Of all the new LG Gram laptops unveiled at CES 2023, the Gram Style is the most eye-catching. It features an iridescent finish on the lid and keyboard deck that, even under the garish convention center lights here in Las Vegas, managed to look pretty. Like the rest of the Gram line, the Style is an impressively thin and light laptop for its size, with the 16-inch model coming in at 1.2kg (2.7 pounds). In fact, it's so light that the bicep curls and front raises I did using the laptop didn't feel like any work at all (weird flex, I know).
Speaking of flex, though, I did feel the 16-inch Style yield a little under my grip during the front raises, and it's worth reminding you that we've had issues with the build quality on previous Grams. Though nothing ever actually broke during our testing, in general Gram laptops have felt less premium than other ultraportables, and almost plasticky. The Style has what LG calls a "glass design," and I use quotes because the entire laptop isn't actually made of glass. In fact, even after I picked it up, I couldn't tell what the back of the device was made of, and had to ask. While the base of the notebook is made from a nano-magnesium alloy, the lid and keyboard deck, where the iridescent finish is, are Gorilla Glass 3.
That keyboard deck is also another highlight here. At first glance, it looks like there's nothing below the keyboard, but drag your finger across the surface and two LED lines light up to indicate the boundaries of the trackpad. When I tried doing that, I didn't even feel a difference between the touchpad and the rest of the deck — looks like LG took this "hidden trackpad" in a tactile sense as well. It's an interesting concept that might have aesthetic benefits, but I'm not sure it will appeal to those who rely on touch to figure out where the trackpad is.
The Style laptops also feature anti-glare OLED screens, which was so effective that I initially thought this was just a really bright and colorful LCD. That's not a ding on the display though, I still found the Windows 11 wallpaper vibrant and crisp.
The Gram Style isn't the only new laptop LG showed off at CES — there are new sizes available, and all models are also available in Intel's latest 13th-generation Core processors. For all the details on those products, as well as the full specs of the Gram Style, check out our news article here.
Though it can be depressing to consider the worst in tech each year, sometimes naming some of the losers can actually bring some schadenfreude. In 2022, watching the long-overinflated crypto bubble burst was like staring at a pimple being popped in slow motion: oddly and grossly satisfying. And though some of us were sad to see Stadia go, no one in the tech and gaming industries was surprised when Google sent it to the graveyard. More frustrating, though, were the debacles that unfolded this year with very real and sometimes dangerous repercussions for the most vulnerable communities. As we recap the worst things that happened in tech in 2022, let’s hope that the year ahead brings more positive developments for us all.
Twitter
Even before Elon got his hands on Twitter, the service was being mis-handled by its leaders. As soon as Musk floated the idea of a $44 billion takeover earlier this year, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and the company’s board seemingly jumped at the potential payday. Who cares if it’s a singular social network, one of the few platforms for under-served communities to get their voices heard? Agrawal alone reportedly received $57.4 million from the sale. (Founder Jack Dorsey ended up rolling over his investment in the site, rather than nabbing a near $1 billion payout.)
And now we have Musk’s Twitter, an increasingly toxic pit of the internet’s worst, driven entirely by the richest man in the world’s id. Advertisers are leaving in droves, and Twitter obsessives are making their way to whatever alternative they can find. Meanwhile, Musk is learning just how difficult running a social network is (what’s that, you actually need content moderation?!). At this point, we can only hope Twitter will go the way of Tumblr: Mismanaged until it’s sold at a fire sale price to someone who actually cares about the internet. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior editor.
Crypto, FTX and everything related
2022 saw the value of major cryptocurrencies fall by a significant margin, with billions of dollars being wiped off the industry in minutes. Major crypto companies saw that a winter was coming, and started running layoffs in the hope of staunching the flow. But that winter got turned into a blizzard when FTX collapsed, pulling the already downward trends even further south. The year also saw plenty of other crypto exchanges get hacked, or burn up quite spectacularly when things got hairy. It was only then that the air started pouring out of Sam Bankman-Fried’s bubble, and we’re living through the consequences of that right now.
An Aside: I studied company law and finance for two years, and while I’d never pretend to be a high-minded finance type, even a cursory look at FTX should have aroused suspicion. The business was structured so opaquely that it seemed like an obvious ploy to mask something, be it amateurishness, or criminality. No company that drew in just $388 million in profit needed to be structured into 100 wholly-owned sub-businesses – only a megacorporation like Disney could possibly justify such a sprawling structure.
The other thing that FTX’s collapse should remind us all is that, while the current banking system is hardly a paragon, it does it least function. The fact that FTX was allowed to hold so much money in a system run by a bunch of comparatively unqualified figures is ludicrous. Maybe there’s a reason we don’t let a bunch of relatively young kids with little real-world experience in the banking world run major financial institutions.
JANE ROSENBERG / reuters
If you want to know how bad FTX was, just look at what John Ray III, who famously nursed Enron through its bankruptcy, wrote in the Chapter 11 filing. “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls,” he said, adding that the founders were “inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised.” It gets worse when you reach the bit where it turns out the company had no idea how much cash it had at any one time. Which is surely table stakes for most financial institutions?
Then there’s the, ahem, alleged prevalence of wash trading in the NFT sphere, as holders swap assets amongst their wallets to give the appearance of a healthy market. Or the fact that a number of major crypto billionaires recently passed away in mysterious circumstances. But there’s no proof, friends, that this is tied to crypto’s usefulness in laundering cash for major criminal networks. None at all.
I do think, however, that what will really hammer the nail into crypto’s coffin in 2023 is the recession, as people need to cut down on their luxuries to pay for the essentials. Sure, you could justify buying a Bored Ape as an “investment” when there were stimulus checks rolling around the economy. But when you’re deciding between getting $100 bucks to cover your fuel bill this month or a JPEG of Jimmy Fallon as a monkey, a lot of people are going to make the sensible choice. — Daniel Cooper, Senior editor.
Google Stadia
Stadia didn’t last long. But at times during its short life, it was amazing. During Cyberpunk 2077’s unmitigated disaster of a launch, Google’s cloud gaming platform was one of the best places to run the sprawling game with minimal problems. When many couldn’t get the latest PlayStation or Xbox, Stadia was a way to play games with visual fidelity beyond the PS4 and Xbox One – as long as your internet connection could handle it.
The problem (and there are a few reasons why it struggled) was Stadia didn’t have enough games to stay relevant. Exclusives were rare and there simply weren’t as many games as the competition. Many of Stadia’s titles were also far more expensive to buy compared to other online game stores – even when on sale. When the company closed its internal development studios last year, it was not a good sign.
Then, a rumor gathered pace in late July 2022 that Stadia was going to be shuttered by the end of the summer. It was never substantiated, but it was enough to send devoted Stadia gamers (and their communities in places like Reddit) into freefall. Perhaps this was because Google has a reputation for killing its darlings. (RIP Google Hangouts, Play Music, Cardboard, Reader and the rest). Or perhaps because it was completely plausible?
Google denied it. Well, for two months. Then, the company announced it was shuttering the service, saying Stadia "hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected.” Which was… true. But it worked incredibly well. That’s probably why this isn’t where Google’s game-streaming tech ends. Earlier this year, AT&T offered a handful of games, including Control, to its customers through Google's Immersive Stream for Games – aka Stadia but not. Capcom used Stadia’s technology to offer a web-based Resident Evil: Village demo back in June, while Bungie reportedly used it to test out Destiny 2 changes and improvements with staff before rolling it out to gamers.
Google is, mostly, doing the right thing and reimbursing game and hardware purchases. But that didn’t include Stadia Pro subs – arguably what its most passionate supporters were using. Users will be able to play their game library until January 18, 2023. Then the Stadia servers get turned off, forever. — Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief.
Tasos Katopodis via Getty Images
Period tracking apps and digital privacy
After the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked, there was widespread panic. Amid disbelief, incredulity and outrage, people began to question if the tools they were using to track or avoid pregnancy would be used against them. Chief among the concerns was the reliability of period and cycle tracking apps. Were they collecting data that could be used to identify people who had terminated pregnancies? Would they hand that information over to anyone looking for it?
The Dobbs decision had a ripple effect when we went from scrutinizing the privacy policies of all cycle-tracking apps, to realizing that the overall digital privacy of every user was on a tenuous foundation. Lia Holland, campaigns and communications director for Fight for the Future, told Engadget in June that period-tracking apps were the “canary in the coal mine in terms of our data privacy.”
We learned too, that tracking tools used by platforms like Facebook to serve personalized ads could also be used for insidious reasons. Anti-abortion groups, for example, kept tabs on people seeking abortion services using Facebook’s advertising tools, despite Meta’s rules against doing so. Those groups could also share the data with third-party anti-abortion marketing companies to target “abortion-minded” people with ads. Though Google announced its intention to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by 2023, this year the company had to delay that to 2024 as it continues to test a feasible replacement that would protect consumer privacy while allowing marketers to serve targeted ads.
At the start of 2022, Google announced that it was trying out a different tracking approach called Topics API, instead of the FLoC method it had initially prioritized. In February, after years of testing, Google’s proposal was accepted by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Still, despite rolling out previews of its privacy sandbox on Chrome in March and Android in April, Google still needed to push back the disabling of third-party cookies in its browser another year.
The outlook on our digital privacy in general may be bleak, but there may be hope for improvement. With all the scrutiny this year, many popular period-tracking apps took clear stands and launched privacy-focused modes or made it clear that they would not collect user data. The FTC has also warned companies and data brokers against the misuse of health and location data, and said it was “committed to using the full scope of its legal authorities” to safeguard consumer privacy. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy editor
Peloton
Peloton and home fitness tech (everyone went back to the gym)
We’ve all been cooped up at home long enough and in 2022, we all let the dogs (and ourselves) out. And as we all ventured outside, we stopped using the at-home gear we bought to tide ourselves over during the dark days of lockdown. Every time we came home to the sight of the expensive console or the exorbitant stationary bike we no longer used, we were reminded of sadder times or unfulfilled goals.
So while companies like Peloton and Bowflex saw a huge boost in sales during the lockdown, they quickly saw numbers stagnate or plummet in 2022. After an ambitious effort to manufacture its own equipment, this year the company gave up making its own products and struck a deal to start selling its machines on Amazon. That marked the first time Peloton had sold its products on a platform other than its own, signaling that the company needed help to move units.
Since then, it’s also launched a partnership with sporting goods retailer Dicks to sell the Bike, Tread and Guide at 100 brick-and-mortar stores in the US. It also launched a rental program to let people get the Bike for a monthly fee and CEO Barry McCarthy said it was contemplating opening its workout content to competing bikes and treadmills.
These efforts to reach a wider audience makes sense. Peloton posted a net loss of $757.1 million for the first three months of the year on a revenue of $964 million. The company tried drastic cost-cutting measures, including laying off about 2,800 corporate employees, which is equivalent to 20 percent of its total workforce. It laid off an additional 570, 784 and 500 workers in July, August and October, effectively halving its workforce in a year. It also cut the prices of existing models in an effort to lower the barrier to entry and draw in more new customers.
It’s not all doom and gloom for Peloton, though. The company did launch a new rowing machine and connected camera this year, and appears to be setting its sights on more markets around the world. — C.L.
Mike Blake / reuters
Toyota’s EV failure
Everything about Toyota’s bZ4X is disappointing. It came far too late, long after the company established itself as a hybrid leader and Tesla paved the way for true electric vehicles. It’s a bit ugly and surprisingly boring compared to other EVs, judging from practically every review. Oh, and it had to be completely recalled because the freaking wheels could fly off. Instead of being a market leader in safety and reliability, the bZ4X made it seem like Toyota had never built a car before. Even its name didn’t make sense!
While Toyota has resumed production of the bZ4X, it’s clear the company missed out on a huge opportunity with its first mass market EV. (There was a RAV4 EV, once upon a time.) And it’s doubly disappointing after we’ve learned that the company has been lobbying to slow down the EV transition. It’s classic innovator’s dilemma stuff – after pioneering with hybrids, why rock the boat any further? Toyota is reportedly pushing to reboot its sluggish EV plans, and given its sheer size it’ll likely catch up to other EV companies within the next decade.
But the company’s image is tarnished. It used to be the car maker that put its customers first, one that actually cared about the environment. But it turns out even the good guys can become complacent. — D.H.
Every December at Engadget, between sips of spiked holiday beverages, we look back on the year and recall the best and worst developments in tech. Call us cynical, but in recent years, the list of losers gets longer, while we struggle to find true winners to write about. But in 2022, there were bright spots that brought light to a gloomy, chaotic 12 months. From beautifully simple word games to enchanting pictures from space, there were just enough distractions this year to balance out the neverending drama from Twitter, Meta, Amazon and the like. These are the Engadget team’s favorite things in 2022.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and DART projects
In 2022, things on Earth were so bad that we all welcomed the opportunity to look at what’s beyond our galaxy. After its launch on Christmas last year, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) deployed its sunshield in January, finished calibration a few months later and started sending back images. On July 11th, President Biden revealed the space agency’s first picture to the public, saying it was the sharpest and deepest image of the distant universe to date.
More photos were released on July 12th, and throughout the rest of the year, we saw more and more of deep space through the JWST. The colorized pictures made for stunning wallpapers, but also brought us tantalizing information about distant planets. In August, it detected carbon dioxide in a faraway planet’s atmosphere. To date, we’ve also seen images of the Cartwheel Galaxy, Phantom Galaxy and the Pillars of Creation in unprecedented detail. The visual spectacle is a welcome distraction, but the data gained also helps scientists learn a ton more about what exists beyond the Milky Way.
NASA also scored a reassuring win with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) project this year, when it managed to crash its spacecraft into an asteroid, changing its course. This success has been billed as a “watershed moment for planetary defense” by NASA administrator Bill Nelson, adding that the agency “has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet.” The fact that DART was able to knock an asteroid off its course showed that it could work to save the Earth if a space rock were headed for our world and was small enough and detected in time. It’s nice to have some hope for humanity in that specific situation, as we continue to be dazzled by everything we learn about the vast expanse of space that we float in. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy editor.
Wordle, Josh Wardle and all the -dles
Do you remember a time when you weren’t obsessively playing guessing games on your phone right after waking up? That was probably in 2021, before Wordle, the little browser game that could, swallowed most of the internet for the first half of 2022. Josh Wardle, a British software engineer, created a word game for his partner, letting them guess a five letter word through a process of trial and error. He didn’t publicize the title, but it didn’t take long after its October 2021 launch before everyone was playing the game.
Part of Wordle’s success was due to the simplicity of its mechanic, pulled from the ‘70s board game MasterMind or the ‘80s game show Lingo. Your guesses provoke a color-coded response: A blank box if you struck out, a yellow one if you had the right letter in the wrong place and green in a space that you got right. The other reason for its success was how simply it visualized your guesses, making it easy to share on social media without spoilers. Suddenly, everyone on Twitter was humblebragging about their lexicographical skill posting a short-ish grid of gray, yellow and green squares.
The fact that only one word came out each day also meant that you had to keep coming back to get your daily fix. It easily slid into your morning routine, as a way of waking your brain up before, during or after, your wake-up beverage of choice.
Dado Ruvic / reuters
It helped, too, that people rapidly took their playing style as an article of faith, developing their own “Starter Words.” And it prompted endless discussion about the best strategy, and how ashamed you should be if you ever failed a day’s game. Wordle also enabled a cottage industry of websites that can help you solve tricky words, and most SEO-chasing newspapers offer a written clue about what today’s Wordle actually is.
Wordle’s success was so grand that it wasn’t long before a deep-pocketed news organization looking to grow its traffic offered to buy the game wholesale. By January 31st 2022, The New York Times spent “low seven figures” to buy the title and integrate it into its games platform. The concept may have been knocking around for a while, but Wardle was able to see the fruits of his work pretty quickly. Since then, the NYT has launched Wordlebot, a microsite which’ll analyze your game and tell you the most efficient starter words (CRANE/SLOTH), and it even has its own named editor, so you know who to blame if you have a bad day.
But it wasn’t just Wardle who benefited. Wordle inspired a fleet of copycats, all of which took the original idea and tweaked it slightly. My daily play routine includes Heardle, which asks you to guess a song after hearing just its opening bars. That was acquired by Spotify in similarly rapid fashion, which makes perfect sense given the marketing opportunities therein. Then there’s Framed and Episode, which provide screenshots of movies and TV shows, for you to guess it. Waffle, meanwhile, asks you to sort a grid of jumbled letters into interlocking words using the same Yellow / Green color coding. And then there’s my personal favorite, Redactle, a game which takes a key Wikipedia page and blanks out most of the words for you to guess.
You want more? Because there is more – Worldle is a geography guessing game letting you work out a country. Heardle decades, with one for each decade between the ‘60sandthe‘00s. Lyricle, lets you guess songs from lines of lyrics. Quordle, which asks you to solve four Wordle-style questions simultaneously. Mathler, which tasks you with finding an equation. And, of course, Jeffle, where you have to guess a movie starring one of your favorite Hollywood actors called Jeff – sorry, I made that up, but the fact that’s plausible speaks volumes about the way the world is right now. — Daniel Cooper, Senior editor.
Sam Rutherford / Engadget
Google Pixel 6a
When friends and family ask which phone they should buy, I tell them to get the latest Pixel a. Last year it was the Pixel 5a (well, the Pixel 4a, because Google didn’t launch the 5a here in the UK), and now it’s supplanted by the even-more premium-looking Pixel 6a.
The new design is glossy, with the distinctive camera bar that arrived on the flagship Pixel 6 phones last year, ensuring it looks different to all other smartphones. This year, the Pixel 6a also has Google’s homemade Tensor chip, which was built to help with AI and image processing. I might not even need to say this, but the Pixel 6a, like its predecessors, has an incredibly capable camera for the price. It includes Google tricks like Face Unblur to salvage dodgy shots and Magic Eraser for scrubbing out any unwanted elements. The Pixel 6a also has a 6.1-inch display, down from the 6.34-inch screen of last year’s Pixel 5a. So if you’re looking for a more pocketable Android, this might be the best option.
The Pixel 6a launched at $449, sneaking in under $500. On some occasions (like Black Friday), it’s already been on sale at $300, which is an incredible bargain – especially if you’re still using a smartphone that lacks 5G. The only reason for not buying it in early 2023 is that we’re already hearing rumors of the Pixel 7a, which should be an even better phone. — Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief.
Engadget
Valve Steam Deck
The Steam Deck isn’t the first handheld computer and it certainly won’t be the last. However, by combining the convenience of the Nintendo Switch with the flexibility of a PC and a huge library of supported games (there are now almost 7,000 titles listed as verified or playable), Valve has almost single-handedly reinvigorated the market for portable PC gaming. And with a starting price of just $400, the Steam Deck also costs hundreds less compared to rivals from Ayaneo, GPD and more.
Granted, the Steam Deck isn’t perfect. It’s rather bulky as far as handhelds go and Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS often requires a bit of tinkering with to optimize a game’s performance. I wish its high-pitched fan was a bit less distracting, too. But thanks to its clever touchpads and general customizability, the Steam Deck makes it easier to play traditional keyboard and mouse games while on the go than pretty much anything else out there. For people who love Nintendo’s games, the Switch is great. But for everyone else, the Steam Deck might be the best multipurpose gaming handheld you can buy right now. — Sam Rutherford, Senior writer.
Apple Watch Ultra
I’ll admit it — this one’s personal. As a reporter covering smartwatches, I’ve been holding my breath for this year’s trio of highly anticipated wearables from Apple, Samsung and Google. The first two were expected to unveil souped up “Pro” models of their flagship models, while Google was set to launch its first “homemade” smartwatch, featuring Fitbit integrations. Between the blandness of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and the overall letdown of the Pixel Watch, there wasn’t a lot of competition for Apple’s Watch Ultra.
But the company didn’t just coast on the mediocrity of the Android smartwatch market. The Watch Ultra features a 49mm screen in a highly durable case that doesn’t feel excessively huge (unless you’re a fellow petite-wristed person). Apple made a selection of carefully crafted straps that are eye-catching, comfortable and easy to maneuver with gloves. The Watch Ultra also boasts a depth gauge for divers, dual-frequency GPS for more-accurate distance tracking, an emergency siren and impressive four-day battery life. All that is on top of other Apple Watch features like comprehensive health and fitness tracking, seamless messaging and excellent iPhone integration.
And for the cherry on top of it all — and this is my selfish reason for loving the Apple Watch Ultra — reviewing this device allowed me to go on a hike on the job, all in the name of real-world testing. Sure, I have since swapped out the Watch Ultra for a Series 8 as my daily driver, but Apple managed to pack enough features into its prosumer smartwatch to set it apart from its mainstream flagship. — C.L.
Dado Ruvic / reuters
Mastodon
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has breathed new life into a number of upstart social platforms. But no other service has benefitted more than Mastodon, the once relatively-obscure site that’s long billed itself as a Twitter alternative.
Ironically, Mastodon first became prominent back in 2017 after a backlash against Twitter’s decision to remove user handles from character limits (it’s difficult to remember now, but there was a time when these kinds of changes would temporarily spark mass outrage among the Twitter faithful).
Since then, the decentralized platform has had a small contingent of dedicated users, but was nowhere close to the social media mainstream. That all changed as soon as Musk’s takeover began. Almost overnight, more than 30,000 new users flooded the platform, and the growth has only intensified since Musk formally took control of Twitter in October. As of November, Mastodon had more than 2 million users seeking a new home outside of Twitter.
While that may still be tiny by social media standards, it’s notable that the nonprofit, open-source site is already the preferred alternative for a number of journalists, celebrities and other one-time Twitter power users. Yes, the platform is more complicated than Twitter, and not everyone is eager to start over on a new site. But it’s impossible to ignore just how good Mastodon’s timing has been. In the span of a few months, it’s gone from niche to mainstream, and for now seems best-poised to absorb the masses fleeing Twitter. — Karissa Bell, Senior editor.
When I first checked out the Dyson Zone in March, the company didn't allow us to take our own photos of video of the demos, since they were still a ways from production. Now that we have new details about the pricing and availability of Dyson's air-purifying headphones, the company invited us to check out the device again, this time with video. The Dyson Zone will be available in March at a starting price of $950.
My second experience with the Dyson Zone was very similar to the first, except I was able to test it in more situations. Our video producer Joel Chokkattu and I were accompanied by a company rep while we took the headset out on the streets of New York, walking around for a block on a rainy day. As expected, passersby gawked when I snapped the Bane-like visor onto the headset, and one person even turned their head in shock.
To see if the Zone would be comfortable enough for me to wear on a long flight, which is how I believe most people would want to use it, I laid out on a couch with the entire device on. It wasn't terrible. We also got to check out the companion app and see a live chart showing the sound levels in our surroundings.
As a reminder, the Dyson Zone is not designed to protect against COVID-19 or other viruses. It does not seal to your face, even if the visor does cover your nose and mouth. It does leave the chin exposed, and there's a gap between the device and your skin. You can use inserts like an N95 mask attachment that the company offers as part of a package, but on its own the Zone is only getting rid of particles and acidic gasses like nitrogen dioxide and ozone.
For the full details, check out our video above and let us know what you think!
This week, many of us saw our social media feeds taken over by colorful, surreal pictures of people we follow, except they don’t quite look like themselves. The images were generated by Lensa AI, and it’s the latest in what feels like a now-annual trend to use a new app to create mockups of your face in various scenarios. Alongside Lensa, some folks also saw blocks of text from another AI generator, ChatGPT. So on this episode of the podcast, Devindra and Cherlynn chat the appeal, implications and possible future of these types of AI, before being joined by Engadget editor-at-large James Trew for a check in on the state of action cameras.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
What’s the state of the GoPro-style action camera in 2022? – 23:47
iPhone users can now share digital car keys with Pixel owners – 43:02
iOS 16.2 includes time limits on AirDrop receiving – 47:44
Carl Pei said Nothing wants to come to the US – 53:40
Working on – 1:08:02
Picks – 1:10:51
Livestream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh
When I turned 10, I was finally allowed to own a pen. At school, that was when we moved from pencils to ink, and our parents were told to get us all-new stationery. That was also the year we learned to write in cursive, because we were finally big kids and cursive writing meant we could… sign checks, I guess.
I don’t know about kids these days, but physically writing notes in pen and paper is a huge part of how I learned things and organized my thoughts. It probably had something to do with the fact that my mom trained my brother and I to use “mind maps” as study tools, too. When I start planning a trip or a big project, I instinctively reach for a notepad and a pen. That’s why writing on a tablet that mimics this experience holds so much appeal for me (and probably a lot of people around my age or older).
Though you can get a decent stylus experience on an iPad, Surface or Galaxy device, e-ink tablets typically last a lot longer and offer a more paper-like reading experience with no glare or blue light hurting your eyes. They also typically don’t come with distracting apps or notifications to interrupt your work. So when Amazon announced the Kindle Scribe would be its first e-reader that would support stylus input, I was intrigued. The Kindle series are probably the most popular e-ink readers in the US, and they could make digital note taking much more accessible to a mainstream audience.
At $340, however, the Scribe is the most expensive Kindle. For that premium, you’ll get a bigger 10.2-inch screen with the same 300ppi pixel density, a front light with 35 LEDs, an included Basic Pen and at least 16GB of storage. You can sync your notes to the Kindle app to view them without the tablet. But while e-readers never fully replaced books, the Scribe might just offer a better experience than an actual pen and notepad.
Design and hardware
Like most Kindles, the Scribe is marvelously thin and light. At just 0.22 inches thick, this is one of the slimmest e-readers around, and I actually worried it might break when I left it in the flimsy purse I threw into an overhead compartment during my Thanksgiving flight to San Francisco. Luckily, with the case that Amazon sent along, the Scribe not only survived being tossed around with heavy suitcases, it also held up when I accidentally sat on it. (Yes, I’m a monster who’s too rough with gadgets.)
More importantly, at just 433 grams or 0.95 pounds, the Scribe was light enough for long periods of reading. It’s just a hair lighter than the M1 iPad Air, which weighs 1.02 pounds, and thanks to a generous bezel on the long side, the Scribe is easy to hold with one hand without accidentally triggering the touchscreen. Because the display rotates to all orientations, you can use this with your right or left hand.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Unlike the Oasis or some e-reader models by Kobo, the Scribe doesn’t have physical buttons for page turning. There’s just a single power button on the edge next to the USB-C charging socket. It’s also worth noting that, again, unlike the Oasis and Paperwhite models, the Scribe is not water-resistant.
As a notebook
In many ways, the Scribe offers a better experience than actual pen and paper. I never run out of paper or ink or have to sharpen a pencil. Erasing my mistakes is effortless, I don’t have to deal with cleaning up eraser dust, and I never end up with ink or lead stains on my hands. Amazon’s palm rejection here is almost perfect, other than when I drag it across the screen, which turned the page. That didn’t happen often enough to be annoying, and I quickly learned to not move my palm when resting it on the display.
I loved the sheer smoothness of writing on the Scribe. The latency is nearly zero, and the instant I placed the nib on the screen, it left a mark. Thanks to the screen’s matte finish and responsiveness, drawing on the Scribe felt just as natural as the real thing. The Premium Pen that Amazon sent with our review unit has a shortcut button and dedicated eraser at the top. Flipping the pen over to undo mistakes felt natural, but more importantly it was just as smooth as inking. Of course, since it’s a much larger target than the stylus’ nib, the eraser isn’t as precise, but the deleted marks on the screen fade in a satisfying way.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
The one thing that took away from the Scribe being a full replica of a notepad is its screen refreshing. When you erase something, it slowly fades away and when it’s just about gone, the display refreshes itself quite jarringly. It’s a small quirk, but can definitely catch you off guard.
Just like pen and paper, the Scribe is limited. You can’t edit your notes on a phone or laptop after writing them. You can view them, sure, but because Amazon syncs them to the Kindle app as image files, you can’t make changes to them. You can export them as PDFs to another device and use a third-party editor to tweak your notes, but at that point you might as well use Evernote or Samsung Notes.
Amazon’s software doesn’t offer this function though, and compared to competing note-taking apps for iOS, Android and Windows, the Scribe’s features are very rudimentary. It doesn’t even do handwriting recognition to convert your scrawl to machine-readable text, meaning it also can’t index anything you’ve jotted down so you can search your notes by keywords later.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Still, that doesn’t mean the device isn’t a delight. I loved using the Scribe as a notepad for my many lists. You can start notebooks using various backgrounds — a simple lined pattern, or checkboxes to keep track of tasks or shopping items. I spent my week or so with the Scribe organizing my holiday shopping lists, planning a family vacation, drawing tropical fruits that my friends haven’t heard of and refamiliarizing myself with writing the Japanese alphabet (hiragana). I felt more productive and organized when I had the Scribe with me, and almost lost when I needed to jot down a thought and it wasn’t by my side.
For my purposes, the Scribe was perfectly adequate. But for others who might need a more sophisticated note-taking system, Amazon’s device is seriously lacking. A biochemistry professor I spoke to who was keen on using the Scribe to annotate notes and research articles, for example, was disappointed to learn the device didn’t support colors. You can only highlight in grayscale. If you’re looking to create works of art, you won’t find a complete toolkit in Amazon’s app — just a pencil with a few thickness options or a highlighter. And unlike on an iPad, you can’t move portions of your drawings around just by dragging and dropping them with your stylus.
Creating a notebook isn’t the only way you can doodle on the Kindle Scribe, by the way. You can also take down notes when you’re reading an e-book. But it’s not like you can scribble directly onto the words of your e-books. You can use the floating toolbox to create a sticky note, then draw within a designated rectangle. When you close the sticky note, a small symbol appears over the word it was attached to, but otherwise, your scribbles are hidden. No annotating in the margins here.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Like I said, Amazon’s software is rudimentary. Still, if you think about the Scribe primarily as a blank writing pad that replaces all your loose pieces of paper as opposed to a sophisticated notes management system, then it’ll still serve a purpose.
The Pen
A large component of the Scribe experience is the pen. The Premium Pen I received costs $30 more, and adds a dedicated eraser and shortcut button along the edge. Both the Basic and pricier pens snap magnetically to the edge of the Scribe and don’t need to be charged, which is nice. The stylus stays securely attached to the tablet, thanks to the strong magnets, though you can remove it without too much force. I did find the shortcut button on the Premium Pen a little too easy to accidentally trigger, since it’s placed right where my thumb or index finger would rest. I frequently had to remind myself to turn the stylus so I wouldn’t press it by mistake.
Amazon’s Premium Pen is about the same size as an Apple Pencil or Samsung’s larger S Pen for tablets and reminiscent of a real pen. Anecdotally, it actually felt more comfortable than Apple’s stylus, possibly due to a touch of malleability in its body.
As an e-reader
It’s no surprise that the Scribe shines as an e-reader. It may be the biggest Kindle yet, but when I was reading Blackout by Erin Flanagan, words were as crisp and legible as on the smaller entry-level Kindle I’m used to. I appreciated the ability to tweak the display’s color temperature just like I would on other Kindles, and cut down on blue light near my bedtime. The front light made it possible for me to read in a dark airplane cabin, and though the Scribe was easy to see in sunlight, it did have some glare under the harsh overhead lights in our office.
Of course, thanks to the larger canvas, I could see more text on a page and didn’t have to squint. Amazon also offers Large Mode under Display Size so that those with visual impairments can read with greater ease. Other Kindle accessibility features are also available, including the VoiceView screen reader over Bluetooth audio (in English only). You can also adjust the font size, face, line spacing, margins and invert black and white.
The company also introduced a new Send to Kindle for Web tool to make it easier to transfer your personal documents from your computer to your Scribe. Basically, as an e-reader, the Scribe is everything you’ve gotten used to on a Kindle, from the excellent library of available content down to Amazon’s cumbersome interface.
This brings me to my two biggest frustrations with the Scribe, and, spoiler alert, they’re pretty minor complaints. First, I wish Amazon would update its layout to make it easier or faster to switch between notes. To go from my to-do list to my packing list, for example, I have to tap the top of the screen to invoke the navigation bar, hit the Notebooks button to view my notes, then select the list I want. That would be bothersome on a regular touchscreen, not to mention a slowly refreshing e-ink one. If Amazon let me view a carousel of my open notes by swiping from the bottom, perhaps, it might make jumping between them easier.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Secondly, the premium leather cover that Amazon sent with the Scribe folds into a stand, but it’s tricky to figure out how. Obviously you don’t have to buy this case, which is good since it costs an absurd $80. And the interface is slow, but works as expected and is perhaps as good as it gets for e-ink.
The best thing about black-and-white e-readers, though, is their longevity. Amazon says the Scribe will last up to 3 weeks if you write about half an hour a day. While I was concerned to see the battery level drop from 83 to 80 percent during one of my hiragana practice sprees, in my week with the device it’s gone down about 35 percent. I’d say if you weren’t writing continuously for hours, you’d get more out of the Scribe, but at the very least it easily should last you two and a half weeks.
Wrap-up
As a child of the nineties, I’m enamored with the Scribe. Amazon has managed to not only replicate a pen-and-paper experience, but without the associated limitations like running out of ink. Some of my main issues with the Scribe, particularly its lack of editing tools, are possibly solvable by software updates. And indeed, when I asked Amazon about possible handwriting recognition tools in future, a representative indicated that “While we can’t comment on future roadmap features, we are always listening to customer feedback.” So maybe if we all complain loudly enough, the company will add it.
The Kindle Scribe’s biggest competition is the Remarkable Tablet, which retails for slightly more than Amazon’s device, though you can find it on sale for less nowadays. It has a slightly larger 10.3 inch screen but comes in noticeably thinner at 4.7mm (or 0.18 inches) thick. ReMarkable offers slightly better syncing and writing software than Amazon, but it pales in comparison to the Kindle as an e-reader.
Artists, designers and serious note-takers also probably want to look elsewhere for a more sophisticated drawing and annotating solution — the iPad and Apple Pencil might be your best bet. But as a combo of an e-reader that can also serve as a basic digital notepad, the Kindle Scribe is surprisingly satisfying.
Fitness fanatics can be pretty intense. You’ll probably identify us from miles away, decked out in workout gear, obsessing over the food we eat, or discussing our gains nonstop. A fitness lover has probably invested a lot of time and money into tools that can help improve performance, which can make us tough to shop for — we probably already have everything we need! But we’re also very likely to be super excited by any new toy that could boost our workouts. Plus, the most dedicated of us probably wear out our favorite gear quickly enough that we could always use new stuff.
What to get a fitness lover
It’s natural to assume that gifts for fitness lovers must be used during workouts, but recovery is an equally important (and frequently overlooked) part of anyone’s fitness journey. And presents for fitness lovers don’t have to be tech-infused, either. Gift cards to their favorite athleisure or fashion brands would probably be well-received, while compression braces or socks can provide them physical support. A pair of gloves would also help your weightlifting pal avoid getting more calluses, and special insoles can turn decent running shoes into great running shoes.
A versatile gift for anyone trying to keep active would be a resistance band, which suits a variety of strength levels and is very travel friendly. And, as my sports chiropractor constantly reminds me, a foam roller is the best thing for my sore muscles.
Tech gifts for fitness fans
Of course there are plenty of gadgets targeting exercisers and our muscles. From traditional machines like treadmills to smart skipping ropes and VR boxing simulators – the land of fitness tech gets stranger by the day.
As someone who’s recently become somewhat of a workout fiend, I would enthusiastically welcome anything that’s related to improving my performance. I’ve tested all manner of devices — whether it’s Gatorade’s sweat patch and hydration-tracking bottle or smart mirrors and form-checking cameras. From my experience, single-purpose devices are the most likely to sit around unused. Things like the Gatorade bottle and Fiture mirror, for example, which actually serve a purpose even if they’re deactivated, are more likely to withstand the test of time. Here are our favorite tech products for fitness lovers.
Garmin Forerunner 745
Engadget
Serious runners swear by Garmin’s Forerunner series. They’re the gold standard for running watches, thanks to their accuracy and comprehensive suite of features. You can track your cadence, stride length, ground contact time, balance and more, but Garmin also helps monitor your recovery time and training load.
It’ll analyze your performance and workouts, using your aerobic and anaerobic data to see what effect your exercise is having on your endurance, speed and power. The Forerunner 745 will also tell you if you’re training productively, at your peak or if you’re overreaching. Like most other smartwatches, this will also track your sleep, control your music playback and alert you to incoming notifications from your phone. It may have a more basic-looking operating system than the Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch, but the Forerunner 745’s best trait is that it will last up to a week on a charge. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy Editor
For iPhone users, there is no better smartwatch than the Apple Watch. Whether you opt for the maxed out Ultra or the basic SE, you’ll be getting your loved one a well-rounded and competent wearable. The Series 8 sits between those two models and offers a great balance of features and comfort. It’s not as chunky as the Ultra and has an onboard skin temperature sensor that the SE doesn’t.
Your giftee will receive reminders to stay active, have their walks automatically detected and be prompted to take mindfulness breaks throughout the day. Apple’s workout tracking also does a great job of logging time elapsed, calories burned, distance traveled and other key metrics. Plus, with watchOS 9, the workout pages now show what heart rate zone the wearer is in, so they can better understand when to push themselves harder or take it easy.
If the person you’re shopping for is more of an endurance athlete or outdoor adventurer, the Ultra’s enhanced GPS and special features might make it a better gift, but at $800, it’s wildly expensive and you might want to split the cost with others. — C.L.
Compared to older Inspire models, the third generation comes with a color touchscreen that’s easier to navigate. While Fitbit OS remains pretty basic, it will at least deliver smartphone notifications to your wrist. Plus, the lowkey software translates to 10-day battery life, even in that small, lightweight frame. If the person you’re shopping for prefers to leave their phone at home when they go on a run, the Inspire 3 lacks the onboard GPS necessary to route their journey, so you’ll need to look for something else. But for almost everyone else, the Inspire 3 is a great, low-profile way to keep track of your activity. — C.L.
Samsung’s line of smartwatches remains the best on the market for Android users. Though the Galaxy Watch 5 runs the relatively basic Wear OS, the company has managed to bake in its capable health and fitness-tracking system to help the user stay active. Its auto-detection is among the most accurate in the industry, and it tracks an impressively long list of workouts, including swims. And if your loved one already uses Samsung phones and appliances, they’ll find some useful integrations like smart home controls from their wrist.
The Watch 5 is also a capable sleep tracker, and though it doesn’t offer as many mindfulness-related features as Apple and Fitbit, Samsung does have some meditation guides in its Health app. It’s also the only smartwatch on this list with a round face, which fans of traditional watches may prefer. — C.L.
If you’re shopping for someone that wants to get more active but is intimidated by gyms, a Fitness+ subscription is a great way to help them get started. Apple’s library of video workouts caters to all levels, but it’s especially friendly to beginners. Fitness+ contains comprehensive guides, as well as collections designed for pregnant people or new parents, giving plenty of options for those who may find themselves in different life situations.
Starting in October, Apple opened up Fitness+ so you no longer have to own an Apple Watch. Now, your giftee just needs to have an iPhone, and they can follow along the routines through their TVs, iPads or, yes, iPhones. If they also own an Apple Watch, they can pause and resume the classes from their wrist, as well as see their heart rate and Move ring progress on the screen.
Since the videos can be viewed on iPads, Fitness+ is suitable for people who travel a lot. They can take the classes in hotel rooms, RVs, cruises and more. It’s also a great last-minute gift. Just know that for anyone that has a specific favorite sport and doesn’t want to explore new types of activity, Fitness+ might feel too easy. — C.L.
The right weighing scale can deliver more readings than just weight alone. Case in point: Withings’ Body+ smart scale. It’ll tell you how heavy you are, sure, but it also uses multi-frequency bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA) to get your muscle mass, fat mass, bone mass, water percentage and visceral fat level. And like all good connected scales, it’ll send all that information to an app on your phone so you can track your progress over time.
The Body+ scale also offers Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) tracking, which measures the speed at which your blood travels to see your vascular and nerve health. At $100, it’s not the cheapest, but it does produce a wide range of data that regular weighing scales don’t. You can also consider less premium devices from Withings that also offer body composition measurements, like the Body Scan or Body+, which will serve your friend perfectly well. — C.L.
It’s important to take care of your body even after you’ve completed a tough workout. The Theragun Mini can take your recovery routine to the next level by helping you massage out tension points in your muscles with more force than you could even provide on your own. It has three different speeds, all of which work better on different muscle groups, and its ergonomic design makes it pretty easy and comfortable to hold while using it. Sure, you can get more speed options, smartphone connectivity and more with the high-end models, but the Mini is great not only for its relatively affordable price, but for its compact design as well. Weighing only three pounds, it could easily live in your gym bag for daily muscle maintenance but you could also throw it on your carry-on before a trip so you can work out those cramps and knots you’ll inevitably get after sitting in an airplane seat for a few hours. — Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor
The Shokz OpenRun Pro Bluetooth headphones provide a unique way of blending music with an active lifestyle that’s ideal for runners, cyclists and more. They use bone conduction to deliver sound to your inner ear through your cheekbones, leaving your ears open so you can remain aware of your surroundings.
The OpenRun Pro model is the company’s premium offering and provides one of the richest bass experiences available for this style of headphones. They’re IP55 water-resistant, offer a useful 5-minute quick charge for 1.5 hours of listening and last up to 10 hours on a full charge. You should keep in mind that the open-ear design is a tradeoff, since they’re not great for noisy environments.
This is an interesting gift for fitness enthusiasts because they’re probably not the first style of headphones that they’d consider. But once they’ve taken them for a run or a bike ride, the benefits of having music while also keeping track of nearby traffic or pedestrians is game changing. — Jon Turi, Homepage Editor
There are smartwatches, there are fitness watches, and then there is Withings’ ScanWatch Horizon. It’s the French company’s gussied-up version of its class-leading hybrid that remains my only pick for people who want something smart, but classy, on their wrist. Horizon comes with activity, fitness, sleep and heart-rate tracking as well as a built-in ECG to monitor your heart health. But it’s been styled like a diver’s watch, with the OLED subdial the only clue that it’s a lot smarter than it looks at first glance.
Maybe it’s the fact that what makes Horizon so good is how well-hidden its smarts really are, and how good it looks on your wrist. And that’s before you get to the practical stuff – it’s $500, so it’s cheaper than a Submariner and does plenty more. The battery will last for a month at a time, reducing the need for you to keep your charger close by at all times. And Withings’ Health Mate app remains one of the best on the market for giving you insights about your body you might not have noticed yourself. — Daniel Cooper, Senior Reporter
There are more Apple Watches than ever before. Between the Series 8, Watch Ultra and second-gen SE, shopping for a smartwatch is a lot trickier than in years past. Are the Watch Ultra's outdoors-friendly features worth the $800 and bulkier size? What differentiates the Series 8 from the new SE? Check out the video below detailing how they compare against each other to help you make your decision if you’re in the market for a new Apple Watch.
One of the most noteworthy updates Apple brought to the iPhone 14 series this year is Emergency SOS via satellite. It lets you send text messages to emergency services over satellite if you're in need of help and outside of cellular coverage. The company hopes you don't need to use the service, but in case you find yourself hurt and needing rescue in the wilderness, it can be frustrating if you're unfamiliar with a tool you were expecting to be helpful. Today, Apple is rolling out a demo mode of Emergency SOS via Satellite so members of the public can see how it works.
After updating your iPhone 14 (or 14 Plus or 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max), you'll need to navigate to the Emergency SOS section of Settings to find the Demo. It's worth checking this out since not many people will know what to expect nor that the first step is to dial 911, instead of looking for an app. If you're using demo mode, you won't be connected to a real emergency services agent or relay center — the company's system will navigate demo users to a server that sends canned responses. This prevents people from overloading actual call centers.
In addition to a controlled preview at Apple's campus earlier this year, I also tried the satellite communications feature for myself at a special demo last week in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Using iPhones that Apple tweaked to disable cellular services, I was able to locate and connect to passing satellites and experience how long it would take to have a text conversation with an agent. Not only was it insightful to get a sense for how much slower satellite transmissions took compared to cellular, I also learned how best to concisely convey information about my situation in as few words as possible.
Apple doesn't recommend that you try this yourself (i.e. find a place without any cellular coverage just to see what the experience is like). Instead, if you're curious about the interface and how this works, that's what this demo mode is for.
Emergency SOS via Satellite and the demo mode both roll out today in the US and Canada. Apple is also announcing that it's expanding the service to France, Germany, Ireland and the UK in December.
What a week! This episode, Cherlynn, Devindra and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford dive into everything we learned at Microsoft’s Surface event. No, there was no new Surface Duo or Neo, and the actual fresh hardware was mostly incremental. We also reviewed the Pixel 7, 7 Pro and Pixel Watch, and Sam had some hands-on time with the latest Quest VR headset. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s some other news from Samsung, Chromebooks and more.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Surface Studio 2+, Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Pro 9 – 1:32
Microsoft's new Designer app is powered by Dall-E – 4:56
Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro review – 32:48
Pixel Watch review – 40:34
Sam Rutherford’s Meta Quest Pro hands-on thoughts – 55:24
Other news – 1:11:47
Working on – 1:21:23
Pop culture picks – 1:24:32
Video Stream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Guest: Sam Rutherford Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos Graphics artists: Julio Barrientos, Brian Oh Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
