TCL has launched a new pair of AR glasses with 120Hz OLED screens

There’s a new pair of AR smart glasses on the scene, in the form of the TCL Nxtwear S Plus specs – a follow-up to the TCL Nxtwear S, which we reviewed in the middle of last year – priced at $ 399 / £399 / AU$ 699.

Much like their predecessors, these glasses can be connected to a compatible device like a phone or console – either by a USB-C Display Port, or by using adaptors that you’ll have to pay extra for – so you can enjoy your favorite show, game, film, or app on a large virtual screen.

For 2D visuals, the OLED displays offer Full-HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) on a display that’s the equivalent screen size of a 215-inch screen placed six meters from your face. For 3D pictures you’ll get a resolution of 3840 x 1080 pixels

TCL Nxtwear S Plus being used to play Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch

(Image credit: TCL)

In terms of improvements that warrant the Plus title, these TCL specs do have a few important upgrades over the originals.

First, they now boast 600 nits of brightness, 200 more nits than the 400-nit TCL Nxtwear S, and 100 more than the 500-nit Xreal Air 2 Pro specs. This should lead to more vivid colors and better contrast in the displayed picture.

The dual displays also now have a max refresh rate of 120Hz rather than just 60Hz which should make the visuals appear much more smooth than before. We kind of wish they went up to 4K, but this is a resolution other smart specs also have yet to achieve at this price point – so our disappointment isn’t exclusive to the TCL Nxtwear S Plus.

Lastly, the new TCL Nxtwear S Plus smart glasses weigh a whole 2g less than their already lightweight predecessors, coming in at 87g instead of 89g. Based on our tests, smart glasses that weigh this little don’t feel noticeably heavier than wearing a pair of regular specs.

TCL Nxtwear S Plus being used to watch a film in a dark bedroom

(Image credit: TCL)

Some things to watch out for

We haven’t tested the TCL Nxtwear S Plus glasses yet, so our advice would be to try them, or read a few reviews, before you buy them because of two main factors: heat and adapters.

When testing the original TCL Nxtwear S smart specs we found that the bridge got uncomfortably hot within about 20 minutes. Other smart glasses like the Xreal Air 2 Pro and original Xreal Air glasses get around this issue by having the front end of the arm get warm instead – so the hot component isn’t touching your face – so it’s possible that these new TCL Nxtwear glasses won’t have the same issue as the old version. 

If the bridge still does get quite warm then you might not be able to enjoy the TCL glasses to their fullest.

The Xreal Air 2 Pro AR smart glasses next to the Xreal Beam hub, they're both on a wooden table in front of a brick wall

You might want to check out the Xreal Air 2 Pro glasses (Image credit: Future)

Adapters are also an issue for a lot of smart glasses. While they can interface with a good number of devices, you’ll need quite a few not-so-optional-add-ons to get the best experience. 

These include special cables that allow you to hook them up to more devices, and adapters that have their own internal battery, so you don’t drain the connected device’s battery as quickly. Picking up all of these extras can add to the cost, which is always a shame when you’re already spending $ 399 / £399 / AU$ 699 on the device itself.

Noise leakage can also be a problem for smart glasses with their open-ear speakers, though the TCL Nxtwear S Plus glasses have a Whisper Mode that promises to keep noise leakage from their 0.5mm stereo speakers to a minimum . We've yet to use any smart glasses that don’t have a problem with audio escaping to the people around you, even if they have their own version of Whisper Mode, but hopefully the TCL Nxtwear S Plus specs will convince us that smart glasses don’t have to be noisy.

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Microsoft just launched a free Copilot app for Android, powered by GPT-4

If you're keen to play around with some generative AI tech on your phone, you now have another option: Microsoft has launched an Android app for its Copilot chatbot, and like Copilot in Windows 11, it's free to use and powered by GPT-4 and DALL-E 3.

As spotted by @techosarusrex (via Neowin), the Copilot for Android app is available now, and appears to have arrived on December 19. It's free to use and you don't even need to sign into your Microsoft account – but if you don't sign in, you are limited in terms of the number of prompts you can input and the length of the answers.

In a sense, this app isn't particularly new, because it just replicates the AI functionality that's already available in Bing for Android. However, it cuts out all the extra Bing features for web search, news, weather, and so on.

There's no word yet on a dedicated Copilot for iOS app, so if you're using an iPhone you're going to have to stick with Bing for iOS for now if you need some AI assistance. For now, Microsoft hasn't said anything officially on its new Android app.

Text and images

The functionality inside the new app is going to be familiar to anyone who has used Copilot or Bing AI anywhere else. Microsoft has been busy adding the AI everywhere, and has recently integrated it into Windows 11 too.

You can ask direct questions like you would with a web search, get complex topics explained in simple terms, have Copilot generate new text on any kind of subject, and much more. The app can work with text, image and voice prompts too.

Based on our testing of the app, it seems you get five questions or searches per day for free if you don't want to sign in. If you do tell Microsoft who you are, that limit is lifted, and signing in also gives you access to image generation capabilities.

With both Apple's Siri and Google Assistant set to get major AI boosts in the near future, Microsoft won't want to be left behind – and the introduction of a separate Copilot app could help position it as a standalone digital assistant that works anywhere.

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One of the biggest proxy service providers just launched a VPN

The web data platform and proxy service Bright Data (formerly Luminati) has announced the release of its new completely free VPN service.

BrightVPN aims to disrupt the traditional VPN market by offering the same features as paid, subscription-based VPNs while remaining 100 percent free to its users.

Also, unlike traditional VPN services, no email or account is needed to use BrightVPN which means its users retain complete anonymity.

BrightVPN

In addition to being completely free to use, BrightVPN requires zero technical skills and its VPN client can be downloaded, installed and used to further protect your privacy online in just 40 seconds.

The new VPN service stays true to Bright Data's mission to make the web more transparent to all by enabling users to reach any website, in any country while avoiding both regional and other reasons for site blockages. BrightVPN is powered by the company's extensive infrastructure which is currently used by more than 10,000 customers including several Fortune 500 firms.

By installing and using Bright Data's VPN, users become part of a larger crowdsourcing network that allows researchers and companies to easily access public web data for multiple purposes. However, as part of the company's commitment to transparency, BrightVPN allows users to see and control which sites are accessed by Bright Data with settings that allow them to control when they allow their IP address to be used and even grant or deny access to specific sites.

Users looking for an alternative to costly premium VPNs or less reputable free VPN services, can download BrightVPN here to remain anonymous online and protect their IP address from being tracked for commercial reasons.

We've also featured the best VPN, best business VPN and best proxy services

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HTC has launched a free VR rival to Zoom and Teams

Businesses around the world have turned to video conferencing software such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams as a means to hold meetings during the coronavirus outbreak but interacting with coworkers does prove somewhat difficult when behind a webcam.

This is why HTC has announced that the beta version of its remote collaboration and meeting platform for VR, VIVE Sync will be available free of charge for businesses and remote employees during the pandemic.

VIVE Sync, from first-party developer 2 Bears Studio and HTC, supports up to 30 attendees simultaneously and features full body tracking so that participant's personally created avatars can communicate using their actual body language. 

The platform also supports Tobii eye tracking, which is embedded in headsets such as the VIVE Pro Eye, for more natural lifelike interactions with virtual colleagues or clients.

VIVE Sync

Working with your company's files in VR is also easy as Sync integrates with Microsoft OneDrive and OneDrive for business and supports many popular file formats from PowerPoints to PDFs to videos.

However, one of the biggest advantages that VIVE Sync offers is the ability to work with 3D content in VR. Instead of looking at 3D models on a 2D screen as you would with other video conferencing services, Sync lets you bring them into your virtual space and review them together with your team. The software supports FBX and OBJ files, as well as Unity Asset Bundles, which makes it easy to upload, import and review all of your 3D assets.

If you and your team have access to VR headsets and have grown tired of staring at a screen all day long, you can test VIVE Sync out for yourself for free beginning on April 30.

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