The new in the world of technology

Chromebooks have been going in and out of stock over the past year, initially from the rise of remote work at the start of the COVID pandemic. Component shortages and remote schooling also resulted in fewer options being available, but as we head into 2021, there are some decent options in the $200-300 range. All of the models we've selected are fast enough to handle at least a few Chrome tabs and applications running at once, and when they're available, we try to include models with large screens. We have a dedicated guide for the best Chromebooks overall, but this list is solely focused on budget options that are actually in stock right now. Samsung Chromebook 4+: $299 The Samsung Chromebook 4+ is one of the best deals in the Chromebook market... when it's not out of stock, that is. While the laptop doesn't have a touch screen or 2-in-1 design, it does have a competent Intel Celeron N4000 processor and 4GB RAM. The main selling point here is the 15.6-inch 1080p scr...

WhatsApp’s recent policy update has turned into a Pandora’s box for the app's parent firm, Facebook. The resulting exodus to rival platforms has sent shockwaves so strong that the company felt the need to run full front-page ads in several Indian dailies to make its case. While Facebook was busy doing some damage control, Telegram and Signal got to benefit from disgruntled users flocking en masse for their apps. Telegram emerged as the bigger winner of the two, having added over 25 million users in just three days (breaching the milestone of 500 million active users in the process). While Telegram's an attractive platform to be on, with all its bells and whistles, how sure can you be that it’s doing a better at protecting your privacy than WhatsApp? One feature working in WhatsApp’s favor is end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in personal chats, which prevents both WhatsApp and Facebook (or any other party, for that matter) from snooping on your messages. Unfortunately, on Telegram...

Apple has started work on a foldable phone, and it’s begun prototyping foldable screens internally, according to Bloomberg. A final device is likely still years away, the report says, and Apple is working on just the display for now — not the rest of the phone it would attach to. The initial prototypes sound similar to the foldable screens we’ve seen used by Samsung, Motorola, and others. Bloomberg says Apple is looking at making foldable screens with a “mostly invisible hinge” that could unfold to around the size of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The report says that several screen sizes are being discussed, however. Apple hasn’t publicly indicated any interest in making a foldable phone, though the company rarely signals its interest before entering a new product category. Major competitors have a head start on foldable devices, with Samsung and Motorola already releasing multiple generations of folding phones. Samsung’s Galaxy Fold came out in April 2019 (albeit, with some substantial iss...

According to 9to5Mac, Apple will be extending its free year-long trials of its TV Plus service to customers until July 2021. The trials were originally included with the purchase of any Apple device (e.g., an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV) and were initially set to last until November 1st, 2020. This is the second extension, with the first extending from November 2020 to February 2021. Subscribers who had free subscriptions that were set to expire any time from February 2021 to June 2021 will also get an extension until July. The extension comes in the wake of production delays. Only one of the shows the service launched with (Dickinson) has had its second season premiere, while others — like For All Mankind, The Morning Show, and See — are still waiting for their second seasons to come out. Show productions being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic is no surprise, and extending the trial is a nice gesture. Viewers probably would like to start watching the second seasons of their favorit...

If you're among the WhatsApp users suddenly pondering the fate of your messaging systems but struggling to decide between Telegram and Signal - good. It is great that you have had the wool pulled from your eyes and you can now clearly see how Facebook is mining your data for profit. Despite the initial rumours that WhatsApp will share all users personal data with Facebook, the company confirmed that this will only be for WhatsApp business users. However, don't let this statement fool you, it is high time to uncouple yourself from this overbearing, tech monopoly and take back your privacy. Many others have already started jumping ship, at least when it comes to their messaging app. According to data analytics site Signal Tower, since Thursday, January 7, 100,000 users installed Signal worldwide while another 2.2 million downloads were recorded for Telegram. Signal got an especially good boost from the likes of tech celebrities such as Edward Snowden and Elon Musk who tweet...

The beginner DSLR has been a staple of Nikon and Canon's camera line-ups for years, but this popular breed could soon be extinct according to hints from an official statement about the Nikon D3500 and D5600. Last week, Nikon Rumors saw that the Nikon D3500 and D5600 – two aging, but still very capable entry-level models – have been listed on the Nikon Japan website as "old products". This often means that a product is heading for the 'discontinued' bin – and when we asked Nikon for official comment it gave us a more enlightening response than we expected. Firstly, it confirmed that both cameras are definitely on their last legs in Japan. But it also gave strong hints that the demise of the beginner DSLR could soon be a worldwide trend. In an official statement, Nikon told us: "Nikon Imaging Japan has decided to archive some digital SLR camera models based on market trends. In Japan, the D5600 and D3500 are archived products. The products will continue to...

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is Samsung’s vision of smartphone excess, with five cameras, a 108MP sensor, two telephotos cameras, 100x zoom, 5G, up to 16GB of RAM and S Pen stylus support – all packed into a single Android phone with a 6.8-inch 120Hz Quad HD display. This is the first new Android phone we’ve tested in 2021, along with the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus, and it sets the bar high. Samsung has retooled the autofocus of its camera system to remedy the problems we had with last year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra, tweaked the specs and features for faster performance, and comes in at a significantly cheaper launch price. It’s still mighty expensive to buy the S21 Ultra for most consumers – more than the iPhone 12 Pro Max even – but Samsung is offering a larger, brighter and more capable curved screen, 10x optical camera zoom (vs 3x), and stylus support, something Apple has yet to do on any iPhone. Depending on what’s important to you, Samsung may be offering more value for your money. What...

Apple has officially released the latest version of macOS: macOS Big Sur (also known as macOS 11.0), which is available to download now assuming you have a compatible Mac. Big Sur is one of the biggest updates to Apple’s laptop and desktop software in years, featuring a top-to-bottom redesign of the interface, icons, and menu bar, a new control center UI borrowed from iOS, widgets (also borrowed from iOS), and a variety of other improvements (see here for the full list). It’s such a big change that Apple is actually moving on from the OS X / OS 10 branding that it’s been using for Macs for almost 20 years. Apple’s also adding some new privacy-focused features, including better tracking information in Safari and new privacy data in the Mac App Store for any apps you download. But Big Sur isn’t just exciting for the features it brings to existing Macs. It’ll also be the operating system that runs on Apple’s newly announced M1-powered MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini computers w...

Many Mac users reported that their computers have been running slower than usual on Thursday — including a number of Verge staffers — with apps launching slowly or not at all, alongside other Apple service issues. It appears that the problem is due to many people rushing to download macOS Big Sur, which was officially released today, which in turn seems to have crashed Apple’s OCSP (online certificate status protocol) service — which is used for several key aspects of macOS, including validating digital certificates for both Apple and third-party software on the Mac, as Ars Technica reports. Apple’s status site notes that the company had resolved an issue earlier today that may have prevented users from downloading macOS software updates, although it hasn’t been confirmed that the Big Sur update was the cause of the outage. The company also reported issues with iMessage and full-blown outages with Maps routing and navigation as well as its traffic tracking, which may have been relate...

AMD has beaten Intel’s performance advantage in desktop PCs with its new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. That’s the verdict from a range of reviewers this week that have been testing AMD’s flagship $799 Ryzen 9 5950X with its 16 cores and 32 threads. Even the entry level Ryzen 5 5600X offers some impressive performance at just $299. AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X steals the performance crown from Intel in gaming in most tests. Tom’s hardware has the 5950X beating Intel’s Core i9-10900K comfortably in an average of eight games at 1080p and 1440p. Some other games are closer, but AMD’s latest Zen 3 chips beat Intel’s equivalents for single-threaded performance too. Anandtech saw similar gaming performance results, with the 5950X beating the i9-10900K in the majority of its gaming tests at a variety of resolutions. HotHardware also put the 5950X up against the i9-10900K in a variety of gaming benchmarks, and it came out on top in almost all of them. Digital Foundry found some games are friendlier to Inte...

Motorola has announced the Moto G9 Power, a budget handset with one standout feature: a huge 6,000 mAh battery that Motorola claims will deliver up to 60 hours of battery life. It’s not the biggest battery we’ve seen in a device of this caliber (Samsung’s Galaxy M51 has a 7,000 mAh battery, for example) but it’s still certifiably chunky. The Moto G9 Power will cost €200 in Europe (around $235), though exact dates for availability are unclear. It’ll also be coming to “select countries” in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East in the weeks to come, reports Android Authority, though there’s no mention of a US launch Other specs for the device include a 64-megapixel triple camera array on the rear, 16-megapixel lens on the front, 6.8-inch HD+ LCD screen, 128GB of internal storage, 4GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 662 chipset. There’s a fingerprint sensor on the back, hidden under the Motorola “batwing” logo, and a dedicated button on the side for Google Assistant. Motorola also says the d...

It’s been a busy day for Apple, as the company has just announced the Apple Watch 6, Apple Watch SE, iPad 2020, iPad Air 4, and more, and in among that flurry of announcements it also confirmed that iOS 14 is landing tomorrow (September 16). That’s not all, you’ll also be able to grab iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, and tvOS 14 from then, so even if you’re not planning on pre-ordering any of Apple’s new hardware, you’ll at least be able to enjoy some new software. But some users are getting access to the software already – so check in Settings > General to see if your device is able to upgrade right now. We've gotten sneak peeks and hands-ons with the software, and you have may have, too: while the finished versions of these operating system updates are about to land, they were announced a while ago, and have gone through a number of beta versions. New features and lots of improvements As such we already had a good idea of what to expect. For iPhones, the update means home screen widg...

Just yesterday, Epic said that as soon as Friday, Apple would no longer let people use its single sign-on solution, “Sign In with Apple,” to access their Epic Games account. That would mean that anyone who relied on their Apple credentials to log in to Epic services like Fortnite and the Epic Games Store would lose access when Apple pulled the plug, unless they changed their account first. But the game studio is now saying Apple has given Epic an “indefinite extension” on supporting “Sign In with Apple” for Epic Games accounts. Epic is still recommending that users “prepare your accounts” for a potential removal of “Sign In with Apple,” however, and continues to promote an explainer on its site showing how to change your login credentials. When reached for comment about yesterday’s news, Apple told The Verge that it was not doing anything to stop “Sign In with Apple” accounts from working with Epic Games. So there’s some kind of discrepancy in who is telling the truth, as Epic is ma...

The new Motorola Razr 2020 refines key shortcomings of its predecessor, crucially eliminating the worrisome gap when the phone was folded closed. The new Razr (known as the Motorola Razr 5G everywhere apart from in the US) folds flush, and even has a sleeker look thanks to design tweaks shaving down the chin. But is it enough to finally convince consumers to flock to the clamshell foldable? Aside from the design refinements, the phone differs from its predecessor in a few other ways: its Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset enables 5G connectivity, storage and RAM have improved, the rear camera has been boosted to 48MP, and the external QuickView mini-screen has new photo preview features to show subjects what you're capturing – or a cartoon face for kids to focus on while you’re photographing them. The battery is even a bit bigger, too. But other parts of the phone are the same, like the 6.2-inch POLED (plastic OLED) display. It's unclear if the folding parts of the phone hav...

Whenever people discuss digital voice assistants, the conversation usually ends with the Google Assistant triumphing over Apple's Siri. I haven't owned an iOS device since I sold my childhood iPod Touch, but earlier this summer, I took the plunge and bought an iPhone 11 to see what I'd been missing — and to check out Siri's smarts for myself. It's much better than I expected, and in fact, there is at least one area where Siri makes the Google Assistant look like an off-key cover band: music. I'm a big music listener. Whether it's jamming out to the latest twee pop tunes during a brisk morning walk or turning on a classic Springsteen album while making dinner, music is a constant companion. Testing Siri's abilities when it came to the Apple Music experience was one of my first priorities. To my mild surprise, it blows the Google Assistant's integration with YouTube Music out of the water. Let's begin with the basics. Both assistants will play ...

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting a graphical upgrade for next-generation hardware, and current owners of the game on PC, Playstation, and Xbox will get the update for free. Developers CD Projekt Red announced the news today, saying the updated game will be available on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, featuring a “range of visual and technical improvements.” These include faster loading times and ray tracing graphics. The upgrades will apply to the base game, says Projekt Red, as well as to both of its expansions (Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine) and all other “extra content.” The appeal of this news is testament to The Witcher 3’s lasting greatness. This is a game that came out five years ago but remains incredibly well-regarded and an appealing title for many to pick up and play through all over again. It still regularly appears in the top Steam charts on PC, too. In this case, the free upgrade to the next-gen version also looks pretty generous. It’s not clear if there are a...

The original Game Boy from 1989 was an iconic handheld console but, as anyone who owned one will tell you, it required a steady stream of batteries to keep running. Now, a team of researchers at Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology have developed a new take on the classic console, replacing its array of four AA batteries with a set of five rows of solar panels and buttons that harvest power as you play. The Engage, as the team have called their device, is theoretically capable of being used to play any game made for the original Game Boy, and it’s even got a slot on its back if you want to insert an original game cartridge. It’s about the size of a paperback book, but as CNET reports, it only weighs half as much as the original handheld. It also comes with a host of limitations. It doesn’t have sound for one thing, and its LCD screen is absolutely tiny. Oh, and it also tends to shut off every 10 seconds or so. It’s difficult to harvest enough power to stay on con...

Apple and Google are launching a new auto-generated software framework to help states deploy their own contact tracing apps. Developed as an extension of the earlier exposure notification framework, the new system allows public health authorities to avoid the broader development work of launching a standalone app, simply configuring the basic framework to their state’s needs. Existing applications won’t be affected by the new framework, and adopting the framework won’t prevent states from launching more involved apps in the future. “As the next step in our work with public health authorities on Exposure Notifications, we are making it easier and faster for them to use the Exposure Notifications System without the need for them to build and maintain an app,” Apple and Google said in a statement. “Exposure Notifications Express provides another option for public health authorities to supplement their existing contact tracing operations with technology without compromising on the project...

We all know that antivirus software is designed to keep your device protected - but have you ever wondered exactly how it does so? In this article, we’re going to look at the way antivirus apps actually work, and the main pillars of protection that these pieces of software are built around. Our definitive list of today's best Windows 10 antivirus programs Looking for even more protection? Grab the best VPN See why we rate Bitdefender so highly in our testing Watchful eye in real time When it comes to defending your PC and policing the files on your system, antivirus apps have a few different methods of doing so. The first is a manual scan of all the files on your system, looking for anything suspect. These scans can be quite lengthy to start with, although over time, the use of clever routines to skip over any files that haven’t been changed since the last scan considerably shortens those initial long waits. Also, most apps offer some kind of ‘quick scan’ mode, which as the nam...

Windows 10 (Image credit: Shutterstock / rvlsoft) Many people don’t know that Windows 10 has its own built-in VPN client. But before you rush to cancel your current VPN subscription, it’s worth taking a closer look at what the Windows option is capable of. That's because there are quite a few restrictions on what you can do with the dedicated Windows 10 virtual private network. We explain everything you need to know to decide if it’s worth using. See also: high on quality and value - the best cheap VPNs You'll still need a separate VPN network The most important thing to know about the built-in Windows 10 option is that it’s not really a VPN service at all. At least not the kind we've become accustomed to from third party providers. Windows doesn’t give you access to a secure server network, which is what you pay for when using a VPN service. Instead, the built-in tool is just a desktop client for connecting to a third-party VPN network. Basically, even if you use the Mi...