ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 review – CNET

The Good The ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 loudspeakers offer the best performance of any speaker we’ve seen for the money. They deliver deep, tight bass; an effortless midrange and sweet highs. The soundstage is wide and unexpectedly deep.

The Bad The speakers’ vinyl finish isn’t all that durable. Low sensitivity and low impedence mean they may require an expensive, high-quality amplifier to sound their best.

The Bottom Line Paired with high-quality components, the ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 sounds much better than you have any right to expect from a speaker of this size and price.

The hype surrounding speaker designer Andrew Jones’ newest creation was deafening.

The saying goes that everyone who saw the Sex Pistols’ first gig started a successful band. It seemed to me that everyone who heard Jones’ ELAC prototypes — including ourselves — wrote a tweet or post or article saying how the new speakers blew them away. The UB5s promised the sonic world that they could rock, they imaged like crazy, and they would be damned affordable.

I can now report that they do indeed live up to the buzz. For $500, here is a speaker that offers a true three-way design, a compact form factor and true high-fidelity performance. The ELACs produce a stereo image like nothing else at the price, and bass response is superlative. These speakers are both poet laureates and mustachioed headbangers.

The only minor caveat to our recommendation of the ELAC is that the cosmetics could use some work. The design is “love it or hate it”, and this isn’t helped by a vinyl wrap which is not as resilient as that on other speakers.

Between $500 and $1,000 you’ll find a lot of performance bookshelf speakers vying for your attention, but on pure value-for-money terms, none we’ve heard can hold a candle to the the ELAC UB5. The company is clearly on a roll, and based on the showing of the UB5 we’re looking forward to hearing the other announced models in the Uni-Fi line such as the floorstanding UF5 ($999) in the near future.

Design

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In the past few years, the true revolution in audio hasn’t been the resurgence of vinyl — which actually never went away — but instead it’s been that “true hi fi” has finally become something most people can afford. Andrew Jones, first at Pioneer and now at ELAC, has been at the forefront of this movement, and the Uni-Fi UB5 is the clearest statement yet of his intent.

Given that the fundamental design is eerily similar to Jones’ earlier, similarly priced Pioneer SP-EBS73-LR it’s no surprise that the two sound alike. And as with the less-expensive ELAC Debut, most of the money goes on performance, not on pretty doo-dads. The UB5 is an MDF box — albeit a much better braced one than before — which measures roughly 8 inches across, 13 inches high and 11 inches deep.

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The ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 offers a true, three-way design in a compact, affordable loudspeaker.

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The star of the UniFi’s design is the concentric driver: it consists of a 1-inch soft dome surrounded by a 4-inch aluminum cone. This driver is paired with a 5.25-inch aluminum cone, and the design is rear-ported. As a result, keeping the cabinet at least three feet away from walls will help to contain boominess — however unlike the competitive B&W 685s, there aren’t any foam bungs to contain bass response.

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The vinyl finish isn’t very durable

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The Uni-Fi is covered in the currently chic “brushed vinyl,” and while it looks pretty suave, this material is actually a bit of a problem. We’ve seen other speakers covered in it — from both ELAC and Klipsch — and the material in many cases has either started to warp or lift at the corners. There is one caveat though: we move speakers around a lot and so some of this is from handling in a busy testing studio. That said, even the wrap on one of the UB5 speakers we received had a small ding in the finish at the edge straight out of the box. The older, more traditional “wood vinyl” is much harder-wearing, and a speaker featuring this finish would be the preferable option if they are going to be in a high-traffic area.

Sound quality

Here in the CNET listening room and hooked up to our NAD C 356BEE stereo integrated amplifier, the Uni-Fi UB5 made a powerful first impression.

The bass went deeper than a speaker armed with just a single 5.25-inch aluminum-cone woofer has any right to. Using a tone generator we explored the Uni-Fi UB5’s deep bass extension, first at 50 hertz, then we lowered the frequency down to 40Hz and the Uni-Fi UB5’s output dropped, just a bit. We continued down to 30 Hz and the Uni-Fi UB5’s output dropped a few more decibels, but those very deep bass frequencies were still very present! That’s simply superb on a speaker this size. Mind you, this was in the 14-by-17-foot CNET listening room, larger rooms will soak up more bass energy.

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Bass definition on kick drums on our Talking Heads albums was truly extraordinary. The bass drum sound was controlled and detailed. Moving up from there, midrange tonality was superb, voices sounded like voices.

At this point we brought out our ELAC Debut B6 bookshelf speakers to compare to the Uni-Fi UB5. The B6 is still an awfully impressive speaker, but the bigger Uni-Fi UB5 is better in every way. It has deeper, better defined bass as well as clearer midrange and treble, and the UB5s image better. Listening to the Rolling Stones “Exile On Main Street” album, the B6 lost some of Mick Jagger’s attitude, and the band’s energy was too polite and restrained.

Garmin Vivosmart HR+ Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

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Garmin has yet another new fitness tracker. For those keeping count, that’s six in five months. The fitness company on Monday announced the Garmin Vivosmart HR+, a cousin to the already released and reviewed Vivosmart HR. It’s available now for $220, £170 and AU$360.

The HR+’s standout feature is the addition of GPS for measuring pace and distance when running. It also includes auto pause, auto lap and a virtual pacer, all of which are pretty much standard for running watches. It keeps track of your personal records too.

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This Plus model is a little bigger than the Vivosmart HR, but still quite slim. It’s actually pretty impressive that Garmin was able to squeeze all of these features into such a small device. It’s lightweight and feels good on your wrist, but there are some sacrifices. The tracker is lacking a dedicated interval training feature, which can be found on Garmin’s Forerunner series of watches, and other advanced training features.

Beyond running, the Vivosmart HR+ will measure steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, intensity minutes, continuous heart rate and sleep. Its always-on, sunlight-readable display can show alerts for calls, text messages and social networks from your iPhone or Android phone.

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The tracker can also automatically recognize and record walking, running, biking, swimming and elliptical training, similar to recent Fitbits.

Battery life is said to last up to five days as a fitness tracker, or up to eight hours with an active GPS signal. It can also be worn in the shower and while swimming.

Razer Blade (14-inch, 2016) review – CNET

The Good The Razer Blade fits very high-end components into a slim 14-inch body, and has a programmable multicolored backlit keyboard that can perform all sorts of impressive tricks.

The Bad Full-size gaming laptops can turn in better gaming scores, and configuration options are minimal. Adding the optional Core external graphics adapter is very expensive.

The Bottom Line The Razer Blade is a slim gaming laptop that hits a good balance between power and portability, with the intriguing promise of adding a desktop graphics card later on.

We live in something of a golden age for PC gaming, with (relatively) inexpensive desktops powering virtual-reality headsets, mainstream gaming laptops that can run nearly any game, and even hulking desktop/laptop hybrids.

Razer, in particular, has the been leading the charge toward more modern-feeling gaming laptops for some time, fitting high-end parts into very slim cases with tastefully understated designs. The latest gaming flagship from the company is an updated 14-inch system called the Razer Blade (get it?), an update to last year’s identically named version.

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Like last year’s version, the graphics power still comes from an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970m graphics card, which is one step down from the current top-end of the mobile graphics stack. The major change for the 2016 edition is a new Core i7-6700HQ processor from Intel’s sixth-generation of Core i-series CPUs. Plus, the 2016 version trims a bit from both the system weight and its starting price, at 4.2 pounds and $1,999 in the US. (The 2016 version of the Razer Blade is not available to buy yet internationally, but that works out to £1,383 in the UK and AU$2,731 in Australia.)

Razer Blade (14-inch, 2016)

Unlike most other gaming laptops, there’s only one user-configuration choice to make on the Blade. The stock model has 256GB of solid state storage, but for $200 more, you can double that to 512GB.

The only other real option to consider is whether you want the sold-separately Razer Core. Announced in January at CES 2016 and expected shortly, the Razer Core is an external box built to house a single desktop graphics card (for example, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980), and route its graphics rendering power to the laptop via Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C connection. (That single wire will also handle power duties, too.) It’s $499, or $399 if purchased with a Razer laptop. That sounds like a lot for an external housing box, especially if you have to bring your own GPU — but it also provides a way to get this laptop to work with high-end desktop-only virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

The Razer Core will also work with the 13-inch Razer Blade Stealth. That system lacks its own graphics card, but it starts at just $999 and can be configured with either a 2,560×1,440-pixel or a full 4K display. The touchscreen display here has a single resolution option, 3,200×1,800.

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By itself, the Blade is slim enough for everyday on-the-go use, but powerful enough for gaming, video editing, and other serious tasks. The look is not exactly buttoned-down, but the matte-black shell, rigid construction, and minimalist design don’t scream “gamer,” even if the green snake-like logo on the back of the lid does. If everyone you work with wears a tie, this might not blend into the corporate culture. If people bring their dogs to work and your office has either bean bag chairs or a foosball table, it should fit in just fine.

A keyboard for showing off

Like the 13-inch Razer Blade Stealth, the keyboard in this 14-inch Blade is part of Razer’s Chroma line, which also covers standalone desktop keyboards, and provides more backlighting flexibility and features than any other laptop. It makes for a fun party trick that will turn heads when you set it up to display some multicolored pyrotechnics.

Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus review – CNET

The Good The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus flaunts a handsome, sturdy design and pulls lots of liquid from citrus and other hard fruit. The machine also has two speeds to handle different types of produce and a food chute to process ingredients with minimal prep. The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain uses many dishwasher-safe parts for easier clean up.

The Bad The Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus costs more than competing centrifugal juicers and can’t draw moisture out of leafy greens as well as other machines.

The Bottom Line While the Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain sports a lovely, durable design, dishwasher-safe parts, and is adept at juicing fruit, its steep price and poor leafy greens performance are big detractors.

It’s clear that Breville meant business when it dreamed up the $150 JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus. Every inch of this machine screams serious juicer, from its large size and brushed metal parts, to its sturdy steel safety arm which locks its plastic cover into place. Unfortunately while impressive looking, the JE98XL stumbles when processing leafy and fibrous green vegetables.

Specifically when tackling kale, the juicer managed a low average juice extraction percentage of 25.1 (based on amount of remaining pulp, juice extracted, and initial ingredients). That’s the worst result among my test group of five centrifugal juice extractors with the typical ranging between 40 and 50 percent.

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The Juice Fountain does redeem itself somewhat when juicing citrus and other fruit. While juicing oranges, the machine turned in an average juice extraction percentage of 66.4 percent — the second highest logged so far. The Juicer has two speeds too, “low” for softer items and “high” for harder produce.

Breville does include plenty of extras with this juicer such as a cleaning brush, a big 1L juice jug, and a detailed manual with lots juicing advice and numerous recipes to get started. Most of the JE98XL’s parts are dishwasher-safe too, except the juicer cover, so cleaning is less of a headache than handwashing everything.

In a nutshell, only consider buying the $150 Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus if you plan to juice in large quantities and crave a stylishly designed machine. Otherwise the $100 Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain which both performs better, costs less, and is easier to clean makes more sense.

BLACK+DECKER JE2400BD Juice Extractor review – CNET

The Good The Black+Decker JE2400BD Juice Extractor is very inexpensive yet out-juices machines which cost multiple times more. The appliance is also compact and uses parts which are dishwasher-friendly.

The Bad While small in size the Black+Decker JE2400BD Juice Extractor uses an food chute with a tiny mouth so you’ll have to chop your produce before juicing. The machine lacks it own juice container to collect processed liquid.

The Bottom Line Electric juicers don’t get much more affordable than the Black+Decker JE2400BD Juice Extractor, but despite its small stature and price tag it processes citrus and other fruit well.

If you’d like to try out juicing at home with minimum financial investment, I suggest you consider the $40 Black+Decker JE2400BD Juice Extractor. Coming in much less than competing centrifugal juicers, this machine still managed to pull plenty of liquid from our test oranges and even handled hardy kale leaves decently.

In terms of actual numbers, using oranges the JE2400BD notched a respectable juice extraction percentage of 59.6 percent (calculated by comparing the average remaining pulp to juice volume yield). Running tough kale leaves through the juicer resulted in an average juice extraction percentage of 46 percent — middle of the pack performance in my review group of five centrifugal extractors.

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The Black+Decker JE2400BD’s design and features though leave much to be desired. While it’s quite small and easy to shoehorn into tight spots on kitchen counters, the appliance doesn’t have much in the way of extras. Like the Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor, Black+Decker decided not to bundle a special vessel for collecting its juice so you’ll have to supply your own.

There’s no brush to clean its steel cutter/mesh strainer by hand either but you can drop this and the machine’s other removable parts into your dishwasher for cleaning. The biggest drawback to using this juicer though is its small food chute. A fraction of the size of openings you’ll find on other appliances from Breville, Vonshef, and Hamilton Beach, you’ll have to chop produce into bite-size chunks before running them through the JED2400BD.

So, unless your budget is locked down tight you’d be better served choosing the $80 Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor which for a little more offers much better performance and a wide opening for produce.

Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor review – CNET

The Good The Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor is affordably priced yet outperforms other juicers which cost twice as much. The 6760A Juice Extractor’s large food chute and mouth accepts big pieces of fruit and vegetables and its parts are dishwasher safe.

The Bad With thin clamps, plastic design, and no juice cup included, the Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor is not a luxury model. The machine lacks a cleaning brush as well, a standard accessory on most juicers.

The Bottom Line For less than its centrifugal juicer competition, the Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor pulls the most liquid from citrus, even kale, than any centrifugal juicer we’ve tested to date.

With a price that’s $30 less than its closest juicing rival, the $70 Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor serves up excellent performance without having to spend a ton of green. This machine produced the greatest amount of juice from our sample oranges, beating out four other products within a group of five centrifugal juicers.

I recorded a very efficient juice extraction percentage of 71.8 percent (based on average remaining pulp and drinkable juice yield) from the appliance. It also managed to leach more liquid from fibrous kale leaves than any of these machines we put through the wringer, an impressive juice extraction percentage of 50.1 percent.

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Juicing results aside, the Hamilton Beach 67601A does cut some corners. The appliance’s plastic construction, specifically its pair of thin locking latches, give it a cheap appearance. Additionally, while this juicer’s components are dishwasher-safe, Hamilton Beach doesn’t include a cleaning brush to scrub its strainer basket or even a juice cup to collect fruit and vegetable liquid. To be fair, these accessories are bundled with slightly pricier juicer models the company sells.

You will find a wide feed chute on the Hamilton Beach 67601A which is designed to accommodate larger produce items. It will accept medium to small whole fruits such as apples, peeled oranges, and tomatoes. Anything bigger and you’ll be forced to do some chopping. All this makes this $80 Hamilton Beach model perfect if you seek good juicing performance for a reasonable price. Shoppers searching for a juicer that’s more stylish plus easier to clean will find the $100 Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain more their taste.

VonShef 990w Professional Juicer review – CNET

The Good The VonShef 990w Professional Juicer is powerful enough to extract a decent amount of liquid from citrus and has a wide mouth which accepts small to medium-sized whole fruit. The machine can also juice leafy vegetables like kale in a pinch and has two speed settings.

The Bad The VonShef 990w Professional Juicer uses parts that aren’t dishwasher safe which must be hand-washed. The juicer’s design is unexciting and its strong suction-cupped feet make it a pain to move around the kitchen.

The Bottom Line For a little less than competing appliances the VonShef 990w Professional Juicer handles fruit well, won’t choke on kale, but is a chore to clean.

Packing a 900 watt electric motor, the $100 VonShef 990w is proof you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to own a capable juicer. It’s quite efficient at wringing delicious liquid from oranges, limes, apples, and other citrus and hard fruit too. On our tests with oranges the machine scored a high juice extraction percentage of 65.9 percent (based on average remaining pulp and juice yield)

The VonShef even has the ability to separate some moisture from fibrous greens such as kale. I measured an average kale juice extraction percentage of 40.5 percent, the second highest result so far within my group of five centrifugal extractors.

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The biggest drawback to the VonShef though is its many parts which are not dishwasher-safe, making it a headache to clean. Not counting the main unit that houses the appliance’s power cord and motor, its food chute, lid, centrifuge bowl, filter tray, etc., all must be washed by hand.

By comparison, other similar machines from Breville, Hamilton Beach, and Black + Decker have components sturdy enough to toss into your dishwasher’s top rack and take a wash cycle in stride. The VonShef 990w’s basic black and gray color scheme and plastic parts also feel a bit cheap. If luxury looks and feel are your priority in a centrifugal juicer, you’re better off choosing the handsomely crafted, compact (and dishwasher safe) $100 JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain. To those who care more about performance, I suggest the $80 Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor which juices like a champ

Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain review – CNET

The Good The Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain is cleverly designed to use less parts and take up less space than ordinary juicers. The machine is a solid performer whether juicing fruit or leafy vegetables. It’s also relatively easy to clean and uses components which are safe for your dishwasher.

The Bad The Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain is more expensive than similar juicing appliances which offer performance just as good or better. The JE200XL’s compact size also means it makes smaller batches of juice at a time.

The Bottom Line The Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain makes up for its higher price by offering a smart design that simple to clean along with satisfying juicing abilities.

An interesting twist on your average centrifugal juicer, the $100 (roughly £70 in the UK or AU$140 in Australia) Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain places its pulp collector, food chute and mesh filter apparatus as close together as possible. The result is a machine that is relatively easy to clean and occupies a minimum of space on kitchen countertops.

The Compact Juice Fountain also handled itself well on our tests, earning a lofty average orange juice extraction percentage of 60 percent (calculated by factoring in the amount of ingredients, remaining pulp and extracted juice). Sucking liquid out of kale wasn’t terribly difficult for the appliance either. I recorded an average 41.2 juice extraction percentage when I ran leaves of the vibrant green and fibrous plant through the machine.

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Like its bigger sibling, the JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus, Breville crafted the Compact Juice Fountain to be durable and easy on the eyes. Its chassis relies on similar premium materials such as brushed metal and sports a steel locking arm to keep its lid in place. You’ll find a handy bristled brush to clean the juicer’s mesh strainer bundled with the juicer too, plus a detailed printed manual offering a variety of drink recipes.

The only minor drawback to the Breville JE200XL Compact Juice Fountain, aside from a relatively steep price, it makes slightly less juice in a go: 800 ml instead of the typical 1 liter most juicers produce. Even with those issues, this juicer adds up to the most compelling machine in our review group of five recent centrifugal juicers. Of course if you’d like to save a few bucks, then the $80 (roughly £55 or AU$110) Hamilton Beach 67601A Juice Extractor delivers even better performance but with a no-frills design.

Virzoom Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

I keep pedaling. I’m heading towards the cowboys. Pulling the right trigger, I lasso them. Leaning makes me feel like I’m falling off the stationary bike. It gets worse when I’m on a flying horse.

VirZoom is an exercise bike, and it’s a VR game controller. After a year of being teased and shown at game conventions, it’s being shipped in about a month.

I got a chance to try out the near-final version with the final set of games that will be available. Do you see biking in place while in VR in your future? This is what the experience is all about.

So, this is…an exercise bike?

Yep. A stationary, folding bike. About 38 pounds.

How does this work with VR, exactly?

It’s like a game controller. Pedaling moves you forward. Leaning, while wearing a VR headset with position tracking like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or PlayStation VR, lets you steer (it feels like you might fall off the bike, but I learned to not lean too much). Buttons and triggers on each handlebar work to do other things. VirZoom comes with its own set of five arcade-like mini games, but it can theoretically work with other games — if and when other developers enable support for VirZoom. A few undisclosed games will be compatible at launch.

What are these mini games?

VirZoom comes with five games included, and they all feel a little like Sega arcade games teleported into VR. Cowboy is a round-up-the-bad-guys horse-racing game. Tank is a multiplayer all-terrain game where you ride around, turn your turret, and blast enemies. Pegasus is a fly-a-horse game, like a bike-riding Pilotwings. River Run is like Tank but in a helicopter over a river, and feels a bit like the old game Thunder Blade. Race Car (yes, that’s the name) is an F1 racing game, where you are…a puppy. In a race car. I don’t know why.

How do you track fitness?

VirZoom logs activity sessions and calorie burn, but it also hooks into Strava, the popular cycling and fitness app, and Google Fit. You should be able to sync your sessions automatically (I haven’t tried this yet).

A real exercise bike?

Yes. It has eight resistance settings, and — according to VirZoom’s founder –, these units were sourced from China and converted to add the game controller features. So it’s really a basic folding stationary bike, plus extras. It runs for a year on two AA batteries (according to the company) which handle Bluetooth and controller functions.

What does it work with?

VirZoom supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR (which I tested it with), and promises future support for “mobile VR.” For now, consider a gaming PC or a PlayStation 4 to be a requirement.

How much does it cost?

Funny question. The preorder price is $399, but there will also be a required subscription service to access games and new features. Early pre-orders get a “lifetime subscription” free. Otherwise, you’ll get 3 months of free access, then pay: $9.95/month, $59.95 a year, $89.95 for 2 years, or $199.95 for lifetime.

What the hell, why is it so expensive?

VirZoom aims to put itself up against high-end spin classes and exercise bikes with subscriptions, like Peloton, but that’s a stretch. It’s not clear at all how good the VirZoom bike is, and similar-looking stationary bikes can be gotten on Amazon for as little as $150. You’re paying for the hook-in to VR game compatibility, and the promise of future services. VirZoom claims the games will be playable without a subscription, but that subscription model alone is a dealbreaker for me because the bike alone isn’t cheap. (Neither is a VR gaming system, either.)

When is it available?

VirZoom should be shipping in June.

Will this make you fit?

Well, VirZoom is an exercise bike, so yes. But the routines and games don’t seem to clearly be set up as training sessions, although you’ll be able to keep track of how long you’ve been active. I broke a sweat over half an hour pedaling a tank, a puppy race car, and flying my horse around the mountains. I liked the distractions and challenges of bike gaming, too. But I didn’t like steering at all. Leaning made me borderline nauseous, and took getting used to.

In fact, in some ways, I’d prefer a biking game that just used a TV instead of a VR helmet. Sweat and VR helmets do not mix nicely at all.

Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad review – CNET

The Good The Smart Changing Pad itself is well designed, and the scale is a great addition. The Hatch Baby app is the real star, though, as it makes tracking your baby’s growth and patterns easy.

The Bad To get good data, you have to constantly be entering information into the app. Practically, many users just won’t use it consistently enough after the first few weeks.

The Bottom Line The app is free, so the Smart Changing Pad itself isn’t much more than a comfy scale. It’s hard to dish out $250 for that.

I know it sounds crazy, but as a new parent, watching my kid learn to perform basic biological tasks is currently my favorite pastime. So when I first brought home the Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad, which tracks your baby’s weight, waste, feeding and sleeping, I was so excited I barely registered the price: $250 (about £174 or AU$344).

After a week of using Hatch Baby, though, two big drawbacks made me reconsider my initial impression. First off, tracking all that data is fun for about two hours. Then your kid starts fussing during a movie, and you have a choice: pause the movie to go change him on the pad, or just change him in your lap while you keep watching. A brand-new parent might pause the movie, but even two months in, I’m not letting a dirty diaper interrupt a brilliant Kevin Spacey monologue.

The second problem is this: once you use the device awhile, it starts to become clear that most of the smarts are on the free app. All you really get out of the $250 Changing Pad is a scale for tracking weight, and a comfy pad for changing your baby. And when it comes down to it, those simply aren’t worth the price.

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What it does

The Hatch Baby Changing Pad itself is a pretty simple device. Essentially, it’s a comfortable changing pad for your baby. The two features that make it “smart” are a scale built into the bottom, and a small touchscreen on the front. Using these features, you can weigh your baby to track his or her growth. You can then send that information (or any other manually recorded eating or waste data) to the Hatch Baby app via the touchscreen.

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The app is where the real smarts come in. From your iOS or Android device you can track your baby’s patterns, and display them in helpful graphics. For instance, once you’ve been tracking your child for some time, you can check their daily schedule to get an idea of when might be a good time to run out to the store with them, or when you might want to be ready with a bottle, some wipes and a diaper. Ostensibly, this data will help you get a handle on what can be a crazy time in life.

What goes wrong

The problem, as I mentioned before, comes with the actual data collection. It’s not only during movies — when you’re waking up in the middle of the night, the last thing you want to do is pull out your phone to record the number of ounces your kid just ate. You can go back to add entries, but I quickly ran into the problem of partial or estimated data. That meant Hatch Baby didn’t demystify my son’s schedule any more than just living with him.