Android is slowly entering the RISC-V era. So far we've seen Google say it wants to give the up-and-coming CPU architecture "tier-1" support in Android, putting RISC-V on equal footing with Arm. Qualcomm has announced the first mass-market RISC-V Android chip, a still-untitled Snapdragon Wear chip for smartwatches. Now Google has announced a timeline for developer tools via the Google Open Source Blog. The last post is titled "Android and RISC-V: What you need to know to be ready."
Getting the Android OS and app ecosystem to support a new architecture is going to take an incredible amount of work from Google and developers, and these tools are laying the foundation for that work. First up, Google already has the "Cuttlefish" virtual device emulator running, including a gif of it booting up. This isn't the official "Android Emulator"—which is targeted at app developers doing app development—Cuttlefish is a hardware emulator for Android OS development. It's the same idea as the Android Emulator but for the bottom half of the tech stack—the kernel, framework, and hardware bits. Cuttlefish lets Google and other Android OS contributors work on a RISC-V Android build without messing with an individual RISC-V device. Google says it's working well enough now that you can download and emulate a RISC-V device today, though the company warns that nothing is optimized yet.
The next step is getting the Android Emulator (for app developers) up and running, and Google says: "By 2024, the plan is to have emulators available publicly, with a full feature set to test applications for various device form factors!" The nice thing about Android is that most app code is written with no architecture in mind—it's all just Java/Kotlin. So once the Android RunTime starts spitting out RISC-V code, a lot of app code should Just Work. That means most of the porting work will need to go into things written in the NDK, the native developer kit, like libraries and games. The emulator will still be great for testing, though.
The post also confirms, from Google's side this time, that a Qualcomm smartwatch will be the first RISC-V Android device on the market. With the Pixel Watch 2 switching SoCs from Samsung to Qualcomm, it sure feels like we're on a collision course to see the Pixel Watch 3 or 4 use this Qualcomm RISC-V chip.
Article From & Read More ( Google plans RISC-V Android tools in 2024, wants developers to “be ready” - Ars Technica )
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Not to be outdone by the likes of Best Buy, even stores that stock just one Chromebook Plus model – like Target – are getting in on the discount action. Though we’ve seen some pretty steep discounts (and one wildly-reduced Chromebook) at Best Buy on Chromebook Plus models thus far, we’ve not seen much in the way of price reductions on these new Chromebooks apart from Best Buy’s efforts just yet.
But that is changing today as Target is now selling the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 for just $279.99 – a solid $120 off the standard $399.99 MSRP. Sure, Target doesn’t sell a ton of Chromebooks just yet, but they could start moving more devices once they see how well devices like the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 can sell.
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With easily the most enticing exterior of all the new Chromebook Plus models, the ASUS CX34 strikes a great balance of style, functionality and affordability. With a 14-inch IPS display, white exterior, generous trackpad, comfy keyboard, and fast Intel Core i3-1215U processor, this device is a great showcase of what is possible when manufacturers stick to the Chromebook Plus spec.
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And for the time being, you can get it for a ridiculous $279.99 asking price. If you sign up for Target’s Red Card (you can tie it to your checking account for this; you don’t need another credit card), you can also save 5% on this and future purchases, too. That will drop another $14 off the price, so you could be getting one of the best new Chromebooks around for just $265. Even as we approach the holiday shopping season, that sort of deal is pretty ludicrous. But don’t wait long: we don’t see Chromebook deals at Target too often, and we have no idea how long this one will last.
Google’s biggest apps (Gmail, Drive, Docs, etc.) have been updated with Material You on the web, but it’s not as wide a rollout when compared to Android. The latest example of Material 3 is the Google Pay website.
At pay.google.com/pay/home, which requires reauthentication before accessing sensitive data, you can “view recent transactions and learn how you can get more from Google Pay.” (This is different from payments.google.com, though there’s some functionality overlap. The “Google payments center” still uses the company’s previous design language.)
Before Google removed the functionality, you could also “Send or request money” through this page. The big features now are seeing what “Payment methods” you’ve saved to your Google Account. Tapping a card shows you recent transactions with the ability to see more details, like on Android (with the Google Wallet app). This opens in a fullscreen instead of a panel like the previous iteration.
There’s also a unified “Transactions” view that shows everything with the card you used noted at the bottom. What’s nice about this is that it should include purchases made using Google Wallet for Wear OS. The Wallet app/experience on Android only shows transactions made using that phone. Nothing syncs over, though it really should. (The GPay app does show everything if you’re in the US, India, and Singapore).
In terms of Material 3, there’s a blue background and accent color for the side drawer across the Google Pay website, as well as the new toggle style. Under Settings, you’ll find preferences for emails and privacy.
We’re not quite sure when this redesign rolled out.
The Ark monitor showing four screens at once.
Image: Samsung
Samsung’s latest massive 55-inch Odyssey Ark monitor is now available to buy in the US for $2,999.99, the company announced today. Like the previous Ark, this is a 4K Mini LED display with a 165Hz refresh rate that aims to replace existing multi-monitor setups with one massive screen that can show a range of different content simultaneously.
On paper, the 55-inch Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen (G97NC), to use its full name, addresses two of our key complaints about the original Ark from last year. For starters, although the total number of video inputs remains the same at four, one of the HDMI ports has been turned into a DisplayPort connector.
Perhaps more importantly, Samsung advertises that the monitor can show a video feed from all four of these inputs simultaneously thanks to its improved Multi View feature. (The previous model let you split your screen in four but could only show one HDMI input at a time, making you reliant on built-in apps and services for the other three.) So now, it should be possible to game with a PS5 on one side of the screen while using your PC on the other. Support for using multiple inputs simultaneously should also help overcome issues if any built-in apps like Netflix don’t support Multi View since, theoretically, you’ll now be able to access them via an external HDMI streaming dongle.
Cockpit Mode returns, letting you turn the entire screen for an overwhelming portrait experience.
Image: Samsung
The Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen also includes a built-in KVM switch that lets you control multiple PCs with a single mouse and keyboard, though Samsung notes that each computer needs to be connected via its own USB upstream cable and that these are sold separately. The company also advertises that the monitor has four corner speakers and two woofers built into the monitor with support for Dolby Atmos.
Elsewhere, the monitor’s features are broadly in line with last year’s model. There’s a “Cockpit Mode” that lets you rotate and use the monitor vertically and where you can show up to three screens at once, and it also comes with an “Ark Dial” to serve as a remote. Although this is more of a monitor than a TV, it comes with an array of smart TV-style apps, including cloud gaming services from Xbox and Nvidia as well as streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Samsung says the monitor is available now directly from its own webstore as well as select additional retailers nationwide.
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Have you ever Googled yourself and been surprised by the old social media images, usernames, and other dusty internet relics it unearths? Maybe the results are a bit more specific, like a former address or even a phone number. No one wants their personal contact information online for all to see without their knowledge — fortunately, Google can now help with that.
In August, announced a new Google Search feature that alerts users when their personal contact information appears in a Google Search query. "Results About You" not only lets users see when and where their contact information populates on the search engine but also offers the option to remove the page from Google's results.
As Mashable reporter Amanda Yeo noted at the time of its announcement, Results About You is also particularly helpful for those who have been, or are at risk of, being doxxed.
Paired with Google's other privacy settings and upcoming features, users can take more control of their digital footprint — at least, Google's capturing of it. Here's how to use it.
How to turn on Results About You:
Only individuals with Google accounts can turn on this alert, so make sure you've created or signed in to your Google account.
Click "Get Started" and follow the on-screen prompts.
Google will ask you to add any contact information you'd like flagged. Users can add multiple names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails.
Confirm the information and select how you'd like to be notified. Google can send the results to the email associated with your Google account or send push notifications to devices linked to your Google account.
Google will automatically scan Search results for your personal information and alert you if it finds anything. The company says the initial scan can take a few hours.
Return to the Results About You page at any time to edit your contact information.
Credit: Google
Credit: Google
Credit: Google
How to remove your personal information from Search:
While Google doesn't have the ability to remove any information or images from non-Google sites, it can help users get personal contact information results removed from Google Search pages.
There are two ways to request that Google remove personal information from search results:
On Results About You:
Go to the Results About You activity page.
Select "Results to review."
Check the blue box next to any results you'd like to request removed.
Submit request.
Google reviews each request according to its policy requirements for removal. The status of a request can be viewed on the Results About You page, as well as an option to undo removals.
Fill out the requested information, including the type of content. Google may request screenshots, URLs to search result pages, and specific search terms used to populate the result.
Once filled out, submit the form.
For additional information on Google's privacy and personal information controls, visit Google's Safety Center.
Bard is a conversational generative AI chatbot developed by Google. Much like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Bard allows you to ask questions and get help with projects and ideas, as if you were speaking to a human on a messaging app.
Typically, when you ask Bard a question there’s a delay between sending the question and a response appearing. Now, you’ll be able to ask the bot to respond as it’s creating an answer. There’s still a bit of a delay, but you’ll see a response come in line-by-line as Bard creates it.
Besides saving you time waiting for a response, the feature also has a “Skip response” button you can press if you happen to realize the response isn’t helpful and you want to bail out early.
If you’d rather wait and see answers after Bard has completed them, you can also set the chatbot to skip the real-time response feature. Tap the Settings icon and select “respond in real time” or “Respond once complete.”
This year's release of the world's most popular operating system feels like one of the smallest ever, bringing just a handful of new features. Even during the Android portion of Google's big I/O keynote, Google spent most of its time showing off a new generative AI feature that creates wallpapers for you, as if there aren't enough wallpapers in the world.
Last year's Android 13 release felt small, but that was because it was the second major Android OS release that year. Android 12L—the big tablet and foldable release—came out earlier. What's Android 14's excuse? We're not really sure. We still have a few things to go over, though, like new lock screen customizations, genuinely exciting changes to the way the back button works, and a pile of under-the-hood changes.
The new logo
The new Android logo.
Google
The old, flat logo.
It comes in a variety of colors and styles.
Google
A combined wordmark of "Google Android" is included in Google's logo animations, which would certainly be a change.
Google
First up is a new logo! Android's last big rebranding happened with Android 10, and just a few years later, it's time for a new coat of paint. The wordmark is now capitalized, and the little Android "bugdroid" mascot, usually a disembodied head next to the Android wordmark, is getting its body back. The bugdroid is now fully rendered in 3D, and in keeping with Google's Material Design guidelines, it comes in a variety of colors and styles. If you ask me, bugdroid in 3D looks a bit pudgy.
In the videos on Google's redesign blog post, a "Google Android" logo occupies the screen for a good amount of time. I have never seen these two brands together as a single wordmark, and widespread usage of it would certainly be a change. Some people confuse the Android brand with the "Android Open Source Project" and think it's some kind of free-to-use logo, but Android is a trademark of Google, and you can't use it unless you license the Google Play apps. So "Google Android" is totally appropriate.
I've never actually seen the Android logo anywhere in the world outside of tech news, so I'm not sure who this is for. Even if you get a Pixel phone, you won't see the Android logo on the box or in the software. The one spot to catch it in the real world is in a tiny "powered by Android" message on the rarely seen phone boot screen. It's like a branding system exclusively for Google blog posts and trade shows.
The (somewhat) customizable lock screen
Long press on the lock screen and you'll get this "customize lock screen" button.
Ron Amadeo
All the clock fonts.
Ron Amadeo
Clock color options. The slider lets you pick from dark, light, or vibrant colors.
Ron Amadeo
The shortcut screen and all nine options.
Ron Amadeo
iOS 16's headline feature was its new lock screen widgets, and it seems Android wants in on the action, too. Android originally had lock screen widgets back in 2012 with Android 4.2, but they were removed just a few years later in version 5.0. Lock screen widgets are still not back in Android 14, but because Google tries to keep pace with iOS, widgets are probably alock to appear in Android 15 or 16.
What we have in Android 14's lock screen is a selectable clock style and two shortcuts you can pick from. You can long-press on the lock screen, and a "customize" button will pop up, letting you pick from seven different clock styles. You can choose the clock's color, and a color slider lets you adjust things further. "Contrast" isn't the right word for the slider, but the left side is a lightly tinted almost-black, the right side is a lightly tinted almost-white, and a full, rich color is in the middle somewhere. There's also a "size" setting for the clock, which determines if it kicks into full-screen mode when you have no notifications or just stays small all the time.
You can assign functions to two left and right shortcuts, but the options are strangely limited. You can assign a button to the camera, a do-not-disturb toggle, the flashlight, the Google Home app, Mute, the QR code scanner, the video camera, or Google Wallet. That's it—a weird grab bag of some quick settings toggles and one or two Google apps.
Still, it's great to get an actual settings UI for the lock screen shortcuts. Previously, controlling these shortcuts meant ticking one or two on/off switches in the display settings, which is not great for something that could have multiple options. It should just be all your apps and quick settings buttons—thanks to themed icons, there should be appropriate one-color options for all of these now. Between this shortcut setting, the quick settings "edit" UI, and the app drawer/home screen, that's three "shortcut" UIs where you pick a selection of items from a big bucket of icons. Google should just pick one UI and roll with it everywhere.
In general, though, the lock screen options feel like a precursor to something more robust, with app-supplied widgets.
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 updates to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to try out the software ahead of its release. The public iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 betas come a day after Apple released the betas for developers.
Public beta testers can get the beta by opening up the Settings app, going to the Software Update section, tapping on the "Beta Updates" option, and toggling on the iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 Public Beta. Signing up on Apple's beta testing website is required.
iOS 17.2 adds the Journal app designed to let iPhone and iPad users record their daily activities and thoughts. Apple offers prompts that can be used as inspiration, and journal entires can be outfitted with images, voice recordings, location tags, and more.
Collaborative playlists are now available in Apple Music so you can create playlists that multiple people contribute to, and there's also now a Favorites playlist that has all the music you've favorited. Stickers can be used as tapback reactions in the Messages app, the Action Button on the iPhone 15 Pro models can now be set to a new Translate function, and Apple has implemented support for iMessage Contact Key Verification.
There are new Weather and Clock widgets, tweaks to the TV app, updates to Message syncing across devices, new Memoji options, and more, with the full list of features we've found so far available in our iOS 17.2 beta features article.
Apple has also released new public betas of tvOS 17.2 and watchOS 10.2.
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Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of German publishing giant Axel Springer, sat down recently with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for what the company called a "wide-ranging interview". It was nothing of the kind. A billionaire CEO (Döpfner) lobbed one softball question after another to the billionaire CEO (Nadella) of a trillion-dollar company (Microsoft).
Is there any kind of real strategic mistake or just wrong decision that you regret in retrospect?
The decision I think a lot of people talk about – and one of the most difficult decisions I made when I became CEO – was our exit of what I'll call the mobile phone as defined then. In retrospect, I think there could have been ways we could have made it work by perhaps reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones.
I can think of a dozen follow-up questions I would have asked at that point:
What do you mean by "reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones"? Can you elaborate?
How would that have made the Windows Phone ecosystem viable?
You talk about "the mobile phone as defined then", referring to when you became CEO in 2014. Can you define how the modern mobile device is different from that one?
Do you understand exactly how many angry Windows Phone fans are going to send you email messages demanding that you revive that product line?
I'm serious about that last question. Windows Phone fans are nothing if not... well, let's say passionate, and this latest round of rehashing Microsoft's failed attempt to create a viable mobile platform is only going to reawaken them.
Anyway, this confession is a shift on the part of Nadella, who defended the exit decision in his 2017 book Hit Refresh. In that ghostwritten volume, he noted that Microsoft in 2013 was "desperate to catch up after missing the rise of mobile technology." As a member of Steve Ballmer's management team, he had voted against Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia. The deal went through anyway:
I voted no. While I respected Steve and understood the logic of growing our market share to build a credible third ecosystem, I did not get why the world needed the third ecosystem in phones, unless we changed the rules.
[…]
A few months after I became CEO, the Nokia deal closed, and our teams worked hard to relaunch Windows Phone with new devices and a new operating system that came with new experiences. But it was too late to regain the ground we had lost. We were chasing our competitors' taillights. Months later, I would have to announce a total write-off of the acquisition as well as plans to eliminate nearly eighteen thousand jobs….
That seems like the right take, frankly. Carving out a third ecosystem in phones turned out to be impossible, primarily because most developers didn't see the need to invest resources outside of the two dominant ecosystems, iPhone and Android. There was no combination of incentives or even outright bribes that was going to change that.
Nor can I think of any sort of "reinvention" that would have breathed life back into the Windows Phone platform. It sucks to be the third platform. Just ask the people running Google's cloud business, which is in a distant third behind Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure, and not showing any signs of gaining ground.
Nadella's team has had some success in expanding its Office franchise to mobile devices, but on both iOS and Android it's clearly playing on platforms it doesn't control. That means paying rent to Apple and Google, and being forced to fight an uphill battle against the well-entrenched platform owners, who are able to set their own apps and services as defaults.
Microsoft has struggled to carve out a niche in the Android ecosystem, releasing the dual-screen Surface Duo to decidedly mixed reviews (I returned mine). An upgraded device didn't fare much better, and the line appears to be dead, or at least pining for the fjords.
It's possible, with some effort, to turn a stock Android phone into something that could be called a Microsoft phone. The Microsoft Launcher, with its emphasis on Microsoft 365 services, replaces the Google-centric default launcher. The Edge browser is a solid replacement for Chrome, and the Phone Link app on Android does a creditable job of tying the phone and a Windows PC together in ways that vaguely resemble the features that tie iPhones and Macs together so well.
Microsoft doesn't brag about its use of any of these apps on Android devices, which is a pretty clear sign that the percentage is tiny. And there's not much the company can do to force those numbers up. After all, defaults are powerful things.
I'm doubtful that Microsoft plans to expand its mobile hardware platform in 2024 or 2025, and recent developments in the Surface division, including the loss of the division's longtime boss, Panos Panay, support that conclusion. In that same interview with Mathias Döpfner, Nadella made it pretty clear that the company is concentrating its bets on AI-related projects.
Given Microsoft's push to add AI features into its existing search engine, I figured maybe I could ask Bing to take a crack at one of those follow-up questions:
Please answer the following question from the perspective of Satya Nadella. What do you mean by "reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones"? Can you elaborate?
According to several web sources, by "reinventing the category of computing between PCs, tablets, and phones", Satya Nadella means that Microsoft could have created a new kind of device that would combine the best features of all three platforms and offer a unique user experience. He regrets that Microsoft exited the mobile phone business too soon and missed the opportunity to innovate in this space.
A new kind of device? Sounds interesting. But my guess is that Bing is hallucinating. As is anyone who expects to see Windows Phone come back to life in the AI era.
If you Google your name, address or phone number, you might be surprised by the number of results you see with your personal information. There's a hidden feature in Google that will alert you when it finds these results, though, allowing you to remove them.
Google has about 83% of the search market, according to Statista, and is far ahead of competitors such as Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo. That means, if folks are looking for your information, chances are they'll try Google first.
This approach is different than just asking Google to remove private results. Instead, this feature proactively searches for your phone number, email and home address and will alert you when it finds something. Then, you can just tell Google to delete it from search results.
Note: Google doesn't remove your information from the internet, but it scrubs it from Google Search and makes it harder for people to find.
Here's how to do it.
How to get Google to alert you if your personal information appears in search results
Google will notify you when your personal information gets posted online.
Google
It's really easy to ask Google to alert you if it finds your personal information. You just need to know where to look. Start by making sure you're logged in to Google.
Add your personal info: name, address, phone number, email. You can add multiple entries for each one.
Confirm this is all your information.
Choose the way that you want to be notified. You can choose email or push notifications, or both.
Last, you will get a pop-up that says, "We're taking a look."
Now just wait for notifications from Google. When you get one, you can choose to have Google remove it from Google Search or opt to leave it. That's up to you.
Pro tip: If you made any errors, or want to go back in and edit, just return to the "Results About You" page and make your changes.
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Apple has fixed a years-old vulnerability in its iPhone and iPad software that undermined a privacy feature since it first debuted.
Back in 2020, Apple announced a new feature in iOS 14 that would prevent nearby wireless routers and access points from gathering an Apple device’s unique MAC address.
Tracking MAC addresses can have legitimate uses, like allowing administrators to identify every device connected to their networks, such as unauthorized devices. But knowing a device’s MAC addresses can be used for tracking that device across different networks.
Rather than sharing the device’s unique MAC address, the iOS feature would use a different “private address” for each network.
But it turns out that this feature hasn’t worked as intended since it was first introduced, according to security researchers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, who discovered a flaw that prevented the privacy feature from properly working.
In a video published this week, Mysk explained that while iOS has replaced the device’s real MAC address with a randomly generated address for each network, the device’s software also included the real MAC address in the AirPlay discovery requests that an iPhone sends when it joins a network. These real MAC addresses were then broadcast to every other connected device on the network.
“There is no way to prevent iPhones and iPads from sending AirPlay discovery requests, even when connected to a VPN,” Mysk said. “Apple’s devices do this to discover AirPlay-capable devices in the network.”
Mysk confirmed to TechCrunch that iPhones and iPads kept sending these requests even when the user enabled Lockdown Mode, an opt-in feature designed to protect against highly targeted cyberattacks.
Mysk said he first discovered this issue in July, and submitted a security report to Apple on July 25. Mysk told TechCrunch that communication with Apple provided a “major obstacle,” saying that the tech giant was unable to replicate the “straightforward” issue until October 3, when he was notified that a fix was available to be tested.
Apple this week fixed the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-42846, with the release of iOS 17.1 and iOS 16.7.2 for older devices that can run iOS 16. As Mysk noted, devices running iOS 14 or iOS 15 remain vulnerable.
Apple has not disclosed the severity of the bug, but Mysk notes that the vulnerability rating score system classifies the vulnerability as “high.”
Apple spokesperson Scott Radcliffe declined to answer TechCrunch’s questions.
Apple this week fixed several other vulnerabilities with iOS 17.1, including a flaw that may have allowed an attacker to access passkeys without authentication, and a Siri bug that could have exposed sensitive data to a hacker with physical access to a device.
Linksys has released the Velop Pro 7, its newest Wi-Fi 7 mesh router, which it says is so smart, it can fix itself — and it’s convinced enough of this that it plans to phase out its router management app. Like the Velops before it, you can buy Linksys’ new kit one at a time or in two- or- three-pack configurations. The router costs $399.99 for one, $749.99 for two, or $999.99 for three.
This is usually where I would tell you about the specs. But first, we need to talk about the app thing. While briefing me on its new routers, Linksys said its customers have overwhelmingly told it that they just don’t like needing to use an app to manage their network, so it’s looking to phase it out. It won’t happen immediately, but that’s the goal. What the company proposes, instead, is that it handles network management for you.
A close-up of the Velop Pro 7’s top.
Image: Linksys
Linksys says its router can take care of itself using “cognitive computing” — a concept the IEEE summarizes as “the imitation of the thought process of human beings using a sophisticated computerized model.” Machine learning, basically. The company told me it uses this approach instead of AI because people don’t trust AI. In the interest of briskness, I will just acknowledge that when companies use the term “AI,” they’re often also talking about cognitive computing.
If Linksys’ cognitive system fails to fix what’s ailing it, though, users can flag a problem with its support app. Linksys support will then remotely diagnose the problem and either fix what’s wrong or tell the user why it can’t (say, your ISP is the problem, or you need to check that your modem is plugged in).
Wi-Fi 7 is the next version of Wi-Fi to follow Wi-Fi 6E. Like Wi-Fi 6E, the protocol works on the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, and it’s backward-compatible with devices that precede it. Wi-Fi 7 promises faster throughput through features like 320MHz channel bandwidth, which is twice what’s offered on Wi-Fi 6E; Multi-Link Operation, which combines bands into a single, faster, and more stable connection; and improved interference handling.
The standard hasn’t yet been finalized, however, and there are no client devices — phones, laptops, and so forth — that support it, putting current Wi-Fi 7 routers very firmly in the early adopter market. Still, there may be some benefits from using Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems, which will be able to take advantage of the features listed above for faster, more stable wireless backhaul connections between nodes.
To some degree, I get it. Network troubleshooting is a pain. The idea of a router system that manages itself is great. And router apps are often just so bad.
But I’m leery of claims of self-healing tech that you don’t need to fix. As much as I don’t like most of them, router smartphone apps can be accessible and even pleasant when done right, and at least minimally useful for troubleshooting. The idea of sending up the digital equivalent of a signal flare and having to wait on Linksys support to get back to me sounds like hell.
I have to hope the company will still offer a browser interface for those of us who still want to do our own troubleshooting. I reached back out to Linksys to ask for more information about its post-app router world and will update here when I hear back.
Four gigabit ethernet ports and a 2.5Gbps WAN port.
Image: Linksys
Under the hood of the Velop Pro 7
Okay, so I promised specs. In terms of design, the Linksys Velop Pro 7 continues the ongoing tradition of air freshener chic white obelisks the line is known for. Each node has a 2.5Gbps WAN port (the one that goes to your modem or that you might use to connect mesh nodes) and four gigabit ethernet ports. The company says the Pro 7 is good for about 3,000 square feet of coverage per node. A whole system can handle up to 200 connected devices, too, according to Linksys.
The Pro 7 also has Wi-Fi 7 features like Multi-Link Operation, which lets the router connect to another device across multiple bands for faster throughput but also serves as a stability measure — if your 6GHz goes down, you’ve still got your 5GHz band to fall back on. It can also use up to 320MHz channel bandwidth on the 6GHz band, which doubles that of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E routers, and that means more throughput for devices that support it (of which there are currently zero).
Those sound like decent specs and a nice intro-level Wi-Fi 7 kit, inasmuch as this early adopter tech can be. The Velop Pro 7 is very pricey but maybe not outrageous when compared to the TP-Link Deco BE85 or the Eero Max 7, both of which will run you hundreds more for a three-pack than a $999 trio of Wi-Fi 7 Velops. But like I said in my Wi-Fi 7 explainer, you just don’t need a Wi-Fi 7 router now. The spec isn’t final yet, which could mean missing features or a less optimized router down the line. You can buy it today, but frankly, you should probably wait on a review or three.
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