Week in Review: Sonos is launching a voice assistant, but is anyone listening?
Plus: LG could have a MacBook-killer on its hands, and why we don't need a 3D movie revival | Do we really need another voice assistant? | Could LG be about to unveil the best laptop ever?
Created for techradar.com@quicklydone.com | Web Version
I won’t lie to you, dear readers – it’s not been the most seismic week in terms of technology news, but on the plus side we’ve been filling the space where big announcements would have been with some lovely in-depth looks at what’s actually important in the tech space right now.
And the week hasn't been entirely devoid of interesting news, as the leak around the Sonos soundbar and voice assistant proves. As ever, let me know what you think about the stories we've covered this week via the email link at the bottom of this newsletter – I love hearing from you.
Gareth Beavis, Global Editor-in-Chief
Just the Facts, Ma'am "I stopped watching news a year ago, so sick of the bias everywhere. I decided to give 1440 a try. Finally, Walter Cronkite style reporting!" Join for free now.
Sonos looks set to add its own voice assistant to its soundbars and speaker systems (Future)
Sonos has been noodling around the soundbar space for a while now, making some of the best soundbars we’ve reviewed in recent years.
Now a leak is tipping an all-new soundbar from the speaker brand, one that will cost a little less than recent models at $249, while still offering the same high level of sound quality its customers are used to.
The Ray will apparently also arrive with something that really piqued my interest: Sonos’s own voice assistant, Sonos Voice. And my interest prompts me to ask: why?
There’s no reason for Sonos to do this unless it thinks that Alexa, Google Assistant or even Siri aren’t good enough for what it wants to do with the Ray. So what might it be used for specifically? We’ll find out in the near future, but I can’t see any compelling reason for Sonos to bring yet another voice assistant into the world.
Samsung has been trying to make Bixby, its own version of Siri, a ‘thing’ for years now, and it’s never taken off – users of Samsung phones are turning it off because Google Assistant is better.
Lance Ulanoff’s piece does a good job of explaining why Sonos making a voice assistant is a pointless endeavor, so I urge you to go and check it out.
The LG Gram 14 could be one of the most exciting laptops of the year (LG)
Our Senior Computing Editor, Matt Hanson, doesn’t mess around when it comes to deciding which are the best laptops you can buy. He’s been a staunch advocate for the Dell XPS range for a while, only letting truly magnificent laptops like the HP Spectre x360 or MacBook Air M1 take the throne of the very best.
So if he tells me that he’s excited about the new LG Gram 14, which is likely to be one of the lightest laptops you’ll ever hold, then color me intrigued. It certainly sounds like a laptop that ticks all the boxes in terms of design and spec, and if it lives up to the hype it would see LG finally delivering a thin and lightweight device that offers a level of performance to complement the brand’s stylish designs.
A powerful laptop that you can slip in and out of a rucksack, and which you can carry around all day without putting your back out? Yes please.
Google is making it easier for you to stop others publishing your personal information online (Shutterstock)
Have you ever Googled your own phone number or email address? It’s a pretty nerve-wracking process, as finding out that it’s listed somewhere public where anyone could find it would feel horrible.
I did just that, and felt the panic coursing through my veins as I hit ‘Enter’. Thankfully, I was in the clear, but if you do find that someone has published key identifying information about you online, then you can now do something about it.
Whether it’s an email address, bank details or the horrible practice of doxxing (where someone threatens or harrasses someone by placing their personal information on a public forum, urging others to send them a barrage of messages, or worse), you can now get your information removed from the Google search results.
It’s not the simplest process, but at least it’s now clear that you can do it, and should help anyone worried about their personal information being spread over the internet. It’s just a shame that it took Google this long to fix the issue.
POLL QUESTION:
Do you feel safe giving Google your personal information?
CRT televisions won't play nice with gaming consoles (Shutterstock)
This piece about using a CRT TV to play games was right in my wheelhouse – from trying to tune in a TV channel to hunting for the correct remote settings, I felt every stab of pain that Rhys Wood felt when trying to get his PS1 to work with his TV.
He couldn’t find a way to make the TV work without a working remote – which sadly didn’t come with the 14-inch CRT that he purchased off eBay. I’ve been there Rhys, and I know the sheer frustration.
So while the piece – spoiler alert – doesn’t have a happy ending, it’s now just the first chapter in Rhys’s mission to play a first-generation PlayStation on the TV tech it was intended for.
If you’ve ever sat there trying to tune in a TV to play a console, and have experienced the joy of that moment when it flickers into life, read this piece for a nostalgia hit.
Avatar was one of the first movies to make genuinely good use of 3D (20th Century Studios)
I couldn’t agree more with this piece from our Entertainment Editor, Tom Goodwyn. He’s been writing about movies for years and, like me, he was there when the 3D bubble inflated rapidly before bursting.
I remember it well: first movies were made in 3D as a novelty, and then as a genuinely interesting way to watch things. The first Avatar trailer was just amazing – it was engrossing and awe-inspiring, with the 3D adding to the spectacle.
Then a flurry of great movies appeared using the tech – How To Train Your Dragon in 3D remains one of my favorite cinematic experiences of all time. But then everyone got greedy.
Movie studios started to reshoot things for 3D simply to get the extra dollar the movie ticket cost, rather than using the extra depth wisely. Sports began to be broadcast in 3D too, when it wasn’t really clear if this was a good idea.
If everyone had just been a bit more judicious with how they used the tech, I firmly believe that 3D films (and 3D-shooting phones) would be mainstream now. We’d have all invested in high-quality 3D glasses, and the whole experience would be better.
But no. It was ruined by greed and a lack of foresight, and this is why we can’t have nice things.
The giant squid that washed up on a South African beach (Alison Paulus)
Sometimes the space/sciencey story that appears in this slot will make you think. It’ll challenge your perception of reality, or make you think about how mankind got here and where we’re going.
The squid that washed up on a beach in South Africa was close to 12 feet long including the tentacles, and a rare discovery indeed. These creatures are usually only found at depths of 3,000 feet and below, and it seems like this one only found its way to the beach thanks to a fight with a boat propeller (which it sadly lost).
Local fishermen managed to grab some of the key parts of the squid before researchers got to it, and the eyes, beak and other body parts had been pillaged – so unfortunately it can’t go on display in a museum.
But it’s a reminder that there are still so many mysteries of the deep that we’ve yet to fully encounter – and that’s an exciting prospect.
This is from the editor
Thanks for joining me again for this week’s missive – it’s always a joy to bring you what’s been impressing me on TechRadar.
It’s been a bit of a nostalgic trip in parts, so apologies if you’re one of the younger readers and are wondering what an N64 is, or how you do in fact train a dragon – I promise to make it a bit more inclusive next time.
Remember, if you’re not a regular subscriber, please do sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox each week; and if you’ve got any thoughts about what you’ve read (especially any fond memories of tech gone by) please email me, remembering to include NEWSLETTER in the subject line.
See you next week!
Sharing TechRadar with your network keeps the quality of content high and these newsletters free.
