For the longest time, Microsoft swore blind Windows 10 would be the last Windows–with Windows 11 being more of an inside joke among nerds. Many were surprised when, in Fall 2020, Windows 10X appeared on the scene. It was a feature-reduced Windows 10 meant for laptop and tablets, and it never saw an official release. Consequently, there were expectations that the Fall / Winter 2021 update for Windows 10 would incorporate major design changes to bring its somewhat outdated visuals up to speed. Instead, we got Windows 11! So it is reasonable to assume Windows 11 borrows heavily from both the aforementioned design overhaul and the ill-fated Windows 10X. Time to take it for a spin.
While stores were closed, I needed a new pillow. My old one had turned to a mixture of dust and unsightly lumps. Since local retailers were out of the picture, I tried my luck online. The basic issue here is quite trivial: I sleep on the side and I don't exactly have the small shoulders of a 12-year-old girl. That meant I had to get a firm pillow that offered some degree of support. No big deal, right? That's what I thought! Things turned out quite differently.
Christmas is rushing up fast and many are looking for electronic gadgets to entertain their loved ones or themselves. Amazon's products are frequently part of the equation because of their comparatively cheap prices and aggressive marketing. However, their mere mentioning can cause awkward silence and instantly turn the mood from cheerful to fairly frosty among tech enthusiasts. It's the ubiquitous incentives to buy and the frequent attempts to ingrain Amazon's services further and further into the daily lives of their users that taints Amazon's devices. I set out to take another look at the situation through Amazon's budget 9th generation Fire HD 10 (32 GB) tablet and learn more about its strength and weaknesses–and its annoyance factor!
I recently had a chat with one of our US partners, who mentioned in passing that Ashampoo has now been around for 21 years and has certainly come of age. Since I generally tend to forget anniversaries, I wasn't aware of that. So I took a trip down my Ashampoo memory lane, which has been under construction for 13 years now, and reminisced about how it all started. Every now and then I get emails asking me to tell you more about Ashampoo and the people behind it–so here you go: Brace yourselves for pretty women, volcanoes and software in Low German.
I usually do my photo editing on my home PC. From meticulously placed filters and image parameter adjustments to one-click optimizations, it all depends on my mood and the quality of the photo. When I was recently out and about, to the extent permitted by the current situation, my cellphone was again stretched to its limits. The morning mountain panorama seemed more grayish than mystical, the backlighting was anything but ideal, and I could have taken better care cropping my shots. So I spent a quiet evening in my hotel room to do some prettifying. Here's what I found!
