Passkeys promise a future without passwords, where we access our accounts as easily as we unlock our phones, with a much higher level of security. Pick your big tech poison, like Apple, Google or Microsoft, and you’ve probably seen it announce a passkey takeover. While a full-on passkey revolution may be a bit away, you may be asked to set one up for your accounts soon.

The username and password approach to logins dates back to the 1960s. Ever since then, it's been hackable. Passwords are guessable or phishable, especially if you fail to meet industry standards for a complex, strong password. For a while, the solution seemed to be multi-factor authentication, or a way to verify your identity at login via text message, app, hardware key or other methods. But passkey proponents are saying that solving login security problems means reinventing the first step, not adding on additional processes.

“It's the closest to something that can be scaled to get rid of passwords that we've ever seen,” said Megan Shamas, senior director of marketing at industry association FIDO Alliance. A passkey is a digital authentication credential that is securely stored on your device. Instead of what Shamas called a “shared secret” method of passwords, passkeys are a unique key pair for every online service you use bound to the domain. So, if you create one for your online banking account, and a spoofed website prompts you to sign in, the passkey won’t work.

It also prevents phishing attacks because you can’t give away your passkey like you can with a password or MFA phrase. We can’t call it “unphishable,” said Derek Hanson, vice president of solutions architecture and alliances at security authentication company Yubico, but it certainly thwarts the common attack vectors used today. At the very least, it makes it much more costly and difficult for a hacker to get in, making the hackers likely to move on to weaker targets.

For the user, they’re meant to be easier, too. Instead of trying to keep track of nearly 100 passwords or more, the passkey is stored on your device and connects automatically to the service. Similar to unlocking your phone, you’ll need to enter a pin, fingerprint, face scan or other simple authentication to log in. It seems too good to be true, and it sort of is, because it's still a fragmented space. While the big names have made passkeys trend recently, they could also be holding back widespread use.

Currently, using a passkey locks you into a certain service provider, according to Sayonnha Mandal, Ph.D., lecturer at University of Nebraska Omaha. You can’t, for example, log in to websites on an Android phone with a passkey stored on a MacBook. It’s the kind of lock-in these companies tend to favor because it keeps customers loyal to their brand. So, it’ll take cooperation and “in the absence of a government industrial standard that everybody mandatorily has to adhere to, I don't think by themselves, the companies would.”

But Shamas says that cross-platform accessibility is coming, as companies sign on to FIDO’s industry standards for passkey development. “The deep investment across the industry (including Apple, Google, and Microsoft) to develop and evangelize the passkey technology speaks to the broad belief in its promise,” said a Google spokesperson. At the time of publication, Google Chrome on Mac and Windows only stores passkeys on the local device.

For now, if a website offers you a passkey login option, you should probably sign up. At least for your most sensitive accounts like online banking, make the switch to passkeys as soon as it's offered for an added layer of protection on those accounts, Mandal said. But, if passkeys do take over, it will be a slow transition. Services will likely still offer password options because it’s what consumers are used to, and passkeys still don’t have wide enough support.

In the meantime, it’s a good reminder to stay on top of your security settings. If passkeys aren’t available, make sure MFA is set up and your password is strong instead of just avoiding the security reminder pop-ups at log in.

Amazon Prime Day might be over, but there are still some solid deals floating around on the internet today. Unsurprisingly, you won't find any of Amazon's own devices still discounted as things like Echos, Kindles and Fire TV devices are all back to their normal prices. But there are a number of gadgets from the likes of Apple, Samsung, Google, Roku and others that are still on sale at the same prices we saw over the past few days (or very close to them). Of note is the 9th-gen iPad, which you can still pick up for only $250; the Google Pixel 7a smartphone, which remains on sale for $449; and Roku's Streaming Stick 4K, which is still down to only $34. Here are the best Amazon Prime Day deals that are still live today.

Apple AirPods Pro

Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro are on sale for $199 right now. These buds are a huge improvement over their predecessors, offering improved sound quality, ANC and transparency mode. We still consider these to be the best earbuds for iPhone users thanks to their Apple-specific features like quick pairing and switching and hands-free Siri.

Apple AirPods (2nd Generation)

The latest AirPods might have a few extra bells and whistles, but the second-generation Apple AirPods are a good choice for $99. This model mirrors its successor in having an H1 chip, Siri, automatic switching between devices and a lightning charging case. The biggest consideration is battery life, with these AirPods offering five hours of uninterrupted use and over 24 hours with the charging case.

Apple 10.2-inch iPad

Apple's 9th-generation iPad is down to $249, which a record low. It’s the budget pick in our guide to the best iPads, and while it doesn’t have the thin bezels and as much accessory support as our top pick, it's the most affordable way to snag an iPad. It’s a great couch companion that performs well for casual browsing, binge streaming and light gaming.

Apple MacBook Air M1

The M1 MacBook Air released back in 2020, but it remains a worthy option if you want a Mac for light work and web browsing for as little cash as possible. The entry-level configuration is now on sale for $750, which is a new low. This model’s keyboard, trackpad, display and battery life continue to impress, and the quiet M1 chip is still fast enough for the essentials. This configuration is strictly for casual use, though, as it only has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. You’ll have to live with a more basic 720p webcam, too, and you’ll miss out on the improved speakers and slimmer bezels of the M2 model. We gave the M1 Air a review score of 94 at launch.

Apple MacBook Air (15.3-inch)

The new, larger version of Apple’s MacBook Air M2 is down to $1,399 for a configuration with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. That’s a modest $50 drop from its usual price on Amazon, but the notebook only just arrived last month, and it's $100 less than buying from Apple directly. The M2 Air is the top pick in our guide to the best laptops, and we gave it a review score of 96 in June. It checks just about all the requisite boxes for a mainstream notebook, with a thin and light design, bright and accurate display, comfortable keyboard, long-lasting battery, and more than enough performance for everyday use. This 15-inch model has all the same benefits of the prior 13-inch model, but adds a more powerful speaker system and slightly upgraded GPU alongside the bigger screen.

Google Pixel Buds Pro

Google's flagship wireless earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro, are down to $150 at the moment, or $50 off their usual rate. Google took all of the lessons it learned when making previous earbuds and got a lot of things right with the Pixel Buds Pro. These will be great for Android users who want buds with punchy bass, good ANC, reliable touch controls and wireless charging.

JBL Charge 5

JBL's Charge 5 is usually $180 but is down to $120 right now. It also made Engadgets speaker guide, and has a separate tweeter, and dual bass radiators for bigger sound and of course can handle a dunk in water. It's got a long, 20-hour battery life and can even share some of that juice with your phone via the USB-C port.

Samsung Pro Plus microSD

The top pick in our best microSD cards guide, Samsung's Pro Plus in 256GB is on sale for $20 right now. It had some of the best overall speeds of any of the microSD cards we tested, and it has all of the important ratings that a good card should have: U3, V30 and A2. It'll be a great pick for your tablet, smartphone or Nintendo Switch, and it comes with a full-sized adapter in case you need to use it with a camera or connect it to your computer.

Samsung Evo Select microSD

Samsung's Evo Select microSD card has dropped to only $10. It's a step behind the top pick in our microSD card guide, mostly due to its slower sequential write speeds, but it's arguably the best value microSD card you can get right now.

Samsung T7 Shield

The Samsung T7 Shield SSD is still on sale for $75 at the moment. The T7 series as a whole includes some of our favorite SSDs, and the Shield is the most durable of the bunch. The portable drive has an IP65 rating for water and dust resistance, and it can withstand drops from up to 10 feet high. On top of that, its 1,050/1,000 MB/s read/write speeds should be enough for most people's needs.

Samsung 980 Pro

Samsung's 980 Pro SSD has dropped to $50, which is a new record low. It's another good option for the PS5, especially since you can spring for a model with an included heatsink if you want. The 980 Pro has read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s and reliable thermal controls.

Crucial MX500

Crucial's MX500 internal drive has been discounted to only $48 on Amazon. It has sequential read speeds of 560MB/s and a standard 2.5-inch design that should make it easy to swap in for your desktop's or laptop's used-up drive.

Samsung S95B

The 65-inch Samsung S95B is on sale for $1,598, matching its all-time low. Typically, this highly-rated set has cost an extra $100 to $200 in recent months. The S95B’s QD-OLED panel combines OLED tech with a quantum dot layer, allowing it to deliver high contrast and wide viewing angles without sacrificing as much as typical OLED TVs in terms of brightness and color saturation. This means it should provide a rich image even in brighter rooms. It can also play up to 4K 120Hz, which is handy for the PS5 or Xbox Series X, but like all Samsung TVs, it doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR.

Roku Streaming Stick 4K

Roku's Streaming Stick 4K is down to $34 right now, or $16 off its usual price. It's our favorite streaming device at the moment because it packs a ton of features into an affordable package. It streams 4K, HDR content with Dolby Vision, and it supports AirPlay 2 and private listening with headphones.

Google Pixel 7a

The Google Pixel 7a is on sale for $449 right now, or $50 off its usual rate and an all-time low. This is the best midrange phone you can get right now thanks to its speedy Tensor G2 chip, smooth 90Hz display and support for wireless charging. The 7a also has solid cameras and an IP67 water-resistant design.

Nest WiFi Pro - 3 Pack

The Google Nest WiFi Pro three-pack gives you all the same technology as the pair but with a wider range. With three routers, you can access WiFi across 6,600 square feet. At 25 percent off, the trio is $300, making each Nest WiFi Pro only $100 — it's a steal considering they typically retail for $200 each. As for color, get them all in Snow or get a mix of Snow, Fog and Linen.

Razer Huntsman Mini

The compact Razer Huntsman Mini is down to $68, or 43 percent off its usual rate. Neither deal is quite an all-time low, but the two models have usually retailed in the $80 to $100 range over the last few months. The Huntsman Mini is the top pick in our guide to the best 60 percent keyboards, as its keys are pleasant and consistently responsive for gaming. The whole thing feels well-built, with quality PBT keycaps and RGB lighting on a per-key basis. Each key can be programmed through macros as well. The switches here aren’t ideal for those who like a springy and more tactile, though, and the ultracompact design won’t be for everyone.

Logitech Litra Glow

Live-streamers or anyone who wants to look better on camera should snag Logitech's Litra Glow LED light while it's on sale. We recommend it in our guides because the USB-powered device delivers a diffuse, soft glow without harsh shadows and comes with an extendable monitor mount.

Razer Blade 15

A configuration of the Razer Blade 15 with a Core i7-12800H processor, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, 240Hz QHD display, 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD is down to $1,923 at the moment. That’s about $375 off its usual street price in recent months. We gave the Blade 15 a review score of 86 last year, and we currently recommend it as a premium pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops. This config is a 2022 model – the latest version is largely a spec bump – but it’ll still be powerful enough to play most modern games at high settings and frame rates, particularly with DLSS. The main reason to pay the premium for any Blade laptop, though, is because it packs that power in a slim and premium-feeling aluminum design. Just note that it can run hot, and that its battery life is fairly short.

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Apple just launched its iOS 17 public beta, meaning you can test out the latest iPhone software if you’re willing to live with a bug or two. I’ve been using iPhone 14 Pro with the developer beta for the last few weeks and there are plenty of features and upgrades to dig into. While some of the more exciting features weren’t available until mere days ago, some nice quality-of-life improvements are here from the get-go. If you’re intrigued by Apple’s new Journal app, though, I’m afraid that won’t arrive until later in the year.

But if you want machine learning to transcribe your friends' voice notes, or turn your iPhone into a smart display, then you might be willing to dip your toe into the public beta. You can access the iOS preview by enrolling on Apple’s website, which will nudge the beta to your iPhone’s Software Update section. As always, remember to back up your iPhone first and ensure it’s compatible. (iOS 17 will work on 2018’s iPhone XS and newer devices.)

A note on Developer betas

This year, instead of releasing the iOS 17 public beta in July, Apple released its developer beta for iOS, iPadOS and macOS Sonoma for anyone with free developer accounts. Normally, to access betas right after the WWDC keynote you’d have to pay $100 a year for a paid developer account. This means anyone (yes, even you) could have dabbled with this early build starting in early June. Not that we’d advise doing that. Early releases of iOS, including its public beta that’s out now, are often rough around the edges, while apps are prone to restarting or not working as they should on Apple’s very latest mobile OS. The developer version is that, times five.

Messages and FaceTime

Photo taken by Mat Smith / Engadget

Apple continues tugging me toward Messages, yet I’m stuck with WhatsApp because all of my friends and family are on it — even those with iPhones. iOS continues to make being a WhatsApp user a challenging decision to stick with.

I’m already in love with audio message transcription. The next time that certain friend leaves a lengthy 12-minute monologue, the iPhone’s machine learning tricks will auto-transcribe the contents of that voice note, audio quality (and accent) permitting. In my experience, it was accurate with both my British voice and my colleague Cherlynn’s American accent.

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

Most of Messages’ biggest upgrades are siloed away behind the plus button, which helps keep the interface tidy. Check-In is Apple’s take on automating the “text me when you get home,” doing half the work once your iPhone detects you’ve returned. If your phone detects that you’re not headed in the right direction, Check In will even notify you that you might have made a mistake.

Apple has integrated a lot of settings to make Check In work how you want it to. You can use it when your destination isn’t your home, or even set it up for a timed period when perhaps you’re home alone, but are expecting visitors. More information from your phone can be shared when you're delayed, including battery levels and signal levels.

Apple has now consolidated its stickers into one drawer, encompassing live stickers, memoji, emoji and third-party stickers. Live Stickers, which you can make by tapping to ‘lift’ subjects out of photos (it can still be a person, a pet or an object, as long as it’s visually distinct enough), get archived in their own sticker drawer. With iOS 17, you can also apply some sticker effects, like “shiny” and “puffy” that undulate when you move your phone, taking us back to pencil cases of the ‘90s. Or maybe that’s just me. Beyond Messages, stickers can be applied directly from the sticker drawer to your photos and documents.

FaceTime has received a few updates this year, but the most notable one is video voicemail. While you could send videos on Messages, you can now leave spontaneous video (or voice) messages in FaceTime when someone doesn’t pick up your call. In iOS 17, thanks to further refinement of Apple’s Continuity Camera, across Apple devices. You can now display your FaceTime video calls on Apple TV, tapping into the cameras already in your iPhones, iPads or MacBooks. Any recorded messages you receive will be stored in FaceTime’s Recent tab, along with your missed calls. You can even take FaceTime calls — audio-only — on your Apple Watch.

You can record FaceTime video messages through both the front and rear cameras and amp up the visual pizazz with Portrait mode and Studio Light. Apple has opened up these video effects to Zoom, Microsoft Teams and more. Gesture-based AR effects are along for the ride too, including fireworks (two thumbs up), confetti cannons (double peace signs) and when you make a devil horn sign? Laser beams. Of… course. I soon learned you’ll have to hold these poses for a little too long in order for your iPhone to recognize and trigger the AR effect. It’s a delight when they happen, though.

StandBy

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

Apple hasn’t launched a smart display (yet), so it’s making your iPhone into one. With StandBy, you'll get a different view when your phone is horizontal and charging. This consists of widgets, calendar info, music, your photos, news, sports scores and more. If you have an iPhone 14 Pro, it’ll always be visible due to the always-on display. You’ll have to tap to wake it on other devices.

Itl even transitions into a low-light smart display later at night so you can use it as an alarm clock. Given the strides Apple has made with its widgets on iPhones and Apple Watch, I’m intrigued to see whether this is a useful new feature for when I’m not actively using my iPhone. I’ve loved seeing my photos on my Nest Hub, but let’s be honest – I’m looking at, and nearer to, my phone, pretty much most of the day. The iPhone will automatically separate your photos into places (and its own photography) and people recognized in your own contacts. You’ll also get music and podcast controls for audio playback, which looks a lot like CarPlay.

Apple has folded its Smart Stacks into these StandBy widgets, so you can swipe between smart home controls, calendars, weather and more, customizing what information is a swipe away. Incoming calls will also feature a nice landscape version of iOS 17’s new Contact Posters.

Contact Posters

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

Contact Posters are the most significant visual upgrade to iOS 17. It’s a new way to show your contact’s incoming calls, contact profiles, FaceTime and Messages. You can edit your profile from the top left corner of most of those native apps, mixing together different fonts, photos, and color options – I like the monochrome photo filter paired with a pop of color, like it’s a fictional magazine profile headshot. There are almost infinite options here, and it does help to make calls from your favorite people seem, somehow, more glamorous. You don’t have to have taken photos in portrait mode either to make the cutout outline of your head and name; as long as the iPhone detects the object, like stickers, it’ll do the rest.

NameDrop

This has been a long-time coming, right? NameDrop, using the same AirDrop transferring tech, can share your contact details (and your gorgeous new Contact Poster) just by bringing two devices close together. You can fine-tune what contact details are shared, like your work or personal email, or even choose to receive only. Photos and even links on Safari can also be shared through this method, and AirDrop will even continue transferring content even if you step away, through the internet. This is all done through the usual share button on both native and compatible third-party apps.

Everything else

If you recall from Apple’s WWDC keynote last month, these are just some of the major highlights of what iOS 17 has to offer. Apple says its enhanced keyboard language model ushers in an improved Autocorrect, while any corrections should also be easier to fix. Any autocorrected words are temporarily underlined so you know what was changed. If you tap on an autocorrected word, you’ll see the original version pop up and you can tap it to put it back. Duck yes.

Regarding voice assistant Siri, it can now handle back-to-back commands if you want to both set a timer and turn off a smart light. Siri can also be summoned even while you’re on a call with someone.

The Fitness app now has a trophy case to show off your best workout runs, custom workout plans if you pay for Fitness+ and the ability to adjust the sound mix of workouts, prioritizing either music or trainers’ voices. Meanwhile, News+ subscribers will now be able to tackle crosswords, while News+ audio stories will now also be available in the podcast app.

Photo taken by Mat Smith / Engadget

Inline predictive text, a la Gmail, is also built in, so iOS will occasionally nudge your messages along with predictive single- and multi-word additions before you even type them. Thankfully, it’s a very light touch so far. Then again, maybe it’s just learning how I type – I’ll circle back once the OS officially launches in the fall. And you can turn it off in settings if it’s not working for you.

What’s still to come

The iOS 17 beta gives you a taste of what’s coming to your iPhone later this year. There are a few tempting features not available to test just yet. That includes the third-party journaling app killer, Apple’s own Journal app,. Where you can “write about and reflect on everyday moments and special events in your life.” The company says it’ll tap into on-device machine learning to personalize what you might like to write about, including photos, locations, music and even workout data. I’m waiting to see how it all works in practice. And if you’re going to be writing about your deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings, you will be able to lock your Journal from prying eyes.

There are other features I’m still waiting to try, including new auto-generated song suggestions for your own existing playlists and Conversation Awareness, which is coming to second-generation AirPods Pro. When you start talking to someone while still wearing your buds, the device will lower playback volume and enhance the voice of people in front of you, while still minimizing background noise.

Wrap-up

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

Yes, there are still a few mysteries to iOS 17 ahead of its full launch, but plenty to test out in the beta. I’m still getting to grips with StandBy. It might not be a smart display killer, but it’s possibly a free alternative. Other highlights include a revitalized FaceTime experience, a streamlined Messages app and a long-overdue solution for sharing contact details. But some of the most exciting parts are still to come, making this a less essential beta than some recent years. Most of us can wait for the fully-formed public release, arriving later this summer.

Apple has expanded Tap to Pay's availability and is giving businesses and merchants across the United Kingdom the option to accept contactless payments using just their iPhones. The tech giant initially released the feature in the US in mid-2022 before making it available in Taiwan and Australia. Like in those regions, merchants in the UK will be able to receive payments without having to purchase extra hardware, since the capability uses NFC. As long as they have an iPhone XS or later, they can offer contactless payment as an option for customers who use Apple Pay, contactless debit or credit cards and other digital wallets. 

The company unveiled the feature in early 2022 before testing the payment system at its own visitor center in Cupertino. Following Tap to Pay's rollout, big-name fintech services launched support for the feature, including PayPal, Venmo and Square. 

According to Apple's announcement, Revolut and Tyl by NatWest are the first payment platforms allowing their business customers in the UK to use the company's Tap to Pay technology. Adyen, Dojo, myPOS, Stripe, SumUp, Viva Wallet, Worldline and Zettle by PayPal will be the next financial services to support the feature in the region. Apple didn't mention a specific rollout date for them, only that support for Tap to Pay will be "coming soon" for their customers. In addition announcing the feature's availability, the company has revealed that Tap to Pay will be available in its retail stores across the UK in the coming weeks. That means UK customers will be easily be able to pay for purchases by bumping a card or another phone to the store's iPhone.

Google's Bard gained a handful of new features and functions Thursday in the chatbot AI's latest round of updates, including expanded linguistic knowledge, more nuanced response controls and the ability to respond with spoken word in addition to text. In all the AI can now converse in nearly four dozen languages. 

Users can now converse with the AI in Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi and Spanish, among others as well as access the platform from more places on the planet, such as Brazil and "across Europe," Jack Krawczyk, Bard Product Lead, and Amarnag Subramanya, Bard's VP of Engineering, wrote in a blog post Thursday. "As we bring Bard to more regions and languages over time, we’ll continue to use our AI Principles as a guide, incorporate user feedback, and take steps to protect people’s privacy and data."

Bard now literally speaks. Users will have the option to either read or listen to the AI's generated responses, which Krawczyk and Subramanya believe will help immensely when users want to hear the correct pronunciation of words in those 40 newly-added languages. Users have also been afforded more robust controls over how friendly Bard will be with five distinct options for the AI's tone: simple, long, short, professional or casual. Those are only available on English-language requests for the moment but the company is already working to expand it out to more of the 40, "soon."

The chatbot also has some fancy new multimodal eyes, gaining the capacity to interpret images dropped into the chat through the prompt field. Faster and easier than uploading it as a document, users can request more information about the contents of the image or generate content like captions based on it. This also is currently English-only. 

Getting the information and code that Bard generates out of the chat window and into the hands of collaborators is no longer quite such a slog. Starting Thursday, users will be able to export Bard-generated Python code to Replit, in addition to Colab. They'll also be able to copy and share portions of individual chats with other users. The process of organizing and revisiting old conversations being streamlined as well with the addition of pinned conversations, which are what they sound like, and the ability to rename them.

It's easy to look at every new macOS release and wonder where the upgrades actually are. Unlike iOS and iPadOS, Apple doesn't often push for bold and visible changes on the desktop (last year's Stage Manager was a surprising addition, but even that was brought over from iPadOS). Instead, most of the enhancements to the Mac experience are usually under the hood — don't forget, the company completely rebuilt macOS for its new Apple Silicon chips.

So it goes with macOS Sonoma, an update that doesn't truly make itself known until you see its new high-res video screensavers (something the Apple TV has done for years), or try to drag over a widget to your desktop. If widgets are a highlight in a new OS, you know it's a slow year.

This isn't a knock against Sonoma, exactly. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Apple is saving its bolder UI concepts for iPhones, iPads, and the Vision Pro. Macs are computers that don't even have touchscreens yet! Playing it safe makes the most sense.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

So let's talk about screensavers. While not exactly Earth shattering, Apple's new aerial footage looks great in macOS Sonoma. It adds a dose of elegance to an already refined operating system — having footage from Hawaii or Patagonia pop up in the middle of the workday is like a mini-vacation. (Don't judge me, I know it sounds sad.)

I also liked being able to turn aerial screensavers into wallpapers. Doing so lets them play as videos on your lock screen, but once you log in, the video slows down and smoothly settles on a static image. I'm sure that's done to avoid motion sickness from some users, but I'm hoping Apple or some intrepid hacker unlocks the ability to let the video constantly play on your desktop. I'll risk a bit of squeamishness for more of that slick drone footage.

As for the widgets, well... they're widgets. On your desktop. It's a pretty straightforward concept. I'll admit, being able to quickly see the weather or an upcoming appointment under my windows is easier than popping open the notification tray. But it's not exactly a killer feature. But hey, if you really do love these things, at least you can easily bring over your iOS widgets. And if you also have an iPad, I'm sure it'll be helpful to have all of your widgety goodness across your devices.

Beyond those two features, Sonoma's upgrades are a bit more subtle. If you jump into a video chat, you can use hand gestures to kick off some fun special effects. A double thumbs up triggers fireworks behind you, while a peace sign surrounds you with floating balloons. They're certainly fun at first, but thankfully you can turn them off easily for more professional video chats.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The new presenter overlay features, on the other hand, are a lot more useful. In supported screen sharing apps, like FaceTime or Zoom, you can place a small or large window of yourself on top of whatever window you're sharing. It's the sort of feature I'm surprised Apple didn't roll out sooner, as it can help to humanize boring video chats. Instead of just sharing a spreadsheet, for example, your colleagues can also see what you think of your data as you're discussing it.

Here are a few other Sonoma updates to keep an eye out for:

• Safari supports profiles for different use cases. For example, one profile could house all of the bookmarks and settings that you need for work.

• You can also turn any website into a web app with Safari. It's the perfect way to read Engadget without any distractions!

• Stickers and Memoji now synchronize with all of your Apple devices over iCloud.

• A new Game Mode will prioritize resources while gaming. I didn't notice any major differences with Apple Arcade titles during my testing, though.

• Autocorrect should be better too, but again, I didn't notice any major changes.

Microsoft is doing more to tackle toxicity in multiplayer Xbox games. The company is introducing a feature that allows Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One players to capture a 60-second video clip of abusive or inappropriate voice chat and submit it for moderators to review.

"This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles," Xbox Player Services corporate vice-president Dave McCarthy wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft designed the tool for both ease of use and to minimize the impact on gameplay. When you capture a clip for reporting, it will stay on your Xbox for "24 online hours." You'll have the option to submit it right away or wait until you finish your gaming session. You'll get a reminder before the 24 hours are up. If you opt not to report the clip, your Xbox will automatically delete it.

No one else will have access to the clip unless you submit it. "Xbox is not saving or uploading any voice clips without you, the player, choosing to start the reporting process," McCarthy said. Any clips you capture through the tool will not appear in your recent captures and it won't be possible to download, share or modify them. These clips will only be used for moderation purposes. After the safety team has reviewed your report, you'll receive a notification to tell you whether it took action against an abusive player.

An Xbox spokesperson told Engadget the safety team will use "a range of moderation tools that leverage AI and human moderators" to analyze the clips. Moderators will review audio and video to determine if someone has violated the community standards.

At the outset, the reactive voice reporting system allows a player to report up to three individuals at once. "If a moderator cannot determine who was talking at a given time and associate it with the reported Xbox Live player, the report will be closed as unactionable, no enforcement action will be taken and the captured video will be deleted within 90 days," the spokesperson said.

The advent of cross-platform play muddies the waters here too. The safety team won't take any action in cases of inappropriate voice chat from those who are on other platforms. "The announced reactive voice moderation feature is specifically for reporting Xbox players to the Xbox Safety Team," the spokesperson noted.

It's encouraging to see Xbox tackle the problem of toxic voice chat at a platform-wide level. The PlayStation 5 has had a similar feature since it debuted in 2020.

Several studios have adopted similar approaches in their own games. In 2021, Riot said it would record Valorant voice communications but only listen to them when a report was filed. It started testing the system last July.

Ahead of Overwatch 2 going live last October, Blizzard said it would automatically transcribe a recording of a match's voice chat following a report from a player. The company's chat review tools analyze the transcription for signs of abusive behavior and both the recording and text file are deleted. (Of note, Blizzard and Overwatch 2 may soon be Microsoft properties.)

To begin with, Xbox's voice reporting feature will be available for Alpha and Alpha-skip Xbox Insiders in the English-speaking markets of the US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Microsoft hopes that insiders will provide feedback to help improve this feature. It plans to continue investing in voice moderation and to support more languages. Xbox will share data and updates on voice chat moderation in its bi-annual transparency report.

The immensely popular online game creation platform/thingamajig Roblox is coming to VR, thanks to the Meta Quest platform. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement, which was followed by an official Roblox blog post. A beta version of the app launches in just a few weeks, according to Zuckerberg, which will be accessible via the Quest platform’s dedicated App Lab.

The beta will be available for the Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets, so OG Quest owners are out of luck. The recently-announced Quest 3 wasn’t mentioned, but that’s likely because it won’t be out in time for the beta release. A finished version of the game, however, would make for an extremely compelling launch title for the Quest 3, as Roblox boasts more than 66 million daily users across multiple platforms.

To that end, this is going to be a fully cross-platform title, so anything you interact with or make on your phone or console should be accessible in VR, though it depends on the developer. The Roblox team is actively encouraging developers to make experiences in VR with a forthcoming toolset accessible via the Creator Dashboard. You’ll soon see VR as a new device type on this dashboard, along with desktop, mobile, tablet and console.

Meta recently lowered the minimum age to operate a Quest headset from 13 to ten, but this change will not impact Roblox. You have to be at least 13 to use the app in VR. That’s probably for the best, given the addictive nature of the title and associated child safety concerns.

Chipotle isn't done experimenting with robots that could make life easier for restaurant staff. The chain has teamed up with robotics company Vebu to test a prototype Autocado robot (yes, that's the name) that cuts, cores and peels avocados to be used in guacamole. Kitchen workers only have to fill the bot with up to 25lbs of ripe avocados and choose a size. After the processing is done, they collect the fruit in a bowl, add remaining ingredients and start mashing.

As Autocado improves, Chipotle expects to cut guacamole prep time in half — no mean feat when it usually takes 50 minutes to make a batch. That could ensure a steady supply of guac while eliminating some of the drudgery for employees. The restaurant also believes the robot could reduce food waste (and thus costs) through more efficient processing.

Autocado is currently limited to a testing center in Irvine, California. This is the start of a "long term partnership" with Vebu, Chipotle adds. The two haven't said what comes next, but the focus will be on collaborative robots that "drive efficiencies" and "ease pain points" for workers. Last year, Chipotle began testing Miso Robotics' Chippy robot to aid in making tortilla chips.

Chipotle is far from alone. McDonald's and other restaurants are trying AI, robots and other automated solutions to streamline their experiences. These moves theoretically help employees concentrate on serving customers and other tasks where humans are still preferable. Of course, there are also lingering concerns among critics that restaurants might use this to automate people out of jobs. They may choose to shrink headcounts and cut costs instead of easing the workload. That isn't guaranteed to happen with Autocado when humans are still necessary, but the long-term future isn't quite so clear.

Just a year ago, Apple announced the biggest software update the iPad has ever seen. iPadOS 16 ushered in Stage Manager, a completely revamped multitasking mode that brought overlapping, resizable windows to the iPad, along with robust external display support (provided you had compatible hardware).

There were a host of other new features, as usual, but Stage Manager in particular brought the iPad closer than ever to a Mac or Windows PC experience. iPadOS 17, on the other hand, is a more subtle update. That’s usually the case, with one year bringing big new features and the next offering tweaks and stability improvements. And while there isn’t one singular headline feature in iPadOS 17, the totality of myriad smaller changes definitely adds up. I’ve been using iPadOS 17 in beta for a few weeks, and now that the public beta is live, you can do the same.

A note on stability: Even though this is a public beta, the “beta” still applies. It’s probably not ideal to install on a machine you rely on for daily use, as you’ll surely run into some bugs and crashes. And it’s always a bit of a crapshoot how well third-party apps work on a beta. All that said, I haven’t run into anything particularly severe. Occasionally, an app will just toss me back to the Home Screen, or you might find some weird UI issues where apps haven’t quite been optimized yet. But over the last few years, Apple has gained a reputation for releasing public betas in solid, usable states, and that’s the case here as well. Just remember that “downgrading” to iPadOS 16 final releases isn’t exactly a simple process.

Stage Manager updates

While Stage Manager opened up some major new multitasking features for the iPad, it was also a lot more rigid than the windows management system you’d find on a Mac. This year, Apple has tweaked things to make it easier to set up your ideal workspace. Previously, apps would snap to a handful of predetermined sizes to fit your display, and the specific placement of each individual window was up to iPadOS to decide. Now, app windows have a lot more granularity in how you can size and place them. For example, I can make the Notes app that I’m typing into right now a tiny window half of my screen’s height and about a quarter of its width. From there, I can make it as tall or wide as I want; there are still specific sizes that it snaps to, but there’s far more flexibility than there was last year.

iPadOS 17 is also a lot more flexible about how you arrange multiple apps, something that wasn’t the case last year. When you added a second app to a space, iPadOS automatically decided where the two windows should go. You could resize them both as you wanted, but it was basically impossible to show two apps side-by-side without any overlap, for example. That’s no longer the case. Now, it’s a simple matter of grabbing the top of a window and dropping it where you want.

These basic controls have been available on Windows and macOS for decades, but it’s still a new paradigm for the iPad. I’m definitely glad that Apple seems to be trusting its users more by giving them more flexibility rather than letting iPadOS make major decisions about how you lay out your screen. Stage Manager is still somewhat of a niche feature, given that lots of iPads can’t run it, but people who want to push their iPads further will definitely appreciate these updates.

Lock Screen and interactive widgets

Probably the most obvious user-facing update is the revamped Lock Screen. It should also be very familiar, because Apple first introduced it on the iPhone a year ago. Basically, you can now set up multiple lock screens, each with its own wallpaper, widgets and design elements (like fonts and color filters). To jump between different styles you’ve set up, you can just press and hold on the Lock Screen and then choose what suits you. Finally, you can also set a specific Focus setting for each Lock Screen, so you can set up a whole profile for work mode or vacation time.

There’s also a great new wallpaper picker – this, too, borrowed from the iPhone. There are some new styles here specifically for the iPad, though, including striking views of every planet in the solar system stem. And in a nod to the iPad’s history, they brought back the original Pyramid Lake wallpaper (shot by photographer Richard Misrach) from the first iPad back in 2010. I’m a sucker for nostalgia and love the photo, so Apple won me over here.

Beyond the aesthetics, having widgets on the Lock Screen makes the iPad’s large display more useful — there’s a ton of space, so why not show more than just the time and your notifications? But widgets are getting a big improvement beyond just being able to drop them on the Lock Screen. At long last, they’re interactive. That means if you have a Reminders widget, you can tap a specific item to check it off without having to open the app. Or, with the Apple Music widget, you can automatically start playing an album or playlist.

Previously, widgets let you tap specific parts to jump to that place in the app, so they weren’t just static information displays, but this takes their functionality a lot further. We’re going to need third-party developers to add this functionality to their widgets to really take full advantage of the feature, but I’m looking forward to seeing how apps incorporate it when iPadOS 17 is out in the wild.

Health

There aren’t many Apple apps on the iPhone that you can’t also get on the iPad. Health was one, but that’s been remedied this year. It’s just what you’d expect: Health data tracked from your iPhone and Apple Watch is available for you to review on the iPad, with a design that’s better suited to the larger screen. While there’s nothing revolutionary here, the Health app can include so much data that it’s actually a bit easier to dig through everything here.

Everything syncs from your iPhone, but so far that sync process hasn’t been the most reliable. Even though the Health app on my iPad says it synced two minutes ago, it hasn't pulled in updated steps data since 7AM this morning. My activity rings from my Apple Watch are similarly hours out of date. I wager this will get settled before iPadOS 17 is finished, though.

Apple announced a handful of features relating to mental health as part of the latest iPad and iOS updates, including a dedicated journaling app and mood trackers in the health app. While the journal app isn’t coming until “later this year,” sometime after iPadOS 17 and iOS 17 officially launch, the mood tracking features are available in the Health app. I’ve long been in the habit of tracking my daily mood, and this isn’t a bad place to do it. It’s pretty simple, with a slider to pick your overall mood and a few follow-up questions, but the idea is for it to be quick and painless so you do it repeatedly. There’s also a mental health questionnaire you can take that claims to assess your anxiety and depression levels that reminds me of questions I’ve answered from a doctor in the past. I did reach out to Apple to find out where they’re sourcing this set of questions from so we can know more about their validity and approach.

Safari, Messages, Notes and more

As always, Apple’s core apps are getting lots of little but potentially meaningful updates. Safari’s biggest new feature is arguably the ability to set up multiple profiles. Each profile can access all your bookmarks, saved passwords and reading list, but it keeps things like logins to sites and tab groups separate. I did the basic “personal and work” profiles, with logins to work-specific tools kept separate. It’s also pretty easy to move things between profiles if you accidentally open windows in your personal profile that you’d rather have with your work tabs. And, of course, this all syncs via iCloud to other devices — I have the macOS Sonoma beta installed as well, and things were shared seamlessly.

Messages is possibly Apple’s most important app, and every year it gets usability tweaks and new features. A bunch of those are focused around audio messages, which I haven’t really had a chance to check out much. One thing I do like, though, is that replying in a thread is a lot easier than it used to be. Now, swiping right on a message opens the reply interface, which is definitely quicker than holding down on a message, waiting for the menu to pop up and selecting the “reply” option.

The search experience has also been upgraded with filters. For example, you can first search for a specific contact, and then search just their conversation for keywords. The results naturally include specific messages as well as relevant links, images and more.

But the update I’ve had the most fun with so far is definitely Stickers. You can now easily create your own stickers from images in your photo gallery. If you tap on a subject in a photo, you can pull it out from the background and save it as a sticker, so you can easily use it again. Live Photos can be turned into live stickers — and let me tell you, the live sticker I made of my dog laying down is adorable and I will spam everyone with it.

Your own stickers can live alongside sticker packs from other apps, emoji and Memoji. And the stickers you’ve created will be available to use in third-party apps, as well. Basically, stickers you create as well as those from apps should be easier to share outside of just Apple’s Messages app, which is a nice change from the previously walled-off approach Apple took.

Notes, quietly one of Apple’s most useful apps, has gotten more improvements this year too. You can now embed PDFs right into a Notes doc and they display full-width, so you can easily browse through a PDF and make notes on it below. You can also naturally mark it up with an Apple Pencil or collaborate on it in a note shared with other people.

PDF support system-wide has been improved. For example, opening a PDF document from the Files app will open it in its own window, provided you’re running Stage Manager. This makes it easier to put a PDF side-by-side with another app while still having full access to the Files app. Auto-filling fields in PDFs has also been improved system-wide; Apple says it’s using an on-device neural network to identify documents that have fields that need to be filled in across the system, and you’ll be able to AutoFill details like names and addresses the same way you can on websites.

Another useful trick is the ability to link directly to a specific note in your library. Other note-taking apps like Bear have had this feature for a while, but it’s undeniably handy to link related notes together so you can easily jump between them instead of having to go back to the sidebar and search for the one you’re looking for.

The rest

This just scratches the surface of iPadOS 17. Lots of new features, like the changes to Messages, work best when other people you know are also running the new software. And other things, like the journal app, won’t be available to try for months to come. Finally, there are plenty of iOS 17 features like Facetime updates and a smarter keyboard will be in iPadOS 17 as well. If you want to give this all a shot months before Apple finalizes everything, you can install the iPadOS 17 public beta now. But as always, think hard about whether you’re up for some instability before you take the plunge.