Tag: Tough

‘These team conversations have been tough’ – Sonos power-users really don’t like its new app, and the company responds, including asking for feedback

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Sonos, maker of quality audio kit and some of the best wireless speakers out there, has released a new mobile app for connecting and controlling Sonos devices – but not everyone is happy with the change.

A large number of users are complaining about the new companion app, which was substantially redesigned after years of “extensive user research” and released to iOS and Android users on May 7 alongside a new browser application for desktop. App marketplaces have been flooded with one-star reviews since the new version dropped.

Here’s how Sonos’ social accounts describe the app: “A fresh look. Quicker access to your music. Easier control.” It’s meant to offer a simpler interface that’s more customizable to each user, offering something of a reset from previous versions of the app.

And here’s how a post on the Sonos subreddit with 700 upvotes describes it: “they royally screwed up.”

Sonos has since responded with an official statement to The Verge, from Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, chief product officer. “Redesigning the Sonos app is an ambitious undertaking that represents just how seriously we are committed to invention and re-invention … It takes courage to rebuild a brand’s core product from the ground up, and to do so knowing it may require taking a few steps back to ultimately leap into the future.”

The company has also reached out to members of r/Sonos subreddit, where most of the unhappy discussion has been happening (along with some in the TechRadar email inbox), to explain that feedback is being discussed internally and to solicit more feedback. “These team conversations have been tough, but ultimately very helpful in highlighting the features and functionality that are most important to you,” says community manager KeithFromSonos.

So, if you’re one of the people affected by the missing features (more on these below), be sure to take your opportunity to be heard (hopefully).

The new Sonos app – Feedback Megathread from r/sonos

Back to basics

So, what went wrong? There are many reports of bugs and apps not loading properly, but the most common complaints appear to be about small missing features that people relied on, such as sleep timers, alarms and specific numbers for volume control – with users claiming they’re either well hidden or entirely absent from the app. (For what it’s worth, I couldn’t find them in my Android app. And this is my job.)

Given people use alarms to, you know, wake up on time and get to their jobs, this seems like a risky thing to remove suddenly as a feature in case someone was caught unawares.

The new app also doesn’t allow users to edit their song queue, which is such a core aspect of music streaming today that its absence is a little shocking – even if Sonos intends to add it back in later.

The redesign is certainly sleek, with all those rounded edges beloved of UI designers these days, and there’s a permanent ‘now playing’ menu, which takes up a notable portion of the screen. It’s worth noting that some users are happy, or less affected by certain features having changed, and Sonos’ aim of simplifying the UI, and bringing important information together at a single glance, is clear from the new software.

Releasing a new application is often fraught, and we live in a time when companies are pressured to release fast and improve through successive updates, rather than getting everything out the door in the first instance. However, when you already have a substantial user base who are used to an app and family of devices in a certain way, removing those features is unlikely to ever go down well.

It feels like a beta iteration of the app, with Sonos acknowledging that the limited feature set will be gradually added in the future. In the case of that message, screen reader support is another very significant feature to have left behind.

But the promise of future updates at some point are little consolation for people finding their home audio setup is suddenly dumber than before. We’ve reached out to Sonos for comment on what kind of timelines to expect for features to be added and will update you if more information comes through.

We recommend holding off on the update for now if you’re more than a casual user of your Sonos system, as there’s no way to undo it. (Perhaps Sonos could allow the previous S2 app to become available as a separate download – this would provide a great bridge while things get ironed out.) And if you have updated already, we recommend setting up an alarm somewhere else. However, the app does feature dark mode, so at least it’ll get you in the right frame of mind before bed.

Intel’s next-gen CPUs might confuse you with their names – but whatever Arrow Lake is called, it’ll face a tough fight against AMD Zen 5

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Intel’s Arrow Lake processors are inbound for desktop PCs and should land later this year, and we’ve just caught a leak about how these chips might be named.

This comes from one of the more regular leakers on X (formerly Twitter), and as ever, sprinkle a whole lot of seasoning on the claims.

The theory from leaker Raichu (via VideoCardz) is that the first launches for Arrow Lake will be the 285K, 265K, and 245K – which should be the equivalent of the Core i9, Core i7 and Core i5 CPUs from the current-gen range (Raptor Lake Refresh).

So, the initial Arrow Lake CPU names could run as follows:

Core Ultra 9 285K
Core Ultra 7 265K
Core Ultra 5 245K

After that, the non-K releases (meaning locked processors, ones that can’t be overclocked, unlike K chips) won’t use the same number – as has previously been the case, where the ‘K’ is simply dropped (14900K, 14900). These will be named entirely differently as the Core Ultra 275, 255, and 240 (VideoCardz theorizes those would be Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 5 models).

There’s a further suggestion that we could get a Core Ultra 9 290K later on, which would be the equivalent of the ‘KS’ limited edition chips (14900KS).

The battle of the next-gen CPUs begins to take shape

An Intel 14900k vs 7950x3d from AMD

(Image credit: Future)

If this is what happens, are these new names confusing? Well, they’re bound to sow some bewilderment among buyers initially, no doubt. For desktop CPUs, this represents a big change from the typical 14900K, 14700K and so on that we’ve been used to for a long time now.

However, these names do make sense based on the naming scheme for Meteor Lake (laptop) CPUs, and it’s fully expected that Intel will shift over to its Core Ultra branding across all chips, not just those for laptops.

At any rate, while the names may change, and confusion may be rife for some, the underlying core specs shouldn’t. With next-gen Arrow Lake desktop processors, the top die should still run with 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, as is the case with Raptor Lake Refresh (and all recent generations).

As per another recent rumor, the other main die Intel will base Arrow Lake CPUs on has six performance cores plus eight efficiency cores – there’ll be a bunch of variants on both of these dies, as ever.

Arrow Lake seems to be in a bit of a strange place at the moment. Earlier leaks certainly suggested that these next-gen CPUs are going to be a massive performance leap for Intel – although that hype has died down somewhat (although it’s still far from extinguished).

What has surfaced more recently is doubts that Intel will get Arrow Lake out in a timely manner this year, with the prospect raised that these desktop CPUs may not hit the shelves until the very end of 2024.

The problem for Intel in that eventuality is that AMD’s Zen 5 processors could be out in Q3, if other rumors pan out, and that might mean these next-gen Ryzen CPUs – which are also expected to be a healthy step forward, performance-wise – are going to be given the space to really dominate for some time.

Especially if Arrow Lake volume is wonky to begin with, as other speculation has indicated, and Zen 5 (Ryzen 9000) is more affordable. With all that considered, AMD could be in a prime position to threaten Intel’s places in our ranking of the best CPUs. Add your own skepticism here, naturally, but that’s the way things look to be shaping up now.

The glimmer of positivity here is that with the naming scheme being spilled, perhaps this is an indication that Intel’s Arrow Lake CPUs aren’t as far off as some leakers seem to believe. Be even more cautious around that prospect, but still – we need all the good vibes around Arrow Lake that we can get, frankly. The keener the competition between these next-gen desktop processor ranges, the better things should be for the consumer, ultimately.

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Tags AMD, Arrow, called, confuse, CPUs, Face, fight, Intels, itll, Lake, names, nextgen, Tough, Zen

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Today’s Wordle answer is the hardest this year, with an average score of 5.4, and ‘Wordle 1037 X’ is trending on Twitter – here’s why it’s so tough and what to do in future

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Today’s Wordle is the most difficult we’ve had so far in 2024, but that doesn’t come close to describing how tough it is. ‘Wordle 1,037 X’ is trending high on Twitter, which is always a sign of a hard puzzle, and some 13% of players have failed it so far.

Solving it in six guesses or fewer and preserving your Wordle streak will be a challenge, that’s for sure. But there are ways to play it to avoid heartache (or the Wordle equivalent; this is only a game, after all). These strategies might be too late to help you now, but they could save you next time a game like this crops up. And it will.

To explain what they are, I’ll need to include SPOILERS FOR TODAY’S WORDLE, GAME #1,037, ON SUNDAY, 21 APRIL 2024. So please don’t read on if you haven’t already completed it. Just bear in mind that you might want some hints for Wordle today before doing so.

How hard?

OK, so let’s talk about today’s Wordle word and exactly how hard it was.

The answer to game #1,037, assuming you’ve played by now **FINAL SPOILER ALERT**, is JOLLY – and it really is causing a lot of problems.

The way I assess the difficulty of each Wordle is to consult WordleBot, the New York Times’ AI-powered helper tool. Each day, WordleBot analyzes the games of everyone who plays and reports an average score for it. And today, it says people are solving it in an average of 5.4 guesses. That’s based on a random sample of 1,778,346 Wordlers who have so far played it – so it’s a pretty sizeable survey.

I’ve recorded the WordleBot average scores every day since the tool launched in April 2022, meaning I now have a list of 749 games ranked by difficulty. By that measure, JOLLY is the hardest Wordle so far in 2024, comfortably beating the previous holder of that title, PIPER, which was a 5.2 game in February.

But that only tells half of the tale, because JOLLY is in fact the toughest Wordle since June 2023, and is actually the equal fourth worst ever. Only PARER (average score 6.3), MUMMY (5.8) and JAZZY (5.5) have been harder, while FOYER, RIPER and JOKER all had the same 5.4 average.

Unsurprisingly, many players are struggling. Some 233,791 Wordlers have failed to solve it as of the time of writing, which is 13% of the total. That’s a super-high failure rate.

Turn to Twitter and you can see the reaction, with scores of players posting their games and bemoaning their luck:

Wordle 1,037 X/6🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛🟨🟩⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩@albolt76 #Wordle1037👍😉🤣 pic.twitter.com/RWbFz6v5bKApril 20, 2024

Wordle 1,037 X/6⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 Missed the most obvious one. Good luck pic.twitter.com/GjBRBRE9IEApril 21, 2024

Wordle 1,037 X/6⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩🟨⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 pic.twitter.com/KUpOz8H0bsApril 21, 2024

A quick glance is enough to see one of the main causes of this glut of failures – namely the too-many-answers problem. But it’s far from the only one.

Too many answers

Wordle answer to game #1037 on a yellow background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Lots of the hardest Wordles ever share a common theme, namely too-many-answers. In other words, the solution is one that could have been another word if you just changed one (or sometimes two) letters.

There are several of these traps, for instance -IGHT, -OUND and -ATCH. The first of those has nine possible solutions: WIGHT, EIGHT, RIGHT, TIGHT, LIGHT, FIGHT, SIGHT, MIGHT and NIGHT. The second has eight – WOUND, ROUND, POUND, HOUND, FOUND, SOUND, MOUND and BOUND – while the third has seven (WATCH, PATCH, LATCH, HATCH, MATCH, BATCH and CATCH).

The -OLLY trap, meanwhile, is on a par with -ATCH, because it has seven definite answers: LOLLY, JOLLY, HOLLY, GOLLY, FOLLY, MOLLY and DOLLY. It’s up there with the worst possible formats.

These kind of games are a nightmare if you play on hard mode, where you can easily get stuck with four green letters and be forced to randomly guess letters in the search of the right one. So my first tip is simply not to play on hard mode! Or, if you do, you need to bear in mind that this kind of thing might happen, and guard against it from the very start,

Worse still here, the eventual answer was JOLLY, which begins with the least common letter in the game. This is something I prove in my analysis of every Wordle answer; J only appears in 27 of Wordle’s 2,309 original solutions, and it’s therefore not a letter most people use very often.

Add to that the fact that JOLLY also includes a repeated letter – which itself is a less common occurrence than getting five individual letters – and you have a game that’s set up to make life difficult for you.

How to play one of these games and win

The key to beating a game like JOLLY – unless you play on hard mode – is to narrow down your options as early as possible.

What this means is not chasing a high score, because that way lies disaster. Let’s say you established this was an -OLLY word as early as the third guess, which isn’t unreasonable depending on what your start word was. In that scenario, it can be tempting to guess common words such as FOLLY, say, or HOLLY, in the search of that average-beating 4/6 score.

DO NO DO THIS.

Instead, the second you realize that there are more answers left than guesses, the only way to consistently beat Wordle is to find a narrowing-down word that eliminates as many options as possible. In my example above, it was MIGHT – because that ruled out MOLLY, GOLLY and HOLLY in a single guess, leaving me with only JOLLY left to play next time.

This goes against many people’s instincts, because it involves leaving out green letters, which just feels wrong. But it’s what WordleBot does, and the ‘bot is far smarter than you or I.

In some cases, you might even need to play two such words, and in fact I kind of did that; LOWLY, which I played the guess before MIGHT, was chosen partly to rule out LOLLY as an option. The important thing is to establish what all of the options are, draw up a list of all those possible letters (in this case F, H, G, L, M, D and J), then think of words that contain as many of them as possible.

You could consider this an overly cautious and maybe cowardly way to play Wordle, but if you value your streak then it’s the only approach that makes sense.

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Tags Answer, average, Future, hardest, Heres, score, Todays, Tough, trending, Twitter, Wordle, Year

Bisnis Industri

Weatherproof portable power station from Bluetti: Tough stuff

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date March 22, 2024
No Comments on Weatherproof portable power station from Bluetti: Tough stuff

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Power products provider Bluetti hopes to keep your outdoor adventures going in all conditions with its latest innovation, the Bluetti AC240 Weatherproof Portable Power Station. It features an IP65 rating for water and dust resistance, a big help for campers, first responders and others caught in the elements.

Scheduled for launch on April 2, the powerhouse also provides increased power, quicker charging, innovative parallel connection and other improvements over its predecessor.

Bluetti AC240 Weatherproof Portable Power Station

Maybe you’ve been caught without power in a drenching downpour — it’s not fun. But the new Bluetti AC240 Weatherproof Portable Power Station makes weather worries a thing of the past. The water stays out and your power stays on.

Engineered with IP65-rated protection, the AC240 is impervious to dust and resists low-pressure water jets from any angle. It basically laughs at rain.

Plus, it employs patented technology and safeguards. They include independent air ducts, sealed electronic compartments, special drainage, vacuum-coated fans and double-layer protected ports.

But sometimes a little water can sneak in. Even so, don’t worry. The power station’s built-in exhaust fan swiftly expels water, while the heat-dissipation system ensures rapid water evaporation.

Comprehensive outdoor power solution

Bluetti AC 240 power station with mud — Don’t worry, covers help keep mud, dust and water out of ports and so forth.
Photo: Bluetti

Bluetti says the AC240 is your all-in-one power reserve, keeping you connected to the world even when exploring far from the grid. Weighing just 72 pounds (33 kilograms), it takes up the space of a standard microwave oven. So it easily fits in your trunk on your travels.

The station’s impressive 2,400W output can fuel a host of devices including refrigerators, window air conditioners, microwaves, heaters and coffee makers. Its 1,536Wh lithium iron phosphate battery can sustain a 20-cubic-foot fridge for at least one day at 1.2kWh/day. And the power station’s powerlifting mode handles even resistive loads — a hot plate can draw up to 3,600 watts! — so almost no task is too demanding.

Great connectivity

Bluetti power station and batteries in garage — Bluetti’s A240 power station, shown with additional batteries, features plenty of ports and outlets.
Photo: Bluetti

The new weatherproof Bluetti power station’s plethora of outlets and ports includes two standard AC outlets, one NEMA TT-30 port (typically used for recreational vehicles and such), a car outlet, two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports and a 12V/30A RV port. Ideal for RV enthusiasts and boat owners, it seamlessly integrates into off-grid power systems for self-sustained adventures.

And guess what? Expansion batteries give the AC240 even more power. With its rapid 1.1-hour AC charging at 2,400W max while paired with a B210 expansion battery, you’ll always stay ahead of the power curve.

But expansion batteries are only part of the story. For long trips, you can pair the AC240 with Bluetti’s foldable solar panels. They provide 1,200W solar intake for a full recharge in two hours.

Expandable power and uninterrupted backup

Bluetti solar panels with AC240 and pickup truck — Want to go completely off the grid? With solar panels providing juice for AC240, you can.
Photo: Bluetti

With the flexible AC240, you never need to worry about running out of power in the wild. It supports capacity expansion to give you extra juice for power-intensive jobs.

Here’s how:

One AC240 can accept up to four B210 packs, 2,150Wh each, for a total capacity of 10,136Wh.
These packs also can function independently as water-resistant power banks, with three DC outputs and charging options.

The unit’s responsive uninterruptible power source (UPS) function swiftly detects outages and automatically switches to battery power within 15 milliseconds. So the AC240 system provides a straightforward and robust solution for uninterrupted power supply indoors and out.

Advantages of true parallel power

The AC240’s output is also expandable with a true parallel connection. While conventional “parallel” power products increase output and double voltage simultaneously (e.g., from 120V to 240V), they often limit compatibility with supported appliances.

Not Bluetti’s power station. Its parallel technology lets you link two AC240 units via the Parallel Box P480, delivering a substantial 4,800W output without altering voltage. That’s “a feat unmatched in the industry,” Bluetti says.

And it means you can confidently power large 120V appliances without the hassle of complex manual settings.

Another important thing — this is the first energy storage system that allows parallel connection to the grid while still powering your devices. Output goes down to 4,000W when charging from the grid.

Weatherproof portable power station: Built tough, powered smart

Bluetti AC240 power station powering camping hot plate — Bluetti’s new tough and portable AC240 power station braves the elements while powering your needs
Photo: Bluetti

Bluetti builds the AC240 tough to stand the tests of weather and time. It uses the safest and most reliable lithium iron phosphate batteries around. The battery can achieve up to 100% depth of discharge and maintain 80% of its original capacity even after 3,500 charge cycles, or about 10 years of use.

“Enhanced by the advanced BLUETOPUS AI BMS, an AI-powered battery management system, the AC240 guarantees safe operation, optimal performance and an extended lifespan,” Bluetti says.

Plus, it’s smart. You can use an app to manage power, adjust charging speed, switch UPS modes and more.

AC240 Weatherproof Portable Power Station availability and pricing

Bluetti backs the AC240 with a six-year warranty. You can buy the power station on Bluetti’s website and on Amazon starting April 2.

Exclusive early bird pricing applies to standalone units and bundles with B210 expansion batteries. Additionally, the premium AC240P version, boasting a larger capacity of 1,843Wh and expandability with B210P batteries, will be available.

Where to read more: Bluetti

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Tags Bluetti, portable, Power, station, stuff, Tough, Weatherproof