If you use the internet on a PC, phone, tablet, or other device, you really ought to consider a VPN service. Not only will it protect your most private data, it lets you browse totally anonymously, and secures public Wi-Fi connections, too.
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Nest on Thursday announced it has four new Google Nest-branded products for consumers. Priced as low as $100, the devices will be offered in an assortment of indoor and outdoor options as well as wired and battery-powered.
The new units include an indoor-only camera, an indoor/outdoor camera, a video doorbell, and a floodlight. Moreover, they essentially replace older Nest IQ cameras and the Nest Hello doorbell.
If you own, or have seen, any of the recent Nest products over the last few years, the designs will be familiar. Nest has been intentional in its choices, opting for muted colors and soft edges. That is to say they work with any environment or setting and blend in instead of calling attention to themselves. Indeed, the IP54 rating means that they’ll be alright in rain and the anti-theft mount ensures they don’t walk away.
Google Nest Cam (Battery)
Rather than send you notifications for every little activity (snow falling, leaves blowing), the cameras and app let you know about the more important things, like when a package was delivered.
Given these are Google products at their core, they get smarter with each generation. Such is the case here as on-device machine learning can help to detect people, vehicles, animals, and packages, offering notifications without relying on cloud services.
Google Nest Cam (Wired)
The Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) in the new line lets the cameras process twice as many pixels at twice the frame rate when compared to previous models. And instead of focusing on 4K images or resolution, these cameras work harder on HDR and overall quality. This is not too unlike what we expect in the Google Pixel 6 phones as they’ll also feature a Tensor processor.
The new cameras include three hours of event history and local storage for up to an hour of events in the case that Wi-Fi goes down at home or the office. Nest indicates that this would equate to roughly one week’s worth of coming and going events. Once Wi-Fi is reestablished, things are automatically synced to the cloud.
Google Nest Doorbell, Google Nest Cam w/ Floodlight
These new devices are now fully integrated into the Google Home app and work with the current generation of Nest smart displays. In other words, you can stay within the same app for managing your Google Assistant tasks, routines, and settings as well as viewing the new Nest cameras.
A Nest Aware subscription, offered in two paid tiers, unlocks more potential, including extending your event video history from three hours to 30 or 60 days. Also included is Familiar Face, a facial recognition technology that further smartens your alerts and notifications. Lastly, Nest Aware Plus allows for continuous 24/7 video history on wired Nest Cams.
Availability
The new battery-powered Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam, available for preorder immediately and go on sale August 24. The Doorbell is offered in four colors (white, beige, green, or gray)Â whiles the Nest Cam is available in white.
The other two products are listed as “coming soon.”
I’m not really the most intense PC gamer in the world, so I didn’t really assign much importance to the quality of my mouse. In fact, the mouse I most recently bought for myself cost $7. This changed, however, when I met the Marsback Zephyr Pro mouse, an RGB gaming mouse with quite a cool addition.
Specs
What’s In The Box?
The Zephyr Pro comes in a cool vertical box
In the Zephyr Pro box, you’ll get your mouse, an instruction manual, and some cool stickers.
Setup
There’s not much to be said here, honestly. The Zephyr Pro Mouse can be used like any other mouse, simply plug and play on Windows, Mac, or Linux.
Design
The Zephyr Pro mouse is an RGB mouse with a honeycomb design. There are a total of six buttons: the scroll wheel, left and right click, the DPI button, and the two buttons on the left side of the mouse. These two buttons navigate back and forth by default.
There’s one more trick under the Zephyr Pro’s sleeve, though. Under the honeycomb design is a fan that cools your palm and keeps your hands sweat-free. This might be good if you’re at your computer using your mouse for long periods of time.
Side-by-side Zephyr Pro vs my old mouse
The Zephyr Pro Mouse includes a fan to cool down your palm.
There is two programmable buttons on the left side of the mouse
The Zephyr Pro has buttons on the bottom to change the lighting and fan settings of the mouse
I’m not the biggest fan of the honeycomb design as I prefer a more uniform looking design, but I see where it is needed for the fan and beneficial for heat dissipation. After all, this is marketed towards PC gamers that might spend hours at a time holding their mouse.
The Zephyr Pro is also lightweight and packable thanks to a flexible, soft cable.
One thing I like about the mouse is the fact that it feels comfortable in both hands. Compared to my other mouse, the side buttons are smaller and more centrally placed on the mouse. This makes it easy to hold the mouse however you wish without worrying about accidental button clicking.
Software
To reprogram the buttons, modify the colors in a certain mode, or program macros, you’re going to need to download the Zephyr Pro software. You can find it on Marsback’s support page, simply download the zip and click the application file inside. There’s one catch, though, and that is the fact that it is only available on Windows devices, so you’re out of luck if you have any other devices.
That being said, the software is amazing. You can change anything and everything about the mouse.
The Zephyr Pro software can change basically anything about the mouse.
Performance config page
Color Effects page
Macro creation page
Every button on the zephyr pro mouse can be configured for a large list of purposes.
The Zephyr Pro can be anything you want it to be. You can even create profiles to switch between different settings for different use cases quickly and easily.
Price
The Marsback Zephyr Pro comes in at a base price of $69. This seems expensive to me but this price is about standard for comparable mice from other brands, and it boasts the unique fan. If that’s a bit much to swallow, you have two opportunities to save: first, Marsback is offering a summer sale until September 10th, which knocks $10 off the price. Not only that, but Marsback is offering a deal to AG readers if you use the code AGONLY, combining for a total price of just $49.
The Treblab X5 earbuds are some of our favorite wireless audio devices over the last couple of years. The headphones offer a unique design and really great sound. Add the dedicated button controls and voice assistant built-in and you have a winner at the normal $70.
If you act right now, Treblab has the X5 wireless earbuds for 49% off at the AG Deals Store. That gets you really, quality earbuds from Treblab for only $49.99 while this promo lasts.
Long-lasting battery:Â Lasts for over 35 hours w/ portable charging case
Bluetooth 5.0:Â Pairs instantly w/ any Apple or Android device within 33ft signal range
Unparalleled call reception:Â Built-in CVC 8.0 mic for hands-free calls
Sweatproof & water resistant:Â Ideal for a wide array of activities – workout, commute, jog, and more
You get a pretty solid spec sheet for under $50. The Treblab X5 earbuds have 8.2mm drivers for awesome sound. You also get 35 hours of total playtime with the battery case and 7 hours per charge on the X5 alone.
Bluetooth 5.0 is onboard for crisp connections for playback and phone calls. You will have to settle for older micro-USB charging, but it does charge the case in under 2 hours.
Every year myriad smartphones are released and each time we see manufacturers tout improved performance. Adding to that discussion are benchmarking apps such as Geekbench which host lists of the top-performing phones on its site.
Things keep getting better with each generation and scores continue going up. On paper, the top phones are packed with performance and able to pull down incredible and impressive figures.
Of course, most of us know that benchmarks don’t tell the full story. And besides that, many phone makers cheat and fudge numbers, but that’s an entirely different article.
Instead, I want to focus more on how the overall mobile experience isn’t completely dependent on having the fastest phone. If that were the case, and we truly cared about speed, we’d all be using iPhones. Why? Apple’s handsets routinely top the charts in benchmarking apps.
User experience
When choosing your smartphone, one of the most important aspects is the overall user experience. This can include hardware features, such as having a microSD card slot, high refresh rate display, wireless charging, face unlock, and more.
Some of us like curved edge displays or screens that approach seven inches. Others might prefer to have something much smaller and easier to hold in one hand.
Just as important as the hardware preferences is the software. For instance, I recently had the opportunity to review the RedMagic 6 gaming phone, which I found to be extremely snappy performance-wise. Unfortunately, the software was one of the weakest points on that phone.
I encountered some bugs while using it, but even worse, the launcher was locked and there was no way to change it. That can be a deal-breaker for those of us who have a favorite launcher as it can impact our mobile productivity.
At the same time, the RedMagic 6 also included several hardware and software enhancements that are a real benefit for mobile gamers. Examples here include a fan and built-in mappable capacitive shoulder buttons. Whether or not that is of any benefit to you depends on how big of a mobile gamer you are.
There are other phones, such as the Pixel line, which put an emphasis on having a fantastic camera and a clean software experience with quick updates. If those are important to you, you probably don’t worry so much about the benchmarks for 3D gaming.
Software support
This brings us to the topic of software support. That is to ask how long the manufacturer will support the phone. How many OS updates will you receive? To use the RedMagic 6 again as an example, it is made by Nubia (ZTE) who is not exactly known for fantastic software support.
Not many handset makers can compete with Google when it comes to software support and that’s often why you see our site and other outlets recommend Pixel smartphones.
To that end, plenty of other brands have stepped up and began guaranteeing two or more platform upgrades and/or longer security updates such as Samsung, Nokia, OnePlus.
Camera
Many of us use our smartphones as our only camera these days, and for good reason. Most modern cellphones come with wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, making it the only camera you really need. And while a speedy CPU can help with processing your photos for more impressive images, it doesn’t guarantee them.
Take a look at the Pixel 4a which has a phenomenal camera but uses a midrange Snapdragon system-on-chip. Even some smartphones with the latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 won’t be able to match it in terms of image quality. This once again highlights the fact that the highest benchmarking score doesn’t mean that phone will be the best for you.
Battery life
It doesn’t matter how much horsepower you have under the hood if your phone can’t get you through the day.
Many times when I’m browsing for a new smartphone I put battery life at the top of my list of specs to check. While snappy performance is important to me, I don’t want it at the cost of not being able to make it through the day on a single charge.
Final thoughts
What makes the “best” smartphone is highly dependent on what your needs are, and what’s right for one person won’t be what’s right for everyone.
Raw power used to be one of the deciding factors when buying a new phone, but these days we’ve gotten to a point where most midrange smartphones are more than fast enough for our everyday tasks.
We’ve moved from simple bullet points to talking points when describing our preferred handset experience. That’s never been more evident than with Google’s Pixel a-series of phones. It’s why our site and many other outlets often highly recommend the Pixel 4a and other handsets in the a-series lineup.
The Pixel 4a also has the benefit of featuring a fantastic camera and great battery life making it a terrific all-around phone despite its specs looking rather weak on paper.
Google, Samsung, and others all know there is a sweet spot to hit where performance is “good enough” and it doesn’t revolve around the fastest, most expensive SoC.
With Google set to release the Pixel 6 with its own Tensor silicon under the hood, it’s likely we’ll view it through the wrong lens. That is to say people will compare to Qualcomm’s latest offerings and look at how the processors stack up on paper.
Expect Google to make up for any low benchmark scores by steering the conversation around artificial intelligence and machine learning and how they make your phone work smarter.
Could this be enough to outperform chips with more horsepower? We’ll have to wait and see, but just remember, raw performance is only one aspect of a good smartphone. It’s ultimately about the entire package and how it serves your needs.
Master & Dynamic’s newest audio offering is the MW08 Sport, a refreshed approach to it 2021 series of truly wireless earbuds. Priced $349, they’re available in a variety of colors of sapphire glass: silver, black, blue, and green.
For obvious reasons, they are nearly identical in appearance to the MW08 in both the earbuds and the case. Given they’re $50 more than their counterpart, one would expect an extra feature or two. Indeed, they do come with a couple of which we’ll touch on later.
The MW08 Sport come with a Kevlar-coated carrying case.
Our team was provided a pair of MW08 Sport earbuds; I spent a few weeks listening to our favorite music, podcasts, and other audio content to get a sense for the new product.
Here’s the AndroidGuys review of the Master & Dynamic MW08 Sport.
Design
At first blush the MW08 Sport look identical to the MW08 in terms of overall design for the earbuds and the case. They maintain the smaller footprint and forgo the stabilizer fins, something we’re more than happy to live without.
Instead of the polished ceramic materials, the MW08 Sport are made with shatter-resistant sapphire glass. Equally attractive, the black has a great reflective shine and we can imagine the other colors do, too.
The exterior of the MW08 Sport earbud.
Another key difference is the carrying case. Not only does it have a slightly water-resistant and tough Kevlar coating, but it also supports inductive wireless charging. A first for the company, it was one of the only features I found lacking in the MW08.
Despite my best intentions, I’ve never been able to keep the shiny metallic case of previous Master & Dynamic earbuds free from scuffs. I was only too pleased to see and feel the protective coating with the MW08 Sport. And since these are sporty earbuds, you’ll be pleased to know that the case also has an IPX4 water resistance rating.
The case charges up via USB Type-C and has three lights to indicate the level of battery. Master & Dynamic says the case can charge up to 50% in just 15 minutes and we can verify that is accurate. Moreover, it takes about one hour to fully charge the case through cable.
The inside of the MW08 Sport earbud.
The wireless charging capability is also something I welcome with open arms. It’s not so much that I need it in my earbuds, but when you command around $300 for a pair, it’s almost a requisite in 2021.
The MW08 Sport can be charged with pretty much any Qi-enabled wireless charger which is great for a lot of modern phone users. Should you have a high-end handset that offers wireless charging, you likely have a platter or unit that supports the standard.
Wireless charging makes more sense for accessories than it does for phones, at least to me. It seems more intuitive to drop the carrying case onto a charger when not in use and grab when leaving. And again, when less expensive counterparts include wireless charging, it’s hard to argue the “premium” experience.
The MC100 is silver aluminum with a fabric finish.
Master & Dynamic have also introduced its first wireless charging puck. Available for $69.99 on its website, it’s a sophisticated looking unit that features fabric and aluminum. With a modern design that matches any environment, it takes up very little space.
As far as battery life goes, Master & Dynamic say you should get about 12 hours of playback at 50% volume levels with around 10 hours for ANC mode. The case allows for nearly three more full charges, too. All in, you ought to expect around 42 hours of playback time for a fully charged carrying case.
Features
The MW08 Sport retains the same physical controls from the previous generation and 2021 sibling, something I appreciate. They are easy to locate without looking and respond firmly to pressing. Also great, it takes very little time to figure them out. If you’ve used a pair of Master & Dynamic earbuds, you already understand the controls.
The left earbud has two buttons which control volume levels but long pressing them enables and disables ANC and ambient listening modes.Â
The MC100 is Master & Dynamic’s first wireless charging pad.
The earbuds have a built-in optical sensor that can detect when they’re removed from your ear, immediately pausing music. There is an option to disable this feature in the companion mobile app but it does help with battery life.
The MW08 Sport are IPX5 water resistant which is about the only thing that makes these “sporty” earbuds. They don’t have any flashy or eye-catching color pops and look otherwise sophisticated.
I like the tactile feel that comes with a physical button press, and the MW08 Sports are quite responsive and feature a noticeable click. I’ve come to simply pinch the earbuds when pressing as pushing down without support below will cause them to come loose.
When it comes to pairing, the MW08 Sport only allow you to have one device actively paired with them at a time. Should you have a laptop, tablet, or another user in the house that might like to share the earbuds you’ll have to put them into pairing mode (long press right ear bud) each time you switch.Â
Active noise cancellation (ANC) is present and from what I can tell, it’s very good. Out of the box with the preset ear tips it does a great job of filtering and removing voice in particular. If you plan to wear your earphones in a home office, coffee shop, or library, you’ll find the earbuds let you settle into the audio with no major distractions.
The MW08 Sport come with a variety of ear tip options.
Like their standard model brethren, the MW08 Sport can be managed via an M&D Connect app from Master & Dynamic. Simple and straightforward, it gives listeners a bit of control over their audio experience. It’s off to a good start but we might appreciate more settings such as equalizer.
Audio
For more than a few years now I have been a champion of the Master & Dynamic brand. And when it comes to sound quality, I have yet to come encounter one of its products that left me desiring more. The MW08 Sport are no exception and further cement its legacy as one of the best in the space.
Given this is not an audiophile website or one that centers around headphones, but I can recognize quality audio when I hear it. The experience here is right in line with expectations. It’s balanced, full, and crystal clear. Every level of the spectrum is represented equally and I never find myself annoyed or worn down by too much bass.
Depending on my environment or situation, I’ll enable the ambient listening mode so that IÂ can half-listen for someone who may be looking to get my attention. The same goes for ANC, too. I really appreciate that I don’t have to second-guess whether one of the modes is activated.Â
Taking calls on truly wireless earbuds is always a touch strange if only because it sounds like the caller is inside your head. With that in mind, voice is very clear and balanced for phone calls.
The case for the MW08 (left) is more prone to scuffs and scratches than the MW08 Sport (right).
Conclusion
I feel like a broken record, but Master & Dynamic have yet another killer pair of earbuds with the MW08 Sport. I feel very comfortable recommending the brand for people looking for a quality set.
The “Sport” aspect of the earbuds is more or less attributed to their IPX5 rating. And sure, the carrying case has its own water resistance, but these don’t have any outward appearance of being sporty or geared toward a different demographic.
These are premium earbuds in every sense and might be better called the MW08 Plus. That is unless Master & Dynamic have some funky colorways coming down the road. As it stands today, they’re unassuming and not something you’d expect to see in an athlete’s ear.
Do you remember growing up and how dad used to have things that were “his” and you were told not to touch them? That’s exactly what Master & Dynamic products are for me. They are mine, they don’t get loaned out to others, and they’re treated like gold.
At $349 it gets pretty tough to convince people to spend that sort of money on a pair of earbuds. Then again, once you drop that much on something, you’re theoretically buying them for life.Â
It’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth the extra money to add wireless charging, water resistance, and a tougher carrying case. Along that route, I would feel better if these were $299 with the standard model dropping down to $249.
How do you feel about your current line of work? Are you happy with the day-to-day aspect or might you feel like it’s time for a change? Might you be looking to avoid going back to the same old situation and job whenever it is that you’re allowed back in the building?
If you’re tired of dealing with the way things are in your current situation, you may want to consider a career switch. Or perhaps not; maybe you’ve just got an itch for a little side hustle.
Whatever the case may be, to succeed in anything today, you need to be good at your job. And for most things, education and know-how trump the can-do attitude.
If you’re ready to make the jump to something new and want help, we’ve got just what you need. We’re currently in the middle of a semi-annual sale which sees us taking an extra 60% off of our online education and training. Yes, an extra sixty percent.
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How secure is your data connection at home? Do you trust the Wi-Fi at your local coffee shop or library to keep your laptop safe? Have you ever worried about malware, injections, or other issues for your browsing experience? If you aren’t fully certain that you’re protected and safeguarded against hacking and malicious websites, it’s time consider a VPN service.
Fortunately for you, we’re in the middle of a semi-annual sale at the AG Deals Store which lets you save an additional 30% on the already-low prices. That’s right, an extra 30% just because you came around at the right moment!
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Enhance your browsing, content viewing, and gaming experience with BulletVPN. BulletVPN servers provide a reliable and secure service to protect your traffic from eavesdroppers at home or while on the move.
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The internet is crawling with trackers designed to harvest your personal information – sometimes for things as innocent as understanding what ads to display on the web for you, sometimes for far more nefarious purposes. Regardless, web tracking ranges from innocuous to deeply serious, and it’s more important than ever to take precautions to ensure your internet security.
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FastestVPN: Lifetime Subscription (10 Devices)
In today’s age of hackers and spies, it’s absolutely essential to protect your browsing activity by using a VPN. FastestVPN offers a smart, easy-to-use service for all devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Smart TV, and your router. As the name implies, this high-powered VPN operates with 99.9% uptime and gives you access to more than 200 high-speed servers around the globe. Plus, with a NAT firewall, ad blocker, anti-malware software, and a strict no logging policy, FastestVPN is extremely committed to your online security. $24.99$17.49
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Each year the Pixel smartphone from Google tends to leak far in advance of the official reveal. This year we’ve already learned plenty about it, including how it will look, before Google has even officially revealed when it will be announced.
Now, in a strange twist, Google has taken to its blog to confirm most of what we already knew in what seems to be an effort to set our expectations for the Pixel 6.
As for the specs, not much was disclosed in the Google blog post, but The Verge was able to shed some light on a couple of bits of information from its visit to the Google campus last week.
Without further adieu, there will be two Pixel smartphone models. The Pixel 6 Pro will feature a 6.7-inch QHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate and three cameras on the back. Housed in the massive camera bump will be a new wide-angle main shooter, an ultra-wide camera, and a 4X optical zoom lens.
As for the Pixel 6 smartphone, it will feature a 6.4-inch FHD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate and only two cameras, the new wide-angle shooter and the ultra-wide camera.
Next, both Pixel 6 phones will use Google’s custom-made Tensor system on chip to power them. That was the main focus of Google’s post today, however, it failed to mention clock speeds, cores, technical details, or benchmarks. Instead, Google chose to focus on its favorite buzz words, “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning.”
One can assume from the lack of technical details that the Tensor SoC will most likely not wow us with clock speeds or cores, but will instead look rather bland on paper. It almost seems as if Google is priming us for this and keeping all of this info close to the vest until the official reveal. It is there we’re likely to see real-world examples of how the speed of the chip doesn’t matter, and how artificial intelligence and machine learning have made it more efficient than just throwing raw power at everything.
The article from The Verge goes into some detail about examples it was shown at Google’s campus, where the TPU chip was able to snap clearer photos of a moving toddler, or how it was able to take a better-exposed video of a setting sun with more natural colors than the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
These are areas where Google’s AI and ML have always excelled and a large part as to why the Pixel smartphones always have such impressive photography skills. Although, the video side has always needed some work and it looks like the Pixel 6 may be the phone to finally correct that.
Along with the Tensor teaser, Google also shared some official images of the new Pixel 6 smartphones. As you can see, the massive camera bump is present and a clear focus of the phone. However, on the smaller Pixel 6, Google has gone for a more fun two-tone look with a fun stripe of color at the top, while the larger Pixel 6 is rather monotone in comparison.
Beyond this, all the other info is up in the air. We don’t know the amount of RAM or storage options, battery capacity, megapixel count of the cameras, or most importantly the price.
We could be in a surprise when it comes to pricing though, as Google’s hardware chief Rick Osterloh mentioned to The Verge that, “it will certainly be a premium-priced product.”
Looks like we’ll have to wait for more leaks or until this fall to find out more about Google’s first smartphone to feature its own silicon.
Selecting the perfect username for your social media account can be a tricky affair. Unless you go with your personal name or some professional brand, you’ll likely create something that’s related to one of your favorite topics.
While you may have loved being xRickMortyFan69x for a few years, it’s understandable if you might like to change things up a bit. Fortunately, Instagram makes it possible for you to change your username.
Whether you want to switch things up to show your appreciation for a new hobby, artist, character, or movie, or if you’d like to just go with your actual name, it’s a pretty change to make.
Select social media platforms may limit the number of times you can change your username; however, Instagram doesn’t care to place that sort of restriction. Indeed, you can hop from one name to another as often as you want.
Here, we’ll show you two ways to go about changing your Instagram username; via the mobile app and through the website on a desktop.
It’s worth pointing out that you can select any username you want so long as it is 30 characters or less and is comprised of letters, numbers, underscores, and periods. Sorry, you can’t use special characters or emojis.
Your username must be unique, but the display name can be whatever you want. And should you wish to revert back to your previous one, Instagram will hold onto it for 14 days before allowing anyone else to use it.
If your account has a large following, your username change may need to be reviewed by Instagram before it’s finalized. Should that be the case, you’ll be notified when the review is complete.
How to change your Instagram username using the Android app
As of mid-2021, you can find change your Instagram username in the mobile app by following these simple steps.
Log into your Instagram account on your phone
Tap on the icon for your account in the bottom right corner
In the middle of your screen, select the dropdown for ‘Edit Profile’
Under the Username section, delete or revise the name to your liking
Tap the check mark in the top right corner
That’s it, you’re all set!
If you want to change your username from a PC, you can log into the website and make the adjustment in a few short steps. While you don’t have all of the functionality of the mobile app experience, the desktop does allow for managing your account.
How to change your Instagram username using the website
Navigate your web browser to instagram.com and log into your account
Click on the icon for your account in the top right corner
Click on ‘Settings’
Under the Username section, delete or revise the name to your liking
