DigiTech Geeks

AirTags finally get that anti-stalking firmware update AirTags are finally more discoverable - and that's a good thing. Apple is rolling out firmware update 1.0.301 to AirTags that will make them louder and easier to locate. You will need iOS version 14.5 or later to download and use this feature. If you have version 14.5 or are up to date, the firmware update should have already occurred as it downloads automatically.  You can check if you have the right firmware by going to the Items tab in the Find My app. Tapping on AirTag will let you know if you have the new firmware. If you don’t have the AirTag change, you’ll probably get it later as Apple says the firmware update will be sent out again periodically. Just make sure the AirTags are within 33 feet of your iPhone, which is the maximum Bluetooth signal range for the device. A stalking problem This firmware update is part of a series of changes coming to AirTag after it was discovered they were being used to stalk peop...

Apple iPhone 13 sales power a big quarter but there may be trouble ahead Even with supply chain constraints, Covid lockdowns in Shanghai, and a war in Ukraine, Apple managed another record quarter, earning $97.3 billion mostly on the back of an apparently very well-received iPhone 13 line. The Cupertino, California, company released earnings numbers late Thursday and followed with an earnings call with analysts that, while painting a mostly positive picture, did outline warning signs in the supply chain, Covid, inflation, and European headwinds. Consumers bought into virtually every product category Apple has to offer, pushing the iPhone up to a total of $50.5 billion in total sales, the Mac to $10.4 billion, wearables to $8.8 billion, and the fast-growing services category (which now has 825M paying subscribers) to $19.8 billion.  If there was one cautionary tale among the group, it's the iPad, which fell 2% year over year to $7.6 billion. "We’re continuing to see such...

New LG Gram 14 could finally make me ditch the MacBook Air Laptops are boring. There, I’ve said it. This is because back in 2020, Apple launched the best laptop ever made – the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) , and even two years later, it hasn’t been beaten… until now (maybe). The LG Gram 14 has just been announced, and it’s the first time I’ve been excited about a laptop for a while. If LG nails it, this may be the laptop that convinces me to finally ditch the MacBook Air. I may even stop annoying everyone by telling them to buy Apple’s thin and light laptop. I never thought I’d be one of those people who bang on about Apple products, but annoyingly the fruit-themed company went and made a brilliant laptop. So, why am I so excited about the LG Gram 14? Over the years, I’ve reviewed several LG Gram laptops, and I’ve always been impressed by how light they are. While using the LG Gram 17 , I just couldn’t get my head around how a 17-inch laptop could feel so light, so every time I picked i...

The next Amazon Kindle could be a game-changer if it gets this brand-new tech You might not think the best Amazon Kindles have any flaws whatsoever, and admittedly they're fantastic devices for reading on the go, but some of the best ereaders have something Kindles don't: color screens. That's right, color screens are in vogue in ereaders right now, and it's something we've seen on lots of Kindle wishlists before - but could the feature be coming to Amazon's devices? Some people think so, thanks to a new color ereader panel that's been announced. E Ink, the company which makes screens for many ereaders, has announced a new type of E Ink panel (via Business Wire ) which has both black-and-white and color modes. The latter uses cyan, magenta, yellow and white ink, which is similar to the CMYK color model used in lots of publishing except with white instead of black. This isn't E Ink's first color screen, but it's apparently much more respons...

Calling all bookworms: Amazon is giving away 10 Kindle ebooks for World Book Day UNESCO's World Book Day in 2022 falls on April 23 (except in the UK, where we like to be different, as it falls in early March), and if you own the Amazon Kindle or any of the other Kindle models, or simply subscribe to Prime, you're in for a treat. That's because Amazon is offering 10 free ebooks to celebrate the occasion, which anyone with a Kindle – or a Prime account – can download for free. So if you own one of the best Kindles , you've getting even more bang for your buck.  The offering lasts until April 27, and covers books from a range of authors and genres – we'll list them all below. The aim is to promote literature from all over the world. To get the books, simply head to Amazon's Read The World page to add them to your Amazon account, then download them to your ereader. You don't need a Kindle to make the most of this deal, as you can read them in a web browse...

MacBook Air (2022): here's everything we know so far Fans with aging Apple laptops prayed that a new MacBook Air (2022) would make an appearance at the Apple " Peek Performance " event March 8. They were left wanting. Again. But never fear! Convincing rumors suggest a new MacBook Air will be released alongside a second generation of the M1 silicon, and in a range of bright and cheery colors at that. It has big shoes to fill: The older MacBook Air (M1, 2020) still tops both our best laptop and best Apple laptop guides and has since November of 2020, when it was released alongside other M1-powered devices such as the Mac mini (2020) and 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) . The MacBook Air 2022 will most likely keep the silent, fanless design and excellent battery life, which is already the longest in an Apple laptop, even if Apple doesn’t make any adjustments. But we’re expecting some improvements, particularly in the Air’s design, with the 2022 model. Rumors abound of ...

Apple’s testing a bunch of M2 Macs (including a MacBook Air) that could arrive at WWDC Apple is testing a whole bunch of new Macs that are powered by its next-gen M2 chip -- including a new MacBook Air and multiple MacBook Pro models, according to the laptop grapevine. This report comes from one of the more reliable sources for Apple spillage, Mark Gurman, who points out in Bloomberg that tapping info in developer logs suggests no fewer than nine possible Macs using different variations of the incoming M2 chip are being tested. Obviously, take this with a large pinch of your preferred condiment, although Gurman does clarify that as well as the logs in question, he has spoken to inside sources who have corroborated the info. But remember that there are no guarantees here, nor ever with any nuggets from the rumor mill. Okay, so the main points of interest here are the new MacBooks, starting with the purported MacBook Air (2022) , which has long been rumored as coming in an all-ne...

Desperate for the new MacBook Air? We’ve got some bad news MacBook production could be affected by current lockdowns in China due to Covid, and this might mean that Apple’s laptops planned for later this year may be delayed. Respected Apple source, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, took to Twitter to highlight a report in the Nikkei Asia , and observed that all this could spell big trouble for the MacBooks due later in 2022. (2/2) Quanta is almost the sole EMS supplier for MacBook, so among Apple's main products, MacBook has been the most affected amid China lockdowns due to Quanta's halted production. April 12, 2022 See more As Kuo observes, the problem is that Quanta is pretty much the “sole EMS supplier for MacBook”, an acronym for Electronics Manufacturing Services – meaning involvement in design issues (and more) as well as manufacturing – and that Quanta’s disrupted production means the MacBook is the most impacted hardware when it comes to the Chinese lockdowns (in Shang...

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 could arrive soon – and there’s good and bad news Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go 2 could be here in the next couple of months, according to the latest speculation – and while the rumors on the upgrades aren’t all that exciting, there’s some positive news on the pricing front. Zac Bowden of Windows Central claims that word from his sources is that Microsoft is getting ready to launch the Surface Laptop Go 2, and that the laptop will ship in the first half of 2022. That means it could debut possibly in May or June, though Bowden reckons it’s most likely to be the latter – unless the current planned timeframe slips (which is, of course, always a possibility around launch timing). Rumor has it that Microsoft intends to keep the pricing the same while (obviously) upgrading the hardware. In other words, the Surface Laptop Go 2 should start from $549 for the most basic version, with the pricing for upper-end models also staying the same. What’s going on wi...

The next iPad Pro needs to borrow this one iPad Air feature I've used my iPad Pro for years now – obviously that means that I do like it, but there are two features that really ruin the experience for me. The first is the battery life, but I know I can only get so annoyed at that. I've used the thing incessantly for several years, and Apple isn't exactly great with its product battery life anyway – I'm used to this now. But there's one feature that some Apple fans paint as a positive, that I just hate for the iPad: Face ID. Face ID sucks on iPads I know Face ID is popular on iPhones, but I've found it doesn't work well at all. It rarely recognizes my face, and even when it does, it takes loads of rotating and fiddling with the device to angle it right. Oh, and simply picking up the phone is a chore when in-screen fingerprint sensors let me avoid this. I'm admittedly comparing it to Android phone equivalents, which are a little less secure, but I...

New MacBook Air could debut later in 2022 to further spark Mac sales Apple has a MacBook Air inbound for this year, and it will land in the second half of 2022, a report claims – and this isn’t the first we’ve heard that from the rumor mill. DigiTimes asserts that its sources from the supply chain – insiders in the firms involved in making parts for Apple’s laptops – have supplied some fresh gossip on the incoming redesigned MacBook Air. The tech site wrote: “Apple’s MacBook series are high-end consumer devices, but can also be regarded as a business notebook model as they are favored by many companies or office workers, the sources indicated, adding that hot sales of MacBook Pro released in late 2021 have lingered into the first quarter of 2022, with shipment volumes higher than expected, and new MacBook Air set for launch in the second half of the year is expected to add further sales momentum.” Recent rumors have indicated that Apple will bump up the display size slightly on...

Best laptop games: 10 games for laptops that won't melt your machine The best laptop games are there for you whenever you're on break for work and you just need to kill some time before you get back to the grind. Because they're so easy to run, even cheap laptops will be able to play these games just fine.  Don't think you're getting some third-rate games here, either. Games like Disco Elysium are not only easy on your laptop, but engaging and hilarious to boot. The laptop games on this list are among the best PC games on the market right now, and really goes to show the flexibility that PC gaming offers.  Even if you're using one of the best gaming laptops , the games on this list have a lot to offer, even if they're not quite up to snuff to the mighty graphics in more powerful notebooks. This list is by no means extensive either: but we narrowed down the 10 games that everyone should consider installing on their laptops for some nice gaming on the si...

AMD benchmarks show Intel Arc laptop GPU lagging behind Radeon rival AMD has fired a volley of flak at Intel, providing comparative benchmarks of its Radeon 6500M laptop GPU versus Intel’s new Arc A370M , showing that the former leaves Team Blue rather in the dust. Of course, we must take any comparisons coming direct from a manufacturer with considerable caution – more on that later – but here are the results as detailed by AMD on Twitter: Radeon 6500M #FTW pic.twitter.com/LZekshO1WN March 31, 2022 See more As you can see, the posted image compares the two GPUs in terms of average frames per second (fps) in 1080p resolution with medium details over five different games. Whereas Intel’s Arc A370M creeps above the magic 60 fps mark consistently, with results running from 62 fps to 71 fps, the AMD GPU manages from 88 fps to 135 fps in its best-case scenario. That latter game, F1 2021, sees the 6500M being over twice as fast as the Intel GPU, but some results are a lot close...