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Latest Andru Edwards Videos
Meta Is Betting on 3D VR Movies Again, and This Time It Brought Disney+, ESPN, and James Cameron
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Wearables, Home Entertainment,
Around 2010, TV makers told you 3D was the future of the living room. By 2017 the big ones had stopped building 3D sets, and the glasses went into a drawer next to the universal remote. At Connect on Wednesday, Meta made the case for 3D movies at home again. This time the screen sits on your face, and Meta brought Disney+, ESPN, HBO Max, and James Cameron along to help sell it.
Most of the lineup is aimed at Meta VR Glasses, the roughly 100-gram, $1,299.99 glasses that go on sale in spring 2027 (we cover the hardware in a separate post). Some of it reaches Quest owners this fall, and Meta says the deals add up to "the best media lineup of any VR device."
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JMGO’s Iris Ultra Max Wants to Be the Projector You Can Watch With the Lights On
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Displays, Home Entertainment,
Most projectors end up in a closet for one reason: you have to turn your living room into a cave to use them. Draw the blackout curtains, wait for dark, tell everyone to quit opening the fridge because the light spills onto the wall. That friction is why a lot of people buy a projector, use it twice, and go back to the TV.
At IFA in Berlin, JMGO built its whole pitch around solving exactly that. The new Iris Ultra Max is a 4K projector that runs at 120Hz, uses a triple-laser light engine, and claims up to 6,500 ISO lumens. That last number is the company betting it can throw a picture bright enough to survive a room with the lights on. It is now heading to markets outside China, with preorders opening September 4 and units shipping October 19.
Sonos Bets on the Beam Ultra, Ace Ultra, and Sonos27 App Update It Can’t Afford to Botch
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio / Video, Artificial Intelligence,
Sonos showed up at IFA today with a $699 soundbar, a pair of $449 headphones, and a new version of the app that did the company real damage two years ago. The app is the one that will decide how this year goes.
The hardware is easy to like. The Beam Ultra is a mid-size soundbar with nine drivers, and for the first time in a Beam, two of them fire upward. That is the difference between Dolby Atmos your soundbar fakes with processing and Atmos with sound actually bouncing off your ceiling. Sonos is calling the result true 7.1.2. Pre-orders open today, and it ships September 29.
The Google TV Streamer Costs $150 Now, and Google Isn’t Saying Why
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Home Entertainment,
The Google TV Streamer launched in 2024 at $100. It costs $150 on the Google Store today. Same box, same 4GB of RAM, same 32GB of storage, same remote, 50 percent more money.
Google did not announce this. No blog post, no new product page explaining a new value proposition, no statement. The number on the store listing changed, Best Buy's listing changed with it, and if you had one sitting in a cart you found out by looking.
Click to continue reading The Google TV Streamer Costs $150 Now, and Google Isn’t Saying Why
Apple TV Now Costs $14.99 a Month, and the Annual Plan Took the Bigger Hit
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Home Entertainment,
The annual plan is where this one bites. Apple raised US prices for its Apple TV streaming service today: $14.99 a month, up from $12.99, and $119 a year, up from $99. The monthly bill went up about 15%, and the yearly one went up 20%.
Apple didn't send a press release. Its Apple TV page now lists $14.99 a month after a seven-day trial, and points to Apple One "starting at $21.95," which confirms the Individual bundle went up two dollars as well, and Apple's own marketing pages don't list a yearly price at all.
Click to continue reading Apple TV Now Costs $14.99 a Month, and the Annual Plan Took the Bigger Hit
The Govee TV Backlight 3 is the Smartest TV Upgrade You Can Make
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Smart Home,
When it comes to home entertainment, most people think they need a bigger TV to get a more immersive experience. But you don't need to drop thousands on a massive new panel. True immersion is less about the screen itself and more about the space around it.
The Govee TV Backlight 3 tackles exactly this. It bleeds your content onto the wall behind your TV. This expands your viewing area beyond the bezels in a way that is incredibly eye-catching.
What is in the box
Govee ships everything you need in one package. You get the LED strip, a camera bar to monitor the picture, a control box, corner clips to keep things stable, orange calibration squares, and a power adapter.
You have two sizing options depending on your setup. The 11.8-foot version covers 55 to 65-inch screens. The larger 16.4-foot version fits 75 to 85-inch TVs.
Click to continue reading The Govee TV Backlight 3 is the Smartest TV Upgrade You Can Make
The Echo Dot Is $79.99 Now, and AI Data Centers Are the Reason
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Smart Home, Misc. Tech,
The Amazon Echo Dot cost $49.99 last week. It costs $79.99 now, a 60 percent jump that Amazon made overnight with no announcement. Fortune caught the change across Amazon's hardware lineup and got the company to confirm it.
Amazon's explanation is the one every hardware maker is giving this year. A spokeswoman said the consumer electronics industry is facing steep increases in memory and storage component costs, and that Amazon absorbed them for as long as it could before adjusting prices across its product lines.
Click to continue reading The Echo Dot Is $79.99 Now, and AI Data Centers Are the Reason
You Don’t Own What You Bought. Here’s the Proof. (Video)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Editorial, Home Entertainment, Smart Home, Misc. Tech, Videos,
You bought the thing. It's sitting in your house. The box listed the features, you paid the money, the return window closed. So you own it, right? Here's the uncomfortable answer I landed on after digging through more than a decade of firmware updates, lawsuits, and shutdown notices: a company can sell you a product, wait out your return window, and then reach back into it to slow it down, strip its features, or kill it entirely, without anyone ever touching the hardware sitting in your living room.
Click to continue reading You Don’t Own What You Bought. Here’s the Proof. (Video)
Rockstar Is Putting the Next GTA 6 Reveal Behind a Netflix Login for Six Hours
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Video Games,
For thirteen years, the pattern was simple. Rockstar drops a Grand Theft Auto trailer on YouTube, a hundred million people watch it, and the internet talks about nothing else for a week. No showcase, no partner, no gatekeeper. That changes on August 27.
Rockstar announced today that "Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look" premieres on Netflix at 3 p.m. ET, and won't hit the official Rockstar YouTube channel or the GTA VI site until 9 p.m. ET the same day. Netflix gets a six-hour head start on the most anticipated video the industry has left.
Dolby Vision 2 Is Real Now, and Hisense Owners Get It First
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment,
This is the first time the next generation of Dolby's HDR format has landed on hardware people can actually buy. The firmware is going out to 2026 Hisense UX, UR9, UR8, and U7 sets (sold as U7 Pro in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America), on both Google TV and Hisense's own VIDAA platform.
Click to continue reading Dolby Vision 2 Is Real Now, and Hisense Owners Get It First