Technology

What a difference a year makes. I loved the Surface Pro X design when I pitted it against the Surface Pro 7 last year, but in practice this ARM-powered device wasn’t quite ready. I couldn’t install a bunch of apps I use daily, and even Microsoft’s own Chromium Edge browser wasn’t available. I had to rely on an emulated version of Chrome that ran poorly, and just give up on getting some of my favorite apps to work. It wasn’t an enjoyable experience. Microsoft is back with a refreshed $1,499 Surface Pro X this year, and not much has changed hardware-wise. The 2020 model includes an updated Microsoft SQ2 processor, with promises of improved performance and battery life. But the real story is how much has changed for Windows on ARM app support over the past year. I can now run most of the apps...

This laptop was a pain in the neck to review. That’s because the battery life is so gargantuan that our traditional rundown test was next to useless. I’ve praised the battery life of several thin-and-light systems this year — Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 7 is a monster. But nothing — and I mean nothing — that I have ever used comes close to topping the lifespan this device has. This is the Dell Latitude 9510 2-in-1. As is often the case with premium, convertible business laptops, there are about a million different configurations with a variety of processors and other specs. The base model, currently listed at $1,848.99, comes with a quad-core Core i5-10210U, 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM; our test model, currently listed at $1,848.99, comes with a six-core Core i7-10810U, 16GB of RAM, and a 5...

Huawei announced the Mate 40 Pro yesterday, and now we have one in hand. It might not be easy to recommend Huawei phones outside of China, since the Trump administration’s targeted sanctions have prevented it working with US companies like Google, but devices like the P40 Pro Plus and last year’s Mate 30 Pro have had hardware as impressive as anything else on the global smartphone market. The situation shouldn’t be any different with the new Mate 40 Pro. It’s likely to be Huawei’s most advanced device yet — even if there are still questions over the extent to which the company is actually able to manufacture it. I thought the Mate 30 Pro was the best-looking phone released in 2019, and the Mate 40 Pro builds on that design. The unit I have is in the “Mystic Silver” colorway, which Huawei i...

As well as letting you find lost items, Apple has considered allowing its unannounced, but heavily leaked AirTags to do everything from measuring your posture to helping your phone display information relevant to the building you’re in. The details have emerged in a pair of patent applications that were filed a year ago and were found by Patently Apple after they were made public yesterday. Since there have been so many leaks about Apple’s Tile-like tracking pucks, we already have a good idea about their features, which involve helping you to keep track of your belongings. So what’s most interesting in these patent applications is the other use cases Apple has been thinking about. One series of diagrams shows how the trackers could be stuck on your body and used to track your posture, or e...

Microsoft’s head of gaming and Xbox, Phil Spencer, has hinted that the company is planning TV streaming sticks for its xCloud cloud gaming service. In an interview with Stratechery, Spencer discusses the potential for additional tiers of Xbox Game Pass, which could include a free bundled TV stick to play xCloud games. “I think you’re going to see lower priced hardware as part of our ecosystem when you think about streaming sticks and other things that somebody might want to just go plug into their TV and go play via xCloud,” says Spencer. “You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.” Spencer also teases the potential for an “Xbox Game Pass Platinu...

If you never used Sony’s now-shuttered PlayStation Vue internet TV service, you’re probably unaware of one of its best features: multiview. PS Vue allowed you to watch multiple channels on-screen at once, which is something most of the bigger TV apps — Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu, etc. — don’t currently offer. But now, FuboTV is putting a bigger focus on multiview. You could already stream two channels simultaneously with the FuboTV app on Apple TV, and starting today, that’s expanding to four. FuboTV says the feature is particularly popular with sports fans since it lets them keep an eye on multiple games at the same time. But you can use it with other networks as well. Want to stress yourself out with election coverage in all four slots? Nothing’s stopping you. “We believe Multiview 2.0 s...

Minecraft players have been able to play without a Microsoft account for the past six years that the company has owned the game, but that will change in 2021, the official Minecraft blog announced yesterday. Players who own the original version of the game and do not switch to a Microsoft account will be unable to play. The game has existed in two separately developed versions since its 2011 launch on consoles. Previously, the original Minecraft: Java Edition used Mojang accounts, while Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, the name for the console and Windows store version of the game, used Microsoft accounts. After this change, the accounts will be the same, but there’s still no crossplay: you still won’t be able to play with friends using the other version of the game. the new accounts will offer...

You know what you did. Or do you? Until recently, TikTok wouldn’t necessarily explain why it removed one of your videos from the platform. You’d simply be told that it violated the company’s “community guidelines” somehow. But today, TikTok is announcing that it will give you at least a vague idea of why your video is gone, by naming the specific policy it fell afoul of. That’s pretty similar to how other companies do it. Here’s what TikTok’s new content violation notifications look like. The only real change is the name of the specific policy.Image: TikTok As before, you’ll be able to submit an appeal. Maybe you’ll have some idea what you’re appealing now. TikTok says it’s been experimenting with these notifications for a few months, and that appeals have actually gone down by 14 percent....

You can now buy the Pixel 4A from Google for just $9 per month over 24 months as part of the new Google Fi phone subscription program. That monthly cost means you’d pay just just $216 for the phone, a substantial savings over its $349 upfront price. After you’ve made all 24 payments, you own the phone. You can also elect to add in a $6 per month device protection plan, meaning your monthly subscription cost is $15. That protection plan covers up to two incidents of accidental damage and one loss or theft claim in a year. (Loss and theft replacement isn’t available to New York state residents, however.) At $15 per month over 24 months, you’d pay $360 for the Pixel 4A over the course of the subscription, which is only $11 more than the phone’s typical $349 upfront cost. But if you were hopin...

We’ve all been there. You’re craving a McFlurry, or a Shamrock Shake. You drive to McDonald’s, excited to fill yourself up with cold and sugary goodness. But when you finally make it to the counter, you hear those dreaded, devastating words: “The ice cream machine is broken.” A few hours ago, a 24-year-old software engineer launched McBroken, a website that aims to end such incidents once and for all. The site displays a map of every McDonald’s location in the US, denoted by clusters of dots. Locations with a working ice-cream machine get a green dot; locations without one, a red dot. A column on the right compiles statistics — currently, 7.54 percent of McDonald’s ice-cream machines in the US are broken, as are 15.22 percent of those in New York. Rashiq Zahid came up with McBroken over th...

Uber and Lyft were ordered by California’s court of appeals to classify their drivers as employees. In a 74-page opinion, the court affirmed the injunction that was issued on August 10th requiring Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees within 30 days. But it’s unlikely this ruling will go into effect before California voters weigh in on a ballot measure, Prop 22, that would exempt Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies from the state law making it more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors. The injunction won’t go into effect until 30 days after the appeals ruling The injunction won’t go into effect until 30 days after the appeals ruling. Still, it’s a sign that Uber and Lyft have a lot riding on the passage of Prop 22. The companies, along with DoorDas...

Just last month, a stunning report showed how Amazon fulfillment centers across the country saw rising injury rates between 2016 and 2019, sourced from internal company data. And now, proposed legislation in Washington state would mean Amazon could pay a higher workers’ compensation premium than other warehouse-owning companies next year. To make this happen, the state wants to put warehouses that function like Amazon’s into a separate risk classification. While the proposed classification for “fulfillment centers” doesn’t say the word Amazon anywhere, how they are defined seems to fit the description of the company: Have an online marketplace to sell their own merchandise and third-party sellers’ merchandise; Sell their own name brand merchandise retail online; Offer warehousing and order...