All the Gear We Loved in October
HPYes, HP Really Made a Leather Laptop
Here’s one way to get attention: make a laptop out of leather. Yep, the HP Spectre Folio is fully bonded with 100 percent, chrome-tanned leather. (Why? According to HP, millennials are drawn to its “authenticity.”) Beyond the bovine exterior, this convertible features a 13.3-inch touchscreen display, an Amber Lake-Y processor, two USB-C ports, and a battery that will give you up to 18 hours of battery life. The Core i5 configuration starts at $1,300, and the leather exteriors ship in two tones, warm brown and deeper bordeaux. Read the full story here.
IRL GlassesThese Magical Sunglasses Block All the Screens Around You
What do you get when you put screen-blocking film in glasses frames? A real-life metaphor for modern anxieties. The IRL glasses, launched on Kickstarter earlier this month, block the wavelength of light that comes from LED and LCD screens. Put them on and the TV in the sports bar seems to switch off; billboards blinking ahead seem to go blank. Plus, the lenses are set in ‘80s-inspired angular frames—apropos for when you’re gazing out at 1984. Read the full story here.
MicrosoftSay Hello to All New Surface PCs, Plus New Surface Headphones
Microsoft’s three major hardware releases feature more interior upgrades than significant external changes. The Surface Pro 6 will have the latest quad-core, 8th generation Intel Core processor. The Surface Laptop 2, aimed at designers and other creative professionals, is a gorgeous machine with 28-inch PixelSense touchscreen. Finally, the wireless Surface Headphones automatically pause music or mute calls when you take them off, and they restart when they put them back on. Plus, it can summon Cortana. Read about all the new gear here.
AmazonThe New Kindle Isn't Innovative at All. That's a Good Thing
The Kindle Paperwhite, priced at $130, is a fine upgrade to an already terrific product. With six weeks of battery life on a single charge, you can enjoy your favorite 19th century Russian tomes on the six-inch, high-res display, uninterrupted. It has generous storage and a totally smooth face. The best part is that the new Kindle Paperwhite is waterproof, so you can fill a bubble bath, light your aromatherapeutic candles, and read Crime and Punishment. Ahhhh. Read the full story here.
FacebookFacebook Made You a Smart-Home Device, and There's a Camera on It
Facebook’s Portal allows you to video chat with faraway friends, by way of a big HD screen and a 12-megapixel camera. With the wake word “Hey Portal,” you can video chat via Messenger, play Spotify, or banter with Alexa. During calls, Portal’s native AI code recognizes shapes of faces to zoom in, and makes human voices sound crisp against background noise. Did we mention that Facebook started selling this device, which has a camera on it, just two weeks after a massive security breach? Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. Read the full story here.
Phuc PhamWith the Pixel 3, Google Sticks to Its Software Smarts
When it comes to building new products, Google lets software shine, and the Pixel 3 is no exception. This new smartphone comes with Google’s Duplex technology that can dispatch a virtual assistant to make eerily human-sounding calls for you, or to screen your calls from unknown numbers. The hardware is just as good as you remember from the Pixel 2—but with a matte glass back, the Pixel 3 also supports wireless charging. The screen’s OLED display also looks brighter and richer than last year’s Pixel. Read the full story here.
JUMP BikesHow Jump Designed a Global Electric Bike
Shared e-bike company Jump was acquired by Uber earlier this year, and its new owner wants the speedy red bikes to go global. Which poses a design challenge for Jump: How do you build a single bike model that can serve the most people, in the most urban environments? Protypes are tested under violent conditions, its low frame adjusted and re-adjusted to accommodate the widest range of riders. With global expansion on the horizon, you might say there’s a lot (ahem) riding on getting the design just right. Read the full story here.
Phuc PhamThe Pixel Slate Is Here to Take on the iPad Pro and Surface
The Slate switches between tablet mode and “laptop” mode depending on how you use it. Its amphibian tablet/laptop capabilities are underscored in its UI, which morphs into a familiar Chrome OS desktop display when you connect the tablet to the accessory keyboard. The Slate has a larger 12.3-inch LCD display compared to the Pixel C’s 10-inch display. It ships in four different configurations, with different internals, depending on your needs. The most basic model, with the Intel Celeron chip, starts at $599. Read the full story here.
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