When Starfleet said it had dispatched the Enterprise to help the Cerritos close the rift, I was worried. Lower Decks has spent the last four years stepping out the shadow of its more famous predecessor. Its grand finale didn’t need a focus-pulling cameo from any of the Next Generation cast (or even a subtle one from Steven Culp). Mercifully, none came, and we got one last chance to spend half an hour with the Cerritos crew on their last ride. For now, at least.
The length of the Previously On… sequence was clue enough this was going to be an overstuffed episode. In fact, it felt as if creator Mike McMahan set himself the task of resolving every plotline in one episode. You can imagine some of these would have been addressed in some future episode had the show not been canceled. But even with a slightly longer runtime, the episode moves far too fast for you to really savor it.
As usual, the Cerritos is the only vessel close enough to deal with the fallout from last week’s episode. On the way to close the rift, the crew meet Ma’ah and Malor, who are fleeing a fleet of Klingon warships led by Relga, Dorg and Bargh’s sister. The fleet chases the Cerritos to the rift which is pumping out waves of dimension-hopping uncertainty. That sets up a wonderful scene where the Cerritos is remade in different ship classes as it pushes toward the center of the rift.
All of this unfolds while Rutherford fights both with his implant and his general distaste for the Cerritos. Tendi and T’Lyn are battling for supremacy as the senior science officer on the ship, and Boimler’s still using his alternate self’s diary to advance his career. A normal half hour show can accommodate an A and B story; here we’re down to G or H, at least. Given a lot of the fun of this show is just in spending time with these characters, it’s a shame their farewells are rattled through as boxes ticked off on a list.
There are plenty of wonderful moments, like when Mariner and Boimler go to Freeman and are instantly believed. In-universe, the characters have earned enough trust to be taken at their word and it’s touching. It’s also a sign of how far we’ve come compared to, say, the days of “Shut up Wesley.” Or when Rutherford realizes what’s wrong and is able to solve the issue by remembering the California Class is Starfleet’s Swiss Army Knife. Or when Boimler smashes his Padd to protect Mariner, as their friendship is more important than his career.
The episode ends with the rift being stabilized, creating a permanent interdimensional wormhole to the multiverse. Starfleet tows Starbase 80 there, with William Boimler tasked with exploring the various dimensions therein. But such a high-profile assignment needs an experienced head, and so Captain Freeman is assigned to take command of Starbase 80. It means Mariner has to say goodbye to her mom, and Freeman goodbye to her dedicated crew of misfits.
Ransom takes command of the Cerritos, with Mariner and Boimler acting as joint first officers, at least for now. Rutherford has his implant removed, and it’s suddenly obvious to everyone how into Tendi he has been all this time. T’Lyn and Tendi are now happily science besties, sharing the role as the Cerritos heads off to explore new parts of the galaxy. And Ransom’s choice of phrase for his warp command is perfectly in keeping with his love of exercise, and no I won’t be sharing it here.
You can never quite escape Star Trek once it’s on your CV, and I’ve said before this isn’t the last time we’ll see the Cerritos crew. Animation doesn’t need your actors to stay the same age and we could easily see a revival in a few years or so. McMahan was clear the fifth season was also being used to set up potential spin-off ideas, so there’s plenty of scope for more. Which is why I’m not going to write an obituary for Lower Decks, it doesn’t need one.
Still, it’s mad to think how things have changed since Lower Decks debuted as the goofy wildcard alongside its more august siblings. Discovery and Picard were meant to be reputable shows with Lower Decks little more than the class clown for diehard fans. Both of those turned out to be far less than the sum of their parts, while Lower Decks held the spirit of Star Trek far more effectively than its so-called betters. It was the only one of that trio to emerge with anything close to a coherent legacy, and with genuine affection from fans.
Lower Decks knows this, and ends its episode with a celebration of the Cerritos and Star Trek more generally. The show exists as a celebration of the day-to-day work that would never be lionized in those brasher, shoutier, punch-fightier Treks. The USS Cerritos is an island of misfit toys who have gathered together to make themselves and each other that little bit better. Hell, that could be a comment on Star Trek, or its fans more generally, but it’s great being one of those misfit toys.
Cerritos Strong!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-lower-decks-ends-on-a-new-beginning-140003832.html?src=rss
L to R Jerry O\'Connell as Jack Ransom, Paul Scheer as Andy Billups, Eugene Cordero as Rutherford, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs, Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner, Gillian Vigman as Doctor T\'Ana, NoÃl Wells as D\'Vana Tendi and Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler in episode 10, season 5 of Lower Decks streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo credit: Paramount+.
The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is an exercise in box ticking for the show’s creative team. It does the grunt work of laying the table and raising the stakes for next week’s series finale. But it’s also the show’s last — for now — chance to wring a gag or two out of all those deep-cut, Extremely Online Trek in-jokes. It’s fortunate that while the episode is a little on the thin side, the stuff that’s thrown at the wall is charming enough for it not to matter.
For the second week in a row, we’re pulling focus from the lead quintet to catch up on William Boimler. (That, if your memory isn’t too sharp, is Bomiler’s transporter clone, last seen faking his death to join Section 31.) He’s now captain of the USS Anaximander on a secret mission to close up the interdimensional fissures the show has been encountering all season.
Boimler, the show’s avatar of a Star Trek fan, has been picking up stray figures from the canon during dimension hops. His crew includes T’Pol, Garak and an EMH version of Dr. Bashir, all played by their original actors.. And yes, Garak and Dr. Bashir are a married couple in this universe, because of course the show has to embrace that piece of fan lore that launched a thousand pieces of slash fiction.
The ship picks up an escape pod with Lt. Harry Kim inside, who learns most of the rest of the crew is Harries Kim as well. He’s the only one who’s ever been promoted above the rank of ensign, nodding to the rumor that longtime series head Rick Berman said someone had to be the lowest-ranked member of the crew. And / or as punishment for clashing with the production team, as outlined in an interview Wang gave in 2011.
They soon encounter an alternate universe Mariner who, unlike our version, is a timid engineer. She, however, has worked out a way to track the vessel that’s punching holes in the fabric of the universe. So the Anaximander lays a trap, only to reveal that it’s an old Enterprise-class ship called the Beagle. It’s an exploration vessel with a human and Vulcan crew, led by Lily Sloane.
Paramount+
Sloane isn’t trying to tear the universe to shreds, their universe just discovered to discover interdimensional travel ahead of warp. They’ve been leaping between universes exploring strange similar worlds, the same life and civilizations boldly… examining the differences. It’s a mission statement that outrages Boimler, who’s gorged himself on fanservice and is now looking for something, anything new to cleanse his palate.
Naturally, this is Lower Decks winking toward its own major flaw, given its reverence for ‘90s era Trek. I’ve always found it quite successful in bobbing and weaving around simply milking the audience’s ‘memberberries. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t at least complicit in the concept of serving up the same old crap, again and again.
Sloane disagrees, saying her crew looks to explore the ways in which people grow and evolve in different environments. She says she’s met several different Boimlers, all of whom have their own Mariner, as their connection endures across the universes. And that exploration isn’t just about exploring what’s beyond us but finding what’s true inside us. That’s a journey that can be just as perilous, and rewarding, as traveling to the furthest edges of the universe.
Kim, outraged at his namesakes’ stalled careers, steals the Beagle with plans to return to his own dimension. The Anaximander pursues, and while the other Kims mutiny and beam back, the Beagle successfully makes a jump but explodes in the process. That sends a huge wave of energy that will wipe out every universe in existence unless it’s dumped in a single place. Thankfully, Boimler knows where to send it — to his transporter twin and the crew of the Cerritos.
See you next week for the finale.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-lower-decks-sets-up-its-finale-elbowing-its-own-ribs-140054114.html?src=rss
Despite Intel’s recent woes, I didn’t expect to see CEO Pat Gelsinger joining 15,000 or so of his colleagues being shown the door. Gelsinger is a storied engineer and business success who laid down an exhaustive rescue plan when he took the helm of the beleaguered chipmaker in 2021. It was never going to be a quick fix, given the company’s long legacy of missteps. Gelsinger may be the public face of Intel’s current malaise, but the problems started long before his tenure and will likely keep going.
How Intel got here
Gelsinger was tasked with addressing almost two decades’ worth of bad decisions, all of which have compounded. Intel became an industry-swallowing behemoth as one half of the Wintel alliance, producing chips that went hand-in-glove with Microsoft Windows. The vast profits that flowed from this partnership meant there was an institutional reluctance to look too hard at new business ventures that could distract from its golden goose, still going strong all these years later.
In 2005, then-CEO Paul Ottellini turned down the chance to make the iPhone’s system-on-chip. It would have been easy for Intel, since it already made XScale ARM chips for mobile devices. You could find an Intel ARM chip inside popular phones like the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 and Palm Treo 650. A year later, it would sell XScale to Marvell, believing it would be able to shrink its x86 chips to work on smartphones. The first Intel Atom handsets showed some degree of promise, but the Snapdragons of the day — produced by considerably smaller rival Qualcomm — beat them pretty easily.
Could Intel have foreseen the meteoric rise of AI? Maybe not. But Reuters reported former Intel CEO Bob Swan turned down the chance to invest in OpenAI in 2017. It was looking for a hardware partner to reduce its reliance on NVIDIA, offering a generous deal in the process. Swan, however, reportedly said he couldn’t see a future for generative AI, and Intel’s data center unit refused to sell the hardware at a discount.
Intel’s core strength was in the quality of its engineering, the solidity of its product and that it always kept close to the cutting edge. (There are parallels to be drawn between Intel and Boeing, both of which are watching their reputation for quality erode in real time.) Sadly Intel’s bread-and-butter business hit the skids after the company failed to produce 10-nanometer chips by its planned 2015 deadline. The company’s famous “tick, tock” strategy of launching a new chip process one year and a refined version the next ground to a halt.
These issues enabled Intel’s competitors to step in and steal a march, harnessing more modern chip architectures. AMD, which held a little over 10 percent of the chip market for much of the 2010s, has seen its market share double in the last few years. The biggest beneficiary, of course, was TSMC, the Taiwanese chip factory that has become the envy of the world. Even if Intel controls the bulk of the x86 processor market, it’s TSMC that makes the chips for Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and AMD, among others. Intel, meanwhile, was saddled with an older chip manufacturing process that it couldn’t use to catch up with its rivals.
The Gelsinger doctrine
Gelsinger was as close to an Intel “lifer” as you could imagine, joining the company at 18 and rising to the position of Chief Technology Officer by 2001. In 2009, he left Intel to become COO at EMC and held the position as CEO of VMWare for almost a decade. After taking the reins at Intel, he laid down a detailed plan to mastermind its glorious comeback.
Step one would be to separate Intel’s design and manufacturing business into two distinct entities. With one eye on US subsidies through the Biden administration's CHIPS and Science Act, Gelsinger pledged to build two new chip factories harnessing the same EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography) technology used by TSMC.
Gelsinger was also determined to reestablish discipline in Intel’s chip business and get back to the “tick, tock” structure. Unfortunately, the production delays that had been building up since 2015 meant that Gelsinger’s target was just to get back to parity. In the interim, Intel would also get TSMC to manufacture some of its newest chips which, while costly, would help address any concerns the company was lagging even further behind.
Nobody had any doubts as to the size of the task facing Gelsinger, but there was plenty of room for optimism. Gelsinger was humble enough to accept Intel couldn’t simply stay on its current course, and had to embrace its new status. He proposed Intel could grin and bear the short-term pain for the company's eventual benefit. If it could build for the future, harness its rivals to keep it in the game and restore faith in its processes, Intel would emerge from this as the winner. All it needed was for nothing to get worse.
Things got worse
At the end of October, Reuters reported Gelsinger made a colossal faux-pas when speaking about TSMC. The CEO was quoted saying “You don’t want all of our eggs in the basket of a Taiwan fab,” and that “Taiwan is not a stable place.” This offended TSMC to such an extent that it ended a discount Intel had taken advantage of for years
The New York Times reports Intel’s board grew frustrated with Gelsinger as his rescue plan was “not showing results quickly enough.” But Intel wasn’t going to hire Gelsinger in 2021 and suddenly bounce back in 2024. Building large and complex chip factories isn’t easy. Nor is getting thousands of engineers to solve difficult problems around chip yields. And obviously reversing a slide that started in 2015 was never going to happen overnight.
Intel’s board is presently looking for a full-time successor to Gelsinger but it’s hard to see what someone else would do differently. After all, the company still needs to build those factories in order to own and control its future, and it still needs to fix its processes. Unless, of course, the next CEO is going to be told to just stanch the bleeding and keep the money rolling in. Even in its deeply-wounded state after a few bad quarters, Intel is still the biggest name in the x86 chip world and will keep making money for years to come.
You could easily imagine Intel’s board sitting around, prioritizing a few years of healthy profits at the cost of the company’s long-term future. It can keep selling modified versions of its existing desktop chips, ceding the technological leadership to AMD, Qualcomm and others. There’s probably a decade or two of big industrial clients who would be happy using Intel processors for their hardware for as long as they’re still using Windows. Perhaps that would be fitting given how big and ossified Intel has become, admitting that it can’t move fast enough to evolve.
It’s likely that scenario won’t be allowed to happen given Intel’s broader role in the global tech space. Even if the incoming administration criticized the CHIPS Act — Intel is still set to be its largest funding recipient — having a domestic manufacturer of Intel’s scale will be an asset few sane governments would allow to fall. But just switching CEOs won’t suddenly fix the company’s big, hard-to-solve problems. It wasn’t Pat Gelsinger who screwed up power design for Raptor Lake, nor did he pass on the opportunity to make the iPhone CPU all those years ago. The TSMC stuff, he can own that, but while a CEO sets the direction of travel, he can’t micromanage every process in a company of Intel’s scale. So whoever replaces him will have the same big stack of issues to tackle, knowing that the board’s patience will be even shorter this time out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/firing-pat-gelsinger-doesnt-solve-intels-problems-173420381.html?src=rss
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger delivers a speech at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center during Computex 2024, in Taipei on June 4, 2024. (Photo by I-Hwa CHENG / AFP) (Photo by I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images)
If you’re looking to keep a closer eye on your health, a smart scale might be the perfect addition to your wellness routine. Unlike standard scales, which only measure weight, smart scales go further by tracking a range of metrics like body fat percentage, muscle mass and even water weight. They connect to your smartphone or tablet, syncing up with health apps so you can easily monitor changes over time and set fitness goals. Plus, many smart scales offer user profiles, which is great if multiple people in your home want to track their own progress individually.
Smart scales also bring a level of accuracy that standard scales just don’t offer. By analyzing bioelectrical signals, these scales can provide you with more detailed insights, helping you get a clearer picture of your body composition and overall health. Whether you’re just starting a fitness journey or want more in-depth insights into your wellness, a smart scale can help you stay motivated and informed.
There are valid reasons to weigh yourself, but your self-worth shouldn’t be defined by the number that shows up between your feet. If you’re looking to alter your body shape, that figure could go up as your waistline goes down, since muscle weighs more than fat. Dr. Anne Swift, Director of public health teaching at the University of Cambridge, said that “weighing yourself too often can result in [you] becoming fixated on small fluctuations day-to-day, rather than the overall trend over time.” Swift added that “it’s sometimes better to focus on how clothes fit, or how you feel, rather than your weight.”
(A meta-analysis from 2016 found there may be some negative psychological impact from self weighing. A 2018 study, however, said that there may be a positive correlation between regular weigh-ins and accelerated weight loss. It can be a minefield, and I’d urge you to take real care of yourself and remember that success won’t happen overnight.)
Best smart scales for 2024
What to look for in a smart scale
Weight
A weighing scale that measures weight is probably the top requirement, right? One thing to bear in mind is that, with all these measurements, weight readings won’t be as accurate as a calibrated, clinical scale. Consequently, it’s better to focus on the overall full body weight trend up or down over time, rather than the figures in isolation.
Connectivity
Most scales will either connect to your phone over Bluetooth, or to your home’s Wi-Fi network, and you should work out your regular weighing routine ahead of time. A lot of lower-end, Bluetooth-only scales will only record your weight when your phone is present and don’t keep local records. That means if you routinely leave your phone outside the bathroom at home, you could lose that day’s stats. Wi-Fi connectivity, on the other hand, allows a scale to post your stats to a server, letting you access them from any compatible device. Some smart scales even allow multiple user profiles, which is great for families or shared households. But you need to be mindful that there’s a small risk to your privacy should that information from your Wi-Fi scale be compromised.
Bone density
The stronger your bones, the less you’re at risk from breaks and osteoporosis, which you should keep in mind as you get older. Clinical bone density tests use low-power x-rays but higher-end scales can offer an approximation from your own bathroom. These bone mass tests pass a small electrical current through your feet, measuring the resistance as it completes its journey. The resistance offered by bones, fat and muscle are all different, and your scale can identify the difference.
Body fat percentage and muscle mass
Fat and muscle are necessary parts of our makeup, but an excessive amount of either can be problematic. Much like bone density, a smart body fat scale can measure body fat and muscle mass percentages using Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). This measurement tests how well your body resists the electrical signal passing through your body. (It’s a rough rule of thumb that you should have a 30/70 percent split between fat and muscle, but please consult a medical professional for figures specific to your own body and medical needs.) For those with specific athletic goals, some smart scales also offer an athlete mode to better tailor readings for accuracy.
BMI
A lot of scales offer a BMI calculation, and it’s easy to do since you just plot height and weight on a set graph line. Body Mass Index is, however, a problematic measurement that its critics say is both overly simplistic and often greatly misleading. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most common clinical body metrics and medical professionals will use it to make judgements about your care.
Pulse Wave Velocity
French health-tech company Withings has offered Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) on its flagship scale for some time, although regulatory concerns meant it was withdrawn for a period of time. It’s a measurement of arterial stiffness, which acts as a marker both of cardiovascular risk and also other health conditions. I’ve had anecdotal reports that PWV scales have sent people to the doctor, where they’ve found they were close to a cardiac event. It’s worth saying, as with all of these technologies, that there is limited, albeit positive, research into how accurate these systems are.
Display
Less a specification and more a note that smart scales have displays ranging from pre-printed LCDs or digital dot matrix layouts through to color screens. On the high end, your scale display can show you trending charts for your weight and other vital statistics, and can even tell you the day’s weather. If you are short-sighted, and plan on weighing yourself first thing in the morning, before you’ve found your glasses / contacts, opt for a big, clear, high-contrast display.
App and subscriptions
You’ll spend most of your time looking at your health data through its companion scales app, and it’s vital you get a good one. This includes a clear, clean layout with powerful tools to visualize your progress and analyze your data to look for places you can improve. Given that you often don’t need to buy anything before trying the app, it’s worth testing one or two to see if you vibe with it. It’s also important you check app compatibility before making your purchase. Some health apps will only work with iOS or Android — not both. Apple Watch connectivity can also be a bonus for tracking workouts and health metrics seamlessly.
Several companies also offer premium subscriptions, unlocking other features – including insights and coaching – to go along with your hardware. Fitbit and Withings both offer these services, which you may feel is worth the extra investment each month.
Data portability
Using the same scale or app platform for years at a time means you’ll build up a massive trove of personal data. And it is, or should be, your right to take that data to another provider when you choose to move platforms in the future. Data portability is, however, a minefield, with different platforms offering wildly different options, making it easy (or hard) to go elsewhere.
All of the devices in this round-up will allow you to export your data to a .CSV file, which you can then do with as you wish. Importing this information is trickier, with Withings and Garmin allowing it, and Omron, Xiaomi, Eufy and Fitbit not making it that easy. (Apps that engage with Apple Health, meanwhile, can output all of your health data in a .XML file.)
Power
It’s not a huge issue but one worth bearing in mind that each scale will either run disposable batteries (most commonly 4xAAA) or with its own, built-in battery pack. Sadly, all of our crop of smart scales use batteries, adding an environmental and financial cost to your scale life. That’s just about forgivable for scales that cost under $100, but this stretches even to the highest-end models. When you’re spending more than that on a device, the lack of a rechargeable cell feels very, very cheap indeed.
How we tested and which smart scales we tested
For this guide, I tested six scales from major manufacturers:
Mi (Xiaomi) Body Composition Scale 2 ($29.99)
Our cheapest model, Xiaomi / Mi’s Body Composition Scale 2 is as bare-bones as you can get, and it shows. It often takes a long while to lock on to get your body weight, and when it does you’ll have to delve into the Zepp Life-branded scales app in order to look at your extra data. But you can’t fault it for the basics, offering limited (but accurate) weight measurements and body composition for less than the price of a McDonald’s for four.
Fitbit, now part of Google, is the household name for fitness trackers and smartwatches in the US, right? If not, then it must be at least halfway synonymous with it. The Aria Air is the company’s stripped-to-the-bare bones scale, offering your weight and a few other health metrics, but you can trust that Fitbit got the basics right. Not to mention that most of the reason for buying a Fitbit product is to leverage its fitness app anyway.
Eufy’s Smart Scale P2 Pro has plenty of things to commend it – the price, the overall look and feel (it’s a snazzy piece of kit) and what it offers. It offers a whole host of in-depth functionality, including Body Fat, Muscle Mass, Water Weight, Body Fat Mass and Bone Mass measurements, as well as calculating things like your Heart Rate and Basal Metabolic Rate (the amount of calories you need to eat a day to not change weight at all) all from inside its app. In fact, buried beneath the friendly graphic, the scale offers a big pile of stats and data that should, I think, give you more than a little coaching on how to improve your overall health.
Shortly before publication, Anker – Eufy’s parent company – was identified as having misled users, and the media, about the security of its products. Its Eufy-branded security cameras, which the company says does not broadcast video outside of your local network, was found to be allowing third parties to access streams online. Consequently, while we have praised the Eufy Smart Scale for its own features, we cannot recommend it without a big caveat.
Given its role in making actual medical devices, you know what you’re getting with an Omron product. A solid, reliable, sturdy, strong (checks the dictionary for more synonyms) dependable piece of kit. There’s no romance or excitement on show, but you can trust that however joyless it may be, it’ll do the job in question and will be user-friendly. The hardware is limited, the app is limited, but it certainly (checks synonyms again) is steady.
Joking aside, Omron’s Connect app is as bare-bones as you can get, since it acts as an interface for so many of its products. Scroll over to the Weight page, and you’ll get your weight and BMI reading, and if you’ve set a fitness goal, you can see how far you’ve got to go to reach it. You can also switch to seeing a trend graph which, again, offers the most basic visualization of your workouts and progress.
Garmin’s got a pretty massive fitness ecosystem of its own, so if you’re already part of that world, its smart bathroom scale is a no-brainer. On one hand, the scale is one of the easiest to use, and most luxurious of the bunch, with its color screen and sleek design. I’m also a big fan of the wealth of data and different metrics the scale throws at you – you can see a full color graph charting your weight measurements and goal progress, and the various metrics it tracks in good detail. If there’s a downside, it’s that Garmin’s setup won’t hold your hand, since it’s for serious fitness people, not newbies.
At the highest end, Withings’ flagship Body Comp is luxurious, and luxuriously priced, a figure I’d consider to be “too much” to spend on a bathroom scale. For your money, however, you’ll get a fairly comprehensive rundown of body composition metrics including your weight, body fat percentage, vascular age, pulse wave velocity and electrodermal activity. Its monochrome dot matrix display may not be as swish as the Garmin’s, but it refreshes pretty quickly and feels very in-keeping with the hardware’s overall sleek look. If there’s a downside, it’s that they ditched the rechargeable battery found in the Withings Body Cardio (its former flagship, and an excellent scale I’d recommend if it were within the parameters of this guide) in favor of AAA batteries. Which, when you’re spending this much on a body fat scale, makes me feel very nickel-and-dimed.
Smart scales FAQs
What's the difference between a smart scale and a regular scale?
A regular scale is pretty straightforward - it tells you how much you weigh, and that’s usually it. A smart scale, on the other hand, does much more. Not only does it give you your weight measurements, but it can also track things like your body fat percentage, muscle mass, and even your BMI. Some smart scales even monitor more advanced metrics like bone density, depending on the model.
What’s even better is that smart scales sync with scales apps on your phone using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so you can see all your health data in one place. This lets you monitor trends over time, like if your muscle mass is increasing or your body fat percentage decreasing.
How do smart scales work with more than one person using it?
When more than one person in a household uses the smart scale, it usually recognizes each person by their weight range and other body measurements (like body fat percentage). Most smart scales allow you to set up individual profiles in the companion app, and once your profile is linked, the scale can automatically figure out who’s standing on it.
Let’s say you and a family member have fairly different weights - the scale will easily know who’s who based on that. But if you and someone else have similar weights, it might ask you to confirm the profile on your phone after the weigh-in. Some scales even let you assign a profile manually in the scales app if it’s not sure.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/best-smart-scale-160033523.html?src=rss
The frustrations of a traditional Wi-Fi router tend to be more noticeable when you live in a larger or busier household. Constant buffering while trying to stream a movie or music cutting out when you want to bust out to some moves using your smart speaker; it’s frankly annoying. That’s where a mesh Wi-Fi system can make a difference. Unlike traditional Wi-Fi routers, which send a single signal from just one point, a mesh system uses multiple nodes (or satellites) placed around your home to create a more reliable, consistent connection. These nodes work together to blanket your entire space in Wi-Fi, meaning you can say goodbye to dead zones and weak signal strength in certain rooms.
With a traditional Wi-Fi router, the further you are from it, the weaker your connection tends to be. A mesh setup, however, ensures that each node communicates seamlessly, allowing your devices to stay connected as you move throughout the house. So, if you’ve got security cameras in different areas or smart home devices spread across rooms, a mesh Wi-Fi network keeps everything online and working smoothly without a hitch. Plus, mesh systems are designed to handle a higher volume of Wi-Fi devices more efficiently, which means they’re perfect for today’s connected homes packed with everything from laptops and phones to smart fridges and robot vacuums.
In addition, many mesh Wi-Fi systems come equipped with features like automatic firmware updates, which can enhance functionality over time without you having to lift a finger. And if you’re into the latest tech, some systems even support Wi-Fi 7 or multi-gig speeds, ensuring that your network is ready for the future of ultra-fast connections. Other features, like multiple WAN ports for flexible setups, can be a game-changer if you have specific network needs or want to maximize speeds.
Whether you’re streaming, gaming, working or simply need reliable connectivity for your growing list of smart gadgets, a mesh Wi-Fi system can be the solution for keeping everything running smoothly across every corner of your home.
What to look for in a mesh Wi-Fi system
It’s a pretty good time to buy a mesh Wi-Fi system, since Wi-Fi 6E represents a fairly significant leap in the technology. Matt MacPherson, Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer for Wireless, said that Wi-Fi 6E is a substantial “inflection point” and can take advantage of a much broader chunk of the wireless spectrum than its predecessors. “If you’re using that spectrum with a Wi-Fi 6 [device],” he said, “you’re going to get significant gains [in speed.]”
MacPherson added that Wi-Fi 6E will likely “carry you for a long time,” thanks to the fact that its “top throughputs now typically exceed what people can actually connect their home to.” In short, with a top theoretical per-stream speed of 1.2 Gbps, Wi-Fi 6E is fast enough to outrun all but the fastest internet connection. (You may also see talk of Wi-Fi 7 devices, some of which have been released already before the standard is officially launched next year. Given that it will take a generation for all of the devices in your home to be compatible with Wi-Fi 7, it’s not worth thinking about this for several years yet, so a Wi-Fi 6 system will suffice for now.)
Range and speed
All mesh routers boast a theoretical broadcast range in square feet, as well as its theoretical top speed. Given there are so many factors outside of the manufacturer’s control, these numbers don’t really mean much in the real world. Your internet service provider’s (ISP) real speed, the construction materials and layout of your home, amongst other things, will all affect your Wi-Fi coverage. Simply investing in a wireless router or mesh Wi-Fi system isn’t going to offer faster speeds on its own.
It’s worth saying that raw speed isn’t everything, and that for most normal users, you probably need a lot less than you’re paying for. Netflix recommends a minimum speed of just 15 Mbps to stream a 4K video to a single device. Naturally, that’s just for one connection, so you’ll need some more capacity if you’ve got other connected devices all running at the same time. As cool as it is to say you’ve got 100, 200 or 500 Mbps download speed, factors like latency and reliability are way more crucial. And unless you have Gigabit internet that can reach speeds of up to 1Gbps, you won’t need a mesh router that offers these specs.
Backhaul
Mesh Wi-Fi systems work by connecting every hardware node to a single wireless network, letting them all communicate with each other. Imagine four people in a busy, noisy restaurant all trying to order their dinner from a weary staff member, all at once. Now imagine, while this is going on, that four more people at that same table are also trying to tell a funny anecdote. It’s no surprise that it might take a long while for the right information to reach its intended destination.
To combat this, higher-end mesh routers offer dedicated wireless backhaul; a slice of the spectrum for node-to-node communication. So rather than everyone talking at once in the same space, the conversations are essentially separated, reducing the invisible clutter in the air. Because there’s less confusing cross-chatter, everything moves faster, offering a significant performance boost to those systems.
Connectivity
These days, even your washing machine has a wireless connection, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the joys of wired internet. No matter how fast WiFi is, a hard line will always be faster, and some gear, like Philips’ Hue bridge, still needs an ethernet connection. Plenty of routers can also use these hard connections as backhaul, eliminating further wireless clutter. It’s convenient for spread-out systems and power users, but it will mean running more wires through your home. The most common standard is Cat 5e, or gigabit ethernet which, unsurprisingly, has a top speed of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps). Since Ethernet cables are backward compatible, you should be able to easily find one that works with your system. However, to make the most out of your mesh routers, it’s worth investing in an Ethernet cable that meets the standard your router uses — if it’s Cat5e, use a Cat5e cable. You can check your router’s specs via the manufacturer’s website to be sure.
Flexibility and scalability
Mesh routers enable you to add (or subtract) modules from your home network to suit your needs. D-Link’s Alan Jones said users should “check how scalable the prospective product is” before you buy. This sense of scale doesn’t just apply to the number of nodes on the network, but how many simultaneous connections it can handle.
Placement
Mesh networks use multiple access points in order to create a bigger network, resulting in better indoor Wi-Fi coverage. You might see the term “whole home coverage”, which is more easily achieved with multiple access points or nodes. Modern mesh routers offer one, two or three (or more) pieces of equipment that are commonly the same hardware inside and out. It normally doesn’t matter which module you make the primary one to connect to your modem, usually over ethernet. You’ll then set up the other, secondary nodes around your home, which is often just a case of adding them to the existing mesh network.
When installing your hardware, remember that every physical obstacle between nodes may hurt your performance. The ideal spot is, at the very least, at waist height on a piece of furniture without too many obstructions. Tables, sideboards, free-standing cupboards, and bookcases make for a good home. The rule of thumb is to place each node no more than two rooms away from the last one.
How we test Wi-Fi routers
My home covers around 2,200 square feet across three stories, with my office on the third floor. It’s relatively long and thin, with the living room at the front of the house, the kitchen at the back and three bedrooms on the second floor. Its age means there are a lot of solid brick walls, old school lathe and plaster, as well as aluminum foil-backed insulation boards to help with energy efficiency. There are two major Wi-Fi dead zones in the house, the bathroom and the bedroom behind it, since there’s lots of old and new pipework in the walls and floors.
For mesh routers that have two nodes, I placed the first in my living room, connected via ethernet to my cable modem, with the second on the first-floor landing in the (ostensible) center of the house. For three-node sets, the third went in my kitchen, which I’ve found is the optimal layout to get the bulk of my house covered in Wi-Fi.
Each mesh is judged on ease of setup, Wi-Fi coverage, reliability, speed and any additional features. I looked at how user-friendly each companion app is from the perspective of a novice, as well. My tests included checking for dead zones, moving from room to room to measure consistency, and streaming multiple videos at once.
Best mesh Wi-Fi systems for 2024
Other mesh Wi-Fi router systems we tested
Amazon Eero 6E
On one hand, Eero Pro 6E does count as an “easy” device, the sort you could hand to a total novice and expect them to thrive with. There’s very little brain work needed to get things set up, and the app has a clean UI with plenty of hand-holding. But — and it’s a big but — the fact so many common management tools aren’t available to me here because they’re paywalled irks me. Amazon and Eero are playing in the same slightly shallow waters as Google / Nest, building a “good enough” mesh product for "everyone;” types who want to set up the hardware and more or less forget about it for several years at a time knowing that everything is in hand. But the fact that the Nest WiFi Pro offers more features for free compared to Eero’s package means that, despite my gripes about Google’s system, it wins out in a straight duel.
Netgear Orbi 960
The Orbi 96T0 (RBKE963) is Netgear’s flagship mesh WiFi product, which the company calls the “world’s most powerful WiFi 6E system.” It’s also one of the most expensive consumer-level kits on the market, setting you back $1,499.99 for a three pack. It's a fantastic piece of gear but it's worth saying that the subset of people who could, would or should buy it remains far smaller than you might expect. Ultimately, I feel that if you’re paying luxury prices, you should expect a luxury product. There were plenty of times during testing that I went looking for a feature that was either only available via the web client, or behind a paywall. While, yes, much of your cash is going to the superlative hardware, but for this sort of money, the fact you have to pay extra for some table-stakes features is insulting. If you’re looking for a new Wi-Fi system and aren’t prepared to spend almost $1,500, it’s worth considering our other top picks for the best Wi-Fi routers and mesh systems.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is governed by the International Standard IEEE 802.11, and every few years the standards evolve. Until 2018, routers were sold under their IEEE designation, leaving consumers to deal with the word soup of products labeled 802.11 b/a/g/n/ac et cetera. Mercifully, wiser heads opted to rebrand the standards with numbers: Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6. We’re presently between two Wi-Fi generations, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, which relates to the frequencies the standard uses. Wi-Fi 6 covers routers which operate on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, while the latter means it can also use the 6GHz band.
Each Wi-Fi band has tradeoffs, because the slower radio frequencies have greater range but less speed. 2.4GHz signals will travel a long way in your home but aren’t quick, while 6GHz is blisteringly fast, but can be defeated by a sturdy brick wall. A lot of Wi-Fi-enabled gear, like a lot of smart home products, only use 2.4GHz because the range is better and it’s a lot cheaper. But it means that the band is also overcrowded and slow. You can check the speed of your Wi-Fi by using an online speed test like Speedtest by Ookla. This will display your download and upload speeds, offering better insight.
Linksys’ CEO Jonathan Bettino told Engadget why mesh systems are an “advancement in Wi-Fi technology” over buying a single point router. With one transmitter, the signal can degrade the further away from the router you go, or the local environment isn’t ideal. “You can have a small [home], but there’s thick walls [...] or things in the way that just interfere with your wireless signal,” he said.
Historically, the solution to a home’s Wi-Fi dead zone was to buy a Wi-Fi Range Extender but Bettino said the hardware has both a “terrible user experience” and one of the highest return rates of any consumer electronics product. Mesh Wi-Fi, by comparison, offers “multiple nodes that can be placed anywhere in your home,” says Bettino, resulting in “ubiquitous Wi-Fi” that feels as if you have a “router in every room.”
Rather than having one main router in your home, having a “router in every room” is the biggest selling point for mesh Wi-Fi given how reliant we all are on the internet. Each node is in constant contact with each other, broadcasting a single, seamless network to all of your connected devices. There’s no separate network for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, just a single name that you connect to.
You may also see mesh Wi-Fi systems advertised as dual-band or tri-band routers. Dual-band routers typically offer a 2.4GHz and 5GHz band. Wi-Fi 6E tri-band routers, on the other hand, provide a 2.4GHz, a 5GHz and a 6GHz band —or in the case of Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 routers, a 2.4GHz band and two 5GHz bands. Once you’ve got your head wrapped around the concept of dual-band and tri-band, you should also be aware that the width of each band is measured in MHz. The wider the band, the more MHz it can support, typically 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz or 320MHz. The wider the channel, the more bandwidth it offers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/best-mesh-wifi-system-130028701.html?src=rss
The Black Friday seaso is finally upon us, willing us to purchase some much-needed tech with some degree of a discount. Our Black Friday hub has been collecting the best deals available, so you can save a bundle in the run-up to the holidays. And while there have been some tasty deals in the last few days, the real blockbusters have now dropped.
There are plenty more where that came from, which is why we have the Black Friday hub. So go and get all the biggest and best deals without having to lift a finger.
Did it promote its own products ahead of its competitors?
Amazon may face an EU antitrust investigation next year, with regulators curious if it promoted its own products at the expense of competitors. The continent has stringent rules around big tech platforms that act as both the marketplace and a player in the same space. If found to have given its own gear preferential treatment, the fines under the Digital Markets Act can be hefty.
As our homes (and lives) get smarter, the need for some sort of digital hub big enough to run things becomes more urgent. It’s why Amazon surprise-released a new 21-inch version of its Echo Show that does everything the Show 15 did, but biggererer. It gets a built-in smart home hub with Thread, Zigbee and Matter control, Wi-Fi 6E and a better camera for video calls.
I bought an Echo Show 8 on a whim to use as a screen for my Ring doorbell and found it quite underwhelming. But the idea of having a 21-inch screen that could theoretically lay out to-do lists and calendar tasks on the daily is quite appealing. Having two small kids makes being able to marshal all our schedules on one device quite desirable.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-amazons-got-a-21-inch-echo-show-121502524.html?src=rss
The Department of Justice is reportedly planning to make Google sell its Chrome browser to address its search monopoly. It’s in response to a 2020 lawsuit filed by the DOJ and several US states that was finally ruled upon in August. Google has, naturally, said such a sale would be a terrible idea and would harm American competitiveness in the tech industry. I’m more curious about how much inherent value Chrome has without the backing of its parent company.
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 08: In this photo illustration, the Google Chrome search engine home page is displayed on the screen of a computer on June 08, 2023 in Paris, France. Users of the Google Chrome search engine are advised to update the software on their web browser as soon as possible to ensure their security. The American giant has just released a security update to correct a computer flaw representing a high risk for Internet users. This is the third time since the beginning of the year that Google has spotted a "zero day" flaw, that is to say, a computer flaw not directly resolved, a favorite prey of hackers.(Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)
Black Friday is upon us once again, and the internet’s awash with gonzo deals on the world’s most sought after tech. Naturally, you’re too busy living your actual life to check if the deals on offer are as good as they’re made out to be. That’s why Engadget employs a crack team of spreadsheet nerds to comb through what’s hot and what’s not. If you’re in the market for a new device, keep your eyes on our guide of the real deals.
For instance, a big chunk of change has been knocked off the M3 MacBook Airs to clear room for the M4s. Given the M3 was already a superlative-exhausting piece of equipment, that you can now snag one for as little as $899 is staggering. If I was in the US and in the market for a new machine, I’d have whipped my credit card out before writing this newsletter. I’m asking the universe for Fujifilm to offer an even tastier discount for the X-T50 in the coming days.
