Adobe has abandoned its proposed $20 billion acquisition of product design software company Figma, as there was “no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals” from UK and EU watchdogs.
The deal had faced probes from both the UK and EU competition regulators for fears it would have an impact on the product design, image editing and illustration markets.
Adobe refused to offer remedies to satisfy the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s concerns last week, according to a document published by the regulator on Monday, arguing that a divestment would be “wholly disproportionate.”
A mystery involving missing tomatoes onboard the International Space Station (ISS) has been solved. The yearlong tomato conundrum began after NASA astronaut Frank Rubio lost track of two tomatoes grown in space while harvesting for the eXposed Root On-Orbit Test System (XROOTS).
According to NASA, the XROOTS investigation uses hydroponic
As a precocious teen looking to improve my college application, I sat in on a business studies class. I figured taking two extra A-Levels at night school alongside those I took during the day would make me irresistible to admissions tutors. The class I watched examined if it was worth a large factory keeping its own trucks and drivers in-house rather than outsourcing them. The data showed selling the trucks and firing the workers was more expensive in the long run, and yoked the company to the whims of any third-party logistics company in the local area. Not to mention, if you don’t own a mission-critical component of your business, you’re a lot less powerful when negotiating with your suppliers. But the teacher, and the class, all agreed it was smart to sell it all because it made a bigger profit in the quarter and was cheaper for the next two years. These people had never considered if something bad would happen, and how to prepare for it. It was at this point I realized my values were out of step with the commercial orthodoxy and opted not to take the course.
I mention this because I’ve always thought the people in the tech industry with all the money are probably halfway savvy about how All Of This Is Meant To Work. I’d told myself that what, to me, appeared illogical and self-defeating was because they were playing a game of six-dimensional chess on a board I was too dim to see. Unless, of course, the economics of our industry are so unmoored from reality that everyone’s just pretending, or deluding themselves. And more than a decade of cheap money and lax regulation means everyone’s behaved a little bit sillier than they should have. Now the lights are coming up and everyone’s looking to see what’s actually going on, there’s nowhere for these apparently smart people to hide.
It’s stopped making sense for investors
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The Silicon Valley mindset is easy to grasp: If you’re lucky enough to have spare cash, put a small bit of it behind some kids with a big idea. All it takes is for one of those bets – emphasis on the word bet – to win and you’ll get a slice of some pretty big profits. In an era where zero interest-rate policies mean it’s almost free to rack up extraordinary debt, it’s a better route than heading to Las Vegas with your 401k. Not to mention the special cachet and attention you can garner by presenting yourself to the world as a “guru.” But you might have noticed that a lot of high-profile bets haven’t been coming off of late, wasting a lot of cash in the process.
Take WeWork, which this year filed for Chapter 11 after working its way through $16.9 billion since 2014. What logic can we apply to its main backer, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son*, to justify him burning the GDP of Jamaica on such a venture? Especially when Regus, which performs the same decidedly un-techy role of renting temporary office space, owns its properties and makes a small but regular profit every non-COVID year, was available to buy outright for a fraction of the cost? How did this amount of money pass from one company to another without any sort of internal or external oversight? And why did he think that WeWork’s nicer interior design and a beer tap on every floor was such a big draw? The only theory that holds water is that Son was so blindsided by promises of vast future profits (from office rental) that he lost any sense of self-restraint.
That mix of cheap credit and the promise of unbelievable future returns can be applied across the tech industry, too. It might help explain why the cost of streaming has leapt so high while the catalogs available have shrunk. The studios weren’t hurting for profit in the days before Netflix, but the fact it was valued like a tech company enabled it to rack up huge debts. That led plenty of studios to leap onto the bandwagon in the hope of getting some of that mythical profit. In the early days, the hope was that the sheer number of people paying for content would balance out the low cost. But now growth has stalled and there’s still $14.30 billion of debt, plus an audience with an ever-increasing desire for new content.
It’s stopped making sense for consumers
Mario Tama via Getty Images
The debt swinging around Netflix’s neck, and the necks of those who followed it into the streaming world save for Amazon, Apple and Warner Bros***, is directly related to this gold rush. And it’ll need to be paid off to the investors and banks who handed over billions of dollars in expectation of vast rewards further down the line. Which is why the cost of a standard Netflix subscription has pretty much doubled since 2011 – with Premium plans now costing $23 a month. Given the scattershot nature of streaming libraries and the fact Netflix can’t be your sole source of entertainment, most consumers have more than one subscription going at the same time. That’s been fine, more or less, while times are good, so what happens when the world’s economies all start to slow down and you’re looking to make room in your monthly budget?
It’s worth remembering new technologies are expensive, both in cost and how much time and effort you spend to get to grips with them. But while technology has had some world-changing hits in the past – personal computing, the internet, smartphones and, uh, social media – it’s been a while since we’ve had anything that big. But the industry can’t help but keep hyping the next big thing even if it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that it’s not going to be a winner. We’re at the peak of the hype cycle for machine learning, which its boosters tell us will automate us all into obsolescence in a decade or so**. The problem is, whenever you actually sit and try to use a generative AI, the results are underwhelming, so great is the gap between the promise and the reality. Take Google’s new AI which managed to give fake answers to spreadsheet-level questions like who won an Academy Award last year. You can already see the itchy feet of those hoping the Humane Pin will be the Next Big Thing despite its risible introduction video.
Consumers lose out here not just because of these expensive boondoggles but because they suck up all the oxygen from everything else. Many of these technologies were designed not to solve real-world problems, of which we have plenty, but to dazzle investors, placate Wall Street and dupe credulous buyers. It doesn’t help that generative AI, like crypto before it, uses a significant amount more energy than it should, exacerbating climate change. Sadly, when all the attention and money shifts to the next thing, we’ll all be poorer for it, both for the folks who were duped into reading machine-written articles about the importance of volleyball, and the folks who got laid off because some genius thought GPT-3 would do a better job without oversight.
It’s stopped making sense for workers
Embracer Group is a Swedish game publisher that loaded up on debt to buy every small studio and IP it could get its hands on. In 2018, CEO Lars Wingefors told GamesIndustry his company would eschew a “fewer, bigger, better” strategy in favor of a “diversified” lineup. In 2021, it said it had access to more than $2 billion in cash and credit to continue its spending spree, bankrolling a slew of newer, smaller titles. That included reviving TimeSplitters developer Free Radical to start work on a new game in the long-dormant cult series.Two years after that, the company admitted that a deal worth $2 billion in revenue over six years had fallen apart and that it would have to cut costs. Free Radical has now been closed, putting the last two years’ worth of work on the shelf and close to 1,000 people across Embracer have lost their jobs.
Reality’s going to hit us in the face like a shovel
krisanapong detraphiphat via Getty Images
When I was a kid, a relative worked for a company that made and sold slot machines for adult gambling. I must have been 10 when he came over and set up a game where he gave me a pound in 2p pieces, which I could wager on the outcome of a deck of cards. He’d rigged the game so that, despite all of the pledges to double my cash as my funds shrunk, I’d wipe out. It was a valuable lesson in why it’s not a smart idea to gamble your money, given by someone who saw it up close and personal every day.
The other lesson he taught me was the vow of gratitude he would utter often, which was doubly amusing given his atheism. Whenever there was a bad story in the news, or a tale of corporate woe closer to home, he’d say “there but for the grace of God go I.” Because he knew that so much of what happens in our lives is governed by chance, so it’s pointless to claim it was wisdom. We should always remember that none of us are untouchable, and that the worst phrase in the English language is “what could possibly go wrong?” It’s just a shame that so many of the supposed great minds in the technology industry didn’t get the chance to learn this lesson when they were young enough to appreciate it.
* Wikipedia – hardly a symbol of partisanship – has gone studs-in on Son. At the time of writing, his biography says “his reputation as an investor rests almost solely on his $20 million initial investment in Alibaba Group in 2000.” Given the rest of his track record – and the fact he is presently in debt to his own company to the tune of several billion, ouch.
** I do wonder how many of its backers who spend their days worrying about Roko’s Basilisk have thought about how they’ll be treated by the 85 million or so people suddenly forced into serfdom.
*** Warner Bros. malaise is more directly related to the debt tied to the various buyouts and sales that has seen it shifted from one corporate parent to another. Not that the streaming wars has helped here, but it’s fair to say that its problems are a different realm to those of its peers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/2023-was-the-year-the-economics-of-tech-caught-up-with-reality-153052312.html?src=rss
When it comes to VR devices like the Meta Quest headsets, the biggest draw by far is gaming. But did you know you can also use your headset to get some work done? Thanks to the recent launch of certain Microsoft Office apps for Meta Quest headsets, you can now work on a Word doc, crunch some numbers in an Excel spreadsheet, or put together a presentation in PowerPoint, all in VR. These Office VR apps are just the beginning for Microsoft: The company recently released an Xbox Game Pass app, and is working on other VR apps, like Teams.
Products to consider:
Looking to pick up a new Meta Quest headset? You can buy the Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro on Amazon:
Before you start diving into Microsoft Office, there are a couple of requirements to consider. First, you’ll need a Microsoft account if you don’t have one already. Next, you’ll need a Quest headset; the apps are available on the original Oculus Quest, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and the newly released Meta Quest 3. Lastly, you need to make sure you have an internet connection since these versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint run via the cloud.
Getting started with the Microsoft Office apps
Once you’ve sorted all that out, you’ll need to download the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps from the Meta store. The apps are fairly small in size (under 2 MB each) so storage shouldn’t be much of a concern. After you’ve gotten the apps downloaded, each app will take you through the setup process of signing into your Microsoft account. It’s worth noting that you don’t need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use the new apps in VR, but Microsoft will still try to push you to subscribe via ads in the app.
Using the Microsoft Office apps in VR
Using each of the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps was fairly straightforward for me. Signing into the apps was easy, and if you sign into your Microsoft account in one app, you’ll be automatically signed into the other Office apps. Upon opening one of the apps, a window running the web version of that Office app will appear. You can resize the windows by dragging on the sides with your controllers, or you can change your distance using the shortcut on the Quest universal bar. (Look for the icon near the bell/notification icon on the left.) The biggest hitch I encountered was long loading times when I opened a new, blank document. Some speed bumps are expected with any new app release, so this wasn’t too shocking.
To actually start working on documents, you can use your Quest headset’s controllers and the virtual on-screen keyboard. If that’s a little too wonky for you, you can pair a physical Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to do your work. To pair a keyboard and mouse to your headset, go to Settings, then Devices, then choose Pair, then put your mouse and keyboard into pairing mode. Once they’re paired, you’re good to go.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 is currently the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Class-leading power, however, often comes with some drawbacks. First, the GeForce RTX 4090’s $1,599 MSRP is steep by any measure. Secondly, the GeForce RTX has a hefty 450W TDP, which has resulted in issues with its 12VHPWR connector.
Apple’s recent move to block Beeper Mini, the app that lets Android users chat with iPhone through the iMessage protocol, has caught the eye and a fair bit of ire of several U.S. congresspeople. Now lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the tech giant over “potential anticompetitive treatment” of the smaller…
An anonymous reader shares a report: As Russian troops poured into Ukraine at the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February last year, alarm was rising at a flagship Kremlin nuclear project in neighboring Belarus, just a short distance from the European Union’s border. Engineers at Rosatom preparing a new 1,200-megawatt reactor, which was not yet connected to the power grid, to generate electricity at the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant detected a mysterious and exceedingly rare problem. Resin was seeping into the primary circuit, threatening to seize up critical components, according to internal documents of the Russian state nuclear corporation seen by Bloomberg.
Control rods and fuel assemblies risked being damaged or broken if the problem persisted when uranium atoms began fissioning. In the worst case, according to people familiar with the problem, accumulation of so-called ion-exchange resin, which regulates the purity of water flowing through plant channels and pipes, could impede reactor control, elevating the risk of a meltdown if something went wrong once it was online. So on February 25, 2022, Rosatom pulled the plug temporarily on its freshly fueled unit in northwest Belarus, delaying its launch.
Nuclear engineers said Rosatom followed safety procedures by interrupting physical startup of the reactor in order to investigate. Still, the problem compounded delays that pushed back commercial operations more than a year. When the reactor was turned on for the first time in March, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed there were problems to state media. “There were certain shortcomings in the construction,” he said. “The delay is due to our determination to stick to very high safety standards.” The water contamination incident, which was previously flagged by Lithuanian intelligence, is among a series of problems, including shortages of skilled labor, delayed shipments, and defective supplies, that Rosatom faced in recent years and which have continued in the wake of Putin’s war against Ukraine, according to the documents and interviews with European officials familiar with the assessments.
Twisters screenwriter Mark L. Smith discusses the sequel. A new Percy Jackson clip introduces Grover. Hiding In Time is coming to Amazon. Plus, what’s coming on For All Mankind. Spoilers, away!
A Scottish couple has completed a 10-month long journey from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole in an EV (electric vehicle). The husband and wife veteran adventurers wanted to prove that a mostly-stock EV—in this case, a Nissan Ariya e-4Force—was more than up to the arduous 18,000-plus mile task.
The NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX HW family of adapters is a complex beast,
supporting networking, InfiniBand, RDMA, and more. As a result, the mlx5
kernel driver that supports this hardware is also complex, as is the
interface that it provides to user space. The mlx5 developers have, for a
while now, been proposing
the addition of a new control interface, in the form of a separate virtual
device exported by the kernel, that would make vast amounts of debugging
information available. This driver has encountered some significant
opposition on its way toward the mainline, though, raising a number of
questions about appropriate interfaces and when subsystem maintainers have
veto power over submissions.
GNOME 44.7 is here for users who are still using the GNOME 44 desktop environment series and promises to optimize application search in the GNOME Shell, whose performance was improved thanks to the devs addressing a performance degradation caused by a repeated signal leak.
While buzzing coming from a light bulb isn’t usually dangerous, it certainly is annoying. There are a few reasons a light can make that irritating buzzing sound—and there are a few things you can try to fix it.
Tighten the bulb
The most common reason for a light to make a buzzing sound is if the bulb is loose. This can happen with any type of light bulb, but is most commonly associated with fluorescents. With fluorescent lights, the ballast that controls the flow of electricity to the bulb can also become loose and cause buzzing. The easiest way to address this is to just turn the light off, tighten the bulb, and then turn the light back on. Take care, especially with incandescent bulbs, to let it cool down before touching the surface of the bulb to avoid burning yourself.
Replace the ballast
If adjusting the bulb in your fluorescent light doesn’t work, it might be that the ballast has gone bad. This can cause a vibration in the fixture that will make a buzzing sound. The ballast is an electromagnetic resistor that regulates the flow of electricity to the fluorescent tubes. To fix this, you’ll need to turn off the breaker that goes to the fixture and remove the cover over the ballast. Then, you will need to undo the wires and remove the affected ballast. Make sure to leave enough wire—at least three inches—to wire in the new ballast. Then, replace the ballast and reconnect the wires, following the color coding on the fixture. You can reassemble your light and turn the breaker back on to test your repair.
Update the dimmer
For LED bulbs, a common cause of buzzing is a dimmer switch that’s meant for an incandescent bulb being used with an LED bulb. This incompatibility can cause the electronic components in an LED to vibrate, making a buzzing sound. To address this, you will need to replace your dimmer switch with one that’s compatible with LED lights. You should consult the packaging of your particular LED bulb, but CL, ELV, and LED+ dimmers are compatible with most LED bulbs.
Other common problems with LEDs
If your LED light is buzzing and there’s not a dimmer in sight, chances are that it’s caused by loose wiring. If that’s the case, you can swap out the bulb, or you might need to flip the breaker off to investigate the light fixture itself. If all the wiring looks to be snug, it could be that the type of LED bulb you’re using isn’t compatible with the fixture it’s in. Check the package to see if you’re within the recommended wattage for the bulb. It’s also possible the bulb is defective, so try swapping it for a different one to see if the buzzing stops.
When to contact an electrician
In rare circumstances, a buzzing sound can come from the wiring in a switch or connection in your home’s wiring. If you hear buzzing coming from the wiring or the switch as opposed to the light itself, you should turn the breaker off that powers that wiring and call an electrician. Such buzzing can indicate a dangerous short that could pose a fire risk.
With the new Intel 5th Gen Xeon “Emerald Rapids” processors there is a new feature called the Optimized Power Mode (OPM). This Optimized Power Mode can be enabled via the system BIOS for Emerald Rapids for helping to reduce the CPU power consumption when not running at full utilization. With Intel claiming that up to 110 Watts of server power savings can be conserved when running at 30~40% utilization, I was curious and set out to run my own Optimized Power Mode benchmarks with the Xeon Platinum 8592+ processors. Here is a deep dive on Intel Optimized Power Mode benchmarks.
The iPhone is by far Apple’s most popular product, but the Cupertino giant will look to make 2024 a banner year for other devices, too. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is going to focus on AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. Meanwhile, the iPhone will remain mostly the same as the prior year’s model and only receive
The giants of the consulting world face an unusual quandary this year: many of them are in the process of dismissing hundreds of staffers even after they hired thousands of college graduates to deal with new demand. Now, one of the biggest of them all is looking to AI to change that. From a report: Deloitte is using AI to evaluate existing staffers’ skills and map out plans that would shift employees away from quieter parts of the business and into roles that are more in demand. It’s part of a broader bet by the professional services firm that the technology will allow it to moderate hiring growth over time.
The moves come after Deloitte added 130,000 staffers this year. But in the midst of those hirings, though, the firm warned thousands of staffers in the US and UK that their jobs were at risk of becoming redundant after the company was forced to restructure certain areas of the business in response to a slowdown in demand. “It is obviously a great objective to be able to avoid large swings of hirings and layoffs,” said Stevan Rolls, global chief talent officer at Deloitte. “You could always be more efficient and effective about finding the right people.”
It’s already been three years (just over) since Microsoft and Sony launched their respective modern-generation game consoles, the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, respectively—both debuted in November 2020. Notwithstanding a mid-gen refresh, it will still be a few years before we see another major iteration from either side. Though it’s
Be honest: How many times this year have you skipped or scrolled past a much-needed update? Maybe you just wanted to log into Twitter, er, X without setting up multifactor authentication. Putting off these minor inconveniences adds up, and it could lead to an insecure tech setup just waiting to be exploited by an attacker.
So, now you’re probably spending a few days sleeping in your childhood bed, and wondering when Uncle Dave will stop talking to you about buying gold stocks. There’s never been a better time to take care of the less-than-riveting admin work of locking down your digital life. Here’s a quick holiday checklist you and your loved ones (including Dave) can spend an hour doing during your holiday downtime to set up for a more secure year.
Update all your apps and devices
For the most current patches and options, you’ll need to start this security check up by updating all your devices and apps. The companies behind the tech have already done a lot of the work to keep you safe, but it’s your job to make sure that you’re taking full advantage of those updates. I’d recommend starting with operating system updates then apps second because there’s usually some new features reliant on the latest OS within other software. While you’re there, set up automatic updates so that you don’t have to worry about doing this manually in the future.
REUTERS / Reuters
Sign up for or update your password manager
Strong passwords are your first line of defense to keep your accounts safe, but they’re almost impossible to memorize and keep track of. Download a password manager to store this information for you, so that your passwords can be unguessable gibberish that you’ll actually use. Long term, it’s important to change these passwords every 90 days or so, and never to repeat across accounts. A password manager will help remind you of that, and even generate new password ideas for you. Unique and regularly-changing passwords help prevent attacks like credential stuffing, as we’ve seen make headlines in the recent 23andMe data breach.
Make sure you’re using MFA or, ideally, passkeys
Strong passwords are important, but it’s well-known that they aren’t enough to keep unauthorized actors out of your account. Most people are familiar with using a text message code to grant access to an account. If you’re taking time out of your day to set this up, however, I would recommend using a third-party authenticator app or a hardware key for more secure options. Or, for companies that have switched to allowing passkeys at login, that’s usually your best bet.
This will be one of the more tedious parts of the checklist, so if you can’t sit down and knock out your major logins now, at least push yourself to make these changes each time you log into a website over the next couple of weeks. Being stuck with family for the holiday might not be your preferred opportunity to make this change, but there’s sure to be an upcoming major snowstorm or bout seasonal depression just screaming to be harnessed for your technological well-being.
Consider a VPN, or at least a more secure browser
A strong VPN will keep your web browsing private. Whether it’s free or paid for, defaulting to using a VPN adds an extra layer of security to the work you’re doing online. Most have options to use it across different devices, or to run automatically on startup so that you can set it up once and forget about it. I would also recommend switching over to a secure browser like Tor that runs on a privacy-first platform for more sensitive online matters. Of course there’s a catch: VPNs and Tor can both slow down your browsing, or break certain website features. Updates to the services have helped over time, but even if you use it for just a portion of web browsing, some protection is better than none.
RapidEye via Getty Images
Get up to date on the latest hacks and attack vectors
Keeping up with security news will help you determine what accounts need special attention versus where you can go on autopilot. Once you know whether a breach may have occurred or a password has been leaked, you can quickly make changes to accommodate. Websites already exist to see if you’ve been in a data breach, and most companies have an obligation to tell you if they’ve been impacted. When you also stay up to date on the latest scams and attacks, you know what red flags to look out for in your own inbox to stay proactive.
Tell brokers to stop selling your data
It’s surprisingly easy to stop companies from trading your privacy for cash. On top of getting in the habit of not sharing your cookies or granting location data, you can opt out of working with the top three major data brokers. Axiom, Oracle and Epsilon all have slightly different variations of the same form to fill out so that information like your home address and relatives’ names aren’t being sold for profit. This is a good start to getting your online privacy back, however, it can be more of a headache than just one opt out form.
You have to do this frequently to make sure your information hasn’t been readded to any of the broker sites, and if your information has already been sold to marketing companies, it’s too late to undo it. There are subscription service sites that can help track and continuously delete whatever information pops up for you, but starting with just Axiom, Oracle and Epsilon will still be a free, worthwhile step toward more privacy.
Samsung
Back up everything
Get an external hard drive or connect to the cloud and keep all of your data backed up. Do this regularly, so that even if your device quits or gets ransomed by an attacker, you aren’t completely screwed. I’d recommend opting for something that can be set up automatically, so that you don’t have to keep constant track of it. That could look like spending the 99 cents per month on extra iCloud storage (or Google Drive or another in-house cloud tool) so that your phone gets backed up each night while you’re asleep. Windows and Mac also both do auto updates to an external drive on desktop, so you can set it and forget it.
Alternatively, you could install backup software onto a device so that it’s taken care of by a third party, but that may be less intuitive to set up. Just don’t forget to clean up your data storage every once in a while, too, so that you’re not holding onto useless screenshots or pictures of your ex from years ago that are taking up valuable space.
Make a plan to check in on your security settings more frequently
It’s overwhelming to play catch up. Going through a list like this can seem intimidating if you haven’t worried about it before. If you set up automatic updates and backups, it’ll take some of those repeat tasks off your plate. But since you’ll already, hopefully, be setting new passwords once a quarter, you can do a quick check up on your other security measures too. See if you’ve been a victim of a breach or identity theft, keep telling data brokers to get their hands off your information and find out if new VPNs or other software has been released that could make your security setup more seamless. Making it a part of the routine is much easier than annual sprees, and can help you catch a cybersecurity problem before it becomes unmanageable.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-everything-you-should-do-to-up-your-security-before-next-year-143009276.html?src=rss
Adobe and Figma mutually agreed to end their acquisition plans on Monday after European regulators found the deal would hurt competition in the digital design space. The $20 billion acquisition would have combined the world’s leading product design software, Figma, and the world’s largest and most recognized supplier…
Two weeks ago, I got a new Apple Watch to replace my old one, which has spent the last year or so of its life in my junk drawer, save for a few days it spent in the no-man’s-land of my bedside table. The old one, it goes without saying, has become very dirty. I got the new one after coming to the conclusion, for the 137th time in my life, that it’s time to “get it together” and start taking my health seriously, so I’ve been wearing it to work out and sleep for a whole fortnight. It, too, got dirty, but in a different way.
What better opportunity, then, to test out two methods of cleaning a smart watch?
Smart watch cleaning method #1: Soap and water
The method that cropped up most in my research on cleaning smart watches involved mild soap and water, so that’s what I decided to try for my old watch. I read that if the device is waterproof, you can actually dunk it in a bowl full of warm water and a drop or two of dish or hand soap. I used Mrs. Meyer’s, but you can use any mild soap as long as you don’t overdo it with the drops. I do not know if my old watch is waterproof and I do want to try to sell it, so I opted to use a soft cloth to rub the soapy water on the face and sensor instead of dunking it. As far as I can tell, there is no good reason to submerge your fancy tech.
Before doing any kind of washing, remove your watch band, just to make it easier on yourself. You should also power off your smart watch (since mine was dead, I didn’t bother). I buffed the tiniest bit of soapy water around the machine with the cloth and, sure enough, everything came off fine, including a large streak of unidentified gunk that I think was spray paint from many moons ago. I used a dry section of the cloth to wipe it again, removing excess dampness.
I ran into an issue when I peeked in the little troughs where the watch band connects to the device itself. They’re tiny, just millimeters across, but they were remarkably dirty inside. My cloth wouldn’t fit and for a moment I wondered if this was why some people were plunging theirs into bowls of water, but when I folded a wet wipe in half and pulled it tight, I could easily slide the corner I’d made into the groove and it did the trick. If there’s truly nasty crust in yours, try a paper towel dipped in your soap-and-water solution.
Smart watch cleaning method #2: Isopropyl alcohol
For my new watch, I repeated the trick of sticking a wet wipe in the grooves that hold the band, but used a q-tip dipped in 70% isopropyl alcohol to spot treat the grosser parts, which looked and felt kind of oily. Where the older watch was dirty because of its retirement in the junk drawer, this one was dirty because of lotion and sweat; alcohol is better for oily messes than water, obviously, so before you clean, consider what sort of streaks you’re tackling. Also know that before I did this, I read a lot of online debate about whether or not it’s a good thing to do, but felt confident enough after reading that little dabs are safe. Don’t use a cloth sopping wet with alcohol.
If your watch is extremely dirty, try soap and water first. The alcohol should only be dabbed quickly on the exterior, then left to air dry. If you have any of those little alcohol pads, they’ll be perfect for this. Never let alcohol touch leather bands and try not to let it in any ports or holes, either.
Since this watch wasn’t as dirty, alcohol worked fine. In both instances, I was a little worried about streaks, but after letting both air dry, there were none to report.
Other things to keep in mind when cleaning a smart watch
I wanted to find some grime in the ports and holes on my watches, but I couldn’t. While I think this says something sort of nice about who I am as a person, it doesn’t help me much when I’m trying to find the best cleaning methods. From what I’ve read, if you do have visible gunk in the tiny holes on your watch, gently (very gently!) try to dislodge it with a soft toothbrush or blow on it at an angle. If it’s small or not blow-able, wipe gently with a dry cloth. There really aren’t any holes big enough on an Apple Watch to cause problems, but if your device has some, be careful not to push the icky stuff further inside.
Consider getting in the habit of running a damp cloth or paper towel over your watch after you sweat a lot or before you put it on the charger, too, to stop it from getting quite so dirty before its next real cleaning. Never use too much water, even if it’s waterproof—it should be dry before you power it back on, charge it, or wear it.
You should also clean your watch band regularly, but how you do that will depend on what it’s made of. Most of mine are fabric, so they go in the washing machine, but rubber ones can be cleaned with soap and water or disinfectant. If it’s leather, wipe it with a dry cloth, then use a drop of gentle soap (like hand soap) on a damp cloth to rub any messy spots. Use a clean, damp cloth to wipe away any soap residue and let the leather air dry, then hit it with some leather conditioner.
If you’re planning to buy an Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2, you may want to act quickly. Apple saysit will soon halt sales of both devices in the US due to a International Trade Commission (ITC) ban, which is related to a patent dispute over the wearables’ blood oxygen sensor. Sales will be suspended online this week and at Apple retail locations after December 24.
“A Presidential Review Period is in progress regarding an order from the US International Trade Commission on a technical intellectual property dispute pertaining to Apple Watch devices containing the Blood Oxygen feature,” Apple told Engadget in a statement. “While the review period will not end until December 25, Apple is preemptively taking steps to comply should the ruling stand. This includes pausing sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from Apple.com starting December 21, and from Apple retail locations after December 24.”
The Apple Watch SE will remain available for purchase as it doesn’t have a blood oxygen sensor. Previously purchased Apple Watch units that include the blood oxygen feature are unaffected (the Apple Watch Series 6 was the company’s first device to offer blood-oxygen monitoring). The Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 will still be available to buy outside of the US.
Medical tech company Masimo sued Apple in 2021 over alleged violations of patents related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. In October, the ITC upheld a judge’s ruling from earlier this year that the Apple Watch did violate Masimo’s patents.
The ITC’s order blocks all Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 imports to the US after December 25. Other retailers, such as Amazon and Best Buy, can continue to sell the devices for the time being, as 9to5 Mac first reported.
Following the ITC’s decision, the case went to the White House for a 60-day Presidential Review Period. Although President Biden has one more week to decide whether to veto the ITC ruling, Apple has opted to preemptively comply with the commission’s decision.
Apple plans to lodge an appeal with the Federal Circuit. It can also reach a settlement with Masimo or issue software updates that nullify patent infringements (likely by deactivating blood oxygen features). Apple will provide more information on the situation after the Presidential Review Period expires on December 25.
The US Trade Representative will also review the ITC’s order. It has the option to disapprove of the ITC’s action due to policy reasons.
“Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features,” the company said. “Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers. Should the order stand, Apple will continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the US as soon as possible.”
Masimo has released its own smartwatch that Apple claims is an Apple Watch knockoff. Apple filed two patent infringement suits of its own against Masimo in October 2022, asserting that it copied patented Apple Watch features.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-pause-watch-series-9-and-ultra-2-sales-in-the-us-due-to-a-patent-dispute-142051903.html?src=rss
