Chris Velazco

    Senior Editor, Mobile

    Chris is Engadget's senior mobile editor and moonlights as a professional moment ruiner. His early years were spent taking apart Sega consoles and writing awful fan fiction. That passion for electronics and words would eventually lead him to covering startups of all stripes at TechCrunch. The first phone he ever swooned over was the Nokia 7610, because man, those curves.

  • Civilized Cycles' Model 1 is a posh, surprisingly practical e-bike

    For many, e-bikes have become a fixture of life in New York City. Couriers use them to zip between apartments, bags of fragrant takeout in tow. Tourists grab them from CitiBike stands to lazily loop around parks. And more recently, an uptick in sales has proven residents are embracing these easy rides as they contend with streets that still aren’t quite as full as they used to be. Point is, we’ve seen a lot of them cruising through the boroughs in the last year. But none of them look like the Civilized Cycles Model 1.

  • Motorola reveals yet another Moto G Stylus, this time with 5G

    We weren’t quite sure to make of Motorola’s first Moto G Stylus way back in 2020, but the company was clearly onto something: the subsequent 2021 model quickly became the best-selling phone in its G-series lineup. Maybe that’s why Motorola was so keen to announce yet another new Moto G Stylus today. The new Moto G Stylus 5G will set you back $400 when it goes on sale on June 14th, and we went hands-on to see if it has the chops to compete with a new wave of affordable 5G devices.

  • Civilized Cycles Model 1 first ride

    Our first look at the Civilized Cycles Model 1, a posh -- and surprisingly practical -- e-bike.

  • Toyota’s electric concept SUV lands in the US ahead of its 2022 launch

    Toyota’s bZ4X BEV concept SUV started turning heads when it debuted at Auto Shanghai earlier this year, and its journey to the United States has already begun. The automaker confirmed yesterday that the concept vehicle has officially landed in its Plano, Texas headquarters, and that it plans to begin selling the angular crossover in the US sometime next year. (Here’s hoping it gets less tongue twister-y name when it arrives.)

  • What to expect from Apple's online-only WWDC 2021

    Google I/O is done, and so is Microsoft Build — that means Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is the last high-profile software showcase for at least a month. If you’re one to take Apple at its word, this year’s WWDC is shaping up to be the “biggest and best yet,” which leads us to the obvious question: what does the company plan to show off this year? Short answer: a lot.

  • Microsoft, the Linux Foundation, and others team up to make software sustainable

    Microsoft is still working to go fully carbon negative by the end of the decade, but effectively grappling with climate change isn’t just one company’s responsibility. As part of its virtual Build developer conference, the folks in Redmond — along with Accenture, GitHub, ThoughtWorks and the Linux Foundation — have announced the launch of the Green Software Foundation to help make software engineering more sustainable.

  • How Apple built the new iPad Pro's Liquid Retina XDR display

    5G. The M1 chipset. Loads of RAM. Thunderbolt support. All of these help make Apple’s new, 12.9-inch iPad Pro an almost startlingly capable tablet, one that seems well-equipped to compete against more traditional laptops. (Well, apart from iPadOS’s limitations, anyway.) But if there’s one area where the iPad Pro clearly outshines the rest of Apple’s portable computers, it’s that screen.

  • Belkin's $100 Soundform Connect dongle adds AirPlay 2 to any speaker

    The $100 Soundform Connect turns any traditional speaker into an AirPlay 2-compatible smart speaker you can cast audio to from an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV.

  • Ford partners with SK Innovation for EV battery production

    As expected, Ford confirmed today that it will partner with Korea’s SK Innovation to produce 60 gigawatt-hours annually in tractional battery cells and arrays” for use in electric vehicle batteries starting “mid-decade”.

  • iPad Pro (2021) review: Apple’s hardware may have outpaced its software

    For the last week, I’ve been living with Apple’s new iPad Pro, and there are two thoughts I haven’t been able to shake. The first is that this might be the best portable computer Apple has ever made. I mean, think about it: This iPad uses the exact same chipset you’ll find in the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, and even the new iMac. That’s unheard of for a tablet, especially one with 5G and a screen that puts Apple’s laptops to shame. Tim Cook once said the iPad was the company’s vision of the future of computing, and it’s actually starting to feel like it’s coming to fruition. Which leads me to my second unshakeable thought: Because this thing is so powerful, it’s begging for more robust software. The new iPad Pro very much feels a portent of dramatic changes to come, but in this moment, it’s — for better or worse — just an obscenely powerful tablet.

  • Apple iPad Pro (2021) review photos

    We spent a week with Apple's new, M1-powered iPad Pro. Here's what it looked like.

  • What to expect at Google I/O 2021

    We don’t know everything Google has in store for Google I/O 2021, but we have some educated guesses — and a few things we’re hoping against hope to see. Here’s everything we know about the show so far, and what you can expect to learn more about once the event kicks off in earnest.

  • Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: Can just ‘good’ be good enough?

    We get pretty worked up when a new, premium smartphone shows up. And I’d be lying if I said playing with expensive hardware wasn’t one of the best parts of this job. It’s especially nice because, more often than not, the last thing I want to do is pay for some of the things we test. Which brings me to an important question: how much should anyone actually shell out for a new smartphone? The short answer is “as much as you’re comfortable with.” Thankfully, companies are working to make their more affordable devices flashier than ever. Case in point: I’ve spent a few days with Samsung’s new A52 5G, and while it might not satisfy those with flagship tastes, it gets pretty close sometimes.

  • Samsung Galaxy A52 5G hands-on photos

    Photos from our first few days with Samsung's Galaxy A52 5G.

  • iPhone and Mac sales are way up from the start of the pandemic

    Apple is still riding high on the tails of a blockbuster quarter, according to a new earnings statement released today. Over the past three months, the company recorded a total of $89.6 billion in revenue — nearly $48 billion of which came courtesy of iPhone sales — and set another quarterly record in the process.

  • Google owner Alphabet posts big gains after pandemic uncertainty

    Google parent Alphabet reported today that it raked in a total of $55.3 billion in revenue over the past three months — that’s up 34 percent compared to this time last year. (In case you were curious, Wall Street types were expecting revenue growth of just around 25 percent.) The company’s net income jumped dramatically as well, from $6.8 billion in Q1 2020 to $17.9 billion in this year’s quarter.

  • Sony is already testing its PlayStation Plus Video Pass in Poland

    Well, that was fast. Just one day after Sony accidentally shared an image promoting its new “PlayStation Plus Video Pass”, the company has confirmed that the feature is live and being publicly testing the feature right now. The only catch? You need to be in Poland to use it.

  • Google’s Fi wireless service gets a new, cheaper unlimited plan

    Google’s Fi wireless service has always been a niche option that best served owners of Google Pixels, but today the search giant is adding a more affordable unlimited data plan in hopes of making Fi more palatable to the masses.

  • Ogling Apple's purple iPhone 12

    Look, there really isn’t much to say about the new, purple iPhone 12. It’s roughly the same pastel shade that last year’s purple iPhone 11 came in, which means it’s more of a lavender than anything else. (If you’re a connoisseur of Southeast Asian flavors, I should point out this iPhone’s hue is nearly a dead ringer for some varieties of delicious Ube ice cream.) You’ll also be able to pre-order one starting this Friday, if for some reason the white, black, red, blue, or green models didn’t already do it for you. That’s... about it.

  • Apple's new AirTags are as simple as they should be

    If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I. Lose. Everything. That character flaw, in tandem with a complete inability to see things smack in front of my face sometimes, means I’m perhaps the perfect person to try out Apple’s new AirTags. Good thing, then, that Apple sent along a few to test — along with a purple iPhone 12 running the new (and required) iOS 14.5 update.