Fitness - Rondea

Facebook will start putting ads in Oculus Quest apps

Facebook will soon begin testing ads inside its Oculus Quest virtual reality system. In the coming weeks, ads will start appearing inside the Resolution Games title Blaston as well as two other unnamed apps. Facebook will later expand the system based on user feedback, saying it aims to create a “self-sustaining platform” for VR development.

Facebook introduced ads on the Oculus mobile app last month, and it’s used limited Oculus data to target Facebook advertising since 2019, but this is its first major foray into putting ads inside the Oculus VR platform itself. “Once we see how this test goes and incorporate feedback from developers and the community, we’ll provide more details on when ads may become more broadly available across the Oculus platform and in the Oculus mobile app,” the company said in a blog post.

As on Facebook’s non-VR apps, you can block specific posts or companies from appearing in ad slots. And Facebook says it’s not changing how it collects or analyzes user information. It says that some of the most sensitive data — like raw images from Oculus headset cameras and weight or height information from Oculus Move fitness tracking — remains solely on users’ devices. Also, Facebook says it has “no plans” to target ads based on movement data or recordings from its voice assistant.

A Facebook spokesperson says the system will use information from your Facebook profile, as well as “whether you’ve viewed content, installed, activated, or subscribed to a Oculus app, added an app to your cart or wishlist, if you’ve initiated checkout or purchased an app on the Oculus platform, and lastly, whether you’ve viewed, hovered, saved, or clicked on an ad within a third-party app.”

As shown above, users can click an ad and either open it or save the link for later. The former option will launch a landing page in the Oculus Quest’s web browser, and the latter will save the ad in the Quest in-VR experience and Oculus mobile app’s Explore sections. Developers will get a share of the revenue from ads in their apps, but Facebook isn’t publicly revealing the percentage.

Facebook is leaving its future roadmap open-ended. The spokesperson says Facebook hasn’t determined, for instance, whether ads could eventually appear inside your Oculus Home experience. Facebook also isn’t yet identifying the other apps using advertisements, although it will list additional names in the coming weeks. The first ads look like standard boxes inside game interfaces, but Facebook’s blog post says it’s exploring other options as well. “We’re currently investing in unobtrusive ads as a new way for developers to build businesses — and though we’re not quite ready to test them yet, we’re also exploring new ad formats that are unique to VR,” it says.

VR has arguably been an advertising medium for years, with countless film and TV promotional tie-ins as well as novelty experiences from companies like McDonald’s and Ikea. But ad-supported VR apps are using a different model that more closely resembles that of the mobile and web ecosystem. Letting developers integrate advertising could create a greater incentive to work within Facebook’s official ecosystem rather than distributing through sideloading options like SideQuest.

Facebook says ads are part of an attempt to figure out profitable business options in the growing but often difficult field of VR app development. “This is a key part of ensuring we’re creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences. It also helps us continue to make innovative AR/VR hardware more accessible to more people,” says the blog post.

Facebook currently dominates consumer VR with its Oculus Quest 2 headset — which, at $299, is one of the cheapest options on the market. It’s also acquired the studios behind several major VR games, including rhythm game Beat Saber and the battle royale title Population: One. While it may face renewed competition from a second-generation Sony PlayStation VR headset next year, at least one VR company has retreated from consumer hardware in part because of Facebook’s influence: Vive creator HTC, which has called Facebook’s low-cost consumer headsets “artificially subsidized” by the company’s advertising-focused business model.

Meanwhile, Facebook has slowly strengthened ties between its central business and Oculus, which it acquired in 2014. It began requiring Facebook logins for Quest headsets last year, although users can maintain separate profiles and use pseudonyms in VR. Adding advertising isn’t a surprising move for the company — and it’s another signal that Oculus hardware is becoming ever more closely integrated with Facebook.

Polar Ignite 2 review: Enough of a spark?

(Pocket-lint) – The Polar Ignite 2 is the follow-up fitness watch to the 2019 original. While it gives you all those key sports watch features, its key skills are to track your workouts and tell you the ones you should be doing next.

The relatively low asking price puts it up against the likes of the now older Apple Watch Series 3 or Fitbit Versa 3, but does the second-gen Polar deliver enough spark?

Design and display

1.2-inch IPS TFT touchscreen, 240 x 204 resolution
43mm case diameter, 8.5mm thick
Waterproof to 30 metres
Weighs 35g

The Ignite 2 is virtually identical to the original watch. It has the same-sized round polymer case, with a single physical button tucked away in the bottom corner, and a touchscreen controlled display.

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That’s partnered up with a silicone strap with a traditional watch-style buckle that comes in two size options. Those straps are removable too with a simple pin mechanism, letting you quickly swap for one of Polar’s dressier options or a strap that looks a lot like one of Apple’s sport bands.

Polar is offering some more colourful options here too as well. There’s now champagne, blue, black, and pink strap options to go with the four case colour options.

The Ignite 2 is a light watch – at just 35g – and we’ve found it’s been very comfortable to wear 24/7. If you like the idea of a watch that doesn’t sit big and bulky on your wrist, then it’s got appeal.

The biggest design change over the Ignite lies with the more textured, grippier finish on the case. With the right case and strap combo, it gives a slightly nicer-looking watch than its predecessor, but it’s the smallest of changes where pretty much everything else otherwise remains the same.

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Another element that hasn’t changed is the screen. It’s the same 1.2-inch touchscreen display that offers the same in the way of overall quality and viewing angles. It’s not as crisp, vibrant or as colourful as an AMOLED screen, but it’s a good enough screen surroundings to soak up your stats.

What isn’t so good is the still lingering lagging you get when interacting with this screen. It was the same on the first Ignite and clearly Polar hasn’t sought to improve things regarding the screen’s slightly delayed response.

Software and performance

Phone notifications, music controls and weather forecasts
Works with Polar Flow and third-party apps

As is the case with all of Polar’s watches (aside from a brief play with Google’s Wear OS for its M600 watch), it sticks to packing on its own in-house operating system.

It’s a software that pairs to your phone over Bluetooth and does offer the ability to pair up external Bluetooth heart-rate sensors. In the Ignite 2 you don’t get the ANT+ connectivity you get on more expensive Polar watches to widen the support of devices you can connect it to.

The software experience is similar to what you’ll find on Polar’s top-end watches, albeit with a greater emphasis on using the touchscreen to navigate your way around the interface. You can commence workout tracking in the same fashion, while swiping left and right on the watch screen will drop additional information around the watch face, such as current heart rate, activity tracking data, and a useful weekly summary of your training.

Polar has sought to offer more smartwatch features on the Ignite this time around, rolling out features that have already appeared on its Vantage series and Grit X watches. Along with the same notification support, you now getting weather forecasts, the ability to adjust the look of watch faces, and there’s now music controls here too.

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They’re not groundbreaking features, but they’re ones that make the Ignite 2 more useful to have around when you’re not just working out. They work well enough, too, although displaying notifications still feels a little clunky. The music controls are easy to use and work with third-party apps like Spotify, though, which is good news.

Off the watch, your go-to place for setting things up is the Polar Flow phone app or desktop app, but this is a watch that will play nice with third-party apps if you want to bypass Polar’s own once you’ve set things up. Much like Garmin, there’s a lot going on in Polar Flow and it pays to spend some time to get to know where things live in the app and get a sense of what all of the extra training insights mean.

Sports and fitness tracking

FitSpark workout recommendations
Nightly Recharge measurements
Pool swim tracking

Despite its small stature, Polar still manages to pack in quite an impressive array of features into the Ignite 2. There’s built-in GPS, the same Precision Prime heart rate monitor technology used on its pricier Vantage watches, and a rich collection of training features like adaptive running programmes.

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For sports tracking, you’re getting access to over 130 profiles – with activities like running, cycling, pool swimming the best served. There’s also profiles for HIIT and cross training, with a bigger emphasis on monitoring heart rate to measure effort levels during those workouts.

GPS signal pick-up was nice and snappy on our outdoor runs and distance tracking accuracy and core running metrics were in line with a similarly-priced Garmin watch.

In the water, however, the Polar wasn’t so good. Accuracy of tracking laps was fine on shorter swims, but accuracy waned noticeably over swimming longer distances above 400-500 metres.

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If you’re hoping for a reliable heart rate monitor, then the one on the Ignite 2 performed well in most of our tests. On runs and home workouts, it was a few beats per minute (bpm) out from a Garmin HRM-Pro chest strap monitor. For something more intense like interval training, that accuracy and ability to keep up with the sudden spikes and drops in heart rate shows though. It’s not a terrible performer, but if you yearn for supreme accuracy, take the opportunity to pair up an external sensor.

One of the standout features on the Ignite 2 is FitSpark. This is Polar’s smart suggested workouts feature that looks at the types of sessions you’ve logged with your watch to recommend workouts you should do around them. So it may suggest working on strength if you’ve been smashing the cardio lately, or adding some mobility work to better balance your training.

It works really well too, clearly instructing you what to do during the workouts and will start a countdown and send a vibrating buzz to let you know when to prepare for the next workout. It’s not a feature unique to this Polar watch, but it’s one that’s great to use if you’re not sure about what to do when it comes to training.

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If you’re yearning for some of the more advanced training analysis you get on Polar’s other watches, you can still get details on your cardio load status and you can learn more about whether you’re under- or over-training. You can now also understand what’s fuelling your run with the new Energy Sources feature – this heart rate-fuelled feature gives you a breakdown if you’ve used carbohydrates, proteins or fats to power a workout.

The Ignite 2 doubles up as a pretty solid fitness tracker too. It will track steps, distances, nudge you when you’ve not been active for a period of time, and display in the app a breakdown of when you were most active during the day.

But what’s really impressive with the Ignite 2 is the sleep tracking. It offers all the typical things you’d expect to find on a sleep monitoring watch, including a breakdown of sleep stages including REM sleep and sleep scores. Where things get interesting are the Nightly Recharge measurements, which aim to help you better assess if you’ve recovered from a tough physical day. It looks at sleep quality and how your autonomic nervous system calms during the early hours of sleep to generate the measurement. It can then offer tips on whether you should train or why you might have had a bad night of sleep.

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The accuracy of sleep tracking ultimately dictates how useful this feature is – and against a Fitbit’s pretty impressive sleep tracking the Polar held up really well on that front. So if you’re looking for a watch that tracks sleep but also offers useful, actionable insights based on that data, the Ignite 2 fits the bill.

Battery life

165mAh battery, up to 5 days per charge
100 hours in training mode
20 hours GPS battery life

The Ignite 2 promises to deliver up to five days of life in smartwatch mode – with continuous heart rate monitoring in use. When you’re using GPS, you can expect to get 20 hours of tracking time. And there’s now a new training mode that will record workouts up to 100 hours.

What we’ve learnt over our experience with Polar’s latest watches is that they can come up a little short on those claims. That doesn’t change with the Ignite 2. It’s clear the more advanced sleep monitoring features Polar has introduced have quite a noticeable drain on battery – and you can’t turn it off. You can disable continuous heart rate monitoring, which will get you to that five day mark – otherwise it’s more like four.

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When you’re putting GPS tracking to use, you’re getting around the same battery life as a similarly priced watch from Garmin, but significantly more GPS battery life than what you’re going to get from any Apple Watch model. If you want something that can get you just under a week of training, then that’s what the Ignite 2 will get you.

When it’s time for charging, Polar retains the same disc charger that clips onto the back and takes over an hour to get from 0-100 per cent, so it’s a relatively snappy charger.

Verdict

Polar hasn’t made wholesale changes compared to the first Ignite, instead focusing on improving the look and trickling down some features from its pricier watches into the Ignite 2.

But it’s got pretty much everything you could want in a fitness watch, offering solid tracking for most activities, plenty in the way of data, features and insights, and is a light and comfortable watch to live with.

Features like FitSpark and the Nightly Recharge measurements is what really makes the Ignite 2 stand out from the similar price competition. The latter though clearly is a drain on battery life.

As a smartwatch you’ll get more from the likes of Garmin, Fitbit and Apple. But in terms of a fitness watch first and foremost there’s a lot to like here.

If you like the idea of a watch that does a great job of bringing training and recovery closer together and helping you make sense of it, the Ignite 2 is worth strapping on.

Also consider

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Apple Watch Series 3

While you’ll have to live with much less battery life, the Series 3 gives you a better screen, smartwatch features, and pretty solid sports tracking in a more attractive, customisable look.

Read our review

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Garmin Venu Sq

The square Venu Sq is in a similar price range and again offers a nicer display and more smartwatch features like Spotify offline playlist support.

Read our review

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Polar Unite

If you can live without the built-in GPS, the Unite offers those great FitSpark and Nightly Recharge measurements for less money.

Read our review

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Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Facebook plans first smartwatch for next summer with two cameras, heart rate monitor

Facebook is taking a novel approach to its first smartwatch, which the company hasn’t confirmed publicly but currently plans to debut next summer. The device will feature a display with two cameras that can be detached from the wrist for taking pictures and videos that can be shared across Facebook’s suite of apps, including Instagram, The Verge has learned.

A camera on the front of the watch display exists primarily for video calling, while a 1080p, auto-focus camera on the back can be used for capturing footage when detached from the stainless steel frame on the wrist. Facebook is tapping other companies to create accessories for attaching the camera hub to things like backpacks, according to two people familiar with the project, both of whom requested anonymity to speak without Facebook’s permission.

The idea is to encourage owners of the watch to use it in ways that smartphones are used now. It’s part of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to build more consumer devices that circumvent Apple and Google, the two dominant mobile phone platform creators that largely control Facebook’s ability to reach people.

The planned device is Facebook’s first stab at releasing hardware specifically for the wrist, opening up another area of competition with Apple at a time when the two tech giants are already at odds on other fronts. Apple has aggressively positioned itself as a protector of privacy by limiting the kinds of data that apps like Facebook can collect, while Facebook has for years been besieged by scandals regarding its handling of user data. That dynamic could create an uphill battle for Facebook to convince people to buy its forthcoming Apple Watch competitor, especially since it plans to also position the watch as a fitness device with a heart rate monitor.

Facebook is working with the top wireless carriers in the US to support LTE connectivity in the watch, meaning it won’t need to be paired with a phone to work, and sell it in their stores, the people familiar with the matter said. The watch will come in white, black, and gold, and Facebook hopes to initially sell volume in the low six figures. That’s a tiny sliver of the overall smartwatch market — Apple sold 34 million watches last year by comparison, according to Counterpoint Research.

In future versions of the watch, Facebook is planning for it to serve as a key input device for its planned augmented reality glasses, which Zuckerberg thinks will one day be as ubiquitous as mobile phones. The company plans to use technology it acquired from CTRL-labs, a startup that has demonstrated armbands capable of controlling a computer through wrist movements.

Facebook aims to release the first version of the watch in the summer of 2022 and is already working on second and third generations for subsequent years. Employees have recently discussed pricing the device at roughly $400, but the price point could change. While it’s unlikely, Facebook could also scrap the watch altogether, as the device has yet to enter mass production or even be given an official name.

Facebook’s track record for making hardware is spotty. Its 2013 phone with HTC was a spectacular flop, and it has yet to disclose sales for its Oculus VR headsets or Portal video chat device for the home. In recent interviews, executives have said that sales for the Oculus Quest 2 headset have surpassed all previous Oculus headsets combined.

Facebook’s interest in building a smartwatch dates back at least a few years. It looked at acquiring Fitbit in 2019 before Google bought the fitness wearable maker. Since then, the social network has spent roughly $1 billion to develop the first version of its watch and has hundreds of people working on the effort, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment for this story. The Information earlier reported that Facebook was building a smartwatch with health and messaging features, but details about its cameras and other specifics in this story are new.

Using a custom version of Google’s Android operating system, Facebook plans to lean on its suite of apps and external partnerships to create compelling experiences for the watch, which will include a companion app for phones. Even still, Facebook’s wrist wearable resonating with people is far from guaranteed. Smartwatches with cameras on them have so far failed to catch on, and Apple has cornered the high end of the market already.

Apple announces watchOS 8 with new health features

Apple has just announced watchOS 8, the latest version of the company’s smartwatch platform for the Apple Watch. The new software succeeds last year’s watchOS 7 and is going to be first available for developers to test their apps with. A public release is expected later this fall.

Apple is debuting a new Mindfulness app, an extension of the Breathe app that nags you to breathe throughout the day. It’s adding new animations and other features to help you relax.

The Fitness app is getting more workout types for tai chi and pilates. The Apple Watch’s Health app will explicitly track your respiratory rate and notify you if it’s outside of your normal patterns.

Developing… we’re adding more to this post, but you can follow along with our WWDC 2021 live blog to get the news even faster.

Huawei Watch 3 vs Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro: What’s changed?

(Pocket-lint) – Huawei’s latest watch has been announced, and is the first to launch officially running HarmonyOS, the new cross-category operating system designed to make multiple devices seamlessly connect with each other.

The manufacturer has built some great fitness tracking watches of late, including the previous flagship watch: the Watch GT 2 Pro. So, what’s changed between the last watch and the Watch 3? Let’s dive in.

Design

GT 2 Pro: 46.7 x 46.7 x 11.4mm – 52g
Watch 3: 46.2 x 46.2 x 12.15mm – 54g
Watch 3 Pro: 48 mm x 49.6 x 14mm – 63g
GT 2 Pro: Titanium, Sapphire glass and ceramic
Watch 3: Stainless steel, hardened glass and ceramic
Watch 3 Pro: Titanium, Sapphire glass and ceramic
All: Waterproof to 50m

All of Huawei’s watches are fully round and in basic terms they do look similar. They share similarities like having the same ceramic underside, with the same design for the optical sensors for reading your heart rate and blood oxygen saturation.

Where they differ is in the glass, metal and shape of the lens. For instance, both the GT 2 Pro and Watch 3 Pro have completely flat Sapphire crystal glass screens and titanium cases. The standard Watch 3 has curved hardened glass on top of stainless steel.

While all three have two buttons on the side, only the new Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro feature a rotating crown which functions similarly to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown. You can turn it or press it to control various functions and interface elements.

All of them are waterproof to a high level (up to 50m) and all three charge wirelessly using the same magnetic plastic cradle.

The one other thing worth noting is that the Watch 3 is the more compact of the three, but not by a huge amount. With a 46mm case, it’s hardly tiny. At 14mm, the Watch 3 Pro is clearly the thickest as well as being the largest.

Display

GT 2 Pro: 1.39-inch AMOLED screen
Watch 3 and 3 Pro: 1.43-inch AMOLED screen
GT 2 Pro: 454 x 454 resolution – 326ppi
Watch 3 and 3 Pro: 466 x 466 resolution – 326ppi

As mentioned, all three watches have completely round screens and they’re all AMOLED and have the same pixel density. There’s a difference in size though, with both the new Watch 3 models featuring a 1.43-inch panel versus 1.39-inches on the older one. That means skinnier bezels, not a bigger watch.

More importantly, however, they have refresh rates up to 60Hz, which means you’ll get smoother and more graphic rich images and animations on it compared to the GT 2 Pro. That – of course – also means it eats more battery (more on that later).

With a peak brightness of 1000nits, that means the watches will be easier to see in daylight too. From a hardware perspective, this is the biggest – or at least most noticeable – upgrade over the Watch GT 2 Pro.

Software and Fitness tracking

GT 2 Pro: LiteOS
Watch 3/3 Pro: HarmonyOS
All: GPS, Heart Rate, spO2, steps, sleep and stress tracking
Watch 3/3 Pro: Temperature sensor
Watch 3 Pro: Precise dual-GPS location
All: Compatible with iOS and Android through Huawei health

The Watch 3 and 3 Pro are the first watches to run HarmonyOS, that means a few things have changed when it comes to the interface and software, but key elements have remained the same.

Controls are similar, although you can now view apps in a grid and even use AppGallery to install them directly from your wrist. The other addition is a fall detection feature which can be set up to call an emergency contact when you fall and don’t respond within a certain time frame.

From a fitness and health perspective, the three watches are largely similar and capable of all-day tracking for things like heart-rate, spO2, stress, sleep and steps. The new sensor on the Watch 3 series also allows skin temperature sensing.

As for the Pro, that one has a dual-GPS mode which allows for much more precise tracking during runs and outdoor sessions to give you a more accurate distance reading and mapped route.

All three are compatible with Android, iOS and HarmonyOS devices using the Huawei Health app.

Performance and battery

GT 2 Pro: 14 days battery life
Watch 3: 3 days in smart mode, 14 days in ‘Ultra-long’
Watch 3 Pro: 5 days in smart mode, 21 days in ‘Ultra-long’
GT 2 Pro: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Watch 3/3 Pro: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and eSIM/4G

What’s interesting about the Watch 3 series’ is that it has – essentially – two modes of running. You can use it as a regular smartwatch and get either three or five days of battery, or kick it into ‘ultra-long’ mode and get either two or three weeks of battery life.

What this does, sort-of, is switch the software and capabilities so that it’s very much like the Lite OS software running on the Watch GT 2 Pro. Due to its lightweight software, Watch GT 2 Pro can get up to two weeks on a full battery.

Watch 3 – as well as having Wi-Fi and Bluetooth like the GT 2 Pro – has eSIM support. This enables 4G connection on networks that support it, allowing you to stream music, answer calls and see notifications. The only downside to this is that it’s only supported by a couple of Chinese networks currently with no news on planned expansion worldwide.

Price

GT 2 Pro: £249
Watch 3: £349
Watch 3 Pro: £499

With its higher-end internal hardware, revamped software, higher refresh screen and eSIM support it’s no surprise that the Watch 3 starts at a higher price than its predecessor.

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In the UK, the standard Watch 3 starts at £100 more than the GT 2 Pro’s original price at £349. Because it’s no longer new, you can now find the GT 2 Pro even cheaper without too much trouble. The Watch 3 Pro is a pound short of £500.

Conclusion

When it comes to fitness and health tracking, there’s little reason to go for the Watch 3 over the Watch GT 2 Pro. It does mostly the same stuff which is then display in the same way on the watch and in your smartphone app.

Where the Watch 3 comes into its own is when it comes to the display and the richer graphics and interactions on that screen. It’s starting to feel much more like a proper smartwatch and less like a rebadged fitness tracker. With a built-in eSIM and potential to stream music and answer calls away from your phone, that’s freedom you don’t get from the Watch GT 2 Pro. Sadly though, that’s not yet available outside China.

Writing by Cam Bunton.

AirPods 3 launching this year, AirPods Pro 2 arriving in 2022, report says

(Image credit: Apple)

The AirPods 3 will launch this year, but we won’t see the AirPods Pro 2 until 2022, a new report says.

According to Bloomberg, the new AirPods will sport a new design that mimics that of the AirPods Pro – namely a new case and shorter stems. This is in keeping with what we’ve heard previously.

The same article states the new AirPods Pro will have updated motion sensors for a greater focus on fitness tracking, which is again in line with previous rumours.

It’s fair to say both pairs of true wireless earbuds are due an update. The second-gen AirPods launched in March 2019, while the AirPods Pro followed in October of that year. Since then the competition has heated up, with budget pairs like the Earfun Air Pro offering similar features at a fraction of the price, and the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 Plus besting Apple for battery life.

We’re also expecting the highly anticipated Sony WF-1000XM4 to launch any day now.

New AirPods aren’t the only audio products Apple has in the pipeline. The firm is said to be working on a new HomePod speaker with a built-in screen. Apple recently retired the original – keeping the HomePod Mini – but the fact it has recently gained some new features suggests Apple could be planning more HomePod devices in future.

Apple’s also announced an upgrade to Apple Music. Due to go live this month, Apple is adding support for hi-res audio, although the AirPods don’t actually support hi-res.

MORE:

Check out the best wireless headphones around

Try 30 Apple Music tips, tricks and features

Sony WF-1000XM4: release date, price and leaks for Sony’s next wireless earbuds

Xiaomi Mi Band 6 review: Greatness on a budget?

(Pocket-lint) – Xiaomi’s expertise when it comes to affordable fitness trackers is no longer a matter for debate. This is the sixth iteration of its impressive Mi Band tracker, after all, and practice does tend to make (closer to) perfect.

Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today

We’ve been wearing it for a couple of weeks, day in and day out, to stack it up against the competition as well as its own previous versions, and we’ve come away without much surprise. This is a really solid band, with only minor drawbacks.

Design

1.56-inch AMOLED display, 152 x 486 resolution
5ATM water resistant
Weighs 62g

The Mi Band 6 isn’t exactly a revolution when it comes to the design side of things – it looks much like the Mi Band 5, with some telling changes. That means that you still have a vertically-oriented display in a silicone housing and a band fastened by a punch-hole.

It’s super light and comfortable to wear, making it one of the easiest bands we’ve tried for overnight use, and there are plenty of holes in the strap to let you adjust the tightness of the fit when needed.

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The tracker is only available in one colour – black – although you can swap out coloured bands if you like.

The Band 6 charges with a small included cable that magnetically clips onto its underside. Nice and simple.

Where things have changed slightly is the screen, although the body of the tracker is only different by a matter of millimetres. Gone is the Mi Band 5’s display, replaced with a new bigger AMOLED option that squeezes in an extra 50 per cent of real estate.

We’re impressed by the change, too. The bezels around its edge are pretty tiny and the 450nit maximum brightness is impressive when cranked up, with a resolution of that’s crisp enough.

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The tracker is still nice and thin, too, so it won’t jut out from your wrist too far at all, further contributing to its comfort factor. Water resistance means you can feel free to keep it on in the shower, which also means it’s fine for a swim if you’re feeling more ambitious.

The band might not be a real redesign, but more display on a similar-sized body is always a good equation from our point of view, and the Mi Band 6 is easy to wear for long periods, which is all it really needs to do.

Tracking

SpO2 blood oxygen monitor
Heart rate monitoring
30 sports modes
Sleep tracking

The Mi Band 6 isn’t going to set the world alight with its design, then, but its tracking is the real reason you’ll be picking one up. It’s here that Xiaomi once again demonstrates that it has chops in this price bracket.

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You get heart rate tracking that you can trust to maintain solid accuracy, alongside an SpO2 blood oxygenisation monitor that, while a little finnicky when it comes to taking readings, is absent from many more expensive devices.

Blood oxygen monitoring: Apple Watch Series 6’s biggest feature explained

There’s also sleep tracking if you’re happy to wear it during the night, and passive stress monitoring if you want your tracker to tell you how you’re feeling (no, it doesn’t speak soothingly to you). The extent to which these last two features are constructive and useful might vary from person to person.

You get a whole bundle of exercise modes to pick from as well, when you decide to get a bit more active. There are 30 included, covering mainstream options like outdoor jogging and more niche choices like rowing.

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These are easy to select and control while you’re on the go, although when we left the Band 6 to its own devices and relied on auto-detection for our activities things weren’t always quite as responsive as we’d want.

Overall, though, the picture is impresive and easy to use – with data collected in week-long retrospectives and available through the companion app for more detailed assessment.

Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today

By Britta O’Boyle
·
2 March 2021

Our guide to the top fitness trackers available, helping you count steps, track calories, monitor your heart rate, sleep patterns and more.

Software

Mi Fit companion app
14-day battery life
Tethered GPS

The software side of things is right down the middle of the road on the Mi Band 6. It’s not exactly the smoothest and most responsive system you’ll ever use, but it more than gets the job done.

Responsiveness on the touch screen is decent, while menus are fairly easy to swipe through and navigate around. A swipe in any direction from the home screen might bring up the settings menu, swipe you through more features, or bring up the main menu of options.

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It’s all easy to learn, and you thankfully also don’t need to worry too much about battery life. Xiaomi’s stated 14-day battery life matches up to our testing, and even when we ramped up the screen’s brightness there wasn’t too much of a battery hit.

You’ll need the Mi Fit app to connect to your phone for tethered GPS and synced health records, which is pretty easy to accomplish. The app itself is very much fine.

Accessing your heart rate history or step counts is pretty simple, as is adding more home screen options for your band, but its layout is hardly the most intuitive, and seems to assume that you might have multiple Xiaomi products to control, muddying things a bit.

Xiaomi also takes pains to again highlight its PAI system, a collated score to give you an idea of whether you’re being active enough to maintain a healthy pattern of life.

It’s a little bit opaque in terms of how the score is designated, but simple enough to provide no-frills motivation if you’re in a rut, and it’s satisfying to watch the numbers rise as you take the time to get a bit sweaty more often. Still, you can pretty easily ignore it, as it’s far from a training plan or anything.

Verdict

The Mi Band 6 shows that experience counts as far as fitness trackers go – and Xiaomi has plenty of it to go around. It hasn’t reinvented the wheel in the Mi Band 6, but it’s a solid improvement thanks to its better display.

Still, there’s nothing here to force an upgrade if you’ve already got an older Mi Band and you’re happy with it – and the slight hike in price that comes with the higher-quality screen does mean that the Band’s previously stellar value is merely ‘good’, now.

If you want a simple fitness tracker to start watching your lifestyle more carefully, the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 is a solid choice, much like those that came before it – but with a bigger, better screen to help everything along.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Fitbit Inspire 2

It’s a little pricier, but if you want something similarly slim and light but with a better companion app, this Fitbit makes a solid case. You get top-class tracking, but the display is far less vibrant than the Xiaomi’s – so it might come down to taste!

Read our review

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Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Mike Lowe.

New AirPods Pro could launch in 2022 with a focus on fitness tracking

Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro will launch next year, following the release of an updated pair of standard AirPods this year, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The new AirPods Pro will reportedly feature upgraded motion sensors to allow for fitness tracking, while the entry-level AirPods will have an updated design similar to the Pro models along with a shorter stem.

In a previous report from last year Bloomberg said that the upcoming AirPods Pro could ditch the stem entirely in favor of a more compact design similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus or Google’s Pixel Buds. However, at the time Bloomberg noted that design challenges meant these plans could change. Its latest report says Apple has “tested” this design, which sounds like it’s not guaranteed to appear in the final model.

Alongside the two new AirPods models, Apple is reported to be developing a HomePod equipped with a screen, as well as a separate Apple TV-like device that could include a speaker and camera for video calls.

The new AirPods would be the first updates to Apple’s true wireless lineup in over a year. Apple first release its AirPods Pro in late 2019, while its entry-level AirPods haven’t been updated since March 2019. It released its first AirPods-branded over-ear headphones, the AirPods Max, in December.

Royole unveils stretchable micro-LED displays that can be shaped into globes or domes

You don’t hear much abut them, but Royole unveiled the first foldable phone in the world and is now working on another technology – stretchable displays. These are based on micro-LED tech built on a stretchy, elastic circuit. Why would you even want a stretchable display?

For one these can be stretched into various shapes, creating spherical and dome-shaped displays. It’s like those curved screens you see on TVs, monitors and phones, except with a curve on two axes.

Royole sees applications in the fields of health and fitness, sports and fashion as well as transportation. Stretchy displays can be molded to fit the shape of the human body or create an interactive globe.

Here are a few details about the new type of display panel. They can be stretched to 130% and bent to 40º. They can be transparent too, letting through 70% of the light (much more than transparent OLED panels do, e.g. LG’s transparent TV lets through only 40% of the light). The current designs can have pixel densities up to 120 ppi, comparable to a typical laptops.

Below you can see a 2.7” 96 x 60 pixel panel that was built to prove that the technology works:

A proof of concept 2.7″ stretchable display (96 x 60 px) • It’s transparent too

And here’s the stretchiness in action:

True to their name, micro-LEDs are smaller than OLEDs, which allows for a bigger gap between individual pixels. This means more room for stretchy material between the pixels (and more room for light to go through).

Royole believes this stretchable technology can be applied to the manufacturing processes for foldable displays made today, which will help scale the production capacity quickly.

Source | Via

Wattbike Atom (Next Generation) review: Turn down for watt

(Pocket-lint) – Lockdowns around the world led to a boom in indoor cycling, with training and virtual racing taking off. For many this has meant buying a smart turbo trainer – such as the excellent Wahoo Kickr or Tacx Neo 2T Smart – and hooking your bike up to it before riding off into the virtual sunset.

However, if you have the space and the money there’s another option: the indoor smart bike. This is where the Wattbike Atom – here the 2020 model, described as the ‘Next Generation’ product by the maker – comes into play. But, at 10 times to price of a ‘dumb’ exercise bike, is it worth the outlay?

Much like mobile phones, there’s a big difference between budget and flagship. The Wattbike Atom 2020 uses top-of-the-range internal components, while it looks like a thing of relative beauty compared to a clunky budget spin bike. But more important than that, it’s designed to integrate seamlessly with third-party apps such as Zwift to allow training, social riding and racing in the virtual world.

So how does the Wattbike Atom ‘Next-Generation’ stack up in the world of dedicated indoor trainers?

Design & Setup

Footprint: 1.24 x 0.5m (4′ x 1’7″) / Weight: 40kg (88lbs)
Connectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+, FTMS

This is the second-generation Atom, arriving 3 years after Wattbike’s first foray into the smart bike home market. Out of the box the Atom is pretty much ready to go, which is not the case for its competitors that require a larger degree of assembly.

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The only things you need to do are attach the pedals – a flat pair are included, but you’ll most likely be installing your own – clip in the aerobars (which double as a tablet holder) and, if you’re so inclined, add the aerobar resting pads. Once you’ve heaved it into position (it’s very heavy, but has two small carriage wheels at the front which are helpful when you need to move it), you’ll need to fit the bike to your geometry.

Anyone who’s had a professional bike fit will be a step ahead of the game here, but Wattbike’s website will take you through what you need to do if you haven’t. The saddle and handlebar height and forward/backward position are fully adjustable, as is the tilt of the saddle, meaning that the vast majority of riders will be able to replicate their road bike position.

However, it’s not possible to adjust the crank length at all, so you’re stuck with 170mm – which for most people won’t be a major issue, but it won’t please everyone (as typical setups are usually 172.5mm or 175mm – both of which you can match on the Tacx Neo Bike Smart, for example).

As we’ve already mentioned, the Wattbike Atom comes complete with aerobars that double as a tablet holder. They’re fairly rudimentary, but they provide a snug fit for your tablet and there’s no worry that it’s going to slide out mid ride.

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Rather frustratingly, there is no USB port at the front of the bike to be able to plug your screen into though, which is an annoying oversight on Wattbike’s part and means you end up trailing an extension socket to the front of the bike when you need a power boost.

On the frame there are two water bottle cages, which is practical given how hot riding indoors can get.

Under the hood

Resistance: electromagnetic
Gears: 22

The mechanics of the Wattbike Atom are where the major upgrades over the previous version have happened. In particular the electromagnetic drivetrain that allows for super-quick gear changes and smoother variations in resistance to simulate climbing/descending or interval training.

Linked to this are the electronic gear shifters that you press to simulate changing gear by changing the resistance to the motor. The gear shifters are battery operated by a coin cell, which of course means you’ll have to change these periodically, but more irritatingly it means they don’t offer any vibrating feedback when you change gear – which we felt would have improved the overall experience.

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Coupled to this, there is no way of telling which gear you’re in when you’re on the bike – except in compatible apps, of which there are few – and an LED display of this would be useful.

All in all, it feels as though there have been some compromises made with the gear system, perhaps as a consequence of trying to achieve the relatively low price point of the Next Generation Atom. Go up the ranks to the priciest-of-the-lot Wahoo Kickr Bike and you get a much more true-to-life (well, Shimano) gear shifter setup.

On the (virtual) road

Maximum power: 2500W
Power accuracy: +/-1%

Our time on the Atom started well. Wattbike provided us an iPad with Zwift, Sufferfest and the Wattbike app all preinstalled and ready to go – and we found our first ride on Zwift, a gentle noodle around Watopia, to be as smooth as we would hope. The Bluetooth setup worked flawlessly.

Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today

By Britta O’Boyle
·
24 May 2021

The resistance changes as we hit the slopes felt good, gear changes were near instantaneous, and there was a useful gear indicator shown in the top corner of the Zwift screen. Similarly, we found Wattbike’s own app to be seamless, providing a range of interesting and helpful data on pedalling dynamics, as well as a range of interval training workouts.

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The power data was accurate and consistent when we compared it to our Garmin Vector 3 pedals, as was the cadence.

But the Atom isn’t a bike for gently cruising around the great indoors on, it’s a thoroughbred racing machine, so we decided to put it through its paces in a Zwift race. As you might expect, race conditions expose the differences between the Atom and the turbo trainer/bike setup that we’re used to using.

The first thing we noticed was that finding the correct gear was not as intuitive or easy as we would have liked, particularly in situations where you might want to drop a few gears in quick succession. That lack of feedback from the button press gear changers is noticeable.

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There is an option to change from the standard 22 gear set up to 11 gears, but rather than recreating a well mapped out 1×11 set up, the Atom just gives you every other gear from the 22 gear set up. This is disappointing, as is the fact that you can’t customise the gears through Wattbike’s app to create your own ratios – we would like to see Wattbike make customisation an option through firmware update.

The other thing that became more obvious as we pushed the bike hard was that it’s rock-solid stability was, well, rather too rock solid in some ways. The bike was literally rooted to the spot and, try as we might, it didn’t offer even the slightest feedback during all out sprints. On the one hand this is reassuring – we don’t want to be wobbling or worrying about stability during a race – but on the other, many riders want a little side-to-side movement to give a more realistic ride feel, to relieve fatigue, and to avoid a numb rear!

To some extent this is about personal preference, but we found that this rigidity made the Wattbike Atom better suited for jumping on and doing a 30 minute or hour-long interval session, rather than anything longer. A bit like a spin bike session, really.

Furthermore, we found that the Wattbike wasn’t quite as quiet as we had expected. Compared to the whisper quiet high-end turbo trainers we’ve tested, the Atom is definitely a little more noisy, giving a similar level of hum as a washing machine on a mid-speed spin.

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Another niggle that that we found with the Atom – and this must be a huge frustration for Wattbike – is its integration with third-party apps. When we linked the bike up to our own Zwift account on our laptop, rather than using Wattbike’s pre-loaded iPad version, the Bluetooth kept dropping out, meaning we’d repeatedly lose power for 20-30 seconds every few minutes. Then something went very wrong and the bike wouldn’t connect properly to anything on the laptop or the iPad, which was only solved when we reinstalled the Wattbike app on a third device.

When speaking to the people at Wattbike about this they explained that resolving these problems is a priority, but they are also reliant on the app developers to work with them to do this. So it should happen, but it’s a bit of a waiting game.

From then on we stuck to using the iPad, but still some minor issues remained. Using both the Trainer Road and Sufferfest apps, we found that at the beginning of each interval the Atom would “surge” – demanding more watts from us for a couple of seconds, then drop below the target, before it started to stabilise. This same effect happened when riding in Road Grand Tours, with the start of every incline feeling tougher than it should, which, combined with the slightly difficult-to-master gear shifting, could be frustrating.

Verdict

At first glance the idea of paying the price of a mid-level road bike for one that goes nowhere might seem a little indulgent, but the market for this technology is growing, and Wattbike has put out a really solid offering at a price point quite a bit below the competition.

This means there are a few compromises – but nothing that would stop us seriously considering the Atom from a hardware point of view. There are some software integration issues with third-party apps, though, which we’ve found frustrating.

Overall, the smart bike market is continuing to grow and evolve. Some people may think that a smart turbo trainer is still the better option for indoor training at the moment, whereas others will see the benefits of a dedicated training bike like this one.

Wattbike has created a good offering in the Atom and it’s priced a fair bit less than the key competition, which certainly makes it a contender if you want to take this next step in your indoor training.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Tacx Neo Bike Smart

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The Tacx Neo Bike Smart is an obvious rival to the Wattbike Atom. It’s more expensive, and you’ll encounter similar shifting and rigidity issues with it. But third-party software integration is no problem at all, which makes it a more stable offering.

Writing by Jon Hicks. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Garmin Enduro review: marathon runner

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Battery life has been the Achilles’ heel of smartwatches and fitness watches. While solid state storage and processing power have been evolving at a rapid clip, battery life has remained stagnant. This goes quintuple for watches that track your activity using GPS, which is a particularly power-hungry thing to do. And yet, somehow, the Garmin Enduro now exists. If you’re the type of person who likes to run until their kneecaps have been ground into a fine powder, this is the watch for you.

The $800 Enduro is a multisport fitness watch. And by multi, I mean pretty much all the sports. Built-in activities include: Run, Ultra Run, Trail Run, Treadmill, Virtual Run, Track Run, Indoor Track Run, Bike, Mountain Bike, Indoor Bike, Pool Swim, Open Water Swim, Triathlon, SwimRun, Hike, Expedition, Climb, Indoor Climb, Bouldering, Ski, Snowboard, Cross Country Ski, Cross Country Skate Ski, Backcountry Ski, Surf, SUP, Kayak, Row, Indoor Row, Navigate, Track Me, Pilates, Yoga, Breathwork, Cardio, Strength, Golf, and others (including downloadable options made by third parties) but honestly I’m tired of typing. Basically, it has all of the same activity modes as Garmin’s current multisport flagship, the Fenix 6 (starting at $550, up to $1,100), but there are some significant tradeoffs, which I’ll get to in a sec.

Let’s start with the body. Physically, the Enduro is a perfect twin of the larger Fenix 6X. (You can see a more in-depth comparison between the two on Garmin’s site.) It has a 1.4-inch transflective (sunlight visible) color LCD screen. It’s extremely easy to read, particularly outdoors (at night it lights up with the push of a button). The screen also doubles as a low-key solar panel, giving you extra juice when you wear it outside.

The body is just over two inches by two inches and 0.6 inches thick. In other words, it’s a bit chunky, and people with smaller wrists probably will not like it. I have weirdly big wrist bones, so I didn’t mind the way it felt, and it didn’t look like I was wearing a tablet on my arm. Despite its size it’s quite light, coming in at 71 grams for the steel version or 61 grams for the more expensive titanium version. That weight is partly due to the new, slightly stretchy nylon strap, which is comfortable and dries quickly. There are a lot of other strap options to choose from, should you so desire.

Like the Fenix and most other Garmin watches, the Enduro has five physical buttons which you use for navigating in lieu of a touchscreen. This is the most intuitive of any of the fitness watches I’ve used, and the UI has only gotten better with age.

The Enduro lacks a touchscreen but has five physical buttons.

In addition to being a training watch, it has basic smartwatch features, including displaying notifications from your phone. Android users (like me, I tested it with a Pixel 5) can quick reply to messages from the watch (unfortunately Apple has blocked this feature on the iPhone for any device except the Apple Watch, which seems pretty anti-competitive if you ask me).

From the main screen, pressing the bottom left button (the down button) gets you to a bunch of widgets that provide a lot of data at a glance. It’s just the right amount of information density. If you want more granular info, you can dive into the Garmin Connect app (iOS and Android), which has a lot of detail, but its design is very dated and it can be tricky to find what you’re looking for in it. It’s not bad, but it could benefit from a refresh.

In addition to daily tracking of things like steps, floors climbed, heart rate, sleep quality, and even respiration rate, the Enduro also has a pulse oximeter which uses a special red LED. In my testing, it was roughly as accurate as the finger-based (medical grade) one I bought toward the beginning of lockdown last year. You can choose to have it track your pulse ox 24/7, but that will take a big bite out of your battery life. You can also choose to just track pulse ox as you sleep, which might be good for someone who suffers from sleep apnea. If you don’t have any underlying health concerns, though, I’d just leave it off and check it on demand whenever you want.

The Enduro is primarily a training watch, and it has all of the excellent tools that the Fenix line has, including Body Battery (which surprisingly mapped quite closely to how well rested or depleted I felt), Stress, VO2 Max over time, as well as Training Status. There are some new features debuting on this watch as well. One of the most useful I found was Trail Run VO2 Max. It takes terrain into account, so if you’re running slower because of rocks, it won’t give you an artificially low V02 Max score. Garmin has also upgraded its ClimbPro features, which take ascend and descend into consideration in both your stats and your pace recommendations. The watch can even alert you before you get to a hill (you have to preload a route into the watch) so you can prepare yourself for a climb. There are also new Ultrarunning specific features which I was unable to test because I prefer other ways of injuring myself. It’s worth noting that these new features are also making their way to the Fenix line.

So, why might you want the Enduro over the Fenix? Capital B Battery life. That is really the one and only reason. The battery lasts more than twice as long as the Fenix, and the Fenix is one of the longest-lasting training watches I’ve tested. If you currently use an Apple Watch, you may weep when you read this, but here are the numbers the company claims:

Smartwatch mode: up to 50 days / 65 days with solar
Battery Saver Watch mode: up to 130 days / one year with solar
GPS: up to 70 hours / 80 hours with solar
Max Battery GPS mode: up to 200 hours / 300 hours with solar
Expedition GPS Activity: up to 65 days / 95 days with solar

That is absolutely unparalleled. It’s also conservative in my estimation. I wore this watch for a solid month, constantly using it as a smartwatch (checking notifications, checking my vitals, etc). That included 12 hours and 51 minutes of surfing (GPS tracked), four hours and three minutes of running (GPS tracked), and three hours and 16 minutes of strength training (non-GPS). I did not have to take the watch off to charge it at all. Not one single time. It is easily the longest-lasting training / smartwatch I have ever tested, and by a gigantic margin. Garmin claims that it didn’t do this by stuffing in a larger physical battery but by optimizing the underlying platform. I tried to get more details, but they were understandably tight-lipped about the secret recipe.

So, you may see that and think “well then, obviously this is an easy choice over the Fenix 6, right?” Well, not quite. There are some things the Enduro doesn’t have, and they aren’t insignificant.

Garmin’s app is functional but in need of a refresh.

The biggest thing the Enduro lacks is maps. The Fenix 6 has topographic maps of the entire US built right into it, and that’s been incredibly useful to me. It’s actually kept me from taking wrong turns while hiking on a number of occasions. You can still track back with the Enduro, bread-crumb style, but it will appear as a disembodied trail without any context or landmarks to help guide you. This also means the Enduro doesn’t have some specific cycling training and other navigational features.

The other big thing the Enduro is missing is music. The Fenix allows you to store songs on it and play them via Bluetooth earbuds, so you can leave your phone at home. The Enduro doesn’t. If you want tunes to go with your workout, you’re going to need to carry a second device. This brings up a somewhat frustrating point.

With those things missing, you might assume that it’s because the Enduro has less storage compared to the Fenix. It doesn’t. In fact, it has double the storage of the Fenix at 64GB vs. 32GB. As far as I can tell, the only reason the Enduro doesn’t have maps and music is because Garmin didn’t want to cannibalize sales of the Fenix 6, which is frustrating. If you compare the Enduro to the Fenix 6 Pro Solar edition (which has the same hidden solar-panel display as the Enduro), both watches are a wince-inducing $800. The Fenix is a bit more svelte and has a very slightly smaller screen, but otherwise they’re the same. You just have to choose, do you want maps and all the features they come with, or do you want double the battery life? Garmin could have easily given you both — and perhaps the Fenix 7 or Enduro 2 will have both, or a firmware update could bring maps and music to the Enduro — but for now it’s an either / or between two fantastic features.

The Enduro is the watch to get if you never want to worry about charging it.

It’s a strange dilemma. Ultimately, I think the Fenix 6 is the better, more complete watch, and so that’s the one I would lean toward recommending. You just have to remember to charge it three times as often. That being said, the Enduro is still an excellent watch, and being able to go on a very long trip and leave the (proprietary) charger at home is a real boon, and if you do any ultra-length activities, then this is absolutely the watch you want. For now, I’ll stick with the Fenix 6 in case I get lost, again.

Photography by Brent Rose for The Verge

Apple TV 4K (2021) review: The future of streaming or just more of the same?

(Pocket-lint) – The last Apple TV 4K launched in 2017. At the time it coincided with the start of the movement to embrace the growing trend of 4K content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime.

In 2021 watching TV hasn’t changed that much, but we are doing a lot more of it. Subscription services have boomed, we’ve now got more choice – including Apple’s own TV+ service – and therefore even more content to watch.

But does the 2021 Apple TV 4K set-top box embrace current viewing habits enough to be worth the upgrade – or even a purchase in the first place – especially given the crowded marketplace dominated by a host of other, cheaper options from Amazon, Roku, Google and the likes?

Everything feels the same

Puck-style box design, measures 98 x 98 x 35mm
Supports: 4K HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
32GB / 64GB storage variants available
Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, AirPlay

The design of the Apple TV box itself hasn’t changed at all for the 2021 model. It’s a squarish box that’s certainly larger than the competition. It features just three inputs on the back: Ethernet, HDMI, and power.

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You’ll still need a shelf or a wall-mount to put it on, and if you were hoping for a miniaturised stick to put straight into a spare HDMI socket on your telly then, well, you’re out of luck.

As has always been the case there are no buttons on the box itself, so everything is controlled via the included remote. Or you can use your iPhone, iPad, or voice control via Siri.

The Apple TV 4K’s interface hasn’t changed either, so the focus is about giving you access to all the relevant streaming services – as long as they have a supporting app.

The continued push into a central place to discover more content from supporting streaming services, rather than silo-ing everything in their respective apps, does help you discover content that’s available. However, it’s hard at times to differentiate whether that content is going to cost you above and beyond your current subscriptions. And it’s still missing Netflix within those content recommendations – which is a glaring omission.

As with the 2017 model, you get 4K resolution, high dynamic range (HDR), including Dolby Atmos object-based audio and Dolby Vision HDR support – which is great stuff if your TV and/or AV setup supports it (Apple’s AirPods Pro or AirPods Max still don’t with the Apple TV but do for the iPhone and iPad, for example).

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The ability to connect game controllers (sold separately) via Bluetooth 5.0 means you can grab one of those spare Xbox or PlayStation controllers to jump in too.

Best Xbox controllers: Get the edge with these third-party and official pads
Best PlayStation controller: Pick up an extra PS4 or PS5 game pad

Apple hasn’t increased the storage options for the 2021 model either. It still comes in 32GB and 64GB capacities, but that’s not really an issue as everything is streamed these days anyway.

New, new, new

High Frame Rate (HFR) support up to 60fps
Apple A12 Bionic processor
Updated Siri remote
HDMI 2.1 port

There are some changes of course. Internally the 4K TV box now comes with a much faster processor – the one previously found in the iPhone XS – and that helps on the gaming side of things via Apple Arcade.

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Why only the iPhone XS processor and not the iPhone 12 processor or the iPad Pro’s M1? It’s likely to come down to cost and need. After all, this isn’t a Mac mini nor a fully-fledged games console. Most Apple Arcade games are designed to work nicely on the provided processor – we didn’t have any trouble running NBA2K21 or other games, but the loading times could be improved.

The new box also gets better connectivity. There’s Wi-Fi 6 (ax), allowing it to better connect to your Wi-Fi in dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) for those high bandwidth streams you’ll be planning. There’s also HDMI 2.1 support to enable a new High Frame Rate mode that allows you to play content up to 60 frames per second (supported by the iPhone 12 Pro, for example) and any future benefits that will come from that port over time.

Apple has also added support for Thread. This fairly new smart home connectivity technology is backed by Apple, Amazon, and Google. Again, you might not find a use for it out of the box on day one, but it’s likely to become much more important in our smart home futures, so having some level of future-proofing is welcomed.

There’s a new colour-balancing mode that’s not exclusive to this model, which uses your iPhone to help ensure the Apple TV is optimised for the best colour balance in your room. It’s clever, but for us made very little difference.

A new, much needed remote

Remote measures: 136 x 35 x 9.25mm

Although you can buy the new remote on its own – which is a way to easily ‘upgrade’ the older box – the new one included in the this box is the biggest and most visible change for the 2021 Apple TV 4K. It’s one feature that removes a lot of the pain barriers (first-world problems, we know) to using the Apple set-top box on a daily basis.

The new remote is considerably bigger than its predecessor, doesn’t sport a design you’ll get the wrong way up, nor a Siri button that you’ll accidentally press by mistake all of the time.

The Menu button has been ditched, there’s a new mute button, and Apple has thankfully shifted the Siri button to the side to emulate other remotes and match the same experience found on the iPhone, iPad, and even Apple Watch.

Swiping is still available, but it’s now via a circular physical touch button d-pad with a dedicated scroll option for scrubbing through shows – reminiscent of using an iPod from days gone by. That said, you can ignore that and still swipe left to right too – which can cause some muddled responses.

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There’s even a new ‘power’ button that can not only turn off your Apple TV 4K, but also your TV and AV kit. Handy.

What is a surprising omission, however, especially given the recent launch of AirTags, is that the remote doesn’t have a finding option to help you find it down the back of the sofa when lost. No Find My Support, no ‘play a sound’ option. It’s another glaring own goal.

The ecosystem shines through, but you have to pay for it

Third-party app support, including Disney+, Amazon Prime, Netflix, more
Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade
Support for catch-up services (including BBC iPlayer)

Against the competition the Apple TV 4K does deliver, but it can also be seen as very expensive for what you get – it’s almost four times as much as the Roku Streaming Stick+, for example. That’s a big premium to pay for just watching movies and getting access to the Apple TV store – something which you might already have if you’ve got the right TV.

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Where Apple is hoping to convince you though is that the benefits to be found in being part of the Apple ecosystem. Getting started is incredibly easy thanks to a simple setup process using your iPhone. Apple Fitness+ users benefit with connectivity to the Apple Watch, and Apple Arcade subscribers get a wealth of games to play too – but that’s a lot of extra cash for features that not everyone might want or have the need to use.

Verdict

There is no denying that the 2021 Apple TV 4K delivers what it sets out to do: packaging streaming services and Apple services all in the one place. It’s the extras like Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+ that make this a nicely rounded package that will cater for the TV viewer as well as the casual gamer and fitness fan.

Despite this, we can’t help feeling that there are better and cheaper ways to get streaming content like Disney+, Netflix, or even Apple TV+ on your television from the likes of Roku and others.

The Apple TV has always come at a premium, but the 2021 model doesn’t move things on enough to justify either an upgrade or a recommendation over the competition – unless you really believe you’ll be able to maximise on all the additional Apple services and features it offers. And if you’re a current Apple TV 4K owner then you can simply buy the updated Siri remote on its own.

If you’re looking for an inclusive package that has potential to grow over the coming years and possibly adapt to how you use your TV or enjoy content in the home, then that’s one angle. The trouble for many with the 2021 box is that you’ll have to take the hit and pay for all that potential up front – whether it’s ever fully realised or not.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Roku Streaming Stick+

Roku is s big name in streaming, offering access to all the major services in a slim device that supports the latest 4K HDR formats. A simple remote makes it easy to control, while its asking price undercuts the majority of the competition.

Read our review

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Amazon Fire Stick 4K

Amazon’s media streamers keep getting smaller and more affordable, with features like Alexa voice control via the remote making it a no-brainer for many. Although it leans towards Amazon’s content, it does also cover all services – including Netflix – and supports 4K HDR formats and Dolby Atmos object-based audio too.

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Writing by Stuart Miles.

Google and Samsung are merging Wear OS and Tizen

In yet another sign of the growing alliance between Google and Samsung, today both companies announced that they are essentially combining Wear OS — Google’s operating system — and the Tizen-based software platform that has been foundational to Samsung’s wearables for many years. The resulting platform is currently being referred to simply as “Wear,” though that might not be the final name.

Benefits of the joint effort include significant improvements to battery life, 30 percent faster loading times for apps, and smoother animations. It also simplifies life for developers and will create one central smartwatch OS for the Android platform. Google is also promising a greater selection of apps and watch faces than ever before.

“All device makers will be able to add a customized user experience on top of the platform, and developers will be able to use the Android tools they already know and love to build for one platform and ecosystem,” Google’s Bjorn Kilburn wrote in a blog post.

Wired has more details on what’s to come, including the tidbit that Samsung will stick with its popular rotating bezel on future devices — but it’s finished making Tizen-only smartwatches. There will also be a version of Google Maps that works standalone (meaning without your phone nearby) and a YouTube Music app that supports offline downloads.

Wear will make it easier to multitask across smartwatch widgets and apps.

Image: Google

Samsung confirmed that its next Galaxy Watch will run on this unified platform. And future Fitbit devices will also run the software. Aside from merging the technologies of both platforms, the new Wear OS will include improvements that make it easier to multitask between wrist apps. And some of Fitbit’s “most popular” fitness tracking features will also be included.

Forget AirPods 3 leaks, Beats Studio Buds have now shown up in iOS beta code

(Image credit: MacRumours)

Apple is working on a new pair of Beats true wireless earbuds, according to images found in the latest tvOS and iOS beta codes by MacRumours and 9to5Mac.

Referenced as ‘Beats Studio Buds’ in the tvOS 14.6 and iOS 14.6 codes, they will reportedly feature noise cancellation and, courtesy of an Apple chip, “Hey, Siri” voice control.

As suggested by a MacRumours mock-up image (above) and an animation of the earbuds tweeted by the publication’s Steve Moser (below), they embrace the more familiar rounded form as adopted by the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Pro Buds, Google Pixel Buds and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, without the fitness-friendly ear hooks of the Beats Powerbeats Pro. We can expect them to stick with silicone eartips and come in a choice of black, white and red finishes.

Animations of Beats Studio Buds: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/XYVvYP7ez3May 17, 2021

Rumours have been circling the launch of the AirPods 3 is imminent. That may still be the case, however Apple has already dropped a bombshell this week by announcing it is adding lossless audio and Dolby Atmos-powered Spatial Audio tracks to Apple Music for free next month.

Could the Beats Studio Buds be released before the next-generation AirPods? Considering that iOS 14.6 is expected to arrive in the coming weeks alongside the new Apple Music features, we should expect the launch of the new wireless earbuds to coincide with, or shortly follow, that.

MORE:

All the AirPods 3 leaks: release date, price, design and news

The lowdown on the heavily rumoured Google Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds

Check out our pick of the best true wireless earbuds you can buy

Apple Music Dolby Atmos will work with all headphones