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Cogent isn't the only large American internet provider pulling out of Russia following that country's invasion of Ukraine. The Washington Postreports Lumen is "immediately" halting business in the country. The company is disconnecting over concerns of an "increased security risk" inside Russia, fears of government action and a desire to protect the integrity of the Internet at large.

The company claimed that its services are "extremely small and very limited" in Russia, and that it only has a handful of enterprise customers. However, analysts at Kentik noted that Lumen is a major source of international data within the country, and that those customers include state-owned telecoms like Rostelecom and TransTelekom. Russia should feel the impact, in other words.

This could hurt Russians' access to internet services hosted outside of the country, and might make them reliant on state propaganda. However, it comes as many US tech companies are limiting or pulling products, including Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft. Lumen is joining a united front, then. Support is growing, too, as Amazon Web Services said it would stop accepting new customers from either Russia or Belarus.

This isn't going as far as Ukraine wanted. It called on ICANN to boot Russia from the internet. It's still a significant move, though, and it suggests many tech heavyweights aren't worried about the threat of Russian retaliation.

On Tuesday, Apple held its first event of 2022. What initially seemed like it would be a low-key affair turned into something a bit more exciting. Yes, Apple updated the iPhone SE and iPad Air, but it also had a new Mac to show off and a matching display. Here's everything the company announced at its Peek Performance keynote. 

iPhone SE

Apple

Apple opened the event with the announcement of the third-generation iPhone SE. Like its 2020 predecessor, the 2022 model looks like an iPhone 8 but features some of the company’s latest technologies, including its blazing fast A15 Bionic processor. The SE also includes a new modem that can connect to 5G networks. Additionally, Apple claims it features a “new” camera system that includes a handful of computational photography features found on the iPhone 13, including Smart HDR 4 and Deep Fusion for better low-light shots. At $429, it’s also $30 more expensive than its predecessor. Pre-orders for the iPhone SE open on March 11th, with general availability to follow on March 18th.

Alongside the SE, Apple announced it would offer the iPhone 13 in two new green colors. Those too go on sale on March 18th.

iPad Air

Apple

After its glow-up in 2020, the iPad Air became one of the most compelling products in Apple’s lineup. At its Peek Performance event, Apple announced a minor refresh of the tablet that adds a couple of handy upgrades. Likely the most impactful is the inclusion of a new front-facing camera sensor that supports the company’s Center Stage feature for ensuring that you’re in the center of the frame during FaceTime calls. Internally, the 2022 iPad Air, like the 2021 iPad Pro, features Apple’s M1 chip. The company claims that should make its tablet about twice as fast as a similarly priced Windows laptop. Apple will also offer the iPad Air with optional 5G connectivity.

The iPad Air starts at $599. It will be available to pre-order starting March 11th, with general availability to follow on March 18th.

Mac Studio and Studio Display

Apple

Thankfully, Apple’s Peek Performance event didn’t only consist of refreshes to existing products. The company also had something fresh to show in the Mac Studio, a pro-level desktop that features its new M1 Ultra. Thanks to its most powerful chip to date, Apple claims the Mac Studio is up to 60 percent faster than a Mac Pro with a 28-core Intel processor in CPU tasks. Outside of performance, a highlight of Mac Studio is all the I/O it includes. On the back of the computer, you’ll find four Thunderbolt 4 connections, two USB-A ports, HDMI and 10Gbps Ethernet. Meanwhile, there’s an SD card slot and two additional USB-C connectors on the front of the computer.

Of course, power and versatility come at a cost, and the Mac Studio is no exception. It starts at $2,000 before you include upgrades and optional accessories. All in, you’re looking to pay as much as $7,999 when you include peripherals and a matching display.

Speaking of that matching display. Alongside Mac Studio, Apple announced its new Studio Display, a 27-inch monitor that features a 5K Retina panel capable of 600 nits of brightness and P3 wide color gamut coverage. It also features a built A13 processor, six-speaker sound system and a 12-megapixel front-facing camera with Center Stage. The Studio Display starts at $1,599. If you want a height-adjustable stand, that’s an extra $400. Like everything else Apple announced today, both the Mac Studio and Studio Display will ship on March 18th.

Friday Night Baseball

Apple

Provided MLB owners and the players association can agree on a new collective bargaining agreement before the 2022 season is canceled, Apple will offer two weekly doubleheader baseball games through its TV+ streaming service. Those games will be available to watch in eight countries and won’t be subject to local broadcasting restrictions.

Catch up on all of the news from Apple’s Peek Performance event right here!

Twitter has a simple solution to Russia's ban on the social network: offer a service that helps you circumvent the ban. The company has introduced a Tor onion service that should let you access Twitter even when it's blocked in a given country. The anonymizing nature of Tor will also help protect against surveillance.

The platform is based on a version of the Enterprise Onion Toolkit (EOTK) customized to meet Twitter's "extraordinary production requirements," according to contributor Alec Muffett. He broke the news rather than Twitter as there were concerns news on the official TwitterSafety account would produce a "load-spike" that flooded the Tor service right when it was most needed.

The timing is more than a little convenient. This will let Russians see and share the truth about the invasion of Ukraine despite their country's efforts to censor social apps like Facebook (which already has an onion) and communications tools like Zello. And when President Putin's government has made it illegal for media outlets to contradict the official narrative on the war, Twitter may offer one of the few ways to access objective reporting in Russia.

That's not the only use, of course. The Tor offering could also help residents in other countries that block Twitter, such as China, Iran and North Korea. It might also help elsewhere — you could use the Tor onion to post without as much worry that others might track your online activity.

Apple has confirmed it will roll out iOS 15.4 next week. One especially useful feature that'll hit iPhones in the coming days is another way to unlock your device with Face ID while wearing a mask. You'll no longer need an Apple Watch to unlock your phone without removing your mask or punching in your passcode.

Apple has been testing the feature in public betas since January. You'll need to activate it manually in the Face ID & Passcode section of Settings. There's one key caveat: it doesn't work with sunglasses.

Other features expected to arrive as part of iOS 14.5 include an anti-stalking warning for AirTags, a less-gendered voice option for Siri, PS5 DualSense controller adaptive trigger support, a way to add notes to iCloud Keychain passwords and dozens more emoji.

In addition, macOS Monterey 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4 will be released next week. Those updates will include the long-awaited Universal Control feature, which will allow you to control multiple Macs and iPads with one keyboard and trackpad or mouse. Apple announced Universal Control at WWDC in June, but delayed it from the fall until this spring.

You're out of luck if you were hoping for a larger, brawnier counterpart to the M1 iMac. Apple has discontinued the 27-inch iMac, leaving last year's 24-inch M1 model as the only all-in-one in the lineup. If you want to buy a higher-end (but relatively compact) desktop, you'll have to spring for the new Mac Studio and a monitor to match. We've asked Apple for comment on the move.

This might not come as a shock. Apple last updated the 27-inch iMac in August 2020, and the basic design hadn't changed much since its most recent form factor debuted in 2012. Combine that with the Apple Silicon transition and the discontinuation of the iMac Pro and the company clearly lost interest in the iMac as a workstation, at least for now.

We wouldn't completely rule out a comeback. At present, though, this represents Apple's largest shift in desktop Mac strategy for a long time. The iMac has had to cater to a wide range of customers, from newcomers to creative pros, for well over a decade. Now, Apple appears happy to concentrate on a relatively mainstream audience and give pros more conventional and flexible options.

Catch up on all of the news from Apple’s Peek Performance event right here!

Since you’ve been spending so much time at home these past two years, you could probably use a better tablet for when you’re kicking back on the couch or hanging out in the yard. And Apple’s new iPad Air might just be the screen you need in front of you. The company finally brought its home-grown M1 chip to the iPad Air for better working and gaming, but it is really your best option? 

The major competition includes Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 unveiled last month, and Amazon’s stalwart Fire 10 HD from 2021. We’ve got these three 10-ish-inch tablets and all their specs below, so you can get an idea of which one might hit the spot for you; stay tuned for our full review of the iPad Air later this spring.

Catch up on all of the news from Apple’s Peek Performance event right here!

At some point, most of us have had to uninstall apps to free up space on our phones. And while it’s become less of an issue in recent years with the introduction of devices that start with 64GB and 128GB of internal space, not everyone can afford to upgrade the storage on their phone. But with some luck, deleting apps on your Android device to free up space may become a thing of the past.

Google announced today it’s working on a new feature it estimates will reduce the space some apps take up by approximately 60 percent. Best of all, your personal data won’t be affected. The feature is called app archiving and will arrive later this year. Rather than uninstalling an app completely, it instead temporarily removes some parts of it and generates a new type of Android Package known as an archived APK. That package preserves your data until the moment you restore the app to its former form.

“Once launched, archiving will deliver great benefits to both users and developers. Instead of uninstalling an app, users would be able to ‘archive’ it - free up space temporarily and be able to re-activate the app quickly and easily,” the company said. “Developers can benefit from fewer uninstalls and substantially lower friction to pick back up with their favorite apps.”

Google has started making archived APKs available to developers ahead of the feature’s consumer release later this year. If you own a relatively recent and high-end device like the Galaxy S22, you probably won't get much use out of app archiving, but it's a feature that could be a significant boon for those with low-end devices.   

The past few years have seen the major phone manufacturers release handsets that were low on price but big on features — basically flagship phones at a mid-range price. Today Apple announced an update to its own offering, the iPhone SE. It packs in the powerful Apple A15 Bionic, 5G connectivity and a dedicated home button, while coming in at a nice affordable $429 to start. But it’s still not the only stunning midrange phone; Samsung has offered up a slew of affordable handsets for years now, and Google continues its line of “a” phones with the 5a. And if you’re outside the US, you may even have the option of picking up a OnePlus Nord 2. We’ve taken all of these outstanding affordable phones and lined their specs up in the table below so you can get an idea of the power on offer, but make sure you check out our review of the new iPhone SE when it drops later this spring.

Catch up on all of the news from Apple’s Peek Performance event right here!

Apple's "peek performance" event today brought a bunch of new hardware across many of its product families. The new iPhone SE 5G brings long-awaited features to the small handset, including 5G support and an upgraded processor. The new iPad Air may look the same as the previous model, but it also has significant performance improvements thanks to the M1 chipset and 5G capabilities. On the Mac side, the new Mac Studio is powered by the most powerful M1 chip Apple's made yet, and the Studio Display sports over 14.7M pixels. Here's how to pre-order the iPhone SE 5G and everything else Apple announced today.

iPhone SE 5G

Apple

The new iPhone SE 5G will be available for pre-order starting at $429 on Apple's website on Friday, March 11th. It'll be widely available on March 18th.

As expected, Apple didn't reinvent the wheel here. The latest iPhone SE looks much the same as the previous model, featuring a 4.7-inch inch display and a physical Home button with TouchID. The biggest changes are inside the small handset, where Apple put an A15 Bionic chipset and support for 5G. The new processor should make the smartphone feel much zippier than before, and 5G support is a much-needed addition.

iPad Air M1

Apple

The new iPad Air with the M1 chipset will be available for pre-order starting at $599 on Apple's website on Friday, March 11th. It'll be widely available starting March 18th.

Much like the iPhone SE, the new iPad Air will look familiar as all of the pertinent updates are inside the device. The updated tablet features the same 10.9-inch LCD display as the previous model, along with flat edges and a TouchID-toting power button. Inside, Apple upgraded the machine with its M1 chipset, a 16-core Neural Engine, 5G support and new front-facing cameras that support Center Stage. The M1 processor along with 5G will make this iPad even more viable as a productivity tool and laptop replacement, while Center Stage will keep you in frame during FaceTime calls.

Mac Studio & Studio Display

Apple

The new Mac Studio desktop and Studio Display are available to pre-order today starting at $1,999 and $1,599, respectively, from Apple's website and both will be widely available on March 18th. 

Apple's latest desktop is designed for creative professionals and those that want a ton of power in their main computer. It looks like a taller Mac Mini, featuring an aluminum body with a rounded-square design. It'll come powered by either Apple's M1 Max or new M1 Ultra chipsets, with the latter being the most powerful M1 chip Apple has made yet.

In addition to the performance gains you'll get from either chip, the Mac Studio has a variety of connectivity options. On its back edge are four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10GB Ethernet port, two USB-A connectors, an HDMI port and a pro audio slot. Apple also added a few connectors to the front edge, too — M1 Max machines have two USB-C ports on the front, while M1 Ultra devices have two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and both tote an SD card slot, too. On top of that, the Mac Studio supports WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5 and connecting to up to four Pro Display XDRs or a 4K TV.

Unsurprisingly, Apple's positioning the Studio Display as the ideal companion screen for the Mac Studio. The "all-screen" monitor has an aluminum enclosure and a 27-inch 5K Retina panel that has 14.7M pixels, a peak brightness of 600 nits and support for TrueTone. You'll be able to tilt the standard model up to 30 degrees, but Apple's also offering a tilt- and height-adjustable model if you need more control over your screen. There will also be a VESA-mount option as well.

Inside the Studio Display are some powerful components, too. It runs on an A13 Bionic chip and it has the same 12MP ultra wide camera found in the latest iPads, so it supports Center Stage. There's also a three-mic array, which should help keep your voice loud and clear during video conferences. The display also has a six speaker sound system that supports Dolby Atmos and spatial audio, along with three USB-C ports and one Thunderbolt port. While it's designed to work with the Mac Studio, the Studio Display can be used with MacBooks as well — and you can connect up to three of the monitors to a MacBook Pro.

iPhone 13 (green)

Apple

Apple's adding two green hues to its iPhone 13 lineup. The regular iPhone 13 will get a colorway simply known as "green," while the Pro family will get the Alpine Green color. You'll be able to pre-order both the iPhone 13 and 13 Pros in the new green colors this Friday, March 11th, and they'll be widely available starting March 18th.

Catch up on all of the news from Apple’s Peek Performance event right here!

Spotify and Discord are down right now and inaccessible to users. It's unclear what the source of the problem is, or if the two outages are related, but users began reporting issues with both services at about 1pm ET, according to reports on downdetector.com.

Spotify acknowledged the outage on Twitter, writing that "something's not quite right," but didn't elaborate. 

Likewise, Discord said it was "working on a fix." The company wrote on its website that an "issue has occurred causing an major outage of the API" and that it was investigating the "root cause." The latest outage apparent happened after an earlier issue was resolved Tuesday morning.

We've reached out to both companies for more details. In the meantime, Discord is encouraging users to "go outside."

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