Technology

Marshall’s new $149 Emberton Bluetooth speaker gives the beloved Logitech Ultimate Ears Boom a run for its money. For starters, it charges over USB-C for quick, no-fuss charging, and it borrows the excellent joystick-like controls from Marshall’s recent lineup of headphones. Instead of having to learn a few combinations of buttons to change the song, or check the battery’s level, everything is dead-simple here. The remaining battery life is conveniently displayed at all times in an LED-lit window. To navigate, simply tilt the gold, spiralized nub in one of four labeled directions to adjust the volume or find the song you want. As some companies try to find clever ways to let you control your devices, such as swipes or gestures, there’s something to be said for physical buttons being easy, ...

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus truly wireless earbuds that have excellent battery life and come with a wireless charging case are more affordable than ever today, and we have two special deals to tell you about. Daily Steals has the best price on a new set of Galaxy Buds Plus, down to $130 ($20 off). If you want to check that out, head over to its site and enter VERGESBUDS at checkout to get the discount. These have a one-year warranty through Samsung. On the other hand, you can save even more money by snagging a refurbished set of Galaxy Buds Plus at Best Buy. They’re just $90, which is a steal. Like all of Best Buy’s refurbished gear, these are tested for quality and include all original accessories. (In this case, that means ear tips, the charging case, and the USB-C cable.) These come with...

The Pokémon Company and Japanese jewelry company Ginza Tanaka are selling Pikachu-inspired rings for couples looking to make their marriage themed. Ah, love. Love and pokémon. Two concepts that are definitely entangled in my mind. Why catch ‘em all when you can snag The One? As a person who buys jewelry that turns my skin green, I don’t know much about engagement or wedding rings. These rings appear to be perfectly fine for matrimony. There are a few band options available in platinum and gold, all pretty simple. They also come with a pokéball box. The collection, which runs from ¥115,500 to ¥346,500 (roughly $1,074 to $3,223), includes a pretty straightforward Pikachu head emblem with “I choose you” engraved into the band, while another has a band designed to look like Pikachu tails. And ...

There’s now a Peloton channel available on the Roku platform. Anyone with a Roku device can sign up to access Peloton’s instructor-led workouts from their TV. “We are excited to roll out our best-in-class streaming fitness service onto the Roku platform,” said Karina Kogan, SVP and general manager of Peloton Digital, in a statement. “We’ve seen growing engagement with our TV apps, especially as more and more consumers look for at-home fitness solutions to keep them physically and mentally fit.” Don’t be surprised if you see ads. The Peloton app will leverage Roku’s “machine-learning targeting capabilities” to advertise the app to Roku users who would be most likely to use it. You don’t need a Peloton bike or treadmill to use the app (though bike and treadmill sessions are available on the ...

Spotify is making it easier for couples who live together to split the cost of a premium membership while also merging their music taste. The company is debuting its newest subscription offering, Premium Duo, which costs $12.99 a month and allows two people who live at the same place to share one plan while maintaining their own accounts. With Premium Duo, Spotify will also create a special Duo Mix playlist that’ll update regularly and incorporate music that both people like. The idea is that Spotify knows what you and your partner like individually, so its software will design a playlist that you can put on in the house that’ll appeal to both of you. Listeners can switch between a chill or upbeat playlist. Existing, single Premium members can upgrade to Premium Duo at any time and doing s...

Rarely do we see so many ban hammers drop over a 48-hour period as we have seen this week. The big social platforms, who were once loath to intervene in matters of political speech, are getting much more comfortable with the idea. Today let’s look at what happened and why — and, for the sake of variety, let’s try to rank them in order of their long-term importance. 5. YouTube bans a group of far-right creators. The most remarkable thing about YouTube getting rid of Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer, among others, is that it took so long. An exhausted “finally!” is often exclaimed in cases like this — but here even Facebook, which faces near-constant accusations of bending over backwards to appease the far right, had removed some of these accounts years ago. Spencer was remov...

I don’t know why, but yesterday was a day for Google peripherals. There were three or four pieces of news that were all harbingers of future products that you might use in conjunction with an Android phone. But while it’s getting easy to divine what’s going to happen with Android phones thanks to all the leaks, it’s still very unclear what Google really intends to do with watches, smart glasses, or even its Stadia controller. Google’s hardware division acquired the smart glasses company North — which comes on the heels of the last year’s Fitbit acquisition. This is a weird one! Google still makes Glass, but has specified that it’s meant mainly for industrial purposes. North made a valiant run at consumer smart glasses, including presumably pricey physical stores. It even acquired the paten...

Dreams, the expansive game creation tool for the PlayStation 4, is getting VR support. Development studio Media Molecule made the announcement on the official PlayStation blog, saying that PlayStation VR compatibility would arrive as part of a free update later this month. There’ll be new tutorials that teach you how to create VR content, and the update will also bring games and experiences that are ready to play right away. There’ll be a lot of flexibility in the interface: VR experiences can be crafted both in and out of the PSVR headset, and PlayStation Move controllers are optional. Sculpting with Move controllers “is a very one-to-one experience and lets you fully immerse in the creation process,” according to Media Molecule, which suggests a Tilt Brush-style UI. It should be easy eno...

FuboTV is the latest virtual TV service to introduce a sharp subscription fee hike, not long after YouTube TV announced that it was drastically increasing its subscription fees to $65 a month. The company sent out emails to subscribers today letting them know that standard plans are increasing from $55 a month to $65 as of their next billing cycle following August 1, 2020. As part of the hike, people on standard accounts will be rolled into Fubo’s Family Bundle plan, which includes three simultaneous streams, Cloud DVR Plus, and 500 hours of DVR space, according to the email. Fubo last increased the price of its standard plan in March 2019, going from $45 to $55 a month. Other FuboTV customers posted screenshots on social media of emails received informing them of $5 increases; FuboTV’s fa...

Netgear is launching a second model of its Orbi mesh router with support for Wi-Fi 6, following up on a high-end model released last fall. This new version, eloquently named the RBK752, is more of a midrange model, offering slightly decreased performance at a slightly decreased price. This is still an Orbi router, though, so it’s still expensive: $450 for a router and satellite. The high-end model, the RBK852, offers the same bundle for $700. While cheaper, this new model is still a fairly capable mesh system. The RBK752 is a tri-band system, meaning it has a radio dedicated to serving as a wireless link between the units, and it offers four user-facing streams of connectivity with a theoretical maximum speed of 4.2Gbps. That’s down from eight streams and 6Gbps on the RBK852. The Orbi syst...

Verily Life Sciences, the Alphabet-owned healthcare company, is suspending employee spot bonuses, as reported by Business Insider. The money will be funneled instead to fund diversity and inclusion initiatives. The move frustrated workers, many of whom have been working grueling hours on the company’s COVID-19 testing projects. In a letter to management obtained by Business Insider, employees said the decision implied these initiatives are not a priority. They wrote: “The use of spot bonuses to subsidize social justice programs such as Healthy@Work for HBCUs [Historically Black colleges and universities], clinical trial recruitment of underrepresented populations, and an internal Product Inclusion group implies that these efforts are charity causes not worthy of their own investment.” Beca...

Facebook has shown off a new proof-of-concept virtual reality headset, and it has a completely different design than most other VR devices on the market today. Instead of a bulky contraption that covers up the top half of your face and has to be strapped to your head, this proof-of-concept headset looks kind of like a pair of large sunglasses that can sit comfortably on your ears. Yet Facebook is billing this new device as not a pair of augmented reality glasses, as common conceptions of AR devices go, but a legitimate VR product. They’re very thin, with a display thickness of less than 9mm, and Facebook claims they have a field of view that’s “comparable to today’s consumer VR products.” Here’s a top-down view: Image: Facebook The proof-of-concept glasses aren’t just thin for looks, thoug...