Engadget - Our guide to spring cleaning your tech

It's Thursday, March 21, 2024.

This spring, clean your gadgets. Clean your tech. Be less gross in 2024. It's one of my aims. Alongside our anniversary stories this month, we’re also in a spring-cleaning frame of mind. We’re cleaning AirPods and digitally decluttering the PC. (And if you’re physically decluttering, how about making a bit of money simultaneously?)

This week, we explain how to clean all your screens without damaging them. And, if we really stretch the spring-cleaning theme to include hygiene and then stretch again to sleep hygiene, here’s some technology to help you get a better rest, too. 

After all that cleaning.

— Mat Smith

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Watch the first human Neuralink patient control a computer with his thoughts

He said the surgery was ‘super easy’.

Getty Images

Elon Musk announced the first human patient had received a Neuralink brain implant as part of the company’s first clinical trial earlier this year. And yesterday, the company briefly live streamed a demo on X of 29-year-old Nolan Arbaugh, who is paralyzed from the neck down, demonstrating the implant by moving a cursor around the screen of a laptop and pausing an on-screen music player. Arbaugh said the implant has allowed him to play chess and Civilization VI.

Watch here.

Meta, Microsoft, X, and Match Group aren’t fans of Apple’s third-party payment rules

They filed a petition supporting Epic Games.

All those big names have joined Epic Games in protesting Apple’s decision to charge a fee for iOS payments made outside of the App Store. The company takes up to a 30 percent cut of App Store purchases. When developers process purchases outside of the App Store, Apple will charge a fee of up to 27 percent. That’s really not much different.

The four companies supporting Epic’s petition claim Apple’s fee on external payments effectively maintains the previous rules. “The Apple Plan comports with neither the letter nor the spirit of this Court’s mandate,” their brief states.

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Peacock’s 2024 Paris Olympics coverage includes enhanced multiview options

You’ll be able to stick with an event you’re into.

Peacock will host more than 5,000 hours of live coverage across the two weeks, including each of the 329 medal events. That’s far more than anyone could possibly watch during the Games, so to help you keep track of several events at once, Peacock is offering several multiview options. On TVs, tablets and desktop browsers (but not phones, sadly), you’ll be able to watch four matches at the same time. With the multiview modes, you can move the screens around, choose the audio track you want to listen to and click through to watch an event in full screen. Another feature, Peacock Live Actions, will help you follow the events you’re most interested in, so you can continue watching the sport on screen even after NBC’s broadcast switches elsewhere.

Continue reading.