Gadget

Renders of the Fitbit Charge 5 tracker have been leaked, showing off the fitness and health-related accessory in a choice of three colors. The most noticeable upgrade over the Fitbit Charge 4 is the color display, and it seems the Fitbit Charge 5 release date has also been teased in the new marketing renders.

Panasonic has launched a new version of its rugged Toughbook 55 laptop with updated specs and I/O. They include 11th-gen Intel CPUs - which also of course makes one of its ports Thunderbolt 4. However, the PC is still fully compatible with the user-swappable xPAK modules that can customize a unit to a customer's specific professional or public service needs.

Fairphone is already working on the next device in its lineup of modular, repairable phones. The Fairphone 4 has now been spotted on the WiFi Alliance website, revealing a few interesting details about the Fairphone 3 Plus's successor ahead of launch.

Razer has redesigned and re-named Project Hazel, its high-tech face mask. The project is now Zephyr, and it will arrive next quarter. Razer is recruiting beta testers for the Zephyr, too.

Samsung has unveiled the Exynos W920, its latest crack at a wearable chipset. The Exynos W920 is the first 5 nm SoC for wearables and supposedly offers a significant improvement in CPU and GPU performance compared to the Exynos 9110.

Xiaomi introduced a new Mi Mix, Mi Pad and Mi TVs during its August 2021 product event. However, the OEM also had something much less expected to unveil at the end of this show: an apparently fully-functional, well-spec'd robot dog. The company might even put this groundbreaking product on sale soon.

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6, also known as the Mi Band 6, has recently received a useful feature thanks to the latest firmware update for the activity tracker. Users of the Mi Band 6 wearable will be able to use the smart band as a basic flashlight as long as version 5.3.0 of the Mi Fit app is also installed.

A young Indian man has died from a suspected cardiac arrest following a device explosion while using his Bluetooth earphones. Conflicting reports about the incident have started appearing; however, it seems the fatal earphones blast could have been down to a devastating combination of shoddy manufacturing and a possible power surge.

Google might have something to debut alongside its new Pixel 6 series in October 2021: a new Chromecast. The Mountain View giant has had a new device certified by the FCC, in a leak that reveals specs most likely associated with a streaming stick of some description. Then again, it makes upgrades over the current Ultra device, if any, hard to pick out.

GoPro has announced that it has made no less than US$250 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2021 (or 2Q2021). The action-cam company has also reported it has amassed 211% more subscribers compared to 2Q2020. It has also made a net gain for this quarter, as opposed to the sizeable net loss posted for the same quarter of the last year.

Samsung may not have announced the Galaxy Buds 2 yet, but someone has already purchased a pair. Separately, product slides for the upcoming TWS earbuds have been published by WalkingCat, which outline their battery life and auto-switching between Samsung devices, among other details.

A lawyer has used Apple AirTags to demonstrate that Portland authorities have been illegally disposing of homeless people's belongings. The location tags were attached to 16 items, including a French press.

Seeedstudio has released a new carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, allowing the device to be used as a mini router. Accordingly, the accessory brings multiple physical connections to the CM4, including dual Gigabit Ethernet and USB Type-C. The Dual Gigabit Carrier Board has a built-in aluminium heatsink too, which should keep the carrier board and CM4 cool under sustained load.

PocketBook will soon start selling the InkPad Lite, a relatively large eReader with an adjustable backlight. Apparently, the 9.7-inch device will debut in the autumn for under US$300, but its display may not be up to the quality of its competitors.

A new expansion board extends the Raspberry Pi Pico with cellular and GPS connectivity. Data transfer rates should be enough for many applications, and the board even includes a small LCD screen for good measure. A 4G version is available, also.

Apple has finally started selling the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID separately, and with an optional numeric keypad. However, the new keyboard has limited compatibility, is expensive, and only comes in one colour.

The Apple Watch Series 7 release date appears to be nearing as no less than six new model references have appeared in filings for the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC). While it’s expected the Apple Watch Series 7 will get a new design and an updated processor, the inclusion of a blood-sugar sensor in an Apple Watch is still likely years away.

Samsung will launch its newest TWS earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 2, later this month. Details, images, and pricing of the Buds 2 have now been revealed ahead of launch, with one notable perk being the presence of active noise cancellation.

Some details of a Xiaomi Mi Band X have leaked online, and it seems the Chinese company is looking to add something extraordinary to its hugely successful smart band lineup. The Mi Band X will apparently have a wraparound display and do without watch straps, utilizing a magnetic bracelet clasp for wearing and taking off.
Update: Xiaomi PR states the Mi Band X is a "virtual product" used in marketing training.

A potential Fitbit Charge 5 tracker has turned up in a single image that reveals the device has a color display. The overall design of the possible Fitbit Charge 5 is distinctly different to that of its predecessor. The tracker in this leaked image has the codename “Morgan” and is expected to at least feature NFC payment support.

Xiaomi has globally launched five AIoT products as part of its Smart Living for Everyone event. The announced items were the Mi Router AX9000, Mi 2K Gaming Monitor 27, Mi Smart Air Fryer 3.5L, Redmi Buds 3 Pro, and the Mi Electric Scooter 3. The new Xiaomi smart products will be made available to buy from country-specific Mi.com pages.

The Nokia 110 4G is this HMD Global brand's latest button-phone, released to the Indian market today (July 24, 2021). As the name suggests, it has 4G/LTE connectivity despite its basic feature-device nature. Besides that, it won't strain many pockets in more ways than 1 with a 1.8-inch QVGA display and 128MB of RAM.

The Maker Pi RP2040 is a particularly inexpensive developer board that is suitable for realising your own robotics projects. The Maker Pi goes for US$9.90 and features numerous connections.

Realme's application to trademark the term "MagDart" led to pretty instantaneous speculation that the OEM is preparing what amounts to an Apple MagSafe clone for release in the near future. A tech blog purports to confirm this rumor outright with "exclusive" renders showing the accessories in question. They show a potentially appreciable take on the more up-to-date end of the category in question.

The ROCK 3A is another single-board computer by Radxa, which has released the Zero, an upgraded Pi 4 Plus and the Pi X in the last year alone. The ROCK 3A features a Rockchip RK3568 SoC, up to 8 GB of RAM, and dual M.2 slots for adding an NVMe SSD and a Wi-Fi module. The Radxa ROCK 3A is relatively cheap, too.

According to ClockworkPi, the DevTerm will be delivered imminently, despite months of delays. The company has now demonstrated its portable Raspberry Pi and thermal printer in greater detail, too.

Smartwatches could soon be capable of measuring blood sugar, blood pressure, blood alcohol and hydration levels. The innovations come courtesy of Rockley Photonics, which has announced a biometric sensor that is small enough to fit within a smartwatch chassis.

A YouTuber has shown how to fix Joy-Con drift, a common issue of many Nintendo Switch controllers. A little manual skill is required, but the fix is easy to carry out and reliable.

Sony's latest soundbar packs plenty of features, including HDMI 2.1, Dolby Atmos and AirPlay 2. Hence, the HT-A7000 could be an excellent option for pairing with a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X without compromising on sound.

In an interview, CEO and Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton has revealed the company's intentions for future single-board computers. Apparently, the Pi Foundation has the Raspberry Pi 4A and Raspberry Pi 5 in the pipeline, along with new a Raspberry Pi touchscreen display.

The new tech start-up Nothing is slated to launch its inaugural product, the ear (1) TWS buds, on July 27, 2021. However, it has chosen to share some details on the peripherals' charging case ahead of this event. Not that there is much to see here, as the accessory is largely transparent.

The FCC has revealed the design of the QuietComfort 45, Bose's long-awaited successor to the QC35 II. The QC45 features minor external changes compared to its predecessor, including removing micro-USB charging and a new colourway.

Engineers from Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have reported a new world record for data-transmission speed over fiber-optic cables. They claim a rate of 319 terabits per second (Tb/s), as opposed to the former highest rate of 178 Tb/s. Most crucially, this achievement has been made over an appreciable length of cable and a potentially feasible tweak of conventional technology.

New Realme Band 2 renders have turned up showing how different the fitness tracker looks in comparison to the original Realme Band wearable. The good-looking Realme Band 2 is expected to feature blood-pressure monitoring and possibly SpO2 measurement as well.

Mobvoi's latest product is a dedicated voice recorder pitched at a professional market. The OEM asserts that it is enhanced with "dual-mic" noise-cancelling for clarity in voice-capture during meetings. It is also equipped with a neural network for automatic transcript summary generation based on intelligently-chosen keywords.

Valve has launched the Steam Deck, a fully-fledged handheld gaming PC. The device features an AMD Zen 2 and RDNA 2-based APU that delivers 1.6 teraflops of graphics processing power.

PowKiddy has started selling the Q20 Mini, another retro handheld based on a Nintendo design. Supposedly, the Q20 Mini lasts up to four hours between charges and can emulate numerous systems, including the SNES and the PlayStation 1.

Renowned tech evangelist Robert Scoble has posted a tweet claiming that Apple’s long-awaited Apple Glass AR headset is due to make its first appearance at WWDC 2022. It will be joined by a new iPod that is said to be integral to the new AR experience.

The MagSafe Battery Pack is now available to order from its maker's website. It is a new form of wireless power bank custom-made to snap onto the back of an iPhone 12-series unit using the devices' new proprietary magnetic charging system. However, this novelty and convenience comes with a typically Apple price-tag.

An artist has produced a cyberdeck based on the Raspberry Pi. The Cyberdeck RA01 also contains a keyboard, a joystick and a display, among other components.

An engineer associated with the OEM Huawei has documented the design and creation of an electric bicycle. However, unlike the vast majority of these devices, this one is rated to propel and balance itself, thanks to a complex system of sensors and processing power, apparently modelled after similar breakthroughs in self-driving cars and satellite tech.

BlackBerry is now linked to a 5G smartphone that will also bring the brand's hallmark physical keyboard back in 2021. A designer has released renders of what might be a new spin on this concept: one that may be made of the same material as the rest of its display panel. Then again, it is still divided into discrete QWERTY squares, thus allowing for visible mode-switching and alternative uses.

Nintendo’s new Switch console brings a few new key features to the table, but not necessarily everything fans may have wanted. Chief among the omissions was a faster processor, but it also looks like Nintendo doesn’t appear to have done anything to address the long-standing Joy-Con drift issue.

Amazfit has announced that its next pair of TWS earbuds will be unveiled during its upcoming “Future of Health” event. The popular health-wearable brand claims that they will help the user improve their posture in addition to their cardiovascular health, thanks to various kinds of advanced sensors. Its owner may also unveil a new, custom chip and OS for smartwatches during the same show.