Technology

Today, Apple is unveiling new Macs that will be based not on Intel processors, but Apple’s own Arm-based chips. It’s a big deal and something we’ve been waiting a long time for. Depending on how you count, that wait has lasted either six months (since they were officially announced) or several years (since Intel’s roadmap detoured into a quagmire). Jay Peters has the summary of what exactly we’re expecting from Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ event. If you’re looking to get a sense of what the stakes are today, Chaim Gartenberg has a nice overview about just how big a gamble this is and just how committed Apple is to it. And as I mentioned last week, I have already written a couple pieces on “why this transition could be tricky and how Microsoft’s rougher ride in a similar transition could provid...

Garmin is adding pregnancy tracking to its smartwatches and Connect app. The feature will let users track pregnancy-related symptoms like fatigue and monitor their progress toward their due date. It will also let them pause updates on their training status, which typically uses metrics like the amount someone exercises to classify their fitness level and progress. The feature will also let users adjust heart rate alerts (heart rate can increase during pregnancy) and change hydration goals. An additional app will let users monitor contractions during labor. Pregnant users have criticized smartwatch and wearable companies in the past for not including pregnancy modes on the devices. Apple Watches would continue to nudge people to close their activity rings, for example, even if doctors told ...

Conservative angst over President Trump’s loss has resulted in a surge of downloads for Parler, a conservative social network founded as an ideological alternative to Facebook and Twitter. According to data from SensorTower, Parler’s app saw 980,000 downloads in total between November 3rd (Election Day) and November 8th, with more than half of those downloads (636,000) coming on Sunday alone. (The totals represent both Google Play Store and iOS App Store downloads.) That surge in downloads has also pushed Parler to the top of the app store rankings. It is currently the #1 free app in the iOS App Store, up from #1,023 on November 2nd. It’s also #1 in the Google Play rankings, up from #486 the previous week. The app has been downloaded approximately 3.6 million times in the US so far, per Se...

If you own a copy of Spider-Man on the PS4 and you planned to buy a PS5 in the near future, you will likely be glad to know that your PS4 save file will be transferrable after all. Insomniac Games announced today that a new update will arrive for the PS4 version later this month, allowing you to export your saves to the next-gen remaster. This is after the studio previously said the feature would be unavailable. Insomniac announced on Twitter that the PS4 version of Spider-Man would offer the feature in a patch scheduled to release “around Thanksgiving,” which means the feature will not be made immediately available when Sony’s next-gen console launches on November 12th. The update will also add three new suits. We have heard you – in an upcoming update for #SpiderManPS4, we will add...

The event starts at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on November 10th Contributors: Verge Staff Don’t let the name fool you: Apple’s “One More Thing” hardware event on Tuesday, November 10th, is likely more than just an add-on to October’s iPhone 12 announcements. The event is set to be the launch of the first of Apple’s promised Arm-based computers, marking the start of the company’s separation from longtime partner Intel and the first time Apple-designed silicon will appear in Macs outside of T2 security chips. The move was announced back at WWDC, and alongside a (hopefully) smooth transition, Apple promises improvements in performance and battery life from the new, still unnamed chip. Aiding the transition is Rosetta 2, a new version of the emulator that Apple used during its last processor transition ...

The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunnel-digging venture, may be eyeing its next project in Austin, Texas. The company recently posted half a dozen new jobs in the city and tweeted favorably about Austin’s soil. It’s not surprising that the Boring Company would target Austin for its next project. Musk’s other company, Tesla, recently announced that the city would be the site for its next factory, with a focus on Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck production. Rumor has it that “Austin Chalk” is geologically one of best soils for tunneling. Want to find out? Austin jobs now available.https://t.co/imlQMDfprJ — The Boring Company (@boringcompany) November 9, 2020 The jobs available in Austin range from electrical engineer to mechanical engineer, business development lead, and technical...

In our review of Google’s $99 Nest Audio speaker, we wrote that it’s “unfortunate that you can’t use two Nest Audio speakers paired with a Chromecast for home theater audio, like you can do with a couple of Amazon Echo speakers and a Fire TV.” But it appears that Google originally intended to offer just such a feature — and we’re wondering if the company might still introduce it in the next few months. As 9to5Google points out, Google seemingly forgot to remove a rather telling arrangement of words from the HTML source for its Nest Audio product page: With Chromecast & Google TV Nest Audio becomes your home theater sound system. The UK version of the page even had an alternate localization of the same sentence, which suggests intention. With Chromecast and Google TV, Nest Audio becomes...

With everything else going on, you may have momentarily forgotten Epic Games and Apple’s on-going legal battle over the Fortnite creator’s alternative payment system that got it booted off the App Store. The lawsuits are still playing out, but here’s a small positive: Epic announced last Friday that your V-Bucks stranded on the macOS and iOS versions of Fortnite will be honored and credited to your account so you can spend them on other platforms. Epic says that players who purchased V-Bucks on iOS and macOS should receive their credit by today, November 9th. Those V-Bucks can be spent on any platform that can play Fortnite other than iOS or macOS. Because Mac & iOS are blocked for Fortnite updates, we’re beginning to grant a V-Bucks bonus for players on these platforms — to spen...

Although there’s no shipping date for it yet, Apple has sent out review samples of its upcoming MagSafe Duo charger to reviewers. It’s a travel charger that combines Apple’s new MagSafe charging puck with an Apple Watch charger and a USB-C to Lightning cable. It costs $129, but that price doesn’t include a USB-C charging brick. You’ll need to buy that separately, and you’ll need to make sure it can supply at least 20 watts of USB PD power so that it can fast-charge your iPhone. Apple sells one for $19. $129 is $100 more than what I paid for a wireless charger that can charge my phone, AirPods, and Apple Watch at the same time. That charger doesn’t fold up into a neat little package and can’t fast-charge an iPhone at 15 watts, but it uses USB-C instead of Lightning and has little lights to ...

Amazon is warning customers that Xbox Series X preorders might not arrive tomorrow. In an email to some Amazon customers, the retailer says it expects to ship some consoles “in the coming weeks as we receive more inventory in November and December.” Amazon estimates that the affected preorders will receive Xbox Series X units by December 31st or before. The emails are being sent to a wide range of people, and some who have preordered on Amazon have yet to receive a shipment notice with just a day to go until the Xbox Series X launch. It’s surprising to see these emails arrive less than 24 hours before the Xbox Series X was supposed to be delivered, but it’s not clear how many are affected by the delay. Amazon sent a similar email to some customers who preordered the PS5 back in September. ...

According to research done by IT company CBT Nuggets, your laptop’s keyboard could carry 20,000 times more bacteria than your toilet seat. And with so much of your work, school, socializing, and entertainment now taking place online, you’re probably using your laptop more than ever. Whether you’re struggling with crumbs, dust, fingerprints, pet hair, or sticky residue, you should be able to clean your keys with materials you already have lying around. And if you share a device with other members of your household, you can prevent the spread of germs as well. It’ll just take a few minutes out of your day, and your keyboard will look brand-new. Here’s what to do. Turn it off Before you get started, turn off your computer. You don’t want to accidentally hit a hotkey combination that leads to ...

If you’re like us, you probably haven’t thought about the Slingbox in a good long while; the idea of beaming your own TV over the internet has largely been replaced by streaming TV services, even if watch-anywhere DVRs like the Fire TV Recast do still exist. But if you are still relying on a Slingbox of your very own, you’re officially on notice: Dish subsidiary Sling Media is discontinuing all Slingbox products and will permanently shut down the Slingbox servers on or around November 9th, 2022 — “at which point ALL Slingbox devices and services will become inoperable,” says Sling. Why now? Please enjoy this illuminating explanation: Screenshot of Sling’s FAQ Right then! The company’s also nixing a variety of its SlingPlayer apps, including its app for Windows Phone, which… it’s been...