A new rocket from Mr. Bezos company Blue Origin and a satellite system from Amazon could heat up competition with SpaceX, owned by Mr. Musk.

MacworldMany workplaces and educational institutions have completely switched from paper documents to digital ones. Consequently, Mac users are increasingly dealing with PDFs and other e-document file formats.Were here to help you find the best PDF editor for your Mac from the multitude of options. There are various PDF editing apps that cater to various budgets and workflows and among them are a few that stand out in terms of features, performance, and design.When selecting a PDF editor, consider one that can create, convert, and export PDFs from various file types, while preserving the original formatting and making the text searchable and editable through OCR technology.The editor should also allow for content editing, including modifying text, inserting, resizing, and moving images, and reorganizing pages. Additionally, it should enable users to add comments and annotations to PDF files during review, with tools for marking up both text documents and graphic-heavy files. Security features, such as password protection, permissions setting, and content redaction, are also important for access control. Lastly, consider a PDF editor with mobile support, either through a dedicated mobile app or cloud access.If youre looking for basic annotation and page organization, the free Preview app that is available as part of macOS may be sufficient. If you need more in the way of editing tools, then one of these apps could better support your needs.We have reviewed all the PDF editors below, so read on to find out exactly what we thought.Updated December 2024 to add Cisdem PDFMaster for Mac (aka EaseUS PDF Editor). 1. Apple PreviewProsPre-installed and freeClear user interface Lots of handy toolsConsNo iOS or iPadOS apps Doesnt allow you to edit existing text Apple Preview is the default document and image viewer on macOS, offering a range of useful features beyond just viewing photos and PDFs.Click on any PDF (or any image format) to open it and it will launch in Preview. Alternatively, open Preview and it will open the Finder, allowing users to browse through folders to locate the file they want to view. The app features a toolbar at the top of the screen, which allows users to view file details, zoom in or out, share the file, fill in a form, or mark up the file.The Markup button reveals tools for selection, doodling, inserting shapes or sticky notes, signing, and typing text. These tools are easily customizable, allowing users to control the color and size of a shape or text box, as well as pick between multiple fonts when typing. There is also an autofill helper.Apple Preview is not designed to replace image or PDF editors, but it still offers some power-user features. The menu bars Tools button allows users to reveal more advanced image controls, such as granular resizing, color adjustments, and automatic background removal. The File menu includes a Export button that allows users to choose the outputs quality and file format, allowing them to convert images to various formats.When viewing a PDF file in Apple Preview, users can easily re-order or delete its pages using the sidebar, allowing them to limit the file to the important bits they need. If exporting the PDF using Preview, users can optionally add a password, quartz filter, or file restrictions.If youd prefer not to pay for Adobe Acrobat or another solution, Apple Preview may be more suitable for you. Apple Preview offers free tools that Adobe has paywalled, including PDF page organization/deletion, password protection for PDF files, and document scanning.Just need to turn something into a PDF? Read: How to make a PDF on MacRead our full Apple Preview review 2. Readdle PDF ExpertProsWide range of handy toolsIntuitive user interfaceFlexible pricingConsLifetime license only for MacNot for Android and WindowsPDF Expert has a wide range of reliable tools and an intuitive user interface. Its a great option if you are looking for more than Preview offers for free.Upon launching PDF Expert, users are greeted by a Tools tab with shortcuts to various features, such as organizing, optimizing, protecting, reviewing, or converting documents. The app runs smoothly and gives you everything you need to fully control a PDF file, including edit text and images, sign, fill checkboxes, add links, redact content in multiple ways, insert shapes, highlight text, doodle, and even measure the distance between two points or calculate specific areas.The PDF Expert toolbar features layout settings, an advanced search bar, and an AI Chat button. The AI Chat button allows users to interact with the integrated chatbot, summarize PDFs, list key points, generate hashtags, and more. The toolbars center includes commonly used PDF editing functionalities, such as annotation, editing, file conversion and exporting, signing, and optical character recognition (OCR).For most users, PDF Experts features are sufficient, as it allows users to manipulate a documents content, add or remove elements, protect the file with a password, and shrink its size. While Adobe Acrobat offers more advanced tools, PDF Experts core functionalities are sufficient for most users.There are two payment options on macOS: a lifetime license, or an annual license that includes future updates and mobile support. Students can get 50% off and there is a free 7-day trial. It is available for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, but is not available on Android or Windows devices.Read our full Readdle PDF Expert review 3. Wondershare PDFelementProsCross-platform solutionFlexible pricingSimple user interfaceConsSome unlabeled sidebar buttons are hard to identifyNot always intuitiveWondershares PDFelement is a document manipulation tool that offers essential features on all platforms at a reasonable price. The app features a minimalistic user interface and offers single- and cross-platform licenses, with the main difference being app updates. If you plan to use the PDF editor on your Mac exclusively, you can opt for a one-year, two-year, or lifetime license. PDFelement also supports iOS, iPadOS, Windows, Android, and the web, offering an all-encompassing bundle that supports all of these platforms.The single-platform licenses include 20GB of cloud storage, while the highlighted bundles offer 100GB. Once you run out of the 20,000 AI tokens included with your purchase, you can buy more. PDFelement features a clean home page showcasing standard PDF editing tools, such as PDF conversion, optical character recognition (OCR), template selection, file compression, and more. It also has a sidebar that grants access to handy destinations like recent files, cloud documents, tagged PDFs, and agreements youve sent others to sign.PDFelement supports most commonly needed PDF editing functionalities, including text manipulation, image and URL insertion, adding, deleting, and editing the documents pages. Its not the most advanced selection out there, but it gets the job done in casual workflows. PDFelement is better suited for annotation and artificial intelligence needs, allowing users to insert text, shapes, comments, stamps, forms, checkboxes, text callouts, and more. It can also automatically bookmarks reflecting the documents chapters.Beyond text manipulation, PDFelement can redact text, add a password to the file, convert the PDF to a Microsoft Office format, change the pages background, compress the size, and insert a watermark. While not the most feature-rich PDF editor, it caters to casual users seeking a lightweight solution.Despite its minimalism, getting used to PDFelement may take some time. The unlabeled buttons in the editors sidebar can be confusing and challenging to identify, and some features, like text editing, can sometimes be unpredictable. PDFelement is an excellent PDF editor for those with casual needs, but its tools arent as advanced as those offered by many rival apps.Read our full Wondershare PDFelement review 4. Foxit PDF EditorProsExtensive set of PDF editing tools Native macOS, iOS, and iPadOS appsConsOnly annual subscription plansMobile app access excluded from base planOverwhelming user interfaceFoxit offers a range of PDF-centric solutions for Mac users, including PDF Reader and PDF Editor. PDF Reader is available on macOS for free, allowing users to view, annotate, sign, and have AI analyze their documents. The paid-for PDF Editor unlocks the complete editing toolbox for an annual fee, with a base plan and a plus (+) plan that includes more features. There are options to pay monthly, but it is still an annual contract: theres no option to cancel after a month.The free PDF Reader allows users to control the size, color, and style of inserted text or shapes, as well as customize features like changing the documents background shade, reversing and rotating pages, signing forms, and more. It can read text aloud, measure distances, calculate areas, magnify selected spots, and have AI analyze your document.The paid-for PDF Editor supports all of PDF Readers features but adds editing functionalities, such as file conversion, optical character recognition (OCR), and full manipulation of a documents text and images through addition, deletion, or tweaking. It caters to power users with advanced features like document sanitization, redaction styles, security layers, JavaScript, and accessibility checks.Foxits PDF Editor stands out for its ChatGPT integration, which can analyze and summarize documents and perform actions on your behalf. The base plan should suffice for most users, while the Plus plan offers exclusives like mobile app access, tracking other parties signatures, smart redaction, 130GB of cloud storage, and template support.While the app is generally swift, the user interface may seem too packed to some users, especially those who dont need all the offered tools. Foxit PDF Editor is designed for serious users rather than casual users, and if the UI overwhelms you, it may be an overkill for you.Read our full Foxit PDF Editor review 5. ABBYY FineReader PDF for MacProsReasonably accurate and reliable OCR functionalitySupports scanning and importing from iPhoneCan convert PDF to wide range of formatsConsSimilarly priced apps include superior PDF editing toolsOther PDF editing apps offer optical character recognition (OCR) as an added perk, Abbyy FineReader PDF leads on its optical character recognition software and file converter, and, while it offers reliable OCR and file conversion functionalities, it falls short when it comes to PDF editing.FineReader PDF is a simple user interface with three main tabs: viewing PDF documents, quick and advanced file conversion tools, and importing documents. It has been optimized for macOS and offers a modern design. FineReader PDF supports viewing and highlighting PDF files, with preset highlight colors and comments.The quick conversion feature processes inputted files to detect content and then selects the outputs format. Supported file formats include PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB, FB2, TXT, HTML, RTF, ODT, and CSV. It doesnt support Apples HEIC image format, so users may need to convert HEIC iPhone shots to JPG first. Each format offers its own customizations, such as ebook title, author, layout, and page size.FineReader PDF exports the document, making it more editable. However, it doesnt support proper PDF editing, so it may not be the ideal PDF solution for manipulating files.It doesnt offer a one-time purchase option and has relatively high recurring fees. Theres a yearly subscription plan on the Abbyy website, and a monthly subscription on the Mac App Store (which is a good option because you can cancel at any time). Theres a full-featured 7-day free trial.Read our full ABBYY FineReader PDF for Mac review 6. Adobe AcrobatProsCross platformAdvanced PDF manipulation toolsSupports signature collectionConsMac app is bloatedFree version is limited compared to PreviewExpensive subscriptionsPrice When Reviewed:9,95 pro MonatBest Prices Today: RetailerPriceAdobe9,95 View DealPrice comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwideProductPricePrice comparison from Backmarket9,95 at AdobeAdobe Acrobat is a popular PDF viewer and editor on Mac, offering basic annotation tools. However, the free Acrobat Reader tier offers the same basic annotation tools that are present in Apples built-in Preview app, which is far superior in most cases. One point in its favor is that Acrobat is available across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, Android, and even the web, making it accessible from most modern computing devices, while Preview is limited to macOS.Subscribing to Adobe Acrobat Standard provides access to all PDF editing functionality, including more control over the PDFs content, reorganization of the entire documents layout, and more advanced tools like object measurements, accessibility preparation, JavaScript support, and search index insertion.For the advanced Adobe Acrobat Pro features you pay more each month to get permanent redaction, web form creation, PDF comparisons, accessibility checks, audio/video insertion, and much more. Acrobat Pro is necessary for tasks like converting scanned documents into searchable and editable PDFs.Adobe Acrobats paid subscriptions are expensive and do not offer one-time purchase options. The slightly higher monthly cancel anytime price is a good option if you only need the features temporarily.Read our full Adobe Acrobat review 7. Cisdem PDFMaster (aka EaseUS PDF editor)ProsSimple user interfaceFluid performanceOne-time payment optionsConsConfusing brandingNot always reliableNo version for iOS and iPadOSOne of the options you may come across during your hunt for a PDF editor is that from EaseUS. While the companys own PDF editor is exclusive to Windows, its website offers PDFMaster for macOSwhich is actually developed by its partner Cisdem. EaseUS packages Cisdem PDFMaster as EaseUS PDF Editor for Mac, but its essentially the same app. Confused? We were.Just to baffle you further, you can buy the app from EaseUS or Cisdem, and at the Mac App Store, all at different prices and there are a few differences. We reviewed EaseUSs version.The app features a minimalistic user interface with modern-looking buttons and labels.While PDFMasters feature set is somewhat limited compared to more professional apps, it generally gets the job done for those with casual PDF editing needs. You can edit the text in the document, including add or remove words, change the font, insert links and so on. You can also add shapes, highlighting, underlining, strikethroughs, and leave comments. Images, stamps, and digital signatures can also be added.Watermarking, document cropping, conversion to multiple file formats, size shrinking, optical character recognition (OCR), redaction, page reorganization, PDF comparisons, area calculations are also available.We did have a few issues during testing. For example, exporting a PDF after password-protecting it didnt actually secure it.Once its 14-day trial expires, you will have to pay $89.95 once or $59.95 per year to continue using the software. The macOS version doesnt provide a monthly subscription plan. There is no mobile version for iOS and iPadOS users.Read our full Cisdem PDFMaster for Mac (aka EaseUS PDF Editor) review FAQ 1.Do Macs have built in PDF?Macs have a built-in PDF editor called Apple Preview, which offers a comprehensive set of PDF markup tools, including form filling and password protection. This editor is superior to Adobe Acrobats free tier in terms of PDF editing capabilities. The PDF editing tools in macOS can be accessed through Quick Look or the Preview app, and they allow users to add text, highlight, underline, and strikethrough text, rotate pages, add and remove pages, add arrows and other shapes, and add comments to PDFs. Additionally, Apple Preview allows users to add their signature to a PDF. However, its worth noting that Apple Preview has limited native sharing options and is only available to Mac users.2.How to make a PDF on a MacTo create a PDF on a Mac, you can use the built-in Preview app. Simply create a document on your Mac, then choose Print > PDF and edit in Preview. The Preview app also allows you to export PDFs with options for quality and file format, and add password, quartz filter, or file restrictions. Alternatively, you can use tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro or Standard, one one of the other options in the list above, but these require a subscription.3.How to fill in a PDF on a MacFilling in a PDF with Apple Preview is easy. The Mac app, included on every Mac, includes a form-filling feature that automatically detects fields and allows easy filling. In addition, AutoFill, a feature introduced in macOS 14.2, uses Contacts to select the necessary information and makes filling out PDFs faster and more secure. If you need more advance features then one of the options above will give you additional viewing, editing, converting, and PDF signing abilities.Read: How to edit a PDF on a Mac 4.Can I edit a PDF for free on a Mac?Yes, you can edit a PDF for free on a Mac using Apples built-in Preview app, which offers a full set of PDF markup tools, including encryption, password protection, and permissions for files . Adobe also offers a free Acrobat Reader for reading and filling in PDFs, but it lacks some features that Apples built-in Preview app offers.Read: Best free PDF editors for Mac 5.Whats the difference between Preview and Acrobat?Adobe Acrobat and Apple Preview both offer basic annotation tools. While both have a form-filling feature, Preview automatically detects fields for easy filling, unlike Acrobat which requires manual alignment. Preview also offers free tools that Acrobat charges for, including PDF page organization/deletion, password protection, and document scanning . Furthermore, Preview is preloaded on Macs, providing faster performance and a sleeker design. However, Previews editing functionality is limited and it is not designed for advanced editing, unlike Acrobat which offers more functionality it you pay for it.Read: Apple Preview vs Adobe AcrobatSome other articles that might be helpful: How to make a PDF on an iPhone How to scan documents on iPhone How to edit a PDF on iPhone How to redact text in a PDF How to save a page from a PDF as a separate file

MacworldIts a nightmare scenario: your Mac has been playing up for weeks and youve been ignoring it, or just havent been able to figure out how to fix it. Then it refuses to start up. Why didnt you make that backup? Is there any way you can get back the lost data from your Mac? Luckily there are apps that can recover your lost photos and damaged files from your failed Macs hard drive.There are a few techniques you can try before you spend money on an app though, as youll see in our How to recover data from a damaged Mac article. Also, prevention is better than a cure and we recommend adopting a regular backup routine going forward, so youll avoid this kind of situation again. For more tips on this, take a look at The best backup software for Mac and How to use Time Machine to back up a Mac.If these tips prove to be of no avail, there are apps that can rescue your files from a deleted, corrupted or crashed drive.Data recovery apps, like the ones we have reviewed below, work in a similar way: if the directory indicating where files were originally stored is salvageable, recovering the files is relatively easy. If that isnt the case, the software will scan the data for familiar patterns that would denote a file type. Once it finds a file type, theres a good chance that there will be data in that file.PROMOTIONData recovery software for Mac EaseUSRecover lost data in 3 simple steps: automated scan, preview, and one-click recovery. Cover any file format and deal with data loss issues. Undelete files from the Mac-based hard drive, fusion drive, SSD, USB drive, memory card, digital camera, and more. Macworld recommended, and a great choice for both Mac and Windows users.Now 25% OFF Exclusive Code: MACWORLD25Get It Now l WindowsGet It Now | MacBut expect it to be a time-consuming process to piece the bits of files back together. With patience, most files that havent been overwritten should, in theory, be saveable. Some drives can take days to fully scan, and the higher capacity they are, the longer the process. But if its irreplaceable photos or important documents that are lost, you can afford to wait.Unfortunately, this sort of software is pretty much always going to have a high price associated with it before you can recover what you needbut if youve lost hundreds of treasured photos or the first 1,000 pages of your novel, then no price is too high, probably. Sometimes you can pay for the software for a month, do what you need to do and then cancel. Sometimes you must subscribe for a year. Other options allow you to buy it outright, but pay extra for future updates. Your own circumstances will influence which option is best for you. Additionally, many of these tools offer a trial so you can at least see what you should be able to recover before you spend your money. Whether youre a casual user scrambling to recover your lost files, or a full-time tech shop doing everything it can to retrieve a clients most critical documents from a dying hard drive, these are the data recovery apps that get our recommendation. Looking to recover data from a iPhone? Read: Best data recovery apps for iPhone.Updated December 2024 to add Wondershares Recoverit. Best data recovery software for MacHeres our pick of the best data recovery apps for Mac. Recoverit, WondershareProsFree trial (only 100MB)ConsFree trial is only 100MBRecoverit by Wondershare is centered around the usual modules that you might see in this kind of suite: Hard Drives and Locations and SD Card for file recovery, Enhanced Recovery and Corrupted Video Repair for video and photo restoration and System Crashed Computer and NAS and Linux for additional recovery features.Theres a friendly home screen and user interface and the modules work as expected. Data recovery for hard drives, locations, and SD cards is simple and reliable, with Recoverit executing both a quick scan and diving into a deep scan.The video and photo repair modules work well with damaged files. The SD Card module was able to sift through a damaged 8GB SD card, pull some video data thought lost, and deliver the data back cleanly to a recovery folder without issue.Remote-based utilities allow for network-based drives to be located or accessed manually to have data recovered from them. The program can also save recovered data to a NAS drive or Google Drive, which is a nice feature.We had some problems with the USB boot drive creation module, but this mitght be due to Apples complications.Wondershare Recoverit presents an excellent data recovery package at a not-unreasonable, price. The package is currently on offer for $79.99/63.99 (usually $109.99/93.97) a month for unlimited recovery for two Macs, or $89.99/66.99 (usually $139.99/113.97) for a one year license for unlimited recovery for two Macs. Theres also a $139.99/118.97 (usually $169.99/144.97) perpetual license for two Macs. The company also offers discounts for students and educators, and small and medium businesses. While no trial version exists, the free version allows for all of Recoverits features to be used, with data recovery capped at 100 megabytes.Read our full Wondershare Recoverit review Data Rescue, Prosoft EngineeringProsExcellent toolset and recovery system Helpful Scan Management system to manage and continue up to 15 scansConsHigh subscription-based price In July 2024 the softwares last update was in 2023Inadequate tech supportNo means of creating a macOS Sonoma recovery drive (as of July 2024)Data Rescue, currently version 6.0.8, offers some excellent drive management and data recovery features, albeit at a steep price for occasional users.The software supports older versions of macOS and requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later. Users can download the software and assign full drive access, with a trial offering up to 1GB of data recovery for free. The company charges $19 per individual for non-licensed data retrieval, $79 for a standard license, and $399/year for a professional license. The hefty fee covers only one Mac or PC. The auto-renew option needs to be turned off via the web-based Prosoft account.The software has a compelling toolset, including Quick Scan or Deep Scan, view hex tables, secure erase, set drive parameters, manage virtual RAID setup, and work with numbered sectors on drives and allocation blocks. It allows users to work with up to 15 scans, pausing and resuming as needed handy if youre several hours into a Deep Scan. The software runs well in the background.Data Rescue 6 can create clone and recovery drives, handling different data strategies such as Straight, Reverse, Bisect, and Segment. However, it does not offer an option to create a macOS Sonoma recovery drive as of July 2024.There are other limitations. If the drive is mechanically failing, itll be harder for data to be pulled and reconstructed.Technical tools in Data Rescue 6 offer plenty to work with, but can get you in trouble if you arent familiar with them. For example, setting the wrong drive parameters or boot point can require troubleshooting.Overall, Data Rescue 6 offers excellent tools, but Prosoft should address issues like lack of customer responsiveness, the lengthy time between updates, the high, subscription-based price tag, and a lack of a tutorial system.Read our full Data Rescue review Stellar Data Recovery for MacProsQuick, clean interfaceGood data recovery tools and modulesImpressive net-based data recovery moduleConsRepeated crashes for the Clean Up Junk Files moduleStrange macOS Recent Items and serial number activation bugsKeeps an upgrade to a higher-level account, even after a full account has been purchasedStellar Data Recovery for Mac focuses on recovering data via standard scans, deep scans, drive image creation, and other recovery tools. It is available as a free trial, with standard, professional, and premium editions available on yearly or lifetime contracts. The software supports both HFS+ and APFS volume formats and can be installed easily.Stellar Data Recoverys main strength is its extensive data recovery engine, which supports hundreds of file formats and allows users to search and recover by file type, headers, and attributes. It also features a good scan management engine that allows users to save and work from previous scans, and an image creation feature that allows users to create a byte-for-byte image of a volume that can be restored later.One interesting feature is the Recover Non Booting Mac module, which allows users to log into their Macs recovery partition, load Terminal, and enter a command to open a remote version of Stellar Data Recovery (more details in our full review). Other modules such as Search Large Files and Search Duplicate Files perform well and provide a comprehensive look at your drive.The complete array of modules worked well with test drives, recovering data as needed, and snagging as much as possible.Unfortunately, we did experience some problems. Stellars Clean Up Junk Files crashed the application repeatedly and had to be force quit under macOS Sonoma 14.6.1.Other issues included activating the serial number, which took several days and multiple calls and emails to sort out. Additionally, Stellar Data Recovery refused to appear in the macOS Recent Items menu, preventing it from being quickly launched. Even after activating a Professional tier account, the software still presents an Upgrade button on its main menu, which seems to be asking for more money to be thrown in the companys general direction.Despite these failings, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is a good program able to dig deep to help reconstruct and recover deleted data. Theres also Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone. Read our full Stellar Data Recovery for Mac review Disk Drill Pro, CleverFiles ProsFriendly interface, access to helpful YouTube instructional videosGood data recovery performanceData Shredder utility ConsOccasional crashes macOS Installer utility failed to create a viable boot drive after multiple attemptsData recovers to multiple folders and can be confusing to locateDisk Drill Pro from Cleverfiles is designed to recover data and rebuild deleted files on Macs and various other platforms and devices. It works with standard macOS file formats like HFS+, Mac OS Extended, and APFS.The basic version is available for free and can recover up to 500 megabytes of data. Theres a Pro version that supports one user and up to three simultaneous activations, paid for once with an additional expense for lifetime upgrades. The Enterprise edition has a similar extra expense for lifetime upgrades and supports 10 users and infinite activations with priority technical support and DFXML forensic data support. At the time of our review Cleverfiles was offering a 50% discount from past versions, 20% discount for education, non-profit, and government customers, and a 50% competitive upgrade.Disk Drill Pro requires macOS 10.15 Catalina or later and offers several new features, including a RAID utility, NAS & Linux via SSH utility, tools for recovering data from iPhones, iPads, and Time Machine volumes, a scan session manager, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, a macOS boot drive creator, a backup utility, a Clean Up utility to map drive storage, a duplicate file remover, a data shredder, and a free space erasure tool. YouTube-based tutorial videos are available.Devices can be scanned over a Wi-Fi network, and the S.M.A.R.T. function provides data about drive temperatures, drive condition, and life percentage left. Disk Drill Pro runs the scan in the background and can bypass file permission errors on the data being erased. During our data recovery scans, more than 90% of deleted files were readily recovered.Disk Drill Pro has some issues, such as the macOS Installer utility failing to produce a bootable volume after multiple tests, the Recent Sessions scan manager only sporadically working, and Disk Drill Pro crashing into the spinning rainbow wheel if a process is interrupted. However, it offers reliable data recovery from a wide variety of devices.Read our full Disk Drill Pro review EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac ProsFree version (up to 2GB)Great data recovery tools and file organization and categorizationVideo Repair toolConsHigh price point compared to competitors Unbootable Mac module failed to locate and work with drives for recovery testing Unable to log into some cloud-based services for data recovery and file storageEaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, at version 17.2.0 at the time of our review, is a Mac port of the Windows recovery software.There is a free version with a 2GB recovered data cap as well as a paid version, which offers additional features such as 1-on-1 remote assistance, is available as a free trial, and requires Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later to run. The paid version offers one license for one Mac paid monthly, yearly or as a lifetime upgrade plan that covers one Mac. The monthly and annual license payments auto-renew.The software supports over 1,000 file types and offers specific modules for SD cards, cloud-based recovery, and storage. It supports APFS, HFS+, HFS, XFAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS, making it useful for working with drives from Windows and Linux machines.The core functionalities of data recovery, reconstruction, and organization are its strongest points. A friendly interface guides users in choosing the volume to recover from and designating the target restoration drive or folder. The program organizes recovered and restored data logically into categories such as All Types, Pictures, Documents, Audio, Videos, Emails, Archives, and Others.The SD Card function is useful, and the iCloud module makes it easy to log into iCloud (requiring Two Factor Authentication). The Video Repair module is enjoyable for exporting cleaner copies of old videos. However, some issues need attention, including the Unbootable Mac module, which has the user shut down their Mac, boot into Recovery Mode, then boot off an external server run by EaseUS. While this is a good idea in theory, the tool went into a continuous loop of being unable to mount my M2 Mac internal and external drives. I allowed this process to run overnight, and when I woke up in the morning, the drives had still not mounted and the tool could not be worked with.The cloud tool was unable to successfully log into Dropbox for recovery, and the application required an administrator password every time the user launched it. Additionally, the software presented a customer feedback survey every time the user exited the program, which was infuriating.In conclusion, Data Recovery Wizard for Mac excels at its core functions and presents an attractive means of recovering data from Mac, Windows, and Linux volumes with a nice array of platform and file format support. However, the high price point, Unbootable Mac module failures, constant need for an administrator password, and repeating customer feedback survey window let it down.Read our full EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac review Alsoft DiskWarriorProsGood user interface, speed, and performanceGreat at locating and sorting out file and directory errors on supported formats and volumesNice customization and configuration optionsConsLack of APFS support puts the future of DiskWarrior in doubtHigh priceTime Machine volumes cant be repaired without booting off the included USB flash driveBest Prices Today: RetailerPriceAlsoft$119.95View DealPrice comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwideProductPricePrice comparison from Backmarket$119.95 at AlsoftAlsoft has been producing high-quality utility software for over 20 years. DiskWarrior, a popular application for recovering damaged hard drives, has been in use since 1998. However, the latest version of DiskWarrior 5.3.1, released in 2024, seems to be falling behind in software and file system support.The software still supports the HFS+ format, FireVault 1 and 2, Core Storage for Fusion dries, RAID configurations, and disk images and sparse bundles, but it has not been upgraded to support the APFS format, which is increasingly prevalent on new Macs and Apples push towards this file system standard.DiskWarrior is available as a bootable USB flash drive that can boot Macs running HFS+ format volumes. Its ease of use remains unchanged, making it easy to mount and unmount drives and volumes, perform quick tests, access technical specifications, set up automated diagnostics, and receive notifications through alerts, emails, AppleScript programs, or text messages.However, theres bad news: DiskWarrior 5.3.1 still lacks support for the APFS standard. As more drives are moving towards this file system, the companys silence on this matter is concerning. A representative within the company confirmed that Alsoft is working on version 6.0, which will offer full APFS support. However, changes from Apples side, such as not allowing third-party kernel extensions and other technical changes, have made the development process more difficult and created more roadblocks than previous versions of DiskWarrior.The lack of a free trial version of DiskWarrior 5.3.1 raises concerns about the steep new user price and upgrade price, especially when the software lacks APFS support and can only work with certain volumes.Sometimes a great utility gets stuck in development. Theres still a great application to be had here, but Alsoft needs to put itself in a position where it can readily announce that an updated version will be out at a given date and that it will offer APFS support.Read our full Alsoft DiskWarrior review For more advice about accessories and software for your Mac, iPad or iPhone see all our Best Picks.

MacworldThe musician Stephin Merritt once joked that he would be happy to sell only a single copy of each album he makes, provided that single copy costs $100,000. Which coincidentally is pretty close to Apples marketing strategy for Vision Pro.I jest, of course: you cant run a multi-trillion-dollar corporation that way. Apple loves its margins, but it needs volume too if it wants to keep paying out those juicy shareholder dividends. And as much as Tim Cook would like every product sold to be marked with the surnames Pro, Max, or Pro Maxand as hard as the company works to upsell at every possible opportunitythe cheaper devices further down the range are just as important to Apples overall success.The Apple Watch SE hasnt gotten much of an update since 2020.Dominik Tomaszewski / FoundryIts odd, then, that this year has been such a disappointment for so many of Apples budget products. The current versions of the iPhone SE, Apple Watch SE, and baseline iPad all came out in 2022, but they received no more love in 2024 than they did in 2023. The 10th-gen iPad remains oddly appealing, thanks to a timely price cut and the generally lower importance of state-of-the-art specs in the tablet space. But the two SE devices are looking their age. They need an update, and soon.On which front, theres good news and bad news. Here in Europe, the 3rd-gen iPhone SE is set to vanish from sale at the start of 2025 not because it isnt good enough, but because Apple neglected to launch a version with USB-C despite having two years to prepare for incoming regulations. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are getting the chop too, which will leave Apple without any kind of remotely budget-focused smartphone in a major market. Presumably this will help motivate the company to launch the 4th-gen iPhone SE in a timely fashion, probably in March or April 2025.An overdue upgrade for Apples SE productsWeve had to wait a long time for it to arrive, but the next iPhone SE does sound like an intriguing proposition. Its all change on the design front, for example. At long last the SE is going to ditch the Home button (angry emails to the usual address) and catch up with the design trends of well, 2017. But thats still an improvement.In terms of componentry we can look forward to a powerful 48MP camera and Apples in-house 5G modem, which should mean improved battery life. And there will reportedly be an A18 processor inside that modern chassis, same as in the iPhone 16, plus 8GB of RAM. These upgrades are necessary to make the SE compatible with Apple Intelligence, with vastly improved all-round performance a happy side effect. And it all adds up to an iPhone SE thats actually special.The iPhone SE is reportedly getting an iPhone 15 glow-up next spring.Dominik Tomaszewski / FoundryThe Apple Watch SE is less likely to get a major revamp in 2025, but it will surely get an upgrade of some sort. This may well involve a new material; Apple is understood to be working on a switch from aluminum to brightly colored plastic in order to lower costs and appeal to younger customers. It will also get a processor upgrade; not something that one would normally view as a priority for a budget smartwatch, but worthwhile when the silicon in question is functionally identical to the S6 chip from 2020. A performance bump is overdue.And as for the standard iPad, 2025 should see the long-awaited launch of the 11th-gen model. As explained above this is less urgent than the sorely needed refreshes to the two SE devices, but could we dream of finally getting a laminated screen on the entry-level iPad? Obviously Cupertino will be keen to add support for Apple Intelligence, too, which means substantial spec upgrades. And a bump back up to $449? Lets hope not, but you know, swings and roundabouts.What about the cheaper Macs?On the other side of Apples portfolio, 2024 was a more productive year for the baseline models. The MacBook Air (which can be taken seriously as a budget product only if you keep an eye firmly trained on the MacBook Pros eyewatering price list) saw a handy upgrade to the M3 chipset that we felt improved on greatness; while the Mac mini received a fabulous redesign that meant it finally lived up to its name. Both are worthy of a hearty recommendation.But theres more to come next year. The Air will be updated again in the first half of next year (probably some time between January and March) to get the M4 chip and a new Center Stage camera. The latter should solve one of the machines few weaknesses: that 1080p FaceTime camera. The Mac mini will join the M4 gang too, although later in the year. An October announcement sounds about right.The trend towards cheapWe spent a couple of years complaining about Apples upsell strategy, whereby it would deliberately leave features out of entry-level products, sometimes going so far as to equip them with the previous years processors, in order to push customers towards the Pro models. This was annoying, we felt, not to mention ill-suited strategically to a time of stagnant wages and a high cost of living. But now were starting to notice a change: the companys cheaper products have started to look like excellent choices once again.If this trend started in 2024, it will spread its wings in 2025. The two SE updates are long overdue and should bring good-quality phones and watches within the reach of customers on a budget. And Im looking forward to seeing what Apple does with the 11th-gen iPad; if the price is too high then we can still buy the 10th-gen model, which might even get another price cut to celebrate. As for the M4 Mac mini who needs a Mac Studio when the budget model is that powerful?As I explained when discussing the new iPad miniperhaps not quite a budget product, but good value for what it offersthe tech industry and tech buyers in turn, are sometimes guilty of neglecting products that compromise. But compromise is important. That doesnt mean accepting devices that dont do what you need. But it means refusing to pay for anything more.Its taken Apple a while to remember that there are people out there who dont have a small fortune to throw at consumer tech, but Im glad weve got there in the end. And Im pleased to report that 2025 already looks like a bumper year for Apples budget lines.

While Windows is a powerful operating system for productivity, so much of what we do with work these days revolves around the web. Whatever your browser of choice Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, or any of the more contemporary options theres a decent chance you spend a fair amount of your workday working with apps inside that environment.Thats fine: I recommend using the right tool for the job, whatever that is. And often, its a web app! But when nearly every application you use exists in a browser tab within a single desktop window, youre missing out on some of Windows most powerful productivity advantages.So consider this: What if all those web apps you rely on were integrated into Windows with their own desktop windows, taskbar icons, and more? What if they worked with the Windows taskbar, Alt+Tab switcher, Task View, and Snap?Its something you can make happen in just a few clicks if you know the tricks.Want more Windows tips and tricks? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter three things to try every Friday and free Windows Field Guides as a special welcome bonus!Windows web app trick #1: Do the downloadMany popular web apps now offer official Windows versions, too. It sounds a little obvious, but this wasnt always as common as it is today. You may have started using a web-based tool when it was available only in a browser, but it may work nicely on your Windows desktop today without any real effort other than taking the time to find the right option.For example, at our email newsletter-focused small business The Intelligence, we use applications like Notion for documents, Trello for planning, and Microsoft Designer to whip up the occasional piece of AI art. These are normally thought of as web apps, but every single one of them offers an installable Windows desktop application and Ive linked the desktop versions in that list.For file and photo storage, of course, services like Google Drive and even Apple iCloud offer downloadable Windows apps.And yes, whether youre using Windows 11 or Windows 10, many of those installable apps are still based on web technologies. But they dont have to be confined to a browser tab, and going with the app version gives you an even richer and more integrated experience.When in doubt, search the Microsoft Store app for an application or check out its official website for a Windows desktop download.Windows web app trick #2: Instant installEven if an official download isnt available, you can turn any web page into an app, complete with its own dedicated window, taskbar icon, desktop shortcut, and Start menu shortcut. This is particularly useful for strictly web-based applications like Gmail, which you might want to keep just a single click away.All you need is Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or some other Chromium-based browsers. (Unfortunately, Mozilla Firefox doesnt offer this feature.)In Google Chrome, first head to the web page you want to use as an app like Gmail.com, for example. Then, click the menu button, point to Cast, save, and share, and select the Install page as app option.In Microsoft Edge, head to the page you want to transform into an app and click menu > Apps > Install this site as an app.Some pages offer the option to be installed as progressive web apps (PWAs). If you try this same process on such a page, youll see a slightly different Install option. PWAs often offer more features, like offline support and they similarly transform the website into its own unique window, with a more native-app-like feel thatll be right at home on your Windows PC.With Gmail in its own window, you wont have to hunt down your email in a browser tab again.Chris Hoffman, IDGWindows web app trick #3: The alternate routeWhile you could give Gmail and Google Calendar their own taskbar icons using the trick we just went over, you also have another option: You could access things like your email and calendar events by pulling their data into other dedicated desktop apps.Theres no shortage of available native-to-Windows options, but the new Outlook is built right into the Windows operating system youre using and it works seamlessly with Gmail and Google Calendar. The classic and once-again-under-development Mozilla Thunderbird application works with both Gmail and Google Calendar, too.By bringing your web-centric data into any such application, you can then read your emails, get desktop notifications, and send emails right from the native Windows app environment. Unfortunately, Outlook will only let you view Google Calendar events, but Mozilla Thunderbird will let you modify your Google Calendar, too.While Im focusing on Gmail here, you could also add mail and calendar from Apple iCloud or Yahoo to these applications. Youd get a more desktop-style email experience complete with offline access.Microsofts new Outlook email app supports a variety of email accounts.Chris Hoffman, IDGWindows web app trick #4: The third-party pathBeyond the big names, your Windows PC supports an array of less well-known native apps that can also do the job and let you work with web-centric data in a Windows app environment. For example, the Fantastical calendar application that was long popular on Macs is now available on Windows PCs. If you use quite a few different calendars and want them all in one powerful application, the $57 per year it costs may be well worth it particularly for professional purposes. Ive heard so many good things from Mac users about this application over the years.Windows 10 had a very nice calendar feature: It would show your calendar events when you clicked the clock, and that worked with Google Calendar. This feature is missing in action on Windows 11 and was lost in the operating system transition, but for $4 you can get the similar Calendar Flyout application for convenient access to Google Calendar and Microsoft-powered calendar events, too. It adds a handy icon to your system tray for easy viewing and clicking. My colleague JR Raphael of Android Intelligence fame says it looks and works exactly as described and is quite nice to use!JRs also a big fan of the Superhuman email application. And, while most people wont be spending $25 per month for an email application unless they live and breathe email professionally, Superhuman does offer a downloadable Windows desktop application as well.The point: Theres a whole universe of applications that can better integrate whatever web apps and services you use with Windows. Youll just need to do a little digging to find the right ones for you.Windows web app trick #5: The browser tune-upAt the end of the day, theres nothing wrong with using web apps in your browser if thats really how you prefer it. You may go full circle playing with the other options here and conclude that some applications just work best in a traditional browser tab. But theres still a lot you can do with a browser-tab-based app to turn it into an even more effective productivity tool.For example, some web applications offer offline support, even while running in your browser. (While many people wonder why offline support is so necessary these days, I like the knowledge that I can always use applications on my laptop even if an airplanes Wi-Fi isnt working properly, if theres some kind of connection blip, or if Im out and about in an area without readily available internet access.)Google offers instructions for enabling offline Gmail support and enabling offline Google Calendar access in Google Chrome. Plus, Google will let you enable offline editing for Google Docs. You can also configure offline access in the new Outlook for Windows.Googles web applications have powerful offline features, but you have to go out of your way to activate them.Chris Hoffman, IDGWeb applications like Gmail and Google Calendar can also be set as your PCs default applications for their respective purposes. That means whenever you click an email address on the web or in any other program on your computer, Windows will automatically open a new email draft with that address present within Gmail in Google Chrome. Gmail will normally ask you to set this up when you start using it, so you may have already granted it default email client status.Beyond that, its a good idea to bookmark web apps you use regularly within your browsers bookmarks toolbar for easy ongoing access. That way, you can get to those quickly by pressing Ctrl+Shift+B from anywhere on the web.You may also want to pin especially common applications like Gmail so theyre always ready to go. Check out my collection of Windows browser tab tricks for even more ideas!Get Windows knowledge in your inbox with my free Windows Intelligence newsletter three new things to try every Friday and free in-depth Windows Field Guides as soon as you sign up.

Ah, the holidays. No matter what manner of winter celebration you prefer (Im a Festivus man myself), late December is a fine time for kickin back and collecting your thoughts for the coming year.That means its also a fine time for contemplating that crazy little computer in your pocket and the steps you can take to make it even more powerful cause guess what? A few minutes of tuning up now will make your life measurably easier throughout all of 2025. Think of it as a gift to yourself one that keeps on giving and, best of all, doesnt cost you a single dime.In case you missed any of em the first go-round or maybe just didnt have the time to try everything out, here are some of my favorite productivity-boosting Android tips from Android Intelligence in 2024.So pour yourself some cocoa, polish up the ol Festivus pole, and give yourself the gift of finely tuned technology and be sure to sign yourself up for my free Android Intelligence newsletter, too, so you can get my best Android tips in your inbox all year round (and get a free copy of my awesome Android Notification Power-Pack the second you sign up!).Android tips #1 and 2: Future features now7 Android 15 features you can bring to any phone todayThese creative workarounds will deliver Googles latest and greatest goodies onto any Android gadget no Android 15 upgrade required.How to bring Android 16s Notification Cooldown brilliance to any phone todayGoogles next big Android version has an extremely useful new nuisance-reducer and with a teensy bit of crafty configuration, you can bring a similar superpower to any Android device this instant.Android tips #3-6: Shortcuts and step-savers15 advanced Android gesture actionsThese simple swipes, slides, and presses will change the way you get around Android for the better.30 out-of-sight Android app shortcuts worth surfacingThese out-of-sight Android shortcuts can make you meaningfully more efficient if you (a) figure out how to tap into their full potential and (b) remember to use em.10 forgotten Android text selection shortcutsFly around your phone like a certified Android sorcerer with these oft-forgotten on-demand actions.Float any website on Android for easy multitasking magicNow, this is a smart way to wade around the web and its already on your favorite Android phone and just waiting to be found.Android tips #7-9: Smarter searching5 advanced tricks for Googles Circle to Search on AndroidTake your Android searching to soaring new heights with these Circle to Search secrets.How to capture and share a screenshot with Circle to Search on AndroidYoud never know it, but Androids quietly dazzling next-gen search system gained a supremely helpful option this year.Find Androids futuristic new search featureAndroids visual search system got a powerful under-the-hood upgrade of its own in 2024, and if you arent using it, youre really missing out.Android tips #10-12: Intelligent adjustmentsHow Androids notification channels can help you reclaim controlTake total control of exactly when and how your phone alerts you with a simple one-time setup of some easily overlooked options.18 Android settings thatll strengthen your securitySome of the most important Android settings are also the most buried and theyre absolutely worth your while to uncover.13 fast fixes for common Android problemsSolve annoying issues and get any phone in tip-top shape with these easy-to-implement, expert-approved solutions.Bonus: 25 tips for your old Android devices25 great uses for an old Android deviceWe all love getting new gadgets, but what to do with the old ones? Here are 25 clever ways to put all your old Android phones and tablets to good use, too.Thanks as always for reading, and happy holidays to you and yours!Get even more Googley knowledge with my Android Intelligence newsletter.Three new things to try in your inbox every Friday and six powerful notification enhancements the second you sign up!

Stalker 2 receives first major patch, including A-Life fixesAs game hits a profit.Image credit: GSC Game World News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on Dec. 19, 2024 GSC Game World has released the first major patch for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which addresses over 1800 issues and fixes to the game's A-Life.What's more, the game has now recouped its investment and has turned a profit, according to the studio's owner Maxim Krippa in an interview with Forbes. Krippa also confirmed at least two expansions and multiplayer are planned, with no further details provided.The developer notes Patch 1.1 is "huge" so will take some time to download. It includes A-Life fixes and AI improvements, balance adjustments, crash fixes and performance optimisations, issues with specific story missions, and more.S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Launch TrailerWatch on YouTubeA-Life is the game's system to ensure NPCs appear natural. An FAQ from the studio reads: "The A-Life 2.0 system is responsible for ensuring that the Zone lives its own life regardless of your actions. The game world around you is changing all the time. Mutants, stalkers, bandits, and other inhabitants of the Zone move around, hunt, fight among themselves for lairs and territories, or join groups."The system was criticised by players for feeling too scripted and not organic enough. A number of fixes have now been implemented, increasing the rate players will encounter roaming NPCs, improving the navigation of NPCs, enhancing their motivation to expand territory and actively attack, and other changes.Further small AI improvements have been made to both NPCs and enemies.Elsewhere, several missions have received increased rewards, an infinite money exploit has been fixed, performance has been improved in largely populated areas, and plenty more.Check out a Steam notice for the full patch notes."Thank you very much for your support and feedback," the notes read. "We will continue working on the game, listening to your comments and reviews to investigate all possible issues and solve them as soon as possible."At its launch in November, Stalker 2 was criticised for its performance issues.However, in an interview with Eurogamer, GSC Game World's CEO Ievgen Grygorovych said delaying the game was not an option."You're so tired that you would just die if you say let's run an additional marathon," said Grygorovych. "We didn't have a chance to say let's do it more. We just had a chance of 'let's do until this moment - the release date - as much as we can'."Creative director Mariia Grygorovych also acknowledged issues with the game at launch. "It's not perfect, we need to fix everything, it has some problems," she said. "But it's a game! It's a game with soul, with feelings there, with love there. Even the problems, you can't fix them if you don't have a game."

Helldivers 2 developers respond to criticism of Killzone 2 crossover costUPDATE: Arrowhead gifting planned second wave of collaboration items for free.Image credit: Arrowhead News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Updated on Dec. 19, 2024 UPDATE 3.30pm UK: In response to concerns over pricing, Arrowhead will now gift all players the planned second set of Killzone 2 collaboration items for free.In a joint statement on Discord from both Arrowhead and Killzone developer Guerrilla Games, the studio acknowledged feedback from the community."As this was our first crossover offering, we've been listening to the response, and the feedback we've received from our community surveys is that crossover content is really high up on your wishlists," it reads. "At the same time, some of you are not happy with the prices of the items and we will revisit this."Because of all this, in partnership with our friends at Guerrilla (and as we're in the season of holiday cheer), we've decided to offer a gift to all players. Firstly, we are gifting to everyone the planned second set of the Helldivers x Killzone collaboration items today, free of charge. The distribution of those items will begin shortly, in two waves."As such we're also going to extend the duration of the items currently in the Superstore from five days to 10 days so that you have a chance to get hold of it and reduce the risk of missing out. We're also investigating solutions for how we can bring these items back permanently in the future."The studio also shared, in the image below, what's included in this second set. It appears the first set will remain available at the current price. The second wave of Killzone 2 items | Image credit: ArrowheadORIGINAL STORY 1pm UK: The CEO of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead has responded to criticism from players of the high cost of its Killzone 2 crossover.The crossover with Sony's Killzone 2, revealed yesterday, adds a number of themed items and cosmetics to the in-game store and is the first of its kind for the game. However, players have criticised their cost.Usually, extra content is unlocked through a Warbond costing 1000 Super Credits (7.99), which includes multiple weapons, armours, and cosmetic items. The Killzone 2 items are instead available to purchase separately, with all six items totalling 1,975 Super Credits - so two batches of 1000 Super Credits totalling 15.98, essentially doubling the price.Helldivers 2 - Omens of Tyranny | PS5 & PC GamesWatch on YouTubeSeparately, the StA-52 assault rifle costs 615 Super Credits (the most expensive item) and the AC-1 Dutiful armour costs 500 Super Credits.Players have since responded negatively on the game's Discord server and reddit, with one reddit user posting "615 SC for a primary weapon is straight up ridiculous".Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt responded to a player on X who said the price "definitely felt steep"."Sorry you felt the price was steep, we are looking at all feedback," Pilestedt replied. "The reason we changed it from a Warbond was actually because there were concerns that having a higher priced Warbond would carry negative sentiment." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Over on Discord, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani responded (thanks PC Gamer). "Hey, quick comment on the Helghast stuff. Firstly, this is our first collaboration so we'll be figuring it out as we go along. Let us know what you'd like to see in the future," he said. "Secondly it's optional. The more of this we sell, the more Illuminate-type stuff we can keep dropping for free."He later added: "This was my way of saying that the better the game does the more stuff we can do."Further, Jorjani noted while Arrowhead is partnered with Sony, pricing was the studio's decision. "This one is on us," he wrote."This feels more like Sony than AH" Bad news girls :( byu/VoreEconomics inHelldiversTo see this content please enable targeting cookies.As stated in the crossover announcement, the collaboration marks the start of a new five day rotation length in the store."Right now, many of you feel the items are in rotation for too short a time, and that you sometimes miss out on that killer look you had your eyes on," Arrowhead said. "At the same time, the more things we add to the store the longer it takes to come back into rotation."

Networks programmed directly into computer chip hardware can identify images faster, and use much less energy, than the traditional neural networks that underpin most modern AI systems. Thats according to work presented at a leading machine learning conference in Vancouver last week.Neural networks, from GPT-4 to Stable Diffusion, are built by wiring together perceptrons, which are highly simplified simulations of the neurons in our brains. In very large numbers, perceptrons are powerful, but they also consume enormous volumes of energyso much that Microsoft has penned a deal that will reopen Three Mile Island to power its AI advancements.Part of the trouble is that perceptrons are just software abstractionsrunning a perceptron network on a GPU requires translating that network into the language of hardware, which takes time and energy. Building a network directly from hardware components does away with a lot of those costs. One day, they could even be built directly into chips used in smartphones and other devices, dramatically reducing the need to send data to and from servers.Felix Petersen, who did this work as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, has a strategy for making that happen. He designed networks composed of logic gates, which are some of the basic building blocks of computer chips. Made up of a few transistors apiece, logic gates accept two bits1s or 0sas inputs and, according to a rule determined by their specific pattern of transistors, output a single bit. Just like perceptrons, logic gates can be chained up into networks. And running logic-gate networks is cheap, fast, and easy: in his talk at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference, Petersen said that they consume less energy than perceptron networks by a factor of hundreds of thousands.Logic-gate networks dont perform nearly as well as traditional neural networks on tasks like image labeling. But the approachs speed and efficiency make it promising, according to Zhiru Zhang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University. If we can close the gap, then this could potentially open up a lot of possibilities on this edge of machine learning, he says.Petersen didnt go looking for ways to build energy-efficient AI networks. He came to logic gates through an interest in differentiable relaxations, or strategies for wrangling certain classes of mathematical problems into a form that calculus can solve. It really started off as a mathematical and methodological curiosity, he says.Backpropagation, the training algorithm that made the deep-learning revolution possible, was an obvious use case for this approach. Because backpropagation runs on calculus, it cant be used directly to train logic-gate networks. Logic gates only work with 0s and 1s, and calculus demands answers about all the fractions in between. Petersen devised a way to relax logic-gate networks enough for backpropagation by creating functions that work like logic gates on 0s and 1s but also give answers for intermediate values. He ran simulated networks with those gates through training and then converted the relaxed logic-gate network back into something that he could implement in computer hardware.One challenge with this approach is that training the relaxed networks is tough. Each node in the network could end up as any one of 16 different logic gates, and the 16 probabilities associated with each of those gates must be kept track of and continually adjusted. That takes a huge amount of time and energyduring his NeurIPS talk, Petersen said that training his networks takes hundreds of times longer than training conventional neural networks on GPUs. At universities, which cant afford to amass hundreds of thousands of GPUs, that amount of GPU time can be tough to swingPetersen developed these networks, in collaboration with his colleagues, at Stanford University and the University of Konstanz. It definitely makes the research tremendously hard, he says.Once the network has been trained, though, things get way, way cheaper. Petersen compared his logic-gate networks with a cohort of other ultra-efficient networks, such as binary neural networks, which use simplified perceptrons that can process only binary values. The logic-gate networks did just as well as these other efficient methods at classifying images in the CIFAR-10 data set, which includes 10 different categories of low-resolution pictures, from frog to truck. It achieved this with fewer than a tenth of the logic gates required by those other methods, and in less than a thousandth of the time. Petersen tested his networks using programmable computer chips called FPGAs, which can be used to emulate many different potential patterns of logic gates; implementing the networks in non-programmable ASIC chips would reduce costs even further, because programmable chips need to use more components in order to achieve their flexibility.Farinaz Koushanfar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego, says she isnt convinced that logic-gate networks will be able to perform when faced with more realistic problems. Its a cute idea, but Im not sure how well it scales, she says. She notes that the logic-gate networks can only be trained approximately, via the relaxation strategy, and approximations can fail. That hasnt caused issues yet, but Koushanfar says that it could prove more problematic as the networks grow.Nevertheless, Petersen is ambitious. He plans to continue pushing the abilities of his logic-gate networks, and he hopes, eventually, to create what he calls a hardware foundation model. A powerful, general-purpose logic-gate network for vision could be mass-produced directly on computer chips, and those chips could be integrated into devices like personal phones and computers. That could reap enormous energy benefits, Petersen says. If those networks could effectively reconstruct photos and videos from low-resolution information, for example, then far less data would need to be sent between servers and personal devices.Petersen acknowledges that logic-gate networks will never compete with traditional neural networks on performance, but that isnt his goal. Making something that works, and that is as efficient as possible, should be enough. It wont be the best model, he says. But it should be the cheapest.

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here.Later today, around 10 minutes after this email lands in your inbox, Ill be holding my four-year-old daughter tight as she receives her booster dose of the MMR vaccine. This shot should protect her from a trio of nasty infectionsinfections that can lead to meningitis, blindness, and hearing loss. I feel lucky to be offered it.This year marks the 50-year anniversary of an ambitious global childhood vaccination program. The Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched by the World Health Organization in 1974 with the goal of getting lifesaving vaccines to all the children on the planet.Vaccines are estimated to have averted 154 million deaths since the launch of the EPI. That number includes 146 million children under the age of five. Vaccination efforts are estimated to have reduced infant mortality by 40%, and to have contributed an extra 10 billion years of healthy life among the global population.Childhood vaccination is a success story. But concerns around vaccines endure. Especially, it seems, among the individuals Donald Trump has picked as his choices to lead US health agencies from January. This week, lets take a look at their claims, and where the evidence really stands on childhood vaccines.WHO, along with health agencies around the world, recommends a suite of vaccinations for babies and young children. Some, such as the BCG vaccine, which offers some protection against tuberculosis, are recommended from birth. Others, like the vaccines for pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, which are often administered in a single shot, are introduced at eight weeks. Other vaccinations and booster doses follow.The idea is to protect babies as soon as possible, says Kaja Abbas of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK and Nagasaki University in Japan. The full vaccine schedule will depend on what infections pose the greatest risks and will vary by country. In the US, the recommended schedule is determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and individual states can opt to set vaccine mandates or allow various exemptions.Some scientists are concerned about how these rules might change in January, when Donald Trump makes his return to the White House. Trump has already listed his picks for top government officials, including those meant to lead the countrys health agencies. These individuals must be confirmed by the Senate before they can assume these roles, but it appears that Trump intends to surround himself with vaccine skeptics.For starters, Trump has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who has long been a prominent anti-vaxxer, has a track record of spreading false information about vaccines.In 2005, he published an error-laden article in Salon and Rolling Stone linking thimerosalan antifungal preservative that was previously used in vaccines but phased out in the US by 2001to neurological disorders in children. (That article was eventually deleted in 2011. I regret we didnt move on this more quickly, as evidence continued to emerge debunking the vaccines and autism link, wrote Joan Walsh, Salons editor at large at the time.)Kennedy hasnt let up since. In 2015, he made outrageous comments about childhood vaccinations at a screening of a film that linked thimerosal to autism. They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone, Kennedy said, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.Aaron Siri, the lawyer who has been helping Kennedy pick health officials for the upcoming Trump administration, has petitioned the government to pause the distribution of multiple vaccines and to revoke approval of the polio vaccine entirely. And Dave Weldon, Trumps pick to direct the CDC, also has a history of vaccine skepticism. He has championed the disproven link between thimerosal and autism.These arguments arent new. The MMR vaccine in particular has been subject to debate, controversy, and conspiracy theories for decades. All the way back in 1998, a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, published a paper suggesting a link between the vaccine and autism in children.The study has since been debunkedmultiple times overand Wakefield was found to have unethically subjected children to invasive and unnecessary procedures. The paper was retracted 12 years after it was published, and the UKs General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct. He was struck off the medical register and is no longer allowed to practice medicine in the UK. (He continues to peddle false information, though, and directed the 2016 film Vaxxed, which Weldon appeared in.)So its remarkable that his study still seems to be affecting public opinion. A recent Pew Research Center survey suggests that four in 10 US adults worry that not all vaccines are necessary, and while most Americans think the benefits outweigh any risks, some are still concerned about side effects. Views among Republicans in particular seem to have shifted over the years. In 2019, 82% supported school-based vaccine requirements. That figure dropped to 70% in 2023.The problem is that we need more than 70% of children to be vaccinated to reach herd immunitythe level needed to protect communities. For a super-contagious infection like measles, 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated, according to WHO. If [coverage drops to] 80%, we should expect outbreaks, says Abbas.And thats exactly what is happening. In 2023, only 83% of children got their first dose of a measles vaccine through routine health services. Nearly 35 million children are thought to have either partial protection from the disease or none at all. And over the last five years, there have been measles outbreaks in 103 countries.Polio vaccinesthe ones whose approval Siri sought to revokehave also played a vital role in protecting children, in this case from a devastating infection that can cause paralysis. People were so afraid of polio in the 30s, 40s, and 50s here in the United States, says William Moss, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. When the trial results of [the first] vaccine were announced in the United States, people were dancing in the streets.That vaccine was licensed in the US in 1955. By 1994, polio was considered eliminated in North and South America. Today, wild forms of the virus have been eradicated in all but two countries.But the polio vaccine story is not straightforward. There are two types of polio vaccine: an injected type that includes a dead form of the virus, and an oral version that includes live virus. This virus can be shed in feces, and in places with poor sanitation, it can spread. It can also undergo genetic changes to create a form of the virus that can cause paralysis. Although this is rare, it does happenand today there are more cases of vaccine-derived polio than wild-type polio.It is worth noting that since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of the oral polio vaccine have been administered to almost 3 billion children. It is estimated that more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented through these efforts. But there have been just under 760 cases of vaccine-derived polio.We could prevent these cases by switching to the injected vaccine, which wealthy countries have already done. But thats not easy in countries with fewer resources and those trying to reach children in remote rural areas or war zones.Even the MMR vaccine is not entirely risk-free. Some people will experience minor side effects, and severe allergic reactions, while rare, can occur. And neither vaccine offers 100% protection against disease. No vaccine does. Even if you vaccinate 100% [of the population], I dont think well be able to attain herd immunity for polio, says Abbas. Its important to acknowledge these limitations.While there are some small risks, though, they are far outweighed by the millions of lives being saved. [People] often underestimate the risk of the disease and overestimate the risk of the vaccine, says Moss.In some ways, vaccines have become a victim of their own success. Most of todays parents fortunately have never seen the tragedy caused by vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles encephalitis, congenital rubella syndrome, and individuals crippled by polio, says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit that conducts research on health risks to children. With some individuals benefiting from the propagation of scary messages about vaccines and the proliferation of social media providing reinforcement, its no surprise that fears may endure.But most Americans recognize the benefits of vaccines and choose to get their children immunized, she adds. Now, that is a sentiment I can relate to.Now read the rest of The CheckupRead more from MIT Technology Reviews archiveA couple of years ago, the polio virus was detected in wastewater in London, where I live. I immediately got my daughter (who was only one year old then!) vaccinated.Measles outbreaks continue to spring up in places where vaccination rates drop. Researchers hope that searching for traces of the virus in wastewater could help them develop early warning systems.Last year, the researchers whose work paved the way for the development of mRNA vaccines were awarded the Nobel Prize. Now, scientists are hoping to use the same technology to treat and vaccinate against a host of diseases.Most vaccines work by priming the immune system to respond to a pathogen. Scientists are also working on inverse vaccines that teach the immune system to stand down. They might help treat autoimmune disorders.From around the webA person in the US is the first in the country to have become severely ill after being infected with the bird flu virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared on December 18. The case was confirmed on December 13. The person was exposed to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks in Louisiana. (CDC)Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, declared a state of emergency as the bird flu virus moved from the Central Valley to Southern California dairy herds. Since August, 645 herds have been reported to be infected with the virus. (LA Times)Pharmacy benefit managers control access to prescription drugs for most Americans. These middlemen were paid billions of dollars by drug companies to allow the free flow of opioids during the USs deadly addiction epidemic, an investigation has revealed. (New York Times)Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic have emerged as blockbuster medicines over the past couple of years. Were learning that they may have benefits beyond weight loss. Might they also protect organ function or treat kidney disease? (Nature Medicine)Doctors and scientists have been attempting head transplants on animals for decades. Can they do it in people? Watch this delightful cartoon to learn more about the early head transplant attempts. (Aeon)