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The Morning After: iFixit looks inside the 16-inch MacBook Pro - Engadget
Almost no one is buying Google smart speakers anymore - BGR
Motorola Razr vs Galaxy Fold: Full comparison - CNET

The Morning After: iFixit looks inside the 16-inch MacBook Pro - Engadget

Posted: 16 Nov 2019 06:45 AM PST

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to your weekend! Now that Apple's new laptop is here, it's time to tear it apart and look inside. Disney is responding to Simpsons fans, and Amazon has a new high-quality Echo speaker. Finally, there's a new episode of the Engadget Podcast and we'll look back at some highlights from this week like our hands-on with Motorola's new foldable RAZR.

The scissor switch is back.iFixit opens up the 16-inch MacBook Pro to check out its new/old keyboard

Naturally, the teardown team at iFixit was bound to get their hands on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and see exactly how its keyboard works. Just as expected, the new keyboard is nearly identical to the one in the 2015 MacBook Pro as well as Apple's external Bluetooth Magic Keyboard.

Wait for it.Disney+ will fix its 'Simpsons' widescreen problem in 2020

In a repeat of an issue that occurred when FXX started playing old Simpsons episodes a few years ago, someone decided to crop and zoom older content so it fills out an HD widescreen frame. In a statement, a Disney spokesperson said that "in early 2020" it will offer a toggle for the first 19 seasons of episodes so people can choose to view them in their original format -- important for many visual gags that extend to the top or bottom of the frame.

Just in time.Engadget's 2019 holiday gift guide is here!

After months of thinking, curating, photographing and more thinking, we've come up with a holiday gift guide that covers all the bases (and budgets), from laptops and mobile devices, to toys, to the smart home, to book and media recommendations (only on nerdy subjects, of course). All told, there are more than 150 items in our guide, spanning 13 categories, with advice from 25 of our writers and editors. You know, the people testing and reviewing this stuff all year long.

And we're not done yet: We have additional picks and buying advice, including gifts for coffee geeks, shopping for hypebeasts and our favorite wireless earbuds.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro is here (and so is our gift guide)!The Engadget Podcast

Get ready for the holidays with an in-depth look at Engadget's holiday gift guide! This week, editor in chief Dana Wollman joins Devindra to chat about how we pick the best gadget gifts and some of the wildest choices we've made. And of course, we find time to dive into the giant laptop in the room, the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

You don't have to choose between Alexa or a speaker with great sound.Echo Studio review: Amazon finally nailed the audio quality

To get the most out of this Echo Studio, Billy Steele writes that you'll want to consider a high-res streaming plan like Amazon Music HD. The 3D audio options are a bit limited for now, but even regular Spotify sounds great on this thing. It's by far the best-sounding Echo yet, and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Even if they're hard to find in the US.If your family needs a second car, make it a fun, compact EV

According to statistics, the average household has 1.8 to 2 cars. It depends on who you ask, but let's just accept that there are more families that have two cars than have one. Roberto Baldwin makes the argument that if you have two vehicles, at least one of them should be something like a fun-to-drive Mini SE or Model 3.

It's $5 more than YouTube.Hulu increases the price of its live TV service, again

This is the second time this year the company has raised its rate on live television streaming. In February, there was a $5/month hike to $45.99 -- up from the $39.99 price when the service debuted in 2017. Now it's going up to $54.99, as of December 18th.

Forget the Nürburgring, the Taycan is great on any road.Porsche Taycan first drive

Even in pre-production form, Roberto Baldwin reports the Taycan Turbo S EV feels solid and ready for everything from cruising around town to tackling the track.

But wait, there's more...

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In this article: business, entertainment, gadgetry, gadgets, gear, home, mobile, personal computing, personalcomputing, themorningafter, transportation

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Almost no one is buying Google smart speakers anymore - BGR

Posted: 15 Nov 2019 05:08 PM PST

In the third quarter, Google's share of the smart speaker market basically fell off a cliff, plummeting from nearly a third of the market to only around 12%. That's one of the findings of the newest Canalys report that's been published and which offers an overview of the market worldwide during the quarter, which was a time when (barring Google's performance) millions of people were continuing to buy new smart speakers and displays. From Amazon, mostly, which grew its share of the market almost 70% compared to this point in 2018.

Among the results, according to Canalys, a strong Prime Day this year, as well as back-to-school shopping campaigns, helped Amazon sell 10.4 million speakers during the quarter and continue to pull away from the pack.

After Amazon, China-based Alibaba sold enough during the quarter (almost 4 million) to place it second on a global basis, while another Chinese brand (Baidu) moved into third place to bump Google down to fourth. Via the chart below, you can also see that Google was the only major shipper to suffer a year-over-year decline in shipments:

Image Source: Canalys

"The challenging retail environment and shipment decline compelled Google to seek more partnerships such as with Spotify, to drive sales through different channels," Canalys senior analyst Jason Low said about the data. "We are also seeing similar collaboration trends in China where Alibaba leveraged its retail relationship and channel capabilities to run smart speaker collaborations" with brands like Starbucks.

On a related note, the smart display category grew at a massive pace during the quarter, according to the Canalys data — seeing a 500% increase globally thanks to 6.3 million shipments between July and September. Low added, about those products specifically, that keeping a lid on prices is "vital" if companies like Amazon hoping to keep growing their smart display sales and that intense competition ahead of this year's holiday shopping season is expected. Here again, though, Google turned in a poor performance, moving only 700,000 shipments of smart displays during the quarter.

Image Source: Olly Curtis/Future/Shutterstock

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Motorola Razr vs Galaxy Fold: Full comparison - CNET

Posted: 16 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST