| Yesterday I published my big preview of the upcoming software changes coming to both the iPhone and iPad. My public advice on public betas is always the same: never put a beta on your primary device. You never really know how stable it's going to be, it's beta for a reason, etc. I stand by that advice. But between you (dear newsletter subscriber) and me, the early developer beta has been remarkably stable and hassle-free. There's no guarantee that'll hold through the rest of the beta period until the official release this fall, of course. We know that there are years where phone betas are truly beta and seem like a mess and there are years where it feels practically finished right out of the gate. I don't actually think one is better than the other! In some ways a messy beta is better as it means the company is pushing for something more amibitious and may also be more open to feedback. One thing that occured to me is that even though we're on the fourteenth version of iOS, it's still weirdly difficult to get a custom ringtone on the iPhone. Turns out it's possible now (it didn't use to be) via the Garageband app. I know, I know: you laugh -- who uses ringtones anymore?! Well, I do, and not (I hope) just because I'm old. Try this tonight: turn your ringtone on and put your phone in the next room, well out of reach. You won't be doomscrolling and that part of your brain that worries you'll miss something will be soothed with the knoweldge that your phone will make a noise if it really needs you. You might like it! And then you, too, can enjoy people looking at you like you're a sociopath when you forget to go back to silent mode. I get that look all the time -- I tell myself it's a conversation starter. - Dieter | | iOS and iPadOS are in public beta ┏ iOS and iPadOS 14 public beta preview: something for everybody. Here's my preview of as many features as I could manage to cram into a story and video (it isn't nearly all of them). As I have been using iOS 14 (which is how I'll refer to both platforms unless I need to specify iPhone or iPad), I have had a little story I made up running around in my head. I imagined that Apple's executives got all of the engineers into a room last year after WWDC and said, "Phew, what's next?" And the engineers looked at each other quietly until one of them said, "Uh, I have this feature you keep making me put on the back burner," to which an executive replied, "Sure, do that." Then there was pure, glorious chaos as everybody at Apple clamored to get their thing back on the roadmap. Each time, the executive said, "Sure, why not?" ┏ iOS 14's public beta is rolling out today. ┏ How to install the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 public betas. | |
Verge Deal of the day Apple's AirPods Pro are still $30 off at Verizon, matching the best price that we've seen for this model. $220 is a great deal if you're an iPhone owner looking for the best wireless earbuds based on sound quality, comfort, and features. These have active noise cancellation, and soon, Apple will enable spatial audio in the AirPods Pro. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. Prices displayed are based on the MSRP at time of posting. |
| Other gadget news Literally minutes after I was putting this newsletter to bed, Google went ahead and teased its next Nest (neé Google) Home smart speaker in response to the FCC leak below. It looks like it's a competitor to the Sonos one instead of a straight replacement for the original Home. ┏ Google's upcoming Nest speaker revealed in regulatory filing. It looks like a fabric-covered ciabatta roll set upright. Presumably it'll slot in to a more premium slot than the original Google Home. The Mini and Nest display fill the needs of just having an Assistant around, the only reason to get the bigger one is better audio quality. So this had best deliver on that. ┏ Logitech is already giving up on its Alexa-powered Harmony remote control. Logitech is doing right by customers on this one, but as Nilay Patel will express in today's Vergecast podcast, remotes are weird. There is so clearly a market need for good, sophisticated universal remotes for all the gadgets connected to our TVs and yet precious few companies trying to meet that need. Even Logitech, arguably the only major company to really try, seems to know that it can't succeed. ┏ Canon announces the EOS R5, an 8K-shooting pro mirrorless camera. ┏ Android 10 had the fastest adoption rate of any version of Android yet. As I've written before, the way the Android ecosystem is designed actively works against getting good and timely updates pushed out to devices. So the fact that Google is making progress against that tide deserves some credit. ┏ Intel's Thunderbolt 4 standard looks to raise the bar for USB-C devices. Chaim Gartenberg: Intel's argument with Thunderbolt 4 looks to answer [the upcoming USB improvements] by offering features beyond regular USB4 (much as the company had previously done with Thunderbolt 3), and a promise that unlike the fragmented world of standard USB-C cables and accessories, everything with a Thunderbolt port works exactly as you'd expect, with no complexity or confusion. (The downside, of course, is that Thunderbolt cables and accessories cost far more than regular USB-C devices due to those higher hardware requirements.) ┏ Apple promises to support Thunderbolt on its new ARM Macs. ┏ Samsung reportedly won't include chargers with some phones starting next year. Good! Covid-19 ┏ Right-to-repair advocates say hospitals need new rules to keep equipment working. Right to Repair is about much more than frustration that it's hard to replace the battery or screen on a phone. It's about farmers becoming beholding to the big corporations that make the equipment they need to survive. And also medical equipment, which during this pandemic seems particularly urgent. Adi Robertson: According to the survey, manufacturers frequently restrict third-party repairs. Around 92 percent of the respondents said they'd been denied service information about equipment like ventilators and defibrillators, with around half of those people saying it happened "somewhat frequently." Around 89 percent said manufacturers had refused to sell spare parts. ┏ Doctors are better at treating COVID-19 patients now than they were in March. ┏ After the pandemic, doctors want their new robot helpers to stay. James Vincent: These machines have become the vanguard of pandemic automation, with sales for UV cleaning robots booming in recent months. One US robots firm Xenex tells The Verge its sales of its UV cleaning robots are up 600 percent compared to 2019. "We began increasing production in December when we started hearing reports from international colleagues about what was happening in China," Xenex CEO Morris Miller told The Verge over email. "We've seen a surge in orders from healthcare." | |
Ad from our sponsor | | | | | | | | You are reading Processor, a newsletter about computers by Dieter Bohn. Dieter writes about consumer tech, software, and the most important news of the day from The Verge. This newsletter delivers about four times a week, at least a couple of which include longer essays. If you enjoyed this email, please feel free to forward to a friend. You can subscribe to Processor and our other newsletters by clicking right here and here is an RSS feed. You can also follow Dieter on Twitter: @backlon. Processor is also a video series with the same goal: providing smart and surprising analysis with a bit of humor (there will be dad jokes). Subscribe to all of The Verge's great videos here - please do! |  | | Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. View our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service. This email was sent to clickkernews.latestnews@blogger.com. Manage your email preferences, or unsubscribe to stop receiving this email. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036.
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