Author Archives: JC Torres

Given its timing, CES is often an auspicious opportunity for companies to start the year right with their best foot forward. Sometimes, it involves revealing things yet to come while other times it revolves around strengthening existing products. At CES 2020, Honor sort of did both. It showcased the MagicWatch 2, the Band 5, and the MagicBook alongside a new Band 5 Sport, the latter two slated for a global launch really soon.

Continue Reading

The television manufacturing industry is anything but boring, at least if you pay attention to the trends that come and go and sometimes return. Just when you thought all future TVs would be curved, flat ones are making a comeback but with or almost no bezel around them. Just when you thought that all future TVs would enforce the so-called motion smoothing feature, TV manufacturers are now rallying behind a movement that practically wants that feature gone or at least disabled for some content.

Continue Reading

It wasn't that too long ago, in fact just April last year, that the New York City's transport system started supporting Apple Pay. This was done particularly to push New York's One Metro New York (ONMY) contactless payment system which works perfectly with Apple's own mobile payment system. Perhaps too perfectly, even, as there are now a handful of reports claiming they get charged by simply being near one such OMNY reader.

Continue Reading

The Web as a whole has shunned the kinds of ads that pop up in your face but, unfortunately, there are some popups that may be critical to protecting the user. These usually involve asking the user's permission to use cookies or send them notifications. Of these two, the latter is actually less critical considering almost all users either ignore the request or say "No" outright. Fortunately, browser makers have finally taken notice and have implemented less annoying ways to ask users' permission.

Continue Reading

The number of our electronic devices may be multiplying but the sockets we charge them from definitely aren't. Even in homes and offices, charging ports may be a diminishing commodity and typical USB hubs don't exactly push out enough watts to meet the hungriest of gadgets. At CES 2020, Satechi is unveiling a new 108W Pro Desktop Charger that will supply all the power that your devices need, no matter how much that may be.

Continue Reading

The mobile lifestyle now no longer just applies to smartphones. It's no longer unusual to see people carrying laptops around and working anywhere there's a Wi-Fi connection or a power outlet or both. The change in lifestyle and work habits has also changed the way we store and access data or even the volume of data we accumulate in a short amount of time. That means that portable storage, even usually expensive SSDs, has become more common and so is the risk of theft or loss. Samsung is coming to the rescue with a portable SSD that offers an additional layer of security on top, literally.

Continue Reading

Smart door locks are one of the hardest parts of the smart home market to get into. Given the risks and potential fallout, few seemed to dare promise security married to hi-tech convenience. August dared and, to date, remains one of the top names in that corner of the IoT industry. At CES 2020, it's showing that it isn't done yet even after nine products. Its latest offer slims down the door lock to a more convenient size and includes Wi-Fi from the get-go.

Continue Reading

After a long period of obsessing primarily about display quality and visuals, consumers are now wising up to the fact that audio is just as critical in creating an immersive experience, especially when it comes to entertainment. But as they start to look for audio systems that mix performance and design as well as their TVs, they may be shocked to discover that those tend to sometimes cost more than their TVs. Enter Enclave's two new CineHome home theater systems that bundle five speakers and a subwoofer at the cost of a single high-end soundbar.

Continue Reading

It is always good to hear, no pun intended, when trends, technologies, and designs from the mobile market seep into other industries to help make products become more approachable or even desirable and vice versa. Such an exchange of gifts is perhaps most visible in the audio market where Bluetooth earphones and hearings aids inform each other's development from time to time. The most recent example of this is Phonak's Virto Black, a hearing aid that further blurs the lines by adopting a form that is quite common if not already fashionable among mobile users today.

Continue Reading

Almost all smartphones these days now have some form of fast charging tech or another but despite the amazing advances in that area, the painful truth is that batteries themselves have remained the same for the past years. Fast charging technologies may only take minutes to fully charge to full but usually at the expense of battery health. That's why OnePlus has developed what is practically the reverse of its DASH Charge that slows charging down when you leave the phone plugged in overnight.

Continue Reading

HTC was the first to come out with an Android phone but even before that, it was already one of the top smartphone makers even before the word smartphone came to be. Along with Motorola and, to some extent Sony (back when there was a Sony Ericsson), it is one of the oldest phone makers still in business today. That, however, may not last long if its recent financial disclosure is anything to go by, revealing a decline that has been ongoing for eight street years now without any signs of stopping.

Continue Reading

Smart e-moped maker NIU yesterday announced its launch in the US consumer market and it has more to say beyond mopeds. Joining the growing number of voices shouting "5G", the Chinese company is revealing two new electric motorcycle lines that are embracing the current trends in mobile and automotive industries. While the RQi-GT and TQi-GT have different forms and slightly different features, both are joined by a common thread, what NIU calls "5G IoT", that keeps the vehicles connected to NIU's cloud, whether you like it or not.

Continue Reading