For some people, Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. For others, the holiday is more about Santa Claus, family, and exchanging gifts. Over on the Hallmark Channel, however, Christmas is largely about romance!

If you aren't familiar, Hallmark Channel is known for its cheesy, family-friendly, romantic Christmas movies. If you are a single man, you may not be familiar with this TV channel, but trust me fellow guys -- women love it. And now, just in time for the holidays, Hallmark Channel finally comes to YouTube TV.

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AMD has been killing it these past few years. The company's Ryzen processors have been universally praised by both reviewers and consumers alike. In both desktops and laptops, these Ryzen chips have largely put Intel to shame. AMD is undeniably the king of multi-core performance.

Today, Linux-computer-maker TUXEDO announces an all-new AMD Ryzen-powered computer, but no, it is not a huge tower. Actually, it is a NUC-like mini PC powered by 4000 series Ryzen processors, with the top model being equipped with the Ryzen 7 4800U. Called "Nano Pro - Gen11," it isn't just small and powerful, but quite upgradeable too -- you can change out the RAM, storage, and Wi-Fi card. And while the mini PC ships with Ubuntu by default, you can choose to also have Windows pre-installed for dual-boot.

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Solid state drives make wonderful internal boot drives for computers, but they are also great options for external storage too. Not only are they smaller than mechanical hard disk drives, but they use less power and are much quicker as well. Quite frankly, if you are someone that needs to transport data on a portable drive, you'd be crazy to still use a HDD with moving parts.

Today, TEAMGROUP launches its latest portable solid state drive under its T-FORCE gaming brand. Called "M200," it has a USB-C port and ships with both a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A cable. In other words, it can be used with any modern computer -- whether it has a USB Type-C port or not. What makes this external SSD notable, however, is its rugged shell. Oddly, the design of the drive is apparently inspired by sniper rifles...

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When it comes to broadband internet, many parts of the USA are forced to use just one ISP as that is the only option. Sadly, whoever controls the wires that run into the homes has all the power. Even worse, in some rural areas, there are no wires going to homes, making broadband an impossibility. A local ISP may even ask you to shell out many thousands of dollars to cover the cost of running the cables from the street to your home.

Thankfully, 5G wireless can change all of this. Monopolistic companies that run wired ISPs have a current stranglehold, but that is coming to an end. Soon, 5G connectivity will be so ubiquitous, that it can serve not just as your smartphone's mobile internet, but your home's main internet too! Today, NETGEAR unveils a new networking solution to transform a 5G (or 4G LTE) wireless signal into whole-home Wi-Fi. The Orbi 5G WiFi 6 Mesh System (model number NBK752) even utilizes tri-band Wi-Fi!

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Today is the day many of us have been waiting for -- Fedora 35 is officially here! Yes, folks, you can download the operating system immediately. For many Linux users, Fedora is considered the best distribution based on the open source kernel. Why? Because Fedora focuses on truly free and open source software -- a pure Linux experience. It is also fairly bleeding edge, while at the same time, remaining stable enough for daily use.

What makes Fedora 35 exciting? This version operating system uses the brand-new GNOME 41 as its default desktop environment. GNOME 41 is notable for having significant performance improvements when using Wayland. Speaking of Wayland, Fedora 35 Beta will run faster when using it with an NVIDIA GPU. Plus, version 35 Beta gets NVIDIA with XWayland, for an improved experience when using apps that aren't designed for Wayland.

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Do you need a PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive? No, nobody really needs the insane speed these drives offer. However, the drool-worthy performance is certainly nice to have. Look, if you can afford such an SSD and your computer supports it at full speed, you might as well get one. I mean, why not?

Today, Kingston announces its latest such PCIe 4.0 SSD under its FURY gaming brand. Called "Renegade," it features blazing fast speeds and capacities up to 4TB. Of course, even non-gamers will want to check out the extremely high-end performance FURY Renegade offers.

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Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu -- that is pretty common knowledge. But did you know there is a different version of the operating system that is instead based on Debian? It's true! Called "Linux Mint Debian Edition," or "LMDE" for short, it is far less popular than the "regular" Mint. Then why does it exist? Believe it or not, it exists (partly) to serve as a contingency plan in case Ubuntu ever stops being developed.

Today is November 1, and the Linux Mint developers have shared some monthly development news that is largely boring. One small tidbit of information is interesting, however; Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 (code-named "Debbie") will ditch the Mozilla Firefox ESR web browser. LMDE 4 will instead move users to the normal "rapid release" variant.

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Google Fi is the search giant's affordable MVNO cellular service, where it piggybacks off of the T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular networks. Despite being a Google service, it is actually compatible with Apple iPhone devices too. In other words, it is not an Android-only affair. While Google Fi is not wildly popular, many of its users speak favorably of the service -- it is apparently quite good.

And now, Google Fi is getting even better. You see, the search giant has introduced end-to-end encryption for phone calls -- a huge benefit for privacy. Unfortunately, there are some caveats here. For the calls to be encrypted, the speakers on the call must both be using Google Fi service -- that should be fairly obvious. However, there is one very big catch that might surprise you -- this feature is only compatible with Android devices. In other words, iPhone users with Google Fi are being left out of the encryption party.

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Samsung hasn't just announced one new Windows 11 laptop, but three of them. A trio of notebooks running Microsoft's latest desktop operating system? How exciting!

Two of these computers are traditional 15.6-inch LED 1080p laptops; one of that pair (Galaxy Book) has a touch-screen display, while the other (Galaxy Book Odyssey) does not. The third model (Galaxy Book Pro 360 5G), is a convertible with a 13.3-inch FHD AMOLED touch-screen that features 5G wireless connectivity.

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When you are a computer-builder, there are peaks and valleys when it comes to excitement about PC components. What do I mean by this? Well, sometimes you are building machines with cutting edge parts as an early adopter, while other times you are using ho-hum components that have been around a while. For instance, we have been using DDR4 memory for about seven years now... yawn!

Thankfully, the age of DDR5 is finally here. After dealing with DDR4 for so many years now, we will soon see PCs with DDR5 memory inside. One of the companies leading this industry shift is Kingston, and today that company unveils its FURY Beast DDR5 RAM. This memory is designed for use in computers powered by Intel's cutting-edge 12th generation Core processors and Z690 chipset. They should be easy to configure or overclock thanks to Intel XMP 3.0 support.

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Earlier this month, Yubico released the long-awaited biometric variant of its popular authentication dongle. Called "Yubikey Bio," it is offered with either USB-A or USB-C connectivity and features a fingerprint reader for enhanced security. Very cool.

While the Yubikey Bio looks like a great product, there is one big problem -- the price. You see, it starts at $80, making it too expensive for many consumers and businesses. Thankfully, today, Yubico launches a much more affordable product, albeit without the fancy biometrics.

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Solid state drives are obviously the future of computing, while hard disk drives are the past, right? Sort of. Despite being destined for the history books, HDDs are still a major part of the present. Why? Even though they are slower and have moving parts, HDDs still remain the better value from a cost per gigabyte perspective. SSDs will get there eventually, but for now, hard drives continue to live on.

If you are in the market for a portable hard disk drive (a 2.5-inch HDD in a USB enclosure), Silicon Power has new model that may interest you. Called "Armor A66," it is notable for being very rugged. Not only does it offer both drop and water protection, but it has a rubber USB-A cap to protect the connector. The removable USB-A to USB-A cable even conveniently attaches to the drive body when not in use to keep it from getting lost.

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The transition to PCIe Gen4 is in full effect, with more and more computers and motherboards having the new standard. Whether or not a user truly needs the benefits of PCIe 4.0 is debatable, but it is still cool regardless. After all, it is important to continually push boundaries.

One of the best aspects of PCIe 4.0 is faster solid state drives. For instance, today, Kingston launches its latest such SSD. Called "KC3000," this PCIe 4.0 NVMe is insanely fast -- it will surely delight both gamers and computer enthusiasts alike.

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Ubuntu 22.04 won't be released in stable form until 2022. To be more precise, it will be officially available in April of that year. After all, that is what the 22.04 indicates -- a two digit year followed by a two digit month.

Of course, before the official release, there will be a Beta and other pre-release versions. If you like living on the edge, however, you can actually download and install Ubuntu Linux 22.04 immediately. Yes, folks, daily builds (very early versions) of the upcoming operating system are available starting today.

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So, you bought a laptop that only has USB-C ports and now you are regretting it, eh? Yeah, I totally get it -- it's no fun having to buy dongles and adapters to connect your favorite accessories and devices. Even Apple learned its lesson and brought "legacy" ports back to the newest MacBook Pro. Thankfully, there are multiport adapters on the market that can transform a single USB-C port into several useful ports.

Today, Satechi launches its latest such product. Called "USB-C Hybrid Multiport Adapter," the portable dock offers HDMI, dual USB-A, and USB-C pass-through power delivery. But wait, what makes it a hybrid device as the name implies? Ah, that is the coolest aspect -- the adapter also serves as an M.2 solid state enclosure! Unfortunately, only SATA SSDs (such as this one) are compatible -- NVMe drives will not work. Other potential downsides? The adapter does not offer an Ethernet port or an SD card reader.

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