I’m going to preface this with the disclaimer that I’m typing it on a MacBook Pro and I own an iPhone, just to head off any accusations of me being an Apple-hater. But I watched Apple’s iPad announcements this week, and then I helped my son with some schoolwork, and I realized Apple is about to lose an entire generation.
If you’ve read the book “Ready Player One” you know it’s extremely uneven, but the main driver of the action is an immersive virtual reality experience. We’re not quite at the point of living a whole life in VR, but it is getting faster and more immersive, and with the new Oculus Quest 2 powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2, it’s a tiny bit closer to reality than it used to be!
It is incredible how many aspects of our lives are integrated with AI and connectivity. It’s in little ways, like how CarPlay helpfully gives me directions to the same places I go each week, and in significant ways like how AI is being used for contact tracing and tracking COVID-19. All this requires solid hardware to back up all that software, and Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 Development Kit is designed to keep everything running quickly and smoothly.
Xfinity does a lot more than just provide internet and cable. They’re very integrated into the smart home, as proven by my parent’s Xfinity alarm system that led to some cloak and dagger email deletion. However, your Xfinity-powered home is about to get a lot smarter than just letting you know when someone has opened the front door, thanks to integration with Leviton’s Decora Zigbee smart light switches, dimmers, and modules.
We take for granted that our senses are there to help us navigate the world. If you’re lucky, your hearing works well; you can taste when food goes bad or smell when the garbage has to go out, and you can see and read signs to navigate the world around you. People who are visually impaired don’t always have that ability. OrCam has a pretty amazing solution with the OrCam MyEye, and they’re teaming up with soccer star Lionel Messi to help promote it.
Honor consistently releases impressive devices at wallet-friendly prices. They’ve got two new fitness tracking watches and two new laptops coming to outfit you for whatever the rest of 2020 has to throw at you!
It feels like we’ve been hearing about 5G forever, but it’s for-real happening, and we’re going to be getting all sorts of awesome devices zipping YouTube to us faster than ever. And, sure, we also need connectivity for remote work. But also TikTok. Anyway, Qualcomm is already on their 2nd generation of 5G PC chips, being rolled out this year with Acer!
The best part about laptops is the portability — you can work from your desk, your couch, and (pre-COVID) the local coffeehouse. Of course, the most crucial part of portability is that your laptop is light and not dependent on an outlet. Acer has got both covered with new Swift laptops running the Intel Evo platform.
Acer makes a huge slate of PCs, and they make sure to throw some love towards gamers with their Predator line of accessories, computers, and monitors. They’re updating their Predator Orion line of desktops to support NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs, plus they’ve got a monitor that will keep up every frame of the way! Predator Orion 9000: Acer says this is for hardcore gamers, with the ability to handle any AAA titles, plus it comes with 3 Predator Frostblade fans to keep it from getting too toasty. Also, you can admire the whole setup with a tempered glass…
There are few guarantees in life, but it’s almost a given that we’re all going to be spending more time than ever with our devices this fall. School, work, life — to some extent, everything is more linked than ever to having a reliable computer in hand. If you’re looking with an eye to upgrading soon, Lenovo has a fresh slate for this fall!
I’ve been tied to iOS the last few years out of necessity, not a choice, so I’m always excited to test drive how things are going in the Android world. The TCL 10 Pro absolutely blew me away; it showcases the best of Android at an extremely wallet-friendly price.
Look, this hasn’t been a normal summer. Even the fun times have had a bit of a shadow over them as we stress about the pandemic. It’s not even like there’s good fall television to brighten up the end of summer because most productions have been suspended. But one bright spot that you might not have noticed yet: Ted Lasso on Apple TV.
In a year where almost nothing is guaranteed, one thing you can count on is that you probably won’t be going to many movie theaters. However, your video-on-demand experience can still be theater-quality; you just need some microwave popcorn, your tv, and the Reference Series speakers from Fluance!
You can’t accuse Lenovo of slacking; they’re continually refining their products to improve already great devices into even better ones. Yoga devices are already impressive, but Lenovo isn’t content to leave them as is; they’ve added all-new updates in both hardware and software to make them even better!
If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us all, it’s that streaming is an essential service. It’s also taught us to wash hands better, but that’s more life advice and less relevant to why you’re probably reading Gear Diary. In any case, if you’ve been working your TV to the limit, check out the new TCL 5 and 6 Series 4K smart TVs with Roku!
Most of us are learning to navigate at-home workouts these days. You can go super minimal with a bodyweight workout, or trick your garage out better than the neighborhood gym. But working out at home also involves finding the drive to push, and the skill to get your form dialed in properly. The Carbon Trainer Smart Mirror aims to solve that gap!
True wireless earbuds aren’t a new thing — they’ve been a few years, and they have moved from status symbol to everyday carry. I’ve never been able to embrace them because earbuds, in general, truly bother my ears. So while I had low expectations for enjoying the LinearFlux Hypersonic, I was absolutely blown away once I used them.
5G is coming, and no, it didn’t give everyone coronavirus. It is going to make connectivity faster and more efficient, not just with phones but also tablets and computers. MediaTek has been working hard to bring 5G to a tremendous number of devices, and now they’ll have even more devices to power thanks to a partnership with Intel.
One of the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is that we’re all far more appreciative of the little things, like a chance to enjoy time outside with family. Lexus is looking to capture that feeling of just enjoying being outdoors with their 2021 Lexus LC Convertible, and they’re really leaning into it with their newest TV spot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLHC1deDB_s&feature=youtu.be
Are you a smartwatch holdout? Maybe you can’t bring yourself to spend significant cash on an extension of your phone on your wrist, or you just love the thrill of bargain hunting for digital watches. Either way, head to the Misfit online store RIGHT NOW because they have an absolutely insane sale!
Some people live life blissfully unaware of their phone’s battery life. They are the lucky ones. The rest of us fear the “low battery” signal, as it means being tied to a charger or an external battery. Qualcomm is coming to the rescue, with Quick Charge 5, which can take a phone from 0 to 50% in five minutes.