Gadgets

October was an exciting month for reading devices. We got a new iPad mini, a couple of products from Boox, and this strange yet compelling iPhone e-reader adapter from Astropad. The biggest splash of all, however, came from Amazon. It’s unsurprising, as the retail giant commands around 80% of the devoted e-reader market. The past

Apple on Wednesday wrapped up Macweek (well, Mac half week) by introducing an updated MacBook Pro. Apple’s most premium laptop is catching up to is brethren with the addition of M4 chips. The Pro and Mini are the first two Macs getting the new chip. The Pro will also be the first to sport the

Apple wrapped up a half-week of Mac announcements Wednesday by debuting the latest addition to the M-series of chips. A day after announcing the M4 Pro alongside the tiny new Mac Mini, the company is showcasing the M4 Max, which is coming to the MacBook Pro line. Like the other members of the M4 line,

After much hype, Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI features, finally shipped to users this week with the iOS 18.1 update. I used these features for months through beta software and realized that the feature set rolling out this week is more about creating convenience for users rather than letting users plan or brainstorm

The week of Mac announcements chugs along, as Apple introduces the latest addition to its line of first-party silicon. The new M4 is debuting as an upgradeable option for the just-announced palm-size Mac Mini. The Pro follows the May release of the original M4. That chip bucked the standard Apple Silicon cycle by debuting on

Apple kicked off “Mac week” by unveiling a refresh to its perennial favorite all-in-one, the iMac. The big news here is the addition of the newish M4 chip, which the company says is 2x more powerful than the original M1 iMac. The new desktop notably arrives alongside the general availability of Apple Intelligence, which debuts

Apple’s EU mandated transition from Lightning to USB-C has already affected most of its hardware. There have been a few stragglers, however. Near the top of the list are its desktop accessories, the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad. On Monday, the company finally addressed the issue. Along with an M4 refresh to the

A federal jury ruled Friday that Masimo smartwatches infringed Apple patents, but Apple isn’t getting a big payday. Bloomberg Law reports that the company was only seeking the statutory minimum of $250, and that’s all it was awarded. Apple’s attorney John Desmarais reportedly told jurors, “We’re not here for the money.” Instead, he said the

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m new to the projector game. Anker won me over at the end of last year with its Nebula series. The Capsule prioritizes ease of use and portability, above all. While not cheap at $800, it’s a good starter projector in the sense that it’s self-contained and largely

McDonald’s ice cream machines have developed a lousy reputation for being broken when you visit the restaurant, largely due to strict copyright laws that only permit specially licensed technicians to legally repair them. The manufacturers have to license each technician, and they put locks on the McFlurry machines to prevent others from repairing them. However,

Apple has dramatically scaled back Vision Pro production, according to a new report from The Information. The news comes days after CEO Tim Cook admitted in an interview that the $3,500 mixed reality headset is for early adopters and “not a mass-market product.” The production slowdown is believed to be a response to disappointing sales,

I love a clever gadget almost as much as I love saving space in my carry on. Native Union’s new Voyage charger handily ticks both boxes. It’s an unassuming puck-shaped product that’s easily stashed in a pocket or bag when folded shut. Image Credits:Brian Heater Open it up, and you get a pair of Qi2

Amazon made a big splash in e-reader land last week with the release of its first-ever color Kindle. When it comes to devoted e-readers here in the States, Amazon is very nearly the only game in town. Plenty have tried to knock the Kindle off its perch, but the brand maintains around 80% of the

Devialet, the French company at the intersection of audio engineering and luxury, is known for its egg-shaped Phantom speakers, but the company’s first product was in fact an audio amplifier that you could connect to stand-alone speakers. After releasing soundbars, portable speakers, wireless earbuds, the venture-backed company is now going back to its roots with

In 2023, Boox turned heads with the Palma. The device blurred the line between e-readers and smartphones, by combining e-paper with Android. The initial pitch was something along the lines of a phone-sized Kindle that’s small enough to slip into a pocket. The product would be enticing for many if that were the only thing

Almost exactly two years after releasing the Orba 2, Artiphon is completing the trilogy. The newly announced Orba 3 finds the Nashville-based startup baking live sampling into its clever handheld instrument. The feature arrives by way of a built-in microphone, which lets users record their voice, instruments, and other sounds. All of that can be

It was a lean few years for the iPad. The tablet fell out of favor with Apple, as the company turned its focus to other categories like mobile, content, wearables, and mixed reality. The same could have been said about the Mac a few years prior, but the laptop/desktop has had a renaissance in Cupertino,

It’s a big week in Kindle land. Along with refreshes to the base Kindle, Paperwhite, and Scribe, the company is introducing something many of us never expected in a devoted e-reader: color. Earlier this year, Amazon’s chief e-reader competitor, Kobo, introduced the $220 Libra Colour, which leverages color e-ink. The technology has thus far received

Amazon’s Kindle line seems to go longer and longer between updates. While e-readers aren’t quite the consumer electronics darlings they once were, however, the retail giant is still invested in the category. After all, according to estimates, Amazon controls more than 80% of the U.S. market. Along with the long-awaited addition of a color Kindle,

Google is rolling out Android 15 today to Pixel devices. It is also adding new features through the October Pixel drop, including improved low-light photography on Instagram and support for underwater photography and video. Android 15 updates Android 15 has a private space feature that lets you hide and lock apps behind a separate PIN

Oura didn’t invent the smart ring category. It did, however, make all that came before it effectively obsolete. The category dates back more than a decade; TechCrunch wrote about an NFC ring in 2013. The Motiv Ring is of far more recent vintage, but it ultimately struggled to find the right use case before being

Apple’s Vision Pro hasn’t exactly reshaped the market, but the company isn’t giving up on headsets that combine the digital and real worlds. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple’s next big mixed reality release could come as early as next year, with the launch of a Vision headset costing around $2,000

That Nintendo gadget that showed up on the FCC’s site last month is sadly not the Switch 2. While the gaming giant confirmed in May that a Switch successor is, indeed, in the works, fans are going to have to settle for Alarmo. The $100 motion controlled alarm clock brings sounds from titles like Breath

Learning an instrument is difficult for most people. That’s doubly the case when attempting to learn on your own. It’s the reason so many of us have dusty guitars and keyboards jammed up in our attic rafters amid the croquet mallets and badminton birdies of days past. The latest product from London-based Roli offers a

Smartphones have long been the dominant device for communicating on the move, outselling their pared-down feature phone counterparts for more than a decade. However, if recent reports are to be believed, a Luddite revival is driving demand for mobile devices capable of, well, not very much. So-called dumbphones can help people with their digital detox

Oura on Thursday unveiled the fourth generation of its popular smart ring. The Oura Ring 4 arrives just under three years after its predecessor’s debut. Despite the gap, the new wearable largely refines — rather than reinvents — the experience. The most notable hardware change is the slimmer profile, an odd thing to say about

Wearing a camera on your face will invariably evoke privacy concerns. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses have addressed the issue to a certain extent with the inclusion of features like a recording light. But any piece of popular consumer electronics will eventually be hacked, often to prove a point. I-XRAY is a project from a pair

Google is announcing new Chromebook models today with Samsung and Lenovo. With Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus model in particular, the company is also introducing a new multifunctional quick insert key. But Google doesn’t want to leave existing Chromebook users behind as it added new AI-powered features for existing devices. The quick insert key, which also

The consumerization of medtech marches on: Amsterdam-based startup Lapsi Health has just clinched FDA approval for its first clinical support tool, a digital stethoscope. The U.S. medical devices regulator, the Food & Drug Administration, has cleared it as a Class IIA (medium risk) medical device. The startup’s debut sensing gadget is called Keikku, which means

All credit goes to Samsung for inventing and popularizing the foldable. The form factor had plenty of doubters — I admit I was skeptical — when the first Galaxy Fold hit the market in 2019. It was the first Galaxy Flip, which arrived a year later, that taught me to truly appreciate foldables. When the