Valve loses appeal over Steam refund policy in Australia

Valve will have to pay the piper over its former Steam refund policy. Australia’s Full Court of the Federal Court has dismissed Valve’s appeals of a ruling and accompanying fine (worth $2.2 million US) over its allegedly misleading Steam customer guarantees. As the company conducts business in Australia, the country’s Competition and Consumer Commission said, it’s beholden to national consumer protection laws — and that means getting your money back if a game’s quality isn’t up to snuff.

This is water under the bridge for the most part, since Valve has already altered its practices to allow refunds within two weeks. However, the end to its case is bound to set an “important precedent,” as the ACCC said. Digital stores that operate in Australia will have to accommodate its refund policies regardless of what’s acceptable in their home territories. This doesn’t mean they have to implement the same policy worldwide (like Valve did), but they at least have to make exceptions.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: ACCC

Apple apologizes for confusion over slowdowns with older iPhones

Apple has been in hot water for the last few weeks after the company admitted that it sometimes reduced processor speeds on iPhones with aging batteries as a way to balance performance and battery life. Today, the company is apologizing for not being more transparent with its customers and released more details on how exactly iOS manages battery and performance.

For starters, the company says that “we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.” That’s been perhaps the biggest point of contention among unhappy owners who feel that Apple has reduced their phone’s performance as a way to drive more sales.

To help mitigate the confusion Apple caused, the company is now offering reduced out-of-warranty battery replacement. For $29, you can get a new battery for your phone regardless of whether it’s covered by AppleCare or not; that’s down from the old $79 fee. Additionally, Apple says it is going to release an iOS update early next year that’ll give users more info on the health of their iPhone’s battery so they can see if its condition is affect phone performance.

Apple also explained what various users have figured out over the last week. First, it explained the circumstances under which batteries age and degrade over time, something that’s unavoidable for any battery-powered device at this point. The company also notes that older, chemically aged batteries are “less capable of delivering peak energy loads, especially in a low state of charge” — the issue that led to unexpected shutdowns on some phones.

To mitigate that, iOS 10.2.1 included a feature that “improves power management” to avoid unexpected shut downs in the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus and SE. “With the update, iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown,” Apple writes. “While these changes may go unnoticed, in some cases users may experience longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance.” Apple later rolled this out to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with iOS 11.2.

Apple said that in recent months, it has heard more feedback from users about degraded performance in specific situations, which the company believes is coming from “continued chemical aging” of batteries coupled with minor bugs and a “normal, temporary performance impact” that comes with software upgrades. The company didn’t originally consider the batteries in the equation but now believes the the original batteries in older phones are likely playing a role.

Ultimately, Apple appears to have wizened up and explained exactly what’s going on here, which is really what it should have done from the start. The explanation for how iOS balances performance and battery life seems reasonable, but it’s something that consumers should be made aware of. We’ll be keeping an eye out for the next version of iOS and what exactly the new battery health indicator tells users. In the meantime, if you have an older phone and want to get as much power out of it as you can, it might be worth taking advantage of the reduced battery replacement program.

Source: Apple

iMac Pro Now Available for Pickup at Apple Stores in Australia and Japan

Following initial shipments of the iMac Pro that have started to be delivered to customers over the past few days, the iMac Pro is now available for pickup at many Apple retail stores in Australia and Japan.

Apple’s website lists the iMac Pro as available for pickup today at around half of its retail locations in Australia and Japan, but for now it appears that only the base model has immediate availability, allowing customers to place orders online from store stock.

While we’re currently seeing pickup available only in Australia and Japan, it’s possible other countries with personal pickup could see similar availability once the clock rolls around to Friday in those countries.

Since the workstation is highly customizable, many customers may still prefer to order from Apple’s online store, where exact tech specs, accessories, and software add-ons like Final Cut Pro X can be selected as desired.

iMac Pro starts at $4,999 for a base 8-core model in the United States, with 10-core models available from $5,799, and these configurations are currently estimated for delivery by early to mid January from Apple’s U.S. online store. 14-core and 18-core models start at $6,599 and $7,399, but they don’t ship for 5-7 weeks.

Online, every configuration has optional upgrades available for storage, memory, and graphics, with prices topping out at $13,199 for a maxed-out, high-end model with an 18-core Intel Xeon processor, 4TB of SSD storage, 128GB of ECC RAM, and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB of HBM2 memory.

Related Roundup: iMac ProBuyer’s Guide: iMac Pro (Buy Now)
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Best Wireless Chargers for iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus

With the release of the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple now supports Qi-based wireless inductive charging on its latest phones, and that means charging pads have quickly become popular accessories for iPhone owners.

Apple’s favored partners for wireless charging pads are Belkin and mophie, and Apple is carrying a $60 charger from each company in its own online and retail stores. But there are lots of other options available on the market, and we’ve had a chance to try out a number of them, so we’re rounding them up in this guide, which we’ll continue to update going forward.

5W vs. 7.5W Charging

While the new iPhones initially supported only 5-watt charging, the iOS 11.2 update increased that to 7.5 watts for faster charging.

In practice it’s not a huge difference in speed, and many users may not even notice it considering how easy wireless charging makes it to keep your phone topped off, but it’s worth keeping in mind that some wireless chargers only support 5 watts while others support 7.5 watts and even higher 10-watt or 15-watt capabilities seen on some other devices. Certainly for iPhones, if you need a quick charge, you’re going to want to use at least a 12-watt wired solution, if not an even faster USB-C option.

But as far as wireless charging options go, it’s also important to note that it’s not as simple as your iPhone uniformly charging at 7.5 watts on any charger that supports at least that much power. Wireless charging is a dynamic process that involves constant communication between the device and the charger to adjust charging power, and phone manufacturers are constantly refining their algorithms for managing wireless charging.

Inductive wireless charging can generate significant amounts of heat, especially at higher wattages, and phones and chargers work together to mitigate this by reducing the power draw and thus charging speed (sometimes significantly) once temperatures rise past certain thresholds. Some chargers even include built-in fans to try to keep temperatures lower to allow for longer periods of fast charging.

Phones will also generally charge faster the more the battery has run down, slowing down as the battery fills up to prevent overcharging. Similarly, many phones that support fast charging will draw maximum power for a brief period as charging begins in anticipation of a quick refill, but then slow down to a more sustainable longer-term power draw. Exactly how that charging is managed is largely up to the phone manufacturer.

Wireless charging tends to see different usage patterns than wired solutions, with wireless charging users more likely to charge for brief periods throughout the day to keep their batteries topped off rather than running all the way down and then fully recharging.

There are currently only two “Apple-approved” 7.5-watt charging pads on the market: Belkin’s Boost Up and mophie’s wireless charging base. Apple hasn’t disclosed whether there is something unique about those two pads in comparison to other 7.5-watt (and higher) chargers, but it’s probably fair to say that Apple worked closely with Belkin and mophie ahead of time to ensure optimal performance with the new iPhones and we’ve heard from several other manufacturers that they’re working on developing their own chargers that will support fully optimized 7.5-watt charging with iPhones now that Apple has opened up its requirements to all partners.

While we have seen somewhat faster charging with Belkin’s 7.5-watt charger compared to 5-watt wired and wireless options, that difference isn’t always readily apparent considering the variety of factors such as current battery capacity, device and ambient temperature, device alignment with the charging coils, and more. As a result, in almost all cases my recent testing has seen relatively similar charging rates using chargers from a variety of manufacturers at 5 watts, 7.5 watts, and higher.

Given that wired charging remains the best option for a quick recharge and that wireless charging speed is fairly unimportant in many other scenarios such as overnight or extended time at a desk, even 5-watt chargers will be just fine for many users. But if you want to make sure your charger is optimized to work with your iPhone, you might want to stick to the Belkin Boost Up or mophie wireless charging pad for the time being. Options will improve over time as other vendors roll out their own chargers likely to be certified under Apple’s MFi program.

Stability

The glass backs on the new iPhones are incredibly slippery, and many users have reported their phones sliding out of alignment with wireless chargers due to vibrations from notifications. I’ve even seen my iPhone X slowly slide out of position on chargers without any phone vibrations, simply due to my desk surface not being completely level (up to about a one degree tilt in certain spots).

I do use my iPhone X with Apple’s leather case, which provides significant extra grip compared to a naked phone. Most of these chargers also have some sort of non-slip ring or full surface to help mitigate the issue, but it’s something to be aware of if you don’t like to use a case on your phone.

WPC Certification

The Qi wireless charging standard is overseen by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), a group Apple joined in February 2017. The industry group dedicated to development of the open standard runs a certification program that allows manufacturers to submit verification that their products comply with the latest Qi specifications. Certified products appear in the WPC database and are allowed to carry the Qi logo.

Interestingly, neither the Belkin nor mophie charger approved by Apple shows up in the database, although both chargers carry the Qi logo on their packaging and both companies have registered other chargers with the WPC. Belkin did confirm to MacRumors that the Boost Up has been certified, so it’s unclear why not all chargers are listed at the present time unless there is simply some lag in getting certifications processed and into the database. Even the iPhone X itself doesn’t show up in the database, while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are listed.

In general, the lack of a Qi logo and WPC certification doesn’t necessarily mean that a charger is dangerous or substandard in performance, and there are plenty of non-certified chargers on the market that work just fine. But the WPC does point out that untested chargers can pose risks related to overheating and foreign metal detection, so if certification is something you’re interested in for peace of mind, make sure to look up any potential purchases in the WPC database, which is updated daily.

List of Chargers

We’ve tested two dozen different Qi chargers from over ten different manufacturers and shared our brief impressions below. Chargers labeled as “certified” currently appear in the WPC’s database of Qi-certified devices or have otherwise been confirmed to be certified.

Pricing at the time of publication is listed for each charger, but is subject to change and we aim to keep this guide updated as prices change. Additional chargers may also be added to this guide over time as we have opportunities to test them.

Anker

– PowerPort Qi 10 ($25.99) – This charging pad is about as small as it gets, coming in at roughly 3.25 inches square and only a quarter of an inch thick, much thinner than most other chargers.

Anker PowerPort Qi 10
A series of blue LEDs around the edge light up and flash a few times when you place your phone on the charger, but they quickly go out and are not disturbing in dark environments. The pad supports up to 10 watts of charging power, and it comes with a 3-foot micro-USB cable but no power adapter.

– PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad ($18.59) – This is a pretty straightforward mid-size round wireless charging pad. It’s a little under 4 inches in diameter and has some fairly small Anker branding on the charging surface.

Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad
There’s a small blue LED near the edge of the top surface that lights up for a few seconds when the pad is plugged in and then shines solid when your phone is on the charger. The light blinks if a poor charging connection is detected or if an overheating condition develops. This is only a 5-watt charger, but as with other chargers we tested, in practice the speed difference is pretty minimal.

– PowerPort Wireless 5 Charging Stand ($26.99) – This is currently my favorite stand style charging pad. It’s a simple plastic stand with some Anker branding on the rear support, and it has a small blue circular LED that lights up only when your phone is charging. The stand has two charging coils built into the rear support, offering flexibility in size and orientation of phones used with it. As a result, it can charge your iPhone not only upright in portrait orientation but also in landscape, which is handy for watching videos.

Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 Stand
This is only a 5-watt charger, but it performed nearly on par with most other chargers, and any slowness in charging is a non-issue for my usage pattern where I typically keep my phone topped off on the charger at my desk throughout the day.

– PowerPort Wireless ($17.99) – Anker’s budget charger offers only 5 watts of charging power and includes a very prominent wireless charging logo on its surface, so it’s not one of my favorite picks. In addition to the large logo, it has a ring of non-slip material near the edge, and a ring of silver color just outside that, so it really does stand out when sitting unused on a desk or table.

Anker PowerPort Wireless
The PowerPort Wireless is quite compact at just 2.25 inches in diameter, and it comes with a micro-USB cable. There are a couple of small LEDs in the edge of the charger, one that shines red when connected to power and a second that shines blue when a phone is on the charger. For compatible devices, once your device is fully charged, both the red and blue lights will come on.

Aukey

– LC-Q1 Wireless Fast Charger ($24.99) – Aukey’s top entrant for iPhone wireless charging is the LC-Q1, which supports up to 10 watts of charging power. The LC-Q1 uses a USB-C cable, and a 1.2-meter USB-C to USB-A cable is included in the box, although you’ll have to supply your own power adapter. USB-C doesn’t give you much of an advantage over the micro-USB connectors seen on most other wireless chargers, but if you’re all-in on moving to USB-C it’s perhaps a way to cut down on the number of cables you need to have on hand. And USB-C has the reversibility advantage, so it’s easier to plug it into the charger, although that’s typically not something you’re going to need to do very often.

Aukey LC-Q1
The LC-Q1 has a rather unique rounded triangular shape to it and measures just over 4 inches across at its widest points. The round charging surface is raised ever so slightly above the main body of the charger, and there’s some gray Aukey branding on the pad. There’s also a small LED on the surface of the charger that shines white while connected to power and green while charging a phone. The LC-Q1 even includes a built-in fan underneath the charging surface, which exhausts through the bottom of the charger, although it only kicks in when charging at 10 watts to prevent overheating, so you won’t see that in action with an iPhone.

Belkin

– BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Pad ($59.87 – certified) – Like the mophie wireless charging base, Belkin’s charging pad is an “Apple-approved” accessory, supporting up to 7.5 watts of charging power. Its white color stands out among most of the other black options, and at 4.5 inches in diameter it’s quite a large charger.

Belkin BOOST↑UP
A small green LED near the edge lights up when charging, and the charger uses an included proprietary power adapter/cable. For more on the Belkin Boost Up, check out our hands-on video.

Choetech

– T520 ($22.99) – Like the similar offering from Anker, Choetech’s T520 is a stand-style charger, offering up to 10 watts of charging power with 2 coils for some flexibility in aligning with devices and thus allowing for charging in landscape orientation.

Choetech T520
The T520 includes a micro-USB cable but no power adapter, and has Choetech branding on the rear support. It has an LED strip along the bottom front of the charger that shines blue whenever the charger is connected to power and green when a phone is charging. Depending on your preference, this can either be a rather cool lighting effect or a distraction.

– T511 ($15.99) – The T511 is a fairly basic 7.5-watt charger, with a simple square design that’s roughly 3.5 inches on each side. It’s black with a slightly raised dark gray wireless charging symbol on its surface, and there’s a blue rectangular LED in the front edge of the charger that lights up during charging. A micro-USB cable is included.

Choetech T511
– T513 ($15.99) – Choetech’s T513 is a rectangular charging pad measuring about 4.75 inches by 2.5 inches, with a matte black plastic top and a large gray wireless charging icon on the surface that’s slightly raised to give a little bit of grip. A blue LED at one corner of charging pad lights up to let you know when your phone is charging and goes off when charging is completed.

Choetech T513
With 7.5 watts of output, this is touted as a three-coil charger, which should give you more flexibility in where you place your phone on the pad. In practice, however, I found this to be among the most frustrating pads, as I was unable to get it to charge my phone when it was centered on the pad. Only when I slid my phone down so the top edges of the phone and charger were roughly even could I get a charge to work, which isn’t the most stable arrangement. I’m not sure if this is intended or if my unit is defective, but based on my experience I have a hard time recommending this one. A micro-USB cable is included.

– T811C-S ($16.99) – This is a fairly compact 10-watt charging pad that uses a USB-C connection and includes a USB-C to USB-A cable but no power adapter. The T811C is a squarish pad just over 3.25 inches across with non-skid strips along each of the four sides and subtle Choetech branding. An LED on the front side shines blue while standard charging and green while fast charging at 10 watts, which again you won’t see when using an iPhone.

Choetech T811C-S
– T517 ($14.99–$15.99) – This is a round 7.5-watt charger with a rather unique look to it, although there is fairly prominent Choetech branding on the charging surface. It’s available in several different colors, and the one I tested was in a combination of black, white, and silver.

Choetech T517
A translucent edge around the entire perimeter of the charger allows a diffuse blue glow to shine through around the front edge while your phone is charging. An ambient light sensor in the charger allows that glow to brighten or dim depending on the environment, which makes the light easy to see during the day yet subtle in the dark on a nightstand, for example.

Incipio

– Ghost Qi 15W Wireless Charging Base ($59.99 list, $35.99 at Best Buy – certified) – The Ghost Qi wireless charger from Incipio offers a fairly small form factor at about 3.5 inches square. At $60 it comes in at the high-end of the range for these types of chargers, but it can sometimes be found for significantly cheaper. It does offer 15 watts of charging power, which is obviously overkill for iPhones, but if you’ve got other Qi devices around the house that support the fastest currently available speeds, this might be a consideration.

Incipio Ghost Qi 15W
It has an LED on the front edge of the base that shines solid when charging at 5 watts and pulses white when fast charging at 9–15 watts, which of course leaves the current 7.5-watt charging standard unaccounted for in the middle. The LED also flashes red briefly when the charger is plugged in and will shine red to signify abnormal operation during the charging process. The charging pad has four small grippy pads to help keep it in place on your desk, and you’re going to need them because the Ghost Qi comes with a proprietary adapter/cable combo and near the end of the cable is a ferrite bead to suppress high-frequency interference, and it adds a fair amount of weight that can exert some pressure on the pad.

The charger also emitted a slight “ticking” sound when my iPhone X was placed on the pad in certain orientations. The sound is related to oscillations within the charging coils that isn’t unheard of in Qi charging systems (I also hear it from my mophie charge force case for my iPhone 7 Plus), but which I did not pick up on from any other charger I tested for this guide. I was able to eliminate the noise by adjusting the phone’s position, but the sweet spot seemed pretty small and I can see it potentially becoming annoying trying to find a good position that avoids the ticking.

– Ghost Qi 3-Coil Wireless Charging Pad ($59.99 list, $29.99 at Best Buy – certified) – This is a large 5-watt charging pad with a somewhat rectangular shape, measuring roughly 5.5 inches long by 2.75 inches wide. While it’s a large pad, it’s almost exactly the same size and shape as an iPhone X, which means it doesn’t really waste a whole lot of space. With a 3-coil design, there’s some good flexibility in how you can place your phone on the pad and still get a charge.

Incipio Ghost Qi 3-Coil Charger
Lining the rim of the charger’s front edge is an LED that shines blue while charging, blinks red if your phone alignment isn’t quite right, and shines steady red if there is another issue with the operation of the charger. The LED is quite bright, which means this charger may not be a good nightstand option for many users. The charging pad also emits a single high-pitched beep when a phone is placed on it and charging begins. Some users may appreciate the beep as an audible confirmation of charging, while others may prefer their chargers be silent.

The charger has four small grippy pads on the bottom to keep it in place, and it comes with a proprietary power adapter/cable combo that locks into a slot on the pad to ensure it doesn’t come loose, and like the 15W Ghost Qi charger, the cable does have a ferrite bead on it. The rectangular form factor is somewhat unique and the blue LED looks neat if you want a charger that adds some style to your desk, but the $60 price point is a little hard to swallow for a 5-watt charger if you can’t find this one on sale.

Insignia

– Qi Certified Wireless Charging Pad for iPhone ($39.99 – certified) – Best Buy’s house brand Insignia has launched a Qi charger that offers up to 10 watts of charging power and comes with both a micro-USB cable and a power adapter. The black charging pad just under four inches in diameter is fairly unobtrusive, although it does have a gray Qi logo on its surface.

Insignia Wireless Charging Pad
An LED ring around the edge of the charger offers a fairly nice look, although it could be distracting in a dark room. It flashes purple when you first plug in the charger, shines solid blue while standard charging, and solid purple when fast charging at 10 watts with a compatible device (which the iPhone obviously is not). It’ll shine red if the phone isn’t charging properly. The charger has a really nice grippy ring around the bottom that will keep it in place on your desk, table, or nightstand.

mophie

– Wireless Charging Base ($59.95) – This is one of the “Apple-approved” options, supporting up to 7.5 watts for full compatibility with the new iPhones. The round puck-shaped charger comes in black and includes a proprietary one-piece power adapter/cable combination that plugs into the rear of the charging pad.

mophie wireless charging base
It has a fairly bright white LED that comes on while your phone is charging, but its placement under the front edge of the charger means it’s not too distracting in dark rooms. Overall this is a nice option, but it comes with a hefty price tag. For more on the mophie wireless charging base, check out our hands-on video.

– Charge Force Wireless Charging Base ($39.95 list, $35.06 at Amazon – certified) – This rectangular charging pad has been around for quite a while as part of mophie’s charge force series of wireless charging cases, which I’ve used on my iPhone 7 Plus for nearly a year. It’s a nice, slim form factor that matches that of an iPhone, so it doesn’t take up extra space on a desk or nightstand.

mophie charge force wireless charging base
The charge force base and cases include magnets that keep things aligned for optimal charging, but this obviously won’t help with any of the new iPhones that have the wireless charging built in. On the downside, this pad only supports 5-watt charging, and while it comes with a short micro-USB cable that might be enough to reach a nearby computer or dock on a desk, it doesn’t come with a power adapter and many users will find they need a longer cable. Fortunately, micro-USB cables are easy to come by.

– Charge Force Powerstation ($99.95 – certified) – This is an interesting option that combines a 10,000 mAh external battery with built-in Qi inductive charging, so you can recharge your new iPhone on the go without a cable. Like the charge force pad, the powerstation uses magnets to help align phones with compatible charge force cases, but you won’t have that luxury with a bare iPhone. That makes it tricky to use on the go unless you can set it down on a surface while charging, but that might work depending on your usage pattern.

mophie charge force powerstation
The powerstation also includes a USB-A port to support wired charging, and you can in fact charge two devices at same time — one wireless and one wired. A one-meter USB-A to micro-USB cable is included to recharge the powerstation through its micro-USB port and to power micro-USB devices from the battery’s USB-A port. I haven’t seen the powerstation’s wireless charging wattage specified anywhere, but in my testing it’s on par with or even a little faster than other chargers rated at 5 watts.

RAVPower

– Fast Wireless Charger for iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X ($49.99) – RAVPower is a popular charging accessory brand, and the company’s fast wireless charging pad is a black, 3.5-inch diameter puck that offers up to 10 watts of charging power, although iPhones are obviously limited to 7.5 watts. RAVPower was in fact the company that tipped us off that it was seeing devices on the iOS 11.2 beta pulling up to 7.5 watts of power.

RAVPower Fast Wireless Charger
At $50, RAVPower’s charger is a little cheaper than the mophie and Belkin options, but still near the high end for these chargers. On the plus side, everything you need is in the box, including a 24-watt adapter and a high-quality 1-meter braided micro-USB cable.

Samsung

– Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand ($59.99, sale $30.00 for black – certified) – Samsung’s stand offers 5–9 watts of charging power in a fairly unique design consisting of a pair of discs serving as base and charging surface. The charging disc is on the large side, measuring nearly 4.5 inches in diameter and it has some “Samsung” and “Fast Charge” branding on it. The disc seems oversized considering the size of most phones, but it’s still an interesting look and the stand has some nice heft to it that helps keep it steady and give it a solid feel.

Samsung Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand
The charging surface is reclined at about a 37-degree angle, so it’s a bit further back than stands from Anker and Choetech. A small blue LED on the front of the base lets you know your phone is charging. The charger is available in black, gold, silver, and white color options, and all come with both a power adapter and a micro-USB cable. The cable and adapter included with my black charger were white, which seemed a little odd to me, but it’s not a big deal.

The charger includes a fan built into the rear of the charging to help dissipate heat when charging at 9 watts, but it won’t activate with the lower power demands of iPhones. Pricing through Samsung varies significantly among the different colors.

– Fast Charge Wireless Charging Pad ($49.99 black or white, blue on sale for $24.99 – certified) – For those looking for a flatter pad-style charger, Samsung also offers one of those options, available in white, blue, and black sapphire. I tested out a white version, which comes with a white micro-USB cable and a white power adapter. The charging surface is actually clear plastic with a white layer underneath, so there is some depth and translucence to the charger. A rubber ring on the charging surface provides some grip for your phone, although it did seem to attract a few dirty smudges in my usage.

Samsung Fast Charge Wireless Charging Pad
This is a fairly large charging pad at roughly four inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch high, as it integrates a fan for use when fast charging compatible phones. It also has a multicolor LED that shines through the front edge of the charger. The LED shines blue while charging and turns green when charging is completed on compatible devices. Samsung’s tech specs don’t seem to explicitly list the power on this charger, but it appears to top out at 9 watts.

– Fast Charge Wireless Charging Convertible ($89.99 list, $60.00 at Amazon – certified) – If you’re looking for a super premium wireless charger, this is a prime candidate for consideration. Not only does it have a 4.5-inch “leather-like” charging surface for a premium feel (though with unfortunate “Fast Charge” text printed on it) that keeps your phone stable, but it also converts between a horizontal pad and a reclined stand, giving you the option of easily switching between the two as needed.

Samsung Fast Charge Wireless Charging Convertible
To convert the charger from a pad to a stand, just slide the top portion of the charger back and then raise it up from the rear. It clicks into place, with a lip on the bottom portion creating a resting place for your phone. It’s definitely worth noting that this lip doesn’t really work with phones inside chunky wireless charging battery cases. For example, my iPhone 7 Plus in mophie’s Juice Pack Air case is too fat to sit down in the groove created in stand mode with this charger. It can sort of sit right on the edge of the lip, but nearly any bump will cause the phone to slide off the charger. It works fine with an iPhone X either naked or with a reasonably slim case on it.

Stand and pad orientations
Three coils in the charging surface ensure it’ll charge your device no matter the size or orientation. Available in black or tan, the black version I tried came with a black USB-C to USB-A cable and a black power adapter. It’s capable of supporting up to 9 watts of charging power, and an integrated fan will kick on when charging devices that support the maximum wattage. A small LED in the base of the charger shines blue while charging and turns green when charging is completed on compatible devices. This is a fairly bulky charger due to all that’s packed into it with a fan and the mechanism required to convert between pad and stand, but to me it’s worth it for the features it brings. It’s definitely a unique charger.

Satechi

– Aluminum Wireless Charger ($34.99 list, $29.99 on Amazon – certified) – Satechi’s offering is an aluminum disk about four inches in diameter, which gives it a decent amount of heft that makes it sit solidly on a desk or other surface. The charger comes in silver, space gray, gold, and rose gold color options to coordinate with many of Apple’s products, although it may not have a great match with the new gold color introduced for the iPhone 8. Still, the aluminum construction, array of color options, and chamfered edge on the charger make it feel somewhat like an Apple product.

Satechi Aluminum Wireless Charger
Unfortunately, a Satechi logo, the words “Fast Charge” and a plus sign on the surface pad detract a fair amount from the visual appeal. A white micro-USB cable was included with the silver charging pad I tested. This is a 9-watt charger, and it includes a small LED on the front edge that shines blue while charging. It turns green when charging is completed on compatible phones, but this feature is not supported for iPhones.

Spigen

– Essential F301W Wireless Charger ($39.99 list, $25.99 on Amazon – certified) – This is Spigen’s ultra-slim pad-style charger, coming in at just over three inches square. It’s a 9-watt charger, but it’ll only charge iPhones at 5 watts, so you won’t see a speed advantage with this one. Spigen says it has a 7.5-watt charger for the iPhone currently in development, but no word yet on a launch date.

Spigen F301W
The F301W comes with a micro-USB cable but no power adapter, and it has a grippy ring on the bottom for stability, which is a good thing because this is an extremely lightweight charger. There’s a tiny LED under the front lip of the charger that shines green while connected to power in standby mode and blue while charging. With compatible phones, the LED changes back to green when charging is completed, although iPhones don’t appear to support this feature.

– F303W Wireless Fast Charger ($44.99 list, $24.99 on eBay – certified) – This is a stand-style charger, although it offers a much more reclined position than stand chargers from Anker and Choetech. While the other two are slanted roughly 30 degrees back from vertical, the Spigen charger’s angle is closer to 50 degrees from vertical. I prefer the more upright positioning of the Anker and Choetech, but that’s largely personal preference. The reclined design of the F303W does mean that this charger takes up a good amount of space, as the rear leg of the charger extends back quite far for stability, putting the total depth of the charger at about 7.5 inches.

Spigen F303W
The F303W comes with a micro-USB cable but no power adapter, and it supports 5-watt and 9-watt charging, but not the 7.5-watt maximum for the iPhone. The F303W is made of a hard plastic with a soft-touch finish, and the lip at the bottom of the phone support has a thin pad to help keep your phone free of scratches. A thicker dock pad with 3M tape backing is also included in the box if you find you need your phone to sit a bit higher on the chargers for optimal alignment.

The charger does have two coils, so you can charge your phone in either portrait or landscape mode. Underneath the front lip of the charger are red and blue LEDs. The blue LED shines steady during 5-watt charging and red during 9-watt charging. Both lights will come on for compatible devices when charging is completed. The LEDs are rather bright, so keep that in mind.

Wrap-up

It’s difficult to make a concrete recommendation for a wireless charger, as it’s very much a personal decision and everyone’s priorities are different. But one thing we can say is that we don’t see a whole lot of variation in charging speeds among various wireless charging solutions. Higher-powered 7.5-watt chargers might refill your iPhone’s battery a little bit faster than 5-watt chargers, but it’s not a very significant difference and there’s a lot of variation based on charging conditions such as device and ambient temperature, alignment with charging coils, etc.

Given that wireless charging also makes it easy to keep your phone topped off throughout the day by just setting your phone down, and the fact that an overnight charge will refill your battery completely regardless of wattage makes your choice of wattage not necessarily the most important criterion. If you need to charge your iPhone quickly, you’re much better off with a high-powered wired solution over any wireless charger.

Still, wireless chargers are incredibly convenient, and there are a host of options available on the market with more coming nearly every day. As always, it’s a good idea to stick with known and trusted brands, and official Qi certification from the WPC is a good feature to look for, although the non-certified ones I tested generally worked just fine in my limited time with them.

If you’re on a budget, you should be able to get by with one of the cheaper options, but going with a Qi-certified model helps ensure that your charger meets all of the required specifications. At the top end are the Belkin and mophie solutions developed in partnership with Apple. They’re at the expensive end, but at least you know they’ve been designed to function optimally with your iPhone. And hopefully we’ll start to see some more Apple-approved options coming out through the MFi program as we head into 2018.

Note: Most of the manufacturers provided their chargers to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with various vendors and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone XTags: Belkin, wireless charging, Satechi, Mophie, Spigen, Incipio, Anker, Qi, Wireless Power Consortium, Aukey, Choetech, Insignia, RAVPowerBuyer’s Guide: iPhone 8 (Buy Now), iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Darktable, the free Lightroom alternative, is available for Windows

Windows users that don’t want to fork over cash for a RAW photo editor and digital asset manager like Lightroom now have access to a free alternative. Darktable, a free photo editor and asset manager, recently updated to 2.4.0 and brought a Windows version, along with expanding the earlier options for Mac and Linux.

Darktable is an open-source software similar to Lightroom with tools for organizing files and processing RAW images. And while the free software has been around since 2009, bringing in a new developer, Peter Budai, allowed the system to expand to Windows platforms as well. After testing a beta version this summer, the official Windows version is now available, though developers note a few shortcomings, including no printing options and some buggy TIFF file management.

Like the Mac and Linux versions, Darktable for Windows includes tools for non-destructive editing and organizing large photo libraries. As an open-source platform, Darktable previously didn’t have a Windows version because there wasn’t a developer willing to make the modifications and keep the program current. With a new programmer willing to work on the system, the open-source platform was able to expand to a third operating system.

While Windows users now have a version to install, the Mac and Linux versions just got an upgrade as well. The latest version includes a haze removal tool that can help remove fog and similar distractions. The contrast slider also has a wider range, developers said, and for local adjustments, a mid-tones option was added. Contrast can also now be adjusted through a new local Laplacian filter, a new module that allows photo editors to adjust the detail, highlights, shadows, and mid-tones separately.

A number of other changes allow more control over colors, including support for channel blend modes while using the RGB or Lab color spaces. Another change allows for automatic color adjustments inside the tone curve tool.

Other improvements add support for additional camera file types and profiles, while some tools will see a speed improvement with the update. Other adjustments fix previous bugs in the program.

While open source means Darktable is free to download, like other open-source programs, Darktable isn’t going to offer identical tools and performance of the similar paid programs. One example is that open source tends to be a few years behind in adding new features — for example, the new haze tool that just because available this month has been around in Adobe Lightroom and Camera RAW since 2015.

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The Computer History Museum will open source Apple’s Lisa OS in 2018

Before the first Macintosh and the first Windows PC, Apple released a desktop computer known as the Lisa which ran its own specialized operating system. Soon, enthusiasts will be able to pick apart its source code to see exactly what was going on under the hood.

Al Kossow, a software curator for the Computer History Museum, took to a Google Groups discussion board in order to give Lisa enthusiasts an update on the project. “Just wanted to let everyone know the sources to the OS and applications were recovered,” he wrote.

Kossow was able to convert this code to the end of line conventions associated with the Unix programming language and has submitted the results to Apple for review. If all goes well, the Computer History Museum expects to release the code to the public in early 2018.

Of course, before that happens, Apple needs to make sure that an open-source release won’t cause any problems. Kossow suggested that the only thing he feels will be omitted is the American Heritage dictionary that was included in the original release as part of the LisaWrite application’s spell-checking functionality.

The Lisa was a groundbreaking system for its time, as one of the very first computers to adopt a graphical user interface, as well as support for a mouse peripheral, and access to a file system. Both Lisa and the earliest iterations of Windows owe a significant debt to the pioneering work carried out at the Xerox PARC lab, a fact that would contribute to subsequent hostilities between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

The original Lisa computer cost $25,000 at launch when adjusted for inflation, according to Gizmodo. Despite later, cheaper revisions, it was not a huge success, which led to Jobs being removed from the project and placed on the Macintosh team.

The Mac line flourished and formed the basis for the computers that remain a key part of Apple’s output, while the Lisa range died off within a matter of years. However, it’s still an important chapter in the early history of computing, so it’s good to see the operating system being preserved in this manner.

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Free vending machines for homeless people are coming to the U.S. in 2018

Whether it’s 24-hour stores with no queues or Amazon deliveries so fast that items arrive almost before you’ve ordered them, there is no doubt the retail market has been streamlined in recent years. But what about applying some of that same 24/7 magic to helping homeless people who sleep on the streets?

A charity in the United Kingdom is trying to do exactly that by testing special vending machines that dispense essential items like water, food, and clothing to people with nowhere to go at night. The free-to-use service is the work of Nottingham-based Action Hunger.

“We’ve developed vending machines that permit 24/7 access to basic necessities, including water, fresh fruit, energy bars and sandwiches, and socks, gloves, sanitary towels, toothbrush and toothpaste combination packs, and foil blankets,” Action Hunger founder Huzaifah Khaled told Digital Trends. “Access to the machines is exclusively permitted to those in need, and items can only be vended with the use of a special key card that Action Hunger issues. The key cards are disseminated by our partner organizations in each city, which tend to be homeless shelters and local outreach centers, as they have an exhaustive and in-depth knowledge of the local landscape.”

These key cards can be used to get up to three items per day, a number that Action Hunger hopes will enable people to get some help, without becoming too reliant on the vending machines. The non-perishable contents of the vending machine come from donations, while most of the fresh food is being supplied by redistribution organizations. In order to keep the key cards active, individuals must check in with their regular homeless shelter on a weekly basis.

“I conceived of the idea after being struck by the rising homeless population across the U.K.,” Khaled continued. “It’s a terribly sad state of affairs, which inspired me to think of a solution that would contribute to alleviating the stresses of being homeless, and encourage regular contact with shelters, which is crucial to ending homelessness. I’ve spent the last year working closely with homelessness services to develop my idea into an organization.”

At present, the first machine is being tested in Nottingham, with a plan to expand to other major cities including Manchester, London, Birmingham, and Brighton next. “We’ll be installing machines in the United States from February 2018,” Khaled said. “New York will receive the first machine, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle will follow. We’ve had a deluge of interest from many cities across America, and we’re working hard to reach as many people as possible. We’re also exploring locations across wider Europe.”

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Why 2017 was the best year for smartphones ever

There are vintage years for everything, and hours can be spent debating what was the best year for movies, wines, music, fashion, cars, video games, and so much more. We’re here to end any conversations about the best year for smartphones, should such a geeky chat take place. It’s very simple — the answer is 2017.

Over the past 12 months we’ve seen more desirable, better equipped, better looking, and downright fabulous smartphones than ever before. Perhaps even better, is that for once it doesn’t matter how much money you want to spend.

2017 has been an astonishing year for phones.

Now we’ve made that statement, it’s time to back it up with some hard facts. Here are the phones that have got us all hot under the collar this year: LG G6, Samsung Galaxy S8, Huawei P10, LG V30, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, HTC U11, Apple iPhone X, Google Pixel 2, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, OnePlus 5T, and the Honor 7X. These are all fabulous smartphones, but the list doesn’t stop there.

Also out in 2017 were phones including the Galaxy S8 Active, the iPhone 8 Plus, the Moto X4, and the HTC U11 Life. All still brilliant, and when an iPhone makes an also-ran list, you know it has been a bumper year. We’re not done. Also consider phones not officially launched in the U.S., such as the Xiaomi Mi A1 and the Mi Mix 2, the Nokia 8, and the Honor 9. If you purchased any one of these devices this year, you’ve bought a winner.

Debate winning points

But wait. Anyone who has debated whether Star Wars made 1977 a good or bad year for movies, will know these things are rarely won with a simple list. If 2017 has been an astonishing year for phones, and some misguided soul actually needs convincing, you must be able to explain why. Luckily, evidence is on your side. Here are the three big reasons why 2017 phones have impressed us so much.

Essential Phone (Photo: Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends)

Perhaps the main reason why this year has been so special is it’s the first in a long while that phones have visually altered in design, due to the widespread introduction of the 18:9 aspect ratio screen and the minimal bezels that surround it. Not since the introduction of phablets have we seen such a radical change in the way phones look; but unlike phablets, the design trend makes big-screen devices easier to hold and more usable for everyone. After years of messing around with thinner, lighter, bigger, smaller, but still identically-shaped oblongs, we’ve got a new style of phone that actually makes the device better to use. Feel free to clap.

The phone in your hand now looks futuristic. How about the camera? If 2016 hinted at how cool dual-lens cameras could be, 2017 proved it in spades. The Huawei P10 with Leica’s help set a high bar early on, a challenge met and even beaten by Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, and even Huawei itself with the Mate 10 Pro. However, LG and Google proved amazing cameras didn’t need to all be the same. LG’s wide-angle cam is almost unique in the industry, and all the better for it, while Google shows what can be done with a single high-quality lens and some very special software.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is in 2017 you didn’t have to buy a very expensive phone from one or two manufacturers to get a brilliant, show-stopping phone. If you’ve got $800 or more, then the choice borders on the impossible, because all the phones we’ve mentioned at this price are fantastic. Spend around $500 and you’ll get the OnePlus 5T or the LG G6 — two wonderful phones. Spend less than $250 and you’ll get the Honor 7X, or the Xiaomi Mi A1. Again, superb choices. All the other phones we listed are spread somewhere in-between all these prices, which means that almost regardless of how much you’re prepared to spend, the device you choose will be great. Not just acceptable. Great.

Even the disappointing phones are really good

Two phones illustrate how tough the competition has been in smartphone world this year: The Razer Phone and the Essential PH-1. They both have unbelievable specs, unique selling points, and eye-catching designs, plus they’re made by companies with strong credentials and dedicated fans. Yet they both received reviews that came down hard on their respective negative points. Are they bad phones? No, not at all and perhaps in other years they may not have been treated so harshly. In 2017, even the slightest negative point saw a device defeated, because there are so many awesome alternatives.

Razer Phone (Photo: Andy Boxall/Digital Trends)

2017 was not the year to come out with a half-baked phone that depended on future software updates to come close to what else was on offer.

Android itself matured considerably with Android 7.0 Nougat at the end of 2016, and subtly enhanced again with Android 8.0 Oreo. On the Google Pixel 2, Android is a real joy. Clean, simple, and logical, with strong standard apps and absolutely no slow down. Apple delivered something similar with iOS 11, which is enjoyed by way more phone owners than Google’s latest software version. If there’s a failure in 2017, it’s the continued lack of Android software updates for anyone who didn’t buy a Pixel phone. Solution: Buy a Pixel 2.

Wait, what about (insert other year here)?

Sure, there are always going to be the wantonly contrarian who disagrees. In fact, some may be able to make a strong case, as there are a few other years to consider as phone history high points. However, it’s not 2016. Let’s get that out of the way first. Yes, it gave us the Pixel, iPhone 7 Plus, and Galaxy S7. But it also gave us the Galaxy Note 7, the LG G5’s sad failure, and other experimental go-nowhere phones like the Turing and Sirin Labs devices. If you bought one of the first three phones, you were safe. Anything else was a bit of a risk.

In 2017 you didn’t have to buy a very expensive phone.

How about 2010? This was a good year for smartphone tech. Before we even start with phones, 2010 was the year 4G LTE started to really come alive with dedicated phones like Samsung’s Epic 4G and the HTC Evo. The Apple iPhone 4 came along with its brand new design, the Google Nexus One went on sale, and you could buy a Palm Pre. A good year, but one that was also filled with complete dreck from an industry entirely lacking in imagination. BlackBerry still had a Bold and a Pearl on sale, Windows Phone still existed, and everyone from Motorola to Samsung made phones with ugly slide-out keyboards.

We could go on, right back to 2006, when we were spoiled for choice with the Sony Ericsson K800i, the Motorola Razr V3, BlackBerry’s early consumer push, and the LG Chocolate. Plus, the Nokia N95 was announced. We won’t bother though. No way will any year beat this one for pure, awesome, difficult-to-decide smartphone choice.

Where does that leave 2018?

Poor 2018. It’s like having The Rolling Stones play before you, or Jerry Seinfeld as the warm-up act. You’d better be damn good once you’re up on stage. It’s safe to assume all our favorite phones from this year will get sequels. The Samsung Galaxy S9, the Huawei P11, and the 2018 Apple iPhone range are already being discussed in rumors. Will the be better than the 2017 crop? Only time will tell, but we’re excited to see just how small bezels can get, how much artificial intelligence changes our devices, and if we actually get an on-screen fingerprint sensor or not.

While we’re always excited for new phone releases, this is one year where we are not looking ahead because the big-name new products that came before them were disappointing. It’s quite the opposite, and for once can truly say there’s no burning need to wait for 2018’s phones if you’re considering buying a new one now. Which one should you buy? We’ve got a list of the best ones; but here’s a secret: They’re all worth your money, and you’ll love whichever one you choose. Thank you 2017, for making it possible to say that.

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Avoid costly errors with this great deal on a Grammarly one-year subscription

We write so much around these parts that it’s easy for a few grammar errors to slip through. Whether you’re writing an article for a major website like Android Central or a business email to a boss or a colleague, we all want to be sure our writing comes off as professional and clean. But mistakes are bound to happen, and that’s why it’s handy to have an extra set of eyes looking over your writing.

Grammarly is that extra set of eyes for millions of people around the world. It’s like your personal editor that scans your writing and corrects all the mistakes in your writing — from a simple typo to complex grammar errors. Grammarly puts spellcheck to shame by catching contextual errors, helping to improve your vocabulary, and suggesting style improvements for your writing.

If you feel like your writing could use the Grammarly bump, Android Central Digital Offers has a great deal on a one-year subscription to the full suite of Grammarly features. Not only will you write mistake free across popular services and apps like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and more across all your devices (iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows supported), but you’ll also get great features like plagiarism detection that scans billions of web pages and a weekly progress report to show how Grammarly has helped your writing improve.

A yearly subscription to Grammarly is usually priced at around $139.95, but thanks to this great deal from Android Central Digital Offers you can get your subscription for just $69.98 — that’s 49% off the regular price! Never write a poorly written email again with a little help from Grammarly!

How I proposed to my girlfriend using Android

An Android love story.

This Christmas was probably the most memorable one of my life so far. I got to spend time with lots of family members, eat some bomb food, and just take it easy for a couple of days. Oh, and I also proposed to my girlfriend.

My name’s Joe Maring, and I’ve been the News Editor here at Android Central since September 25, 2017. It’s an incredibly busy job, and while I wear a lot of different hats when I’m not working, my most important one is being Kennedy Weston’s boyfriend (er, now fiancé).

Kennedy and I have known each other since we were two, and we even grew up across the street from one another. We’ve been friends since then, and we stopped being knuckleheads and finally started dating in May of 2015. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but it’s been a fantastic couple of years and some of the best of my entire life.

Kennedy and I 😊

Throughout our relationship, Kennedy’s made it incredibly obviously that she wanted to get married. From secretly (but not really) writing her name as “Kennedy Maring” in our ECO 202 class on a piece of paper to straight up asking “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO MARRY ME,” she’s ever so subtly been throwing hints my way for a good few months.

I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to finally pop the question, and seeing as how our favorite holiday is Christmas, I decided that it would be the ideal day to ask. I initially toyed with the idea of getting her a kitten and tying a ring to its collar, and while cute, I thought it was a bit too cheesy. After a bit more brainstorming, I ultimately decided that I wanted to incorporate technology into the proposal somehow, seeing as how it’s been such a big part of my life. After talking with my friend Patrick Campanale, we came up with the perfect idea.

The kitten idea was cute, but I had something better in mind.

I’d been planning on getting Kennedy a Pixel 2 for Christmas, and I mentioned to Pat that I was thinking about making a custom wallpaper that had “Will you marry me?” on it, so she’d see the question as soon as she turned on the phone. Doing this would involve setting the phone up, choosing the wallpaper, and then having Kennedy turn on a phone that had already been set up. It would work, but it wouldn’t be all that graceful.

However, Pat then reminded me that he was the leader of the team behind CarbonROM. As such, he could whip together a special version of the ROM that would allow Kennedy to go through the setup process herself and then see the custom wallpaper after entering all her information. This was a much better idea, but then I asked if we could take things a step further.

The custom setup screen, the response when tapping “no”, and the wallpaper at the end.

Not sure if it would even be possible, I asked Pat if there was any way he could create a custom screen after the initial setup process that would ask the question. Kennedy would enter her Google account, add her fingerprint, etc., and after all that, she’d see another screen asking her if she’d like to marry me. Pat asked his lead developer, Christian Oder, if this is something that we’d be able to pull off, and Chris came back with good news.

After a week or so of putting everything together, Chris had completed the ROM. We spent a few hours one day installing it on Kennedy’s Pixel 2 because I (of course) screwed something up during the whole process, but eventually, we got everything working.

The finished product looked like this.

On Christmas morning, Kennedy and I drove to my parents’ house to open presents with each other. I made sure Kennedy’s Pixel 2 was the last gift that she opened, and after taking off the wrapping paper, she wasn’t all that surprised.

She’d become suspicious of me buying her the phone earlier in the month after I tried making up reasons she shouldn’t buy the phone herself when the Google Store was running one of its many sales on it, but this worked out in my favor. Her guard was down, she wasn’t expecting anything else aside from the phone, and then this happened.

I honestly couldn’t have asked for the whole thing to go any better, and while it did take quite a bit of time and effort, it was beyond worth it. I’ve got a comfy apartment, job of my dreams, good friends, and thanks to Android, a beautiful fiance. ❤️

Special thanks to Patrick Campanale, Christian Oder, the entire CarbonROM team, and my many family members for making this possible. For more information on the technical side of how this all worked, check out CarbonROM’s Gerrit commit here.