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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Zephy’ Streamlines Plane Spotting with an AirTag-Inspired Design

### Indie App Spotlight: Zephy – An Exceptional Plane Tracking Application

Welcome to the Indie App Spotlight, a weekly segment by 9to5Mac showcasing the newest and most creative applications from the indie development scene. This week, we highlight an intriguing app called **Zephy**, crafted for aviation lovers and the inquisitive.

#### What is Zephy?

Zephy is an interactive plane tracking application that leverages your iPhone’s gyroscope to deliver real-time data about aircraft soaring above. Whether you’re a devoted aviation follower or simply someone who enjoys observing planes, this app provides a distinctive and engaging way to navigate the skies.

#### Top Features

Zephy differentiates itself from conventional flight radar apps by presenting a simplified, compass-like radar interface. Here are some of its standout features:

– **Real-Time Tracking**: The app showcases planes within a customizable radius, enabling users to see aircraft flying within a predetermined distance. By default, it displays planes within 20 kilometers, but users can modify this range to suit their liking.

– **In-Depth Information**: Tapping on a specific plane icon reveals detailed information, such as altitude, speed, tail number, destination, and model of the aircraft. Users can also see an example image of the particular aircraft model.

– **Adjustable Field of View**: Users can alter the field of view to either broaden or narrow, enriching the tracking experience according to individual preferences.

#### Download the App

Zephy can be downloaded for free from the App Store for iPhone users with iOS 13 or newer. The app is free of ads, with no in-app purchases or subscriptions required, making it an inviting choice for anyone interested in aviation.

#### Conclusion

In conclusion, Zephy is a charming app that blends a user-friendly design with valuable functionality for aircraft tracking. While it may not be indispensable for everyone, it undeniably infuses a playful aspect into sky observation, catering to the curiosity of those who frequently look up.

For additional information and to download the app, visit the [App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zephy/id6749452267).

Top 5 Must-Have Free Browser Add-ons to Install Initially

Opera’s dual-screen feature and battery display, along with Google Chrome’s seamless integration within Google’s ecosystem.

However, despite these integrated functionalities, your browser requires convenient extensions to enhance its performance. These extensions are lightweight applications that you incorporate into your web browser to introduce new functionalities and refine existing navigation tools. With hundreds of thousands of extensions available in add-on repositories, selecting just a few can be quite challenging. To help you get started with the basics, we’ve compiled a list of five free and essential browser extensions that are compatible across various platforms for some of the most popular web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. These extensions were chosen for their practical utility and relevance to everyday users.

Toby

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Charlie Hunnam Embarks on a Metamorphic Journey in a Timeless Sci-Fi Movie

Fans of Charlie Hunnam might most recognize the British actor for his role as Jax Teller in the FX series “Sons of Anarchy,” but two years prior to Hunnam dominating the streets as a motorcycle outlaw, he featured in the 2006 sci-fi film “Children of Men.” If you have watched both the film and Sons of Anarchy, and were unaware of Hunnam’s appearance in the latter, we wouldn’t hold it against you: He’s hardly identifiable.

Helmed by Alfonso Cuarón, “Children of Men” is based on the 1992 novel by P.D. James of the same title. The narrative unfolds in a dystopian reality on the brink of downfall following two decades of universal infertility. Conflict and starvation are rampant, and the UK has devolved into a nightmarish police state. The film begins when Theo Faron (Clive Owen), an activist turned politician, is abducted by a refugee faction known as the Fishes. Charlie Hunnam plays Patric, a soldier of the Fishes with a menacing presence.

Though Hunnam doesn’t have much screen presence in the movie, the actor is said to have declined Zack Snyder’s “300” for this part — as he aspired to collaborate with the Mexican filmmaker Cuarón, who later directed “Gravity”. If you’re interested in other remarkable sci-fi masterpieces to enjoy, check out our compilation of the finest ’70s sci-fi films.

From dystopian warrior to cable television icon

Since the release of “Children of Men,” Charlie Hunnam’s acting career has soared. He appears to relish taking on roles that are both physically and emotionally demanding, particularly highlighted by his leading role in “The Ed Gein Story,” the controversial serial killer success on Netflix. Additional significant roles encompass Lin Ford in “Shantaram,” a significant release on Apple TV+, and Percival Fawcett in “The Lost City of Z.”

“Children of Men” was well received by critics, attaining a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 84 out of 100 on Metacritic. Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, stating, “Here is certainly a world ending not with a bang but a whimper, and the film serves as a cautionary warning.” Currently, “Children of Men” is accessible on the Criterion Channel, Amazon Prime, and Fandango at Home.

Strava Launches Custom Instant Workouts to Rival Garmin and Fitbit

**Strava’s Instant Workouts: A New Chapter in Customized Fitness**

Strava has unveiled a revolutionary feature named Instant Workouts, aimed at providing personalized workout recommendations based on individual fitness levels and recent activities. This development places Strava in competition with Garmin’s daily workout suggestions and Fitbit’s Premium Health Coach, delivering a customized fitness journey.

**Key Features of Strava Instant Workouts:**

– **Tailored Recommendations:** Each Monday, Strava assesses users’ past activity data to create personalized workout plans. These plans cater to distinct fitness levels and objectives.
– **Variety of Sports:** The feature accommodates over 40 various sports, presenting an extensive selection of activities for users to select.
– **Workout Goals:** Users have the option to pick from four workout goals—Maintain, Build, Explore, and Recover—enabling them to customize their fitness paths to suit their immediate requirements.
– **GPS Functionality:** For outdoor pursuits, Strava automatically generates a GPS map utilizing its Heatmap feature, aiding users in discovering new routes and locations.
– **Subscription Necessary:** The Instant Workouts feature is only available to Strava subscribers, with forthcoming updates to enable workouts to be sent to Apple and Garmin devices.

**Operational Mechanics:**

Strava’s algorithm evaluates recent activities and proposes workouts that align with users’ capabilities. Users can opt to sustain their current pace, challenge themselves, venture into new sports, or recuperate with lighter workouts. Each workout card contains comprehensive details about the pace and route, enriching the workout experience.

**Comparisons with Other Fitness Applications:**

Strava’s Instant Workouts present a distinct choice compared to workout recommendations from Garmin and Fitbit. Unlike Garmin’s emphasis on long-term strategies, Strava delivers immediate, flexible workouts. While Garmin’s suggestions depend on training load data, Strava enables users to determine their workout intensity. Furthermore, the routes generated from Strava’s Heatmap offer a novel method for discovering new areas, although the effectiveness of these routes is still to be evaluated.

**Final Thoughts:**

Strava’s Instant Workouts signify an important leap in personalized fitness. By providing adaptable, customized workouts without requiring specific devices or long-term commitments, Strava appeals to casual athletes in search of a versatile fitness experience. As the feature develops, it is set to elevate the way users engage with their fitness routines, establishing Strava as a strong contender in the fitness app arena.

User-Suggested Best 4 Trustworthy Wi-Fi Mesh Networks

optimize your router’s positioning, but your connection will still be constrained by the maximum coverage range of the router. Alternatively, you can purchase an extender. A viable solution that incorporates both methods is to invest in a Wi-Fi mesh system. It is adaptable, more dependable, and capable of supporting numerous devices.

If you have previously explored online options for Wi-Fi mesh systems, you have likely observed how expensive they can be in comparison to standard routers. Even some budget-friendly kits exceed $100, and the downside is that some necessitate specific monthly services or restrict certain features to a subscription model.

Investing in a Wi-Fi mesh system can be a significant expense, so we will steer you toward the most reliable options available in a crowded market. These products have received high ratings, and users regard them as some of the best. For clarity, we provide a comprehensive methodology at the conclusion of the article detailing our selection process.

Amazon eero 6

We’ve positioned the eero 6 as one of the top Wi-Fi mesh systems available for several reasons. First, a three-pack that includes one router and two extenders can cover an area of up to 4,500 square feet and connect 75 devices, which should be sufficient to remove dead zones in small to medium-sized homes. Setting it up is straightforward using the eero app, which also gives you the freedom to manage your network remotely. If you own Zigbee-compatible smart home devices, this mesh can serve as your hub.

This dual-band Wi-Fi 6 system supports both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, so don’t anticipate groundbreaking speeds. According to the specifications,

Reasons Your PlayStation 5 Could Be Utilizing a Wrong HDMI Cable

Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) stands out as one of the leading gaming consoles available since its introduction in late 2020, featuring several thrilling attributes, such as the ability to support 4K 120Hz gaming. To maximize your PS5 experience, Sony includes a compatible HDMI 2.1 cable within the package, facilitating the connection of the console to your 4K television. Although the included cable accommodates all the capabilities of the PS5, this may not hold true for every third-party HDMI cable, as not all HDMI cables possess the same specifications or performance levels.

If you’ve been utilizing an HDMI cable other than the one provided by the renowned Japanese technology company, it’s possible you’re using an unsuitable cable. This issue arises because older HDMI cables, including Premium High Speed Cables (sometimes known as HDMI 2.0) or High Speed HDMI Cables, lack the necessary bandwidth to fully support the extensive features contained within the PS5. Consequently, you could be missing out on essential PS5 functionalities. Therefore, here’s everything you must know about choosing the appropriate HDMI cable for your PS5.

Obtain an Ultra High Speed HDMI cable

How to Utilize Your Old Phone as a Router

One of the top methods to reutilize your old Android or iOS device is by configuring it to function as a mini router. You can utilize it as a Wi-Fi source in areas of your home with weak signals, as a specific guest network, or as a mobile router while on the go.

The greatest advantage is that there’s no need to download any elaborate third-party applications to turn your old phone into a router. The inbuilt hotspot function is sufficient. Here’s a brief guide on changing your old phone into a router.

Steps to set up your old phone as a router

Upcoming Enhancements and Innovations for Siri and Apple Intelligence

In just a few brief months, we should be optimistic about getting our initial glimpse of a completely revamped AI-enhanced Siri. After introducing it over a year and a half ago, Apple’s concept for a fresh Siri has encountered numerous engineering obstacles – yet it has not yet reached users’ devices. However, that is expected to change soon.

### Upcoming Siri Enhancements

At WWDC 2024, Apple presented three significant enhancements for Siri with Apple Intelligence:

– **Personal Context**: When conversing with Siri, it will understand the context of the information on your device, so you won’t need to know exactly where to locate something.
– **On-Screen Awareness**: Siri will be able to view your screen while you make a request, allowing you to provide less detail.
– **Executing Tasks in Apps**: Instead of having to launch an app for every trivial action, you’ll be able to instruct Siri to perform tasks for you.

Initially, these new Siri enhancements were expected to launch with iOS 18.4. However, Apple encountered technical challenges with the Siri engineering framework and decided to postpone it while they rebuilt Siri from scratch on a new LLM-based platform.

Currently, Apple is contemplating utilizing Google Gemini to support these features, rather than relying on on-device models. If they proceed with Gemini, it will use Private Cloud Compute, ensuring that Google still does not receive data from these queries.

Macworld’s Filipe Esposito recently indicated that the new Siri functionalities are expected to be released alongside iOS 26.4, according to revealed Apple code.

### AI Search Engine

In addition to the previously announced Siri features, Apple is developing a new capability: its own generative AI search engine. This initiative was first mentioned in August. According to a recent update from Mark Gurman, it could launch as early as March, coinciding with the release of iOS 26.4:

> Apple has seized this chance to revamp the assistant to introduce a new search product — internally referred to as World Knowledge Answers, or WKA — in order to compete with services like Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This feature is also slated for March as part of the enhanced Siri, and it may ultimately be integrated into the Safari browser and Spotlight search tool as well.

### Release Date

Although we cannot say for certain when iOS 26.4 will be released, if past patterns are any indication, it will likely arrive in March or April. This also suggests that we may see the first beta launch as early as next month. We could potentially catch our first glimpse of the all-new Siri in less than 6 weeks.

The Threats and Issues of AI Voice Duplication Applications

new methods for fraudsters to deceive individuals. Scammers might utilize AI chatbots such as TerifAI, which enables voice replication to target oblivious victims. They may impersonate family members during crises, supervisors requesting monetary transactions, or famous personalities endorsing particular investments. The aim is to persuade the victim to act, and AI voice replication applications are readily available and simple to use. They merely require a few seconds of audio to replicate someone’s voice, and some may lack adequate security measures to prevent misuse. You should be concerned about voice replication threats and reconsider any dubious voice calls in the future.

A Consumer Reports examination from March 2025 underscored the dangers linked to voice replication applications. The non-profit reviewed six applications utilizing AI for voice replication features, discovering that four of them do not sufficiently ensure that the individual performing the cloning has the speaker’s consent. The report identifies ElevenLabs, Speechify, PlayAI, and Lovo as the four applications lacking a technical means to verify speaker consent, as of last March. Descript and Resemble AI are the two applications that made misuse more challenging, but Consumer Reports still identified methods to circumvent their protections.

To evaluate these applications, Consumer Reports attempted to create voice replicas from publicly accessible audio, a situation a scammer might leverage. A malicious person might search for voice samples on social media when targeting someone. The audio could be utilized with voice replication services to generate the intended outputs. Some of the companies examined by Consumer Reports claimed to implement protective measures, such as watermarking recordings or employing a database of deepfakes, but those measures might prove inadequate.

How do fraudsters exploit voice replication tools?

<div class="slide-key image-holder gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap" data-post-url="https://www.bgr.com/2067190/ai-voice-cloning-apps-scams/" data-post-title="AI Voice Cloning Apps Should Terrify You – Here's Why

Evaluation of Honor Magic8 Pro: A Leader in Hardware

**Honor Magic8 Pro Evaluation: Hardware Leader**

High-end Honor Magic smartphones have consistently delivered some of the finest Android experiences, and now Honor presents its latest ultra-flagship, the Honor Magic8 Pro. The Magic8 Pro adheres to the same strategy as prior Honor flagship devices, boasting hardware crafted to be the very best. It aims to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, with a corresponding price tag.

As in preceding years, Honor has invested significant effort into the camera hardware — a feature likely to differentiate this device from others within its price range. Additionally, unlike the Magic7 Pro, the Honor Magic8 Pro will be available in global markets. However, software has always posed a challenge for the Magic series — can the Magic8 Pro provide a comprehensive package?

**Design**

Honor continues to align with the design trends of the industry, and the Magic8 Pro presents a sleek, stylish, and premium appearance. Similar to its recent models, it features a large circular camera module on the back housing the camera sensor. It would be interesting for Honor to explore alternative designs for the camera bump in the future, but this is not a dealbreaker. It simply means the camera protrudes noticeably from the back.

When you hold the Magic8 Pro, it feels upscale. The front employs what Honor refers to as a NanoCrystal Shield, while the back showcases frosted glass that effectively resists fingerprints. The device is also remarkably resilient regarding dust and water, boasting IP68, IP69, and IP69K ratings — ensuring it can withstand most water or dust environments, including exposure to high-pressure water jets. Few smartphones can claim all three ratings — OnePlus is among the limited few doing so.

Color options include Sunrise Gold, Sky Cyan, Black, and White. I’ve been utilizing the Black version, which looks appealing but isn’t particularly thrilling. This “Black” variant leans closer to gray, adding a touch of intrigue without being overly flashy.

In terms of layout, it is fairly conventional. A USB-C port is located at the bottom, with volume and power buttons on the right side. Honor has also included a dedicated AI button on the right edge, positioned similarly to Apple’s Camera Control on newer iPhones. The placement can feel slightly awkward during regular use. A higher position, or the location of the iPhone’s Action Button, would have been more intuitive. I’ll elaborate on the functionality of this button in the software section. Overall, the Magic8 Pro looks and feels impressive. It exudes sophistication, feels luxurious, and can manage virtually anything you subject it to.

**Display**

The Magic8 Pro features a 6.71-inch LTPO OLED display with a 1256 x 2808 pixel resolution, which is exceptionally sharp. The refresh rate adapts from 1Hz to 120Hz based on the content displayed, enhancing a balance between smoothness and battery longevity. Honor has also integrated 4320Hz PWM dimming, making it easier on the eyes for those sensitive to lower dimming frequencies.

It boasts a high brightness level as well. Honor claims a peak brightness of 6,000 nits with HDR, and I had no trouble viewing content on the display even under direct sunlight. There is truly nothing lacking here. This display fulfills all the requirements expected from a flagship screen in 2025, matching or surpassing the offerings of competitors at the same price point. It is sharp, fluid, bright, and vivid.

**Performance**

At the core of this device is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 — the latest flagship Qualcomm processor. Constructed on a 3nm process, Honor asserts a 20% improvement in single-core CPU performance, a 23% enhancement on the GPU front, and a 37% increase for the NPU compared to the last generation. Regardless of the actual gains, the phone undoubtedly performed admirably.

I did not experience any stuttering or lag, maintaining smoothness and responsiveness regardless of my activities. Games loaded swiftly and functioned seamlessly, while switching between applications felt effortless.

Benchmarks validated the exceptional performance. Single-core performance positioned the Magic8 Pro at the forefront of its class. Multi-core results were also commendable, though slightly trailing some competitors with greater RAM. This minor difference is unlikely to impact real-world usage — this remains one of the fastest smartphones available today.

**Battery and Charging**

Housing the Magic8 Pro is a 7,100mAh silicon-carbon battery for international versions, although European models come with a smaller 6,270mAh cell due to regional regulations. In either case, battery life is outstanding. It easily lasts a full day, and lighter users might even manage to extend into a second day without much