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New story in Technology from Time: My Only Beef With the iPhone 12 Mini? I Wish it Was Even Smaller

Smartphones might be made by humans, but they sure don’t feel made for us. With huge screens, inscrutable interfaces, and a laundry list of specifications hyped up to make you look at your current phone with disdain, just once it’d be nice to get a phone that maybe understands how I move through the world (or, for now, sit around at home).

Apple’s newest iPhone 12 lineup maintains that trend of subtly human-hostile design, though one new entry stands out as the most appealing of the four new models. After spending a few weeks with it, it’s safe to say the iPhone 12 mini is my favorite of the bunch, even if it needs a little extra juice a little more often, a hassle I’m happy to deal with probably because it does everything else pretty well without getting in the way—literally.

In a world with huge displays, cameras bordering on overkill, and a total disregard for the pocket sizes of every man, woman, and spoiled teen, the iPhone 12 mini’s most incredible boon is its diminutive size, a defiant cry that says the tiny smartphone isn’t dead just yet. It slips in and out of my pants with ease, and doesn’t make me feel like I’m doing permanent damage to my fingers when I try to reach for a button at the top of the screen. As the cheapest of the company’s newest lineup, the 12 mini delivers in the value department, too—$699 is a lot for a phone, but spending that much gets you a pretty powerful device that doesn’t do everything, because it doesn’t need to.

For one, the mini is just as capable as its bigger brothers when it comes to performance. It uses the same A14 Bionic processor in the slightly larger iPhone 12 and more capable iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max. The iPhone 12 mini manages to fit even more screen in a package smaller than the older iPhone SE, Apple’s other “small” phone. The 5.4” Super Retina XDR display is basically a screen without a fault, and the front-facing TrueDepth camera makes logging in a breeze.

The iPhone 12 mini’s pair of rear cameras—a pair of 12 megapixel wide and ultrawide lenses (same on the iPhone 12)—are hard to beat. Not only do they now record HDR video in Dolby Vision, but the impressive night mode feature now works on both lenses, meaning your low light shots are going to look pretty damn good. Some might find the inclusion of an ultrawide lens rather than a telephoto one to be frustrating, but that’s a conversation between you and your desires (and your wallet). If you’ve grown accustomed to something like a zoom lens on your smartphones, you won’t find that here.

In addition, you won’t be able to take any low light portrait photos, and there’s no LiDAR for faster autofocus as it exists on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max. Apple’s new ProRAW image format (allowing for easier photo editing) is also out of reach on the 12 mini, as are the bigger sensors and optical image stabilization in the 12 Pro Max.

Of course, all the new iPhones have 5G. But for a variety of reasons, you’ll be hard pressed to find reliable 5G service. Due to slow rollout, a dearth of hardware, and a currently nebulous potential promising faster speeds, 5G as a selling point isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be, at least for the next few years. Depending on your location, be it a big city or suburb, the benefits of 5G will vary wildly. For me, in some instances, using 5G turned out to be slower than relying on the existing 4G LTE network.

Another unexpected side-effect of 5G on the iPhone 12 mini? Bad battery life. When waiting in line for a COVID-19 test, I found my phone running on fumes after a few hours of idle doomscrolling and podcast listening, forcing me to pull out an external battery to keep myself from a dead smartphone. Will it get you through the day? Sure, as long as you remember to stop using it when your juice starts to drain like there’s a hole in the side of the thing.

But more user-friendly features, like the new iPad Air’s slick power button fingerprint sensor, are nowhere to be found, though it would have been a perfect addition for our mask-covered mugs. There are a few novel ideas, though, like a reinvention of the company’s famous MagSafe magnetic charging system. This time, instead of charging your laptop, the new MagSafe involves wireless charging and a ring of hidden magnets inside the iPhone. The magnetic charging pad sets with a satisfying snap, and slides off with a swift motion (though it wouldn’t hurt to figure out a way to affix this thing to a table). That magnetic element also allows you to affix MagSafe-approved accessories to the back of your phone, like cases or card holders. It’s smart, dead simple to use, and (mostly) a reliable charging experience.

What sells the entire experience is iOS 14, a software update that brings marked improvements to the bland grid of app icons that have dominated the iPhone’s display since the beginning. Instead of rows and squares, apps can now be replaced by adjustable widgets showing you the weather forecast, a preview of that podcast you’re listening to, a photo slideshow, or a list of your most frequently used apps for easy access. A similar feature available has been available for ages on Android smartphones, and Apple’s implementation is more form than function until developers figure out what to do with it. Major updates to apps like Messages make group chatting easier, and other slick refinements, like Siri (and incoming phone calls) no longer dominating your entire screen make the entire update feel like the turning of a tanker ship, slow and deliberate.

A friend asked if he should ditch his year-old iPhone 11 Pro and trade it in for a smaller 12 mini. “My little hands cry out for a reasonably sized phone,” he said, a feeling that takes corporeal form as an occasional twinge in my thumb. “Yeah,” I said. “Get your tiny phone.” In reality, I’m only satisfied with the mini’s size because I’d be foolish to think they’d make it any smaller.

The iPhone 12 mini will probably be my favorite iPhone for quite some time, bells and whistles be damned. But isn’t that what it’s about? Picking your favorite? A phone that you like because it feels good to use, not unwieldy and dangerous to pull out. For me, the iPhone 12 mini and its fun-sized dimensions, exceedingly impressive pair of cameras, and performance parity with Apple’s high-end smartphones make it a no-brainer, even if you think you need a third lens on your smartphone. You probably don’t, by the way—you probably just need an actual camera.

New story in Technology from Time: The 10 Best Video Games of 2020

In a bizarre, unsettling, and oftentimes downright frightening year, video games became a port of refuge for many—be they longtime gamers, old-school veterans picking the controller back up after a break, or first-timers looking for a novel way to safely have fun or connect with friends during pandemic lockdowns. It’s a small blessing, then, that it was also a banner year for excellent games to play.

Here are TIME’s best video games of 2020, according to our group of resident gamers, listed alphabetically. Also read TIME’s lists of the 10 best fiction books of 2020 and the 100 must-read books of 2020.

10. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

Nostalgia is big business right now, but reworking old joy rarely delivers that original thrill. Enter Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. Against all odds, this remake recaptures the magic of these early aughts skateboarding games while refreshing them for modern consoles and audiences. Playing these games unlocks long-forgotten muscle memory, the hunger for high scores and the itch to jump on a skateboard—not to mention comfort during a difficult year. —Peter Allen Clark

Available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC

9. Fall Guys

What happens when you combine the minigame mania of Mario Party with the battle royale, lose-and-you’re-out pressure of Fortnite? Fall Guys, that’s what. Its delightfully simple multiplayer mayhem was a welcome reprieve during our pandemic summer, and the fact that players often need to cooperate to secure individual victory belies a deeper message than its cartoonish stylings might suggest. Moreover, like Animal Crossing, it’s a welcome repudiation of the idea that games need to be hard to be enjoyable—they need only be fun. —Alex Fitzpatrick

Available on PlayStation and PC

8. Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series has been the definitive virtual piloting experience for nearly 40 years, inspiring many players to pursue real-world flight training while offering a taste of the skies to countless more. The latest entrant in the series continues that proud tradition, combining true-to-life flight physics, downright gorgeous graphics and the most realistic facsimile of planet Earth to ever grace a video game for a must-play experience. Challenge yourself to some of the hardest commercial jet takeoffs or landings the world has to offer, or putt-putt over your hometown in a slow-moving Cub, marveling at the view—the choice is yours. —Alex Fitzpatrick

Available on PC; an Xbox version is in development

7. Call of Duty: Warzone

A free add-on to 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone is a Fortnite-style battle royale shooter, with just enough original ideas to feel fresh. Most Fortnite clones have come up short, but Warzone’s systems, strategies and progressions provided dozens and dozens of hours of distraction as we adjusted to spending more time at home during lockdown. And developer Infinity Ward has continued to support the experience with robust seasons, map changes and new ways to play this intense, addictive game. —Peter Allen Clark

Available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC

6. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

The much-anticipated sequel to Moon Studios’ Ori and the Blind Forest does exactly what a sequel should, building on its predecessor’s foundation to create a more complex, more colorful and bigger world. In the game’s prelude, Ori and a host of other adorable characters adopt and raise a baby owl. But tragedy strikes when Ori and the baby bird are separated. The player then traverses a gorgeously-rendered landscape and solves a series of wicked little puzzles in a heart-wrenching reunification quest. The sheer scale of the game compared to its predecessor means some details get lost in the mix, like the player easily missing some important skills. But the challenges demand creativity and the backdrop inspires awe. —Eliana Dockterman

Available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC

5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The unofficial game of springtime pandemic lockdowns, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the latest entry in Nintendo’s long-running life simulator franchise. This time, you’re dropped on an island where you (and a few anthropomorphic animal residents) set out to construct a community—and pay off your debt to the cheeseparing capitalist raccoon-dog that brought you there. When you’re not building items for your home, you can enjoy New Horizons’ huge community of players partying, playing the turnip-powered “stalk market,” and even hosting talk shows all on their own custom-made virtual islands. —Patrick Lucas Austin

Available on Nintendo Switch

4. Among Us

Deception is the name of the game in Among Us, a kind of digital Clue in which you’re tasked with “sussing” out the impostor on your starship. Some players, called “Crewmates,” are assigned to minigame-style repair jobs around the ship, while the “Impostor” sets out to quietly disrupt and kill the Crewmates. Suspicious of someone? Call a meeting to discuss who might be an Impostor, then vote to throw them into the cold vacuum of space—just be careful, because you could be wrong. Among Us’ childish, hand-drawn looks and PG-rated violence evoke early web games, and its spike in popularity among younger gamers has led high-profile figures like U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to use the game as a platform to meet voters where they’re at. Part social deduction, part mob rule, Among Us may have been released back in 2018, but it’s no wonder why it’s found widespread popularity this year. —Patrick Lucas Austin

Available on iOS, Android, PC

3. Last of Us Part II

The post-apocalyptic The Last of Us Part II takes a lot of big swings that will surprise, frustrate and even enrage many players—but they are thought-provoking risks. The sequel follows Ellie, all grown up and still immune to the virus that has transformed much of humanity into zombies, as she struggles with the consequences of a morally dubious decision made by her father figure Joel in the first game. Ellie is often on her own, which is a shame since creator Naughty Dog has historically excelled at building relationships through banter in both The Last of Us and the Uncharted series. But her loneliness serves a greater story: as Ellie loses human connection and becomes obsessed with vengeance, her enemies simultaneously evolve into more human figures. With sympathies divided, the player is faced with a series of devastating moral quandaries. The end will sit with you for months, if not years, to come. —Eliana Dockterman

Available on PlayStation

2. Spider-Man: Miles Morales

When you think of Spider-Man, you might be thinking of a nerdy white guy called Peter Parker. But there’s a second webslinger in New York, and this time he’s grabbing the mic and taking center stage. Spider-Man: Miles Morales expands on the 2018 hit Spider-Man, putting you in the shoes of the titular Black-Puerto Rican teen after he moves from Brooklyn to Harlem, protecting the city while his mentor is on vacation. The game captures the feeling of zipping from building to building and fighting criminals in a wintery New York as Morales navigates the heartbreak of an evolving friendship, his relationship with his mother, and his new mandate to keep Harlem (and the rest of the city) safe from evildoers. —Patrick Lucas Austin

Available on PlayStation

1. Hades

So-called “Rogue-like” games, which focus on difficulty, replayability and repeated deaths, have been in vogue for the past decade, but Hades marks the sub-genre’s highest peak yet. In this spectacular run-based game, players take on the role of Hades’ son Zagreus as he attempts to escape the Greek underworld, battling notable heroes and receiving support from the whole of the Pantheon. The art is stellar, the varied combat is delightful and the progression systems are inspired. Hades reinvents how a story can unfold in a game meant to be played over and over again. —Peter Allen Clark

Available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC

New story in Technology from Time: How We Chose the 100 Best Inventions of 2020

Every year, TIME highlights inventions that are making the world better, smarter and even a bit more fun. (See last year’s list here.) To assemble our 2020 list, we solicited nominations both from our editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process. We then evaluated each contender on key factors, including originality, creativity, effectiveness, ambition and impact.

The result: 100 groundbreaking inventions—including a smarter beehive, a greener tube of toothpaste, and technology that could catalyze a COVID-19 vaccine—that are changing the way we live, work, play and think about what’s possible.

See the full list.

Photographs by Jessica Pettway for TIME

New story in Technology from Time: Thinking About a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S? Here Are 4 Reasons to Hold Off

Gamers, rejoice! The hotly anticipated next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony are now available, meaning you can enjoy kicking ass and taking names on your TV in luxurious 4K glory.

But if you’re on the fence about upgrading to the Xbox Series X/S or PlayStation 5 (or you just can’t find one in stock), you might want to stay there. The trio of new devices are indeed powerful, but plenty of factors—including a disappointing lack of next-gen games—means you may be better off waiting til next year, when the dust settles, deals may be on offer, and more games are ready for you to enjoy.

Here are four reasons to hold off on the big upgrade:

You can play some “next-gen” games already

You may think a new generation of consoles would bring a new stable of exclusive games taking advantage of all that newfound processing power. But some of the most anticipated next-gen launch titles, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Godfall are also available on previous-gen consoles or PC, meaning you don’t need to upgrade to play them unless you want the absolute best visual experience possible.

Some of the most anticipated truly exclusive titles for each console, like iconic Xbox Series X/S first-person shooter Halo Infinite and PlayStation 5 adventure game Horizon: Forbidden West, won’t be available until the second half of 2021, giving you more than enough time to delay spending your hard-earned cash.

You need a better TV

If you have a 1080p TV or 1440p monitor, you can enjoy improvements like an increase in frame rates (resulting in a smoother gaming experience) or graphical fidelity that make your games look better than they would on a less capable console. But you have to look really hard to noice the benefits—games like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla look better on a console like the Xbox Series X, but not $400 better. And most games available for these new consoles were really made with the last-gen hardware in mind, so they’re not taking full advantage of the newfound processing power.

But if you have a 4K TV, you’ll enjoy the primary benefit of upgrading to a console like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X right away. If that’s the case, you’ll definitely see sharper graphics compared to older consoles. Some games are even capable of running in 4K at up to 120 frames per second, but that’s not going to happen if your TV can’t match that refresh rate, or if it doesn’t support the proper connectivity standards. To experience true 4K gaming at 120 FPS, you’ll need a TV supporting the latest video standard: HDMI version 2.1.

The same goes for audio quality. Features like Dolby Atmos support only work if you have a supported sound system (the PlayStation 5 currently lacks Dolby Vision or Atmos support, and its 3D Audio tech works with headphones that support the proprietary format, like its own Pulse 3D gaming headset).

You’ll need more room for your games

Since next-gen games are so large in file size, you’ll need a place to put them. While you can still buy physical games on discs to stick in your console, both the $299 Xbox Series S and $399 PlayStation 5 “digital edition” eschew the disc drive, leaving users with only the option to download games to their 1TB drives. Titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War can use up nearly 20% of your console’s internal storage, if not more.

That means you’ll fill up those drives awfully quick—especially on the cheaper Xbox Series S, which only has a paltry 512GB of storage. You can buy a proprietary storage expansion card for the Xbox’s expansion slot, but an extra TB will run you over $200, making you wonder if dropping the extra $100 for a Series X in the first place will pay for itself in terms of storage.

Your Internet company might charge you extra

Some internet service providers, like Xfinity and Suddenlink, have data caps that can be easily reached after downloading a few new games, especially considering that some PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X games clock in at nearly 100GB a piece. You can get around this problem by buying versions of the new consoles with physical disc drives and sticking to buying games IRL, but it’s still worth thinking about.

New story in Technology from Time: Should You Get a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or Xbox Series S? Here’s How to Decide

After seven years, millions of consoles sold, and a generation of users clamoring for an upgraded graphical experience, Sony and Microsoft are finally releasing the next version of their iconic Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

With both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (and Series S) going on sale this week, you might be wondering which one to pick. Here’s what sets each of them apart from the others.

Xbox Series S: The cheapest way to go next-gen

While the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have 4K capability, the diminutive Xbox Series S is designed to bring next-gen gaming to your current, non-4K setup—consider it the entry-level console for this generation’s gaming needs.

The Xbox Series X is great if you only have a 1080p TV, but can also display games at a slightly higher 1440p resolution should you be using something like a game-friendly computer monitor. If you’re playing on a 4K TV, the Series S will “upscale” your content, letting you play games in what amounts to a simulation of real 4K resolution (some games, like Ori and the Will of the Wisp, will be displayed in native 4K)—but don’t expect it to look particularly extravagant.

Even if the Xbox Series S can’t do true 4K gaming, it does stream movies in native 4K, so you’ll still be able to watch high-def flicks. But be warned: the lack of a disc drive means you won’t be playing any Ultra HD Blu-Ray movies as you could with the Xbox Series X, nor will you be able to purchase physical games. That also means you may be hamstrung by its smaller 512GB internal storage, though that’s expandable with a proprietary 1TB storage option (like a camera memory card, but for your Xbox).

Get the Xbox Series S if: You don’t care about being on the cutting edge of gaming, and just want a console that’ll get you access to hundreds of games and 4K movies without breaking the bank; it’s also a great lower-cost option for parents shopping for their young kids.

The Xbox Series X: Going hard on the graphics

Where the Xbox Series S brings next-gen gaming to lower-resolution screens, the Xbox Series X is built for gamers who want to see every pixel pop on their 4K display and purchase games with little hassle, be they physical or digital versions.

The Xbox Series X plays games at their native 4K resolution, can run certain titles at 120 frames per second, and includes an Ultra HD Blu-Ray drive, which the cheaper Series S lacks. Its 1TB of storage (expandable like the Series S) lets you pack more games in your console, while the disc drive makes it easier to delete and re-install games at will.

Both the Xbox Series S and Series X work with Microsoft’s subscription service, Game Pass, which offers access to hundreds of Xbox games past and present for $9 per month, playable either on your console or your PC—think of it as Netflix for games. You can play select Xbox and Xbox 360 games using Game Pass, as well as current-day Xbox Series games like Destiny and Gears 5. For $15 per month, there’s Game Pass Ultimate, which nets you the same number of games, but also lets you play or stream them on your Android smartphone, among other perks.

To get more people in the Xbox ecosystem without requiring they drop hundreds of bucks up front, Microsoft has also created the Xbox All Access subscription, which bundles either an Xbox Series S or Series X console with Game Pass Ultimate for $24.99 (Series S) or $34.99 per month (Series X) for two years.

Get the Xbox Series X if: You want a powerful console that can fully take advantage of your 4K TV and home theater setup, and an Ultra HD Blu-Ray player for your growing library of physical media. Paired with a service like Game Pass Ultimate, the Xbox Series X is the console for older gamers with fond memories of their first Xbox.

PlayStation 5: The best exclusive games

Available in two versions, a $399 digital-only version and a $499 model with a built-in Ultra HD Blu-Ray drive, Sony’s PlayStation 5 carries on the legacy of the PlayStation 4 with a focus on exclusivity—a strategy that helped Sony sell twice as many consoles as rival Microsoft. The company is betting you’ll love titles like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, already available, and upcoming exclusives like the remastered Demon Souls and Rachet and Clank: Rift Apart, both set to hit the PS5 within the next year. All PS5 games are presented in 4K resolution, and load quickly thanks to the internal 1TB SSD (expandable with a Sony-approved SSD expansion card).

There’s also the new DualSense controller, which features a familiar layout for PlayStation owners while adding new features like pressure-sensitive triggers able to recreate the feeling of, for example, shooting an arrow or playing with a zipper. Titles like Astro’s Playroom and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War take advantage of the haptic features, but it remains to be seen whether developers making games for multiple consoles will spend time and resources utilizing features available on just one.

While there aren’t many games available at launch, the PlayStation 5 is backwards-compatible with your PS4 library. There’s also Sony’s PlayStation Now game streaming service, letting you play hundreds of PS2, PS3, and PS4 games on your PlayStation 5 or PC for $10 per month.

Get the PlayStation 5 if: You’re already invested in Sony’s library of exclusive games on the PlayStation 4, and want to play games with a more advanced controller that immerses you in the action. Also, if you don’t mind displaying the console prominently, the PlayStation 5 might serve as an artistic talking point when you’re not playing with it.

New story in Technology from Time: Apple’s New MacBooks (and Mac Mini) Are Powered By iPhone DNA

Months after first teasing the news, Apple on Tuesday unveiled a trio of Mac desktop and laptop computers powered not by Intel processors, but by its homemade M1 chip, an ARM-based design that more closely resembles those typically found in smartphones and tablets, like the iPhone and iPad. The switch marks the second major change to the silicon powering Apple’s Mac lineup, the first occurring in 2005 when the company ditched PowerPC processors for Intel guts.

The first new Mac computers to use Apple’s M1 chip include new MacBook Air ($999) and MacBook Pro ($1,299) laptops, as well as a refreshed Mac Mini ($699), the company’s puck-sized standalone desktop offering. All three are currently available for pre-order; shipments begin next Friday.

Apple’s ARM-based M1 chip utilizes what’s called a “system-on-chip” design, incorporating what were once disparate elements on a computer’s motherboard into a single chip designed to handle multiple aspects of computing with improved efficiency and less power use. Because they’re generally less powerful but more energy-efficient than rival options, ARM chips have traditionally been used only in mobile devices. But recent improvements in both hardware and software have made ARM-based desktop and laptops possible, too—Microsoft, for instance, is using an ARM chip in its Surface Pro X.

In practical terms, Apple says the M1 should bring benefits like better battery life (for the MacBooks, anyway; Apple says the Air could get up to 15 hours of uptime on a single charge), more impressive graphics and new machine learning capabilities, similar to those found on the latest iPhones. Since they share the same DNA, so to speak, the new Macs will easily run iOS and iPadOS apps. To run Intel-specific apps on the new Macs, however, users will have to rely on Apple’s Rosetta 2 software; compatibility issues may yet arise as they did with Microsoft’s ARM-based Surface.

Other than the chip change, the new MacBooks and Mac Mini feature basically no major design tweaks. That’s a bit of a bummer, especially considering they have a number of limitations, like a 16GB RAM ceiling, an outdated 720p webcam, and no form of expandable storage to speak of, user-friendly or otherwise. The lack of a better webcam is especially unfortunate, given that the worsening COVID-19 pandemic means many of us will still be working or learning via video conferencing software for a while longer. While a longer-lasting MacBook sounds plenty appealing, it’s probably worth waiting for the reviews to come in before placing that pre-order.

New story in Technology from Time: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Could’ve Tackled Police Reform Head-On. Instead, the Cops Are Almost Entirely Gone

There was plenty to love about Marvel and Insomniac’s 2018 Spider-Man video game, from the mechanics of swinging through a hyper-realistic Manhattan to the story’s emotional gut-punches. But many critics had one major issue with the plot: Peter Parker’s fantasies about an alter-ego he dubbed “Spider-Cop,” a hard-boiled detective who had all the problematic markings of a Law & Order-style TV crime-fighter who refuses to play by the rules no matter the consequences.

The “Spider-Cop” storyline was cringe-worthy in 2018, five years after the Black Lives Matter movement began to coalesce. It has aged even worse in the past year, as fresh protests against police brutality have erupted across the world. This year’s follow-up game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, whose hero is a Black-Puerto Rican teen, offered Insomniac an opportunity to address these criticisms. But while the game is a joy to play—with a wonderful cast of characters and a new set of thrilling Spidey powers—it also bends over backwards to avoid any nuanced conversation about criminal justice. In fact, the police have largely been removed from the game, skirting the issue entirely.

That’s a shame, because the game—a hotly-anticipated title that millions are likely to play—is uniquely positioned to respond to our current moment. Miles, who features in his own comics series and was the hero of 2018’s Oscar-winning film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is a native of New York City, where tensions between the police and communities of color have been escalating for years. Miles’ father also happened to be a cop killed during a terrorist attack in the 2018 game. At the beginning of this new game, Peter takes a well-earned vacation and leaves his protege, Miles, to protect New York on his own. The veteran Spidey’s only been gone a few hours when an evil corporation called Roxxon, run by an Elon Musk-type, threatens Miles’ diverse Harlem neighborhood.

Given his lived experience and his father’s job, Miles may have complicated feelings about law enforcement and criminal justice—feelings that could have evolved over the course of this game’s storyline in interesting, thought-provoking ways. Sadly, Insomniac balks at the chance to render the full complexity of Miles’ story.

Video games differ from movies, television and books because they quite literally put the player in the protagonist’s shoes. As a player, you’re not just identifying with a character, you’re inhabiting them—controlling their movements and their choices, at least as much as a given game allows. In theory, games have the opportunity to build a level of empathy between player and character that other forms of entertainment do not. Into the Spider-Verse touted that anyone could wear the mask; Spider-Man: Miles Morales offers that opportunity to anyone with a PlayStation. For video games to live up to this opportunity, it’s vital that they invite players to experience the lives of people who do not look like them or come from the same background. But game creators must also be willing to ask players to confront the uncomfortable and unpleasant aspects of characters’ lived experiences.

Sony—Insomniac Ganke and Miles Morales in PlayStation’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

To its credit, Insomniac did realize that Miles can’t have the same relationship with the police as Parker, a white man. So instead of getting tips from cops, Miles’ friend designs an app that allows distressed New Yorkers to report crimes directly to Spider-Man. This facilitates more intimate interactions between Miles and the people he protects. Like Peter in the 2018 game, he doesn’t just drop-kick evil scientists—he also finds lost cats and fixes busted pipes at the neighborhood homeless shelter. Both Miles and Peter protect their communities through more quotidian tasks like volunteering their time and energy to feed and shelter those in need. These are fictional but compelling examples of how community service could foster a more trusting relationship between communities and crime-fighters than many current police tactics.

But why Miles would rather avoid the police—or why Harlem residents might turn to him rather than the cops—is never stated outright, and players might have different expectations for how the game ought to handle unspoken moments of tension. A Black player who has grown up approaching police with caution because of racism in our criminal justice system might immediately understand what’s going on, whereas a white player might need these more subtle plot points spelled out for them because they’ve have had a radically different experience with the police.

In another big departure from the Peter Parker game, the police never speak to Miles’ Spider-Man when they see him on the street. And in situations where you might expect to see police—running security at a political event, for instance—instead there’s Roxxon’s private security force. (Why Roxxon would employ thousands of soldiers in futuristic combat gear, and why the City of New York would allow this heavily armed privatized army to wander freely around Manhattan, is never explained.)

The game does hint at the unexplained tensions between Miles and the police. When he defeats a group of henchmen, for example, he will often insist on a quick getaway, because the cops “aren’t big Spider-Man fans.” This wasn’t true of Peter in the previous game, who often teamed up with the chief of police to fight crime and even helped her to set up a citywide surveillance system. Toward the end of Miles Morales, I started to stick around longer after webbing up a few dozen evil-doers for the police to arrest, just to see how the police would react to Miles when they arrived. But the cops rarely showed up, and the few times they did, it was impossible for Miles to interact with them. (By contrast, Peter often would shoot the breeze with the police in the 2018 game.)

The absence of cops leaves efforts to allude to Black Lives Matter feeling like empty gestures at best. Early in the game, Miles saves an entire crowd of people. But rather than greeting him as a hero, Roxxon’s masked security forces turn their guns on him, aiming to kill. Miles raises his hands in the air, signaling not to shoot. People in the crowd call out that Spider-Man is a good guy. Some pull out their phones to record a potential homicide. This cutscene is the game’s most blatant nod to the countless, tragic viral videos of real-world police shooting, and often killing, unarmed Black people. But replacing real, identifiable policemen and women with faceless corporate henchmen zaps the moment of most of its power; the player is never forced to consider the men behind the masks who decided to try to kill a kid.

Another side mission leads Miles to a Black Lives Matter mural. The moment is a powerful statement outside the game’s universe, but a puzzling one within it. It’s the first time the Black Lives Matter movement is mentioned. I couldn’t help but wish for a flashback scene in which Miles and his father discuss how they feel about racism in policing.

Sony—Insomniac. Miles Morales in Harlem in Spider-Man: Miles Morales

If Miles Morales fails to make a big statement about law enforcement, it at least has something to say about marginalized communities. At one point in the game, Miles observes that Roxxon is trying to take advantage of Harlem because the city doesn’t care what happens to people who live there—he believes he’s the only one willing to protect his home, as do Harlem’s citizens, who call Miles “our Spider-Man.”

Meanwhile, Miles’ mother, Rio Morales, runs for political office on the promise to oust Roxxon, which has built an experimental power plant in Harlem, from the neighborhood. Her argument echoes Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s real-world protest against Amazon’s plans to build a headquarters in Queens. But while Ocasio-Cortez pointed to local and state leaders as the institutional forces incentivizing Amazon’s arrival, Insomniac’s game fails to explore what role the government played in Roxxon’s decision to set up shop in Harlem. Ultimately, the game suggests the threats to Harlem are fantastical—Morales just has to stop one maniacal wacko to save the neighborhood. But the story ignores the real threats to Miles’ community, like gentrification and institutional racism. (The game’s Harlem feels about two decades older than the real deal, where yoga studios and multi-million-dollar high-rises are supplanting long-standing Black businesses and cultural institutions.)

Yet Miles Morales is so thoughtfully and meticulously constructed in other ways. Miles’ family and friends reflect the actual diversity of New York City. He and his mother switch seamlessly between Spanish and English in conversation. He’s also fluent in ASL, and establishes a flirtation with a deaf street artist. These quietly revolutionary aspects of the game make Miles’ New York richer and more real than Peter’s version ever was.

There are smaller thrills, too. If you complete a particular mission, you earn a special feline sidekick whose flurry of fighting tactics made me giggle with glee. The game is set at Christmastime, and after a certain point, you can swing through the city wearing earmuffs, a scarf and a hat atop the Spidey suit to keep warm. And anyone who lives in New York will discover a renewed sense of joy exploring a city that has been in various states of lockdown since the coronavirus forced major shutdowns earlier this year. Toward the end of the game, I crawled my way to the top of the Empire State Building and found myself in tears gazing over the gorgeously rendered and shockingly accurate depictions of neighborhoods I haven’t been able to safely visit in months.

Still, I wish Miles Morales’ creators had spent as much time thinking about how to reckon with racism in policing as they did perfecting their virtual Manhattan. They built a realistic city and community. The next step should have been realistically depicting Miles’ specific point of view on the most urgent matters of the day. Miles’ specific backstory as the Black Puerto Rican son of a cop sorting through what it means to protect a community as a superhero—including when to help the police and when to fight them—connects to one of the most rich and promising topics being explored in recent superhero comics, movies and TV shows. Let’s hope the next entry in the Spider-Man video game series does that subject matter justice, too.

New story in Technology from Time: Contact Tracing Apps Were Big Tech’s Best Idea for Fighting COVID-19. Why Haven’t They Helped?

When the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services launched COVID Trace, one of the nation’s first COVID-19 contact-tracing smartphone apps, on Aug. 24, state health authorities “strongly recommended” all 3 million-plus Nevadans download and use the app. But two and a half months later, adoption remained well short of that ambitious goal—the app has been downloaded just under 70,000 times as of Nov. 9, representing just under 3% of the state’s adult population. A total of zero exposures were registered in the app throughout the month of September, during which the state reported more than 10,000 new cases. One of the first positive test results logged into the app was submitted in early October by Nevada’s pandemic response director, who himself had contracted the virus. Nevada is currently reporting roughly 1,200 new COVID-19 cases daily, and the app doesn’t seem to be making a difference.

While researchers have worked for months to develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, contact-tracing apps like COVID Trace have been touted as one of the technology world’s most promising contributions to the fight against the pandemic. But seven months into the U.S. outbreak, such apps have made slow progress across the country, hampered by sluggish and uncoordinated development, distrust of technology companies, and inadequate advertising budgets and messaging campaigns.

“People are trying whatever they can think of, and this is one of those things,” says Jeffrey Kahn, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University. “Whether it’s worth the investment, it’s really hard to answer that until there’s more information.”

Most U.S. contact-tracing apps are built by state governments, but underpinned by a Bluetooth-based exposure notification protocol released in May by Google and Apple in a rare joint venture. Smartphones running apps using the Google-Apple technology can exchange randomly generated identification numbers with other nearby devices; the apps then alert users if someone they’ve been in contact with later inputs a positive COVID-19 test so they can take appropriate measures, like getting tested. The idea was to augment, not replace, traditional contact tracing—a manual process in which human investigators interview infected individuals, then contact others with whom they recently spent time. (While many states have been ramping up their contact-tracing programs, many of these efforts have been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of viral spread in recent weeks.)

But five months after the Google-Apple project launched, apps using their protocol are available to the general public in only 10 states and Washington, D.C. Even in states that have rolled out contact-tracing apps, adoption generally remains low. Why?

Part of the problem, according to public-health experts, has been a lack of coordination by the federal government, which could have, for example, created a national digital contact-tracing solution and encouraged states to opt in. Absent direction or incentives from Washington, many states have chosen not to launch contact-tracing apps at all. Even states that have launched contact-tracing apps were initially wary of investing their limited resources in an unproven solution. Officials in New York, for example, told TIME they were interested in Google and Apple’s initial pitch as the pandemic battered the Empire State this spring, but first wanted to shore up their traditional contact-tracing program. The state eventually launched an app in early October.

Contact-tracing apps have also been slowed by state health departments’ lack of tech expertise, according to public-health officials and technologists. “From the perspective of an app developer that sat in those contracting queues in places like New York and California, states were utterly unequipped to start making procurement decisions on contact-tracing apps,” says Teddy Gold, executive director of Zero, a non-profit formed this spring to make pandemic response software. “You’d get sent from the public health department to the governor’s office, to the [chief information officer], back to a mayor’s office, back to the chief information security officer’s office. It was this Kafkaesque thing where no one had ever done this. No one had ever developed a contact-tracing app before. States don’t develop apps.” Dr. Norm Oliver, Virginia’s state health commissioner, agrees. “Public-health departments around the country, their strong suit is not going to be app development,” Oliver says.

At first, states using the Google-Apple protocol had to contract with developers on their own to build contact-tracing apps, an expensive and complicated process. In September, with only a handful of state apps online since the protocol’s May launch, the companies released Exposure Notifications Express, a basic, pre-built version that states can use instead of developing their own apps. Users in areas where the service is active can opt in after receiving a push notification, a feature likely to save marketing costs. A Google spokesperson says the company is seeing “momentum” in adoption among states thanks to collaboration with public health authorities and ongoing software improvements. Apple did not respond to TIME’s requests for comment.

Some officials say the technology companies have done the best they can considering the constantly changing pandemic situation and the inherent complexities of public-health administration. “Apple and Google as tech companies, I think they were trying to find where they could best fit in to help, using technology that they knew was available without saying that they’re the public health authority, which they’re not,” says Jeff Stover, an executive advisor at the Virginia Department of Health. But getting a contact-tracing app up and running is still not as simple as flipping a switch, and some technologists and health experts are frustrated over delays in getting these apps into wide use. “We’re 200,000 dead people late,” says Gold. “It’s like the plane has crash-landed and everyone has died and the captain scrambles out of the rubble and he’s like, ‘Okay guys, in an emergency landing there are lifejackets under your seats.’”

Of course, whether an app takes a week or six months to build doesn’t matter if people aren’t downloading and using the resulting software—a problem in most states that have launched contract tracing apps. Alabama’s contact-tracing app, for example, was downloaded only 125,000 times between its release in mid-August and late October, a figure equivalent to just over 3% of the state’s adult population. Wyoming, which launched a contact-tracing app around the same time, has seen fewer than 5,000 downloads as of late October, equivalent to just 1% of the state’s adults. Apps in North Carolina and Pennsylvania had been downloaded by an equivalent of only 3-4% of their adult populations by the end of October, just over a month after launching. In New Jersey and New York, which both launched apps on Oct. 1, an equivalent of around 4% of resident adults signed up for their apps in less than a month.

fg that contact-tracing apps are tracking their location or other personal information. “Concern about privacy is one of the things that’s suppressing adoption,” says Christian Sandvig, director of the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing at the University of Michigan. That’s despite the fact that the Google-Apple protocol—which doesn’t track or share users’ locations or identities—represents the “gold standard” for privacy protection, Sandvig says. Some health experts have even argued that these apps were built with such an emphasis on privacy that they’re actually less useful in fighting the pandemic, in part because they don’t collect data like the locations where potential infections are taking place.

But many users may not see it that way, especially in an era when Americans’ trust in Big Tech is eroding and technology firms are catching flak from all sides of the political spectrum. In some instances, privacy concerns are even killing contact-tracing apps in the cradle—South Carolina, for instance, announced plans in May to deploy a Google-Apple powered contact-tracing app, only to shelve the plan the next month after lawmakers banned such software over privacy concerns.

In some states, sparse adoption may also be linked to a lack of advertising funding. In the two U.S. states with the highest adoption rates—Delaware (7.3% adoption) and Virginia (10.6% adoption)—officials have spent $0.11 and $0.18 per resident on advertising their apps, respectively. Officials in those states attribute their relative success to aggressive outreach efforts; in Virginia, that included a PSA featuring students from around the state as well as marketing materials in both English and Spanish. But in Wyoming and Nevada, where adoption sits at a paltry 1.1% and 2.9% of resident adults, respectively, advertising funds are scant. Wyoming isn’t spending any money at all to promote its app. The private-sector partners behind Nevada’s COVID Trace, who also paid to build the app in the first place, are spending a small amount on ads—around $0.03 per resident, plus ad inventory contributed by Google and a volunteer effort from Vegas-area performers—while the state is spending none of its own funds. The strategy has so far failed to bear fruit. “I feel like I’ve talked about COVID Trace every day since we launched it, and people will say ‘oh I didn’t know you did an app,’” says Julia Peek, Deputy Administrator of Nevada’s Community Health Services. “It’s like, ‘what are we doing wrong to promote this?’”

While it’s obvious that no U.S. state has achieved anything resembling a satisfactory adoption rate, it remains unclear how many people in a given population need to download and use contact-tracing apps to control viral spread. In May, researchers pegged that figure at 60%—far more than what U.S. states are seeing so far. But newer research from Oxford University and Google says that exposure notification apps could help reduce infections at any level of uptake. “There have been a lot of conversations in the past about [whether] you have to achieve minimum thresholds in terms of adoption levels,” says Larry Breen, chief commercial officer at Nearform, which developed a contact tracing app for Ireland as well as multiple U.S. states. “I’ve never accepted that as the right thing. As soon as you get the digital contact-tracing solution out into any cluster or group of people, it’s providing some level of protection.”

Even the highest adoption rates among U.S. states are far below those in countries like Ireland, where more than a third of the adult population downloaded the government’s contract-tracing app by early October, or Germany, which reached 27% adoption in September (though even both of those results fall well short of mass adoption). Breen says Irish officials and politicians have maintained a unified, consistent message promoting the app, which hasn’t been true in the U.S. “There’s a lot of confusion and different messaging coming out,” he says. Other countries, like Austria, have comparable adoption rates to Virginia.

All told, despite the relative success of states like Delaware and Virginia, agonizingly slow rollouts and uncertain public health benefits over the past few months have caused some experts to doubt the assumption that contact tracing apps can help bring the spiraling U.S. COVID-19 outbreak under control. “There’s an ultimate question here…which is, ‘Is this a great opportunity for software?,'” says Sandvig. “It may be that it is not.”

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New story in Technology from Time: Facebook Gets Green Light for Whatsapp Payments in India

WhatsApp users in India will now be able to send money through the Facebook-owned messaging app after WhatsApp Pay was granted approval by the national regulator late Thursday.

The green light came just months after Facebook ploughed $5.7 billion dollars into a telecoms company owned by the country’s richest man.

WhatsApp has 400 million users in India, more than any other country in the world, but has struggled to convert those large numbers to increased profitability. Executives see WhatsApp Pay as a solution which, if successful, could be replicated worldwide.

“I’m excited to share today that WhatsApp has been approved to launch payments across India,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said in a video. “So now you’re going to be able to easily send money to your friends and family through WhatsApp just as easily as sending a message, there’s no fee and it’s supported by more than 140 banks.”

Even with the new approval, WhatsApp faces barriers to the Indian mobile payments market. Under the regulatory approval, WhatsApp’s service will be limited to a maximum of 20 million Indians, around 5% of WhatsApp’s user base in India. That’s an increase from the 1 million users that regulators had approved could access a beta version of the service since 2018.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the regulator, suggested in a press release that further expansions of that limit would be forthcoming. “WhatsApp can expand its … user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of twenty (20) million,” it said.

WhatsApp Pay received a setback in 2018, when the NPCI withheld full regulatory approval, instead ruling that WhatsApp would have to store its user information inside the country, and restricting its service to 1 million users.

The ruling came amid lobbying by Indian company Paytm, a competitor to WhatsApp Pay, that data localization was in the national interest, according to Reuters.

But events have moved in Facebook’s favor in 2020. In April, Facebook spent $5.7 billion to buy a 10% stake in Reliance Jio, a telecoms company owned by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, who as recently as early 2019 had been lobbying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resist what he called “data colonization” by foreign companies.

A month after that deal was announced, Zuckerberg spoke at a Facebook shareholder meeting about plans to integrate WhatsApp Pay with Jio, which has a network of mom-and-pop stores across India. “With so many people in India engaging through WhatsApp, we just think this is going to be a huge opportunity for us to provide a better commerce experience for people, to help small businesses and the economy there, and to build a really big business ourselves over time,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re partnering with [Jio] to do some product integrations … that I think are going to be very exciting.”

Government on speed dial

Since then, links have emerged between Facebook’s leadership team in India and Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In late October, Facebook’s India and South Asia policy chief, Ankhi Das, stepped down from the company following a controversy in which she had been accused of intervening to stop politicians from the BJP being punished for violations of Facebook’s hate speech rules.

Read more: Facebook’s Ties to India’s Ruling Party Complicate Its Fight Against Hate Speech

Das, a longtime employee of the company who had spent years cultivating a reputation of being able to secure wins for Facebook through her close ties with India’s ruling elite, had nevertheless struggled with successfully lobbying the regulator for approval.

Her departure may offer a clue to the regulatory approval’s timing. Das has been replaced (ostensibly until a full-time replacement can be found) by Shivnath Thukral. Since March, Thukral has been WhatsApp’s policy chief in India, whose key responsibility is securing regulatory approval for WhatsApp Pay. Now, he is in charge of both Facebook and WhatsApp policy in India.

Facebook and WhatsApp spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the personnel changes have anything to do with the timing of the announcement.

Thukral has had closer links to the BJP than Das. He worked on behalf of the party in 2014 elections, in close coordination with its senior leadership, when the party was in opposition. In August, a TIME investigation found he had walked out of a meeting where a hate speech post by a BJP state lawmaker was flagged by an activist. The post remained online for a year despite Facebook flagging it internally as hate speech, until TIME asked about it.

Just over a week after Das left the company and Thukral assumed her role at the helm of Facebook’s India policy team, the regulatory approval for WhatsApp Pay was announced.