Tech Talk

The impact of 5G was also shown when compared to last year's 4G iPhone 11.What you need to knowTom's Guide has put the iPhone 12 through its paces in a new battery test.Unfortunately, the iPhone 12 seems to lag behind some of its Android competitors when it comes to 5G.Testing also revealed just how big an impact 5G will have on performance compared to last year.Testing of Apple's new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro has revealed that it may lag behind competing Android devices when it comes to battery life whilst using 5G.Fresh test results from Tom's Guide have brought the issue to light. From their report:We've run the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro through our battery test, and the results don't bring the best news. Compared to the Android competition, Apple's new phones are a step behind those devices on our best phone battery life list, especially over 5G networks.Here's how the Tom's Guide battery test works. It surfs the web continuously at 150 nits…

Nomad, Belkin, Satechi, and many others have offered up all-in-one charging solutions for multiple devices in recent years. While Apple has flirted with the idea periodically, nothing of the first-party sorts has come to fruition out of Cupertino. Today, mophie is introducing a new power solution for multiple devices, four in fact, that can charge up each one wirelessly. The new mophie 4-in-1 wireless charging pad differs from other offerings on the market today with the ability to power up two smartphones, AirPods, and an Apple Watch. Most other solutions we’ve seen have been limited to three devices. Head below for full details on today’s announcement, availability, pricing, and more on the mophie 4-in-1 Qi charger.Latest from mophie powers four devices at onceThere’s been a pretty large increase in interest for these types of all-in-one charging solutions in recent years. As many users are now toting around multiple devices at once, often a smartphone, wearable, and headphones, bei…

Such a good dealGoogle Pixel 4a 5G$499 at AmazonProsExcellent performance for the priceConsistently great camerasReliable battery lifeHas a 3.5mm headphone jackMuch more affordableConsNo water resistanceDoesn't have wireless chargingThe Pixel 4a 5G has an odd existence between the regular Pixel 4a and Pixel 5, but there's no denying how much value it brings to the table. Its Snapdragon 765G is a very capable chipset, battery life is great, and you get the same excellent Pixel camera experience you've come to expect. At just $499, it's a fantastic value.Tiny powerhouseiPhone 12 miniFrom $699 at AppleProsIt's so small!A14 Bionic chip is insanely powerfulVery capable camerasIP68 dust/water resistanceQi and MagSafe chargingConsStill uses proprietary Lightning chargingHigher priceIf you want the newest iPhone while spending as little as possible, this year's "affordable" model is the iPhone 12 mini. It's considerably more expensive than the Pixel, but …

Live View in Google Maps uses your iPhone's camera and GPS to provide augmented reality directions when you're walking somewhere, and this week Google announced that it's enhancing the feature and making it available in additional transit scenarios.


In Live View, arrows, directions, and distance markers are placed right on top of your surroundings to visualize your destination in the real world, and Google will soon bring landmarks to this AR mode, too. From The Keyword blog:
Soon, you’ll also be able to see nearby landmarks so you can quickly and easily orient yourself and understand your surroundings. Live View will show you how far away certain landmarks are from you and what direction you need to go to get there. These landmarks can include iconic places, like the Empire State Building in New York and the Pantheon in Rome, and easily recognizable places, like local parks and tourist attractions. Landmarks will start rolling out soon on iOS in nearly 25 cities, including…

New York and New Jersey have launched COVID-19 contact tracing apps based on Apple and Google's Exposure Notification technology.

In a press release on the New York State website, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced the release of COVID Alert NY and COVID Alert NJ for iPhone and Android users.

Like other apps that take advantage of the ‌Exposure Notification‌ API from Apple and Google, the two apps are designed to track who people come into contact with each other using Bluetooth, providing a notification if one of those people later comes down with the coronavirus.

As well as launching their own state contact tracing apps, the New York and New Jersey governors said they would join Pennsylvania and Delaware in creating a regional network that will enable the apps to work across state lines.

In the United States, Virginia, North Dakota, Arizona, Delaware, Nevada, Alabama, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have launched apps that use Apple…

Gallium nitride (GaN) chargers have become popular over the past couple of years thanks largely to their smaller size and greater efficiency relative to traditional silicon chargers, and popular accessory brand Anker today is launching its latest GaN charger, a 20W Anker Nano.



$20 at amazon
The new Anker Nano, priced at $19.99, is an updated version of the previous PowerPort III Nano, raising the power from 18 watts to 20 watts to match the wattage of the fast charger Apple is launching alongside the new iPad Air. But thanks to GaN technology, the Anker Nano with USB-C is roughly the same size as Apple's barebones 5-watt USB-A charger.


With it looking more and more like Apple won't be including a charger in the box with the iPhone 12 lineup, users will be looking at their charging options, whether it be existing chargers around the house or new chargers from Apple or third parties. The Anker Nano is capable of charging an iPhone to around 50% in just 30 minutes, and similar p…

New adventure game "Slash Quest!" landed today on Apple Arcade. Made by Green Pillow and Noodlecake Games, the title promises players plenty of "enemy chopping, puzzle solving, door unlocking, river crossing, fire setting, gear spinning," and more.

The Queen's evergrowing talking sword is lost in a faraway land. Luckily you showed up to wield it back to the castle. You do know how to swing a sword, right? Right?!

Forget your power fantasy. Slash Quest's simple yet unfamiliar controls will put you in the shoes of an unlikely knight with a big heart, an even bigger weapon, and absolutely zero skills. But worry not! Just like Shep and Swordie's friendship, before you know it everything will feel right and everyone will be counting on you to save the Queendom. The gameplay hinges on a unique growing sword mechanic and customizable controls to take players through a storyline-driven 12 levels where they can look forward to several boss fights, dozens of side …

Tonight, the YouTube website has started allowing iOS 14 devices to use the built-in Picture in Picture functionality for its videos even without a Premium account.

This is an apparent reversal of a change that YouTube explicitly made following the release of ‌iOS 14‌ which blocked such behavior. At that time, YouTube would only allow that capability for users with Premium accounts. Tonight's change means that any YouTube visitor can use Picture in Picture in Safari.

14.0.1 pic.twitter.com/qUaxnT6UdF — MacRumors.com (@MacRumors) October 2, 2020
‌iOS 14‌ introduced native Picture in Picture capability to the iPhone for the first time, however, apps have to explicitly support the feature. YouTube's native app has never supported Picture in Picture for any of its users even though iPadOS has offered the capability for some time. There have been reports that YouTube has been testing this feature, but there have been no announcements.

As a result, ‌iOS 14‌ users have had to resort t…

Popular writing app Ulysses receives its 21st major release on October 6, and will bring with it the revision mode that was introduced to Mac this summer to iPad and iPhone.

Revision mode, as the name suggests, aims to aid focused text revision by hiding unnecessary features, dimming the editor theme, and highlighting annotations and suggestions.

Revision mode also includes an advanced grammar and style check powered by the LanguageTool Plus service, which can analyze texts and provide informed suggestions in categories such as capitalization, punctuation, semantics, redundancy, typography, and style.

On top of the grammar and style suggestions, users can review annotations, comments, deletions and marked text passages in this mode.

In addition to the new mode, Ulysses' developers have reworked the app's appearance to match the look-and-feel of iOS 14.


Ulysses can be downloaded for free on the App Store and the Mac App Store, with version 21 rolling out to existing users toda…

Last month Apple unveiled a redesigned iPad Air with slimmer bezels that it said would become available in October, but it didn't give an exact date for when it would start taking orders. With October now upon us, there are indications that the new ‌iPad‌ Air could launch imminently, rather than later on in the month.

According to a tweet late on Wednesday from well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, "Apple marketing materials for the new ‌iPad‌ Air are starting to land at retail stores, suggesting a launch sooner rather than later."

The new ‌iPad‌ Air is the first Apple device with Touch ID built into the power button. That has allowed Apple to add a fully laminated 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone, P3 wide color support, and an anti-reflective coating.

It's also the first time Apple has debuted a new AXX-series chip in an ‌iPad‌ before an iPhone. The new ‌iPad‌ Air is powered by the new 5nm-based, six-core A14 Bionic chip for up to 40 percent …

Apple's upcoming macOS Big Sur operating system introduces HDR video support and allows Netflix users to watch content in 4K HDR for the first time. However, it turns out that only Macs with an Apple T2 Security chip are compatible with Ultra HD streaming.

Apple Terminal spotted a recently updated support document on Netflix's Help Center that now includes hardware requirements for viewing 4K HDR content in Safari on macOS Big Sur.

According to the web page, viewing Ultra HD content can only be achieved on a "select 2018 or later Mac computer with an Apple T2 Security chip." In addition to that, every monitor connected to the computer on which Ultra HD is streamed must be a 60Hz 4K capable display with a HDCP 2.2 connection.

It's not clear why Macs need a T2 security chip to play back 4K HDR content, given that Windows machines obviously don't, but it could be that this is Netflix's way of ensuring that viewers aren't trying to stream the high-definiti…

As expected, Apple has added the seventh-generation iPod nano to its list of Vintage and Obsolete products, officially designating the last iPod in the iconic nano lineup as "vintage."


The vintage products list features devices that have not been sold for more than five years and less than seven years. After products pass the seven year mark, they are considered obsolete.

Apple debuted a refreshed version of the seventh-generation iPod nano in mid-2015, and that was the final iPod nano that came out. Now that the device is five years old, it is being added to the vintage list.

Apple launched the first iPod nano in September 2005, and over the course of the nano's lifetime, it got several redesigns. The first iPod nano model was similar in design to a standard iPod but with a slimmer, easier to pocket shape.

Fast forward seven years to October 2020 and the seventh-generation iPod nano, which ended up being the final model that was introduced. It had an iPod touch-style mu…

Shortly after the release of iOS 14 and watchOS 7, many users ran into problems with their iPhone and Apple Watch.


Multiple online support threads including our own found GPS data was not being properly recorded during activities. The issue appeared to affect all models of Apple Watches. In the majority of cases, users record a workout on their watch while leaving their ‌iPhone‌ at home, but when they later look at the Activity app it only shows the workout's starting point on the GPS map, and nothing else. In addition, some users have been reporting excess battery drain of their Apple Watch, ‌iPhone‌ or both under ‌iOS 14‌ and ‌watchOS 7‌. In the support threads, the unofficial fix seemed to be unpairing and restoring your Apple Watch. Jack Taylor from our forums reported resolving both issues with this method: Both the GPS and severe battery drain issues on ‌watchOS 7‌ were fixed for me simply by in-pairing and re-pairing my watch. Both issues resolved themselves immediately aft…

In iOS 14, Apple overhauled widgets and introduced an option for adding ‌widgets‌ to the Home Screen, but in the process, a well-loved Favorites widget that existed in iOS 13 was removed.


The Favorites widget let users set certain contacts and contact methods as favorites that were easily accessible, so you could, for example, add a favorite option for messaging Eric or calling Dan, with those actions executed with a tap.

Why the Favorites widget was removed is a mystery and it could be a simple oversight with Apple planning to reintroduce it later, but for now, those who relied on the widget can recreate its functionality with Shortcuts. It takes some effort, but it may be worth the time investment if you often relied on your Favorites.

Creating a Favorites Shortcut
Making a shortcut that replicates the behavior of the Favorites widget isn't too tough, but if you want multiple favorite options, you'll need to create a separate shortcut for each one in the Shortcuts app.

Open th…

Apple has officially retired Beats Updater, the software utility that lets users update the firmware of their Beats Wireless headphones, earphones, and speakers.


Beats Updater allows users to plug their Beats product directly into the USB port of their computer to check for firmware updates online, but with Apple's growing tendency to deliver over-the-air updates to wireless products via iOS and iPadOS, the company clearly feels the utility has reached the end of its life.

Beats Updater is still available to download for use with the following products, but Apple says no new versions will be available in future. Beats Solo2 Wireless
Beats Studio Wireless
Powerbeats 2 Wireless
Beats Pill 2.0
Powerbeats
Powerbeats Pro
Powerbeats3 Wireless
Solo Pro
Beats Solo3 Wireless
Beats Studio3 Wireless
BeatsX
If you have one of the Beats headphones or earphones listed below, pairing them with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will update them automatically. If you have an Android device, download the Beat…