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2021 MacBook Pro users reporting multiple issues with the SD card reader - 9to5Mac
OnePlus 9 gets Android 12 update starting today - 9to5Google
Halo Infinite won’t let you pick levels to replay — but that’s going to change - The Verge

2021 MacBook Pro users reporting multiple issues with the SD card reader - 9to5Mac

Posted: 06 Dec 2021 06:25 PM PST

One of the main highlights of the new 2021 MacBook Pro is the comeback of the SD card slot. Unfortunately, it seems that some users are having issues with the SD card reader on these new machines, as they have been reporting slow transfer speeds or even inaccessible files when trying to use an SD card on the new MacBook Pro.

As noted by MacRumors, multiple reports shared on the web suggest that there is a widespread issue regarding the SD card reader in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models introduced this year. There seems to be no consistency between the reports, as users say that they have experienced different issues with different SD cards.

A user of the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip describes their experience as "super flakey" as the machine takes up to one minute to recognize an SD card and sometimes it shows an error. Another user says that the Finder crashes when the Mac is trying to read an SD card.

It's very frustrating. I was hoping that import from SD card including preview of images would be quick on my new 14″ MBP. I have a fairly new 64GB SD card which had been working fine. But Photos on the MBP using the internal SD card slot takes minutes to show photos and sometimes crashes half way through. Sometimes the Finder crashes too.

As pointed out by other users, formatting the SD card does not solve the problem in most cases. Some even confirm that the same SD card works by using a USB-C adapter.

The only thing that is consistent is that if a card works, it always works, and if a card does not work properly it never works properly. Reformatting, even to all other possible formats, makes no difference. Sandisk, Sony, Samsung, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, UHS-I, UHS-II, micro-SD, FAT32, exFAT, makes no difference. 100% of my cards work perfectly via a dongle.

Apple has yet to officially acknowledge the problem – and so far it is unclear whether this is a software or hardware issue. The company has allegedly told some customers that it is "aware of the issue" and promised that a software update with a fix will be available soon.

Have you experienced similar problems with the new MacBook Pro? Let us know in the comments section below.

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OnePlus 9 gets Android 12 update starting today - 9to5Google

Posted: 06 Dec 2021 03:30 PM PST

Android 12 has been available on Google Pixel phones for nearly two months now, and even Samsung has pushed a stable update to five of its high-end devices. Now, OnePlus is joining the fray with a stable update to Android 12 heading to some OnePlus 9 series owners.

Rolling out to some users today, Android 12 for the OnePlus 9 series delivers OxygenOS 12, the latest version of the brand's skin which is built in closer collaboration with Oppo. The update's rollout was spotted by some folks on Telegram who captured download links for the OTA in India. XDA is hosting those downloads. The full changelog follows:

System

Optimized desktop icons with improved textures, by using a design inspired by brand-new materials and uniting lights and layers

Dark mode

Dark mode now supports three adjustable levels, bringing a more personalized and comfortable user experience

Shelf

New additional style options for Cards, making data contents more visual and easier to read

Newly added Earphone Control Card with Bluetooth earphone one-click adjustment

Newly added access to OnePlus Scout in Shelf, allowing you to search multiple contents on your phone, including Apps, Settings, Media Data, etc

Newly added OnePlus Watch Card in Shelf, to easily glance at your health stats

Work-Life Balance

Work-Life Balance feature is now available to all users, allowing you to effortlessly switch between Work and Life mode via quick settings

WLB 2.0 now supports automatic Work/Life mode switching, based on specific locations, Wi-Fi network, and time, also bringing customized App notification profiles according to the personalization

Gallery

Gallery now allows you to switch between different layouts with a two-finger pinch gesture, intelligently recognizing the best-quality pictures, and cropping the thumbnail based on the content, making the gallery layout more pleasing
Canvas AOD

Canvas AOD

Canvas AOD brings you new diverse styles of lines and colors, for a more personalized lock screen experience with inspiring visuals

Newly added multiple brushes and strokes and support for color adjustment

Optimized software algorithm and improved face recognition to better identify the features and skin color of different figures

With the update rolling out to some users already, it's only a matter of time before the update goes fully official. We'll update this post when OnePlus makes a full announcement.

This update to OxygenOS is clearly inspired more heavily by Oppo's ColorOS, with a default launcher that works more like what you'd find on an Oppo-branded smartphone, with other tweaks throughout the system that follow the same pattern. Our Damien Wilde covered the similarities back in October.

That doesn't mean, however, that OnePlus isn't delivering anything new in this update. More control over dark mode has been added with "Gentle," "Medium," and "Enhanced" modes that apply to the system and select apps. OnePlus also introduced a feature called "Inventive wallpapers" which can create an abstract design out of your images. Other changes include more control over OnePlus Shelf, the "Private Safe," a new Notes app, Zen Mode updates, and a "Recent Tasks Manager" to manage apps that can be "locked" into memory.

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Halo Infinite won’t let you pick levels to replay — but that’s going to change - The Verge

Posted: 06 Dec 2021 05:38 PM PST

Halo Infinite's campaign launches on Wednesday, but after your first trip through the story, you won't be able to replay missions without starting all the way over, Microsoft confirmed to Polygon. It's a significant omission, since it means you won't be able to get collectibles you miss the first time around. It also means Infinite is the first Halo game without a way to go back and easily replay a chapter.

That might not always be the case, though, as developer 343 Industries wants to add the feature down the line, the studio told The Verge. "We haven't announced a date but that is being worked on," 343 Industries associate creative director Paul Crocker said in an interview.

"We want to have replay that works well, and when you have a more open game, it gets a lot trickier," he said. "So we made a decision to improve the quality of the single-player campaign to ensure that, as a foundation, that it's as strong as it possibly could be so that we could then add the other features back in."

It's frustrating not to be able to play through missions again; Halo Infinite's campaign has some impressive set pieces and great boss fights that I'd love to tackle without going through the entire story another time. However, there are some elements that do carry over between full campaign replays, according to Crocker, including data pads (which contain story-focused voice logs) and the hard-to-find skulls that, in past games, let you modify certain aspects of the experience (such as doubling enemy health).

Replayable story missions aren't the only thing that was pushed back for the launch; you're going to have to wait at least six months for the time-honored tradition of playing through the campaign cooperatively with a friend, something you've been able to do since the very first Halo game. The goal was "from day one" to make the game playable in co-op and allow people to replay missions, but "we just had to prioritize what we could get done in time," Crocker said.

Halo Infinite has had a somewhat rocky development. It was originally set to release alongside the Xbox Series X / S in November 2020, but was delayed to 2021 after a gameplay reveal that birthed the infamous Craig meme. Forge mode, which was introduced in Halo 3 and lets players develop multiplayer maps and games, is also missing for Infinite's launch. And while 343 Industries launched Halo Infinite's free-to-play multiplayer beta early, it has had to address criticisms of the game's progression system and lack of dedicated playlists.

Despite those problems, the extra development time paid off for Halo Infinite's campaign and multiplayer, which are both pretty good. That bodes well for the features that won't make it at launch — even if we don't know how long we'll have to wait for them.

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