These are the Best Webcams for your Apple Mac in 2022

Since the beginning of 2020, working from home has become the new norm. With this new norm has come the necessity of attending work meetings or even classes at home, and to do so, you need a good webcam for your computer. While most laptops do come with built-in webcams, the quality is more often than not sub-par. It may get the job done occasionally, but it’s always advisable to have an external webcam for Mac, or even Windows for that matter, for a more professional look. While the MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 have updated webcams, they may still not be good enough professional use-cases.

If you have a computer like the Mac Mini, or you’ve hooked up your MacBook Air/Pro with an external monitor, you’re likely on the lookout for webcams for Mac along with other accessories that work well and support Mac-based applications. Here’s a list of some of the best webcams for Mac you can buy across various price points and use cases.

Dell UltraSharp 4K Webcam

4K Resolution

This high-quality webcam is perfect for those who tend to video-call others frequently. Though, some of its features, such as FoV adjustments and HDR, are unsupported on macOS.

View at Amazon

IFROO 1080P Wide-Angle Webcam

Affordable 1080P Webcam

If you don't want to spend too much on a webcam for your Mac but still want decent video quality, this is the one to pick. It has a wide-angle lens and can even be used for recording and streaming.

View at Amazon

NexiGo Webcam with Ring Light

Ring light for better illumination

The ring light around the webcam with adjustable brightness helps improve video quality if the ambient lighting around you is insufficient. It also has a privacy cover, auto-focus, and dual microphones.

View at Amazon

Logitech Brio 4K Webcam

5x Zoom

This option comes from a reputable company and has plenty of neat offerings. These include, but are not limited to, 4K video call support, up to 90fps, three field of view (FoV) options, 5x digital zoom, HDR, and more.

View at Amazon

Anker PowerConf C300 Webcam

Smooth 60fps videos with HDR

The Anker C300 outputs videos at 1080p/60fps and is HDR certified as well. It even has low-light correction and adjustable FoV. Another good option for streaming with noise-cancelling using multiple mics.

View at Amazon

NexiGo 2K Webcam with 3X Zoom

2K Resolution for sharper quality

This webcam has the highest resolution among the ones mentioned in this list. There is a 4MP sensor and you can digitally zoom in up to 3X. It has a 95-degree FoV, dual mics, and a privacy shutter as well.

View at Amazon

Logitech C920x HD Pro Webcam

Ideal for professional calls and meetings

The Logitech C920x is one of the most popular webcams especially for office meetings. It has support for stereo audio which means everyone can hear you crystal clear. There's also support for HD light correction.

View at Amazon

Akyta Wide-Angle Webcam with Tripod

Ultra-wide 110-degree FoV

If you want to fit more people into the frame for a group video call, this is the webcam for you. It has a large 110-degree FoV and comes with a privacy cover and a tripod in case you don't want to mount it on your monitor.

View at Amazon

Logitech StreamCam

Easy streaming and connectivity

This is the only webcam that connects via USB-C for faster video transfer speeds making it ideal for streamers. It can output videos at 1080p/60fps. There is support for smart auto-focus and facial tracking as well.

View at Amazon

These are some of the best webcams for Mac that you can get to improve the quality of your video and audio during online classes or meetings. Do note that most webcams connect via a USB-A port, which means you’ll need an additional dongle or a hub in order to connect them to your Mac. All of these webcams are compatible with popular video conferencing services and apps. So Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other similar platforms will work just fine. You might encounter some freezing issues with these apps when using a new webcam for the first time. In case you encounter such issues, you can force quit the app or uninstall and reinstall it once again if the issue persists.

All the webcams included in this list will get the job done for numerous use cases. Look out for multiple microphones if you are going to do a lot of talking in the online meetings or classes that you attend like the Logitech C920X. If streaming is your priority, you might want to consider a webcam with a higher frame rate like the Logitech StreamCam or Razer Kiyo. If you don’t want applications and services to access your webcam when it’s not in use, make sure you get one with a privacy shutter for added peace of mind.

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Leaked renders of the OnePlus 11 Pro showcase a unique camera island design

Although it’s only been a few weeks since OnePlus launched its latest flagship, the OnePlus 10T, leaks about the company’s next flagship smartphone have already surfaced online. We recently learned that the rumored OnePlus 11 Pro could arrive before the end of this year. Now, renowned leaker OnLeaks has shared renders showcasing its design.

The leaked renders are based on an early prototype of the OnePlus 11 Pro and suggest that OnePlus could adopt a unique camera island design on its next flagship. As you can see in the attached images, the rear-facing camera setup on the OnePlus 11 Pro seems like a mashup of the circular camera island on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and the square camera design of the OnePlus 10 Pro. While unique, the new design looks rather odd, and we sincerely hope OnePlus doesn’t settle on this for the final retail variant.

Hey #FutureSquad! I’m back from the Future with 2023’s first major leak!

Here comes your very first and very early look at the #OnePlus11Pro through crispy sharp 5K renders!

On behalf of @Smartprix -> https://t.co/0esErP2wRa pic.twitter.com/hE1xrysDcU

— Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) September 12, 2022

In addition to the new camera setup, the leaked renders reveal that the OnePlus 11 Pro will feature the iconic alert slider. This falls in line with a previous statement from the company, claiming that the alert slider could make a comeback on future models. Furthermore, the renders suggest that the OnePlus 11 Pro will benefit from the OnePlus-Hasselblad partnership, unlike the OnePlus 10T, and it will feature a single front-facing camera housed in a hole-punch cutout in the top-left corner of the display.

Currently, we have no further details about the OnePlus 11 Pro. However, we suspect it will launch with Qualcomm’s upcoming flagship chipset — the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

What do you think of the OnePlus 11 Pro’s camera island design? Do you love it or hate it? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Via: Smartprix

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The new Sony Xperia Stream can convert your Xperia 1 IV into a streaming powerhouse

Sony just wrapped up its second launch event for this month, but unfortunately, it did not launch a new gaming smartphone. Instead, the company has unveiled a new streaming accessory for its flagship Xperia 1 IV — the Xperia Stream. Unlike gaming controllers like the Razer Kishi v2, the Xperia Stream is only good for streaming as it doesn’t include any additional buttons or joysticks. It’s essentially a port hub with a fan to help users stream games seamlessly from the Xperia 1 IV.

The Sony Xperia Stream has an ergonomic design with a curved back to offer users a comfortable grip during long streaming sessions. It has a cooling fan on the back to keep temperatures in check and a selection of four ports at the bottom. These include a full-sized HDMI port with 1080p 120Hz output support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB Type-C port, and an ethernet port.

In addition, the Xperia Stream integrates with the Game enhancer on the Xperia 1 IV to display the real-time status of your device and ramp up the cooling fan when needed. The Game enhancer also gives you access to manual fan speed controls and a thermal boost setting that helps the phone handle demanding loads easily.

Sony has designed the Xperia Stream specifically for its flagship Xperia 1 IV, and it seamlessly clicks onto the device. Sadly, this means you won’t be able to use it with any other devices.

The Sony Xperia Stream will retail for JPY 23,100 (~$160) in Sony’s home market. It will also be available in a new Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition bundle for JPY 175,000 (~$) with an Xperia 1 IV featuring 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. The company has not shared any details regarding an international launch at the moment.

What do you think of the new Xperia Stream? Is its $160 price tag justified? Let us know in the comments section below.

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iPhone 14 series battery capacity revealed in regulatory database

Although Apple shares detailed hardware specifications of its latest iPhones each year, the company doesn’t explicitly advertise the battery capacity. Instead of sharing concrete figures in milliampere-hour (mAh) or watt-hour (Wh) like most Android OEMs, Apple merely states how long the battery can typically last on a full charge while performing specific tasks, like video or audio playback. However, if you’d like to know the exact battery capacity of the latest iPhone 14 series devices before making a purchase, you’re in luck.

MacRumors has obtained the battery capacities of the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max from a Chinese regulatory database. According to the publication, three of the four new models feature larger batteries than the iPhone 13 lineup. Surprisingly, the top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro Max is the only exception, and it packs a slightly smaller battery than the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

The new iPhone 14 packs a 3,279mAh battery, which is a minor upgrade over the 3,227mAh cell on the iPhone 13. The 3,200mAh battery pack on the iPhone 14 Pro is also slightly larger than the 3,095mAh unit on the iPhone 13 Pro. The iPhone 14 Plus gets the same 4,325mAh battery as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 4,323mAh battery.

Although the differences are marginal, Apple claims that the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max offer an extra hour of offline video playback compared to their iPhone 13 counterparts. However, there’s no direct comparison for the iPhone 14 Plus as it replaces the smaller iPhone 13 mini, which featured a minuscule 2,406mAh battery. Given that the iPhone 14 Plus packs the biggest battery pack of the lot, Apple claims that it offer the “best battery life ever” on an iPhone. However, the tech specs on Apple’s website indicate otherwise.

The website states that the iPhone 14 Plus offers up to 26 hours of video playback, up to 20 hours of video streaming, and up to 100 hours of audio playback. In comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers up to 29 hours of video playback, up to 25 hours of video streaming, and up to 95 hours of audio playback. The difference in the battery life rating for video playback can be attributed to the ProMotion display on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which offers adaptive refresh rate support to reduce power consumption. This is likely why the iPhone 14 Plus only outperforms the premium model in audio playback.

Are you considering picking up one of the new iPhone 14 series devices? Will the battery capacity details mentioned above influence your buying decision? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Via: MacRumors

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Here’s how to factory reset the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

You never know when you may have to factory reset your smartphone. You may have to wipe all your data from the device before selling it off, or you simply want to reset and erase everything from your device to start fresh. Whatever the case may be, it’s better to know how to factory reset your smartphone. If you’re wondering how to factory reset Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, then you’ve come to the right page. In this post, we’ll take you through a step-by-step guide and tell you how to wipe the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 back to its out-of-the-box state.

Caution: Factory resetting deletes everything from your device, so please ensure you’ve backed up all your data, including saved accounts, apps, app data, documents, and more.

If you’re not sure how to create a backup of your data, then check our in-depth guide on how to back up an Android phone. Once you’re done creating a backup, you can follow the steps given below to factory reset your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4:

Factory resetting your Galaxy Z Fold 4

Here’s a step-by-step guide explaining how to factory reset your Galaxy Z Fold 4:

• The first thing you need to do is navigate to the Settings page on your smartphone. You can do this by swiping down on the home screen to open the notification shade and selecting the settings cog.
• Once you’re in, scroll all the way down and look for an option named General Management.
• Select that to enter the General Management page where you’ll find a bunch of device-related customization options.
• Now, locate the Reset option here and select it to populate all the Reset options on your screen on the next page.

• Once you’re on the Reset page, locate and choose an option called Factory data reset to open another page with a quick summary of everything that you’re about to erase from your device.
• Scroll down on this page to see a Reset button. Select it to clear all your data and restore your Galaxy Z Fold 4 to factory settings.

After you follow all these steps, your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 will power off and reboot to factory settings. Your device may reboot multiple times after you select the Reset button, so don’t panic and abort the process in the middle. The entire process will take a few minutes, after which your device will greet you with the setup wizard. You can now set up your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 from the scratch as a new device or even restore your backed-up data.

Resetting your phone to factory settings isn’t always the best or the only option available to you. If you’re facing some issues with your network or if you only wish to reset your settings, then you can simply reset those by selecting the correct option once you’re on the Reset page. A factory reset isn’t always necessary, although it is available as an option whenever you need it. Just keep in mind you’ll lose all the data stored locally on your device.

Also, make sure that your device has enough charge before you begin the process. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a pretty big battery, so you may have a little bit of waiting to do unless you have one of the best chargers that can quickly charge the phone. So what are you planning to do with your newly reset Galaxy Z Fold 4? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below.

If you’re planning to sell it then be sure to stop our best deals page to find out how much a new variant of this phone is going for and price it accordingly to get potential buyers. If you’re planning to start fresh with a new reset, then why not pick up one of the best cases for it and treat it like a new device?

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 takes the most productive smartphone on the market and makes it even better. The subtle changes to the size and weight mean it's far more comfortable to use in the hand, while the cameras have received a huge improvement meaning they're finally as good as the Galaxy S22 range.

Buy from Samsung

Order from BestBuy

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How to update Google Nest Mini and Nest Audio smart speakers

Keeping your smart devices up to date can be really easy. But on devices like any of the best smart speakers, it’s also not immediately obvious what to do. This is true of the Google Nest Audio and Nest Mini, two of the best Google Assistant speakers you can buy. On your phone, it’s easy, it has a screen and a menu and there’s always a manual way to check for new software updates.

This isn’t the case for the Google Nest speakers. Neither have built-in displays, nor much at all in the way of hardware controls. So how do you go about making sure these get updated? The good news is that you don’t really have to.

Google Nest speakers should update automatically

Smart speakers such as these are designed to be as simple to use as possible. As such, the settings really just get out of the way after your initial setup process. And the same is true of updates. Google’s speakers, including the older Google Home and Google Home Mini, should update automatically when there’s a new version available. Though it should be said that much like Android update rollouts on Google’s Pixel phones, it’ll always take a period of time for every device out there to be updated.

The flip side is there is no update button and no way to manually force it. You can check the current software version in the Google Home app on your phone or tablet under Device Settings. But you’ll need to visit Google’s support pages to cross-reference whether or not you’re up to date. It’s a little clunky, but then for almost everyone with one of these speakers, this isn’t something that should worry them.

If your speaker is currently in the process of updating, the lights on the top/front of the speaker will be flashing. If you see this then leave it alone until it’s done.

One way to force an update on your smart speaker

While you don’t need to worry about manually updating your Google Nest speaker, there is one way you can try and force it if you really want to. This involves first completing a factory reset, then setting the speaker up again as new.

During the setup process, the speaker should check for and install any new updates. As above, if it is in the process of updating the LEDs on the device will be flashing. So leave it alone until it completes.

There isn’t as much need to update smart speakers like these as there is a phone or tablet, so resetting is a pretty drastic measure. Nevertheless, it should work, and is an option, too, if you’re having some issues with your hardware.

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How to use the intercom on Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini

One of the great, yet often overlooked features of the best smart speakers around is the ability to use them as an intercom. Assuming you have multiple speakers dotted around the house, it’s an effective way of communicating without yelling at the top of your voice or calling up someone’s phone. Having an intercom is no longer just for executives in enormous offices to summon their next meeting; you can effectively summon your kids for dinner with it.

In the case of the HomePod and HomePod Mini, this is also true. It’s perfectly possible to have conversations (to some degree) and deliver messages to other areas of the home through the speakers. Whether you want to tell the kids food is ready, check if they’re doing their homework, tell everyone to get up in the morning, or whatever other message you have, here’s how to do it through the HomePod.

Before you begin

Before you begin using your HomePod as an intercom, there are a couple of bits of housekeeping to make sure you’ve done. The first is to make sure your iPhone or iPad is running whatever the latest update is at the time. This also applies to every other iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or HomePod you may want to use to send intercom messages.

Especially as iOS 16 and the other associated OS versions are due to start rolling out from September 2022, it’s a good idea to ensure that you don’t have a mix of different versions going on.

How to set up and control access to intercom

One of the neat things about the intercom feature on HomePod is that you have total control over who is allowed to use it. If you don’t want your kids constantly sending messages, for example, if you have their profiles in your Home setup you can exclude them. The people section is particularly important since you can use iOS devices to send messages through the intercom feature. Likewise, at any time, you can exclude individual HomePods from being able to receive messages.

It’s a good idea to get this all set up before you start using intercom. Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad and follow these steps.

1. Open Home Settings. In iOS 15 this is behind the house-shaped icon. In iOS 16 you’ll find it behind the three dots menu icon.
2. Tap on intercom.
3. Choose your preferred notifications.
4. Select which members of your home you want to be able to send intercom messages.
5. Select which speakers you want to be able to send and receive intercom messages.

Now you’re set up it’s time to start sending intercom messages.

How to send intercom messages

There are a number of methods you can use to send intercom messages to your HomePod speakers. Besides the HomePod speakers, you can send messages using iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods and even CarPlay to announce a message from the car.

Here’s how you use each.

How to send intercom messages from HomePod, HomePod Mini, AirPods, and Beats headphones

To use your speakers or headphones to send messages to your other speakers, simply use your voice to invoke the feature by saying:

• “Hey Siri, intercom <your message here>”

This will automatically broadcast to every enabled HomePod speaker within your home. If you want to target a particular speaker or group, you can do that too:

• “Hey Siri ask <speaker name, location or group>”

This will then target those specific speakers or groups without having to disable others in the Home app.

If you’re using your AirPods or Beats headphones it’s important to remember that they need to be connected to an iPhone or iPad in order to use the intercom feature.

How to send intercom messages from iPhone and iPad

If you’re using an iPhone or iPad there are two different methods you can use to send intercom messages. One of which is certainly more convenient than the other.

Assuming you have “Hey Siri” enabled on your device you can do it the same way as on your HomePod. This will also apply when using CarPlay.

• “Hey Siri, intercom <your message here>”

Alternatively, you can use the Home app to send intercom messages if you spend a lot of time inside it.

1. Tap the waveform icon in the top right-hand corner.
2. Speak your message. You can use the same principles described above to dictate specific speakers or groups.
3. Hit the stop button when you’re done to send the message.

How to send intercom messages from Apple Watch

You can also use your Apple Watch to send intercom messages to your various HomePod speakers. There are two methods and both are very similar to using other devices. To send an intercom message entirely using your voice, simply say:

• “Hey Siri, intercom <your message here>”

As with the other devices, you can specify a specific speaker or group of speakers to send the message to.

Alternatively, as on the iPhone you can use the Home app on the Apple Watch to send intercom messages.

1. Open the Home app on your Apple Watch.
2. Swipe down.
3. Tap on intercom.
4. Speak your message, again remembering you can tailor it to specific speakers or groups.

How to reply to HomePod intercom messages

Intercom is good but it wouldn’t be as useful if it was only a one-way street. Fortunately, those in rooms you have delivered messages to are able to reply through those HomePod speakers. By default, if a message was broadcast to all HomePods, it will be sent back to them all as well. If the original message was directed to a specific location, the reply will only be sent back to the origin of the message.

To send a reply simply say:

• “Hey Siri, reply <insert message here>”

Or you can dictate a location for your reply by saying:

• “Hey Siri, reply <speaker name, location or group>” followed by your message.

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Intercom is a simple but incredibly useful feature on the HomePod and HomePod Mini. The ease of setup and use across Apple’s various devices make it something that the whole family can use, and certainly reduce on the need to yell between rooms!

Apple HomePod Mini

The Apple HomePod Mini is an affordable, Siri-enabled speaker that offers plenty of neat smart features. It caters to a very particular group of users, though.

View on Best Buy

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