The Morning After: IKEA's smart blinds launch online
Not like you can get them anywhere else at the moment...
It’s Easter Monday today, although COVID-19 probably squashed any egg hunt plans -- and most gatherings you had scheduled. For anyone adjusting to this new lockdown life, it’s stressful, tiring and the rest. If you’re looking for suggestions for how to spend the time outside those WFH hours, we updated our best games guides last week 00 and have suggestions for what you probably shouldn’t play right now.
I’m still trying to buy only what I need -- or can pick up digitally. It all means I’m actually saving money. Maybe I’ll get those IKEA smart blinds once things get a little better.
-Mat
Maybe don't start playing 'The Last of Us' during a pandemic
Atmospheric horror is only a diversion when it’s not real life.
We finally managed to convince Dan Cooper to pick up The Last of Us: Remastered. Unfortunately, he did so the week before the UK went into lockdown. Main character Joel’s stress started to become Dan’s stress. Continue reading.
IKEA's smart blinds are finally available to buy online
You don't have to visit a store -- useful at this moment in time.
You can’t visit an IKEA store right now due to the pandemic, but you won’t be missing out on the company’s connected devices as a result. IKEA has started selling its FYRTUR smart blinds online in the US, several months after they were initially limited to in-person customers. They start at $129 for a 23x76 3/4” blind. You’ll also need the $35 TRADFRI gateway if you’re going to take advantage of Alexa, Google Assistant or HomeKit -- and you probably should get one if you really want them to be truly smart blinds. Continue reading.
LG's curvy premium phone will be called 'Velvet'
Which sounds like a chocolate bar.
LG’s vague design sketches for its next flagship phone have been joined by an equally vague name: Velvet. It doesn’t look like it’ll be covered in its namesake, but then again, we’re still at the concept stages for all of this. It’s hard to derive anything meaningful just yet. Continue reading.
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Google Pixel 4 drops to $449 at Best Buy
It's a massive discount.
Google’s Pixel 4 is already seeing the kind of steep discounts you’d normally expect toward the end of a smartphone’s lifecycle -- maybe because of those Pixel 4a rumors? Regardless, Best Buy is selling the flagship phone for $450 with same-day activation -- that’s a sizable $350 off the usual price. The larger Pixel 4 XL, meanwhile, has dropped a similar amount, to $550. You’ll have to pay an extra $50 if you’d rather not activate with a carrier, but that matches the still quite large discount you’ll find at the Google Store. Continue reading.
But wait, there’s more...
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