Gadget

Following in the footsteps of Xiaomi and countless other Android OEMs, POCO has confirmed that it is developing a set of TWS earbuds. Understandably, the news has got POCO fans excited.

Live images of the upcoming Redmi Band from Xiaomi have made their way online, and the fitness tracker looks surprisingly good considering its ridiculously low price point. The Redmi Band features a 1.08-inch color LCD screen and will initially cost 95 yuan (US$13) before rising to 99 yuan (US$14) upon wider retail release.

A new project turns the Raspberry Pi into a completely portable PC with a display and a slide-out keyboard. Reminiscent of the HTC Dream, Sony VAIO UX or T-Mobile Sidekick, the MutantC_V2 also incorporates a built-in battery.

A community project has turned the Raspberry Pi into a surprisingly practical mini PC. Called the Piputer, the project integrates a battery, keyboard and display.

The Pimoroni PIM486 Enviro is an expansion board for the Raspberry Pi, which has numerous sensors and its own LCD monitor. The HAT ships worldwide.

The alternative WWDC should be where Apple showcases some new hardware delicacies, according to one very active leaker. Apart from new over-ear headphones, Apple is set to unveil the long-rumoured Bluetooth tracker "Air Tags" and a new MacBook Pro, likely the overdue 14-inch variant.

Fancy turning your Raspberry Pi into an air quality detector with a GUI? Well, now you can with a new project. Utilising an MQ-135 air quality sensor, the project promises to deliver accurate readings, which can be interpreted with an onscreen GUI.

The Raspberry Pi 4 is a powerful SBC, but now you can add an NVMe drive to the Pi Foundation's latest device. Using the Realtek RTL9210 controller, an M.2 NVMe drive can be connected to a Raspberry Pi 4 via one of its USB 3.1 Type-A ports. Better yet, it costs less than US$25 to do.

Xiaomi has posted some details about the upcoming Mi Fan Festival event that is taking place in China on April 3. The Chinese manufacturer revealed that over 100 million Xiaomi wearables had been shipped between 2014 and 2019 and that new wearables will be unveiled at the Festival. This could be a subtle hint that the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is about to be launched.

A new project transforms the Raspberry Pi a doorbell with video functionality. The doorbell can be used as an intercom too. You can then use your phone to communicate with whoever is at your door.

The Frame.IoT is an Arduino-based developer board that comes with numerous LEDs, 16 in total. The board should be comparatively easy to program thanks to its integrated Wi-Fi connectivity.

Planet Computers has only just announced the Astro Slide 5G smartphone and pocket computer hybrid on Twitter and its Indiegogo campaign has already received more backing than the original goal. The Astro Slide is brimming with attractive features, including its transforming ability, super-fast MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chipset, full backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi 6 capability, and 48 MP main camera.

Radxa has introduced new accessories for the Raspberry Pi and the Rock Pi. Designed for those looking to build a NAS on a budget, the Radxa SAT HAT allows you to connect up to four 3.5-inch drives to a Raspberry Pi simultaneously.

Oppo launched its first smartwatch, predictably called the Oppo Watch, on March 6. Now, the Apple Watch clone with an EKG sensor is now celebrating its sales and market launch in China alongside the Find X2 Pro Lamborghini.

Following the Taiwanese regulator NCC certifying a new set of Google TWS earbuds, they have now been cleared by the FCC. The second-generation Google Pixel Buds will feature 12 mm dynamic drivers, USB C charging and up to 24 hours battery life.

Exceptional times require special measures and solutions. Many companies and manufacturers are reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic by not only producing their regular products like cars, consumer electronics and smartphones but also face masks. Now, Xiaomi has commenced development for a Smart Mask that can record air quality among other features.

Infrared Cameras Inc. is a Texas-based company that makes products that allow the assessment of a target's core temperature without touching them. For example, its HotSpot thermometer uses infrared (IR) technology to help assess symptoms such as fever. This useful device is now in the hands of more officials worldwide.

Centred on Edge computing, Seeedstudio hopes that the re_computer will provide better access for people looking to get into single-board computers. The service allows people to assemble custom-built devices that should suit a wide range of use cases.

The Raspberry Pi 4 is the most powerful Raspberry Pi to date, with it packing enough reserves to be used for machine learning. Now, you can put the popular SBC to use for automatically detected objects using TensorFlow Lite.

Xiaomi has introduced a huge television into the Redmi ranks in the form of the 98-inch Redmi Smart TV Max. This giant smart device supports 4K resolution and comes with 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, and its own 12nm quad-core custom processor. The Redmi MAX has been priced at 19,999 yuan (~US$2,832) and is apparently 13.6% bigger than a single bed.

HP has teased its latest VR headset and it looks like it will be a genuine challenger to the current top tier VR headsets on the market. The new headset has been designed in partnership with both Valve and Microsoft, suggesting that it could be something special.

Axiomtek's new CE521 is a COM Express Type 6 compact form factor module based on Intel Whiskey Lake-U and comes with options of the Core i-series or Celeron 4305UE processor. The CE521 is designed for industrial IoT applications, comes with an assortment of connectivity options, and can run both Windows 10 and Linux.

After initial information about the Canon EOS R6 appeared in January, there is now another leak through which outlines most of the specifications of the cheaper brother to the EOS R5. Canon is now expected to launch the EOS R6 in May.

With the Wio Terminal, Seeedstudio has created a particularly inexpensive single-board computer that is Arduino, MicroPython and Raspberry Pi-compatible. The Wio Terminal comes with a dedicated display, Bluetooth 5.0 LE and 5G Wi-Fi among other components.

Not only has the successor to the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XI APEX been spotted on 3DMark, but so has the Core i9-10900K once again. This time, however, the 10 core Comet Lake S chip has reached 5.3 GHz.

GPD has put its Win Max handheld computer through extensive testing in regard to its gaming capabilities. The company has measured FPS rates for numerous games and has come up with some great results that should attract plenty of customers. All the upper figures recorded were over 30 FPS, but some titles delivered unplayable lower rates for the GPD Win Max.

The extremely versatile Raspberry Pi can also serve as the basis for an inexpensive VR headset. The project actually put antiquated technology to good use, too.

The CineBeam projectors support 4K UHD content and LG's ThinQ AI. Now, they also support Amazon Alexa thanks to a new software update. This applies to the HU70LA and HU85LA variants of this series.

Rejoice, PlayStation 4 owners, a new jailbreak solution is coming your way. Popular developer @theflow0 has announced the discovery of a new vulnerability on firmware 6.20 of Sony's outgoing console, with a kernel exploit and jailbreak solution now on the cards.

Walmart has slashed the price of the Netgear Nighthawk AX4 router that offers Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) connection for faster streaming, downloading, gaming, and surfing. The router was previously listed at US$199.00, but shoppers can now pick it up for less than half price at US$99.00. This is a bargain price for a well-reviewed Wi-Fi 6-capable router.

Huami is a wearables OEM that has recently made a name for its own brand, Amazfit. Besides this, it also has a role as an ODM to other brands such as Xiaomi to make their smart accessories. The company has reported a year-on-year (YoY) growth of no less than 72.4% in terms of shipments for 2019.

GPD has uploaded a brief video clip of a Win Max handheld computer being put through its paces with a gaming session of The Witcher 3. The company claims the video was leaked, but it seems more like a handy tidbit of promotional material in reality. Reaction has been generally positive, although there is some concern about the device’s ergonomics.

Asurion has published the results of research that show US residents may have checked their phones as often as every 10 minutes in 2019. Furthermore, over 40% of the study's respondents admitted to taking their mobile devices out in public places, bathrooms included. Findings such as these may remind us all to disinfect our electronics more often.

Phones that run neither Android nor iOS have been falling behind in terms of their browser and web-based support. Mozilla and KaiOS (the mobile platform most likely to run on such devices) have addressed this through a new partnership by which the former will keep devices running the latter much more up to date in their ability to use the internet.

The Raspberry Pi Camera Module is a popular accessory not only for the Raspberry Pi, but also for other single-board computers (SBCs). While the IMX219 is only capable of up to 8 MP, one person has found a way to use it to shoot in up to 1,000 FPS.

Luxury goods maker Montblanc has launched its latest smartwatch alongside its first pair of premium wireless headphones. The new Summit 2+ builds on the same platform as its predecessor but is now larger while its new luxury Smart Headphones will appeal to well-heeled travelers.

Vecnos, a spin-off from Ricoh, has announced that it will release its first product soon. It will be a 360-degree camera that may compete with similar devices from GoPro or Insta360. However, this one may come in a much more portable form-factor.

The latest SSD from Buffalo is tiny, with dimensions akin to a USB stick and a weight of just 15 g. The fast USB Type-C SSD is robust too and is the perfect choice for those who prefer to travel light.

The WH-1000XM4 has been a long time coming, with it being almost eighteen months since Sony announced the WH-1000XM3. The WH-1000XM4 was expected to be unveiled at CES 2020 and now a listing for the ANC headphones has appeared on Anatel Certification, the Brazilian version of the FCC. The listing not only offers the first sighting of the WH-1000XM4, but also specifications for Sony's next-generation headphones. Sadly, it seems that there is no room for the aptX or aptX HD Bluetooth codecs.

The full specifications for the GPD Win Max handheld computer have been published online. The gaming device features the Ice Lake Intel Core i5-1035G7 and 16 GB of LPDDR4 RAM @3733 MHz. However, it is details such as the backlit QWERTY chiclet keyboard, the presence of a Thunderbolt 3 port, and the diminutive 8-inch form that have been exciting fans.

Billed as a simpler way to image your microSD card with Raspbian, the Raspberry Pi Imager is the Pi Foundation's new imaging utility. The Raspberry Pi Imager is available to download now for free on macOS, Windows and Ubuntu.

The Raspberry Pi 4 is pretty powerful by single-board computer (SBC) standards, but what if you could combine up to four of them into one super SBC? Well, IPTerra seems to think that is a good idea and has created the CloverPI for that purpose. Theoretically, the CloverPI is compatible with any SBC that has a 40-pin GPIO.

Rumoured to be called the AirPods Pro Lite by Taiwanese media outlet DigiTimes, the entry-level answer to the AirPods Pro could be entering mass production this month. Expected to be released in mid-2020, it remains unclear what these TWS earbuds will offer over the regular AirPods.

SQFMI has launched a new smartwatch. Called the Watchy, the device is equipped with an E-ink display, four buttons and has a vibration motor. An accelerometer and a real-time clock are onboard too, along with Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi support.

The constantly growing smartwatch market is getting another competitor, Timex. With the Ironman R300, the company has created a cheap smartwatch that supports GPS and multiple fitness tracking options. Timex promises that the Ironman R300 should last an impressive 25 days between charges, too.

OnePlus has revealed the non-phone-related new device it has been working on: the OnePlus Snowbot. There are apparently several of these robots, which will be used to play games in which they fire 120 miles per hour (mph) snowballs at each other. They will take place at a special event later in March 2020.

The Pimoroni Picade Console turns the Raspberry Pi into a particularly convincing retro console. The assembly should be particularly easy and is pretty inexpensive, too.

The TV and mobile-device OEM OnePlus has hinted at a "special project" with an intriguing trailer via its UK division's Twitter account. However, like the Concept One, it is not a product that will go on sale soon, although the company still wants public feedback for it. It is to be revealed on March 3, 2020 (or tomorrow, in other words).

Cars that are capable of autonomous driving are often touted as the future. However, their actual ability to do so through perceiving the real world in 3D with sufficient accuracy is still in development. A new research paper published by a group from a South Korean university purports to detail the most sophisticated method to deliver these camera functions yet.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has decided to permanently drop the price of the 2 GB RAM version of the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer to US$35. This means the board is now the same price as the 1 GB RAM variant, while the Raspberry Pi with 4 GB RAM costs US$55. The permanent price cut is apparently part of a birthday celebration.