Amazon’s Echo Buds just got a spate of new features via a software update, though most of these tools are only available for the recently-released 2023 lineup of earbuds. First up, you can now tap the earbuds to start a recommended playlist, so you don’t need to fumble with your phone to launch a playlist or even speak out loud to ask Alexa for help. It’s all in the tap.
You can launch playlists via one triple tap or a single long press, which is adjusted via the settings in the associated Alexa app. It looks like this feature works with all of the major streaming platforms, as Amazon says it accesses “your preferred audio provider” to find the playlist. Just look for “Tap Controls” in the Echo Buds device settings to get started.
There’s also a new audio personalization tool that lets you tailor the sound to better integrate with your physical environment and the content you're consuming. For instance, you can tune the frequencies to accentuate the bass during a walk, to provide a fuller sound. The company lists other examples where this feature comes in handy, including watching movies on a laptop. This could actually be quite handy, as all sound sources are not created equal.
Again, head to the Echo Buds device settings via the Alexa app and look for the audio personalization options. You can even adjust each ear independently of one another, so your right ear can be louder or offer a different range of frequencies than the left ear. Amazon says the setup process here takes around four minutes. It’s also worth noting that this feature is available for both 2023’s model and 2021’s second-gen Echo Buds.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-latest-echo-buds-get-new-features-including-tap-to-start-playlists-170939952.html?src=rss
Just a couple of months after its debut, you can already score a great deal on the Apple Watch Series 9 thanks to an Amazon Black Friday discount. The smartwatch has dropped to $329, which is $80 or 18 percent off the regular price of $399. The previous low we saw for the Apple Watch Series 9 was $349 earlier this month.
This price applies to the 41mm model and you can take your pick from a variety of case colors and sport bands. Several 45mm variants are on sale too. That size of the Apple Watch Series 9 is down to $360, which is $69 off the standard price of $429.
At these prices, the Apple Watch Series 9 becomes a more enticing option as a gift for a special someone in your life, or even just yourself. We think this is the best smartwatch you can buy overall (though obviously you'll need to look at different options if you're an Android user).
In our review, we gave the Apple Watch Series 9 a score of 92. There are some major upgrades this year, thanks to the introduction of a more powerful S9 system-in-package (SiP) processor.
One of the key new features is called Double Tap, which builds on Apple's Assistive Touch accessibility tool. When Double Tap is enabled, you carry out a pinching action using the hand that's wearing the watch to carry out the main function in an app. It's a useful way to control certain aspects of your smartwatch without having to touch the screen. You can use Double Tap to, for instance, snooze an alarm, pause a song that's playing or reply to a message.
Using the gesture to reply to a message will bring up the Siri-powered voice typing option. So it's worth mentioning here that, thanks to the S9 SiP, the Apple Watch Series 9 can handle on-device Siri processing. That makes the voice assistant's performance a bit snappier, as Apple doesn't have to send your request to its servers for processing and back again. It also means that Siri can work offline.
Elsewhere, a second-gen ultra wideband chip powers a more precise Find My iPhone experience, as long as the phone you're looking for also has that chip. For instance, when you're looking for a misplaced iPhone 15 Pro, the Apple Watch Series 9 will show you how many feet away the device is, along with a directional indicator to guide you to it. Other upgrades in the latest Apple Watch include a brighter display. You'll also be able to check out the revised UI that Apple brought in with watchOS 10.
Meanwhile, the second-gen Apple Watch SE (which scored 89 in our review last year) has fallen to an all-time-best price too. If you're looking for a more budget-friendly way into the Apple Watch ecosystem, this could be the right option for you. Both sizes of the Apple Watch SE are $70 off, with 40mm versions coming in at $179 and 44mm variants starting at $209.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-watch-series-9-falls-to-a-new-low-of-329-in-an-amazon-black-friday-deal-164517938.html?src=rss
If I had the money and the means to have a semi-permanent home on the seas, I probably would want to have a yacht where I can bring my loved ones too whenever they would want to just get away from the concrete jungle and chill. Alas, that will probably remain a dream but that doesn’t mean I cannot daydream through these concepts and designs that show what life on water can look like.
The Cube Houseboat is a concept for a floating luxury house that is inspired by the Modernist movement and Swiss-French designer Le Corbusier. The red glass house is made from a fusion of alloy and reinforced glass built on top of an aluminum catamaran. The main star is something called the Fly Deck which is a single, superstructure deck that can be accessed through external stairs. You’ll be able to get a good view of the surrounding waters as well as a custom pool. Inside the main bedroom, there is also a Commercial Jacuzzi in case you need somewhere to relax even more.
The Semi Hulls that is located just below the main deck is where you’ll be able to see the machinery spaces, tanks, and chain lockers. In other words, you’ll get all the functional stuff in that section of the boat. And in case you have your other “sea toys” on board, they’ll be housed in the stern area for easy access in case you need to play. The Bow Area is for mooring and the entire boathouse has two propellers for propulsion and they’re powered by a diesel engine.
While it’s considered to be a red glass house, it can also be changed to a different color if red is not your vibe. The glass house on top of a catamaran seems a pretty minimalist but luxurious space to stay in when you just want to relax on top of water and enjoy the view surrounded by aquatic life. This is actually the third vessel concept that the Leoni Design Workshop has come up with for the Beyond Horizons: A Voyage through Yacht Design event.
The Sunbird messaging app for Android has flown the solar coop. The app has completely shut down following massive privacy concerns, as reported by 9to5Google. This comes after the app received increased scrutiny when it partnered with Nothing to act as the basis of the smartphone manufacturer’s Nothing Chats app. Nothing’s app was only available for less than one day before the aforementioned privacy concerns came to light and it was pulled.
The app’s gone from Google’s Play Store, though the parent company says this shutdown is temporary, according to an announcement posted on Reddit. Long story short? Sunbird was a niche product that didn’t quite work and the Nothing collaboration turned the spotlight to that fact. It promised full end-to-end encryption but many users could exploit vulnerabilities to access private user messages. 9to5Google, for instance, found over 630,000 files using this vulnerability. Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem too secure.
The writing was on the wall for Sunbird to anyone paying attention, which wasn’t that many people until Nothing got involved. The company missed several deadlines for launch, all while making lofty promises regarding secure iMessage and Android chat interoperability. During the company’s first announcement presser back in 2022, Sunbird refused to take questions regarding the underlying technology of the app and related privacy concerns, closing the Zoom chat when things got too hot, as reported by ArsTechnica. This led reporters to suggest that Sunbird simply wasn’t a “serious company.”
There’s also the giant Apple-sized elephant in the room. The tech giant recently announced it would offer support for RCS text messaging in 2024, completely eliminating the need for workarounds like Sunbird in the first place. In other words, the green bubble-blue bubble divide is coming to an end.
Despite erasing itself from the Play Store, Sunbird’s official website makes no mention of the shutdown, still boasting about the app’s peerless end-to-end encryption. The company’s also yet to make a public statement on the matter.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sunbird-shuts-down-its-imessage-app-for-android-after-major-privacy-concerns-160713312.html?src=rss
Details and photos of a new Samsung Galaxy smartphone have been leaked, the Samsung Galaxy A25. The handset will come with a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. The handset will be powered by a Samsung Exynos 1280 mobile processor and the […]
While Google may have officially released Android 14 at the start of October, there’s a good chance you’re still waiting for the update to arrive on your device. In recent years, the company has done its best to reduce the lag between when the latest version of Android arrives on its own Pixel phones and those from third-party partners, but that gap still exists in 2023. As of the writing of this article, many phone manufacturers are still beta-testing their Android 14 skins.
Engadget reached out to nearly every major phone manufacturer in the US market to find out how close they are to releasing a stable build of Android 14. If you’re unsure if your phone will receive the new OS, this article will answer that question, too.
ASUS
Richard Lai/Engadget
ASUS began publicly testing Android 14 in the US on October 10. Currently, the beta is only available on the company’s current flagship, the Zenfone 10. “The Zenfone 10 Android 14 closed community beta is first up – and as such Zenfone 10 is the first device which should be getting a stable release,” an ASUS spokesperson told Engadget.
ASUS declined to say when Zenfone 10 users could expect a stable version of Android 14 to arrive on their devices, with the company noting the timing of the release “is highly dependent on the stability and results of the beta tests with our signed-up community members.”
Beyond the Zenfone 10, only a handful of other ASUS phones will receive Android 14 due to the company’s current policy of supporting its recent devices with two platform updates. Taking that into account, the oldest phones ASUS will update with Android 14 are the Zenfone 9 and ROG Phone 6.
Google
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
As the main steward of Android, Google was one of the first phone makers to release a stable build of Android 14. Much of the Pixel line, dating back to 2020’s Pixel 4a 5G, has had access to Android 14 since October 4. Starting with the Pixel 8 series, Google has promised to support future devices for seven years. The first Android 14 Pixel Feature Drop will arrive sometime in December. In the meantime, you can enroll in the Android Beta for Pixel program to check out the first two Android 14 quarterly platform release (QPR) betas. Those include features that will arrive in later Feature Drops.
Huawei
Unless there’s a dramatic change in US-China relations, Huawei devices in the United States, Canada and Europe will not receive access to Android 14, at least not in the form accessible on devices from other manufacturers. In 2019, the Commerce Department placed the telecom giant on its Entity List, prompting Google to cut official ties with Huawei. HarmonyOS, the company's version of Android, doesn’t draw directly from the codebase Google makes available to its commercial partners. Additionally, most recent Huawei devices, including the Mate 60 Pro, aren’t available outside of China.
Motorola
Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Motorola will begin rolling out Android 14 to its phones in early 2024. The 2022 Edge, Edge+ and Edge 30 Fusion are the oldest devices the company plans to upgrade. The company’s 2023 lineup — including the Razr, Razr+, Moto G Power, G Stylus and G 5G — is also slated to receive Android 14. “For the status of Android OS on a specific device, users can visit our software support page,” a Motorola spokesperson said.
Nothing
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Carl Pei’s Nothing recently began rolling out the second open beta of Nothing OS 2.5, which builds on Android 14 with features designed to extend the capabilities of the company’s signature Glyph interface. The company posted on X on December 15 that the Nothing OS 2.5 update will roll out to Phone 2 users “over the next few days.” Meanwhile, Phone 1 users can expect an open beta for the update before the end of 2023.
Pei detailed Nothing OS 2.5 in a community update Nothing uploaded to YouTube. Among other enhancements, Open Beta 2 adds a new Glyph animation when the Phone 2’s NFC hardware is in use. The update also adds optional shortcuts users can access from the Phone 2’s power button, and tweaks to the operating system’s three-finger swipe gesture to make it more reliable. You can find the complete list of changes on Nothing’s website.
To date, Nothing has pledged to support its phones with three years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates. Having only entered the smartphone market in July 2022 with the Phone 1 and released one other handset since then, Nothing users can rest assured their device will get Nothing OS 2.5.
OnePlus
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
OxygenOS 14, OnePlus’ upcoming skin of Android 14, has rolled out to the OnePlus 10T and 11R in India, according to9to5Google. OnePlus declined to say when users could expect its entire eligible lineup to receive it, telling Engadget it did “not have any additional information to share at this time.”
On November 8, the company announced the Beta 4 release of OxygenOS 14, at the same time making the software available to people in the US and India.
If you bought your OnePlus phone anytime in the last three years, it’s likely to receive Android 14. With its two most recent products, the OnePlus 11 and OnePlus Open, OnePlus pledged to provide four years of Android updates and five years of security patches. With earlier handsets, including last year’s OnePlus 10 Pro, the company said it would support those products with three years of platform updates.
With that in mind, the OnePlus 8T, which was released in late 2020, is likely the oldest OnePlus phone slated to receive OxygenOS 14. Additionally, as with most other manufacturers, those with older devices will probably end up waiting longer before they see the latest version of Android arrive on their phone.
Samsung
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Samsung began rolling out a stable build of its Android 14 skin, One UI 6, at the end of October. With the company offering four generations of OS updates on many of its recent devices, older phones like the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy A32 won’t be left out of the company’s Android 14 rollout. Samsung has already updated a significant portion of its recent smartphone lineup, starting with recent flagships. With the company off to a quick start, most eligible Galaxy phones could end up receiving the update before 2024.
As 9to5Googlenotes, the Galaxy S23 series was the first to receive Android 14, in October. The S22 and S21 series followed in late November, as well as foldables including the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5. Midranged handsets like the Galaxy A54 5G, A53, A34 5G and A24 squeezed into the November update slot as well. So far in December, we’ve seen the One UI 6 / Android 14 update arrive for the A52s, A14 LTE, A33 and M33.
Not yet updated (but still scheduled for December, according to an apparently official Samsung schedule shared by a company community manager) are the Z Fold 4, Z Fold 3, Z Flip 4 and Z Flip 3. Also expected in December are midrange handsets like the Galaxy A72, A52, A14, M53 5G and the rugged XCover 6 Pro.
Models expected in January include the Galaxy A23 5G, A13, A04s, M23 5G and M13.
Sony
Sony
Sony began rolling Android 14 to its flagship Xperia 1 V phone on November 6. If your 1 V hasn’t prompted you to install the update yet, you can manually check if it’s available to download by opening your phone’s Settings menu and tapping the “System Update” option, which is found under the “System” heading.
“The Android 14 update will be rolling out to other Xperia models,” a Sony spokesperson told Engadget. “However, we are not able to share the exact timing of that rollout.”
Xiaomi
Xiaomi
Outside of Google, Xiaomi was one of the first OEMs to roll out a stable release of Android 14 to its users. As of this article, MIUI 14, which builds on the latest version of Google’s operating system, is available on the Xiaomi 13 Pro, 13 and 12T.
Unfortunately, those with older Xiaomi handsets may end up waiting a while before MIUI 14 arrives on their phone. “The exact timeline for Xiaomi to update its older devices to Android 14 is currently not available,” a Xiaomi spokesperson said. “Please stay tuned for further updates on this matter.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/when-will-your-phone-get-android-14-152432975.html?src=rss
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