Sludge Vohaul! Sierra made the games of my childhood. Are they still fun to play? Get ready for some nostalgia. Nate Anderson – May 17, 2025 7:00 am | 14 Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more My Ars colleagues were kicking back at the Orbital HQ water cooler the other day, and—as gracefully aging gamers are wont to do—they began to reminisce about classic Sierra On-Line adventure games. I was a huge fan of these games in my youth, so I settled in for some hot buttered nostalgia. Would we remember the limited-palette joys of early King's Quest, Space Quest, or Quest for Glory titles? Would we branch out beyond games with "Quest" in their titles, seeking rarer fare like Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist? What about the gothic stylings of The Colonel's Bequest or the voodoo-curious Gabriel Knight? Nope. The talk was of acorns. [Bleeping] acorns, in fact! The scene in question came from King's Quest III, where our hero Gwydion must acquire some exceptionally desiccated acorns to advance the plot. It sounds simple enough. As one walkthrough puts it, "Go east one screen and north one screen to the acorn tree. Try picking up acorns until you get some dry ones. Try various spots underneath the tree." Easy! And clear! Except it wasn't either one because the game rather notoriously won't always give you the acorns, even when you enter the right command. This led many gamers to believe they were in the wrong spot, when in reality, they just had to keep entering the "get acorns" command while moving pixel by pixel around the tree until the game finally supplied them. One of our staffers admitted to having purchased the King's Quest III hint book solely because of this "puzzle." (The hint book, which is now online, says that players should "move around" the particular oak tree in question because "you can only find the right kind of acorns in one spot.") This wasn't quite the "fun" I had remembered from these games, but as I cast my mind back, I dimly began to recall similar situations. Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge had been my first Sierra title, and after my brother and I spent weeks on the game only to get stuck and die repeatedly in some pitch-dark tunnels, we implored my dad to call Sierra's 1-900 pay hint line. He thought about it. I could see it pained him because he had never before (and never since!) called a 1-900 number in his life. In this case, the call cost a piratical 75 cents for the first minute and 50 cents for each additional minute. But after listening to us whine for several days straight, my dad decided that his sanity was worth the fee, and he called. Much like with the acorn example above, we had known what to do—we had just not done it to the game's rather exacting and sometimes obscure standards. The key was to use a glowing gem as a light source, which my brother and I had long understood. The problem was the text parser, which demanded that we "put gem in mouth" to use its light in the tunnels. There was no other place to put the gem, no other way to hold or attach it. (We tried them all.) No other attempts to use the light of this shining crystal, no matter how clear, well-intentioned, or succinctly expressed, would work. You put the gem in your mouth, or you died in the darkness. Returning from my reveries to the conversation at hand, I caught Ars Senior Editor Lee Hutchinson's cynical remark that these kinds of puzzles were "the only way to make 2–3 hours of 'game' last for months." This seemed rather shocking, almost offensive. How could one say such a thing about the games that colored my memories of childhood? So I decided to replay Space Quest II for the first time in 35 years in an attempt to defend my own past. Big mistake. We're not on Endor anymore, Dorothy. Play it again, Sam In my memory, the Space Quest series was filled with sharply written humor, clever puzzles, and enchanting art. But when I fired up the original version of the game, I found that only one of these was true. The art, despite its blockiness and limited colors, remained charming. As for the gameplay, the puzzles were not so much "clever" as "infuriating," "obvious," or (more often) "rather obscure." Finding the glowing gem discussed above requires you to swim into one small spot of a multi-screen river, with no indication in advance that anything of importance is in that exact location. Trying to "call" a hunter who has captured you does nothing… until you do it a second time. And the less said about trying to throw a puzzle at a Labian Terror Beast, typing out various word permutations while death bears down upon you, the better. The whole game was also filled with far more no-warning insta-deaths than I had remembered. On the opening screen, for instance, after your janitorial space-broom floats off into the cosmic ether, you can walk your character right off the edge of the orbital space station he is cleaning. The game doesn't stop you; indeed, it kills you and then mocks you for "an obvious lack of common sense." It then calls you a "wing nut" with an "inability to sustain life." Game over. The game's third screen, which features nothing more to do than simply walking around, will also kill you in at least two different ways. Walk into the room still wearing your spacesuit and your boss will come over and chew you out. Game over. If you manage to avoid that fate by changing into your indoor uniform first, it's comically easy to tap the wrong arrow key and fall off the room's completely guardrail-free elevator platform. Game over. Do NOT touch any part of this root monster. Get used to it because the game will kill you in so, so many ways: touching any single pixel of a root monster whose branches form a difficult maze; walking into a giant mushroom; stepping over an invisible pit in the ground; getting shot by a guard who zips in on a hovercraft; drowning in an underwater tunnel; getting swiped at by some kind of giant ape; not putting the glowing gem in your mouth; falling into acid; and many more. I used the word "insta-death" above, but the game is not even content with this. At one key point late in the game, a giant Aliens-style alien stalks the hallways, and if she finds you, she "kisses" you. But then she leaves! You are safe after all! Of course, if you have seen the films, you will recognize that you are not safe, but the game lets you go on for a bit before the alien's baby inevitably bursts from your chest, killing you. Game over. This is why the official hint book suggests that you "save your game a lot, especially when it seems that you're entering a dangerous area. That way, if you die, you don't have to retrace your steps much." Presumably, this was once considered entertaining. When it comes to the humor, most of it is broad. (When you are told to "say the word," you have to say "the word.") Sometimes it is condescending. ("You quickly glance around the room to see if anyone saw you blow it.") Or it might just be potty jokes. (Plungers, jock straps, toilet paper, alien bathrooms, and fouling one's trousers all make appearances.) My total gameplay time: a few hours. "By Grabthar's hammer!" I thought. "Lee was right!" When I admitted this to him, Lee told me that he had actually spent time learning to speedrun the Space Quest games during the pandemic. "According to my notes, a clean run of SQ2 in 'fast' mode—assuming good typing skills—takes about 20 minutes straight-up," he said. Yikes. What a fiendish plot! And yet The past was a different time. Computer memory was small, graphics capabilities were low, and computer games had emerged from the "let them live just long enough to encourage spending another quarter" arcade model. Mouse adoption took a while; text parsers made sense even though they created plenty of frustration. So yes—some of these games were a few hours of gameplay stretched out with insta-death, obscure puzzles, and the sheer amount of time it took just to walk across the game's various screens. (Seriously, "walking around" took a ridiculous amount of the game's playtime, especially when a puzzle made you backtrack three screens, type some command, and then return.) Let's get off this rock. Judged by current standards, the Sierra games are no longer what I would play for fun. All the same, I loved them. They introduced me to the joy of exploring virtual worlds and to the power of evocative artwork. I went into space, into fairy tales, and into the past, and I did so while finding the games' humor humorous and their plotlines compelling. ("An army of life insurance salesmen?" I thought at the time. "Hilarious and brilliant!") If the games can feel a bit arbitrary or vexing today, my child-self's love of repetition was able to treat them as engaging challenges rather than "unfair" design. Replaying Space Quest II, encountering the half-remembered jokes and visual designs, brought back these memories. The novelist Thomas Wolfe knew that you can't go home again, and it was probably inevitable that the game would feel dated to me now. But playing it again did take me back to that time before the Internet, when not even hint lines, insta-death, and EGA graphics could dampen the wonder of the new worlds computers were capable of showing us. Literal bathroom humor. Space Quest II, along with several other Sierra titles, is freely and legally available online at sarien.net—though I found many, many glitches in the implementation. Windows users can buy the entire Space Quest collection through Steam or Good Old Games. There's even a fan remake that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Nate Anderson Deputy Editor Nate Anderson Deputy Editor Nate is the deputy editor at Ars Technica. His most recent book is In Emergency, Break Glass: What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World, which is much funnier than it sounds. 14 Comments

Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: you shouldn’t buy Huawei’s trifold phone, the Mate XT. And that’s alright, because you probably couldn’t if you wanted to — while it’s no longer exclusive to China, it’s only on sale in a handful of countries, and not in the US or Europe.Besides, I can reel off a list of major problems with the Mate XT: at almost $4,000 it’s far too expensive, it doesn’t have native support for Google apps (though you can get around that more easily than you might think), it’s limited to 4G, and there are some pretty obvious reasons to worry about its durability. Any one of those individually would be a good reason to steer clear of buying the Mate XT. Taken together, they’re insurmountable.But this isn’t a phone you’re meant to buy, at least not outside China. It’s a phone you’re meant to gawk at on the internet, to marvel at Huawei’s technological prowess, to ooh and ahh about its many and varied folds. This is Huawei showing off, proving to the world that it’s still got it. And in fairness, it has.6Verge Score$4000The GoodA versatile tablet replacementImpressive battery lifeMuch thinner than you’d expectThe BadIncredibly expensiveNo Google support or 5GHow tough is it really?$4000 at HuaweiHow we rate and review productsAs I sit and write this — more than six months after Huawei first released the Mate XT in China — it’s still the only one of its kind. Rumor has it that Samsung has a trifold ready to show off this year, but it hasn’t yet. And by the time it does, odds are Huawei will have spent a full year as the only player in the game.That might ring alarm bells in your head. This must be undercooked tech, you think, rushed out the door to beat everyone else to market. But the most surprising thing about the Mate XT is that it only occasionally feels first-gen. This is the only way to display three apps at once, with one in a floating window.There’s a hint of it in the multitasking, which refuses to allow you to fully open three apps at a time, pinning each to one of the three screen segments. Or when the fully open screen often doesn’t quite go entirely flat, which is more annoying than any crease will ever be. And you notice it when you open the phone, or close it, and the app you’re using seems to briefly reboot itself, losing your spot in a long article or (once, infuriatingly) discarding a Letterboxd review that was almost entirely finished. I’ve learned not to change the configuration while doing something, just to be safe.But for the most part, these just don’t really matter. After several weeks using the Mate XT as my main phone, my primary impression is that it delivers on its promise, effectively offering three different devices in one.First it’s a phone……then it’s a foldable……and then it’s a tablet.Fully closed, this is simply a regular phone with a 6.4-inch display. At 12.8mm thick, it has a little heft to it, but not unduly so — it’s less than a millimeter thicker than Samsung’s Z Fold 6. It’s solid, and weighty, and even the cameras are decent. It’s as good a phone in this form as Samsung’s foldable, so long as you can live with sideloading the Play Store.When I’m reading a long article or trying to keep up in the editorial Slack channels, I open the phone up to a 7.9-inch, squarish display that’s a pretty close match for what other foldables offer. For me, this is the least useful setup of the three, a reminder that current book-style foldables offer something I don’t really want most of the time, extra screen space in all the wrong places. But that’s what the Mate XT’s full screen is for. Flipping one more section nets me a full 10.2-inch display, making this a thin, lightweight tablet I can fold up and fit in my pocket. It’s wider than it is tall, a close match for the aspect ratios in most streaming apps, ideal for watching videos and playing games, tripling the screen real estate for wide-screen entertainment. I haven’t traveled much in the time I’ve been working on this review, but this is a phone crying out for rail commutes and long-haul flights, a big-screen Balatro machine that fits in your pocket, not your backpack.The creases look bad at an angle, but viewed head-on they all but disappear.There are workarounds to get almost any app on Huawei phones these days — Google Wallet NFC payments were the only thing I missed.Nine times out of ten, I use the Mate XT like a regular ol’ phone, and that extra screen space is probably wasted on me. But I don’t travel all that much, or make a habit of gaming on my phone; I wouldn’t make the most of this outside a handful of plane rides a year. Maybe you wouldn’t either, but I imagine anyone who already gets regular use out of both a phone and a tablet is feeling a little pull of temptation to merge them into one.The main thing people have asked me about the Mate XT, once they get over the foldiness of it all, is whether the battery sucks. In my experience, it absolutely doesn’t. The 5,600mAh capacity proves more than capable of lasting a full day (and then some), but I’ll refer you back to the previous paragraph — I’m not spending all day with the phone fully open. 5,600mAh is a decent battery for a phone, but a small one for a tablet, so if that’s your main use case, then you should expect to feel a bit more of a pinch.This exposed screen edge certainly feels like a failure point.The second thing people ask is how likely it is to break. And compared to a regular phone, the answer is pretty likely! There’s a whole extra failure point in the second hinge, and no IP rating, so you can’t trust it to survive either water or dust. I’m more worried that one part of the soft, flexible screen is always exposed to the outside world. It’s going to get nicks, scratches, and dents, and there’s nothing you can do about it. My review unit already has a couple, and I’ve been babying the thing. I’d say you shouldn’t buy this unless you can afford to replace it, but again: you probably shouldn’t buy it at all.Maybe you should buy the next one. Or the one after that. Or one a few generations down the line. Or just the first one that isn’t made by Huawei, because fantastic as the company’s hardware can be, I’m still not convinced it’s worth giving up proper Google support. But while the Mate XT may be the first trifold, I’m confident it won’t be the last. And this hardware, with Google and 5G, for two-thirds the price, and a generation or two of durability improvements? You should buy that phone.Photography by Dominic Preston / The VergeSee More:

Scent is one of the most powerful ways to immortalize a moment in time, many thanks to the olfactory system’s direct line to the amygdala and hippocampus (the parts of the brain responsible for emotion and memory). It’s why a whiff of a familiar fragrance note can trigger déjà vu or nostalgia for something or somewhere long gone. And while perfumers often look to far-flung destinations for fragrance inspiration, some of the most compelling scents take cues from the spaces we frequent, like the interiors of a home or a hotel room.When perfumer Jérôme Epinette, the nose behind all of Byredo’s iconic scents, was drumming up inspiration for the brand’s iconic library-inspired Bibliothèque scent, he began with a leather couch, which he associates with sitting down to relax with a book. “That’s how I came up with the biotech [elements], which have a little bit of violet, suede, leather, and wood of course,” he explains. Elsewhere, hints of patchouli are meant to evoke a Mad Men–era image of someone lighting up a cigar among the shelves, he says, “even though we don’t smoke in the library anymore.”Similarly, Abel’s master perfumer Isaac Sinclair had a clear idea of setting when he was creating The Apartment, an interpretation of a Hausmannian Parisian flat overlooking the Arc de Triomphe (a very real place where the scent was concocted in person). Rather than pencil in the framework of a home note for note, The Apartment instead evokes sex appeal and sophistication through gourmand notes of cherry and rum that suggest the after-hours revelry that happens between those very walls. Sinclair says that, unlike other perfumes that revolve around one or two core notes, this fragrance captures a vibe and a sexy atmosphere.He compares the process of constructing a perfume to architecture itself. “Usually you start with a foundation and then you start building on top of that,” he says, rather than going roof-first. Sticking to the storyline is also important for the cohesiveness of a scent, he explains, drawing out the design metaphor. “Sometimes you can add something to a fragrance and it smells amazing, but you’ve actually lost the story.”Danish designer Oliver Gustav, whose studio in Copenhagen features a beautifully curated assortment of furniture and decor from all over the world, also has his own line of scents colored by his love for design and interiors. “I wanted something to bring me back to certain special places and times—sometimes a place with present-day significance, and [other times] a place almost ancient but with dreamy and inspirational significance to my work and life as a designer and collector,” he explains of his fragrances.Here a closer look at some of these intriguing scents out there inspired by interiors, along with the stories behind their makeup.Abel Apartment Eau de ParfumTo bottle up the sexy, cosmopolitan allure of Paris, The Apartment needed to match the same energy. Sinclair says the rum note in it came about after plenty of experimentation—and alludes to the debauchery of a long night after-hours—while the cherry that forms the heart of the perfume (derived from pure cherry extract) is another gourmand note with sultry connotations.Byredo Bibliothèque CandleBibliothèque is one of our favorite candles to recommend as gifts for bookworms and beyond. It plays with contrast through plum and peach notes that Epinette says lend a creaminess to the leather and patchouli at its heart for a well-balanced rendering of a place filled with cushy seating and bound books.Comme des Garcons Odeur 71 Eau de ToiletteComme des Garçon’s oddball Odeur 71 is a slice-of-life perfume inspired by everyday smells you might encounter in an office setting, like the dust on a lightbulb or pencil shavings. It was name-dropped by one of the guest editors for AD’s first Scent Week, DS & Durga cofounder Kavi Moltz, who describes it as an unorthodox perfume that showed her how far you could push the boundaries of fragrance. “It’s the scent I wore before we started DS & Durga—it’s meant to smell like copy machine toner and hot lightbulbs,” Moltz shares."MMXXI" Potpourri on Iron StandAs a designer and collector, Gustav had a special room in mind when creating the scent MMXXI. “It is my own calming living room in a crooked 1638 house where I can withdraw from the bustling world to one of soothing gray tones, beautiful books, deep comfortable chairs, and a crackling fireplace,” he says. He set the scene with notes of worn leather and tabacco, softened by violet to evoke the calm of the space.Vilhelm Parfumerie Room Service Eau de ParfumVilhelm Parfumerie’s Room Service was inspired by Old Hollywood glamour, with actress Greta Garbo as its ultimate muse. The scent places her in New York City’s Carlyle Hotel, draped in satin and drawing a bath topped with flower petals. Notes of musk and sandalwood nod to the sensuality of the scene that’s playing out, while the florals and citrus can be interpreted as a literal spin on the creature comforts of a well-stocked hotel room.Byredo Tree House CandleTree House is another architectural take on a tiny home. Notes of wood and hay bolster this cedar-and-bamboo-heavy fragrance, while earthy notes of myrrh and sandalwood elevate this youthful structure into a sacred place.Maison d'Etto Durban Jane Eau de ParfumMaison D’Etto’s woodsy Durban Jane is less a depiction of a specific house and more of an abstract expression of belonging and comfort. Perfumer Celine Barel captures the “cocoon-like feeling of home” through cedar and sandalwood notes that nod to the bones of a house, plus earthy notes like orris and labdanum (with its traces of leather) that heighten the cozy factor of this scent.

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace. SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 17 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: She's got gameThe words are sports-related. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words are popular women's sports teams.NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Basketball Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for May 17StormFeverWingsDreamBasketballMercuryLibertyLynxLooking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands. Topics Strands

Looking for help with today's New York Times Wordle? Here are hints, clues and commentary to help you solve today's Wordle and sharpen your guessing game.

The base model M4 Mac mini is one of the best values in Mac computers, but upgrading the storage to the maximum 2TB significantly reduces that value proposition. That’s because Apple charges an insane $800 for the upgrade, turning the budget $600 computer into a $1400 one. In other words, you can purchase two base model Mac minis for less than the price of a single Mac mini with a 2TB upgrade. But fret not, because Expand Mac mini offers a 2TB upgrade for the M4 Mac mini for just $320 – less than half of what Apple charges. In this hands-on step-by-step video walkthrough, I show you how to upgrade the M4 Mac mini SSD with 2TB of storage. Watch my full video, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Mac guides and tutorials. Disclaimer: This only works with the Mac mini with M4 chip. It does not work with the higher-end M4 Pro Mac mini. Things you’ll need: Base M4 Mac mini Expand Mac mini 2TB SSD A second Mac running macOS Sonoma 14 or later for restoring macOS External SSD for Time Machine backup and restore A USB-C to USB-C cable that supports data and charging, not a Thunderbolt cable T3, T5, and T8 Torx drivers Jimmy tool Opening Pick Tweezer (Optional) Spudger (Optional) Expand Mac mini includes a multi-bit screw driver, the necessary bits, and pryer tool, but I much prefer my iFixit Pro Tech Kit, which includes higher quality parts. It’s not a requirement, but if you plan on doing any sort of DIY stuff, this kit is nice to have. Video: Upgrade the M4 Mac mini from 256GB to 2TB Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more videos Backup your Mac Before you do anything, be sure to back up your Mac’s current SSD using Time Machine. This will let you easily restore your machine using Migration Assistant once the new SSD is installed and DFU-recovered. Step 1: Connect an external SSD with free space. Time Machine backups require their own volume, so you can create a separate volume via Disk Utility, or just use the entire SSD. I recommend any manner of Samsung SSDs; I use the Samsung T9. Step 2: Open Settings → General → Time Machine and click Add Backup Disk. Step 3: Enter your administrator password. Step 4: Select your external SSD and choose Set Up Disk… Step 5: Make sure Encrypt Backup is selected, and then enter and verify a new encryption password. Apple also requires you to fill out the “hint” field. Click Done to save the changes and the Time Machine backup will start preparing. Step 6: The Time Machine backup will automatically commence after 60 seconds, or you can force it to start by clicking Time Machine in the menu bar and selecting Back Up Now. Step 7: Verify that the backup is completed by visiting Settings → General → Time Machine. Step 8: Eject the Time Machine SSD from your Mac to save for later use. Erase All Content and Settings This is an optional step, but since you’ll no longer be using the SSD that you plan to replace, I recommend deleting the drive before removing. Ensure that you have your data backed up first before proceeding. Step 1: Go to Settings → General → Transfer or Reset and click Erase All Content and Settings. Step 2: Enter your Mac’s administrator password and click Unlock. Step 3: Click Continue on the Time Machine prompt, since you should have already backed up your Mac. Step 4: Click Continue on the Erase All Contents & Settings page. Step 5: If you’re signed in to iCloud, enter your Apple Account password to sign out and disable Activation Lock. Click Continue. Step 6: Click Erase All Content & Settings. The SSD will be erased, and the Mac will reboot. Install the new SSD Step 1: Shut down your M4 Mac mini and remove all cables. Step 2: Rest the Mac mini face down on a flat, soft surface to avoid marring the aluminum case. Step 3: Carefully insert the Jimmy tool between the gap where the aluminum chassis meets the plastic, black bottom cover, and pry the cover to create a gap between the two. Step 4: Insert a plastic opening pick and remove the Jimmy tool. Step 5: Slide the opening pick around the cover until it encounters each of the four clips that secure the cover to the chassis. Twist the opening pick slightly to pop out each clip. Take special care when sliding around the power button to avoid severing the power button cable. Step 6: Lift the edge of the cover that’s on the opposite corner of the power button, and flip it over to reveal the underside of the back cover. Rest something under the bottom cover so that you can access the inner plate screws without putting strain on the power button cable. Step 7: Remove all eight of the inner plate screws using a T5 Torx driver. All of the screws for the inner plate are the same, so don’t worry about remembering where each screw was. Step 8: Slide the inner plate down and away from the heat sink to loosen it. Be careful, because there is a ribbon cable that connects to the inner plate. Flip the back cover back on top of the inner plate, and then rest both the inner plate and back cover on the side of the Mac mini without putting stress on the ribbon cable. Step 9: Using the T3 Torx driver, remove the four fan screws. There are two short screws on the top, and two longer screws on the bottom. Step 11: Lift the fan and flip it over to expose the ribbon cable connection, and rest it on the edge of the Mac mini chassis without putting strain on the ribbon cable. Step 12: Remove the screw securing the SSD with the T8 Torx driver, and remove the SSD from its socket. Step 13: Insert the 2TB SSD into the socket securely, and secure it using the T8 screw. Step 14: Reinstall the fan, and put the inner plate and back cover back on without securing them down. Before securing the inner plate and back cover, it’s a good idea to test the install to make sure it was successful. DFU Restore Step 1: With the USB-C to USB-C cable, connect to the middle Thunderbolt port on the rear of the M4 Mac mini. This port is designated for DFU restores via macOS. Step 2: Plug the other end of the USB-C cable into a Mac running macOS Sonoma or later. Step 3: Hold the power button on the upgraded Mac mini, and while continuing to hold the power button, plug in the power cable. Step 4: Continue holding the power button until the Mac you’re using to perform the restore recognizes the connected Mac in DFU mode via Finder. You should also notice a flashing orange light on the front of the upgraded Mac mini. If macOS first shows an alert asking you to allow the accessory to connect, release the power button and click Allow. Step 5: Click the Restore Mac button on the Mac DFU Mode Finder window. Step 6: You’ll see a pop up warning you that your Mac will be reset to factory settings. Click Restore and Update. Step 7: macOS will download the necessary software, and then perform the restore. This works similarly to restoring an iPhone via a Mac. Depending on your Internet speed, it could take a while to download the restore file. The restore process is also somewhat lengthy, so be patient. Step 8: Once restored, the upgraded Mac mini’s status light should now be white, and you’ll see a message in macOS on the machine you used to perform the restore stating that the Mac has been restored to factory settings. Click OK. Migrate the Time Machine backup data Step 1: Disconnect your upgraded Mac mini from the other Mac, and connect the upgraded Mac mini to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Step 2: Power on the Mac mini, and connect the Time Machine backup drive to one of the USB-C ports. Step 3: Proceed through the initial macOS Setup process until you reach the Transfer Your Data to This Mac page. Select From a Mac, Time Machine, or startup disk, and click Continue. Step 4: Click Not Now on the Accessibility page, and Continue on the Data & Privacy page. Step 5: On the Transfer information to this Mac page, select your external drive, and click Continue. Step 6: If you set the Time Machine backup with encryption, enter the encryption password, and click Unlock. Step 7: Select the Time Machine icon, and click Continue. Step 8: Select your specific Time Machine backup and click Continue. Step 9: On the Transfer Your Information page, ensure that everything you want restored is checked and click Continue. Step 10: Create a new password for the user associated with the Time Machine backup, and click Set Password and then click Continue. macOS will now transfer your information from the Time Machine backup to your upgraded Mac mini’s SSD. This may take a while depending on how large the backup is. Step 11: On the Migration Complete page, click Restart Now to finish the migration. Step 12: Click Done when prompted, and macOS should display the initial Hello screen to finish the remainder of the initial setup. This includes logging back in to iCloud, setting up Disk Encryption, Touch ID, etc. Test out your Mac to make sure everything works, and verify the 2TB SSD upgrade via Finder and/or Disk Utility. Finish Mac mini reassembly If the install went as planned, you may now reassemble the Mac mini’s inner plate and back cover. Use the eight T5 Torx screws to secure the inner plate, and align the clips on the bottom cover to the holes on the inner plate and press down to lock the bottom plate back into place. Congratulations, you just saved hundreds of dollars on a 2TB SSD upgrade! 9to5Mac’s Take The nice thing about this install is that it’s totally non-destructive and can easily be reverted. It also requires no cable removals, or anything else weird. The install requires removing just 13 screws, and can be done in a matter of minutes. I wanted to challenge myself, and I was able to open the Mac mini and perform the install in 5 minutes. It’s the Time Machine backup, DFU restore, and migration that takes up the majority of the time, as the actual hardware install is cake as long as you have the needed tools. 256 GB SSD Speed Test 2TB SSD Speed Test When comparing the two drives, the performance of the upgraded 2TB SSD is predictably faster when it comes to write speeds. But I’m curious to see how the drive holds up over the long term. Are Apple’s drives that much better from a reliability standpoint that it warrants a $500 price difference, or are these drives largely the same, with Apple making insane margins for each upgrade sold? Time will tell, but I’ll be sure to report back with more info once I’ve been able to put the machine through the wringer for a few months. Would you consider this upgrade for your M4 Mac mini? Why or why not? Sound off down below with your thoughts. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Good news for .NET developers: Rider 2025.2 Early Access Program is now open David Uzondu Neowin · May 16, 2025 18:48 EDT JetBrains has launched the Early Access Program (EAP) for Rider 2025.2 for .NET developers. This follows the recent opening of the IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2 EAP, which began just yesterday. For those unfamiliar, JetBrains' Early Access Program (EAP) offers developers a chance to explore pre-release versions of its software, complete with upcoming features and improvements ahead of the official launch. While these builds are free to use, they may not be as stable as the final versions and typically remain valid for 30 days from their release date. Access requires a JetBrains Account, and you should be prepared for occasional bugs or incomplete functionality. The first preview build of Rider 2025.2 EAP 1 brings some interesting changes. A significant one is enhanced support for Roslyn-based suppressors. These tools allow analyzer authors to quash unnecessary warnings with custom logic, going beyond simple [SuppressMessage] attributes or #pragma directives. Another notable update, driven by community feedback, is the return of the Pencils widget. This widget, which can be enabled in the status bar, offers quick access to visual indicators for code style inspections, highlighting levels, and inlay hints. It is disabled by default in Rider 2025.2 EAP 1 and the recent Rider 2025.1.2 update. To turn it on, you will need to navigate through the main menu via View | Appearance | Status Bar Widgets or add it directly from the status bar itself. A restart of the IDE is required after enabling it for the changes to take effect, though disabling it does not require one. Beyond these features, Rider 2025.2 EAP 1 includes several important fixes outlined below: The Detach action is now available for C++ processes, allowing you to disconnect the debugger without terminating the application. RIDER-70201 Rider can once again successfully create IIS virtual directories when running or debugging ASP.NET applications targeting the .NET Framework. RIDER-122091 Rider no longer crashes when editing or merging .sln files due to a critical lexer issue. RIDER-114986 We’ve resolved an issue where identifiers were incorrectly colored or partially styled in Unity projects. RIDER-124907 If you are keen to try these out, the Rider 2025.2 EAP 1 build can be downloaded from the JetBrains website, through the Toolbox App, or as a snap package from the SnapCraft store for compatible Linux distributions. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Water ice is a crucial building block of planetary systems. We've found plenty of it in our own Solar System, in places like Europa, Mars, and wayward comets, but we've never made a definitive detection of frozen water around other stars. Plenty of water vapor, yes, but no (d)ice.But that just changed. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers have confirmed the presence of water ice in a debris disk encircling a young, Sun-like star just 155 light years away. And tantalizingly, it's the same kind of ice found in our own system."Webb unambiguously detected not just water ice, but crystalline water ice, which is also found in locations like Saturn's rings and icy bodies in our Solar System's Kuiper Belt," said Chen Xie, an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of a new study published in the journal Nature, in a statement about the work. We tend to think of water in biological terms — as a key ingredient for life. But frozen chunks of the stuff play just as influential a role in the formation of giant planets, which, with their incredible mass, are themselves a huge determinant of a planetary system's structure. Icy bodies can clump together to kickstart planetary formation, and they could also bring water to existing worlds. In fact, that could explain how Earth got its water.The findings, therefore, have paved the way to exploring water ice's role outside our solar system."The presence of water ice helps facilitate planet formation," Xie said. "Icy materials may also ultimately be 'delivered' to terrestrial planets that may form over a couple hundred million years in systems like this."The star at the heart of the discovery, HD 181327, is practically an infant at just 23 million years old, compared to the Sun's 4.6 billion years. It is both slightly more massive than our star, and hotter, with a larger system surrounding it.There's a vast stretch of empty space between the star and its debris disk where the water ice was found, Webb observations confirmed. Like "dirty snowballs," the ice chunks are caked in particles of dust."There are regular, ongoing collisions in its debris disk," explained coauthor Christine Chen, an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in the statement.  "When those icy bodies collide, they release tiny particles of dusty water ice that are perfectly sized for Webb to detect." Most of the water ice is found farther away from the star, with the debris disk's outer area consisting of over 20 percent water ice, Xie said. Meanwhile, in the middle of the disk, Webb only detected 8 percent water ice, where water particles are likely produced slightly faster than they're vaporized.But in the region nearest the star, there was almost none to be found. There, the astronomers believe that the star's ultraviolet light vaporizes the ice chunks, and if any survive, they might be hidden from Webb's eye, trapped inside chunks of rock called planetesimals, which serve as the building blocks of planets.Strikingly, the debris disk appears remarkably similar to our Solar System's Kuiper Belt, a ring of comets, dwarf planets, and icy objects that lie just beyond the outermost planet, Neptune. That could hint at a pattern in how planetary systems evolve across the cosmos. It may be more than a coincidence that the first confirmed water ice we're seeing around another star mirrors the distribution of our Solar System. Only future observations — and probably with the James Webb — will tell.Share This Article