The new iPad Air feels great, like an iPad Pro for less, and it works (like all current iPads) with trackpads and keyboards. But those accessories don’t come included. There are multiple sold-separately keyboard case options with trackpads. One, by Apple, is extremely expensive. Another from Logitech is nearly half the price. Now that iPads …

Update, Sept. 21, 2021: Microsoft will hold its 2021 Surface event on Sept. 22, when the Surface Duo 2 is rumored to arrive. The Microsoft Surface Duo may be one of Microsoft’s most unusual experiments. It’s a dual-screened Android phone. And I have one. But for now, I’m just looking inside the box. A full review of the Duo is coming soon, but in the …

Update, Sept. 22, 2021: Microsoft held its 2021 Surface event on Sept. 22, and unveiled the Surface Duo 2. The new folding phone features a faster processor, better cameras and many other upgrades compared to the Surface Duo.  Product reviews are weird in 2020, and no device I’ve seen this year has been weirder than the Microsoft Surface Duo. Microsoft’s return to phones takes the form of …

Doing office work in VR isn’t easy. It isn’t just the lack of software plugins for VR and most productivity apps, since VR headsets can already transform into wearable monitors. The keyboard part is what gets really frustrating. Facebook’s working on a way to bypass physical keyboards altogether with hand tracking. Facebook Reality Labs’ latest research project, being presented at …

Do you want a new iPhone, or a new iPad? Apple’s October product lineup is offering both at once. The new iPad Air, announced a month ago, is arriving Oct. 23, and it went up for preorder early Friday. It has a redesigned look and a new A14 processor, which should be similar to the processors on the iPhone 12 …

Glasses-free 3D isn’t a new thing, but there’s a new generation of technology that could resurrect the idea for a world full of VR and AR headsets. Sony’s Spatial Reality Display is a pro monitor designed specifically for looking at 3D objects on a desktop without a headset, and it’s arriving next month.  We got an in-person demo of a …

I hate cleaning. But I’ve done a lot of moving things around and tidying up, just to get things just right for kart racing. Cones under tables, gates behind chairs. I’ve blocked off my dining room. We’re almost ready. And suddenly, we have a racing circuit. I’m looking at my Nintendo Switch screen as I see the kart racing around …

The new iPhone 12 phones have improved cameras and 5G, but the iPhone 12 Pro models add 3D scanning and more advanced augmented reality via added lidar sensors. Snapchat is already updating its Lens Studio software for AR creators to take advantage of the iPhone 12 Pro’s lidar, anticipating a new wave of apps that could scan the world in …

In late 2014, I pulled CNET TV editor David Katzmaier into a conference room to show him a black plastic pair of goggles fitted over a Samsung phone. I seated him in a comfy swivel chair. I wanted to see what he thought of what I was about to show him, from a display perspective. A few 3D 360-degree videos …

Samsonite’s new smart backpack can connect to your phone and control music and Google Assistant remotely. In a year where many people aren’t commuting or traveling much, it’s a weirdly timed product. But the Konnect-i looks like a well-made but expensive Google-powered backpack ($200 or $220 for the slim or full-sized versions). Google’s Jacquard tech, which weaves touch-enabled controls into …