Smart

Benjamin Franklin once said that “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Had he been alive today, he almost certainly would have said, “oh, and the other certainty is people will keep modding Doom until the end of time.” Quite the forward thinker. Anyway, here’s id Software’s iconic FPS running on a toothbrush. Just a few days ago, Twitter user atc1441 (thanks, Rock Paper Shotgun) uploaded a brief clip showing Doom running on a smart toothbrush. On the tiny screen of the Planck Mini, you can just about make the game…

If you’re shopping around for a baby monitor, a pet camera, or a video doorbell, just a little research can make the world of network security cameras feel insecure. You don’t have to look far to find examples of companies breaking the trust of their customers. Ring, which introduced a feature that lets police ask for your footage, is the most obvious example. Even though the company says it’s sunsetting that feature, law enforcement can still request footage from the company in the event of “emergencies.” Wyze had a…

A two-pack of Sonos Era 100 wireless smart speakers is currently going for one of the best prices we’ve seen since the holiday season on Woot. You can get two of the speakers for $410, or $88 off the normal price. That’s almost as low as the Black Friday price from last year, when the Sonos Era 100 speaker dropped to an individual price of $199. If you’re looking for some decent midrange speakers to upgrade your home audio setup, the Sonos Era 100 is a solid option, especially at an 18 percent discount.SonosSave 18…

Jonas Daehnert / Inside-sim The wearable market is constantly evolving. It started with fitness trackers that were worn on your wrist, and then we got smartwatches such as the Apple Watch in 2015. These days, smartwatches are a dime a dozen, but we are quickly entering a new era of wearables: the smart ring. One of the first smart rings to hit the market was the Oura Ring, which launched in 2015 through a Kickstarter campaign. The second iteration came out in 2018, and the current third generation of the Oura Ring…

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it is investigating the national security risks posed by Chinese-made “smart cars” amid concerns about foreign governments gaining access to the cars’ systems and data. The Commerce Department will investigate the risks associated with connected cars that incorporate technology from China and other “countries of concern” and consider potential regulations, the White House said. “It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think of how foreign government with…

One of the biggest barriers to running a fully smart home remains the reliance on smartphone apps and voice assistants. Setting up devices and learning how to use them is one thing, but making sure everybody in your home – not to mention visitors – can access the controls, is another.There have been some strides made toward solving this, but now Amazon has released a device that – assuming you have an Alexa-powered smart home – could be the missing piece of the puzzle.The Echo Hub keeps track of all your home’s smart…

This is the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro and it's a little bit bigger and a bit better than its predecessor. It ships with a magnetically attachable charger and a good-looking TPU strap - ours is the light grey model. The band is already on sale in Europe, priced at €70. This model looks very much like the Smart Band 7 Pro it succeeds but offers some quality-of-life improvements. For starters, the display is bigger - it's 1.74-inch, up from 1.64-inch, and a bit sharper at 336ppi. And the panel is 100 nits brighter at 600…

The Infinix Smart 8 Plus was initially announced back in January, and was released last month. Now it's finally also made it to the Indian market, joining the Smart 8 which has already been available for a while. The Smart 8 Plus comes in Galaxy White, Timber Black, and Shiny Gold colorways and is priced in India at INR 7,799. It will be on sale at Flipkart starting on March 9 at 12 noon local time. With the exchange offer you'll be getting, the effective price for the phone will be just INR 6,999. So that's cheap.…

Aqara, an excellent smart home device manufacturer, has taken to a major crowdfunding platform to help fund a new smart lock — only to have its funding goal absolutely smashed.Aqara was only looking for around $10,000 in funding on Kickstarter for its new smart lock, but it has now picked up well over $250,000. That’s an extra $240,000 if you’re paying attention — looks like users are excited for the new device.The Aqara U200 smart lock lives up to that ‘smart’ descriptor with tons of ways to unlock your door, voice…

With the ongoing Mobile World Congress bringing the great and the good of the mobile technology world to Barcelona, Spain, Samsung took the opportunity to officially unveil the Galaxy Ring. A wearable similar to those like the Oura Ring and others, the Galaxy Ring will offer health and sleep tracking without the need for a bulky smartwatch. The announcement also happened to arrive just as rumors began to circulate in earnest that Apple is also keen to launch a smart ring of its own. And that might be the start of a new…