Tech Talk

The digital dust has barely settled on the rollout of iOS 16 , but another major iPhone software update is now imminent: iOS 16.1 is going to start appearing on devices from today (Monday, October 24), and there are numerous new features to look forward to alongside the usual bug fixes and security patches. iOS 16 ushered in new lock screen customizations, the ability to unsend messages within a certain time window, a new privacy tool called Safety Check, and plenty more besides. But even with all of those upgrades now in place, Apple has been able to find even more ways to innovate with its software. All the iPhones that can run iOS 16 can also run iOS 16.1, so we're talking about every handset all the way back to the iPhone 8 (which was launched in 2017) and right up to the current iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models. If you don't get the update immediately today, sit tight: the download and install prompt should show up within a few days. Here are the key features that

PopSocket’s battery bank isn’t a small accessory. | Image: Mitchell Clark / The Verge We’re smack in the middle of new phone season and getting close to the time when some of us are going to have to start worrying about wish lists and stocking stuffers , so I want to look at an accessory that may be on some people’s radar: the PopGrip JumpStart , a $35 battery bank that attaches to your phone via PopSocket’s quick release mechanism and provides around a 50 percent charge via a built-in Lightning or USB-C cable. When I first heard about it, I hoped that the JumpStart would be both a good battery bank and a good way to hold my phone. Unfortunately, I found that it was relatively mediocre at the first job and worse at the second, making it a bit unclear who exactly this product is for. I will say a few nice things before I really dig in, though. The JumpStart is a very nice object, made of a textured plastic shaped into a little ovular puck with the classic PopSocket sleeve

We're expecting to see a Google Pixel 7a arrive in the coming months, assuming Google sticks to its usual schedule of putting out mid-range handsets in between flagships – and the phone just got mentioned on Amazon. As reported by GSMArena , the retail site is letting users sign up for updates on the Google Pixel 7a announcement, which would suggest that the device is indeed on the way and could appear sooner rather than later. We don't get any information about the Pixel 7a or any images of it – and there's no real indication that Amazon has got any advance details of the handset – but it seems unlikely that you would be able to sign up for updates on a phone that doesn't exist. Phone families Something worth noting is that the Amazon site mentions a "family" of products – does that mean that more than one Pixel 7a device is on the way? We haven't seen that for this phone range since the Google Pixel 3a XL back in 2019. Rumors around the Pixel 7a

With Street Fighter 6 on the way next year and a successful closed beta behind it, you might be looking at investing in an arcade stick in anticipation of Capcom’s upcoming fighting game. There are many reasons to get an arcade stick. With one you can play many of the best fighting games in a more ‘authentic’ capacity – the most common type of arcade stick mimics the 6-button layout you’d find on arcade cabinets, and they’ll work great with upcoming fighters like Street Fighter 6 . Arcade sticks, with their large plastic buttons and clicky joysticks, are immensely satisfying to use. They’re also highly customizable; many stick owners opt to switch between ‘ball’ or ‘bat’ tops for the joystick itself and concave or convex buttons. If you’re the aesthetically-minded type, you can buy these in pretty much any color you can imagine. Much like the service Microsoft offers with its Xbox Design Lab , you can make an arcade stick your own unique beast. They’re also a fantastic way to suppo

The previously rumored fresh spin on the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti is really happening, with Asus revealing its refreshed take on the popular Ampere GPU. As VideoCardz spotted, Asus has unveiled a pair of new TUF GDDR6X models of its RTX 3060 Ti graphics card , one of which is the base card, and another is the OC Edition. The only difference compared to the existing TUF RTX 3060 Ti boards is that the 8GB of VRAM is faster. Instead of 14Gbps GDDR6 video RAM, the refreshed cards use 19Gbps GDDR6X memory, upping the overall memory bandwidth substantially from 448GB/s to 608GB/s. That is the only change here, and otherwise the CUDA Core count, clocks, and all other specs remain the same. VideoCardz points out that pepping up the memory bandwidth like so results in an increase of around 7% to 10% better performance based on 3DMark scores. Analysis: Will that VRAM make all that much difference in reality? Of course, synthetic benchmarks are a useful indicator, but what we really want to s

While most of us have smartwatches or trackers wrapped around our wrists to monitor stats such as daily steps and heart rate, smart rings offer a convenient and lightweight alternative – and it looks as though we might soon have a new product in the category. A Samsung patent for a smart ring-style device has been reported on the Naver forum in South Korea (via Notebookcheck ), and the thinking is that the device could offer a suite of features similar to those available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 . The usual caveats with patent applications apply: these only indicate the research and development projects happening inside a company, and don't guarantee the appearance of an actual device. However, it seems Samsung is at least exploring its options when it comes to smart rings. One ring to rule them all At the moment, the biggest name in the smart ring game is Oura, with the third-generation Oura smart ring offering features such as 24/7 heart rate monitoring, sleep trackin

Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison has laid out his grand vision of transforming the way people across the world access healthcare services, no matter where they are. Speaking at Oracle Cloud World 2022 in Las Vegas, Ellison outlined a large number of thoughts and initiatives his company is kicking off in order to help people around the globe. “We're going to bankrupt western civilization unless we can find a way to make healthcare cheaper,” Ellison said in his keynote speech at the event, “we've got to do a better job.” Solving the big problems Ellison says that the pandemic unsurprisingly made him and many others think differently about how healthcare provision works, particularly in the US, where it can be challenging for patients and providers alike to find the information they need. “Your health records are scattered across different databases, everyone you've visited in your entire life,” he said, noting that providers, not patients, are being put at the cent