Dieter Bohn
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Articles by Dieter Bohn
iPad Pro (2021) review: dream screen
Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.
Apple iPad (2017) review: the best feature is the price
Here’s what you need to know about the new iPad: it is an iPad, and it is good. Apple has named it simply iPad but we have to refer to it as “iPad (2017)” or “iPad (5th generation)” or “new iPad 9.7” because the world is a broken place. I am just going to call it the iPad. I am also in the enviable place of reviewing a gadget about which you already know everything there is to know because it is, as I said, an iPad.
iPad Mini 2021 review: a little different
The complete redesign of the $499 2021 iPad Mini has a lot of people taking a second look at it — myself included. The allure of a smaller iPad appeals to more than just the pilots and doctors Apple cites as popular users. It appeals to me. The iPad Mini occupies a middle space between the phone and full-size iPads, which turns out to be exactly what I’m looking for. It’s tempting to think of the iPad Mini as just a smaller iPad, or as just a bigger iPhone. It is both of those things and yet neither.
Apple Watch Series 6 review: minute improvements - The Verge
By Dieter Bohn Photography by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Weirdly, the fact that the Apple Watch Series 6 is the very best smartwatch by a huge margin feels anticlimactic. That’s probably because the same was true of the Series 5, the Series 4, and even the Series 3. At this point, the company would have to massively screw something up with the Apple Watch for it to be knocked out of the lead spot.
The Apple Watch Series 6: first impressions of a very good smartwatch - The Verge
By Dieter Bohn I’ve had just under 24 hours with the new Apple Watch Series 6, which is just enough time to gather a handful of impressions. My main impression is this: it’s an iterative update over the Series 5, for sure. The upgrades are real, but they’re also subtle. One thing that’s not subtle at all is the color of the review unit Apple sent: red. It is very pretty, and there’s a depth and complexity to the color’s finish.
Pixel 4 and 4 XL: hands-on with Google’s new phones - The Verge
By Dieter Bohn Photography by Vjeran Pavic If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. If you follow tech, you probably already know about the new features in Google’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. They’re the most-leaked phones perhaps in history, and there’s only a tiny handful of things I can tell you about them that haven’t already been documented somewhere.
Surface Pro 8 hands-on: new screen, new keyboard, new processors, and more - The Verge
By Dieter Bohn With the new Surface Pro 8, Microsoft has finally gone and done the thing we’ve all been waiting years for: modernized the design of its flagship device. I had a chance to briefly use the new 2-in-1 Windows machine at Microsoft’s San Francisco office yesterday and found much more to like than dislike. The redesign takes cues from the Arm processor-based Surface Pro X, which means it has a larger 13-inch touchscreen and much narrower bezels.
Google confirms lossless audio coming to Pixel 8 series
Google has confirmed that its Pixel 8 series will get lossless audio support over USB-C. In a recent Reddit AMA with Google’s Dave Burke and Dieter Bohn, Burk confirmed that the Pixel 8 series will soon support lossless audio: “I’m excited about this feature (I may have personally asked the team for this quite a while ago, cough!). Basically what it does is ensure “bit perfect audio”, so audio bypasses the audio mixer, any processing effects, etc.
A heartfelt farewell from Dieter Bohn
TenTen years after we founded it, The Verge continues to be the best place to discover the import and impact of technology’s place in our culture — but after today, the team will be doing that without me. After 20 years in media, I’ve decided it’s time to do something new. If you’ve been a Vergecast listener, you know that disclosure is our brand, so here’s mine: I’m headed to Google to work on the Platforms & Ecosystems team.
CES had a pretty good year
Another year of the Consumer Electronics Show has wrapped up, and it was a strange one: the weeks leading up to it were filled with cancellations due to Omicron, and as a result the show floor was virtually empty. The keynote presentations lacked the usual spectacle; the pomp was overshadowed by the circumstance. Nevertheless, I found myself surprised to realize that CES 2022 was a slightly better than average year for the show.
Android will get AirPod-style auto-switching and spatial audio in 2022
Google plans to spend the next few months beefing up the Bluetooth headphone capabilities on Android phones. It plans to update its Fast Pair technology to include features that iPhone and AirPod users have long enjoyed. With supported headphones (which presumably are forthcoming in 2022 but have not yet been announced), audio sources including Android phones, Chromebooks, Android TV, and select Windows PCs will be auto-switching.
Google will spend 2022 trying to match Apple’s ecosystem integrations
Google is announcing no fewer than 13 different new software features at CES 2022, ranging from AirPods-like fast switching to promised software that will mirror your Android text apps on a Chromebook. It’s part of an initiative that Google calls “Better Together” but that the rest of the industry is more likely to refer to as “catching up to Apple’s ecosystem.” The biggest updates come to Google’s “Fast Pair” framework, an Android UI designed to make pairing Bluetooth headphones easier.
The OnePlus 10 Pro’s official specs are not the least bit surprising
Rather than announce all of the details of the OnePlus 10 Pro flagship, OnePlus is choosing to space out the details in drips and drabs. First, it released an official teaser image that revealed the design of the phone alongside a China release date of January 11th. Now, it’s announcing the phone’s specs, which include the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, ultra fast charging, and a 5,000mAh battery.
Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone is now available on YouTube
In 1998, Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins quit Palm, a company they’d founded, to begin a new one: Handspring. They had a simple goal in mind: to eventually create the smartphone. Years before any of the technology was actually ready, their tiny startup began laying the necessary groundwork for what would become the Treo. In Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone, we document the history of Handspring, from its dramatic beginnings to its tragic end.
Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch review: bad timing
The kindest thing I can say about the new $299 Gen 6 iteration of Fossil’s long-running smartwatch series is this: it’s not entirely Fossil’s fault that it’s bad. The company reportedly learned that Google and Samsung had teamed up to finally revitalize the Wear OS software Fossil’s been using at the same time we did: this past May at Google IO.
Predictions for the future of smartphones
Filed under: Mobile Small improvements can go in surprising and strange directions By Dieter Bohn, Allison Johnson, and Chris Welch Nov 1, 2021, 8:44am EDT Illustrations by Alex Castro What will the smartphone look like in 10 years? The most likely answer, I’m afraid, is one of two options: it’s either completely unknowable or disappointingly predictable.
Google lowers Play Store fees for subscriptions and music streaming apps
As regulatory pressure on the Play Store for Android increases, Google is once again making changes to its business structure. It has announced that more categories of apps will be eligible to pay significantly less than the usual 30 percent fee. The company is announcing that all subscription-based apps will now pay a fee of 15 percent.
Sundar Pichai and Rick Osterloh think the Pixel 6 is Google’s breakout phone
Sundar Pichai (left) and Rick Osterloh (right). Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Filed under: Google ‘We acknowledge we’re a challenger’ By Dieter Bohn@backlon Oct 19, 2021, 1:55pm EDT When did Google decide it would need to make its own custom processor for phones? “I think I started April 16th and it was around the 17th, in 2016,” says Rick Osterloh, Google’s head of hardware.
Google’s Pixel 6 and 6 Pro launch event live blog
Filed under: Google The biggest Pixel in years — literally By Dieter Bohn, Dan Seifert, and Sean Hollister Oct 19, 2021, 12:40pm EDT Image: Google After leaks and pre-annoucements, ads and yet more leaks, the time has come for Google to officially launch the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. We already know many details: the custom Tensor processor that powers it, the colors and many of the specs, and even some of the software features have all been officially announced.
Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pro event live blog
Filed under: Apple Apple says something is getting “unleashed.” By Dieter Bohn, Nilay Patel, and Sean Hollister Oct 18, 2021, 12:31pm EDT Apple’s event invitation Apple is kicking off the very best week in tech with a rare Monday event, one it’s decided to call “Unleashed.” That could refer to any number of things, but at a high level we are expecting it to be about new, redesigned MacBook Pro laptops with Apple’s own processors. Will they be called M1X, M2, or something else?
Apple Watch Series 7 review: time and time again
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. The most important questions to ask about the new Apple Watch Series 7 aren’t about the Apple Watch Series 7, they’re about the Apple Watch you may already have. That’s a gentle way of saying that if there’s nothing wrong with your current watch, there’s nothing in the Series 7 that should compel you to upgrade.
Samsung announces Unpacked 2 event for Wednesday Oct 20th, right after Apple and Google
Samsung has just sent out invitations for an event it is holding online on Wednesday, October 20th at 7AM PT / 10AM ET. It’s called “Galaxy Unpacked Part 2,” which is possibly an indication that rather than all new Galaxy phones, we may be seeing iterations on existing ones. With Samsung’s announcement, we’ll now have an Apple event on Monday (where we are expecting new MacBook Pros), Google’s Pixel 6 launch on Tuesday, and now Samsung’s apparently smaller event on Wednesday.
SVP of Android offers open invitation to help Apple put RCS texting on the iPhone
In a tweet earlier today, Google SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer called on Apple to support RCS, the next-generation texting standard that’s supposed to supplant SMS. He offered an “open invitation to the folks who can make this right” and said “we are here to help.” Translation: the “folks” are Apple and “we are here to help” is Google’s offer to assist Apple in implementing the new standard. RCS is finally starting to gain traction around the world.
Springboard: The Secret History of the First Real Smartphone is out now
How the early pioneers of the smartphone almost made it big. By Mariya Abdulkaf and Dieter Bohn Updated Oct 26, 2021, 2:31pm EDT A decade before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, a tiny team of renegades imagined and tried to build the modern smartphone. Nearly forgotten by history, a little startup called Handspring tried to make the future before it was ready.
Microsoft Surface Go 3 review: left behind
From what I can tell, Microsoft intends the Surface Go 3 to be sold to two kinds of customers: kids and IT professionals who need a tiny computer when they’re out in the field. I’m in the third category of potential customers: people who love tiny computers. For all three groups, the Surface Go 3 is a bummer. The Surface Go 3 is Microsoft’s smaller-sized Surface tablet. It has a 10.5-inch screen and one fewer port than its larger Pro sibling, but otherwise looks very much the same.
iPhone 13 Mini and 13 Pro Max battery life: better, and a beast
I wanted to spend more time with both the iPhone 13 Mini and the iPhone 13 Pro Max before I weighed in with a final verdict on their respective batteries. I’ve updated my full reviews of each to reflect my impressions after using them for a couple weeks, but I figured it might be helpful to lay out what I’m seeing separately. The long and the short of it is that, in both cases, the batteries exceeded my expectations.
Google search’s next phase: context is king
AtAt its Search On event today, Google introduced several new features that, taken together, are its strongest attempts yet to get people to do more than type a few words into a search box. By leveraging its new Multitask Unified Model (MUM) machine learning technology in small ways, the company hopes to kick off a virtuous cycle: it will provide more detail and context-rich answers, and in return it hopes users will ask more detailed and context-rich questions.
Google’s Search On fall 2021: news and announcements
All the new features coming to the search giant’s core product Contributors: Verge Staff Google is announcing several new updates and features to its core search functions for its Search On fall 2021 event.
Elon Musk, live at the Code Conference
Filed under: Elon Musk Thus Sprach Technoking By Dieter Bohn, Nilay Patel, and Alex Heath Sep 28, 2021, 5:14pm EDT Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge We’re at the 2021 Code Conference here in Beverly Hills, California — and very soon, Elon Musk will take the stage in an interview with Kara Swisher. As always with Musk, there will be more than enough to talk about. There’s the latest from Tesla, self-driving, and where Cybertruck development is.
iPad Mini 2021 review: a little different
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. The complete redesign of the $499 2021 iPad Mini has a lot of people taking a second look at it — myself included. The allure of a smaller iPad appeals to more than just the pilots and doctors Apple cites as popular users. It appeals to me. The iPad Mini occupies a middle space between the phone and full-size iPads, which turns out to be exactly what I’m looking for.
Amazon Glow is a video chat gadget with built-in games to keep kids engaged
Amazon has never shied away from making strange gadgets that require a bit of explanation, but the new Amazon Glow might take the prize for the strangest in several years. It’s a videoconferencing device that also has a tabletop projector built into it. The idea is that younger children get quickly bored with video chats and wander off, leaving their remote relative staring at an empty screen.
Amazon’s race to create the disappearing computer
Filed under: Tech Ambient computing is here; now what? By Dieter Bohn@backlon Sep 28, 2021, 1:05pm EDT For his last column in 2017, Walt Mossberg predicted that technology would fade into the background, and so-called “ambient computing” would become ubiquitous. Four years later, we are well on our way — but what exactly that term means for how computers will work and how we’ll live is still very much up in the air.
Trump pushing Microsoft to buy TikTok was ‘strangest thing I’ve ever worked on,’ says Satya Nadella
It’s difficult to remember now, but in August 2020 there was a deeply surreal episode wherein Microsoft proposed acquiring some portion of TikTok in a complicated deal as the Trump administration was threatening to come down hard on the platform. Ultimately, TikTok turned Microsoft down just a day before Oracle came in with an entirely different kind of deal and the whole thing dissipated.
Microsoft’s 2021 Surface Pro 8 event liveblog with Duo, Pro X, and more
Filed under: Microsoft Surface Go, Surface Book, Surface Duo, Surface Pro X... a lot of Surfaces By Dieter Bohn, Sean Hollister, and Grayson Blackmon Sep 22, 2021, 10:40am EDT Image: Microsoft Microsoft is set to announce a whole bunch of new Surface computers today. At an event starting at 11AM ET / 8AM PT, we are expecting to see a new Surface Pro 8, Surface Book, Surface Go, Surface Pro X, and even the Android-based Surface Duo.
Surface Pro 8 hands-on: new screen, new keyboard, new processors, and more
With the new Surface Pro 8, Microsoft has finally gone and done the thing we’ve all been waiting years for: modernized the design of its flagship device. I had a chance to briefly use the new 2-in-1 Windows machine at Microsoft’s San Francisco office yesterday and found much more to like than dislike. The redesign takes cues from the Arm processor-based Surface Pro X, which means it has a larger 13-inch touchscreen and much narrower bezels.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 hands-on: once more, with cameras
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2. Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Filed under: Microsoft Duo, part deux By Dieter Bohn@backlon Sep 22, 2021, 12:00pm EDT Today, Microsoft is unveiling the Surface Duo 2, a new Android-based smartphone with two screens and a raft of updates over the problematic original Surface Duo. From improvements to the cameras to bigger screens to software tweaks to a better way to store a Surface Pen, Microsoft is addressing all the obvious problems from the first model.
Microsoft Surface Studio Laptop hands-on: one weird, powerful computer
Filed under: Microsoft That’s one way to put something on a pedestal By Dieter Bohn@backlon Sep 22, 2021, 12:00pm EDT Alongside the new Surface Pro 8, Microsoft is introducing an all-new computer: the Surface Laptop Studio. It’s the successor to the Surface Book 3, but instead of featuring a detachable screen, it has one that flips into tablet mode.
iPhone 13 Pro review: a better display, the best camera, and incredible battery life
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are phones designed for people who care about the details. The improvements over last year’s iPhones are significant but not obvious at first glance. Just as with the regular iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, the most important upgrades on the 13 Pro are to battery life and the camera system. The 13 Pro adds a third major improvement with a high refresh rate screen.
Should You Upgrade To The iPhone 13 Pro? Here's What The Reviews Say
For the third straight year, Apple has released a duo of Pro phones. They look more or less the same as the last models, but come packed with fine-tuned and often invisible upgrades, like faster processor chips and new camera lenses. It's easy to dismiss these changes as minute or insignificant, but the iPhone 13 Pro reviews suggest otherwise. The Pro will start at $999 and the Pro Max at $1099.
iPhone 13 review: yep, bigger batteries are better
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. What, really, do you want out of a new phone? Assuming you’re starting with a good foundation, I think the list of what really makes a big difference in phone upgrades is actually short. The first thing on the list is improved battery life. The second is an improved camera.
Apple iPhone 13 and Apple Watch live blog: ‘California Streaming’
The time has come for yet another iPhone announcement — plus whatever else Apple might have up its sleeve. Sleeve’s the right metaphor, actually, as new Apple Watches are expected today in addition to the iPhone 13. The keynote kicks off online at 10AM PT / 1PM ET and we’ll be live blogging the whole thing right here. For the iPhone 13, we expect we’ll see the usual camera improvements and faster processors. The cameras may have a new astrophotography trick.
The iPhone 13 may finally get features Android has had for years
It’s new iPhone day. And as with any new smartphone announcement these days, we have a fairly decent idea of what to expect. Leaks and rumors are more accurate than ever, and though there’s always the potential of a big surprise, the most likely scenario is the iPhone 13 will be what we think it will be. Just because the rumors are clear doesn’t mean they’re not exciting, though. This year, the iPhone 13 (we assume that’s the name) will have some new technology in the same design.
Samsung is rolling out an Android 12 beta to Galaxy S21 owners
Samsung has announced that it’s rolling out a public beta of Android 12 for Galaxy S21 devices, just a few weeks ahead of when we expect the final OS to be officially available for the first time on Pixel phones. Samsung is touting that it is managing to get these betas out earlier every year, though this year it’s only by a week or two compared to 2020. Registration for the beta program will begin on September 14th, the same day the iPhone 13 is announced.
The Apple App Store: a brief history of major policy changes
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Filed under: Apple The pace of change is quickening even as Apple tries to stop it By Dieter Bohn@backlon Sep 10, 2021, 3:23pm EDT Apple’s app store policies have caused controversy and consternation many times over the years, but few periods have been as active and strange as the last two weeks. For the first time, we are seeing Apple being forced to react directly to lawsuits and regulators with substantial policy changes.
The Series One Desk 27 is a $2,000 Google Meet machine that doubles as a laptop monitor
Google is announcing two new hardware devices designed specifically to work with Google Meet and to look like Google hardware. The Series One Desk 27 and Series One Board 65 are both made by Avocor but are part of the Series One program where Google specifically blesses devices that are custom-built for Meet. They even include a custom Google Edge TPU chip in addition to a more standard Intel Core i5.
The Gmail app takes calls now, too, because Google wants it to do everything
Google is announcing even more Workspace features today, part of an increased cadence of changes to the company’s office and communications software suite over the past year or so. Today’s announcement is a bit of a milestone, however. Although there is still the smattering of small and coming-soon updates, the bigger change is that Gmail is getting a redesign that reveals its true nature in Google’s eyes: the central hub for every Google communication app.
Fashion follows function: what’s next for the phone industry
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a totally normal phone with One Weird Trick: it folds. As Dan Seifert explained in our full review, it’s the beginning of a new phase for foldables, one where buying a folding phone is something that could appeal to anybody, not just techies. Samsung is promoting the phone in the ways Samsung usually does, touting features and spec improvements. But it’s also doing another thing: promoting the phone as something stylish.
Ivermectin misinformation has poisoned Amazon’s platform, with few fixes planned
Earlier this week, I started a search on Amazon and mistyped, entering just two letters in: “iv.” Amazon then helpfully compiled a list of suggested search results, almost all of which were for the horse de-worming version of the drug ivermectin. That drug is at the center of one of the more recent and more mind-boggling parts of the anti-vaccine misinformation story, a false cure touted by hucksters and others out to make a quick buck.
Fossil announces new smartwatches for 2021 that won’t have Wear OS 3 until 2022
Fossil has announced its fall 2021 smartwatch lineup running Wear OS, which it is calling the Gen 6 Touchscreen. As with the Gen 5 Fossil watches, the Gen 6 will come in a few different styles and sizes and there will also be versions sold under the Michael Kors brand. Prices will start at $299 and they’ll be available for preorder immediately. It does not appear that Fossil will offer LTE options.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review: nearly normal
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the best possible case Samsung can make for a phone that unfolds into a small tablet. It’s the fourth iteration of the same basic idea, refined and repaired over the course of years following an embarrassing false-start failure on the first attempt. Because this is a story of refinement, the changes since the last model are minor.
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