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Beebom Staff
DirectX 12 is a lower-level API compared to DirectX 11. It is more complicated for developers but gives them more precision on how to use hardware resources such as the CPU and GPU. There are lots of new features supported on DirectX 12 such as Variable Rate Shading (VRS) for improved performance, Ray Tracing for better graphics fidelity, and DirectML for machine-learning centric features in games. Speaking of performance, DirectX 12 is better in Fortnite as I tested. But in Path of Exile better performance is observed with DX11.
Anshuman Jain
WhatsApp now offers the ability to create and schedule events directly within communities. The feature makes it easy for users to manage large groups and plan gatherings. You can create an event inside a community group using the attachment icon and from there, you can provide a clear title, detailed description, date, time, and location.
HMD’s First Non-Nokia Phones Are Here and They’re Self-Repairable
Abubakar Mohammed
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The lineup consists of three devices — the HMD Pulse, Pulse+, and Pulse Pro. The firm claims that with Gen 1 repairability, users can use self-repair kits from iFixit to replace components like the battery with ease. All Pulse come with Unisoc T606 Processor, 720p LCD 90Hz displays, 5000 mAh battery, and dual-rear cameras.
Satyam Kumar
Both liquid cooling and air cooling have their own advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, you have to consider many factors like cost, noise levels, performance, compatibility, reliability, and even maintenance. From a cost perspective, air coolers are more affordable as long as you don't need it for a powerful processor like an Intel Core i9. However, there are value for money AIO liquid cooling options on the market for 250-300W CPUs, which are available at prices better than air coolers at times.
The best budget graphics card for $350 is the AMD RX 7600 XT. Then, we have options like the AMD RX 7600 and Nvidia RTX 4060. Going down to around $200, the Intel Arc A750 is perfect and gives good performance for the price albeit suffering from stability issues in certain games. Between $150 to $200, there is the AMD RX 6600 and newly launched Nvidia RTX 3050 6GB. At the lower end, Intel Arc A380 costs around $100 and the most affordable graphics card.
Gemini user experience could soon get better with the ability to respond over other apps. The current Gemini experience is tardy because whenever you ask questions, the app force switches and takes you from whatever app you have opened to the Gemini app to show the results
CMF may be launching its first smartphone. A new device with model number "A015" and codename "Tetris" was spotted, possibly indicating a budget-friendly CMF smartphone. Since the model number does not match up with previous Nothing smartphones and the brand name appeared as "CMF by Nothing" in BIS certification almost confirming that it is not the upcoming Phone (3).
Arjun Sha
Microsoft is now pushing ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu with the April 2024 optional update. If you are seeing promotional ads in the Start Menu, you can disable it from Windows Settings.
New Android 15 Privacy Feature Could Protect You from Screen Recording Scams
Abubakar Mohammed
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Recent additions to Android's code suggest that Android 15 could soon use ways to protect your sensitive information when screen recording. A new option has been found inside Android 15's Developer Options called "Disable screen share protection". The feature could help you disable system protections for sensitive app content during screen-sharing.
Those looking to build a new system or upgrade their storage drives, we have listed the best NVMe and SATA SSD options that you can get in 2024. While the WD Black SN770 is the best NVMe SSD with its affordable price, reliability, speed, and DirectStorage support, I would recommend picking up the Crucial T700 NVMe SSD with PCIe Gen 5 support. Check out all the other options in this guide.
Apple offers some relaxation-inducing sounds built right into iOS. To play white noise on an iPhone, Settings > Accessibility > Hearing > Audio/Visual > Background Sounds and turn the toggle on. You can choose from different sounds, including Balanced noise, Bright noise, Dark noise, Ocean, Rain, and Stream. You can also set background sounds as an Accessibility shortcut or play white noise using the Back Tap gesture.
Sagnik Das Gupta
During initial setup, the Apple Vision Pro requires you to set up eye and hand tracking. However, if it feels off for some reason, you can redo the tracking. To do so, press Digital Crown once -> Settings -> Eyes & Hands -> Redo Eye Setup/Redo Hand Setup. Or, you can press the physical top left button on the Vision Pro four times to summon a window and setup the tracking if you can't get into the Settings panel.
If you see an "AirPods Found Moving With You" alert on your iPhone, it means the Find My app has noticed an unknown pair of AirPods have the same direction and location as you for quite a while. To disable these alerts, you can try to find those AirPods, Identify the owner, or Disable AirPods. If you get alerts for a known pair of AirPods, you can reset your AirPods or enable Family Sharing.
The MacBook Air M3 is here with us, and we ran a bunch of different benchmarks to put it to the test. After running Cinebench, Geekbench, BlackMagic Disk, and Final Cut Pro, we can come to the conclusion that it's on par with the M2 for the most part. The M1 is slightly behind in benchmarks, but doesn't perform as bad at all. In terms of performance, the M3 is barely any different from the M2. However, it is the M2 Pro that takes a bit of a leap and beats the M3 in certain aspects.
Unwanted, unimportant emails can take up a lot of space in your Gmail inbox. In that case, blocking these emails is a great idea to get rid of the spam. To do so, whether you are on the web version or the mobile apps, navigate to the email on Gmail > tap on the 3-dots icon adjacent to the sender's name > Select the Block option. When you block a sender, their emails go straight to spam. You can also unsubscribe to emails or straight away report suspicious ones that pose a threat to your account.
Apple offers a Live Listen feature that turns your iPhone into a microphone that sends sound to your AirPods in real-time. With this feature, you can use your AirPods as hearing aids. Go to Settings > Control Center and add the Live Listen feature. Once you've done this, open the Control Center, tap on the Hearing button, and then tap on the Live Listen feature.
The best gaming CPUs from Intel and AMD are the Core i9-14900K and AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D respectively in the premium segment. For mid-rangers, the i5-14600K is a really good gaming CPU along with AMD's Ryzen 5 5700X3D for AM4 motherboards. Lastly, budget-centric users can pick up the AMD Ryzen 5 5600, Ryzen 5 7600, or Intel Core i5-12400.
To change an iCloud email associated with your Apple ID, you can add a new email address in the iCloud Mail and then set it as a default address. In case the iCloud email is your Apple ID, you will have to change your Apple ID. You can change your Apple ID on iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
The Apple Vision Pro lets you create a Persona of yourself, which is basically a virtual upper-body projection of yourself. When you first set up the Apple Vision Pro, you get the choice of setting this up right then. However, you can set it up later as well. To do so, go to Vision Pro Settings -> Persona -> Get Started. You can also recreate your Persona or re-edit it to make it look better.
With macOS Monterey, Apple introduced an array of personalization features, and one of them is cursor customization. To change the size of the Mac pointer, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Display and adjust the Pointer size slider. To change the color of the Mac pointer, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Display and choose Pointer Outline Color and Pointer Fill Color.
How to Remove Flashlight From Lock Screen on iPhone
Kanika Gogia
Ajaay Srinivasan
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With the iPhone X, Apple added a flashlight icon as the default setting on the Lock Screen. With iOS 18, you can now remove the flashlight control from your iPhone lock screen pretty easily. If you're on iOS 17 or older versions, you will have to disable the Raise to Wake and Tap or Swipe to Wake features to prevent the flashlight from turning on accidentally.
You can easily change Siri's voice to make your voice assistant more convenient and fun to use. To change Siri's voice on an iPhone, go to Settings > Siri & Search > Voice and choose your preferred option. You can also change Siri's language by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Language.
The Apple Vision Pro offers six different gestures to make use of. Pinch-to-select is definitely the most used gesture. This gesture acts as the select button for your Vision Pro. All you have to do is look at the item you are trying to select and bring your thumb and index finger together to 'pinch' it. Another important gesture is the pinch-and-swipe gesture which allows you to scroll on webpages, the gallery, etc. You can also use the pinch-and-drag gesture to resize app windows, zoom in/out, etc. You will find the entire list of gestures right here.
If you have forgotten your Apple Vision Pro's passcode, you can make your way into it. To do so, select Forgot Passcode? -> Start Apple Vision Pro Reset ->type Apple ID password -> Erase Apple Vision Pro. However, do note that this wipes out your Vision Pro data. But, you can restore it from your Vision Pro's iCloud backup, when setting up the headset again.
To rotate the screen on an iPhone, you have to turn off the Portrait Orientation Lock. On the home screen, swipe down from the top-right corner to reveal the Control Center and tap on the Portrait Orientation Lock to make sure it is Off. If your iPhone won't rotate the screen, you can quit & re-open the app or restart your iPhone.
The best kind of RAM to get for DDR5 systems is something with CL30 to CL36 timing. For DDR4, the best kind of RAM is CL16 to CL18. Speeds matter too, such as 6000MHz being sweet spot for DDR5 and 3200MHz/3600MHz for DDR4. In terms of both DDR5 & DDR4 RAM, G.Skill is a very good brand and offers various memory kits suitable for AMD and Intel builds. Memory from the G.Skill brand also ranks the highest among other picks in this guide.
If you find Siri Suggestions overwhelming, you can easily get rid of them. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Siri & Search and turn off each option under Suggestions from Apple. If you want to turn off Siri suggestions in Spotlight search, go to Settings > Siri & Search and turn off the Show Suggestions and Show Recents toggles.
To change the home screen on an iPhone, you can customize the existing home screen. For this, go to Settings > Wallpaper and tap on Customize under the home screen wallpaper preview. You can choose a new wallpaper by going to Settings > Wallpaper > Add New Wallpaper. Once added, you can tap on the Customize Home screen option. You can also add widgets to customize your iPhone's Home Screen.
Did you know that you can FaceTime from the Apple Vision Pro? If not, to do so, go to Home View -> People -> big plus icon -> Start New FaceTime -> Enter ID -> FaceTime. If it's a non-Apple ID, it will convert into a link which you share with people for them to join the call. You can also share your Vision Pro screen by selecting the dedicated icon from the call panel.
Do you want to run AI models locally on your Android phone? Well, with the MLC Chat app, you can now download LLMs like Gemma, Phi-2, Mistral, Llama 3, etc., and chat with them natively on Android devices. The token generation is slow though, especially on older Snapdragon-based Android devices.
Tinder's new feature, Share My Date, allows users to share their date plans and the other person's profile for safety. Users can share details like date location, time, and the other person's name, age, and photos via a link. The link can be opened even if the recipient does not have the Tinder app installed however, it will only allow them to view limited information about the person you are going out with.
To benchmark your GPU, you can download 3DMark's synthetic benchmark software. It is known to be the gamer's benchmark and has many intensive tests. Then, there is PugetBench content creation benchmark for Adobe's suite of apps. You can also run the Blender GPU benchmark to test your GPU's performance. Also, games like Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator and more have in-game benchmarking tools.
Mute and Unmute Notification Popup on AirPods Is Annoying and Here’s the Fix for it
Kanika Gogia
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After updating to iOS 17, many users reported a weird issue where a mute/unmute message appears every time they connect their AirPods to iPhones. If you're also facing this, go to Settings -> Your AirPods and change the End Call setting to "Press Once". If this doesn't work, you can also reset your AirPods or check for firmware updates to fix constant mute/unmute messages on AirPods.
There's a hidden feature that has been spotted inside the Gemini Settings page which lets you "Choose your default media provider". It will help users select a streaming service as the default, allowing Gemini to start accepting commands related to music streaming, such as "Play my liked songs".
The Apple Vision Pro's Mac Virtual Display feature allows you to use it as a monitor for your Mac. To do so, simply wear the Vision Pro and look at your Mac's display. A Connect button will pop up, which you then just have to select to connect. Or, you can summon the down-arrow button -> Control Panel -> Mac Virtual Display icon -> select a connected device from the list. However, do note that the feature requires your MacBook to be running on at least macOS 14 Sonoma or above.
How to Enable and Use Quick Share (Previously Nearby Share) on Chromebook
Abubakar Mohammed
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Quick Share (formerly Nearby Share) is Google's answer to AirDrop. It's available across devices in the Android ecosystem, and can help you swiftly transfer files from Android, to Chromebook, or even Windows. Enabling Quick Share on Chromebook is as easy as opening ChromeOS quick settings, clicking Quick Share, and selecting visible to my devices or visible to everyone.
150+ Best ChatGPT Prompts for All Kinds of Workflow
Upanishad Sharma
Ajaay Srinivasan
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This comprehensive list of 150+ ChatGPT prompts tackles everything from content creation to project management. You can use these prompts to streamline your workflow, unlock the AI chatbot's hidden functionalities, enhance your creativity, and optimize tasks at hand.
To share iCloud storage, you will first have to set up Family Sharing on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. To do this, go to Settings -> Apple ID -> Family Sharing and follow the on-screen prompts. Once you've enabled Family Sharing, go to Settings -> Apple ID -> Family Sharing -> Subscriptions -> iCloud+ and share your existing plan. You can share one iCloud+ subscription with up to five people at once.
Meta released its Llama 3 models recently so we have taken the liberty to compare the 70B model with the flagship GPT-4 model. Surprisingly, Llama 3 performs as good as the GPT-4 model despite being a smaller model. In advanced reasoning tests, it demonstrates intelligence and does better than GPT-4 in following user instructions.
Pixel 9 series is the next big thing for Google and the Pixel brand, and the Pixel 9 Pro has already leaked six months before launch! The leaks show the device in its full glory and suggest a sharp. The photos of device's bootloader suggests the phone is still using the older UFS 3.1 storage rather than the latest, much faster, efficient UFS 4.0 storage.
Will the Nothing Phone (3) Be the Flagship Killer We Desire? I Don’t Think So
Abubakar Mohammed
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Given the launch of Nothing Phone (3) is due in Q2 this year, based on what the firm has done so far, you'd expect Nothing to launch a flagship killer to fill the void, but here's why we think there's barely any chance that might happen. Our reasons to believe the same are Nothing has to please people in terms of quality and price both. Hence, the Phone (3) won't be as cheap to be called a flagship killer, and not as spec-rich to be called a flagship.
If you are not aware, WhatsApp lets you create polls to get real-time answers from your WhatsApp Groups or individual chats. This not only makes coming to a decision easier, but also allows you to gamify the process as you wish. To use it on your Android or iPhone, open the app > select the WhatsApp Group > attach icon > Polls > fill in the questions and options > Send.