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Gadgets

Today

Ecovacs’ Deebot X8 Pro does a stellar job cleaning, until it doesn’t

Dirt isn’t the only thing robovacs need to handle nowadays – they must have the capacity to cope with complexity, too.

Yesterday

Fancy a robot to clean your windows? This one will give it a shot

It’s early days in the advent of window-cleaning robots, and they don’t do a terrific job. But Ecovacs’ Winbot W2 Pro Omni doesn’t do a bad job, either.

March

There are travel chargers, and then there’s the PlugBug Travel

Twelve South’s new lightweight charger is not without its flaws, but it does have one feature that could save your next holiday from disaster.

Apple’s new MacBook Air comes with a perfect excuse to buy it

There might never be a better time to purchase an aluminium laptop from an American company.

What does spending $18,000 on an Apple PC get you?

Mathematically, our Mac Studio is a Mac mini with a $17,550 dongle half the time we use it. But it’s the other half the time that might make it worth the money.

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An iPhone 16. The new software will make devices across Apple’s range more coherent.

Apple prepares dramatic software overhaul for iPhone, iPad and Mac

The revamp – due this year – will fundamentally change the look of the operating systems, updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows and system buttons.

Beware, this laptop battery life will leave you stranded

Acer’s new Copilot+ laptop shows Intel is taking strides to catch up to Apple’s chips, but it gives you far less time than advertised to use it.

The new sky blue MacBook Air.

Apple debuts new MacBook Air, Mac Studio with AI-ready chips

The tech titan has rolled out updated laptops and desktops, seeking to maintain a sales resurgence for the company’s computer line.

Apple

Apple debuts faster iPad Air in bid to sustain tablet growth

The tablets come in 11-inch and 13-inch size options, a new M3 chip, and are capable of running Apple’s suite of artificial intelligence features.

February

Tablets showcase Alexa+ software features during the unveiling event in New York.

Amazon’s new Alexa is like an easier-to-use ChatGPT. It could be huge

The company says its often-mocked smart voice assistant has been given a new purpose thanks to generative AI. If it works as advertised, it’s relevant again.

Priced at $US599 ($944), the iPhone 16e will have enough computing power to run Apple Intelligence, the set of features that includes integrated access to ChatGPT.

Apple launches low-cost AI phone for the cost-of-living crunch

The new model will have enough computing power to run Apple Intelligence, and will bring communications in-house for the first time.

How I finally came around to Beats headphones

Apple’s new Powerbeats Pro 2 have the Lab staff questioning the belief that the Beats brand is just for celebrity-obsessed suckers.

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is a perfect phone, with four slip-ups

Did the company fail to add magnets to its new handset just to be annoying? Maybe not. It could signal a broader trend we like to call “peak phone”.

January

A laid-back guide to Epson’s new home theatre projector

Gadget reviewing is not normally a privilege we would take lying down, but this cast an image so big we had to watch it on the ceiling.

The new Nintendo Switch 2

Nintendo’s Switch 2 Is Here. Now it’s all about the games

After all the rumours and years of anticipation, we know what Nintendo’s next console is. It’s the Switch 2.

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Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia.

The biggest news at the biggest gadget festival wasn’t even a gadget

Nvidia has grown to be the world’s biggest company on the back of artificial intelligence. Now it’s giving back to the AI community.

Dreame’s X50 Ultra robotic vacuum has retractable legs that help it up small steps.

Like clockwork, the world’s biggest gadget festival brings the crazy

The annual CES trade show in Las Vegas wouldn’t be complete without some gadgets you didn’t realise you needed.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang launching a new graphics card that uses AI for most of its rendering, saving cost.

PC makers spruik half-price AI laptops at year’s biggest trade show

The industry launched chips, PC graphics cards and laptops that it says will drive down the cost of running AI models while increasing performance.

Robot puts a sock in it for world’s biggest gadget fest

CES – formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show – starts officially on Wednesday, but already a theme has emerged, and it doesn’t take AI to figure out what it is.

December 2024

Apple Mac mini.

These were our favourite gadgets of 2024

Last year might have been the year AI made it into the public consciousness, but 2024 was when the new technology made it into devices.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/gadgets-hqp