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Even Realities is releasing the next version of its lightweight smart glasses, and this time it’s pairing them with an entirely new device that will act as both a controller and health tracker. The Even G2 Display Smart Glasses are a more refined version of the G1 smart glasses, and you’ll be able to interact with them without having to touch the frames or uses voice commands thanks to the new Even R1 Smart Ring.

The G2 features an updated version of the Even Realities’ HAO optical engine (a combination of micro-LED projectors, waveguides and digitally surfaced lenses), that still displays text in bright green, but now with added depth and sharpness. For example, Even Realities says the new glasses can display pop-ups like AI prompts and notifications at a different depth from the glasses’ normal interface, so you don’t lose the context of whatever you’re reading. The G2 also supports a wider range of prescription lenses (from -12 to +12 diopters), making them more accessible to people who already wear glasses.

In comparison to the G1, Even Realities says the G2 has 54 percent slimmer temples and, in a first for the company, is IP67-rated for dust and water resistance. The G2 also gets two days of battery life in comparison to the G1’s one and a half days, and its charging case can provide up to seven full charges.

The R1 looks a lot like a third-generation Oura Ring.

While the G2 glasses can still be controlled by tapping a built-in touchpad or using voice commands, the R1 Smart Ring will let you interact with the smart glasses without moving your arm. The R1 is made from ceramic and medical-grade stainless steel, and features a flat touchpad surface for activating the G2’s interface. Besides a touch sensor for navigation, the R1 also includes an optical heart rate sensor and accelerometer for tracking your heart rate and steps, which can be viewed on the G2. While less technically advanced than the Neural Band Meta included with the Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses, Even Realities ring seems like it can make controlling its glasses similarly discrete, while being useful in its own right as a health tracker.

Even Realities is also adding a new AI skill alongside its glasses and ring. The G2 supports the same translation, notifications and teleprompter features as the company’s last model, but this time includes a feature called “Conversate” that attempts to offer AI-generated information during conversations. Even Realities says Conversate can provide explanations, context and follow-up questions during a conversation, and then generate a summary and key points once you’re finished talking. The whole thing sounds a bit distracting, but might be something you have to demo to understand.

The G2 glasses also charge in a travel case.

That extra layer of complication seems inherent to the pitch for both the G2 glasses and the R1 ring. While Even Realities has made its smart glasses more convenient, and they’re definitely not trying to be a phone replacement in the same way Meta’s glasses are, they do seem like they’ll have more of a learning curve than the last generation.

The Even G2 Display Smart Glasses and Even R1 Smart Ring are available to order today, November 12, for $599 and $249, respectively. Even Realities says that anyone who purchases the G2 will be able to receive the R1 and other accessories for 50 percent off for a limited time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/even-realities-g2-smart-glasses-can-be-controlled-with-a-smart-ring-151500125.html?src=rss 

A lot of people think the original Google Glass failed because of subpar tech. But the larger issue was that they were so ugly that people simply didn’t want to wear them. And when it’s a device that sits on your face, that’s kind of important. Thankfully, that’s a lesson Even Realities seemingly took to heart when it made the G1, which combined the stylishness of proper eyewear with built-in waveguide displays. Now the company is back with its second-gen smart glasses  — the G2 — which offer even better optics, an updated UI and a companion ring (the R1) to their expanded list of features. 

While the design of the Even G2 hasn’t changed a ton from its predecessor, that’s not a bad thing as there wasn’t much to fix. Compared to every other pair of smart glasses on sale today, these look the most like normal eyewear. Meanwhile, thanks to a titanium and magnesium alloy design and the company’s very intentional decision not to include onboard cameras or speakers, the new model only weighs 36 grams, so they’re also super comfortable. You even get two styles to choose from (panto or rectangular) along with a few different finishes (gray, brown and green), so chances are there’s a combination that will work with your wardrobe. The Even G2 also features an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, so you don’t need to worry about wearing them in adverse conditions. 

The G2’s battery life can last up to two days, while its case has juice for up to seven additional charges.

The G2’s optics are based on the company’s new Even HAO 2.0 (Holistic Adaptive Optics) that use custom-designed dual waveguides to produce a green heads-up display. It’s not only brighter and sharper than before but also features a wider field of view. Now admittedly, that’s not quite as impressive as the single RGB display in something like the Ray-Ban Meta Display. But considering that the Even G2 is way less chunky and sports significantly longer battery life (up to two days plus seven full recharges from its included case), that feels like a worthy trade-off to deliver increased usability.

However, the biggest upgrade for the G2 is an expanded roster of smart features. In addition to showing notifications, turn-by-turn directions and the teleprompter functionality available on the previous model, Even has developed a much more robust UI that lets you read the news, track stock prices and create lists using your voice. There is now an onboard AI assistant and LLM that can translate speech on the fly or pick out key words during a conversation to give more background and context about unfamiliar terms. This means the glasses can handle a lot of tasks you’d normally need your phone for, which is great if you’re walking around, or similarly indisposed, and would rather keep your hands free. 

In addition to basic health and fitness tracking, the R1 ring also has a tiny built-in touchpad (denoted by the four dots) to make it easier to navigate the G2’s new UI and menus.

While you can access most of these features using voice controls, the icing on the cake is the R1 companion ring that makes better use of the new UI. Not only does it track some basic health and fitness data (steps, heart rate, sleep, SpO2 and more), it also serves as a tiny touchpad so you can check notifications, revisit your notes and more without anyone nearby knowing what you’re up to. All told, the G2 glasses and the R1 ring create a very stylish and discreet package that allows you to stay connected and keep your phone in your pocket. 

That said, you might want to wait before throwing money down on these. I’ve been testing the G2 and R1 over the past few days, and even though I really like the hardware, the company’s software just isn’t ready yet. It’s important to note that I’ve been using a beta version of the Even Realties app, so encountering some bugs was not entirely unexpected. But even so, the touch controls on the ring feel imprecise and occasionally erratic. Many of the fitness metrics aren’t being properly recorded and both devices have had a difficult time staying paired to the app. Even little things, like the auto brightness settings (which don’t work at the moment) or ability to add more sources to the glasses’ news feed, feel janky. The only outlet I’ve been able to successfully use is ABC. 

While the tech and features of the G2 are very interesting, I’ve run into a number of software issues while using a beta version of the app.

Granted, some of the G2 and R1’s issues that I’ve run into, like wonky touch input and the unfinished health tracking, are known problems that are currently being worked on by Even Realities. Still, this feels like a situation where the launch of these devices should have been delayed until the company could smooth out these hiccups.

But if you are undeterred, the Even G2 Display Smart Glasses and Even R1 Smart Ring go on sale today for $599 and $249, respectively. For everyone else, I’m hoping to check back in on these devices after the company pushes out some software updates. I’m eager to see if they can eventually live up to their potential as an interesting alternative to bigger, chunkier and more intrusive smartglass alternatives like the Ray-Ban Meta Displays.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/even-realities-g2-first-look-this-years-best-looking-new-smart-glasses-still-need-work-151500132.html?src=rss 

The Analogue 3D is finally set to ship to buyers. After several delays, Analogue is set to start sending out its 4K remake of the Nintendo 64 on November 18, as spotted by — appropriately enough — Wario64. If you haven’t already locked in a pre-order, however, you face a longer wait, as both the black and white variants of the $250 system are out of stock.

Unless there’s a last-minute hitch, the company behind the Analogue Pocket will stick to the promise it made in August to ship the 3D in the last quarter of 2025. Analogue previously delayed the 3D in March and then again in July.

As with other Analogue systems, the console uses an FPGA (field programmable gate array) chip to emulate Nintendo’s original hardware. FPGA-based systems are more accurate than software emulation options and tend to have lower input lag.

Analogue claims the 3D will support every N64 cartridge — both PAL and NTSC variants — without any inaccuracies or slowdowns. I’m interested to see how well that promise will hold up in a four-player round of Perfect Dark.

The 3D delivers 4K output and supports variable refresh rate. You’ll be able to use “original display mode” filters to replicate the look of playing on a CRT or PVM. There’s still always the option of picking up an N64, but Analogue’s approach to scaling might make the 3D the best way to play N64 games (using original cartridges) on modern TVs.

The 3D has four ports into which you can plug original N64 controllers. It also has a USB-C power port, two USB ports for accessories (such as third-party controllers) and an HDMI port. In addition, the console has a Wi-Fi chip that can be used for operating system updates. The Analogue 3D only officially runs games from N64 cartridges. I’m 100 percent sure that no one will jailbreak the system to boot ROMs from the SD card slot. Nope, no way.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/analogues-4k-remake-of-the-n64-will-at-long-last-ship-on-november-18-151854397.html?src=rss 

At this point, the streaming music landscape feels pretty well settled. Giants like Spotify, Amazon, Apple and YouTube duke it out at the top, while plenty of other players like Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer try their best to stand out from the pack. Somewhat surprisingly, though, a new player emerged in September. Coda Music used the recent backlash around Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek as a way to differentiate itself from the number one streamer, calling out Ek’s controversial funding of defense technology firm Helsing earlier in the year. (Spotify’s refusal to stop airing ICE recruitment ads certainly hasn’t helped the platform, either.)

Today, the fledgling service is announcing a new feature that feels designed to answer another of the recent Spotify controversies: AI slop music flooding the platform. In response, Coda Music is launching AI identification tools with the purpose of finding and labeling songs that weren’t composed by actual humans.

There are a few prongs to Coda’s approach. For starters, any artist added to Coda will be reviewed for AI origins, and their profile will be labeled “AI Artist” so that listeners know what they’re getting into. Coda is also letting users flag profiles of artists if they suspect the music is AI-generated; the company will then review them and label them if necessary.

Finally, there’s a toggle in settings that just lets you turn off AI artists entirely. Obviously, how useful this setting is will depend on how good Coda gets at labeling AI-created music as such, but I can definitely see the appeal in just flipping that to “off” and avoiding as much slop as possible.

Besides its stance on AI and the assurance that the company does not “invest in war,” there are a few other differentiators about Coda Music. The company says that it currently paying the “highest per-stream rate” in the industry — while at the same time, it acknowledges that no one is paying enough to artists. “The real problem isn’t how much is paid per stream, it’s that streaming alone doesn’t pay enough,” the company’s website says. “And minor improvements to a fundamentally flawed per stream model will not help.”

To that end, the company also lets users pick an “independent or qualifying artist” who gets $1 of their monthly subscription fee. Sure, it’s only a dollar, but it’s the kind of thing that sweetens the pot at least a little bit for musicians.

And Coda has good reason to want to make itself visible to users and artists alike. The last major differentiator for Coda is the company’s ambitions to turn its app into a social, music-sharing feed where you get recommendations from humans rather than algorithms. To that end, users can share anything from the app in their feed, and it also allows you to share external links and photos as well (go ahead and post your blurry images from that NIN concert!).

The app’s home page prominently features fan-made playlists and recommended users to follow in addition to the usual suggestions based on what you’re listening to already. And there’s a social tab where you can see posts from people you follow; share songs, artists or albums; and see posts from artists you follow. That last part is key, as Coda wants artists interacting and sharing as well as just end users.

It reminds me a little bit of the Fan Groups feature that Amazon Music just announced — and as with that feature, the problem facing Coda is getting people to start contributing to a new network rather than just posting things on whatever app they’re already using. Fortunately, music nerds love a community, so it’ll be interesting to see if this takes off at all.

As for the new features for reporting and filtering out AI music, Coda says they’re available as of today in its iOS and Android apps. The company doesn’t have a web interface yet, but says it is coming soon. If ducking AI-generated tunes is something that catches your attention, Coda currently costs $11 a month, or $17 per month for a family plan with up to four listeners.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/new-streaming-app-coda-music-is-rolling-out-tools-for-labeling-and-blocking-ai-generated-tunes-140000530.html?src=rss 

Following a teaser in September that confirmed the movie’s title, Nintendo and animation studio Illumination unleashed the first proper trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in a dedicated Nintendo Direct. The sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the highest-grossing movie based on video games, will hit theaters in the US on April 3.

The trailer opens with Bowser engaging in a little art therapy, which, honestly, could be really great for him. Mario can’t help put put down Bowser’s artwork, though. What a jerk. From there, the action riffs on Super Mario Galaxy as Peach and Toad use launch stars to travel to a different planet. I don’t want to give away everything that happens, so just watch the trailer. The visuals, as you’d expect from Illumination, look terrific.

The trailer also confirms the addition of two fan-favorite characters this time around: Rosalina (who takes out a giant robot with her abilities) and Bowser Jr, who is taking his father’s place as the sequel’s villain. Rosalina is played by Brie Larson, while Benny Safdie voice Bowser Jr.

An extra clip after the trailer shows Rosalina reading a story about Princess Peach to a group of Lumas. Another features Bowser Jr. promising that “the Bowser name shall be feared once more.” Ominous!

However, the Direct didn’t include any indication of Yoshi appearing in the film. An Easter egg at the end of the first movie showed Yoshi’s egg cracking. Plus, a Pillsbury cookie box — of all things — all but confirmed Yoshi would be in the movie, while hinting at the inclusion of Princess Rosalina and Bowser Jr. We’ll perhaps have to wait until the next trailer to get a glimpse of Mario’s dino pal, who’ll probably be green even though everyone knows in their heart blue Yoshi is the best Yoshi.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-super-mario-galaxy-movie-trailer-confirms-rosalina-and-bowser-jr-are-in-the-sequel-142815627.html?src=rss