The HP Pavilion Wave is a sneak-attack tower PC that looks — and can even act like — like a speaker. 

In a departure from virtually anything else we've ever seen from HP (now HP, Inc.) or any other Windows computer company, the HP Pavilion Wave is a category-redefining introduction that will likely leave you wondering whether this system belongs in the den, the kitchen or on a shelf next to your favorite vase. The answer may be all of the above.

HP Inc., which has been taking some design risks since its separation from HP Enterprise late last year, introduced the tiny, yet versatile and reasonably powerful Pavilion Wave on Thursday and will offer it for sale on the HP website starting Sept. 16.

The Wave's unusual triangular design came, at least in part, out of HP's desire to cater to millennials, 78% of whom, according to HP, say design matters a lot. However, that look also helps HP deliver a number of key innovations.

A speaker inside

At the core of the roughly 9-inch-tall-by-6-inch-wide PC is, in fact, a speaker, which is surrounded by system components and positioned so it fires upwards (yes, some of this will remind causal observers of the workhorse, circular, Mac Pro) This lets the sound waves take advantage of the unique parabola that tops the Pavilion Wave system. 

Even the parabola is unusual. It has been designed with a combination of plastic with metal fused to it through something called vacuum metalization, and an EVA foam core, all of which help better reflect sound and, yes, dissipate heat. Like the audio, the hot system hair is funneled up through the center of the PC, past the parabolic reflectors and out of the system.

Despite the opening at the top, HP officials claim that the Pavilion Wave operates as quietly as a notebook PC.

In addition to the mono, 360-degree speaker, which is powered in part by Bang and Olfsun technology, the Pavilion Wave is a listening device. As a Windows 10 system, the Pavilion Wave will include Windows Cortana digital assistant.

HP Inc. partnered with Intel to refine the design for optimal Cortana performance, at one point testing it with an array of eight speakers around it. They were used to gauge how the Wave's far-field listening system would pick up commands while the speakers recreated real-world background noises.

HP will offer the Pavilion Wave in a range of Intel Quad-core CPU configurations, ranging from Sixth Generation Core i3 through Core i5. The systems will also support up to a 2 TB hard drive and 128 GB SDD and 16 GB of RAM. It will offer a USB-C port, as well as three USB 3 ports, HDMI-out, DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet and an SD Card reader. The system will range in price from $529.99 up to $699.99 for the three core configurations. Two base models will offer Intel integrated graphics, while the top end configuration will add discrete AMD-powered graphics. Consumers can configure the system how they like on the HP website, including swapping out the Core i5 CPU for a faster Core i7, but that will raise the price of the PC.

For business

HP also introduced a new business-class PC, the HP Elite Slice, a modular system that will let HP customers add features by the slice.

Each one will snap into the other via a USB connection, without the need for external wires. The tiny systems are designed to fit in increasingly shrinking and flexible work spaces.

The main system, which is about the same thickness as two AA batteries stacked together, will feature wireless charging and dedicated conference call buttons.

Among the modules that will be offered are an optical disc drive (retro, yet cool), speakers, and a VESA Plate if you want to lock the system in place on your desktop. They are all sold separately.

The base PC will feature Intel Core i3-through-7 options, up to 32 GB of DDR 4 memory, HDMI, DisplayPort and USB-C, USB 3.0 and Integrated WLAN.

Elite Slice PCs will start at $99 and ramp up to $999. There will also be a special Elite Slice for use in meeting rooms, it will have a similar configuration to the mid-range, $899 model, but add Intel Unite collaboration hub technology.

Obi Wan is long gone, but his voice comes to me nonetheless, reminding me to be patient and asking me to… “Choose my activity?”

The voice, an uncanny blend of Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor, is actually emanating from Sphero’s new Force Band, a device that lets you use the force…er…motion and gestures to control the already popular BB-8 by Sphero, a toy robot modeled on Star Wars: The Force Awaken’s scene-stealing BB-8 droid.

When I first saw the Force Band nine months ago at CES 2015, it was a somewhat unimpressive looking white plastic wearable with some pretty awesome capabilities. Inside the Force Band is the same inertial measurement unit (IMU), essentially an accelerometer and gyroscope, Sphero built into its little BB-8 robot. As a result, anyone wearing the Force Band prototype could control BB-8’s speed and direction using gestures.

This worked pretty well in January. Now the control and design is exquisite.

Beyond the software and components, though, this is a very different-looking force band. Gone is the cheesy white plastic. Now the device, which is attached to an adjustable Velcro band, is gun-metal black with orange accents, the red Rebel logo and a fair amount of faked up body damage. It looks like it would be perfectly at home on Poe Dameron’s X-Wing. This makes perfect sense since BB-8 was originally the pilot’s droid. 

Sphero actually got a lot of input from Lucasfilm/Disney on the look and even an assist finding the Obi Wan voice talent (Sphero would not share who does the voice).

The Force Band ships on its own for $79.99 or with a new Special Edition BB-8 for $199.99. This new Sphero bot works the same as the previous BB-8 (Force Band can control them all), but has a brand-new body. Sphero executives explained that the first BB-8 was designed without the benefit of them seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Once they saw the film and how often BB-8 owners were reenacting and filming scenes from it, they decided to make a more realistic BB-8. The original bot’s shiny exterior has been replaced with a flat, scuffed up-looking skin that’s supposed to look as if this BB-8 survived a few battles on Jakku (the planet where we first meet Rey in the Force Awakens).

Jedi Training

Like the original Sphero BB-8, this one comes with a freely downloadable, dedicated app (iOS and Google Play). However, once you get through basic training, you don’t need the app to control the droid. 

The app clearly illustrates how to wear and adjust the band. In addition to an adjustable Velcro strap, there’s a plastic clip that makes it easy to take the Force Band on and off. Once you have it adjusted, you can activate the band by pressing the main button on the top. Lights just underneath the button indicate it’s on and, by color, what mode it’s in. There’s also voice guidance (all in Obi Wan’s voice). The band connects to the app just the way BB-8 does, by holding it near your smartphone.

The in-app Force Training mode uses a virtual BB-8 to teach you how to control the real one. It’s pretty intuitive. You raise your hand wearing the Force Band and pull it toward your chest. A quick thrust out with your palm facing away from you powers up the droid and sends it racing away from you. Moving your arm from side to side controls steering and speed is regulated by how high you hold your hand. To bring the droid back toward you, you turn your palm toward your face and pull in your hand toward your body.

The training task, which involved moving through the interior of the Millennium Falcon and outwitting a rathtar, will help you master these movements, though I found that the more time I spent controlling a real BB-8 the better and better I got.

Connect and play

The app training guides you directly to connecting to and controlling the actual BB-8. Like the original BB-8, the Special Edition droid is a Bluetooth Low Energy device. To connect to the Force Band, you simply follow the instructions from Obi Wan and place the band near the droid, which will light up and connect almost instantly. Aside from the fact that you’re using a Force Band, this works pretty much as it did when you used your phone to connect to the BB-8.

This worked smoothly for me and, after following the instructions that showed me how to align the direction of my droid with the Force Band, I was ready to start controlling it.

BB-8 by Sphero has never had speakers (it’s a sealed robot that’s even waterproof), so the BB-8 sound effects always came through the smartphone app. Now, however, they come though the Force Band, which has a surprisingly powerful speaker for such a small device (you can turn the sound off through the app, though this was not enabled in my test code). There’s also a little haptic motor that will vibrate to let you know about the presence of the Force, but more on that later.

I spent a couple of days using the Force Band to control my Special Edition BB-8 and drive it around the office. The reactions to me waving my hand and sending the droid slowly and then quickly this way and that were priceless. No one realized that the Force Band was giving me control or that it was the source of all the droid sounds. I got pretty good at carefully navigating obstacles. The only difficultly I had was when I turned my hand around to bring the droid back in my direction. This move reversed the motion I used to steer left or right, so I kept running BB-8 into walls. After a while, though, I even mastered this move, just like a true Jedi.

More app fun

The app isn’t just for training. Sphero has added an interesting Star Wars card-collecting game that will reward you for wearing the Force Band even when you’re not guiding the BB-8. In this Force Awareness mode (which is in the app, but can also be activated by pressing the Force Band’s main button a few times until Obi Wan says, “Your Force Awareness training has begun. Clear your mind.”) you can discover hidden Force disturbances as you walk around in the real world (yeah, it’s a little bit like finding Pokémon).

The Force Band alerts you to the existence of these disturbances and cards by activating the haptic motor. Each card you collect in the app can be used for different activities with the Force Band that do not involve the BB-8.

I started, for example, with Chewbacca’s Bowcaster. When I selected this holocron on the screen (Under Combat Training), my Force Band transformed into a virtual weapon. Sure, it looked the same, but when I quickly thrust my hand forward, the Force Band vibrated and made the same sound the Bowcaster does when fired in the Star Wars movies. There are dozens of other holocrons that you can collect, including one for a lightsaber. I couldn't find this one on my own, but did get to see a Sphero rep demonstrate it with his Force Band.

Raising your arm sets off the light saber extension sound and lowering it shuts it down. While in the light saber mode, you can make a slashing motion with the Force Band and it will make the sound of a light saber being used in battle. Too bad there’s no way right now for two Force Band owners to interactively battle. Yes, both can have a virtual lightsaber, but the two Force Bands will be unaware of each other.

The Force Band is rechargeable via a micro-USB port and offers 2 hours of continuous play for up to two days of passive play, which is when you walk around discovering hidden force disturbances and holocrons.

Is the Force Band a little pricey? Yes, but I still love it. Controlling BB-8 with subtle hand and arm motions is cool and makes you feel as if you have the force inside you. 

If you don’t already own a BB-8, $199.99 for the combo pack (which also includes a battle scarred charging base) is a decent deal and you will immediately make all your Star Wars-obsessed friends jealous.

Virtual reality headsets these days fall in roughly two categories. There are those tethered to a computer, aimed mostly at gamers, like the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, and mobile ones that combine with a smartphone, like Samsung's Gear VR or Google's Cardboard. 

China's Alcatel did something different last year when it launched the Alcatel Idol 4S phone, whose packaging doubled as a simple VR headset. Now, the company has taken it a step further by announcing a standalone VR headset — one that does not need a phone or a computer to work. 

The advantage of this approach is obvious: You can enjoy VR anywhere, and move freely without wires getting in the way — although that comes with the caveat that you won't want to move much without being able to see what's around you in the real world. 

To achieve this, Alcatel basically put a smartphone of its own into the headset, called the Vision. It's an Android Marshmallow-powered device with an octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storagae Bluetooth, LTE, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor. It's basically everything you expect from a modern smartphone, only hidden inside the headset. It has two 3.8-inch AMOLED screens, each with a 1,080 x 1,020 pixel resolution. 

To keep the weight down, Alcatel did something smart with the design: The front part of the headset is fairly straightforward and similar to, say, Samsung Gear VR. But keeping it fastened on your head is a sort of a head brace, with the 3,000mAh battery hidden in the part of the headset that leans on the back of your head. The design is not perfect yet — Alcatel tells me the part around the nose needs more work, and it does in my case — but overall it kept the headset quite light on my head, which is arguably more important than looks. 

I've spent a short time with the headset, which Alcatel tells me is pretty close to the one we'll see in stores, and the experience was somewhere between the one you get with Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift.

An Alcatel rep told me the idea is to sell the headset as a standalone, and not bundled with a phone. It is, he pointed out, an entirely new business unit for the company — one they're taking it's seriously. Alcatel is working with partners on a payment system that will enable users to purchase apps, and a Unity-based SDK will be released at some point as well. 

The price and exact date of availability haven't been finalized yet, but we can expect it to cost between $500 and $600. It will be shipping in China in the last quarter of 2016; in the U.S., it should become available from the first quarter of next year. 

"It’s not the camera, but the person behind the camera that makes great pictures." 

Every seasoned photographer will bestow these words of wisdom on the less financially equipped. But in the case of smartphone cameras, superior hardware really makes a world a difference if you want great photos. 

Just when I thought Motorola’s Moto Mod attachments for its Moto Z, Z Force and the new Z Play Droid couldn’t get anymore over the top, out comes the Hasselblad True Zoom. 

The Hasselblad True Zoom is an entire camera that overrides the phone’s included back camera, while simultaneously adding a physical shutter button, grip handle and 10x optical zoom. 

If you read my review of the Z Play Droid, you’ll understand that I wasn’t particularly impressed by the 16-megapixel camera. It’s fine for what it is, but it doesn’t compare to the Galaxy S7 and Note7’s back camera, which is currently the best smartphone camera. 

With the Hasselblad connected, the Z Play Droid instantly gets upgraded to a point-and-shoot-like camera. 

With the Hasselblad connected, the Z Play Droid instantly gets upgraded to a point-and-shoot-like camera. 

The module works just like all of the others. It clips on magnetically and latches into place around the bulbous Z Play Droid’s camera hump. The magnetic pins on the backside sync up to the phone and just like that you’ve got a bonafide point-and-shoot. 

I’ve tested a lot of these shutter button-and-grip handles (minus the optical zoom, unless you’re talking about Sony’s bizarre QX camera attachment) and most of them fall short. Shoddy grips and flimsy half-baked shutter buttons and special apps are needed to work — I’ve seen them all. 

The Hasselblad works with all camera apps. Read that again: ALL CAMERA APPS. I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Z Play Droid’s stock camera app to Snapchat to Instagram and the Hasselblad works as if it’s the actual native camera on the phone. (The only thing you will have to do is update your phone’s software, which doesn’t take too long.) 

With the Hasselblad, you get a larger 1/2.3-inch sensor that’s commonly found in many point-and-shoot cameras and you trade in whatever megapixels your phone has for 12-megapixels (which, for some reason seems to be the sweet spot for resolutions on smartphone cameras these days). 

I had my worries, but my concerns quickly faded as I shot with the camera module. 

Image quality is vastly better than what the Z Play Droid’s capable of producing, with more accurate colors that aren’t as saturated (like skies), sharper details and wider dynamic range. 

Just like a real camera, you can press the shutter button (love that it’s orange) halfway to autofocus and then keep pressing to take a photo. It’s not as precise as a real camera, but comes pretty close to mimicking the same process. There's also a zoom switch connected to the shutter button.

The textured, rubberized grip is a nice touch, too. I’m really happy it’s not just a blocky hunk of plastic grafted onto the front. It feels good in the hand.

Like pretty much all smartphone cameras, the Z Play Droid’s camera doesn’t have optical zoom. It’s difficult to put optical zoom on a smartphone because of the added bulk on the back. And the digital zoom is almost always terrible. At its highest magnification, the image becomes so blurry that there might as well be no digital zoom to begin with. 

Optical zoom, on the other hand, physically magnifies an image through actual lens elements instead of relying on software. And the Hasselblad’s 10x zoom is a real winner when compared to your phone’s digital zoom. You can also toggle on a 4x digital zoom for a maximum 40x zoom, but let’s just pretend that doesn’t exist because of how crummy it looks beyond the 10x optical zoom.

Here are some shots I took with and without the Hasselblad with the Z Play Droid (click to enlarge): 

Not only does the Hasselblad allow farther zoom, but it also retains image quality with crisper details thanks to its f/3.5-f/6.5 aperture. 

Here are some more comparisons (click to enlarge): 

The larger camera sensor also has a wider lens for a wider field of view from its 25-250mm focal length (35mm equivalent) range.

As for low light, the Hasselblad's a mixed bag. It's barely better than the Z Play Droid and image noise a real problem. The Z Play Droid actually exposes the image better in low-light situations as you can see below.

And while you’ll almost never see me shooting with a flash on, the powerful Xenon flash (I had one of these bright babies on my ancient Sony K810i candy bar phone years ago) is bright enough to blind or provide suitable fill flash to brighten up the shadows (yes, using flash when there’s plenty of light can be good thing). 

Stabilizing the optical zoom and keeping all the images tack-sharp is built-in optical image stabilization and electronic image stabilization for when it’s shooting video. 

The Hasselblad records video, but it’s capped at 1080p full HD resolution at 30 fps, which is a downgrade from the Z Play Droid’s max 4K recording, but honestly, I could care less since the screen's not 4K and I don't have a 4K TV at home.

I’m usually not fond of camera attachments. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to mobile photography. For a long time, I stuck to only using the my phone’s built-in camera and the power of editing with apps to craft photos I felt would provoke some kind of feeling (good or bad), pushing the limitations of the camera with atypical composition and aesthetics before posting to Instagram. 

My Instas didn’t get many likes and I didn’t care. I knew that I had pored over a certain photo with the love and care of a creator and artist. I knew how maddening it was to create each photo to be something more than just a fleeting snapshot and the painstaking process of adjusting each setting and importing into and exporting it out of several apps just to get it until it felt "right" to share publicly. 

The process of mobile photography is me putting my undivided love for the craft and "starving for my art" so to speak.

I still try to do more with less with my mobile photography because I feel it really pushes me to think outside of the box — there’s nothing more dull than seeing 50 Instagram or VSCO accounts that all have the same aesthetic — but I’ve slowly warmed up to adding mobile lenses to push my creativity further. 

I like the Hasselblad True Zoom. Shooting with it reminded me of Samsung’s short-lived Smart Cameras, only you know, without the detachable design. 

But despite enjoying the Hasselblad True Zoom, I don’t think it’s the mod for everyone for the same reason why I would not tell any sane person to buy the DxO One camera attachment for iPhone: it’s really expensive at $600.

For the money, you could buy a real camera instead of the Hasselblad module.

The Hasselblad is $300 from Motorola ($250 if you buy from Verizon). For that money, you might as well buy an RX100 (even the original one) or save a little more and upgrade to an mirrorless camera like Sony’s A5100, which remains one of the most affordable cameras out there. Both cameras even have a screen that flips upwards for high-res selfies, something the Hasselblad doesn’t improve at all (unless you have the rear camera flipped towards you, but then you can’t see yourself). 

And when you factor in the fact the module doesn’t have a built-in battery of any kind, which means it’s sucking up power from whatever Moto phone it’s attached to, it’s even more of a deal breaker.

Do you wish you could live like Erlich Bachman from HBO's Silicon Valley? I am sure you probably don't — and rightfully so. His life is kind of a nightmare.

Regardless of that, you can now rent his Aviato-branded Ford Escape. "Perhaps you’ve heard of it?" the listing asks. 

The website Turo is now offering up to San Franciscans the Aviato-mobile from Silicon Valley — and it can be yours for just $49 per day.

For the money, you get to drive more than just a piece of pop culture. As the listing points out, you also get to enjoy "Leather seats that cradle your buttocks like the firm grasp of a loving mother" and "6 CD Navigation GPS radio with 4" display and ergonomic joystick-button selector that will make you feel like a god among men."

Worried about putting too many miles on this boxy bad-boy? Don't. The $49 rental fee includes unlimited miles "because if you are driving a piece of Silicon Valley history, you know no limits."

That said, you won't be able to live the full Bachman experience in the Aviato Escape. There is absolutely no smoking in the car. "This cannot be emphasized enough," the listing reads. "You will be charged $250 for any smoking, even marijuana. Do you understand?"

But that's probably a good policy because recreational marijuana is illegal in California, as is driving impaired. So, leave the smoking to after you get to your final destination, OK?

BERLIN — Asus is joining the round club.

The Taiwan-based consumer electronics company announced its latest smartwatch at IFA 2016, the ZenWatch 3, featuring a round display .

The ZenWatch 3 joins a vast number of smartwatches with round displays including the Samsung Gear S2, Moto 360, Huawei Watch and Fossil's Q-series.

The smartwatch features a 1.39-inch AMOLED display (400 x 400 resolution) set on a 316L stainless steel watch case, which Asus says is 82 percent stronger than regular steel, for a more jewelry-like look. It'll be available in three finishes: Rose gold, gunmetal and silver. It's also thinner than the Apple Watch at 0.39-inches thick.

Watch strap options include stitched Italian leather for a dressy look or rubber for a sportier aesthetic. 

The ZenWatch 3 has three crown buttons and the top one is customizable for use with Android Wear. The smartwatch works with both Android and iOS phones and tablets. 

It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, 512MB of RAM and comes with 4GB of internal storage.

Asus says the smartwatch's battery can last up to two days on a single charge. It's also quick to charge up. A 15-minute charge gives the smartwatch up to 60 percent battery.

In addition to over 50 selectable watch faces, the ZenWatch 3 includes automatic activity tracking using its myriad sensors to detection motion. One feature plucked from the Apple Watch — reminders to stand up.

Asus didn't announce availability or pricing for the U.S. The only thing the company announced was pricing for Europe: €229, which is about $254. 

There’s the old adage that "practice makes perfect."   

And while perfect is easily the loftiest goal one can have, making better use of your practice is what will see you reach your peak performance goals faster.   

In recent years, technological advancements within the Internet of Things have given us a slew of super-smart ways to improve the way we practice and play — to give us a competitive advantage. There are now all kinds of objects, devices, and apps that help us track our performance, monitor our progress, and enable us to improve in ways that help athletes from all walks of life meet and exceed their goals.   

“IoT describes a network of communications between products: from mobiles, to clothes, to cars, and fridges. Put simply, IoT means that one thing you own can talk and sync with another thing you own. Technologists use the use the word ‘thing’ because the application of networked technology just keeps growing—now almost anything at all can be connected to the network. 

“More than just a fad or buzzword, IoT is set to radically change every element of our lives,” says Camilla Gulli, editor of Red Wire, Vodafone’s mobile technology blog.   

Here are just six of the things revolutionising the way we train and play.

Wilson X Connected Football  

This smart football helps you elevate your throwing performance in a gamified way. There’s a small sensor in the middle of the ball that records throwing velocity, spin rate, spiral efficiency, distance, catches and drops.    

The ball pairs with an app where you customise your avatar and play five different games, after which you can view your ranking and stats.  

Fitbit Blaze

This smart fitness watch is one of many watch and bracelet wearables on the market that help you monitor various facets of your workout, along with activities from your daily life that influence your health and fitness.    

It constantly keeps track of your heart rate, connects to GPS to record where you’re running and walking and has FitStar workout capabilities that give you step-by-step instructions and coaching.   

The Fitbit Blaze also tracks your sleep, so you can make sure you’re getting enough rest for peak performance.  

Athos Wearable Fitness Technology  

Athos takes a different approach to wearable fitness in the form of smart wearable clothing.    

They make tight-fitting clothing items that are filled with sensors that detect your heart rate, breathing rate and muscle activity.   And don’t worry: You don’t have to wear the same dirty clothes every time you work out. The entire Athos clothing line features a small core that slips into a pocket on Athos shorts (it works with any pair), and it connects with the sensors in each item of clothing. The core then wirelessly delivers data to your smartphone.    

What stands out about Athos’s system is that it shows you how much you’re exerting yourself and specific muscles, as opposed to an overarching workout report — which makes the clothes especially great for weight and resistance training.  

UA SpeedForm® Gemini 2 Record-Equipped

These UnderArmour running kicks track every single stride and second you spend working out — and then they sync the data with the UA MapMyRun app. It captures your GPS information, time, cadence, duration, distance and splits.   

It even notifies you around the 644-kilometre mark that it’s time for a new pair of shoes — and you don’t lose the data you’ve accumulated when you sync in a new pair, either.  

94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball  

Few things sound as great as a basketball swishing into a net, and this ball’s goal is to help you make that splashing sound more often.   

The ball — which comes in both men and women’s regulation sizes — has sensors inside that measure your shot and dribbling. It then sends data to an app that instantly analyzes it and gives you feedback on what you’re doing well and where you can improve. The company also offers a SmartNet that measures shot accuracy.  

Shockbox Sports Helmet Sensors  

The Internet of Things has led to many performance-enhancing technologies and devices, but it’s also led to developments that help keep us safer when we play. Like, for example, these helmet sensors provide immediate transmission to an app that keeps track of hit count and force of impact, so you’ll know when a player has experienced a hit that may have resulted in a concussion. That way, you’ll always know when to stop play and seek examination.   

Currently, the company offers sensors for football, hockey, lacrosse and snow sport helmets.  

If the rapid ascent of the wearables as a hot new category is, after the tepid reception to the Apple Watch, poised to falter, Xiaomi's uninspiring new Amazfit may be the final death knell for the smartwatch. 

Unveiled by Xiaomi-backed company Huami during an event in China this week, the device features GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and packs a heart rate monitor for fitness tracking. 

Very little information is available regarding the device on either company's official website but, according to GSM Arena, the device will offer up to 35 hours of battery life, is waterproof and works with the MiFitt app for the iOS and Android. According to the report, if you switch the device to pedometer mode you can get about 11 days of battery life from it. 

As a late entry into the smartwatch wars, currently dominated by the Apple Watch, the device is fairly lackluster. However, the wearable does give Xiaomi a slightly more competitive entry in the wearable space compared to its previous offerings. 

No announcement has been made regarding its availability in the U.S., but the Amazfit is already available for pre-order sales on Alibaba's TMall.com site. And that's what may be the Amazfit's saving grace. Priced at about $120, this is one of the most affordable yet feature-rich smartwatches we've ever seen. 

Mophie just unveiled its most affordable batteries yet.

Among the accessory maker's new lineup of external batteries is the Powerstation Mini, which starts at $29.95.

The Mini is a new, smaller, take on the company's signature Powerstation line. The 3,000 mAh batteries come in five different colors — pink, blue, purple, black and white — and provide up to 12 hours of additional battery life for your smartphone, according to Mophie. 

The company is also making new additions to the rest of its Powerstation line: The 6,000 mAh Powerstation, the 10,000 mAh Powerstation XL and the 20,000 mAh Powerstation XXL, which is also Mophie's biggest battery to date. 

Earlier this year, Mophie unveiled a line of cases that charge wirelessly, and the company is now following suit with a battery that uses its "Charge Force" tech. The Charge Force Powerstation will wirelessly charge a compatible Juice Pack case as well as other devices that support Qi wireless charging — Samsung's new Galaxy Note7, for example. It also has a built in USB port so you can charge another device the old-fashioned way. 

The Powerstation Plus line has also been redesigned. The built-in cables now have a removable tip that allows you to switch between micro-USB and Lightning cables, making the batteries much more useful for people with multiple types of devices.

The Plus line comes in three sizes: Mini (4,000 mAh), Plus (6,000 mAh) and Plus XL (12,000 mAh). The colors match the standard iPhone tints.

As we've noted before, more and more phone manufacturers are adopting the USB-C standard, and Mophie is finally showing those devices some love with a new line of batteries. 

At $99.95, the Powerstation USB-C is one of the company's pricier offerings, but the 10,000 mAh battery should keep your devices juiced up for quite a while.

All of Mophie's new batteries are on sale now at Best Buy, Apple stores and other retailers. 

There are tons cheaper options available — who doesn't make a battery pack these days? — but you might think about spending more for differences in design, battery capacity and, most importantly, safety. Mophie's battery cases are some of the highest quality options, and they're unlikely to explode or catch fire due to quality insulated parts.

A few years ago, LG figured out that wide-aspect 16:9 monitors just don't cut it for a modern power user's needs. The company then started churning out ultrawide 21:9 monitors that offer a ton of horizontal screen real estate, reducing the need for a second monitor. 

Later this week at the IFA tech trade show in Berlin, the company will show off its new lineup of ultrawide monitors, which includes what it claims is the "world's largest" such device, a 38-inch behemoth with a 3,840 x 1,600-pixel resolution.

The 38UC99, as it's called, is a curved IPS monitor with built-in 10W Bluetooth-compatible speakers. LG says it has a color gamut that covers 99 percent of the sRGB color space. It also has an ultra-thin bezel and a USB Type-C port that you can use to transmit data or charge another device. 

The LG 38UC99 will become available mid-September for the price of $1,499.

The company has also launched two other monitors. The 34-inch 34UC79G is a curved IPS monitor aimed at gamers, with a 144Hz refresh rate and LG's Dynamic Action Sync technology that reduces input lag. One unusual feature is the ability to add a crosshair to the center of the screen, which might help FPS gamers to be more accurate. It will cost $699 when it becomes available mid-October. 

Finally, the LG 34UM79M is a flat-screened, ultrawide IPS monitor with built-in Google Cast streaming capabilities. It will cost $599 when it hits the stores mid-November.

An Indian bank is planning to get a robot to greet its walk-in customers. Call it giving your service, um, a robotic touch.

The robot, which is being piloted by India's second largest private bank by assets, HDFC Bank, will assist customers with common tasks like withdrawing or transferring money or just finding the relevant department to get their task done. The robot is reportedly a part of the bank's "Project AI" program. 

The unnamed humanoid will come equipped with a touchscreen display which customers could use to input their query. The bank will soon beta test the robot at one of its Mumbai branches. Mashable India can independently confirm the claims.

The project is reminiscent of Softbank-owned Pepper humanoid robot, which is capable of reading human emotions, and the Nao robot that Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi had introduced last year. The $8,000 Nao, however, offers more sophisticated services. It speaks Japanese, English, and Chinese and also helps customers who are seeking help with opening a bank account or filing a complaint after losing their card.

HDFC Bank's robot, however, will have limited capabilities and will supposedly only serve the role of a receptionist, for now. Ravi Narayanan, Country Head, Branch Banking & Retail Trade, Foreign Exchange Business, HDFC Bank had recently hinted that banks will be among the first sectors in the country to deploy artificial intelligence technology. 

It remains unclear if this is a one-off experiment for HDFC Bank or if it plans to get these robots to all its branches. 

Using voice commands via the Amazon Echo's Alexa voice assistant or your smartphone to turn on your Philips smart light bulbs is convenient, but even better is just walking into a room and ta-daa!

Philips' new motion sensor does just that. The $39.95 wireless sensor measures roughly 2- x 2-inches and launches in early October. 

There's really not much to the motion sensor. The sensor shoots out an invisible light field that spans 100 degrees horizontally and 100 degrees vertically. Its blind spot is 180-degrees to its sides. 

But once it detects motion within its field of view, it'll trigger the connected Philips Hue smart lights you have in your home and turn them on. And it works fast, so there's no lag like there is if you connect your smart lights through IFTTT.

The built-in light sensor is also smart enough to measure ambient light so it knows when it's daytime and nighttime. This is important because the motion sensor can be configured to adjust your lights to different preset scenes.

So, for instance, you could have the lights at full brightness during the day, but at nighttime, maybe you want them to be dimmer. One useful scenario is if you wake up in the middle of the night, trigger the motion sensor and the lights won't blind you, but instead switch to softer luminance.

Using the Philips Hue app for iOS and Android you can set the motion sensor to turn off after a set amount of time.

The sensor can be placed anywhere in your home in any position. You can place it on a cabinet, a bookshelf, a doorway table or mount it to the wall or ceiling.

It comes with a magnetic mount on the backside, which can be screwed into a wall and swiveled at various angles.

The motion sensor requires two AAA batteries, which power it for 2-3 years. Up to 12 motion sensors can be connected to a Philips Hue Bridge.

During a recent demonstration, Philips had the motion sensor connected to several smart light bulbs in a New York City hotel room and they worked as expected. As soon as I walked in front of a motion sensor, lights turned on in a hallway and in a bedroom/bathroom setup.

The motion sensors are sold separately, but in the company is considering bundles in the future.

We were supposed to use our smartphones to control our smart homes, but it's starting to seem more likely that voice control and motion sensors are better solutions. It just takes too long to pull out your phone, launch an app and then tap a digital switch. Same goes for smartwatches.

I just want my smart home to react to my behavior when I'm at home and Philips' motion sensor does just that.

With all the news about driverless cars, Facebook collecting WhatsApp data and high school football on Snapchat, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps. Each weekend, we round up a few of our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes a habit-building RPG app, an app that has kitty weather anchors and a flashy maze game. 

Check out the gallery below to see our top picks. If you're looking for more items to fill up your phone, take a look at our last roundup of can't-miss apps.