Technology

D-Link is trying to make it simple to give your computer a Wi-Fi upgrade. The networking company has announced what it’s calling an “industry-first” Wi-Fi 6 adapter built into a USB stick. Plug it into your laptop or desktop computer, and you may be able to get better performance than from your older Wi-Fi chip. The adapter advertises speeds up to 1,200Mbps. It’s not entirely clear who the target audience is for this upgrade. You’ll need to be connected to a Wi-Fi 6 router to get the biggest benefits, and most people still don’t own one of those (the Wi-Fi 6 standard only started rolling out two years ago). And if the laptop or desktop you’re using was bought any time in recent memory, chances are it supports Wi-Fi 5, which isn’t a huge step down from Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 6 does come with some b...

Microsoft is updating its Surface Pro line today with a refreshed Surface Pro 7 Plus model that is only available to businesses and schools. While the design and screen on the outside remain the same as the Surface Pro 7, Microsoft has overhauled the internals of the device to make way for Intel’s latest 11th Gen processors, a bigger battery, removable SSD, and LTE connectivity. This marks the return of LTE to the main Surface Pro line for the first time since 2015, but unfortunately there’s no 5G connectivity as Microsoft is using Qualcomm’s older Snapdragon X20 LTE modem inside the Surface Pro 7 Plus. The Surface Pro 7 Plus has no external design changes.Image: Microsoft A variety of models will be available, starting with the Intel Core i3 (1115G4) and ending with the Intel Core i7 (116...

L’Oreal debuted a gadget at CES last year that promised to make lipstick shades in whatever color wearers wanted. This year, we’re learning what that device requires to work at home: lipstick pods. The Yves Saint Laurent Beauté Rouge Sur Mesure Powered by Perso — yes, that really is the name — takes three different lipstick color pods and squirts their liquid out at the top of the device for wearers to mix. (The pods dispense the YSL Beauty Velvet Cream Matte Finish formula.) When combined, they create the desired shade. The top of the Bluetooth-enabled device doubles as a compact so people can take it on the go and touch up their color as needed. The device costs $299 and is available for preorder today. Each preorder includes two sets of colors in either the red, nude, orange, or fuchsia...

Reah Keem is just like you and I — she loves working on music, vacationing abroad, and is pretty bummed out about not being able to visit any cool places right now. The biggest difference, however, is that Reah Keem isn’t a real person. LG introduced Reah Keem as a virtual influencer who appeared during its live-streamed CES keynote to unveil the company’s new line of LG CLOi UV-C robots. The robot, which was announced by LG in December, is designed for areas with high traffic, like hotels, and roams around shining UV-C light that should reduce exposure to harmful germs. Keem’s job was talking about how important the CLOi UV-C was to her own life, using the chance to talk about how excited she was to start traveling again in the real world — a world in which she technically does not exist....

Alarm.com has announced a new device for anyone worried about visitors catching COVID-19 from, of all things, their doorbell. Rather than using a button, the Touchless Video Doorbell is designed to chime when its camera detects visitors standing on your doormat. Alarm.com claims this is the “first commercially available video doorbell that rings without requiring any contact,” and that its aim is to “reduce public health risks and make home visits and deliveries safer for all.” In what seems to be an admission that this is quite a confusing way to ring a doorbell, there are instructions on how to ring the device printed on its front. Alarm.com is also selling a doormat accessory for the doorbell, which instructs visitors on where to stand so the doorbell can see them properly. Given how pe...

V-Moda has announced a new version of its M-200 headphones at CES 2021 — the M-200 ANC, which bring both Bluetooth and active noise cancellation to the classic V-Moda design. Those additions come with a jump in price, though, with the M-200 ANC starting at $499.99, a jump of $150 over the wired, non-noise cancelling version. From the outside, the M-200 ANC look extremely similar to their wired cousins, with the same iconic hexagonal design elements that have been emblematic of V-Moda’s headphones for years. Unlike the wired version, though, the drivers have been swapped out to 40mm (from 50mm ones), and there are some new buttons for controlling playback, power, and pairing, as well as a USB-C port for charging. The M-200 ANC headphones are also a touch heavier at 320g (compared to 290g on...

After Parler was banned on both the Apple and Google app stores for failing to curb violent and threatening content on its platform, the social media site is now completely offline as a result of Amazon terminating Parler’s web hosting services. The official Parler website now returns a 403 error, while its app is showing networking errors and can’t load content. Amazon told Parler of its decision late Saturday, in a letter to chief policy officer Amy Peikoff. Its Amazon Web Service (AWS) “cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others,” the letter to Peikoff states, adding that Parler “poses a very real risk to public safety.” Parler’s iOS app, which now can’t load content.Screenshot: Parle...

HP has announced the Elite Folio, a new convertible laptop with an Arm CPU. Like 2019’s Spectre Folio, this device has a design that lets you pull the screen forward to rest between the keys and the trackpad for media consumption or touch-first work, or it can lie flat on top of the bottom shell for tablet-style use. The Elite Folio has a 13.5-inch 3:2 1920 x 1280 display, which is a nice upgrade over the Spectre Folio’s 16:9 panel. HP has made use of some of the extra height by including a stylus silo above the keyboard. While the Spectre stood out for its leather finish, the Elite Folio now uses “vegan leather,” which is to say it’s not leather. But it should feel better than regular plastic, at least. The processor is Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, and there’s also LTE and 5G conn...

OnePlus has announced its first fitness tracker, the OnePlus Band, featuring heart rate and blood oxygen saturation monitors, fitness and sleep tracking, and a battery life of up to two weeks. It works with Android at launch but not iOS; OnePlus says compatibility with iPhones will be added later. The OnePlus Band will be available in India starting January 13th for ₹2,499 (around $34), but a global release is yet to be announced. The OnePlus Band is the company’s latest foray outside of smartphones, which has also included TVs and true wireless headphones. The wearable appears primarily designed for fitness, thanks to its ability to track heart rate and blood oxygen levels, and its support for 13 built in exercise modes. However, it also features sleep tracking and can act as a phone acce...

LG Display has provided some details on the OLED panels it’ll be shipping to TV manufacturers this year. The lineup includes a 42-inch panel, the smallest TV-sized OLED yet from LG Display, as well as a new 83-inch panel size that likely features in the Bravia lineup that Sony unveiled a few days ago. That means that OLED TVs this year will be available in sizes of 42, 48, 55, 65, 77, 83, and 88 inches. LG Display says it’s also shipping a “next-generation” 77-inch panel that’s said to be around 20 percent more efficient and therefore capable of higher brightness than before, which has been a relative disadvantage of OLED TVs to date. LG Display is a components manufacturer and doesn’t release consumer products itself, so it’s unclear who’s actually going to put a 42-inch TV on sale this y...

LG Display is continuing its trend of reimagining the future of screens at CES 2021 with a new transparent TV. The panel is a 55-inch OLED, but its transparent design lets you see through it even when it’s turned on and displaying an image. The screen achieves 40 percent transparency, LG Display says, which is an improvement over past transparent LCDs the company claims achieved only 10 percent transparency. LG imagines the screen sitting at the foot of a bed, where it can rise up partially or in full to show information or videos while retaining a view of the other side of the screen. The panel as it’s designed now has built-in speakers, though it’s unclear precisely what audio features they will support. In an email the company said that its “Sound Solution technology” is “embedded in th...