Tag: remote work

12 Best Computer Speakers (2025), Tested and Reviewed

Posted on by faz_business


Other Computer Speakers We Liked

There are tons of computer speakers on the market, and many of the ones we tested are perfectly fine, but don’t deserve a spot above for one reason or another.

12 Best Computer Speakers Tested and Reviewed

Photograph: Simon Hill

Majority DX10 Desktop Speakers for £15: They lack bass and general clarity, but these USB-powered speakers are the cheapest I’ve tried. These 10-watt, 2.5-inch, full-range speakers are angled up toward your ears and have a simple power and volume dial. There’s also a 3.5 mm headphone port. Only available in the UK, they could be enough if your budget is very tight.

Edifier G2000 Pro for $180: A spruced-up version of the G2000 above, the Pro is an upgrade to 64-watt power, 3-inch full-range drivers, and virtual 7.1 surround sound. Edifier also made these speakers translucent and added garish RGB lighting effects courtesy of LED strips in each speaker. They do sound a bit better, though still lacking in bass, and some folks will love the sci-fi light show, but there isn’t enough extra to justify the significant jump in price.

Image may contain Electronics Remote Control and Speaker

Photograph: Simon Hill

Onkyo Creator GX-10DB for $249: Capable of producing a warm and rich sound, Onkyo’s speakers are the perfect size for your desktop and come with angled stands (though they are plastic). The connectivity options are solid, with USB-C, optical, and stereo RCA inputs, and support for Bluetooth 5.3. These speakers get a little louder than our top pick, though you’ll need to pair a subwoofer if you’re into bass (there is a subwoofer-out port). Sadly, the volume knob on the back of the right speaker is tricky to reach, the slim remote control has a weird layout, and the source LED on the front is always on. But what I struggled with most was the automatic power-off (Onkyo says this “feature” is an eco-regulation in Europe) that turns off the speakers if they aren’t used for 15 minutes. If you have more space and crave more power, I also tested the Onkyo Creator Series GX-30ARC ($350), which goes far louder and adds a decent thump of bass.

Creative Pebble X Plus for $120: If our budget pick isn’t quite doing it for you, Creative’s Pebble X Plus adds a cube-shaped subwoofer under your desk. The larger speakers, with RGB lighting, are also more powerful, and the sub provides punchy bass. They sound reasonably good for the money. Connectivity is also beefed up compared to the V3 above, with headphone and microphone ports and Bluetooth 5.3, but all of this invariably comes at a higher cost.

Image may contain Plywood Wood Computer Electronics Laptop Pc Indoors Interior Design Furniture and Table

Photograph: Simon Hill

Soundblade by BlueAnt for $130: If there were an award for the most stylish soundbar, the curved Soundblade by BlueAnt would win. The Soundblade also delivers a surprisingly nuanced sound and a real punch of bass, courtesy of the built-in subwoofer. It is supposed to sit under your monitor but not serve as a stand or riser (BlueAnt told me not to put anything on top of it). Connectivity is good with USB-C, 3.5-mm aux, or Bluetooth 5.3, but the voice prompts are annoying. It sounded good for movies and games, but slightly muddy mids and restrained highs hampered the music. It comes with a handy wee remote.

Creative Sound Blaster GS5 for $90: While it doesn’t quite have the power of the OXS Thunder Lite above, this soundbar is cheaper and matches it on connectivity, even adding cool RGB lighting to the underside. It also has a remote and decent software for making EQ and lighting adjustments. The sound lacks clarity, and the bass is limited, but this is a solid, small soundbar for the money and works well as a desktop device.

Logitech Z407 for $115: A complete 2.1 system at this price is no mean feat. These speakers connect via USB, 3.5-mm aux, or Bluetooth, and there’s a wireless remote volume dial. Construction is cheap, and the sound lacks definition, but there’s a good thump of bass from the subwoofer, and mids and highs are reasonably crisp, provided you don’t turn the volume up too high. WIRED senior reviews editor Julian Chokkattu says he used a variation of the Logitech Z-series for nearly a decade and only recently donated them to someone else.

Razer Nommo V2 X for $150: The sound quality of Razer’s entry-level speakers is solid for music and good for movies and games (there’s THX Spatial support), though lacking in bass. These no-frills speakers look great but lack a subwoofer, RGB lighting, and a remote. They offer USB and Bluetooth connectivity and can be customized in Razer’s Synapse software.

The PC Speakers We Don’t Recommend

These are the computer speakers that had deal-breaking flaws for me.

OXS Thunder Lite for $150: This compact soundbar lacks the bells and whistles of its bigger sibling above, but is far more affordable. It can get plenty loud, supports virtual surround sound, and comes with a small remote. Unfortunately, separation was poor, so it was tough to tell where sounds were coming from in games, and it is severely lacking in bass for a soundbar with thunder in its name. Connectivity includes USB-C, 3.5-mm aux, optical, or HDMI, and it supports Bluetooth 5.0.

Edifier QR65 black rectangular speakers with purple interior trim sitting on a wooden desk

Photograph: Simon Hill

Edifier QR65 for $500: Delivering classy looks with supercool lighting effects and a seriously big, powerful sound, these speakers are excellent for music, movies, or games. They also come with two angled stands to point them at your ears. They have USB, RCA, and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and USB ports for charging your gadgets. Controls are decent, with a physical button on the right speaker for power and cycling through modes. The problem is that they are huge and won’t fit on most desktops, including mine.

Creative Stage V2 for $70: This affordable soundbar offers excellent connectivity with HDMI ARC, optical, USB, 3.5-mm aux, and Bluetooth 5.0. But it’s not especially powerful, can sound muddy and flat, and has a short cable (no good for sit-stand desks). The subwoofer lends some decent bass, there’s a remote control, and I like the Clear Dialog option to sharpen voices, but you can do better.

Image may contain Electronics and Speaker

Photograph: Simon Hill

House of Marley Get Together Duo for $170: Sporting an attractive and eco-friendly blend of bamboo and fabric, the Get Together Duo from House of Marley is affordable. They connect via Bluetooth 5.0, RCA, or 3.5-mm aux. There’s no subwoofer, the midrange is dominant, and they are lacking something at the high end. The battery-powered right speaker can also double as a portable speaker, and you can use these as bookshelf speakers or pair them with House of Marley’s Stir It Up turntable ($160) (8/10, WIRED Review), but as computer speakers, they are just OK.

SteelSeries Arena 3 for $170: Sporting a nice pear-shaped design with tiltable speakers and subtle branding, the entry-level Arena 3 from SteelSeries can get loud. But they lack bass, lose detail in the highs, and sound a bit fuzzy for music. Even for SteelSeries fans, there isn’t much reason to choose these over some of our picks above. They don’t have lighting, USB, or any other extras.

Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System for $450: This 5.1 system is THX-certified and comes with a huge subwoofer, five speakers, and a central control unit. The design feels dated, maybe even a bit ugly, and you need to run cables around your room. The surround sound effect is solid, and you can even convert stereo with the 3D mode, but overall, it’s a bass-heavy system.

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Amazon indicates employees can quit if they don’t like its return-to-office mandate

Posted on by faz_business


AWS CEO Matt Garman has harsh words for remote workers: return to the office or quit. The Amazon executive recently told employees who don’t like the new five-day in-person work policy that, “there are other companies around,” presumably companies they can work for remotely, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Amazon’s top boss, Andy Jassy, told employees last month that there will be a full return-to-office starting in 2025, an increase from three days for roughly the last year.

Garman is the latest tech CEO to put his foot down on remote work, but he’s not the first. Earlier this year, Dell reportedly told employees they won’t be considered for promotions if they don’t come into the office. That said, remote work likely isn’t going anywhere for most people. Studies suggest most remote workers would quit if they had to return to the office.

Amazon did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

4 Benefits of Moving to a Cloud Based CAD Software!

Posted on by faz_business


This past year has seen a lot of change in the way we work as designers. Some of us have transitioned to fully remote positions like myself, while many are working on a hybrid Office/Home schedule and even fewer it seems, have returned to the office full time. Regardless of working location, one of the best things to come from the last few years of online collaboration, remote work, and advances in software for CAD Design are our options for Cloud-Based CAD software.

Over the last few months, I’ve had the chance to really get to use and learn about Onshape, a browser-based 3d modelling software. I’m excited to share my thoughts and in particular, some of the biggest benefits of making the switch to online design software whether it’s Onshape or any of the browser-based CAD options out there.

If you haven’t already checked out my recent videos on learning Onshape, be sure to watch them here to see what all the hype is about (Onshape Modeling Tutorial)

I wanted to thank Onshape for sponsoring this post!
To learn more and get a free Pro Onshape Trial be sure to visit them here: https://onshape.pro/cadintentions

4 Benefits of Moving to a Cloud-Based CAD Software:

1: No Install or Setup Time

One of the first things that stands out when using browser-based software is just how easy it is to get up and running. Simply open a browser on practically any device and just log in to the website to get started.

There are literally no install or wait times and I’ve found myself using different devices based on my location and how I’m feeling that day. This makes software like Onshape perfect for remote designers since we can log in from anywhere without having to worry about annoying VPN servers, lugging around workstations, or network licenses.

 

2: Simple & Streamlined Collaboration

Perhaps the biggest change from traditional desktop-based CAD software is the fact that our files are stored in the cloud. This makes collaboration, sharing, and review of files much more streamlined and simple. Simply sharing a link/filling out a sharing form allows colleagues and clients to view, edit and review our models instantly and while we are still able to work on them.


This completely eliminates issues like software compatibility when sharing files as well as common things like broken references and links within the model files after sending them for review or additional work to be done on them.

By working on the cloud collaboration is a breeze with instant live updates and the ability to have multiple users working on the same models simultaneously.

 

3. Minimal Hardware & Cost Requirements

I know many software decisions ultimately come down to cost. This is especially true for smaller firms, freelancers, and hobbyists. Don’t worry though, since making the switch to cloud-based software will likely save you money. Since the heavy lifting is being done by the software servers like Onshapes, the need for high-end workstation Laptops with expensive GPUs is no longer there. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by just how well Onshape has run and worked for me regardless of the hardware I log in on.

In addition to being able to use basically any laptop, tablet, or even phone, we also no longer require the expense and upkeep of a modeling file server, all of our models are stored on the cloud automatically for us. Further reducing the costs required to get up and running with a truly powerful CAD modeling software.

 

 

4. Increased Security and Peace of Mind

Having all of our models stored on a cloud server provides quite a few benefits over the traditional methods of saving files locally when working remotely or needing to use a VPN to access a server. VPN access can be difficult to get set up while working remotely and can be slow depending on file sizes and internal traffic.

Plus, the added peace of mind that if your laptop or device is lost, broken, or stolen, all of your files and projects will be safe and instantly accessible after logging in on a new device. Imagine losing a laptop while working remotely in another city or country and being able to simply log in on another laptop and continue working minutes later. No time-consuming setup, installation, or networking. Just internet access and a sign-in account.

I’ve found this to be one of my favorite features and benefits of Onshape these last few months. I’ve even logged in while camping on a new laptop with only my cellphone as a wi-fi hotspot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my overview of just a few of the benefits and features of Onshape and any Cloud-Based CAD Software. If you’d like to learn even more including a walkthrough of learning Onshape be sure to check out one of my Videos here:

 That’s all for today’s post, as always thank you all so much for reading, and let me know in the comments what you think of Cloud/Browser Base CAD Software?

Lastly, I wanted to Thank Onshape again for sponsoring this post and helping to support the content I make here!!
Don’t forget to check them out and get a free Pro Onshape Trial here: https://onshape.pro/cadintentions

 

PS. Thank you again for visiting and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter to keep up to date on new CAD news, tutorials and tricks: Subscribe here

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Is VR & AR the Future of Remote Work?

Posted on by faz_business


Have you spent much time in VR yet?

Recently I’ve been trying out and testing different use cases for VR when it comes to remote work,  engineering, design, and general day-to-day tasks. 

 I feel like VR and AR are much more commonplace in the major tech sectors and still flying pretty under the radar when it comes to construction and engineering. Over the last year though  I’ve started to hear it come up in general work meetings and seen a few convincing demos that the tech is finally at or close to a point where it will start coming into our industry.

I asked this same kind of question on Twitter here and got a variety of responses, with many of them being in favor of using VR for productivity and remote work cases.  I even posted this video below showing my personal workspace setup for Fusion modeling or general productivity and work within VR and I can honestly say I quite enjoy it.


Also published on Medium.

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Tips To Prevent Burnout and Stay Engaged as a CAD Designer, Engineer, Remote Worker, etc..

Posted on by faz_business


I’ve spent the majority of my career as a Designer, working at a desk either in an office or remotely for 95% of my last 16 years working.

Being a Designer/Drafter/Engineer can be quite a sedentary and repetitive career.

To stay engaged, healthy, and happy, it’s essential to make an effort to keep active & learn consistently. Over our careers, we’ll go through periods of boredom, low energy, and doubt…

Tasks become familiar, repetitive, and unchallenging.

Days can feel like they’re dragging on.

Health and energy levels feel like they’re always taking a back seat.

Spending every day sitting at a desk can be draining.

All of these thoughts has gone through my mind over my career and some can still crop up, but years ago I made an effort to fix and change many of them for the better.

I’ve gotten tips and advice from mentors as well as learned along the way and in the end the solutions are pretty straightforward.

Here is some of the best advice & tips I’ve learned so far:

  • Make health a priority
    Scheduling workouts, activities, and eating healthier not only improves how you feel every day but also sets us up for less issues as we get older. Exercise and activities help us relieve stress, keep our energy levels consistent and reduce our odds of getting sick.

    Take breaks throughout the day, go for a walk, do a quick workout, and meet up with friends or co-workers for lunchtime activities. It’s easy to skip these but the improvement to your day and overall health is worth it tenfold!

    Also, try to keep a large bottle of water at your desk and finish it at least once or twice throughout the day, I’m 100% guilty of not drinking enough water and instead drinking coffee all day. But having enough water can improve our days in so many ways including added energy and improved overall health.

  • Continue to learn and explore new things
    I try to learn something new as often as possible. Whether it’s through reading, courses, videos or podcasts, it’s easy now to stay curious and engaged.
    Depending on your work/office space, try to listen to podcasts while doing drawing productions, data processing etc.
    Any tasks that are somewhat trivial or repetitive, as long as you can still complete the work while listening, I highly recommend listening to audiobooks (Audible is my go to, you can get a free trial now using my link here: https://amzn.to/3PCpN08), podcasts or music.
    Not only does it help time go by quicker but I can also tend to get into a focused/flow-state and breeze through projects while also listening to my current Fiction Book or learning something new.

    In addition to listening while working, it’s also important to always be learning when it comes to getting ahead and staying ahead in our industry. Taking the initiative to take a course on a new software package (Like say learning Civil 3D, cough, my civil 3d crash course can be found here) can be a great way to justify a raise or promotion to your supervisor come review time. It can also be highly beneficial for your career to learn about other aspects of the job, taking voluntary courses on Health & Safety, project management, leadership, or engineering courses can help progress your career in addition to helping with your daily tasks.

  • Take your vacation and make time for family & friends
    When work is busy, it can feel like you shouldn’t take your holidays or leave the office at a decent time. When I was younger I definitely skipped vacations/weekends etc to the detriment of my relationships with friends and family.
    It’s important not only for our health but also for the longevity of our careers to keep a good work/life balance. Burnout is real and can seem to come out of nowhere but it can typically be traced back to not listening to our body and minds. Sometimes we just need to get out of the office and take a hike, ride a bike, fish, etc.. taking a break is not a bad thing and many times can increase our engagement when we do get back and even help us come up with new ideas/solutions by freeing up our headspace.

    I know now that taking time away from the office isn’t going to cause a disaster or major project issue.
    The energy & overall engagement is always better after taking some time away to disconnect and recharge, even if it’s just an afternoon off to spend extra time with the kids.

That’s all for today, I hope you were able to take something away from today’s post and I would love if you let me know your thoughts and tips! Lets continue the conversation on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cadintentions/status/1688955992703377408

As always, thank you so much for reading, I am excited to be back and posting regularly on the blog and hope you all will follow along.
Cheers, and happy Drafting!

PS. If you liked today’s post and want to stay up to date, join the CAD Intentions newsletter on the right at the top of the page or here: cadintentions.com/signup

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Working from home isn’t going away, even if some CEOs wish it would

Posted on by faz_business


When I started working from home in the late 1980s as a freelance technical writer, I was clearly an outlier. Even contractors mostly went into the office in those days. Over time, though, that slowly changed, and the pandemic — along with generationally shifting views on work-life balance — accelerated worker sentiment away from going into a formal office every day, even if some CEOs wish it weren’t so.

Today, 14% of U.S. workers work at home full time (including me), and that number is expected to increase to 20% by next year, according to data published by USA Today. In total, 58% of white collar employees want flexibility in their work schedules to work at home a few days a week, per that same USA Today data. Yet, we are continually getting post-pandemic mixed messages about returning to the office.

Some companies like IBM and Amazon have been pushing hard to get people back to the office, with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly telling employees if they wanted to stay remote, it probably wouldn’t work out well for them. Wayfair, the Boston-based online furniture company, concentrated on remote workers over in-office folks in a layoff earlier this year, according to a WSJ report.

Big tech CEOs like Jassy and Elon Musk have been pushing back hard against remote work; Musk called it “morally wrong” for some people to work at home while service workers had to show up. Meanwhile Michael Bloomberg suggested remote workers weren’t actually working, but playing golf (which honestly sounds like projecting to me). Even Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, whose company pushed the notion of a digital HQ during the pandemic, began preaching about a return to the office, blaming working from home for lack of productivity, especially among new employees.

That’s a lot of executive energy being directed against working from home and toward working in the office. Some have suggested that it’s because these companies have invested heavily in office buildings and need people to fill them. Maybe it’s just a need to have the employees in front of managers for control purposes, or they genuinely believe that workers are more productive in the office. Whatever the reason, they seem quite committed to getting back to the office.

Do they have a point? Will workers be more productive under the watchful eye of their managers sitting in cubicles instead of the comfort of their homes? Perhaps more importantly to results-driven CEOs, will their companies make more money? Research from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business published earlier this year suggests not necessarily.

“Our findings are consistent with employees’ concerns that managers use RTO (return to office mandates) for power grabbing and blaming employees for poor performance. We provide evidence that RTO mandates hurt employee satisfaction but do not improve firm performance,” the report found.

Karen Mangia, president and chief strategy officer at the Engineered Innovation Group, who has studied and written extensively about remote work, says she was surprised to find that workers tended to value flexibility over place; it wasn’t so much where you needed to be, so much as your ability to control when you worked, to maintain a proper work-life balance.

“All of the research I’ve been looking at shows the same thing: that employees who have some degree of flexibility over where and when they work, are reporting higher levels of employee engagement. That is the group of people that is demonstrating to be more engaged and more productive,” she said.

What’s more, Mangia has found that those companies forcing employees to go back to the office are unsurprisingly having to deal with more employee burnout. “The argument so many times behind this return to office mandate is that employees will be more productive because we can collaborate in person and, and things get done. Well, being burnt out and sustaining a burnout level is the opposite of being more productive,” she said.

There are also good reasons to encourage hiring more remote employees, including access to a much broader and diverse employee base than you could get from one geographical location.

“I’ve had a big Midwestern consumer packaged goods company say ‘we’re finding all sorts of talent. Whereas before we insisted all employees must be local or must be in the city, now we’ve opened it up more broadly, and we got way better candidates. We don’t ever want to go back and we’re going to open that up permanently,’” said Dion Hinchcliffe, an analyst at Constellation Research, who has been watching this trend for a long time.

The next debate is how much, if any, time should employees be required to spend in the office and for what reasons. There are many tech companies that are leaving it up to their employees to decide where they want to work, and it seems to work quite well.

Gitlab is a prime example of a company that has been fully remote from the day it was founded a decade ago. Other tech companies with a flexible approach include Dropbox, Atlassian and Okta, none of which require a specific number of days in the office.

As for startups, anecdotally the vast majority of founders I speak to are remote first. Hinchcliffe says this is part of a shift to a decentralized workplace where startups in particular avoid the regular overhead of having an office. Instead they often rent space in the WeWork model to get together with customers, press and analysts, or each other, as needed.

Mangia says that the one worker demographic that does tend to struggle in all-virtual environments is new hires out of college, who benefit from being in an office. “When you have new-hire employees, especially early in their career, they do ramp up faster and report a better experience with a lower degree of burnout when they can come into a place where there are other people to help them,” she said, giving some credence to what Benioff was saying.

Even the most ardent work-from-home advocates understand there will be times when there is value in getting together for team building, to meet customers or to collaborate and brainstorm in person, but in spite of the cries from big CEOs, employees have tasted this flexibility, and it’s going to be hard to get the genie back in the bottle. For now, it continues to be a debate between labor and management about where and how work gets done.