The new, all-wheel-drive 2015 Tesla Model S P85D accelerates to 60mph faster than a Ferrari 458 and pulls more Gs in a corner than a Ford Mustang. Not bad for a car that's also more efficient than its predecessor. Read more in Jalopnik's exclusive ride along.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/nasa-will-use-uavs-to-hunt-down-baby-forest-fires-1644684411
Finding forest fires when they're big is relatively easy — you can see them from space. Or, y'know, just follow the burning smell. But if firefighters can identify a burn when it's just started, it's obviously far easier to nip in the bud. Sounds like a job for our old friend Mr Drone.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/find-out-what-your-zip-code-predicts-youll-buy-1644697481
Where you live says a lot about you—and nobody knows that better than marketeers. Now, though, you can take a glimpse at what they know, using this searchable map built by software company Esri.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/google-now-conversational/
Nothing makes voice-recognition software shine more than good conversational algorithms -- and the natural-search function in the Google app just got a minor upgrade. Not only can use your hotel confirmation to find nearby restaurants, but also now you can casually ask it to show you the restaurant's menu or book a reservation via OpenTable. You'll still have to do a little work to complete the reservation, however (Google only gets the booking started), and it's still not perfect: If a given restaurant doesn't support OpenTable or doesn't have a menu online, the process kind of falls apart. Still, it's a nice upgrade, assuming you've already come to terms with the fact that Google's algorithms are skimming your email.
[Image credit: Google]
Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Google
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Google
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/ultrascope-space-nokia-lumia-1020/
There are many, many people who've always wanted a powerful space telescope in their backyards but can't exactly afford one. For avid makers and DIY enthusiasts, at least, that's not such an absurd dream anymore -- not when someone has designed an automated 3D-printed telescope that's powered by a commercially available phone: the Nokia Lumia 1020. The device is called Ultrascope, and it stands one meter tall when assembled, with a base that measures 65 centimeters wide. It was created by Open Space Agency founder James Parr, who promised to upload the current design and future iterations to his organization's website once the ongoing beta testing's done.
Here's how the robotic telescope works: first, your Windows laptop locates the ISS and forwards its location to Ultrascope's Arduino shield to move its motors. After the telescope positions itself, the 1020 starts snapping images and sends them to the cloud for post-processing. Parr hasn't revealed how powerful Ultrascope is exactly, but it's worth noting that the 1020's 41-megapixel camera blew us away when we tested it. It'll sadly take a while before you can find out for yourself, though, as OSA's busy working with Microsoft at the moment, developing an app that connects Lumia phones to the device.
Introducing: the 3D printed #Lumia powered Ultrascope http://t.co/E4wJ6A8mJy #MakeItHappen pic.twitter.com/wFOnOZPFaj
- Nokia (@nokia) October 9, 2014 Filed under: Science, Mobile, Nokia
Source: Nokia, Open Space Agency
Source: http://gizmodo.com/amazon-is-opening-a-brick-and-mortar-store-in-manhattan-1644425412
Amazon, the cyber store that sells everything, plans to open its first physical store at 7 W 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan just in time for the holiday season. The experimental store will work as a mini-warehouse for some same day deliveries in New York. It'll surely serve as a nice little billboard, too.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/lenovo-yoga-3-pro-yes-the-hinge-is-a-giant-watchband-1644137355
The backflipping Lenovo Yoga
Source: http://gizmodo.com/ashton-kutcher-must-be-stopped-before-he-corrupts-our-1644148765
It's a little-known fact that celebrity Ashton Kutcher moonlights as a Lenovo engineer
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/apple-unique-passwords-third-party-apps/
This is a reminder that starting tomorrow, app-specific passwords will be required to access your iCloud data using third party apps such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or other mail, contacts, and calendar apps.
If you are currently signed in to a third party app using your primary Apple ID password, you will be signed out automatically when this change takes effect. You will need to generate an app-specific password and sign in again. To generate an app-specific password:
- Sign in to My Apple ID (https://appleid.apple.com)
- Go to Password & Security
- Click Generate App-Specific Password
Filed under: Internet, Software, Apple
Source: Apple
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/samsung-tlc-v-nand-ssd/
For the first time, Samsung has starting producing SSDs using (wait for it) 3-bit multi-level-cell, 3D Vertical NAND flash memory, better known as TLC V-NAND. So, who in the actual hell cares? You might, if you're planning on buying an SSD or computer soon. Samsung's current V-NAND technology has resulted in models like the 850 Pro SSD, which topped all benchmarks and has a 10-year guarantee. But combining V-NAND with 3-bit tech has more than doubled wafer yields, which should result in even cheaper, faster and higher-capacity SSDs. The disks aren't on sale yet, but there's a good chance that one of the first available will be Samsung's recently leaked 850 EVO.
Source: Samsung
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/final-credit-card/
While newfangled credit cards like Coin and Plastc aim to cut down on wallet clutter by loading up all of your payment methods in one place, another option is taking aim at security. It's called Final, and the chip & PIN card serves up a unique number to every place you shop or a "disposable" set of digits for one-time use. So when the next Target or Home Depot breach happens, you'll only have to deactivate the number assigned to those places rather than go through the hassle with your bank. You can easily deactivate numbers when a subscription has run its course, and set monthly limits so you're alerted when someone tries to go over that amount or that "free trial" runs out. When shopping online, there's a browser extension that quickly generates new numbers and populates the info fields automatically. What about mobile payments? Final plays nice with that digital wallet too, and as you might expect, a online portal offers access to spending info so that you can set goals and keep an eye on things. The company is looking to launch its beta in the first quarter of 2015, and if you're looking to opt in, you can sign up for early access via the source link down below.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Final
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/lenovo-yoga-3-pro-thinkpad-yoga-14/
Remember how Intel recently unveiled a new family of chips designed to make 2-in-1 laptops much thinner and much lighter? Of course you do. Anyway, get ready to see lots of machines coming out this holiday season with extra-compact designs. Case in point: Lenovo's new Yoga 3 Pro Ultrabook, which launched today with a chassis that's 14 percent lighter and 17 percent thinner. All told, it weighs in at just 1.19kg, or 2.62 pounds. That's impressive even for a 13-inch Ultrabook, and it's definitely an improvement over the last-gen Yoga 2 Pro, which came in at 3.06 pounds.
Otherwise, the Yoga 3 Pro is similar to the last model: It still has a 3,200 x 1,800 display, and the industrial design and keyboard layout have barely changed either. Of course, too, this is fundamentally still a Yoga, which is to say it has a 360-degree hinge allowing you to fold the screen back into tablet mode (and also "Stand" mode, and "Tent" mode). As before, the battery life is rated for up to nine hours, not that we ever got close to that on the Yoga 2 Pro. Hopefully Lenovo actually means it this time. As for performance, this is an ultra-low-voltage Intel Core M processor, which means in exchange for slimmer designs and long battery life, you may experience a slight dip in performance versus a standard-voltage system. That said, it shouldn't stop you from using the machine as your daily driver.
Additionally, in less important news, Lenovo announced the ThinkPad Yoga 14, the company's first convertible Ultrabook with that particular screen size. Like the original ThinkPad Yoga, which has a 12.5-inch screen, this newer model has a self-flattening keyboard that locks up when the machine is in tablet mode. As a relatively big-screen Ultrabook, the specs are a bit more heavy-duty than you'd otherwise expect from an ultraportable, including discrete NVIDIA GeForce 840 graphics, 1TB of storage and 8GB of RAM. Despite that horsepower, though, Lenovo says you can still get up to eight hours of runtime on a charge. Both laptops arrive at the end of this month, with the Yoga 3 Pro priced from $1,349, and the ThinkPad Yoga 14 starting at $1,199.
Nicole Lee contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/googles-developer-emulator-is-ready-for-64-bit-apps/
There's a lot to look forward to in Android's next major update, but hardware nerds are focusing in one one key feature: official support for 64-bit mobile chips. It's the mobile OS' inevitable future, and chip-makers have been preparing for it for quite awhile. Now app developers can jump in, too: Google announced today that a x86 64-bit Android L developer preview emulator image is available for developers that want to take their apps to the next generation. Not every dev will need to rebuild, however -- apps built in Java will automatically benefit from the 64-bit release's increased accessibility to memory and registers. Choose another language? Well, you'll need to recompile: head over to the source to start testing your apps in 64-bit.
Filed under: Google
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/toshiba-glass-prototype/
Nearly every tech company wants in on the wearables game, but they can't all be Google Glass or Apple Watches -- not that they have to be. But hey, here's Toshiba -- and it's got a Toshiba Glass prototype to show off. We'll say this right at the start: this remains a reference product that the company's showing off at CEATEC in Japan this week. And yes, technical specifics (let alone a price) aren't being discussed yet, but the vision for Toshiba's eye-based wearable prototype is a gentle, predictable one. The hardware is the combination of a tiny projector, attached to admittedly normal-looking frames. However, there's actually a special kind of one-sided reflective glass to catch the projection. The projection module itself is kind of bulky, but actually lightweight... which is great, until you realize that this prototype requires a constant wired connection to work.
According to Toshiba, there's no computational component in the arm, which primarily consists of a tiny projector and not much else. There's no camera, rather Toshiba's concept would act primarily as a notification system. The concept teaser (and accompanying projected images) offered glimpses of fitness tracker notifications, call reminders and a handful of business-based applications point towards security and warehouse use. Toshiba's New Business Development Division's Yuki Kaneko told us that's a device headed for B2B first: it's for other companies that also want Toshiba's system support and other business-type stuff... that we leave to other dustier tech publications.
When we brought up the inevitable Google Glass comparison, Kaneko-san was (surprisingly!) positive about the ever-present wire, citing that it kept the weight down by offloading not only computing (and other frills like cameras), but also the battery. Battery life is thus dependent on whatever device it's connected to, leaving the wearable lighter and more, well, wearable. The real device will appear next year, but consumer models for us mere muggles will likely be a while after that -- for now, this is a business-centered wearable -- which probably explains the "goggle edition." (Our words, not theirs.)
Filed under: Wearables
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/drone-racing/
Ever wanted to recreate the speeder chase in Return of the Jedi, or pod racing in The Phantom Menace? There's apparently an easy way to do it that doesn't involve sci-fi technology. France's Airgonay club recently raced flying drones through a forest using a combination of cameras and wearable displays to immerse pilots in the action. As you'll see in the highlight video below, it's both thrilling and more than a little challenging -- racers have to both dodge around trees and other drones that could come from virtually any direction. At least a few competitors had to retreat to a repair area to fix broken rotor blades and other damage.
This isn't really a spectator sport yet, but the Airgonay team is hopeful. There's a global tournament coming in about a year, and the club would like to see events stream online so that you can get that first-person experience from afar. The group's Herve Pellarin even predicts that drones will get virtual lasers to "shoot down" opponents Wipeout-style. FAA regulations may prevent this remote-controlled racing from getting started in the US for a while, but it's good to know that the framework for it already exists.
Filed under: Robots, Wearables
Via: GigaOM
Source: Herve Pellarin (YouTube)
Posts
