Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Russian Election Interference, Fake News and Tax Reform in Nightly News Interview

Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down with NBC’s Lester Holt on tonight’s NBC Nightly News broadcast, where he spoke about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the need for tax reform in the United States, and more.

As was shared in a clip of the interview earlier today, Cook commented on Russia’s use of social media to interfere with the 2016 election and the congressional hearings executives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google have been attending to discuss the role Russia might have played. Cook said he believes the social networks in question have been learning “along the way a lot” and that fake news is a major issue.

I think they learned along the way a lot. And you know, it’s best to ask them if they should have projected it or not. I don’t believe that the big issue are ads from foreign government. I believe that’s like .1 percent of the issue.

The bigger issue is that some of these tools are used to divide people, to manipulate people, to get fake news to people in broad numbers, and so, to influence their thinking. And this, to me, is the No. 1 through 10 issue.

Cook went on to say that we’ll likely learn a lot more in the hearings in regard to the particulars of what went on, and he said companies have a responsibility to make sure technology is “good.” “I do think that technology itself doesn’t want to be good,” he said. “It doesn’t want to be anything. It’s up to the creator of the technology and the user of the technology to make it good.”

Cook also spoke on tax reform. Corporate tax rates, he says, “should have been fixed years ago.” “Let’s get it done now,” he added.

I believe that tax reform is sorely needed in this country. We don’t focus on the individual side, but for corporations, we think we have a pretty deep perspective on this. The biggest issue with corporations in this country is that if you earn money outside of the United States, which most companies increasingly will, the only way that you can bring it into the US and invest is if you pay 40 percent. And this is kind of a crazy thing to do. So what do people do? They don’t bring it to the United States.

During the interview, which took place on Apple’s campus, Cook showed Holt an iPhone X and explained Face ID features and security, topics Apple has covered multiple times in past executive interviews and through a detailed Face ID support document.

WATCH: Apple CEO Tim Cook goes one-on-one with @LesterHoltNBC. https://t.co/T30BsPJYjr https://t.co/zrkTVMA7dM

— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) November 1, 2017

All Face ID data is stored on device, not on Apple’s servers, Cook reiterated. “We don’t have it intentionally because it’s yours,” he said. As he has done many times in the past, Cook also highlighted Apple’s focus on privacy and said that if he had to re-do the legal controversy with the FBI over San Bernardino, he’d “make the same decision today.”

On the topic of selling user data, Cook said that’s not something Apple does.

It’s something that we don’t do because you are not our product. We take a very pro-privacy view. Apple doesn’t know what the content of your messages are. We encrypt FaceTime end-to-end. We don’t know what you’re saying. And we think that’s the way people would expect.

A final topic of discussion covered the evolution of the iPhone over the course of the last 10 years and whether it’s reached where Steve Jobs had envisioned it would go.

“You know, we knew from the launch it was going to change the world. But frankly, it’s gone far beyond what we would have dreamed,” Cook said.

NBC Nightly News hasn’t yet shared the full video of Cook’s interview, but it should be available soon on the NBC website and will include his full commentary on a range of issues.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Tim Cook
Discuss this article in our forums

Microsoft claims only 0.001 percent of Surface devices experience issues

Why it matters to you

If Microsoft’s own metrics are to be believed, the Surface line is rather reliable.

Microsoft’s Surface line has been widely lauded for its design, but recently there have been reports that its reliability doesn’t quite live up to its aesthetics. Now, Microsoft has struck back with a rejection of these claims based on the data it collects from users.

In August, Consumer Reports retracted its “recommended” rating of Microsoft’s Surface line following a broad user survey, according to a report from ZDNet. The publication found that 25 percent of the company’s laptops and tablets would present users with problems within the first two years of ownership.

Now, Surface line general manager Ryan Gavin has fired back, stressing that Microsoft has gone to great lengths in order to improve the reliability of its hardware generation over generation. He rejects the figure of 25 percent, claiming that internal tests find that incidents per device occur at a rate of just 0.001 percent.

Gavin finds fault with the way that Consumer Reports conducted its survey. Even if a device just behaved unexpectedly once over the course of the two-year period, it would be counted among the 25 percent of units that were problematic, given the way that the question to respondents was worded.

The fact that all generations of Surface hardware were included in this survey is also a factor. Gavin argues that more recent iterations of the various devices that make up the line have proven to be much more reliable than earlier models.

“What we hear from our customers, however, and from the telemetry data that our customers want to share with us, is that Surface devices have never been more reliable and with every generation we release they get increasingly so,” Gavin told ZDNet.

It’s easy to see why Microsoft has seen fit to respond to these criticisms of the Surface line. The devices have given the company a foothold in the hardware market, something that has proved to be very difficult in the past. It would be difficult to maintain that popularity if the range gets a reputation for being unreliable after a relatively short period of time, so downplaying these reports is a  sensible strategy.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Microsoft swings back at Consumer Reports for pulling Surface recommendations
• New Surface device rumored for Microsoft Future Decoded event in London
• Microsoft denies any plan to end Surface line, praises cross-platform benefits
• Microsoft Surface Phone rumors and news leaks
• HP Spectre x360 15 review

Looking for PCs, consoles, and more on Black Friday? Dell’s deals have begun

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for deals on 4K TVs, PCs, game consoles, and other electronics, Dell’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday bonanza has already begun.

With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving just three weeks away, it’s time to begin preparations for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping blowouts. The former can be a physical nightmare as human stampedes barrel through doorways to get the best deals first. Thankfully, Dell has your back for the 2017 shopping season — if you’re looking for PCs, monitors, and accessories, of course.

First, here are all the links you need to take advantage of Dell’s holiday deals:

• Black Friday (general)
• Black Friday (small business)
• Cyber Monday (general)
• Cyber Monday (small business)

Starting Tuesday, November 1, Dell is providing early access to select Black Friday deals for 48 hours. What you won’t find in this two-day period are Dell’s offline and online “doorbuster” deals. But if you happen to miss these early-access discounts before they disappear Thursday morning, they will reappear for your buying pleasure between November 15 and November 24.

Here are a few deals you’ll find for gamers throughout the various Black Friday-related events over the next several weeks:

Model
Special Price
Savings
Availability
Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop
$900
$100
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 15
Alienware Aurora Desktop
$800
$300
11 a.m. ET on Nov. 23
Inspiron Gaming Desktop
$500
$150
 10 p.m. ET on Nov. 23
Alienware 17 Laptop
$1,600
$475
11 a.m. ET on Nov. 23
S2716DG 27” Gaming Monitor
$400
 $400
9 a.m. ET on Nov. 24

Now here are a few deals for the mainstream market:

Model
Special Price
Savings
Availability
Inspiron 14 3000 Laptop
$130
$120
6 p.m. ET on Nov. 23
Inspiron Desktop
$380
$270
8 p.m. ET on Nov. 23
Inspiron 15 3000 Laptop
$300
$130
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 24
Inspiron 17 7000 Laptop
$800
$200
1 p.m. ET on Nov. 24
D3218HN 32” Monitor
$170
$180
7 p.m. ET on Nov. 23

If you’re a business owner, Dell has a truckload of deals for you during Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

Model
Special Price
Savings
Availability
Latitude 3580 Desktop
$580
$390
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 15
OptiPlex 3050 SFF Desktop
$580
$390
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 15
PowerEdge T30 Tower Server
$300
$394
11 a.m. ET on Nov. 15 and
noon ET on Nov 27
Precision 3520 Mobile Workstation
$829
$608
4 p.m. ET on Nov. 27
P2417H 24” Monitor
$180
$100
9 a.m. ET on Nov. 27

But that’s just a sample. On Thanksgiving Day, the big savings begin at 11 a.m. with a limited “doorbusters” sale. Discounts for specific items will appear each hour starting at 6 p.m. that same day until midnight.

But Dell’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday extravaganza doesn’t solely focus on PCs and monitors. Customers can save up to 50 percent off on 4K Smart TVs, wireless soundbar systems, game console bundles, and so much more. You’ll even find smartwatches, drones, security cams, and more huge discounts during the big shopping event.

Here is the full price-hacked schedule provided by Dell. It runs from now until December 3.

• Nov. 1: 48-hour access to Black Friday deals
• Nov. 5-16: Military community discount (15 percent) for Dell and Alienware PCs listed here.
• Nov. 13-14: Access Dell’s Black Friday doorbusters early by applying here.
• Nov. 15-22: Access Dell’s Black Friday doorbusters via Advanced Loyalty Rewards and Member Purchase Program services.
• Nov. 15-22: Dell small business customers can grab deals and select Black Friday doorbusters right here.
• Nov. 15-24: Mainstream customers can shop Black Friday deals here.
• Nov. 23: Mainstream Black Friday doorbusters start at 11 a.m. ET, with specific items going on sale hourly from 6 p.m. ET until midnight.
• Nov. 23: Small business Black Friday doorbusters start at 11 a.m. ET, with specific items going on sale hourly from 6 p.m. ET until midnight.
• Nov. 24: More hourly mainstream and small business doorbusters from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
• Nov. 25-26: 15 percent off all Dell Gaming, Alienware, XPS, and Inspiron products.
• Nov. 26-Dec. 3: Cyberweek deals for mainstream and small business customers
• Nov. 27: New hourly mainstream and small business Cyber Monday doorbusters from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

We strive to help our readers find the best deals on quality products and services, and choose what we cover carefully and independently. If you find a better price for a product listed here, or want to suggest one of your own, email us at dealsteam@digitaltrends.com. Digital Trends may earn commission on products purchased through our links, which supports the work we do for our readers.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Dell Inspiron 27 7000 (2017) review
• The best desktop computer you can buy
• The best gaming laptop you can buy
• Dell Inspiron 5675 gaming desktop review
• Dell at PAX West: Inspiron 7000 Gaming serves quad-core and GTX 1060 for $1,000

Related Topics:
Alienware, black friday, Cyber Monday, Deals, Dell, Computing

Don’t Miss

Don’t miss out: These six awesome laptop deals can save you up to $470

Up Next

Wool you look at that: Sheep-powered Google Street View now live

Looking for PCs, consoles, and more on Black Friday? Dell’s deals have begun

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for deals on 4K TVs, PCs, game consoles, and other electronics, Dell’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday bonanza has already begun.

With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving just three weeks away, it’s time to begin preparations for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping blowouts. The former can be a physical nightmare as human stampedes barrel through doorways to get the best deals first. Thankfully, Dell has your back for the 2017 shopping season — if you’re looking for PCs, monitors, and accessories, of course.

First, here are all the links you need to take advantage of Dell’s holiday deals:

• Black Friday (general)
• Black Friday (small business)
• Cyber Monday (general)
• Cyber Monday (small business)

Starting Tuesday, November 1, Dell is providing early access to select Black Friday deals for 48 hours. What you won’t find in this two-day period are Dell’s offline and online “doorbuster” deals. But if you happen to miss these early-access discounts before they disappear Thursday morning, they will reappear for your buying pleasure between November 15 and November 24.

Here are a few deals you’ll find for gamers throughout the various Black Friday-related events over the next several weeks:

Model
Special Price
Savings
Availability
Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop
$900
$100
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 15
Alienware Aurora Desktop
$800
$300
11 a.m. ET on Nov. 23
Inspiron Gaming Desktop
$500
$150
 10 p.m. ET on Nov. 23
Alienware 17 Laptop
$1,600
$475
11 a.m. ET on Nov. 23
S2716DG 27” Gaming Monitor
$400
 $400
9 a.m. ET on Nov. 24

Now here are a few deals for the mainstream market:

Model
Special Price
Savings
Availability
Inspiron 14 3000 Laptop
$130
$120
6 p.m. ET on Nov. 23
Inspiron Desktop
$380
$270
8 p.m. ET on Nov. 23
Inspiron 15 3000 Laptop
$300
$130
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 24
Inspiron 17 7000 Laptop
$800
$200
1 p.m. ET on Nov. 24
D3218HN 32” Monitor
$170
$180
7 p.m. ET on Nov. 23

If you’re a business owner, Dell has a truckload of deals for you during Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

Model
Special Price
Savings
Availability
Latitude 3580 Desktop
$580
$390
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 15
OptiPlex 3050 SFF Desktop
$580
$390
8 a.m. ET on Nov. 15
PowerEdge T30 Tower Server
$300
$394
11 a.m. ET on Nov. 15 and
noon ET on Nov 27
Precision 3520 Mobile Workstation
$829
$608
4 p.m. ET on Nov. 27
P2417H 24” Monitor
$180
$100
9 a.m. ET on Nov. 27

But that’s just a sample. On Thanksgiving Day, the big savings begin at 11 a.m. with a limited “doorbusters” sale. Discounts for specific items will appear each hour starting at 6 p.m. that same day until midnight.

But Dell’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday extravaganza doesn’t solely focus on PCs and monitors. Customers can save up to 50 percent off on 4K Smart TVs, wireless soundbar systems, game console bundles, and so much more. You’ll even find smartwatches, drones, security cams, and more huge discounts during the big shopping event.

Here is the full price-hacked schedule provided by Dell. It runs from now until December 3.

• Nov. 1: 48-hour access to Black Friday deals
• Nov. 5-16: Military community discount (15 percent) for Dell and Alienware PCs listed here.
• Nov. 13-14: Access Dell’s Black Friday doorbusters early by applying here.
• Nov. 15-22: Access Dell’s Black Friday doorbusters via Advanced Loyalty Rewards and Member Purchase Program services.
• Nov. 15-22: Dell small business customers can grab deals and select Black Friday doorbusters right here.
• Nov. 15-24: Mainstream customers can shop Black Friday deals here.
• Nov. 23: Mainstream Black Friday doorbusters start at 11 a.m. ET, with specific items going on sale hourly from 6 p.m. ET until midnight.
• Nov. 23: Small business Black Friday doorbusters start at 11 a.m. ET, with specific items going on sale hourly from 6 p.m. ET until midnight.
• Nov. 24: More hourly mainstream and small business doorbusters from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
• Nov. 25-26: 15 percent off all Dell Gaming, Alienware, XPS, and Inspiron products.
• Nov. 26-Dec. 3: Cyberweek deals for mainstream and small business customers
• Nov. 27: New hourly mainstream and small business Cyber Monday doorbusters from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

We strive to help our readers find the best deals on quality products and services, and choose what we cover carefully and independently. If you find a better price for a product listed here, or want to suggest one of your own, email us at dealsteam@digitaltrends.com. Digital Trends may earn commission on products purchased through our links, which supports the work we do for our readers.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Dell Inspiron 27 7000 (2017) review
• The best desktop computer you can buy
• The best gaming laptop you can buy
• Dell Inspiron 5675 gaming desktop review
• Dell at PAX West: Inspiron 7000 Gaming serves quad-core and GTX 1060 for $1,000

Related Topics:
Alienware, black friday, Cyber Monday, Deals, Dell, Computing

Don’t Miss

Don’t miss out: These six awesome laptop deals can save you up to $470

Up Next

Wool you look at that: Sheep-powered Google Street View now live

Wool you look at that: Sheep-powered Google Street View now live

Why it matters to you

The Faroe Islands’ unique approach means that the less-populated islands are now available to explore on Street View.

Having a population of 50,000 people, unfortunately, doesn’t always make the Faroe Islands a top priority for many companies — like Google Street View. But after launching Sheep View 360, a cleverly titled project that strapped 360-degree cameras onto the backs of sheep, the residents of the Faroe Islands captured Google’s attention. A year later, the Faroe Islands are now available to explore through Google Street View.

There are roughly 70,000 sheep in the Faroe Islands — what better way to map out the archipelago, whose name means “the islands of sheep?” The campaign was put together by the Faroese Tourist Board, which used the hashtag “#wewantGoogleStreetView” to attract the search giant. The initial video received more than 479,000 views and brought Google arrived with more 360 cameras to mount on cars, hikers, horseback riders, kayakers and even a wheelbarrow.

“When we herd about the Sheep View project, we thought it was shear brilliance,” writes a punny David Castro González de Vega from Google Maps. “So we decided to help the Faroese by supplying them with a Street View Trekker and 360-degree cameras via our Street View camera loan program.”

The team arrived last summer to train and equip the community, Google said. But what’s really neat is that Google is leaving a few Street View 360 cameras at the tourist office in Tórshavn and Atlantic Airways at the airport, in case tourists want to assist the country in lending “a hoof.”

The Faroese team’s initial setup with sheep wasn’t as easy as it sounds — the small 360-degree camera they used only had a two-hour battery life. Of course the sheep, unlike a car, couldn’t keep it charged. The team had to rig portable solar panels, that also doubled as a harness. It powered the camera and an iPhone, which the sheep carried. About one image every minute is transmitted wirelessly to the Sheep View headquarters, where the team uploads the photos to Google Maps.

Thankfully, Google’s arrival made the process a lot less arduous. Though that didn’t mean Sheep View 360 is shuttering its doors — no, the team is still continuing its work and Google’s support will be supplementary to the overarching goal of mapping the Faroe Islands.

“We’re so thrilled that we succeeded in getting Google Street View to come to the Faroe Islands by creating our own Sheep View. We are also proud that we managed to spread the word about the Faroe Islands — a place many had previously not heard of — to people all around the world. As a result, tourism numbers have increased and visitors can now use Google Street View to get beautiful panoramic views of the Faroe Islands,” said Guorio Hojgaard, Director of Visit Faroe Islands.

The results of the Street View project, which mixes car-mounted cameras with sheep-mounted ones, is now available for exploring the Faroe Islands on Google Maps.

Google says if there’s a place that hasn’t gotten the Street View treatment, you can grab your own 360 camera and upload the images to Google Maps, or borrow one from Google’s Street View camera loan program.

Update: Google shares “Sheep View” images.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Turn your ride into a Google Street View with the Insta360 Pro
• This AI generates fake Street View images in impressive high definition
• How does the original Google Daydream View compare to the 2017 version?
• Here’s what Google’s pop-up stores in New York and Los Angeles have to offer
• Explore our solar system with Google’s new maps of Pluto, Venus, and more

Destiny 2 PC performance guide

It’s finally here. Destiny 2 is now out on PC, so you can stop ducking your friends who played on PS4, and vanishing from your grouptexts every time they start talking spoilers. You have just one more obstacle separating you from living your best life as an immortal space wizard. Can your PC run it?

How well it will run depends on your hardware, but we’re here to help. We ran through dozens of tests to figure out which settings offer the greatest performance gains without sacrificing visuals, and we even tested out a couple non-standard gaming rigs to get an idea of how well Destiny 2 runs when it’s not on a lightning-fast testing PC. So, here it is – our Destiny 2 performance guide.

Our test setup

To get an idea of how Destiny 2 would perform on a variety of different systems, we performed our tests on three very different PCs. Our primary testing platform was a desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16-core CPU clocked at 3.4GHz, 32GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and a 4K monitor. We used the same PC to test using a GTX 1060, and an AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card, and we even threw in two more monitors for the full three-monitor experience.

Destiny 2 is a very well-optimized game.

Additionally, we ran the tests on a couple wildcards — a 2015 Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M graphics card, and a MacBook Pro 15 with an AMD Radeon Pro 455 graphics card. The Mac was, of course, running a fresh Windows 10 installation.

If there’s anything we learned during our testing, it’s this — Destiny 2 is a very well-optimized game. Each of our testing platforms was more than capable of running the game at 1080p on Medium or High settings without hitting any major performance snags. With that said, we did notice a major difference in framerates between the lowest and highest settings.

1080p is easy as pie

Starting with performance at the designated graphical presets, we ran through a series of tests measuring our framerate with OCAT. Those tests consisted of running through the introduction area of Destiny 2 about a million times, and also running a circuit around the Farm, the game’s new social space. It has chickens.

At 1080p, each of our test systems did well, and a few of them did incredibly well. Just look at those GTX 1080 and RX Vega 56 numbers. Both the GTX 1080 and RX Vega 56 could push over 140 frames per second on average, which means picking up a 144hz monitor might not be a bad idea if you have a high-end video card.

Our tests showed the presets make a big difference in framerate. Performance improves significantly once you hit the low settings preset. That’s to be expected, since you’ve effectively pared back all the eye candy, but the game still looks alright.

In this shot of the stoic Commander Zavala, you can clearly see that you lose some details as you step down from the Highest settings. Lighting is the most noticeable downgrade. Turning detail down to low removes some lighting elements, and that means the game offers less contrast overall. Differences in texture detail are also easy to spot, particularly on the rock behind Zavala, and the ground in the distance.

However, even at the Low graphics preset, the game is acceptable. Geometry detail isn’t drastically reduced, and the game’s colorful presentation helps obscure some of the texture issues, distracting you from the fact that the ground looks less like concrete and more like muck.

4K is a challenge that fast rigs can handle

Moving on to 4K performance, it’s here that the GTX 1080 Ti really proves its worth. Without running two graphics cards in SLI, you’re probably not going to hit 144 FPS at 4K, but our testing rig tried its little heart out and managed to keep us above 60 FPS even when we were surrounded by the Red Legion.

The GTX 1060 and the RX 570 fell off sharply, struggling to keep up at a barely playable 22 and 23 FPS, respectively. During our run through the introduction, we routinely hit speedbumps and saw significant slowdown during firefights.

Laptops fare better than you might think

What about our wildcards — less-than-ideal laptops running last year’s hardware? They were a bit of a surprise. Naturally the Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming, with its GTX 965M, outperformed the Boot Camped MacBook Pro 15 with its Radeon Pro 455 graphics card, but these two systems illustrated the importance of fine tuning your graphics settings.

Neither system had the power to run at the Highest graphical preset, not even at 1080p. But, we did find they each had their own niche where they could routinely hit a playable FPS. For both, the Medium preset offered the best balance of visuals and performance. Once we turned off Depth of Field, lowered the shadows on the MacBook Pro, and stepped the resolution down to 1680 x 1050 — a more natural fit for the oddly shaped MacBook display — our average FPS remained in the mid-forties, even during heavy firefights.

Performance can spike up and down during firefights.

We saw similar results from the Dell Inspiron 15. Lowering Depth of Field and Shadows, while keeping everything else on the High preset, kept our FPS in the low 50s — without cutting too deep into visual fidelity.

Neither of these systems is meant to be an ideal gaming setup, but they both illustrate that Destiny 2 has impressive optimization going on behind the scenes. While it’s not as demanding as games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or Assassin’s Creed: Origins, it’s a game that manages to look great without completely destroying lesser gaming rigs — and with some fine tuning, you can get decent performance and good visuals out of unusual or outdated hardware.

So, how do you know which settings to lower without harming your visuals?

Crank it up

With any graphically intensive game like Destiny 2, digging into the video settings manually is your best bet if you want to squeeze a little more life out of an underpowered PC. Before we do anything though, open your Settings menu, and click on the gameplay tab. From here click FPS Display to On. That will turn on the in-game FPS counter, so you can get an idea of how different settings will affect your game’s performance.

The first setting you’ll want to tweak is your resolution. On most displays, especially laptop displays, 1080p is going to look fine, but on larger monitors things will start to look stretched and jagged. In most cases, you’re going to want to stick as close as possible to your monitor’s max resolution, that’s going to give your game the sharpest visuals. So first off, max out your resolution.

While we’re in here, go ahead and set your graphics to the “Highest” setting. Even if you have an old graphics card, turning everything up will let us see what we can turn down.

Now that everything is maxed out, back out of the menu and check your FPS.

What we’re looking for is the sweet spot between 50 to 60 FPS. If your framerate sticks around those figures when you’re just lounging around at the Farm, your game is going to be playable even during heavy firefights, though it might dip near 30 FPS. That’s not ideal for many, but it’s a good place to start. If you’re not at the Farm yet, just hang out in that very first area — the one where everything is on fire. What we’re looking for is somewhere nice and quiet, where you can establish your “resting” framerate.

Now let’s dig into the settings, and see what we can change to get that framerate where it needs to be.

Fine Tuning

During testing we found a few key settings that had a huge impact on our FPS. First of these was Depth of Field. This is the dynamic blur effect you see mostly when you’re talking to NPCs. It looks great, but has a big impact on your performance. Turning it off, we saw a consistent 17 to 20 percent spike in our FPS, the biggest from any single setting.

After Depth of Field, the next most important setting is shadow detail. Turning shadows all the way down, we saw our FPS spike by about 15 percent. This does have a rather noticeable impact on shadow quality, though, so you might not be happy with what you see. The shadows take on less definition and become vague blurs. However, you’ll still see a notable improvement just by turning quality down a notch or two from its highest. It’s worth tweaking.

The other settings, when taken together, can impact your FPS significantly, but the two just mentioned have the biggest individual impact outside of resolution. Speaking of which, if your FPS is still below 40 or hanging around 30, even after turning down shadows and depth of field, it’s time we look at resolution.

We wouldn’t suggest you bring it lower than 1080p. However, if your PC is having trouble running at 1440p or 4K on a monitor with said resolution, bring it down to 1080p and see how that changes your performance. If you’re still having trouble, there are a few other individual settings you should look at.

First up, lower Texture Anisotropy to 2x, or turn it off entirely. This setting smooths out jagged edges, but can be a bit of a resource hog. Same goes for Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. Turning this down to HDAO or Off will boost your FPS a bit. While we’re at it, go ahead and lower Anti-Aliasing from SMAA to FXAA or Off. These features contribute to the overall feel of the game, but won’t hit your visual quality as heavily as lowering Texture Quality will.

That’s where we’re headed next. Downscaling textures to High or Medium from Highest doesn’t make a huge difference. Some fine details are a bit less finely detailed, but Destiny 2 is so visually dense and well-crafted that your environments are still going to be lush and immersive no matter what. Your armor will still be sparkly, and appropriately majestic.

Taking a step down to Low, however, you’ll lose quite a bit of fine detail, and things will get a bit muddy, though the game still looks decent overall. To see what we mean, check out the shoulders in the above screenshots. At the Highest settings, you can see a little of small details in the fabric and weave of the character’s armor, almost all of which are lost in the move down to Low.

You won’t gain much in terms of performance by moving textures from Medium to Low, as we only saw a small 3 to 5 percent spike in FPS, about the same as what we saw moving from Highest to Medium. That means if you move on down to Medium, you strike a good balance between visual fidelity and performance.

Three monitors are better than one

Sitting down in front of three monitors to play Destiny 2 feels like settling into a cockpit. To your left and right, your peripheral vision is just completely overtaken by the game. The world melts away behind otherworldly vistas, dark tunnels filled with ancient horrors, and ruins overgrown by centuries of disuse. If you have the horsepower and hardware, this is the way to play Destiny 2.

Unfortunately, running three displays at once does take a toll on your performance, and you’re going to need some powerful hardware to keep everything running smoothly. During our tests, the GTX 1080 Ti managed an average of 68 FPS at 1080p on the Highest settings preset. That’s a little less than half what we got out of the same card running on a single monitor. We saw a similar result from the RX Vega 56, which went from an average of 133 FPS with a single monitor to 58 FPS when running three monitors.

Provided you have three monitors laying around, getting them set up is painless, but you need to make sure your graphics card has three DisplayPorts, or three HDMI ports — and not all of them do.

To get started, you’ll be able to follow our dual-monitor guide here — it’s the same process but with an extra display. Once you’re all plugged in, there are a couple extra steps you’ll need to take depending on your graphics card. If you have an Nvidia card, right click on your desktop and open the Nvidia Control panel. From there, click on Configure Surround, then Configure.

Here, you’ll want to choose 1×3 topology, and make sure the displays are lined up according to how they’re arranged on your desk. Each display should have a number showing up on it, to let you know which one it is.

Also make sure your resolution is set to 5760 x 1080, which is 1080p times three. Once you’re all done there, click apply. Your displays might flicker a bit, but it should be all set up.

If you’re running an AMD Radeon graphics card, the steps are similar, but a bit different. Luckily, AMD has a helpful guide that will walk you through the process. Once you’re all set up, fire up Destiny 2. You’re not done yet.

Even when you bump down the settings, environments are always lush and immersive in Destiny 2.

Now, once you’re in game, open your settings menu, and take note of the Field of View option. This is the setting we’ll be tweaking next. The maximum Field of View setting is 105, which means your camera is going to zoom way out, and your peripheral vision will be significantly distorted.

This slider is all about personal preference though, so slide it all the way up, close the menu and walk around, and see how you everything looks on each monitor. Keep in mind your left and right side monitors are mostly there for immersion, and to give you a sense of peripheral vision when you’re prowling through the depths of abandoned alien cityscapes.

Next, start decreasing the slider in increments of 10 until you get to a setting that feels comfortable — and that’s it. You’re ready to go, Guardian.

Can your computer run Destiny? Probably!

With a monster PC and three monitors, Destiny 2 becomes a uniquely immersive experience that you really can’t replicate on the PlayStation 4 Pro, or Xbox One versions of the game.

That begs the question — is Destiny 2 on PC worth it if you don’t have a mini supercomputer under your desk? Absolutely! This is a very well-engineered game and, as our testing shows, it runs well on mid and low-end systems without too much fuss.

If your PC or laptop sits above the minimum system requirements, chances are you’re going to get a playable experience out of Destiny 2. Even if you have a mid-range Nvidia GeForce GTX 900-series graphics card, or an AMD Radeon RX 400-series graphics card, you’ll be able to get away with running at the medium or high preset at 1080p, and maybe even a little above. So, get out there, Guardian. The Traveler needs you.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Dell Inspiron 5675 gaming desktop review
• Asus G11DF gaming desktop review
• The best gaming laptop you can buy
• These are the best processors for building a PC on any budget
• How much RAM do you need? It’s probably less than you think

Who needs batteries? This toothbrush runs on a modified watch mechanism

Why it matters to you

If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve got no access to power, this battery-free powered toothbrush could be the perfect solution.

Next to our smartphones, electric toothbrushes are among the best gadgets in our lives, guaranteeing a hygienist-approved tooth clean at the start and end of each day. The one time we hate our electric toothbrushes? When we forget to charge the battery, and they whir to a sad halt mid-brush. That is a problem that a new Kickstarter campaign promises to bring an end to — courtesy of a “hybrid toothbrush” which promises the power and performance of an electric toothbrush, without any need for batteries or electricity.

Claiming to be the first brush of its kind, the Be. toothbrush operates on a principle not entirely unlike a watch movement mechanism, reappropriated to deliver a higher torque in a shorter time span. Using a series of power springs, dampers, gear boxes, and other components, its makers boast that it can give you an electric toothbrush-level clean in exchange for you giving it a few brief twists before you use it — much like winding a watch.

“There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and the average person uses four of the minutes a day to brush their teeth,” Patrick Triato, CEO of manufacturer Goodwell Company, told Digital Trends. “That means that for 99.73 percent of every day, your toothbrush is just sitting there, and if it’s an electric toothbrush it’s either trickle charging or slowly draining a disposable battery. We believe that some things just don’t need batteries, especially things that go unused for 99.73 percent of the time. The Be. brush is pioneering a whole new category of toothbrush that does not use batteries, cables, chargers or electricity, yet gives you the diamond clean of a powered toothbrush. Why is this exciting? From situations like disaster relief to military use to your weekend backpack trip, having a brush that doesn’t need the grid to give you a better clean is something we believe is going to change the landscape.”

Provided it works as well as its creator suggests, this could be a “must-have” product. If you want to get hold of a Be. toothbrush of your own, you can pre-order one on Kickstarter, where prices start at $49, complete with replacement heads, travel case, and more. Shipping is set to take place in December 2018.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Protect your toothbrush from your toilet with the Puretta Toothbrush Station
• Brush your teeth the way your dentist intended with the Oclean One
• How far can I drive this thing? Mercedes’ Concept EQ app battles range anxiety
• The best electric bikes you can buy
• Mazda, Toyota hold hands as they surf the industry’s electric car wave

Having seconds thoughts? Here’s how to recall an email in Outlook

We all know how it feels to click “Send” on an email, only to realize you’ve included an embarrassing mistake in it. Or even worse, you accidentally hit “Reply All” and sent your embarrassing mistake to the entire office. Before you start cringing at the thought of what you’ve done, we have some good news for you! A lot of email clients give people the ability to recall emails after they’ve been sent.

In this guide, we’ll teach you exactly how to recall an email in Outlook, Microsoft’s popular email client. So if you use Outlook to manage your email, check out the step-by-step process below for an easy way to pull those emails back from the brink.

Steps to recall Outlook emails

Step 1: Open your Sent Items folder, and look for the email you want to recall — it should be at the top of the list. Double-click to fully open it.

Step 2: Check the top of the window and make sure that you are in the Message tab. Then look for the dropdown menu that says Actions. It should be next to the Rules and Move email options in your taskbar.

Step 3: Click Actions followed by Recall This Message.

Note: You need an Exchange account for this option to be available. Also note that certain administrators may block this option, depending on your organization.

Step 4: You should now see the recall window that allows you to choose between simply deleting the unread copies of the message, or replacing the copy with a new message that contains proper information. You also get an option to receive a report on whether the recall succeeds or fails, on a recipient-by-recipient basis. Make the appropriate selections based on your situation, and then select “OK”.

If you deleted the message, congratulations — you just saved that embarrassing email from being read. If you want to replace it, continue to Step 5.

Step 5: If you create a replacement message, Outlook will take you to a new compose message screen. Just select “Send” whenever you are ready to start the recall process.

Note: If you send a recall message, it doesn’t exactly make your old email disappear. We’ll talk a little more about this is the section below, but in order to have the original message disappear, the recipient may have to open the recall message first. This is why it may be a good idea to put “URGENT” or something similar in the title of your recall message to make sure it gets opened before the other email.

Why email recall doesn’t always work

Starting the recall process doesn’t mean that it will work out the way you intended. With today’s internet speeds (unless you live in a dead zone) that mistaken email is probably already waiting in someone’s inbox, which creates a number of issues. Here are the factors that can nullify your recall — or at least make it more complicated.

• Opening messages: Basically, if a recipient opens your email, you can’t recall it. The recipient can still get the recall message and note that you really wanted to delete the first email, but it will stay in their Outlook system anyway. When that email is opened, all bets are off. That’s one reason why it’s important to act quickly.

• Redirects to other folders: If your first message activated a filter and was rerouted to a folder that isn’t the inbox, then your recall will fail. Bottom line, the recall option can only affect emails that stay around in the inbox. If the first message is waiting elsewhere, it won’t go away.

• Public folders: Public folders can make things complicated because if anyone reads your first email, the recall will fail. It doesn’t matter which recipient or login account tags the email as read, it’s still too late.

• Additional email apps: The recall function is designed to work with Outlook. If you are sending to someone who uses Gmail, for example, you can’t expect the recall option to work.

• Mobile apps: If you are using Exchange ActiveSync settings for Outlook on mobile devices, then the recall option may not work either. This seems like an oversight to us, and one that Microsoft may eventually address, but for now trying to recall on mobile devices is filled with uncertainty. Recalling is primarily a desktop solution.

We know it seems like there are a lot of pitfalls to this handy little feature. The solution to these potential snafus? If your recalls just aren’t working, we’ve got two ideas for you to improve the scenario:

Solution 1: Write an apology. Other than making sure to double-check your emails before you send them, this is the simplest solution to the problem. If you mistakenly sent an email to the wrong person/people and it wasn’t too egregious, it’s often better to save your time and tack on a quick “oops” apology note. In most cases, this works for most people and you can stop worrying about it.

Solution 2: Delay your emails. If you have a case of email butterfingers or are always busy replying and forwarding more sensitive types of information, you may want to consider delaying your emails. You can do this for all emails by going to “File,” selecting “Manage Rules and Alerts,” and choosing “New Rule.” Start from a “Blank Rule,” and skip conditions so that all emails are covered. Then in Step 1, select “Defer delivery by a number of minutes.” If you delay it by a couple of minutes, you can recall messages far more effectively when mistakes are made.

If this whole process has soured you on the Outlook email client, you could always use a disposable address. If you’d rather keep things local though, these are the best alternative email programs.

Editor’s Recommendations

• SMS to PC and back again: Here’s how to send a text message from a computer
• Outlook.com now knows where you live, and will move your data accordingly
• Turn Chrome OS into a powerhouse with the best Chromebook apps
• Unsend, unsend! New WhatsApp feature lets you take back sent messages
• How to block text messages on iOS and Android

It rains sunscreen on this ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet

Anyone who can conjure up a way to collect resources from Kepler-13Ab in the far future could become a sunscreen magnate. On the heavenly body, one of the hottest Jupiter-sized exoplanets the mission has ever discovered, titanium oxide falls from the skies. The planet is so close to its host star that, like our moon, one side permanently faces Kepler-13A while the other is permanently in darkness. This titanium oxide “snowfall” takes place on the dark side, because winds tend to carry it to colder areas.

On the dark side, the mineral that’s closely related to the active ingredient in physical sunscreens condenses into crystalline flakes and forms clouds. Those clouds don’t stay clouds for long, though: since Kepler-13Ab’s gravity is six times more intense than Jupiter’s, it’s strong enough to pull the mineral out of the upper atmosphere.

The team led by Thomas Beatty from Pennsylvania State University chose to study Kepler-13Ab, since its 5,000-degree-Fahrenheit daytime temps make it easier to observe than colder hot Jupiters. They used Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 to get a closer look at Kepler-13Ab’s atmosphere in near-infrared and found that it’s colder in the planet’s regions with higher altitudes. That’s pretty unusual, as it’s typically hotter in the higher regions of hot Jupiters. Titanium oxide lurks in their atmospheres in gaseous form, you see, absorbing light and radiating it as heat.

The colder temps provided the team the clue they needed to confirm that it rains sunscreen in extremely hot massive planets with incredibly strong surface gravity. Now, the scientists believe that this kind of precipitation actually occurs in most hot Jupiters — most just don’t have gravity that can compare to Kepler-13Ab’s, so their “sunscreen snow” doesn’t fall far enough and quickly turns back into gas.

[Image credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)]

Source: NASA

Twitter offered Russian media outlet 15 percent of its election ads

Twitter may have just given the boot to ads from Russia-backed media outlets, but it wasn’t quite so discerning in 2016. BuzzFeed News has obtained email showing that Twitter offered Russia Today up to 15 percent of its US election ad volume in June of last year. This wouldn’t have been nearly as large as Fox’s ad buy (32 percent) or CNN’s (56 percent), but there’s a real chance you would have noticed… had it gone through. While it’s not clear whether the reach or the $3 million price tag influenced the decision, RT turned the offer down.

Twitter didn’t challenge the legitimacy of the email, but said it doesn’t have any comment on private chats with “any advertiser, even a former advertiser.”

It’s important to note that word of the Democratic National Committee hack had only recently surfaced at the time Twitter was making its offer. And it wasn’t alone in unintentionally aiding a Russian propaganda effort. Just this week, word emerged that Facebook gave advertisers electoral demographics that made it easier for Russia to exploit social divisions. The Twitter scoop ultimately illustrates how internet giants weren’t fully aware of what could happen by courting key Russian advertisers.

Source: BuzzFeed News