Fast charge your iPhone even faster with this helpful trick

Charging your iPhone has become part of life’s daily routine. It’s a relatively painless chore as you just plug in a charger and wait till your iPhone has the necessary amount of juice so you can once again, start scrolling through Instagram and send bitmoji-filled text messages.

There are however, the rare instances when your iPhone needs to be charged faster than normal. For those instances, what is the fastest way for you to charge your iPhone? Thankfully Apple has you covered.

The iPhone 8, 8 plus, and iPhoneX support a form of fast charging, which can be implemented when you use an Apple USB-C to lightning cable and a MacBook’s 29W charger. Connecting the two will enable fast charging and significantly speed up the time your phone needs to be charged.

Once you are using the fast charger, you can noticeably cut down on charging time by performing one simple task – turn off your phone’s screen.

To get to this simple conclusion, we charged a completely dead iPhone 8 using three different methods: when Wifi was on, airplane mode turned on, and turning the phone screen off completely.

Here are the results of the test:

After 15 minutes

• Fast Charger with WiFi on: 25%
• Fast Charger with Airplane mode on: 25%
• Fast Charger with screen off: 27%

After 30 minutes

• Fast Charger with WiFi on: 47%
• Fast Charger with Airplane mode on: 47%
• Fast Charger with screen off: 50%

After 45 minutes

• Fast Charger with WiFi on: 68%
• Fast Charger with Airplane mode on: 68%
• Fast Charger with screen off: 72%

After 60 minutes

• Fast Charger with WiFi on: 79%
• Fast Charger with Airplane mode on: 79%
• Fast Charger with screen off: 82%

The difference between charging methods is relatively small but if you are trying to maximize your time, turn off your iPhone while its being charged.

David Cogen, a regular contributor here at Digital Trends, runs TheUnlockr.com, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him over at Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

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Qualcomm can start testing its self-driving tech in California

California has given a few more autonomous driving hopefuls permission to test vehicles on its roads, and one of them is a familiar name: Qualcomm. The chipmaker has received permission to test one vehicle and three drivers on December 12th, joining rival Nvidia and other companies that can test their technologies in the state. Qualcomm isn’t making its own self-driving cars the way Waymo is, though, and any vehicle it tests will contain the 9150 C-V2X chipset it announced a few months ago.

The chipset gives vehicles 360-degree non-line-of-sight awareness, as well as the ability communicate with one another and with infrastructure like traffic lights. Automakers could eventually use it to act as their autonomous cars’ safety systems. Nakul Duggal, the company’s VP for product management for automotive, told CNBC Qualcomm expects to be “a key player in the autonomous space.” The chipmaker has already begun conducting field trials of the chipset on Ford vehicles in San Diego County and will likely conduct tests in other parts of California. Qualcomm also plans to send test vehicles to Michigan, China, Germany, Italy and Japan to be able to gather data on the chipset’s performance in various locations and conditions.

Source: CNBC, DMV California

OnePlus 5 will get the 5T’s Face Unlock feature

The OnePlus 5T’s other party trick (besides the tall screen) is Face Unlock: a quick glimpse at your phone is all it takes to sign in. But is it really worth buying just so you don’t have to use a fingerprint reader? No — and OnePlus knows it. Company chief Carl Pei has tweeted that Face Unlock will be available on the OnePlus 5. He hasn’t given a time frame or said whether or not there will be any functional differences, but it’s good news for anyone worried that the phone maker would purposefully hold back to drive 5T sales.

The wider access is possible since Face Unlock is strictly a software feature. It’s not as secure as Apple’s Face ID (which uses depth mapping and projection to verify that it’s you), but it’s faster and more flexible. If there’s a gripe, it’s that there’s no known plans to bring Face Unlock to older phones like the 3 or 3T. You won’t feel burned if you just bought a OnePlus handset several months ago, but you might be out of luck if it’s significantly older than that.

Due to popular demand, Face Unlock is coming for the OnePlus 5. Thanks for the feedback, and merry Christmas! 🎅🎄🎁

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) December 24, 2017

Via: Android Police

Source: Carl Pei (Twitter)

What is an eSIM? Find out everything you need to know

The humble SIM card has survived for quite a while, but it now finally looks like it’s on its way out. Why? Well, the eSIM, a much smarter technology, is here to save the day.

Before we dive into what an eSIM is, it might be helpful to understand what a SIM is. A SIM, which stands for “subscriber identity module,” basically contains the information that authenticates your identity to a carrier. In other words, the SIM card is what tells a carrier that you’re you — and without it, carriers wouldn’t know that you’re subscribed to their network, and thus wouldn’t let you use their cell towers.

But learning about a standard SIM card isn’t why you’re here. Here’s everything you need to know about the new eSIM.

What is an eSIM?

An eSIM is exactly what it sounds like — an electronic, or embedded, SIM. Instead of a physical card, SIM technology is built right into your phone. It’s a small chip that’s used to authenticate your identity with your carrier.

Of course, you probably have some questions about that. With a traditional SIM card, you had to switch the SIM if you traveled and used a new carrier on your travels, or if you wanted to switch carriers. So does a built-in SIM mean that you have to switch phones? Thankfully, no. In fact, one of the advantages of eSIM technology is that it makes it much easier to switch carriers. Instead of having to order a new SIM and wait around for it to arrive, you can switch to a new carrier straight from your phone. If you’re a dual-SIM user, eSIM technology supports multiple accounts — and switching between them is super easy.

Those are the promises made by the GSM Alliance (GSMA), but what that will look like isn’t known just yet. It’s likely your phone will have a few new settings menus devoted to your SIM card, and will allow you to switch carriers and manage accounts straight from your phone. The Google Pixel 2 is among the first phones to support eSIM technology, and an app for managing your eSIM is available from the Google Play Store.

The eSIM will be helpful for another reason — it will help make devices smaller. Now, that may not matter all that much for phones (although a little extra room for battery capacity is always nice), but it could be extremely helpful for wearables. The Apple Watch Series 3 actually already has an eSIM, and that’s partly how Apple managed to keep the device pretty much the same size as previous generations of the Apple Watch.

When can I start using an eSIM?

It may be a while before the full potential of the eSIM is realized. Not only do handset manufacturers have to start making phones with eSIMs, but carriers also have to support the technology. That’s not just carriers in the U.S. either — considering eSIMs are arguably most useful when you’re traveling, it would be nice to see carriers around the globe adopt the technology. And that could take a while.

It is likely that eSIMs will also find a home in a new generation of LTE-connected computers. Those computers are just now starting to come out — but expect to see a lot more of them in the next few years.

Still, slowly but surely eSIMs will take over. If your carrier supports it, and your phone supports it, then that may be all you need to start using the new technology. For now, it’s likely that phones with eSIMs will still have traditional SIM card slots, but eventually those trays could go away altogether.

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Delta bids adieu to its iPad app after sales on the interface begin to flag

If you’re looking to book a flight on Delta, put down your iPad. It won’t help you anymore. The Atlanta-based airline has decided to discontinue the iPad version of its Fly Delta app, and as VentureBeat reports, the decision was likely due to rather anemic tablet ticket sales.

It’s not an altogether surprising move. Delta, in a sense, is just following market trends. In 2016, Target discontinued its iPad app after six years, noting that it had improved its website to create a more streamlined shopping experience across all devices. The company also pointed out that having fewer apps was more economically efficient, and would also allow in-demand engineers to work on more pressing projects. Other companies, including Walmart and Citibank, have followed suit, removing iPad apps to focus more on the web experience.

And even Apple seems to be noting this trend. In May, it was reported that the iPad Mini may soon be discontinued, and that the existing model of the diminutive tablet wouldn’t be receiving any further updates.

In an email to customers about Delta’s decision, the airline wrote that the iPhone version of the app as well as its website “are already more feature-rich than our standalone iPad app and have much higher customer satisfaction.” In fact, Delta pointed out, its iPhone app is “currently the highest-rated airline app in the App Store.”

And just because Delta is killing the iPad app doesn’t mean that you can’t use your tablet to book your next flight. You can still download Delta’s iPhone-optimized Fly Delta app, which will give you largely the same experience. The company told VentureBeat that the retirement of the iPad app will allow Delta to “focus on delivering a consistent customer experience through the channels our customers use most.”

Of course, not all users seem to be thrilled about the decision. On the FlyerTalk forum, one user noted the discontinuation, writing, “Opened FlyDelta app for iPad and got a message that it was no longer supported … try the website or the app for iPhone. What is this about? I really liked the iPad app.” Hopefully, folks will find a suitable alternative.

With Christmas approaching, keep an eye on Santa with the NORAD Tracks Santa app

App Attack is a weekly series where we search the App Store and Google Play Store for the best apps of the week. Check out App Attack every Sunday for the latest.

As Christmas day approaches, kids everywhere are gearing up for Santa to come visit with the presents they’ve been waiting for. Thanks to technology, they can also keep tabs on how close he is to their home. In honor of the holiday, this week’s app makes finding Santa a little bit easier — for both children and adults.

For some, the official NORAD Tracks Santa might be familiar — back when the internet browser was more impressive. The online version allows you to see exactly where Santa is on the map, in order to check if he’s near your area. But to accommodate our smartphone and tablet usage, there’s also an app available for both Android and iOS. Along with the tracker, there’s also more Christmas-themed content for children to enjoy.

The main page shows a countdown that lists how many hours, minutes, and seconds until the day of Christmas Eve. Once midnight hits, you’re able to watch as Santa flies across the globe in his sleigh with all the reindeer accounted for. Even though it allows you to access the tracker through the app, you’ll still be brought to a web browser in order to view it. Hopefully, a future update will integrate it into the app.

For those who haven’t experienced the tracker at all, it looks slightly similar to Google Maps. You can zoom in when he’s in a specific country, and see exactly what part of it he’s in in “real-time.” The top will provide you with where he was last seen, where he’s headed, and how many gifts he’s delivered so far. You can also tap on the camera icons from different parts of the world he’s visited to see what it looks like. On the bottom, there’s also a row of photos from places he’s visited that you can click on to learn more information about.

For more activities, you can head back into the app and tap on the main menu in the right corner. By tapping on North Pole, you’re brought to different options to choose from — Library, Theatre, Arcade, Music, Gift Shop, and NORAD HQ. This is where kids can either read Christmas-themed books, play a fun arcade game, learn more about NORAD, or watch YouTube videos of Santa getting ready for the big day. The music section is still listed as “coming soon,” but hopefully there’ll be a huge library of tunes by next Christmas.

While there’s a ton of fun stuff to do on the app, the tracker still remains the best part. Not to mention, children wait all year for this day — they deserve where to know exactly where their beloved Santa is. I’ll also admit, it’s weirdly calming to watch him travel across the globe even as an adult. And yes, even I find myself checking back every once in a while to see where he’s headed to next — don’t worry, it’s totally normal.

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Before ‘plantscrapers’ can grow food in the city, they’ll need to grow money

When Hans Hassle imagines the future, he sees urban farms and office spaces growing side-by-side. He sees half-green high rises providing Stockholm with lettuce, spinach, and swiss chard. Herbs grow underground. During winter, heat from grow lamps is recovered to help heat the buildings. Employees might not smell the crops growing across the hall, but they breathe their filtered air and they’ll probably eat them for lunch.

“If we will farm the same way we do today, we will have to grow food in cities.”

Hassle envisions a similar scene in every big city. There might be more bok choy grown in Singapore or napa cabbage in Seoul. Crops may differ depending on a city’s tastes preferences and population density. But no city is exempt for being too tropical or too temperate. Hassle hopes his company, Plantagon, can provide solutions for any climate.

With the right infrastructure, major cities around the world may someday grow a fraction of their produce in towering “plantscrapers,” hybrid buildings that combine vertical farms with residential or business spaces. In fact, Hassle thinks they’ll have to.

Growing crops for a growing world

Agriculture accounts for over 37 percent of all land area use on Earth, according to the World Bank, and that figure is set to increase as the global population continues to rise, particularly within cities, where 80 percent of the population is projected to live by 2050.

“If we will farm the same way we do today, then the lack of land issue will be one reason to try to grow food inside cities,” Hassle tells Digital Trends. “That would put food as close to consumers as possible.”

Urban agriculture is practically as old as civilization itself, but  locally-grown food movements have increased interest, as communities search for more sustainable ways to feed themselves.

Bringing crops closer to consumers means eliminating much of the financial and environmental strain caused by transportation, sometimes including thousands of miles between farm and table. But, since few cities have the real estate available to convert buildings into conventional farms, a handful of innovators are looking for solutions upwards and underground.

One such innovation is multilayered greenhouses called vertical farms, which can be erected in urban areas like skyscrapers.

“There’s little land [in cities] because most is already used,” Hassle says. “And you don’t want to use, for example, recreational areas. So if you start to discuss how to grow food with little land inside a dense city, then you end up talking rooftops, basements, and vertically.”

Unfortunately, real estate comes at premium in cities, even when a building’s footprint is relatively small. And that makes finding a profitable solution difficult.

Thomas Zöllner

“Making a commercial viability out of growing food in an urban setting is primarily challenged by the expense of the land that your building on,” Thomas Zöllner, Vice Chair of the non-profit Association of Vertical Farming, says. “When you’re doing that calculation and you talk to real estate developers, they’ll quickly tell you that you have to generate quite a good return on investment with whatever you do in order to pay for this square footage.”

Plantagon plans to address that problem with by leveraging the proven side of real estate to support the economically risky urban agriculture side. Rather than developing buildings that are strictly dedicated to vertical farms, Plantagon is pushing for hybrid structures that could integrate with our living spaces, satisfying a number of needs and functioning as a symbiotic system. In other words, the main tenants might be office spaces or residences, while a portion of the building would be reserved for crops. The company uses the term “agritechture” to describe the process of weaving urban agricultural interests into contemporary architecture in an effort to meet local food demands.

The Plantagon approach

There are a lot of startups focusing on urban vertical farming in cities around the world. Besides its agritechture idea, Plantagon brings to the table a series of techniques to make the process more efficient. For example, the company has introduced a vertical production line that rotates crops from floor to ceiling as they grow. Working something like a merry-go-round, the system brings crops back to floor-level once they’ve grown for ease of harvesting. Its other innovations relate to energy and climate control.

“If you can’t reuse the energy that the LED lamps use, it’s difficult to compete with normal prices,” Hassle says. “But if we can reuse the energy, if the supply chain is short enough, then we can compete with wholesale prices.”

“Vertical farming has still not been proven to be commercially viable.”

Vertical farms won’t replace conventional farms any time soon. They’ll be limited by the kinds and quantity of crops they can grow while still turning a profit. For now, Plantagon has focused its efforts on leafy green and herds, but Hassle says, “We don’t want to develop all this technology to only grow herbs for people. That won’t solve the upcoming food crisis.”

Plantagon boasts that its technology has “infinite scalability,” which is to say it’s constrained only by the size of the buildings themselves. Still, implementing such systems is expensive and developers proably won’t be very keen to allocate half of their shiny new building to food production without proof of profitability.

“Vertical farming has still not proven that you can make a living growing food on multiple layers,” Zöllner says. “It’s proven that you can do it on a single layer with the help of LEDs or other lights sources, but it hasn’t been proven that you can do this from a grower’s perspective on a multilayer.”

Other experts agree that vertical farming shows promise but lacks evidence as a sustainable, large scale approach for the future of food. To Hassle’s own calculations, vertical farms may only supply ten to fifteen percent of our future produce needs. While that helps, it certainly won’t feed the planet.

Growing pains

At least two more challenges face Plantagon and the vertical farming industry at large, according to Zöllner — the needs for labor and food safety standards.

“Today, the real challenge for a vertical farm trying to scale is finding people to run, direct, and operate it,” he says. “And to find enough people willing to stick to the job, doing simple things like harvesting.” Still, in the not so distant future, automated machines may well take on the workload.

As for food safety, Zöllner thinks that a vertical farm’s apparent cleanliness could lull operators into a false sense of security.

“The vertical farm space is a very clean space, it will be less chemically intensive than a lot of the conventional agriculture, but it also creates and environment where you have a lot of issues with bacteria growth,” he says. “The moment a company sells something that gets a consumer sick, that will be a real blow to the industry. They’ll have to start planning now with conventional food safety on hand to try to prevent a disastrous outcome like that.”

Zöllner has followed Plantagon for a few years and says he’s been impressed with the company’s unique approach, but is careful not to get too enthusiastic.

“It’s interesting,” he says, “the dimension of a vision combined with resources and translating them into something feasible. The sad part is they haven’t yet built their building.”

Despite the buzz it’s created, Plantagon has struggled to erect its plantscrapers in the real world. The company broke ground on its “World Food Building” in 2012, but the project remains in slow progress. Located a couple hours south of Stockholm, in the city of Linköping, the World Food Building is designed as a massive greenhouse and office space that Plantagon says will produce 500 metric tons of food annually once fully functional. Earlier this month, the company also launched a crowdfunding campaign called CityFarms, a series of underground farming operations in Stockholm.

The world might not yet need Plantagon and its technology, but Hassle plans to be there once it does. “The challenge for us being so early in development, is to implement the technology with the market now before it really needs these big scale vertical farms,” he says. By then, Hassle hopes to see his vision come to fruition.

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Best apps to turn your Huawei MediaPad tablet into a laptop replacement

Can I turn my tablet into a laptop? For the most part, yes.

The idea of replacing your laptop with a tablet has always been a fever dream, but with a Bluetooth keyboard and the right apps, it could actually be possible for the right kind of person. Here are a few great apps for the Huawei MediaPad that could help you leave your laptop behind.

See at Amazon

Best writing app: Google Docs

It’s hard to beat Google’s own writing app. Google Docs is a free and powerful writing app that syncs to the cloud to automatically save your progress as you write. There are plenty of useful tools for formatting, and Docs even has collaborative features to write with someone else remotely.

Best of all, it’s able to open and export Microsoft Word documents, making it a versatile service for college students, businesses, or just about anyone else who needs a word processor.

Download: Google Docs

Best photo-editing app: Snapseed

Snapseed has long been one of the most popular mobile photo editing apps, and for good reason. Its gesture-based controls make it easy to quickly edit photos, and when it comes time to do some more involved edits, Snapseed offers professional features like tone curves, perspective shifts, and a healing tool.

Snapseed can even handle RAW photos, meaning you don’t have to wait until you’re at your computer with Lightroom to edit those unprocessed shots from your Galaxy S8 or LG V30.

Download: Snapseed

Best video-editing app: Quik

This is a pretty easy choice, since there just aren’t many video editing apps on Android in the first place. Quik by GoPro uses the videos and photos you’ve already taken to create montages, highlight reels, or pretty much any kind of video you’d want to produce on the go.

You can set Quik to automatically sync your video clips to music with Smart Cuts, or dive in and handle the cuts yourself. You’re also able to import media from your Google Photos library, even if that media isn’t already stored locally on the MediaPad.

Download: Quik

Show off split-screen

The MediaPad M3 Lite 10 has a large 10.1-inch display, and there are plenty of ways to make good use of that screen real estate. I’ve always particularly enjoyed running Google Maps and a social network like Twitter to the side, and when I’m writing I usually have my note-taking app and Chrome open simultaneously for research and references.

Of course, if you’re in the middle of an important conversation with a friend while you’re watching a YouTube video or shopping on Amazon, you can always run Hangouts or Slack in a small window to the side.

See at Amazon

Read more: 5 reasons why you should consider the Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite 10 as your next tablet

Subaru’s Crosstrek is a small but value-packed SUV

Subaru sells emotion. Their entire marketing strategy is about “love,” which is actually a pretty accurate take on how we buy cars. There’s very little logic in a lot of our buying decisions. Consider how much time some of us spend in our vehicles — there’s nothing wrong with picking an automobile that gives you some sense of happiness. That’s led to a rise in SUV sales, because big cars make Americans happy. Seeing the market for SUV grow while not having one its own to sell, Subaru introduced the Crosstrek, a crossover that will appeal to buyers looking for an all-wheel drive in a big (but not too big) package.

Starting at $21,795, the Crosstrek is an inexpensive entry into the crossover market from a company best known for its all-wheel-drive vehicles. Throw in 8.7 inches of ground clearance, an upgraded infotainment system and up to 33 miles per gallon, and it’s no surprise that the Crosstrek’s sales have increased year-over-year since its introduction in 2014. If only the engine had a bit more get-up-and-go from the engine.

Behind the wheel, the Crosstrek smoothes out road bumps and potholes splendidly for a car in its price range. While I was unable to find any appropriate off-road locations in the Bay Area that didn’t require me to break a host of local laws, the streets in my San Francisco neighborhood are currently being ripped up by construction crews. These mangled avenues gave us a good indication that even when faced with asphalt drop-offs, ruts and speed bumps, the Crossover delivers a comfortable ride.

That ride doesn’t translate into a switchback-munching, cornering machine. But it can hold its own during everyday driving on the clover-leaf highway off ramp and around the corners of the local subdivision. Not that you can push the Crosstrek too much into those turns. With a 2-liter, 4-cylinder Boxer engine putting out 152 horsepower and 145 pounds of torque, this small SUV needs a good, long runway to get up to freeway speed. The zero-to-60 time is about nine seconds. So sit back, relax, and don’t expect to go blasting onto the highway.

While we pine for a turbo shoved under the hood, overall the Crosstrek drives better than its price would suggest. That value proposition continues on the inside as well. The front and back seats are both comfortable and this new model is also roomier than the previous generation, which was introduced in 2014. The trunk, meanwhile, has enough space for a couple to take a weekend getaway, even if they overpack. Plus, the rear seats fold down to increase the space for an entire weeks jaunt (which for me translates into about six pieces of luggage) with plenty of room for some sporting equipment, too.

In addition to expanding the cabin, Subaru added its latest infotainment system, called StarLink — a marked improvement over the technology it replaces. Though the design and UI feel reminiscent of a budget tablet, it’s still better-looking and easier to use than a lot of other systems on the market. It does suffer from some latency issues, though, especially when you’re swiping left and right. Also, my taps on icons were occasionally met with a two-second delay. Still, the time between tap and action usually wasn’t any worse than the rest of the systems on the market. Fortunately, Starlink supports both Android Auto and CarPlay for your portable computer needs.

Above the touchscreen (you have a choice of 6.5 or 8 inches) is an additional display that I found quite useful. With it, you can see additional information like the time, weather, average fuel consumption and turn-by-turn directions, to name a few examples.

The rest of the dash and controls can only be described as utilitarian. Subaru isn’t known for its cutting-edge controls design layout. It’s nice if you’re tired of searching for or trying to decipher a button or knob. But it lacks any real flair.

Instead, most of the design team’s efforts seem to have gone into the exterior. Though this compact SUV has some striking lines and angles, it still doesn’t come close to the aggressive corners and fins you’ll find on something like the new Honda Civic. The design is softer, so as to appeal to a broader group of customers.

During my elevated-seat drives I got a chance to check out Subaru’s driver assistance package EyeSight. The adaptive cruise control did a fine job in both moving traffic and gridlock. But if you come to a stop and the car isn’t moving again after a few seconds, the system will shut off. It does have an audible alert to tell you it’s about to hand control back to the driver. Still, if you’re stuck in non-stop stop-and-go traffic will multiple long pauses, this can get annoying.

The lane assist feature, meanwhile, is more of a suggestion. It helps you stay in your lane while you’re actively driving, but it’s not really made to keep the car on track for long stretches like Tesla’s Autopilot feature. Instead, it just sort of nudges you if you’re veering too close to the edge of your lane.

Sadly, EyeSight is not available on the base level Crosstrek. That option starts at $1,400 for the mid-level Premium trim and $2,100 for the high-end Limited trim (the version I tested). Without the added safety feature, the Crosstrek–even with its lack of power–is a fun all-wheel-drive value that has the potential to win the brand even more fans. Sure, the Subaru Forester has more cargo space and starts at only about $1,000 more, but it’s a wagon and people (Americans, at least) seem to be in love with SUVs. It’s that love that Subaru is counting on.

Tesla ‘Santa Mode’ Easter egg turns your EV into a winter wonderland

Tesla is no stranger to offering Easter eggs that get you into the holiday spirit, but its latest is particularly… festive. Dive into the Easter egg section on your EV and you’ll discover a reindeer button that invokes a Santa Mode. To say it brings a Christmas vibe to your car would be an understatement. It turns your car into Santa’s sleigh on the dash display (and other cars into reindeer), but that’s really just the start of the flourishes.

The new mode plays the late, great Chuck Berry’s version of “Run Rudolph Run” when it first kicks in, for one thing. You’ll also hear sleigh bells when you invoke a turn signal. And if you’re fortunate enough to have a car with Autopilot, the road ahead will suddenly turn icy. The kicker? There may even be more — Elon Musk has hinted that there’s an “Easter egg inside the Easter egg, but it’s not funny.” We’re still trying to discover what that is, but it’s evident that Santa Mode is as much a challenge as it is a treat for drivers.

Some drivers are less than thrilled with Santa Mode. Those with newer cars are frustrated that their Autopilot software still lacks some parity with pre-October 2016 vehicles months after they were supposed to catch up. However, Easter eggs are relatively easy to implement, so it’s not surprising that Tesla could whip this up. And let’s face it, this is one of the perks of owning a Tesla in the first place. The combination of all-digital displays and frequent software updates lets Tesla add little delights that you couldn’t get if you had to stare at an old-school instrument cluster.

Source: Electrek, DragTimes (YouTube), Elon Musk (Twitter)