By Ted Kritsonis
Sony has been on the outside looking in for years, watching other manufacturers carve out a slice of the smartphone market, and the company now feels it can fight back on multiple fronts. The Xperia X is a mid-range handset, and the Xperia X Performance is a flagship device, both of which are supposed to compete hard against what’s already out on the market.
By Ted Kritsonis
Huawei may not be a brand that comes to mind when thinking of an alternative to the iPad, but the MateBook is designed to be just that. A tablet with impressive specs and the flexibility to act as a laptop replacement, the device promises great performance, yet falls short on usability.
By Ted Kritsonis
Buying a premium smartphone outright isn’t what it used to be, now that prices routinely hit above $1,000, except mid-range phones are creeping up to close the performance gap. The Motorola Moto G4 Plus is a solid example of a phone that performs admirably well, yet comes in considerably lower on the price tag.
By Ted Kritsonis
These days, it’s not that it’s hard to find a fitness band or other connected health product, it’s that it’s hard to know which one is the best fit for what you want to achieve. Under that premise, the Under Armour HealthBox — with a band, chest strap and scale — would seem to be the ideal bundle to get started. But how well does it deliver as the sum of its parts?
By Ted Kritsonis
Securifi isn’t a well-known brand, and the Almond+ isn’t likely to stand out in the router crowd, but this is a device that aims to combine home networking with home automation — a first in this category. It’s a sound premise, except the execution highlights some key shortcomings.
By Ted Kritsonis
ZTE hasn’t ventured too far up the ladder toward the mid-range smartphone market, but the Axon firmly plants it there, making a case that its mix of good design and competent specs are good enough to win some consumers over. It’s the best device the company has released in Canada to date, and is worth considering for the price.
By Ted Kritsonis
Noise, especially in low-light or nighttime photos, can take away from their beauty and composition, and thus requiring stringent editing to smooth everything out. Macphun’s Noiseless is desktop software that aims to do that in a way that even beginners can manage with ease. With a user-friendly interface and real-time results, it’s an impressive program that delivers more often than not.
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry is an engrossing and in-depth retelling of how Research In Motion (RIM), set the stage for the smartphone industry and the series of unfortunate events that caused it to spiral out of control.