It’s been two years since Sony launched 360 Reality Audio, a format that uses Sony’s object-based spatial audio technology to deliver 360-degree sound. In that time, 360 Realit Audio has become available on Deezer, Tidal, Amazon Music HD and nugs.net, with subscribers to those services able to listen to them in all their immersive glory.
Compatible products include Sony’s dedicated SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 wireless speakers, Amazon’s Echo Studio smart speaker and certain Sony headphones (such as the WH-1000XM4) via the firm’s dedicated Headphone Connect app.
Now, however, it seems as though Sony has plans to widen compatibility for the format to more Android devices. In the Android Open Source Project, code reviews and comments from both Sony and Google have directly mentioned Sony 360 Reality Audio, as spotted by XDA Developers. The report highlights a comment by Sony software engineer Kei Murayama: “This is one of the patches mentioned in the meeting ‘Android OS 360RA support’ between Google and Sony.”
That suggests a collaboration is in the works to bring Sony’s custom decoder for the format (which is built on the open MPEG-H 3D Audio standard) to the wider Android world, presumably allowing app providers to easily offer 3D audio playback.
While 360 Reality Audio can support up to 64 channels of audio, the code mentions support for a 13-channel audio layout “which uses surround 5 channels, top 5 channels and bottom 3 channels”. It also states that a “Virtualizer can place individual sounds in a 360 spherical sound field from these channels on any headphones” – so it looks like the technology may be able to work in a psuedo capacity with any set of headphones or, indeed, speakers.
With that Sony and Google joint venture in mind, plus the fact Sony recently announced video streaming capabilities for 360 Reality Audio and 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite content creation software, we could well be seeing – and hearing – more of Sony’s immersive audio efforts in the near future. Look out, Dolby Atmos Music.
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The PS5 is getting its first major software update today. According to PlayStation.blog, the PS5 April Update “lets you store PS5 games on USB extended storage, share gameplay across PS5 and PS4 consoles, and more.” Here’s the scoop…
Fed up with freeing up space for new games? Today’s update allows PS5 titles downloaded to the internal SSD to be moved to a compatible USB drive and vice-versa. Handy. It’s worth noting, though, that this is purely a storage measure – games can’t be played directly off your external drive.
The other big news is that Share Play is now “cross-generational”, meaning that PS5 users can share their game screen with PS4 gamers while in a voice party. Better still, Share Play lets other players try out PS5 games by ‘passing them a virtual controller’. That way your friend can take control of your game and, say, show off their swinging skills in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
(Image credit: Sony)
Sony has also streamlined the PlayStation user experience with a new “Request to Join” option in the PS5 and PS4 social menus. That should make it easier to join games without digging through the in-game menu. A similar shortcut allows you to disable in-game chat from the main PS5 menu. You can choose to cut out a loudmouth entirely, or just dial down their mic a couple of notches.
Last but not least, the PlayStation App, which connects to your console remotely, has been overhauled. You can now join a multiplayer session on PS5 from your phone or tablet, compare your trophy collection with a friend’s, and keep an eye on your storage space.
It’s not all great news, though. There’s no mention of the promised fix for the HDMI 2.1 bug that seems to prevent PS5 users gaming in 4K HDR at 120Hz on Samsung TVs. Nor is there any sign of support for M.2 storage drives – Sony says “we’re working on this feature and will keep you posted with any updates”.
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Sony’s new PS5 software update is live right now, and includes some surprise improvements to HDR and 120Hz support. While Sony already detailed a big new feature to let players store — but not play — PS5 games on an external hard drive, there’s also a new option to automatically switch video output to non-HDR when you’re using a game or app that doesn’t support HDR.
This is a key improvement for those using HDR on the PS5, as it now means you no longer have to dig into the settings menu to manually disable HDR when you’re viewing SDR content.
Alongside these HDR changes, this update also adds two new HDMI controls in the system part of the PS5 settings menu. You can now toggle one-touch play, which will automatically turn on a connected TV when you power up a PS5 and switch it to the correct input. You can also toggle power off link, which allows the PS5 to enter rest mode if you turn off the TV connected to your console.
Sony is also supporting 120Hz with more PC monitors with this update. If you have a 1080p PC monitor that supports 120Hz, it should now work at this refresh rate with the PS5. Unfortunately, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support is still missing on the PS5, though.
This latest software update also includes better options for quickly disabling in-game chat, an option to search for purchased games, and the ability to hide games in a library.
Sony is announcing two new phones today, the Xperia 1 III and the Xperia 5 III. Both are the latest in Sony’s campaign to redefine the Xperia brand as a kind of sibling to its well-regarded Alpha digital cameras. As such, the camera system is once again the main focus, and Sony specifically is touting the “world’s first smartphone with a variable telephoto lens paired with a Dual PD sensor” and improvements to its already fast and accurate autofocus system.
Pricing was not announced, but they should both be available in the US “this summer.”
Each phone has the basic specs you’d expect on a top-flight Android phone: three cameras on the rear, a Snapdragon 888 processor, and support for 5G. Actually, the 5G support is worth noting because these Xperia phones will be able to work on 5G networks in the US, something weirdly lacking on the last models. However, they’ll only work on the regular sub-6 networks on Verizon and T-Mobile, without support for AT&T’s 5G network. As is fairly usual for Sony, these will be sold directly rather than via carriers.
The phone also keep the Xperia design language Sony landed on with the original Xperia 1. They’re tall and narrow, with lots of glossy black and small curves on all the angles, giving them the most monolithic look of a smartphone today. I think they look great, but I’m also aware that they’re likely to cost a lot of money when Sony gets around to announcing the price.
In order to establish the Xperia brand, Sony has also been pushing a lot of other nice specs that are relatively hard to come by on other Android phones. The Xperia 1 III has a 4K OLED screen that now supports a fast (though locked) 120Hz refresh rate. There are dual speakers that are 40 percent louder and will work with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format.
Sony is also enabling a special mode for the USB-C port that allows you to use a special cable to take an HD-resolution video signal from an SLR camera so you can use it as a monitor – much like the Xperia Pro can do with HDMI. That could also make them an interesting option for live streaming.
They’ll come in both dual-SIM and SIM+microSD variants. And there’s even a good ol’ headphone jack and a shutter button.
The Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
Sony Xperia 1 III
There’s also the more standard fare, like wireless charging and a 4,500mAh battery. When plugged in and gaming the phones can redirect power away from the battery to reduce heat. Both phones will ship with Android 11, but as of right now there’s no clear commitment to future software updates.
If you step down from the Xperia 1 III to the Xperia 5 III, you’ll get a very similar set of specs with a few exceptions. It’ll be smaller, of course. The larger phone has a 6.5-inch 21:9 display while the 5 has a 6.1-inch 21:9 display — at 1080p resolution instead of 4K. But it still has support for the periscope-style variable lens.
But again, the big push is on the cameras and here Sony has done quite a bit to improve the hardware. Sony is using three 12-megapixel sensors on the back, and both the main and telephoto lenses support OIS. (The Xperia 1 III also gets a time-of-flight sensor.)
Sony says it has lenses that are the equivalent to 16mm (f/2.2 ultrawide), 24mm (f/1.7 wide), and 70mm (f/2.3 telephoto), but that the telephoto can also reach to an f/2.8 105mm equivalent. That extra telephoto zoom comes thanks to a folded periscope lens design, and the Xperia is physically moving the lens elements to get different focal lengths.
The idea is that photographers will mostly stick to those focal lengths, but should they want to zoom further or use a zoom level in between the Xperia phones will utilize digital zoom.
Sony Xperia 5 III
Sony Xperia 5 III
Sony Xperia 5 III
Sony Xperia 5 III
Sony Xperia 5 III
Sony Xperia 5 III
Beyond the fancy hardware, Sony has iterated on its software. Unlike Google, Apple, and even Samsung, Sony is putting its emphasis on technical features rather than computational photography. It is claiming some improved low-light performance in some situations, but really the main emphasis is on features like autofocus and shooting speed.
These phones can take photos at up to 20fps with focus/exposure readings happening at 60fps. They also support 120FPS 4K in HDR. There’s still eye-tracking autofocus, but this year there’s real-time tracking for that autofocus. In a demo, Sony showed a subject turning around and when their eye was visible again, the camera adjusted.
Sony is finally integrating its pro camera app with the main camera app. There’s the “basic” mode like any smartphone, but it’s now quicker to get to the pro mode. Sony’s pro mode really is angled towards people who use Sony’s cameras, too: the interface is very similar.
On paper, all of this sounds really great. We’ll need to review them to see if these specs can translate to great experiences. Previous Sony Xperia phones have also had great camera hardware specs, but for taking quick shots they have often missed the mark. Treating a smartphone camera as a pro SLR-style camera could limit their appeal.
Sony’s tack with the Xperia line is to pack them to the gills with specs and features that will appeal to photographers and even videographers (there’s an excellent workflow-based video app included). In reality, however, Sony has struggled mightily to gain any measurable marketshare in the US. A lot of that has come down to higher prices than is the norm for even flagship Android phones, but some of it also comes down to availability. Without carrier partnerships or massive marketing budgets, these Xperia phones are more likely to appeal to camera enthusiasts than mainstream Android buyers.
Oculus is announcing that wireless PC streaming, a 120Hz refresh rate, and improvements to Infinite Office will be coming to the Oculus Quest 2 with the v28 software update, which the company says will be rolling out soon.
Infinite Office is a feature that Oculus includes as part of Oculus Home, which lets users work in a virtual environment. With the v28 update, Infinite Office will have an experimental feature that allows users to add a virtual desk where their real-life desk is, letting users know where they can sit and put real-life physical objects down without having to leave VR. The Quest 2 will also be able to show a virtual representation of the Logitech K830 keyboard, though Facebook says that support for visualizing more keyboard models will be coming in the future.
Another feature coming with the update is the ability to stream games or applications from your desktop PC wirelessly. Oculus calls its wireless streaming feature Air Link, named after the Link cable that can be used to connect the headset to a PC. The feature will only work well with some network setups — the instructions to turn it on are pretty clear that you’ll need good Wi-Fi to get an acceptable experience, and that the Link cable will still provide the best visual quality.
Facebook says that it hasn’t ruled out the possibility of bringing Air Link to the original Quest at some point in the future, but it does say that it’s “focused on optimizing Air Link to be the best possible experience for Quest 2 first.”
We do know that the original Quest hardware is capable of wireless PC streaming, because indie developer Guy Godin has built it into his app, Virtual Desktop. The app gives users a virtual space to use their computers in, and it also supports streaming games over Wi-Fi. This is, however, where we have to talk about the controversy.
If you thought the description of Virtual Desktop sounded a little like Facebook’s Infinite Office, you’re not alone — Godin has been talking about how Facebook has been essentially building his app idea into its own Oculus experience then offering it for free for a while now. His case may have been helped by the fact that Facebook blocked the update that allowed Virtual Desktop to be used wirelessly until early this year, requiring users to go through a complicated sideload procedure to get the functionality working.
UploadVR talked to Godin about Facebook introducing Air Link, and got this comment from him:
“In 2017, Facebook copied the base functionality of Virtual Desktop on Rift and incorporated it in their platform, essentially making my app obsolete. I’m not surprised to see them do this again on Quest. They copied the fitness tracking app YUR last year and released Oculus Move; essentially killing the company. They also released App Lab as they saw how popular SideQuest was. That’s what they do. If you have a popular app on Quest today, expect Facebook to copy you and leave you in the dust. As for the fate of Virtual Desktop on Quest, we will have to see how Facebook’s solution competes. Judging by the number of issues plaguing Oculus Link today, I’m confident Virtual Desktop will remain a valuable solution for a while. I’ve also got a lot of cool features in the works that I can’t wait to share with the community.”
Despite the warnings about Facebook copying ideas, he still seems confident in his ability to compete. It’s an open question as to how well Air Link will work initially, and how fast improvements will come.
The update also includes an experimental mode for 120Hz refresh rates, up from the current 90Hz, and the original 72Hz. It’s a slight delay from Oculus’ original estimated March launch. Oculus’ post hints that you many not immediately get to try it out — the Quest 2’s software will still run at 90Hz, so you won’t get to see what it looks like until developers release builds of their games and software that can run at the higher refresh rate. The wait may not be that long, though: Guy Godin has already tweeted that he’s got a 120Hz update for Virtual Desktop ready to go when v28 becomes available.
Yep, the 120hz update is ready to roll out whenever the Quest 2 update lands
In its review of PowerColor’s Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate, French publication Overclocking.com discovered that the graphics card is based on a new variant of the Navi 21 (Big Navi) silicon. The review brought to light the possibility that other vendors may also be preparing faster custom Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards.
There are currently three variations of the Navi 21 die on the market. The XL version is used in the Radeon RX 6800, the XT in the Radeon RX 6800 XT and lastly, the XTX in the Radeon RX 6900 XT. As exposed in the review, the Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate leverages the Navi 21 XTXH die, which is why even the latest version of GPU-Z doesn’t recognize the die. Through the help of PowerColor, Overclocking.com got its hands on the latest version of AMDVbFlash, a utility to flash firmware on Radeon graphics cards. The tool effectively confirms the existence of the Navi 21 XTXH silicon on the RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate.
The Radeon RX 6900 XT already utilizes the full Navi 21 die, which brings 5,120 shading units and 80 ray tracing acceleration cores. Therefore, the XTXH variant in all likelihood is just a higher-binned die with improved clock speeds and a more generous power limit. Since AMD provides the dies to its partners, it’s reasonable to think that the XTXH is AMD’s idea rather than the partners doing their own binning.
Coming back to the Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate, the RDNA 2 graphics card comes with two modes of operation. The silent profile limits the game and boost clocks to 2,135 MHz and 2,335 MHz, respectively, while the OC profile cranks them up to 2,235 MHz and 2,425 MHz, respectively. Basically, we’re looking at a 10.9% and 7.8% higher game and boost clock speeds, respectively, in comparison to the vanilla Radeon RX 6900 XT. Does the increase warrant a new die revision? Apparently AMD (or at least PowerColor) thinks so.
Overclocking.com noticed that with the Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate the core and memory frequency sliders were unlocked in AMD’s Radeon software. It’s uncertain if the newly lifted limits are a product of the Navi 21 XTXH’s firmware. The power limit option is still locked though. But the Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate has a 330W power restriction, so there is enough thermal headroom for overclocking. Overclocking.com got its sample to 2,750 MHz on air and up to 2,850 MHz under liquid nitrogen.
The Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate is probably just one of many custom Radeon RX 6900 XT iterations that will leverage the Navi 21 XTXH silicon. Given the timing of the review, we wouldn’t be surprised if vendors announce these higher-binned Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards in the next couple of days. But with the current situation for graphics cards, we fear the announcements might as well be vaporware.
Nvidia this week introduced a host of professional graphics solutions for desktops and laptops, which carry the Nvidia RTX A-series monikers and do not use the Quadro branding. The majority of the new units are based on the Ampere architecture and therefore bring the latest features along with drivers certified by developers of professional software.
Nvidia started to roll-out its Ampere architecture to the professional market last October when it announced the Nvidia RTX A6000 graphics card based on the GA102 GPU with 10,752 CUDA cores and 48GB of memory. The graphics board costs $4,650 and is naturally aimed at high-end workstations that cost well over $10,000. To address market segments with different needs, Nvidia this week introduced its RTX A5000 and RTX A4000 professional graphics cards.
(Image credit: Nvidia)
The Nvidia RTX A5000 sits below the RTX A6000 but has the exact same feature set, including support for 2-way multi-GPU configurations using NVLink as well as GPU virtualization, so it can be installed into a server and used remotely by several clients (or used in regular desktop machines). The RTX A5000 is based the GA102 GPU and is equipped with 24GB of GDDR6 memory with ECC. The RTX A5000 peaks at 27.8 FP32 TFLOPS, which is nearly 30% below RTX A6000’s 38.7 FP32 TFLOPS, so it likely has far fewer CUDA cores. The board has four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and comes with a dual-slot blower-type cooler.
Next up is the Nvidia RTX A4000, which is based on the GA104 and carries 16GB of GDDR6 memory with ECC. The product tops at 19.2 FP32 TFLOPS and is designed solely for good-old ‘individual’ workstations. Meanwhile, to keep up with the latest trends towards miniaturization, the RTX A4000 uses a single-slot blower-type cooling system.
Nvidia plans to start shipments of the new RTX A-series professional graphics cards later this month, so expect them in new workstations in May or June.
Mobile Workstations Get Amperes and Some Turings
In addition to new graphics cards for desktop workstation, Nvidia also rolled-out a lineup of mobile Nvidia RTX A-series GPUs that includes four solutions: the RTX A5000 and the RTX A4000 based on the GA104 silicon (just like the RTX 3070/RTX 3080 for laptops), as well as the RTX A2000 based on the GA106 chip (like the RTX 3060 for laptops).
(Image credit: Nvidia)
The higher-end mobile Nvidia RTX A5000 has 6,144 CUDA cores and 16GB GDDR6, and the RTX A4000 has 5,120 CUDA cores and 8 GB GDDR6. These are essentially the mobile GeForce RTX 3080/3070, but with drivers certified by ISVs for professional applications. Performance of these GPUs tops at 21.7 FP32 and 17.8 FP 32 TFLOPS.
By contrast, the RTX A3000 with 4,096 CUDA cores and 6GB of memory seems to be a rather unique solution as it has more execution units than the GeForce RTX 3060, yet it features a similar 192-bit memory interface. As for performance, it will be up to 12.8 FP32 TFLOPS. Meanwhile, the entry-level RTX A2000 with 2,560 CUDA cores and 4GB of GDDR6 memory will offer up to 9.3 FP32 TFLOPS.
(Image credit: Nvidia)
All of these GPUs are rated for a wide TGP range (e.g., the RTX A5000 can be limited to 80W or to 165W) and support Max-Q, Dynamic Boost, and WhisperMode technologies, so expect actual performance of Nvidia’s RTX A-series GPUs to vary from design to design, just like it happens with their GeForce RTX counterparts.
Nvidia expects its partners among manufacturers of mobile workstations to adopt its new RTX A-series solutions this quarter.
Some New Turings Too
In addition to new Ampere-based professional graphics solutions for desktops and laptops, Nvidia also introduced its T1200 and T600 laptop GPUs that also come with drivers certified by developers of professional applications. These products use unknown Turing silicon and are mostly designed to replace integrated graphics, so they do not feature very high performance and lack RT as well as Tensor cores.
A potential new Raspberry Pi competitor will soon be announced, according to a post on embedded systems blog CNX-Software. Based on the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture, the Allwinner D1 development board is a credit-card-sized single board computer with a single core XuanTie C906 64-bit RISC-V CPU running at 1GHz along with 1GB of DDR3 RAM.
(Image credit: CNX-software)
The board has a lot in common with the single-board computers we already know and love, though seems to be aimed at the less powerful end of the spectrum. The Raspberry Pi 4 has this board beat for pure computational power. There’s the familiar 40-pin GPIO which we assume is compatible with layout used on the Raspberry Pi but that remains to be seen. Also present on the board is a single full size HDMI 1.4 port, Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth, two USB Type-C ports and a single USB 2.0 Type-A, a Micro SD slot, Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5mm audio jack, plus camera and display connectors which look to be the same format as the CSI and DSI connectors found on the Raspberry Pi. Interestingly, there’s 256MB of onboard flash storage, and a four-pin UART header for debugging.
Allwinner is positioning the board as a ‘multi-media decoding platform’, and CNX’s figures show it’s good for H.265 up to 1080p60 or 4Kp30, and H.264 up to 1080p60 or 4Kp24. The display header can run a touchscreen at up to 1080p60, and the HDMI port hits the 1.4 standard.
The Allwinner D1 Linux RISC-V has the same dimensions as a Raspberry Pi 4 at 3.3 x 2.2 inches (85 x 56 mm) but the overall layout is different enough to prevent Raspberry Pi cases from being used. Beyond its video engine, the Allwinner D1 Linux RISC-V development board doesn’t have much in the way of graphics processing. A quoted Coremark score of 3.8/Mhz doesn’t compare well with the Raspberry Pi 4’s 15.1/MHz, but we’d expect this board to be considerably cheaper, and it could be interesting for use in smart displays or networked cameras. Allwinner has its own Debian-based Linux distribution, Tina OS, though its Github page was last updated in 2017, so we’re hopeful for a newer kernel to go with this new board.
Right now that is all we know, but we are hopeful that this board will introduce the RISC-V platform to more makers and lead to more powerful machines coming in the near future.
Tech workers at The New York Times have formed a union under the NewsGuild of New York, and they are demanding voluntary recognition from the paper’s management. The new union, called the Tech Times Guild, represents more than 650 workers from the digital side of the company, including software engineers, designers, and data analysts.
Those employees are not included in the editorial union of The New York Times, which represents more than 3,000 reporters and media professionals at the newspaper and is also organized under NewsGuild. The editorial union has historically excluded employees on the digital side of the paper, even as the company has expanded into more ambitious data and digital work. As a result, the Tech Times Guild is seeking a separate bargaining unit, which would negotiate separately with the Times management.
“As of now, we face a number of challenges,” the Tech Times Guild said in a statement on Twitter, “including sudden or unexplained termination, opaque promotion processes, unpaid overtime, and underinvestment in diverse representation. Without a union, we lack the data or bargaining rights to address these issues.”
The Times has not formally responded to the union’s request for recognition. Reached for comment, a Times representative said the company was still considering the request. “Voluntary recognition is a significant decision,” The New York Times Company said in a statement. “We have heard questions from colleagues such as what a union would mean for staff, who might be included in the union, and how colleagues would have a say in who might represent them. We want to make sure all voices are heard.”
The new effort sits between the media industry, which has seen widespread labor organizing in recent years, and the tech world, where many organizing efforts have stalled. In March, an effort to unionize at Medium fell just one vote short, a defeat shortly followed by a painful restructuring at the company. A minority union formed at Google has avoided a vote but has seen growing friction between membership and union staff.
The first flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter was delayed again after running into a glitch in the rotorcraft’s flight control software during tests last week. The mini helicopter remains grounded on the surface of Mars’ Jezero Crater while it waits for engineers to tweak, test, and reinstall the software. NASA said it will come up with a new date next week for the inaugural flight test.
Ingenuity, the four-pound helicopter that arrived on Mars on February 18th with its parent rover, Perseverance, is nine days into a monthlong test window that began when its four little legs touched the Martian surface for the first time on April 4th. The helicopter has been going through a series of tests and checkouts before flying, which includes surviving its first frigid night on Mars, unlocking its twin carbon fiber blades, and doing a few stationary rotor spin tests.
The first slow-speed rotor spin at 50 rpm went well early last week, while NASA was working toward a debut flight on Sunday night. But engineers ran into a problem on Friday night when they went for the high-speed rotor test: Ingenuity’s “watchdog” software detected a bug and prevented the craft from performing the test. Ingenuity was healthy, it just couldn’t do the high-speed rotor spin.
Over the weekend, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory decided “that minor modification and reinstallation of Ingenuity’s flight control software is the most robust path forward,” NASA said in a Monday night blog post. Altering the software means independent engineers will have to review and test the changes before installing it back onto Ingenuity’s computer, a process that could take all week to complete.
Ingenuity is waiting on Mars for a software upgrade before it can fly.Photo: NASA / JPL
NASA said “our best estimate of a targeted flight date is fluid right now, but we are working toward achieving these milestones and will set a flight date next week.” Engineers will come up with a new date for the high-speed test and its first flight after they send the new software through Perseverance’s communications hub and boot it to Ingenuity.
In the meantime, NASA said Perseverance will continue doing science and prepare for a test of MOXIE, an onboard instrument that will try to produce oxygen from Mars’ carbon dioxide atmosphere. The rover’s primary mission is to search for signs of ancient life and leave pods of soil samples on the surface for a future mission to retrieve and send back to Earth.
For Ingenuity’s flight test, Perseverance will watch from a football field’s distance away using two onboard cameras. The rover also serves as a communications hub; its onboard Mars Base Station will relay signals from Ingenuity to satellites orbiting Mars, which will beam those signals back to Earth.
Ingenuity is expected to carry out at least five flight tests within its 31-day test window (or 30 Mars days). For its debut flight test, the craft will ascend 10 feet above the surface and hover in place, pivot, then descend for a landing, lasting about 40 seconds altogether. Subsequent tests are expected to fly higher and travel short distances, but the exact flight details will be determined by how well the craft nails its first flight.
Ingenuity will need to exert immense power to achieve lift in Mars’ thin atmosphere. If it can do so, it’ll mark the first powered flight on another world, a historic achievement NASA is calling a “Wright brother’s moment” that could expand interplanetary mobility to where traditional wheeled rovers can’t travel.
Ingenuity’s carbon fiber rotor blades will spin roughly 2,400 rpm during flight. For the high-speed spin test beforehand, the blades will spin at 2,537 rpm (while tilted in a certain position so it doesn’t accidentally lift off). As engineers tweak the craft’s software, the clock is ticking. NASA officials have said Ingenuity’s monthlong flight test window can’t be extended if the helicopter runs into more issues before flying.
“The is primarily a science mission for the Perseverance rover, and it needs to get on with that primary mission,” Hårvard Grip, Ingenuity’s chief pilot, told The Verge on Saturday night. “So that’s why there’s a time limit for the helicopter.”
Roku’s introducing a trio of new devices today, led by the new $39.99 Express 4K Plus streaming device. Shipping in mid-May, the Express 4K Plus basically replaces the Roku Premiere as the company’s entry-level 4K player. It now has a faster processor, dual-band Wi-Fi, and increased internal storage. Plus, Roku says you can now attach a Micro-USB-to-Ethernet adapter if you prefer a wired connection. The Express 4K Plus is also the first Roku player to support HDR10+, which will come to the Roku Ultra as well after a future firmware update.
A stripped-down “Express 4K” player will be sold exclusively at Walmart in the US for $35. This model will also make its way to Canada, Mexico, and the UK. The only real difference is that it ships with a basic Roku remote instead of the voice remote that comes with the Plus SKU.
Next up is the first Roku remote with a rechargeable built-in battery. We knew this one was coming, and you’ll be able to buy the Roku Voice Remote Pro starting today for $29.99. It includes a built-in headphone jack for private audio, two customizable shortcut buttons, TV controls, and, in another first for Roku, it features mid-field microphones for hands-free voice commands.
Image: Roku
By default, the mics will listen for the “Hey Roku” hot phrase. But there’s a slider button right on the remote that turns off the always-listening mode. (If you do so, you can still hold down the microphone button on the front of the remote and speak a command.) One reason for maybe leaving the mics on? You can call out to the remote with a “Hey Roku, find my remote,” and it’ll make a sound to reveal its location in the couch cushions.
Image: Roku
And the last of the new Roku products is what the company is calling its Streambar Pro, described as “an evolution of the Roku Smart Soundbar.” The Smart Soundbar came with Roku’s streaming software built in, and this refreshed hardware “now includes a Roku voice remote with personal shortcut buttons and private listening, Roku headphones, and the new virtual surround feature for $179.99.” (Virtual surround will also come to the Smart Soundbar with a software update.)
The Streambar Pro will be available to order from Roku’s website in late May and should start arriving at major retailers in June. Roku still doesn’t face any real competition from Amazon in this combined soundbar / streaming player category, though Apple is rumored to be experimenting with a product similar in concept.
Roku today announced that its latest software release, Roku OS 10, has begun rolling out and will start making its way to all supported devices in the coming weeks. “Roku OS 10 introduces a variety of new features getting users to content faster, improving network and input configurations, offering new ways to customize the experience and performance enhancements,” the company said in a press release.
The first new feature of Roku OS 10 is instant resume: now, streaming apps can pick up from where they left off when you last exited them. This seems to require some work on the developer’s part, as only a few apps (including the Roku Channel) are offering instant resume out of the gate — but none of the huge players like Netflix or Prime Video are supporting it yet.
Next is what Roku calls “automatic Wi-Fi detection.” If you’ve got separate Wi-Fi networks in your home for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, a Roku device will now recommend the better option at setup. And if there’s any buffering or other stream interruptions, you might see a prompt appear recommending that you jump over to the other, less congested network.
Roku is also adding automatic game console configuration. Starting with Roku OS 10, when you plug a console into a Roku TV, the tile will change to the right name and the Roku TV will enter game mode. “Depending on the Roku TV model being used, settings that get automatically configured may include HDR gaming, auto low latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR), high frame rate, and THX certified game mode.”
AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support will be extended to more devices with the launch of Roku OS 10. Before, these Apple features came to 4K-compatible Roku products and 4K Roku TVs, but now the company says they’ll both now be available “on HD Roku streaming devices, such as the Roku Express, and select HD Roku TV models.”
Roku OS 10 lets you customize the live TV channel guide if you’ve got an antenna plugged into your Roku TV. And it also introduces support for HDR10+ on the Roku Ultra and new Roku Express 4K Plus. It also adds virtual surround sound to the Roku Smart Soundbar and new Roku Streambar Pro.
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What makes a smartwatch “smart”? Is it the ability to show you notifications from your phone? What about the ability to track your physical activity and wellness, such as step counts, workouts, and sleep? How about providing you information about your day, such as the weather and upcoming calendar events? Or perhaps it’s the inclusion of a voice assistant on your wrist that you can ask to do things without having to use your phone?
Those are the questions I’ve been asking over the past week-plus as I’ve been testing the new OnePlus Watch, a $159 smartwatch and the first wearable from the smartphone company. The OnePlus Watch has all the looks of a modern smartwatch, but as I’ve learned wearing it on my wrist day and night, it doesn’t have all the smarts.
The OnePlus Watch is not like a Wear OS smartwatch, such as those made by Fossil, Motorola, or Mobvoi. Nor is it like a Samsung Galaxy Watch or an Apple Watch. All of those have software platforms that integrate with other apps and services, so you can download apps or watchfaces to the watch itself, just like you might with a phone. That makes them very extensible and customizable — you can easily make the watch look unique and do the things you need it to.
The OnePlus Watch, on the other hand (or wrist?), runs its own proprietary software, based on a real-time operating system. This software is very quick and power efficient, but it is not extensible — there’s no app store or third-party watchfaces to download on the OnePlus Watch. It’s similar to the software on the budget smartwatches you can get on Amazon; if you’ve ever used an Amazfit, Umidigi, or Wyze watch, you’ve used a real-time operating system. The OnePlus Watch is not very different from those in this respect.
This choice of platform affords the OnePlus Watch its greatest strength, long battery life, and also its greatest weakness: it just doesn’t do all that much compared to other smartwatches you can buy.
The OnePlus Watch looks like many other smartwatches, but most especially the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active.
OnePlus Watch software
The OnePlus Watch pairs with and is controlled by the OnePlus Health app for Android — there’s no iPhone compatibility at all. But you don’t need to own a OnePlus phone, it works with basically any modern Android device. I tested it on both OnePlus and Samsung smartphones and the experience was the same.
The app is where you can see what health and fitness metrics the watch has recorded, adjust which apps send notifications on your wrist, and view the available watchfaces. OnePlus has about 50 watchfaces so far, with some offering limited customizability in the form of selectable shortcuts or widgets, such as a weather widget, date, or shortcut to a built-in app like the timer. You can choose up to 14 faces to store on the watch and switch between them without using your phone. The company says it plans on adding more in the future, but as I mentioned earlier, there are no options for third-party watchfaces or third-party app widgets like you get with Samsung, Wear OS, or Apple smartwatches.
The watchfaces themselves are what you’d expect: there is the assortment of analog and digital styles to choose from, with some showing more information about your activity than others. I’m not a big fan of the analog options, so I settled on a digital face. Unfortunately, there’s a bug where digital watchfaces on the OnePlus Watch are stuck in 24-hour time and can’t show 12-hour time. The company tells me it is aware of this bug, and it is slated to be fixed “this month.”
The OnePlus Watch’s interface mimics Wear OS and is easy to navigate.
The watch interface has a familiar layout: swipe down for settings, swipe up to see notifications, press the side button to see your apps. You can swipe right from the watchface to access basic widgets for music control, weather, and activity tracking, similar to Wear OS or a Samsung watch. The design of the interface all looks mostly fine, and there thankfully aren’t any stutters or lags when navigating it.
I do have a few gripes with how notifications are handled. You can’t clear notifications by just swiping them away, like you can with every other smartwatch. Instead, you have to tap into each one and then press clear or scroll to the bottom to clear them all. It’s a clumsy and fiddly process. The OnePlus Watch doesn’t always sync with the notifications I’ve cleared on my phone, either, and occasionally notifications for the same messages would get duplicated, forcing me to see the same alerts more than once.
You can’t do much with those notifications, either. There are no actions you can take other than clearing them from your wrist. OnePlus supports canned message replies in just five apps: WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, Discord, and Facebook Messenger. Notably and frustratingly, that list doesn’t include standard SMS messages. On top of that, there are only four basic replies to choose from: “OK”; “Be right there!”; “In a meeting, contact you later”; and “I’m driving, contact you later.” I frequently use a smartwatch to triage notifications, delete incoming emails, or reply to messages when I’m away from my desk, but I can’t do most of those things with the OnePlus Watch.
The OnePlus Watch comes with a basic set of apps: weather, timer, stopwatch, alarm, workout, sleep tracking, etc. Oddly, it doesn’t have a calculator or a calendar app, so I can’t easily see my next meeting or appointment, something I do a lot with other smartwatches. There’s no way to get your next appointment on your watchface, either. And since there isn’t an app store, I can’t add any apps to that list.
You can forget about streaming music from Spotify or playing podcasts through your favorite app — the only thing you can do with the OnePlus Watch is control what’s playing on your phone or transfer MP3 files from your phone to the watch’s 4GB of storage. Want to track your runs with Strava or MapMyFitness instead of OnePlus’ app? Sorry, no dice. If you want to control smart home devices from your wrist, the OnePlus Watch is entirely useless unless you have a OnePlus TV, where you can use it as a remote. The OnePlus TV is only available in India.
The OnePlus Watch also lacks a voice assistant. I can’t ask it to start a timer when I’m in the kitchen and my hands are dirty, I can’t ask it to turn the lights off or open my garage door, and I can’t dictate a reply to an incoming message. How well voice assistants work varies greatly between smartwatches (Siri on the Apple Watch, pretty good! Bixby on a Samsung watch, less so), but OnePlus isn’t even trying here and I’ve missed having one available.
Lastly, even though the OnePlus Watch has an NFC radio, it does not support mobile payments. You can’t tap your wrist to pay for something like you can with an Apple Watch, Samsung watch, or Wear OS smartwatch.
The OnePlus Watch’s fitness tracking features hit the standard beats.Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
OnePlus Watch fitness tracking
The fitness tracking features are quite basic. It will track your steps throughout the day; the watch will nudge you to get up and move when you’ve been sitting for too long; you can choose between 14 different workouts for the watch to track; and if you wear the OnePlus Watch to bed, it will make an attempt to track your sleep.
I’m not a gym rat, but I did wear the OnePlus Watch on my left wrist with a Fitbit Inspire HR on my right wrist throughout this review and the OnePlus counted thousands fewer steps than the Fitbit every day. None of these devices are perfect with their step tracking, but that kind of discrepancy is going to make tracking a longer-distance run or other intense workout inaccurate or just plain hard to do. I asked a few other reviewers I know who are also testing the OnePlus Watch and each one has had the same issues with inaccurate step counting. OnePlus says a bug fix for GPS optimization and to add more workout modes will be available sometime in mid-April.
While the OnePlus Watch frequently undercounted my steps, it overestimated how much I slept each night.
Sleep tracking, oddly enough, has the opposite problem. The OnePlus Watch consistently overestimates how long I slept each night compared to the Fitbit and Google’s Nest Hub. A bug has also prevented the Watch from syncing its sleep data with the OnePlus Health app, even though other activity synced over fine. The company says this bug should also be fixed sometime this month.
As mentioned earlier, you can’t use other fitness apps on the OnePlus Watch. The OnePlus Health app provides syncing with the Google Fit platform, so it’s possible you could cobble together a syncing solution between other apps using Fit as glue, but I did not test this. In general, the OnePlus Watch’s fitness tracking is fine for basic activity trends, but any fitness enthusiasts will want something more capable and reliable.
The OnePlus Watch only comes in one size: a large 46mm face.
OnePlus Watch hardware and design
In terms of design, the OnePlus Watch is generic-looking — it reminds me a lot of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active line. It’s got a round face, there are two buttons on the side, and the body is made of polished stainless steel, which is nice to see at this price point. It comes in silver, black, or a gold-colored special edition — I’ve got the black model and it’s a little boring to look at. Either way, the hardware is solid and put together well — it’s not creaky or plasticky, and there are no rough edges to worry about.
OnePlus is only offering the watch in one size, 46mm, and frankly, it’s big. It’s bigger than I like watches to be on my wrist, and if you have smaller wrists than me you’re not going to have a fun time with this. On the plus side, it’s not the thickest smartwatch I’ve ever worn. Just one size band comes in the box — OnePlus says that customers who need a shorter band will be able to get one by contacting customer service.
The touchscreen is a 1.39-inch 454 x 454 OLED that’s easy to see both indoors and out. It’s colorful, like you’d expect an OLED to be, but there’s no always-on display option, which nearly every other smartwatch has now. That makes it that much more annoying to check the time, though the wrist turn gesture does work well to wake it up.
On the underside are the sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen. As usual, you should not use these sensors for medical purposes — and blood oxygen monitors on even the best smartwatches notoriously struggle with giving accurate readings. Inside the watch are the accelerometers and gyroscopes necessary to track your activity and workouts, plus GPS and Bluetooth radios. There’s no Wi-Fi or LTE here — if you leave your phone behind, you’re going to miss notifications and alerts until the watch is back in Bluetooth range of your phone.
Also missing from the OnePlus Watch are any rotating bezels or crowns — the only way to interact with it is to tap and swipe on the screen itself or push the buttons on the side.
Even though it doesn’t have a voice assistant, the OnePlus Watch does have a microphone and speaker, so you can answer calls from your wrist via Bluetooth. It worked fine in my tests; callers said I sounded clear to them, but the speaker on the watch is a bit crackly at full volume. It works in a pinch.
The OnePlus Watch has exceptional battery life and charges very quickly on its included charger.
The best thing about the OnePlus Watch is its battery life. OnePlus claims up to 14 days of usage between charges — it lasted about 10 days for me, wearing it day and night. Charging the watch is also quick and easy: just 20 minutes on the charger adds half a charge, which translates to literal days of usage. No Apple, Samsung, or Wear OS watch can last this long or charge this quickly.
But at the same time, the OnePlus Watch has such great battery life because, frankly, it just does less than those other smartwatches. The best comparison I can make is that the OnePlus Watch is a fitness tracker in a smartwatch body, which would be an acceptable premise if it were a better fitness tracker.
There are about 50 different watchfaces to choose from for the OnePlus Watch.
The OnePlus Watch may look like a lot of other smartwatches, but I can’t say it compares well to them. It’s limited in features, only comes in one size, and as I’ve gone over, there are several bugs with it that make it feel like an unfinished product. Aside from its long battery life, the OnePlus Watch’s bestselling point is its low price, which is half that of a Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and over $100 less than the comparably sized Galaxy Watch Active 2. But if you’re looking for a smartwatch for your Android phone, it’s not that hard to find Wear OS models on sale, often for less than the cost of the OnePlus Watch.
For me, a good smartwatch is a lot like a personal assistant on my wrist. It tells me the time, when my next calendar appointment is, what the weather is like, and how active I’ve been throughout the day. I can quickly ask it to set a timer when I’m making a cup of tea or use it to reply to a message from my spouse when I’m running an errand. It also lets me customize its appearance and capabilities through third-party apps, watchfaces, or both. For others, it’s a way to track workouts and keep on top of their personal health.
In that framing, the OnePlus Watch isn’t really a smartwatch and based on my experience, it isn’t a great fitness tracker either. Instead, it’s just a clever watch, and it can be useful if your expectations of it are low. But if a smartwatch is going to take up real estate on my wrist, it has to be more useful than the OnePlus Watch.
(Pocket-lint) – Hammerhead claims that the Karoo 2 is the closest you’ll get to a smartphone. That’s no surprise, because this is a Google Android-based bike computer – the operating system that so many phones run – which is cause for some excitement.
Hammerhead’s pitch with the Karoo 2 is that you’ll get regular updates. And that’s true – indeed, we’ve started to write this review on several occasions, only to find we wanted to explore something more following additional updates.
As a result of updates, the Karoo 2 has got better over the months we’ve been using it. But is it good enough to tempt you away from the likes of the Garmin Edge?
Design and build
Dimensions: 100.6 x 60.8 x 19.3mm / Weight: 131g
Handlebar and out-front mounts included
IP67 waterproofing
The Hammerhead Karoo 2 has a 3.2-inch display, meaning it sits between the Garmin Edge 530/830 and Edge 1030 sizes, but it’s bigger than the Wahoo bike computers. It’s on the larger size, yes, but that’s good for quick glancing.
The body itself is a glass-filled polycarbonate, with an elastomer bumper. The display is topped with Dragontrail Glass for scratch resistance, while the whole package gets an IP67 rating to keep the water and mud out.
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On the rear there’s a sealed compartment you can open with a coin that will accept a SIM card, while a USB-C socket on the bottom of the device is used for charging. This has a rubber bung that inserts into it (with a spare in the box), but it’s not attached in any way. We’ve no qualms about losing it on a ride, but we might lose it when we have to take it out for charging.
We’ve used the Karoo 2 in rain and shine, through mud and sleet, and we’ve no worries about the waterproofing of this device. It feels solid, it looks good, and it’s kept on going with all we’ve put it through.
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We’re not huge fans of the buttons being on opposite sides of the body, though, because we find it more difficult to press a button than ought to be. Press the bottom button too hard and the device might rotate on the mount – which is how you remove it. But with another button on the other side, gripping to press on one side is a little more difficult. Basically, we’d prefer them to be staggered.
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It’s something of a moot point, however, given that most cycling gloves these days work with touch displays (or one finger does at least) and there’s touch support for pretty much anything you might want to use a button for – although this is less reliable in the wet, when the buttons come into their own.
Turning to mounting, there’s an out-front mount in the box, which users Hammerhead’s connection system. This will let you slide it into place to lock in securely, with a twist to release and slide forward again to remove. This means you can mount it on busy handlebars without a twist as large as you’d need for a Garmin computer, for example.
The supplied mount is designed to sit out the front of your handlebars and to be aerodynamic. It’s designed for standard 31.8mm bars and there’s no shims supplied for anyone riding a vintage steed or anything smaller.
There is an adapter to switch the Karoo 2 to a Garmin quarter-turn mount, which was bundled with preorders, otherwise available as an accessory (it’s £14 in the UK). That’s a great option as you can switch between bikes using an old mount (which we did), without having to mess around with changing all the mounts on all your bikes.
The display is important, because in a world of data, that’s what you spend your time looking at. It’s a good resolution too, with 292 pixels per inch, and while that’s somewhat lower in count than the latest smartphones, it suits the content well enough – which is the important point.
As this is an Android-based system (Android 8, so generations behind current phones), some of the interface and interactions will be familiar. Trying to use the tiny keyboard, however, especially for setup, is a little tedious – and Hammerhead could well do with offloading some of these tasks to a companion app, in the way Garmin does.
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There is plentiful brightness, but it’s not automatic, so you might have to swipe to bump it up when the rain starts falling – or indeed when the sun comes out.
There’s a Qualcomm-supplied quad-core processor, 32GB of storage, and a whole world of connectivity. That includes all the essentials: Bluetooth and ANT+ for accessories; GPS for location tracking; Wi-Fi for syncing and updates; 3G/4G for mobile data connectivity; motion sensors to aid navigation, and so forth.
This being an Android device it’s important that there’s enough power to do what you want. Startup is a little slow, but we’ve got used to starting it on the way to getting changed for a ride. Loading routes and profiles is a little slower than we’d like too, but we’re sure that software updates could fix this.
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It’s easy to manage connected devices, perhaps a little simpler than some other bike computers, especially if you know your way around Android.
We tested the Hammerhead with Garmin ANT+ bike sensors, Scosche Rhythm+ 2.0, and the Polar Verity Sense via Bluetooth – and found no connectivity problems at all.
On to that smartphone-like experience. There’s no call support, because even with the SIM card this isn’t a phone, but the card slot in the back gives the option for a permanent data connection. Otherwise, you can just use a Wi-Fi hotspot from the phone – the one that’s probably in the back pocket of your jersey anyway – to save you needing another SIM.
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However, there’s no data connection between the Karoo 2 and your actual smartphone via Bluetooth – all the syncing that the Karoo 2 does is via its own Wi-Fi or data connection if you’ve given it a SIM card. That’s mostly fine – but does also present some limitations.
You could, of course, ditch your smartphone and just take the connected Karoo 2, knowing that it will give you map searching and other features. But on a display this small, it could end up being just a little too frustrating when you get properly lost.
How Hammerhead handles its data
Karoo Companion app
Browser-based dashboard
Third-party services
You need to make sure the Karoo 2 is connected to Wi-Fi if you want to sync a new route that you’ve made, or to push ride data to a third-party service, because Hammerhead isn’t trying to run its own platform.
This is the fundamental difference between the Karoo 2 and Garmin’s devices: Garmin wants you to be as connected as possible, to feed data into Garmin Connect and drive the data machine. Hammerhead doesn’t offer that, so presenting some services is limited or constricted, while third-party connectivity plays a bigger role.
We hinted before that setup is a little strange. There’s no real smartphone app for starters: there’s the Karoo Companion app, which only handles push notifications; or there’s the web dashboard. This is a weird position for a company developing on Android, as you’d think Hammerhead would focus on being mobile first – but it’s not.
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The notifications you get are a little basic too, missing a huge opportunity: Android quick replies. This is a gem that iPhone won’t know about, but quick replies on Android work really well on Garmin, letting you send a reply to an incoming message or call – really useful when you’re riding. Visually, the Hammerhead notifications are too basic too, so could certainly be presented better.
Instead you need to get yourself onto the browser and setup your Hammerhead account and then sign into your Karoo with that account when it arrives. There’s some downloading and updating that takes place – but syncing, you’ll remember, is via the device to third-party services and the dashboard, rather than within a smartphone app.
Really, your phone plays no part – and we think Hammerhead could make everything smoother with much closer pairing with phones. For example: if you want use the live tracking feature, that data can’t go via your Bluetooth-connected phone, you have to connect the Karoo 2 via Wi-Fi or a data connection and then share a URL to those you want to live track you.
It’s jumping through disconnected hoops and resulted in us using WhatsApp location tracking instead. Bear in mind that Garmin’s livetracking can be set to automatically notify a list of people as soon as you start a ride – and that’s really what Hammerhead needs to offer, rather than relying on people finding a link that was shared with them a few months prior.
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Some might say there aren’t enough partnerships to drive this platformless system. For many, the link with Strava will give them all the data analysis they want, with the reciprocal Strava Segments in place too – which does have some parity to Garmin’s offering, allowing you to have your starred Segments pop up when you get to them.
But there’s a lot that’s not on the list – and while more is likely to come, Hammerhead really needs to cover all cyclists’ needs.
Naturally, without a full platform for data analysis, most will be looking at this on Strava – which you can read about here – with Hammerhead’s dashboard only showing basic time, route, distance and elevation details.
Being Android-based also adds opportunity. Hammerhead mentions sideloading APKs onto the Karoo 2, which might be beyond your average user – but certainly there’s the opportunity for native apps rather than just data syncing. With a little thought, the Karoo 2 could be running its own Strava app or a Komoot app – but with the Karoo 2 running Android 8 (software originally released in 2017), some developers might baulk at the thought of working with that older version.
On the saddle and navigation
Profile customisation
Offline mapping
Rapid rerouting
With all that out of the way and accepted, riding with the Karoo 2 is actually great. The user interface presents a range of profiles, each offering up different data sets. The default selection is a little odd, but you can make a custom profile or edit any of the default profiles to your liking.
It’s worth having a play around with, because once you’ve entered one of these profiles you can’t back out and switch to something else if you find you can’t get to the data you want. But you can customise all the existing profiles, so if you want to add cadence instead of your average heart rate (or whatever) that’s easy enough to do.
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And there are loads of data fields, including shifting information for Shimano Di2, battery life, every variant on time, power, climb, etc., that you can think of. It makes everything super customisable so you’re looking at exactly what you want.
Navigation is good, with the option to create routes on the device, sync routes from other platforms, import GPX files and so forth. Despite the lack of a proper smartphone app, you can download a GPX route and upload it to the Dashboard in your phone browser, to then appear on your Karoo 2 when it syncs.
Hammerhead does have a habit of changing routes – especially offroad routes. Having found and saved a route in Komoot, Hammerhead then imported and reinterpreted it, switching some of the forest paths to roads. Attempting to edit that route created a lot of doglegs, again attempting to avoid some of the paths that are perfectly legitimate to ride on.
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Rerouting is rapid, however, but missing a waypoint can lead to lengthy rerouting instructions – especially if that missed point is the start of the route. You’ll spend the first 10 minutes being directed back to where you came from.
The GPS is accurate and fast to locate, with a good sense of direction. Thankfully it uses arrows on the route and a directional arrow for you, so on circuits or routes that cross themselves, there’s no confusion.
Navigating maps on a ride is easy too, because you can pinch and zoom, or drag around the map, which is far easier than Garmin’s system.
When you’ve planned a route and head out, you’ll be able to see route profile data so you can see how long those climbs are and when they’re coming up, so you can prepare yourself to open the hurt box.
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Once in a route you can browse the maps on the device to make an alteration. For example, if you need to get home, you can zoom out on screen, drop a pin on home, then follow the new route easily enough – which is great for last-minute changes.
There is support for workouts too, which can be imported from TrainingPeaks, so you can directly access them on the Karoo 2. Although as we said previously, there’s room to expand this offering to make it more encompassing.
A lot of what the Karoo 2 offers is about expanding the offering too. As we said in the introduction, the software is always changing. Mostly this adds functionality which is welcomed – but we’ve seen a few rearrangements of the on-screen controls that took us by surprise. You’ll get an email detailing the changes, but Hammerhead also has a changelog here.
Battery life
2500mAh battery
12 hour reliable life
If you’ve used a smartphone you might be concerned about battery life. Having moved to Hammerhead from the capable Garmin Edge 830, we were pleasantly surprised.
You’ll get a reliable 12 hours of battery life from this computer. There are measures you can take to reduce the battery drain – including turning off the display if you just don’t need all those functions – and charging is fairly fast too.
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You’ll get 30 per cent charge from 30 minutes plugged in – but you’ll need 3 hours to fully charge it again. And there’s no charger in the box, but as USB-C is common now you can simply charge it with any existing charger.
But put this in context: most phones will happily charge fully in half this time – with much larger batteries. So this isn’t really that fast in terms of charging speed, not when compared to the phone market. Certainly, we’d love to see faster charging in a future Karoo – just so you can avoid those last-minute delays.
Verdict
The biggest thing about the Karoo 2 is accepting that you might be stepping away from a huge ecosystem to do things a little differently. Unless you’re really committed to specific Garmin features, the mainstay of the Karoo 2’s offering is excellent – the visible and recorded data, the customisation, solid build and good battery life.
For those who live in Strava, rather than something like Garmin Connect, the Karoo 2 will potentially provide you with everything you need, rather than being drawn off into complete lifestyle tracking. But there are areas where the Karoo 2 can get more competitive – and it needs to, given the fairly steep price.
When all is said and done, the Karoo 2 is a great bike computer. It’s getting better all the time and fundamentally it gives everything you’ll need on a ride. Over time it has endeared itself to us.
Alternatives to consider
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Garmin Edge 830
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A natural rival to the Karoo 2, with a similar asking price. It’s equally ambitious, bettering the Karoo in terms of its smartphone interaction, while playing into a larger ecosystem where Garmin will help track your whole lifestyle – not just your rides.
(Pocket-lint) – After years of rumours, stop-and-start plans, and official teasers, OnePlus finally announced its first smartwatch. Unsurprisingly it’s called the OnePlus Watch.
The fact that it’s a round-screen device has surprised no one, but what perhaps came as unexpected is the fact that OnePlus opted not to use Google’s Wear OS platform.
Like other tech companies, namely Huawei and Samsung, OnePlus has opted to use its own software in order to improve battery life. That means up to 14 days between charges depending on usage. Check out our unboxing above for a more in-depth look.
Design
Measures: 46.4 × 46.4mm × 10.9mm
Weighs: 76g (including the strap)
IP68 water- and dust-resistant
Waterproof to 5ATM
The OnePlus Watch Classic editions are made from 316L stainless steel and finished with polished, rounded edges. It’s a simple and effective design and comes in two colours: Midnight Black (pictured) and Moonlight Silver.
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Midnight Black features a polished grey case with a black bezel around the watch’s completely round display. The glass on the front is mostly flat, but features shallow, subtle curves towards the edges.
As well as those two steel models, there’s also a limited edition Cobalt model which has a case made from a cobalt alloy and a gold metallic finish.
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Size-wise it’s quite a large watch, measuring 46mm across. That makes it similar in size to the Huawei Watch GT 2e and Watch GT 2 Pro.
For larger wrists the size isn’t a problem at all, especially if you’re used to wearing 44-47mm watches. However, those who need smaller sizes will likely be put off by how much it will dominate their wrist.
All of the OnePlus Watch options feature the same two-button design, where the top button features a raised OnePlus moniker. Both are slim buttons which don’t protrude too far from the side, meaning you’re unlikely to accidentally press them if your wrist is bent backward.
On the underside there’s the optical sensors required for measuring both heart-rate and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). They’re all arranged neatly and sit just above the two contact points required for charging on its included cradle.
Unusually, this features a USB-A connector on the other side so you can’t plug it into the new Warp Charge adapter that ships with the OnePlus 9 phones.
The only other thing worth noting from a design perspective is the strap. It feels similar in material and design to Apple Watch’s basic Sport Band.
It’s a fluoroelastomer band, which is really flexible and features a metal pin that pokes through the holes to fix it in place, while the end inserts through a hole and underneath to tuck it out of the way.
We’ll have a full review in the near future, but on the features side OnePlus is promising a lot. It claims the Watch can last two weeks on a full charge and has the ability to track multiple sports and movements.
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It has GPS for location, gyroscope and accelerometer for movement, the aforementioned blood oxygen saturation and heart-rate tracking, plus a compass and barometric pressure. You can even use it for tracking swimming.
Add to that a Bluetooth speaker for receiving calls and storage for offline music playback and there’s a lot going for it. Especially given the price point.
Pocket-lint
First Impressions
The OnePlus Watch is simple but effective. It’s a round, polished watch that will survive being taken for a swim and should keep up with all of your fitness activities – whether you’re getting sweaty on a really hot day or you’re out on a wet and windy hike.
There are two big attractions: the price and the battery life. It’s more affordable than most other similar alternatives. And the fact you only need to charge it once every two weeks means you needn’t get battery anxiety.
If you’re looking your first smartwatch and don’t want to spend too much then the OnePlus Watch is a clear contender.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Huawei Watch GT 2e
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Huawei’s Watch GT 2e is similar in a lot of ways. It offers similar tracking capabilites and design, plus it’s also affordable. Huawei has been in the fitness game longer than OnePlus too – and that experience will likely show.
Read our review
Writing by Cam Bunton. Editing by Mike Lowe.
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