As Elon Musk steps away, yet again, from the idea of a $25,000 Tesla, let’s take this opportunity to zoom out and appreciate what a truly affordable EV can be. For this we need to ignore the Nissan Leaf—currently the cheapest EV in the US at $29,280—and skip over Europe, home to the adorable but … Read more
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In October, a Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The $5 billion mission is designed to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, can support life. But because Europa is constantly bombarded by intense … Read more
A rash of recent hot deals on HDTVs, even two-for-one TV deals, might have you facing a dilemma that has been with us since the era of flatscreens began: Where are you gonna mount that thing? Of course, mounting is not for everyone. All HDTV sets come with a stand or legs to prop up … Read more
Founded in 2018, Orka Labs feels like a bigger and more established hearing aid company than it is, with polished hardware that’s now on its second edition. The Orka Two is something of a hybrid between prescription and over-the-counter hearing aids. The devices are registered as prescription-class aids but are sold online as OTC products. … Read more
I now have a moisture sensor in my garden bed that tells me how dry my soil is, which is an awesome way to know I need to turn on my remote sprinklers while on vacation. An air quality monitor inside my workspace tells me temperature and humidity (important to monitor for some of my … Read more
With your Fitbit purchased and charged up, you can simply place it by your phone, then open the Fitbit app for Android or iOS, and you should see a prompt to connect the device—provided Bluetooth is enabled on your phone. All of your physical activities will then start to be logged and synced automatically to … Read more
Notes are nested inside custom category tabs; think color-coded tags in a three-ring binder. You can attach specific notes to meetings via Outlook and prioritize them using urgency tags of various levels. If you’re looking for a “professional” notes app, OneNote is a great option. Plus, if you have a subscription to Microsoft 365 on … Read more
Bass is foundational. A dedicated speaker capable of reproducing convincing bass and sub-bass not only makes music and films feel more authentic, but can even improve the detail and dynamics of the higher registers by freeing up sonic space below. So attempting to jam a real subwoofer into a handheld speaker is by no means … Read more
Fujifilm’s New Instax Mini 99 is an Instax camera for those who love manual controls and creative effects. It’s not the sharpest Instax I’ve tested—that remains the Mini Evo—but it might be the most analog and the most capable. The $200 price tag is well above the entry-level point-and-shoot Instax cameras, but here you get … Read more
The webcams with the XPS 14 and 16 are surprisingly good, better than most other built-in web cams I’ve tested this year. Photograph: Scott Gilbertson Pretty Pricey Dell is selling a number of configurations between these two sizes, but I absolutely do not recommend the base model. The problem with the base model is the … Read more