Tag: bluetooth

Even Realities G1 Smart Glasses Review: Superb Display, But Slow Info

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I’ve been wearing the Even Realities G1 glasses for four months, and while many people have commented on my new frames, only two friends asked if my glasses were “smart.” For someone who wore Google Glass in public and lived to tell the tale, this technological anonymity is high praise indeed. They look like glasses you might actually want to wear, and they don’t draw unnecessary attention to your (OK, my) face.

But as Clark Kent accessed his superpowers after taking off his spectacles, inversely, this mild-mannered reporter benefits from real-time language translation, access to AI, turn-by-turn navigation, and a personal assistant, all by keeping his glasses on.

Most smart glasses, like the Ray-Ban Meta, rely on Bluetooth audio, but the G1 features a small but brilliantly effective heads-up display called the Holistic Adaptive Optical System, or HAOS. Look carefully at the lenses and you’ll see a faint rectangle in each eye. This is where a micro-LED optical engine projector displays crisp, green digital text (640 x 200 pixels). Glance up (choose the angle via the app) and a seemingly two-foot-wide text homepage appears to float around five feet in front of you. Considering all this, it’s astonishingly clever given how light and, well, normal the frames feel.

The digitally surfaced lens is actually two bonded lenses but manages to be no thicker or heavier than a standard design. Prescription lenses cost $129 extra and, aside from the occasional glimpse of the projector screen in bright sunshine, works as well as any glasses I’ve ever owned.

Nestled on the end of each arm you’ll find two rubbery nodules. These contain the battery, buttons, and antennae that exchange real-time data with your phone over Bluetooth. They’re marginally heavier than standard glasses, but because the weight is kept away from the nose, they feel good. The frames are made from solid magnesium and have a cool matte finish, with the temples coated in silicon for added grip. Add in screwless hinges and a classic oval shape, and you’ve got a stylish proposition even before you charge them up.

Photograph: Christopher Haslam

The charging case is equally well designed and holds enough power to recharge the glasses 2.5 times. The 60-mAh battery in the glasses has enough power for 1.5 days.

So, they’re nice glasses—but what do they actually do?

Virtual Assistance

The idea of the G1 is not to replace your smartphone but rather to offer a pared-back interface that gives you help and information when you need it, then vanishes when you don’t.

After installing the app and syncing the glasses, when you glance up you will see a screen with the date, time, battery level, and upcoming diary dates (assuming you’ve given permissions). You can also receive messages and alerts from social and messaging apps. You can’t respond to any messages, though, which seems both odd and a shame given the onboard microphones and the transcription software used.

The right side of the main display is for QuickNotes. If you pinch the small box on the right arm, a note will flash up saying “Quick Note Recording.” When you speak, your words will be saved and displayed on the screen when you next look up. If you mention a date, time, or place, the AI assistant will add it to your diary. It’s great if you are a fan of voice notes. I’m not, but as someone who meets new people all the time but remains terrible at remembering names, I loved being able to have names, and even job titles, on display, for my eyes only.

Translation

Open up the Translate box on the Even Realities app, choose from one of 13 languages (including Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean), decide what language you’d like things translated into (in this case English), and press Engage. If someone then speaks to you in that language, the G1 glasses will listen, translate, and write the words on your HUD.

Annoyingly, however, it’s no Babelfish. With one-on-one conversations it worked OK, and I enjoyed understanding my wife’s rusty Spanish. Similarly, I had success rewatching Squid Game without subtitles. But without someone wearing their own pair and translating my English, it is one-way traffic.

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October 25, 2024
Bose Reinvented Itself Just in Time. Now Comes the Tricky Part

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The company has always had premium prices, but in certain categories the products haven’t always matched the brand’s prestige: 2010s attempts at noise-canceling earbuds were bulky, sounded middling, and had poor battery life; and it also sold a line of too-expensive Bluetooth speakers with screens that nobody needed.

Then, after its physical storefronts were not having the billboard-like effect Bose wanted, the brand, just prior to Snyder joining, decided to dramatically pivot—a word that can so often be replaced with “panic”—to a strategy that focused on online sales and bolstering exhibits in existing storefronts such as Best Buy in the United States.

This seismic shift meant that every single Bose store in the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan shuttered, resulting in 119 store closures and hundreds of layoffs worldwide. So far, under Snyder’s stewardship, that swerve toward online and in-store retail has, according to the company, worked out—but it could have gone the other way.

Brands like Nike that have pivoted away from brand-owned retail stores have seen sales dives, but the key difference lies in Bose’s decision to lean into retail partners. By bolstering exhibits in places such as Best Buy and other stores, as well as leaning into sales on Amazon and other online retailers besides its own website, Bose has been able to maintain a broad reach while also not keeping retail overhead in-house. According to Snyder, this slimmed-down approach has been effective in righting Bose’s fortunes, especially when paired with excellent new products.

Audio Exclusive

In being a tech company that entirely focuses on audio products, Snyder says that the secret sauce at Bose is research. Engineers are constantly looking for innovation in materials, acoustics, design, production, and more. When asked about recent innovations in solid-state driver technology, for example, she isn’t shy about its prodigious market research.

“What’s interesting about Bose is we have been an audio company for 60 years,” says Synder. “We know we’re going to be in competitive markets. We’ve always been in competitive markets, whether that’s headphones, or in the home, or in the car. What makes us different is we’re all about audio. You can be assured we experiment with everything. When we believe something’s ready, we bring it forward. We’re always looking for technology that can change the game.”

This is particularly evident when it comes to noise canceling, which was pioneered by the brand for aviators—a market Snyder says Bose is proud to remain dominant in—rather than folks in the main cabin of the plane.

Using the Pros

By investigating what pilots needed to operate safely and comfortably in the cockpit, and constantly asking them for improvements and ideas, Bose was able to develop and trickle down what remain the best noise-canceling algorithms WIRED has ever tested. That makes sense, given that latest generation of Bose Quietcomfort over-ears and earbuds offer genuine professional-grade aerospace technology.

Snyder says the brand uses professionals, or semi-professinals in the case of its PA gear for small-venue musicians, not only to improve its products but also to market to folks who are interested in higher-end audio. “They’re a professional musician. They have a great ear. They know what great sound sounds like. Those products create a sort of halo.”

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October 6, 2024
We Staged a Debate to Test the Bluetooth Earrings Kamala Harris Didn’t Wear

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Just a few weeks ago, certain people in a particular corner of the internet decided they had cracked the reason Kamala Harris was doing so much better than Donald Trump in the presidential debate. Not that she was better prepared, nor that she was a better debater. No, she must be wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, carefully disguised as a pair of pearl earrings. Obviously.

As it turns out, earbuds like this really do exist. The Nova H1 audio earrings put forward by the conspiracy theorists do bear a decent resemblance to the earrings Kamala was wearing on the night. Of course hers were, in fact, from Tiffany & Co. and not from a Kickstarter campaign from 2021, but the concept piqued our interest all the same.

Could this so-called audio jewelry be the perfect crossover product for anyone who wants to make calls or listen to music, without a bulky pair of headphones or earbuds hanging out of their ear? We slapped them on our ears for a week to find out.

Stylish … to a Point

When I receive them, first impressions are promising. The Nova H1 arrive in what feels a bit like a jewelry box, a stylish detail we’re sure is no accident. Pull the inner packaging toward you, like a drawer, to slide the outer cover away, and the headphones appear against a rather striking yellow backdrop, the pearlescent square charging case adorned with Nova’s branding.

The case is plasticky though, and the earrings sit on an equally plasticky panel that rises up to present them to you as you open the lid. That’s a nice touch, but it all looks cheap and doesn’t feel in keeping with the premium look the Nova H1 is trying to present.

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The earrings themselves are not exactly subtle, either. The pearl, to my surprise, is actually a real freshwater pearl connected to your choice of clip-on or stud earring, but delicate it ain’t. Still, when clipped onto your ear they do at least look like jewelry—more costume jewelry than fine jewelry (our British readers may appreciate a Pat Butcher reference here), but they don’t look out of place. I have the silver ones to test, but there is also a gold option that will set you back a little more (more on that shortly.)

The clip-on version I’m testing offers exactly the right clamp force to be secure without causing any discomfort, which is indeed impressive. I could genuinely forget I was wearing them, meaning they can simply be worn as earrings, while being ready to jump into audio action whenever you need them.

That’s helped by the fact they will go into a dormant mode when they don’t detect any playback, and offer up to six hours in active use. That means you can pretty much get a full day’s wear out of them, plus the case offers three full charges.

Can You Hear Me?

When you take them out of their case, they jump into pairing mode automatically. My phone finds them without issue, and within seconds they’re paired.

I immediately head to a playlist in Tidal and get to listening. It quickly becomes clear that audio quality is not a reason to buy these headphones—so much so that it’s almost impossible to critically evaluate the sound at all.

Bass is weak, and music has a somewhere-in-the-distance quality, almost as if someone has the radio on across the office. It’s a unique experience, not unpleasant by any stretch but not at all as engaging as the sound quality you’ll get from something like the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.

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October 1, 2024
Best Amazon deals of the day: Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, Beats Fit Pro, JBL Bar 9.1, 4th gen Echo bundle, and Soundcore 2 Bluetooth speaker

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Looking for some sweet deals to close out your week? We’ve got you covered. Brands like Roborock, Amazon, Anker, and Beats are major standouts on today’s lengthy list of daily deals at Amazon. We’ve already sorted out the noise and rounded up the best gadgets worth adding to your cart on Sept. 12.

Here are our top picks for the best Amazon deals of the day. If none of these jump out at you, be sure to take a look back at our top picks from Tuesday, Sept 10 and Wednesday, Sept. 11. Many of those are still live, including a record-low Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet and a sub-$300 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic.

Our top pick

Unveiled in April 2023, the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra — on paper — is one of the fanciest robot vacuum and mop combos you can buy. It features self-washing and self-drying mopping pads, above average suction power, reactive 3D obstacle avoidance, floor type customization, and liftable brushes and mop that adapt to different tasks. Former Mashable intern Stacia Datskovska tested it out and found that while it may be loaded with perks, they don’t justify the outrageous price of $1,599.99. Fortunately, though, it regularly goes on sale. As of Sept. 12, it’s down to just $949.99 — that’s 41% in savings and its lowest price on record.

Though they’re a few years old, the Beats Fit Pro still stand up to the latest earbuds on the market. Mashable’s Alex Perry reviewed them and noted they “offer excellent active noise cancellation, magnificent audio output, elite comfort, and a long-lasting battery,” putting them lightyears ahead of the third-generation AirPods. Typically just under $200, you can pick up a pair on sale for just $159 as of Sept. 12. That’s 95 cents cheaper than the sale price they’ve been chilling at for months — a 20% savings overall.

Upgrade your game day viewing experience by pairing a worthy soundbar with your big screen. The JBL Bar 9.1 is on sale for just $584 as of Sept. 12 — that’s 51% off its usual cost — and offers a cinematic 9.1-channel surround sound experience. The two ends of the soundbar detach to become separate speakers you can place behind you to hear every agonizing call this NFL season. The soundbar packs Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and four upfiring speakers that bounce sound up to the ceiling and back down to you. Plus, the 300W, 10-inch wireless subwoofer gives you deep bass that really brings the action to life.

While we just featured the $64.99 fourth-generation Amazon Echo earlier this week, today’s deal brings you a free Sengled smart color bulb on top of it. That means that not only are you saving $35 on the Echo itself, but also an extra $19.99 on a smart color bulb to pair with it. One of the best ways to introduce Alexa’s smart home capabilities into your home, the Echo serves as a sleek, simple speaker that responds to your voice commands, plays your tunes, and so much more. Add the Sengled bulb in your favorite room and ask Alexa to turn it off and on at certain times a day, change the color, or dim the lights for ambiance.

Mashable Deals

Small, yet mighty, the Anker Soundcore 2 Bluetooth speaker is tough to beat in terms of value. It offers impressive stereo sound, a durable design with IPX7 protection against rain, dust, spills, and more, and a 24-hour battery life to keep your tunes coming all day and night. For those specs, the price tag is pretty insane at just $27.99 on sale. That’s 30% off its usual price as of Sept. 12.

None of these deals catching your eye? Check out Amazon’s daily deals for even more savings.

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September 12, 2024
Dyson OnTrac Headphones Review: A Solid, Visually Customizable Pair

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The first Dyson headphones, the Zone (4/10, WIRED Review), with their attachable air filter for cynical techno-futurists, were so ridiculous and stupid it was hard for me to take the company seriously. Let’s face it: Dyson’s vacuums and hair care products are very nice, but many of its other products have been feeble, design-forward gimmicks that quickly fade behind the media hype. Sure, you’d see a few “fanless” Dyson air movers or purifiers in luxe locales after they first came out, but they never reached the broad-market ubiquity of its shiny plastic-sucking machines.

All this to say: I had low expectations for the new, $499 Dyson OnTrac headphones. With everyone from established brands like Apple, Sony, and Bose to newer brands like Sonos at the peak of their noise-canceling headphone game, it was just hard to imagine Dyson could create a product that competes in anything other than extruded plastic styling. But after a few weeks with my review unit, I think they’re some of the better headphones in the market.

These are visually customizable over-ear headphones with great sound, excellent noise reduction, and 55 hours of battery life. I am surprised to admit I like nearly everything about them.

Sucking Up

A large stately box accompanies the new OnTrac cans, but the hard case you use to protect the headphones between uses leaves a lot to be desired. Much like the case that comes with AirPods Max (8/10, WIRED Recommends), the one that comes with the Dyson cans is a slip-in situation with holes in the bottom and top of the case that allow dust and other dirt in when you throw them in your bag. It does little to protect the headphones from bumps and bruises, which is annoying when you’ve dropped this much on a pair of headphones.

Photograph: Parker Hall

The headphones themselves look a bit like Dyson vacuums: They’re maximalist, plastic, and full of color options. My review units came in a flashy metallic copper with navy blue accents, with the option to swap for different color earpads and earcup caps. Given the price, I actually like that you can swap things like this with such ease, because it means you can change them as they wear out.

Unlike recent competitors like the Sonos Ace (8/10, WIRED Recommends), they’re large and bulky, not sleek and light, with a weight of 451 grams compared to the Ace’s 311 grams and AirPods Max’s 385 grams. That said, a comfortable and well-padded headbands and thick cloth earpads give them a great seal around my ears for good passive noise isolation, and they don’t feel heavy on my head.

Bells and Whistles

When you want to turn the headphones on, press a small physical button on the bottom of the right earcup until you hear the noise and see a small light flashing to indicate they’re in pairing mode. From there you’ll control the headphones with either a joystick (another nod to Apple’s AirPods Max) on the right earcup or by touching the left earcup with your hand to toggle between transparency mode or noise canceling. This mix of touch controls and physical controls is perhaps the only annoying thing I found with the OnTrac; I kept accidentally brushing the earcup and turning off ANC when I was doing yard work. I wish that was just another button on one side or the other, rather than controlled by touch.

Photograph: Parker Hall

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August 15, 2024