Happy New Year! Useful Shortcuts You Should Learn, Free Windows 10 Upgrades Ongoing

[TechSpot Weekly Newsletter] Happy New Year!!! December 31 A Few Months Later [You Can Still Upgrade to Windows 10 for Free, Even After Offer Expired] Microsoft officially ended their free Windows 10 upgrade program in late July. For those that did want to upgrade but didn't get around to it, there are still a couple of known ‘loopholes’ to get a [free Windows 10 upgrade] which Microsoft hasn’t bothered to close, even five months after the offer officially ended. Tips & Tricks [Shortcut Extravaganza: Windows, Chrome, Android, iPhone and More] What’s [more appealing than a shortcut]? It's a quick way to take a task and make it less painful and easier to accomplish. With shortcuts, you can cheat time a little bit and find maybe a few extra moments each day. If you save three minutes a day for a year, that’s a little over 18 hours. You could binge-watch the entire show Freaks and Geeks with four hours to spare. So, shall we get started? Gaming Culture [The Best Gaming Concept Art of 2016] There are so many [amazing pieces of video game art] being produced by talented professionals that sometimes it feels impossible staying on top of it all. After much deliberation, here is a collection of the best concept art from video games released in 2016. Laptops [Lenovo rolls out refreshed ThinkPads featuring Kaby Lake CPUs and Optane SSDs] Lenovo on Wednesday announced a smattering of new ThinkPad notebooks and accessories, some of which will ship with exciting new technology like Intel’s Optane solid state drives. [Obama sanctions Russia for hacking campaigns; Embassy responds with lame duck meme] Earlier this month, the Obama Administration promised that Russia would face the consequences for interfering with the US election. Yesterday, a new set of sanctions were announced against the country, which includes the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. [Game of Thrones (not The Grand Tour) was the most torrented TV show of 2016] Industry analyst Muso earlier this month labeled Amazon’s new motoring show, The Grand Tour, as the most pirated TV show ever. This was viewed as quite an accomplishment as the show’s first episode seemingly unseated piracy king Game of Thrones… [Smart TVs aren't immune to ransomware as one user recently found out] Security experts for years have been warning consumers that smart TVs are a prime target for hackers. Aside from the fact that sets with microphones and cameras can serve as excellent eavesdropping devices, we’re now seeing connected TVs being hit… [Mass Effect Andromeda characters are based on face scans] Mass Effect Andromeda is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated games of 2017. Originally due for release in the holiday period of 2016, pushing back the next entry in the space series to early next year disappointed… [Windows 10 could get a performance-enhancing 'game mode'] Microsoft sort of neglected Windows as a gaming platform for a few years by prioritizing its Xbox gaming console instead. Lately, however, the company has taken steps to converge both ecosystems and bring PC gaming back into the limelight. More… [Green Screen of Death (GSoD) discovered in leaked preview build of Windows 10] Microsoft’s iconic Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) is the universal sign that things have taken a turn for the worse. In the near future, however, some Windows users that happen upon error screens will be seeing a new color –… [Consumer Reports stands by its MacBook Pro battery results, refuses to run tests again] Last week’s decision by Consumer Reports not to award Apple’s new MacBook Pros a “recommended” rating brought some controversy. But the organization says it is standing by the results of its battery tests and won’t be running them again. … [Reports claim a wireless HTC Vive 2 could be unveiled next week] 2016 was supposed to be the year virtual reality became mainstream, but despite being technically impressive, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive haven’t sold in huge numbers. However, reports from the Taiwanese media (via Android Headlines) say HTC could launch… The Gallery [2016 in an image] Tech News - [Massive government incentives are likely to keep iPhone production in China] - [Super Mario Run's arrival on Android is imminent, pre-register now] - [Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe] - [New text message vulnerability sends iOS' Messages into an endless crash loop] - [Jack Dorsey: Twitter is "thinking a lot" about introducing an edit button] - [Unofficial "global CEO" reportedly departs Faraday Future days before big CES reveal] - [DirecTV Now's $35, 100-channel promo ends on January 9] - [Samsung will unveil another curved, quantum dot gaming monitor at CES 2017] - [Ford's next-gen Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicle looks surprisingly normal] - [Samsung to launch new Smart TV services at CES] - [Drone footage charts Gigafactory construction progress] - [LG unveils the levitating speaker system it will showcase at CES] - [Amazon patent shows it wants to deploy fleets of drones from flying, blimp-like warehouses] - [Blizzard to celebrate Diablo's 20th anniversary across multiple games] Software Downloads - [Wi-Fi Analyzer for Android 3.10.3] - [WPS Office + PDF Free for Android 10.0.2] - [K-Lite Codec Pack Beta 12.7.7] - [Brave Browser for Android 1.0.8] - [Multi Commander 6.9.1] - [EarthTime 5.5.29] - [NetworkTrafficView 2.05] - [Camfrog Video Chat 6.14.584] Drivers - [AMD Catalyst Clean Uninstall Utility 1.5.7.0] 2016-12-29 17:41:37 - [ECS P4M800-M7(3.1) Bios 061226] 2016-12-28 17:25:54 - [Display Driver Uninstaller 17.0.4.2] 2016-12-28 10:59:04 - [Nvidia Graphics Driver 375.26 for Linux] 2016-12-27 19:35:18 - [Realtek RTL8152B(N) USB 2.0 Fast Ethernet Driver 10.12 for Windows 10] 2016-12-27 17:00:02 Hot discussion [News and Comments] [Intel Core i7-7700K overclocked past 7GHz barrier] [News and Comments] [Iran blocks Clash of Clans because it encourages violence and tribal conflict] [News and Comments] [Microsoft finally admits its malware-like Windows 10 upgrade tricks "went too far"] Follow TechSpot TechSpot: [Facebook] [Twitter] [RSS] [Google+] [Instagram] [Steam] [Flipboard] [YouTube] Feeds: [News], [Reviews & Features], [Downloads], [Drivers] This email was sent to [{EMAIL}] [why did I get this?] [unsubscribe from this list] [update subscription preferences] TechSpot · 8237 NW 68 St · Miami, FL 33166 · USA