Apple has officially released iOS 14.4 and a matching update for its HomePod mini speaker, adding the long-promised ultra-wideband (UWB) handoff feature that will allow newer iPhones to more seamlessly transfer music, calls, and podcasts between the two devices.
While both the original HomePod and the HomePod mini have supported handing off music for some time, the smaller device features a U1 ultra-wideband chip that promises to make it even easier to transfer content over from an iPhone 12 or iPhone 11 device. The new U1-enhanced functionality also adds additional features, including new visual and haptic feedback. The U1-based system also will give the option to show listening suggestions when you bring your phone close and display media controls on your iPhone without requiring you to unlock it first.
The ultra-wideband handoff feature was originally showcased when the HomePod mini was first announced, but it wasn’t included with the original release. Instead, Apple promised that it would be available later in 2020 (a deadline that the company has slightly missed).
To take advantage of the new update, you’ll need a HomePod mini that’s been updated to the latest software, along with a U1-equipped iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 device that’s running iOS 14.4. The original HomePod isn’t compatible with the new functionality, though, due to its lack of a U1 chip.
Plex, well known as a service for streaming movies, music, and TV shows from your own computer, is now adding another thing you can stream: video games (via Protocol). Plex announced the new service, called Plex Arcade, on its blog and also launched a website for it. The service will cost $3 a month if you’re a Plex Pass subscriber, and $5 a month if you’re not.
Instead of focusing on modern console or phone games like its competitors, Plex lets you play Atari games. It’s taking the arcade name seriously, as you can play arcade classics from Atari, like Centipede, Super Breakout, and Missile Command, as well as games from the Atari 2600 and 7800. Overall, there are 27 games available on the service.
Unlike other game subscription services where you can simply sign up from your console and start playing, Plex Arcade has a few requirements. First is a Plex media server running on a Windows or macOS computer. There isn’t Linux support because Plex is using Parsec to stream the gameplay.
This means that you’ll have to sign up for a Parsec account, if you don’t already have one, and log in to it on Plex. There is a bit more freedom when it comes to what you can stream the games to, as Android devices and TVs are supported, as well as Google Chrome and Apple’s iOS and tvOS. Plex says you can play with “just about any Bluetooth-enabled controller.”
The service also supports you adding your own emulators and ROMs, which is nice, but it’s overall a bit of a tough sell. Even at the Plex Pass price of $3 a month, you’re paying a lot for games that, at this point, can basically run on a microwave. To be fair, it does let you run them on something like an iPhone or Apple TV, but the games are readily available on Android and PC.
If you’re interested in playing them for nostalgic purposes, it could be worth a try, but you may want to set aside some time for it — getting it set up was an exercise in frustration for me, and I wasn’t ever actually able to successfully play a game. (The iOS and tvOS clients got stuck at a loading spinner, and keyboard controls didn’t seem to do anything when trying to play on Chrome.)
If you want to try it out for yourself, there’s a free seven-day trial, though you will have to put in a credit card or link your PayPal. Plex says this is mostly a skunk works-type project, saying in the blog post that “[i]f there’s interest and we see some subs, it’ll grow into the glorious pheasant we know it can be. But if you guys drop the ball, it’ll die on the vine like a stomped ass goomba.” Harsh.
Pinterest now displays a row of stories at the top of its home screen when you open up the app. It’s an interface that should look familiar to anyone who has used a social media app in the past few years: it’s the same tack taken by Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and plenty more. The change will start appearing today on iOS and Android.
“Story Pins” were introduced to Pinterest in September. They worked like pretty much any other story format, with short videos posted back to back that you could tap to move between. Where they differed most was how you found them: Story Pins appeared like any other post on Pinterest, as just another box on various grids of pins.
Now, those Story Pins will have an easier time standing out. They’ll appear at the top of the home screen, and the app will even suggest stories from creators you aren’t following. The change ought to boost engagement on stories, and it’ll likely encourage creators to start posting stories to the app even more, too. Pinterest’s stories aren’t ephemeral like most other apps’, so once creators make them, the videos will stick around and build up a library for the service to keep promoting.
Pinterest still has one big limitation around Story Pins, though: not everyone can create them. They remain limited to approved businesses and creators for now.
It looks like Amazon is rolling a new app icon on iOS, and unlike countless other recent app redesigns, it isn’t just a logo dropped inside a white background! Rejoice! The new icon cleverly takes cues from perhaps Amazon’s most recognizable “product” — its shipping boxes and their bright blue tape.
Here it is — in the app’s listing on Apple’s UK App Store. (There are a few other reports of others seeing the icon on their devices as well.)
Whoever worked on this new app design, which will be instantly recognizable on your home screen, deserves a raise.
Apple’s hardware team is getting its biggest shakeup in nearly a decade, as Dan Riccio — who served as the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2012 — transitions to “a new role” at the company. He’ll be replaced as Apple’s head hardware engineer by John Ternus, who led the hardware team designing the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, in addition to working on Apple’s M1 chips. Ternus has been vice president of hardware engineering at Apple since 2013.
The role of senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple is a key one: the position reports directly to CEO Tim Cook and is responsible for leading the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod engineering teams. Ternus’ new role will put him in charge of the company’s hardware efforts, much in the same way that Craig Federighi — Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering — runs the development of iOS and macOS.
Riccio won’t be leaving Apple, though: he’ll be working on an unspecified “new project” for the company in a role directly reporting to Cook. “Next up, I’m looking forward to doing what I love most — focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about,” explains Riccio in Apple’s announcement.
Dan Riccio, Apple’s now-former SVP of hardware engineering.Photo: Apple
If that language sounds familiar, it’s because it’s almost the exact same description that Apple provided for Riccio’s predecessor, Bob Mansfield, when he stepped down as SVP of hardware engineering in 2012. Like Riccio, Mansfield transitioned to “work on future projects” in an unnamed role that reported directly to Cook — which Bloomberg notes included leading Apple’s self-driving car team until December 2020, when Mansfield fully retired from Apple.
Apple’s future automotive ambitions are currently being led by artificial intelligence executive John Giannandrea. But following Mansfield’s departure, there would appear to be a vacancy in senior hardware engineers on that project.
Riccio’s move is the latest departure from Apple’s executive leadership team in recent years, following legendary product designer Jony Ive (who stepped down to form his own design firm, LoveFrom, in November 2019) and Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, who was replaced by Greg Joswiak in 2020 as Schiller refocused on running the App Store and Apple Events.
A consumer advocacy group in Europe has filed the latest class action lawsuit against Apple saying the company intentionally throttled older iPhones in Italy. First reported by TechCrunch, the new lawsuit seeks €60 million (roughly $73 million) in compensation — or about €60 per device — for owners of iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, and 6S Plus models sold in Italy between 2014 and 2020. Euroconsumers, an umbrella advocacy organization in the EU that includes Italy’s Altroconsumo, says the €60 compensation is the average amount consumers paid to replace their devices’ batteries.
“When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect sustainable quality products. Unfortunately, that is not what happened with the iPhone 6 series” Els Bruggeman, head of policy and enforcement at Euroconsumers, said in a statement. “Not only were consumers defrauded, and did they have to face frustration and financial harm, from an environmental point of view it is also utterly irresponsible.”
Euroconsumers filed two similar lawsuits in December on behalf of member orgs Test-Achats in Belgium and OCU in Spain. The group said in a press release that it plans a fourth lawsuit in Portugal.
“We have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades,” an Apple spokesperson said in an email to The Verge. “Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”
Apple agreed to a $500 million settlement in the US last March, after it admitted slowing down older iPhones. It compensated consumers who bought an iPhone 6 or 7, which were throttled to preserve battery life. The case grew out of the tech giant’s “Batterygate” controversy, when iPhone users discovered in 2017 that iOS limited processor speeds as iPhone batteries aged. Apple didn’t reveal to consumers that the feature — meant to address problems with phones’ performance — existed. Users said if they had known about the slowdown feature they would have simply replaced the battery rather than buying an all-new phone, as many did.
The company agreed to a second settlement in November — this time, with 34 US states —for an additional $113 million. The state attorneys general said Apple “fully understood” that by concealing the intentional slowing down of older phones, the company could profit from people buying new phones rather than replacing the batteries. Apple did not admit to any of the allegations in that settlement.
Update January 25th, 10:45AM ET: Adds comment from Apple spokesperson.
Netflix has detailed an upgrade to its Android app which should reduce buffering and make audio sound better and easier to hear over background noise. It’s been made possible thanks to the adoption of the xHE-AAC codec, which a Netflix blog post says should “improve intelligibility in noisy environments, adapt to variable cellular connections, and scale to studio-quality.” Netflix’s use of the codec was announced earlier this month, and is available on devices running Android 9 and above.
xHE-AAC uses metadata to solve a few different audio problems people have when watching shows on mobile devices. Netflix explains this is often a problem of loud background noise making content hard to hear, combined with weak and tinny phone speakers that sound bad when you try to put up the volume. Inconsistent dialogue levels also mean you have to constantly turn your volume up and down between shows.
Netflix says xHE-AAC offers better Dynamic Range Control, a technology that reduces the difference between the loudest and quietest parts of a show. Quiet content is made louder so you can hear it over background noise, and the volume of loud content is brought down to prevent clipping, all in theory without sacrificing audio quality. Netflix also says that the volume of dialogue is kept consistent between shows.
Finally, the codec also supports “seamless bitrate switching,” which means it should work better in environments with inconsistent internet speeds. Netflix added similar adaptive bitrate functionality to its TV apps back in 2019.
Netflix says that user testing has demonstrated the benefits of the codec. Volume changes between content are “noticeably down” and viewers switch away from using their phone’s built-in speakers 7 percent less often with the new codec. Netflix says it hopes to bring the codec to other platforms that support it. For those keeping track, iPhones have supported xHE-AAC since the release of iOS 13 in 2019.
Shuffle Play isn’t the only new feature Netflix has been working on. The video streaming service claims to have improved sound quality on Android devices, thanks to support for the xHE-AAC audio codec.
This codec will “improve intelligibility in noisy environments,” Netflix states on its tech blog, which goes on to explain in meticulous detail how it aims to normalise loudness volume while maintaining dynamic range for more comfortable listening. In addition to improving clarity in noisy surrounding, the new codec will also allow the audio to adapt to variable cellular connections, so you shouldn’t suffer even if you have iffy mobile reception. Netflix introduced this bitrate adaptive methodology on the video side of things in 2019, so we’re glad it’s now come to audio too.
To take advantage of these improved audio features, you’ll need to watch Netflix on a device running Android 9 or later, the operating system versions that have native support for the xHE-AAC codec.
The codec is also supported by iOS 13 and later as well as Amazon’s Fire OS 7 and later. Netflix says in its blog that it expects its lessons learned “to apply to other platforms that support the new codec”, so expect these operating systems to gain the same skills soon.
Netflix has had a bumper year, adding over 36 million customers globally in 2020. That takes its total number of subscribers to over 203 million.
MORE:
Check out the 36 best TV shows to watch on Netflix right now
These are the best smartphones for music and movies
Here are 25 Netflix tips, tricks and features
Find out: Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix – which is better?
(Pocket-lint) – The Philips Hue smart lighting system has grown dramatically in the last few years, in both popularity and the number of available products, further cementing its place at the top of the smart lighting pile.
It’s now pretty safe to say that Philips’ range of connected LED lighting has an option to fit just about every socket you could possibly think of.
Best smart plugs: Google, Alexa and Apple HomeKit control
That’s why we’ve put together a quick, handy list of the current Philips Hue bulb line-up to give you an idea of how you can add colour and ambiance into your life.
Bear in mind that we haven’t included the other Hue products and controllers from Philips, just the bulbs themselves.
Pocket-lint
What is Philips Hue?
Philips Hue is a lighting system that works in conjunction with iOS and Android applications and smart home hubs in order to change colour or white levels depending on your mood. It can also be linked to other Internet of Things devices to switch on, off or change the lighting style through your home network.
It works in conjunction with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Nest, Samsung SmartThings and many other smart home devices. You do not need any of them to use Philips Hue lighting though – all new Philips bulbs now come with Bluetooth on board, meaning you can control them from your phone when in range.
There are multiple bulbs and lighting products in the range, and they come into their full potential when linked to your network through a Philips Hue Bridge – a small, connected hub that is wired to your router and controls the lights wirelessly. This is often found as part of a starter kit.
You can also control Hue bulbs directly with a Zigbee controller, such as the Amazon Echo Plus.
There are different styles of bulbs, most of which fit into two lighting categories: white and colour ambiance, which can display millions of colours, and white ambiance, which can be set to a wide selection of warm or cool white lighting options. Now there are also great filament options, too.
If you’re looking for outdoor lighting, there are some Philips Hue lights that work in your garden, but we’ve concentrated on indoor options here.
What Philips Hue bulbs are available?
There are bulbs in the range for all manner of fittings and styles, that offer white ambiance or white and colour ambiance. Here is the range that you can get at present.
Remember, you will need the Philips Bridge to exert full control over these bulbs, although Bluetooth control will still give you a good taste for what they’re capable of.
Philips claims all its bulbs will last up to 25,000 hours each – around eight-and-a-half years if you have the bulb switched on eight hours a day every day of the year.
Philips
Philips Hue white ambiance E14 Candle
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One of Philip’s newer Hue bulbs, this candle comes with an E14 screw fitting and has a 6W LED output that is equivalent to 40W. The candle form factor is otherwise known as B39.
It is capable of more than 50,000 shades of white, from warm to cool white.
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance E14 Candle
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Also with an E14 screw fitting and B39 form factor, the colour version of the Candle has an LED power output of 6.5W. It has the same lumen output though, of 470lm at 4000K.
It is also capable of more than 50,000 shades of white, but adds 16 million colours to the mix.
Philips
Philips Hue white extension bulb A19/E27
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The most commonly used bulb in many households, this A19/E27 screw fitting light has a power output of 9.5W and A60 form factor.
Its light output is 806lm and is smart but doesn’t change colour or white tone. That means it will stay the same colour temperature of 2,700K (warm white), but can be dimmed and switched on and off remotely.
Philips
Philips Hue white ambiance extension bulb A19/E27
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Similar to the above but with a flatter form factor, the white ambiance version with A19/E17 screw fitting has a 10W power output. Its brightness is up to 800 lumens at 4000K.
It is capable of more than 50,000 shades of white and is dimmable via Hue compatible devices down to one per cent.
Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance extension bulb A19/E27
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The exact same form factor as the white ambiance version, this A19/E27 screw fitting bulb is capable of slightly brighter output, at up to 806 lumens at 4000K. It is a 10W LED bulb.
It has all shades of white plus 16 million colours. A newer version was released in recent times, with a richer colour palette.
If you have an older Hue system you might find some of the colours do not match the first generation bulbs.
Philips
Philips Hue white ambiance extension bulb B22
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Commonly known as a bayonet fitting, this white only bulb is the same as the A19/E7 version although it is slightly brighter, capable of up to 806 lumens at 4000K.
It can be set at more than 50,000 shades of white.
Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance extension bulb B22
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Again, similar to the A19/E17 version of the colour bulb above, the B22 comes with the bayonet fitting instead. It only goes up to 600 lumens at 4000K in brightness however.
It offers all shades of white and 16 million colours.
It is also a “richer colour” bulb so might not match older models.
Philips
Philips Hue white ambiance extension bulb GU10
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Designed for spot lights the GU10 form factor has two locking pins and generally sits recessed into a ceiling or spot lamp. This bulb has 5.5W of maximum power output and a brightness of up to 300 lumens at 4000K.
It too offers more than 50,000 shades of white, from warm to cold colour temperatures. And it can be dimmed through Hue compatible devices down to one per cent.
Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance extension bulb GU10
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The exact same form factor as the GU10 above, but with 6.5W of maximum output power. It has less brightness though, at up to 250 lumens at 4000K.
It adds 16 million colours to the numerous shades of white that can be achieved.
Philips Hue Lightstrips
Many people wanting to add a little colour lighting to their home will be looking at Lightstrips. This is a strip of LED lighting that works with the Hue system (so it’s also Alexa and Google Home compatible), but there are two different versions of Lightstrips, the original and Plus. Both are white and colour and both can be cut to length, but the Plus can also be extended, making it much more flexible, the original is less widely available, but be sure you’re buying the right version.
Philips
Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus
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The Hue Lightstrip is designed to add mood lighting to your room, with an adhesive back so it can be stuck under worktops or furniture, or behind your TV, to provide warm or cool white light and up to 16 million colours.
It comes at a length of 2m, but with Lightstrip Plus, you add extension cables, or extend the run of LED lights themselves, so it’s very flexible.
Philips Hue Filament Bulbs
Amazon
Philips Hue white filament bulb A19/E27
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One of Phililps’ latest additions to the Hue range is its new filament bulb offering. These bulbs have a beautiful retro feel to them, shining at what looks like a lower wattage to give you a bit of hipster chic.
They’re a great decorative option and really lend character to a room or environment.
Amazon
Philips Hue white filament bulb B22
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If you need a different fitting, the filament bulbs can also be bought with B22 bayonet cap. Because of the filament design, though, don’t expect any colour control. You’re sacrificing that power by choosing this stylish sort of bulb.
What Philips Hue starter kits are available?
As we say above, you will need a Philips Hue Bridge to connected your Hue bulbs to a home network. These often come as part of a starter kit with two or three bulbs included.
Here are the starter kits we recommend if you don’t already have Philips Hue lighting in your home.
Philips
Philips Hue white starter kit A19/E27
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This comes with the Philips Bridge 2.0 and two 9.5W white bulbs with A19/E27 screw fittings as detailed above. They have a fixed white colour but it is the cheapest way to get into Philips Hue.
Philips
Philips Hue white ambiance starter kit A19/E27
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This contains the Philips Hue Bridge 2.0, two A19/E27 white ambiance bulbs capable of more than 50,000 shades of white and a wireless dimming switch.
Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance starter kit A19/E27
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In this pack you get the Philips Hue Bridge 2.0 and three A19/E27 white and colour ambiance bulbs capable of 16 million colours. They are the richer colour variants.
Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance starter kit B22
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Essentially exactly the same as the kit above, except you get three B22 bayonet fitting versions of the bulbs with the Philips Hue Bridge 2.0.
Philips
Philips Hue white and colour ambiance starter kit GU10
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Another kit that offers three of the multicolour connected bulbs, except in the spot light GU10 form factor. You also get the Philips Bridge 2.0 hub with this set.
Q Acoustics bravely enters uncharted waters, but out-of-character sonic shortfalls let down an otherwise decent first effort
For
Thoughtfully designed
Vast hub connectivity
Punchy, room-filling sound
Against
Lacks dynamic and rhythmic expression
No dedicated control app
Stands are expensive extras
It’s a simple fact of life that the more there is to do, the more there is to prioritise. For Q Acoustics’ first all-in-one streaming speaker system, the Q Active 200, the British speaker specialist could have focused most of its attention on the streaming side of things – that is the unchartered territory here, after all. While the brand has some degree of experience in powered speaker design, this is its first proper active streaming proposition.
But the Q Acoustics Q Active 200 appear to be a speaker-first design, given the ambitious acoustic engineering on show here. Get the speaker part right, as you’d hope a firm with such plaudits in the field would, and you’re halfway there.
Build
(Image credit: Q Acoustics)
If you were expecting an active set of speakers resembling Q Acoustics’ current range of standmounters, then the Q Active 200’s design may raise a few eyebrows.
The boxes are narrow, deep and in a beautifully finished matte white – so far, so Q Acoustics. But instead of the usual tweeter and mid/bass woofer decorating each façade, there is a rectangular grille in the top corner that hides two round, 58mm BMR (balanced mode radiator) drive units.
Q Acoustics Q Active 200 tech specs
(Image credit: Q Acoustics)
Transmission 24-bit/96kHz
Spotify Connect Yes
AirPlay 2 Yes
UPnP Yes
Bluetooth Yes
Inputs Line-level/phono, optical, HDMI
Drivers 114mm woofer, 2x 58mm BMR
Voice control Google Chromecast, Amazon Alexa
Power 100W per channel
It gives the classy cabinets a unique, neatly minimalist look that might sit well in contemporary designed living spaces – but the design is likely to divide opinion.
Q Acoustics has chosen to use a pair of BMR drivers in each cabinet in preference to conventional cone units. BMRs have two big advantages: they deliver both midrange and treble (and a bit of bass) from their modestly sized forms, so avoiding the need for a separate tweeter and mid/bass combination and the distortion generating crossover that goes along with it. And they also radiate sound uniformly across a 180-degree plane, reducing the usual tendency for speakers to create a listening ‘sweet spot’.
The drivers’ diminutive size, extended frequency response and wide-dispersion talents make it a practical choice for a product such as the Q Active 200.
Their positioning on the speaker – the dual BMR configuration can sit either on the inside top corner or outside top corner, depending on which way round the speakers are placed – brings some benefits too. According to Q Acoustics, the asymmetry in the acoustic path lengths from the BMRs to the baffle edges improves diffraction characteristics. It also offers flexibility in positioning: for far-field listening (further away or to the sides) they should be positioned to the inside, or for near-field listening, on the outside.
Of course, there’s only so much quantity and depth of bass a 58mm driver can dig up, which is why Q Acoustics has integrated a ported 11.4cm woofer into the rear of each cabinet. This brings driver cooperation and crossovers back into the mix, but Q Acoustics has carefully considered that.
The upper BMR (each BMR has its own DSP and amplification channel) operates the full frequency band from the crossover point with the woofer to 20kHz, whereas the lower BMR is designed to only work up to 5kHz. The woofer fires onto a rear baffle, its output guided through vents at the side of the cabinet, with sophisticated DSP keeping the sound from all the drive units time aligned.
Whereas the floorstanders in the Q Active range, the Q Active 400, use the P2P bracing as primarily engineered for the company’s Concept 300, these standmounts adopt a ‘dart bracing’ technique, which fixes the rear-firing woofer directly to the front of the cabinet to provide it with mechanical stability.
Q Acoustics has designed a pair of dedicated stands for the Q Active 200, the Q FS75, more modest evolutions of the innovative stands designed for the Concept 300. For an extra £350 ($499) per pair, they feature a skeletal, highly rigid ‘space’ frame made up of rods in compression, stabilised by cables in tension, and have fixings that enable them to be bolted to the standmounters.
Features
(Image credit: Q Acoustics)
Q Acoustics has taken the decision not to house the streaming architecture and connectivity inside the speakers, but instead in a separate connectivity hub. There are two hub options to choose from, depending on where your voice control loyalties lie. The Google Home box (which we have on test) offers Google Assistant voice control, plus built-in Google Chromecast, while the Amazon Alexa box variant works with Alexa.
It’s a shame one box doesn’t cover both bases – there must be plenty of people who use Alexa, for example, but also stream music via Chromecast. And what if your allegiance changes down the line? Q Acoustics says it’s looking into making each hub individually available, though hasn’t yet confirmed its plans.
Whichever hub you choose, you get the same physical inputs – HDMI (ARC), optical, and an analogue input that is switchable between line level and moving magnet. Essentially, that means everything from a CD player to a TV to a turntable can be connected to the hub and streamed to the speakers. Digital signals from the HDMI and optical inputs are all converted to 24-bit/96kHz, as are analogue signals through the 24-bit analogue to digital converter (ADC).
Rather than the hub streaming these converted signals to a master speaker that passes the other audio channel to the slave speaker, it sends the two channels of audio directly to the speakers over a 5GHz wireless connection, helping ensure accurate syncing between them.
The hub is also a streaming gateway to AirPlay 2 for iOS users, Spotify Connect for Spotify Premium and Family subscribers, and Bluetooth. Support for the Roon music platform is on the way via a future firmware update, too.
If you own a NAS drive with music, UPnP support is onboard for playing networked music files up to 32-bit/192kHz (which subsequently gets down-sampled to 24-bit/96kHz for the transmission to the speakers). Q Acoustics will soon release its dedicated Q Active app for helping owners with registration and set-up, control hub customisation, software updates and basic controls, however it won’t be an all-encompassing music control app from which to browse networked or local music libraries and access streaming services.
That’s a shame, but third-party UPnP control apps aren’t hard to come by, and those using Tidal (via Chromecast) or Spotify (via Connect) may well choose to use the native apps anyway. For accessing our NAS device, we use the free MConnect and BubbleUPnP apps on an Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy S20 phone during our testing and both work fine.
Alternatively, there’s the compact RF remote control for adjusting volume, pause/play, skipping tracks and changing inputs. A strip of touch buttons across the rear of each speaker’s top panel more or less mirrors remote control, too. They’re nicely responsive – sometimes more so than the UPnP apps we use – although as there’s a short delay in the call and action, we would have liked visual confirmation of the communication from, say, a visible LED. There is an LED by the controls on the top panel that flashes to signify this, but unless you’re standing you won’t be able to see it.
Sound
(Image credit: Q Acoustics)
Q Acoustics has successfully built a reputation for excellent passive speakers in its 15-year history – especially in the budget market. Its products have consistently included class-leading clarity and entertaining punch, and those talents have predictably found their way into the Q Active 200 too.
We play Radical Face’s The Missing Road from Tidal via Chromecast, and the melodic acoustic strums, cello and vocal humming come through with an eager lucidity, the presentation startlingly clear and direct, not to mention room-filling. You shouldn’t necessarily expect Q Acoustics’ typical richness and warmth here, but the active speakers’ leaner, more forward tonal stance gives them a likeable sense of snappiness.
We stream over Bluetooth and, though we expect the usual drop in quality, the Q Active 200 keep things surprisingly tight, losing a bit of solidity and space compared with UPnP and Google Chromecast playback, but largely proving a worthwhile method of playback.
The BMR drivers keep their end up, spreading sound generously and evenly around our test room and ensuring the speakers produce an impressively big presence for their compact footprint. They have the volume and punch to make easy work of John Williams’s climactic compositions, and while that rear-firing woofer is limited in terms of absolute bass depth, it proves taut and terse as the bassline in SBTRKT’s Wildfire (played over UPnP) comes into play. Bass blends in nicely with the rest of the frequencies, too, proving Q Acoustics has done a good job with the crossover between the BMRs and low-frequency driver.
To help optimise positioning, each Q Active 200 has three settings selected by a manual switch at its rear. There is ‘Positioned close to a corner’, ‘Positioned close to a wall’, and our preferred ‘Free-space’, which we find works best not only when the speakers were out in the room, but also near the back wall – possibly because the speakers’ bass output isn’t overbearing and the midrange is a little forward. As always, we’d recommend experimenting to see which setting works best in your listening room.
We switch from Q Acoustics’ dedicated stands to a pair of Custom Design FS104 Signatures and the presentation sheds some clarity – from both a sonic and aesthetic point of view, we’d recommend the custom-built accessory. But, while the Q FS75 extracts more from the speakers, the overall differences aren’t huge. Just note that due to the rubber strips beneath the speaker, secure placement on a third-party pair of stands may be a little fiddly.
(Image credit: Q Acoustics)
There’s a bit of harshness in the upper mids, which remains audible even after a week of use. It’s not the end of the world, but it does mean higher-pitched voices can start to grate after a while. It does nothing for a dense, cymbal-heavy track like Touché Amore’s I’ll Be Your Host either.
But our biggest issue with the Q Active 200 is their combined lack of dynamic and rhythmic expression. With Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ Galleon Ship, the piano and vocal pairing comes through clear and solid, yet is bereft of real feel.
Everything seems to ride along one audio plane, lacking forward momentum and dynamic tiers. It doesn’t help that the sound staging isn’t particularly well layered either. Together, these things mean the track isn’t all that interesting or emotionally grabbing.
Whether trying to grasp the grooves that underpin Thundercat’s Them Changes, or nail the rhythmic logistics integral to the SBTRKT track, the Q Active 200 don’t quite tie the musical strands together with the coordination necessary for them to thoroughly entertain. They conduct themselves in a startlingly clear and upfront manner, but beyond that they fail to captivate.
Offering an entire audio system inside such a compact and convenient concept is no easy task, but those such as the KEF LSX and KEF LS50 Wireless II, which sandwich the Q Acoustics in price, show it can be done. The Q Active 200 ultimately fall well below those standards, delivering a cruder listen than we’d expect at this not-insignificant price.
Verdict
It’s rare, if ever, that we publish sentences featuring both ‘Q Acoustics’ and ‘disappointing’, but here the Q Active 200 cannot hide behind their thoughtfully considered spec sheet and speaker engineering. It’s a shame because the brand has done a lot right – there’s vast connectivity on offer, a whole lot of speaker engineering, and dedicated stands for those who want them. But performance-wise, they simply aren’t entertaining enough to recommend.
It’s often the case that first efforts are followed by better second ones, and we very much hope that turns out to be the case here.
SCORES
Sound 3
Features 4
Build 5
MORE:
Read our guide to the best all-in-one streaming systems
Facebook says some users were logged out of their accounts unexpectedly Friday due to a “configuration change,” and the issue has been fixed as of Saturday morning.
“On January 22, a configuration change caused some people to be logged out of their Facebook accounts. We investigated the issue and fixed it for everyone earlier today. We’re sorry for the inconvenience,” a Facebook company spokesperson said in an email to The Verge.
So Facebook, heard it was a “configuration change”.
to the engineers who fixed the issue and patiently tried to explain the cause to us to no avail. https://t.co/AUARhCZ7W2
— Facebook App (@facebookapp) January 23, 2021
The problems began late Friday ET, with users on the r/Facebook Reddit board reporting they were receiving “sign in” prompts from their Facebook apps, but they had not signed out.
Engadget found that iPhone users appeared most affected by the log-out issue, noting that users of Facebook’s iOS app were having difficulty logging back into their accounts when using two-factor authentication. Most were able to log back in, but the authentication codes needed were taking a long time to reach users.
One service with 15 messaging applications. It is not a dream but the new platform of the former CEO of Pebble. It’s called Feeber and gathers all messaging services (even iMessage) in one place. The price? 10 $ per month.
by Bruno Mucciarelli published 22 January 2021 , at 10: 41 in the web channel Whatsapp Telegram Facebook Slack Skype Instagram
Eric Migicovsky, is the former CEO and founder of Pebble, the company born a few decades ago and which gave birth to successful smartwatches with e-Paper display. The developer announced on Twitter the launch of Beeper or its new “ jewel ”: a universal messaging app that allows you to merge up to 15 different services , including iMessage, thanks to the open source protocol Matrix and not only. A solution that many are looking for to simplify the use of messages and that Beeper seems to do well even if paying well 10 $ per month.
Beeper: how the system works ” unifier ”?
Beeper meanwhile it is not a real news if not its name. In this case, in fact, before today, the platform was called NovaChat . From today, however, it is available as a Beeper and can be downloaded on request for both Windows and for macOS, Linux, iOS and Android . As mentioned, however, at least at the moment, one needs to fill out a form to receive an invitation, as it is still an almost Beta phase of the system.
But Beeper’s potential looks interesting. From the official website it is possible to observe how the application is capable of supporting up to 15 messaging systems such as: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Android Messages ( SMS), Telegram, Twitter, Slack, Hangouts, Instagram, Skype, IRC, Matrix, Discord, Signal and Beeper network. Yes, that iMessage is also among the services that can be replicated on Beeper, and this is perhaps the most striking novelty of the new service because so far no one had ever made such a thing possible since iMessage is a proprietary service of Apple but above all because it works only and exclusively on the ecosystem Apple.
How does it work? There is a little trick devised by the former CEO of Pebble. Migicovsky in fact allows iMessage to work also on Windows, Linux and Android if the user has a Mac that is always connected to the Internet so that it can function as a bridge. Alternatively, the software house already has recycled “jailbroken” iPhones ready , on which the Beeper app is installed, which it will send to users and which will allow access to the service. In all this Beeper costs 10 dollars per month although it is not clear if an iPhone is also included in the price.
Finally, you should know that all the various bridges needed to unify the various messaging services through the Matrix network are distributed for free on GitHub. This way the developers can host the backend on their servers. But be careful because the Beeper app is not open source, but it is possible to use Element, the Matrix open source client.
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The next version of the operating system may end support for some older models with Apple A9 SoC. Here are all the details that emerged.
by Nino Grasso published 22 January 2021 , at 10: 21 in the Apple channel Apple iPhone
Soon Apple will remove veils from iOS 15 , the next declination of mobile operating system that we will see on the latest generations of iPhones starting next fall. As usual, Apple could remove support for older models to focus on the most popular ones on the market, and it seems that quite important heads will be cut off with the next release.
According to the French website iPhoneSoft, in fact, iOS 15 will not be offered on iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE (the first version of the 2016). These three models implement the Apple A9 chip, which therefore may be cut off from the next wave of updates.
No iOS 15 on iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and SE?
iPhone 6s and its Plus variant were announced together in 2015 and have been on the market for more than five years, so the news of possible discontinued support on the next version of the operating system is not entirely a surprise. If the rumors prove reliable, therefore, these models will remain on iOS 14 and will never be updated with newer versions.
The same could also happen on iPads with hardware platforms of the same generation or less recent. iPadOS 15 may end the support on iPad mini 4 (2015), iPad Air 2 (2014) and iPad 5 (2017) , equipped with Apple A8, A8X and Apple A9 chipsets. All newer models, however, should be able to install iPadOS 15 upon release .
This is not the first time we’ve heard about the end of iOS support 15 on iPhone 6s and iPhone SE 1st generation. The first rumors in fact date back to last November, when the Israeli site The Verifier spoke about it.
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Last week we learned Realme is gearing up to launch the Watch 2 and Watch 2 Pro soon as the smartwatches were mentioned in the source code of Realme Link app. While Realme hasn’t divulged anything about these wearables yet, the Watch 2 has bagged FCC certification, revealing its design and specs in the process.
The Realme Watch 2 bearing model code RMW2008 has the power button on its right side and features a 1.4″ 320×320-pixel resolution TFT color touchscreen like the first-gen Watch. But the detachable silicon straps now come with Realme’s “Dare To Leap” slogan that we’ve already seen on the rear panels of a few of its smartphones.
Like its predecessor, the Realme Watch 2 has heart rate and SpO2 sensors onboard and is IP68 dust and water-resistant. However, it now packs a significantly larger battery – 305 mAh up from 160 mAh.
The Realme Watch 2 has Bluetooth 5.0 BLE onboard for connectivity, but it’s only compatible with Android 5.0 and above. Although we might see the smartwatch gain iOS support by the time it arrives in the market.
The Realme Watch 2 measures 257.6 x 35.7 x 12.2mm and will come with workout modes, automatic step counter, sleep tracking, and message and incoming call notifications. It will also feature meditation mode and music and camera controls.
Considering the information revealed by FCC, the Realme Watch 2 doesn’t appear to be that big an upgrade over its predecessor, but we’ll reserve our final judgment until the smartwatch goes official. In the meantime, you can read our Realme Watch review.
Testing Tests overview Smartphone Oppo Reno 4 Pro in the test: Top smartphone for 500 € Motorola Moto G 5G Plus test: A lot of battery for little money Huawei P Smart 2021: Budget model with room for improvement Asus Zenfone 7 Pro: Turbo smartphone with flip camera Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro in the test: hard but slow Oneplus Nord N 10 5G in the test: galloped in price Oppo Find X2 Pro in the test: performance bargain S martwatch Oppo Watch in the test: Great AMOLED Smartwatch from 240 € Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 in the test: competition for Apple? Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro in the test: Smartwatch with cross-country skiing Battery Apple Watch: Smartwatch with contract from 15 € per month Buy Apple Watch 6: All generations in the price check Skagen Falster 3 in the test: Smartwatch with Wear OS Test Huawei Watch GT 2: Noble fitness tracker in watch form Multiroom Ikea Symfonisk table lamp in the test: Sonos with lamp Ikea Symfonisk in the test: Sonos loudspeakers under 100 Euro Bose Portable Home Speaker in the test: battery, WLAN, Airplay 2 Sonos Move in the test: The robust all-rounder Musiccast: Multiroom from Yamaha in the test Denon Heos in the test: versatile multiroom system Flat soundbar Teufel Sounddeck Streaming in the test Keyfinder Tile Slim (2019): Key finder in credit card format Bluetooth key finder Tile Pro in the test: 122 m range! Key Finder Tile Pro in the test: the range champion Orbit Bluetooth tracker in the test: looking for wallet and keys Nonda iHere 3.0: smart key finder in the test Chipolo Classic and Plus: Bluetooth key finder in the test Musegear finder 2: Key finder without registration obligation Action-Cam DJI Pocket 2 in the test: Zoom and 64 – megapixels -Sensor Actioncam Insta 360 One R: 1-inch image sensor in the test Gopro Hero 8 Black in the test: back to the top Insta 360 One R in the test: The modular action cam Motorola Moto G8 Plus test: Great smartphone, but … Insta 360 Go: Micro-GoPro in the test Motorola One Action Test: Good hardware, bad camera microSD In the test: Kingston UHS-I U3 microSDXC Kit MicroSD card for smartphone: Samsung Evo Plus 2017 Test report: Lexar Professional 1800 x microSDXC Kit Test report: Intenso Premium microSDXC card with 64 GByte Android Sonos Move in the test: The robust all-rounder Honor 20: Inexpensive high-end smartphone in the test Xiaomi Mi 9: Top technology at a bargain price Doogee S 90 in the test: modular outdoor smartphone ZTE Axon 10 Pro in the test: high-end phone at a competitive price Motorola Moto G7 Power in the test: large battery, small price Sony Xperia 10: Smartphone with 20: 9 display in the test Adviser Advisor Overview Purchase advice The right cordless screwdriver for the home workshop Bargain: Which Fire TV Stick from 19 € is the right one? Purchase advice: What good is a leaf blower with a battery for 45 Euro? True -Wireless headphones: How much do you have to invest? Purchase advice water cooling: High-end PCs cool better Adviser: Air conditioning and fan against the heat wave Sony shows the Xperia 1: Is the predecessor XZ3 worth it now? Practice Caution, money away: Kickstarter & Co. are not shops Turn off Android notifications from annoying apps Here’s how: Install the new Android L keyboard now Tip: Use “Ok Google everywhere” in Germany In the test: Will the jailbreak work for iOS 7.1? Goderm a and mobile medicine: The doctor apps are coming! Instructions: Jailbreak for iOS 7 on iPhone 5S, 5, 4S and 4 Technology Importing technology from China, part 2: Customs, taxes and tricks Drones & copters: From toys to FPV Racer What does the end of an ecosystem mean? Smartphones with a flexible display: What’s the point? Overview of smartphone processors: Everything Snapdragon? Evolutionary dead ends: the a Worst mobile phones mpass: Pay with the NFC mobile phone – or the NFC toilet roll Display calculator pixel density, number and Calculate display portion Best list Test winner Price comparison Price comparison overview Smartphones from Android 7.0 Phablets with stylus Fitness tracker with GPS Bluetooth headphones with ANR Drones with GPS Video TechStage Adviser Guide: Tablets for homeschooling and learning portals Beginning What are … PC or tablet? Tablets for … Tablets Tablet with … Stylus Additional accessories Headsets Tablet stand … Keyboards Mice Conclusion Comments from Stefan // 21. 01. 2021 16: 19 Clock
Regardless of whether it is a sofa tutor, the Studienkreis Online-Lernbibliotek or the school minator – learning portals can be a useful alternative to traditional tutoring for school children of all ages. We show the best tablets for it.
If the child is weak at school, there are several alternatives. In addition to personal initiative, this primarily includes follow-up sessions in learning groups such as the study group or individual tutoring, as offered by many older pupils or students. However, especially in times of epidemics, contacts with strangers must be restricted as far as possible, so traditional tutoring is usually ruled out.
What are learning portals? In addition to homeschooling (guide: PCs for homeschooling from 150 Euro) there are also digital solutions for tutoring in the form of learning portals. Depending on the provider, they usually offer help for grades 5 to 10, which is usually available in text and video form for several subjects. Some companies go far beyond this and have offers for all classes and types of school as well as most of the subjects offered at the various types of school.
Sometimes there are also educational games and, in most cases, exercises to check and consolidate what has been learned. In addition, some portals also offer personal support via chat, help with homework or complete individual lessons via video chat.
Providers such as Lernwerk, Schulinator or Studyhelp even offer their services free of charge, most others charge between 5 and 25 Euro. Free test phases or even some videos published on Youtube offer first insights into the type and quality of the offer. Payment is usually made for several months in advance or in an annual subscription, some providers even give a money-back guarantee in the event of a lack of learning success.
PC or tablet? A PC is not always necessary, a much cheaper Android tablet is easily sufficient for learning videos. However, some criteria should be met so that the tutoring is fun on the technical side. This is how we see tablets with a display size below 10 inch (approx. 25 cm) critical and also a display resolution of 1920 × 1080 Pixel should not be undershot for sufficiently sharp display. The devices should have at least a quad-core processor and 2, better 3 GB of RAM so that inputs can be implemented without waiting time and videos can be played smoothly. Internally is a memory size of 25 GByte or Larger is optimal, so that apps and videos can also find space in the memory and can be used without direct Internet access.
WLAN as Internet access should be sufficient in most cases, so parents can safely ignore expensive LTE modules. For young students, it may be worthwhile to use particularly robust, but hardly available, children’s or outdoor variants. Alternatively, there are protective covers or tablets for children. Amazon offers the kids edition of its Fire HD tablets for this purpose. Not only do they last longer, they also allow parents to access and block certain distracting factors such as the app store and in-app purchases. For certain subjects or advanced students, purchasing a tablet with pen control can also be helpful. This enables sketches or handwritten notes to be digitized quickly. The requirements of the individual providers or the school are usually revealed on their homepages.
Tablets for children The kids editions of Samsung and Amazon offer, as mentioned, special protective covers that are supposed to protect the tablet even when used in rough conditions and also offer various parenting functions such as restricting the available apps. Unfortunately, the RAM is a bit tight at 2 GB. They are more aimed at children who are not yet in secondary schools. However, they are sufficient for the use of normal learning portals. The Fire HD 10 in the Kids Edition (test report) we have already tested it.
Tablets For round 150 to 200 Euro get those interested with the current models Odys Space One 10 LTE , Lenovo Tab M 10 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 three 10 – Customs tablets that are up-to-date and meet the minimum requirements required by us. The Odys model not only offers a lot of memory (4 / 49 GByte), but also an LTE module. This allows learning sessions – a corresponding LTE contract (Article: Unlimited data volume from 20 Euro) provided – in good weather also in the park or at least in the garden. Android 10 is already available from the factory – this is far from normal with tablets.
That shows something like this Lenovo Tab M 10 Plus , which is currently only Android 9 offers. The remaining specifications are marked with 4 / 64 GByte memory similar, only LTE does not exist. This is also the case with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 so, also the memory is with 3 / 32 GByte slightly smaller. There are advantages for the chipset: The other two tablets also offer 8 cores, but Samsung uses a Snapdragon 662 that does not only delivers decent power, but also favors future updates and is less power hungry. Accordingly, auc h this model already has Android 10. With 10, 4 inches, the screen of the Samsung tablet is also the largest, this also applies to the battery with 7040 mAh.
We have other suitable tablets in our purchase advice: How many tablets do you need? sorted by price. The price scale is largely open at the top. If you don’t like Android, you should look around at iOS models, i.e. iPads. The cheapest current models are iPad Mini (test by Mac & i) and iPad (without name affix), they cost from 379 and 449 Euro. The larger and more modern models iPad Air (test by Max & i) and iPad Pro start at 649 and 879 euros. However, we would exclude the iPad Mini as a tablet for homeschooling because of the display size of only 7.9 inches.
Tablet with pen Tablets with additional pen control are available in a handful, current and Currently, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite . It not only offers advantages in terms of design and installation depth, but also a stylus with suitable software and more memory.
Stylus A stylus can be helpful to make drawings or handwritten notes directly on the tablet. With some models, such digital pens are already included from We rk, while others are prepared for operation, but the pen must be purchased separately. Such models are about d as Apple iPad ( from 6th generation) , iPad Mini (from 5th generation), iPad Air (from 3rd generation) or the iPad Pro , here the pens cost between 90 and 120 Euro.
Simple capacitive pins without egg Genetic power sources are much cheaper, they b e start at a few cents. They work on any device with a capacitive touchscreen and usually have a thick, soft rubber tip . So that become they recognized as finger replacement on current touchscreens . Special pens with rechargeable batteries or batteries, however, have a thin , mostly exchangeable Tip, which also recognize different pressure levels and often buttons for additional options (such as “erase” when Hold down ) bid. With them the handling is much more similar to a normal pen on paper than with the former Pens. Examples of high-quality tablet pens are Samsung’s S-Pen or Apple’s Pencil. In our guide to pens for the iPad we show cheaper alternatives to the Apple Pencil.
Additional accessories As with the PC, there are also peripheral devices for tablets. They are not absolutely necessary, but make everyday life easier.
Headsets If you want to concentrate on your work or if you have to understand everything in the video call despite the poor sound quality of your conversation partner, you should consider purchasing a headset. Many tablets also offer a 3.5 millimeter jack connection so that the cable headset from the smartphone can also be used in an emergency. Wireless headsets that are connected via Bluetooth are more practical and usually also of higher quality. Headphones with active noise suppression in particular (best list ANC headphones) can even promote concentration as they minimize external distraction.
Due to the design, over-ear headsets are best. They cover the whole ear, are usually still comfortable when worn for a long time and already shield something from the environment. They are also available with and without cables and also with ANC. The advantage of wired headsets: You do not have batteries that are always empty exactly when they are needed. But they are less flexible and the mandatory cable always hangs in the way.
Tablet stand and cover One advantage of tablets is their flexibility by comparatively low weight and size. However, if the children are to follow the learning video and complete test tasks, the device must be stable can be found. That works either with separate stands, Book c overn or equal to a keyboard cover. Stands are self-explanatory: They are external rne constructions that only serve the purpose of placing a tablet more or less straight in front of you on the table. A book cover protects the tablet during transport, thanks to the flexible cover usually also the display. In addition, the device can also be set up in front of you on the table, often there are even different adjustable angles.
Keyboards Thanks to Bluetooth, a keyboard can be wirelessly connected to any tablet, regardless of whether it is Android, iOS or Windows. You have a wide choice. This ranges from simple, classic keyboards to those that are extremely flat to ultra-compact TKL keyboards with mechanical switches. More on this in our keyboards guide: Mechanical, rubber dome or TKL? or multimedia keyboards for Smart TVs and Media PCs.
The keyboard or keyboard c over added to Bookcover another mechanical full keyboard, which connects to the tablet via Bluetooth. Especially when longer texts are to be written on the device s , is a mechanical keyboard significantly better than the onscreen cords of the T ablets. For home Bluetooth keyboards without a protective function are usually sufficient.
Mice What applies to a laptop is no different for a tablet: touchscreen and / or touchpad Operation is okay, mouse control is often more ergonomic in the long run. Since most tablets lack the large USB-A ports, mice with USB C (or adapter) or Bluetooth mice are required. With a keyboard and mouse, a cheap tablet almost becomes a real office PC, but for the sake of simplicity, users can simply leave the accessories at home for on the go. So you always have the best of both worlds at hand.
Conclusion It doesn’t always have to be a full-fledged PC, even comparatively cheap tablets can help improve school success. In addition to the appropriate learning portal, parents should also keep an eye on the right hardware – if you set too low, you may buy a new one after a short time.
Should it be a new PC for homeschooling? Then we have the right tips and recommendations in this article.
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