GE GTW860SPJMC review – CNET

The Good The $1,200 GE GTW860SPJMC is an attractive washer with plenty of features, including a companion app for Android and iPhone and an IFTTT channel.

The Bad It isn’t a top performer when it comes to stain removal and you can’t actually initiate a cleaning cycle from the app.

The Bottom Line GE’s GTW860SPJMC definitely has curb appeal, but other high-end models offer a better overall value.

This $1,200 top-load washing machine seemingly has it all — good looks and a relatively intuitive instrument panel. It’s also packing a long list of features, including a related GE Laundry app for Android and iPhone and even an IFTTT channel. $1,200 is high-end luxury when it comes to top-load machines, but the GE GTW860SPJMC seems worth it on paper.

When you factor in performance, though, the impressiveness starts to flag. It does a decent enough job removing stains, but the results don’t stand out much in comparison to other models we’ve reviewed. That doesn’t mean you should immediately rule out this GE washer, but it would be worthwhile to look at the competition closely before you buy.

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Getting to know GE’s high-end washer

With 13 wash cycles, a handsome metallic gray finish and a transparent lid so you can watch your clothes whir around inside (if you so desire), the GTW860SPJMC is strikingly similar to the $1,199 Samsung WA52J8700. The main difference, of course, is that the app-enabled GE version doesn’t have a built-in sink for pre-soaking or hand washing delicates, and the sink-equipped Samsung version doesn’t have an app.

Check out this comparison chart of the two top-load washing machines for more details:

GE GTW860SPJMC	Samsung WA52J8700
$1,200	$1,199
5.1 cubic feet	5.2 cubic feet
13	15
28×44.5×29 inches	27x46x29.3 inches
166 pounds	147.8 pounds
1 year, parts and labor	1 year, parts and labor
152 kWh per year	165 kWh per year
Yes, Android and iPhone	No

GE’s GTW860SPJMC is also competitive with other premium top-load models in terms of its specific wash cycles. They include:

• Basket Clean
• Bulky Items
• Dark Colors
• Delicates
• Drain + Spin
• Heavy Duty
• Jeans
• Normal/Light Colors
• Quick Rinse
• Sanitize with Oxi
• Speed Wash
• Towels & Sheets
• Whites

But its most interesting feature is a bit more hidden, an inconspicuous “Wi-Fi Connect” indicator on the bottom left corner of the display panel. This means that the GTW860SPJMC works with GE’s smart laundry app as well as GE’s laundry channel on the connectivity service IFTTT.

In other washer news:

• This Samsung washer has everything, including the kitchen sink
• This cool, uncomplicated washer performs well under pressure
• A simple LCD screen makes this smart washer shine
• GE smartens up its large appliances with IFTTT support

While the app looks nice and is simple to configure — just download the GE Laundry app on your Android or iPhone and follow the instructions to connect — the software is a little disappointing. It’s nicely designed, but you can’t actually initiate a cleaning recycle remotely like you can with Samsung’s $1,399 WF457ARGSWR or Whirlpool’s $1,399 Smart Cabrio. Instead you can track a cycle, get an alert when the cycle ends, download a few additional cycles, and monitor how much detergent is left in the SmartDispense soap reservoir. It’s somewhat useful, but not essential.

Grace Digital CastDock X2 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The CastDock X2 hides the Chromecast Audio in the top of the speaker. The dock has a door/cover that adheres magnetically.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Back in the day there used to be lots of speaker docks for iPods and iPhones. Now we get Grace Digital’s CastDock X2 ($150), a speaker dock for Google’s highly-rated Chromecast Audio Wi-Fi streaming device.

I’ve been playing around with it for the last few days and it certainly is an elegant solution for integrating a Chromecast Audio unit — sold separately for $30 — right into a speaker (you usually have to attach it to an audio input and have it sit outside the speaker).

What’s nice is that the dock has a Micro-USB connector that provides power to the Chromecast Audio and an optical audio cable creates a digital connection. However, I should note that this isn’t a portable speaker with a built-in rechargeable battery. Rather, it has to be plugged in.

The docking bay.

Sarah Tew/CNET

As for the sound, it’s decent but not exceptionally good for a $150 speaker (it plays loud and has some kick to its bass — it’s just not the most well-defined bass).

Bestbuy.com does have it on sale for $100 for Father’s Day, and that’s what I felt the speaker was worth — and least from a sound and build-quality standpoint.

The WiFi connection is supposed to provide higher-quality sound but in a speaker this compact, you don’t get much of a performance bump over Bluetooth. And weirdly, the speaker doesn’t seem to offer a Bluetooth connection, which means you have to buy a Chromecast Audio to wirelessly stream music to it.

Gracedigital CastDock X2 (pictures)
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According to Grace Digital, here are the key features incorporated into the CastDock X2 and Chromecast Audio (sold separately):

• Listen to over 30 million songs from over 100+ cast-enabled music apps like Pandora, Google Play Music, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
• Enjoy higher quality sound
• Play music everywhere with multiroom feature
• Play music without interruptions
• Mirror music from a laptop or Android phone

CastDock X2’s specifications:

• 50 watt digital amplifier with electronic crossover
• Frequency response: 60Hz – 20KHz
• Wave Maxxaudio DSP tuned to match custom speaker drivers
• Digital optical connection supports high-resolution audio, up to 24-bit, 192-KHz
• Switch for selecting R / R+L / L (allows you to use two Chromecast Audio devices and two CastDock’s for stereo sound or to place in separate rooms)
• Auto play / auto off when music is streamed
• Integrated mute button
• Rear mount screw option
• Price: $150 (but on sale for a limited time at bestbuy.com for $100).

2016 BMW M3 review – Roadshow

The Good Still offers a compelling blend of performance and luxury you’d expect, now with way more oomph.

The Bad Handling dynamics on tighter tracks leaves a bit to be desired.

The Bottom Line A bit more mature than before, the M3 is still quite a ride.

The turbochargers are coming, and it sure seems like they’ll soon be under the hoods and bonnets of every high-performance machine on the road. Consumers demand more power, legislators demand better emissions, and forced induction is the way to make it all happen. BMW is not immune, and even its most storied model, the M3, has fallen for the charm of the impeller.

The latest M3 has sharper looks and far more oomph — 11 more horsepower, up to 425, and a whopping 111 pound-foot jump in torque up to 406. It also has a higher cost, at $63,500 to start. It’s the most powerful and refined M3 yet, but is it the best?

BMW
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Retooled, not quite rebooted

For previous generations, the BMW M3 was available in both four-door sedan and two-door coupe configurations. But, to bring things in-line with the rest of its numerical naming conventions, the M3 is now exclusively available with four doors. Don’t worry, you can still get a coupe if you want. Just know that it’ll say M4 on the back.

The same 3.0-liter, turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine drives both cars delivering 425 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. That power exclusively hits the rear wheels via your choice of a six-speed manual (as on this car), or a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission with flappy paddles behind the steering wheel.

Differences between M3 and M4 are small when it comes to handling and performance. Having spent plenty of time on the track in both, I can say that neither offers a disappointing ride, so choose the one that fits better with your lifestyle. Four doors certainly adds a fair bit of practicality for those who’ll be hustling passengers on a regular basis. The M3 also saves $2,200 over the M4, which is enough to get the M adaptive suspension and the upgraded 19-inch wheels.

They have a spidery, open-air appearance and offer that deep-dish, high-offset look that’s come to define BMW’s M cars over the years. They’re well worth the extra money and they also do a great job of showing off our car’s optional carbon-ceramic brakes — which, actually, may not be worth the upgrade.

For starters, the brakes cost a whopping $8,150. They do provide prodigious bite and performance, just lightly brush the middle pedal and you start scrubbing off speed in a hurry, but they’re almost too sharp on the street. However, everything changes on the track.

Dynamics

The M3 has always been all about driving dynamics. However, as is the way of the world these days, the character of the new M3 has as much to do with which buttons you press as which pedals you press. Our car included the optional $1,000 Adaptive M Suspension. It’s well worth the cost, giving you a choice of three stiffness settings to suit your mood.

You can also sharpen up the throttle response, stiffen the steering and, crucially, mix and match any setting you like thanks to dedicated buttons that nestle down next to the shifter. And, once you get a setting you like, you can assign it to one of two favorites buttons on the steering wheel.

The character of the new M3 has as much to do with which buttons you press as which pedals you press.

For the first, M1, I chose the softest across the board, which is perfect for cruising to work in the morning. For M2 I chose the sharpest throttle to get the most from the engine, firmest suspension to get the greatest feedback from the road, but still kept the softest steering setting, so that I wouldn’t have any artificial resistance in my way. This would be my racing home from the office setting.

The M buttons can also reconfigure the car’s traction and stability control modes. The standard mode is just fine for daily driving, while the slightly-racier M Dynamic Mode allows for more wheelspin and sliding before reining in the fun. MDM also works well on a fast-flowing circuit, just taking the edge off of things but still giving you more than enough power to drive through perfect lines.

However, on a tighter course, when you need and want the car to be moving around to hustle it from one corner to the next, I found even MDM to be far too conservative. Charge hard into a corner and the system cuts back the power enough to turn the car into a bit of an understeering bore, front sliding wide past the apex every time. That’s not exactly what I had in mind.

Turn the traction control fully off, however, and things come alive in a big, big way. It’s only then you realize just how hard the TC is system has been working to keep that power under control. With all the aids off, the M3 is an incredibly balanced monster, but a monster nevertheless. When it starts to go around it does so in a hurry, and with no electronic nannies to save you, you’d better be on your game.

LG Hom-Bot Square Robotic Vacuum review – CNET

The Good The LG Hom-Bot Square is one of the quietest robot vacuums we’ve tested, and it offers a variety of cleaning modes to choose from. Battery life is also decent.

The Bad The Hom-Bot was beaten soundly in our cleaning tests by just about every other robot vacuum we’ve tested. It also finished in a virtual tie with an underachieving Hom-Bot model we reviewed three years ago.

The Bottom Line It’s a competent cleaner, but the LG Hom-Bot Square lags far behind less expensive Neato and Roomba models. We recommend sticking with those.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

Right here at the top, I’m going to refer you to my review of the LG Hom-Bot Square from three years ago. I like that review, and not just because I was able to sneak a “Breaking Bad” analogy into the intro — it was one of the very first products I ever tested for CNET.

But that’s not why I’m pointing you back to 2013. The real reason is because this new 2016 version of the Hom-Bot Square is essentially the exact same product as the overpriced and rather unremarkable cleaner I wrote about back then. It looks the same, its features are the same, it navigates the same and it cleans the same, which is to say not as well as the competition. The only real changes are a new coat of paint and a new Swiffer-like mopping attachment you can stick onto the bottom.

At $900 (or AU$1,000 in Australia, where it’s called the “Roboking”; similar models sell in the UK, as well), this new Hom-Bot model is one of the most expensive yet — and more expensive than competitors from Roomba and Neato that are flat-out better. I say don’t get sucked in (or, at least wait until the app-enabled Hom-Bot we saw at CES arrives, hopefully later this year).

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Vacuum versatility

The Hom-Bot offers a variety of different features and cleaning modes.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

The Hom-Bot’s chief strong suit is that it offers several different cleaning modes. The default is “Zig-Zag Mode,” which sets it sweeping back and forth across your floors. But there’s also a “Spiral Spot” mode and a “Cell-by-Cell mode,” which has vacuum break your floorspace into sections before focusing on them one at a time. At all three settings, you can turn on an additional “Turbo Mode” that’ll have it work a little harder at the expense of battery life. You can also set it out in “Repeat Mode” in which it will continuously clean your floors until the battery needs charging, or schedule cleaning runs that start at a specific time.

You can also drive the cleaner around like a toy car using the handy remote. This comes into play with “Myspace Mode,” where you steer the Hom-Bot around a perimeter, then tell it to clean within those bounds — though I suspect that most people will use the manual controls to chase their pets, instead.

That’s a lot of options, but keep in mind that not one of them is new. It’s the exact same set of features we saw back in 2013, right down to the vacuum’s robotic voice and the cheerful little tune that it chirps out whenever it’s done with a run (and yep, there’s still a mute button, too).

In “Cell-by-Cell” mode, the LG Hom-Bot breaks your room into sections, then cleans those sections one at a time. pic.twitter.com/OfbfKDFxWp

— Ry Crist (@rycrist) June 8, 2016

There is a new Swiffer-like dry-mopping attachment that you can clip onto the Hom-Bot’s undercarriage. It wasn’t bad at pushing dust and pet hair around on hardwood floors, but its use is pretty limited with no internal reservoir for water or cleaner fluid. In fact, the vacuum doesn’t do anything different than before to put the mopping attachment to work. There isn’t even a mopping-specific cleaning mode. Given that this is the Hom-Bot’s only new cleaning feature to speak of, it’s a bit like putting new seat covers in a car from 2013 and then calling it a 2016 model.

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Ry Crist/CNET

Cleaning performance

Of course, you might forgive such a vehicle if the manufacturer had at least given the engine an upgrade. That was my hope as I began my performance tests in which we measure the cleaning power and navigational smarts of each robot vacuum we review.

We test three different kinds of debris (rice, pet hair and sand) on three different surfaces (a plushy midpile carpet, a rough-textured low-pile carpet and hardwood floors). After each run, we weigh what the vacuum picked up, then reset everything and test again. We do at least three runs for each kind of debris on each kind of surface, plus additional anecdotal runs to test things like the position of the base station, the additional cleaning modes and how well it navigates through a full-size, furnished living space (in this case, the CNET Smart Home).

Rice (average amount picked up out of 2.50 oz.)

Neato Botvac Connected

2.48

2.45

2.50

Neato Botvac 85

2.45

2.38

2.45

iRobot Roomba 880

2.38

2.43

2.33

Neato Botvac D85

2.44

2.22

2.38

iRobot Roomba 980

2.42

2.29

2.13

Samsung Powerbot VR9000

2.33

2.23

2.28

Neato XV Signature Pro

2.05

2.33

2.13

LG Hom-Bot Square (2016)

1.90

1.93

2.15

LG Hom-Bot Square (2013)

1.85

1.87

2.13

Legend:

Midpile carpet
Low-pile carpet
Hardwood floor

Note:

Longer bars indicates better performance

The Hom-Bot wasn’t bad at picking up rice, but missing entire patches of our test floor brought the numbers down.

Ry Crist/CNET

We started with rice, typically the easiest test for our robot vacuums. The Hom-Bot did a decent job of picking the stuff up, but it did a less than stellar job at navigating across the entirety of our test surfaces. In one test, it essentially missed the entire left side of the pen. In another, it never worked its way into the back corners.

Mediocre cleaning power compounded the problem, especially on carpets. In addition to missing spots, the Hom-Bot wasn’t able to pick up all of the rice in spots that it didn’t miss. Competitors like the Neato Botvac Connected and the iRobot Roomba 880 did far, far better in the same tests.

It wasn’t until I was finished with all of my tests that I went back to check how the 2016 Hom-Bot stacked up against the 2013 model. I was astonished by how close the numbers were — just a 2 percent increase in the amount of rice it collected on carpets and a 1 percent increase on hardwood. So much for that fancy new engine.

Apple iPod Shuffle review – CNET

The Good The Apple iPod Shuffle is affordably priced with a compact design and long-lasting battery. It’s both stylish and easily wearable, thanks to its sturdy built-in clip.

The Bad Requires a USB sync from a PC or Mac running iTunes. There’s no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Only 2GB of storage. Navigating your music is a bit difficult without a screen. You can’t download subscription Apple Music songs.

The Bottom Line Apple’s most affordable iPod is a cheap workout-friendly option for listening to music or podcasts, but it shows its age with a reliance on iTunes syncing and lack of wireless support.

Before the iPhone was Apple’s bread and butter, there was the iPod.

For years my iPod and I were inseparable. No longer tethered to my denim FUBU CD case/purse hybrid and bulky CD player, the sleek, pocket-sized Apple MP3 player was the immediately lovable, magical music box I could bring with me anywhere I went.

I experienced a similar kind of euphoric relief when I got my first iPhone; I no longer had to carry my flip phone and iPod, just this infectiously alluring, futuristic, pocket-sized computer.

Josh Miller/CNET

We’re more than nine years into the iPhone, and I — like hundreds of millions of others — have relegated my old iPod to the junk drawer. In fact, Apple no longer even makes the old-school clickwheel iPod. Not counting the iPod Touch — which is really just a Wi-Fi-only version of the iPhone — the only two models left in the music player line are the iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle.

So I bought both of those latter iPod models, looking to see if it still had any appeal in an iPhone age. I started with the Shuffle.

Apple’s smallest, cheapest iPod

The Shuffle has two main appeals: price and size. At just $49, £40 or AU$75, it’s less than what you’d pay for a good pair of headphones (Apple throws in a pair of its earbuds). It’s also among the most affordable thing you can buy with an Apple logo on it: that’s a third the price of the Nano, or a sixth the price of the Apple Watch Sport.

Design-wise, it’s the same Shuffle you’ve been able to buy since 2010 (though it’s now available in six bright colors). It has the same unobtrusively small, square shape with a built-in clip that’s difficult to pinch without pressing one of the buttons on the front (I accidentally restarted many songs and podcasts this way. So. Annoying!), a power switch and headphone jack on the top edge (with the recent addition of the voiceover button), and volume buttons that surround the play/pause button as the round centerpiece.

Josh Miller/CNET

There’s no Lightning port or even an old 30-pin port. It recharges from any USB port or charger using the included proprietary cable that plugs into the headphone jack — so don’t lose it.