iOS 13 is going to be a whale of an update, available for free this fall for iPhone SE, 6S, and newer models. It comes with much heralded features like a system-wide dark mode, redesigned Photos app, new Memoji customizations, and more. 

But as with previous versions of iOS, the software update also has a whole bunch of lesser-known features that aren't as flashy but are greatly welcome. Here are the eight we're most excited for — and one that we wish Apple would take back.

1. Unobtrusive volume control

People hate the current volume control. When you press the volume buttons on your iOS device, a big volume graphic pops up in the middle of the screen, blocking your content. 

Thankfully, Apple's come to its senses and on iOS 13, the volume control has been redesigned so it doesn't obscure your screen. Check it out!

Instead of covering up the center of the screen, the new volume control slides in parallel from the volume buttons and then slims down before it recedes.

Sleep is one of the most underrated elements of overall good health. A night of poor sleep will impact your health, productivity, concentration and mood — we all know how terrible and impossible everything feels after a night of not sleeping well. But there are many elements to getting a good night of sleep, and one of the most important is the way you wind down for bed.

When you’re staying up late on your phone or computer until late, it’s not only the stimulation that can prevent you from winding down, but the light that is emitted from the screens - blue light - can prevent you from feeling tired. Studies have shown that blue light can significantly impact your body’s ability to wind down.

That’s where Blue Wave glasses come in. If turning off your devices a few hours before bed is not possible (and for most people it isn’t) then blue light glasses are the best alternative. These glasses filter out the blue light your screen emits, so that you won’t have the same negative effects.

This way, you’ll get the best of both worlds. You’ll feel more calm and relaxed, while also being able to stay on your computer, finishing up work, watching T.V. or scrolling through social media. Some people have said it’s helped reduce the headache they get when they’ve been staring at a screen for too long, as well as drastically helping your eyes relax.

Eight Sleep gives you free shipping and one month to return it if it’s not working for you, as well as a 1 year warranty. The price of blue light glasses range from a few dollars to hundreds, so for the quality you’re getting, the price of $49 is reasonable. If you’ve never tried blue light glasses, there’s no better time to start.

Two weeks have passed since Microsoft warned users about a critical vulnerability in a common Windows protocol that could enable a hacker to remotely take over machines without even a click from their owners, potentially allowing an infectious worm to rip through millions of PCs. That bug might be fading from the headlines, but it still lingers in at least 900,000 computers. And that vulnerable herd is getting Microsoft's patch at a glacial pace—as a wave of contagion that will likely soon hit all of them looms.

BlueKeep, as the bug has come to be known, is a hackable vulnerability in Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol, or RDP, that affects Windows 7 and earlier as well as older versions of Windows Server. The insecure code was spotted and reported by the UK's National Cybersecurity Center, and Microsoft released a patch on May 14. BlueKeep is so serious—rating 9.8 out of 10 in severity, according to Microsoft—that the company even pushed out a rare patch for Windows XP, which it doesn't otherwise support. Microsoft's director of security incident response compared the potential fallout to WannaCry, the North Korean ransomware worm that caused up to $8 billion in damage when it rampaged across the internet in 2017.

And yet the digital world has been slow to defend itself. When security researcher Rob Graham scanned the entire public internet for BlueKeep-vulnerable machines on Monday, using a tool he built, he found that 923,671 machines hadn't been patched, and were thus still exposed to any potential worm. When he ran the same scan on Wednesday evening at WIRED's request, he found that the number of vulnerable machines had dropped only slightly, to 922,225.

In other words, just one thousand machines appear to have been patched in 48 hours. If that very roughly estimated rate were to continue—and it’s just as likely to slow further over time as the initial alarm around BlueKeep wanes—it would take ten years for all the remaining vulnerable machines to be patched.

Countdown to Exploitation

Graham and other security industry observers expect a public BlueKeep hacking tool and a resulting worm to appear much, much sooner, potentially within days or weeks. "A worm will happen before these systems get patched," says Graham, the CEO of consulting firm Errata Security. In fact, he expects that only the appearance of that worm will substantially change the patching rate for the computers he's scanning. "Once there's a worm, it will cleanse the internet of these vulnerable machines. It will just burn like fire."

A new Pew survey shows the trends for which online platforms and messaging app get the most and least usage, but it also indicates growth is stagnant. And teens don't like Facebook much at all.

PCMag reviews products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use.

Looking at data from an annual telephone poll conducted by Pew Research Center and quantified in tables here by our partners at Statista, it's easy to see that YouTube and Facebook far outpace the rest of the competition when it comes to daily use on both PCs and phones. Seventy-three percent of US adults claim they're checking YouTube daily; 69 percent have a daily date with Facebook.

While there's no data to show YouTube's growth (nor that of WhatsApp or SnapChat) prior to 2018, daily usage isn't really growing by leaps and bounds, especially since 2016. Facebook had 54 percent of people checking daily in 2012, took 4 years to gain 15 percent more, and has been relatively flat ever since. Instagram—owned by Facebook since 2012—had the best growth, going from 9 percent in 2012 to 37 percent this year. YouTube hasn't gained in usage in a year.

At least the trend is typically upward—except for Pinterest, SnapChat and WhatsApp, which all have dipped since 2018. Least used of the lot is the newest service to get asked about in the poll this year: Reddit, at 11 percent. The poll was conducted from January 9 to February 7, 2019.

I had such great contributions as I was writing part 1 of this series, that I wanted to do an additional article with uncommon LinkedIn tips from various experts. Here are ten more things you can do to set yourself apart on LinkedIn:

(11) Don't Speak at Your Audience

"Don’t speak directly at your audience with posts and content. It’s more important to contribute to an already existing discussion and provide your thoughts. Sharing meaningful insight on existing commentary showcases that you are tuned into what’s going on in the world and passionate about the news and issues facing your target audience(s). One of the best things you can do on LinkedIn is provide value to your network, and by doing this, you will do just that."

-Kevin Dinino

Golf has Tiger Woods, basketball has Lebron James, and tennis has Roger Federer, but when it comes to the master of LinkedIn, there is not one single superstar that stands out. So instead of choosing just one expert to highlight, I've worked with my team to collect tips from ten LinkedIn experts from all across the interwebs. Here are some of the best LinkedIn tips we found, in no particular order:

(1) Beat the LinkedIn Algorithm

"By adding a photo and post text to your post, publishing, then clicking on the edit button to edit the post and add in the relevant external link to your post, this seems to be a way of getting good interaction on your posts as it confuses the Linkedin algorithm into thinking the link is an internal platform one."

- Sue Thompson

(2) Change Your "Connect" Button to "Follow"