Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has been replaced in his role and is leaving the company. Its interim CEO says this is because the company βlet far too many people down.β
Customers have been calling for Spence to be sacked ever since the disastrous launch of a new app left many of them struggling with connectivity problems and broken features β¦
The upcoming change in the presidency has seen a number of companies make changes to long-standing policies, in fields spanning content moderation to DEI policies.
As we reported on Friday, however, Apple is holding firm on its own Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, urging shareholders to reject a resolution to abandon them β¦
Decentralized social network Mastodon has announced plans to transfer its ownership to a new nonprofit entity. Ownership of Mastodon will move away from the control of CEO Eugen Rochko, in contrast to the power exerted by other social media CEOs like Meta cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk.
βSimply, we are going to transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components to a new nonprofit organization,β Mastodon says in a blog post, βaffirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.β
Rochko, who founded Mastodon in 2016, will take on a new role with a focus on product strategy while ownership moves to a new not-for-profit entity based somewhere in Europe, with the exact location still to be finalized. The organization is currently headquartered in Germany, where it was a nonprofit until its charitable status was stripped last year. This move is a way of restoring Rochkoβs original intent for Mastodon.
βWhen founder Eugen Rochko started working on Mastodon, his focus was on creating the code and conditions for the kind of social media he envisioned,β Mastodon says. βThe legal setup was a means to an end, a quick fix to allow him to continue operations. From the start, he declared that Mastodon would not be for sale and would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual, and he could ensure that because he was the person in control, the only ultimate decision-maker.β
In the short term, nothing should change for users. Mastodon will continue to host the mastodon.social and mastodon.online servers and support its federated network. Routine code development and bug fixes are ongoing, though the announcement adds that βchanges are definitely in the pipeline.β
βOur core mission remains the same: to create the tools and digital spaces where people can build authentic, constructive online communities free from ads, data exploitation, manipulative algorithms or corporate monopolies,β Mastodon says.
Nvidia is cozying up to the incoming Trump administration after criticizing a new AI framework just announced by the Biden administration. The rules are meant to keep advanced chips and AI models under the control of the United States and its allies, but the President-elect will have the final decision on whether to enforce them.
If implemented, the βInterim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusionβ announced today would place new limitations on how many artificial intelligence chips companies can send to different countries without making special agreements with the US government. Nvidia will be impacted the most by this, given its estimated 90 percent share of AI chips.
The new rules aim to close loopholes that would allow countries like China and Russia β which are already subject to existing semiconductor trade restrictions β to obtain or develop their own AI technology. The Biden administration wants to keep transformational AI development under the control of the US and 18 of its allies, which include the UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. All other countries will be subject to caps that restrict AI chip imports.
βIn the wrong hands, powerful AI systems have the potential to exacerbate significant national security risks, including by enabling the development of weapons of mass destruction, supporting powerful offensive cyber operations, and aiding human rights abuses, such as mass surveillance,β the White House said in a statement. βToday, countries of concern actively employ AI β including US-made AI β in this way, and seek to undermine US AI leadership.β
Nvidia says that the new βAI Diffusionβ restrictions threaten to derail worldwide βinnovation and economic growth,β and undermine the prior Trump administrationβs efforts to create a successful environment for AI development.
βIn its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine Americaβs leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review,β Nvidia said in a statement. βThis sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how Americaβs leading semiconductors, computers, systems, and even software are designed and marketed globally.β
βThe first Trump Administration laid the foundation for Americaβs current strength and success in AI, fostering an environment where US industry could compete and win on merit without compromising national security,β reads Nvidiaβs statement. βRather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken Americaβs global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the US ahead.β
βWe look forward to a return to policies that strengthen American leadership, bolster our economy and preserve our competitive edge in AI and beyond,β Nvidia says in its MAGA conclusion.
In addition to curbing AI chip exports, the rules also set security standards to control the βweightsβ for AI models β the unique parameters that determine how each AI model makes its predictions. Companies like Microsoft and Google that operate data centers can also apply for special government accreditations that allow them to trade AI chips with fewer restrictions, in exchange for following security standards outlined by the Biden administration.
New data center rules aim to keep the development of the most advanced AI models within the borders of the United States and its partners. According to the New York Times, Microsoft says it could βcomply fully with this ruleβs high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us,β in a statement attributed to Microsoft president Brad Smith.
Tom Conrad, a longtime veteran of the tech industry who joined Sonosβ board of directors in 2017, has been appointed interim CEO following todayβs ouster of Patrick Spence. And in his first letter as the (temporary) new boss, Conrad hits on a number of things that will likely be music to the ears of rank-and-file Sonos employees.
βIβve heard from many of you about your own frustrations about how far weβve drifted from our shared ideals,β he says in the letter. βThereβs a tremendous amount of work in front of us, including what Iβm sure will be some very challenging moments, decisions, and trade-offs, but Iβm energized by the passion I see all around me for doing right by our customers and getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonosβ incredible history.β
Conrad says he has already relocated to Santa Barbara β where Sonos is headquartered β and will be in the office daily as he works to reenergize employees after an ordeal that has cratered morale. βI think weβll all agree that this year weβve let far too many people down. As weβve seen, getting some important things right (Arc Ultra and Ace are remarkable products!) is just not enough when our customersβ alarms donβt go off, their kids canβt hear their playlist during breakfast, their surrounds donβt fire, or they canβt pause the music in time to answer the buzzing doorbell.β
In a separate letter to employees, Sonos board chair Julius Genachowski said, βTomβs mandate is to improve the Sonos core experience for our customers, while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance,β and he noted that Conrad has left his job as CEO of Zero Longevity Science to give his full attention to Sonos. Perhaps the interim pick already has an eye on making this appointment more permanent.
Below is Conradβs full letter to employees:
Team,
Nearly 18 years ago, in May of 2007, I stepped onto the stage at SFMOMA to launch Pandora for Sonos to an audience of tech journalists. I was 37 years old and my love of Sonos was in its earliest days. Over the decade that immediately followed, and through many ups and downs, we built Pandora into a streaming phenomenon. In those same years Sonos became the most beloved way to enjoy music throughout my home and millions of others.
Eight years ago, I was honored to be asked to join the Sonos board. Five months ago, as the team worked through the app recovery, I was lucky enough to get to know a wider swath of you personally β and to see firsthand your dedication to setting things right.
Last week, I was asked to step in as interim CEO.
Perhaps the most important thing for you to know today is that Iβm here because I love this company, this product family and this brand. For nearly two decades, Iβve listened to music throughout my home on Sonos every day. In the last decade, Iβve binged every streaming phenomenon with dazzling surround from our Sonos soundbars. In recent years and when I was traveling, it was a Sonos Roam that made its way into my backpack. These days, every night Iβm careful not to wake my sleeping family by watching audio-swapped television on my Sonos Ace.
I know as well as anyone the incredible power of what we can do. A Sonos Move was playing in the delivery room when my daughter (11 months just last week!) was born. Sonos provides a similar soundtrack for millions of lives throughout the world every single day. When it all works, itβs absolute magic.
Itβs also true that when it doesnβt work, our customers are taken out of the moment and are right to feel that weβve let them down. I think weβll all agree that this year weβve let far too many people down. As weβve seen, getting some important things right (Arc Ultra and Ace are remarkable products!) is just not enough when our customersβ alarms donβt go off, their kids canβt hear their playlist during breakfast, their surrounds donβt fire, or they canβt pause the music in time to answer the buzzing doorbell.
Iβm here to get us back on track. But is getting back on track enough?
I think the answer is clearly no. Getting back to basics is necessary, but clearly not enough to unlock the future we all envision for Sonos. So as delighted as Iβll be when every Sonos customer I meet tells me βYou work at Sonos!? I love my Sonos!β, what really gets me up in the morning is the idea that we can expand the Sonos platform well beyond βout loud audio at home.β
Iβve heard from many of you about your own frustrations about how far weβve drifted from our shared ideals. Thereβs a tremendous amount of work in front of us, including what Iβm sure will be some very challenging moments, decisions, and trade-offs, but Iβm energized by the passion I see all around me for doing right by our customers and getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonosβ incredible history.
While Iβm here today as βinterimβ CEO, please make no mistake: Iβm here to move us forward. This is not a time for Sonos to be stuck in limbo. Iβve relocated to Santa Barbara and my family will join me here shortly. Iβm in the office today and for as long as the job is mine. Iβm counting on your help in making today the first day in our collective future. Iβll greet you all live tomorrow (see calendars for the meeting invite). It will be recorded and shared with those who arenβt able to attend. Iβll also be visiting our offices outside of California in the coming weeks. I canβt wait to meet all of you and start building towards a new chapter for Sonos.
In 2024, Sonos gave everyone a valuable lesson on the worst way to introduce a redesigned app. It was too soon, too buggy, and too careless.
In May 2024, Sonos released a completely rebuilt and overhauled mobile app for Android and iOS. The new software was meant to improve performance, make the app feel more customizable, and allow for new features in the future. But customers immediately complained about countless bugs, degraded Sonos speaker system performance, and features that had gone missing.
The controversy effectively torpedoed Sonosβ reputation with many customers. In the months since, Sonos has worked to regain their trust, address issues with the redesigned app, and bring back features that were absent at launch. The company still hasnβt fully recovered from its enormous mistake. On January 13th 2025, Sonos announced CEO Patrick Spence would step down after he was unable to turn things around.
As chief executive, Spence oversaw many successful products. But there was no coming back from last yearβs app debacle: it has finally led to his ouster.
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is resigning from the company today, effective immediately, with board member Tom Conrad filling the role of interim CEO. Itβs the most dramatic development yet in an eight-month saga that has proven to be the most challenging time in Sonosβ history.
The companyβs decision to prematurely release a buggy, completely overhauled new app back in May β with crucial features missing at launch β outraged customers and kicked off a months-long domino effect that included layoffs, a sharp decline in employee morale, and a public apology tour. The Sonos Ace headphones, rumored to be the whole reason behind the hurried app, were immediately overshadowed by the controversy, and my sources tell me that sales numbers remain dismal. Sonosβ community forums and subreddit have been dominated by complaints and an overwhelmingly negative sentiment since the spring.
In October, Sonos tried to get a handle on the situation, which by then had spiraled into a full-on PR disaster, by outlining a turnaround plan. The company vowed to strengthen product development principles, increase transparency internally, and take other steps that it said would prevent any mistake of this magnitude from ever happening again. I can also report for the first time that Sonos hired a crisis management public relations firm to help navigate the ordeal.
But three months later, Sonosβ board of directors and Spence have concluded that those steps werenβt enough: the app debacle has officially cost Spence his job. No other changes are being made today, however. So for now, chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, who some employees have privately told me deserves a fair share of the blame for recent missteps, will remain in his role.
βWeβre going to initiate a search for the next CEO, and weβll work on finding a leader whoβs going to continue to build on our legacy and work with the team to move the company forward,β Sonos spokesperson Erin Pategas told me by phone on Sunday afternoon. She described the leadership change as βturning a page on the chapter that weβre in and forging a path ahead that gets us in the direction that we want to be going for ourselves and our customers.β
In case you were wondering, that direction will not include a return to the old Sonos app; Pategas said the company remains fully committed to the new software, which has received a slew of bug fixes and gradually added back previous features over the last several months. Itβs gotten better, but even this far along, complaints remain about speakers randomly vanishing from the app and other problems.
Patrick Spence joined Sonos in 2012 as chief commercial officer. As CEO, he oversaw a wide range of successful hardware products; Sonos released several impressive soundbars (including the still-new Arc Ultra), pushed into portable audio with the Move and Roam, and debuted the forward-looking Era 300 spatial audio speaker. But the app stumbles β and Spenceβs failure to apologize in the immediate aftermath β ultimately soured his reputation with the companyβs most loyal customers. There was no overcoming that.
Spence will technically remain with Sonos until June 30th of this year, during which heβll receive a base salary of $7,500 per month for providing the company with βstrategic advisory services.β And when that end date does roll around, heβll be granted a severance of $1,875,000. Those numbers come from an 8K filing that Sonos made with the SEC regarding todayβs news.
It now falls on Tom Conrad, who joined the Sonos board in 2017, to rally disenchanted employees and make good on winning back consumer trust. Conradβs career includes a 10-year tenure as chief technology officer at Pandora and two years as VP of product at Snapchat. He worked on Appleβs Finder software during the β90s. Most recently, Conrad served as chief product officer for the ill-fated Quibi streaming service. Pategas believes heβs a great fit for the interim CEO position because heβs keenly aware of the companyβs current predicament; Conrad and chief innovation officer Nick Millington have already been spearheading Sonosβ fix-the-app effort for months.
Despite this seismic shift at the top, Sonosβ future product pipeline remains βfull steam ahead,β Pategas told me. The companyβs next major new product is rumored to be a streaming video player, which would pit it against the likes of Apple, Roku, Amazon, and Google in the living room.
Amid all this, Pete Buttigieg, who oversaw much of Bidenβs EV policies, is trying to put on a brave face. While the incoming Trump team sharpens its knives, the transportation secretary is finishing out his days by approving as much spending as he can from the administrationβs two landmark laws, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act, before Trump can claw the rest back.
Heβs also holding on to hope that Republican lawmakers, especially those who have directly benefited from the administrationβs spending on EVs and clean energy, will resist Trumpβs efforts to undo his predecessorβs accomplishments.
βFor every conservative legislator publicly threatening to reverse our work, thereβs two or three who look like theyβre trying to take credit for it,β he said in an exit interview with The Verge. βAnd as long as that ratio keeps up, I think the bulk of our work will endure.β
Still, you can tell the election results and the coming turnover was weighing on Buttigieg, who seemed a lot more downbeat than in his previousinterviewswith The Verge. We also asked him what he wasnβt able to accomplish while in office and to describe his hopes for himself β and us β for the future.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Donald Trump has said heβs going to end the βEV mandateβ on day one. Which of your policies do you see as the most endangered, and which are more likely to survive for the next four years?
Iβm not that worried about having an EV mandate since there isnβt one, but I am concerned that he might take steps to make EVs more expensive for American consumers. And that would be unfortunate. The work weβve done to make EVs more affordable is part of why there are more and more jobs being created in the industrial Midwest, in places like where I grew up that are seeing a level of auto industry growth that we havenβt had since the β60s. And I think that needs to be kept up, especially because there is clearly a ferocious innovation competition with China. Theyβre using all the tools in their tool kit to try to edge us out, and we canβt let that happen.
I think the thing that has been the most effective in the short term has been the tax credits and making them more affordable. I think in the medium term, the thing that will matter the most is the charging network. Even though 80 percent of EV charging happens at home, we know that the other 20 percent really matters. And most of the projects that we set into motion will be physically online by 2027.
Given that itβs likely EVs are going to become more expensive over the next few years, how do you think the auto industry should respond to the elimination of these incentives? And how do you think customers are going to respond?
What weβve seen lately is, despite some of the coverage and the stories that are out there every single year, more Americans choose EVs. I think that trend will continue even if thereβs policy fluctuation because of the benefits in terms of the total cost of ownership. Having a vehicle with fewer moving parts and fewer fluids involved and thatβs just cheaper to fuel will, in the long run, be why the market sends us in that direction.
Regardless, I think the important thing is to continue supporting a βMade in Americaβ EV industry. And Iβm concerned about that. The OEMs are going to do what makes the most sense to them in the given policy environment. Theyβve made a lot of choices that thereβs really no turning back for them. But of course, theyβre going to need to modulate that up or down from year to year based on the market. Thatβs what businesses do, and thatβs totally appropriate.
What sort of dangers do you feel exist for the climate from a transportation perspective, considering weβve got an incoming administration that is rejecting the idea that climate change is an accepted science and seems ready to enact policies that will help worsen the effects of climate change?
The climate doesnβt care whether people care about it or not. Itβs going to keep changing. And we need to keep adapting and doing what we can to prevent it from being worse than it already is. Obviously, it matters when you have an administration that cares about it versus one that doesnβt.
My experience as a mayor was that if cities, representing the bulk of global GDP, got together and said, βWeβre not going to wait on our national capitals. Weβre going to take action ourselves.β Thatβs how the C40, which became the climate mayors, was born. So I have a lot of confidence that state and local work will continue and that there are new stakeholders, including red states, working-class auto manufacturing families, who will be perhaps a surprisingly strong backstop on the continued importance of the growth of the industry in our country.
Have you heard specifically from any of these red state lawmakers in the so-called Battery Belt where these factories are going up, places like Tennessee and Kentucky? Have they told you anything that gives you confidence that maybe thereβs going to be more pushback on the elimination of these policies?
Often, itβs more in what they donβt say than what they do say. The conspicuous decision of leaders in places like Georgia and Indiana not to try to pile on the anti-EV ideology because, of course, governors like cutting ribbons on good-paying building trades and manufacturing jobs. And thatβs exactly whatβs happening because of our work. If anything, I think there will be an attempt for others to try to take credit for it. But the most important thing is that happens at all.
Was the politicization of EVs over the course of the presidential campaign inevitable? Or do you think there was more the administration could have done to push back against that?
I think we did everything we could to stress that this shouldnβt be a Republican or Democratic thing. That when youβre in a high-stakes innovation competition with a country like China, you have nothing to gain by kind of over-indexing on old technology or telling people that what we did in the last century is going to work in this one without modernizing. Iβve just never seen a country win out by looking only to its past.
As weβve seen in our time, everything from public health to transportation policy can get politicized. But again, I think the market will actually point in a pretty powerful direction here. And part of how I know that is youβve got a country like China, which is conspicuously not enthusiastic about environmental protection, and theyβre all in there doing that for a reason. The reason is economic strategy. And we better not be caught sleeping when it comes to our economic strategy. Thatβs a bipartisan concern.
The Trump team is also reportedly looking into canceling the standing general order on autonomous vehicle and advanced driver-assist crash reporting. That was another notable thing that happened under your watch. What do we stand to lose there if this sort of transparency is eliminated and we donβt have insight into some of these crashes?
To put it simply, I think kneecapping a safety initiative is not a good idea. Iβve seen lots of second-hand reporting on that. I donβt know what will actually happen. But what I know is that we need to make sure we have good information about the safety of this technology coming onto our roadways. And I say that not because Iβm against that technology. On the contrary, I think itβs precisely because of the theoretically lifesaving potential that we need to get the rollout right as a country.
Trump also seems to be considering policies that favor his new best friend, Elon Musk. What concerns do you have seeing someone like Musk, with all of his conflicts and government entanglements, so close to power?
When you consider the power of any federal agency β certainly one like the USDOT, which has a lot of life-and-death responsibility β itβs incredibly important that that power be used in ways that are fair and objective. And weβve sought to do that by calling balls and strikes without fear or favor. Sometimes that has meant that in the same month we are congratulating a company for some partnership with us in one realm, weβre also launching enforcement actions against them for some concern or violation in another realm. You have to be ready to call balls and strikes. And I hope there is enough public and congressional scrutiny to make sure that happens no matter whoβs in charge here.
Do you think the Biden administration could have courted Musk a little more gently or strategically, given how he has emerged as this force in terms of his support for Trump and how much Tesla has been influential in the EV market?
Maybe, itβs hard to say in hindsight. One thing Iβve observed is that a lot of the players in this space β even though you would think it is hyper-rational given how technical and how economic it is β the truth is, thereβs a pretty big emotion factor there, too. And I think itβs important to take that into account.
I also wanted to ask you about the ARPA project with infrastructure. That was a big announcement over the last four years. How do you see that sort of progressing into the next administration? Do you feel like thereβs still going to be support for a Skunk Works-style project around infrastructure?
I think so. I hope so. I think thereβs enormous potential here. I mean, some of the technologies that we use for transportation havenβt changed that much since the days of the Romans. And yet we know thereβs evidence that everything from 500-year concrete to self-healing bridge components is potentially within our grasp. I mean, it could come to fruition in my lifetime. So given that some of those things are trillion-dollar ideas, we should continue investing the modest, comparatively modest millions that make it possible. And this is something, too, I hope is bipartisan. Innovation should be bipartisan. So far, I havenβt seen a strong Democrat / Republican valence about unlocking some of those technologies. We just need to be smart about which things the market can take care of and which things just donβt happen unless thereβs government support.
A common criticism I heard about the Inflation Reduction Act was that a lot of money was being spent to incentivize cars, but not enough to get people out of their cars and walking and biking. There was an announcement today about $45 million for some active transportation. But compare that to the tens of billions of dollars spent on EVs, it seems kind of like a drop in the bucket. Do you feel like this was the right balance to strike, or do you think more could have been done?
That would be true if you looked at the IRA in a vacuum. But the truth is, even though we think we call the IRA the climate bill, in many ways the infrastructure bill was our climate bill as a department. What I mean by that is a lot of the things that went into supporting transit or supporting a new, better way to design our highways and bridges will mean just as much or more for carbon pollution reduction as whatβs in the IRA. EVs help, but thatβs only part of the story.
How are you personally feeling seeing all of these policies that you spent so much time on β so much effort, so much political capital to get enacted β now that theyβre all on the chopping block or endangered?
I just canβt speculate or predict what will happen next. But what I do know is what we did was good policy and good work. One of the most flattering and convincing pieces of evidence I see for that is for every conservative legislator publicly threatening to reverse our work, thereβs two or three who look like theyβre trying to take credit for it. And as long as that ratio keeps up, I think the bulk of our work will endure.
And for those folks who are waiting with dread about whatβs going to come down the pike in terms of transportation policy and climate policy β are we screwed, or do you think thereβs some hope for the future?
As a federal official, I have sometimes been impatient with the limitations of the federal level compared to the power that our system places in state and local hands. I think going forward, maybe Iβll go back to my mayoral mentality and remember how much of our salvation comes from the local in this country. Again, some things are good policy in a way that endures no matter whoβs in charge, even if they have a different vocabulary or a different emphasis. I actually think the realm of transportation work is one of the ones that will be the most durably bipartisan, even if, obviously, the next administration will show less interest in issues like climate change, labor union support, or racial and economic justice compared to this one.
As a last question, if you had another four years on this job, what are some things you would like to have done?
I just launched our Project Delivery Acceleration Council. And it sounds strange to launch something on your way out the door, but what I reminded that team of is that their work is going to be wildly important under the next administration, to make sure that we pay more attention to delivery. Itβs critically important to fund these things, but you also have to bring out a lot more efficiency in the project delivery process. And it isnβt sexy, but itβs wildly important to get more value for our taxpayer dollar.
So as I think about the second half of this decade, when the bulk of these projects actually enter construction, thatβs something I would have wanted to work on. I think Iβll continue to find some way to work on it on the outside, and I hope it gets continued bipartisan interest in [Washington, DC] because I think delivery is vitally, vitally important, not just on the legislative side.
The infrastructure law was a five-year bill and year five is coming up. Congress and the administration will have to negotiate what comes next. And itβll be important to learn from everything good, bad, and indifferent that weβve learned from the first infrastructure bill. And then from a safety perspective, I think the biggest piece of unfinished business remains the rail safety legislation β bipartisan, cosponsored by JD Vance, completely deserving of a vote and of being passed into law. And if the next administration is the one to do it, Iβll be the first to cheer for that because itβs just the right thing to do.
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Samsung's 32-inch Smart Monitor M8 (M80D, 2024 refresh) can act not only as a monitor with a webcam, but a smart TV as well thanks to the built-in speakers and support for cloud gaming and streaming platforms. It normally costs $700, but it's back down near an all-time low of $400 at Amazon, netting you a savings of $300 or 43 percent.
The refreshed Smart Monitor M8 has the same features as past models, but can now do even more things with the need for a computer or console β including video calls via the detachable webcam and streaming content from providers like Netflix and Prime Video. Thereβs even a tool that lets you quickly send images and text from other Samsung devices, like Galaxy smartphones and Book laptops, to the monitor. It also integrates with Galaxy Buds to offer a βsurround sound-like experienceβ with minimal latency.
It offers UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution at up to 60Hz, along with HDR10+. With a VA panel, it's decently bright at 400 nits, offers a 4-millisecond response time and displays up to a billion colors, with 99 percent sRGB coverage. Input-wise, you get USB-C and Micro HDMI 2.0 inputs, along with a USB-C charging interface. Finally, it has a a detachable SlimFit Cam for video calls, making it a solid choice for work or light content creation.
That's just the half of it, though. It's a WiFi-capable smart TV that supports Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. It comes with built-in dual 5W speakers and a home hub that allows you to use it to control SmartThings-compatible IoT devices like lights and thermostats. It even has built-in support for Microsoft 365, so you can edit documents or browse the web without having to connect it to a computer.
Other features include the ability to change the angle and position with the high-adjustable stand, along with a game bar that makes it easy to switch between cloud services. Normally it sells for $700, making the $400 sale price a particularly good deal β so it's best to act fast while it's in stock.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/samsungs-2024-smart-m8-monitor-is-on-sale-for-just-399-130009470.html?src=rss
Melted plastic pipes and drastic water-pressure drops are potentially leaching toxic chemicals and contaminants into local supplies. Multiple water authorities in north Los Angeles have issued Do Not Drink notices.
Float Financial, an expense management and corporate card startup focused on the Canadian market, has raised $48.5 million in a Series B funding round. The Toronto-based fintech likens itself to U.S.-based fintech giants Brex and Ramp but says it is different in that its sole focus is on Canadian SMBs, which CEO and co-founder Rob [β¦]