With summer coming and surf season in full swing, I thought I’d take a closer look at the Casio EMA100-1AV Edifice watch with tide graph and moon-phase data. Casio is best known for their G-Shock line of beefy (and some would say ugly) plastic sports watches so this steel-cased model is a departure for the brand. Casio announced the watch in April and it is on sale now for $250. → Read More
It’s been a little over a year since Google started teasing something it called “Project Glass.” The futuristic, wearable computer that would change the way that you interact with the world was nothing more than a series of rumors for months before it was “formally introduced” in April 2012. Not known for hardware and not having a current bonafide physical device that… → Read More
Look, it’s no secret that HTC knows how to put together a nice phone. Despite the quality of its wares though, HTC spent most of 2012 releasing disappointing earnings statements and being outflanked by much larger rivals — what’s a company to do in a situation like that? The answer, according to CEO Peter Chou, was to double down on innovation and design in hopes of creating a device that would… → Read More
The BlackBerry Q10 is, some might say, the BlackBerry OS 10 device that the company should have led with, ahead of its all-touch Z10. That’s because it sports a hardware QWERTY keyboard, something that has become a unique distinction among top-tier smartphones these days. BlackBerry tells me they wanted to nail the all-touch experience first, in part to prove that they could, but based on my last… → Read More
The Nook HD+ came out last December to mixed reviews. The device had a great screen but problematic bugs caused laggy performance and low scores. The company has come out with an updated version and we took a look.
The 9-inch Nook HD+ is a Retina-quality tablet with a very simple mission – it wants to replace the iPad in the entry-level tablet market. It runs an acceptably fast 1.5 GHz… → Read More
Pebble smartwatches have been hitting doorsteps for a little while now, but my colleague Darrell Etherington and I have only just been able to join the party. The reasons for the extra wait differed for the two of us — I was a late backer, and his got stuck in Canadian customs — but the timing seemed right, so here’s our tag-team review of the device that helped kick start a new era of… → Read More
I come bearing glad tidings. After decades of OEM malaise, a constant parroting of the speeds and feeds mantra, and an aesthetic that was formulated in the back room of a dingy Staples office supply store, the PC is really back.
In short, the Surface Pro is so good that it could drive Windows 8 adoption with enough force to make people reconsider Microsoft’s odd new OS. Microsoft bet the farm… → Read More
Short Version While there is plenty to be said for cloud storage, sometimes it’s nice to have a few terabytes on your local network for backups, document storage, and fun. That said, the Iomega StorCenter px2-300d NAS drive performs all of the functions of a small NAS admirably and, with a bit of tweaking, can become a very usable system for remote access of your files on the road. Features… → Read More
The Canon 6D is a full-frame camera retailing for $2,099, the lowest launch price for such a device in Canon history. Canon’s entry in this field comes a few months after Nikon made a similar move into this market with the D600, but still managed to arrive in stores ahead of the holidays. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not Canon’s new entry-level full frame offers enough to make it… → Read More
HTC has dutifully been churning out smartphones to fly under Verizon’s Droid banner ever since it released the Droid Eris in 2009, but in recent months the company seems to have lost some of its edge. That’s why HTC is looking at its new Droid DNA as something of a return to form — it’s attractive and powerful, and sports a truly insane 1080p display. So how well does Verizon’s new top-tier… → Read More
Six years ago, almost to the day, I remember sitting on the couch with my then one-year-old son playing Elebits on the recently launched Wii. I thought he’d understand the simple point and shoot game. It was sort of a shooter. You walked around a house and aimed at the little characters. He was enthralled.
I was a new parent and I was showing him the magic of the Wii – Nintendo’s… → Read More
In case you haven’t noticed, rapper Dr. Dre has his own line of headphones. They’re called “Beats By Dre” and until now, they were made in concert with the company Monster. Apparently that has changed now and Beats are its own thing now, and that’s good. I’m not a fan of Monster products, but that’s a story for another day.
I went on a bit of a tirade on Twitter about how Beats were replacing… → Read More
A few days ago, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen quietly published an extensive review of Windows 8. In it, Allen – who resigned from the Microsoft board in 2000 but still consults for the company – calls Windows 8 “a significant evolutionary milestone in Windows development,” but his praise mostly focuses on the tablet experience. On the tablet, he says, Windows 8 is “bold and innovative” and… → Read More
The e-reader arms race moves at a glacial pace. Barnes & Noble does one thing, Amazon follows. Amazon adds a feature and, slowly but surely, B&N adds the same thing. While the Kindle itself has been updated five times since 2008, it seems like it’s been around for decades and has only just now gotten much, much better.
The latest e-ink Kindle, the Paperwhite, is a beautiful device… → Read More
Since launching its first product in 2008, Beats has gone from an obscure niche headphone brand to a multi-million dollar business with plenty of star power (Dr. Dre, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, etc.) catapulting the brand into the mainstream spawning several celebrity and musician endorsed rival brands. Now it’s going after an older crowd with the Executive over-the-ear headphones, which I’ve been… → Read More
Short version: Western Digital has finally released a Thunderbolt external hard drive to justify the existence of the Thunderbolt port on your laptop. The My Book VelociRaptor Duo is a desktop external hard drive, which uses two 3.5-inch 1 TB VelociRaptor. Those drives are high-end 10,000 RPM and are a good compromise between speed and storage for a desktop computer. Yet, using them in an external… → Read More
The market for high quality wireless speakers is relatively small. Consider the fact that Sonos and Jawbone have grabbed most of the headlines and buzz over the last few years with creative and attractive hardware design.
Relative newcomer Audyssey has made waves since last year with a uniquely designed set of speakers and an AirPlay dock. Their latest, simply dubbed Wireless Speakers house… → Read More
Reviewing a drive isn’t very exciting. What can you say? “It contains a storage medium, is small, and surprisingly light.” Thankfully, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt can add one important point to that litany of mundanity – a Thunderbolt port and cable that jacks the read and write speed up to amazing levels – thereby turning a ho-hum review into a real barn-burner. → Read More
I’ve been putting off writing about the Telikin because, arguably, any PC is suitable the older audience that the Telikin is aimed. I set my Dad up with a Linux machine and then a Mac Mini and he’s been surfing Drudge and listening to Polka like a champ for almost a decade now. Why spend $699 when you can feasibly hook Grandma up with a PC for $400 or so at Best Buy?
Well the Telikin is an… → Read More
You no doubt are familiar with the Xetum brand, based out of California. If not, just have a look over at to the side of the page. In the past, we’ve reviewed their Tyndall model; today, we’ll be taking a look at the Stinson.
The Stinson presents as a very minimalistic three-hander, and it does it with style. I say that for two reasons – first, it’s an extremely clean dial. Second, the… → Read More
We’ve covered quite a bit of the Epson line and usually found the printers to be solid, respectable, and inexpensive. This latest addition to the WorkForce family, the WP-4540 is arguably all of those with a few caveats.
This is a workhorse printer, designed solely to pump out as much paper as possible in an office setting. It’s quite large and heavy, and adding on the extra paper drawer makes… → Read More
Back at E3, the gaming world let out a collective groan when Sony announced they were making a special 3D TV for the PS3. However, that groan swiftly turned into a clamor of adoration once it was explained that the TV, in addition to displaying 3D content, would also allow two players to play side by side, seeing different displays through two pairs of 3D glasses. Called SimulView, it was pretty… → Read More
Orb Audio is roundly seen as being a company that produces decent to excellent mini speakers at a price that is, at the very least, acceptable to a wide strata of the speaker-buying public. We reviewed a set of Orb home theater speakers and our reviewer found them excellent for cinema playback. The company, seeing a niche, has just released the Orb Audio Booster kit, a $356 package with two basic… → Read More
As a fan of barefoot shoes I jumped (not very high, because you don’t get a lot of air with bare feet) at the chance to try out Fila’s new Skele-Toes EZ Slide barefoot shoes AKA the crazy monkey shoes not made by Vibram.
These shoes are marketed as “casual” monkey shoes and are not designed for running. They are, luckily, fairly attractive in a “weird dude who wears barefoot shoes” kind of way… → Read More
Short Version: The Archos 80 G9 tablet isn’t necessarily something I’d recommend for the hardcore tablet enthusiast, but it certainly gets the job done. Powered by pure Android 3.2 Honeycomb, the tab offers everything you’d expect out of Android and a nice variety of ports, albeit with a somewhat rough build-quality. → Read More
This thing has been sitting on my desk for most of the summer, like a sad-eyed puppy. It wanted me to review it, but like a petulant, spoiled child, I ignored it. “You’re just a scanner,” I said. “Who cares?”
“You’ll care eventually,” said the NeatDesk For Mac. “And when you do, I may not be there for you.” → Read More
It’s amazing that in 2011, roughly 1,000 years after the earbud was originally created, a model could come along that’s actually innovative. But Bowers & Wilkins actually did it. The C5 in-ear headphones debuted several weeks back and I’ve been testing a pair for a while. In short: I’m in love. Oh, it’s not just that they sound great; they’re made by B&W so I would expect nothing less. → Read More
Short Version
It’s hard to recommend the E-PL3 over the more powerful and touchscreen-capable E-P3 but if you’re in the market for a much more compact micro 4/3s shooter and you can survive without a built-in flash, this may be the camera for you. → Read More
Short version: Waterproof and attractive, the Defy is a solid smartphone with relatively rare selling points. It’s missing Froyo at the moment and MOTOBLUR isn’t for everyone, but I consider this thing a great value. → Read More
Short version: Like the Nexus One, the G2 is a unified Google experience, and it excels because of that. The vaunted HSPA+ is fast as hell and there is very little to criticize from start to finish. That said, it’s also a brick and the form factor isn’t for everyone. → Read More
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