Sphero, a long-time maker of robotic toys, has announced a robotic toy car that’s designed to teach young children about the fundamentals of programming (via Gizmodo). It’s called the Sphero indi, and kids can use different-colored silicone tiles to give the car instructions, letting them create courses and mazes (and hopefully learn how to logically solve problems while doing so).
The indi uses a color-sensor to check which tile it’s driving over, with green tiles telling it to speed up, pink tiles telling it to turn left, purple tiles telling it to stop and celebrate, and so on. To teach kids how to create instructions to get indi from point A to point B, the toy comes with challenge cards that include patterns with missing tiles, so they’ll have to figure out which color tile will help the car reach its goal.
The indi can follow the tiles’ instructions without any sort of connection to a phone or computer, but if your kids are ready for a bit more control, the Sphero Edu Jr app will let them use a block-based language to customize the car’s behavior.
The app lets kids change how indi reacts to the colors.Image: Sphero
As someone who’s actually taught children programming essentials, block-based coding and having kids design paths for a character to follow all sounds very familiar: MIT’s Scratch programming language gives students a playground to figure out how computers use logic, with many exercises involving solving puzzles and mazes with code. However, I also know that watching a character move on screen isn’t as exciting to kids as watching a real-life toy move through the house. Plus, a sprite bumping into a virtual wall isn’t nearly as funny as watching a toy crash into something or roll off a kitchen table.
A cool look at the indi’s insides, and hopefully not what you’ll see after it takes a fall.Image: Sphero
The indi is currently available for pre-order, with Sphero estimating that shipping will start in September. An individual student kit, which includes the car, a case, 20 tiles, and 15 challenge cards, costs $125, while a class set that includes materials for eight students and includes a bulk charging case costs $1,200.
Robotic toys for educational purposes are nothing new: the Cozmo robot, formerly made by Anki, and now being iterated on by Digital Dream Labs, used a Scratch-based programming language to put kids in control of a little tractor-like robot, Lego has its Boost and Mindstorms robot kits, and Fisher-Price has a somewhat terrifying Code-a-pillar which has kids add and remove segments from a bug to give it instructions. Sphero itself even has its Mini robot, which has more play-style options, at just $50.
However, like most of the other toys, the Sphero Mini (and its bigger brother the Bolt) requires the use of a tablet, phone, or computer, which the indi doesn’t. For parents looking to get their kids away from the iPad for a bit, the indi could be a way to do that, while still giving them a learning experience.
Google is one of the major companies behind the upcoming interconnected cross-platform smart home standard Matter, and today, the company has explained how it’ll work to support Matter with its Android devices and Nest smart home products.
To start, the company is promising that all of its Nest displays and speakers will be updated to enable them to control Matter devices. That means once the update arrives (Google isn’t giving a timeframe yet), you’ll be able to use Google Assistant to control any Matter device, whether it was previously part of Google’s smart home platform or not.
Additionally, newer Google smart home products with Thread built in, like the Nest Wi-Fi, Nest Hub Max, and second-gen Nest Hub, will also serve as Matter connection hubs. That will make it easier to set up and use Matter-branded smart home products throughout your home.
And in what might be the biggest piece of news: Google is promising that it’ll update the latest Nest Thermostat to support Matter, meaning users will be able to — in theory — control their A/C and heat setups with other Matter-certified platforms (like Siri or Alexa, pending Apple and Amazon’s own updates). Disappointingly, Google is only making that promise for the entry-level Nest Thermostat, not the more powerful Nest Learning Thermostat (at least for now).
Google’s support for Matter is also coming to Android phones. The company promises that it’ll add built-in support for Matter, making it easy to set up and control Matter-enabled smart home gadgets through Android apps, Google Assistant, the Google Home app, and more with “just a few taps.”
As part of that support, Thread-enabled Matter devices — like Nanoleaf’s Essentials Bulb — will be supported on Android, which could open up a wave of new smart home devices based on the local connectivity standard to Google (and other smart home platforms). Right now, there are still products like Eve’s HomeKit-exclusive lineup that rely on Thread but can’t be used with Android devices at all. Matter could potentially change that.
If everything works as well as promised (again, there’s plenty of software updates and agreements that will still have to be followed through), Matter could be the magical solution for smart home owners: a set of devices that is easy to set up and use with any (or all) smart home software setups.
In addition to Matter details, Google is also announcing a new Google smart home directory, which will include a list of Assistant-compatible products, Q&As, educational videos, and reviews. Lastly, the company also announced that it will add Nest cameras to its automated routines, allowing owners to automatically toggle on (or off) their cameras when they’re coming and going.
The antitrust case between Apple and Epic continued today, and it brought Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, to the stand. Federighi’s mission was pretty clear from the outset: to extol the security benefits that come with iOS’s walled-off ecosystem and warn of the dangers that would come with breaking the App Store model.
But in building that argument, Federighi also made some surprisingly blunt concessions about security on macOS.
“If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value, it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac,” Federighi said in the testimony. “And as I say, today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable and is much worse than iOS.”
Federighi made the claim as part of a broader argument for why iOS could not adopt the same software model as macOS, which allows for alternate software sources like the Epic Games Store. But in making the case for iOS security, the software chief ended up painting a bleak picture of security on the desktop platform. The full exchange is presented in context below:
Judge Rogers: There are multiple stores on the Mac. So, if that can happen on the Mac, why should we not allow the same stores to exist on the phone?
Craig Federighi: Yeah, it’s certainly how we’ve done it on the Mac and it’s regularly exploited on the Mac. iOS has established a dramatically higher bar for customer protection. The Mac is not meeting that bar today. And that’s despite the fact that Mac users inherently download less software and are subject to a way less economically motivated attacker base. If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value, it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac. And as I say, today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don’t find acceptable and is much worse than iOS. Put that same situation in place for iOS and it would be a very bad situation for our customers.
Federighi also cast the difference between the two platforms in unusual terms, describing the desktop platform as something akin to a car. “If operated correctly, much like that car, if you know how to operate a car and obey the rules of the road and are very cautious, yes,” he said when asked directly whether macOS is safe. “If not, I’ve had a couple of family members who have gotten some malware on their Macs.” macOS allows software to be downloaded and installed from the web, but Apple advises customers that restricting this functionality to the App Store is “the most secure setting.”
In contrast, Federighi presented iOS as a child-safe version of the less restricted macOS. “With iOS, we were able to create something where children — heck, even infants — are able to operate an iOS device and be safe in doing so. It’s really a different product,” Federighi said.
Federighi’s testimony comes in the final days of the trial, with much of the remaining time devoted to testimony from Apple executives. CEO Tim Cook is expected to take the stand on Friday, with closing statements from both sides given on Monday.
Eufy has put out a statement apologizing for a glitch that occurred two days ago, allowing some Eufy home security camera users to see video from other users’ homes. The statement explains that it happened during a software update, but the company claims it only affected a small number of users: just 712 people across the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina. Eufy says that the issue was fixed with an emergency update less than two hours after it was identified.
In a statement to The Verge, Eufy confirmed that “users were able to access video feeds from other users’ cameras.” However, in its official statement posted to Twitter (which can be viewed in full below), Eufy doesn’t explain what the bug actually was. It does say it’s working to keep this from happening again in the future, by upgrading its network and the authentication mechanisms between the cameras, servers, and app.
The initial reports of the bug came from Reddit, with users reporting that they were able to see and control the live feeds from all the Eufy cameras in someone else’s home, as well as see any previously recorded footage and the other user’s email address.
Eufy suggests that that users in the affected countries (listed above) should unplug then replug their security home base, then log out of the Eufy security app before logging back in.
The full statement is below:
During a software update performed on our server in the United States on May 17th at 4:50 AM EDT, a bug occurred affecting a limited number of users in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina. Users in Europe and other regions remain unaffected. Our engineering team identified the issue at 5:30 AM EDT and immediately rolled back the server version and deployed an emergency update. The incident was fixed at 6:30 AM EDT. We have confirmed that a total of 712 users were affected in this case.
Although the issue has been resolved, we recommend users in the affected countries (US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and Cuba) to:
– Please unplug and then reconnect the eufy security home base.
– Log out of the eufy security app and log in again.
All of our user video data is stored locally on the users’ devices. As a service provider, eufy provides account management, device management, and remote P2P access for users through AWS servers. All stored data and account information is encrypted.
In order to avoid this happening in the future, we are taking the following steps:
– We are upgrading our network architecture and strengthening our two-way authentication mechanism between the servers, devices, and the eufy Security app.
– We are upgrading our servers to improve their processing capacity in order to eliminate potential risks.
– We are also in the process of obtaining the TUV and BSI Privacy Information Management System (PIMS) certifications which will further improve our product security.
We understand that we need to build trust again with our customers. Thank you for trusting us with your security and our team is available 24/7 at support@eufylife.com and Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM (PT) through our online chat on eufylife.com.
Yesterday brought the momentous news that Google and Samsung will merge together their Wear OS and Tizen-based smartwatch platforms into a single operating system. The new software is currently being referred to as Wear, but that name could change as we get closer to the first devices that will ship with it.
The unified platform is intended to give Android smartwatches a huge boost and much simpler strategy. It will also allow developers to create apps and widgets for a single OS instead of splitting their efforts between Wear OS and Tizen. A lot of this is spelled out in more detail in the below video, but let’s also focus on the big highlights.
It’s going to be faster than Wear OS
Speed and responsiveness were one of the major talking points when Google and Samsung made this announcement during the I/O 2021 keynote. The companies are claiming that apps open up to 30 percent faster than they currently do on Wear OS. Google also promises “smooth user interface animations and motion,” which hasn’t always been a strength of Wear OS.
Battery life will be a step up, too
Samsung’s smartwatches were already routinely outlasting Wear OS products, so this doesn’t come as a surprise. The company is lending Google some hardware expertise to ensure better stamina. “Samsung implemented our best technology to provide optimized performances, and advanced sensor batching and low power display technology to ensure an efficient and long-lasting battery,” Samsung’sJanghyun Yoon wrote after Tuesday’s news. Google’s Bjorn Kilburn said customers can expect “handy optimizations like the ability to run the heart rate sensor continuously during the day, track your sleep overnight and still have battery for the next day.”
The next Samsung Galaxy Watch will run Wear
Samsung has confirmed that its next smartwatch — and all others in the pipeline — will run the unified Wear platform. But the company made sure to note that it will bring over some of its popular hardware elements, like the rotating bezel mechanism.
A standalone Google Maps app will do turn-by-turn directions
In a report from Wired, we learned that there are plans for a Google Maps app on Wear that features “a new user interface that will also work even if your phone is not with you.” That hints at cellular data support on the new unified platform.
Spotify and YouTube Music apps will support offline downloads
Spotify already allows owners of Samsung smartwatches to download songs for offline listening, and now that same convenience will be extended to Wear. That’s one thing Spotify for the Apple Watch still doesn’t do.
Google also confirmed that YouTube Music will be available on Wear. Like Spotify, it’ll include full support for offline listening.
Fitbit activity tracking will be built into the platform
Having completed its acquisition of Fitbit at the start of this year, Google will now integrate some of the brand’s health and activity tracking features into Wear. Future premium Fitbit wearables will also run the unified platform.
Device makers will be able to customize the look and feel
Google tried to emphasize on Tuesday that this platform isn’t just intended for itself and Samsung. “All device makers will be able to add a customized user experience on top of the platform,” Kilburn said. That’s going to prove important if Google wants to keep companies like Garmin on board with the new platform. And we can’t forget about the many traditional watchmakers — Fossil, Citizen, TAG Heuer, and others — that have gotten behind Wear OS in recent years in the absence of a flagship smartwatch from Google.
Apps should be faster and easier to develop with new APIs
Wear’s apps will use the latest Android development techniques like Jetpack and Kotlin to help reach the best possible performance. Google is also promising to make life easier for app makers with new APIs that cover Tiles, health services, watchfaces, complications, and more. And an activity indicator will show when certain functions are running in the background.
Some Wear OS smartwatches might get upgraded to Wear
There aren’t any firm promises yet, but Google at least didn’t outright say existing products won’t be updated to the new OS. The company told 9to5Google, “we will have more updates to share on timelines once the new version launches later this year.”
Samsung will not update Galaxy Watch models to Wear
Samsung will not be updating its Galaxy Watch line to Wear, but says it has no intention of leaving its current customers in the dust once it starts releasing Wear hardware. “For customers who already own the Tizen OS based Galaxy smartwatches, we are continuing to provide at least three years of software support after the product launch,” the company said Tuesday. However, it seems plausible there will be more than a few features and new Wear tricks that will never make their way to older Galaxy smartwatches.
Samsung will bring over its watchface designer tool
Some people out there really care about having a good watchface selection on a pricey smartwatch. Google and Samsung are promising a wide mix of styles, and Samsung told Wired its design tool — and many of the company’s own signature watchfaces — will be available on Wear.
The unknowns
Google and Samsung shared a decent chunk of information on day one, but we’re still left without answers to a few important questions. We should learn more details over the summer as we head into fall hardware season.
When will the first Wear smartwatch be available?
Is the underlying operating system closer to Wear OS or closer to Tizen? (Considering that developers will be using Android tools to build apps, it seems like the former.)
Will there be required helper apps like some of Samsung’s watches have needed?
Is Wear going to continue offering some semblance of iOS support?
What’s going to happen to Samsung Pay and Bixby? Are they both goners on the wrist?
The Epos H3 gaming headset thumps out crystal-clear, bassy audio with excellent range. However, the microphone makes an annoying, persistent hissing noise.
For
+ Lightweight
+ Excellent audio reproduction and thump
+ Soft earcups
Against
– Not a lot of features for the price
– No software
Editor’s Note: This review was originally published on April 20, 2021 and was updated on May 19, 2021. We retested the microphone after learning it was originally tested with a faulty 3.5mm jack.
The Epos H3 is a solid choice for those seeking the best gaming headset for their rig. They’re also cross-platform compatible with Mac, PlayStation 5 (PS5), PS4, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, allowing you to have one pair of headphones for all your gaming needs.
Combining comfort with affectionately loud drivers boasting thunderous bass and crystal-clear audio worthy of praise, it’s money well spent at $119. The H3 also features passive noise canceling, raising the bar another level; although, you may still wish for a better microphone and roomier fit.
A quick glance at the H3’s specs sheet, and you might suspect that these are bulky, heavy cans. At 1.4 pounds, they’re weightier than many other wired gaming headsets, such as the MSI Immerse GH61 (0.6 pounds) and Roccat Elo X (0.7 pounds). However, Epos managed to distribute the weight and minimize pressure in such a way that the H3 actually feels lightweight. This is partially due to the memory foam and soft leatherette included on the headband and ears for comfort that cradles the head and ears without being overbearingly cushy. The unit is so lightweight that my only concern was them getting hot, like many other over-the-ear units using leatherette that I have reviewed, but, thankfully, I was able to wear them for over 2 hours at a time without ever even getting warm.
The H3’s earcups connect to the steel headband via a dual-axis hinge and are also designed to mold to the shape of human ears. But because I’m a huge person with an obnoxiously large head and substantial, malformed ears, I initially had issues getting the H3 to sound as expected. Here, I learned of the sturdiness of the steel headband. Adjustments were easy, and I was able to get the H3 so I could listen to The Best of Johann Sebastion Bach in pure comfort.
The Epos H3’s are stylishly elegant in Onyx Black as tested but are also available in Ghost White. Each ear cup holds an Epos logo, and the right ear cup has a built-in volume control knob that is responsive and with smooth controls easily activated by my thumb. On the left ear cup is the 3.5mm audio connection jack. The microphone is also on the left ear cup and pulls down nicely into place with a solid click to let you know it’s in place and ready to go. Lifting it back up conveniently mutes the microphone, so there are no embarrassments.
Overall, with its lightweight, but quality, plastics, and steel headband, the H3 is sleek and sturdy with the feel of a much more expensive gaming headset. They also lack the sometimes gaudy RGB lighting of other gaming headsets, which is great for when you simply want to game and not also put on a light show. The plastic keeps the headset trim at 0.6 pounds overall which adds to the comfort level I mentioned previously.
Audio Performance
Epos H3 uses closed drivers that deliver satisfactory audio as soon as you plug them in, which is good news since there’s no software available with the H3. The H3 gaming headset is truly plug-and-play, coming with a 3.5mm audio cable and a 3.5mm splitter cable, should your device require a separate mic input to record audio.
I fired up Borderlands 2, and as I was following the annoying robot Claptrap around, I could discern when one of the crazy characters tried to slide up on my right and start beating on me. I side-stepped and shot him dead with my weapons, and the gunshots were wonderfully reproduced and sounded realistic. When I threw a grenade at a couple of post-apocalyptic-looking gents, the explosions were rich, full, and crisp, making for a thoroughly enjoyable battle.
While playing Batman: Arkham Knight, I could easily trace the sounds of fire shots as they petered out into the distance. They sounded just as realistic as the gunshots I heard while playing Borderlands 2. The bone-crunching sound of Batman’s punches landing on the jaws of enemies I vanquished were exquisitely reproduced in my ear. When using the jet turbine in the Batmobile to launch from one roof to another, the thunderous roar was gratifying and clear with zero distortion.
Overall, gaming with the H3 ensured I could hear moving footsteps coming from different directions, or gunfire in the distance, and I didn’t find myself missing virtual surround sound or the ability to tweak audio performance with a dedicated app. These cans are lovingly loud, so it’s a good thing the H3’s volume knob is so responsive and easy to find with a blind thumb.
To test out the cans’ music prowess I turned to Busta Rhymes’ “Dangerous”. As soon as the baseline started pumping, I was thrilled, as the H3’s delivered the bombastic bassline with lust and passion few can compete with. At a typical listening volume, I heard sweetly produced highs and mid-range tones. And when I pumped the volume to the max, they delivered the same thump and clarity.
Microphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I originally published this review reporting an audible hiss with the headset’s microphone, but since then I’ve learned that this was caused by a faulty 3.5mm jack in my PC. With that issue remedied, I retested the microphone, and the hissing issue disappeared. Now, the bidirectional mic is able to catch the full range of my deep throaty voice. In recordings I could hear my voice’s natural depth and timbre beautifully and without any distracting background noise, thanks to the mic’s effective noise-cancelling.
Note that the H3 doesn’t have its own software, so microphone performance adjustments aren’t readily available. However, I didn’t miss it too much because my recordings were still very clear and of premium quality worthy of some podcasting.
Epos specs the H3’s mic as covering a frequency range of 10-18,000 Hz.
Features and Software
Although Epos does have a gaming software suite, the H3 does not work with it. But the audio quality is so good, I did not miss having software assistance.
One of my favorite features of the Epos H’3 is the responsive audio knob that is built-in to the right ear cup. It makes adjusting the volume quick and easy. Also, you will need to adjust the volume as these cans can get very loud, which I love.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
At $119, the Epos H3’s audio quality is equal to its price tag; however some may find it steep when you compare it to units that come with gaming-ready features, like RGB lighting, software for tweaking and the option for virtual surround sound. If you’re someone who doesn’t need many extras, the H3 also earns its price with strong build quality and comfort, (especially for those with smaller heads, who won’t have to fuss with adjustments).
The downside comes from the microphone, which records really clear audio but also adds a hissing noise that I couldn’t eradicate no matter what adjustments I tried or software I used. Overall the mic performance is solid but not the best in its class and certainly not a replacement for the best USB gaming microphones.
But if you’re interested in a gaming headset that sounds amazing right out of the box and can put up with the ok microphone, these are for you.
Microsoft is finally retiring Internet Explorer next year, after more than 25 years. The aging web browser has largely been unused by most consumers for years, but Microsoft is putting the final nail in the Internet Explorer coffin on June 15th, 2022, by retiring it in favor of Microsoft Edge.
“We are announcing that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge,” says Sean Lyndersay, a Microsoft Edge program manager. “The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10.”
While the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) of Windows 10 will still include Internet Explorer next year, all consumer versions will end support of the browser. Microsoft doesn’t make it clear (and we’re checking), but it’s likely that we’ll finally see the end of Internet Explorer being bundled in Windows either in June 2022 or soon after.
Internet Explorer originally launched in 1995.Photo: Fairfax Media via Getty Images
The alternative for most businesses will be Microsoft Edge with IE mode. Microsoft created its IE mode for Edge a couple of years ago, and it has allowed businesses to adopt the new Chromium-based browser for older legacy websites. IE mode supports older ActiveX controls and legacy sites, which are surprisingly still used by many businesses. Microsoft is promising to support this IE mode in Edge until through at least 2029.
The end of Internet Explorer has been a long time coming. Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer 11 for the Microsoft Teams web app last year, and it’s planning to cut it off from accessing Microsoft 365 services later this year. Internet Explorer 11 will no longer be supported for Microsoft’s online services like Office 365, OneDrive, Outlook, and more on August 17th.
Microsoft has also been trying to stop people from using Internet Explorer for more than five years. Microsoft Edge first appeared in 2015, and it kicked off the end of the Internet Explorer brand. Microsoft has since labeled Internet Explorer a “compatibility solution” rather than a browser and encouraged businesses to stop using the aging browser in favor of Edge and its IE mode.
When Tidal began offering hi-res audio streaming in 2017, becoming only the second streaming service to do so after Qobuz broke that ground the year before, we didn’t expect hi-res streaming to be a two-player game for quite so long.
Now though, not only have their rivals caught up but they are attempting to leapfrog the established players. And this could change the game significantly.
Higher audio quality, lower subscription prices
Apple Music has just embraced hi-res streaming with open arms – and isn’t asking people to pay a penny more for it. Its all-encompassing individual subscription plan is sticking at £10 ($10, AU$12) per month, significantly cheaper than the monthly hi-res tiers from Tidal (£20, $20, AU$24) and Qobuz (£15, $15, AU$25).
In response to Apple, Amazon has now bundled its Music HD hi-res tier, which arrived in 2019, into its standard plans rather than asking a £5 ($5) premium. That means the monthly subscription has dropped from £13 ($13) to £8 ($8) for Prime customers, and from £15 ($15) to £10 ($10) for everyone else.
Meanwhile, Deezer offers CD-quality for £15 ($15, AU$20) per month, and Spotify plans to begin offering CD-quality – no mention of hi-res so far – later this year for a fee expected to be equal to or perhaps even higher than its current £10 ($10, AU$12) per month asking price.
Maybe Apple’s bold move means that Spotify won’t ask a premium price or shun hi-res audio for its imminent Spotify HiFi tier. Realistically, Spotify’s popularity and class-leading usability mean it can probably afford not to match or undercut its rivals and still remain competitive. Even ‘only’ CD quality may be enough to keep its loyal subscribers onboard.
The wider adoption of hi-res audio streaming by big players such as Apple and Amazon has brought better sound quality into the mainstream. The fact you can have unlimited access to it for as little as £8 ($8) per month is great news for those who care for sound quality.
With Apple offering hi-res at no extra charge, and Amazon readjusting its offering accordingly, the streaming service competition has reached a crossroads, with all ways potentially pointing to tier simplicity and affordability.
Do USPs justify premium prices?
So how will the competition justify charging extra – in Tidal’s case, double? Perhaps rivals will now have to reconsider their current monthly fees, and if they don’t, hope that their unique selling points are enough.
Tidal, for example, uses MQA to power its hi-res audio streams. It’s a technology that arrived as a handy enabler for hi-res streaming back when; a method of efficiently packaging and transporting high-resolution (and therefore large) files without lossy compression.
Now that Amazon and Apple have used other methods to do this (Amazon doesn’t disclose specifics, while Apple uses its ALAC format), MQA isn’t quite as fundamental to hi-res streaming as it once seemed. However, as it is now licensed to many hi-fi brands, MQA-powered Tidal Masters tracks can be played through an increasing amount of audio hardware, via app support or Tidal Connect. If you own a compatible device that doesn’t play ball with Amazon Music HD or Apple Music, you may well be swayed to stick with Tidal.
Naturally, device support will play a part in people’s subscription decisions. While desktop and mobile apps are par for the course as far as lossless support is concerned, some services also have their own quirks. For example, Qobuz has recently become the first to bring 24-bit hi-res streaming to Sonos speakers, and its vast hi-res catalogue is also accessible via the widely supported Chromecast (which supports transmission up to 24-bit/96kHz).
Apple Music is only an attractive proposition for owners of Apple devices – and even then, its hi-res implementation isn’t without its frustrations. We wonder whether Apple Music’s hi-res streaming will be supported by AirPlay 2 (or 3!) in the future to open up the device ecosystem, or even by some new Apple-developed Bluetooth codec for inter-Apple device wireless transmission.
You can bet that Spotify HiFi will have almost universal support upon, or soon after, launch, too.
Tidal also has a burgeoning catalogue of immersive 3D tracks, thanks to its support for Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Reality Audio. That said, Amazon Music HD also supports these two formats, Deezer supports the latter, and Apple will have its Dolby Atmos-powered Spatial Audio catalogue. Who knows whether Spotify has any immersive audio plans up its sleeve for its HiFi tier?
Qobuz is the audiophile’s choice for its hi-res catalogue, as well as the fact its most premium tier (Sublime) also includes discounts on hi-res downloads. But it has a comparatively limited catalogue and has long been a more niche option compared to its rivals.
Over to you, Spotify et al
Right now, Apple Music appears to offer the best-value hi-res streaming proposition for iOS users, while Amazon Music HD does that for everyone else, especially Prime members. It’s the service we’d pick right now for mobile and desktop listening.
Spotify could, of course, outdo all of them with an excellent value, hi-res HiFi tier, but even if it doesn’t, the likes of Tidal, Deezer and Qobuz are still being significantly undercut by their competition.
So will the latest moves by the streaming giants be nails in their coffins or a necessary force for change? We very much hope it’s the latter.
MORE:
Our pick of the best music streaming services
The lowdown on Spotify HiFi: quality, price, release date, and latest news
10 of the best hi-res albums on Tidal Masters
Apple Music lossless: which devices will (and won’t) play lossless, Spatial Audio
Most people in the United States don’t want their digital data used to control the spread of COVID-19, a new study found. More than half of the people in the study remained wary of sharing their data in different scenarios, including a smart thermometer company sharing information with public health officials, or using the Google and Apple exposure notification app to track infections.
“I was surprised a bit about the degree of skepticism when the potential benefits are so high,” says study author David Grande, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Grande and his team collected survey responses from 3,547 US adults during July 2020 about their attitudes toward the use of digital information to respond to the pandemic.
The survey asked whether or not they approved of using aggregated data pulled from social media to set health policies or contact people for COVID-19 testing. It asked whether they were okay withdata from smart thermometers being used for either health policies or contact tracing. It asked about three versions of the Google and Apple exposure notification app: one where using the app and any data sharing with health officials is optional; a second where using the app is optional but it automatically shares data with health officials; and a third where the app is mandatory. Finally, it asked whether people approved of the use of cellphone data to enforce quarantine and identify people at high risk for COVID-19.
The lowest support was for monitoring social media to set health policies — only 28 percent of people approved or strongly approved of that scenario. The highest level of support was for a version of the Google and Apple exposure notification app where use was optional but information was shared with health officials, of which 43 percent of people approved or strongly approved.
Grande thinks people may be more interested in the exposure notification app than official use of social media data because they get a more direct benefit, even though it’s a more invasive tool. “Some of the other uses, people may think, ‘I’m contributing my data for the common good but how is it going to protect me as an individual?’” he says. A tool that was developed to tell people if they’ve been exposed to a virus may seem worth the trade-offs around privacy.
Still, that program only had explicit support from less than half of the people surveyed, even though the survey went out just as the country was coming out of the first wave of COVID-19 and lockdowns. “Everyone was facing massive disruption in their lives,” Grande says. “I thought that people would be more accepting.”
Having personal experience with COVID-19, like a family member getting the disease, didn’t impact people’s approval of these tools, the study found. Neither did living in an area with high rates of COVID-19. People who were politically conservative, though, were less likely to support the use of digital data to manage COVID-19 than people who were liberal.
In general, people tend to be worried when they start hearing about the collection and use of health data, Grande says. Their personal digital data might already be collected by companies and used for things like advertising, but it might not be as apparent — and they’re not asked direct questions about it. People also don’t realize that virtually all of the data collected by companies can be analyzed to infer things about health, like their mood or behavior.
“I suspect that if we ask people direct questions about many commercial uses of their data that are currently taking place, we would see much greater resistance to those,” Grande says. “It’s just that many of those other uses aren’t so visible to consumers.”
The results of the study show that if they want people to use digital tools, public health officials will have to underscore the privacy protections that they have in place, and point out the direct benefits for users. A large chunk of people who responded to the survey said that they neither agreed nor disagreed with the use of data in the various scenarios — a sign that they could be persuaded. If most of that group backed something like the exposure notification app, officials would have close to two-thirds of people in support, Grande says.
“Through effective policies and communication, I think we can convince people that — assuming that protections are in place — these are a good idea,” he says.
Haptic feedback on Android phones is usually terrible, at least compared to devices that have Apple’s Taptic Engine. You know it, I know it, and a haptics company called Lofelt apparently knows it, too. Today, though, Lofelt, in partnership with Qualcomm, announced that it’s making its VTX haptic framework available to OEMs, with the hope that these manufacturers will start putting better haptics into more Android devices.
The framework will allow OEMs to utilize high-definition haptic vibration on phones running the latest Snapdragon 8-series and 7-series without any hardware tweaks. The system is “tightly integrated with Snapdragon and fully validated by Qualcomm,” according to Lofelt. While the framework is technically compatible with older phones that have a Snapdragon 7-series and 8-series chipset, it’s at the discretion of each OEM whether to add support. It seems more likely that companies will make the big effort to implement improved haptics in upcoming phones than adding it to older models. As for which newer models will feature the framework, none have been announced yet.
Ahead of this announcement, I got to actually feel the difference myself that Lofelt’s improved haptics can make on a phone through software tweaks only. The company sent over a custom Google Pixel 4 packed with demos that show off how its vibrations feel compared to the stock Android implementation (the same setup can’t be duplicated on other devices). Compared to phones designed to take full advantage of Lofelt VTX’s integration with the chipset, this Pixel 4 was running the haptics tricks through the application layer as a proof of concept.
Lofelt’s app let me feel the difference between stock Android vibrations and the company’s own — and the difference was noticeable.
Each of the demos featured a toggle that lets you switch between the stock Android vibration and Lofelt’s refined haptics, as shown in the bottom right of the picture above. One instance ran through a few scenarios in Call of Duty: Mobile. The vibrations varied in strength and duration depending on the kind of gun being shot, and I was able to feel distinct pulsations of a helicopter soaring through the sky. A demo for Asphalt 9: Legends let me feel the roar of an engine through haptics, as well as the fast, crunchy pulsing of the vibration motor when the car ran over a dirt median. Even though the Pixel 4 and earlier models don’t natively support VTX, these demos were far more expressive than standard Android phone vibrations. If you’re someone who takes mobile gaming seriously, to the point of owning something like a Razer Kishi controller, haptics could make your favorite games feel more immersive.
The big challenge for Lofelt isn’t in proving that these sorts of immersive haptic experiences are worth building (give the Lofelt Studio app for iOS a try if you need convincing yourself). The real work is ensuring that as many phones as possible can eventually get them, and that it won’t take too much effort for developers. That’s where Lofelt’s AX (adaptive experience) signal processing tech built into VTX comes into play.
According to Lofelt, AX converts a universal haptic signal into vibrations that play to the strengths of each individual phone, taking into consideration its haptics driver, actuator hardware, and control algorithms from the manufacturer. The goal is for Android devices to catch up to Apple’s excellent Taptic Engine that’s in modern iPhones.
Older phones with the Snapdragon 7-series and 8-series can be updated as OEMs see fit, but you’ll likely find better haptics in new phones.Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
App and game developers can design advanced haptics using Lofelt Studio, which integrates with Unity, Unreal, and Xcode, and create a universal .haptic file that works across multiple devices. According to Lofelt, these files contain “universal parameters, such as whether the haptics should include smooth, continuous signals or more punchy, dynamic events.” In other words, you’ll only need to build it once, then the framework can deliver a consistent experience across different phones.
Existing games and apps running on supported Snapdragon hardware won’t be left in the dust. Lofelt claims that framework will also be able to convert the audio stream coming from an app into vibrations in real time without any hardware or coding modifications. So, you won’t necessarily need to wait for every developer to create bespoke haptics in order to start feeling some tactile enhancements with apps you already know and love.
Lofelt says that its VTX framework comes with no performance trade-offs, and that it aims to deliver better haptics “while minimizing the impact on battery and actuator.” That sounds great, and the demo I tried feels ready for deployment. But now, the wait begins for some phone manufacturers to kickstart what could be a big, positive change for Android.
Spotify is entering the virtual concert business, just as in-person concerts are becoming more of a possibility. The company announced today that people can now buy tickets to five different concert streams, which will air throughout May and June. Initial artists include The Black Keys, Jack Antonoff of Bleachers, and Leon Bridges. The streams all are prerecorded but can only be viewed at a given time through the web browser. The shows aren’t available on demand, and they aren’t accessible through the Spotify app.
Tickets cost $15, and viewers must have a Spotify account to watch the show. (Viewers can set up a free Spotify account during the ticket-buying process if they don’t already have one.) You can check out the FAQ page for more details, but notably, tickets are tied to individual users’ accounts, so they’re non-transferable, and if you end up missing the show, you can’t get a refund. (Spotify says each artist’s recording will air at four different times to account for the world’s various timezones, so buyers have to select their preferred time.)
Spotify previously participated in the concert ecosystem by allowing artists to list shows through its app and link out to ones from specific partners, like Eventbrite. In 2017, the company said it generated more than $40 million in ticket sales through its Fans First program, which gives fans extra perks, like early access to tickets. It also hosted its own in-person events tied to its playlist branding, including Rap Caviar and Viva Latino.
During the pandemic, the company started listing virtual concerts, too. Fifteen dollars for these prerecorded concerts feels a bit steep, especially because it isn’t much different than live sets you can likely find from late-night shows or other specials for free on YouTube or Instagram Live, but it seems like Spotify is trying to find a new revenue stream and way to keep fans engaged during a time when most have been disconnected from the idea of live music. It’s unclear if the company intends to keep up the virtual concert series. For now, these five shows are all the commitment we’ve seen.
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How much do you care about having a great screen?
That, really, is the only question that matters with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It has a new kind of display so good I think it is the best thing for watching movies that isn’t a high-end television. It starts at $1,099 for a 128GB version, but increased storage and accessories like a keyboard or the Apple Pencil can shoot the price up fairly quickly.
Both the 12.9 and the smaller 11-inch iPad Pro (which starts at $799) feature Apple’s M1 processor and some other updated specs, all of which are excellent. But even that fancy processor — the same as you’ll find in the new iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini — doesn’t fundamentally change the story of what the iPad Pro is and what it can do.
It is an iPad, after all.
But the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro is an iPad with a very beautiful display. And so again, the question is what that screen means to the experience of using an iPad, especially since the price has jumped $100 compared to the last model. How much do you care about having a great screen?
Here is a very brief, wildly incomplete, and necessarily oversimplified education on flat panel screen technology. (Chris Welch has a longer one.)
There are two basic types you usually see, LCD and OLED. Both have pixels that combine red, green, and blue subpixels to create colors, but in order for you to actually see those colors the display pixels need to be lit up. OLED pixels are self-lit; LCD panels light up the display pixels by putting one, several, or many LED backlights behind them.
The benefit of LCD panels with LED backlighting is that they’re relatively inexpensive, long-lasting, bright, and unlikely to burn in. The benefit of OLED is that the black pixels are not lit at all, meaning you get superb contrast, but they are relatively expensive and don’t get as bright. Each technology’s strength is the other’s weakness.
Mini LED, the technology powering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro display, is designed to bring the LCD panel as close as possible to OLED’s contrast and black levels. Its display pixels are not self-lit, but instead lit from behind. The trick is that they’re lit by 10,000 tiny LED lights split up by software into 2,500 local dimming zones. It’s almost like the backlight itself is a lower-resolution screen behind the screen, tracking the image and making sure the black parts of the picture aren’t lit up.
I would never call the display on the 11-inch iPad Pro bad, because it’s a stellar display. But because it uses a more traditional LCD backlight system with fewer dimming zones, you can see that the blacks are actually just a little gray. On the 12.9-inch version, Mini LED lets blacks be truly black, offers a high contrast ratio, and can also get very bright.
Apple is calling this screen the “Liquid Retina XDR display.” And it has all the benefits of Apple’s previous iPad Pro displays: it’s very high resolution, color-accurate, and it has fairly good viewing angles. It supports ProMotion, Apple’s term for a variable refresh rate to increase smoothness and match the frame rate of videos. (“Liquid Retina,” as far as Apple has ever told us, refers to the Apple-specific method of making round corners on an LCD.)
The funny thing about the 12.9-inch iPad is that it is very easy to miss the benefits of Mini LED in normal day-to-day use. At first you don’t see it.
Sure, there’s great contrast when you’re browsing the web, texting, playing games, and so on, but really it’s not very different from any other iPad. Apple still limits the max brightness in most scenarios to 600 nits, which is bright enough but not eye-popping (the iPad and iPad Air max out at 500 nits).
The magic kicks in when you are viewing videos or photos in full-screen. When you do that, the iPad Pro kicks into a different HDR mode (or in Apple’s parlance, XDR, for “Extreme Dynamic Range”) that really is stunning. The overall max brightness of the screen jumps up to a powerful 1,000 nits and peak brightness for certain lighting can hit 1,600 nits.
You don’t see it until you see it — but then you see it.
The iPad Pro with the Liquid Retina XDR displayPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
The joke I’ve been telling people is that the display is so good that Tenet actually makes sense when you watch it on this iPad Pro. HDR content is incredible on this screen. I am not a display quality enthusiast, but this screen is functionally equivalent to a high-end OLED TV to my eyes, especially in a dark room.
If you are also not a display quality enthusiast, you might be left unimpressed with descriptions of nits and contrast ratios. I get it, but there are intangibles to the screen that I struggle to describe and have struggled even harder to capture in photos and video. For example, some colors just look better and more accurate to me, especially textured yellows. It just does a better job showing fine detail in situations where dark and light elements get mixed together, like with hair or a building reflecting sunlight.
Both Kindle and Apple Books in dark mode, in a very dark room, have a weird gray halo around text not due to normal blooming (Photo edited to best replicate what I saw with my eyes)Dieter Bohn / The Verge
The display isn’t perfect, of course. If you run a local dimming test you will see blooming on brightly lit pixels against a black background. I only noticed this when running tests that are specifically designed to surface blooming, though. In regular use, everything looked great, sharp, and evenly lit across the entire screen.
There was one odd bug I experienced. Putting either the Kindle app or Apple Books into dark mode and viewing them in a near-pitch black room, I noticed a strange gray haze around all of the text blocks. It’s too big to be blooming; it’s more like the local dimming algorithms got a little confused. It’s a minor thing that I hope gets fixed.
For me, the quality of the display when watching video on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is impressive, but it’s also not at the top of my list of priorities when picking a computer. I care a little more about portability, weight, and — yes — functionality.
So let’s talk about that M1 chip.
The iPad Pro is great for video editingPhoto by Kayla Murkison / The Verge
What does it really mean that the iPad Pro now has the same chip that powers Apple’s latest Mac computers?
It does not mean that iPads will be able to run Mac apps now. While Apple is happy to let the Mac run iPad apps and generally let you do whatever you want on it (except touch the screen), the iPad Pro continues to be a more, shall we say, curated experience.
One interesting consequence of the M1 is that for the first time in the history of iOS devices, Apple is publicly disclosing how much RAM these devices have. It’s 8GB on models with 512GB or fewer of storage and 16GB on models with 1TB or more. Whether or not that’s actionable information is another matter.
The M1 is obviously fast, and in benchmarks it’s faster than the last A12Z Bionic that Apple put in the previous iPad Pro models. But in my usage, I didn’t actually perceive any speed improvements in any of the apps that I use — because everything was already very fast on the iPad Pro. I got the exact same export speeds in Premiere Rush on the brand new 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M1 as on my 2018 iPad Pro.
Both the RAM and the M1 processor are specs that won’t make an appreciable difference to the vast majority of iPad users. They’re specs that will matter to certain “pro” users who have found specific apps and workflows that push the limit of what an iPad can do.
Apple touts soon-to-be released capabilities in apps like LumaFusion and AR effects, and I have no doubt that there are benefits for power users of those apps. For the rest of us, the reasons to get an iPad Pro are less about speeds and feeds and more about the overall experience.
Another consequence of the M1 is that the USB-C port now supports Thunderbolt accessories. In theory, that’s great. I plugged my iPad into my very fancy CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt dock and was gratified to see my monitor light up right away. From there, though, I ran into the same old iPad problems.
I have a USB microphone interface hooked into the dock, and for whatever reason I was unable to get any audio out of it on the iPad, just silence. I also tested out some admittedly old LaCie Thunderbolt 2 drives with an adapter and couldn’t get them to show up in the Files app. Oh and just to remind you: the monitor still can only mirror the iPad Pro — it can’t serve as a second display.
Similarly, the dock has an audio-out so it shows up as a speaker. On the Mac, I can easily change settings to let my computer know to play audio out of its own speakers since I don’t have anything hooked up to the dock for sound. Nothing doing on the iPad Pro — if there’s a setting that would let me move the audio back to the iPad’s own excellent speakers, I couldn’t find it. (Long pressing on the AirPlay icon in Control Center only listed the dock as an option.)
Seemingly every new iPad Pro inspires an admittedly exhausting but also necessary discussion about whether or not iPadOS is actually capable enough to justify the price of the hardware that runs it.
The M1 processor sharpens that discussion. To me, the biggest difference between the Mac and the iPad at this point isn’t the touchscreen, it’s Apple’s approach to the operating system. On the iPad, Apple would rather not offer a feature than have it work in a non-iPad way. That’s noble, but it means the company has committed itself to reinventing a lot of wheels in computing: files, peripheral support, multi-window interfaces, and all the rest have to be re-thought and re-done.
Sometimes that reinvention results in some genuinely great features. The iPad’s “windowing” system takes some getting used to and has its limitations, but it can be a joy to use and makes organizing your digital stuff a bit easier. The problem is that all that reinvention is taking a very long time — it’s been six years since the original iPad Pro.
Center Stage works very well to keep you in frame. And as a bonus, the camera doesn’t blank out when you multitask in Zoom calls anymore.GIF: Dieter Bohn
One new invention I love is the Center Stage feature. It zooms and follows human faces to keep them centered in the frame of the iPad’s wide-angle front facing camera. It works in any video conferencing app without the need for setup and it performs very well, better than similar features on smart displays like the Echo Show or Facebook Portal.
I’d love it even more if the front-facing cameras on the iPad Pro weren’t still in the wrong spot when attached to a keyboard — off to the side instead of centered on top. It’s great that the camera can keep my face centered in frame, it’s not so great that I am literally giving my coworkers the side-eye because I’m looking off to the right of where the cameras are to see their faces.
One more note: Apple has said that the original 12.9-inch Magic Keyboard “may not precisely fit when closed” as the new iPad Pro is slightly thicker. But when I tested it, I couldn’t discern any difference between the fit on the original and the new, white Magic Keyboard. Both worked — and closed — fine.
In any case, set aside the “What’s a computer” argument and let’s be more pragmatic. A 256GB 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard costs $1,548. A 256GB MacBook Air with the same processor costs $999. And just to be realistic: most people can get more done on the Mac than on the iPad. Taken strictly as a work machine, the Mac wins out on both price and functionality.
That includes battery life, by the way. Both iPad Pros have good battery life, but it’s not significantly improved over previous iPads. And as many people have discovered during the pandemic, if you actually use the iPad for work all day (especially if you do a lot of Zoom calls), the iPad Pro can conk out in eight hours or less. The MacBook Air edges it out.
Last and certainly not least, Apple’s refusal to offer multi-user support on the iPad has gone from being mystifying to obstinate. The company clearly intends this to be a single-user device, despite the fact that it would theoretically make for an even more compelling family computer than the pastel-colored iMacs that share the same processor.
Typing on the iPad ProPhoto by Kayla Murkison / The Verge
But to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here, if you’re looking strictly at the iPad Pro as a work machine, you’re probably missing the point. The iPad Pro is simply a more beautiful, more premium object than even Apple’s own laptops.
It’s easy to take for granted, but the hardware in this tablet really is amazing: Face ID, dual rear cameras that are quite good and paired with LiDAR, quad speakers with superb sound and decent volume, excellent microphones, support for the Apple Pencil, the best screen you can get on a portable device, and on and on.
The reason to get the iPad Pro 12.9 (or even the 11) is simply to get the best, nicest iPad. Unless you can specifically answer right now which app in your workflow is slowed down by the specs on a lesser iPad, the $599 iPad Air or even the $329 base iPad offer the same core features that most people really use.
Except for a slim minority of people, the justification for getting an iPad Pro isn’t its feature set, it’s the experience of using a well-made, high-end object. Until I hit the limits of iPadOS (which I hit regularly), I enjoy using an iPad Pro more than I do any other computer.
The wonderful Mini LED display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro doesn’t change any of those equations, it just makes the nicest iPad Pro even nicer. And so my yearly refrain about the iPad Pro remains. If you want the very best iPad, this is the very best iPad.
(Pocket-lint) – A lot has happened in the world since the launch of the iPad Pro 12.9-inch in 2020, yet the need for us to work on the go is still an key factor for many people.
Apple’s 2021 iPad Pro looks to up the ante once again, bringing a new processor, a new screen, 5G connectivity, as well as improvements to the camera and elsewhere.
So, is this the year that the Apple iPad Pro will finally – yes finally – let you ditch the laptop altogether? We’ve been using the iPad Pro 2021 with M1 processor to find out.
Design gets heavier
Same design as 2020 model
Finishes: Silver or Space Grey
Dimensions: 281 x 215 x 6.4mm
Weight: 682g (Wi-Fi), 685g (5G)
Having launched previously with a much squarer design, which has since been adopted by the iPhone, the iPad Pro keeps an almost identical design to its previous offering.
For 2021 the 12.9-inch model is ever so slightly thicker than previous versions, thanks to new Mini LED screen technology, but it will still fit your previous cases (albeit snugly), including the Apple Magic Keyboard that launched in 2020.
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That extra thickness also means it’s a bit heavier, with around 40g extra. While that’s not hugely noticeable over the previous version, it does mean that the Pro is getting heavier and heavier – which is something to bear in mind.
To put it in perspective, though, the 2021 Pro is actually the same weight as the original iPad from way back in 2010. And while no one will begrudge that this iPad is considerably more powerful, it’s interesting that all that tech, and batteries to power it, means that the days of a thin-and-light iPad have come to an end – well, certainly at the top-end of this market.
Why’s that important? Because it is no longer a slip-in-your-bag-and-not-notice-it device any more. Add in the Magic Keyboard – which is another 710g – and you’ve got a device that’s 1.395kg. That’s roughly the same as the company’s M1 13-inch MacBook Pro or many other Windows-based laptops – indeed it’s actually not too difficult to find sub-1kg laptops.
Display gets brighter
12.9-inch ‘Liquid Retina XDR’ Mini LED display
2732 x 2048 resolution (264ppi)
1600-nit peak brightness
120Hz refresh rate
The 2021 iPad Pro gets an updated display technology – called Mini LED – which makes it considerably brighter than older models. It’s a relatively new panel technology that’s only just making its way into the latest TVs.
What is Mini LED? The display technology explained
In the case of this 12.9-inch model that means over 10,000 LEDs are positioned behind the screen to create, at times, a much brighter display that is also more nuanced to what is happening on the screen.
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The enhanced technology is instantly noticeable. The screen is physically brighter for starters, and has the ability to increase that brightness further depending on what is required. Previously the peak brightness was 600 nits, now that can go up to 1600 nits for those high dynamic range (HDR) moments.
While the average user will benefit from watching high-resolution content from their favourite streaming service – even the end credits of a movie look stunning – creatives will certainly enjoy the ability to see all that extra detail in their images or video, especially if they are working within the realms of HDR or Dolby Vision.
Combine that with the Pro’s usual array of screen tech – such as P3 wide colour gamut, ProMotion (120Hz refresh rate), and True Tone – and you won’t find much to complain about when it comes to the screen.
What is Apple’s True Tone display?
Front-facing camera gets more intelligent
Improved front-facing camera: 12-megapixel, 122-degree field of view
New ‘Center Stage’ technology (for subject tracking)
If you’re like us, you’ll have spent a lot of time in 2020 on video calls talking to colleagues, friends, and family. So for 2021, the iPad Pro celebrates video calling by adding a new front-facing TrueDepth Camera.
It’s unique to the iPad (at launch anyway – we suspect that will change in the future) and for the most part you won’t notice that it’s ultra-wide. That’s because of a new feature Apple has introduced specifically for the iPad Pro: Center Stage.
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No doubt inspired by devices like the Facebook Portal and Amazon Echo Show 10, the idea is that the front-facing camera can now follow you as you move about so you’re always “centre stage”.
By cropping into the captured image to deliver the same image crop iPad users are used to, nothing physically moves within the iPad itself. Instead Applehas opted to emulate that movement by digitally cropping in on the image as it follows you.
The feature, which works just as well in Apple FaceTime as it does in Zoom and other video calling apps, can be fun, but it can become jarring.
Anything with a head and shoulders is automatically picked up and the frame will resize to fit them in. Add more people and the feature zooms out to make sure everyone is in the frame. That’s fantastic for a family catch-ups with the kids trying to jostle around the iPad Pro screen, or for ensuring you’re fully in the shot.
The 122-degree viewpoint is wide enough to catch most of you, wide enough to track you around the room, and wide enough to still move if you’ve stepped some distance from the camera (we got to around 5 metres away).
Where things get tricky is if you move around when using it and the iPad Pro is stationary on the desk. Not because it doesn’t follow you, but because of the fluidity to the follow. You move and the camera slowly moves with you.
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The resulting affect is as if Apple has applied a Ken Burns effect to dramatise your video call. Or, as we found when being fairly close to the camera, it looks a bit like being on a boat and bobbing up and down with the tide. It can, at times, be very nauseating.
Best tablet 2021: Top tablets to buy today
By Britta O’Boyle
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However, go hands-free and the technology helps stabilise your movement – making it a much better experience as the tracking is kept to a minimum and less pronounced.
It’s probably why business calls from our desk garnered plenty of complaints, but family calls resulted in much more positive feedback with the grandparents in awe of the technology in action, and a chance to see everyone for the first time without us having to stand miles away from the screen.
Performance: Everything is faster
Apple M1 processor, 8GB/16GB RAM
Options for 128GB to 2TB storage
Apple Pencil support (2nd Gen)
LiDAR sensor on back
Thunderbolt / USB4
With every iteration the iPad Pro gets a faster processor, normally on par with the iPhone. This year, rather than trying to keep pace with the iPhone, the iPad keeps pace with the Mac.
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Because now you’ll find Apple’s new M1 processor instead of an upgraded iPhone processor powering the pro tablet. Yes, the same chip that powers the MacBook Air or iMac or MacBook Pro now powers the 2021 iPad Pro. We’ll let that sink in for a moment.
According to Apple that results in a 50 per cent boost in performance without compromising the battery – so you’ll still get around 10 hours per charge. Although, just like a Mac, the battery life widely varies in performance depending on what you do and how bright that screen is.
Also just like a Mac, there are now RAM options for the first time on the iPad Pro, all the way up to 16GB – although that option is restricted to the 1TB or 2TB storage options (you guessed it, that means pricey pricey), whereas it’s 8GB RAM for the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage capacities (and more reasonable price points).
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The M1 processing power means the iPad Pro whizzes along with any various tasks that you’ll throw at it, just in the same way we find apps on the M1 MacBook Pro perform.
Whether that’s photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, drawing in Procreate, or designing in Affinity Designer, we had no problem loading, importing, editing, or saving large files on any of the ‘pro’ apps we use.
Working with large sound and video files proved little stress to the new 2021 iPad Pro either, while power hungry games like Asphalt 9, Call of Duty, or NBA2K21 loaded almost instantly – and, yes, noticeably faster than on previous iPad Pro models.
And if the M1 isn’t enough to keep that workflow process happy, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch now also comes in a 5G flavour for those who want speedy connectivity on the go. An afternoon hot-spotting via an EE SIM proved just as productive as being on the Wi-Fi in the home office.
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Elsewhere there’s an improved Thunderbolt / USB4 port for transferring files to and from the device even faster – it’s up to 40Gbps, whereas previously it was USB-C and therefore 10Gbps.
You still get the dual camera and LiDAR sensor setup on the back for taking pictures, video, or playing with AR too. It’s the same 12-megapixel main and 10-megapixel wider-angle as on the previous generation.
iPadOS needs to offer more
Software: iPadOS 14.5
Given that the iPad Pro has the same technical power of a MacBook Air but running iPadOS, it can at times feel a little underwhelming in terms of what you can do – especially given the sheer power under the hood.
Apple broke iPadOS away from iOS a number of years ago to be able to offer things like file transfer and track support. But now with the more powerful innards it feels like it needs to do more than just offer a series of app icons on the Home Screen.
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Of course Apple watchers will know that we’re due an announcement for iPadOS 15 at WWDC in June 2021, so we’re hoping that a greater emphasis on multi-tasking, a more useful Home Screen option, and other features will come to the experience later this year. That could be a game-changer.
It’s not that the iPad Pro 2021 isn’t capable – far from it – it’s just at we can feel that there’s something much bigger coming that’s just around the corner to help capitalise on that new found power within.
Verdict
When Steve Jobs first revealed the iPad back in 2010 it was all about casual reading and surfing from the sofa, about access to apps to empower, entertain, and educate us.
More than a decade on and the 2021 iPad Pro still embraces those principles. But for today’s creative types who want more than just basic typing and surfing it’s a more empowering experience – largely thanks to the M1 processor – bringing greater opportunity for both work and play.
For all intents and purposes the 2021 iPad Pro 12.9-inch is like a touchscreen-enabled MacBook Pro with 5G connectivity that runs iPadOS instead of macOS. It’s the closest to a laptop-replacement that Apple has ever taken the iPad.
Yet the iPad Pro is still in transition. It doesn’t completely replace the laptop just yet, because Apple hasn’t quite cracked the software. So if that’s what you’re after then let’s hope iPadOS 15 changes that later in 2021.
Also consider
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iPad Air (2020)
The ‘non-pro’ iPad will be good enough for many. So unless you want the higher storage, ProMotion higher refresh rate, or dual cameras, you’re just as well getting the iPad Air as the iPad Pro 11.
The HP Elite Folio is a long-lasting, quiet laptop/tablet combo, but it offers a middling performance for a high price.
For
+ Versatile design
+ Runs very cool and quiet
+ 3:2 Display
+ Full-sized stylus charges in keyboard
+ Long battery life
Against
– Display could be brighter
– Windows on Arm has app compatibility issues
– Middling performance
– Few ports
– Pricey
There are a few laptops that fall into what I call an “executive notebook.” These are high-end, sometimes overly designed business laptops that you rarely see the rank-and-file office worker use. The new HP Elite Folio ($1,747.20 to start, $2,063.36 as tested) seems destined, with its vegan leather exterior and high price tag, for the C-suite.
HP has gone with Windows on Arm here, which means that the laptop runs quiet and has excellent battery life. But even as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors get more powerful and Windows on Arm slowly improves, there are still compatibility and performance sacrifices, so it’s not always fitting for the
best ultrabooks
.
But for those who rely on a stylus for writing on-screen or want a versatile form factor for various situations, you may be able to overlook that as long as you don’t use compute-heavy software. And if you value style, of course.
Design of HP Elite Folio
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HP’s new Folio means business. Or at least, it looks like it. The HP Elite Folio is a new, more professional take
on a previous design
. This laptop isn’t clad in metal, but rather polyurethane vinyl — or, as you might call it, vegan leather. Or as I call it, “
pleather
.” Unlike the old
Spectre x360 13
, which used real leather and came in brown, this is a more subdued black.
The result is a notebook that looks a bit like a briefcase, minus the handle, of course. If it didn’t have an HP logo on the lid under some stitching, I’d expect to see an intern carrying their resume in it. There’s no place to put your thumb to easily open the laptop, so I typically found myself requiring two hands to do so, which was a pain.
With the laptop open, it looks more traditional. There’s a 13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280 display in a 3:2 aspect ratio with a surprisingly thick bezel on the top. The deck features a backlit keyboard and also includes a spot to store and charge the included HP Slim Pen. This is a page straight out of the playbook Microsoft used with the
Surface Pro X
.
But the Surface Pro X is a true 2-in-1 detachable, and the Elite Folio has a different trick up its sleeve. The screen is on a hinge, and it can be brought forward into an easel mode that covers the keyboard but leaves the touchpad clear. You can also slide it further forward to be a tablet. (You could, if you wanted, also flip the screen upside down on the back of the device and use the display to watch videos or give presentations. This isn’t listed among HP’s options, but it works.)
The laptop looks like leather, but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s soft to the touch but definitely has a plasticky feel. For those wondering, yes, I did smell the laptop. While it pulls off a leather look, it can’t match the real thing’s fragrance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I can’t speak to how well this will hold up over months and years of use. In the immediate sense, it did manage to pick up minor scuffs or schmutz on my desk, but I could wipe it off with a damp cloth.
Port selection is extremely minimal, with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port on either side of the laptop and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right side.
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HP’s notebook is 2.92 pounds and measures 11.75 x 9.03 x 0.63 inches. That’s similar to the Lenovo Flex 5G (2.9 pounds, 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches), a convertible 2-in-1. The Microsoft Surface Pro X is 2.4 pounds (with the keyboard attached) and 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.3 inches. An Intel-based clamshell, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano, is 2 pounds and 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches.
HP Elite Folio Specifications
CPU
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2
Graphics
Qualcomm Adreno 690 (integrated)
Memory
16GB LPDDR4-4266 SDRAM
Storage
512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display
13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280 touchscreen
Networking
Qualcomm QCA639X Wi-Fi 6 Dual Band and Bluetooth 5, Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE Cat 16
Ports
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, nano SIM card slot
Camera
720p IR
Battery
46 WHr
Power Adapter
65 W
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro
Dimensions(WxDxH)
11.75 x 9.03 x 0.63 inches / 298.45 x 229.36 x 16 mm
Weight
2.92 pounds / 1.32 kg
Price (as configured)
$1,998.72
Windows 10 on Arm
The HP Elite Folio uses the latest Windows on Arm platform, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2. That comes with its benefits (long battery life, quiet), but in terms of performance and app compatibility, it’s certainly lacking.
To be clear, that’s the case on all Windows on Arm laptops at the moment. Apple has used Arm too on its most recent laptops with its
M1
chips, with far greater success.
Windows on Arm can run 32-bit apps, but not 64-bit apps. That functionality is coming but is currently limited to Windows Insider builds, which you’re unlikely to see in a business environment. An increasing number of apps are running natively on Windows on Arm, including Office, browsers like Edge and Firefox, and some of Adobe’s, but the rest require emulation. Others that run natively include the popular media player VLC, Netflix, Twitter, Skype, and Windows Terminal.
Perhaps the most reliable place to get apps that work on the processor, native or not, is through the Windows store, which largely filters apps that don’t work with Arm.
Productivity Performance of HP Elite Folio
Here, we’re comparing the Folio, which has an 8cx Gen 2, with two other Arm laptops, the Lenovo Flex 5G with the last-gen Snapdragon, and the Microsoft Surface Pro X with SQ1, Microsoft’s entry-level offering. We also tossed the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano in the mix for a business notebook using an x86 platform, namely Intel’s 11th Gen processors.
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On Geekbench 5, which measures overall system performance, the HP Elite Folio notched a single-core score of 792 and a dual-core score of 3,115. The Lenovo Flex 5G’s 729/2,923 suggest the newer chip has its advantage in multi-core workloads, though this test is run through emulation, which has to be kept in mind. The Surface Pro X isn’t in this test, as we were still running Geekbench 4 when we tested it. The ThinkPad X1 Nano’s scores were 1,473/5,155, with the test running natively.
The Elite Folio transferred 25GB of files at 666.5 MBps, faster than both the Flex 5G and ThinkPad X1 Nano. The Surface Pro X was run on an older, 5GB version of the test, and that was the slowest of the batch.
Our Handbrake test currently doesn’t run on Arm chips, though it is starting to be included in early “nightly” builds. Our Cinebench R23 stress test is also incompatible with Arm. These will change when 64-bit support becomes a finalized part of Windows 10.
Display on HP Elite Folio
I’m glad that HP went with a 3:2 display on the Elite Folio. Simply put, 3:2 is the best aspect ratio for productivity laptop displays because the extra height lets you see more content on your screen at once. This 13.5-inch touchscreen has a resolution of 1920 x 1280.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I found the laptop to be bright enough for productivity, but when you switch to multimedia, it’s a mixed bag. In the trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the color red popped in car paint, lights and a number of outfits. But a series of dim scenes in a montage made me wish I could turn up the brightness (though the dimness made for great contrast in a scene with purple backlighting).
HP’s screen covers 70.7% of the
DCI-P3
color gamut, which is just about in line with the Surface Pro X and ThinkPad X1 Nano. The Lenovo Flex 5G was more vivid at 81.4%
The Folio was the dimmest of the bunch with an average of 390 nits. The Surface Pro X was the brightest, measuring 448 nits.
Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus on HP Elite Folio
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HP has implemented a keyboard with 1.3mm of travel into this small device. I didn’t have any issues with travel, but when I typed, I felt that the keys were a bit too stiff. It didn’t stop me from typing quickly; I hit 110 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test. But accuracy suffered slightly.
The 4.2 x 2.6-inch touchpad uses Windows precision drivers, and with a smooth, metal surface, I found it responsive and easy to glide my fingers against. Simple navigation and more complex gestures worked on the first try. It clicks a bit louder than some other touchpads, but I can get over that.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
HP’s Slim Pen lives in a dock above the keyboard, which also keeps it charged. It’s long and flat, more like a carpenter’s pencil than your standard writing instrument. It has a rocker on the side, which can be unwieldy because of how thin the buttons are. The button on the top, however, is easy to access. That comes at the expense of using it as an eraser like the Surface Pen, however.
I found that the Elite Folio’s screen offered solid palm rejection. The Pen uses Wacom drivers and offers 4,096 degrees of pressure sensitivity. HP claims it fast charges in 30 minutes, though in my use, it’s home in the laptop meant it was always topped off.
Audio on HP Elite Folio
HP’s partnership with Bang & Olufsen on its speakers continues to bear fruit. While there’s no software to tune the speakers yourself, they sound decent considering how thin this device is.
For instance, when I listened to Chvrches’ “He Said She Said,” the crashing drums, synths melodies and vocals were loud, clear and crisp. There was, however, a distinct lack of bass, which is a problem on many laptops.
One downside, however, is that the speakers vibrate a lot, and I could feel it under my hands on the touchpad and keyboard. While this isn’t unique to this laptop, it was far more distracting on the Folio than other devices.
Upgradeability of HP Elite Folio
In theory, the HP Elite Folio is upgradeable. HP has a video showing the process:
This is aimed at service technicians, and for good reason. The design means you have to do things in a weird order, like removing the pen slot from the keyboard before opening the
chassis
.
The RAM is soldered to the motherboard, but the SSD is upgradeable. The only rub there is that to actually change out the storage, you have to remove the entire thermal system. Some enthusiasts may be comfortable with that, but for most people, that’s a step too far.
Battery Life
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Elite Folio’s Arm processor excels in the one place you would expect it: battery life. On our test, which involves browsing the web, running OpenGL tests and streaming video over Wi-Fi, all at 150 nits, the Folio lasted for 15 hours and 21 minutes. It was outclassed only by the Lenovo Flex 5G, using a last-gen Snapdragon processor, which ran for 17:30.
Microsoft’s Surface Pro X with the SQ1 ran for 9:30, while the Intel-based ThinkPad X1 Nano lasted for 12 hours flat.
Heat on HP Elite Folio
Because we couldn’t run our Cinebench R23 workload due to compatibility issues, we took the HP Elite Folio’s skin temperatures following 15 minutes of streaming video from YouTube. The fanless system was quiet and kept very cool.
The center of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, measured 27.8 degrees Celsius (82.04 degrees Fahrenheit). The touchpad was cooler at 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
The hottest point on the bottom of the laptop measured 30.3 degrees Celsius.
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A
720p
webcam in an executive notebook after more than a year of white-collar workers have been doing their jobs from home? Excuse me?
Stills and trial video from my desk, even in good lighting, were grainy. And colors, like a blue shirt I was wearing, were overly dark.
There is a physical webcam privacy switch, which covers the camera but doesn’t cut power to the hardware like some other HP laptops. It’s very small, and you need to use your fingernail to move it in either direction.
There are also IR sensors to log in to Windows 10 with facial recognition. This worked well, with the exception that you need both the cameras and the IR sensor for this to work. If you close the privacy cover, you can’t use it to log in. That’s a choice you have to make between privacy and convenience.
HP has limited the amount of software it includes on this laptop, which is a benefit, especially on an enterprise laptop. There are no crappy antivirus software trials or ports of phone games.
The two big pieces of software are HP Pen Settings, which lets you pair the included stylus and customize its functionality; and HP QuickDrop, which lets you send files and photos across your laptop and smartphone.
HP Pen Settings has a number of clever options, including assigning commands that would be useful to go through slides or play media while giving presentations. There’s also a way to get a virtual dial on the screen when holding a button down.
While this laptop has Microsoft Office preinstalled, at least it doesn’t include links to sponsored Microsoft Store applications.
HP sells the Elite Folio with a 1-year warranty. It can be boosted to three years for an extra $75.
As of this writing, HP is selling the Elite Folio in both a ready-to-ship configuration and customizable configurations.
The quick-ship one is $1,889 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, as well as an LTE modem.
We reviewed it with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB storage and an LTE modem. That runs for $2,063.36.
If you want a 1,000-nit display with HP’s Sure View privacy, that’s an extra $169. A 4G modem is $201, while a 5G modem is $444.
The base model, with Windows 10 Home instead of Pro, 8GB of RAM, 128GB SSD and no mobile connection is $1,747.20.
Prices on the Folio seem to be fluctuating on HP’s website, so they may vary after this article was published.
Bottom Line
The HP Elite Folio review has a versatile design and, if you’re into the office chair aesthetic, a fake leather exterior that fits in any office.
HP’s Slim Pen is nice, and the fact that it is full-sized and can still charge by sitting in the system is a big plus for anyone who does a lot of writing on screen. The different screen modes will also be helpful for people who use touch screens a lot.
But while relying on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 means long battery life and quiet operation, there are a series of small sacrifices that are made, largely based on Windows on Arm and app compatibility. Some apps work, some are emulated and 64-bit apps, while coming, aren’t ready for prime time right now, without downloading a beta version of the OS. These aren’t problems unique to the Elite Folio — they’re the same on the Lenovo Flex 5G and the Microsoft Surface Pro X.
If the chassis, touch screen and functionality allowed by the display-on-a-hinge design will make your job easier, this is worth considering. But for many, an x86 business notebook, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano with an Intel processor, can run more software, do it faster, and is cheaper in some configurations.
Hot on the heels of Apple announcing Apple Music lossless and Spatial Audio earlier this week, we have a new clue that suggests the previously announced Spotify HiFi lossless tier could be with us soon.
One Reddit user, TheMonarc, has apparently been able to find the Spotify HiFi menu in a song in its iOS app, indicating that Spotify’s long-awaited higher quality offering may launch imminently. So far, the only official word from the green streaming giant is that it’ll arrive sometime this year.
According to the Reddit user, a glitch in the Spotify app for iOS meant that they were able to access the HiFi menu. As first reported by 9to5Mac, the user explains: “I successfully opened the ‘HiFi’ menu by quickly tapping the glitched icon upon app launch.” The tipster shared some screenshots, which feature a small HiFi button in the bottom right of the screen to deploy Spotify HiFi.
Spotify announced in February that it had designs on a CD-quality subscription tier, initially saying the HiFi service would launch later this year as an add-on for Spotify Premium subscribers. However, considering the popular streaming platform has since raised its prices, while arch-rival Apple Music has just announced it’s making lossless – CD quality and 24-bit hi-res – and Spatial Audio listening free to subscribers from June, it’s unclear what Spotify’s current stance on pricing is.
Again, the HiFi icon on Spotify apparently appeared in the lower right corner of the app. Clicking on it led to the advice: “Use wired devices or speakers that are capable of playing lossless audio, 16-bit/44.1kHz quality or higher, to successfully listen to music in HiFi.”
If Spotify HiFi is indeed about to launch, the premium music streaming war will be ready. Amazon just made its HD subscription tier free to all Amazon Music users and Apple Music is not going to charge more for lossless. Tidal, our current favourite service and 2020 Award winner, still charges £20 ($20) per month for its HiFi membership, while Qobuz also asks a significant premium over Amazon and Apple. So, the ball’s in your court, Spotify…
MORE:
Understand why Spotify HiFi is missing something – but will it matter?
And Apple Music’s new service isn’t perfect either… Apple Music lossless: which devices will (and won’t) play lossless and Spatial Audio
Not sure which deserves your subscription fee? See best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
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