If nothing else, last week’s Fitbit event showed the world that the company had learned two key lessons in the past year. One: price is possibly the largest driver in the company’s recent smartwatch success — so it went even lower with the $160 Versa Lite. Two: there are just too damn many Fitbit models. […]
View More Fitbit trims the fat with the InspireCategory: Hardware
SpaceX makes history by completing first private crew capsule mission
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule has safely splashed down in the Atlantic, making it the first privately built crew-capable spacecraft ever to complete a mission to the International Space Station. It’s one of several firsts SpaceX plans this year, but Boeing is hot on its heels with a crew demonstrator of its own — and of course the real test is doing the same thing with astronauts aboard.
View More SpaceX makes history by completing first private crew capsule missionSamsung’s very good Galaxy S10 is now on sale
The Galaxy S10’s pre-sales were, by all accounts, quite brisk. In fact, the company ran out of the free Galaxy Buds its was bundling with the handset. That’s good news all around for Samsung, after sales for the S9 were reported to be fairly light. For those waiting for the reviews — or simple wanting […]
View More Samsung’s very good Galaxy S10 is now on saleLeica’s Q2 is a beautiful camera that I want and will never have
Leica is a brand I respect and appreciate but don’t support. Or rather, can’t, because I’m not fabulously rich. But if I did have $5,000 to spend on a fixed-lens camera, I’d probably get the new Q2, a significant improvement over 2015’s Q — which tempted me back then.
View More Leica’s Q2 is a beautiful camera that I want and will never haveHammerhead raises $4.2M to build a smarter operating system for bikes
Hammerhead founder and CEO Piet Morgan is a bicyclist, and he started the company to create something he wanted for his rides— a better navigation system. So Hammerhead crowdfunded its first product, the H1, and subsequently built Karoo, a “cycling computer” with features for navigation and training. But Morgan told me his ambitions is bigger […]
View More Hammerhead raises $4.2M to build a smarter operating system for bikesAs Meizu’s port-free phone fails crowdfunding, company says it was ‘messing about’
That port- and button-free phone Meizu showed off earlier this year? It didn’t even get half of its $100,000 Indiegogo pre-order campaign. But that’s fine, says the company. Turns out it was “messing about” That’s according a post by CEO Jack Wong on Meizu’s official forum. “This crowdfunding project was just the marketing team messing […]
View More As Meizu’s port-free phone fails crowdfunding, company says it was ‘messing about’Fitbit CEO James Park talks lessons learned from the company’s struggles
Two years ago, Fitbit was in a rough spot. The company had ridden the wearables boom to an IPO and become virtually synonymous with the fitness tracker space, only to watch its fortunes dwindle as the market shifted almost entirely toward smartwatches. “That shift happened very rapidly over a year and a half,” CEO James […]
View More Fitbit CEO James Park talks lessons learned from the company’s strugglesFitbit’s Ace kids’ fitness tracker gets a sequel
There are few things kids love more in this world than a good sequel. As such, Fitbit has returned a year after launching its children’s fitness tracker the Ace with the predictably named Ace 2. The new version of the product has a bumper designed to protect the display from all of the things that […]
View More Fitbit’s Ace kids’ fitness tracker gets a sequelFitbit’s Inspire will replace the Alta, Zip, One and Flex 2 devices
The Inspire’s mere existence isn’t news in and of itself. The device was actually announced a couple of weeks back. But back then, it was a corporate exclusive — the latest piece in the company’s bid to get serious about health care. Today, however, Fitbit announced that the product will be available to everyone, arriving […]
View More Fitbit’s Inspire will replace the Alta, Zip, One and Flex 2 devicesFitbit announces a $160 stripped-down version of the Versa smartwatch
Last year’s Versa was at the center of Fitbit’s reversing fortunes. After two years in the wilderness, the smartwatch helped turn the tide for the flailing company. Last quarter marked the first time in two years the company saw a year-over-year increase in devices shipped. After the lackluster launch of the Ionic, the Versa delivered, […]
View More Fitbit announces a $160 stripped-down version of the Versa smartwatchAugust’s View wireless doorbell arrives this month for $230
The August View didn’t launch at CES as anticipated (the smart home maker had some slightly underwhelming brand announcements instead), but earlier leaks did seem to get just about everything else spot on about the doorbell camera. The new wireless model features a bit of a sleek, minimalistic redesign, coupled with a 1440 sensor, for […]
View More August’s View wireless doorbell arrives this month for $230Fictiv raises $33M to be the ‘AWS of hardware manufacturing’
Hardware, as the saying goes, is hard, but today a startup has raised some money for a manufacturing service that it believes can make the prospect of starting and running hardware businesses a little easier. Fictiv, which positions itself as a kind of AWS for manufacturing — providing a platform both to design components and […]
View More Fictiv raises $33M to be the ‘AWS of hardware manufacturing’