Electronics

Google’s Nest thermostat makes it easy to save money by automatically turning down the heat when you’re not around. But many people don’t have the luxury of controlling their own temperature settings, let alone the money to buy expensive gadgets that can do it automatically. But now a group of civic-minded hackers is using the Continue Reading →

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy suspended future use of a contract with Apple on Monday that was to provide iPads to all students in the nation’s second-largest school system amid mounting scrutiny of the $1-billion-plus effort. The suspension comes days after disclosures that the superintendent and his top deputy had especially close ties to executives Continue Reading →

Samsung is plotting an expansion to its Smart Home platform, opening up the service to make it work with third-party technology. Ahead of IFA 2014, a major tech trade show that kicks off this week in Berlin, the South Korean smartphone-maker says you’ll be able to activate air conditioners, robot vacuum cleaners and smart LED Continue Reading →

Kindle might be the more popular brand, but Kobo’s latest e-reader has one up on Amazon’s device — you can read it underwater. Kobo says its new Aura H20 is certified to be able to spend up to 30 minutes in one meter of water, making it ideal to use at the beach, in the Continue Reading →

Elgato wants to take care of your iPhone power on the move with Smart Power. The Elgato Smart Power is an external battery with a difference. Rather than just sit there as a dumb battery, the Smart Power app will keep track of the battery’s charge, so it can remind you to recharge it. Using Continue Reading →

David Singleton, Google’s engineering director for Android Wear, the company’s platform tailor-made for wearable devices, is sitting in Google’s headquarters here playing air guitar. As he strums his right hand in front of his Moto 360, the Motorola smartwatch set to hit the market this week, Singleton praises the third-party software developers using Wear. The Continue Reading →

Alongside the Gear S smartwatch, Samsung recently announced the Gear Circle, a pair of wireless earphones that can pair with your smartphone and vibrate to alert you to calls and notifications. Samsung says Gear Circle users can also use the wearable device’s Bluetooth connection to listen to music on their smartphone, or issue voice commands. When Continue Reading →

If you’re like me, you love your Philips Hue light bulbs, but hate paying $60 per bulb for a connected light that can do almost all colors of the rainbow (a true blue is a problem). For half the price you can pick up one of the new Hue Lux bulbs from Philips that work Continue Reading →

For some teenagers, wearing last season’s jeans will always be unthinkable. But a growing number consider texting on a dated smartphone even worse. For teenage apparel retailers, that screen-obsessed teenager poses a big threat in the still-important back-to-school sales season. Muscle shirts and strategically ripped jeans no longer provide an assured spot for retailers like Continue Reading →

If you’ve been writing with Livescribe, your life just got a little more stylish. Livescribe recently unveiled the Livescribe Notebook by Moleskine, which is compatible with all Livescribe smartpens and brings the classic design of Moleskine, with rounded edges, page ribbon, and leather binding, to the digital world. Available now in the United States and Continue Reading →