The Google Pixel 8a’s release just got a lot closer

Ready to get your hands on the Google Pixel 8a? Good news! Its release date shouldn’t be far off now, as a new bit of news confirms.
Digital Trends

The Infinix Note 40 Pro+ Offers A Host Of Premium Features For $300

Infinix’s Note 40 Pro+ 5G brings a ton of premium features such as a 108MP camera with OIS, 100W Multi-Speed Charging, and an AMOLED display.
TalkAndroid

LinkedIn adding word games so you can procrastinate at work

LinkedIn may exist to help professionals look for new job opportunities and network with others, but it could soon become the place for a bit of down time, too.
Digital Trends

Hyper Light Breaker hands-on: I’m here for the hoverboard

Hyper Light Breaker is a hoverboard sim. Technically, it’s a third-person roguelite adventure set in a luminous fantasy-cyberpunk universe, but after playing a 30-minute preview, it’s clear to me that Hyper Light Breaker is all about the hoverboard. Vicious beasts, secret alcoves and shiny weapons are secondary to the feeling of gliding over green hills and shallow waters on my glowing blue slab, finding joy in narrowly avoiding enemy encounters.

Intentionally skipping battles was probably the opposite of what lead animator Chris Bullock wanted me to do during the first public hands-on opportunity with Hyper Light Breaker — but if that were the case, then he shouldn’t have told me about the hoverboard.

Hyper Light Breaker
Heart Machine

Hyper Light Breaker is set to go live in early access on Steam this summer, complete with three-player online co-op. Developers at Heart Machine are letting people play it for the first time at Day of the Devs: San Francisco Edition, which is held in conjunction with GDC this week. I played a remote preview of the game at home, solo style, while Bullock watched on Discord (and probably cringed a whole lot).

Breaker is an open-world game with a hub station called the Cursed Outpost, a futuristic strip mall with shops, upgrade stations and NPCs. I briefly explored the outpost, but the bulk of the game plays out in the Overgrowth, a landscape of ever-shifting biomes, and I focused on diving into these. Biomes in the Overgrowth are built with hand-crafted and procedurally generated elements so that players will never enter the same realm twice, and each one has a boss to defeat called a Crown. Despite my desire to peacefully hoverboard through the half-hour demo, I messed around with two loadouts, took out a few slime hordes and twice tried to slay one of those Crowns — a huge bipedal wolf warrior with a golden sword named Dro.

In both of my battles with Dro, she started attacking instantly and with incredible force, swinging her blade wildly as she leapt in a giant arc across a temple and directly onto my head. I dodged and attempted to fill up her stagger meter by landing basic attacks with my sword and firearm, but the wolf was relentless, especially compared with the basic enemies I easily dispatched around the biome.

Hyper Light Breaker
Heart Machine

Dro defeated me twice. At the end of each fight, I heard the game’s siren song luring me in, making me believe I could beat the big bad wolf next time, if I just employed an updated strategy. Parrying was key in this fight, according to Bullock.

“Her first opening attack, you immediately went for the parry on that,” Bullock said as I prepared to fight the boss again. “I love that you picked that up right away; that was the intention on that one.”

The parry had been an accident on my part, but I’d immediately noticed how effective it was, giving me a half-second at the very beginning of the encounter to step back and strategize. What I’d experienced with the parry was a fury attack, Bullock explained. Some beasts in Hyper Light Breaker glow red and then perform big moves that have to be perfectly parried in order to cancel out the damage, reverse a projectile or stun the enemy. With a fury attack, a non-perfect parry will mitigate some damage only.

“That is definitely the design goal, to make the combat clear, know when you're doing something well,” Bullock said.

These moments of tactical clarity are exactly what makes a roguelike or roguelite addictive. I can see how to beat the boss; now I just have to get good enough at the game to implement those moves before I'm killed.

Hyper Light Breaker
Heart Machine

There’s no dialogue in Hyper Light Breaker, much like its predecessor, Hyper Light Drifter. Drifter was an incredibly stylish 2D action RPG that came out in 2016 after a few years of crowdfunding and significant hype, and it solidified Heart Machine’s reputation as a stellar indie studio. Hyper Light Breaker is technically a prequel to Drifter, since it's set 15 years before the events of that game.

Drifter co-designer Teddy Dief went on to found Team OFK and release the musical visual novel We Are OFK, while lead developer Alx Preston stuck with Heart Machine and released Solar Ash in 2021. Much like Breaker, Solar Ash is set in the same general universe as Hyper Light Drifter, but it’s a vastly different game and it’s not a direct sequel. Solar Ash is a third-person action platformer built around an incredibly satisfying glide-step mechanic, and its world is filled with alien environments, massive monsters and vaguely threatening deities.

Hyper Light was a way for me to get started, it was a way for me to be more grounded and put together a crew and understand, can I do this? Can I actually make games?” Preston told me in 2021, during the lead-up to Solar Ash’s release. “And so having answered that question, then the natural next step for me was something in 3D. Can I put something out there that really opens up the world and makes you feel like you can truly escape into something, a creation that is otherworldly, that you otherwise wouldn't have the experience of? A lot of my childhood was spent escaping into those bigger experiences.”

Hyper Light Breaker
Heart Machine

Breaker feels like the perfect amalgamation of Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash. Replace the Solar Ash ice skates with a hoverboard, add some friends and you’re set. Developers at Heart Machine plan to keep Hyper Light Breaker in early access for about a year, though they noted that this timeline might change with player feedback.

The full release of Hyper Light Breaker will support up to three players in online co-op, and it will have a handful of characters to choose from, each with customizable loadouts. I tried out a basic, slashy blade and a hefty buster sword, plus a standard rifle and a shotgun-type firearm, and they each performed well, though I ran out of ammo quickly and often. The heavy sword was slower than the simple blade, but it moved smoothly and hit hard. In the Cursed Outpost before loading up a new biome, I was also able to select four abilities called Holobytes from about a dozen options, such as increased armor or faster healing. My favorite trait was the blooming corpse seed, which planted an exploding AOE flower on the bodies of slain enemies.

But once Bullock told me that hoverboarding was an option, it was all I wanted to do. I spent a good chunk of my Hyper Light Breaker demo time gliding along the bright green grass, landing small jumps and occasionally falling into a pond. I’m still itching to find Dro again and fine-tune my parrying abilities across a range of weapons (and corpse flowers). Mostly though, I’ll be dreaming of that bright blue board until Hyper Light Breaker hits early access this summer.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hyper-light-breaker-hands-on-im-here-for-the-hoverboard-210045970.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

8 iPhone browser apps you should use instead of Safari

Safari is the default web browser for every iPhone. But what if you want something different? Here are the best Safari alternatives available in 2024.
Digital Trends

QHD+ Is Good Enough For Sony As It Quits 4K Phone Displays

Since 2015, only Sony has put 4K displays on smartphones, and they even did it last year. But finally, that will be coming to an end, and consumers might be better off.
TalkAndroid

The iQOO Neo9 Is Getting A Racing Edition; Here Are The Specs

Vivo’s brand iQOO is setting up a sibling to their Neo9 devices with the iQOO Neo9 Racing Edition. It’s going to bring the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, along with a few slight perks over the vanilla Neo9.
TalkAndroid

Don’t buy this new Motorola phone — get this other one instead

Motorola’s two new budget smartphones look great, but how do they compare? We put the Moto G Power 5G (2024) against the Moto G 5G (2024) to find out.
Digital Trends

Should You Upgrade To The OnePlus 12 From The 10 Pro?

We pit the OnePlus 12 and its predecessor from two years ago, the OnePlus 10 Pro, to see if it is worth the technical upgrade.
TalkAndroid

The PS5 Pro is reportedly coming this holiday season

Confession time: I already have a copy of Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for the PS5 even though I still don't have a PlayStation 5 console. I never get consoles the moment they come out and usually wait a few years for their next version. In the PlayStation 5's case, I thought it was going to be the PS5 Slim, but it looks like I could have another option by the end of the year: The PlayStation 5 Pro. Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming says the PS5 Pro details leaked by the Moore’s Law is Dead YouTube channel came from documentation Sony itself recently sent to third-party developers. 

Take the website's confirmation with a grain of salt, of course, but Henderson has a pretty good track record when it comes to leaks. In 2022, he reported that Sony was working a "genuine professional controller" for the PS5, two months before the DualSense Edge was officially announced. He also revealed that the company was set to release a version of the console with a detachable disc drive a full year before Sony introduced the smaller and lighter PS5 model. 

Based on leaked information on the PS5 Pro so far, it will offer improved and consistent frame rate (FPS) at 4K, as well as a "performance mode" for 8K resolution. It's also expected to be able to render games up to 45 percent quicker and to have ray tracing capabilities that are two to three times faster than its non-pro counterpart. Plus, the documentation Moore’s Law is Dead featured in its video shows that it will have a GPU with 67 Teraflops FP16 (33.5 Teraflops FP32) performance, which indicates faster speeds and better graphics overall.

Henderson says Sony is targeting a holiday release for the PS5 Pro, most likely to take advantage of heightened sales for the season. However, that could still change, depending on whether the company feels there haven't been enough first-party title releases this year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ps5-pro-is-reportedly-coming-this-holiday-season-084404542.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

The FTC is probing Reddit’s AI licensing deals

The Federal Trade Commission is looking into Reddit’s AI licensing deals, the company disclosed in paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which is in the midst of its Initial Public Offering, said that the regulator notified Reddit officials that it “intended to request information and documents” about the company’s AI deals.

It’s not clear why the FTC is probing Reddit’s relatively new licensing business, but it seems to be in the early stages of its inquiry. “On March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that the FTC’s staff is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models,” Reddit wrote in a filing. “Given the novel nature of these technologies and commercial arrangements, we are not surprised that the FTC has expressed interest in this area. We do not believe that we have engaged in any unfair or deceptive trade practice.”

Reddit’s deals to license its catalog of user-generated content are a key part of the company’s strategy to grow its revenue as it gets ready to go public. On the day the company filed for IPO, the company announced it had reached a deal with Google, which will use Reddit data to train its AI models. That arrangement was reportedly worth around $ 60 million. The company said it was in the early stages of “exploring” these types of deals.

According to Axios, other companies have received similar letters from the FTC. The regulator has previously shown an interest in the current wave of generative AI upstarts and their relationships with large tech companies, The FTC is currently investigating Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon over their investments into prominent AI startups.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ftc-is-probing-reddits-ai-licensing-deals-212902998.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Best tablet deals: iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Fire, and more

If you’re on the hunt for tablet deals, take a look at our roundup of the best offers involving devices made by Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo, and Microsoft.
Digital Trends

Microsoft is once again asking Chrome users to try Bing through unblockable pop-ups

Microsoft has been pushing Bing pop-up ads in Chrome on Windows 10 and 11. Windows Latest and The Verge reported on Friday that the ad encourages Chrome users (in bold lettering) to use Bing instead of Google search. “Chat with GPT-4 for free on Chrome! Get hundreds of daily chat turns with Bing Al”, the ad reads. If you click “Yes,” the pop-up will install the “Bing Search” Chrome extension while making Microsoft’s search engine the default.

If you click “Yes” on the ad to switch to Bing, a Chrome pop-up will appear, asking you to confirm that you want to change the browser’s default search engine. “Did you mean to change your search provider?” the pop-up asks. “The ‘Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome’ extension changed search to use bing.com,’” Chrome’s warning states.

Directly beneath that alert, seemingly in anticipation of Chrome’s pop-up, another Windows notification warns, “Wait — don’t change it back! If you do, you’ll turn off Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome and lose access to Bing Al with GPT-4 and DALL-E 3. Select Keep it to stay with Microsoft Bing.”

Essentially, users are caught in a war of pop-ups between one company trying to pressure you into using its AI assistant / search engine and another trying to keep you on its default (which you probably wanted if you installed Chrome in the first place). Big Tech’s battles for AI and search supremacy are turning into obnoxious virtual shouting matches in front of users’ eyeballs as they try to browse the web.

There doesn’t appear to be an easy way to prevent the ad from appearing.

Microsoft reportedly confirmed the pop-up’s authenticity in statements to Windows Latest and The Verge, cringingly painting the move as an opportunity for users. “This is a one-time notification giving people the choice to set Bing as their default search engine on Chrome,” a company representative wrote. “For those who choose to set Bing as their default search engine on Chrome, when signed in with their MSA [Microsoft account] they also get more chat turns in Copilot and chat history.”

In a reminder of how friendly its intrusive ads supposedly are to user freedom, it added, “We value providing our customers with choice, so there is an option to dismiss the notification.” Engadget emailed Microsoft for independent verification, but the company didn’t immediately respond. We’ll update this article if or when we hear back.

Windows Latest described the advertisement as coming from a “server-side update” and said the ad wasn’t part of a Windows update. Instead, the outlet speculated that it’s linked to BCILauncher.EXE or BingChatInstaller.EXE, two processes Microsoft reportedly added to “some Windows systems” on March 13.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-once-again-asking-chrome-users-to-try-bing-through-unblockable-pop-ups-184348202.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Honor Will Be First To Use BOE’s Dual-Layer OLED Panels

BOE’s new OLED screen is claimed to last a staggering six times more than conventional OLED displays.
TalkAndroid

We finally know the exact date of Google I/O 2024

Google I/O is one of Google’s biggest tech events of the year. And now, we finally know exactly when Google I/O 2024 its taking place.
Digital Trends

Meta sets a date for killing off CrowdTangle

CrowdTangle saw its team disbanded in 2021, new user registrations cut off in 2022 and now the site will officially shut down on August 14, the Wall Street Journal reports. Journalists and academics alike have used CrowdTangle to study the flow of content on Facebook and Instagram, including conspiracy theories and fake news. Meta, which bought the company in 2016, choosing to shutter the company is an entirely unsurprising move given it has been the source for many of the social media conglomerate’s failings.

A tool called Meta Content Library will replace CrowdTangle, but only academics and nonprofit researchers can use it. That’s right — for-profit news organizations can’t apply for access to what sounds like a watered-down version of CrowdTangle. Meta claims that its Content Library — which is the company’s answer for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act — has new features like data on public comments and searching content based on views. However, early testers found it lacked geography-based activity data or the ability to download data from public posts.

Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg certainly benefit from limiting how much people — especially reporters — can view about their doings. We recently published a deep dive into Zuckerberg’s dangerous decisions, including going against warnings from experts and personally intervening to block a ban on Instagram’s plastic surgery filters. Other horrors under his watch include Instagram’s recommendation algorithm promoting content featuring child sexual exploitation and regularly dismissing requests from top lieutenants to further prioritize safety. Then, in court, his lawyers have claimed he should hold no responsibility for the lawsuits involving harm caused by Meta’s platforms.

On Thursday, Crowdtangle’s former co-founder and CEO Brandon Silverman criticized the Meta’s decision to shut down the service. In a blog post, Silverman said that turning off Crowdtangle 12 weeks before the US Presidential election was “incredibly irresponsible.” He added, however, that he was optimistic that the legacy of Crowdtangle would help to “inspire a permanent set of regulations that make real-time access to public data a legal requirement and an ongoing part of how we manage the internet responsibly & collaboratively.”

Update, March 14 2024, 8:24 PM ET: This story has been updated to include Silverman’s reaction to Meta’s decision to kill Crowdtangle.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-sets-a-date-for-killing-off-crowdtangle-125106862.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Android 15 Will Let You Track Your Phone Even When It’s Off

Fear no longer, as Android 15 will finally bring support for tracking your Android device even when it is switched off. The Google Pixel 9 is expected to debut the feature.
TalkAndroid

Solo Stove’s Pi Prime pizza oven is $50 off for Pi Day

Solo Stove’s well-regarded Pi Prime pizza oven is on sale for $ 50 off the asking price, bringing the total cost down to $ 300. This is part of a larger sitewide sale on Solo Stove products to celebrate Pi Day, a holiday that has everything to do with a famous mathematical constant and nothing to do with pizza. 

Just head to Solo Stove and type “pizza” into the discount code box. This sale applies to every available product on the site, including fire pits, and the discounts increase as you spend more. For instance, purchasing two Pi Prime ovens will drop $ 120 off the final price.

As for the Pi Prime, it’s a fantastic gas-powered outdoor pizza oven. The original Pi made our list of the best pizza ovens and the Prime features a near-identical design. It’s made out of stainless steel and features a round form factor that’s just screaming to get stuffed with dough, cheese and sauce. The Pi Prime can hit a maximum cooking temperature of 950 degrees Fahrenheit and can fully cook a pizza in under 90 seconds.

The oven ships with a reversible pizza stone made from cordierite, which is the gold standard of pizza stone materials. It also comes with a cover to protect the oven from the elements. The Pi Prime features an open-air design, so there’s no door. This won’t impact the temperature inside of the oven, but will make it more difficult to accurately track that temperature. Of course, you’ll also need your own propane tank.

The rest of the sale breaks down as follows. Spending at least $ 150 provides a discount of $ 20. This shoots up to $ 50 when you spend $ 300. Spending $ 600 nets you a discount of $ 120 and spending $ 800 knocks $ 160 off the final price. Again, this is a sitewide sale that also applies to the company’s fire pits and accessories. The deals end on March 18. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/solo-stoves-pi-prime-pizza-oven-is-50-off-for-pi-day-140017342.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Microsoft May Be Getting Ready For Another Foldable Attempt

Microsoft’s first attempts at foldables — the Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2 — didn’t stop anyone’s heart. But it looks like the company might be gearing up to try foldables again.
TalkAndroid

The Best Cases For Honor’s Magic 6 Pro In 2024

Got yourself the Honor Magic 6 Pro? Here are some cases to help safeguard your phone.
TalkAndroid

Pixel Fold is the Latest Google Phone to Have Screen Issues

Even Google’s own phones are not above flaws. Pixel Fold users complain of sticky scrolling, and here’s how it’s affecting them.
TalkAndroid

House passes bill that could ban TikTok

A bill that could force a sale or outright ban on TikTok passed the House just days after it was first introduced. The House of Representatives approved the measure Wednesday, in a vote of 352 – 65, in a rare showing of bipartisan support. It now goes to the Senate.

If passed into law, the legislation would give parent company ByteDance a six-month window to sell TikTok or face a ban from US app stores and web hosting services. While the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” is far from the first effort to force a ban or sale of TikTok, it’s been able to draw more support far more quickly than previous bills.

The measure cleared its first procedural vote in the House last week, just two days after it was introduced. The bill will now move onto the Senate, where its future is less certain. Senator Rand Paul has said he would block the bill, while other lawmakers have also been hesitant to publicly back the bill.

TikTok has called the bill unconstitutional, saying it would “strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression” and hurt creators and businesses that rely on the service. Last week, the company sent a wave of push notifications to users, urging them to ask their representatives to oppose the bill. Congressional staffers reported that offices were overwhelmed with calls, many of which came from confused teenagers. Lawmakers later accused the company of trying to “interfere” with the legislative process.

Free speech and digital rights groups also oppose the bill, with many noting that comprehensive privacy laws would be more effective at protecting Americans’ user data rather than a measure that primarily targets one app. Former President Donald Trump, who once also tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok, has also said he is against the bill, claiming it would strengthen Meta.

In a letter to lawmakers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Fight for the Future and the Center for Democracy and Technology argued that the bill would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms” and would likely “invite copycat measures by other countries … with significant consequences for free expression globally.”

If the bill were to muster enough votes to pass the Senate, President Joe Biden says he would sign the bill into law. His administration has previously pressured ByteDance to sell TikTok. Officials maintain the app poses a national security risk due to its ties to ByteDance, a Chinese company. TikTok has repeatedly refuted these claims.

If the law was passed, the company would likely mount a legal challenge like it did in Montana, which passed a statewide ban last year. A federal judge temporarily blocked the ban in November before it could go into effect.

Developing…

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/house-passes-bill-that-could-ban-tiktok-144805114.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Is the Apple Watch Series 9 waterproof?

Can you wear your Apple Watch Series 9 during swimming? How about while water skiing? Find out whether your smartwatch is waterproof or simply water resistant.
Digital Trends

Mint Mobile free trial: Get a week of free cellular service

The Mint Mobile free trial allows you to test drive its wireless network absolutely free. Find out more here.
Digital Trends

How to clean and organize your Mac

The longer you use anything — your Mac included — the more cluttered it gets. One solution is to simply upgrade to a new machine, but the more economical (and environmentally-friendly) move is to make what you have work better. To help your computer feel like new, or at least cleaner and less chaotic, we put together this guide with techniques and useful apps that have helped us maintain a more civilized computer. From a physical cleaning to a hard drive spruce-up and tab management ideas, here’s how to clean and organize your Mac.

How to clean your Mac’s screen and body

While there are a lot of products you can buy that are specially made to help you with cleaning your computer, I’ve found the simplest approach works best — and it’s the one Apple recommends. To start, all you’ll need is some water in a spray bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use either regular or distilled water. The advantage of the latter is that it’s far less likely to leave any residue on your Mac, particularly on the display. You can buy distilled water at a grocery store or make it yourself with some simple cookware. Either way, it’s more affordable than dedicated cleaning solutions and more versatile. If you don’t already own any microfiber cloths, Amazon sells affordable 24-packs you can get for about $ 14.

Two other products I’ve found that can make the job easier are Whoosh screen cleaner and a Giottos Rocket Blower. I can’t say enough good things about the latter. It will save you from buying expensive and wasteful cans of compressed air.

As for the process of cleaning your Mac, the most important tip to remember is to start with a clean cloth (that’s part of the reason we recommend buying them in bulk). You’ll save yourself time and frustration this way. Begin by turning off your computer and unplugging it. If you went out and bought a Rocket Blower, use it now to remove any dust. If not, take a dry microfiber cloth and go over your computer. Take special care around the keys, particularly if you own a Mac with a butterfly keyboard.

Next, dampen one side of your cleaning cloth with either water or Whoosh. Never spray any liquid directly on your computer. You’ll have more control this way and you’ll avoid getting any moisture into your Mac’s internals. I always clean the display first since the last thing I want to do is create more work for myself by transferring dirt from some other part of my computer to the screen. The last step is to buff and polish your computer with the dry side of the cloth. Be gentle here as you don’t want to scratch the screen or any other part of That’s it. Your Mac should be looking clean again.

How to organize your hard drive

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

One of the hardest parts of cleaning your Mac’s hard drive is knowing where to start. After all, most of us have apps on our computers we don’t even remember installing in the first place. Thankfully, macOS comes with a tool to help you with that exact issue.

Navigate to System Settings > General > Storage. Here you’ll find a tool that separates your storage into broad categories like Applications, Documents, Music, Photos and so on. Double click on an item in the list, such as Applications, to see the last time you used a program, as well as how much space it’s taking up. You can delete the apps from the same window.

The section dedicated to applications is particularly helpful since you can see the last time you used a program, as well as if it’s no longer supported by the operating system or if it’s outdated thanks to a more recent release.

AppCleaner
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

You don’t need me to tell you to uninstall programs you don’t use, but what you might not know is that there’s a better way to erase them than simply dragging them to the trash can. A free program called AppCleaner will help you track down any files and folders that would get left behind if you were just to delete an application.

After deleting any apps you don’t need, move to the Documents section. The name is somewhat misleading here since you’ll find more than just text files and excel spreadsheets. Documents, in this case, turns out to be the tool’s catch-all term for a variety of files, including ones that take up a large amount of space. You can also safely delete any DMGs (disc image files with the extension .dmg) for which you’ve installed the related app. The other sections in the storage space are self-explanatory. The only other thing I’ll mention is if you’ve been using an iPhone for a while, there’s a good chance you’ll have old iOS backups stored on your computer. You can safely delete those too.

CleanMyMac X
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

By this point, your hard drive should be in pretty good shape. If you want to take some additional steps to clean it, there are dedicated apps that can help. I like one called CleanMyMac X. It goes for $ 40 per year, and will save you the time and trouble of doing everything I mentioned above (and then some) on your own. It also doubles as a malware removal tool.

Tips and tricks for keeping a neat Desktop and Finder

Bartender
Igor Bonifacic

Let’s start with the menu bar. It may not technically be part of the desktop, but a tidy one can go a long way toward making everything else look less cluttered. My recommendation here is to download a $ 16 app called Bartender. At first glance, it’s a simple program allowing you to hide unwanted menu bar items behind a three dots icon. However, the strength of Bartender is that you get a lot of customization options. For example, you can set a trigger that will automatically move the battery status icon out from hiding when your computer isn’t connected to a power outlet.

While we’re on the subject of the menu bar, take a second to navigate to System Settings > General > Login Items and look at all the apps that launch when you boot up your system. You can speed up your system by paring down this list to only the programs you use frequently.

When it comes to the desktop itself, the best advice is less is more. Nothing will make your computer look like a cluttered mess more than a busy desktop. Folders and stacks can help, but, for most people, I suspect part of the problem is they use their desktop as a way to quickly and easily find files that are important to them.

If you’ve ever struggled to find a specific file or folder on your computer, try using your Mac’s tagging capabilities instead. Start by opening the Finder Settings menu (“command” + “,”) and click the “Tags” tab. You can use the default ones provided by macOS or make your own. Either way, drag the ones you think you’ll use most often to the favorites areas at the bottom of the preferences window. This will make it so that they’re easily accessible when you want to use them. To append a tag to a file or folder, click on it while holding the ctrl key and select the one you want from the dropdown menu. You can also tag a file while working on it within an app. Keep in mind you can apply multiple tags to a single file or folder. You can even apply them to applications.

macOS tagging
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

What makes tags so useful in macOS is that they can appear in the sidebar of the Finder and are easily searchable either directly through the Finder or using Siri. As long as you have a system for organizing your files, even a simple one, you’ll find it easier to keep track of them. As one example, I like to apply an Engadget tag to any files related to my work. I’ll add an “Important” tag if it’s something that’s critical and I want to find quickly.

One tool that can help supercharge your Finder experience is Alfred. It’s effectively a more powerful version of Apple’s Spotlight feature. Among other things, you can use Alfred to find and launch apps quickly. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but once you get a hang of it, Alfred will change how you use your Mac for the better.

How to organize your windows and tabs

Magnet
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

If you’ve used both macOS and Windows 10, you’ll know that Apple’s operating system doesn’t come with the best window management tools. You can click and hold on the green full-screen button to tile a window to either the left or right side of your screen, but that’s about it and the feature has always felt less precise than its Windows counterpart.

My suggestion is to download an app that replicates Windows 10’s snapping feature. You have several competing options that more or less offer the same functionality. My go-to is an $ 5 program called Magnet. If you want a free alternative, check out Rectangle. Another option is BetterSnapTool, which offers more functionality than Magnet but doesn’t have as clean of an interface. All three apps give you far more ways to configure your windows than what you get through the built-in tool in macOS. They also come with shortcut support, which means you can quickly set up your windows and get to work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-clean-your-mac-macbook-cleaning-supplies-digital-organization-153007592.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

This is when Apple will finally release its new 2024 iPads

It’s March 2024, and we’re still waiting for Apple to announce new iPads. Thankfully, that should be changing — and soon.
Digital Trends

What to expect at Microsoft’s March 21 event

Microsoft is holding a digital event titled “Advancing the new era of work with Copilot” on March 21. Among the possible announcements are new Surface devices, potentially the first branded as AI PCs. It will already be the second Windows hardware event — and first mainline Surface Pro launch — without former chief product officer and longtime keynote presenter Panos Panay, who left for Amazon last year. Here’s everything we could see at the company’s first launch event of 2024.

The company describes the event as breaking down “the latest in scaling AI in your environment with Copilot, Windows, and Surface.” There are conflicting reports about exactly what we’ll see in late March. 

Windows Central claims an OLED Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will headline the event, with their upgraded processors enabling “huge performance and efficiency gains” over their predecessors. However, a report from The Verge suggests this month’s event will only cover the business and commercial-focused versions of the devices — with much subtler upgrades than the consumer versions. The outlet claims the consumer variants with “a larger redesign” will follow later this spring.

The new devices will allegedly be powered by Intel Core Ultra or Snapdragon X Elite silicon with next-generation neural processing units (NPUs) for advanced AI tasks. The Intel variants are expected to launch in April, while the Arm-based Snapdragon ones will reportedly arrive several months later in June. If the reports are accurate, this would be the first time the Surface Laptop line has included an Arm-based version.

At least in the consumer models, the Surface Pro 10 is rumored to switch from LCD to an anti-reflective OLED screen. The device would be brighter than the Surface Pro 9’s screen and support HDR content. Meanwhile, the Surface Laptop 6 is rumored to include thinner display bezels (with rounded corners) and a haptic touchpad. Its updated port selection is said to include two USB-C and one USB-A on its left side.

The commercial / business models (which may be all we see at this month’s event) are rumored to include a built-in Common Access Card (CAC) reader and options with up to 64GB of RAM.

Image of a Windows keyboard with a dedicated Copilot AI key between the left arrow and Alt keys.
Microsoft

Whether at this month’s event or later, the new consumer-facing Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are expected to kick off Microsoft’s push for Windows 11-running AI PCs. They’ll reportedly be among the first to include an on-device version of Copilot. Other rumored AI features include real-time captioning and translation, upscaling and frame-rate smoothing for games, upgraded Windows Studio Effects and a feature called AI Explorer. Both devices will reportedly include a dedicated Copilot key.

AI Explorer is rumored to include a built-in timeline that’s searchable using natural language. Perhaps similar to the third-party Rewind AI app for macOS, the feature will allegedly log everything you do and see on your device, letting you sift through it with Copilot. It would let you ask the assistant things like, “Find me that thing about dinosaurs,” and see every moment in your PC’s history relating to them. (It could be a privacy nightmare if not handled properly, but expect Microsoft to offer security assurances like encryption and entirely on-device processing.)

The feature would also allegedly “understand context, help jumpstart projects or workflows, and even suggest tasks based on what’s currently on screen.” Other rumored features include the ability to tell Copilot to remove the backgrounds of onscreen images from third-party apps in the Photos app.

The AI features, which aren’t expected to be exclusive to the Surface devices, will reportedly arrive in this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2), expected in the fall. Windows Central noted it isn’t clear whether Microsoft will discuss the features during the March event.

Engadget will have full coverage of Microsoft’s announcements on March 21 at noon ET.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-to-expect-at-microsofts-march-21-event-204559003.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Samsung may be working on an incredible new smartwatch design

A new report claims that Samsung is working on a big design makeover for its Galaxy Watch smartwatches — and I couldn’t be more excited.
Digital Trends

Samsung’s Galaxy A35 Is Official And The “A” Is “Awesome”

The Samsung Galaxy A35 is one of this year’s mid-range entries from the Korean technology giant, bringing solid specs but minimal upgrades over the A34.
TalkAndroid

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD get Switch release dates

Nintendo packed a whole bunch of news into Mario Day this year, including the announcement of release dates for two classics that have been modernized for the Switch: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. Both titles were announced last fall during Nintendo Direct. Paper Mario will drop first, on May 23, followed by Luigi’s Mansion on June 27, but both are available for pre-order now on the Nintendo Switch store for $ 60.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was first released for the GameCube (deep breath) 20 years ago, and Nintendo says the new Switch version will have “revamped graphics, and a suite of additional changes that make the game easier than ever to enjoy.” Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, which you may remember as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, originally came out for the 3DS in 2013. Now that just leaves the first Luigi’s Mansion that we’re still waiting on for Switch…

Alongside the games’ release dates, Nintendo also announced that it’s working on a followup to last year’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. That’s set to come out in 2026. Lego and Nintendo also announced three new Mario-themed Lego sets that will be released this year — the Bowser Express Train, King Boo’s Haunted Mansion and Battle with Roy at Peach’s Castle — and a Mario Kart set that will drop in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paper-mario-the-thousand-year-door-and-luigis-mansion-2-hd-get-switch-release-dates-172653147.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

How to remove location data from your iPhone photos

When you take a picture with your iPhone, chances are it’s saving your location data with each photo. What if you want to remove this info?
Digital Trends

Google Wallet can now automatically add your movie tickets and boarding passes

An update to Google Wallet has further simplified the process of getting all your passes in one place. Per this week’s release notes for Wallet, spotted by Android reporter ​​Mishaal Rahman, Google says movie tickets and boarding passes will now be surfaced automatically after purchase, as long as the confirmation email has made it to the user’s Gmail inbox. It might not work for every theater chain or airline just yet, but Google says the feature is live for “some” and more should be added in time.

Google little by little has been tweaking Wallet to make it more useful. The company last month expanded Wallet passes to WearOS so Android smartwatch users could have easy access to their tickets from their wrist. That includes boarding passes, event tickets, gym memberships, loyalty cards and more. Per the latest release notes, Google has also added a way for users to manually archive most of their passes from either their smartphone or smartwatch. These will be moved to a section called Archived Passes, where users will be able to undo the action if they’ve made a mistake or need to refer to an old pass.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-wallet-can-now-automatically-add-your-movie-tickets-and-boarding-passes-214241833.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Activision’s union, with 600 members, is now the biggest one in video games

The number of unionized workers for Microsoft's video game subsidiaries keeps growing, and the latest group to join the pool is the largest one yet. Approximately 600 quality assurance workers at Activision have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA), making them the biggest certified union in the US video game industry. They're also the first Activision workers to organize under the agreement between Microsoft and the CWA. If you'll recall, Microsoft agreed to respect the right of Activision Blizzard workers to unionize as part of its efforts to secure regulatory approval for its $ 68.7 billion takeover of the video game developer. 

CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said Microsoft kept its promise to let workers decide for themselves whether they want a union. Part of Microsoft's pledge when it agreed to make a pact with the CWA was that it would take neutral approach during a union campaign, and the company said it didn't interfere or influence people's votes. 

Another element of their agreement was giving employees access to "innovative technology-supported and streamlined process for choosing whether to join a union," which includes not having to petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election. In this instance, the workers only had to sign a union authorization card or to vote online. According to The New York Times, 390 workers voted in favor of forming a union, while eight people were opposed to it. Around 200 more didn't cast their vote. 

In early 2023, Microsoft also recognized a union with 300 workers for Zenimax, the owner of Bethesda and another one of the company's video gaming subsidiaries, which was the largest one for the video game industry at the time. Those workers also unionized under the simpler process enabled by the company's agreement with CWA. By the end of the year, Microsoft agreed to hire 77 temporary QA contractors as full-time unionized Zenimax employees, which was a welcomed win for workers in an industry beset by layoffs.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/activisions-union-with-600-members-is-now-the-biggest-one-in-video-games-143000869.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

A new Motorola phone just leaked, and it could beat the Galaxy S24 Ultra

The Motorola Edge Plus (2024) just leaked, touting a fresh design, fast charging, and more. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like a proper S24 Ultra rival.
Digital Trends

The best OnePlus 12R cases in 2024: the 9 best ones we found

The OnePlus 12R is one of the best smartphone deals available in 2024. Keep it safe and protected with one of these cases!
Digital Trends

iPhone 16: news, rumored price, release date, and more

The iPhone 15 is the latest and greatest, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look ahead to the iPhone 16. Here’s what we know so far.
Digital Trends

The Oura Ring Is Now Available On Amazon

Oura is widening the reach of its smart ring through the availability on Amazon.
TalkAndroid

Engadget Podcast: The MacBook Air M3 is great (but we still love the M2 Air)

Apple’s refreshed MacBook Air laptops are finally here, and they’re toting shiny new M3 chips. This week, Cherlynn chats with Devindra about his review of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air M3. They’re faster, as we expected, but they’re also not a huge leap over the M2 MacBook Air, which now starts at $ 999. (And we’re sure you’ll find some excellent refurbished and used deals soon.) No matter which one you pick, though, you’re getting one of the most stunning ultraportable notebooks around. In other news, we discuss Apple’s nearly $ 2 billion fine from the EU, Microsoft’s upcoming Surface AI event and the death of Android apps on Windows 11.


Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

Topics

  • Finally, the MacBook Air gets an M3 update – 0:41

  • EU fines Apple nearly $ 2 billion for “blocking” competing music apps – 15:27

  • iOS 17.4 brings third party app stores to the EU, podcast transcription for everyone – 20:18

  • Microsoft announces a Surface and AI event for later in March – 22:02

  • No more (Amazon App Store) Android apps in Windows – 27:49

  • Developer of Switch emulator Yuzu fined $ 2.4 million to settle suit with Nintendo – 39:19

  • Around Engadget: Sam Rutherford’s Nothing Phone 2 review – 46:17

  • Working on – 50:30

  • Pop culture picks – 57:47

Subscribe!

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-macbook-air-m3-review-133055974.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

You Can Now Hide Your Email Aliases With Proton Mail

Proton Mail now allows users to use randomly generated emails instead of their actual ones. Here’s how:
TalkAndroid

You can write long-form articles on X if you pay for Premium+

Journalists, creators and long-winded VCs on X now have a new way to be exhausting on main. X now allows verified organizations and Premium+ subscribers to publish long-form “Articles."

The feature adds a basic text-editing interface that includes embedded media and some text formatting options, like the ability to make bulleted lists. It also appears that articles can be longer than the 25,000-character limit currently in place for premium subscribers’ “longer posts” feature. According to my initial tests, I hit the character limit for articles at just over 100,000 characters or about 15,000 words.

Here’s what the editing interface looks like:

The text editor.
Screenshot via X

Notably, Twitter began working on longer form posts long before Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. The company showed off an early version, originally called “Notes” in 2022, as it looked to lure newsletter writers and other creators to the service. Musk confirmed last summer that the publishing tools were still in the works.

The rollout of publishing tools is notable as Musk has often been hostile to journalists on his platform. Last year, Musk directed a change to X’s recommendation algorithm so that links to newsletter platform Substack would not appear in users’ “For You” feeds, which has throttled many independent writers’ reach on the service. X also stripped headlines from news stories shared on the platform last fall (headlines eventually returned, in a much smaller font).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-write-long-form-articles-on-x-if-you-pay-for-premium-005707599.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Get A 2nd Number On Your Phone With Verizon’s Second Number

Verizon’s Second Line gives you another number without needing a second smartphone.
TalkAndroid

Roku Holds Device Owners To Ransom Over New T & C’s

Roku’s new terms and conditions hold devices to ransom by disabling them unless the customer agrees to restrict their legal recourse.
TalkAndroid

Google is following Apple’s lead by adding new developer fees in the EU

Yesterday Google outlined the changes it will make to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) that goes into effect starting today. One important detail it left out, however, was whether it would charge developers who directed users outside the Play Store to sideload apps — and if so, how much. 

Now, Google has revealed that it will indeed charge developers even if they don't use the Play Store, just like Apple did with the App Store. Per new details found in the Play Console help section, the company will charge two new fees: 

  1. An initial acquisition fee of 10% for in-app purchases or 5% for subscriptions for two years. This represents the value Play provided in facilitating initial user acquisition.

  2. An ongoing services fee of 17% for in-app purchases or 7% for subscriptions. This covers ongoing Play services like parental controls, security, fraud prevention, and app updates.

Developers can opt out of ongoing fees after two years if users agree, but ongoing Play services will no longer apply. "Since users acquired the app through Play with the expectation of services such as parental controls, security scanning, fraud prevention, and continuous app updates, discontinuation of services requires user consent as well," Google stated.

Google included the following chart to show how the fees will apply to a hypothetical "Fantastiq App": 

Google is following Apple's lead by adding new developer fees in the EU
Google

With this, Google is taking a similar approach to Apple, which reduced App Store commissions but introduced new fees. Namely, Apple tacked on on a new 3 percent “payment processing” fee for transactions that go through its store. And a new “core technology fee” will charge a flat €0.50 fee for all app downloads, regardless of whether they come from the App Store or a third-party website, after the first 1 million installations.

Google is justifying the fees by touting the value it provides in the Android ecosystem: "Play's fees support our investment in Android and Google Play and reflect the value provided by Android and Play, including enabling us to distribute Android for free and provide the continuously growing suite of tools and services that help developers build successful businesses, all while keeping our platforms safe and secure for billions of users worldwide."

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney already blasted Google's post about DMA compliance yesterday, before the new fees were even made public. "Google announced its malicious compliance plans for the European DMA law… it looks like their illegal anti-steering policy will be replaced by a new Google Tax on web transactions. We'll likely soon learn how he and other developers react to the new fees. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-is-following-apples-lead-by-adding-new-developer-fees-in-the-eu-064618768.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

AI has spoken: the Apple Car would have been adorable

After a decade of rumors and speculation, the Apple Car is dead. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the multibillion-dollar project had finally been scrapped. Reports about the electric vehicle never quite seemed real, but now we have many new details about the car that never was thanks to an excellent post-mortem from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The story includes many astonishing details about various Apple executives’ plans for the car, and why the project ultimately failed. But some of the best details are the descriptions of what the vehicle was supposed to look like.

At one point, Apple’s leaders were adamant that the autonomous “microbus” should not include a steering wheel or pedals. It would have “club seating like a private plane” and curved sides and a glass roof. Famed Apple designer Jony Ive thought the interior should be “covered in stainless steel, wood and white fabric,” and that it should only come in one color: white.

Since any actual mock-ups of the car, which Gurman says was sometimes referred to as the “Bread Loaf,” are presumably locked deep inside a well-guarded Apple office, I did the next best thing and asked AI. The results are, actually, kind of cute?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai-has-spoken-the-apple-car-would-have-been-adorable-020527007.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Best Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra deals: How to get the phone for free

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the best phones of 2023, here is how to get it on the cheap or free.
Digital Trends

The 6 best budgeting apps to replace Mint come March 2024

The popular budgeting app Mint is going away. Parent company Intuit will shut down the service on March 24, 2024, and has suggested folks migrate to its other personal finance app, Credit Karma. I’m one of Mint’s 3.6 million active users (as of 2021, according to Bloomberg), using the app to track all of my accounts in one place without having to log into too many disparate banking apps. I’ve also used it to monitor my credit score, stick to a monthly budget, and set goals like building a rainy-day fund or paying down my mortgage faster.

With this news, looking for a Mint alternative beyond Credit Karma became a top priority. Intuit has not commented on whether it intends to fold Mint’s budgeting features into Credit Karma but as it stands, Credit Karma is not a Mint substitute. After trying Credit Karma and being unimpressed, I downloaded a number of competing money apps to see if any could cut it as a permanent Mint replacement. The following guide lays out my experiences, the results of my testing and our picks for the top Mint replacement apps available today. I also pledge to update this guide as the various apps I tested continue to add more features and, in some cases, correct known bugs.

How to import your financial data from Mint

Mint users should consider getting their data ready to migrate to their new budgeting app of choice soon. Unfortunately, importing data from Mint is not as easy as entering your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” In fact, any app that advertises the ability to port over your stats from Mint is just going to have you upload a CSV file of transactions and other data.

To download a CSV file from Mint, do the following:

  1. Sign into Mint.com and hit Transactions in the menu on the left side of the screen.

  2. Select an account, or all accounts.

  3. Scroll down and look for “export [number] transactions” in smaller print.

  4. Your CSV file should begin downloading.

Note: Downloading on a per-account basis might seem more annoying, but could help you get set up on the other side, if the app you’re using has you importing transactions one-for-one into their corresponding accounts.

How we tested

Before I dove into the budgeting-app world, I had to do some research. To find a list of apps to test, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); read reviews of popular apps on the App Store; and also asked friends and colleagues what budget tracking apps they might be using. Some of the apps I found were free, just like Mint. These, of course, show loads of ads (excuse me, “offers”) to stay in business. But most of the available apps require paid subscriptions, with prices typically topping out around $ 100 a year, or $ 15 a month. (Spoiler: My top pick is cheaper than that.)

Since this guide is meant to help Mint users find a permanent replacement, any services I chose to test needed to do several things: import all of your account data into one place; offer budgeting tools; and track your spending, net worth and credit score. Except where noted, all of these apps are available for iOS, Android and on the web.

Once I had my shortlist of six apps, I got to work setting them up. For the sake of thoroughly testing these apps (and remember, I really was looking for a Mint alternative myself), I made a point of adding every account to every tracking app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Just hours of entering passwords and one-time passcodes, for the same banks half a dozen times over. Hopefully, you only have to do this once.

The best Mint alternative: Quicken Simplifi

No pun intended, but what I like about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. Whereas other apps try to distinguish themselves with dark themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi has a clean user interface, with a landing page that you just keep scrolling through to get a detailed overview of all your stats. These include your top-line balances; net worth; recent spending; upcoming recurring payments; a snapshot of your spending plan; top spending categories; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve set up. You can also set up savings goals elsewhere in the app. I also appreciate how it offers neat, almost playful visualizations without ever looking cluttered. I felt at home in the mobile and web dashboards after a day or so, which is faster than I adapted to some competing services (I’m looking at you, YNAB and Monarch).

Getting set up with Simplifi was mostly painless. I was particularly impressed at how easily it connected to Fidelity; not all budget trackers do, for whatever reason. This is also one of the only services I tested that gives you the option of inviting a spouse or financial advisor to co-manage your account. One thing I would add to my initial assessment of the app, having used it for a few months now: I wish Simplifi offered Zillow integration for easily tracking your home value (or at least a rough estimate of it). Various competitors including Monarch Money and Copilot Money work with Zillow, so clearly there’s a Zillow API available for use. As it stands, Simplifi users must add real estate manually like any other asset.

A screenshot of the
Dana Wollman / Engadget

In practice, Simplifi miscategorized some of my expenses, but nothing out of the ordinary compared to any of these budget trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you can also mark if you’re expecting a refund, which is a unique feature among the services I tested. Simplifi also estimated my regular income better than some other apps I tested. Most of all, I appreciated the option of being able to categorize some, but not all, purchases from a merchant as recurring. For instance, I can add my two Amazon subscribe-and-saves as recurring payments, without having to create a broad-strokes rule for every Amazon purchase.

The budgeting feature is also self-explanatory. Just check that your regular income is accurate and be sure to set up recurring payments, making note of which are bills and which are subscriptions. This is important because Simplifi shows you your total take-home income as well as an “income after bills” figure. That number includes, well, bills but not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you can add spending targets by category in the “planned spending” bucket. Planned spending can also include one-time expenditures, not just monthly budgets. When you create a budget, Simplifi will suggest a number based on a six-month average.

Not dealbreakers, but two things to keep in mind as you get started: Simplifi is notable in that you can’t set up an account through Apple or Google. There is also no option for a free trial, though Quicken promises a “30-day money back guarantee.”

The best Mint alternative (runner-up): Monarch Money

Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression of the app, which was founded by a former Mint product manager, was that it’s more difficult to use than others on this list, including Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it is. Editing expense categories, adding recurring transactions and creating rules, for example, is a little more complicated than it needs to be, especially in the mobile app. (My advice: Use the web app for fine-tuning details.) Monarch also didn’t get my income right; I had to edit it.

Once you’re set up, though, Monarch offers an impressive level of granularity. In the budgets section, you can see a bona fide balance sheet showing budgets and actuals for each category. You’ll also find a forecast, for the year or by month. And recurring expenses can be set not just by merchant, but other parameters as well. For instance, while most Amazon purchases might be marked as “shopping,” those for the amounts of $ 54.18 or $ 34.18 are definitely baby supplies, and can be automatically marked as such each time, not to mention programmed as recurring payments. Weirdly, though, there’s no way to mark certain recurring payments as bills, specifically.

A screenshot of the
Dana Wollman / Engadget

Not long after I first published this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced a detailed reporting section where you can create on-demand graphs based on things like accounts, categories and tags. That feature is available just on the web version of the app for now. As part of this same update, Monarch added support for an aggregator that makes it possible to automatically update the value of your car. This, combined with the existing Zillow integration for tracking your home value, makes it easy to quickly add a non-liquid asset like a vehicle or real estate, and have it show up in your net worth graph.

The mobile app is mostly self-explanatory. The main dashboard shows your net worth; your four most recent transactions; a month-over-month spending comparison; income month-to-date; upcoming bills; an investments snapshot; a list of any goals you’ve set; and, finally, a link to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is more detailed than most, delving into cash flow; top income and expense categories; cash flow trends; changes to your net worth, assets and liabilities; plus asset and liability breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, so that if you click on the Accounts tab you can see how your net worth changed over different periods of time, including one month, three months, six months, a year or all time.

On the main screen, you’ll also find tabs for accounts, transactions, cash flow, budget and recurring. Like many of the other apps featured here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring expenses and income, even if it gets the category wrong. (They all do to an extent.) Expense categories are marked by emoji, which you can customize if you’re so inclined.

Monarch Money uses a combination of networks to connect with banks, including Plaid, MX and Finicity, a competing network owned by Mastercard. (I have a quick explainer on Plaid, the industry standard in this space, toward the end of this guide.) As part of an update in late December, Monarch has also made it easier to connect through those other two networks, if for some reason Plaid fails. Similar to NerdWallet, I found myself completing two-factor authentication every time I wanted to get past the Plaid screen to add another account. Notably, Monarch is the only other app I tested that allows you to grant access to someone else in your family — likely a spouse or financial advisor. Monarch also has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, though really this is just a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which you’ll have to do regardless of where you choose to take your Mint data.

Additionally, Monarch just added the ability to track Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings accounts, thanks to new functionality brought with the iOS 17.4 update. It’s not the only one either; currently, Copilot and YNAB have also added similar functionality that will be available to anyone with the latest versions of their respective apps on a device running iOS 17.4. Instead of manually uploading statements, the new functionality allows apps like Monarch’s to automatically pull in transactions and balance history. That should make it easier to account for spending on Apple cards and accounts throughout the month.

Monarch also recently launched investment transactions in beta. It also says bill tracking and an overhauled goals system are coming soon. Monarch hasn’t provided a timeline for that last one, except to say that the improved goals feature is coming in early 2024.

The best up-and-comer: Copilot Money

Copilot Money might be the best-looking budget tracker I tested. It also has the distinction of being exclusive to iOS and Macs — at least for now. Andres Ugarte, the company’s CEO, has publicly promised that Android and web apps are coming in 2024 (more likely the second half of the year, Ugarte tells me). But until it follows through, I can’t recommend Copilot for most people with so many good competitors out there.

There are other features that Copilot is missing, which I’ll get into. But it is promising, and one to keep an eye on. It’s just a fast, efficient, well designed app, and Android users will be in for a treat when they’ll finally be able to download it. It makes good use of colors, emoji and graphs to help you understand at a glance how you’re doing on everything from your budgets to your investment performance to your credit card debt over time. In particular, Copilot does a better job than almost any other app of visualizing your recurring monthly expenses.

Behind those punchy colors and cutesy emoji, though, is some sophisticated performance. Copilot’s AI-powered “Intelligence” gets smarter as you go at categorizing your expenses. (You can also add your own categories, complete with your choice of emoji.) It’s not perfect. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (they all do), but it makes it easier to edit than most. On top of that, the internal search feature is very fast; it starts whittling down results in your transaction history as soon as you begin typing.

A screenshot of Copilot Money's iOS app.
Dana Wollman / Engadget

Copilot is also unique in offering Amazon and Venmo integrations, allowing you to see transaction details. With Amazon, this requires just signing into your Amazon account via an in-app browser. For Venmo, you have to set up fwd@copilot.money as a forwarding address and then create a filter, wherein emails from venmo@venmo.com are automatically forwarded to fwd@copilot.money. Like Monarch Money, you can also add any property you own and track its value through Zillow, which is integrated with the app.

While the app is heavily automated, I still appreciate that Copilot marks new transactions for review. It’s a good way to both weed out fraudulent charges, and also be somewhat intentional about your spending habits.

Like Monarch Money, Copilot updated its app to make it easier to connect to banks through networks other than Plaid. As part of the same update, Copilot said it has improved its connections to both American Express and Fidelity which, again, can be a bugbear for some budget tracking apps. In an even more recent update, Copilot added a Mint import option, which other budgeting apps have begun to offer as well.

Because the app is relatively new (it launched in early 2020), the company is still catching up to the competition on some table-stakes features. Ugarte told me that his team is almost done building out a detailed cash flow section, which could launch before the end of 2023, but more likely in early 2024. On its website, Copilot also promises a raft of AI-powered features that build on its current “Intelligence” platform, the one that powers its smart expense categorization. These include “smart financial goals,” natural language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is meant to give people a sense of how they’re doing compared to other Copilot users, on both spending and investment performance. Most of these features should arrive in the new year.

Copilot does a couple interesting things for new customers that distinguish it from the competition. There’s a “demo mode” that feels like a game simulator; no need to add your own accounts. The company is also offering two free months with RIPMINT — a more generous introductory offer than most. When it finally does come time to pony up, the $ 7.92 monthly plan is cheaper than some competing apps, although the $ 95-a-year-option is in the same ballpark.

The best free budgeting app: NerdWallet

You may know NerdWallet as a site that offers a mix of personal finance news, explainers and guides. I see it often when I google a financial term I don’t know and sure enough, it’s one of the sites I’m most likely to click on. As it happens, NerdWallet also has the distinction of offering one of the only free budget tracking apps I tested. In fact, there is no paid version; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The main catch: There are ads everywhere. To be fair, the free version of Mint was like this, too.

Even with the inescapable credit card offers, NerdWallet has a clean, easy-to-understand user interface, which includes both a web and a mobile app. The key metrics that it highlights most prominently are your cash flow, net worth and credit score. (Of note, although Mint itself offered credit score monitoring, most of its rivals do not.) I particularly enjoyed the weekly insights, which delve into things like where you spent the most money or how much you paid in fees — and how that compares to the previous month. Because this is NerdWallet, an encyclopedia of financial info, you get some particularly specific category options when setting up your accounts (think: a Roth or non-Roth IRA).

A screenshot of the
Dana Wollman / Engadget

As a budgeting app, NerdWallet is more than serviceable, if a bit basic. Like other apps I tested, you can set up recurring bills. Importantly, it follows the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you putting 50% of your budget toward things you need, 30% toward things you want, and the remaining 20% into savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, great — just know that you can’t customize your budget to the same degree as some competing apps. You can’t currently create custom spending categories, though a note inside the dashboard section of the app says “you’ll be able to customize them in the future.” You also can’t move items from the wants column to “needs” or vice versa but “In the future, you’ll be able to move specific transactions to actively manage what falls into each group.” A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to provide an ETA, though.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that NerdWallet had one of the most onerous setup processes of any app I tested. I don’t think this is a dealbreaker, as you’ll only have to do it once and, hopefully, you aren’t setting up six or seven apps in tandem as I was. What made NerdWallet’s onboarding especially tedious is that every time I wanted to add an account, I had to go through a two-factor authentication process to even get past the Plaid splash screen, and that’s not including the 2FA I had set up at each of my banks. This is a security policy on NerdWallet’s end, not Plaid’s, a Plaid spokesperson says.

Precisely because NerdWallet is one of the only budget trackers to offer credit score monitoring, it also needs more of your personal info during setup, including your birthday, address, phone number and the last four digits of your social security number. It’s the same with Credit Karma, which also does credit score monitoring.

Related to the setup process, I found that NerdWallet was less adept than other apps at automatically detecting my regular income. In my case, it counted a large one-time wire transfer as income, at which point my only other option was to enter my income manually (which is slightly annoying because I would have needed my pay stub handy to double-check my take-home pay).

Budgeting apps we also tested

YNAB

YNAB is, by its own admission, “different from anything you’ve tried before.” The app, whose name is short for You Need a Budget, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a purpose for every dollar you earn. A frequently used analogy is to put each dollar in an envelope; you can always move money from one envelope to another in a pinch. These envelopes can include rent and utilities, along with unforeseen expenses like holiday gifts and the inevitable car repair. The idea is that if you budget a certain amount for the unknowns each month, they won’t feel like they’re sneaking up on you.

Importantly, YNAB is only concerned with the money you have in your accounts now. The app does not ask you to provide your take-home income or set up recurring income payments (although there is a way to do this). The money you will make later in the month through your salaried job is not relevant, because YNAB does not engage in forecasting.

The app is harder to learn than any other here, and it requires more ongoing effort from the user. And YNAB knows that. Inside both the mobile and web apps are links to videos and other tutorials. Although I never quite got comfortable with the user interface, I did come to appreciate YNAB’s insistence on intentionality. Forcing users to draft a new budget each month and to review each transaction is not necessarily a bad thing. As YNAB says on its website, “Sure, you’ve got pie charts showing that you spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants — but you’ve still spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants.” I can see this approach being useful for people who don’t tend to have a lot of cash in reserve at a given time, or who have spending habits they want to correct (to riff off of YNAB’s own example, ordering Seamless four times a week).

My colleague Valentina Palladino, knowing I was working on this guide, penned a respectful rebuttal, explaining why she’s been using YNAB for years. Perhaps, like her, you have major savings goals you want to achieve, whether it’s paying for a wedding or buying a house. I suggest you give her column a read. For me, though, YNAB’s approach feels like overkill.

PocketGuard

PocketGuard is one of the only reputable free budget trackers I found in my research. Just know it’s far more restricted at the free tier than NerdWallet or Mint. In my testing, I was prompted to pay after I attempted to link more than two bank accounts. So much for free, unless you keep things simple with one cash account and one credit card. When it comes time to upgrade to PocketGuard Plus, you have three options: pay $ 7.99 a month, $ 34.99 a year or $ 79.99 for a one-time lifetime license. That lifetime option is actually one of the few unique selling points for me: I’m sure some people will appreciate paying once and never having to, uh, budget for it again.

From the main screen, you’ll see tabs for accounts, insights, transactions and the “Plan,” which is where you see recurring payments stacked on top of what looks like a budget. The main overview screen shows you your net worth, total assets and debts; net income and total spending for the month; upcoming bills; a handy reminder of when your next paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you have; and any goals.

A screenshot of the
Dana Wollman / Engadget

Like some other apps, including Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after bills” approach, where you enter all of your recurring bills, and then PocketGuard shows you what’s left, and that’s what you’re supposed to be budgeting: your disposable income. Obviously, other apps have a different philosophy: take into account all of your post-tax income and use it to pay the bills, purchase things you want and maybe even save a little. But in PocketGuard, it’s the “in your pocket” number that’s most prominent. To PocketGuard’s credit, it does a good job visualizing which bills are upcoming and which ones you’ve already paid.

PocketGuard has also publicly committed to adding some popular features in early 2024. These include rollover budgeting in January 2024, categorization rules in February and shared household access in March.

A screenshot of PocketGuard's iOS app.
Dana Wollman / Engadget

Although PocketGuard’s UI is easy enough to understand, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is a little busy, and doesn’t show totals for categories like cash or investments. Seemingly small details like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy occasionally make the app feel janky. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no updates were available. The web version, meanwhile, feels like the mobile app blown up to a larger format and doesn’t take advantage of the extra screen real estate.

Of note, although PocketGuard does work with Plaid, its primary bank-connecting platform is actually Finicity. Setting up my accounts through Finicity was mostly a straightforward process. I did encounter one hiccup: Finicity would not connect to my SoFi account. I was able to do it through Plaid, but PocketGuard doesn’t make it easy to access Plaid in the app. The only way, as far as I can tell, is to knowingly search for the name of a bank that isn’t available through Finicity, at which point you get the option to try Plaid instead. Like I said: the experience can be janky.

What is Plaid and how does it work?

Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network, called Plaid, to pull in financial data, so it’s worth explaining in its own section what it is and how it works. Plaid was founded as a fintech startup in 2013 and is today the industry standard in connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada and Europe. Additionally, more than 8,000 third-party apps and services rely on Plaid, the company claims.

To be clear, you don’t need a dedicated Plaid app to use it; the technology is baked into a wide array of apps, including the budget trackers I tested for this guide. Once you find the “add an account” option in whichever one you’re using, you’ll see a menu of commonly used banks. There’s also a search field you can use to look yours up directly. Once you find yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you have two-factor authentication set up, you’ll need to enter a one-time passcode as well.

As the middleman, Plaid is a passthrough for information that may include your account balances, transaction history, account type and routing or account number. Plaid uses encryption, and says it has a policy of not selling or renting customer data to other companies. However, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t note that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $ 58 million to consumers in a class action suit for collecting “more financial data than was needed.” As part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to change some of its business practices.

In a statement provided to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson said the company continues to deny the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that “the crux of the non-financial terms in the settlement are focused on us accelerating workstreams already underway related to giving people more transparency into Plaid’s role in connecting their accounts, and ensuring that our workstreams around data minimization remain on track.”

My top Mint alternative picks: Quicken Simplifi and Copilot Money

To conclude, you might be wondering what app I decided on for myself after all of this research. The answer is actually two apps: Quicken Simplifi, my overall top pick, and Copilot Money. For now, I am actively using both apps and still deciding, long-term, which I feel more comfortable with. I tend to prefer Copilot’s fast, colorful user interface, but as I explained above, it’s too lacking in table-stakes features for me to go so far as to name it the best overall option.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-budgeting-apps-to-replace-mint-143047346.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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Lawmakers have a new plan to force ByteDance to sell TikTok

A group of lawmakers have introduced a new bill that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok in order for the app to remain available in the United States. The “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” would prohibit US app stores and web hosting services from distributing TikTok unless it divested from parent company ByteDance.

The bill is the latest in a long line of attempts by lawmakers and other officials to ban or force a sale of the app. Former President Donald Trump attempted to force a sale of TikTok in 2020, but was ultimately unsuccessful. The Biden Administration has also pressured the company to divest. And a US District Court Judge recently blocked an attempt to ban the app in Montana.

The new bill, which comes from a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House, takes a different approach. It would give ByteDance a six-month window to sell TikTok before app store-level bans would come into effect. It would also require TikTok and other apps to “provide users with a copy of their data in a format that can be imported” into competing apps. And though TikTok is referenced several times in the text of the bill, the legislation would open the door for bans on other “foreign adversary-controlled” apps if the president deemed them to be a national security threat.

“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” TikTok said in a statement. “This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.”

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has maintained that a divestment would not fully address officials’ concerns about US user data. The company has spent years trying to address national security concerns about its service with an initiative called Project Texas. Under the plan, created as a result of years of negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), US users’ data would be separated into US-based servers and government officials would be able to oversee audits of TikTok’s source code and other aspects of its operations.

The Washington Post reported last year that TikTok’s negotiations with CFIUS had been recently “revived amid doubts the [Biden] administration has the authority to ban TikTok on its own.” If Congress was able to pass the new bill, it would clear up such questions and create a new process for forcing ByteDance’s hand. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other digital rights groups have criticized the government’s efforts to ban TikTok. In a statement on the latest bill, the ACLU said the proposed measure was “unconstitutional” and would hurt free speech. “Just because the bill sponsors claim that banning TikTok isn’t about suppressing speech, there’s no denying that it would do just that,” senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff said. 

Columbia University’s nonprofit Knight First Amendment Institute raised similar concerns. “Congress can protect data privacy and security without banning Americans from accessing one of the world’s most popular communications platforms,” the organization’s executive director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. “It should start by passing a comprehensive privacy law restricting the kinds of information that TikTok and other platforms can collect.” 

Update March 5, 2024 6:50 PM ET: This story has been updated to add comments from the ACLU and Knight First Amendment Institute. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lawmakers-have-a-new-plan-to-force-bytedance-to-sell-tiktok-220408004.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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