Tag: reviews

This Electric Stroller Can Rock Your Baby For You

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When my son was small, my favorite stroller accessory was little add-on called the Rockit. Shaped like a rocket, it attached onto the handlebar of my stroller and vibrated to rock my baby to sleep while we shopped at the farmer’s market. It was great for those early months, especially since my son (like many babies) hated when the stroller dared come to a stop.

Now, instead of it being a handlebar add-on, you can find a stroller with that feature built right in. Cybex’s newest stroller, the e-Gazelle S, adds electric powers to Cybex’s existing Gazelle design to give it both a rocking mode and a power assist to help you push the stroller on rough terrain or slow it down on a hill. The e-Gazelle S is well-made and can easily switch from a single to double stroller, and you’d never guess it’s an electric stroller at first glance.

It’s a splurge—it retails for $1,100. You don’t need this stroller (or need to spend that much on any stroller—our pick for the best baby stroller is half that price), but if there are a lot of hills in your life, this stroller makes them a lot easier. And if I was choosing between this and an Uppababy Vista V2 ($999), I’d choose the e-Gazelle.

Power On

Photograph: Nena Farrell

The e-Gazelle S has motors built into the stroller frame, powered by a lithium-ion battery you click into the edge of the lower storage basket. To use it, the handlebar has two buttons: the power button and rocking mode button, plus four LED lights that light up to display the battery life (and rocking mode level). Then there’s a little thumb lever underneath these lights and buttons to engage the forward or brake assist. Once it’s turned on, you either need to activate the assist or the rocking mode within about two seconds or it’ll turn off. Cybex says the battery can last anywhere from five to 28 miles, depending on factors like temperature and terrain. I used it on a hot day throughout an amusement park and still had three out of four lights on at the end of the day.

If you’re worried whether the stroller will run away from you, it can’t. The e-Gazelle power assist works only while the stroller is in motion, so you (or your young, curious child who loves buttons) can’t accidentally send the stroller grooving down the street. While walking, you use your thumb to control the power level of the smart assist, pushing forward to help you go—you guessed it—forward, and backward to engage the electric brake.

The forward assist’s most powerful mode required me to extreme speed walk on a flat surface, and I usually had my thumb somewhere in the middle unless I was on a particularly steep hill. It’s designed with hills in mind, and Cybex says it can help with slopes up to 14 degrees (roughly the pitch of San Francisco’s famed Lombard Street). The brake didn’t feel like it had as much range; I either could feel it stopping the wheels a lot or barely at all. Still, it was helpful on steep inclines. I found myself reaching for the power assist throughout a day at the San Diego Safari Park to get up some of the park’s major uphill sections and to control my speed down the sloping path of the gorilla exhibit. Both these areas are just as tricky with lighter travel strollers, and the e-Gazelle made them noticeably easier.

This video is about My MovieCourtesy of Cybex

The rocking mode is a big sell for me, as someone who used a similar feature when my son was small. It’s not as quick to use as turning on the Rockit, though. You’ll need to lock the front wheels, hit the power button, then hold down the rocking mode button. There are three intensities to choose from; you hold down the button to wait for the number of LED lights to brighten to match the level you want (one light for level one, two for two, you get it).

The stroller will roll back and forth slightly for rocking mode, which is a little strange to see, but my fellow parent friends and I have all sat there rolling a stroller back and forth to keep baby happy. Why not let the stroller do it for you? My kid is too old for rocking mode, but I don’t think I’d go higher than level two. Level three just seemed a little too jerky. I don’t love that you have to turn it off and start over if you want to change rocking levels, but it’s not hard to do.

You can also hear the stroller working when you have power assist on. It sounds like a high-pitched but soft hum, not unlike the sound of an electric scooter. It wasn’t so loud that it was disruptive, but the sound was noticed by anyone walking with me.

Multiple Modes

Photograph: Nena Farrell

While the e-Gazelle S comes with a toddler seat and shopping basket, it has a ton of arrangements you can do, provided you buy the right accessories. It can handle car seats, bassinets, and toddler seats, either as a single stroller or double stroller. The stroller has more than 20 seat combinations you can try, but you will have to buy car seat adapters ($50), another toddler seat ($240), or a bassinet ($200) from Cybex to use with the stroller.

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Nena Farrell

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September 3, 2024
George Clooney and Brad Pitt Work Better Together in ‘Wolfs’

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It’s been 23 years since George Clooney and Brad Pitt first teamed up to do a caper, forming one of the more indelible movie pairings of the new century. They made three Ocean’s movies together, briefly shared the screen in Burn After Reading, and then went their separate ways.

But they couldn’t stay apart forever. Thus Wolfs, a new crime comedy that premiered here at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday. Written and directed by Jon Watts—who made the last three Spider-Man movies and, more relevantly, the clever low-budget thriller Cop Car—the film is an amiable lark, more of a saunter than a dash through wintry, nighttime New York City. As a pair of rival underworld fixers, Clooney and Pitt invert their Ocean’s dynamic. They’re strangers to one another, and initially hostile in the ring-a-ding banter way of comedies like this; we never think they’re going to start shooting at each other.

They meet in a luxe hotel suite after both being called for the same job: a panicking woman (Amy Ryan) is standing over the body of a nearly nude young man lying on the bedroom floor. She needs it cleaned up and to make a discreet exit. It’s an amusing, lively scene that sets the stage for a movie in which people can be hurt, but nothing is going to get too dark. Which is the right tone for a Clooney/Pitt team up; they’ve always worked best when they’re not all that serious.

Both men, unnamed throughout the film, want to be the guy in charge, a bit that gets a little stale in all its repetition but is still sold by leading-man glow. Anyway, they’re soon bonded together in a manner familiar in Hollywood plotting: a pesky youngster who has suddenly come under their care. He’s the presumed dead guy on the floor, a seeming innocent who has found himself caught up in a city-wide drug war. He explains this mostly in a spluttering, rapid-fire monologue delivered with verve by Austin Abrams, who ably holds his own against two of the biggest movie stars on the planet. The kid’s presence nicely complicates the two fixers’ rapport, and creates a surprising, morbid suspense: to make the getaway entirely clean, the kid might have to go.

But first the threesome has to go on a little quest, a minor odyssey through various corners of the city. Which, it must be said, is something of the fourth main character in the film. Watts is a local, and he films his town with affection and fresh perspective. He’s found lots of interesting locations—an outer-borough banquet hall, the forlorn Brighton Beach boardwalk, neon-lit Chinatown—and shot them lushly. A soft and steady snow falls throughout the film, adding a sense of peace and hush to offset the garrulous antics. A testament to the specific graces of on-location filming, Wolfs presents a New York that is at once recognizable and novel.

The script could use a bit more of that idiosyncrasy. While there are plenty of amusing quips and running gags, some of Pitt and Clooney’s repartee feels like recycled material from the Ocean-verse, a kind of repetitious back-and-forth that mistakes tempo for wit. There are also a few narrative contrivances that glare in an otherwise sleek, smart production—one in particular involving the aforementioned banquet hall and a Croatian wedding dance. Maybe Watts is lovingly referring back to the broad comedies of his youth, but Wolfs is otherwise too cool for such cliché.

For the most part, though, Wolfs meets the brief. It’s a confident, engaging Saturday-night movie, of the sort that has become dismayingly rare. How heartening to see a director return from the realm of superheroes (where he was responsible for some of the better entries) and make a humbler, more streamlined film for grownups. All he had to do was get two global superstars to get the project across the financing finish line.

It’s a shame, then, that Apple backed away from the proper theatrical release originally planned for the film. Wolfs is the kind of movie that probably could get people out of their houses, a satisfying complement to dinner and drinks. The movie is not trying to make any grand statements or reinvent any wheels; it is only trying to entertain. This used to be a good enough reason to leave the couch. If Wolfs is playing at a theater near you, consider making the investment. Tell the Hollywood powers that be that you’re willing to help them fix the terrible mess they’ve made.

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Richard Lawson

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September 1, 2024
The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Conducts Sound Through Both the Air and Your Face Bones

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Photograph: Michael Sawh

Rather ambitiously, Shokz promises these sports headphones can deliver clear highs and natural mids and that the new dual air conduction unit design manages to produces pure vocal sound. The air conduction certainly delivers the bass, while the bone conduction handles the rest. In the battle to compete with traffic, wind and the gym stereo, there’s some winners and losers here. The bass is a big improvement, with a noticeable uptick in warmth and punch.

Annoyingly, however, while more power means bigger bass for your buck, the clarity isn’t on a par with the older OpenRun. Similarly, in a sound-off with the uniquely designed Bose Ultra Open, the lack of clarity is exposed too. When I eased off the high tempo drum-and bass-heavy playlists to listen to a podcast, the backward step in clarity remained noticeable. This doesn’t make the OpenRun Pro 2 a bad headphone, they simply offer a shift to a sound that many runners will greatly enjoy, and one that’s a little closer to typical bass-heavy workout headphones.

Winner by a Nose

Photograph: Michael Sawh

You always have to make compromises with open-ear headphones, but with the OpenRun Pro 2, the compromises are actually relatively insignificant. If you’re looking for running headphones with more bass and power, but you still want to be aware of your surroundings, these are the best available.

Other options worth considering include the Suunto Sonic ($149), which offer a very balanced sound profile from a nicely weighted and comfortable neckband design. The premium-priced Bose Ultra Open give better, more detailed sound, but a dubious fit if you’re running fast. The Sivga SO2 ($70) produce a really likable, open-ear sound and secure fit.

It’s not the huge leap in quality I’d hoped for, but Shokz has done just enough for me to recommend the OpenRun Pro 2. That being said, you shouldn’t rule out the OpenRun Pro, which gives you pretty much the same design with solid audio quality and battery performance. You just have to remember where you put that fiddly, archaic, proprietary charging cable.

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Michael Sawh

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August 31, 2024
With a fresh reinterpretation of The Killer, John Woo mints another action star

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It’s not unheard of for a director to remake one of their most significant works. But it’s rare for it to work out as well as John Woo’s remake of his classic hitman action movie The Killer.

Michael Haneke famously gave it a go with his shot-for-shot English-language remake of his disturbing 1997 meta slasher Funny Games. Olivier Assayas recently remade his 1996 masterpiece Irma Vep into an intriguing but largely less successful HBO show. But with Woo’s new version of The Killer, released on Peacock in late August, the godfather of the heroic bloodshed genre shows he’s still got it, both as a technical master of the genre and as a minter of new action stars.

Woo returned to Hollywood for the first time in 20 years with his 2023 revenge thriller Silent Night, which pits a mute protagonist against a violent gang. While the silent gimmick and the relentless bleakness of the narrative held that movie back from being an all-out success, Woo’s control of action sequences — how they look, sound, and feel — remained unparalleled. Even as a die-hard fan of the original The Killer, I was excited by the prospect of returning to a more familiar Woo setting with promising new actors in the iconic roles.

Photo: Christine Tamalet/Universal Studios

As reviewers have been quick to point out, The Killer (2024) doesn’t match the Everest-like heights of The Killer (1989) — the original is one of the slickest, most atmospheric movies of all time, and was one of a group of excellent collaborations between Woo and action star Chow Yun-fat that helped elevate both to global stardom. Trying to match the original Killer beat for beat like Haneke did with Funny Games would be a mistake, even for a master like Woo. Instead, Woo uses the bare bones of the narrative and characters to make a new experience, one that feels like a throwback to his dual-wielding, dove-flapping days of yore — but with a fresh new spin on the action.

It’s also nearly impossible to watch the original movie. 1989’s The Killer isn’t available to digitally rent or stream anywhere; the Criterion Collection’s version is out of print; the last physical copy released in the States was a 2010 DVD on The Weinstein Company’s Dragon Dynasty label. Woo has wanted to release 4K restorations of some of his Hong Kong classics, including The Killer, but says he can’t because he doesn’t own the licensing rights.

Photo: Christine Tamalet/Universal Studios

Like the original movie, this version of The Killer follows a contract killer who’s dissatisfied with life. When they accidentally blind a young nightclub singer during a shootout, the chance encounter forges a protective relationship between the killer and the singer, leading to an unlikely alliance between the killer and a police detective. All those notes are the same, but with a new setting in Paris and new faces — Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones’ Missandei) is the contract killer, now named Zee. Omar Sy (Lupin) is the detective, Sey. And Diana Silvers (Space Force) is the young singer, Jenn.

As you might expect from a John Woo movie, the action sequences are excellent: car chases, shootouts in hospitals, sword fights, hard stunt falls, the whole Woo experience. They feel appropriately dangerous, big in scope for a streaming movie, and like a breath of fresh air after the green-screen-heavy action sequences of many modern blockbusters. In one sequence, a car flips on its side after making contact with another car, then rolls into a motorcyclist who has fallen off their ride in anticipation of the impact. The impact between rolling car and stunt performer is real enough that it made me wonder whether it was a planned part of the shot or a fortuitous roll of the car. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter — the effect is heart-racing and visceral, and I immediately rewound to watch the stunt again.

Photo: Christine Tamalet/Universal Studios

The shootouts are tense and balletic, with terrific sound design punctuations of gunfire, something that was also a strength in Silent Night. The loud bangs play well off the dramatic, moody score from composer Marco Beltrami, which, like the movie, balances romance and excitement with shades of classical orchestration and jazz. And the movie just looks great, even though it’s a straight-to-streaming production: The colors pop, the city of Paris buzzes with life, and the way Woo moves his camera to follow and augment the action is unparalleled.

But perhaps the biggest gift of the new Killer is the minting of an action star. Emmanuel shines in previous supporting roles in action-centric universes: Game of Thrones, the Fast and Furious movies, Army of Thieves — but with The Killer, she finally has the chance to be a full-on action hero. And she makes the most of it.

The fight choreography employs Emmanuel’s dance background with great success — Woo has aptly described her movements as “elegant.” She does a lot of her own stunts in the movie. As she told EW, “The way that John Woo likes to shoot lends to us doing as much of it as possible because of the way his camera moves. It’s often picking up a lot of things and switching between lots of things, so it has to be quite practical. […] I love using my body in this way in storytelling.” Seeing Emmanuel perform intense jumps and flips mid-combat, only for the camera to hold on her face so you know she actually did that is the kind of exhilarating stuff great action movies are made of.

Photo: Christine Tamalet/Universal Studios

The movie’s first extended action sequence involves both gunplay and hand-to-hand combat, as Zee uses swords and pistols to eliminate a group of thugs in a nightclub. She arrives at the club in a chic black get-up — scarf, fedora, and a long black coat — feeling more than a bit like a modern version of original The Killer influence Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic Le Samouraï. Zee is immediately drawn by Jenn’s mournful ballad about “living for today,” which Emmanuel subtly communicates with the slightest movement of her eyes. It’s a brief respite for a character who otherwise constantly scans rooms to plan for intense violence.

One standout moment in a later sequence sees Emmanuel floating gracefully in the air, dispatching foes with dual-wielded pistols in a deconsecrated church as pigeons and doves fly around her. If that’s not John Woo, I don’t know what is. But Woo isn’t content to just rely on his old staples — The Killer implements judo into the gunplay in a way that feels indebted to the John Wick franchise, and the action doesn’t just feel like a rehash of Woo’s greatest hits.

Photos: Christine Tamalet/Universal Studios

Emmanuel excels as Zee beyond the action. The part tasks her with playing many different versions of Zee in her relationships to other characters, and she delivers with layers of expression and emotional subtlety. With her manipulative handler Finn (Sam Worthington), she’s completely closed off and robotic — a tool to be used for violence. With the singer Jenn, she’s tender and protective, like a gentle lover or a big sister. With Sy’s charming detective, she’s a playful flirt and rival. It’s not an imitation of Chow’s ultra-cool performance in the 1989 movie, but her own spin on the conflicted killer archetype, and the result is a delight. There can never be another Chow Yun-Fat, or another The Killer (1989). But The Killer (2024) has made it clear: There will also never be another Nathalie Emmanuel.

Bizarrely, The Killer (2024) now makes it three years in a row where a movie called “The Killer” is one of my favorites of the year, following David Fincher’s offbeat 2023 thriller and Choi Jae-hoon’s 2022 action romp. While none of them can hold a candle to John Woo’s original The Killer, one of the greatest and coolest films of all time, they’re all still worthy additions to the genre and the title.

John Woo’s 2024 The Killer is now streaming on Peacock.

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Pete Volk

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August 31, 2024
The Greenworks 60V Lawn Mower Is for People Who Just Want to Get Their Grass Cut

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I have a core childhood memory of standing in the expansive yard of a family friend who lived out in farm country, trying to get their old gas mower to start. I tugged the pull cord in vain for what seemed like hours, the engine rolling over lazily without ever spinning to life.

So there was no question I was going to be an early and enthusiastic adopter of electric lawnmowers, making the switch right around the same time I replaced my VHS tapes with Blu-ray.

I’ve had at least six electric mowers since—some plug-ins, some battery-powered. At one point I even hacked a Homelite mower I liked except for its underpowered proprietary battery, by soldering its connectors to a better lithium battery (I probably did my math wrong; the battery melted). Every one of those electric mowers felt like it sacrificed something you could get from a traditional internal combustion engine mower, trading an annoying extension cord or underpowered battery for instant start, less noise, and no smoke.

That is, until the Greenworks 60V 21-inch self-propelled lawn mower, which I’ve been testing on my lawn this summer. After four months of testing I’ve found this model from Greenworks does everything I need a mower to do to my Midwestern lawn, and does it with grace. If you’re a lawn enthusiast I’m sure there are mowers with more options and features to consider. But I don’t want to think too much about my mower—I just want to push a button, walk around my yard, chop a few inches off the top of my grass, then roll it back into the garage. This Greenworks mower is the first electric mower I’ve owned that does that.

Sixty Beats Forty

The first thing I want to know about an electric mower is how easy it is to handle the battery. I’m sure I’m not alone in being past corded electric mowers that, until a few years ago, still offered the best combination of power and price. The Greenworks has dual battery ports that will each hold a 60V battery, though I’ve only used one. That 5-Ah battery provides enough power to cut my small lawn two times with turbo on or three and a half times on standard. My lawn only has about 3,000 square feet of grass, though, and in the United States, residential lawns average about 10,000 square feet, according to Home Advisor. (If you live in Vermont or Montana you will probably want that second battery.) The advertised range is up to an acre, which is 43,560 square feet, but even with both batteries fully and freshly charged I would not expect to get there based on my range in testing.

Photograph: Martin Cizmar

Because it’s a 60V system, it has more power than the more common 40V systems, which makes a big difference when it comes to dealing with leaves. With a peak power output of 3200 RPMs (toward the top of the standard range for a gas mower) using the turbo mode, I’ve found the Greenworks has enough power to mulch leaves, though long wet grass drained the battery much faster than I would have expected—a leftover half-charge on a single battery wasn’t enough to finish my small yard.

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Martin Cizmar

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August 30, 2024
Razer’s 70-Hour Gaming Headset Is Bringing Back My ’90s Nostalgia

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Similarly, the BlackShark V2 Pro feels like you could pick it up 10 to 20 years from now and still think “Oh yeah, this is cool.” The angled wire rods extend down to thicker tubes housing a rotating hinge, with the ear cups set between them. It gives the headset a professional, yet fashionable aesthetic that I vibe with.

For reasons I can’t quite explain, the fact that the volume knob sticks out when it really doesn’t have to is what makes me love it. Other headset manufacturers spend so much effort on minimal designs with low-profile buttons and dials—having this one sticking out so prominently makes it feel attractive just by virtue of its boldness.

Convenience and Comfort

It doesn’t hurt that the volume knob is convenient and thoughtfully designed. It’s an infinite dial, so you can rotate it as far as you want in either direction, with very subtle clicks to provide feedback on how far you’re turning it. In lieu of a physical stopping point, an audio cue plays when you reach either the maximum or minimum volume.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

The audio quality is solid, but it’s the bass tones that really stand out. Out of the box, the lower tones are emphasized, which can be handy in some competitive games to help you hear enemy footsteps and other important sound cues. In my opinion, it’s a little too bass-heavy for general media listening, but it’s great for gaming.

While the aesthetic design might remind me of ’90s elementary school headphones, wearing the headphones does not. The foam on the ear cups is soft and comfortable, and they don’t put much pressure on the sides of my head. The inner cavity is spacious, so I never feel like my ears are getting squished.

They’re so comfortable that I was able to wear them for hours while listening to music as I worked. Or, more often, when I put music on for five minutes, paused it, then forgot I was wearing the headphones for two hours.

And the BlackShark V2 Pro can run for a lot of hours. It might not have the longest battery life we’ve ever seen, but it still beats most gaming headsets we’ve tested. Razer rates its battery life at 70 hours on a full charge, though in my testing it usually lasted a couple hours longer than that.

The headset charges via a USB-C port on the left ear cup. In the box, Razer has included a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging, as well as an additional USB-A extension cable. I appreciate this little touch, because it means I don’t have to choose between having a charging cable that’s long enough or having a ton of excess cable cluttering up my desk.

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Eric Ravenscraft

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August 29, 2024
Sony’s CRE-C20 Are My New Favorite In-the-Ear Hearing Aids

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Sony’s CRE-C10 in-ear hearing aids are stunners in every dimension except for one: The tiny in-the-ear devices rely on replaceable hearing aid batteries instead of an integrated, rechargeable one. While some people may appreciate replaceable batteries—much longer run time, no need to wait for a recharge—I’ve heard nothing but complaints about them. For the most part, people now seem to be gravitating to hearing aids that don’t require fumbling with miniature batteries once a week, and then worrying if the dog will swallow the spent cell.

With its new CRE-C20 hearing aids, Sony corrects this issue, and it does so in style: The new hearing aids look nearly identical to the winning C10 aids, but the hatch for a replaceable battery has been replaced with a small contact that allows its internal cell to recharge in its new case.

When I say nothing else has changed on the look and feel of the C20 hearing aids, I mean it. To the untrained eye, they are almost impossible to tell apart from their predecessors, and they still vanish incredibly well into the ear canal due to their small size. The weight of each aid remains the same at precisely 1.34 grams.

Photograph: Christopher Null

For better or worse, little has changed under the hood as well. For context, Sony touts one of the biggest upgrades as having six present hearing settings instead of four like on the C10s. Note: These aren’t environmental programs but rather frequency-tuning settings preconfigured to work for the most common audiograms.

You can’t manually select one of these hearing presets. The settings are chosen only after you take Sony’s in-app hearing test, and the user doesn’t know which one they’re getting. A modestly updated version of Sony’s Hearing Control app walks you through a detailed configuration procedure that sends pings to each ear; the user counts how many pings are heard with each round. After about 10 minutes, the app chooses the hearing setting it deems best for your particular style of hearing loss.

If your assigned settings don’t work, you can retake the test or experiment with Sony’s fine-tuning feature, which lets you register a complaint (“My own voice sounds weird,” perhaps), and then wait for a fix to be delivered to the aids. There’s a volume slider and a “sound balance” option that lets you select between “more sharp” and “less sharp,” which is mainly effective for lightly tweaking the way certain consonants hit your ears.

Professional support is available free of charge before or after purchase too. It’s all effective, but largely the same as before. The bottom line is that, compared to the C10s, I doubt most users will notice any difference in sound quality. That the C20s still sound great is no surprise: The underlying processing technology, created by Signia parent WS Audiology, has not fundamentally changed.

Like the C10s, there are no Bluetooth features on these hearing aids. They connect with your phone via inaudible, high-pitched signals, whether you’re walking through setup or doing something as simple as changing the volume. (There are no on-device controls, either.) The app can’t even tell you the battery life remaining on the hearing aids: Punch a button in the app and you wait for pings to be sent to each ear. The more pings, the more juice you have remaining. While I encountered some headaches getting all of this to work when I tested the C10 aids, the C20 aids set up without a hitch—although again, the process is rather slow due to the ultrasonic back and forth.

The lack of Bluetooth makes for a blunt way to do things—and it means you can’t stream media or take phone calls directly through the headphones—but it does keep the hardware small and svelte. As with the C10 aids, the C20 aids are comfortable for long-term wear, both physically and aurally. Once adjusted properly, they gave me a near-perfect amount of support for my mild hearing loss, virtually free of hiss. I rarely even needed to adjust the volume, except in louder environments. Again, there are no environmental settings that compensate for things like crowds or wind noise, but I found the all-around protocol to work well everywhere.

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Christopher Null

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August 27, 2024
Yamaha’s R-N1000A Packs Everything You Need for a Sweet Stereo Setup

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It’s a great time to double down on stereo sound. Multi-speaker formats like Dolby Atmos get all the headlines, but if you’re building an all-in-one stereo or 2.1 system to elevate everything from your turntable to your TV, there have never been more options.

With stereo streaming amplifiers and receivers popping up all over the audio sphere (not to mention tons of powered bookshelf speakers), it can be tough to know where to start. The R-N1000A makes things easy. Sitting a step below Yamaha’s flagship R-N2000A, the R-N1000A is pricey yet approachable, with a hardy mix of versatile connectivity, superb performance, and rocksteady usability.

You might expect any legacy audio brand to provide consistent performance across inputs in the streaming era, but as our extensive testing has borne out, juxtaposing traditional audiophile components with conveniences like Wi-Fi and HDMI ARC is no cakewalk. The N1000A proves you can have it all in one box, showcasing uncommon stability in a powerful and downright fun package tailor-made for the modern stereo era.

Old School, New Curriculum

Pulling the hulking yet sleek R-N1000A from its packaging, my first question was, where is the display on this thing? Don’t get me wrong, I love the receiver’s sparkling front face with its tactile selector knobs, especially in the silver model I reviewed, but even the coolest retro design demands modern concessions.

It wasn’t until I fired the unit up that I realized the demure black strip along its base is the display, offering a small but legible guide for source, volume levels, and other settings. It’s not as handy or as versatile as the large screens on pricier streaming amplifiers like Rotel’s RA-5000 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) or Naim’s Uniti Atom (8/10, WIRED Recommends), but it gets the job done without disturbing the vintage aesthetic. It helps that Yamaha’s MusicCast app, necessary for Wi-Fi setup, displays conveniences like album art and digital file resolution.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Style aside, the R-N1000A is crafted with performance in mind. It utilizes Yamaha’s TopART (Total Purity Audio Reproduction Tech) design, with a “meticulously symmetrical left/right circuit layout” and “special resin” to block vibrations. A double-bottom chassis with a 1-mm iron damping plate and anti-resonance feet further dull unwanted noises. The unit’s vented frame weighs a healthy 27 pounds and stands 6 inches tall, over 17 inches across, and 15.5 inches deep, so you’ll need plenty of console space.

While the R-N1000A doesn’t get the giant toroidal transformer found in the R-N2000A (and other pricier rivals), its capable custom transformer and block capacitors provide potent A/B amplification at a claimed 100 watts per channel of continuous power at 8 ohms and 140 watts at peak power. Yamaha doesn’t publish continuous power specs at 4 ohms but claims 220 watts per channel of peak power. A 384-kHz/32-bit SABRE ES9090Q DAC provides topline high-resolution digital transference for hi-res sources with support for WAV and FLAC files up to 384 kHz and DSD files at up to 11.2 MHz.

Locked and Loaded

Even with stereo network receivers and amplifiers seeming to spring up autonomously, you’ll have a hard time finding one with better connectivity than the R-N1000A. The back panel is loaded with three dedicated digital inputs (two digital, one coaxial), USB-B connection, AM and FM tuners, three RCA line inputs (one for a CD player), HDMI ARC for your TV, a subwoofer output, Ethernet, and stereo pre-outs for a second amplifier. There’s also a solid phono input, though I actually preferred my Orbit Theory’s built-in pre-amp. Up front is a quarter-inch headphone out.

A handy second speaker zone set below the gold-plated A-zone stereo terminals allows you to connect two pairs simultaneously, designated for 8-ohms only. One other note on impedance: If you’re connecting a single pair of 4- or 6-ohm speakers as I did, Yamaha recommends you navigate to Advanced Setup and change the impedance. It’s a minor pain, but takes just seconds.

If you have other MusicCast devices, you can create additional playback zones from any connected sound source wirelessly in the app. There you’ll also find loads of built-in streaming services, including internet radio stations, Pandora, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Sirius XM, among others. The wireless suite finishes with AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 in a pinch. Chromecast is notably missing, though with so many supported services, including both Spotfy Connect and Tidal Connect, Android users should be in good shape. The receiver is also “Roon Tested” for Roon’s dedicated server system.

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Ryan Waniata

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August 26, 2024
Can You Have Too Many FPS? This Samsung OLED Monitor Wants to Find Out

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Lately in Overwatch 2, I’ve taken up playing Wrecking Ball. Compared to my usual main, Mercy, it somehow involves even more disorienting motion, whipping across the map, and tracking fast-moving characters. So I was excited to play on the Samsung Odyssey G6. It has a 360-Hz refresh rate that’s faster than just about anything I’ve played on. At last, I finally have more frames than I need.

The Odyssey G6 is a 27-inch flat-panel OLED display with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. It supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, which supports HDR content, something that other FreeSync-compatible monitors can’t necessarily do. That said, the standout feature here is the ludicrous refresh rate, which is faster than many will have ever used before.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

The Whole Package

The Odyssey G6 stand is a delight to set up and use. The monitor pops onto the sturdy stand with a click, though it does support VESA mounts if you’d prefer to bring your own monitor arm. It can swivel up to 60 degrees horizontally (30 in each direction), and you can rotate the screen between portrait and landscape mode in either direction.

My only complaint on the rotation is that there’s no center hole in the stand to run cables through. There’s a small rubber clip on the back to hold cables in place, but if you plan to rotate your screen a lot, you could end up getting cables tangled if you don’t run them properly.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

Faster Than a Speeding Frame

When I tested the Razer Blade 18 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) gaming laptop, it packed a blisteringly fast 300-Hz refresh rate, which I thought would be overkill. Human eyes don’t exactly see in “frames per second.” Our brains are tuned to focus more on things like contrast and motion, so even if we can technically see flickering artifacts that flash by at very high speeds, in practice we might not notice much difference between a 120-Hz display, where things refresh 120 times a second, and a 300-Hz display, where they refresh 300 times, simply because we’re not focusing on how quickly the image on the screen updates.

However, frame rate becomes far more relevant when you’re trying to track fast-moving objects (or players) in video games. When there are fewer frames per second, objects will look less like they’re moving and more like they’re making little micro jumps from one place to another. You can see this effect in action with this online tool. Try comparing 24 fps to 120 fps (if your monitor can support it), with or without motion blur. The effects become pretty obvious.

It’s important to understand why this works the way it does, because the Odyssey G6 doesn’t just make motion smooth. It almost makes it unnecessarily smooth. I’ve been using this monitor for a couple weeks, and I’m still undecided on whether such smoothness is a good thing. At a certain point, I have to wonder whether my brain is the real bottleneck preventing me from mentally updating where the enemy Cassidy is 360 times per second.

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Eric Ravenscraft

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August 25, 2024
The Klaris Clear Ice Maker Can Up Your Home Bartending Game

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The machine comes with the mold for four cubes; you can also separately buy a Collins mold that makes three prisms of ice for a taller glass. The molds are made of a thick silicone—much thicker than most standard ice molds. Once you fill the mold up with water, you just place it in the compartment inside, close the lid, push the knob, and let it do its thing. You don’t need to use filtered water. The faucet will work for your water source just fine because all of the impurities in the water, like minerals and gas, are going to get cleared out. I tested cycles with both filtered and tap water and the end result was the same.

Each cycle takes between eight and 12 hours to complete. That’s kind of a big window. It partially depends on how cold the water you fill your mold with is, and the temperature of the surrounding environment. It would be ideal for the Klaris to have a more concise timeframe for completing the cycle. There is a timer that shows how much time has elapsed but not how much time is remaining.

In my apartment with an air temperature hovering around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the Collins rocks took around 10 hours, and the standard cubes took around eight. I’ve heard anecdotes that during the winter in cold regions, it can take as little as five hours.

Since it takes so long, I forgot to harvest my ice right away a few times; the feature
that allows you to keep it cold for up to five additional hours is helpful here. The one time I
completely forgot to check on it even after the delay, everything was back to being liquid water,
so I just started it over. You obviously need to plan a bit if you have a specific event you want to
use the ice for. The delay functions overall are a great touch and help you time out your ice
harvest, since sometimes it will finish overnight.

Making Things Clear

But since the machine plugs into the wall, I’m not sure why there can’t be a feature just to keep it cold until you open it back up. How does it work? The water is frozen layer by layer from the bottom up, which is known as directional freezing. (You don’t get this with a mold in your standard freezer because the cold air comes from all directions.) Simultaneously, an impeller-type fixture on the inside of the cover spins the water, which circulates the impurities up and out of the cube. This motion provides the necessary constant agitation, ridding the chance for the impurities to settle to the bottom.

The impeller needs to be submerged in the water, so you need to fill up the water in the mold to the fill line, which is higher than where the ice will ultimately reach. When the cycle is complete and you open the cover, it almost looks as if nothing happened because there’s a layer of liquid water above the clear ice. This water contains the impurities. You then pull the mold out and dump that water into the sink. You turn the mold upside down and twist and push a little and the rocks pop out. You need to pull them apart from each other with the plastic dividers that are in the mold. These can be a little flimsy and you don’t get extra, so I try carefully not to break them.

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Andrew Watman

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August 25, 2024
Ultimate Ears’ pricey new adventure speaker sports a new look, familiar sound

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Most people won’t be listening to the Everboom on their desktop, of course, so I did most of my testing outdoors, where the speaker really steps up. I particularly enjoyed its sound from around 10 feet or more, marked by full-bodied punch in the bass and midrange and refined clarity in the higher frequencies, with a touch of stereo separation. There’s a pulpy warmth that hits just right when rendering snappy percussion, jangly strings, or crisp vocals.

You can crank it pretty heartily to fill a large space, including engaging the Outdoor Mode for a bit more punch, though you’ll likely notice some digital compression at top volume that can tamp down the excitement. The Everboom easily serves up a fuller sound out in the open when compared to the smaller Boom 4 and my aging JBL Flip 5, as well as the brawnier Beats Pill, which tends to sharpen up in the higher registers outdoors.

It’s much harder to differentiate between the Everboom and Megaboom 4. Over several hours of critical listening, the Everboom revealed a smoother touch, with warmer and fuller midbass and slightly more power, while the Megaboom is more focused in the mids and less refined in the treble. It’s a difference that’s unlikely to make a big impression, especially when you’re kicking back a few drinks at a barbecue or outdoor gathering.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Neither speaker can dig into the sub-bass regions with much authority. If you want bigger bass, you’ll likely need to jump up to larger options like the Epicboom (which I have yet to test) or something even pricier like the physics-defying Brane X (9/10, WIRED Recommends), though the latter doesn’t offer the same kind of go-anywhere, do-anything security that Ultimate Ears provides.

What really makes UE’s “Boom” speakers so appealing is their balance of high performance and top-notch durability. Like its cheaper siblings, the Everboom serves up a great cocktail of sound, features, and battery life in a frame that feels like it could be tossed into a wood chipper and come out the other end (please do not do that). Then again so do a lot of options on our Best Bluetooth speaker list, many for less money.

I never found a strong enough argument for the Everboom’s heftier price, leaving me pointing to the tried-and-true Megaboom 4, or JBL’s Charge 5 if you want a speaker that charges your phone. Those on tighter budgets will find similar spoils in the Boom 4 or JBL Flip 6. Barring a good sale, that’s where I’d put my money.

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Ryan Waniata

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August 22, 2024
Google’s Pixel 9 Is the First True Smartphone of the Generative AI Era

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I have reviewed every Pixel smartphone since the brand was first introduced in 2016, and something about the Pixel 9 series makes me think of Google’s latest hardware as all grown up. It’s impossible to point to one new feature as the source of this feeling. Rather, it’s an amalgamation of changes that have taken place over the past three years—ever since the company began stuffing its own Tensor processors into these phones to power its forward-looking software.

The combination of polished hardware, brawny internals, and helpful software has resulted in a handset that matches what you get from the likes of Samsung and Apple. All that elegance comes at a cost though. At $799 for the Pixel 9, $999 for the Pixel 9 Pro, and $1,099 for the Pixel 9 Pro XL, these are among the most expensive Pixels to date. Here’s your regular reminder that you can get excellent smartphones for less than $500 (including Google-made devices like the Pixel 8A).

But for anyone who doesn’t mind splurging on the most important piece of tech in their life, the Pixel 9 series delivers some of the best mobile camera experiences money can buy. The Pixel 9 also serves as an engaging window into the AI-fication of our personal technology—whether that’s something you want or not.

The Phone Stuff

The refined design helps with the Pixel 9’s glow-up. The iconic camera visor that has been a mainstay since the Pixel 6 is still present, but in a more elegant pill-shaped design. Don’t worry, it still screams “Pixel.” It’s hard to mistake this phone for something else, especially if you opt for the lovely pink colors. (I appreciate that the fun color isn’t restricted to the “non-Pro” model, as it is on other makes and models of phones.)

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

I don’t find the camera bump excessive or ugly; the phones don’t rock when they sit flat on a table, and that’s a massive boon. I like the flat display panel, as well as the flat edges. The squared-off design is easier to hold, and your grip won’t interfere with the touchscreen like on smartphones with “waterfall” displays that curve around to the sides where your fingers grasp the phone’s body. Just know that the Pro phones have glossy edges that attract fingerprints, so you’ll be wiping them down often. (Just me?)

Speaking of fingerprints, Google has outfitted these models with an ultrasonic in-display scanner that is far and away more reliable than the optical fingerprint sensors it has been using on Pixels for years, finally matching the quality found on other Android phones. On the flip side, Pixels are still some of the only Android phones with secure face scanning, so it’s great that you have both biometric options, though I’d have liked to see improvements in making face unlock work better in the dark.

Choice goes a long way in showing maturity in a product line too. For the first time, you get options in the size of the Pixel 9 Pro—6.3 inches or 6.8 inches for the XL—which means you no longer have to feel like you’re losing out on features just because you prefer smaller phones. Even though I have big paws, I prefer the size and feel of the Pixel 9 Pro. Nice and compact.

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Julian Chokkattu

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August 21, 2024
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Wireless Buds Are So Good, Even the Charging Case Has a Party Piece

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Or, there’s always the company’s Music app (free for iOS and Android). It too has playback control, but also adds in ANC options (hybrid, off, or pass-through) and will let you integrate your favorite music streaming services—provided they’re Deezer, NTS, Qobuz, SoundCloud, Tidal, and/or TuneIn. And it includes a very useful five-band EQ, along with a Bowers & Wilkins True Sound preset. By prevailing standards, it’s a clean, logical, and usable app, which is about as much as anyone is entitled to expect.

As far as performance is concerned, the headline here is that Bowers & Wilkins has come within an ace of justifying the asking price of the Pi8—and, what’s more, drawbacks (such as they are) to Pi8 ownership are both mild and not centered too heavily on the way they actually sound.

Keep volume levels anywhere between “realistic” and “perhaps a little too loud,” and there’s a huge amount to enjoy about the way the Pi8 perform. They create an expansive, well-defined, and rigorously organized soundstage, which means that every element of even the most complex recordings have plenty of room in which to spread out and express themselves.

This spaciousness and separation doesn’t affect the singularity or unity of the way the Pi8 present something like Fela Kuti’s Gentleman. No matter how hectic the going gets, there’s a togetherness to the Pi8 sound, despite their ability to peer so deeply into the mix that any individual instrument is easy to isolate and examine.

Photograph: Simon Lucas

Avoiding Aural Pileups

The same recording allows the Bowers & Wilkins to demonstrate their facility with dynamics, too. There’s plenty of headroom when the shifts in intensity or simple volume come along, but the earbuds are also able to identify and contextualize the more minor (but no less important) harmonic variations or transient occurrences.

In fact, detail levels approach sky-high at every turn. No aspect of the recording is too fleeting or too far back in the mix to be overlooked by the Pi8. To these earbuds, there’s no such thing as “negligible.”

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Simon Lucas

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August 21, 2024
When It Comes to Dicing, Breville’s Paradice 16 Doesn’t Cut It

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A few years back, I ran a head-to-head test between two of the best food processors on the market. The Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor and Breville Sous Chef are critical darlings, wonderfully high performers that made testing fun. Yet there’s an extra-difficult trick I’ve always wanted to see food processors pull off successfully: dicing. Imagine those big-meal recipes where you could just stuff spud after spud, onion after onion down the chute of a food processor and—whump, whump, whump—it would churn out perfect little cubes.

Fun as that sounds, the mechanics of creating a dicing machine are quite demanding. Food processors with slicing-disc attachments are great at evenly slicing food crosswise, but doing that on three planes gets really difficult to engineer. A simplified description of how many manufacturers have tried to do it is something like this: Press your veg down through the chute, then a horizontal-spinning blade cuts a slice and pushes it down through a grid of blades.

This sounds great, but it’s crazy hard to make it work well and requires a cumbersome amount of extra parts. With the release of the Breville Paradice 16, I wondered if the time had finally come for a manufacturer to really nail it.

A Wealth of Accessories

Breville does not mess around when it comes to food processors. Its Sous Chef is a sculpted and luxe powerhouse. A Breville rep confirmed that the Paradice is essentially a Sous Chef with an extra $200 worth of dicing attachments. I thought they would work great. This turns out to have been a bit of wishful thinking.

The Paradice seems like one of those products that a very serious home cook would buy for a milestone birthday, but in reality, the dicing capabilities—the whole reason you’d spend an extra few hundred dollars for this model over the Sous Chef—are utterly disappointing.

The Breville Paradice 16 arrived in a box almost huge enough to fold myself into. Inside are two large plastic storage boxes for all of its accessories. On the website, they are referred to as “the chef’s armory storage containers.” Though there is a smaller 9-cup version, if you are short on storage or countertop space, this is almost certainly more machine than you can handle.

Photograph: Breville

However, if you have the room, it comes with a bewildering variety of accessories, all of which are sturdy and come helpfully color-coded. The non-dicing capabilities for this machine are impeccable. With its monster 1,450-watt motor and nice styling, it is the luxury car of food processors with the minimalist beauty of a control panel. If you want to make pizza dough or peanut butter, things that can cause a lesser machine to quail and smell like melting electronic bits, the Paradice is unflappable.

Along with the S-shaped chopper blade, its adjustable-height slicing disc is a space-saving marvel of kitchen engineering that allows you to dial in your desired thickness. There’s a shredding attachment that works wonderfully. For smaller jobs, there’s even a mini-chopper setup that fits right inside the main bowl. Almost every part can go in the dishwasher. I also take every chance I can get to plug in Breville’s wall plug, since it has a finger hole that makes unplugging a breeze.

The Kiss of Death

Despite all this, what you’re spending more for is a dicing feature, and the Paradice cannot dice very well. It just doesn’t. I had a whole list of fun dishes to make, like home fries, summer vegetable lasagna, vichyssoise, and minestrone. I dutifully worked my way through them all, but I learned everything I needed to know on the first onion I ran through it.

I peeled and quartered it to make sure that the chute was properly loaded, then leaned on the pusher and observed. The machine chopped about two-thirds of the allium, and then sort of spread the last third evenly over and into the top of the cutting grid before it jammed. Breville seems to have planned for this, as the Paradice comes with special tools to unclog the grates, which is a strange, time-consuming workaround. Eventually, I skipped this step, pulled the dicing grid out, inverted it, and whacked as much half-chopped food as I could out onto a big cutting board to finish the job with a knife.

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Joe Ray

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August 20, 2024
The Ricoh GR III Is 5 Years Old, but It’s Still Nearly the Perfect Camera

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Despite the compact size, the GR III packs a 24.2-MP APS-C sensor, which is why it’s my favorite compact camera. At the time of writing, there is no other camera this small with an APS-C sensor. (There used to be two others in this class, Fujifilm’s x70 and Nikon’s Coolpix A, and both have been discontinued). While sensor size isn’t everything, the GR III’s sensor can deliver remarkably crisp, contrasty, detailed images on par with what I get from my Sony.

The original GR III launched in 2019 with the equivalent of a 28-mm lens. Ricoh followed this up in 2021 with the GR IIIx, which is almost the same save for the 40-mm equivalent lens. They’re both fantastic. I happen to love 40-mm lenses so I’ve spent more time with the GR IIIx, but for most people who want an all-around capable pocket camera, I’d suggest the 28-mm version is more versatile.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Ricoh GR IIIx

Both lenses are capable of tack-sharp images with an impressive, soft bokeh you don’t usually get with a camera and sensor of this size. There’s also a nice macro mode that adds a bit of versatility to an already impressive package. That said, if you want a zoom, this is not the camera for you (that’d be the Sony RX100 VII).

Three things set the Ricoh GR III above the compact camera pack. The first is the APS-C sensor. The second is the size. This camera can go everywhere with you and it doesn’t get in the way. I often find, no matter how discreet I try to be, pulling out a full-size camera with a decent (read: large) lens on the front, and everyone in a scene notices and subtly changes. The GR III, on the other hand, is small enough that you can pull it out without attracting attention or ruining a scene (it also doesn’t make you look like a rich tourist when traveling).

The third reason I, and legions of other photographers, love this camera is all the little extras. I mentioned the macro mode, but there’s also a useful built-in neutral density filter for shooting longer exposure images without overexposing (think blurring flowing water, for example). The other mode I love is snap focus.

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Scott Gilbertson

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August 19, 2024
Catan: New Energies Is Caught in a Climate Crisis

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Not everyone will appreciate a side of existential threat with their board game, but that is exactly what you get with Catan: New Energies. It drags the beloved classic Catan into the modern day with fossil fuels and renewable energy, an inventive climate crisis mechanic, and a clever illustration of the consequences if we fail to work toward a greener world. This stand-alone board game for two to four players doesn’t require the original, though experienced players will grasp it more easily.

While the message is clear, the makers did not forget about flow or fun. The addictive hook of Catan, the deals, the room for multiple strategies, and the variation in playthroughs are all present and correct. It is familiar enough to entice old fans and fresh enough to demand a look for newcomers. New Energies also succeeds in making its point, and our first game provoked a long and interesting conversation with my kids about why climate change is happening and why some folks are not on board with fighting it.

New Age Catan

If you are unfamiliar, The Settlers of Catan was first published in 1995. The game takes place on a fictional medieval island with hexagonal tiles placed randomly, ensuring plenty of replay value. Players must build roads, towns, and cities by spending resources like lumber and grain. Resources are collected and traded after dice rolls to determine which tiles pay out each turn. A robber mechanic spices things up when anyone rolls a seven, and some additional achievements and cards provide victory points. The winner is the first person to amass 10 victory points.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Five editions and various expansions were released over the years, and the game was rebranded as simply Catan for the 20th-anniversary edition in 2015. It has sold more than 45 million copies in all its various forms. Catan: New Energies is a stand-alone game rather than an expansion, and it was first conceived over a decade ago, then shelved until creator Klaus Teuber and his sons decided to resurrect it during lockdown.

All the basic mechanics are still there: the randomly generated map of hexagonal tiles, the resource harvesting and trading, and the race for 10 victory points. But there are several additions and a modern-day makeover. Energy is a new resource, and you harvest it by building power plants; towns can support one, and cities up to three. The energy you generate can be spent on resources, including the new science cards needed to build power plants.

Fossil fuel power plants cost one science card, while renewable plants cost three, and cards are scarce at the beginning of the game. The catch is that building fossil fuel plants accelerates the risk of climate disasters and increases what’s called your local footprint. Each player must draw brown event tokens from a bag at the beginning of their turn, and these add up to trigger climate events. Most have a negative impact, such as hazards that block cities from earning resources for a turn, and they tend to punish the player with the highest local footprint.

Photograph: Simon Hill

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Simon Hill

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August 18, 2024
The Galaxy Ring Draws Strength From Your Galaxy Watch

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Like most fitness tracking rings, Samsung’s Galaxy Ring has been positioned as a minimalist health wearable for people who don’t want the pings and buzzes of a wrist-worn smartwatch or fitness tracker. But that’s only part of its appeal. Its real appeal is that it’s a supplemental wearable if you already have a Galaxy Watch and a Galaxy phone.

When I received my tester, I immediately charged it and added it to Samsung’s Health app, where it joined my Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. You can elect to send battery-intensive tasks to either the watch or the ring to save battery life on one or the other. I delegated heart-rate monitoring to the watch, and after two days, the ring’s battery life was still at 97 percent.

I can’t think of any other devices that work together that seamlessly for such an immediate, quantifiable improvement. I did compare the Ring’s measurements to an Apple Watch Ultra, which I will discuss later, but after a few days, I switched back to the Galaxy Watch. This is what the ring was made for, so this is the most appropriate testing scenario.

Box It Out

Even from the first unboxing, the Galaxy Ring compared favorably to the Oura Ring. It arrives in an awesome clear charging case with a USB-C connector that snaps shut with a cover. I love this cover. You would not believe how often I manage to knock the Oura Ring off its charger when it’s sitting on my desk. You can also check the battery level by putting the ring on the charger. An LED around the perimeter shows the ring’s battery level, unlike the Oura, whose light just shows if the battery is full or not.

Photograph: Adrienne So

The Ring is titanium and comes in three finishes; I tested the titanium silver. Samsung has a sizing guide consistent with other fitness tracker rings as I was bucketed into my usual size 8. Like most other rings of this type, it has an array of sensors on the inside; a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor with three LEDs to track changes in blood volume, an accelerometer, and a skin temperature sensor.

I can’t feel any of these sensors when wearing the ring. I don’t mind wearing the Oura Ring, but the Galaxy Ring is more than a gram lighter and is noticeably thinner and lightweight. As a bonus, you can go into your Health app on your Samsung phone and click Find My Ring and the LEDs will start flickering! You can’t see them in daylight, but at least the company has acknowledged that one of the major problems with smart rings is how often you lose the darn things. I keep taking mine off mindlessly to wash dishes, lift something heavy, or play the violin. It’s also rated at 10 ATM and IP68, and I have kept mine on while swimming and paddling with my kids.

The battery life depends on how many tasks you want to outsource to your watch. If I’m wearing my Galaxy Watch, the Galaxy Ring lasts over a week. Without it, it lasted a standard three to five days of continuous tracking.

On Period

The Galaxy Ring measures a fairly similar set of metrics to the Oura Ring. For example, it offers an Energy Score, which is similar to Oura’s Readiness Score in that it takes in several factors, like your sleep time and consistency and the previous day’s activity, and spits out an easy-to-understand number to show you how ready you are to tackle the day.

To do that, it tracks your sleep. You can click through the Samsung Health app to check your sleep stages, including how long you’ve been awake, your blood oxygen, and whether you’re snoring. It usually records more sleep time than my Apple Watch Ultra; I’m guessing it’s easier for the watch to tell that I’m reading in bed instead of sleeping when my arm is holding my Kindle up to my face.

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Adrienne So

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August 18, 2024
The Nest Founder’s Fancy Food Recycler Is an Air Fryer Trash Can

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I do not like composting.

I realize this is practically heretical given that I live just outside of Portland, Oregon, ground zero for environmental consciousness, but I’d just rather not have a container of slimy, rotting kitchen scraps sitting on my countertop. It attracts fruit flies and leaves my house smelling like federal-prison pruno—especially in the heat of summer.

Instead, my family of three has been relying on in-sink garbage disposal, which isn’t great. Our septic repairperson is adamantly against this, and garbage disposals are also a bad idea for those not on septic systems, because the refuse ends up in the waterways. Throwing food in the kitchen trash eventually leads to the local landfill, where uneaten food makes up 24 percent of municipal solid waste. Its breakdown results in the release of dangerous methane gas.

To combat this, many cities feature their own composting programs. My rural exurb does not, so I’m forced to choose between a normal-smelling kitchen and actively contributing to global warming. This is why I was especially interested in the Mill, an odorless, fully automatic food recycling bin dreamed up by Matt Rogers, former Apple engineer and cofounder of smart-thermostat pioneer Nest.

My prolifically home-cooking family tried the Mill for six weeks, connecting it to a power meter to test its output and cost of use, as well as feeding it as diverse a batch of food scraps as we could (including sauces, hundreds of eggshells, and a particularly vexing batch of melon rinds), to see whether this particularly pricey bin could be worth the cost to add to your household.

From the Grounds Up

There’s no denying that, at 50 pounds, about 27 inches tall, and 16 inches wide, the Mill requires a significant outlay of space. Even in my fairly spacious kitchen, finding someplace for the Mill to sit where it was both accessible and not in the way—and within a couple feet of a power outlet—was a challenge. For those short on counter space, the Mill being on the floor may give it an edge over countertop competitors like the Lomi.

Photograph: Kat Merck

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Kat Merck

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August 18, 2024
The Rocco Super Smart Fridge Is a Cool Conversation Piece

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Similarly, there’s Smart Mode, which makes it work more like a thermostat when the fridge is sitting in a warmer temperature. There’s also Party Mode, which prioritizes keeping the drinks cold more so than making less noise. After a few minutes, I did hear the compressor get a little louder. I opened it a few minutes later, and it was definitely colder in there. (Rocco gives the temperature range as 37 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit.)

But if I want the drinks to stay colder while I’m having a party where people are opening it often, I could just lower the temperature to where I want it myself. I really don’t see much of a need for all of these modes. Using a wireless Bluetooth thermometer, I tested the temperature changes inside the fridge for each mode to make sure they work properly. I gave each of them 10 minutes to change and tested each shelf on both ends of the fridge. I was pleased to find these were all within just a few degrees difference of what the fridge read.

The other primary feature of the app is the vision system. When you first set up the app, sensors in the fridge scan everything you’re storing in it. Every beverage then shows up on your app, organized by drawer. I’m storing some pretty obscure drinks, like OoMee algae-infused beverage and Yaté yerba mate, and it recognized most of them, so I was impressed, although some, like my Dolin vermouth, which is one of the most popular vermouth brands, were not recognized.

Nutrition facts also pop up for each drink, although many of them are incomplete. In theory, you could go to the grocery store and see which drinks you’re running low on just by looking at the app. I found that I didn’t do this much, although I was curious if I was running low on LaCroix once and checked the app to see that I certainly was. So it came in handy.

However, the system is not perfect. Right now it’s showing that I still have one LaCroix remaining, although I haven’t had one in there in a couple of weeks. I would love it if I could purchase something I’m running low on directly from the app.

The dual-temperature system also allows you to make half of the fridge one temperature and the other half another, which you can adjust manually or through the app. While this is important so that I can keep seltzers and wines at different temperatures, this is the one feature that’s on many wine fridges, so it’s not unique to the Rocco Fridge.

Timeless Design

The Rocco has a kind of mid-century vibe but also feels contemporary. I love the fluted glass door, which looks stunning when it’s nighttime and the lights inside are peeking through it. Any time someone comes to my apartment it becomes a topic of conversation. You can turn the light on and off and adjust the brightness from the app.

The top surface of the fridge is flat and sturdy, so it doubles as a bar cart. The raised lip on the sides also helps so that bottles I’m placing on it have less of a chance of falling off. I have a bar cart that’s overflowing with bottles, so it’s nice to have this right next to it for some overflow.

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Andrew Watman

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August 17, 2024
Kingwell’s Earbuds-Style Melodia Aren’t Like Other Cheap Hearing Aids

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In use as a hearing aid, the Melodia has two modes—all around and “hear in noise,” which is designed for louder settings. Both were reasonably effective, but I had the best results with the aids in quieter settings, as the noise reduction feature—tunable to three different levels—tended to block out more essential sounds like voices when dialed up. With noise reduction at a minimum, I encountered a constant bit of barely-there background hum and a noticeable touch of echo.

However, the biggest issue I had with the Melodia aids was that I had to turn the volume all the way up to maximum to get much of an impact, something I rarely encounter on other aids. The Kingwell app has an in-app system to ask for support if your hearing experience isn’t perfect. A tech support agent quickly suggested resetting my audiogram settings with numbers 10 points higher across the board, among other fixes. This did help with overall volume, but the echo effect got worse, with audio seeming to flux in and out, up and down in level—a problem which can make you feel a little crazy over time.

As streaming earbuds, the Melodia units sounded great, at least with music: Great instrumental depth, solid but not thumping bass, and crystal-clear vocals across the board. Strangely, I ran into a new issue when watching a dialog-heavy film with the aids: Voices didn’t seem to be in sync between both ears, creating more echo. Further testing after restarting the aids by putting them back in the case and changing modes to hearing aid mode and back seemed to alleviate the issue to some degree.

Photograph: Christopher Null

Unfortunately, Kingwell’s noise reduction mode only works in hearing aid mode. In fact, you can’t even control volume to the aids in the Kingwell app when you’re in streaming mode—although, bizarrely, you can still interact with volume sliders for each ear that don’t actually function. You’ll need to use your phone’s volume controls instead.

The promised battery life seems ambitious, and streaming really does some damage to the charge level: An hour of solid streaming had knocked the reported battery life down by a third. Kingwell says that the nine-hour lifespan is valid for hearing aid mode only, and you’ll get closer to six hours in streaming mode. But even that seems optimistic.

While the Melodia hearing aids are a little rough around the edges, they’re moderately effective and surprisingly comfortable for long-term wear. I was able to keep them in for hours on end without so much as an itch, a claim I can’t make for many other aids. At the sub-$500 level, they’re not my favorite aids, but they’re at least worth a listen.

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Christopher Null

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August 17, 2024