Jenn-Air JJW380DP review – CNET

The Good The $5,300 Jenn-Air JJW380DP double wall oven works with the Nest Learning Thermostat to cool off your home automatically when the oven starts cooking. The Culinary Center helps you bake some delicious food by picking the right cook settings for you.

The Bad This is an expensive oven, and it doesn’t bake as evenly as you would expect at that price. The app can be slow in talking to the oven.

The Bottom Line This double oven’s smarts make it an appliance worth pining after.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

Until now, ovens haven’t played nice with other smart-home products. Manufacturers have added Bluetooth, NFC (near-field communication), Wi-Fi and even tablets to their stoves. They’ve created apps that have ranged from somewhat useful to headache-inducing. And for the most part, these ovens aren’t talking to any other gadgets.

More smart ovens

• GE Profile Built-In Double Convection Wall Oven PT9550SFSS
• Dacor DYRP36D
• LG LDG4315ST

The $5,300 Jenn-Air JJW380DP electric double wall oven is the first oven we’ve tested that talks to other smart home products outside the kitchen (GE Appliances recently announced that its Wi-Fi large appliances will work with Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant; we’ll review one of these stoves soon). The Wi-Fi-connected double oven works with only one other device, but it’s an important one: the Nest Learning Thermostat, the popular, smart heating and cooling control system. This connection means that you can set a rule for your Nest to adjust the temperature of your home when one of the Jenn-Air ovens reaches a certain temperature.

The Jenn-Air double oven has a few more worthwhile tricks when it comes to cooking your food well. The unit has a built-in Culinary Center that sets cooking temperatures and makes suggestions for certain dishes based variables such as the cut of meat you are cooking and the type of pan you’re using. And the oven turned out delicious food when I cooked with our usual test recipes and when I used the Culinary Center.

This Jenn-Air double oven does have a few drawbacks. Plenty of households won’t be able to put down $5,300 for an appliance, and there were some inconsistencies in the way the top oven and bottom oven bake. And I admit that Jenn-Air’s partnership with Nest is a one-trick pony. But the usefulness of that trick, the double oven’s pronounced cooking skills and Jenn-Air’s ambitious jump to connect the kitchen to the rest of the smart home make it worthwhile to add the Jenn-Air JJW380DP to the top of your wish list.

This double wall oven works with the Nest…
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Turn up the oven, and it turns down the thermostat

The Jenn-Air brand is owned by Whirlpool, a manufacturer that has made big moves in advancing its products’ presence in the smart home. The company’s smart Whirlpool brand products include app-connected washers and dryers, a dishwasher that will connect with Amazon Dash replenishments and a range that, like the Jenn-Air JJW380DP, will connect to Nest. Whirlpool also announced that it would partner with a Silicon Valley startup for the software in its Jenn-Air smart ovens.

Chris Monroe/CNET

The Jenn-Air double wall oven establishes just how seriously its parent company takes its smart large appliances and how they work with other smart products. The oven’s Nest capabilities are impressive and easy to set up within Jenn-Air’s iOS- and Android-friendly app. After you set up a user account and connect the oven to the app, you select “Works with Nest” from the settings menu. You can opt for the app to notify you if the oven is on when the Nest is set to away, the setting you use when you’ve left your home. This provides a virtual answer to the question, “Did I leave my oven on?”

You can select the temperature you want your Jenn-Air to reach before it changes the temperature of your Nest. You can also select by how many degrees you want the Nest to adjust.

Screenshot by Ashlee Clark Thompson/CNET

The highlight of the Nest connection is that you can enable a rule to change your Nest’s temperature setting based on the temperature of the oven. For example, you could have the Nest lower its setting by 2 degrees Fahrenheit every time the Jenn-Air oven reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit. During testing, the Nest quickly adjusted its settings as soon as either of the double oven’s cavities hit the temperature at which I wanted it to adjust. And the Nest automatically returned to its original temperature settings once I turned the oven off.

On the surface, this doesn’t sound like a very fancy feature. But if you’ve ever been busy in the kitchen, you know that it can get hot. The Nest’s automatic adjustment of your house’s temperature would make cooking a little more pleasant without having to leave the room to adjust the thermostat. Now, you can only set one rule at a time between the Nest and the Jenn-Air, which is limiting if you want different adjustments for higher temperatures. But this compatibility is effective, and I look forward to seeing it expand.

Google Home Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

OK, Google, game on.

At today’s event in San Francisco, Google showed off the retail ready version of the company’s smart speaker — Google Home. With a conversational voice assistant built-in, Google Home acts as a secretary, a music hub, and a smart home controller. Once you plug it in, it’s always listening, so you simply have to be within shouting distance and say, “OK, Google,” and your wish becomes its command.

You’ll be able to buy Google Home for $130 starting November 4. The purchase will include six free months of YouTube Red, the site’s ad-free service, which costs $10 per month normally. Home’s price converts to around £100 and AU$170, but no word on if it’ll be available yet beyond the US.

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If the Home’s many features sound familiar, it’s because Google Home is functionally quite similar to a popular product we already know and love — the Amazon Echo. Launched as “a Star Trek computer for your home” the Echo surprised us with just how useful it was. Say the word and the Echo could call a cab, tell a joke, or turn on the lights in the kitchen.

Given the Echo’s success, Google’s launch of a device designed to compete with the Echo is less surprising. Apple’s supposedly doing the same in the near future. But after the impressive demo today, Google Home looks primed to stand toe to toe with Amazon’s awesome assistant. Here’s everything it can do and why, as an Android owner and smart home advocate, I’m eagerly awaiting entrance into Google’s Home.

Holding a conversation

When it was first demoed at Google’s annual I/O developer conference in May, Google Home showed the promise of conversational capabilities. The family in the video talked to the speaker, and Home used context from previous questions to inform subsequent answers. It was awesome, but it was just a demo.

Today, we saw it in more detail, and it certainly looks like Google Home can respond to you in a much more active way than Alexa. Using the new Google Assistant, the Home can manage your shopping list and send it to your Pixel phone. It can use Google’s search to tell you Adele’s real name. Then, if you ask, “How many Grammys has she won?” It’ll know who “she” is and respond accordingly.

Google Home also lets you customize the color of the base.

James Martin/CNET

The Home even uses Google Maps to give you traffic info about your route to work. And with a command, Google Home will give you a tailored morning briefing with your schedule, the traffic, and whatever news is important to you. With the full power of Google’s search engine behind it, today’s demo showed in detail how flexible Google Home could be.

Playing music

Adding to that flexibility, once you get over having a conversation with the cylinder on your counter, you’ll be able to control the Home with a capacitive touch panel. You can ask Home to play music for you, and it’ll stream songs from Google Play, obviously, as well as popular third-party apps like Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and others. Google’s promised awesome sound quality from the Home itself. And you can turn the volume up using a voice command, or with the touch panel on top.

It sounded great playing Shakira’s “Try Anything” during the demo. Once we get our hands on it, we’ll put it side by side with the Echo to see which sounds better in a real-world environment.

The Home has a robust speaker, and can command your TV or your own sound system.

James Martin/CNET

Impressively, you don’t even have to know the exact name of the song you want to play with Google Home. Saying, “Play the song from ‘Zootopia’ by Shakira” is enough, and Google will search to help you out and play what you want.

Plus, the Home itself might not need to sound better than the Echo to be a better music hub. You can use it to command the Chromecast Audio streamer you have plugged into your speaker, the Chromecast video streamer plugged into your TV or any Google Cast-enabled speaker. You can send YouTube videos or your pictures to your TV. You’ll soon be able to launch Netflix and control it with Home. Or say the word, and your favorite song will pour out of your own audio setup, and even better, you can sync the Home and any of those Chromecast devices for whole home audio.

Only the Home that hears you best will respond.

James Martin/CNET

If you have multiple Google Homes, only the one that hears you best will respond to your voice commands to prevent overlap. That’s another advantage Home has over the Amazon Echo, but that advantage might not last long, as Amazon’s working on a similar upgrade.

You can use Amazon’s platform to plug into your favorite speakers with the Dot, but Amazon doesn’t have any way to sync multiple devices. Multidevice audio could be a big win for the Google Home, then, if it works as promised. And that’s a pretty safe bet, since Chromecast audio can already stream to multiple speakers at once.

Connecting your home

Most exciting for me, though, is Google Home’s potential as a smart-home control point. At launch, the Home will work with Nest, SmartThings, Philips Hue and IFTTT. You’ll be able to set the thermostat, turn on the lights and control your SmartThings switches. Hopefully, you’ll be able to create customized commands through IFTTT, as that’ll open up all sorts of possibilities. When Alexa first launched an IFTTT channel, it only had prepackaged options, but custom commands are available now.

More from Google’s event

• Google Pixel phones, Daydream View and Chromecast Ultra: Everything Google just announced
• Google’s Pixel, Pixel XL are superphones set to take on iPhone 7
• Pixel hardware event is really about software
• See all of our Google coverage

A single point of control that anyone in the family can command makes whole home smarts much more feasible than traditional smartphone controls. With a smartphone, you often have to wrangle multiple apps to control multiple devices, and giving access to your family is a whole other headache. When you have to jump through a bunch of hoops just so your significant other can turn off a light, the smart home doesn’t feel so smart.

Google Home, then, might help usher this field of technology ripe with potential into the mainstream. The Echo laid out a handy road map for mastering this function. Amazon sought out a few big name integrations such as Philips, Lifx, IFTTT, Belkin, Ecobee — even SmartThings and Nest. Then, the company opened up the API and invited developers to craft skills for the Echo on their own.

Everything that will work with Google Home
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As a result, Alexa’s smart-home capabilities are robust. The Echo makes it easy for anyone in the family to control whatever device they’d like. Alexa’s smart-home prowess is a big part of the reason we’ve liked the Echo and the Dot so much and why we’ve made them an integral part of the CNET Smart Home.

Google Home will have some catching up to do on this front, and that’ll be a tall task, since Amazon adds more and more capabilities to the Echo seemingly every day. The Home will get one advantage right away from Philips Hue — you’ll be able to change the colors of Philips bulbs with a voice command. You can’t do that with Alexa right now — you can only turn bulbs on or off or dim them up or down.

No doubt Google can use the reputation of its brand to entice developers to expand its smart home capabilities further. And for those of us waiting for the smart home to come closer to fruition, a heated competition between Google and Amazon can only be a good thing.

Outlook

The Home’s $130 price significantly undercuts the $180 Echo, but Amazon just released a $50 version of its trimmed-down smart speaker — the Amazon Echo Dot. The Dot has all the smarts of the Echo, and plugs into your own sound system. The Home itself won’t be able to do that. You’ll have to buy a separate $30 Chromecast Audio streamer, bringing the $160 total to over three times the price of the Echo Dot.

The Home, then, has its work cut out for it to oust Alexa from her place as the best smart-home assistant, especially given Alexa’s robust catalog of capabilities. With the Home’s ability to hold a conversation, sync to multiple devices, and leverage Google’s brand and Works with Nest to build a smart-home platform, we could be in for a spectacular battle for smart speaker supremacy.

Check out all of today’s Google news.

Update, 11:52 a.m. PT: Added hands-on video from CNET’s Sean Hollister.

Google Daydream View Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Google’s aiming to take the next step forward in virtual reality, but it’s happening on a phone…via an affordable accessory.

Yes, there’s a new Google Pixel phone. But that phone is the first Daydream VR-ready phone, too. And together with Daydream, it will try to challenge what Samsung and Oculus have done with VR over the last couple of years.

Here’s what you need to know:

It doesn’t work with all phones. The first Google Cardboard fold-together headset showed that VR, or something like it, can happen on nearly any phone if you’re patient with limitations. Daydream is different. It’s a step-up type of technology. It’s smoother, better-looking, and supports its own motion-controlled remote. Google plans for Daydream to run on a certain set of phones with certain specs and displays. But Pixel is the first compatible phone out of the gate. More Daydream-ready phones are coming, though.

Google

It doesn’t track you walking around, but it has a motion-tracking controller. Like Samsung Gear VR, it’s something you’re meant to sit down in a comfy swivel chair and use, or stand and turn with. It doesn’t track the space around you, so you can’t go for a VR walkabout like you can with the higher-end Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. You can’t even lean closer to objects (we tried).

But Daydream has its own little controller with motion controls — and when we tried it out, we were super impressed with how fast and precise it was. Google says it used nine-axis inertial sensors, a Bluetooth Low Energy connection and a lot of fine tuning to get the remote to work this well. It felt good enough to write with, and swinging around a magic wand or mouse pointer was no problem.

The controller nestles right into the inside of the headset, held in with an elastic band, so you don’t need to worry about where it goes when it’s not in use.

Street View in VR with Daydream.

CNET

It has a comfy design. Google says it’s worked with clothing manufacturers to develop breathable microfiber materials for a cozier fit. The fabric-covered headset is sleek and small, more like the PC-connected Oculus Rift (also famed for comfy fabrics) than Samsung’s phone-connected Gear VR. According to Google’s Clay Bavor, it’s lightweight (30 percent lighter than similar devices) and comfy. It’s designed to fit over eyeglasses, too.

Strangely, it doesn’t have a top strap, so you have to cinch up the rear elastic, ski-goggle like band fairly tight to keep it pressed against your face. But once it’s there, it feels more like a pillow against your face than an tough electronic contraption. Google says the inner fabric is made of seven different layers of different density foams, laminated together, to be both soft and rigid.

It autoconnects with phones. A top latch opens up, and the phone drops in. The phone auto-aligns and pairs, without plugging into anything. It uses little pressure sensors to tell where the phone is in relation to the headset, so it can line up the picture for each lens without much fiddling.

It comes in several colors. Slate gray will be available first, with Snow and Crimson colors coming soon. This is the first time I remember being offered a color choice in VR headsets.

The controller: two buttons, and motion controls. Comes included.

CNET

Google promises 50 apps by end of year, with hundreds to come. Apps like Hulu, Eve: Gunjack 2 and Google’s own suite of Photos, Street View, YouTube and other software will make Daydream apps a mix of games, entertainment and other things. Google also teased a “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” app based on the upcoming movie. But don’t expect all Google Cardboard apps to run in Daydream VR; these are a different class of apps.

It costs $79 or £69 and will be available in November. That’s lower-priced than Samsung’s Gear VR, and it also comes with its own motion controller. Google’s gone aggressive on pricing, which could make a difference in getting a holiday foothold. But having enough phones that work with it will also matter: not everyone is going to want to buy a Pixel phone.

CNET

Stay tuned for more impressions.

Update, 11:31 a.m. PT: Added hands-on video from CNET’s Sean Hollister and Lexy Savvides.

Google Wifi Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Eero has just gotten a serious competitor — the Google Wifi router that was announced at Google’s launch event in San Francisco today.

This is the first Wi-Fi router — or router system — from Google and like the Eero it comes in three identical units. You only need one if you live in a small apartment, but the extra two will blanket a large home with Wi-Fi signal. Prior to this, Google has written software the OnHub routers that have hardware from TP-Link and Asus.

The new Google Wifi router.

James Martin/CNET

Google says the new Google Wifi system has a built-in Network Assist feature set that works using logic to optimize the connection, allowing Wi-Fi devices, like smartphones and tablets, to automatically connect to the closest unit and on the best channel at a given time. This means you can walk around the house without worrying about getting disconnected or even losing signal strength.

More from Google’s event

• Google Pixel phones, Daydream View and Chromecast Ultra: Everything Google just announced
• Google’s Pixel, Pixel XL are superphones set to take on iPhone 7
• Pixel hardware event is really about software
• See all of our Google coverage

What’s more, the system includes a free mobile app with built-in parental control, allowing you to pause (and resume) the internet connection to any connected device at anytime.

As far as hardware, Google didn’t yet reveal the specs of the Google Wifi. My guess, however, is the new router will use the latest 802.11ac standard, which is also used by the previous OnHub routers.

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The best thing about the Google Wifi is its price, which is $129 for a single unit or $299 for a set of three. This is much less than the Eero, which costs $200 for a single unit or $500 for three. (The price for the UK and Australia have not yet been announced.)

You do have to wait until early December to get your own, however, but you can start preordering the Google Wifi starting in November. Check back then for its full review.

Google Pixel Phone and Google Pixel XL Phone Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Google decided it’s time to bring its phones out of their shadowy niche and duke it out directly with top manufactures such as Samsung and Apple. Welcome to the new Pixel phone era.

With premium features exclusive to Pixel phones and a sales plan that means you might actually find one in a store, the company is showing significantly more ambition than it did with the last six years of Nexus-branded phones.

The 5-inch Pixel and 5.5-inch Pixel XL are officially called “Pixel, a phone by Google” and have a “G” on the back, signifying how Google designed the phones on its own instead of tweaking another company’s product into a Nexus. Google is now the one picking components, providing support and promoting the phones.

Pixel, the first real Google phone, in pictures
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More from Google’s event

• Google Pixel phones, Daydream View and Chromecast Ultra: Everything Google just announced
• Google’s Pixel, Pixel XL are superphones set to take on iPhone 7
• See all of our Google coverage

So what does that ambition get you?

Unlike last year’s mid-range Nexus 5X and premium Nexus 6P, the Pixel phones are both top-shelf models. Google wants you to think of them as rivals to the most prestigious models out there, Apple’s iPhones and Samsung Galaxy models. They each have quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processors — two cores running at 2.15GHz and two at a more battery-efficient 1.6GHz — with a boost from Qualcomm’s Hexagon technology for tasks such as image and audio processing. The phones have OLED screens, 4GB of memory and either 32GB and 128GB of storage space.

Starting at $649 in the US and £599 in the UK, the 32GB Pixel is about the same price as Apple’s iPhone 7 and Samsung’s Galaxy S7. The 128GB model costs $749 or £699, and the corresponding Pixel XL models cost $769 and $869, or £719 and £819. Preorders begin now, with the phone arriving in stores and online on October 20. (We’ll report back once we hear details on Australian pricing, but $649 converts to AU$850.) There’s no expandable storage.

Below the Pixel phones’ “G” logo is one of several accents showing where antennas can harness radio signals.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

Google went adverb-happy with the colors: “very silver,” “quite black” and “really blue.” Limited availability means only the US will get the blue version initially. The back of the phone is actually two-tone, with a glossy “glass shade” across the top to make antennas work better and a more ordinary bead-blasted metal finish across the bottom. Like the front display, the glass shade employs Gorilla Glass 4 for scratch resistance.

In the hand, the Pixel’s metal-and-glass body definitely feels a step above Google’s previous Nexus handsets, with fewer exposed seams. The smooth aluminum makes for a premium, iPhone-like feel, but with chamfered edges that make it a bit less slippery.

The blue is pretty flashy, but looks surprisingly attractive in person.

James Martin/CNET

And while the glass shade might look a little odd, it feels pretty good to the touch, adding a bit of tacky grip. The fingerprint reader also rests neatly under one’s index finger, like last year’s Nexus smartphones. And I particularly like how Google weighted these phones: they’ve got some nice solid heft without feeling too heavy like many all-metal phones, or so light (like the Nexus 5X) that they feel hollow.

A few features will help the phones stand out from other models powered by Google’s Android software. They’ll be the only ones to include Google Assistant, a new beefed-up version of Google’s conversational system to control the phone and answer questions — Google’s rival to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. It’ll also store all photos and video in original resolution for the life of the phone, shuttling older shots to cloud storage if you run out of room. And if you need to call Google’s support, a technician will be able to remotely control your phone. Android 7.1 — the latest version of Nougat — debuts with the Pixels.

Fans of the decades-old 3.5 mm audio jack standard will be happy to see one on the Google Pixel phone.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

Unlike the iPhone 7, the Pixel phones retain a 3.5 mm headphone jack — but Pixels come with no headphones, because really, don’t you already have some?

There’s no camera bump, but the Pixels aren’t the thinnest phone around. They’re slightly wedge-shaped, tapering from 8.6 mm at the top end to 7.4 mm at the bottom. The Pixel is 69.5 mm wide by 143.8 mm tall (2.73 by 5.66 inches), while the Pixel XL is 75.7 by 154.7 mm (2.98 by 6.09 inches). Screen resolutions are 1,920×1080 at 441 pixels per inch for the Pixel and 2,560×1,440 at 534ppi for the XL.

Based on a brief test, it seems Google has made good on its promise that the main 12-megapixel camera performs much faster than last year’s Nexus models — see CNET’s in-depth look at the Pixel camera for more detail. Another useful feature of Android 7.1 is that there’s no more long pause when you rotate the phone from portrait to landscape orientation. The company stuck with Sony for the camera’s sensor but promises faster autofocus. There’s no optical image stabilization like in the iPhone 7 — nor are there the dual rear cameras of the iPhone 7 Plus — but Google thinks its fast image processing will do the trick when trying to compensate for your unsteady shooting.

The front-facing camera has an 8-megapixel sensor, and twisting the phone back and forth switches to it from the main camera.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

The fingerprint reader on the center of the back gets a new trick, too: if you swipe down on it, it shows your notifications even as it unlocks the phone.

The Pixels, like the Nexus models of 2015, use the newer USB Type-C port for data links and charging. When watching video or browsing the internet, battery life should be 13 hours for the Pixel and 14 for the Pixel XL. The batteries can’t be removed.

Google is leaning on HTC to assemble the phone. The Taiwanese manufacturer has a long history with Google, building the first-ever Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 “Dream” that debuted in 2008, and the Nexus One that inaugurated the Nexus line in 2010. Google has also partnered with Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola and Huawei to build Nexus phones.

Android partnerships remain. But there’s no more pussyfooting around here — Google is competing directly against Samsung and other partners who use Google’s Android software.

Google Chromecast Ultra Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

4K TVs are getting cheaper every day, and now 4K-capable devices to connect to those TVs are following suit. The cheapest so far is Chromecast Ultra.

This tiny device, available for $69 or £69 in November, promises better image quality than the current $35 Chromecast. (An Australian price wasn’t readily available but the UK price converts to AU$115.) That’s because it can stream the 4K and HDR video available from a handful of streaming providers, namely Netflix, YouTube and, coming in November, Google’s own Play TV and Movies store. The latter two only offer 4K, not HDR.

In theory 4K resolution provides a sharper picture than 1080p HD video, but in CNET’s tests the difference is subtle at best with Netflix and other streaming sources. HDR, aka high dynamic range, can provide a more dramatic improvement in contrast and color, depending on the video in question. Just don’t confuse it with HDR for phones (even Pixel phones with HDR+).

The dongle still hangs off your TV’s HDMI port, but now it has Ethernet too.

James Martin/CNET

Notably the Ultra is the first external streaming device to handle both HDR formats, HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Other HDR devices, including the $200 Nvidia Shield, the $100 Roku Premiere+ and the $70 Xiaomi Mi Box, are all HDR10-only. In our tests we’ve found that with TVs that do support Dolby Vision, the image is slightly superior to HDR10.

Of course, to get the benefits of 4K or HDR (in either format) you’ll need a compatible TV. You’ll also need to be watching a 4K and/or HDR TV stream, which are still restricted to a just a few shows, videos and movies. Such higher-quality streams require good bandwidth — 15Mbps or higher for Netflix, for example — and you’ll need to subscribe to Netflix’s $15 monthly plan to get access.

Aside from 4K and HDR, the Ultra is very similar to the current Chromecast, except that it’s only available in black. Both are tiny pucks with integrated HDMI cables designed to hang out of sight behind your TV.

One additional difference is the inclusion of an Ethernet port for wired internet, housed on the power adapter of the Ultra. That’s a nice addition given the higher bandwidth requirements of 4K video. The standard Chromecast is Wi-Fi-only, and both offer 801.11ac Wi-Fi. The Ultra is 1.8 times faster at starting streams then the current version, according to Google.

Chromecast requires you to use your phone, tablet or PC to “Cast” video from supported apps to the TV. The system is quite versatile and reliable in our tests, and app support is superb. One exception, however, is Amazon video. That popular service doesn’t work with the Cast system, so Chromecast can’t deliver its videos, which include a relatively large collection of 4K and HDR TV shows and movies.

In the past we’ve preferred Roku devices to Chromecast because they do support Amazon, and also offer an actual remote that we find more convenient to use than a phone. Roku’s least expensive player with 4K and HDR is the $100 Premiere+, and we look forward to comparing it to Chromecast Ultra as soon as we get our hands on review samples.

In the meantime, our review of the current Chromecast and the accompanying video (below) have some more details about how the device works.

New Chromecast keeps streaming cheap

Google’s Chromecast streaming device betters the previous version with improved Wi-Fi and a funky design, but the best part is the impulse purchase price.

by David Katzmaier

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Emerson Sensi review – CNET

The Good Emerson’s $160 Sensi Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat costs less than many other smart-home models, its button interface and app are thoughtfully arranged and it works with Amazon’s Alexa.

The Bad The Sensi doesn’t come with algorithmic learning, remote sensors or geofencing capabilities; the thermostat hardware is on the plain side of the spectrum.

The Bottom Line The Sensi is a solid option if you’re looking for a smart thermostat upgrade that still manages to keep things simple.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

Emerson’s Sensi Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat doesn’t rely on algorithms, remote sensors, geofencing or any other high-end smarts a la Nest’s Learning Thermostat, Honeywell’s Lyric or the Ecobee3. In fact, it’s really just a basic-looking programmable thermostat with a related app. So, why should you buy it over the competition?

Let me count the ways:

• It’s affordable — the Sensi has an MSRP of $160, but is widely available at stores like Home Depot for $129 and on Amazon for just $104. Nest and other connected models cost as much as $249. Amazon’s UK site lists Sensi for £341 through a reseller, so it’s much cheaper and easier to find in the US.
• It’s easy to use — Both the thermostat and the app have thoughtful, logical layouts that make usability a breeze.
• It works with Amazon’s Alexa — You can pair any Alexa-compatible device with Sensi for fast voice control integration.

If you’re on the hunt for a thermostat upgrade, but don’t want or need all of the fancy extras, the Sensi’s semi-smartness still makes it much simpler to heat and cool your home. I definitely recommend it.

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Sensi, part one

If I were to come across the Sensi on a store shelf alongside other connected thermostats, I would assume someone put it there by mistake. This thing is pretty utilitarian-looking. It’s way better than the 20-year-old, barely functioning model in my house right now, sure, but decidedly lacking in the dazzling design department.

All thermostats, all the time:

• What’s a C-wire, and why should you care?
• Honeywell finds a new look for its latest Lyric thermostat
• Same great Nest thermostat, now with even better looks
• Ecobee’s smart thermostat closes in on Nest
• Honeywell’s next-gen Lyric thermostat sings the same old tune
• These smart thermostats steal the heating and cooling spotlight
• Thermostat buying guide
• Have a radiator? This thermostat wants to make it smarter
• How to find a great thermostat for just 30 bucks

Since the advent of the Nest Learning Thermostat in 2011, a $249 smart model designed by two former Apple employees, a number of manufacturers have turned away from the practical rectangular white box look and have instead tried to add a dose of modern design into the mix.

Emerson didn’t do that with the Sensi, but it isn’t all bad news — its buttons are responsive, its display is large and it’s easy to read from a distance, as well as different angles. The app and Amazon Alexa integrations, too, are simple to configure and create a number of opportunities for remote access.

But before all that, you have to install your Sensi.

First stop? Check here to see if your wiring is compatible and be sure to visit Sensi’s support page if you have installation questions. As always, consult a professional if you aren’t comfortable going the do-it-yourself route, but a basic familiarity with thermostat wiring should have everything up and running in minutes. It took me roughly 10-15 minutes, but the holes in my wall from the old thermostat conveniently lined up with the Sensi’s, so I took a slight shortcut.

Click through the gallery below for a tutorial on how to install a Sensi thermostat; this covers everything from removing your old thermostat to pairing the Sensi to the companion app.

2017 Toyota 86 Release Date, Price and Specs – Roadshow

Xiaomi Mi Band 2 review – CNET

The Good The Mi Band 2 is absurdly affordable despite packing in a heart rate sensor, sleep tracking, water resistance and a battery life of a week.

The Bad The fitness band doesn’t offer the exercise tracking that would make it a perfect accessory.

The Bottom Line If you just want a basic fitness tracker for walking, the Mi Band 2 does the job fine, but you’ll have to look towards more expensive trackers if you want more features.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

With the Xiaomi’s Mi Band 2, the Chinese company updates its original $13 fitness tracker with a slightly more expensive version, adding new features such as an 0.42-inch OLED display and a heart rate sensor. The 149 yuan price, which converts to around $22, £17 or AU$29, is a fraction of what you’d pay for similar products such as the Fitbit Alta…or, even, Fitbit’s less-expensive Zip. It’s not yet on sale on Xiaomi’s US website.

That said, after a week and half wearing the Mi Band 2, I’ve found that while it’s not as fully featured as the Fitbit Charge 2, it at least tracks heart rate, something less expensive trackers like Fitbit Flex, Alta and Zip don’t. The Mi Band 2 only tracks steps and sleeping patterns automatically and heart rate only gets checked when you select it in the band’s menu. You can’t calculate heart rate all day or during exercises, which makes it effectively nearly useless unless you’re looking to peek at your resting heart rate.

By comparison, the Alta, which costs five times as much, doesn’t bother with heart rate but does pack a lot more, such as automatic exercise recognition, calendar alerts and options for clock faces. On that note, the Mi Band 2 does connect to your phone to deliver alerts such as those from WhatsApp.

Because it only tracks steps, the Mi Band 2 doesn’t come with exercise tracking, which means it won’t keep track of how long you’ve been jogging or cycling. That’s less than ideal if you want your fitness band to help you with those activities, and there’s no barometer to track step climbing either.

The Mi Band 2 features a heart rate tracker.

Aloysius Low/CNET