Month: February 2023
Resident Evil Village is a great PSVR 2 shooter, if you can stomach it
Yes, Lady Dimitrescu looks even taller in VR.
Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 is a solid headset with a relatively small launch catalog, and one of its most exciting titles is a VR mode for Resident Evil Village, Capcom’s first-person 2021 survival horror shooter. Village draws inspiration from Resident Evil 4, which got a stellar Meta Quest 2 port back in 2021, so I had high hopes. And they weren’t unfounded. The free PSVR 2 update to Village offers great shooting with the device’s Sense controllers and makes a solid case for the headset’s quirky “face rumble” feature. If only other parts didn’t torture me as badly as Ethan Winters’ hands.
I’m not making any claims to fully reviewing Village in VR here. In my free time since the mode’s launch on February 22nd, I’ve been spending halting hours working through most of its first two sections, comprised of Ethan exploring the eponymous village and the castle of noted vampire giantess Lady Dimitrescu. I’ve been reviewing VR games since 2016, and I consider myself to have an average tolerance for simulation sickness; I’ve spent long stretches playing motion-heavy games like Horizon Call of the Mountain in PSVR 2. But Village has demanded constant diligence to avoid triggering some of the worst nausea I’ve had in years, and I don’t trust myself to power through the whole thing in a timely fashion.
I’m not sure how many people will feel as bad as I did. My colleague Sean Hollister, for one, has had a better experience. Still, Village is a laundry list of risk factors for VR-induced illness. Like countless other VR games, you’re playing a pair of disembodied arms that can carry weapons or items, moving by default with the controller’s analog stick. But smooth stick-based motion can make plenty of VR users feel awful, and Village doesn’t have the teleportation-style fallback comfort mode that many titles — including Resident Evil 4 VR — offer. There’s a “tunneling” comfort option that narrows your field of view while you’re moving, but in my experience, it can only do so much.
On top of that, levels are full of labyrinthine passages that require you to sprint away from enemies or backpedal while shooting. They force you to frequently turn either with the thumbstick, which nauseated both Sean and me, or your physical body, which quickly tangles you in the PSVR 2’s cord. The game is also full of long cutscenes that take control away from you, moving your virtual hands and head in ways that don’t reflect your real position.
These elements directly, and maybe inevitably, reflect Village’s non-VR design. Resident Evil 4 VR feels great because its original level structure was relatively open and straightforward, built for methodical shooting gallery gameplay. (As an originally third-person game, it can also pull you out of first person for cutscenes and certain combat moves, rendering them in the game’s non-VR style.) By contrast, Village is a game where you’re often supposed to feel vulnerable and pressed for time, sometimes chased — or dragged — around in close quarters by things you can’t fight.
The moment you pull out a gun, this feels like how Village was meant to be played
But so far, that translates into periodic frustration even when I’m not sick. I’ve found myself running down twisted virtual staircases trying to avoid yanking the headset’s cable from my PlayStation 5 or selecting and turning in-game keys with a menu system just complicated enough to throw me into wasting precious seconds. Without venturing too far into spoiler territory, the interface asks you to use the right-hand face button to select key items… and during at least one scene, using your right hand for anything will feel incredibly wrong.
Especially if you’re prone to motion sickness, I’m not convinced Village’s non-combat segments are worth the tradeoffs of VR. There are some delightful upsides: Lady D looks nicely imposing with the headset’s added illusion of physical presence, and if you weren’t already wincing at Ethan’s nonstop limb trauma, raising the Sense controllers to examine his half-healed wounds up close will probably do the trick. But the locomotion and item handling is just clumsy enough that it’s almost as distracting as it is immersive. That’s particularly true when you’re backtracking to solve Village’s puzzles since VR mode simplifies the map in a way that (as far as I can tell) limits it to your immediate vicinity rather than letting you pan or flip between floors.
Which is a shame because, the moment you stop moving and pull out a gun, VR simply feels like the way Village is meant to be played. The game’s shooting is similar to Resident Evil 4 VR: you’ve got an array of weapons attached to your body, and you mime pulling them off your hip or back to draw them, then reload by grabbing ammunition from a pouch at your side. It makes for a faster pace than gamepad-based combat, and moving your arm to aim a gun (or raising your hands to block an attack) feels a lot more natural than pushing around an analog stick. I’ve got some quibbles, like the fact that it’s easy to reach a little too far back and grab the map off your back instead of ammo. But it’s fun, mostly intuitive, and incredibly satisfying, down to the face vibration that hits every time a real-world shotgun or rifle butt would kick against your cheek or shoulder.
Village isn’t quite the easy PSVR 2 win I’d hoped for, and as long as Sony sticks with a cabled headset, I’m not sure there is an easy win to be had. But at the very least, it delivers on the promise of its action elements — and for a lot of people, that might be enough.
Yes, Lady Dimitrescu looks even taller in VR.
Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 is a solid headset with a relatively small launch catalog, and one of its most exciting titles is a VR mode for Resident Evil Village, Capcom’s first-person 2021 survival horror shooter. Village draws inspiration from Resident Evil 4, which got a stellar Meta Quest 2 port back in 2021, so I had high hopes. And they weren’t unfounded. The free PSVR 2 update to Village offers great shooting with the device’s Sense controllers and makes a solid case for the headset’s quirky “face rumble” feature. If only other parts didn’t torture me as badly as Ethan Winters’ hands.
I’m not making any claims to fully reviewing Village in VR here. In my free time since the mode’s launch on February 22nd, I’ve been spending halting hours working through most of its first two sections, comprised of Ethan exploring the eponymous village and the castle of noted vampire giantess Lady Dimitrescu. I’ve been reviewing VR games since 2016, and I consider myself to have an average tolerance for simulation sickness; I’ve spent long stretches playing motion-heavy games like Horizon Call of the Mountain in PSVR 2. But Village has demanded constant diligence to avoid triggering some of the worst nausea I’ve had in years, and I don’t trust myself to power through the whole thing in a timely fashion.
I’m not sure how many people will feel as bad as I did. My colleague Sean Hollister, for one, has had a better experience. Still, Village is a laundry list of risk factors for VR-induced illness. Like countless other VR games, you’re playing a pair of disembodied arms that can carry weapons or items, moving by default with the controller’s analog stick. But smooth stick-based motion can make plenty of VR users feel awful, and Village doesn’t have the teleportation-style fallback comfort mode that many titles — including Resident Evil 4 VR — offer. There’s a “tunneling” comfort option that narrows your field of view while you’re moving, but in my experience, it can only do so much.
On top of that, levels are full of labyrinthine passages that require you to sprint away from enemies or backpedal while shooting. They force you to frequently turn either with the thumbstick, which nauseated both Sean and me, or your physical body, which quickly tangles you in the PSVR 2’s cord. The game is also full of long cutscenes that take control away from you, moving your virtual hands and head in ways that don’t reflect your real position.
These elements directly, and maybe inevitably, reflect Village’s non-VR design. Resident Evil 4 VR feels great because its original level structure was relatively open and straightforward, built for methodical shooting gallery gameplay. (As an originally third-person game, it can also pull you out of first person for cutscenes and certain combat moves, rendering them in the game’s non-VR style.) By contrast, Village is a game where you’re often supposed to feel vulnerable and pressed for time, sometimes chased — or dragged — around in close quarters by things you can’t fight.
But so far, that translates into periodic frustration even when I’m not sick. I’ve found myself running down twisted virtual staircases trying to avoid yanking the headset’s cable from my PlayStation 5 or selecting and turning in-game keys with a menu system just complicated enough to throw me into wasting precious seconds. Without venturing too far into spoiler territory, the interface asks you to use the right-hand face button to select key items… and during at least one scene, using your right hand for anything will feel incredibly wrong.
Especially if you’re prone to motion sickness, I’m not convinced Village’s non-combat segments are worth the tradeoffs of VR. There are some delightful upsides: Lady D looks nicely imposing with the headset’s added illusion of physical presence, and if you weren’t already wincing at Ethan’s nonstop limb trauma, raising the Sense controllers to examine his half-healed wounds up close will probably do the trick. But the locomotion and item handling is just clumsy enough that it’s almost as distracting as it is immersive. That’s particularly true when you’re backtracking to solve Village’s puzzles since VR mode simplifies the map in a way that (as far as I can tell) limits it to your immediate vicinity rather than letting you pan or flip between floors.
Which is a shame because, the moment you stop moving and pull out a gun, VR simply feels like the way Village is meant to be played. The game’s shooting is similar to Resident Evil 4 VR: you’ve got an array of weapons attached to your body, and you mime pulling them off your hip or back to draw them, then reload by grabbing ammunition from a pouch at your side. It makes for a faster pace than gamepad-based combat, and moving your arm to aim a gun (or raising your hands to block an attack) feels a lot more natural than pushing around an analog stick. I’ve got some quibbles, like the fact that it’s easy to reach a little too far back and grab the map off your back instead of ammo. But it’s fun, mostly intuitive, and incredibly satisfying, down to the face vibration that hits every time a real-world shotgun or rifle butt would kick against your cheek or shoulder.
Village isn’t quite the easy PSVR 2 win I’d hoped for, and as long as Sony sticks with a cabled headset, I’m not sure there is an easy win to be had. But at the very least, it delivers on the promise of its action elements — and for a lot of people, that might be enough.
5 Hidden Galaxy S23 Features You Should Be Using All the Time – CNET
Improve your battery life, take higher-quality photos and more with these lesser-known features.
Improve your battery life, take higher-quality photos and more with these lesser-known features.
Kuo: New iPhone SE With 6.1-Inch OLED Display and Apple’s 5G Chip Planned
Apple has restarted development of a fourth-generation iPhone SE with a 6.1-inch OLED display and an Apple-designed 5G chip, according to the latest information shared by reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. This reversal comes nearly two months after Kuo said Apple had abandoned its plans to release a new iPhone SE in 2024.
In a series of tweets today, Kuo said the new iPhone SE will be similar to the standard iPhone 14, which features a 6.1-inch OLED display with thinner bezels. The current iPhone SE is equipped with a 4.7-inch LCD display with thicker bezels.
The new iPhone SE will be equipped with Apple’s custom-designed 5G modem, with connectivity limited to sub-6GHz bands of 5G, the analyst said. The current iPhone SE already supports 5G, but uses Qualcomm’s custom Snapdragon X57 chip.
Kuo did not indicate when the new iPhone SE would be released, but it likely won’t be available until March 2024 or later based on when previous models of the device launched. The current iPhone SE was released in March 2022, for example, with pricing starting at $429 in the U.S. The device is Apple’s last iPhone with a Home button and Touch ID, but Face ID is likely for the new model if it is based on the iPhone 14.Related Roundup: iPhone SE
Tag: Ming-Chi Kuo
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone SE (Neutral)
Related Forum: iPhone
This article, “Kuo: New iPhone SE With 6.1-Inch OLED Display and Apple’s 5G Chip Planned” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Apple has restarted development of a fourth-generation iPhone SE with a 6.1-inch OLED display and an Apple-designed 5G chip, according to the latest information shared by reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. This reversal comes nearly two months after Kuo said Apple had abandoned its plans to release a new iPhone SE in 2024.
In a series of tweets today, Kuo said the new iPhone SE will be similar to the standard iPhone 14, which features a 6.1-inch OLED display with thinner bezels. The current iPhone SE is equipped with a 4.7-inch LCD display with thicker bezels.
The new iPhone SE will be equipped with Apple’s custom-designed 5G modem, with connectivity limited to sub-6GHz bands of 5G, the analyst said. The current iPhone SE already supports 5G, but uses Qualcomm’s custom Snapdragon X57 chip.
Kuo did not indicate when the new iPhone SE would be released, but it likely won’t be available until March 2024 or later based on when previous models of the device launched. The current iPhone SE was released in March 2022, for example, with pricing starting at $429 in the U.S. The device is Apple’s last iPhone with a Home button and Touch ID, but Face ID is likely for the new model if it is based on the iPhone 14.
This article, “Kuo: New iPhone SE With 6.1-Inch OLED Display and Apple’s 5G Chip Planned” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
The best fitness trackers for 2023
The fitness tracker isn’t dead, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the people keeping these little devices alive. Smartwatches like the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch have all but taken over the mainstream wearable space, but the humble fitness tracker remains an option for those who want a gadget to do one thing right all the time. Despite the headwinds, there are still a bunch of fitness bands out there to choose from. Engadget has tested many of them and picked out the best fitness tracker for most people.
What do fitness trackers do best?
The answer seems simple: Fitness trackers are best at monitoring exercise, be it a 10-minute walk around the block or that half marathon you’ve been diligently training for. Obviously, smartwatches can help you reach your fitness goals too, but there are some areas where fitness bands have the upper hand: focus, design, battery life and price.
When I say “focus,” I’m alluding to the fact that fitness trackers are made to track activity well; anything else is extra. They often don’t have the bells and whistles that smartwatches do, which could distract from their activity-tracking abilities. They also tend to have fewer sensors and internal components, which keeps them smaller and lighter. Fitness trackers are also a better option for those who just want a less conspicuous device on their wrists all day.
Battery life tends to be better on fitness trackers, too. While most smartwatches last one to two days on a single charge, fitness bands will last five days to one week — and that’s with all-day and all-night use.
When it comes to price, there’s no competition. Most worthwhile smartwatches start at $175 to $200, but you can get a solid fitness tracker starting at $70. Yes, more expensive bands exist (and we recommend a few here), but you’ll find more options under $150 in the fitness tracker space than in the smartwatch space.
When to get a smartwatch instead
If you need a bit more from your wearable, you’ll likely want a smartwatch instead. There are things like on-watch apps, alerts and even more robust fitness features that smartwatches have and the best fitness trackers don’t. You can use one to control smart home appliances, set timers and reminders, check weather reports and more. Some smartwatches let you choose which apps you want to receive alerts from, and the options go beyond just call and text notifications.
But the extra fitness features are arguably the most important thing to think about when deciding between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. The latter devices tend to be larger, giving them more space for things like GPS, barometers, onboard music storage and more. While you can find built-in GPS on select fitness trackers, it’s not common.
Best overall: Fitbit Charge 5
Fitbit’s Charge 5 has everything most people would want in a fitness tracker. First and foremost, it’s not a smartwatch. That means it has a slightly lower profile on the wrist and lasts days on a single charge while tracking activity and monitoring your heart rate and sleep. It also has a full-color AMOLED display — a big improvement from the smaller, grayscale screen on the previous Charge 4. That display, along with a thinner design, make Charge 5 feel more premium than its predecessor.
The Charge 5 has EDA sensors for stress tracking and it will eventually support ECG measurements and Daily Readiness Scores (the latter is only for Premium subscribers). Those are on top of existing features that were carried over from the Charge 4 — most notably, Fitbit Pay support and built-in GPS tracking. The former lets you pay for coffee or groceries with a swipe of your wrist, while the latter helps map outdoor runs, bike rides and other activities. Built-in GPS remains the star of the show here — it’s fast and accurate, making the Charge 5 the best option if you want a focused do-it-all wearable fitness watch.
Runner up: Garmin Vivosmart 5
A more subtle-looking fitness band alternative is the $150 Garmin Vivosmart 5. It’s thinner than the Fitbit Charge 5 and fits in a bit better with bracelets and other jewelry you might wear regularly. But its attractive design is only part of its appeal — Garmin knows how to track fitness, and the Vivosmart 5 is proof that you don’t need to drop hundreds on one of the company’s fitness watches to get a capable device.
It has a lot of the same features as the Charge 5, except for a built-in GPS. It does support connected GPS, though, so you can map outdoor runs and bike rides as long as you bring your phone with you. The Vivosmart 5 tracks all-day heart rate and activity, plus sleep and workouts, and we’ve always appreciated how many workout profiles Garmin has to choose from. You can customize which show up on your device and change them whenever you want. You’ll also get additional health information like Garmin’s Body Battery score, which tells you how long after a hard workout you’ll need to wait until you can train at peak performance again, pulse ox measurements, sleep stage data, women’s health monitoring and more.
The biggest disadvantages to fitness tracking with the Vivosmart 5 are the aforementioned lack of built-in GPS, plus its slightly harder to use mobile app. But on the flip side, Garmin devices can sync with Apple Health, whereas Fitbit devices still don’t have that feature.
Best budget: Fitbit Inspire 3
If you only have $100 to spare, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is the best fitness tracker option. It strips out all the luxury features from the Charge 5 and keeps only the essentials. You won’t get built-in GPS tracking or Fitbit Pay or Spotify control but you do get excellent activity tracking, automatic workout detection, smartphone alerts and plenty more. The updated version has a sleeker design and includes a color touchscreen and connected GPS, the latter of which lets you track pace and distance while you run or bike outside while you have your phone with you.
The Inspire 3 is definitely the more fashionable out of the two Fitbit devices on this list. Its interchangeable bands let you switch up the look and feel of your tracker whenever you want, and it’s slim enough to blend in with other jewelry you might be wearing. We were also impressed by its battery life: Fitbit promises up to 10 days on a single charge, and that checked out for us. After four days of round-the-clock use, the Inspire 3 still had 66 percent battery left to go.
Most fashionable: Withings Move
All of the previously mentioned fitness trackers are attractive in their own way (bonus points to those that have interchangeable bands), but they share a similar look. There aren’t many alternative designs for these devices anymore. The $95 Withings Move watch is an exception, and one of the most traditionally fashionable fitness trackers you can get. It’s an analog watch with a couple of health monitoring features including step, calorie, distance and sleep tracking, connected GPS, auto-recognition for more than 30 workouts and a water-resistant design. But we really love it for its button-cell battery, which can last up to 18 months before needing a replacement.
The fitness tracker isn’t dead, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the people keeping these little devices alive. Smartwatches like the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch have all but taken over the mainstream wearable space, but the humble fitness tracker remains an option for those who want a gadget to do one thing right all the time. Despite the headwinds, there are still a bunch of fitness bands out there to choose from. Engadget has tested many of them and picked out the best fitness tracker for most people.
What do fitness trackers do best?
The answer seems simple: Fitness trackers are best at monitoring exercise, be it a 10-minute walk around the block or that half marathon you’ve been diligently training for. Obviously, smartwatches can help you reach your fitness goals too, but there are some areas where fitness bands have the upper hand: focus, design, battery life and price.
When I say “focus,” I’m alluding to the fact that fitness trackers are made to track activity well; anything else is extra. They often don’t have the bells and whistles that smartwatches do, which could distract from their activity-tracking abilities. They also tend to have fewer sensors and internal components, which keeps them smaller and lighter. Fitness trackers are also a better option for those who just want a less conspicuous device on their wrists all day.
Battery life tends to be better on fitness trackers, too. While most smartwatches last one to two days on a single charge, fitness bands will last five days to one week — and that’s with all-day and all-night use.
When it comes to price, there’s no competition. Most worthwhile smartwatches start at $175 to $200, but you can get a solid fitness tracker starting at $70. Yes, more expensive bands exist (and we recommend a few here), but you’ll find more options under $150 in the fitness tracker space than in the smartwatch space.
When to get a smartwatch instead
If you need a bit more from your wearable, you’ll likely want a smartwatch instead. There are things like on-watch apps, alerts and even more robust fitness features that smartwatches have and the best fitness trackers don’t. You can use one to control smart home appliances, set timers and reminders, check weather reports and more. Some smartwatches let you choose which apps you want to receive alerts from, and the options go beyond just call and text notifications.
But the extra fitness features are arguably the most important thing to think about when deciding between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. The latter devices tend to be larger, giving them more space for things like GPS, barometers, onboard music storage and more. While you can find built-in GPS on select fitness trackers, it’s not common.
Best overall: Fitbit Charge 5
Fitbit’s Charge 5 has everything most people would want in a fitness tracker. First and foremost, it’s not a smartwatch. That means it has a slightly lower profile on the wrist and lasts days on a single charge while tracking activity and monitoring your heart rate and sleep. It also has a full-color AMOLED display — a big improvement from the smaller, grayscale screen on the previous Charge 4. That display, along with a thinner design, make Charge 5 feel more premium than its predecessor.
The Charge 5 has EDA sensors for stress tracking and it will eventually support ECG measurements and Daily Readiness Scores (the latter is only for Premium subscribers). Those are on top of existing features that were carried over from the Charge 4 — most notably, Fitbit Pay support and built-in GPS tracking. The former lets you pay for coffee or groceries with a swipe of your wrist, while the latter helps map outdoor runs, bike rides and other activities. Built-in GPS remains the star of the show here — it’s fast and accurate, making the Charge 5 the best option if you want a focused do-it-all wearable fitness watch.
Runner up: Garmin Vivosmart 5
A more subtle-looking fitness band alternative is the $150 Garmin Vivosmart 5. It’s thinner than the Fitbit Charge 5 and fits in a bit better with bracelets and other jewelry you might wear regularly. But its attractive design is only part of its appeal — Garmin knows how to track fitness, and the Vivosmart 5 is proof that you don’t need to drop hundreds on one of the company’s fitness watches to get a capable device.
It has a lot of the same features as the Charge 5, except for a built-in GPS. It does support connected GPS, though, so you can map outdoor runs and bike rides as long as you bring your phone with you. The Vivosmart 5 tracks all-day heart rate and activity, plus sleep and workouts, and we’ve always appreciated how many workout profiles Garmin has to choose from. You can customize which show up on your device and change them whenever you want. You’ll also get additional health information like Garmin’s Body Battery score, which tells you how long after a hard workout you’ll need to wait until you can train at peak performance again, pulse ox measurements, sleep stage data, women’s health monitoring and more.
The biggest disadvantages to fitness tracking with the Vivosmart 5 are the aforementioned lack of built-in GPS, plus its slightly harder to use mobile app. But on the flip side, Garmin devices can sync with Apple Health, whereas Fitbit devices still don’t have that feature.
Best budget: Fitbit Inspire 3
If you only have $100 to spare, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is the best fitness tracker option. It strips out all the luxury features from the Charge 5 and keeps only the essentials. You won’t get built-in GPS tracking or Fitbit Pay or Spotify control but you do get excellent activity tracking, automatic workout detection, smartphone alerts and plenty more. The updated version has a sleeker design and includes a color touchscreen and connected GPS, the latter of which lets you track pace and distance while you run or bike outside while you have your phone with you.
The Inspire 3 is definitely the more fashionable out of the two Fitbit devices on this list. Its interchangeable bands let you switch up the look and feel of your tracker whenever you want, and it’s slim enough to blend in with other jewelry you might be wearing. We were also impressed by its battery life: Fitbit promises up to 10 days on a single charge, and that checked out for us. After four days of round-the-clock use, the Inspire 3 still had 66 percent battery left to go.
Most fashionable: Withings Move
All of the previously mentioned fitness trackers are attractive in their own way (bonus points to those that have interchangeable bands), but they share a similar look. There aren’t many alternative designs for these devices anymore. The $95 Withings Move watch is an exception, and one of the most traditionally fashionable fitness trackers you can get. It’s an analog watch with a couple of health monitoring features including step, calorie, distance and sleep tracking, connected GPS, auto-recognition for more than 30 workouts and a water-resistant design. But we really love it for its button-cell battery, which can last up to 18 months before needing a replacement.
Linux is not exactly “ready to run” on Apple silicon, but give it time
Some important milestones have been hit, but we’re a long way from USB sticks.
Enlarge / Everything Asahi Linux’s four-person team has done to make Linux work on Apple’s M-series chips is remarkable, but “ready to run” is a stretch. (credit: Apple/Asahi Linux)
It’s an odd thing to see the leaders of an impressive open source project ask the press and their followers to please calm down and stop celebrating their accomplishments.
But that’s the situation the Asahi Linux team finds itself in after many reports last week that the recently issued Linux 6.2 kernel made Linux “ready to run” on Apple’s M-series hardware. It is true that upstream support for Apple’s M1 chips is present in 6.2 and that the 6.2 kernel will gradually make its way into many popular distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora. Work on Apple’s integrated GPU by the four-person Asahi core team has come remarkably far. And founder Linus Torvalds himself is particularly eager to see Linux running on his favorite portable hardware, going so far as to issue a kernel in August 2022 from an M2 MacBook Air.
But the builders of the one Linux system that runs pretty well on Apple silicon are asking everybody to please just give it a moment.
It looks like Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds will arrive soon with next-gen Bluetooth
Sony’s next high-end earbuds have appeared the FCC database in the US, which is a sign they’re nearly here – and Bluetooth 5.3 is on board.
News of the next-gen Sony WF-1000XM5 wireless earbuds has been thin on the ground, but that’s changed after they were spotted in an official US regulatory database. Sony fan site TheWalkmanBlog has spotted what looks to be the Sony WF-1000XM5 flagship earbuds model in an FCC filing.
The report appears with some of the new model’s key features for what would be the successor to the five-star reviewed Sony WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds.
While the FCC documents keep as much as they can under wraps (including the name), the filing confirms the new model will boast Bluetooth version 5.3, which means support for Bluetooth LE Audio is possible – though Sony may try to push its own LDAC Hi-Res system only instead.
Reading between the lines, the filing suggests that the new model will retain a very similar design to the Sony WF-1000XM4, since it appears to feature the same touch panel as the previous flagship earbuds.
Other details are thin on the ground, but filing does also confirm the new WF-1000XM5’s will also be keeping the same the same 3.85V voltage of its forebears.
Working on the basis that the Sony WH-1000XM5 over-ear headphones appeared on the FCC in early February 2022, before being officially being launched by the Japanese tech giants in May of that year, its looking likely we could see a late-spring release for the new earbuds.
The Sony WF-1000XM4s have been excellent true wireless earbuds – but how might they be bested by the XM5s? (Image credit: TechRadar)
Analysis: Filing offers promising improvements – but not everything is ticked off our wish list
The Sony WF-1000XM4 are still top of our list of the best wireless earbuds for most people, so it’s not like Sony is flailing behind the competition. But with solid competition from the likes of Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and AirPods Pro 2, there’s plenty of room for improvements for their successors.
Confirmation of Bluetooth version 5.3 is a big step in the right direction for the WF-1000XM5, especially if it means we get the better sound quality and lower power use of the Bluetooth LE Audio.
The FCC listing is only going to reveal so much at this stage, but the report doesn’t offer answers on three features we think should be priorities for the new headphones.
There’s no mention of support for the new Android Spatial Audio tech that Google is building into the operating system, nor an indication of improvement in noise cancellation that would bring the WF-1000XM5’s performance in line with that of Bose and Apple’s rival buds.
Arguably the biggest improvement would come with a boost to battery life, with the WF-1000XM’s running out of juice after eight hours of use.
While we wait to get a full list of the new model’s features, be sure to check out our guide to the best true wireless earbuds available today.
Bending Spoons lays off 129 Evernote staffers
Months after acquiring Evernote, Milan-based app developer Bending Spoons has made steep cuts at the note-taking and task management app. Layoffs took place at Evernote on Friday, February 17, an Evernote spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch, affecting 129 people. “This was a difficult — yet necessary — decision as we pursue our ambitious plans for Evernote,”
Bending Spoons lays off 129 Evernote staffers by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch
Months after acquiring Evernote, Milan-based app developer Bending Spoons has made steep cuts at the note-taking and task management app.
Layoffs took place at Evernote on Friday, February 17, an Evernote spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch, affecting 129 people.
“This was a difficult — yet necessary — decision as we pursue our ambitious plans for Evernote,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. “The company has been unprofitable for years and the situation was unsustainable in the long term.”
The spokesperson wouldn’t confirm which specific departments were impacted. But posts on LinkedIn and Blind suggest the layoffs touched a wide range of core Evernote teams, including the product design, engineering, HR, sales, customer service and marketing departments.
Evernote has indeed had its ups and downs over the past few decades, with mass layoffs in 2015 and 2018 — a year which also saw an exodus of top execs including Evernote’s chief technical officer, chief financial officer, chief product officer and head of HR. But the company appeared to have turned things around more or less, reporting $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within the last five years.
It’s unlikely Bending Spoons, for its part, was badly hurting for liquidity. The company recently closed a $340 million venture round and eclipsed $100 million in ARR last September.
So what’s the explanation for the cuts? It could be as simple as Bending Spoons priming Evernote for profitability. No doubt, the corporate parent wants a quick return on its investment, and it’s perhaps feeling additional pressure from investors. (Bending Spoons was bootstrapped until relatively recently.)
But it’s also true that Evernote wasn’t particularly competitive. Despite its reported high ARR, prior to the acquisition, the company largely failed to keep pace with competitors like Notion — opting to rely heavily on a consumer-focused freemium model while eschewing the kinds of collaboration features embraced by its rivals.
In any case, staffers are an unfortunate casualty of the circumstances.
Bending Spoons lays off 129 Evernote staffers by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch
Anker Soundcore noise-canceling headphones are up to 33 percent off right now
Apart from making a few of our favorite chargers and power banks, Anker also sells some of the better values among wireless headphones through its Soundcore brand. If you’ve been looking to pick up a competent set of noise-canceling headphones for less than $100, a couple of those standouts are currently on sale, with the Soundcore Life Q30 discounted to $60 and the Soundcore Space Q45 down to $100. For the Life Q30, that’s not quite an all-time low, but it’s still $20 off the pair’s typical going rate. The Space Q45 usually retails for $150; this deal matches the lowest price we’ve seen.
To be clear, neither pair here can match the active noise cancellation (ANC), build quality, call quality, sound and/or overall feature set of the top picks in our best wireless headphones guide, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45. But if you can’t drop $350 or so on a new set of headphones, they can get you much of the way there at a far lower cost.
Both pairs offer a comfortable fit that doesn’t clamp too tight on the head and offers ample padding. Both have superb battery life, lasting between 40 and 50 hours at moderate volumes. Both can connect to two devices simultaneously, and both come with a 3.5mm cable for wired listening, though only the Space Q45 can still use ANC when while wired. The two sets also include a transparency mode, which is serviceable, though not as clean as what you can get on pricier alternatives. And while the ANC on each pair isn’t top-of-the-line, it’s still good, particularly when it comes to muting bass-range noises like a plane or bus engine.
Sound quality is where the Life Q30 and Space Q45 might require some tweaking. Both headphones offer a strongly v-shaped profile out of the box, so their default sound is particularly boosted in the bass and highest parts of the treble. The Life Q30’s low-end is especially boomy. Some may like this more excited sound, but it’s not exactly natural. With either headphone, you may want to adjust the sound through Anker’s companion app, which offers a graphic EQ tool and a few alternative sound profile presets. Just note that, like many cheaper ANC headphones, the signature will sound slightly different depending on what ambient sound mode you use.
If you can afford the Space Q45, it’s the better headphone of the two. Its design feels a bit less flimsy (though both pairs are mostly plastic), and it has an adaptive ANC mode that can automatically adjust the headphone’s ANC strength based on your surroundings. The Life Q30, on the other hand, just offers three preset ANC levels. For Android users, the Space Q45 also supports the higher-quality LDAC audio codec. That said, finding any good ANC headphones for less than $100 is difficult; at these deal prices, both the Life Q30 and Space Q45 perform well enough to offer good value.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Apart from making a few of our favorite chargers and power banks, Anker also sells some of the better values among wireless headphones through its Soundcore brand. If you’ve been looking to pick up a competent set of noise-canceling headphones for less than $100, a couple of those standouts are currently on sale, with the Soundcore Life Q30 discounted to $60 and the Soundcore Space Q45 down to $100. For the Life Q30, that’s not quite an all-time low, but it’s still $20 off the pair’s typical going rate. The Space Q45 usually retails for $150; this deal matches the lowest price we’ve seen.
To be clear, neither pair here can match the active noise cancellation (ANC), build quality, call quality, sound and/or overall feature set of the top picks in our best wireless headphones guide, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45. But if you can’t drop $350 or so on a new set of headphones, they can get you much of the way there at a far lower cost.
Both pairs offer a comfortable fit that doesn’t clamp too tight on the head and offers ample padding. Both have superb battery life, lasting between 40 and 50 hours at moderate volumes. Both can connect to two devices simultaneously, and both come with a 3.5mm cable for wired listening, though only the Space Q45 can still use ANC when while wired. The two sets also include a transparency mode, which is serviceable, though not as clean as what you can get on pricier alternatives. And while the ANC on each pair isn’t top-of-the-line, it’s still good, particularly when it comes to muting bass-range noises like a plane or bus engine.
Sound quality is where the Life Q30 and Space Q45 might require some tweaking. Both headphones offer a strongly v-shaped profile out of the box, so their default sound is particularly boosted in the bass and highest parts of the treble. The Life Q30’s low-end is especially boomy. Some may like this more excited sound, but it’s not exactly natural. With either headphone, you may want to adjust the sound through Anker’s companion app, which offers a graphic EQ tool and a few alternative sound profile presets. Just note that, like many cheaper ANC headphones, the signature will sound slightly different depending on what ambient sound mode you use.
If you can afford the Space Q45, it’s the better headphone of the two. Its design feels a bit less flimsy (though both pairs are mostly plastic), and it has an adaptive ANC mode that can automatically adjust the headphone’s ANC strength based on your surroundings. The Life Q30, on the other hand, just offers three preset ANC levels. For Android users, the Space Q45 also supports the higher-quality LDAC audio codec. That said, finding any good ANC headphones for less than $100 is difficult; at these deal prices, both the Life Q30 and Space Q45 perform well enough to offer good value.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.