Technology

Perhaps not as impressive as some of the cutting-edge OLED TVs, it’s tough to argue with a deal this good. The 55-inch Insignia F50 4K TV is currently available at Best Buy for $450, nearly its lowest price ever. This sizeable QLED panel features a 60Hz refresh rate and is powered by the Fire TV OS allowing for built-in Alexa voice controls. This gives the TV native access to most major streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus. The picture can be enhanced with Dolby Vision and HDR for increased depth of color, and a narrow bezel provides the TV with a sleek aesthetic. Insignia F50 55-inch 4K TV $450 $650 31% off This 55-inch QLED TV from Insignia features 4K resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. This model uses the Fire TV OS, which gives it access to an impressive ...

Windows 11 has introduced a brand new Widgets panel, where you can access a variety of updated information using configurable topic boxes (what Microsoft calls information cards). It’s made up of two sections: a top section that offers widgets for weather, sports, your latest photos, and other personalized topics, and a news section that offers clickable headlines from a variety of sources. Here’s how to make the most of the current Windows 11 widgets. Access your widgets To access the widgets, select the Widgets icon in the taskbar (it’s the one that looks like a square divided into white and blue sections). You can also hit the Window + W keys or, if you’ve got a touchscreen, swipe from the left. You’ll probably see a variety of starter widgets on top that will give you info about sports...

Tesla has delayed the rollout of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta 10.2 software rollout because of last-minute concerns, CEO Elon Musk tweeted early Saturday. He apologized for the delay, saying the release would likely happen Sunday or Monday. He didn’t elaborate on what the “concerns” were. A few last minute concerns about this build. Release likely on Sunday or Monday. Sorry for the delay. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2021 The software was supposed to roll out Friday to about 1,000 Tesla owners with perfect safety scores of 100 —as determined by the automaker— with a gradual rollout for those with scores at 99 and below after that, according to Musk. Tesla has been testing the beta version of its FSD software for about a year, and despite the head of the National Transportation Sa...

While Google has already shared a lot about its upcoming Pixel 6 Pro flagship, including its bold exterior design, two new videos posted to YouTube reveal what Google will probably never show us: what it looks like on the inside, how to put it together, and how to take it apart. The two videos, which appear to be used for training purposes of some kind, show how to assemble and disassemble the Pixel 6 Pro. It seems unlikely that these were intended to be released publicly, as they are extremely focused on showing specific steps for how to put together and take apart the phone, don’t include any voiceover, and have a mishmash of low-quality graphics, text, and music. That being said, the videos are still worth checking out, as they are a fascinating step-by-step look at how a smartphone act...

Google Reader is still defunct, but its spirit lives on in a “follow button” for Chrome that Google first started experimenting with in May. The RSS tracking feature was limited to the experimental Canary versions of Chrome on Android, but today the company has started enabling it on stable versions of the browser, according to Adrienne Porter Felt, a director of engineering on Chrome. You can follow a site through the browser’s three-dot menu to subscribe to its RSS feed and have it update in your Chrome app. Sites you’re following will appear in a tab called “following,” which sits along Google’s “for you” tab of recommended articles. The feature isn’t out yet on iOS, so I’m not able to check it out on my phone, but Felt shared some screenshots of what it looks like on Android so you can...

With potentially billions of dollars and some control over the App Store at stake, Apple has filed for an appeal of the ruling in its major trial against Epic. While Apple largely won that case (the company went so far as to call the ruling a “resounding victory”) with Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruling in favor of Apple in nine of the ten claims Epic brought against the company, it did lose in one important way: the judge found that Apple violated California’s anti-steering rules, and demanded that Apple let developers link to outside payment systems. That policy would have taken over in December, but it may be pushed out beyond that — and it seems that’s the point. As part of the appeal, Apple is asking for a stay to prevent the company from having to implement the new anti-steering rules, arg...

One of the best features on the Apple Watch Series 7 is its newly added fast charging system, which Apple claims is 33 percent and capable of charging the watch to about 80 percent charge in about 45 minutes. But if you want to take advantage of the fast charging, you’ll need to make sure to use the charger that comes with the Series 7, which is a brand new “Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger” that’s different from the old model (which doesn’t offer similar charging speeds). The old USB-C charger and the new model look identical from the outside, but only the new cable can charge the Series 7 at full speed (assuming you’ve got a USB-C charger that can put out the proper wattage, that is — Apple recommends its own 20W USB-C charger, of course). Make sure to actually use the cable that comes ...

Facebook says it has fixed an outage that lasted for about two hours across some of its services on Friday. The outage, which Facebook says was caused by a configuration change, impacted Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Workplace and affected people around the world. “We’re so sorry if you weren’t able to access our products during the last couple of hours,” Facebook said on Twitter. “We know how much you depend on us to communicate with one another. We fixed the issue — thanks again for your patience this week.” The outage follows a massive one on Monday, which took down Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus for nearly six hours. In an explanation posted the day after, Facebook said the backbone connecting the company’s data centers around the world was inadvertently shu...

Did you know you can sell land on Facebook Marketplace? No? Neither did I. Did you know people were trying to sell land in the Amazon rainforest on Marketplace? Again, neither did I! Selling land in ecological conservation areas is typically illegal and can have negative impacts on the flora, fauna, and people living there, so Facebook announced Friday that it’s changing its commerce policies to explicitly prohibit the sale of protected land on Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. Facebook’s announcement comes after a February BBC investigation into its Marketplace that found people illegally sold large plots of land in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest on Facebook’s Craigslist alternative. The plots were frequently sold without an official land title designating ownership, dri...

The highlight of my Friday so far has been the discovery of the @snlhostsintro Twitter account, which posts old clips of Saturday Night Live hosts introducing the musical guest. While the account isn’t new to everyone — it was created in September and already has more than 37,000 followers — I felt it was my duty to write about it because it posts some absolutely magical time capsules. Here’s a tame one to start, to give you an idea of the format: former US vice president Al Gore introducing Phish. But how about Sean Penn, with a casually-yet-confidently undone bow tie, introducing LL Cool J? Here’s Bernadette Peters introducing The Go-Go’s: And Christine Baranski enthusiastically introducing the notoriously downbeat band The Cure: I also love Nathan Lane doing perhaps the most metal SNL m...