Panasonic revived its Technics brand a few years back. I reviewed its Technics EAH-AZ70W buds in 2020 and gave them high marks, though I did think they were a little too pricey. Now Panasonic has discontinued the EAH-AZ70W and the silver version is on sale for $100 at Woot. They’re selling for $139 on Amazon, where they briefly dipped to as low as $124, but have never hit $100.
See at Woot
The EAH-AZ70W — no, that’s not a good name for a product — was replaced by the EAH-AZ60, which are also very good but sell for $230 and actually don’t have quite the premium build quality of the EAH-AZ70W.
This model doesn’t have the multipoint Bluetooth pairing capabilities of the newer EAH-AZ60 but it does feature excellent sound quality, strong noise canceling and very good voice-calling performance, with good noise reduction. Callers told me they heard minimal background noise when I called them from from the noisy streets of New York. They’re IPX4 splash-proof and have touch controls.
Like some other high-performance buds, the EAH-AZ70W are on the larger side and do stick out of your ears more than some. They aren’t for everybody, but they are worth checking out at $100.
It may be time to put an end to relying on your gas-guzzling mower. You can replace your old lawnmower and upgrade to an electric version without much hassle these days. With an abundance of electric lawnmower options now available, they have become more accessible. And with regular price drops, you can get your own …
If all the leaks and rumors you’ve heard about the LG G6 make you drool with anticipation to buy LG’s flagship phone for spring, you may have to wait until April 7.
That’s when the phone will start reaching US buyers, Venture Beat reports, citing “planning materials” that the site acquired.
That’d be about a month after the handset goes on sale in South Korea on March 9, according to Evan Blass, the story’s author and a frequent tweeter of product leaks.
It will face the rumored Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Edge, continuing a rivalry with its South Korean compatriot. And although Blass writes that the LG phone is coming to the US about a month after it does in its home country, the G6 is still expected to arrive before the Galaxy S8 phones, which are said to come in mid-to late April.
Samsung is rumored to get the upper hand, launching its Galaxy S8 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. On paper, the next-gen chipset will give phones a distinct advantage over the Snapdragon 820 or 821, which means LG will have to find a way to appeal to buyers.
LG has officially announced that the 5.7-inch QHD+ display will have a 2,880 by 1,440-pixel resolution and 18:9 screen ratio. It’s being called “Full Vision”, and will feature an almost bezel-less design that will make the phone almost entirely full-screen. The G6 is also rumored to have:
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor
Google Assistant (AI software)
Water-resistant design (IP68)
Google Daydream support
LG will launch its G6 on February 26 at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain. CNET will be covering the event live, so stick with us as the rumors mount.
Editor’s note, February 7 at 8:40 a.m. PT: Article corrected to reflect that the phone is rumored to go on sale in South Korea on March 9; that is not the rumored pre-order date.
Phase One’s new XF 100MP extends the company’s lead over competing cameras. At nearly $50,000, though, it is more likely to attract attention than customers.
For those who can pay their way past today’s technology limitations, the new camera captures a remarkable 100-megapixel image.
The camera, released Sunday, uses a medium-format image sensor more than two-and-a-half times bigger than those in even high-end SLR cameras from mainstream manufacturers like Canon and Nikon. The size lets photographers reach a very high resolution without sacrificing other aspects of image quality, such as the ability to capture details in both bright and dark areas of a scene. This means photographers can print poster-sized images that still have abundant detail.
There is a reason, though, that only Hasselblad, Pentax, Leica and Phase One take the medium-format approach: price. Phase One’s new product costs an eye-popping $48,990, which includes the camera body, the removable image sensor and an 80mm Schneider Kreuznach lens. In addition to price, medium-format cameras have another downside. They are bulkier and heavier than the SLRs that most people already leave at home.
Most photographers don’t need 10 megapixels, much less 100. But medium-format designs can develop technology that later trickles down to mainstream cameras. And millions of photo enthusiasts, who often already have spent thousands of dollars on camera gear, aspire to higher achievements.
“It’s like getting excited about sports cars and Formula 1,” Phase One camera architect Lau Nørgaard said. “It’s interesting to see where the extremes are, to see what can be done to get to the ultimate image quality.”
Medium-format sensors are larger than those used by conventional cameras — 53.7mm x 40.4mm for Phase One’s latest compared to 36mm x 24mm for high-end SLRs. Larger sensors enable the use of larger pixels that can gather light more effectively for better image quality, but they also increase the size of the camera and lenses, and larger sensors are dramatically more expensive.
Phase One’s products are geared for professional photographers who need to print large or very detailed photos, mostly those taking shots of fashion models, jewelry, watches, cars and architecture. Its previous top-end sensor had 80 megapixels.
The laws of optics pose problems for smaller sensors, though, making it harder or impossible for even carefully crafted lenses to deliver as much detail as the sensor can capture. Medium-format cameras have more leeway here.
It’s hard to compete against Canon and Nikon, though, with vastly larger engineering teams than Phase One’s 40 employees, Nørgaard said. He counters that Phase One can move faster, hand-calibrate each product as it ships, and cater exclusively to top-end customers.
“We don’t have to compromise to meet a certain price,” he said.
Messaging phones retain their popularity, thanks to the legions of text-happy people everywhere. These handsets are phones with full or partial QWERTY keyboards, but that are not classified as smartphones. That doesn’t mean they’re dumb, though–many of them have high-end multimedia features, too. Here’s a look at the top-10 best messaging phones that have come our way recently.
