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As one of the biggest names in the music streaming game, Spotify has built a solid foundation on its free and paid plan options. Now, though, it’s testing a cheaper ad-supported subscription, too. Previously, Spotify only offered a free, ad-supported option, and a Premium version—which grants unlimited skips and other features. Spotify Plus will include some of these premium-only features, but still will be supported by ads. If Spotify can find a way to make this plan attractive to consumers, it could offer listeners more without costing them too much....

The M2 MacBook Air is Apple’s first Apple Silicon-era laptop for regular folks. It has been completely redesigned around Apple’s own ARM-based chips, has a new slab-sided shape, a screen with smaller borders, and a MagSafe charging port. And yet the previous M1 MacBook, which was essentially just the old Intel-era model with a new Apple chip inside, is still superior in some ways, and much cheaper. “For casual users, the M2 chip will not really make any significant differences for day-to-day tasks unless you need extreme improvements in professional workflows,” Sudhir Khatwani, co-founder and Editor In Chief at The Money Mongers, told Lifewire via email....

Superstar analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that this fall’s new iPhone 14 will keep the current A15 chip, while the iPhone Pro models will use the next-gen A16 chip. This could be a deliberate strategy to further differentiate the two lines, or it could be down to the supply difficulties affecting the world. Either way, it doesn’t really make a difference for most of us because iPhones—and iPads—have been too fast for a while now....

Scientists from MIT have created a robot hand system that can reorient over 2,000 different types of objects. The technique combines artificial intelligence (AI) with training to program the hand, according to a recent paper published on the preprint server ArXiv. It’s part of a growing effort to develop robot hands that resemble those of people. “These hands are highly dexterous and capable of performing in-hand manipulation,” Carmel Majidi, a professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering, who was not involved in the paper, told Lifewire in an email interview....

The choice to move from XP to Windows 7 is one that some people are still hesitant about. You know XP. You like XP. Why mess with a good thing? Here are five good reasons why. Support from Microsoft On April 14, 2009, Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows XP. What that means is that you can’t get free support for any problems related to Windows XP now; you’ll be pulling out the credit card to get help from now on....

First spotted by Deskmodder, a bug affecting Windows Defender seems to create thousands of small files, resulting in gigabytes of wasted storage space. The file names appear to use MD5 algorithms and are a result of a recent Microsoft Defender antivirus engine update from the end of April. According to Bleeping Computer, the bugs’ randomly created files range in size from 600 bytes to a little over 1KB located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History\Store....

With Microsoft teasing the reveal of the next version of Windows on June 24 and with plenty of new leaks popping up that show off the new UI, many people are excited about the future of Windows 11. Will it be a massive change from Windows 10? Will Microsoft finally overtake the design schemes found in other operating systems like macOS? If you’re hoping for something revolutionary, you’ll probably be disappointed....

This console is remarkably compact and has a surprisingly low price point. Gamers looking for a 4K UHD in HDR experience will need to pay a premium for the Series X, but the Xbox Series S offers an enticing alternative if you’re looking to save some money or haven’t yet made the jump to 4K. Design: Sleek and compact The Xbox Series S is small, and it’s almost impossible to oversell that point....

What Is an XNK File? A file with the XNK file extension is a Microsoft Exchange shortcut used to quickly open a specific folder or other item in Microsoft Outlook. It’s also called an Exchange Link. XNK files are created by dragging the object directly out of Outlook and placing it on the desktop. Instead of moving the item out of Outlook and onto the desktop, a reference, or shortcut, is built so that you can quickly access that same thing again through the XNK file....

It’s now available on the Nintendo Switch in an HD edition, which overhauls its 2011 graphics to 2021’s standards, and a new control scheme, so players on a Switch Lite can play through the game. If you liked the motion controls from the original version, those are here too, courtesy of the gyroscopes built into the Switch’s JoyCons. As a Zelda game, Skyward Sword is a strange experience. At its worst, Skyward Sword feels like a tech demo, so in love with the possibilities offered by 2011-era motion controls that the overall experience suffers; it’s linear, easy, and won’t stop holding your hand....

To help users appreciate the dangers of web extensions, digital security company Talon has analyzed the Chrome Web Store to report that tens of thousands of extensions have access to worrying permissions, such as the ability to change data on all visited sites, download files, access download activity, and more. “Many popular extensions put users at risk,” co-founder and CTO of Talon Cyber Security Ohad Bobrov explained to Lifewire over email....

Zoom Apps allows users to combine third-party apps with their Zoom Meetings to foster engagement and collaboration in the workforce. Zoom Events is the company’s new events platform for large and small businesses to host virtual events and offers features to enhance the experience for those in attendance. There are over 50 apps available on the Zoom App Marketplace with a variety to choose from like Collibri, which records and transcribes meetings, and Dot Collector, which allows people to share opinions via real-time feedback....

Combining elements from farming games with bits from games about battling monsters seemed like a precision shot to my interests. Especially since, in Monster Harvest, the crops you grow become the monsters you fight with. It’s just that I’d been fighting against a lot of really minor issues the whole time, with each new problem building on top of all the others, to the point where, eventually, I realized that I wasn’t having fun anymore....

It reimagines the classic Pac-Man arcade game as a battle royale, where the winner is the last Pac-Man standing out of 99 players at the start of the round. You have to dodge ghosts, juggle power-ups, dodge hazards, and keep a combo going, sometimes all at the same time. The natural point of comparison here is Tetris 99, a Switch Online freebie with a comparable gimmick. The two games even feature similar UI elements....

Street Fighter 6 makes it easier for new players, or just regular non-obsessed players, to pick up the game and enjoy it. Capcom Street Fighter director Takayuki Nakayama told the Verge that he made the game for everyone to play, not just long-time fans of the absurdly popular fighting game franchise. But the changes to the control scheme that make this possible might also end up annoying those core fans....

I recently enlisted the help of friends and family, with the promise of some free 5x7 prints, to put an HP Sprocket Studio to the test both around the office and some on-demand printing while out and about. Over the course of about a week with this device, I tested things like color reproduction, speed, the durability of prints, and the ability of the Sprocket Studio to reproduce a wide variety of still and action shots....

We love Incase bags and so do many others. The brand has quickly become a reliable go-to for durable commuter bags. If you’re in the market for a new messenger bag, the Incase Range Messenger might be the perfect one for you due to its waterproof design and damage-resistant build. That said, it isn’t completely without its faults either. Read on to see what we liked and disliked about it....

Here’s how to set up a new iPad without iTunes. How to Set up an iPad Without a Computer After turning on your new tablet for the first time, you’ll set your language and country. Then, you’ll connect to the internet either via Wi-Fi or a cellular connection if you have an iPad model that supports it. Next up is setting up a passcode with at least six digits for your device....

Using ipconfig From the command prompt, type ipconfig to run the utility with default options. The output of the default command contains the IP address, network mask, and gateway for all physical and virtual network adapters. The ipconfig command supports several command line options. The command displays the set of available options. Ipconfig /all This option displays the same IP addressing information for each adapter as the default option. Additionally, it displays DNS and WINS settings for each adapter as well as a whole host of additional information....

How to Tell If Facebook Messenger Is Down If you think Facebook Messenger is down for everyone and not just you, try these simple steps to check if you’re correct. What to Do When You Can’t Connect to Facebook Messenger If no one else is reporting a problem with Facebook Messenger, then the problem is likely something on your side. There are a few things you can try if Facebook Messenger seems to be working fine for everyone else, but not you....