LG Smart Instaview Door-in-Door Refrigerator Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Chris Monroe/CNET

The smart fridge battle is heating up. LG showed off its Smart Instaview Door-in-Door Fridge Thursday here at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The refrigerator has a translucent door panel that doubles as a fully loaded Windows tablet, complete with Cortana voice controls.

Rival manufacturer Samsung made a splash at this year’s CES with the Family Hub fridge. The 21.5-inch touchscreen on the Family Hub integrates with your calendar, plays music and snaps pictures of your food while helping you track expiration dates. LG showed off the InstaView panel at the same show. While it looked like a touchscreen when darkened, the door panel on that first LG Signature fridge just turned translucent with a knock, letting you see the contents of your fridge without opening the door.

Drag and drop various icons on LG’s touchscreen.

Chris Monroe/CNET

Now, LG’s combining that same translucent panel with a touchscreen of its own. Like the Family Hub, you can drag and drop icons over different foods. The icons range from a simple countdown timer to health facts you’d like to remember to personal icons so Grandpa can make sure everyone knows which mustard is his.

Better yet, the Smart Instaview fridge has full Windows 10. You can browse the internet, play music, watch videos and even give commands to Windows digital assistant Cortana. When we reviewed the Family Hub, voice control was one of the items on our wish list.

That said, we liked how well Samsung’s Family Hub worked. During my brief hands-on time with LG’s Smart Instaview, it froze up a couple of times. Now, the trade-show environment isn’t at all similar to a normal kitchen, and the model still has months before it’s released, so it’s much too early to judge. But responsiveness will be something we keep our eyes on.

Expect the LG Smart Instaview Door-in-Door Refrigerator to start rolling out late this year or early next year (including in the US), but LG’s representatives in Berlin didn’t offer many concrete details and wouldn’t speculate on the possible price.

In addition to responsiveness, we’ll be looking for more information about how it integrates with LG’s smart home products and apps. The Smart Instaview Door-in-Door fridge is an awesome surprise from LG. We’ll see how well it works in the real world, and we’ll note whether Samsung feels compelled to add features to the Family Hub in response.

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• For all of CNET’s coverage from IFA, click here

Neato D3 Connected Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Neato’s D3 Connected offers hi-tech smarts for a lot less.

Neato Robotics

Easily costing anywhere from $700 and upwards in the US, the price of many robot vacuums makes them a hard sell to all but the well heeled. Not quite so with the new $399 Neato D3 Connected which was just announced at IFA 2016 here in Berlin. While by no means inexpensive, it’s the most affordable automatic cleaning machine we’ve seen yet. (UK and Australian prices are yet to be revealed, but that converts to about £300 or AU$530.)

That doesn’t mean the Neato D3 Connected is a fresh face masking old hardware either. Indeed this robovac, as its name suggests, features many of the parts and capabilities we loved in Neato’s premium product, the $699 Botvac Connected. Specifically the robot links to Neato’s mobile app via Wi-Fi, which allows you to both activate and schedule it remotely right from your phone or tablet.

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The Neato D3 draws electrical power from an advanced lithium-ion battery, similar to the modern battery system at the core of the company’s current flagship, the Botvac Connected. The Neato D3 also relies on Neato’s unique laser navigation technology in order to efficiently map then scour floors dirt- and debris-free.

As a result, according to Neato, the D3 will be able to navigate multiple rooms and cover up to 1,800 square feet in one charge. And like the Neato Botvac Connected the robot will make as many trips to its base station as required to recharge and complete a total floor cleaning.

A view of the Neato D3 Connected from the top.

Neato Robotics

Tradeoffs for a lower price

Neato, however, did cut a few corners to keep the D3 Connected’s price low. The machine’s battery, for example, has a lower capacity than the previous Botvac Connected and new $699 Neato D5 Connected flagship model that will eventually replace it. The same is true of the D3’s “Standard” filter, which is apparently more porous than the “Ultra Performance” filter tucked inside the D5 Connected and “High Performance” filter screening the older Botvac Connected.

The $399 Neato D3 Connected will hit store shelves by early October of 2016 in the US and Europe. Neato plans to ship the robovac to China and Japan later that year.

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Neato cleans the smart home with a connected robot vacuum
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Neato D5 Connected Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Neato D5 Connected is the company’s new flagship robovac.

Neato Robotics

How much in the way of high-tech gear and features can you pack into a robot vacuum for the least money possible? The $699 Neato D5 Connected, unveiled at IFA 2016, aims to answer that question. Inside its D-shaped body is the hardware necessary for automated and scheduled floor cleaning, as well as a wireless link to a companion mobile app, plus a high-capacity lithium ion battery to run for the duration. That’s very competitive with other intelligent and app-commanded robot vacuums such as the $900 iRobot Roomba 980 and $1,000 Dyson 360 Eye.

Like its robovac siblings, the $399 Neato D3 Connected and previous Neato Botvac Connected, the Neato D5 Connected can analyze and commit your home’s floor plan to memory in real time. It then uses that knowledge to efficiently sweep dirt and dust particles from hard and carpeted flooring across multiple rooms while avoiding obstacles, as long as it remains on the same level.

Another feature this robot shares with its family is a built-in Wi-Fi radio to link to your home network and the Internet beyond. The feature allows Neato Connected vacuum owners to control and schedule the device via a companion Android and iOS application using smartphones or tablets.

Price does matter

One big difference between the D5 and D3 Connected models, however, is the former’s high-capacity lithium ion battery. It matches the large lithium ion power cell at the heart of Neato’s first smart robovac, the Botvac Connected, which earned our Editors’ Choice Award for outstanding performance despite a few minor stumbles.

Apparently Neato has taken these complaints to heart, since the latest D5 unit can track and report its cleaning performance data — a trick we wished the Botvac Connected could perform. There’s a new “find me” function in case the vacuum gets entangled and loses power somewhere out of sight. Hopefully that won’t happen often since the D5 also features the “charge and resume” function previous Neato robots had.

Like its budget sibling the D3, Neato expects to ship the Neato D5 for $699 (converted, that’s about £535, AU$930) by early October to US and European markets first. Neato plans to roll out the robovac to China and Japan later that year.

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Neato cleans the smart home with a connected robot vacuum
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Swann Smart Series Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Swann’s Smart Series security system is for sale now at major US retailers.

Swann

Swann has sold DIY security kits globally for nearly 30 years and today marks the latest addition to the company’s roster — the $500 Smart Series system.

Cameras, cameras everywhere:

• SwannSecure lacks the competition’s appeal
• Don’t get rid of your Dropcam just yet
• http://www.cnet.com/products/icontrol-networks-piper-nv/
• Security camera buying guide
• Delve into DIY security with these 35 connected cameras

Packed with four 1080p HD cameras, an outdoor siren, two door/window sensors, a key fob and an 8-channel digital video recorder (DVR) with a 1TB storage drive, it certainly seems like a great value. For a quick comparison, popular standalone 1080p security cameras like Nest Cam cost $200 each. You could only get 2.5 Nest Cams with the same amount of money you’d spend on Swann’s complete Smart Series system, so why am I not rushing out to buy one?

The sheer number of accessories makes Smart Series seem tempting, but I’m not sure about its quality.

“Swann is a forward thinking DIY security and smart home technology company that provides innovative yet cost effective solutions for consumers,” a Swann spokesperson told me in an email.

Not so fast, Swann. The previous Swann systems we’ve gotten our hands on feel cheaply made. One Swann system I began testing, SwannOne, was so difficult to get online that I ultimately gave up on it. SwannOne also had limited overlap with the burgeoning smart-home market. That means it didn’t play well with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, IFTTT, or any other mainstream connected platforms.

The new Smart Series system seems more connected to the broader automation industry than SwannOne, though. It claims compatibility with devices from brands like Kwikset, Yale, Philips, Nest and Samsung’s SmartThings platform. Smart Series also offers a related Android and iPhone app for remote access to the system’s basic functions.

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Security camera buying guide
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Here’s an overview of the Smart Series’ accessories, features and specs:

• Four 1080p live streaming night vision cameras
• One outdoor siren
• Two door/window sensors
• One key fob
• 8-channel 1TB DVR
• Optional 24-7 professional monitoring
• Android and iPhone app
• Motion notifications

Swann has some convincing to do to prove that its systems add anything innovative to the security and smart-home space, but I’ll reserve final judgment until I get my hands on a Smart Series.

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Sharp 4LifeHub Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Ashlee Clark Thompson/CNET

Sharp is the third company at this year’s IFA trade show here in Berlin to debut its own take on the smart refrigerator. First, Samsung announced a smaller, European version of its Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator. Then LG debuted its LG Smart Instaview Door-in-Door Refrigerator. Sharp joined the fray Thursday with the 4LifeHub smart refrigerator.

All of these manufacturers have equipped these appliances with Wi-Fi, large touchscreen control panels and apps designed to make domestic life easier.

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More Smart Fridges

• Take that, Samsung: LG’s got a touchscreen fridge, too
• A Family Hub fit for Europe — Samsung slims down its feature-rich fridge

But the Sharp 4LifeHub looks to set itself apart by connecting to other large appliances in the kitchen. According to Sharp, you can use the 21-inch control panel built into the refrigerator to manage the settings of your other Sharp appliances such as the dishwasher, oven or washing machine.

The Sharp 4LifeHub will be available only in Europe from early 2017, and the company hasn’t announced the price yet. But the Japanese company’s entrance into the smart fridge race shows that fridges with giant touchscreen panels may not be going away any time soon.

• For all of CNET’s coverage from IFA, click here

Plantronics BackBeat 100 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The BackBeat 100 ships in October.

Plantronics

It took a while, but Plantronics is finally coming out with an affordable communications-oriented, neckband-style Bluetooth headphone. It’s called the BackBeat 100 Series and it’s due out worldwide in October with a price tag of £70 — we’re still waiting on US and Australian pricing, but the UK price converts to $95 or AU$125.

The headphone is geared toward both music and making calls, which you’d expect from Plantronics.

Weighing less than 30 grams, the BackBeat 100 Series has a flexible neckband design that conforms to the size and shape of your neck, and like many of these around-the-neck headphones, it has magnetic earbuds to keep the cords from flopping around too much when they’re not in your ears.

The earbuds adhere magnetically.

Plantronics

Key specs

• Up to 8 hours of listening and talk time
• Three-button interface for operation of music and calls
• Full-range sound with solid bass audio profile
• Built-in microphone with echo reduction, digital signal processing (DSP) and HD Voice clarity
• Vibration alerts for incoming calls
• Price: £70, 80 euros (no Australian or US pricing has been announced yet)
• On sale October 2016

In other Plantronics news, the company announced that its popular wireless sports headphone, the BackBeat Fit, will soon be available in five new colors: Power Blue, Sport Gray, Core Black, Fit Fuchsia and Stealth Green.

ZTE Axon 7 Mini Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

It’s funny when you think anyone could refer to a phone with a 5.2-inch screen as “mini”. But with the ZTE Axon 7 Mini and many other so-called diminutive devices, smallness is about cost and scaled-back hardware goods even more than it is about size.

On the outside, the all-metal 5.5-inch ZTE Axon 7 flagship and this mostly-metal 7 Mini look almost identical. Look closely and you spot a textured plastic material on the double speaker grilles.

Does this Axon 7 Mini look ‘mini’ to you?
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Inside, the Mini has been almost completely rebuilt. The ZTE-inflected Android software, fingerprint reader (with NFC support) and front-facing camera are the same. Everything else is scaled-back, from the main camera and processor (which won’t support Google Daydream, unlike the Axon 7) to the phone’s battery-charging speed, and yes, the battery capacity itself.

What you get in exchange is a really good-looking device in gold or grey, that will cost €249 when it comes to Europe and China this month (we don’t have prices in RMB) and $300 when it comes to the US in October through direct-to-consumer channels. The price in Euros converts to about £215 and AU$370.

Huawei MediaPad M3 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Huawei MediaPad M3 tablet, unveiled at at IFA 2016 in Berlin, is ostensibly the more pocketable sibling of the MediaPad M2, minus the stylus. It runs Android version 6.0 Marshmallow and features an 8.4-inch, 2,560 by 1,600-pixel LCD display and 4GB of RAM, along with a fingerprint sensor on the bottom.

But where Huawei built the M2 with four speakers to surround users with immersive audio, the M3 appears to have its sights on photographers and video creatives: its dual 8-megapixel front and rear cameras are supported by 64GB of internal storage, with the ability to expand using the microSD slot that pulls out of the bottom bezel. The tray also has room for a SIM card to fire up 4G LTE data access on the go.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

It’s still part of the MediaPad family, so the company linked up again with sound maven Harman Kardon to build dual speakers on the top and bottom edges. It’s safe to assume the company is trying to mimic stereo surround when the tablet is in landscape mode, but in my testing I wasn’t impressed by the sound quality of either. To its credit, the volume was able to reach relatively loud levels.

The Kirin 950 processor kept pace while I used the tablet with several applications running at once. The touchscreen experience was fluid as well, with accurate gesture responsiveness across the board.

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The MediaPad M3 also has an impressive heft to it while keeping its weight down to a manageable 0.7 pounds (318 grams), which makes it just slightly lighter than the Amazon Fire HD 7.

Only European pricing has been announced, with models ranging from Wi-Fi only with 32GB of storage for 349 euros (that converts to around $390, £295 or AU$515), to 64GB storage and 4G LTE for 449 euros ($500, £380 or AU$665). It’s out in Europe on September 26, with dates and prices for the rest of the world yet to be announced.

• See all of CNET’s coverage of IFA 2016 here

Huawei Nova Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Huawei is taking a new whack at the midrange with two freshly unveiled devices, the Nova and Nova Plus.

In Latin, “nova” means “new”, and this is indeed a new start for Huawei in terms of its very strait-laced and technical naming conventions of phones past. In astronomy terms though, novas are exploding stars, and it’s debatable whether these phones, as polished and well-rounded as they are, will set the world alight, aimed as they are at the busy middle of the market.

The smaller Nova has a 5-inch screen, while the larger Nova Plus (sadly not Supernova) supersizes with a 5.5-inch display. Cast in Huawei’s signature sand-blasted aluminium, the pair have slightly rounded backs that allow them to nestle neatly in your palm. Add together full HD displays, octa-core Snapdragon processors and USB Type-C charger ports, Huawei really has left no key feature wanting when kitting out the Nova range.

Each phone also has an option for filtering out blue colours from the displays — similar to the iPhone’s Night Mode, other Huawei phones and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7. Plus you can double tap on the screen with your knuckles to take a screenshot, a feature that’s also on other Huawei phones.

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Aside from their slight size difference, the best way of telling them apart is by flipping them over. On the rear the Nova has a round camera set into the top corner of the chassis with a matching circular fingerprint sensor. The Nova Plus, on the other hand, has a more centred square camera module that protrudes from the device with a square fingerprint sensor positioned directly below it.

The Nova’s main camera is slightly bigger than the Nova’s (16 vs. 12 megapixels) with the forward-facing counterparts measuring in at 8 megapixels on both phones. The primary camera modules are capable of face detection focus and contrast focus, as well being able to capture 4K video.

Design differs on these sibling phones.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The camera software also features Huawei’s own selfie enhancement tools, with some tweaks that allow you to add more realistic makeup, with contouring to fit the skin, lipsticks and eyeliner effects. Kim Kardashian, eat your heart out.

Rumour has it that Huawei designed these phones with female buyers in mind. The company did not confirm this, but did say that it expected “slightly more” women to buy the phone than men.

On top of Google’s Android Marshmallow software sits a version of Emotion UI, Huawei’s customised Android skin. This edition includes a variety of themes designed specifically for the Nova range. Each version of the phone, which is available in gold, rose gold, silver and grey, has its own dedicated theme that provides colour continuity across hardware and software, but several other choices also come preinstalled. They have names such as “feather”, “sweet” and “wind” and feature ethereal, pastel-hued scenes, with icons to match.

The Nova and Nova Plus will be available in Europe, the Middle East and Asia within the next two months. Dual-SIM versions will be available, depending on the region, and both will be available as 32GB models with expandable storage. Only European pricing has been announced: 399 euros for the Nova and 429 euros for the Nova Plus, which converts to $445, £335 or AU$590, and $480, £360 or AU$635 respectively. US availability is yet to be confirmed.

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Huawei Nova: Specs and key features

• 5-inch full HD display
• Fingerprint scanner
• 12-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel front camera
• USB Type-C
• Octa-core Snapdragon 625 2GHz processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB storage, expandable by 128GB with microSD card
• Android Marshmallow
• Dual SIM version in some regions
• 3,020 mAh battery
• 146 grams (5.15 ounces)

Huawei Nova Plus: Specs and key features

• 5.5-inch full HD screen
• Fingerprint scanner
• 16-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilisation, 8-megapixel front camera
• USB Type-C
• Octa-core Snapdragon 625 2GHz processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB storage, expandable by 128GB with microSD card
• Android Marshmallow
• Dual SIM version in some regions
• 3,340 mAh battery
• 160 grams (5.64 ounces)

Jabra Elite Sport Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Elite Sport ships in late September for $250 (£230), with an Australian launch in late October.

Jabra

Several wireless earbud headphones have trickled into the market in recent months, including the Motorola VerveOnes, Samsung Galaxy Gear IconX, Erato Apollo 7, Earin and Here One.

Now Jabra enters the zero-wire fray with its Elite Sport, which it calls “the most technically advanced, true wireless sports earbuds available.” It’ll be available in the US ($250), UK (£230) and the EU (€250) at the end of October, with an Australian launch slated for later in the year (pricing not yet announced, but US price converts to approximately AU$330).

What makes the Elite Sport so elite? For starters, the ‘buds are fully sweat- and waterproof. There’s also an integrated heart-rate monitor that provides “ground-breaking in-ear fitness analysis” and, as you’d suspect from a Jabra headphone, they work well as a headset for making calls, with built-in noise reduction technology. According to Jabra, the earbuds analyze external sounds and automatically switch to the earbud with least background noise.

I haven’t tried them yet, so I don’t know how they sound or fit, but they certainly look intriguing.

The headphone have an integrated in-ear heart-rate monitor.

Jabra

With in-ear noise-isolating headphones such as these, it’s crucial that you get a tight seal to get the best sound quality. And with “true” wireless earbuds, the ability to maintain a steady, hiccup-free connection will also make or break a product.

Like competing products, battery life isn’t great — they’re rated at just three hours of music listening — but it is easy to get extra juice by slipping them into their charging case, which has an integrated battery.

I’ll put together an in-depth review as soon as I get these in my ears. In the meantime, here are the Sport Elite’s key specs:

• Superior sound with up to three hours of music and calls (plus up to six hours additional charge from the portable charging case)
• Flexible wearing options with single or stereo earbud use
• Advanced heart rate analysis with automatic fitness level testing of VO2 Max, recovery advisor and race predictor
• Two integrated microphones in each earbud
• Background noise reduction
• Audio pass-through allows you to tune in to your surroundings at the touch of a button
• In-ear audio coaching with real-time feedback
• Integrated training management with Jabra Sport Life app
• Three-year warranty against sweat and waterproof to IP67 rating
• Tested to work for at least 30 minutes while submerged in up to 3 feet of water
• Supports all major smartphone operating systems, including Android and iOS
• Support for all leading third-party fitness apps
• $250 exclusively at Best Buy stores on October 30. Preorder on BestBuy.com will begin in late September. £230 in the UK.