Gadgets

By Darrell Etherington Apple has been awarded a patent by the USPTO based on IP it acquired from Kodak in a deal from 2013, which details a remote digital camera system that can be controlled from a smartwatch (Apple Watch fantasists should note that this patent was originally created in 2012). The Apple patent specifically…

By Alex Wilhelm Is the PC market growing or shrinking? It depends on who you ask. As TechCrunch wrote yesterday, tracking firm Gartner reports that PC sales were up 1 percent globally in the final quarter of 2014. However, IDC, another company that keeps tabs on the sales of electronics, noted a 2.4 percent decline.…

By Darrell Etherington Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk held a press conference today at SpaceX HQ (via Bloomberg) to discuss a number of his company’s upcoming initiatives, including a new engineering office in Seattle, as well as next-generation autonomous driving features for Tesla, and the progress of SpaceX’s reusable rocket program, in light of…

By Matt Hanson Introduction and design The ZTE Kis 3 Max is a budget Android smartphone with an incredibly low price of just £54.99 SIM free. It can even be had for less, with Argos offering the handset with a Virgin Media SIM card for just £30, though you do need to buy a £10…

By Darrell Etherington The Pop is simply the best dedicated activity tracker that money can buy for $150, for the simple reason that unlike the rest, it won’t just be shoved in a drawer and forgotten weeks, or even months after purchase. Basics Bluetooth 4.0 iPhone (4s or up) or iPod touch (5th gen or…

By Darrell Etherington The smart home needs a remote, and one startup debuting on Kickstarter today thinks the smartphone isn’t necessarily the best option of that. NEEO is a dedicated device that includes a remote, as well as a brain to centralize control of your home, including your home theater equipment as well as connected…

By Darrell Etherington The first week of 2015 was CES for me, which meant working out of a suitcase in a bizarre fantasy land hewn from hard desert rock, grit and little else. My home office is a veritable oasis of displays and screen real estate, while my mobile CES office most definitely is not.…

By John Biggs On it’s surface, the products made with a MarkForged Mark One printer don’t look like they’d be very strong. Printed in a crude-looking white and beige filament, the wrenches and tools demoed by founder Greg Mark at CES this year looked like any other 3D-printed object – flimsy and unfinished. However, once…

By John Biggs Teddy the Guardian, unlike his animatronic cousin, Teddy Ruxpin, will not terrify your children. Teddy is actually a vital signs sensor that allows parents to check a child’s temperature and heart rate with a single tap of the bear’s paw. Because it’s also a beloved toy, the child won’t be frightened and…

By Darrell Etherington Apple has a new beta for iOS 8.2 out today, and the software contains a hint that suggests it could launch publicly alongside the Apple Watch. The mention of the Apple Watch is found in the Bluetooth menu, according to 9to5Mac, where a message at the bottom of the devices list directs…

By John Biggs In part infinity in our continuing series of heart-warming 3D-printing events, we present Liam and his amazing 3D-printed Clone Trooper arm. A cool dude named John Peterson printed the arm for Liam after learning about E-Nable, a group of volunteers who print arms and hands for kids. Liam’s arm, for example, is…

By Darrell Etherington This year’s Consumer Electronics Show was typical in one key regard: The best insights to be had at the event are those that appear when you look at its overall composition, rather than at any single announcement or product unveiling. For CES 2015, one theme in particular struck me as especially important,…

By Darrell Etherington The SpaceX Dragon capsule has successfully bolted to the International Space Station, where it will spend four weeks as it resupplies the orbiting platform during its fifth official mission as a supply ferry. The SpaceX craft launched on January 10, and then began its approach of the ISS just a few hours…

By Darrell Etherington While Google Glass hasn’t had the impact that Google had likely hoped it would, a fresh funding round of $16 million raised by Augmedix today suggests it’s far from dead. Augmedix is a startup that launched in 2012, with the aim of providing medical professionals with a Glass-powered electronic health record solution:…

By Darrell Etherington E-ink continues to expand its presence at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, and one of the best advocates for the tech has been Yota Devices. The Russian company created the YotaPhone, a dual-display smartphone with an LED screen on one side, and a low-power e-paper display on the back. In 2014, they…