Apple’s new Tile-like AirTags, long-rumored and finally announced at this week’s Spring Loaded event, are now available for preorder on Apple’s website. The small circular trackers work with Apple’s “Find My” app on iOS and have a built-in speaker, accelerometer, Bluetooth LE, and a replaceable battery. They cost $29 for one set or $99 for a four-pack.
Apple says the AirTags’ battery should be good for a year. They should start delivering between May 3rd and May 5th.
The existence of AirTags first became known nearly two years ago, in copies of the iOS 13 beta. Apple accidentally confirmed the AirTags name in a support video last year that has since been deleted.
Also revealed at Spring Loaded was the new purple iPhone 12. It’s identical to the other colors of the iPhone 12; it’s very fast, has a very nice screen, 5G, and great cameras, according to our review. It’s also available for preorder today on Apple’s website and will be widely available starting April 30th.
The 2021 iMac, new Apple TV 4K, and new iPad Pro models Apple showed off at the Spring Loaded event will be available for preorder starting April 30th.
(Pocket-lint) – Apple revealed the fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and third generation iPad Pro 11 (2021) at an event in April. The two devices sit above the fourth generation iPad Air (2020), the eighth generation iPad (2020) and the iPad mini.
You can read how all Apple’s iPad’s compare in our separate feature, but here we are looking at how the new iPad Pros compare to the iPad Air to help you work out which is right for you.
Here is how the iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) stacks up against the iPad Pro 11 (2021) and iPad Air (2020).
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Design
iPad Pro 12.9 (2021): 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.4mm, 682g
iPad Pro 11 (2021): 247.6 x 178.5 x 5.9mm, 466g
iPad Air (2020): 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm, 458g
The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 and Apple iPad Pro 11 share identical designs, though their measurements differ. The iPad Air meanwhile, borrows some of the iPad Pro’s design features, like very narrow bezels around the screen and an aluminium body with square edges but there are some differences elsewhere.
The iPad Pro models have a large square camera housing in the top left corner – like the iPhone 12 models – and they have two camera lenses within that housing. The iPad Air has a singular camera lens in the top left corner so there’s a slight step down in the camera department.
The iPad Pro models feature Face ID at the top of their displays, while the iPad Air has Touch ID built into the power button at the top – both allow for as much screen as possible in the body available though.
All models have a Smart Connector on the back and all are compatible with the second generation Apple Pencil and Magic Folio Keyboard.
The iPad Pro models have Thunderbolt/USB 4 for charging and data transfer, while the iPad Air has USB-C. The iPad Pro models come in Silver and Space Grey colours, but the iPad Air comes in Rose Gold, Green and Sky Blue on top of Silver and Space Grey, making for some more exciting finish options.
In terms of overall size and weight, the iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) is the largest and heaviest, while the iPad Pro 11 (2021) and iPad Air are almost identical in size and weight, with the iPad Pro 11 slightly slimmer and the iPad Air slightly lighter.
Display
iPad Pro 12.9 (2021): 12.9-inch, Liquid XDR, 2732 x 2048 resolution (264ppi), 1600nits, ProMotion, True Tone
iPad Pro 11 (2021): 11-inch, Liquid Retina, 2388 x 1668 resolution (264ppi), 600nits, ProMotion, True Tone
iPad Air (2020): 10.9-inch, Liquid Retina, 2360 x 1640 resolution (264ppi), 500nits, True Tone
The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) has a 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, which is the largest and brightest of the three iPads being compared here with a 1600nits peak brightness (HDR). The iPad Pro 11 (2021) and iPad Air have a Liquid Retina display, with the iPad Pro featuring an 11-inch screen and a max brightness of 600nits and the Air offering a 10.9-inch display with a max brightness of 500nits.
All three models have a pixel density of 264ppi and they all have an anti-reflective coating, P3 wide colour display, True Tone technology and a fully laminated display.
The iPad Pro models come with Apple’s ProMotion technology though, offering a 120Hz variable refresh rate, while the iPad Air doesn’t have this on board, marking the biggest distinction between the iPad Pro 11 and iPad Air in terms of display.
Hardware and specs
iPad Pro 12.9 (2021): Apple M1 chip, 8GB/16GB RAM, up to 2TB storage, 10-hour battery, 5G
iPad Pro 11 (2021): Apple M1 chip, 8GB/16GB RAM, up to 2TB storage, 10-hour battery, 5G
iPad Air (2020): A14 Bionic, up to 1TB storage, 10-hour battery, 4G
The Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and the iPad Pro 11 (2021) both run on Apple’s M1 chip – which is the same chip that can be found in the new iMac and the latest MacBook Pros so you’re talking about quite a bit of power here. They also both have come with a choice of 8GB or 16GB of RAM and storage options start at 128GB and go up to 2TB.
The 2021 iPad Pro models come in Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi and Cellular options, with the latter offering 5G connectivity.
The iPad Air (2020) meanwhile, runs on the A14 Bionic chip which although still more than capable and a very powerful processor, isn’t quite as advanced as the M1. There are also no RAM options to choose between and storage only goes up to 1TB.
The iPad Air comes in Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi and Cellular models too but the Wi-Fi and Cellular models are 4G rather than 5G.
All three models have a 10-hour battery life. As mentioned though, the iPad Pro models have Thunderbolt/USB 4, while the iPad Air has USB-C. The iPad Pro models also have four-speaker audio, while the iPad Air has two-speaker audio.
Cameras
iPad Pro 12.9 (2021): 12MP (f/1.8) +10MP (f/2.4) rear, 12MP front
iPad Pro 11 (2021): 12MP (f/1.8) +10MP (f/2.4) rear, 12MP front
iPad Air (2020): 12MP (f/1.8), 7MP front
Both the iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) and the iPad Pro 11 (2021) come with a 12-megapixel wide (f/1.8) and 10-megapixel ultra wide (f/2.4) camera on their rear. They also have 2x optical zoom out, 5x digital zoom and a brighter True Tone flash, as well as Smart HDR 3 for photos.
The iPad Air has a single 12-megapixel wide camera on the rear with an f/1.8 aperture. It offers 5x digital zoom and smart HDR 3 for photos.
On the front, the iPad Pro 12.9 and the iPad Pro 11 come with a 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera with ultra wide camera. It offers an f/2.4 aperture with 2x optical zoom out and a number of features including Centre Stage, portrait mode, Portrait Lighting, Animoji and Memoji and extended dynamic range for video up to 30fps.
The iPad Air meanwhile, has a 7-megapixel FaceTime HD camera with an f/2.2 aperture. It has a Retina Flash, Smart HDR 3 for photos and cinematic video stabilisation like the iPad Pro models, but it doesn’t have the other features mentioned above.
Price
iPad Pro 12.9 (2021): From £999
iPad Pro 11 (2021): From £749
iPad Air (2020): From £579
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There’s quite a big difference in price between the iPad Pro models and the iPad Air.
The iPad Pro 12.9 starts at £999 in the UK for the Wi-Fi only model, and £1149 for the Wi-Fi and Cellular model. Opt for the top specs and you’re looking at quite a significant amount of money.
The iPad Pro 11 starts at £749 in the UK for the Wi-Fi only model and £899 for the Wi-Fi and Cellular model. Again, if you opt for the 2TB of storage and 16GB of RAM, you’re looking at serious bucks.
The iPad Air starts at £579 in the UK for the Wi-Fi only model, and £709 for the Wi-Fi and Cellular. You of course pay more for the larger storage models, but it is still significantly cheaper than the iPad Pro models.
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Conclusion
The only difference between the iPad Pro 12.9 and the iPad Pro 11, apart from their physical sizes, is the display technology. The 12.9-inch model has an XDR display, while the 11-inch doesn’t. Otherwise their specs are the same, but you of course pay more for the larger model.
The iPad Pro 11 and iPad Air are the same size and they have pretty much the same display size too. The iPad Pro offers an extra camera on the rear, an improved front camera with features like Centre Stage, a more powerful processor, a higher storage option of 2TB, 5G capabilities, Thunderbolt over USB-C, RAM options and ProMotion on the display. The Air does have some more exciting colour options though, and it’s a bit lighter.
Which you choose of these models will likely come down to not only your budget but what features are important to you. The iPad Air (2020) is fantastic and will be more than adequate for many, though the iPad Pro models do obviously offer those extra premium features and speed.
A federal judge has rejected a motion by Apple to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit over the company’s use of the labels “buy” and “rent” when selling digital content. As first covered by The Hollywood Reporter, the suit can now continue, though could yet be settled before ever reaching trial.
The lead plaintiff in the case, David Andino, argues that Apple is misleading consumers when it tells them it can “buy” digital versions of albums, TV shows, and films from its stores. Why? Because the iPhone-maker retains the power to terminate customers’ access to this content whenever it likes. This can happen, for example, when the company loses distribution rights to content that users haven’t secured by downloading to their device.
“Just like Best Buy cannot come into a person’s home to repossess the movie DVD that such person purchased from it, defendant should not be able to remove, or permit the removal by others of, digital content from its customers,” says Andino’s lawsuit. “Though some consumers may get lucky and never lose access to any of their paid for media, others may one day find that their digital content is now gone forever.”
Apple attempted to have the case dismissed, but a ruling this week by US District Court Judge John Mendez shows that the company’s arguments weren’t entirely convincing.
“Apple contends that ‘[n]o reasonable consumer would believe’ that purchased content would remain on the iTunes platform indefinitely,” wrote Mendez in an order filed with the Eastern District of California. “But in common usage, the term ‘buy’ means to acquire possession over something. It seems plausible, at least at the motion to dismiss stage, that reasonable consumers would expect their access couldn’t be revoked.”
To emphasize his point, Mendez pointed to the definition of the word “buy” in the Mirriam-Webster dictionary (meaning “to acquire possession, ownership, or rights to the use or services of by payment especially of money”) — a timeless move that is, apparently, as welcome in federal legal proceedings as in hastily-written wedding speeches.
Apple tried to argue that Andino’s “injury” was purely speculative, as he has not actually lost access to any content. But, as Mendez summarizes, the injury being presented is not the threat of losing future access, but the deception involved in Apple’s use of the word “buy.” This misleads consumers about the exact nature of ownership, meaning Andino “paid either too much for the product or spent money he would not have but for the misrepresentation.”
Apple did have some success, though, and one element of the lawsuit was dismissed: Andino’s claims to “unjust enrichment,” which would affect how any potential damages would be calculated. Mendez did, though, leave open the possibility of future “injunctive relief” — that is, material changes to how Apple sells content in future. All these questions, though, will have to be settled in future proceedings.
Flagship features and a big, clear screen make this mid-priced mobile a good option for your pocket
For
Good for gaming
Detailed picture performance
Decent built-in speakers
Against
Screen could be subtler
Flat audio performance
Alec Baldwin may be the best known, and arguably most talented, of his siblings but as Trey Parker and Matt Stone once wrote: you know what sucks about being a Baldwin? Nothing! Thankfully for Billy, Daniel, Stephen and the OnePlus 9 smartphone, life always has room for a little brother.
With only two members of the OnePlus 9 family, finding a niche as the more affordable smaller sibling should be no problem at all. The OnePlus 9 is still a big phone and its 6.55-inch display means it can bring some serious scale to your portable viewing.
Not only does the OnePlus 9 have an HDR10+-supporting, 120Hz AMOLED screen, it also has a Hasselblad camera set-up on board too. And it charges so quickly that by the time you remember that you plugged it in, it’s probably full and ready to go.
Granted, there are a few nips and tucks to the specs compared with the OnePlus 9 Pro but, with around a quarter off the Pro’s price tag, this Android handset has the tempting promise of a flagship phone at a mid-range price.
Pricing
The OnePlus 9 is priced at £629 for the Astral Black and Arctic Sky versions, which come with 128GB of storage space and 8GB of RAM in the UK and Europe. The Winter Mist OnePlus 9 is £729 and comes with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM.
In the US, only the Astral Black and Winter Mist finishes are available, but both come with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. The US OnePlus 9 is priced at $729.
Features
(Image credit: OnePlus)
A phone with a 6.55-inch screen is just about small enough to carry out most of your operations one-handed without fear of dropping it, although swiping from the top and bottom without adjusting your grip makes for some pretty intensive thumb yoga. Laid next to the OnePlus 9 Pro, the standard OnePlus 9 is just 4mm shorter at 160mm long and a little thinner at 8.7mm rather than 9mm, but has the same 74mm width.
Despite its fibreglass polymer frame, the finish still feels premium for a non-metal phone. The three-way sliding switch for the silent, vibrate and ring profiles is a particularly nice touch. Underneath that, there is the power button, on the opposite side is the volume rocker with the USB-C port and SIM tray on the bottom edge. Sadly, there’s no 3.5mm headphone socket.
OnePlus 9 tech specs
(Image credit: OnePlus)
Screen 6.55in AMOLED
Resolution 2400 x 1080 (402ppi)
Rear camera 48MP, 50MP, 2MP
Front camera 16MP
Dolby Atmos Yes
Finishes x3
Dimensions (hwd) 16 x 7.4 x 0.9cm
Weight 192g
For wireless audio, there’s Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX and aptX HD included as well as LDAC technology, which allows hi-res audio streaming over Bluetooth at up to 24-bit/96 kHz.
As for that screen, it’s a 2400 x 1080 AMOLED panel with a fixed 120Hz refresh rate and a pixel density of 402ppi. Compared with the 9 Pro (525ppi), it’s a little less sharp and slightly dimmer too, with a peak brightness of 1100nits rather than the 1300nit display on the Pro. On top is a flat piece of Gorilla Glass, under which is a hidden fingerprint reader, though you can also unlock the phone using face recognition.
Those looking to dive into some on-the-go TV and film watching will appreciate the HDR10+ and HDR10 support with plenty of HDR compatibility to be found on Netflix and others. You can play locally stored MKV, MOV, MP4, H.265 (HEVC), AVI and other video file formats. The display proportions offer a maximum possible 20:9 aspect ratio, but while most content is edged by a pair of black bars, premium gaming titles use the whole screen width.
Game Mode Pro is a handy feature of Oxygen OS – an otherwise light skin on top of Android 11. It shuts off notifications from popping up on your screen, restricts background app use to divert as much processing power to your gaming as possible and prioritises your network use for game data. We also like the way it brings quick access to options such as WhatsApp messaging, Instagram and screen recording with a small, pull-down menu at your thumb.
(Image credit: OnePlus)
The gameplay itself is well handled. The fast refresh rate of the display helps your gaming feel lag-free, both on and off-line. OnePlus has installed its Cool Play vapour cooling system, but even after one round of PUBG Mobile, the handset still feels pretty warm.
Despite that, and the fixed 120Hz rate, the 4500mAh battery takes us well beyond a day of heavy use. Should you need to recharge more regularly, you’ll be pleased to note that the Warp 65T charger included in the box takes just under 30 minutes to fill your phone.
As with the OnePlus 9 Pro, owners of this handset benefit from a Hasselblad-calibrated camera array. Here, it is a three-lens set-up, with a main 48MP camera, a 50MP ultrawide and a monochrome shooter, but no telephoto. There is 12-bit colour depth stills imaging available in Pro Mode for RAW files and you can capture 8K video at 30fps and 4K video at 60fps.
Telephoto aside, the performance of the camera is right up there with that of the 9 Pro’s. The optical image stabilisation works a treat for the handheld tracking shots around our test facilities. The results look almost as if they were shot using a camera dolly and there’s the odd jump only with fast pans. The colours are bright and rich, if not quite as real-world accurate as the best smartphones.
As with its bigger brother, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip orchestrates the action with great aplomb. There’s barely a glitch or stutter in our time with the phone and we’d expect it to stay that way with regular updates and fixes to the OS, the UI and third-party apps.
Screen
(Image credit: OnePlus)
If you’re expecting the performance of the OnePlus 9 to match that of the OnePlus 9 Pro, think again – that extra spend goes on more than just an aluminium frame and some curved glass. But there is a lot to like about the OnePlus 9’s picture performance.
It’s easy to lose ourselves in the story of The Witcher in HDR on Netflix. It’s a bright and engaging image with a decent degree of punch and no wanting for detail in light and dark areas of the screen. The opening shots across the shaded interior of a barn reveal lots of detail in the shadows without doing much damage to the black depth. Even when the frame becomes split between that darkness and the bright daylight on the faces of the young lovers outside the barn, the overall exposure levels remain well pitched.
We’re just as pleased with how the OnePlus 9 handles SDR. The Display P3 mode brings a good blend between the natural look of the Missouri countryside and the exciting colours of sci-fi space as we watch Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 in Full HD. If you’d rather not get your hands dirty in the settings, pull the colour temperature towards ‘cold’ or use the Natural preset.
As with the OnePlus 9 Pro, though, there’s room for improvement. The very best handsets maintain a slightly inkier black depth and add a bit more of a dynamic HDR feel, while some displays are a touch more careful with shading. It’s most apparent when looking at faces – the skin complexion of the lovers in The Witcher episode, for example, are fairly uniform in their production, when colour and lighting could be handled a little better.
But these performance compromises are in line with the 9 Pro, which also favours dark detail over black depth. The 9 Pro is sharper, a little brighter and the colours go a touch further before starting to look artificial but, given the difference in price, this is to be expected. The OnePlus 9 still makes for some worthy big-screen viewing at this point in the market.
Sound
(Image credit: OnePlus)
But while the screen can be classed as ‘good’, the audio performance of the OnePlus 9 is firmly in the average category. It plays your favourite tracks faithfully enough but is never going to thrill you. That doesn’t mean that it’s not without its charms, though.
OnePlus’s ‘Dual stereo speaker’ set-up is fine for listening to music or watching a film without headphones. Dialogue is clear and sound effects are identifiable, while music is balanced and not without a sense of presence. We’d recommend listening without the Dolby Atmos music processing, but both ‘Film’ and ‘Music’ modes come across well.
Listening to Biffy Clyro’s Many Of Horror, the OnePlus 9 conveys that powerful sense of emotion. There’s definition and clarity to the vocals and the squeaky slides up the guitar strings of the intro, even if it’s not the most detailed delivery we’ve heard. The volume on the device doesn’t go particularly high but reaches the top with hardly any distortion.
For headphones listening, it’s best to axe the processing and set the OnePlus 9 to ‘None’ under ‘Style Preference’ in the sound settings. It doesn’t do much to make up for this phone’s underwhelming dynamics but keeps music as rhythmic as possible. We play Blue Monday by New Order and the impact of the electro beats and synth sounds is in line with the OnePlus 9 Pro’s performance. The more expensive model has a better stab at organising the sounds but, paired with a decent set of headphones, there’s still plenty to enjoy here.
But with busier tracks, there’s more of a sense of what could have been, sonically. We hit play on Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden, hoping for a taste of moody grunge. But while all the instruments are there and tonally in balance, Chris Cornell’s voice comes across flat and expressionless. Nor is there a change of gear when the drum fills announce the chorus. Ultimately, this phone plugs the music gap while we’re out and about, but not an awful lot more.
Verdict
There aren’t many smartphones that offer so much screen real estate at this price. The fact that it’s such an involving picture performance is a compelling reason to buy the OnePlus 9.
Our doubts are mostly on the audio side, as some rival phones make music on the go a more exciting affair. If you use a dedicated music player or are looking for a mobile phone primarily for its video performance, then don’t let its sonic drawbacks put you off. Between the high-performing chipset, the lag-free gaming, the Hasselblad camera and the scale and quality of the screen, there are plenty of reasons why the OnePlus 9 is a good idea.
TP-Link’s mid-range AX6000 offers Wi-Fi 6, 2.5Gb WAN and lots of ports at a reasonable $270. While the software is simple and 2.4 Ghz performance isn’t great, this is a solid option, if you don’t expect too much.
For
+ Affordable Wi-Fi 6 option
+ Abundant Ethernet ports
+ Ease of setup and interface
+ Supports Link Aggregation
+ Excellent compatibility across all clients tested
Against
– Dual-band only
– No Wi-Fi 6E
– Simplistic software
– Unexceptional 2.4 GHz throughput speeds
TP-Link’s Archer AX6000 Next-Gen Wi-Fi Router sits somewhere between a full-tilt gaming router like the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 and basic budget options like TP-Link’s sub-$70 Archer A7 AC1750. The Archer AX6000’s ‘middle of the road’ approach results in a router that’s larger than some, with lots of antennae (8) and gigabit Ethernet ports (8, plus a 2.5GB WAN). You also get Wi-Fi 6, though not the newer 6E that makes use of the less-cluttered 6 GHz band.
But the Archer AX6000 doesn’t feature the red accents and dancing LED’s that often adorn gaming routers. It also does not have a ridiculously high price tag. As of publication, it was selling for about $270–a far cry from flagship gaming options that often sell in the $500 range.
Is this more general-purpose approach to a router setup still perform well enough for serious gamers to take notice? Read on as we delve into the Archer AX6000’s full feature lest and performance testing to find out.
Design of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The AX6000 takes a more subtle approach to design than its flamboyant gaming counterparts (like the flagship Archer AX11000). While it comes with eight permanently attached antennae and a horizontal design, it goes with a black plastic exterior that looks more business than gaming. But there’s some flash here, in the form of an LED on the top center, behind a shiny gold TP-Link badge, that glows blue when all is working (and red when it isn’t). But the light is easily disabled with a dedicated hardware button–important if your router lives near your TV or in a bedroom.
AX6000 is on the larger end of the spectrum at 10.3 × 10.3 × 2.4 inches (261.2 × 261.2 × 60.2 mm), and it weighs 3.5 pounds (1.59 kg). That’s nearly as big as the Asus Rapture GT-AXE1000, at 10.4 x 10.4 x 2.9 inches and 3.94 pounds. But the Archer AX6000’s antennae are shorter than on most routers, and they come permanently attached, so all you have to do when taking the router out of the box is flip them up.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Specifications of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
In terms of hardware specs, the AX6000 can definitely go toe-to-toe with higher-end routers. You get a 1.8 GHz quad-core processor with two additional coprocessors, 1 GB of RAM and 128 MB of flash storage.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Ports are also ample, with the WAN port a speedy 2.5 Gbps, plus eight gigabit LAN ports, basically giving you an integrated switch for plenty of wired connections. Link Aggregation is also supported, should you want to give extra bandwidth to a particular device. There are also a pair of two USB 3.0 ports (one Type-A and one Type-C) for connecting things like external storage to share on your network.
All that aside, the wireless department is where the AX6000 starts to show its mid-range limitations. The router is dual-band, rather than the more robust tri-band options found on higher-end gear. That means the AX6000 has a single 2.4 GHz option, rated at up to 1148 Mbps and a single 5 GHz for up to 4804 Mbps of throughput–hence (with the help of the usual rounding) the 6000 designation. Also, this router supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), but not the newest Wi-Fi 6E spec. So your devices get to live in the more crowded and mainstream bandwidths, rather than in the newly opened (and therefore much-less crowded) 6 GHz band.
That said, the aforementioned Asus ROG Rapture router is the only model we’ve tested so far that supports Wi-Fi 6E, and there are still very few devices (aside from some new phones) that are out there waiting for a 6E router to connect to.
Setup of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Setup of the TP-Link Archer AX6000 is fairly simple and took less than 10 minutes. After the requisite unboxing, we appreciate that the eight antennas come pre-attached, so just have to be rotated into their vertical position (although a few may be disappointed that they cannot be manually fine-tuned and adjusted to maximize reception).
Software setup can be done via the TP-Link app for the smartphone, or via the web browser, with the latter as our method of choice. We were given opportunities to choose a router password, the Wi-Fi password, and upgrade the firmware. This got us dialed in right away and was a painless and efficient process.
Features of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
We found the software for this router to be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the interface is easy to use; we doubt more novice users will get confused using it. The converse for this is that compared to actual gaming routers, it’s less robust. You get fewer fine controls and not as much flexibility as some other offerings.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Quality of Service (QoS) offers a reasonable solution to allow for some adjustability. The choices include Gaming (which was used for our testing), Standard, Streaming, Surfing, and Chatting. There is also a Custom setting to allow for finer control of prioritization of traffic when your network needs don’t fit into a preset setting. There is also an option for Device Prioritization, so for example you can make sure your Gaming PC gets a higher priority than other clients on the network.
Security of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The security functionality on the Archer AX6000 also strikes a delicate balance between simple and capable. We do like that the AX6000 has integrated network security, and are glad that the subscription is included, taking it a notch above budget routers. The security is powered by Trend Micro, but the functions are limited to just three: a Malicious Content Filter, an Intrusion Prevention System, and Infected Device Quarantine. There’s also a Parental Controls function to limit screen time for younger family members.
Performance of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
2.4 GHz near
2.4 GHz far
5 GHz near
5 GHz far
132 Mbps
76 Mbps
789 Mbps
301 Mbps
The TP-Link Archer AX6000 proved to be quite stable during our testing. We connected a variety of clients to it, including laptops with Intel chips, an iPhone, and multiple Android smartphones. All devices connected easily and consistently to the AX6000.
Throughput testing with an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 chipset showed decent, although unexceptional Wi-Fi 6 speeds. At the time that this router was introduced the speeds were quite solid, but given newer Wi-Fi 6E gear and the significantly faster speeds offered, the AX6000 feels more mid-range than it did in 2019. While the 5 GHz near speed of 789 Mbps is certainly solid, the throughput on the 2.4 GHz of 132 Mbps when close, and 76 Mbps on the far test offered no significant advantage over even older 802.11ac routers.
Testing Configuration
QoS
FRAPS Avg
Max
8K Dropped Frames
Pingplotter Spikes
Latency
Ethernet
no
123.7
158
n/a
0
235
Ethernet + 10 8k videos
no
96.8
121
34.90%
3
259
Ethernet + 10 8k videos
yes
119.4
146
28.80%
2
259
5 GHz
no
127.3
149
n/a
0
249
5 GHz + 10 8k videos
no
119.3
147
14.10%
0
275
5 GHz + 10 8k videos
yes
120.7
140
49.90%
1
257
2.4 GHz
no
123.6
156
n/a
0
68
2.4 GHz + 10 8k videos
no
45.2
91
16.30%
9
156
2.4 GHz + 10 8k videos
yes
88.8
123
47.20%
11
306
Again, the AX6000 showed its strengths and weaknesses in our testing. We did obtain some definitely fast gaming scores on our test game of Overwatch, such as 123.7 fps when wired, and an even slightly faster frame rate of 127.3 fps when connected via 5 GHz, both with nothing else running.
From a gameplay standpoint, when connected via 5 GHz, the fps were well maintained, both without the QoS at 119.3 FPS, and a slightly faster, and close to wired speed of 120.7 fps with the QoS activated with our ten 8K videos streaming in the background.
We also had some concerns, such as the high latency on all of the wired connection testing situations that went as high 259 milliseconds. The 2.4 GHz gaming score with background video congestion without QoS dragged to a much slower 45.2 fps. While activating the QoS improved the frame rate to 88.8 fps, we were disappointed to see how much the video streaming got sacrificed as the dropped frames went from 16.3% to a stuttering 47.2%.
Pricing of the TP-Link Archer AX6000
A strong point of this AX6000 is the pricing. At a suggested retail price of $299, it’s an affordable way to acquire a robust higher-end Wi-Fi 6 router. And street price seems to consistently hover at $269 at the time of this writing, dropping this router more solidly into the mid-range category in terms of pricing.
Conclusion
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The TP-Link AX6000 is a decent mid-range router, offering good value for the dollar. We like the solid 5 GHz throughput speeds, the high fps gaming scores when connected via Ethernet or 5 GHz, the integrated 8 port switch, and the included security subscription.
But there are some shortcomings, including slower 2.4 GHz throughput (at this point only really an issue with older devices), the high dropped frame rate on video streaming with QoS activated for gaming, the simplified interface, and the lack of tri-band. Overall, for a general-purpose, mid-range router, there is plenty to like about the AX6000, including decent overall gaming performance.
But if maximum gaming speed is your priority and your network is often congested by lots of people and devices vying for bandwidth, you may want to spend more on something that handles this better, with less latency and frame drops. TP-Link’s own Archer AX11000 performed better on that front for about $100 more, while also delivering an extra 5 GHz band to ease congestion. But that router also suffered from a fair amount of dropped frames in our congestion testing.
Apple managed to surprise us during its live stream event earlier this week by announcing a new iPhone. Well, a new color for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini: purple. Apple sent one to us along with some sample AirTags and so we have duly taken some photos of this, a purple iPhone 12.
It’s a lightish shade of purple. One might be tempted to call it lavender, but to me it’s a bit more like a lilac or maybe a wisteria. It lacks the redness you’d expect in a mauve or the blue tones you’d see in a violet. There are many shades of purple, but this one is what Apple went with and I like it. It’s unmistakable even at a distance, whereas the light green iPhone 12 models could be mistaken for off-white in certain light. I am also glad it doesn’t have a fancy name. It’s just “purple.”
The purple iPhone 12 is in all other ways the same as the other colors of the iPhone 12: it is very fast, has a very nice screen, 5G, and great cameras. It’s just a little more royal.
Here are some more photos of the purple iPhone 12.
A purple iPhone 12.
A purple iPhone 12.
A purple iPhone 12.
A purple iPhone 12.
A purple iPhone 12 and an AirTag.
Alongside the purple iPhone, Apple also released its AirTags location trackers. Here’s a first look at those:
They work super well, and they’re one more thing keeping you on the iPhone
I was starting to get really worried that I wouldn’t find my friend.
For this first look at AirTags, I sent Vjeran Pavic off into an unfamiliar city with a single Apple AirTag and no phone, no smartwatch, or any other mode of communication. The challenge was to see if Apple’s Find My system for locating AirTags would be able to lead me to him.
Apple AirTags weren’t designed for an elaborate game of hide-and-seek. They can help you locate anything they’re attached to; most of the time you’ll be listening for their little chirps as you hunt down the keys you inexplicably left sitting on top of the fridge instead of on the hook where they belong. For that purpose they work incredibly well, right on down to a little arrow on the iPhone’s screen pointing in the direction and little haptic taps as encouragement that you’re getting warmer.
But this exercise was a very good stress test for the new $29 iPhone accessory ($99 for a four pack), because it meant that the only chance I had of tracking Vjeran down is if one of the near-billion Find My-enabled devices on the planet happened to pick up the AirTag’s Bluetooth signal and send it back to me.
After a half-hour of walking around, I finally found him. He was standing on a street corner with no foot traffic whatsoever, which meant that the intermittent signals I got detailing his location came from a couple of iPhones in cars that were driving by.
That’s impressive.
AirTags have been rumored for years but never seemed to materialize. They’re really here now and though I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re worth the wait, I do think Apple has put together a thoughtfully designed system that goes a long way toward ensuring privacy and safety while still making it easier for you to locate your stuff.
AirTags are a very Apple-y Apple product, and that ends up being great but also just a little annoying (and, for third-party companies like Tile, troubling).
AirTags
The basics of AirTags are simple enough to understand: each one is a tiny little puck with a Bluetooth Low Energy radio and a U1 ultra-wideband (UWB) chip. You pair it with your iPhone just like you do with AirPods, holding it nearby and then tapping through a short setup process. After that, they’re available in a new “Items” tab in the Find My app.
From the app, you can set the AirTags to chirp, mark them as lost (which enables some different features), or just tap the button that lets you locate them in space. If you have an iPhone with UWB, it can locate the AirTag in physical space and point a little arrow at it when you get within four feet or so. It all works very well and is very satisfying.
From a design perspective, an AirTag is classic Apple. It’s a white and shiny silver little button, and you can have custom emoji or letters printed on the plastic. They are as cute as the buttons they resemble.
However, you’ll soon find the plastic is scuffed and the chrome on the back is scratched. Sincerely, do not expect these to stay looking pristine for long — not since the weird early days of the iPod nano has an Apple product gotten scuffed this easily.
One clever touch is that the plastic body itself serves as the speaker. It’s what vibrates to make the chirping noise. It gets plenty loud, though my old ears had a bit of a difficult time using just that sound to locate one. Also, if for whatever reason the AirTag is squeezed or compressed, that will dampen how loud it can get.
There’s also no hole on them for a lanyard loop. If you want to actually attach one to anything instead of dropping it in a pocket, you’ll need to buy an accessory. That, increasingly, also feels like a classic Apple move.
The one un-Apple part of the design is that the battery is actually user-replaceable. A little twist of the bottom reveals a standard CR2032 cell, which Apple claims should be good for a year of battery life.
The real trick — and the hidden complexity — arises when you are tracking an AirTag out in the world, when something is truly lost. Like everything in Apple’s Find My network, the AirTag’s location is end-to-end encrypted so only you can see its location. But any iOS device can send that location to you.
If somebody comes upon a lost AirTag, they can tap it via NFC to see information about it, including its serial number (which could be important if you think it’s being used to track you). If the owner has put it in “Lost Mode,” they have the option to have that information page show their phone number and a brief message so you can contact them. This NFC feature works equally well with iPhones and Android devices.
That means all it takes to locate an AirTag is for any iPhone with Bluetooth on to see it — even if that iPhone is whizzing by in a car. Apple is leveraging its huge network of devices as a competitive advantage here — along with the competitive advantage of directly offering this functionality as a system-level feature. Tile has asked Congress to look into that.
The pairing process for AirTags is just like pairing AirPods.
A Bluetooth device broadcasting anything is a potential privacy risk, so Apple is cycling each AirTag’s Bluetooth identifier “frequently.” More than that, though, Apple has also done some work to develop a system that also considers personal safety.
If the Find My network notices that an AirTag has been separated from its owner for a while and seems to be in the same place you are, it will alert you. If you’re an iPhone user, you’ll see a notification that says “AirTag Found Moving With You.”
A bunch of AirTags.
Apple says that there are options to disable these “Safety Alerts” if you are “borrowing” something. But the real purpose is clear: to protect you from somebody using an AirTag to surreptitiously track you.
When you see the alert, you can tap the notification to get a screen that will allow you to make the AirTag start beeping. The alert will also instruct you on how to disable the AirTag by removing the battery.
Finally, Apple says, “If you feel your safety is at risk, contact your local law enforcement who can work with Apple. You might need to provide the AirTag or its serial number.” Apple won’t be able to provide your location, but it could provide governments with information related to the person who registered the AirTag as theirs in the first place.
If you’re an Android user, well, virtually none of this is going to work for you. However, the AirTag does have at least one potential trick. If it’s been separated from its owner and then detects that it’s suddenly on the move, it will start beeping.
All in all, I think it’s a thoughtfully designed system, but it’s also definitely one that leverages Apple’s strengths.
An AirTag.
Really, the AirTag is the Most Apple Product I’ve seen in a while. It’s just a little more expensive than the competition. It’s beautifully designed, but its hardware still somehow fails to actually take the practical realities of our dirty, messy world into account. It’s very privacy-focused. It really only works with Apple devices. It offers features that no third-party device can really match thanks to Apple’s tight integration (or tight grip on its APIs, depending on your point of view). And since there’s no Android version of Find My, it’s another piece of the Apple ecosystem that’s going to keep you from switching.
An AirTag is a very Apple-y thing for Apple users who already live in Apple’s ecosystem. They work great — and will be great at keeping you in Apple’s world.
Apple is getting ready to announce a raft of software updates for the iPhone and iPad in June according to a new report from Bloomberg, including “the most significant update to the [iPad’s] Home Screen since first launching the product in 2010.”
The new versions of iOS and iPadOS — iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 — will be unveiled at Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 7th, says Bloomberg. Last year’s iOS 14 update was announced at WWDC on June 22nd, before becoming available for download on September 16th in time to accompany the iPhone 12 release.
Bloomberg’s story has a host of details about what to expect from the latest versions of Apple’s mobile software, but here are the biggest points:
New notification filters based on user status. From a new menu accessible from the Lock Screen and Control Center, users will have more granular control over how notifications are displayed (do they play sounds or not, for example) based on whether they’re driving, sleeping, at work, or have turned on Do Not Disturb mode.
iPad home screen upgrade. This will reportedly include the ability to add widgets (introduced in iOS last year). Bloomberg doesn’t offer any more details, but claims this will be the most significant update to the iPad home screen since the product launched.
Quick access to privacy data. A new menu will reportedly let users see what information apps are collecting about them. Presumably this would tap the same data used by Apple for new “privacy labels” introduced to the App Store last December.
Updated iOS Lock Screen. This will include access to the above privacy menu. It’s not clear if any other changes are coming.
Social upgrades for iMessage. New features would help iMessage compete with WhatsApp “with the eventual goal of acting as more of a social network.” But Bloomberg says these are “still early in development” and might be announced later this year.
Minor updates for macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Apple launched a big redesign for macOS last year with Big Sur, so it seems right to expect only small changes this time round.
These are the first reliable rumors we’ve heard about what to expect from iOS and iPadOS 15, though they aren’t particularly surprising. Updated notification filters and access to app data are solid additions but not splashy features. Meanwhile, giving iPadOS the same widgets available in iOS is welcome but hardly a major change. Given that the iPad Pro got upgraded with a beefy M1 processor this week, we’re still hoping that Apple will be a bit more ambitious about what its tablets can deliver in future in terms of software. Bloomberg’s report doesn’t suggest a leap forward but we’ll have to wait for WWDC to see.
Meanwhile, iOS 14.5 is set to arrive next week featuring support for Apple’s new AirTag item trackers, and the company’s new podcast features.
Apple’s new TV calibration feature, which uses the iPhone’s front-facing sensors to sense and tweak the output of the Apple TV, works with the company’s older streaming boxes, 9to5Mac reports. The new feature will arrive with tvOS 14.5, which is due to release “early next week” for the 2017 Apple TV 4K and 2015 Apple TV HD. Apple says viewers will see “much more accurate colors and improved contrast” after calibration.
The calibration feature was announced alongside the new Apple TV 4K. It works by having you hold up the front of your iPhone to your TV, so it can sense how the screen is outputting different colors. If the phone’s light sensor sees that color is being outputted inaccurately, the Apple TV can adjust its output to compensate. The process only covers the Apple TV’s content, and won’t affect the TV’s built in apps or other devices it has plugged in.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple TV HD and 4K owners can access the calibration feature via the Video and Audio section in the Settings app. As well as requiring an Apple TV updated to tvOS 14.5, the feature also requires Face ID-equipped iPhone running iOS 14.5. Both FlatPanelsHDandCNETnote that the feature doesn’t work on TVs with Dolby Vision enabled after testing it with older Apple TVs running the latest tvOS 14.5 beta build, though it’s not immediately clear why this is.
Between this and the news that Apple’s redesigned Siri Remote will also work with older Apple TVs, Apple is making it pretty easy for existing Apple TV owners to hold off on upgrading.
(Pocket-lint) – The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite joins the Mi Watch as a part of a duo that wants to put smarts on your wrist for significantly less money than an Apple Watch or a Samsung smartwatch.
If the Mi Watch is considered affordable, then the Mi Watch Lite is proper cheap, going toe-to-toe with a raft of Amazfit Bip watches available around this price – and other budget options you should probably steer clear of.
For that cut price, the Mi Watch Lite offers a mix of smartwatch and fitness tracking features and battery life that can make it through a week. You’ll inevitably have to live with some shortcomings, but it feels like ones that don’t detract from what is a decent budget smartwatch.
Design & Display
Measures: 41 x 35 x 11.9mm / Weighs: 35g
1.39-inch display, 320 x 320 resolution
Size options: 41mm
5ATM waterproof
Like the first Mi Watch – the one that never made it out of China – the Mi Watch Lite is a square affair, featuring a 41mm case made from plastic.
Pocket-lint
It weighs in at 35g, so it’s by no means a heavy watch, and it’s paired up with a TPU strap that’s removable. It just takes a bit of time to get it off and get something else on there.
There’s your pick of black, ivory or navy blue case colours, or the choice of five ‘fashionable’ Morandi colours including olive, pink and ivory.
On the wrist, the Mi Watch Lite doesn’t look hugely different from other budget square smartwatches out there and the colour options are nice – but it would be stretch to say it gives them a more stylish look. It’s pleasant enough looking, but the larger Xiaomi Mi Watch is visually more appealing.
The Lite offers a single physical button on the side of the case that’ll wake the screen up and launch the app menu screen. That screen is the touchscreen kind of course. It’s a 1.4-inch TFT LCD type, so not the AMOLED kind you get on the more expensive Mi Watch.
It’s a good quality screen for the price and certainly doesn’t have that washed-out look you sometimes find on smartwatches this cheap. The backlight offers 350 nits of brightness, so it’s not one you’re going to struggle to see at night or during the day. It still offers good colours and it’s generally a nice screen to glance down at.
What’s more problematic is the controls: tapping is prioritised over swiping through screens. You can scroll through some screens, but it’s slow moving when you do it. It’s generally less of a problem if you’re checking a notification or looking at one of the widgets, but when the sweat comes during exercise, it’s more problematic and frustrating to handle.
Like the round Mi Watch, Xiaomi has made the Lite suitable for swimming and showering by slapping it with a 5ATM water resistance rating, which means it’s good at depths up to 50 metres.
Software & Performance
Works with Android and iOS
No third-party app support
Xiaomi uses its own in-house operating system for the on-watch software experience and it has Xiaomi Wear (Android) and Xiaomi Wear Lite (Apple) apps for that time spent away from the watch itself.
Pocket-lint
Our screen control frustrations aside, it’s a very easy watch software to get to grips with. Swipe left and right to see widgets showing off data like heart rate and weather forecasts. The main menu screen is a mere button press away.
Like the Mi Watch, that main menu screen doesn’t include any text, so it’s up to you to quickly establish what launches what here. There’s some simple settings you can tinker with on the watch like screen brightness, watch faces, do not disturb mode, idle alerts, and setting up a password for security.
The companion Xiaomi Wear app is broken up into three sections letting you dig into your health and fitness stats, track workouts from and adjust settings. There’s no third-party app support here, so if you’re thinking of connecting it to the likes of Apple Health or Google Fit, you’re out of luck.
Pocket-lint
The app itself – much like Zepp Health’s Amazfit and Mobvoi’s TicWatch – doesn’t feel the most polished or slick, but it does make it easy to adjust watch settings and delve deeper into your data if you want.
Sports & Fitness Tracking
GPS and GLONASS
Built-in heart rate monitor
24/7 fitness tracking and sleep monitoring
Like the Mi Watch, the Lite is one that’s built to track your fitness and health – and has the key sensors on board to deliver that.
Pocket-lint
There’s built-in GPS and GLONASS satellite support to map outdoor activities. There’s accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors for indoor tracking. And there’s 11 sports modes in total, including running (indoors and outdoor), cycling, trekking, swimming (pool and open water) and freestyle modes for those activities it doesn’t cover.
What you’re missing out from the Mi Watch are the Firstbeat-powered training features, stress tracking, the ability to take blood oxygen measurements, automatic exercise recognitio, and wider satellite support.
As a stripped-back sports and health monitoring watch, the Lite performs pretty well. GPS accuracy during our testing was reliable in comparison to a Garmin running watch. For indoor workouts, heart rate data was usually closely in-line with a chest strap monitor for HIIT and indoor rowing sessions – although we didn’t have to raise the intensity too high outside to see some odd spikes in heart rate.
If you’re less concerned about smashing out burpees and nailing 5K PBs, the Lite’s core fitness tracker features work well without really offering ways to make improvements or motivate you to move more.
Pocket-lint
Step counts during our testing were within acceptable range of the Fitbit Sense, and it’ll capture distance covered and calories burned. It offered similar accuracy to the bigger Mi Watch for sleep monitoring, though doesn’t capture REM sleep stages or offer any kind of insight or advice to improve sleep.
If you choose to continuously monitor your heart rate, then based on our experience, resting and average heart rate data seemed high compared to the data captured on a chest strap and a heart rate monitoring pulse oximeter. While there’s no stress monitoring here, you do still get guided breathing exercises, though there’s nothing groundbreaking on that front in terms of how it’s delivered.
Smartwatch Features
Over 120 watch faces
View notifications
Music controls
For this low price you’re obviously not going to get an Apple Watch equivalent here, so you won’t be able to make payments, put music on it, or even download apps.
Pocket-lint
What you can do is view notifications from a paired Android or iPhone, control music playing on your phone from native and third-party apps, check weather forecasts and set alarms.
Notifications can only be displayed and not acted on and some messages can look a little messy at times in the manner they’re displayed. Music playback controls work well and dedicated screens to show-off weather data work without issue, so there’s definitely some nice elements here.
You do get a nice array of watch faces too, with the ability to store multiple faces on the watch itself and download more from the watch store, which you can find in the companion app. There’s a good mix of analogue and digital faces and additional ones if you want to pack it with data or keep things simple.
Pocket-lint
That’s really your lot though. Aside from some timer and alarm features, Xiaomi keeps it basic, which some will be satisfied with and others possibly not so much.
Battery Life
Up to 9 days in typical use
10 hours GPS battery life
The Mi Watch Lite comes packing a 230mAh capacity battery, which Xiaomi says will get you up to 9 days in typical use. That typical use is based on lab tests where heart rate monitoring was set to be the biggest interval option, 100 notifications were received by the watch, and it tracked one 35-minute outdoor exercise session a week.
Pocket-lint
The likelihood is that most people are probably going to be working out more than once a week or wanting to monitor heart rate with more detail. Our testing time didn’t reflect Xiaomi’s lab testing conditions. We had continuous heart rate monitoring on at 5 minute intervals, had notifications turned on and tracked five outdoor and indoor workouts a week. It ended up lasting about 5 days in our testing time, which is short by 4 days of that claimed 9 days life per charge.
Those GPS battery life numbers seem to add up as well, offering the kind of drop off in 30 minute and 1 hour outdoor runs that suggest it could reach to those 10 hours when you want that hit of mapping data.
Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today
By Britta O’Boyle
·
Our guide to the top fitness trackers available, helping you count steps, track calories, monitor your heart rate, sleep patterns and more.
When it comes to charging, there’s a large cradle that clips around the back of the watch and you’ll have no concerns it’s going to budge or fall out when it’s charging. It’s pretty well locked in place.
Verdict
The Xiaomi Watch Lite is a cheap smartwatch that is surprisingly nice to live with once you accept the compromises you have to make with it.
You’re not going to get that same high-quality display or some of the richer health and fitness features and insights you’ll get on the Mi Watch, but what remains offers a familiar and good experience.
It’s a solid albeit basic fitness tracker, competent smartwatch, and doesn’t do too badly as a budget sportswatch all considered. Compared to smartwatches in and around it at this price, the Mi Watch Lite stands out for the right reasons.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Amazfit GTS 2
If you can stretch to spend more, the GTS 2 will get you a more impressive hardware and richer fitness tracking and smartwatch features.
For years, tech companies like Facebook and Amazon have faced the brunt of antitrust criticism by Congress, and Apple has gotten far fewer questions. But that changed on Wednesday, when Congress finally sunk its teeth into Apple as part of a hearing titled “Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores.”
The hearing brought in representatives from companies like Spotify, Tile, and Match Group, a dating app company, to explain how Apple’s App Store fees and walled-garden business strategy harms their companies. All three companies gave harsh testimony, accusing the iPhone-maker of anti-competitive behavior over the burdensome fees it charges some app developers on its App Store.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Apple, coming just a day after the company announced an iPhone-linked item tracker called the AirTag in direct competition with Tile. Speaking to Congress, Tile’s General Counsel Kirsten Daru said that once Apple decided to develop its own item-tracking devices and services in 2019, the two companies’ friendly relationship dissolved.
“If Apple turned on us, it can turn on anyone,” Daru told lawmakers. “And Apple has demonstrated that it won’t change unless someone makes them, making legislation so critical.”
Apple’s shifting platform relationships were a theme in the hearing, with each company testifying to how quickly Cupertino’s collaborative outreach could turn competitive. Match’s Chief Legal Officer Jared Sine told lawmakers that app store fees amount to the company’s single largest expense, totaling around a fifth of the company’s total sales. Spotify’s Head of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer Horacio Gutierrez said that Apple’s business model equated to “a classic bait and switch,” luring developers into its app store and suddenly changing the terms to benefit the iPhone-maker.
“We all appreciate app stores and the roles that Apple and Google have played in helping to create many of the technologies that have defined our age,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chair of the subcommittee, said on Wednesday. “We’re not angry about success… It’s about new products coming on. It’s about new competitors emerging. This situation, to me, doesn’t seem like that’s happening.”
WHAT IT MEANS
Sen. Klobuchar, who chairs the committee, is using these hearings to build support for her Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Act, which she introduced in February. The bill’s provisions don’t line up perfectly with the App Store problem, but there are a few key provisions that would make it easier for companies like Tile to push back against Apple. In particular, the bill would make it less difficult for law enforcement to bring cases against tech companies for engaging in “exclusionary” conduct, something Sen. Klobuchar has been eager to highlight in interviews.
“I don’t think people realize there’s this 15 to 30 percent tax on major companies people enjoy getting music from, like Spotify, that Apple or Google assesses, that there’s all this exclusionary conduct going on,” Klobuchar told Axios on Wednesday.
For the most part, the companies giving testimony seemed happy to agree. Throughout the hearing, all three representatives argued that legislation is necessary for companies like Apple to change their behavior. But Spotify and Tile argued that the committee should also look into proposing federal legislation specifically targeting app stores.
“We respectfully request that some consideration be given to app stores right now,” Tile’s Daru said in light of discussion over Klobuchar’s larger bill.
Outside of federal legislation, states like Arizona have introduced their own measures to make developer-friendly changes to Google and Apple’s app stores. Many of these bills, like Arizona’s, have failed following intense lobbying efforts by tech.
“They are fighting so hard because it’s core to the maintenance of their monopoly,” Sine said.
THE HIGHLIGHT
Biden’s nominee to be the next Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission is also ready to turn up the heat on the App Store. At Lina Khan’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, Klobuchar asked Khan about the power companies like Apple and Google have in regards to their app stores:
Khan: It’s really the source of the power. Basically, there’s two main options so that gives these companies the power to really set the term in this market in some cases. I think you’re absolutely right that certain terms and conditions really lack any type of beneficial justifications. So, I think in those cases we need to be especially skeptical and really look closely.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Earlier this year, Klobuchar said that the committee would hold a series of hearings aimed at competition in the tech sector, including Facebook and Google’s dominance in the ad market. The hearings have yet to be scheduled.
Apple’s Mac computers typically come with a one-year warranty that you can optionally extend to three years by purchasing AppleCare Plus. The extended warranty also adds coverage for accidents and physical damage. But now, Apple is giving Mac customers the choice to keep AppleCare Plus going for even longer than the usual three-year limit.
As noticed by MacRumors, there’s a new support page that confirms people in the United States can convert AppleCare Plus into an indefinite annual subscription once the coverage they paid for upfront lapses. Apple says the recurring annual coverage must be purchased “within 30 days of the end date of your original coverage.” Once you’ve moved to annual billing, it renews automatically.
AppleCare Plus covers up to two incidents of accidental damage each year. Accident claims require a $99 deductible for a damaged display or external damage. More severe damage (like water incidents) have a deductible of $299. Either way, it’s far cheaper than paying for out-of-warranty repairs or buying a new Mac altogether.
Presumably this new policy means that Apple will continue to support covered Macs for as long as it has repair parts for a given machine. Part of Apple’s terms and conditions on this says the company will automatically cancel your plan (and provide 60 days’ notice) if it doesn’t have the necessary parts anymore.
AppleCare Plus falls under Apple’s services division, so giving customers the option to stretch out their warranties means more peace of mind for them — and more revenue for Apple.
Apple’s extended warranty for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch can also be converted into continued monthly coverage for customers who bought upfront coverage, which normally covers those products for a total of two years. As with the Mac, the renewing coverage must be purchased within 30 days of the original coverage end date.
Apple’s AirTags have one feature not mentioned during the announcement yesterday: they’ll work with Android to a limited extent. As 9to5Mac noted, there’s a support article on Apple’s site that details how AirTags will work with an Android device if you don’t have your iPhone handy.
The way AirTags function is by securely communicating with Bluetooth devices and iPhones equipped with ultra-wideband that are in the area. If AirTags exclusively worked with Apple devices it would severely limit their effectiveness, particularly in regions where iPhones aren’t as popular as Android.
Any NFC-equipped phone should be able to just tap the AirTag to get more details.Image: Apple
AirTags won’t work out of the box with an Android device, nor can you use an Android device in lieu of an iPhone with one. Instead, it will only work with Android devices equipped with NFC and only communicate when the AirTags are in Lost Mode.
First, you’ll need to use your iPhone to activate Lost Mode, which is supposed to show you on a map where your AirTag has wandered off to. Then if someone with an Android device finds your lost AirTag, they can hold it up to their NFC-equipped phone and get details on how to contact you. They’ll only be able to get details if the Lost Mode is activated, which should help with privacy concerns.
The Android support makes AirTags way more useful, but if you want the full experience on an Android device, you’ll probably want to take a gander at Tile’s offerings. The company is reportedly working on an AirTag competitor that should work on both iOS and Android. Samsung also has its own AirTag competitor, Galaxy SmartTags. Like the AirTags and planned Tile offering, the Galaxy SmartTags use UWB to provide a more exact location for a lost tag. The Galaxy SmartTags only work with Samsung Galaxy phones, but unlike AirTags and the Tile tag, Galaxy SmartTags are available now and start at $29.99.
Apple’s latest iPad Pro might look very similar to the model it’s replacing, but it contains several major upgrades on the inside. It’s got the same powerful, energy-efficient M1 chip as the latest MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and now the redesigned iMac. Cellular models have made the jump to 5G. The front-facing camera can zoom and pan to keep you in focus on video calls. But aside from the processor, the biggest technical leap is exclusive to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro: it’s what Apple calls the “Liquid Retina XDR,” a new display that adopts Mini LED backlighting to achieve higher brightness and greater contrast than any iPad (or Mac) that the company has ever made.
Apple says the 12.9-inch iPad Pro can reach 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness — on par with the ultra-expensive Pro Display XDR — and portions of the screen can hit an eye-searing 1,600 nits when playing HDR content. That’s brighter than many 4K HDR TVs on the market.
For comparison’s sake, the previous iPad Pro topped out at 600 nits. Full stop. These measurements also obliterate Apple’s Mac lineup. The 16-inch MacBook Pro can go up to 500 nits. The flashy 24-inch iMac introduced yesterday? Also 500 nits. Things move a little closer when you look at the iPhone 12 Pro’s OLED screen, which can hit a max brightness of 800 nits and 1,200 in HDR.
But Apple isn’t yet ready to make the switch to OLED for its tablets, and the reasoning probably comes down to the brightness advantage of Mini LED — plus the company’s promise that this iPad Pro, with its fancy display, still has the standard 10-hour battery life that iPad users have come to expect. Either way, this is an upgrade that should be plainly evident to the eye.
What is Mini LED?
Unlike OLED, where individual pixels are self-illuminating and can fully turn off when not needed, Mini LED is more of a natural progression from the LCD screens that have become such a mainstay of consumer electronics. But where this new approach differentiates itself is in the size and quantity of LEDs behind the screen. During its Spring Loaded event, Apple’s Heidi Delgado said that the previous iPad Pro had 72 LEDs, but the new “Liquid Retina XDR” manages to pack in over 10,000 of them. Apple accomplished this by miniaturizing the LEDs to a size “120 times smaller in volume than the previous design.”
Apple says the 12.9-inch iPad Pro has over 10,000 LEDs.Image: Apple
The Mini LEDs are grouped into over 2,500 local dimming zones that can individually brighten and dim based on whatever’s being shown on the display. This granular level of control, according to Delgado, results in customers “seeing the brightest highlights along with subtle details in the darkest parts of an image.”
The dimming zones can light up and dim based on what’s on-screen.
Apple isn’t first to Mini LED
Though this might be the first time Mini LED has found its way into a tablet, the technology has already appeared in TVs. TCL really sparked the trend in 2019, and apparently Samsung and LG took notice: their higher-end 2021 LCD TVs now utilize Mini LED backlighting as well.
A visualization of TCL’s Mini LED implementation on its TVs.Image: TCL
Here’s how TCL explains the visual improvements:
LED LCD TVs have two parts of the display that combine together to create an image. The “LCD” (liquid crystal display) part of the display creates a picture and the “LED” (light-emitting diode) part of the display makes light that shines through the picture so your eyes can see it. So the benefit of thousands of precisely controlled mini-LEDs in an active matrix backlight is more powerful light that is more smoothly distributed across the screen, more precisely controlled for sharp contrast and more effective in creating vividly saturated colors that dazzle the eye. Mini-LED simply delivers dramatically better picture performance.
The huge uptick in LEDs could also result in improved panel uniformity; some owners of the previous 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros have observed uneven backlighting. Having exchanged one or two for this very reason, I can vouch. The “panel lottery” is a thing with pretty much any device — TVs, laptops, tablets, etc. — but making the move to Mini LED should help with consistency.
What’s this I hear about MicroLED?
MicroLED is seen as the next major leap in TV display technology and the potential successor to OLED. It shares many of OLED’s best traits (like self-emissive LEDs), ups the brightness, and comes without most of the associated drawbacks since the technology is inorganic. But right now, MicroLED is extremely cost prohibitive and really only found in ultra-premium luxury TVs from Samsung.
Final impressions on the new iPad Pro will need to wait until we get it in our hands. But as someone who uses the previous 12.9-inch model daily for productive and creative purposes, I’m very curious to see what Mini LED adds to the iPad experience.
Apple’s new AirTag trackers are finally here after years of rumors. The $29 trackers work with Apple’s Find My network, utilizing both Bluetooth and UWB technology to help owners track anything from their keys to their bags.
But the design of the new trackers is somewhat controversial: unlike most Bluetooth trackers, Apple’s iteration doesn’t include a built-in key ring loop. The subsequent debate has shattered the tranquility of The Verge’s newsroom over whether Apple’s somewhat Spartan design is brilliant or bogus. Well, at least between two of the most genteel Verge staffers, Jon Porter and Chaim Gartenberg.
Artist’s rendering of an AirTag design featuring a keychain hole punch.Image: Apple
Jon Porter, reporter: Debate me, coward
Chaim Gartenberg, news editor: Gladly!
Jon: Let’s start with a point that we’ll definitely both agree on: it’s a relief to see the AirTags’ battery is user-replaceable. It sounds like such a basic point, but considering Apple’s track record with its AirPods, Magic Mouse, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook line, Magic Keyboard — wait does anything else Apple makes have replaceable batteries? — it wasn’t a guarantee. Tile’s keychain-focused Mate and Pro trackers have removable batteries, but its Sticker (which has a very similar form factor to the AirTag) doesn’t.
Chaim: I will grant you that easily accessible, user-replaceable batteries are always a good thing. And on a whole, the overall aesthetics of the AirTags are nice, with a two-tone shiny white plastic / chrome back that’s vaguely reminiscent of the old iPods to me. But the overly sleek Apple design highlights the biggest issue I have here: there’s no built-in loop or hole to attach a key ring.
The AirTag is a product that’s designed to track your keys, and yet it offers no way to actually attach itself to those keys out of the box, something that’s practically table stakes from Tile, Chipolo, and virtually every other Bluetooth tracker from the last decade.
Jon: I hear you, but I think Apple’s approach is better. It means it can sell just one version of the AirTag to track whatever item you want, rather than selling different devices whether you want to track your keys, or your bike, or your jacket. Just buy an AirTag and buy whatever accessory you need to attach it. And for what it’s worth, I really like the design of the little holder accessory they’re selling to attach the AirTag to a set of keys.
Chaim: That little keychain accessory costs $35, which is more than an entire AirTag. Even Apple’s cheapest AirTag case, the $30 plastic loop, which doesn’t look like it’ll even be useful for attaching to keys. This is just Apple’s typical accessory tax, forced onto customers because of an intentional choice of aesthetic form over useful function.
And don’t get me started on the Hermès accessories…
Jon: Okay fine, I’m not going to argue that the $349 Hermès key ring isn’t incredibly stupid, and it would be nice if the leather key ring actually included an AirTag at that price. The setup is too expensive, period, and hopefully third-party accessory manufacturers will step in to fill the demand for cheap keychain holders.
But more importantly, I think separating the tech bit from the holder bit makes sense for an accessory that’s going to have to withstand so much abuse on a daily basis. Keys can be sharp, and they beat up anything that shares a pocket with them, so I’d prefer it if that thing that gets beaten up is a holder rather than the core piece of technology.
Look at a Tile key fob tracker that’s been used for a couple of years, and it looks grimy as hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people end up replacing the whole device when the battery runs out, just so they can get a shiny new tracker. But when your AirTag keychain inevitably starts looking worse for wear, you just replace the holder rather than the tracker itself.
Chaim: These are all valid points, but you’re ignoring the fact that these accessories and protective cases could all exist in addition to including a cutout to directly attach a key ring. There’s already a similar cottage industry of accessories for Tile’s trackers for those who want them, and with the marketing power of Apple behind it, there’s no reason to think that AirTags wouldn’t have eclipsed that level of interest from accessory makers, even if it did have a cutout for a key ring.
It’s not that cases are bad — Apple’s leather option does look great and is almost definitely a more robust option than my hypothetical cutout. But it’d be nice to give customers the choice, instead of just forcing them into an option that requires spending more money right from the start.
Jon: At a certain point, though, you’re running up against physical limitations, and Apple has to pick its battles. I’m already seeing some of our esteemed colleagues in Slack complaining about how thick these trackers are, which I’d wager is because Apple prioritized building in a removable battery. Adding a loop with enough space for a key chain to go through adds yet more bulk. You have to draw the line somewhere.
Chaim: Fair enough. So, Jon, are you buying an AirTag tracker?
Jon: Honestly, I’m going to wait to see how the third-party accessories work out. If I can get a half-decent leather keychain holder for the equivalent of $20 or so, then I think it makes a lot of sense spending $50 all-in with the tracker itself. Yourself?
Chaim: I might buy one to stick in my luggage at some point, but I generally don’t lose my keys enough to need to invest in a tracker for them (famous last words, potentially). Especially not at the $65 price tag that Apple is asking for a full key ring setup.
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