's corruption knows no bounds.
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 Meta today announced that it is adding several new web features to the Threads social network, as well as officially relocating the website to a new domain. Threads is migrating from Threads.net to Threads.com, and Threads.com will be the new default domain name.
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What red-blooded tech company wouldn't want a huge install base and the advantage of self-dealing?
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 Apple is testing an iOS 18.5 update with developers and public beta testers, and we've had three betas so far. There aren't any notable changes so far, but the update will still bring important bug fixes and security improvements. So when can we expect it?
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