We were given one of Samsung's new generation of robotic vacuum cleaners for a review: the new Samsung Jet Bot 80+, which is also sold under the name Samsung Jet Bot+.
It is a robot vacuum cleaner with a self-emptying dust container, which was released in the European market in 2021. Before this current series, Samsung was out of the robot vacuum business for years - bot now the company has decided to make a return to the market.
As usual, we put the robot to a work for more than three months. During our test period, the vacuum cleaner took care of cleaning the floor surfaces of two different apartments, as the only tool used for cleaning the floors.
Important to our test (as usual) is how suitable the product is for pet owners. Therefore, the test appropriately included everyday experience with how the Robo copes with pet hair and other problems that pets bring with them to the home.
The selling price for this product is around €500 in Finland, so it is placed in a difficult price segment in that sense: in the 500 euro range, top products are also available from competitors that manufacture robot vacuum cleaners, and they have more of a reputation in the market than Samsung.
When browsing mobile phones, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, etc. a device's IP classification is often mentioned. This refers to the devices waterproof and dust-resistance rating. There are a large number of IP classifications however, and most people don't know much about them. Here, we take a look at what the numbers mean.
A typical mobile phone IP rating can be, for example, IP68. Correspondingly, you often see IP57 rating in headphones. This is actually two separate numbers: the first number means dust resistance the second number means water resistance. The higher the number, the better!
The tests are carried out in official laboratory conditions and an official, approved IP classification is given to the device after the tests are concluded.
The first number of the IP classification, dust resistance, is defined as follows:
Number
What does it mean?
0
No protection against dust at all.
1
Protection against objects up to 5 cm in size, i.e. particles larger than five centimeters cannot enter the device's structures.
2
Protection against 12.5 mm particles. That is, objects larger than a good centimeter cannot enter the device's structures.
3
Protection against 2.5 mm particles. Small, but clearly visible, quarter-centimeter-sized particles cannot enter the device's structures.
4
Protection against 1 mm particles. Pieces with a diameter of a millimeter - and pieces larger than that - cannot enter the device's structures.
5
Protected from dust. In practice, no dust gets inside the device to the extent that it would hinder the operation of the device. Dust accumulations may occur.
Many home network problems are related to a slow Wi-Fi connection, which causes tension for all family members using a wireless network. At worst, the problems cause video stuttering, slow download speeds, and can even make remote work difficult or impossible.
Fortunately, a lot of wireless network problems are relatively easy to solve. In this guide, we listed easy tips to improve your own WLAN connection, which should work with all Internet operators.
In practice, the most typical problems are caused by bad placement of the base station, obstacles and neighbors. The base station is the part of the network that transmits the WLAN signal: in many homes this is the same thing as a modem or router, which itself has a WLAN base station / router.
Do you feel like your phone battery is draining too quickly? The phone is relatively new, but the battery doesn't last as long as you think it should? There can be many reasons for this - and some of them have clear and easy solutions.
In this guide, we go through the most typical reasons for rapid battery drain with phones, and look at potential reasons or solutions.
The most battery-consuming part of your device is its display. Smartphone screens have become much larger and brighter. Therefore, the screen brightness has a huge impact on battery consumption (and how long the device will run on a single charge.)
Sometimes, Android updates can go horribly wrong. The intentions of manufacturers are usually good. After all, new updates bring about new features, performance improvements, security improvements, etc. Every now and then, however, a new Android update can pose significant problems for end users.
For an example of when things can go wrong, you only have to look at OnePlus' infamous Android 12 update debacle. This system update was completely rejected by users of updated devices. It significantly altered the user interface of the operating system - according to many users, for the worse. In addition, some users reported that the update was plagued with bugs.
This news made a lot of users of affected headsets ponder a delay to updating the device.
But.. What happens if you don't update your phone to the latest Android version?
In summary: In the short term, nothing really!
However, after six months or more, thing start happening under the hood that the user cannot see, but which can be potentially significant issues.
Device and Data Security degrade with time
A manufacturer will stop supporting older versions of Android with updates, because a new version is available for the device and they want you to update. Unfortunately, this can include security updates too.
OnePlus has decided to match Samsung's update policy for its flagship models, starting in year 2023.
What it means is that all OnePlus flagship models will receive four major Android updates and five years worth of security updates. Company wasn't too clear with its press release on what models will be rolled into the new policy and we don't know whether the models released in 2022 (like OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10T) will be included with the updated policy.
But at least all flagship OnePlus phones released after this policy change will be eligible for four major Android updates. Basically meaning that the rumored OnePlus 11, expected to launch with Android 13, will get Android 14, Android 15, Android 16 and Android 17 updates during its lifetime. And after Android 17, the model will also get one year of security patches.
It is also still open what will be the OnePlus' Android update policy for its mid-range and low-end phones, like OnePlus Nord series and OnePlus Nord N series. So far, those phones have received only two or one major Android update.
Sony is nowadays a small player in the smartphone world. But company focuses solely on very specific customers with its small, high-end phones and doesn't even try to woo the mainstream audiences to its phones. And within its own, self-defined category, Sony's recent phones have been simply excellent.
And Sony has done pretty good job with speedy Android updates too: company just announced that its most recent flagship phones, Sony Xperia 1 IV and Sony Xperia 5 IV are now receiving stable, official Android 13 update.
Sony was very quiet about the exact details, such as which countries will get the update first and how big the update is. But based on previous years' experience, the update should arrive to all Xperia 1 IV and 5 IV users within a week or two (unless your mobile operator blocks it, as some carriers tend to do).
For about an hour now, since 07:00 UTC, the world's largest instant messaging platform WhatsApp has been completely down.
People have panicked, uninstalled/reinstalled WhatsApp on their phones and even blamed their service providers for the situation. But no, it is down to WhatsApp itself, which simply cannot be accessed right now.
As of now, the outage has been on-going for more than an hour, marking this one of the longest downtimes for WhatsApp in quite some time now.
According to DownDetector, the problem is global and none of the WhatsApp's functionality works right now.
You can monitor the situation by following tweets with #WhatsAppDown hashtag. Obviously, Twitter is full of fun takes on the situation already:
OnePlus has been for years at the forefront when it comes to fast charging. The company's smartphones have supported fast charging at a competitive level throughout models and price points.
Now nearly every new mid- or higher tier smartphone comes with fast charging of some sort. Even many new lower tier, sub-$200 options, come with basic fast charging. Fast charging comes with a simple advantage. Phone doesn't need to be charged overnight anymore, when just a short juice-up during other regular daily tasks, like taking a shower or preparing breakfast can offer hours upon hours of battery life.
However, one place we haven't come across many proper fast charging applications are car chargers. If you'd want to fill your battery during a half an hour commute, usually that isn't possible with generic car chargers, even when they profess fast charging.
This seems odd, since smartphone users often spend time in traffic, and that would be the perfect time to recharge your smartphone.
OnePlus has had car chargers previously, as well, but they haven't caught the attention of the press or the public. At least, they flew under the radar for us. Perhaps this is due to the fact that they have only supported SuperVOOC charging, support of which is limited to OnePlus and few related brands (Oppo, Realme, Vivo).
YouTube has today announced a new feature called Handles. According to Google's video platform, the new feature can help YouTube creators identify more effectively on their platform and within communities.
The new identification method has largely been copied from Twitter, even to the extent that it is preceded by @ sign. The new Handles will be in the form "@handle," and the new web address is formatted "youtube.com/@handle."
According to YouTube, Handles are designed for it to be "easier for members of the community to find and connect with each other." Especially for those that do not have a personalized YouTube address, this is going to be a blessing. Instead of a long, jumbled mess of characters, they can now be found with a simple Handle.
Those that already have a concise, personalized YouTube address. They can choose to continue using that as a handle. In fact, YouTube will automatically reserve that as your Handle, but the YouTuber can switch away from it if they'd like to.
In a landmark decision that has been in works for more than a decade, European parliament almost unanimously decided to make USB-C mandatory in all portable electronics.
By the end of 2024 all new phones, digital cameras, headphones, tablets and various other portable devices sold within the European Union must have a USB-C charging port. The new legislation doesn't allow manufacturers to circumvent the requirement with adapters or anything like that.
Interestingly, the legislation also makes USB PD quick charging mandatory for mobile phones, tablets and other "medium-sized" devices. Manufacturers are required to support at least 30W quick charging USB PD standard by end of 2024.
The requirement for 30W+ quick charging is a big deal, considering how some manufacturers don't provide any quick charging for their budget phones - and some expensive models only support 18W quick charging.
Additionally, all laptops sold in Europe must switch to USB-C charging by spring 2026. Only exception to this requirement are the high-end laptops that draw more than 100W power when operating at full power. For those, manufacturers can continue to use their non-standard charging ports.
Without much fanfare, Google just released the final, stable version of Android 13 operating system.
As usual, the new operating system is already available for all supported Google Pixel phones, starting with Pixel 4 series. Pixel 3 and older wont be eligible for the update and they're considered to have reached their end.
Android 13 beta is already available to selected handsets outside the Google Pixel family. All major Android manufacturers (Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi and more) have at least one of their models enrolled to Android beta program.
Android 13 improves privacy controls, the way how audio can be cast to various output devices and much, much more.
Nvidia released a warning before the final quarterly results, due in two weeks. The company's previous prediction was off by over $1 billion.
On Monday, graphics card manufacturer Nvidia has released the preliminary financial results for the second quarter of the current fiscal year. These preliminary results act as a warning for the investors ahead of the final results, and earnings call on August 24.
The revenue of $6.70 billion is a far cry from the company's outlook as consumers wait for the next round of GPUs.
In May, Nvidia predicted the quarter to top $8.10 billion in revenue, which would have been a slight decline from the previous quarter but a major uptick from the year prior. However, expectations weren't met and the stock market responded predictably.
Stock price slid from last week's high of $192 by approximately 10 percent to $172, but bounced back to $178 by the time of NASDAQ closing.
The company's lackluster performance was blamed on Gaming revenue, which did take a tremendous hit. Gaming revenue fell 33 percent year-over-year and nearly halved compared to the previous quarter which had record-breaking revenue for both Gaming and Data Center segments.
Twitter released a statement on Friday confirming that a vulnerability they had patched earlier this year was, in fact, used in a malicious attack to collect user data.
The company was forced to come clean after media reports about hacked account details surfaced on the web. According to Twitter, the company became aware of the problem in January 2022 via the company's bug bounty program. The bug had been in the code since June 2022 and was quickly fixed.
Now, the actual vulnerability and the exploit of it has to do with a form that provides the Twitter ID associated with the submitted phone number or email address. This shouldn't be publicly available, and according to a HackerOne report to Twitter, this happened even when the user had explicitly prohibited this action in the Twitter privacy settings.
This was abused to create lists consisting of Twitter IDs, phone numbers, and email addresses.
Last month Restore Privacy reported that over 5 million Twitter accounts were exposed by a hacker that was selling the database with Twitter IDs, phone numbers, and email addresses. For $30,000, the hacker by the name of "devil" claimed, you could receive information about "Celebrities, Companies, randoms, OGs, etc."
Shopping giant Amazon has somewhat unexpectedly moved in to acquire leading robot vacuum manufacturer iRobot. The acquisition cost is $1.7 billion, companies' press release states.
While Amazon's purchase of Roomba maker came as a surprise, the acquisition does make sense for the world largest shopping network that has been investing in smart home technology for years.
Amazon was the first to launch a line of voice assistant speakers in the form of Echo, shortly after Apple and Google had introduced their smartphone-tied assistants. The Alexa-equipped speakers, that Amazon has expanded tremendously over the years, have been a massive success for the company.
Later the company acquired a high-profile home tech in smart doorbell company Ring.
Some have suggested a somewhat hilarious, perhaps even sinister, reason for the iRobot purchase, as seen below. While it seems more like a baseless stab at Amazon's possibly nefarious nature, there's some truth to the concern.
We were given one of Samsung's new generation of robotic vacuum cleaners for a review: the new Samsung Jet Bot 80+, which is also sold under the name Samsung Jet Bot+.
When browsing mobile phones, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, etc. a device's IP classification is often mentioned. This refers to the devices waterproof and dust-resistance rating. There are a large number of IP classifications however, and most people don't know much about them. Here, we take a look at what the numbers mean.
Many home network problems are related to a slow Wi-Fi connection, which causes tension for all family members using a wireless network. At worst, the problems cause video stuttering, slow download speeds, and can even make remote work difficult or impossible.
