Author: angel

The public beta version of iOS 17 is out. Here are some of my favorite parts so far.

On my home desk is an iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 17 on a MagSafe charger. The screen shows a giant clock that every so often fades into an alert for a new message from my friend. I can swipe up and down to change the style of the clock between one that looks chic to one that’s more artistic and another that’s straight out of the ’80s. Apple calls this screen StandBy, and I adore it. StandBy is different from using your phone’s always-on display. It transforms the iPhone into a bedside clock or a smart display showing photos and widgets. It’s versatility is compelling because it feels contemporary and looks more like a miniature iPad than my iPhone.

The new feature is one of many additions coming in iOS 17 that Apple announced last month and just publicly launched in beta. Though iOS 17 was largely overshadowed by Apple’s Vision Pro headset announcement, there are many new features worth your time and attention in this upcoming iPhone update. The software is in beta and you shouldn’t install it onto your primary iPhone as you may experience the occasional bug or glitch.

For me, nearly everything in iOS 17 falls into one of four categories that I made up: delightful features, intuitive improvements, personal additions and helpful tools. Those sound like Jeopardy categories, but they all add up to an iOS that’s a major quality of life improvement.

Like the last few years of Apple software updates, iOS 17 doesn’t alter your iPhone in major ways and instead adds a bunch of customizations and features you can choose to use or just plain ignore. There are still features I’d like to see Apple add, like an onscreen volume button for the iPhone’s virtual Apple TV remote. The final version of iOS 17 will be out this fall, likely when the rumored iPhone 15 is announced. For a more comprehensive deep dive into everything that’s new in iOS 17, check out my previous story here.

iOS 17 delightful features
The iPhone has a number of features, apps and utilities that are just plain fun to use. And iOS 17 adds even more to what’s already available.

With iOS 17, your iPhone has a home screen, a lock screen, an always on display (if you have a 14 Pro) and that new StandBy screen. When I turn my iPhone on its side while charging, the StandBy screen automatically pops up in lieu of the always-on display. It’s basically a giant clock that can also show photos, a calendar, widgets and notifications. It’s perfect for a nightstand, desk or kitchen counter.

I’ve been using the Belkin Boost Charge Pro 2-in-1 stand, but any physical stand that charges via MagSafe should work.

I like how everything flows in StandBy mode. If I receive a notification while the clock is on screen, my phone displays a simple animation that transitions between the two. If I want to change up the StandBy screen, I can swipe up to select a different style or layout. It can display my photos and live activities, too. When it’s dark (like when you’re sleeping) the StandBy screen turns red, reminiscent of a red light in a darkroom for developing photos.

Another delightful feature is Stickers in Messages. Though message stickers aren’t new, iOS 17 brings many more of them, including emoji stickers. These are useful when you want to be more specific with your expression rather than just responding to a message with a Tapback thumbs up, thumbs down, heart, laugh, question mark or exclamation points.

iMessage apps are no longer located above the keyboard. Instead, they now have their own dedicated menu, which is where you’ll find the Stickers section. Tap the plus sign button on the bottom left of the Messages app to pull it up, and then select Stickers. A Stickers tray pops up with tabs for all your existing iMessage stickers, another tab for emoji stickers and, my favorite, one for customized stickers. And it’s the customized stickers that are truly amazing.

To make a new one, I tapped the Stickers drawer’s plus sign, selected a photo and tapped the Add Sticker button. The subject of my photo was then lifted out of the picture and transformed into a sticker, while the original photo remained unchanged. From there, I could add an effect right away or edit the sticker later. And it’s now saved in my Stickers’ drawer for future use.

You can use a live photo to make an animated sticker, which might now be the best part of Stickers. This is addictive, and I foresee a future where there are hundreds, thousands, millions(?) of customized animated stickers being sent between iPhones. I exaggerate, but you’ll see once you try it. I have definitely bombarded most of my friends with a bunch of these already.

iOS 17 intuitive improvements

In iOS 17, Apple improved a number of existing features and added a number of new tools that make using your iPhone more intuitive and easier. One of these is the ability to swipe to reply in the Messages app. Inline replies are nothing new, and they definitely help keep group threads from turning into a mess. But being able to swipe to respond to a specific message in iOS 17 is something I can’t believe we haven’t had before. It seems quite obvious.

Then there are home screen widgets, which have been available on the iPhone since 2020. Up to now, widgets have mainly been useful for showing glanceable information or serving as app shortcuts. With iOS 17, widgets become interactive. I can start or pause a podcast straight from the widget, and the same goes for music. Right now in the beta, most of the interactive widgets are Apple’s own apps, so I’m excited to see how non-Apple apps take advantage of the function. Here are the apps that have an interactive widget element so far:

Apple Music.
Apple Podcasts.
Safari.
Home.
Contacts.
Books.
Apple News.
iOS 17 personal additions

Apple added a number of new tools and utilities on iOS 17 that make your iPhone more of a reflection of your style. One of these is contact posters, which basically turn your mundane contact card into a mini movie poster. You can select from a few different templates, like ones that show your initials, a Memoji or a photo of your choosing. This reminds me a lot of the lock screen customizations we got in iOS 16. Your contact card can have a contact poster and a contact photo. And you can share your contact poster using Name Drop, which is a cross between AirDrop and Apple Pay (sans the credit cards). I can hover my iPhone over someone else’s (similar to how you trigger Apple Pay at a contactless payment terminal) and share my contact poster.

I can select the specific phone number or email address I want to share when Name Drop is triggered, which can be helpful if I’m sharing my contact details with a professional colleague and don’t want to hand over my personal email address. And there’s an option to just receive someone else’s contact information, and not share your own.

There’s also another personal addition, aimed at people with pets. The Photos app can now identify and find pet photos better. If I type the word “cat” into the Photos search field, it pulls up all the photos of cats on my phone. Locating pet photos isn’t exactly new, but apparently it works better in IOS 17. For the record, I had 562 cat photos on my phone, which sounds like a lot, but I would’ve thought there were more.

Also, when you pull up a photo of a cat, there’s a new Visual Lookup icon with a tiny cat silhouette on it. There’s a similar icon for dog photos, too. The new icon doesn’t add any functionality but it’s just a nice touch.

There’s also another personal addition, aimed at people with pets. The Photos app can now identify and find pet photos better. If I type the word “cat” into the Photos search field, it pulls up all the photos of cats on my phone. Locating pet photos isn’t exactly new, but apparently it works better in IOS 17. For the record, I had 562 cat photos on my phone, which sounds like a lot, but I would’ve thought there were more.

Also, when you pull up a photo of a cat, there’s a new Visual Lookup icon with a tiny cat silhouette on it. There’s a similar icon for dog photos, too. The new icon doesn’t add any functionality but it’s just a nice touch.

Over 16 years, the iPhone has evolved from being three revolutionary devices in one, as defined by Steve Jobs, into an essential part of our daily lives that serves dozens of different roles, like showing you the weather, letting you hail a ride or letting you pay for a meal. iOS 17 adds even more useful tools, and one of the most conspicuous is live voicemail transcription; basically a modern day equivalent of screening phone calls using an answering machine in the ’80s, ’90s and early-2000s.

As someone who reviews both iPhones and Android, it reminds me of the Call Screen feature on Google Pixel phones. Essentially, when someone calls and starts to leave you a message, you’ll see a live transcription of the voicemail as the person speaks. You can pick up the call to talk to them at any time. I don’t get a ton of phone calls from people I don’t know, but this can go a long way toward minimizing the anxiety that rises when I get a call from an unfamiliar number.

Messages gets a new arrow button that lets you instantly jump to the first unread messages in a conversation. It’s great for long threads where you need to catch up fast. Just tap the arrow to go to the first unread message.

And then there’s Check In, which lets a friend know automatically when you’ve arrived at a destination safely. It’s location sharing taken to another level, and I found it easy to use. In my tests, I found it straightforward, especially since it’s right there in that new Messages pop-up menu.

iOS 17 arrives in full this fall
iOS 17 still has a month or two of testing and tweaks before it’s fully ready for prime time, but I’m impressed with it so far. Like previous iOS releases, there are far more features, tools and improvements that are still waiting to be discovered. But if you have an old iPhone lying around (iOS 17 works with the iPhone XR and newer), or don’t mind dealing with a few glitches here and there, it’s worth downloading the public beta. iOS 17 pushes your iPhone experience forward not by being a radical reimagining of phone software, but rather by refining and expanding on a number of features we already enjoy.

The Nothing Phone 2’s lights stand out, but it’s not without its problems.The first Nothing Phone impressed us with its solid all-round performance, its low price and of course its flashing lights. But it never officially made it to the US, aside from an unusual beta program. This second-generation phone is here to change that.

When it goes on sale in the United States and the wider world from July 16, the Nothing Phone 2 will have a range of upgrades, from the processor to the design. But at $599 and £579 (with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage) it’s $100 more than the first generation, and the competition at this price point has never been more fierce. Especially as my test model with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage actually costs $699.

Google’s Pixel 7A in particular has a slightly better dual camera, and its pure Android 13 software is slick to use. The Pixel 7A’s processor isn’t as powerful as the Nothing Phone 2’s, but the Google phone’s much more affordable $449 price tag more than makes up for that. Then there’s the Pixel 7 Pro — Google’s flagship — which has one of the best cameras it’s possible to find on a phone and is currently on sale (with 128GB of storage) for only $649 at Best Buy. If photography is important to you, I’d recommend spending the small amount extra.

There’s also the OnePlus 10T, which boasts the same powerful Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor as the Nothing Phone 2, has a similar camera setup, and can currently be picked up directly from OnePlus for only $400. Even the OnePlus 10 Pro with its superb camera system is only $480.

The Nothing Phone 2’s flashing LED lights are the main thing that separates it from the competition, and while they’re certainly an interesting quirk, they’re arguably something of a gimmick and not a feature I can see myself genuinely using over time. The phone’s large screen, powerful processor and decent battery life are better reasons to consider buying this device, but at $599, it’s difficult to justify the Nothing Phone 2 over the increasingly strong competition.

A familiar, flashy design
Visually, there hasn’t been a big departure from the first generation. The back is still transparent, letting you see a little of what’s inside the phone, including the exposed screw heads and various connecting segments. The glass is gently curved at the edges now to give it a slightly more premium feel when you hold it.

But it’s the flashing lights — or glyph, as Nothing calls it — that’s the big family resemblance here. Those LEDs light up the back of the phone and can alert you to incoming notifications. Or you can use them for alarms, to show battery charge status, or simply as basic fill light when you’re recording video.

The Phone 2 provides a bit more customization over the glyph this time around, letting you create custom light patterns for certain contacts or apps. There’s also a glyph timer that’ll gradually tick down as it reaches zero, and it can also give a convenient visual cue about other time-related things, such as when your Uber is going to arrive, so you can put it down and focus on sorting out your hair while keeping an eye on its progress. Nothing says it’ll be working with other app developers to integrate this functionality.

The glyph lights certainly made the original phone stand out against the competition, and though they’re arguably something of a gimmick, it’s nice to see a bit of fun and flair in phones. Especially in midrange phones like this, where interesting designs tend to take more of a back seat to keep prices down. The glyph lights have turned heads when I’ve used the Nothing Phone in front of my friends, but interest quickly fades once the initial curiosity is satisfied. Can I genuinely see myself making use of the lights over time? Honestly, no.

But the glyph lights aren’t the only physical things to care about. The aluminum frame is 100% recycled. There’s a fingerprint scanner hidden beneath the display, which works well most of the time. And the phone is IP54 rated to help keep it safe when you have to take calls in the rain. The 6.7-inch display is big and bright enough to do justice to vibrant games or to YouTube videos you’re watching while on the move, and its adaptive refresh rate lets it drop down to only 1Hz to help preserve battery life or ramp up to 120Hz for smoother gaming.

Older chip with big potential
Powering the Nothing Phone 2 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor backed up by either 8GB or 12GB of RAM (as reviewed). That’s a slightly older generation processor, but it’s still a potent chip that can fully handle most things you’d ever want to throw at it, from video streaming to photo editing to gaming. It chalked up some great scores on our benchmark tests, and it handled demanding games like PUBG and Genshin Impact perfectly well at max settings.

Nothing says it used an older chip because it wanted something tried and tested that would offer a more stable platform at a more reasonable price, and I think that’s probably a fair trade-off. Motorola’s foldable Razr Plus is doing the same thing. It might not be the most recent chip Qualcomm makes (that would be the 8 Gen 2), but it’s still something of a powerhouse that’ll cope with almost anything you’d ever want to do with it.

The Phone 2 runs Android 13 at its core, but Nothing has done a lot to customize the interface. It’s a very monochrome experience, with a heavy reliance on dot-matrix style texts and icons. There are a variety of widgets that use these designs, and even the app icons are black and white to keep with that minimal monochrome aesthetic. That could make it quite difficult to find the apps you want if you rely on those color cues, but you can turn this off in the settings if you want.

A feature that I can see being quite handy is creating folders of apps on your homescreen and hiding them behind an icon — I’m imagining filling this folder with my work-specific apps like Outlook, Zoom and Slack and then covering them up with the briefcase symbol so I don’t have to look at them on my weekend. Lovely stuff.

I don’t often like UIs that heavily customize the look of Android, but there’s something quite stylish about the design that Nothing uses on its phones. If you’re into that kind of stark minimalism, then you’ll no doubt enjoy it.

Nothing promises that the Phone 2 will receive three years of OS updates and an additional fourth year of security updates. That’s a little below the five years that Samsung offers on its phones, but it could certainly be worse. Still, I’d hope to see all manufacturers extending their support period up to and beyond five years to keep phones safe to use for longer and therefore keep more of them out of landfills.

Same cameras, better processing
The back of the phone is home to a 50-megapixel main camera and a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera. Hardware-wise, that’s pretty much the same setup we saw on the Nothing Phone 1. But the improved Snapdragon processor allows for a lot better software processing, with Nothing promising improved colors, exposure and better HDR techniques to help you take nicer-looking shots.

I’ve spent some time testing the camera, and I’m pleased to see vibrant, sharp images that look better than the ones I saw from the first generation phone. Still, it isn’t perfect, with some bright skies still being blown out in the highlights and a heavy-handed sharpening that results in odd image anomalies. Against the cheaper Pixel 7A, I generally prefer the shots from the Pixel.

Some users reported issues accessing some websites, according to Apple.

On Monday, Apple released iOS 16.5.1 (a), a Rapid Security Response update to its iPhone software, but then the tech giant removed access to the RSR. Apple said Tuesday that the RSR, which was meant to address a WebKit vulnerability, might have caused some websites to display incorrectly.

If you downloaded iOS 16.5.1 (a) and are having issues loading websites, you can downgrade from the update by going to Settings > General > About > iOS Version and following the onscreen prompts.

Apple also said iOS 16.5.1 (b) will be available soon to address these issues.

Apple is also expected to release the first public beta version of iOS 17 this month. The company made the developer beta available after announcing the software at WWDC 2023.

For more iOS news, check out what iOS 17 features I’m excited about, which iPhones iOS 17 will work on and what might be coming to your iPhone with iOS 16.6.

The rear light glyph has plenty more to do, like custom blinks for ringtones and timer countdowns.

We’re weeks away from the release of the Nothing Phone 2, and its design has finally been revealed — to show a very similar phone with some distinct changes.

YouTuber Marques Brownlee exclusively unveiled the design in a video earlier today with a helpful side-by-side comparison to the original Nothing Phone 1 released in June 2022. The sneak peek didn’t reveal any changes in the software, and concerned the look of the upcoming phone — which inherited the flat-sided iPhone-esque look of the original Nothing Phone 1 — and an update on the light-up glyph design on the back.

Aside from swapping out the old phone’s black rear cover for a gray one, the biggest change to the Nothing Phone 2’s design is in the LEDs, which are still in the same general glyph shape as the original, but split apart into many smaller ones. To wit, the Nothing Phone 1 had 12 LEDS on the back, while the new one has 33, which can still be programmed using the phone’s software, Brownlee said.

Nothing seems to have focused on these LEDs, as 16 of the 33 are located in one long arc near the top of the back cover, which can be programmed as a progress bar — for instance, if you turn the volume up and down using the buttons on the phone’s side, the bar fills and depletes, respectively. You can also set a timer and watch the arc darken bit by bit. Nothing plans to open this functionality up for notifications by third parties, Brownlee said, with signups from ride-sharing app Uber and India-based restaurant app Zomato so far.

You can do more with other parts of the glyph, like keeping one strip lit until you address notifications or programming a sequential light-up pattern as your own custom ringtone.

And that’s it for reveals about the Nothing Phone 2, but fans won’t have long to wait to discover the rest, as Nothing set a July 11 launch date for its next big smartphone — which has already been confirmed to be getting a US release.

If you’re looking to buy a new phone, here’s CNET’s advice on the best phones this year and the best cellphone carrier plans (though you may want to consider waiting for Amazon Prime Day before getting that new phone).

Developers are getting tools to put apps on the Vision Pro, giving us more clues on how the mixed reality headset works.

It may be awhile before we get the answers to all our questions around the Apple Vision Pro headset, since it doesn’t come out until 2024. But some new facts are trickling in as developers spend time with the software.

Apple released a software development kit that lets programmers simulate what their apps could look like in spatial computing — although in a limited way for now. In July, Apple will open developer labs in six cities around the world, getting hands-on experience to test their apps on Vision Pro hardware.

With the current tools for developers, one of the first things we learned is that there is a travel mode — and a speed limit — as well as a guest mode for loaning it to a friend, and potentially the need to book an appointment to purchase it.

With it being about a month since WWDC’s reveal of the headset, this week’s episode of One More Thing reviews all the new things we’re learning — and sometimes it brings us to new questions. You can watch the episode in the video embedded above.

Google has seemingly stopped restricting Android Auto from displaying Google Maps on both your phone and car dashboard at the same time.

Android Auto has been a helpful interface that abridges Google’s operating system to use while driving, but it’s had some limitations, like preventing Google Maps from displaying on a phone as it’s being used on a car dashboard. Now Android Auto users on Reddit are reporting that the limitation has been lifted and Google Maps can be used on phones and car displays simultaneously.

The restriction was as odd as it was frustrating, with Google Maps showing less information on a car dashboard than in its phone app and displaying only turn-by-turn navigation, ETA, distance remaining and music controls, as Android Police pointed out. This simultaneous-use feature had been briefly available to users in February before being pulled from Google Maps, so hopefully it’s now here to stay.

Presumably, Google had wanted to restrict Google Maps for safety reasons while Android Auto was engaged, keeping you focused on minimal information on the car display rather than distracted by a mobile interface. The tech giant my have accepted what drivers have known for some time: that passengers can use the Android Auto-connected phone during the ride to give more nuanced directions, so you can benefit from having a fully functional Google Maps app while on the road.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

By comparison, Apple Maps offers slightly more information on road trips: While CarPlay is engaged and the Maps app is navigating to a destination, the connected phone will display a list of turn-by-turn directions. That’s helpful, but it’s still limiting, especially for passengers who want to engage Maps’ additional features.

If your phone gets too hot, you might experience issues with battery life and performance, or it could even be permanently damaged. Here are a few tips to help prevent overheating.

It’s the start of summer, and that means trips to the beach and backyard BBQs, which can lead to another summer phenomenon — overheated phones. Now that temperatures are warmer, it’s not at all unusual to grab your phone and then yank your hand back because it’s really hot to the touch. You look over at your phone and see a warning:

“Your device is overheating and needs to cool down.”

For the most part, overheating isn’t always a problem. You can move your phone away from direct sunlight or put it in a cooler spot and wait until it cools down. And then you’re good to go. But that’s not always the case.

You don’t want your phone to overheat, because it can slow down or even stop working completely. It can also result in permanent damage in some instances. And then you may have to replace your battery or get a brand new phone, and that requires spending money — even with insurance.

That’s why you want to take measures to prevent your iPhone, Android or other phone from overheating. Here’s what you need to know.

For more, check out the best iPhone you can get in 2023, as well as our top picks if you’re considering an Android phone.

Why is your phone getting hot in the first place?
Your phone might overheat for many reasons, but these are some of the most common culprits:

Leaving your phone in direct sunlight.
Keeping your phone in a hot environment.
Overusing your phone when it’s charging.
A faulty battery or charger.
Bugs in the software.
Rogue apps or malware.
Your phone might overheat from other causes, like a malfunctioning application or even a suffocating phone case, but the reasons above are the most likely causes of your phone getting too hot.

What does overheating do to your phone?
If the interior temperature of your phone exceeds what’s normal and the device overheats, you can expect a few issues:

You can’t use your phone.
Your phone slows down.
Charging slows down or completely stops.
Your signal is weakened.
Your camera’s flash is temporarily disabled.
There are also possible permanent harmful effects — overheating can cause lasting damage to the battery, SIM card and other crucial parts inside your phone.

So how can you prevent your phone from overheating?
The most important thing is to keep your phone away from direct sunlight when possible, especially when it’s warm. Your phone might be fine in the grass on an overcast day, but the warmer the temperature, the less your phone can withstand the sun. At the beach, your phone can overheat in just a few minutes in the sun. Same if you put it in a sunny spot in your car.

Instead, get your phone out of the direct light, whether it’s in your pocket, inside a backpack or under a towel/blanket or dashboard. Anyplace that will keep it away from sunlight will work.

It’s fairly easy to protect your phone from the sun, but high temperatures alone can also cause your phone to overheat. After only an hour, the inside of a car can reach 143 degrees when it’s 100 degrees outside, for example, so a phone left in your cup holder could quickly overheat and get damaged. The short answer: Don’t keep your phone in a hot environment for an extended period of time, even if it’s not in direct sunlight. That includes your car, a sauna, the kitchen, the middle of the desert or anywhere near a fire.

Your phone’s optimal internal temperature should be somewhere between 32º and 95º F (0º and 35º C). To prevent overheating, Apple recommends keeping the device in a place where the temperature is between -4º and 113º F (-20º and 45º C).

You should also follow these tips to prevent your phone from overheating
Don’t use graphics- or processor-intensive apps when your phone is charging. That includes massive mobile video games like PUBG Mobile or streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu.
Update your phone system software and apps to the latest software available. A bug in the software can cause overheating issues, so always stay up-to-date with your software.
Steer clear of third-party chargers. Most times you’ll be fine, but a cheaply designed charger could cause your phone to overheat.
While you’re here, check out how to make your Android feel new again with these five tips and our review of the M2 MacBook Air.

A stellar 14.5-inch OLED display and strong performance from a 13th-gen Core i7 CPU and RTX 4050 GPU outweigh the Swift X 14’s shortcomings.

Beneath a compact and admittedly mundane exterior hides a powerful, OLED ultraportable for content creators. The Acer Swift X 14 is endowed with a gorgeous 14.5-inch OLED display and powered by the latest Intel and Nvidia silicon in the form of a 13th-gen Core i7 CPU and an RTX 4050 GPU. We usually find such a duo in a larger machine; content creation laptops typically feature 16- or 17-inch displays to give creators more room to work. Like the Lenovo Slim Pro 7, the Swift X 14 provides the needed muscle for demanding graphics work but in a more portable package.

Our $1,500 Swift X 14 review system costs $300 more than the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 I recently reviewed, and I think it’s money well spent. Both laptops feature drab exteriors, but the Swift X 14 gets you an OLED display that’s clearly superior to the Slim Pro 7’s plain-Jane IPS panel. Colors are more vivid, the contrast ratio is vastly better with true black levels, the resolution is slightly higher, and it’s even a bit faster with a 120Hz refresh rate. The move from IPS to an OLED panel is worth the added cost alone, but the Swift X 14 sweetens the deal further by supplying newer RTX graphics and better performance along with a larger SSD. For creative pros and students who rarely work at the same desk on consecutive days, the Swift X 14 merits strong consideration.

Acer sells two models of the Swift X 14. The baseline model costs $1,100 and features a Core 5-13500H CPU, 16GB of RAM, previous-gen RTX 3050 graphics and a 512GB SSD. You don’t get an OLED panel with this baseline model but a standard LED-backlit LCD with a 2.5K (2,560×1,600 pixels) resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The step-up model that we reviewed costs $1,500 and features a Core i7-13700H CPU, RTX 4050 graphics and a 1TB SSD along with an OLED panel with a 2.8K (2,880×1,800 pixels) resolution. At the time of this writing, this model (SFX14-71G-76LC) is $100 off at Amazon and selling for $1,400. Both models are available in Australia for AU$2,699 and AU$2,999. In the UK, only AMD-based Swift X models with previous-gen RTX graphics are available.

Generic and gray
With an inoffensive but not terribly interesting dark gray enclosure, the Swift X 14 looks no different from any number of laptops on the market right now. Acer goes for a minimalist design with no color-contrasting accents and only a small Acer logo on the top of the lid and a tiny Swift wordmark on the right side of the wrist rest. Without these clues, it would be difficult to know if this was a laptop from Acer or Lenovo or Dell or HP. It is an all-aluminum chassis, which is greatly preferable to a plastic shell, but it’s not terribly rugged. The lid feels a bit flimsy, and there’s some flex in the keyboard deck. The Swift X 14 lacks the MIL-STD ruggedness of the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 and doesn’t feel nearly as rigid.

The Swift X 14 is a tad lighter than competing 14-inch laptops at 3.4 pounds. That’s lighter than the 3.6-pound Slim Pro 7 and 3.5-pound MacBook Pro 14. It’s even a hair lighter than one of the lightest 14-inch laptops we reviewed this year, the HP Dragonfly Pro.

Both the Slim Pro 7 and Dragonfly Pro feature a keyboard flanked by speaker grilles and find room for four speakers. Sadly, the Swift X 14 features only a pair of speakers, and they fire downward from underneath the laptop. They aren’t muffled as much as they would have been on the very bottom panel and instead are located on the edges of the bottom panel that slope up diagonally. Still, they produced muddy audio with a distinct lack of bass response. I had hoped the two speaker grilles on the bottom edges would have two woofers behind them with two tweeters behind what looks like a speaker grille above the keyboard. Sadly, the latter is merely venting for the cooling system. There is additional venting on the back edge, too, and on the bottom panel.

Whether for space constraints or adherence to a minimalist aesthetic, many ultraportables forgo ports and supply only a bare minimum. That is not the case with the Swift X 14. It offers a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a pair of USB Type-A ports, an HDMI out, a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. Most are located on the left edge, with only one of the USB-A ports and the microSD card slot on the right.

The keyboard itself is one of the quietest keyboards on which I’ve typed in recent memory. Typing is nearly silent, but does come at the expense of a slightly mushy feel to the keys. I preferred the firmer chassis and snappier feedback of the keyboards on both the Slim Pro 7 and Dragonfly Pro. The Swift X 14 keyboard offers two-level backlighting, which is always appreciated. And the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader for easy, secure log-ins.

The touchpad felt smooth and accurate when swiping and pinching, but the travel of the click response felt a little too deep. The result of this deep travel is a loose feeling when clicking.

But that screen though
So, to summarize: the design is uninspired, the all-metal chassis isn’t the most rigid, the keyboard and touchpad leave something to be desired and the speakers are subpar. Given all that, I still would recommend the Swift X 14 to certain users. And the reason is its 14.5-inch OLED display and the performance behind it.

The Swift X 14’s 14.5-inch OLED panel boasts a 2.8K (2,880×1,800 pixels) resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a 120Hz refresh rate. The 2.8K resolution is finer than the 2.5K resolution (2,560×1,600 pixels) of the Slim Pro 7 and far superior to the HP Dragonfly Pro’s full-HD (1,920×1,200 pixels) panel. Not only are text and edges of images crisper, particularly when viewed against the Dragonfly Pro, but the contrast is also so much better it’s not even a contest. The Swift X 14’s OLED panel produces absolute black levels and bright whites, and the colors look vivid and accurate. The Swift X 14’s display is rated for 400 nits of brightness and supports 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Content creators will appreciate the display’s stellar contrast and color accuracy, and video editors will enjoy the 120Hz refresh rate that results in smoother movement. The Swift X 14’s 120Hz panel is twice as fast as the Dragonfly Pro’s standard 60Hz display and faster than the Slim Pro 7’s 90Hz display. Unlike these two competing models, however, the Swift X 14 does not offer touch support.

And now we get to the Swift X 14’s performance. It was nearly a clean sweep in labs testing against the two AMD-based models, the HP Dragonfly Pro and Lenovo Slim Pro 7, and two Intel-based laptops, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 and Dell XPS 15 9520. The HP relies on integrated AMD Radeon Graphics, but the rest feature either RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti graphics, which are a generation behind the Swift X 14’s RTX 4050 GPU. The Swift X 14 was clearly tops on our Geekbench and Cinebench tests, as well as in our trio of 3D graphics and gaming tests. It finished second to the Core i9-based Asus ROG Flow Z13 on PCMark 10 and was merely average on our battery drain test with a runtime of nearly 7.5 hours. Battery life is really the only issue with opting for OLED over LCD.

The Swift X 14’s strong performance and its incredible 14.5-inch OLED display outweigh the negatives we found with the laptop’s design. None of the negatives are deal breakers, and we haven’t seen a better display on an ultraportable outside of the 14-inch MacBook Pro. For content creators who don’t want to be weighed by a huge Windows laptop, the Swift X 14 supplies unmatched ultraportable performance along with an OLED panel that delivers the display fidelity needed for detailed graphics work.

Google’s fast tablet is also a dockable home hub. Will Google commit to its tablet vision this time?

The world of Android tablets has been a weirdly up-and-down ride for the last decade or so. I remember Google’s fantastic little 7-inch Nexus tablet back in 2012. And Google’s considerably less successful Chromebook-meets-Android Pixel Slate, a sort of touchscreen laptop/tablet hybrid. That was Google’s previous tablet hardware entry.

The Pixel Tablet is a return to Android tablets for Google. But its competition never strayed. Samsung’s ongoing tablet series, for instance, and Amazon’s Fire tablets (which can sideload the Google Play store and are very affordable). Google’s new Pixel Tablet is hopefully a return to excellent Android tablet software and features, too: The $499 Pixel Tablet feels like a really good iPad alternative for Google ecosystem people. Google also took a unique approach by making it a dockable home hub, something Apple should steal someday for its iPad lineup.

There are only two gripes I have: this Pixel Tablet, while fast-performing and really nicely built, doesn’t have a Google keyboard case at launch, nor any stylus option. This is more of a sharable tablet for the home and family than a get-work-done tablet, although you could absolutely bring your own accessories and make it what you want.

At $499 (£599, AU$899), this Pixel isn’t a budget tablet and if you want to add more storage beyond the base model’s 128GB, the 256GB version is $100 more. Add another $80 for Google’s Pixel Tablet protective case. It’s a more expensive package than Apple’s entry-level iPad. But if you’re looking for a more premium Android tablet for families than Amazon’s Fire options or Samsung’s Tab A-series, this looks like the best bet.

Design: Clean and comfy
Google’s Pixel Tablet has an iPad-like feel, with a nearly 11-inch display and a smooth aluminum case. At a bit over a pound, it’s comfortable enough to hold but leans toward the heavier side with its case on.

The screen resolution — 2,560×1,600 pixels — gives you a crisp picture, and bright, too. The side speakers are good enough on their own but not as great as what the speaker dock provides (as you might expect).

There’s no headphone jack, so you’ll need USB-C headphones or an adapter, or go Bluetooth. There is a fast-acting fingerprint sensor in the power button that unlocks the Pixel Tablet as fast as a Pixel phone. Overall, it’s what I’d want from a tablet, and it looks really good when docked. The whole design ends up feeling like a larger Google Nest Hub, or a smart picture frame.

Google’s expensive case (there are also cheaper third-party options) is pretty great, too, with a soft finish and protective edges, and a metal, ringlike kickstand that adjusts to any angle and still docks in the speaker hub. It’s not a keyboard case, but you could add your own Bluetooth keyboard for desk typing.

The dock is great
Google includes a dock the Pixel Tablet magnetically attaches to that charges and acts as a stand so that the tablet can be a home picture frame, or smart home interface, or a connected speaker/display with YouTube benefits or whatever else you might need. The speaker-equipped dock has a fabric covering much like Google’s other home products and is small enough to pack easily for travel. Its speakers sound boomy for playing music indoors, too.

Snapping the tablet on and off the dock is relatively easy, although sometimes it’s a little hard to locate the magnetic pins, and pulling the tablet off the dock can sometimes result in pulling the lightweight dock with it. The dock charge plug and cable are also proprietary, not USB-C. The Pixel Tablet does have a USB-C port for charging, but you’ll need that specific dock cable to plug it into your home, and the cable length isn’t exactly long.

The Pixel Tablet supports casting audio from another device to the tablet when it’s connected, but the speaker dock won’t work when the Tablet isn’t mounted on it and has no Bluetooth. That’s a bit of a bummer if someone wants to use the speaker while someone else uses the tablet.

Performance and software: Speedy and improved, mostly
The Google Tensor G2 chip, similar to what’s on the most recent Pixel phones, is zippy in the tablet and generally runs well. There were a few moments where apps seemed to glitch a bit in split-screen multitasking, but that could also be due to this being a prerelease device running early software.

Google’s renewed attention to tablet software shows, with multitasking that feels like Apple’s iPadOS; apps can be easily dragged up from an app taskbar into another window, and two apps at once can be adjusted to fit on a few preset-size settings. Google’s also added a series of widgets that help customize information, which I sometimes found useful and at other times thought weren’t flexible enough.

Videos from another app, like YouTube, can pop up and hover in a small window over these split windows, too. It feels great to work in these modes, although not all apps work for the Pixel Tablet yet. Google focused on optimizing a bunch of popular apps and also its own core apps first, but hopefully more will come. There are also some Google Play apps that don’t run at all yet on the Pixel Tablet, including Geekbench, which we use for testing tablets for performance comparisons.

The Tensor G2 pulls off some tricks Google has on its Pixel phones, too, notably Magic Eraser in the Photos app, which removes people or objects from shots. Dictation also works really well: I could see myself voice-typing a lot with the Pixel Tablet, even if I still miss a dedicated keyboard case (hint, hint). Google’s on-screen keyboard is fine, but I didn’t fall in love with it. I also found that a few multifinger swipe gestures got a little weird at times in apps like Google Earth. Some two-finger swipes and pinches, for instance, were not always recognized, but maybe a future software update can address that.

Nice camera
The front-facing 8-megapixel camera looked good for selfies and video chat, and looked sharper than my normal laptop-video-chat expectations. Google placed its camera on the long edge where it should be, much like Apple’s most recent 10th-gen iPad. It means this tablet can be used easily for video chat when docked. But, a subject-tracking, autoframing feature didn’t seem to work on my review unit, and video quality looked better for the moment with Google Meet than in Zoom.

Google makes extra accounts pretty easy
One other advantage of Google tablets over iPads is account-swapping. Much like a Chromebook, you can add extra accounts and switch over to others easily enough here, even entering a guest mode or a kid mode. This underlines the family-sharing concept that’s at this tablet’s core, and I like it. I could easily see the Pixel Tablet being a casual grab-a-tablet option in a living room where someone could just pick it up as needed and check a few things, watch a video or play a game.

I miss Google’s work focus on the Slate, though
I miss some of the ideas Google was going for on its previous Slate tablet, which was more of a Chromebook with Android benefits. The Pixel Slate made a keyboard and trackpad one of its big included features. This time, the Android-focused Pixel Tablet has gone the other way, toward a sharable, video-and-game-playing, app-browsing tablet, but without any great ideas for how to add a keyboard or access to ChromeOS-type features in a new, helpful way. Anyone who wants a Chromebook will still want to get a Chromebook — or a laptop. You could add a keyboard here, or a stylus, but your mileage won’t be any different than on another Android tablet. Plus, with other options from Samsung, OnePlus and Amazon, keyboard accessories are already there — or even included.

Yes, it could be a home hub, too
I didn’t test the smart home features of this tablet, but you can connect Google Home devices and services just like you’d do on a Nest Hub. That’s the Pixel Tablet’s greatest success as a device, and where Google pivoted this time with its design. Voice response via its microphones was fast, and I was able to play music, ask questions, play audiobooks and launch YouTube videos quickly with voice commands. Once my kids realized this thing could play videos, they gathered around it like a small TV. It could be a great kitchen option, especially since the tablet hovers when in the dock (avoiding contact with counter surfaces). The dock angle won’t adjust beyond its slightly elevated angle, but I found it easy enough to glance at when on a table or counter.

A great start for Google’s return to tablets
Don’t stop, Google: Keep building off the Pixel Tablet, add a keyboard case, and maybe lower the price a bit — with a case and the 256GB storage option, which costs an extra $100, you’re suddenly pushing towards $700. But this is the Google tablet you’re probably looking for, despite the price. The only question is whether Google commits to its software and performance over time. Google tends to suddenly change focus on product lines, especially its tablets. But the Pixel Tablet is a great addition to its device lineup and a perfect nonphone option. Keep it around, please.

This new-to-iPhone feature will arrive later this year. Here are all the details to know before then.

Losing cell signal while trying to use your GPS in the middle of nowhere can be super stressful. But worry no more. The iOS 17 update will let you use the Apple Maps app offline, assuming you have a compatible iPhone. This much-anticipated feature has been available on Google Maps for years and will finally be available for iPhone users later this year.

This isn’t the only update coming with Apple’s newest software, which the company announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. Electric vehicle owners will also soon be able to see real-time charging availability via Apple Maps.

How do offline maps work?
The iPhone is getting offline maps for its Maps app this year. That means you’ll be able to access any map you’ve downloaded, even if you don’t have Wi-Fi or a cell signal. For instance, if you’re going on a trip, you can download the route and access it without using cellular data. This is helpful if you’re low on data or if your route takes you through an area with little to no signal that would cause the Maps app to stop navigating correctly, potentially causing you to veer off course.

What can you do with Apple Maps offline?
When iOS 17 becomes available later this year, you’ll be able to download designated areas and access turn-by-turn navigation while using Maps offline. Also, you’ll be able to see your estimated time of arrival and find places in Maps, among other things.

When will iPhone’s offline maps be available?
Offline maps will be available on iPhone with the launch of iOS 17, which is coming this fall. (It usually arrives in late September with the new iPhone.) You’ll want to make sure your iPhone is compatible with Apple’s latest software. If it isn’t, you won’t have access to this new feature.

What else is changing with Apple Maps?
Maps will make it easier to find thousands of trails in parks across the US. The app will also support drivers of electric vehicles with real-time charging availability information. This can be filtered by charging network and plug type, among other things. EV owners with compatible vehicles will also be able to designate a preferred charging network.

What else did Apple announce at WWDC? The company unveiled MacOS Sonoma, as well as the new 15-inch MacBook Air and the Vision Pro VR headset. Apple showed off a feature that will let you turn your photos into stickers with its Messages app in iOS 17. Also, changes are coming to the autocorrect feature in iOS 17, and Apple unveiled iPadOS 17 and WatchOS 10.