Scott Stein

​How to buy a smartwatch or fitness tracker

If you’re shopping for a piece of wearable tech in 2017, you’re facing compromises. Smartwatches and fitness trackers aren’t really the must-have devices many companies hoped they would be. And no, you don’t really need one. But if you’re looking for a piece of tech for your wrist, here are the best choices right now, …

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A Google Pixel watch could help Android Wear 2.0 a lot

There’s an old football saying: When you have two starting quarterbacks, you have none. I’ve watched the New York Jets go through a lot of seasons with a lot of quarterbacks on the roster, but no single hero. I just spent a week with Google’s new Android Wear 2.0 software update on two different watches, and I feel like Android …

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A kid’s advice for Nintendo Switch

Are you excited, I ask? He shrugs. “Yes.” What, you don’t like the Switch? I ask him after showing him the trailer. What do you think? “So so,” he says. My 8-year-old son is a Nintendo fan. He loves the Wii U, and plays several times a week. And yet he’s ambivalent about the Nintendo Switch, the next gaming system …

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​The iPad of the future is Apple’s biggest missing link

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro was my favorite Apple product of last year. It stayed in my bag and near me constantly. It’s super-polished. It’s the best example of a product that just checks off the extras you’re looking for, and delivers. Is it a new-feeling thing? No. But it’s very, very functional. It might even be, for all purposes as …

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The future is coming, but I can’t see it

“You’ll be more comfortable removing your glasses.” No matter how many times I’ve worn a Vive VR headset — with glasses — I get asked to take them off in demo after demo. I politely decline. Sometimes, not so politely. I can’t see without my glasses. At about a -9 myopia with astigmatism, the world becomes a color blur. I’ve …

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Desperately seeking wireless: VR’s aiming to cut the cord

A Vive ($479 at Amazon) headset was lowered over my face, and a rifle placed in my hands. The cleared-out room space around me was ready for me to take on a few waves of attackers. All around me, I saw enemies coming. I ducked, I aimed, I ran towards a wall and tried to hide. And it was pretty …

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Apple’s iPhone turns 10. Where does it go from here?

Happy birthday, iPhone. You’re 10 years old! What do you want to be when you grow up? When Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone 10 years ago today, he touted Apple’s ability to combine three products — “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching and …

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Qualcomm shows what it’s like inside a VR Power Ranger Zord

I felt like a dancer in the dark of a Las Vegas patio lounge, ducking, swooping, leaning and spinning. But I was actually trying to get a closer look at the Red Ranger. I was testing the full-motion tracking capabilities of Qualcomm’s mobile VR headset during a demo at CES 2017. Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 835 processor is designed for headsets …

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Prepare yourself: Vibrating, augmented reality porn is on its way

It’s been a full year since CNET saw a big dose of adult entertainment delivered via a VR headset. Naughty America, one of several studios delivering wraparound 3D video content for VR, is back in Las Vegas and CES with a meeting room and demos of its films. Not much has changed, based on a quick demo I tried. It …

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​Lenovo’s super

You want PC VR for less than $500? You’ll have PC VR for less than $500. Microsoft’s going to be a big player in VR in 2017 via its Windows Holographic software and a range of Windows-compatible VR headsets, and several partners are already showing off sneak peeks. Lenovo’s VR headset is on display here in Las Vegas at CES, …

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