MacOS Monterey didn't have the most graceful launch for some users. According to 9to5Mac, Apple told YouTuber Rene Ritchie it fixed a firmware issue preventing some Macs with T2 security chips from starting. New upgraders who install Monterey will now get updated firmware alongside the OS. The T2 chip exists in most Macs released between 2018 and 2020.
Apple didn't say which systems were most likely to be affected. However, it said only a "very small number" of users ran into the problem.
Unfortunately, there's no easy way to recover if your Mac bricked as a result of the update. If you ran into trouble, you'll have to contact Apple technical support. It's not clear if you'll have to send your Mac in for service, but it's safe to presume this could sour your Monterey experience. As common as OS launch bugs may be, they're seldom this serious.
Microsoft is trying to nudge more people toward newer Windows versions. As Thurottreports, Microsoft has warned that the OneDrive desktop app will stop syncing with personal Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 computers on March 1st, 2022. The software will no longer receive updates from January 1st onward. You can still use the web to manually transfer files, but that's clearly a hassle if you routinely access cloud files from an older PC.
Business customers won't have much of a reprieve, either. Microsoft is tying corporate OneDrive support to the Windows cycle for relevant machines. Windows 7 and 8.1 workplace users will have until January 10th, 2023 (the end of extended support for both platforms), while Windows 8 users are already out of luck.
The company wasn't shy about its reasoning. This will help "focus resources" on newer Windows platforms and technologies, according to OneDrive developers. In other words, Microsoft really wants you to upgrade to Windows 10 or Windows 11.
This isn't a completely unexpected move. Microsoft has long had trouble persuading some customers to upgrade to newer versions of Windows, to the point where companies and governments would rather pay for special support contracts than update. That hurts Microsoft's bottom line, of course, but it also poses security risks — WannaCry took advantage of organizations running outdated Windows versions. The new OneDrive policy may push some users to install newer Windows versions even if they're otherwise happy with an old operating system.
Engadget’s product reviews this week run the gamut from earbuds to e-readers. Billy Steele checked out the Beats Fit Pro and liked them for their improved fit and deeper sound. Next, a few items of note for photography enthusiasts: Steve Dent reviewed the Panasonic GH5 II to see the difference an all-new processor can make, while Mat Smith used the Sony Xperia 1 III and reported that the oblong smartphone has a slew of intriguing camera features to offer. Finally, Nathan Ingraham reviewed the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which left him suitably impressed.
Billy Steele likes the more traditional fit of the new Beat Fits Pro earbuds. These are the newest true wireless buds in the company’s lineup and they have a slight design update with flexible wingtips, which bend to fit more ear shapes. Billy says this element helped keep the buds in place and he hardly noticed them in his ears. In addition to the hardware refresh, the earbuds also feature active noise-cancellation (ANC), adaptive EQ and spatial audio, plus other features integrated with iOS that make them an attractive option for iPhone users.
The $200 Beat Fits Pro also have an IPX4 rating, and their wingtips make them more secure during workouts. The upgrades the company made to the sound profile were immediately noticeable according to Billy, who reported a punchier bass with more depth, more room for vocals and other elements and more low-end tone. The buds have the same H1 chip found in the AirPods Pro, allowing them to access features like one-touch pairing and hands-free Siri. But the Beats Fit Pro weren’t without issue: Billy experienced a lot of accidental button presses and they don’t support wireless charging. But they still offer a good blend of features, sound and performance, making them a solid alternative to the AirPods Pro.
Nathan Ingraham knows that an e-reader isn’t a gadget that most people upgrade often. However, a larger 6.8-inch screen, smaller bezels, 17 LED backlights, USB-C charging and 32GB of storage make for quite an update, and because of all that, Nathan calls the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition the best e-reader he’s ever used. Those extra LEDs emit an adjustable warm light that should reduce eye strain at night, and Nathan says this was his favorite new feature on the device. He also said the hardware changes to the bezels and screen helped to make this feel like a more premium device.
The latest Kindle can also automatically adjust the backlight to reduce nighttime eye strain, plus it has wireless charging and won’t display ads on the lock screen. Like previous versions, the Signature Edition is waterproof, can play audiobooks using Bluetooth and has a battery life that lasts weeks. But it comes in at $190, which is $50 more than the standard Kindle Paperwhite. Nathan says that for most people, the extra storage isn’t worth the extra money — unless you plan on downloading a lot of Audible titles on your e-reader.
Steve Dent found a lot to like about the Panasonic GH5 II. The refreshed design still has the same 20-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor, as well as the same 3.68 million dot resolution and .76x magnification. The body hardware is nearly identical with an excellent grip, logical control positions and a smaller but brighter rear display. However, the new version of the camera has a faster processor and double the refresh rate at 120Hz. The chip helps improve the AI autofocus, which can now double the face- and eye-tracking speeds as well as pick up focus on a face tilted away from the camera.
Steve also liked the menus better on the GH5 II, which are color coded and tabbed to help you find what you’re looking for. Panasonic also kept the info panel, which shows important settings at a glance. Another upgrade comes in the image stabilization system, which now delivers up to 6.5 EV of shake protection. Thanks to this, Steve said the GH5 II does a better job than competitors at smoothing out walking or running. But there’s still no external RAW video, and low-light shooting remains a weak point.
Sony’s Xperia 1 III closely resembles last year's smartphone with an unusual 21:9 screen ratio and an elongated design. Mat Smith says the addition of a matte finish helps to make it feel like a premium handset. The updated 4K 120Hz screen also helps make everything look quite crisp, and it runs smoothly thanks to a Snapdragon 888 chipset, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Though Mat says the phone's 6.5-inch OLED screen is gorgeous, the Xperia can’t dynamically change refresh rates to maximize battery life — and that results in barely a full day of use, even with a 4,500mAh battery, if you keep the panel at 120Hz. He was pleased with the sound from the front-facing stereo speakers, which continues support for audio formats like 360 Reality Audio, Hi-Resolution audio and Dolby Atmos. And — shocker — the Xperia 1 III still includes a 3.5mm audio jack.
But the phone’s camera shines, courtesy of the three 12-megapixel shooters with varying focal lengths. The Xperia 1 III can track moving subjects and catch crisp shots in busy scenes because it’s capable of capturing 20 frames per second and has dual-phase-detection-autofocus pixels. Mat says it’s a more technical approach and it has a learning curve, but it makes the smartphone an intriguing prospect for photography enthusiasts.
When most of us pick up an object, we don’t have to think about how to orient it in our hand. It’s something that comes naturally to us as we learn to navigate the world. That’s something that allows young children to be more deft with their hands than even the most advanced robots available today.
But that could quickly change. A team of scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has developed a system that could one day give robots that same kind of dexterity. Using a model-free reinforcement AI algorithm, they created a simulated, anthropomorphic hand that could manipulate more than 2,000 objects. What’s more, the system didn’t need to know what it was about to pick up to find a way to move it around in its hand.
The system isn’t ready for real-world use just yet. To start, the team needs to transfer it to an actual robot. That might not be as much of a roadblock as you might think. At the start of the year, we saw researchers from Zhejiang University and the University of Edinburgh successfully transfer an AI reinforcement approach to their robot dog Jueying. The system allowed the robot to learn how to walk and recover from falls on its own.
As things stand, the system isn’t perfect either. It can reorient many smaller objects, including things like tennis balls and apples, with a nearly 100 percent success rate, but tools like screwdrivers and scissors present a challenge. When it comes to those types of objects, its success rate falls closer to 30 percent. Still, the potential of the system is huge. It could one day make robots better at manipulating tools and make them much more efficient at tasks like packing boxes.
Google is gradually bringing more and more useful features to Stadia, many of which probably should have been available from the outset. It's still ridiculous how long it took to add a search function to the store, for one thing. Shortly after the arrival of free trials for some more titles, Google is rolling out an option to join a friend's game without an invite.
A support page spotted by 9to5Google notes that the option is available in select games, including Far Cry 6. You can switch it on by going to the privacy tab of the Stadia settings. In the Current Game section, there's an option called Join your current game, which you can enable to let others join a multiplayer game without an invitation. You can set this to friends, your friends and their friends, all players or no one.
This is a welcome update that brings Stadia a little more in line with other gaming platforms. It could encourage groups of friends to pick up the same games since it'll be a little easier for them to play together.
If you're going to use a Chromebook as your daily driver — or even just more than once or twice a day — you should get a decently powerful one. Perhaps unsurprisingly, even Chrome OS machines can get expensive when you start to spec them out, but Lenovo's Flex 5 Chromebook has been one of our favorites precisely for how much value it packs at a relatively affordable $430. Amazon now has this versatile Chrome OS laptop at the best price we've seen — only $300. That's $130 off its normal price and an all-time low.
The model on sale runs on a 10th-generation Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. While the latter two are pretty common in entry- to mid-level Chromebooks, the Core i3 processor will help this laptop feel zippier than others. While we initially weren't thrilled by the 4GB of RAM, we found that the Flex 5 Chromebook was more than capable of running multiple tabs simultaneously. As for storage, 64GB should be enough for most people who do most of their work in the Chrome browser anyway. Even at its normal price, the Flex 5 Chromebook provides a lot of power compared to other similarly priced devices — but at $300, it's a fantastic value.
Most Chrome OS machines in this price range tend to sacrifice on style, and while Lenovo's laptop isn't ugly by any means, it's not the slickest either. It weights about three pounds and measures 0.66-inches thick, but it does have a handy convertible design so you could use it as a tablet or even in tent mode to watch TV shows and movies. It has a decent 1080p touchscreen, too, along with a decent array of ports that includes two USB-C ports and a USB-A port. Lenovo did a good job of combining most key features of a good Chromebook into this laptop, which is why we continue to recommend it both when it's on sale or at regular price.
Meta is further backing away from facial recognition. The company has announced that it's shutting down the Face Recognition system on Facebook in the "coming weeks." You'll no longer be automatically recognized in photos if you opted in to the feature, and the Facebook team will delete over a billion facial recognition templates. Automatic Alt Text's descriptions for the visually impaired will also stop naming people detected in photos.
The company said it made the decision following "growing concerns" about the broader use of facial recognition, including "uncertainty" about regulation of the technology. While Meta believed face recognition could still be helpful in some situations, such as gaining access to a locked account, it felt a "narrower," more privacy-oriented approach was a better fit than the broader outgoing strategy. On-device recognition wouldn't require sharing data with outside servers, for example.
There was already significant pressure to shut down the system. Meta (then Facebook) settled a privacy lawsuit over facial recognition for $650 million in 2020, and it likely isn't eager to grapple with similar cases. Governments ranging from Massachusetts to the European Union have either passed or are strongly considering at least partial bans on facial recognition use. Facebook's opt-in system may not have explicitly run afoul of those laws, but the message is clear — wide-ranging facial recognition systems aren't welcome.
Many members of the workforce are returning to the office after over 18 months of working from home. But folks might not be quite ready to give up on some of the luxuries they treated themselves to while they were cooped up in a private workspace. Perhaps you picked up a fancy mechanical keyboard, but don't want to take it to the office, since the clacking might annoy your coworkers.
Perhaps with that in mind, Razer has a couple of new products in its Productivity lineup that might give you that enjoyable tactile typing and clicking sensation without infuriating those around you. The Pro Type Ultra wireless keyboard and new Pro Click Mini mouse have "silent mechanical switches," which Razer says will offer a quieter experience wherever you're working from.
Razer
The keyboard also has dampening foam to mitigate the sound, and Razer claims the keys will be good for up to 80 million presses. The fingerprint-resistant keycaps have a "soft-touch coating for a luxurious, cushioned feel," according to the company. A wrist rest is included too.
Razer says you'll get up to 214 hours of use over Bluetooth and up to 207 hours of use via the low-latency Razer HyperSpeed Wireless connection before you need to recharge the keyboard. You can use it in wired mode over USB-C too. In addition, you'll be able to connect up to four devices and switch between them without having to re-pair them with a Pro Type Ultra.
If you're buying a new keyboard, you might want a matching mouse. As luck would have it, the Pro Click Mouse shares the Pro Type Ultra's white, dull-by-Razer-standards design. You can also pair the mouse (which isn't entirely silent based on an audio demo on Razer's website) with up to four devices.
There are a few scroll-wheel modes you can switch between depending on your current task. The free-spin mode is designed for zooming through long documents and webpages, tilt-click is geared toward horizontal scrolling and tactile mode is centered around more precise scrolling.
Razer
The mouse is rated for up to 15 million clicks. Razer claims you'll get up to 725 hours of battery life over Bluetooth and up to 465 hours via Razer HyperSpeed Wireless if you're using two AA batteries. There's an option to use only one battery if you'd prefer to reduce the weight. If you decide to pick up both the keyboard and mouse, you can pair them to the same USB dongle to free up a port on your computer.
The new peripherals follow the Pro Type keyboard and Pro Click mouse Razer released in August 2020. Those devices had more muted designs than Razer's gaming-focused products to help them blend in a bit more.
The $80 Pro Click Mini is available now from Razer's website and other retailers. The Pro Type Ultra keyboard costs $160, and will be available by the end of the year. Razer also introduced an enormous Pro Glide XXL mousepad with "thick, high-density rubber foam," which will run you $30.
While we did not get an updated Mac Mini this year, the existing M1 desktop remains a good option if you want a compact machine with one of Apple's latest chips. Amazon often discounts the machine, and the 512GB model is down to an all-time low right now. While the list price is $869, an automatically applied $119 coupon will knock the final price down to $750.
At this sale price, the Mac Mini M1 is the most affordable way to get a machine with Apples M1 processor (unless you snag one of the latest iPad Pros while they're discounted). Apple's MacBook Air M1 starts at $999 and the new MacBook Pros with the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors are much more expensive than the rest. While we didn't give the Mac Mini M1 the full review treatment, you can expect it to run similarly to the latest MacBook Air, which is to say, speedily and smoothly. It has an eight-core CPU, an eight-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine that handles machine learning tasks. And with the discounted model, you're getting more than the base amount of storage, which should help future-proof the machine for at least a little while.
With all of the updates inside of the desktop, the Mac Mini's exterior looks much the same as previous versions. It's a small, silver box interrupted only by its array of ports, which includes two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-A connectors, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. At this point, there's no telling when Apple will launch a totally redesigned Mac Mini, so this sale is a great option for those who can't wait any longer for a new desktop.
iPhones could soon detect car crashes and auto-dial 911Blu-rays are so done. Using high-speed lasers, researchers have created new data storage tech that could write and keep 500TB of data on a CD-sized glass disc. The 5D storage tech has higher writing speeds that might make it feasible to large-scale archiving projects. Each file uses three layers of nanoscale dots. The dots' size, orientation and position within the three standard dimensions make up the five "dimensions."
This kind of optical storage isn’t new, but there were problems in the past, particularly slow writing speeds. The new technique has sped this process up substantially, to around 230 KB per second. And, yes, that sounds pretty slow, but it could provide a way to backup data, essentially forever. It's been estimated the storage medium could withstand temperatures up to 1,000 degrees C and last 13.8 billion years at room temperature without degrading.
So what is it? Well, it’s basically a tiny puck-shaped computer dedicated to remixing Kanye’s latest album. Using it, you can change the volume of different stems, or tracks, in the songs on Donda. For instance, if you’re wondering what “Off the Grid” would sound like as an instrumental, you can simply turn down the vocals. Terrence O’Brien begrudgingly tested it out.
Thanks to some early hints in iOS 15.1, Beats’ latest earbuds are hardly a surprise. The company officially debuted its latest model: the $200 Beats Fit Pro. With a similar design to the Studio Buds that arrived earlier this year, this new pair offers active noise cancellation (ANC) alongside almost all of the features from Apple’s third-generation AirPods. Its shape seals off your ear, so ANC and transparency mode are available. Bass levels are ample without overpowering for a sound profile that’s noticeably better than Beats’ previous model. Our headphones expert Billy Steele seems to like them.
Even though Black Friday is over three weeks away, some major retailers are getting in on the action early. Among them is Amazon, which has slashed prices on its own devices. One of the products you can save on at the minute is the Kindle, which is $40 off at $50. Kindle Kids, meanwhile, is on sale for $60 (usually $110).
Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) is now the crime lord of Tatooine. The trailer shows Fett and his partner, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen, reprising her role from The Mandalorian), ruling the desert planet's underworld. The show is set to arrive at the end of December.
And you don't have to spend a fortune to buy a good one.
If you’re thinking of getting a laptop or tablet as a gift, you’ve got a wealth of options. In the latest round of hardware from Intel, Apple, AMD and NVIDIA, all of our portable devices have gotten steadily faster and more efficient. We’ve got wildcards, too, like the cheapest iPad or gaming laptops now have almost all of the power of their desktop siblings. And with the arrival of Windows 11, it's a perfect time to give someone a nifty PC upgrade. Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar, our go-to laptop guy, lays out the best options.
Apple is working on the same feature for its Watch, too.
Apple plans to unveil a feature called crash detection for both iPhones and Watches, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The feature would supposedly use sensors like the accelerometer built into Apple devices. Apple has reportedly been working on this for several years and testing it using real-world data.
Years ago, Google introduced a similar feature for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4 via its Personal Safety app that can detect when you've been in a car crash and alert emergency services. Even GM has been offering it for years in its cars with OnStar and recently introduced crash detection to smartphones via the OnStar Guardian app.
