Hardware

Two Fridays from now, Apple’s HomePod will arrive in stores. While hard-core Apple fans will get to enjoy the most exciting unboxing experience since December’s iMac Pro launch, everyone else will be waiting on the sidelines for real world opinions on the $349 smart speaker.

Given how hot the smart speaker market has been recently, why wait? Apart from its high price, HomePod is launching in what some might call “beta” form, including some rough edges and omitting some promised features. Here’s what you should expect next week.

Drone-maker DJI announced a new hobby aircraft today, one that weighs just a shade under a pound, fits in a jacket pocket, and is capable of flying itself.

The Mavic Air ships on January 28 for $799. At that price, it hovers in DJI's lineup between the $499 DJI Spark, the gesture-controlled flyer released last year, and the more capable $999 Mavic Pro.

The iPhone X's now-infamous notch stirred up plenty of controversy for cutting into the screen space. But Apple's notch just reflects a larger issue with newer phones: as screens begin to cover the entire face, what do we do with hardware such as home buttons and cameras?

As soon as the iPhone X became official, various reports said that Android device makers will be quick to steal one its signature features, the 3D facial recognition system that’s more sophisticated than what’s found on Android counterparts.

Since then, more reports have emerged detailing Apple’s various moves to secure 3D modules supply for future device supposed to support Face ID, including 2018 iPhone X successors and new iPads. Android device makers are also looking to make use of the same components, but they may take their time copying Face ID.

Last year it was revealed that Vivo would be the first smartphone maker to integrate an in-display fingerprint scanner into a phone, and this year at CES the company has decided to show it off at the event in which the technology was demonstrated and tested out by those who attended the event.

AMD has used CES to lay out its plans for 2018. Over the first half of the year, the company is going to release the final missing members of the Ryzen product line-up. Starting in April and continuing into the second half of the year, Ryzen will start rolling out a refreshed version of its Zen core. We'll also see a more complete GPU line-up released over the next year—but there aren't plans to release a more mainstream Vega-based GPU range.

Samsung's Creative Lab program lets employees explore new projects and spin off startup ideas, making devices that come out of the program intriguing. At CES next week, C-Lab will show off a few new projects, including Samsung's Relúmĭno smart glasses, which focus on helping those with vision impairments see more clearly.

When Wisconsin-based tech company Three Square Market offered to pay for its employees to be voluntarily microchipped last summer, the Internet was aghast. But just days before the so-called “chip party” at the 3SM company headquarters, people at the DEFCON hacking conference were eagerly lining up and paying to get microchip implants injected into the subdermal fascia between their thumbs and forefingers.

The iPod died slowly, then all at once. After nearly 16 years on the market, more than 400 million units sold, and one Cupertino company launched into the stratosphere on its back, Apple quietly pulled the iPod Nano and Shuffle out of its virtual stores today. The iPod Touch still lives on: In fact, Apple now offers the Touch with 32 gigs of storage starting at $199. But that's not a real iPod; it's an iPhone-lite. Today officially marks the end of Apple's era of standalone music players.

2017 is almost over. For most of us, there are reasons to be nostalgic and there are reasons to be glad we can just move on. That's how we feel about tech from this year, too. We've polled each member of the Ars Technica reviews team about their favorite and least favorite tech products of 2017. Each staffer has made their own selections and written their own explanations.