Author: News Room

No stomach for three hours of weeping hobbits? These films get the job done in half the time We all love an epic movie now and again, but sometimes you just don’t want to sit through two and a half hours of tedious exposition, giant robots punching each other or little people rambling through the countryside. To that end, we’ve scoured the best streaming services to assemble a collection of the best short movies that don’t muck about. All of these movies clock in at 90 minutes or less. That hour-and-a-half sweet spot is ideal for weeknight watching and –…

Dia, the new browser from The Browser Company, is almost nothing like the company’s last product. That app, Arc, was a total rethink of how browsers work: it moved tabs to the side and combined them with bookmarks, it offered endless ways to organize all your stuff, and it had lots of ideas about how to make your web surfing a little more delightful.Dia will get some of that stuff in time, The Browser Company’s CEO Josh Miller tells me. The app that’s launching today for existing Arc users is very much still a beta (and only available on Mac).…

I am an excellent home cook, if I do say so myself. I regularly produce restaurant-quality dishes from my smart kitchen. But I have two favorite dishes I’ve never mastered at home: pizza and burgers. Yes, I can make them, but do they taste as good as my local burger or pizza joint? Nope. Naturally, I was intrigued when I heard about the new smart pizza oven from Current, which launched at CES earlier this year.Yes, I know pizza ovens have been a thing for a while with their enticing promise of making pizzeria-quality pizza at home. But they’re eye-wateringly…

I think that I might have found one of my favourite new soundbars. JBL’s newest Bar model (the 1300MK2) isn’t just built for movies – though it’s clearly ready to knock your popcorn over with bass. Rather than just living in your home cinema, it’s multi-talented, and more than ready to act as a speaker for any situation. JBL has essentially taken every shiny bit of tech it could find in the audio department and stuffed it into one very sleek bar. You get Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround sound, thanks to six up-firing drivers. It also throws in a…

HP has become the first company to preview hardware built with Google Beam, the 3D video communication technology formerly known as Project Starline. It’s launching the HP Dimension, a device that features a 65-inch light field display with six high-speed cameras inside the bezel to create “a true-to-life” 3D video of your caller.Google first announced Project Starline’s rebrand last month. At the time, Google said that it would let third-party manufacturers, starting with HP, use its design framework to build devices with Beam. The HP Dimension is meant for enterprise use. It costs $24,999, and that doesn’t even include the…

Huawei has just announced the Chinese launch of its Pura 80 flagship phones, and the Ultra comes with a clever trick: a “switchable” dual-lens telephoto camera that allows two different lenses to share the same sensor.You can see both lenses side-by-side in the largest of the three camera rings on the 80 Ultra’s rear, but they share more than just a housing. Both lenses are attached to the same set of periscopic elements and the same image sensor, with a movable prism that directs light from the chosen lens. That’s a different approach to the variable telephotos in some Sony…

New capabilities include motion improvements to show items in action, which Amazon says is best for showcasing products like toys, tools, and worn accessories. For example, Video Generator can now create clips that show someone wearing a watch on their wrist and checking the time, instead of simply displaying the watch on a table. The tool generates six different videos to choose from, and allows brands to add their logos to the finished results.The Video Generator can now also make ads with multiple connected scenes that include humans, pets, text overlays, and background music. The editing timeline shown in Amazon’s…

Samsung’s latest smart fridges now support multi-voice recognition powered by the company’s Bixby assistant, which can be used to bring up personalized information on the built-in smart displays based upon which member of a household is speaking.The main perk is that the fridge will be able to display your calendar or personal photo gallery using only voice commands. You’ll also be able to ask the fridge to trigger an alarm on your phone, useful if you can’t find it. The update may be more helpful for those who are hard of vision, as it will automatically change the fridge screen’s…

Snapchat’s latest announcement isn’t another filter, but rather a proper pair of augmented reality glasses. That’s real AR, not just glasses that mirror your smartphone or let you watch movies. Announced at the AWE AR conference, the glasses – dubbed simply “Specs” – are Snap’s first attempt at taking AR mainstream. The pitch is bold. Snap wants to blend digital and physical reality, mixing in AI assistance, spatial computing, and multiplayer games. Because apparently the future of human-computer interaction involves shooting virtual ghouls in your kitchen or learning to play drums in your hallway. Did you catch the sarcasm there?…

There are plenty of video doorbell options to pick from, but most can set you back hundreds. You can opt for some more affordable options, but they often offer fewer features. Not this ringer from Imou. The Doorbell 2S Kit is the first video doorbell to come with a camera that can pan – giving you 180-degrees of vision. And, it still manages to come in for under $100/£100. This isn’t just a gimmick. The Doorbell 2S uses a 3-megapixel, 2K lens with a 30-degree pan capability tacked onto a 166-degree wide-angle lens. Add that together and you’ve got 180-degree panoramic coverage…

The S6 and S6 open aren’t just VanMoof’s latest fashion-forward, tech-infused e-bikes. They’re a statement of intent from a brand that’s been revitalised under new ownership – and which still isn’t scared to do things a little differently from the rest of the electric bike world. Having weathered some stormy seas in recent years, the firm is returning stronger under the stewardship of Lavoie and McLaren Applied. The S6 and S6 Open promise a smoother ride, smarter security and styling guaranteed to draw attention wherever you ride it, but also greater reliability and the firm’s biggest ever service network. Both…

Given he was just days away from unveiling the first all-new e-bikes produced under his watch, it’d be understandable if Eliott Wertheimer was a little on edge when we sat down over video call to talk all things S6 and S6 Open – but the VanMoof co-CEO was in great spirits. The new bikes are meant to represent a turning point for the Dutch firm, now under new ownership. Issues of the past have been addressed, and there’s more tech squeezed inside than ever. And as I’d already visited the Dutch firm’s R&D warehouse for an early ride of a…