Sarah Tew/CNET Wearable tech: it’s a buzzword. It’s a trend. It’s a swamp. Go to any store or browse any website and you’ll find fitness bands, smartwatches, and even the occasional smart glasses to buy. Which should you buy? Should you buy any at all? 2014 has been a hot mess of competitive products. Let’s …
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An EyeTribe hardware kit for testing, using a Sony smartwatch. Sarah Tew/CNET BARCELONA — How many more surprises will wearable tech spring on us? Maybe eye tracking for one. The EyeTribe, a company that already makes a $99 eye-tracking device for tablets and PCs, is working on one for smartwatches, too. EyeTribe CEO Sune Alstrup showed me a development prototype …
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Samsung Gear VR is getting more high-quality paid apps, starting now. Sarah Tew / CNET BARCELONA — You may not have noticed it yet, but the Oculus VR Store for Samsung Gear VR finally offers up games and apps you can pay for. Until Monday, everything was free. While there are some great free Gear VR (virtual reality) games and …
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CNET BARCELONA — The HTC One M9 may not look new from the outside, but it has all-new cameras compared to last year. Is that good or bad? Well, it’s a whole different story depending on whether you’re looking at the front or the rear. The One M9 is a spectacular-looking phone and feels good, but let’s face it: a …
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Sarah Tew/CNET Sooner or later, Microsoft could overtake other fitness tracking software. The first update for the Microsoft Band , released Monday, might indicate what’s to come. Microsoft took its first bite out of the fitness market last fall with its all-in-one fitness tracker, but the Microsoft Band came with number of quirks and software that didn’t quite live up …
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CNET Samsung just made a big move in mobile payments. The world’s largest smartphone manufacturer said on Wednesday that it had acquired LoopPay, a mobile-payments technology startup. The deal potentially supercharges Samsung’s ability to enable its customers to pay for goods and services with their smartphone, a feature that has generated more interest since Apple introduced its Apple Pay system. …
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Scott Stein/CNET Virtual reality and tears don’t mix. It’s soggy, messy. The lenses get smeared, and everything gets damp. I cried a lot during the 8 minutes of Clouds Over Sidra, a VR documentary made by Gabo Arora and Chris Milk that captures life in a Syrian refugee camp — the Za’atari camp in Jordan — via a 12-year-old girl …
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The Pebble Steel debuted in January 2014, but new hardware is expected this year. Sarah Tew/CNET Pebble may be an old hand at the smartwatch game, but it still has a lot to prove. The Pebble Steel was CNET’s favorite smartwatch of 2014, but with the upcoming Apple Watch, new Android Wear watches and tons of newcomers like Swatch entering …
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Scott Stein/CNET Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) , the initiative from Razer and Sensics to connect multiple VR software and hardware partners together, had a good handful of partners at CES 2015, and 13 more have been announced today. The new partners include Jaunt — a maker of cinematic VR experiences that already has apps for Google Cardboard — plus …
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The new Razer Blade, with a Quad HD screen. Razer Perhaps you remember the Razer Blade , one of the very best thin gaming laptops on the market? We absolutely loved the last version, with its 3,200×1,800-pixel resolution screen, powerful Nvidia graphics, super-thin aluminum chassis and ultra-responsive programmable Razer keyboard. Now Razer has announced a new version of the Blade, …
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