Meta’s rolling out a small spring/summer update for the Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets. There’s nothing too major here, but there are some small improvements for regular users.

The biggest news is a new and better way to watch Netflix content. There’s long been a standalone Netflix app available for Quest headsets, but it maxes out at 480p and is generally considered to be, well, crappy. Once updated, you’ll be able to watch Netflix directly from the built-in browser. This offers a much-improved experience, with the option to view content in high resolution.

This browser-based version of Netflix isn’t just for better-looking content. The web app also offers the choice between a flat 2D virtual screen and a simulated theater view. Fake movie theaters are one of the best parts about VR, so this is welcome news.

Meta

Meta announced a dedicated travel mode a few weeks back, but the update brings it to everyone. This is a system mode primarily for air travel, as it tunes the headset’s algorithms to adjust for airplane jostling. The headset will automatically connect to in-flight Wi-Fi and will be available to play anything stored on the device, in addition to movies and TV shows offered by the airline.

The company has entered into a partnership with Lufthansa to offer Quest 3 headsets to people on select business class flights. Of course, you’ll have to be comfortable wearing a giant thing on your face while surrounded by strangers, but you do you.

The rest of the update pertains to existing apps. Beat Saber is getting five free new tracks and the fitness app Supernatural is getting a mixed-reality mode, but only on Quest 3 (for obvious reasons.) Meta has also announced that another trailer for the Quest 3 exclusive Batman: Arkham Shadow will drop on June 7 as part of Summer Game Fest.

After getting officially announced way back at CES 2024, all of Samsung’s new 2024 gaming monitors are finally available for pre-order today. However, while the massive 49-inch Odyssey G9 (G95SD) garnered most of the attention when initial details came out in January, I recently had a chance to check out its smaller siblings in person (plus one of Samsung’s new smart monitors), which are just as impressive due to their lower prices and more-practical screen sizes.

Similar to the Alienware AW3225QF and HP Omen Transcend 32, the 2024 Odyssey G8 OLED (G80SD) and Odyssey G6 OLED (G60SD) are based on Samsung’s third-gen QD-OLED tech. That means you get rich colors and deep blacks along with support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and increased brightness compared to traditional OLED displays. But from there, the two monitors diverge slightly with the 32-inch G8 being more of an all-rounder thanks to its 4K resolution and 240Hz refresh rate. Meanwhile, the smaller G6 is better suited for competitive gaming with its 2,560 x 1,440 resolution and 360Hz refresh rate.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

My favorite of the two is the G8, as it features a flat display (not curved like the Alienware) with an anti-reflective matte coating and an extremely sleek design that lets you appreciate its super-thin 0.15-inch panel. Meanwhile, Samsung has equipped both the G8 and G6 with a dynamic cooling system that better reduces temperatures and can even preemptively control brightness if needed. And, for the first time, Samsung is offering a three-year warranty in case the monitor succumbs to burn-in.

I also appreciate that even though it’s a relatively large monitor, the G8 supports height adjustment and the ability to rotate into portrait mode. As a nod towards convenience, it comes with built-in stereo speakers and a solar remote (similar to what you get from Samsung’s flagship TVs), so you can easily connect it to gaming consoles alongside a traditional PC. And in case that’s not enough, the G8 also features Samsung’s Gaming Hub, which allows you to access streaming services like NVIDIA GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming without needing to connect to another device.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Alternatively, for more hardcore gamers, the G6 packs almost all of the same tech (including the remote and matte coating) into an even more practical 27-inch display. You still get Samsung’s CoreLighting+ module in back to supply some ambient RGB hues and a similarly sleek metal design. Samsung even redesigned the G8 and G6’s feet to give people with unusual gaming setups more flexibility and room to position their mouse and keyboard.

Finally, while it’s neither OLED nor a gaming display, Samsung’s M80D Smart Monitor is a neat take on 4K office productivity. It features a magnetic mount for a detachable webcam, so you can easily position it without the need for a tripod or quickly remove it at the end of a video call. You can also pair it over Wi-Fi with other Samsung devices, allowing you to easily move images or files from one to another. Just like the G8 and G6, it supports Samsung’s Gaming Hub and the ability to stream shows from apps like Netflix natively on the monitor.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The G9 remains the true flagship of Samsung’s gaming monitors, but the company has now made great options at smaller sizes too. The Odyssey G8 and G6 will start at $1,300 and $900, respectively, while the M80D Smart Monitor will go for $700. Pre-orders go live today and will come with a $300 discount for anyone who makes an early purchase before official sales begin later this month.

Motorola unveiled the 2024 Moto Edge on Tuesday. The $550 mid-range phone is slightly more expensive than the Pixel 8a but has different strengths and weaknesses. It will be available starting on June 20.

The 2024 Motorola Edge combines the mid-range Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor with a 6.6-inch pOLED display (much larger than the Pixel 8a’s 6.1-inch display) at 2400 x 1080 resolution (402ppi). It supports a 144Hz variable refresh rate and a 360Hz touch rate that’s only available when using the handset in Game Mode.

The 2024 Moto Edge has a big 5,000mAh battery and fast 68-watt wired “TurboPower” charging. It also has 256GB of built-in storage and 8GB of RAM.

Motorola

Its main camera is a 50MP shooter using Sony’s LY7-700C sensor. The phone’s backside includes a 13MP ultra-wide lens, while a 32MP sensor sits on the front.

As companies tend to do in 2024, Motorola pointed out the handset’s AI capabilities, in this case when using Google Photos (Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Google Auto Enhance). Of course, that pales in comparison to the Pixel 8a’s full suite of Tensor G3-powered AI tools, also including Audio Magic Eraser, Best Take and unlimited uses of the Magic Editor.

The phone is 7.99 mm (0.31 inch) thick and weighs 174g. Its back is made of blue synthetic leather, which should provide a reasonably sophisticated look and feel without killing any cows. It has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, meaning it can withstand up to half an hour of submersion in 1.5 meters of water.

Beginning on June 20, the 2024 Moto Edge will be available unlocked for $550 on Motorola’s website, Amazon and Best Buy. The company says “subsequent availability” will roll out later at T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Spectrum, Consumer Cellular, Straight Talk, Total By Verizon and Visible.

Microsoft is laying off employees working on mixed reality as part of a restructuring of the division, CNBC has reported. The company will continue to sell the HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) headset, a key device produced by that department. 

"Earlier today we announced a restructuring of the Microsoft’s Mixed Reality organization," a spokesperson told CNBC in an email. "We remain fully committed to the Department of Defense’s IVAS program and will continue to deliver cutting edge technology to support our soldiers. In addition, we will continue to invest in W365 to reach the broader Mixed Reality hardware ecosystem. We will continue to sell HoloLens 2 while supporting existing HoloLens 2 customers and partners."

The US Department of Defense is a major customer for the HoloLens, employing the AR devices to improve battlefield awareness. The company recently deployed a modified version called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) designed to reduce nausea, eye strain and other issues. 

A mixed reality department reorganization seemed inevitable after Microsoft deprecated Windows Mixed Reality in Windows 11 back in December 2023. At the time, Microsoft said the move would have no impact on its HoloLens division.

The changes are part of a broader restructuring that saw the company let 1,000 employees go in multiple divisions yesterday. The company laid off nearly 2,000 employees from its gaming unit in January 2024, and over 10,000 last year.  

Microsoft's move is part of an industry-wide shift away from the metaverse and toward artificial intelligence (AI), a path also taken by one of AR's biggest boosters, Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last year that development of AI is now the company's "single largest investment."

After years of rumors of Sonos getting into headphones, the $449 Sonos Ace are here. They’re well-designed and have impressive audio quality. Integrating the headphones with its family of speakers isn’t what many expected, but the feature works well, according to Engadget’s Billy Steele. They’re also comfortable to wear.

Engadget

One thing that may mire an otherwise stellar debut is limited support — with its own speakers. Yes, the ability to transfer TV audio from Sonos speakers to the Ace only works with the Sonos Arc soundbar for now. Sonos says support for both generations of the Beam and the Ray is on the way, but there’s no definitive timeline.

If you’ve used Sonos speakers or read any reviews of them, you’re probably familiar with Trueplay, which maps the acoustics of a room with microphones to fine tune sound. There’s a version for the Ace, called True Cinema, which virtualizes surround sound for the room you’re in, to make it seem like you’re not wearing the Ace at all. But… that wasn’t ready either.

— Mat Smith

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Spotify is raising the cost of Premium subscriptions, again

The Family plan will be $20 monthly, up from $17.

Spotify is officially raising its Premium subscription rates in the US come July, following reports of the move in April. The platform is increasing its Individual plan from $11 to $12 monthly and its Duo plan from $15 to $17 monthly — the same jump as last year’s $1 and $2 price hikes, respectively. However, its Family plan is going up by a whopping $3, increasing from $17 to $20 monthly. The only subscribers getting a break are students — also known as the Spotify full-price subscribers of the future — who will continue to pay $6 monthly.

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Sony’s PS VR2 adaptor for PC costs $60

At last, you’ll be able to play Half Life: Alyx on the headset.

Sony

Sony revealed it was working on making the PlayStation VR2 headset compatible with PCs earlier this year. Now we know when it'll happen: August 7. The PC adapter will cost $60.

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Samsung sues Oura to stop Oura from suing Samsung

Already bored of the rings.

Samsung has filed a lawsuit against Oura to try to head off intellectual property disputes as the Galaxy Ring launch draws near. The suit says Oura used its patent portfolio to sue smaller wearable tech competitors in the past and has hinted it may do the same against the much larger Samsung. Samsung says the Galaxy Ring doesn’t infringe on Oura’s patents — of course.

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If you've been thinking of buying Apple's HomePod (2nd generation), now's the time to act — it's on sale right now at Verizon for $175. That's a significant $125 discount (42 percent off) and represents one of the best deals we've seen on the smart speaker to date. In addition, Verizon is currently offering a deal on the HomePod Mini, letting you get a pair for $150, or 25 percent off.

With sound that's clearer and richer than offerings from Amazon and Google, the second-gen HomePod garnered a solid 84 score in our review last year. However, it's really only aimed at Apple users, working best with iPhones, Apple TVs and other devices from the company, along with services like Apple Music.  

As a smart home device, it's compatible with Matter and Thread on top of Apple's own HomeKit protocol, so you can use it to control a growing range of security cameras, thermostats, plugs and other smart home accessories. It also has built-in temperature and humidity sensors, and its included mics do well to pick out your voice through noise.

Speakers like the Sonos Five and Sonos Era 300 cost more but offer a bit better sound, while the Sonos Era 100 is normally a bit better value (Google Assistant and Amazon Echo users should look elsewhere). In addition, there's no Bluetooth audio and Siri isn't the most capable assistant At $175, however, the second-gen HomePod is a solid deal if you've been eyeing one.

If you don't need the sound quality of the HomePod, the HomePod Mini is also on sale at Verizon in a "buy one, get the second one half off" deal (two for $150, basically). That will get you a stereo pair or let you stock a couple of bedrooms. It comes with nearly all the same smart home features if that's your main concern, while offering superior sound quality to the Echo Dot and Google Home Mini.

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Intel recently revealed that its upcoming Lunar Lake chips would be available this fall for Copilot+ AI PCs, but the company waited until Computex to give us more technical details. For one, they'll offer up to 48 TOPs (tera operations per second) of AI performance, thanks to an updated neural processing unit (NPU). In comparison, Intel's previous Meteor Lake chips sported a 10 TOPS NPU, while AMD announced its Ryzen AI 300 chips yesterday with 50 TOPS NPUs. The AI race is on, if you couldn't tell.

Intel will once again have to play catch up in the AI PC space: AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips will be available in July alongside Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus. It's unclear when, exactly, Lunar Lake systems will launch this fall. Still, for the Intel faithful, Lunar Lake appears to be a major upgrade. It will also sport a new Xe2 GPU, which will offer 80 percent faster gaming performance than the last generation, as well as an AI accelerator with an additional 67 TOPS of performance. (We're still waiting to see how AMD's new Radeon graphics will compare.)

Additionally, Lunar Lake will have revamped performance and efficient cores (P-cores and E-cores), and it should also deliver up to 40 percent lower system-on-chip power than Meteor Lake. Intel also says the chip features an "advanced low-power island" for efficiently handling background tasks. Clearly, both Intel and AMD are going to do whatever it takes to combat Qualcomm's Copilot+ hardware. Those mobile chips are inherently more power efficient — they reportedly get over 20 hours of battery life on Copilot+ Surface devices (though we haven't tested them yet).

When it comes to connectivity, Lunar Lake will offer the updated standards you'd expect: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, PCIe Gen5 and Thunderbolt 4. (It's strange that Intel isn't committing to Thunderbolt 5 yet, since it plans to launch that standard later this year.)

Intel

Given just how far off Lunar Lake actually is, Intel didn't have more information to share about specific chip models or deeper specs. But judging from the company's benchmarks, released during a media briefing ahead of Computex, it'll should be faster than Meteor Lake while running Stable Diffusion.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro remains the large-screen Android smartphone we'd recommend to most people, and right now it's back on sale for $749 at Amazon, Best Buy and Google's online store. We've seen this deal before, but it matches the largest discount we've tracked for an unlocked model outside of trade-in or carrier-exclusive offers. The phone technically has a list price of $999, though it's often sold for $799 since it was launched last October. Either way, you're saving at least a bit more than usual. This price applies to the base model with 128GB of storage, but higher-capacity models are also $250 off their MSRP if you need more space.

If you don't mind trading in an old device, however, Google has also raised the trade-in values for certain phones when they're put toward a Pixel 8 Pro. If you're upgrading from a Pixel 6 Pro, for instance, you can tack on a $400 refund, while a Pixel 7 Pro in good condition can give up to $500 back. Those are higher than what the company is offering for the smaller Pixel 8 or foldable Pixel Fold. Google says this promo will run through June 22. (Just be sure to follow Google's instructions if you go this route, as the company uses a third party for its trade-in program.) Best Buy will also take an extra $100 off if you activate the phone with a carrier.

We gave the Pixel 8 Pro a score of 93 in our review last year, and it still offers top-notch camera performance, a vibrant 6.7-inch OLED display and a relatively clean take on Android, with OS updates guaranteed through October 2030. The screen supports a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz, which makes scrolling feel smooth, and the soft glass finish looks and feels nice. The software, meanwhile, is aided by a few AI-based features that are actually handy (and don't involve eating glue): A Magic Editor tool lets you cut out unwanted objects in the background of photos, for one, while an Audio Magic Eraser feature helps eliminate ambient noise from videos. (You can use Magic Editor features with other phones, but you're limited to 10 uses per month unless you own a Pixel or pay a subscription fee.)

You'd get the Pixel 8 Pro for the camera and software first, though. Its Tensor G3 chip can handle just about anything you throw at it, but alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra are technically faster and may not get as warm when stressed. Likewise, while the phone's battery can get you through a full day, it's not quite class-leading, and its 30W charging speed could stand to be faster. Still, there's plenty to like here. Our biggest issue with the Pixel 8 Pro was that it costs $100 more than its predecessor out of the gate, but this deal helps soften that blow.   

If you want a smaller or more affordable handset, the 6.1-inch Pixel 8 offers most of the same features and is also on sale for $549. That's not the lowest price we've seen, though it's a better value than Google's newer midrange Pixel 8a phone when it's discounted to that extent. 

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The TP-Link Deco AXE5400 WI-Fi mesh router system is on sale for $310 via Amazon. This pack gets you three units that cover up to 7,200 square feet. Unless you’re Scrooge McDuck, that’ll likely be enough to bring sweet, sweet internet anywhere in the home.

This is our very favorite mesh Wi-Fi system currently available. It just works, with minimal frustration. The setup is easy, the app is useful and, of course, the wireless signal is strong. After testing this system, we said that it “expertly balances raw power and user-friendliness.” It’s also a good value for the money, made even more so by today’s sale.

This is a tri-band system, which is always nice, and it can handle up to 200 devices at once. It supports Wi-Fi 6. There’s a newer model that supports Wi-Fi 7, but a three-pack costs around $800. If you’re dead set on a Wi-Fi 7 router, consider a two-pack instead of a three-pack to save some money. We have found during testing that two mesh routers is more than enough for many average-sized homes. 

We don’t have any significant gripes about the TP-Link Deco AXE5400, aside from some nitpicks. The power cord is on the shorter side, which may require an extension. The app, while useful, could use a bit more polish. Other than that, this is a near-perfect mesh router system.

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Sony revealed earlier this year that it was working on a way to make the PlayStation VR2 headset compatible with PCs. That's becoming a reality on August 7 when the company releases a PC adapter, which is expected to cost $60.

A recently spotted filing indicated that Sony was building an adapter to make the PS VR2 work with PCs. At the time, there were no details about how connectivity would work (the PS VR2 natively uses a single USB-C cable) but Sony has cleared that up. The adapter will connect to a DisplayPort 1.4-compatible port though you'll need to supply your own DisplayPort cable. The adapter also has a USB connection and HDMI output in case you want to capture your gameplay or share what you're seeing with others in the room.

You'll need a PC that's up to scratch too. The system will need to have at least 8GB of memory and an Intel Core i5-7600 or AMD Ryzen 3 3100 processor with Zen 2 or later architecture. As for your CPU, Sony recommends at least an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600XT, though you should get away with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon RX 5500XT at minimum. Your PC will also need to support at least Bluetooth 4.0 or later.

If your system checks all those boxes, then you'll be able to play the likes of Half-Life: Alyx on a PS VR2. The adapter will give users access to thousands of Steam VR games through the headset, orders of magnitude more than are available for the PS VR2 through a PlayStation 5.

Sony notes that some PS VR2 features aren't available when playing on PC, such as headset feedback, eye tracking, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback (except for a more generic rumble). Disappointingly, there won't be HDR support. However, you will be able to enjoy 4K visuals, a 110-degree field of view, finger touch detection, and see-through view are all supported, along with foveated rendering (sans eye tracking) and 3D audio if a game supports it.

We do think the PS VR2 is a great headset for VR gaming and gave it a score of 84 in our review, though we had some reservations, largely due to its price. The headset typically costs $550, but it's $100 off until June 12 as part of Sony's Days of Play sale. A bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain will run you an extra $50.