Back in September, Twitter announced that it's working on a dedicated tab for Spaces to make it easier for users to find relevant conversations they can listen to. Now, the website has started rolling out the tab to iOS users whose language is set to English. The new tab will feature a curated list of active Spaces, as well as a search function that people can use to look for conversations relevant to their interests. Twitter announced the update through the official Spaces account, where it also said that the tab will be available on Android and in other languages "in the future." Unfortunately, the company didn't mention a more specific date for Android availability, but iOS users who haven't gotten the tab yet can expect it soon.
we’re working on making it easier to find and join Spaces you love. today starts the rollout of the Spaces Tab to more people in English and iOS first, with other languages and Android coming in the future!
Twitter started testing Spaces in December. It's a live audio feature à la Clubhouse, where users can host conversations in audio-only rooms other people can enter. The website expanded its availability over the past months and added new ways to make Spaces more prominent and easier to find in its apps. Back in July, for instance, it added the ability to compose a new tweet directly from a Space, which will link directly to the audio chat.
The company might also have plans to add the Spaces tab to its website. While it has yet to officially announce anything, Nima Owji, who reverse engineers apps, found the unreleased feature and shared a screenshot of it in a tweet.
It has a search box to search for a space. It can also show you the scheduled spaces!@TwitterSpaces team is working hard to make it available to everyone! Nice job! pic.twitter.com/Rdb0xRvTve
Google has countersued Epic Games over in-app purchases on Fortnite, saying it "willfully breached" its Play Store developer agreement, ZDNet has reported. Epic originally sued Google in August, shortly after it filed a complaint against, and was countersued by, Apple. "Epic has alternatively been unjustly enriched at Google's expense," the company said in its complaint.
As a reminder, Epic sued Google for removing Fortnite from its Play Store after a "Mega Drop" update gave players a way to bypass Play and get discounted items. Google later forced OnePlus to break off a deal that would have seen the Fortnite launcher pre-installed on its OnePlus 8 smartphone, bypassing the Play Store and eliminating Google's commission on in-app purchases.
Google stated that unlike with Apple's App Store, Android developers aren't forced to use Google Play. "They choose to use it when given a choice among Android app stores and distribution channels," according to the complaint. "Google supports that choice through Android itself, Google Play's policies and Google's agreements with developers and device manufacturers."
Unlike competitors like Apple, Google does not require Android users or developers to use Google Play in order to download, install, or distribute apps on Android.
That argument is complicated by documents unsealed in Epic's original lawsuit against Google, however. They showed that Google paid other game developers and phone makers like LG and Motorola to exclusively use the Play Store rather than offering other store options. That's one reason cited by the 38 US states and territories that filed an antitrust suit against Google, in the same California federal court where Epic filed its own claim.
In 2018, Google reportedly offered Epic up to $208 million to bring Fortnite to the Play Store — effectively cutting its usual 30 percent take by around five percent. According to the same court documents, Google was so concerned by a potential loss of Play Store revenue that it even considered acquiring Epic.
Epic received a mixed ruling in its lawsuit battle with Apple. On the one hand, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to eliminate App Store rules that prevent developers from adding in-app links to payment sites. On the other, she ruled that Apple was not anticompetitive based on California law and ordered Epic to pay Apple $3.6 million. Both parties have appealed that ruling, and Apple has said it won't letFortnite back on the store until all appeals are resolved.
15 years ago, if you were writing a document, chances are you were doing it in Microsoft Word. Part of the company’s wildly successful Office suite, Word was the de-facto option for drafting text, whether you were an author, an office worker, a student, a teacher… you get the point.
But on October 11th, 2006, Google officially launched Google Docs and Spreadsheets in beta. As with everything Google, Docs and Sheets were cloud-based applications that also let you collaborate with others in real time. It’s easy to forget now, but this was completely different from how most people worked on documents at the time.
I was in a different career 15 years ago, one that required me to work on lots of spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations that were accessed in a shared network drive. Submitting them to others for edits and notes was a fraught process. Making sure you had the most current version of the document usually involved six-digit numbers representing the last date it was modified, initials to note who had checked it out, and messy notes added to the end until you landed on something insanely convoluted like “April_Report_051504_NI_final_final_reallyfinal.doc.”
15 years later, I’m writing this story in a Google Doc shared with my editors; they can make as many changes as they want to the finished parts of the draft as I keep typing away here and nothing will get lost. Collaborative work is a lot better than it used to be, and Google Docs is a big part of that – but it wasn’t always smooth sailing to get here.
Google Docs began as a “hacked together experiment,” its creator Sam Schillace said in an interview with The Verge in 2013. Eight years earlier, he created a tool called Writely, a web-based text editing platform. Google bought the company in March of 2006. According to Schillace, 90 percent of the company was using Writely only a month later. “When we went to Google, Writely was internally adopted very quickly,” he said. Barely seven months after that, Google officially released Docs and Sheets at the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. As with most Google products at the time, it was released in beta for free.
TechCrunch / Google
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t quite up to par with what Microsoft was offering with Office. The text editor was, comparatively speaking, very simple. But more importantly, Google Docs only worked when you had an active internet connection. While good broadband was fairly common in workplaces and universities, it was far less easy to find when you ventured out into the world. If you wanted to get some work while traveling, say on an airplane, Google Docs was a non-starter.
It didn’t take Google long to realize it needed to come up with a way to sync documents to a computer for offline access. In May of 2007, at its first “worldwide developer day,” the company introduced Google Gears. Gears was an open-source project and browser extension for Mac, Windows and Linux that would help web apps work with no internet connection. While the project was meant for any developer to use, using it for Google Docs made perfect sense.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the most stable tool. In late 2009, Google stopped development on Gears in favor of using the capabilities afforded by HTML 5. But even though Google continued supporting applications that used Gears, a technology transition probably didn’t do the company any favors in getting Docs and its broader app suite adopted in businesses and education institutions.
Around this time, Google was experimenting with a variety of ways to push collaboration and communication forward — Docs was just one of the success stories. There were failures though, the most high-profile of which was Google Wave — an ambitious combination of instant messaging, email, documents, multimedia and more. It was hyped by the tech press, so much that Google Wave invites were being sold on eBay. But interest dropped off quickly, in large part because it felt like even less of a finished product than most of Google’s “beta” launches.
Google / Engadget
Google didn’t do a great job explaining exactly what problem this new tool was designed to solve, and the company pulled the plug in 2010, after only a year. But many of the things Google experimented with in Wave ended up living on in other places. Indeed, right around the time Google ended development on Wave, the company added chat to Google Docs, letting people who had the same file open discuss what they were working on right alongside the content itself.
Google Docs clearly evolved past its early struggles, though. Google put a somewhat surprising amount of focus on the product over the last decade-plus, incrementally iterating and improving it at a steady pace. That’s the hallmark of products Google seems to really believe in. It’s the same way the company treated Android, Chrome (both the browser and OS), Drive, Photos, and, of course, Search and Gmail.
As internet access has become more and more widespread, the fact that Docs (like most of Google’s products) works best online was less of a hindrance. Not having to worry about saving a document took a while to get used to, but it’s something that we take for granted now — if your browser crashes, whatever you were working on should still be there waiting for you in the cloud.
Perhaps the biggest endorsement of Google’s cloud-first strategy came in 2010, when Microsoft took its first steps towards bringing Office applications online. For a long time, though, Google’s suite of apps were better-suited to the cloud. For example, you couldn’t have multiple people working on the same Office document until late 2013, something that was built into Google Docs from day one. Apple also followed Google’s lead, bringing its iWork apps online in 2013 and eventually enabling simultaneous collaboration as well.
While Office remains dominant in the workplace, it’s fair to say that Google gave Microsoft its first real competition in many years. Google has some giant customers, like Salesforce, Whirlpool, Twitter and Spotify. And Google’s apps, combined with inexpensive Chromebooks and its education platform, have made the company a force in the K-12 space as well as in higher education.
As for the next 15 years, it’s all but assured that collaborative and remote working will continue to be hugely important. That was clear before COVID-19, and the last 18 months have basically blown up the notion that everyone needs to go to an office. For a good idea of where collaborative work is going, consider Microsoft’s open-source Fluid framework. First announced in May of 2019, Fluid is meant to remove the barriers between different file formats and make it easy to pull in content from a wide variety of sources. Microsoft described it as a way to share atomized components of data across multiple files — so if you’re updating a spreadsheet in one document, you can link to that content in another file and it’ll automatically reflect those changes.
Dropbox hasn’t come up with its own “atomized components” of documents, but its Paper app works in a similar fashion. They’re collaborative like Google Docs, but they support a wide range of content plug-ins, so you can embed YouTube videos, Google Calendar elements, Figma documents, to-do lists, Trello lists, and even entire Google Docs.
Microsoft has been deliberate about developing Fluid, taking small steps since its initial release. Earlier this year, the company announced that some Fluid components would work in its communications platform Teams. I think that content moving outside of strict platforms like Google Docs or Microsoft Office into all the other places that we do work is going to be another important step forward.
That’s already happened to some degree. For years now, Dropbox has supported creating, sharing, and editing Microsoft Office documents right inside its own app and website, and it later added similar support for Google Docs as well. And apps like Slack have a host of integrations for things like Google Drive and Trello, though it’s not clear how widely used or essential they are to a Slack workflow. (I mostly just drop links to Google Docs I need edited.)
Somewhat ironically, as the barriers between content and file types fall away and more people do work in virtual spaces like Teams and Slack, Google’s vision for Wave looks to be rather prescient. The notion of a space for a project or team that encompasses all of its important elements, be they written documents, spreadsheets, images, videos or any other kind of content seems to be where we’re headed. But despite the fact that Google (and the rest of the industry) are moving back towards models that remind us of what Wave attempted, there’s still a missing piece in Google’s strategy.
That piece is messaging, something Google has struggled with, well, for about as long as Google has existed. As exhaustively detailed by Ars Technica, Google has never been able to stick with a coherent messaging plan for consumers or businesses. At some point, Google Chat (née Hangouts) could have been a solid Slack competitor, as well as the web that connects all the content people work on, but the company missed the boat as Slack solidified its dominance over the past five years. Even though Google Workspace has a huge user base, it hasn’t made inroads in the messaging side — which is what pulls a modern workplace together.
That said, Google’s Smart Canvas (announced at I/O this year) could be its own version of Fluid, a way to unify disparate forms of content and communication all in one place. From what we’ve seen so far, Smart Canvas has various “building blocks” that you can pull all into a single canvas — like a Meet call alongside a Google Doc for taking notes and a to-do list to assign items to team members. It’s only rolling out on a limited basis to paying Google Workspace customers, but it’s definitely worth watching to see how it evolves.
No one can really say what other cultural workplace shifts, like those brought on by COVID-19, will happen in the next 15 years. And those shifts are probably what will drive the most significant changes in products meant for work.
Apple's MacBook Air M1 combines power and portability into a sleek package, making it one of the best laptops we've tried for most people. It normally starts at $999, but Amazon has, once again, knocked the price down to $850. That's for the 256GB model, but the 512GB model is also $150 off, bringing it down to $1,099. We've seen this discount come and go pretty quickly over the past couple of months, so now's a good time to grab the laptop if you've wanted to upgrade to a daily driver.
The Air M1 earned a score of 94 from us when it came out about one year ago, thanks in part to its thin-and-light design, lovely Retina display, comfortable keyboard and trackpad and impressive performance. The former comes from Apple's M1 chipset and you'll immediately notice the performance gains if you're coming from an older MacBook. The laptop wakes almost instantly when you open the lid, native apps run smoothly and the machine is, on the whole, quite responsive. The GPU performance is better as well — while we still wouldn't run intense games on the Air M1, it can handle Apple Arcade titles and even Fortnite easily.
We also appreciate how quiet the MacBook Air M1 is because it lacks a fan inside. You won't hear constant whirring when you're putting the laptop through its paces, and you'll be able to do so for up to 16 hours since the machine has an excellent battery life. The biggest hassles you'll deal with on the Air M1 are its paltry 720p webcam and its two USB-C ports, the latter of which means you'll be living the dongle life for a little while longer. But if you can deal with those minor infractions, you'll still get a solid laptop that can go with you almost anywhere in the MacBook Air M1.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Are you ready for another Pixel phone? After Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy devices (both folding and, er, static), Google’s homegrown phones are probably the third most interesting family of smartphones.
Maybe it’s because Google has typically leaned into software and processing tricks rather than spec wars, both to offer features not found elsewhere (like its AI phone assistant) and to amp up its camera skills.
Now the company has shown us what the Pixel 6 looks like, and a little of what to expect, but leaks have offered a few more tidbits over the last few days.
One leak suggests a new subscription bundle could appear, which will combine a new Pixel phone — not necessarily the new flagship — with a bunch of Google subscription services including YouTube premium, Google One and Play Pass. This would all roll into a single monthly payment, although the leak doesn’t offer a price.
It means Google could offer an array of services all together, similar to Apple’s One bundle — with the cost of your smartphone lumped in. Let’s wait and see how Google prices it.
The fast-food chain will add an eight-piece order of Impossible Nuggets to the menu at select restaurants in Des Moines, Iowa; Boston, Massachusetts, and Miami, Florida. They’ll be only available for a limited time.
The nuggets themselves are made mostly of soy protein and sunflower oil, but, as the company notes, they won’t be technically vegan, as they’ll be fried in the same oil used to cook non-vegan foods.
But if you’re less about the plant protein and the king of burgers, we’ve got our 2021 outdoor gear guide, covering BBQs, pizza ovens and even a few meat thermometer options to ensure you’re cooking things just right.
One of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming world has been confirmed: Rockstar Games is re-releasing Grand Theft Auto III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC later this year. The bundle will also land on iOS and Android in the first half of 2022, though we’d suggest getting a Bluetooth controller if the mobile versions are tempting you.
Expect major graphical upgrades — and hopefully some quality-of-life improvements when the updates land. Rockstar plans to remove the original versions of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas from digital storefronts starting next week.
Smartphones have made it easier than ever to tune your guitar. There are myriad tuning apps or you could even ask Google Assistant to tune your instrument. Now Google has made the process even more painless by launching a chromatic tuner right in Search — no need for an app or voice commands.
A joint factory could help produce more cameras and cars.
Global chip shortages may soon create some unexpected team-ups. According to Nikkei sources, Sony and TSMC are "considering" the joint creation of a semiconductor factory. While TSMC would have majority control, the plant would operate on Sony land near its image sensor factory. The Japanese government would reportedly cover up to half of the $7 billion investment.
A joint plant wouldn't be surprising. Some analysts expect the worldwide chip shortage to last until 2023. It could help Sony, TSMC and the larger Japanese tech industry bounce back from the shortage, not to mention add greater stability — and less worry about China–US tensions threatening production in Taiwan.
If you're looking for a storage bump on your camera, PC, smartphone or Switch console, Amazon is featuring SanDisk and WD storage as it's Deal of the Day. You can boost your phone, tablet or Switch storage with a SanDisk Ultra 256GB MicroSD card for just $27, saving 18 percent in the process. And if you're looking for a high-capacity SD card for your camera, Amazon is selling the SanDisk Extreme Pro 256GB SDXC UHS-I card (up to 170MB/s read speeds) for just $48, over half off the regular price.
SanDisk's MicroSDXC memory cards offer the maximum performance you can get with a UHS-I memory card at 120MB/s on supported devices. That'll let you add games to a Switch or offload photos, video and other large files on a smartphone. Amazon is selling them in a wide variety of sizes, but the best price per gigabyte is on the 256GB model, available for a very palatable $27.
On the other hand, do you own a camera that uses UHS-I cards, like the A6600 or any other Sony APS-C mirrorless model? If so, then you should strongly consider picking up a SanDisk 256GB Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I card for just $48 (52 percent off). It'll not only give you enough storage to keep shooting for a long while, it delivers the fastest write speeds possible (90MB/s) in that format. If you have SanDisk's compatible reader, you can then write the files to your PC at 170MB/s — faster than the UHS-I standard normally allows.
Other notable discounts include SanDisk's 2TB Extreme Pro Portable SSD at $300, or 41 percent off, and the 4TB WD Red Pro NAS internal HDD discounted 47 percent to $105. Since they're part of Amazon's Deal of the Day, all products are on sale for today only.
With excellent sound, solid ANC and good battery life, Apple's AirPods Max headphones have a lot going for them. If you've been eyeing a pair but find the $549 price hard to swallow, take note. Amazon is now selling the AirPods Max in all colors for $100 off at $449, the cheapest price we've seen on the site.
The AirPods Max made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They have an eye-catching design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, they're comfortable to wear thanks to the breathable mesh fabric and large ear cups. They have a rotating crown to control sound that's easy to use, once you get the hang of it.
They have more natural sound than other headphones we've tried, with bass that's prominent but not overpowering. The ANC on Sony's WH-1000XM4 model is slightly more effective, but the AirPods Max are close, blocking out most environmental noise. Like other AirPods models, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC and join conversations. One of the main drawbacks is a lack of lossless audio support, but they do work with with Dolby Atmos spatial audio on most Apple devices.
In fact, the AirPods Max really shine if you're in the Apple ecosystem. With its H1 chip, it'll quickly pair with and switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example — letting you quickly go from taking a call to editing video. The regular price of $549 is a lot to pay for that convenience, however, so Amazon's $100 discount presents a good opportunity to pick up a pair.
It has been a busy couple of weeks at Engadget and we have many reviews to recap. Nathan Ingraham reviewed the newest base iPad as well as the Microsoft Surface Go 3, the latter of which he says lacks the processing power to be more than a secondary machine. Devindra Hardawar reviewed Windows 11, which he called both refined and frustrating, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio, which he enjoyed but found it to be underpowered for the price. Also, Dana Wollman checked out the Surface Pro 8 two-in-one, which solved some problems but created others with its new, higher price tag.
Dana Wollman was pleased to see that the Surface Pro 8 addressed some of our complaints about the previous version. It has a redesigned, larger display with skinnier bezels, improved resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, along with 11th-gen Core i5 and i7 processors and a slightly higher-res rear camera. But the detachable keyboard is still sold separately for $180, and the two-in-one starts off more expensive at $1,100. It’s also 15 percent heavier at 1.96 pounds without the keyboard. Dana says that’s lighter than her MacBook Pro, but that doesn’t make it an ideal mobile device.
The built-in kickstand seems to indicate the machine is best used when docked, not held. Dana said the kickstand is premium, albeit a bit awkward to pull out due to the narrow divots. She was underwhelmed by the images from the 10-megapixel rear camera, though it can record in 4K, and she was more impressed by the webcam that proved to be capable even in mixed lighting. The 120Hz refresh rate is a major improvement and she says you won’t want to revert back to 60Hz even if it helps save a bit of battery life. She also appreciated the Slim Pen 2, which has a haptic motor that made it fun to use. However, she admits that the higher price point makes the Surface Pro 8 even more of a niche item.
Nathan Ingraham likes many of the features of the Surface Go 3: it’s well-built, has a lovely and responsive touchscreen, a strong kickstand and is extremely light and portable. However, like the Surface Pro 8, it doesn’t come with a keyboard and you’ll definitely need one as Windows 11 still doesn’t offer up a stellar tablet experience. The bigger issue for him was the underpowered specs and average battery life. The model he reviewed came with a 10th-generation Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
That makes for a mostly capable machine for basic tasks, but Nathan experienced occasional music stutters and had to reload tabs during his workday. He noticed lag while working in Adobe Lightroom, and had issues during video calls while jumping into other programs. During his normal work routine, the battery lasted five hours, which detracts from the device’s portability. However, he liked the 10.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,280 touchscreen and the 3:2 aspect ratio as well as the infinitely adjustable kickstand. While Nathan says he can see the Surface Go 3 working as a secondary machine for travel, it’s hard to recommend as a daily driver because of its performance and battery life issues.
One of the first Windows 11 PCs, the Surface Laptop Studio has a 14.4-inch screen with a speedy 120Hz refresh rate and weighs around four pounds. Devindra Hardawar says while it’s clearly not trying to be an ultraportable, it is ultra-adjustable thanks to the display that tilts it into various angles. The display itself entranced him with its flexible hinge, fantastic Dolby Vision support and refresh rate, though it is surrounded by chunkier bezels. He said the speakers are surprisingly powerful thanks to the two subwoofers on the sides and the tweeters blasting through the keyboard.
While Devindra found the Laptop Studio to be a solid performer for everyday computing tasks — and fast enough to play Overwatch at 90 and 100fps — it has only a quad-core chip, and that makes it hard to recommend when so many similar machines feature more powerful six- or eight-core CPUs. He was also annoyed by the anemic port situation: two USB-C ports, which support ThunderBolt 4, and a proprietary Surface Connect slot, but there’s no longer an SD card slot, which would have been an opportunity to outdo the competition. At least Microsoft included the excellent keyboard from the Book 3 and the new Surface Slim Pen 2. While Devindra genuinely liked using the Surface Laptop Studio, he said he still wanted more power overall.
Devindra Hardawar doesn’t think that Microsoft is trying to fix much with Windows 11. Although the new operating system is more of a coat of paint over Windows 10, he doesn’t feel that’s a problem. Devindra says the more he uses the OS, the easier it is to see how far the small design tweaks have taken the software. The taskbar now has centered icons, the Start menu has a redesigned look with pinned apps, windows have rounded corners and the icons, Explorer and Settings apps look sharp making for a more refined feel overall.
The system requirements are a bit more rigid: compatible Intel, AMD or Qualcomm processor, 4GB RAM, at least 64GB storage and you’ll have to enable Secure Boot and Trust Platform Module 2.0 which make it harder for spyware and malware to attack. This means there are some additional complications if you’ve got older hardware or if you’ve built your own PC. Windows 11 will also be the only way to use Microsoft’s DirectStorage technology, which Devindra says should dramatically speed up load times when it’s available. He says that the combination of a refreshed look, additional security and faster performance is a step forward — just not a momentous one.
The 2021 refreshed iPad isn’t for early adopters like Nathan Ingraham. The updated tablet now includes a 12-megapixel front camera with Center Stage support, double the base amount of storage, the new A13 Bionic chip and iPad OS 15. However, the hardware is largely unchanged from the previous two versions. It has basically the same size and weight and still includes a 10.2-inch, 2,160 x 1,620 touchscreen, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a Lightning port for charging.
That means that this is an iPad meant for those who want a tablet that’s fast, lightweight, easy to carry around and (relatively) cheap. For most standard iPad users — those who use a tablet primarily for things like playing games or browsing the web — the new chipset will provide more than enough power. Nathan didn’t notice any slowdowns while multitasking with several open apps, though he did notice that some apps needed to refresh more frequently during those periods. Also, while the screen was serviceable for watching videos and playing games, it can’t compare to the screens on the other iPads in the lineup. But for $330, as Nathan says, who cares? If your iPad is more than a few years old, you'll find some significant improvements in this one.
Though the first thing you’ll notice about the new Fitbit Charge 5 is the 1.04-inch color AMOLED touchscreen. Valentina Palladino says that the changes made to the wearable — rounded edges and a 10-percent thinner body — made it more comfortable to wear as well. The fitness band also now has some more advanced features like ECG measurements and EDA monitoring for stress levels. The ECG measuring is coming soon and Valentina said that the EDA monitoring wasn’t intuitive and left her frustrated. She had better luck with the built-in GPS, which immediately picked up her location and accurately mapped her running route.
Valentina also liked the alarm and timer apps, which she found helpful throughout the day. However, she was disappointed that Fitbit removed some of the music-focused features, which meant she had to pull out her phone to skip a track or control playback. She was also a bit irked to see that some of the Charge 5’s more advanced metrics, like select sleep and exercise data, were part of Fitbit’s subscription service that costs $10 per month. But she did applaud the battery life and the inclusion of Fitbit Pay with NFC. She says if what you’re looking for is a low-profile wearable with a focus on fitness and a multi-day battery life, then the Charge 5 will fit the bill.
Devindra Hardawar says there was plenty to like about the first-gen Sonos Beam. When it comes to the Beam Gen 2, he says the addition of Dolby Atmos means the device can deliver a wider, more immersive soundscape. With largely the same hardware — a center tweeter, four mid-woofers and three passive radiators — this soundbar relies on more processing power to simulate the Dolby Atmos experience. Devindra says it worked surprisingly well during his testing, but wasn’t a replacement for having actual speakers dedicated to blasting height channels.
He liked that the Beam Gen 2 was still surprisingly compact at 25.6 inches wide and weighing six pounds, and that it has the same Ethernet, HDMI and power ports on the rear. And he appreciated how easy the set up was via Sonos’s app. In testing, the new Beam excelled during action movies: while watching Baby Driver, Devindra said it was a richer experience and even the dialog sounded clearer, too. However, music playback wasn’t as dramatically different and Dolby Atmos support for Amazon Music will come later this year. Sonos also makes it easy to synchronize audio throughout your home and the Alexa integration works well. Devindra says it’s a solid sub-$500 soundbar to take your movie-watching up a notch.
With three oscillators, two envelopes, two LFOs, two filters, an analog overdrive and twelve digital effects, the Uno Synth Pro offers plenty of options for sound design. Terrence O’Brien tested the smaller $400 Desktop model, which features a set of touch keys and an all-plastic body (the synth also comes in a standard $650 Pro model with a 37-key Fatar keybed and a partially metal chassis). He said that the overall construction feels solid enough, the buttons are decent, the knobs offer good resistance and the screen, while small, provides all the information you need.
However, the gray, black and red color scheme made it difficult to quickly spot the controls, especially in darker environments. He also didn’t like the four top knobs that change all the parameters. But Terrence said his biggest issue was with the touch keys and strips — they felt unresponsive and would occasionally fail to detect touches, which was worse in three-voice paraphone mode. The pitch and mod strips behaved similarly. But his frustrations were largely forgotten once the synth started making noise: Terrence said the oscillators have body and grit and the saw wave just rips. Overall, he was impressed enough with the wealth of sound design tools and the quality of the oscillators and filters to call himself a convert.
After using both the second- and third-generation Smart Socks on my twins, I’d grown accustomed to being able to check in on their stats anytime from my phone. When they aged out of their socks, it was an uncomfortable transition — for me. Owlet says I’m not alone: 72 percent of the users they polled indicated they’d like to keep using the device to measure their children’s heart rate and pulse ox levels. In response the company updated its algorithm and made the Smart Sock Plus, which can accommodate children up to five years old or 55 pounds.
Aside from the larger sock and better algorithm, the Smart Sock Plus is much the same as the standard, third-gen device. In testing, the Plus seemed to fit better but I had to employ work-arounds to keep my kids from taking them off. I also noticed fewer alerts about a misaligned sock, which was a welcome update. At $359 the Smart Sock Plus is pretty pricey for new users, but the $69 expansion pack available for existing customers is likely to do well as it extends the life time of the sock considerably.
Kris Naudus is plain: the new Nintendo Switch OLED, while lovely, isn’t a must-have. Though the refreshed handheld system features a brighter, 7-inch OLED screen, a new stand ideal for tabletop mode, an Ethernet port and a new coating which feels good in hand, not much has changed under the hood. The CPU and GPU remain the same, ensuring the future game titles will be compatible with existing Switch and Switch Light devices, and the infamous Joy-Cons haven’t been redesigned (though hopefully the drift issues have been solved).
Kris was impressed by the new stand, which is a Surface-style panel that stretches the length of the entire unit and can be left in any angle you prefer. However, because the USB-C port is still on the bottom which means it can’t be charged while set in tabletop mode. She also liked the slimmer bezels and coating on the frame and said the new buttons look sleeker and feel better. It’s the same height and width as the original Switch, too, so it will fit with all existing accessories. And though the battery is the same, it appears to be more power-efficient thanks to the new OLED screen. Despite that, Kris says unless you’ve given up your original or really need the OLED screen, you’ll be fine sticking with your current system.
Daniel Cooper would tell you that he enjoyed his time with the pricey Carol smart exercise bike, a machine intended to be used in short workouts of eight minutes and 40 seconds. Using the methods employed by Reduced Exertion, High Intensity Interval Training (REHIIT), the bike features exercise videos that you can follow via the 10.1-inch color touchscreen if you subscribe to the company’s service. Because the screen is a Lenovo tablet, you can run third-party apps through it like Peloton’s so you could take classes from there, to. Daniel says the Carol app is clean and colorful: the UI flashes when you hit a high intensity phase and power output visualizations were particularly great.
The bike itself looks like any at-home exercise bike with a large, real-slung flywheel and a drive unit to house the system to electronically control the resistance. The short handles contain heart rate-monitoring electrodes and the height of the handlebars and seat height and distance are all adjustable. After spending time with it, Daniel admits he feels like his fitness and mood both improved, but the $2,400 price tag is especially hard to swallow.
Yu don't have to wait until Google's October 19th event to learn a little bit more about the Pixel 6. Well-known leaker Evan Blass has spotted teaser pages on Carphone Warehouse that shed more light on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, including their software. In a confirmation of past rumors, Google is promising "at least" five years of security updates — that's longer than Samsung's four years, and suggests your Pixel 6 will have up-to-date protection as late as 2026.
The teasers tend to cover officially-released details beyond that, although they do provide a few more details. Not surprisingly, Google is interested in camera tricks — Magic Eraser eliminates photobombers, Face Unblur keeps subjects in focus, and an ultra-wide front camera helps with group selfies. The Pixel 6 will have a 50MP main sensor (up from 12MP) and a 12MP ultra-wide, while the 6 Pro will add a 48MP telephoto lens to the mix.
The product pages also hint at battery life past 24 hours "even on 5G," with fast 30W wired charging and reverse charging through Battery Share. There's a new "twice as powerful" Pixel Stand for wireless charging, too. The 6.4-inch Pixel 6 and 6.7-inch 6 Pro will both tout Gorilla Glass Victus as well as IP68 dust and water resistance, although you'll have to spring for the 6 Pro if you want an adaptive 120Hz display — you'll have to 'settle' for a Smooth Display (likely 90Hz) on the smaller model.
Carphone's listings don't dive much further into specs. All the same, it's evident Google is determined to treat the Pixel 6 as a flagship in terms of support, not just performance. Other Android vendors might have a harder time following suit (they're often tied to policies from chipmakers like Qualcomm), but this could give you at least one option if you want iPhone-like security updates without being tied to Apple's ecosystem.
The judge who presided over the Apple vs. Epic case largely sided with the tech giant, except in one area: She ruled that Apple must allow developers to direct users to other payment systems within their apps. Any changes the company has to make to App Store rules to accommodate for that must be in effect by December 9th, or so the judge originally ruled. But now, Apple has filed a notice of appeal (PDF via CNBC) asking for a stay on the injunction, which could push back developers' ability to offer alternative means of payment by one more year.
In its appeal, Apple wrote that it "has already taken concrete, specific steps in the direction indicated by the Court’s opinion — including by agreeing to eliminate the prohibition on targeted out-of-app communications." The tech giant argued that it "would be a poor use of resources" to require it to comply with the injunction due to the "near-inevitable litigation" from Epic regarding the scope of its compliance. "There is no reason to expend resources,"it said, adding that "a stay would maintain the status quo while the appellate process progresses to completion."
Trystan Kosmynka, Apple's senior director of App Review, also said:
"At a high level, it is my judgment that, without thoughtful restrictions in place to protect consumers, developers, and the iOS platform, this change will harm users, developers, and the iOS platform more generally."
Allowing developers to add in-app links to external payment options would be a major shift for the company. It originally yanked Fortnite from the App Store when Epic offered buyers discounts and freebies if they make their purchases directly from the developer. Shortly after that, the tech giant removed Epic's developer tools, as well. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney shared communications between the two parties back in September, wherein the tech giant said it wouldn't allow Fortnite back in the App Store until all court appeals are exhausted. The process could take five years.
According to a previous analysis by the CNBC, the App Store had gross sales of around $64 billion in 2020. Apple typically takes a 30 percent cut from app purchases, though it recently lowered that to 15 percent for all apps that earn less than $1 million a year. Giving developers the means to accept alternative modes of payment could cost the company billions. As Bloomberg notes, however, the judge that issued the injunction didn't specifically mention that the company can't charge developers a commission for payments made outside the App Store. Whether Apple would still ask developers for a cut remains to be seen, though it would be a complex undertaking if it decides to do so.
A hearing has been set for Apple's request to stay the injunction on November 16th, but it's looking to move the proceeding to November 2nd.
