Eliana Willis

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    in Information Technology

    Installed iOS 18.6 on your iPhone? Change these 11 settings for the best experience

    Is it worth updating to iOS 18.6? Absolutely. While there are no new bells and whistles, it patches a high-severity WebKit zero-day (CVE-2025-6558) and more. Can I change the Action button? Sure! Go to Settings > Action Button to customize the new Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro/16/16E/16 Pro. Just swipe to pick a task like Camera, Shazam, Remote for Apple TV, or even a Shortcut or Visual Intelligence action, then tap Choose to set it. Can I customize the home screen? Of course. Give your home screen a fresh look by entering jiggle mode (long-press the screen), tapping Edit > Customize, and then: Reposition apps anywhere on the grid.Expand icons into widgets by tapping the resize handles.Choose Automatic, Dark, Light, or Tinted icon styles (use the eyedropper to match your wallpaper).Toggle Large icons to hide labels and boost visibility.Tap anywhere to apply and then exit. Voila! Will these tweaks work on any iPhone model? Most of these work on any iPhone running iOS 18 or later. However, features like Prioritize Notifications and the Action Button require an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 model. Get the morning’s top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter. More

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    in Information Technology

    Claude Sonnet’s memory gets a big boost with 1M tokens of context

    Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysClaude Sonnet 4 now has one million context tokens.As a result, the model can process much larger developer tasks.Developers can access it now, but API pricing does increase for certain requests. We all have that friend who is a great active listener and can recall details from past interactions, which then feeds into better conversations in the future. Similarly, AI models have context windows that impact how much content they can reference — and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet just got a huge upgrade that should let it do a lot more for you. Also: Microsoft Copilot 3D turns your 2D images into 3D models for free – how to tryClaude Sonnet 4 can now support up to one million tokens of context, marking a fivefold increase from the prior 200,000, Anthropic said on Tuesday. With this large context window, Claude Sonnet can process codebases with over 75,000 lines of code or dozens of research papers with a single API request.  The longer context window allows developers to use Claude for more data-heavy projects, such as large-scale code analysis and document synthesis, as mentioned above, but also context-aware agents that require a lot of material to operate complex workflows. Anthropic describes Claude Sonnet as a “hybrid reasoning model with superior intelligence.” ZDNET’s own internal testing has found it to be a very capable model, even outperforming what Anthropic touted at the time as its most advanced coding model, Opus 4. Sonnet passed all four coding tests while Claude Opus failed two.Also: How you can still access GPT-4o, o3, and other older models in ChatGPTDevelopers interested in trying the upgraded Sonnet 4 can access it in public beta on the Anthropic API as customers with Tier 4 and custom rate limits. It is also available on third-party cloud computing platforms, starting with Amazon Bedrock, and coming soon to Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. The API pricing does increase for prompts over 200K tokens. Since launching the Claude 4 models in May, Anthropic has been riding a wave of steady upward momentum. Claude Code, a fan favorite coding assistant that can be called on directly in a developer’s workspace to write or manage code, shipped 10 features in the last month, and its highly anticipated Opus 4.1 was released last week. The company reports that its B2B run-rate revenue has grown 17 times YoY as of June 2025. Artificial Intelligence More

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    in Information Technology

    This new Arch Linux tool takes the hassle out of keeping packages up to date – here’s how

    Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysNew Arch tool alerts maintainers when packages are outdated.Bumpbuddy automates GitLab issue creation for updates.Web dashboard and API planned for future Bumpbuddy versions.Bumpbuddy is a new Arch Linux tool that aims to improve how maintainers are informed about packages within the primary repositories. This new app uses a background service (daemon) to monitor package versions and even automatically opens issues on GitLab if it detects a package is out of date. Why is this important?  For one, it helps maintainers keep abreast of when an upstream package has a new release. This way, developers and maintainers don’t have to manually check for this information. Secondly, users will no longer have to bother flagging packages that are out of date and will have access to information that might indicate if an update is taking longer than usual to release. For the most part, however, Bumpbuddy seems to be focused primarily on developers and maintainers. According to Robin Candau, package maintainer for Arch Linux: “Bumpbuddy takes advantage of the `.nvchecker.toml` file from GitLab’s packages repo to perform automated tracking of new upstream releases. Therefore, package maintainers won’t need to rely on manual `pkgctl version check` runs or ‘homemade’ solutions to track new upstream releases for their packages anymore.” Candau also indicates the team has plans to provide a web-based dashboard for Bumpbuddy, an API endpoint for pkgctl version check, manage “out of date” status for packages on Archweb, and more. Keep in mind that this is the first iteration of Bumpbuddy, so there will be issues. I’ve yet to find a way to install Bumpbuddy on Arch Linux, which makes me believe that the app has yet to make it to the default repositories (there isn’t even a listing for it in Archweb). More

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    in Robotics

    Why I ditched Google Authenticator for Proton’s new 2FA app – and how to set it up

    Proton / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways The makers of Proton VPN have released a 2FA app.The app is available for all major platforms.Proton Authenticator is easy to use, elegant, and free.Unless you’re using passkeys, two-factor authentication should be considered a must for security and privacy. If your primary access to the internet is your phone, you are probably using a tool like Authy or Google Authenticator. But what about when you’re on the desktop? What do you use? Also: 7 essential password rules to follow, according to security expertsThere are options that have been around for a while (such as Bitwarden, Authy, or Authenticator), and there’s even a new option available from the makers of Proton VPN. That new solution is aptly named Proton Authenticator, and it has quickly become one of my favorite desktop 2FA apps.You might be thinking, “Why not just grab your phone when you need that 2FA code?” Reason number one is that when I’m working on my desktop, it’s more efficient to open an app directly. Reason number two is that sometimes my phone might not be within reach, and I don’t want to track it down for that 2FA code. Ergo… desktop app.The new Proton Authenticator More

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    in Robotics

    This USB-C accessory unlocked thermal imaging powers on my Android and iPhone

    Thermal Master USB-C Camera <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways It’s the perfect thermal camera for professional and consumer use. From my testing, the camera has great accuracy and temperature resolution. While it works with Android and iOS, it’s still fairly pricey at $300. –> I make no bones about being a huge fan of thermal cameras […] More

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    in Robotics

    Windows has a secret backup tool – here’s how to use it

    Lance Whitney / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysWindows has a hidden backup tool in Windows 10 and 11.It can save files to discs, drives, or network locations.Deprecated by Microsoft, so expect occasional errors.Regularly backing up your files is always a good idea, just in case any important or irreplaceable ones go missing. For that, you can turn to a variety of programs. But Windows itself has a built-in backup tool that’s simple and flexible. The catch is that you probably don’t even know it exists.Named simply Windows Backup, this feature lets you choose which folders and files to back up. You can back up only select files or all your Windows folders. You’re supposed to be able to include an entire system image in the backup in case you ever need to restore Windows in full. The limitation here is that you can’t save the system image on removable media. But you can always use the system image tool to do this separately. Also: Windows has a secret recovery tool – here’s how to find it and use itFurther, you’re able to save the backup on a recordable CD or DVD, an external hard drive, or a network location. You can also set the backup to run on a regular basis. The tool works the same in Windows 10 and 11. But as always, there is a hiccup here. This version of Windows Backup has since been deprecated by Microsoft, which means it’s no longer supported or updated. As a result, you could bump into issues and errors when using the tool. In my experience, it generally works reliably. However, the last few times I tried using a network share as my backup destination, I received an error that the specified network location cannot be used. Although I confirmed that the network path, credentials, and other settings were correct, I continued to get the same error. I’ve seen posts from other Windows users complaining of the same problem. Your mileage may vary, but keep this in mind when choosing your backup destination. Also: Your Windows 11 PC has a secret emergency shutdown feature – here’s how to use itTo add to the mystery, Microsoft offers a newer tool also known as Windows Backup. (Yes, Microsoft loves to use the same names across different products to confuse people.) The newer Windows Backup is designed to back up and restore certain files and settings. The main objective is to help you move from one PC to another. In contrast, the older legacy Windows Backup that I’m covering here operates more like traditional backup software. Both tools serve their purpose. But here’s how the older, legacy Windows Backup works and how to use it to back up anything you want, to any location you want. More

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    in Robotics

    I fell in love with a $2,000 mirrorless camera that puts design and simplicity over everything else

    <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways Sigma’s BF is a $2,200, 35mm full-frame, mirrorless digital camera that radically changes the mode of operation by replacing the gaggle of buttons with an elegant click-wheel. It’s a great first camera but also has tons of pro features A future upgrade to a higher-resolution 60-megapixel sensor would be a welcome […] More