Drivers in London have to pay a daily "congestion charge" intended to encourage the use of public transit and bicycles, but low-emission vehicles are exempt, and so for years, drivers of VW diesels got free rides thanks to the company's fraudulent claims about their cars' pollution. (more…)
Uber has a new product feature going live across its app today, called ‘Compliments.’ The new systems will prompt riders to give a specific, additional piece of positive feedback in addition to the star rating they assign their driver, including things like “Excellent Service” or “Awesome Music.” The new Compliments system will send a notification to the… Read More
Microsoft is planning to support virtual reality experiences for all Windows 10 PCs as part of the Creators Update next year. While HTC’s Vive and Oculus’ Rift use their own custom software, Microsoft is attempting to create its own VR platform with Windows Holographic, the same environment that powers the company’s HoloLens headset. The software giant revealed that VR headsets for Windows 10 will start at $299, and now it’s starting to detail the PC specs required to power those VR experiences.
In the latest test builds of Windows 10, Microsoft is now including a "Windows Holographic First Run" application that tests a machine to ensure it’s compatible. I’ve tested a variety of machines, and it appears that Microsoft’s minimum...
Britain's love-affair with mass surveillance began under the Labour government, but it was two successive Conservative governments (one in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who are nominally pro-civil liberties) who took Tony Blair's mass surveillance system and turned it into a vicious, all-powerful weapon. Now, their work is done. (more…)
Laghcat's $24 knitted mermaid tail blankets come in kids' (56"x28") and adults' (71"x35.5") sizes and 40 color schemes/styles; the thousands of positive reviews praise the construction as being robust and durable (and feature photos of "mermaids" lounging cozily around their homes in their tail-blankets), and the blankets can be machine washed and tumble-dried. (via Incredible Things)
When Adrien Mauduit moved to Denmark, locals said it was rare to see the Northern Lights. This gorgeous 4K timelapse proves them wrong in spectacular fashion. (more…)
A puzzled thief had trouble understanding why he couldn't pull a cash drawer through a hole that was too small.
Surviga seems to like the world inside a HTC's Vive virtual reality headset.
"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few are dirt." John Muir's words and wisdom permeate Studiocanoe's lovely footage of the Scottish Highlands. (more…)
After going all in with Google+ a few years ago, there are still many remnants of those efforts. Google is finally deprecating Plus as a means to sign into third-party apps and services. Developers are being encouraged to adopt the new Google Sign-In method with its improved user experience.
Three UK is the latest company to suffer what looks to be a major data breach — potentially exposing the personal information of millions of customers. Read More
Japanese businesses are finding they need to deal with increasing numbers of foreign visitors to Japan, and Panasonic thinks it has the answer: a megaphone that translates the user’s voices into multiple languages. The Megahonyaku, which is a reasonably good pun on the Japanese words for “megaphone” and “translation,” listens for Japanese input and plays back phrases in English, Chinese, and Korean.
This isn’t quite the portable babelfish of your dreams — Panasonic has only loaded it with around 300 set phrases, though it can connect to the internet to get more. Also it has a touchscreen, which you might think would let you bypass the whole “speaking” thing in the first place, but hey. And it requires a contract of “less than ¥20,000...
Hackers have accessed a database of customer information belonging to one of the UK’s biggest mobile carriers, Three. According to a report from The Telegraph, the company said the database included names, phone numbers, addresses, and dates of birth, but no financial information. Three said that their internal systems were accessed using an employee login — rather than exploiting a fault in the software.
Over the past four weeks, Three says it has experienced "an increasing level of attempted handset fraud." This has included more burglaries targeting the company’s retail stores, and criminals using customer data to request, and then intercept, new handsets issued as part of Three’s mobile subscriptions.
"Eight devices have been...
Getting a good Android tablet doesn't have to mean spending a huge sum of money.
You'll always have the high-end, the high asking prices, and the people who are willing to pay for them. But for many, just getting good hardware, a great experience, and not emptying your wallet is the most important set of factors in buying a tablet.
The Android tablet space has exploded in recent years and there are now some great choices to be made around the $200 price point and below. Here we've rounded up some of the best choices you can make.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 has impressive specs and, starting at $89.99, a very attractive price point. It also features 12 hours of battery life, and a processor that's twice as fast as the previous generation. The 1280x800 pixel LCD display won't win any awards, but the 8-inch screen looks great at any angle — awesome for sharing the tablet with family.
And all models of Amazon's Fire tablet now have support for the company's AI assistant, Alexa, allowing you to control your tablet, and your smarthome, with your voice.
And as with Amazon's other tablets, you can offline Prime Video to an SD card, which is a frequent traveller's dream. If you'd like something cheaper, there's the $49 7-inch version of the Fire tablet, while larger screen fans can get the latest 10-inch model for $150.
In our sub-$200 category you're only getting the lower spec, 32GB storage and 2GB RAM option of the Zenpad S 8.0 from ASUS, but that's not necessarily a deal breaker. You're also getting a gorgeous 2048 x 1536 resolution display inside a light, well built Android tablet.
The Zenpad S 8.0 is perfect for one of the big uses of tablets: media consumption. Besides the top-notch display it also packs some powerful, quality sounding speakers that make watching videos or listening to music on the go a pleasurable experience.
There are a few areas to be aware of, notably the software which may not suit all tastes. Zen UI is fairly heavy and bloated, but performance of the tablet is thankfully very good. Overall it leaves you questioning why you might spend a good amount more on some other Android tablets.
Read our ASUS Zenpad S 8.0 review
Now in its third generation, Lenovo's Yoga tablet remains one of the most distinctive offerings around. The design is unusual but it also makes it one of the best tablets money can buy for consuming media since you don't need to invest in a case with a kickstand.
You also get some great sounding front-facing speakers with excellent volume, so you can just pop it down, kick back and watch a movie wherever you are.
The software experience won't suit everyone, but it's mostly inoffensive, and Lenovo adds a few useful apps and features instead of cramming it with bloat. But while the design is excellent in some regards, it does make it awkward to hold in landscape.
You do get superb battery life though. That bulge is full of battery, which means you get more life from a Yoga than a lot of other Android tablets. And all for $160.
Lenovo's second entry in our roundup, the Tab 4 is a regular slab-style tablet next to the unusual form factor of the Yoga Tablet 3. But while it's less to look at it, it has plenty of its own charm.
It has an 8-inch 1280 x 800 resolution display, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and Android 7.1 Nougat with Lenovo's newer, closer to stock user interface.
Lenovo claims up to 20 hours of battery life during media consumption, and with Dolby Atmos support you're getting another stellar audio experience from a low-cost Lenovo tablet. At only $130 it's perfect for you or the kids, and Lenovo has an optional kids pack which includes a roughty toughty case to protect from the expected falls to the floor.
Updated October 20, 2017: We've removed the NVIDIA Shield K1 as it's no longer officially on sale as well as adding a new pick, the Lenovo Tab 4.
Today, the Google Cloud team is excited to announce a strategic alliance with Intel to support and accelerate enterprise adoption of the cloud. We’ve worked closely with Intel for years on datacenter processor technology, and are now expanding our collaboration to help enterprise customers move from legacy infrastructure to an open, secure and future-proof cloud. The alliance will focus on technology integrations and joint market education efforts.
Google and Intel have been working closely for many years to engineer and validate processor technology within the data center. With this new alliance, we'll explore technology solutions for our enterprise customers in the areas of Kubernetes, machine learning, IoT and security, combining Google Cloud software capabilities with Intel’s advanced hardware. The alliance will focus on:
Kubernetes - Optimizing Kubernetes for Intel architecture to support a broad range of workloads. Intel is a major contributor to the Kubernetes ecosystem and enables enterprises to run OpenStack as a managed Kubernetes workload. Intel and Google engineers have already delivered code optimizations that have improved feature transparency on Intel architecture. This work is also expected to improve workload capabilities, including virtual network performance and prioritization of shared resources.
Machine Learning - Accelerating TensorFlow performance on Intel processors, for example by allowing TensorFlow to leverage all CPU cores and vector lanes for improved parallelism, integrating high-performance libraries such as the Math Kernel library (MKL) into TensorFlow, and optimizing memory allocation and data layer operations across a range of topologies.
IoT - Creating a secure platform for connecting Intel’s IoT edge devices to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), where the data can be analyzed to inform better decisions — a critical capability for industries like retail and manufacturing.
Security - Enhancing security integrations between Intel hardware and GCP infrastructure that will further improve security for enterprise customers.
In addition to exploring a number of new joint cloud solutions, with Intel we’re focused on developing technical education and market development materials that support the IT practitioners who are managing the transition to a multi-cloud world.
By deepening Google’s unique relationship with Intel, we can better help enterprises transition to the cloud.
So Google has updated its Photos app, and one of the most peculiar new features is a slider called "Deep blue." It’s one small part of a vastly expanded suite of color adjustments added to Google’s built-in photo editor, and at first I couldn’t understand what it was for. It did nothing when I swung it back and forth on my indoor shots of avocados and headphones. But then I tried it on a photo with some sky in it and wow!
What Google’s put together is essentially a vibrance slider dedicated to the color blue. If you have a daytime sky, even a wintry one like in my photo below, this thing will saturate the blue to a rich, summery shade in a hurry. Same goes for any waterscapes or other blue-rich pictures in your collection that could do...
Via a Freedom of Information Act request, Yellowstone National Park recently reported the tragic details of an accident last summer, where a 23 year old man dissolved after an illegal attempt to bathe in Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. He had gone 200 yards past the legal tourism area with his sister, who was recording on her cell phone when the incident happened. Luckily, that video has not been released.
Though search and rescue was attempted, Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress remarked, "in a very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving" due to the churning, acidic water. The man was reaching down to test the temperature, with the intent to "hot pot," aka bathe in the steaming water, when he slipped and fell in.
Reports Wyoming's KURL news:
Search and rescue rangers who arrived later did find the victim's body in the pool, along with his wallet, and flip flops. But, a lightning storm stopped the recovery efforts. The next day, workers could not find any remains. Veress says the water was churning, and acidic.
He remarked, "In a very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving"
Veress said the park posts warning signs for important reasons, "… because it is wild and it hasn't been overly altered by people to make things a whole lot safer, it's got dangers. And a place like Yellowstone which is set aside because of the incredible geothermal resources that are here, all the more so."
Yellowstone is meant to be wild and preserved as such, so the park posts warning signs for this very reason. Despite the signs and the accident, a week later, a Chinese tourist also left the visitors boardwalk and illegally tried to collect water from the same spring to use for its "medicinal purposes." Collecting any of the park's resources, including water from hot springs, is a federal violation and the man was heavily fined. Walking on the fragile crust of the thermal springs causes irreversible environmental damage.
How the hot springs were formed, from the Yellowstone website:
At Yellowstone each year, the rain and melted snow seeps into the earth. Cold to begin with, the water is quickly warmed by heat radiating from a partially molten magma chamber deep underground, the remnant of a cataclysmic volcanic explosion that occurred 600,000 years ago.
After moving throughout this underwater "plumbing" system, the now hot water rises up through a system of small fissures. Here it also interacts with hot gases charged with carbon dioxide rising up from the magma chamber. As some of the carbon dioxide is dissolved in the hot water, a weak, carbonic acid solution is formed. In the Mammoth area, the hot, acidic solution dissolves large quantities of limestone on its way up through the rock layers to the hot springs on the surface.
It is not known why the FOIA report was requested.
https://youtu.be/ggNIDrtiEJI?list=PLcXJBBXzyHHEKeuwewjc1rbecE4-bNa4W
Seattle's KIRO TV made undercover visits to Office Depot stores in Washington state and Oregon and asked the technicians working in the store's "PC Health Check" to evaluate a working, uninfected PC; four out of six times, Office Depot technicians diagnosed nonexistent virus activity and prescribed $200 worth of service to get rid of it. (more…)
A controversial shoring up and expansion of state surveillance powers in the UK has been agreed by both houses of parliament, clearing the way for the formality of Royal Assent and the passing of the Investigatory Powers bill into law before the end of the year. Read More
Ask any Brit about Sir David Attenborough and I'm sure most would respond positively. Attenborough, a broadcaster and naturalist who has created the 'Life' TV series and refined how to make documentaries, has had his work compiled into an app, appropriately titled 'Attenborough's Story of Life.'
The app has many moments from Planet Earth and Planet Earth II, plus others from countless other shows Attenborough has made, including from the Life series.
Read MoreBBC releases the Story of Life, a collection of Sir David Attenborough's work was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The world has so many beautiful and amazing places to visit. If we're lucky, we're able to travel and see a few of them. But even the most active travelers can only see a fraction. What if we could see them all?
Ten years ago, Google Earth began as an effort to help people everywhere explore our planet. And now, with more than two billion downloads, many have. Today, we are introducing Google Earth VR as our next step to help the world see the world. With Earth VR, you can fly over a city, stand at the top of the highest peaks, and even soar into space.
Now, at 196.9 million square miles, we know the world is pretty big, so we’ve made it easy to find great places to visit. Earth VR comes with cinematic tours and hand-picked destinations that send you to the Amazon River, the Manhattan skyline, the Grand Canyon, the Swiss Alps, and more.
You can download Google Earth VR today in the Steam Store for free. Like Tilt Brush, Earth VR is launching first on the HTC Vive. Stay tuned for more updates on Google Earth across other platforms next year.
Since 2013, Google Play Newsstand has provided a single destination on your phone or tablet for browsing thousands of the world’s leading news sources and magazines. More than 100 million users trust Newsstand every month to follow the stories, topics, and interests they care about.
Today, we are announcing a complete redesign of Newsstand that focuses on three big improvements: personalization, rich media, and the extension of our platform to the web.
A fully personalized news and magazine reader for you
We are applying the power of Google machine learning to Newsstand’s rich catalog in order to find and recommend the most timely, relevant stories for you based on your individual interests.
When you open the app, a personalized briefing shows you a blend of the top stories you need to know, including major headlines, local news, and personal interests. It’s perfect to start your morning, or to get caught up in under one minute during the day.
Below the briefing, Newsstand also recommends a stream of stories from your favorite topics and sources, allowing you to go deeper into the day’s news or to simply feed your curiosity. Each recommendation includes a justification and an option for providing feedback. This way you always know why we’re showing you a story, and you can easily tell Newsstand whether to continue showing you similar stories. In other words, it gets better the more you use it.
Rich images and videos make the feeds come to life
We have improved our support for multimedia content building on the AMP support we launched earlier this year. Scroll through your feed, and you will see autoplay videos, easy podcast controls, and high-resolution, full-bleed images. Every story and topic in Newsstand now comes to life in a more engaging, beautiful presentation. And our Data Saver mode allows you to enjoy it in a way that is aware of data and bandwidth preferences.
Available anywhere you want it, including the web
Finally, we know how important it is to provide access to the news and stories you care about, wherever you are. And that’s why we have not only included Android and iOS in this update, but have extended Newsstand 4.0 to the web with our brand new web app. No matter which platform or device you use, all of your personalization and favorite sources are just a tap or click away.
Altogether, we believe that these changes contribute to a much more engaging and delightful experience for staying on top of the news.
“Newsstand just got better and CNN is happy to be a part of it. Video is more visible and integral, aligning with CNN's expertise and enabling us to reach audiences around the world in a more visual AND more personal way.”
— Meredith Artley, SVP & Editor In Chief, CNN Digital
“The Telegraph is committed to ensuring that our readers are able to access the content they want, on the platforms they prefer. As part of this, we have been working to grow the Telegraph’s presence on Google Newsstand. Over the last year, this has seen a trebling of our traffic on the platform. As Newsstand continues to evolve, it offers ever better user experiences and more monetisation opportunities for publishers. We welcome the launch of the latest version of Newsstand and look forward to being part of its ongoing success.”
— Melinda Rogers, Lead Product Manager, The Telegraph
Barnes & Noble has had limited success with their tablet lineup over the years. Although the company's e-ink readers have always been very good, its LCD tablets have had less luck. In 2014, B&N completely gave up making its own tablets (besides the e-readers), instead choosing to sell various Galaxy Tab models with Nook software pre-installed. Now the company has a surprise for Black Friday shoppers - a $49.99 Nook tablet.
Read MoreBarnes & Noble announces Nook Tablet 7", will be available Nov 25 for $49.99 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
As it continues to increase its efforts in artificial intelligence, Google today launched a new web tool called Quick Draw. The website, which looks like a basic drawing game on the surface, is actually using a whole lot of artificial intelligence knowledge behind the scenes.
The outcome of the UK referendum known as Brexit which saw the country opting for leaving the European Union earlier this summer surely created a bit of turbulence in the economic space, leaving more than a few companies in a state of uncertainty.
In spite of this, however, the country’s capital city still seems to be going strong, and Google appears to be ready to actually double down on its efforts there…
Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has filed confidentially for its initial public offering, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company is seeking to raise as much as $4 billion, which would give it a valuation of between $25 billion and $35 billion, the report states. The confidential filing — a move Twitter made in 2013 — indicates Snap Inc.’s annual revenue is under $1 billion, which is in line with expectations for the company’s advertising estimates. The IPO is expected as early as March, Reuters reports.
The move signals the most critical shift for the Snapchat maker in its history, paving the way for a large injection of capital to help it grow and better compete with Facebook, Google, and others in the realm of...
Google Photos is a home for all your photos and videos, but what about those old prints that are some of your most treasured memories? Such as photos of grandma when she was young, your childhood pet, and that hairstyle you wish you could forget.
We all have those old albums and boxes of photos, but we don’t take the time to digitize them because it’s just too hard to get it right. We don’t want to mail away our original copy, buying a scanner is costly and time consuming, and if you try to take a photo of a photo, you end up with crooked edges and glare.
We knew there had to be a better way, so we’re introducing PhotoScan, a brand new, standalone app from Google Photos that easily scans just about any photo, free, from anywhere. Get it today for Android and iOS.
PhotoScan gets you great looking digital copies in seconds - it detects edges, straightens the image, rotates it to the correct orientation, and removes glare. Scanned photos can be saved in one tap to Google Photos to be organized, searchable, shared, and safely backed up at high quality—for free.
See how the PhotoScan technology works behind the scenes by watching this video from our friends Nat & Lo.
After all that time in the attic, your photos might need a few polishes. Or you might even want to edit that selfie from this morning. Getting the right look can take a lot of time and with so many editing tools it’s tough to know where to begin.
Today we’re rolling out three easy ways to get great looking photos in Google Photos: a new and improved auto enhance, unique new looks, and advanced editing tools. Open a photo and then tap the pencil icon to start editing. First, for auto enhance, just select Auto, and see instant enhancements a pro editor might make - like balancing exposure and saturation to bring out the details.
Second, our 12 new looks take style to the next level. These unique looks make edits based on the individual photo and its brightness, darkness, warmth, or saturation, before applying the style. All looks use machine intelligence to complement the content of your photo, and choosing one is just a matter of taste.
Third, our advanced editing controls for Light and Color allow you to fine tune your photos, including highlights, shadows, and warmth. Deep Blue is particularly good for images of sea and sky where the color blue is the focal point.
The Google Photos app with the new photo editor will begin rolling out today across Android, iOS and the web. Just in time for your next set of holiday memories.
