2010: The hottest man-made temperatures ever achived were a record 4 trillion degree plasma experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York… anointed the Guinness record holder.”
2026: On Friday, February 6, “a control room full of scientists, administrators and members of the press gathered” at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab in Upton, New York to witness its final collisions, reports Scientific American:
The vibe had been wistful, but the crowd broke into applause as Darío Gil, the Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, pressed a red button to end the collider’s quarter-century saga… “I’m really sad” [said Angelika Drees, a BNL accelerator physicist]. “It was such a beautiful experiment and my research home for 27 years. But we’re going to put something even better there.”
That “something” will be a far more powerful electron-ion collider to further push the frontiers of physics, extend RHIC’s legacy and maintain the lab’s position as a center of discovery. This successor will be built in part from RHIC’s bones, especially from one of its two giant, subterranean storage rings that once held the retiring collider’s supply of circulating, near-light speed nuclei…slated for construction over the next decade. [That Electron-Ion Collider, or EIC] will utilize much of RHIC’s infrastructure, replacing one of its ion rings with a new ring for cycling electrons. The EIC will use those tiny, fast-flying electrons as tiny knives for slicing open the much larger gold ions. Physicists will get an unrivaled look into the workings of quarks and gluons and yet another chance to grapple with nature’s strongest force. “We knew for the EIC to happen, RHIC needed to end,” says Wolfram Fischer, who chairs BNL’s collider-accelerator department. “It’s bittersweet.”
EIC will be the first new collider built in the US since RHIC. To some, it signifies the country’s reentry into a particle physics landscape it has largely ceded to Europe and Asia over the past two decades. “For at least 10 or 15 years,” says Abhay Deshpande, BNL’s associate laboratory director for nuclear and particle physics, “this will be the number one place in the world for [young physicists] to come.”
The RHIC was able “to separately send two protons colliding with precisely aligned spins — something that, even today, no other experiment has yet matched,” the article points out:
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During its record-breaking 25-year run, RHIC illuminated nature’s thorniest force and its most fundamental constituents. It created the heaviest, most elaborate assemblages of antimatter ever seen. It nearly put to rest a decades-long crisis over the proton’s spin. And, of course, it brought physicists closer to the big bang than ever before…
When RHIC at last began full operations in 2000, its initial heavy-ion collisions almost immediately pumped out quark-gluon plasma. But demonstrating this beyond a shadow of a doubt proved in some respects more challenging than actually creating the elusive plasma itself, with the case for success strengthening as RHIC’s numbers of collisions soared. By 2010 RHIC’s scientists were confident enough to declare that the hot soup they’d been studying for a decade was hot and soupy enough to convincingly constitute a quark-gluon plasma. And it was even weirder than they thought. Instead of the gas of quarks and gluons theorists expected, the plasma acted like a swirling liquid unprecedented in nature. It was nearly “perfect,” with zero friction, and set a new record for twistiness, or “vorticity.” For Paul Mantica, a division director for the Facilities and Project Management Division in the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Physics, this was the highlight of RHIC’s storied existence. “It was paradigm-changing,” he says…
Data from the final run (which began nearly a year ago) has already produced yet another discovery: the first-ever direct evidence of “virtual particles” in RHIC’s subatomic puffs of quark-gluon plasma, constituting an unprecedented probe of the quantum vacuum.
RHIC’s last run generated hundreds of petabytes of data, the article points out, meaning its final smash “isn’t really the end; even when its collisions stop, its science will live on.”
We are now so accustomed to everything we use requiring some kind of internet access that it’s easy to forget about good, old offline functionality. Yet even in our hyper-connected age of social media and smart homes, there are still plenty of apps with local functionality. And we’re not talking about obscure apps mostly used by a niche of tech enthusiasts and open-source evangelists, either. We’re talking about extremely popular programs, at least some of which you may already have installed.
From media streaming apps to popular security solutions, plenty of the apps we use daily either work fully offline or have a robust number of offline-capable features. You can use your browser without internet, store media locally, pay for purchases in stores, and even log into your accounts, all without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The peace of mind that comes from knowing you can use your apps when traveling or when the internet is down affords crucial peace of mind. So, here are five everyday apps that work without internet access.
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Google Chrome (and other browsers) do more than surf the web
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Sure, most of what you do in a web browser may require an internet connection, but they retain a lot of functionality even when you’re offline. Chrome and Chromium-based browsers also function as media players for music, movies, and photos. They can be used to read and edit PDFs, a functionality you can improve with PDF editing extensions. You can even use them to read other document formats such as .txt, .js, .css, and so on — handy when coding.
Moreover, Chromium’s rendering engine, Blink, allows the browser to act as an interface for apps installed on your computer. Discord, though requiring an internet connection to function, is a good example. The standalone Discord app you can install on your phone or desktop is actually an Electron app using a stripped-down version of Chrome to render itself. However, you can also run Discord directly in Chrome as a web app with nearly identical functionality.
Many offline apps also work this way. For instance, ComfyUI is a popular app used for local AI image generation. After installing the program and its dependencies on your machine, you access the user interface with a web browser. Jellyfin, a popular, free media server app similar to Plex, also uses a browser interface for its GUI. We’ve only scratched the surface here, too, as there are many offline extensions also available for download.
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Spotify can store music offline
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Most people stream their music these days, and there’s no more popular service than Spotify. But although the app is primarily designed around streaming music from the cloud, it has several offline features that make it useful even without an internet connection. You can download songs, albums, and playlists for offline playback, and the app can also play local audio files.
Spotify has a download button at the top of every album or playlist page and in the three-dot menu for individual songs. If you ever need to stock up on music for a flight or road trip — where a 4G or 5G connection may not be available – you can use the download feature to do so. You can have up to 10,000 songs stored offline at any given time. The music can be stored for an unlimited period of time, provided you connect to the internet at least once every 30 days. You must also be subscribed to Spotify Premium; free users can only download podcasts.
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Spotify can also be used as a local music player. If you have a digital music library, this is a great way to listen to those iTunes downloads and totally legal Limewire tracks alongside all of your current favorites. However, Spotify will not play local files by default. To enable the functionality on iOS or Android, head into the app’s settings by tapping your profile picture at the top-left of the home tab. Tap Settings and Privacy, then tap Apps and Devices. Enable the Local Audio Files feature, and you’re off to the races.
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Google Wallet and Apple Wallet work offline
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Depending on whether you own an iPhone or an Android smartphone, you probably have Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, respectively. These apps offer a lot of convenience, allowing you to leave your wallet at home and make purchases by tapping your phone to a payment terminal, or have access to your event tickets and membership passes in just a few taps. But some users will be surprised to learn that you can do all of that without an Internet connection.
Your digital wallet uses near-field communication (NFC) to pay with your stored credit and debit cards. When you tap your phone to pay, it supplies the payment terminal with a tokenized version of your card. In fact, this method is more secure than swiping or inserting your actual card, since it transmits an encrypted token that stands in for your card rather than transmitting the actual card information. The card data itself is stored securely on your device, so the phone doesn’t need internet access. Remember, your plastic credit cards aren’t connected to the net, either.
As for tickets and passes, many are simply barcodes or QR codes, so they don’t require internet connectivity to work, either. Even when an event ticket uses a dynamic ticket code — the reason why screenshots of your concert tickets don’t always work anymore – Google or Apple Wallet will store the algorithm used to generate those rotating codes, allowing you to scan the ticket even when you’re offline.
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Kindle can read e-books offline
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Avid bookworms are likely to have at least a few books in Amazon Kindle format, or an open-source e-book format such as EPUB. Being able to bring reading material on a trip without taking up too much space in your bag is a major boon, especially if you’re packing light.
If you already have an EPUB book on your device, virtually any e-reader app will be able to read it. If you’re a Kindle user, you’ll need to download the books ahead of time. You can do so by simply tapping on the book cover from inside the Library section of the Kindle app, and the app will notify you when it has finished downloading. For novel-length books composed almost exclusively of text, this only takes a few seconds on a robust connection, though it can take a bit longer for image-laden volumes such as magazines and graphic novels.
Once downloaded, Kindle books should stay on your device until manually deleted. However, we’ve found that they can sometimes be erased on Samsung Galaxy Android devices if the system puts the app in deep sleep. It’s also worth noting that Amazon removed some offline functionality from the Kindle in 2025, so you’ll no longer be able to download and transfer Kindle ebooks via USB.
If you take notes in a book, highlight portions of text, or otherwise annotate, Kindle will sync those annotations to your account once you are back online, provided that you have Sync turned on in the app’s settings. To make sure Sync is turned on, open the Kindle app, then tap the More tab on the bottom right of the screen. Tap Settings, then make sure the box next to Sync is checked.
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Google Authenticator (and other 2FA apps) work without internet
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If you’re somewhat serious about your digital security, you’ve probably got an authenticator app installed on your phone, be it Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or something else. You should always enable two-factor authentication for your online accounts, and an authenticator app provides significant security benefits over SMS-based 2FA, which is unencrypted. But some users might not know that your Authenticator apps generate authentication codes without needing an internet connection.
When you add an account to your authenticator app using an alphanumeric code or a QR code, you’re not transferring data over the internet. What you’re actually doing is feeding the authenticator a secret key, something like a missing variable for a math equation. Another variable in the equation is time, which is why the codes reset every 30 seconds. When you use a code generated by your authenticator, you’re giving the account you’re logging into the answer to that math equation. The account checks it against its own answer, using the same secret key and time variables, and grants you access if the sums match.
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The fact that this process does not require the internet is part of the point, since it prevents codes from being redirected or intercepted — two major risks of SMS-based 2FA. This also means that, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to log in somewhere without an Internet connection on your phone — such as when you’ve paid for in-flight Wi-Fi only on your laptop — you can still get a one-time password from your authenticator apps.
If we measured EV updates on their “coolness quotient,” Audi’s newly revised 2027 A6 Sportback e-tron and Q6 e-tron lineups would probably top the chart. The automaker has released what I’d say are a bunch of lifestyle upgrades that make the cabin as entertaining and intuitive as it is practically possible.
Both the 2027 A6 Sportback e-tron and Q6 e-tron get a redesigned Audi Digital Stage (the combination of infotainment screen and instrument panel) with improved graphics, fewer menu lists, and intuitive visual tiles. You can also mirror the navigation or media into the virtual cockpit.
Audi
A tech refresh that feels like a lifestyle upgrade
The physical scroll wheel, a fan-favorite feature, is back on the steering wheel, letting you control volume and navigate menus. For co-drivers, the front passenger screen now supports independent media playback via Bluetooth headphones.
And if you don’t get the chance to handle the wheel for long, you can connect gaming controllers (via Bluetooth) and race your way in video games with Active Privacy Mode enabled so that it doesn’t distract the driver. Audi also adds new massage seat modes to enhance comfort.
To elevate the overall experience, the cars now come with ambient “experience worlds” that sync lighting, sound, and climate control for programmed durations. There’s also a Power Nap feature that creates a calm, reclined cabin vibe when you stop for a short charging break.
Reverse Assist, Trained Parking, and ambient Experience Worlds
To assist with driving, the cars now get a Reverse Assist feature that automatically reverses up to 150 feet, a Trained Parking feature that enables autonomous parking in up to five regular parking spots, and more powerful regenerative braking that brings the car to a standstill without applying friction brakes.
You can now get an optional 4K dashcam integrated into the base of the rear-view mirror, and a Dynamic Plus that prioritizes raw performance over stability systems (to a limited extent) for times when you’re on your way to a track session. If some of these features sound familiar, that’s because they’re already available on the 2026 Audi A5 and Q5 models.
The 2027 Audi A6 Sportback e-tron starts from $66,700 for the standard model, while the 2027 Audi Q6 e-Tron starts from $64,500. These are the entry prices for the core-electric sedans and SUVs; higher trims are more expensive. Both the lineups will arrive at Audi dealerships “in the second quarter of 2026.”
Google has rolled out version 50.0.23 of the Play Store, continuing its steady cadence of under-the-hood updates. As usual, this release focuses on stability and performance rather than flashy new features. You can check your current version under Settings > About in the Play Store app, and if you’re behind, you can download the latest build right here.
If you purchased an E-mu Audity 2000 ROMpler back in 1998, you almost certainly got a rig with the 1.00 firmware. It was fine, if a little limited, particularly where upgradability was concerned. E-mu would later offer firmware upgrades over MIDI with the 2.00 firmware, but to get the 2.00 firmware, you needed to ship the box back to E-mu. Or you did… until now.
Realizing that E-mu is long gone and they weren’t going to handle any further firmware upgrades, [Ray Bellis] set about finding another way to help aggrieved operators with gear stuck on v1.00. [Ray] had managed to lay hands on a Audity 2000 service manual as well as the official 2.00 upgrade kit in an estate sale, and set about reverse engineering it to help the community. It turned out that upgrading from 1.00 to 2.00 required the use of a special boot ROM and a flash device containing the upgraded firmware image. Booting from the special ROM required the use of a jumper, and when engaged, the ROM would copy the updated image to the device itself.
[Ray] didn’t want to duplicate the standard upgrade device, as that seemed a little difficult what with parts availability in 2026. Instead, he crafted his own ROM that, with compression, contained the necessary firmware upgrade image and could all be stuffed inside a single 512 KB chip. All you need to do is flash the custom upgrade ROM to an AM29F040B PLCC32 NOR flash chip, pop it in the empty PLCC32 socket on the mainboard, and away you go. This will get you a machine upgraded to the final v2.01 firmware delivered by E-mu before its demise.
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It’s a finicky bit of work, but it’s a great way to get new functionality out of an old Audity 2000. We’ve featured similar work before regarding aging Yamaha synths, too. If you’ve got your own backdoor methods for giving older music hardware a new lease on life, don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline.
Analogue is back with another hit of N64 nostalgia, but with colorways that are deep cuts for even the biggest Nintendo nerds. Analogue announced its latest run of limited edition versions of its 3D console, this time drawing inspiration from a batch of prototype colorways for the original N64 that were manufactured but never hit the market. Now, the Analogue 3D will come in Ghost, Glacier, Extreme Green, Ocean and yes, even Atomic Purple.
It may just be a cosmetic upgrade, but it’s worth noting that each of the colorways has matching cables, power adapters and 16GB SD cards that come preinstalled. Analogue even partnered with 8BitDo again to create color-matched controllers that complete the colorful retro experience.
8BitDo
As usual, Analogue said this latest run will be available in “highly limited quantities,” starting on February 9 at 11AM ET. Be sure to set a reminder because the first Analogue 3D drop sold out quickly and the Funtastic colorways went out of stock just as fast. According to Analogue, the consoles will go for $299.99 and start shipping 24 to 48 hours after orders are completed. 8BitDo said the $49.99 controllers will be available for preorder at the same time as the 3D console, but see its first shipments starting in April.
Man City travel to Merseyside to face Liverpool at Anfield as the two sides renew one of the Premier League’s fiercest modern rivalries.
Premier League champions Liverpool head into the clash on the back of an emphatic 4–1 demolition of Newcastle United, as they look to secure back-to-back home victories for the first time since March. Anfield has long been a fortress, particularly in high-profile encounters, and the Reds will be keen to make another statement against a familiar foe.
Arne Slot’s troops may be out of the domestic title race, but they remain firmly in contention for Champions League qualification. Liverpool currently sit sixth on 39 points, just two adrift of fourth-placed Manchester United, with every result now carrying added significance as the season enters its latter stages.
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In all Premier League meetings between Liverpool and Manchester City, Liverpool have won 21 times, City have won 12, and there have been 18 draws, with the Reds historically holding the edge in league encounters.
Man City, meanwhile, are chasing a seventh Premier League crown under Pep Guardiola and find themselves locked in a tussle with Arsenal, sitting six points behind the Gunners as things stand.
The Sky Blues have not claimed a league win at Anfield since 2003, when goals from Nicolas Anelka and Michael Tarnat secured a memorable 2–1 victory, and they will be desperate to end that long-standing drought on Merseyside. Guardiola’s side are also targeting a league double over Liverpool this season, having already beaten the Reds in the reverse fixture.
City’s momentum, however, stalled last weekend as they were held to a 2–2 draw by struggling Spurs, despite racing into a 2–0 lead and appearing to be in control for much of the contest, a collapse that will concern Guardiola heading into such a demanding fixture.
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Form often goes out the window when Liverpool and Man City collide, so Sunday’s blockbuster encounter at Anfield is shaping up to be a cracker.
You won’t want to miss this huge clash so read on as we show you how to stream Liverpool vs Man City live streams from anywhere.
Use a VPN to watch Liverpool vs Man City live streams
Liverpool vs Man City is being streamed all over the world, but what if you can’t watch your home stream?
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Don’t worry – this is where a VPN comes in very handy. A VPN allows you to appear as though you’re still at home from anywhere in the world, meaning you don’t have to miss out because of geo-blockers. We recommend NordVPN, it’s the best on the market:
Using a VPN to watch Liverpool vs Man City is really straightforward.
1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we’ve said, NordVPN is our favorite.
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2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For example, if you want to watch Sky Sports’ stream this weekend, select ‘United Kingdom’ from the listed countries.
3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to Sky Sports and tune into Liverpool vs Man City.
How to watch Liverpool vs Man City live streams in the USA
Liverpool vs Man City is available via Peacock in the US.
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Peacock prices start at $10.99/month for live sports, and you’ll be able to live stream four other games on the platform this weekend.
Outside the US for this EPL clash? Use NordVPN to unlock your Liverpool vs Man City stream.
How to watch Liverpool vs Man City live streams in the UK
Sky Sports is broadcasting Liverpool vs Man City in the UK. Specifically on the Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event channels.
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Prices start at £20/month at present. However, fans can also watch using a NOW Sports 24-hour pass, which costs £14.99.
Not in the UK for Liverpool vs Man City? Use NordVPN to access your usual Premier League streams.
How to watch Liverpool vs Man City live streams in Canada
Fubo is broadcasting Liverpool vs Man City, along with every EPL game this season in Canada.
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Prices start from CA$31.49 per month for Fubo’s Sports Monthly package.
Use NordVPN to access your stream from anywhere in the world.
How to watch Liverpool vs Man City live streams in Australia
Liverpool vs Man City is available to watch on Stan Sport in Australia.
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Stan Sport’s subscriptions cost AU$20 a month on top of a Stan subscription, which starts at AU$12 a month. Though new customers can get $10 off Sport subscription right now (promotion ends February 9).
Missing the game because you’re outside Australia? Use a VPN to login to your Stan Sport account.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Even though we’re months away from its anticipated launch, a new leak about Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max raises serious concerns about Samsung’s purported Galaxy S26 Ultra.
According to renowned tipster Digital Chat Station, the iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a larger battery compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. While the Chinese version of the handset could feature a 5,000 mAh battery, international variants could offer an even bigger upgrade.
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends
Early iPhone 18 Pro Max put battery life back in the spotlight
The iPhone 18 Pro Max version sold outside China could have a battery capacity between 5,100 and 5,200 mAh. The exact battery size could depend on whether the version has a physical SIM or supports eSIM only. Why do I say that?
The iPhone 17 Pro Max features a 4,823 mAh battery on variants with a physical SIM slot, and a slightly larger 5,088 mAh battery on units without one. So, there’s a chance that the iPhone 18 Pro Max with and without a SIM slot could come with different batteries in the range.
These numbers might not impress you on paper, especially when compared to the 6,000 or 7,000 mAh battery cells on modern Android flagships (like the OnePlus 15), but when it comes to real-world use, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is among the longest-lasting phones on a single charge.
Given that Samsung’s purported Galaxy S26 Ultra is rumored to ship with a 5,000 mAh battery (the same as the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which debuted six years ago) and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset based on 3nm fabrication technology, the iPhone 18 Pro Max should easily outlast it.
With a battery that can hold more charge, a chipset that consumes less power (likely the 2nm A20 Pro chip), and the highly-optimized iOS operating system, the iPhone 18 Pro Max might offer more screen-on time between charges than the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
If the leak holds true, the iPhone 18 Pro Max could hold well not just against the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but the Android flagships of 2026 that feature gargantuan batteries, proving that efficiency, not just raw capacity, is what truly matters.
I had low expectations for the rather generic Comulytic Note Pro, but it surprised me as not only the most useful all-around notetaker on available but also the cheapest after you consider the cost of a premium subscription.
The slim device, at 28 grams, is small enough to fit in a wallet or attach unobtrusively with the included magnetic ring to the back of your handset (note: it requires a special USB dongle to charge). The 64 GB of storage space and a 45-hour battery life aren’t massive, but both should be more than enough to handle a full week of interviews without offloading or recharging, all processed through OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Google’s Gemini. The small LCD is helpful (and rare in this market), indicating when you’re recording and offering a recording duration. This makes it a lot more foolproof than other notetakers, which offer nothing more than a colored LED to tell you if it’s on.
The Note Pro supports 113 languages—sort of. It will record in a foreign tongue and offer a verbatim transcript in the native language, but insights and summaries are delivered in your language of choice. It’s not a full solution if you need a complete, direct translation, but if you just need the gist of a foreign news story or speech, Comulytic can uniquely handle it.
The proof is in the quality of the abstracts and insights provided. Of all the devices I tested, Comulytic’s summaries were the most insightful and least rambling (though better than its transcripts), effectively picking out the most relevant portions of interviews and pulling the best quotes from my conversations (perhaps too many at times). It was also the only device to correctly transcribe a punny product nickname mentioned in passing in one interview, indicating that a more sophisticated language model may be behind the scenes.
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Comulytic isn’t perfect. It doesn’t transcribe in real time, it’s one of the slowest products at completing analyses, and I never got its “fast transfer” mode working, which meant all recordings had to be sent to my phone via a pokey Bluetooth connection, but these are minor dings against an otherwise solid solution. Best of all, for a limited time, the company includes a generous three months of premium service at no charge. Even if you don’t want to subscribe, the free plan, which offers three “deep dives” and 10 abstracts a month, is better than nothing.
AMD has an easy win sitting right in front of it, yet it’s choosing not to take it. FSR 4 already works on older Radeon GPUs, so why is AMD still holding it back?
Tablets are a nice in-between device for consumers (between computers and smartphones, that is). They’re mobile like smartphones and have much of the same functionality, if not more, as personal computers. The problem with an iPhone or Android phone is that its screen is too small to appreciate some apps. PCs might benefit from expensive monitors from major brands, but they’re not always touchscreen.
Sometimes, apps are better suited or simply necessary on a tablet. iPads and other tablets are perfect for reading because they’re already handheld like a book, but you can also adjust the brightness or zoom in if you’re struggling with the text. Also, you might like to work on the road, where a tablet shines. No matter what you use your tablet for, here are the apps better suited to tablets.
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Reuters
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The world is messy, and reality is undeniably less fun than escaping into a hobby. However, the average person should stay informed. Even if you’re not a fan of tuning into a 24-hour news network on TV, it can be beneficial to download a news app onto your iPad and just check out one or two headlines once a day.
Don’t overwhelm yourself. Reuters is my go-to for news because it delivers the news with minimal editorializing. An AllSides study in 2025 placed Reuters in the political center, with Forbes, Newsweek, and BBC News.
Beyond that, the app is really clean and easy to navigate. You can see what’s trending in the news and customize categories, so you see only what you’re interested in, such as technology, business, legal, sports, and science, to name a few. This feature requires a monthly $4 subscription.
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The Kindle app
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I read 62 books last year, and a few of those were through the Kindle app. Yes, reading can be an escape from reality, but it can also be a learning experience, whether you’re reading about stoic philosophies or about a Viking mother traversing the world to save her son and fighting Norse-inspired gods.
Let me tell you how nice it is to read on an iPad. It’s definitely one of the best tablets for e-book reading. Not only is the device more responsive than a typical e-reader, but the screen is larger and brighter, making reading much easier. More than that, it’s the perfect device for comic book fans since the Kindle app also has a whole graphic novel section. The artwork on an iPad really pops, too.
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You can zoom in to appreciate the art in depth, plus it’s so easy to navigate each page. The Kindle app really is a minimalist’s dream, too, because they can meticulously curate their space with just physical copies of their absolute favorite books.
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Tidal
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Who doesn’t enjoy music to some degree? It can help you focus on a specific task — like writing a 1,500-word article for work — help pass the time on a long drive, or even put you in the mood to complete some chores around the house. Obviously, if you have an iPad, you’re familiar with Apple Music, which is a fine choice. I started using Tidal, one of the top-ranked music streaming services, in 2025 strictly because it treats the artists better in terms of royalties, but that’s not why I stuck around.
You’ll hear a lot about Tidal’s sound quality, with its HiRes FLAC lossless tracks. I’m sure it sounds amazing compared to other services, but I’m not an audiophile, so it’s difficult for me to notice the difference between music on Tidal and that found on Apple Music. However, Tidal is more music-oriented than other apps. It has a whole magazine section, where you can read articles about the music industry. I came for the higher artist payout, but I stayed for the Tidal articles.
The biggest drawback with Tidal, though, is its lack of a free listening tier. You can make a free account, but that only lets you listen to songs for 30 seconds. You can get an individual plan for $10.99 per month or a family plan for $16.99. Eligible students can get an account for just $5.49.
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Cloud storage (DropBox or Google Drive)
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For a little bit of productivity, having some sort of cloud storage is a good idea. I personally use Google Drive because I’m knee deep in Google’s ecosystem, but Dropbox is just as good. I like to record videos and take pictures with my phone, and I found that uploading to Google Drive is a quick and easy way to get those files from my Samsung Galaxy S24 to a device with a bigger screen to edit. Sometimes it’s my computer, other times my iPad.
You automatically get free storage space with Google Drive if you already have a Google account, but to get 100 GB of space, it’s just $1.99. I was uploading a lot of videos at one point, so I needed more than the free 15 GB it gave me. You know Google Drive is a favorite for many when it has a 4.8-star rating in the App Store with over 7 million ratings.
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Procreate
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Was it dumb of me, somebody with next to no artistic talent, to pay $12.99 for an illustrator app? That’s debatable. I took art classes in college, so I know my way around a sketchpad, and I enjoy drawing images from my mind palace from time to time. It’s a nice escape, and Procreate is such an intuitive app that it makes it easy. Plus, I don’t have to waste paper when I’m unhappy with my creation. Just delete and try again. I’m a strong believer in everybody having at least one creative outlet, so if you like drawing and have an iPad, Procreate is not a bad app to download.
If you’re out running errands, like the dreadful DMV, you can bust out your iPad and sketch away. If you get lost in your art, time flies. One downside with Procreate is that there isn’t any kind of cloud storage to back up your creations, so if you ever delete the app, your drawings are gone. That is, unless you have your own cloud storage, such as Google Drive. So, if you get paranoid about losing your masterpieces, it’s advisable to get cloud storage.
There are other apps like Adobe Fresco, but I found Procreate to be more intuitive. If you have an iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone 17 Pro Max and don’t mind drawing on a smaller screen, there is Procreate Pocket, which is only $5.99.
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Methodology
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I set out to choose apps that I have personally used, and I tried to include ones that are useful to a broad audience. More importantly, I chose apps that have a high rating in the App Store (at least a 4.0) so you know they function properly. While I have a favorable opinion for each of these apps, they’re well-known enough that you can easily find professional reviews of each one if you prefer a second opinion.
