Deals: Sony XM4 ANC Headphones $50 off, Wyze Band Fitness Tracker $25, more - 9to5Google

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All of today’s best deals are headlined by Sony’s popular XM4 ANC Headphones at $50 alongside the Wyze Band Activity Tracker for $25. That’s alongside a new Amazon low on the Microsoft Surface Duo. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

Save $50 on Sony’s popular XM4 ANC Headphones  

Amazon offers the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless ANC Headphones for $298. Down from the usual $348 going rate, you’re saving $50 with today’s offer coming within $20 of the Amazon low and marking the second-best price yet at the retailer.

Sony’s latest pair of headphones deliver improved active noise cancellation alongside up to 30 hours of playback on a single charge. On top of a new Bluetooth audio chip that can pair with two devices simultaneously, there’s also USB-C charging and built-in access to Alexa. 

Wyze Band Activity Tracker drops to $25

The official Wyze Amazon storefront currently offers its Wyze Band Activity Tracker for $25. Normally fetching $30, today’s offer marks the very first Amazon discount we’ve seen, is a rare discount on the brand’s affordable fitness tracker, and the best we’ve seen overall outside of a launch promotion. 

Wyze Band arrives to take on Fitbit and all of the other higher-end fitness trackers on the market with an extremely affordable price tag. Featuring an AMOLED display, this fitness tracker delivers heart rate monitoring alongside the ability to track everything from runs and other workouts. There’s also onboard Alexa control as well as 10-day battery life to complete the package.

Microsoft Surface Duo drops to new Amazon low

Amazon currently offers the unlocked Microsoft Surface Duo 128GB Android Smartphone for $741. After seeing a permanent price cut from $1,400 down to $1,000, today’s offer knocks another $259 off to mark a new Amazon all-time low. You can also upgrade to the 256GB model at $791, down from $1,100 to also mark the best price to date at Amazon. 

Delivering a dual AMOLED screen form-factor, Microsoft Surface Duo packs a unique smartphone experience with a 360-degree hinge in the center. Everything can fold closed like a book, or flipped around for more typical smartphone usage with a single 5.6-inch display. Alongside up to 256GB of storage, there’s USB-C charging, and an 11MP camera. Learn more in our launch coverage.

TCL’s affordable 10 Pro smartphone falls to $300

TCL’s official Amazon storefront is currently offering its 10 Pro Android Smartphone for $300 shipped when clipping the on-page coupon. Normally fetching $450, today’s offer amounts to 33% in savings, beats our previous mention by $15, and marks a new all-time low.

TCL’s latest Android handset comes equipped with a 6.47-inch curved AMOLED display and backs that with a built-in fingerprint reader, as well as expandable microSD card storage. Around back, there’s a quad camera array headlined by a 64MP sensor with hybrid auto focus and more. In our hands-on review, we found that this offers a “premium package at an affordable price tag.”

Ticwatch’s Pro 3 GPS smartwatch falls to $270

MoboviUS (97% positive lifetime feedback) via Amazon is offering the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS Smartwatch for $270. This rare discount shaves $30 off the usual tag, bringing the price to the second best spot we’ve ever tracked.

With up to 72-hours of battery life in smart mode, or a maximum 45 days when only using the essentials, the Ticwatch Pro 3 is ready for anything. You can take advantage of stress, sleep, and heartrate tracking, plus a variety of GPS-enabled fitness modes including swimming, thanks to the IP68 waterproofing. The look is clean and customizable with over 1,000 AMOLED watch faces to choose from. Plus, it’s decked out with a built-in speaker, microphone, altimeter, barometer, Google Pay, Spotify, and (somehow) more. You can dive into our hands-on review for a closer look. Hit the jump for more.

Best trade-in deals

9to5Google also keeps tabs on all the best trade-in deals on Android smartphones and more every month. Be sure to check out this month’s best trade-in deals when you decide it’s time to upgrade your device. Or simply head over to our trade-in partner directly if you want to recycle, trade, or sell your used devices for cash and support 9to5Google along the way!

Subscribe to the 9to5Toys YouTube Channel for all of the latest videos, reviews, and more!

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The Link Lonk


June 01, 2021 at 10:55PM
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Deals: Sony XM4 ANC Headphones $50 off, Wyze Band Fitness Tracker $25, more - 9to5Google

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Why Sony Is Skipping E3 2021 - GameSpot

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E3 is arguably the most important gaming event of the year, and it starts on June 12. Since it's just around the corner, that's led many people to wonder if Sony is going to attend the event in 2021. That is not the case: The PS5 manufacturer is skipping E3 for the third year in a row, after eschewing 2019 and 2020.

While we can only really speculate why Sony continues to skip one of the biggest industry events on the calendar, industry insiders and journalists have noted the decreasing cultural cachet of E3 for years now. Back in 2018, the company said that it was skipping E3 because it was looking for other "inventive opportunities" to connect with its own community.

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Now Playing: E3 2021 Hype, Speculation, What We Want To See | GameSpot After Dark

Attending and putting on massive events is quite expensive at the scale that is expected of platform-holders like Sony, and the ubiquity of social media platforms like Twitch and YouTube allows the company to reach its customers directly without the massive investment of an E3 showing. Plus, even mega-companies like Sony have limited control over big industry events like E3, while they have complete control if they host their own showcase. (Then again, when it comes to an all-digital event, such distinctions are practically meaningless to fans.)

It's also worth noting that while Sony was the first platform-holder to skip E3 back in 2019, it's far from the first major publisher to do so. For example, EA has often hosted E3-style showcases held in physical proximity to the official event.

Still, while Sony may not be attending the all-virtual event this year, the company will certainly unveil some major announcements this summer. Regardless of whether or not a company is formally a part of E3, players can be sure that it will be competing for the same splashy headlines as official attendees. For example, Sony recently held a State of Play event that revealed footage of Horizon Forbidden West, the highly-anticipated sequel to the open-world classic Horizon Zero Dawn. We still don't have a release date on Forbidden West, if you were wondering. For more on E3 2021, check out our official schedule and list of participants, as well as our guide to the games and announcements we really want to see this year.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

The Link Lonk


June 02, 2021 at 01:27AM
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Sony doesn't need Spider-Man, and the MCU's origins prove it - Inverse

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Before Venom hit theaters in 2018, it was difficult for many to shake off the innate weirdness of Sony making a big-budget Venom movie without Spider-Man. Such a concept felt as strange as making a Joker movie without Batman. (Oh wait.)

The success of Venom, weird and wonderful as it was, proved Sony was onto something. And now, the studio’s sticking to its webs.

What Happened? — In a May 28 Variety piece, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group President Sanford Panitch discussed casting Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven the Hunter for an upcoming stand-alone film built around the popular Spider-Man villain. With Venom becoming a franchise via this fall’s sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and the Jared Leto-starring Morbius set for release in 2022, Panitch addressed how Sony plans to approach growing its Marvel properties without Spider-Man.

“We don’t really think of our 900 characters as the Spidey-verse,” Panitch told Variety. “We have a Marvel universe. The volume of characters we have — you know, wait until you see this next Venom. You don’t miss Spider-Man.”

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will open in theaters on September 24.Sony Pictures

“There Actually Is a Plan” — Not shutting the door on Spider-Man appearing in one of Sony’s Marvel films down the line, Panitch teased Variety by saying, “It’ll be exciting if they do meet, right?”

But “there actually is a plan” with regard to accounting for the webslinger in Sony’s upcoming films, he added. Things will be more clear once Spider-Man: No Way Home opens in theaters this December. “I think now maybe it’s getting a little more clear for people where we’re headed,” said Panitch. “When No Way Home comes out, even more will be revealed.”

A Universe Without Spider-Man — While fans relish the crossover potential inherent in Venom, Morbius, and Kraven, all of whom originated as Spider-Man comic book villains, Sony is certainly capable of constructing a Marvel franchise without Spider-Man at its center.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but remember that the Marvel Cinematic Universe only became what it is because Marvel Studios (before coming under Disney’s roof) originally couldn’t use characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men, whose comics had become best-sellers in the ‘90s thanks to creatives like Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee.

Left with only “no-names” like Iron Man and Captain America, the MCU became the billion-dollar franchise it is today through introducing lesser-known characters audiences could grow to love. At one point, the majority of moviegoers didn’t know who Iron Man was. Now, it’s impossible to not know the character.

Sony’s on its way to replicating that success. Venom made a stunning $855 million worldwide close to three years ago; Venom: Let There Be Carnage is out in September. Morbius, originally intended for release last year, will follow a few months later, opening January 28, 2022. Should Let There Be Carnage and Morbius triumph at the box office in the same manner as Venom, Sony could finally prove it doesn’t need Spider-Man.

Sony executive Sanford Panitch teases that Spider-Man: No Way Home will reveal what Sony’s plans are for its stand-alone cinematic universe without Spider-Man.Sony Pictures

An Uncertain Future — As mentioned, comparing Sony to Marvel Studios is an imperfect analogy. By 1996, Marvel was in bankruptcy. Holding what was essentially a garage sale of its comics to Hollywood studios, Marvel sold the film rights for whatever it could to all manner of interested parties. Left without many of its heaviest hitters, Marvel forged ahead and found a way to build a billion-dollar franchise around its remaining heroes.

Sony is in a different spot, having bought the rights to its Marvel characters and entered into an unique partnership with Marvel on Spider-Man specifically. (No Way Home is the last movie under Marvel and Sony’s current agreement, so both studios are barreling towards an uncertain future.) The MCU wouldn’t be what it is without Kevin Feige, but he’s decidedly not in control with what goes on at Sony.

Still, it’s true that you don’t always need household-name superheroes to build a major film franchise. All it takes is a few good movies. (And in case you’ve forgotten, Venom was pretty good.)

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be released in theaters on September 24.

The Link Lonk


June 02, 2021 at 01:30AM
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Sony doesn't need Spider-Man, and the MCU's origins prove it - Inverse

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Sony Pictures Television Launches Diverse Writers Program With Sixteen Aspiring Scribes - Deadline

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EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Television will link sixteen aspiring scribes with industry professionals and mentors for its six-week Diverse Writers Program.

Participating writers will have discussions with a number of creative executives, producers, seasoned writers and showrunners with the focus of honing their skills in writing scripted television. They will also network with industry professionals and be assigned a mentor from SPT’s pool of producers and scribes.

The writing program will conclude with the participating writers meeting with SPT showrunners and producers to be considered for potential staffing opportunities on U.S. projects. Of the sixteen participating scribes, SPT will select four with whom to develop pilot scripts for both comedies and dramas.

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“We believe it’s imperative that underrepresented voices have the opportunity to tell diverse and authentic stories that haven’t been told before and to develop into tomorrow’s preeminent showrunners,” said Jeff Frost, President of Sony Pictures Television Studios. “Through this program, we are augmenting our continual efforts to provide emerging writers with an entry point to share their unique perspectives with audiences.”

Running through July 2021, SPT’s Diverse Writers Program is part of SPT’s continued commitment to amplifying artists of diverse backgrounds. It stems from SPT’s pilot program in 2019 and its Rising Storytellers Search in 2020.  SPT’s Diverse Directors Program recently completed its sixth year.

See the list of participating writers, who were selected from nearly 150 nominations from agents, managers and organizations throughout the industry and blind script reads, below.

• Anich D’Jae
• Benji Kahn
• Camille Tucker
• Dane C. Collier
• Eric Anthony Glover
• France-Luce Benson
• Francisco Cabrera-Feo
• Franky D. Gonzalez
• Jennifer Frazin
• Laurie Magers
• Michael Castaneda
• Mitali Jahagirdar
• Quinn Marcus
• Rebecca Delgado Smith
• Sean Collins-Smith
• Taryn Hillin

The Link Lonk


June 01, 2021 at 11:28PM
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Sony Announces Brand-New Public Evo Tournaments - IGN - IGN

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Sony has revealed a set of open-format fighting tournaments ahead of Evo 2021.

The Evo Community Series was revealed on the PlayStation Blog today. Dubbed "a global celebration of the fighting game community," the ECS takes place between June 10 and August 3 and will feature more than 120 tournaments around the world, with $74,000 in total prize money available to competitors. PlayStation made a meaningful move into the FGC esports scene when it acquired the Evolution Championship Series in March of 2021, and this is it's first public move into expanding the event.

Three PlayStation-hosted tournaments will also take place during the ECS, starting with the PlayStation Tournaments FGC Arcade: Evo Edition which runs between June 10 and June 22. North American and European competitors with active PS Plus subscriptions will be able to duke it out for the chance of winning part of a $20,000 prize pool in Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and Tekken 7.

The PlayStation Tournaments Evo 2021 Online Warm-up will then take place between June 26 and July 13, offering a $19,000 prize pool to competitors from North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, playing Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition and Tekken 7.

Finally, the PlayStation Tournaments Evo 2021 Online Side Tournaments will follow between July 8 and August 3, allowing players from North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Japan to fight for a $35,000 prize pool in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. Maxi Boost ON, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Soulcalibur VI and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]

Certain matches from the tournaments will be broadcast on Twitch and Youtube, across PlayStation and Evo's social streaming channels.

If you think you're up to the challenge, you can register on PlayStation's Competition Centre website. Registration for August's Evo 2021 Online competition also opens today.

Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

The Link Lonk


June 01, 2021 at 09:17PM
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Former Sony Exec Luke Scrase Launches Production Co Golden Gate Studios With First-Look Sony Deal - Deadline

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Luke Scrase, the former Sony Pictures International Productions executive, is launching his own UK-based production outfit Golden Gate Studios. The company has secured a first-look deal for film and TV projects with Sony, effective this month.

Golden Gate will focus on developing and producing British and European genre films as well as commercially-driven television series for the global market. The aim will be to produce a mix of both English and local-language content.

Scrase remains attached to various Sony projects he initiated during his time in the studio’s UK office. His credits include Michael Winterbottom’s Greed and Michael Caton-Jones’s Our Ladies, the latter of which is coming out later this year. He also has Patrick Marber’s Curtain Call, set to star Colin Firth and Gemma Arterton, and The Dead Spit of Kelly, to be directed by Iain Softley, in the works.

“I’m thrilled to be launching Golden Gate at this exciting time for the business. Never before has there been such an appetite for ambitious and diverse European stories that deliver on a global scale alongside an influx of new buyers and content makers. I am looking forward to developing new projects that fit this mould as well as continuing to work with all the producers and filmmakers who have entrusted me with their projects at Sony,” said Scrase.

The Link Lonk


June 01, 2021 at 06:29PM
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Review: Sony SRS-XB13, the compact speaker you can take anywhere » EFTM - EFTM

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Sony has made some great speakers in their time, some of them portable.  As time has gone on they have improved and become even more portable, able to be used anywhere with a durability unseen in past years.

Here at EFTM we got our hands on their latest portable, durable speaker, the SRS-XB13 (I’m still not convinced that their naming scheme is the best for marketing purposes) and put it through its paces and see just how it performs.

If you look at the marketing material from Sony you’ll see a beautifully styled speaker with an air gap at the bottom, speaker at the top and a hanging/carry strap on the side. Taking it out of the box you will not be disappointed in the product compared to the marketing material here (there’s no Big Mac photography tricks going on here).  It’s a good looking speaker that is light to pick up and fits comfortably in the hand.

The rear of the speaker houses five simple controls — a power button, Bluetooth button, a play/pause button and a volume up and down button.  Pairing the speaker is dead easy although it does lack the NFC pairing other Sony speakers have had in the past.  Press and hold the Bluetooth button and a notification will pop up on your Android phone asking if you want to pair with the Sony speaker (Google’s Fast Pairing in action. For iOS you need to follow the usual Bluetooth pairing procedure after long pressing the Bluetooth button).  

The speaker may be small but packs a decent punch thanks to its Sound Diffusion Processor and 1.5-inch speaker on the top.  The sound is a decent quality but with a single speaker do not expect it to have a massive range.  The bass is surprisingly good for such a small speaker.  Unfortunately, the sound does not go super loud, but you shouldn’t expect that from such a compact speaker.

The sound is well balanced without being over enhanced in any of the various aspects such as high end or bass.  This is a good and a bad thing, but the sound is certainly good enough to get you through a day but don’t expect to wow a crowd with the quality and range of sound from it.  If you are within about 5m of the speaker when outside the sound is still good.  Inside the music travels a lot further as you’d expect.  If you want, you can also pair two of the SRS-XB13 together for a better quality stereo sound.

Using the speaker for phone calls wasn’t too bad although the microphone wasn’t as good as using your phone — but you shouldn’t expect that.  The person on the other end of the call was still able to hear me well enough and discern what I was saying.

The SRS-XB13 is charged using USB-C but it is definitely not fast charging so make sure you have it fully charged when heading out for a long stint with it.  Sony say the speaker will give you up to 16 hours and in my testing, I was able to get close to that with the speaker up quite loud.

Sony has also included an IP67 waterproof rating with the speaker which makes its durability a guarantee.  For a recap IP67 means a device is “100% protected against solid objects like dust and sand, and it has been tested to work for at least 30 minutes while under 15cm to 1m of water.”  Take this to the beach party without having to stress about sand or water ruining it.

The only issues I had with the speaker were the slow charging and the less-than ideal microphone.  The sound was what you would expect, actually it was better than you’d expect, from such a small speaker — just don’t expect it to sound as good as those Sonos or Sony bookshelf speakers you paid four times as much for.

All things considered the Sony SRS-XB13 is a great little speaker that is super portable (compact) and durable while producing a decent sound — perfect for use when you are out and about, anywhere, especially around water such as the pool or beach.  At a RRP of $89 it won’t break the bank — grab one (or two for that stereo sound) at all leading retailers.

The Link Lonk


June 01, 2021 at 06:29AM
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Review: Sony SRS-XB13, the compact speaker you can take anywhere » EFTM - EFTM

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