Reviews - Page 19

Apple's new iPhone X brings the first major design overhaul in years, so I'm taking a look at a wide range of iPhone X cases from different manufacturers to see what's available. This is my second review roundup post, which covers Casetify, Caudabe, and Incipio. My first review roundup on cases from Twelve South, Nomad, Speck, and Apple can be found here, and in the coming days, I'll have...

Case reviews aren't often something that we do here at MacRumors because for the last several years, there's been little variation in case design since there's been little variation in iPhone design. With the iPhone X, Apple introduced its first major design overhaul in years, so I thought I'd take a look at a wide range of cases from different manufacturers to see what's out there. Given that ...

CalDigit recently launched its AV Pro 2 storage hub, a USB-C accessory that serves not only as an external drive with up to 8 TB of storage, but also acts a peripheral hub with two additional Type-A USB 3.0 ports and can charge a connected computer at up to 30 watts. The AV Pro 2 is available in a range of capacities in both traditional 7200 rpm hard drive and solid-state drive models,...

Elgato's Eve lineup of smart home devices is one of the largest contributors to the HomeKit ecosystem, with a variety of sensors and switches for inside and out, including five more products announced a couple of months ago. We reviewed a set of the early Eve products two years ago, when we found a solid set of sensors that were hampered by bugs in the early days of HomeKit. HomeKit has come a ...

Elevation Lab first made a name for itself with the original Elevation Dock, which was one of the most popular docks on the market when it came out in 2012. Since then, the company has continued making docks and stands for iPhone and Apple Watch. The fourth iteration of the original Elevation dock, the ElevationDock 4, was introduced this September, just in time for the debut of the iPhone...

Robotics company Sphero skyrocketed to popularity in 2015 with the release of BB-8, a miniature iPhone-controlled toy droid modeled after the BB-8 character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As the release of the The Last Jedi approaches this December, Sphero has introduced two new Star Wars-themed robotic toys, BB-9E and R2-D2. R2-D2 is a well-known classic droid that's starred in Star...

Western Digital's My Cloud Home is a network-attached personal cloud storage solution, designed to combine the convenience of cloud storage with the privacy and security of local storage. It's available in capacities ranging from 2TB to 16TB, to meet the needs of both families and small businesses, and with apps for the Mac, PC, iOS devices, and a cloud website, content can be accessed from...

Qardio, known for its line of iPhone-connected health-related products, recently unveiled its second-generation scale, the QardioBase 2 Smart Scale and Body Analyzer. QardioBase 2 is designed for tracking your weight as you aim to hit fitness goals. It measures not only weight, but also tracks body mass index and body composition, including muscle, bone, fat, and water content in the body. D...

Logitech's MX Sound 2.0 Bluetooth speakers are the audio offering in its latest desktop accessory range, which includes the MX ERGO mouse and CRAFT keyboard. Like most stereo speakers around the $99 price point, they're positioned as a decent upgrade over typically lifeless-sounding integrated monitor and laptop speakers. The company says it focused on design quality and audio performance...

Back in January, Ring introduced its motion-activated Floodlight Cam, pairing a security camera with two bright floodlights to help protect users' homes. The Floodlight Cam began shipping in April, and I've been using one for about six weeks to monitor the rear of my house. It's a handy product that lets you keep tabs on movement around your home, with push notifications, live and recorded camera ...

Apple's augmented reality developer framework, known as ARKit, launched within iOS 11 on September 19. The debut turned hundreds of millions of iPhones into advanced AR-capable devices in the span of a few days, leading to the first wave of ARKit apps on the iOS App Store. One of these apps is called "Pixie," which existed prior to ARKit with its own proprietary AR technology, but the...

The Ionic is Fitbit's first real effort at a "true" smartwatch, and there's plenty riding on the $300 device. Not only is the activity tracker company late to the smartwatch game, its market share in wearables has shrunk because of increasingly sophisticated rival devices from the likes Apple and Xiaomi. To have a hope of reviving its fortunes, Fitbit sought out a new creative direction and...

Logitech's Circle 2, introduced in June, is the second-generation version of its Circle home security camera. This new version features a redesigned body, wired and wire-free versions, accessories that let it be positioned anywhere, and, through a recent update, HomeKit support. Circle 2 is meant to be used as a home security device and it's ideal for keeping an eye on your house while you're...

Jaybird, known for its line of headphones aimed at runners and fitness enthusiasts, recently introduced the RUN, its first wire-free headphones designed to compete with the wide range of wire-free headphones that are now on the market, like Apple's AirPods. I went hands-on with the RUN to see how they compare to the AirPods and other Jaybird products like the new Freedom 2 headphones, also...

Nanoleaf, the company behind the HomeKit-enabled Aurora smart modular lighting system, recently introduced a $49 accessory that allows the Aurora lights to respond to music, adding a whole new sound-based dimension to an already great product. Called the Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm, the add-on module is a small three-triangle accessory that snaps right in to an existing Nanoleaf setup using the...

Western Digital recently introduced its newest SanDisk-branded backup product for iOS devices, the SanDisk iXpand Base, which combines nightly charging with backing up to make for an easy and intuitive way to protect your data. The idea is to put the iXpand Base on your nightstand, plug it into the wall, and then plug your iPhone into the Lightning port at night. This charges the iPhone and...

Fueled by the popularity of Nest, thermostats remain one of the more popular categories of smart home devices. I recently took at look at Honeywell's Lyric Round thermostat with HomeKit support, and today I'm following up with Emerson's latest HomeKit model, the Sensi Touch. Announced back in May and launched in June, the Sensi Touch offers a horizontal design with a color touchscreen taking ...

I've covered a lot of Thunderbolt 3 docks in recent months, but there's one more upcoming model that's worth taking a look at. The TBT3-UDV is Plugable's upcoming flagship Thunderbolt 3 dock, featuring five USB 3.0 Type-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort, stereo in/out, and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports. The dock isn't available for purchase yet, as Plugable is still awaiting Thunderbolt...

Philips recently released the DiamondClean Smart, a new iteration of its top-of-the-line toothbrush with all the bells and whistles. Not only does it connect to your iPhone using a Bluetooth connection to help you brush better than ever before, but it's also been redesigned to decouple brushing mode from intensity. There are new smart brushes for more tailored brushing, additional modes to...

Back in January at CES, Chamberlain announced plans to release MyQ Home Bridge, a hardware hub to allow connected garage openers in the company's MyQ ecosystem to work with HomeKit. The MyQ Home Bridge was initially scheduled to launch in April, but as is common with these types of products needing to gain HomeKit certification, it was pushed back a bit and had a brief quiet launch earlier this...