Logitech is unveiling a brand new device today that is both intriguing and easy to understand. The Logitech G Cloud is a handheld console that focuses primarily on cloud gaming services, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now.

While Logitech is better known for its computer peripherals, webcams and gaming accessories, the company is entering a new market with the Logitech G Cloud.

If you look at the photo at the top of this article, you’ll think that it looks like a Nintendo Switch or a Steam Deck. That form factor has been massively successful over the past few years, and Logitech isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. The Logitech G Cloud has a medium-sized display surrounded by gamepad-like controls.

But the device philosophy differs drastically from other handheld consoles. The Logitech G Cloud runs on Android and features deep integrations with Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now.

Logitech has worked with Tencent to co-develop the launcher, run usability tests and optimize how you can pause games and move them to the background. But it remains a true Android device with Google Play.

In other words, gamers now have a third type of handheld console. With the Nintendo Switch, you get the Nintendo experience with great first-party games and a console that just works. With the Steam Deck, you get a portable PC that can run PC games.

The Logitech G Cloud is unlike the Switch and the Steam Deck. It lets you access your favorite cloud gaming service without having to rely on a TV or a computer. Steam Deck owners might think that they can already do that. That’s true, but the Steam Deck is designed to run games locally.

“They have done a phenomenal job. But it’s less about cloud gaming — it’s more about ‘how can I have a PC in my hands,’” VP and GM of Logitech Gaming Ujesh Desai told me. It has a powerful AMD processing unit, a fan and a lot of on-board storage.

The Logitech G Cloud is relatively cheaper, significantly lighter and features great battery life. When it comes to internal specs, it has just the right amount of computing power to run cloud gaming services, but nothing extra.

Image Credits: Logitech

The Logitech G Cloud will be available in October for an introductory price of $299. After a while, the company plans to increase the price of the device to $349. It will only be available in the U.S. and Canada at first, but there are plans to release the device in more markets where cloud gaming services are available.

Getting a Backbone gaming controller and using it with your phone is a cheaper option. But chances are your phone has a smaller display, and you may want to be able to use your phone while you play.

“I’m a fan of Backbone, I love the team there,” Logitech’s Ujesh Desai said. “But my phone is my business. It is also how I talk with my family. I have the fear of my battery draining.” Phones are also a source of distractions.

What you get for $350

Modern smartphones are much more powerful than the Logitech G Cloud as the company has opted for a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G system on a chip with 4GB of RAM. It has 64GB of storage that you can expand with a microSD card.

And yet, with cloud gaming services, most of the intensive computing tasks happen in data centers near you. You don’t need a powerful GPU for cloud gaming.

When it comes to wireless connectivity, the G Cloud only supports WiFi 5. It would have been nice to get WiFi 6 support given that latency and internet bandwidth are so important for cloud gaming.

Everything else seems more or less standard for an Android device — Bluetooth 5.1, a USB-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo speakers and stereo microphones.

Image Credits: Logitech

Logitech has chosen the Xbox gamepad layout with A/B/X/Y buttons, two analog joysticks, two analog triggers, two bumper buttons and haptic feedback. There are a handful of extra buttons to get back home or launch the Xbox overlay menu when you’re playing a game on Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Where the Logitech G Cloud stands out is with the display and battery life. The console has a 7-inch display with a 1080p resolution, and the company says you can expect up to 12 hours of cloud game play time. Overall, the console weighs 463g — that’s roughly 30% lighter than the Steam Deck and a bit heavier than a Nintendo Switch with Joy-Con controllers attached.

In addition to cloud gaming services, gamers can use the G Cloud to stream games from their consoles or PC using the Xbox or Steam Link apps for instance. You can also install apps from the Play Store, which means that you can potentially use Shadow to access a gaming PC in the cloud.

Logitech isn’t going to sell tens of millions of G Cloud devices. It isn’t the next breakthrough console as cloud gaming is still relatively new — there aren’t tens of millions of people playing games on cloud gaming platforms.

But it’s nice to see something different that opens up new opportunities to play games. It will become more and more popular as cloud gaming services become more mainstream. If you are already familiar with cloud gaming services, the Logitech G Cloud could be considered as a physical extension of those services.

Logitech announces a handheld console focused on cloud gaming by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Hello, friends! Welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we quickly sum up the most read TechCrunch stories from the last sevenish days. The goal? Even if you’ve had a busy week, a quick skim of WiR should keep you in the (tech) loop.

Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.

This week was a bit all over the place, with another big story breaking every couple hours. Let’s just drop right in, shall we?

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• Cutbacks at Area 120: Area 120 is Google’s in-house incubator, meant to let Googlers with potentially big ideas tap the mega company’s resources to turn said ideas into something real. This week, however, Google confirmed that it’s slashing half of the Area 120 projects currently in development, with the incubator “shifting its focus” to AI projects. Impacted employees are being given until early 2023 to find a new job within Google.
• Adobe buys Figma: In one of the biggest tech acquisitions of all time, Adobe announced this week its intent to buy the collaborative/web-based design tool Figma for a whopping $20 billion. Figma saw ridiculous growth throughout the pandemic, as many, many tech teams went remote and adjusted their workflows accordingly. Even for a company as big as Adobe, winning that part of the workflow back would’ve been tough.
• Layoffs at Twilio: Twilio confirmed this week that it’ll lay off roughly 11% of its workforce — somewhere between 800 and 900 people — as the company focuses on reaching profitability in 2023.
• iOS 16 goes live: As expected, iOS 16 rolled out to Apple devices this week. Want our thoughts on it? Find Romain’s review here. Want to know all of the not-so-obvious new features hiding within the update? Check out Ivan’s list. Most of our readers seem to be looking for interesting ways to use those new Lock Screen widgets.
• South Korea issues an arrest warrant for Terraform Labs’ founder: “A court in South Korea has issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs,” writes Manish, “escalating its probe into the crypto ecosystem whose two tokens lost $40 billion in value in a span of days earlier this year.”
• Uber hack: Late Thursday night, Uber confirmed that it’s “responding to a cybersecurity incident” after a hacker seemingly breached the company’s internal network, with the hacker reportedly announcing their presence (and protesting how Uber pays its drivers) right within Uber’s Slack.

audio roundup

If you like TechCrunch for your eyes, check out TechCrunch for your ears. This week in TechCrunch podcast land, the Equity team talked about how Y Combinator has evolved in recent years, the Chain Reaction crew “dug into the institutional embrace of blockchains by stodgy financial powerhouses,” and the Found team went all “greatest hits” by revisiting an interview with Figma founder Dylan Field from earlier this year.

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Want to know what TC+ members are reading most behind the paywall? I’ve got that list below. Want to become a TC+ member yourself? Sign up here and use promo code “WIR” for 15% off an annual pass.

• How Zoho became a $1B company without external investment: Ron Miller takes us on a deep dive of the history of Zoho, the web-based business tool company that has grown, slowly but surely, into a billion-dollar powerhouse without “so much as a penny of external investment.”
• Alex looks at the current state of the early-stage startup market: “Call it the glass half-full/glass half-empty seed market,” he writes. “If you are bullish, there’s good news aplenty. And if you are bearish, well, we have enough data to make that argument as well.”
• Has France figured out YC?: Anna takes a look at France’s growing presence within Y Combinator, and the eight French startups from this latest batch.

Adobe buys Figma, Uber gets hacked, and Google shrinks Area 120 by Greg Kumparak originally published on TechCrunch

French startup Devialet has raised a new $50 million (€50 million) funding round from two existing investors — Crédit Mutuel Equity and Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund — and a new mysterious Asian investor. Devialet doesn’t want to share the name of this new investor. All I know is that it’s an industrial company based in China.

This funding round is relevant as startup funding has slowed down in recent months in France — like in other European markets. The funding round is a traditional investment round in exchange for equity in the company — there’s no debt component. Devialet doesn’t share the company’s valuation — but it’s higher than its previous valuation.

If you’re not familiar with Devialet, the startup designs high-end speakers of all sizes and shapes. The company’s flagship product is the Phantom I speaker. With this egg-shaped speaker, Devialet’s engineering team promises no background noise, no saturation and no distorsion thanks to its proprietary sound amplification technology.

The result is an extremely capable speaker that starts at $2,300. When you turn it on, it feels like a much larger speaker — it can be very loud. This speaker is also versatile as it supports AirPlay, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect and UPnP.

Over time, Devialet has expanded to other products and markets. In 2019, the company released a smaller speaker, the Phantom Reactor, which is now called the Phantom II.

When it comes to new product categories, the company also released a pair of earbuds and a soundbar for your TV. With the Devialet Dione soundbar in particular, the company has ambitious goals. There are likely more people who want to buy a home cinema setup than audiophiles looking for speakers that cost thousands of dollars.

In addition to Devialet’s own products, the startup also has a licensing division for its audio technology and patents. Over the past few years, it has partnered with Sky, Iliad, Altice USA and Huawei to release devices with Devialet-branded speakers.

With today’s funding round, the company plans to double down on international markets and its licensing strategy. For instance, over the past three years, Devialet has opened six stores in China, five in South Korea and several stores in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia. Three of the startup’s top five markets are now in Asia. While Devialet is a relatively niche brand, the company is reporting double-digit growth.

“Our continued partnership with both Crédit Mutuel Equity and Bpifrance shows a clear confidence in our business strategy and in the truly unique technologies that have been developed by our engineers,” Devialet CEO said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the participation of our new partners in the Asian market will be a considerable asset as we continue to build out our licensing strategy, and will provide ample opportunities to further build Devialet’s presence in Asia.”

High-end speaker manufacturer Devialet raises $50 million by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Sonos has a new sub in its lineup, and this one isn’t quite as prohibitively expensive: The $429 Sub Mini comes in at almost half the price of the more expensive existing $749 Sub — and is also roughly half the size.

The Sonos Sub Mini is specifically recommended by the company to accompany its smaller speakers (like the Beam, Ray, and One), and for smaller and medium-sized room. It’s roughly the size of a small waste bin, and the cylindrical design with the central cutout echoes the larger Sub’s look but in a package that’s probably much easier to integrate into your existing home decor.

The Sub Mini comes in either black or white, and goes on sale on October 6 in select markets in eluding the U.S., Canada, the UK and more.

The company has long been tipped to be working on this more compact subwoofer, and the cost savings in particular are bound to be welcome for Sonos customers looking to fill out their home surround system with something that doesn’t cost as much or more than other complete soundbar/sub combos from competing brands.

We’ll be checking out the new Sub Mini to see how it compares to the existing Sub and other surround setups, so stay tuned for that once its available.

[gallery ids="2396091,2396092,2396093,2396094"]

Sonos introduces new $429 Sub Mini subwoofer by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch

Happy Saturday, friends. Welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we very quickly sum up the most read TechCrunch stories from the past week. Want it in your inbox every Saturday AM? Get it here.

This week saw two big events running in parallel: an Apple hardware announcement and Y Combinator’s Demo Day. Either one of those on their own would generally lead our traffic for the week — having them smash into each other on the same day was … interesting. And maybe a little exhausting.

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The Apple stuff: Apple’s event, as their events tend to do, mostly dominated the tech news cycle this week. Rather than turn this entire newsletter into one big list of Apple things, I’ll just say: new iPhones, new AirPods, and a beefy new Apple Watch. Want more words than that? Here’s our roundup of the news.

Y Combinator moonshots: Startups are hard. But every YC batch has at least a handful of companies that seem a little extra hard — the moonshots, if you will. From faux fish to teams that want to reinvent flying, the Demo Day team rounded up some of the wildest pitches.

Musk/Twitter drama continues: Elon Musk is still aiming to undo his multibillion-dollar offer for Twitter, and Twitter still wants to hold him to it. This week a Delaware judge made two decisions in the ordeal: The trial will not be delayed by a month as Musk’s legal team had requested, but Musk will be allowed to “amend his counterclaim with details” disclosed by Twitter security whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko earlier this month.

LG wants you to buy NFTs on your TV: NFT sales have reportedly tanked over the last few months. Will the ability to buy/sell/trade NFTs on LG smart TVs be the thing that turns that around? No, no, it will not.

Kim Kardashian’s new gig: “America’s favorite reality star is leveling up her repertoire,” writes Anita, with another job title: private equity investor. Kardashian is teaming up with Jay Sammons, formerly the head of Consumer/Media/Retail at the Carlyle Group, to launch a new private equity firm called SKKY Partners.

Jeep’s EVs: Another legendary auto brand is diving deep into electric vehicles — this time it’s Jeep, which this week revealed plans to roll out three different EVs (the Recon, Wagoneer S, and Avenger) by 2025. The company, notes Jaclyn, expects “EVs to compose half of its sales in North America — and all of its sales in Europe — by 2030.”

Patreon layoffs: Patreon, a company that helps creators build out paid membership offerings, laid off employees this week. The layoffs purportedly leave Patreon without much of a security team, which seems … not ideal?

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

audio roundup

What’s up in TC podcast land this week? “Selling Sunset” star Christine Quinn stopped by Found to tell ’em about her new startup, the Chain Reaction crypto crew talked about the latest drama at Binance, and Burnsy took a virtual trip to Minnesota to put the spotlight on the Minneapolis startup scene for TechCrunch Live.

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Want 15% off an annual TechCrunch+ subscription? Use promo code “WIR” when signing up. Just want to know what TC+ readers were reading most this week? Here’s the breakdown:

YC Demo Day favs: Nearly 230 pitches later, which Y Combinator S22 companies stood out to the Demo Day team? Here are their favorite pitches from Day 1 and Day 2.

The most important slides in your pitch deck: Reporter/former VC/resident pitch deck expert Haje shares his insights on which of the perhaps-too-many slides in your deck are most crucial.

The freemium bar is shifting: Across products from Slack to Google Meet to Heroku, many companies are shifting up their free tiers to offer less. Why now? Anita explores the trend.

The week an Apple event and YC Demo Day collided by Greg Kumparak originally published on TechCrunch

GPS in its many regional flavors has become a ubiquitous feature in phones, smart watches, cars and other connected devices, but for all the location-based features that it helps enable (mapping being the most obvious) it has a lot of shortcomings: it can be slow and inaccurate, it can contribute to faster battery drain, and as people are discovering, it can be manipulated or exploited in unintended and alarming ways.

Today, a UK startup called FocalPoint that’s building software to improve GPS’s operations, accuracy and security is announcing a round of funding to continue building out its tech — which today works up to 4G and will in future also work with 5G and WiFi — and to roll out the first commercial deployments of its system with early customers. Use cases for the tech include more accurate location for smartphone apps for navigation or location tracking (for example for running and other sports); to help companies with their navigation services (for example for transportation or fleet management); and for better GPS security overall.

Based in Cambridge and founded as a spinout from Cambridge University, FocalPoint has raised £15 million ($17 million), part of a Series C round that it expects to total £23 million ($26 million) when fully completed. Molten Ventures (FKA Draper Esprit) — which led a £6 million Series B in 2021– and Gresham House are the two investors in so far. Ramsey Faragher, the CTO and founder, said that the other investors, which include a major U.S. automotive brand that is a strategic investor, will be closing in the coming weeks.

FocalPoint about a year ago had another notable business development that is helping put the startup on potential customers’ radar: last September, it appointed Scott Pomerantz as its CEO. Described as a “living legend in GPS” Pomerantz previously founded Global Locate, one of the first companies to bring GPS to the mass market, with its tech used by Apple and others. That startup eventually got acquired by Broadcom.

Speaking of Apple, FocalPoint’s focus on better GPS is coming at a timely moment. Just yesterday, the iPhone giant announced its newest Apple Watch models, featuring much more accurate GPS using a multi band approach on devices touting newly extended battery life. It is a signal of the priority that device makers are putting on improving GPS, and investments that they would be willing to make to do so, and thus the opportunity for startups offering new and more effective approaches to crack the market.

As Faragher explained to TC, GPS development to date has largely been based around chipsets embedded in the devices using it, which has meant that improving services by and large have depended on new versions of that hardware. That’s a big hill to climb, however, when considering the embedded market of legacy chips and the process of rolling out next-generation hardware: There were 1.8 billion GPS chipsets shipped as of 2019, with the total projected to grow to 2.8 billion by 2029. Smartphones account for the bulk of those numbers, but autonomy, road and drone devices are growing the fastest.

Along with that, GPS relies on using one or another of two radio bands; typically one produces better positioning than the other but it does so at a cost of draining battery life in the process.

FocalPoint is working on a software-based solution, Faragher said, which he said means that the chipsets themselves do not necessarily need to be swapped out or upgraded to implement its faster approach.

It’s working on algorithms, he said, which are aimed at understanding the directions of satellite signals, using this to gain better understanding of exact location of a device — a process that not only improves the accuracy of a location, but helps to identify when a signal is potentially getting spoofed to appear in one place when it’s actually somewhere else. This is carried out using the band that is less battery-intensive, which previously had been deemed to have poorer positioning performance. “The higher performing signal has always been more computationally intensive,” he said, which is why it impacts batter life. “We can make the lower quality, lower-battery-intensive signal better.”

There are other approaches aiming for the same outcome, but Faragher said they have been too costly and clunky.

“Only military antennas have been able to detect movement like this before,” he said, with those antennas coming in the form, of satellite dishes that are the size of a dinner plate and cost around $10,000 each — a big expense when hundreds need to be used across a wider mobile network. “What we are offering is a military-grade feature for the cost of software upgrade,” he said. “We synthesize expensive antennae.” this could help reduce the cost of other components and this resonates. End expense off a component
There are two different frequencies used by satellites, more computationally intensive for the higher performing signal. So we can make the lower quality battery use signal better than then more expensive signal.

Companies that have worked with FocalPoint to test how its software works are a key to where the company is aiming its business: the startup partnered with Google and its Android team to test how its software could improve location of users for its mapping software in a trial that the two companies ran in London.

“We demonstrated to Google that before using our technology, it couldn’t use the lower quality GPS band for its in-house mapping technology,” he said. That in-house tech is what Google would use for any navigation service, including for Google Maps as well as its devices. He said that Google’s approach, which looks at how signals bounce off buildings to figure out location, is useful with the higher GPS signal but not the lower one, therefore being a stronger drain on battery life. “We could make that lower band work.”

Faragher would not comment on whether it was working with Google, or any other specific companies, during the interview.

“Existing GPS technologies are no longer fit for purpose and we’re proud to continue our support for FocalPoint in its mission to revolutionise the accuracy of GPS and other global navigation satellite systems and in doing so, solve the issues faced by business and consumers with imprecise and unsafe receivers,” said David Cummings, a venture partner with Molten Ventures, in a statement. “We’ve been impressed with how the team has continued to build and expand since its Series B funding round last year, and are thrilled to support FocalPoint in this next exciting chapter for the company”.

UK’s FocalPoint raises $17M for its software-based approach to repairing the flaws of GPS by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

In addition to the regular iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, Apple is updating its pro lineup today as well. The biggest change in iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max design is at the top of the screen. The company is dropping the notch and replacing it with what the company calls the “Dynamic Island”.

The body is still made out of stainless steel and the display features a ceramic shield. There’s an all new deep purple color in addition to black, silver and gold. They still come in two sizes with a 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays.

The TrueDepth camera has been updated and is now smaller. In particular, the proximity sensor is now behind the screen. That’s why Apple chose to drop the notch in favor of a pill-shaped cutout. That cutout is dynamic, it expands to show you controls and content. It can show that your AirPods are connected, or that your phone is now on mute. If you’re playing music and going back to the lock screen, you can see a tiny album art and waveform next to the cutout.

App developers will be able to take advantage of the Dynamic Island for live activities. For instance, if there’s a Lyft driver on their way or if you started a timer, you can see the current status next to the speaker at the top of the screen.

The display has been updated and is brighter than before. But the most important change is that it can remain always on. When you’re not using your phone, the screen will be dimmed and the refresh rate will be lowered. It can go to as low as 1Hz (one refresh per second).

The iPhone 14 Pro uses a new system on a chip, the A16 Bionic with a 6-core CPU and 16 billion transistors. There are two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. Apple uses a 4 nanometer process. The A16 Bionic can compute 17 trillion operations per second. The display engine has been updated, which enables the always-on display.

Let’s move to the camera system. There are still three independent sensors, but with some updates. The iPhone 14 Pro has a 48 megapixel camera with a quad-pixel sensor. It is a 65% larger sensor compared to the iPhone 13 Pro. It also features a new 24 millimeter focal length.

There are now four modes when you shoot a photo — an ultra-wide mode, 1x mode, 2x mode and 3x mode. But there’s a trick. The 2x mode is not optical. The company uses the 1x sensor and keeping the middle of the photo for a 2x zoom. The new ultra-wide camera is a 13mm camera in focal length. It has an aperture of f/2.2 with a macro photography mode.

Of course, there are also software improvements. The new Photonic Engine means better low-light performance. When it comes to video, there’s a new action mode for improved stabilization (no gimbal required) and new cinematic modes. It now supports up to 4K resolution and 30 frames per second. You can also choose to shoot in 24 frames per second now.

Like with the regular iPhone 14, Pro models gets a new emergency SOS via satellite feature. Here’s what I wrote about the feature in my separate post about the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus:

As long as you’re outside with a clear view of the sky, you can send a message to emergency services.

On your phone, you can see where satellites are and how to point it at them. Once connected, you need to send and receive enough information to get help. Apple has created a custom, short-text compression algorithm. It can take from 15 seconds to a few minutes to send a message. You can also select standard answers from a list of preconfigured messages to speed up the conversation.

Even if you don’t need help, you can still use this satellite-powered feature to update your location in the Find My app. It can be useful if you’re on a long hike for instance.

The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will cost $999 and $1,099 respectively with 128GB of storage. These new models will be available on September 16th. Pre-orders start on September 9th.

This is the iPhone 14 Pro by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Apple introduced the iPhone 14 at a press event today. The new phone draws inspiration from the iPhone 13 with sharp aluminum edges, rounded corners, a glass back, the familiar notch at the top of the device and a Lightning port.

The biggest change in the lineup is that the company isn’t updating the iPhone 13 mini. Instead, the company is releasing the iPhone 14 in two sizes — the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Plus. They have a 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch display respectively. If you like small phones, there’s no new device for you. But if you want a big iPhone without buying a Pro model, the iPhone 14 Plus is for you.

“iPhone 14 also has an updated internal design that improves thermal performance,” VP of iPhone Product Marketing Kaiann Drance said. For instance, you can play games for longer sessions.

Apple uses the A15 Bionic system on a chip for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. It’s the same system on a chip that you can find in the iPhone 13 lineup.

On the back of the device, there’s a new main camera with a larger sensor and faster aperture (f/1.5). It features sensor-shift optical image stabilization. Apple says you can expect a 49% improvement in low-light performance.

On the front, there’s a new TrueDepth camera with a faster f/1.9 aperture. The selfie camera also has autofocus for the first time, which should help with keeping faces sharp.

Camera is a big focus of the iPhone 14. Apple also says that the image processing algorithm has been improved with deep fusion happening earlier in the pipeline. With video, there’s a new advanced stabilization mode. It’s called action mode, and it uses the full sensor to stabilize the video without any extra hardware — no gimbal required.

Image Credits: Apple

In the U.S., Apple is dropping the SIM tray. Instead, customers will have to switch to eSIM. Apple said specifically that this is a change for customers in the U.S. International iPhone models should still have a SIM tray.

Like with the Apple Watch Series 8, the iPhone 14 has new sensors that can detect a car crash. It can help you call emergency services more quickly. And if you’re in the middle of nowhere and don’t have Wi-Fi or cell service, the iPhone can still help you with emergency SOS via satellite. As long as you’re outside with a clear view of the sky, you can send a message to emergency services.

On your phone, you can see where satellites are and how to point it at them. Once connected, you need to send and receive enough information to get help. Apple has created a custom, short-text compression algorithm. It can take from 15 seconds to a few minutes to send a message. You can also select standard answers from a list of preconfigured messages to speed up the conversation.

Even if you don’t need help, you can still use this satellite-powered feature to update your location in the Find My app. It can be useful if you’re on a long hike for instance.

The iPhone 14 will start at $799 while the iPhone 14 Plus starts at $899. Preorders start on September 9. The iPhone 14 will be available on September 16 while the iPhone 14 Plus will be available on October 7.

Image Credits: Screenshot/Apple

Apple unveils the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

In addition to the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple unveiled a brand new Apple Watch model at its press conference. The Apple Watch Ultra has been specifically designed for intense sports tracking. It is a larger model with better battery life. It also has a different body that should resist extreme weather conditions.

The case is made of aerospace titanium and is 49mm in size. It is much larger than typical watches, and also larger than existing Apple Watch models. The screen is completely flat and is made of sapphire crystal, which should increase sturdiness. It still has the familiar crown but there’s an additional action button to quickly access a range of features. For instance, you can use the button to mark a segment without having to fiddle with the screen. Buttons have been designed to be accessible even when you’re wearing gloves.

Cellular is a standard feature of all Apple Watch Ultra models and this new model has improved multi-band GPS. The battery life can reach 36 hours of battery life. There will be a new battery optimization feature as well coming later this fall. With this setting on, you can reach 60 hours of battery life.

Users will also experience a new “Wayfinder” watch face that features a lot of information, including a compass in the dial. There are multiple new bands coming with this new watch as well. The alpine loop is a nylon loop with two layers. There’s the rugged ocean loop that works well with high-speed water sports, and the lightweight trail loop.

The speaker is quite loud and can be used and brand new ways. For instance, you can use the action button to launch an 86db alert when you need assistance. The microphone has also been improved for windy situations.

The Apple Watch Ultra also is WR-100 water resistant — and it has an automatic built-in depth gauge. It’s also EN13319 certified, which means you can use it as a dive computer.

With this model, it’s clear that Apple wants to compete with Garmin and Polar. Many sports enthusiasts have been saying that the battery life on the regular Apple Watch is simply not good enough. That changes with the Apple Watch Ultra.

But it’s not going to be a cheap model. The Apple Watch Ultra costs $799. It is available to pre-order today and it will ship on September 23rd.

Apple introduces the Apple Watch Ultra by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Somehow, we all became livestreamers during the pandemic, even if it just meant rearranging our office shelves for a better Zoom background. But the pandemic was also a boon for those catering to clients with slightly more advanced needs, such as those who needed dedicated hardware, be that fancy streaming lights, capture cards or entire live production setups. Atem, Elgato and company probably never saw as many searchers on their websites as during the middle of 2020. Another player in this field is YoloLiv, which offers both hardware and software tools for creating livestreaming productions. The company recently launched a number of interesting software updates and sent us its YoloBox Pro to give it a try.

Image Credits: YoloLiv

What makes the YoloLiv boxes stand out is that they are standalone devices that you can use to run a live production with multiple cameras, all without needing a dedicated desktop or laptop to stream.

You can basically think of the YoloBoxes as very thick Android tablets (and they do, in fact, run Android). The Pro version is the flagship model, with an 8-inch screen, three HDMI inputs for bringing in camera feeds, a USB port for connecting a webcam and an SD card reader for bringing in pre-recorded video and saving your recording. There’s also a line in port for bringing in audio and a USB-A port that lets you use the device as a webcam and connect it to a computer and an HDMI out port for a dedicated monitor. To connect the Box to the internet, there’s an Ethernet port for wired connections and Wi-Fi, and there’s even support for LTE connections.

The system runs on a Qualcomm 660 chip and dedicated media encoders, and in my testing, all of that works just as advertised, with up to 60 frames per second.

Image Credits: YoloLiv

The company also offers the 7-inch YoloBox with two HDMI inputs and one USB port for a webcam, but without the ability to use the entire unit as a webcam. The newest member of the family is the 5.5-inch YoloBox Mini, with just one HDMI port and one USB port for adding a webcam. That makes the potential use cases for this a bit limited, but unlike the standard non-Pro YoloBox, you can use it as a webcam.  Most likely, that’s because both the Pro and Mini use Qualcomm’s 660, while the YoloBox uses the less powerful 625 chipset.

The company is also about to release a new box — the Instream — for streamers on Instagram and TikTok, with a focus on vertical video.

As somebody who typically uses OBS or Restream Studio for producing livestreams, moving to the YoloBox took a bit of getting used to. But I can definitely see the appeal of the YoloBox. Setup takes a few minutes. Connecting cameras is a plug-and-play affair — and once you’ve entered your YouTube, Facebook or Twitch credentials, you’re good to go. If you want to get fancy, you can build your own picture-in-picture, side-by-side and split views and easily switch back and forth between them during your show.

Image Credits: YoloLiv

One thing that impressed me is that with every software release during my testing phase, the company launched useful new features. Most recently — and most importantly for somebody who livestreams interviews or podcast recordings — you can now invite people to your shows.

However, if you use the device as a webcam, one thing you have to keep in mind is that there is a slight delay in processing all of the video feeds. We’re talking about maybe half a second, but that’s enough to make conversations harder, and if you don’t feed your audio through the YoloBox but through your computer, it’ll be out of sync. This isn’t the most likely use case for these devices, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

Where the device shines is when you use it to produce a live event. Setting up different views is easy and you simply switch using the touch screen. You can set up lower thirds or any other text on the screen and case it in and out as needed, assign names to presenters, etc. There’s a scoreboard, too, for when you’re streaming your school’s football games. Of course, there are also built-in countdown timers and virtually every other feature you would expect. Writing your lower thirds on the touch screen gets a bit old after a while and I’d like to see more features that would make it easier to recycle them from stream to stream, but that’s a minor issue.

A few days ago, YoloLiv launched version 2.0 of the software package for the Pro, which adds a couple of features that I missed while using the device. The most important of those, at least for me, was the ability to copy, reorder and prioritize overlays, and for those who use it to stream sports (or e-sports), there’s now support for instant replays.

Unsurprisingly, all of this takes a fair bit of energy. The YoloBox Pro is powered by a 10,000 mAh battery, which the company says should last about three hours. I got closer to a bit over two hours in my tests, but I was also trying lots of features at the same time. For some features, including adding guests, YoloLiv recommends that you don’t use an external webcam but only the HDMI inputs, and in my experience, that’s correct. The webcam seems to need quite a bit more compute power, and some of these new features do push the device to its limits.

Still, I’ve been impressed by how the company is obviously listening to user feedback and improves the device with every update.

There is clearly a space for a device like this. At almost $1,300, you’re either a very dedicated amateur or maybe a nonprofit that doesn’t need a larger setup, but if you’re good with the number of inputs, I can’t really think of another easily portable solution like this (unless you want to bring a laptop and switcher and a lot more gear). I’m sure professionals will always prefer the hardware controls of an ATEM Mini Pro from Blackmagic (or its larger brethren). But as an all-in-one device, the YoloBox Pro doesn’t really have a lot of competition right now.

The YoloBox Pro is a one-stop shop for your live video productions by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Firewalla, maybe the only company that can say that its hardware firewalls have something of a cult following, today announced the latest addition to its portfolio: the $569 Firewalla Gold Plus. The Gold Plus will feature four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and its deep packet inspection hardware can handle up to 5 Gigabits at a time.

With this addition, Firewalla now offers a full set of products from the 100 Mbit Red (which is probably too slow for most users at this point) to the $329 Purple with up to a Gigabit of inspection bandwidth — and a few other variants in between and now the Gold Plus at the top end of the line. The regular Firewalla Gold will set you back $485 during the pre-buy phase, but its inspection hardware can handle up to 3 Gigabits of data.

The Gold Plus is something of a flagship device for Firewalla, being the most expensive and capable of its combined firewall and router devices yet.

With its four 2.5 Gigabit ethernet interfaces and 5 Gigabits of inspection capabilities, it’s likely overkill for home users. The Purple — and maybe even the Blue Plus — would be more than capable for most homes. The Firewalla team, however, also argues that as home internet speed increase beyond 1 Gigabit per second, a 2.5 Gigabit firewall and router may just be a good investment for the future.

Image Credits: Firewalla

My guess is that most of the buyers here will be small businesses, though. For them, the Gold Plus may just represent the right size for their needs (or the size they may soon grow into), before opting for more expensive and harder to manage enterprise devices.

”If a router can’t match the speed of an internet connection, users are leaving value and speed on the table,” said Jerry Chen, founder of Firewalla. ”Firewalla Gold Plus is perfect for the fast internet of the future and helps secure home networks and small businesses. We’re seeing many people upgrade their internet service and Firewalla Gold Plus can meet those speeds, future-proof their network architecture, and is compatible with WiFi 6E routers.”

When I tried Firewalla’s Purple router in the past, I was impressed by how easy it was to manage the basics of my home network without loosing the ability to dig very deep into the settings and customize every aspect of the network. In part, that’s why Firewalla has such a dedicated following, I think. It’s easy enough to get started but doesn’t hold you back when you want to go beyond the basics. That’s fun and useful for many home users but often essential for businesses.

The new Firewalla Gold Plus is now available for pre-order (and its price will likely go up after the pre-order phase). The devices will start shipping in January 2023, though if the company hits a certain number of pre-orders, it’ll be able to pull this date forward.

About a year ago, Keychron launched its Q-series of custom mechanical keyboards that now spans the gamut from small 60% boards to full-size options, with everything in between. Whatever your preference, Keychron clearly wants to be in the running for your money. Now, the company is launching the Q8, a rare 65% Alice-style board with a gasket design.

Unless you’re deep into mechanical keyboards, chances are you’ve never heard of an Alice-style board. It’s basically a keyboard that’s split in the middle with both sides slightly angled and curved, with small space bars and B keys on both sides (yes, B keys on both sides…). Otherwise, it’s mostly a standard layout with arrow keys and numbers, but without a numpad or F keys. and while I hesitate to call it ‘ergonomic,’ the angled keys allow for a pretty relaxed wrist position. Unlike ‘real’ split ergonomic keyboards like an ErgoDox EZ or Matias Ergo Pro, all you get is a set angle though and no tenting to raise the middle of the board. In return, though, it’s extremely easy to adjust to an Alice layout and, by extension, the Q8.

Image Credits: Keychron

Keychron provided us with a review sample ahead of the launch and having recently tried both their Q3 TKL and Q8 1800 board, this one may actually be my favorite one of the bunch. The version I have here is the pre-built Carbon Black edition with a knob and pre-lubed Gateron Pro red linear switches. That’s both a look I enjoy and a switch I can live with (I’d likely replace it with a slightly heavier linear).

Surprisingly, there is no foam at the bottom of the case to mute the sound. Instead, Keychron opted to pre-apply the popular tape mod and covered the back of the PCB with a pre-cut green tape, something I haven’t seen on a pre-built board before. That may sound like a weird thing to do, but it really does shape the sound by absorbing some of the unwanted higher frequencies. It’s nice to see Keychron learning from the mechanical keyboard community, though, and the result speaks for itself. There’s no case ping here either, which also helps shape the overall sound, and while there isn’t a lot of space at the bottom of the case, there should be just enough to add a thin layer of foam to mute the board a bit more, if that’s your thing.

Out of the box, the board actually sounds quite alright. It’s almost ‘thocky,” but not quite. The screw-in stabilizers need some additional lube, especially to make the larger right spacebar sound better, but half the fun of custom boards is to shape them to your preferences and there is still some room here to do that. Like with previous Q-series outings, the optional knob feels nice, with clear steps and a satisfying click when you press it.

I still wish Keychron would offer more switch options, but since this is a hotswap board, you can easily replace them. Given that the fully assembled versions of Keychron’s boards with switches and keycaps only cost about $20 more than the barebone sets, I tend to opt for the fully assembled versions. If you’re new to mechanical keyboards, that’s the way to go anyway and if you’re already deep down the rabbit hole, you can always find some use for a few extra switches. I’ve really enjoyed Keychron’s double-shot PBT Cherry profile keycaps lately, too, which at $40 are a bit of a steal.

Image Credits: Keychron

Talking about keycaps: given that Alice-style boards aren’t exactly standard (though Akko also recently released one), it’s hard to find mainstream  — that is, non-group buy — keycap sets that support it. In addition to the two small space bars, Keychron opted for two B keys in the middle because quite a few typists apparently alternate between hands for typing B. In an earlier version, Keychron actually opted for two G’s instead (the slot for that is still on the PCB), but the community feedback was swift and almost uniformly negative. Some keycap sets actually feature two B keys, but that’s still somewhat unusual. You may have to get a bit creative with a function key there if you only use one of those anyway. Fun fact: Keychron’s latest Cherry keycaps feature two G keys…

Otherwise, the Q8 follows the lead of the rest of the Q series, with QMK/VIA compatibility for reassigning every key to your heart’s desire, a CNC-machined aluminum body and a polling rate of 100 Hz for gamers. There’s also per-key LED, of course, to light up your daily typing session. The PCB can handle both three- and five-pin MX-style switches. And like those other boards in the Q series, you can switch between Windows and Mac compatibility and like those other boards, the Q8 is only available in a wired version, which remains the standard for custom keyboards.

Overall, I was happily surprised by the Q8. Like most of Keychron’s recent offerings, you could easily use it as is and be perfectly happy with your choice, but with just a few small mods, you can make it great and shape it according to your needs.

Pricing starts at $175 for a barebone kit without knob and $185 with it. Add $20 to those and you get switches and keycaps, too. There aren’t a lot of affordable (in mechanical keyboard terms) Alice-style keyboards on the market, but it doesn’t feel like Keychron cut any corners here.