Latest posts
The Hue Bridge Pro shows how migrations should be handled
My house is full of Hue lights and, because they’re so easy to set up and there’s a huge range of wireless controls, too. I have remotes everywhere I mainly sit or walk past, inside and out, so I can quickly control my lights. As time’s gone on, my old Hue Bridge has started to…
The iPad Air brand makes no sense – it needs a rethink
The iPhone Air is an impressively slim 5.6mm-thick smartphone that really showcases the best of Apple’s engineering prowess. It’s just a shame the same can’t be said for the similarly-branded iPad Air. Despite the iPad Air branding suggesting that, like the iPhone Air, it’d be super thin and light, that’s not actually the case. The…
Will Amazon finally get it right with the new Echo Studio?
Despite what the headline says, I come not to bury Amazon’s Echo speakers – I rather liked the Echo Studio. But it did have a ceiling to its audio performance, so while myself and many have called it the best-sounding wireless speaker in the Echo line-up, there are speakers from the likes of Audio Pro,…
Is smarter AI, such as Amazon Alexa Plus and Google Gemini for Home, worth the price?
Remember a time when services were either free or very cheap? Seems like those days are long behind us, and the price of progress means an ever-increasing number of subscription services. This week, both Amazon and Google announced new hardware designed to work with their advanced AI services, Amazon Alexa Plus and Google Gemini for…
2025 has had some fantastic foldables – but the best is still to come
To me, 2025 represents the year that foldables have finally gone mainstream. They’re still absurdly expensive, yes, but prices are starting to creep down, and more importantly, the hardware finally feels mature. No longer are you spending almost double the cost of a regular phone to get something that’s all-round more fragile and delicate, while…
Ofgem’s plans for low Standing Charge tariffs don’t address the key problems
Although utility prices have fallen from their peak, the average UK home is spending a lot more on electricity and gas than it was a few years ago. Part of the problem is due to the current system’s severe flaws, and the government and energy regulator, Ofgem, appear completely unable to address the core issues.…
Harman rules the audio market, but is that a good thing?
Harman International has finally completed the acquisition of Sound United, bringing brands such as Bowers & Wilkins, Denon & Marantz, Polk Audio and others under the Harman name. It’s an impressive roster of audio brands – likely the strongest line-up in the hi-fi industry. But it also feels a bit… strange. Not necessarily bad strange…
The Apple inspiration for Xiaomi’s 17 Pro flagship range is a little too obvious
It was the great Mark Twain who once wrote, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope; we give them a turn, and they make new and curious combinations”. In the world of tech…
Don’t believe the headlines, there’s no cheap-to-run electric heating
As we start to get a few chilly nights, you might notice an increase in the number of headlines that say something like, “Shoppers rave over cheap gadget that warms home for 13p” or “Silent 45p-per-hour device eliminates cold spots”. There are many variations on a theme, but every article written in this format always…
Snapchat’s AR glasses software is light-years ahead of the competition
Snap might be best known for the popular Snapchat app, but after previewing the company’s new Snap OS 2.0, due to ship on its consumer-focused AR glasses next year, that might soon change. I recently went down to Snap’s London HQ to get a taste of what to expect – in terms of software –…