Tag Archives: builtin

Instead of SMS 2FA, Use Your iPhone’s Built-In Two-Factor Authentication – CNET

  1. Instead of SMS 2FA, Use Your iPhone’s Built-In Two-Factor Authentication CNET
  2. Twitter’s two-factor authentication change “doesn’t make sense” Ars Technica
  3. Google offers free instant upgrade to millions of iPhone and Android owners – it’s a total life-saver… The US Sun
  4. Twitter is limiting a basic safety feature to paid users. This is unheard of in the tech sector The Indian Express
  5. Twitter Is Correct To Move Away From SMS Two Factor Authentication, Though, There Are Much Better Ways To Do It Techdirt
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Galaxy Z Fold 5 could get a major camera boost, built-in S Pen slot

Last updated: January 16th, 2023 at 06:04 UTC+01:00

There is some spicy news for an upcoming Samsung smartphone. No, it isn’t the soon-to-be-launching Galaxy S23 series, which is all set to debut on February 1. The rumors are about the Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2023. Going by the rumor, the Galaxy Z Fold 5, could come with a 108MP primary rear camera.

According to a new report by the Vietnamese publication The Pixel, Samsung might ditch the 50MP camera for the 108MP primary camera, which is currently found on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. This, in turn, would make the device a bit heavier, and it will weigh around 275 grams (which is a little hard to believe). For comparison’s sake, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 weighs 263 grams.

Galaxy Z Fold 5 rumored to get a 108MP main camera and 64MP telephoto camera

This increase in weight will be partly because of the new 108MP camera that the rumors are leaning towards. This is great news (although it isn’t anything concrete, and is just a rumor), especially since foldable phones are often criticized for their less-than-stellar camera performance. Not that they are bad by any means, they just aren’t at the level of the premium slab phones but are priced higher than them.

Not only the Galaxy Z Fold 5 main camera but the telephoto camera is also rumored to get a boost. As per reports, the main 108MP snapper will be accompanied by a 64MP camera with 2x optical zoom and a 12MP ultrawide shooter on the Galaxy Z Fold 5. But one should take this piece of information with a pinch of salt since Samsung upgraded the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 last year. The company’s track record indicates that we shouldn’t expect a major camera revision two years in a row.

Other details about the Galaxy Z Fold 5 include that the phone will come with a dedicated slot for the S-Pen, and is implementing a new hinge design to decrease the screen crease and let the phone fold completely flat.

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This Mechanical Keyboard Has a 12-Inch Touchscreen Built-In

Image: Ficihp

Like butterfly keyboards and chargers being included with iPhones, the MacBook’s Touch Bar seems doomed to extinction soon. The feature wasn’t completely useless, but its diminutive size prevented it from reaching its true potential. If you’re going to put a screen on a keyboard, you need to fully commit to the idea, like this mechanical keyboard with a 12.6-inch touchscreen does.

Amazon’s listings of consumer electronics continue to be slowly taken over by brand names that are not only completely unknown, but seemingly created by a random character generator. You can talk amongst yourselves about the right way to pronounce, “Ficihp,” but there’s little debate as to the usefulness of this creation.

As spotted by BoingBoing, although it looks like a self-contained mashup of a laptop and a tablet, the keyboard contains no actual computer components. On its own, it’s useless. But when cable connected to a computer, or a mobile device that’s compatible with external displays and hardware accessories, it serves as both a compact 71-key mechanical keyboard and a 12.6-inch color touchscreen with an ultra-wide aspect ratio and a cropped HD resolution of 1920×515.

Unlike the MacBook’s Touch Bar, which had its customizability limited by how applications chose to use it, the screen on this keyboard serves as a secondary display for a laptop or desktop PC, so users can move whatever apps or toolbars onto it they so please. The ability to have touchscreen shortcuts for commonly used tools and functions in complex apps like Photoshop was one tantalizing use case the Touch Bar never fully delivered, but this could.

Some of the other suggested use cases for this accessory in the keyboard’s promotional imagery actually seem quite handy. For instance, you could use the keyboard’s screen to take notes during a video conference call, leaving the larger screen for showing the talking heads of all the participants. Or, you could just use it as a dedicated place to park your Twitter feed so it’s visible at all times. It’s your mental health, who are we to tell you how to take care of it?

Image: Ficihp

The device is seemingly no slouch as a keyboard either, with adjustable brightness, swappable keycaps, and full RGB backlighting that has 15 different built-in lighting patterns. It’s also got n-key rollover, so it’s potentially even suitable for gaming too.

The hardware does have some limitations. It’s only real connection to a device is through a USB-C port, so if you need to go the HDMI route for an older PC or laptop, you’ll need to get a hub or cable adapter to bridge the two. And while the touchscreen supports up to 10-point touch detection, that only works when this thing is connected to a Windows PC. When paired with a Mac, touch detection is limited to just a single point.

The biggest issue, however, might be the keyboard’s $390 price tag. You can easily find a much larger hi-def external display and a passable mechanical keyboard for cheaper than this. Is the added touch functionality right at your fingertips worth the premium pricing? That’s up to you.

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AirPods Pro 2 No Longer Expected to Feature Built-In Heart Rate or Body Temperature Sensor

While past rumors have indicated the upcoming second-generation AirPods Pro will feature a built-in heart rate and body temperature sensor, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has cast doubt on those rumors turning out to be true, saying instead such a feature is unlikely to come anytime soon.

“Over the past few months, there have been rumors about this year’s model gaining the ability to determine a wearer’s heart rate or body temperature. I’m told that neither feature is likely to arrive in the 2022 upgrade,” Gurman writes in his latest Power On newsletter. Gurman adds that both features have been explored within Apple and could arrive someday.

Just last month, a rumor from 52Audio said that the ‌AirPods Pro‌ 2 would be able to measure heart rate and body temperature from within the ear. That same report said the ‌AirPods Pro‌ 2 would feature USB-C, an updated H1 chip, and Find My functionality. It remains to be seen if other aspects of the report will turn out to be accurate.

Apple has not given the ‌AirPods Pro‌ any updates since its launch in 2019 other than a new MagSafe charging case last fall. Apple is widely expected to announce a new version of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ later this year, possibly around the time it launches the iPhone 14 and new Apple Watch models this fall.

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AirPods Pro 2 Said to Feature Upgraded H1 Chip, Find My, Heart Rate Detection, USB-C and More

The next-generation AirPods Pro could come with a long list of new features that include heart rate detection, the ability to function as a hearing aid, and a USB-C port according to a report from 52Audio.
The site claims that it has received new information on the AirPods Pro 2, and it has used that information to provide some renders on what the earbuds might look like. Design wise, there…

AirPods Pro 2 Likely to Feature Almost Exact Same Design, Contrary to ‘Stemless’ Rumors

The AirPods Pro 2 may feature largely the same design as the current model, contrary to rumors of a “stemless” design, according to new findings based on purported leaked images shared by MacRumors last year.
Last year, MacRumors shared images that allegedly reveal the second-generation AirPods Pro – seemingly showing a design with very few changes. Now, new to-scale 3D comparisons based on M…

Second-Generation AirPods Pro Charging Case Expected to Stick With Lightning Port

As Apple reportedly plans to switch the iPhone 15 and a number of its accessories to USB-C in the coming years, the upcoming second-generation AirPods Pro charging case will continue to feature a Lightning port, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today.
In a series of tweets, Kuo reiterated his past remarks that the second-generation AirPods Pro will launch in the second half of this…

Kuo: Second-Generation AirPods Pro to Launch in Second Half of 2022

Apple plans to release second-generation AirPods Pro in the second half of 2022, well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a tweet today. While the second-generation AirPods have remained available to purchase since Apple released third-generation AirPods last year, Kuo said Apple may discontinue the original AirPods Pro when the new ones are released later this year. Apple announced the…

When to Expect New AirPods Pro to Launch in 2022

It has been over two years since Apple launched the AirPods Pro, and while the wireless earbuds haven’t been updated since then, rumors suggest that second-generation AirPods Pro will finally be released next year.
Key features of the current AirPods Pro include silicone ear tips, improved sound quality over standard AirPods, active noise cancellation, and a Conversation Boost feature that…

Apple’s AirPods Pro vs. Sony’s LinkBuds S Earbuds

Sony earlier this week came out with the WH-1000XM5 headphones, which we already checked out, and the LinkBuds S, a set of noise canceling earbuds that are similar to the AirPods Pro. In our latest YouTube video, we pit the AirPods Pro against the LinkBuds S to see how Sony’s new earbuds offering measures up.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Priced at $199, the…

Deals: Get Apple’s AirPods for Best Prices of 2022 on Amazon, Starting at $99.99

Apple’s AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro have returned to some of the best prices we’ve tracked in 2022, with as much as $74 off these wireless headphones.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
AirPods 2
You can get the AirPods 2 for $99.99, down from $129.00. This is…

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Top Stories: M2 MacBook Air Release Date, New HomePod Rumor, and More

The M2 MacBook Pro has started making its way into customers’ hands and we’re learning more about how it performs in a variety of situations, but all eyes are really on the upcoming M2 MacBook Air which has seen a complete redesign and should be arriving in a couple of weeks.
Other top stories this week included a host of product rumors including additional M2 and even M3 Macs, an updated…

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio Models

Apple today began selling refurbished Mac Studio models for the first time in the United States, Canada, and select European countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
In the United States, two refurbished Mac Studio configurations are currently available, including one with the M1 Max chip (10-core CPU and 24-core GPU) for…

Exclusive: Apple Plans to Launch MacBook Air With M2 Chip on July 15

The redesigned MacBook Air with the all-new M2 Apple silicon chip will be available for customers starting Friday, July 15, MacRumors has learned from a retail source. The new MacBook Air was announced and previewed during WWDC earlier this month, with Apple stating availability will begin in July. The MacBook Air features a redesigned body that is thinner and lighter than the previous…

M2 MacBook Pro Much Slower Than Previous Model

Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip features a significantly slower SSD compared to the previous model, resulting in poorer performance in some workflows, it has been discovered.
Specifically, it has been found that the $1,299 base model with 256GB of storage has significantly slower SSD read and write speeds compared to the equivalent previous-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro….

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Microsoft is adding a free built-in VPN to its Edge browser

Microsoft is adding a free built-in virtual private network (VPN) service to its Edge browser in a bid to improve security and privacy, a Microsoft support page revealed.

Called ”Edge Secure Network,” Microsoft is currently testing the Cloudflare-powered VPN service and says it will roll it out to the public as a part of a security upgrade.

When turned on, Edge Secure Network should encrypt users’ web traffic so internet service providers can’t collect browsing information you’d rather keep private, like, say, health-related searches or just plain bizarre queries.

The new feature will also let users hide their location by making it possible for them to browse the web using a virtual IP address. That also means users could access content blocked in their countries like, for instance, Netflix or Hulu shows.

There’s a catch for this free service, though. Data use is limited to 1GB per month, and users will need to be signed in to a Microsoft account so the company can, well, ironically track their usage.

Microsoft adds that while Cloudflare will collect support and diagnostic information from the service, the company will permanently get rid of that data every 25 hours.

While the feature is still under development and not yet available for early testing either, Microsoft detailed how users could try out a preview. That suggests it could roll out soon to one of the Microsoft Edge Insider channels first, which users can download and join here.

Once it does, you can try out the preview version by opening up Edge, heading to Settings and more, and clicking on Secure Network.

Click on “Secure Network” to turn the VPN service on.
Image: Microsoft

At that point, users will be prompted to sign in to or create a Microsoft Account. After doing so, a solid shield icon will appear in the browser frame, indicating Microsoft’s Edge Secure Network is now turned on. It will turn off after the user closes the browser.

Microsoft is one of many browsers that offer some kind of VPN service. Opera comes with a free one as well, but more popular browsers like Mozilla only offer a paid VPN service, as does Google Chrome, thereby potentially help improving Edge’s value proposition.

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Android may get its own built-in Bluetooth tracker detection

may be set to integrate Bluetooth tracker detection into Android. With devices like trackers and becoming more popular, there have been instances of bad actors planting one on someone else and to .

Apple and since then, it has rolled out several more ways to detect them. It has to play a sound within 24 hours of being separated from its owner, while an iPhone will notify a user if it detects an unwanted AirTag. In December, Apple that can scan for AirTags. Tile this month with a similar feature.

However, there are some issues with current detection methods on Android. Users would both need to be aware of the fact that Bluetooth trackers can be misused and have apps that can detect them installed on their device. The Apple and Tile apps also require users to scan for trackers manually, a process that can take around 10 minutes.

According to , the Android team has started work on a tracker detection feature in Play services. The most recent APK code includes references to Tile trackers and “ATag” (probably AirTags) and hints that Android users may be able to ring detected devices.

The feature is said to be in early development and it’ll likely be some time before Google releases it publicly (if at all). Having automatic detection built into the OS, or even a manual scanner with a warning to all users about the potential for stalking, would surely help protect users from being tracked. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about Google’s tracker detection plans .

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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Dyson’s bizarre new headphones have a built-in air purifier

Dyson is getting into headphones in the most Dyson way possible: the Zone, a pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones with air purification technology built in, thanks to a bizarre-looking magnetic face visor. It’s both the strangest and most ambitious product that the company has ever made.

Today’s announcement is just an initial reveal of the Zone headphones ahead of a fall release date, and Dyson isn’t announcing specific details like price or specifications (including how much the headphones weigh or how long the battery will last) at this time.

The goal of the Zone is to make living in urban spaces more comfortable by attempting to mitigate both air and noise pollution.

The air purification half of the Zone doesn’t reinvent the wheel for Dyson. Instead, it miniaturizes the company’s existing air filtration technology into a unique form factor. The Zone pulls in air through each earpiece using a pair of tiny compressors. The air is then filtered and piped through the (slightly bizarre-looking) “visor” for the user to breathe in — sans most of the particles and pollutants.

Despite what it looks like, the visor doesn’t make contact with your face like a mask would. Instead, it sits in front of your face, creating a gap where a bubble of clean air can gather and be breathed in. (The company showed off a separate attachment that could be clipped on in instances where you might need a proper full-contact face mask, too.)

The Dyson Zone on the company’s testing platform, Frank.
Image: Dyson

The visor snaps on through a series of magnets, allowing for it to be removed if you just want to use the headphones as headphones. It also has hinges that flip it down so that you can talk to people normally without having to take off the whole apparatus. The Zone’s filtration system also offers multiple settings for different levels of exertion. For example, if you’re running up a flight of stairs or trying to catch a bus, you’ll breathe heavier (and need more air) than if you’re on a leisurely stroll. There’s even an automated setting that uses accelerometers to automatically adjust the airflow.

Dyson says the Zone can filter out up to 99 percent of particle pollution — although the filters aren’t reusable and will need to be replaced after about a year. (The company says the exact amount of time will depend on how much air pollution you encounter and how actively you use the headphones.)

The headphone part is a little more traditional, despite being a new product category for Dyson. The company says its goal with the Zone was to create “faithful” reproductions of a musician’s original tracks. Noise cancellation is provided through a mix of passive cancellation from the overall design and active noise cancellation through a series of microphones.

There are three different modes for noise cancellation on the Zone. Isolation mode has active ANC when the face visor is raised. Lowering the visor automatically shifts into conversation mode, which disables ANC so you can hear the person you’re talking to. There’s also a transparency mode, which filters out important sounds like car horns and sirens. Charging is done over USB-C, and the headphones connect to a Dyson Link app, which can provide more detailed information on the air quality around you.

I was able to try a prototype of the Zone a few weeks ago, and it certainly seems to do what the company claims. I could feel the jets of air being pumped in front of my face — although I was indoors, so it was hard to tell just how much cleaner it was.

ANC worked well, too (but, again, a quiet hotel room isn’t the best test scenario), and the audio quality for music was good without particularly dramatic bass (which, arguably, was the company’s goal).

On the flip side, the Zone headphones are also very big and noticeably heavy. Dyson has done an admirable job of cramming all this technology into a pair of headphones, but they’re still comparatively bigger and bulkier than, say, a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. Additionally, the whirring of the compressors was still slightly audible when the motors were running at faster speeds and I wasn’t listening to music to drown it out, even despite the noise cancellation.

The Zone is certainly one of the most unique products from Dyson (or likely any company) that we’ll see this year. There are still a lot of crucial details we don’t know — including price and battery life. And while mask-wearing has been normalized considerably over the past two years, we’ll have to see whether customers will be willing to embrace this extremely odd-looking product.

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Twitter may be adding a built-in podcasts tab

It looks like Twitter’s building a tab dedicated to podcasts, as shown in a screenshot posted by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong. The image shows a microphone icon in the Twitter app’s bottom menu bar, which appears to lead to a page titled “Podcasts.”

The screenshot doesn’t show any indication of how podcasts could be displayed on the platform or if it’ll somehow incorporate Spaces, the platform’s audio-only chatrooms. Right now, live Spaces are stuffed at the top of Twitter feeds, and it would make sense to organize them into a separate tab.

Twitter began branching out to audio when it first launched Spaces in 2020 and dove even deeper into the medium with its acquisition of social podcast platform Breaker. Spaces has been an ongoing project for the platform, which recently started letting anyone create chatrooms and allowing all mobile users to record conversations.

Recorded Spaces are already a bit like podcasts, albeit only temporary ones, which only last 30 days. If a Twitter podcast feature is anything like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, users would be able to choose from and listen to podcasts at their leisure, with no rush to catch a live Spaces broadcast or listen to recordings before time runs out.

As social platforms look toward adding more features to potentially drive more revenue, Twitter is just the latest to possibly grow another arm to support podcasts. Last year, Facebook launched a podcast feature for select creators, while Reddit just enabled recording for its audio-only Talks. The Verge reached out to Twitter with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.



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Honor’s Earbuds 3 Pro come with built-in temperature monitoring

Along with its 100W charging-capable Magic 4 phone, Honor has announced new Earbuds 3 Pro that include built-in temperature monitoring technology. According to Honor, this technology is an industry first, that owners can experience once the €199 buds are released.

Temperature monitoring, among other signals, has become especially important to tracking someone’s health during the pandemic, and checking your temperature at home using infrared ear thermometers is already widely available. Wearables incorporating temperature monitoring sounds like something that isn’t far off, and the idea even reportedly caught Apple’s eye while developing updates to its AirPods.

Image: Honor

Wearers can tap the buds three times to activate temperature monitoring, with continuous measurement and even an “abnormal temperature alert.” However, a footnote mentions that there are “not for any medical purpose,” and that for now, the device is for demonstration purposes only until it has been brought into compliance with related regulations.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Apple was looking into adding the feature in its AirPods, making the product a part of its growing platform of health tech. An earlier rumor mentioned temperature monitoring as a feature for the Apple Watch Series 7, but it wasn’t there when the device launched in September.

Though these Earbuds 3 Pro aren’t likely to be sold in the US, the product could be an indicator that the approach is realistic. UK startup Bodytrak showed off its own temperature-monitoring earbuds a few years ago, but they don’t appear to be production-ready yet.

Honor didn’t provide many details while announcing the earbuds at MWC 2022 but confirmed a few other features outside of the temperature monitoring. The Earbuds 3 Pro’s basic features include adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC) that will adjust for the wearer depending on their listening environment. The earbuds will have 11mm dynamic driver with enhanced sound details and bass and claim to have up to 24 hours of battery life before their charging case is fully discharged, as well as fast charging that can provide two hours of music playback with just five minutes of charging.

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My new toy is a USB-C cable with a built-in power meter

While I’m waiting for the adapter that’ll turn my DeWalt power tool batteries into a powerful laptop charger, I thought I might introduce you to another intriguing USB-C trend. You can now buy $20 USB-C cables that come complete with their own wattage meter, letting you see just how fast they’re charging your devices.

I bought mine a month ago — it took its sweet time getting here — but so far, I’m impressed! For the past couple of days, I’ve been plugging it into everything to see how much it draws: 18W for my V2 Nintendo Switch, 30-31W for my DJI Mini 2 drone, 2.5-3W for one of my PS5’s DualSense controllers, 54-65W for my XPS 15, all the way up to 99W for a 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro or a Skydio 2 drone. Or, down to 0.5W while trickle-charging the Wyze Buds Pro.

Why a leaf? It was there, it looked pretty.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

On Amazon, the cables are largely sold by an alphabet-soup collection of brands like “WOTOBEUS,” “URVNS” and “CHIPOFY”, but the one I bought feels surprisingly high-quality despite that. The tiny teal screen and shiny reversible connectors are set in a metal head, connected to to a decent-quality braided cable with what feels like a reasonable amount of strain relief — though I haven’t tested its “35,000+ bend lifespan” quite yet.

What I did test is its ability to measure power, plugging it into literally every USB-C device my family owns, including an array of chargers. Using a Kill-A-Watt and a separate, detachable USB-C power meter as the baseline, I checked both its accuracy and whether it could charge my devices properly, compared to other cables.

My old detachable USB-C power meter is a bit more… bricklike than even the new standalones you can buy today.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

In most cases, it was right on the money, with a few important caveats:

  • It only shows watts, not volts and amps. It’s a handy shortcut, but you can learn more from standalone USB-C testers that cost as little as $11 or $17 now.
  • You’ve gotta plug the screen end into the thing you’re charging if you want a measurement. It’ll still charge the other way, but the meter isn’t bidirectional.
  • For some reason, a few combinations of cable and charger had wacky results: the 14-inch MacBook Pro wouldn’t charge at all from my 100W HyperJuice USB-C battery pack when using this cable, even though it charged just fine if I swapped out the battery for an adapter or this cable for a different cable.
  • The DJI Mini 2 also wouldn’t charge at full speed with this cable and one of my four USB-C adapters, even though it worked fine with the other three adapters and my 100W battery.
  • My cheapo USB-C to Lightning adapter didn’t work with this cable, so I wasn’t able to test it with an iPhone. But I had no such trouble with one of the standalone USB-C testers and an official Apple USB-C to Lightning charge cable.

The biggest caveat, though, is that this is NOT a high-speed data cable; it’s only suitable for high-speed charging. The transfer rate tops out at the old USB 2.0 speed of 480 Mbps, a far cry from the 5Gbps or 10Gbps you can get with USB 3.1. With a good short SuperSpeed cable, I was able to transfer a 5GB file to my PC from an external SSD in just 17 seconds. This charge cable took a full two minutes longer (2:17) to complete the same task, bottlenecked to just 40MB / second.

That seems to be a limitation of these early cables, unfortunately, as all of them advertise that low speed — even this new bidirectional j5create one that adds some other handy features onscreen. Meanwhile, the standalone USB-C power meter I bought several years ago lets me transfer data at full speed without issues.

None of that’s quite enough to sour me on this cable, because I didn’t have a nice, long charge cable capable of both USB 3 data rates and 100W charging to begin with, and I appreciate not needing to keep track of a meter dongle anymore. I’m fine just using it for charging and pairing a different cable with my SSD. But if you’re truly a USB-C PD connoisseur, I’d probably suggest you pick a standalone meter instead.

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