The gorgeous and feature-packed LG C3 is one of the best OLED TVs on the market, and Amazon has just dropped the 48-inch model to $996.99 (was $1,399.99). That’s the best deal you can find right now and an incredible price for an LG OLED display.
The LG C3 OLED TV is a successor to last year’s best-rated TV, the LG C2, and includes upgrades such as the brand’s latest and greatest image processor, the Alpha9 Gen6 chip – which delivers a gorgeous picture with improved brightness and contrast. The LG C3 also packs a new webOS experience and four HDMI 2.1 ports, which gamers will love for next-gen consoles, plus Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos support inside an ultra-thin, sleek design.
It’s rare to find a premium OLED display under $1,000, especially for a 2023 model TV. If you’re looking for a smaller-size display but still want a stunning picture, a comprehensive smart interface, and extensive gaming features, then I highly recommend today’s deal from Amazon on the LG C3 OLED TV.
Sony is one of the biggest heavyweights in the audio world. It’s the maker of the best headphones and even stands out among the highly congested Bluetooth speaker space, carving out a spot in the best waterproof speakers. While its consumer business as a whole doesn’t have a completely flawless track record, it has made a name for itself as delivering the best-in-class when it comes to audio.
But a lot of its rivals are closing the gap in the race to balance innovative features, increasing support for hi-res audio quality and minimal designs all with an appealing price point, so to keep pace with the fast cycle of consumer tech Sony is kicking off 2024 with a brand new audio product range built around a particular frequency, one it believes to bring the “ultimate vibe”.
What is this new special sound? Well, it’s not exactly new, more like a throwback to the 2021 released WH-XB910N mid-range headphones that were factory tuned to deliver an extra oomph for bass-heavy listeners. It’s called Ult Power Sound and if you’re a fan of genres like hip-hop, metal, funk, blues, jazz, edm and you find yourself always looking for this one particular EQ setting to tune up, then you’re going to love Sony’s new line of booming speakers and headphones.
Let’s start with the headphones. If you’ve seen the rumors about Sony planning to launch new mid-range headphones that would specialize in hitting those low notes, I can now officially tell you those are finally here. Disappointed these aren’t the highly anticipated WH-1000XM6? Don’t be. The all-new Ult Wear headphones might appear to be pitched as a middleweight champion, but it certainly punches above its weight.
The Ult Wear looks a lot like our favorite Sony WH-1000XM5 premium headphones. In fact, it even shares a lot of features, including the V1 integrated processor inside the cans, which means it can support hi-res audio codecs like LDAC. Its feature set is broad. You’re getting Active Noise Cancellation, two dedicated bass sound modes, multi-point pairing, USB-C charging, light and foldable design, up to 30 hours of battery life, beam-forming mics as well as Bluetooth 5.2 and a 3.5mm jack for wired listening.
(Image credit: Future)
What’s truly unique about the headphones is the specially tuned bass modes that you can switch between via the app or by pressing a dedicated button on the side of the earcups. These are ‘Deep Bass’ and ‘Attack Bass’, the latter of which offers a more energized listen. ‘Deep Bass’ on the other hand has a fatter synthesized bassline that Sony’s training and technical marketing manager Mike Somerset tells me is more popular with a younger crowd.
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The Sony Ult Wear headphones are available in three colors – black, off white and forest gray – and have a launch price of $199 in the US, £180 in the UK and AU$439 in Australia.
Sony’s new speakers: the Field 1, Field 7 and Tower 10
(Image credit: Future)
Alongside the new Ult Wear headphones, Sony is launching not one, not two but three new Bluetooth speakers – all of which are built around Ult Power Sound (both the ULT Tower 10 and Field 7 have same two Deep Bass and Attack Bass sound modes available). Each speaker grows considerably in size from the other, with the largest being over a meter tall.
This is the ULT Tower 10 (see specs in the table below) and with four tweeters, two balanced speakers and two passive radiators, it’s probably not surprising to hear that it is capable of delivering big room-filling sound that’s far larger than any of the best party speakers we’ve reviewed. I was able to get a sneak preview of the speaker at a pre-launch event in a music venue in London and if it wasn’t for seeing it play, I could have been easily fooled to think that it was the venue’s built-in music system.
(Image credit: Future)
The ULT Field 7 is the slightly smaller version of the meaty bass speaker mentioned above. It’s meant to be a more portable version, still capable of delivering big sound thanks to the two tweeters, two balanced speakers and two passive radiators inside. Like the ULT Tower 10, you can use the Field 7 as a party speaker, with mic and guitar inputs (although it doesn’t come with a mic).
(Image credit: Future)
Last but certainly not least, there’s the ULT Field 1. It’s the more portable offering out of the three Bluetooth speakers so doesn’t share all the features that its larger peers have. It still has a hardy IP67 rating (like the ULT Field 7), which means you can dunk it in water and it will be fine, but given its size and likely use cases, Sony has added shockproof protection from bumps and drops. See how the three speakers compare below:
New information regarding the 2021 AT&T breach is emerging.
The company reduced the number of affected individuals by almost a third, from the initial 70 million, down to 51 million. It also said it started notifying them of the breach, and offered identity theft monitoring and protection services.
For the uninitiated, back in 2021, a privacy blog RestorePrivacy reported that a threat actor was selling a huge database of current and former AT&T customers on a dark web forum. AT&T denied that it was its database, and claimed that its systems were not breached.
Financial information not included
Fast forward to 2024, and a different threat actor leaked the entire database, prompting the same response from the telco giant. However, after multiple media publications independently verified the authenticity and source of the data, AT&T came clean. However, it still didn’t say how the hackers obtained the database.
In any case, the company revised the number of affected individuals, pinning it down to 51,226,382. Apparently, many of the people on the list had duplicate entries.
“The [exposed] information varied by individual and account, but may have included full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, AT&T account number and AT&T passcode,” the company said in the breach notification. “To the best of our knowledge, personal financial information and call history were not included. Based on our investigation to date, the data appears to be from June 2019 or earlier.”
When asked about the difference in the number of impacted customers, AT&T told BleepingComputer the database held many duplicates:
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“We are sending a communication to each person whose sensitive personal information was included. Some people had more than one account in the dataset, and others did not have sensitive personal information.”.
Music streaming service Tidal has launched a new hi-res streaming option at an Apple Music-matching price.
For $10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99 per month, Tidal will bundle the high-resolution audio option with its lossless audio tier, giving subscribers access to high-quality music streaming for a competitive price.
As such, people with some of the best headphones and the best earbuds will be able to take advantage of a music library with more than 110 million tracks streamed at a lossless quality and supporting hi-res FLAC. People with compatible headphones and ear buds, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5, will also be able to listen to music in Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format and tap into Dolby Atmos.
While Tidal pipped the likes of Apple Music and Spotify to the post with hi-res audio streaming, it charged a high price for such access. So this reduction in price and smart bundling of services – HiFi Plus subscribers will be automatically switched to the combined option – not only increases the appeal of Tidal, it makes it arguably more appealing than Spotify and Apple Music.
That’s because the former has gone the other way and increased its Premium service by $1/£1 more than Tidal’s new tier without offering lossless or hi-res audio options (all users have is the option to select tracks to stream or download in “very high” quality), and Apple Music has a smaller library.
Changing tides
Now speaking as a Spotify Premium user, this move by Tidal has me seriously considering swapping.
Tidal offers a curated listening experience that arguably beats Spotify, with offline listening, a lot of exclusive audio options including radio, podcasts as well as music, and the aforementioned spatial/surround audio compatibility.
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So all of that and a lower price than Spotify is a compelling argument for people to make a jump to Tidal. For me, there’s the question of getting used to a new user interface, the potential for porting over playlists and whether my podcasts of choice are even available on Tidal. But there’s a free trial for Tidal, so I feel compelled to try it out and maybe you should too.
Fitness tracker brand Polar has brought a new firmware update to its best running watch, the Polar Vantage V3. It’s available to install now, and you can update your watch by using the Flow mobile app or via computer using FlowSync.
In the midst of the rollout of Polar’s latest running watch, the Grit X2 Pro, the Polar Vantage V3 will receive some of the X2 Pro’s features thanks to a new firmware update (version 2.0.19). While it’s already a solid choice for a fitness tracker, having received almost full marks in our review last year, the firmware update will boost the V3’s capabilities with the addition of three new training metrics for a number of outdoor sports.
The first is Vertical Speed, a feature that will calculate your meters/feet ascended or descended per minute. VAM is the second advanced metric, which measures your average ascent speed per hour in vertical meters. The third training feature is 3D Speed, a feature that takes data from both vertical and horizontal movement to measure your speed more accurately.
(Image credit: Polar)
In addition to the three advanced tracking features, the firmware update will enhance the Polar Vantage V3’s navigation, optical heart rate (OHR) accuracy, and third-party app compatibility. This includes the addition of the Breadcrumb Trails step retrace feature, syncing your Komoot and Strava routes with Polar Flow, and refreshing the OHR algorithm.
While the Polar Grit X2 Pro smartwatch has only just started its shipping process after a delay, this latest firmware update brings a broad variety of the Grit X2 Pro’s advanced tracking features to the already-excellent Polar Vantage V3. This offers existing Polar users the chance to test out the Grit X Pro’s new tools without having to purchase an entirely new model.
However, it’s convenient that Polar dropped its new firmware at the same time it started the shipping process for the Grit X2 Pro, which poses the question of whether this was an intentional move.
Analysis: coincidence, or strategy?
Just last week, Polar put out a statement announcing that it was postponing the shipping for Grit X2 Pro pre-orders until this week (April 8-12). Polar claimed that this was due to the firmware being in the final stages of development, which plays smoothly into the theories behind the shipping delay.
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It’s possible the underdeveloped firmware may have genuinely been what caused the shipping delay, but by pausing the shipping process, it gave Polar extra time to not only polish up its new advanced firmware but also rethink its outroll strategy.
Polar had planned this rollout for a while according to a Notebookcheck report, but since the Polar Vantage V3 is still relatively new, there’s a chance that buyers would have reverted to purchasing the already excellent V3 over the new Grit X2 Pro, if the firmware had been released before the new model.
The Grit X2 Pro is pitched squarely against premium offerings such as the Garmin Epix Pro, so for the Vantage 3 to get some of its features brings that watch up several notches. It might even be more impressive than a Garmin Forerunner, depending on the price you can pick it up for.
This might have changed your mind about purchasing the more expensive Grit X2 Pro, but stay tuned for our full review to find out if it really beats the Vantage V3 at its own game.
According to new research from Clarify Capital, nearly three in five (58%) workers feel obligated to respond to work messages outside of working hours, despite a similar number (59%) of business executives and bosses saying that they do not expect responses from employees.
The study of 800 employees and 200 business executives comes hot on the heels of proposed legislation in California designed to reassert work-life boundaries, known as the ‘right to disconnect’ bill.
An increasingly digitalized workplace combined with a more spread-out workforce, thanks to the introduction of hybrid working following the pandemic, is to blame for the breakdown of boundaries.
Workers agree with the ‘right to disconnect’ bill
The statistics reveal a promising trend, with more than four in five (83%) workers expressing their support for the proposed legislation. While the support from business execs is slightly lower (75%), the consensus on the necessity to disconnect from work outside of contracted hours is clear.
On average, two in five workers were found to be available to respond to messages for at least nine hours per day, and employees of smaller companies (defined as having 10-49 workers) felt most obligated (67%) to respond to untimely messages.
Despite the call for greater flexibility by workers, hybrid and remote employees were found to be the most prepared to pick up messages, indicating that there are pros and cons to having greater flexibility.
Furthermore, as many as one in three business executives expect their employees to pick up messages outside of working hours, and nearly twice as many (14% vs 8%) are likely to oppose the bill.
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As the debate surrounding the ‘right to disconnect’ bill continues, the disparity between workers and companies is becoming increasingly obvious, and the world continues to watch on with the proposed legislation likely to have a strong influence over other states and nations.
AI roundup: In a race to bring AI to smartphones, Oppo and OnePlus partner with Google to bring the Gemini Ultra platform to smartphones. This move will allow smartphone brands to provide improved integration of AI. In other news, Adobe is currently developing its artificial intelligence text-to-video generator for which it is buying videos to train the model. Know more about such AI news from today.
Oppo and OnePlus to bring Gemini Ultra AI to smartphones
Oppo and OnePlus confirm the partnership with Google to bring the Gemini Ultra platform to smartphones. The companies are currently working on building the required hardware operating system, and ecosystem for smooth AI integration. Nicole Zhang, general manager of AI Product for OPPO and OnePlus also revealed their multiple generative AI models launched in China, according to a Moneycontrol report.
To train and develop an artificial intelligence text-to-video generator, Adobe is reported to buying videos for $3 per minute to compete with OpenAI’s newly announced AI video tool, Sora. Additionally, the company is offering $120 to photographers and artists for submitting their creations for “people engaged in everyday actions such as walking or expressing emotions including joy and anger,” according to a Bloomberg report.
3. US export blacklist Chinese AI chip-making firms
The United States blacklisted several Chinese companies in export practices. It was revealed that these companies were supplying AI chips to the military. The Commerce Department’s Kevin Kurland, an export enforcement official said that these companies are “involved with providing AI chips to China’s military modernization programs.” The Chinese companies include LINKZOL (Beijing) Technology Co, Xi’an Like Innovative Information Technology Co, Beijing Anwise Technology Co and SITONHOLY (Tianjin) Co., according to a Reuters report.
4. Amazon Vice President of AGI share thoughts about the future of AI
Amazon Vice President of Artificial General Intelligence, Vishal Sharma shared his in-depth views on the future of AI. Vishal said, “ I genuinely believe that artificial intelligence (AI) has brought us to an inflexion point and that if we harness its power correctly, it is capable of tackling some of the biggest challenges we face as humanity.” He quoted four reasons in support of AI: AI will bring invention, Boost the availability of resources, enhance the physical world, and collaboration will bring safe use of AI, according to a press release.
5. OpenAI founder Sam Altman in an effort to build a global AI coalition
OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently visited the United Arab Emirates to discuss how the private sector can work with countries to boost infrastructure for AI. Altman is reportedly building a global AI coalition between the government and several industry leaders to increase the supply of chips and other tech resources to develop artificial intelligence technology. A spokesperson for OpenAI also said, “As previously reported, OpenAI is having ongoing conversations about increasing global infrastructure and supply chains for chips, energy and data centres,” according to a Bloomberg report.
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Investors are becoming more optimistic about Alphabet Inc.’s artificial intelligence strategy, after a run of glitches and misfires that sent its shares tumbling.
The stock is heading back toward what would be a record $2 trillion market value — a milestone surpassed only by Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp. in the United States. It has rallied back from last month’s low, when the shares dropped on concerns the company was falling behind in AI.
Google eyes enterprise-ready AI solutions
Using this week’s cloud event to show that its AI model is enterprise-ready despite recent stumbles in its consumer-facing tools, focus is now turning to this month’s earnings and a developer’s conference in May. While Alphabet’s path to AI monetization is still seen as cloudy, the stock’s relatively cheap valuation has kept it attractive to many on Wall Street.
“While the headlines haven’t been favorable, Google’s role in generative AI products will present massive growth opportunities for the stock,” said Sylvia Jablonski, chief executive officer at Defiance ETFs. Alphabet is also set to benefit from making its own generative AI tools that can power more precise ads and increase revenues from ad spend, she added.
Alphabet’s misfiring Gemini product had been viewed as a major setback for a firm known for its technological prowess, with the company in February pausing an image generation feature that drew criticism over inaccurate historical depictions of race.
The company’s cloud computing conference in Las Vegas this week offered investors some reassurance, as the firm showed how Gemini can be used to create advertisements, prevent cybersecurity threats and spin up short videos and podcasts. Google also showed a new chip designed to handle AI workloads.
Apple to use Google’s Gemini?
News that Apple Inc. is considering using Google’s Gemini technology to power AI services added more fuel to the rebound. Up to the last close, shares are up 12% this year.
“Google’s hardware advances, Gemini progress, and AI driven app demos should help sentiment on AI capabilities,” Bank of Amercia Corp. analyst Justin Post wrote in a note Tuesday. “We see Cloud as positive driver for stock given AI credibility, faster growth, improving margins.”
The stock trades at 21 times forward earnings, below Microsoft’s 33 times, and about the same as the S&P 500 Index. Alphabet shares rose 0.7% on Thursday.
Still, not all are convinced by the discount, despite “plenty of people that are making the argument that it’s so cheap right now,” said Michael Lippert, vice president and portfolio manager at the Baron Opportunity Fund.
Given the competitive search space, Alphabet “should be investing every single dollar at a higher ROI (return on investment) into their own businesses,” he said.
For now, the company’s updates have at least offered investors some encouragement. JP Morgan Chase & Co. analyst Doug Anmuth noting this week that he expected Gemini integration to result in more than 20% revenue growth for Google Cloud.
Electronic Arts has announced that it will be increasing the cost of its EA Play subscription service next month.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, beginning on May 10 the EA Play standard tier will increase from $4.99 / £3.99 per month to $5.99 / £5.99, while the annual package will rise from $29.99 / £19.99 to $39.99 / £35.99.
As for the EA Play Pro tier, which offers more in-game rewards, perks, and access to brand-new EA games at launch, it will be increasing from $14.99 / £14.99 to $16.99 / £16.99, while the annual subscription will rise from $119.99 / £109.99 to $99.99 / £89.99.
As previously mentioned, the new price adjustment will come into effect early next month, but subscribers have already been emailed detailing the changes.
However, IGN reports that the changes have already been implemented for new members. In addition, it seems the new membership tiers appear to have been updated already and are currently applied to the EA App, while the pricing for the Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox versions shows the old pricing.
GameIndustry’s report continues, adding that EA is increasing its prices to reflect changes in currency value and “to bring fees in line with market value.”
EA Play first launched in 2014 for the Xbox One before it eventually made its way onto PS4 and PC in 2019 and 2020.
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The prodigal Prince has returned, and his comeback has gone down so well that he is doing it a second time. After his Metroidvania adventures in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which came out in January, gaming’s iconic dual-blade wielding royalty is coming back for seconds in The Rogue Prince of Persia, a new 2D action-platforming rogue-lite title, arriving in Early Access on Steam on May 14. Developed by Dead Cells maker Evil Empire and published by Ubisoft, the next Prince of Persia game flaunts a colourful, cartoony art style and features platforming and action combat familiar to the series.
The Rogue Prince of Persia was revealed with a trailer during the Triple-I Initiative livestream, showing off striking cinematics and a bit of gameplay. According to Ubisoft, the game is set in a fictional Ctesiphon, the capital city of the Persian Empire, under siege from a possessed army of Huns. Unlike The Lost Crown, here Players will get to take control of the eponymous prince, who possesses a magical bola that resurrects him on each death.
As expected from a rogue-lite, players will die, only to be resurrected and thrown back at the beginning. The cycle keeps repeating until players upgrade and upskill to become good enough to complete a full run of the game. With each attempt, players will explore new biomes, try out new weapons, gain valuable knowledge, find and equip trinkets and upgrade their gear as they attempt to save the city from the invasion.
The trailer shows off an acrobatic prince who can wall run, spin jump and slide around deadly obstacles in tricky platforming sections. Players will progress through procedurally generated levels, fighting off Huns imbued with the dark shamanic magic and corrupted creatures through colourful and diverse regions inspired by Persian architecture.
The prince will also have a variety of weapons at his disposal to aid in combat. Players can equip twin daggers, spears, broad swords, and axes, and also add a selection of shields, bows, grappling hooks and more as secondary weapons, according to Ubisoft.
Developers Evil Empire are no strangers to the roguelike genre, having co-developed Dead Cells with Motion Twin. According to Ubisoft, the studio approached the publisher with their own rogue-lite take on Prince of Persia. The iconic game series made a comeback after years of absence early this year with the launch of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. A 2.5D Metroidvania action-platformer, The Lost Crown marked a fresh beginning for the franchise, featuring responsive platforming and fast-paced combat. In our review of the game, we found Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown an inspired take on the genre that forges a new path for the future of the series. The next Prince of Persia title seems to have taken that same path, too.
The Rogue Prince of Persia will release in Early Access on Steam on May 14, with Ubisoft confirming release on other platforms at a later point.
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