Gadgets

Leaker @OnLeaks has unearthed new trailers for Motorola’s upcoming, and so far officially unannounced, foldable Razr 40 and Razr 40 Ultra. We can see a pretty sizable cover display on the Ultra with an onscreen keyboard, and a color variant seemingly based on Pantone’s 2023 Color of the Year.

The new trailer has leaked a week after a full spec sheet and 44-second trailer emerged.

The artistry of watchmaking is pretty obvious with luxury brands like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Omega. But in exploring the Apple Watch’s band release buttons — our latest Button of the Month — we learned from ex-Apple engineers just how much went into its strap system and how Apple bought up the same CNC machines used by Rolex to do it.

Apparently, the actors dictated it based on their own personal preferences. That’s according to Mark Mylod, who directed a lot of the episodes and some of the most important ones in the whole show.

I guess this means Matthew McFayden stans Samsung.

As a virtual assistant, Alexa is quite good: it responds quickly, often knows what it is you want, and is capable of doing many things.

As something I want to actually use, it’s terrible, all thanks to Amazon’s relentless upsells after Alexa responds. That’s my takeaway from Jen Tuohy’s review of the new Echo Pop, where it attempted to get her to pay for a louder alarm after she asked it to set an alarm. What a nightmare.

NASA’s 530km-high TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system reached a staggering 200Gbps downlink to a receiver on the ground, IEEE Spectrum reports. This doubles last June’s 100Gbps throughput, which “was 100 times faster than the quickest internet speeds in most cities.”

Less than ten years ago, NASA was celebrating just over 600Mbps, but it now thinks the tech could eventually enable up to 5Gbps throughput from the moon:

Moreover, Mitchell says, they are looking at ways to push TBIRD’s capabilities as far away as the moon, in order to support future missions there. The rates under consideration are in the 1 to 5 gigabit per second range, which “may not seem like much of an improvement, but remember the moon is roughly 400,000 km away from Earth, which is quite a long distance to cover,” Mitchell says.

The new Paperlike Folio Case magnetically attaches to 10.9 / 11-inch or 12.9-inch iPads and has an extra large flap to hold the Apple Pencil in place, even if you’re using one of Paperlike’s Pencil grips on it. The case has a fabric-like exterior finish and a microfiber inside to keep the iPad’s screen clean. It also supports two levels of tilt and the iPad’s sleep / wake function when you open or close it.

If Apple’s (or one of the many clones available on Amazon) folio case isn’t keeping your Pencil attached, you can order the new Paperlike Folio Case for $69.99 now.

What a difference a year makes. Here’s HMD’s original pitch for the Nokia 2660 Flip:

Enhanced, confidence-boosting accessibility features mean it is loved by everyone, especially those over 55. Its big display, hearing aid compatibility, stellar battery life, and big buttons provide a seamless experience for those who need it the most.

And now?

I just got review units of Amazon’s latest Alexa-powered smart speaker and will be putting them through their paces this weekend. Throw any questions you have about the newest (and cheapest) Echo at me in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to answer them in the review.

The first device with a Frore AirJet will go on sale later this year. You can read more about it in my full story.

It’s a real thing. Go read Gizmodo’s great story about this incredible gadget and watch somebody’s unboxing video. The device plays the Tetris song!

Why doesn’t Google just make its next smart home gadget look like this?

Also, there are four pads you can customize for things like sound effects or voice changers. At $400, it’s a little spendy, but it could be a handy gadget for a streamer looking to easily upgrade their setup.

Read more about the Streamer X on Rode’s website.

Razer has announced new Mercury Editions of its flagship Blade 16 and Blade 18 gaming laptops. These look similar to the Razer Blades we know and love, but they swap out the standard black for a whiteish-grayish color.

A complaint I always have about the black Razer Blade models is that they pick up fingerprints very easily, and often end up looking a bit gross. Lighter-colored laptops are better about this, and if I were buying a Blade, this is the color I would go for.

Apple is now selling an Ember Travel Mug 2+ that works with its Find My network — letting you find a lost mug, and/or remind you that you’ve left it behind, when you aren’t keeping the $200 auto-heating mug on its charging coaster.

Yes, it’s pricey — but these mugs are a frequent Verge favorite!

Here’s the latest example: apparently some Android TV boxes came with remotes that had a dedicated shortcut button to launch HBO Max, which has now stopped working since the new Max app that replaces HBO Max has been released. It’s a fair bet that button will never work again and not even the first time this has happened with an HBO app button.

The only winner here is the product manager that got companies to pay for their button placement.