About 150 new cars with a plug are coming to US showrooms between now and the end of 2026. That might be a record expansion for the industry — and a record opportunity for you to either find the perfect EV or get completely overwhelmed. 

Below are the 18 plug-in cars that I’m most looking forward to in 2023, because they’re likely to make a mark on the electric car landscape. This list includes pure electrics and hybrids, but does not get into the weeds on range, as that’s becoming less different between pure electric cars at roughly 225-300 miles, ample for the average driver to charge once every few days most of the time. And be careful with the old assumption that you can cut any prices I mention with a tax benefit, as the byzantine new federal tax credit strategy needs some time to reshape the market.

Let’s start with GM, because it will arguably steal the most new EV spotlight in 2023.

Cadillac Lyriq

The Cadillac Lyriq sort of sneaks onto my list since it lightly hit the market in late 2022, but will really make its presence known in 2023. This midsize SUV will be GM’s first vehicle based on the new Ultium battery platform, which uses interesting pouch cells in a modular skateboard arrangement rather than the traditional cylindrical cells that dominate the EV industry. GM says that and other details will allow Ultium to scale up and down its lines. GM also needs Ultium to put a lot of distance between it and the completely different battery architecture that underpins the Chevy Bolt and all its nasty fire headlines. The Lyriq is the first step in that journey, starting at about $63,000. 

Chevy Blazer and Equinox

The Equinox will be the less expensive of these two, which are often mentioned in the same breath, a compact crossover that looks either great or tacky depending on the paint scheme. It will start around $30,000 for the base configuration with 250 miles of range, though pricier versions can go 300 miles. That higher range model also has an important charger upgrade that can stuff 51 miles back into the battery in an hour, an important metric since it means the average person can get a day’s worth of driving even if they don’t plug in until they jump in the shower before heading to work.

The Chevrolet Blazer EV is more ambitious and slightly larger than the Equinox, inspired by the Camaro in an answer to Ford’s Mustang Mach-E. The electric Blazer is a completely different vehicle from the current gas-burning Blazer, not a retrofit. It will boast 557 horsepower and 648 pound-feet of torque and hit 60 mph in under 4 seconds when in WOW mode, which stands for Wide Open Watts. We’ll run into a similar fun-centric focus with Dodge in a moment. 

Chevrolet Silverado EV/GMC Sierra EV

These are a big deal, because Ford got there already and we all want to see how GM will use its second mover advantage. The arrival of these two electric full-size trucks will formally bury the old idea that such vehicles would be a tough sell in America. The Ultium-based electric Silverado will hit the market in spring 2023, followed by the electric Sierra later in the year, supply chain willing. Ford has already had two major price hikes on the F-150 Lightning, so any pricing on the GM trucks would seem to be premature speculation at this early stage.

Hummer electric SUV

I guess the electric Hummer SUV has to go on this list, though I think it’s merely a niche product with great profit margins. That said, the SUV body style of this electric monster should be more relevant than the existing pickup.

Tesla Cybertruck

Like a Twitter acquisition on wheels, it’s hard to know where things stand with the Cybertruck, three years after it was introduced and inadvertently vandalized on stage. Elon Musk recently said it’s coming in 2023 and, while I remain unconvinced that it will appeal to enough people to be a major player, it could be the biggest new EV story of 2023 based on hype and intrigue.

BMW i5

BMW i cars began as niche oddballs in the nerdy early days of EVs, like the dorm fridge-shaped i3 and pseudo-supercar i8, but with the iX, i4 and i7 the company has done a 180 toward mainstreaming EVs. The i5 will be an electric version of its 5-Series which, being a sedan, would normally make it less of a bellwether in the US market. But the 5 Series is no ordinary sedan, still carrying a lot of BMW brand power. As of this writing, the i5 is (substantially based on rumor) hoped for in late 2023.

Dodge Hornet R/T

The Hornet R/T is a sport crossover that seeks to inject some fun into your tree hugging. Dodge says it will be the quickest, most powerful compact utility under 30 grand. I think it looks great and the R/T has a catchy gimmick: PowerShot, a paddle-and-pedal-activated 15-second dose of 25 extra HP and torque to drop a second off a 0-to-60 sprint.

Hyundai Ioniq 6

The Ioniq 6 will move Hyundai out of the thin role of having just one electric-only model, the ioniq 5, which we call “hella impressive.” But the Ioniq 6 looks like it came from a completely different company that put a Panamera and Citroen DS into a juice press. I don’t love the result, but the latest Hyundai Sonata took a while to grow on me, too. Hyundai has a decent track record of proving skeptics wrong, from its emergence from laughing-stock status in the ’80s to the growing cred of its Genesis sub brand.

Kia EV9

The EV9 is exciting because it’s bold. Looking very generally like an electric version of the smash-hit Telluride conventional SUV, it seems to be coming to market in a form close to the concept version that Kia says was inspired by water. The EV9 probably won’t arrive until late in 2023, pricing TBD.

Genesis Electrified GV70 and GV60

The GV60 is a battery-only luxury compact crossover, while the GV70 is a slightly larger crossover that’s being made available as an electric version, but not exclusively. The smaller GV60 is slick looking and we give it high kudos. Coupled with the electric GV70 you have a tight one-two punch from a company that has been taken quite seriously lately as a luxury challenger.

Volvo SUV

This speculative model is worth watching, because Volvo has a number of cars with a plug but only one pure EV, the C40 Recharge and its puzzlingly similar XC40 stablemate. The rest of Volvo’s electrified cars are plug-in hybrids. The rumor mill holds that Volvo will soon offer a large electric SUV along the lines of its XC90, which I suspect would find no lack of takers among the brand’s existing customers.

Mazda MX-30

This new PHEV needs a little explaining as it’s a range extender, meaning its combustion engine is used to run a generator that refills the battery, not to drive the car directly. That’s what the Chevy Volt introduced us to long ago, but Mazda will run its car’s generator from a rotary engine that will be lighter, smaller, quieter and smoother than a comparable piston engine. I’m a little concerned that the electric MX-30’s tech story will be too complicated, as the Volt’s was, so it needs to arrive with great basic specs, which are TBD. 

Toyota Prius Prime

A new Prius Prime in 2023 should bring a major styling redesign, perhaps as an SUV with a coupe roofline, and with a more potent plug-in hybrid powertrain. Nobody can popularize PHEVs like Toyota and the company is banking on them to have a bigger role in the future than the current EV mania suggests. I would hope the new Prius Prime sports a battery-only range of at least 45 miles compared to the current range of 25 miles, as that would enable the car to take on enough pure electric range for most peoples’ everyday driving — even if you forget to plug in until an hour before you head out for the day.  

Lexus RZ

The Lexus RZ 450e will be the first pure electric Lexus and will sit on the same basic platform as the unpronounceable Toyota bZ4x and Subaru Solterra. Its styling has more edges than your kitchen knife drawer, while the cockpit eschews the current trend toward excessive minimalism. The RZ promises to set a new bar for coordination between its head-up display and direct access buttons on the steering wheel.

Polestar 3 and 4

The electric sub brand of Volvo will deliver its most important car to date in 2023. The Polestar 3 will be a proper crossover, which is overdue for a brand that started with a PHEV luxury sedan that you’ve never seen in the wild, followed by the all-electric Polestar 2 that just looks frumpy to my eye. Also being teased under a drape, below, is an upcoming electric utility vehicle with a coupe roofline, and the wickedly fast Polestar 5, coming in 2024. Polestar has a busy couple of years ahead.

The post The Electric Cars I Most Look Forward to in 2023 first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

In my line of work, I’m asked all the time if I have an EV. People are surprised and, I suspect, disappointed that my answer is no. Here are my reasons, none of them perfect, for not yet taking the plunge into what I nonetheless think is the future of driving. 

Lousy timing

This is the big one: It’s an awful time to buy any car, thanks to record high transaction prices and record low choice on dealer lots. I don’t relish getting at the back of a long line to pay top dollar for any commodity, which I suspect CNET’s Farnoosh Torabi has my back on. That said, major consultancies believe we are close to a sea change when EVs will equal conventional cars in total cost of ownership and even beat them on purchase price, without incentives. 

Used cars FTW

I much prefer to buy late-model used cars, but they’re also experiencing high cost and low supply, compounded by the fact that there are even fewer desirable used EVs in the pipeline. Sorry, a first-gen frog-eyed Leaf just isn’t on my list. This situation will correct itself over time and I don’t worry about a used EV having some range loss; see my piece from not too long ago about giving yourself a reality check on how much range you need — it’s less than you think.

Beyond Tesla

There has to be more to the story than Tesla, but right now that one brand essentially is the US EV market and pretty much owns the excitement around it. But history tells me that two to three other major makers, existing or new, will emerge with similar or even greater success, and I want to see how they get there before I buy.

Waiting for monotony

I’ve covered many tech revolutions and they all have a similar arc, starting with convulsively innovative products before morphing in a marvelous monotony of uniformly excellent offerings trying to make big news out of small improvements. That describes smartphones, TVs, laptops and combustion-engine cars today, with products in each category doing about the same thing as the other guy and about as well. EVs will get there, which is when I prefer to buy anything that depreciates. 

Charging will get easier

I live in a single-family home, so charging would be easy, but I’m also cognizant of an increasing drumbeat behind daytime charging away from home, as advocated by a new Stanford study that says such charging behavior pays major dividends in terms of grid stability and cleanliness. Ideally charging should be the same as parking, just about anywhere you go, but we’re a long way from that. 

Spending more, polluting more

You probably buy an EV to save money and the environment, but for the first year or two you may pollute and spend more, because you caused a huge battery and car to be built and transported, and because you spent a bunch of money to buy a car at historically high prices that you probably didn’t need. Both deficiencies can be earned back, but timing your purchase well can shorten both windows thanks to better market conditions and improved technology, like…

Solid-state batteries

These may be coming at scale by 2025 and could reduce the carbon footprint of an EV battery by nearly 40%, take an 80% charge in 15 minutes instead of 30 and have a longer cycle life of charges and discharges, giving cars equipped with them better long-term value. That said, a solid-state battery revolution is still nebulous enough that I rank this concern fairly low, but I also don’t want to be that last guy who bought a laptop running on nickel metal hydrides.

Byzantine tax incentives

The US federal tax incentives for buying a plug-in car recently changed and became a complicated eye of a needle, with an estimated 70% of new EVs failing to qualify fully or even partially over the next couple of years. The new rules scrutinize the origin of key materials, the price of the car and where it’s assembled. Carmakers are rejiggering their processes to check the new boxes, but in the meantime many desirable electric cars will effectively cost thousands more than they might later. Since I like used cars, this one is rather low on my list, but perhaps No. 1 for you.

The other car with a plug

I’ve long thought that plug-hybrid electric vehicles are the unsung heroes of green driving, at least in the interim between now and truly widespread EV adoption. The latest PHEVs can handle most or all of your daily driving without combustion and easily segue into long trips using gas — goodbye range anxiety. The downside is that they are less elegant machines, with two powertrains and an admittedly complicated  story, but try telling that to Akio Toyoda, whose family business knows a thing or two about hybrids and remains committed to them at scale. It might also surprise you to know that a ranking by transport analysis consultancy TNMT slots PHEVs lower in carbon footprint than a pure electric car.

Fewer miles to improve

I drive much less since COVID, and I think that’s permanent. Commuting, shopping and my interest in dining out have simply changed. I now go days without getting into a car, unheard of a couple of years ago. That means the benefits of any EV I might buy would have a lot fewer miles to act upon, apropos to the cost and emissions earn-back conundrums I mentioned above.

A weak link

I don’t like single points of infrastructure failure, and electric cars help create one as we supposedly electrify everything. Now, I will always have several cars, most of them combustion, but if you’re thinking of making an EV your sole vehicle right now, think twice, or at least shop for one that can be a power source, not just a power consumer.

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At this point I’ve probably enraged the Tesla-rati, tree huggers and coal rollers alike, but my work has taught me to be a clear-eyed consumer, not an early adopter. I want more model choice, inventory size, technological maturation, purchasing leverage and federal incentive applicability than exist today. Waiting for those will only bring me better tech and a more informed perspective.

The post Why I Don’t Own an Electric Car Yet first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

If you have an EV or have ever shopped for one, you know the mantra that carmakers preach: Install an affordable Level 2 charge connector at your house and plug in overnight for ample miles of blissful clean range. But what if that’s just the selfish way? A new study out of Stanford University paints a more nuanced picture that urges greater use of daytime charging away from the suburban driveway. 

The paper recommends daytime charging at workplace or public locations when power from solar is at its most plentiful and when the grid is less taxed than in the late afternoon or early evening. “In our results that was much better for the grid at the generation level in every different metric that we considered,” says Siobhan Powell, lead author of the study, which looked at scenarios in the 14-state Western Interconnection region of the US grid.

The benefits of the Stanford recommendation extend not only to avoiding grid collapse but also to charging EVs when the cleanest power is available with less reliance on expensive battery storage. This “make hay while the sun shines” model would be something of an about-face for traditional utility and Department of Energy charging dogma that urges charging overnight when demand is low, though solar output is nonexistent, a recommendation that dates back to a time when solar and wind power generation were still in their nascency.

“At Stanford we work closely with a lot of utilities and this is one of their big concerns: What will charging do to their networks?” says Powell. The answer would seem to be nothing good, based a recent moment: On Aug. 25 California decided to ban the sale of new combustion cars by 2035; 13 days later a heatwave resulted in temporary signs on some California EV charging stations asking drivers to avoid using them between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

But Powell says that irony “also highlighted one of the upsides of EV charging, that it’s very flexible compared to other electric demand.” Most of us don’t have a choice of when we need air conditioning or when we need to cook dinner, but cars sit idle for the vast majority of their lives, allowing for highly flexible charging as long as a savvy owner or a smart grid embraces it.    

Daytime charging at work or in public locations also helps answer what is the least inconvenient truth about EVs: Over 30% of US households are in multifamily buildings where residents probably don’t have their own garage or driveway in which to install a private charging device. 

One caveat to the study is that it was based on pre-COVID data, leaving open questions about how the return to office will settle out and what it means to the potential scale of at-work charging. But even if some offices remain sparsely attended, with a majority of EVs charging at home, the Stanford team says smart charging, where cars and the grid do an intelligent handshake, can ensure that cars charge at the cleanest time and not all at the same time. 

You may have noticed that many public or workplace charging locations share a major flaw: There are too few of them and too many are tethered to cars that are fully charged but waiting for the return of a driver who is busy working or shopping. Short of some convoluted robotic charge tender that even Elon Musk has given up on, the answer seems to be ubiquitous charging where virtually any place you can park a car you can charge it. That’s a massive undertaking the likes of which this country hasn’t seen since the electrification of US homes a century ago. But public investment is building to bolster a vast infrastructure project where the business case for installing charge locations (PDF) is seen as challenging.

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The post Are You Thinking About Electric Car Charging the Wrong Way? first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

The word “metaverse” is on a lot of lips lately, but so far only the world’s big brands, and the agencies that are charged with keeping them ahead of the digital media curve, are putting the money where their mouths are. The metaverse is a slippery form of media: a spatial, immersive set of virtual worlds that may have some connection to real products in the real world. There’s no playbook yet for how brands navigate that with aplomb, and no guarantee of avoiding ham-fistedness.

“The floodgates opened up on Jan. 1,” says Jane Lacher, head of growth for GroupM. It’s one of the largest media agencies in the world, and it counts Ford, Google, Coca-Cola and Unilever among its clients. CES 2022 was a coming out party for the metaverse, she says, thanks to the announcement just two months prior that Facebook would rename itself Meta as it pivoted toward the metaverse. “Every fifth email or inquiry [from brands] is ‘what’s the metaverse, do I need to be there?'”

While the question is simple and direct, the answer is more nuanced. “It’s going to be big and niche at the same time,” says Lacher. “Niche in that it’s a virtual experience in virtual worlds, big in that you have an entire generation who in a decade are going to be virtual-first consumers.” 

See also: Shopping in the Metaverse Could Be More Fun Than You Think

Lacher says she’s watching to see how much and how quickly VR headgear is accepted by that generation. Will it become their vehicle to metaverse worlds? Or will the majority of engagement remain on 2D tablets, phones and laptops?

The question for brands isn’t whether to get engaged in metaverse worlds but when and how. “The last thing a brand wants to do is create a bad experience on one of these [metaverse] platforms and just be there as an advertiser,” says Lacher. “The rules of engagement haven’t changed when it comes to the necessity to create value for consumers, and in this territory it’s more important than anywhere else.” 

She cites Nike’s entry on Roblox and Gucci’s even edgier moves into NFT expressions of its brand as examples that at least partly show the way. Gucci’s designs for limited-run virtual characters on NFT platform Superplastic would probably strain credulity with most people who buy its products in the real world. But she says they’re an early sign of a savvy virtual product offering by a major brand.

Metaverse worlds may be won over by the best movers, not necessarily the first movers. The next two or even three years will likely be a time for exploration by brands. “Where does being on the metaverse look for you,” says Lacher putting an apropos twist on the typical “what” in that question. “How you’re going to measure it is going to be longer term, it’s going to be more emotional.” 

Watch the video here, in which Jane Lacher shares more early insights about the metaverse for brands with CNET’s Brian Cooley.

The post How Your Favorite Brands Will Meet You in the Metaverse first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

There are so many webcams out there it’s hard to know which one and which specs are going to make you look the best with the least effort. Here are four I really like right now, with important shopping lessons that each one embodies. 

Lori Grunin/CNET

Dell Ultrasharp 4K

The Dell UltraSharp is a fresh entry from a company known mostly for computers. The build quality of this sleek cylindrical camera is marvelous, as are its slick magnetic mounting adapters and lens cap. Not so marvelous is its lack of an internal microphone or Mac compatibility, but the latter isn’t too surprising from a leading maker of Windows PCs.

The UltraSharp is a 4K camera with an 8.3-megapixel sensor, 5x digital zoom and a field of view running from 65 to 90 degrees. The premise is not so much about shoving cinematic detail down the line to the other end of your Zoom call but rather automatically panning within the 4K image to keep you properly framed if you move around. It works very well and is the smartest use of 4K in a webcam, rather than going for ultimate resolution that most telepresence platforms can’t convey anyway.

$184 at Dell

Osbot

Obsbot Tiny Full HD

The Obsbot Tiny comes in HD and 4K variants, but I find the HD version sufficient, because it uses a little motorized gimbal camera to physically pan, tilt and zoom rather than do so digitally within the pixels of 4K resolution. Most of us don’t move around that much once we start a video session, so consider this camera’s banner feature critical only if you’ve been looking for it. The automatic panning and tilting rely on smart image processing that isn’t quite smart enough, in my experience, cutting off the top of my head with some regularity. Thankfully the camera’s app makes any misframing quick to fix.

The Obsbot Tiny also supports a rudimentary set of two hand gestures to center it on your face or to zoom it in and out. But you’re likely to use those gestures only before a teleconference starts or the host is going to think you have a question all the time. As with most instances of gesture control it’s not a reason to buy this cam, but its motorized head and generally excellent color and light capture are.

$199 at Walmart

Logitech

Logitec Brio 4K

The Logitech Brio became something of a COVID icon — hard to find and obscenely marked up — as millions started “zooming it in” and wanted to snatch up a flagship cam from a massively popular brand. The Brio remains a good cam with 4K resolution and a 13-megapixel sensor, but I find it’s slipped a bit behind the other cameras in this list in terms of focus sharpness, its ability to even out wonky lighting and its $165 list price. 

Read our Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam preview.

$165 at WalmartYou’re receiving price alerts for Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam

Anker

Anker PowerConf C300

 The Anker PowerConf C300 is proof that you can spend a lot closer to $100 than $200 and get a great webcam. For its $100 list price you won’t get 4K resolution or a robotic gimbal head, but you will get excellent light handling and focus. And it has the best privacy cover in the bunch: A simple slider that you can’t lose and that is so easy to move it won’t bump your camera’s aim when you open or close it.

The street price on the C300 is frequently drops under $100, which makes its really good image processing that much more of a reason not to sweat its lack of 4K, cutting-edge gimmicks or stunning design. 

$100 at Walmart

The camera in the lid of your laptop or bezel of your tablet is likely not doing you justice in a world where showing up clearly and naturally on the other end is essential to getting fully heard and seen.

The post How to choose the best webcam first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

When you think of “Googling,” you almost certainly think of entering text and getting millions of results, so much so that the Google search page has become a cultural icon. But some of the most interesting Google results arise from images, live camera views, or the sounds around you, making them not only useful but a taste of what’s to come in augmented reality and metaverses. Here’s a quick look at ways to Google without words.

Image search

This is also called a reverse image search: Instead of searching for an image you search with an image. On the desktop, go to Google Images. There, you can drag and drop any GIF, PNG, JPG or WEBP image file into the search field. The results will include different sized versions of the image, sites where the image is found and images that are similar but not identical to it. You can use these results to identify what an image depicts, find higher-resolution versions of it or track down places where it’s being used.

Live camera search

Also called Google Lens, this is similar to image search above but uses a live image from your phone’s camera instead of uploading an image file. The easiest way is to tap the Lens button on your Android home screen then aim your phone’s camera at an object or scene. If you don’t see the Lens button, you can add it to your phone via the official Lens app.

Most of the time Google will figure out what you’re aiming it at and return results that include content and shopping links. It’s a rudimentary cousin of augmented reality and a technique that’s also used in the Amazon and Snapchat apps but Google results tend to be more agnostic than those two. To be fair, I find Lens to be a more brittle tool than image search, but when it works it can give you results you probably won’t find any other way. 

You can also use Lens to search text that you aim your camera at, or use the Google Translate app, which uses the same core technology to translate printed text into another language. 

Background music search

Finding the name of a song that’s playing is nothing new — anyone can holler out, “Hey, Google, what song is this?” But the most elegant way of identifying music is one of the most overlooked tricks in Google’s Pixel phones.

On a Pixel 2 or later Pixel with Android 10 or higher go to Settings > Sound and Vibration > Now Playing and activate the Identify songs playing nearby slider. While you’re in there, turn on Show search button on lock screen. Now your phone will always be trying to identify the music around you and it’ll show the title on your phone’s lock screen. 

If it fails, you’ll find a subtle new button on your lock screen that you can press to ID the music around you. And you’ll find a history of all songs that have been detected around you when you click on the song title on the lock screen.

If you don’t have a Pixel phone, there’s at least one other way to graft it onto other Android devices via the Ambient Music Mod developed by Kieron Quinn and Varun Shanbhag. Installing it is not for the average phone user, however.

The post How to Google Without Words: The Coolest Searches You May Not Know first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Anyone who tells you what the metaverse will be is either guessing or kidding themselves. “The topic lately fills me with frustration,” says CNET’s Scott Stein, our resident expert on virtual worlds. “It’s not just about VR and AR headsets.” The metaverse will be much more nuanced than the technical platforms it’s superficially associated with.

Even the term “the metaverse” is simplistic: A number of metaverses will emerge along the lines of social media platforms, with a handful becoming dominant and largely incompatible. “Everyone’s promising interoperability but history suggests it will be multiplatform, semicompatible and half-broken,” Stein predicts, though he’s intrigued by the “cross-border portability” envisioned by Meta, formerly Facebook. But “metaverse” shouldn’t have a “the” in front of it, because there won’t be just one. 

And what about all those stilted, infantile avatars that make current virtual worlds look like something you can ignore until it grows up? Some platforms, like Spatial, render their users in a photorealistic way that will have to suffice until real-time face monitoring, gaze detection and networked haptics are polished enough to put convincing versions of ourselves into these digital worlds. 

Beyond superficialities like naming and looks, there are the core motivations for metaverses, which seem as mercenary as those driving the internet. Cryptocurrency is a big force right now, and so are NFTs, Stein notes. “You can feel it changing the landscape … because the money’s there.” Using cryptocurrency to take part in dubious digital land rushes or acquire NFTs of digital art, which always seems to be a mashup of Basquiat and Haring, could be the ultimate in long-term vision or just the next I Am Rich app. “The virtual land you buy today could be of value, or like an old game cartridge,” says Stein.

As we transition to metaverses, keep an eye on which ones work with traditional flat displays as well as AR and VR displays. “How many people are going to be wearing things on their heads?” asks Stein. “It’s growing but it’s always going to be a subset.” Metaverses can be seen as new interfaces for the physical world, especially in fields such as work, education and remote healthcare. Stein likes to think of AR and VR headgear as “headphones for your eyes,” something you pick up seamlessly when you want to drop into an immersive version of a given task or pleasure, but not the only (or even primary) way to do so.

Aside from gaming, work may be the essential starting point for metaverses, thanks to the pandemic’s demand that we rethink the office. Meta’s Horizon Workrooms launched in public beta last year, offering a fully virtual place for co-workers to meet as avatars but, crucially, bring productivity tools like typing and whiteboards to the virtual mix. Whether meeting with avatars in a synthetic world replaces the supposed magic that happens in real offices must be judged by employers and their culture mavens.

Metaverses have all the classic signs of overhype: A previous run that came and went (Second Life), association with hardware that very few people have interest in adopting (AR and VR headgear), a sense that metaverse promoters will say anything to make a lot of money off the concept, and a huge leap of faith that the hard technical problems are just few cycles of Moore’s Law away from solving themselves.

On the other hand, metaverses seem inevitable. Phone, laptops and tablets can’t be all there is, cryptocurrency seems to be quieting doubters the way Tesla did about three years ago and our insatiable appetite for the current web is ample evidence that we’ll tolerate the bumps on the road to a better one. But please, do something about the avatars.

The post The Metaverse Isn’t What You Think It Is Because No One Knows What It Is first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

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Most of us are still getting our heads wrapped around 5G, but some major tech players are well into the development of 6G. Qualcomm, a huge force in wireless technology, is one of them, and CNET news chief Roger Cheng recently talked to executives and engineers there about the next generation of wireless. Apple, Google and LG are also members of a 6G working group. 

In broad strokes, 6G is envisioned as truly subsuming wireless connectivity into everything around us with network coverage and bandwidth availability so effortless we cease to worry about them. That’s a herculean task that 5G may only start accomplishing. “All the different sensors that we expect [to be connected] with 5G will be a lot more with 6G, and everything will be talking to each other in an effort to make your life easier,” says Cheng. 

That suggests 6G will need to scale both up and down, from connections that need huge bandwidth like home ISP service to devices that need only a small amount to report pressure or temperature, like a piece of future smart clothing.

Another area where 6G may take a handoff from 5G is coverage. 5G can offer good bandwidth to a large area or amazing bandwidth to a small area, but in between is something of a technical and economic null zone. “If you’ve got a fatter pipe, how do you get the range much wider? That’s when things start to get really interesting,” says Cheng. One of 6G’s clear mandates would be to overlap coverage and bandwidth without tradeoffs.

Cheng reminds that “this is all still sort of theoretical. Anyone who’s telling you this is what 6G will actually look like is selling you something you shouldn’t be buying.” It still makes for a fascinating future to ponder, and you can do so with the video of Roger’s full conversation with me.

Now What is a video interview series with industry leaders, celebrities and influencers that covers trends impacting businesses and consumers amid the “new normal.” There will always be change in our world, and we’ll be here to discuss how to navigate it all.

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The single lens reflex camera has been the iconic mainstay of “serious” photography since the 1960s, and its digital version, the DSLR, has served that role during the 21st century. But a 50-year run at the top seems to be peaking as cameras with mirrors and pentaprisms are being pushed aside by mirrorless cameras. Now what?

“You get a lot more computer brains” in a mirrorless camera, says Stephen Shankland, senior reporter at CNET and longtime avid photographer. “You have all the light information going to the image sensor all the time, and one of the big things you can do is a lot better autofocus.” DSLRs usually only send the lens’ image to the sensor when you press the shutter button, narrowing the amount of time the sensor has to adapt to and capture the image. It’s a derivation of film camera design that mirrorless cameras can ostensibly run circles around. 

Sony recently ceased making DSLRs in favor of mirrorless cameras, but DSLR giants Canon and Nikon have yet to cut and run, instead placing new priority on mirrorless cameras like the Canon R5 and R6 or the Nikon Z Series while their legacy DSLRs soldier on. Mirrorless cameras are typically more compact than famously clunky DSLRs, but often require new lenses or an adapter if you want to keep your DSLR lenses, somewhat defeating any size and weight improvement.

To be sure, the bottom hasn’t yet fallen out of the market for interchangeable lens cameras, a category that includes both DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, according to data from Japans’ Camera and Imaging Products Association. Thank video for much of that buoyancy, as DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are the go-to choice for a couple of generations of video producers. Still, the DSLR exit has begun, one that Shankland predicts will be a long one since the technology still offers a compelling combination of image quality, lens choice and the inertia of a large installed base that has invested a lot of money in gear.

“I don’t think you need to run out and grab the last DSLR on the shelf,” says Shankland. “Canon and Nikon are moving gradually through this transition.”

Shankland had many more insights into the camera market based on his coverage at CNET. Hear them all in the video.

Now What is a video interview series with industry leaders, celebrities and influencers that covers trends impacting businesses and consumers amid the “new normal.” There will always be change in our world, and we’ll be here to discuss how to navigate it all.

The post The DSLR is fading away. Now what? first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

The modern phone does everything — including shatter, break and leak. No matter how elaborate or expensive a phone you buy, the manufacturer generally assumes you’ll take it upon yourself to immediately swaddle it in an aftermarket case so it can survive daily use. There’s no other consumer electronic product that leaves the factory so not ready for the real world. That’s where rugged phones come in.

Rugged phones once only appealed to first responders, preppers and “technochondriacs” but a new breed of them that cut a svelte figure are broadening their appeal. Research and Markets projects rugged phone sales to grow at a compound annual rate of 6.7% from 2020 to 2027, compared to just 3.7% sales growth for all smartphones from 2022 to 2025, according to IDC. 

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The iPhone 13 has inspired a cottage industry of angst for the daring few who carry it without a case, but that remains a daring proposition for a four-figure device that touts durability “front and center and edge to edge” yet offers no warranty protection for “liquid damage” nor any formal drop or impact rating like truly rugged phones do. Its arch-rival Samsung Galaxy S21 proved itself not-so-hardy in its own ways. Cue the real rugged phones.

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Best rugged phones

In my opinion the Samsung XCover Pro and the Kyocera DuraSport 5G best combine serious ruggedness with fashionable slimness. The Cat S52 is thinner but it’s only available in the US as a gray-market device. The bigger Cat S62 Pro offers a powerful FLIR temperature sensor. The diminutive UniHertz AtomXL writes a new page in the rugged-phone stylebook, while the Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G joins the venerable Sonim XP8 as no-apologies devices aimed straight at the first responder and industrial markets.

Samsung XCover Pro

See at Amazon

Ruggedness and water-resistance

All these phones laugh at being dropped on a hard floor, dunked in water or even immersed in liquid cleaner — that last one being a neat trick at a time when we’re disinfecting everything. The ruggedness credential for most phones is Military Standard 810-G, which encompasses a lot of specifications but is commonly described as the ability to withstand a 1.5-meter (4.9-foot) drop without damage. All the phones in our list are rated either 810-G or the newer 810-H.

A phone’s resistance to foreign matter is signified by an IP code, typically IP68. The 6 in IP68 means the phone is closed to dust and grit, while the 8 means the phone is protected against water immersion “under conditions … agreed between the manufacturer and user,” according to the International Electrotechnical Commission, which oversees the standard. That means not all IP68 ratings are the same. It can denote immersion resistance ranging from 5 feet for 30 minutes for the Samsung XCover Pro, 2 meters for 30 minutes with the Kyocera DuraSport 5G, or 5 feet for 35 minutes with the Cat S62 Pro. Read the tech specs before you buy, but all the phones on our list have some level of IP68 protection. The Sonim XP8 and Cat S62 Pro achieve a high enough IP rating that they can also resist direct sprays of liquid.

Kyocera DuraSport 5G

See at Verizon

Note that some of the phones in this roundup have a tethered cap that seals their USB-C jack. These caps are tedious in daily use and complicate placing the phone in a desktop charging stand unless you have the Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G, which supports Qi wireless charging pad, allowing the port door to stay closed while charging.

Push to Talk

With fires, power outages, floods and other unusual events becoming more usual, many people are joining local neighborhood response groups or CERT teams, which rely on radio-style communications but not necessarily with actual radios. Push to Talk over cellular apps such as Zello allow a phone to work like a walkie-talkie with anyone else running the same app. Sprint and Verizon offer similar services as plan options. 

All of the phones on our list except the Cat S52 have at least one dedicated button that can be set to Push to Talk, and the Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G has three programmable buttons. All of the phones can map a button to Zello, the most popular PTT platform. That gives you far better walkie-talkie ergonomics than pressing a virtual talk button on the screen.

The Unihertz AtomXL is also a “real” radio. It’s able to communicate with the FCC Part 90 radios, often known as “business radios,” with the use of a small external antenna that ships with the phone. Technically, the AtomXL can also communicate with GMRS and FRS radios, which are often carried by neighborhood volunteers, as well as with some ham radios, but it’s not FCC approved to do so. In any of these modes, it has 0.5- and 1.5-watt output power levels.

The Sonim XP8 also has true radio capability via an optional Xpand module that turns it into a transceiver on the 900MHz ISM band. That isn’t likely familiar or useful to the average person, though. Even with this Xpand module the XP8 will not be compatible with FRS and GMRS radios you may own for family use.

Dual SIMs

Several phones on this list support dual SIMs, giving them another kind of ruggedness: network resiliency. If you’re willing to spend the money, having two carriers activated on a phone can mean the difference between having service or not during a crisis. Setting up a pair of technically distinct carriers on a phone can substantially reduce your odds of being offline when networks are jammed or damaged. For example, you might activate both Verizon and AT&T on a dual-SIM phone. It may seem tempting to get a virtual three-network phone by activating Google Fi on the other SIM since it taps into both T-Mobile and US Cellular, but Fi only juggles those two networks on “Made for Fi” phones, which currently only include Google Pixels and Moto G phones — none that are rugged.

A couple of the phones on our list are available with LTE Band 14 support so they can use AT&T FirstNet, a special mobile network that can prioritize you and preempt other network users at times of extreme network load, like during natural disasters. You can’t just sign up for FirstNet by having a compatible phone, however; you need to also be sponsored via a participating emergency services organization you’re involved with.

Front-facing speakers

Most of the phones we carry today make a big sacrifice in the name of design: Their speakers aren’t aimed at our ears, but aim sideways out of the phone. A couple of the rugged phones on our list rectify that with front-facing speakers that blow away the meek volume levels on mainstream phones. The Kyocera DuraSport 5G is the only slim rugged phone that aims its audio optimally.

This is useful for PTT apps, especially when you’re in a hectic or outdoor location. But note my pet peeve: Speakerphone mode is way overused today, so blare sparingly. We don’t want to hear your conversation or FaceTime. Get some earbuds when a speakerphone isn’t mission-critical.

The Sonim XP8 has a long history with professional first responders and has developed the screw-down Secure Audio Connector to provide audio and power to a wide range of speakers, mics and combinations of the two. 

Sonim XP8

See at Verizon

Replaceable batteries

Remember when many phones had these? They made charge anxiety less of an issue. Just pop in a spare battery and be back at 100% charge in seconds. The Samsung XCover Pro and Sonim XP8 have swappable batteries as part of their ready-for-anything ethos. Even the fastest charge can’t compete with this simple solution, though the Kyocera DuraSport 5G is compatible with an optional fast charging AC adapter that uses Power Deliver 3.0 technology at 27 watts. 

Cat S52

See at Amazon

No more apologies for cameras and screens

Rugged phones used to treat camera and display quality as elective, but these new models leave little lacking when it comes to these features. They may not have the number of cameras found on flagship phones like the iPhone 12 Pro Max or the Samsung Galaxy S21, but the cameras they do have are ample in megapixels and take advantage of the Google image processing built into Android. The gallery of comparative shots below is remarkable mostly in how unremarkable the photos are: They’re barely different from the typical snapshot taken with a flagship phone. 

Camera comparison from six top rugged phones

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All the phones on this list use toughened glass. The CAT phones have the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 6, which is more resistant to repeated and higher drops than its more commonly found predecessor.

Thermal imaging

The CAT S62 Pro takes imaging a step further with an integrated FLIR Lepton thermal sensor which can measure from -4 to 752 degrees Fahrenheit with a high degree of sensitivity. If you’ve been temperature scanned when entering a building lately, you know that the pandemic has made temperature scanning mainstream. Even after the pandemic subsides, a FLIR sensor is a tool with dozens of uses.

The CAT S62 Pro’s FLIR Lepton sensor is designed for use in phones, allowing it to fully integrate into the phone’s body unlike the earlier FLIR sensor in the CAT S61, which required a large top protrusion.

There’s an interesting form of augmented reality in the CAT S62 Pro, achieved by blending the photo and temperature imagery via on-screen controls. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a useful feature for more accurate visual indexing of a temperature to spot in the scene that can be tricky to discern in full FLIR mode.

Cat S62 Pro

See at Amazon

Size and weight

While some of the newest rugged phones are almost indistinguishable from standard phones, some are still bulky and proud of it. A few stand out in the stack below, but most are similar to standard phones.

This chart shows the weight and feature differences between the phones. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro and Cat S52 are standouts in thin design with light, rugged construction. And remember: These don’t need a cover.

Other parlor tricks

The Kyocera DuraSport 5G, being the newest phone in this roundup, offers a couple of technologies that many phone users aren’t yet familiar with. Wi-Fi RTT (Round Trip Time) uses Wi-Fi to determine the phone’s location by precisely measuring the round trip flight time of a ping to a nearby RTT compatible router. It’s accurate to within 3 to 6 feet and particularly useful indoors where GPS location may be coarse or nonexistent. ANT Plus is emerging as a key technology to connect wearables, fitness devices and mobiles to each other, but it’s an Android thing: If you have a rugged Android phone and an Apple Watch, ANT Plus won’t connect the two.

Is rugged right for you?

If you want the latest in advanced video capture, computational photography or a laptop-class CPU, these phones aren’t quite ready to replace your current device. But if you’re tired of breaking phones, regularly use a PTT app such as Zello, or are big on outdoor adventures or public service volunteer work, think beyond the usual suspects next time you buy a phone. These rugged phones make the category exciting again.

The post These are rugged times, here are the best rugged phones for them first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.