Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro offer a compelling alternative to Apple's AirPods Pro. They're even more tempting when you consider the latest discount. The active noise cancelling earbuds are currently on sale for an all-time low price of $120 at Amazon-owned Woot. That's $80 off their typical price and $20 less than the previous record deal.
Maybe it's because the Galaxy Buds+ landed in February and the Buds 2 are expected in August. Whatever the reasons behind the latest price cut, the Buds Pro are still worthy of your cash due to their bombastic sound. Firstly, unlike the $150 Buds+, they boast active noise cancellation and a wider audio range that features more depth and clarity thanks to the internal 1mm woofer and a 6.5mm tweeter.
Voice calls have also been improved with the help of three microphones, an accelerometer and Wind Shield tech for when you're outdoors. What's more, battery life matches Samsung's estimates at five hours with ANC and Bixby turned on and eight hours with them off, or 28 hours total with the case — which supports wireless charging. For those looking for durability, the IPX7-rating means you can dunk them in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. Overall, they're still our highest rated Samsung earbuds with an exemplary review score of 85.
Just note that before you purchase them it may be worth familiarizing yourself with Woot's terms and conditions. For the uninitiated, the online retailer mainly offers limited-time deals with a modified return policy to its parent Amazon that includes numerous exceptions, including charges for shipping costs.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Robots have plenty of potential to help people with limited mobility, including models that could help the infirm put on clothes. That's a particularly challenging task, however, that requires dexterity, safety and speed. Now, scientists at MIT CSAIL have developed an algorithm that strikes a balance by allowing for non-harmful impacts rather than not permitting any impacts at all as before.
Humans are hardwired to accommodate and adjust to other humans, but robots have to learn all that from scratch. For example, it's relatively easy for a person to help someone else dress, as we know instinctively where to hold the clothing item, how people can bend their arms, how cloth reacts and more. However, robots have to be programmed with all that information.
In the past, algorithms have prevented robots from making any impact with humans at all in the interest of safety. However, that can lead to something called the "freezing robot" problem, where the robot essentially stops moving and can't accomplish the task it set out to do.
To get past that issue, an MIT CSAIL team led by PhD student Shen Li developed an algorithm that redefines robotic motion safety by allowing for "safe impacts" on top of collision avoidance. This lets the robot make non-harmful contact with a human to achieve its task, as long as its impact on the human is low.
"Developing algorithms to prevent physical harm without unnecessarily impacting the task efficiency is a critical challenge," said Li. "By allowing robots to make non-harmful impact with humans, our method can find efficient robot trajectories to dress the human with a safety guarantee."
For a simple dressing task, the system worked even if the person was doing other activities like checking a phone, as shown in the video above. It does that by combining multiple models for different situations, rather than relying on a single model as before. "This multifaceted approach combines set theory, human-aware safety constraints, human motion prediction and feedback control for safe human-robot interaction," said Carnegie Mellon University's Zackory Erickson.
The research is still in the early stages, but the ideas could be used areas other than just dressing. "This research could potentially be applied to a wide variety of assistive robotics scenarios, towards the ultimate goal of enabling robots to provide safer physical assistance to people with disabilities," Erickson said.
After oh so many delays, training up its founder, Sir Richard Branson, and some delightful, sometimes petty, banter with Blue Origin (love those “largest windows in space” claims), Virgin Galactic has made it into space.
Or at least, it did, depending on who you ask. Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight is just days away, and it’s pointed out that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo didn't’ really fly in space. The craft reached an altitude of 'just' 53.4 miles. However, the Kármán line (the formal demarcation for space) is 62 miles.
It’s a fair point, even if it comes across a little like sour grapes. While not quite crossing over that line, the mission was to evaluate the SpaceShipTwo’s cabin environment, seat comfort and the overall experience it will offer customers. Presumably, this was where Sir Branson’s expertise in astrophysics with his myriad companies came to the fore. Two additional test flights are set to launch before Virgin Galactic begins offering paid flights next year.
Watch Virgin Galactic’s successful flight right here.
The phones the FBI sold to crooks for a sting operation weren't just running a custom messaging app — it appears the operating system itself was customized for the sting. Motherboardobtained one of the "Anom" phones — a modified Pixel 4a underneath it all — and its mysterious ArcaneOS has a number of customizations you wouldn't necessarily expect, even for a privacy-oriented phone.
There’s no app store, and you can't toggle location tracking. You can’t flash the device with third-party firmware to make it behave more like normal phones, either — the bootloader is locked, even though the startup screen tells you the device has been “modified.”
For nefarious types you’d expect to see in Mission Impossible movies, less real-life, there’s a hidden chat app (accessed through the "calculator" when it worked) and PIN scrambling. There’s also a wipe code feature that lets you erase a phone from the lock screen — although it won’t explode. Continue reading.
You’ll only see shared media a single time before it vanishes.
After releasing the feature on Android last month, WhatsApp is debuting self-erasing media and texts on iOS, via a new beta release. If you sign up for the beta version 2.21.140.9 on Testflight, you'll be able to send photos and videos that self-destruct as soon as they're viewed and dismissed. Users with access to the "view once" feature will see a dedicated button resembling a timer in the caption input field.
Unlike WhatsApp's disappearing messages, which delete after seven days, photos and videos sent using view-once mode vanish immediately after you close them. That said, there's nothing stopping users from taking screenshots of media, and you won't be notified if a recipient has done so. Some apps, like Snapchat, make this harder to do or inform the user when screenshots are snapped. Continue reading.
While English fans might not want to think about football for a bit, FIFA 22 is, predictably, on its way, and its centerpiece is a new HyperMotion system. This will apparently offer more realistic animation and gameplay when you game on a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S or Google Stadia. The technology uses machine learning to produce animations in real-time, leading to more "organic" movement.
The game is also coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC (via Origin and Steam), while FIFA 22 Legacy Edition is coming to the Nintendo Switch, although EA didn't outline differences. Presumably, it’ll be a less graphically intense version of the game. EA has hinted at a "complete" revamp of the goalkeeper system, a new club creation experience in Career Mode and "reimagined" Volta Football. Continue reading.
The semi-autonomous upgrade has been in the works for years.
Tesla is rolling out FSD beta version 9 to Early Access Program users, and while it's still not full autonomy, it does enable numerous Autopilot driver assists, including lane changes and turns. You'll also get revamped visualizations that offer "additional surrounding information."
The update also references a recently activated feature that uses the cabin camera to make sure you're paying attention while Autopilot is engaged. Musk also urged beta testers to be "paranoid" and stay prepared to take the wheel at a moment's notice. Continue reading.
Amazon has managed to develop a pretty wide range of Fire HD tablets, Echo Show devices, Kindles and Echo Glow lights for kids. Now, it has launched a big sale for all of those products with discounts as high as 40 percent on its Fire 7 Kids Pro tablets, with the latter product now available at just $60 instead of $100.
The Fire HD Kids Pro lineup features bright colors, kid-friendly cases and a two-year "worry-free" replacement warranty if it breaks, but as Amazon puts it, they're real tablets and not toys. To that end, the Fire 7 Kids Pro tablets come with 7-inch 1,024 x 600 displays, front- and rear-facing 2-megapixel cameras, Micro USB ports and 16 GB of RAM, expandable to 512 GB. You also get a 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ with over 20,000 apps, games books, videos, songs and Audible books from National Geographic, Rabbids Coding, LEGO and others.
The Fire HD 8 Kids Pro model boosts the screen to a 1,280 x 800 model, with 32GB of storage expandable to 1TB, while the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro offers a 10.1-inch 1,920 x 1,200 display with 2-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras. All the models come with a digital store when kids can request apps and parents can approve them.
Amazon
Amazon is also offering it's Echo Glow smart multicolor lamp (above) for kids at $20 rather than $30, for a savings of 33 percent. Paired with an Echo Dot Kids (available together for $55 or $35 off the full price), your kids can change the color of the light with their voice, or "ask Alexa to play music, read stories, and call approved friends and family," Amazon notes.
Naturally, Amazon makes the Echo Show 5 (2nd gen) in a kids version with parental controls, and that device is available for $80 or $15 off the regular price. It features a bright "chameleon" cover and allows kids to ask Alexa to play videos, help with homework and make video calls to approved contacts. As with the tablets, it comes with a year of Amazon Kids+ with access to 15,000 videos, audiobooks, games, music stations and more. You can also get it in a bundle with the Echo Glow for $95, for a savings of 24 percent.
Finally, for any young readers in the family, Amazon is offering the Kindle Kids Edition for $70 rather than $110, for a savings of $40 or 36 percent. This model is a 10th-generation Kindle (again, not a toy) with a kid-friendly cover and 2-year worry-free guarantee. It offers a black and white glare-free display, weeks of battery life and a 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+, with access to the complete Harry Potter series and others like Artemis Fowl.
You might not have to wait much longer for an (arguably overdue) iPad mini redesign. As 9to5Maclearned, Bloomberg's historically accurate Mark Gurman claimed in his latest "Power On" newsletter that the revamped small tablet "should be a go" for a fall launch. While Gurman didn't share more details of the design, he previously claimed Apple would drop the home button and offer slimmed bezels — it could effectively be a shrunken iPad Air.
This will be the "biggest redesign" for the iPad mini since the first model arrived in 2012, Gurman added.
The reporter maintained that Apple is still developing a "larger, redesigned" replacement for the 27-inch iMac that would include a future generation of Apple Silicon, although there weren't more details.
The iPad mini has seen few outward changes since its launch. Even the base iPad has gone through more changes over the same period. In that light, Apple might not have much choice — this is as much about catching up with modern design as it is revitalizing sales.
The phones the FBI sold to crooks for a sting operation weren't just running a custom app — it appears the operating system was also tweaked for those goals. Motherboard has obtained one of the "Anom" phones (really, a modified Pixel 4a), and its mysterious "ArcaneOS" has a number of customizations that you wouldn't necessarily expect, even for a privacy-oriented phone.
For one, there are no app stores. You also can't toggle location tracking. And don't think you can simply flash the device with third-party firmware to make it behave more like normal phones — the bootloader is locked even though the startup screen tells you the device has been modified.
Some user said Anom was based on the existing GrapheneOS, but Anom may have lied to buyers about the software to instill a false sense of trust.
The interface does include some security features that would appeal to the criminal target audience, including a hidden chat app (accessed through the "calculator" when it worked) and PIN scrambling. A wipe code feature that lets you erase a phone from the lock screen is also present, although the Justice Department clearly didn't like that feature when it charged some Anom developers with alleged obstruction of law enforcement.
At least one second-hand Anom phone owner say they got a Pixel 3a, suggesting the FBI transitioned to different devices as the sting unfolded.
You wouldn't want to buy one of these devices, then, even for curiosity's sake. However, it's now clear just how far the FBI went to bust criminals. The agency wanted to give unsuspecting drug dealers the impression they were using a true encrypted phone, right down to the OS, even as the device quietly exposed messages to law enforcement agents.
Google's latest Nest Hub might not be the only device to track your sleep using radar. Bloombergreports that Amazon has received an FCC waiver to let it use 60GHz radar for sleep tracking. As with Google's tech, you could check for sleep issues without having to wear a device like the Halo band.
The technology could also be used for gesture navigation, particularly for people with mobility or speech impairments that would prevent them from using conventional commands. Amazon wasn't shy about drawing comparisons to Google — the company cited the Pixel 4's radar when asking for the waiver.
Amazon didn't provide many clues about the products that would use radar tracking, but it described the devices as "non-mobile." In other words, they're more likely to be Echo devices that monitor your rest from your nightstand.
It's not certain when Amazon might ship radar-equipped hardware, although the recent Echo Show launches without that equipment suggests you could be waiting a while.
Amazon has strong incentives to update its device line, though. On top of competition with Google, the internet giant is making a big push into health between Halo and services like Amazon Pharmacy. Radar-based sleep tracking could make the Echo a valuable health tool, not just a handy companion for playing music or controlling your smart home.
Apple’s iOS 15 is slated for release this fall, and this week we’ve got a hands-on with its public beta. According to Cherlynn Low, iPhone users have a lot to look forward to later this year. Meanwhile, Nicole Lee set up both the 8- and 5-inch Echo Shows in her house to check out Amazon’s updates, and she says the Echo Show 8 is now much improved for video calls. Also, Daniel Cooper found a lot to like about the Lenovo Legion 5, but he admits the laptop comes with some compromises.
After spending a few weeks testing the latest iOS 15 features, including SharePlay and Focus modes, Cherlynn Low concluded that Apple lovers will have a bunch of new things to try out this fall. As most of the changes are already available, it’s perhaps not surprising that the beta is fairly complete. While testing SharePlay, Cherlynn encountered a few minor glitches. It was difficult to figure out how to access the feature initially because the options only show up when a compatible media app is open during a chat. And both parties will need a subscription to stream together on Apple TV+ or Apple Music.
Cherlynn particularly liked the Focus modes, which let users create customized profiles that only allow notifications from selected apps or people to come through. You can also pick a Home screen that will only show the apps you want. In this mode, you won’t see any other pages — just the apps drawer and the Today screen — keeping distractions to a minimum.
Other upgrades include Live Text, which scans photos for usable text like foreign words on a menu to translate; richer and more detailed Maps; better Spotlight search and Share With You, which consolidates media your friends send you. Cherlynn said there’s much more to explore in the Weather, Safari and Wallet apps that should give fans a taste of the full release. She also spent time with the new watchOS 8 beta, which brings more health and fitness tools, improved communication and better integration with connected appliances to the Apple Watch.
Amazon didn’t change much on the new $129 Echo Show 8 and $85 Show 5, and Nicole Lee says that’s just fine. The two devices eschew the swiveling screen found in the Echo Show 10 and keep much of what worked in previous models: the minimalist design, an ambient light sensor to adjust brightness and color temperature and a camera shutter for privacy. The Echo Show 8 has a 1,280 x 800 resolution display while the Show 5 features a 960 x 480 screen, and the latter is clearly intended as more of a nightstand device. Nicole was particularly pleased by the sound quality on the Echo Show 8, which delivered powerful bass and impressive volume.
And because it now features an octa-core processor and a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera, the Echo Show 8 is now more useful for video calls. The camera also has digital panning and zooming technology so it can follow you during video calls, although in Nicole’s experience, this took a few seconds to kick in. But the Show 8 won’t be best for all your video needs as it lacks native YouTube as well as streaming support for Disney+, Paramount+ and HBO Max. If you’re already in the Amazon ecosystem, she says the Echo Show 8 delivers the most value for the money — but if you’re looking for something akin to an alarm clock, the Show 5 is a better choice.
Though Lenovo isn’t best known for its gaming laptops, Daniel Cooper points out that the new Legion 5 Pro laptop is clearly trying to capture more of that attention. With AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 graphics, the machine is powerful — and at $1,530, it’s relatively affordable as well. Daniel points out that the 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD are underwhelming, but they can be upgraded, and the 16-inch, 165Hz QHD IPS display holds its own in bright light and reduces glare.
When it comes to design, users get a solid aluminum chassis with a professional looking matte grey paint job, plus a plethora of ports including four USB-A, two USB-C, HDMI, Ethernet and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Daniel said that typing on Lenovo’s TrueStrike keyboard is a unique experience: the “soft landing” switches makes each actuation feel a bit deeper than the keys 1.5mm depth. He was less fond of the 720p webcam, which produces fuzzy images with light blooms, and the heat produced by the fan system was noticeable. However, the big compromise on the Legion 5 is the battery life — the machine lasted only 4 hours and 43 minutes during testing, which makes it most useful when near an outlet.
Cherlynn Low acknowledges that designing a stylish fitness tracker is difficult. Fitbit has tried it a few times before but their most recent attempt, the Luxe, is indeed chic — but Cherlynn says its size is actually the most impressive thing about it. Measuring 0.4 x 1.43 inches, the Luxe manages to include a heart rate sensor, oxygen saturation monitoring, sleep tracking, water resistance and basic phone syncing all in its tiny frame.
However, the downside is that small footprint results in a tiny screen as well. The 0.76-inch AMOLED panel, which runs at a 124 x 206 resolution, is hard to read. Cherlynn said that the text showing workout stats, cardio zone information and notifications might be frustratingly small for some. That aside, she had no problem using the Luxe to track workouts and sleep data; it works as promised and the UI is similar to other Fitbit devices without physical buttons. The touchscreen was responsive and she was able to get seven days of battery life — and that was even with connected GPS turned on for a bit. Overall, Cherlynn calls the Luxe well-made and capable, but best for those looking for a petite tracker.
Even people who don't own Samsung devices can now enjoy its ad-supported streaming service. According to Protocol, the tech giant launched TV Plus — something that used to be exclusively available on the the brand's TVs and mobile devices — for the web in May.
It was likely a soft launch, as the publication called it, seeing as Samsung has yet to formally announce its web version and has yet to include it in any marketing material for the streaming service. While there was zero fanfare surrounding TV Plus' web expansion, a company rep confirmed to Protocol that Samsung did indeed roll out a web version of the service in the second quarter.
Samsung launched TV Plus back in 2016, and it has since evolved into its current cable-like free ad-supported form. It's accessible in 23 countries, and in the US, it gives viewers access to 140 channels that include ABC News Live and Vice. Samsung Electronics SVP Sang Kim told Protocol that the company streams "billions of minutes every month," so it's clearly pretty popular with users. Its reach has been limited to Samsung customers up until now, though, and it remains to be seen whether the web version's availability can add a substantial number of new users to the service.
Roland’s Go:Mixer series has found a fanbase with musicians looking for a pocket-friendly recording solution — and for good reason. The tiny mixers are lightweight, offer bags of connectivity and won’t break the bank. The latest model, the “Pro-X,” brings some modest but important upgrades from the original Go:Mixer Pro.
The main newness here is less about the audio and more about compatibility: Roland claims the Pro-X adds better support for Android phones and iOS devices. Don’t worry, there is some extra audio functionality. Namely, a new gain “pad” for guitars (to attenuate volume on active pickups) and the headphone/monitor port is now bi-directional (i.e. it’s also an input). Roland pitches the latter as a way to record the inline mic in your headphones, but you can also plug in a lavalier/3.5mm source too, if you can live without monitoring.
The rest of the Pro-X is the same as the Pro before it. There’s a single XLR combi port on the right hand side for microphones and 1/4-inch devices. Also on this side you’ll find the phantom power switch (for when using condenser microphones), a smartphone/line level 3.5mm input and a guitar/bass port. The front edge hosts two more 3.5mm line level inputs, that new pad switch, the updated dual-directional headphone port and the phone loopback switch. The left hand side has just a pair of 1/4-inch instrument inputs and the battery cover for four AAA cells needed for the phantom power.
In short, if it has, or can be converted to, a 3.5mm port, a quarter-inch jack or an XLR connector you can likely use it here.
On the top face of the Pro-X is where you’ll find all the gain rotaries for each input. A few things to note though: the “smartphone” 3.5mm input doesn’t have a gain control, you’ll need to adjust that on the phone itself. Although, you can also plug a phone into one of the quarter-inch ports with an adapter, in which case you will have volume control with one of the ports if that’s important. It’s also worth mentioning that the master volume is also the monitor gain which is a little inconvenient if you want high monitoring levels but low gain on your recording or vice versa.
James Trew / Engadget
Given that the Pro-X has been designed to work with your phone, there’s a handy ridge along the battery compartment that doubles as a slot for your handset. Obviously this means you don’t need to have your phone lying around like a tethered paperweight, but it also provides a good position for the camera should you wish to livestream a performance. My iPhone 12 with a case doesn’t quite fit in the groove perfectly, but enough that the phone is steady when using it.
If there’s one immediate thing I would change, it’s the “peak” indicator. Unlike a DJ mixer where you would have a full strip of LEDs indicating the volume of each channel and a separate one for the master volume, the Pro-X has a single LED that will flash red when any input goes over the maximum threshold (i.e. clipping). It’s quite possible to set your levels so that there’s no red light showing during your checks, and then just one plosive can send it over. If there was a way to constantly see how close you are to 0dB that would be much more helpful.
Worse than that, though, I found that some of my recordings that didn’t trigger the red light could be a little distorted on playback. While speaking into the microphone, everything looked fine, but the recording was often “crunchy” in louder sections. Thankfully, you can actually hear this in your headphones while it’s happening, so you can adjust the levels before hitting record, but ultimately what’s the clipping light for if it’s not reliably preventing you from overdriving things? It made me pretty nervous about each recording until I had experimented with various levels and put more confidence in the monitoring.
After some testing with different mics, it became clear that dynamic mics are fine, but any condenser I tried needed much more headroom to avoid sounding harsh. It’s not clear whether this is a pre-amp or phantom power issue, or just the extra sensitive nature of condensers. When I tested with a Shure SM59 (dynamic/no phantom power), for example, I was able to — in fact almost had to — set the gain to full, and even if the master volume was at 75 percent there was still plenty of headroom.
And that brings us back to the fact that the monitor level control is the same as the master gain. You probably want your levels quite modest to make sure you don’t clip, but in doing so, your monitoring levels are also low, making it harder to hear your mix is how you want it, you know, kinda important things.
I largely avoided this issue by making sure that I was recording into something that showed more detailed levels. Rode’s Reporter app, for example, has a nice, broad meter showing you how hot your signal is and it was much easier to use that as a gauge of the aggregate output.
Teething problems aside, once you’re all set, it’s all very straightforward. Like I mentioned above, I preferred plugging in a phone (or any other 3.5mm source to be fair) via the Guitar port. Having the rotary dial for volume allows you to adjust the volume on the fly much more fluidly, which is handy if you want to use music beds or other such sources where you might want to dynamically alter the volume.
James Trew / Engadget
Likewise, if you want to use two XLR microphones — say for a podcast or a vocal and a mic’d instrument) — you can co-opt one of the 3.5mm ports with something like an iRig Pre 2. This means spending out on another bit of gear, but if you record often, having an XLR-to-3.5mm adapter/interface is pretty handy to have around.
As for that new ability to record with the inline mic on your headphones, all I can say is… it works? Those inline mics are never any good, but it’s never a bad thing to have more inputs, and might work well for more conversational podcasts or just recording phone interviews. As already mentioned, you can actually feed in other inputs here if you don’t need to monitor, say if you’re recording a voice over or something for a multitrack piece you want to edit later.
Perhaps the most interesting thing, for me, is what else can I use this for? Its credentials as a portable mixer for musicians are obvious. But I also feel like it’s just something handy to have around if you work with audio in any way. I’ve become something of an audio-adapter collector. I have all sorts of cables, interfaces and various types of microphones. Something like the Pro-X appeals to me as a simple way to put lots of those together into a portable setup.
The wealth of inputs means it’s pretty flexible, too. That’s a pretty compelling combo right there. The levels issue I mentioned earlier is more about learning how to set things up. Once I figured it out it was rarely a problem after that.
I do wish that the monitor volume was separate from the master volume for those occasions where you really do want to record low but still hear how the mix sounds together. Maybe that’s something we can hope for in a future model.
Whether you’re a garage band, an artist on the move or a podcaster that likes to get out in the big wide world there’s a lot to like here. At $150, it’s also a relatively modest investment for something you can easily fit in your back pocket.
