What you need to know

A TikTok video is showing us all how to talk without being caught.
They’re using AirPods and text-to-speech to communicate.
Now I feel old and dumb.

Hopefully they’re giving them a good clean before swapping them.

Our very own Rene Ritchie just shared a TikTok video in the iMore Slack channel and now I feel both old and decidedly dumb at the same time. See, it turns out enterprising kids are sharing AirPods and then using text-to-speech to allow them to ”talk” without being caught.

The obvious use case here is keeping up with your crew during class. Because nobody pays attention when their teacher is talking, right? That’s reserved for squares like me!

Kids are swapping AirPods in class then using text to speech to ‘talk’ without talking 🤩🤩🤩 pic.twitter.com/moLxK1rzbv— Louis Anslow ✪ (@LouisAnslow) January 21, 2020

The theory is actually one that is ingenious if you think about it. You swap an AirPod with your friend and then use text-…

Is this the Pokémon clone we’ve been looking for?

What you need to know

Temtem is a Pokémon-inspired MMO available only on Steam.
The game launched in early access on January 21, 2020.
It’s currently the best-selling game on Steam with over 20,000 concurrent players.
It’s unexpected popularity has led to long queues and lag for some players.

Game Freak’s beloved Pokémon series just might have a run for its money with the launch of Temtem into early access on Steam on Tuesday. This massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) game is unabashedly a Pokémon-inspired adventure that does things that Game Freak has been unwilling to do.

In fact, Temtem is doing so well on its first day that it’s currently the best-selling game on Steam with over 20,000 concurrent players at the time of this writing. And that’s without there having been any pre-orders or previous games in the series to excite players.

Much like the series that inspired it, Temtem takes place on a…

Henry Cavill in ”The Witcher,” which Netflix says has been viewed by at least 76 million households.

The streaming giant has changed the way it reports whether someone has watched something.

Netflix has released its Q4 2019 earnings. As far as earnings reports go, it’s pretty standard. You can ready the highlights here. But the most interesting thing tucked amid all those numbers is that Netflix has changed the way it’s reporting — crowing, really — about how many people watched a particular thing.

Previously if you had watched 70 percent of a show or a series or a film, you were considered to have watched it. But the thing is that shows and series and films are of varying lengths. So 70 percent of a 5-minute short (that’s about 3 and a half minutes) is a bit different than sitting through 42 minutes of an hour-long special.

Going forward, Netflix will consider you to have watched something if the following criteria are met:

You chose to watch it and
You watched it for at …

What you need to know

New York City has a $10 million lab dedicated to accessing iPhones and iPads.
The High Technology Analysis Unit was built to get the information law enforcement needs.
It even has an RF isolation chamber.

It’s amazing what a few million buys you.

Money might not be able to buy you happiness, but it can definitely buy you a state-of-the-art iPhone-cracking lab in New York City. So long as you have a spare $10 million, that is.

With iPhone security and Apple’s stance on giving law enforcement access to data such a hot button topic right now, Fast Company has shared a look inside New York City’s High Technology Analysis Unit. And it’s quite the look, too.

The brainchild of district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, the building even has its own RF isolation chamber to prevent those being investigated from being able to remotely wipe devices inside.

The entrance to the radiofrequency isolation chamber, near the middle of the Lefkowitz Building in lower Manhattan, …

Find the Pokémon you’re looking for super easily.

What you need to know

Pokémon Sword and Shield released back on November 15, 2019.
A major pull for the games is the Wild Area’s Max Raid Battles.
A fan on Reddit has put in a lot of time to create an interactive map of the Wild Area.
This map isn’t available just yet, but it’s going to make it a lot easier to find specific Pokémon.

Pokémon fans have been playing Sword and Shield, the newest installments in the core RPG series, since November 15, 2019. Now that the games have been out for several months, many players have finished the games, but there’s one aspect that keeps people coming back each day: The Wild Area. Here players can take on massive Pokémon with the help of other players, whether they be friends or random people online. What makes these battles so exciting is that it’s the only way to capture Gigantamax Pokémon within the games.

Different Pokémon spawn from different dens, so if you’re hunting for shin…

What you need to know

The World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland, is ongoing.
Tim Cook will join Trump for breakfast.
He will be joined by IBM CEO Ginni Rometty.

Trump and Cook have a unique relationship.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will join US President Donald Trump for breakfast at the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland according to a Bloomberg report.

Trump and Cook are to be joined by IBM CEO Ginni Rometty with the president set to be briefed on a new campaign that aims to highlight the different ways people can get an education, according to the report.

Both Cook and Trump seem to have been able to build an ”unlikely” relationship to their mutual benefit.

Cook has already been pressing the flesh in Davos, meeting with multiple prime ministers.

On Tuesday in Davos, Cook met with the prime ministers of Finland, Spain and Croatia. In addition to trade and iPhone security debates, the Apple CEO has been battling European efforts to collect more …

A lot of users are ready for bigger iPads. I hope that Apple is, too.

I miss the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

I never actually had one myself, though a couple of my friends did. It was discontinued the year before I bought my last MacBook. But I loved that it was out there, a ridiculously large powerhouse, an absolute lunch tray of a computer ready to take on anything a user could throw at it with a beautiful, massive display that could fit all of the content you could want.

I think it’s time for the iPad to have its own lunch tray moment.

Because my most powerful wish for iPad hardware in the near future is that we start seeing bigger tablets come out of Cupertino. I’ll take all of the iPad screen real estate I can get. And yes, I’m primarily thinking about the iPad Pro, but I’d love to see the more mainstream iPad and iPad Air models offer bigger variants.

But what could bigger iPads offer that Apple’s current tablet lineup can’t? Well, here’s what I think.

It’s all about space

The …

To get the most out of your Fitbit, you want to wear it as much as possible. This means all day at work, all night when you’re sleeping, and on every trip to the gym. Make sure your Fitbit is super comfortable around your wrist by following one of their sizing guides before buying. We recommend the Fitbit Charge 3 for most people, and this handy guide on sizing will ensure your Fitbit (regardless of model) will fit snuggly.

Products used in this guide

The best Fitbit for most people: Fitbit Charge 3 ($117 at Amazon)

Why do you need to measure your wrist before buying a Fitbit?

Fitbits come in two standard sizes, small and large (though you can get an X-large by ordering models through the Fitbit site). It’s a little strange that there’s not a medium or regular size. Does that mean your normal-sized wrist is actually a large? How small is small? How large is large?

Fortunately, Fitbit breaks down wrist sizes based on their circumferences (the distance around the outside of …