Apple brings iOS-like functionality, including Control Center and widgets, to macOS with the Big Sur update.
Apple’s macOS Big Sur merges familiar iOS features with the computing benefits of Apple’s Mac lineup. Now that iOS apps can run in macOS, it makes sense for both operating systems to look, and work, similarly.
Unfortunately, the Big Sur rollout has been difficult. When new software arrives, it’s always advisable to wait until all the kinks are worked out before you download. But who actually follows that advice? …
Whether we were living out our X-wing fantasies in Star Wars Squadrons or piloting real planes over real places in Microsoft Flight Simulator, flight games soared and gave us a taste of normal in 2020.
By Jordan Minor
When you play as many video games as I do, you develop a pretty strong grasp on your own preferences, particularly when it comes to aesthetics. …
The social media companies confirm official White House social media handles will be ceded to the Biden Administration on inauguration day.
Keys to the White House and access to nuclear launch codes aren’t the only things President-elect Joe Biden will gain on Jan. 20, 2021. Twitter and Facebook will hand over control of the @POTUS accounts to the Biden administration on Inauguration Day.
Team Trump will be forced to cede position-specific handles including @POTUS, @FLOTUS, and @VP to the incoming troupe: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, and Kamala Harris, respectively. …
Apple’s M1 CPU, debuting in its latest MacBooks and Mac mini, offers a groundbreaking blend of performance and efficiency…at least in theory. Should you bite? Let’s break down the early results.
By Tom Brant
The brand-new M1 processor available in Apple’s latest MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini offers a groundbreaking blend of performance and efficiency, at least in theory. Lightning-quick app launches, speedy video transcodes, and the potential for as much as 29 hours of battery life? Yes, please.
But Apple’s M1 chip doesn’t live up to its full potential all of the time, at least not yet. Mac software has spent more than 15 years running on Intel x86 processors. And that means that a lot of apps that have been around for a while will need to be redesigned to take full advantage of the entirely new CPU architecture that the M1 uses. In some cases, these apps aren’t much faster on an M1 Mac than they are on an Intel Mac. This is because apps designed for Intel processors run in emulation mode on M1 processors, a situation akin to towing your car instead of driving it. This mode is called “Rosetta 2.” (The original Rosetta came into play during Apple’s ages-ago transition from PowerPC chips to Intel.) …
Here’s how the notoriously staid Disney took the plunge with Pixar and unleashed an animation juggernaut.
Thinking about the world of animation in 1995 paints an interesting picture. Disney was on a major hot streak, with The Lion King bringing in millions as part of what came to be known as the Disney Renaissance. But one of the most important movies the studio would release-25 years ago this month-was like nothing they’d done before.
Toy Story was an absolute outlier for Disney. It wasn’t based on a public domain fairy tale, it wasn’t a musical and-most notably-it wasn’t drawn, frame by frame, by a massive department of ink and paint artists. Instead, it was the first feature film entirely animated on a computer. How did the notoriously staid Disney take the plunge into working with Pixar, and how did the world of animation change in its wake? …
It’s been 35 years since Microsoft launched Windows, and we’ve had a lot to say about it. Check out PC Magazine’s coverage of Microsoft Windows dating back to 1985.
Today marks the 35th anniversary of Microsoft’s now ubiquitous operating system. Windows 1.0 arrived on Nov. 20, 1985, and it made the pages of PC Magazine a few days later with a brief write-up discussing its potential to help those befuddled by the complexities of MS-DOS.
In the 35 years since, we’ve covered all manner of Windows releases, up to and including the “last” version of the OS, Windows 10, which made its debut in 2015. You can take a trip down memory lane and read our reviews of Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 on PCMag.com. …
Love to doodle? A new AI tool from Google, Chimera Painter, will turn those drawings into fantastical creatures.
Google envisions Chimera Painter as a tool for video game artists “to quickly create fleshed-out versions of creature outlines. The intention is for the tool to reduce the time needed to create quality art for digital games while enhancing creativity and artistic choice,” Andeep Singh Toor, Stadia Software Engineer, and Fred Bertsch, a software engineer with Google Research’s Brain Team, wrote in a blog post.
For now, anyone can try it out. Just sketch a creature in your app of choice and upload it to Chimera Painter. Point out the body parts, such as wings, muzzle, or claws, and click Transform. If you want some inspiration, the model comes preloaded with customizable, 2D outlines, too. …
You don’t have to be a financial expert to have conversations with kids about money, you just have to have a plan. Our expert advice (and the right child-focused financial services) can help you raise kids who are smart about their money.
By Jill Duffy
Who taught you about money and personal finance? If the answer is no one, that you picked up what you needed to know along the way, then you’re in the same boat as many other adults. …
Our attempts to secure AMD’s new graphics card on day one have so far come up empty; the card immediately went out of stock. However, AMD insists it’s ‘producing chips and cards in volume.’
By Michael Kan
If you got up early to buy AMD’s Radeon RX 6800 or 6800 XT, then you’re probably in a bad mood right now. The graphic cards launched today only to instantly sell out.
We tried to secure a unit from Newegg.com and AMD’s own online store at 6 a.m. PST. Unfortunately, all we saw were out-of-stock notices on both websites.
On Newegg, our strategy was to search for Radeon RX 6800 product listings the moment they went up. Initially, the site returned nothing relevant. They appeared around 6:05 a.m., but by then it was too late: all the stock was already gone. …
Being stuck in quarantine means we could all use a little titillation. Here’s how to enjoy pornography without putting your privacy (and your reputation!) at risk.
By Max Eddy
Sex work is the oldest profession, and that is certainly true on the internet, where online pornography has been equal parts innovation-driver and bogeyman. That has perhaps never been truer than at our present moment when everyone is stuck working and playing from home. …
