Connexion
It's a great time to buy a Steam Deck. Valve's refurbished LCD Steam Decks are back in stock, and for a lower price than ever before. The used devices are available for cheaper than they are new, making them a solid option for folks who want a Steam Deck but don't want to pay full price.
This isn't the first time Valve has offered its handheld gaming PC in refurbished condition, but it is the first time that we've seen the price drop so low. With its stock now refreshed (although it is going fast), Valve is offering the refurbished Steam Decks starting at $279 for the base 64GB eMMC model. That's roughly $70 less than the company currently charges for a brand-new device (and $40 less than when it first started offering refurbished Steam Decks). The 256GB NVMe model and 512GB model are also now available refurbished at $319 and $359, respectively. That makes the largest LCD model more affordable than buying the smallest OLED version brand-new. At this time, there is no word on when or if Valve will offer the OLED model as refurbished.
While buying a device like this refurbished might sound risky, Valve promises that it has thoroughly tested all units, and that the only issues present include cosmetic damage, like marks or scratches. Everything else is promised to deliver the same performance as a brand-new Steam Deck. To back this up, all refurbished models come with the same one-year warranty as a new Steam Deck.
Refurbished decks also come with the same carrying case that brand-new Steam Decks come in, giving you something to keep your handheld safe while transporting it from location to location.
At the time of writing, the refurbished 64GB Steam Deck is sold out, so it's unclear how long the others will have available stock or when the 64GB model will get more in. Either way, this could be a good opportunity for many to get their hands on Valve's handheld gaming PC, which remains one of the best values in gaming handhelds right now.
While the LCD Steam Deck's slightly smaller display might not be as appealing as the Steam Deck OLED's, it remains one of the best ways to jump into handheld PC gaming, especially at these lower prices. If you'd rather hold out for the OLED Steam Deck, then you can always purchase one of those starting at $549 for a 512GB storage option.
Standing fans tend to annoy me. I find I’m constantly getting up to adjust them; they’re loud; and they become absolutely filthy with no clear way to clean them. None of these issues seem like they’d be hard to solve—and yet standing fans have been around for a long time without much innovation on how to fix these pain points. Somehow, the DREO PolyFan 704s ($134.99) figured it out, and for that reason, I absolutely recommend it as the perfect standing fan for small to medium rooms.
The PolyFan, whose name refers to the dual motors powering it, stands 43 inches tall when fully extended, with a tapered stem and round base. You can adjust the stem by four inches to shorten it. The fan head itself is on a swing, and can be positioned at any vertical angle (but you won’t need to position it yourself—more on that in a bit). The fan arrives in a few large pieces, and assembly took less than 10 minutes to attach the stem to the base. The Dreo includes a small remote, which is certainly nice—but since you use your phone app for all the remote functions and more, you won’t need it. The PolyFan comes in two colors, a rose gold or matte silver. The tapered stem and rounded edges on the fan head, coupled with the matte finish, make the fan look more expensive than it is.
The Dreo app paired quickly for me on the first try. All of the commands for the fan take place in two panes. First, there's a general pane that allows you to turn the fan on and off, get a temperature reading for the room, see upcoming scheduled runs, and use a slider for fan intensity. If you click on settings, you’ll be offered a second pane with more options for the fan, including a turbo mode, a natural mode and sleep mode. You can use a visual angle control to aim the fan in any 3D direction you’d like, and then control the horizontal and vertical oscillation. I didn’t realize how valuable this was until I experienced not having to get up to adjust the fan, and then it felt downright luxurious.
Like the Dreo Air Purifier Tower Fan I reviewed recently, the air Dreo produced is breezier than a normal fan. At lower speeds, it feels like a light, natural breeze. At a higher intensity, I felt cooler, but not like I was in a wind tunnel. Dreo uses a brushless motor and a dual vortex technology to achieve this, and while it’s not the same as the Dyson Hot+Cool’s cool air, it felt closer to that experience than a traditional standing fan.
The Dreo is impressively quite. Dreo says the fan never goes above 25 dB, and most of the time, it won’t even reach that. It rarely went over 18 dB in my use, but I rarely had it on max settings. You could easily leave it on while in a Zoom call.
I was impressed at how the Dreo air filled the room. You can oscillate the fan 120 degrees horizontally and 85 degrees vertically, which means you get a pretty wide angle swing, and the fan can reach 100 feet, according to the docs. None of my rooms are longer than 30 feet, but you could certainly feel the fan if you stood 30 feet away.
Fans collect dust and then become impossible to clean—I’ve broken many window fans trying to get them open to clean them. Dreo built a fan that you can take apart for these purposes. After only a week of use, I started breaking it apart. The fan comes apart into three parts, and all are easy to wash. It took a minute to take apart and a minute to put back together.
I know, it’s just a fan. But I suspect you’ve bought a lot of cheap fans in your lifetime under that premise and have ended up with old-looking fans gummed up with dust that you haul out every spring. The design of most tower fans has caused them to not be very stable, or to look anything other than cheap. Standing fans also tend to be top heavy. The PolyFan is none of those things, and performs better, is cleanable and quiet. For those reasons, I think it’s a good value. I’m also excited, after seeing these two products from Dreo, to see what else they produce in the future.
Kickstarter and crowdfunding platforms like it have generally been thought of as a place for startups to gain enough capital to bring projects to life. While it’s never been explicitly stated by Kickstarter, most people believe that the platform is for businesses or ideas that are just starting out. Recently, however, I’ve noticed several well-established smart tech companies using the platform to launch products. All of these companies—notably Eufy, Aqara and Switchbot—already have a library of traditionally launched, successful projects, a healthy customer base and name recognition. It led me to wonder the cause of this trend and if it has implications for the brands or consumers.
Campaigns on Kickstarter follow a certain formula: a well-produced video pitch, fancy graphics, and perks. In the case of consumer goods, the perks are the product. Companies set a goal for their funding, and if backers meet the goal, the project moves forward. If it fails, everyone gets their money back. There are risks for everyone—obviously, the company may not hit the goal, and even if they do, they now have to fulfill the perks. Producing one concept gadget is different from making 5,000 gadgets and very different from 500,000. For the backer, there’s a chance they don’t get the product at all—the company may never be able to get the concept product to full production. The product could also be vastly different from what was promised in the campaign, could take longer to arrive, or just not live up to expectations. There’s no consumer protection—if you back a project, the creator is only expected to bring things to a "satisfying conclusion," which may not include fulfillment. The platform claims to be proactive about fraud, but the only possible repercussion for the creator not fulfilling the campaign is suspension from the platform—Kickstarter does not offer refunds. There have been plenty of cases in the past where backers didn’t get products they backed or refunds—just sad explanations about how companies got in over their head.
The stakes are different for established companies—they already have a user base, they already have capital, and because of that, they have more liability and exposure. They know how to build, produce, launch and support a product. What’s the upside of Kickstarter for them? According to Switchbot and Eufy, using Kickstarter creates a long period of direct consumer feedback. Kickstarter users, whether or not they become backers, can view the campaign materials, and respond either in the comments, to the company directly or out in the public domain— and all the while, the company is listening and adjusting. According to Switchbot’s marketing manager, Anna Huang, “We love to receive feedback from users at the very early stage for such a niche product, which is primarily why Kickstarter is a good platform for us to reach our target users as early as possible.” Eric Villines, Head of Global Communications for Eufy’s parent company, Anker, says that working with the crowdfunding platforms is about honoring the voice of the consumer. “It allows us to innovate jointly with the customer—we're getting real-time feedback. We've had products that we've launched and looking at comments, what we thought was cool isn't coming across, so in real time we're able to adapt the marketing."
These backers are the first to experience the new product, which has benefits and risks—they can’t help but be a test market. Villines admits the hardware or software itself may be modified before going retail, based on backer response. “By the time we get to the end customer, we have a product that’s been thought through a little better; we've been able to fix from the original batch of backers."
For an established company, a success on Kickstarter isn’t an anxiety-inducing race to figure out how to scale; companies like Eufy and Aqara already have those systems in place. In fact, in most cases the “concept” in the campaign is already quite close to production-ready, and supply chains have already been established. Crowdfunding campaigns are less of a risk than a traditional launch or a startup campaign, since now they simply need to produce based on demand and have raised the capital to do so. Kickstarter can actually be a cost saver— Villines elaborates that these campaigns “eliminate the risk building in supply chain issues, reduces cost and time. Ultimately we're not producing more than we need. If you look at how companies innovate, it's a slow process. Crowdfunding allows us to more quickly bring our biggest and craziest ideas to the table in a way that if we were to fail, we fail fast and move on. "
Crowdfunding also appeals to companies because of the patrons themselves. “Compared to regular consumers on a larger scale, the native users of Kickstarter consist of a great amount of geeks," Huang says. "They are relatively more open to technology discovery with more willingness to give feedback and conduct discussions on a technical level, which helps us greatly to cultivate our products so that the products could be more than ready for regular consumers.”
An established company that has produced products before is vastly more likely to get a final product shipped. That reduces risks to the backer overall. But these pools of early adopters are still getting the first version of the product, which will be improved based on their experiences. The tradeoff here is that they’re getting it at a lower price than the eventual retail price (usually). Still, waiting for a retail version might mean getting a product with less glitches.
Unlike most other Kickstarter campaigns, ones from companies like Eufy, Aqara and Switchbot already have established customer service channels to support the product, including the possibility of returning it. You don’t have to worry about the company having the capital to support refunds.
Early adopters are going to be a test market regardless of how a product is launched, and for many, that’s part of the thrill. That companies are offering a more direct way to participate and offer feedback is likely a perk to consumers. For companies like Eufy, Aqara and Switchbot, crowdfunding isn’t about collecting capital to give life to a new idea, but a marketing method to support a product launch. Despite Switchbot and Eufy pointing out to me that they used crowdfunding for products in a new vertical, or those that are niche, both of them have already produced robot vacuums before, so the products they’re crowdfunding now aren’t new verticals. And none of these items could be considered "niche." Still, for consumers, compared to most Kickstarter campaigns, they could potentially get a less-expensive version of a product they've been coveting. They’re incredibly likely to get the product, and it will likely be close to what is in the marketing materials. And if they don’t, or if there’s a problem with the product, there’s an established company standing behind it.
If you’re looking to meet people in your neighborhood, buy a robot lawn mower. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been amazed at the traffic generated by using my Mammotion Luba 2. People stop to watch it work, they bring their kids by, and cars have slowed down, backed up, and then pulled over to observe. But the best outcome I discovered by using a robot lawn mower is this: If you can share your robot lawn mower with your closest neighbors, what was a good value becomes a great one.
I live in the city on a street with reasonably sized residential lots of 3,000ish square feet, and almost every house on the block has a lawn. The lawns vary in size, but all are large enough to need a lawnmower, and many people on the block use a lawn service. Since our lots are small enough and the Mammotion Luba 2 is built to handle a lot more space, I found myself wondering if I could make the Luba think additional houses on the block were all part of the same map, and mow them, too. Spoiler: It works. The more houses a single robot can mow, the more value you’re getting from a robot lawnmower (and I generally feel they are a valuable buy, anyway).
An interesting aspect of robot lawnmowers came from a conversation with the team at Husqvarna, who pointed out that robots aren’t great at perceived boundaries like property lines, which is why lots of lawnbots have needed buried wire to mark perimeters with precision. Now that most bots are wireless, we teach the bot where the boundary is by walking them around the perimeter the first time and mapping paths between the different areas. A single property can have multiple mapped areas, just like your home has many rooms for a robot vacuum to consider. Your next door neighbor’s lawn can be just another area, and you can map a pathway to it. Even the street itself is just another area for the robot to cross to get to another mapped area, just like a sidewalk or driveway. At a minimum, robot vacuums are a great way to keep a hellstrip (the narrow space between your sidewalk and street curb) mowed and looking uniform across many properties.
Once I got permission from my neighbors to test this out, I parked the GPS tower for the Luba in a spot that gave line of sight for the two houses across the street and the house next door. Remember, you place that GPS tower with the mapped areas in mind, but if you plan to use it on multiple houses, that mapped area just expands, and you may need to consider a new location for the tower.
Using the remote control, I walked the robot over to the new areas to map and continued adding mapped areas in each of the yards, naming them and making connection pathways between the mapped areas. So, my neighbor across the street had her yard mapped with pathways between the areas on her property, and then my next door neighbor had the same. I did not make a pathway between the homes, which I’ll explain in a moment. At some point, all four homes, two on each side of the street, were mapped, and once the robot was in those spaces, it mowed the areas as well as it would the main home it was mapped to.
While on a lawn, the safety of the robot isn’t really in question (the biggest threat is someone walking up and nabbing it). It also isn't a major safety concern for people or pets while cutting the grass—it just moves too slow. But unattended in the street, it can get run over, and it's more likely to encounter people and dogs on sidewalks. The bottom line is: The robot is safe on your lawn, but when you map a walkway and ask it to leave your lawn, it can engage with the rest of the world, which could be a liability, a risk to your investment, or just a hassle. A better way to handle it is to manually walk the robot over, using the remote, especially across a street.
Now that it’s all mapped, remember that multiple people probably won’t have access to the controls for the robot, because the association lives on one phone. With some robots, you can add additional users, and for others, I’m sure that’s coming. Until then, one solution is scheduling, which would mean that as long as the robot is in mapped area or there’s a walkway mapped to it, it will run a set scheduled mow. If there’s no walkway, you’d need to be responsible for walking the robot over, but it’s not more labor than taking the trash to the curb. A second solution is keeping a cheap tablet with the robot, with the app loaded, so that anyone who wants to use the robot can walk over, grab the tablet and use it to walk the robot to their property and mow and then return it.
Robot lawn mowers range in price from about $1,500 to $5,000. The Mammotion Luba 2 we used for this experiment is $2,899 and while I think that’s a reasonable price to pay for a robot lawnmower, it would be a lot less when shared with a few neighbors. You all agree to maintain the robot collectively and share in the expenses, such as new blades, as needed.
Eufy is a company that, in general, makes products I really like. They make some of the best security cameras in the industry, enough that after testing lots of brands, Eufy’s Solocams are what I keep installed at my house. Anker, their parent company, makes some of my favorite power banks, and I really like my Eufy doorbell. Like a lot of companies making smart tech, they also make vacuums.
The Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni S1 Pro is interesting in a number of ways. Even though Eufy is a well-established brand that has produced and launched many products including other robot vacuums, for this model, they went back to Kickstarter, where their goal was blown out of the water in hours. Second, instead of going for the compact tower design almost all companies have chosen for robot vacuums lately, the S1 has a giant retro tower look to it. Despite my brand loyalty, the interesting design and the vacuum's decent performance, however, I think the Omni S1 Pro isn’t a good buy—there’s a disconnect between the robot Eufy thinks they built and the one I tested. Currently priced at $999 on Kickstarter, the S1 will become available for retail purchase later this spring or early summer at a much higher price.
Generally, robot vacuums and mops now come with a dock and tower that will refill the clean water, empty the dirty water and vacuum, and clean the mop. These towers are impossible to ignore due to size, but brands generally try to make them generic-looking enough so they’ll blend into the landscape of the room around them. Eufy went a different way with the S1. The tower is tall enough you might mistake it for a stick vacuum, and bears the word “MACH” right on the front, which is also the name of the app. Made of molded transparent black plastic, the contents of the tower are veiled, but only barely. While it’s likely made of the same materials as other brands, which are also molded plastic, the see-through plastic occasionally looks cheap. Despite the vertical size, the tower also doesn’t take up much less horizontal space than other robots have. The footprint is about the same, but you can’t tuck this under tables and counters as easily.
The robot itself is like a lot of other modern robot vacuums, with a roller, rotating sweeping brushes and mop brushes—and to its credit, Eufy ships the S1 Pro with plenty of replacement parts, including extra rollers, brushes and filters. But Eufy has promoted this robot as a premium floorbot, with a premium price. In the marketing for the robot, you routinely see words like “groundbreaking” used. In fact, the marketing materials used to say “The World’s First Floor-Washing Robot Vacuum with All-in-One Station” until I asked what was different from other floor-washing robots, since they’re pretty common now. The language disappeared from Kickstarter but remains on the Eufy website. The problem is, it’s not groundbreaking: While this robot was being developed, floor washing robots became routine, and the technology surpassed what this robot offers, with other brands offering extending brushes and mops, on board video, voice assistants and direct connection to water lines. While the S1 includes a lot of features I like on other robots—like a place for cleaning solution built into the tower, and an easy way to divide and merge rooms in the app—most of the other premium robots have that, too.
Most robots come ready to roll out of the box, and the S1 isn’t any different. After unboxing, it just needed to be filled with water and have a few brushes popped into places. In the case of many robot mop combos, you can add cleaning solution to the clean water, but recently, models like Roborock have added a bay for cleaning solution to the dock, so you always have the right amount. As I mentioned, Eufy included this feature, but it relies on Eufy branded cleaning solution in a sealed bottle that you install—to replace it, you’d need to purchase more from Eufy, while other models allow you to choose any solution you want to use. The MACH app is separate from the Eufy Clean app, and I’ve previously talked about how every one of Eufy’s products uses a different app (Clean, Security, Pet, etc), so this was just one more to add to the bunch. Still, it’s a good app, and has the same user interface as most brands. A map is made using LiDAR the first time the robot goes out, and then you can break it into rooms, dividing and merging spaces as you like and naming them. Of all the robots I’ve tested, the S1 mapped the space better than any other (and I’ve had six or seven robots map the same space).
One aspect I did really like was that you can set cleaning preferences per room, instead of doing so per run, and you can also set a priority of rooms rather than let the robot decide. If you want to wash the kitchen floor multiple times but the hallway only once, you can, and you can ask the bot to always clean the bathroom last. The app has schedules, and the same general settings you expect, including the remote control. The app lacks two features I’m seeing in many robots these days: pin and go, or “spot cleaning,” and onboard video. While I don’t think video is all that useful, it’s still a feature you’d get in other models. Pin and go is actually very useful—you can just drop a pin on your map and the robot cleans that spot specifically.
As a floor cleaner, the S1 does an okay job. This is how I felt about the Eufy X10 Pro Omni I reviewed a few months ago. It vacuumed up a lot of debris on the floor, but after three passes on my kitchen had missed a deliberately left onion peel in the dead center of the floor. The S1 does not hug the wall; it lacks those extending arms other models now offer. As a mop, it certainly cleaned up surface level spills, but the rotating brushes did not dig into grime at all, leaving the white tile looking dirty. On 11 ventures out, I’d let the Eufy run at max settings, the highest level of suction and mopping, going over each space two times. In each instance, I would then ask my Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra to make a single run afterwards, and I could watch it grab everything the S1 missed. It happened over and over.
Earlier this week, I spoke with Eric Villines, Head of Global Communications at Anker about the S1 launch and why they chose Kickstarter. I appreciated how proud the team at Anker seemed to be about the way the Eufy encourages innovation, working like an incubator with at least half the staff devoted to research and development. When teams produce great concepts, crowdfunding allows Eufy to find innovative ways to move those products forward. One of the reasons they like crowdfunding for products like the S1 is that it creates a long runway of feedback from enthusiasts and funders, which Villines said usually impacts the products a lot before launch.
To be clear, Eufy doesn’t make bad robot vacuums; they work just fine. But they seem to only work fine—not great. The S1 is positioned as a premium robot vacuum, but for the current $999 price, i think you can do better with the Roborock S8 Pro, at the same price. When the S1 moves to its full retail price in the mid-$1000 range, I think you’d do better with the Roborock S8 Maxv Ultra at $1799. I am also eagerly awaiting the new S10 from Switchbot; if I were shopping for a robot vacuum right now, I'd wait for that to launch, since Switchbot has already made a really great vacuum before.
Not everyone was born to camp. I participate due to peer pressure from friends and a dog, who are all enthusiasts of the great outdoors. Whether you relish the great outdoors or just tolerate it, there’s so much smart gear to improve the experience. While bringing smart tech on a camping trip might feel counter intuitive, the right tech can make nature more accessible, safer and even more comfortable.
Even those who brave the Pacific Coast Trail bring tech along with them (according to the hikers I follow on TikTok, which is as close as I’m getting it). That tech needs power, and your tent is a passive way to collect it. While there have been a lot of concept products, very few seem to have made it to market for consumers. A Green Origin has two for sale (below) that have a flexible solar panel that’s made to attach to the tent itself. The Dragon V1 Solar Tent has been successfully funded on Kickstarter and should ship soon. It, too, has a solar panel, but it’s integrated into the tent itself. In the future, even these flexible panels will likely be obsolete; fabric with energy-harvesting technology woven into the fabric itself will be used for tents as well as clothing.
2-3 People Rechargeable Solar Power Tent ($380.00)
5~6 people High Quality Solar Power Tent ($1,499.00)
Coolers used to be a race against time managing refrigerated and frozen food with ice cubes. Now, many coolers carry on-board power, meaning they can keep the cooler at a temp that ensures safe food handling, and no more ice management. In some cases, these coolers can also act as chargers or speakers, or allow you to manage the cooler via an app. Being able to designate each section as a fridge or freezer means you can use the power you need, and keep food at the right temperature.
Anker EverFrost 50 Powered Cooler ($949.00)
Iceco Jp30 Portable Refrigerator Fridge Freezer, 30 Liters ($399)
When you gather with friends at night to cook, eat, or just relax, you'll probably want a little light—and you've got a couple of options. There are lots of solar lanterns on the market, which just need to sit out during the day to recharge. But for a little more ambiance, bring a power bank with you and string up some LED lights, as they require less energy to run than other lights.
Generally, we think of having wifi anywhere we go now and when it’s not available, we fall back to our cellular signal. When you don’t want to blow through your wireless plan, you can rely on a backup device that provides a signal through the 4G network and you pay as you go.
RoamWiFi 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot Router ($143.99)
Going “off grid” has really changed now that there are so many portable power stations that give you a way to charge up while you’re away through a solar panel. 1,000-watt units are enough to power most of the devices you’ll use while away, while still being light enough to move around.
Hot on the heels of its biggest competition in the Apple Vision Pro, Meta has announced that it’s going to be fighting Apple using a tried-and-true strategy: Meta wants to become the Android of VR.
In a press release, the company behind the Quest line of headsets revealed that it’s making the Meta Horizon operating system and Quest ecosystem open to third-party manufacturers. That means you might soon be able to buy a headset made by Dell or Sony and log in to see the Meta UI you already know and Meta apps you already own.
It’s a similar approach to Android or Windows, in that while Google and Microsoft make their own products, the software powering their phones and laptops isn’t limited to Google and Microsoft hardware. This allows these companies to maintain parity with Apple devices without having to directly compete with them on every front, while also offering customers a greater degree of choice.
Is it open source? No. But it does mean that Meta could keep up with the Vision Pro simply by relying on a smaller company to hit that niche premium market for it, something the company behind Facebook has had trouble doing itself in the past.
Meta’s more open VR strategy is starting with a three-pronged approach, with two new headsets on the way from laptop makers Lenovo and Asus, as well as an Xbox-branded Quest headset coming straight from Meta itself.
Each headset should target a different audience, allowing Meta to immediately differentiate itself from Apple by appealing to a multitude of use cases. Asus’ headset is coming from that company’s “Republic of Gamers” branch, meaning it will probably be decked out in RGB lighting and the latest and greatest VR gaming specs. Lenovo’s seems to instead be leveraging that company’s experience with ThinkPad, meaning it might target a more professional audience. The Xbox collaboration is focused entirely on design, looking unique but otherwise being a normal Quest 3.
Alongside these lowered barriers to making Meta-branded hardware, Meta is also “beginning the process of removing the barriers between the Meta Horizon Store and App Lab,” which essentially means that smaller developers will now be able to push their content straight to consumers.
“We believe a more open ecosystem is the best way to bring the power of mixed reality to as many people as possible,” Meta wrote in its announcement. “With more devices, this new ecosystem will offer more choice to consumers and businesses around the world.”
In light of mass returns on the impressive but niche Apple Vision Pro, a greater selection of devices, all with different price points and audiences, and all running Meta’s more mature ecosystem, could be exactly what VR needs to hit a mass market.
From the beginning, I’ve been skeptical about robot lawn mowers. I imagined a robot mowing down my flower beds, and wondered why someone wouldn’t just pluck the robot off the lawn and keep walking. Heck, I don’t even think you should grow a lawn, so it’d be a leap for me to recommend a lawn mower. However, there is no denying that robot mowers are here to stay—and so I enlisted the lawns of every neighbor on my block and began testing a fleet of lawnbots.
The process has won me over for a few reasons, and I’m now a person who would recommend a robot lawn mower to most people with a lawn, if you find the right one for your space. A robot lawn mower all but eliminates the noise of mowing, removes the chore of mowing altogether, and can give your lawn a year-round consistent look. For medium to large lawns, I'd recommend the Mammotion Luba 2. It mowed with accuracy and consistency, rarely deterred by irregularities like dips, hills, holes or obstacles. At $2,899, the price is out of reach for many people, but if you regularly pay for lawn service, and/or have neighbors who can share the bot, it might just be worth it.
It's tempting to compare robot lawn mowers to robot vacuums, but while robot mowers have definitely benefited from everything we’ve learned from robot vacuums over the last 10 years, that may be an unfair correlation. I recently spoke with the engineering staff at Husqvarna, an originator in this space, and they helped me understand the additional challenges that robot lawn mowers face outside in the elements. Inside your home, LiDAR is likely all you need to navigate, but outside, robots need GPS. If you want your bot to mow up to the flower bed but not into the flower bed, you’re talking about precision that comes down to inches. The same is true of boundaries, where your lawn might meet a neighbor’s lawn. For this reason, most lawnbots once relied on buried wire to define the spaces they worked within. It’s only in the last few years that these bots have gone wireless, trusting the GPS to keep them on the straight and (sometimes) narrow.
The Luba 2 requires a fair amount of assembly: There’s the robot itself, which needs a few parts like the bumper connected and screwed in, and then there is the GPS tower and the dock, both of which need some assembly, too. It took an hour to unbox all the components, assemble them, and then find an appropriate place for the base to live and get everything installed at the site. There are also additional components to consider, like a garage ($149 on pre-order), which is just a cover for the robot since it is otherwise exposed to the elements, and a wall mount for the GPS unit ($79 on pre-order)—both of which take time to assemble, too.
The Luba 2 features four equally sized tough wheels across a long, low body. (More later on why this particular shape makes the bot more resilient and results in those highly treasured lines in the lawn.) While the robot is mostly okay in the elements, Mammotion is clear that the garage does help protect your investment. Among other things, it helped conceal the robot a bit when it was docked—and even the most weatherproof device could benefit from shelter. The GPS tower does not need to be installed at the same location as the dock, but if you position the dock right, it can be. The tower needs direct line of sight to the sky, and always needs to have direct line of sight to the robot. Sometimes, this is best served by the tower and dock being in two different locations, but in my case, I was able to locate them close to the house, together, without it being a problem. This has an additional benefit of allowing both the robot and tower to share one electrical plug. If you separate them, you’ll have to snake the cord for the tower back to the outlet, and I struggled to understand how you’d do this safely without burying it, or the robot would go right over it. Pro tip: once the robot is up and running, you’ll never pick it up—there’s a remote control function. Assemble it close to the location you’ll place the dock, because it is a bear to carry around.
Most interactions you’ll have with your new robot mower takes place in the app, and I was worried that my wifi wouldn’t be sufficient through the yard, or it would be a bear to pair. That wasn’t the case, and this is the only lawnmower I’ve tested that paired on the first try. The mesh provided by some new Nest Pro wifi points covered my neighbors' whole yard well enough to work (remember, I was mowing their lawn), and I found that even at the farthest reaches of their yard where the signal was weak, the Luba 2 responded just fine. Each time you want to use the robot, you’ll need to connect to it, which means you need to be in range. Mammotion, like a lot of these robots, relies on a mix of Bluetooth, wifi and 4G. You won’t be controlling the robot from your vacation home (although you can set up schedules for that). Inside the app, you can control how short the grass should be cut and what pattern you want the robot to take across the lawn, from a few zigzag patterns to checkerboard. These settings don’t just affect the lawn's appearance, but how effective the lawn is mowed. I tried all the settings over the course of a month and it turns out, a randomized zigzag produced the best mowing results. Each time you send the robot out on an unscheduled run, you can choose how many times it should circle the perimeter and how it should approach obstacles. The Luba offers options that favor bump and go, LiDAR or both, and generally, I found the best coverage with bump and go only, which surprised me. When I just let the robot experience obstacles by bumping into them, and having to navigate around them, rather than seeing them with LiDAR and trying to avoid them, I got smaller areas of avoidance.
Unlike vacuums, which just venture out from the dock, visualize and map the space on their own and then go about cleaning, most robot lawn mowers including the Luba 2 require you to manually map the space. The robot goes into a remote control mode, and you walk behind it and navigate the perimeter of the space. This part was strangely fun. You can map additional “no go” zones within a space, but I generally allowed the robot to figure that out on its own, since it would bump into a raised bed and navigate around it. If you had a flower bed without a defined wall, you’d map it as a no go zone. You can map as many spaces as you want, and then connect them by building walkway paths between them. When you want to mow, you just choose the areas you want, and the mower will navigate to them using the walkways.
One of my concerns was that someone would steal the mower, and to be honest, makers of these robots don’t help in that area. The units light up at night like a beacon, with bright lights on the GPS unit and the robot itself. The garage helps hide it a little, and I turned the GPS unit so the light was aimed towards the house, but in the darkness, it’s still quite easy to see. I live in an area where people do swipe things from entryways, and yet, in five weeks, the Luba 2 was more a curiosity of the neighborhood than a target. The first week, I watched it each time it ran, out of concern for the robot and flower beds—and more interesting than the robot was the neighbors reaction. Everyone would stop walking and stare. They’d take pictures, and minutes later more people would arrive and they’d all stare together. Cars stopped and reversed to double check that it was, in fact, a robot. They’d talk to each other about the robot and ask questions.
This led to the second concern I had about the robot, which was liability and safety. While on a lawn, it’s likely not to encounter other humans or animals, certainly not at the rate it moves (about half the speed of a human mowing). However, as it navigates sidewalks and driveways between mowing areas, it might encounter them. The Husqvarna team helped explain that this is the main distinguishing feature between vacuums and mowers—that for the latter, safety had to be the first priority. For that reason, all robots have a giant kill button on them. The Luba 2 has a big “STOP” button on it that’s easy to hit. Also, the mower itself is actually much smaller and less threatening than it is on traditional mowers, it’s just a few very small blades in the dead center on the bottom of the robot. The moment the robot is lifted or moves from a flat position, the mower stops. I tried a number of times to create scenarios where the blades could encounter a dog, cat or kid, and each time, the mower simply stopped.
There are a few assessments you should make before you get a robot lawn mower—like how big your lawn is, and how level. Some mowers are better at inclines, and some are better for small lawns that require navigation around a lot of tight spaces. The Luba 2 comes in models that can accommodate from 1,000 square feet up to 10,000 square feet. It’s not terrific for navigating around very tight spaces—it struggled around my path lights, for instance. Where the Luba 2 really shines is in navigating bumpy spaces. Some lawn bots struggled with even a small dip or hill, but the Luba navigated those easily, and even a big trench. This is because of the larger body with the wheels on all four corners. It was able to distribute weight in a way that the wheels were never bothered by terrain or inclines. According to the team at Husqvarna, the weight of the mower affects how well you’ll see those lines in the grass after mowing. Of the mowers I’ve tested so far, only the Mammotion has produced them. In fact, at some point in the future Mammotion plans to offer lawn printing, where you can customize what you see on the lawn.
The Mammotion has some features that felt extraneous, like offering live video of the mower in action. It’s novel to watch the feed for a moment, but ultimately not very useful. One of the most useful features, the ability to manually control the mower via remote control, doesn’t get talked about much. Although the bot only got stuck twice in sixteen runs, rather than picking it up and walking it out, I just used the remote. Remember, the mower is heavy. What no one mentions about robot lawn mowers and should is the blessed silence. I have lived between two mow happy men for years and during the summer mowers run constantly and the noise is insufferable. Robot lawn mowers are so quiet you have to strain to hear them cutting. The cuttings themselves are so chopped up by the blades that there’s no cuttings to move off the lawn. Rather than long blades of grass, it’s just diced up and left on the lawn, and you can’t really tell, even after a big chop. Both neighbors have been really happy with the results of the robots. A little line trimming to clean up around obstacles is all that’s needed.
Ultimately, the Mammotion won me over to robot lawn mowing. After the first week, you’ll only watch it when it leaves the dock and check back to make sure it returned. Then, you’ll grow to trust that it just does it on its own. The cost is stunning, at $2899, but when I started to think about what people pay now for lawn service, it started to make more sense. While landscapers do more than mow the lawn, taking the lawn off your plate might make the rest of the your landscape manageable for you to handle. Also, don’t overlook how much labor mowing the lawn really is—if you live alone, removing the labor might be worth it, just like not having to clean your floors inside. With the range of the Mammotion, I was able to map it to the lawns of four adjoining neighbors, meaning you could easily split the cost of the bot with others.
Searching for music on the Sonos interface has always been a little frustrating, involving a lot of subpanels and too much back and forth. Today, Sonos is promising to alleviate some of that pain with a new home screen interface across the Sonos app and desktop experience. News of the upcoming changes leaked earlier this month, but now we’re able to see actual screenshots and get details of how this rollout will actually look.
Rolling out globally on May 7, the new interface will emphasize customizations and easy access. While Sonos has the ability to integrate with over 100 streaming services, you likely only interface with a few routinely. The new design will allow you to choose which services you see, and allow you to easily change those preferences. Here are some of the other big changes:
The most painful part of the Sonos navigation process is going to go away. The new home screen will bring all your content to one screen, and you’ll be able to easily jump back into recently played content, your libraries, and recommendations.
You’ll be able to group rows of content together, so you can have a section for podcasts versus music versus audiobooks. Sonos promises these will be easy to rearrange on the fly.
A little cloudier is the promise that you’ll be able to search for a piece of content or creator across all your platforms. Sonos already does this, but hopefully what they’re promising is a better experience. I’ve often been frustrated with the search results being inaccurate or not finding all the content I’m looking for, even when I know a service carries it.
Continuing the “tabs be damned” theme, you’ll be swiping up from the home screen to access your system and a visual overview of what’s playing, on which speakers, at what volume, so it sounds like this will replace the system tab.
Mostly, what the new app experience aims for is faster access, and eliminating the many levels of tabs. The new experience will support all S2 products, which includes newer Sonos products like the Arc, Beam, and Era speakers. Usually, the earlier Sonos products like Play 1, Play 3, and Soundbar are included in all apps, leaving out only legacy products like the Bridge.
When Samsung’s Galaxy S23 came out in spring of 2023, it earned major praise from sites like PCMag for its pocketability, performance, and high-quality camera setup. Now, a little over a year out from release, you can add affordability to that list. Samsung has added all models of the Galaxy S23, including the base Galaxy S23, the Galaxy S23 Plus, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra to its “Certified Re-Newed” program, which means you can now buy refurbished versions of these phones straight from the manufacturer at a discount.
Samsung’s Certified Re-Newed phones are backed by the same one-year warranty as brand-new models, and they go through a 147-point inspection process before making their way to consumers. Samsung also gives each of its refurbished phones a new battery and ships them in a new box with a new data cable and ejector pin. The certified Re-Newed Galaxy S23 starts at $619 for the basic version, $769 for the Plus version, and $919 for the Ultra version. That means saving anywhere from $180 to $280, depending on the model.
The Galaxy S23 isn’t the newest or best Samsung smartphone, but it’s still recent and competitive, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip on all models and up to 200 megapixels of camera prowess on the Ultra model specifically.
Whether you’ll want to take advantage of these deals depends on how much you value Samsung’s certification process, and if you're willing to trade in a qualifying phone (you can check if your phone is supported during checkout), which will save you another $300. Used Galaxy S23 phones can go for as low as $380 on eBay or $414 on Amazon, but buying from third-party vendors always presents a risk. Some marketplaces, like Back Market, run their own verification programs, making them somewhat of a middle ground between buying straight from a seller and going right to Samsung. For more details, check out our guide on the do’s and don’ts of buying a refurbished smartphone.
Regardless of where you buy, rest assured that the Galaxy S23 will still see years of support, including the recent addition of new Galaxy AI features.
An air purifier can dramatically improve the air quality in your home, reducing allergens and dust—assuming it is the right size for your space and you change the filters often enough. And smart air purifiers should have two big benefits over traditional dumb purifiers: They can tell you precisely when to change the filters, and they can tell you precisely what’s being pulled out of the air. The Dreo Air Purifier Tower Fan ($269.98), like the Dyson Hot+Cool I reviewed last year, tries to do everything an air purifier should do while also being a fan. And while all the features on the Dreo work well enough, I’m reluctant to recommend it based on two factors: size and value.
The Dreo stands at nearly four feet tall, with a silver fin and a spinning tower. It’s not unattractive, it’s just imposing. Air purifiers work best, as fans do, in the middle of the room, but you won't want to plop this down in the middle of your living room—and it’s not just large, it’s also heavy, weighing in at nearly 18 pounds. (More on that later.) It required no assembly, though; it was ready to go once I pulled the plastic off. At that point, I simply plugged it in and paired it with the Dreo app—and the pairing process was flawless. Additionally, you can add Dreo devices to your Alexa or Google Home hub. While a lot of newer products use Matter to bridge products to HomeKit, Dreo is not HomeKit-compatible at this time. (I did find some suggestions online for workarounds to get Dreo working with HomeKit, but I haven't tested them out.)
The interface of Dreo's app uses a lot of white space, and it doesn’t attempt to do too much: It simply tells you the air quality, the temperature, and how much filter life you have left. You can view the data over the last twenty four hours or thirty days. The app lets you set up schedules and turn the tower on and off by activating the fan, the purifier, or both.
With products like this, it sometimes feels silly or unnecessary to have the additional smart functions, but the ability to turn a purifier on and off remotely from another room, or even away from the house does have some benefits. Yes, you could use them in an automation to respond when the air quality goes over a certain threshold, but being able to turn them on and off remotely means you don't have to go into the space where the purifier is working—and it means you don't have to keep track of all those tiny remote controls. This is a real advantage over the (non-smart) Dyson Hot+Cool, because there are a few features that can only be activated by the remote, rather than the buttons on the face.
The second reason a smart app proves its worth is that it reports back on when to replace the filter. Generally, the rule on purifiers is to replace them every six months, but that is just an estimate. If it's been particularly smokey or dusty, the filters see more use; if it has been clear, you might be replacing them too early. I was a little horrified to see my filters at 75% after only a month of use, which means I'd be replacing them far too infrequently. (The filters for the Dreo, by the way, run about $39.99.)
Here’s where the app fails this purifier: Dreo only offers a very basic ug/m3 measurement, which is a common way to express how polluted the air is. As I write this, the Dreo is reporting 10 ug/m3, which it considers “excellent.” This means there is ten micrograms of pollutant per cubic meter of air in the room. What it doesn’t do is tell you what makes up that pollutant. In comparison, the Dyson Hot+Cool isn’t smart, by which I mean you can’t do much with the app—you control it via the buttons on the face or a small remote you will probably lose (at least I did). But the Dyson reports on the face of the machine what actually makes up the pollutants it filters, such as gases, particulates, and VOCs. I didn’t consider this an important feature on the Dyson until the Dreo was missing it.
One evening, for example, the Dreo app reported “poor” air quality in the room when the up/m3 spiked to 270. I’d like to dig into why it did so, but without that additional information about what the Dreo was pulling out of the air, I can only speculate it was related to the dinner I was cooking in the room next door. However, you can glean some additional information from the PM rating it delivers, which refers to particulate size (particulate material, specifically). I placed the purifier in my office because I was doing drywall work in there, and I was able to watch the purifier bring the PM down significantly from the time I turned it on to a few hours later, and I could even observe how much cleaner the air was after.
I’ve been playing with a few new Dreo products, and one of the aspects I really enjoy is the quality of the breeze the fan produces; it feels less like a fan and more like a genuine breeze. This is likely due to the dual motors powering the Dreo fan, which is also very quiet, even at max fan and purifier settings. Dreo reports that the tower maxes out at 38 Db, and I was never able to measure it going higher, but in sleep mode, it goes down to 25Db.
One thing in particular I liked about the Dreo fan interface is that you can adjust the strength from 1 to 10 with a slider, and it doesn’t jump in power, but softly rolls to the next setting. There’s a sleep feature in case you won’t be intimidated by this behemoth in the bedroom, or you can set it to auto to cycle on and off on its own. The tower can oscillate up to 120 degrees.
I found myself staring at the Dreo often over the last few weeks, trying to figure out where it would fit in. A dentist's office, maybe, or a classroom—large spaces where large appliances wouldn't be conspicuous and the design might feel industrial and cool. But this is where the main issue I have with Dreo became evident: When dealing with purifiers, you want one that is meant for the size of the room you're using it in. This is important because a purifier basically exchanges the air in the room, and you want that to happen often enough that it's meaningful for the people who move in the space. A small purifier would eventually clean the air in a whole house, but it would take a lot longer than it does to clear the air in a single room. If there's a wildfire nearby and smoke is a big problem, you want the right size purifier for the space you have to turn the air over every thirty minutes or less.
The Dreo didn't advertise a suggested room size for this purifier, so I asked them directly, and their response was "150-300 square feet." I sought clarification because there's a big difference between 150 and 300 square feet, and in either case, that is an incredibly small amount of square footage for a purifier of this size. I have five purifiers in my home from companies like Medify, and they are effective for larger spaces in a vastly compacted size; but those are just purifiers (not fans), so perhaps it's an unfair comparison. The Dyson is made for a space at the top end of that equation (290 square feet), but it does so at a third the footprint, all while having a heater on board, too. Both the Dreo and Dyson filter down to .03 microns, which is an average size for purifiers, although some like Medify filter down to .01 micron, which is important for virus control.
The Dreo works just fine. The fan is breezy, the air purifier clearly pulls particulates out of the air, and the price isn't bad at $269.98. But you simply can't overlook the size of the unit; it is a major obstacle for being functional in a home. It feels like an appliance meant for a more industrial space, but it's not built to handle that type of square footage. While the Dyson Pure line is generally more expensive, for less than $100 more, you can grab a Dyson Pure Cool Gen 1 ($365), which is just the fan and purifier. If you've got the money to spare, though, for $749 you can get a Dyson Hot+Cool, which I get a lot of use of year-round, since it functions as a room heater, fan, and purifier all in one.
I love writing, but with so much to distract us these days, gathering enough focus to start writing can be a job all its own. That’s where distraction-free writing tools have come into play, including the recently released Freewrite Alpha from Astrohaus.
Building off the work the company has done with its previous Freewrite devices, like the clamshell Freewrite Traveler, the Freewrite Alpha promises an ultra-portable design that makes it easy to pick up and start writing. The real kicker here is the super small display, which is designed to only show two to three lines of text at a time.
This is a device for writing first drafts, including all the dirty mistakes that come with them. It’s designed to cut you off from your inner editor, allowing you to focus on telling your story as easily as possible. There are no social media apps to distract you, and there’s no way to browse the internet and get lost in hours of research in the process (although you can still back up your drafts to the cloud). All you can do is write, and that’s a good thing. But is the Alpha really the best tool for the job? I’ve got mixed thoughts.
At a glance, the Freewrite Alpha is a simple, low-profile mechanical keyboard with a small FSTN LCD display above it (like what you'd see on an alarm clock) and a single button to the side. On paper, the form factor is a dream come true for writers like me, who constantly struggle with wanting to ensure they’ve got the best grammar and spelling possible. I like the idea of only displaying a few lines of text at a time, and the fact that I can’t get lost browsing the internet or social media is a nice bonus.
I also love that I can simply pull out the Alpha and power it on to start writing. There's no need to open up a word processor or navigate to Google Docs. I love sending drafts directly to my email for safekeeping, as well as the fact that it automatically connects to the cloud when the internet is on and saves my drafts there. There’s also an option to sync it to your computer via a USB-C cable, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to charge the device after receiving it several weeks ago. These are all features that work seamlessly in the background or with just a few keypresses, and that’s really nice. It's exactly what you would want from a device like this.
In practice, though, the Freewrite Alpha is far from the writing escape I hoped it would be. I’ve spent a good few weeks treating it as my primary writing tool for my personal projects, carrying it everywhere I go along with my usual MacBook Air. While I love how portable it is, there are a few things about the Freewrite Alpha that turn me away, and most of it comes down to the physical components of the device.
Before we get into the nitty gritty here, remember the Freewrite Alpha isn’t supposed to be a replacement for your laptop, or even your iPad or smartphone. These sorts of digital typewriters are still a developing category, so there isn’t really much you can properly compare them to. They were designed to do just one thing: let you write without distractions. As such, I’m very hesitant to make any kind of comparison with other devices, at least as far as features go.
Still, I do think it is important to compare the physical components of the Freewrite Alpha with those from other devices, as there are a few things I believe the Alpha falls short on. It's not a laptop, but it's hard not to want to judge it against the premium feeling of Apple's MacBook Air lineup, which remains extremely light but still feels like a solid piece of tech.
One of the biggest issues I have with the Freewrite Alpha is the build quality. Despite costing over $300, the Alpha is made completely of plastic. I don’t particularly have an issue with plastic in devices, aside from the obvious durability concerns. And I get why Astrohaus used plastic here, since the company wanted to make the Alpha as lightweight as possible. They’ve accomplished that, but it comes at a horrible price for the user.
That’s because the Freewrite Alpha is absolutely atrocious to hold or type on. It feels cheap, and while the included Kailh Choc V2 low-profile key switches feel great on their own, the fact that the entire device is just plastic makes it obnoxiously loud to type on. For writers like me, that's a bit distracting in its own way. There’s just nothing about this device that makes it feel premium, and if I spent $349 ($369 on Amazon) on a device that only does one thing, I would want it to do a little bit more. Sure, the Alpha is light enough for you to carry anywhere, but if you drop it on concrete while making your way into the office, is it going to survive the drop?
I get where Astrohaus is coming from here, but this feels like the designers cut the corners a little too sharply. Even putting some padding into the device to make it sound less cheap would have been a nice touch. As it stands now, I’ve used $20 keyboards that are more satisfying to type on, and less obnoxious, too, as they don’t make me feel like I’m boring a hole through my desktop with every keypress.
That isn't a slight against the switches used here, mind. The two-millimeter travel distance for keys isn't bad, and it feels good to type on most of the time. I never felt like I was missing keystrokes or repeating letters because of the travel distance, which is something you can run into with cheaper mechanical keyboards. That said, it's hard to properly enjoy these switches because of how springy the entire contraption feels and sounds when you're typing on it.
Another issue with the Alpha is the lack of any backlight on the display. Look, I love the display and how it limits how much of my manuscript I can see. This is a great feature, and one I’d love to see emulated in the software I use daily. But as it stands, you can only really use the Alpha and see what you’re typing if you’re already in a fairly bright area. This is definitely an area the Alpha could have benefited from an e-ink display, or at least a backlit LCD display. Astrohaus' other digital typewriters have e-ink screens, and while it's understandable that the company might have wanted to cut that feature for its most budget-friendly offering, the substitute here is just not a suitable replacement.
And while the device handles most of its tasks really well, there's still the matter of having to remember its various keybinds. Despite having room for some additional buttons along the top of the device, Astrohaus continues to utilize combinations of key presses to trigger various tasks, like starting a new document, archiving a document, etc. The company does provide handy online documentation to help with that, but it was a bit of a bother having to figure out the different keybinds and then remember them so that I could do everything I needed.
Despite my issues, I don’t hate the Alpha. In fact, it’s probably one of the more useful pieces of tech that I’ve tried in recent years. Sure, it doesn’t have the premium feel that I’d want from an expensive unitasker, but that’s something I can overlook. It does what it says, and it does it well enough. And while typing on this thing isn’t my favorite pastime ever, some folks will prefer the harder typing sounds that the Alpha brings to their writing area.
The Freewrite Alpha isn’t for every writer. But if you’re easily distracted, or if you don’t have a laptop or something else that you can easily carry around with you, then the Alpha can be a great tool to help increase your productivity and writing output. Sure, there are a few things that Astrohaus could do better, and hopefully, the company will improve upon the device in future iterations. As a distraction-free writer, though, the Alpha excels at putting you in the zone, so long as your own typing sounds aren't more likely to distract you than social media.
I very much enjoyed being able to just pull this thing out and get right to work, especially since it saved me from having to stare at my laptop for even longer throughout my day. I already do that enough, so having a dedicated writing tool is a great way to separate my personal projects and passions from the writing that I do to pay the bills. Being able to pull my document up on the computer when I had finished with it was also really nice, and it made moving from the rough draft to the finished copy of a short story I was writing much easier than I expected it to be. The content you create on the Alpha syncs up exceptionally well with the Postbox features that Astrohaus offers to all Freewrite device owners, though I can't help but wish there was a bit more connectivity between the two when actively working on a manuscript or short story. Pulling up a draft on the website removes it from the Alpha's onboard memory, so it really is just a first draft device.
For me, I wouldn’t say writing on the Freewrite Alpha has improved my writing capabilities or output exponentially. But it definitely made it easier to get lost in the words I was spewing out into my manuscript without overthinking them. I can already write a good few thousand words pretty quickly when I get into the right mindset, and the Alpha did make getting in the zone a little bit easier. As a distraction-free writer, the Alpha feels like a good step in the right direction, and despite still being on the expensive end, it is cheaper than the rest of the Freewrite line. Now, Astrohaus just needs to follow through and improve upon this initial idea with a design that makes a better compromise between budget and feel.
Gardening is proven to be beneficial for your physical and mental health. There’s sunshine, and exercise, and all the fresh fruits and vegetables. Still, gardening can be a lot—and smart devices can take some of the burden off your garden responsibilities, keeping you free for the stuff you really enjoy. These devices don’t just free up time—they can often give you valuable data, which means you can treat your garden more appropriately, based on its needs. This year there are lots of new entries into the market that can make the great outdoors a little smarter.
At a basic level, composting is just piling up your organic scraps; if the ratio of nitrogen and carbon are about the same and there’s enough heat, you get compost. This is sometimes aided by worms. Still the market of composting devices is huge, and I think most people still just pile organic materials in and cross their fingers. A device like Monty, which has just been released in the states, can help make it less confusing. Monty looks like a smart probe; you stick it into the top of your compost pile and then pair it with the Monty app. I found Monty really only works when the compost pile is exposed and not in a compost container. Once the Bluetooth pairs, Monty will give you insight into the status of your compost and how to correct anything that’s going wrong.
You can, of course, get the weather report from your local newspaper or weather.com and you might get lucky and have an official weather station relatively near you. But if you live a bit aways from the airport, where those stations are usually located, the weather will not be hyper accurate. Most people don’t know (I certainly didn’t) that there exist a vast network of private weather stations. You can access this network if you get a device that relies on weather data, like a smart sprinkler system. I found a station a block away, and that kind of hyperlocal information about when the rain started and how much wind there was really fine-tuned my irrigation system. I was excited to try it out for myself, so this year I added a Tempest. Installation took less than a minute, and I mounted it to the top of a fence. I get alerts when it starts to rain and what the wind looks like, a really accurate heat index, air quality reading and more. An added side benefit was that if you sync it to Wunderground, which is easy to do, you get Wunderground access, ad free.
Soil sensors are a tricky thing. The environment (wet, dirty) makes it hard to keep the sensor accurate over time. Even smart sprinkler systems have generally required underground wire to the sensors, which means digging. There are a few brands that make wireless sensors, which means you can get hydration levels from the different garden areas across your yard, and adjust your irrigation appropriately.
Wireless soil sensors to try:
Moen Smart Wireless Soil Sensor, $69.99
Much like a robot vacuum surfs the ground looking for detritus, there are robots that traverse your garden looking for weeds—namely, the Tertill. As tickled as I am by smart tech, my main issue with Tertill is that it requires a lot of space between plants, which I don’t have. Still, if you maintain a pristine garden with some roominess, having a robot handle weeding sounds fantastic. Farmbot takes it a step further and automates absolutely everything. A robot on a track continually runs over the top of the garden, analyzing what’s growing using “Farmduino,” a modified Arduino running on open source language. It measures soil moisture, nutrients, even soil height, as well as the health of your plants and weeds. It can be attached to almost any raised bed, and requires no programming knowledge. I haven’t tried it, and after seeing it a few times on social media, I was highly skeptical. However, in digging into the documentation, I think it could provide accessibility as well as help people learn about gardening. While unrealistic for a home user at scale because of cost, the idea is great.
While grass lawns are terrible for the planet, your soil, local beneficial insects and the water table, people still have them. Robot lawnmowers are an exploding vertical, and having tested a few of them in the last few months, I’ve been surprised by how effective they really are. They’re expensive, but if you assume you mow as much as you vacuum, the pricing starts to make sense.
Robot lawnmowers to consider:
Mammotion Luba 2, starting at $2899
Segway Navimow, starting at $999.00
Insurance costs are rising due to inflation just like the price of everything else, and people look to reduce those costs through savings programs and discounts that insurance companies often offer. At the same time, homeowner enthusiasm for smart tech is rising every year. Since smart tech can work to prevent the kind of costly events that result in insurance claims, it makes sense that there’s an emerging trend of insurance companies offering discounts for specific smart tech in the house. A study done last year found that a third of homeowners would switch homeowners or renters insurance companies to get discounts for smart home discounts, and another done by Nationwide showed two thirds of American households already have smart tech in their home.
Smart tech can do a lot for the resident of the house in terms of convenience, but when when done right, they can also dramatically reduce risk. Twenty percent of insurance claims are for water damage, and that’s not all attributable to Mother Nature—plenty of homeowners experience internal leaks from plumbing, and smart tech can do a lot to prevent extensive damage. Whether you use a water leak monitor with a shutoff valve like the Moen Flo, or actual sensors on the floor that detect water, an early alert to a problem can prevent a major disaster. Smart security systems can help to prevent break-ins just like traditional security systems, but have two additional benefits. First, you get earlier alerts, since instead of waiting on a neighbor to hear your alarm, you’ll get alerts to your phone. Smart security systems also come with a lot of sensors to prevent your own family members from creating vulnerabilities, like open windows and doors. And while smart tech can’t prevent events like wind and hail, it can alert you to a problem early so you can work to protect your home in time.
Most insurance companies provide small discounts from 5-13% to use a security system or smart device they’re associated with. Allstate offers a 5% discount if you use their Canary home monitoring. Hippo offers 10-13% off if you invest in Simplisafe, Kangaroo or Notion smart security systems. Other companies offer the discount on the devices themselves. Amica offers 20% off a Moen Flo and other leak-detection devices. One of the best offerings may be from State Farm, who gives subscribers a Ting smart plug and three years of monitoring, plus a discount on the insurance itself. The device specifically monitors your electrical system, looking for causes of fire including faulty wires. Ting’s subscription includes $1000 of coverage in itself. Since this all comes at no additional cost to the State Farm subscriber, it’s a good deal.
Your current insurer may offer a discount for devices you already have, like leak monitors, energy monitors, security devices and fire alarms. The first step should be contacting your current agent to find out if you qualify or what programs exist. If you’re not happy with what they offer, it’s time to shop around. These discount programs and partnerships are going to only grow in the future as insurance agencies recognize how smart tech can hedge against claims.
I’m someone who knows a thing or two about robot vacuums. I set up a new one for testing a few times a month, and although each bot is a little different, they all share some common traits. While it’s true that some bots are better and some are not, a big factor in performance is actually you. How you set yourself and your bot up for success can make or break how clean your floor gets and thus, your continued affection for your robot vacuum.
Newer robots will map out your space using LiDAR and then double-check with you to make sure they got the rooms right. They are surprisingly accurate in nailing the division of spaces, and then you can ask the bot to care for one space or a combination of them, or set a schedule for them. But consider the living room, for instance: Do you need to vacuum and mop under the couches every day? Probably not. But how often do you need to sweep and mop the high-traffic area people walk along or under your feet where you drop things? At least once a day, am I right? So divide the space based on how often you want to clean. You can do this by editing the map, which usually allows you to divide or merge spaces. My living room now has two “rooms,” one for the high traffic area and one for the “yeah, let’s get the dust bunnies once a week to be a responsible adult.” You get to assign names to each room, so you can use your voice assistant to send your robot there to clean. At least three times a day, I send my bot to “Blueberry’s path of destruction” to get rid of the paw prints between the doggie door and the kitchen.
These floorbots require maintenance. Their rollers get shredded, the sweeps need to be replaced, and the vacuum bags need to be changed out. The branded ones are expensive; Amazon is chock full of third party options that are always cheaper. While mileage will vary, I’ve found that these aftermarket options are incredibly disappointing. On every bot I’ve bought third-party bags for, the robot has trouble recognizing that a new bag is in, and will tell me to change it every week. The rollers are never as high quality and get ruined faster. While I’m not actually convinced there’s anything special in the branded cleaning fluid, I would not make my own or replace it with anything but cleaner specifically made for robot mops.
All bots now have various levels of intensity for mopping and vacuuming. I have played with all the intensity levels, and the only benefit to them is lower noise output. Since it’s never low enough for me to watch a movie or have a business call while the bot is going, it’s not much of a benefit. Of course, there’s less wear and tear on the bot, too. But generally, when the bot is on a lower intensity level, I find myself needing to return it to spots at a higher intensity. My life got easier when I left it on max intensity all the time. Particularly with mopping, I can see no benefit for anything but the highest intensity setting.
The days of bump and go bots are largely in the past. The upside is fewer scuff marks and knocked over tower fans. The downside is that LiDAR often is more cautious about avoiding obstacles than I’d like it to be. For instance, most robots now have a pet setting, so your bot will avoid possible piles of poop, as well as your pet. I live in a poop-free zone, and I’ve yet to find a find a pet that would allow itself to be consumed by a slow moving robot, so the benefit was lost on me. I noticed the setting meant a lot more floor was left unswept, so I turned it off. Then I went a little mad and turned off obstacle avoidance altogether, and my floor went from 80% clean to 95% clean overnight. My robot doesn’t bump into things, but it has become more aggressive on getting corners and tight spots, and that is highly appreciated.
I’m not someone who really loves to camp or appreciates nature, per se—but I'm willing to tolerate the great outdoors. (In finite amounts. From my teardrop trailer. Complete with TV and AC.)
When I started camping, I picked up a dainty Jackery 240 watt power unit and was absolutely befuddled that first morning when it wouldn’t power on a heater or coffee pot. (The answer, it turns out, was a lack of sufficient watts and volts.) To power anything of consequence, a camper like me needs a power unit of decent size and a way to recharge off grid.
Now that I know better, I’ve been testing portable units in the range of 1,000-3,000 watts, along with their matching solar panels, from brands like Jackery, EcoFlow, Anker, and Goal Zero to see if there's much difference in quality and value. The Anker SOLIX C800 PLUS Portable Power Station is the one I've been testing most recently, and it offers a good value, with 1,200 watt output/768 KwH, for $649.
In the desire to get as much power as we can for our buck, we sometimes forget a truly fundamental quality of a portable power unit: it must remain portable. As the capacity of units scales up, so does their heft.
My measly 240-watt unit is light enough that it can be tucked in anywhere and easily carried in one hand. The C800 (and units like it) are like carrying around a loaded cooler. You can do it, but it’s a two-hander and it requires some oomph. The C800 clocks in at a solid 22 pounds, and at 15 inches by 8 inches by 10 inches, it requires a decent amount of space. (It fits well in the foot well of a car, so you can keep it plugged into the car charger.)
In terms of setup, the C800 comes ready to use right out of the box; all you need to do is plug it in, though there are some benefits to pairing it with the Anker app. Power units don’t need to be flashy or beautiful, and I liked that the C800 was a little more nondescript than brighter units like those from Jackery. While the unit is hefty, it’s still very stealable, so I like that it looks subtle. Anker claims the unit can take a hit or two in case you drop it, and I believe them. The build on the C800 felt solid.
A neat feature of the C800 that I didn't see on the other units I tested was an extendible light. If you’re camping, the light, which extends from the top of the unit, works like a lantern on a pole with three modes: flashlight, flood light, and candlelight. On a recent camping trip, I parked the unit on the picnic table and extended the light. As we all charged our phones, the light illuminated our dinners, which was surprisingly useful and a very welcome addition. It's is also supposed to work as a tripod and selfie stick, which none of us were compelled to try out, but a multi-use stand isn't a bad thing to have around, just in case.
The C800's 768 watt hours may sound like a lot, but it's still relatively modest, especially when it's hooked up to a power-hungry device. For example, you'd only get 45 minutes or so out of your 1,000-watt electric heater. You’ll want to reserve use of the C800 for short blasts of power, or for the charging of low-need devices, like tablets, phones, and small speakers.
Power stations like these also work well as a UPS, or uninterrupted power supply. If your power goes out, even just a blip, the UPS keeps the power going to whatever is plugged in, for as long as the UPS itself has power. If you experience occasional brown outs, this is an exceptional way to keep your modem and router from rebooting. For my first test, I kept the C800 going as a UPS for my modem, router, and various home hubs, then killed the power and sat by the phone, waiting for notifications of rebooting or outages. Everything remained powered. SOLIX says there’s a 20ms delay, but for my devices, it wasn’t noticeable.
Anker heavily promoted a technology in their SOLIX units called Surgepad, which claims that the unit can exceed the max watt output (1,200 watts) up to 1,600 watts, based on demand. On higher wattage devices, there’s often an initial surge of power needed, but to remain on, the device might need less. The difference is notable, since 1,600 watts buys you a heater, electric kettle, or hairdryer.
To test this, I tried three devices under 1,200 watts and then three over 1,200 watts. The C800 powered on my lower watt devices without any issue, as expected. A 1,500 watt heater came on and stayed on. My rice cooker (1,800 watts) surprisingly came on without a problem, but a few minutes later, the unit conked out. A third device, a hair dryer, experienced the same thing—it powered on fine, but couldn’t sustain the wattage needed—but items that stayed under that 1,600 watt threshold were fine. Of course, to power these higher wattage devices, the unit will also burn through its energy reserves faster, but I could see it being useful in a pinch.
To charge it back up, I had two 100 watt solar panels, but I only brought out one to test how well they charged individually. On a semi-clear day, the C800 charged in eight hours from a single panel. (It can handle up to 300 watts from solar, which works out to three panels.) This charge time will vary based heavily on placement of the panels and weather conditions. You can, of course, just plug the unit into a wall outlet or your car charger and get to an 80% charge within hours.
Given the expense of these units, I was happy to see a five-year warranty on the product, which Anker claims will give you 3,000 cycles over 10 years. That’s a decent amount of mileage from the initial cost, in my opinion, even if you never use it for more than a UPS in your home. Even with the Surgepad tech, given the number of watt hours, this is still best used for small devices that you can power for a full day, rather than a mini fridge for a short time.
I suspect in the coming years, we'll see more and more homes with these power units in them for emergency backup and as a way to move electricity where you need it. For those purposes, the C800 feels worth the price.
Other power stations to consider:
About this time every year, I undertake the task of opening up the patio for spring. I bring out the chair cushions, dust and open the umbrella, and plant all the hanging baskets. Of course, there’s the outdoor grill to clean, and getting the lawn looking tidy. This year, all my new additions are going to be smart ones, because the market is flooding with smart tech specifically for the outdoors.
I’ve been dreaming of a pergola for years, to create shade during the heat domes and keep rain and snow off during the winter. While patio covers with louvers that open and close aren’t new, automating them though an app is. Smart pergolas and cabanas are now a reality, and are only getting smarter. An app can control the louvers, and can even do so in response to rain sensors or wind sensors. Shades on the sides of the pergola can be automated as well, and Struxure, the company that produces these pergolas, says that by late summer, they’re introducing a new app experience that will allow you to control the lights, fan, heater, misters—anything on the pergola (right now, it’s just the louvers). These pergolas don’t come cheap—according to a distributor in Indiana, a 10x10 pergola starts at $20,000 and quickly goes up from there. A more discreet version is available as the Cabana X, which has a 10 by 10 footprint and can be configured online, and extended into as large a footprint as you’d like. Cabana X starts at $7,497, and both Pergola X and Cabana X can be sourced through Struxture’s website, which will connect you with a local dealer.
A more down-to-earth option is the Above Height Series Smart Umbrella. While there isn’t an app experience, a remote control will open and close this patio umbrella, and a wind sensor will automatically do so for you when the breeze is a bit much.
Above Height Smart Umbrella, $599-$699
Lighting up the space isn’t just about a vibe—it’s a safety issue, too. Keeping the patio well-lit at night means no stumbling around, and a fall can bring a party to its knees. Beyond that, lighting is another architectural detail that can be used to highlight the space and transform it at night. Being able to discreetly turn on those lights or change them at the touch of a button on your cell phone is essential for a host. There are three ways to achieve outdoor smart lighting: through a smart outdoor plug, smart plug-in lighting or smart solar lighting.
Ring introduced smart solar path lights and to be frank, I expected very little from them. Solar stake lights tend to be flimsy and rarely last a whole year. But the Ring lights are beefy, substantial lights that even my doberman has not been able to take out yet. They can be automated to a schedule or simply come on when they detect activity and I’ve been incredibly impressed at how they light up in order as my dog trots past them at night. Even in partial shade, they get enough sun to charge for the day.
Smart plug-in lights are having a moment: Last week, I gave the new Nanoleaf outdoor string lights a generally positive review. Over the past few years I’ve tried a number of smart outdoor plugs, and I’m happy to say that they’re getting more reliable. I’ve been using the GE Cync Outdoor Plug for the last few months and it’s delivered dependably. I’m also excited for the upcoming release of the Eve Outdoor Outlet, which eliminates the need for an outdoor smart plug altogether.
Nanoleaf Outdoor String Lights, $129.99
Ring Smart Solar Pathway Lights, set of four, $139.99
GE Cync Outdoor Plug, $16.80
I continue to be impressed by the small portable speakers that have been produced in the last five years, from Wonderboom to the JBL Flip. They do an exceptional job of bringing big sound in a small package, including impressive bass. But there just isn’t any denying the hold that Sonos has on the market—I just prefer my music over wifi instead of Bluetooth, where the beats aren't interrupted by notifications and phone calls. While many people, including myself, found workarounds to bring regular Sonos speakers outside, they now offer outdoor speakers as well as portables. This means you can have consistent sound when people walk inside from the outdoors.
Wonderboom Bluetooth Speaker, $99.99
JBL Flip 5 Bluetooth Speaker, $89.99
Every major grill brand now has a way to offer smart tech as part of the experience, whether it’s baked into the grill like Masterbuilt or a bolt-on device like Weber. Even if you don’t have a smart grill, smart thermometers like the Combustion can allow you to monitor your meat while you chill around the fire pit.
Masterbuilt smart grill, $697
Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub, $89.99
Buying plants and flowers for your patio is rarely a problem. Keeping them alive and looking good all summer— that’s the trick. Smart watering systems can help alleviate one care point. Of all the units I’ve tested, I thought Rachio was the best for a smart hose valve, if you purchase it through Amazon and not through Rachio (my attempt to return a defective unit was painful); connecting it to some basic tubing and emitters will let you keep everything watered all summer.
Rachio Smart Hose Valve, $77.72
These days, extreme weather events are both more extreme and more frequent. After an unusual ice storm knocked out power at my house for days this year, I found myself feeling weirdly vulnerable without a way to heat my home, so I decided to look into power backup options.
While a whole-home solution was not within budget, I knew I wanted at least enough power to keep myself warm and to power my phone, laptop, and modem (on the off chance internet wasn’t out, too). While portable power stations and solar generators are an option, they’re somewhat limited in how many volts/watts they can sustain and for how long. To really achieve something that could carry me for a few days, I needed to go bigger—to a power station. Luckily, Anker was willing to let me try out its new F3800 unit, and it might just be exactly what I was looking for, but it comes with a hefty price tag.
The first thing to know about the F3800 is that it is only portable in the loosest of definitions. UPS struggled to get the box to my door, I struggled getting it out of the box, and I really struggled moving it from my front door to my energy panel. Sure, there are wheels and a handle, but it’s still 130+ pounds. If you dream of hauling something like this camping, forget about it.
However, the unit is tall and has a compact footprint, so it tucks away neatly and looks at home in a closet, for example. It also required zero installation. Out of the box, you can just plug it into the wall and let it charge. It also comes with cables to daisy chain with additional batteries. Really, the only thing you need to do is bring up the Anker app and pair the unit, although the device will work fine without that. The app just adds some convenient features, like fine tuning how the unit works and monitoring it from afar.
And at $4,000, the F3800 is no small investment, but it’s something that will grow with me. While it's possible to just plug the F3800 into the wall and wait for the power to go out, it can also tie into a home’s solar panels, which made it more appealing as a long-term option. The real benefit is that I can, now or in the future, install a subpanel on my electrical panel and wire the F3800 to it. That way, if the power goes out, my home will immediately start using the power in the backup unit.
Along with the F3800, I received two PS400 portable solar panels ($899 each), and while these did not weigh as much as the station, they were substantial in size and weight. I waited for a sunny day and hauled the station close enough to the patio so that I could charge it off the solar panels. We had a run of 70-degree, cloudless days here unusually early, and the F3800 achieved an 80% charge after seven hours of sunlight. The rate at which the sun can charge something like this is highly variable, changing with factors like placement and weather conditions. According to Anker, if you maxed out the number of solar panels this unit can accommodate (2,400 watts total), it could charge in 1.5 hours.
The F3800 is 6,000 watts, which is pretty beefy, but you may need more. Anker says the system is expandable up to 53.8 Kwh, which is impressive, if you’ve got the room—and the funds.
In order to use a backup unit, you need enough outlets to power all the stuff you want to use. Luckily, the F3800 is well-equipped, with six 120v outlets. Of those 120v outlets, three are UPS outlets, meaning they have uninterrupted power. I’ve mentioned in the past that I love UPS as a way to keep my internet stable during unstable power conditions, and I’ll go a step further here to say that the F3800 could be a way to keep your entire smart home up and running through a short outage.
Then, there is a 240v NEMA 14-50 AC Port and a L14-30R AC Port, which would allow you to run something larger like a clothes dryer, but it also brings up the second use for a power station like this: delivering power where you don’t have it. That might include something like a work site, or just a garage workshop with terrible power servicing, for example. Again, I don’t recommend hauling this unit around town, but I kept coming up with scenarios in which the F3800 would be useful, like powering an EV or a garage freezer. There’s also a number of USB ports for fast phone and accessory charging.
There isn’t a lot to compare the F3800 to because there aren’t many power stations of this capacity available to everyday buyers—but so far, I'm impressed. (EcoFlow does have a new station, the Pro Ultra, with slightly higher capacity than the F3800 at 7,200 watts. It's also more expensive, at $5,199. I have not tested it, but it appears to be the same kind of expandable system.)
As I was thinking about how to really test the F3800 in the conditions it was meant for (an actual outage), a windstorm swept through that knocked out my power. As soon as it was clear the outage wasn’t momentary, I moved the F3800 into place. I connected it to my modem, TV, router, laptop, cell phone, fridge, a heater, and—with one absurdly long power cord snaked through the doggy door—the garage freezer. For the next two hours, my dog and I were happy, warm and entertained.
The power came back on by nightfall and I checked in with my power station. I’d only consumed 18% of the energy. If I had been a little more conservative in what I was powering up, I could have kept this party going for eight hours or more. The biggest obstacle, really, was extension cords.
Mini PCs have become quite the hit in recent years, with users turning to these smaller, more streamlined PCs as an alternative to desktops or laptops. But few have made quite the waves that the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 has.
I've been using one of the higher-end variants of the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 for a few months now, and I honestly have to say it's one of the best mini PCs that money can buy, even if you have to jump through a few hoops to get it right now.
Capturing the iconic look of the classic Mac computer from 1984, the Retro Mini PC AM01 is a dream come true for retro lovers and collectors alike. The affordable price (they start at $259) of this Ayaneo Mini PC comes equipped with quite a lot of potential—but how well it uses that potential can definitely vary based on what you're doing.
If you’ve ever thought about buying a mini PC, then you’re probably already well aware of what kind of downsides you’re looking at, namely the lower performance and more limited upgradability that comes with these smaller packages. Still, they've come a long way in recent years, and these PCs can actually handle quite a bit now, especially as they embrace newer hardware like RAM, SSDs, and faster CPUs. The AMD 5700U packed into my Retro Mini PC AM01 is more than capable of running some of the newest games (albeit on lower settings), but there's no dedicated graphics card, so you're definitely going to have to play around with the settings if you try running the newest titles.
As far as retro or indie gaming goes, though, the Retro Mini PC AM01 is a fantastic replacement for a desktop computer, and it's packed with a ton of ports and even support for 4K at 60Hz, making it an easy purchase over a much more expensive desktop PC that you might want to do similar things with. The model I have used for the last few months is equipped with the previously mentioned AMD 5700U, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB SSD, and Windows 11 Home. It's not quite the gaming beast that my main desktop is, but it also doesn't need to be.
The Retro Mini PC AM01 isn't designed to replace your gaming desktop. Instead, Ayaneo has gone all-in on its retro design, even going so far as to showcase a slew of retro games in the company's built-in app. And, because it's equipped with a solid—though aging—processor like the AMD 5700U (you can also get up to an AMD 5800U), you can do all of your daily tasks on here, too. I've used it for playing indie and retro games, as well as for productivity tasks. In fact, I'm writing this review on the PC right now.
As a mini PC geared more toward "light gaming," Ayaneo delivers everything you would expect, along with some great performance in those lower-end games. Titles like Stardew Valley, Dead Cells, and slews of older, emulated titles are going to run great here, and that's all going to cost you less than $500, depending on which model you design to go with. I did see issues with some titles, like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, but I also didn't expect either of those titles to run very well in the first place.
If you're running one of the lower RAM variants here, though, it's probably going to struggle more. As such, I'd definitely recommend upgrading the RAM or trying to get a higher RAM configuration just to keep things as smooth as possible.
The design, of course, is what first drew me to the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01. As I noted above, it's designed to look like that iconic first Mac computer, and Ayaneo has really nailed down the look and design here.
But it doesn't stop there. The Retro Mini PC blends all of that iconic design with modern ports, offering plenty of room to connect different accessories and peripherals. The four included USB-A ports, as well as the USB-C port on the front, all allow you to connect multiple items like wireless keyboards, mice, and headsets. You can also connect directly to ethernet via an ethernet port on the back, just in case you prefer that instead of wifi.
There's also a DisplayPort and HDMI port on the back, allowing you to connect up to two displays. I was able to seamlessly run the Retro Mini PC AM01 on my dual 4K monitor setup, and it looks rather nice on my desk.
What helps make the Retro Mini PC stand out even more is the customization that Ayaneo has designed around the iconic Mac look. You can use various magnets and stickers to create a certain look, and while you'll need to place it on its back during use (that's best for heat dissipation), it offers a small way to make the mini PC feel like your own.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC is the many hoops you have to jump through to get your hands on it. Right now, Ayaneo only sells it as part of an IndieGoGo campaign, which means you'll have to essentially back the campaign to get your hands on one.
The configurations they offer now are also extremely limited, as they only have a certain amount of units laid out for each option. The different options offered on the IndieGoGo page can change, though, so it's hard to say what will and won't be available. (Ayaneo has yet to share any plans to offer the Retro Mini PC AM01 outside of its IndieGoGo campaign.) Thankfully, even if you end up with a smaller configuration of RAM or SSD, the Retro Mini PC AM01 is extremely easy to upgrade with new parts—you can take it apart, though that might void any warranty, so just be careful if you go that route.
Overall, I'm really happy with what Ayaneo has brought to the table here. As I noted above, playing really demanding games isn't going to be a great option. But, if you want a great little mini PC that can handle your daily tasks, run some retro and indie games without much trouble, and look great on your desk, the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 is easily one of the best options on the market. Its iconic design and easy upgradability are also big standout points.
The AMD 5700U configuration I was sent lists for $420 on Ayaneo's IndieGoGo page, and I'd recommend it as a great starting point for anyone who plans on picking one up.
Brilliant switches are an entire touchscreen hub with an onboard security cam. They have touch-sensitive slide switches for as many as four devices, and they are a speaker, intercom, and two-way video hub. You can control your Sonos and all the other devices paired with the system, and the rest of the time, they provide a high resolution display for your favorite photos. Everyone who walks through my home stops when they see mine, fascinated by it. I gave Brilliant a positive review last year, and having lived with it for more than six months, I haven’t had any glitches, outages, or disconnections that would alter my opinion.
Usually, you just replace one of your wall switches with one of these hubs, but now, Brilliant offers a plug-in version that you can dock on any wall. Brilliant is running a sale that offers a deep discount on almost every one of their hubs, but in particular, they’re offering hefty discounts off refurbished wall hubs.
The latest wall control unit from Brilliant doesn't require hard wiring, but still lets you create automations to control lights or other smart devices.
Plug in Brilliant Wall Control (on sale for $399, down from $449)
You don't need to plug in these units; they replace a wall switch in your home and use the same wiring, but require a neutral (white) wire to do so. They're available with one-four slides to replace your switches.
Wired One Light Brilliant Home Control (on sale for $299, down from $399)
Wired Two Light Brilliant Home Control (on sale for $349, down from $449)
Wired Three Light Brilliant Home Control (on sale for $349, down from $499)
Wired Four Light Brilliant Home Control (on sale for $399, down from $549)
Wired Four Light Brilliant Home Control (on sale for $349, down from $549)
I taught my dog French, because people yell “sit,” “stay” and “off” at the dog park so often your dog tunes you out when you say it. Choosing a language or word only your dog knows means they’re more likely to hear and respond to you over the din of the crowd. The same idea, it turns out, is what can make multiple voice assistants work together, not against each other, in your home. I’ve had Google Home running in my home for years now, and I can’t count the number of times a day Google and I interact to turn on lights, start the coffee maker, water plants, lock doors or turn on the heater. I’ve recently invited Alexa in to join the party, and I’ve been delighted at how they don’t really interfere with one another, and ultimately, make my home more efficient and comfortable.
Generally, it makes sense to choose one ecosystem for your hubs and voice assistant. If you’re an Apple person, you go with Homekit and Siri. On the Android side, you have Google and Amazon and which you go with has mostly been an issue of personal preference—most products that work with one, work with the other, too. But recently, I’m finding a number of products that work with Alexa, but not Google, like my Brilliant wall hub and my Amazon TV, and even my Samsung TV (which, I should note, comes with the Samsung voice assistant "Bixby," which I did not enjoy, but you can switch to Alexa).
But also, each ecosystem likes their own products, and if you change products, you might find your hub less accommodating. I switched from Spotify to Amazon Music a few years ago for reasons, and my Google voice assistant does not care to assist me with this transition. However, Alexa would be only too thrilled to pick up the load there. It makes perfect sense to me that you might keep Siri and Alexa running at the same time, since so many products are proprietary to either Apple or Google/Amazon.
Voice assistants listen passively for a key phrase or word to jump into action. My robot vacuum is listening for “Hello Rocky” and will accept no substitutes. Google demands “OK Google or “Hey Google.” Alexa just needs her name, “Alexa” or “Hey, Alexa." The good news is that they don’t get confused. Not once have I called Alexa and had Google response, and vice versa. If you’re feeling meta about things, you can ask Google to talk to Alexa, and it will engage the assistant to ask what’s up or another easter-eggy question. Alexa, on the other hand, is a master of passive aggression and will not engage back, and if you ask Alexa about Google, it will pretend it doesn’t exist. I find it entertaining. Really, the x factor in determining the success of multiple assistants in your home is user best practice—how well you remember to call the right assistant.
Given the number of brands now forming their own multi-system hubs, and the proliferation of standards like Matter and Thread—which exist to enable cross-hub pairing—your home will likely house many multi-system hubs in the future. And in all cases, it might make sense to pair anything you can with every hub: That would provide backup in case an ecosystem or hub goes down, and multiple ways to access those devices. The same is true of the assistants that go with those hubs. So long as they don’t get in each other's way, you can keep them separate. I call Alexa for music and TV in my home, and Google for most other things. The accompanying automations that each hub and assistant perform should be contained to only one hub, and to keep things straight, I still advise documenting that process.
If you live somewhere without central air conditioning, window and wall AC units are key to keeping your space comfortable during the warmer months. A smart AC unit has some additional benefits: They can be synced with a smart thermostat and/or other smart ACs in your home. You can also make the smart AC part of an automation, to come on or go off when specific conditions are met. In my own home, my smart ACs are paired with my voice assistant, so I can just ask Google to adjust the unit as I please.
As prices for smart ACs become increasingly competitive, and as the smart features become increasingly useful, it makes less and less sense to opt for a traditional AC unit. Here are a few of my favorite smart AC units that are getting the most recognition.
I have owned three of the these ACs and I am very happy with them. While U-Shaped ACs are a little harder to install, they’re a lot less conspicuous. The unit is split, and the window can come all the way down in between the two sections. Installation of each unit takes about an hour, but once they’re in, you don’t uninstall them for winter. This AC unit is responsive to most voice assistants and comes in a variety of sizes. My bills went down quite a bit from my older AC models, and the filters are easy to clean, meaning I’m more likely to keep up with maintenance. I appreciate the simple, modern design, and customer support has been responsive. Midea routinely places at the top of recommendation lists for AC units.
Midea U-shaped AC 8,000 BTU, $357
Midea U-shaped AC 10,000 BTU, $419
Midea U-shaped AC 12,000 BTU, $459
The Windmill is a more traditional window AC, but it is gorgeously modern and simple. Windmill has also been positively reviewed, and has a high rating on Amazon. Notably, it’s been called out for the ease of installation, which is often the most problematic part of owning an AC. This unit is voice-assistant-enabled for Google and Alexa, and works over wifi. The Windmill Smart AC offers a nice blend of the company's experience with HVAC and smart integration of new technology. I really appreciated that the Windmill comes in sizes as small as 6000BTU for small rooms. You can update to “WhisperTech” on larger units, which has a dual-air intake for more efficient cooling.
Windmill AC 6,000 BTU, $319
Windmill AC 8,000 BTU, $369
Windmill AC 8,000 BTU with WhisperTech, $429
Windmill AC 10,000 BTU with WhisperTech, $668
A relatively new addition to the crowd, the LG Dual Inverter AC has been routinely mentioned in product roundups this year. Many reviewers note that it's quiet, which is something very much appreciated in a window AC unit. The dual inverter makes it particularly efficient, and it pairs with both Alexa and Google. Like the other ACs I’ve highlighted, the LG has a modern, clean look, but it has more of a traditional AC shape. The filter is also washable, which is a nice feature (the vacuum only does so much). Though availability is limited, this line comes in a wide variety of sizes.
LG Dual Inverter AC 8,000 BTU, $399
LG Dual Inverter AC 12,000 BTU, $529
LG Dual Inverter AC 14,000 BTU, $599
Indoor smart lights are great, but outdoor smart lights really impress me. You can turn them on and off without braving the elements, and almost all outdoor lights now have color-shifting LEDs. You can change the color of the lights on the fly and create dynamic scenes, all at the touch of a button on your phone. Still, string lights tend to do poorly in weather, taking on water, burning out, and in my experience, not lasting more than a season or two. Professional versions of those same lights can be much hardier, but the price is prohibitive. The long-awaited Nanoleaf Outdoor String Lights (prices start at $99.99) promise to bridge that gap, making sturdy, smart outdoor strings possible for everyone.
I’m a big fan of string lights—but I’ve re-bought them frequently over the last 10 years because you have to keep replacing them. There’s a big difference between the cheap string lights that are attached to a standard, residential gauge power cord and string lights that use a commercial grade stringer with E26 bulbs with 55 lumens each. You’ve probably seen the latter on restaurant patios or other commercial spaces. While cheaper residential lights don’t really need additional support, commercial stringers generally use a support wire. You string a wire between your anchor points, and then hang the lights from the wire.
Nanoleaf’s outdoor lights are a nice in-between. They look like commercial lights, and have the same heft and individual hanging posts at each light so you can hang them from a wire or just attach each to your home. They don't require the support wire, but they're heavy and need substantial anchors if you’re not using one. Strung on heavy-duty black wire, there’s a faceted E26 teardrop light every 24 inches. The drop lights themselves are substantial—they don’t look or feel like the thin globes most LEDs feature. Made of heavy-duty plastic, the facets make them look far more expensive than they actually are. They ship in foam, so it would be quite difficult for any of them to be broken in the shipping process. You can connect multiple strings, and they have a lead wire of six feet, with a small controller.
These lights are part of the Nanoleaf Matter line, and as such, they connected pretty easily. Once I plugged them into an outlet, the app found them quickly and then scanning the QR code on the controller paired them. From there, you add them to a "room." On the Nanoleaf app, rooms are a way of grouping lights so they can have the same effects, although this is also affected by what line of products they’re in. All Matter products tend to be able to have the same effects, and you can definitely use your new hanging string lights to pair with the Nanoleaf holiday lights I reviewed last year. Instead of simply turning these lights on and off, you can choose any of millions of colors, but you’re more likely to choose a color scheme. Since these are programmable LEDs, you can have the string shift from color to color, or have many colors at once, paired with motion. It sounds gauche, but the reason I like Nanoleaf is that the effect is usually subtle and beautiful, and the app preloads a number of tasteful ombré. You can download additional schemes from other users, or make your own, and it’s pretty easy to do so. Like all Nanoleaf products, these are also sound-responsive, meaning you can choose color schemes that sync to music. A complaint users have of the Nanoleaf app is that the products often go “offline” or can’t be accessed. While that’s absolutely true, I’ve found quitting the app and reopening it to be a workaround that fixes those problems most of the time. Another issue I have with the app: I’d usually like to have all my Nanoleaf items on the same motion/color scheme, but different product groups can only match with each other, something Nanoleaf has said they plan to remedy. This isn’t as big a deal outside—for now, it seems all outdoor products do group with each other.
I will admit, the design of the faceted bulbs didn’t appeal to me when the box arrived, and I don’t know that I’d have selected them on my own (Nanoleaf supplied these lights for review). However, once up, the facets won me over for a few reasons. First, they produced a light effect that felt new. Once lit, they have a crackled effect that was interesting. Once you layered color in, in softly shifting gradients, it cast a really beautiful light. Even on plain old cool white, the lights had a much more sophisticated look than average string lights. Color and motion shifts happened really softly and slowly.
My hope is that this is the beginning of more outdoor lights for Nanoleaf. I ended up hanging these like a chandelier under my patio, and am quite in love with the look. Granted, I haven’t taken these lights through a winter, and they’re only rated down to 5° F but they certainly look sturdier than any other lights I’ve purchased. You can purchase a base kit, with the controller, for $99.99 starting April 11, and extension kits are $69.99. Looking at commercial string light kits, this price feels competitive, and you get all the smart functionality, which in this case is a real win.
Kobo is the first of the three major e-book companies—which includes Rakuten Kobo, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble—to take the plunge and offer a colored display on some of its e-readers. The company recently announced the new Kobo Clara Colour and the Kobo Libra Colour, which are available to pre-order already and will release on April 30.
The new devices build off the workings of Kobo's past black-and-white e-readers, the Clara and the Libra. These e-readers offer a solid alternative to Amazon's Kindle e-readers while still offering access to an expansive library of books, including a reading subscription similar to Kindle Unlimited.
While color e-readers aren't exactly a new thing—we've seen some solid color displays from companies like PocketBook and Onyx Boox, both of which are reputable and highly recommended by users—none of those options include the massive ecosystem that Kobo offers, thanks to its parent company, Rakuten.
The new Clara Colour sports a 6-inch display, while the Libra has a slightly larger 7-inch color display. Both feature E Ink's Kaleido 3 screen technology, which promises resolutions at a sharp 300 PPI on the Libra Colour and Clara Colour. E Ink also promises support for 4,096 colors as well as more saturation in those colors compared to the previous-generation Kaleido Plus display tech.
In addition to being the first of the three big-name e-readers to feature color displays, the new Kobo Libra Colour and Kobo Clara Colour will also be exceptionally affordable compared to some other color e-readers out there. The Kobo Clara Colour will retail for just $149.99, while the slightly larger Libra Colour will start at $219.99. That additional cost on the Libra gets you the built-in page-turning buttons, as well as support for the Kobo Stylus, so you can take notes directly on your Libra Colour.
These prices are what make this announcement truly exciting, as most color e-readers tend to price closer to $300. The Clara Colour will offer a newer display with support for colors at the same price as Amazon's black-and-white Kindle Paperwhite, making it a really solid option for those that want to read colored comics and other material on a Kindle-sized e-reader.
Both devices still feature the frontlight with adjustable color temperature that the previous Kobo e-readers did, so you aren't missing out on anything there, either. I've used a Kobo Libra 2 for the past few months to take a break from my Kindle, and I can honestly say that the addition of the color displays to two of Kobo's best e-readers only makes them stand out even more as great alternatives to Kindles, which don't currently offer a colored display on any model.
One of the first pandemic concessions I made was a robot vacuum. If the dog and I were to be sequestered at home, I was willing to spend to make the dog hair go away. Even though I bought a top-of-the-line Roomba, I was ultimately disappointed with how “automated" my robot vacuum and mop really was. It’s now five years later; I have since tested an absurd number of high-end floorbots and I'm astounded at how much more advanced they are. It’s not just that they have new features; it’s that they fundamentally work better. If I were buying a robot vacuum in 2024, here are the features I’d look for.
Almost all high-end floorbots are now vacuums and mops. If you have any concerns about one machine doing both, don’t. Over the course of trying many brands, and many models, I haven't had a single one accidentally mop a rug or carpet. If you think that serving two goals makes the robots worse at both, that is also a concern you can sweep away. The newest vacuums get closer than ever to the wall, and some of them even have protruding arms that extend under toe kicks and furniture. They are able to suck up dirt both micro and macro, and the best ones rarely get their rollers stuck on that dirt. In fact, rollers themselves are now much more resilient, so the days of having to replace them all the time because of hair getting caught are gone. Where these bots will really blow you away is their mopping, because it makes such a dramatic difference on your floors. Go without your bot for a few days and you’ll notice it. While some brands and models mop better than others (I advise using models with mop pads vs. spinning brushes or pads), they all remove that burden from the person who takes care of the house.
Vacuum/mopping robots I recommend:
Roborock S8 Pro: $1,399.99 has a mop pad, remote control and self fills/empties
Ecovacs Deebot X2: $1,099.99 has spinning pads, but gets into corners and is great in large spaces
For a long time, floorbots navigated by moving in a direction until they bumped into something and then continuing to bump into it until they got around it. The result was scuffed furniture and walls that bore the telltale black marks. The maps themselves weren’t terrifically accurate and it took many runs before you achieved a real, usable map of your room. Most (but not all) robots now use LiDAR to map and navigate, and it’s like night and day. Moments after the robot leaves the dock, the entire room will appear on the map with alarming accuracy. Accurate mapping has led to other innovations I’d look for in any bot I was going to buy. Maps are only as good as they can be used for scheduling. Splitting spaces, merging them, naming them, saving zones, etc. means you can delegate go/no-go areas of your space. You don’t need to vacuum under your living room couch seven days a week, but you do want to get the high-traffic area by the TV. Manipulating these maps will also mean you can use voice assistants to quickly tackle a problem area. “OK, Google, mop the TV area.”
If a robot is going to get stuck, the odds are it’s going to happen in a spot you can’t reach. A tangled cord binds up your bot, or they get stuck under a bookshelf or your couch. Previously, this meant locating the bot using your best guess and then getting on the floor to rescue your marooned vacuum. Remote control solves this problem. In almost all cases, even when your rollers are gummed up, you’ll still be able to use remote control to find and direct your bot out of the space it’s in to a spot you can grab it. I use this feature once a week, and it’s clutch. I wouldn’t buy a bot without it right now. This function is usually paired with Pin and Go technology, which means you can just add a point on the map, and the robot will go to that precise spot and start cleaning.
A robot that cleans for you is great, but not if you have to be constantly emptying it yourself. It’s dusty and messy. Older robot mops need to be constantly refilled and just spread dirty water on the floor. These days, advanced bots have a charging base with a vacuum bag in it, and the bot empties itself. You just change out the bag in the base every month or two. Even the bags are better—they last longer and don’t error out like early models did. Then there’s the mopping. These same bases have clean and dirty water tanks so they can fill themself with clean water and empty themselves into the tank. At least one model has a container on board just for cleaning fluid, so it will automatically add it to the cleaning water. But if I were buying a robot tomorrow, I’d wait for one of the two models about to be released that will directly connect to your water supply line.
In the race for these robots to justify their hefty price tags and to edge one out over competitors, new features are added all the time. One of the most recent is on-board video that you can watch from your app on your phone, and it certainly excited me. I’ve brought it up a few times on floorbots (and even once on a lawnbot) and yet, I just don’t find it helpful in any way.
Price also turns out to not be as big a determination of quality as you’d expect. While all of the best performing robots I’ve tested are at the top of the price range, a number of models in the same range performed poorly. There are at least a few mid-range robots that perform spectacularly.
If you’re shopping for a robot vacuum/mop, watch for sales, since even outside of large events like Amazon deal days or Black Friday, sales happen routinely that can knock hundreds of dollars off the price.
I spend a lot of time in my home ferrying water. I water plants, refill a humidifier, top off the coffee maker, change out robot mop water, and occasionally remember to drag a water bottle to the office to rehydrate myself. Recently, a number of products have stepped forward with a solution to all that water-hauling: Connect them directly to your water line. You’d never again have to lug pitchers of water around and, in some cases, you wouldn’t even have to drain the products.
When I unboxed a coffeemaker that offered the possibility of being directly connected into my water line, I got excited. But shortly thereafter, I also unboxed a water dispenser, an ice-maker, a humidifier, and a robot vacuum that all wanted the same thing. In most cases, this was an option, not a requirement. But even if you want to hard-pipe all your appliances, how many appliances can you realistically do this with? You already likely share a water line with your refrigerator and possibly a filtration system. In some cases, like a coffeemaker or water dispenser, it’s implied they’ll sit next to your sink on the counter, putting them in proximity to your water line—but that’s not always convenient.
I enjoyed the Spinn coffee machine and Terra Kaffe TK-02, smart espresso-makers that expect you to directly connect to the water line. I’m currently testing the Coway Aquamega 200C countertop water purifier and it, too, wants access to my water supply line (and won’t work without it). My plumber simply will not tolerate the addition of another countertop water-hog, and it becomes more problematic when you're talking a robot vacuum or humidifier. Where are these products supposed to tap into your water line?
Last year, I talked about tapping your washing machine valves as a source of water in your home, and in that case, we used it as a water inlet and outlet for a plant wall. It is another possible access point, but you also don’t want too many splitters coming off your washing machine inlet. In new construction, it certainly makes sense that water line access will be planned into areas like a coffee bar, utility room, or bathroom, but how will this be remedied on retrofits, and what does it mean for renters?
In particular, I am fascinated by new robot vacuums that offer the ability to not only refill themselves, but also empty themselves, like the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra R&D, and the upcoming Switchbot S10 Floor Cleaning Robot. These robots don’t just need access to an inlet, but also an outlet, and one close to the floor. Your washing machine outlet isn’t going to do the trick here.
There’s another component to this issue: Each connection represents another possible leak point in your plumbing. Leaks are already one of the most common insurance claims. While there are smart water leak sensors and even more advanced smart water monitors and cut-off valves, all of these additional appliances and connections will surely lead to more water damage. I wasn’t able to find any conversation about this happening in plumbing industry blogs or publications.
I’ve talked about the shift in smart technology to new builds rather than retrofit, whether that’s smart windows and doors or lighting fixtures, and I think the water line issue follows the trend. In the future, will your Sodastream be directly connected to the house? What about smart indoor gardens or pet water bowls? As excited as I am about less hauling of water around the home, I’m also cautious of what it will mean for flooding, leaks, and those who just don’t have access to the water line.
Since this emerging trend seems likely to stay, if you're embarking on a house remodel or new home construction, it makes sense to carefully consider additional points of access for your water supply line. I expect that in two to three years, robot vacuum/mops that are directly connected will be the standard. If you plan on a coffee bar, having an access point makes sense there, as well.
If you are retrofitting without major remodeling, work with a plumber to create an access point behind the fridge, where the line already goes, or under your sink. Your bathroom is another possible access point. While plumbing these connections yourself is possible, remember you're cutting into your water line, which is serious business. I'd consider this on par with changing a light outlet—the average person can do it, but it takes a bit of bravery and safety measures. You need to turn the water off and have the right tools, and also know that you can access the water line to begin with (it might be hidden behind a wall). That's where a plumber becomes clutch.
If you do connect appliances to a water line, you can do some work to prevent leaks and floods by using smart water leak sensors around your home. These small devices can send alerts at the first sign of water on the floor. Smart water flow sensors can automatically cut off the water when they sense a leak, and you can install them near the points of connection—if your coffee bar is an endpoint, consider a smart cut-off valve on the line, and then one before your utility or laundry room. Here's where smart tech can really lessen the load.
Lastly, remember you usually don't have to connect these appliances—it's just an option. For me, the freedom of never having the coffee machine say "no" to me when I ask it to make me coffee is worth any potential leak risks, but everyone is different.
Aqara makes a lot of smart products, but they made their bones as a brand that produces smart sensors. Their Presence Sensor FP2 was the darling of consumer tech shows in 2023. Aqara remains the go-to for a library of sensors to measure absolutely anything, and they offer sensors no one else does. Today, they’re launching the new Motion and Light Sensor P2, which uses Thread and Matter protocol.
According to the release, the P2 uses an ultra-wide passive infrared sensor and illumination sensor and claims to provide light detection up to 23 feet and 170 degrees horizontally. The P2 can measure light intensity independently of motion detection, which is a new function for these sensors, and each unit has a battery life of two years. The sensitivity of the sensor is finely tunable, but that will require the Aqara app, and a Matter hub for Aqara. Here, Aqara has laid out a blueprint for Matter products: Use a multi-system hub like Google Home for gross functions like "on" and "off," but for customizations of any kind, you’ll need the Aqara app and hub. Now, here's the weird part: For now, you can pair this to any Matter or Thread hub, but you can't (yet) pair it to the Aqara app itself. That will require the M3 hub, which won't be available until late Spring. At that point, you'll be able to pair it with the Aqara app and do that fine tuning, which means the P2 release feels a little half-baked, to me.
Motion and light sensors are logical triggers for automations around turning lights on and off, but can also control window coverings, smart doors and windows, and act like a basic security alarm. For instance, you can program a trigger to turn on the coffee machine the moment someone is detected in the office, or send an alert if someone is in the file room.
The P2 connects to any Matter controller with Thread border router functionality, and will work with almost any smart home platform including Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. In recent months, Aqara has announced or released a number of Thread-based products, including the Smart Lock U100 and the upcoming hub, called the M3. The P2 is available starting today for $33.99. I'll be testing and reviewing both the M3 and the P2 in the coming weeks.
The ecosystem of security cameras, routers and alarms that we know as Google Nest started as acquisitions of two companies by Google: Dropcam and Nest, in 2014. As Google has previously warned, the company is now dropping support for some of the earliest models of these security devices. On April 8, users of Dropcam, Dropcam Pro and Nest Secure will find their devices largely unusable—but Google is offering those affected a few paths forward with new devices.
Dropcam was one of the biggest players in the early days of wifi security cameras, offering small devices with cloud-based subscriptions for storage. Once the deadline passes this week, Dropcam and Dropcam Pro users will lose the ability to save new clips and will only be able to access old clips through the end of this month’s subscriptions. At best, that gives the user 30 days to offload those clips they want to save to another backup media.
Since Google wants to keep these users in the family, they're offering two paths forward. If you’re already a member of Nest Aware, the subscription plan for Google Nest users, you will get a free Nest camera ($99.99). If you’re not a member, you can get a 50% off discount towards a Nest camera. Subscriptions for Nest Aware start at $8 a month or $80 a year. Because so many features of the Nest Cam are linked to a subscription—activity zones, event clips, intelligent alerts, you’ll likely want a subscription anyway. The math works out to your advantage to sign up for Nest Aware now, and take the free camera, rather than taking the 50% discount. You can absolutely use a Nest Cam without a subscription, but you likely won’t want to.
Nest Secure was a whole home security system of cameras and locks. There are likely a lot of users still out there with some parts of the old Secure system—like the Nest x Yale door locks. Starting April 8, those keypads won’t connect to wifi anymore; they're effectively bricked. The only path forward offered by Google is a free Nest Connect ($69), and you should receive details about that in your email. If you don’t, you need to get in touch with Google support, ASAP. Pro tip: be sure you’re logged into the Google account you use for your Nest products at the time you contact Google support. The Nest Connect isn’t a lock, it’s a wifi extender, so it’s just going to extend the life of your Nest x Yale lock ($249), which Google still sells. You could consider an alternative, which is replacing the lock with another brand that doesn’t require an additional piece of hardware like the Nest Connect. If you go that route, note that you’ll need to cancel your Nest Aware subscription, because Google doesn’t do that for you.
Meta wants to make sure you're old enough to use your Meta Quest in the way you want to. The company announced in a blog post Tuesday that all Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3 users will have to verify their age on their Meta Account within 30 days of being prompted.
The company says it is doing this to help developers better understand the ages of the users downloading their apps, and to protect younger users from inappropriate content. The company has its own User Age Group API, which is how it can share the age group of a user to the developer of an app. In theory, a developer can curate different experiences of an app for different age groups, and when you log in, you receive the experience tailored to your age.
There are three age groups considered with a Meta Account:
Adults (18+): These users can choose whether to make their profile and activity public or private.
Teens (13-17): These accounts are mostly set to private by default, including profiles and active statuses. Teens must approve followers rather than allow them by default, and parents can take advantage of supervision tools to control the experience.
Preteens (10-12): These accounts are entirely managed by a parent. Parents must set up the account for the child, and all settings are set to private. Parents have the final say in whether a child can download an app, and can block apps as well.
If you haven't already, you'll soon receive a prompt to verify your age on your Meta Quest. Once you do, you'll have 30 days to log into your Meta Account and enter your birthdate. It should be a straightforward process for most users. However, if you enter your birthday incorrectly, Meta says you can change it if you verify your identity with an ID or a credit card.
Once your birthdate is confirmed, Meta will show you which account type is right for your age. For example, if the selected account type is Teens, but the user says they're 11, Meta will prompt them to change the account type to Preteen, or ask to confirm that the user is at least 13.
Every big purchase you make comes with a user's manual: cars, dishwashers, even calculators. But your biggest purchase, your home, does not come with instructions, so I’ve previously advocated for creating your own manual. A little bit of documentation means you have easy access to every single paint color and appliance model number in your home.
You should add your smart home information to that handbook. By laying out what products are owned by which hub, app and automation, you relieve the burden on your future self when trying to diagnose your inevitable smart home issues. You also create the ultimate handbook to pass off to a future owner, if you sell your place.
If you use a multi-system hub and voice assistant like Google, Amazon or Apple, describe the general layout of your system in your handbook. Talk about how to access those assistants, where those speakers or devices are.
Next, lay out any additional hubs and their locations—these are the devices that some products come with that are required just for that product. I tend to keep them in one spot, and I try to label them for my own sanity (and to justify the label maker).
This process may seem unnecessary, but it takes a surprisingly short amount of time, and means you can easily backtrack when a device goes offline. Also, you’ll upgrade and change out products in the future as technology evolves. There’s no reason to keep a hub around if you no longer have associated products, but you’re unlikely to remember which hub goes to what devices off the top of your head. This documentation will easily remind you as you make those changes.
The same way you do your appliances—so you can easily order parts, access support and provide documentation to insurance should you need it—you should just keep a list of your smart products. A spreadsheet works for this; for each product, make sure you note which app and hub it’s linked to. While you add products one at a time, you often forget how many brands you have, and it’s not always easy to figure out. For instance, smart bulbs and plugs often don’t have names stamped on them, and even when they do, the app doesn’t necessarily match. Many brands have adopted generic app names like “Smart Life” or “Home Life.” I’ve had a heck of a time tracking back products to their apps when I’ve needed to—and you are likely to need to at some point.
I have tons of automations running, and for the most part, they perform simple tasks, like turning the lights on at a certain time, running a vacuum under specific circumstances, or responding with information when I ask a question. The problem is, these automations add up, and if you need to figure out why a vacuum is running at 3pm every day, it turns out there are many places that automation could originate from: the app for the vacuum itself, your voice assistant like Alexa or Google, or a third party integration service like IFTTT or Zapier. You will be shocked at how easy it is to forget how you set something up. Documenting these automations, even in the simplest terms, is going to eliminate that problem.
I like to think of your smart home as a sprinkler system. Normally, they just work, so you don’t have to think about them. But when something goes wrong, you have no way to know what's going on underneath, much less what is most likely to be the source of your problem, without documentation. A map and inventory of the system is going to come in really handy under those circumstances—and your smart home is exactly the same.
The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra ($1799.99, available in April) is a mouthful of a name, but this iteration of the S8 line has earned every syllable. Roborock’s new flagship has kept everything that I loved about the S8 and added a voice assistant, improved the cleaning base, jacked up the suction, and given the brushes extending arms to reach out to edges of rooms.The result keeps the S8 line as my favorite robot vacuum cleaner, and the one to beat.
This version of the S8 doesn’t appear fundamentally different from the S8 I reviewed previously. The tower is substantial, although less so than recent Eufy or Ecovacs vacuums. The important distinction here is that the S8 is now available with a conventional base, where you have clean and dirty water tanks, or the R&D (rinse and drain) version, which has a very small base, but is piped directly into your water line, so it can fill and drain on its own. For this review, we tested the conventional base.
Roborock offers the S8 in black or white, and it has the same matte and gloss molded plastic details on the base and the robot. The tanks are now a bit more hidden in the base, rather than being part of the architecture. From the front you just see a solid panel, but the tanks are still easily accessed from the top of the unit. In fact, the front of the unit is held on magnetically and pops off so you can access the vacuum bag behind it, as well as another new feature—a tank just for cleaning solution. I loved this feature; it meant I didn’t have to add it to the water each and every time I topped up. The robot itself looks like previous Roborock entries—the upgrades are only evident if you flip the robot over.
I’ve never had trouble connecting getting Roborock models set up; they come basically assembled out of the box, and connecting the unit is as simple as pressing a few buttons. The machine will announce what step it’s completing in the setup, and the app will guide you as well. As with previous floorbots from this brand, I never had a problem with the machine going offline during the time I tested it. I easily paired the vacuum in Google Home, and Roborock works with Apple Homekit and Alexa as well. As with the Q Revo I reviewed earlier this week, the S8 MaxV Ultra ships with Rocky, a voice assistant, on board. As I noted before, the voice assistant is a fun addition that works, but has a very limited vocabulary and command list. If you learn the exact phrasing you need, you can ask the bot to clean a specific room, the whole house, or return to base by getting its attention using the call, “Hello, Rocky.” Supposedly, you can ask Rocky to get the robot to come to you and clean where you are, but all my tests of this have failed—the robot sailed past the spot I was standing in. I imagine there will be updates to Rocky in the future.
The previous S8 model earned my respect for the way it was exceptional at both mopping and vacuuming. Usually floorbots excel in only one area, like the Switchbot K10+, an exceptional vacuum but poor mop. Like its predecessor, the S8 MaxV Ultra does a remarkable job as a vacuum on deep pile carpet—enough that you get the distinctive tracks in your carpet a good vacuum leaves behind. This was true of the S8 Pro Ultra, but the MaxV Ultra almost doubles the suction power, going from 6000Pa to 10000Pa, one of the highest in the industry, and you’ll notice a difference. I could occasionally hear something rattling around in the S8 as it vacuumed away, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily—it means the bot won’t shut down all the time, it can deal with something foreign and keep going. Occasionally I’d get called to clear the rollers, but that’s expected. It happened even less with this model than the previous S8.
On hard floors and rugs, the S8 MaxV Ultra continued to impress. The latest models have taken the brushes almost every floorbot has and given them extending arms (Roborock calls them “Flexi-arms”), so they can shoot out from under the robot, reaching into corners, under toe kicks, under nearby items. This is a huge leap forward, as it allows the robots to hug the wall, whereas previously the few inches along the wall were a blind spot. It was fascinating to watch the brushes kick out to capture debris.
While the S8 is an exceptional vacuum, there are other good vacuum robots on the market—but Roborock has the best mopping robots on the market. My floor constantly has muddy paw prints and stains of unknown outdoor origin. My kitchen floor is often a battlefield of dried peanut butter or yogurt from dog toys. The S8, which has a mop pad that is constantly rinsed and then flushed with clean, hot water as the robot moves, tackled even the most stubborn stains on the floor. Sometimes it would require an extra pass, but the job gots done. That mop pad has been improved, too: It now is larger and also extends a bit to get edge-to-edge. The Q Revo MaxV has spinning brushes instead of the mop pad, and they can extend well away from the robot. I expected those to work better than the mop pad, but the S8 continues to surprise me. The mop pad vibrates to get rid of dirt and stains. Like the Q Revo, you’ll need to occasionally step in with a manual assist, but it’ll be less often with the S8.
The Q Revo is a highly competent and reliable floorbot and substantially less, at $1199. Still, I think the S8 distinguishes itself with extra conveniences and features. If you could directly connect it to your water line, the S8 would be a no brainer. Even without that feature, the additional suction power makes a difference, and though it might seem small, the cleaning solution tank is a really convenient addition that makes the mop work better. The Q Revo has spinning brushes versus a mopping pad, but both reach out to hug the wall. Only the S8 has high-speed sonic mopping, which helps to bust up stains and gunk on the floor. You’ll be happy with the Q Revo, but there’s a reason the S8 is the flagship for Roborock.
Switchbot K10+ for a smaller vacuum that can get into tiny spaces: $499.99
Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is my previous favorite mop/vac combo: $1,399.99
Roomba Combo J9 is well-reviewed: $1,399.99
Eufy X10 Combo is a good mid-range entry: $799.99
Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni has many of the same features as the Q Revo: $999.99
Roborock’s app continues to be easy to use, and offers at least as much features as any other bot I’ve found, without being overwhelming. You can just let the robot clean the whole house each time, but it’s quite easy to edit maps and set up rooms and zones so you can clean select areas instead. Choose between four levels of intensity for mopping and vacuuming, although the only reason to use less than the max is noise—while not loud (67 decibels), you won’t want to conduct a Zoom with the S8 running at your feet. You can set schedules and get very satisfying reports on the ground covered. The S8 MaxV Ultra has the remote control feature I really like and has added on-board video to the floorbot.
I firmly believe that robots are one way we’ll equalize the burden of housework in the future, but that’s only true if the robots work really well autonomously. Over the last two years I’ve watched floorbots take gigantic leaps forward toward this goal, and while even the best of them needs intervention occasionally, Roborock bots need it less. The S8 MaxV Ultra is the most reliable vacuum/mop combo on the market right now, with exceptional performance in both areas, and the ability to continue working, even when there’s a small issue to be fixed later, like clearing the rollers. This cleaning ability has really become edge-to-edge, which gets you one step closer to never having to mop or vacuum again. The app and the integration with most voice assistants and multi system hubs means you can easily get the robot to do what you want, and the on-board voice assistant, Rocky, can only improve. $1,799 is a lot to drop on a vacuum, but the S8 is a vacuum and mop that is at your beck and call call, and reliably so. If you can afford it, it’s a fair price to pay for a competent household assistant. The S8 MaxV Ultra will be available in early April.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek officially signed a new "Right to Repair" law on Wednesday that will make it much easier to repair our stuff—at least in the state of Oregon.
Much of the law follows in the footsteps of Right to Repair legislation passed by New York, Minnesota, and California: Tech companies that sell their products in Oregon will need to allow customers and third-party repair stores to buy things like parts, tools, and schematics for most electronic devices. The law retroactively applies to these devices, as well: It applies to smartphones released on July 1, 2021 and newer, and most other electronic devices sold on or after July 1, 2015. That means, if you live in Oregon, Apple will need to let you buy parts for that MacBook you bought almost nine years ago.
While these impacts alone would be a welcome change, what sets this Oregon law apart from the other three states is that is bans "parts pairing," a term that describes when companies prevent unauthorized parts from functioning in their devices. Parts pairing can also brick features of your device when these unauthorized parts are installed. We saw this with Apple with the iPhone 13: If you replaced the display with an unauthorized screen, iOS would shut off Face ID. (Apple later reversed course.)
But rather than rely on public backlash to bully companies into doing the right thing, Oregon's new law will ensure no company selling electronics in the state will be able to take away functionality because a user installs a part they don't approve of. Unlike the other side of the law, however, parts pairing legislation is not retroactive: It will only apply to devices made after Jan. 1, 2025. So while your existing electronics like phones and laptops can continue employ parts pairing policies, anything you buy in Oregon in 2025 will be banned from doing so.
If you live in Oregon, your ability to repair your own products is improving dramatically—especially with devices you buy next year. But what's so great about this law is that it doesn't just apply to the devices we think of when we talk about repairability: It also applies to most electronic devices you own. If your smartwatch breaks, or you can't seem to clean with your vacuum anymore, those manufacturers need to offer you the option to purchase tools that can fix your devices, rather than force you to buy new ones.
The major exceptions here are medical devices, farm equipment, devices that run on an internal combustion engine (your gas-powered car isn't covered, unfortunately), or video game consoles. So while Microsoft might not need to worry about helping you repair your Xbox, it will need to offer parts and documentation for your Surface.
Right to Repair is really all about two things: The first is empowering consumers to continue using the devices they paid for. Companies have gotten us too used to abandoning cheap products once they fall apart. If the law makes them offer ways to repair these products, not only will we be able to fix our devices more easily, but we should see companies start to make more durable products as well—at least, that's the hope.
The second part of the movement, however, tries to put the power in the hands of the consumer when it comes time to repair those devices. Sure, fixing your tech is great, but if it costs an arm and a leg because you're forced to do it the way the manufacturer wants you to, it's hardly better than buying something new. Allowing customers and third-party repair shops access to parts and documentation levels the playing field, and makes repairs more affordable for everyone.
As states pass these laws, we're seeing improvements for everyone: Apple has a self repair program that allows anyone to buy genuine Apple parts and follow instructions for fixing their own products, as does Samsung. They're far from perfect though: Apple's program in particular is expensive. Hopefully, the more Right to Repair laws that pass, the more accessible these self repairs become.
Video doorbells have become quite common since their arrival on the market 10 years ago: 20% of American households currently use one. The cost of owning and operating a video doorbell has plummeted, so how does Ring, which offers relatively expensive video doorbells and an almost required subscription plan, remain on top of the market? After testing the new Ring Battery Doorbell Pro ($229.99 plus subscription), I think the answer is that Ring continues to solve some of the most common problems with video security.
Ring's software is the least buggy of any doorbell or security camera I’ve tried. It connects quickly when notified; allows you to interact with whoever is at the doorbell; and grabs clips that respect the zones you’ve set up. Ring has added new functionality to the Doorbell Pro, and features exceptional video quality—but I believe it’s Ring’s ability to deliver on the most basic needs of a video doorbell that keep it so popular.
Over the last year, I’ve tested doorbells from Google, Aqara, and Blink; while each had pros and cons, they helped prime me to appreciate the new Ring. In the 10 years of Ring’s market presence the design of the doorbells has barely shifted, and the Ring design is the most stately and substantial of the video doorbells out there. Ring wraps their doorbells in brushed metal with black plastic and metal accents—they tend to look and feel more substantial. The Doorbell Pro continues that tradition: The top half of the doorbell is shiny black plastic and metal, and the bottom half is wrapped in brushed silver metal (that you can swap for another metallic finish). The large circular button with blue light that Ring is known for is present, and the Ring ships with a wedge mount for your door, but there are tons of mounts available online if you need a different kind. There's also a solar charger available now as well as indoor chimes.
While Rings aren’t hard to install, they are harder to install than many of the brands I’ve mentioned above. In all of those cases, the doorbells mount very simply, but also insecurely. The Ring has always had a mounting system that is supposed to provide security for the doorbell itself, and ships with its own specialty screwdriver. The doorbell itself has to catch onto the mounting plate and is then secured with a number of small screws to the mounting plate. Physical installation took about 10 minutes, and setup took another 15. Once the Ring app is installed and the doorbell was plugged in via USB, the app easily found and added the doorbell. You can spend a lot of time configuring the Ring, but I advise you to live with the doorbell for a few days to see what settings you need.
Once up and running, Ring will begin sending you a raft of notifications. There are two types—notifications of activity in front of the doorbell and of the doorbell actually being rung. In both cases, you’re likely to decide to click on the notification and see what the activity is. This is where Ring differentiates itself from other doorbells: With all the other brands, I experienced connection errors, delays, and time outs. Ring, on the other hand, connects quickly and painlessly to show you the clip of what happened—or the live view, so you can monitor or interact in real time. While there's always a slight delay based on your wifi signal, Ring’s response time is far and away the best of all I’ve tried.
This means that the other feature people buy video doorbells for—interacting with someone at your door—works better on a Ring than other models. That response time is important—your UPS driver isn’t waiting around for a 30-second response delay.
Seeing those clips (not the live view) is dependent on having a Ring subscription. While the subscription is optional, not being able to watch those clips renders the Ring almost worthless, in my opinion. The doorbell ships with a free 30-day trial, but once that expires, it’s on you to re-up. Plans start at $4.99 a month for one device and quickly go up from there. Generally, I prefer products that do not require these subscriptions and allow you to store clips locally, like Eufy.
The clarity on the new Ring is top notch, and it’s not just the resolution, which clocks in at a reasonable HD 1536p. Ring has designed the lens to get a complete head-to-toe view of whoever is at your door, which means you can also see packages waiting at your door. I was surprised how useful this was. That clarity extends to far-view video—you get remarkably clear details about the delivery person even as they get out of the car. I was impressed at how much better the Ring had gotten at respecting the zones I set up in the app to ignore or pay attention to. I was easily able to set it so I wasn’t bombarded with notifications of people walking by the house—a previous issue I’d had with doorbells. This is likely due to Ring's 3D mapping—a new feature—and Bird’s Eye View, which uses motion detection to determine if the action in front of it is relevant to you or not. I was also impressed by the night vision, which provided clear, color images even once I turned off the porch light—without the graininess you usually see. Some of the other doorbells I’ve tested provide higher resolution, but I hardly noticed the difference.
Ring has worked hard to layer on new features. The most useful is that Ring can now use AI to help tell if there’s a package at your door. If you tend to leave things at your door, this feature works less efficiently, but it did correctly identify packages most of the time if they were left directly in front of the door, and only twice misidentified a neighborhood cat as a package. Additionally, the doorbell will work with your other Ring devices to track someone’s movement over your property.
A real upgrade, in my opinion, was the battery. While you can, of course, buy a wired version of the doorbell, an awful lot of people buy the stick-up battery version, and previous incarnations have required unmounting the whole doorbell to recharge the battery. The process was arduous enough that I was apt to leave the doorbell uncharged often. Now you simply remove the metal faceplate and remove the battery, leaving the doorbell behind. This has two benefits, it’s a lot less work, and you can purchase a backup battery and swap them, so you’re never out a doorbell. The battery life has gotten much better, too. Over a month, the battery only lost one bar, remaining at 75% charge. For comparison, I used to charge my Ring once every eight weeks.
There is simply no denying that the cost difference between Ring and competitors is substantial. This Ring model is $229 before the subscription, compared to a Blink doorbell, at $41.99 or Aqara at $119.99. There are lesser Ring models, like the Video Doorbell at $59.99 and Doorbell Plus for $119.99; you can get most of the benefits of the Pro at a lesser cost. Despite my hesitation on cost, there is just no denying that Ring delivers on the original premise of a video doorbell better than other brands—good-quality video of what is happening at the door, in real time.
The first iPhone was unveiled on Jan. 9, 2007, the first Android handset (the HTC Dream) showed up on September 23, 2008—and though it's impossible to know for sure, I assume the very first Android vs. iOS article ran very soon after that.
It's a debate that's spanned the decades, like Windows vs. macOS or Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, and it tends to attract a lot of interest. Both of these mobile operating systems get refreshes every year too, which means there are always new talking points to discuss.
As a tech journalist writing guides, news, and reviews, I'm not a normal phone user: I spend a lot of time using both Android (specifically at the moment, a Google Pixel 8) and iOS (an iPhone 15 Pro Max right now). I'm not switching from one to the other—I'm using both regularly, and extensively.
That means I know the ins and outs of both platforms when it comes to day-to-day operations, and the phone I make use of the most—for personal messaging, social media, web browsing, music, podcasts, and everything else not to do with work—is the Pixel 8. So I thought I'd add to the Android vs. iOS discussion by trying to explain why.
Bear in mind that I don't hate iOS or the iPhone—I'm actually quite a fan of the slick combination of hardware and software that Apple has put together. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is a great smartphone, no doubt. However, I'd rather use Android for my regular device, and these are the reasons why.
You'll see this mentioned in every Android vs iOS comparison out there, and it's still true. You can still do more with the Home Screen, the Lock Screen, and the app icons on Android—you can even reskin the entire interface with a tool like Nova Launcher. To a certain extent, iOS has caught up, but the customization options on the iPhone still aren't as comprehensive or as easy to use.
Get this: The Home Screens on Android actually rotate and work in landscape mode too. I like having pixel-by-pixel control over how my phone looks, whether it's having one single app on a Home Screen or stretching widgets in all directions. The rumor is we'll see more Home screen customization once iOS 18 rolls around, so Apple clearly agrees with me that it's lagging behind Google in this area.
I find the current iOS home screen and app library set up rather clumsy. Why can't I just see a simple list of all the apps I've installed? To find an app that's not pinned to the Home Screen, I have to swipe all the way to the last of these screens, and then figure out which category Apple has decided to drop the app into.
To each their own, but I find Google's suite of apps much more appealing than Apple's, with a couple of exceptions. When it comes to Gmail vs. Apple Mail, Google Docs vs. Pages, Google Maps vs. Apple Maps, and Google Photos vs. Apple Photos, I'm choosing Google every time (though I do love Apple Music).
There's no space here to go into all of the individual reasons why, but Google's apps are speedy, reliable, and—crucially—available everywhere. If I rent a movie from Google, I know it'll play on just about every device out there, pretty effortlessly—but have you tried getting Apple TV running on Android? It's a bit of a mess.
Admittedly, this is more about the apps and services that Google and Apple offer, rather than Android and iOS. But if you split your time between Apple and non-Apple devices like I do, your life is clearly going to be easier if you pick Google—and if you're picking Google's apps, then it follows that they work best and are updated quicker on Android.
Speaking of apps, Android lets developers get their hooks deeper into the operating system than iOS does—which Apple would say makes Android less secure. As an app like Tasker, which lets you create all kinds of automations and routines, shows, Android is the better pick for tinkerers and hackers (and I'd include myself in that group).
As a result of this, there are entire app categories you can find on Android that don't exist on iOS—apps to check battery health and usage, apps to run wifi network diagnostics, apps for managing files on your phone (beyond Apple's own options). As with the customization options, it's fair to say a lot of users might not want these extras, but I do.
Beyond the individual apps themselves, on Android you're able to do much more with them: You can install multiple instances of the same app, you can run two apps side by side on the screen, and you can change more of the default apps. You can even install a different app to manage your text messages—something I wouldn't expect to see on iOS for quite a while (if ever).
This might be partly because I'm more used to Android at this point, but some of the key ways for getting around the software work better for me on Google phones than they do on Apple phones. The universal back gesture is a case in point: one swipe, go to the previous screen. This works in some apps in iOS, but not every app, and it's not consistent across the whole system—on my iPhone, I'm often reaching for the little back button or the app switcher (or just staring at the screen, confused).
Then there's notifications. This is partly personal preference, but I much prefer the Android system—including the way unread notifications stick around in the status bar and on the Lock Screen on Android, rather than disappearing away to the Notification Center in iOS. Expanding and dismissing notifications feels quicker on Android too, though there's not much to choose between the platforms here.
Of course, if you've used every iPhone since the first one and never tried Android, switching would probably disorientate you, and leave you pining for the ways of iOS. However, having used both, I'd say Android makes more sense in quite a few ways—such as actually being able to see that you've set an alarm on the Lock Screen, which you need to add a widget for on iOS.
Smart rings are becoming more and more popular, and with the Galaxy Ring set to debut in late 2024, they are likely only going to get more so. Unfortunately, as tech becomes popular with the masses, cheaper versions often become available. Sometimes, this can be a boon—competition is a good thing in the tech industry, after all, and not everyone can afford to drop several hundred dollars on a piece of tech. The downside, though, is that it also opens the door for shady companies to get involved in the tech space, and that’s exactly what seems to be happening with smart rings right now.
If you look up lists of the best smart rings on the market right now, you’re going to see a few good options, like the Oura ring 3 and the Ultrahuman Ring Air. You’ll also likely see a ton of other lesser-known brand names, especially if you start looking at places like Amazon. The downside here is that these cheaper rings can open the door for companies to seriously mishandle your private health data.
Of course, smart rings aren’t the only wearable device with some concerns over the ethics of data collection and storage. Fitness trackers and smart watches all carry some of the same concerns, though on a much larger scale. This wasn’t as big of a deal with smart rings previously because there just wasn't as many options out there. However, because we’re seeing an uptick in the number of smart rings on the market, there are bound to be more companies pushing devices that don’t fully respect your data. Many of them appear to be building off the potential that companies like Oura have showcased, but underneath, they’re more like a cheap fitness tracker or smartwatch—not overly accurate, and riddled with a lack of information about what they do with your health data.
In short, purchasing a cheap smart ring might save you money, but it could also be putting your health data in danger. That’s because many of these smart rings are based on license deals, which allow the brand company to purchase the ring from someone else, then add their brand to it and ship it as their own product. This happens a lot with other parts of the industry, too—most notably the phone case industry (in case you’ve ever wondered why all those random brands on Amazon all look the same).
This is something that TechRadar covers really well in a report by author Becca Caddy, who details her investigation into the cheaper side of smart rings. Caddy notes that when talking to different smart ring providers and trying to get to the bottom of whether or not their products are licensed, many of them like to play coy and never really answer the question. That creates a lot of room for the company to abuse your trust in their systems, which is a good reason to steer clear of anything they are offering.
It’s because of these license deals that you really need to be careful about what kind of smart ring you’re purchasing. See, when you choose to buy something like the Oura Ring 3, you’re signing up to the Privacy Policy that Oura supports, which says that Oura can collect your data, but that it won’t share or sell that information to third parties or data aggregators. Other companies, like Samsung, also take a strict approach to data, and when the Galaxy Ring releases, it’s likely we’ll see some strict protection plans in place for your health data there.
Additionally, there’s also the question of accuracy and just how well the sensors included in the cheap smart ring you are buying will work. Many of the cheaper smart rings boast about their multitude of features, but they never really break down how accurate they are. This is a problem, as one of the biggest reasons to buy a smart ring right now has to do with its ability to act as a health and fitness tracker. If you aren’t getting accurate readings, it doesn’t really do you any good.
If you do want to buy a smart ring, there are still some really great options out there right now. The Oura Ring 3, as I noted above, is one of the top smart rings. Oura does a great job of protecting your privacy, and the accuracy of the ring’s various reports are great, too. The Ultrahuman Ring is also another solid option for those who want more of a fitness-focused smart ring, so make sure to check out both of those and compare any cheaper smart rings you might be eyeing to the features, accuracy, and privacy policies those more expensive rings offer.
Now, this isn't to say that there aren't going to be good smart rings that fall into a cheaper price range. Inevitably, we're going to end up with some quality and more affordable smart rings. But if you’re going to buy something that gets access to your data, make sure you’re always aware of the risks that come with it.
SmartThings, Samsung's brand for controlling smart home tech, has announced a new partnership with smart light brand Philips Hue. In essence, if you buy into the Hue line of smart lights, specifically color-capable lights, they will sync with Samsung televisions (models from 2022 and newer) via the Philips Hue Sync TV App, without the need for any kind of external hub.
Hue lights are exceptional, but they’re not the cheapest—the light strip you’d use behind your TV is $94.99. Govee’s and Nanoleaf’s are comparative, but Hue requires you also pay for the Sync app. Previously, this was only offered via a one-time $130 charge. Today it announced a monthly subscription for $2.99, but that still means you’re paying for a service on top of the cost of lights, which neither Govee or Nanoleaf require.
Samsung and Philips have specifically called out that the television is the center of many homes—it is, in effect, the “hub,” whether you mean it to be or not, and this integration seems to double down on that narrative. I have and love a similar system by Nanoleaf called 4D, and Govee and other producers also have these systems. They give your TV an “aura” that backlights against the wall based on the colors on the TV at any time, and can react in real time to sound. From what I can tell, Philips is going to be able to do this without the camera that both Govee and Nanoleaf require, and will instead rely on cooperation from other apps present on the TV.
In addition to the Hue integration, the SmartThings app now has a 3D spatial mapping feature, which was first announced at CES 2024. I was already impressed with MapView (the whole home 2D layout of my home with all my devices) that appeared in my SmartThings app back in January. This morning, a 3D option appeared and it, too, is pretty impressive.
That said, it's not super accurate right out of the box: If you don’t have a Samsung mapping device like the Bespoke Jet AI Bot, the Samsung robot vacuum, it requires some input from you in the app to get the rooms and items lined up just right. This is not such a big deal, but given that I play with LiDAR mapping robots and motion sensing lights that can just figure this stuff out without my input, it’s not super exciting, either.
I’m also not entirely sure the benefit of taking the time to customize the map, unlike the benefits you might get from spending the time to nail down your robot vacuum map. But if you enjoy Minecraft, I expect you might enjoy laying out your smart home in the app. Samsung envisions benefits beyond the home to apartments and office spaces where real estate partners might create specific user experiences based on the space.
I recently reviewed the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, which has remained the best of the floorbots I’ve tested over the last year. I was excited by Roborock’s announcements at CES 2024 that they’d be releasing a literal fleet of new bots this year. This week I’ll be reviewing two of those robots: the Q Revo Max V and the S8 MaxV Ultra, both of which mop, vacuum, and self-fill and empty. I’m pleased to say that while the S8 Pro Ultra is still an incredibly well-built bot, there are improvements in both new robots that make these new releases worthwhile, without losing any of the features that made me love the S8. The Roborock Q Revo Max V ($1199.99, available in April) is an upgrade to previous models with extending brushes that can hug a wall or corner, upgraded suction power, and a new AI voice assistant that brings more fun to the experience.
The unit itself is two parts: the base, which houses the vacuum bag, the clean water tank, dirty water tank, and the entire cleaning mechanism for the robot, and then the robot itself. The entire footprint of the tower is a little smaller than bots I’ve recently tested like the Ecovacs Deebot and the Eufy X10 and came in a gleaming white (it’s unclear if it will be available in black as well). The actual bot looks like its predecessors: Roborocks are round, with a protruding round “button” on top. One of the reasons I enjoy this brand is the lids on their bots are magnetic, so they come off and on easily for cleaning or accessing the inside of the bot (which you’ll really only need to do for setup and possibly, later, for maintenance).
One major differentiator between the S8 and Q Revo lines are the mop itself. The S8 line features a mop pad, while the Q Revo has spinning disk mops—in this case, two of them on the backend of the bot. At the front are the rollers for the vacuum. The Q Revo has one roller and the S8 has two, but I haven’t found the number of rollers to correlate with the efficiency of vacuuming. If anything, the Q Revo was a little easier to unclog when something got caught—accessing the rollers just requires flipping the robot over, and then squeezing two clips to release the cover. I found the process easy compared to other robots like Roombas, where it was often hard to make the pieces fit back together. Roborock does a great job making the ends different enough that you always understand how to put things back together. The familiar rotating brush is also present, to help sweep debris into the robot’s path, and it certainly seems larger than other bots, which should help get more debris closer to the wall. The water tanks each hold just over 4 liters of water. Over the two weeks I used the Q Revo on the highest setting, at least once daily, I didn’t need to refill the water tank, which was an improvement over the S8 Pro Ultra and all the other bots I’ve recently tested.
I found the Q Revo easy to unpack and install; something worth noting as I routinely install and uninstall these robots is that Roborock plans their packaging thoughtfully, and this tower required little more than attaching the docking ramp to the base, and it was ready to go. Installation was painless and took about ten minutes. Under the lid is a wifi indicator light; you load up the Roborock app, push two buttons on the robot itself to send the wifi into open mode, and the app located it within seconds. At that point, the app pushes some updates and wifi connections that are mostly hands off. I didn’t experience any disconnections during the time of testing—the Roborock remained online the whole time. Notably, it came back online quickly after two power outages, which you’ll know because it announces itself through the voice assistant, known as Rocky. (More on that in a bit.) Like other LiDAR-based robots, which use laser for guidance and mapping, the Q Revo mapped the entire space within seconds of leaving the dock, which will never fail to impress me. The map of your space is generated in the app, where you can manipulate it. On the first outing, you can choose whether to have the robot clean or just map, and I always recommend sticking to mapping so the robot is less likely to get stuck as it scopes out your space. While the LiDAR is immediate, the robot will still roam the space, almost confirming what the lasers saw.
Once in cleaning mode, Roborock has expanded the previously available options to now include four levels of vacuuming and mopping intensity, and the brushes or mops will raise and lower based on the floor type detected below it. For those concerned about robots accidentally mopping your rugs, this is not something I’ve encountered being problematic on any model I’ve tested with LiDAR. Modern robots do an incredible job detecting floor textures, and the Q Revo is no different.
The Q Revo has 7000Pa of suction, which is substantially more than previous models. One of the ways these latest models are differentiating themselves is the sheer number of options available via the app to customize your vacuum experience, and here is where I think you can make or break your floorbot experience. Unlike iRobot, which is notorious for the inexplicable pattern the robot takes across your floor, Roborock allows you to choose the pattern, either back and forth or slightly more randomized. On top of the intensity, you can also choose if the bot should make one or two passes on the space. However, the setting that will likely affect your vacuum the most, I believe, is the obstacle avoidance. In this panel of settings, you can tell the robot you have a pet, which means it will detect both the pet and said pet’s poop. There is a “less collision” mode, that means the bot will try to foresee walls and furniture so it’ll bump into them less, and AI Environment recognition and obstacle avoidance. With the pet details and collision modes on, the floor simply wasn’t as well-cleaned, but turning them off improved effectiveness. I quickly realized that keeping the robot set at max suction and the back and forth pattern resulted in such a dramatically cleaner floor there was no reason to reduce the settings.
The Q Revo didn’t absorb the fluff from inside stuffed pet toys the way the S8 did—and that's something I'm often battling, so I’d need to remove it manually with some frequency. A note of appreciation for the brand is that the roller being stuck on debris does not render the bot immobile—you can still return it to the base so it’ll reveal itself for easy grabbing, or use the remote control in the app to direct it to you. You can generally tell when the bot has something in it, because it will rattle or sound off, but again, I appreciate it will keep trucking along anyway. The vacuum is definitely the better of the two modes; the Q Revo did an impressive job on deep pile carpets, low pile rugs, tile and wood floors, and it has a sizable enough container on board that it rarely had to return to the base mid-vacuum to empty itself. The base got an upgrade on power, too. This is important as it determines how well the base pulls all the debris out of the bot.
Switchbot K10+ for a smaller vacuum that can get into tiny spaces, $499.99
Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is a great mop/vac combo, $1,399.99
Roomba Combo J9 is well-reviewed, $1,399.99
Eufy X10 Combo is a good mid-range entry, $799.99
I am impressed with how effective newer bots with a mop pad are at getting the floor clean with just a pad, but the Q Revo features two beefy spinning brushes. While they provided an admirable clean, it wasn’t as effective as the S8 line in deep cleaning. It got rid of muddy paw prints, a spilled drink, and other big messes effectively, but did not give the deep scrub I’d hoped for on my white tile. In that way, these mops are good for everyday maintenance, but you’ll still need to go in for a weekly deep clean with something manual. What I did like was the way the spinning brushes extended out from the body of the bot to get right up to the wall and around obstacles. It is the best mop for wall-to-wall coverage that I’ve tested and did a great job under toe kicks in my kitchen, a notoriously tough spot to get really clean. Like other bots, it struggles with inside corners, so those will be part of your weekly manual cleanup. The Q Revo gives you an additional layer of setting tools as well, and in some cases, they helped. For instance, with the mop on the highest intensity, you can even adjust how much water is used to make it even more effective. You wouldn’t want to leave it on high water use all the time, but I did find it was helpful for more stubborn spots on the tile and wood.
While the Roborock app offers a substantial amount of settings, it was still relatively easy to find what I needed, and to affect the settings I wanted. In particular, the mapping options remain one of the best experiences out there. You can easily split spaces, merge them, create zones on the fly, or tell the app where floors or furniture change or are present, if the LiDAR got it wrong. Like other newer machines, this model offers remote viewing, which is just an onboard camera that lets you watch live video from the robot. This is mostly helpful if the robot is stuck somewhere or you want to monitor how well it’s cleaning—a few robots now offer this option and I struggle to find the necessity.
The most delightful new feature, if not fully cooked, was the voice assistant named Rocky onboard the robot. It lacks some of the flexibility of other assistants like Google and Alexa—you can only summon it with “Hello Rocky,” and if you have more than one robot in the house, you’ll do a lot of whispering to get the attention of the right one, since the app won’t let you differentiate them. Once you have its attention, you can issue Rocky a very specific set of commands, like “start cleaning,” clean a specific room, or my favorite, “clean here,” which will then try to locate your voice. Spoiler: It wasn’t great at this, but it was charming watching Rocky try. I assume Rocky will improve and Roborock will issue updates over time, and it was useful to be able to ask the robot to clean areas on the fly if you can remember the very specific wording of the command. Siri would use AI to try to understand if you meant "start cleaning” when you said “clean now,” but Rocky doesn’t yet.
Overall I was happy with the Q Revo Max V. While I maintain that even the best floorbot is a maintenance tool rather than a complete vacuum/mopping solution, this model delivered on that premise. When the settings were dialed in, I got good coverage and great vacuuming from wall to wall, though I did have to clear the vacuum rollers occasionally. The mop is great for surface-cleaning, particularly to the edge of walls, but isn’t for deep cleaning, and may require more passes and adjusting the setting occasionally to get it right. Rocky, as an AI assistant is a fun addition that I look forward to future developments with. At $1,199, the Q Revo Max V is still an expensive machine, but seems worth the value comparatively to other floorbots, including the new S8 Max V at $1,599, which I'll review later this week. The Q Revo Max V will be available via the Roborock website and other retailers like Amazon in early April. Of course, details around price and availability are subject to change before the actual release.
Between more folks living off the grid or nomadic lifestyles and an increasing number of extended power outages due to extreme weather events and an unstable power grid, the market for battery backups has continued to expand in recent years.
Whether you are looking for a small unit that will keep your phone and laptop charged through an emergency, or are considering whole-home backup solutions, you have more options than ever. Many of these products are included in an ongoing sale on Yeti products that extends through the end of the month. Here are my top picks from the sale, with items discounted up to 20%.
One of the most petite Yetis, a station of this size is a great first venture into battery backups. With limited capacity, it won’t power a 1,000-watt heater or your microwave, but it can comfortably keep your phone charged through a multi-day outage, or run your laptop for at least a few hours. It’s also small enough to throw in the car when you go camping.
Yeti200X Portable Power Station $179 (originally $219.95)
If you have multiple devices you need to run during an outage or on the go, a Yeti 1500x is a good choice. It effectively acts like a wall plug, and is able to power high-need devices like a sleep apnea machine or a bottle sterilizer, or even a small heater or air conditioner. You can pair it some solar panels to recharge during the day.
Yeti1500X + Boulder200 BC Solar Generator $1,549.79 (originally $1,809.85)
If you’re considering a whole-home emergency backup, this portable power station offers dramatically more power, and its LiFePO4 battery promises 10 years of use, even when used daily. You can use it to run a fridge or freezer, or power your entire vanlife. You can expand your power bank using Tank Pro 4000 units, which are also on sale.
YetiPRO 4000 Portable Power Station $3,199.89 (originally $3,999.95)
Tank Pro 4000 $2,199.89 (originally $2,749.95)
If you've already got a power bank, a big sale is the perfect time to grab more solar panels. They are the powerhouse of your backup solution, and they’re pricey, so any significant discount is going to be worth jumping on. Almost all the solar panels at Yeti are on sale right now, but this is the one I’d grab, because with one setup, you’ve got the power of four solar panels, usually just 100 watts each. This allows you to easily charge up super fast. Fold it up and toss the lightweight panel in the car for easy power on the go, or just keep it at home for that next snowstorm.
Nomad 400 Portable Solar Panel $799.89 (originally $999.95)
If I am leaving my home for longer than two weeks, I bring some of my smart gear with me—most of it plugs into the wall. But as smart tech digs a deeper foothold into the very structure of our homes, from smart doors and windows to garage door openers and light fixtures, those products are less likely to move with you. Instead, your smart blinds and hard-wired smart speakers remain behind, and a new owner is left to figure out how to how to operate products whose controls may not be wall switches, but apps and automation dependencies set up by a system they don’t run. This premise was explored in a Verge piece that posits the notion of smart-home "ghosts"—those smart devices that seem to haunt new owners by running on their own and without logic. While this is an interesting product of modern times that I’m sure will continue to grow, there are some simple ways we can become ghostbusters.
I am already an advocate of keeping a home journal—a place you document your paint colors, wallpaper names, appliance names and models, and maintenance records. This makes it so much easier the next time you need to get a replacement part, repair a chip in the wall or prove to the insurance agent what you owned. Included in that journal should be a record of your smart home: what devices are hardwired into your home, and their manufacturer and app name. Briefly note which devices have automations attached to them and if they’re in the native app or your voice assistant. Should you sell the house, the journal stays with the house, giving the new owners an actual guidebook to the property.
If that sounds over the top, consider every person who has bought a home and inherited a wonky sprinkler system with no documentation or guidance, or an HVAC system that has some eccentricities. This kind of journal is helpful to you, yes, but also feels like a responsibility we owe the house itself.
Asking about that sprinkler system or HVAC is part of the sales process; now we need to add smart devices to the mix. Will the owner be leaving any devices, and if so, which devices, and how are they controlled?
Moreover, don’t assume the old owners are no-contact. Once you’ve bought the house, you can ask your agent to pass along a thank-you note and, hopefully, keep open a line of communication with the previous owners. They put a lot of love into the home (unless it was a flip, and it’s doubtful flippers left smart devices) and might be invested in ensuring the new stewards know how to use everything.
If you’re haunted by old smart devices, and you simply can’t get to the bottom of why a specific light comes on and off at noon, or what triggers all the locks to deadbolt, you can just replace them—it removes the problem entirely. If it’s a specific kind of device, like a garage door opener, you can hire a specialist to suss out the problem, but it may not be worth it. This is your house now, and you can change it as you like. Spending a lot of time frustrated over some part of your new home that you can’t figure out isn’t how you want to spend your first year in a new home.
The reality of smart devices is that they usually need wifi, unless they’re on some special local network. When people move, they move the modem and router, and not being able to connect to the wifi network that’s programmed will knock most smart devices offline. In fact, that may well be the problem you’re having with left-behind devices you can’t get to work: They need a hard reset, to be registered to the app on your devices and given access to your new wifi network.
I grew up in the the '80s—the golden age of neon—so naturally I always dreamed of owning a neon sign from Hot Topic. This week, Govee, my favorite brand for LED light chaos, released its latest version of neon rope, and from all reports, it’s exactly as fun as you’d think.
We’ve reviewed a number of Govee products, and they all work fine. In particular, they make a whole variety of LED lights for indoor and outdoor and usually at (comparatively) affordable prices. My complaint lies mostly with the overwhelming app experience for their products. By trying to let the user do absolutely everything, it's a challenge to do almost anything, which is OK if you like their out-of-the-box light color themes. (I find them a little garish and loud, but then, that's precisely what neon demands.)
The rope itself is like a lot of LED strips, except that instead of wrapping the strip around things like shelves and cabinets, you bend it into a shape and then adhere it to the wall with the backing. Bend clips (included) keep the curves you create in place, and this new version has a softer material than the first iteration, so it’s easier to get into soft curve shapes. The rope comes in 16- and 9-foot lengths, and black or white.
There are lots of competitors in this space, so there are other neon LED light strips, but this is the first entry from a well-known brand. These lights are Matter-enabled, which is great since it means you don't need a hub, but you’ll need the Govee app regardless.
Govee offers “shape mapping” with this release—you take a picture of your neon creation and Govee maps the outline, which you can then use to design the lighting theme, assigning colors to segments. The segments will then, apparently, blend into a perfect ombre. Screenshots seem to imply new motion offerings, too, and I will be excited to see if they’re more subtle than previous iterations.
It may surprise you to learn there is a certified braintrust that aims to make life on the internet better for us all. This group, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is made up of basically every big company in the "internet of things," and its goal is to create standards that all smart tech manufacturers will adhere to. In theory, this should result in better, more stable experiences for consumers.
For example, the CSA is the group responsible for the Zigbee and Matter standard, which is a set of parameters that smart tech can and should subscribe to in order to make all products compatible with all multi-system hubs, and hopefully, eliminate the need for separate hubs and apps for each system.
In addition to making smart tech work better, the CSA is working to make it more secure. To that end, this week the CSA announced a new international security standard for smart home tech.
It's hard to ignore the bad reputation smart security systems have taken on in the last few years. Breaches have been reported at major brands like Eufy and Wyze, and in the last month, wifi jammers have been reported to present a additional challenges to wireless security systems.
It’s not just security devices that are at risk, either: If your wifi can be hacked, so can your robot vacuum, and your smart speakers, and your smart toaster (you might say that’s an argument against having a smart toaster, but that’s only because you don’t have one yet). If a bad actor can remotely turn on your smart heater or turn off your smart fridge, they can cause some serious havoc. Uniform security standards should, in theory, make that harder.
In a press release, CSA head Tobin Richardson made the argument that by stitching together and streaming disparate international standards, "the Product Security Certification Program...provides manufacturers with a singular, respected avenue for certifying their devices globally.” If all goes according to plan, that should result in better, more secure smart home devices across the board.
That said, the new standards appear to cover only the U.S. and U.K. for now, so calling them “global” feels like a stretch. The press release offers specs for Matter, Zigbee, and Product Security, and demands the following compliance to meet certification:
Unique identity for each device
No hardcoded default passwords
Secure storage of sensitive data on the device
Secure communications of security-relevant information
Secure software updates throughout support period
Secure development process, including vulnerability management
Public documentation regarding security, including support period
Manufacturers can submit to a certification process if they adhere to the standard, and if they pass, their products will receive a "Product Security Verified Mark" that will tell consumers the device can be trusted to be relatively secure.
The CSA has assembled a Product Security Working Group made up of more than two hundred member companies, including Amazon, Arm, Comcast, Google, Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors, Schneider Electric, Signify (Philips Hue and WiZ), and Silicon Labs. What’s notable about the group, and the standard they created, is that while the Matter and Zigbee guidelines include security for the protocols themselves, the new security standard applies to the products themselves, and can be adopted by products that don’t have Matter or Zigbee.
These standards appear to be a pretty basic set of requirements, and notably, feel like the security standards version 1.0 they’re labeled as. It’s good to have a foundation and recognize the problems the industry has faced, not to mention the stigma smart tech has developed with some consumers. My hope is that this announcement is just the start of a process that deliver truly strong, actually global standards that address product security in a real way.
At the same time, I can’t ignore the rough rollout of Matter, which also sought to standardize smart tech security across manufacturers. They were originally touted as almost precisely the same kind of global standard, but for connectivity protocols rather than products, and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the tech world who has been impressed by the adoption rate.
Instead of fulfilling the promise of removing the need for multiple hubs and extraneous apps, the companies who originally pledged to support the Matter standard have been slow to roll it into actual product releases. Just this week, I reviewed a light that requires a Zigbee hub to provide Matter support, negating the entire point of Matter, which is supposed to free you from hubs altogether. I hope this new security standard fares better.
Gaming laptops are commonplace these days, but not all of these pricier, more powerful PC alternatives are worth paying a premium for. To my delight, that's not the case with the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, which manages to stand out from the crowd thanks to an absolutely brilliant display and the latest power-packed hardware. There isn’t much to complain about, and if you have a few thousand dollars to drop, this is the gaming laptop to beat.
One of the first things that you’ll notice about the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is just how big it is, even though it never feels oversized. Despite the 18-inch screen size and a chassis large enough to fit a ton of souped-up hardware that wouldn't fit into a slimmer and more modern design, the laptop actually does a great job of managing its size and weight.
Despite its big footprint, the ROG Strix Scar 18 only weighs in at 6.77 pounds. That sounds like a lot, especially compared to the weight of my normal daily driver, a MacBook Air 15-inch that weighs roughly half as much, but we’re also talking about a gaming machine with a lot more oomph, thanks to the 13th-Gen Core i9 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 strapped inside.
The 18-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS display is a big part of that size equation, but it isn’t hard to justify the associated extra weight (and cost) once you get a good look at it. Not only is it 2K resolution, but the display is brilliantly colored and offers a blazing 240Hz refresh rate.
All things considered, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 isn’t a very portable laptop. You can certainly tote it around, but the almost 7-pound body, as well as the hefty power brick required to charge it, make it a bit too much to handle—but that’s likely to be a problem with any laptop with a large display, and this one feels trim compared to its capabilities.
If you're worried that weight won't be worth it, the specs might change your mind. The particular variation I tested runs to around $4,000 and some change, based on my best estimates after fiddling with the customization tools on Asus' website.
For $4,000, a gaming laptop has to deliver a lot of performance to make it worth purchasing. This one definitely does. Here are the specs for the system that I tested out, but you can pick and choose from the configurable options on the Asus website.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 specs:
Processor: Intel Core i9-14900HX at 2.20 Ghz
Ram: 32GB
Drive type: SSD
Screen Size: 18 inches
Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Panel type: Mini LED
Refresh rate: 240Hz
Variable refresh support: G-Sync
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
Graphics memory: 16GB
Wireless: 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.2
Weight: 6.77 lbs
OS: Windows 11 Pro
Asus has loaded this laptop up with everything you need to succeed in any game that you throw at it. With a gaming laptop like this, performance isn’t an issue—and it likely won’t be for a good few years. That’s a nice perk when you're spending this much. The ROG Strix Scar 18 also comes equipped with two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, as well as a microphone port.
Despite my praise of the weight and the specs, there is one aspect of the ROG Strix Scar 18 I don't love: There’s just so much plastic. I get it; building a high-powered gaming laptop equipped with all the latest and greatest hardware while balancing materials cost and weight has got to be a challenge. However, Asus relies on plastic for pretty much every visible component of the ROG Strix Scar 18.
It’s a really disappointing move, especially considering the costs we're talking about, and the fact that more metal is used in other similarly priced laptops, such as the new MacBook Pros. (No, the MacBook Pro isn’t exactly a “gaming machine,” but it does fall into the same high-powered category of laptops.)
The nice thing, at least, is that the plastic doesn’t feel cheap. The exterior of is covered from top to bottom with RGB and both real and fake grilles for the cooling system. It gives the machine a unique look that screams “I’m a gamer" (which could be a plus or minus, depending on your point of view). Personally, I’m enamored of simpler, more understated design language, but not everyone is like me, and Asus has always tended to favor a bit of a flair when it comes to its ROG lineup.
These quibbles aside, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 still feels like a premium device in all the important ways. The keyboard is smooth to type on, and gaming on it is a dream. Even the trackpad performs well, though serious gamers will definitely want to opt for a proper gaming mouse.
As you’d expect from a laptop as packed to the brim as this, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is an absolute beast. I tested it with multiple games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Star Citizen, and Helldivers 2, all of which performed exceptionally well, which isn't always the case—especially with a title as resource-intensive as Star Citizen.
I never experienced dips in performance while gaming, and I was easily able to connect my SteelSeries headset without issue, allowing me to team up with my friends on Discord. I tested online gaming mostly via wifi, and the connection was always stable and speedy. While running the Strix Scar 18 connected to an external 4K monitor, I was able to get fantastic performance even with the most demanding games.
The tradeoff for all that power is battery life. This thing sucks up a lot of juice, and if you’re not running it in one of the lower power modes—like balanced or power saver—then you’re going to need to top up often. Running solely on the battery, I was able to play Cyberpunk 2077 for just over two and a half hours before I started having to look for an outlet. If you really want to eke more out of the battery, you’ll have to fiddle with the settings—but I wanted to see how hard I could push it during my tests.
When you're not gamily, the performance is more typical. Our friends at PCMag have conducted an intensive breakdown of the battery, and report the machine can run for around 8 hours when you stick to video playback.
When all is said and done, I'm very impressed with the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18. Yeah, the design choices can be less than stellar—I really wish there was more metal in the build—but it never feels like the price tag is less than justified either.
Battery life could be better, but that display is stunning, and the hardware packed into even the cheapest variant is more than enough to keep you gaming at top-level settings for years. However, if you do plan to invest in a ROG Strix Scar 18, I recommend splurging a little on more RAM and additional internal storage.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 starts at $3,587 on Amazon, with the price varying based on your choice of storage and RAM.
This article was updated Tuesday, March 26 to correct the specs for refresh rate and panel type.
I'm a fan of Nanoleaf. Sure, you can use the 16 million color combinations the LEDs provide for all kinds of party-ready light schemes, but Nanoleaf does calming and subtle light schemes exceedingly well, too. They're hella fun, and right now almost the entire store is 20% off through the weekend with the code SUPERSPRING2024. The sale excludes bundles, Umbra lamps, and Skylights (which is a shame, because I love mine). Still, here's what I'd grab.
Position the included camera over your television, and add the light strip to the back of your TV; the result gives your TV an aura that actually made me giggle with delight. When the TV is on, the lights can emulate the colors on the TV, changing subtly. When the TV is off, you can have the lights move to music or just choose from one of the preloaded themes. More importantly, the 4D can be the base for all the other lights in the room, so they all tune to the same color and motion band and work in unison.
Nanoleaf 4D Screen Mirror + Lightstrip Kit $71.99 with discount code, originally $119.99
Nanoleaf's light shapes attach to the wall and can be infinitely expanded on to create any shape you can imagine. They're also touch sensitive, so you can adjust the light theme with a swipe of the finger.
Shapes Mini Triangles Smarter Kit (9 Panels) $79.99 with discount code, originally $99.99
Shapes Triangles Smarter Kit (7 Panels) $159.99 with discount code, originally $199.99
Shapes Hexagons Smarter Kit (7 Panels) $159.99 with discount code, originally $199.99
If you prefer a different look than the matte white or black plastic of the shapes, the wood finish of these elements provide a completely different look with the same functionality.
Elements Hexagons Smarter Kit $199.99 with discount code, originally $249.99
These square wall panels can be expanded on like shapes, but that's not their main charm. They are touch sensitive as well, but also programmable so the touch can result in different actions. These are incredible tools for kids to work with.
Canvas Smarter Kit (9 Panels) $144 with discount code, originally $179.99
This year, friends and I lost power for days during an ice storm the area hadn't seen in the 15 years I've lived here. And in the summer, "heat domes" now cause brown outs on the regular, and the way it causes my wifi to reset all the time makes me batty. Sure, I go camping, too, but I'm now of the belief that almost anyone could benefit from having a power bank in their home—the stronger, the better. I have owned a portable Jackery generator for the past few years and it has served me really well, so I was pleased to see that several of its generators are included in Amazon's ongoing Big Spring Sale. I've rounded up a few of the notable deals below.
The latest and strongest of the Jackery banks can support 3,000 watts, which means everything from a fridge to your Instant Pot is covered. Yes, the more capacity the bank has, the bigger it is, and this is a lot to cart around camping. At home, though, this could carry you through a storm.
Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 3000 Pro $2,299, down from $2,799
With slightly less capacity than the 3000 Pro, you can pair this bank with the two 100W solar panels it comes with to recharge on the go. The Pro line charges faster than their main line of banks—even in snow, my panels were able to take in enough power. This is still a hefty boy, but has a handle to take it on the go.
Jackery Solar Generator 2000 Pro $1,899, down from $3,599
This was my first power bank and it is clutch for camping. With this wattage, you won't power much, but it's just enough for your laptop, phone, or a few hours of a heated blanket. It's also very easy to transport. If you're using it indoors during an outage, it's perfect to top off some cell phones.
Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 240 $178, down from $239.99
An ideal midsize bank, still transportable, but enough to power your 1,000-watt devices. That includes small heaters, cooking devices, and your laptop. Coming with the solar panels, this is the ultimate camping package.
Jackery 1000 Plus Solar Generator $1,249, down from $1,699
This sale is worth it—grab extra panels if you already have a Jackery unit. You can chain them together to charge your power bank faster.
Jackery SolarSaga 100W Portable Solar Panel $238.99, down from $299
Spring sales are here, and lots of Switchbot products are 25-30% off right now (with one as much as 53% off). I've become a real fan of Switchbot's brand, which makes chunky, functional smart home products that are aimed at retrofitting homes. That makes them perfect for renters—you don't have to cut into any walls, ceilings, or floors. While almost all their products are on sale, here are the deals I think are really worth grabbing.
I test a lot of robot vacuums, and the K10+ is one of my favorites. It's smaller than other bots, so it navigates between chair legs, under tables, and toe-kicks much more easily than larger bots. But more importantly, it is a spectacular vacuum, and I liked the simple Switchbot interface. While it is also technically a mop, this function is not fully baked. However, the vacuum is so good, if you just forget about the mop and allow it to shine at what it's good at, you'll be happy. Perfect for small spaces, the price was already great at $499, but right now it's on sale for $349.
Though listed as a baby monitor on Amazon, this is actually just Switchbot's indoor pan and tilt cam, but you can use it for whatever you'd like. It's 53% off right now. Marked down to $18.99 from $39.99, this camera will give two-way audio and night vision, and it works with Google Home and Alexa. If you're currently working with a static camera, try a pan-and-tilt; the 360 degrees of coverage horizontally and 115 degrees vertically is useful, sure, but it's also a lot of fun to control them remotely.
Some companies have figured out no one wants an extra piece of hardware around just to serve as a hub, and have added other functionality to make them more valuable. This is one of my favorite implementations of that idea, a temperature and humidity display that just happens to also be a hub. I keep it on my desk, and it's small and innocuous. It's 25% off, marked down to $52.49 from $69.99.
If you've got curtains or blinds, Switchbot has tools to make them wirelessly smart. Attach controllers for almost every kind of blind or curtain, and solar panels to power them, and you can then control them from your phone or through Google and Alexa.
SwitchBot Smart Electric Motorized Blinds Kit Normally 189.99, now $151.99
SwitchBot Blind Tilt Motorized Blinds $69.99 marked down to $55.99
SwitchBot Automatic Curtain Opener $89.99 down to $71.99
Amazon is currently having a big Spring Sale across its entire site. Of course, that means plenty of tech deals to be had. If you're in the market for a new Android smartphone, Amazon has sales on some of the best phones from both Google and Samsung.
Amazon is running deals on four different Google Pixel devices. If you're looking for the least expensive of the bunch, you could check out the Pixel 7a: Google's "budget" phone from 2023 comes with a 6.1-inch 1080p display with a 90Hz refresh rate, the Tensor G2 chip, 8GB of RAM, and a 4385 mAh battery. Google says it will support the 7a with software updates until at least May 2026, and with security updates until May 2028, so for $374 (originally $499), this is a pretty good deal.
If you want something slightly newer, look at the Pixel 8. Amazon currently has it listed for $499 (originally $699) for the 128GB model, or $559 (originally $759) for the 256GB model. Since this is a flagship Pixel phone, you'll get updated features, like the Tensor G3 chip, an upgraded camera with Macro Focus, a 6.2-inch 1080p display that reaches 120Hz, and a 4575 mAh battery.
For the best of the best that Google has to offer with the Pixel smartphone line, there's the Pixel 8 Pro. Amazon is selling Google's premiere flagship for $749 (originally $999) for the 128GB model, $809 (originally $1,059) for the 256GB model, and $919 (originally $1,179) for 512GB. With that, you get a 6.7-inch 1344p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, Google's best dual-camera system, 12GB of RAM across all variants, and a 4950 mAh battery.
Finally, if you're more interested in foldable phones, there's the Pixel Fold. Google's foldable phone is on sale at Amazon for $1,289.99 (originally $1,799) for the 256GB model, or $1,740 (originally $1,919) for 512GB. Despite the higher price tag, it does come with Google's Tensor G2 chip, so it's one generation behind the Pixel 8 line. However, you do benefit from two different displays: One 5.8-inch 1080p on the front of the device, which opens up to reveal a 7.6-inch 1840p display. Both displays reach 120Hz. In addition, you get 12GB of RAM, and a 4821 mAh battery.
On the other side of Amazon's Spring Sale are deals on Samsung Galaxy phones. Kicking things off, let's look at the Galaxy A25. This is Samsung's "budget" Galaxy phone, but you really get a lot of phone for a good price. The A25 comes with a 6.5-inch 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 128GB of storage (with optional expandable storage) and 6GB of RAM, as well as a tri-camera system, one with a 50MP sensor. Amazon lists this phone for $264.99 (originally $299.99), so while it's not a huge savings, the overall price makes this a solid deal.
Jumping up in scale, Amazon has spring deals on the Galaxy S24+: $849.99 (originally $999.99) for the 256GB model, or $969.99 (originally $1,119.99) for the 512GB model. This phone comes with a 6.7-inch 1440p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 12GB of RAM, and a tri-camera system with a 50MP sensor.
If a flippable smartphone is more your speed, check out the Galaxy Z Flip 5. This flip phone comes with a 3.4-inch front display, which opens to reveal a 6.7-inch 1080p display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It also comes with a 3700 mAh battery, 8GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. You can pick one up for $849.99 (originally $999.99) for the 256GB model, or $969.99 (originally $1,119.99) for the 512GB model.
Finally, there's the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Samsung's latest foldable smartphone. This smartphone has a 6.2-inch front display, which opens up into a 7.6-inch 1812p display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and comes with 12GB of RAM, a tri-camera system with one 50MP sensor, and a 4400 mAh battery. You can get it for $1,499.99 (originally $1,799.99) for the 256GB model, or $1,619.99 (originally $1,919.99) for 512GB.
A year ago, I’d never heard of Aqara. Then they released a well-reviewed sensor no one else had, the FP2, a “presence” sensor. A quick perusal of their site will confirm they are, indeed, the sensor company, with a deep bench of smart sensors no one else has. Moreover, having tested many of them, they work when competitors’ simply do not. Now, a sensor is a small thing to install and set up, but my trust in their sensors is what made me willing to install their new Ceiling Light T1M ($149.99). A smart ceiling light might not seem exciting, but this is one of the first light fixtures we’ve seen from well-known brands. It boasts many smart features like visual notifications based on other Aqara products, too. The best reason to trust the T1M was simple: It is huge, and my kitchen desperately needed more light. The product is so popular it sold out in the first week, but Aqara says it will have more in stock in the coming weeks.
The first thing to know about the T1M is that it is a spaceship of a light fixture. A massive 19.5 inches wide, the light takes up some real estate on your ceiling. The rather innocuous main light is a spherical disk, and it adjusts to a range of white from warm to cool. Then, a ring of RGB IC LEDs encircle the white light, and you can control those separately. It installs pretty flush, standing short of three inches from the ceiling. The light is molded plastic, but it doesn’t feel cheap. Installation was quick—it's light in weight, making it easy to hold one handed. The light arrived with all the parts you need to hardwire it to existing fixture wiring.
The T1M supports Matter over Threads and Zigbee, but it requires an Aqara hub, which is going to act as a bridge. This device works with Google, Alexa, and Siri. Normally needing a hub would be a bummer, but Aqara currently offers the most entertaining hub on the market: a 2k wired indoor security camera that looks like a cat. (There are hubs with a more standard design to consider, as well.)
It took no work at all to get the light online in the Aqara app, and from there it was just a matter of customization. White is easy—you just tune it to the white range you have in your home (people usually either gravitate towards warm or cool white). Now, there are tons of smart LED light products on the market, and most of them allow you the same overwhelming amount of color possibilities these lights do. Nanoleaf has done a great job of offering subtle, tasteful light schemes you’d actually want to use, and I think Aqara managed the same here. Essentially, the T1M acts like a sun—you can replace the white in the center sphere with subtle color profiles based on different times of day. You can even set schedules so the light will mimic the time of day inside and come on slowly with the sunrise: They call this “adaptive lighting.” You don’t need the same brightness all day, so the light can adjust. The exterior lights get a little more wild, but can still stay subtle if you choose, with themes like meteor, sunset, and autumn. It’s all completely customizable, from colors to motion, speed, and brightness. My only complaint here was that the slowest motion setting was still too fast for my taste.
A key to remember is that even without the ring of color LEDs, the light is still plenty bright enough to fill a space, and you don’t ever have to turn the ring on. That’s the benefit of the two lights having separate controls. Over the time I’ve had it installed, I've mostly just left the interior light on, and eventually made a theme for the ring of white LEDS to augment it.
There are now smart bulbs and smart switches, which give you flexibility in which aspect of your lights you’d like to make controllable. It begs the question why you’d want or need the fixture itself to be smart, and here is where automations become key. Aqara lets you build powerful integrations with other Aqara products that offer both convenience and accessibility. If the doorbell rings, your lights can flash an alert. If another Aqara product hits a trigger, the lights can visually alert you. Consider your fire alarm: If you can’t hear it, a visual cue can be critical. I have a tendency to wear my earbuds while doing dishes and I have missed the doorbell a few times that way, and a visual cue would have helped get my attention. You can also extend this capability via IFTTT and your home assistant or hub, but staying within the Aqara ecosystem has some benefits. One of their suggested automations is, “if a window or sensor is triggered, use the security camera to scan for any unidentified faces, and if it finds one, turn the light red.” This automation depends entirely on Aqara products like the cat hub and window and door sensors. You could set this up as an automation using other products through IFTTT or your hub, but you're unlikely to get the same breadth of triggers and actions the Aqara app has for their own products.
While you can control this light with a voice assistant and a regular wall switch, Aqara also sells a wireless mini switch you can install anywhere to use as a controller, which would also allow you to program custom actions from the mini switch buttons. There is also a curious controller called the Cube, which is wireless and allows you to program each side of it to control many Aqara products through automations and actions you define. These allow you to control the T1M remotely, even without a light switch, if you don’t want to use your phone.
Look, I’d be satisfied with the T1M if it was just a light fixture: The LEDs were incredibly effective at brightening up a room a few traditional bulbs hadn’t. That they can be scheduled and programmed to emulate natural lighting and motion is a real delight, though, and what really impressed me—that I didn’t know I wanted or needed—is the smart functionality of using that light as notifications for other things going on in my home.
The PC gaming handheld market continues to expand, with the latest handheld coming from MSI, a well-known and trusted name in the PC market. Sporting a more powerful set of specs and Windows 11, the MSI Claw is a solid handheld PC, but is more power enough to unseat the Steam Deck from its place as one of the best handheld gaming PCs? Here’s what you need to know.
When put side-by-side, the Steam Deck and the MSI Claw share a lot of similarities. Both feature large 7-inch displays in the center of their bodies (with a 7.4-inch display in the Steam Deck OLED). They also both feature the same two-sided controller system, though they look a bit different as the Steam Deck’s joysticks and buttons are situated differently. The Steam Deck is also the only of the two to offer the touchpads on the controllers, making it easy to simulate mouse movements with just a swipe of your finger.
From there, though, things start to deviate a little. The MSI Claw, for instance, has much more pointed corners, while the Steam Deck remains rounded at the edges. Depending on what style you prefer, one may be more comfortable than the other. I personally prefer the more rounded look of the Steam Deck, and it has never felt uncomfortable to hold, even when I’ve played for hours at a time. Those pointy corners on the Claw, though, may dig into your hands a bit if you hold onto the console tightly.
As for specs, I’ve already mentioned that the MSI Claw features more impressive specs, taking notes from the ASUS ROG Ally. Despite those improved specs, the Steam Deck offers easier gaming access thanks to its more streamlined Linux-based SteamOS system. Here’s a complete look at the specs for each handheld.
Intel-based Ultra Core processor
CPU: Intel core CU7 155H-Intel Arc, Intel core CU5 135H-Intel Arc
GPU: Intel Arc Graphics
RAM: 16GB LPDDR5
DISPLAY: 7-inch, 1920 x 1080 LED display with 120Hz refresh rate
SD CARD SLOT: Yes
AMD APU (upgraded 6nm APU in the Steam Deck OLED)
CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)
RAM: 16GB LPDDR5
DISPLAY: 7.4-inch, 1280 x 800 HDR OLED display, with 90 Hz refresh rate and 1,000 nits peak HDR brightness (Steam Deck OLED); 7-inch 1280 x 800 LCD display with 60Hz refresh rate)
SD CARD SLOT: Yes
As you can see, both devices feature some key differences, with the most notable being the higher refresh rate on the MSI Claw, as well as the much more powerful Intel processor. The Steam Deck’s included AMD APU is already aging, and it doesn’t offer as much power, but it does come with some perks, which we will discuss shortly. Not much on the original LCD Steam Deck is different than the upgraded Steam Deck OLED (the display is the biggest upgrade), but you can see the full list of Steam Deck OLED upgrades if you want a more in-depth look.
Just looking at things from a technical and hardware perspective, there’s almost no reason to choose to Steam Deck over the MSI Claw. But, as we all know, what is written down on paper is not always the full story.
To truly get the most out of your handheld gaming PC, you’re going to want something that is easy to work with and that you can easily navigate. In that respect, the MSI Claw and the Steam Deck could not be anymore different. Sure, if you decide to do any kind of modding or emulating, you’re going to need to get more familiar with Linux. But, if you just care about installing Steam games and playing them, the Steam Deck offers the easiest pick-up-and-play options.
That’s because SteamOS is built from the ground up to make it as easy as possible to jump in and start gaming. And it does that really well. On the other hand, the MSI Claw, because it uses Windows instead of SteamOS, requires you to bumble your way through the clunkiness of Microsoft’s prized operating system. It isn’t necessarily the most difficult thing to do, but it does require more clicks and movements to get games downloaded and to launch them.
Those extra steps do come with a bonus, though: Because the Claw works off Windows, it is compatible with a lot more games, like those outside of the Steam marketplace. This means games like Fortnite, Genshin Impact, and any other game that hasn’t released on Steam are much easier to download and play on the MSI Claw. You can still play them on the Deck, but it will require a lot more work to get it taken care of.
Also, the Steam Deck has a ton of performance profiles freely available on the web to help you optimize your games for the Deck, and many are even starting to launch with “Steam Deck” setting options that help you get the most performance without losing too much visual quality. Not all games are quite to that point yet, but it is a leg-up that the Deck has over the Claw. However, the more powerful CPU and GPU found in the Claw will absolutely provide better performance and visuals in most games. Ultimately, it’s about choosing which operating system you prefer to work out of. If you just want the quickest and smoothest option that lets you jump into games as quickly as possible, the Steam Deck is the clear winner, though.
When it comes to price, the Steam Deck and the MSI Claw aren’t all that different. The Steam Deck OLED retails for $549 for a 512GB storage option, but there is also a 1TB storage option that you can pick up for $649 if you feel you need the extra space. The MSI Claw, on the other hand, begins at $699.99 for a model with an Intel Core CU5 135H and 512GB of storage but goes up to $799.99 for the best model, which features an Intel Core CU7 155H with 1TB of storage. There’s also a middle option with the CU7 that only has 512GB of storage for $749.99.
Both the Steam Deck and the MSI Claw offer solid PC gaming experiences, and both come with expandable memory via SD cards that can help you carry more games around. If you want the most powerful of the two and don’t mind paying a little more, the MSI Claw is a surefire bet that will pay off in the long run. But, if you just want the easiest-to-use gaming PC handheld on the market, the Steam Deck remains my clear recommendation.
The past two years have seen a real explosion of smart devices in the HVAC arena, from smart heaters to smart ACs, so it was only a matter of time before smart air purifiers entered the space. To start, we’ve seen recent entries from IKEA, which has an entire line of air purifiers integrated into furniture that are controllable via the IKEA TRÅDFRI gateway. There have been other entries in the last year, including the Coway AirMega line, BlueAir, and others. But there are lots of reasons the Airthings Renew is the smart air purifier I’m most excited about.
Unlike a lot of companies making air purifiers, Airthings really only focuses on air quality, and it’s not just in the consumer market. Airthings supplies to businesses as well, where there’s some liability in ensuring clean air, particularly during a pandemic. The specs on these purifiers look pretty great, filtering down to .3 micron, which is the size of aerosolized SARS COV-2. It will scrub the air in a room up to 525 feet square in thirty minutes through a series of medical grade HEPA and carbon filters that pull particulates, gasses, virus, and odors out of the air.
The Renew is about the size and shape of a desktop computer tower, although a lot more chic, and costs $399. This may seem expensive, but it's a fair price for this size and quality of air purifiers. Usually where most air purifiers strain people financially is the replacement filters—these are going to run you $70. While usually the rule is to replace filters every six months, the major benefit of the smart app here is that you’ll be notified exactly when it’s time to replace the filters based on usage. If you live in fire country, you may go through them more often, and if you live someplace with little pollution, you might be able to stretch it longer.
I like the idea of a smart purifier for all the functions the Renew has: You can turn it on and off remotely and make it part of your home automations. Just turning it on remotely would be a big help if you’re coming home from a trip, or when the monitor on the purifier notifies you that air quality has dipped. The app will also give you graphical stats on what the purifier is pulling out of the air, which is more interesting than useful.
The PlayStation 5 has only been out for four years and still has a lot of life in it, but Sony may be eyeing a mid-cycle refresh of the console in the form of a more powerful PS5 Pro. In fact, some rumors suggest we could see the new console as soon as this year, and that it will include some pretty hefty upgrades.
Of course, Sony has yet to officially confirm anything, or even openly admit it is working on a successor to the PS5. But based on the timing of the release of the PS4 Pro in November 2016, three years into the life of that console generation, it seems likely Sony is also looking to iterate on its newest console. Until we get official news, of course, at's all rumor and speculation, but that can be fun, too.
There isn't much to go on when it comes to the PS5 Pro's potential price and specs. However, recent rumors and possible leaks suggest the PS5 Pro will offer 33.5 teraflops of power. Yes, that is actually the name of the measurement, and that's nearly three times the power as the PS5 today.
Additionally, the scuttlebutt is that the GPU in the PS5 Pro will offer 45% higher rasterization performance and that it could use AI upscaling in a method similar to Nvidia’s DLSS, which would result in smoother gameplay and optimization across even the most demanding titles (DLSS absolutely saved Star Citizen’s performance on PC, and it would be great to see similar functionality on the PS5 Pro). This feature is called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), new reports have alleged.
The source of the supposed leak, Inside Gaming, suggests that the PS5 Pro will also offer system memory speeds up to 28% faster than the base PS5 (an increase to 576 GB/s from the current 448 GB/s). The new system is also said to feature a “high CPU frequency mode” that will offer a 10% increase in performance over the existing console. Further rumors hint that the PS5 Pro will be future-proofed to handle 8K gaming after a firmware update, and will be equipped with a custom machine-learning architecture.
Reports from The Verge suggest that the PS5 Pro will include a standard mode, which targets CPU speeds of 3.5GHz, and a "high CPU frequency mode," which targets 3.85GHz. Standard mode will perform similarly to the regular PS5, while the new high-performance mode is where the PS5 Pro will really shine. This new mode will allow for more power to be allocated to the CPU, which means the GPU will be downclocked around 1.5 percent, according to The Verge's report.
Sources have also told The Verge that Sony has asked developers to target a 60fps frame rate with ray-tracing effects using the new upscaling technique the PS5 Pro will offer. It should provide similar gains as those seen in games that utilize Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR systems, both of which render the game at a lower resolution and then upscale it to increase performance without taxing the system as much.
Games that fully take advantage of the PS5 Pro's new specs will allegedly get a special PS5 Pro "Enhanced" label. However, reports indicate that Sony will use this label on more than just games targeting the 60fps mentioned earlier. They'll also appear on games that target 30fps but take advantage of the PS5 Pro's other upgrades.
This could mean that we see PS5 Pro Enhanced games that can run anywhere from 1280p and 2160p on the PS5 Pro at 30fps and only between 1080p and 1440p at 30fps on the base PlayStation 5. And, if developers enable ray-tracing, their games may also be able to apply the PS5 Pro Enhanced label despite not improving performance in any way.
A label like this certainly opens room for some confusion, as anyone seeing the PS5 Pro Enhanced label is likely to expect to see some kind of performance gains with the new console. However, this is actually similar to what Sony did with the PS4 Pro back when it started releasing games enhanced for the more powerful version of its console. Thankfully, The Verge says that Sony is not going to let developers put the Enhanced label on just for providing a more stable framerate. The games will need to take advantage of some new features that the PS5 Pro offers in order for the label to apply.
Much like the PS4 Pro, the PS5 Pro is also expected to have an "ultra-boost" mode or "performance" mode that should improve performance in games even if developers don't update them to the new PS5 Pro SDK and take advantage of any of the new features.
With the PS5 already in the latter half of its lifecycle, at least according to Sony’s financial results call in February, it makes sense for the PS5 Pro to release sooner rather than later. Speculation suggests that we could see a release of the beefier PlayStation 5 as early as fall of 2024. Like the PS4, which was superseded by a Pro model three years in, the base PS5 was released in the fall, so it seems sensible to assume Sony will likewise try to position the PS5 Pro as a must-have holiday gift. Analyst Colin Moriarty has revealed that publishers from third-party studios have already been briefed on the specs for a PS5 Pro, offering more support for an imminent release.
Of course, all of this is subject to change, as Sony has yet to offer up any official confirmation of or information about the PS5 Pro, though the rumors are definitely widespread enough to suggest it's not entirely wishful thinking. Of course, there have also been rumors about a follow-up to the Nintendo Switch since before the Switch OLED dropped, so rumors and speculation don’t always play out as one might assume.
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