Gadgets

New computing paradigms are never not going to be weird, but such uncomfortability dramatically intensifies when the human body enters into the picture. There’s a sense in which the smart contact lens feels like something of an inevitability (whether it’s produced by Mojo Vision or someone is another question altogether), but that doesn’t mean each

Following last year’s $205 million acquisition of AirTag competitor Tile by family locator service Life360, the two companies today will now integrate their products and services. With an update arriving soon to Life360’s app, members will be able to see the location of the Tile Bluetooth trackers on the same in-app map where they also

We’re still in the very early stages, but thus far Matter has proven to be a fairly peaceful collaboration between the biggest competitors in consumer electronics. Apple, Samsung and Google are among those that have detailed their plans to embrace the universal smart home standard following its recent launch. Today Amazon is offering some insight

It’s been around for a hot minute, but Darkroom just got a pretty major update that makes it a lot more interesting for photo enthusiasts who don’t want, or can’t afford, to use more specialist tools. The fast and intuitive photo editor gives you access to your photo library, essentially giving you a Lightroom-like experience

Sony is launching its second-generation virtual reality headset for PlayStation on February 22, 2023 (exactly a year after its initial reveal, by the way). The PS VR2 will cost $549.99, which includes the headset and controllers, as well as stereo headphones. The PS VR2 headset will open for preorders exclusively through the PlayStation store on

There are countless big problems left to solve in the world of automation, and robotic learning sits somewhere near the top. While it’s true that humans have gotten pretty good at programming systems for specific tasks, there’s a big, open-ended question of: and then what? New research demonstrated at Google’s AI event in New York

Affordability is fairly malleable concept when it comes to consumer drones. We’ve seen plenty of systems positioned as affordable – or even cheap – over the years, but lowering the price point generally comes with its share of tradeoffs. It’s something DJI itself has flirted with a bit itself, with some more basic and entry-level

Yeah, yeah. I know. Buying a record player isn’t going to fix everything that’s broken. But it was a nice thought, however fleeting. Long before the iPod, this strange mutant existed. Too weird to live, too strange to die, as someone once famously put it. The Audio-Technica Sound Burger — as it has affectionately come

A quick caveat up top. This isn’t a review. TechCrunch does reviews. This isn’t one. There are several reasons for this. First, last week was Disrupt — I was busy on the other side of the country. Second, this week is my COVID week (third round, otherwise self-explanatory w/r/t a limited output). Third, we very

Smartphone shipment is often seen as the bellwether of China’s consumer spending, and right now, the picture isn’t very rosy. The world’s largest market for smartphones shipped 175.1 million handsets between January and August, marking a sharp 22.9% decline year-over-year, according to research from a state-backed institution. In August alone, shipments dropped 21.9% year-over-year. The

Nothing today announced the upcoming launch of a brick-and-mortar retail store in London’s Soho district. The store will, of course, carry Nothing. In a less literal sense, one wonders precisely what the store will carry, given that the hardware startup has officially launched two products, with a third being revealed soon. GM Ryan Latham says

Smart lock startup Level has a new version of its lock available, and this one includes Apple Home Key out of the box. The new Level Lock+ is almost identical to its predecessor, the Level Lock Touch, in every other way — but the addition of Home Key takes what was already a super strong

The original Orba was a curious little baseball-sized device that invited people who couldn’t play a triangle if they tried to somehow create beats, bops and bass lines. The success of the original — and the adoption of it as a tool for more serious musicians — inspired the Artiphon team to release an updated

Apple has released iOS 16.1, iPad OS 16.1 and macOS 13, as it announced it would do last week. The updates include a number of new features for iPhone, iPad and Mac devices, including the introduction of Continuity Camera, which allows iPhone owners to use their device as a webcam for their Macs. The iPad

It’s time to accept that cloud gaming is the future of gaming. At least for some people and even though Stadia failed. But that group of people is becoming larger every year. For the past few weeks, I have been playing video games on a brand new device — the Logitech G Cloud. But my

Amazon says over half a dozen hardware vendors have indicated that they cannot enter into a TV manufacturing relationship with the e-commerce group over fear of retaliation from Google, escalating tension with the search giant with whom it competes on several businesses. The revelation, officially shared by Amazon for the first time, was made by

Jio Platforms has quietly launched its first laptop, entering into a new product category as the Indian telecom giant aggressively expands its offerings. The laptop, called JioBook, runs JioOS, a custom Android-based OS that has been “optimized for superior performance” and local languages support. The laptop, manufactured in India, is selling at 15,799 Indian rupees,

Seems we may not be getting a surprise October Apple event, after all. The company just dropped what will, no doubt, be one of its last major hardware updates for the calendar year. The iPad Pro is getting a spec refresh revolving around an upgrade for the M1 to M2 chip. The new chip sports

Apple released a new version of its entry-level iPad that Apple simply calls “the iPad.” It’s a dramatic refresh as Apple is swapping the familiar design with rounded edges and a home button. Instead, the iPad now looks more like the iPad Air and iPad Pro. But there are some compromises. The new iPad starts

More doom and gloom for smartphone manufacturers, as global smartphone shipments experience the third consecutive decline this year. Per numbers from Canalys, shipments dropped a lowly 9% last quarter, marking the worst Q3 for the category since 2014. Apple is a rare bright spot among the numbers, with some positive growth as the rest of

Continuity Camera was one of the odder additions that arrived in the last round of Apple operating system updates. It seemed like an awkward fix to a longstanding issue with Mac webcams, clipping your iPhone to the top of your laptop lid, but I’ve come to appreciate it in my recent travels. Today, Belkin announced

Around late-September/early-October each year, I get a Slack message from Greg asking whether I’m interested in writing a gift guide (or two). “Sure,” I say, never anticipating just how much of a slog the next two months are going to be for hardware news/reviews. Putting together a roundup like that has the decided benefit of

Roku’s newest venture goes beyond your TV screen: The hardware company just announced Roku Smart Home, a new lineup of devices including security cameras, video doorbells, smart lights and voice-enabled smart plugs. The company also launched a Roku Smart Home mobile app and a security camera subscription service. Roku building out its home technologies is significant

Microsoft introduced a deluge of upgraded Surface products during a virtual keynote this morning. Detailed in a blog post penned by Chief Product Officer Panos Panay, the Laptop 5 gets top billing here. The devoted touchscreen notebook arrives in 13.5- and 15-inch models, powered by Intel Evo, which the company claims will make it “50%

Framework is at the vanguard of a growing movement to make electronics more repair-friendly. Some have done so by choice and others have been…nudged in that direction by looming right to repair legislation across the globe. Framework, like Fairphone, is making that a core principle of its technology, without sacrificing the final project (check Devin’s

It took some evasive maneuvering to get us here — the building out of a small-scale hardware ecosystem, coupled with a couple big-ticket acquisitions and a partnership with one of its largest potential competitors. But suddenly, Google emerging as competitive in the smartwatch space doesn’t seem an altogether outlandish proposition. One can make a compelling

Samsung and Google announced a new partnership today that will allow easier setup for Matter-enabled devices on both Samsung SmartThings and Google Home systems. At the Samsung Developer Conference held in San Fransisco, the Korean tech giant said that it will update its SmartThings app in the coming months so that users can onboard Matter-enabled

Following last week’s Google event, a colleague commented to me that the Pixel 7 wasn’t as big an upgrade as the Pixel 6. This is an objectively true statement. But also, it’s fine. Whatever you think about the yearly refresh cycle hardware makers are locked into, we’ve all come to accept that some upgrades are

The cameras in our phones, laptops, and increasingly home robots and the like are about as small as they can get unless we starting doing something different, and that’s just what Metalenz is getting up to — with great success and now a $30 million funding round to expand its ultra-small 3D imaging tech. The

Mark Zuckerberg will make his impassioned pleas that the metaverse is a real thing and a valid Next Big Business for Meta (neé The Facebook) on Tuesday. The annual Meta Connect developer conference kicks off with a keynote starting at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT, which is followed immediately by a more technical