Electric cars are promised as the solution to climate change, but electric bikes are better for all of us.
In a year full of an endless barrage of harrowing climate disasters, more attention is on shifting entire countries to electric cars than ever in an attempt to mitigate the damage to the climate before it’s too late.
The European Union has promised to phase out fossil fuel new car sales by 2035, Canada has promised the same, and Norway hopes to do so by 2025. More countries are making similar promises every day, and there’s more choice than ever for those shopping for an electric car for the first time, which is great progress toward cleaner cities.
But, simply…
iOS apps could update through the App Store, but Apple’s choosing not to
For years, Apple has heavily touted the iPhone as the most secure, private smartphone on the market. Despite that claim, Israel’s NSO Group was able to compromise the iPhones of some of the most important people in the world remotely — raising questions about how secure the iPhone really is.
Apple is quick to update the iPhone’s software whenever one of these attacks is uncovered and supports its devices for far longer than any of its competitors, but these types of revelations reveal the cracks in how the company releases updates.
Unlike the apps on your phone, which update automatically…
What if more tech companies actually admitted when they got it wrong?
In late 2020, Twitter launched its Snapchat Stories clone, Fleets, to much fanfare. It promised a friendlier, easier way to share on Twitter, and potential to lower the barrier to entry for those that might be afraid to post.
Just seven months later, Twitter is killing the Fleets feature off entirely on August 3, saying that it took a ‘big chance’ with the feature, but that these types of things ‘don’t always work out as planned.’
While it’s a shame Twitter is shutting off Fleets so prematurely, as I thought it was a fun way to peek into people’s lives…
With its newest redesign of Windows, Microsoft wants to win back developers.
For the last few years, Microsoft has been on a comeback. The company has captured the developer audience by acquiring GitHub and reviving it, as well as building the world’s most popular code editor, VS Code, and bringing Linux to Windows 10.
Despite that success capturing the developer market, however, Microsoft struggled to find traction that got them to embrace building great new native apps for Windows. …
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…
