Flippy the burger-flipping robot is now working alongside humans at CaliBurger

The job of flipping burgers took a big step toward extinction this week as an autonomous robotic kitchen assistant called Flippy started work at a fast food outlet in California.

Designed and built by Miso Robotics, Flippy took up its position alongside human staff at Caliburger in Pasadena on Monday. Every day during the lunchtime shift, the robot will flip burger patties on the grill, remove them when they’re ready, and place them on buns whereupon a human worker will add the extras.

Billed as the world’s first burger-flipping robot, Flippy is essentially a six-axis robotic arm with a spatula on the end.

Clad in its own chef garb, Flippy can flip up to 300 burgers an hour, and, CaliBurger customers will be pleased to know, will cook each one “perfectly and consistently,” according to Miso Robotics.

It does so by using 3D, thermal, and regular cameras to monitor the burgers throughout the cooking process. As the patties cook, its human co-workers can keep track of the progress of each burger on a nearby display (below).

Miso Robotics

The robot’s technology also ensures that it knows when to switch from using a spatula for raw meat to one for cooked meat, a vital feature that no burger-flipping robot can be without if it’s to have a meaningful future in the fast food industry.

Taking its food hygiene skills to the max, the $60,000 robot can even clean spatulas while cooking, and wipe the surface of the grill with a scraper.

As Flippy made its debut at CaliBurger this week, David Zito, co-founder and chief executive officer of Miso Robotics, said the long-term aim is to “improve working conditions of chefs and line cooks with assistants, not replace them.”

Zito added: “Anyone who’s ever worked in a restaurant knows how hard the work is and the value of extra hands and that’s exactly what we built.”

CaliBurger is planning to install the robot in 50 more locations nationwide, an ambition boosted last month when the robotics project received $10 million of funding, taking Miso Robotics’ disclosed funding to $14 million.

The cash injection will also go toward developing new skills for Flippy so it can perform more functions in a fast food kitchen. When that happens, it might not be too long before we walk into a burger restaurant staffed entirely by Flippy bots. After all, we already have robots running hotels.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Cooking burgers may not be a human job for much longer if Flippy has its way
• Place your burger order with nothing but a smile at a facial-recognition kiosk
• Robotic 3D printer uses augmented reality to fabricate designs as they’re created
• Honda just rolled out 4 of its cutest robot designs yet
• Rise of the machines: Here are the best robots we saw at CES 2018

DJI’s Mavic Pro drone has just dropped to its lowest-ever price

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

If you’re eyeing a DJI drone for your first quadcopter or looking at its Mavic models as a more portable alternative to your larger Phantom machine, you should know that the Mavic Pro is currently available on Amazon for $769 — that’s a price cut of $230, and is $30 cheaper than the recently released Mavic Air.

It’s the best price we’ve seen for the Pro since its release in 2016, and is likely to prove hard to resist for those who’ve been considering this particular DJI drone.

The deal bags you the machine itself, the remote controller, a battery and charger, a 16GB SD card, spare propellers, and three kinds of USB cables (Lightning, Micro USB, and USB-C).

There’s also the Fly More bundle priced at $1,078, marking a hefty price drop of $221. With this option you receive two extra batteries, extra propellers, a charging hub, car charger, a battery to power bank adapter, and a shoulder bag to throw it all in.

Digital Trends gave the foldable DJI Mavic Pro 4.5 out of a possible 5 stars in its in-depth hands-on review, praising it for its portable design, solid build, excellent range, and decent 4K camera. But as we mentioned at the top, DJI recently launched the Mavic Air for $799. It’s lighter and smaller than the Pro, and features better obstacle avoidance capabilities. The Pro, however, offers superior battery life of up to 27 minutes — that’s six minutes more than the Air.

If price and portability are your main concerns, the DJI range also includes the diminutive Spark, which is currently on offer for $339 down from $399, though as its price suggests, this particular model is less powerful, comes with fewer features, and sports a less impressive camera than its siblings.

The Mavic Pro price drop is likely to be in response to consumers turning their attention to the Mavic Air, which has gotten rave reviews since its launch at the end of January, 2018. It could also be coming ahead of an announcement of an updated version of the Mavic Pro, although it’s been suggested the launch of any follow-up might not be happening until at least June.

For more details on how the Pro rates alongside the Air, take a moment to check out Digital Trends’ specs breakdown.

Editors’ Recommendations

• DJI Mavic Air vs Mavic Pro: Which drone is better?
• Apple HomePod debut set, but is Alexa too far ahead of Siri?
• DJI’s new Mavic Air drone shoots in 4K, does 43 mph, and fits in your pocket
• Color correct and protect the DJI Mavic Air with new accessories from PolarPro
• The best humidifiers to moisten the air in your home and office

Pizza Hut’s reheated pizza-ordering shoes come with cool new feature … sort of

If you were lucky enough to get your cheese-smeared hands on a pair of Pizza Hut’s Pie Tops shoes last year, chances are you’re now well and truly welded to your sofa following endless deliveries of the popular food, each order placed via the fancy footwear’s built-in button.

It’s not clear if there was a clamor among the pizza-loving public for a more advanced design, but the company has gone ahead and launched one anyway. Sounding like a really bad movie sequel, Pie Tops II now features a second button on the other shoe, this one for pausing the TV while you answer the door to collect your piping-hot pizza.

The launch is part of an offbeat ad campaign to coincide with March Madness, with the pause button ensuring you’ll be able to watch the games in their entirety — unless you’re watching a live broadcast. The shoes are real and the new pause button really works, so long as you have a compatible DVR receiver, that is. Yes, we know you can simply press the pause button on your remote as well, but that’s not half as much fun as pressing a button on your shoe, right?

“This year, the Pie Tops II were created to showcase our focus on giving customers the best delivery experience while making sure that tournament fans can feed their pizza craving without missing a moment of the action,” said Zipporah Allen, Pizza Hut’s chief marketing officer, adding, “It’s called March Madness for a reason. We don’t want anyone to miss a play while answering the door to get their pizza.”

Just make sure you hit the right button when the doorbell rings or you’ll be getting another delivery a short while later.

As with the original design, the Pie Tops II shoes use Bluetooth to link the footwear to the Pie Tops app on your smartphone to ensure the order goes through smoothly.

The shoe now comes in two colors: red and “wheat,” though we think a slightly cheesier color would’ve been more fitting. It also has Pizza Hut branding on the side so that everyone knows your pizza outlet of choice. Other unique design features include “extreme marinara splash, cheese grater mesh, branded Pizza Hut lace tags, extra ‘cheese pull’ laces, and branded inner soles.”

If you’re already salivating at the thought of slipping into a pair of Pie Tops, you’re going to have to be very lucky. Pizza Hut is partnering with HBX.com to sell 50 pairs (price currently unknown) from March 19, and will also give away 50 pairs to social media influencers, with more offered as raffle prizes at the Final Four Fan Fest in San Antonio, Texas at the end of the month.

The company said it’s also planning to add smaller sizes for children, though we’re not sure of the wisdom of having a pizza-ordering button on the shoe of an eight-year-old kid. We trust Pizza Hut will incorporate safeguards.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Bite into National Pizza Day with these gadgets for making easy at-home pies
• Boxy Toyota e-Palette concept is designed to transport both people and pizzas
• Nuro wants to make pizza delivery guys a thing of the past
• Ford’s self-driving cars are now delivering pizza in Miami
• Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet: Snooze-proof alarms, ridable backpacks, and more

A smartphone user’s headphone buyer’s guide

Everything you ever wanted to know about buying a pair of headphones from someone who buys way too many pairs of headphones.

Almost everyone has a smartphone. We don’t all use them the same way, though. You might like to play games, or maybe you’re a news or social media junkie, or you just want a way to stay in touch with the people you know and a smartphone is perfect because they all have one, too. It’s pretty great when you think about it; these little gadgets can be anything for anyone.

One thing all of our phones have in common is that they have, for all intents and purposes, replaced the portable media player. The way we listen to our music has evolved and streaming services have replaced the USB cable for almost everyone. And no matter how you get the music on your phone, you need a pair of headphones to listen to it best. Don’t be that one guy on the bus who wants us all to hear those sweet Def Leppard tunes.

You’ll find plenty of places online that can recommend a great pair of headphones you can buy in any and every configuration. We have several of them here, too, and I admit listening to music and picking out the best pair is a great way to earn a living. You should definitely check them out before you buy any headphones at any price, but it’s also important to know a few other things, too. Let’s talk about how some headphones are going to work better for some phones so you know which of those highly recommended headphones are best for you.

Bluetooth vs. wired

There’s no better way to kick this off. Many new phones don’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that more phones with one are in use than without. Samsung and LG still offer a headphone jack, and not everyone buys a new phone every year. And even if your phone doesn’t have a headphone jack you can still connect headphones through the USB or Lightning port. But should you?

Ignoring the economic benefit of having a regular headphone jack, for almost everyone the benefits of wireless headphones outweigh the drawbacks. Yes, you have to keep one more thing charged, but you no longer have a wire running down your neck. We’re mostly focused on how things sound here, though, and almost every pair of Bluetooth headphones you can buy is going to sound just great for listening to music or a movie or even talking on the phone.

I hate not having a headphone jack, but when it comes to sound quality it’s really not a big loss if you’re not using a V30.

There are three reasons for this. The first is that the music you’re streaming isn’t of a high enough quality for it to lose any because of the Bluetooth transfer. The HD codes used for Bluetooth in phones for the past few years can deliver higher quality audio than Spotify (or almost any streaming service) can deliver over the network. It’s not that Spotify is sending poor quality either — Bluetooth is just really good now.

The other two reasons Bluetooth will sound as good or better than a wired connection for most people has to do with the electronics involved. Music is stored and streamed in digital format, but headphones need it in an analog format to make the sound. Two dedicated parts do all the magic here: the DAC and the amp.

More: Does my phone have a DAC? Explaining DACs and Amps in smartphones today

Some phones, like the LG V30 or the HTC 10, have dedicated premium audio hardware on board. If you have a phone like this, then wired audio can sound better than Bluetooth provided you have a high-quality source. But most phones just use the audio hardware that’s included as part of the processor assembly. Bluetooth headphones have this same audio hardware built into them. The audio hardware on the chip that powers your phone is acceptable when it comes to quality, but it takes extra time and money to design things in a way that won’t degrade the quality because of electrical interference from all the other bits inside your phone.

A cheap DAC and amp in a phone won’t sound as good as the same cheap parts in a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

A phone maker can make this equipment sound really good, but most of the time the end result won’t sound as good as those same cheap white-label electronics when they are placed inside your headphones. These may sound like small details, but they can make all the difference. Simply put using an example we all know: a Galaxy S8 sounds pretty good using an average pair of earbuds and will sound just as good or better using an inexpensive pair of Bluetooth headphones. High-end headphones that support HD codecs will sound better.

And that’s enough words on the endless wired vs. wireless headphone debate.

What to look for in Bluetooth headphones

Bluetooth will sound just as good as wired most of the time, but if you want a pair of great sounding “premium” Bluetooth headphones you need to know a little bit about codecs.

A codec (short for coder-decoder) describes the software and hardware used to encode, compress, and decode audio data and some do a much better job of it than others do when it comes to things sounding like the original recording. There are three important ones for smartphone users, and you’ll want to make sure the headphones you buy support the right one(s).

• AAC: If you have an iPhone, getting a pair of headphones that supports the AAC codec over Bluetooth will mean you’re getting the best possible quality. If you don’t have an iPhone or never plan to listen through an iPhone, AAC means nothing for you.
• aptX: If you have a phone with a Qualcomm chip inside, your phone probably supports aptX. There are three flavors of aptX: “regular” aptX, aptX LL (for low latency), and aptX HD (for higher definition) and any of them sound really good when paired with headphones that support it. The LL and HD versions will also fall back on the regular version if it needs to, so a phone that supports aptX paired with headphones that say they support aptX HD will be able to send audio using the standard aptX codec and it will sound great.
• LDAC: The LDAC codec comes from Sony and is able to deliver audio at quality as good or better than even the best wired setup at it’s highest settings. It’s important because as of Android Oreo (8.0) LDAC is built into every Android phone. If your phone and your headphones support LDAC, things will sound great.

The trickiest part is knowing what codec(s) your phone and the headphones you’re looking at support. Almost every phone with a Qualcomm chip supports aptX and almost every pair of high-end Bluetooth headphones do, too. Sony’s high-end models support LDAC, and as mentioned every Android phone with Oreo does. AAC is harder to find in headphones, but every iPhone supports it.

This information is also listed on the packaging for headphones and in your phone’s manual, so be sure to take a look if you’re not sure or just ask online. Chances are someone else already looked and knows the answer.

Impedance

Bluetooth users get to sort through codecs, but wired headphone users also need to pay attention to one line on the spec sheet of any headphones: impedance.

If you’re not familiar with the word, you can think of impedance as resistance (which it is) and you’ll be fine. You don’t need to understand the nuances of impedance vs. “regular” resistance to know why it matters. Higher impedance headphones need a stronger amplifier to drive them and won’t be very loud or very clear with most phones if the impedance is too high.

Most headphones match up well with smartphone hardware but beware if you’re in the market for high-end gear.

None of this matters if you prefer earbuds. I don’t know of any earbuds that have an impedance of higher than 30 or so ohms, with most being much lower. That’s because earbuds were designed for portable players and most portable players don’t have a high-gain amp inside them. But if you’re buying a pair of over-the-ear headphones, especially expensive ones, you might want to check.

That doesn’t mean lower is better though. When the impedance is too low, the headphones will be louder (which can be a plus for some of us) and may sound distorted (which may also be a plus for some of us that are a bit weird). Look for a pair somewhere between 20 and 50 ohms impedance and your phone will be able to properly drive them. A little lower or higher can be OK, but remember that the higher the impedance is, the lower the volume will be. Get too far outside this range and things might be too quiet or too loud and distorted.

The LG V30

When it comes to headphones, the LG V30 gets its own category. It deserves one, and all of this applies to the V10 and V20, too.

Everything above about Bluetooth sounding as good as wired doesn’t apply to the V30, as even mediocre headphones can benefit from the superior DAC inside the phone. The source quality still matters though, and it’s really worth downloading some lossless audio to your SD card and hearing just how good it can sound if you have a V30.

When it comes to smartphone audio, LG is where it’s at. Hail to the king, baby.

The V30 has two internal sound devices. That doesn’t mean it has two separate sets of hardware, just two independent configurations. One configuration puts the phone into a high-impedance mode when you use a set of headphones that have a higher impedance.

This means two things — lower impedance headphones will be VERY LOUD using the high-impedance mode (there are ways to trick the phone using adapters) and may very well blow the speakers or the eardrum they are next to. But higher-impedance headphones are a real thing, and this lets them enjoy a bit of extra power so they have more volume and clarity than they would without it. Both modes still use the superior DAC and signal path; the only difference is in the amplifier gain.

You can trick the V30 into high-gain mode with an adapter. You can also blow your eardrums, or even worse, your headphones.

This makes a difference when you’re buying headphones. First of all, I don’t recommend you try any of the tricks to use high-gain with headphones that don’t need it. It’s bad for the headphones and your ears if you take things too loud. And you really don’t need to, because low-impedance headphones still sound great through the V30. But you might like the sound from high-impedance headphones better because it can be slightly different.

Any of the high-quality headphones you see recommended will sound better through the V30 than almost every other phone, but if you’re looking to spend a little more money and want to make it worth spending, you’ll need to listen yourself to decide if buying high impedance headphones are worth it. My personal recommendations:

• Sony MDR7506. I just love these headphones. They’re big and bulky and have a horrible coiled cord, but they sound beautifully flat. This lets you set the way things sound through your equalizer and you can adjust to find the sound you like. Consider these to be low-impedance (63 ohms) even though some models of V30 will think they are high-impedance because the cut-off point is right around 50-60 ohms. Just watch the volume and you’ll be fine.

See at Amazon

• Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 250 Ohm. These high-gain headphones won’t sound very good with a lot of other audio players or home stereo equipment. They’re a bit screechy on the high-notes and boomy and echoey on the bass. But they match up really great with the V30’s Enhanced audio filter preset and you won’t have these issues. If you want to try high-impedance headphones without spending an arm and a leg, you can grab these for well under $200 from Amazon. Be ready to use the liberal return policy if you don’t like them.

I don’t recommend these with the V20, though. Those audio filters on the new Sabre DAC make all the difference.

See at Amazon

Frequency response

Headphones are a very personal thing and what sounds good to me may not sound good to you. But there is a way to measure how well things can sound at the very high and very low end of any music or movie audio track — the frequency response.

This is simply the limit of the hardware’s ability to create audio listed as a number. You’ll see it listed as a range and the lower number represents the lowest bass the headphones can recreate and the higher number represents the highest treble.

Ideally, you want to see a frequency response of 5 – 35,000 Hz (Hertz). That would mean the headphones are capable of reproducing every sound a human with perfect hearing can hear. Headphones with a frequency response that wide might be a little pricey, so a more reasonable limit is 15 – 24,000 Hz. and you’ll find a lot of headphones with that range of frequency response.

USB-C headphones

USB-C is a great way to send audio, but there are also a few things you need to be on the lookout for when buying a pair for your phone. The first one is that there aren’t a lot of choices out there, so if you were to go with Bluetooth this year and wait for the industry to catch up nobody would blame you.

The second is the active versus passive question — which does your phone support? Active USB audio means the phone is sending audio in its digital form and you need headphones or a dongle with a DAC and amplifier inside. Passive USB audio is a signal that’s been converted to analog inside the phone and the dongle or headphones need to not have a DAC and amp, or be capable of taking in an analog signal in some other capacity.

Smartphone manufacturers switched to USB-C audio before headphone manufacturers were ready.

On the phone side, it’s not too messy. Every Android phone supports Active dongles or headphones, and all you need to do is plug them in and they will be recognized correctly. Passive dongles or headphones are another story, and there are only a few phones that support a dongle or headphones without their own DAC and amp — Motorola being the most well-known example.

Headphones and adapters are messy. you would think the fact that there is a standalone DAC and amp inside would be something worth writing on the package or in a product description, but most of the time you won’t see it mentioned. My best advice is to ask online and get an answer before you spend any money.

More: USB-C audio: Everything you need to know

What do I use?

I’m one of those people. The ones who nitpick audio to death and spend too much time worrying about it and too much money on board equipment. I’m also in the position where I can use a lot of different phones with my favorite headphones of all types. I do tend to favor flat headphones with any adjustment coming from an on-board equalizer, so know that going in.

Anyways, here is the gear I use and paid for after trying a lot of different stuff:

• Earbuds. If you can get your hands on a pair of Samsung Level-IN earbuds (which are now discontinued), you should totally buy them. I don’t use earbuds very often because having anything inside my ears drives me batty, but I really like the way those sound. A recommendation that you can buy are Aukey’s Arc Earbuds. They’re comfortable as far as earbuds go (they are the behind the ear type), have a nice thick silicone-coated cable and sound pretty great.

See at Amazon

• Bluetooth. My colleagues would all recommend the Bose QuietComforts here, but I disagree. If you need noise-canceling above everything else they’re great, but if you don’t there’s a better (and much cheaper) option for my money — Ghostek’s SoDrop 2. They’re comfortable, sound great with any phone that supports aptX, and inexpensive (about $65). A friend turned me on to them after he bought a pair from an airport vending machine of all places and I bought my own pair to toss into my laptop bag.

See at Amazon

• Over-ear headphones. If you have an LG V30 (or V20 or V10 even), scroll up because there are better options for you. For everyone else, I have to recommend the Audio-Technica ATH-M40x. Some headphones will sound better on some phones, but I’ve found that these sounds really good on every phone I’ve tried. They’re 35 ohms, fully collapsable with a 360-degree swiveling cup, and have a detachable cord. They’re also fairly flat sounding (just a hint of extra bass) and are less than $100 so you won’t want to kick a puppy if you lose or break them. That’s exactly what I want from a pair of headphones and unless I have my V10 with me, I’ll have these.

See at Amazon

One final bit of advice here: I can’t tell you what sounds the best to you. Neither can anyone else on the internet or in real life. Buy your headphones from a vendor that will let you return them if you hate them! I either buy from Guitar Center because I can walk in and try them or from Amazon because I can send them right back. I have an unhealthy obsession with headphones, so let my mistakes and eventual epiphany help you out here.

Rock on!

Is the Galaxy S9 a good upgrade over the S8?

The Galaxy S9 is newer, but the S8 is still a champ.

When a new phone comes out, it can be easy to look at your current handset and feel the sudden urge to upgrade – even if it’s just a year or less old. For Galaxy S8 owners during MWC last week when Samsung announced the Galaxy S9 and S9+, a lot of you likely had that exact same feeling.

The Galaxy S9 brings a lot to the table, with some of its highlights being a physically changing aperture for its rear camera, blazing fast Snapdragon 845 processor, and a fingerprint sensor that’s now in a logical location.

For people rocking the Galaxy S7 or a phone that’s even older, upgrading to the Galaxy S9 just makes sense. However, what do you do if you’re using last year’s Galaxy S8? Here’s what some of our forum users had to say when asked if they’d be leaving the S8 for the S9.

JHStewart1023
03-04-2018 10:19 AM

“

I am… I am kinda excited about the new camera features, and the new snapdragon chip personally… I wanted to preorder the 9 Plus this time around but I am getting the regular 9

Reply

NJ Fred
03-04-2018 11:01 AM

“

No. I am done chasing the Holy Grail – – especially over minor improvements that amount to a handful of air when analyzed objectively. “Keeping Up with the Jones’s” gets ridiculously expensive after a while.

My S8+ meets my needs.

Reply

tuscanybay
03-04-2018 10:53 AM

“

I have an S8 and will probably go with the S9
Plus this time for the full featured dual camera, and the longer battery life.

Reply

cindylike24
03-04-2018 03:59 PM

“

I don’t think I’m going to upgrade to an S9 just yet. It doesn’t seem like there’s that much of a difference between the S8 and S9 (regular). I’m still happy with my S8. It fits nicely in my hands still meets the needs I have for a phone.

Reply

Now, we want to hear from you – If you’ve got a Galaxy S8, will you be upgrading to the Galaxy S9?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X: Metal and glass sandwiches
• Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Nokia 8 Sirocco, 7 Plus, and 6 join Android Enterprise Recommended

There are now 25 phones part of the initiative.

On February 21, Google formally introduced Android Enterprise Recommended – a new program that highlights the best Android phones for people in the business/enterprise space. It launched with 22 devices from a variety of manufacturers, and now it’s getting some extra love from Nokia.

The Nokia 8 was previously the only phone from HMD Global that was part of Android Enterprise Recommended, but now it’s being joined by the Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus, and Nokia 6.

All three of these new phones were just announced at MWC 2018, and their addition to Android Enterprise Recommended really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

One of the biggest requirements for the program is that OEMs need to push out security patches within 90 days of their initial release, and that should be a piece of cake considering that all of Nokia’s phones going forward are also part of Google’s Android One initiative.

While this move doesn’t mean much for regular consumers, it’s yet another sign of how dedicated HMD Global is to making the Nokia brand one of the go-to’s in the Android space for secure software, fast updates, and a clean user experience.

Nokia 8 Sirocco hands-on: Android One goes sexy and expensive

Ecovacs Deebot N79S Review: Keeps your house clean with some tradeoffs

Your housemates will love it and your pets will hate it.

The dream of having a truly autonomous smart home feels closer than ever in 2018. Smart speakers sales are booming and the Internet of Things bubble continues to expand with more and more connected devices available for automating processes around your home. It’s an exciting time for early adopters, but its always important to keep tempered expectations as the fantasy of living in a Jetsons-style future world is easily undermined when up against real-world challenges.

Ecovacs Robotics is a company designing robots that will keep your futuristic smart home clean today. I was sent one of its latest models, the Deebot N79S, an autonomous vacuum cleaner you can command from your smartphone or with your voice, using Alexa for reviewing purposes. I’ve been putting it to work around my home for the past few weeks and have been impressed overall.

It makes a great first impression

Robot vacuums have been around since 2002, but I always viewed them as an aspirational household accessory reserved for the uber-wealthy or a punchline for mocking tech-savvy hipsters. They’re quirky and cute.

The Deebot N79S was my first experience using a robot vacuum and it’s got the exact look and feel I’d expect from a robot vacuum designed for 2018. It’s got a sleek design with an array of sensors and bump-guards to help it navigate around your home, with a low enough profile to fit under most furniture in our home, including under the living room couch. Given that NOBODY likes vacuuming under the couch, that was pretty awesome to discover.

After unboxing, I let it charge for the required 4 hours and prepped the house for the first clean. That meant clearing any bags or shoes off the floor, tucking away power cords, and looking for other smaller objects that could damage the vacuum.

The Deebot N79S has four cleaning modes which you can control with the wireless remote:

• AUTO mode: This is the most common mode you’ll use and sets the Deebot to automatically cover as much floor space as possible by cleaning in straight lines. It works its way around the room, changing directions whenever it meets an obstacle. Despite its random nature, this mode does seem to offer the most efficient clean.
• Spot Cleaning mode: The Deebot drives in a slowly widening spiral. This mode is meant for cleaning up a specifically dirty area of floor in a room.
• Edge Cleaning mode: As the name suggests, this mode sets the Deebot to patrol around the edges and corners of the room. It will still work its way around obstacles as needed and will work around door frames and down hallways to cover multiple rooms.
• Single Room mode: Essentially works the same as AUTO mode, but is specifically designed for smaller rooms with the door closed.

You can also manually control your Deebot using either the app or remote control.

On its maiden voyage, I gleefully watched as it spent the first 20 minutes slowly exploring the living room, cheering it on as it crossed the doorway into the kitchen for the first time, and watching proudly as it proceeded to make multiple passes over the entire main floor.

The sad reality is any time-saving claims are negated by the fact that you’re going to closely shadow your robot vacuum around your home the first couple of times — partially to appreciate the novelty of a freaking robot vacuum cleaning your house, but also because as smart as the N79S is, it will still manage to work itself into trouble.

Babysitting the vacuum

As silly as I felt following the Deebot around the house, it served a practical purpose. You will need to identify any spots in your home that might cause problems for the Deebot. The N79S features a bunch of smart sensors for recognizing obstacles and detecting stairs and big drops, but they do not always operate flawlessly.

This is a deep-cleaning model designed to effortlessly transition from hardwood to area rug or carpet, but it can’t run on long pile carpeting, and area rugs with long fringes can easily get tangled in the brushes. And while it’s got a low profile for navigating under furniture, if there’s a spot in your home where it can get stuck, it will find it every time.

For example, while it maneuvers itself under the couch with no issues, it somehow manages to wedge itself pretty good under our fridge. This became a recurring issue as it tried to clean as far under the fridge as possible. I appreciate the attempt to get into every tight area it can, but this is where a room-mapping feature would have come in real handy.

Any time the vacuum is working on the main floor, I must keep an ear out for distress beeps that indicate the Deebot needs help.

This, unfortunately, means that any time the vacuum is working on the main floor, I must keep an ear out for distress beeps that indicate the Deebot needs help. This has happened a handful of times during my testing: I’ve had to free it from under the fridge more than a few times, and there was one time I came down to find it tangled up with the strap from a backpack I had foolishly left lying around. This managed to mangle one of the side-brushes pretty good, but I was able to work it back into shape so there was no lasting harm done

Initially, I had planned to schedule the Deebot to run during the nights, as I found the N79S to be slightly quieter than the standup vacuum it replaced — certainly low-volume enough to run in the middle of the night without waking the house. But knowing that it might get stuck in the fridge every night has kind of kiboshed that idea. That’s not to say that I exclusively run the robot vacuum whenever I have the time to follow it around, but when I do run it, I half expect to find it crying for help midway during each clean. Chances are you will find similar problem areas in your home, too.

You have to keep your cleaning bot clean

One thing I immediately noticed was how well this thing attracts dust and dirt — but not in the way I expected. After a full crawl through the house, there almost seemed to be as much dust and hair clinging to the outer casing of the Deebot as there was in the removable dustbin. Furthermore, when Ecovacs says you need to fully clean the vacuum and its filters at least once a week, it absolutely means it. By the end of the first week, it was clear the N79S was in dire need of a good cleaning as it didn’t seem to be cleaning as efficiently as it did fresh out of the box.

Because we have pets in the house, Ecovacs recommends giving this vacuum and its filters a thorough cleaning twice a week. This is significantly more maintenance than any standard vacuum I’ve used before, but it’s also entirely possible I was ignorant of proper vacuum maintenance before the Deebot rolled into my life.

(Side note: Despite all the cute internet videos of cats riding robot vacuums, my cat hates this new addition to the house.)

It takes about 30 minutes to thoroughly clean the Deebot brushes of tangled hair and debris and to rinse and air dry the filters. Its a somewhat messy process, but fortunately Ecovacs has made it really easy to remove all the brushes and filters for cleaning and replacement purposes.

Replacement parts are available as a kit for just $25 and you can conveniently track your usage from within the app. Each kit includes enough replacement parts for a full year, so your annual upkeep costs should always stay around $25.

App and Alexa voice control

I’ve dealt with enough app-controlled tech to know that not all products work as smoothly as advertised, but kudos to Ecovacs for developing an app that’s quick and easy to use. Ultimately, I found the physical remote to be more convenient to use because I did run into issues where the bot wouldn’t connect to the network for whatever reason. The remote, on the other hand, just works and includes most of the same functionality as the app, including manual controls.

I was excited to test the Alexa voice controls and was pleasantly surprised to find that it works better than pretty much any other Alexa skill I’ve tested.

Anyone who owns an Amazon Echo has tried to show off a cool new feature to a friend… only to have it not work. It’s embarrassing, right? Setting up the Deebot skill was painless and the Alexa commands worked perfectly the first time, and every time I’ve tried it. This should be how all Alexa skills work but sadly that’s not currently the case, so the ease of use here was a pleasant surprise.

Final thoughts

The Deebot N79S has absolutely made it easier to keep our floors clean, and I feel its fair to say that the floors get vacuumed more often now thanks to the convenience of using the Deebot. The tradeoff is that to use the Deebot N79S on a schedule or when your out of the house requires vacuum-proofing your floors to make it as easy as possible for the little bot to do its job without getting hung up somewhere or damaging the brushes.

It’s easy to view robot vacuums as a quirky novelty, but the technology is really impressive in 2018. Having finally spent some time with a robot vacuum, I can say that it’s more practical than I initially thought it would be. Yes, you can be the ultimate couch potato and vacuum your living room without lifting a finger, so long as you’re willing to keep up with the weekly maintenance, keep your floors clear of objects that will impede its cleaning journey, and be available to help if it gets stuck.

At $250, the Deebot N79S is worth the money for anyone willing to keep their space tidy enough for the robot vacuum to do its thing on a scheduled basis. It would make an ideal accessory for apartments or condo life where there isn’t multi-levels to contend with, and also integrates surprisingly well with Alexa. If you’ve been looking to automate cleaning in your smart home, the Deebot N79S is a great place to start.

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Instagram is apparently working on its own portrait mode

Get ready to see a lot more bokeh in your feed.

In the world of smartphone trends, one that’s exploded over the past year is portrait mode for cameras. Apple was the first to really popularize this with the iPhone 7 Plus, and soon after its release, we saw Google, Samsung, Motorola and countless other OEMs follow suit.

Now, according to a file found within the APK for Instagram’s Android app, the popular photo-sharing service will soon be getting its own portrait mode, too.

The file in question is a .png one that’s labeled portait_shutter_icon. It shows the outline of a person with Instagram’s colors around it, and it looks like an icon you’d find on Instagram’s capture page next to its Boomerang and Superzoom shooting modes.

We aren’t sure just yet about the specifics for Instagram’s portrait mode, but if it’s like what we’ve seen so far in the industry, it’ll likely blur out the background around subjects you take photos of to create for more professional-looking shots. I’m guessing the portrait effect will be made via software, and while we’ve seen good results of this method with the Google Pixel 2, I’m a bit skeptical of how this will translate to an app that’s used by thousands of different Android phones.

In addition to this portrait mode, we also recently caught wind of unannounced video and voice calling services that are being developed for Instagram. A portrait mode is certainly more of a core photo-capturing feature, but even so, it’s clear that there are big things in the work for the app this year.

Snapchat, the ball is now in your court.

Instagram Stories on Android: Everything you need to know

Huawei is working on an Alexa and Google Assistant competitor for China

It’s called “HiAssistant”, and it actually sounds fairly impressive.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are dominating the virtual assistant market. Samsung and Apple have tried lessening their grip with Bixby and Siri, respectively, but these attempts have proven to be futile at best.

Huawei started talking about AI a lot more with the launch of its Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, and according to a new report, the company is preparing to launch its own assistant in the form of the “HiAssistant.”

XDA Developers recently obtained access to firmware files of EMUI 8.1 for the Mate 10, and within these files, there’s a lot of information regarding this HiAssistant. It’ll apparently replace the very barebones “HiVoice” app on Huawei phones, but unlike Bixby and Siri, Huawei will only be launching the HiAssistant on its phones in China.

Unlike its competition, HiAssistant will only be available in China.

According to various snippets of code, the HiAssistant will be able to control multiple device functions (such as turning on Bluetooth, adjusting your volume, enabling night mode, etc.), make phone calls, send text messages, search for a variety of things through Weibo, send payments, and even offer Google Lens-like functionality thanks to its own “HiVision” feature.

In addition to only being available in China, HiAssistant will also only work on Huawei devices powered by the Kirin 970 and running EMUI 8.1 or later.

Huawei’s yet to comment on any of this, but seeing as how we’re expecting the upcoming P20 to debut with the Kirin 970 and EMUI 8.1, there’s a good chance HiAssistant gets an official unveiling on March 27 alongside Huawei’s new P20 series.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

This swanky Vitamix 5200 Blender is down to $299, today only

For just a few more hours, Amazon has the Vitamix 5200 Blender on sale for $298.94. That’s a match for the lowest price ever for this product. It’s only dropped this low once before, a few months back. Normally it sells for $395, so today’s price is an absolute steal.

This isn’t your average run-of-the-mill blender, which is why it costs a bit more than you may be used to seeing. But hear me out. This thing can do it all. The blades reach speeds fast enough to create friction heat, so you can make steaming hot food in just a few minutes. You can create soups, doughs, purees, butters, coffee grounds, and of course, smoothies.

This 64-ounce blender has a rotating dial to control the speed. It’s also super easy to clean and backed by a 7-year warranty. 783 users gave this an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars. For cooking inspiration, check out this Vitamix Cookbook, which contains 200 recipes to make in your fancy new blender.

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