Learn how to manage and customize Telegram's Power Saving Mode on your Mac, including setting the battery threshold to automate the feature.
How to use Telegram’s power saving mode to boost battery life of your MacBook
Laptop
Twelve South’s HiRise Pro MacBook stand now doubles as a MagSafe iPhone charger
With a hidden chamber for a MagSafe disc charger, Twelve South’s refreshed HiRise Pro Stand will elevate your MacBook and charge your iPhone simultaneously.
How to bring brightness controls back to your M1 Mac’s keyboard
Apple's new laptops have a revamped keyboard layout with more dedicated function keys, but some previous options didn't make the cut.
10 ways Apple could improve the MacBook Pro
Apple’s MacBook Pro has been my personal computer of choice for almost a decade now, and while I’ve loved every upgrade along the way, I can’t help but feel like Apple could do better.
Given just how expensive a MacBook Pro becomes as you start pegging out the specs on Apple’s website, it seems like Apple could do more to help me justify the price point. With that in mind, I’ll discuss at least ten ways Apple could improve their flagship notebook in this piece.
Removing items from our bags at airports might no longer be necessary
Traveling has long been a nightmare especially when airports are involved. New technology could eventually end one of the biggest headaches of this type of travel: having to remove items such as laptops and iPads from our bags during the security check.
Microsoft debuts Surface Book 2: two sizes, twice as powerful as the new MacBook Pro
Software giant Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a second-generation Surface Book laptop as it continues to compete with Apple's MacBook Pro notebook family.
iFixit gives Surface Laptop repairability score 0/10: “It’s a glue-filled monstrosity”
Microsoft's Surface Book notebook/tablet hybrid from a couple of years ago scored a 1/10 rating on iFixit's repairability scale, but the company's new $999 Surface Laptop, introduced in May, scores even worse: 0/10. According to the repair experts over at iFixit, a teardown analysis of Microsoft Laptop has found an utterly unrepairable device.
“It’s a Russian nesting doll from hell with everything hidden under adhesive and plastic spot welds,” wrote iFixit. “It is physically impossible to nondestructively open this device.”
Not only are there no screws holding the case together, meaning prying apart the Alcantara fabric damages it permanently, but the internals are glued down as well, including the keyboard, the motherboard and even the battery, which is glued directly to the case.
Speaking of which, the battery was boosted from a two-cell 38.2 Wh battery to a four-cell 45 Wh one, a nearly 18 percent increase in battery capacity over the previous model. To squeeze in a bigger battery, Microsoft's engineers have ditched the removable blade SSD.
“Good luck if you need to recover your data from a bricked device,” warns iFixit.
According to iFixit:
Verdict: The Surface Laptop is not a laptop. It’s a glue-filled monstrosity. There is nothing about it that is upgradable or long-lasting, and it literally can’t be opened without destroying it. (Show us the procedure, Microsoft, we’d love to be wrong.)
The device's redesigned passive cooling and a four-armed “beast of a heat sink” allow Intel's Core i5 to run fanless. iFixit has also determined that Alcantara, the fabric used on the keyboard, is not “as stinky as rumors claim,” but cautions that the material looks liable to get nasty once your hands start sweating all over it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI6yIZI3rg
Bottom line: no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to fix or change the components because Surface Laptop is totally unrepairable and non-upgradable.
Microsoft unveils touchscreen Surface Laptop, its $999 MacBook rival
At its educational event held this morning in New York City, Microsoft unveiled Surface Laptop, its $999 MacBook rival available for preorder beginning today ahead of its planned release this summer.
The device runs the new Windows 10 S operating system, the company's answer to Google’s Chrome OS, and features a clamshell body weighing at 2.76 pounds and measuring 14.47mm at its thickest point and tapering down to 9.9mm at its thinnest point at the front.
Taking on MacBooksSurface Laptop runs either Intel’s seventh-generation i5 or i7 processor and sports vapor chambers integrated into the anodized aluminum finish on the rear to help keep it cool.
It's got a 13.5-inch PixelSense LCD touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio featuring 3.4 million pixels (withCorning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for protection) and supporting the Surface Pen stylus. “This is the thinnest LDC touch model every created and put into a laptop,” says Microsoft's Panos Panay, who took to the stage to unveil the new products today.
Say hello to Surface LaptopWatch a reveal trailer for Surface Laptop below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74kPEJWpCD4
The laptop is outfitted with a 14.5-hour battery.
That’s “up to four more hours of battery power than a 13-inch MacBook Pro” and “more battery life than any MacBook Air on the market today,” says the Windows maker in another comparison between its new notebook and Apple's MacBook line. The Windows maker claims you can watch as many as fourteen episodes of your favorite TV show in one sitting, without ever plugging in.
The device's keyboard has a 1.5mm travel, with the backlit keys made from the same material used for premium Surface Pro covers, called Alcantara fabric. The speakers are integrated underneath the keyboard, but there are no speaker grills or holes.
In terms of connections, Surface Laptop comes outfitted with a regular USB port, mini DisplayPort and the conventional Surface power connector, but no USB-C.
Windows 10 S or Windows 10 Pro?Because it runs Windows 10 S, Surface Laptop can only run apps offered on Windows Store.
Google Chrome is not found on Windows Store and Spotify’s app with support for Surface Dial will be coming to the store early this summer. If you want to run apps not found on Windows Store, you can optionally upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for a one-time $49 fee.
Because Windows 10 Pro is the full version of Microsoft’s operating system, upgrading may result in reduced battery life and performance, cautions the Windows maker.
If you need to use an app that isn’t in the Windows Store, in just a few clicks can go to the Windows Store and switch to Windows 10 Pro. But you shouldn’t. This device, this OS, they’re made for each other, and together they offer so much. It’s everything you love about Windows, Office, and Surface, made pure and elegant in an unbelievably thin and light package.
Microsoft now has three families of Surface devices in its lineup: the Surface Pro 4 notebook/laptop hybrid, the all-in-one Surface Studio and the new Surface Laptop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HCVUCqZoHI
Availability and pricingSurface Laptop is available for pre-order via Microsoft Store starting today.
The entry-level $999 model uses Intel’s seventh-generation Core i5 processor with Intel HD Graphics 620, four gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of flash storage. The $1,299 model uses 256 gigabytes of flash storage and eight gigabytes of RAM.
The more powerful $1,599 model comes outfitted with Intel’s seventh-generation Core i7 processor with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640, eight gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of flash storage. The flagship $2,199 model upgrades your storage and RAM to 512 and sixteen gigabytes, respectively.
Surface Laptop comes in four colors: Platinum, Burgundy, Cobalt Blue and Graphite Gold.
The notebook will start shipping this summer on June 15. For a limited time, Surface Laptop comes with an offer for one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal and one terabyte of free storage on OneDrive, giving you full access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Poll: would you buy a notebook, a tablet, a phone and a watch?
We're living in a multi-device world. Taking into account the never-ending stream of both existing form factors and new-category products, small wonder that the line is blurring.
I'm of course referring to ultra-thin notebooks, smartphones, tablets and wearables that perform functions of smartwatches, fitness trackers, health bands and what not.
But do we really need all this hardware in our lives? And even more to the point, can anyone in today's multi-screen world safely do without owning all types of mobile gear?
That's the question I'd like to pose in today's poll. Assuming you have enough spare cash lying around somewhere, would buying a notebook, a tablet, a smartphone and a watch benefit your mobile computing, do you think?
Launch of 12-inch Retina MacBook may be pushed back to 2015
Taiwan's Economic Daily News is reporting tonight that the launch of the 12-inch MacBook with Retina display may be pushed back due to Intel processor delays. The long-rumored hybrid laptop was expected to finally launch later this year.
The problem is, the new MacBook, said to strike a better balance of performance and portability, is believed to be tied to Intel's 14-nanometer Broadwell chips. These chips have been delayed several times, and now may not land until 2015...
Microsoft announces Surface Pro 3 to take on MacBook Air with thinner, lighter build
Microsoft has announced the Surface Pro 3 at a media event in New York City on Tuesday, setting its sights on not only Apple's iPad, but the MacBook Air as well.
The Surface Pro 3 busts past the 10.1-inch norm to a 12-inch display with a 2160 x 1440 resolution. It's not a 16:9 aspect ratio, but rather a more comfortable 3:2 aspect ratio with a HD screen - a first for Microsoft's Surface line. But the thinness and lightness is where Microsoft is hoping to sell you.