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Garmin Venu 2 initial review: The AMOLED display is back

(Pocket-lint) – The original Garmin Venu was Garmin’s stab at something more like a smartwatch. It was designed to address the display above all things, sporting an AMOLED screen – and looking better than all the other devices in Garmin’s range.

That’s true of the Venu 2 too and we’ve had one on the wrist for a couple of days to bring you some first impressions.

Design and build

40 and 45mm sizes
45.4 x 45.4 x 12.2mm, 49g
Changeable straps
Stainless steel bezel

Glance at the Venu 2 and you might not know if you’re looking at a new watch or the old model. The overall design is pretty much that same – and it’s a safe design.

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The watch case sticks to polymer, topped with a stainless steel bezel to give a premium look around the display. The big change is that there’s now two sizes – 40 or 45mm – so there’s a Venu 2 for every wrist.

That also sees a change in the straps you can attach to it, with 18mm and 22mm supported respectively, allowing you to chop and change to get the look you want.

As we said of the original Venu, the design is rather safe. It doesn’t quite reach to the premium looks that you get from the Apple Watch, but it’s conventional enough. We suspect much comes from the close relationship to the Vivoactive – with the Vivoactive 4 also coming in the same sizes.

There’s a difference, however. The case of the Venu 2 now appears to be one piece, whereas previous models had a separate backplate and body, not that that makes a huge difference. For those who like to examine sensors, there’s also a new arrangement to the Elevate heart rate sensor on the back, which we’ve not seen in other Garmin devices.

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There are two buttons on the right-hand side of the body and these are oblong rather than the round buttons usually found on the Forerunner models.

Display

AMOLED, 33mm
416 x 416 pixels
Touchscreen
Always-on option

We don’t have the exact figures on for the display at the time of writing, but on the 45mm model, it’s about 33mm in diameter for the visible area (the same as the Vivoactive 4).

There’s some bezel area under the glass that’s not active display, but Garmin has now added some markers on this area which help to disguise the fact that not the entire area is display. Fortunately, because this is AMOLED, the deep black of the display and that surrounding area merge together so you really don’t notice it – or we haven’t so far.

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There are plenty of watch faces on the device and many more available through Connect IQ, but we were quickly taken by the Matrix-style face.

There are three brightness levels and it doesn’t appear that there’s any sort of ambient light sensor to adjust the levels automatically. If you choose the top brightness you’ll get a warning that this will drain the battery faster – and it’s the display that’s likely to eat most of the battery life on your Garmin.

It’s a touchscreen display, allowing some interaction, while other functions will need the press of one of the two body buttons.

There’s a battery saving mode that will take you to a simple watch face to save power and also drop the brightness – again underlining the point that this display does have a hit on this watch’s endurance.

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Of course, that’s something we really need to examine in more depth over the coming weeks. Garmin says you’ll get 11 days in battery saver mode, while 10 minutes charging will give 1 day of life – but we’ll be fully testing the realistic battery life. So far it looks like it will be good for 5 days based on wearing it so far.

There is the option for the screen to be always-on, but you’d have to select that. The default is to have the display fade to black fairly quickly, but to waken when you twist it to look at it.

Sensors and hardware

HR, GPS, ABC
Pulse Ox

Despite pitching this watch as a smartwatch, the Venu 2 is loaded with all the sensors to feed Garmin’s data machine. That will keep track of your activities from your steps to your HIIT workouts, and give you loads of information about what happened.

The mainstay is the heart rate sensor, which can keep track of your heart rate through the day and night to give you a complete picture of what’s happening within your body. It will help you get in the zone when you’re working out, it will help spot when you’re stressed and it will also measure blood oxygen levels – although be warned that this demands a lot of battery life, so probably isn’t worth the sacrifice.

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GPS provides your location for accurate route tracing, so you know how far and how fast you went, for tracking all your outdoor activities. The accelerometer will detect motion, like steps or sleep movements, the barometer can detect altitude change while the compass can sense which direction you’re moving in.

All the data collected feeds a number of systems, like Body Battery which pitches your sleep against your daily activity to advise you about how well rested you are, while also giving you full breakdowns of your activity in the Garmin Connect smartphone app, so you know what you did and what benefit that will have.

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New in this device are sleep scores and insights from Firstbeat Analytics as well as fitness age, which draws in a lot of information to estimate your age – or the impact that your lifestyle might have had on your body and make suggestions so you can do something about it.

They support a full selection of sports, but we’ve not had the chance to test them yet as we’ve only just strapped this watch on. There’s wider support for HIIT workouts and strength training – two areas that Garmin hasn’t been so great on in the past.

We’ll be testing all the functions in the coming weeks.

Smartwatch features

Custom graphics
Garmin Pay
Music support
Smartphone notifications

Garmin offers a range of features are less sporty and more smartwatchy. These aren’t new or unique to the Venu 2, indeed most have been refined across top Forerunner and Fenix models over the years.

But these do complete the picture and ensure that you’re not missing out on essentials. There’s support for downloaded music from Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music, letting you sync up to 650 tracks, an increase over the previous Venu model.

That means you can arrange playlists and have them sync to your watch, so you can listen to music phone-free via Bluetooth headphones. You can also control music you might have on your phone.

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Garmin Pay allows for mobile payments, so you can pay for that coffee on your way home from a long run – although there’s not a wide range of support for banks outside the US – so it’s worth checking to see if you’ll be able to use your card.

We’ve mentioned Garmin Connect a couple of times already and once setup on your phone, you’ll be able to control notifications on your watch so you can stay informed – and those using an Android phone will be able to use Quick Replies to reply to messages too.

Best Garmin watch 2021: Fenix, Forerunner and Vivo compared

By Chris Hall
·
22 April 2021

Much of this will be familiar to Garmin users, but the Venu 2 does use some custom graphics and animations that are a little more exciting that you’ll find elsewhere. That makes better use of the display and while we’ve not had a chance to fully explore everything, we’ve already spotted some areas where the Venu 2 looks better than some other Garmin devices.

First Impressions

The Garmin Venu 2 is all about that display. For those who are turned off by the slightly muted displays you might find on the Vivoactive or Forerunner devices, the Venu is designed to deliver.

First impressions are great, with vibrancy and plenty of colour, giving the custom visuals a lift. That was true of the previous device too, so we’ll be looking at how this performs as a fitness device and a lifestyle device over the coming weeks.

Writing by Chris Hall.

AirTag location trackers are smart, capable, and very Apple

They work super well, and they’re one more thing keeping you on the iPhone

I was starting to get really worried that I wouldn’t find my friend.

For this first look at AirTags, I sent Vjeran Pavic off into an unfamiliar city with a single Apple AirTag and no phone, no smartwatch, or any other mode of communication. The challenge was to see if Apple’s Find My system for locating AirTags would be able to lead me to him.

Apple AirTags weren’t designed for an elaborate game of hide-and-seek. They can help you locate anything they’re attached to; most of the time you’ll be listening for their little chirps as you hunt down the keys you inexplicably left sitting on top of the fridge instead of on the hook where they belong. For that purpose they work incredibly well, right on down to a little arrow on the iPhone’s screen pointing in the direction and little haptic taps as encouragement that you’re getting warmer.

But this exercise was a very good stress test for the new $29 iPhone accessory ($99 for a four pack), because it meant that the only chance I had of tracking Vjeran down is if one of the near-billion Find My-enabled devices on the planet happened to pick up the AirTag’s Bluetooth signal and send it back to me.

After a half-hour of walking around, I finally found him. He was standing on a street corner with no foot traffic whatsoever, which meant that the intermittent signals I got detailing his location came from a couple of iPhones in cars that were driving by.

That’s impressive.

AirTags have been rumored for years but never seemed to materialize. They’re really here now and though I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re worth the wait, I do think Apple has put together a thoughtfully designed system that goes a long way toward ensuring privacy and safety while still making it easier for you to locate your stuff.

AirTags are a very Apple-y Apple product, and that ends up being great but also just a little annoying (and, for third-party companies like Tile, troubling).

AirTags

The basics of AirTags are simple enough to understand: each one is a tiny little puck with a Bluetooth Low Energy radio and a U1 ultra-wideband (UWB) chip. You pair it with your iPhone just like you do with AirPods, holding it nearby and then tapping through a short setup process. After that, they’re available in a new “Items” tab in the Find My app.

From the app, you can set the AirTags to chirp, mark them as lost (which enables some different features), or just tap the button that lets you locate them in space. If you have an iPhone with UWB, it can locate the AirTag in physical space and point a little arrow at it when you get within four feet or so. It all works very well and is very satisfying.

From a design perspective, an AirTag is classic Apple. It’s a white and shiny silver little button, and you can have custom emoji or letters printed on the plastic. They are as cute as the buttons they resemble.

However, you’ll soon find the plastic is scuffed and the chrome on the back is scratched. Sincerely, do not expect these to stay looking pristine for long — not since the weird early days of the iPod nano has an Apple product gotten scuffed this easily.

One clever touch is that the plastic body itself serves as the speaker. It’s what vibrates to make the chirping noise. It gets plenty loud, though my old ears had a bit of a difficult time using just that sound to locate one. Also, if for whatever reason the AirTag is squeezed or compressed, that will dampen how loud it can get.

There’s also no hole on them for a lanyard loop. If you want to actually attach one to anything instead of dropping it in a pocket, you’ll need to buy an accessory. That, increasingly, also feels like a classic Apple move.

The one un-Apple part of the design is that the battery is actually user-replaceable. A little twist of the bottom reveals a standard CR2032 cell, which Apple claims should be good for a year of battery life.

The real trick — and the hidden complexity — arises when you are tracking an AirTag out in the world, when something is truly lost. Like everything in Apple’s Find My network, the AirTag’s location is end-to-end encrypted so only you can see its location. But any iOS device can send that location to you.

If somebody comes upon a lost AirTag, they can tap it via NFC to see information about it, including its serial number (which could be important if you think it’s being used to track you). If the owner has put it in “Lost Mode,” they have the option to have that information page show their phone number and a brief message so you can contact them. This NFC feature works equally well with iPhones and Android devices.

That means all it takes to locate an AirTag is for any iPhone with Bluetooth on to see it — even if that iPhone is whizzing by in a car. Apple is leveraging its huge network of devices as a competitive advantage here — along with the competitive advantage of directly offering this functionality as a system-level feature. Tile has asked Congress to look into that.

The pairing process for AirTags is just like pairing AirPods.

A Bluetooth device broadcasting anything is a potential privacy risk, so Apple is cycling each AirTag’s Bluetooth identifier “frequently.” More than that, though, Apple has also done some work to develop a system that also considers personal safety.

If the Find My network notices that an AirTag has been separated from its owner for a while and seems to be in the same place you are, it will alert you. If you’re an iPhone user, you’ll see a notification that says “AirTag Found Moving With You.”

A bunch of AirTags.

Apple says that there are options to disable these “Safety Alerts” if you are “borrowing” something. But the real purpose is clear: to protect you from somebody using an AirTag to surreptitiously track you.

When you see the alert, you can tap the notification to get a screen that will allow you to make the AirTag start beeping. The alert will also instruct you on how to disable the AirTag by removing the battery.

Finally, Apple says, “If you feel your safety is at risk, contact your local law enforcement who can work with Apple. You might need to provide the AirTag or its serial number.” Apple won’t be able to provide your location, but it could provide governments with information related to the person who registered the AirTag as theirs in the first place.

If you’re an Android user, well, virtually none of this is going to work for you. However, the AirTag does have at least one potential trick. If it’s been separated from its owner and then detects that it’s suddenly on the move, it will start beeping.

All in all, I think it’s a thoughtfully designed system, but it’s also definitely one that leverages Apple’s strengths.

An AirTag.

Really, the AirTag is the Most Apple Product I’ve seen in a while. It’s just a little more expensive than the competition. It’s beautifully designed, but its hardware still somehow fails to actually take the practical realities of our dirty, messy world into account. It’s very privacy-focused. It really only works with Apple devices. It offers features that no third-party device can really match thanks to Apple’s tight integration (or tight grip on its APIs, depending on your point of view). And since there’s no Android version of Find My, it’s another piece of the Apple ecosystem that’s going to keep you from switching.

An AirTag is a very Apple-y thing for Apple users who already live in Apple’s ecosystem. They work great — and will be great at keeping you in Apple’s world.

Yes, older Apple TVs can also be calibrated with your iPhone

Apple’s new TV calibration feature, which uses the iPhone’s front-facing sensors to sense and tweak the output of the Apple TV, works with the company’s older streaming boxes, 9to5Mac reports. The new feature will arrive with tvOS 14.5, which is due to release “early next week” for the 2017 Apple TV 4K and 2015 Apple TV HD. Apple says viewers will see “much more accurate colors and improved contrast” after calibration.

The calibration feature was announced alongside the new Apple TV 4K. It works by having you hold up the front of your iPhone to your TV, so it can sense how the screen is outputting different colors. If the phone’s light sensor sees that color is being outputted inaccurately, the Apple TV can adjust its output to compensate. The process only covers the Apple TV’s content, and won’t affect the TV’s built in apps or other devices it has plugged in.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple TV HD and 4K owners can access the calibration feature via the Video and Audio section in the Settings app. As well as requiring an Apple TV updated to tvOS 14.5, the feature also requires Face ID-equipped iPhone running iOS 14.5. Both FlatPanelsHD and CNET note that the feature doesn’t work on TVs with Dolby Vision enabled after testing it with older Apple TVs running the latest tvOS 14.5 beta build, though it’s not immediately clear why this is.

Between this and the news that Apple’s redesigned Siri Remote will also work with older Apple TVs, Apple is making it pretty easy for existing Apple TV owners to hold off on upgrading.

Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite review: Fitness tracking on a budget

(Pocket-lint) – The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite joins the Mi Watch as a part of a duo that wants to put smarts on your wrist for significantly less money than an Apple Watch or a Samsung smartwatch.

If the Mi Watch is considered affordable, then the Mi Watch Lite is proper cheap, going toe-to-toe with a raft of Amazfit Bip watches available around this price – and other budget options you should probably steer clear of.

For that cut price, the Mi Watch Lite offers a mix of smartwatch and fitness tracking features and battery life that can make it through a week. You’ll inevitably have to live with some shortcomings, but it feels like ones that don’t detract from what is a decent budget smartwatch.

Design & Display

Measures: 41 x 35 x 11.9mm / Weighs: 35g
1.39-inch display, 320 x 320 resolution
Size options: 41mm
5ATM waterproof

Like the first Mi Watch – the one that never made it out of China – the Mi Watch Lite is a square affair, featuring a 41mm case made from plastic.

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It weighs in at 35g, so it’s by no means a heavy watch, and it’s paired up with a TPU strap that’s removable. It just takes a bit of time to get it off and get something else on there.

There’s your pick of black, ivory or navy blue case colours, or the choice of five ‘fashionable’ Morandi colours including olive, pink and ivory.

On the wrist, the Mi Watch Lite doesn’t look hugely different from other budget square smartwatches out there and the colour options are nice – but it would be stretch to say it gives them a more stylish look. It’s pleasant enough looking, but the larger Xiaomi Mi Watch is visually more appealing.

The Lite offers a single physical button on the side of the case that’ll wake the screen up and launch the app menu screen. That screen is the touchscreen kind of course. It’s a 1.4-inch TFT LCD type, so not the AMOLED kind you get on the more expensive Mi Watch.

It’s a good quality screen for the price and certainly doesn’t have that washed-out look you sometimes find on smartwatches this cheap. The backlight offers 350 nits of brightness, so it’s not one you’re going to struggle to see at night or during the day. It still offers good colours and it’s generally a nice screen to glance down at.

What’s more problematic is the controls: tapping is prioritised over swiping through screens. You can scroll through some screens, but it’s slow moving when you do it. It’s generally less of a problem if you’re checking a notification or looking at one of the widgets, but when the sweat comes during exercise, it’s more problematic and frustrating to handle.

Like the round Mi Watch, Xiaomi has made the Lite suitable for swimming and showering by slapping it with a 5ATM water resistance rating, which means it’s good at depths up to 50 metres.

Software & Performance

Works with Android and iOS
No third-party app support

Xiaomi uses its own in-house operating system for the on-watch software experience and it has Xiaomi Wear (Android) and Xiaomi Wear Lite (Apple) apps for that time spent away from the watch itself.

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Our screen control frustrations aside, it’s a very easy watch software to get to grips with. Swipe left and right to see widgets showing off data like heart rate and weather forecasts. The main menu screen is a mere button press away.

Like the Mi Watch, that main menu screen doesn’t include any text, so it’s up to you to quickly establish what launches what here. There’s some simple settings you can tinker with on the watch like screen brightness, watch faces, do not disturb mode, idle alerts, and setting up a password for security.

The companion Xiaomi Wear app is broken up into three sections letting you dig into your health and fitness stats, track workouts from and adjust settings. There’s no third-party app support here, so if you’re thinking of connecting it to the likes of Apple Health or Google Fit, you’re out of luck.

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The app itself – much like Zepp Health’s Amazfit and Mobvoi’s TicWatch – doesn’t feel the most polished or slick, but it does make it easy to adjust watch settings and delve deeper into your data if you want.

Sports & Fitness Tracking

GPS and GLONASS
Built-in heart rate monitor
24/7 fitness tracking and sleep monitoring

Like the Mi Watch, the Lite is one that’s built to track your fitness and health – and has the key sensors on board to deliver that.

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There’s built-in GPS and GLONASS satellite support to map outdoor activities. There’s accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors for indoor tracking. And there’s 11 sports modes in total, including running (indoors and outdoor), cycling, trekking, swimming (pool and open water) and freestyle modes for those activities it doesn’t cover.

What you’re missing out from the Mi Watch are the Firstbeat-powered training features, stress tracking, the ability to take blood oxygen measurements, automatic exercise recognitio, and wider satellite support.

As a stripped-back sports and health monitoring watch, the Lite performs pretty well. GPS accuracy during our testing was reliable in comparison to a Garmin running watch. For indoor workouts, heart rate data was usually closely in-line with a chest strap monitor for HIIT and indoor rowing sessions – although we didn’t have to raise the intensity too high outside to see some odd spikes in heart rate.

If you’re less concerned about smashing out burpees and nailing 5K PBs, the Lite’s core fitness tracker features work well without really offering ways to make improvements or motivate you to move more.

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Step counts during our testing were within acceptable range of the Fitbit Sense, and it’ll capture distance covered and calories burned. It offered similar accuracy to the bigger Mi Watch for sleep monitoring, though doesn’t capture REM sleep stages or offer any kind of insight or advice to improve sleep.

If you choose to continuously monitor your heart rate, then based on our experience, resting and average heart rate data seemed high compared to the data captured on a chest strap and a heart rate monitoring pulse oximeter. While there’s no stress monitoring here, you do still get guided breathing exercises, though there’s nothing groundbreaking on that front in terms of how it’s delivered.

Smartwatch Features

Over 120 watch faces
View notifications
Music controls

For this low price you’re obviously not going to get an Apple Watch equivalent here, so you won’t be able to make payments, put music on it, or even download apps.

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What you can do is view notifications from a paired Android or iPhone, control music playing on your phone from native and third-party apps, check weather forecasts and set alarms.

Notifications can only be displayed and not acted on and some messages can look a little messy at times in the manner they’re displayed. Music playback controls work well and dedicated screens to show-off weather data work without issue, so there’s definitely some nice elements here.

You do get a nice array of watch faces too, with the ability to store multiple faces on the watch itself and download more from the watch store, which you can find in the companion app. There’s a good mix of analogue and digital faces and additional ones if you want to pack it with data or keep things simple.

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That’s really your lot though. Aside from some timer and alarm features, Xiaomi keeps it basic, which some will be satisfied with and others possibly not so much.

Battery Life

Up to 9 days in typical use
10 hours GPS battery life

The Mi Watch Lite comes packing a 230mAh capacity battery, which Xiaomi says will get you up to 9 days in typical use. That typical use is based on lab tests where heart rate monitoring was set to be the biggest interval option, 100 notifications were received by the watch, and it tracked one 35-minute outdoor exercise session a week.

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The likelihood is that most people are probably going to be working out more than once a week or wanting to monitor heart rate with more detail. Our testing time didn’t reflect Xiaomi’s lab testing conditions. We had continuous heart rate monitoring on at 5 minute intervals, had notifications turned on and tracked five outdoor and indoor workouts a week. It ended up lasting about 5 days in our testing time, which is short by 4 days of that claimed 9 days life per charge.

Those GPS battery life numbers seem to add up as well, offering the kind of drop off in 30 minute and 1 hour outdoor runs that suggest it could reach to those 10 hours when you want that hit of mapping data.

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.

When it comes to charging, there’s a large cradle that clips around the back of the watch and you’ll have no concerns it’s going to budge or fall out when it’s charging. It’s pretty well locked in place.

Verdict

The Xiaomi Watch Lite is a cheap smartwatch that is surprisingly nice to live with once you accept the compromises you have to make with it.

You’re not going to get that same high-quality display or some of the richer health and fitness features and insights you’ll get on the Mi Watch, but what remains offers a familiar and good experience.

It’s a solid albeit basic fitness tracker, competent smartwatch, and doesn’t do too badly as a budget sportswatch all considered. Compared to smartwatches in and around it at this price, the Mi Watch Lite stands out for the right reasons.

Also consider

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Amazfit GTS 2

If you can stretch to spend more, the GTS 2 will get you a more impressive hardware and richer fitness tracking and smartwatch features.

Read our review

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Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Samsung will help you turn your old Galaxy phone into a smart home sensor

Samsung has launched a beta program to help put some older Galaxy phones to new uses. Owners of certain phones can download an update to turn the device into a smart home sensor with some neat functions — it can detect the sound of a crying baby or turn on a lamp when it gets dark. The program is limited to certain models launched in 2018 or later, which is fairly limited, but it’s a nice, accessible offering that could help users get a little more use out of their old devices.

Announced at CES earlier this year, the company is launching the program in the US, UK, and Korea starting today. By downloading a software update through the SmartThings app, users can access two basic functions. The first is an audio sensor that detects the sound of a baby crying, pet barking or meowing, or a knock at the door. When it detects one of these, it sends an alert to your phone with a recording of the sound.

The other function is a light level sensor that can turn on a connected light automatically when brightness levels in a room fall below a certain threshold. Samsung says the update includes battery optimization necessary to keep the phone powered and functioning as a sensor for long periods of time, though the company doesn’t specify how long it would be able to run between charges.

Galaxy S, Note, and Z-series phones launched from 2018 onward are eligible, provided they’re running Android 9 or later. Samsung says more devices will be supported in the future, which hopefully includes more budget-oriented devices that owners may be less likely to trade in. And if those limited functions don’t appeal, there’s a lot more you can do with your old phone if you don’t mind a DIY approach.

Apple’s AirTags will work with Android… sort of

Apple’s AirTags have one feature not mentioned during the announcement yesterday: they’ll work with Android to a limited extent. As 9to5Mac noted, there’s a support article on Apple’s site that details how AirTags will work with an Android device if you don’t have your iPhone handy.

The way AirTags function is by securely communicating with Bluetooth devices and iPhones equipped with ultra-wideband that are in the area. If AirTags exclusively worked with Apple devices it would severely limit their effectiveness, particularly in regions where iPhones aren’t as popular as Android.

Any NFC-equipped phone should be able to just tap the AirTag to get more details.

Image: Apple

AirTags won’t work out of the box with an Android device, nor can you use an Android device in lieu of an iPhone with one. Instead, it will only work with Android devices equipped with NFC and only communicate when the AirTags are in Lost Mode.

First, you’ll need to use your iPhone to activate Lost Mode, which is supposed to show you on a map where your AirTag has wandered off to. Then if someone with an Android device finds your lost AirTag, they can hold it up to their NFC-equipped phone and get details on how to contact you. They’ll only be able to get details if the Lost Mode is activated, which should help with privacy concerns.

The Android support makes AirTags way more useful, but if you want the full experience on an Android device, you’ll probably want to take a gander at Tile’s offerings. The company is reportedly working on an AirTag competitor that should work on both iOS and Android. Samsung also has its own AirTag competitor, Galaxy SmartTags. Like the AirTags and planned Tile offering, the Galaxy SmartTags use UWB to provide a more exact location for a lost tag. The Galaxy SmartTags only work with Samsung Galaxy phones, but unlike AirTags and the Tile tag, Galaxy SmartTags are available now and start at $29.99.

OnePlus’ gaming triggers for Android and iOS phones are now available in India

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau tweeted pictures of some attachable gaming triggers the company has created, and they’re made for more than just OnePlus’ phones. SlashGear and Android Headlines noticed them being teased during the unveiling of the OnePlus 9 back in late March, but they’re available online now in India from the OnePlus site for 1,099 rupees, which converts to roughly $15. OnePlus hasn’t confirmed that these gaming triggers will be releasing globally, and the company wouldn’t comment on pricing and availability when I reached out.

These triggers can be clipped around the edge of most phones (any Android or iOS device, so long as they’re less than 11.5mm thick with a case on). If you want to do some mobile gaming but hate touch controls, these could provide a more intuitive, controller-like alternative to tapping on your screen.

We designed the OnePlus gaming triggers to be solid, responsive, pleasingly “clicky,” and, yes, beautiful. We also made sure they work with many other phones—because the best product design is one that leaves you free to make your own choices. pic.twitter.com/hJNa4Dsa5s

— Pete Lau (@PeteLau) April 21, 2021

Each trigger appears to have just one shoulder button with an Omron switch that Lau says are “pleasingly clicky” to tap. Some of the pictures make it seem like there’s also a rear trigger, which would give you a second button to map, but OnePlus didn’t provide any further details on how the mechanism worked when I asked.

According to the product page, these triggers are interchangeable and can be fastened to your phone in whatever way is most comfortable to you. To use them, though, your game of choice needs to allow for deep customization of its touch controls, to the level of allowing you to move touch-activated zones to where these triggers’ conductive silicon pads clip onto your phone.

If you’re serious about mobile gaming, these triggers could level the playing field if you’re up against gamers who are playing on phones like the Asus ROG Phone 5 or others that feature ultrasonic sensors laid along their edge to mimic physical shoulder buttons. The Black Shark 4 lineup features actual mechanical shoulder buttons built into the phone.

OnePlus’ option seems to be a solid, budget-friendly option for making your phone easier to game on, though there’s a downside if you value your phone’s expansive screen real estate: these clamps obscure parts of the screen. But if they’re as easy to clip on and remove as OnePlus’ photos indicate, I can live with that.

OnePlus says it will add always-on display option to the OnePlus Watch

OnePlus has announced that it plans to bring new features, like an always-on display mode, a 12-hour watchface, and more to its new smartwatch with future software updates. The news came with the announcement of the Watch’s first software update after its release, which OnePlus says it’s starting to roll out. This release aims to fix the issues we experienced with heart rate and activity tracking, among other bugs.

The lack of an always-on display was one of the ways we found the Watch to be lacking when we reviewed it, so it’s a standout feature among the planned updates. While that feature alone won’t make the device a great smartwatch, it will at least make it more useful as a timepiece. However, it will be interesting to see how always having the screen on affects the Watch’s almost two-week-long battery life.

Some of the other planned improvements include giving the user the ability to control their Android phone’s camera, new languages, and enabling of all the workout modes (OnePlus says it will have 110-plus, it currently has just over a dozen) and the AI watch face. OnePlus doesn’t provide a time frame as to when these updates will come out. But when they do, they’re sure to be a tad more exciting than the current update, which appears to mostly fix some of the larger bugs rather than add new features.

Roku’s Quibi content has a new, original name

Roku is officially getting into original content. The set-top box maker announced Roku Originals, a new brand, in a press release today. Roku says it will debut over 75 original series and films this year on its free, ad-supported network, The Roku Channel. Quite a few of these original new shows will come from the Quibi library of content Roku got in a fire sale in January 2021.

Earlier this year, Protocol spied a job listing that suggested Roku would be investing in original content beyond the Quibi stuff it now owns. Free, ad-supported content is still a relatively new but growing area in streaming. Peacock, Paramount Plus, and even Plex have all had some success wooing viewers with totally free stuff they can watch on their set-top boxes and smart TVs. It makes sense that Roku, a company that makes the bulk of its money from ads already, would follow suit.

The very original new brand for original content.

Image: Roku

There’s no word on which content will be released first or when it will even begin airing, but it’s likely you’ll see the old Quibi content before any of Roku’s other original programming. That content is full of big names like Anna Kendrick, Idris Elba, and Liam Hemsworth.

What will be interesting is how the Quibi content airs. Quibi’s gimmick (which was absolutely bizarre but also totally ahead of its time) was that content would change depending on how you held your phone, with separate and sometimes totally different streams provided for portrait and landscape mode. For example, in the short film Nest, holding the phone in landscape mode shows you the point of view of the main character, while holding it in portrait mode shows you the point of view of the Nest security cameras in the home the character is in.

Presumably, Roku will just be providing one stream: the landscape one. In some cases, that might actually affect how the story is presented or could even remove crucial context from a scene meant to be viewed in portrait mode on your phone.

All of the new Roku Originals will air on The Roku Channel, alongside old episodes of This Old House and over 40,000 free movies and TV shows Roku has paid to license. Besides being playable on Roku devices, you’ll be able to tune into via your browser, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, and some Samsung smart TVs.

Here are all the AirTag accessories we know about

The Apple AirTags have finally been announced, and with them come a ton of accessories to make them easier to use (so much easier than if it had, say, a built-in way to attach it to things). While a small tracking puck could be carried in a bag, there are a variety of other things that you may want to put an AirTag on that require some sort of holder or the judicious use of tape.

These are all the accessories we could find that are either listed for preorder on the maker’s site or have a page on Apple’s store. We don’t have official ship dates for most of them, but it’s probably a safe bet that the ones on the Apple Store will become available when the AirTags do, on April 30th.

Belkin’s AirTag holder. Tie it to anything!

Image: Apple

Belkin

Belkin currently has two offerings, a key ring and a strap, which both sell for $12.95. Both products have a circular holder for the AirTag and come in white, black, blue, and pink. They’re currently listed as unavailable in Apple’s online store and as “coming soon” on Belkin’s site.

I genuinely love this.

Image: Nomad

Nomad

Nomad also offers its take on a keychain, but (characteristically) its version is a leather pouch that encases the AirTag. The company also has a glasses strap, which acts both as a strap to keep your glasses handy and as an AirTag holder in case you manage to misplace them. Both are listed for $39.95 but are marked down to $29.95 if you preorder, which you are able to do now on Nomad’s site.

Spigen’s rugged AirTag case. Maybe you could attach it to your rock climbing gear?

Image: Spigen

Cyrill / Spigen

Cyrill is offering a vegan leather keychain accessory in two colors, black and “stone” (which is a light gray). It costs $19.99 and seems to be available now. Spigen, Cyrill’s parent company, is also offering its own AirTag cases: a keychain accessory and a ruggedized case with a hefty clip connector (and what appears to be a bottle opener, though it’s not listed as a feature). Both are $24.99 — the keychain is available to order today, and the rugged case is available for preorder.

This is the bag charm. I dare you to put it on a Gucci or Louis purse.

Image: Apple

Hermès

Apple has a history with Hermès; the French luxury company made some jaw-droppingly expensive Apple Watch bands. True to form, the Apple Store lists a leather key ring, luggage tag, and bag charm made by Hermès — costing $349, $449, and $299 respectively. It is worth noting, though, that the accessories do include an AirTag with a custom “Hermès” engraving, so you can flex while you find. The key ring and bag charm come in orange, brown, and what looks like black but is listed as “bleu indigo.” The luggage tag is currently only shown in brown. Like Belkin’s offerings, they are currently unavailable through the Apple Store.

Is this One Infinite Loop? Nope, just Apple’s AirTag loop.

Image: Apple

Apple

Of course, Apple offers its own first-party accessories. Currently, Apple has a leather key ring, leather loop, and polyurethane (think Apple Watch sport band) loop listed on its store, coming in at $35, $39, and $29 respectively. All three are available in various colors and are currently listed as unavailable.

The hard-shell version is meant for drones, bike seats, luggage, and the like.

Image: Moment

Moment

Moment, known for making add-on lenses for your phone, is now making some interesting AirTag accessories: they’re little patches, in a variety of materials, that let you discreetly stick an AirTag places, whether that’s on the inside of a backpack, jacket, bike seat, etc. The mounts are available for pre-order today, with the fabric and curved-surface mounts costing $14.99 and the hard-shell mount costing $19.99.

Everybody else

Of course, with how long AirTags have been rumored, there were some manufacturers that wanted to get a head start with their accessories. Last night, we saw various key rings show up on Walmart, Etsy, and eBay.

Update April 20th, 7:10PM ET: Added Moment’s mounts.

Apple’s new iPad Pros and TV remote don’t have U1 locators to help find them in your couch

Apple has been quietly sticking special locator beacon chips into some of its new iPhones that’ll let you unlock your car and find lost items through walls — the latter thanks to the $29 AirTags announced today — but sadly, you won’t find that chip in the new M1-based iPad Pros or the long-awaited new Siri remote for the Apple TV.

Apple confirmed to us that the U1 locator chip, which uses pulses of ultra-wideband (UWB) radio to broadcast its precise location, won’t appear in the Siri remote. We’re waiting on final bulletproof confirmation about the iPad Pros, but it also doesn’t appear in their product page, spec sheet, or press release. Last year’s iPad Pros didn’t include a U1 chip, either.

Is Apple expecting us to stick AirTags to our iPads and TV remotes to escape the jaws of the ever-ravenous couch? Unlikely, but the company has been pretty choosey about which devices get the chip so far. You can find it in the iPhone 11 and newer (but not the iPhone SE) and the Apple Watch Series 6 (but not the Apple Watch SE), but we’re pretty sure it hasn’t made its way to any iPads or MacBooks that have been announced since the chip’s introduction in September 2019.

Theoretically, Apple could build an ecosystem where any Apple device can easily find any other Apple device (not to mention UWB devices from Samsung, which is also deeply invested in the tech and has its own AirTag-like device as well). But for now, you’ll primarily just be using your phone to find AirTags, not other gadgets, except perhaps your future car.

Apple quietly reveals that iOS 14.5 will arrive next week

In a press release for Apple’s new Tile-like AirTag tracker, the company has revealed that iOS 14.5 will officially arrive “starting next week” — as spotted by Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern. AirTags go on sale April 30th and will only work with devices running iOS 14.5 or higher. Likewise, watchOS 7.4 and macOS 11.3 will also launch next week, as they support new Apple Podcast feature updates.

Apple first launched the 14.5 beta to the public earlier this year in February alongside watchOS 7.4 beta (no word on whether that’s arriving soon, too). Along with AirTag support, it will implement Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency requirement, which mandates that developers ask for permission to track users for ad targeting. The feature was announced last year and met with sharp resistance from Facebook in particular, which argues that the move will harm small businesses that benefit from ad tracking.

iOS 14.5 also introduces some welcome inclusivity features, like the ability to change Siri’s voice and new skin tone options for some emoji. Another feature we’ve appreciated in our testing thus far is Siri’s ability to learn which audio-listening apps you prefer for certain activities. This stops short of letting you select a new default app, like picking Spotify for all of your streaming music requests, but it’s a helpful evolution in any case.

Of course, this feature may or may not make it to the final release, but we do know now when we can expect to find out which features made the final cut. Apple doesn’t say specifically which day we can expect 14.5, but when it does, iPhone users will be able to download the update in their phone’s settings as always.

Apple unveils a redesigned remote for its new Apple TV 4K

The Apple TV remote is one of the weakest parts of the company’s set-top box, and Apple is, at last, addressing it today. The company just unveiled a redesigned Siri remote alongside its new Apple TV 4K. You’ll get the new remote with the new $179 4K set-top box, or it’s available separately for $59. As well as being compatible with the new Apple TV 4K, it also works with the 2017 model and Apple TV HD. Apple will also sell the remote bundled with the Apple TV HD for $149.

The new Siri remote has an iPod-style scroll wheel, a five-way click pad, touch controls, a mute button, and a power button that can turn your TV on and off. Meanwhile, the Siri button is now on the side of the remote, and Apple says that the voice assistant now works on Apple TV in Austria, Ireland, and New Zealand, in addition to the 13 countries where it was already supported. Finally, the new Siri remote’s enclosure is made out of 100 percent recycled aluminum.

The new remote alongside the new Apple TV 4K.

Image: Apple

The new remote was unveiled alongside Apple’s updated Apple TV 4K box, which has a more powerful processor that can support high-frame rate HDR content.

Although the build quality and looks of the existing set-top box’s remote have never been lacking, people have had no shortage of complaints about its functionality. For one, its size can be too small to be used comfortably, and it’s also super easy to lose. Design-wise, it’s annoyingly symmetrical, so half the time, you’re likely to pick it up the wrong way if you’re not careful. Many of these issues look like they’ve been addressed with the new remote.

Yes, you’ve always been able to replace the Apple TV’s remote with a universal remote or use an app on your phone to control the set-top box. But for those who just want a better first-party remote, here is that solution.

The new remote will be available alongside the new Apple TV 4K, which can be preordered starting April 30th.

Microsoft reportedly working on new Windows store that’s open to all apps and games

Microsoft is reportedly working on a big overhaul to its app store for Windows. Windows Central reports that the software maker plans to release an updated store later this year that will be far more open to all types of apps and games. This could pave the way for developers to be able to submit any Windows application to the store, including browsers like Chrome or Firefox, and even allow third-party commerce platforms in apps.

That’s a big shift for the app store on Windows if Microsoft delivers this rumored overhaul later this year. Currently, the Windows store (or Microsoft Store as Microsoft calls it) requires developers to package their win32 apps as an MSIX and use Microsoft’s own update mechanisms and commerce platforms. Microsoft will reportedly allow developers to submit standard EXE or MSI packages to the store, and updates can be managed through a developer’s own content delivery network (CDN).

Such a change would open the Windows store to many more apps, including popular ones like Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite of productivity apps, and even rival browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Microsoft launched its own Windows Package Manager last year, and it quickly became a great option for the hundreds of apps that are missing from the store right now. Apps like Steam, WinRAR, and Zoom don’t exist on the Windows store right now, but they’re available through the Windows Package Manager.

The current Windows store lacks many popular apps.

It sounds like whatever overhaul Microsoft is working on here will likely incorporate the company’s work with the Windows Package Manager to verify apps and list them in the store. Microsoft currently uses a number of methods to validate app packages for its Windows Package Manager, including scanning with its SmartScreen technology, static analysis, and SHA256 hash validation.

Microsoft’s rumored consideration of allowing third-party commerce platforms would also mean the company wouldn’t take a cut from developers who use their own in-app purchase systems. That’s another big change that would be both a surprising and open change to current app stores.

The Windows store originally appeared in Windows 8 as part of Microsoft’s big push to get developers to create universal Windows apps that would span across phones, tablets, PCs, and even Xbox consoles. This fell apart with the end of Windows Phone, and Microsoft eventually allowed developers to bring full native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store nearly two years ago. Developers have been asking for these rumored Windows store changes for years to make it far easier to get apps into the store and maintain and update them.

Microsoft is said to be planning to bring many of its own apps to this new Windows app store, including Teams, Office, Edge, and Visual Studio. The new store is rumored to be part of Microsoft’s big “Sun Valley” overhaul to Windows later this year. Microsoft has previously described this as a “sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows,” which should see an overhaul for the Start menu, File Explorer, built-in apps, and much more.

Alexa can now tell you where to find a COVID-19 vaccine

Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices can now help direct customers to COVID-19 vaccination sites, the company announced today. Users can ask, “Alexa, where can I get a COVID vaccine?” and hear a list of nearby places to get a shot.

After hearing the list, users can also ask Alexa to call a vaccination site, which the company said in a blog post can help them get information about appointment availability. Making COVID-19 vaccine appointments by phone is often easier for older adults or other people who struggle to use online scheduling platforms.

Amazon introduced an Alexa feature that could direct people to COVID-19 testing sites in February.

Every adult in the US is now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine after every state met President Joe Biden’s deadline to open up access by April 19th. The Biden administration said that 90 percent of people in the US should have a vaccination site within five miles of their home.

Amazon hosted pop-up vaccine clinics in Seattle and is also working with health officials to vaccinate its front-line employees in a number of states.

Over half of US adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.