The new in the world of technology

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