Technology

There was a time when creating automations on your phone required powerful third-party apps with complex tools. Nowadays, most Android phones come with built-in automation features. You can easily set them up without much effort.

Microsoft replaced Battery Saver with Energy Saver in Windows 11 a couple of years ago. The new feature includes an always-on toggle that, if left enabled, can reduce your PC's performance without you even noticing. Combine that with a power mode set to favor efficiency, and your Windows PC might throttle itself even when it's plugged in.

My home network has grown into a small lab with computers, virtual machines, storage devices, and plenty of other things that occasionally decide to behave strangely. When something goes wrong, figuring out what happened can be difficult because the useful information may already be gone by the time I start investigating.

The Apple iPad is an exceptionally long-lived device. There's no reason to upgrade them frequently and in my personal experience these tablets don't show much battery wear over the years either.

Waze is one of the most popular navigation apps, thanks to its excellent live road alerts, traffic avoidance, and crowdsourced hazards and map corrections. If you use Waze for navigation, a few key settings are worth changing for the best experience.

Most people run a speed test the same way you check weight on a scale, as if one number tells the whole story. The number tends to look good, but it is a really narrow way to judge your connection quality. That Wi-Fi speed test has almost nothing to do with how a connection works in real conditions. It's better to know what it is doing before you assume it is correct.

It's a good time to be Guy Ritchie on Netflix. The Brit grit master has got a hit series, The Gentlemen, in its second season that's in the streamer's Top 10. Plus, the movie that series is based on is here, as is the recently added The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, both of which we have the details on below as part of this week's roundup that is decidedly savage.

For a single unit conversion, Google wins on convenience. But if I have a bunch of measurements to convert, I don't want a scrap of paper covered in random numbers, or to keep copying values out of a spreadsheet and back again. Excel's CONVERT function lets me keep the measurements, units, and results together, while reusing the same formula for as many conversions as I need.

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max come with Apple's latest mobile chip: the A20 Pro. The foldable iPhone Duo will also run on the new chip.

Built on a 2nm process, the A20 Pro has a 6-core CPU with two super cores and four efficiency cores, a 7-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a dual 16-core Neural Engine that handles AI tasks.

But does any of that techspeak translate into actual performance?

To find out, we put the iPhone 18 Pro (the Pro Max yields near-identical results) to the test. And yes, in synthetic benchmark tests, this thing blows everything else out of the water. The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, is the only one that comes close. To make sure I'm testing it right, I've run the Geekbench 6 and 7 tests on a perfectly clean, freshly activated iPhone 18 Pro with no third-party apps installed and nothing running in the background.

The A20 Pro proves Apple silicon is undefeated

In Geekbench 7's CPU test (the standard benchmark we use when reviewing laptops and smartphones), the iPhone 18 Pro achieved a 3,959 single-core score and a 10,854 multi-core score. And in the Geekbench 7 GPU test, it scored 61,194.

The benchmark results are quite clear: Apple's iPhone 18 Pro is the new performance king. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable GPU performance is amazing, too. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

We also ran Geekbench 6, an earlier version of this benchmarking tool, as the scores are easier to compare with older devices. The results here were even more impressive. The iPhone 18 Pro scored 4,673 in the single-core CPU test and 12,483 in the multi-core Geekbench 6 test.

The older Geekbench 6 test is similarly dominated by Apple's latest. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

For comparison, here are how some other recent flagship phones performed on Geekbench 6 in our testing:

• Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: 3,524 single-core, 10,827 multi-core

• Google's Pixel 11 Pro XL: 1,800 single-core, 5,000 multi-core

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra: 3,097 single-core, 10,277 multi-core

• Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max: 3,779 single-core, 9,778 multi-core

• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 2,800 single-core, 9,100 multi-core (we've gotten results as high as 10,049)

You get the idea: These phones are nowhere near Apple's new silicon, at least when it comes to synthetic test performance. (Transitioning Apple to its own in-house processors was one of John Ternus's biggest achievements before he was promoted to CEO.)

The performance improvement versus the iPhone 17 Pro Max is hardly surprising, but it's still notable that the iPhone 18 Pro beats its predecessor by roughly 25 percent across the board.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 18 Pro hands-on: What's new with the cameras

Will you feel the difference in real-world usage? Yes and no.

The new phones are undeniably faster than anything else out there. But, as noted in my iPhone 18 Pro review, it's not all that noticeable unless you're switching from a much older device. The thing is, Apple's iPhones have been incredibly fast and powerful for a while, so the fact that the latest phone is that much faster than the previous one is just icing on the cake. Unless you're an AI superuser, it's unlikely you'll push the new iPhones to the limit.

One last note: The iPhone Duo is also running the A20 Pro chip, and we're eager to see whether it scores higher or lower than the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. It's the same chip, yeah, but the rest of the device is different enough, starting with that enormous foldable display, for us to be intrigued about the Duo's scores. We'll have more on that once the iPhone Duo is in our hands next month.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
  See It at T-Mobile See It at AT&T Wireless See It at Walmart iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
  See It at T-Mobile See It at Walmart See It at Apple.com

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Connecting your Android phone to a new Wi-Fi network is usually something you do without thinking. You find the network, enter the password, and get on with whatever you need an internet connection for. But that quick process can expose you to problems you might not notice until it's too late, especially when you're using networks you don't fully control.

Apple's product lineup typically consists of a "regular" product and a pricier, Pro variant that comes with a number of extra features, at least a few of them so good that most people will always go for the Pro version if they can afford it.

Apple's latest AirPods 5 are so good that they flip this dynamic on its head. They're an improved, yet significantly cheaper version of the AirPods 4 released in 2024. In many ways, they're as good as the AirPods Pro 3. In some ways, they're actually better. And that's saying a lot given that the AirPods Pro 3 are my favorite earbuds ever.

AirPods 5: Compact yet versatile ANC earbuds

A couple of years ago, Apple made a big leap by introducing two versions of the AirPods 4, one with ANC (active noise cancellation) and one without. I remember the company's briefings on those products, in which they put extra emphasis on how hard their engineers had to work to create proper active noise cancellation on earbuds that don't have an acoustic seal. That design choice was on purpose: Not everyone likes to have earbuds with foamy seals stuck in their ear canal (that's what the best noise-cancelling earbuds do to get additional passive noise cancellation).

Apple's AirPods 5 are a big upgrade over last year's model, and the price is even better. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

But the AirPods 4 with ANC cost $179, a significant price hike from the basic version that cost $129 (and often go on sale for only $99).

This year, Apple decided to completely forego that price premium by adding an improved version of ANC to the basic AirPods 5, which still start at $129. Even better, the premium AirPods 5 with a wireless charging case are actually cheaper than their predecessor at $149, even as Apple raises prices on the rest of its product line.

What's the difference between the two AirPods 5 models?

The biggest difference between the $129 and $149 Airpods 5 is the wireless charging case, but Apple also added another "Pro" feature to the AirPods 5 — a special area on the neck of the earbuds that you can swipe on to adjust volume. It's a nifty feature that I use all the time, though it does take some time to get used to.

So, are the more expensive AirPods 5 worth the investment? If it were just the case, I would say no, as wireless charging isn't essential for me; plugging a nearby USB-C cable into the case was almost always a more convenient option.

But you lose out on other features if you buy the cheaper variant. Battery life is shorter (four hours vs. five hours), and you don't get that volume swipe sensor.

So, I think you should definitely dish out those extra 20 bucks for the wireless charging variant, if you can.

Great sound has never been cheaper A lot of features packed into a small case. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

The common wisdom about headphones and earbuds is that those with an "open" design will have a brighter, more airy sound, and that's pretty much the case here. The AirPods 5 have a clear sound with punchy drums and plenty of bass, but not so much to make it overwhelming. You won't get crazy levels of detail here, but for earbuds at this price range, they sound pretty great.

I was particularly interested in how they'll handle live performances, as that's where open-design earbuds should shine. One of my favorite tracks for this is Cage the Elephant's cover of The Stranglers' 'Golden Brown,' and it sounds excellent, with every instrument perfectly balanced in the mix. Arne Domnérus' legendary 'Jazz at the Pawnshop' album is another live favorite of mine. The AirPods 5 handled it well; I got a decent sense of the stage width (not so much the depth, though) and heard the clapping and the chatter of the people at that concert.

The AirPods 5 will struggle with very complex stuff such as large classical ensembles. Dense, heavy songs, like Meshuggah's 'Clockworks' can sound slightly muddled. But that's true of pretty much every pair of earbuds I've ever tested. On the flip side, intimate performances such as Portishead's 'Roseland NYC Live' sound wonderful.

You can swipe on the side of the earbuds to adjust volume; another feature inherited from the Pro model. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Comparing them to other Apple earbuds, they sound pretty much the same as the AirPods 4 to me, which isn't a bad thing. The AirPods Pro 3 do sound quite a bit better, with more details across the entire range, but again, some may prefer the slightly more open sound of the AirPods 5.

No tip, no problem

When it comes to noise cancellation, there's no comparison. The AirPods Pro 3 do it better. In fact, that particular model has such a strong passive/active noise cancellation combo that it beats Apple's own AirPods Max 2 headphones, and has basically reduced my need to carry larger headphones around to zero.

However, what Apple has done with the AirPods 5 in terms of ANC is impressive. During a briefing at Apple, I heard the AirPods 5 reduce (simulated) airplane engine noise, and it was just OK, probably because the room was dead quiet otherwise. But later, on an actual plane, I realized they did a pretty good job of reducing both the engines' drone and the passengers' chatter.

It's far from perfect. The AirPods 5 are pretty great at reducing the lower portion of the audio spectrum, but a higher-pitched hiss always remains audible. But for buds that just sit freely in your ear without a snug fit, turning on ANC and hearing it do its thing feels almost like magic.

Note to future users: The actual position of the buds in your ear matters a lot; if you feel the ANC isn't working as good as it should be, try adjusting the AirPods 5 in your ears a little and see if you can hear an improvement.

Battery life isn't great, but who cares The AirPods 5 come in two flavors: With or without a charging case. You can recognize the ones with the charging case by the tiny speaker grille on the bottom. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Battery life on the AirPods in general has never been a big issue for me. I don't think about it much, and both the buds and the case charge quickly enough that I just plug them in whenever it's convenient, and I almost never run out of battery.

That said, if you're a heavy user, have in mind that the AirPods 5 have four to five hours of battery life on their own (with ANC on), and up to 20 to 22 hours of battery life if you count the extra juice you get from the case (depending on the variant). The AirPods Pro 3, on the other hand, last eight hours on one change, and get up to 24 hours of battery life with the case.

Despite this drawback, the AirPods 5 have a big advantage over the AirPods Pro 3: Their case is a lot smaller and more likely to fit even in the tightest of pockets.

A few "pro" extras

The new AirPods 5 also inherit a few software features from the Pro model, including Conversation Awareness, Adaptive Audio, and Transparency. You also get Live Translation and Siri AI.

I use all of Apple's headphones and pretty much skip Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness completely. I'm just too used of switching noise cancellation on and off myself, as well as physically removing my earbuds/headphones when talking to someone. Transparency, however, is pretty great for those moments when you don't want to stop the music, but still need to hear what's happening around you.

Finally, thanks to iOS 27, you can now find a custom EQ equalizer for your AirPods, Pro or otherwise.

Credit: Screenshot by Stan Schroeder Credit: Apple

If you're counting, the list of features that the AirPods 5 get from the AirPods Pro 3 is long enough that it almost feels like Apple is undercutting its own pricier model. Somewhat unusual for Apple, but I'm not complaining.

As for the software features that remain exclusive for the Pro, this includes some health-related features such as Hearing Test and Hearing Protection, as well as a heart rate sensor for workouts. They're nice features to have, but not essential for music listening.

AirPods 5: Should you buy them?

The AirPods Pro 3 are still my favorite earbuds. They have better noise cancellation and better sound than the AirPods 5. But I don't mind the tight seal of their foamy tips in my ear.

If you want earbuds without such tips, or if you want earbuds under $150, then the AirPods 5 are actually a better option. They're smaller, have comparably great sound, a similar set of features, and decent noise cancellation despite the lack of a proper seal of your ear canal. Yes, the battery life is a little shorter, but they also come at half the price. At $129 (or $149 if you opt for the wireless charging case), the AirPods 5 are a no-brainer.

Now, fingers crossed, we'll see these buds go on sale during the upcoming October Prime Day or Black Friday events.

Apple AirPods 5 earbuds $129 at Amazon
  Shop Now at Amazon Shop Now at Apple.com Shop Now at Walmart Apple AirPods 5 (wireless charging) $149 at Amazon
  Shop Now at Amazon Shop Now at Walmart Shop Now at Target

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If you've spent any time using the Linux terminal, you've probably used the grep command. It's what you use to quickly find a search term in a file or find all the files containing that term. It's useful, reliable, and fundamental to most terminal workflows. That said, grep is old — more than 50 years old. A lot has changed since then — our computing habits have evolved, and new technologies have emerged.

We are just a month away from the official launch of Apple's first foldable device, the iPhone Duo. If you're already an iPhone user, only looking to purchase a foldable iPhone, there's likely nothing that will sway you towards any other foldable smartphone.

However, Android users may be wondering just how the iPhone Duo will stack up to the other foldable devices that exist for Android. While we will still have to wait for iPhone Duo benchmarks, the company behind SpeedTest.net, Ookla, has just released comprehensive benchmarks for Android foldable devices, which should definitely come in handy when deciding which foldable you'll go with in a few weeks.

Ookla's report focuses on six popular foldable devices in the U.S. market: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold6, Fold7, Fold8, Fold8 Ultra, Flip6, and Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

The company tested these foldable smartphones on a number of metrics and used their respective generation's "slab" model with the same chipset, such as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as the "control" for comparison.

It's important to note that there are some differences between the foldable device and its comparable slab model, such as antenna placement and specific device firmware, that will affect these metrics. But this seems like a generally good methodology for deriving these benchmarks.

When it comes to speed, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra appears to be the big winner. It excelled in download speed, upload speed, and packet-loss reduction. The base Galaxy Z Fold8 model was not far behind. In fact, in median download speed it actually performed slightly better than the Ultra, although the Ultra model bested it in the other metrics.

While the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra performed best in the speed test trials, they didn't fare as well when it came to the signal quality measurement tests. As Ookla points out, even though the two foldables are powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and Snapdragon X85 modem as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the latter outperformed the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra here.

Overall, the Galaxy Z Fold6 appears to have had the best scores in both signal quality measurement tests, in both good and bad conditions. Interestingly, the Galaxy Z Flip6 had the worst performance in signal quality measurement tests under good conditions, but the best under bad conditions when compared to its control device.

The temperature benchmark found that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 ran the coolest when compared to its control device, whereas the Flip6 was the hottest.

Ookla also mapped out how Samsung's foldable devices have fared with each subsequent generation on each metric. It found that Samsung has improved the upload speeds, download speeds, and signal strength measurements with each new model foldable smartphone. However, there were two benchmarks where Samsung has been regressing.

When it comes to signal strength in bad conditions, the Fold6 actually outperformed the Fold7 and Fold8. While the Fold8 Ultra performed better than the Fold7 and Fold8 in this area, it was still outperformed by the Fold6.

The Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra also saw a big decline in performance on the overheating-related throttling benchmark when compared to the Fold7. The Fold7 had a big boost in this metric when compared to the Fold6, but its successors have seemingly regressed when it comes to the operating system slowing down due to the device's temperature.

While not benchmark-related, Ookla also shared some market share statistics. Based on Speedtest's foldable sample share, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 far and away is the most popular foldable smartphone in the world. 

And while companies like Motorola, Google, and Honor have been chipping away at Samsung's foldable market share, Samsung still holds more than 77 percent of the foldable market.

We'll see how that changes on October 23 with the release of the iPhone Duo.

Are you always throwing out old USB cables? You’re not alone; cables and the ports into which they fit can be frustratingly delicate.

Apple's iPhone Duo doesn't officially launch until October, but its wallpapers are already out in the wild.

As spotted by 9to5Mac, the artwork didn't make it into the release candidate for iOS 27, alongside the new iPhone 18 Pro wallpapers. It did, however, turn up in the iPhone Simulator bundled with this week's Xcode 27.1 beta, Apple's developer toolkit released to coincide with the start of iPhone Duo app development.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 18 Pro teardown lifts the lid on Apple's latest

The set includes four wallpapers total: two light-mode and two dark-mode variants, all built around the same desert scene of rolling sand dunes set against a distant mountain range, shifting from a soft daytime palette to a starlit night sky in the dark versions.

Since the artwork lives inside Xcode's simulator files rather than a public download page, getting it requires either running the Xcode 27.1 beta yourself or waiting for the images to circulate more widely online. A quick Google search will immediately reveal sites where you can download high-definition wallpapers.

For anyone who'd rather skip the wait entirely, the easiest path is simply holding out a few more weeks. Apple's iPhone Duo is set for pre-order on Oct. 16 and ships Oct. 23, at which point the wallpapers should be built directly into the software.

Sure, we just got the iPhone 18 Pro, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about what's next for Apple's flagship smartphone.

Fresh off the launch of the iPhone 18 line, there are new rumors swirling around the internet about the iPhone 20. Despite the name, that's actually the expected moniker of the next iPhone model, meaning there would be no iPhone 19. That's because 2027 would be the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, after all. Anyway, prolific leaker Digital Chat Station posted some display specs for the iPhone 20 Pro devices that caught the internet's eye.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 18 Pro teardown lifts the lid on Apple's latest This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

According to Digital Chat Station, here are the display sizes and resolutions of the iPhone 20 Pro and Pro Max:

• iPhone 20 Pro: 6.41-inch display with 2,686 × 1,236 resolution

• iPhone 20 Pro Max: 6.96-inch display with 2,912 × 1,340 resolution

By comparison, the iPhone 18 Pro's display is 6.27 inches with a 2,622 x 1,206 resolution, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max measures in at 6.86 inches with a 2,868 x 1,320 resolution. In simpler terms, next year's iPhone 20 Pro models will have larger displays with higher resolutions, despite Apple sticking with the same display sizes since 2024 until now.

That change in display size isn't massive in a numerical sense, but it may not be the only change Apple has in store.

According to leaker Ice Universe, "Apple is reportedly testing a bezel-less quad-curved display design, along with a smaller display cutout that could further shrink the Dynamic Island." That lines up with lots of previous reporting, which has suggested that the iPhone 20 will have borderless all-screen glass displays. So, rather than having a hard bezel around the screen, it will curve on all four sides.

In addition, Apple could incorporate the under-display selfie camera seen in the new iPhone Duo for the iPhone 20, which would allow for a smaller dynamic island.

Controlling humidity levels in your home is extremely important. Its presence can contribute to wellness challenges, as well as affect the integrity of your home and possessions.

When you hear Kubuntu, you might think of the Linux-based operating system by the same name. But have you heard of Kubuntu Focus? It's a separate hardware-focused brand that sells machines with Kubuntu pre-installed and pre-configured. I've spent the last few weeks with the Kubuntu Focus Ar Gen 1 laptop and I have to say, I'm not all that impressed with the hardware.

The streamers are going all out for the last full week of September with a terrific lineup of new movies. First up is a music biopic about a landmark folk singer before he went electric. If you like rom-coms, you'll appreciate Prime Video's selection this week.

Google's new laptop initiative is built to run as a true extension of your Android phone. Here's what Googlebooks are, why Google made them, and how all five launch models held up when we went hands-on.

Read more about Googlebooks and where to buy them: The first 5 Googlebook laptops are here, with an OS that blends Android and Gemini
The first Googlebooks are available for preorder: Where to buy new HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus models

Timecode chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:25 Android, Windows and MacOS integration
1:10 Instant setup and ecosystem features
2:03 Why GoogleBook? (tech experts weigh in)
3:18 GoogleBook vs. Chromebook
4:55 Hands-on experience and build quality
6:03 Desktop apps and developer potential
6:44 Who is GoogleBook for?

Video credits
Host: Iyaz Akhtar
Scripted by: Iyaz Akhtar
Producer: Carly Marsh
Camera: Carly Marsh
Video editor: JD Christison
Thumbnail designer: Tharon Green