handson
Latest
Yoto is a podcast and audiobook machine built for kids
Kids can enjoy audiobooks and podcasts too thanks to the child-friendly Yoto Player and its library.
This wearable MIDI controller can control Zoom calls too
Now you can control Zoom and Powerpoint with Genki's wearable MIDI controller.
Arturia's flagship instrument bundle is getting a major upgrade...
In the world of softsynths Arturia’s V Collection and Analog Lab are two of the best bangs for your musical buck. Version seven which launched in mid 2019 included 23 instruments, many of them basically unobtainable in vintage physical form. Arturia V Collection 8 is somehow even more comprehensive.
OnePlus Nord hands-on: Strong features at a tempting price
The OnePlus Nord is here. What are our first impressions? Well, we love the blue.
Jammy makes the practice guitar modular
If you travel, but want to practice guitar, there are options. But I really don't trust TSA and the airlines not to bust a nice acoustic travel axe. Jammy has come up with a solution: a digital guitar with real strings that comes apart.
Vauxhall's GTX concept teases the future of mass-market EVs
Vauxhall and Opel, the Anglo-German car maker, joins a number of companies suddenly rushing to embrace electrification. As part of a wider shift away from gas-powered vehicles, it has built the GTX, an all-electric concept that serves as a mission statement for its EVs. You won't see this car popping up in showrooms, but this is the shape, broadly, of things to come.
The best weapon in 'Just Cause 4' is Mother Nature
Just Cause 4 arrives at the end of a busy season of open world games. Fortunately, the series has always done things differently from the likes of Assassin's Creed, Read Dead Redemption, Far Cry and the rest. It's the game that coaxes you into causing destruction and explosions, offering a shamelessly hard-boiled physics playground for you cut loose inside. During a lengthy playtime session last week with what appears to be very close to the final game, Just Cause 4 begs to be live-streamed, clipped and shared on Twitch, Twitter, Reddit, Discord and everywhere else.
Valve gives its Knuckles finger tracker better battery life
Valve has debuted the latest Knuckles EV3 VR finger tracking controller with subtle improvements that show it's nearly ready for a consumer release. The biggest update to the latest developer kit is in the area of battery life; improved sensor efficiency means it'll go for up to eight hours, up over two hours from the EV2 kit released earlier this year.
iPhone XS and XS Max, Day 1: A clear step forward
Last year was a big one for Apple — with the launch of the iPhone X, the company redefined what it meant to be iPhone. This year, Apple's job wasn't any easier. It had to figure out what worked, what didn't, and put that knowledge to use building a trio of new smartphones that would make its new vision more accessible. And now that the iPhone XS and XS Max are finally here, we're getting to see if Apple actually achieved those feats.
Motorola's new Moto Z3 is a Verizon exclusive with 5G ambitions
We're not sure that Moto's Mods were the game-changers they were intended to be, but that hasn't stopped Motorola from making one more modular smartphone. The Lenovo subsidiary just unveiled the new Moto Z3 at its Chicago headquarters, and there are a few things worth noting right off the bat.
'Dragon Quest XI' is the gateway JRPG new players needed
Dragon Quest XI launched in Japan almost a year ago, but it's only here at E3 this month that a western release is finally playable. Same old story right? A long-delayed Japanese game takes an age to get through localization, and appears with stilted translations, cheap voiceovers and a sense that this new game is already old. Wrong. DQXI subverts that. Well, a little. The US release will have voiced characters (the Japanese release had no voice actors), while also adding crucial upgrades like a dash button for your character, and a streamlined interface for smoothly getting your band of quirky allies in order.
Xbox Adaptive Controller first look: A new, necessary gamepad
Microsoft stumbled into the accessibility market about three years ago, with the launch of the Xbox One Elite controller. The Elite wasn't designed to help people with disabilities play video games -- in fact, it was built for hardcore players who wanted more mapping options by adding rear paddle buttons, more sensitive triggers and interchangeable analog sticks to the classic dual-grip Xbox gamepad. It just so happened these features were also in high demand at organizations like AbleGamers, whose goal is to make gaming accessible to anyone with disabilities via education, community support and the creation of custom controllers.
A peek at BMW’s self-driving ride-hailing plans
Automakers are trying to figure out where they fit in the autonomous-driving future. With sales falling, some of these companies are exploring the idea of becoming ride-hailing services too. BMW is one of them and during the opening of its autonomous Driving Campus in Germany, it offered rides in an autonomous 7 Series that gave us a glimpse of its plans.
BMW used virtual reality to bring its latest crossover SUV to CES
When you're in Las Vegas for CES and want to show off a brand-new car before its debut at the North American Auto Show, what do you do? Well, if you're BMW, you do it virtually. The German automaker "brought" its new X2 crossover SUV to the desert with virtual reality, in a first-of-its-kind (for BMW, at least) demo experience that lets potential customers get behind the wheel and poke around the vehicle's nooks and crannies. BMW sees this as a natural bridge between looking at pictures online and reading brochures, and for the automaker, the medium seems like a logical next step to updating the shopping experience for the future.
Apple Watch Series 3 first look: So far, no LTE problems
The Apple Watch Series 3 started shipping today, and our definitive review is still in the works. In the meantime, we wanted to give you a taste of what life is like with the company's first LTE-connected watch, so when we got it in for review, we said eff it: let's use nothing but the Watch all day. I was going to respond to every text, email and Slack message from my wrist, use it for listening to music on the subway and talk into it as much as I would with my iPhone. To be fair, Apple doesn't seem like a huge advocate of this idea -- it treats the Series 3 as an occasional substitute for an iPhone rather than a day-to-day replacement. That said, this is the first Apple Watch with cellular connectivity. How could we not try this?
Polaroid's new $100 camera brings instant film back in style
The Impossible Project has spent the past decade trying to revive Polaroid photography, first by bringing back instant film for vintage cameras and eventually launching a new device, the I-1, last year. This week, the company goes full circle, renaming itself Polaroid Originals and releasing its second instant film camera under the familiar moniker OneStep 2.
'Duck Season' is equal parts nostalgic and creepy
When I was a kid with the original Nintendo Entertainment System, I, of course, played Duck Hunt. Fast forward 25 years, and I did so in virtual reality, live on stage at E3 in front of the entire internet with Duck Season -- a tribute to the classic NES title. What was my high score? And, more important, how often did I shoot my hunting companion, an anthropomorphic dog that looks ripped straight out of Five Nights at Freddy's? You'll have to watch the above video to find out.
'Wolfenstein II' starts with a wheelchair, Nazis and a machine gun
A little over four months away from launch, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus already feels finished. The game takes place almost immediately after the events of 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order, with protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz waking up from a coma aboard a German U-boat, confined to a wheelchair, his legs lame. The Nazis have long since won the war, and in 1961 they're taking their goal of world domination even further. They're afraid of the game's one-man-army hero, too. And really, after 35 years of Wolfenstein, shouldn't they be?
Let's play 'Horizon Zero Dawn'
This is the strangest death I've suffered in Horizon Zero Dawn. I can handle taking a laser beam to the face from a gigantic metal bobcat or being knocked to the ground by an overzealous robot velociraptor, but this? What a way to go.
We tried McDonald's super-engineered shake straw
As part of this year's St. Patrick's Day promotions, McDonald's is debuting a highly engineered, hyper-exclusive straw dubbed the "Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal," or STRAW for short. It's only available on two days, February 24th and March 1st, with a scant 2,000 of them spread across the entire country. We managed to get our hands on one, however, and put it to a chocolate-minty test.
