Latest news with #TechReview
Android Authority
3 days ago
- Android Authority
One UI 8 is missing these 2 crucial Android 16 features, and I want them now!
Joe Maring / Android Authority Samsung pleasantly surprised us with how fast it started its Android 16 beta, especially after the mess it made with the One UI 7 rollout. One UI 8 has been a small update so far, but it makes some welcome tweaks to what we got in One UI 7's major redesign. While it's based on Android 16 and even has some features that Pixels don't have access to just yet, two of my favorite additions are missing, and I really want Samsung to add them as soon as possible. Material Expressive I've always liked the design Samsung has used with One UI, but it feels like it's grown stale, even with the changes made in One UI 7. The UI on Pixels used to feel more clinical, and One UI was fun and bouncy, but I now get the impression that the two have traded places with the arrival of Android 16. Material 3 Expressive, stupid name aside, is a big step forward for Android, making it the leader in mobile design. Bright, bold colors and bouncy animations make Android 16 feel alive in a way that is joyous to use. It isn't perfect — I wish there were at least an option for more consistent widget shapes. That's a minor complaint, though, and overall, Android 16 with Material 3 Expressive is shaping up to be my favorite Android redesign yet, surpassing 4.4 KitKat. There is, of course, the question of how many apps will adopt the design language and how fast most of Google's apps will be updated to this new look, but the foundation is a strong one. Notification cooldown Ryan Haines / Android Authority Notification Cooldown is a feature that's (almost) perfect for those of us who get bombarded by a million notifications at a time, and also keep their ringer on. The way it works is pretty simple: As you receive several notifications in quick succession, the alerts will become quieter over a period of two minutes. After that time has elapsed, it returns to the volume it was on previously. Plus, it's smart about what notifications it silences and those it keeps alive. Phone calls and conversations it believes are high priority will still sound normal, as you'd want them to. It isn't perfect, though; I'd like to be able to adjust how long it keeps notifications quiet, rather than having a two-minute hard limit. Technically, Notification Cooldown was introduced in Android 15. However, Google added it in Android 15 QPR2, and OEMs like Samsung base their software on the major Android releases, not the QPR builds. Therefore, non-Pixel users should see Notification Cooldown arrive on their devices with Android 16, but there's a catch — the OEM can choose whether or not to include it. This may change in future One UI 8 betas, but sadly, Samsung has so far chosen not to enable Notification Cooldown. Given Samsung's other notification-related shenanigans of late, I don't imagine the company will include it in future builds, but I would love to be proved wrong. Honorable mention: Haptics Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority This is more of a Pixel-specific thing than Android 16, but it's my list, and I like haptics. Samsung's flagship devices have high-quality vibration motors. The problem is that these motors are underutilised. Pixels have used subtle vibrations in their UI for years now, and Android 16 has taken that to the next level. Swiping away notifications, scrolling through the overview screen, adjusting brightness and volume sliders, and using the fingerprint scanner all provide deliciously satisfying haptic feedback. One UI doesn't do any of that; it only provides a double vibration to the fingerprint scanner if it fails to unlock. Great haptics might seem minor, but once you get used to them on a phone like the Pixel 9 Pro, phones that don't provide that tactile feedback feel lifeless. Android 16 has been released for Pixels now, but One UI 8 is still on its second beta, so there's still time for Samsung to make some changes before it's finished. I won't hold my breath for any big changes that we haven't already seen, but you never know. Are there any Android 16 features you'd like to see in One UI? Let us know in the comments.
The Verge
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Apple's 2024 M4 MacBook Pro with a 1TB SSD has never been this cheap
If you're thinking about getting a MacBook Pro, but you aren't exactly sure which of the many configurations is best for you, perhaps this discounted model might be just what you're after. The latest 14.2-inch model with an M4 chip (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU), 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage is $1,457.87 at Amazon, down from $1,799, a savings of $341. That'll likely still sound expensive unless I include the necessary context, which is that this space black model costs just over $10 more than the model with half as much storage at the time of publishing. Apple's storage upgrades are notoriously pricey if you buy direct, but not with this deal. The only downside is that, currently, Amazon's delivery window is between June 20th and July 7th. Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024, M4) $179919% off $1458 The entry-level MacBook Pro with M4 starts with 16GB of RAM — double that of its predecessor — and a 512GB SSD for the same starting price of $1,599. It also gets a third USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 port and comes in a new space black option. Compared to previous generations of Apple's overhauled MacBook Pro, you're getting more for your money with this one, even if you buy it at full price. This 2024 model has more ports, more RAM, a better screen, and an improved 12-megapixel webcam that easily tops its predecessors. In short, it feels like less of a compromise to buy this instead of shelling out hundreds more for an M4 Pro model. Read our review of the 2024 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Fast Company
02-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
I tried doing everything with AI on a Pixel 9a, but it didn't go as planned
Going into my time reviewing the Google Pixel 9a, I had this grand idea to transform myself into 'AI Man.' Google has made a big to-do about how it's reimagining Android with AI at the core, and the $500 Pixel 9a is now the cheapest entry point into Google's Gemini AI ecosystem. In the past I've found all those AI features easy to ignore, but this time I was going to dedicate myself to making the most of them. It didn't really work out as planned. While Gemini is a better assistant than it used to be on Pixel phones, it can also be a big a waste of time. And for all Google's talk of reinventing all of Android around AI, some of the best Pixel AI features require a more expensive phone then the 9a. Gemini's promise and pitfalls I'll give Google credit for this much: Gemini on the Pixel 9a is no longer a trainwreck. When Google started shipping Gemini as the default voice assistant on the Pixel 9 series, it was worse than the old Google Assistant at common tasks like creating to-do list items, checking local store hours, and getting directions. Google has patched in a lot of that missing functionality over the past nine months. In some ways, Gemini even more useful now. I can ask for directions with a specific stop along the way, for instance, or have a back-and-forth to manage the items on my Google Keep grocery list. Being able to converse with Gemini about widely understood topics can be helpful as well, and unlike with Assistant, there's a chat history you can look through for future reference. Still, leaning on Gemini for anything important feels like a crapshoot. While on vacation in Florida, for instance, I asked Gemini to look up the time for my flight home. It first informed me that I had two flights scheduled (I only had one), and when I asked to put the correct flight info on my calendar, Gemini added a completely invented flight to New York instead. (I live in Cincinnati.) Gemini also failed to account for traffic when I asked what time to leave for the airport, even though Google Maps provides this info on its own. And because Gemini can't search through secondary calendars —like the one my wife and I use to coordinate pretty much everything—it's been largely worthless for looking important dates. Gemini Live, the conversational voice mode you can use it without touching the screen, had some issues as well. I tried using it to research a story on satellite messaging, only to later discover in my own research that Gemini got a half-dozen facts wrong. Later I asked Gemini to act like a stenographer, transcribing some thoughts of mine for this story, but it kept interrupting and failed to capture large chunks of what I said. Even Gemini Live's ballyhooed Camera Mode feels a bit like a parlor trick—albeit an impressive one. While pointing your camera at the real world, Gemini can identify and answer questions about what it sees. It recognized a mango tree on the aforementioned Florida trip, for instance, and told me that none of the fruit looked ripe enough to eat. But when I asked why my aloe plant at home looked red and droopy, the insight was no different than if I'd just asked the same question in a Google search. (Too much water, or maybe not enough, Gemini said.) Camera Mode's ability to understand your surroundings may ultimately be a better fit for smart glasses that can easily ingest more information. Keep in mind that none of these features are Pixel-exclusive. Gemini is also the default assistant on Samsung's latest flagships, and it's a free download on iOS. Meanwhile, the Pixel 9a doesn't support some of the exclusive features Google does offer, like transcript summaries in the Recorder app, phone call summarization, and an app for organizing your screenshots. Oddly enough, the Pixel AI feature I used the most is one that predates the ChatGPT era: When you get a call from an unknown number, tapping 'Call Screen' asks the caller to explain who they are, and then shows you a transcript of their response. It's an immensely satisfying way to deal with spammers and telemarketers, most of whom just hang up. For Gemini to really make a difference on phones, it will need to interact with more apps and services, handle data from Google's own services more reliably, and be better at not making stuff up. I don't feel like the Pixel 9a is much closer to doing those things than previous Pixels, it just has a few more AI tricks bolted on. Still a fine phone Odd as it may seem to relegate the actual phone features to an afterthought, that pretty much reflects how I feel about the Pixel 9a. For $500, it's a pretty good phone that I've been using in place of my usual flagships—an iPhone 16 Pro Max and a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5—largely without complaint. Yes, there are trade-offs. The camera array is less sophisticated, which mostly became an issue when I really wanted to zoom in on something. Battery life, while better than the Pixel 9, doesn't match Google's and Apple's 'Pro' level phones and led to some charging anxiety on long days. The bezels around the display are thicker. The edges are aluminum and not stainless steel, and the rear panel is plastic instead of glass. The front glass, meanwhile, is less resistant to drop damage. Still, I never felt like the Pixel 9a was hindering me from doing what I needed to do, which was to see how Google's AI-first vision for Android has manifested over the past year. And the verdict, so far, is that it mostly hasn't.
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Power And The Promise Of ChatGPT Operator
To somewhat limited fanfare, OpenAI has come out with a groundbreaking tool that can use a computer for you, and it's been out most of this year, available to the company's elite tier of 'pro' users. Operator is powered by something called a computer using agent or CUA that allows the model to 'see' content on the Internet, and take actions that a human would take with a mouse and a keyboard. That means the Operator can accomplish the full life cycle of a task, such as booking a reservation or signing someone up for something. I thought it was time to address the remaining barriers to massive adoption of this agentic AI tool, as spring winds into summer. The first problem is cost. Operator now costs $200 a month, compared to $20 a month for all of the other things that ChatGPT can do. It seems like the vast majority of average users are waiting for the cost to come down. Read this review from Mike Todasco at Medium, and you'll see that he just doesn't feel like the technology is worth $200 a month: 'If this is the future, then I don't think we need to worry about AI Agents taking our jobs,' Todasco writes. 'Operator is a mess, and sure as heck not worth an extra $180/month. I spent several days trying to find any usefulness in it. But in the end, I had to hang up on this experiment.' What if it was $40 a month? Where would daily user numbers be at right now? Of course, we don't really have anything to compare it to, since OpenAI has not released user numbers for Operator currently. You could also make the argument that Operator is vaguely genetic – that although it has the ability to use the Internet, it doesn't have prebuilt task management tools in hand. It's more of a do-it-yourself kind of task-based system. The CUA is absolutely compelling as technology – it combines prior work on computer vision and tool use to offer the kind of environment that we've been waiting for a long time. However, for most people, it's still too expensive. Right now, people are adding their own data to ChatGPT in granular ways, to come up with responses. The same would apply to task-based systems. You're going to have to decide how much data you trust Operator with in order for it to do its work. You'll have to also figure out how much you want to delegate, and what you want to keep for yourself. And we'll have to figure out, as users, how to deal with the hacker community, where black hats and bad actors will presumably be trying to get Operator to do things that you don't want it to do. However, there's so much potential here that I thought it warranted a post today to talk about the potential moving forward, and that makes sense, since the company just recently unveiled Operator o3. Cark Franzen at VentureBeat provides these potential use cases: 'Data engineers can delegate manual web interactions—such as data verification and scraping—with more confidence, freeing time for higher-level optimization work. Security professionals, meanwhile, gain a safer way to simulate user behavior in audits and incident response exercises, thanks to the model's layered safety mechanisms.' Over at Reddit, OpenAI did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Operator, where VP of Research Jerry Tworek said this: "We… already have a product surface that can do things on your computer … we're planning to make some improvements soon and it can become a very useful tool then.' If you agree with this assessment, we are very close to enormous user bases playing around with the first over-the-counter agentic systems of their kind. We just need a little bit of a discount.
The Verge
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Surface Laptop 13-inch review: a little less for a little less
Microsoft finally found its answer to the MacBook Air last year with the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop (formerly known as 7th Edition). That Snapdragon X-powered laptop matched the MacBook in build quality, battery life, and at least some aspects of performance — something Windows laptop makers have been trying to do for ages. The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop was brilliant, but Windows on Arm's occasional app incompatibility stopped it just shy of being the default alternative to the MacBook Air. Nearly a year later, Microsoft has new Snapdragon-based Surfaces that are a little smaller and a little cheaper. The $899.99 13-inch Surface Laptop is nearly as great as last year's, despite some cost-cutting measures like a lower-resolution screen, a processor with two fewer cores, no face unlock, and no magnetic charging port. The hardware remains excellent, and Windows on Arm is even slightly better than last year. It'll probably work fine for some of you, but not all. The base 13-inch Surface Laptop, officially known as the Microsoft Surface 13-inch 1st Edition with Snapdragon (man alive, what a name), has an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. For an additional $100, you can get 512GB of storage. If you want more RAM or storage — or a more powerful processor — you'll need to jump to last year's 13.8-inch model, which now starts at $1,099.99 with a 10-core processor and 512GB SSD. There isn't a single major flaw in the new Surface Laptop's hardware, though there are some minor downgrades and unfortunate omissions compared to the larger version. It doesn't quite match the 13.8-inch's screen, trackpad, ports, or webcam, but it's a very good offering for its lower price. The 13-inch Surface has a 400-nit IPS screen that's 1920 x 1280 resolution and 60Hz. It's sharp and pleasing to look at, and it retains the 3:2 aspect ratio that's so great for productivity, but it's a step down from the 2304 x 1536 and 120Hz of the 13.8-inch Surface. For ports, it's equipped with a pair of USB-C 3.2, one USB-A 3.1, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. It lacks the magnetic Surface Connect port of the larger models, which means you're reliant on USB-C for power and port expansion. I can forgive that, but the more disappointing omission is Windows Hello face unlock. The 1080p webcam is otherwise sharp and contrasty, but Microsoft opted for Windows Hello biometric unlocking through a fingerprint sensor in the power button instead, likely to save money. But, thankfully, there are a few key areas where the 13-inch excels despite its cost-cutting measures. The four-speaker setup sounds pretty good overall, though once you crank the volume, the low end hollows out. Typing on the Surface is pretty quiet and has just enough tactile feedback to feel nice — I even prefer it to the MacBook Air that it's competing with. But one of my favorite parts is the trackpad. It's mechanical, instead of haptic like its larger counterparts, but I've been shocked by how good it sounds and feels. Each click is crisp and well defined; it has a nice ka-chunk that's pretty satisfying. You can't click anywhere on it like you can on a haptic pad, but if every mechanical trackpad were this good, I'd finally shut up about it. Like last year's 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, the Qualcomm chip sips power and can even get through a 12-hour day of productivity apps (messaging, calls, Google Docs, lots of Chrome tabs, occasional music listening, downloading and uploading files). It also has exceptional standby times, so you can leave it closed and unplugged overnight with minimal battery drain. Even if your laptop stays plugged in most days, it's just so convenient not to worry about battery life when you take it off the charger. As I type this, it's around 5:30PM, and I unplugged the charger at 10AM. I've had a one-hour Zoom video call — always a battery killer — and mixed use between productivity apps and some photo editing in Lightroom Classic (which isn't a native Arm app, so it drains the battery faster). The Surface dipped below 30 percent battery and Windows turned on energy saver mode well over an hour ago, and I haven't had to rush from my spot to plug in. The 8-core Snapdragon X Plus processor performs well for core productivity and work tasks, though it did slow down once for me during some heavy multitasking on battery power. That was so far a one-off. I was on a browser-based Microsoft Teams video call, bouncing in and out of a document to take notes, with over 15 Chrome tabs open and a couple of other apps like Slack and Signal running in the background. It didn't crash, but things slowed down for a moment while the video feed on Teams crapped out. I was able to jumpstart the video again by minimizing the window and restoring it, and things went back to normal. The fan kicks on when you're working it hard like that, but it almost always stays quiet and inoffensive. It would have been nice to see Microsoft go fanless as it did on the new 12-inch Surface Pro. Fortunately, any fan noise is infrequent enough that I often forget it's there, and the chassis never got more than slightly warm to the touch. With two fewer cores than the 13.8-inch and four fewer than its pricier Snapdragon X Elite configurations, the 13-inch is predictably slower at multicore tasks and related synthetic benchmarks. It's still adequate for general purpose needs, but it's not going to do any heavy lifting in creative apps without slowing down. By contrast, an M4 MacBook Air costing just $100 more than the Surface Laptop 13-inch can dabble in content creation apps and actually beats all the Surfaces (even the pricier ones) in many of our tests. It's still hard to beat Apple, but if you're not cross-shopping operating systems that doesn't really matter. System Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch / Snapdragon X Plus 8C / 16GB / 512GB Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch / Snapdragon X Plus 10C / 16GB / 512GB Microsoft Surface Laptop 15-inch / Snapdragon X Elite 12C / 16GB / 512GB MacBook Air 13-inch M4 / 10C / 10C / 16GB / 512GB Geekbench 6 CPU Single 2437 2446 2841 3775 Geekbench 6 CPU Multi 11427 13190 14661 14899 Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL) 9391 19993 Not tested 30701 Cinebench 2024 Single 109 108 122 171 Cinebench 2024 Multi 682 808 971 736 PugetBench for Photoshop 4773 5600 6748 10163 Sustained SSD reads (MB/s) 3840.78 3663.1 3656 2910.04 Sustained SSD writes (MB/s) 3476.62 2478.44 2944 2115.57 Blender Classroom test (seconds, lower is better) 486 418 712 (tested before Blender had Arm support) 69 While app compatibility can also be a mixed bag, I'm relieved that it's gotten better since last year. The vast majority of Windows apps work fine on Arm, either natively or through emulation, but there are enough edge cases, especially around photo and video editing, 3D rendering, and music creation, that you still do need to make sure your apps are going to work well before you buy. In my review of the HP OmniBook X, I lamented that the lack of support for Adobe Lightroom Classic forced me to use the standard, mobile-centric Lightroom, which I hate. Lightroom Classic now works via emulation, and it does so quite well. I can edit my 50-megapixel RAW files on the Surface Laptop 13-inch, and it's fast enough for some dip in, dip out sessions. I wouldn't want to edit an elaborate product shoot on a tight deadline or cull and batch-process a full wedding shoot, but it's good to know that I can do some photo editing if I have to. It's still hard to beat Apple, but if you're not cross-shopping operating systems that doesn't really matter. But elsewhere, even within the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, there are still some major omissions. Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and InDesign have zero support for Windows on Arm — they don't even run emulated. Adobe says on its help page that Arm-supported versions of these apps 'will be released soon,' but there's no estimated timeframe. In other cases, apps run but still leave a bit to be desired. Blender was updated with Windows on Arm support last year, but it still doesn't fully utilize the Snapdragon X's GPU cores, leading to significantly longer rendering times than even a MacBook Air. Windows on Arm seems to be on the right trajectory, but it's going to take much longer to reach full parity with vanilla x86 Windows, especially if you account for games. Game support for the Snapdragon-based Surfaces, as with Macs, is still a crapshoot. The Surface Laptop 13-inch is not a gaming machine, obviously, but plenty of games that work just fine on other Windows laptops with integrated graphics run poorly or not at all. Right now, most popular online shooters, like Fortnite and Valorant, which include anti-cheat software, can't run on Windows on Arm laptops (though Fortnite is coming to Arm eventually). Some of my favorite indies — like Vampire Survivors and Balatro — work, but your best option is to stream games from services like GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming, though even as a PC Game Pass subscriber, you can't install any Game Pass games locally like you can on x86 PCs. There's an easier path around these obstacles. Microsoft could have just used an Intel Lunar Lake chip in the new Surface Laptop, which would have likely sacrificed some battery efficiency for wide-ranging app and game compatibility. Last year's Surfaces did get that as an option, but Microsoft positioned them as enterprise laptops with higher prices. You can buy them, but only at specialized retailers. Despite Microsoft's ongoing Windows on Arm push, the vast majority of the Windows ecosystem and user base still lives on x86. Since the first Snapdragon X PCs came out last year, Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Strix Point chips have proven x86 still has the juice (for now), and there's a draw to sticking with a proven platform instead of risking potential frustrations with Arm, especially for creative work. Opting for a Lunar Lake laptop like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i, or a Strix Point one like Asus's Zenbook S 16, avoids the app compatibility issue entirely and gets you better performance in graphical tasks like photo and video editing, at the cost of a few hours of battery life and a few hundred dollars. Though, there are pricier Windows laptops running these chips that totally flub the basics compared to the Surface. At $900, the 13-inch is an exceptional no-nonsense Windows laptop for general productivity stuff, and it looks and feels great. It's right at the price range where laptops start getting really good, without the kinds of compromises that feel like penalty boxes a few years later: slow processors, low-quality screens, bad battery life, or cheap builds. It's much better hardware than some other laptops in its price range, with better battery life, in exchange for small compromises on speed and app compatibility. The 13.8-inch version is still nicer overall, but that one now costs $200 to $300 more thanks to Microsoft's own price and configuration shuffling. Would I buy one for myself? Truthfully, no. I moonlight as a wedding photographer, and while Lightroom Classic works with Windows on Arm now, it's just not fast enough to rely on yet. And my gaming sensibilities lead me to feeling that if I can't play games on a laptop, I might as well switch back to a MacBook. But nearly every downside of the Surface Laptop 13-inch is just a downside of Windows on Arm. If developers keep updating their programs to use the architecture properly, the edge cases get fewer, and the closer the Surface Laptop 13-inch gets to being the easy answer to 'what laptop should I buy?' 2025 Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch specs (as reviewed) Display: 13-inch (1920 x 1280) 60Hz touschscreen CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X (non-replaceable) Storage: 512GB UFS Webcam: 1080p Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Ports: 1x USB-A 3.1, 2x USB-C 3.2, 3.5mm combo audio jack Weight: 2.7 pounds Dimensions: 11.25 x 8.43 x 0.61 Battery: 50Wh Price: $999.99 Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Featured Videos From The Verge Why Apple is trying to save Google | The Vergecast Where will Meta, Apple, and Google be three years from now? It's starting to look like they might all be very different. Nilay, David, and The Verge's Richard Lawler start the show with Eddy Cue's testimony in the Google search trial, in which Cue argued that AI is taking over — and that Google should be allowed to keep paying Apple gobs of money. The hosts also chat about the latest in the Meta trials, and how the recent Apple ruling is already changing the App Store. Then, there are some gadgets to talk about: the panopticon-slash-killer-app coming for Meta's smart glasses, the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, and a lot of new iPhones. In the lightning round, we do another round of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, then talk about some new Netflix designs and the latest in our worldwide hunt for party speakers.
