Get Ready for DuckDuckGo's New Browser

Search engine company DuckDuckGo says it's working on a new browser that will retain the simplicity and privacy of its mobile app counterpart.

December 22, 2021 It's December 22, 2021, and only three days until Christmas! This is also our last newsletter for 2021, as your friends here at Lifewire take some much needed time off to spend with loved ones and take lots of naps. We hope you plan to do the same. See you in 2022!     ⏰ Today's Big Stories... in 30 Seconds Today We Watched, Read, and Listened to (so you don't have to): 365 articles, 10 podcasts, 3 press releases, 425 tweets, and 13 YouTube videos 1. DuckDuckGo Announces Upcoming Web Browsing App DuckDuckGo is working on a new desktop browser. Though details are light on the browser's unique capabilities, the company stated it's maintaining the design philosophy of its popular mobile app by keeping things simple and ensuring a high level of privacy protection. Show us what you got, Duck! 2. Google Is Ending Support for OnHub Routers Next Year The Google graveyard is growing, as the company plans to end its software support for OnHub routers in December 2022. Updated support documents for OnHub routers notes they'll still work after that time, but they won't receive any additional security updates. So, y'know, use at your own risk. 3. Sony's New Camera Sensor Shows Smartphones Can Still Improve Disappointed by your smartphone camera's grainy nighttime pictures? That's all set to change thanks to Sony's new image sensor design. Basically, if Sony can implement it properly, expect future Sony phones to take less pixelated photos, especially those taken in low-light situations. Quite the upgrade. 🦑 Go Deeper Don't get too comfortable with 5G just yet, because the FAA has concerns it could interfere with airline flights in the future. Mayank Sharma digs into the situation to see whether or not a delay is actually possible.     🎱 By the Numbers Billions? With a 'B'? Data: DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo may not be as well known as Google, but that doesn't mean the search engine isn't getting some use. All throughout 2021, DuckDuckGo consistently had ~3 billion search queries month after month. The only exception is December, but there are still nine days left to bring it up to par.     Sponsored By Ford The New Electric Ford F-150 Might Change How You Feel About Trucks The features and capabilities of the Ford F-150 Lightning may challenge some people's hesitations regarding pickup trucks. Why? Put simply: because there's never been a truck quite like this one. Check It Out 🤓 Nerd Out "The rocks have seen it all." —Kyree Leary, Associate News Editor The Hayabusa2 probe returned from the asteroid Ryugu over a year ago with rocks and stardust. What did we learn from it? That it's extremely old, and that it could shed more light on the origins of our solar system. How exciting! (Share on Twitter) 💎 You Know You Want It  Set it and forget it Image: Roomba Robot vacuums are nice, until you have to empty them yourself—then they're very reminiscent of the old vacuums we're used to. Fortunately, there's the Roomba s9+, a robot vacuum capable of emptying itself. Set it up with your smartphone, control it with Alexa, then watch the Roomba do its thing. 🚀 Facing the Future Show, don't tell Talk about electric vehicles is great and all, but how many of use have one? How many of us have even seen one? We know the automotive industry is pivoting to EVs, but like The Verge says, it's time to just ship them already.     🗞 Extra! Extra! We've got you covered with the best in daily tech news! See the latest on our site or follow us on Google News. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Have something you'd like us to write about? We're always open for suggestions, too. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the Tech Today newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here .   Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. A Dotdash Brand 28 Liberty Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10005 2020 Dotdash • All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.   [View in Browser]

LG Enters the Gaming Laptop Business

LG's first gaming laptop, the 17-inch UltraGear, is set to debut next year with some decent high-end specs.

December 21, 2021 It's December 21, 2021, and only four days until Christmas. If you celebrate the holiday, what are you looking forward to finding under the tree? We're hoping for a new graphics card. Come on, Santa.     ⏰ Today's Big Stories... in 30 Seconds Today We Watched, Read, and Listened to (so you don't have to): 299 articles, 8 podcasts, 5 press releases, 393 tweets, and 9 YouTube videos 1. LG Unveils First Gaming Laptop Packed With High-End Specs LG is releasing its first gaming laptop, the 17-inch UltraGear 17G90Q, next year. It will feature an 11th-gen Intel Tiger Lake H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics card, and support for up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage space. Now word on price yet, but expect to hear all about it at CES 2022. 2. Google Maps Tests New Way to Save Specific Locations Google Maps is testing a new "Dock to bottom" feature that lets you place a favorite location in the footer of Maps so you can easily go back to it later. Only a select number of people are part of the test right now, and it's unclear if it'll come to the mobile app, but hey, new Maps features are always a plus. 3. Amazon Banned Itself From Twitch for Breaking the TOS The official Spanish Twitch channel for Amazon Prime has been banned from the platform, but not because of a copyright kerfuffle. While an official explanation hasn't been given yet, it seems likely a host was trying to see how much they could get away with. Well, looks like they found out. 🦑 Go Deeper Should Apple start making their own standalone displays? Charlie Sorrel thinks so, if only to better serve their customers and itself. Imagine all the smooth hardware and software interactions Apple could sell people on.     🎱 By the Numbers Look at that growth Data: TwitchTracker Hard to imagine a time when Twitch wasn't viewed by millions of people, but that was the reality for the platform in 2012, when its viewership was around 121,000. It would be another 6 years before it crossed the million viewers milestone, ending 2018 that year with 1.14 million. Oh, how far it's come.     Sponsored By Ford Meet the Electric Ford SUV That Fits a City Lifestyle From its comfortable interior, hands-free driving system, ability to charge in and around the city, and fun dynamic driving performance, the Ford Mustang Mach-E could be the perfect vehicle for your city lifestyle. Check It Out 🤓 Nerd Out "Did Hulu just start scrapbooking?" —Bob Schulties, Senior Editor Do you spend a lot of time on Hulu? Well, now you can get a recap of how you spend your 2021 on the service with Hulu's new YourTVDNA. Was it full of movies? Dramas? Cartoons? This site will show you everything. (Share on Twitter) 💎 You Know You Want It  Spherical sound Image: Apple iPhone and iPad owners who stream a lot of music can't go wrong with Apple's HomePod mini. 360-degree audio, Siri integration, and you can setup multiple HomePods to create a connected sound system? Sounds like a simple choice to us. 🙈 Wait, What? Go forth, Bluetooth Bluetooth seems like it's only for short distances, considering most of us only use it to pair phones to cars, or earbuds to phones. But the reality is it can travel quite far—up to a kilometer, in fact. This makes the tech pretty reliable for things like drones, which often need to get far away from their owners.     🗞 Extra! Extra! We've got you covered with the best in daily tech news! See the latest on our site or follow us on Google News. Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Have something you'd like us to write about? We're always open for suggestions, too. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the Tech Today newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here .   Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. A Dotdash Brand 28 Liberty Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10005 2020 Dotdash • All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.   [View in Browser]