We've also included some helpful answers to common questions about VPN shopping at the bottom of this article. Before you decide on a new VPN, be sure to check out our roundup of the best VPNs to help you choose the right service for your needs.
Note: Tech deals come and go quickly, so it's possible some of these VPN discounts will have expired before this article's next update.
Best VPN deals
ExpressVPN, now $4.99 per month for 24 months 4 free months (61% off at ExpressVPN)
NordVPN, now $4.39 per month for 24 months 6 free months (70% off at NordVPN)
Surfshark VPN, now $2.69 per month for 24 months 3 free months (85% off at Surfshark)
The Acer Aspire 3 offers a 15.6-inch 1080p touchscreen, a mid-range AMD Ryzen 5 7520U quad-core processor, 16GB of RAM (which is as low as I would go for Windows 11 these days), and a roomy 1TB SSD. Those specs are hard to find on any Windows laptop under $500 right now, but Acer is selling a refurbished one for darn near half that price.
PCWorld reviewed a similar model of this laptop back in 2023. That model's specs were different, but appears to be the same chassis. It was already a good pick at that $330 price, and that was with less RAM and storage and lacking a touchscreen. You can read the full review here.
While this one on sale is a refurbished model, Acer did the refurbishing and even bundles the laptop with a two-year Allstate warranty. That's about as good as it gets for consumer electronics in less-than-new condition, and it's kibble for the penny-pincher. I'll also point out that this model can be upgraded with even more RAM and storage if you're so inclined (which isn't a given with laptops these days).
Acer has already sold nearly 2,000 of these refurbished laptops during this sale. There's no telling how long the stock will hold out. If you're in the market for a fantastic deal on a budget laptop,
The AI model comes in two flavors — Grok-3 and Grok-3 mini — and according to figures from xAI, both models perform as well or better than rivals from Google (Gemini), OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), and DeepSeek when it comes to math, science, and programming.
Microsoft has long made it clear that support for Windows 10 will officially end on October 14, 2025. This means that the operating system will no longer receive any new security updates and may become increasingly unstable and vulnerable to malware over time.
Windows 11 was released four years ago and Microsoft has made it free for Windows 10 users to upgrade to the new operating system. At the same time, not everyone has been able to take that free upgrade because Windows 11 has strict hardware requirements that disqualify most older PCs from upgrade eligibility.
If you're still on Windows 10, it might be time to think about upgrading your PC and switching to Windows 11 ahead of the deadline. Alternatively, you can pay to extend Windows 10 support or keep using Windows 10 while leaving your PC vulnerable.
It'll be interesting to see how the ratio of Windows 10 and 11 users shifts over the next few months as we head into that deadline.
In other statistics, the Steam hardware survey showed that the most common graphics card among Steam users is a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 with 16GB of memory and the most common storage size is over 1TB, of which 100GB to 249GB is free space.
Trump's 10 percent tariff imposed on goods from China is in addition to other existing import fees. Consumers will see the higher prices on Acer laptops starting in March 2025.
Trump has threatened increased taxes on goods and materials from several American trading partners, including close allies like Canada and Mexico and chip giant (and Acer home territory) Taiwan. Chen said that moving manufacturing centers out of China, as ASRock has already done, could be a solution. Though Chen floated US-based production as an alternative, labor and material costs would make the United States a poor substitute for all but the most expensive finished products.
It doesn't help that Trump has more targeted tariffs on ess
The first two third-party European app stores to be announced offer different takes on how these stores might work: the first is a white-label service for enterprise app distribution, the second is an all-you-can-eat subscription deal.
The stores are on the cusp of being introduced now that Apple has been forced to open up to third party app stores and payment systems. It seems likely more such stores will soon open, and it's interesting these two seem willing to explore new app distribution business models.
For the enterprise: Mobivention
Initially available in Germany, the Mobivention App Marketplace wants to become a safe place from which to download apps for company employees, partners, and customers.