It’s now been discovered (first by Twitter user @Squashi9) that the update also included another upgrade for Meta’s hardware, with Space Scan, the Quest 3’s room scanning feature, getting a major buff thanks to AI.
The Quest 3’s Space Scan is different to its regular boundary scan, which sets up your safe play space for VR. Instead, Space Scan maps out your room for mixed-reality experiences, marking out walls, floors, and ceilings so that experiences are correctly calibrated.
You also have the option to add and label furniture, but you had to do this part manually until update v64 rolled out. Now, when you do a room scan your Quest 3 will automatically highlight and label furniture – and based on my tests it works flawlessly.
Annoyingly, the headset wouldn’t let me take screenshots of the process, so you’ll have to trust me when I say that every piece of furniture was not only picked up by the scan and correctly marked out, it was also labelled accurately – it even picked up on my windows and doors, which I wasn’t expecting.
The only mistake I spotted was that a chair I have in my living room was designated a ‘couch’, though this seems to be more an issue with Meta’s lack of more specific labels than with Space Scan’s ability to detect what type of object each item of furniture is.
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This feature isn’t a complete surprise, as Reality Labs showed a version of it off on Threads in March. What is surprising, however, is how quickly it’s been rolled out after being unveiled – though I’m not complaining, considering how well it works and how easy it makes scanning your room.
So what?
Adding furniture has a use for MR and VR apps. Tables can be used by apps like Horizon Workrooms as designated desks, while sitting down in or getting up from a designated couch will change your VR experience between a standing or seated mode.
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Meanwhile, some apps can use the detected doors, windows, walls, and furniture such as a bookshelf to adjust how mixed-reality experiences interact with your space.
With Meta making it less tedious to add these data points, app developers have more of a reason to take furniture into account when designing VR and MR experiences, which should lead to them feeling more immersive.
This also gives Meta a leg up over the Apple Vision Pro, as it’s not yet able to create a room scan that’s as detailed as the one found on Meta’s hardware – though until software starts to take real advantage of this feature it’s not that big a deal.
We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this improvement, but if you’ve already made a space scan or two on your Quest 3 you might want to redo them, as the new scans should be a lot more accurate.
Once dubbed the ‘Tesla of hair dryers’, the Zuvi Halo has gained a cult following across social media, as well as winning multiple accolades from industry experts – including being named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions.
Instead of relying on hot air to dry hair, the Zuvi Halo uses a combination of targeted air flow with ‘safe infrared light energy’ to dry the water on the hair’s surface. Said to have been inspired by the way the sun evaporates rainwater, it promises to boost hair hydration by 109%, shine by more than a third, and hair strength by 9%.
The Halo offers five drying modes – Care, Fast, Soft, Style and Cool – and, depending on the mode you select, each adjusts the air speed and the intensity of the infrared light to suit different needs. For example, Fast prioritizes speed, while Care prioritizes hair health. Soft is best for people with sensitive scalps; the Style mode is designed to be used with Halo attachments, and Cool helps to set your style.
(Image credit: Future)
You can’t manually adjust the heat or speed settings to suit your specific hair, and this limits the level of control you have. However, there are three attachments available for the Halo: a Styling Concentrator, a Diffuser and a Gentle Air attachment, which add a degree of control and versatility.
Making a decision over which mode to choose can be confusing; the Halo isn’t as intuitive or easy to use as the majority of hair dryers. I always opted for the Fast mode because, for me, saving time is a priority. I found that my hair was frizzier and more unwieldy having used the Soft mode, and Care mode didn’t dry as quickly as I’d like. Yet all of the modes were noticeably faster at drying my hair than with my regular Revlon One Plus, and my GHD Helios.
The plus side is that this cuts down on styling time, especially in the morning. The down side is that I seemingly had to sacrifice shine in order to benefit from the speed. I often had to resort to using straighteners to calm the frizz and flyaways. Aside from adding time to my routine, this counteracted the stated hair health benefits of using the Halo. The finish was also in stark contrast to the brand’s claims.
(Image credit: Future)
That’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend the Zuvi Halo hair dryer. After three weeks of use, my hair health was noticeably improved. Once I’d become more familiar with the outcomes of the various modes, I valued the fact that I didn’t have to mess around with different heat and speed settings. Plus, there’s something novel and futuristic about the Halo dryer that sets it apart from the crowd, in a good way. In the many years I’ve been testing the best hair dryers, it’s rare for a product to surprise me in the way the Halo did.
It’s just a shame that all of this next-level technology pushes the price of the Halo beyond the reach of so many, in addition to the fact that, for the price, the Halo isn’t perfect.
Zuvi Halo hair dryer review: price & availability
$349 / £329 for Halo + 3 attachments
$329 / £309 for Halo + 2 attachments
The Zuvi Halo is available in two bundles. You can buy the Zuvi Halo hair dryer plus all three attachments – the Diffuser, Styling Concentrator and the Gentle Air attachment – for $349 / £329. Alternatively, if you don’t need the Diffuser, you can buy a smaller, two-nozzle bundle for $329 / £309. It’s not possible to buy the hair dryer on its own.
Price-wise, the top-end Zuvi Halo bundle puts it on a par with the Dyson Supersonic. However, the Dyson ends up being better value for money because it ships with five attachments by default. This includes versions of the three attachments sold with the Zuvi Halo – Diffuser, Styling Concentrator, and Gentle Air attachment – plus a Wide-tooth Comb and Flyaway attachment.
The Halo is available in the UK, US, Canada and across Europe, and is sold directly from the Zuvi Life website. You can also buy it from Target in the US, and QVC in the UK.
Zuvi Halo hair dryer review: design
Four preset modes + Cool shot
Faux leather handle feels premium
Bulky attachments
If the price doesn’t draw comparisons with the Dyson Supersonic, then design of the Zuvi Halo will – certainly at first glance. The Halo has a short, circular barrel and long handle. It measures 9.9 x 3.3 x 3.8 inches (254 x 84 x 98mm) and weighs 1.2lbs / 546g without any nozzles attached.
(Image credit: Future)
At the front of the barrel is an air outlet surrounded by a circular pane of glass, behind which sit the infrared LEDs. At the rear of the barrel is the filter inlet, which is positioned above the four main mode icons. These modes are:
Care: Balances speed with optimizing your hair health
Fast: Prioritizes speed
Soft: Reduces airflow and uses less light, for people with sensitive scalps
Style: For use only with the attachments – airflow plus direction and intensity of light adjusts according to the nozzle attached
Cool: Sets the style and adds shine
The Mode selection button and the Power switch sit further down the handle. Select a mode, and you’ll see a small white LED light up below the corresponding button to show you it’s currently selected.
As well as enabling you to toggle through the main modes, the Mode selection button also doubles up as Cool shot button on pressing and holding it. At the end of the handle is a 2.7m cord.
(Image credit: Future)
Unlike the majority of plastic dryers and stylers, the Halo is made largely from metal, with faux leather on the handle. This gives the hair dryer an extremely premium feel while also making it easy to grip. The white colorway and iridescent nature of the infrared lights also make the Zuvi Halo one of the most stylish hair dryers I’ve used.
Zuvi Halo hair dryer review: performance
Fast drying times
Difficult to determine the best mode
Mixed styling results
To test the Zuvi Halo, I trialled each mode in turn repeatedly for a month, taking note of the time it took the hair dryer to dry hair, the resulting smoothness and shine, and how hair felt overall after use.
Not surprisingly, the quickest mode was Fast mode – although it wasn’t as speedy as I’d hoped. On this mode it took the hair dryer 5 minutes 50 seconds to take my long, thin, naturally wavy from wet to dry. And while my hair felt more voluminous than normal when drying with a hair dryer (as opposed to a hot brush), it felt rough and looked frizzy. In fact, my hair looks less frizzy when I let it dry naturally. A quick look at some online reviews has found that I’m in the minority in this regard; but since it was a common occurrence throughout my review period, rather than a one off, it could just be that this particular hair dryer just doesn’t suit my hair.
(Image credit: Future)
Next up was Care mode. This produced a much better finish than Fast mode; my hair was smoother without losing volume, but it took almost 45 seconds longer to get my hair from wet to dry.
Soft mode lived up to its name, leaving my hair feeling soft and healthy; but again, frizz and flyaways were an issue, not to mention it took around 8 minutes to complete styling.
(Image credit: Future)
The Zuvi Halo’s best results were in Style mode with the Styling Concentrator attached. It took slightly longer than Fast mode to style my hair – 6 minutes, on average – but the extra time paid off because my hair was left feeling both softer and smoother. The Diffuser worked well at setting my curls without leaving them looking frizzy. I didn’t quite see the need for the Gentle Air attachment, though, considering the Soft mode adequately reduces both speed and temperature; it worked well, but seems unnecessary.
(Image credit: Future)
Although the Zuvi Halo hair dryer looks bulky, especially with the nozzles attached, it’s surprisingly lightweight. In addition, the shorter barrel makes it easy to move around the head; even taking account of the longer drying times across the board, my arms never ached in use.
In terms of noise, the Zuvi Halo is one of the quietest hair dryers I’ve tried, even on Fast mode. The highest decibels it recorded throughout my review period was 78 decibels on Fast mode. I could easily hear my music, and have a conversation with my son while drying my hair, which is rare.
A flurry of iPhone market outlook reports shows Apple’s juggernaut handset is still the top-seller in Japan while slipping to fourth place in China so far in 2024. And that comes as Apple lowers component shipment targets for the year amid supply chain challenges, pointing to a possibly down year.
Reports: iPhone market outlook mixed amid sales decline and supply chain challenges
As predicted recently, iPhone sales are sliding in Asia so far in 2024 after a reasonably strong beginning and end to 2023. Various reports point to slowdowns and Apple reigning in iPhone component shipments.
China’s massive smartphone market slid 7% in the first six weeks of 2024. But in the same period, iPhone’s share dropped a whopping 24%. Why? Stiffening competition and sliding from a big high in January 2023, according to a Counterpoint Research report.
“Primarily, it faced stiff competition at the high end from a resurgent Huawei while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi,” said Counterpoint analyst Mengmeng Zhang.
“Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now,” they added.
After taking first place in China in late 2023, iPhone dropped to fourth place in early 2024. Photo: Counterpoint Research
Japan’s smartphone shipments slid 3.5% year over year in 2023’s Q4, having recovered a bit from steeper declines in the first half of the year.
But iPhone shipments for the quarter increased 3.4% year over year as Android’s fell by 8.7%.
Overall, though, 2023 was a bit gloomy for smartphone shipments to Japan, falling by 11.6% compared to 2022. iPhone slid 6.1% while Android plummeted 16.3%.
Apple taps brakes on component shipments
The previous market consensus for 2024 iPhone shipments was 220-225 million units, and it has now started to fall, moving closer to my earlier prediction of 200 million units. If Apple can’t launch better-than-expected GenAI services this year, Nvidia’s market cap will very… https://t.co/t5r8TXXWl9pic.twitter.com/lngF9oIkuB
And news of iPhone component shipment volume in 2024 is not particularly bright, so far.
Anaylyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted on X (formerly Twitter) and Medium that iPhone shipments could drop by 15% year over year because of structural challenges in the supply chain. He said Apple needs to launch “better than expected GenAI services this year” to keep up with smartphones from the likes of Samsung, or Nvidia might eclipse Apple’s market cap.
Apple may have biggest 2024 decline among major brands
Kuo echoed reports of Huawei’s resurgence and China’s love of folding phones as negatives for iPhone’s outlook, among his seven points:
My latest supply chain survey indicates that Apple has lowered its 2024 iPhone shipments of key upstream semiconductor components to about 200 million units (down 15% YoY). Apple may have the most significant decline among the major global mobile phone brands in 2024.
iPhone 15 series and new iPhone 16 series shipments will decline by 10–15% YoY in 1H24 and 2H24, respectively (compared to iPhone 14 series shipments in 1H23 and iPhone 15 series shipments in 2H23, respectively).
The iPhone faces structural challenges that will lead to a significant decline in shipments in 2024, including the emergence of a new paradigm in high-end mobile phone design and the continued decline in shipments in the Chinese market.
China still loves folding phones
The new high-end mobile phone design paradigm includes AI (GenAI) and foldable phones. The main reason for the decline in the Chinese market is the return of Huawei and the increasing preference for foldable phones among high-end users as their first choice for phone replacement.
Benefiting from the higher-than-expected demand due to the high integration of GenAI functions, Samsung has revised up the shipments of the Galaxy S24 series in 2024 by 5–10%, while Apple has revised down the shipment forecast of iPhone 15 in 1H24.
Apple’s weekly shipments in China have declined by 30–40% YoY in recent weeks, and this downward trend is expected to continue. The main reason for the decline is the return of Huawei and the fact that foldable phones have gradually become the first choice for high-end users in the Chinese market.
It is expected that Apple will not launch new iPhone models with significant design changes and the more comprehensive/differentiated GenAI ecosystem/applications until 2025 at the earliest. Until then, it will likely harm Apple’s iPhone shipment momentum and ecosystem growth.
The highly anticipated video game, Lords of the Fallen, has officially launched this week, offering gamers an epic role-playing adventure that is five times larger than its predecessor. The game, developed by HEXWORKS, a CI Games Studio, is set in a vast, interconnected world where players embark on a thrilling journey through both the realms of the living and the dead. Although the game has mixed reviews over on Steam, after over 12,000 reviews have been left.
Lords of the Fallen reviews
“There is nothing to master here except level layout and enemy placement. The “difficulty” comes in the form of frustrating encounters, not interesting mechanics. Everything centered around enemy design is terrible. “
“After 20+ hours I think I’ve seen enough. I’m really regretting having played this game, its just not fun.”
“This game is really weird because I dont think I can actually recommend it to anyone, but I did enjoy it. I am incredibly neutral on this game because of that. The balancing is all over the place..”
The narrative of Lords of the Fallen is steeped in mythology and epic battles. After an era of brutal tyranny, the demon God, Adyr, was finally defeated. However, Gods do not fall forever. Now, aeons later, Adyr’s resurrection is imminent. Players assume the role of one of the fabled Dark Crusaders, tasked with preventing the return of the demon god. The game features colossal boss battles, challenging combat, thrilling character encounters, and deep, immersive storytelling. The fate of the player’s legend will be determined by their actions – will it be one of light or one of darkness?
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Lords of the Fallen is the first action-RPG to harness the cutting-edge power of Unreal Engine 5, delivering a gaming experience that IGN describes as “An awesome soulslike with a fantastic dual-realities premise”. This advanced technology allows players to seamlessly transition between Axiom, the brutal and unforgiving world of the living, and Umbral, the nightmarish world of the dead.
In addition to the game’s launch, the official soundtrack for Lords of the Fallen has also been released this week, in partnership with Laced Records. The 36-track album, composed by award-winning composers Cris Velasco and Knut Avenstroup Haugen, was recorded with the 80-piece Budapest Scoring Orchestra and Choir, along with soprano Eurielle, contralto Jess Dandy, and principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra, David Cohen. The soundtrack is available on music streaming platforms, and a limited-edition triple LP set is set to be released soon.
The official launch trailer for Lords of the Fallen was also revealed by HEXWORKS, providing a two-minute glimpse into the action-RPG’s highly-anticipated release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game is set in the vast and interconnected land of Mournstead, where players, as one of the fabled Lampbearers, embark on an epic quest to stop the impending return of the demon god, Adyr. The trailer’s release coincides with the final few days’ availability for would-be Dark Crusaders to pre-order Lords of the Fallen on their platform of choice.
In Lords of the Fallen, humanity’s final hope against Adyr and his hordes will traverse between the parallel worlds of the living (Axiom) and dead (Umbral) through the use of a mysterious and otherworldly lamp. Players will face colossal and nightmarish monstrosities in both planes of existence, and when needed, can work with another Crusader through the game’s seamless, uninterrupted co-op. This unique feature adds another layer of depth and strategy to the gameplay, making Lords of the Fallen a truly immersive and engaging gaming experience.
Source: Steam
Filed Under: Gaming News, Top News
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