Articles by Nicholas Sutrich

Facebook has halted sales based on a skin irritation issue caused by the foam pads.

What you need to know

Facebook has halted sales of the Oculus Quest 2 until further notice, citing reports of skin irritation caused by the foam pad.
Facebook previously initiated a voluntary foam pad replacement program on older Oculus Quest 2 units after the results of an internal investigation.
New Quest 2 units will ship with a silicone wrap to solve any future problems.
Facebook is also debuting a new 128GB version of the Quest 2 to replace the existing 64GB model.

Article updated with additional information and confirmation from Facebook.

Facebook has ceased sales of the Oculus Quest 2, citing skin irritation issues reported by users since the Quest 2 debuted. On a blog post, Head of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth details that Facebook worked with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada to issue a voluntary recall of current Quest 2 foam facial covers an…

On a seemingly random Friday when all the world was about to tune into the Olympics, Facebook announced that they would be deprecating Oculus’s proprietary APIs in favor of using the OpenXR standard going forward. On the surface, this seems like news to celebrate. After all, moving away from proprietary APIs that only work with one company’s hardware, to open standards accepted by the industry at large, is a good thing. Right?

Generally speaking, yes. Facebook’s move will be a net positive for game development going forward. OpenXR support should make it easier for games like Minecraft to make the leap from Oculus-exclusive on the PC to other VR platforms, even if it just means that more headsets can run the game without hackery. It also means that Oculus-exclusive games, like the upcoming Lone Echo II, could follow in the footsteps of games like Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond — a game that was Oculus-funded but debuted on the Oculus and Steam stores on PC.

But what might look …

Bridging the gap between traditional and smart home controls.

What you need to know

Nokia and SmartLabs have teamed up to create the first Nokia Smart Lighting line of products.
Options include switches, keypads, outlets, and a wireless bridge for offline control.
Nokia Smart Lighting controls are designed to bridge the gap between traditional and smart devices and begin shipping in September.

Nokia, of all companies, is delving into the smart home space in a rather unique and interesting way with the eponymous Nokia Smart Lighting line. Instead of jumping into the rather crowded space of best smart lights, Nokia is partnering with SmartLabs to create smart switches that bridge the gap between physical and digital controls.

Essentially, Nokia Smart Lighting is designed to make existing devices in your home smarter by replacing the switches that control them, enabling you to better control all of your devices without completely replacing them.

The full product line includes dia…

It’s a more simplified backups solution for all Android users, not just Google one subscribers.

What you need to know

Backups by Google One is replacing your existing Android system backup method.
This update is rolling out to many Android phones and will happen in the background.
Backed-up items now include MMS, photos, videos, wallpapers, several system settings, and more.
You do not need to be a Google One subscriber to use this service.

Google appears to be upgrading your phone’s backup system behind the scenes to a substantially better version. Penned Backup by Google One, the update was first revealed by 9to5Google and — despite not seeing much fanfare from Google itself — is replacing your phone’s existing backups system. We’ve reached out to Google to get more information and find out when this might be rolling out for everyone and will update this article with that information, although it’s reportedly rolling out “over the coming weeks.”

You won’t have to do anyth…

Taking some of the frustration out of multiplayer gaming.

What you need to know

The Oculus Quest v31 July update is rolling out to the Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 before the end of July.
Friends can now be invited into games directly from the universal menu bar with a single click.
Facebook Messenger and Oculus Browser have also received several new quality of life improvements.

We might be patiently waiting for Facebook to announce the Oculus Quest Pro, but they’ve apparently been pretty busy adding more features to the existing two Oculus Quest headsets every month. The Oculus Quest v31 July update is making it easier to invite friends to games, chat with your friends over Facebook Messenger, and log in to your favorite websites with saved passwords in the Oculus Browser.

While you’re playing one of the best Oculus Quest 2 games, you’ll be able to more easily invite your friends to join a multiplayer session thanks to a dedicated invite button found when pressing the Ocul…

Samsung is rewarding early adopters with some bonus perks.

What you need to know

Reservations for “The Next Galaxy” are now open on Samsung’s website.
Samsung is offering a $200 bonus trade-in credit and 12 months of Samsung Care+ at a discounted rate for folks that reserve a phone.
Samsung will be holding the next Galaxy Unpacked on Wednesday, August 11 at 10 am ET / 7 am PT to announce these new Galaxy phones.

It’s official: the next Galaxy Unpacked begins on Wednesday, August 11 at 10 am ET / 7 am PT. A Samsung-provided graphic announcing the launch can be seen above, and while Samsung is being hushed about what’s going to be announced, leaks have seemingly already spoiled the announcements at the show. If those leaks are correct (and we surmise they are based on the infographic), the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be making an appearance alongside a Galaxy S21 FE, Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, Galaxy Watch Active 4, and the Galaxy Buds 2.

To celebrate the announceme…

Have you ever thought of pursuing a career in extra-curricular law enforcement?

Generally speaking, bringing a classic into a new medium isn’t a good idea. When a classic movie gets remade, you just know they’re going to screw something up. Likewise, bringing the classic point-and-click PC adventure series Sam & Max from the 2D screen into VR seems like a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, developer HappyGiant figured out how to do just that and still make it feel authentically excellent.

Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual is a zany mix of escape room, crime solver, carnival games, and Job Simulator, with a penchant for sarcastic and whitty humor. It just feels like a point-and-click adventure game from the opening sequence, albeit with a lot more physicality than those games ever could have hoped for. At $30, the 5-6 hour gameplay can be completed in one session with a battery pack for Quest 2, or over a few days with short play sessions.

If that sounds up your alley, then g…

TCL is doing for smartphones what it did for TVs.

When you see the name TCL, you likely think of TVs. There’s an excellent reason for that. The company’s incredibly value-laden line of 4K TVs made a massive splash in the market several years back and have only improved since then. I’ve got one. My dad has one. My best friend has one, and his dad has one, so on and so forth. But the smartphone market is a little more complicated, a little more competitive, and a little more difficult to crack than the TV sector was.

That’s where the TCL 20 line comes in. Three very affordable phones create an excellent follow-up to TCL’s big self-branded debut last year, which landed them on the list of best cheap phones time and time again. After all, TCL isn’t a newbie to the smartphone market; it’s been making phones under the Alcatel, Blackberry, and Palm brands for years (among others), and now TCL is leveraging its reputation for its second-generation TCL-branded phones.

The TCL 20 Pro 5G is …

With everyone in the same boat, Android-powered watches can finally compete.

When my son was born over 7 years ago, my “new daddy gift” was the original Samsung Galaxy Gear. I got the one with the hot orange band because I wanted to make a statement. But, unfortunately, the Galaxy Gear didn’t last me long as I quickly upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy Live — one of the original two Android Wear-powered watches that were poised to show the world how a smartwatch was supposed to be. That cycle went on and on — as a new platform was released, a new update was unveiled. And yet, the experience seemed to get worse over time, not better.

Fast forward to today and, despite all the incredible-looking smartwatches on the market, I haven’t worn one daily since 2019. From sluggish performance, to terrible battery life, to the general malaise I experienced over the years with Google’s flailing Wear OS, I just became even more frustrated. When you threw in Samsung’s inability to provide proper…

A new vision for wearables and mobile security.

What you need to know

Samsung’s MWC 2021 conference is all digital this year, and you can watch it in its entirety on Samsung’s YouTube channel.
MWC 2021 is where we’re expecting to see the next big Wear OS update revealed.
It’s possible that the recently leaked Galaxy Watch 4 will make a debut, as well.

MWC is fast upon us, and while it’s not taking place during the regularly scheduled time — that’s in late February, by tradition — we’re still expecting some big announcements from Samsung and other companies. We’ve embedded the video below, but you can also click on the title of the YouTube video to open it in a separate window if you prefer. The Samsung MWC 2021 event starts today, June 28th, promptly at 19:15PM CET / 13:15PM EDT / 02:15AM KST.

We’re fully expecting to see the brand new Wear OS that Google announced back at Google I/O 2021 in May. Google didn’t tell us much about the new OS back then, but we know that it’s a…