9to5Mac Reviews

I recently went hands-on with the Level Touch smart lock, which is Level Home Inc.’s most recent foray into the connected home space. Level, whose newest smart lock is for sale in the Apple Store, and whose design team includes former Apple employees, prides itself on providing smart technology in an elegant and inconspicuous package. In fact, unless someone specifically told you, you might not even know that the Level Touch is a smart lock. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for the details.

I’ve tried a couple of Grovemade products before, and they tend to have three things in common: they use natural materials like wood and leather; they are beautiful; and they are expensive. The Grovemade MagSafe Stand ticks all three boxes – though the ‘expensive’ element is partly Apple’s fault this time.

I’ve said in the past that I prefer charging stands to charging pads. Whether it’s on my desk, beside the sofa or beside the bed, it makes more sense for me to have my phone upright, where I can see the screen, rather than flat on the surface, where I can’t. For that reason, Apple’s MagSafe charger didn’t interest me – until now …

A little over two months after the release of the new iPhone 12, and we still only have a handful of third-party MagSafe accessories on the market. One such accessory, Belkin’s awkwardly-named MagSafe Car Vent Mount Pro, is now available. While a magnetic car mount seems like a natural fit for the MagSafe ecosystem, is Belkin’s new accessory worth it? Watch our hands-on video for the details.

Belkin’s Boost Charge Pro with MagSafe and Apple’s MagSafe Duo chargers take very different approaches to solve a similar problem. In a world where everything has to be recharged, combination chargers that can reduce cables and plugs in our life are really practical. While Apple’s first-party combo charger is described best as a minimalistic travel charger, Belkin aces utility in what may be the best MagSafe combo charger.

Nanoleaf debuted its latest smart light panel system this year with Shapes. The first option was Shapes – Hexagons and Triangles and Mini Triangles have arrived as well. As you’d hope, all three of the Nanoleaf Shapes light panels work together to make a flexible system that lets you get really creative. And just like Nanoleaf’s other products, Shapes are HomeKit compatible with no hub needed.

Zendure likes its beefy power banks, like the 100W one I tested back in the summer, but the Zendure SuperBase 500 has got to be the ultimate one. As the name suggests, it offers a huge 500Wh of capacity (518Wh to be precise). It provides both AC and DC power and can cope with up to a massive 600 watts of simultaneous output.

Of course, that kind of capacity requires a huge battery, so this thing isn’t small or light– but it is a fair bit smaller than the competition …

One of the headline features of the two iPhone 12 Pro models is the LiDAR scanner. Night mode Portrait photos had already impressed me, and an app to create 3D scans of your home has now done so, too.

Canvas is an iPhone app that you can use to scan your rooms, and then pay a modest fee to have them turned into professional CAD models that can be used to help remodel your home. You may have spotted that it was featured in the iPhone 12 launch…

When I saw that Flic HomeKit-compatible smart buttons were available, I had to take them for a spin.

Second-generation Flic smart home buttons now have HomeKit compatibility, along with multi-color LEDs to indicate the status of the device they control.

The original Flic buttons from Shortcut Labs could control a reasonably wide range of devices — including Ikea, Nanoleaf, Lifx, Lightify, Philips Hue, Sonos, Spotify, and WeMo — but HomeKit support now makes them suitable for a much wider range of smart home products…

One of the industries I started paying attention to more in 2020 was the world of robot vacuums. After picking up a Neato D7 and Roborock S6 Max earlier this year, I’ve decided that I am finished with regular vacuum cleaners, and automated ones are the future for my family. Since August, I’ve been testing out the 360 S9 Robot acuum, so read on to see how it compares to the ones I already use.

Has the transition from Intel to Apple silicon on the Mac surpassed all expectations? Watch our hands-on video as we discuss what makes Apple’s M1 MacBooks so special in our MacBook Air and MacBook Pro review.

In my recent Top Features video walkthrough showcasing the iPhone 12, I didn’t yet have the iPhone 12 mini in hand, so I was only able to provide commentary on Apple’s large 6.1-inch baseline smartphone. Now that the iPhone 12 mini has arrived, I’ve been able to examine both smartphones in light of Apple’s entire flagship lineup. Watch our hands-on iPhone 12 & 12 mini review video for the details.

Today Apple sells three Apple Watch models — the three-year-old Apple Watch Series 3 starting at $199, and the just-released Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 6 models, which start at $279 and $399 respectively.

With these options in mind, which Apple Watch should you buy? Should you go all out and spring for the Apple Watch Series 6, or should you take the more cost-conscious route with the Series 3 or SE? Watch our hands-on video walkthrough as we explore Apple’s wearable lineup as it stands today.

August has been a household name in the smart lock industry for many years, serving as one of the most popular options for people who want the benefits of a smart lock without replacing their existing lock.

Over the summer, August unveiled its new Wi-Fi Smart Lock that is significantly smaller than its previous smart lock products and features integrated WiFi connectivity. There’s also HomeKit support, which is a must-have for any smart home accessory I use nowadays. Read on for more.

When I deployed the 2020 MacBook Air to the teachers at my school earlier this year, it became immediately apparent that everything was better on this computer versus our previous ones except for one thing: the camera. For whatever reason, the 2020 MacBook Air webcam is considerably worse than the webcam on our old ones from 2017. Because our teachers were doing so much with virtual learning, I got several complaints, and I wanted a cheap option for teachers to upgrade their camera. We settled on the Papalook PA552, and it’s a great low-cost option for a webcam upgrade.

If you follow my HomeKit Weekly series, you know that I am a sucker for anything I can make “smart.” In my never-ending quest to have an app for everything in my house, I now have a Bluetooth enabled toothbrush from Quip. I’ve been using Quip for a couple of years after I heard a podcast ad for them, and now every member of my house is using one of them. I recently got an email about a new ‘motor’ for their existing toothbrushes that adds Bluetooth support, so I jumped on to add it.

My Apple Watch is so much a part of my life now that I don’t even notice I’m putting it on. The Withings ScanWatch is a very different type of smartwatch – which was why I thought it would be interesting to try one.

It’s a more sophisticated version of the Withings Steel, and is available in Europe now, but awaiting FDA clearance to go on sale in the US. It’s a predominantly analog watch, with a small digital display. And unlike the Apple Watch’s 1-2 day battery life, it claims a battery life of 30 days – with a further 20 days in reserve mode, where it switches off the digital display while continuing to tell the time and measure activity …

I normally decline power-bank reviews on the grounds that, for the most part, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all. The Zendure SuperTank Pro was an exception thanks to its ability to double the battery-life of a MacBook Pro, while the Chargeasap Flash 2 (just Flash from now on) is a rather neat travel solution more geared to iPhones, iPads, and – unusually – the Apple Watch.

That’s not to say that the Flash can’t power MacBooks too: it definitely can. It can output a total of 210W, which gives it the same ability as the Zendure to charge or power two MacBook Pros at the same time. But this one has a lower capacity, while its USP is an integral wireless charging pad that can charge not only an iPhone, but also an Apple Watch …

TextSniper is a new Mac app I wish I’d had years ago. It takes text in a graphic or non-selectable PDF and turns it into actual text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Using it is as easy as taking a screengrab and then pasting.

One of the more annoying aspects of my work is when I need to quote some text that is provided in graphic form. Company statements on Twitter are a common example, where they get around the character limit by posting an image of the statement…

SleepPhones are headphones specifically designed to be worn in bed. They were originally created for use by those who have difficulty falling asleep, so they can listen to white noise, rain sounds, or similar.

But my interest was rather different. I tend to go to sleep later than my girlfriend, and while I mostly read before sleep, I sometimes like to listen to podcasts or watch videos …