Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Best Tech I Missed (Or Skipped) In 2023: The Leftovers”.
From Apple Park in copertino to ice cream Bay in Shenzhen to a 100 mile ebike ride across Long Island, Mr mobile has covered a lot of ground this year and I’ve had some firsts along the way sitting down with Rick ostalo, to Talk mobile, AI being among The first to fondle the new iPhones for the first time and delving ever deeper into the world of foldables. First, with a handful of hinges from Oppo, then deep inside the dongwan durability dungeons of one plus. But despite seeing and doing all that, my ever narrowing range of interests and my ever ascending age meant that I just couldn’t get to every product that I wanted to I’ll explain why that’s not likely to change in 2024, but first, let’s close the book on 2023 With the third annual episode of The Leftovers, so I’ve been moved into my new Brooklyn apartment for about a year now, which means about a year ago. I wanted to make a Mr mobile video about all the smart Tech that keeps me connected at home, like these goie, smart lights.
I haven’t gotten around to installing yet, but one of the first things I did do is pick me up a robot vacuum disclosure. I didn’t pay for the debot X1 Omni, because my friend at ecox sent me a sample, probably because he knew I wouldn’t be able to fight the urge to post about it. Well well played sir, because I love my little mop bot yeah.
I think that name which I stole from the very not safe for work. We hate movies podcast, is a lot easier to say than the full brand name of ecox debot X1 Omni. But regardless it’s a combination, vacuum and mop and while you might already be accustomed to the magical convenience of modern hom Tech, I am still tickled by the fact that this automaton can clean my apartment all by itself. Even when I’m out and about my place is pretty small, so it didn’t take long for mop bot to make its own 3D map to help it navigate, which it does with an onboard camera that I can also tap into anytime. It’S running it only drains about half its battery to clean the whole place and when it’s done it drives back into its dock to recharge and offload its dust and dirty water. There are a few things: I’d change. The X1 Omni can’t negotiate the ledge between my kitchen and bathroom, even though it’s only about an inch high, also I’m only barely okay with another Cloud connected camera in my house. What I really don’t need is another microphone which this vacuum has because of an onboard Voice Assistant that I find just totally useless. Look I’m content to use my phone to start my vacuum or just you know, press the button right on the thing. I don’t need to be able to talk to it and, like all voice assistants, it frequently thinks it hears its wake word when I’m just watching TV, so I keep it disabled and otherwise I celebrate the rare piece of homech.
That truly does make my life easier. Now, let’s get outside the home to touch on the leftovers that helped me stay mobile too mobile, as it turns out, because one of the days I was out and about with my Sony Xperia 1 Mark 5 review sample. I lost it because I’m an idiot, sorry Sony to make matters worse. The review ID planned was already so late that I decided to just post some of the sample photos, I’d shot with it and call off the video. But then a commenter on Instagram made a really good point that the one Mark 5 was the closest Sony gotten to delivering a truly great, well-rounded phone, and it didn’t seem fair that I’d exposed the short comings of the prior four generations.
Without giving this one its day in court, you know fair enough more so than most phones. The Xperia is defined by its cameras and in a year where Google’s pick pixel is showing how far it can manipulate photos with AI. Well, the xeria is kind of an antipixel there’s enough onboard processing to make for a solid, auto mode, but for the most part, Sony is all about doing the work optically in camera and it’s making that authenticity. A big part of its brand Focus it’ll, soon roll out new tools to some of its DSLR cameras to authenticate photos with a digital signature, so you’ll be able to tell what’s real versus what’s been manipulated and rumor has it similar capabilities will come to its next Smartphone and here’s hoping a new look and feel also come with it. I do appreciate that the Xperia avoids things like a display, notch or hole punch and a vocal subset of phone buyers also appreciate that it’s, the only Flagship that still offers a headphone, jack and removable storage, but what’s true of Samsung and Apple, is also true of Sony the xeria has looked much the same for many years years and it would be nice to see some design ambition return to such a design forward. Company. That said, Sony has finally fixed my biggest complaint about experius over the years thermal management. I used the one Mark 5 to shoot three angles of a summer pingpong game in a warm Community Center for like a half hour straight and the overheating I genuinely expected never came to pass. I also used it to immortalized the rest of that magical weekend on the equally magical Block Island Road Island and its burst mode came in handy to capture the chaotic energy of my nieces and nephews in the stickier State of Florida.
What’S more, the battery life impressed, despite that near constant, shutter, buggery, and also in more pedestrian use cases like Google mapping when you factor in the special production tools and custom accessories Sony offers? Well, I think I’ve said this before this is the most capable Android phone for Content creators and the only reason I don’t carry it is because it doesn’t have a hinge I’ll come back to pick up that dangling segue in a minute, but first, let’s cleanse our Pallets with some extravagant earbuds from a brand, that’s gone from fountain pens to mobile technology yeah. After reviewing its last Smartwatch, I kind of forgot mom blong existed, which might explain why the company sent me a sample of its new mtb3 earbuds complet, with handwritten exhortation to try them out with an included audible subscription neat. But I’m not going to dwell on these because, frankly, I’ve been burned by earbuds way too many times see. It seems like every time I make an everyday carry video. I mention a set of earbuds. I haven’t been using for long enough and right after I publish some terrible bug invariably crops up on the mtb3. I have noticed the audio getting a little fluky and cutting out depending on which pocket I keep my Razor in which is not a problem. I’Ve had with the buds that have lasted the longest in my daily rotation, the nothing ear to I like the nothing buds because visually they stand out and that’s true of the mtb3 as well at the risk of oversimplifying. I think when it comes to Tech, you buy a on Blanc, so people will know you can afford them on Blanc, given the choice between dropping 400 bucks on some snowcapped cufflinks or the mt3s I’ll, take the buds, they’re, comfy, they’re fit and finish oozes a attention To detail the software is slicker than most and the Sound Stage to this non-audio file anyway authentically reproduces every track in the vaguely sad Spotify playlist, I’m somberly nodding along to these days. My only definitive complaint so far is that the noise cancelling just isn’t that powerful and that’s something I found to be true across most of the earbud landscape. Okay, let’s get weird the penultimate product on this list of leftovers is something best described by Yano design as an iPod from an alternate universe. What it really is is a tp7 field recorder from a company called teenage engineering, no capitals, so you know it’s hip.
If that brand rings a bell, it’s probably because teenage engineering helped design the nothing phone, but its true. Bread and butter is high-end audio gear for musicians, sound engineers, in other words, people who aren’t me yeah, there’s no reason. I need the tp7, even the paper, thin justification I made to buy. It was to put it to use as an interview and podcast recorder at trade shows, but, to be honest, the combination of Google pixel and Shore mv88 microphone makes much more sense for that. So I think the biggest reason I did by it is because it’s the opposite of so much of what consumer Tech has become anonymous sheets of glass with zero tactility, the tp7 rebels, against that with big chunky buttons, satisfying knobs and paddles, and bright lights, and a Synthetic leather back done up in a shade of orange, only a true design Master could get away with oh and a motorized turntable for when you want to put some stank on it for audio professionals, recording shows on the go. There are a great many applications for the tp7 and it’s got enough inputs and outputs to play nicely with all the other gear.
That’S designed to work with it, I’m still learning all its capabilities. Its user manual is the first one in years that I’ve actually needed to study to learn how to work the thing and I hope, to produce a dedicated video sometime in the coming year for the rest of this year. Well, I’ve copied over some songs from some decades old, Mini discs and I plan to take it on my holiday TR travels as the world’s weirdest Walkman. To help me reconnect with my roots, maybe record some jack handes deep thoughts and try to figure out just what it is.
I want out of the next couple decades, while I do that, of course, I’ll have a phone with me, but for the first time in 4 years one of them won’t be a Samsung Galaxy fold. Look the Galaxy fold. 5 is an incredibly capable bit of Kit and if I’m recommending a large format, foldable it’s an easy Thumbs Up. Remember Samsung essentially created the whole category in 2020 and since then it’s done the Lion’s Share of work, developing the software experience that gives book style foldables.
The utility that I think makes them worth their high prices, but a huge part of Samsung’s dominance was its total lack of competition in the US and 2023. Finally, changed that the Google pixel fold was was kind of a symbolic Victory, a declaration of dedication to foldables by Android itself and later in the year, the OnePlus open married new ideas about multitasking, with some truly impressive Hardware to produce a foldable. That’S nearly perfect, while also costing Less in the face of these suddenly stiff headwinds. Samsung made the Galaxy fold 5 fold flat, which everyone else had already done, and it brought a new S Pen to the fold.
But only if you settled for the pocket penalty of a clumsy case and it kept the price the same, while also keeping the crease and keeping a narrow form factor. That’S appealing to some, but which was a lot easier to like when it was literally the only option again the fold. Five is a wonderful device, but to my eye it’s also a product of conservative thinking and probably complacency and try, as I might.
Despite being Mr foldable, I could not figure out how to craft a narrative based on something that felt just like what we’d gotten last year and the year before now. Maybe you’re already saying it in the comments. So let me save you the trouble, no Samsung. Isn’T the only offender here I had the same problem coming up with a new angle for the Apple watch, Ultra 2, which is aesthetically identical to its predecessor, right down to the paint job and the MacBooks from the same company make headlines based on their formidable home, Grown CPUs, which are every bit as amazing as they sound, but those hot chips are contained in casings that haven’t changed in a while. It goes on Pixel, 6 to 7 to 8 Galaxy s22 to s23, to maybe to s24 pixel watch to watch 2.
I don’t like the trend, but it would be ridiculous to ignore it outside of foldables. Innovation has moved away from form factor toward silicon software and AI. So it’s not that the tech space is getting less interesting, but as a hardware guy, it is getting tougher. For me to cover the more iterative each generation becomes, and that brings me to the sneak peek of my broad plan for Mr mobile heading into 2024, which is pretty simple, I’m going to refocus on making videos that I want to make. That means, of course, more foldables and other unconventional devices. It also means dusting off the Vintage archive to bring back when phones were fun, which I dearly miss doing, and it means hopefully doing more Adventures like that 100m vric ride.
I think that combination is what I need to do to keep my creative Reservoir full enough to produce videos that I think, are worth your time, and that also means I won’t necessarily be reviewing every new phone or Smartwatch that hits the streets. Please accept my preemptive apology for that, but, like the market he covers, Mr mobile must evolve. Of course, the economic reality is also something he must confront. So don’t worry I’ll still be covering enough devices to drape in dbrand they’re, not just one of my favorite sponsors because they’re easy to work with and let me make dumb song references that only a few people will get they make a product.
I truly love because they make my phone look and feel, unlike any other, with one-of-a-kind designs and materials and when it’s 3:00 a.m. and I’m on the corner wearing my leather officer, Leroy comes up and he asks me where I got it and I tell him what I always tell you debrand your device at the link down in the description. This video was made possible by review samples from most of the companies mentioned, some of which also provide travel and lodging to attend, launch events for their latest gadgets. Full details at the ethics policy in my description, but I never accept payment in exchange for producing a review and no manufacturer has ever given copy approval, Ral rights, early previews or editorial input into those reviews.
Only sponsors get that treatment and the sole sponsor of this video is dbrand. Folks, if you’re a newcomer, please subscribe to the mrmobile on YouTube, so you don’t miss my first video of 2024, which spoiler alert will be, unlike anything, I’ve made before I’m excited to show it to you until next year, from Michael fiser, Captain two phones on threads Thanks for watching and stay mobile, my friends .