Articles by Nicholas Sutrich

It’s allegedly been available secretly for months.

What you need to know

Eden Unearthed is Netflix’s first VR game, based upon the show Eden that launched in May 2021.
Eden Unearthed is available for Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 headsets for free on Oculus App Lab.
Netflix previously launched a few Stranger Things games on Android in Poland.

When Netflix announced that it would be making free games for its subscribers, no one was entirely sure what the company’s aim was. Netflix released two Stranger Things games in Poland at the end of August but has mostly been hush about its plans. Little changes with Eden Unearthed, a game first spotted by UploadVR and found on the Oculus App Lab for Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 headsets.

Eden Unearthed is based upon the Netflix original show Eden that launched on Netflix at the end of May 2021. The show Eden follows the story of two robots living a thousand years after humans disappeared from Earth. During a routine assignment in the…

The future of VR is mostly safe in the hands of Facebook.

When the original Oculus Quest was announced in September 2018, even Facebook didn’t expect it to do as well as it did (as evidenced by the fact that it could never keep the Quest in stock). The Oculus Quest experience went beyond what was expected of a VR headset by being more than just affordable — it was as easy to use as a video game console. Since that launch, Facebook acquired several VR game development studios, brought many developers on board with its Oculus Store, and changed the paradigm of what people expect from the standalone VR experience.

The Oculus Quest 2 promises to one-up that experience in every way, with a processor that’s three entire generations newer than the one in the original Oculus Quest, enhanced ergonomics with a lighter and smaller headset, a significantly higher-resolution display, brand new lens design, redesigned controllers, and more accessories than you can shake a stick at. Facebook al…

Among the many companies that make VR accessories for headsets like the Oculus Quest 2, KIWI Design is one of the most recognizable and revered. The company has been making great VR products for years, and its latest round of Quest 2 accessories proves that the company still has an edge over the competition in many ways. I’ve been using these Quest 2 accessories from KIWI for several weeks now and break down which ones you absolutely must buy.

KIWI Quest 2 facial interface review

All new Oculus Quest 2 headsets might ship with a simple silicone face cover — and existing Quest 2 owners can request one — yet most face pads for VR headsets, in general, suffer from one big problem: lens fogging. So whether it’s midwinter and your lenses are fogging up because they’re cold, or it’s the end of August, and the heat and humidity are the culprits for foggy lenses, the result is the same. Thankfully, KIWI’s facial interface solves this problem no matter the season.

The secret is in th…

U.S. Galaxy S21 owners are among the first to get a taste of the future of Android.

What you need to know

Starting September 14, Galaxy S21 owners in the U.S. can sign up for the Android 12 with One UI 4 beta through the Samsung Members app on their devices.
One UI 4 is Samsung’s next big update, based on Android 12, and brings a slew of new theme options for ultimate phone customization.
Samsung has also upgraded and redesigned several home screen widgets, emojis, and more.

The excitement has been building for One UI 4 as Google has been building out Android 12, and the wait is finally at an end for U.S.-based Galaxy S21 owners willing to test out Samsung’s latest software. Android 12 represents the biggest visual change Android has seen in some time — maybe even ever — and is heavily based on the look and feel Samsung developed for One UI several years ago, albeit with a significantly more colorful palette.

If you’re in the U.S. and own a Galaxy S21, you should be able to…

The almost-release candidate.

Another month, another beta release for Android 12. Android 12 beta 5 marks the beginning of the release candidate sequence, where basically everything is final unless some massive bug rears its ugly head before the official launch date. Like Android 12 beta 4, this release is mostly focused on stability, having hopefully squashed several phone-crashing bugs and tweaking the UI to look more like a final product.

To date, Android 12 has been the buggiest beta release of Android we’ve seen in some time — maybe ever, in fact. Part in parcel of that bugginess is the massive shift in how the UI looks and operates, including the Pixel-exclusive automatic color-changing feature found in the Material You design language.

We’re just mere weeks away from the full and proper release of Android 12 on many devices, including the upcoming Android 12 beta on the Galaxy S21, and likely just over a month and a half away from the Pixel 6 release — Google’s flagship…

This teaser leaves a lot to the imagination.

What you need to know

Ray-Ban and Facebook are launching a pair of glasses on September 9, 2021.
Interested customers can receive a special welcome reward when they sign up for the announcement notification.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously teased these glasses at the end of July.

Facebook and Ray-Ban have partnered to bring a pair of connected smart glasses to the ever-growing smart wearables market, teasing a release announcement on September 9, 2021. Interested customers can head to the Ray-Ban website and enter their name and email address to get notified of more information on September 9, including a “special welcome reward,” according to the site.

Whether this is the fabled pair of Facebook AR glasses or something more along the lines of Razer Anzu glasses remains to be seen, though, as the teaser is extremely light on details. What can be gleaned from the image above, taken from the Ray-Bans website, is that these glas…

It might be much more difficult, but it’s still possible.

What you need to know

Samsung’s new PET screen protector is rated to be 80% stronger than the previous-generation foldable screen protector.
Too much pressure from a rigid object can still damage the screen, including the Fold-compatible S Pen or even a fingernail.
The screen protector seems to iron out these indentations over time, but there’s no guarantee it will go back to the way it was.

With the announcement of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Z Flip 3, Samsung unveiled a new pre-installed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) screen protector that’s rated to be 80% stronger than the one included on its previous-generation foldable phones. Furthermore, Samsung even included the ability to use two special S Pen models on the Fold 3’s larger screen. That larger screen has proven to be significantly more durable than the one on the Fold 2 but, as you can see above, it’s not impervious to damage from the S Pen or a fingernail.

Th…

The end of an era could be the beginning of a new frontier.

What you need to know

Telegram v8.0 adds a slew of features to the smartphone app, including trending stickers, enhanced live streaming capabilities, Flexible Forwarding, and more.
This update removes the Wear OS app from the Play Store.
The Telegram Wear OS app will stop working, even if you leave it installed, and you will not be able to reinstall it.

Telegram is saying goodbye to Wear OS owners as the latest Telegram update removes the app from the Google Play Store on Wear OS watches. Telegram is one of the best messaging apps on Android, with the latest update adding a ton of great new features for users to enjoy, but it’s removing the ability to do just about everything from the comfort of your wrist.

Whether this is a signal of something greater to come or the end of an era is not yet clear, but 9to5Google confirmed the move with Telegram support, who issued a statement about the move:

Starting with Telegram…

This one’s an empty Nest.

Nest is in a bit of a predicament these days. Its home security products have gone untouched for years — owing to the fact that they were, largely, superior products when they launched — leaving rivals to catch up. The best outdoor security cameras are all made by Ring, Arlo, and Eufy, leaving Nest to pick up the pieces. But Google’s software has held the advantage for years, keeping true with the company’s mantra of products that are smarter, not better on a spec sheet.

But the Nest Cam (2021), better known as Nest Cam (battery), is a product that feels like it’s been sitting in a backroom and left to be forgotten. The 2MP 1080p sensor only provides passable but not great image quality, and night vision is worse than the competition. Battery life and overall design are quite good, and the camera is extremely easy to mount and set up. It’s even got on-board image processing to more quickly identify objects without the need for a subscription.

But, ult…

Move like smoke, shoot like thunder.

Pistol Whip: Smoke & Thunder marks the second cinematic campaign released in the game’s nearly two-year history. It’s the culmination of everything that developer Cloudhead Games has been working toward since the rhythm shooter debuted and the most complete version of the game we’ve seen to date. Smoke & Thunder debuts a brand new five-scene campaign with a Wild West theme, bringing the total number of scenes to 28.

Unlike other rhythm games where songs are the main distinction between experiences, Pistol Whip’s scenes are more like proper levels in a classic shooter. They only take a few minutes to complete and bring the player on a linear trajectory from start to finish. Each level has its own theme, color scheme, enemies, and even sometimes weapons, but all of them have one thing in common: the visuals around you are synced to the music playing.

Earlier this year, we saw the first “cinematic release” for Pistol Whip debut with Pistol…