OnePlus Buds Review: Great Sound, Battery Life And Price

If there’s still any doubt that truly wireless earbuds are a thing, let us introduce you, dear reader, to the second wave -- exemplified by the OnePlus Buds. See, the first wave really took off when Apple introduced the original AirPods -- meh sound, OK battery life, high price. The focus was on convenience, reliability, and calls. Other major brands followed suit, like Samsung, Sony, Jabra, Amazon, Microsoft, and most recently Google -- some offering special features like long battery life, or active noise cancellation, or tight AI assistant integration. You either spent upwards to $200...

Google Pixel Buds 2 Review: A Triumphant Second Coming

by Myriam Joire - Tue, May 12, 2020

True wireless earbuds are all the rage these days, and with many phones lacking a headphone jack, it’s really no surprise. You can mostly blame Apple for the missing port, but you can also thank them for giving the entire industry a reason to copy the AirPods. And Google is finally in the game. See, the first Pixel Buds, which were neckbuds, were a bust back in 2017. So, we were pretty excited when Google announced these new, true wireless earbuds last October. And in terms of first impressions, the $180 Pixel Buds 2 deliver. Google Pixel Buds 2 Design Picture an egg. Now imagine you...

14 Movies And TV Shows Every Geek Should Watch And How To View Them

by Paul Lilly - Wed, Jan 01, 2020

Although being a geek was not always chic, geek culture has been celebrated in cinema and on television for decades in one form or another. In some ways, it is a genre unto itself. The appreciation of science, fantasy, and intellectual concepts have given birth to a wide range of both celebrated and cringe worthy flicks and TV episodes, from Weird Science and Revenge of the Nerds, to Star Trek and Star Wars. The list is long, and expands exponentially when you relax the criteria of what fits the mold of geek entertainment. Do Ghostbusters and Breaking Bad qualify? I would argue they do, in their...

NVIDIA SHIELD TV 2019 Review: AI Enhanced Android TV Streaming

by Marco Chiappetta - Mon, Oct 28, 2019

The NVIDIA SHIELD TV is widely regarded as the best media streaming device on the market. In addition to offering high-performance, access to a massive repository of 4K streaming services and apps, and leading-edge features that some competitors have only just recently caught up with, the SHIELD TV gives users access to GeForce NOW and game streaming capabilities from a GeForce-enabled PC. There is a growing library of native AAA Android games too, along with a myriad of casual games as well. And that's not to mention the huge community of enthusiasts that use the SHIELD TV to emulate a multitude...

Nyrius Aries Pro Wireless HDMI Kit Review: Low Latency Cord Cutting

by Brittany Goetting - Tue, Oct 22, 2019

The number of “cord cutters” has accelerated over the last decade. Many people are cutting their ties to cable companies TV programming packages, and instead looking for online entertainment solutions. In that regard, consumers have been turning to streaming devices like Google Chromecast, Roku and NVIDIA Shield TV. However, HDMI wireless transmitters and receivers are another viable option for cord cutters. Wireless transmit/receive video products like these can be used for much more than streaming your favorite shows, including everything from gaming to office presentations...

Which Major AI Companies Care Most About Your Privacy: Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook?

by Brittany Goetting - Mon, Sep 30, 2019

Many companies are working hard to improve their artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. AI could impact everything from medicine to silly Instagram overlays and everything in between. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are all toiling to gain an edge in the AI field by leveraging their massive treasure troves of data, but what are their existing privacy policies and user data security track records? Which of these companies cares the most about protecting your privacy? Should you even trust Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google with your data? We examined the kind of data that is collected by...

Raspberry Pi 4 With Lakka May Be The Best Retro Game Console Yet

by Ben Funk - Fri, Sep 20, 2019

Back in June, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced their newest single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi 4. This tiny PC packs a quad-core Cortex A72 SoC from Broadcom and up to 4 GB of DDR4 memory at a very attractive price. While aimed at emerging markets for folks new to computers, the Pi really caught on with retro gamers and "makers" in general from the start. The latest Pi has a whole lot more computing horsepower than the last iteration, but software support hadn't quite caught up—until just now. The LibRetro team released Lakka version 2.3 with a ton of new features, a retro gaming...

QLED Versus OLED, What To Expect From Samsung’s 4K And 8K TVs

by Chris Goetting - Wed, Feb 13, 2019

Earlier this week, Samsung announced their new 2019 lineup of 4K and 8K televisions using a display technology they call QLED. The term QLED looks suspiciously like OLED, but do the two technologies actually have much in common? After fielding a few questions about this on our website and social media, we want to clear up any confusion between them and expound on what to expect in terms of picture quality from each. We will start at the beginning with a basic LED LCD display. Virtually everyone has encountered one of these displays at some point in their life as they make up the majority of the...

Activision Blizzard Set To Fire Its CFO After Rocky 2018

by Brittany Goetting - Tue, Jan 01, 2019

Some new years begin with champagne and fireworks, others begin with termination of employment. Activision Blizzard announced that they plan to fire their Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann for undisclosed reasons. The announcement comes on the heels of a rather rocky financial year for Blizzard. Neumann has been placed on paid leave and will receive the opportunity to argue against his termination. Starting today, Chief Corporate Officer (CCO) Dennis Durkin will assume Neumann’s responsibilities and will fully take over the position once Neumann is fired. Blizzard claims that Neumann’s...

Plex And Tidal Team Up To Provide Discounted Streaming Music Service

by Brittany Goetting - Fri, Nov 30, 2018

Music lovers rejoice! Plex Music and TIDAL have teamed up to bring users a wide variety of high quality content. Users will be able more easily discover new content, listen to personalized playlists, and enjoy better sound quality with the TIDAL on Plex subscription. TIDAL is a music streaming-service that is partly owned by Jay-Z and other musical artists. The service provides lossless audio quality, high-definition music videos, and exclusive content. Although TIDAL provides great content, many people balk at its high price tag and lack of accessibility. In the United States, the standard premium...

Amazon Alexa-Enabled Big Mouth Billy Bass Says Take Me To The River!

by Brittany Goetting - Thu, Nov 29, 2018

All that is old is new again. Big Mouth Billy Bass, an animatronic largemouth bass, is now compatible with Amazon’s Alexa. The late 1990’s classic singing animatronic can mow be paired with any Alexa-enabled device. According to Steve Harris, vice president of product development at Gemmy Industries, “This is not your father’s Big Mouth Billy Bass.” Big Mouth Billy Bass is now programmed to respond to Alexa voice commands and lip sync with Alexa’s responses. He will answer questions about the weather, the news, and other inquiries, react to notifications and...

Why Fallout 76 Is Bombing So Far With Gamers

by Michael J. A. Sexton - Wed, Nov 14, 2018

Bethesda's latest installment in the Fallout series is here, but if you are a die hard fan of the previous versions of the game, this may be the Fallout you'll want to pass on. Although everyone will have their own in my personal opinion, Fallout 76 could be considered the worst in series or a sellout of the worst kind. Heads-up, you guessed it, this is an op-ed view of Bethesda's new game. Before we dive into some of the problems that currently plague Fallout 76, in the interest of fairness I should point out that part of my dislike for this game comes from watching another one of my long...

Amazon Alexa Brings In Jimmy Fallon For A Stand-Up Jokes Gig On Your Echo

by Brittany Goetting - Wed, Nov 14, 2018

Are you a big Jimmy Fallon fan? Well, now his jokes can follow you throughout your home. In a new collaboration with Amazon, Jimmy Fallon will provide a stream of corny jokes for Amazon Alexa-enabled Echo and other devices. If you ask Alexa to “tell me a joke”, she will introduce you to her “friend Jimmy”. Fallon announced on his show, “For the first time ever, [Amazon is] using a voice other than Alexa’s to tell you a joke—and that voice is me.” Fallon worked alongside Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon writers to develop exclusive content for the...

Lenovo Smart Display Review: Google Home Assistant Grows A Head And It’s Great

by Dave Altavilla - Fri, Jul 27, 2018

The Lenovo Smart display is the first in an assault of Google Assistant-enabled devices set to hit the market this year. They will take on Amazon's Echo Show in a battle for smart home assistant technology, with not only a set of ears, but also a set of eyes and a display face to complete the experience. Priced at $249.99 for a 10-inch version and $199.99 for an 8-inch variant, with identical hardware specs except for the display, these are a new breed of smart home devices that have the potential to give Google and its OEM partners a leg-up on Amazon. Since they're part of the "Android...

PUBG Lost Half Its Player Base So Far This Year, While Fortnite Continues To Explode

by Rob Williams - Sat, Jun 23, 2018

Predicting the level of success enjoyed by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, aka PUBG, would have been very tough ahead of its launch. Who could really predict that an indie title would have three million concurrent players mere months after its launch? Since that time, the game has added two new maps, alternating modes, and more aesthetic enhancements than you can shake a frying pan at. Unfortunately for developer PUBG Corporation, the game has been on the decline ever since the start of the year, despite the team rolling out of the new maps and mechanics. The website Steam Charts shows that...

Google Home Vs Amazon Echo: Which Smart Speaker Is Best For You?

by Chris Ledenican - Tue, Jun 05, 2018

Amazon and Google are massive tech giants, for vastly different reasons. Google is the leading search engine provider, a smartphone platform juggernaut, and huge advertising machine, while Amazon is the largest e-tailer in the world and a cloud services powerhouse, though Google is coming up strong. Though they are different animals, these two companies find themselves locked in heated battle with their respective Google Home and Amazon Echo devices; a battle for AI dominance that could determine who will ultimately control a good chunk of the Smart Home market. The Smart Home market has massive...

Here's How To Share Your Gaming Triumphs In Fortnite Battle Royal & More With NVIDIA Highlights

by HH Editor - Fri, Apr 13, 2018

Whether it's in the form of a crazy kill-streak, a last-second multiplayer victory, a hard-earned achievement, a comical death, or a whole slew of others, NVIDIA Highlights can make sure all your most incredible in-game feats are never lost. And since NVIDIA Highlights does all the work behind the scenes, you won’t need to take time away from the action to manually setup the recordings. Just focus on the game, and let the technology do the heavy lifting for you. With supported games, NVIDIA Highlights automatically captures and saves all the most critical moments through videos,...

9 Games That Play And Look Great On A Laptop

by HH Editor - Fri, Feb 02, 2018

Gone are the days when laptops needed to make sacrifices in visual quality to run the best, most graphics-intensive games. With a laptop powered by a GeForce GTX 10 series graphics engine, in conjunction with other quality components, you can enjoy just about any title out there while on the road. Plus, with the latest technologies from NVIDIA GeForce, you’ll have added benefits, such as Max-Q design for superior portability and maximum efficiency, the NVIDIA Pascal architecture for top-notch GPU speed and power, NVIDIA VR Works technologies for all your virtual reality needs, NVIDIA...

StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty Is Now Free-To-Play, Here’s How To Get It

by Shane McGlaun - Wed, Nov 15, 2017

StarCraft fans now have a free to play version of the popular Blizzard game StarCraft II. Blizzard announced that StarCraft II would go free-to-play back during BlizzCon and as of yesterday that game has debuted at no cost. If you want to get in on the free gaming action, this is how you do it. You need a compatible computer running either Windows or Mac OS. You will need a Battle.net account. If you have one you are golden, otherwise you need to create one here. You can sign up using your Facebook account. Hit up the Battle.net Shop and look for the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty landing page....

NVIDIA SHIELD TV, Google Assistant And Samsung SmartThings Form A Powerful Smart Home Trio

by Brandon Hill - Mon, Oct 23, 2017

If you're a frequent reader of HotHardware, then you're well aware that we've been quite impressed with the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. Not only is the pint-sized device a competent Android gaming console, but it also serves as an Android TV hub, a media streamer (for services like Netflix and Hulu), and can even function as a Plex Media Server. Finally, it can serve all this gaming and video content with the help of Google Assistant to search and provide key information all via voice command. Today, NVIDIA SHIELD TV is also gaining the ability to be the focal point for your smart home efforts now,...

NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Powered In-Car Infotainment System DIY Project Guide

by Tuan Huynh - Thu, May 25, 2017

Buying a shiny new car is an easy way to get the latest in-car technologies, but it’s not the most economical. I've had my fair share of new car purchases in the last decade – a 2008 Chevy HHR SS, 2011 Volkswagen Routan SE, 2014 Mazda 5 Sport and a 2015 Nissan Leaf – and driven hundreds of press cars featuring the latest technologies and infotainment systems. Despite new cars being technically superior on paper, the average age of vehicles on the road in 2016 was 11.6 years old, according to IHS Markit. We’ve seen substantial upgrades to the car stereo and infotainment systems in the last decade,...

Nintendo Switch Review: Buying Advice And Tips For Maximum Fun

by Paul Lilly - Tue, May 02, 2017

When I first heard about Nintendo's plan to build a hybrid console, I thought it was a long shot. And truthfully, it was. But I also reckoned the response to a 2-in-1 console (or 3-in-1 if you count tabletop mode, as Nintendo does) would ultimately be lukewarm. Having now spent the past couple of weeks actually playing with the Nintendo Switch, I can say I was (mostly) wrong in my original assessment, and certainly in my expectations. We'll get to my own thoughts in a little bit, but first let's talk about the Switch's reception. Despite the skepticism by myself and many others leading up to the...

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