Category: I-phone

Xbox consoles — from Day One Xbox Ones all the way up to Series X — are getting a new software update that adds some features and removes others. The Xbox Accessories app for PC as well as consoles both new and old will get a patch that adds compatibility with Microsoft's new Xbox Wireless Headset, so gamers can access all of the available audio controls and even the brightness of its lights.

One feature that's going away is the live TV listings in OneGuide that has been a part of the Xbox One since it launched. Microsoft's aspirations for controlling TV via the HDMI passthrough of the Xbox One didn't work out, and live TV viewing isn't nearly as important as it once was, so that feature will join Windows Media Center and WebTV in the great beyond. The OneGuide itself will stay for watching TV through the HDMI input or add-on tuner, but without the schedules of what is airing where.

However, the big addition that's relevant to current gamers is a new set of toggles for backwards compatible titles. They'll let gamers enable or disable Auto HDR and FPS Boost on a per-game basis in order to only have them when there's actually a benefit and they don't negatively affect the experience. Auto HDR is pretty easy to figure out, but can be more hassle than its worth, while FPS boost can up the framerate to 30, 60 or even 120 fps on certain games.

Smaller tweaks include the return of Achievements to the mobile Xbox app and improvements to "My games & apps" that more clearly explains what parts you need to install if you don't want to install every possible item for a particular title.

A report from Bloomberg says that hackers breached the security of Verkada, an enterprise surveillance video company, and were able to access live feeds from over 150,000 cameras. The reporter were in contact with the hackers, who said they had access to hundreds of cameras in Tesla facilities, as well as other companies like Cloudflare.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Verkada said "We have disabled all internal administrator accounts to prevent any unauthorized access. Our internal security team and external security firm are investigating the scale and scope of this issue, and we have notified law enforcement."

The hackers said they lost access after Bloomberg contacted the company, but that they initially got in via a "Super Admin" login that was exposed on the internet, then used built-in camera features to obtain root access and remote control. Motherboardhad previously reported on Verkada employees who used surveillance cameras in their own office to harass others and take pictures of women they worked with, and now obtained a spreadsheet from the hackers identifying 24,000 organizations that may be using its cameras.

Verkada

On its website, Verkada touts its ability to provide secure remote access to camera feeds "providing real-time visibility into events across sites." It also advertises "video analytics" which can rely on facial recognition, identification and vehicle tracking using technology built directly into the cameras. One of the people in the group behind the breach told Bloomberg that this incident "exposes just how broadly we’re being surveilled, and how little care is put into at least securing the platforms used to do so, pursuing nothing but profit."

Twitch appears to be toying with a program that automatically rates streamers based on a handful of factors — including age, suspension history and partnership status — in order to pair them with advertisers. It's called the Brand Safety Score, and it was discovered in Twitch's internal API by cybersecurity student Daylam Tayari, who posted images of the changelog on Twitter.

A Twitch spokesperson stopped short of confirming the existence of the Brand Safety Score to Engadget, but offered the following statement:

"We are exploring ways to improve the experience on Twitch for viewers and creators, including efforts to better match the appropriate ads to the right communities. User privacy is critical on Twitch, and, as we refine this process, we will not pursue plans that compromise that priority. Nothing has launched yet, no personal information was shared, and we will keep our community informed of any updates along the way."

According to Tayari, the Brand Safety Score rates streamers based on their age (whether they're over 18 or 21), suspension history, relationship with Twitch, partnership status, whether they use automod and at what level, whether a stream is set to mature, and the ESRB ratings of their games. There's also a section to add a manual rating from a Twitch employee.

As described, the Brand Safety Score sounds similar to ad-rating systems already employed by sites like YouTube and Twitter, or even ratings on ridesharing apps. It should help advertisers sort through the sea of streamers, and could affect Twitch's Bounty Board, where advertisers offer specific gigs to a handful of chosen partners and affiliates. 

Knowing which metrics Twitch is tracking can help streamers stay at the top of the pile, though there's no guarantee that the company will make any of its rating algorithms public — unless a curious researcher takes another dive.

It was only two months ago that Samsung held an Unpacked event to announce the Galaxy S21, but the company is already sending out invites for another event it plans to hold on March 17th at 10 AM ET.

What could we see at the event? Well, this time last year we got our first look at the Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung didn’t talk foldables at its January Unpacked event, so we could see something on that front. Another possibility is that we could get our first glimpse at the company’s rumored Exynos-powered Windows 10 PC with AMD GPU. However, if recent leaks are any indication, Samsung’s mid-range devices like those in the Galaxy A series could finally get their time in the limelight. Given their increasing importance to the company’s bottomline, we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

A team of researchers from IBM Japan, the University of Tokyo and Yamaha Motors have created a robot that uses canvas, paint and a brush to create paintings on its own. What sets this artificial intelligence apart from some of the other artistically-inclined ones we’ve seen in the past is that it doesn’t generate the paintings it creates at random. Instead, it’s programmed to work with concepts and has a set of “values” it turns to for guidance. It’s possible to shape the images it creates by providing it with additional instructions. Limit it to 30 or fewer brushstrokes and it will paint a more abstract piece. Conversely, with some 300 brushstrokes at its disposal, it will create something more realistic.

In its current iteration, the robot can work with both watercolors and acrylics and can mix paints with water. The team behind the project is currently working on a visual system that will allow the machine to see its paintings as it’s working on them. That same system could also open the door to human artists working with the robot. The AI Painting Project will be on display at SXSW 2021, which you can check out virtually starting on March 16th.

Sonos confirmed the rumors of a new device today by announcing the Roam portable speaker. It's meant to be a smaller, more affordable alternative to its existing portable speaker, the $399 Move. At $169, it certainly fills a big gap in Sonos' lineup, but it remains more expensive than competing devices.

The $169 Sonos Roam is available for pre-order starting today from the company's website. It will officially be available starting April 20, and pre-order customers can expect their speakers to ship around that time.

Pre-order the Roam at Sonos – $169

Unlike the relatively large Move, the Sonos Roam has a smaller, narrower design and weights just about one pound. It's IP67-rated, protecting it from dust and from being submerged in water for up to 30 minutes. Inside are two Class-H amplifiers, one mid-woofer and one tweeter, and the Roam supports adjustable EQ using the companion app. You'll be able to pair two Roam speakers together for stereo sound and connect the new speaker to existing Sonos devices you may have around your home.

But similarly to the Move, the Roam can play music via Bluetooth or WiFi and it supports a plethora of streaming apps including Spotify, Apple Music and others. You're also able to use Apple AirPlay 2 with it and control the device using either Amazon's Alexa or the Google Assistant. The Roam uses Sonos' Automatic Trueplay tuning to adapt sound to your environment, and it'll be able to use the company's new Sound Swap feature. This lets you press and hold the play/pause button to swap the music to the closest Sonos speaker to you, making it easier to move sound with you from room to room.

When it comes to power, the Roam charges via USB-C or via any Qi-compatible wireless charging pad. The speaker comes with a charging cable, but Sonos will also sell a separate, wireless dock for $49. The company promises up to 10 hours of playback on a single charge, or 10 days of life when in sleep mode.

Today, Sonos revealed its least expensive, most portable speaker yet, the Roam. It’s a follow-up of sorts to the Move, the company’s first portable speaker which debuted in 2019. That speaker may have Bluetooth and a battery, but its relatively large size and heavy weight meant it wasn’t exactly a grab-and-go device. The Roam, on the other hand, is made with portability first in mind, putting it in competition with speakers like the UE Boom 3 and the JBL Flip 5.

My first impression of the Roam is that it’s a portable speaker first that can also be used at home. The Move, on the other hand, is a larger speaker built for the home that you can also take with you. It’s a subtle but important difference in how the Roam was conceived. The $169 Roam is a full-fledged Sonos device, which means when you’re home and connected to WiFi, it works just like any other Sonos speaker. You can group it with other Sonos devices; stream audio from dozens of services; take two Roams and pair them in stereo; use Google Assistant or Alexa for voice control; and stream from Apple devices using AirPlay 2.

Sonos

But like the Move, the Roam also has Bluetooth on board, which means you can pair a device and stream music to it when you’re away from a WiFi network. Its built-in battery is rated for 10 hours of playback, and it automatically goes into a low-power sleep mode when it’s not in use. It should last about 10 days in sleep mode.

Obviously, being able to link the Roam into a system of Sonos products is a plus for people already in the Sonos ecosystem, but it also has a lot of clever features that further separate it from other portables. For example, the Roam can automatically switch between Bluetooth and WiFi. Once you’ve paired it with your phone, it’ll remember that pairing and be set to go when you take it out of the home. Likewise, when you return it’ll rejoin your WiFi network without prompting. This is an improvement over the Move, which required manual switching between Bluetooth and WiFi.

This speaks to the philosophy Sonos has for the Roam, which is making it simple to use both at and away from home. The Bluetooth-only speaker market is already pretty crowded,” Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, the company’s senior VP of hardware development,” said in an interview ahead of the company’s launch event. “For us, going into this specific market, we had to do more than just put Bluetooth and great sound into these products. We thought really hard about how to bring the Sonos experience from in the home to outside the home.”

That’s the inspiration behind things like the new “Sound Swap” feature. If you’re playing music on the Roam and want to bounce it to another Sonos speaker, pressing and holding the play button will search for the nearest speaker and send the music to it. The idea is to keep the music flowing from away from home into the home.

Sound Swap makes use of some intriguing technology. “Pressing and holding play/pause signals the other players to emit an ultra high frequency sound that only Roam can hear," Hadley Simmons, a product marketing manager at Sonos, explained to Engadget. “Roam can pick up those chirps with its microphones and detect the nearest speaker. It’s basically an easier way to move music throughout your home without having to go back to the Sonos app and sort through your different rooms.” In the same vein, if the Roam is playing music via Bluetooth, you can hold the play button and it’ll automatically stream that music to other Sonos speakers — effectively turning the Roam into a Bluetooth line-in to the rest of your system.

Sonos

The technology for Sound Swap came out of the Sonos advanced technology group, a team that came together in the last few years. “In the past, we’d try and innovate in the product development process, but that’s the worst place to try and do it when you have a specific schedule and deadlines in front of you,” Bouvat-Merlin said. “So I created a special, standalone group that works on things for two, three, four years down the road.”

All these features are meaningless if people don’t want to take the Roam with them, which means its physical design is probably more important here than with standard home speakers. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the Roam looks compact and easy to move. It weighs less than a pound, and Sonos described it as about the same size as a water bottle. The idea is for it to be small and light enough that you don’t need to think about taking it with you; it just becomes a habit. I haven’t used it yet, but I could definitely imagine it being the kind of thing I’d toss in a bag when I leave the house, whether for a quick trip or a cross-country flight (when that’s doable, anyway).

As usual, there are some smart Sonos flourishes here. The speaker can be used in vertical or horizontal orientation. It detects which way it’s positioned and adjusts the sound accordingly. It’s compatible with all Qi wireless chargers, or you can simply use the included USB-C cable. Sonos is making its own magnetic wireless charger, but unfortunately it’s a $50 extra rather than something included in the box.

Sonos

The Roam is also rated IP67 for dust and water resistance. In fact, it can be submerged in up to one meter of water for 30 minutes and still work. The Move has superior resistance to temperature fluctuations, but it can’t be dunked in water. Given other companies have speakers that can even float in a pool, the fact that the Roam can survive a trip underwater is crucial.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Roam needs to sound good — no small feat, given its diminutive size. I haven’t listened to it, but. Simmons said users should expect sound quality comparable to the larger Sonos One speaker, albeit without the same max volume. But the bass presence is said to be much larger than you’d expect out of a speaker that small. Of course, we’ll need to wait to hear it for ourselves, but given what companies like Amazon, Google and Apple have done with their own relatively small speakers, I’m hopefully Sonos has worked its magic on the tiny Roam.

As usual for Sonos, the Roam features a number of custom internal components, like the so-called “racetrack” mid-woofer. Since a traditional circular design wouldn’t work in the slim, tall Roam, Sonos went with this oval shape to maximize its size. It also has a dedicated tweeter and two class-H amplifiers. Fitting both a tweeter and mid-woofer into the Roam rather than using one all-purpose driver should make a significant difference in audio quality.

Sonos

Sonos also included the “Auto Trueplay” speaker-tuning technology it first built into the Move. This means the speaker will use its built-in microphone array to listen to its output and optimize the sound for wherever it’s placed. Trueplay has been available for Sonos speakers since 2015, but they require an iOS device to use to manually tune the device. Not so for the Move and the Roam, and the Roam takes things a step further this time. It’ll be able to tune itself even when you’re not on WiFi, using profiles built directly into the speaker hardware itself.

The Roam is entering a crowded market, but it’s priced competitively, even if it’s still more expensive than many Bluetooth-only devices. It does offer a load of features if you’re already a Sonos user — but its low price also makes it a gateway drug to the Sonos ecosystem if you’ve never tried their products. We’ll need to take a listen before we can judge if Sonos hit the mark, but from what we know so far it’s looking like a compelling option in the ultraportable speaker category. Pre-orders for the Roam are open now on the Sonos website, and the speaker will be available on April 20th.