Get Beats Studio Pro headphones with AppleCare+ for $174

It’s all too easy to accidentally damage a piece of tech, which is why many Apple fans opt to pay for the company’s AppleCare+ coverage for piece of mind. It’s perhaps not too often that you see deals involving AppleCare+, but there’s a solid one on the Beats Studio Pro at the minute. You can snap up a pair with two years of AppleCare+ coverage for $174. That’s a discount of $205.

Given that the headphones by themselves cost $180, you’re effectively getting 24 months of AppleCare+ protection for zilch and saving five bucks on the headphones. The deal applies to the black, navy and sandstone colorways but not the deep brown variant.

We gave the headphones a score of 81 in our review last year. The improved sound quality (compared with previous Beats over-ear headphones) and voice clarity were major plus points. The transparency mode, a feature that wasn’t present in the Beats Studio 3, works fairly well too. Meanwhile, if you plug the headphones into your audio source via USB-C, you can enjoy lossless music at sample rates up to 24-bit/48kHz thanks to the built-in digital-to-analog converter. Dynamic head tracking is a neat feature, while some reviewers have pointed out that the Beats Studio Pro play nicely with Android devices too.

Unfortunately, the headphones might be a tight fit for some folks given their clamping force. We found the lack of automatic pausing and multipoint iOS connectivity to be disappointing, particularly in the latter case since this is an Apple product.

AppleCare+ for Headphones builds on the one year of limited warranty and 90 days of technical support you get as standard with Apple’s audio gear. It adds round-the-clock access to Apple experts by phone or chat, along with unlimited incidents of accidental damage protection for the two-year coverage period. You’ll just need to pay a $29 fee for each repair..

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-beats-studio-pro-headphones-with-applecare-for-174-150034075.html?src=rss 

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is coming to PC, PlayStation and Xbox on October 17

If there was ever a movie franchise that was seemingly made to be turned into a video game, it would be A Quiet Place. The films are basically already stealth horror titles. The premise, after all, involves bloodthirsty and noise-sensitive aliens. To that end, we already knew the franchise was getting the gaming treatment. Now we have an official release date of October 17 for the first digital spinoff. 

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a first-person horror adventure that’s set in the same world as the movies, but tells a brand new story. In other words, you won’t be controlling a digital John Krasinski or a digital Lupita Nyong’o. You’ll play as a brand-new character charting her own path in this royally screwed up dystopia.

Just like the movies, players will have to rely on their wits and whatever simple tools they find when scavenging about, like flashlights and noise detectors. Developer Stormind Games, who was behind Remothered and Batora: Lost Haven, promises both thrills and chills. Today’s release date trailer certainly confirms that. The spooky vibes are off the chart.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Pre-orders are available right now and early purchasers get “exclusive in-game content and digital concept art.” The game costs $30.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-quiet-place-the-road-ahead-is-coming-to-pc-playstation-and-xbox-on-october-17-151706002.html?src=rss 

Olympian Ana Barbosu Reacts to Missing the Bronze Medal After Jordan Chiles’ Score Change

The Romanian Olympian was initially in third place to medal, but Jordan’s appeal secured her the bronze instead of Ana.

The Romanian Olympian was initially in third place to medal, but Jordan’s appeal secured her the bronze instead of Ana. 

Google’s latest Nest Learning Thermostat is much bigger and offers a customizable display

Google just announced a refresh of the Nest Learning Thermostat ahead of next week’s Made by Google event. The fourth-gen smart thermostat has been completely redesigned, with a new form factor and plenty of updated features.

The LCD display is 60 percent larger than what’s found with the (now ancient) third generation, with a curved front that eliminates the appearance of bezels. Basically, the whole thing is a screen now, with no giant black plastic loop around the exterior. This leads us to another new feature. The larger display allows for more personalization, as the fourth-gen Nest offers customizable faces. This works just like how it does with smartwatches. You can turn the face into a clock, change colors or transform the background into something artsy. 

Google

No matter which face you choose, the UI automatically adjusts what’s displayed on the screen depending on how far you’re standing from the thermostat. For instance, the font will be bigger the further you step back. This is all thanks to integrated Soli radar sensors.

As for the actual inner workings of the thermostat, the new Nest leverages AI for more accurate readings and to offer potential actions to save money on that monthly energy bill. It’ll even take action on its own depending on the ambient temperature and other factors. The thermostat also comes with one wireless temperature sensor that you can place anywhere. This is helpful for sussing out cold spots or when trying to find a perfect average temperature across the whole home. Google says this wireless device can go for three years before requiring a battery replacement. You can also buy these separately, as each Nest integrates with up to six sensors.

The device boasts some eco-friendly bona-fides. The internal battery is made entirely from recycled cobalt and the packaging is free from plastic. Pre-orders for the new Nest Learning Thermostat are open right now, with shipments beginning on August 20. It’s available in three colors, including silver, black and gold. Each thermostat costs $280, with additional temperature sensors priced at $40 or $100 for a three-pack.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/googles-latest-nest-learning-thermostat-is-much-bigger-and-offers-a-customizable-display-130045155.html?src=rss 

The Google TV Streamer is the next big upgrade to the Chromecast line

Up until now, Google’s Chromecast line has been largely focused on making it easy to watch shows and movies on your favorite big screen. But with the new Google TV Streamer, Google finally has a proper set-top box for binging content that also supports a much broader range of smart home controls.

Design: From dongle to wedge

Coming just a week ahead of Google’s upcoming Made By event, perhaps the biggest change for the TV Streamer is switching from being a simple dongle that hangs off your TV to a truly standalone device that lives on your media console. Google says its wedge-shaped design is meant to blend in easily with your decor when sitting in front of your TV so that it offers better reception for its included remote and other smart home devices (more on that later).

The Google TV Streamer will be available in two colors: porcelain white and hazel, the latter of which will be exclusively direct from Google.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Google has also given the Streamer TV a massive hardware upgrade compared to the Chromecast with Google TV from 2020, including a 22 percent faster CPU, double the RAM (4GB instead of 2GB) and four times more storage (32GB total). That might not sound like a ton, but considering that the previous model often ran out of space for downloading basic streaming apps, that’s a much-needed improvement. Streaming resolution caps out at 4K/60fps, though you do get support for HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and spatial audio (when paired with Google Pixel Buds).

Furthermore, there’s an HDMI 1.1 jack, a powered USB-C port and a dedicated Ethernet slot for people who want peak bandwidth for streaming. Google also made the remote a touch longer while moving the volume rocker to the top and adding a customizable button that can be set to launch your favorite app, switch inputs or summon the new smart home control center. And just like before, there’s a built-in microphone and a button for summoning the Google Assistant.

Smart home: Becoming a proper device hub

Here’s a sample of what the Google TV Streamer’s new smart home control panel looks like.

Google

This brings me to the Google Streamer’s improved smart home capabilities. Not only does it support Matter, it also features a built-in Thread border router for easily communicating with the other devices in your house. On top of that, the TV Streamer is getting its own version of the Google Home panel (which we’ve seen on previous Pixel phones and Nest Hubs) so that it’s easier to adjust things like smart lights while also giving you the ability to view feeds from your security cameras and video doorbells.

New AI features

Finally, it wouldn’t be a 2024 Google device without some new AI features. Thanks to Gemini, the TV Streamer can create custom recommendations based on the kind of content you watch and generate summaries, reviews or even season-by-season breakdowns for stuff you haven’t. There’s also an ambient TV mode that allows you to pull screensavers or memories from your Google Photos library. However, if you want something a bit more unique, you can also use AI to generate something fantastical. Meanwhile, if you lose the remote, you can ask the Google Assistant (not Gemini) to help you find it or you can simply press the dedicated button on the back of the box.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

So while I haven’t had much chance to dive into its features, with the new TV Streamer, at last it feels like Google has a significantly more capable smart home hub that’s also a true rival to the Apple TV 4K and other Android-based boxes like the NVIDIA Shield TV. The Google TV Streamer costs $100 and is available for pre-order today with official sales beginning September 24. It will be available in two colors: porcelain white and hazel, the latter of which will be available exclusively from the Google Store.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/the-google-tv-streamer-is-the-next-big-upgrade-to-the-chromecast-line-130034951.html?src=rss 

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