By Josh Constine A smart home hub is a dumb purchase if most of your appliances aren’t smart, too. So Ukrainian startup Branto developed a hub that has a built-in 360-degree camera and speaker for security and telepresence, in addition to being able to operate gadgets over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and infrared. That’s a lot…

By Anthony Ha Sutro, a startup presenting at TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield in Las Vegas, aims to remove one of the big headaches of owning a backyard swimming pool or spa. Now, I don’t own a pool myself (weird, I know), but co-founders Ravi Kurani and Amanda Nagai told me that owners are expected to constantly…

By John Biggs Scott Jordan has been a tech fixture for almost a decade. His company, ScotteVest, makes clothing for gadget lovers, feature pockets for almost everything including tablets, phones, water bottles, and even passports. Now he’s taking on a new persona, Pocket Man, and trying to help people follow their passion. While his adventure…

By Matt Burns I arrived at a massive shooting range compound where a security guard promptly introduced himself as a retired police officer and not a friend of the media. I had to follow his self-proclaimed “diesel-guzzling pig” of a Dodge through the facility’s maze of shooting ranges to the edge of a canyon. It…

By Sarah Perez Amazon’s Fire Phone made news this week with the backstory of why the phone flopped, and Amazon’s plans to reorganize the hardware group, Lab126, responsible for the smartphone. Now the retailer is trying again to clear the shelves of this device, selling the Fire Phone today for $189, off contract, including a…

By Andrew Williams Nyko has announced the Databank, a PS4 add-on accessory that lets you plug a 3.5-inch hard drive into your console. The 500GB hard drive that ships in most PS4 consoles is a 2.5-inch model, but the Nyko Databank lets you use the larger 3.5-inch kind found more often in desktops. It’s not…

By Andrew Williams Nyko has announced the Databank, a PS4 add-on accessory that lets you plug a 3.5-inch hard drive into your console. The 500GB hard drive that ships in most PS4 consoles is a 2.5-inch model, but the Nyko Databank lets you use the larger 3.5-inch kind found more often in desktops. It’s not…

By Andrew Williams Just a day after Nintendo sent out the first European invitations for people to buy the new 3DS Ambassador Edition, the first consoles have been delivered. YouTube user Virtual Accomplishment has posted an unboxing of the handheld, claiming to have placed the order just the day before. The Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Edition…

By Kane Fulton With the rumoured launch of Intel’s Broadwell-U CPUs at CES 2015, it was highly likely that laptops featuring slim and portable designs would emerge — but the systems that strode the red carpet under the Las Vegas sky surpassed my already high expectations. I’m a sucker for a stylish ultraportable, and while…

By Kane Fulton With the rumoured launch of Intel’s Broadwell-U CPUs at CES 2015, it was highly likely that laptops featuring slim and portable designs would emerge — but the systems that strode the red carpet under the Las Vegas sky surpassed my already high expectations. I’m a sucker for a stylish ultraportable, and while…

By Andrew Williams PSN is down for some users once again, with issues having been acknowledged by Sony. PSN outages have been reported by many users on social networks, and Sony made its own response over Twitter, confirming that it’s looking into the issue. “We’re aware that some players are seeing drops on PSN. Engineers…

By Andrew Williams PSN is down for some users once again, with issues having been acknowledged by Sony. PSN outages have been reported by many users on social networks, and Sony made its own response over Twitter, confirming that it’s looking into the issue. “We’re aware that some players are seeing drops on PSN. Engineers…

By Catherine Shu Less than three months after completing its $2.91 billion acquisition of the phone manufacturer from Google, Lenovo announced today that it will bring back Motorola smartphones to China. Three devices—the Moto X, Moto X Pro, and Moto G with 4G LTE—will go on sale early this year. Read More …read more Source:…

By Darrell Etherington Apple’s 12-inch MacBook Air has been rumored for a while now, but the computer is very real, according to a new report from 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman. The resourceful and consistently accurate site has revealed specs and renders of a 12-inch MacBook (which is pegged for release anytime between the near future and…

By Romain Dillet CES is in full swing — the doors of the show officially opened this morning, tens of thousands of people took over the show floor, going from one stand to another. The Las Vegas Convention Center was as overwhelming as I expected, but one thing in particular struck me. CES is a…