Microsoft has delivered fantastic noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones with great multi-device connectivity and rock-solid stability
For the last year, most of my work day has revolved around being on calls thanks to Pandemic-induced working from home–but I’ve spent far too much of that time fidgeting with Bluetooth, trying to get my headphones to connect. Microsoft’s new Surface Headphones 2+, which are specially designed for the new remote world, promise to solve pairing woes forever.
The Surface Headphones, which originally debuted in 2018, were Microsoft’s first foray into personal audio. They feature two giant dials on each cup; turn the left ear and you’ll ratchet up the noise cancelling, or turn the right dial to change…
It’s Apple’s world. We all just have to try and live in it.
Apple’s glitzy developer conference this June, WWDC, gave us our annual peek at the latest and greatest software the company is bringing to our devices, from iOS 15 to major updates to macOS, iPadOS, and more.
This year, as with other years, privacy improvements across Apple’s operating systems were front-and-center. Building on its anti-tracking pop-up boxes introduced last year that targeted cross-app tracking, iOS will now allow users to block email senders from tracking whether or not people are opening their emails.
Open tracking is one of the few ways people who send email are able to understand how well…
I never really thought about ergonomics, until I started feeling pain — by then it was already too late.
As the pandemic forced millions of office workers, including myself, to work from home over the last year, the situation was far from ideal for many of us. Many of us worked from couches, perched on kitchen benches, and hunched over dining tables–the opposite of ergonomic.
I’ve come to enjoy working remote after being a skeptic, but my biggest regret, after more than a year of it? Not paying more attention before now to the importance of ergonomics, taking breaks, stretching, and listening when my body was starting to tell me it was under stress.
The switch to permanent work…
Android’s next big update will let you change colors, shapes, and more.
At Google’s yearly developer event, I/O, the company provided a peek at the future of its design language, dubbed “Material You.” It’s a groundbreaking shift away from one-size-fits-all design on phones, tablets, and computers, putting you in control of how the software on your device looks and feels.
Material You is the latest update to Material Design, the design language used by Google’s apps as well as third-party developers to provide a consistent experience between different apps on Android devices.
Where Material Design sought to provide consistency, Material You puts users back in the driver’s seat and allows you to…
How the command palette gives users superpowers
A new tool is quietly appearing in many new and old apps that makes it easier for users to get around and get things done quickly. It’s a supercharged search box that I’ve dubbed the “power bar” and is sometimes referred to as the “command palette.”
Similar to Apple’s Spotlight search on macOS, power bars are built into a specific app and generally summoned with a shortcut like CMD+K (or CMD+SHIFT+P) and then typing in what you’re trying to do. …
This year’s refresh is focused on internals, so it’s what’s on the inside that counts
For the last few years, Microsoft has been on a tear building some of the best laptops on the market alongside the most exciting developer tools available. For the last few weeks, I’ve been testing the company’s new 15-inch Surface Laptop 4, which is no exception.
From the outside, the Surface Laptop 4 looks and feels similar to the previous generation of laptops; it’s ultra-thin at 14.7 mm with a tall 3:2 display and comes in a slick set of colors to choose from as well as metal or Alcantara fabric finishes.
But this year’s refresh is focused on internals…
The $649 Roborock S7 is totally worth it
Over the last year of working from home through the pandemic, there’s been one constant: The house is eternally messy, and we’re eternally cleaning it. Because we’re home with our two pets all the time, if we aren’t vacuuming and mopping daily, our hard floors get dirty quickly.
I’m a huge fan of robot vacuum cleaners because they make it easier to keep on top of that cleaning when you don’t have time for proper vacuuming. …
My new dog, Kaya, is fast and energetic — and potentially very easy to lose
When we got our dog, Kaya, last year, I was ready for life with a puppy. I’d read the books and watched endless training videos. What I wasn’t prepared for was the endless assault of companies trying to sell me a million kinds of dog things.
From smart dog cameras with lasers to automated fetch toys, device makers have come up with a slew of gadgets for pet owners to splurge on — even though a stash of dumb toys would do the job just fine, as we’ve recently argued on Debugger. …
A handful of new standards will personalize ads without the privacy violations of today
The internet is about to experience a dramatic shift toward privacy.
Today, advertisers like Facebook and Google use cookies to track people as they interact with different websites, building profiles for the sake of targeted marketing. But on Wednesday, Google — a giant in the global digital ad market — announced that it would stop using this kind of system to track individuals across the web. Instead, it plans to develop methods to target ads without using individual browsing histories.
To be clear, Google will continue to track users within its own platforms and use that information to target ads…
ZSA’s Moonlander keyboard gives your wrists the break they deserve
Like many people who suddenly began working from home when the pandemic began, my setup was less than ideal. My desk was probably too high, and my cheap chair didn’t encourage great posture. Meanwhile, I started spending long days in front of a computer for both work and fun. The result was wrist pain that makes typing quickly feel uncomfortable, and it reached the point where I struggled to type for more than short periods without needing a break.
Then I stumbled on a gadget that seemed like it might offer some help: an ergonomic mechanical keyboard, ZSA’s Moonlander. The…
