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The best Prime Day 2019 deals: Day two, the morning edition
This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commissions. that support its work. Read Wirecutter's continuously updated list of Amazon Prime Day deals here.
The best touchscreen winter gloves
By Nick Guy and Kaitlyn Wells This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full touchscreen winter gloves guide here. After six years of testing, over the course of which we've examined 70 pairs of touchscreen gloves, we've found that though no pair is going to keep your hands warm and let you type as well as you can with your bare fingers, the Black Diamond HeavyWeight ScreenTap Fleece Gloves are the best compromise. They type pretty well, are warmer, and fit hands better than the competition. We also have picks that will fit better if you have short fingers, want a thinner glove, or prefer the classic look of leather. Just keep in mind it may be easier to use voice commands and audio messages than trying to type in even the best touchscreen gloves. The Black Diamond pair's stretchy fit hugs the hand like a second skin, making typing more accurate (keep in mind that you won't be able to type fluently, but these gloves work fine for making dinner plans while you're walking home from work on a chilly day). The fleece material also blocks out wind better than traditional knit fabrics, and is water-repellent, so drying time is just two hours. But these are designed to be liner gloves, so they're not very warm on their own—they work better with an outer glove, or solo when you're active outdoors. The stretchy material also means sizing is more forgiving than with other gloves we tested. Sizes: XS to XL Color: black Materials: fleece shell; goat leather palm The fingers of the Moshi Digits Touchscreen Gloves are shorter than other gloves', making this pair more suited for people with small hands who might otherwise have trouble finding a glove that fits. These gloves fit tightly thanks to their knit design, so typing is easier, and the microfleece lining is soft and cozy, making them a little warmer than our main pick. The gloves dry faster and have a better grip than other knit gloves. But they're available in only two sizes, so if you have large hands or long fingers, stick with our main pick. Sizes: S/M and L/XL Colors: light gray, dark gray Materials: acrylic and nylon shell; microfleece lining If you live somewhere with temperatures that rarely drop below 40 °F, you can get away with the less insulated, but more accurate Glider Gloves Urban Style Touchscreen Gloves. They're a little baggy, but you can easily size down for a tighter fit, and they're a good option if you work in a cold office and need something thin for all-day use. Sizes: S/M to XL Color: black with melange pattern Materials: acrylic, nylon, spandex, and copper yarn The Kent Wang Deerskin Gloves are our favorite fancy leather gloves to type in, thanks to their classic design, cashmere lining, and above-average touchscreen accuracy. Though not as good at typing as our other picks, they were better than other premium gloves. Our testers generally thought they were about as warm as the Black Diamonds, although some found them a bit warmer or colder depending on their particular hands. As expected with this kind of glove, they're expensive. The Kent Wangs are sold in fewer sizes than other leather gloves, but you can get a custom pair for $25 more. Sizes: 7, 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5 Colors: black, dark brown Materials: calf leather palm, deerskin back, cashmere lining
The best headlamps
By Eve O'Neill This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. After three years of continually testing headlamps, and adding 12 new models to our test pool, we still think the Black Diamond Spot is the best headlamp for most people. Nothing this affordable can burn brighter or longer—very important features if you plan on taking your headlamp into the outdoors.
Asus to launch 5 new routers, moving data never looked so good
It may just sit in the corner, silently feeding you internet, but why can't it look good while doing it? Asus is one step ahead of us with this one by extending its Black Diamond design to a new range of five more room enhancing products. The baby of the bunch, the RT-N10 LX, stylishly serves up bog standard 802.11n, while the undoubted prom queen is the RT-N66U which brings simultaneous dual band and gigabit speed L/WAN speeds to the packet shifting party. Two more equally svelte models -- the RT-N10 LX and RT-N15 -- cater for those networking inbetweeners, and finally, for those that accessorize, a dual band USB dongle squeezes in 2x2 MIMO as well as matching perfectly with those new shoes you bought.
Yantouch Black Diamond 3D ambience iPhone dock hands-on
While we weren't busy kicking up dust on the CES floors, we sat down with Taiwan-based Yantouch to have a fiddle with its latest product, the Black Diamond. When not in use, it really is just a gorgeous spherical black diamond, or at least its faceted front half is; but slip in an iPhone 4 with the Black Diamond app enabled, and you get a funky sound sensitive mood lamp. On top of that, the dock also charges up your iPhone while it shows off its colors, and somewhere at the bottom there's some black magic that channels out amplified audio from the phone, although actual speakers would be even nicer. Ultimately, Yantouch sees the Black Diamond as a developing platform for potential applications like an outdoor temperature indicator, or some sort of caller ID color tagging tool for seeing from afar who's calling. If all goes well, Yantouch will even consider making an Android version, but we're not sure if the $79 price tag will immediately catch on. Anyhow, check out our hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-113922%
Mitsubishi's 1080p HC7000 HD projector reviewed: it's a keeper
Mitsubishi's HC7000 1080p projector just started leaving the docks not too, too long ago, and now the kind folks over at BigPictureBigSound have published a thorough review after spending a decent bit of time with it. Installation and setup was said to be "a simple affair," and one of the first things they noticed upon firing it up was just how quiet it was while operating. In fact, critics deemed it the quietest projector they had tested in this price range. Testers fired up an upscaled DVD after calibration procedures were done, and what they saw was "perfectly acceptable," with black levels being ultra black and color being "vibrant and very natural." Blu-ray Disc and HDTV content were even more stunning, and overall, only minor niggles ("remote backlight shuts off too quickly," for instance) were mentioned. In case you couldn't guess, critics deemed this one "a keeper," and to sweeten things up, the street price on this puppy is a far cry from its original MSRP. Mmm, price drops.[Via AboutProjectors]
SI Screens ships Black Diamond projector screen
Are you serious about your projector? No, we mean serious. If so, SI Screens is asking that you place your money where your mouth is with the shipping announcement of its Black Diamond products. Said screens promise the blackest blacks and the whitest whites, though there's no details on whether it does chores when not entertaining guests. Still, for $2,599 (100-inch), it better.
Thomson's mysterious Black Diamond PMP goes public
Think your black iPod nano attracted fingerprints and got scratched too easily? Keeping the same sleek black / blue glow motif showcased on Thomson's PMP2008, the mysterious new Black Diamond PMP (a.k.a. the EH308) should truly wear your touch on its enclosure. While the flashy homepage doesn't give us a completely satisfactory look at the unit itself, we do know that it'll pack 8GB of internal capacity, rock a 1.8-inch OLED screen, and feature "tactile controls." Furthermore, it'll come with a rechargeable Li-ion cell rated for 15 hours, USB 2.0 connectivity, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, and the ability to display photos as well as play back audio (formats unspecified) and video (WMV / MPEG4). Curiously, Thomson also boasts about its ability to "manage podcast and web audio formats," as well as confirming its compatibility with "secure downloadable music formats" such as WMA-DRM. Expect this dark device to hit store shelves any day now, and at around $300, it's just a tad cheaper than that other Black Diamond floating around out there.
Live shots of the Black Diamond $300,000 smartphone
We've managed to get our hands on some live shots of a prototype Black Diamond smartphone, a handset that's gained publicity not because of its feature set (WM5, 400MHz CPU, WiFi, quad-band GSM) or its design, but thanks to a $300,000 bank-busting pricetag and an exclusive five unit manufacturing run. Subtlety and style seems to be the main theme here, with the designers avoiding the obvious temptation to stick thousands of diamonds on the case. Click on for comparison shots with AXIA's EMXI 700, and for pictures of our lucky insider cradling the most expensive hunk of plastic he'll ever hold.
Black Diamond - Diamonds - Black = White Pearl
If your dreams have been haunted by visions of VIPN's $300,000 Black Diamond but the thought of mortgaging a cell phone wasn't really sitting too well with you, might we direct your attention to the Black Diamond's less-costly sibling, the White Pearl. At "just" $1,500, the White Pearl's price should be music to the ears of folks who are merely rich -- you get the same Jaren Goh design in white instead of black and you lose the diamonds, but the rest of the specs remain the same. Heck, you even still get the 2GB SD card bundled in the box. We weren't able to track down the White Pearl on VIPN's site, but if this all checks out, look for the nifty candybar to drop about the same time as its bejeweled counterpart in early 2007.[Via I4U News]
