Most people have two options when it comes to TV technology: LCD and OLED. Sure, some people also have the choice of a MicroLED TV, but those can be pricey. Samsung, the biggest TV-maker in the world, has been planted in the LCD camp for many years, while its rival LG is the biggest name in OLED. Despite advancements like QLED, mini-LED and dual panels, LCD has always lagged behind OLED in overall picture quality. 

Now Samsung is working on a new kind of TV that aims to combine two display technologies into something greater. It's a hybrid between OLED and quantum dots called QD Display. Samsung Display will end production of LCD panels by the end of 2021, moving to QD Display next year, according to a February report from Korea IT News. At the same time, Samsung Electronics could start selling these new TVs as early as 2022.

Read more: When is the best time to buy a new TV?  Is it Black Friday?

Here's what we've heard about Samsung's new display technology so far. If you're looking to spruce up your current TV in the meantime, check out how to get rid of your TV's muffled dialogue, nine picture settings you should change and the best picture mode for your TV. And believe it or not, your TV's sharpness controls should be turned down, not up. 

Samsung's $11 billion bet on quantum dots

Samsung has been selling LCD TVs enhanced by quantum dots for the last few years under its QLED brand, but its last (and only) OLED TV was a one-off that it stopped selling almost a decade ago. In October 2019, Samsung Display announced it was building a factory to make TVs that combined these technologies:

Samsung Display will invest 13.1 trillion won by 2025 to build "Q1 Line," the world's first QD display mass production line at Asan Campus. The new line is scheduled to start production in 2021 with an initial 30,000 sheets (8.5 generations) and will produce a huge QD display of 65 inches or larger.

That's an investment of around $11.1 billion. While the company calls this "QD display," it isn't electroluminescent, aka "direct view" quantum dots. That technology is still several years away. This is going to be a QD-OLED hybrid.

At the announcement, South Korean President Moon Jae-in also referenced Samsung's rival LG in regards to Korea's place in world TV production: "It is important to maintain the top spot of the global display market with game-changing technologies," Moon said. "Following LG Display's 3 trillion-won investment in large OLED panel production in July, Samsung Display's latest investment plan brightens prospects further."

One thing you might have noticed is that Samsung is calling this "QD display," which can be confusing since this isn't direct-view quantum dots (more on these later). Since LG has spent years being the only name in town (figuratively and literally) for OLED, it's unlikely Samsung will call any version of this technology OLED. We'll probably have to wait until CES 2022 to find out how it brands the new TV.

What is QD-OLED and how will it work?

So how will it work? Nanosys, a company that makes quantum dots, has shared some details. Its CEO, Jason Hartlove, is understandably bullish on the technology, which relies on converting light from an OLED panel:

"Quantum Dot Color Conversion is a completely new way of rendering color in displays," he told CNET. "The result is pure quantum dot color with much higher efficiency as no light is lost in a color filter."

Combining quantum dots and OLED plays to the strengths of both technologies. The idea with any TV is to create red, green and blue light. LED LCDs with quantum dots, like Samsung's current QLED TVs, use blue LEDs and a layer of quantum dots to convert some of that blue into red and green. With the current version of OLED, yellow and blue OLED materials create "white" light. In both cases, color filters let pass only what color is needed for that specific subpixel.

The idea with a QD-OLED is to simplify these designs into one, by using OLED to create blue light, and then a quantum dot layer to convert some of the blue into red and green.

Read more:  How quantum dots could challenge OLED for best TV picture

There are many advantages to this method, in theory. By using only one color or material of OLED, the manufacturing costs go way down since it's easier to build. LG, for instance, uses only two OLED materials, blue and yellow, for every pixel across the entire display. Light-blocking color filters create the green and red. QDs have nearly 100% efficiency, significantly better than filters, so in theory the hybrid TVs will be much brighter. Plus, there's the possibility of even wider color gamuts at all brightness levels.

Because each pixel can be shut off, these hybrid TVs will also have the incredible contrast ratios that OLED is known for.

Since blue OLED materials still age faster than red and green, having the entire panel one color means the TV ages more evenly with no color shift. Keeping that aging to a minimum, and thereby having a TV that doesn't seem dim after a few years, is one of the key manufacturing issues. This is especially true in this HDR era of extreme brightness levels.

While this new Samsung plant is focusing on TV-size displays, the technology could work in phone-sized displays as well. Since Samsung doesn't seem to have any issue making excellent small OLEDs, I'd be surprised if it's in any rush to upset that market with something as advanced as this. Also, Samsung's phone-sized OLEDs use red, green and blue OLEDs compared to LG's blue-yellow. Samsung tried to make RGB OLED TVs and just couldn't make them profitable. What's more likely, and mentioned in the latest rumors, is they'll use this tech to build ultra-high resolution 8K computer monitors along with larger TV screens.

As mentioned earlier, it's clear Samsung believes strongly in this technology, since it's ending production of LCDs at its factories in Korea. This doesn't mean that starting next year it won't sell any LCDs. Samsung is a massive company, and the part of the company that makes LCDs, Samsung Display, is stopping production. The part of the company that sells TVs, Samsung Electronics, has made no such announcement. In fact, part of the most recent delay was Samsung Electronics needing LCD panels before they were ready to start selling QD-OLED panels. They've worked that out for 2021, and most likely going forward they'll source their LCD panels from a third party. 

Into the future: Direct-view quantum dots, ELQD and more

QD-OLED seems to be right around the corner. But what about even farther-future display tech? Well, the quantum dot folks seem to think direct-view quantum dot displays are just a few years off. These electroluminescent quantum dots, or ELQD, would have all the benefits of OLED, all the benefits of QD and none of the issues of LCD or the wear and longevity concerns of OLED. A very promising tech indeed.

The other new TV tech that's already arriving on the market, the extreme high-end of the market anyway, is MicroLED. It has many of the same benefits as the QD-OLED hybrid, but doesn't muck around with those pesky organics. Affordable versions of that are still some distance off. Oh, and MicroLEDs use quantum dots too. They're a fascinating technology with uses far beyond TV screens. 

In the meantime, we've got mini-LED, which is pretty cool too and far less expensive than any of these.

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As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, airplane graveyards and more. 

You can follow his exploits on Instagram and YouTube, and on his travel blog, BaldNomad. He also wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-sized submarines, along with a sequel.

Centuries ago, a dashing foreigner named Axel von Fersen allegedly enchanted the notoriously extravagant queen of France, Marie Antoinette. They etched their forbidden love in ink by exchanging letters from afar, but historians have struggled to decipher words that seem purposely scribbled over.

What were these rumored lovers trying to hide?

"There are passages -- sometimes several lines -- that are redacted, or covered with loops that prevent reading," said Anne Michelin, a chemist at the Center for Research and Conservation at Sorbonne Universite in France. "It is impossible, at least for me, to read what is below the redaction."

Michelin and her team were contacted by the National Archives in France -- which holds 15 of the couple's preserved letters, shared around the time of the French Revolution, which began in 1789 -- to decrypt what lies beneath those redactions. 

Employing a long and complex process involving X-ray fluorescence and ink analysis, the team turned to chemistry to piece together the pair's secrets. Their analysis broke through on eight of the notes, uncovering telling words such as "my dear friend," "beloved," "madly" and "adore." They published their findings Friday in the journal Science Advances.

"The redacted passages are the most intimate passages of the correspondence," Michelin said. "Where a vocabulary of the order of the love relationship appears."

Michelin also surprisingly discovered that von Fersen, a Swedish count, did the censoring -- contradicting the commonly held belief that the count's great nephew tampered with the letters 100 years later and the intuitive idea that Marie Antoinette took care of the deed herself.  

The troubled queen was the one with obvious assets to lose: her marriage to King Louis XVI, her royal title and most of all, her already dwindling reputation due to perceived political negligence that left France in massive debt.

"Axel von Fersen probably wanted to keep this correspondence, important to him perhaps for sentimental reasons or political strategies, while protecting the queen's honor -- and perhaps his own," Michelin explained.

Although the unveiled passages don't radically change what we know about the relationship between von Fersen and the queen, these lines provide a nuanced peek into the political turmoil of the era. 

"There is no doubt about the love relationship," Michelin said. "The content of their correspondence -- even without redactions -- leaves no doubt about it."

But she emphasizes that the centuries-old letters remain a "precious witness of these troubled times -- of the way political events exacerbate emotions," as the full text of the messages between von Fersen and the queen pepper political language with adoring sentiments.

It seems von Fersen was declaring his love to Marie Antoinette while advising her on governmental strategies, the latter of which he didn't try to hide.

To delve into this rich history, scientists used a form of ink analysis to learn what lies beneath the protective cloaks over the couple's letters. The tests used in the study allowed them to examine the chemical makeup of various inks to identify contrasting features. 

Then they differentiated between ink used to write the letters and ink used to hide passages.

One of the major findings is that all the letters from the archives were penned by von Fersen -- including those addressed from the desk of Marie Antoinette. Von Fersen would rewrite his lover's letters and only keep the duplicates, presumably for security or perhaps tradition.

"Many letters written by Marie-Antoinette were copied by von Fersen, either because the original was initially encrypted to prevent the correspondence from being read by anyone…or simply because it was a common practice at the time," Michelin said.

With that knowledge, Michelin's team "compared the composition of the inks used by von Fersen to write and copy the letters [with] the redaction inks."

But it's not as simple as deciphering between two inks' chemicals. Von Fersen often used pigment with the same chemical composition, so the team had to rely on variations in chemical content of the elements zinc and iron. Using X-ray fluorescence, they contrasted zinc-to-iron ratios and mapped out pen strokes below redacted passages. 

"The most challenging part was having to adapt to each letter -- sometimes to each word -- and to find the right strategy each time," Michelin said.

Differences in chemical compositions present on the paper are also what proved von Fersen redacted the passages himself. "The composition of the redaction ink was found in a writing ink on another letter," Michelin said. 

"The coincidence was too big."

Whether you know about Marie Antoinette from her iconic fashion statements and graceful demeanor or her conviction for treason and resulting execution, she was a force. Her behavior, personal artifacts and romantic connections will continue to be studied for years to come, as historians unlock more chapters of her story.

Britney Spears announced she's expecting a baby on Instagram this week and also revealed that she had perinatal depression when she was pregnant previously.

"I have to say it is absolutely horrible," Spears wrote. "Women didn't talk about it back then." 

Perinatal depression is a mood disorder that can start during pregnancy or after childbirth, while postpartum depression specifically describes depression someone develops after giving birth. While the direct causes of the disorders vary, the anxiety, sadness, apathy and other emotions many new or soon-to-be parents feel can be difficult to describe to loved ones or bring up at a doctor's appointment. 

Despite this, it's a common medical experience during pregnancy or the postpartum period. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one in seven women will experience perinatal depression. 

Julianne Zweifel is a clinical psychologist and adjunct professor at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin who works with people who have postpartum mood dysregulation, which can vary from postpartum "baby blues" to postpartum depression. In a September interview with CNET, she said the pressure to feel a certain way can lead new parents to feel inadequate when they don't feel what they perceive to be the "right" feelings.

"I like to describe it as [being] analogous to having only seen black-and-white photos all your life, and suddenly [you] see color photos," Zweifel said about new parents' expectations. "Like, 'wow, I didn't even recognize this dimension existed.'" 

The hormonal surges and lifestyle changes pregnancy and new parenthood bring can have dramatic effects on someone's mental health. If you're feeling society's expectation of how pregnant people and new parents should feel doesn't reflect your experience, here's what to know about perinatal and postpartum depression.

Depression during pregnancy 

During pregnancy, your body goes through huge changes as it accommodates a new body and prepares for the marathon of childbirth (and parenthood). On top of the physical and hormonal changes, pregnancy can put strain on relationships and cause financial stress. But like depression in people who aren't pregnant, it may also have genetic causes. 

According to the Cleveland Clinic, you're more at risk of experiencing depression during your pregnancy if: 

• You have a history of depression or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD, or severe PMS that disrupts daily life).
• You became pregnant at a younger age (risk decreases as age increases). 
• You live alone or have limited social support.
• You're experiencing marital problems.
• You have mixed feelings about your pregnancy.

The pandemic may also have increased the rate of anxiety or depression during pregnancy.

While depression can strike at any time in life, many people experience anxiety or depression for the first time while they're pregnant. Because depression can affect the health of the pregnant person and growing fetus, it's important to see your doctor or a mental health professional if you're experiencing symptoms of depression for at least two weeks, the ACOG says. Symptoms include, but aren't limited to: 

• Depressed mood most of the day, for most days. 
• Feeling guilty, hopeless or worthless. 
• Loss of interest in work or activities. 
• Sleep problems (sleeping too much or having problems going to sleep).
• Big changes in appetite (losing appetite, or eating much more than normal).
• Having trouble concentrating or making decisions. 
• Thinking about death or suicide.

Treatment for depression during pregnancy may be similar to treatment for people who aren't pregnant, including talk therapy or medication, according to the ACOG. 

Resources and an expert hotline to call for people experiencing depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period can be found at Postpartum Support International. An analysis of anxiety and depression in pregnant people during the pandemic found that increased social support and physical activity reduced the likelihood of developing either disorder during pregnancy.

Postpartum blues vs. postpartum depression

Zweifel said as many as 65% to 70% of people will experience postpartum "baby blues," or mood swings that begin roughly within a week of delivery. "Once you start using numbers like that, that means that's the normal response," she said. But baby blues will resolve on its own, usually getting better in about seven to 10 days. If feelings of classic depression persist without showing signs of getting better after about two weeks, Zweifel said, it's likely postpartum depression.

Symptoms of postpartum depression can be more intense and last longer than baby blues, and can potentially interfere with your ability to care for your baby or handle daily tasks, according to the Mayo Clinic. PPD can manifest differently and may include typical symptoms of depression, such as severe mood swings, feelings of worthlessness and a withdrawal from family and friends, but may also include feelings specific to your role as a parent, including feelings that you're not a good parent or thoughts and fears that you'll harm your child, per the Clinic. 

Zweifel wants to clear up the misconceptions about PPD and the idea that it makes people harm their child. 

"Somehow, our society has assumed that's a part of the scenario, and I feel like that's part of the problem," she said. There is a big difference, she said, between fearing that you'll "lose control" and hurt your child, or having intrusive thoughts of you dropping them, than of actually harming your child. "The intent is different there," Zweifel said. 

Postpartum psychosis is a very rare condition which can result in the afflicted person attempting to harm themselves or their baby. According to the Mayo Clinic, some of the signs of postpartum psychosis include confusion, paranoia, excessive energy and agitation, hallucinations and delusions. 

Read more: 13 Suicide and Crisis Intervention Hotlines to Call or Text When You Need Help

Postpartum depression causes

Many factors can contribute to depression after childbirth, including social factors like not having a support system, societal pressure to feel a certain way and the way a person's body reacts to hormonal changes.

Hormones

Estrogen and progesterone levels skyrocket during pregnancy and then very quickly after birth, they start to drop. This huge dip in hormones is what causes many people to experience strong emotions following birth. 

Research suggests that there's not different hormone levels or amounts in people who experience PPD compared to people who don't, Zweifel said. But there might be a difference in how their brain responds to changes in estrogen. Zweifel called the varying chemical effect of estrogen as a "prominent working theory," but it helps explain why oftentimes the people who experience severe mood changes in connection with their menstrual cycle may also be more likely to experience PPD or have more mood-related symptoms during menopause. 

"That subset is experiencing the same changes and same patterns," Zweifel said. "But the receptor sites in their brain, essentially, sort of respond differently. They're extra sensitive."

Outside factors

Zweifel said a lot of people experiencing symptoms of depression who come into her office feel better almost immediately after she dispels myths about what makes someone an inferior parent -- missing the "golden hour" of contact with a newborn for medical reasons, for example, or choosing to formula feed instead of breastfeed. Another record she has to set straight is the idea that all parents have an immediate bond with their infant, and if they don't, it means there's something wrong with them. 

"Bonding with an infant takes time, and our society does a terrible job of being honest with women about this," Zweifel said. She likes to instill the idea of a "fourth trimester," because there's still so much developing happening on the baby's end in the first few weeks of life that makes the parent-child relationship very straining on the parent, often leaving them "starved for validation" because the baby isn't able to acknowledge the parent, or even able to focus their eyes yet. 

In addition to unrealistic expectations of what it means to be a parent, Zweifel said other factors like being the only parent who gets up when the baby cries can exacerbate PPD, or having a child with acid reflux or other medical conditions that require extra care. 

Other risk factors, per the CDC, include being a parent to multiples (twins, triplets or more), being a teen parent, having a family or personal history of depression, having a preterm or complicated birth, experiencing difficulty getting pregnant and other stressful events surrounding pregnancy. 

PPD is also not a limited experience to the person giving birth. Although the other parent won't be experiencing the hormonal changes that can cause symptoms of depression, similar lifestyle changes, added stress, lack of sleep and societal pressure remain. A 2014 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that depression among new dads increased an average of 68% the first year of their child's life.

If your mental health is a concern to you, reach out for help. If you're interested in seeking treatment with medicine, Zweifel recommends finding a psychiatrist or another professional who works specifically with people on postpartum mood dysregulation.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

If you have a Windows 7 or 8 computer, you have until July 29 to upgrade it to Windows 10 for free. While your data, apps and most of your system settings will remain intact, upgrading tends to adversely affect performance.

This post will show you how to change that and get a clean install of Windows 10 onto your computer. This is possible both after you've already upgraded to Windows 10 and before, when your computer still runs Windows 7 or 8.

Important note: You can't get a fresh system install without all of your apps and possibly some personal data being erased, so make sure to back up all of your important information before you begin this process. If you want to learn more about preparing your computer for Windows 10 (including how to backup), check out this post.

For a system already running Windows 10

If your computer already runs Windows 10, the easiest way to refresh the machine is to reset it.

Step 1: From the Windows 10 Start Menu, click on Settings.

Step 2: On the Settings page, click on the button that reads Update & security.

Step 3: Now on the update and security page, click on Recovery, then under Reset This PC,click on Get Started.

Step 4: Choose the provided option to Remove everything. Alternatively, you can choose to retain your personal files (such as those in the Desktop and Documents folders) which will keep the files in your profile intact.

Note that the last option, Restore factory settings, is only available in certain machines and will reinstall the original Windows system that was on your computer when you bought it. You don't want to choose this option, unless your computer originally came with Windows 10.

Step 5: You will be presented with the option to Just remove my files or to Remove files and clean the drive. Basically, if you intend to keep the computer for yourself, pick the first option. If you intend to give it away or sell it after the reset, choose the second option, which will take much longer to complete.

After choosing an option, click on the Reset button and that's it. The computer will restart and after somewhere between 10 minutes to half an hour, or maybe longer depending on the speed of the machine, you will have yourself a computer with Windows 10 freshly installed. Note that resetting your machine in this way means you'll lose the option to roll back to the previous Windows.

For Windows 7/8 machines

If your computer still runs Windows 7 or 8, you want to avoid upgrading using Windows Update. Instead make yourself a Windows 10 installation disc. I prefer using a USB flash drive (thumb drive) since it works with all computers, including those without an optical drive. You'll need a drive that's 3GB or larger. Here are the steps.

Step 1: Go to Microsoft's Windows 10 download page and click on Download tool now to get the latest media creation tool.

Step 2: Run the downloaded tool, choose Create installation media for another PC then click Next.

Step 3: In this step, you select the Language, Edition and Architecture for Windows 10, then click Next.

Note that the N version of Windows 10 is for some European countries and will not include Windows Media Player. Read more about these specifications here. If you choose to make the installation media for both 32-and 64-bit Windows, you will need a thumb drive that has at least 6GB of storage space. If you intend to install Windows 10 on the current computer, you can check the Use the recommended options for this computer box.

Step 4: Choose USB flash drive.

Step 5: Insert the flash drive into the computer's USB port and click Next. After the drive is selected the tool will start downloading Windows 10. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, the download can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Once the download is done, the tool will takes another few minutes to turn the flash drive into Windows 10 installation media. You then can use this flash drive to upgrade or install Windows on any computer.

Step 6: Insert the installation media flash drive into a computer running Windows 7 or 8 that you want to upgrade. Open the drive in Explorer and double click on the Setup file. The upgrading process will start.

Step 7: After a short preparation, including checking for updates from the internet and asking you to agree to terms and conditions, you will be greeted with the Ready to Install dialog. Click on Change what to keep.

Step 8: In the next step, you can choose to keep Nothing (so that you'll have a truly fresh Windows 10 install), Keep personal files only (your documents, music, photos and so on will remain intact) or Keep personal files, apps or Windows settings (you will not have a clean installation of Windows 10). After that click Next.

Follow the rest of the installation and once it's done, if you have pick the option to keep nothing or just personal files, you will have yourself a clean installation of Windows 10 on your machine.

For a custom-build computer (advanced users)

If you've built your own computer, you can install Windows 10 on it using the flash-drive creation method in the section above. Choose to boot the computer from the flash drive and the installation process will start. Note that this method is quite involved, though self-explanatory, so make sure you know what you're doing (or are willing to learn a few new things).

Also note that installing Windows 10 fresh on a computer by booting from the installation media will require you to buy a new Windows 10 license. If you do this before July 29, you can use a Windows 7 or 8 license to activate Windows 10.

Good luck!

Update, July 28: Information added to reflect the latest build of Windows 10.

Twitter, Slack, Outlook and Safari are open all at once, and I'm browsing and scanning between all of them. This is on my monitor. It's like any other day. Meanwhile, I'm playing Catan on my iPad. Everything I'm doing is powered by the iPad, with the monitor connected via USB-C as a secondary display. I feel almost like I'm on a Mac. But… I'm not.

iPadOS 16 introduces a feature I've wanted on iPads for years: truer multiwindow multitasking, and real external monitor support for extended workspaces. A public beta preview of the software is available now (which I wouldn't recommend installing on your everyday personal device). How iPadOS makes both of these happen is the weird part. The navigation needs a lot of finessing, based on my early experiences so far.

You also need an M1-equipped iPad to make these new multitasking features work, which means a current iPad Pro or iPad Air model. No others will be compatible. These iPads are on the expensive side, making this a pro feature you may not even consider worth upgrading for yet.

Read more: iPad Air 2022 (M1) Review

I could go into other iPadOS features, but I'll do that later because, really, this is the feature this year. Stage Manager, which enables these extra multitasking perks, brings a whole new layout that's also extremely alien-feeling. And that's the problem with iPadOS now. It's powerful, and it's also strange and still not Mac-like enough.

It feels like Apple is trying to evolve a new computer interface, but through tiny steps and experiments. As iPadOS drifts between iPhone and Mac, picking up more parts of each and blending them, the pieces don't always make sense. That's where I'm at after trying the public beta out: striving to find my iPadOS sea legs.

The Good: Monitor magic

Plug in a monitor now, and wow, it's just like a Mac. Apps can be opened on the monitor, or on the iPad, and the mouse or trackpad cursor will just move back and forth like on a monitor-connected Mac. I don't think Apple's new Stage Manager changes things much for people working directly on an iPad (see below), but wow, it opens up possibilities if you have a monitor nearby.

Using an iPad Air with Magic Keyboard attached, I just perched it in front of my Dell monitor and felt it become a two-screen device at last. It's particularly weird and fun to control apps with the keyboard and trackpad, while also doing things with the touchscreen on the iPad with an app open there. For me it was playing Catan while also responding to emails and Slacks. Dumb, and also awesome.

Now I'm playing some John Williams soundtracks while writing and Slacking and playing some Catan and checking Twitter, and this basically feels like my typical screen-immersed day, but all iPad-enabled.

The whole experience reminds me, in a lot of ways, of using Samsung's DeX, which allows desktop-type computer experiences on its tablets and phones when connected to a monitor. Years ago, I found that DeX ended up working surprisingly well, sometimes. Apple's doing a similar type of move on the iPad M1 models, but super powered. Running multiple apps at once is far more useful than you might think, since you're probably doing it unconsciously every day on your laptop.

Plug in a monitor, and you'll find that it connects the way monitors should, allowing separate apps to open independently of the iPad display. In a new Settings feature for Displays, you can also choose to mirror your iPad the way iPadOS only allowed previously (who wants that?). The monitor settings allow the second display orientation to be moved around: if you pick the monitor as "above" your iPad, the mouse/trackpad cursor will move from iPad to monitor when you move up. 

There's also a new extra resolution mode on the iPad display itself, which compresses text and apps for "more space." On the 11-inch iPad Air, it didn't seem to do much for my work experience other than make text smaller. On the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro, it can make the screen feel more laptop-like.

Getting apps to open simultaneously requires opening them from the dock and dragging them into position. App windows can be size-adjusted now, but not with full freedom. Windows can squish and stretch and go horizontal or vertical, but Apple limits the sizes and shapes. It feels like fuzzy experimentation to get the layout you want. And if windows get too big, Apple overlaps the windows. But only in very specific ways, so it's not as free as a regular Mac's window-based (not Windows-based!) OS.

The Bad: How does this work, again?

Getting all the apps to be open, and work, and figure out how to navigate them, is another matter. Apple has introduced Stage Manager, a new multitasking manager, but the app/feature only launches from within Control Center, by swiping down and tapping a cryptic icon with a block and three dots. No one will normally ever figure this out.

It gets weirder. Stage Manager has instances of grouped open apps, but if an app is already open, you'll just swap to that instance instead of overlaying it with the others that are open, although you can also drag open apps on and off that side dock and into your workspace. On the iPad itself, these other app windows stay open on the side, shrinking your free app display space. Apps can be re-expanded, but jumping back and forth to choose apps gets confusing fast. And then there's that three-dot icon above windows, which still handles app zooming, split-screening and minimizing just like iPadOS 15. Following me? I expect you're not.

I lost my way, despite being a longtime iPadOS user. And apps can't be easily dragged from one window to another, either. Just when I started feeling like I was slipping into a Mac flow, iPadOS throws me into an uncanny valley again.

And there are public beta bugs, too: connecting to a monitor turns off my iPad audio unless I use headphones. Sometimes I've had sudden crash restarts from too many apps open. And, if I unplug from the monitor, I find some app groups suddenly having empty black windows. Oh, and I tried launching Catan on my monitor, and it started up sideways. Beta explorers, good luck.

Stage Manager gets so annoying on the iPad display that I instantly turn it off again unless I'm connected to a monitor. To me, it's specifically a monitor multitasking Mode.

The deeper I go, the weirder and buggier it feels. I try launching Batman Returns on Apple TV to watch while I write this, and it automatically plays on the monitor instead of my iPad screen. I can shift the whole video up to the monitor completely, but not back down to the iPad again. And then when I try shifting Pages from the monitor to the iPad screen (which is done via that very small three-dot icon at the top of each window, which now has a menu that vaguely says "move to display"), the app suddenly goes blank and I have to force quit it.

Overall: A step forward (if you love monitors), but a weird one

iPadOS 16 has most of iOS 16's greatest hits, minus that cool new customizable Lock Screen feature. There's also an Apple-made Weather App, now, finally (yay?). There are more integrated ways to share docs and group-collaborate through Messages, or FaceTime, extending what was started last year. Apple's promising collaborative white board app, called Freeform, isn't in the public beta yet but is expected this fall.

I still don't recommend downloading a public OS beta from Apple on your main device, because too many strange and bad things can happen. The iPadOS 16 beta has crashed a number of times for me.

But just for that way it can make M1 iPads use an extra monitor as a true second screen, I'm already thrilled. I just wish the whole Stage Manager process made more sense and allowed for far more fluid or flexible window placement and screen-jumping, because right now it feels much like a beta feature. Even the way Apple allows you to turn the feature off and on via Control Center suggests that perhaps it's not thought of as an everyday feature yet, but instead, a "pro" one you'll need to consciously look for to use.

I'm enjoying writing and playing Catan at the same time, though. It's made having my iPad Pro at my desk a far more fun and far more productive tool, even if it's made me less productive. Sorry, it's my turn now. I'm going to build a city.

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Manna, an Irish drone startup that -- as its name suggests -- sends food down from the heavens, has inked a deal with a Qualcomm-backed networking company to help its aircraft navigate the skies. The three-year deal with fellow Irish company Cubic Telecom will connect the drones with a 5G network connection so Manna can track and control its fleet, the companies plan to announce Thursday at CES.

Cubic offers a service spanning 180 countries to link cars and internet-of-things devices to mobile networks. The Manna deal will mean diners and restaurants can figure out where in the skies that spaghetti Bolognese is located and how long it'll take before Manna's autonomously piloted drone drops it at a customer's house.

Startups and established giants like Amazon and Google hope drones will fill our skies to deliver packages, dinners and travelers, and some governments are working on drone regulations to let it happen. There are plenty of obstacles to social acceptance -- noise, privacy, and safety, for example -- but drones could speed up some deliveries and that today happen with delivery cars, scooters and trucks.

"The risk is going to be hearts and minds. What does society think of what we're doing with the airspace?" said Manna Chief Executive Bobby Healy in an exclusive interview. "I have no doubt they're going to love it."

It's mostly a dream, but Manna has a foothold with test operations at Pontypool, Wales. It plans an expansion to three sites in Ireland and another in the UK by the third quarter of this year, Healy said. It also plans to extend to the United States this year "to show what we can do," but for now Europe's more accommodating regulations make it a higher priority.

Urban environments pack in lots of potential customers for deliveries and passenger flights, but Manna is focusing on suburban areas where landing zones are easier to come by.

Its custom-built drones, with an aviation industry approach emphasizing redundant components for safety, fly 200 to 300 feet above the ground at a speed of about 50mph, dropping off deliveries in a patch about 6 feet by 6 feet. Manna surveys a delivery area ahead of time to plan operations, and uses computer vision to verify delivery zones. If there's a problem, the drone returns to the restaurant.

"It's really not going to be obtrusive," Healy said. "You'll hardly even notice what we're doing.

The drones travel directly from restaurants to homes up to 4 miles away with packages weighing up to about 4 pounds. Packages are delivered as the drone hovers about 30 to 50 feet up.

With three battery cassettes per drone -- one in flight and the other two charging -- a restaurant can keep a drone fully occupied with five deliveries per hour, he said.  A 3-minute delivery time will handily outpace most vehicles, Healy said.

For now, a two-person Manna crew operates the drones at a restaurant base station that has eight to 12 landing pads. Eventually, restaurants will be able to do it themselves.

One much bigger name in drone food delivery is Uber Eats, a business that's growing faster than Uber's original ride-hailing business, according to Eric Allison, leader of the Uber Elevate effort for delivering meals and passengers by air.

Healy believes Manna's business is actually complementary, though. It focuses on delivery, leaving menus and ordering to others, like its partner Flipdish. That means Manna could even be a behind-the-scenes Uber Eats delivery partner, at least in principle. The company's goal is to deliver meals at a cost to restaurants of about $1 per delivery.

It may not be more efficient than cooking for yourself, but compared to putting vehicles on the road, it's an improvement, Healy said. "What we're doing is an order of magnitude more efficient."

The release of iOS 16 this year, which should be sometime in the fall, will bring an incredibly useful feature to the iPhone and iPad -- the ability to view saved Wi-Fi passwords.

Read More: Customize Your Lock Screen With iOS 16's Cool Clocks and Handy Widgets

While iOS does offer the ability to share a Wi-Fi network right now, it's currently restricted between Apple devices, and even then, it doesn't actually show what the password is. If you wanted to connect your Nintendo Switch or smart TV to the internet this way, it wouldn't work unless you had the actual written password.

Fortunately, with this latest feature, you can easily go into your settings, find a Wi-Fi network and view the Wi-Fi password. You can then copy and paste it into a text message or email and easily share it with anyone else that needs it. Here's how.

And if you want to get your hands on iOS 16 right now, here's a tutorial on how to download the latest beta version of iOS 16.

For this to work, you must be either connected to the Wi-Fi network or have connected to it in the past and be near enough to the router for the network to appear in your settings. If you meet these requirements, launch the Settings application on your iPhone running iOS 16 and do the following:

1. Go to Wi-Fi.

2. Find the Wi-Fi network you want the password for and tap on the blue information icon to the right of the network name.

3. Tap on Password and use Face ID, Touch ID or enter your passcode to view the password.

4. Finally, hit Copy to save the password to your clipboard.

You can then paste the Wi-Fi network password into a text message or email to share it with someone, or just tell them the password.