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16 May 2025

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This Ryzen 5 mini PC with 16GB RAM is shockingly cheap: $190
Is your desk feeling overcrowded? Your laptop is taking up more space than you’d prefer? Not to mention it’s aging out, slowing down, and struggling to handle your everyday tasks? Maybe what you need is a decently specced mini PC that won’t break the bank to replace it. Right now, this Bosgame E2 mini PC is only $190 on Amazon. That’s a dirt cheap deal considering what you get in the machine. It was already a pretty good grab at its original $240 price tag, but the extra $50 off almost makes it worthy of an impulse buy. Even if you have a solid main PC, you could set this up as a home media server or something. (Sign up for a free Prime trial to score this Prime-exclusive deal price.) For less than $200, you’re getting a PC that fits in your hand. You can tuck it away under a monitor and still have easy access to its many ports, or use the built-in VESA mount to attach it to the backside of a monitor and put it way out of sight. As small as it is, it supports triple monitor output (dual 4K@60Hz via HDMI plus 1080p@60Hz via USB-C video) along with four USB-A ports, a LAN port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Under the hood, it’s equipped with an adequate AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor and a surprising-for-the-price 16GB of RAM, a 512GB M.2 SSD with Windows 11 Pro pre-loaded, and Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics for mild gaming. What takes this one step further, though, is that you can manually upgrade the memory to 64GB and storage to 4TB, so it’ll last and you won’t have to toss it in a year. All in all, this is a brilliant budget buy that’s cheap even for a market that’s already quite affordable. Get the Bosgame E2 for just $190 on Amazon while this special Prime deal lasts. And remember, if you don’t have Prime, you can still get it with a free 30-day Prime trial. Get this decently specced mini PC for dirt cheap right nowBuy now at Amazon

How to use Windows Photo Viewer’s AI tools to perfect your pictures
If you’re into trying out new AI tools, you’ll dig this– the latest Windows 11 24H2 update brings some cool upgrades to the Photos app. Microsoft added AI-powered editing that makes touching up your pics super easy. One standout feature is the “Restyle Image” option. It lets you apply different artistic styles to your photos. For example, transforming your photos into lovely watercolor paintings. This feature really opens up a whole world of possibilities. In the following sections, we’ll show you how to use each of them step-by-step: 1. Opening the photo viewer First, open Windows Photo View. You can do this by searching for it in the Start menu or by double-clicking a JPEG or PNG file in File Explorer. IDG 2. Open photo The photo will appear in a single view. Here, you can use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through other images in the same folder. Use the zoom slider at the bottom of the window to zoom in and out of individual pictures. IDG 3. Switch to edit mode To enter edit mode, click the “Edit” button at the top of the Photos app. Copilot+ PCs will have an “AI” button on the far right of the toolbar, which offers AI-powered editing tools that will restyle your photo or remove unwanted elements from the background. IDG 4. Using the AI function When you click on the AI feature for the first time, a prompt will guide you through the process. You’ll need to sign in with your Microsoft account to use it, though. If you don’t have a Microsoft account, the prompt will offer an option to create one. 5. Change style In edit mode, you’ll find loads of various design options on the right-hand side of the window. Choose from styles like “Watercolor” or describe your own style. Moving the creativity slider (as illustrated in the below photo) to the right results in more dramatic changes while sliding it to the left keeps the edits more subtle. IDG 6. More options Click on the “Redesign ALl” option to see additional choices like “Background Only” and “Foreground Only.” This lets you apply the new style to just the background or the main subject. Once you’re all set with your changes, click the “Save” button to save the edited photo. IDG 7. Remove distracting areas On PCs running Windows 11 24H2, the Photos app includes advanced AI capabilities, which allow you to remove distracting elements and have the background seamlessly filled in. To use this feature, open the image as described in step one. Let’s use the picture of the knife below as an example. To remove the unwanted light reflection on the upper blade, switch to edit mode by clicking the “Edit” button, then select the brush icon to access the “Generative Erase” feature. A new window will pop up, displaying your image on the left and the “Generative Erase” options on the right. Adjust the brush size and choose whether to apply those changes automatically. Brush over the area you want to remove, and the AI will intelligently fill in the space to match the background. IDG If you want more control, you can disable the “Auto Apply” option. This allows you to select multiple areas to erase before applying the changes.

Do HBO’s owners have any freaking idea what they’re doing?
Max is changing its name back to HBO Max, and much like The Joker in one of Warner’s DC Universe films, I can’t stop laughing. Three years have passed since the mega-merger that birthed Warner Bros. Discovery and led to a new name for its flagship streaming service. The Max brand was supposed to emphasize a breadth of programming beyond the HBO catalog, but Warner’s executives now say the forthcoming rebrand (or unbrand) represents a return to quality over quantity. This would be easier to accept if HBO’s owners had any credibility left. But over the past few years, pretty much everything the Warner-Discovery merger was supposed to accomplish has failed. Now, the company can no longer articulate what it’s aiming for, other than to squeeze a little extra profit from a flailing enterprise. It’s as funny as it is sad. Max’s broken promises Let’s go back to when AT&T announced it would spin off WarnerMedia into a new company and merge it with Discovery. (The spin-off itself acknowledged that AT&T shouldn’t have bought Warner in the first place, but that’s a whole other story.) Here’s what the companies’ 2021 press release claimed the merger would accomplish: Increase investments in original programming for its streaming services. Enhance programming options “across its global linear pay TV and broadcast channels.” Create new opportunities for “under-represented storytellers and independent creators.” Give viewers “innovative video experiences and points of engagement.” Here’s what the company actually did: Became the first streamer to remove popular original programming from its catalog. Axed completed films for the sake of tax write-offs. Lost the rights to live NBA games, the crown jewel of its sports programming, starting next season. Quickly started cancelling shows that highlighted underrepresented communities. Did not deliver any notable video innovations, but did start charging extra for 4K video and will soon shake down password sharers for more money. Raised prices for ad-free streaming. Paying more for less (again) More broadly, Warner Bros. Discovery promised to deliver what CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels called a “blowout DTC (direct-to-consumer) product.” At a 2022 industry conference, Wiedenfels said this service would be “one of the most complete, sort of four quadrant, old-young-male-female products out there.” Over time, the company did take some steps to bulk up Max’s offerings. It brought in Discovery’s catalog of reality TV programming, launched a live feed of CNN programming, and added live sports from TNT and other Warner cable channels. But with the name reverting back to HBO Max this summer, Warner says completeness is no longer the goal. President and CEO of streaming JB Perrette said in a press release that HBO Max will offer “not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families.” That likely means less of what Max added over the past few years. Its sports offerings will be slim without the NBA; CNN will have its own separate subscription service, raising questions about the future of Max’s CNN programming; and cable channels such as Discovery could be spun off into a separate company. “The things subscribers want from us are HBO programming, scripted dramas, comedies, documentaries, the pay-one [licensing window] movies, library movies, and basically the Warner Bros. TV library,” CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys said. News, sports, and reality programming are conspicuously absent from that statement. While Warner hasn’t announced any immediate changes to HBO Max’s content, the likely outcome is that you’ll be paying more for less. Bad for business, too If it makes you feel any better, this hasn’t worked out for Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, either. Like other TV programmers, Warner has been leaning on profits from traditional pay TV bundles to fund its forays into streaming. The merger was supposed to help, as the combined entity would have more bargaining power to increase pay TV carriage fees. But with the loss of NBA rights and the overall trend toward hollowing out original pay TV programming, those channels have become increasingly worthless. Carriage fees for TNT are now flat or in decline, and cable companies such as Comcast and Spectrum are getting Max thrown into their TV packages at no extra charge, hurting Warner’s streaming revenues. Last August, Warner took a $9 billion write-down on the value of its TV assets and may now look to spin them off; meanwhile, the company’s stock price has fallen from $24.88 on the day of the merger to $9.05 as of this writing. All this just so we can get back to where we started, with a service supposedly focused on quality again. Given what we’ve seen over the past three years, you’d be justified in seeing this as just an excuse to cut more corners and fatten executives’ pay packages instead. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter weekly newsletter to get more streaming advice every Friday