Microsoft is attempting to bring back the RSS feed with a new feature for its web browser Edge, called Followable Web.
Currently available to members of the Edge Canary early access channel, the feature allows users to “follow” websites in order to receive a curated list of the latest updates.
The sites the user follows are shown in a panel on the side of the browser, but to see all of the followed sites, users will have to navigate to the Collections menu.
The rollout is gradual, even for Microsoft Edge Canary users, so don't fret if you're not seeing the feature in your app. Those interested in giving the test version of Edge a go can download it here.
RSS making a comeback?
Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, was once one of the most popular ways of keeping track of websites. Through the use of RSS readers, people were able to curate the newest content from their favorite places on the web with ease. But the reign of RSS was short-lived.
By creating a new avenue for sharing and discovering web content, the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter effectively put an end to the heyday of RSS. The algorithm-based methodology of Google News and Microsoft News also provided an alternative model for providing users with fresh content.
However, as the problems with the algorithm-based approach to content discovery come to light (misinformation, echo chambers etc.), there are plenty of people looking for a way to exercise greater control over the information they are served.
Now, it would seem, RSS is ready to come back into the limelight, with the new Followable Web feature for Edge. And Microsoft is not the only software giant working on an RSS feed feature for its browser, either; Google is also developing similar functionality for Chrome.
Protect your online privacy with the best VPN services around
As we all take a much-needed break over the Christmas period, we can start to reflect on what a year this has been – and how we can hope next year is better. One company that hasn't had a bad 2021 is Google and, specifically, Drive.
An exclusive TechRadar Pro poll carried out by OnePulse shows that Google Drive is by far and away the most popular cloud storage provider going, used by around 44.1% of respondents.
While this might not come as a surprise, there is a lot of competition in the cloud storage market at the moment. Apple, for example, has been expanding the scope of iCloud this year, introducing a bunch of privacy-focused features. Dropbox and OneDrive, too, are long-time competitors biting at Drive's heels.
One provider to rule them all
But the extent of the domination is impressive and worth pondering for a while, driven at least initially by Google's willingness to give away generous services for free, alongside the overall ecosystem lock-in for its services and Android.
According to OnePulse, around 44% of respondents use Google Drive's free or paid services, followed by iCloud (31.2% across free and paid), OneDrive (11.2% across free and paid), Dropbox (6.8% across free and paid), and then everyone else makes up the remaining 6.8%.
So not that surprising overall but you can clearly see the influence of Apple's iPhone and Mac customer base electing to use the tightly integrated iCloud services.
Digging deeper, the poll found most people (48.7%) have been using their service for between one and five years, with the rest either under a year (16.3%) or over five years (35%).
In terms of storage, around 55.4% use between 1GB and 100GB, 30.8% have no idea how much storage is left, and 13.8% use between 101GB and 1TB or more.
Google has now rolled out a feature on iPhones that will allow the Google Fit app to use the phone’s camera to measure heart rate and even respiratory rates. Introduced quietly over the last weekend, this feature required users to place their finger over the rear camera lens and apply some pressure to measure the vitals.
To recall this feature was first introduced to the Android side of the smartphone world earlier this year and doesn’t need internet access in order to measure the vitals of a user.
According to 9To5Google, Google says that it tracks the subtle changes in the colour of the finger along with the algorithms that account for skin tone, lighting, age, and others to calculate the blood flow.
Google warns that the measurements are not intended for medicinal purposes, however, since these hardly take 30 seconds to calculate the beats per minute, it can be helpful in checking anomalies while on the go.
Additionally, the front camera on the phone can be used to track the breaths users take every minute. It requires the phone to be kept on a flat and stable surface in a way that the camera has a clear view of the upper half of the body. Google Fit then guides the user through the process to calculate the respiratory rate and the entire process takes just over 30 seconds to complete.
The feature can be accessed by visiting “Browse” Tab in the Google Fit app and then selecting “Vitals.” Once measured, the users can decide if the reports need to be saved in the Google Fit app or not. The feature is available for iPhone 7 and iPad Pro users as well.
Google says that “these results are not intended for medical purposes and should not be used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease or medical condition”. Though it does add that these capabilities have been through proper clinical studies.
In a big thrust into e-commerce and business, WhatsApp is rolling out a feature to let users search for nearby businesses, right within the app. The feature, when it becomes fully mainstream, will help the messaging platform to make an impact in one area where it has not made much headway – business & commerce segment.
According to the ever reliable team at WABetainfo, WhatsApp had made available a nifty business directory to users in Sao Paulo a couple of months back. And the new search option for nearby businesses is an extension of that. “When you search for something within WhatsApp, there will be a new section called “Businesses Nearby”: when you select the category, the results of business accounts will be filtered based on your choice,” the report said.
Businesses will be happy with the putative feature as it will allow them to become more visible, directly from inside WhatsApp.
The new business nearby search options within WA. (Image credit: WABetainfo)
So, soon you can basically search for things like hotels, eateries, groceries or clothing, without leaving the app. This useful tool will be available to both iOS and Android users.
This feature has been made available to some users in Sao Paulo but is not available yet for all. But it is likely that WhatsApp will first roll out the aforesaid business directory feature and then follow it up with the search tool. But it is something that would be worth the wait.
Once users are allowed to search for products and services nearby it will be only a matter of time before they can place orders for the same.
It is clear that the folks at WhatsApp are doubling down on business and commerce segment for future growth of the platform. WhatsApp recently introduced a redesigned page for Business Info.
WhatsApp is also planning to redesign the page for Contact Info, in that it will have a search shortcut.
In-app shopping possibilities have grown across the social media platform’s apps. WhatsApp now also features shopping tools including product catalogs and shopping cart options for businesses to use.
Meta has announced new shopping and discovery tools, including Shops on WhatsApp.
We all live busy, hectic lives these days and, with so many distractions around us to draw our attention away from the things we need to get done, we could use some organization.
The iPhone has an ever-improving to-do app built right in, but if you’re looking to take things to the next level with some more advanced options, there are also some very impressive third-party reminder apps available to you.
If you are constantly forgetting when your cars are due for a service or when you need to pay that important bill then you could use a to-do app.
Below, we highlight five of the best to-do apps on iOS to help you get things done and keep your focus on what's important.
Apple Reminders
(Image credit: Apple)
The Reminders app from Apple is on every iOS device out of the box. As with other Apple built-in apps, it can feel quite basic initially, but for many, this clean simplicity is what makes it shine. Dig a little deeper, however, and you'll find more depth to the app than you’d imagine.
A major plus point of the Reminders app is its deep integration with the system itself. As you’d expect, it works well with Siri, which can even be invoked within apps like Mail with the phrase ‘remind me about this email.’ This will alert you at the chosen time and also let you jump directly back to the app.
Stock Apple apps can go years without any real updates, but Reminders has been refreshed year after year for some time now. With iOS 15, quite a few new features have helped the app keep up with some premium third-party apps.
Tagging was introduced, so now you can easily group and view all items with the same tag via the new Custom Smart lists feature. One long-requested feature that made it into the iOS 15 release is natural-language support, so you can type statements such as ‘Call Mike every other Friday at 5PM.’
Other useful features include the ability to add picture attachments to tasks and an option to be reminded about a due item the next time you message the chosen individual. Now you’ve got a strong to-do app ready to be put to use.
GoodTask
(Image credit: Goodtasks)
If Apple’s Reminders app is the Ford pickup of the to-do world, then GoodTask is the Tesla Cybertruck equivalent. GoodTask takes everything you get in Reminders and soups it up.
GoodTask is free, but there's an in-app purchase of $ 9.99 / £8.99 / AU$ 14.99 to fully unlock the app. It's based on Reminders, but it adds a lot more advanced features not available in Apple's app. Some of these features include quick actions that can be customized to help you enter new to-do items quicker, such as marking the item due in +5 hours or automatically tagging it.
The app offers a lot of options to customize both the layout and theme to really make it fit around the way you work and not vice versa. GoodTask is a universal app, so it works across all iOS and iPadOS devices. It also has a very good macOS and Apple Watch app to round things off.
GoodTask is the ideal app for anyone that doesn’t want to sign up for yet another service that will hold your data, or for those that like the Reminders experience but need more power-user features that the stock app just doesn’t offer currently.
Todoist
(Image credit: Todoist)
While the first two options on this list focused on Apple device users, many people don’t have the luxury of using just one device manufacturer to get their work done. There are also some very good to-do apps for iOS that can be used across Android, Windows and the web. One of the best examples of a truly cross-platform to-do app is Todoist. The ability to use this service both in and out of the Apple ecosystem makes this a strong option for those of us that use a Windows PC for work but use Apple hardware and software outside the office.
Todoist has been around for a long time and offers a clean, easy-to-use interface that looks at home on any platform and syncs seamlessly between each one. A strong selling point beyond the option of using it truly anywhere is the fantastic natural-language reminder entry, which lets you describe what you want it to do in a natural, non-robotic way. You could say something like: ‘Remind me to pay the gas bill on the 27th of every month’ and Todoist would set this recurring event for you automatically.
Todoist is a freemium product, which means the app is free to download but includes an optional subscription to add extra functionality. The free tier is, actually, very generous. The extras you get with a subscription, such as the ability to add up to 25 people to each project, themes, and custom icons are nice to have, but definitely don’t hinder a single user from using the app to great effect.
If you really want to go to the next level with your tasks, Todoist even offers a Kanban board view so you can get a better visualization of various interconnected tasks across a large project. For those unfamiliar, a Kanban board allows you to display all tasks on a single board, which you can drag between statuses such as ‘not started’, ‘in progress’, and ‘done’.
If you’re looking for a feature-rich to-do app that works perfectly on any device you use then Todoist may be the perfect app for you.
Things 3
(Image credit: Things 3)
Of all of the to-do apps in this roundup, Things 3 is the least flexible both in terms of functionality and options for using it across multiple, non-Apple platforms. It loses points for no web app or Windows version, but it makes up for it in pure good looks. Costing $ 9.99 / £8.99 / AU$ 14.99, the app oozes charm and fluidity and is very rigidly based on the GTD (Get Things Done) methodology.
This app has won two Apple Design Awards in the past, but it’s more than just a well-designed to-do list. Things 3 includes unparalleled keyboard shortcut support, keyboard navigation, calendar integration, and some very nice widgets. It also has one of the best Apple Watch apps in the business.
With Things 3 you can, as you would imagine, add standalone tasks one at a time, but a big strength for the app is the ability to quickly convert a single to-do item into a project. You can then fill it with subtasks and more detail about the project itself. Things 3 is an app you should turn to when a simple ‘one item at a time' to-do system just won’t do.
There are some downsides to Things 3 to consider. The main sticking point is the relatively expensive upfront cost and the fact that you have to buy it separately for every device you want it on. A lack of Windows or web support may also put people off, but if you want a great-looking app with a lot of muscle under the hood then look no further.
OmniFocus 3
(Image credit: Omnigroup)
Some may describe Things 3 as form over function. OmniFocus 3, on the other hand, may tip the balance the other way. That’s not to say OmniFocus isn’t decent looking, in its own special way, but it certainly lets its functionality do the talking.
Of all the apps or services listed here, OmniFocus is the most advanced, with a focus on power users and those with large projects to manage. While it’s perfectly usable by anyone, you’re unlikely to get the most out of it unless you have a lot on your plate.
Available as a subscription of $ 9.99 / £9.49 / AU$ 15.99 a month, its emphasis is on creating and managing larger projects where you can tag your tasks with places, people, or priorities. By tagging tasks as much as possible, OmniFocus encourages you to manage tasks through what it calls ‘perspectives’. So, for example, if you have a work project with Bob from Accounts, you could filter down to all tasks tagged with ‘work’ and ‘Bob’ and work through all relevant tasks.
To get the most out of OmniFocus you would need to live a very busy and organized life. If this doesn’t apply to you, the app may be overkill. If it does apply to you, however, this is a powerful and flexible app that would help you de-stress, focus, and get things done.
One of the best features of iOS and iPadOS is the ability to add widgets to your home screen. The fact that you can place them pretty much anywhere you want gives users more control over customization than ever before.
With widgets available for just about anything you can think of the sheer number of options can make this a slightly bewildering proposition. Which ones do you choose? How do you know if they are any good?
That’s why we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite widgets, to help you narrow it down a bit. Here are our picks for the best widgets for iPhone and iPad.
What is a widget?
If you’ve never used these before, a widget is basically an extension of an app. It provides a window that gives specific information from the app at a glance, so you don't have to open the app to find what you're looking for. Widgets exist for pretty much anything you can imagine – weather, photography, fitness, news, or stocks and shares, to give just a few examples.
While there are some widgets preinstalled on the iPhone and iPad, many apps offer the option of adding a widget once you’ve downloaded them. This massively widens your choice and allows you to personalize your selections to really fit your needs. To start you off, here are some that we recommend.
10. Night Sky
(Image credit: Night Sky)
Night Sky is an app that tells you all about the heavens. Use it to learn about stars, planets, satellites, and more, with the aid of augmented reality and other great features.
The widget is relatively basic but will let you know about any upcoming and live events, passing satellites, and the time of sunrise and sunset each day. It’s a great combo for anybody who wants to know a little bit more about the wonders of the universe. (The only thing missing is a voiceover from Professor Brian Cox.) The premium version has even more widgets to offer on top.
9. Photo Widget: Simple
(Image credit: Photowidget)
While there is a stock photo widget preinstalled on iPhones and iPad, it's pretty rudimentary. If you want to curate your own albums and dictate how often the image changes Photo Widget: Simple will do the job nicely. It’s free to download and use as well.
You can even use it to create entire themes for your iPhone or iPad. Wallpapers, app icons, and other widgets – countdown, constellation, calendar, clock, memo, and to-do list – can all be customized from here. It's a great widget for several reasons.
8. Carrot Weather
(Image credit: CARROT)
Carrot Weather is, quite simply, our favorite weather app. It recently won Apple Watch App of the Year at the 2021 Apple App Store Awards and a 2021 Apple Design Award, and with good reason. Carrot Weather combines a wicked sense of humor with accurate weather forecasts, as well as a clean interface.
The widget is only available as part of the premium service for £4.99 a month, but in our view, it’s well worth it. The widget is customizable, and lets you see the weather forecast at a glance, without needing to open the app. This is exactly what you want from a weather widget and this one does it with a bit of extra personality.
7. Fitness
(Image credit: Apple)
Fitness comes pre-loaded on iOS as it's made by Apple, which is great for a couple of reasons. One, it is optimized for syncing your Apple Watch with your iPhone. And two, it doesn’t cost anything to use. If you’re a fitness enthusiast or looking for a nudge to help you make some healthier choices, this is a great widget to use.
At a glance, it will give you access to information such as calories burned, active minutes, and how long you’ve spent standing. There’s an alternative option of showing the Progress Ring, which gives a quick visual representation of how close you are to completing your pre-set goals for the day.
6. Find My
(Image credit: Apple)
The Find My app from Apple may not be one you use on a regular basis, but when you need it, it’s worth its weight in gold. You can use it to keep track of things you are worried about losing – your AirPods, Apple Watch, or something with an AirTag attached to it. You can even use it to keep a close eye on people – for example, making sure your child gets home safely from school.
The widget gives you all this information, without needing to load the app. The widgets come in two flavors – People and Items – so you can decide whether you want one or both on your home screen.
5. Google Maps
(Image credit: Google)
Google Maps is a fantastic tool wherever you are in the world, and it gives you a wide variety of widgets to choose from. This includes a Google Travel Times widget, which tells you how long it will take you to get from one place to another.
You can access a widget that will tell you about things like local traffic conditions, shop opening hours, and restaurant reviews in the local area. And there's a widget that lets you find nearby places such as groceries, restaurants, and petrol stations. That's a wealth of widgets for all your travel needs.
4. Flipboard
(Image credit: Flipboard)
Flipboard is an award-winning app that draws from thousands of different sources to curate news and information to suit your interests. Set up the topics you’d like to follow and the major headlines from those subjects will appear on your Home Screen, thanks to the widget.
The widget is available in four different sizes. You can choose from a thumbnail with a single headline up to a much larger roundup of four of the latest stories. You can also choose from four different feeds: your own ‘For You’ feed, the ‘Daily Edition’ for the latest news, ‘10 For Today’ for a selection of in-depth stories, or ‘Flipboard Picks’ for a set of stories specially selected by Flipboard staff.
3. Calm
(Image credit: Calm)
Let’s face it, the world is a stressful place to be at the moment. This is why we love Calm, the recipient of multiple Apple awards. The Calm widget lets you access Daily Calm with a single tap, as well as breathing exercises and Sleep Stories.
Daily Calm is a 10-minute-long guided meditation, while Sleep Stories are bedtime stories read by well-known celebrities, such as Stephen Fry, Matthew McConaughey, and Leona Lewis. If you choose to subscribe, you get access to all of Calm’s content. You can pay £28.99 for an annual subscription or a one-off £299.99 payment gives you access forever.
2. Spark – Email App by Readdle
(Image credit: Spark)
Spark – Email App by Readdle is a super smooth way to organize your inbox. It helps to prioritize your email, notifies you about emails from people you know, and ignores the spam, among a host of other great features. You can also connect all your email accounts, so no more bouncing from one app to another.
The widgets build on this, by allowing you to choose up to three of them for quick access. The developers themselves particularly love Recently Seen, Attachments, and Calendar. You can also decide whether to have a small widget that tells you how many emails you’ve got or a larger list of what’s waiting in your inbox. It’s a great tool for seeing what’s important at a glance.
1. Widgetsmith
(Image credit: Widgetsmith)
Widgetsmith is a superb tool for customizing widgets for your home screen. And it covers all sorts of topics – weather, astronomy, and calendars are just a few examples. You can even set the widgets to change through the course of the day.
So Widgetsmith might show you the weather when you get up in the morning, before switching to your calendar as you get through all your meetings, and then switch again to show you your reminders for the next day as you enter the evening. Some additional features, such as Tide and Weather hosted data, are available for a premium.
As the year begins to end and people focus on taking a well-earned break over the Christmas holidays, it's a good time to take stock of life, work, and love. We're only focused on the second of those three today and specifically email usage.
TechRadar Pro has commissioned an exclusive poll of 500 respondents from OnePulse showing which email services people use and some details about how.
Surprise, surprise Gmail comes out on top.
(Image credit: Geralt / Pixabay)
A lot of people absolutely hate email, and with good reason. Clients, especially default clients like Apple Mail, are often slow and geared towards casual users, not power users at work.
On top of that, Slack and Teams, plus a bunch of others, have sprouted up to fulfil work-specific chat needs – even Meta has got in on the action with Workplace.
To email or not to email
So, let's break down the results.
According to our survey, the dominant email service is Gmail – and it's not even close. A full 59% of respondents use Google's email offerings, followed by Outlook (19.7%), Yahoo (13%), iCloud (2.9%), and others (5%).
But what about power users? Well, they're in the minority too. Most people (75.6%) have between one and 10,000 emails in their inbox, followed by 16.75% who have between 10,001 and 100,000, and then a rarified 7.59% have over 100,001 or more.
The story is similar for email storage: just over half (50.2%) either don't know or don't care how full their inbox is. The rest have up to 5GB filled (32.8%) or over 5GB (17%).
In this article, we’re going to look extensively at how the new operating system was received – and its teething troubles, naturally – and also at what else Microsoft was up to in 2021. That included the usual clutch of new Surface hardware, and admirably striding ahead on the accessibility and eco-friendly fronts, as we shall see. But first, let’s dive in and examine how Windows 11 has panned out…
Windows 11: The good, the bad, and the compatibility
The launch of Windows 11 as a free upgrade for Windows 10 users was the biggest development for Microsoft in 2021, without a doubt. The operating system that was never meant to be – remember that Microsoft said Windows 10 would be the final ever Windows version (not that we believed it) – was swirling around in preview for the latter half of 2021, before finally being unleashed and rolling out from October 5, billed as a “new era for the PC”.
But even before its official release in October, Windows 11 got off to a shaky and confusing start around its system requirements. The stipulation for TPM 2.0 – a security measure Microsoft insisted on for tighter defenses with Windows 11 – caused confusion, which was compounded by the wonkiness of Microsoft’s own PC Health Check tool. The latter didn’t provide any details of why a system might be incompatible, and just left a lot of users scratching their heads (before it was pulled down for that very reason).
In a nutshell, the compatibility problems for some PCs are easily enough solved by a BIOS tweak or update to turn on TPM 2.0 – the tech being present, just not enabled on some modern systems – but the whole affair left a bad taste in the mouth before Windows 11 was even out.
The fact that some relatively modern CPUs from just five years ago – namely Intel’s 7th-gen range (or later) – aren’t compatible was frustrating news for owners of those kind of PCs, again compounded by the revelation that Windows 11 can actually (unofficially) run on something as old as a Pentium 4 (Cedar Mill) CPU from 15 years ago.
That’s another oddity with Windows 11, that Microsoft made it so you can upgrade to the OS on non-TPM 2.0 compliant machines via various loopholes, but that this isn’t recommended, and really you shouldn’t do it, plus you might not get vital system updates in the future (even if you do now, at least anecdotally).
So, there were unfortunate slips and general vexation around Windows 11 compatibility before and after release, and these weren’t the only elements causing a degree of bewilderment around the operating system – we’ll come back to that later, but first, let’s look at the initial reaction to Windows 11.
Broadly, the atmosphere around Microsoft’s big redesign for its desktop OS was pretty positive. We felt it was a big step forward visually, and plenty of folks agreed. With the new streamlined desktop – and the likes of simpler File Explorer menus – everything is tidier and neater, and more modern-looking to boot (with those rounded corners for windows and menus, of course).
Okay, so there was flak fired at the new Start menu, which appears to have taken a leaf out of the Chrome OS playbook – not everyone likes its new centrally-aligned Launcher style vibe – and it’s a bit of a clunky fudge. There was also disappointment at there being no support for running Android apps on the desktop from the off (this is now in testing, though).
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Also, scratching under the surface of the shiny new desktop, much remains the same, really, and as we pointed out in our full review of Windows 11, it’s really akin to a reskin of Windows 10. This is more like a good start of a redesign than a whole new operating system, but then we wouldn’t expect Microsoft to totally shift away from Windows 10 – in some ways, the OS which launched in 2015 hasn’t gone away, in actual fact. At least not yet.
Perhaps the thorniest issue of all for us regarding Windows 11 is that it appears to be following suit with Windows 10 when it comes to bugs. As you’re likely aware, Microsoft’s ham-fistedness around bugs is well-established with Windows 10, sadly, with repeated scenarios demonstrated where bug fixes fail or even cause other unintended problems.
Now, we realize that revamping an entire desktop operating system is a mammoth task fraught with all sorts of nuance and complexity, but breaking the core part of the interface in these kind of ways – at least for some users – doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Microsoft’s implementation and troubleshooting skills.
The bugs (which, let’s face it, we’ve got used to with Windows 10 – though we hoped Windows 11 might have been something of a new leaf for Microsoft) were also accompanied by some odd design decisions. For example, the removal of the ability to drag and drop app shortcuts onto the taskbar, or messing with default browser settings to make them frustratingly clunky. Fortunately, these are decisions which Microsoft is in the process of reversing, with the software giant apparently listening to feedback (at least in some cases).
As we’ve said before, Windows 11 does still feel like a work in progress a few months after launch, but at least in the main, the operating system appears to be moving in the right direction. As the end of 2021 rolls around, the pieces of the desktop OS feel like they’re coming together in a more cohesive and logical manner, so we’re optimistic for the future. Microsoft has also promised to concentrate on making Windows 11 faster in 2022 (we should think so, too, given that nuts-and-bolts interface performance on the desktop really shouldn’t be an issue with any compatible PC configuration).
It’s worth considering what Microsoft has done for PC gaming this year, and that’s principally wrapped up in Windows 11. The good news is that Windows 11 delivered some nifty gaming features, such as the built-in Xbox app with tighter integration in the OS, and the Auto HDR feature which gives non-HDR games a similar level of added pep with contrast and vibrancy. DirectStorage will also make a big difference to SSD loading speeds and general performance in the future, when games support it.
Crucially, gaming performance is on a par with Windows 10, and in some cases a touch better. The one cloud on the horizon is Virtualization-Based Security or VBS, which as the name suggests is a security feature that considerably strengthens your PC against malicious intruders, but it comes with a gaming performance hit.
Now, you don’t have to turn on VBS – and PC gamers likely won’t want to, even if the performance hit isn’t that big in some cases (it varies depending on the game, though it’s pretty hefty in some titles from testing we’ve seen) – but the trouble is that Microsoft is set to make it compulsory with certain OEM systems over the next year.
So, while this isn’t happening now, it could be that before too long, prebuilt PCs from the likes of HP or Dell come with VBS turned on, and less tech-savvy users won’t even know they’re getting lesser gaming performance with their rig. They will, however, be more secure, which is the flipside… but the crux really is how far this compulsory enablement will go, and whether it’ll come to gaming PCs. We’d hope not in the latter case, for sure, because Microsoft needs to be careful how it treads here.
Further notable gaming news came in December 2021 when Google revealed that it will bring titles from the Google Play Games store to Windows 10 and 11. Google will have its own Windows app to facilitate this experience, allowing mobile games to be played on Windows PCs with seamless continuity, so it’s possible to pick up where you left off on your phone when playing on the desktop. In other words, you could be enjoying Candy Crush on your PC come 2022 when this feature rolls out (though it’s still early days, and it isn’t clear which mobile games will be supported).
The end result is that Microsoft Edge is turning into an impressively streamlined, performant and feature-packed browser. It’s making progress in terms of adoption, having overtaken Firefox in July and generally carving out a niche for itself quite successfully (albeit with there still being a gaping chasm between top dog Chrome and Edge).
Given that Edge stands relatively well on its own merits these days, it’s a shame that Microsoft has felt the need to continue to push it (and other services) so hard with various shenanigans and pop-ups in Windows throughout this past year (as it did in 2020 also). These are heavy-handed measures which we believe are in danger of being counterproductive and putting folks off, rather than getting them to consider switching to Microsoft’s browser as is intended.
So, quit the nagging, Microsoft – and that goes for Windows 11, as well, which follows in the footsteps of Windows 10 with some unfortunate ads appearing in places like File Explorer (pushing other Microsoft services like OneDrive).
(Image credit: Future)
The usual Surface highs and lows
Plenty happened with Microsoft’s Surface range this year, including what we’d been awaiting for so, so long – a meaningful refresh of the flagship Surface Pro. The new Surface Pro 8, which was released on October 5 (alongside Windows 11), represented a breath of fresh air for the device, giving punters a great-looking, more modern design, much better performance levels than its predecessor, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Oh, and a bigger gorgeous screen with a 120Hz refresh rate.
Sadly, the display wasn’t the only thing to get bigger, and the fly in the ointment was the price tag becoming something of a towering affair, starting at $ 1,099 / £999 / AU$ 1,649 rather than $ 749 / £799 / AU$ 1,249 as seen with the Pro 7. Still, that doesn’t stop the Pro 8 from being an impressive step forward, albeit a much-needed one given how much the series was stagnating in recent iterations.
There were several other compelling Surface launches in 2021, including the Surface Laptop Studio, a truly innovative premium option for creatives – seemingly replacing the Surface Book – but not without flaws, most notably in lackluster performance levels, and an eye-watering price tag (again).
There was disappointment away from the high-cost hardware, with no sight of a Surface Laptop Go 2, and while we did get a new affordable Surface Go 3, it turned out to be underpowered, suffering in terms of battery life, and difficult to recommend in all honesty. All of these devices arrived later in the year, alongside the Surface Pro 8 – oh, and the Surface Duo 2 phone, which made a middling impression.
Finishing on a brighter note, Microsoft also unleashed the Surface Laptop 4 in April 2021. This scored highly in our review, and made a good case for itself thanks to a gorgeous display, stylish design, excellent keyboard, and a relatively affordable price tag for what you’re getting with this machine.
Those voice controls appear to be the result of drafting over much of the functionality of excellent speech recognition app Dragon – remember, Microsoft bought Nuance in April 2021 – and they’re very in-depth, allowing for control over all sorts of elements of the OS. This looks like the start of Microsoft turning voice controls into something big with Windows 11.
Also, Microsoft started selling its Surface Adaptive Kit in December, which provides a host of nifty ways to make a large range of its Surface devices easier to use for people with disabilities. These kind of kits are something which will hopefully catch on with other PC makers.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Thinking environmentally
In October, Microsoft made a laudable pledge to ensure its devices are more easily repairable – and therefore better on the sustainability front – albeit following pressure from a non-profit shareholder advocacy group drumming up support on the environmental responsibility front. Microsoft had already been making its hardware easier to repair, as seen with the Surface Pro X in the past, and we can expect more progress along these lines in the future.
If we had to call it – and we do have to call it, that’s the point of this article – we’d give Microsoft a thumbs-up for this year. The software giant is doing a lot right, but there are still caveats and serious issues which represent multiple winged creatures stuck in the ointment.
Of course, some of those nasty bugs pertain directly to Windows 11, and really worrying flaws around core bits of the interface like File Explorer, along with problems with SSD sluggishness. All the confusion around Windows 11 upgrade compatibility really didn’t help, either (though to be fair, TPM does up the ante with security as Microsoft has shown us).
Microsoft still needs to address the issues the company continues to have in terms of quality assurance and bug squashing with its operating systems, and also quit with the nagging on the Edge front.
But on the whole, despite problems with bugs and glitches, Windows 11 made a positive impression on us, even though the OS still feels much like a work in progress. It’s definitely a more modern and better-looking piece of software, nicely streamlined in many ways compared to Windows 10, and Microsoft is slowly making good progress across a number of fronts here.
Hardware was a mixed bag, with some sterling Surface offerings coming out this year – the Surface Pro 8, Surface Laptop 4, and Surface Laptop Studio in particular – even if the company charged an arm and a leg for these admittedly premium devices. Wallet-friendly offerings disappointed, however, with the Surface Go 3 really missing the mark, and the Surface Laptop Go 2 failing to emerge.
Microsoft definitely gets some pats on the back for its progress with accessibility in 2021, and also being greener, as well as the firm apparently starting to listen to user feedback more (this was a big drive with Windows 10, which we felt was waning as Windows 11 went through testing – but Microsoft now seems to be correcting course again).
So, Microsoft is much like Windows 11, in that it’s moving in the right direction, but there’s still more work to be done.
Since Parallels Desktop 17 was released earlier this year, we’ve been inspired to try out many games on Apple’s M1 Macs in how they run through virtualization.
With many tests impressing us so far, such as Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes running at full speed in 1440p on high settings, we’re still testing more games from other storefronts to see how far these Macs will go.
But you may have already received a new Mac this Christmas, and you’re already trying out Apple Arcade or games from the Mac App Store.
With this in mind, we’ve curated five games that will run great on your new Apple Silicon Mac, but are also perfect to play during the Christmas holidays.
Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair
(Image credit: Future)
Released in 2019 by Playtonic, a team of ex-Rare veterans and more, this is the second entry into the Yooka Laylee series after the first game had a successful Kickstarter, and was released to positive reviews.
This entry is 2D based, which is inspired from the Donkey Kong Country games of Rare's past. Here, you run through a series of worlds and levels to collect quills and T.W.I.T. coins, as well as to free a member of the 'Beetalion' crew. These will grant Yooka and Laylee additional 'hit points' to use when you reach the final level.
While you can play this game on Steam, we also saw no issues in playing the game on the Epic Games app within Parallels as well. Everything played well on high settings on both the M1 Mac mini and M1 Pro MacBook Pro, so if you want a great 2D platformer to pass the holidays with, Yooka and Laylee can greatly help with that.
Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain
(Image credit: TechRadar)
To date, an entry from the Metal Gear series has not seen a release on the Mac, but thanks to Parallels, you can play the fifth game with little issues.
Released in two parts – Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain that are available on Steam, you control Big Boss, or Phantom Snake as he's called here, where you need to infiltrate certain bases to rescue or recruit crew members to build out an army at a base called Outer Heaven.
While there are rumors pertaining to this day of the final game being unfinished, due to a missing chapter at the end, that doesn't make the game feel any less fun. The story, while confusing, is made up of the amount that you can do during a mission, You can drop in or be picked up in certain areas, and complete the tasks in different ways.
On the M1 Macs, you can easily run the game at a 1440×900 resolution at medium settings and have a great time. However, if you have a Mac with the M1 Pro or Max chip, you will be able to run the game on its highest settings with no issues.
Everything runs as expected, and over the holidays, it's a great game to lose yourself in.
Grand Theft Auto IV
(Image credit: Future)
While many are waiting to hear about a Grand Theft Auto VI, the fourth entry is one that gets overlooked the most from the series.
The first in the 'high-definition' series, its purpose was to remake Liberty City, the location from the third game, into this wide-sprawling city.
You control Eastern European war veteran Nico Bellic this time, where you're on a mission to help your family and friends by working with the local Mafia. Across four districts, you're soon flying helicopters and arranging dates to build up your reputation across the city.
The control is arguably better than Grand Theft Auto V, where driving has a better feel here, with more heft and better variation when you drive different vehicles across the city.
While the multiplayer mode was removed in 2020, the single-player mode available on Steam is still a lot of fun. On an M1 Mac, you can expect to play the game in high settings with no issue, but with an M1 Pro/Max Mac, you'll be able to play the game at a 2540×1440 resolution with no issues.
Tomb Raider: Legend
(Image credit: TechRadar)
With 2021 marking the 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider series, you may have a favored entry that you go back to for some Lara Croft nostalgia.
However, while you can play the first three Tomb Raider games in Parallels with no issue, the seventh game, released in 2006 on Steam, is worth a playthrough over the holidays.
It's the first entry created by Crystal Dynamics, where Lara receives a soft reboot in her story and appearance, but with the gameplay being updated for the mid-noughties.
The controls here are much looser here than before, where you can play the game with a keyboard and mouse and have a good time.
Sprawled across 10 levels, from Bolivia to Kazakhstan, you're on a quest to find King Arthur's Excalibur in order to find Lara's missing Mother. It's a simple story, but it's where the gameplay shines. You're given a grappling hook that can attach to ledges and blocks to solve a variety of puzzles, alongside finding secret treasures that can unlock costumes for Lara.
For a game released in 2006, it still plays well today, and especially so on an Apple Silicon Mac. You can play the game at high settings, on a high resolution with no issues here.
Sonic Generations
(Image credit: Future)
This was a game that was designed to celebrate Sonic's 20th anniversary back in 2011 on Steam. Sonic Generations is one of the few 3D Sonic games that's fondly remembered, mainly due to how it honors the series' past.
Every level here is a remake of what came before, from Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1, to Sky Sanctuary Zone in Sonic 3. There are nine stages, with an additional stage of Casino Night Zone, from Sonic 2, where you merely collect enough rings in a pinball machine to complete the level.
Every level is as entertaining as the last, where you play a 3D and a 2D version of it, depending on the type of Sonic you pick. There's also plenty of collectibles that you earn by finding hidden red rings across the stages, which can unlock music, skills and more.
Running the game on an M1 Mac, it can stutter if all settings are on high, especially with the shaders. But when running in medium settings on a 1920×1080 resolution, you'll be running across Chemical Plant Zone with no issues.
However, playing Sonic Generations with an M1 Pro / Max Mac, you can easily play with high settings at a 2560×1440 resolution with rarely any stutters.
With or without Omicron, a significant portion of Brits were already planning celebrate the holidays over video conference, new research suggests.
Surveying 2,023 UK adults for the report, networking firm Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) found that 11% expect to use live-streaming apps to connect with their friends and family during Christmas and the New Year, as compared with 12% last year.
While keeping in touch with friends and family over digital platforms is a necessary evil for more than a third (37%), almost the same proportion (34%) say the technology helped them feel included when they were unable to participate in-person last time round. A further 28% said it helped them feel connected, which is particularly important during the holiday season.
A digital Christmas
As a result of the pandemic, the use of live-streaming and video conferencing services is on the rise, with Facebook Messenger, FaceTime and Zoom all attracting more users than before.
However, connectivity issues are hampering their experience, the report suggests, with a quarter of people encountering fuzzy or low-quality pictures, or video freezes.
Part of the problem, GWS hints, lies with the telecoms sector. Of all the users that have suitable devices (e.g. a decent mobile device, webcam and headset), a third (33%) do not have adequate speeds to watch or broadcast an HD live-stream effectively. According to the report, a mobile device would need at least 5 Mbps download speeds and 4.5 Mbps upload.
The report singles out O2 as attracting the fewest complaints from customers in this context. Roughly half of O2 customers (51%) did not report any issues when live-streaming, and 02 customers also had fewer issues with audio and picture quality.
For those suffering from connectivity issues, 5G could roll out just in time to save the day. More than a quarter (28%) of Brits are excited about the launch of 5G, with a fifth (22%) seeing it as important for keeping in touch with their loved ones.
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