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It's no secret Snapchat is confusing to use. In fact, when Snap, the social media app's parent company, released its IPO filing documents earlier this month, the app's confusing user interface was listed as one of the risk factors for investors.
Lo and behold, on Friday, Snap released the user manual many bewildered Snapchatters (or their parents) have been asking for. It came in the form of a video, labeled "Snapchat Product Overview," in its "roadshow" materials -- the stuff it uses to convince potential investors to buy in.
"Making a Snap is simple," a friendly-voiced narrator says in the video as he takes more than eight and a half minutes to explain the app.
Among the things the video covers: how to record a video, how to use lenses and how to use a geofilter.
Watch the whole thing here.
CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition.
Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.
NFTs explained: Why people spend millions of dollars on JPEGs
NFTs explained: Why people spend millions of dollars on JPEGs
Take a quick look at the image to the right. What, if anything, could convince you that image is worth $9 million?
Richerd/OpenSea
What you're looking at is an NFT, one of the first ever created. It's part of the CryptoPunks collection, a set of 10,000 NFTs released in 2017, a time when much of the world was still finding out what bitcoin is.
Most likely you've already rolled your eyes, either at the $9 million figure or at the very idea of NFTs themselves. The response to nonfungible tokens hasn't changed much since March when they first started exploding. The public at large has reflexively dismissed them as environmentally harmful scams. The bigger the sale, the more brazen the injustice.
Which brings us back to the above pixelated chap. Its owner is Richerd, an affable Canadian software developer. He started building cryptocurrency software around 2013, but eventually tired of it. After discovering NFTs earlier this year, Richerd bought CryptoPunk #6046 on March 31 for $86,000 in what he said was the biggest purchase he'd ever made in his life.
Richerd, who has over 80,000 followers on Twitter, last month claimed that his CryptoPunk was priceless to him and wasn't for sale no matter the price. The very next day his determination was tested when an offer came through for 2,500 ether, or $9.5 million. It was made not because Richerd's CryptoPunk is worth that amount -- similar NFTs now go for about $400,000 -- but rather because his bluff was very publicly being called. It was a challenge, but it was still a legitimate offer. If Richerd clicked "accept", 2,500 ether would have flowed into his wallet.
Richerd rejected the offer.
"Well, obviously, the day before I said 'I'm not selling it for any price,' so if I sell it for that price, I'd be going against my integrity," Richerd told me over a Zoom call. "On top of that, I've used this CryptoPunk as my profile pic, as my brand. Everyone knows that's me."
Not too long ago, Richerd's explanation would have sounded insane to me. How divorced from reality would someone need to be to offer eight figures on a picture that looks like a Fiverr job? How scandalously misguided would a person need to be to rebuff that offer? After I spent a few months researching and following NFTs, however, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. In fact, it makes a whole lot of sense.
There are 10,000 NFTs in the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. Here are three examples. The middle one is owned by Jimmy Fallon.
Yuga Labs
Bitcoin millionaires
Here is one quick fact that explains why NFTs are bought for the equivalent of a CEO's salary: Bitcoin is estimated to have made over 100,000 millionaires. It's no surprise that NFTs became a phenomenon in March. That's when bitcoin hit $60,000, up over 500% from just six months prior.
When you see a headline or a tweet about some preposterous sum being spent on an NFT, it's easy to become bewildered over how absurd that purchase would be for you. What's easy to forget is that very expensive things are almost exclusively bought by very rich people -- and very rich people spend a lot on status symbols.
Take Bored Ape Yacht Club, for example. It's a collection of 10,000 ape NFTs, all with different traits that make some rarer than others. Rare ones have sold over for over a million bucks, but common variants go for around $200,000. (At the time of launch back in April, BAYC developers sold the NFTs for $190 each.) BAYC, owned by the likes of Steph Curry and Jimmy Fallon, is what you'd call a "profile pic collection." The main purpose of the images is to be used as your display photo on Discord, where most NFT business goes down, or on Twitter, Instagram or wherever else.
To recap: $200,000 minimum for a profile picture.
In isolation, that's insane. But place it on a spectrum of how wealthy people spend money, and it becomes less staggering. You can right click and save a JPEG, so why spend money on it? Well, you can buy a nice house in a safe neighborhood almost anywhere in the world for $1 million, yet celebrities regularly snap up $20 million mansions. You can find a fashionable dress for under $500, yet brands like Chanel build their business on selling ones for 20 times that amount.
Up to 100,000 people became millionaires when that green line shot skyward.
coinmarketcap.com
We accept that rich folks buy extravagant items offline. Is it so inconceivable they would buy extravagant things online, too?
"In the real world, how do people flex their wealth?" said Alex Gedevani, an analyst at cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital. "It can be buying cars or watches. How scalable is that versus if I buy a CryptoPunk and use it as my profile picture?"
Obviously, status symbols aren't specific to the rich. All of us indulge in some way or another, be it buying a $20,000 new car when a $7,000 used vehicle will do, or buying a $30 T-shirt when Walmart sells basics for under $5. What most status symbols have in common is that they have a specific audience in mind. The banker sporting his Rolex and the chief executive stepping into her Bentley don't care that I think either of those purchases is excessive. They have a small but powerful group of people they're trying to influence. So, too, with NFTs.
In the case of Richerd, he runs his own business, Manifold, where he helps show digital artists like Beeple how they can use blockchain technology to make art that could only exist as NFTs. Being a part of the most sought-after NFT collection helps in those circles. And when he says his brand is built on his Punk, he's not exaggerating -- a group of investors even named their organization after him.
"Anybody who owns a CryptoPunk believes certain things," Richerd explained. "Either you've been in the community for a long time so you believe in what these are, or you've paid a lot of money to get in, which shows conviction.
"I want to show my conviction. This is one of those projects that makes you put your money where your mouth is."
A bit of trouble
NFTs are polarizing. There's a small group of people who believe in the underlying technology (tokens that prove ownership of a digital good), but there are many more who regard it as a hoax. Just as the second group struggles to see any value in NFTs, the first group can sometimes be defensive about the technology's imperfections.
And make no doubt about it, there are a lot of issues with NFTs.
First is the confounding inaccessibility. There's a reason software developers tend to do well in crypto and NFT trading: Setting up blockchain wallets and other required digital apparatus is difficult. Even just buying and selling can be perilous. Send money to the wrong wallet address by accident, and it's gone forever.
Then there are the fees. Imagine you're interested in dipping your toes into nonfungible waters and you have $1,000 you're willing to lose. If you're minting a new NFT during a public sale you'll usually spend between $120 and $400. Not too bad -- until you factor in the transaction fees. Most NFTs are built on the ethereum blockchain, which is notoriously inefficient. The more people using ethereum, be it through trading altcoins or buying NFTs, the higher the fees. At a good time you'll spend about $100 per transaction, though double or triple that amount is common. Suddenly that $1,000 doesn't go very far.
This is especially troublesome for NFTs, which are infamous for causing "gas wars." It's possible for 100,000 people to buy shiba inu coins at once, since there are a quadrillion in circulation. But when 10,000 people try to buy an NFT, it results in a massive spike in transaction costs as some users outbid each other to speed up their purchase. It may only last a minute or two, but a lot of damage can be done in that time. People spending over $10,000 on a transaction fee isn't rare. People losing $1,000 on a failed transaction isn't, either.
This is what it looks like when someone spends $4,000 on a failed transaction. It's rare, but not rare enough.
Etherscan screenshot by Daniel Van Boom
Ethereum's inefficiency also contributes to the other major criticism of NFTs, the massive amount of energy they consume. Note that this is something of a semantic issue: NFTs aren't bad for the environment as much as ethereum is. Other networks, like Solana, use a fraction of the power. Ethereum developers are expected to implement an upgrade next year that will make mining it consume 1% the energy it currently does. At this moment though, while no one can say precisely how much energy ethereum consumes, we know it's a lot. (Bitcoin, despite getting all the headlines, is even less efficient than ethereum, which is why almost nothing is built on its blockchain.)
And finally, there's the fact that most people trading NFTs are doing so to make a profit. Scams are everywhere, and prices are volatile. Most of the people who create, buy and sell NFTs are ignorant or uninterested in the technology. If there is a technological leap taking place, it's likely to be obscured by the dizzying price movements.
"I'd call it a bubble," Gedvani said, "because the amount of speculators that are entering the market is outpacing genuine creators."
But a bubble can pop and leave something better in its wake. Think of Pets.com. It had a peak valuation of $290 million in February 2000 but by November of that year, as the infamous dot-com bubble began to burst, it had already closed shop. It's used as a cautionary tale for speculative trading in bubbles. But the impulse to invest in Pets.com evidently ended up being justifiable. That particular venture was misguided, but the e-commerce trend it was flicking at was legitimate. Seven-figure pixel art may not be forever, but proof of digital ownership, which is what NFTs are really about, may be.
A big 2022
Where NFTs will end up is anyone's guess -- and anyone who claims to know is probably trying to sell you something. What we do know is that the amount of people buying NFTs is almost definitely about to grow.
It's estimated that around 250,000 people trade NFTs each month on OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace. In the short term, CoinBase will soon open its own NFT marketplace, for which 2 million users are on the waiting list. Robinhood has similar plans.
More importantly, giant companies that already make money outside of the crypto space want in. Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, has just announced a game in which players can earn bitcoin. Twitter and the company formerly known as Facebook plan to integrate NFTs into their platforms, and Epic Games says it's open to doing so too. Envision a world where instead of buying skins in Fortnite, you buy an NFT for those skins that you own -- meaning you can trade it for outfits and weapons in other games, or sell it once you're done with it. (Epic said it won't integrate such a mechanic into Fortnite, but that may not stop competitors.)
Richerd reckons the flood of people soon to enter the NFT marketplace will create a broader diversity of digital products sold for different audiences. Your neighbor might not want to spend $200 -- much less $200,000 -- on a profile picture, but maybe they'll be willing to spend $10 on a one-of-a-kind skin, or on a product in Facebook's Metaverse. But though the space may change, he remains confident that CryptoPunk #6046 is safe for a while yet.
"Even if every NFT falls," he said, "CryptoPunks will be the last one."
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Xiaomi Yi review: A higher-end action cam with an entry-level price
Xiaomi Yi review: A higher-end action cam with an entry-level price
Editors' note:The Yi is now available in a US version exclusively through Amazon for $99.95 . This review is for the Chinese version of the Xiaomi Yi. The cameras are identical, but with the US version, the packaging inserts are in English as is a new version of the mobile app to use with the camera.
Among all of the smartphone and wearable tech news that came out of 2015's Mobile World Congress was a surprise from Chinese electronics brand Xiaomi -- the tiny Yi action cam.
Outside of China the company is best known for its smartphones, but it has a growing lineup of related devices such as the Mi Band fitness tracker and headphones that it's been putting the Xiaomi name on.
The Yi is one of those, continuing its expansion into other categories beyond smartphones (not unlike what HTC did last year with the Re camera ) and further building its reputation for offering products with high-end features at budget-friendly prices.
Though it's primarily available in China for 399 yuan, you can buy one for just under $100 (about £65 and AU$120) from online retailers like GearBest.com, which is where we got ours. That price isn't quite as good as the converted price of about $65, but is still excellent for what you're getting.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Out in front of the little lime-green and teal box (it's available in all white, too) is a nice f2.8 wide-angle lens with a 155-degree angle of view, while inside is a Sony-made 16-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, a Broadcom wireless module and an Ambarella A7LS system on a chip (SoC) running the show.
To give you some perspective, Ambarella's chips can be found in many POV cameras and DJI's quadcopters and, more specifically, the GoPro Hero3+ Silver, Ion Air Pro 3 and Drift Innovation Ghost-S use the A7LS chip family. Aside from the SoC, those cameras all have one other thing in common: prices of $300 or more.
Now, those cameras do offer things that the Yi doesn't, but the Yi can do more than others at its price such as the Polaroid Cube and Monoprice MHD 2.0. Also, although the slightly more expensive entry-level GoPro Hero has very good video quality, the Yi still beats it there and on features and, depending on your needs, design.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Features and design
For starters, the higher-end specs mean it can capture 1080p video at 60, 48, 30 or 24 frames per second (fps); 960p (also called tall HD) at 60 or 48fps; 720p at 120, 60 or 48fps; and 480p at 240fps. It can also snap pictures at resolutions up to 16 megapixels one at a time; in bursts at 3, 5 or 7fps or 7 frames over 2 seconds; or at time intervals of 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30 or 60 seconds. You can also set up a self-timer for 3, 5, 10 or 15 seconds. There's also a Snapshot mode that captures 10 seconds of VGA-quality video for quick social sharing.
Other cameras at the Yi's price offer a fraction of those options and typically record video at a maximum of just 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 60fps. However, unless you read Chinese, using the camera to do all that it can do is a little tricky at first.
Again, this camera is made for the Chinese market, so the instructions that come with it are in Chinese (a US version of the camera is now available on Amazon). If you've used a similar action cam or aren't afraid to press buttons, the Yi is simple to figure out. If you haven't or are afraid, well, it's still easy.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The camera has three buttons. The one on front is for power and switching between capturing stills and video. (The defaults, by the way, are single, 16-megapixel photos and 1080p at 30fps.) A button on top is the shutter release and for starting and stopping recordings. On the left is a small button for turning on and off the camera's wireless. There are record lights on the top, back and bottom and a light around the power button gives you a battery status by changing color.
On back you'll find a door for the battery compartment and another covering the microSDXC card slot, Micro-USB port and Micro-HDMI output. A battery and short Micro-USB cable are included for charging and transfers, but you're on your own for storage; it supports cards up to 128GB.
If you're looking for the cut corners that got the price so low, the lack of included accessories is one of them. There is no polycarbonate waterproof housing and the camera isn't waterproof without one.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Also, unlike almost every other action cam I've reviewed, not one mount is included. Xiaomi has accessories coming in April such as a 40-meter (131-feet) waterproof housing, but that will of course cost you more. It has a standard 1/4-20 tripod mount on the bottom, so you do have a lot of available third-party mounts to choose from and an inexpensive adapter for GoPro mounts opens you up to even more. But, again, out of the box you have nothing.
There is also no screen of any kind, so to change camera settings you'll need to use the camera's Wi-Fi to connect to an Android or iOS device running the Yi app. Fortunately, much of the app is in English, so getting around in it even if you can't read Chinese shouldn't be much of an issue. (A US version of the camera is now available on Amazon.)
Press the camera's Wi-Fi button for a second to start up the wireless and after a few more seconds it will begin to blink, which is your signal to connect. Launch the app, tap a camera icon at the bottom of the screen and it should start the direct connection to the Yi. If it doesn't you may have to select the camera from your available networks listed under Wi-Fi settings on your mobile device. After the first time, though, it will automatically connect when you launch the app and tap the icon.
Screenshot by Josh Goldman/CNET
With the app you get a live preview of what the camera sees as well as a live stream while recording. I tested with a Samsung Galaxy S5 and it worked near flawlessly and held onto the connection very well. The app can be used to start and stop recordings, snap photos, change all of the camera's settings and view your photos and videos and download them to your device, too.
Along with changing what resolution and frame rate you record at and selecting other photo modes, you can set the camera for loop recording -- perfect for using it as a dashcam -- as well as correcting the wide-angle distortion from the lens (assuming you don't want it), turning on an auto low-light option to improve exposure indoors or at night and other miscellaneous settings.
Battery life and video quality
Small battery packs typically don't equal long continuous recording times on action cams, and that's certainly the case with the Yi. Set to record at the default 1080p at 30fps with the Wi-Fi off, the camera continuously captured video for an average of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Bumped up to 60fps, the average time dropped to just less than an hour.
Sarah Tew/CNET
By comparison, the similarly featured GoPro Hero3+ Silver gets about 2 hours of continuous 1080p recording at 60fps and 3 hours at 1080p at 30fps with Wi-Fi off. Granted it uses a 1,180mAh battery compared with the Yi's 1,010mAh pack, but the Yi's battery life is certainly something to consider. The positive here is that it is easily swapped out if you're OK with buying and carrying extras.
Picking high-end parts doesn't guarantee good results, but that is what you get with the Yi. Excellent results actually, especially given the low price. Color and exposure are very good, and the camera recovers quickly and smoothly under abrupt lighting condition changes.
As with most action cams, the larger you view the video and the closer you are to the screen, the more artifacts you'll see. Still, when recording at 1080p at 60fps video looks sharp and smooth and with a bit rate of about 25Mbps, details don't turn to complete mush, even when moving at high speeds.
Low-light video is noticeably softer with more visible artifacts and some color noise, but far better than from any other sub-$100 action cam I've reviewed. Note that you may notice some glitches in the clips following the initial driving scenes in the video above. Those were caused by a faulty microSD card, not the camera.
The Micro-HDMI port does support live video output while recording to a microSD card in the camera. There is an overlay of recording time, battery and Wi-Fi status shown on the display you're attached to, but it's not visible in the final recording.
Photo quality is good, too, however you can only shoot in 4:3 formats, so you might want to crop photos to 16:9 if you want to drop them into your videos. Otherwise, they're not unlike what you get with video: sharp, well-exposed images with good fine detail in daylight, but softer, noisier images in dimly lit conditions.
Conclusion
The Xiaomi Yi Action Cam's video quality and shooting options are well above those of other cameras in its class, but you'll need to bring your own accessories.
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Microsoft Windows 10 review: Microsoft gets it right
Microsoft Windows 10 review: Microsoft gets it right
When Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 in 2015, it delivered an elegant operating system that could -- for the first time -- fulfill the potential of each modern computing form factor. Equally proficient on a touchscreen tablet, laptop, or conventional desktop PC, Windows 10 resuscitated the operating system's best features while setting the stage for Microsoft's ongoing innovation streak that includes idiosyncratic products like the Surface Pro 4, Surface Book and, more recently, the Surface Studio -- a desktop PC for artists and designers in need of high-end horsepower and display -- and the Surface Dial, a touch-friendly dial designed to facilitate fine contextual controls.
Late 2016 update
The next generation of the popular Surface tablet, the rumored Surface Pro 5, is expected to appear in the spring of 2017 -- timing that may coincide with the rollout of the next version of Windows, a free update scheduled for the first half of 2017. Windows "Creators Update" will introduce 4K video game streaming and support "augmented reality," bringing 3D capabilities to legacy applications such as Paint and PowerPoint. It will support 3D rendering for Microsoft's HoloLens technology, which will be incorporated into forthcoming devices from Acer, Lenovo, Dell, HP and Asus. And it will enable a virtual touchpad that lets you control external monitors from tablets, without need for a mouse.
It's worth mentioning that Apple delivered its own operating system overhaul in September 2016. MacOS Sierra added some new features inspired by its own mobile operating system. And though Apple clearly wishes to continue the integration of Macs and iOS products, providing additional incentives to keep your hardware inside Apple's walled garden, it's not always a perfect fit. In fact, the new MacBooks announced in early October 2016, equipped only with USB-C ports, can't connect to the new iPhone 7 and its Lightning Connector, without an adapter.
Editors' note:The original Microsoft Windows 10 review, first published in July 2015, follows.
Windows 10 is the Goldilocks version of Microsoft's venerable PC operating system -- a "just right" compromise between the familiar dependability of Windows 7, and the forward-looking touchscreen vision of Windows 8.
This new Windows, available as a free upgrade for existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 noncorporate users, is built from the ground up to pursue Microsoft's vision of a unified OS that spans all devices without alienating any one platform. It's an attempt to safeguard Microsoft's crumbling software hegemony, assailed on all sides by Google and Apple. And it's a vision of the future as Microsoft sees it, where a single user experience spans every piece of technology we touch. Welcome to Windows as a service.
Yes, this new OS is chock-full of fresh features. To name just a few: a lean, fast Internet Explorer replacement called Edge; Microsoft's Siri-like voice-controlled virtual assistant, Cortana; and the ability to stream real-time games to your desktop from an Xbox One in another room. (And in case you're wondering: there is no "Windows 9" -- Microsoft skipped it, going straight from 8 to 10.)
Windows 10 bridges the gap between PC and tablet.Nate Ralph/CNET
But Windows 10 is also the end of a long, awkward road that began with the release of Windows 8 in 2012, when Microsoft tried to convince a world of keyboard and mouse wielders that touchscreens were the way to go -- or else. Ironically, in 2015, the PC hardware for that touchscreen future is now here -- everything from 2-in-1s such as the Lenovo Yoga line to convertible tablets with detachable keyboards, like Microsoft's own Surface. And Windows 10 smoothly lets users transition from "tablet" to "PC" mode on such devices like never before.
For the rest of the PC universe -- including those who still prefer good old-fashioned keyboard and mouse navigation -- Windows 10 is a welcome return to form. The Start menu, inexplicably yanked from 8, is back and working the way you expect it to. Those live tiles from the Windows 8 home screen still exist, but they've been attached to the Start menu, where they make a lot more sense. And the fiendishly hidden Charms bar has been morphed into the more straightforward (and easier to find) Action Center.
As always, there are some quibbles and gripes with the end product, but all-in-all -- after living with Windows 10 for months -- I can say it's a winner. It's flexible, adaptable and customizable. And it's been battle-tested by an army of beta testers for the better part of a year, making it one of the most robust operating system rollouts in recent memory.
A fresh Start
The Start menu is back; it's almost funny how relieving that is. That humble Start button has been a fixture on the lower left corner of the Windows desktop since the halcyon days of Windows 95, offering speedy access to apps and settings. Press it on Windows 10, and you'll see the latest step in a long conversation about the state of the PC industry.
I spend more time than I'd like to admit rearranging the Start Menu.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
The past sits on the left: a neat column with shortcuts to your most used apps. Press the "All Apps" button and you'll get an alphabetical list of all of the apps installed on your PC. There are folders in there too -- press them, and extra options will fly out, just like they always have.
The future -- or at least, the future as Microsoft envisions it -- sits on the right side of the Start menu. These are the colorful, animated live tiles that debuted in Windows 8, pulling double duty as app shortcuts and informative widgets. You can resize these live tiles, drag them about to arrange them into groups and pin as many apps as you'd like -- the entire Start menu can be shrunk or expanded to suit your liking. It's essentially a miniaturized version of the fullscreen Start menu we saw in Windows 8. Hate live tiles? Then unpin them to excise them from your computer, leaving you with the narrow column of frequently used apps we've known for so long.
One step back, two steps forward
The Start menu in Windows 10 is admission that Windows 8 maybe have been a bit too forward thinking. But Microsoft hasn't abandoned that vision of unifying all manner of devices under a single operating system: Continuum in Windows 10 is the latest attempt to bridge the gap between touch and non-touch devices, and this time it doesn't force us to relearn how to work with our PCs.
To start, there's no divide between the Windows 8-style "Modern" apps you get from the Windows app store, and those you install the old-fashioned way. Everything exists as a traditional windowed app, sharing space on the desktop. If you're on a two-in-one device like Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 , pop the keyboard off and Windows 10 will switch to tablet mode. The Start menu and your apps will stretch to take up the entire screen, and all of the miscellaneous apps and shortcuts on your taskbar will disappear, to give your finger fewer obstacles to hit.
Apps go fullscreen, and the taskbar gets a little less cluttered in tablet mode.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
Reattach the keyboard, and everything slots back into place. It's an instantaneous, seamless process (once you've shooed away the annoying confirmation window). It's also entirely optional: you can disable the feature and switch to tablet mode manually, or forget that this whole touch concept exists at all.
This is what Windows 8 always should've been: an operating system that bridges the divide between touch and non-touch, without alienating folks who fall into one camp or the other. Like it or not, the future belongs to devices with touchscreens. But Microsoft (finally) understands that we'll all get there at own pace, and Continuum makes the transition painless. And now that there are so many hybrid devices to choose from, making the switch to touch without abandoning the interface we know is more important than ever.
Learning new tricks
Microsoft hasn't stopped at making touch make sense on a Windows PC. With Windows 10, just about every facet of the OS has been tweaked and updated, and a few new features have been rolled in. In typical Microsoft fashion, there's a dizzying array of keyboard shortcuts and touch gestures for each of these features, giving you no fewer than three ways to access the things you're trying to get to. No need to memorize them all -- just use whatever suits you (or your device) best.
Virtual desktops
If I had to pick my favorite new feature, I'd go with virtual desktops. Click the new Task View button on the taskbar and you'll get a bird's-eye view of all of the apps you've got open. Drag one of those apps onto the "new desktop" button, and it'll be moved to its own independent workspace. I can keep one workspace focused on work, a separate desktop for gaming forums, yet another workspace for the new camera lenses I'm checking out; there's no limit to the amount of virtual desktops you can create, and each one is treated as its own little private island.
Virtual desktops help you spread your apps across several workspaces.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
Virtual desktops are far from a new development, and they've been available in past versions of Windows thanks to third-party apps. But it's nice to see Microsoft catching up here. The feature could still use some work: desktops are numbered, but if you create a lot of them it can be hard to keep track of where everything is. The "traditional" Win32 apps you might download and install from a website are happy to open a new instance on any desktop, while clicking the shortcut on an app from the Windows store will yank you back to whatever desktop you used it on last.
You can move apps across virtual desktops -- just drag them, or right-click to shunt them over -- but there's no way to reorder the virtual desktops themselves, which would be really useful for staying organized. I'd also like to be able to set a different wallpaper for every virtual desktop -- I can do both of those things in Apple's OSX operating system, and have always found it really handy.
Windows Snap
The Snap feature introduced in Windows 7 has gotten a bit of an upgrade, too. Drag an app to the left or right side of the screen, and it'll "snap" to fill that space. The new Snap Assist feature will then chime in, showing you little thumbnails of any other apps that are currently open -- click a thumbnail, and it'll fill up the remaining space. You can also snap an app into a corner of your display and fill your screen with up to four apps, divided equally across the screen -- this could prove useful for folks with massive monitors.
Action Center
The new Action Center replaces the "Charms" introduced in Windows 8, and is another nod to mobile operating systems. Click the Action center icon on the taskbar to bring up a panel that houses all of your app notifications, and offers quick access to a few important system settings, like toggling your Wi-Fi network or switching in and out of tablet mode -- you can choose the options that turn up here in the settings menu. If you're coming from Windows 7 and have no idea where to find some of the settings you're used to, there's a good chance you'll find them here.
Wi-Fi Sense
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Wi-Fi Sense. While technically not a new feature (it's part of Windows Phone 8.1) its presence in Windows 10 should've been a welcome addition: Wi-Fi Sense connects your devices to trusted Wi-Fi hotspots.
I love the idea. Automatically sharing Wi-Fi credentials with my friends would remove much of the hassle of most social gatherings, when people just want to jump on my Wi-Fi network. And -- this part is key -- Wi-Fi Sense doesn't share your actual password, so it theoretically eases a social transaction (the sharing of Wi-Fi connectivity) without necessarily compromising my network security.
Until Wi-Fi sense offers granular control over sharing, I'd avoid it.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
But the implementation is, in a word, daft. I do want to automatically share my network with a select group of friends who are visiting, and have them return the favor. I don't want to automatically share access with everyone in my Outlook address book, or on Skype, or the random assortment of folks I've added on Facebook over the years. Give me the ability to choose who I share access with, down to the individual, and I'll give it a shot. Until then, I'll be leaving Wi-Fi Sense off -- I recommend you do too.
Windows Hello and Windows Passport
Microsoft is also beefing up security with Windows Hello. The feature will use your Windows 10 devices' camera or a fingerprint scanner to turn your body into a password. Once you've authenticated yourself with Windows Hello, Windows Passport will then give you access to a number of third-party sites and products, without forcing you to log in all over again. This should make it a bit more convenient to log in to your devices, so you don't skimp on traditional measures, like having a robust password. The only catch is that Hello isn't widely supported on a lot of existing hardware: you'll need a device sporting Intel's RealSense camera, or a fingerprint scanner.
Chatting with Cortana
Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana isn't exactly a new feature, as she's been on Windows Phone for just over a year. But the company's answer to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Google Now has made the transition to the desktop with Windows 10, taking over the OS' search functionality, while also handling quite a few housekeeping duties. You can have Cortana trawl through your email and calendar, and keep you notified of any upcoming flights you're taking, or packages you're expecting. She can set reminders and track stocks, and you can even dictate email messages for her to send to your contacts. Cortana can also be set to listen for you to say "Hey, Cortana," and can be trained to recognize several different voices. If you want to learn more about Cortana, head over to my preview on Microsoft's virtual assistant .
Cortana will help you get things done.James Martin/CNET
I'm torn. I love Google Now's proactive stream of useful information, served to me whenever I need it. But my primary mobile device is an Android phone and not a Windows Phone, which keeps my interactions with Cortana sequestered to my desktop.
She's not especially useful here. Windows 10's Voice recognition is rather accurate, but if I have to send an email message and I'm at my desk, I'm just going to use my email client. She'll offer recommendations for places to eat or things to see, but that'd be a lot more useful when I'm out and about than at my desk. The same goes for reminders, which are decidedly less useful if I can't access them anywhere.
Cortana will be making her way to Android and iOS devices later this year, which should clear up most of these issues -- provided most of her functionality crosses platforms without issue. I'll still turn to Cortana for the occasional joke, but until it's available on a phone I use regularly, I'll be sticking to Google for Now.
Microsoft Edge rethinks the browser
Microsoft has added a brand-new browser into Windows 10, and it's called Microsoft Edge. Introducing a new browser in a world that already has Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple's Safari is a pretty bold move. Doubly so when your previous effort was Internet Explorer -- once a juggernaut in the space, now the Internet's favorite punchline.
Annotate webpages with Microsoft's Edge browser.James Martin/CNET
Edge is a fast, modern browser that offers quite a few commendable features. Cortana is integrated right into the browser, and she'll offer detailed information on things like the weather or flight statuses while you're typing into the browser's address bar. Navigate over to a bar or restaurant's website, and Cortana can pull up a little sidebar full of useful information, like reviews or directions. The webnote feature lets you scribble on webpages and share your annotations to OneNote or via email, and you can use the Reading view option to strip a website down to its bare essentials. Edge has also been built with tighter security from the start, to hopefully circumvent some of the headaches that erupted from Internet Explorer.
But there are no extensions to tame overzealous advertisements, or enhance websites like Reddit, or simply organized my tabs -- I've been thoroughly spoiled by Google Chrome. There's no way to sync tabs or bookmarks across devices, and you currently can't import bookmarks from other browsers. All those features will be available eventually, with support for extensions coming sometime before the end of the year -- like Windows 10, Edge is a constantly evolving work in progress. But it's going to take a lot for someone like me, wholly enmeshed in Google's ecosystem, to ditch Chrome for something new. Internet Explorer also isn't going anywhere: it'll remain a part of Windows for the foreseeable future, as legacy apps are dependent on it. Head over to my Microsoft Edge preview to learn more about Microsoft Edge .
Getting your game on
Windows 10 adds and tweaks a few things in the entertainment department. The Xbox Video and Xbox Music apps have been renamed to Movies & TV and Groove Music, respectively. Their function is identical: any music and video files on your device can be found here, but it mostly serves as a means to convince you to buy or rent content from Microsoft's stores. You've got plenty of streaming services to choose from, for music and video.
Xbox Live achievements for Solitaire? Brilliant.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
If you're a gamer, the Xbox app will prove far more interesting. It's a window into your Xbox Live feed, letting you see what your friends are up to and send them messages, browse recordings people have made, compare achievements, and all of the expected ways of interacting with the social network. But if you own an Xbox One, you can stream activity from your console to any device running Windows 10.
It's awesome. No, it's not a game changer, and certainly not a reason to run out and grab an Xbox One. But it's still awesome: if someone wants to use the television, I can just plug an Xbox One controller into one of my PCs and continue plugging away at the Xbox One version of The Witcher 3 . The quality of the experience is going to be dependent on your network, so I'd recommend making sure both your console and the PC you're streaming to are connect to your LAN. The console also can't be used by others when it's streaming so this won't enable cooperative gaming. But if you frequently find yourself sharing the TV and have a PC with Windows 10 on hand, it's a fun little addition that could come in handy.
Handy tools for shutterbugs
The new Photos app isn't going to replace something like Adobe Lightroom, but if you take a lot of photos and are looking for a simple tool to keep things organized, you'll do well here.
Use the Photos app to make quick, non-destructive edits to your pictures.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
The Photos app scans your devices and OneDrive account for photos, and automatically arranges them into albums. You can use the app as a way to keep track of your pictures, but it also offers some basic editing tools too. If you prefer a hands-off approach, Photos will automatically enhance all of the photos it finds, wrangling red eye and sorting out exposure levels -- it works on RAW files, too. But don't worry: the edits Photos makes are non-destructive, so you can undo any changes it makes, or prevent it from altering your photos altogether.
Windows, everywhere
Windows 10 has finally arrived, but this version of Windows is fundamentally different from any that have come before it. It will truly be an everywhere OS, a concept Microsoft will be pushing with Windows 10 Mobile , and Universal Apps. We've been here before: apps developed for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 could share much of their code, which was supposed to make it easy to create a single app that ran everywhere.
Microsoft's universal apps share an identical codebase: the Excel client on your desktop, for example, will be the exact same client as the one on your phone, with elements adjusted to make sense of the different display, and the lack of a keyboard or mouse. You can currently get a taste of this on the latest version of Windows 10 Mobile, and while I wouldn't recommend editing spreadsheets on your smartphone, it's possible.
Universal apps will lead to their own challenges, as developers will have to weigh creating rich, robust apps that can run on a mobile device, against developing apps that can make use of all of the power a full PC can bring to bear. Microsoft is already drafting a solution using Continuum. Microsoft has demonstrated Continuum for phones: plug a Windows Phone into a display, and the interface will one day morph to mimic the PC-based version of Windows. You'll see the desktop, desktop-versions of Windows Store apps, and get full mouse and keyboard support. There's no word on when Continuum for phones will be available, or what devices it'll run on, but it offers a tantalizing glimpse of what Microsoft has in store.
Getting ready for what's next
The Windows Update process will be key to getting everyone on board with Microsoft's vision of the future of Windows. It'll also prove to be one of the most contentious elements: if you're running the standard Home version of Windows 10, updates are automatic and can't be refused.
This is a great thing. Windows' Achilles' heel has long been its nigh-ubiquity, which makes it a prime target for malware and other digital nastiness. A computer that's kept up to date is a happy computer, as it will offer you the best chance of avoiding viruses and other unpleasant things.
You can delay updates, but you can't avoid them.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET
This is also a terrible thing. Many of us have encountered software updates that don't quite work out, occasionally breaking more than they fix. One of the last updates to the Windows 10 preview has been triggering software crashes, a recurring reminder that things occasionally don't work out as intended.
Microsoft has plans in place to mitigate these snafus: those of us who've signed up for the Windows Insider program can opt to continue serving as beta testers in perpetuity, and we'll be receiving every update first, for better or worse. But an army of five million testers could go a long way toward making sure these compulsory updates go as smoothly as possible. Insiders will also be able to continue driving the future of Windows by sharing feedback on features and functionality in Windows as they are developed.
I still worry that something will eventually slip through the cracks, and that will be the forced update that sours everyone's mood on the whole process. But I still favor Microsoft's approach: better to deal with the occasional botched update than have the legion of vulnerable or compromised devices that currently exists.
Conclusion
In an ideal world, we'd just call Microsoft's latest operating system "Windows," and sweep version numbers and codenames under the rug. That "10" gives the impression that something comes next, when in reality Windows is transitioning from something you buy (begrudgingly) once every few years, to a living document that's constantly being updated, and tweaked. For many Windows users expecting a predictable upgrade cadence, this is going to be a difficult transition.
Windows 10 will mean the end of grand, sweeping changes, with a marked increase in the sort of minute, quality-of-life tweaks we've grown accustomed to on our smartphones and tablets. Cortana will learn new tricks, and the interface will become flexible enough to support entirely new kinds of devices, like Microsoft's HoloLens . Should Windows Phone survive, we'll eventually see the world Microsoft envisioned back at the launch of Windows 8, when every device was supposed to feel right at home.
All of that comes later. What we have, at present, is a fast, functional OS that that is equally at home on a beefy gaming rig as it is on a Surface tablet. It does everything you expect it to, and bakes in all of the improvements Windows 8 brought to bear. Both Cortana and Edge have a long road ahead of them before they'll supplant Google's vicelike grip on my digital life, but the novelty of dictating emails and requests to my PC is not lost on me. And then there's the price: free, for those upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8.
If you're running Windows 7 or Windows 8 you've little to lose, and quite a bit to gain, by making the jump to Windows 10. If you're still on Windows XP, you've probably got your reasons. But Windows 10 marks the first steps in a transition from operating system to ecosystem, a wild dream that gets a little less crazy every time I ask my PC a question, or pop the keyboard of my laptop to get some reading done. This is Microsoft's second attempt at bringing us the future, and this time they're getting it right.
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iPad Air 2022 Review: M1 Is a Very, Very Nice Addition
iPad Air 2022 Review: M1 Is a Very, Very Nice Addition
I'm surrounded by iPads. My family uses them all the time. Personally, I alternate between iPad and laptop. So it has been, so it shall be. I've wanted the iPad to be a Mac tablet for years. The iPad has crept incrementally closer with keyboard and trackpad support and with now the same M1 processor as the MacBook Air, but that still doesn't mean your iPad is now a Mac.
It does, however, mean that the latest iPad Air has a very, very nice processor and that it's lovely and speedy. It has the same design as the iPad Air revamp in 2020, and the redesigned iPad Mini last fall. But what are that speedy processor and the more iPad Pro/iPad Mini-like design (larger screen, less bezel, USB-C, Pencil 2 support) worth to you?
The middle iPad in Apple's lineup has come at a weird time. The entry-level iPad and iPad Mini were refreshed last fall, and the year-old iPad Pro, which has the same M1 processor as this but costs more, came out a whole year ago. This makes the Air the best high-end iPad for its price. And if you're looking to treat yourself to an excellent iPad that feels future-proof for a while, at least as far as its processor goes, this may seem like the choice.
The iPad Air: Pencil not included.
Scott Stein/CNET
But it's not that simple. The 10.2-inch iPad really does a lot of the same things, for a lot less money. Its screen's a bit smaller, the A13 processor is less powerful, perhaps, and yes, it has a Lightning port, not USB-C. But it works with keyboard cases, it uses that first-gen Pencil and it's all pretty much fine. That basic iPad still probably makes the most sense for casual users. As for portability, it's nearly the same size (with more screen bezel).
The Air's key advantages over the entry-level iPad: USB-C, a faster processor, a slightly larger screen, better stereo speakers, compatibility with the second-gen Pencil stylus that magnetically clips to the iPad's side (sold separately) and also with Apple's very nice and expensive Magic Keyboard case, which has its own trackpad (also sold separately).
I'd love to see those features make it to the entry-level iPad, but instead, Apple makes you pay up for them. So, that's your choice.
And keep in mind that there are extras. Add in some of these accessories, or a case (also sold separately), and bump up the storage (the included 64GB for $599 isn't enough, so you'll want the 256GB version for $750), and you're going to end up with a nearly thousand-dollar iPad after tax. (It starts at £569 in the UK and AU$929 in Australia.)
Also consider that last year's iPad Pro is technically even better, even if its advantages are relatively minor (better rear cameras, lidar for some 3D depth scanning/AR, smoother refresh rate display, extra speakers and a USB-C port that has faster Thunderbolt 4 data throughput). If that iPad Pro from 2021 is ever on sale for the same price as this Air, snap it up. Or, maybe, wait.
iPad (left), iPad Air (middle), iPad Pro (right). Sometimes it's hard to see the differences.
Scott Stein/CNET
What's missing? Not much, except for the camera placement
Living with this iPad Air for part of the last week, I just don't miss anything that the iPad Pro has. I can try to miss those things, but those extras are way too niche for most people. At 10.9 inches, this is a perfect iPad screen size. Small enough to be portable, big enough for browsing and typing, a decent canvas for sketching and two-app multitasking works pretty well, if you play with the limited split-view options.
The display looks great, even if it's not Mini LED, and lacks that faster refresh 120Hz that the latest iPhone Pro and iPad Pro have.
The one thing I do miss, though? The front camera being off to the side. Apple insists on its iPads having cameras in the same portrait orientation layout as iPhones, instead of putting them on the longer edge so it would be centered in keyboard-attached "laptop" mode. Putting the camera along the longer edge would be the correct placement: the Studio Display monitor added Apple's Center Stage zooming camera, but there, it's in the right place. It kills me to do video calls on this iPad, with its excellent camera, and see my face off-center. No other iPad right now is any different, and all current models have that zooming Center Stage camera tech.
The Magic Keyboard is great, but iPadOS is still limited in how flexible it can be.
Scott Stein/CNET
So, hey, it's not really a laptop, though
This is the thing: Just like last year's iPad Pro, which also got this same M1 chip, Apple hasn't flipped the switch on making iPadOS and MacOS merge. They're slowly sharing more in common, and iPads can work well with keyboards and mice and trackpads, but an iPad is just not the same thing as a Mac or PC. If you're really interested in an iPad that can feel a bit nicer and more laptoplike, and you want that second-gen Pencil that can snap to the side easily to charge, this is your upgrade. But for most people, the basic iPad, while unexciting, is still nearly as versatile and also less expensive.
That feeling extends to my thoughts on the M1 processor here. The performance is the same as last year's iPad Pro, and also the MacBook Air and Mini with the entry M1 processor. The new iPad Air is really fast and has great graphics punch, but the difference between the M1 and the A14 chip doesn't feel as dramatic as the leap the Macs got by going to the M1 in late 2020.
The iPad Pro has dual rear cameras and lidar. Those are among the few unique advantages it has over the iPad Air. Seen here: iPad (gray), iPad Air (blue), iPad Pro (silver).
Scott Stein/CNET
What about the iPad Pro?
Apple hasn't updated the iPad Pro since last spring, and it remains a mystery when it will happen. Will you want the extra power and possibly improved display that could offer? Will Apple push it even further into feeling like a Mac? Unknown, unknown. But if you're spending this much for an iPad Air and are craving the possibility of a fancier iPad (and have the money), wait.
5G: Same as the iPad Mini, not exactly the same as the iPad Pro or iPhone
I tried the optional 5G cellular on the Air, a new addition. The Mini and the iPad Pro and iPhone already have 5G. The cellular-equipped models cost $150 extra, data plan not included. It's true that 5G in most places isn't much faster than LTE, but having the option could make a difference for some. It's still weird that MacBooks don't have 5G antennas at all.
This iPad doesn't support mmWave, just sub-6 5G. Effectively, at many times, it feels similar to LTE: Speeds at my home were around 290 megabits per second on Verizon, while in Washington Square Park in New York speeds were only around 60Mbps to 80Mbps.
The entry-level iPad (left) doesn't work with the Magic Keyboard like the iPad Air does (right), but it has its own compatible keyboard cases.
Scott Stein/CNET
The Magic Keyboard: Still good, still expensive!
This keyboard, which came out two years ago, still feels great. But the angles are limiting for the stand, and it's a little more cramped on the 11-inch model. It's expensive, and you can't use it as a normal folio case, either: To read on the iPad, you'll probably want to pop it out of the magnetic case. But I love how the typing feels.
iPad, iPad Air, iPad Pro: The cameras are a little different. But the body sizes are similar.
Scott Stein/CNET
Bottom line: All the iPads are perfectly fine now. Pick your price
Assuming the iPad won't take a leap into Mac-land, right now all the iPads are capable and useful, and all have been updated enough in 2021 or 2022 to feel good enough.
I love how the iPad is a relatively lower-priced versatile computer in Apple's lineup, but it all depends on what you're looking to get out of it. I'd still recommend the basic iPad for a lot of people, but this iPad Air is a solid step up, and the one I'd probably want to buy the most.
But keep in mind: The 64GB $599 model doesn't have enough storage. You'll need the 256GB model, which is $750. Apple's entry-level iPad, meanwhile, costs $329 for 64GB of storage and $479 for 256GB. You're paying nearly double the price for the entry-level Air. Is the extra $270 worth it for you? Maybe. Is it worth it to pay another $200 to get the entry-level 11-inch iPad Pro, which has 128GB of storage (more acceptable) and better cameras, 120Hz display, even better speakers, lidar and Face ID? Probably not. I wouldn't pay up for the Pro at this point… not until Apple finalizes its plans for that model later this year.
GeekBench 5 Multicore
iPad Pro 11 (M1, 2021)
iPad (A13 Bionic, 2021)
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus (Qualcomm SM8450, 2022)
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iPhone 14: Release Date, Price and Every Other Rumor You Should Know
iPhone 14: Release Date, Price and Every Other Rumor You Should Know
This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET's collection of news, tips and advice around Apple's most popular product.
This iPhone 14 may make its debut next week at Apple's "Far Out" launch event. After nearly a year of waiting, we've heard a slew of rumors about the new iPhone lineup, from its possible release date and price to design changes and new camera features. We even got a look at its operating system, iOS 16 -- here's how you can download the beta now if you haven't yet.
Even with all the buzz about the iPhone 14, Pro, Max and Pro Max, there are plenty of questions still floating around. Will Apple raise the price for its upcoming iPhones? When exactly will you be able to preorder and buy the iPhone 14? How will it be different from the iPhone 13? And what will it even look like?
We won't have definitive answers until Apple's big announcement, but one thing is certain: Now isn't the time to buy a new iPhone, especially since Apple's 2022 flagship is likely so close to its debut. We expect to see the Apple Watch Series 8 and possibly a new Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Pro soon, too.
While we count down the days to the iPhone 14's likely arrival, we're continuing to collect all the rumors about the upcoming iPhone. We'll update this story as new information becomes available. If you're looking for ways to pass the time until Apple's Sept. 7 event, check out CNET's list of the best places to trade in your old phone. Plus, here's every hidden iOS 16 feature we didn't expect to find and the 22 iPhone tips that'll make you a power user.
Early renders of the iPhone 14 from Jon Prosser suggest a notchless design and flush camera setup.
Jon Prosser
iPhone 14 lineup rumors: Will there still be four phones?
We still don't know much about the iPhone 14, but we've heard that Apple's next lineup will nix the Mini and focus on larger phones instead. A 2021 report from Nikkei Asian Review predicted the death of the iPhone 14 Mini, and a research note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo obtained by MacRumors also suggested that the Mini was not long for this world. However, Kuo reported, the iPhone 14 lineup will still comprise four models, a "high-end" and a "lower-end," with two size options for each.
While name speculation isn't as germane to the discussion of Apple's 2022 lineup as it was for unlucky 13, rumors suggest a small shift in naming conventions, with an iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max, with "Pro" designating higher-end specs and "Max" referring to the larger screen size.
Read more: iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 13: Selfie Cameras May Get Biggest Overhaul in Years
iPhone 14 size rumors: How large will screens be?
Apple's last two iPhone lineups have featured the same 6.1-inch size for the base model, going up to 6.7 inches for the Pro Max. According to the same Nikkei Asian Review report, Apple will stick with these sizes for the iPhone 14, but delete the 5.4-inch Mini. This rumor is corroborated by a March report from 9to5Mac. Reports showed sluggish sales of the iPhone 12 Mini, so it'll be no surprise should Apple retire the small phone in 2022.
Although the size of the next iPhone is expected to stay the same, the display bezels for the Pro Max are rumored to be 20 percent smaller compared to previous iPhone generations, according to CAD renders shared by Twitter leaker ShrimpApplePro. This means the screen would be slightly larger. However, it's important to note that this rumor should be taken with a grain of salt since ShrimpApplePro doesn't have an extensive track record to support their speculations.
Rumored iPhone 14 screen sizes
iPhone 14
6.1 inches
iPhone 14 Pro
6.1 inches
iPhone 14 Max
6.7 inches
iPhone 14 Pro Max
6.7 inches
Patrick Holland/CNET
Release date: When will the iPhone 14 go on sale?
Apple has set its next launch event for Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. BST). The new iPhone is expected to make its debut at this event, possibly alongside Apple Watch Series 8.
Although we now know the probable launch date for the iPhone 14, its release date has yet to be confirmed. But like other aspects of the new iPhone, rumors can provide a few hints. A recent Bloomberg report suggests that the new iPhone will go on sale Sept. 16.
Apple holds its annual fall iPhone event in September almost every year, with the phones being released shortly thereafter, usually the Friday of the following week. Sometimes Apple will stagger release dates for specific models, especially when introducing a new design or size. So it's possible that the iPhone 14 lineup will have more than one release date.
Here's what we know:
Apple tends to hold its events on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Apple's iPhone 13 event was held on Tuesday, Sept. 14, and this year's event is slated for Wednesday, Sept. 7.
iPhone release dates are typically a week and a half after Apple's announcements.
In general, new iPhones are released on a Friday, around the third week of September. For the iPhone 13, preorders began Sept. 17 and the phones went on sale Sept. 24.
A few years ago, CNET took a deep dive into the Apple event timeline and emerged with a compelling Labor Day hypothesis, which you can read about here. Although our hypothesis was a week off for 2021, this year it aligns with the date of Apple's scheduled launch event.
Read more:We Can't Wait For These Upcoming Phones
iPhone 14 price: How much will Apple's 2022 iPhone cost?
Apple didn't make any major price changes between 2020's iPhone 12 and 2021's iPhone 13. But with bigger changes expected to be on the way for the iPhone 14, it's reasonable to believe that Apple may raise prices in 2022.
The new iPhone may see a $100 price increase, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. "Prices have been increasing across the whole supply chain, and Cupertino needs to pass these costs to the consumer on this release," Ives told The Sun. Kuo also estimates that Apple may increase the price for its new iPhone.
However, other rumors suggest that the iPhone 14 will share the same price as last year's model, or will be even cheaper. A Korean leaker who goes by the handle yeux1122 suggests Apple plans to "freeze" the price of the base model of the iPhone 14.
For reference, here's how much each version of the iPhone 13 lineup cost at launch.
iPhone 13 pricing
128GB
256GB
512GB
1TB
iPhone 13 Mini
$699
$799
$999
N/A
iPhone 13
$799
$899
$1,099
N/A
iPhone 13 Pro
$999
$1,099
$1,299
$1,499
iPhone 13 Pro Max
$1,099
$1,199
$1,399
$1,599
Camera rumors: A better front-facing camera and more for the iPhone 14?
Apple may have a few camera upgrades in store for the upcoming iPhone 14. Rumors say the tech giant has chosen a new supplier for its front-facing camera to make a higher-end lens. According to a report from Korean tech site ET News, citing unnamed industry sources, South Korean supplier LG Innotek will provide the new selfie camera for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro.
Kuo also shared insights about the iPhone 14's potential camera upgrades in an investors note reported on by 9to5Mac just after the iPhone 13 launch. In the note, Kuo predicts a hole-punch front camera, making the iPhone 14 notchless, as well as a 48-megapixel wide rear camera for the Pro and Pro Max models, up from 12 megapixels on previous iPhones.
Display analyst Ross Young hypothesizes, however, that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will have a hole-and-pill shaped design to accommodate for the front-facing camera and Face ID. The hole cutout is believed to be for the Face ID dot projector, and the pill-shaped cutout holds the front camera and Face ID camera, according to a January report from MacRumors. Supposedly leaked CAD renders of the iPhone 14, seen by 91mobiles, corroborate this rumor.
Kuo's speculation regarding the camera's megapixel capacity aligns with both a recent research note from Haitong International Securities, also reported on by MacRumors, and a report from research company TrendForce. Both Jeff Pu and TrendForce hypothesize the two Pro models will be equipped with a 48-megapixel wide lens. Pu, however, adds that the iPhones will sport a triple-lens rear camera system with a 12-megapixel ultrawide and telephoto lenses in addition to the 48-megapixel wide lens. The analyst adds that the Pro versions of the iPhone 14 could sport 8GB of RAM, as well. (In comparison, the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have 6GB.) This is corroborated by a report from a Korean blog that cites domestic supply chain sources, as MacRumors spotted.
iPhone 13 camera upgrades include a new Cinematic mode, ProRes video and some improvements in zoom capabilities. We had previously reported on rumors that the entire lineup would feature lidar, the iPhone 12 Pro's standout depth-sensing feature, but lidar ended up making an appearance only on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max after all. It's possible Apple might expand the feature to its full lineup in 2022 instead, but we haven't heard anything yet.
Another of the camera features we're still waiting on is an improved telephoto lens. While the iPhone 13 Pro's zoom capabilities were given a 3x optical zoom, it still pales in comparison to a lot of competitor flagships, including Samsung's Galaxy S22 Ultra, which boasts a 10x optical zoom.
iPhone 14 could have a camera setup that's flush with the back of the phone, nixing the chunky camera bump.
Jon Prosser
Read more:Every iPhone 14 Feature I Want to See at Apple's Next Event
Design rumors: iPhone 14 might be notchless... or will it?
YouTuber and iPhone leaker Jon Prosser (whose track record is admittedly spotty) made waves the week before the iPhone 13 announcement by releasing renders he commissioned of the iPhone 14 Pro Max based on "real images and schematics" leaked to him from purported sources at Apple.
Prosser's renders corroborate a number of previously reported rumors, including the notchless display and hole-punch camera previously reported by Kuo, and the iPhone 14 Pro's titanium alloy chassis, which was first referenced in a 2021 report from JPMorgan Chase. We'd been expecting to see the iPhone 13 go notchless, but instead we got a slimmed-down, but still very notchy, notch. Apple introduced the world to the notched display in 2017 with the release of the iPhone X, and as rivals solved the selfie conundrum with hole-punch and under-display cameras, Apple still hasn't, er, taken it down a notch.
Read more: iPhone 14 Design Rumors
But Prosser's renders seem to align with these earlier reports that Apple would finally excise the iPhone's notch in 2022. And Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also hinted at its removal in a September edition of his Power On newsletter, wherein he predicted a "complete redesign" for the iPhone 14, while Young says Apple could introduce a hole-and-pill shaped design for the new iPhone. This hole-and-pill display emerged in schematics on Chinese social media site Weibo, and were later shared by Prosser.
Those who've been crossing their fingers for a notchless iPhone since the iPhone 12 and had their hopes dashed once again by the iPhone 13 can possibly now look forward to a potential realization of their all-screen dreams in 2022's iPhone 14.
However, before you get too excited, there's a possibility that not all the iPhone 14 models will get a new notchless design. MySmartPrice published supposed CAD renders of the iPhone 14 in March, depicting -- you guessed it -- a notch. But renders of the 14 Pro model published the day before on 91Mobiles do show a notchless display. If these rumors prove true, it looks like you'll have to spring for the Pro in order to get rid of the notch.
A schematic of the iPhone 14's display, shared to YouTube by Jon Prosser.
Jon Prosser
iPhone 14 says buh-bye to the camera bump but will it keep the Lightning port?
The other big design change Prosser's renders show is a flattened camera bump. According to Prosser, the iPhone 14's body is going to be a "thick boy," thick enough, it seems, to encompass all the camera hardware without an annoying, protruding camera setup on the back. Why is the iPhone 14 supposed to be so thick? Perhaps to house a bigger battery, or even the previously rumored periscope camera, which Kuo projected in 2020. However, Kuo and famed tech leaker Max Weinbach have actually pointed to a thicker camera bump in the 14 Pro and Pro Max.
Two prior rumors that won't pan out, according to Prosser at least, are the death of the Lightning port and the addition of USB-C (the EU may force Apple to add USB-C ports to iPhones, however). Rumors of a completely portless iPhone have been circulating for a while, but it appears those won't come true in 2022.
iPhone 14 color rumors: Pale gold, perhaps?
As far as colors go, Prosser's render colors were not based on any actual information from his sources, except for a pale gold color, which he claims to have seen evidence of himself. However, like all other rumored specs, we won't know the true color options for the iPhone 14 until it's released.
The iPhone 13 lineup came in a rainbow of new hues.
Apple
Rumored iPhone 14 features and specs?
Here's everything else we know (and think we know) so far about the iPhone 14 lineup's specifications and potential new features.
An always-on lock screen
Apple's iOS 16 will include an always-on mode for the lock screen, according to Bloomberg. This feature, however, may be exclusive to the high-end iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Better battery life
Apple's 2022 iPhone could offer better battery life, according to a report from Taiwan's Economic Daily News (via MacRumors). This is said to be due to a new 5G chip that could also provide the new iPhone with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity.
A larger battery capacity for each model in the iPhone 14 lineup could also contribute to the better battery life. According to ShrimpApplePro, the standard iPhone 14 may have a 3,279-mAh battery, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max may sport a 4,323-mAh battery.
Wi-Fi 6E adoption
The iPhone 14 could be equipped with Wi-Fi 6E, according to a November note from Kuo, reported on by 9to5Mac. However, the analyst says the components needed for Wi-Fi 6E may be in short supply. Apple's rumored VR headset is also said to have Wi-Fi 6E.
A16 chip
Previous speculation was that the whole iPhone 14 series would upgrade to an A16 chip, improving upon the last iPhone's A15 chip in keeping with Apple's previous pattern. However, Kuo predicted in March that the A16 will only appear in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, while the 14 and 14 Max will keep the A15.
120Hz ProMotion display
All iPhone 14 models could include Apple's ProMotion display, which only the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max variants currently have. ProMotion boosts the screen's refresh rate for smoother performance, up to 120Hz. This is more speculation than actual rumor, based on changes in Apple's supply chain that would make it easier for the company to offer the feature across its next lineup.
Young, however, speculates that Apple will continue to offer ProMotion displays exclusively to its Pro models. The analyst suggests that Chinese manufacturer BOE would be one of Apple's LTPO OLED display suppliers, but the company doesn't have a large production capacity right now.
5G connectivity
Apple introduced 5G connectivity to its iPhone 12 lineup and, unsurprisingly, included it in the iPhone 13 as well. There's no reason to believe we won't see 5G-compatible iPhone 14s, too. A 2021 report from Nikkei Asian Review also predicts Apple will "go all in on 5G" in 2022.
MagSafe accessories
Like 5G, MagSafe was introduced to the iPhone in 2020's iPhone 12 lineup. The snap-on, magnetic accessories include wallets, battery packs and chargers, and it was one of our favorite iPhone 12 features. The iPhone 13 is also compatible with MagSafe, and we expect the same for Apple's next generation of phones.
Satellite connectivity
An 11th-hour iPhone 13 rumor via Kuo that didn't come to fruition was the addition of satellite connectivity, which would allow users to send text messages via satellite in areas without cellular coverage, at least in emergency situations, as reported by Bloomberg. Alas, satellite connectivity is nowhere to be found in the iPhone 13 lineup, but perhaps that means it's coming in the iPhone 14 instead.
The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack on the iPhone 12.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Stay tuned for more iPhone 14 news as it comes out, and in the meantime, check out CNET's reviews of the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, and the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. Plus, here's how all four iPhone 13 models compare, how the iPhone 13 and iPhone 12 differ, whether it makes sense to buy an iPhone 12 or iPhone 11, and how all of Apple's iPhones from the past five years stack up. And here's everything to know about the iPhone SE 2022.
Get ready for Apple's next event
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The Mini's time in the iPhone lineup may be done. While Apple did unveil an iPhone 13 Mini in September, the company has no plans to include the smaller version of the phone in its iPhone 14 lineup, according to a 9to5Mac report on Monday.
Sources tell the site that the lineup for the as-yet-unannounced handset will include four models, available in 6.1- and 6.7-inch versions, but it won't come in a 5.4-inch version.
Reports suggest that the iPhone 12 Mini didn't sell well, and more recent rumors indicate that Apple may cut the Mini from 2022's iPhone 14 lineup. Priced at $729 when it debuted in 2020, it was hardly a budget phone, and after years of embracing larger phones, the value of a smaller iPhone didn't feel as relevant as Apple may have hoped.
The iPhone 14 lineup will be divided into two tiers when it comes to processors, with two models using the A15 chip and the other two using a new chip, 9to5Mac reported. This seems to mirror a prediction that Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo made Sunday that the upper tier of the iPhone 14 lineup would be powered by a new A16 chip.
And we may finally see the much-rumored satellite communication connectivity in the iPhone 14. While the feature was expected to debut last year in the iPhone 13, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is working on enabling users to make calls and send texts in areas without cellular coverage.
Apple is expected to hold its annual fall iPhone event in September, as it does almost every year, with the phones being released shortly thereafter.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
