The DC44 from Dyson is truly an Animal. It’s as good as it gets in the land of vacuum cleaners, with a wireless base, multiple lightweight attachments, and a sleek design. Sure, it’s on the expensive end of the spectrum, but when storing and using your vacuum cleaner is this easy, you realize it’s well worth it.
Plus, it does a damn good job of keeping the house clean. → Read More
You waited this long, you might as well go big: Apple’s smaller 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro is a very worthy sequel to the 15-inch variety released this past summer, and while it will still strain the average buyer’s budget, it definitely won’t inspire any buyer’s remorse. → Read More
ThinkGeek’s iCade 8-Bitty wireless gaming controller is pretty adorable, though limited. It has a retro feel, eliciting nostalgia for Super Nintendo, and hooks up easily with both iOS and Android devices.
The games, however, are limited to various emulators like Atari’s Greatest Hits and Pac Man. These are great games and appeal to just about anyone, but the retro controller supports exactly… → Read More
The JBL Soundfly is a fresh take on the small speaker craze. Instead of relying on a battery for power, the Soundfly sports an electrical plug on the backside. Just plug it into the wall for power and connect your iOS device with Airplay. There are no wires, once it’s connected to the local wireless network, it always works.
The obvious downside is that the speaker can only be used where… → Read More
It’s been a weird year for hardware: the biggest, most news-worthy launches haven’t come out of Cupertino or Tokyo but out of small Kickstarter campaigns that have, in the end, raised millions of dollars. Makers, in other words, are finally getting their due. → Read More
As we approach crunch time, I’ve decided to focus on cool gifts that you can still get for those folks who are hardest to buy for. To that end, here’s something decidedly cool and/or odd: it’s a handmade watch whose face is a smashed Nespresso pod. At about $600 it’s a bit pricey but, behind the silly facade is a handmade timepiece that the coffee-loving watch-hound in your life might enjoy. → Read More
Short Version Bowers & Wilkins Wireless A7 speaker system is as good as it gets when you’re looking for big sound out of a compact design. Setup is incredibly easy thanks to Airplay, which lets you connect and control content wirelessly through your iOS devices. Yes, it’s relatively expensive, but it can essentially play the role of a complete music experience on it’s own. → Read More
Oh, the things watch nerds will do to protect their precious timepieces. If you know someone who is crazy enough to spend a few thousand dollars on an automatic watch, they’ll probably want a watch winder. Wolf Winders makes some amazing winders but they’re very pricey. However, I tried out two models, the Cub Winder and the Module 4.1 and found them, in general, to be superior to models I’ve… → Read More
My first encounter with Golla bags happened at the Mobile World Congress in 2012. Their vibrant display at the event was hard to ignore. Even now, it’s hard to ignore the breadth of designs and options they give you for protecting and toting your personal gear.
They sent over their Carter Large Pro Sling Camera Bag for review and I must say there is a lot to like about it. → Read More
The number of options out there for iPad styli at this point is almost crazy. But Ten One Design has always made solid ones, and the Pogo Connect also adds pressure sensitivity via Bluetooth 4.0. It’s a slightly different take than others in this space, and one that benefits immensely from extremely low power consumption. → Read More
I know what you’re thinking, but stop yourself because this isn’t another JimmyJane sex toy review.
The device pictured above is actually a premium-grade personal massager that is intended for full body use. It comes with special touch sensors that decide how intense the massaging should be, along with a cordless, water-proof design. → Read More
Google’s latest (and LG’s first) Nexus smartphone probably tops many a geek’s holiday wishlist, and with good reason. The combination of some impressive hardware and Google’s latest version of Android is a very compelling one, but know this before shelling out your hard-earned cash: it’s not ideal for everyone. → Read More
The Samsung Galaxy Beam is an Android powered smartphone that has a pico projector embedded into its top edge so you can beam on-screen content onto a wall or other large surface. As well as projecting video and photo content, the projector feature can be used for giving presentations or to beam out decorative projections set to music to create a fun, party atmosphere. → Read More
The Kindle Paperwhite is Amazon’s latest ereader. After four generations of devices, Kindle users expected a slight incremental update from the previous Kindle Touch. But everything was improved in the Paperwhite, from the operating system to the display resolution. On top of that, Amazon added frontlighting. After two months of use, it remains the best reading device. → Read More
Sometimes it’s nice to share a good book, and if you know me then you know that most of the books I’m buying are comics and graphic novels. These are a few of my absolute favorites this year and I recommend picking up a solid, meaty hardcover and hanging onto it for a few years. You know, like the old days. → Read More
When Lenovo first announced the Yoga in October nobody knew what to think. A laptop that folks fold over to turn into a big tablet? With Windows 8? Meh. However, after some extensive usage I’ve come away thinking that the Yoga might be the coolest Win8 laptop I’ve used and at $999 for the entry-level model I’m willing to recommend it to folks who are looking for a little something different in a… → Read More
The Nokia Lumia 920 can be used with any gloves: it’s a miracle. But for the vast majority of other smartphones, that’s not the case, so there are a variety of sellers making touchscreen compatible gloves. Netherlands-based Mujjo was one of the first to try and make some that are actually stylish and durable, and they’ve been updated this year with a number of improvements. → Read More
One of our favorite hardware startups is pushing the vape-velope with their new Cera, a battery-powered vaporizer made almost entirely of stain-resistant ceramic. We visited their small factory outside of San Francisco a few months ago and they promised that they’d have something cool to show off around the holidays. They weren’t kidding. → Read More
Back in the olden days, before the kids had their smartphones and their Nintendo tapes and their Tivo, families used to get together in a room, open a paper box, and remove a set of boards and pieces. By following a set of rules, families could play these “board games” together and have loads of fun until the candles burned out and someone died of dysentery. → Read More
Lytro promised that its camera was only the beginning of the new technology, which allows the user to change focus of the picture after it’s taken. The data contained in a single digital image taken with a Lytro camera is completely new and different from the data we’re used to seeing with more traditional technology. It’s uncharted territory, the exploration of a brand new world, and the latest… → Read More
Apple’s new redesigned iMac marks a significant departure from a physical design for the company’s all-in-one desktop that’s been relatively the same, with a few tweaks, since 2007. The new iMac represents a significant visual change, and packs a lot of new stuff inside the entry-level $1,299 version as well, which is the one I received for testing. Here’s how it performed over the course of a few… → Read More
The Doxie Go is a portable scanner with a built-in battery and 512 MB of internal memory. You can bring it anywhere with you and scan all your documents before throwing them away. But the best part is the application that comes with it. It integrates with cloud services, such as Dropbox, Evernote or CloudApp. You can open scanned documents with any local app, as well, or just save it as a PDF with… → Read More
Bag week is long over, but one of the sport packs we had left over kept grabbing my attention with its hardshell tablet pocket and comfy, ventilated mesh back support.
So I decided to carry around the Pelican ProGear U145 backpack for a few days and have been left mostly satisfied, and a little worn out. → Read More
Philips Hue are wireless LED lightbulbs that are controlled via an iOS app — allowing you to change the shade and intensity of light they beam out, turn the bulbs on and off remotely, and set them to come on at scheduled times. Let there be micro-managed light! → Read More
Sony’s compact camera with pro features including manual focusing and RAW support comes with a hefty price tag, but it costs that much for a reason: This is simply the best camera currently available for shooters who want something that fits in a front pocket but still delivers image quality so breathtaking, your friends will think you’ve been toting around a DSLR. → Read More
The Squier Strat by Fender (or Squier by Fender Strat or however they want to name this thing) is one of the first guitars with a built-in digital signal processor. The guitar plugs right into any computer or 30-pin iOS device (Lightning cables are not yet available) so you can play directly into any sound editor including GarageBand and Logic Pro. It’s a $200 guitar that’s designed primarily to… → Read More
As one of TechCrunch’s resident watch fans, I was intrigued by the Victorinox Dive Master 500, a fairly unique automatic watch that brings the best of the Swiss mechanical along with styling reminiscent of some of the better divers. The build is solid, the 43mm case is well-polished, and the face is very legible. Interestingly, I’d actually recommend this for a fairly adventurous lady who is… → Read More
Android phones! There are some that I love. The HTC One X was one of those, thanks to a very attractive external package alongside an Android skin (Sense) that had a fairly light touch and didn’t mess with most of Android’s good features, but brought some nice additional touches to the mix. The HTC One X+ is like the One X, but made better in nearly every important respect. Not surprisingly, that… → Read More
Apple’s iPod touch is arguably among the last of a dying breed, being a standalone media player that isn’t also a phone. But just because you’re among a species on the verge of extinction doesn’t mean you can’t shine, and the 5th generation iPod touch brings a lot of goodness to the table for a connected mobile device that can’t call anyone. → Read More
The Pen Type-A is a pen milled from a block of type 304 stainless steel that should last at least 50 years. It looks and feels great, and it’s a good writing tool as it uses Pilot’s Hi-Tec C ink cartridges. The ruler acts as a sleeve. It is precisely manufactured so that the pen slowly slides in and out, like a pneumatic cylinder. It’s a pen for pen geeks. → Read More
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