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We tried world s first in screen fingerprint reader at walmart we tried world s first industrial research laboratory we tried world s first internet sensation we tried world s first invention we tried world s first roller coaster we tried world s hardest game we tried world s smallest violin lyrics we tried world s strongest man we world energy we world express we tried meme
We tried world's first in-screen fingerprint reader at CES
We tried world's first in-screen fingerprint reader at CES
Using the world's first phone with a fingerprint scanner built into the display was as awesome as I hoped it would be.
There's no home button breaking up your screen space, and no fumbling for a reader on the phone's back. I simply pressed my index finger on the phone screen in the place where the home button would be. The screen registered my digit, then spun up a spiderweb of blue light in a pattern that instantly brings computer circuits to mind. I was in.
Such a simple, elegant harbinger of things to come: a home button that appears only when you need it and then gets out of the way. I would bet several Bitcoins that in-display fingerprint sensors become one of 2018's biggest phone trends, starting with high-end devices like the rumored Samsung Galaxy S9.
But the phone I held in my hands was not the Galaxy S9, which doesn't exist yet. It's a pre-production model by Chinese phonemaker Vivo, and it's still without an official name, price and sale date.
For phone enthusiasts, the real news is that this technology -- which was rumored for the Galaxy S8 and beyond, and also for the iPhone X -- isn't just a bunch of hot air. It's real, and it works.
In fact, the fingerprint sensor -- made by sensor company Synaptics -- lives beneath the 6-inch OLED display. That's the "screen" you're actually looking at beneath the cover glass. You can see it in our photos here.
This is the sensor that makes it all possible.
John Kim/CNET
When your fingertip hits the target, the sensor array turns on the display to light your finger, and only your finger. The image of your print makes its way to an optical image sensor beneath the display.
It's then run through an AI processor that's trained to recognize 300 different characteristics of your digit, like how close the ridges of your fingers are. It's a different kind of technology than what most readers use in today's phones.
Synaptics, which demoed the Vivo phone in a crowded booth at the back of an interminable hallway, says that the fingerprint reader won't suck up much more battery by illuminating your finger, promising that its power management is equal to industry standards.
Because the new technology costs more to make, it'll hit premium phones first before eventually making its way down the spectrum as the parts become more plentiful and cheaper to make.
Vivo's phone is the first one we've gotten to see with the tech in real life, but it's clear this is just the beginning.
Robots, Google Daydream and a lot of rain : Everything you need to know from Day 1 of CES.
CES 2018 : CNET's complete coverage of tech's biggest show.
LG Wing hands-on: Here's what it's like to actually use the weird swiveling phone
LG Wing hands-on: Here's what it's like to actually use the weird swiveling phone
These days, phones are either rectangular slabs with one straight screen or, in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 or Motorola Razr 5G, they're slabs with flexible screens that open up. But the LG Wing is neither. Instead, it's a phone with two screens, one of which swivels on top of the other.
Yes, it's weird and yes, it's expensive at $1,000 on Verizon (UK and Australia pricing have not been released yet, but that converts to about £775 and AU$1,394). But the design isn't as crazy or pointless as it seems. After pushing through the initial learning curve, which does take some time, my experience with multitasking and recording video got a boost thanks to the Wing's unusual shape.
The LG Wing isn't for everybody, and LG knows this. Its bulkier design and potentially steep price will automatically lead to many people writing it off. Also, not all apps will accommodate the two screens. Nevertheless, I appreciate LG's willingness to try something different. Swivel phones aren't exactly new, even if they aren't around much anymore: The VX9400 from 2007, for instance, is an early example of an LG phone with a similar design, and I myself owned a beloved Nokia 7370, which featured a screen that swiveled out as smoothly as a switchblade comb. But LG has applied that design thoughtfully enough for this current era of phones.
Whether or not people are willing to pay to give its $1,000 vision a shot is the big question. While it's not impossible to sell an expensive handset amid a pandemic when everyone is more budget-conscious, as Samsung has shown with its Galaxy Note 20, it's certainly risky to do so. And LG's record of selling experimental phones isn't stellar. Its modular G5 from 2016 and curved G Flex from 2014 weren't exactly top sellers. But fitting "more screen in less space" is always appealing, and the LG Wing, at the very least, executes its own concept well.
In the US the LG Wing will be available first on Verizon, then AT&T in the fall and T-Mobile -- all on their respective 5G networks.
LG Wing design: Spin me right round
I spent time with a preproduction model and found that the LG Wing is a straightforward phone when it's closed. It has a 6.8-inch display, wireless charging and an in-screen fingerprint reader. But it's also missing a few things that other LG phones have. It doesn't have a headphone jack, which LG usually keeps, and it doesn't have a formal IP rating for water protection.
And while it's not as heavy and thick as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 when it's folded, the LG Wing is still thicker and heavier than regular phones. It's about a third thicker than most phones, not twice like I first assumed, because the top panel is thinner than the bottom.
The phone only opens in one direction, clockwise, so to open it single-handedly, it should be in the right hand. (I'm a left-hander and I thought mine was broken and stuck when I first tried to open it, but it wasn't.) The motion does require some carry-through with the thumb, and if I didn't slide it strong enough, the top display would stop short of clicking straight. But most of the time it rotated fine and the mechanism feels sturdy. While I didn't go buck wild trying to rip these two displays apart, I didn't feel like I needed to be any more careful with it than with any other premium phone. LG estimates that the phone is durable enough to survive 200,000 rotations over the course of five years. If you want more protection, LG is working on cases, but those will undoubtedly add more bulk.
The phone has a 6.8-inch display on top that rotates clockwise.
Angela Lang/CNET
LG Wing's 2 displays do double duty
Once the phone's open, you can do a variety of things in a variety of orientations. Multitasking is the most obvious benefit, like watching YouTube while looking up something on the web. If you're talking to a buddy over the phone and want to check your calendar to schedule a time to meet up, you can do that too. My favorite way to use it is having Maps display on the larger screen and music controls on the other one. This is especially useful in the car, when I want to skip tracks without fussing too much with the phone and taking my eyes off the road. Given the bulk of the Wing though, I suggest having a sturdy phone mount. When I found myself opening the same pair of apps often (Maps and Spotify, for instance), I paired them so they could launch quickly together.
The back of the phone when opened.
Angela Lang/CNET
When held upside down, the phone opens up different experiences for gameplay. I played the racing game Asphalt 9 this way, with the bigger screen displaying the main gameplay and the smaller one displaying a roadmap. I'm not convinced this was useful, though. Plus the phone is top-heavy when held upside down, so it was uncomfortable to hold the thinly edged display in my hands after a while.
Having two screens to navigate one app is interesting too. With messaging, for instance, I can view a large part of the conversation while texting. But as I mentioned before, not every app is optimized. For instance, I'd love to watch a YouTube video while reading comments on the other screen, but I couldn't do that on the phone. And if you don't want to use the bottom display much at all, it can be turned into either a trackpad to navigate the top display, or blacked out completely and used as a physical grip.
3 cameras and a gimbal
The Wing has three rear cameras: one standard camera and two ultra-wide cameras. One of the ultra-wide cameras has a gimbal inside, which is similar to the Vivo X50 Pro. Gimbals are used to stabilize and balance video even when you're moving around a lot. LG added a special Gimbal Mode with extra controls as well, so you can pan and follow your subject as they move.
My video footage was steady, even as I was recording while walking quickly. Video looked more stable than the one recorded on the iPhone XS, which we happened to have on hand, and footage from the LG Wing lacked that pulsing effect the iPhone had too. When it came to picture quality though, colors were more true-to-life and objects looked smoother on the iPhone. On the front is a 32-megapixel camera embedded inside the phone and popup from out of the top edge when in use, which is a lot like the OnePlus 7 Pro, Vivo Nex and Oppo Reno 2. The selfies I took were bright, in-focus and clear.
Videographers may be interested in the suite of tools the LG Wing has, and Gimbal Mode adds an extra layer of control and creativity. Gripping the phone vertically while shooting horizontally also made it comfortable to shoot video. But if you're a casual video-taker, this isn't a must-have, and current iPhones and Pixel phones have excellent video stabilization features too.
In bright, ample lighting the phone takes vibrant and clear pictures.
Lynn La/CNET
Another outdoor image taken on the LG Wing.
Lynn La/CNET
In this closeup shot, the flower petals on the foreground are in focus and sharp.
Lynn La/CNET
A photo taken with the phone's pop-up front-facing camera.
Lynn La/CNET
LG Wing's hardware and other specs
Powering the phone is a Snapdragon 765G chipset and a 4,000-mAh battery. Since I got a preproduction unit, I didn't conduct battery tests. Anecdotally though, the Wing had a decent battery life. With medium usage of both screens it was able to last a full day without charging.
LG Wing 5G specs
Display size, resolution
Main screen: 6.8-inch OLED; 2,460x1,080 pixels. Second screen: 3.9-inch OLED; 1,240x1,080 pixels
Amazon Prime Price Hike: There's Still Time to Lock In Your Rate for Another Year
Amazon Prime Price Hike: There's Still Time to Lock In Your Rate for Another Year
Amazon announced big fourth-quarter profits along with some bad news for customers earlier this month: The online retail giant is raising its annual membership price again. An Amazon Prime membership will soon cost $139 for annual subscribers, up from $119, and monthly members are looking at an increase from $13 to $15 ($156 to $180 for 12 months). For new accounts, the price hike goes into effect on Feb. 18. But if you already have an account, the cost won't increase until Mar. 25.
This bump marks the first time Amazon has raised prices on Amazon Prime since 2018, when the cost went from $99 to $119 per year (from $11 to $13 monthly). The premium subscription service originally launched in 2005 at $79 per year.
As of December 2021, about 172 million people subscribe to Amazon Prime, according to a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. The report notes that Amazon Prime has added 30 million new subscribers each of the past two years.
Even though the price is rising, there are ways to maximize your current subscription or get in on the old price before it's gone. Read on to learn all about the Amazon Prime price change and how you can save money.
How much is Amazon raising the price of Prime?
For the majority of people, the price of Amazon Prime will change from $119 per year to $139, or from $13 monthly to $15.
Prices will also increase for students and other low-income subscribers. Prime Student members will soon pay $7.50 per month, or $69 per year. For recipients of Electronic Benefit Transfer and other qualified forms of government assistance, the monthly price will increase from $6 to $7.
When will the price of Amazon Prime change?
The price changes will take effect Feb. 18 for new Amazon Prime accounts. For existing accounts, the increased price will kick in on the first renewal payment after March 25.
How can I save money before the price of Amazon Prime changes?
If you were considering an Amazon Prime subscription, now's the time to do it. Prices will change for new accounts on Feb. 18. If you pay for a yearly subscription before then, you'll lock in the $119 yearly rate until 2023.
Current Amazon Prime members should take a look at their Amazon accounts to see if they are monthly or yearly subscribers. If you're a monthly subscriber and switch to a yearly subscription, you'll also lock in the $119 rate until next year.
Can I buy a future Amazon Prime membership with a gift card now?
Savvy bargain shoppers have noted that Amazon's "gift of Prime" service can be an effective method of extending the current price rate. If you buy a gift subscription of Amazon Prime before the price change and activate it when your existing subscription expires, you'll get another year at the $119 rate. If you sign up for a yearly account before Feb. 18 and buy another yearly gift subscription at $119, you won't be paying the new $139 yearly rate until 2024 (though you will be paying $238 upfront).
Why is Amazon raising the price of Prime?
Despite better-than expected fourth-quarter earnings, Amazon gave several reasons for the price hike in its press release, including more big-budget shows on Prime Video like The Wheel of Time, Jack Reacher and the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as well as its decadelong exclusive license to NFL's Thursday Night Football. The company also touted expanded availability for same-day delivery to 90 metropolitan areas in the US, free shipping for more items and more deals on products.
What services does Amazon Prime offer?
Amazon Prime originally launched with unlimited free two-day shipping for a large number of its products, and that main service remains its most popular benefit. However, Amazon Prime has since expanded its offerings and now includes many other benefits.
Here are the biggest services Amazon Prime provides:
Free two-day, next-day or same-day shipping
Free grocery delivery via Amazon Fresh
Discounts at Whole Foods
Free streaming video via Prime Video
Free streaming music via Amazon Music
Free magazines and books via Prime Reading
Unlimited photo storage on Amazon Photos
Visit the Amazon Prime info page for a full list of the services included in an Amazon Prime membership.
Who are Amazon Prime's competitors?
Pricier Amazon Prime subscriptions could make competing services more attractive, but there aren't a whole lot of them. Walmart Plus, which currently costs $98 per year, offers expedited delivery and groceries, but the superstore chain's service doesn't have the extensive TV shows, movies, music and games included with Amazon Prime.
Both Target and Walmart have tried to compete with Amazon Prime Day, a massively popular and yearly two-day sale for Amazon Prime members. Target has launched its own Target Deal Days and emphasizes that no membership fees are required. Similarly, Walmart began its own Deals for Days promotion for three days in June 2021.
Competitors like NewEgg Premier and Google Express encountered difficulties competing with Amazon Prime. NewEgg launched Premier in 2014 but shut it down in December 2019. Google Express also launched in 2019, but it lasted less than a year.
Solve the problem of a poorly placed laptop power button
Solve the problem of a poorly placed laptop power button
Dear Asus ZenBook UX305 Design Team,
Love the laptop. Really. It's thin, light, powerful and packed with features. Killer price, too. But there's a problem with it that makes me want to cry.
It's the power button. You know, the one in the corner of the keyboard. The one right next to the Delete key and above the Backspace key. The one that looks like a keyboard key.
What is THAT...doing THERE?
Rick Broida/CNET
That's a stark change from my last laptop, and in fact from just about every other laptop on the planet. The place you put the power button is exactly where the Delete key resides on most other machines. So guess what happens? I'm typing along, I reach for the Delete key, and suddenly my ZenBook goes into sleep mode.
Nerd rage! My brain faces enough challenges without having to remember not to tap the same key I've tapped a thousand times per day for the last infinity years.
Luckily for you, Asus, I'm not returning to the ZenBook to the store. Instead, I'm taking advantage of a Windows setting designed to overcome insanely terrible design decisions like this one. Here's what I did:
Step 1: Open the Control Panel.
Step 2: In the Control Panel search field, type power, then click Change what the power buttons do.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Step 3: Alongside When I press the power button, click the two pull-down menus and choose Do nothing.
Step 4: Click Save changes.
And that's it! Now I can hit that power button all day without accidentally hibernating, shutting down or sleep-moding my laptop. (I also tried messing with free utility SharpKeys in hopes of remapping the power button to the Delete key, but it didn't work.)
Oh, by the way, I don't mean to single you out, Asus -- this note is for any laptop maker that makes the power button part of the keyboard. Don't do that. Put it up above the keyboard, near the center, where it belongs.
When I first heard of a new social media app called BeReal, I knew I had to try it.
The app bills itself as the "anti-Instagram." It takes the basic concept of the 'gram -- an endless-scroll feed of your friends' slice-of-life photos -- and revamps it into something more gamified and (a little) less phony. Lately it's become wildly popular.
Here's how it works: Every day, at a random and unpredictable time, the BeReal app sends you and everyone else on the app a push notification: It's "Time to BeReal." You then have two minutes to take a photo simultaneously using both your front and back camera and post to the feed. If you don't post, you can't look at your friends' posts either. If you post late (or retake the shot several times to get the right angle), the app will rat on you to your friends. When the next day's notification comes in, everyone's previous photos disappear.
The gamification comes from BeReal's once-a-day posting restraint; the authenticity comes from the fact that you don't get to pick where or when you post, and you can't use a filter to smooth your skin or correct the color of your avocado toast or whatever.
It actually sounded a lot like Wordle to me: A two-minute break from your day to complete a fun little task on your phone before returning to the grind or the doomscroll or, most likely, one of your other social media apps. And crucially, like Wordle, BeReal can only be "done" once a day.
What it's like to use BeReal
A sampling of my BeReal posts.
Karisa Langlo/CNET
I started recruitment by putting feelers out in a couple of my existing group chats. I had a hunch the app would be more of a fun group activity than a true social feed, for the same reason I sometimes still exchange Wordle (or Worldle, Heardle, or Antiwordle) results over text but can't understand why anyone is still tweeting them.
Not being a member of Gen Z myself, I knew it would be difficult to convince enough friends to join me. My invites had about a 50% success rate. One friend couldn't get past the usual AI-training paranoia around novelty photo-sharing apps. Another friend: "This feels like a trap." My own spouse left me on read.
The friends who did take the bait began posting gamely, often photos of their laptops or cats or protein powder. More often than not, my own BeReal front camera photos were unflattering ones of my weary, grumpy face while my back camera captured my son smearing ketchup around his highchair tray. Once, I posted the same view from my balcony that a dinner guest Instagrammed (and filtered the heck out of). Hers definitely looked better.
You can't technically win BeReal like you can Wordle, but I soon came to understand the particular satisfaction of achieving the trifecta: capturing an interesting tableau, taking a flattering selfie and posting it all on time. There's an element of luck, too, if you happen to be somewhere cool when it's time to be real and not on your couch or, as one of my friends feared, on the toilet.
"Hoping that I get the notification during my exciting moments and not when I'm pooping," he texted me one day. The daily anticipation around when it would arrive, he added, is "like a Jack in the box."
BeReal notifies you every day at a random time, with only two minutes to post a photo.
Sarah Tew/CNET
I "lost" BeReal several times: when the notification arrived after I'd gone to bed, was presenting during a camera-on Zoom meeting or was driving on the highway. But I totally won on the day the two-minute window coincided with the "greatest two minutes in sports," and I got a snap of my Kentucky Derby fascinator and Rich Strike crossing the finish line on TV.
Read more: After Today's Wordle, Try These 21 Other Puzzle Games
How real is BeReal, really?
Of my BeReal friends, 100% have plans to delete the app after this article publishes. They all took issue not with the app's spurious claims to authenticity but with its demands on their time.
"Getting the alert, especially during the workday or at night when I wouldn't normally be taking photos or posting anything, was a little stressful," one friend said.
"This app kind of highlights that ideally I want control over social media and not the other way around," another friend told me.
"I felt a little guilty if I didn't post every day," a third admitted.
If Wordle tried to dictate what time we all solved the puzzle every day, would the masses have turned on it by now? (Look what happened to HQ Trivia.)
But I'm personally more interested in the "Real" than the "Be."
The vibe on BeReal is actually more nostalgic than authentic. More early-Instagram than anti-Instagram. My favorite part of BeReal was the permission – nay, obligation – to post goofy selfies and capitulate to the adolescent egocentrism that still lurks beneath my now over-orchestrated grid. People don't give a crap what I ate for lunch, but I want them to know, dammit! One of my first Insta posts was just a photo of some Finger Hands finger puppets I found at a joke shop and thought were funny, and I miss posting stuff like that.
There doesn't seem to be an appetite on Instagram anymore for the detritus of daily life. Instead of Instagramming the places we visit, we now just visit Instagrammable places. Whereas Instagram has been taken over by influencers and "creators" posting Reels and memes, BeReal takes a different tack, as stated in its app store listing: "If you want to become an influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram."
Then again, "casual posting" and photo dumps are enjoying some popularity as the pendulum swings in favor of a rawer aesthetic. And many of the memes clogging my Insta feed are of the behind-the-scenes, "Instagram vs. Reality" persuasion. Plus, maybe the ephemerality and informality of Stories already kind of satiates that desire for the "real."
When you think of it that way, BeReal is more of a gimmick than a harbinger of social media change. And that's a shame, because even if no one on this side of 30 agrees with me, I kinda love it! Like Snapchat or TikTok, maybe it'll eventually be subsumed or reproduced within Instagram itself as an optional feature.
Or like Wordle, maybe it's nothing more than a digital curiosity that we'll one day describe as "fun while it lasted."
Windows 11 review microsoft s subtle changes make you ask for it you got windows 11 review microsoft s subtle changes make you ask but do not receive windows 11 review microsoft s subtle changes make you ask me to lyrics windows 11 review microsoft s subtle changes make you stronger windows 11 review microsoft security windows 11 review microsoft sim windows 11 review microsoft sql windows 11 review microsoft silverlight windows 11 review microsoft publisher windows 11 review microsoft office windows 11 review reddit windows 11 download windows 11 requirements
Windows 11 review: Microsoft's subtle changes make you ask, update or wait?
Windows 11 review: Microsoft's subtle changes make you ask, update or wait?
Microsoft made Windows 11 available on Oct. 5 on a rolling basis as a free upgrade to most Windows 10 users. If you have Windows 8, you'll have to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 first, then download Windows 11. Before you decide whether or not to install the new OS, let's talk about what we like and don't like about the upgrade.
An operating system, whether it's MacOS on your MacBook or Google's Wear OS on your smartwatch, gets better the more transparent it is to the user. And that user is you, sitting in front of a laptop keyboard or tapping on a phone screen. So sorry, no Spinal Tap "goes to 11" puns here. That's mostly because Windows 11 feels more like Windows 10.5 than a generational leap -- not that there's really anything wrong with that.
Maybe the shift from Windows 10 to Windows 11 feels subtle because the jump from Windows 8 to Windows 10 was so gigantic. Big enough for Microsoft to skip an entire version number, even. That generation was all about righting a ship that had gone somewhat off-course, leaning too far into tablet territory, trying to convince everyone that Windows laptops and tablets were as cool as iPads. They're not, and that's OK: I work on a Windows machine, I do plenty of PC gaming on one, but when I flip through news headlines in bed at night, it's on an iPad.
Read more: Surface Pro 8 review: a familiar flagship for Windows 11
Windows 10 started out with favorable reviews and has remained in everyone's good graces precisely because it got out of the way of whatever you were doing instead of trying to force its ideas on you. But more importantly, it was free* -- which includes an asterisk to indicate it was generally available as a no-cost upgrade to anyone with a nonancient PC.
Before 2015, Windows upgrades either cost some money, or if you bought a new laptop or desktop, the latest OS just came preinstalled. Apple's OS X moved to a similar free-to-upgrade model around the same time. Except for system builders, the idea of paying separately for a computer operating system is basically extinct. That's a big change from when you had to hand over $120 to Microsoft for the privilege of upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8.
Who can get Windows 11?
The list of compatible PCs is frankly a little narrower than I would have expected. The base requirements are a 64-bit processor, 4GB of memory, 64GB of storage, UEFI secure boot and TPM (trusted platform module) 2.0. It's that last one that gets tricky for some people, especially on cheaper laptops. If you've got a CPU older than a seventh-gen Intel Core series (we're up to 11th-gen now), you might be in trouble. If you want to check, use the Microsoft PC Health Check app. There are workarounds for installing Windows 11 anyway, but proceed with those at your own risk.
Microsoft
Visual cues
If there's one thing that immediately stands out about Windows 11, it's this: The start menu and taskbar are now centered on the bottom of the screen, rather than aligned to the left by default. Yes, that's the single biggest visual and interface change you're going to see on day one. Sure, there's plenty more going on underneath, but it feels like this UI shift is there mainly to let you know there's something new and different going on under the surface.
And there is a good deal going on in Windows 11. For casual or mainstream users, you're unlikely to notice much of it, though there are some standout upgrades worth noting.
Read more:Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review: The screen is everything
Get some Android in your Windows
One of the big selling points of Chromebooks, which run Google's ChromeOS, is that most Chromebooks can run just about any Android app, from phone-centric favorites like Instagram to mobile games. That breaks Chromebooks out from being restricted to just cloud-based apps and frankly adds a lot of functionality to your $300 or so Chromebook.
Microsoft is adding similar functionality to Windows 11 , both to compete with Chromebooks and to forge greater bonds between Windows PC users and Android phone users, just as Macs and iPhones are inexorably bound.
But... that feature is not included with the launch version of Windows 11. It's going to be previewed sometime in the coming months, so I wouldn't expect it to be added as a fully baked feature until some time in 2022.
That's a shame, because easy access to Android apps was probably going to be the biggest single practical change in Windows 11 for most people. Sure, there are plenty of other ways to do this, using an app like Bluestacks or even the Your Phone app from Microsoft, but it's not simple enough for everyday users.
Microsoft
Snap groups and multiple desktops
Easily organizing a bunch of open windows so you can see and access them when you want -- and hide them when you don't -- is handy once you get the hang of it. The ability to snap windows into preset slots on the desktop has been around for a while now, but the new Snap Groups and Snap Layouts offer a few new ways to wrangle your windows.
By hovering over the "maximize" button on the top right corner of most windows, you'll get a pop-up showing a bunch of layout options. Minimize these apps, and you can pop them all back up again in the same exact spots, by hovering over any of the snapped window icons in the task bar.
But... not every app I tried allowed me to snap its window. Web browsers, system tools and many other random programs did, but programs such as Photoshop and Steam did not (hovering over their maximize buttons didn't offer the snapping options pop-up menu).
If you have a gigantic monitor, use multiple monitors or need several thinly sliced web browser windows open at once, it can be handy. On a laptop screen, you're generally not looking at one or maybe two windows at once.
Multiple desktops are a common MacOS feature, and a good way to keep multiple facets of your digital life organized. For example, you can keep all your work apps -- email programs, browsers, video conference apps -- on one desktop, and all your gaming apps on another. Like on a Mac, you hot-swap between them, it's really just a change in how your open apps are visualized.
You can actually do that in Windows 10 as well, but it's a pain. In Windows 11, Desktops have their own taskbar icon by default, and creating and organizing multiple desktops is even easier than on a Mac, which is not something you'll hear very often.
Wither the Widget?
Every gadget-maker loves widgets, defined in consumer tech terms as small icon-like apps that usually sit in a group somewhere on your device's UI. Usually it's useful little things like the weather, stock prices, your latest emails or calendar items, or a small newsfeed. Your iPhone and iPad have them, Android devices have them, Macs have them (under the usually hidden Notification Bar on the right side of the screen). Windows used to have built-in widgets, too. They were called Gadgets and died along with Windows 7.
Microsoft
Now they're back. On the plus side, with its own taskbar button, the new widgets are easy to find. Hit the button and a semi-transparent panel pops out from the left edge of the screen. It has, by default, widgets for weather, your Outlook calendar, photos you may have in OneDrive, a To Do list and a few others. You can customize the list a bit, but there are not too many options for now. Below that is a newsfeed that looks like it's curated by the same people who do the news curating on the home screen for the Microsoft Edge browser. You can hide stories from any specific outlet by clicking on a menu icon in the news section or hit a "manage your interests" button to customize the feed, but by default, it's pretty basic. Lots of sports, Fox News and celeb gossip.
Microsoft Teams integration
Do you use Microsoft Teams instead of Zoom, Facetime or Google Hangouts? You'll be able to get to it and launch it a little faster, because it's fully integrated into Windows 11 now. I've never been invited to a Microsoft Teams meeting, except by people who work for Microsoft.
It's interesting to note that Windows users can now pop into Facetime meetings with the latest iOS "invite anyone" feature. Clearly there's a lot of competition for video meeting mindshare (faceshare?).
Other quality of life improvements
As I'm often referring to system tools, settings menus or other on-screen things in my writing, I take a lot of screen shots. On a Mac, that's easy -- Shift + Command + 4. In Windows, well, it's never been quite that simple. The built-in Snipping tool is, however, slightly less annoying under Windows 11. Now you can take a snip by hitting Windows + Shift + S, although it copies the screenshot to the clipboard, it doesn't automatically save the image, you'll still have to do that manually.
The Edge browser now has a safe Kids Mode that's easy to access by clicking on your profile in the upper right corner, and can be customized for different age groups.
Auto HDR -- a feature that moved over from the Xbox Series X -- give games that don't support high dynamic range a boost to lighting, brightness and contrast for a more HDR-like look.
I'm waiting for a revamped version of the Microsoft app store, which will allow for third-party services like game stores and web browsers. The Opera browser is available now, the Epic Games storefront is expected soon. No word on other browsers like Firefox or Chrome, or the popular Steam PC game storefront. Eventual Android app support will come, at least initially, from an Amazon-branded Android app store, rather than from Google Play.
Who should get Windows 11?
Despite my lukewarm embrace of the new Windows OS, there's no compelling reason to skip it. That's because, any new PC OS launches in an unfinished state, and the best improvements and most polished versions come later, from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Creators Edition.
I've used various preview builds of Windows 11 across multiple PCs for months, along with the final release build, and it's been fine, almost completely trouble-free, and I've never once thought about rolling back to Windows 10.
That said, Microsoft's gonna Microsoft sometimes. Some long-term Windows irritations have stuck around. When setting up the OS for the first time, there are still plenty data-sharing and ad-personalization checkboxes to uncheck, and the built-in Edge browser still buries the default search engine settings (to switch the default search engine from Bing to, say, Google) several submenus deep. Switching which apps do what by default is also more complex now; you literally have to assign each file type -- .htm, .html, etc. -- one by one. Hopefully this will get streamlined at some point.
If you're going to buy a new laptop or desktop at pretty much any point after today, it'll probably come with Windows 11 preinstalled. In that case, you don't have to make a conscious decision, just go with the flow. If you have a current-gen Windows laptop, tablet or desktop, you'll be able to download and install Windows 11 either now or at some point in the near future. It's being rolled out slowly, probably to avoid a huge rush of same-day downloading.
As a general rule of thumb, I always suggest that you don't jump up and be the first person on the block to download a new OS update, whether it's for your laptop, phone or tablet. Issues will inevitably pop up, if only because of the tremendous breadth of hardware configurations and accessories, from printers to mice to VR headsets, that need to work right.
That said, testing for Windows 11 has been extensive, and the main issues so far have been with how icons are displayed, some menu weirdness and occasional File Explorer problems.
My final word on the subject, for now: If you want to try and download/install Windows 11 on day one, go for it. If you want to wait a few weeks (or a few months), that's fine, too.
