If Google’s Pixel Pro family has had your interest for a while, but the thought of using a phone with a curved display prevented you from buying the Pixel 7 Pro or Pixel 6 Pro, the Pixel 8 Pro could be interesting. According to an Android Authority report published Saturday, Google’s next flagship will feature a flat display.

After writing last week about the camera upgrades Google has planned for the Pixel 8 family, leaker Kamila Wojciechowska says the Pixel 8 Pro will sport a 6.7-inch OLED panel sourced from Samsung with a 1,344 x 2,992 resolution and 490 PPI pixel density. If you don’t have a Pixel 7 Pro on hand, each figure is slightly smaller than the specs offered by Google’s current flagship, which features a curved 6.71-inch display with a 1,440 x 3,120 resolution and 512 PPI pixel density. However, according to Wojciechowska, the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen will get much brighter, reaching 1,600 nits of peak brightness – compared to 1,000 nits on the Pixel 7 Pro – when displaying HDR content. Additionally, the 120Hz panel will be able to transition more smoothly between refresh rates.

As for the Pixel 8, it too is slated to receive a new display. Interestingly, the device will reportedly feature a smaller screen than the one found on the Pixel 7. Android Authority claims the phone will ship with a 6.17-inch screen that has a 1,080 x 2,400 resolution. That’s the same resolution as the Pixel 7’s 6.31-inch screen, meaning the new phone will offer a higher dot pitch. Moreover, the screen reportedly offers 1,400 nits of peak brightness, up from 1,000 on its predecessor, and a 120Hz refresh rate instead of 90Hz like the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7a. Speaking of Google’s latest mid-range phone, there have been rumors the 7a could be the company’s final a-Series phone, which may explain why the Pixel 8 reportedly comes with a smaller display.

Android Authority reports both the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will feature more rounded corners than Google’s current pair of high-end phones, corroborating a previous report from leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer. That change would make them easier to use with one hand. Between their new displays and the larger primary camera sensor Google reportedly plans to equip the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro with, the company’s new phones are shaping up nicely. Expect more information to come out about devices in the weeks and months leading up to their release later this year.

Sony Bravia TVs will be the first hardware to support the upcoming Zoom for TV app on Google Play. Although remote work has dwindled as corporations beckon their underlings back to the office, those still enjoying work-from-home or hybrid arrangements could soon attend virtual meetings from their living room couches. It follows Apple’s WWDC 2023 announcement that FaceTime is coming to Apple TV (via mounted iPhones) later this year.

Bravia TVs don’t have built-in webcams, so you’ll need to buy a Bravia Cam to make the setup work. In addition to enabling Zoom calls, the $200 accessory can adjust sound and picture settings based on your location and distance from the television. It also allows you to control your TV with hand gestures without picking up the remote, enables a proximity alert that detects when kids sit too close (as they’re wont to do) and adds a power-saving mode that dims the screen if nobody is watching.

Sony

Sony says the Zoom for TV app will be available for Bravia TVs “by early summer.” The company’s head of Bravia product design, Shusuke Tomonaga, said, “This partnership will make it possible for our customers to enjoy more realistic video communication on a large TV screen in the living room, enabling them to be more connected with the people they care about, whether they are working from home, learning remotely, or just catching up with friends and family.”

Summer can be a sleepy time for deals, but there was actually a fair amount of savings to be found on tech this week. Amazon's Prime Day is probably about a month away, but the company looked like they were getting a head start with discounts on Kindles, two Echospeakers, Fire TV devices and Blink mini cameras. Those prices may go lower during the event, but the savings are still good if you can't wait. Our favorite Sony headphones dropped back down to $348 and a few different Beats earbuds, including the Powerbeats Pro saw discounts of up to 36 percent. Apple's latest laptop, the 15-inch MacBook Air is already $100 off and last year's XPS 15 from Dell is currently $800 off. Here are the best deals from this week that you can still get today. 

Amazon Echo Dot + smart plug

Pair a smart speaker with a smart plug and you have the underpinnings of a smart home setup. Right now, Amazon is selling its Echo Dot smart speaker with a Kasa Smart Plug Mini for just $28. That's a substantial $45 discount and cheaper than buying the Dot on its own. The new Echo Dot is is our favorite smart speaker under $50 and is basically a more compact version of its full-sized sibling, the Echo. Despite measuring less than four inches in diameter, the Dot can pump out decent sound that's surprisingly clear. 

Alexa is a competent voice assistant who can set timers and reminders, tell you the weather and news, play your music and, of course, control your smart home devices, like smart plugs. All of the Kasa smart plugs I tested for our guide paired nicely with my Echo Dot. You can program the plug through the Kasa app or via the Alexa app, having it do nifty things like turning on a lamp an hour before sunset or shutting things off when you say, "Alexa, goodnight."  

Sonos Sale

Sonos speakers rarely go on sale, so if you've been thinking about a new soundbar or speaker, you may want to jump over to Sonos as their ongoing Father's Day sale ends Sunday the 18th. The sale first went live two weeks ago and includes discounts of up to 25 percent on some of their more popular audio devices. Sonos equipment is well-regarded for its sound quality and reliable connectivity — pairing easily with existing equipment, supporting most streaming services and syncing seamlessly with other Sonos speakers.

Here are a few of the more noteworthy deals:

• The top-end Sonos Arc soundbar is down $719, which is $180 off the list price. Read our review here.

• The more affordable Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is down $399, which is $100. Here's our review.

• The Sonos Ray is the brand's entry-level soundbar and is currently $223 or $56 off.

• The portable Sonos Roam speaker connects to WiFi or via Bluetooth and is currently $134 instead of $179. The slightly smaller Sonos Roam SL is down to $119 after a $39 discount.

• One of the brand's first portable speakers, the Sonos Move is down to $300 after a $99 discount. Here's what we said when that speaker first came out.

Sony WH-WH-1000XM5

A few different audio devices from Sony are on sale at Amazon and directly from Sony, including the WH-100XM5, which is our current top pick for the best wireless headphones you can buy. They're back down to $348, which isn't the lowest we've seen, but still about $50 less than they typically sell for. Our senior editor and audio expert Billy Steele gave them a high score of 95 in his review when they came out last year, praising the all-day comfort, excellent noise cancellation and a sound quality that's both immersive and clear.  

The in-ear WF-1000XM4 earbuds are down to $198 after a 28 percent discount. They are the top pick in our wireless earbuds guide thanks to their great sound quality, solid ANC and battery life that went for seven and a half hours in our tests. 

Sony's brand new budget headphones, the WH-CH720N, are on sale for just $38 after a 37 percent discount. Billy found them lightweight, comfortable and capable of delivering surprisingly good sound quality. You'll also get around 35 hours of playback on a charge. You won't get all the features of the flagship model, and the all-plastic build feels less than premium, but for $38, they're a budget way to get high-end sound. 

Amazon Kindle

There are a lot of great books coming out this summer. If you're thinking of getting an e-reader to dive into them, now might be a good time to act as Amazon is discounting a number of its Kindle devices. The basic Kindle is our favorite budget pick in our ereader guide and is currently down to $80, which is just $5 more than the all-time low it hit back in February. This is the latest model Kindle, released last October, with a screen resolution bumped up to 300ppi for sharp and crisp text. The battery lasts over a month and comes with 16GB of storage, which should be enough for many summers of reading and all the seasons between. 

It's not waterproof, however, and doesn't offer a warm light option. For that, you may want to check out the Kindle Paperwhite. It's on sale for $110 instead of $140. The 6.8-inch screen is comfortably bigger than the standard option, boasts a warm light and can handle a dunk in water. The Paperwhite Signature, which our deputy editor Nathan Ingraham called, "The best e-reader. Period." is on sale for $145 instead of $190. It adds more storage, wireless charging and an automatically adjusting warm light. 

Apple 15-inch MacBook Air M2

Apple announced the long-rumored 15-inch MacBook Air M2 during its annual WWDC event earlier this month. Amazon immediately offered a $50 discount on pre-orders. Now that orders are shipping, the retailer is rewarding those who waited (and potentially angering those who didn't) with a full $100 discount on the new machines, making them $1,199 instead of Apple's suggested $1,299 price. Currently, the discount applies to the base model, which ships with 256GB of storage, in either Starlight, Space Gray or Midnight. If you want it in Silver, you'll have to pay $1,234. 

The model with 512GB of storage is $100 off in Midnight only. The other three colorways are selling for $1,437, which is $62 below list price. Our deputy editor, Nathan Ingraham, got a chance to review the new computer and gave it a high score of 96. He was impressed with the difference the bigger screen makes and declared it "one of the best Apple laptops [he's] used in a long time." With the same M2 chip inside, the larger model doesn't change much over the 13-inch MacBook Air, which isn't a bad thing. We gave that model a similarly high score of 96 when it came out last year. 

Beats Studio Buds

The Studio Buds by Beats are currently $50 off at Amazon and Target. That matches the low we've seen a few times this year, though isn't quite as low as they were for the shopping holidays last November. We gave them a review score of 84 when they debuted in 2021. They're lightweight and small, making them comfortable for hours of continued wear. The sound is balanced and delivers plenty of punchy bass but doesn't overdo it. They have a decent active noise cancellation too. 

A few other earbuds from Beats are on sale as well. None of them are hitting all-time lows, but the savings are decent, such as the Powerbeats Pro for $160 instead of $250 at Amazon and Target. Our editor in chief and marathon coach, Dana Wollman, named them the most comfortable option in our guide to the best workout headphones. The Beats Fit Pro are also on sale, down to $160 after a $40 discount. Our audio expert, Billy Steele, picked them as the best workout earbuds in his guide to those devices. 

NordPass

Security experts say it's best to have a long, strong and unique password for every site you log-in to. That's a lot of passwords to keep track of. Which is one reason you should probably use a password manager. NordPass is currently offering a 40 percent discount on its premium personal plan, making it $42.96 for two years of the service (which is usually $72). 

The premium plan gives you no limits on the number of passwords you can have and will let you stay logged into six different devices at a time. Once you store a password, NordPass auto-fills your credentials the next time you visit the site, so the only password you'll need to remember is the master one. Our senior security reporter, Katie Malone, named NordPass the best manager for cross-platform access, allowing you to easily get to your vault of stored passwords from any device or operating system. 

Crucial P5 Plus 1TB Gen4 NVMe

Those who need to add storage space to their PC or PS5 may want to take a look at the sale on Crucial SSDs. Discounts range up to 53 percent and include a $20 discount on the brand's PS Plus NVMe drive in the 1TB size. It can deliver sequential read speeds of up to 6,600MB per second and fits in PCs with a Gen4 M.2 connection. The drive will also work with a PS5 and is in fact our top pick to upgrade your capacity on that console.  

A portable drive from Crucial, the X6 1TB external SSD, is on sale for $59 after a 46 percent discount. It can handle transfer speeds of up to 800MB/s via the USB-C port and comes in a shock and vibration-proof case. 

Spigen Ultra Hybrid iPhone 14 case

Spigen's Ultra Hybrid case is one of the iPhone cases we recommend in our guide to those accessories and right now it's down to $25 at Amazon after a 44 percent discount. It usually hovers around that price, but is a decent savings over the $45 MSRP. Our senior commerce editor, Valentina Palladino, found it to be one of the most secure cases in our tests, firmly holding on to an iPhone 14. The clear case shows off the color of your phone, so if you went for that sunny yellow hue, this case will let it shine. The case is also MagSafe compatible for charging and accessories.  

Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite

A new smart TV can be expensive, but if you already have a regular set, a streaming stick can turn it smart inexpensively. Amazon's Fire TV Stick Lite is our favorite budget pick in our streaming device guide and right now, it's just $22 after a 27 percent discount. The stick puts Amazon's easy-to-use Fire TV interface on your set, granting access to just about any streaming content you can think of. Just keep in mind the Lite doesn't support 4K video or offer TV controls on the remote for power or volume, so you'll need to use two clickers. If you want an all-in-one option that can stream 4K video to a 4K-enabled screen, go for the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It's $35 right now, instead of the usual $55.  

The even more feature-rich Fire TV Cube is $125 or $15 off. The set-top device lets you plug in your game consoles, supports WiFi 6E and 4K video, and has the fastest processor Amazon offers in an external streaming device. It also has a built-in mic so you can talk to Alexa to control your TV and smart home without needing to hold the remote. 

Dell XPS 15

If you prefer Windows laptops and are looking for something portable with enough power for everyday productivity, check out Dell's sale on the XPS 15. We named another model in the XPS line, the smaller XPS 13 Plus, the best Window's laptop you can buy. The larger XPS 15 is currently $1,099 after an $800 discount from Dell. Our senior editor and laptop expert Devindra Hardawar reviewed the machine in 2022 and called it the "best 15-inch Windows laptop."

It packs Intel's 12th-gen Core i7 processor with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. It comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. The 15.6 inch screen has a 60Hz refresh rate and a FHD+ 1920 x 1200 resolution. While it isn't the latest XPS laptop available, it's still a great price for a solid, workhorse machine. 

Breville Smart Pizza Oven

Our favorite indoor pizza oven, the Breville Pizzaiolo is currently on sale for $200 off at Amazon. It's usually $1,000, but the sale brings it down to $800. Our resident pizza oven expert and senior editor Billy Steele tested it out and was impressed by the wealth of options it offered, which produced the desired results for New York, "wood fired," frozen and other presets. But he cautioned that it was really quite expensive. Now that it's $200 cheaper, it may be an easier buy for someone who really likes pizza — and doesn't want to go outside to make it. 

Amazon Echo Studio

The biggest Alexa-enabled speaker from Amazon is the Echo Studio. Right now a 20 percent discount brings it down to $160 instead of $200. That's the lowest it's been since Black Friday when it dropped to $155. Our audio reviewer Billy Steele called it "the best sounding speaker Amazon has built" in his review. It does all of the smart-home, Alexa-controlled stuff that the other Echo speakers can do, it just does it from a much bigger package. At seven inches in diameter and over seven pounds in weight, it has room for five speakers, including three mid-range ones, a tweeter and a downward-facing 5.25-inch woofer.

Otterbox Otterspot 

The OtterSpot system is more than just a wireless charger for your phone; It also accommodates a disc-shaped battery you can take with you for a recharge on the go. Right now Otterbox is selling the set for half price, making it $50 instead of the usual $100. Our reporter, Jon Fingas, named it the best overall pad in Engadget's guide to wireless chargers because of its stable base that can handle a wide range of phone sizes, both Android and iPhone. The unit can charge your phone, plus up to three of the 5,00mAh batteries at once. Those discs can easily fit into your bag when you need a partial recharge when you're out and about — either wirelessly or via the USB-C port. Just keep in mind they can be finicky with certain non-Otterbox cases. If you want one of their cases to go with, you can check out the sale at Amazon.  

Rosetta Stone 

Rosetta Stone can help you learn a new language — or several — and right now a lifetime subscription is down to $179 instead of $299. A subscription gets you access to 23 languages and Rosetta Stone's immersive learning style with access via browsers or your smartphone. If you've been thinking about learning Japanese, Spanish or Korean, you may want to act now as the deal ends June 18th. 

Razer Viper Ultimate 

In his quest for the perfect productivity mouse, our editor-at-large, James Trew, declared the Razer's Viper Ultimate mouse the best gaming mouse for everyday use. It works in either hand and weighs just 74 grams, making it easy to use for long periods of time. And the 70-hour battery life lasts longer than other mice in its category. Right now, Amazon is selling it for $80 instead of the rather steep $150 MSRP. 

Blink Mini 

The Blink mini wired indoor security camera is down to $25, which is a 29 percent discount and within a dollar of its lowest price this year. It dropped lower for Black Friday, and may again for Prime Day, but if you don't want to wait, this is still a good deal on a smart home camera. We recommend the Blink mini in many of our guides because it's a low-cost device that delivers most of the features you'd want, including 1080p video delivered right to your phone. Motion detection turns the camera on and you can hear, see and talk to anyone nearby. And, as an Amazon product, the Blink mini works swimmingly with Alexa — but not other voice assistants.  

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Ever since the release of the original Galaxy Fold back in 2019, Samsung has basically enjoyed a monopoly on big handsets with bendy screens. But with the imminent arrival of the Pixel Fold later this month, Google is hoping to break that stranglehold. That said, with Samsung having already released four generations of its flagship foldable, Google can't afford to simply iterate on a rival's design. In an interview ahead of the Pixel Fold's release, two of Google’s product managers (PM) — George Hwang and Andrea Zvinakis — sat down to shed some insight on why now, what the company is doing differently, and how its upcoming flexible phone will impact future devices.

The first thing I noticed during my hands-on was the Pixel Fold’s shape. Instead of having a long and skinny baton-like chassis similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Google opted for a wider frame shaped more like a passport, which was an intentional decision by Google. Hwang, who is a PM on the Pixel Fold team told me that “when we talk about the Pixel Fold, we often talk about the outer display first.”

Google

Hwang says the reason for this is that more than 50 percent of interactions people have with their phones are less than two minutes long — things like texting a friend, changing a song or simply setting an alarm. “Our focus on form factor was critical and quite intentional to make sure that we offered a usable exterior display, such that you could use the phone like you want to.”

While using the Pixel Fold’s outside display like you would a regular phone might sound kind of obvious, it was also a bit of a surprise. Typically, when people discuss foldables, much of the attention is reserved for that fancy flexible screen on the inside. But more importantly, that touches on a few of Google’s overarching design goals for the Pixel Fold: Being able to use it like a regular handset even when you’re only using it closed, allowing users to open the Fold to augment their experience and then making sure that even though it's a larger device, it’s still a feasible daily driver.

Google

As for using that big interior display to enhance the device’s capabilities, it feels like much of the Pixel Fold’s potential lies in the marriage between hardware and software. As someone who works on Google’s Android platform team, Zvinakis highlighted the importance of continuity and posture for the Pixel Fold. “If we were just designing for tablets, you could just create one large screen, he said, "whereas for foldables you’re often unfolding to continue a session.”

When designing an app or UI for a foldable device, Google needs to consider things like buttons or other elements that may fall in the Pixel Fold’s crease. But it also means being able to open the device without losing your place, which often feels like an elusive goal. But when it works, it provides a sense of instant adaptability that you just can’t get from a traditional phone.

Google

Continuity also impacts posture, which is the position of the phone’s screen from open to closed and every angle in between. Due to the Pixel Fold’s flexible design, not only does Google need to track how the device is oriented, it’s important to anticipate how components like the phone’s cameras and UI adjust and move and behave depending on its posture. “We want there to be a user benefit to unfolding the device rather than just seeing an expanded phone layout,” Zvinakis said. “That's why we created things like dual shade for notification that leverages both sides of the display.”

But what’s even more exciting is how Zvinakis says posture detection can unlock entirely new use cases like dual-screen interpreter mode on the Pixel Fold. This allows users to hold the phone in a position so that two people can see a different language get translated in real-time — each with their own display — which cuts down on the typical back and forth that happens when everyone has to share a single screen. And while we’ve seen some other novel uses of foldable phones like taking high-res selfies with the rear camera while using a phone’s exterior display, there are a growing number of functions available on foldable you simply can’t get when using a traditional glass brick.

Google

There are other elements that are needed for foldables to reach their true potential. Take, for example, the Fold’s taskbar, which needs to straddle the line between enabling short mobile interactions and more complex multitasking situations. “We launched a taskbar with Android 12L in March of last year and the first version was basically a pinned taskbar that you had to long press to hide and long press to show,” Zvinakis said. “But as we did more testing, users said they found that behavior a little clunky. So instead we refined it into a more transient taskbar where you can access it with a short swipe, drag any app into split-screen and then it automatically closes when you’re not using it.”

The big challenge is combining competing design elements, like the thinness of the device, while still supporting sophisticated components such as the phone’s 5x optical zoom. So to get over that hump, Hwang issued a challenge to the team to make a device that was more than just a collection of components: "If you don't want to use it every day, then it's not a device that we want to ship."

Google

The quest for thinness is far more important for foldables than other phones. “We realized that if this thing was thick and bulky it's not something you'd really want to have in your pocket all day long," Hwang said. “I think the thing that was a key enabler was the hinge. How the hinge is architected drives everything around the foldable display. It's kind of symbiotic.”

This was a somewhat unexpected revelation because, as someone who has owned multiple generations of the Galaxy Z Fold line, I thought the hinge issues had been solved after all the issues with the original model. “What you see in most foldables is that you'll have hinge mechanisms across the full length of the hinge at three to four different spots,” Hwang said. “But the thing is that now that you have hinge components in the middle of the device, that drives the thickness of what we call the stack and then you have the display on top.”

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

So Hwang thought “if those are the limiting factors, then is there a way we can creatively move those components somewhere else?” So in the end what the Pixel Fold team did was relocate the phone’s two hinges to the very edge of the device bringing it out of plane, which had a number of important effects. She says not only does this decrease thickness, “it also helps drive the largest delta between the outer 5.8-inch display and the interior 7.6-inch flexible interior screen.” On top of that, Google’s architecture helped address what Hwang calls fold geometry, which describes how the screen actually bends inside the hinge. “The hinge allows us to furl the display inwards, which lets the fold extend into that area to further drive down thinness,” she added. And while I’ve only used the Pixel Fold briefly so far, the result is rather spectacular, with Google able to make a phone that folds completely flat while still measuring less than 6mm thick (or just 12.1mm when closed).

Steps forward like Pixel Fold’s hinge and thinness don’t come without trade-offs. But, while its bezels are somewhat larger than Samsung’s, to Hwang it’s worth it. “The bezel gave us the opportunity to have an unadulterated display without the need for an under-display camera, which we thought was really cool.” It also gave Google more leeway to improve the Pixel Fold’s general durability, which includes an IPX8 rating for water resistance. “Plus, there’s the ergonomics of it, with the larger display bezels offering a resting area for your hands,” she said

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Hwang said dealing with the inevitable crease in the Pixel Fold’s display was another balancing act, one that he still thinks about on a regular basis. “It’s unappealing, but the bigger question is how do we mitigate the crease? How do we minimize it?” Eventually, what Google decided on was a hybrid approach that produces a fold that’s more of a miniature water drop that runs the length of the screen instead of a full crease, which reduces its appearance while also preventing unsightly trenches from forming over time.

Still, as impressive as the Pixel Fold’s design is, after talking to Google product managers, I feel like it has an even more important job serving as an ambassador for future foldables and as a flagbearer for forward-thinking software features in Android alongside newly optimized apps. That’s because in addition to the device itself, the Pixel Fold is also ushering a fresh set of resources to help app makers optimize their work. Zvinakis said, “the key ways we do that are through developer guidelines, developer tooling and easy-to-use libraries.” These things dictate support for features like adaptive resolutions, landscape orientation, multitasking behavior and more. There are even separate tiers denoting how much a developer has done to support foldable-friendly features along with sample configurations available in the Android Studio emulation environment. “We're about to launch physical device streaming for these Google devices in Android studio, which basically means that developers can see how their apps run on Google-hosted Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet devices, but right from your IDE (integrated developer environment). We just want to make it really easy for developers to test on these new products.“

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

To make sure these apps are easier for users to find, Zvinakis says Google will begin showcasing “really high-quality apps more prominently in the Play Store, including screenshots that show new foldable-specific features.” And all of this is coming with a slate of more than 50 first-party Google apps that have been optimized for foldables, something that both Hwang and Zvinakis said was no easy feat. In this way, the Pixel Fold not only serves as a testbed for future devices, but also for Google’s evolving software design.

Unfortunately, the team behind the Pixel Fold hasn’t been able to overcome every hurdle that might prevent someone from hopping on the flexible phone trend — particularly its $1,800 price). But even with the Fold serving as the company’s first go at the category, it’s clear Google is bringing a ton of new ideas to the space, both in terms of hardware and software. It’s slim, it’s sleek and, unlike the Z Fold 4, the Pixel Fold delivers the same great camera experience that you get on the Pixel 7 Pro. It remains to be seen how well it will sell but, with Samsung’s Z Fold basically treading water the past couple years, the Pixel Fold’s arrival couldn’t come at a better time.

Today, we are one step closer to the immortal celebrity future we have long been promised (since April). Meta has unveiled Voicebox, its generative text-to-speech model that promises to do for the spoken word what ChatGPT and Dall-E, respectfully, did for text and image generation. 

Essentially, its a text-to-output generator just like GPT or Dall-E — just instead of creating prose or pretty pictures, it spits out audio clips. Meta defines the system as “a non-autoregressive flow-matching model trained to infill speech, given audio context and text.” It’s been trained on more than 50,000 hours of unfiltered audio. Specifically, Meta used recorded speech and transcripts from a bunch of public domain audiobooks written in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, and Portuguese.

That diverse data set allows the system to generate more conversational sounding speech, regardless of the languages spoken by each party, according to the researchers. “Our results show that speech recognition models trained on Voicebox-generated synthetic speech perform almost as well as models trained on real speech.” What’s more the computer generated speech performed with just a 1 percent error rate degradation, compared to the 45 to 70 percent drop-off seen with existing TTS models.

The system was first taught to predict speech segments based on the segments around them as well as the passage’s transcript. “Having learned to infill speech from context, the model can then apply this across speech generation tasks, including generating portions in the middle of an audio recording without having to recreate the entire input,” the Meta researchers explained.

Voicebox is also reportedly capable of actively editing audio clips, eliminating noise from the speech and even replacing misspoken words. “A person could identify which raw segment of the speech is corrupted by noise (like a dog barking), crop it, and instruct the model to regenerate that segment,” the researchers said, much like using image-editing software to clean up photographs.

Text-to-Speech generators haver been around for a minute — they’re how your parents’ TomToms were able to give dodgy driving directions in Morgan Freeman’s voice. Modern iterations like Speechify or Elevenlab’s Prime Voice AI are far more capable but they still largely require mountains of source material in order to properly mimic their subject — and then another mountain of different data for every. single. other. subject you want it trained on.

Voicebox doesn’t, thanks to a novel new zero-shot text-to-speech training method Meta calls Flow Matching. The benchmark results aren’t even close as Meta’s AI reportedly outperformed the current state of the art both in intelligibility (a 1.9 percent word error rate vs 5.9 percent) and “audio similarity” (a composite score of 0.681 to the SOA’s 0.580), all while operating as much as 20 times faster that today’s best TTS systems.

But don’t get your celebrity navigators lined up just yet, neither the Voicebox app nor its source code is being released to the public at this time, Meta confirmed on Friday, citing “the potential risks of misuse” despite the “many exciting use cases for generative speech models.” Instead, the company released a series of audio examples (see above/below) as well as a the program’s initial research paper. In the future, the research team hopes the technology will find its way into prosthetics for patients with vocal cord damage, in-game NPCs and digital assistants.

Even if you already have a Father’s Day gift on lock, Sonos’ sale for the holiday is worth checking out while it’s still live. The audio gear maker has knocked up to 25 percent off its speakers and home entertainment gadgets through June 18th, meaning you still have a few days to grab things like the Arc soundbar and the Move portable speaker while they’re discounted to some of the best prices we’ve seen.

One of our favorite soundbars, the Sonos Arc comes in at $900 normally, but you can pick one up for $720 in this sale. We like it’s modern design, stellar sound quality and convenient Sonos-specific features, like being able to automatically calibrate depending on your room’s shape — and adjust accordingly if you add more speakers to your setup. It supports Dolby Atmos, AirPlay 2 and voice commands, and if you pair it with a Sub or Sub Mini, you’ll already have a solid home theater setup with those two components. Of course, $720 isn’t cheap even if it represents a solid discount; those with tighter budgets should consider the Sonos Beam or Ray, both of which are on sale now, too.

The new Sonos Era 100 and 300 speakers aren’t discounted on their own in this sale, but the Sonos Move and Roam are. Both portable speakers, they allow you to take Sonos’ generally solid sound quality outdoors, with the Move being a more beefy cousin to the Roam. The Move is IP56-rated while the Roam is waterproof with an IP67 rating, and both support AirPlay 2, voice commands and connectivity over Bluetooth and WiFi. You can expect stronger, louder sound from the Move, making it a good option for those with big backyards, while the Roam is more backpack-friendly.

If you are itching to get a new Era 100 or 300, they’re included in a few home theater sets that are discounted. The most affordable option is the Surround Set with Beam, which includes the Beam sounder and two Era 100 speakers for just under $900. Considering the Era 100 and the Beam are some of our top picks for smart speakers and soundbars right now, that set will go a long way towards upgrading your living room setup.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

British instrument manufacturer Unidentified Dancing Objects (UDO) has released pricing and availability information for its upcoming Super Gemini synthesizer after first teasing the device at Superbooth 2023. The Super Gemini is an absolute beast, with 20 voices, dual-layer polyphony, and a bi-timbral analog hybrid sound engine. This means you can play 20 notes at once, but the dual-layer polyphony lets you combine sounds, making ten “super” voices that deliver unique sound design combinations to the left and right stereo channels.

If you’re thinking this is a fantastic option for comprehensive sound design, well that’s the point. The stereo binaural signal path is equipped with effects processors, gate arrays and pedal connectors to allow for “glittering frequency” and “shattering harmonics”, with the company boasting that the instrument is great for creating both familiar and discordant soundscapes. There’s 256 performance and patch slots and a whopping 64 interchangeable waveforms to start your sound design journey. Sound design options include wave morphing, cross mod features, bi-directional sync and, of course, an all-analog signal path.

The sequencer stores 16 editable patterns and the exterior is equipped with dual control schemes that let you simultaneously sculpt sounds across both channels. The Super Gemini is sturdy with an exterior built from aluminum and steel, with UDO noting that the knobs and levers received the same attention to detail. The 61-note keybed is semi-weighted and boasts polyphonic aftertouch and the custom-engineered panel includes a ribbon controller for individual note articulation.

The Super Gemini follows the company’s well-received Super 6 synth, though improves upon it in nearly every way. The only downside here? This is a professional synth with high-grade components, so it’s gonna cost you. UDO’s Super Gemini costs $4,200 and preorders are available now at various music retailers, though it won’t ship until October.

Almost three years into the Xbox Series X/S lifecycle, Microsoft says it is no longer making games for the Xbox One. While the company will continue to support ongoing previous-generation titles like Minecraft and Halo Infinite, no Xbox Game Studios teams are working on new titles for the older console. "We've moved on to gen 9," Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told Axios, referring to the Xbox Series X/S consoles. The company also makes its games for PC.

This move had to happen at some point to avoid newer and more complex games being hamstrung by the hardware limitations of the decade-old Xbox One. Still, it'll be possible for those clinging onto an Xbox One to play Series X/S titles such as Starfield and Forza Motorsport through Xbox Cloud Gaming. “That’s how we’re going to maintain support," Booty said.

The news comes in the wake of a strong showing for Xbox at its big annual showcase last weekend. It announced new titles such as Compulsion's South of Midnight and InXile’s Clockwork Revolution, while providing fresh looks at the likes of Fable, Avowed and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II.

The move away from Xbox One will free Microsoft's teams from the shackles of the previous generation. However, some third-party developers have raised concerns that the Xbox Series S, which is less powerful than the Series X, is holding them back too.

Booty conceded that making sure games run well on the Series S requires "more work." Still, he noted Microsoft's studios (particularly those working on their second games for this generation of consoles) are now able to better optimize their projects for the Series S.

Uber will soon start displaying video ads in its apps. They’ll appear while you wait for a ride to show up and while you’re in transit, after you place orders in Uber Eats and in search results and other parts of Drizly, the company told The Wall Street Journal. Ads will also be shown on tablets that are placed inside some Uber cars.

Users in the US will start seeing video ads this week. Tablets displaying ads will be installed on a city-by-city basis in the country. The company plans to roll out video ads in the UK, France, Australia and other markets later this year.

Static ads have been shown in Uber Eats since 2019 and in the company’s eponymous ride-hailing app since last year. The company started offering new ad tools in Drizly, the alcohol-ordering app it bought in 2021, last year. Mark Grether, vice president and general manager of Uber’s advertising division, said the company is on course to clear $1 billion in ad revenue in 2024.

The video ads in the apps will be muted by default (audio will play on tablets that are in cars) and will run for up to 90 seconds. An Uber ride lasts around 15 minutes on average, and users typically spend between two and three minutes looking at the app during trips. “We have two minutes of your attention. We know where you are, we know where you are going to, we know what you have eaten,” Grether told the Journal. “We can use all of that to then basically target a video ad towards you.”

The company says it won't share individuals' data with advertisers. You’ll be able to opt out of ad targeting based on demographic data and your activity in Uber's apps, but you can’t opt out of ads altogether, Uber says. Unless, of course, you lock your phone or switch to another app.

It’s not yet clear whether you’ll be able to immediately close an ad once it starts playing. If not, users may temporarily be unable to access certain features in Uber’s apps, such as the safety tools and the ability to message a driver or Uber Eats courier. Engadget has asked Uber for clarification.

Sony has once again discounted a number of its wireless headphones and earbuds, including a few models we've recommended in past reviews and buying guides. The flagship WH-1000XM5, for one, is back down to $348. While that isn't an all-time low, it's still $50 off the noise-cancelling pair's typical going rate over the past few months. The XM5s are the top pick in our guide to the best wireless headphones, and we gave them a review score of 95 last year thanks to their powerful active noise cancellation (ANC), comfy fit, punchy yet customizable sound and roughly 30-hour battery life. Like other Sony headphones, they also come with a handful of useful software features; "Speak-to-Chat," for example, automatically pauses your music when the headphones detect that you're speaking.

If that's too expensive, the previous-generation WH-1000XM4 remains a solid buy at its current deal price of $278. Again, that's not an all-time low, but it's $70 less than usual. The XM4s are a little bulkier than their successor, with a worse mic for phone calls and slightly boomier sound out of the box. We found their ANC to be worse at muting mid- and treble-range sounds as well, though it's still more effective than most wireless models. Otherwise, the XM4's feature set is mostly the same, plus they can fold up for easier storage. The XM5s also rely on an automatic ANC adjustment system, which some may prefer to avoid. We gave the XM4 a review score of 94 back in 2020.

If you want a set of in-ear headphones, the WF-1000XM4 is down to $198. Though we've seen this deal for much of the last few months, it's $70 off the list price for the top pick in our best wireless earbuds guide. We're still fans of this pair's ANC, sound quality and battery life, but be warned: Severalrecentleaks suggest that Sony will launch a follow-up model in the near future, so it might be worth waiting. If you're willing to trade wireless charging, a couple hours of battery life and some ANC strength for a smaller and lighter design, the LinkBuds S are also worth a look at $128. They're an honorable mention in our guide, and this deal takes about $30 off their average street price. You can find a full rundown of the sale at Amazon and Sony's online store, among other retailers.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.