BardTech

The post The best of IFA 2018 appeared first on BardTech . IFA’s one of the year’s most fascinating tech shows — and not just because it means hanging out in Berlin for the week. The conference is primarily targeted at European consumers, but the late-August/early-September timing means plenty of companies use it as the global launch pad for gadgets aimed at holiday shoppers. In recent years, the conference had taken on more significance for this very reason. Though 2018 did seem to be something of an off year, with larger companies like Samsung and DJI launching their big products weeks before the big show. The other reason to love the show is its tendency toward the bizarre. There’s something about IFA that has the tendency to bring out the oddest impulses in gadget design, and this year’s event certainly fit the bill. What follows is a collection of the biggest, best and most bizarre of what IFA had to offer. Alexa routers Smart assistants were, naturally, everywhere at the ...

The post This is the GoPro Hero 7 appeared first on BardTech . GoPro’s latest action camera isn’t expected to be revealed until later this month, but we just caught a pretty good glimpse of the thing. The Hero 7 made an early appearance as part of an in-store display posted by an Imgur user (though the link appears to no longer be active) and spotted by The Verge . There’s not a lot to go on, save for a few display images on top of a display of older Hero models. The shots feature three different colors — black, white and silver — and note that the devices are waterproof up to 10 meters. That’s the same as the Hero 6 . There also appear to be two distinct SKUs — one with a simple front-facing screen (the black model) and the other without. Likely there will be a price gulf between the two, as well. That’s something the company has done in the past with the line. Really, there’s not much in the way of revelations here. Introduced roughly this time last year, the Hero 6 was capabl...

The post Alexa is now available on 20,000 devices appeared first on BardTech . That large number comes courtesy of Amazon’s press event at IFA in Berlin this week. It’s an impressive jump, given that the company was only boasting around 4,000 the last time it reported a number at the beginning of the year. “Just this year,” exec Daniel Rausch told the crowd, as reported by CNET . “Alexa has sung Happy Birthday millions of times to customers, and she’s told over 100 million jokes.” That’s a lot jokes — at least one or two of them must have been good, right? Alexa confirmed the number with TechCrunch, noting that Alexa is on “20k+ devices you can control with Alexa, from 3500+ brands.” Amazon’s own devices only make up a small portion of the overall number, of course. There just aren’t that many Echo smart speakers, the Fire TV and Fire tablets. But the company has been making an extremely aggressive push to get the assistant on as many third-party devices as possible. In many ca...

The post An ode to Apple’s awful MacBook keyboard appeared first on BardTech . Yes I am very late to this. But I am also very annoyed so I am adding my voice to the now sustained chorus of complaints about Apple’s redesigned Mac keyboard: How very much it sucks. Truly, madly, deeply. This is the keyboard that Apple “completely redesigned” in 2015, in its quest for size zero hardware, switching from a scissor mechanism for the keys to what it described then as the “new Apple-designed butterfly mechanism” — touting this as 40% thinner and 4x more stable. Reader, there is nothing remotely beautiful and butterfly-esque about the experience of depressing these keys. Scattershot staccato clattering, as your fingers are simultaneously sucked in and involuntarily hammer out a grapeshot of key strikes, is what actually happens. It’s brutalist and unforgiving. Most egregiously it’s not reliably functional. The redesigned mechanism has resulted in keys that not only feel different when ...

The post DJI Mavic 2 review appeared first on BardTech . The Mavic Pro was a revelation. It wasn’t a perfect product, to be sure, but it represented a new paradigm for DJI and the consumer drone industry in general. It was compact, folding up into a nice, portable package, while still being portable enough to shove into a backpack. It was also the beginning of a new line for the company, paving the way for the Mavic Air  and Spark — both even more portable than their predecessor. In the two years since it was introduced, however, the company hasn’t touched the flagship product. That changed early this month, when the company revealed the Mavic 2 at an event in Brooklyn. https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/themes/techcrunch-2017/features/shortcodes/vidible-callback-js.php?id=0 Even more so than the original, the Mavic 2 is focused on imagining. In fact, the camera is so central to the update that the company actually split the product into two SKUs — the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavi...

The post Leaked shots show off new Google Pixel 3 design, specs appeared first on BardTech . The Google Pixel 3 XL has had a truly comical amount of leaks to date, but for the most part its younger, smaller brother has been a bit a more camera-shy. Well, today we finally have some purported photos of the real-life baby Pixel 3 via an anonymous Reddit user who leaked the shots that were discovered by 9to5Google . The device seems to have a modest forehead and chin, certainly a bit larger than what we’ve seen on the screen-to-body ratio of the Pixel XL 3 photo leaks, but it seems to be a marked improvement over the smaller-bodied Pixel 2 and seems pretty similar to a miniature Pixel 2 XL in design. We also have some screenshots of the phone’s specs pointing to a 5.5 inch 2160 x 1080 display that’s rocking 440 dpi. From this leak we also can see that the battery capacity of the phone will likely be 2,915 mAh. Previous leaks have suggested that this will be a Snapdragon 845 with...

The post Samsung Galaxy Watch review appeared first on BardTech . The industry is forever chasing the Apple Watch. After all, the smartwatch has been a rare bright spot in a plateauing wearables category. Even Fitbit recently found itself heading in that direction, finding a fair bit of success with the Versa. Samsung’s approach, on the other hand, has always been very, well, Samsung. The company’s watches are big, hulking things, covering chrome with a kind of Swiss Army knife approach customary of its various other products. Announced alongside the Note 9, the Galaxy Watch wasn’t the departure many expected. While the name implied a potential shift toward Android Wear, the company is intent on sticking with Tizen. And why not? Samsung’s spent a lot of time making Tizen its own — multiple generations have been devoted to tweaking the operating system to its specifications. It’s the result of a pretty clear cost-benefit analysis. The biggest drawback of not embracing Wear OS is t...

The post Alexa routers are a thing now appeared first on BardTech . Some things are inevitable — stock market fluctuations, thunderstorms, your favorite band reuniting to offset poor financial planning. And then there’s Alexa. Amazon’s smart assistant is slowly making its way onto every aspect of of the smart home, and Google’s own offering isn’t too far behind. As far as these things go, routers make a lot of sense. They’re a key part of stay connected, and in the case of mesh ones, they’re everywhere. So why not have them do double duty, right? Clearly Huawei and Netgear were struck by the same thought, and Amazon was more than happy to oblige.  Both companies debuted a take on the concept this week at IFA. Huawei’s AI Cube, which despite not being a cube at all, is the more straight forward of the two offerings. The device looks remarkably like a Google Home (and, by extension, a Glade air freshener, but I digress) and does LTE via a 4G SIM card, along with both the 2.4GHz a...

The post Lenovo launched a bunch of smart home products appeared first on BardTech . Lenovo’s got its hands in basically everything else at this point, so why not extend that reach into smart home devices? Today at IFA, the company announced the upcoming release of smart lightbulb, plug and connected security camera, all tied together by the company’s new Link app. The play here is pretty clear, honestly. The company recently released the first (and best looking) Google Smart Display last month, and now it’s looking to provide even more of that connected smart home tissue. You’ve already got a Lenovo product in your home, so why not go all in, right? After all, fragmentation has been an issue with smart home early adopters. The idea of a different app for every single new device in the home is a bit of a headache, though the likes of Apple, Amazon and Google are all working to close the loop with their own solutions. Lenovo’s trying to circumvent that a bit here with Link, while...

The post The Google Assistant is now bilingual  appeared first on BardTech . The Google Assistant just got more useful for multilingual families. Starting today , you’ll be able to set up two languages in the Google Home app and the Assistant on your phone and Google Home will then happily react to your commands in both English and Spanish, for example. Today’s announcement doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given that Google announced at its I/O developer conference earlier this year that it was working on this feature. It’s nice to see that this year, Google is rolling out its I/O announcements well before next year’s event. That hasn’t always been the case in the past. Currently, the Assistant is only bilingual and it still has a few languages to learn. But for the time being, you’ll be able to set up any language pair that includes English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. More pairs are coming in the future and Google also says it is working on trilingua...

The post Apple’s next big event is September 12 appeared first on BardTech . The invites have dropped, and the big show’s official. After months of speculation, Apple just let slip that its next event will be going down September 12, at the company’s shiny new headquarters in Cupertino. The invite bears the words “Gather round,” along with a large gold circle, which appears to be a reference to its big, circular new digs. Of course, the company does love throwing a hint or two in these invites, so we may also be getting some reference to a new piece of tech and/or color scheme.  This year has been a fairly quiet one for the company on the hardware front. Apple showed off some new iPads at an event in Chicago, back in March and updated the MacBook Pro line more recently. Otherwise, however, we haven’t heard a lot out of the company, including a WWDC that was entirely devoid of new hardware. All of that’s about to change, however. And if the rumors are to be believed, Apple’s goi...

The post Marshall launches its first Alexa/Google Assistant smart speakers appeared first on BardTech . Marshall Speakers are hardly the first third-party manufacturer to hop on the smart speaker bandwagon, but the company’s got a strong case for bringing the best design into the mix. Announced at IFA in Berlin this week, the Acton II and Stanmore II continue the line’s legacy of cribbing heavily from Marshall’s iconic guitar amp designs. It’s not original, really, but it’s a sort of timeless design that should fit in pretty comfortably most living rooms. The speakers are both launching in the fall with Amazon Alexa on-board. Google Assistant will be arriving later in the year, letting them do double assistant duty. A cheeky bit of ad copy on that front from Marshall, Just like a roadie, Alexa is there to help while you’re busy doing other things. Can’t remember the name of a song? Say the lyrics and Alexa will find it for you. Looking for information on when your favourite band g...

The post Sennheiser announces $300 wireless earbuds appeared first on BardTech . I suspect $300 wireless earbuds might have been a bit more easy to swallow back when the technology was still something of a novelty just a few years ago. Now that these devices are fairly ubiquitous, however, it’s going to be a tougher for a company to justify what’s essentially twice the price of a set of AirPods. That said, the Momentum certainly look nice. And they probably are — Sennheiser makes nice, premium products. Announced at IFA in Berlin this week, the earbuds have 7mm dynamic drivers, support AAC and Qualcomm aptXTM for bluetooth high-def audio. The headphones work with Siri and Google Assistant, via a touch interface. Battery life is pretty decent at four hours, plus 12 more via the recharging case. The case actually looks pretty nice too, with a fabric cover that’s got a real Google Home vibe.   All of that can be yours in mid-November for the totally not crazy price of 299.95...

The post Bose takes on the HomePod with a $400 Alexa smart speaker appeared first on BardTech . The latest Echo devices are a touch more premium than their predecessors, but Amazon hasn’t gone out of its way to compete with Apple’s HomePod head-on. And why bother, really, when hardware partners are willing to do the heavy lifting? Bose is certainly making a compelling case with t he Home Speaker 500 . The compact smart speaker finds the audio company going all in on the smart assistant market, along with a pair of new soundbars that also sport Alexa functionality. The company has cautiously embraced Amazon’s smart assistant in recent years, but the trio of new products are the first Bose speakers to feature Alexa built-in, rather than relying on a skill. The Home Speaker is a fairly compact device, measuring 8 x 6 x 4 inches, with two custom drivers built-in, designed to reflect sound off of walls. The looks are a little lacking, but the sound is really what counts.  There a...

The post Blue shrinks down its most popular mic for the $99 Yeti Nano appeared first on BardTech . Blue is about to become a part of the much larger Logitech . For now, however, the company is going to keep focusing on what it does best: creating low-cost USB microphones for novice podcasters. This week, the California company just added another model to the line. Yeti Nano shrinks the form factor of Blue’s most popular line into something for more economically accessible. At $99, the new microphone slots in between the Snowball ($49/$69) and the new and even smaller Raspberry ($199). The price is certainly right on the new microphone. And the design language is great — it really does look exactly like a scale model of the Yeti. There’s a headphone input, so you can hear yourself in real-time and a swiveling stand to position it as you see fit. There are also buttons to toggle between pickup patterns so you can switch between single or omnidirection modes, in situations where you...

The post Teardown of Magic Leap One reveals highly advanced placeholder tech appeared first on BardTech . The screwdriver-happy dismantlers at iFixit have torn the Magic Leap One augmented reality headset all to pieces, and the takeaway seems to be that the device is very much a work in progress — but a highly advanced one. Its interesting optical assembly, described as “surprisingly ugly,” is laid bare for all to see. The head-mounted display and accompanying computing unit are definitely meant for developers, as we know , but the basic methods and construction Magic Leap is pursuing are clear from this initial hardware. It’s unlikely that there will be major changes to how the gadget works except to make it cheaper, lighter and more reliable. At the heart of Magic Leap’s tech is its AR display, which overlays 3D images over and around the real world. This is accomplished through a stack of waveguides that allow light to pass along them invisibly, then bounce it out toward your...

The post Nikon embraces a mirrorless future with Z series cameras and lenses appeared first on BardTech . The largest trend in photography over the last five years or so, not counting smartphones, has been the emergence and maturity of mirrorless camera systems. These operate in a very different manner from traditional SLRs, and as such market leaders with decades embedded in the latter — namely Canon and Nikon — have resisted making the shift. That changes for Nikon today with its announcement of the Z6 and Z7 , which show the company is making the change wholeheartedly. The Z series comprises both these two cameras and a new lens mount, which in many ways is the more important news for photographers. The F mount has been around for decades and boasts some of the world’s best glass. But ultimately a more or less clean break was needed, and the Z mount manages to provide that as well as solid back-compatibility for those who can’t bear to part with their old standby kit. WTF i...

The post Detachable Chromebook ‘Nocturne’ may launch in time for Google’s hardware event appeared first on BardTech . A high-end detachable Chromebook codenamed “Nocturne” may arrive just in time for the holiday rush, according to a recent commit in the Chromium Gerrit. This is the same Chromebook which we suspect could be the  Google Pixelbook successor .  The commit is for building the factory image of Nocturne. The factory image is used for running a series of tests to verify the device is in working order before being shipped off with its real deal, signed Chrome OS . When Chrome OS devices reach the factory branch stage it means the timetable becomes a little clearer and we can make a fuzzy guess at the release date. If QC goes through without issue (which isn’t as small a risk as you’d hope), we could see the device hitting shelves in November at the earliest — by our reading of the tea leaves. A November launch puts Nocturne in perfect line with Google’s hardwa...

The post DJI’s Mavic 2 brings key camera upgrades to the folding drone appeared first on BardTech . The Mavic Pro was a revelation. Introduced in 2016, the folding drone wasn’t perfect, but it helped usher in a new era of devices for DJI and the industry at large. The original Mavic helped make consumer drones more portable and accessible, and spurred a line that now includes the Mavic Air and Mavic Spark. Two years later, the world’s largest drone manufacturer hit New York City to unveil the product’s successor. Like the original Pro, imaging is at the heart of the upgrade. In fact, the Mavic 2 is being positioned as two distinct devices — the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom, the on-board camera being the only real difference between the two. It’s a confusing bit of branding, perhaps, for two products that amount to little more than different SKUs of the same device, but DJI wants to make it clear that the camera’s the thing here. Understandably so — photographers and videographers ...