Science & Technology

Teaching A Car To Drive: Mercedes Autonomous Test Drive @ CES 2018

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When Mercedes invited me for a nighttime autonomous test drive at CES, I was worried that my video would be too dark to watch. Fortunately, it turns out that nighttime is the best time to peek inside the machine. Join me, along with Nicole Scott of Mobile Geeks, for a firsthand look at the Intelligent World Drive S-Class – the test car that’s making self-driving cars a reality for Mercedes.... Read More | Share it now!

SOLO: Behind The Wheel Of The One-Person Electric Car

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As MrMobile I’ve covered electric cars from Tesla to Toyota – and on my last day at CES 2018 I test-drove an EV unlike any I’d seen before. This is the Electra Meccanica SOLO, an electric car built for “the 90% of drivers traveling without passengers.” With a promised range of 100 miles, a top speed of about 80mph and a recharge time of between 3 and 6 hours, the SOLO might just raise some eyebrows in the world of the constant commuter – assuming they’re willing to stomach the price of entry. Join me for my penultimate CES 2018 video, a test drive in the SOLO one-person electric car!... Read More | Share it now!

This Phone’s Fingerprint Sensor … Is Its Display

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The ubiquitous fingerprint sensor: it’s the most convenient way to unlock your smartphone or laptop, but it’s always required its own reserved bastion of space on your device. Always, that is … until now. I’m MrMobile and here at CES 2018 I just went hands-on with the first fingerprint sensor that lives UNDER your phone’s display. The Synaptics ClearID is an optical sensor that sits under the glass of an OLED screen; it’s launching on a Vivo phone this year; and it’s gonna change everything.... Read More | Share it now!

Google Home Gets A Screen: Lenovo Smart Display Hands-On

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The Lenovo Smart Display is a Google Home with a built-in screen – and that makes it the very first Google Home I might consider buying. While you still control it primarily with your voice, the touchscreen lends much more versatility to the notion of a home assistant: you can check on the Nest Camera monitoring your baby room, start a Duo call with your Pixel-toting friends, or stream the latest video from your favorite YouTuber (ahem). Yes, those are all blatantly transparent house ads for Google’s own products, but more importantly they’re things that are difficult or impossible to do on the Smart Display’s principal competition, Amazon’s Echo Show.... Read More | Share it now!

Planet Gemini PDA Hands-On: The Dream Of The 90s Is Alive

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The Planet Gemini feels like a device from some alternate universe where the Personal Digital Assistant never died. Its eyeglass-case chassis evokes the old Sony Tablet P, while its miniature QWERTY keyboard suggests a laptop that stumbled into a shrinking machine. But its closest relative is probably the Psion PDA from the 1990s, a device beloved as much for its powerful scheduling software as for its robust physical keyboard. ... Read More | Share it now!

The Best Midrange Smartphones [Early 2018]

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A thought occurred to me as I was reviewing the Galaxy Note 8 last year, and then it popped up again when I took a look at the iPhone X. A lot of people think you need to pay 900 to a thousand dollars for a good smartphone these days. And you know what? You don’t.
For the past few weeks I’ve been using the Honor 7X, HTC U11 Life, and Motorola Moto X4, three midrange smartphones that bring a slew of special features not seen before in this price bracket – which runs from $200 to $400 unlocked. That’s not the most affordable collection of smartphones can get, nor is this roundup at all exclusive – but at the top of 2018, I believe it to be the sweet spot between frugality and a solid Android experience. Join me for The Best Midrange Smartphones at the top of 2018!... Read More | Share it now!