Articles by Brian Heater
Hands-On With Neato’s New Smartphone-Controlled Robotic Vacuum
We play around with a smartphone-controlled robot vacuum so you don't have to. I like the Roomba, I do, but my biggest issue with iRobot's signature product has long been the ability to actually control the thing.
Hands-On With The Gear S2 Classic, Samsung Finally Gets The Smartwatch Right
We try out Samsung's terrific new smartwatch. You know that old saying about a broken clock getting things right twice a day? Not wholly appropriate here, but after a handful of less-than-great smartwatch attempts, it's not entirely off.
DJI Is Bringing Autonomous Flight Modes To Its Phantom 3 And Inspire 1 Drones
DJI's drones are about to get a lot more autonomous. On Sept. 7, drone maker DJI will be upgrading its Phantom 3 and Inspire 1 autonomous vehicles with autonomous flight modes.
Hands-On With Logitech’s New Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse Combo
A closer look at the Logitech K380 and M535 Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The thinking behind Logitech's K380 keyboard is pretty sound. You own several different devices - say a computer, a tablet, and a smartphone - so why not just buy one keyboard to type on all of them? The execution is pretty solid, as well.
Wrists-On With LG’s Urbane Smartwatch
We try on LG's new smartwatch. LG's got a fancy new smartwatch. It's so fancy, in fact, that the company's not calling it a smartwatch at all.
Hands-On With Huawei’s Force Touchable Mate S
We go hands-on with Huawei's new flagship smartphone. Once you get around the strange, human/robotic love connotations of naming a device the "Mate," it turns out Huawei's made yet another premium handset capable of competing with the big names.
Wrists-On With Huawei’s Fancy New Smartwatch
A closer look at the Huawei Watch. I read something the other day that declared Huawei the "new Samsung. " It's a nice enough sentiment, but I don't know that I've seen any products from the latter nearly as luxurious as the Huawei Watch.
Eyes-On With DJI’s Massive Inspire 1 Quadcopter
A closer look at DJI's big new drone. You can actually feel the wind coming off the Inspire 1 when it's in flight. Standing several feet back, I still got a rush of air coming off the quadcopter's four giant rotors.
Hands-On With Sphero's Awesome New 'Star Wars' BB-8 Toy
A closer look at Sphero's new Force Awakens toy. That didn't take long. An hour or so into the official opening of IFA and I already feel like a kid again.
A Look At Haier’s Gigantic 105-Inch LED Curved TV
Haier's new TV is gigantic. I won't pretend like I wasn't a little disappointed with Haier's announcements at this year's IFA.
Haier’s Got A New Watch With A Built-In Panic Button For Tracking Kids And Seniors
A look at Haier's new kid-friendly watch. This little, bright pink thing is the E-ZY SOS Watch, a new wearable from Haier. There's none of the excitement of the smartwatch world here – it's just a simple device with built-in GPS to help parents track their kids via an Android or iOS app.
Eyes-On With Acer’s Revo Build M1-601 Modular Mini PC
A closer look at Acer's cool little Windows 10 machine. Acer's biggest hit of this year's IFA is also, arguably, its biggest surprise. The Revo Build M1-601 is a mini PC so small you can comfortably hold it in the palm of your hand – assuming, of course, that you don't go crazy with the modular levels and build yourself a skyscraper.
Sphero’s BB-8 Droid Is Now The Star Wars Toy To Beat
Sphero brings The Force Awaken's most adorable droid to life. Star Wars always has the coolest toys, and the latest tie-in from the smart toy makers at Sphero looks to be right up there with the best of them.
Hands-On With Toshiba’s Satellite Radius 15
Hands-on with Toshiba's big new convertible. The largest of the ever-expanding and fairly flexible Radius line, the Radius 15, was on display at Toshiba's booth here at IFA in Berlin.
Hands-On With Acer’s Flexible R11 Chromebook
A closer look at Acer's new Chromebook. In all the hecticness it IFA, we failed to get a close-up look at Acer's flex new R11 Chromebook. Thankfully, we managed to get on the floor a bit early today, in advance of the show's actual kickoff.
Samsung Announces Car Mode For Galaxy, An App Designed At Reducing Distractions
Samsung shows off a new app created in conjunction with VW. Today's Samsung pre-IFA event was less about mobile than we've seen over the past couple of weeks, but there were a few tidbits here and there, including the new Car Mode For Galaxy, an app developed in conjunction with Volkswagen aimed at lessening distractions for drivers.
Hands On With Samsung’s SleepSense Sleep Tracker
Hands on with Samsung's new sleep tracker. From the sound of it, Samsung still has a little something left up its sleeve for today's pre-IFA events (on its wrists, no less), but thus far the company's biggest announcement is a surprise one: the SleepSense Sleep Tracker.
Samsung Shows Off A New Curved Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player
Samsung's new UHD Blu-ray player. Sure, it's no washing machine, but Samsung showed off its latest TV peripheral, the ultra high-definition Blu-ray player, a new, curved Blu-ray player that offers up to four times the resolution and up to 64 times the color expression of standard players.
Samsung Announces A Washing Machine With A Built-In Pause Button
Samsung's fancy new washing machine. Today's pre-IFA Samsung event was all about the home. In fact, one of the company's biggest announcements was a fancy new washing machine, the WW-9000 Crystal Blue Washer.
Samsung Announces New SmartThings Hub, BMW Partnership
Samsung's new hub offers a diverse array of home monitoring applications. Today's Samsung IFA kickoff event was all about the Internet of Things.
Samsung Unveils SleepSense, A Connected Sleep Monitoring Disk
Samsung's new sleep monitoring device. Samsung's second big Internet of Things announcement at today's IFA kickoff event is all about sleep – something we haven't been getting a lot of this week.
Hands-On With Motorola’s New Moto 360
We take a look at Motorola's updated smartwatch. Anyone who thought the hubbub around this year's IFA would be about anything other than smartwatches was just kidding themselves.
Hands-On With Lenovo Phab Plus Phablet
We take a closer look at Lenovo's odd new slate. Say hello to Lenovo's Howard Beale device. Someone in some board room threw up his hands and was mad as hell and announced that the company was just going to go ahead and embrace the phablet phenomenon with a 6.
Lenovo Announces A Slew Of New PCs, Stands On Them
Lenovo's new PCs debut at IFA trade show. Lenovo rounded out the first night of IFA previews by announcing a slew of new products – and even stood on a couple.
Wrists-On With Sony’s SmartWatch 3
We play around with Sony's new smartwatch. Better late than never, right? It wasn't new for IFA, but we we still managed to play around with Sony's new SmartWatch 3, and figured it was worth a mention here — at least until we get our hands through the fascinating new crowdsourced Wena Wrist.
Ears-On With Sony's New Walkman And Hear On Headphones
We take Sony's new Hear line for a spin. Bu most accounts Kazuo Hirai is no Neil Young, certainly, but his company would still love to be the ones to convince you that you've been missing out all of those years you spent listening to crummy MP3 files.
Hands-On With The Sony Z5 Compact
Hands-on with Sony's new compact flagship. The Sony Z5 Compact – it's like a Sony Flagship phone, only smaller. The lil' brother of Sony's new flagship, the camera-focused handset was on display this evening at IFA in Berlin, and we got our grubby paws all over the thing.
Sony Shows Off Camera-Focused Xperia Z5 Flagship Handset
Sony shows off camera-focused Xperia Z5 flagship at IFA. Sony's first big announcement of this year's IFA conference is, not surprisingly, a brand spanking new smartphone.
Huawei Shows Off Its New Flagship, The Mate S, Featuring Force Touch Technology
Huawei shows off the Mate S at IFA. With Apple all set to reveal a new iPhone in just about a week's time, Huawei has beat Cupertino to the punch on what's expected to be one of the handset's key features.
Asus Shows Off A Whole Bunch Of New ZenFones At IFA: Zoom, Selfie, Laser, Max, And Deluxe
Asus parades a series of new ZenFones at its pre-IFA press conference. Asus wasn't lying when it said it would have a whole lot to talk about at this year's IFA.
