Asus just announced the RT-AC87, a new router that has four antennas mounted to the top of it and is geared towards households that have a multitude of wireless devices in them. Considering the prevalence of wireless tech these days, one could see how such a router would prove useful in a multi-person residence.
Asus says that the RT-AC87 employs a number of technologies that are meant to maximize connectivity range, speed, and strength, including Universal Beamforming, which focuses signal strength towards devices, instead of randomly sending them in all directions. Asus claims a top speed of 1.73Gbps. As you’d expect, the RT-AC87 supports the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard.
Asus includes parental controls with the RT-AC87 to keep your little ones from seeing stuff that you don’t want them coming across on the Internet, which, as you probably know, is chock full of R and X-rated content. To guard against malware and other intrusions, Asus partnered with security firm Trend Micro to include something called AiProtection, which “uses real-time network monitoring to detect malware and other intrusions before it reaches your PC or device.”
Asus claims that setup takes a mere 30 seconds. The RT-AC87 can be used to turn everything on your network into your personal cloud storage service. Users can access and share the stuff on their network either through the Web, or the AiCloud app for iOS and Android.
Though an exact release date for the RT-AC87 has yet to be revealed, Asus says that it will hit the market “shortly,” and will sell for $269.99 once it lands.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.