Our review of Apple’s new 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro shows that it’s a decent laptop, but we have a number of reasons why you should think twice about buying it. And now some YouTubers have discovered another reason to avoid the base model in particular: its SSD is too slow.

Created Tech and Max Tech tested the 2 1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD, the smallest capacity available, and their results show that the SSD’s reading speeds are significantly slower than its predecessor, the M1-based 13-inch MacBook Pro. And that’s not a small difference: newer M2-based laptops have SSD read speeds that are 50 percent slower, while write speeds hit 30 percent.

Max Tech has unveiled the 13-inch MacBook Pro and found out why SSD performance hits: Apple is using a single 256GB NAND flash storage chip. It differs from the M1 model in that it uses a pair of 128GB chips দুটি a single chip that performs two chip read / write functions faster than doing the same thing.

However this slow performance problem just goes beyond opening and saving files. As you probably know, the Mac has unified memory, which is different from the SSD, and it is mainly used when the CPU is working. When the CPU runs out of Unified Memory, it removes items it is not using to A swapfile In SSD. The CPU will switch items back and forth between Unified Memory and SSD until it is no longer needed. If the SSD is slow, the CPU takes longer to switch and this affects the overall performance of the Mac.

Macworld and other publications that have reviewed the 13-inch MacBook Pro have models with larger SSDs and better performance. We didn’t isolate the laptop, but our results on the MacBook Pro with 1TB SSD showed better reading performance, while we found the writing functionality to be similar. Apple is probably using two 512GB chips for the 1TB SSD.

Apple has not made a public statement as to why it has decided to use only a single chip in the $ 1,299 model. If this is a cost-cutting measure, it certainly cannot be a significant one. Perhaps we have something to do with the global chip shortage we hear about, and if so, we don’t know if Apple will switch to dual 128GB chips once the supply chain opens.

Whatever the case, this development puts another damper on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. If you’re considering the $ 1,299 model, at the moment, it’s worth it to wait and see if the upcoming M2 MacBook Air has the same 256GB SSD implementation. And even if it does, the MacBook Air has other features that make it a better choice, such as a bigger and better display, a better FaceTime camera, and a new design – although you’ll want to upgrade the Unified Memory to avoid performance hits.

Apple updates hardware, software and services every year and is never afraid to cannibalize an existing product range to make way for new ones – the iPhone has eaten the iPod, after all. Now, we’ve heard that Apple is preparing its Salvo product in late 2022 / early 2023, and as expected, it may include AR specs.

What’s the story?

Mark Gurman A. Bloomberg All recent Apple speculation has intensified in recent posts. In short, upcoming arrivals include:

• Macs with M2 and M3 models, with an M2 Pro, Max, Ultra and Extreme configuration.
• Four iPhone 14 devices – two with an A16 chip and always on-display.
• IPad update with M2 iPad Pro model and an A14 entry-level model.
• Including three Apple Watch models, one SE and one Rugged version.
• The mixed-reality headset, equipped with an Apple chip, is probably a low-power, high-performance M2 processor.
• With an Apple TV upgrade, extra gaming capabilities and a better processor.
• Homepod, which may include a display.
• And an AirPods Pro upgrade with a heart monitor.

That rounds up, so what can it tell us?

New business opportunities are coming

First, it tells us that Apple is preparing to open a new business division around AR glasses. CEO Tim Cook has been guiding us toward this for centuries, and we’ve written extensively about the company’s alleged plans. But these new frontiers are now emerging and will allow businesses to build customer-internal collaboration relationships, digitize business processes, and explore / advance new market opportunities.

We can speculate that companies already in space are probably preparing to pivot their own product design and development roadmaps to reflect Apple’s final design. Sony, Microsoft, Valve, HTC and Meta will all be watching and you can expect some spicy conversations from at least some of the competitors through the Metavers Standards Forum car. Negotiations are cheap, but the overall impact will be to promote rapid growth across existing AR / VR industries.

Content and service developers will directly benefit, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts. I agree.

The Apple Silicon Roadmap is coming together

Second, it tells us that Apple is very, very focused on its own Apple silicon chips. We already know this, but considering implementing employee-preferred schemes or introducing / expanding support for iPads / Macs, any business can now (if they haven’t already) see a clear roadmap for product development that takes years Wide. Apple has demonstrated its commitment to regular security and software updates as the market for enterprise-supported products and services expands. There seems to be very little out of inertia to stop the business from placing additional Apple products. Perhaps that’s why Zamf CIO Lin Lam expects the company to be the number one (endpoint) vendor by 2030.

This is why Apple will continue to develop its offerings to enterprise professionals.

For end users? Fast, growingly powerful computers with incredibly low power requirements, all of which have on-chip features (such as UWB (probably) and / or machine-learning capabilities) most of which have not yet been expanded.

The built-in and unnecessary reverse of existing products, including Apple’s commitment to continuous software upgrades, means that the Mac or iPad you buy today (or next year) will be a better machine next year.

One more thing: we don’t know, and we haven’t been told, but it seems that Apple is betting on the end of the covid-related manufacturing recession. With this in mind we will rely heavily on health data as we enter the fall.

Health, fitness – and eye care?

Third, it tells us about our health. A second report today explained that the new AirPods Pro will use USB-C, a microphone for use as a hearing aid, motion sensor, built-in fitness tracking, temperature detection and heart rate sensor.

In other words, Apple is expanding its health data collection system across its personal products, further expanding its reach towards enhanced health.

While not promoting Apple’s AR products, Cook has often praised his company’s work in the field of health. While I don’t think we’ve yet seen Apple’s big idea in that sector, adding health sensors to airpods gives us a solid direction of travel and if nothing else, perhaps digital health solution developers should sign up for Apple. Developer account.

Starting with iOS 16, Apple has told us to expect the ability to store vision prescriptions in our HealthKit. It says that this type of prescription is easy to use. But due to the exposure of AR glasses and such data is now available to developers through ‘requestPerObjectRead‘Approved, it’s not hard to see if there’s anything more to it. After all, 75% of US adults rely on prescription glasses. In mixed reality there isn’t a huge amount of value if what you see is overlays.

Apple Quad Return

When Steve Jobs returned to the nearly dead Apple and cut the craft, the company adopted a much simplified product roadmap: Pro, Consumer, Mobile, Desktop. There were and still are shadows in this, and new product families now exist, but the company has focused around that division.

Apple’s claimed decision to equip the iPhone range (albeit optimized and improved) with the A15 processor while placing the A16 chip only on Pro iPhone models suggests the company back to that strategy. The Pro iPhone (and presumably, all of Apple’s Pro products) will acquire additional features and capabilities to make them more clearly distinguished from the consumer range. Apple has reached a point where it is the only truly credible competitor in itself. What does a firm need to do?

[Also read: We already know how Apple will prosper in uncertainty]

Consumer users certainly don’t have to worry too much about it: these high-resource features may eventually become universal features, usually for more than two years.

Green slide

One thing that isn’t being discussed too much is how Apple will continue to work to reduce the impact of hardware production as it seeks to meet its own zero carbon 2030 goal. Production is inherently a waste of resources, raw materials, water, fuel and much more. The need to optimize production processes across every industry continues and this means that durability and recycling will be key to the firm’s new hardware design. Apple’s approach to “designing” sustainable business practices across its own and partner businesses will help inform each enterprise what is possible.

The green slides that Apple creates during its innovative product presentations should be looked at in depth for what they reveal for process innovation, the use of recycled content, and much more. Above all, the application of more efficient, less wasteful production and distribution practices will leave a lot of wasted cash in any organization. How much can your own guidance help Apple’s decisions in this regard to help you run your business more efficiently?

Another thing

Bloomberg Also a new model seems to predict the introduction of a multitouch screen on top of the homepod. If it does, it could conceptually provide more visual elements like album art and an on-device music selection system, but it’s not too big to imagine support for relevant home-focused apps and widgets. How much will Matter and Thread support enable smart homes?

Follow me TwitterOr join me on AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple discussion group on MeWe.

[mircemk] This is quite a wizard when it comes to using cable coils in projects, especially when their application lies in easily made metal detectors. There are all sorts of ways to send signals through coiled wires to detect metallic objects on the ground and today [mircemk] Demonstrating a new method he is testing using a smartphone to detect frequency changes generated by a metal detector.

Like other metal detectors, it uses two coils of wire, including an oscillator circuit and some transistors. The unique part of this build, though, is how the detector warns the user about a piece of metal. There will usually be an audible alert due to the change in the frequency of the circuit in the presence of metal, but it instead uses a smartphone to analyze the frequency information. The circuit is delivered directly to the smartphone’s headphone jack and can be calibrated and used from within an Android app.

It can not only detect metals, but it can also distinguish between different types of metals. [mircemk] Note that since it was only for testing, it often needs to be calibrated and is not as sensitive as the others it has created in the past. Of course this build assumes that your phone still has a headphone jack, but we won’t dig for cans of worms for this feature. Instead, we’ll point that out [mircemk] Other builds have shown that no external hardware is required to uncover buried treasures.

At the risk of dating myself, I’ll tell you that I grew up in the 80s – in addition to those decades that were half crisp and half bright in color, depending on where you look and how much money you had for things like Memphis design. Technology seems to be advancing rapidly in almost every area of ​​life as people in my decade demand convenience, diversity and style in everything from their toilet paper (remember the colors?) To their telephone. Although there was a lucky cost for the long distance at that time, we were encouraged to ‘reach out and touch someone’.

A healthy fear of bears

Looking back, it’s easy to see how all those advanced technologies and extra filters have been given to children I may be biased, but the 80s were a great time for toys and children’s entertainment in general. Not only were most of the toys well-made, even the ones that came in the quarter machine – many of them were technically amazing.

Take Teddy Roxpin, which debuted in 1985. Teddy was the world’s first animatronic children’s toy, a bear that could read stories aloud from special cassette tapes, removing his eyes and mouth with words. One track has audio and the other has three servos controlled in its mouth.

I remember looking at the commercials and imagining that Teddy was suddenly moving from the story to a Rockin ‘musical number in the showbiz pizza animatronic rock-affair explosion band (a Chuck E. Cheese contestant) during some annoying sleep. That kind of night I wanted to stay.

Although I went to the showbiz several times to play ski-ball and see the rock-fire exploding animals and their great set pieces, I never had a teddy raxpin. I remember one of them was torn to shreds and had to think that they were kind of scary, which scared me a little bit more towards the snag bear. When it comes down to it, Teddy’s price is too high – 69.99 for a bear alone and another $ 20 for a single cassette with a storybook. And that’s 198 1985 – according to my favorite inflation calculator, it’s কথা 250 in today’s sense for a talking bear and a bad story.

Which brings us to Casey Bearphone, an animatronic teddy bear telephone. Honestly, one of the reasons I bought the Bearifone was a kind of false nostalgia for Teddy. The main reason is that I wanted to own a kind of teleconcept unit, and it seemed the most fun to make a fuss about. A robot teddy bear that only makes speakerphones? Yes.

When you can’t stay there, stay bear

If there was one more thing that was known in the 80’s, it was the Lachki baby. My parents both worked, so for many years before and after school day-care facilities, I walked home from the bus stop and left myself every afternoon. Although my dad never went on business trips or anything else, he worked lots of double shifts and often came home late at night, long after I went to bed.

Many kids ’dads have traveled for business, and KC seems to have been made for Bearifone – just before bed the call comes from dad’s hotel room, so he can say good night and maybe read you a story.

Where Teddy tells a proprietary story in the gentle voice of some stranger, Casey Bearphone sounds like Dad, because that’s exactly what you want to hear – Dad’s voice. The difference is that theoretically, any clear audio of a human speech would animate the eyes and face of a Casey Bearphone. Weekly check-in with Grandma? Casey Bearphone became a sweet old woman. Conference call with Munich? KC Bearifone spricht Deutsch.

So why did Casey Bearphone exist? Probably for the entertainment of people, especially children. And most likely to capitalize on the insanity of the animatronic bear that Teddy Ruxpin started. But can you imagine that every caller’s voice is coming through the talking teddy bear? Talk about wild, and boot disarmament. If you are a nervous phone user, this idea is much better than taking pictures in collar underwear for your confidence.

Bear down for the teardown

At first, I thought I couldn’t go too far into this teardown, because I thought there was only one zipper that went behind Casey. But then I found a hidden zipper on the back of his head that allowed me to enter the goods. You can see how hard it is to tell what a wire is without entering the head.

Now that I’ve found that head zipper, I can get it anywhere. What you see here is how much I can pull the fur of his head, which is glued around the eyeballs.

The zip tie around his neck runs through a cover on the collar of his fur suit and is used to close it and prevent the kids from seeing Casey’s inner horror. If I wanted to get to see the control board, I was probably going to snip it, so I sniped it.

At this point, I have decided whether to launch it. To my surprise, there were four D cells lying around our house, each with at least 1.5 V. What we don’t have is a landline, so I can’t test it that way, but the light comes on over the power switch, so it seems worth the effort to investigate further.

The end of the teddy bear picnic

Okay, it looks like I cut the 35-year-old zip tie for no reason and now I need to make a new thread through the casing. Oh well, it doesn’t have to be that hard; I’ve threaded the elastic part of my lamp through the fabric casings up to this point, so it will go very fast.

I thought I would have to undo each screw from the base of the neck to close the cover of the original box, but then I realized that the head post was slotted to the top of the body. Unfortunately, the head does not stay straight and backwards by itself. That’s probably a good thing.

But the bad part here – there are two screws at the bottom of the bogie that are very hard to find. I could probably go to them with a flex-head screwdriver. As I pulled on the back of the box and thought, I realized that I had no choice but to cut the keypad off Casey’s stomach or skin it completely. And I don’t want to go there.

Beer in mind, it’s not over

I still want to take input and do something great with it. I think it would be perfect to listen to a podcast on Hacked. So far, I haven’t had time to start hacking Casey Bearphone, but this project contains some interesting information, including a page on creating your own ‘transmographer unit’ if you can’t identify the commercial unit inside that gives voice signals. Manipulate Casey’s features.

And as far as Teddy Roxpin goes, I’ve got a semi-working unit on the way, so maybe we’ll have a real talking bear showdown these days. Is the world ready for this?

Customer service software company Gendesk has announced that it will acquire গ্রুপ 10.2 billion in a group of investors led by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman and investment company Permira, as well as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and GIC, a wholly owned subsidiary. Resources fund from Singapore.

The acquisition marks a turbulent year for the California-based company and comes just two weeks after it announced it would remain a “public, independent company.”

In February this year, Zendesk’s board of directors rejected a প্রস্তাব 17 billion acquisition proposal from a consortium of private equity firms, saying it “significantly devalues” the company.

The final offer accepted by the Zendesk board this week was $ 77.50 per share, which represents a premium of $ 54.53 to the company at the beginning of the month, but it is still significantly lower than the প্রতি 127- 2 132 per share offer that the board rejected in February.

Two weeks later, Zendesk announced that it was also canceling Momentive’s proposed $ 4.1 billion takeover of SurveyMonkey’s owners, after stockholders rejected the deal.

On June 9, 2022, Zendesk issued a statement stating that despite meeting with 16 potential strategic partners and 10 financial sponsors, “no effective proposals have been submitted” due to “adverse market conditions and financing difficulties”.

Acknowledging that recent events may upset some shareholders, Carl Bass, chief independent director of Gendesk, said in a statement that after a comprehensive review process and long-term market outlook, the board concluded that “this transaction was the best option” and to accept the offer. Voted unanimously.

The best places in the computer world to work in IT are back in its 29th edition, and this time we’re looking for great companies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Let us know if you work for a brilliant employer of IT professionals.

Over the past three years, the epidemic has reshaped the workplace and reshaped the way employees engage with colleagues and employers. After a decade-long pregnancy, digital transformation has become a reality overnight.

Creating great, physical workplaces is important, but factors such as flexibility are increasingly important as future workplaces develop. Compensation is important, but job advancement, training, diversification and sustainability are increasingly important for the global workforce.

Collaboration tools are stretched and important. But equally important is a culture that supports employees in the office, at home and everywhere in between. If the past years and months have taught us something, it is that productivity is not a problem when working remotely: avoiding burnouts and promoting work / life balance.

That’s why for the 29th time, ComputerWorld is conducting its annual survey to identify the best places to work for IT professionals. And this year, for the first time, we are going internationally.

We are excited to expand this program, which has a long and extensive history in the United States, to companies worldwide. Nominees will be evaluated against other participating companies in their region. A regional panel of judges composed of industry leaders inside and outside the computerworld will evaluate entries and confirm the honorees. Nomination papers have been opened on May 31, 2022.

We look forward to learning more about what your company is doing to provide the best possible work experience for your IT staff.

How to enter the best places to work in IT

You can find the survey entry link here.

The list of best places employers are assessed by company size: large companies have 5,000 or more employees; The medium-sized has 1,001 to 4,999 employees; And small companies employ 1,000 or fewer employees.

To be eligible, companies must have a minimum of 5 IT workers and a minimum of 100 total employees. We consider IT workers to be IT workers who provide technical support and services to their own company – or to multiple companies providing IT services through their work. Employees who will not be included are IT department administrative support staff, staff working in communications or PR for the technology department, IT contractors or those whose primary role is in developing products for external sales.

In most cases, we prefer the parent company rather than the subsidiary or affiliates, applying for the best places to work on the IT list. However, a subsidiary or affiliate may qualify, provided that it stands as a separate entity from the parent company with individual business functions, IT leadership and much more. A subsidiary may also be eligible to apply separately if its parent company is a holding company. In this case, the parent company and the subsidiary may be able to apply separately.

We encourage companies to fill out the nomination form or contact us at [email protected], and our Best Position Research team will evaluate deposits on a case-by-case basis.

Our nearly three-year wait for the follow-up of the 2019 AirPods Pro could be over soon and we already have a pretty good idea of ​​what they’re going to bring. And thanks to a new report from 52audio, a full picture of the new earbuds may emerge.

In a lengthy article posted this weekend, the site says the new AirPods Pro will have an upgraded version of the H1 chip that will support “self-adaptive active noise cancellation”, along with improved Find My, heart-rate measurement, a heavily modified USB-C charging Case, and hearing aid effectiveness.

The heart-rate feature, which will “collect and analyze the wearer’s inner ear data,” will be the first health-related sensor for Apple’s earbuds. The sensors may also be able to measure body temperature, but the site says it’s not sure. There are rumors of similar sensors for the Apple Watch Series 8.

Curiously, the site reported that the overall design looks basically the same as the 2019 model, with some hints taken from last year’s AirPods 3. This is in stark contrast to the many rumors we’ve heard claiming that the new AirPods Pro will remove stalks with a flash design that sits in the ear, much like the Beats Fit Pro.

52 audio

According to 52audio, the biggest upgrade to the AirPods Pro could be the charging case. In addition to the main charging port, which will probably switch from Lightning to USB-C, there will be Find My Support and a small speaker to improve the hearing aid mic connection, although it’s not clear how the hearing aid feature will work.

The site, which has often published pictures of new AirPod models before anyone else, is currently rated 83.3 percent accurate on AppleTrack. It does not cite or even cite any sources for this latest discovery (even anonymously), so it’s not clear where the site got the information from.

Apple’s new AirPods Pro earbuds are strongly recommended for the iPhone 14 and about two dozen new Apple products to arrive in the fall. You can keep up with the latest leaks and guesses with our AirPods Pro 2 Superguide.

The top seven job search engines have been hitting new monthly usage rates since March, according to data from web-metrics provider Aptopia.

According to the latest data from Aptopia, after periods of ebb and flow, the numbers have been steadily rising over the past year. The average daily active users in June has so far increased by 57% year on year.

“The funny thing is that no month this year has recorded a record for monthly active users. This means that while apps are adding new users, users who already have apps are playing a bigger role here, which means increased engagement, ”Adam Blocker, Apotopia’s content and communications director, said in a blog post.

Most job search download spikes occur on Fridays because employees seem to be waiting for the weekend to start looking for their jobs. “That, or another analyst on the team, told me it was cut on Friday,” Blacker said.

The top three apps by both year-to-date, download and daily active users are, in fact, LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter is growing the fastest this year with a 37% increase in its daily active users. Only Monster and Snagajob saw a decrease in the number of daily active users this year (7.3% and 16.5% lower, respectively).

Aptopia

LinkedIn is the only search app out of the seven tracked by Apptopia to generate revenue through in-app purchases, and it reached an all-time high for users in the United States. This is an increase of 157% over last year.

Even as job search increases, some employers are returning job offers to recent graduates who have not formally accepted or who have not yet started work.

“On Wall Street, employers have closed interview schedules,” he said. Victor Janulitis, CEO of management consulting firm Janko Associates, wrote in a report published last week.

Multiple economists and financial services firms have predicted that the United States could face a recession next year. Janko Associates has considered what could happen to jobs in the IT sector.

“When CFOs and CEOs respond to a recession they traditionally look at two areas,” Janulitis says. “The first ‘new’ is recruited. They reduce the number [full time employees]. The second is focusing on high-value positions and eliminating the cost of support. The average compensation for IT professionals is around $ 100,000 – those positions will be noted. “

Aptopia

The first full-time positions to go into recession are usually contractors and consultants, then low-skilled positions; Which is followed by excluding programs that do not have an immediate impact on day-to-day performance and the key performance indicators of an enterprise, Janulaitis says. Other cost reductions include training omissions, offsite travel, fringe benefits such as bonuses and salary increases.

With the ongoing shortage of IT professionals, any high earners who have been laid off should have little trouble finding new jobs. “Even during the epidemic, these individuals still had high demand,” Janulitis said.

Janko predicts that demand for IT professionals will remain high for the next two quarters, but it could slow down in the first two quarters of 2023 if the recession continues.

Aptopia

Currently, there are still more than 100,000 unfinished positions for IT professionals due to lack of qualified candidates; These figures have remained the same for months, Janulitis noted.

So far this year, the IT sector has added 91,000 new jobs and the number is expected to more than double to 191,000 by the end of the year, according to Janco Associates.

Last month, technology companies added staff for 18 people^M According to the latest employment data analysis of a non-profit organization for the IT industry and the workforce, the drawn months and technical job postings for technical professions have reached a new level.

Technology companies added 22,800 net new employees in May and increased employment in the industry by 106,700 positions in the first five months of 2022; This is 69% ahead of the same period in 2021, according to an analysis of a job report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Industry Association Competitiveness.

That tight labor market, coupled with the ongoing impact of the Great Recession and the growing risk of a recession, is probably fueling the rise of job-seekers – especially those who work in marginal companies who may be in trouble.

“So, they could probably look for a more stable company to act as insurance against the troubled financial period,” said Jack Gold, chief analyst at Jay Gold Associates, LLC.

Another explanation for the job search spike may be that some companies are urging employees to return to the office, and instead of fighting the order, employees are simply looking for more suitable accommodation, Gold said.

According to Apptopia, the number of reviews posted with the keyword “remote” in the top job apps increased by 900% in 2022 compared to 2019.

“2020 was when we first saw the big jump, but 2022 is going to see even bigger jumps,” Blacker said. “Many of these reviews ask app publishers to be able to sort open works by distance levels; partially remote, local but remote, completely remote, etc.”

Several high-profile companies, including Tesla and Apple, have announced office-to-office policies. And while the job market is tense, several large companies, including Salesforce, Twitter and Meta, have slowed down in hiring new workers amid rising inflation and market uncertainty; Other companies have completely cut work.

Another explanation for the spike in job search could be rising inflation, and especially the high price of gas, Gold said. It may inspire some to look for more lucrative jobs to stay ahead of the inflationary pressures on their paychecks.

“And they need to do it now, when the job market is still very good, because it may not be in a few months. Similarly, there may be some who have already been trimmed, who are taking in the steam and need to find a place to land, ”Gold said.

Windows 11 version 22H2, the first feature update to Windows 11 since its launch in October 2021, is expected to be officially released this fall, probably in October. (“22” means 2022, and “H2” means it’s being released in the second half of the year.) Microsoft has already released a version of it on the release preview channel of the Windows 11 Insider program; Build 22621 is expected to be close to the final version, if not final.

When the final release of 22H2 is released, we will give it a full review. However, if you want to get a glimpse, we’ve seen the release preview channel version, as well as some features introduced in subsequent builds on beta and dev channels that could make it a final release. Based on this, here is what you can expect if the official version hits.

New Task Manager

Anyone who does things like checking memory usage or disabling programs running at startup will get a refined task manager by feeding them to their system. Instead of the top tabs for Processes, Performance, Startup Applications, etc., you’ll find them as vertical running icons at the bottom of the left column. The icons are bigger, there is more space in the lists (which is bigger), and there is a new dark mode. You can now run new tasks such as opening a folder or running a program directly from the Task Manager.

IDG

Start menu tweaks

In this update, Microsoft continues to whistle with the Start menu. You can create app folders to organize your apps the way you used to in Windows 10, and you can adjust the size of the pinned apps section. There is a whole new section in the settings to personalize the Start menu, including tweaking how many pinned items should be displayed.

IDG

Drag to taskbar

In the 22H2 version, Microsoft is bringing back another feature that it discontinued in the initial Windows 11 release – drag and drop in the taskbar. You can drag a file to an app icon in the taskbar and the file will open in the same application as in Windows 10.

Adjust settings

With each new feature version of Windows, Microsoft curves with the settings menu, and it’s no different. The Accounts page gets a serious look, providing a surprising amount of information at a glance. In addition to names, emails, etc., you’ll find information on whether you have Microsoft 365 installed, and if so, which version and how much you’re paying for it. There’s also a list of who you’re sharing the file with, how much you’ve paid for OneDrive storage, and how much you’ve used.

IDG

The ability to turn off the system tray overflow menu, Bing as your desktop wallpaper to show you a different image every day, and a variety of other changes across settings, among others.

File Explorer Facelift

File Explorer has got a new look in Windows 11 22H2, with a clearer-view, more useful left navigation pane that lets you get frequently used folders and pinned folders. At the top right is an icon for OneDrive that, when clicked, shows its sync status, total capacity, total space used, and quick access to settings and options for managing storage. You will only see that icon if you are currently viewing a OneDrive folder.

If you dig deep enough into the File Explorer options, you can show it to OneDrive as your default folder so you can open it whenever you launch File Explorer. There is also a possibility to get the File Explorer tab.

IDG

New apps: Clipchamp and Family Safety

There are also two new apps on the 22H2: Clipchamp and Family Safety. Clipchamp is a free, basic video editor. If you want to work with videos in 1080p resolution, there will be a paid version, probably available for $ 19 a month.

IDG

Family Safety works seamlessly with Windows devices, Xbox PCs and Android devices, including software installed to show kids location. It has several more features, including a shared family calendar.

New touchscreen gestures

If you have a touchscreen device, you will get several new gestures. You can swipe up to go to the Start menu and use a three-finger swipe to make your apps smaller. Swipe from right to quick settings and use the left or right three-finger swipe to switch between running apps.

Other tweaks

Lots of extra minor changes are coming across the operating system. One such change is the Snap Layout feature, which lets you group your open windows into one of half a dozen pre-built screen layouts. In Windows 11 Update, you’ll be able to drag a window to the top of the screen and then drop it into a snap layout. Also, the task view (Windows key + tab) will show your snap groups so you can easily switch between them.

IDG

A few changes can help you reduce carbon emissions. Depending on where you live, you may see the message “Windows Update committed to help reduce carbon emissions” on the Windows Update page. If you do, Windows will try to update at a time that can reduce carbon emissions – for example, when your utility company uses more solar or hydropower. Similarly, there will be power settings aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

Sys admins will not be forgotten in the Windows 11 update. They will get new group policies for their users to control the Start menu, taskbar and system tray.