The iOS app for conservative-leaning social media platform Parler is back in the Apple App Store today, after what the company says were “months of productive dialogue with Apple.”
“The entire Parler team has worked hard to address Apple’s concerns without compromising our core mission,” Parler interim CEO Mark Meckler said in a statement emailed to The Verge on Monday. “Anything allowed on the Parler network but not in the iOS app will remain accessible through our web-based and Android versions. This is a win-win for Parler, its users, and free speech.”
Parler, which bills itself as a free speech alternative to Facebook or Twitter, was banned by Apple, Google, and Amazon following the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol. The companies said Parler had not adequately handled violent threats and hateful content on its platform that encouraged the riot.
Apple reaccepted Parler last month, after initially rejecting its application for re-entry in March; Apple said at the time Parler still had “highly objectionable content,” including Nazi imagery and other hate symbols. Parler says its algorithm can now “automatically detect violent or inciting content, while still preserving user privacy. Such content has always violated Parler’s guidelines.”
Parler remains banned in Google’s Play Store, although users can still sideload the app on Android. Parler sued Amazon, which had provided the site’s web hosting, but the suit has so far not fared well in court.
As Meckler noted in his statement, Parler’s iOS app adheres to Apple’s requirements and “excludes some content that Parler otherwise allows,” the company said in a press release. “However, that content is still visible, at the user’s discretion, on the web-based and Android versions of the platform.”
After the January deplatforming, Parler struggled to resurface on the web. Former CEO John Matze said at one point even the company’s vendors and lawyers had “ditched” him. Matze was fired in February, he said, by a board that included Rebekah Mercer, of the prominent conservative Mercer family.
Apple is teasing a major Apple Music announcement. “Get ready,” a post in the service’s Browse tab reads, “music is about to change forever.” Tapping the image reveals an animated video, though it just consists of the music streaming service’s logo spinning in place. The teaser, first reported by MacRumors, is believed to refer to Apple Music’s rumored lossless and hi-res music streaming features.
A launch of the new higher quality streaming is believed to be imminent after code referencing “Lossless” and “Hi Res Lossless” streaming tiers appeared in the service’s Android and web apps. According to code in the Android app, the lossless tier will support music streaming at 24-bit/48Hz (a small step up from regular CD-quality 16-bit/44.1kHz), while the hi-res lossless tier will stream at 24-bit/192 kHz.
Code in the Android app warns that these higher quality tiers will required more storage space and data to stream compared to existing quality. Apple Music’s current high quality tier consumes 6 MB of data for a 3-minute song, but this could rise to 36 MB with lossless, and 145 MB with hi-res lossless.
The benefit, of course, should be better sounding audio, similar to what’s already offered by the likes of Tidal, Amazon Music HD, and Deezer. Spotify has also announced its own lossless HiFi tier which is due to launch later this year.
As well as lossless and hi-res streaming, code snippets also include mentions of “Dolby Audio” and “Dolby Atmos,” 9to5Mac reports. The speculation is that the AirPods’ Spatial Audio features could be used in conjunction with Dolby’s surround sound technology.
Apple’s teaser doesn’t say when we should expect an official announcement, but some rumors suggest an announcement as early as Tuesday.
Amazon has launched an ad-supported, free video streaming service called MiniTV within the Amazon India app, TechCrunch reports. It’s a different offering than its separate Amazon Prime Video service, as MiniTV is contained within Amazon’s traditional shopping app, rather than its own standalone app.
Only available to users in India, MiniTV’s catalog includes mostly older content which its content partners made originally for YouTube and other platforms. The lineup includes beauty and fashion content, tech news, and cooking shows, and Amazon’s partners for the channel include Indian web content studios Pocket Aces and TVF, and list of well-known Indian comedians.
The company says it’s planning “new and exclusive videos” in the coming months, but didn’t provide a timetable.
As TechCrunch notes, the channel should serve as a competitor to Flipkart Video, the free streaming service launched in 2019 by Walmart-owned Flipkart, one of Amazon’s biggest rivals in India.
Amazon is still marketing its Prime Video to consumers in India as it competes with Netflix, which has plans to launch more than three dozen new movies and shows in India this year. The free MiniTV will help Amazon test whether streaming content can drive sales on its shopping app.
Apple might have bigger plans for next week than initially thought. The new iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K are all set to start shipping to early preorder customers on or around May 21st, but now it seems there could be two surprise announcements: a hi-fi streaming tier of Apple Music, and maybe even AirPods 3.
The Apple Music part seems extremely likely when you factor in a report from 9to5Google. Digging into the latest Apple Music for Android beta app, they discovered direct references to high-resolution audio that didn’t exist previously
These are the prompts found in the app’s code, though they’re not user-facing quite yet:
Lossless audio files preserve every detail of the original file. Turning this on will consume significantly more data.
Lossless audio files will use significantly more space on your device. 10 GB of space could store approximately: – 3000 songs at high quality – 1000 songs with lossless – 200 songs with hi-res lossless
Lossless streaming will consume significantly more data. A 3-minute song will be approximately: – 1.5 MB with high efficiency- 6 MB with high quality at 256 kbps- 36 MB with lossless at 24-bit/48 kHz- 145 MB with hi-res lossless at 24-bit/192 kHzSupport varies and depends on song availability, network conditions, and connected speaker or headphone capability.
It doesn’t get much more direct and clear than that, with Apple warning about both the higher data consumption of streaming lossless music and the added storage space that will be necessary to download it for offline listening. The fact that Apple has now added this data to its Android app suggests that this could all be happening sooner than later. I say that because Apple’s Apple One bundle showed up in Apple Music for Android just days before its public announcement.
The Android app code also reveals that Apple Music will offer two choices for lossless playback:
Lossless ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz
High-Res Lossless ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz
So it sounds like Apple has every intention of matching what Tidal, Amazon Music HD, and services like Qobuz currently deliver. It’s also worth noting that there’ve been recent references to Dolby Atmos spatial audio in Apple Music on iOS, according to 9to5Mac.
Apple has for years stuck to its customary 256kbps AAC files for both iTunes and Apple Music. When iTunes Plus debuted all the way back in 2007, that was a substantial upgrade over heavily compressed MP3s that people were downloading from peer-to-peer apps like Napster and Limewire during the height of music piracy. And it’s still perfectly adequate. Mastering of tracks has just as much influence on the listening experience as encoding details do, and Apple has tried to play to this aspect with its “Apple Digital Masters,” which aim to get the most dynamic range and detail from songs on its platform.
But in terms of pure music fidelity, Apple has objectively been surpassed by companies like Tidal and Amazon over the last several years. My friend Micah Singleton has a great piece over at Billboard about how we’re entering the hi-fi era of the streaming music wars. Amazon Music HD is performing strongly, with subscriptions up 100 percent year over year. Spotify has also promised the launch of “Spotify HiFi” for later this year.
There’s money to be made, and the ingredients are all there: Apple now sells premium headphones in the AirPods Max, and wireless carriers continue to talk up the promise and speeds of their growing 5G networks. I can’t imagine 5G will be required for lossless Apple Music streaming, but it’s a nice flex of the technology right in the middle of the iPhone 12 cycle.
What about those AirPods 3, though?
There have already been quite a few leaks that revealed details about Apple’s next iteration of AirPods, but the real question has been around release timing. Yesterday, a report from a site called AppleTrack suggested that the new AirPods could be announced alongside this new lossless tier of Apple Music. I don’t quite follow the logic, myself; no one really thinks of regular AirPods as the right choice for audiophile listening, but maybe Apple just wants new hardware of some sort to launch in tandem with the new service.
Taken on its own, the AirPods rumor seems “sketchy” as 9to5Mac said. But the sudden discoveries about lossless audio in Apple Music for Android seem to add some fuel to the fire.
Icy Dock has developed the industry’s only U.2 to USB 3.2 Gen 2 adapter, which lets you connect an enterprise-grade U.2 SSD to any desktop or laptop with a USB Type-A or Type-C port. The EZ-Adapter Ex MB931U-1VB targets people who need to transfer data from an enterprise-grade SSD to a PC or those who use U.2 drives as recording medium and need to transfer videos to a computer. But PC builders may be attracted to the adapter too.
The U.2 form-factor (SFF-8639) was developed primarily for business and mission-critical server and workstation applications that have very strict requirements for connectivity, thermals, reliability and hot-plug capability. Today, U.2 drives used in servers and workstations and more. For example, select Blackmagic cameras with the Ursa Mini Recorder attached can use U.2 SSDs as storage medium.
A big market for the EZ-Adapter Ex MB931U-1VB are content creators who have to transfer loads of data from one PC to another (or from a camera to a PC). 10GbE networks used in studios are fast, yet a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface of U.2 SSDs is a lot faster, so it makes sense to use U.2 SSDs as flash drives. There are also people who might prefer to use enterprise-grade SSDs as their direct attached storage (DAS), due to their higher endurance and reliability.
But another potential market comes from PC DIYers. U.2 SSDs tend to be very expensive when bought from the IT channel, but they can also be found on sites like eBay for considerably cheaper. Depending on the model, U.2 drives are designed for read-intensive, write-intensive or mixed workloads. Even after some time in service, most U.2 SSDs will have plenty of resource left. Furthermore, such drives are tailored for sustained, rather than burst, performance. As a result, even used U.2 SSDs may be faster and more durable than cheap consumer-grade drives rated for 0.2 DWPD over a three-year period. Hence, it makes sense to consider U.2 SSDs for DIY DAS applications.
Yet, connecting such drives to PCs is complicated, as only select desktop workstations have U.2 ports (or M.2 to U.2 adapters), and not all of them have adapters that can house a U.2 drive. Furthermore, there are no laptops with U.2 slots.
(Image credit: Icy Dock)
Icy Dock’s EZ-Adapter Ex MB931U-1VB is based on the ASMedia ASM2362 controller. It can house any U.2 SSD and connect it to a PC with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A or Type-C connector.
(Image credit: Icy Dock)
The EZ-Adapter Ex MB931U-1VB adapter is available now for $150 from Amazon. A power adapter and USB-A and USB-C cables are included.
Amazon has updated its Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 5 smart speakers. The main improvement is better cameras for enhanced video calling, but there are some other changes, too.
The Echo Show 8 now has the same 13MP camera as seen on the Echo Show 10. While the device doesn’t turn to follow you around the room during calls, the camera does pan and zoom automatically, helping you stay in shot.
The camera has a cover too, so you can rest assured it’s shut off and no one will accidentally see you indulging in your daily HIIT workout.
It can detect if someone walks into the room and use this as a prompt to activate certain smart home functions (like turning on the lights). And, you can access the camera (and that of the Echo Show 5) on your phone using Alexa’s security mode.
The Show 8 can also display new augmented reality effects using Amazon’s own video chat service, while a new octa-core processor should keep things running smoothly.
And that’s it in terms of new additions – the rest is the same as the previous Echo Show 8, including the 8in HD screen, stereo speakers, and of course Alexa voice control. Pricing remains the same at £119 ($129, AU$199).
The new Echo Show 5 also has a new camera – this one is 2MP, which is double the resolution of the previous model, although it can’t zoom and pan automatically. It also gets a new blue colour scheme to go with the existing charcoal and white finishes and has a new low price of £74 ($84, AU$119).
Amazon has also announced the US is getting an Echo Show 5 Kids Edition, but it’s not available in the UK or Australia.
Both of these Alexa speakers are available to pre-order now and will ship next month.
With the PlayStation 5, Sony opted for a less traditional color scheme, one that ditched the classic jet-black exterior found on earlier PlayStation consoles in favor of a black-and-white finish. For some, the new exterior was an acquired taste, as was the matching aesthetic found on the accompanying DualSense controller.
On Thursday, however, the company announced two new color schemes for the DualSense — at least for those lucky enough to have landed a PS5 console amid the ongoing supply shortages. Dubbed “midnight black” and “cosmic red,” both controllers offer the same features as the standard DualSense, including a built-in microphone, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers designed to make games more immersive.
Right now, both are currently available for preorder ahead of their launch on June 18th.
Where to buy the midnight black DualSense controller
Like the standard DualSense controller, the midnight black DualSense will retail for $69.99 at launch. It’s currently available for preorder at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and PlayStation Direct, the latter of which will ship the controller a week ahead of other retailers on June 11th. It’s not an exact match for previous DualShock controllers — the two-tone design features multiple shades of black and subtle gray detailing — but it’s far closer than the current DualSense, which opts for a white-and-black build. If you’ve wrapped your PS5 in Dbrand’s Darkplates, well now you can have a matching controller.
Where to buy the cosmic red DualSense controller
According to Sony, the color palette found on the cosmic red DualSense controller is modeled after the various shades of red scattered throughout the cosmos. That added interstellar inspiration will cost you, however, as the cosmic red edition runs a bit pricier at $74.99. It features a two-tone design like the midnight black DualSense, and it’s currently available for preorder at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and PlayStation Direct.
Like the midnight black model, the red-and-black edition is also slated to ship via PlayStation Direct on June 11th, a week ahead of other retailers.
Qualcomm has announced that it will skip Mobile World Congress’ in-person show in Barcelona this year, making it the latest major company to announce that it will miss the potential COVID-19 superspreader event in June in favor of an online presence at the show.
“While we appreciate the health and safety measures being put into place by the GSMA for MWC Barcelona, we have decided that it is in the best interest of our employees and customers for Qualcomm’s participation to be virtual this year,” the company said in a statement obtained by TechCrunch.
Qualcomm is by no means the only major company opting for a digital appearance at MWC this year: Google, Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, and Oracle have all pulled out of this year’s show entirely, while Samsung and Lenovo have announced that they will also attend digitally instead of their traditional in-person appearances.
MWC 2020 was one of the first major conferences to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the GSMA’s attempts to try to put on the show, even with rapidly increasing case numbers around the world and new travel restrictions.
The GSMA is still insisting on holding this year’s event with only minimal COVID-19 mitigation policies, including asking attendees to have had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their arrival and plans for “controlling crowd density” — neither of which is expected to be enough to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at an event this large.
In 2020, MWC was only canceled after numerous major companies (like LG, ZTE, Sony, and Amazon) pulled out of the event. And while the GSMA has given no indication that it’ll be looking to adjust its plans for this year’s show yet, it’s possible the increasing number of exhibitors that won’t be attending could change that.
(Pocket-lint) – There are numerous speakers within the Sonos portfolio but if you’re looking at the smaller end of the range, the choice likely comes down to the Sonos Roam or the Sonos One, or One SL.
You can read how all the Sonos speakers compare in our separate feature, but here we are focusing on the differences between the Sonos Roam and the Sonos One, and One SL, to help you work out which could be the right starting point for you into the Sonos system, or which you should add to an existing one.
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: What’s the difference?
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Design
Roam: 168 x 62 x 60mm, 430g, IP67, portable
One: 161.5 x 119.7 x 119.7mm, 1.85kg
One SL: 161.5 x 119.7 x 119.7m, 1.85kg
The Sonos Roam is triangular prism shaped and comes in Shadow Black and Lunar White colour options. It is IP67 water and dust resistant and it is small, light and portable – around the size of a water bottle – so you can pick it up and bring it wherever you go.
On the top, there are tactile controls for microphone, play/pause, skip and rewind, and the Roam can be positioned vertically or horizontally. There is a wireless charger sold separately that the Roam will magnetically attach to, or you can charge it via the USB-C port.
The One and One SL meanwhile, are a little shorter and fatter than Roam in terms of physical measurements, but the main difference is they are mains-powered devices and not portable – or waterproof. They can also only be positioned vertically.
One comes in black and white colour options and it has capacitive controls on top, with a microphone on/off button, play/pause and skip and rewind. There’s a pairing button on the back, next to the power port and an ethernet port.
The One SL has an almost identical design to the One, but it doesn’t have a microphone array or button on its top controls.
Features
Roam: Multi-room audio, stereo pairing, smart assistants, Sound Swap, Auto Trueplay, Bluetooth
One SL: Multi-room audio, stereo pairing, surrounds, Trueplay
The Sonos Roam and Sonos One both come with all the features offered by all Sonos speakers, like support for over 100 streaming services, stereo pairing, EQ adjusting through the Sonos app and of course, seamless multi-room audio, among plenty of others.
The Roam and One also both have built-in support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant – meaning they are both smart speakers. You can’t have both assistants running at the same time but you can switch between them. One SL doesn’t have built-in support for the assistants but it can be controlled via a Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa device.
Both Roam and One have Trueplay tuning on board, enabling you to tune them according to their surroundings, though Roam does this automatically, whereas One and One SL require you to do it manually with an iOS device.
From here, Roam then takes the lead in the feature department compared to the One and One SL. It offers Bluetooth connectivity – automatically switching between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi – meaning you can use Roam as a traditional Sonos speaker when on Wi-Fi, or as a traditional Bluetooth speaker when you leave the house.
There’s also a feature called Sound Swap on the Sonos Roam where you push and hold the play/pause button to send the music playing on Roam to the nearest Sonos speaker. The Sonos One and One SL can receive the music from Roam if they are closest and they will continue playing whatever tunes you were listening to.
The Sonos One and One SL don’t have Bluetooth connectivity and they don’t offer Sound Swap, but they can both be grouped with a Sonos Arc, Beam, Playbar or Playbase and Sonos SUB to act as surrounds. The Roam can’t be grouped with a Sonos soundbar or the Sonos SUB.
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Hardware
Roam: Two Class-H digital amplifiers, one tweeter, one mid-woofer, microphones, AirPlay 2, Bluetooth
One: Two Class-D amplifiers, one tweeter, one mid-woofer, microphones, AirPlay 2
One SL: Two Class-D amplifiers, one tweeter, one mid-woofer, AirPlay 2
The Sonos Roam features two Class-H digital amplifiers, one tweeter and one mid-woofer under its hood. There’s also a far-field microphone array, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on board.
The Sonos One and One SL have two Class-D amplifiers, a tweeter and a mid-woofer. The One also has a far-field microphone array – the One SL doesn’t – and they both have Wi-Fi on board, but no Bluetooth capabilities.
All three speakers offer Apple AirPlay 2 support.
In terms of sound output, the Sonos One delivers a little extra than the Roam, but the Roam is an excellent sounding speaker for its size and all three speakers have no problem filling a standard room with sound. They also all sound great so you’re unlikey to be disappointed with any of them in this department.
Price
The Sonos Roam is the cheapest of the Sonos speakers being compared here, costing £159 in the UK and $169 in the US.
The Sonos One costs £199 in the UK and $199 in the US, while the Sonos One SL is a little more expensive than the Sonos Roam but cheaper than the Sonos One at £179 in the UK and $179 in the US.
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Conclusion
The decision between the Sonos Roam and Sonos One will come down to what you want your speaker to deliver.
The Roam offers the best of both worlds, giving you an excellent multi-room Sonos speaker when on Wi-Fi and an excellent Bluetooth speaker when out and about. It also has some great features, like Sound Swap, automatic Trueplay tuning and Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support.
The One is a little more expensive and it isn’t portable, though it delivers a little extra punch in terms of sound compared to Roam, two can be grouped with a Sonos soundbar and SUB and used as surrounds (which Roam can’t) and it still has some great features, like the smart assistant support and manual Trueplay.
The One SL meanwhile, delivers the same sound capabilities as the One, but it isn’t a smart speaker. It’s the one you’d pick if you wanted a small Sonos speaker but you aren’t bothered about portability or having Google or Alexa, or if you want two as surrounds to your Beam or Arc.
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Amazon’s new second-generation Echo Buds are the company’s second crack at true wireless earbuds. They’re smaller, lighter, and more comfortable than before, and now have more effective noise cancellation. The first time around, Amazon borrowed some of Bose’s tech to help the original Echo Buds block outside noise, but version two was built completely in-house. Hands-free Alexa voice commands still get top billing, but the most compelling thing about the Echo Buds is still their aggressive price — and the solid mix of features you get in exchange.
The Echo Buds cost $99.99 or $119.99 (with wireless charging case) for a limited time, after which the prices will rise to $119 and $139.99, respectively. Not only is Amazon undercutting premium noise-canceling buds from Apple, Bose, Sony, and others, but it’s also seemingly trying to obliterate mid-range options like the Anker Liberty Air 2 Pros.
The revamped Echo Buds are 20 percent smaller in footprint and have a shortened nozzle, so they protrude from the ears a bit less. They ditch the glossy outer touchpad for a matte design (though the side facing your ear is glossy) The Amazon “smile” logo is present on both earbuds, but it’s not as obnoxious as I assumed it’d be. It’s matte and printed onto the buds instead of being embossed or given a different texture to stand out, so the logo doesn’t really call attention. Still, I’d have preferred it not to be there at all. The charging case is far more understated; there, the smile logo is on the underside — where most people are never even going to see it.
Amazon’s blatant logo is unfortunate, but doesn’t call much attention.
That case has also been downsized and is roughly 40 percent smaller than the last gen, but still carries enough juice to provide the earbuds with two full recharges. The Echo Buds last for five hours with ANC enabled, which is extremely par for the course in 2021. This stretches to 6.5 hours if you disable noise canceling and hands-free Alexa. Oh, and the case does charging LEDs right: you get separate indicators for the case’s charge and both earbuds also have their own.
Amazon includes a plethora of ear tips and wing tips to help you get a perfect fit.
Amazon has included everything but the kitchen sink to help guarantee a good seal and snug fit. There are four sizes of silicone tips in the box — S, M, L, XL — and three different pairs of optional wing tips. The ear tips are color coded, which makes it much easier to tell the different sizes apart without having to squint at them. The wing tips might prove useful if you’re going to use the Echo Buds for intense workouts, but they weren’t necessary for everyday use or outdoor runs in my ears; the reduced size of the earbuds was enough to keep them locked in place for me.
The new Echo Buds now feature a vented design to cut down on ear pressure, similar to Apple’s AirPods Pro and recent Samsung Galaxy Buds models. But the flipside of this change means if you turn off ANC in the Alexa app (or with a voice command), you’re going to hear a fair mix of ambient noise. If you want to hear more, Amazon gets credit for its passthrough mode, which nearly matches the AirPods Pro and Bose in how natural sound it sounds. If you crank it up all the way, it almost feels like superpower hearing — but there’s a very noticeable hiss at max passthrough.
Amazon claims that the second-gen Echo Buds cancel out “twice as much noise” as the original pair, and the improvements are most concentrated in lower sound frequencies — exactly what you’d want for flights or bothersome hums around the house or office. But remember that the original Echo Buds utilized Bose’s noise reduction technology, which isn’t the same as full-blown active noise cancellation. (Even at the time, Bose said it could do better.) So while Amazon is advertising significant gains over the prior model, you won’t hear any claims that it’s outperforming earbuds from Apple, Bose, Jabra, or other companies. Those are different goalposts.
And the Echo Buds objectively aren’t as effective as the AirPods Pro or Bose QuietComfort Earbuds at turning down the volume knob on the outside world. You might assume that it’s because of the vented design — but the AirPods Pro have that design trait too — so it’s really just that Amazon’s proprietary noise cancellation tech doesn’t yet measure up to the best out there. Occasionally when holding the Echo Buds in my hands, I’d hear a high-pitched whine or squeal coming out of them. This has happened with other earbuds, and Amazon tells me it’s due to an ANC-related feedback loop. Amusingly, I’m also told there’s a “squeal detection algorithm” that’s meant to suppress this. The noise is never really a bother when they’re in your ears, thankfully, but it does pop up from time to time.
The new Echo Buds are 20 percent smaller than Amazon’s first-gen earbuds.Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Passable ANC aside, the Echo Buds do sound good. They handily beat out the AirPods Pro at bass, which is becoming a regular occurrence at this point. Amazon says the 5.7mm drivers are “optimized for increased fidelity in bass and treble,” and they make for easy listening when you’re playing spoken word content like podcasts, audiobooks, or watching videos. All of this proves out as true when using them. The bass has ample kick and the treble is well contained and never gets earsplitting. Tracks like Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” or Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” are perfect demonstration of what the Echo Buds are good at. I get the impression that Amazon has tuned these with modern hits in mind.
But they do lack a layer of depth and texture that you’ll find in the higher price tiers of true wireless earbuds. Acoustic-heavy tunes aren’t as warm as they could be, and tracks like Phoebe Bridgers’ “Graceland Too” don’t have as wide of a soundstage. The powerful bottom end can make up for that somewhat on songs like “Chinatown” by Bleachers, where the bassline never gets lost to the synths, vocals, and guitars.
The earbuds have a vented design to reduce ear pressure.
So even before you get to the Alexa part of the equation, the Echo Buds establish themselves as worthy contenders at a hard-to-resist price. They also offer IPX4 water and sweat resistance, and voice call quality has improved some over the first-gen buds. Audio automatically pauses when either bud is removed, and each side can be used independently. Like most earbuds (save for those from Jabra), the Echo Buds lack multipoint Bluetooth pairing. Both AAC and SBC codecs are supported. Connection stability has been rock solid in my review period so far with only the rarest blip or dropout.
But how does Amazon’s voice assistant fare? Alexa can aptly handle music requests (“play my Release Radar on Spotify”), weather checks, smart home commands, and other activities that are normally smooth sailing on Echo speakers. Amazon says “later this year” the Echo Buds will get the same VIP Filter as its Echo Frames, which lets you pick which notifications you want to hear.
But on the whole, Alexa noticeably lags behind Siri and Google Assistant at more on-the-go requests. If you ask for directions, Alexa responds that you must tap a notification on your iPhone for those directions to actually open up in Apple Maps. It’s not a huge inconvenience, and some of this — like SMS messaging being limited to Android — boils down to platform restrictions, but there are often middle steps that don’t exist if you’re making the same ask of Siri or Google Assistant. (You also must grant the Alexa app full-time location access for directions to work.) It’s nice that I can ask these earbuds where the nearest COVID-19 vaccine site is or inquire about the status of a given subway line, but these are the kind of things that I’m always going to use my phone for. Getting people to change that default behavior is no small hurdle.
There were also bugs where I didn’t expect them. When I would say, “Alexa, turn on noise canceling,” it would often respond “sorry, what device?” Apparently “noise cancellation” is the term you’ve got to use, but it seems obvious that both should get you there. This was never an issue with voice commands asking to enable or switch off passthrough mode, which worked every time.
Amazon says it has built in a number of privacy-minded features to limit how often the microphones are listening for the “Alexa” wake word. At least one of the earbuds needs to actually be in your ear for the mics to function — they’re automatically muted when both are removed — and there must be an active Bluetooth connection to your phone. You can also manually mute the mics with the Alexa app or by customizing a long-press to do that.
The Echo Buds package together a lot of good for less.
Though Amazon promotes hands-free Alexa as a flagship feature of the Echo Buds, I think it’ll be a negligible value add for some buyers: the price, comfort, and sound are still enough to make these earbuds quite enticing. You’ve also got the choice of using your phone’s native assistant instead of Alexa, which is another option for the long-press command on the outside of a bud. So at least Amazon isn’t forcing anything on you.
If you don’t have an inherent resistance towards Amazon products (and some people certainly do), the 2021 Echo Buds strike a balance of features that’s downright impressive at their selling price. They’re a considerable upgrade from the first-gen earbuds in comfort with improved noise cancellation to boot — even if it’s not close to best in class. You can do better if you’re willing to spend upwards of $50 to $70 more. If you don’t want to go that high, the Echo Buds won’t disappoint.
The Aorus FV43U misses a couple of things as a TV replacement, but for gaming, it has few equals. A huge and accurate color gamut coupled with high contrast, 4K resolution and 144 Hz makes it a great choice for both PC and console gamers.
For
+ Class-leading contrast
+ Huge color gamut
+ Accurate out of the box
+ Excellent HDR
+ Solid gaming performance
Against
– No 24p support
– No Dolby Vision
Features and Specifications
If you’re looking for a jumbo-sized gaming monitor, there are plenty of routes you can take. There are multiple sizes of ultrawide 21:9 screens ranging from 34 to 38 inches diagonal. Then there’s the mega-wide 32:9, 49-inch genre. Or you can stick with flat panels in the 16:9 aspect ratio and go 32 inches or larger. Many simply opt for a TV, opening up the field to extra large displays that can top 80 inches.
If you want to stick with a desktop configuration though, the 43-inch category is a good choice. It’s large but not so big that you can’t sit close. It’s possible to play from 3 or 4 feet away, see the entire screen, and fill your peripheral vision with the image. And the 16:9 aspect ratio that 43-inch monitors come in means plenty of height, something that ultrawide and mega-wide monitors don’t have.
You can typically put a 43-inch gaming monitor on your desktop for around $1,500. That’s more than many 55-inch TVs but a computer monitor delivers a few things, like DisplayPort and high refresh rates, that consumer TVs do not. The Gigabyte Aorus FV43U makes the comparison a little easier, however, as it’s going for $1,000 as of writing.
The FV43U is a 16:9 VA panel competing with the best 4K gaming monitors with a 144 Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync, HDR and a quantum dot backlight that’s specced to reach 1,000 nits brightness. It also delivers decent sound from its built-in speakers, thanks to multiple sound modes. Let’s take a look.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Specs
Panel Type / Backlight
VA / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size & Aspect Ratio
43 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution & Refresh Rate
3840×2160 @ 144 Hz
FreeSync: 48-144 Hz
Native Color Depth & Gamut
10-bit (8-bits+FRC) / DCI-P3
DisplayHDR 1000, HDR10
Response Time (GTG)
1ms
Brightness
1,000 nits
Contrast
4,000:1
Speakers
2x 12w
Video Inputs
1x DisplayPort 1.4 w/DSC
2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C
Audio
2x 3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0
1x up, 2x down
Power Consumption
54.3w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions
38.1 x 25.1 x 9.9 inches
WxHxD w/base
(967 x 638 x 251mm)
Panel Thickness
3.5 inches (88mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.4 inch (10mm)
Bottom: 1 inch (25mm)
Weight
33.8 pounds (15.4kg)
Warranty
3 years
By starting with a VA panel, the FV43U is already ahead of many premium gaming monitors that rely on lower contrast IPS technology. Most IPS monitors are specced for around 1,000:1 contrast, while the FV43U boasts 4,000:1 on its sheet and topped that dramatically in our testing with SDR and extremely when it came to HDR. HDR is aided by the monitor’s 1,000-nit backlight enhanced by a quantum dot filter for greater color volume, which our testing will also confirm.
Video processing leaves nothing under the table. The FV43U is one of the few 4K displays that can run at 144 Hz. It manages this over a single DisplayPort cable using Display Stream Compression (DSC). That means it can process 10-bit color, though it uses Frame Rate Control (FRC) to achieve this. FreeSync operates from 48-144 Hz in SDR and HDR modes. G-Sync also works with the same signals as verified by our tests, even though it’s not Nvidia-certified. (You can see how by checking out our How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor tutorial).
Peripheral features include two HDMI 2.1 ports, which support console operation, namely the PS5 and Xbox Series X, with variable refresh rates up to 120 Hz. The monitor’s USB-C port accepts Ultra HD signals up to 144 Hz. This is common among USB-C monitors as USB-C can replicate DisplayPort functions, but you’ll need a graphics card with USB-C, of course. The monitor’s USB-C port also allows for KVM switching (allowing you to control multiple PCs with a single keyboard, monitor and mouse) through additional USB 3.0 ports.
Assembly and Accessories
Two solid metal stand pieces bolt in place on the bottom if you set up on a desktop or entertainment center. Wall mounting is supported by a 200mm lug pattern in back. You’ll have to source your own bolts which should be part of any bracket kit.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Side (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Back (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Top (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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(Image credit: Gigabyte)
From the front, the FV43U looks like any modern television with a narrow bezel around the top and sides and larger bit of molded trim across the bottom. The Aorus logo and a power LED are visible in the center. The stand puts the panel a bit less than 3 inches from the table, so it’s a good height for a desktop if you plan to sit around 4 feet back. The anti-glare layer is more reflective than most smaller screens, so plan placement accordingly if you have windows in your room.
A joystick for controlling the on-screen display (OSD) menu joystick is prominently situated on the panel’s bottom center but the easiest way to control the FV43U is with its tiny remote. It only has a few keys but they’re enough to zip through the OSD, change inputs and control the gaming features.
The back is where you’ll find most of the styling elements. Two slanted shapes are rendered in shiny plastic, along with an Aorus logo in the center. The rest of the finish is matte and features some brushed textures. Angles and straight lines are the order of the day with a generous grill at the top for heat dissipation. Speakers fire from the bottom vents and deliver 12W apiece (more on that in the Hands-on section).
The input panel is on the right side which makes it easily accessible. You get two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB-C, which also supports 144 Hz and Adaptive-Sync. The HDMIs are limited to 120 Hz but support Adaptive-Sync and 4K resolution, making it fit for console gaming.
OSD Features
The OSD looks just like the menu found in all Aorus monitors but you can make it larger so it can be more legible from across the room.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Gaming sub-menu has everything needed for competitive gameplay. At the top is Aim Stabilizer Sync, which is a backlight strobe for blur reduction. It’s one of the rare implementations that can work in concert with Adaptive-Sync, and it manages to do this without reducing brightness too much out of the box (of course, you can always turn the brightness up).
Black Equalizer makes shadow detail more visible; Super Resolution adds edge enhancement (not in a good way), Display Mode changes the aspect ratio and Overdrive offers four options. Balance is the best one, as it has good blur reduction, no visible ghosting and allows you to toggle Adaptive-Sync on or off.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Picture menu offers an extensive array of image modes (eight, plus three custom memories), along with color temp and gamma presets and something we normally see only on professional screens: selectable color gamuts. You can choose between Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, sRGB or Auto, but in our tests, Auto did not automatically switch the color gamut for different signal types. That means that if we wanted to watch SDR content in the sRGB it’s made in, we had to select the gamut manually.
You also get Local Dimming, which increases contrast significantly. It makes the picture very bright as well, but highlight and shadow detail remain solid, so it is perfectly usable. However, we recommend leaving it off unless your room has a lot of ambient light because you can’t reduce brightness when it’s on. If you prefer a Low Blue Light mode for reading, that feature is in the OSD too.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
A single press of the large button in the center of the remote’s nav pad brings up a quick menu. Pressing left opens the Aorus dashboard, which can display your PC component’s internal temperatures and fan speeds. You’ll need a USB connection for this, but most motherboards will transmit the information to the FV43U.
A right press brings up Game Assist, which offers timers, counters, refresh rate info and aiming points. You also get a single cross in the OSD and can create additional reticles if you download the Aorus desktop app. Additionally, the OSD offers alignment marks in case you plan to set up additional FV43Us in a multi-screen configuration. Now that would be super cool! We’re thinking ultimate desktop flight simulator.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Calibration Settings
The FV43U comes set to its Green (yes, that’s the term used in the OSD) picture mode. It has nothing to do with the color green but is fairly accurate out of the box – enough to make our Calibration Not Required list. But if you’re a perfectionist and want to tweak the image, choose the User Define color temp and adjust the RGB sliders. Gamma presets and color gamut options are also available. For the full native gamut, choose Auto or Adobe RGB. Either will deliver just over 100% of DCI-P3 coverage. sRGB is also very accurate, but we found it better to choose the sRGB picture mode rather than the sRGB gamut mode. Below are our recommended calibration settings for SDR on the Gigabyte Aorus FV43U.
Picture Mode
Green
Brightness 200 nits
13
Brightness 120 nits
4
Brightness 100 nits
2 (min. 89 nits)
Contrast
50
Gamma
2.2
Color Space
Auto or Adobe
Color Temp User
Red 100, Green 97, Blue 99
When HDR content is present, there are four additional picture modes available: HDR1000, HLG, Game and Movie. HDR1000 is the most accurate, but locks out all image controls. Game and Movie allow for brightness and contrast adjustments and toggling and local dimming. We’ll explain that in more detail in the HDR tests.
Gaming and Hands-on
A question that should be answered when one considers buying a 43-inch gaming monitor is, will it function as a TV? Since some FV43Us will wind up in living rooms or entertainment centers, it’s important to know whether it can play well with things like disc players or streaming boxes.
There is no internal tuner so technically, the FV43U is not a TV. But its HDMI 2.1 inputs can accept input from any cable or satellite receiver, as well as a 4K disc player or streaming box like Apple TV. We tried a Philips BDP-7501 player and an Apple TV source. SDR and HDR10 signals were supported fine with one omission, 24p. Film cadences are present on any Blu-ray and in many streamed shows and movies from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime (in addition to 50 and 60 Hz). The FV43U converted these streams to 60 Hz, which caused a bit of stuttering here and there. It wasn’t pervasive, but we occasionally saw artifacts. Note that the FV43U, like most computer monitors, doesn’t support Dolby Vision. We’ve only seen a few pro screens that includeDolby Vision.
As a monitor for controlling Windows, the FV43U was a joy to use. With its vast area, we could clearly view four or five documents simultaneously. Sitting about 4 feet back, the pixel structure was invisible, but if we sat closer we were just able to see the dots. Color, meanwhile, was beautifully saturated, great for watching YouTube and browsing the web. If you want perfect accuracy for web browsing, the sRGB mode is available with a few clicks of the remote.
Gaming is also a blast with a screen this big. SDR games like Tomb Raider rendered in vivid hues with deep blacks, bright whites and superb contrast. The large dynamic range and accurate gamma mean that you’ll see all the detail present in the original content. That lends a realism seen on only the very best computer monitors.
HDR games, like Call of Duty: WWII, also showed tremendous depth on the FV43U. We played exclusively in the HDR1000 picture mode because of its very accurate luminance and grayscale tracking. The FV43Us large color gamut was put to good use here. It was readily apparent in skin tones and natural earth shades, like brown and green. That, coupled with nearly 39,000:1 contrast, made surfaces and textures pop with a tactility that we’ve only seen from premium screens like the Acer Predator CG437K or the Asus ROG Swift PG43UQ (both go for $1,500 as of writing). Without a full-array local dimming (FALD) backlight like that Acer Predator X27 and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ have, the FV43U doesn’t quite make the very top tier of the best HDR monitors. But it comes awfully close to their image quality while delivering a lot more screen area.
The monitor’s two 12W speakers deliver sound that’s better than what you’ll hear from smaller monitors with much more bass and overall presence. Five audio modes help you tailor sound to your preference. If you’d rather use your best gaming headset, there’s a 3.5mm jack and an additional analog output for external systems.
Amazon is refreshing a handful of products in its Echo line: the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 5, plus it’s adding a Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5. The big new feature on both models is the camera, but the upgrade is more impressive on the bigger Echo Show 8. It now has the same 13-megapixel sensor that you’ll find on the Echo Show 10. Instead of moving the screen around to point at you as the 10 does, the Echo Show 8 provides a wider, 110-degree field of view. Within that range, it does the pan and zoom trick to keep subjects centered in the frame.
To power that trick and some other new software features, Amazon says there’s a new “octa-core” processor inside the Echo Show 8. Otherwise, it’s the same Echo Show 8 that we reviewed in 2019, with dual speakers and a choice of either white or charcoal gray. It still sells at the same price, $129.99.
The other software tricks include using the camera to detect if a human has walked into the room and then plugging that information into routines (like turning on the lights). Amazon emphasizes that this is an opt-in only feature and it even requires users to manually punch in a code during setup to ensure they really mean to turn it on. It also does its human shape detection locally.
Amazon will also let all Echo 8 and 5 devices turn on Alexa’s security mode, so you can remotely view the cameras from your phone. Finally, the Echo Show 8 is getting new AR effects for Amazon’s own video chat service, including “reactions” like filling the screen with hearts or setting custom virtual backgrounds.
As for the smaller (and more popular) Echo Show 5, the upgrades are less impressive. The camera is doubling in resolution, from one megapixel to two. It won’t have the horsepower to do the follow mode on the camera. However, the Echo Show 5 is getting a permanent price drop; it’s now $84.99. It comes in the same charcoal and white colors but adds a new blue option.
If you want to spend $10 more, you can get a Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5 with a wild print on the rear fabric. That extra $10 also includes a year of Amazon Kids Plus services and a two-year warranty against whatever damage your child can inflict on the thing.
All three versions of the Echo Show should be available for order immediately, but shipping could take a few weeks — even Amazon is not fully immune to chip shortages, it seems. As for fans of the Echo Spot orb, it’s not seeing any updates today and is in all likelihood not going to make a comeback — Amazon tells us that most customers just opted for the Echo Show 5 instead.
Ever get a text message informing you that you’ve won a prize — from Amazon itself? I certainly have, and I’ve even known a person or two who fell for those scams. Now, Amazon is attempting to hunt those scammers down, with a new lawsuit aimed at unmasking 50 unknown defendants in federal court.
Here’s the text message I received the other day from one such scammer:
And here’s where it took me when I clicked:
Screenshot: Sean Hollister / The Verge
According to Amazon’s legal complaint, which you can read in full below, the scam uses Amazon’s logos, web design, and meaningless “surveys” to trick people into buying products (ones that aren’t actually from Amazon), seemingly for cheap. The scammers aren’t necessarily the ones selling those products, either — but because they’re acting as referrers, they get a finder’s fee in the form of affiliate marketing commissions. The Better Business Bureau says it received 771 reports of scams impersonating Amazon in 2020, second only to those annoying calls claiming to be the Social Security Administration.
The tricky part is finding the scammers, because Amazon doesn’t actually know who they are, just which domain names they used to host the scam. But by filing a lawsuit against these 50 John Doe plaintiffs, Amazon may be able to get a doe subpoena to unmask their identities. The company tells us that’s worked in the past; in 2018, the company filed a John Doe lawsuit against a very similar scam and was able to track down at least four defendants. Each case ended with a permanent injunction, according to court records, and Amazon says it’s won at least $1.5 million in settlements so far.
The lawsuit also gives Amazon time to find them (against the statute of limitations) and puts the scammers on notice, just in case they might like to stop before they get hauled into court.
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