There are many, many options for earbuds, all the way up to high-end sets that are bursting with features and deliver stellar audio. But for folks who are looking for a solid pair of earbuds that work well without breaking the bank, there are plenty of options in that area too.
Our pick for the best budget wireless earbuds is the Soundcore by Anker Space A40. You're in luck, because that model has dropped back down to their record low price of $49. It often retails for $80, so that's a $31 discount. Given that we felt the Space A40 already offered great value at the full retail price, this is a strong deal.
The lightweight earbuds should be comfortable to wear for extended listening sessions. The battery life is rated for 10 hours, with the charging case adding an extra 40 hours of listening time. Anker says that 10 minutes of fast charging will add four hours of listening time.
As you might expect from a lower-cost pair of earbuds, there's not as much detail in the sound profile as in higher-end models, though they offer warm tones and decent bass performance. EQ settings are adjustable in the Soundcore app, as are touch controls.
The Space A40 earbuds have an IPX4 rating for water resistance, so they should endure everyday sweat and light rain without much of an issue. You can use each earbud independently and connect them to two devices simultaneously.
What makes the Space A40 really stand out compared to rival models is the active noise cancellation (ANC), which performs very well for a set of earbuds in this price range. Adaptive ANC tech adjusts the intensity of the noise cancellation depending on your surroundings. However, higher pitched sounds won't be completely blocked out. You also have the option of adjusting ANC levels manually. The transparency mode isn't bad, either.
On the downside, the mic quality isn't fantastic, so folks on the other end of a phone call may not hear you super clearly. There's no auto-pause when you remove an earbud either. However, those are but small quibbles considering how well the Space A40 earbuds perform in other departments.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-cheap-wireless-earbuds-drop-to-just-49-155507153.html?src=rss
Ninja's DualZone air fryer is on sale for $150 right now via Amazon. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen all year for this kitchen mainstay. The sale drops $50 from the sticker price, which is a discount of 25 percent.
We chose the Ninja DualZone as one of the best air fryers out there, and the primary reason is right there in the name. The dual cooking zones are incredibly handy, letting home chefs prepare two different foods simultaneously. Each chamber allows for independent temperatures, cooking modes and more. Of course, the zones can also be chained together to whip up a whole bunch of one thing, like fries or nuggets.
We appreciated how quickly this oven heats up, with little to no preheating time required. It’s also fairly quiet during use, which isn’t always the case with air fryers. Some of them are downright cacophonous. Another neat little feature is that the oven will automatically adjust cooking times so that both ingredients in each chamber finish at the same time.
On the downside? This is a beast of a kitchen gadget that takes up a whole lot of counter space. It might not be the best fit for studio apartments and the like. The sale does only apply to the 8-quart model and not the even beefier 10-quart version. This is good for preserving counter space, but bad for those looking to cook a whole lot of stuff at once.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/ninjas-dualzone-air-fryer-is-on-sale-for-150-right-now-150803947.html?src=rss
Ballistic Moon, the studio that handled the remake given that original developer Supermassive Games is juggling several other projects, says the focus was on making the game feel more cinematic and intimate. That’s somewhat apt, given that a movie adaptation just started filming.
Those returning to the game will see updated character models, environments, interactable props, visual effects and animations. The switch to UE5 allowed the developers to make the most of upgraded rendering and ray-tracing capabilities too. Death scenes should look more grisly too, thanks to "more realistic real time fluids" and a revamped injury mask system.
Much of the action will now be from a third-person perspective with a controllable camera, rather than the purely fixed angles of the original game. Ballistic Moon also says it added more collectibles and revamped the prologue to tweak the pacing. In addition, the studio is bringing in more accessibility and usability settings to help as many folks as possible experience Until Dawn.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/until-dawn-remake-hits-ps5-and-pc-on-october-4-141559338.html?src=rss
Following a major update back in the spring, the Sonos app was very broken and missing key functionality. The company admitted it made a huge mistake in pushing the redesign too soon and explained that it has since uncovered more “issues” that have prohibited it from adding those missing features. Users were quickly frustrated, and now the company is so mired in fixing its app problem that it delayed two products that are ready to launch ahead of the holiday season. Let’s discuss how we got here, what happened with the app, the consequences Sonos is facing and what likely happens next.
The backstory
Sonos released a completely rebuilt version of its app for Android, iOS and desktop in May. The total redesign was focused on making it easier to play different kinds of content while also creating a hub that’s better suited for finding what you need. Of course, it also has to work with the company’s various speakers and soundbars, and the overhaul took place ahead of the release of the first Sonos headphones. Those cans, the Ace, brought new functionality that had to be supported in the app, so the company thought it was time to wipe the slate clean.
“We viewed re-architecting the app as essential to the growth of Sonos as we expand into new categories and move ambitiously outside of the home,” CEO Patrick Spence said on the company’s Q3 earnings call. “In addition to its more modern user interface, the new app has a modular developer platform based on modern programming languages that will allow us to drive more innovation faster, and thus let Sonos deliver all kinds of new features over time that the old app simply could not accommodate.” He also noted that “performance and reliability issues had crept in” over the company’s history, so the user experience had already suffered as a result of the aging platform.
Billy Steele for Engadget
Some customers will always be resistant to change. The new customizable interface took some getting used to, but that wasn’t the problem. The app was missing basic features like sleep timers and alarms. Users also reported the inability to rearrange speakers in different rooms, speakers working intermittently and trouble completing other basic tasks. Some say they can’t reliably load the app on the first try.
“We developed the new app to create a better experience, with the ability to drive more innovation in the future, and with the knowledge that it would get better over time. However, since launch we have found a number of issues,” Spence explained in July. “Fixing these issues has delayed our prior plan to quickly incorporate missing features and functionality."
Spence laid out a roadmap for fixing the problems in the same blog post, which initially included restoring the ability to add new products to your home setup. Even I had trouble adding the Ace headphones to the app at first, but after a few tries I eventually got it. Spence also said that the company had released updates to the app every two weeks since the redesign launched on May 7, and that it would continue that schedule alongside detailed release notes. The most recent version, which included TV Audio Swap with the Ace headphones and older Sonos soundbars, delivered a handful of very basic things — like the ability to clear the queue on the iOS version.
“Since I took over as CEO, one of my particular points of emphasis has been the imperative for Sonos to move faster,” Spence said on the earnings call. “That is what led to my promise to deliver at least two new products every year — a promise we have successfully delivered on. With the app, however, my push for speed backfired.”
The fallout
Sonos
Customers have been understandably upset since early May, which is well-documented in the r/sonos subreddit. But, user satisfaction isn’t the only issue that the company is facing. With the new version of the app so busted it had to be fixed before missing items could be added, Sonos has delayed the launch of two new products that were ready to go on sale in Q4. Spence said that the company enlisted “the original software architect of the Sonos experience,” Nick Millington, to do “whatever it takes” to remedy the issues.
And it’s not just a headache for customers. Sonos dealers and installers, which make up a significant part of the company’s business, are allegedly so frustrated with what they encounter trying to do their jobs that some of them have paused sales. “As an installer when you try and talk this up to somebody to buy, it is extremely embarrassing at this point when you have to just say ‘well, the parent company is having issues,’ it makes you look like the jackass,” one Reddit post explained.
Spence explained on the company’s Q3 earnings call that the app debacle would cost between $20 and $30 million. CFO Saori Casey said that sum is due to the loss of sales stemming from the software problem and having to delay two new products that would’ve generated more revenue. As such, Sonos had to revise its Q4 financial guidance to lower expectations until this “chapter,” as Spence describes the current fiasco, is resolved.
While the company hasn’t revealed any details on what either of those two now-delayed products might be, there have been rumors that offer some clues. Bloomberg reported in November that the company was working on a soundbar that would surpass the capabilities of its current flagship, the Arc, in addition to a set-top TV streaming box. Both of those products would be hot-ticket items for the holidays, especially for the Sonos faithful.
Sonos Arc
Kyle Maack/Engadget
Bloomberg explained that the new soundbar would likely be $1,200, or $300 more than the Arc. Additionally, the new model would include “new technology” following the company’s acquisition of Mayht Holding BV. In Sonos’ announcement of that move, it said that Mayht “invented a new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers.” More specifically, the company’s engineering methods allow it to build transducers, a basic component of speakers, that are smaller and lighter without sacrificing quality.
According to that same Bloomberg report, the Sonos TV streaming box will be powered by an Android-based OS with various apps for different services. The device is also said to act as a hub for Sonos gear in the home. Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision should be on the spec sheet, and voice control will reportedly play a significant role in the gadget’s operation.
Bloomberg further explained that Sonos was working on a new high-end amplifier that could cost at least $3,000 and new eight-inch ceiling speakers. Frustrated dealers and installers would likely be hesitant to sell such expensive items with the app in the current state, if Sonos could even add the functionality to make them work. Any of these could be the two products the company was forced to delay, and any of them would’ve likely padded the bottom line before the end of the year. And that would be on top of the early sales of the Ace, a device that should be popular this holiday season.
What happens next?
Sonos has a clear plan for how it intends to fix its buggy app, but there’s no timeline for exactly how long that will take. The company has yet to deliver a TrueCinema feature for its Ace headphones that will map a room (with the aid of a soundbar) to virtually recreate the acoustics for a more realistic experience. And as we learned recently, new products have been delayed for the time being.
“Building a new software foundation was the right investment for the future of Sonos, but our rollout in May has fallen dramatically short of the mark,” Spence said on the earnings call. “We will not rest until we’ve addressed the issues with our app, and have delivered new versions that materially improve our customers’ experiences.”
The company is at a standstill until its app is fixed, with a full product pipeline plugged up for the foreseeable future – if the reports are to be believed. From the looks of it, Sonos planned to release an app that wasn’t completely done, but one that it thought was stable enough to use, with the goal of adding features over time to improve the overall experience. However, the complete rebuild was essential to the new technology and devices Sonos has in the works, since the company has been clear the old app wouldn’t have supported them. And since one of those items was the Ace, Sonos had to decide if it could wait longer to release its first headphones, a highly-anticipated product, or just go ahead with what it had.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/why-is-the-sonos-app-so-broken-140028060.html?src=rss
Google has officially dropped its major 2024 devices a few months earlier than usual. At its Made By Google event this week, the company unveiled the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro, as well as its foldable follow-up, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. As for new accessories, we got the Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Buds Pro 2. In this bonus episode, Cherlynn and Devindra chat about everything from this event, and why the heck we didn't hear more about Android 15.
(Apologies for any audio issues in this episode, it was partially recorded in a noisy hotel room.)
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low Producer: Devindra Hardawar Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/engadget-podcast-breaking-down-googles-pixel-9-launch-event-131925200.html?src=rss
Spotify can now show its users in the European Union how much its plans cost within its iOS app after their trial period ends. The company has revealed that it's opting into Apple's "entitlement" for music streaming services in an update to an old blog post. This "entitlement" was created after the European Commission slapped Apple with a €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) fine back in March for restricting alternative music streaming apps on the App Store. The commission's decision followed an investigation that was opened when Spotify filed a complaint against the tech company, accusing it of suppressing its service in favor of iTunes and Apple Music.
Apple initially rejected the update that Spotify submitted in April this year to add "basic pricing and website information" on its app in Europe. Now that Apple has approved changes, users will be able to see pricing information, as well as promotional offers, within the Spotify app for iPhones. They'll also see a note saying that they can go to the Spotify website to subscribe to any of the service's plans. However, the service chose not to provide users with an in-app link that would give them access to external payment options. As The Verge notes, it's because Apple recently tweaked its App Store rules in the EU, stating that it will still take a cut of developers' sales even if customers pay via third-party providers.
"Unfortunately, Spotify and all music streaming services in the EU are still not able to freely give consumers a simple opportunity to click a link to purchase in app because of the illegal and predatory taxes Apple continues to demand, despite the Commission’s ruling," Spotify wrote in its post. It added that "if the European Commission properly enforces its decision, iPhone consumers could see even more wins, like lower cost payment options and better product experiences in the app."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/apple-finally-allows-spotify-to-display-pricing-in-the-eu-123010178.html?src=rss
It’s the end of an era for social media research. Meta has shut down CrowdTangle, the analytics tool that for years helped tens of thousands of researchers, journalists and civil society groups understand how information was spreading on Facebook and Instagram.
For a company that’s never been known for being transparent about its inner workings, CrowdTangle was an “invaluable” resource for those hoping to study Meta’s platform, says Brandi Geurkink, the executive director for the Coalition for Independent Technology Research. “It was one of the only windows that anybody had into how these platforms work,” Geurkink tells Engadget. “The fact that CrowdTangle was available for free and to such a wide variety of people working on public interest journalism and research means that it was just an invaluable tool.”
Over the years, CrowdTangle has powered a staggering amount of research and reporting on public health, misinformation, elections and media. Its data has been cited in thousands of journal articles, according to Google Scholar. News outlets have used the tool to track elections and changes in the publishing industry. It’s also provided unparalleled insight into Facebook itself. For years, CrowdTangle data has been used by journalists to track the origins of viral misinformation, hoaxes and conspiracy theories on the social network. Engadget relied on CrowdTangle to uncover the overwhelming amount of spam on Facebook Gaming.
Meta wasn't always quite as averse to transparency as it is now. The company acquired CrowdTangle in 2016, and for years encouraged journalists, researchers and other civil society groups to use its data. Facebook provided training to academics and newsrooms, and it regularly highlighted research projects that relied on its insights.
But the narrative began to shift in 2020. That’s when a New York Times reporter created an automated Twitter bot called “Facebook Top Ten.” It used CrowdTangle data to share the top Facebook pages based on engagement. At the time, right-wing figures and news outlets like Dan Bongino, Fox News and Ben Shapiro regularly dominated the lists. The Twitter account, which racked up tens of thousands of followers, was often cited in the long-simmering debate about whether Facebook’s algorithms exacerbated political polarization in the United States.
Meta repeatedly pushed back on those claims. Its executives argued that engagement — the number of times a post is liked, shared or commented on — is not an accurate representation of its total reach on the social network. In 2021, Meta began publishing its own reports on the most “widely viewed” content on its platform. Those reports suggested that spam is often more prevalent than political content, though researchers have raised significant questions about how those conclusions were reached.
More recently, Meta executives have suggested that CrowdTangle was never intended for research. “It was built for a wholly different purpose,” Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, said earlier this year. “It just simply doesn't tell you remotely what is going on on Facebook at any time.” CrowdTangle founder Brandon Silverman, who has criticized Meta’s decision to shut down the service ahead of global elections, told Fast Company it was originally meant to be a community organizing tool, but quickly morphed into a service “to help publishers understand the flow of information across Facebook and social media more broadly.”
Clegg’s explanation is a “retcon,” according to Alice Marwick, principal researcher at the Center for Information Technology and Public Life at University of North Carolina. “We were trained on CrowdTangle by people who worked at Facebook," Marwick tells Engadget. “They were very enthusiastic about academics using it.”
In place of CrowdTangle, Meta has offered up a new set of tools for researchers called the Meta Content Library. It allows researchers to access data about public posts on Facebook and Instagram. It’s also much more tightly controlled than CrowdTangle. Researchers must apply and go through a vetting process in order to access the data. And while tens of thousands of people had access to CrowdTangle, only “several hundred” researchers have reportedly been let into the Meta Content Library. Journalists are ineligible to even apply unless they are part of a nonprofit newsroom or partnered with a research institution.
Advocates for the research community, including CrowdTangle’s former CEO, have also raised questions about whether Meta Content Library is powerful enough to replicate CrowdTangle’s functionality. “I've had researchers anecdotally tell me [that] for searches that used to generate hundreds of results on CrowdTangle, there are fewer than 50 on Meta Content Library,” Geurkink says. "There's been a question about what data source Meta Content Library is actually pulling from.”
The fact that Meta chose to shut down CrowdTangle less than three months before the US presidential election, despite pressure from election groups and a letter from lawmakers requesting a delay, is particularly telling. Ahead of the 2020 election, CrowdTangle created a dedicated hub for monitoring election-related content and provided its tools to state election officials.
But Marwick notes there has been a broader backlash against research into social media platforms. X no longer has a free API, and has made its data prohibitively expensive for all but the most well-funded research institutions. The company’s owner has also sued two small nonprofits that conducted research he disagreed with.
“There is no upside to most of these platforms to letting researchers muck around in their data, because we often find things that aren't PR-friendly, that don't fit the image of the platform that they want us to believe.”
While CrowdTangle never offered a complete picture of what was happening on Facebook, it provided an important window into a social network used by billions of people around the world. That window has now been slammed shut. And while researchers and advocates are worried about the immediate impact that will have on this election cycle, the consequences are much bigger and more far reaching. “The impact is far greater than just this year or just work related to elections,” Geurkink says. “When you think about a platform that large, with that much significance in terms of where people get their sources of information on a wide array of topics, the idea that nobody except for the company has insight into that, is crazy.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-killed-crowdtangle-an-invaluable-research-tool-because-what-it-showed-was-inconvenient-121700584.html?src=rss
Having fewer ports makes laptops and tablets lighter and more affordable — but that also cuts down on your connectivity options. If you’ve got a MacBook Air, a slim Chromebook or a tablet you’d like to get more utility out of, a USB-C hub can help. Using just a single port on your device, these multiport adapters will let you hook up screens, tap into Ethernet cables, connect mice and keyboards, and transfer data to drives and memory cards. Most also give you a way to power your device through the hub to maximize port availability. We tested over a dozen models to come up with picks for every budget. Here are the best USB-C hubs, according to our tests.
The first thing to decide is whether you need a USB-C hub or a USB-C docking station. There’s no set standard for what differentiates the two, but docking stations tend to have more ports, offer a separate DC power adapter and cost more, with some reaching upwards of $400. We have a separate guide to the best docking stations to check out if you’re looking for something bigger than what we’re discussing here. USB-C hubs, in contrast, have between four and 10 ports, can support pass-through charging and typically cost between $30 and $150.
Hubs, sometimes also called dongles or even multiport adapters, make more sense for smaller setups with just a few peripherals, such as a monitor, a wired keyboard and mouse, and the occasional external drive. They’re also more portable, since they’re small and require no dedicated power. That could be useful if you change work locations but want to bring your accessories with you, or if you want to replace your laptop with a more powerful tablet. A docking station or Thunderbolt dock makes more sense for someone who needs a robust setup for their laptop, including multiple external monitors, webcams, stream decks, microphones and so on.
Both docks and hubs make it easy to grab your laptop off your desk for a meeting or other brief relocation and when you get back, you only need to plug in one cable to get all your accessories reconnected. Of course, if you just need to plug in one peripheral, you may not need a hub or a dock, a simple USB-C adapter, like HDMI to USB-C or USB-A to USB-C, may do the trick.
Ports
For a USB-C hub to work, it needs to connect to a port on your laptop or tablet that supports video, data and power — all of which is covered by anything listed as USB 3.0 or better, including USB4 and Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4. The port, of course, needs to be Type-C as well. The sea of laptops out there is vast, so it’s hard to make generalizations, but modern laptops, including Windows and Apple models, should have at least one USB-C port that will suffice, and indeed, every one of our top picks for the best laptops do — including our top pick, the M4 MacBook Air.
Next, it’s a matter of finding a good USB-C hub that has the right connections for your needs. Most hubs offer some combo of HDMI, USB, SD card reader, Ethernet and 3.5 mm ports. If you have a 4K monitor and would like at least a 60Hz refresh rate, you’ll need a hub with an HDMI 2.0 port — HDMI 1.4 only goes up to 30Hz. HDMI 2.1 will handle 4K at up to 120Hz, but hubs that have adopted that standard aren’t as common just yet. Keep in mind that a low refresh rate can cause your screen to feel laggy, making your mouse appear glitchy and your webcam movements to look delayed.
Additional USB ports on these accessories are usually USB Type-A or USB Type-C. They can support data with different transfer rates, typically 5Gbps or 10Gbps. Some ports only handle passthrough power and no data, and some can do data, power and video, so it’s best to check the spec list to make sure you’re getting the support you need. Keep in mind that a hub may bill itself as a 7-in-1, but one of those ports may not be usable for anything other than charging.
Standard SD and microSD cards are useful for transferring data from cameras and the like or for offloading files from your hard drive, and many hubs have those slots. Ethernet ports may deliver faster internet speeds than your Wi-Fi and a hub with a 3.5mm jack can bring back the wired headphone connection that some laptops have ditched.
Power delivery
Nearly all of the USB-C hubs I tested support passthrough charging. That means if your laptop or tablet only charges via USB, you don’t have to take up another port on your laptop to keep everything topped up. Unlike a docking station, powering a hub is optional. The one exception is if you want to close the lid on your laptop while you work on an external monitor. Most computers will go into sleep mode if the lid is closed without power, so either the laptop or the hub will need to be plugged into the wall to prevent that from happening.
Many of the newer hubs include a 100W USB-C power delivery (PD) port, with a healthy 80 to 85 watts going to your Mac, PC, iPad or Android tablet (the hubs take a little of the juice for themselves, hence the 15-watt or so difference). In my tests, a powered USB hub ran hotter than when it wasn't passing the charge through, so I prefer to power the computer directly using its own charger. But for tablets or other devices with no extra ports, that PD option is important.
Some PD ports are also data ports — which is both good and bad. On one hand, it feels wasteful to use a perfectly good data port just for boring old electricity. But on the other hand, USB-C connections that only carry a charge are less versatile, and it makes it seem like it has more accessory hookups than it actually does.
Design
There’s surprisingly little design variation among hubs. Most look like a flat slab, a little smaller than a smartphone, and have an attached Type-C host cable. The hues range from a silvery black to a silvery gray. Some are thinner than others, some have all ports on one edge and some have ports on both sides. All of this is just to say that aesthetics probably won’t make or break your buying decision.
One variation that could tip the scales is the length of the cable. A longer one will give you more freedom as you arrange the hub on your desk, potentially even letting you hide it behind your laptop. Or you may prefer a shorter one to keep the hub neatly set beside your laptop.
How we test USB-C hubs
Before we test anything, we take a look at what’s available and how they’ve been received by shoppers, forum-goers and other publications. I became familiar with a few reputable brands when I was testing docking stations, so I looked into hubs from those companies as well. I focused on items that would help with an average day of productivity — not high-end setups or demanding gaming situations. Once I settled on a dozen or so that would make good candidates, I had them shipped to my humble office in the desert and started testing them out over the course of a few weeks.
I used an M1 MacBook Pro running MacOS Sonoma as the host computer and plugged in accessories that include a 4K Dell monitor, a ZSA USB-C ergo keyboard, a Logitech USB-A gaming mouse, an Elgato USB-C 4K webcam, a Logitech streaming light, a USB-A 3.0 Sandisk thumb drive, a USB-C Samsung T7 Shield external drive and a pair of wired headphones I got for free on an airplane (I should probably invest in some wired headphones, but the cord dangling on my chest drives me nutty so all my earbuds are wireless). I used high-end HDMI and USB-C cables to ensure that any data or connectivity issues weren’t related to my equipment.
Then I put each USB-C hub through a gamut of basic tests. I looked at what could be plugged in at once, the resolution on the monitor, data transfer speeds, the overall build quality of the hub and general usability factors, like the placement of the ports and the length of the cords. And, finally, the price-to-value ratio helped determine the best ones for a few different use cases.
Other hubs we tested
HyperDrive Next 10 Port USB-C Hub
There’s a lot to like about HyperDrive’s Next 10 Port USB-C Hub. The tethered cable is a lavish 13 inches long, the HDMI 2.0 port outputs clear and crisp 4K visuals at 60Hz and the high-speed data transfers are great. It has the coveted two USB-C data ports plus a PD port, and there’s even a headphone jack. The only thing that holds back a full-throated endorsement is the way our unit handled a streaming light. Having it on at full brightness made the webcam flicker every time. The issue went away at 75 percent brightness, but the same problem didn’t happen on any other hub I tested.
Anker 341 USB-C Hub (7-in-1)
There’s nothing wrong with the Anker 341 USB-C hub. In fact it’s a current recommendation in our iPad accessories guide and it comes at a great $35 price. It gives you two USB-A ports as well as SD slots. But at this point, a 1.4 HDMI connection, which only supports 4K resolution at 30Hz feels a little retro. There’s also just a single USB-C downstream port and the data transfer tests proved to be a touch slower than the other hubs. But if you’ve got a lower resolution monitor and don’t need more than one USB-C, you won’t be disappointed with it.
Anker 555 8-in-1
It was a tough call between the UGreen Revodoc Pro 109 and the Anker 555 8-in-1 for our top recommendation. Both have a similar port array with an HDMI, Ethernet, two USB Type A, a PD USB-C and a USB-C 3.2 on the 555. And the Anker USB-C hub is $15 cheaper. We went with the UGreen hub for its more premium build, extra USB-A port and longer cord that gives you two extra inches to work with. But if you want to save a few bucks this hub is a worthwhile pick.
Startech 4-Port USB-C Hub (data only)
I only became aware of Startech when I started researching for this guide. The quality is decent and the yellow accents are a welcome bit of color in the otherwise very gray world of hubs. The performance is solid, with no hiccups that I encountered. The brand’s 4-Port USB-C Hub has a long cord that wraps around the hub itself, which is unique. It doesn’t bother with power delivery, which isn’t an issue if you can power your computer directly. But the four USB ports (three Type-A and one Type-C) max out at 5Gbps and there’s no HDMI connector. It goes for $46, and unfortunately for it, there are cheaper ways to get a few more USB ports for your setup.
Recent updates
January 2026: Added an honorable mention from Satechi.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-usb-c-hub-120051833.html?src=rss
To support its latest Pixel 9 phones with faster charging speeds, Google has quietly unveiled a new 45 watt charger. That speed is well beyond what its latest devices can handle, so it may allow for future device support.
Charging rates are a mixed bag with the new Pixel 9 phones. The Pixel 9 charges at 27W, the same as before, and the Pixel 9 Pro also charges at 27W, less than the Pixel 8 Pro's 30W. The new Pixel 9 Pro XL, however charges at 37W, up considerably from any previous model (the PIxel 9 Pro Fold's 21W max charging speed is unchanged).
The previous charger topped out at 30W, matching the Pixel 8 Pro's maximum rate, but the new 45W model has an extra 8W of capacity over the Pixel 9 Pro XL. That could allow Google to use the same charger for the Pixel 10, much as it used the 30W charger for both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 8.
It's nice to have the extra charging speeds on the Pixel Pro XL (and no other model) and it does keep pace with its primary competitor, Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra (45W). However, some Chinese phones like the Redmi Note 12 Explorer (210W) and Realme GT5 (240W) leave them both in the dust. The latter, for instance, can go from empty to a 100 percent charge in less than 10 minutes. The fastest-charging phone currently sold in the US is the OnePlus 12 (80W).
Google's new charger sells for $30, which is a decent price if you want to stick with the brand. However, you can find a fully compatible Anker or third-party 45W USB-C PD charger for $20 any day of the week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-announced-a-45w-usb-c-charger-thats-faster-than-its-new-pixel-9-phones-can-handle-120035213.html?src=rss
Google’s big Pixel event was packed with phones, and the company has redesigned them all. No more Cyclops camera band, now it’s an Among Us camera oval. That’s across all the Pixels (barring the new Pixel 9 Pro Fold). There are new flattened sides and softer corners, making these phones look more like iPhones than ever before.
First up, the entry-level Pixel 9 has a 6.3-inch screen, slightly larger than its predecessor, and a substantial camera bump up to a 48-megapixel ultrawide lens. New AI-powered photo editing tricks, like Add Me and Reimagine, join features I use daily on my Pixel 8, like Magic Editor and Night Sight.
It’s joined by the same-sized Pixel 9 Pro and the 6.8-inch Pixel 9 Pro XL. Technically, the Pixel 9 Pro is the new proposition: the best Pixel camera in a more convenient size. Besides screen size and battery, specs are the same across both Pro phones. The base Pixel 9 has a matte satin finish, while the Pro devices have a shiny, polished treatment. (I wish it was the other way around, personally.) Alongside that 50- and 48-megapixel camera duo, there’s a third 48MP cam with a 5x telephoto zoom. That’s the ‘pro’ part.
One surprise was that Google’s brand-new $1,000 Pixel 9 Phones won’t launch with Android 15.
This may be because the new Pixels are out earlier than usual. Android 14 arrived in October last year, so we can expect to hear more about Android 15 in the fall. Don’t worry, though. There’ll still be plenty of new AI features — which we’ll play with once our review devices land. Trust and believe.
Google’s first attempt at a foldable was different. The company went for different screen ratios, an insane price and capable cameras. This year, don’t call it the Pixel Fold 2, because this is Pixel 9 Pro Fold. As well as a revamped design, it has what Google says is the largest display of any phone on the market. Farewell, passport shape. The new foldable has a 6.3-inch outside display almost identical in size to the standard Pixel 9. But inside… boom. An eight-inch screen that beats Samsung, OnePlus and other rival foldables.
With cameras, a new module houses a 48MP main camera, a 10.5MP ultrawide camera and a 10.8MP telephoto cam with a 5x optical zoom. It’s not quite the Pixel 9 Pro, but on paper, it sounds capable. Still, no support for a stylus.
The default assistant on all these new Pixels will be Gemini — Google’s AI-powered chatbot — not Google Assistant. “Gemini is an evolution of the Assistant,” said Sissie Hsiao, Google’s vice president and general manager of Gemini Experiences. Gemini, powered by Google’s own family of large language models, can apparently do everything the classic Google Assistant could do. To be clear, you can still use Gemini as your assistant on most current Android phones, Pixels or otherwise — but only if you opt in.
Several months after a hacking group claimed to be selling nearly three billion records stolen from a prominent data broker, much of the information appears to have been leaked on a forum. According to Bleeping Computer, the data dump includes 2.7 billion records of people in the US, including names, social security numbers, potential aliases and all physical addresses they are known to have lived at. Worse still, it’s all unencrypted. It may be worth taking some steps to protect yourself against fraud and identity theft.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-the-biggest-reveals-from-googles-pixel-2024-event-111519925.html?src=rss