Brian Heater
Hardware Editor
The Latest from Brian Heater
Is your startup heading to MWC? TechCrunch wants to hear from you
Nature is healing, the tech show is returning to in-person events. I’m not sure I’m entirely over CES less than a month after returning from Vegas, but we’re already in full planning mode for Te
Nothing’s second phone will take on the US this year
It there’s one thing Nothing’s first phone excelled at, it was bringing a bit of excitement to the staid world of smartphones. Shipments have been stagnating, slowing and contracting for the past
Apple stock drops on rare Q4 earnings miss
Apple has thus far been lauded for a deliberate hiring approach that saved the company from the mass layoffs conducted by top competitors like Alphabet and Amazon. But not even the iPhone maker is imm
Rebar robotics firm Toggle adds another $3M to its fundraising tally
There’s no denying that the robotics startup world has taken a hit during the ongoing economic downturn. Recent numbers prove what we’ve all suspected for some time. But two things are true: 1) Th
There are still robotics jobs to be found (if you know where to look)
A lot has happened in the half-year since we caught up with Ayanna Howard, dean of the Ohio State University’s College of Engineering — not all of it good. The broader economic slowdown has been d
Apple’s hardware VP on the HomePod’s return
Maybe nothing ever truly dies in Apple land. The Mac Pro went on an indefinite hiatus as the hardware design team regrouped and reengineered. MagSafe appeared to be gone forever, only to be reborn in
Samsung’s new Galaxy S23 Ultra arrives with a 200-megapixel camera
Common wisdom in digital photography says that megapixels aren’t everything. They matter to an extent, but smartphone makers have a long history of leaning too heavily on those numbers as a kind of
Samsung has the MacBook Pro in its sights with the $2,400 Galaxy Book 3 Ultra
The new MacBook Pros are a lot of things, but cheap isn’t one. Performance, it seems, comes at a price. It’s certainly a philosophy Samsung has long subscribed to with its highest-end products. Ta
Check Twitter in paradise with Iridium’s new ‘executive’ satellite hotspot
Everyone’s talking about unplugging these days — climbing a mountain, trekking through the forest, finding your way to a truly secluded beach. Central to that concept is turning off notificati
Apple HomePod (2023) review
Welcome to the dark night of the smart speaker. A few years back, the category felt inevitable — and, frankly, why not? We’ve smartened our phones and watches. Why shouldn’t our homes be the
Then call them ‘robots’
Before they were robots, they were “androids” or “automatons.” The word “robot” is commonly accepted as having arrived in English through — of all places — a Czech play
The thing we thought was happening with robotic investments is definitely happening
There was a brief, beautiful moment for a few months in 2021 when it felt like robotic investments might be immune from broader market forces. We all fundamentally and implicitly understood this to no
Built buys fellow construction robotics firm, Roin
One of the most remarkable things about construction robotics is the sheer breadth of tasks that can potentially be automated. As I’ve noted before, the entire category is a prime target for robotic
Alexa Fund’s Paul Bernard talks OpenAI, what’s catching his eye and remaining relevant as Amazon restructures
Amazon made headlines this month when the company began to work through its long-rumored 18,000 job cuts. Going, too, are a number of products and strategies as the company right-sizes for the current
Scythe raises $42 million for its electric robotic mower
Scythe first hit our radar when it emerged from stealth in 2021 with a $13.8 million Series A. The world of robotic mowers is already a fairly crowded one, but while many are going after home applicat
Construction robotics firm Kewazo raises $10 million
Automating construction makes plain sense on the face of it. It’s one of the world’s biggest industries. It’s also among the most expensive and, often, dangerous. Certainly it checks off the thr
Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M2 Max review
The M2 Air is as close as Apple has ever come to the perfect MacBook. It’s a kind of platonic ideal for the category, and the culmination of key updates to the product line, including the arrival (a
Building up and tearing down
I managed to squeeze the remaining vestiges out of CES 2023 in last week’s Actuator. The good news is that things are starting to pick up again like clockwork. If you’ve emailed me about work stuf
Dry-cleaning robotics startup Presso pulls in another $8M
In late-2020, Presso pivoted. It made a lot of sense at the time. People weren’t traveling much and therefore weren’t particularly hung up on getting their business attire dry-cleaned. Certainly t
Some initial thoughts on Apple’s resurrected HomePod
Ditching HomePod was a strange choice. At the time, Apple told us, “HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home