El comediante y actor nigeriano Otagwere Onode, conocido popularmente como I Go Save, ha planteado una pregunta al Gobierno federal.
Se preguntó si el gobierno podría recuperar los viejos tipos del dólar, los viejos precios del combustible, el viejo HSR, los viejos impuestos, los viejos estándares de seguridad y más.
Esta pregunta surge a raíz de la restauración por parte del gobierno del antiguo himno nacional.
“Dado que una don está recuperando el antiguo himno nacional, ¿pueden ustedes recuperar el antiguo precio del dólar, el antiguo precio del combustible, el antiguo método operativo de los vuelos, los antiguos impuestos, las antiguas normas de seguridad, etc.?”
Vea algunos comentarios a continuación,
Un Naigbo escribió: “El que come gana fuerza se canta en el himno nacional
Un Rex Bright121 escribió: “Incluso las antiguas monedas nigerianas y la historia antigua para los programas escolares
Una Naija Baker Smart escribió: “Preguntas válidas
“Por favor, dígales”, escribió un funcionario de Eylau.
One Tech Xi escribió: “Gracias señor, dígales que devuelvan todo lo viejo.
Un Kizbyn20 escribió: “Deberían devolver las monedas
Un Rinshi Mufasa escribió: “Las prioridades equivocadas matarán a los líderes nigerianos
Un tal Dking Babs escribió: “Nigeria no es un lugar real, parece una ilusión de un lugar para vivir”.
Hace unas semanas, la actriz Yvonne Jegede se dirigió al gobernador de Lagos, Sanwo-Olu, sobre las dificultades económicas. Se preguntó por qué el gobernador estaba alimentando a los habitantes de Lagos en lugar de emplearlos, y también señaló cómo el gobernador podía emplear personas y pagarles salarios mínimos.
La influencer Laura Ikeji se dirigió al presidente Tinubu sobre la actual economía nigeriana. Ella suplicó y suplicó al gobierno nigeriano mientras se sacrificaba para ayudar al gobierno con el rápido deterioro actual de la economía nigeriana.
Mercy Aigbe también apeló apasionadamente al hijo del presidente, Seyi Tinubu, señalando cómo la gente muere de hambre y muere en el país a causa de la economía. Destacó que la situación actual en el país es terrible e instó al gobierno a hacer algo al respecto.
Seyi Tinubu, por su parte, hizo un llamamiento a los nigerianos para que soporten las actuales dificultades económicas del país. Explicó que es necesario que Nigeria tenga un futuro mejor.
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Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang shows off the new Blackwell GPU chip (left) at an 18 March event in San Jose, California.Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty
China’s AI sector could be five to ten years behind the United States, partly because it can’t access the most advanced computer chips. In 2022, the United States imposed export controls on the fastest chips and on equipment that could be used to produce such chips. Even foreign suppliers that produce chips for the US market won’t sell to Chinese developers to avoid falling foul of US sanctions. This has “dramatically limited” China’s progress with training AI models, says computer engineer Yiran Chen.
In a randomized trial in two Taiwan hospitals, an AI system trained on electrocardiograms reduced deaths among high-risk patients by 31% and deaths by heart problems by more than 90%. “It’s very rare for any medication to [produce] a 31% reduction in mortality, and then even more rare for a non-drug — this is just monitoring people with AI,” says cardiologist Eric Topol. The researchers speculate that the AI predictions increased physicians’ focus on the highest-risk individuals.
Almost 40% of made-up text generated by the audio-to-text AI Whisper is harmful or concerning, according to a preprint study that is not yet peer reviewed. While the OpenAI tool only fabricated sections in about 1% of transcripts, these hallucinations often alluded to violence or false personal information. “Doctors are using speech-to-text tools to transcribe patient notes,” says computer scientist and study co-author Allison Koenecke. “If Whisper is making up some transcription that isn’t being said, about how this patient killed someone and they are also taking this medication that is totally made up, imagine how severe those consequences are.”
This tiny drone on a pogo stick is a Hopcopter. It can bounce up to 1.6 metres high and even do mid-air somersaults. And the hop–flying is remarkably efficient: with a fully charged battery, Hopcopter can move continuously for more than 20 minutes — whereas the same drone without the leg can hover for only a little more than 6 minutes at a time. (IEEE Spectrum | 9 min read)
AI and robotics are changing how wildfires are detected and controlled. Drones can provide firefighters with real-time data on how a fire spreads and where the hotspots are — something that currently requires satellite images, which are often many hours old. “Speed is one of the key points. We want to be accurate, but also we want to be very fast in the predictions,” says machine-learning researcher Rossella Arcucci. Her team’s AI systems scour social media for posts about wildfires, which helps to identify an inferno’s starting point. Eventually, AI-controlled water bombers could put out fires autonomously, without putting human firefighters at risk.
“We shouldn’t fear AI as a technology,” writes media researcher Joseph Jones. “We should instead worry about who owns AI and how its owners wield AI to invade privacy and erode democracy.” Our browsers, apps and smart devices collect huge amounts of information on us. Instead of using this data for everyone’s benefit, it is used to feed machine learning models that suggest ways to ‘nudge’ us towards interacting more with technology and generate even more data, Jones explains. “Under the current business model, the advances of AI and robot technology will enrichen the few while making life more difficult for the many.”
A quick Google search won’t cut it anymore when it comes to figuring out whether something has been AI-generated or modified, says AI ethics researcher Sandra Wachter. (MIT Technology Review | 22 min read)
If you’ve been holding off for the chance to save a few dollars on a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, then now is the time to act.
Currently available for just $62.75 (was $69.99) at Walmart, this saving of $7.24 might not look like a lot on paper but it’s worth bearing in mind that this official gamepad hasn’t received many major price cuts in the past. In fact, this modest saving is beating out the lowest-ever Amazon price of $64.
If the Nintendo Pro Controller is still outside of your budget, however, consider the PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controller as a cheaper alternative. It’s available on sale for just $38.53 (was $59.99) at Amazon which, while not the lowest-ever price, is a solid saving.
Nintendo has confirmed that a Nintendo Switch successor will be announced before March 31 next year, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good time to pick up some Nintendo Switch accessories.
The latest Nintendo Switch 2 rumors suggest that the upcoming console will support certain peripherals through backwards compatibility. Although this isn’t officially confirmed, it makes this ongoing discount on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller worth considering.
Today’s best Nintendo Switch Pro Controller deal
We consider the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to be one of the best Nintendo Switch controllers on the market. It boasts an incredible battery life, which often sees it lasting about 50 hours between charges, and boasts a range of hardware features like an NFC reader and HD Rumble. We awarded the controller a four-and-a-half star rating out of five in our Nintendo Switch Pro Controller review, highlighting its comfortable design and intuitive layout.
The only real downside of the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is its relatively high asking price. While this discount means that it stings a little less, be sure to browse some of the best prices on a range of Nintendo Switch controllers in your region below.
Fire season is approaching in the massive Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in east Alaska, where fires have long been allowed to burn unchecked unless they threaten human life and property. But as climate change increases the frequency of these fires, the land’s overseers are changing course. Working with scientists, refuge managers have designed a pilot programme to parachute elite firefighting teams into remote areas to quash infernos — to protect not people but permafrost.
The forests and tundra of the Denmark-sized refuge cloak a deep layer of permafrost, frozen ground that holds enormous quantities of carbon across the Northern Hemisphere. After fires remove vegetation and soils, however, that frozen ground often begins to thaw, releasing its stores of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. New research1 suggests that the resulting emissions, from both the fires themselves and the subsequent permafrost thaw, could be on par with those of a major global economy over the course of this century. This could effectively reduce by up to 20% the amount of carbon dioxide that humanity can emit and still meet its goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. The research has not yet been peer reviewed.
These numbers suggest that a rethink of longstanding fire policies in high-latitude boreal forests — where recovery after frequent fires could take decades if it happens at all — might be needed, says Brendan Rogers, an earth-systems scientist with the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The pilot programme at Yukon Flats represents a test of that idea in an area where permafrost is particularly vulnerable.
“What we’re talking about is aggressive attacks on fires when they ignite in these areas,” Rogers says. Once such fires get going, he adds, it’s often too late. “That carbon is lost.”
Earth ablaze
The proposal to suppress boreal fires to help fight climate change follows years of increasingly frequent and intense conflagrations that have raged across northern forests and Arctic peatlands. According to estimates, the wildfires in Canada’s boreal forests last year released more than three times as much carbon dioxide as the entire country emitted from burning fossil fuels. Officials at Yukon Flats, for example, say that the frequency of major fires on the refuge has quadrupled since 1988.
Why are the Canadian wildfires so bad this year?
A rise in fire frequency can have cascading effects on the ecosystem, and thus carbon, says Xanthe Walker, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who has studied the effect of fires on permafrost. Historically, boreal forests have burnt once every 70–120 years, she says, which gives the black-spruce forest that dominates the ecosystem enough time to regenerate and rebuild carbon in the soil. More-frequent fires can burn ‘legacy’ carbon that has accumulated over centuries2 and can also kill off the black spruce (Picea mariana). That provides an opening for leafy deciduous trees, which do not promote the kind of carbon-rich soils that insulate permafrost.
Emissions win
Fire suppression could help to stave off some of these effects, buying humanity time to address the climate crisis. In a 2022 paper3, researchers at Woodwell and the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found that fire-suppression efforts in Alaska tend to reduce the total area burnt. Their calculations suggest that investing in fire suppression could reduce carbon emissions at a lower cost than that of many technologies for reducing industrial emissions. With an investment of around US$700 million annually in suppression over the next decade, Alaska alone could reduce carbon emissions by up to 3.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through mid-century. That is more than the annual greenhouse-gas emissions of the European Union.
Smoke billows from fires burning in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Alaska.Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
The idea that governments can or should attempt fire suppression in remote boreal forests has encountered some scepticism, owing in part to the scale of the challenge. Fires also play an important part in the ecosystem, and research shows that suppression efforts allow fuel to build up in many forests, contributing to increasingly intense fires4.
Still, because of the looming climate crisis, many researchers say that the suppression efforts at the Yukon Flats might be worthwhile. “Stopping fires across the boreal forests is an impossible feat, but targeted suppression in areas that are vulnerable seems like a great strategy,” says Walker.
A refuge for permafrost
The pilot project at Yukon Flats began last year in eight areas covering nearly 650,000 hectares of land. Those zones account for 19% of the refuge and include 40% of the land underlain by a uniquely vulnerable type of permafrost called Yedoma, which contains deep ice wedges that often melt after fires. This causes the land to collapse, exposing ancient carbon to microbes whose activity releases greenhouse gases.
The target areas contain some 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon, which, if released, would be equivalent to around seven years of emissions from US coal burning.
Indigenous youth must be at the forefront of climate diplomacy
Yukon Flats refuge manager Jimmy Fox says that he decided to move forward with the project after consulting with scientists and firefighters. He also involved Indigenous communities that own some 1.2 million hectares of land in the refuge in the discussion. These communities have voiced concerns about wildfire smoke and the negative effects of the fires on water quality and on the land used for hunting, berry picking and other subsistence activities.
Under the pilot programme, firefighters will be deployed on fires that start early in the season and have the potential to burn for several months. Firefighters will engage only if they determine that they can put out the fires within three days, so as to minimize costs and the use of firefighting resources.
Fox notes that Yedoma permafrost zones that burned decades ago and then collapsed is slowly beginning to recover as vegetation thickens and produces carbon-rich soils that once again insulate the ice below. But with rising temperatures and increasing fire frequency, he says, the danger is that these areas will reach a tipping point at which point recovery would no longer possible.
Ultimately, the goal is to hold fires to a more historic level. It could be a few decades before scientists can determine whether the effort pays off, Fox warns, “but we have to try”.
The 2024 Samsung S90D OLED TV was only released in March, and the retailer is already offering an impressive discount on the gorgeous display. For a limited time, you can save $200 on Samsung’s S90D OLED TV, bringing the price of the 55-inch model down to $1,799.99 (was $1,999.99) and the 65-inch model on sale for $2,499.99 (was $2,699.99).
The all-new Samsung S90D OLED TV has big shoes to fill as its predecessor, the Samsung S90C, is ranked in the top spot for TechRadar’s best TV list. The S90D delivers an exceptional picture with deep blacks and bright colors thanks to OLED technology. The OLED TV also packs Samsung’s NQ4 AI Gen2 processor for improved performance, plus four HDMI 2.1 ports, a 144Hz refresh rate, and support for Dolby Atmos and Object Tracking Sound Lite.
This rare and first-time discount on the S90D is the lowest price you can find and an impressive deal for a 2024 Samsung OLED TV. Thanks to the release of Samsung’s newest TVs, you can also find fantastic discounts on older models, and I’ve listed the best deals further down the page.
An Apple refurb is a great way to save. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch Ultra 2 joined the official Apple Certified Refurbished store. This lets buyers save $120 on the top-of-the-line smartwatch that hit the market just a few months ago.
Buying refurbs from Apple is a popular way to save on used electronics that can be relied on.
New chip improves the premier wearable
The highlight of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 from autumn 2023 is a faster S9 chip that also increases the wearable’s already considerable battery life. It also has a brighter display and support for the cool double-tap gesture.
Like its predecessor, the device features a 1.92-inch OLED screen built into a rugged titanium chassis with an Action Button.
It’s for extreme sports enthusiasts, and is designed to survive the rigors of diving or mountain climbing. It’s water resistant to 100 meters of depth and certified IP6X dust resistant.
Save on a Apple Watch Ultra 2 refurb
The regular price for Apple Watch Ultra 2 is $799, but Apple is now offering refurb units at $120 below that in its Certified Refurbished store.
There are currently three variants available: one with the Blue Ocean band, another with the Orange Ocean band and the third with the White Ocean band.
Note that these refurbs are sold without the blood oxygen sensor that was included with the device when it launched in autumn 2023 due to an on-going lawsuit.
Not a lemon
When someone buys a product from Apple then returns it, it is resold after going through a refurbishment process, as is happening with Apple Watch Ultra 2 now. Apple prepares these so you’re not taking any risk. It’s cleaned and undergoes full functional testing, then gets repackaged with appropriate manuals and cables.
Each unit comes with the company’s standard one-year limited warranty, and customers can add AppleCare+.
If you’re in the UK and have been waiting for the perfect chance to upgrade to comfortably the best gaming console on the market, then now is the time to strike as the PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Edition is currently available at a new lowest-ever price.
On sale for just £349 (was £389.99) at Amazon, that’s a total saving of £40.99 and the lowest price that we have ever seen this model reach at the retailer. Offering the same performance as the regular PS5 Slim, the Digital Edition ditches the disc drive in favor of a sleeker design geared towards digital games purchased from the PlayStation Store.
It’s perfect if you prefer to buy your games digitally and, if you change your mind down the line, you can purchase a separate disc drive module for £99.99 that simply slots into the side of your console to add all the functionality of the regular version.
Today’s best PS5 Slim Digital Edition deal
The only distinction between the PS5 Slim Digital Edition and the PS5 Slim is the presence of the disc drive, allowing you to play physical PS5 and PS4 games in addition to DVDs and Blu-rays. Luckily, if you pick up a PS5 Slim Digital Edition and want to take advantage of those features, you can buy a separate disc drive module to enable the functionality.
If you’re curious about the console itself, the PS5 Slim packs all of the functionality of the launch PS5 into a much smaller and lighter shell. It also offers more internal SSD, giving you around 850GB of usable space compared to the roughly 660GB of the original. For a complete breakdown of all the differences between the two models, see our comparison of the PS5 vs PS5 Slim.
If you’re currently outside of the UK, be sure to check out some of the best PS5 prices in your region as found by our dedicated deal-finding robots below:
Today we’re tracking a few deals offered by Anker and Jackery, including a wide array of wall chargers and other USB-C accessories. All of the products in this sale can be found on Amazon, and some will require you to clip an on-page coupon then head to the checkout screen before you see the final sale price.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Highlights of Jackery’s deals include the Explorer 100 Plus Portable Power Station, available for just $99.99, down from $149.00. This is a miniature-sized portable power station that can fit in the palm of your hand and weighs just 2.13 lbs, while featuring a 31,000 mAh capacity and 128W output.
iOS 18 is expected to be the “biggest” update in the iPhone’s history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more…
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that…
Apple’s hardware roadmap was in the news this week, with things hopefully firming up for a launch of updated iPad Pro and iPad Air models next month while we look ahead to the other iPad models and a full lineup of M4-based Macs arriving starting later this year. We also heard some fresh rumors about iOS 18, due to be unveiled at WWDC in a couple of months, while we took a look at how things …
Best Buy this weekend has a big sale on Apple MacBooks and iPads, including new all-time low prices on the M3 MacBook Air, alongside the best prices we’ve ever seen on MacBook Pro, iPad, and more. Some of these deals require a My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total membership, which start at $49.99/year. In addition to exclusive access to select discounts, you’ll get free 2-day shipping, an…
Apple’s iPhone 16 Plus may come in seven colors that either build upon the existing five colors in the standard iPhone 15 lineup or recast them in a new finish, based on a new rumor out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker Fixed focus digital, Apple’s upcoming larger 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus model will come in the following colors, compared to the colors currently available for the…
Apple will begin updating its Mac lineup with M4 chips in late 2024, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The M4 chip will be focused on improving performance for artificial intelligence capabilities. Last year, Apple introduced the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips all at once in October, so it’s possible we could see the M4 lineup come during the same time frame. Gurman says that the entire…
Artificial General Intelligence, when it exists, will be able to do many tasks better than humans. For now, the machine learning systems and generative AI solutions available on the market are a stopgap to ease the cognitive load on engineers, until machines which think like people exist.
Generative AI is currently dominating headlines, but its backbone, neural networks, have been in use for decades. These Machine Learning (ML) systems historically acted as cruise control for large systems that would be difficult to constantly maintain by hand. The latest algorithms also proactively respond to errors and threats, alerting teams and recording logs of unusual activity. These systems have developed further and can even predict certain outcomes based on previously observed patterns.
This ability to learn and respond is being adapted to all kinds of technology. One that persists is the use of AI tools in envirotech. Whether it’s enabling new technologies with vast data processing capabilities, or improving the efficiency of existing systems by intelligently adjusting inputs to maximize efficiency, AI at this stage of development is so open ended it could theoretically be applied to any task.
Roman Khavronenko
Co-Founder of VictoriaMetrics.
AI’s undeniable strengths
GenAI isn’t inherently energy intensive. A model or neural network is no more energy inefficient than any other piece of software when it is operating, but the development of these AI tools is what generates the majority of the energy costs. The justification for this energy consumption is that the future benefits of the technology are worth the cost in energy and resources.
Some reports suggest many AI applications are ‘solutions in search of a problem’, and many developers are using vast amounts of energy to develop tools that could produce dubious energy savings at best. One of the biggest benefits of machine learning is its ability to read through large amounts of data, and summarize insights for humans to act on. Reporting is a laborious and frequently manual process, time saved reporting can be shifted to actioning machine learning insights and actively addressing business-related emissions.
Businesses are under increasing pressure to start reporting on Scope 3 emissions, which are the hardest to measure, and the biggest contributor of emissions for most modern companies. Capturing and analyzing these disparate data sources would be a smart use of AI, but would still ultimately require regular human guidance. Monitoring solutions already exist on the market to reduce the demand on engineers, so taking this a step further with AI is an unnecessary and potentially damaging innovation.
Replacing the engineer with an AI agent reduces human labor, but removes a complex interface, just to add equally complex programming in front of it. That isn’t to say innovation should be discouraged. It’s a noble aim, but do not be sold a fairy tale that this will happen without any hiccups. Some engineers will be replaced eventually by this technology, but the industry should approach it carefully.
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Consider self-driving cars. They’re here, they’re doing better than an average human-driver. But in some edge cases they can be dangerous. The difference is that it is very easy to see this danger, compared to the potential risks of AI.
Today’s ‘clever’ machines are like naive humans
AI agents at the present stage of development are comparable to human employees – they need training and supervision, and will gradually become out of date unless re-trained from time to time. Similarly, as has been observed with ChatGPT, models can degrade over time. The mechanics that drive this degradation are not clear, but these systems are delicately calibrated, and this calibration is not a permanent state. The more flexible the model, the more likely it can misfire and function suboptimally. This can manifest as data or concept drift, an issue where a model invalidates itself over time. This is one of many inherent issues with attaching probabilistic models to deterministic tools.
A concerning area of development is the use of AI in natural language inputs, trying to make it easier for less technical employees or decision makers to save on hiring engineers. Natural language outputs are ideal for translating the expert, subject specific outputs from monitoring systems, in a way that makes the data accessible for those who are less data literate. Despite this strength even summarizations can be subject to hallucinations where data is fabricated, this is an issue that persists in LLMs and could create costly errors where AI is used to summarize mission critical reports.
The risk is we create AI overlays for systems that require deterministic inputs. Trying to make the barrier to entry for complex systems lower is admirable, but these systems require precision. AI agents cannot explain their reasoning, or truly understand a natural language input and work out the real request in the way a human can. Moreover, it adds another layer of energy consuming software to a tech stack for minimal gain.
We can’t leave it all to AI
The rush to ‘AI everything’ is producing a tremendous amount of wasted energy, with 14,000 AI startups currently in existence, how many will actually produce tools that will benefit humanity? While AI can improve the efficiency of a data center by managing resources, ultimately that doesn’t manifest into a meaningful energy saving as in most cases that free capacity is then channeled into another application, using any saved resource headroom, plus the cost of yet more AI powered tools.
Can AI help achieve sustainability goals? Probably, but most of the advocates fall down at the ‘how’ part of that question, in some cases suggesting that AI itself will come up with new technologies. Climate change is now an existential threat with so many variables to account for it stretches the comprehension of the human mind. Rather than tackling this problem directly, technophiles defer responsibility to AI in the hope it will provide a solution at some point in future. The future is unknown, and climate change is happening now. Banking on AI to save us is simply crossing our fingers and hoping for the best dressed up as neo-futurism.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
If you’re looking to improve the sound on your TV, one of the easiest ways is to add one of the best soundbars.
These days, soundbars include more features than ever before. One of the most popular is Dolby Atmos. Some soundbars, such as the Samsung HW-Q990C, have evolved from a simple bar to an entire wireless surround sound package, creating a fully immersive experience without a complicated setup.
However, some of us don’t have the space for these mammoth soundbar systems and instead require a smaller, all-in-one package. But, do you have to sacrifice Dolby Atmos sound to save on space?
Thankfully, the answer is no. Some of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars are standalone bars compact enough to suit most living situations. Below, I’ve listed three soundbars that compromise on space, but not sound.
As a bonus, these Dolby Atmos soundbars are budget-friendly – meaning you can expect to pay under $500 / £500. There are cheaper soundbar options, but you’re not likely to get Dolby Atmos (and if you are, it won’t be at its most effective) with those models.
Sony HT-S2000
(Image credit: Future)
The Sony HT-S2000 is the most budget-friendly soundbar in this list, as we’ve seen prices fall to $349 / £299, but that doesn’t mean it’s a slouch when it comes to performance. Across the board, the HT-S2000 utilizes Sony’s design prowess to get the best from a budget bar.
At 31.5 x 2.5 x 5.25 inches (800 X 64 X 124 mm), the HT-S2000 is a compact soundbar, but during our tests, we found it delivered clear and refined dialogue and spacious sound. Despite a lack of upward-firing speakers, the HT-S2000 worked wonders with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks, harnessing some excellent processing to create a solid virtual surround sound.
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The HT-S2000 is a little limited in features – there’s no built-in Wi-Fi, which means wireless music streaming is limited to Bluetooth quality. But it’s an easy-to-use, simple-to-setup soundbar that will suit anyone looking to boost their TV’s built-in sound.
Sonos Beam (Gen 2)
(Image credit: Future)
Sonos doesn’t just make some of the best wireless speakers, it also has an accomplished soundbar range, led by the Sonos Arc. However, this large, more premium soundbar won’t suit everyone. Thankfully, its more compact and affordable sibling, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), doesn’t lack for performance.
It may be small in stature, sitting at 25.6 x 2.7 x 3.9 inches (651 x 69 x 100mm), but the Beam (Gen 2) delivers room-filling sound thanks to its wide soundstage. It is Dolby Atmos compatible and although its handling of Atmos wasn’t quite as impressive as other Atmos soundbars during our test, it still delivers an excellent sense of height and surround for a compact soundbar with no upward-firing speakers.
Music playback is where the Beam (Gen 2) really shines. It offers hi-res audio compatibility and Wi-Fi streaming, which, combined with the Beam’s overall sonic performance, yields a clean, punchy, well-controlled sound. You can expect to pay $499 / £499 / AU$799 for the Beam (Gen 2), but come holiday sales season, the Beam is almost always on offer for less.
Bose Smart Soundbar 600
(Image credit: Future)
An alternative to the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is priced the same ($499 / £499 / AU$799) and is subject to similar seasonal discounts as that model. It’s even a strikingly similar size, clocking in at 25.5 x 2.2 x 4 inches (649 x 56 x 104mm). However, the Bose 600 offers one thing the other two soundbars on this list don’t: upward-firing speakers.
As a result, the Bose 600 presents Dolby Atmos soundtracks with a real sense of atmosphere and immersion – or as we said in our review “easily scaling up to match the onscreen action, and also extending above and beyond it”. The Bose 600 has excellent dialogue clarity as well.
It’s not all perfect with Bose’s soundbar, as it does lack bass, but it does what it can with the size it’s given. The Bose 600’s design is another strong point, with a sturdy metal enclosure that feels like it’s built to last. It also comes with built-in Wi-Fi for music streaming and, of the three soundbars listed here, will arguably give you the best Dolby Atmos presentation.