Gadgets

This week on The TechCrunch Podcast we talked with Natasha about the Y Combinator Demo Day for the Summer 2022 cohort; the highs, the lows, the new management and whether the accelerator moving to be more in-person-focused is a help or a hindrance to its further-flung participants. Then, ever a crypto-sceptic at heart, I was

Whether you love it or hate it, you probably have a very strong feeling about the notch (or, that awkward little black cutout that sits at the top of your iPhone or MacBook). The notch is a necessary evil, since, well, your front-facing camera has to go somewhere! That awkward cutout is a still-awkward, pill-shaped

As part of the Hardware team here at TechCrunch, I love me a good Apple event, and this one was, er, eventful. I’m an active human who loves scuba diving, so the Apple Watch Ultra seems like an underwater match made in heaven. The new iPhone Pro’s cameras and the fact that Apple has been

Yes, the new Apple Watch Series 8 looks nice. New features like a temperature sensor and crash detection are clever, but let’s be honest, we’re all going to walk away from today’s big event talking about the Apple Watch Ultra. Love it, hate it, even feel generally indifferent toward it, the product stole the show

The first AirPods Pro were a revelation. It felt like Apple was finally all in on doing a pair of earbuds right — a big change from the days of those questionable headphones that came in the iPhone box. The sound quality, the active noise canceling and — perhaps most importantly, the comfort level —

I bear bad news if you’d rather not walk around feeling like you have a brick in your pocket: Apple seems to be bailing on its smallest smartphone … again. That’s right: The $2.5 trillion company’s big fall event came and went today with no mention of a new iPhone Mini. Instead, Apple is “going

GPS in its many regional flavors has become a ubiquitous feature in phones, smart watches, cars and other connected devices, but for all the location-based features that it helps enable (mapping being the most obvious) it has a lot of shortcomings: it can be slow and inaccurate, it can contribute to faster battery drain and,

Earlier today I wrote a piece about Apple Watch Ultra’s new Scuba diving feature, and a lot of folks came out of the woodwork to tell me they wouldn’t trust a ‘dive toy’ to keep them safe under water. I respect their opinion, but I figured I’d share why I feel fully comfortable trusting Apple

Yes, I missed Bose’s big news this morning. I was busy with…other stuff. You, too, would be forgiven for missing the QuietComfort Earbuds II launch, under the deluge of Apple news (including its own new buds), but Bose makes very good headphones, and any new version of its flagship products deserves a mention. The new

In addition to the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple unveiled a brand new Apple Watch model at its press conference. The Apple Watch Ultra has been specifically designed for intense sports tracking. It is a larger model with better battery life. It also has a different body that should resist extreme weather conditions. The case

Somehow, we all became livestreamers during the pandemic, even if it just meant rearranging our office shelves for a better Zoom background. But the pandemic was also a boon for those catering to clients with slightly more advanced needs, such as those who needed dedicated hardware, be that fancy streaming lights, capture cards or entire

On August 9, Joe Biden signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The move marked a victory for a presidential administration in dire need of a win and the culmination of a hard-fought, months-long battle that ended with broad bipartisan support. Among the chief criticism leading up to the bill’s passage were

As we’re sitting here, getting ready for Apple’s big show, Google went ahead and sent out invites for the next big Pixel event. The big reveal is happening in Brooklyn, on October 6, starting at 10AM PT. What do we expect? Well, the company has already gave us a preview of the Pixel 7 when it

India is planning to speed up testing and safety approvals of electronic devices, including smartphones and earbuds, to reduce their time to market. Currently, it can take as long as 20 weeks to for consumer electronics to pass safety tests — but the new approvals could bring that down to as little as three days.

Tired: JBL announced the Tour PRO 2 earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC). Wired: The case has a touchscreen. That’s right. In the off-chance you didn’t have enough screens in your life, the new earbuds’ case adds another 1.4-inch LED touch display. Users can flick through multiple screens like different watch faces that allow them

Amazon today announced the addition of Ring Intercom to its list of smartphone offerings. The product is designed to be an add-on to existing apartment intercom systems. The company has created a quick online questionnaire to determine whether your existing system will work with the new product. It’s a rare addition targeted specifically at apartment

Don’t you hate it when they give everything away in the headline? So, a belated spoiler warning that, indeed, the iPhone 14 is almost certainly going to be the big headline announcement at Apple’s September event. A few other things seem close to certain, as well, including the Apple Watch Series 8. As ever, there

Firewalla, maybe the only company that can say that its hardware firewalls have something of a cult following, today announced the latest addition to its portfolio: the $569 Firewalla Gold Plus. The Gold Plus will feature four 2.5 gigabit Ethernet interfaces and its deep packet inspection hardware can handle up to 5 gigabits at a

Don’t you hate it when, after going just five or 10 meters underwater, you lose signal completely? Now this vexing limitation of modern technology is being addressed by researchers at the University of Washington, who have made an underwater communication app that uses sonic signals to pass messages to your other submerged friends. It may

Millions around the world suffer strokes every year, and millions more are in recovery from one they’ve suffered. Regaining the use of affected limbs and capabilities is a long road, but one that can be shortened by intensive rehabilitation efforts — which Neurofenix has shown can take place in the home rather than during frequent

The first pitching machine dates back well over 100 years. Obviously things have come a long way since that injury-inducing, gunpowder-fueled machine made its debut at Princeton University, but most modern systems are more or less the same. A ball is manually or mechanically dropped into a spinning wheel or wheels, which propel it toward

We’ve had a Samsung review blitz over the past two weeks, covering all the products the company announced at its recent Unpacked event. In my write-up of the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, I noted how understated the product line was, in contrast to its flash, bombastic foldables. The Galaxy Watch line, meanwhile, exists somewhere between

T-Mobile and SpaceX have announced that Starlink satellites launched next year will be able to connect directly to the carrier’s phones over existing cellular bands. The companies hope to enable global roaming wherever satellite coverage exists, and the service may potentially be added for free to existing T-Mobile plans. SpaceX’s Elon Musk and T-Mobile’s Mike

The Pixel Watch remains the big looming question mark over the horizon for Google’s wearable ambitions, but for now, the Fitbit lines are carrying on like nothing much has changed. At a launch event this morning, the Alphabet-owned firm unveiled a trio of wearables, including two new smartwatches. The topline products are the Versa 4

Sony has raised the price of PlayStation 5 in most major markets, citing “challenging economic conditions” such as high global inflation rates and adverse currency trends, the latest in a series of challenges engulfing the current generation gaming console. The new price, which largely varies between $30 to $80, goes immediately into effect in Europe,

Galaxy Buds are the longtime workhorse of Samsung’s premium line. Perhaps the fact that they’re nearly always launched as a kind of afterthought to flashier phablets and foldables. Maybe it’s the fact that they’ve always kind of been quietly good and therefore not deserving of an overhaul like, say, the Pixel Buds. You can’t blame

Chinese smartphone titan Oppo will keep Germany as its main operational hub for its European business despite recently withdrawing sales from the country, Billy Zhang, the firm’s vice president of overseas sales and services, told media on Monday. Oppo halted sales in Germany this month after losing a patent lawsuit to the Finnish telecoms giant

Servify, a startup that manages lifecycle of devices for several popular smartphone vendors including Apple and Samsung in many markets, has raised $65 million as it eyes becoming a public company in two years. Singularity Growth Opportunity Fund led the Mumbai-headquartered startup’s Series D funding. AmTrust and family offices including Pidilite and existing investors Iron

You have your work in front of you, a cup of coffee on your desk, some gentle tunes without words playing on the stereo and you’re ready to do some work. Your phone buzzes, and 90 minutes later you look up filled with self-loathing and regret. Your coffee is cold, the cursor on your Word

Apple this morning is rolling out iPadOS 16.1 beta to enrolled developer devices. It’s a break from the standard release cadence, which has tied together the tablet operating system with its smartphone counterpart, iOS, since its first release in 2019. In a comment to TechCrunch, the company notes, “This is an especially big year for