One of the most underrated features of any platform is the ability to quickly (and easily) pair headphones and earbuds to whatever device you want. And to that end, Google announced a couple of improvements on that front at CES 2024.
First up is Fast Pair, which makes it simple to pair accessories like the Pixel Buds Pro to devices like an Android phone or Chromebook. Over the next month or so, Fast Pair support is expanding to Chromecast With Google TV. And it’ll expand even further later in the year to additional Google TV devices.
It works thusly: You put your accessory into pairing mode, and then just perform a quick tap to connect to anything that’s supported — headphones, speakers, whatever. And when you want to go back to just your phone, it’s just as easy to unpair the devices again.
Casting — the protocol born from the Chromecast era — also is getting a boost. Starting today, you’ll be able to cast TikTok content from your phone to any device that has Chromecast built in. And Google says that’s just the start, as you’ll eventually be able to cast live videos from TikTok.
Google also says it’s expanding the reach of Chromecast in 2024. The new LG series of televisions — which we’ve taken a pretty good look at already — will have Chromecast support, of course. But it’s also going to hit LG Hospitality and Healthcare, which should mean hotels and hospitals (and everything in-between).
Still need more Chromecast love? Google says that later this year you’ll be able to move what you’re playing on Spotify or YouTube Music from your phone to a docked Pixel Tablet. So that’s nice.
Look for it all in the coming weeks and months.
Affinity’s new all-in-one creative app is finally coming to the iPad, nearly a year after Canva launched the redesigned desktop version for Mac and Windows. Creatives have been asking for the iPad release ever since, especially because files created in the new Affinity app cannot be opened in the older V2 iPad apps.
Affinity already has Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps on iPad, but the new release combines those tools into the same unified app that Canva launched on desktop last year.
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.
The $999 model gets more than extra storage