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CNET's 2020 Innovation Award winners made things better during a difficult year - CNET
Skincare gadget company The Skin Glo tricked Instagrammers into buying its product - The Verge
Google Nest Audio vs Amazon Echo (4th Gen) - Sound Guys

CNET's 2020 Innovation Award winners made things better during a difficult year - CNET

Posted: 22 Dec 2020 05:00 AM PST

During a pandemic year marked by mounting economic and emotional challenges, the latest advances in technology helped us stay employed, continue the education of our children, comfort loved ones, and reimagine our ideas about community. In CNET's second annual Innovation Awards, we wanted to recognize a handful of advances that changed things for the better in a really tough year.

We've already named our best products of 2020, based on the Editors' Choice selections of CNET reviewers. Those are the products we most recommend people buy across the biggest and most interesting categories in consumer tech.

But there are a few things that didn't make that list that are also worth highlighting this year. We're talking about the stuff that made a difference. That stuff that gave us new breakthroughs. Not all of these belong to products that CNET recommends for everyone. But, they all moved the technology world forward in powerful ways.

And as CNET has expanded the scope of what we cover -- into science, health and personal finance -- we've also expanded the realm of what we consider for Innovation Awards. That brings us to this year's winners, the first of which we're all counting on to help us find our way out of the current global crisis.

1. Breakthrough mRNA vaccine for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic caught our bodies and our communities by surprise in early 2020. It wreaked havoc on lungs and hearts, and health professionals quickly realized that the virus was even more contagious and more deadly than the flu -- which quietly kills over half a million people each year. That was partly because COVID-19 has a longer incubation period and so an infected person can spread it to others for up to a couple weeks (the flu only does so for one to four days). The solution quickly became clear: We needed a vaccine.

The problem is that vaccines can take a long time to develop -- some need more than a decade. We didn't have that luxury with COVID-19, which was shutting down communities across the world. So, in 10 months, researchers from Pfizer and Moderna made a new kind of vaccine based on synthetic messenger RNA. It's not only 95% effective, but it's such a breakthrough that it could lead to treatments of inherited diseases like cancer and allergies. It also has the potential to lead to more rapid treatments for the next pandemic. Read Jackson Ryan's story on how it could change vaccines forever.

pfizer-vaccine-by-getty-crop — The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer.
Getty Images

2. Eero Pro 6 and Asus ZenWifi AX

With more people working from home and a lot more students being educated from the kitchen table -- often at the same time and in the same household -- plenty of us ran into the limits of our internet connections and our Wi-Fi routers in 2020. Our networks were not made to handle two or three Zoom meetings running at the same time from the same living space.

The arrival of the first Wi-Fi 6 routers offered hope to solve the problem. While these new routers still cost hundreds of dollars and aren't quite ready for mainstream wallets yet, two of them offer a glimpse of the future of home Wi-Fi. And, it's a lot faster and more efficient. We're talking about the mesh routers Eero Pro 6 and Asus ZenWifi AX. Ry Crist explains how these two both use a tri-band design to deliver big improvements.

asus-zenwifi-ax-4 — The Asus ZenWiFi AX.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET

3. Apple M1 chip

For over a decade there's been talk about the Arm processors that power phones and tablets eventually being powerful enough to run laptops. The main benefit is that the battery life on Arm chips is so much better and most people would love to have laptops with that kind of staying power. Microsoft has been trying to make it work with Windows for the past 10 years. But the chips always felt sluggish and software incompatibilities have usually doomed the whole experiment.

Enter Apple in 2020. Its home-grown Arm chips in iPhones and iPads have been blowing away benchmarks for the past several years and 2020 finally brought the first systems powered by an Apple silicon chip called the M1. Apple has pulled off a nearly impossible feat -- systems with great battery life, full-throttle performance and wide app compatibility so that virtually all existing software runs great on the new chips. All of this was a welcome arrival in a year when more workers and students are at home glued to their laptops. It's a development that could lead to a lot of future laptops being faster, longer-powered and perhaps even a little less expensive. Read Dan Ackerman's full review of the MacBook Air 2020 M1 for a look at how well the first iteration of Apple's chip already runs.

Apple boasts its M1 processor has the best performance per watt of power consumed, a key factor for long battery life.
Apple/Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET

4. Orchid VPN

With people doing a lot more online in 2020 -- from shopping to learning to socializing to organizing -- the internet privacy and security problems we've been sweeping under the rug for over 20 years are starting to show. Phishing scams, malware, identity theft and other forms of attacks are getting more clever and artful. That's bad for people in the US, UK or Australia, but it's even worse if you're living under a repressive regime and you find yourself on the wrong side of an argument about the future.

What can average citizens use to protect themselves? VPNs, which CNET writes a lot about. But even the best VPNs have their weaknesses. In 2020, a new decentralized Blockchain-powered VPN called Orchid is changing the balance of power to give the little people some more control. (Blockchain is the technology and the secret sauce behind the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin.) Orchid's not ready for the masses to use yet, but it could pave the way for better consumer protection. Read Rae Hodge's breakdown of why Orchid represents a clear leap forward for VPN, privacy and security.

orchid-1 — Orchid's mission statement.
Orchid

5. PlayStation 5 DualSense controller

Our final CNET Innovation Award winner didn't cure a public health crisis or save us from overreaching government agencies, but it has helped a lot of people smile more and forget some of their burdens, if only temporarily. It's brought an unexpected freshness and delight to next-generation video game consoles, which are mostly about speed, power and photorealism.

We're talking about the new PlayStation 5 DualSense controller, paired with the game Astro's Playroom that comes preinstalled on PS5 systems. The controller features a new combination of haptics and sound that takes in-game effects to the next level of immersion. It transcends what you expect a game controller to be able to do, and it feels like the future. Read Scott Stein's feature story on why Sony put a lot of the magic of the PS5 into this new controller.

The PlayStation 5's delightful DualSense controller.
Dan Ackerman/CNET

Honorable mentions

Vizio Elevate Soundbar: A soundbar can be one of the best ways to amp up your home entertainment, and the most innovative new soundbar of the year is the Vizio Elevate, which rotates automatically for better surround sound. It's a little pricey for now, but it could be a trend-setter.

Lenovo X1 Fold: Folding screen smartphones were a hot commodity last year, but interest faded. In the next year, the technology could make a comeback in folding screen laptops and Lenovo's X1 Fold is the first one out of the gate. With solid build quality and practical touches like its magnetic Bluetooth keyboard, the X1 Fold has the look of an upstart design that others could copy.

Oculus Quest 2: Last year's first-gen Oculus Quest was the only product to earn both CNET Editors' Choice and Innovation Awards. The second version is even better and cheaper and might have pulled off the double win again, if it weren't for the fact that Facebook now forces Oculus users to use a Facebook account to play -- and for no good reason.

Apple's Spatial Audio for AirPods: In another case of Apple perfecting an idea that other companies have been trying to master for years, Spatial Audio for AirPods Pro (and the new AirPods Max) converts 5.1-channel, 7.1-channel or Dolby Atmos audio into virtual surround sound. It's eerie how you move your head and the sound shifts to adjust to the way you're facing. You usually have to pay a lot of money for the kind of cinematic sound system that this software can offer.

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Skincare gadget company The Skin Glo tricked Instagrammers into buying its product - The Verge

Posted: 22 Dec 2020 08:11 AM PST

All of the women tell the same story of how they were scammed. A company called The SkinGlo emailed them with a tempting deal: it was looking for content to fill its Instagram feed, and its team had chosen them to help. In exchange for five photos of them using The SkinGlo's electric face scrubber — even photos taken just from their phones — they'd receive €450, or about $525 USD. They could even watermark the images and only send over a clean file once they got paid. It seemed like a good deal.

There was one small catch, though. The women would have to buy the company's face scrubber themselves, with a 50 percent off discount code, bringing the total to €40, or about $48.

Although that stipulation was slightly odd, the company still seemed trustworthy, the women say. It has a website that's basic but colorful and clean. Its Instagram page has over 12K followers, and at one point, it was filled with tons of positive comments on its posts. One woman says the page even talked about a partnership with ASOS, a popular apparel retailer, and linked out to its page. Seven women tell The Verge they bought the scrubber.

That's when the company ghosted. After taking and sending photos, none of the women heard from The SkinGlo again. Nothing's been posted to its account since October, and all comments are disabled. The Verge messaged seven women who confirmed they weren't paid, although the scam's scale is unclear, as is how the company found their accounts. We've reached out to The SkinGlo for comment and haven't heard back.

From these seven women, the company made over €200 and sold seven pieces of inventory without having to pay for marketing, advertising, or comped products. All the people behind SkinGlo had to do was send some emails and correspond a few times with the women.

"The fact that they're asking for payment, it's just a way to guarantee that they're getting money in their pockets rather than supporting the creative side of doing the work for them, really," says Lauren Clitheroe, a photographer who made a YouTube video about what happened.

This scam did a couple of things right to convince the women to press the buy button. For one, a person claiming to work in The SkinGlo's PR department emailed everyone instead of relying on DM.

"The email looked very professional," says Rachel Gross, an online creator who got duped.

The company also sent over a link to a webpage that detailed "partnership terms and conditions" and emailed a contract that didn't have to be signed. The company told the women that buying the product and letting the team know was equivalent to signing.

"I said, 'Okay, if there is a contract that makes me feel a lot better because I know it's a legal thing,'" says Clitheroe. "They have to stand by what they're saying, or at least so I thought."

Another creator, Kristen McCleary, says her husband read over the contract and flagged some concerning clauses, including one that said the contract was beholden to the laws of Malta. But she figured $50 wasn't too much to gamble to make over $500. The company eventually ghosted her, without even receiving the photos she took.

"It was definitely a scam, and I've not emailed them," she said. "And I'm certainly not threatening a lawsuit for 50 bucks in international, Malta law, whatever that is."

The scam could have been worse, of course, but the women also lost hours of their time shooting and editing photos, as well as money and pride. Clitheroe says even more so than that, the company preyed on people during an especially tough year, which is unforgivable.

"Myself and my husband, we both lost our jobs at the beginning of this year, right as the pandemic started, so we were struggling a little bit for a few months," she says. "There will be people in that same boat because of the pandemic, and it's taking advantage of people in a desperate situation."

Multiple women have posted about the scam on their accounts, where others then chime in that the same thing happened to them. There are nearly 20 reports on Trustpilot, a website that collects user reviews, warning people not to collaborate with the brand. One poster, from yesterday, says they almost agreed to order the product but thought again after reading the comments.

Gross says seeing the other women who were tricked made her feel slightly better. Generally, though, the takeaway for her is to not be tempted into promoting brands she doesn't already love.

"I promised myself a long time ago that I would not post about products that I don't like or personally believe in - I will not be bought," she wrote in a post about the experience. "And I let myself down."

Although, as she also notes, the scrubber wasn't so bad and felt nice on her face, and the photos she took didn't go to waste. She still got a nice post out of it.

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Google Nest Audio vs Amazon Echo (4th Gen) - Sound Guys

Posted: 21 Dec 2020 04:22 PM PST