Fizzics Waytap review – CNET
The Good A simple, portable device powered by 4 AA batteries, the Fizzics Waytap makes bottled beer taste more like it came from the tap. It’s slimmer, more attractive, and less expensive than the original Fizzics.
The Bad Like the original, the Waytap doesn’t produce an exact replica of draft beer. It mutes bitter flavors and smoothes the texture of your beer — which can hide its unique characteristics. Unlike the original Fizzics, the Waytap can’t fit growlers.
The Bottom Line A fun product if you like tinkering with beer and value an attractive pour, the Fizzics Waytap is reasonably priced and easy-to-use — just don’t expect perfect draft beer.
Six of us gathered around the Fizzics Waytap. We each held two glasses of Avery’s White Rascal — a Belgian-Style White Ale with notes of coriander and orange peel. One glass came straight from the bottle, the other glass was poured through Fizzics.
The $130 (£100, AU$175) Fizzics Waytap uses sound waves to shake up the bubbles of your beer. The goal — make bottled beer taste more like it came from the tap at your favorite bar. It’s the same tech as the original $170 (£135, AU$230) Fizzics we tested last year, but the Waytap sports a slimmed down, classier design.
We sipped from both glasses, and the results confirmed my suspicions — for better and for worse, the Waytap works as well as the original Fizzics, smoothing out the flavor of your beer with the power of science. This process accents sweeter flavors, and mutes the bitter end of the taste spectrum. It makes the beer bubblier and adds a nice head to make it appear like it was poured from the tap, but it’s not quite the same thing. Our group was split on the results — three preferred the White Rascal straight from the bottle (including me), three liked the Fizzics version better.
The Waytap doesn’t fix my issues with the original Fizzics, but it’s still a good product, and now it looks better and costs less. So if you like experimenting with your beer and especially if you value sweeter flavors — I’m happy to recommend the reasonably priced $130 Fizzics Waytap. If you’re looking for an exact replica of beer on tap, or if you want to stick with the beer as the brewer intended, this isn’t the product for you.
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The science of Fizzics
Any skepticism around this product is of course justified. Using sound — not carbon dioxide or any other gases or flavorings — to improve the taste of bottled beer sounds like a complete load of crap. Check out my review of the original — after my first Fizzics beer, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. Fizzics isn’t pseudo-science or a simple placebo effect, it really does make a difference.
As it turns out, the science of Fizzics — the same as in the Waytap — is fundamentally sound. Brewing laboratories use machines called sonicator baths create a similar effect. Those labs do it to flatten the beer for tests, but the beer’s fizz rises dramatically when sonication first starts. I suspect the Waytap does something similar, just in much smaller doses.
Since it doesn’t use any gas canisters or kegs, part of the appeal of the Waytap — like the Fizzics — is how simple it is to set up and use. You need four AA batteries, your bottle or can of beer, and a glass. That’s it.
Pop off the Waytap’s lid by pressing the button on the front, put your open can or bottle on the base, then replace the lid — making sure the metal hose in the center runs into your beer. Grab your glass and pull the handle.
Put your beer on the base and replace the lid. Make sure the hose goes into your bottle or can.
Chris Monroe/CNET
The Waytap gently pours your beer while agitating the carbonation with sound. Fizzics digitally controls the flow while it pours and keeps most of the carbonation intact by keeping the bottle under pressure. When your glass is just about full, push the handle away from you and the Waytap will up the sound intensity and add a frothy head to the top of your glass.
You can clean the Waytap just by running a glass of warm water through the system. The mat and base also separate so you can hand wash them. On average, it took me two to three minutes after I poured one beer before I was ready to pour the next — and that’s when I was using two different beers. If you’re pouring multiple bottles of a single beer for guests, there’s no need to clean between bottles.
You can buy the attractive, easy-to-use Fizzics Waytap for $130 from Brookstone, Amazon, and in certain Target and Best Buy stores. Right now, the Waytap is only available at US retailers, but Fizzics.com will ship it anywhere in the world.
What’s new?
Almost everything I described above is the same on both the Waytap and the original Fizzics. The only significant differences between the two are the price and the look. Again, the original Fizzics is $170. The Waytap is $130. The Waytap is slimmer and lighter (3 pounds/1.4kg vs 3.5 pounds/1.6kg). It’s also much more attractive. It has the look of a sleek bar tool that would blend in with a number of decors.
Cabbage Patch Kids Baby So Real Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
There are many ways Baby So Real can judge you with her animated eyes.
How do you make Cabbage Patch Kids cool again? Make the doll part robot.
Manufacturer Wicked Cool Toys gave the 1980’s phenomenon a high-tech makeover for a new generation. Cabbage Patch Kids Baby So Real is highly interactive, replacing the usual painted-on eyes with LCD screens that display a wide range of emotions. It goes for $100 in the US, which is roughly £80 or AU$135. Although it’s not widely available in the UK or Australia, you might be able to find it online.
It’s quite the talkative baby, continuously requesting things. When baby is hungry, you’ll need to use her special bottle to hit just the right spot in the mouth to register being fed. She’ll then ask for a pat on the back to burp, and sensors on the belly know if you changed the diaper when she needs it.
The animated LCD-screen eyes reveal that Baby So Real is pleased with you. (For now.)
Sarah Tew/CNET
The doll’s cheeks glow red when sick, so you’ll need to use the special interactive spoon to give her medicine until she says she feels better. She’ll also play peek-a-boo and ask for tickles with touch sensors on her feet. The only sweet relief from the demands is when she’s sleepy and shuts her plastic eyelids for a nap.
With Baby So Real, maybe kids who want to play parent will get a taste of how demanding they were as a baby. (At least the doll has removable batteries and an off switch.) The toy industry is on a never-ending quest to make a more realistic baby doll for kids to care for and love. Technology is now helping with that. But high-tech can quickly become high-maintenance.
The doll has a rubber face that’s easy to smudge and attracts dirt — yet washing it with water isn’t exactly easy when you could damage the electronic components. Also, the packaging has repeated warnings about how important it is to have the doll go to sleep on its own before hitting the “off” switch in the back. Otherwise, it cautions, the batteries will drain faster.
Naptime is your only sweet relief from her never-ending demands.
Sarah Tew/CNET
And as with all high-tech toys, moving parts mean more opportunities for things to go wrong. I accidentally dropped the doll and broke it, with its eyelids unable to open and close after the fall. A spokeswoman for Wicked Cool Toys said the company’s customer service team will work to troubleshoot problems for anyone that has a similar experience, since it was designed to withstand the play of a 3-year-old toddler.
Of course, every tech toy these days also comes with a phone app, for Android and iPhone. The app isn’t necessary, but the screen takes the guesswork out of what baby is demanding from you, and turns her needs into a game. The toy doll pairs to the app via Bluetooth. A cartoon version of your doll lives in the app, responding to the actions you give the physical doll. By making your toy happy, you earn points to buy accessories for your virtual baby.
Brace yourself for more interactive dolls next holiday season. Wicked Cool Toys is putting similar LCD-screen eyes into another iconic toy of the ’80s: Teddy Ruxpin. The talkative bear is scheduled to hit stores and melt hearts in 2017.
ASUS ZenWatch 3 review
Not long after Android Wear’s inception, ASUS entered the smartwatch market with the original ASUS ZenWatch. Although it didn’t quite offer the same level of appeal as the circular Moto 360, it marked the beginning of one of the best Android Wear lines to-date.
Two years and one iteration after its debut, the ZenWatch line is going circular with the ZenWatch 3; but does ASUS’ latest smartwatch offer a better experience than its competitors? Let’s find out with our comprehensive ASUS ZenWatch 3 review!
Design
The ZenWatch 3 is available in three color options: Rose Gold, Silver, and Gunmetal (pictured above). Perhaps the most compelling design aspect is the watch face; a circular display is surrounded by an accented, diamond cut bezel, which meets with the device’s housing. Unlike the Moto 360, the ZenWatch 3 manages to pull this circular design off without a “flat tire.” There’s also still an ambient light sensor for automatic brightness.
Encased in a 316L stainless steel body, the ZenWatch 3 certainly gives off a premium vibe from a material perspective. Its lugs may appear a bit unusual at first glance, but they actually compliment the rest of the design quite nicely with their subtlety. The wrist strap attachment mechanism is easy to use with its quick release pin, although it is proprietary, so you won’t be able to easily use third party bands. ASUS is planning to sell both leather and rubber bands separately, each available in dark brown and beige.
With that said, the leather wrist strap that comes with the watch is surprisingly good, offering a good deal of both comfort and style. It may, however, be a tad too small for those with very large wrists. Despite having relatively small wrists myself, the ZenWatch’s band fit around the middle notch. If you’re worried about this, you should consider trying on the watch in a retail store before purchasing to make sure it fits well.
ASUS has also included three side buttons on the ZenWatch 3, all of which are satisfyingly tactile. Functionally speaking, the bottom button turns on airplane mode, the center button functions as a back button, and the top button can be set to launch an app of your choice.
I would have preferred just a single customizable side button
However, I very rarely found myself using these buttons, and often opted to interact with the touch screen instead. Quite frankly, three individual buttons feels excessive from a design perspective and overly complicated from a user experience perspective, so I would have preferred just a single customizable side button. Still, the buttons that ASUS has included both look and feel very premium.
All things considered, the ZenWatch 3 offers a unique and stylish design. Some may argue that the gold bezel accent is a bit tacky, but I think it fits in well with the rest of the watch’s aesthetic. For what it’s worth, many of my friends commented on that aesthetic, and the general consensus was quite positive.
Display
The ZenWatch 3 features a 1.39″ circular AMOLED display, with a resolution of 400 x 400. This is very likely the best display on a smartwatch to date.
The ambient light sensor allows for auto brightness, too, so you won’t have to worry about constantly fine tuning the brightness manually. My only gripe with this is that the ZenWatch tends to lower auto brightness levels, which can be a bit problematic in bright environments. Hopefully a software update can tweak this a bit.
Sunlight readability is great
There also isn’t a proper low brightness mode, so the watch’s “theater mode” just turns the display off completely. Sunlight readability is great though, and probably some of the best you’ll obtain from this form factor.
Performance
One of the ZenWatch 3’s key advantages over last year’s Android Wear devices is its use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100. This chip has been touted to offer better performance and battery life since it’s designed specifically for smartwatches.
The better performance claim seems to hold water, too, as the ZenWatch 3’s performance was excellent during my testing. Swiping between cards and panels is very smooth, and it’s generally difficult to find an appreciable amount of lag throughout the interface. There’s also 512 MB of RAM, which is pretty much standard for Android Wear smartwatches.
Hardware
With IP67 certification, the ZenWatch 3 is dust proof and water resistant, meaning that it can be submerged in up to one meter of water for thirty minutes. While we wouldn’t recommend taking a shower with it, you won’t have to worry about it getting wet when washing your hands or sweaty when exercising.
You’ll be missing out on standalone Wear apps that use GPS as the potential for Android Pay
For connectivity, the watch primarily uses Bluetooth 4.1 to connect with your phone, but also supports Wi-Fi as a fallback. Unfortunately, it lacks GPS and NFC, so you’ll be missing out on standalone Wear apps that use GPS as the potential for Android Pay, which will likely be coming in an upcoming update to Android Wear.
It’s also lacking a heart rate monitor, which is fairly disappointing considering many competing Android Wear options include one. It does, however, include both a microphone and speaker, meaning that you’ll be able to place and receive calls on the watch directly. In my testing, both functioned about as well as I had expected.
Battery Life
ASUS claims the ZenWatch 3’s 340mAh battery should last one to two days, depending on your usage. With moderate usage, I was able to get around twenty four hours per charge, which is about average for an Android Wear device.
What makes the ZenWatch 3 particularly strong in this category is that it supports fast charging, for up to a 60% charge in fifteen minutes. In fact, the ZenWatch 3’s fast charging speed made it possible to fully charge it while I got ready each morning, which usually means about forty minutes on the charger.
The included charger connects to the watch magnetically and transfers power through the watch’s underside pins; it generally works quite well, too.
I would have liked to see a longer charging cable, however, as the one included in the box is a bit short at around a meter. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that you can currently buy a longer or even extra charging cable for the ZenWatch 3, so you’ll want to keep this in mind.
Software
There’s not much to say when it comes to software. Shipping with Android Wear, the ZenWatch 3 provides an identical core experience to other Android Wear smartwatches. I did notice a few minor bugs while using the ZenWatch 3, but those can most likely be blamed on Google. The good news is that it looks like this watch will be updated to Android Wear 2.0, so the software experience will likely improve over time.
The software experience will likely only improve over time
With that said, the general interface today sounds complicated but is actually quite easy to use. The watch’s “home screen” is simply a watch face of your choice. From there, you can swipe up to see and act on different cards, which are added as you receive notifications on your phone. So, for example, if you receive a text message from a friend, you can simply swipe up on your watch to read it and have the opportunity to respond with your voice.
Since it is running Android Wear, the ZenWatch 3 is compatible with both Android 4.3 and higher as well as iOS 8.2 and higher, although features will vary by platform. Still, if you’re using an iPhone, this is a great, cheaper alternative to the Apple Watch.
ASUS has a ZenWatch Manager app, which adds over fifty different exclusive watch faces. That’s an impressive number of options, but unfortunately there’s only a few really good ones. Do keep in mind that you can always download third party watch faces from the Google Play store, however.
There’s also ASUS ZenFit, a built-in app that tracks steps, workouts, and sleep. I found it to work very well overall, too, and was happy to see that includes Google Fit integration.
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
The ASUS ZenWatch 3 is now available from various retailers for $229. That’s a great bargain for what ASUS has brought to the table. It’s very difficult not to fall in love with the ZenWatch 3 with its beautiful design, great display, excellent performance, and solid hardware. If you’re looking for what is likely the most well-rounded smartwatch to date, look no further.
With that said, smartwatches largely still feel like a novelty. As much as I love the ZenWatch 3’s hardware, the overall experience isn’t enough for me to keep using it. Currently, it simply doesn’t do enough more than my smartphone, which I always keep on me. I understand that some will absolutely love having notifications on their wrist, but I personally find it too distracting. I also don’t request much more than my daily step count in terms of fitness, which my phone can also keep track of.
Also read:
Three things Android Wear needs to succeed
4 days ago
Here’s the thing ― smartwatches, at least in their current form, aren’t for everyone. If, however, you know the smartwatch concept is for you, the ZenWatch 3 is a great choice and you almost certainly won’t be disappointed.
Obama opens investigation into cyber attacks on US election
President Barack Obama has ordered an investigation into cyber attacks and foreign influence during the 2016 US presidential election, Reuters reports. He’s asking intelligence agencies to provide a report on the issue before he leaves office on January 20th, and the review will be shared with lawmakers and other stakeholders, homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco reportedly said. Monaco added that cyber attacks may have crossed a “new threshold” this year.
“The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process… and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress,” Monaco said, according to Reuters.
The US intelligence community said in October that top Russian officials were behind this year’s hacks of the Democratic National Committee, and the email accounts of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and General Colin Powell. The attacks were intended to disrupt the election process, intelligence officials found. Russia has denied its involvement. However, the evidence against Russia is piling up: German intelligence officials this week accused Russia of attempting to empower extremist groups in the country and hijack the political process across the EU via cyber attacks.
Source: Reuters
The Huawei Mate 9 stands out with long battery life and a little AI
Huawei needs new tricks to differentiate its products from the crowd of Chinese phones permeating the US market, and it’s turning to artificial intelligence to set it apart. The Mate 9 is a new Android device that offers a “Machine Learning Algorithm” that purports to learn your habits over time and optimize performance so that the device is more responsive. The Mate 9, which is expected to arrive in the US soon (although the exact timing is unknown), also has one of the largest displays on the market. We don’t yet know how much it’ll cost in the US, but we expect the Mate 9 to sell for about the same as it does in Europe (€699), which would make it slightly more affordable than other leading big-screen flagships too. That, along with the promised performance boost and supposedly safer battery tech, might be reason enough to consider the Mate 9 as your next large-screen smartphone.
Hardware
Huawei has proven in recent years that it is capable of crafting a gorgeous device. The Mate 9 is another example of this though its design is reminiscent of other Android phones such as the ZTE Axon 7 and Huawei’s own P9. The all-metal unibody, rounded corners, sloping back and shiny silver accents give it a premium, modern look. My review unit is silver, but gray, gold, white and black are also available.
The Mate 9 has a relatively large 5.9-inch screen, but the phone doesn’t feel much bigger than competing devices with 5.5-inch displays. There are no physical keys on the device’s front, and you’ll have to rely on software buttons to get around the interface.
On the Mate 9’s back sits a dual-lens camera, with the word Leica faintly printed in between the two sensors. Below that is a slightly indented pinkie-sized fingerprint sensor; the rest of the phone’s matte rear has a smooth texture. The phone’s left edge houses a dual-SIM tray, and one of the slots is also capable of holding a microSD card. At the bottom is a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, and on the top edge is (you can breathe a sigh of relief here) a 3.5mm headphone jack. Huawei didn’t make any drastic changes to its overall aesthetic; this handset looks a lot like its predecessor and the P9 and falls in line with what we’ve come to expect from the Chinese phone maker.
Now, if you want the Mate 9 in a fancier chassis, you should consider the Porsche Design version, which will be available for €1,395 in Europe later this month, and globally (except the US) in January. Despite having the same guts as the regular Mate 9, this model is slightly smaller, and its curved edges make it feel thinner. The all-black exterior and so-called graphite finish lend it a classy, mysterious air — like a phone James Bond would use. Other than its better-looking frame, though, the Porsche Design Mate 9 is no different from the regular, save for some included themes and Porsche apps.
Display and sound
Although it’s not as pixel dense as others on the market, the Mate 9’s 5.9-inch display still manages to deliver crisp, rich images. The screen’s colors are actually nicely saturated for an LCD panel, which usually lacks the deep blacks and high contrast of OLED displays. The pink furniture and orange flames in the music video for Britney Spears’ Slumber Party, for instance, looked vibrant and bold.
Viewing angles are generous too though darker backgrounds were slightly hard to see when the phone was tilted far away from me. The screen also gets very bright (a scorching 677 nits at maximum intensity), which makes the screen easy to view in most lighting conditions.
If, for some reason, you don’t like the display’s color temperature, you can tweak it through the settings, dragging a slider to make it as blue or orange as you’d like. I liked the original warmth of the panel, so I didn’t find this particular feature very helpful. In addition to the default setting, you can choose what Huawei calls “Eye Comfort,” which immediately gives the interface a warm, yellowish cast. This is similar to Night Shift on iOS and is designed to reduce the blue light that can interrupt your body’s circadian rhythms.
The phone’s bottom-mounted speaker is also loud enough to fill my apartment with sound, but certain songs, including my current earworm (Oh Lord by Mic Lowry), are lacking in bass. Tracks that are percussion-heavy, like Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic, also tend to get slightly tinny at top volume, but you’ll rarely need to crank it to the max anyway.
Software
Like other Huawei handsets, the Mate 9 runs the company’s own Emotion UI 5.0 over Android (7.0 Nougat, to be precise). EMUI has several differences from stock Android, with the most obvious being no apps drawer by default (you’ll instead see endless home pages, similar to iOS). However, you can now choose in the settings to use a drawer if that’s more your speed. You’ll also find more options in the quick settings panel than were there before — stuff like Huawei Share, Floating Dock and Screen Recording.
Floating Dock is a new feature that, when enabled, places a penny-sized circle on the screen. You can anchor this to the left or right side of the display, and tap it to show the home, back and all apps keys that are also at the bottom of the screen. This makes navigating such a large device easier because you won’t have to stretch your finger all the way to the bottom to reach the buttons.
The latest version of EMUI was streamlined to make it easier to get to common settings. Indeed, nowhere is that more evident than in the Settings app. The blue-and-white theme will take some getting used to, but the new search bar at the top makes finding specific tools more convenient. You’ll also get the so-called knuckle-sensing features as on previous versions of EMUI, which lets you knock on the display to outline screenshots or start screen recordings.
In place of the typical Android apps like Messages and Photos, you’ll find Huawei’s own offerings. These are mostly skinned versions of Google’s own apps though they give you some additional functionality. For example, the Contacts app has a tool that lets you scan business cards to create new listings. Huawei also threw in some helpful apps like Files, Notepad, Calculator and Phone Manager, the last of which optimizes the Mate 9’s performance by closing unnecessary apps and processes. That app also performs virus scans and lets you lock specific apps behind a password or your fingerprint.
Along with these useful tools, Huawei also included a small set of unnecessary apps like Booking.com and News Republic. But as far as bloatware goes, this is a relatively short list — and everything is stashed away in an unobtrusive folder too.
Ultimately, the biggest difference between EMUI 5.0 and previous iterations of the software is its machine-learning algorithm, and that’s not even something you can see. Weirdly, on that note, Huawei also doesn’t let you set your own macros, such as preparing to launch Facebook right after you close Messages. It’s not clear if this will ever happen, but it’d be a nice tool for power users. Still, the new EMUI offers a host of ways to customize your interface, which should appease people who want a less heavy-handed UI.
Cameras
Huawei has once again teamed up with famed camera maker Leica to “co-engineer” its imaging system. Like the Huawei P9 that was unveiled in April, the Mate 9 has a dual-lens system on its rear that’s similar to the iPhone 7 Plus. One sensor captures 12-megapixel RGB data while the other records 20-megapixel monochrome information. Together, they’re supposed to deliver rich colors and fine details.
I was generally happy with the pictures I took; they were typically sharp though often overexposed. They also generally lacked the vivid colors you’d get from, say, the Galaxy S7 or one of the Google Pixels. Photos taken with the Mate 9 in low light were also grainier than what I got from the other two handsets. As on previous devices, Huawei is offering a Night Shot mode that’s supposed to take better images in the dark, thanks to longer exposure. This starts a 10- to 17-second recording session, during which any movement of phone blurs the scene. You’d either have to use a tripod, or sit extremely still for your photos to come out clean.
Still, thanks to a wide aperture mode on the camera, you’ll be able to achieve a pleasant depth-of-field effect on your shots. Though the rear lenses have fixed apertures of f/2.2, you can play with the software setting here to make it seem wider than that. The feature is also easy to enable and disable; a tap of the aperture icon on top of the viewfinder turns it on and off. This effect works well on pictures of people or food, but slows down the capture of landscapes as the camera struggles to find a foreground to keep in focus.
An example of wide aperture mode applied with maximum blur.
The nice thing about Huawei’s implementation here compared to Apple and Samsung’s is that the Mate 9 lets you decide how much blur you want before you take the shot. You can drag a slider on the screen to choose just how much background you want out of focus. Samsung’s All Focus tool only lets you do that after you take the picture, while Apple’s tool doesn’t let you customize the level of intensity.
Unfortunately, wide aperture mode does not extend to the front camera, where it would have made my selfies pop. Still, the 8-megapixel front camera captured sharp images with mostly accurate colors. Sometimes, when shooting indoors and with Beauty Mode activated, the Mate 9 tended to overexpose, resulting in garishly colored lips and excessive contrast. At its default setting of five on a scale of one to ten, Beauty Mode made people look artificial, with the rest of the image appearing blown out, to boot. Dialing down to level three and below alleviated the problem though.
Overall, the Mate 9’s cameras are capable of capturing decent photos that are clear and colorful, and that wide aperture mode is nifty, but they won’t impress you like the iPhone 7 Plus or Google Pixel will.
Performance and battery life
In a sea of phones powered by Qualcomm’s mobile processors, the Mate 9 stands out for using Huawei’s octa-core Kirin 960 processor. This allows the company to tweak both hardware and software to offer some extra features, like that Machine Learning Algorithm I mentioned, which promises smoother and more responsive performance. In other words, the Mate 9 will learn your behavior over time and optimize performance so it appears faster to you.
Say, for example, you habitually open Instagram right after you close Twitter. The algorithm will remember your behavior and eventually start diverting resources like part of its 4GB of RAM to prepare Instagram the next time you have Twitter open.
During my time testing the Mate 9, the set of actions I performed the most were launching the Gallery app right after closing the camera, as well as checking a battery drain application after looping a video on MX Player. The thing is, I couldn’t really tell if the overall smoothness I experienced on the Mate 9 was due to artificial intelligence or simply thanks to a relatively new, speedy processor. It’s not as if there’s a way for me to A/B test that. Jumping from app to app was a lag-free experience, and I noticed no difference in smoothness whether I was opening programs I had previously used or those that I had never launched. I ran a screen recording app while loading up a game and scrolling up and down repeatedly on Engadget’s page on Chrome, and didn’t encounter a hiccup.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
HTC 10
AndEBench Pro
15,424
14,941
16,164
13,030
16,673
Vellamo 3.0
7,207
5,343
5,800
4,152
4,876
3DMark IS Unlimited
28,139
28,645
29,360
26,666
26,747
GFXBench 3.0 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (fps)
30
46
48
47
48
CF-Bench
64,154
30,997
39,918
46,290
49,891
The Mate 9’s performance on synthetic benchmarks puts it in the same league as leading flagships like the Google Pixel and the Galaxy S7. It beat competing phones, including both versions of the Pixel, the Galaxy S7 Edge and the HTC 10, on the browser-based Vellamo but lost to the Pixel XL and the HTC 10 on AndEBench. The Mate 9 didn’t fare as well on graphics-intensive tests, falling behind the two Pixels on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited. Even then, the gap wasn’t huge. The Mate 9 still outperformed the Samsung and HTC devices on that test too.
All of that horsepower is matched by a generous 4,000mAh battery, which Huawei promises will provide 20 hours of continuous video playback. On Engadget’s rundown test, which involves looping an HD video with the brightness set to 50 percent, the Mate 9 lasted an impressive 14 hours and 34 minutes. That’s 20 minutes longer than the Pixel XL, one hour longer than the Galaxy, and a whopping two hours more than the Pixel.
In the real world, that longevity meant I barely had to recharge the Mate 9 (except after battery tests) during my review period. After I left the phone in my purse for two days without using it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it still retained 80 percent of its power. On a typical workday, too, during which I received notifications throughout the day, snapped a bunch of pictures and uploaded dozens of images to my Google Drive, it sipped power at a slow rate. At the end of the day, the battery life rating had dipped from 57 percent at the start of the day to 36 percent in the evening.
When it did need recharging, the Mate 9 got back up to 55 percent within an hour of being plugged in, thanks to Huawei’s SuperCharge technology. That’s fast, considering how large the battery is and how long 55 percent can last. Getting through the first 10 percent was slower, though; it took about 20 minutes to fill up.
In case you were worried that squeezing a big battery into a thin frame could make the phone susceptible to exploding (as was reportedly what happened with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7), Huawei promises its battery is safe. The company says it uses a five-gate protection system that monitors real-time temperature, voltage and current to “eliminate safety hazards and safeguard battery life.” Indeed, during my testing, the Mate 9 never got too warm, even during resource-intensive tasks.
The competition
It’s hard to find comparisons for the Mate 9 when we don’t yet know how much it’ll cost or when it will launch in the US, but perhaps we’ll find out at Huawei’s CES press conference early next month. But based on its European pricing (€699 or about $752), it looks like the Huawei phone will go up against the Google Pixel XL ($769 and up) and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (north of $760 through most carriers).
While both the Pixel XL and the S7 Edge offer ample, 5.5-inch screens, the Mate 9’s roomier 5.9-inch panel will appeal to those who need even more real estate to for easier reading, gaming or multitasking. The Mate 9 also has the longest endurance of the lot.
However, both the Pixel and the Galaxy have much better cameras than the Mate 9, while the Pixel in particular runs a cleaner version of Nougat, making it the best choice for Android purists.
Wrap-up
Ultimately, what sets the Huawei Mate 9 apart is its large screen and excellent battery life. Although the company has been touting its machine-learning algorithm, it’s something that you won’t notice or think about unless performance starts to suffer. Either way, the Mate 9 is a perfectly capable device. That said, photography aficionados and stock-Android fans will still prefer the Pixel. Instead, the Mate 9 will mostly appeal to those who want a large canvas to watch videos or play games in a phone that’s not too hefty. If the handset’s US price is close to what it costs in Europe, it could be a slightly more affordable option than some rivals, making it a good value for the performance it delivers.
SMK-Link USB-C Multi Port Hub review – CNET
The Good Conveniently adds all the popular peripheral ports (USB, HDMI, SD, miniSD, Gigabit Ethernet) to your MacBook’s USB-C port.
The Bad It’s a bit pricey and the USB-C port can only be used for pass-through charging, not data tranfers.
The Bottom Line Want access to every port you’d need for your new MacBook Pro? This is the adapter to get.
The new MacBook Pros (and the 12-inch MacBook) only uses USB-C ports for its connections. So if you want to connect anything other than a USB-C device, you’ll need a dongle. And the SMK-Link USB-C Multi Port Hub is the dongle that connects them all.
Despite its small size, once plugged in, it instantly turns any USB-C port into multiple peripheral ports, including three regular USB 3.0 ports, one SD card slot, one miniSD card slot, one HDMI port and one Gigabit Ethernet port. It also has one USB-C port for pass-through charging; necessary if you use it with the 12-inch MacBook, which has just one USB-C port for both charging and data.
These USB-C adapters make your MacBook Pro…
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The hub connects to a computer via its 5.5-inch long dongle allowing for some flexibility. This means when you move the laptop around, you’re less likely to accidentally disconnect from any devices.
There’s only one catch, with a suggested retail price of $99, it’s one of the most expensive dongles. However, I’ve seen it online for as low as $80. But since it has pretty much every port, it’s well worth the investment.
iHome iSP8 SmartPlug review – CNET
The Good The iHome ISP8 SmartPlug works with a slew of leading smart-home platforms, including Amazon Echo and Apple HomeKit. Plus, its base performance is reliable.
The Bad Although its partners are well-chosen, the iHome doesn’t have the depth of integration possibilities (offered by platforms like IFTTT) to satisfy my more experimental sensibilities.
The Bottom Line The iHome matches the performance of most competitors, but can’t quite ascend to the smart plug throne without IFTTT.
When you’re building a smart home, connected in-wall switches are a great way to smarten up your lighting. But in a rental space, you need a lighter-install product: enter the smart plug.
A smart plug can give any pluggable device a brain. And in the case of the $50
iHome
ISP8 SmartPlug, one of the leaders in the market, that brain connects your dumb old lamp to Siri, Alexa, Wink, SmartThings or Nest.
The iHome ISP8 is making a play in a tough market, with impressive competitors like iDevices and Belkin. And although the device is an improvement over the older ISP5 SmartPlug, connecting with new platforms and introducing energy monitoring, the ISP8 doesn’t offer quite enough to surpass the industry leaders.
iHome’s SmartPlug takes a shot at the throne
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The iHome is a solid smart plug that leaves a bad first impression. I set up the device on two Wi-Fi networks, and both times it took at least three attempts to connect successfully. Next, I wanted to integrate the SmartPlug with Amazon Echo — usually a pretty simple process. Instead, I found I had to download another app — Wink — and set up an additional account to bridge my iHome account and the Alexa app. It only took an extra 5 or 10 minutes, which isn’t the end of the world. But you have to keep that extra app on your phone if you want to use Alexa to control iHome.
Other than this speed bump, the iHome performs admirably. It connects seamlessly with HomeKit and Siri as soon as you pair it with the iHome app. And setting up the included remote control takes only a few seconds.
AIVAnet 