Lenovo’s new smart clock swaps the Google Assistant for Alexa

Image by Lenovo

Lenovo has a new smart clock, and unlike its prior models, the updated Smart Clock Essential comes with Alexa instead of Google Assistant — basically making it an Echo Dot turned smart clock. Most of the major changes to the clock have to do with Lenovo passing the baton to Alexa, but there are still some smaller changes worth noting as well.

You can still set an alarm, timer, and reminders, as well as control your smart home with the device; any product that’s compatible with Alexa will also work with the Smart Clock Essential. Additionally, you can stream audio from Amazon Music and other streaming platforms, which the smart clock plays from its 3W speaker, a spec that remains unchanged from the previous model.

The fabric case that...

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Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z-Series targets — you guessed it — Gen-Z

Lenovo’s newest ThinkPads are thin, light, and ready for the boardroom.

Lenovo is trying to make ThinkPads cool to the kids. The company has launched the ThinkPad Z-series, a thin and light ThinkPad line with funky colors, eco-friendly packaging, and a distinctly modern look.

“If you’re currently buying, especially in the business market, a consumer-look-and-feel design, this is the product you should look at,” Tom Butler, executive director of the ThinkPad portfolio, told The Verge. “We’re going to bring in all the elements of a robust business-class device, but it’s going to be in more of this consumer, progressive, modern design.”

There’s a 13-inch model (the Z13) and a 16-inch model (the Z16). Both include some of the most recognizable ThinkPad features: namely, the light-up logo and the tiny red...

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Intel’s Mobileye announces new EyeQ Ultra system-on-a-chip for autonomous driving

Mobileye, the advanced driver assist and autonomous driving company owned by Intel, announced the latest version of its EyeQ system-on-a-chip (SoC), which it described as its most advanced system yet. The announcement was made at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The new chip, dubbed EyeQ Ultra, is the latest version of Mobileye’s SoC that’s been in production since 2004. The company says the chip will be capable of 176 trillion operations per second (TOPS), putting it in competition with Tesla and Nvidia in the race to produce high-performing computer chips to power autonomous vehicles.

The EyeQ Ultra won’t go into production until late 2023

The EyeQ Ultra won’t go into production until late 2023 and is not expected to...

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Alienware’s newest monitor features a 34-inch curved OLED from Samsung

Dell

Alienware has an exciting new gaming monitor that’ll release in late March 2022. It has plenty of specs that gamers care about, but I’d be remiss not to mention any closer to the top of this post that it features a 34-inch Quantum Dot OLED panel manufactured by Samsung. LG Display has traditionally been the supplier of larger OLED panels (especially in TVs), so hopefully, Alienware’s gaming monitor is the first of many more big OLEDs to come out of Samsung, which has usually stuck with the smaller OLEDs found in tablets and phones.

The QD-OLED monitor, as it’s called, seems like a great PC gaming companion, marrying the immersion of a curved display with the unbeatable colors and fast response time that only an OLED can produce. The...

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Sony announces the world’s first QD-OLED 4K TV, coming later this year

Image: Sony

Sony is setting some pretty grand expectations with its 2022 TV lineup — led by the introduction of the world’s first consumer QD-OLED TV. The company’s current and well-regarded OLED sets use panels from LG Display that are tuned with Sony’s own processing. But the new flagship Bravia XR A95K TV will include a QD-OLED (quantum dot organic light emitting diode) panel manufactured by none other than Samsung Display. It’ll come in 65-inch and 55-inch sizes, with both coming in at 4K resolution.

It was rumored that Samsung Electronics might announce a QD-OLED 4K TV at CES 2022, but that hasn’t panned out so far. So it’s Sony that gets the prime spotlight instead. Samsung Display has been developing QD-OLED for a number of years, and the...

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Sony made a camera for its TVs that can scold you for sitting too close

Image: Sony

Here’s the so-called “weird Sony” gadget for CES 2022: the Bravia Cam is a new video camera that will come bundled with the company’s very fanciest TVs (like the new QD-OLED A95K) and sold as an optional add-on for the rest of the lineup. You’ll be able to make video calls with it, but Sony is cramming in way more functionality than the simple stuff. The question is really whether any of the Bravia Cam’s many tricks will actually work worth a damn in the real world.

First, and this is the part I’m instinctively most wary of, the Bravia Cam will allow you to control 2022 Sony TVs with gesture controls from the couch. Want to power your TV off with a close of your fist? Have at it. Or you can pause your content or adjust the volume by...

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TCL announces 98-inch XL QLED TV, and you can buy it today

Image: TCL

Last year, TCL announced an “XL” TV series that aimed to offer very big 85-inch displays for prices below what you’d pay for a similarly enormous set from, say, Samsung or LG. And in the first week of 2022, the XL lineup is going even larger. Today TCL is introducing a new 98-inch 4K QLED TV that’s available for purchase immediately. The 98R754 is a Google TV-based set that offers features like 4K gaming at 120Hz.

As for the price, TCL is only saying that the latest XL model “starts at under $8,000.” So, that probably translates to $7,999. Even at that asking price, TCL claims the 98-inch QLED is “accessible” and honors the company’s “commitment to deliver powerful picture performance and big-screen immersion at an accessible price...

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Sony is joining the Mini LED TV bandwagon in 2022

Image: Sony

Sony makes arguably the best OLED TVs that you can buy. They outperform LG’s own OLED sets in picture quality despite the fact that both companies use very similar panels from LG Display. That’s because Sony applies its own image processing to everything that you see on-screen. Even when the company adopts a new display technology, it leans on decades’ worth of TV hardware expertise to fine-tune everything.

And now that Sony’s got a good handle on OLED, it’s time for a new challenge: Mini LED. As part of its 2022 TV lineup, which also features one of the world’s very first QD-OLED TVs, Sony is introducing its first Mini LED LCD TVs. The Z9K series will offer 8K resolution in 75- and 85-inch screen sizes, while the X95K sticks to 4K with...

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Colonialism still influences the earth sciences today — and that’s a big problem for research

“Amber hunters” on a quest for a Jurassic Park-style discovery of dinosaur remains sift through mounds of the precious resin in Myanmar — a lucrative trade that captivates palaeontologists but also fuels a decades-long conflict in the far north.  | Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images

Colonialism is so entangled in earth sciences that its ugly legacy still influences research today. Scientists are struggling to undo the damage that colonization has had on their fields, which have been dominated mostly by white men from wealthy nations over the years.

The latest evidence is a study published last week that finds that 97 percent of fossil data in a major, global database comes from authors based in North America and Western Europe— indicating that scientists from western nations hold a global “monopoly over palaeontological knowledge production.” The authors say it’s a symptom of researchers from those nations “parachuting” into other countries and taking what they find away with them.

Once researchers return to their...

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Google’s latest Nest Hub display is nearly half off

Google’s latest Nest Hub is on sale today for just $59.99, its second-best price to date. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

If you were secretly hoping for a smart home display for Christmas but didn’t receive one, today you can treat yourself to one of the best for almost half its usual price. Right now, you can grab Google’s second-gen Nest Hub — our pick for one of the best smart displays — for its second-best price to date at B&H Photo, Best Buy, and Adorama. Typically $99.99, it’s currently on sale for $59.99, which is only $10 shy of its all-time low during Black Friday. As mentioned in our review, Google’s small second-gen smart display remains an excellent digital photo frame for displaying images from Google Photos, and it offers automatic and reliable sleep-tracking features. It’s also a better speaker than its predecessor and grants you access to...

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Schlage announces first Apple Home Key-compatible smart lock

The Schlage Encode Plus is the first Apple home key smart lock. | Image: Schlage

At CES 2022 this week, lock manufacturer Schlage announced it is launching the first lock in North America to support Apple’s Home Key. The Schlage Encode Plus Smart WiFi Deadbolt is an updated version of the popular Schlage Encode WiFi smart lock, adding an NFC chip for the Home Key function, as well as a Thread radio to support HomeKit over Thread.

Home Key, introduced with iOS 15, lets you store a digital door key in your Apple Wallet and lock and unlock your door by tapping your device on the lock, similar to how Apple Pay or Apple Transit works. The system uses the iPhone’s or Apple Watch’s NFC chip to authenticate a user.

The Schlage Encode Plus will be available in spring 2022 for $300 (that Plus moniker comes with a $50 price...

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This week in audio: podcast ads gone wrong and the news you missed

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hello and welcome to 2022. It remains winter, y’all. I haven’t seen the sun in seemingly weeks, but we’re pushing through, surviving on podcast news for warmth and cheeriness.

Now, let’s get to the news. There’s not a ton to discuss today, but I do have a new report that I’m excited to share with you all. Let’s start there.

EXCLUSIVE: Podcast ads gone wrong

This morning, I published a story on The Verge about the ongoing push to make programmatic advertising work in podcasting and the struggles podcasters are already experiencing. The idea behind the transition is to allow advertisers to easily and automatically bid on podcast ad inventory and have those ads targeted against specific audiences. This is why we’ve seen podcast platforms...

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TCL jumps from cheap TVs to cheap laptops with the $349 Book 14 Go

TCL’s new laptop, the TCL Book 14 Go. | Image: TCL

TCL, which is perhaps best known for its lower-cost TVs, smartphones, and tablets, is expanding into laptops with the TCL Book 14 Go. The company is also targeting an affordable cost with this new laptop, pricing it at $349— though that budget price means it doesn’t have the most impressive specs.

The new Windows 11 laptop has a 14.1-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, and TCL is promising its 40Wh battery will last for 10 to 12 hours. It’s an ARM-based laptop with a Snapdragon 7c CPU, and it also has an Adreno 618 GPU. And the laptop can connect to LTE networks, so you can get on the internet while away from a Wi-Fi connection. It only has 128GB of onboard storage, though you can expand that with an SD...

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TCL wants its latest budget tablets to be easy on the eyes

The TCL Nxtpaper 10S tablet reduces blue light by 10 percent. | Image by TCL

TCL introduced a lineup of new tablets at CES this year, which includes its latest iteration of the NxtPaper and budget-friendly Tab series.

The NxtPaper 10S offers a similar “paper-like” display and a focus on combatting eye strain as its eight-inch predecessor. But this isn’t electronic paper. It’s a 10.1-inch IPS display that TCL says reduces blue light by 50 percent and has an anti-glare finish. Unlike the previously released NxtPaper tablet, the 10S comes with a proprietary T Pen to jot down notes and boasts a bigger 8,000mAh battery. The NxtPaper 10S is set to go on sale for $249 in Europe and China next month.

Image: TCL

The budget-friendly TCL Tab 8 comes with 4G LTE connectivity.

TCL’s Tab 8 4G is...

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TCL is bringing two new budget 5G phones to US carriers

TCL will debut a total of eight new phones globally in 2022, but it’s kicking the year off by introducing two models coming exclusively to the US: the TCL 30 XE 5G and TCL 30 V 5G. The 30 XE 5G offers a 6.52-inch 90Hz display and will be sold initially at T-Mobile with other carrier availability later in the year. The 30 V 5G will be exclusive to Verizon, with sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G connectivity. With these new devices, TCL looks to be playing to its strengths in the budget market.

The TCL 30 V 5G boasts a slightly bigger 6.67-inch 1080p display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. It uses a Snapdragon 480 5G chipset with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 30 V includes a 50-megapixel main rear camera and a 5-megapixel ultrawide,...

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Version two of TCL’s wearable display glasses are lighter and less dorky-looking

NxtWear Air is a personal secondary display for your phone or laptop embedded in a pair of glasses frames. | Image: TCL

TCL is preparing to launch a second iteration of the wearable personal display it released in limited supply last year. Version two, called NxtWear Air, offers the same secondary-display-in-a-pair-of-glasses function as the original but has been made 30 percent lighter — down to 75g compared to 130g. TCL has made some adjustments for the style-conscious, too, tweaking the design to look more like a normal pair of sunglasses and less like something you’d be embarrassed to wear in public.

NxtWear Air, like its NxtWear G predecessor, offers two 1080p Micro OLEDs embedded in a pair of glasses frames that should give the wearer the effect of viewing a 140-inch screen from about 13 feet away. Its lenses are opaque, and the glasses don’t offer...

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JBL’s latest portable speakers bring the light show

Today JBL is taking the wraps off three new portable speakers. The diminutive Pulse 5 and more powerful PartyBox Encore feature integrated light shows, while the BoomBox 3 tries to split the difference with a more stoic, bass-focused design.

The waterproof and dustproof (IP67) JBL Pulse 5 ($249.95/£219.99/€249) is a portable Bluetooth 5.3 speaker that fires 360-degree sound and lighting for up to 12 hours on rechargeable battery. The lights can be customized via the JBL Portable app and work without playing any sound at all. The speaker can also be combined with other JBL PartyBoost-enabled speakers for bigger sound and more dynamic lighting.

Image: JBL

JBL PartyBox Encore.

JBL bills the 100 watt PartyBox...

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Cync is trying to build an affordable smart home ecosystem, and it might work

Cync’s line of smart home products now includes new bulb options, an outdoor camera, and a smart thermostat. | Image: GE Lighting

Cync, the brand born from C by GE, showed off a huge expansion of its smart lighting line at CES 2022 (yes, in person). Eleven new smart bulbs join its already comprehensive offerings. Plus, the company is expanding further into the smart home with a new outdoor camera and the release of its first smart thermostat, complete with room sensors.

Cync also shared its commitment to the new Matter smart home standard, telling The Verge that its color A19 bulb and light strip will be Matter-compatible via a firmware update when the standard launches in mid-2022.

Cync’s products — which include light switches, indoor and outdoor bulbs, smart plugs, an indoor camera, and a motion sensor — use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Mesh for connectivity. They don’t...

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Here’s a home robot that actually looks useful: a self-driving shelf

Most home robots unveiled at CES tend to over-promise and under-deliver. Every year, we’re treated to staged demos of prototype “robot butlers” that always fail to materialize as real products. But two new bots created by a startup named Labrador Systems look like they’ll break this cycle. Why? Because the company has kept things simple — extremely simple — by building what are essentially self-driving shelves.

The Caddie and Retriever robots are designed to move stuff from A to B

Labrador’s robots, named Caddie and Retriever, are designed to help around the house by ferrying goods around. They’re both about the size of a side-table and come equipped with wheels and sensors that let them navigate your home. Owners will set a number of...

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Garmin’s newest smartwatches aren’t limited to fitness buffs

The Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and the Venu 2 Plus | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

When you think of Garmin wearables, you’re probably thinking of its running smartwatches — durable and a little bulky, but with excellent GPS, detailed metrics, and long battery life. The company has made strides in recent years to expandbeyondits fitness niche, but it seems to have finally hit its stride at CES 2022 with the Venu 2 Plus and the entry-level Vivomove Sport.

It might seem a bit soon for a Venu 2 Plus, given that the Venu 2 just launched last April. However, the device fixes one of the more glaring omissions from the Venu 2: voice capabilities. The Venu 2 Plus adds both a speaker and microphone, meaning the smartwatch is now capable of taking and making calls directly from the wrist, as well as adding voice assistant...

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Intel and AMD tease big CPU announcements for CES

AMD CEO Lisa Su. | Image: AMD

Ahead of their press conferences at this year’s truncated and part-virtual CES, AMD and Intel are teasing big CPU announcements for the show. AMD’s “product premiere” is due to take place at 10am ET today, while Intel has a “digital-first live experience” scheduled for slightly later at 1pm ET.

Intel’s CES tease is focused on one key spec, 5.5GHz, which is expected to be the maximum boost clock speed its upcoming CPU will be able to reach. That’s a 300MHz improvement over the company’s current flagship, the Core i9-12900K, which was announced late last year and can reach a top boost clock speed of 5.2GHz. VideoCardz reports that the new processor could be called the Core i9-12900KS, and may release in late Q1 2022.

12th Gen #IntelCore...

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Are we ready for the smart front door? Masonite thinks so

The world’s first residential smart door, the Masonite M-Pwr Smart Door, features integrated power and Wi-Fi, a Ring video doorbell, and a Yale smart door lock. | Image: Masonite

Door manufacturer Masonite is showcasing the first residential smart door at CES 2022, highlighting the home building industry’s shift toward embracing connected technology. The concept was announced earlier in 2021, but CES is the first chance most will have to see the door in action.

A collaboration between Masonite, Ring, and Yale, the M-Pwr Smart Door is the first residential exterior door to integrate power, lights, sensors, a video doorbell, and a smart lock into the door system.

Image: Masonite

The Masonite smart door features strategically situated motion-activated lighting alongside a Yale door lock and Ring video doorbell.

The door, a premium fiberglass model available in a variety of styles, colors,...

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Ford says it will double production of electric F-150 Lightning to 150,000 trucks per year

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Ford says its planning to double production of its upcoming electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning, to 150,000 vehicles per year by 2023. The news comes as the automaker prepares to start making and shipping its new EV in the first half of 2022.

Production of both the F-150 Lightning and F-150 Lightning Pro for commercial customers has entered its final pre-build stage this week at the company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Deliveries of the first trucks are expected to start in the spring.

The number of electric F-150s Ford planned on making in its first few years of production has been a bit of a shifting target. At first, the company was only targeting 40,000 vehicles annually, eventually telling...

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Verizon, AT&T reverse course and will delay 5G expansions for two weeks as the FAA requested

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

In a standoff that’s pitting Verizon, AT&T, and the FCC versus the FAA and the airline industry over the two carrier’s plans to upgrade their 5G wireless services, the mobile companies now say they’ve reached an agreement with the Department of Transportation. For Verizon, delaying the launch of the “C-band” spectrum means canceling a celebration scheduled for 1PM ET on Tuesday, marking the beginning of its spectrum upgrade.

Tune in to the #UltraShow on 1/4 at 1PM ET and see where streaming, gaming, and the @NFL are going. Hosted by @ElizabethBanks with @TerryCrews & more!

❤️ this tweet for updates, a HUGE reveal, and exclusive content!

Coming https://t.co/X3p9TpOm2lpic.twitter.com/RnrMvwG5p5

— Verizon (@Verizon) January 1, 2022

V...

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LG announces its largest and smallest OLED TVs ever as part of 2022 lineup

Plus multiuser profiles for webOS

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The Galaxy S21 FE officially joins Samsung’s crowded midrange lineup

The less-expensive Fan Edition of the S21 includes a 6.4-inch 120Hz display. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

After a year of will-they-or-won’t-they speculation, Samsung has, at last, announced the Galaxy S21 FE. Like the 2020 Galaxy S20 FE (the FE stands for Fan Edition), this device features most of the flagship-level specs of the Galaxy S21, including a Snapdragon 888 chipset and 120Hz display, at a lower price: $699 for the 128GB base model. With the S21’s nearly midrange price tag and a compelling upper-midrange option in the Galaxy A52 5G, it’s yet another addition to an already crowded spot in Samsung’s lineup.

The Galaxy S21 FE offers a 6.4-inch display, slightly larger than the S21’s 6.2-inch panel. Outside of that size difference, the S21 FE has a whole lot in common with the S21. Its screen is a 1080p OLED panel with 120Hz like the...

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This smart collar wants to be an Apple Watch for your dog

Invoxia’s Smart Dog Collar uses miniaturized radars to monitor resting respiratory and heart rate. | Image: Invoxia

Pet trackers have been aroundfor ages, but Invoxia is looking to shake things up at CES 2022 with a new smart collar that can also monitor your dog’s vital signs. And of course, the smart collar also doubles as a GPS and activity tracker for your pooch.

Canine fitness trackers generally rely on a combination of accelerometers and GPS sensors. Invoxia’s approach is a bit different. To monitor vitals like resting respiratory and heart rate, Invoxia says it worked with board-certified veterinary cardiologists to develop deep learning AI that utilizes miniaturized radar sensors — the same type as the Soli radar Google used in its Pixel 4 phones. According to Invoxia CEO Amélie Caudron, the radars are ideal as they’re capable of taking...

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Withings’ new scale has a retractable handle that measures EKGs and segmented body composition

The Withings Body Scan has a retractable handle that enables 6-lead EKGs and segmented body composition readings | Image: Withings

Withings isn’t a stranger to smart scales, but for CES 2022 the company is taking a much more ambitious take on the gadget. Announced today, the Withings Body Scan will feature six-lead EKG readings, segmented body composition measurements, and the ability to assess foot nerve activity. Basically, it’s the scale for people who want to know how fat is distributed through their body and how that might in turn relate to their heart health.

On the surface, the Body Scan looks like your typical scale — albeit with a retractable handle up top. It contains four weight sensors and 14 ITO electrodes in the scale itself, plus an additional four located in the handle. The scale also features a larger 3.2-inch LCD color screen, as well as a battery...

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Netgear is turning its connected picture frame into a display for NFTs

Whether you wanted it or not, NFTs are finding ways of creeping into just about every aspect of our lives. Something that began as a curiosity has quickly expanded to include networking giant Netgear and its connected smart frame, Meural.

Regardless of how you feel about NFTs, companies like Netgear are capitalizing on this interest by integrating them into products like the existing Meural Frame. With a way to put these works of “art” on display, it allows these commodities to also become decorations for something besides Twitter profiles.

While the Meural began its life as a way to display photos, Netgear recently announced that it would begin beta testing integration between the Meural and the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet starting...

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Netgear thinks you’ll pay extra for ad blocking on its Orbi routers

The Game Booster service will cost $50 annually

The demands placed on our home networks are higher than ever, especially when it comes to gaming. Netgear was arguably one of the first router manufacturers to optimize the networking needed for gaming with its Nighthawk line of routers. Now, it's attempting the same thing with its new line of 6E enabled Orbi mesh routers. The Game Booster service largely resembles the Nighthawk Pro Gaming application used to configure their XR line of gaming routers, with one glaring difference: it requires a subscription.

The Game Booster service for Orbi devices will cost $50 annually, and while this isn’t a massive sum of money, it certainly raises some questions about why Netgear is charging for a service that was previously offered for free on...

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