Author: Ric Taylor

Your laptop battery won’t last forever. Even if your laptop still performs perfectly, its battery gradually loses some of its ability to hold a charge as it ages. If you’ve noticed that your laptop needs to be plugged in more often than it used to, checking its battery health can tell you whether normal battery wear is behind the shorter runtime. The good news is that you don’t need a third-party app to perform a laptop battery health check. Windows 11 has a built-in Battery Report that shows useful information including the battery’s original design capacity, current full-charge capacity, recent…

Finding the best laptop for college students isn’t simply about buying the fastest laptop you can afford. A good college laptop should handle everyday coursework, last through long study sessions, and remain portable enough to carry around campus. The right choice also depends on your major. A business student may prioritize battery life and portability, while an engineering or architecture student may need Windows compatibility, more RAM, or a dedicated GPU. We compared the strongest options for 2026 based on performance, battery life, portability, software compatibility, display quality, and overall value. Quick Answer: What Is the Best Laptop for College…

Building a startup in 2026 does not mean simply finding as many software tools as possible. The real challenge is choosing the right tools for the right stage of growth without wasting money, creating unnecessary complexity, or ending up with a stack that nobody on the team actually uses. That is where Growth Navigate Startup Tools comes in. Growth Navigate is designed around a simple idea: instead of choosing software because it is popular, founders should evaluate tools based on their startup’s stage, budget, category, workflow, and growth goals. Its startup tools directory currently includes more than 48 curated tools…

NYT Connections Hints Today is one of the most popular daily word puzzles for players who enjoy testing their vocabulary, pattern recognition, and problem-solving skills. The puzzle gives you 16 words and challenges you to divide them into four groups of four, with each group sharing a hidden connection. It sounds simple, but Connections can be surprisingly difficult. Some words can appear to fit into multiple categories, while others are deliberately placed to create misleading connections. If you’re looking for help with the current puzzle, visit our NYT Connections Hints Today page for the latest daily clues, hints, categories, and…

If you’re searching for how to get Netflix for free, you’ve probably noticed it hasn’t offered a free trial since 2020 — and it doesn’t run one anywhere in the world as of 2026. That hasn’t stopped a flood of “free Netflix code” sites and apps from popping up promising free access — the overwhelming majority of these are phishing attempts designed to steal your login credentials or payment details, not genuine deals. The good news is that real, legitimate ways to get Netflix for free (or close to it) still exist in 2026. They mostly come down to bundling,…

Students have more AI tools available than ever, but having too many options can create another problem: which AI tools are actually worth using? 10 Best AI Tools for Students in 2026 ?can help you study smarter, save time, and improve your productivity. One tool may be excellent for studying from PDFs, another may be better for writing, while a different one can turn a rough idea into a presentation in minutes. The best choice depends on what you are trying to accomplish. We reviewed 10 popular AI tools for students and organized them around practical study tasks—from understanding course…

Last Updated: August 15, 2026Edited by RIC Taylor Latest laptop launches 2026 are bringing major upgrades in processors, graphics, displays, battery life, and AI-powered features. Here’s a look at the newest laptops, laptop hardware news, CPU and GPU updates, and upcoming devices to watch. To help readers keep track of the developments that actually matter, RIC Guides is tracking notable laptop and PC hardware changes in this roundup. Rather than covering every technology announcement, this update focuses on new laptops, CPU and GPU developments, important refreshes, pricing changes, useful hardware recommendations, and broader trends that could affect laptop buyers. Editorial…

Best video editing software 2026 picks change every year, and finding the right one for your needs isn’t as simple as it sounds — everyone’s use case is different. Some people are editing YouTube vlogs, others wedding films, others short-form Reels, and some just want to trim a few clips together for family memories. The “best” software really depends on what you’re trying to do, how much time you want to spend learning it, and how much you’re willing to spend. In this guide, we’ll walk through the top video editing tools of 2026 — from completely free, beginner-friendly apps…

Few things are more frustrating than watching your character slowly walk across the screen while you’re not touching the controller. That’s PS5 controller stick drift, and it’s one of the most common problems DualSense owners can run into. The good news is that you don’t always need to buy a new controller. In many cases, you can troubleshoot the problem yourself, clean the analog stick, reset the controller, or determine whether the hardware needs repair. In this guide, we’ll show you how to fix PS5 controller stick drift, how to test for it, what causes it, and what you can…

How does Linear work? Linear is an issue-tracking and project-management tool built specifically for software teams. If you’ve spent any time around a software team in the last few years, you’ve probably heard someone say “we switched to Linear” the way people used to say “we switched to a standing desk” — like it fixed something they didn’t even realize was broken. So how does Linear actually work, and is the hype earned? We dug into the mechanics, the pricing, and the workflow to find out. What Is Linear? Linear is an issue-tracking and project-management tool built specifically for software…