Tech,Space,Gaming, and Science Fiction News to wet your whistle
Sonos Beam is a smart soundbar with HDMI and AirPlay 2
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
The wait for Sonos fans is over. That rumored new speaker codenamed "S14" has just been unveiled in San Francisco today, and it's just as we expected (and more). The Sonos Beam (as it's officially called) is indeed aimed at home theatre and comes with smart home/voice control credentials and the much-coveted HDMI ARC connectivity (along with ethernet). While we had a good idea of more or less what the new hardware from Sonos might offer, we didn't know what it would look like (a much smaller, cooler Playbar, basically), or how it fits in the broader Sonos ecosystem.
The Beam ($399) basically replaces the old Playbar and joins the Playbase, jostling for space under your television. Unless, of course, you're still rocking the Playbar from 2013 (in which case your upgrade choice just got a little more complicated). The main differences between last year's speaker and this one though are all in the details.
Clearly, it's smaller, which if you've ever seen the Playbar is a good thing. It's about 60 percent smaller according to Chris Kallai, Sonos' VP of hardware Product Management. The Beam also inherits the modern design language of more recent speakers. But the most exciting features are inside (or around the back).
The addition of the HDMI (ARC) port means it will integrate much more tightly with your television. This means you can now control your TV with your voice via the Alexa integration, and it will (likely) also work with your current TV remote.
Other enhancements like "night mode" increase the volume of quiet sounds, while lowering loud ones, perfect for watching action movies at night without waking the whole family.
And then of course, there's AirPlay 2 support, which will be available at launch (July 17). Sonos already said it was coming after Apple announced the updated version of its home-streaming protocol last year, but only just made it available on its own speaker, the HomePod. AirPlay 2 — with its support for multi-room speakers — is a perfect fit for Sonos of course, so it's good to see it present here, and now at least, the Sonos-faithful can stop waiting for it (at least those that buy the Beam).
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Ever since cloning produced Dolly the sheep , scientists have copied a slew of mammals ranging from dogs to ponies. Primates, however, have been elusive -- until now. Chinese researchers have successfully cloned a macaque monkey fetus twice, producing sister monkeys Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong using the same basic method used to create Dolly. The team removed the nucleus from monkey eggs and replaced it with DNA from the fetus, implanting the resulting eggs in female monkeys for them to give birth. The process wasn't easy. It took 127 eggs and 79 embryos to get these results, and it still required a fetus to work (Dolly was cloned from an adult). Still, it reflects progress in cloning science. The team managed the feat by injecting both a form of mRNA and an inhibitor, the combination of which improved the development of blastocysts (the structures that form the embryo) and the pregnancy rate for transplanted embryos. Both baby macaques are healthy, the researchers said, and genet...
Comments
Post a Comment