Review: Apple MacBook Pro (Late 2016)

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The new generation of MacBook Pros feel like the very distillation of Apple’s design ideals. Thin, light, and powerful hardware that’s designed to dominate in content creation, but it does so at the expense of some personality.

Apple has always made premium notebooks for professionals. Featuring the latest technologies and necessary I/O ports for connecting to various peripherals and which replicated the capabilities of the desktop Macs. While costing a premium, Apple’s PowerBooks and MacBook Pros were tools that eventually paid for themselves. 

The previous MacBook Pro line has been the standard bearer of professionals and creatives. A step up from trusty MacBook Airs, the Pros didn’t just have great battery life, they had the top processing speed, and all the fine features that made getting work done a pleasure. With sharp Retina Displays, the best keyboard on the market, the best glass trackpads  and an abundance of the right kind of ports .

The new MacBook Pros, well. They’re something else entirely. 

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Logitech's Circle security camera gets new storage and feature upgrades

Logitech Circle Home Security Camera including intelligent Person Detection through proprietary artificial intelligence and Motion Zones to monitor specific areas of home, exclusive to the Premium subscription. In addition, a new Circle Safe™ Basic subscription plan offers 14 days of video storage and custom alerts.

"We’re committed to giving you a premier security camera experience that keeps improving after your original purchase,” said Vincent Borel, director of new ventures at Logitech. “A prime example is the newly released Person Detection feature, a result of our proprietary artificial intelligence video engine which continuously analyzes and learns new motion triggers.”

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Apple's Wireless AirPods are now available in Canada for $219

Updated on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 12:50PM by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple's long-awaited Bluetooth AirPods are finally available for order online. Canadians can expect to pay $219 (plus taxes) for a pair and if you order now, Apple is promising delivery by December 21. AirPods serve the purpose of pushing Apple's all-wireless agenda for their mobile products. An ideal companion to the iPhone 7 (which has no headphone jack but ships with Lighting earbuds as well as an adaptor), AirPods offer 24-hours of mixed use, have accelerometers and sensors that can determine when they are being worn plus they have beamforming microphones for enhanced voice quality. Note that AirPods will be made available in limited quantities as production ramps up. Hit jump for details.

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Smart stethoscope to come to Canada

A new smart stethoscope just got its Health Canada license and might be seen at your next doctor's appointment. Medical device company Eko gives the trusty stethoscope an update right on the 200th anniversary of the stethoscope's invention. The Eko Core wirelessly streams heart and lung sounds to a smartphone application. These sounds can even be saved to a patient's electronic health record, paving the way for easy sharing  of medical information with the doctors and other healthcare professionals involved in a certain case.

The Eko Core is available for purchase on Eko's site and through MedTach, a Canadian medical device distributor. The Eko Core Digital Attachment is a digital converter for analog stethoscopes and goes for $265. There's also the Eko Core Bundle Stethoscope that has the attachment pre-assembled to a cardiology-grade analog stethoscope. This costs $399.