Enlarge / The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro. (credit: Samuel Axon)

The seventh beta of macOS Monterey contains what appear to be references to new screen resolutions suitable for the MacBook Pro line, as discovered by MacRumors.

In a list of supported graphics resolutions within macOS, there are two new resolutions: 3,456 by 2,234 and 3,024 by 1,964. Each carries a "Retina" marker, which Apple typically only applies to its own devices' screens.

The aspect ratio for these new resolutions is very close to the current aspect ratios on the MacBook Pro computers sold today, but they're lower than what we currently see in the iMac line, suggesting that they aren't for Apple's desktops. Further, the numbers fit nicely with a move to true 2x Retina, as opposed to the scaling approach presently used for Retina displays.

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  The Microsoft Surface Duo. It's very big. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

If Microsoft wants to be taken seriously as an Android manufacturer, one of the things it will need to establish is a track record of reliable, on-time software updates. But as the company launches a second generation of the Surface Duo and the company's first Android phone turns a year old, so far Microsoft has failed to impress.

The Surface Duo 1 shipped in September 2020 with Android 10, which was a full year old at the time, and Android 11 had already launched. The hope was that Microsoft would quickly update the Duo to the latest version of Android, but that never happened. Today the device is still running Android 10, which is now two years old, and Android 12 is about to ship. Microsoft has finally broken its silence about Surface Duo 1 updates, and the company tells The Verge it plans to update the device to Android 11 "before the end of this year."

Assuming Microsoft follows through on its promise, the company's $1,400 flagship device will be updated from a two-year-old operating system to a one-year-old operating system. Microsoft committed to three years of updates, and it has been delivering monthly security updates. But this is still worst-in-class update support, especially for the price. Samsung usually rolls out Android to its latest flagship three months after Google's release, while OnePlus usually takes around a month—Microsoft's one-year timeframe is really bad.

Enlarge / The "official" Windows 11 update, complete with the UI that regular people will see, is now available in the Release Preview channel for Windows Insiders. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Yesterday, Microsoft released a near-final build of Windows 11 to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview channel, which (as the name implies) is generally the last stop for a major new Windows version ahead of its release to the general public. The official release date for Windows 11 is October 5, but Microsoft is planning to roll it out gradually over the next few months to prevent widespread problems.

The build number in the Release Preview channel is 22000.194, the same version released to the Beta channel on September 16.

While Beta- and Dev-channel builds of Windows 11 are simply downloaded and installed like regular Windows Updates, the version in the Release Preview channel gives you the same upgrade message that will be offered to the public when Microsoft offers the Windows 11 upgrade for their PCs. This includes a system notification that users can click through to learn more about Windows 11's new features and a special update message in Windows Update that will give you the opportunity to waive the Windows 11 upgrade and stay on Windows 10 (seen above).

Enlarge / The iPhone 13 Pro Max, photographed by the iPhone 13 Pro in low light.

Imagine you were visited by a genie who would grant you three wishes, but they all had to be about what you want from your next smartphone. As market research and surveys tell it, almost everyone would make the same three wishes: great battery life, excellent cameras, and big, beautiful screens.

This year, Apple is that technology genie, because that’s exactly what the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max deliver when they hit store shelves today.

Cupertino’s flagship phone lineup might seem like an iterative “S”-style update, given that the phones look almost the same as last year's models and that there are no major new features apart from screens with higher refresh rates in the priciest models. But since Apple zeroed in on most people's highest priorities, this seemingly iterative update ends up being a noteworthy one.

Enlarge / We don't recommend allowing btrfs to directly manage a complex array of disks—floppy or otherwise. (credit: Faustino Carmona Guerrero via Getty Images)

Btrfs—short for "B-Tree File System" and frequently pronounced "butter" or "butter eff ess"—is the most advanced filesystem present in the mainline Linux kernel. In some ways, btrfs simply seeks to supplant ext4, the default filesystem for most Linux distributions. But btrfs also aims to provide next-gen features that break the simple "filesystem" mold, combining the functionality of a RAID array manager, a volume manager, and more.

We have good news and bad news about this. First, btrfs is a perfectly cromulent single-disk ext4 replacement. But if you're hoping to replace ZFS—or a more complex stack built on discrete RAID management, volume management, and simple filesystem—the picture isn't quite so rosy. Although the btrfs project has fixed many of the glaring problems it launched with in 2009, other problems remain essentially unchanged 12 years later.

History

Chris Mason is the founding developer of btrfs, which he began working on in 2007 while working at Oracle. This leads many people to believe that btrfs is an Oracle project—it is not. The project belonged to Mason, not to his employer, and it remains a community project unencumbered by corporate ownership to this day. In 2009, btrfs 1.0 was accepted into the mainline Linux kernel 2.6.29.

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  How Linux gets to a phone: the Linux LTS kernel gets forked by Google for the Android Common Kernel, then that gets forked by an SoC vendor for each chip, then that gets forked again by a device manufacturer. [credit: Google ]

The Linux Plumbers Conference is this week, and since Android is one of the biggest distributors of the Linux kernel in the world, Google software engineer Todd Kjos stopped by for a progress report from the Android team. Android 12—which will be out any day now—promises to bring Android closer than ever to mainline Linux by shipping Google's "Generic Kernel Image" (GKI) to end-users.

Traditionally, the Linux kernel is forked several times before it hits an Android phone, usually by each stakeholder in an Android device. First, Google forks the Linux kernel into "Android common"—the Linux kernel plus a bunch of phone- and Android-specific changes. Then SoC vendors like Qualcomm, Samsung, or MediaTek fork Android Common to make an SoC-specific kernel for each major chip release. Then each device gets a fork of the SoC kernel for device-specific hardware support.

Android's kernel fragmentation is a huge mess, and you can imagine how long and difficult the road is for a bugfix at the top of the fork tree to reach to the bottom, where end-users live. The official Android.com documentation notes that "These modifications can be extensive, to the point that as much as 50% of the code running on a device is out-of-tree code (not from upstream Linux or from AOSP common kernels)." It's also a big time sink, and even Google phones typically ship kernels that start at two years old.

Enlarge / Microsoft will allow Windows 11 installs on some unsupported systems, but it really would prefer you not. (credit: The Verge)

Officially, running Windows 11 will require a newer PC that meets all of the operating system's performance and security requirements. Unofficially, running Windows 11 without meeting those requirements will be possible, but we still don't know much about the details—how difficult it will be to install Windows 11 on those machines, how frequently they will remind you that you're running on unsupported hardware, and even whether they'll receive normal Windows security updates.

The Verge has spotted an apparently new warning message in the Windows 11 Setup app that explicitly warns users of the dangers of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware—you may run into "compatibility issues," your PC "won't be entitled to receive updates," and that "damages to your PC due to lack of compatibility aren't covered under the manufacturer warranty." This is all stuff that we've heard from Microsoft before, but it's the first time that this policy has appeared during the Windows 11 setup process rather than in media reports. Once you click through this foreboding warning message, the Windows 11 installation is apparently allowed to proceed.

I’ve tried and failed to recreate this screen on multiple unsupported Windows 10 systems of different vintages, both with builds downloaded through the Insider program and installs directly from a manually-downloaded Windows 11 ISO file. I also haven’t seen any firsthand reports of it outside of the Verge report. This doesn’t mean it isn’t happening—Microsoft is always rolling out different updates to different groups of people at different times—just that I can only speculate as to when you will actually see this message and what it means.

Enlarge / iPads with USB-C ports. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

The European Commission has announced its intent to enact legislation that would mandate all consumer electronic devices sold in the European market within certain categories have a USB-C port for charging.

Should the new rules be enacted, they would make it illegal to sell consumer electronic devices that lack that port. The law would apply to smartphones, video game consoles, portable speakers, cameras, and some types of headphones—but it would not apply to devices that only use wireless charging.

It also would not prevent devices from having additional ports for charging, as long as they also have a USB-C charging port.

Enlarge / Safari's new look (and some light fixtures?) (credit: Apple)

This week, Apple released Safari 15 for macOS Big Sur and Catalina. Among other things, the new update includes a major design overhaul—plus the ability to roll back to the old layout and look if you're not a fan.

Apple released major software updates for all of its platforms except macOS on Monday. The updates were timed closely with the release of new iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch models.

But last week's product launch event didn't include Macs, which are expected to get some more focused attention by the end of the year, alongside an announcement about the release date of macOS Monterey.

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  [credit: Microsoft ]

Microsoft has officially announced the Surface Pro 8, and the rumors were pretty much on the money. The new tablet includes a larger screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate, updated internal hardware, user-replaceable SSDs, and a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports that replace the USB-C and USB-A ports in the previous model. It's the most significant (and also: only) redesign that the tablet has gotten since the Surface Pro 3 back in 2014. The Surface Pro 8 is available for preorder today, and a version with a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage will set you back $1,100 (plus the cost of a keyboard cover and the $130 Surface Slim Pen 2, if you want either or both). The first preorders will begin shipping on October 5, the day Windows 11 launches.

The Surface Pro 8 adopts most of the design tweaks Microsoft first tried out in the Surface Pro X in 2019. In fact, the two tablets now share some of the same key physical specifications, including the 13-inch 2880×1920 display size and resolution and the exact same height and width. Like most laptops released in the last few years, the screen size increase comes from shrinking the display bezels rather than dramatically changing the size of the device. The Surface Pro 8's screen does support up to a 120 Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling, but the tablet will be configured to use the more typical 60 Hz refresh rate out of the box.

The Surface Pro 8 is about a tenth of an inch (or 2mm) thicker than the Pro X to make room for additional cooling, but the identical height and width means that the Surface Pro 8 and the Surface Pro X use the same keyboard cover, now renamed the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard. By the same token, the keyboard covers that worked with all Surface versions from 2014's Surface Pro 3 up to the Surface Pro 7 won't be compatible with the Surface Pro 8.

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  The Surface Laptop Studio has a flexible hinge that lets you pull the screen out over the keyboard. [credit: Microsoft ]

The Surface Pro 8 got a major update today, but the biggest reveal was the all-new Surface Laptop Studio, a high-end convertible with dedicated graphics that provides a step-up in speed from the regular Surface Laptop. The "Surface Studio" name is borrowed from the (aging, and still not updated) Surface Studio desktop, and the Laptop Studio's screen bends forward and uses the laptop's base as a stand in much the same way. Most of the time, the Laptop Studio just looks like a regular laptop, but its display can be pulled out over the keyboard into "stage mode" and tilted to whatever angle is most comfortable for what you're doing. It can also fold all the way down into "studio mode," which covers the keyboard and trackpad entirely and makes the laptop into one big tablet.

The Surface Laptop Studio starts at $1,600 and is available for preorder today. The first preorders will begin shipping on October 5, the day Windows 11 launches.

Microsoft is positioning the Laptop Studio as a replacement for the old Surface Book, and there are some similarities—the all-metal keyboard decks, the ultrabook-class Intel processors, and the low-power Nvidia GPUs in the Laptop Studio should all be familiar to current Surface Book owners. But the laptops differ significantly in form and function. The inability to completely remove the laptop's screen from its base will undoubtedly be a negative for some Surface Book owners, though using the Surface Laptop Studio's display stand to prop up the screen is its own kind of useful, and I'm not sad to see the death of the Surface Book's weird, bendy-straw hinge.

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  The Surface Go 3 looks a lot like the Go 2. [credit: Microsoft ]

It's not as big an upgrade as the Surface Pro 8, but Microsoft's Surface Go tablet got an update today. The Surface Go 3 retains the same 10.5-inch 1920x1280 screen, the same ports, and the same physical design as the Surface Go 2, but it upgrades the processors, adds 802.11ax Wi-Fi support, and ships with Windows 11 Home by default. The Surface Go 3 starts at the same $400 as the previous model and is available for preorder today; the cellular model will be available in "the coming months."

The Surface Go's biggest problem has always been that, especially in its cheapest configurations, its processor, RAM, and storage specs have all been dangerously close to the bare minimum it takes to run Windows comfortably. And the Surface Go 3 doesn't do much to address that. The dual-core Pentium Gold 6500Y and quad-core Core i3-10100Y processors are a significant and welcome step up from the Pentium and Core m3 chips in the Surface Go 2, but the entry-level Go 3 still includes just 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. That's a bit more than Microsoft's minimum system requirements for Windows 10, but they just barely meet the increased minimum RAM and storage requirements for Windows 11.

The version of the Go 3 that is available to consumers tops out at 128GB of storage, so you'll need to rely on microSD storage or cloud storage if you need more than that. There is a 256GB version of the Go 3, but it's only available to businesses. And unlike the Surface Pro 8 or Pro X, the SSD on the Surface Go 3 still isn't user-replaceable.

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  The Surface Duo 2. From this angle it looks identical to the Duo 1. [credit: Microsoft ]

The Surface Duo, take two. Microsoft's quirky two-screen device is back, and you can still run two apps side by side, fold the thing over for single-screen mode, or draw on it with a pen. The original device landed at the end of a messy, years-long journey that included a switch from Windows to Android and an official announcement that was a full year before the ship date. The Surface Duo 1 was a big flop and eventually hit the bargain bin for nearly $1,000 off the $1,399 MSRP (the device is still readily available for $412, by the way!). Microsoft seems undeterred by the original unit's performance, though, and it has produced this sequel. So, what's been improved?

First off, the specs look a lot better this year. Microsoft is turning in a modern device with a Snapdragon 888, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a much bigger 4449mAh battery. The original device had a Snapdragon 855 SoC, which was 18 months old when the Duo shipped, and so this is a big improvement. There's also NFC this year, which was another odd quirk of the original device's spec sheet. The OG Duo was the thinnest Android device ever, at 4.8 mm thick, but Microsoft found room to increase the 3577mAh battery by making the phone thicker, and now each half is 5.5 mm. It's still one of the thinnest Android devices ever, and Microsoft even managed to cram mmWave support into the US version.

The phone still has two rigid, glass-covered screens that fold up like a moleskin notebook. This year the two OLED screens are a bit bigger, at 5.8-inches each, and Microsoft is again modernizing them with 90 Hz refresh rates. The resolution is close to the 4:3 aspect ratio of last year but not quite, with a weird measurement of 1892×1344. The reason for this seems to be the addition of a few extra pixels for a new spine display. The hinge-side of each display has a curve to it, just like the annoyingly curved sides of a flagship Android phone, allowing you to see a tiny sliver of the screen while the Duo 2 is closed. Microsoft is using this to display little notification chips for things like your number of missed calls or messages.

Enlarge / The Surface Pro X doesn't get a hardware refresh today, but there is a new Wi-Fi only model, and Windows 11 will improve app compatibility. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has significantly revamped and upgraded the x86-based Surface Pro and Surface Go tablets today, but the ARM-based Surface Pro X isn't getting any hardware upgrades of note. Microsoft is, however, releasing a Wi-Fi-only model that brings the tablet's entry price down to $899 (compared to $999 for the LTE base model, which also includes a Microsoft SQ1 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage).

The Surface Pro 8 has adopted most of the Surface Pro X's design improvements, but the Surface Pro X does remain slightly thinner, is totally fanless, and is about a quarter-pound lighter (1.7 pounds compared to 1.96 pounds, before you add a keyboard or other accessories). Microsoft has also updated the Surface Slim Pen—the $130 Slim Pen 2 moves the pen's button from the narrow side to the flat side and adds a haptic vibration motor to recreate the "feeling you get with pen on paper." That functionality, however, apparently requires the Microsoft G6 chip in the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop Studio. On other devices, including the Surface Pro X, the pen supports the same 4,096 pressure levels as the previous model and maintains compatibility with Surface devices going back to the Surface Pro 3.

The main Surface Pro X upgrade that Microsoft focused on is Windows 11 itself, which will resolve some of the Surface Pro X's software compatibility issues by supporting the emulation of 64-bit x86 code. Windows 10 can only emulate 32-bit x86 apps, though beta versions of Windows 10 have supported x86-64 code emulation since late last year. You'll still need to deal with the performance penalty of code emulation .

Enlarge (credit: Icons8 Team)

Quebec-based provider of telephony services VoIP.ms is facing an aggressive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) cyber attack, causing a disruption in phone calls and services. The incident began around September 16 and has put a strain on the VoIP provider's systems, websites, and operations.

VoIP.ms serves over 80,000 customers across 125 countries, many of whom are now facing issues with voice calls.

Voice calls and services disrupted by DDoS attack

Last week, Canadian voice-over-IP service provider VoIP.ms announced that it became aware of an issue that was preventing customers from accessing its website and was working toward a solution. Fast-forward to today: the issue is ongoing and has been attributed to a persistent DDoS attack.

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  The 6th-generation iPad mini. [credit: Andrew Cunningham ]

The new iPad mini—whether you want to call it the 2021 iPad mini, iPad mini 6, or iPad mini (6th generation)—is easily the best one Apple has ever made. That’s true whether you’re comparing this iPad mini to the last one, or if you’re comparing it to the other iPads Apple sells.

The mini almost always seems to get the short end of the stick on the rare occasions when it’s updated at all. It has been saddled with older, slower processors or inferior screens or dated designs. This iPad mini, on the other hand, has a fully modern design and a cutting-edge Apple A15 chip in it. It’s a fantastic tablet—if you’re the kind of person who is already ride-or-die for the iPad mini.

That’s a big if, because as great as the mini is, its position in Apple’s lineup remains awkward. The $329 iPad (also just updated with a new chip and other tweaks) is a great all-around tablet for kids and price-conscious adults. And the $599 iPad Air 2 is just barely more expensive and has a bigger screen that is a better fit for the computer-y multitasking features Apple keeps adding to iPadOS.

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  The new ninth-generation iPad looks just like the last one (and also the one before that). [credit: Andrew Cunningham ]

As a rule, Apple doesn't focus on budget-friendly gadgets. And that strategy has worked well over the last two decades—the company's predilection for premium products at premium prices (not always unreasonable or uncompetitive prices, but premium ones) has paid off in the form of consistently extraordinary revenue and profit margins.

But the handful of explicitly price-conscious devices Apple does sell, including the $329 10.2-inch iPad and the $399 iPhone SE, are some of the most quietly excellent devices it makes. They use processors that were in Apple’s flagship phones just a couple of years ago, rather than mediocre cut-rate chips that were purpose-built for cheap devices. You get years and years of software and security updates, unlike the paltry two years that Google wrings out of phone makers who participate in the Android One program (to pick one example). And while Apple cuts costs by recycling years-old designs and parts, it usually doesn't skimp on construction and materials, so your hardware still looks and feels nice despite being a bit dated.

That’s all you need to know about Apple’s ninth-generation iPad, which you can still pick up for $329 starting September 24. I am sure that more people are going to read our review of the sixth-generation iPad mini, because it’s got a brand-new design and a cutting-edge processor in it. There’s certainly more to say about that device. But a whole lot more people are actually going to buy and use this ho-hum, workaday, plain-old iPad.

Enlarge (credit: Dmitry Chernyshov)

A code execution bug in Apple's macOS allows remote attackers to run arbitrary commands on your device. And the worst part is, Apple hasn't fully patched it yet, as tested by Ars.

Those shortcut files can take over your Mac

Independent security researcher Park Minchan has discovered a vulnerability in the macOS that lets threat actors execute commands on your computer. Shortcut files that have the inetloc extension are capable of embedding commands inside. The flaw impacts macOS Big Sur and prior versions.

"A vulnerability in the way macOS processes inetloc files causes it to run commands embedded inside, the commands it runs can be local to the macOS allowing the execution of arbitrary commands by the user without any warning / prompts," explains Minchan. "Originally, inetloc files are shortcuts to an Internet location, such as an RSS feed or a telnet location; and contain the server address and possibly a username and password for SSH and telnet connections; can be created by typing a URL in a text editor and dragging the text to the Desktop."

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  Google's new building, lovingly rendered in front of Conde Nast headquarters.

Google is once again snapping up more real estate in New York City. Tuesday the company announced it was buying one of the buildings it currently leases: Google is buying Manhattan's St. John’s Terminal at 550 Washington Street for $2.1 billion.

New York City is Google's second-biggest campus after its headquarters in Mountain View, and this building will be part of the 1.7 million-square-foot "Hudson Square campus," which has expanded several times now. The Hudson Square campus includes the Chelsea Market, which Google bought for $2.4 billion, and the first-ever Google retail store, which opened earlier this year.

St. John’s Terminal was a freight train facility back in the 1930s, and the building transitioned to a warehouse in the '60s and office space in the '80s. This latest revamp is still under construction, and like many other Google buildings, Google plans to turn it into a big glass obelisk with lots of plants and outdoor spaces. Google plans to open the building by mid-2023.

Enlarge / It doesn't fix how strict the new Windows requirements are, but the new PC Health Check app can at least give you detailed information and more useful recommendations. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

When it announced Windows 11 and its strict new hardware requirements, Microsoft also released a PC Health Check tool that would analyze your hardware and tell you whether your computer could upgrade to Windows 11. The problem is that the app wouldn't tell you why your computer failed the test, leading some people with relatively new PCs to believe that they wouldn't be able to run the OS without hardware upgrades.

A new version of the PC Health Check app, available to anyone who signs up for a Windows Insider account, fixes that problem. In our testing, it's still pretty bad at guessing the approximate age of the PC that it's running on, but it at least presents more detailed information when it's telling you that you won't be able to upgrade to a new OS.

The new version of the Health Check app makes recommendations if your PC has easily fixable compatibility problems, like if there's a firmware TPM module that simply isn't enabled, if Secure Boot is turned off, or if you need a RAM or disk space upgrade. But for more serious problems, like a processor that isn't on one of Microsoft's compatibility lists, your only options are to upgrade to a supported processor (not always an option but possible for some AMD Ryzen desktops in particular), replace the computer, continue running Windows 10, or run an "unsupported" Windows 11 install that may or may not receive updates going forward.