Hardware

Rony Abovitz has never been one for direct information. Over the past few years, the Magic Leap founder has confounded people with not-exactly-updates about his company’s not-exactly-vaporware mixed-reality system—especially on Twitter, where he’s been given to statements like “We are not chasing perfection - we are chasing 'feels good, feels right'. Tuning for everyday magic.” So last week, when he dropped this teaser, many assumed it would lead to just another YouTube video of frustrating breadcrumbs.

Not this time.

Fans and hopefuls in the VR and AR spaces have long wondered when Magic Leap would finally reveal anything to cash in on years of hype and $1.9 billion in investments. Most people who saw the company's first product announcement on Wednesday may still be waiting.

For last-minute shoppers, tech toys hold a special appeal. They’re crowdpleasers, and generally available with two-day shipping—or faster—from any number of online retailers. Stapling on internet connectivity also might make these flashy kids gadgets sound all the more appealing; it’s not just a teddy bear, it’s a machine learning teddy bear. On the other hand: don't.

Based on anecdotal observation, many iPhone users have long believed that older iPhones get slower over time. Generally, people have assumed that this is because of new features and additions in new versions of iOS that are better optimized for the latest phones.

But Reddit users, and Geekbench developer John Poole, have a compelling new theory, backed up by benchmarks: the iPhone may throttle performance to preserve battery life or avoid unexpected shutdowns as the battery degrades.

It’s the holidays, which means it’s once again time to rack your brain in search of the right gifts for the right people. If someone on your list is into tech, though, we’ve got your back.

For this year’s edition of the Ars Technica holiday gift guide, we’re breaking down our recommendations into themes. Our fourth and final crop of recommendations are for power users, or people who immerse themselves in tech and demand high utility or high performance.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is only a few short months away and we’re getting more leaks by the day. We recently told you about rumors the fingerprint scanner could be moving under the display and its possible appearance at CES in Las Vegas next month. If you want to catch up on all of the rumors, head over to our post here.

The newest leak comes in the form of factory CAD renders and a 360-degree video. The video and renders come from 91mobiles.com and OnLeaks.

Even if you don’t want to add an AUX audio output port to your Google Home Mini, you’ll still want to see a pair of videos from [SnekTek]. After all, you’ll eventually want to open it up, and putting it over some boiling water might not have been your first idea. You can see both videos, below.

However, he did want to add an AUX port. The biggest challenge was finding a place to put the connector. Even after identifying a likely spot, a bolt interfered with the case closing and so he removed it. The one bolt didn’t seem to bother the final result.

While the Apple Watch is seen by many as the ultimate wearable fitness tool, it's somewhat out of place in the gym. The native Workout app has a number of exercise profiles to choose from, including activities that can only be done in the gym. But, in many ways, the Watch is best suited for outdoor activities.

Apple today announced that the iMac Pro will be released this Thursday, December 14, but YouTube reviewer Marques Brownlee says only 8-core and 10-core models will be available to order this week.

Brownlee in his hands-on video said the high-end 18-core iMac Pro will ship early next year, alongside an unannounced 14-core model that will apparently be added to the lineup for a total of four Intel Xeon processor configurations.

As bezels on smartphones have gotten thinner, their designers are faced with a challenge that becomes more difficult with each passing model released: how do you make your phone stand out amongst the rest?

Hot off of the news that Synaptics is rolling out its embedded fingerprint sensors that work through an OLED display, the mountain to scale becomes even steeper. Without bezels or a visible fingerprint biometrics on the phone’s front or back, there’s increasingly little to work with when it comes to crafting a phone’s identity.