My focus is primarily on technology and consumer electronics. Every once in a while that includes a veer into something seemingly unrelated, but there is always a link. In this case, I tested out a pair of Nike Pegasus Trail 3 GORE-TEX waterproof trail running shoes. Where is the tech connection? That would be the use of GORE-TEX Invisible Fit technology.

Nike Design Hits the Mark

I had somehow never tried them before, but Nike’s Pegasus trail running shoes have a pretty fanatical following. The company has had several generations to perfect the design and so far as a trail running shoe — or in my case, a trail hiking shoe — goes, there’s not much to find fault with. The Pegasus Trail 3s are light (about 11 ounces apiece), they are very well cushioned, they keep your foot stable, they have aggressive “shockwave-like pattern” rubber lugs (that extend up over the toe) for grip and they come in a variety of attractive color options.

They also have a gaiter at the collar to help prevent debris from getting into the shoe. I didn’t really think much about this until we spent a morning hiking across expansive sand dunes. While other people were pulling their shoes off regularly to shake the sand out, I never felt sand getting in. Even though I was sinking into the dry sand with every step. When I got back from the hike, I pulled the shoes off over the bathtub and shook them out, fully expecting at least some sand to have made its way on. But there was absolutely none.

GORE-TEX Invisible Fit Makes a Good Shoe Great

I brought the shoes with me on a two-week vacation on Cape Cod. That’s where the sand dunes come in. The weather was brutally hot the entire time, and oppressively humid. But these shoes were extremely comfortable and they breathed, despite being waterproof. I could walk 10 miles and not feel like my feet were getting sweaty, even if I had to change shirts twice a day.

That performance can be chalked up to the fact that these shoes are made using GORE-TEX Invisible Fit Footwear technology. This approach sees a GORE-TEX membrane bonded to the shoe uppers instead of the traditional method of being added later in construction as a separate layer. So you get the benefit of GORE-TEX (such as being waterproof, breathable to allow sweat to evaporate and fast drying) in a fully integrated package.

In addition to urban hiking, I wore the Pegasus 3s on several forest trails. Their grippy soles and stability also proved them to be very capable when crossing the mile-long Provincetown Causeway with its massive, ocean-slicked boulders. I always felt that my footing was solid. It was on the Causeway where the waterproof GORE-TEX proved its effectiveness. We slightly miscalculated our timing when walking across and ran into the start of high tide, when ocean water started rising across a low section. I couldn’t avoid walking through the water, but my feet remained completely dry. You can see in the photo below that the water literally ran off the shoes and where they were submerged, the water was kept completely at bay.

When Testing Doesn’t Go According to Plan…

Here’s a use case that falls outside the usual, and it illustrates both the waterproof nature of the GORE-TEX technology, and its ability to dry quickly.

Several weeks ago I went to an outdoor concert in Toronto. The weather forecast was for torrential rain, so I thought I would be smart and wear the Nike Pegasus Trail 3s — no worries about getting wet feet, plus the aggressive tread of the trail runners would come in very handy if grass turned to mud.

Everything went according to plan at first. My raincoat wasn’t quite up to the challenge, but rain ran right off the shoes so I at least had dry feet. I kept my footing on the increasingly slippery slope of the amphitheater’s lawn. But… as security started locking the venue down due to extreme weather, the walkways flooded. I was wading through a surge of fast-moving water that rose well over my ankles. You can guess what happened next. The gaiter that kept out sand so effectively didn’t stand a chance when the water rose inches above it. The water filled my waterproof shoes and stayed there until I had a chance to dump it out.

The lesson there is waterproof shoes are only as good as their coverage — as soon as the water tops the shoe so it can pour in, they become a water holding vessel. So if you’re going to be doing any really wading, maybe consider a boot instead of a shoe…

However, the next day showed another of the advantages of these shoes and their GORE-TEX technology. Despite being absolutely saturated, six hours in the sun on a balcony completely dried them out.

Nike Pegasus Trail 3 GORE-TEX Recommendation

I can’t say that I did any trail running with the Nike Pegasus Trail 3 GORE-TEX waterproof trail running shoes. However, I put them through several weeks of walking seven to 10 miles per day in blazing heat, high humidity, and in conditions that included urban exploration, nature trails, sand dunes, rocky breakwaters, and tidal pools. They stayed comfortable and dry under all of these conditions. In fact, they were so comfortable that the other shoes I packed pretty much stayed in my suitcase.

I’ve noticed these shoes have frequently been sold out, at least on Nike’s website. So if you’re considering a pair and happen to see some in stock, I wouldn’t wait too long. If it’s the GORE-TEX technology that you’re primarily interested in, that company’s website includes links to alternate options from other leading footwear manufacturers.

Disclosure: GORE-TEX provided shows for evaluation purposes but had no input into this review.

We’re one week out from Apple’s big iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus reveal. But there’s one thing that I can guarantee you won’t be revealed at the big event.

Phone chargers.

In a nod towards environmental soundness and cost-cutting (for Apple, for consumers the iPhone is more expensive than ever), Apple famously stopped shipping wall chargers with their phones in 2020. And while, back then, everyone pretty much waved them off because, actually, they were kind of right. We already had too many chargers.

But that was two years ago. Now, devices require more juice than ever. And there are fast chargers that can get your device to 50% in 30 minutes.

So chargers have become just another thing that we have to buy. But why limit yourself to official Apple chargers when companies like OtterBox are making chargers that run circles around them?

When OtterBox introduced their power charger line, I was impressed with how much quality and utility they packed into what’s, for many, a throwaway purchase. Build quality, charging efficiency, reliability, and comparative affordability make them far better than official chargers.

Today, they’ve announced a new Premium Pro Power line with even more powerful, more versatile chargers.

You can charge everything from your phone to your laptop with the OtterBox Premium Pro Power wall and car chargers. They come in three sizes: 72 watt and 60 watt chargers for your laptop or iPad and and 30 watt charger for your iPhone. Even better, when you pair the 30 watt charger with one of OtterBox’s USB-C cables, it works as well as an official Apple charger with Fast Charge, getting your iPhone to 57% in 30 minutes.

Across the board, these chargers are compact and durable. Both the chargers and cables have undergone major stress and durability tests to ensure that they’ll hold up after years of abuse. They feature GaN technology inside to give them a smaller footprint. You can shove these in your bag or carry-on easily. They’ve got foldable prongs for even more portability. Even better, they only take up the space of one outlet so you can stack chargers on both outlets or line them up on a power strip.

If you don’t need a laptop charger, but want to charge multiple devices, I’d recommend grabbing the 72w or 60w charger. They have multiple outlets so that you can top off several devices at once (just keep in mind that they only charge at the full wattage when a single device is plugged in).

The new cables are fantastic as well. Braided, with a magnetic cable wrap that snaps together to keep everything tidy. They’ve bent and flexed the cables 30,000 times to test fraying and break points. Suffice to say, these cables are going to last a lot longer than the flimsy cable that comes with your iPhone 14.

The new line of Premium Pro Power chargers starts at $35. You can buy them on the Otterbox site starting today! Make sure you’ve got your charger ready for next week’s new iPhones!

Given the October 2020 launch of the first Apple Silicon laptops with the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro, many were expecting Apple to refresh the consumer laptops in October 2022. Instead, Apple unexpectedly updated the Air and Pro to the M2 chipset at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

Now the more powerful 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro machines may be getting their own unexpected refresh before the end of the year.

Launched in October 2021, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops also debuted the faster M1 chips, specifically the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Given Apple’s historic love of regular release schedules and the longer product cycles of the Intel-based Macs, many assumed that there would be an annual tick-tock, with the consumer Air and Pro laptops in October of even-numbered years and the more powerful pro machines in the October of odd-numbered years.

Hence the M2 MacBook Air expectations.

It now looks like Apple has an option to bring the larger MacBook Pro laptops to the market before the end of 2022, presumably with the M2 Pro and M2 Max variants of the Apple Silicon chipsets. Assuming Apple continues the tradition of a late-October or early-November launch event, this would be the prime time to announce these new MacBooks.

Given Tim Cook’s promise of having the whole of Apple’s Mac portfolio running on the ARM-based Apple Silicon by the end of 2022, there’s at least one big announcement left… the first Mac Pro running Apple Silicon. Reports suggest Apple will skip an M1 Mac Pro and move straight to an M2 Mac Pro, presumably with an uprated M2 Pro or M2 Max as an option.

October’s Mac event could easily see the uprated M2 MacBook Pro and Mac Pro debut together in a parliament of power and performance.

Now read the latest Mac, iPad, and iPhone headlines in Forbes’ weekly Apple Loop column…

I’ve seen Jordan’s Peele’s Nope twice now and it’s a film that’s still gnawing its way around my brain, which is just the sort of unpleasant image that seems appropriate for a film as complex as this. It’s not a film that has proved contentious, but it is one that everyone has a reaction to, one way or another, which is the mark of an interesting film. As we’ve seen with his previous films Get Out and Us, Peele is a director who knows how to create mood and tension but with Nope he’s added another element – scale. That comes from his use of IMAX cameras to capture the imposing mountain region around the outskirts of Hollywood where a mysterious object is lurking in the clouds.

This is the first time that Peele has used IMAX cameras and it’s safe to say that he’s now a fan. So much so that he’s now working with IMAX on creating a number of next-generation IMAX film cameras.

In a recent conversation, with its head of post-production Bruce Markoe, told me that: “what we’re doing with these new cameras is to engage with some of the filmmakers who have worked with us and shot with our film cameras before – with directors, with directors of photography – and have got their feedback. What they liked, what they didn’t like, and how we could improve them.”

IMAX cameras offer outstanding image quality but are known for being large, heavy and noisy. It’s no surprise then that these are exactly the areas that IMAX is focusing on improving. What’s exciting about this from a filmmaking perspective is that if IMAX is able to deliver of these features, it will make for IMAX sequences with a different feel. Directors will be able to use them for more intimate, personal moments, not just for big, noisy action sequences.

Markoe wouldn’t commit to an arrival date for the cameras though saying that the engineering guys would hate it if he did! “It’s the prototype that takes the longest [to build] and, actually, once that’s done, built and approved, it will be faster to build the actual production models.”

He can commit to the number they are building, which is four. The new cameras will be in addition to the existing fleet, which means there will be 12 IMAX film cameras in total, which should be enough to enable two IMAX productions to take place at the same time.

It was during the production clash of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and No Time to Die that the company realized it needed more cameras. With his long association with IMAX, it’s no surprise that Nolan got first dibs, with Cary Joji Fukunaga having to scale back its IMAX sequences due to the lack of cameras.

What’s also heartening is the commitment to photographing on film, even when projection is almost entirely digital these days. While it’s natural to assume that the reason is the cost and practicality – it turns out it’s actually one of scheduling.

“It takes a lot longer to make film prints than digital,” reveals Marko. “The workflow and process to completing the movie and making the film prints takes quite a bit of time compared to a finishing a movie digitally. Some are literally finished two weeks before they open in a theater, whereas if you want to make film prints you have to finish quite a bit sooner – 10 to 12 weeks before release at a minimum. That’s hard for some filmmakers.”

Even without film projection more film cameras, means more films that take advantage of the full frame IMAX 1.43:1 aspect ratio but here in the UK, there is only one single screen that can cater for that: at the Vue Manchester Printworks, which has both an IMAX 1.43 screen and a dual laser projector that can fill the screen. There are rumors that London’s BFI IMAX might also be joining the Printworks with that capability, but sadly Markoe was not able to confirm this. However, with both Dune: Part 2 and Oppenheimer both likely to be IMAX 1.43 productions, I very much hope that it happens.