When Apple detailed macOS Big Sur earlier this week, it spent a lot of time talking about how it redesigned the desktop operating system to make it look more modern. The company also touched on upcoming enhancements to Safari, such as faster webpage loading times and enhanced privacy monitoring. But the one feature that will likely mean the most for Safari users is Apple’s take on the WebExtensions API. The move promises to significantly increase the number and variety of plug-ins you’ll be able to install if you use Safari as your primary web browser. And we now have a better idea of how they’ll work thanks to a WWDC session spotted by TechCrunch.
From a developer standpoint, the most significant difference between Safari’s new web extensions and the content blocking, share and app extensions Apple currently supports is that they can be programmed using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Developers don’t need to go out of their way to learn Objective-C or Swift, which are of limited use outside of Apple’s ecosystem. What’s more, developers can take their existing Chrome, Firefox or Edge extensions and port them to Safari using a converter Apple has created to speed up the process. As with other Safari plug-ins, users will be able to find and download the new web-based ones through the App Store.
Volvo’s self-driving car efforts have been most closely associated with Uber, but it’s about to make you rethink that connection. The automaker has formed an alliance that will see Waymo be the exclusive partner for Level 4 self-driving (that is, full autonomy in certain conditions) for its vehicles, including affiliates like Polestar and Lynk & Co. The two will start by incorporating the Waymo Driver into an electric car platform designed for ride-hailing services — robotaxis, in other words.
The two didn’t outline when they expected cars built on Waymo tech to appear. Reutersnotes that Volvo still has a separate deal to provide vehicles to Uber, which adds self-driving equipment after the fact.
Google has long tried to push YouTube off of just phones and onto larger screens. Now, it looks like those efforts are paying off. That shift has also likely been accelerated in recent months by the coronavirus pandemic, as many people have been stuck at home with more time to spend in front of their TVs.
YouTube also shared how viewing habits have shifted during the pandemic. Views of sourdough-related content skyrocketed more than 400 percent between mid-March and the end of May, compared with the beginning of the year, according to the company. Cooking-related videos also jumped 45 percent compared with last year, while “workout at home” videos climbed 200 percent since mid-March.
No federal agency or official would be permitted to “acquire, possess, access or use” biometric surveillance tech in the US under the proposed legislation. Nor could they use any information from a third-party facial recognition system. In addition, the bill would ban the use of federal funds to acquire that type of technology.
The government would be allowed to use facial recognition tech, but only if there were a federal law in place to regulate it. Among the provisions it’d need to have are rules about the use and data retention of such systems; standards for facial recognition accuracy rates by skin color, age and gender; and protections for privacy, free speech and due process.
The bill would also push state and local law enforcement to no longer use such systems. If they persisted without complying with a similar law or policy to the federal one, funding from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program would be withheld. That program funds training, equipment and supplies for police.
“No one should have to fear the government tracking and identifying their face wherever they go. No one should have to go through what the Williams family has gone through,” American Civil Liberties Union Senior Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani said in a statement. “It’s past time Congress halted the use of face recognition and stopped federal money from being used to invest in invasive and discriminatory surveillance. This bill should immediately pass.”
Meanwhile, Robert Williams, the man who was wrongfully arrested after the technology falsely marked him as a suspect, wrote about his experience in a Washington Post op-ed:
“Why is law enforcement even allowed to use such technology when it obviously doesn’t work? I get angry when I hear companies, politicians and police talk about how this technology isn’t dangerous or flawed. What’s worse is that, before this happened to me, I actually believed them. I thought, what’s so terrible if they’re not invading our privacy and all they’re doing is using this technology to narrow in on a group of suspects?”
The Face ID and Touch ID features on Apple devices will soon be much more useful on the web. As TechCrunchreports, Apple has outlined how Safari 14 for iOS, iPadOS and macOS will allow using those biometric authentication methods for “frictionless” sign-ins on websites. You may not have to enter your username and password (or rely on a password manager) after the first time you punch them in.
The approach is built on the familiar Web Authentication (WebAuthn) framework from the FIDO2 spec. It’s been used for biometric sign-ins in the past, but Safari 14 will clearly expand that technology to a large portion of the Apple ecosystem once web developers make use of it.
As for the headphones themselves, LG has gone with a new canal-type design the company claims makes the updated models more comfortable to wear. A byproduct of the new look is that the FN6 and FN4 look more like AirPods than their predecessor did, but that’s not a bad thing. The flat design of headphones like the HBS-FL7 and WF-1000XM3 can make for an awkward fit for some people.
LG
Battery life is comparable to the original model. On a single charge, both earbuds deliver about six hours of playback. The regular and UVnano charging cases can provide 18 hours of battery life across three full charges.
Both headphones create enough of a seal to isolate sound, but neither features active noise-cancellation (ANC). What they do include is an ambient sound mode to help you hear what’s happening around you. Touch controls on the sides of both headphones allow you to control playback, as well as adjust the volume. There’s support for Google Assistant and Siri, if that’s more your thing. Both headphones are also IPX4-certified against splashing water, rain and sweat.
The HBS-FN6 and HBS-FN4 will launch in the UK and the US next month. We don’t have US pricing at the moment. However, we’ve reached out to LG for more details, and we’ll update this article when we hear back from the company.
Starting next week, you’ll be able to start a video call with multiple contacts by asking your Assistant to “make a group call on Duo” or “make a group call on Meet” or create one via the visual interface on the screen. The feature will support up to 32 people on Duo and a maximum of 100 on Meet. On Duo, you’ll have to create groups in the mobile app, then start calls with those circles by asking Assistant.
Google
On Meet, you can also join existing calls by typing in the room code, or enter scheduled meetings by pulling up calendar entries on the display. You can also ask the Assistant to open a call from a calendar appointment by saying “Hey Google, join my next meeting,” though this only works on personal accounts not enterprise ones for now. Those joining via a room code will have to enter it on the screen.
People aren’t just using their smart displays for family calls — they’re using the devices as second screens for work, too. To support users who want to dial into work conferences on their smart displays, Google is also enabling G Suite meetings on the Nest Hub Max in a beta that’s rolling out over the next few weeks. It’ll be available for G Suite domains enrolled in the Assistant beta program — organizations that want to take part can have their administrators sign up.
Google is also rolling out a speed dial feature that it announced at CES, which should make it slightly more convenient to launch your daily check in with your family, for example. This tool arrives today on Assistant-enabled smart speakers and displays, and once you have your favorite contacts set up, you can tell Google to “Call Mom” or “Call Brian.” On a smart display, you can start a call quickly by tapping a contact’s name.
Google
These new features make Google’s smart displays more useful than before — even though you could conduct video calls on them previously, support for groups was an important feature that was missing. Facebook has been marketing its Portal display as a means to have calls with family members, complete with filters and stickers. With today’s announcement, Google will be giving Facebook more competition on this front and possibly giving smart displays more room to grow.
Lyft will pay various amounts in damages to the complainants, including $30,000 to J.H. It’s been ordered to modify its wheelchair policy to specify that “drivers are required to assist with the stowing of foldable or collapsible mobility devices used by individuals with disabilities, such as wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers.” The company will make a few changes to better educate drivers on the wheelchair policy, like sending quarterly reminders of the policy to drivers and creating a new educational video about the policy. For the next three years, Lyft will give the Justice Department biannual written reports on what it’s doing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Accessibility of rideshares has been an ongoing concern and the subject of many legal battles. Uber has been suedmultiple times for failing to accommodate passengers with disabilities. A 2018 study conducted by the New York Lawyers for Public Interest found that 70 percent of the time, Uber and Lyft failed to provide wheelchair accessible vehicles in New York City.
I was pleasantly surprised with the Flex 5 once I was logged in and putting it through my normal routine. Lenovo seems to have hit the sweet spot of specs and price, making a Chromebook that has nearly the same performance as more expensive models while keeping the price affordable. The combo of Intel’s 10th-generation Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage is pretty modest, but it handled my work needs with no issues.
Generally, I run a few Chrome windows with anywhere from five to 15 tabs as well as dedicated web apps for Slack, YouTube Music or Spotify, Keep, Trello, Todoist, Hangouts and Tweetdeck. I also run the occasional Android app like Facebook Messenger or Adobe Lightroom. I was worried that 4GB of RAM wouldn’t cut it, but the worst I encountered was that tabs would occasionally refresh if I hadn’t looked at them recently. Otherwise, the overall experience was smooth and trouble-free.
I don’t particularly find flipping a laptop into tablet mode useful, but the feature makes some sense on the Flex 5, since Chromebooks can run touch-optimized Android apps. If you think you’ll put that 360-degree hinge to use, the Flex 5’s hinge is strong and flips around nicely. Lenovo has lots of experience making two-in-one devices like this, so I have few build quality concerns here.
The Flex 5 succeeds in another area: battery life. It’s not the best I’ve ever seen, but it did last just over eight hours in our test looping an HD movie with the screen set to 65 percent brightness. I got similar results going about my normal day, as well, so I think it’s safe to say you can expect eight hours unless you’re spending the entire day on Google Meet or Zoom calls. (Come to think of it, you might be doing that, so just find an outlet from time to time.) That’s not quite as good as the 10 hours that Lenovo rates it for, but it does outlast the ASUS Chromebook Flip C436 and Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook, both of which are significantly more expensive.
It doesn’t last quite as long as Google’s Pixelbook Go, but given the Flex 5’s relatively low price, I have no issues with the battery. That said, there are some budget Windows laptops, like Acer’s Aspire 5 and Spin 3, that get similar battery life, so the Flex 5 isn’t exactly punching above its weight. It’s just better than multiple Chromebooks I’ve tested recently.
There’s not a lot else to say about how the Flex 5 works — but that’s a good thing. It feels like any high-end Chromebook I’ve used in the last year, but without the high price tags that usually accompanies them. Put simply, the price to performance ratio here is excellent, not just for a Chromebook but for any laptop.
The competition
There aren’t a lot of Chromebooks that match Lenovo’s combination of specs and price. There are tons of cheap Chromebooks out there, but you are almost always trading design, power or display quality (or some combination of the three) to save money. Further complicating things is the fact that it’s hard to know which of the many variations offered by the biggest OEMs are available at any given time. You might see things listed on ASUS or Acer’s site (or Google’s own Chromebook page) that you can’t actually find for purchase.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
That said, if you can find it, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 (pictured above) is worth a look. It’s currently available for $400 with an Intel M3 processor, 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. That processor isn’t as good as the one in the Flex 5, but the ASUS has an excellent, slightly larger display with very thin bezels. I reviewed that model in 2019, and it was one of the best Chromebooks out there; my main concern was the combo of 4GB of RAM and an M3 processor wasn’t powerful enough for the $579 ASUS was asking. However, given that it’s now priced at $400, it’s a much more reasonable option.
Another decent option is ASUS’s Chromebook C425. It doesn’t have the 360-degree hinge that the Flip and Lenovo’s Flex 5 do, but for $440 you’ll get twice as much storage. It also uses an M3 processor, so it’s not the fastest, but it should be fine for most basic tasks.
Wrap up
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Right now, there is no Chromebook that I can recommend as easily as Lenovo’s Flex 5. It’s really quite simple: for $409, you get a laptop that works just as well as ones that cost hundreds of dollars more. You compromise a bit on storage and RAM, so power users who think they’ll need more should look elsewhere. But for anyone else, the Flex 5 is exactly the kind of Chromebook we should be seeing more of. Put simply, it’s a great everyday computer that can handle most modern, web-based tasks. Photoshop aficionados and video editors will continue to look elsewhere, but if you want a computer for basic tasks like browsing, word processing and watching videos that’s easy to use and simple to maintain, the Flex 5 is a great option.
Apple has definitively approved HEY in the App Store!! No IAP, no 30% cut, but we’ve opened the door to a free temp address service, and use same app for work accounts. I’m so incredibly relieved! And now HEY is open to EVERYONE! No invite code needed 🎉❤️ https://t.co/J7OCCTFX2Z
Hey is now open to everyone, and it does not require an invite code. The app promises a more organized approach to email, for $99 per year. But perhaps more importantly, Hey is an example of how developers can avoid paying Apple 30 percent of IAP and subscription fees.
“Hopefully this paves an illuminated path for approval for other multi-platform SAAS applications as well. There are still a litany of antitrust questions to answer, but things legitimately got a little better. New policies, new precedence. Apple took a great step forward,” Hansson tweeted.
The European Commission recently opened dual investigations into the App Store and Apple Pay over its rules requiring developers to use its own payment and in-app purchase system. That investigation was spurred by Spotify’s complaint, but the debate over whether the App Store is fair is not new. Apple may appease some developers if it allows them to follow Basecamp’s lead and offer free trials instead of IAP.
