The expanded repair program is a win for right-to-repair advocates, who have long urged Apple to make it easier for third parties to fix its products. The changes should keep Apple products working longer, which is ultimately more sustainable, and it should give customers confidence that they’re getting trustworthy service.

It’s probably easier to repair a Mac than an iPhone, so it seems odd that Apple didn’t verify Mac repair shops first. Either way, this could be especially good news for anyone who’s now using their Mac for remote work and may have an easier time getting to a third-party shop than an Apple store.

If you’ve been eager to get your hands on the next big macOS update without having to run a developer build, now’s your chance. The public beta of macOS Big Sur is now live.

Apple has redesigned many aspects of the OS this time around, and it has described Big Sur as the biggest upgrade since it introduced Mac OS X. You’ll get to try out significant updates to the likes of Messages, Maps and Safari. The latter includes biometric sign-in options for website sign-ins, along with 4K HDR support for Netflix playback. Apple has overhauled the Notifications Center with support for more customizable widgets, while the new-look Control Center takes its cue from iOS.

You may be able to unlock future Macs with your face, according to 9to5Mac. The publication has uncovered references to the company’s TrueDepth camera, which makes Apple’s Face ID technology possible, in macOS Big Sur. To be precise, the third beta version of Big Sur contains codes supporting “PearlCamera,” the codename Apple used for TrueDepth and Face ID back when it was still working on the iPhone X.

9to5Mac found words such as “FaceDetect” and “BioCapture” in the code, which Apple also uses for iOS. The publication says it closely examined the Face ID extension it found and determined that it was built for macOS. It wasn’t just a remnant that the company forgot to purge.

Apple first rolled out monthly payments for Applecare+ last year, but so far the service has been limited to to US. Now, Apple is expanding the program abroad to three additional countries: Japan, Australia and Canada (via MacRumors).

AppleCare+ extends your regular warranty and includes accidental damage coverage. As in the US, the lump-sum plan is limited to 24 months (or 36 months if you own an Apple Watch Edition or Hérmes), whereas the monthly plan renews indefinitely each month until you cancel it. However, the single payment option is cheaper than the monthly plan over the two- or three-year period. (All of that is a generalization, as many terms and conditions apply).

Developer Superhot Team originally intended to release Mind Control Delete as DLC for Superhot. However, after hitting Steam Early Access, the expansion started to expand from community feedback. The studio says the resulting game is four times bigger than its predecessor. It features new weapons and enemies. It also expands on Superhot‘s signature time dilation gameplay with new mechanics. 

At launch, Superhot: Mind Control Delete will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Linux and Mac. You can download the PC version from Steam, the Epic Games Store, GOG and the Humble Store. The game will come out on Switch at a later date. But if you want to play it before then, you can email the eShop receipt you got after buying Superhot there and the studio will send you a DRM-free copy of the new game for PC. 

A move like this would make sense. Arcade’s business model revolves around people subscribing to get continuous access to (hopefully) quality games free of in-app purchases and ads. If games finish too soon or simply don’t keep people interested after the initial rush, they may not wait to see if there will be more interesting games in the pipeline. It’s not clear how well Arcade is doing at this point, although the addition of another trial month led some to speculate that demand wasn’t as strong as initially hoped.

Unfortunately, those cancellations may have created problems for developers. Some of those with canceled contracts faced “financial woes,” according to the sources. While Apple apparently paid for any development milestones and said it would help with future titles, the judgment call is a reminder that Arcade developers are ultimately dependent on Apple’s decisions for their livelihoods.

MacOS Big Sur may be a worthwhile upgrade if you love to marathon TV shows. As 9to5Mac reports, users have discovered that Safari in Big Sur will play Netflix videos in 4K with HDR, whether you’re using Dolby Vision or HDR10. You won’t have to switch to another browser just to see more than a plain 1080p image. The upgrade comes thanks to long-expected support for HEVC in Apple’s web browser.

You’ll have to be picky about your choice of Mac if you want the full effect, either with the Big Sur beta or the finished release this fall. HDR is currently only supported with 2018 or later MacBook Pro models, 2018 or later Mac mini systems, the iMac Pro or the Mac Pro. You’ll need an HDR-capable monitor for the Mac mini and Mac Pro, too.

Beneath a Steel Sky was one of the first video games to give non-playable characters (NPCs) a schedule. They would wander around a scene. By 2020 standards, that’s a feature you see in almost every game, but in 1994 it was groundbreaking. This time around, Revolution has developed AI the studio claims makes NPCs willful and motivated. The system allows for “interesting” and “emergent” solutions to gameplay puzzles, according to Revolution. 

It also appears the sequel maintains its predecessor’s sometimes silly and zany tone. Beyond being a must-play in a genre that includes heavyweights like The Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky was a big deal in 1994 for uniting the talents of Charles Cecil and Dave Gibbons. Gibbons is best known for collaborating with Alan Moore on Watchmen, while Cecil is the co-founder of Revolution Software. Besides Beneath a Steel Sky, the studio is best known for its work on the Broken Sword series. Both Cecil and Gibbons worked on Beyond a Steel Sky. 

Apple Arcade costs $5 per month. A subscription allows you to play the game (and many others) on iOS, tvOS and macOS. If you haven’t played Beneath a Steel Sky, you can grab a free copy on GOG. A remastered version of the game is also available on iOS for $3. 

RISC stands for “Reduced Instruction Set Computing,” and it was developed in the early ‘80s to fix a lot of the problems in early processors. As chips got more complex, they also became harder to program for, more error prone and less efficient. RISC tried to streamline chip design by simplifying the instructions — the most fundamental operations a chip can perform. A RISC instruction, which could be an operation like loading values from the memory and adding or multiplying, was designed to execute in a single clock cycle.

At the beginning, RISC chips could perform the same work as a traditional chip (later labeled “Complex Instruction Set Computing” or CISC) in less time, were easier to design, and cheaper to manufacture. Throughout the ‘90s, both architectures were widely used, but CISC chips like those from Intel and AMD gradually dominated more and more of the market, with RISC chips like ARM relegated to low-powered, battery dependent devices.

But as smartphone performance has exploded, it’s ignited a debate over whether RISC might actually be a superior design, and Apple’s decision might seem to confirm that. But it’s a little more complicated. Apple’s chips may indeed prove to be excellent performers, but that might not have a lot to do with being based on ARM. Check out the video for the full story, and more info about the history of RISC and CISC.

Apple is edging closer to having full control over what powers its products. At WWDC, it confirmed long-standing reports that it’s moving away from Intel processors and using its own chips, similar to those that power iPhones and iPads, for some MacBooks and Macs. The project is called Apple Silicon, and it’s all about creating powerful, energy-efficient processors.

This story is developing. Please refresh for updates.