Bosch PerfectDry Dishwasher Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Bosch

To me, zeolite sounds like the key ingredient of some sort of magic potion. To Bosch, it’s a very real mineral that’s the key to the company’s newest dishwasher innovation — PerfectDry technology.

PerfectDry means what you think it does: Bosch is claiming its newest dishwashers, on display at the IFA trade show in Berlin, will consistently produce bone-dry dishes ready to be put away as soon as the cycle ends. The tech supposedly works just as well on glass, porcelain and even plastic dishes.

Budget dishwashers

• Frigidaire FGID2466QF
• Kenmore 13699
• GE GDF610PMJES

Bosch has been using zeolite to help its dishwashers dry since 2008. A mineral that naturally absorbs moisture and emits heat, Bosch packs zeolite into a small container within the dishwasher cavity. During the cycle, the 3D Airflow technology blows heat from the zeolite in three directions across the surfaces of your dishes.

Plastic doesn’t retain heat as well as glass or porcelain, so if you have a load with lots of plastic dishes, the Bosch PerfectDry Dishwashers include an ExtraDry cycle option that increases the time and temperature to make sure every last drop is boiled away.

Since Bosch has been using zeolite since 2008 and 3D Airflow since 2015, it’s unclear what about these new models has led the company to now call them “perfect,” but it’s a lofty claim to aspire to. In our dishwasher tests, the Bosch SHS63VL5UC did well at drying, but didn’t stand out from similarly priced machines from other companies.

Along with PerfectDry, Bosch is lowering the sound rating of all of its series 4, 6 and 8 dishwashers to 42 decibels or less. Bosch hasn’t announced specific pricing or availability for PerfectDry models yet. Once it’s available, I’m looking forward to testing these new models using our strict procedures to see just how perfect this “PerfectDry” technology really is.

• See all our coverage from IFA in Berlin here

Close

Get a glimpse of our food-smeared dishwasher testing lab
Drag

Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Xiaomi

From water filters to drones to electric bicycles, Xiaomi isn’t shy about plunging its fingers in every pie. Its new Mi Robot Vacuum is the latest example of how the Chinese phone maker plans to take over homes and make them smarter — for less than its competitors.

Looking very much like a Roomba, the round robot vacuum boasts 12 sensors. Its laser distance sensor scans its surroundings 1,800 times per second, then maps out your home to clean it efficiently.

Key specs

• 12 sensors, including ultrasonic radar, cliff sensor, gyroscope and accelerometer
• Three processors for real-time mapping and positioning
• Main brush with adjustable height for uneven surfaces
• 5,200 mAh battery

Made by Xiaomi’s ecosystem partner Rockrobo, it features a Nidec brushless DC motor and claims to be ultra quiet. Its 5,200 mAh battery promises 2.5 hours of cleaning. It goes on sale on September 6 in China for 1,699 yuan, which is approximately $255, £195 and AU$340. By comparison, CNET’s pick for best affordable robot vacuum, the Neato XV Signature Pro, costs around $420 or £300.

Like its other ecosystem products, don’t expect Xiaomi to officially launch this around the world, though some products, such as its Mi Air Purifier, have been sold in countries like Singapore. Watch the video below of the Mi Robot Vacuum to see it in action, as it goes head to head with another similar robot vacuum in cleaning up cereal.

Garmin Forerunner 35 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Garmin

Garmin is making it easier (and cheaper) to track heart rate while running. The fitness company on Monday announced a new entry-level GPS watch with a built-in optical heart-rate sensor. At $200 (£160, AU$259), the Forerunner 35 is the company’s cheapest running watch to offer the technology.

The Forerunner 35 does all of the basics: It has GPS to track pace, distance and speed when running or biking, and doubles as a fitness tracker and basic smartwatch. The watch will measure steps, distance, calories burned, intensity minutes and sleep throughout the day, and can display notifications and music controls when connected to an iPhone or Android phone.

Garmin

Other features include auto pause, auto lap, vibration and virtual pacer (a feature that alerts you when you fall behind a set target pace). The watch also includes sport profiles for running, biking, treadmill running (which uses the accelerometer to estimate pace), walking and cardio, and will keep track of your personal records (longest run, fastest run, etc.).

The battery will last up to nine days as a watch/activity tracker, and up to 13 hours with an active GPS signal, which is two hours longer than our favorite running watch, the Forerunner 235. The watch is also waterproof up to 50 meters (about 164 feet).

The Forerunner 35 will be available toward the end of September in black, limelight, frost blue and white.

LG InstaView Side-by-Side Refrigerator Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Door-in-door with Instaview — tap the glass and see what’s inside.

LG

LG’s expanding its Instaview line of fridges once again. After debuting it on the LG Signature Refrigerator at CES, the Korean company introduced the feature on standard four- and three-door French door refrigerators. Now, at the IFA trade show here in Berlin, LG’s showing off side-by-side refrigerators with the Instaview feature.

When it was first introduced at CES, I thought the panel built in to the LG Signature Refrigerator was a tablet a la the Samsung Family Hub fridge. Instead, for better or worse, LG took a simpler approach. The panel built into the door didn’t double as a touchscreen display — it turned translucent when you knocked on it, so you could see the contents of your fridge without opening the door and wasting the cold air.

Hopefully, since side-by-side refrigerators tend to cost less than their French door cousins, these newest Instaview fridges will make the feature more accessible. The French door variety costs upwards of $4,000 in the US. We’ll update this piece as soon as we hear more about pricing and availability.

At IFA, LG’s touting the Wi-Fi Eclipse Display built into the Instaview panel — it shows the fridge and freezer temperature while giving you control options. The new side-by-side model is on display next to the previously announced dual door-in-door fridges with pocket handles and hidden access buttons.

LG didn’t generate the same buzz with the Instaview that Samsung did with the Family Hub, but with a more robust lineup and hopefully more manageable prices, it could get its creative new features into people’s homes faster.

• Check out the rest of CNET’s coverage from IFA here

Miele Blizzard CX1 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Miele stood to the side while other home appliance companies began to roll out bagless vacuums in the 1980s. The German manufacturer decided that vacuums with bags got homes cleaner, and, at the time, Markus Miele, one of its executive directors, said, “Bagless vacuum cleaning is not an option for our company.”

Searching for a vacuum?

• Vacuum buying guide
• Best vacuum cleaners of 2016

Miele sucked it up Wednesday, with its announcement of the company’s first bagless vacuum, the Blizzard CX1, at the IFA 2016 trade show here in Berlin. The Blizzard is a canister vacuum with an internal mono-cyclone design, which means it relies on one tornado-like tunnel of air to trap dirt and dust as it vacuums. The debris then goes through three stages of filtration so there’s less fine dust flying out of the vacuum when you empty the canister.

At a press conference, Miele executives outlined advantages that the Blizzard’s mono-cyclone design has over a multi-cyclone vacuum, such as less noise and more effective use of power. This appeared to be a shot at Dyson, the British manufacturer known for its line of high-end, multi-cyclone vacuums.

The Blizzard will begin selling in stores in October starting at €319 (about $355, £270 or AU$473). Miele has yet to announce a specific release date for the US — and it will continue to sell vacuums with bags.

• Check out CNET’s full coverage of IFA 2016 here

2016 Chevrolet Cruze review – Roadshow

The Good The attractive and efficient 2016 Cruze brims with the latest in-car tech.

The Bad The Cruze has some trouble getting out of its own way, and there are some ergonomic quirks.

The Bottom Line Sporting an impressive technical loadout, but packing a powertrain that’s not exactly eager, Chevrolet’s massively revised 2016 Cruze is a solid middle-of-the-road choice for folks who want a solid commuter that isn’t stuck in the 20th century.

Despite the growing ubiquity of crossovers, one of America’s most tried and true segments — non-premium, small sedans — is still a major battleground. If you want to do well with a group of cars that have been on this war-torn field since your author was in kindergarten, you need to bring your A-game.

The last Chevrolet Cruze did not bring its A-game. I thought it was frumpy and not that great of a driver. The 2016 Cruze, all new for this model year, rectifies that with an impressive technological loadout, attractive looks all around and solid fuel efficiency. It’s an impressive addition to a cutthroat segment, but it falls short of being a standout.

A makeover worthy of “She’s All That”

The old Cruze was blocky and clumsy. This time around, everything’s a bit smoother, a bit slipperier, a bit more contemporary. It adopts many traits from its stablemates, like the general shape of its grille and lighting elements. The side is suitably stylized along the rocker panels and just below the belt line. It’s a whole new car, truly, and it looks good, lacking the craziness of the new Civic but possessing a bit more soul than the uninspired Corolla.

It’s impressive what a little bit of edge-smoothing will do for a car.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

Similarly, the interior looks like Chevrolet’s designers finally woke up from a decades-long slumber. The Cruze’s innards are properly handsome, with our Premier-trim tester sporting a handsome two-tone motif that looks more expensive than it actually is. Sure, the top-layer plastics are on the hard side, and the leather isn’t Mercedes-Benz supple, but with an MSRP south of $30,000, it’s damned impressive.

The interior continues its winning streak with ample storage locations — whether you like shoving old gas receipts in the door cards, the center console or under the infotainment screen, there’s enough space to accommodate plenty of accouterments.

Space for human cargo is equally ample. Despite a faster roofline than before, there’s enough headroom for folks measuring six-foot-plus. Legroom is decent — when in the back, sitting behind a seat set up for a six-foot driver, I had about two inches of space between my knees and the seatback.

The interior also features knobs and buttons aplenty, a welcome sight for buyers not yet ready to move to a future comprised of screens alone. The climate controls feel especially premium, with temperature readouts built into the knobs.

Not all is roses and daisies with the Cruze, though. There are some weird ergonomic niggles. The manual-shifting rocker switch rests on the side of the shift knob, which is unique to Chevrolet and for a good reason (it’s not at all intuitive). The piece of trim that peeks over the top of the infotainment screen hampers my ability to touch the top part of the screen. When I have to look this hard to find fault with something, though, I’d consider it a good thing.

The
2016
Chevrolet
Cruze
is
a
solid…

See full gallery

1 – 6 of 47

Next
Prev

Tech is the Cruze’s strong suit

The Cruze flatters its owners with an impressive array of the latest in-car technology, so long as the right options boxes are ticked. This is where the Chevrolet gains an advantage over most of the segment, offering up a mix of creature-comfort and safety systems that tech-forward buyers will appreciate.

Want to know what the weather’s like? In the event you can’t just, you know, look out the windshield, there’s an app for that.

Nick Miotke/Roadshow

Chevrolet’s 8.0-inch MyLink infotainment system (a 7.0-inch screen is standard on lower trims) feels much snappier than before, and the addition of both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto gives the Cruze an edge over the competition, save for the Elantra and Civic. It lacks a full suite of built-in connected apps, but you get some basic ones, like Pandora, and it will also read out your text messages without having to use CarPlay or Android Auto.

It makes up for that lack of apps with GM’s OnStar connectivity. Its 4G LTE antenna and Wi-Fi hotspot gave me access to the internet when my mediocre phone provider could barely get its act together. OnStar’s smartphone app uses that antenna to remotely lock, unlock and start the vehicle, which adds another level of premium feeling, although not without a paid subscription.

Sadly, there’s only one USB port up front, which means you’ll have to balance charging phones with multiple folks in the car. But a USB port in the back seat helps make up for this front seat deficiency.

This tester also came equipped with the full loadout of safety systems, by way of the $790 Driver Confidence II package. The forward collision warning was not overly sensitive, but a lack of adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking is a bit of a surprise, and not a positive one. The combination of rear parking sensors and a legible backup camera makes parking a breeze, although blind zone monitoring feels a bit silly on a car this small. I would have gladly taken auto-braking over the blind spot system.

Bosch Twinguard Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Close

Bosch breaks into smart home security with three new gadgets
Drag

Bosch is refining the sense of smell on its Twinguard smoke detector with the goal of reducing false alarms. The Twinguard not only includes photoelectric smoke detectors, but senses air quality to help determine when there’s a real emergency.

When the alarm sounds, the Bosch Twinguard will send you a push notification on your phone, and it can trigger other smart devices in the Bosch Smart Home system. You could have your Philips lights blink when the smoke alarm sounds, for example.

Chris Monroe/CNET

Outside of emergency situations, the Twinguard monitors temperature, humidity and general air quality by detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs), so it stands to be the most knowledgeable smoke detector on the market. The Nest Protect similarly offers app-enabled smarts, and both the Nest and Bosch detector distinguish between different types of smoke to help make an informed decision about when to sound the alarm. The Nest Protect, however, doesn’t monitor VOCs.

Bosch’s Twinguard is one of three new smart home products Bosch introduced today at the IFA trade show here in Berlin. The company best known for its dishwashers is clearly making a concerted push into the fully connected home. When Bosch first announced the Bosch Home Connect app, the goal was to encompass everything. Now, with a wider variety of devices, we’re starting to see that plan come to fruition.

Gadgets galore from Bosch at IFA 2016
See full gallery

1 – 4 of 8

Next
Prev

• Security system buying guide
• DIY security offers smarter peace of mind
• Internet-connected homes open the door to hackers

My main concern for the smoke detector is implementation. The First Alert OneLink Smoke Detector showed what can go wrong when a company throws half-baked smarts onto a safety product. The Bosch Twinguard looks to be taking a simple approach, with the app serving as a monitor and a notifier. I’ll be keen to test its responsiveness once it launches in the US.

The Twinguard will debut in parts of Europe at the beginning of 2017, though a representative promised me it would make its way to the US shortly. Expect more details on when it’ll come to the US at CES. The recommended price in Europe is €150, which converts to roughly $165, AU$225 or £13o.

• Head here for loads more new tech from CNET at IFA

Asus ZenWatch 3 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The new Asus ZenWatch 3, pictured here in rose gold.

Asus

In today’s moment of zen, meet an Android Wear watch with no less than three buttons: the Asus ZenWatch 3.

The ZenWatch 3 was announced at trade show IFA in Berlin on Wednesday. It will cost 229 euros. International pricing wasn’t initially available, but that converts to about $255, £195 and AU$340. It comes in gunmetal, silver or rose gold colours with a choice of leather or rubber straps in dark brown or a lighter beige.

This year it’s all about luxury. Gone is the large, blocky display, which has been replaced with a circular 1.39-inch AMOLED screen, displaying 287 pixels per inch, and measuring 9.95mm thick. It’s covered by gently curved Corning Gorilla Glass, which as well as protecting from scuffs and scratches gives it a more traditionally watchy feel than smartwatches with flat faces. The display is also a complete circle and doesn’t include the “flat tyre” black bar that we’ve seen in the Moto 360 and other watches.

On the screen you have a choice of more than 50 unique watch faces, some of which support widgets to show you useful information such as the current weather, the number of steps you’ve walked or missed call notifications. You change the watch face using the ZenWatch Manager app on your phone.

Where most Android Wear devices have just one or two crown buttons, the ZenWatch features a third button that can be assigned to open your favourite app. By default, for example, it opens the fitness tracker app.

Asus said the 340 mAh battery will last for up to two days, which is pretty standard compared to the Apple Watch and other smartwatches, but Asus is also doing something unique. If you want more, or you’re a heavy watch user, there’s a 200 mAh battery pack accessory that snaps on the back of the ZenWatch 3. The extra power makes the watch a little chunkier but doesn’t make it too chunky to wear.

Still not convinced? The ZenWatch 3 is one of the first smartwatches to be powered by the new Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. It comes with a new technology called HyperCharge, which essentially takes the fast charging feature we’ve seen in phones and brings them to watches. In short, the ZenWatch 3 can be charged very fast: It takes only a 15-minute charge to replenish 60 percent of the watch’s battery life.

As with other Android Wear watches, the ZenWatch 3 carries a water resistance rating of IP67 and is compatible with both iPhones and Android phones. Google’s watch operating system isn’t our favourite, although it is slated to receive a massive update later this year.

The ZenWatch 3 is slated to arrive in the US and other countries, likely including the UK and Australia, sometime in October.

Asus ZenWatch 3 specs

• 316L-grade stainless steel
• Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor
• IP67 water-resistance
• Android Wear software
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB of internal storage
• 1.39-inch AMOLED screen with 400×400-pixel resolution (287ppi)
• Bluetooth 4.1
• Wi-Fi
• Curved Corning Gorilla Glass
• 340 mAh battery

Bosch OptiMUM Kitchen Machine Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The OptiMum Kitchen Machine has a built-in digital kitchen scale.

Bosch

More Bosch News

• Bosch pushes into the smart home with three new products and IFTTT
• False alarms be gone — Bosch’s smart smoke detector hopes to reduce annoyances

A good baker knows that weight, not volume, is a more precise way to measure ingredients in a recipe. Bosch wants to save that baker some counter space and time with the OptiMum Kitchen Machine, a stand mixer with a digital scale built into the base so you don’t have to move your mixing bowl to weigh out ingredients. The German appliance manufacturer introduced it Wednesday at the IFA trade show here in Berlin.

Prices for the OptiMum Kitchen Machine start at 700 euros — roughly $780, £595 or AU$1,040 converted. This is more than double the cost for the cheapest stand mixer from KitchenAid, a brand that has become synonymous with luxury stand mixers. Various models of the OptiMum will start appearing in stores in September. It’s unclear if the appliance will be available in the US.

Small countertop appliances that use digital scales have become an easy way to introduce precision, along with technology, to cooking. Smart scales such as the Perfect Bake and the Drop scale connect to apps that provide recipes, detect the weight of your ingredients and make sure you’re adding the right amounts. It’s worth noting that Drop announced it will provide Bosch the software for the appliance maker’s Series 8 connected ovens.

Unlike the smart scales, you have to use your own recipes and know how much of an ingredient you’ll need to use the OptiMum. You enter your target weight on the scale, and it counts backward as you put your ingredients in the mixing bowl. The machine also includes sensor features to help with mixing, such as automatically stopping when creams, egg whites or yeast dough reach the right consistency.

• Check out CNET’s full coverage of IFA 2016 here