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Reviews
These Futuristic Earbuds Are a Pricey Upgrade to Apple’s AirPods
I’m sitting on a busy subway train in Manhattan, listening to some tunes. This is a normal situation, something I do a dozen times a week. What isn’t normal is that I only hear my music, and I don’t hear any of the train or crowd noise around me. Instead, my music is backed by … Continued
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Reviews
Samsung’s New Chromebook Is a Nearly Perfect Budget Laptop
I was working on the new Samsung Chromebook Pro, furiously putting together a post that needed to go up stat. The final touch was an image, but I needed to edit it, and I didn’t want to reach for my normal work machine. So I popped it open in the Adobe Lightroom Android app, flipped … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
HP Made a Laptop I Actually Want to Use
After spending some time with HP’s redesigned 15-inch Spectre X360, it seems to me the company’s recipe for clawing its way back into the hearts of the people should have been obvious all along: lots of power and features in an attractive package for less money than the competition. Duh. HP has had a rough … Continued
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Reviews
How a Bike With Infinite Gears Changed The Way I Commute
For the past three months, I’ve been riding the Priority Bicycles Continuum, a commuter bike outfitted with a handful of low-maintenance components and a drivetrain system with an “infinite” number of gears. It’s been an absolute joy to ride and has regularly shaved about 15 minutes off my hour-long trips around Brooklyn and Manhattan. Besides … Continued
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Reviews
Someone Finally Made an Electric Grill That Doesn’t Suck
George Foreman changed the kitchen game when he slapped his name on a low-rent panini press and sold it to the masses. In the late 90s and early aughts, the George Foreman Grill was the kitchen appliance to own—after the refrigerator, microwave, and stove. But what if the George Foreman grill wasn’t that cheapo appliance … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
The NES Classic Is So Much Better With a Wireless Controller
Several months after its release, it’s still difficult to track down Nintendo’s amazing NES Classic Edition. The tiny console is everything you want it to be, but it does have one tiny flaw that isn’t related to limited retail availability: incredibly short controller cords. The cord on the single controller that comes with the NES … Continued
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ReviewsHome EntertainmentSet-top Boxes
The Nvidia Shield Might Be the Best Set-Top Box You Can Buy Right Now
The original Nvidia Shield looked cool and had some neat ideas behind it, but its cost and use of the neglected Android TV operating system left the set-top box/console fusion feeling more like Frankenstein than legitimate answer to either Roku, PS4 or Xbox One. A major software update and some much needed changes to the … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
You Can Get a Weed Leaf Decal for Literally Any Gadget, So I Did
I love my Amazon Echo. She is the perfect Bluetooth speaker, kitchen timer, and personal shopper—for better or worse—but also a friend, keeping me company on those brutally cold and lonely nights. So when I learned that MightySkins—a company that makes decals for literally every gadget under the sun, from hoverboards to drones to seven-year-old … Continued
By Eve Peyser -
Reviews
Apple AirPods Are Too Simple for Their Own Good
When they were first announced in September, it was obvious that AirPods were Apple’s attempt to distract everyone from the iPhone’s lack of a headphone jack. At $160, AirPods are Apple’s version of truly wireless earphones, a gadget lots of companies have been trying to perfect with varying degrees of success. No one disagrees that … Continued
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Reviews
The DJI Mavic Pro Is So Close to Terrific
When the Mavic Pro arrived in our offices, the reaction was unanimous: holy shit, it’s small. The folding drone is roughly the size and weight of a hefty Italian sandwich. This compact form factor, I’d come to learn, is a blessing and a curse for the Mavic Pro—emphasis on the blessing. Let’s get one thing … Continued
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Reviews
DirecTV Now Is Just Another Failed Attempt at Streaming Live TV
Watching Turner & Hooch and crying, because I’d completely forgotten the dog dies, I came to a conclusion. Not about the film I’d been streaming on my laptop for the last two hours—but about the service I’d been streaming it from. AT&T’s DirecTV Now is currently an adequate streaming service, but it is not the … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
OnePlus 3T vs LeEco Le Pro 3: Battle of the Best Phones Under $500
We’re living in the age of cheap flagship smartphones. Sure, the big guys like Samsung, Apple, and Google are all selling phones that start at $650, but a growing number of companies (usually from China) are hitting the US market with high-quality phones with dazzling specs and low prices. So what is the best sub-$500 … Continued
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Reviews
You Can Still Get a Great Apple Experience for Under $1,300
Just because Apple drove a nail into the MacBook Air’s coffin doesn’t mean you have to give up your dream of owning an Apple computer for $1,300 or less. While the new MacBook Pros start out at $1,500—and can hit prices as high as $4000—the MacBook and iPad Pro both start out around $1,300. So … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
The Stupidly Expensive June Oven Is Actually Stupidly Amazing
The June Oven is a super smart countertop convection oven. There’s a camera built in that watches the food cook and can correctly identify what food you put in, helpfully supplying cooking modes; Wi-Fi so you can connect to the app to watch your food cook, adjust temperature, or even take set a reminder to … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
MacBook Pro’s Great Guts Save It From Microsoft’s Surface Book
Late last month, Microsoft fired a shot across Apple’s bow. With the Surface Studio and Dial and an updated Surface Book, Microsoft mace clear its plans to woo Apple’s old core audience of creative professionals—a group Apple has seemingly forgotten in favor of a more mainstream target. Apple fired back with the Touch Bar on … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
The MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar Is a Gimmick That’s Not Worth the Money (Yet)
Logging into your computer with your fingerprint isn’t new, but it still makes me a little giddy when the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar appears, glowing brighter than the backlit keyboard. I follow the Touch Bar’s direction, and like magic I’m into laptop. It’s instantaneous. The fingerprint reader is one of the smallest improvements to Apple’s … Continued
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Reviews
Google’s VR Headset Is So Comfortable I Never Want to Take It Off
It isn’t the games that really wow me when I slip on the Daydream View VR headset. It isn’t the worlds that the Google Maps app allow me to visit. It isn’t even the immediate sensation of wonder that VR still instills me. It’s how comfortable the headset is. “It looks like wearing a sweatshirt … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
The Chromecast Ultra Is a Cheap, Essential Upgrade for Your Fancy 4K TV
The smart TV is here, and it is damn stupid. Smart TV features are just a mess, and rarely get upgraded beyond what ships with your set. A few years ago, Google went a long-way towards solving this problem with its super-cheap Chromecast dongle, which allows you to stream from any device to your TV … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
PS4 Pro Is the Most Powerful Console Ever Built, But You Might Not Notice
There’s a moment playing Infamous First Light, as the heroine made of light climbs up a wall in pitch black darkness, that I fully appreciate the hype around the PS4 Pro. The woman is a multicolored bundle of light particles, and thanks to HDR, I can make out each particle and note the way they … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Reviews
The NES Classic Edition Is Everything You Want It to Be
Nothing shaped my childhood more than Nintendo. Like millions of other little kids, I got a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas in 1988. It changed my life. At the age of six, the Nintendo was my first real “gadget,” and it was love at first sight. I don’t know if I would do what I … Continued