Author Archives: JC Torres

Apple's M1 Silicon has definitely been hogging the computing news spotlight these past weeks, most of them comparing its performance with Intel's chips. Not all M1 Macs are the same, of course, and not just counting the difference between an M1 MacBook Air and an M1 MacBook Pro. Even the MacBook Pro (Late 2020) offers two slightly different models with different RAM capacities. Thankfully, someone took the time to benchmark these two variants, and the results might surprise you a bit.

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Despite the many innovations in the computing industry, a few things have remained the same throughout the decades. Keyboard layouts haven't really changed much, PC mice have at least left and right buttons, and copy and paste works as you might expect, even if it leads to embarrassing mistakes due to human error. The Microsoft Edge web browser is changing how that last bit works, and while it might be helpful in a few specialized cases, it will be an unwanted surprise for the majority of the cases where you use copy and paste on the Web.

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The tablet market has seen consistently positive figures, mostly in thanks to Apple and the iPad Pro's rapid development pace. The company's prosumer tablet seems to undergo big changes every iteration, even when those changes aren't exactly visible to the naked eye. Case in point will be the iPad Pros coming next year which have already been rumored to be moving to mini-LED displays. That might be a short-lived change, however, as there are now reports that Apple will again switch display technologies before 2021 is over.

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The Motorola that we have today seems to be but a shadow of its former self, even the Motorola that was briefly under Google. Aside from the foldable new Razr, the company rarely makes notable phones these days, preferring to flood the entry-level and mid-range market with a dizzying number of similar-sounding phones. It does still try to make high-end ones, like the Verizon-exclusive Motorola Edge+ pictured above. It will try to make yet another one early next year but, at least based on a rumor, it might not be the premium flagship Motorola fans may have been wishing for.

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Manufacturers reveal concept designs and working prototypes for a variety of reasons. It could be for bragging rights, being established as a pioneer, or proof that the company can indeed make such a product. Not all of these concepts get turned into actual commercial products but some of them surprisingly do. Unfortunately for those hoping OPPO would be the first in the market with a rollable phone, the company is simply saying no, at least not for the immediate future.

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Compared to the likes of Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, Twitter's big changes are relatively more sporadic. It took years for it to extend its 140-character limit and, to this day, still won't let users edit their tweets. When it does push out changes, though, they're often big, controversial, and rarely gets reverted. Its latest feature, an unabashed Snapchat and Instagram Stories clone, is the latest proof of that and so far it has been a disastrous launch, including a potential privacy-violating bug.

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Microsoft has been aggressively pushing its new Chromium-based Edge web browser to people, sometimes in ways that don't sit well with users. It has been promoting how fully-featured it is or how it is able to compete with the big boys like Google Chrome. It may have actually truly become big, enough that it is now a viable and perhaps lucrative target of less conscientious agents on the Internet as the number of fake copies of popular add-ons of Edge is starting to rise, just like with the big boys.

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Apple's yearly selection of iPhone models has somewhat become complicated, starting with just one until the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in 2014. This year, it has no less than four models to choose from but it's pretty clear which one is the best if you have money to burn. The iPhone 12 Pro Max packs everything that Apple could cram into a phone and iFixit takes a good look inside to see if size does matter in the end.

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The new M1 Macs have taken over the Web with news about their astounding performance, an admirable feat for Apple's first stab at an ARM-based desktop chip. The Apple Silicon ran circles around their Intel counterparts and even bested NVIDIA's and AMD's older desktop GPUs. Despite that, the MacBooks could probably still do even better if paired with an external graphics card or eGPU. Sadly, that was officially not the case but it might actually only be a matter of time before eGPU support for macOS Big Sur on M1 Macs returns.

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Apple is often praised for its software update practices, particularly for iOS and iPadOS. Compared to Android, even with the new three-year commitments from some manufacturers, Apple often rolls out new iOS versions even to models that are more than three years old. As they say, however, that all good things must come to an end and iOS 15 might finally be bringing the curtains down on Apple's five-year-old iPhones.

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The acquisition deal might still be incomplete but Google and Fitbit are already bridging the gap between the two's distinct wearable platforms. No, Fitbit still has its own operating system but this latest update to version 5.1 puts at least two of its smartwatches closer to Google's Wear OS. Going beyond Amazon Alexa, Fitbit is now opening the Sense's and Versa 3's doors to Google Assistant while also adding more health monitoring features that make the smartwatches even better than before.

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Google made a big splash about the completion of the global rollout of RCS and its next steps to ensure its security on Android via end-to-end encryption. Coincidentally, this latest bit of security news highlights why this development is critical in a post-SMS world. A once-popular alternative SMS app on Android has apparently been exposing any photo, video, or file that its users have been sharing and its developers have conveniently gone silent when notified of the security lapse.

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