Month: October 2019

After making its Titan security keys available for purchase last August, Google has announced that it will add a new USB-C key to the product line which will be soon be available on its store for $40.

The company’s Titan security keys provide users with an ultra secure method of two-factor authentication for a number of online services over USB-A, NFC or Bluetooth.

Google’s new USB-C key features similar functionality to its existing USB-A and Bluetooth keys and the device is also built to comply with the FIDO standard.

The new USB-C key is compatible with Android, Chrome OS, macOS and Windows according to the company. As was the case with its previous security keys, Google says that the USB-C key’s firmware is permanently sealed inside a secure element hardware chip which will make the key more resistant to physical attacks.

Yubico partnership

Yubico is another popular maker of security keys and Google decided to partner with the company to manufacture its new USB-C key.

This may be why its new security key bears a striking resemblance to Yubico’s YubiKey 5C. Both keys are quite similar though Yubico’s comes in black and supports several additional protocols including WebAuthn.

In addition to launching a new USB-C security key, Google also announced that its two Titan security keys will now be available individually. Previously, these security keys were only available as a $50 bundle but now the USB-A/ NFC key will cost $25 while the Bluetooth key will cost $35.

Camera phones have anhialiated the conventional compact camera market, so for a standalone compact to really stand out these days, it needs to deliver clearly superior image quality. The best way to acheive this is to fit a big image sensor, and there’s a decent selection of cameras packing large APS-C-sized sensors that can outgun even the best camera phone for image quality. With an APS-C compact, you’re essentially getting DSLR image quality from a camera that can fit in a jacket pocket.

APS-C compact cameras are almost the perfect blend of performance and practicality, but there are a couple of potential drawbacks to consider before you buy. A bigger sensor traditionally requires a larger lens, so to minimise bulk, most APS-C compacts have a fixed focal length lens, although Canon has managed to equip its APS-C G1 X Mark III with a 3x zoom lens. Assuming you can live without much/any optical zoom, the only other consideration with an APS-C compact is battery life. APS-C sensors are relatively thirsty, which isn’t a problem when they’re powered by a beefy DSLR battery, but a compact camera only has space for a compact battery, resulting in a short battery life of around 200-250 shots.

1. Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark III

The G1 X III is the best all-rounder and offers loads for the money

Type: Compact | Sensor: APS-C | Megapixels: 24.2MP | Lens: 24-72mm f/2.8-5.6 (equiv.) | LCD: 3in vari-angle touchscreen, 1.04 million dots | Viewfinder: EVF | Maximum continuous shooting speed: 7fps | Max video resolution: Full HD | User level: Enthusiast/expert

Very compact for sensor size

Excellent image quality

Decent 3x zoom range

‘Only’ 1080p video

Poor 200-shot battery life

Variable lens aperture and minimum focus distance

The G1 X Mark III packs a 24.2MP APS-C sensor, but unlike the fixed focal length Fuji and Ricoh APS-C cameras, Canon’s top-line compact stands out by sporting a 3x 24-72mm-equivalent zoom lens. The f/2.8 max aperture is also impressive, but that’s only at 24mm – by 72mm it’s shrunk to a more modest f/5.6. The lens is remarkably compact though, with minimal lens protrusion. There’s just room for a zoom ring around the lens, although this does operate electronically and with an annoying lag.

Otherwise the camera handles well and build quality is solid. There’s a generous sculpted grip on the front and rear, while both the 2,360k-dot OLED EVF and 3-inch, 1,040k-dot vari-angle screen are a pleasure to use, with the latter being touch-sensitive.

Canon’s excellent 49-point Dual Pixel AF is DSLR-fast and accurate, and the speed continues with up to 9fps burst shooting. As you’d expect for an APS-C sensor, image quality is high, with great detail reproduction and dynamic range in good light. Low light shots are just as impressive due to well-controlled noise, while the lens is sharp and distortion-free.

2. Fujifilm X100F

A lovely camera to look at and use, the X100F only falls slightly short on value

Sensor: APS-C | Megapixels: 24.3MP | Lens: 23mm f/2 | Monitor: 3in fixed, 1,040,000 dots | Viewfinder: Hybrid optical/EVF | Continuous shooting: 8fps | Max video resolution: 1080p | User level: Expert

Gorgeous design and build

Great low light image quality

Hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder

Fixed lens isn’t wide enough

Pricey for its feature set

Relatively big and heavy

It’s easy to fall for the X100F thanks to its sexy retro styling, abundance of manual controls and stellar build quality. Then there’s the superb hybrid viewfinder that can be switched between an optical finder and a 2,360k-dot EVF, giving you the best of both worlds.

Fujifilm’s 24.3MP APS-C X-trans III sensor puts in a good performance, producing impressively clean ISO 6400 shots while maintaining similar detail levels to the other APS-C cameras on test. Fujifilm’s dynamic range expansion modes are effective too, especially for retaining delicate highlight detail.

The X100F’s 325-point AF speed has been criticised, but it’s snappy enough in 91-point mode. More annoying is the 35mm-equivalent fixed focal length lens which, while sharp and fast, gives a frustratingly narrow field of view, although a 28mm converter is an option.

This is also a surprisingly bulky camera given its fixed focal length lens, especially next to a camera like the Ricoh GR III, which packs the same sized sensor. Even so, few other cameras give such a rewarding shooting experience.

3. Ricoh GR III

It’s the latest in a classic line, but it’s starting to show its age

Sensor: APS-C | Megapixels: 24.2MP | Lens: 28mm f/2.8 (equiv) | Monitor: 3in fixed, 1,037,000 dots | Viewfinder: Optional | Continuous shooting: N/A | Max video resolution: 1080p | User level: Enthusiast/expert

Small size

24MP APS-C sensor

1080p video not 4K

Viewfinder optional

Despite its fairly large APS-C sensor, the GR III is impressively compact at only 109.4 x 61.9 x 33.2mm, and it’s also amazingly light at just 257g. The sculpted front grip makes it feel secure in the hand, and there’s a full complement of rear panel buttons, as well as multi-function front and rear control wheels.

The GR III’s 24.2MP sensor is a healthy upgrade on the 16.2MP resolution offered by the old GR II. The new sensor even manages to generate slightly cleaner images with less image noise when compared to the GR II throughout the sensitivity scale. Dynamic range is also very respectable right up to ISO 12,800 and is marginally superior to both the GR II and Canon’s G1 X Mark III.

The 18.3mm (28mm-equivalent) f/2.8 lens now boasts three-axis image stabilisation with four-stop effectiveness, and low-light performance is further enhanced by the high ISO 102,400 max sensitivity – two stops more than the GR II could manage.

It’s a pity there’s no built-in viewfinder or flash though, and the all-plastic body, though very solid and in-keeping with the long-established GR aesthetic, lacks a premium feel.

4. Fujifilm XF10

You lose the viewfinder of the X100F, but you save A LOT of money

Sensor: APS-C | Megapixels: 24.2MP | Lens: 28mm f/2.8 (equiv) | Monitor: 3in fixed, 1,040,000 dots | Viewfinder: No | Continuous shooting: 6fps | Max video resolution: 4K | User level: Enthusiast

Slim, pocketable body

APS-C sensor

Value for money

No viewfinder

Like Fujifilm’s X100F, the XF10 incorporates an APS-C sensor with a 24MP resolution, however it uses a more conventional Bayer sensor design rather than Fujifilm’s signature X-Trans CMOS architecture.

The sensor is fronted by a fixed Fujinon 18.5mm f/2.8 lens with an effective focal length of 28mm in 35mm camera terms – it’s appreciably wider than the lens on the X100F, and has been designed with a useful 10cm close-focusing distance for macro photography. An additional Digital Teleconverter feature also allows focal lengths equivalent to 35mm and 50mm to be used too, albeit at the expense of sensor resolution.

The XF10’s build is more comparable with the plasticy Ricoh GR III than the premium X100F, but at just 279g ready to shoot, the XF10 is almost half the weight of its Fujifilm sibling. It’s also significantly smaller at just 112.5 x 64.4 x 41mm, though that’s still not quite as compact as the ultra-portable GR III.

Nobody was really happy when the phone companies decided that the headphone jack was to be made extinct, but the blow was softened by the fact they started throwing in 3.5mm adaptors and USB-C (or Lightning, if you’re an iPhone user) earbuds into the box. But that trend is slowly dying off, and it seems Google is sticking to that trend for the Pixel 4.

Last year the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL came with both a USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor and a pair of wired Pixel Buds, meaning anyone who bought one had the option could use their old wired headphone or opt for Google’s newer earbuds. But this year that isn’t to be the case, as pictures posted to Reddit seem to show.

As you can see in the third image the Pixel 4’s box only has the phone, an 18W USB charger, a charging cable, and a ‘quick switch (USB-C male to USB-A female) adaptor. In other words no audio devices of any kind.

If you want to use wired 3.5mm headphones you’ll need to buy one for yourself, and Google just so happens to sell it for £12. Likewise the USB-C Pixel Buds are also available for £30.

There’s always a chance that this leak is a big fat phoney, but as we get closer to launch (tomorrow) these phones will be ready to head out to retailers. In other words there’s a reasonable chance that this is for real. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

After upgrading to macOS Catalina, you may be surprised to discover a shortcut on your Mac’s desktop to a Relocated Items folder that wasn’t there previously. The generation of this folder is actually normal behavior when upgrading an older version of macOS to Catalina, but we’re highlighting it in this article because a lot of users are confused about why the folder exists and what to do with its contents.

What Are Relocated Items?

Relocated items are older files and data from previous macOS installations that Apple is not sure what to do with after upgrading to Catalina.

Catalina is the first version of macOS to adopt wholesale the relatively new Apple File System (APFS), which is optimized for the flash storage used in recent Macs. Aside from introducing a bunch of other new technical features, an APFS-formatted disk uses a space-sharing “container” that can house multiple secure “volumes” or file systems. This allows the disk’s free space to be shared on demand and allocated to any of the individual volumes in the container as required.

When you upgrade to macOS 10.15, Catalina is installed on a dedicated read-only system volume called “Macintosh HD,” while your files and data are stored separately in another volume named “Macintosh HD – Data.” The idea behind this setup is that it helps prevent the accidental overwriting of critical operating system files, since the user can no longer alter data or store files on the read-only system volume.

In practice, the average user shouldn’t notice any difference after the split, since both volumes appear in Finder as a single unified Macintosh HD volume (although if you want, you can view them separately in Disk Utility).

However, during the upgrade process, files or data that were previously stored in the startup volume are now stored in the new Macintosh – HD Data volume, and Catalina may not be able to find a corresponding home for them there. That’s where the Relocated Items folder comes in.

The Relocated Items Folder

While creating the two separate volumes during the upgrade process, Catalina reviews the files and data on your hard drive to check that they’re valid, authorized, and in the correct location. Any files and data that couldn’t be stored on the Macintosh HD – Data volume in a folder equivalent to their original location, are placed in the Relocated Items folder. This folder also includes a PDF document with more details about these files.

Amongst a bunch of other things that you may not recognize, the folder can include configuration files that were modified by you, by another user, or by an app. Regardless, the modifications make them incompatible with ‌macOS Catalina‌ and are considered redundant as far as the system is concerned.

Can I Delete the Relocated Items Folder?

It’s worth reiterating that the Relocated Items folder you see on the Desktop is just a shortcut that can be safely deleted. Doing so will not remove the folder or its contents from your hard disk. You can find the actual folder in /Users/Shared/Relocated Items.

Whether or not you delete the Relocated Items folder proper is entirely up to you. Removing the contents should be safe as far as your Mac’s operating system goes. But, if you have any third-party apps that don’t work since you updated to Catalina, then the Relocated Items folder may well contain data related to them, but it likely needs updating by the developers in new versions of these apps. If you recognize custom configuration files in the Relocated Items folder, then you might want to keep them around for reference in case you want to recreate them at a later date.

If your Relocated Items folder isn’t very big, then simply remove the Relocated Items shortcut on your Desktop to remove the eyesore and carry on. But if you feel strongly about deleting the actual files, see below.

How to Delete the Relocated Items folder

To delete the actual Relocated Items folder, simply drag it into the Trash and then empty the Trash folder. Having said that, some of the contents may resist being deleted when you come to empty the Trash because of old security permissions on the relocated files.

If that’s the case, one way to get rid of the files is to disable system integrity protection (SIP) on your Mac. The following steps explain how to disable SIP, but before you go ahead, note that the process involves rebooting your Mac and using Terminal. If you’re not familiar with the Terminal command prompt, or if you have any other misgivings about the steps, our advice is to just leave the Relocated Items folder where it is, or move it elsewhere out of sight. MacRumors cannot be held responsible for any data loss.

If the Relocated Items folder is in your Trash, right-click it there and select Put Back from the contextual pop-up menu.

Restart your Mac via the Restart… option in the Apple menu bar, and when the boot cycle starts again, hold down the Command and R keys to enter Recovery mode.

From the Recovery screen menu bar, select Utilities -> Terminal.

Type csrutil disable and hit Enter.

Restart your Mac via the Restart option in the menu bar.

Now delete the Relocated Items folder, then empty the Trash.

Restart your Mac and enter Recovery mode again using Command-R.

From the Recovery screen menu bar, select Utilities -> Terminal.

Type csrutil enable and press Enter to re-enable SIP.

Restart your Mac via the Restart option the menu bar.

Once you’ve followed these steps, the contents of the Relocated Items folder should be gone from your system for good.

Sidecar is a slick new feature that’s arrived with macOS Catalina and iPadOS 13 that lets users turn their iPad into an external Mac display either wirelessly or wired. Follow along for how to check iPad and Mac Sidecar hardware requirements and more.

Sidecar worked with any iPad that was able to run iPadOS 13 during the developer beta period. But with the official release, only newer iPads are able to take advantage of the feature (Apple may have seen performance issues with Sidecar on older iPads or other problems).

In addition to your Mac running macOS Catalina and your iPad running iPadOS 13, read on below for what hardware you’ll need, along with a few other software requirements.

How to check iPad and Mac Sidecar requirements

If you’re not sure, check what Mac and iPad model you have

On Mac:  > About This Mac / On iPad: Settings > General > About

Check them against the hardware requirements below

Make sure Bluetooth, WiFi, and Handoff are turned on for both devices

Make sure you’re using the same Apple ID for iCloud on both your iPad and Mac

To use Sidecar, on your Mac head to System Preferences > Sidecar > Connect to.

If you’re having trouble getting Sidecar to work, Apple notes two more things:

Both devices are within 10 meters (30 feet) of each other.

The iPad is not sharing its cellular connection and the Mac is not sharing its Internet connection.

We’ve seen gaming laptops with mechanical keyboards before, but Razer is taking things to a new level with the latest Blade 15 Advanced. It’s the first notebook to feature an optical mechanical keyboard, meaning it relies on light sensors instead of physical switches to register inputs. We first saw those switches on the Razer Huntsman Elite, and we weren’t too impressed. But they may serve a greater purpose on a laptop, since they allow for a thin profile keyboard with a decent amount of feedback.

Since they’re light based, Razer claims the new keyboard doesn’t have any of the bounce back issues you’d find on some traditional offerings. And like most gaming keyboards, it also features N-Key rollover to avoid ghosting issues when you’re rapidly pressing multiple keys. During a brief demo of The Typing with the Dead, the Blade 15 Advanced felt as snappy and responsive as some desktop gaming keyboards I’ve used. It’s hard to tell if there’s any real benefit with using optical sensors, but they definitely allowed for some solid feedback.

As usual, the Blade 15 Advanced is a pricier version of Razer’s flagship laptop that’s meant for more discerning gamers. It starts at an eye watering $2,649, and includes NVIDIA’S RTX 2070, Intel’s six-core i7-9750H, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD. You’ve only got a 1080p screen to choose from, but at least it’s a speedy 240Hz display.

You can snag the Razer Blade 15 Advanced starting today, and you can expect to see more models coming next year.

Smartphone innovation has been at an all-time high in the past couple of years with new designs akin to the pop-up camera, under-display fingerprint technology, and waterfall displays we’re already seeing. The latest patents filed by Oppo suggest we could see a display that’s curved at all edges. This could be possible thanks to another technology that Oppo has also patented: placing sensors under the display.

The patents outline a light sensor and another infrared light sensor, both of which could function from below the display. This would eliminate the need for a bezel to house the sensors, one for adjusting display brightness to the ambient light while the other turns the display off in a call, respectively. This technology could work with either a Micro LED or OLED display.

A couple of months ago, Oppo showed off an unreleased device with waterfall display, but the idea of making all four edges swoop towards the frame isn’t a new one. Xiaomi has patented a similar device with four curved edges back in February.

Oppo also teased an under-display camera leading up to MWC Shanghai. This shows the company’s efforts to eventually create a smartphone with 100% screen-to-body ratio.

We have already seen devices with ”waterfall displays” on the two longest edges of the phone: the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and Vivo NEX 3 are two devices already available with waterfall displays.