If you've finally come to terms with the fact that it's time to upgrade your smartphone, we've got great news. In addition to all the iPhone deals we covered last week, there are now two big sales on Google Pixel phones, and some of them are available at the lowest prices ever.
Prices start at just $299 for the factory-unlocked Pixel 6a, which normally sells for $449. Or, if you want a flagship phone, the Pixel 7 is down to an all-time low of $399 at Best Buy, and the Pixel 7 Pro is $300 off at $599.
Samsung just announced its new Galaxy S23 lineup, and preorders are available ahead of the February 17 release. There are some terrific offers available, and you can read about them in our earlier coverage of Galaxy S23 preorder deals.
All three new models are great, but not everyone wants Samsung's Android experience, which has been heavily modified.
If you prefer a pure Android experience, you're in luck. There are some truly impressive Google Pixel phone deals available right now, with discounts of up to $300 off.
First, the entry-level Pixel 6a is down to just $299 at Amazon. For that small sum, you get a spectacular unlocked Android phone with 5G, an incredible camera, and 24-hour battery life. That's a $150 discount, and it's the lowest price we've seen since before the holidays last year.
Amazon has every current-generation Pixel phone on sale right now, and you can see all the deals right here. But if you'd prefer a more powerful Android phone, Best Buy has you covered with even deeper discounts.
The Google Pixel 7 is a lightning-fast Android phone with a beautiful display. It also has what is arguably the best camera experience on any smartphone, perhaps beaten only by the Pixel 7 Pro.
Other highlights include the Google Tensor G2, the Titan M2 security chip, battery life that lasts longer than 24 hours, and a pure Android experience that people love. Plus, Google's Pixel phones are always the first to get software updates.
At $599, the Pixel 7 is already a tremendous value. There's a $200 discount available right now at Best Buy though, which drops the price to an all-time low of $399.
If you want to step things up and get the best of the best, Google's Pixel 7 Pro is also on sale at the lowest price ever. Instead of $899, you can pick one up for only $599 right now at Best Buy.
The Pixel 7 Pro can do everything the Pixel 7 can do, but it has a few big upgrades. The display is larger at 6.7 inches, and there's an upgraded triple-lens camera with a 5x telephoto lens. You can think of the Pixel 7 Pro as the iPhone 14 Pro Max to the Pixel 7's iPhone 14 Pro.
This model has never been cheaper, so it's the perfect time to upgrade your old phone. Read our Pixel 7 Pro review for more info about this awesome flagship phone.
With iOS 16.3 already out for iPhone users and iOS 16 being available for more than four months now, there are still a few features Apple promised and are still missing. While the company has already brought Live Activities, physical Security Keys support, Freeform, and even Stage Manager to users, here are the functions the company has yet to release.
Apple Pay Later: Announced a few months ago, Apple Pay Later is still an iOS 16 missing feature that splits the cost of your purchase into four payments over six weeks with no interest or fees. It will be available for US customers in the future. Recently, Tim Cook said this feature would be released soon.
Key Sharing: iOS 16 future update will bring Key Sharing, which lets you share your keys in Apple Wallet with the people you trust through messaging apps.
Apple Music Classical:Apple bought Primephonic in 2021. The company has still to announce the release of its Classical music streaming service as it's yet nowhere to be found.
Revamped CarPlay experience: The next generation of CarPlay will cover all of a driver's screen for a cohesive experience. This new version will be specific to each vehicle, "accommodating unique screen shapes and layouts" with new levels of personalization, allowing drivers to choose their gauge cluster design, including brand-specific options.
These are iOS 16 remaining missing features. While Apple hasn't promised a release date for them, some of these functions could be released with iOS 16.4, which its beta testing should start soon.
iOS 16 missing features from the launch that is now available
With iOS 16.1, Apple brought the following iOS 16 missing features:
Live Activities feature helps you stay on top of things happening in real-time right from your Lock Screen.
Matter support is a new smart home connectivity standard that will enable compatible accessories to work together across platforms.
iCloud Shared Photo Library allows families to share photos seamlessly with a separate iCloud library that up to six users can collaborate on.
With iOS 16.2, Apple added the following missing features:
Freeform app: Apple calls this app “a powerful new collaboration application with a flexible canvas that allows users to see, share, and collaborate all in one place without worrying about layouts and page sizes, and will fully support the Apple Pencil.” It works across the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac.
iOS 16.3, on the other hand, started bringing features that Apple didn't promise during WWDC 2022 but was announced to be available on a later date, such as:
Physical Security Keys for Apple ID: Users can strengthen the security of their accounts by requiring a physical security key as part of the Two Factor Authentication sign-in process on new devices. This is a follow-up of other security features Apple introduced in the past few months.
Advanced-Data Protection: Expands the total number of iCloud data categories protected using end-to-end encryption to 23 — including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos — protecting your information even in the case of a data breach in the cloud.
Apple recently unveiled new Mac mini and MacBook Pro models with the M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max processors. In the second generation of its custom silicon chips, the company made them around 20% faster than its predecessors and continues to overscore Intel compared to its current generation.
To TechCrunch, Apple's vice president of Platform Architecture and Hardware Technologies, Tim Mille, and VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Bob Borches, talked about the impact of the M chip, the best time to buy a Mac, and gaming on the macOS platform.
During the interview, the executives praised the first M1 chip and how they wanted to build a scale of solutions that could deliver the maximum performance for each kind of machine: the fanless MacBook Air, the Pro choices with active cooling systems, etc. With the M2 chip, they want to go further:
“The M2 family was really now about maintaining that leadership position by pushing, again, to the limits of technology. We don’t leave things on the table,” says Millet. “We don’t take a 20% bump and figure out how to spread it over three years…figure out how to eke out incremental gains. We take it all in one year; we just hit it really hard. That’s not what happens in the rest of the industry or historically.”
Regarding the best time to buy a Mac, the executives discuss that they will release a new Mac every time they can, "when possible, ship," as previously, Apple would have to wait for Intel to prepare its schedule for new computers.
Both executives believe "now is the best time to buy a Mac."
“If you bought a MacBook Pro last year with M1, you’re gonna be fine. [Even] if you bought it in December, you’re not going to come screaming at me telling me I hate this machine, [and] why didn’t you tell me to wait?” says Millet. “Friends and family reach out all the time and they say, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about getting a new Mac, wink, wink. Is now a good time?’ And what’s beautiful about this story is that I really, with full sincerity, believe now is always a good time…Nobody should be shy about it.”
Last but not least, the executives discuss the M2 Macs as a gaming machine. Tim Millet says he doesn't think anyone would believe that "overnight" Apple will make the Mac a great gaming platform, but they're working on it.
“Game developers have never seen 96 gigabytes of graphics memory available to them now, on the M2 Max. I think they’re trying to get their heads around it, because the possibilities are unusual. They’re used to working in much smaller footprints of video memory. So I think that’s another place where we’re going to have an interesting opportunity to inspire developers to go beyond what they’ve been able to do before.”
You can read the full interview here with lots of tidbits about the development o M chips.
Google can't wait to compete against ChatGPT and show the world that its conversational AI chatbots can work in commercial products like Google Search. Even if the functionality is limited. And Google is probably not playing catch-up to ChatGPT, as it's been innovating in the space for years. But Google certainly feels the ChatGPT pressure, and a minor detail in its recent Bard announcement gives it away: The use of iPhone 14 Pro imagery to promote Bard.
Kevin Costner's gravelly-voiced rancher John Dutton once mused, in Paramount's hit seriesYellowstone, that "you can't fix a broken wagon wheel, but you can use the parts to make a new one." No one would accuse the OG Paramount series from creator Taylor Sheridan of being "broken" -- well, scratch that, some of you might -- but the second half of that maxim pretty aptly describes what the network is doing right now vis a vis Sheridan's myriad shows he's launching for the Paramount Plus streamer.
Without getting too far down into the weeds, Paramount had crafted a streaming strategy for Yellowstone before it had a firm handle on its own streaming ambitions -- which is why the show, now one of the biggest on cable, doesn't live on its own network's streaming service. And it's also why Paramount has wisely tasked Sheridan, who's now a proven hitmaker with legions of fans, with building out as many shows as he cans ... for Paramount's streaming service, specifically.
The result: Multiple Yellowstone prequels and spinoffs, like 1883 and 1923, for a start. In fact, Sheridan's bulging Paramount Plus portfolio is also starting to beg a question among a certain contingent of Yellowstone fans ... is it time to call it a day on this one?
Scientists have discovered a new form of ice through ball milling, which involves shaking frozen water around in a jar of ultracold steel balls. This previously unknown form of amorphous ice is closer to liquid water than any other yet discovered, and it isn’t found naturally on Earth.
What makes this new form of ice so special is that its atoms are not arranged in a neat, crystalline pattern like normal ice. instead, they are disordered and jumbled up. Though amorphous ice is usually low or high density, this new type has a density of 1.06 grams per cubic centimeter.
That makes it incredibly close to the density of water at 1 gram per cubic centimeter. Researchers led by chemist Alexander Rosu-Finsen have named this new form of ice medium-density amorphous ice (or MDA for short).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wceahqjAa7w
With MDA accounted for, we now know of at least 20 different crystalline forms of ice, Christoph Salzmann of University College London explained in a statement. Of those twenty types, though, there are only two known forms of amorphous ice currently discovered.
Because of the density gap between normal amorphous ice and this newer type, scientists believe that water, in fact, exists at two very cold temperatures. And, theoretically, we can see both of these liquids exist simultaneously if adjusted to a certain temperature.
This isn’t the only anomaly that has baffled scientists, either. When Amorphous ice was first discovered it left scientists scratching their heads, and when this newest form of ice was presented after a session of ball milling — using balls to grind items down in random patterns — scientists were just as bewildered.
Amorphous ice is only believed to exist in space, and possibly in the highest reaches of the atmosphere. But here on Earth, where temperatures don’t commonly reach the levels needed to form it, this particularly interesting type of ice is a mystery.
If you primarily use Twitter on iPhone or Android, like most of the world, the company has rolled out an update that you're likely to be quite happy about.
In an update on the social media platform, the Twitter Support account announced an "update to the latest version of the app so that “For you” and “Following” will default to whichever tab you had open last.
Netflix subscribers have a new addiction -- specifically, a medical drama -- that they're increasingly obsessed with, over and above hit series from the streaming giant like Ginny & Georgia and Wednesday. In fact, this series that we're referring to, the medical drama New Amsterdam, isn't even a Netflix release at all -- and yet, it's rocketed all the way up to the top of the streaming chart in the US, where it's the #1 title for the moment.
Best Portable Projector for 2023 - CNET A portable projector can give you big-screen TV shows, movies and games just about anywhere. Here are the best portable projectors you can buy today.
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China's Baidu Reveals Plans To Launch ChatGPT-Style 'Ernie Bot' China's Baidu said on Tuesday it would complete internal testing of a ChatGPT-style project called "Ernie Bot" in March, joining a global race as interest in generative artificial intelligence (AI) gathers steam. Reuters reports:
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Power Grid Worries Force Amazon To Run Oregon Datacenters Using Fuel Cells Unable to get the power it needs to feed its growing datacenter footprint, Amazon plans to transition some of its Oregon datacenters over to natural gas fuel cells. The Register reports: First reported by local media, Amazon's ini
A UK startup has produced another milestone in the strange science of lab-grown meat: the first-ever cultivated steak fillet. The landmark was laid by 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT), a bio-tech firm based in Newcastle. Founded in 2019, the company cultivated human corneas for vision-impaired people before applying its techniques to meat. 3DBT has good reasons for the move. CE Delft, an independent research firm, estimates that cultivated meat could cause 92% less global warming and 93% less air pollution, while using 95% less land and 78% less water. There is also a strong business case for the produce. Consulting firm McKinsey predicts the market…
Europe has a long tradition in geothermal energy, with Iceland, France, and Hungary historically dominating the industry. In recent years, however, a range of other countries have entered the sector. Their motivations are clear: geothermal energy is 100% renewable, endless, and reliable. And the attraction has only intensified amid the drive to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas. Currently, Germany is leading the transition. At the end of 2022, the country’s government published a plan targeting a tenfold increase in geothermal output: 10TWh by 2030. “We’re sitting on a gold mine,” Christian Peltl, director of geothermal energy at SWR, the…
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