Accessory

Amazon will bring its first Alexa wearable to market in the second half of this year, according to a report by Bloomberg. The earbuds will rival Apple's AirPods, which achieved approximately 7.5 million sales in Q4 2018 alone and are being developed by Amazon's Lab126 hardware division.

The extremely popular single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi, now has a set of official peripherals. Specifically, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a wired keyboard and mouse, which come in two colours. The peripherals can be bought as a combo for £22 (~ US$29) or £16 (~ US$21) and £7 (~ US$9) respectively from third-party resellers.

The Pixel Watch is still rumored to be Google's first own-brand smartwatch. The company has added fuel to the rumor-fire to this effect by filing a patent for a new kind of watch-band clasp. It could be integrated into the prospective Watch in order to make first-party straps as good a business as they have become for Apple.

Beats has unveiled its new Powerbeats Pro on its website. These new earbuds are of the 'sports' variety, and thus have over-the-ear loops built into a completely wireless design. Like the new AirPods, they can activate Siri hands-free and have the new H1 chip for wearables.

The e-reparability authority iFixit had nothing but criticism for the first-gen AirPods when they came out. The wireless earbuds received a rare "repairability score" of zero from the company. Now, the new 2019 versions of these products have received the same rating.

Samsung followed Huawei into reverse wireless charging territory in 2019. Now, the respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo asserts that Apple will do the same. This feature would align nicely with the new capabilities of the AirPods.

A start-up called Nebra has included its AnyBeam portable projector as a reward on its current Kickstarted campaign. It claims that, as this product uses lasers rather than bulbs, it avoids many of the drawbacks of other similar projectors. This new product comes either in a housing or as a Raspberry Pi-mountable module.

Ting Mobile, a North American mobile service provider, recently conducted a survey of just over 1.400 smartphone users. It found that 64% of these respondents reported cracks in their screens, most of which (62%) did so through dropping their devices. The survey also found that only 11% repaired their own phones, whereas 64% would be interested in a DIY repair kit to help them do so.

The MacBook accessory company Hyper has posted a page on its website for something it calls the "mother of all USB hubs". It has a total of 18 USB ports, 4 SD card slots, a range of legacy monitor ports and, best of all, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. If this method of expanding on limited ports in your ultrabook sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The liquid cooling specialist EK Water Blocks has revealed a new product for owners of Nvidia Titan RTX graphics cards. The EK Vector RTX Titan is a special edition water block that features an acetal top cover, RGB lighting compatibility, and gold-plated screws. For the pièce de résistance, the EK Vector RTX Titan brandishes a gold-plated cold plate.

Apple's original AirPods snatched the majority of the true wireless earphone market at the end of 2018, according to Counterpoint Research. Its latest report on the subject put the earbuds' share at 60%. Jabra, Samsung, JLabs and Bose provided the remainder of the top 5 during the time studied.

Targus, a name in the travel and laptop-carrying accessory space, has developed the Mobile ViP+ Backpack. It integrates Qi wireless charging, so that a phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S10+ can have a dedicated pocket within the new bag that secures and charges it at the same time. This new backpack also has RFID shielding and airport-cart compatibility.

Jabra has released its latest generation of neckbuds, the Evolve 65e. The audio company claims that this wireless set of earphones has consumer-grade comfort with professional levels of audio. This product has attained Skype for Business and UC certification, which may appeal to the business customer in need of mobile connectivity.

Sony's RX0 line is the company's take on the compact camera. Its latest version, the RX0 II, crams 4K recording, advanced image processing and electronic stabilization into "the world's smallest and lightest premium compact camera". This device is also fit for outdoors videography, and it comes with water, dust and shock resistance.

The new golf watch from Garmin features a 1.2-inch touchscreen, a GPS tracker along with golfing features like AutoShot and Green View with which you can manually position your pin and check distances or obstacles.

Huawei also introduced some new products to complement its latest flagships, the P30 and P30 Pro. They include the FreeLaces, a pair of 'neckbuds' with an innovative design. The OEM also now offers a power bank with its SuperCharge technology, which can charge at 40 watts: enough for laptops as well as smartphones.

Huawei also revealed the existence of some new wearables at its early-2019 launch event in Paris. The least expected of these are the new 'smart' glasses the OEM has developed with the eyewear company Gentle Monster. Their main function is in fact to deliver audio via Bluetooth, and also charge via a new and interesting route.

UDOO recently ran a campaign on Kickstarter for the UDOO BOLT single-board computer, and the developers of the device managed to secure US$635,769 in crowd-sourced funding. It’s likely many investors were attracted by the claim that the BOLT is “almost twice as fast as the MacBook Pro 13”. The Ryzen-powered board should start shipping by the end of the month.

Transparency Market Research's latest report is based on the observation that the demand for a 'smart' or 'connected' living room is growing steadily these days. It may consist of entertainment or media hardware that works seamlessly together via wireless controls. Currently, the market that underpins this idea is worth about US$500 billion; however, this is estimated to nearly double over the next 5 years.

Apple has developed a habit of disappointing its fans by including power bricks that charge at only 5W with its iPhones. However, a new leak has predicted that the company will put an end to this in 2019. It also projects that the next generation of Apple mobile devices will be capable of reverse wireless charging.

Apple's market share in China has reportedly fallen by 26.6% in 2018. Unsurprisingly, the culprits are more 'local' OEMs such as Huawei and Xiaomi, who offer more innovative features in premium handsets that go for less than those from the Cupertino company.

Tencent, which publishes games such as PUBG, has set up a collaboration with Razer in order to improve said apps' function on the gaming hardware giant's Android phones. This involves optimizing Tencent titles for the Razer Phones, as well as for the mobile-gaming peripherals Razer sells.

Beats by Dr. Dre has been an Apple subsidiary for some time now. The brand's next product may be a pair of truly-wireless earbuds. According to a CNET report, they may run on the new Apple H1 chip, which is also found in the newly-released AirPods 2.

Huntkey, a company based in Shenzhen, has announced that it is currently producing a 90-watt wall-wart intended for mobile devices. This next-gen power-brick also has a USB type-C output, rather than type-A as normal. It supports various fast-charging profiles, in addition to USB Power Delivery and Qualcomm QuickCharge3.0+.

DigiTimes has cited sources at a components supplier in a new report that alleges the AirPower accessory is finally going to be released soon. This article also asserts that the long-awaited wireless charging pad will work with at least one generation of the Apple Watch.

The next Huawei flagships are due to launch on March 26, 2019. However, a leaker claims to have gotten hold of genuine promotional images for the two phones ahead of this event. These posters are for the French market, and show what could be special launch-day offers for that region.

Apple's latest press release has unveiled the AirPods 2. These new earbuds integrate handsfree Siri activation, faster switching between different devices and wireless charging. However, their design is largely unchanged compared to their preceding generation.

In a world where everyone seems to be a streamer or caster or some kind, a USB microphone may be a viable purchase. They combine the possible advantage of improved audio with a power source that is already built into your machine. A recent "data-driven" review puts the Blue Yeti at the top of a new list of the best of these devices.

LumiCharge made a good impression among tech correspondents with its first-gen desk lamp. This product had an LED clock, not to mention ways to charge iOS and Android smartphones with built-in wired connections. Now, the company is back on Indiegogo with the LumiCharge II, which adds wireless charging to this set-up.

Xiaomi only released its first set of completely wireless headphones a few months ago, but it has now followed them up with the even more affordable Redmi AirDots. The headphones will be available in China from April 9 for CNY 99 (~ US$14.75) and look remarkably like the AirDots Youth Edition, which Xiaomi currently sells for CNY 199 (~ US$29.65).

Qualcomm has revealed the new QCS400 series SoCs dedicated for smart audio applications in smart speakers, soundbars, home theatre systems, AV receivers, and IoT hardware. The QCS400 series comes in four SKUs and offers a tri-radio coexistence, AI enhancements, up to 32-channels of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding, low-latency streaming, and next generation voice capabilities. The higher-end SKUs also come with an Adreno 306 GPU for visual output. The QCS400 series aims to be more power-efficient and can be tailored by developers to offer specific experiences to the user.

Nvidia has launched the Jetson Nano, a small computer that offers machine-learning capabilities at an entry-level price. The developer kit costs US$99 while a production-ready module will cost US$129. The Jetson Nano module offers 472 GFLOPS of computing performance in a 69.6 mm x 45 mm package. Worldwide distribution for the module version will begin in June; the developer kit is available now.

If smartwatches have one problem, it is their restricted battery capacities. The company Togvu has announced its "battery case" that may solve this problem for Apple Watch users. It is a strap for these devices that integrates wireless charging and a 600mAh battery.

Due to new customer complaints, HP is expanding its battery recall program with a 78,500 battery batch, and the affected models now include 2018 models such as ProBook 400 G4 and Pavilion x360 (11-inch), ZBook Studio G4, ProBook 430/440/450/455/470 G5, Envy 15 and Mobile Thin Client mt21/22/31.

Dell has revealed the Alienware S5000 gaming chair on its website. The racing-style chair is currently available for pre-order and has a listed price of US$399.99. The S5000 is brimming with adjustable parts that should help make any hardcore gamer’s life more comfortable. Dell has also announced that the Area-51m RTX 2080 BIOS update is now ready to download.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has been surveyed as the most popular VR hardware utilized by Steam users. The rival headset from HTC, the Vive, also has a commanding share of users, but it has seen the gap between itself and the Oculus Rift widen over the last month. Also getting a worthy mention is Windows Mixed Reality, which can be utilized by owners of Microsoft HoloLens smartglasses.

Concerns have been raised by a group of scientists about the possible carcinogenic effects of electromagnetic radiation emitted by modern devices. Of particular concern are wireless headphones like Apple’s popular AirPods as they sit in the ear canal exposing fragile tissue to potentially dangerous levels of radiation.

It has been predicted that the global wireless charging market could reach a value of US$30.164 billion by 2024, according to a press release from Research and Markets. In contrast, 2018’s value was estimated at US$7.897 billion, with adoption rates of wireless charging technology growing in markets such as the North American and European regions.

Some renders of a game controller based on a patent application made by Google have been met with considerable derision by the online community. Although the renders themselves have been expertly created, the majority of the negative comments have been aimed at Google’s actual design. The tiny analog sticks, the wide handles, and the ergonomics have all been singled out for criticism.

Leica has launched the Q2, the second generation of its high-end full-frame sensor module. It is capable of 4K/UHD recording, 47.3-megapixel image capture, and expanded crop functions. The new Leica Q2 also has some degree of water-ingress protection for all-weather use.

Wireless charging is becoming increasingly popular with mobile device designers, particularly at the higher end of the market. However, it is associated with a potentially significant problem: the inability to use a phone effectively while it has to be on its pad or station. The makers of a novel smartphone stand now available on Indiegogo claim they can help with that.

It has been reported that Corning is working on flexible glass that will be strong enough to use with foldable phones. Presently, foldable devices rely on plastic polymers because of their flexibility. However, Corning wants to eventually create a glass product that offers the useful properties of the plastic polymer screens but with the quality and hardness of glass.

A start-up called Energous has announced a collaboration with Vivo. This move could bring Energous' over-the-air charging technology, WattUp 2.0, to the smartphone OEM's devices. Vivo has said that this move could alleviate "battery anxiety" for its customers.

An Indian Twitter user has alleged that an Android TV to which he had access allowed him to see all the other accounts linked to the same via the Google Home app. The bug in question also could have let him put their Google Photos-stored images up on the screen. Google has responded by temporarily suspending the app options involved.

A new leak has claimed that Apple’s next generation of wireless earbuds will incorporate extremely fast charging technology. According to a post on Twitter made by XDA Portal writer Max Weinbach, the Apple AirPods 2 will be able to wirelessly charge from 0 to 100% in just 15 minutes, and that includes charging the case.

While the CFExpress 2.0 standard promises speeds reaching 4 GB/s, Sony's first cards will be on par with the average NVMe SSDs. The new CFExpress cards are still meant for professional DSLRs and video cams, however, since they support the new NVMe interface, they can also be used as external SSDs for compute clusters and enterprise servers.

The Google Home app can act as a one-stop shop for all your smart-home appliance control needs. Its latest update also adds the ability to tune the color of connected bulbs or lamps. This is opposed to the simple on-off switch found in previous versions.

The HERO7 Black is the top-spec'd SKU of its GoPro camera series. It is now available in a limited-edition alternative finish, Dusk White. This version will be released on March 3, 2019 on gopro.com and selected retailers worldwide.