CES is nearly upon us, but it won’t weigh very much
┏ Dell’s new monitors have a dedicated Microsoft Teams button. This is the equivalent of a dedicated Crackle button on your TV remote. I know precious few people actually use customization software, but the better move is to make this default to Teams but then have an easy way to remap it to Zoom or whatever else. But then I suppose Microsoft wouldn’t subsidize the cost, then.
┏ Dell’s latest Latitude business laptops add an automated webcam shutter. I mean this is a clever idea, but IDK I think a plain old built-in one that you have to manually open and close would be fine?
┏ This LG display transforms from flat to curved for immersive gaming. It’s just a prototype and if something like this ever makes it to market, I hope LG makes different choices. 48-inches is in between standard gamer monitors size and decent TV size. Vibrating screens make for a fun tech demo but terrible audio. But make a 32-inch version of this without the extra cost of the in-built speaker and I’ll pay attention.
Samsung’s new flagship phone is also imminent
┏ Samsung officially confirms Galaxy S21 event for January 14th. The tagline is “Welcome to the Everyday Epic.” It’s not a very good tagline.
┏ Images of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s optional stylus and compatible case leak early. Looks like Samsung is giving itself permission to make a bigger, more ergonomic stylus.
┏ Samsung appears to have a new Tile competitor on the way. More than most, I understand that the idea of Samsung copying everything Apple does is a cliche and that the reality is more complicated. Or at least that’s what I usually believe. Then I see something like this. What are the chances Samsung was planning on making this product before Apple’s AirTags started being rumored? They are very small. Regardless, the effect will be the same, as Jake Kastrenakes notes:
Mostly, this seems like more bad news for Tile, since Apple is rumored to have an item tracker in the works, too. That could mean two major new competitors in one year, if both of these devices actually ship.
┏ Tile is prepping an AirTags competitor that could let you find lost items through walls. And just like that, Tile’s getting into the UWB game. It’ll keep it a step ahead of Samsung, at least.
The new tracker would go a step further than the company’s Bluetooth devices by allowing you to know more precisely where a lost item is in relationship to yourself, without having to listen for a chime the tracker plays.
Two cool earbuds
┏ Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro leak in hands-on video. I have been bouncing between the Samsung Buds Plus and the Apple AirPods Pro for a very long time now — I like each for different reasons. The Buds Plus have better battery life and case, AirPods Pro work better with Apple devices* and have active noise cancelling. The Samsung Buds Pro will add ANC without apparently hurting battery life, but we’ll see if that is really true. The big squarish case is a step backwards, I bet.
All of which is to say that we are about to have a whole lineup of Samsung Buds — three different types! The two we’ve seen so far have been really good and honestly haven’t gotten as much praise as they’ve deserved. Can’t want to see if the Pros live up to them.
(What I really want is proper multipoint support, something only Jabra seems to care about in the earbud market. I may have a pair of Jabra Elite 85ts in my future.)
(*Insert obligatory worry about Apple’s closed ecosystem here. Though Samsung is doing its level best to be just as worrying with its Bluetooth headphone ecosystem.)
┏ Bose’s latest sport earbuds won’t block out the outside world. These seem perfect for cycling (I would just use the right one though, for safety). I’ve been trying out some other open-ear solutions for music and podcasts when riding and none of them seem as good as this. And at home, I don’t really need noise cancelling so these might be more comfortable than in-ear buds or cans. And the charger is a very strange alien-head-looking thing, like a little desktop dock instead of a carrying case.
I ...love all of it, in theory at least. Open ear designs are notorious for having bad audio, a problem of physics more than anything else. Having the speakers be this much closer to your ears is a newer take on the problem, and I am super curious to see if it works.
OnePlus has new, cheap phones in the US
┏ OnePlus Nord N10 5G review: tall phone, small price. Allison Johnson recently joined The Verge and will be reviewing phones with us, which means we’re going to have a lot more in the future! Here’s her first, a great and accurate look at a $300 phone with 5G. Both this phone and a much less expensive version are coming to the US on January 15th.
Bottom line: this is a very cheap 5G phone with a big screen and decent all-around performance. OnePlus has made some smart sacrifices to get to that $300 price point, and the result is a device with many nice attributes but without a major standout feature.
┏ OnePlus 9 Pro rumored to offer faster 45W wireless charging. Oppo had a 40W wireless charger last year and OnePlus’ method for boosting wattage on its wireless chargers is the same as Oppo’s (to put it gently), so this seems entirely believable to me.
┏ OnePlus teases launch of first fitness tracker. I VERY MUCH wonder what OS this will run. Once Upon a Time Google hinted that it intended to make Android Wear (now Wear OS) more suitable for fitness bands — but that was a very long time ago indeed. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau told me during an call with some reporters last month that a smartwatch is (also?) coming and that OnePlus has been working with Google to make some changes to Wear OS.
Google is making another smart home display
┏ Google may be updating the Nest Hub by adding Soli gestures. This seems overdue, but I has some thoughts and questions:
1. Will it have a camera for video conferencing. One of the reasons the original Google Home (which is now known as the Nest Hub) was so well-liked is you could get one without a camera. But the Nest Hub Max does have a camera and in general the desire to make these smart displays double as video conference systems is much higher during lockdown.
2. Speaking of the Nest Hub Max, it uses its camera for rudimentary face detection (for identifying the speaker when they ask for a calendar appointment, for example) and also for broad gesture controls like play/pause. Will that happen here too?
3. The big news on the thing here is Soli, Google’s radar system for gadgets. Soli was a whiff on the Pixel 4 and dropped on the Pixel 5. It exists in a much more rudimentary proximity detection from on a Nest thermostat. What will it be used for here? It surely doesn’t have the range to duplicate the things a proper camera does on the Nest Hub Max.
4. It also includes a Zigby smart home radio, a first for a Google product. That’s likely some consequence of the Connected Home over IP Alliance, an industry group trying to standardize smart home gadgets so they work more like other things work in computer networking (basically). It could mean something is going to happen with CHIP soon — or it could mean nothing. After all, Google and Eero have been including Thread radios in their products for years and that hasn’t amounted to anything.
More from The Verge
┏ Microsoft planning ‘sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows’. As Tom Warren notes, there’s new eyes on Windows from Surface boss Panos Panay, who recently took over management of Windows in addition to hardware. There’s definitely some cruft to clean up, but I have many questions. Will this finally end the weird XP-style boxes that still pop up when you dig into settings? Does this related to Window 10X in any way? Is 10X still a thing, honestly? No really, you can tell us, Microsoft. We won’t be mad.
Microsoft is planning a “sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows” that is designed to signal to users of the operating system that “Windows is BACK.” That’s according to a job listing posted by Microsoft recently, advertising for a software engineering role in the Windows Core User Experiences team.
┏ Google workers announce plans to unionize. Zoe Schiffer:
Arranged as a members-only union, the new organization won’t seek collective bargaining rights to negotiate a new contract with the company. Instead, the Alphabet Workers Union will only represent employees who voluntarily join, as reported by the New York Times. That structure will also allow it to represent all employees who seek to participate — including temps, vendors, and contractors (known internally as TVCs) who would be excluded by labor law from conventional collective bargaining.
┏ The PS5 and Xbox Series X are so big that Ikea has mock consoles in store to help you buy a media cabinet.
┏ TikTok teens’ latest passion is enterprise software.
┏ Apple patents point to using your MacBook to wirelessly charge your iPhone and Apple Watch. Don’t miss the last example illustration of what Apple is thinking: “A MacBook charging an iPad, which is charging an iPhone, which is charging an Apple Watch.”
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