January 14, 2025 | View in browser 

 

IN THIS ISSUE

 

🥽 These three new VR gadgets make the Quest 3 and 3S even better
📱 I bought a dumb phone for my grandma, but ended up using it myself
🎵 Dynaudio’s first soundbar looks and sounds like no other
👻 Presence trailer: Steven Soderbergh invites you into his haunted house

🕹️ Nintendo's wacky Alarmo clock will soon be available to everyone

 
 

Image: Tracey Truly / Digital Trends

 

COMPUTING

 

I tried three new VR gadgets that make the Quest 3 and 3S even better

 

'I’ve found myself having more fun in VR than ever before'

 

The midrange Meta Quest 3 and budget-friendly Quest 3S are already among the best VR headsets out there, but Digital Trends’ Alan Truly recently tried out some gadgets to expand their capabilities even further.

RotoVR Explorer, for example, is simulation hardware that physically moves your body to synchronize what you feel with what you see in a VR game. Another fun one is Kotobix’s Real Racer XR, which uses a camera on top of an RC car for a first-person view as you zip along the floor, directing the vehicle with a virtual steering wheel ...

 
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MORE COMPUTING

 
  • Nvidia’s DLSS 4 isn’t what you think it is. Let’s debunk the myths
  • This new DirectX feature could totally change how PC games work
  • AMD may still wait for Nvidia before unleashing RDNA 4
 
 

SPONSORED BY TINECO

 

Tineco shows off three new ways to vacuum, steam, and clean your floors at CES 2025

 

Tineco showcased three products at CES 2025, giving you three fancy new ways to vacuum, steam, and clean your floors. The Floor One S9 Artist Steam was the highlight of the trio, as it can produce steam to tackle tough stains, features a lay-flat design, and will automatically adjust its settings to best deal with the challenge at hand ...

 
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Image: Tushar Mehta / Digital Trends

 

MOBILE

 

I bought a dumb phone for my grandma, but ended up using it myself

 

Spending $90 on a candy bar phone may be a worthwhile investment

 

Digital Trends’ Tushar Mehta recently bought a Blackview N1000 feature phone for his 87-year-old grandmother. Although it was from a lesser-known brand, it still had promising specs, including Wi-Fi. In fact, after the handset arrived, he was so impressed with it that he ended up getting another one for himself.

In his piece for Digital Trends, he shares eight reasons why he became a big fan of this bare-bones phone. They include its ease of use, ruggedness, fast T9 typing, and the sheer enjoyment of using a simple device that isn’t a bells-and-whistles smartphone ...

 
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MORE MOBILE

 
  • The latest iMessage phishing scam is easy to fall for. Here's how to avoid it
  • Samsung will buy your old phone, no strings attached
  • Blood pressure monitoring may finally come to the Apple Watch
 

Image: Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

 

AUDIO / VIDEO

 

Dynaudio’s first soundbar looks and sounds like nothing else on the market

 

Is $20,000 too much to pay for a soundbar? Possibly. But wait till you hear the Dynaudio Symphony Opus One

 

You can’t yet buy Dynaudio’s first soundbar, the Symphony Opus One, but Digital Trends’ Simon Cohen was lucky enough to experience it up close at CES recently. “The huge, 73-inch-wide, 1,500-watt speaker looks more like an air register from a super yacht than a soundbar, thanks to the aluminum chassis, fabric panels, and a series of 72 oscillating wooden fins that make up its front face,” he writes.

The audio demo included a section of Lady Gaga's Close To You, and a scene from a Mission: Impossible movie. Cohen describes it as offering a “powerful, precise, full-frequency sound that delivers both musical and dialogue clarity, with plenty of cinematic, low-end punch” ...

 
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MORE AUDIO / VIDEO

 
  • Fiio brought its adorable KA15 DAC/amp to CES 2025 and I want it
  • Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has been replaced by a board member
  • Beats Powerbeats Pro wireless earbuds are 50% off from Best Buy
 
 
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ENTERTAINMENT

 

Presence trailer: Steven Soderbergh invites you into his haunted house

 

Awards Watch has called Presence, which opens next week, 'one of the scariest movies you'll see this year'

 

Steven Soderbergh's new movie, Presence, is an atmospheric horror set in a haunted house, Digital Trends reported. After moving into a new home, a family of four — Rebekah (Lucy Liu), Chris (Chris Sullivan), Tyler (Eddy Maday), and Chloe (Callina Liang) — quickly realize that they're not alone. The family believes their house is being occupied by a supernatural presence that needs something from them, and how it conveys its request becomes the movie's central mystery.

Soderbergh shoots the film from the point of view of the presence, with the filmmaker's subjective camera taking the audience through every nook and cranny in the house to observe the family ...

 
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MORE ENTERTAINMENT

 
  • Sebastian Stan says Thunderbolts is Marvel’s Breakfast Club
  • 3 PBS shows you should watch in January 2025
  • Like Squid Game season 2? Then watch these 5 great alternatives
 

Image: Nintendo

 

GAMING

 

Nintendo's wacky Alarmo clock will soon be available to everyone

 

The $100 device is currently only available to folks with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but that's about to change

 

Remember that crazy Alarmo clock that Nintendo announced last fall — the one that Digital Trends described as “the wackiest product Nintendo has put out in years”? Well, you may — or may not — be pleased to learn that starting in March it’ll be available to one and all at select retailers in the U.S. and Europe, including the U.K. — while stocks last, that is.

The clock offers basic sleep-tracking data and wakes you up using sounds and music from Nintendo games like Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Splatoon 3. Nintendo claims that Alarmo “makes waking up fun,” but a Digital Trends reporter found that it turned his bedroom into a battleground ...

 
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MORE GAMING

 
  • Hyper Light Breaker is starting early access on the right foot
  • Pokémon Go is ending support for certain older Android phones
  • World of Warcraft’s 20th anniversary was a bittersweet trip through time
 

ABOUT OUR SPONSOR

 

Tineco helps over 10,000,000* families worldwide to: Live Easy, Enjoy Life. Tineco showcases its innovative and intelligent technology to make home appliances smarter and easier to use, and focuses on things we love. Moving forward, Tineco is wil make full use of its 20-year heritage, reshape it for a better future, and keep creating exciting products that are helpful, easy to use, and smart.

 
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