Articles by Nicholas Sutrich

Not only are the best smart LED light bulbs more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, but you’ll feel like Tony Stark walking through your home, controlling the lighting with just your voice. Google Home is one of the tentpole home assistant platforms and all of the bulbs listed here pair perfectly with all of the best Google Home compatible devices available. All you need to ask yourself as a consumer is how many bulbs you need for your home and how much are you willing to spend?

Full-feature smart lights

To experience the best that smart LED lights can offer, you’ll want to start with ones that are entirely customizable with the full spectrum of colors available. Because these bulbs are way more expensive than any light bulb you’ve probably bought in your life, you’re going to want to choose a brand that can satisfy all your smart lighting needs or piece together your house plan with bulbs that don’t need a hub.

Light your home with color

Philips Hue Color Smar…

Switch to an annual 2Tb plan to take advantage of this offer.

What you need to know

Google is giving away free 2nd-gen Nest Hubs to new Google One 2Tb tier annual subscribers.
The offer is valid in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany from now until December 10, 2021.
After upgrading to the 2Tb annual plan, you’ll receive a code in your email that can be redeemed for the 2nd-gen Nest Hub.

Running out of storage on your Google One plan? If you’re considering upgrading your cloud storage amount, Google hopes you’ll consider paying for the 2Tb plan on an annual basis and is willing to give away some free things in order to convince you to do it. Specifically, users who upgrade to the 2Tb Google One plan — paid annually, not monthly — will receive a code for a free 2nd-gen Nest Hub after making the switch.

The fine print of the deal, found by 9to5Google, says that users who upgrade will receive an email about a week after they upgrade. That means you should ge…

The company says it will delete more than a billion people’s individually-recognized faces.

What you need to know

Facebook’s facial recognition system is being shut down and its associated data deleted.
Meta says that a third of its users previously opted-in to having their face be automatically recognized for photo tagging, totaling over one billion recognized faces.
This move will affect automatic alt text entries, which automatically created image descriptions for blind and visually-impaired people.

Meta says it will be shutting down the long-held facial recognition system on its Facebook social platform “in the coming weeks,” according to a blog post by Jerome Pesenti, vice-president of artificial intelligence at Meta. What’s more, the company will be deleting over one billion recognized faces in its database, citing societal concerns as the reason for the move and to pre-empt regulatory control after a tumultuous year for the brand.

Shutting this system down will remove th…

Despite the excitement back in early summer, 2021 will go down as yet another ho-hum year for Google’s Wear OS platform. It didn’t have to be this way, but Google seems to have some grand last-ditch effort planned that few know about — except for Samsung — and quite honestly, I’ve given up hope that Google will ever get things right at this point.

The unfortunate thing is that everything was lined up in Google’s favor this year. The announcement and subsequent launch of the Galaxy Watch 4 reignited a flurry of interest in smartwatches on Android and has proven that Android users want a good smartwatch. It’s just a shame that Samsung is still reserving some features only for people who use its smartphones.

The Apple Watch Series 7 is yet another boring, derivative update to Apple’s already bland-looking square smartwatch and shows that, while Apple absolutely nailed the software and UX, the company is largely coasting on its success and monopoly within its own ecosystem.

But Go…

Facebook’s iron-fisted rule is hopefully being replaced by one of an open palm.

I remember the first time I used an Oculus Quest. After years of hamstrung solutions from Oculus, the Quest felt like a breath of fresh air and the first time the company had truly done something remarkable since Facebook purchased it in 2014. Since then, the Quest has taken VR on a journey of exponential growth that developers and investors had been waiting for.

But enthusiasts haven’t been happy with Oculus for years. The company has pushed its own proprietary development tools since before the Oculus Rift CV1 launched on PCs in 2016 and split the PC VR market in an unnecessary way. Facebook’s hunger for data has made many people uneasy and unwilling to further invest, especially after the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 which ushered in the requirement to use a Facebook account just to operate the headset.

That account requirement led to a host of other issues, with players unable to play games they’ve…

The latest Feature Drop isn’t just for pixels.

What you need to know

Android 12L is a feature update to Android 12 specifically built for foldables and Android tablets.
With this new update, Android will better scale UI elements, make notifications and other information denser, and enhance multitasking in significant ways for devices with big screens.
Android 12L will debut early in 2022 to coincide with “a new wave of foldables and tablets.”

Android 12L, a special version of Android 12 made just for tablets and foldable devices, aims to create a better UI for these large screen devices when it launches early in 2022. If you’re using one of the best Android tablets or a foldable device like the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Android 12L could be the very thing you’ve been wishing for.

On devices with large displays, Android 12L will automatically scale information to better fit the display. The notification shade, for instance, will be split into two panels to show more toggles and denser no…

The Oculus Quest 2 might ship with everything you need to use it but, to get the very best experience, there are a few extra accessories that you’ve definitely got to have. Thankfully, Black Friday is making the quest to get a better Quest 2 experience cost less than ever. Whether you’re looking to get a more comfortable head strap, some great in-ear headphones, controller grips, or even just a charging dock, these are the best deals you’ll find.

Oculus Quest 2

From $299 at Amazon
From $299 at Best Buy
From $299 at Walmart

The Oculus Quest 2 is the latest standalone VR headset from Facebook, and it offers a compelling way to get into VR gaming and apps without all the hassle and expense of a PC. This year, Facebook replaced the old 64GB SKU with a new 128GB model, doubling the storage capacity without changing the price.

The Oculus Quest 2 is an excellent standalone headset, but you can make it even better with the right accessories. From keeping your controllers charged up t…

Apparently, it’s better at this than a GoPro.

What you need to know

One Twitter user attached his Pixel 6 Pro to his drone and flew it around for some extra testing.
The results showed that Google’s best camera ever doubles as an excellent action cam, delivering quality visuals and impressive stabilization.
If you’re going to try this yourself, you might want to drop a case on it before attempting the feat.

Most of us would be content with a solid camera upgrade, but OriginaldoBo on Twitter decided his hands weren’t a good enough test for Google’s best camera ever. So, instead of just walking around to test the new stabilization features, he attached his Google Pixel 6 Pro to a drone and flew it around.

Despite being a fairly weighty phone, the Pixel 6 Pro passed the test with flying colors and, per OriginaldoBo’s own Tweet, the Pixel 6 Pro seems to have done a better job than his GoPro in several areas.

Pixel 6 Pro has better dynamic range and stabilisation than my GoPro lol …

Six years in, Google finally made a near-perfect, true flagship phone.

The storied past of Pixel phones has long been wrought with failures and compromise, yet peppered with promising bits that have slowly paved the way for the future we’re now finally able to behold. Google finally went all-out for its sixth-generation phone, packing in everything and the kitchen sink, including its first-ever in-house developed chipset, the Google Tensor.

The result is a phone that’s just about perfect in every way and, instead of being held back by compromise or poor decisions on Google’s part, its biggest weaknesses are down to preference. It’s the best Android smartphone you can buy right now with little exception, and it represents an on-point Google we’ve simply never seen before. Everything from the software to the hardware feels like a purposeful, bespoke experience in a way that’s truly magical.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro is the larger, more full-featured version of the Google Pixel 6. For $…

A refined headset looks to include more cameras, new controllers, and a charging dock.

What you need to know

What appears to be leaked marketing videos reveal Facebook’s plans for the Oculus Quest Pro, the follow-up to the Oculus Quest 2.
The new headset appears to feature a new strap design, a separate battery compartment on the back, a smaller face-mounted portion, and additional cameras for full-body tracking.
New controllers appear in the videos, showing off a total redesign that features no halo ring, onboard cameras for inside-out tracking, and a new charging dock.

Hot on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the Oculus Quest 2, a huge Oculus Quest Pro leak reveals some of the biggest features of the next rumored upcoming headset from Facebook. This leak comes from @Basti564 on Twitter and includes what appear to be official marketing videos for the Oculus Quest Pro.

In the series of four videos, Oculus avatars can be seen interacting with a mouse and keyboard, collabo…