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Google's play for the living room starts with Home
Today marked Google's biggest hardware launch yet. Not only did it announce two Pixel phones and a Daydream VR headset -- it also unveiled a slew of products for the living room. We already heard about Google Home, its voice-powered assistant-and-Bluetooth speaker combo at the company's I/O developer conference this year. New today, though, was a mesh networking router and an updated Chromecast. We took a closer look at all three immediately after the event and came away with a dream of a Google-powered home.
Surely I just played my final 'Final Fantasy XV' demo
While Final Fantasy XV's decade-long development doesn't beat Duke Nukem's excessive run, it's still a hell of a long time for another part of one of gaming's biggest, longest-running franchises. And it's still not here. However, at the Tokyo Game Show, I got what is possibly the last taster before the main course: a lengthy 30-minute play-through that, barring some brutal initial loading times, felt like a finished game.
'Batman Arkham VR' put me inside the Batsuit
Telltale wasn't the only developer that brought Batman to E3 this year: The folks at Rocksteady Studios packed the Dark Knight into their suitcases as well. Batman Arkham VR was a surprise reveal at Sony's keynote earlier this week and drew a huge round of applause when it appeared onstage. Once I strapped on a PlayStation VR headset (it's a timed exclusive to the platform this October), I could tell why the team worked so hard to keep it a secret.
Amazon's high-end Kindle Oasis is sleek, sharp and pricey
Jeff Bezos probably wasn't pleased to see his surprise spoiled this week, but e-book fans still have reason to get pumped. Amazon just pulled back the curtain on its new premium reader, the Kindle Oasis, and it's the slimmest and sleekest model the company has put out yet. Of course, with a price starting at $290 (£270), it's also one of the most expensive. As Amazon tells it, all the decisions were made with one goal in mind: to let the hardware itself almost disappear from view so that readers can lose themselves in their stories.
LG's modular G5 is its most daring flagship phone ever
LG is in a tricky position: starting with the G2, it's made consistently lovely flagship smartphones, but it can't even crack the top five top-selling mobile brands. The time has come for something seriously off the wall, and, well, LG went for it. Say hello to the LG G5, the most ambitious smartphone the company has ever made.
Alcatel doubles down on cheap-good phones with two new Idols
Alcatel OneTouch had a surprise hit on its hands with the Idol 3, a reversible smartphone seated at the crucial corner of cheap and good. Is it any surprise, then, that the Idol 4S popped here at Mobile World Congress? (In a word: no.) We don't have a price to go with the phone yet, but it seems poised to keep the company's mobile momentum rolling along nicely.
VR is better when virtual objects feel real
For all the amazing experiences virtual reality enables (the illusion of flight, the exhaustion of exercise and even the emotional fatigue of trauma), it still has one major flaw: Virtual objects are intangible and have no physicality. If you want to walk through a wall, the game can't stop you. If you try to lean on a table, you'll probably fall down. It's a limitation of first-generation VR technology I'd grown to accept -- at least until I played Survios' Raw Data, a game that tricked me into pretending its completely virtual objects were real.
VAIO's debut Windows 10 phone is prettier than its name suggests
A few years ago, Windows phone tried to make a splash with vibrant colors, sharp contours and unusual palettes. Then things got a little quiet. Now Windows 10 phone is suddenly upon us, and Japanese phone makers are generally keeping colors a little bit more muted, while moving to classier-looking materials. Going toe-to-toe with the textured beauty of the NuAns Neo Windows Phone, here's VAIO's second smartphone. It's called the VAIO Phone Biz, but I'd prefer if you were more distracted by the pretty aluminum shell than the ridiculous name. It's dressed for business, even if no-one's looking to shake hands with a Japan-only (for now) Windows phone.
GarageBand for iOS makes creating music almost too easy
Oh, you thought Apple's new recording app was the company's only music-related news today? Not quite. Apple also pulled back the curtain on a new version of GarageBand for iOS — 2.1, if you're keeping count — and with it comes the ability to craft decent EDM, Dubstep, and even Funk tracks with surprisingly little effort. It's all thanks to a new feature called Live Loops, which more or less turns your iDevice into a launchpad for either the dozens of royalty-free loops Apple has made, or ones you've created or obtained yourself.
Samsung's Galaxy TabPro S is a crazy-thin Windows 10 2-in-1
Surface Pro 4 not your speed? HP's Spectre X2 not svelte enough for you? Never fear: Samsung's jumping back into the Windows 10 fray with the Galaxy TabPro S, a sleek convertible whose ultra-portable design could win it more than a little love from the Windows community.
Samsung outs two super-light 'Notebook 9 series' laptops
Samsung might blow the most minds with its TVs here at CES, but don't worry — it brought a pair of new laptops to show off here, too. The tech titan showed off its new 13.3-inch and 15-inch Notebook 9 series laptops today and we got the chance to play with them a bit before the official unveiling on-stage. It's obviously way too early to pass judgment on these things, but they might be worth a look if you're on the market for an ultra-portable PC (too bad Samsung won't tell us how much they cost).
NVIDIA's new Shield Tablet is just like the old one, but cheaper
NVIDIA's first Shield tablet was a device that got almost everything right: The 8-inch slate had a crisp display flanked by twin speakers, a surprisingly precise built-in stylus and a powerful 192-core Kepler K1 processor. At the time, it was easily the best Android gaming device on the market, and a pretty darn good media tablet to boot -- but NVIDIA quietly put the Shield to pasture earlier this year. Is the company preparing to launch a new, more powerful Shield tablet? Nope: It's putting the same slate back on the market, albeit with a lower, $199 price tag and fewer bells and whistles.
We pushed the in-flight WiFi of the future to its limit
It shouldn't have worked, but I streamed an episode of Last Week Tonight, a Twitch broadcast of Fallout 4, the premiere episode of Aziz Ansari's Master of None and Meow the Jewels all at once, all on airplane WiFi. In-flight WiFi giant Gogo demoed its next-gen version of mile-high connectivity, 2Ku, above the overcast November skies of Gary, Indiana, bragging 98 percent coverage around the world (the poles don't play nicely with airborne internet) at peak speeds of 70 Mbps. The reality is transfers much slower than that on a plane with roughly 25 journalists, business folks and Gogo staff all doing the same as me: trying to break the internet for about an hour.
The Droid Maxx 2 is a Moto X Play with loads of Verizon bloatware
Verizon and Motorola didn't just announce the Droid Turbo 2 today — the two smartphone buddies also confirmed the arrival of the Droid Maxx 2. The thing is, the Maxx 2 is really just a Verizon-customized version of the Moto X Play, a neat little mid-range device we reviewed earlier this year. In case you hadn't read Aaron's full report, it's a solid addition to the Moto X line up with a badass battery, and the changes we got in the American version are minimal. Well, most of them are, anyway.
Hands-on with Motorola's shockingly sturdy Droid Turbo 2
Motorola's new Droid Turbo is here, and its arrival might be a tough pill to swallow for Verizon customers who just shelled out cash for a new Moto X. After a bit of hands-on time, though, it's clear that the Droid Turbo 2 has plenty of compromises of its own.
HTC is trying to flip its fortunes with the flagship One A9
HTC has been keeping its brave face on, but 2015 hasn't been very kind. After releasing its high-end One M9 to mixed reviews, the Taiwanese phone maker crept along to the point where its market value was worth less than the amount of money it had in its coffers. Long story short, it's been a tough year for HTC fans (and employees, for that matter). That's why HTC's been working on something new -- the One A9 -- behind some not-so-closed doors. Pre-orders for the unlocked version of this new hero device start today for $399/£429 ahead of a launch in the first week of November, but what is the company actually bringing to the fight?
Microsoft's upgraded Band is a little sleeker, and smarter too
For all its promise and potential, the original Microsoft Band wasn't exactly a runaway hit. It's OK -- they can't all be winners. Even more surprising than the Band's existence in the first place is that Microsoft is taking another crack at the fitness gadget formula with a 2015 model of its oft-scorned wearable. It's a little smarter and a little sleeker, and maybe -- just maybe -- that'll be enough to change a few minds on the matter.
High-end Windows Phones make a comeback with the Lumia 950 and 950 XL
You could be forgiven for forgetting that Windows Phones were ever really a thing -- iOS and Android devices keep making headlines. After all, it's been ages since we got a high-end phone from Microsoft or one of its partners. It was... frustrating to say the least, especially if you were one of those people who fell under the spell of Microsoft's mega-marketing blitz. Now, though, we've got two new high-end Windows Phones -- the Lumia 950 and 950 XL -- ready to bring the best of Redmond's new vision of software straight into our pockets. I spent a little time here in New York City to futz around with both, and one thing seems clear: While the hardware doesn't feel like Microsoft's best, there are plenty of good ideas here.
Sony's A7S II is a 4K shooter for your darkest moments
We already got a lovely, refreshed A7R II just a few months ago, and Sony's eager to keep the upgrade train a-rollin'. The company unveiled the A7S II just a few days back, and despite a spec sheet that reads a lot like its predecessor's, this thing seems poised to nab the low-light shooting crown. If you've seen the original A7S in action, you'll know that's no small feat -- let's explore together, shall we?
Samsung finally has an elegant smartwatch in the Gear S2
Few companies have churned out as many different smartwatches as Samsung, so it's little surprise the company is showing off a new one -- the Gear S2 -- at IFA. What is a surprise, though, is how much more elegant, more polished the S2 feels compared to just about all of Samsung's previous attempts. After years of seemingly blind iteration (and just a little bit of hands-on time), Samsung finally seems to have a stylish, if somewhat controversial smartwatch on its hands.
