Gadgets

Gadgets

Dreame built its name on robot vacuums and smart cleaning stations, but its newest release does not clean your floors at all. Dreame's Air Power 17 arrives as a magnetic portable power bank with a surprisingly polished feel, pairing an aluminum frame with AG glass and a footprint barely larger than a bank card. It clicks into place on an iPhone 17 or any Qi2 compatible phone, then quietly delivers up to 15 watts wirelessly or 20 watts over USB-C.

I've been a Roku user for years and have spent countless hours launching apps, navigating menus, and digging through settings. If you feel like you've barely scratched the surface of what Roku can do, take a seat. I am sharing all the best hidden Roku tips and tricks so you can unlock the full power of your device. Also: 8 HDMI tricks I use to get the best performance from my TV - and most are free

Years from now, I'll look back at 2025 as the year when a fundamental shift happened in wearable technology. Over the last decade, the category has been synonymous with health and fitness. In many ways, that association is still the primary one. But this year, I've seen an increasing number of tech companies pitch another trajectory for wearables: as vehicles for AI.

The Dell Inspiron 15 boasts a 13th-generation Intel Core i7-1355 processor, which ensures high-end performance, making it ideal for both professional tasks and recreational use. The device comes with 32GB of RAM and a generous 1TB SSD, providing ample storage space and ensuring quick access to your files. It'll prove useful in running demanding applications or juggle multiple tasks at once.

Also: I compared the two best ANC earbuds by Apple and Bose, and there's a sonic difference I spent months now working, traveling, and lounging in the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (Gen 2) , which I'll refer to as the QC Ultra 2, searching for how Bose spent two years making them more "ultra" than their predecessor. Without major upgrades to design, speaker drivers, or noise cancellation performance, I'll have to dig deep.

Small robot vacuums that fit into tight spaces rarely deliver strong performance, which is what makes the SwitchBot K11 Plus stand out. And right now, you can purchase the compact yet capable robovac from Amazon and SwitchBot for a new low of $179.99 ($220 off), the latter with code XMAS2GIFT55. Just note that only Switchbot is extending the full discount to the white model (and with delayed shipping).

In its first decade, iRobot began to assemble a small-droid A-team for the theater of combat. The Ariel defused mines; the PackBot handled bomb disposal. (Later they would be joined by the Warrior, which breached obstacles; the camera-encrusted SUGV, which handled recon; and the palm-size FirstLook, which could be thrown through a window to investigate hazardous materials.) These machines weren't weapons, but they facilitated weaponry's consequences.

Home cinema has never been this affordable. The TCL Projector C1 brings 120-inch screen entertainment to your living room for just $199, making it cheaper than the AirPods Pro, which sounds wild considering one's a tiny pair of earbuds and the other's an entire cinema in your house. This isn't a stripped-down compromise either. The projector packs Google TV, automatic focus, and a built-in battery into a portable package.

We've all been there. It's 2:47 AM, and you're staring at your ceiling, mentally calculating how many hours of sleep you'll get if you fall asleep right now. Spoiler alert: that math never helps. Designer JeJun Park clearly understands this universal struggle, because Re:M tackles the insomnia problem from a completely fresh angle. At first glance, Re:M looks like it wandered out of a minimalist's dream.

We have seen a ton of demand from people on Instagram to watch Reels on TV,

When I first connected the X4 earbuds to my Pixel 9 Pro and played my favorite Spotify playlist, I was seriously disappointed. The sound was overly tinny, had no bass, and the highs were poorly mixed in with the mids. Knowing Treblab doesn't have a mobile app for customizing the sound, I thought something had to be wrong. The X4 earbuds look every bit the part of over-the-ear earbuds. They have a loop that goes around your ear, and the speaker rests inside.

I wanted Aurzen's D1R Cube Roku TV projector for one specific thing: outdoor movie nights. I have a backyard patio and a fireplace, complete with a cozy couch for my family to sit on outside. The only thing missing from this setup is a bright, loud projector. I can picture us huddled under a blanket, watching an old favorite like Jaws beneath the stars.

I am a dad, and I spent a lot of time thinking about what people should get me. Luckily, since I work here, people are happy to send me those very things for testing. I take this sacred responsibility very seriously and have spent hundreds of hours thinking about the gifts I'd give to, say, a dad like yours. The ideas below are the sum of that work for the year 2025

Circana's Mat Piscatella reports that only 1.6 million new consoles were sold last month, including during Black Friday. That's just a few hundred thousand more than the 1995 low of 1.4 million. Perhaps just as surprisingly, the Switch 2 wasn't even the best-selling hardware in November. That honor went to the PS5, a console that's five years old and ended up not benefiting from the expected Grand Theft Auto 6 launch hype this year.

Behringer is no stranger to remaking classic synthesizers and selling them at much cheaper price points. However, this latest release may just take the budget-friendly cake. The company just introduced the UB-1 Micro, previously called the Spirit, a portable analog synth inspired by the Oberheim Matrix line that costs just $49. Despite the price tag, this thing still manages to sound extremely beefy.

Most desks end up with a nice mechanical keyboard, a separate mouse, maybe a trackpad, a macro pad, and, if you work in 3D, a space controller, all fighting for room. Keyboards stay fixed layouts, even as workflows get more complex and tools multiply. Naya Connect treats the keyboard as the center of a modular workstation instead of just another rectangle, letting the rest of your input tools snap onto it and adapt as your work changes.

The Dolby Atmos support makes soundscapes that are three-dimensional and puts sounds above, around, and next to you instead of just in front of you. This adds depth that regular stereo soundbars can't match. Height channels bounce sound off your ceiling to make it sound like helicopters are flying by or rain is falling from above. This makes the scenes feel more real.

If there's an Xbox showing up under your tree and you're going to have more than one very eager gamer dying to get at it, we're about to save you from a potentially sticky situation. The Xbox consoles come with only one controller. Thankfully there's still time to get a second controller to avert the epic sibling clashes that come from attempts at sharing, and it's the 2025 model Xbox Wireless Gaming Controller in Carbon Black, on sale at Amazon for a sweet 42% off.

Alexa Home Theater arrived in late November, allowing owners of a recent Fire TV device and either of the new Echo speakers the ability to use up to five units and an Echo Sub as a surround sound setup. The main selling point is that the underlying tech allows you to put the speakers wherever you want and Alexa Home Theater will handle the rest.

Beats headphones are known for being relatively bass-heavy, but the Solo 4 have an EQ that doesn't overemphasize particular frequencies, making them well suited for a variety of genres. The headphones are wireless, but you can use them as a wired pair by connecting them to your device with the included USB-C or a 3.5mm audio cable. Using them in wired mode allows you to listen to lossless audio with no compression,

And a few days ago, there was a 24-hour-ish period where the heater just wasn't heating up. Fortunately it got fixed the next day, but I was definitely scrambling to think of solutions in the interim to stay warm. I also always forget just how dry it gets in the winter, and every year I'm reminded I never put together that humidifier an old roommate left behind. As it turns out, this new multifaceted heater from Aldi could've solved both of my issues.

The i-SENSYS MF667Cdw is one of a couple of new color laser multifunctions just released by Canon. It's the more fully specified of the two, with fax capabilities and significantly better automatic document feeder (ADF) than the slightly cheaper i-SENSYS MF664Cdw, but neither is bad for the money. For less than £300 both give you a 250-sheet paper input tray, Wi-Fi, and gigabit Ethernet connectivity, together with a big color touchscreen that helps you configure and use all the features.

Ai+, led by former Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth, entered the smartphone market in July with the Ai+ Pulse and Ai+ Nova 5G. Now, the brand has teased the launch of a new smartphone, which, surprisingly, is a foldable. We are looking at a flip-style foldable, called NovaFlip. Ai+ hasn't revealed any features of the smartphone, but a teaser posted by the brand on its official X account gives us a glimpse of the NovaFlip's design.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 15, the 5G model, is available for €280 (with a €30 discount for subscribers). This is for a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage, the only one that we found on the site. Xiaomi is yet to set an official reveal date for the Note 15 series, but it did confirm that the Redmi Note 15 5G will be powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3.

Right now, Amazon is offering the 256GB Samsung P9 Express microSD card for just $33, after taking 40% off its usual $55 retail price. Prime members get to enjoy free delivery, so they're saving a few extra dollars on that front too. This is also the lowest we have seen this memory card drop to since its release, but as you'd expect, the deal is selling out fast.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced that its Fire TV devices, including Fire TV Stick products and TVs with Fire TV as its built-in operating system, will be the first to get a standalone Instagram app from Meta, part of a pilot program that will presumably eventually expand to other platforms. The Instagram app for Fire TVs will focus primarily on Reels, the short-form video product that, frankly, does not seem like it belongs on TVs.

The Alexa.com website appears to be live for some users. The browser-based home for Alexa Plus, the company's revamped digital voice assistant, was first announced at the Alexa Plus launch event in February. But until recently, Alexa.com redirected to an information page. Now, some users, myself included, are seeing a new Alexa Plus web interface. This morning, when I typed Alexa.com into my web browser, it took me to a page that resembled the Alexa Plus chatbot in the Alexa app. (I was already logged into my Amazon.com account.)

CES is upon us, as the flood of teasers and marketing campaigns from every tech brand would suggest in December. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or ordinary consumer, the annual tech trade show is guaranteed to feature something you care about -- be it the launch of a new TV display type or a demo of some visionary technology with the potential to change the future. Also: The 5 most innovative tech products that surprised us this year (including a first for robot vacs) Want to keep up with the conference's latest and hottest news? ZDNET will have a team on the ground bringing you all the announcements throughout the week-long show.