All posts tagged: HandsOn

Inside Prince Louis’ special bond with ‘hands-on’ grandfather King Charles

Inside Prince Louis’ special bond with ‘hands-on’ grandfather King Charles

Published by Daniella Wilson

King Charles has held many titles over his lifetime, one of his proudest being grandfather. The British monarch, affectionately known as Grandpa Wales, became a first-time grandparent in 2013 with the birth of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ son Prince George.  Charles gushed in a statement at the time that he was “overjoyed at the arrival” of his first grandchild. Meanwhile, Queen Camilla remarked that her husband was “brilliant with children, so he’ll have a wonderful time.”  The King has since welcomed four additional grandchildren: Prince William and Catherine’s daughter Princess Charlotte and their younger son Prince Louis, as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. According to HELLO!‘s Royal Editor Emily Nash, “The King is close to all of the Wales children and regularly meets up with them at Windsor on Sundays.” Prince William has praised his father as a “brilliant” grandfather. Emily points out: “The Queen has often talked about her husband’s delight in reading books to his grandchildren, doing all the different voices in the …

Apple Studio Display XDR Hands-On: Better Than the Pro Display XDR in Almost Every Way

Apple Studio Display XDR Hands-On: Better Than the Pro Display XDR in Almost Every Way

Published by skeptic

Apple replaced the $4,999+ Pro Display XDR with the better, more affordable Studio Display XDR, so we thought we’d pick one up to test out and compare to the now-discontinued Pro Display XDR. The ‌Studio Display‌ XDR is the same size as the ‌Studio Display‌ at 27 inches, and it has the same 5K resolution. It’s smaller than the 32-inch Pro Display XDR that had a 6K display, and that’s probably going to be a major downside for people who prefer larger display sizes. A 32-inch display size works well for a single monitor setup, but 27 inches feels comparatively smaller and is better for multi-display setups. Apple designed the Pro Display XDR with the same perforated, vented back panel that it used for the Mac Pro, and in comparison, the ‌Studio Display‌ XDR is plainer because it adopts the ‌Studio Display‌ look. With those downsides out of the way, almost every other ‌Studio Display‌ XDR feature is an improvement over the Pro Display XDR. It uses a mini-LED panel with 2,304 local dimming zones …

iPhone 17e Hands-On: What’s New and What’s Not

iPhone 17e Hands-On: What’s New and What’s Not

Published by skeptic

Apple’s latest low-cost iPhone launched yesterday, and we picked up the iPhone 17e to see how it compares to the iPhone 16e that came before it, and how it measures up to the iPhone 17 lineup. Apple didn’t update the design of the ‌iPhone 17e‌, so it still has the look of an iPhone 14, which is the iPhone that Apple used as a base for the iPhone 16e. There’s a notch on the display with no Dynamic Island, but Apple did make a few changes to modernize the ‌iPhone 17e‌. The iPhone 16e didn’t have MagSafe, which was a major hassle, but the ‌iPhone 17e‌ does. ‌MagSafe‌ has been fully embraced by both Apple and accessory makers, so it’s difficult to find accessories that don’t use ‌MagSafe‌. Adding ‌MagSafe‌ opens up a whole new range of options for cases and chargers, plus it means wireless charging is now 15W instead of 7.5W. There’s still a limited color palette for the ‌iPhone 17e‌, but there is a light pink model in addition to the black …

Hands-On With the New MacBook Neo

Hands-On With the New MacBook Neo

Published by skeptic

Happy MacBook Neo launch day! Apple’s $599 notebook is finally here, and we picked one up to take a look at the new machine and share some first impressions. The ‌MacBook Neo‌ looks like a MacBook Air, but a little bit smaller. It comes in fun colors, including Citrus, Blush, and Indigo, plus a plain Silver shade. It’s lightweight, has rounded corners, and it’s an all-around nice machine, especially compared to bulkier Windows PCs. The display is as bright as the ‌MacBook Air‌ display at 500 nits, and it has nice vivid colors. The base model comes with a 256GB SSD and no Touch ID button for the color-matched keyboard, but the higher-tier 512GB model priced at $699 does have ‌Touch ID‌. Since this is a $599 MacBook, there are some compromises. You only get two USB-C ports and no Thunderbolt, plus no MagSafe or fast charging option. Only one of the USB-C ports is USB3, so you’ll need to use that one if you want to connect an external display. It supports a 4K …

Apple iPhone 17e hands-on: New chip, more storage memory, and yes, MagSafe

Apple iPhone 17e hands-on: New chip, more storage memory, and yes, MagSafe

Published by skeptic

When Apple launched the first “e” model iPhone, the iPhone 16e, tech reviewers (me included) let out a collective: “WHY?” It wasn’t about battery life, or the chip powering it (both were pretty great), and no one was really phased about the device’s archaic design. It was the lack of MagSafe, Apple’s magnetic, wireless power charging tech that makes it easy to slap various accessories onto the phone. It seemed like such a weird omission. Ditching MagSafe probably cut some production costs for Apple, but it meant phone owners would not buy any of the accessories from Apple’s rich MagSafe ecosystem. I’m pleased to report that this year’s Apple budget phone, the iPhone 17e, fixes this issue. Same old design, with one big difference MagSafe is here, and so is the Clear Case with MagSafe. Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable Apple sent me an iPhone 17e unit for review, and I was happily able to use my Apple Wallet and magnetic chargers with it. Apple also sent me a Clear Case with MagSafe, and while …

Motorola Razr Fold hands-on: This beats Samsung and Google Pixel in notable ways

Motorola Razr Fold hands-on: This beats Samsung and Google Pixel in notable ways

Published by skeptic

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. At MWC 2026, Motorola released a ton of details about the upcoming Motorola Razr Fold, the company’s first book-style foldable. Details included the cost in the European market at €1,999, which is part of a bundle of the Moto Razr Fold and the Moto Pen Ultra.  Notably, the Razr Fold supports stylus input on both the inner and outer screens, an advantage of competing models by Samsung and Google. Motorola also released most of the device’s specifications, as I’ll go over below. Also: This robotic camera phone is going viral at MWC, and I can see why The outside screen will be a 6.6-inch pOLED screen with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3. The inner screen will be a massive 8.1 inches, making it the largest in North America. It will run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor and come with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.  The cameras will be the same ones seen in the Motorola Signature — 50-megapixel sensors across the ultrawide, main, and …

Apple’s MacBook Neo Hands-On: A Premium Laptop for 9

Apple’s MacBook Neo Hands-On: A Premium Laptop for $599

Published by skeptic

The wait for an inexpensive MacBook for day-to-day work and entertainment is over. On Wednesday, Apple announced the lower-cost MacBook Neo, which is sure to be a hit with those who wanted a MacBook but for whom spending $1,000 or more for a MacBook Air was out of reach. The new MacBook Neo starts at $599 (£599, AU$899), and you can get it for $499 with Apple’s educational discount. Taking on Chromebooks and cheap Windows laptops, the MacBook Neo isn’t based on an Apple M-series processor, which powers Apple’s newly announced MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. Instead, it uses the A18 Pro chip that’s found in the iPhone 16 Pro from 2024. The A18 Pro has a six-core CPU (two performance cores and four efficiency cores) and a five-core GPU. Compare that with the M5 chip that powers the new MacBook Air: The M5 has a 10-core CPU (four performance cores that Apple now calls “super cores” and six efficiency cores) and either an eight- or 10-core GPU. No matter the color you choose, the MacBook Neo …

Xiaomi 17 Ultra hands-on: The cameraphone with a monstrous zoom

Xiaomi 17 Ultra hands-on: The cameraphone with a monstrous zoom

Published by skeptic

Xiaomi’s Ultra line of phones has always been about one thing: Peak camera performance. The new Xiaomi 17 Ultra, launched ahead of MWC 2026 in Barcelona, pushes the boundaries once more, though it suffers from similar setbacks as its predecessors. Note that there was no Xiaomi 16 Ultra; the company decided to skip that number and go straight from the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra to Xiaomi 17 and 17 Ultra, likely to “catch up” with Apple, whose latest models also bear the number seventeen. Despite the change, the new Xiaomi phones are very much an evolution of last year’s flagship models. SEE ALSO: MWC 2026: What to expect at the world’s largest phone show On the phone side of things, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is an extremely capable Android smartphone, with a 6.9-inch, 120Hz OLED display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, 16GB of RAM, 512/1024GB of storage, and a 6,000mAh battery with 90W fast charging and 50W wireless charging. It comes in three colors: Black, White, and the sparkly Starlit Green (Xiaomi …

Hands-On With Nano Banana 2, the Latest Version of Google’s AI Image Generator

Hands-On With Nano Banana 2, the Latest Version of Google’s AI Image Generator

Published by skeptic

Google just debuted Nano Banana 2, an updated version of its AI image generator. It combines the abilities of Google’s previous release, Nano Banana Pro—like text rendering and web searching—with speedier image generation. This tool will be the new default in Google’s Gemini chatbot. The first image model from Google under the Nano Banana moniker dropped last August, and the Pro version arrived three months later. The AI tool was widely adopted online to alter photos of real people, from generating custom action figures to nostalgic images of people hugging younger versions of themselves. Nano Banana 2 is not only faster at crafting images, it’s also a more powerful photo editor. Despite some rough edges and unconvincing generations in my initial hands-on experience through Gemini, Google’s latest release marks the continued improvement of photorealistic AI tools that can manipulate existing images and serves as a stark reminder to always scrutinize unverified images you see online. Getting Started If you want to try the new image model, the easiest way to access Nano Banana 2 is …

AirTag 2 Hands-On: What’s New and Should You Upgrade?

AirTag 2 Hands-On: What’s New and Should You Upgrade?

Published by skeptic

Apple just released the second-generation AirTag, five years after the original model debuted. There’s been a lot of time for Apple to come up with improvements, so we thought we’d test out the new model to see what’s changed, and whether it’s worth upgrading from the first-generation ‌AirTag‌. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t update the design of the ‌AirTag‌ 2, so it looks almost identical to the original model. The only thing that’s changed is the text on the back, which is now in caps and includes wording about the IP67 waterproofing, and that doesn’t count as any kind of design change. It would have been nice to have different design options or a rechargeable battery, but the ‌AirTag‌ is the same coin shape and it still uses CR2032 batteries. Apple didn’t mention anything about battery life improvements, so the ‌AirTag‌ 2 still lasts about a year before you need to swap it out. While there aren’t external updates, Apple did boost connectivity. The ‌AirTag‌ 2 uses an upgraded version of Bluetooth and it has a second-generation …