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Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): two-minute review A video doorbell is a parcel monitor, a deterrent, and a low-key surveillance node pointed at your own front step, and Ring has spent the better part of a decade making that proposition feel normal. The second-generation Battery Doorbell Plus is the company sharpening its best idea: taking the head-to-toe doorbell and giving it the resolution it always deserved. Where ordinary doorbells frame a visitor's torso and chin and little else, the Plus shows a tall, square 1:1 field of view — 140 degrees in both directions — that takes in the person, the doorstep and whatever's been left on it. This generation shoots in 2K Retinal resolution (1920 x 1920) with HDR, so you can identify a courier, read a label and confirm whether the parcel is on your step or your neighbour's — and a 6x Enhanced Zoom lets you pinch in without the im...

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: two-minute review Smart locks in Britain have always been the awkward cousin of the smart home. American buyers get deadbolts and endless choice; we get multipoint mechanisms, lift-to-lock handles and a nagging sense that retrofitting anything to the front door will either void the insurance or fall off. Yale's answer with the Linus L2 Lite is to keep things small, cheap and reversible — and, crucially, to build in Matter over Thread so the lock works with whatever smart home system you already rock. The L2 Lite is a compact, round-knob unit that mounts on the inside of your door over the existing thumb-turn. Your key still works from the outside, which matters both for emergencies and for landlords. The Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite is easy to install. fitting over your existing lock cylinder (Image credit: Future) Inside the Yale Home app, you get the modern s...

Corsair Makr Pro 75 one-minute review It's difficult to ignore just how big of an impact the custom keyboard community has had on mainstreaming gaming options in the last decade or so. Jump back in time three, four, or even five years, and the very idea of the Makr Pro 75 would've been inconceivable, certainly in Corsair's product arsenal. Eight layers of sound-dampening, gasket plates, magnetic hot-swappable hall effect switches, the spec sheet is rich and detailed, and would make 21-year-old me, with his first-ever mechanical Cherry MX Red, weep if he saw it 14 years ago. Just take a look at the switches, they're linear magnetic hall effect, MGX Hyperdrive models (a mouthful, I know). Aside from being hot-swappable, they're pre-lubed, dual-rail designs with a shine-through PBT keycap that actuate at a fully custom-calibrated actuation point of your choosing. If you want to b...

KitchenAid KF4: two-minute review The KitchenAid Fully Automatic Espresso Machine KF4 is a new addition to the company’s lineup, and though it looks very similar to earlier models like the KF3 and KF6, it’s considerably smaller and a great choice for compact kitchens. It also offers particularly good noise shielding, and during my tests it proved quieter than its siblings when grinding and brewing. It has the same Intelligrind system as KitchenAid’s larger machines, making it easy to achieve the correct dosage for your chosen coffee. With just a few manual tweaks of the grinder (which can be adjusted via a dial), you’ll soon be enjoying consistently delicious, well-extracted espresso. The KF4’s automatic milk system lets you use that espresso in delicious lattes and cappuccinos, and while it’s optimized for dairy, it worked perfectly well with barista-style oat milk as well, producing foam that w...