Technology news

Baidu is one of the biggest web companies in China, so naturally, it’s trying to take over the smart assistant market there just as Google and Amazon are in the US. To that end, Baidu is introducing three new smart speakers today, all with very different core functions: there’s a lamp, a ceiling-mounted projector, and a screen that’s a lot like an Echo Show.
The smart screen is called the Little Fish VSI; it’s a tinier version of the original Little Fish, which came out

At CES 2018, Asus announced the newest version of its diminutive Chromebox, the Chromebox 3. And while usually I wouldn’t expect too much from a 4.5 x 4.5-inch desktop PC that only runs Chrome OS, Asus deserves some credit for including both a USB-C port and Intel’s newest eighth-generation Core processors. It’s something that puts it ahead of plenty of full-fledged Windows computers.Asus hasn’t revealed the full specs for the Chromebox 3, but it does highlight that the

Samsung today announced a new consumer product strategy based in artificial intelligence technology during its keynote speech at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. What is it? Head of Samsung’s research H.S. Kim today announced every product the company makes would connect to the IoT cloud and have baked-in artificial intelligence by 2020. The company previously committed to connecting all of its devices to the internet by 2020, effectively creating a “smart” everything. This change indic

Panasonic has formally introduced the newest additions to its Technics turntable line at CES — the SP-10R and the SL-1000R. The original SP10 was launched in 1969 and was the first direct drive turntable. Panasonic says this new edition of the resurrected SP10 “reach[es] new levels in near flawless sound.”
The SP-10R was originally shown as a prototype at IFA 2017, where the company called it the brand’s “most premium turntable ever.” This final version is on

It’s been three years since the unveiling of Microsoft’s HoloLens, and nearly five years since the release of the ill-fated Google Glass, but true augmented reality hardware remains an elusive concept. In 2018, and especially here in Las Vegas for the annual CES gadget expo, it’s evident that AR is only just now starting to pick up the same amount of steam on the hardware end that helped push its virtual reality counterpart into the limelight, during that multi-year lead up to

The Federal Trade Commission said today that the electronic toymaker VTech Electronics has agreed to settle for a fine of $625,000, to be paid within the next seven days, after charges that it violated children’s privacy. The Hong Kong-based VTech is also the parent company of LeapFrog, a popular brand for educational entertainment for children.
The FTC alleges that VTech collected “personal information of hundreds of thousands of children” through its KidiConnect mobile app &

Surefire, a California-based flashlight company, is showing off its new infrared communication system, ARON, at CES this week. What is it? Surefire’s ARON (Augmented Reality Optical Narrowcasting) is a form of wireless data transmission involving beams of light. It transmts information via infrared light and optical beacons, at ranges up to 2,000 meters. The information is received by a beacon in a phone (the company’s literature also shows Google Glass-like AR devices using it) and

For a couple years now, Sony has been trying to build headphones that let you listen to music without blocking sound from the world around you. There are already lots of headphones that try to do this in a high-tech way, by using microphones to record sound from the outside world and pumping that in over your music. But Sony is taking a decidedly low-tech approach: it’s making earbuds with a giant hole in them to let sound through.
The Xperia Ear are the latest incarnation. They were firs

Virgin Hyperloop One today demonstrated for the first time its new passenger application for the upcoming hyperloop transportation system. Consumers at CES were also able to check out firsthand the XP-1, the company’s first generation travel pods. What is it? It’s the future of transportation. Being able to see an XP-1 up close at this point is comparable to seeing Henry Ford or Carl Benz show off their first prototype. Last year hyperloops went from white-paper to reality as one te

HTC is refreshing its Vive headset with a new Pro model today. The original Vive debuted nearly two years ago, and the new Vive Pro is clearly designed to address some of the complaints of that earlier headset. HTC is increasing the resolution of the dual-OLED displays to 2880 x 1600 (1400 x 1600 per eye, and 615 ppi), a 78 percent increase from the 2160 x 1200 (1080 x 1200 per eye) resolution in the current Vive. This resolution increase should help with clearer text rendering and overall grap

HTC is finally creating its own wireless adapter for the Vive. While we’ve seen similar adapters from DisplayLink and even the TPCast from HTC’s Vive X accelerator program, HTC’s own adapter uses Intel’s WiGig technology. Wi-Gig will operate in the 60Ghz band, helping prevent any interference and running at low latency. This should keep the performance at the best possible, and avoid any issues that would ruin the VR experience you typically get over a HDMI cable.
HTC wo

HTC today revealed its latest VR headset, the Vive Pro, at CES 2018. The new headset bumps up the resolution by a huge amount, and also comes with built-in headphones. The Vive Pro boasts two OLED screens and a 2880×1600 resolution, a 78 percent increase over the current model. It comes with dual front-facing cameras and dual noise-cancelling microphones. The built-in headphones also have an amplifier built in. The company also says it’s made an effort to ensure the Vive Pro is more

Google today announced it’s combining Android Pay and Google Wallet into one service called Google Pay. It’s about time. For those not familiar, Google has had something of a rocky journey with digital payments. Originally, Google Wallet was the app of choice for NFC payments at stores, until the company introduced Android Pay in 2015. At that point, Google Wallet became a Venmo-like money-sending app, while Android Pay took on NFC payments. The apps had virtually no interoperabilit

Sprint, partnering with Dynamics Inc., has come up with a battery-powered payment card. The card functions as a debit, credit, prepaid, multi-currency, or loyalty card, depending on the user’s preference.
The card is the same size and shape as a normal credit card, but it has almost 200 internal parts including a cellphone chip and antenna, a battery and organic recharging chip for self-charging, a programmable magnetic strip, EMV chip, and contactless chip. Card profiles can be downloade

Just days before CES 2018, the biggest tech showcase of the year, former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai – also the head of the FCC – canceled his plans to participate in a round table discussion at the event. That event is tomorrow and suddenly the livestream seems infinitely more watchable. Tuesday January 9th, several other members of the FCC will join the Assistant Secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to discuss “infrastructure, spectrum allo

Over the weekend, Twitter users — including some climate scientists — were upset by a plaque at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, which seems to be spreading misinformation about climate change. The panel, titled “Recent Climatic Changes and Extinctions,” misstates the role that human emissions of greenhouse gases play in causing global warming. It also says that, although we’re currently living in one of Earth’s warm periods, “

On the first day of CES, JBL has announced several new headphones, earphones, and speakers, including the Everest headphones that are compatible with the Google Assistant. JBL, known for making pretty decent headphones, is actually owned by Samsung through parent company Harman International.
The Everest headphones come in three options: around-ear, on-ear, and in-ear wireless headphones. JBL claims that its wireless Everest headphones have between eight and 25 hours of battery life per charge.

It’s not terribly easy to go to a casino in Las Vegas and come back without losing any money, but this week I pulled it off. The trick? I never even got out of the car that brought me there.I was in a BMW 540i that was riddled with self-driving technology from British company Aptiv. They’re here at the Consumer Electronics Show in partnership with Lyft to offer rides in these semi-autonomous BMWs, demonstrating to show-going tech fans what it will be like to one day hail a self-driv

The dream of whizzing through an airless tube that is hundreds of miles long from one city to the next at near-supersonic speeds just got a little more real. Today, Virgin Hyperloop One unveiled its new app, promising an end-to-end passenger experience when (and if) it ultimately opens its first high-speed commercial transportation service.In the app, passengers will be able to book a seat on the hyperloop, in addition to scheduling an Uber or Lyft to and from the hyperloop station. The app was

Livestreaming is increasingly mainstream. Social behemoths like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook all come with the feature baked-in and prominently displayed. With just a flick of a button, anyone anywhere can broadcast anything to hundreds of thousands of people. Anything. Literally anything. Like, er, a boxing match only available through pay-per-view (PPV). A Scarborough man is currently in hot water after a friend purportedly streamed a high-profile PPV boxing match to over 4,000 people. Acco

The fourth season of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, a Twilight Zone-esque anthology TV series about technological anxieties and possible futures, was released on Netflix on December 29th, 2017. In this series, six writers will look at each of the fourth season’s six episodes to see what they have to say about current culture and projected fears.
Other essays in this series address “USS Callister,” “Black Museum,” “Hang The DJ,” and “Metalhe

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has mustered the 30 votes necessary to force a vote on the FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) announced that she’s signed onto Markey’s request to overturn the new rules, under the Congressional Review Act — which lets Congress nullify recently passed regulations with a simple majority.
Markey announced his intention to file a resolution of disapproval in December, just after the FCC voted on new rules that k

Last week, Hisense announced that it’d be bringing Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant to some of its 2018 TV lineup. But here at CES 2018, Hisense has taken the wraps off its new products, and with a surprising twist: while several TVs in the lineup are getting Amazon’s virtual assistant, it’ll be joined on the company’s two most premium models — the H10E and the H9E Plus — by Google Assistant, which, unlike Alexa, will actually get a dedicated button on th

Microsoft yesterday stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for adding funds to users’ Microsoft accounts. However, a Microsoft employee with direct knowledge of the matter told TNW the move is a temporary one. This isn’t the first time the company has temporarily halted Bitcoin payments since it started accepting them in 2014. In a strange series of events in March 2016 the company briefly stopped accepting Bitcoin before retracting what was described as “an errant

Celina Mikolajczak, a senior manager for battery pack development at Tesla, has been hired by Uber to help the ride-hail company’s “flying car” project get off the ground. It’s an important hire because it signals that Uber plans to get more involved in the engineering aspects of this outlandish-sounding project.For six years, Mikolajczak served as senior manager and technical lead for battery technology, cell quality, and materials analysis. She worked with Tesla’

The author of the controversial memo that upended Google in August is suing the company, alleging that white, male conservatives are systematically discriminated against by Google.
Lawsuit filed today in Santa Clara Superior Court
James Damore was fired as an engineer after the manifesto, which questioned the benefits of diversity programs and suggested women may be biologically inferior engineers, was widely passed around the company. In a new lawsuit, he and another fired engineer claim that

Cognata, an Israel-based artificial intelligence startup, is showing off its simulation engine for autonomous cars at CES 2018. What is it? The Cognata platform is a virtual world simulation engine that gives autonomous vehicle manufacturers and developers a way to train AI brains to drive safely. It’s like traffic school for robots. According to the company: Cognata provides a realistic virtual automotive environment that simulates real-world test driving and generates fast, highly accur

Facebook and Sony / ATV Music Publishing have agreed to a deal that allows Facebook users to upload music in their videos, Bloomberg reports. Facebook and Universal Music Group signed a similar licensing agreement back in December.
Discussions between Facebook and music labels have been ongoing in some capacity since 2015, when there were some rumors the company might try to launch a streaming service. Facebook told The Verge in December that it planned to work with UMG to develop “music-

Matching its $99 Lightning and Bluetooth cable options, Shure has announced at CES 2018 the launch of a new $99 USB-C replacement cable for its family of high-end in-ear headphones. Along with making microphones good enough for presidential addresses, Shure sells some of the best premium earphones on the market, which scale up to $999 in price with the flagship Shure SE846 (setting aside the exotic KSE1500 that cost $2,999). My personal favorite has been the SE535 in the middle of the Shure pac

Petnet has debuted SmartFeeder 2.0, the next generation of its automatic pet feeder. The new feeder builds upon many of the features from the first version of the SmartFeeder, focusing on refined design choices and further integration with smart home devices.
The SmartFeeder 2.0 looks similar to its predecessor, but with subtle aesthetic tweaks that make it both sleeker and more compact. Other design changes improve the SmartFeeder’s functionality. It’s now compatible with more food

Anker is exiting the last stage of its crowdfunding campaign for its Zolo line of wireless earbuds with a final consumer retail release of the Liberty+ headphones, which go on sale later this month for $149.99. The news, announced today at CES, means that consumers who’ve been holding off on buying Anker’s standard Liberty wireless earbuds, which have been available for some time for $99.99, can pay the extra premium for the more advanced version.The notable difference between the L

Jabra has announced a trio of headphones to kickstart a brand new “Elite” franchise. These are the Elite 65t, a completely wireless in-ear pair; an “active” version of the Elite 65t, specially optimized for sport; and a Bluetooth — but not fully wired — variant, dubbed the Elite 45e. (The “e” stands for earphones; the “t” for truly wireless.)
First up: the Elite 65t and its sporty cousin. Both these sets of earbuds come with 5 hours of

Electric scooters and skateboards are a big draw at the mini-exhibitions that happen within big trade shows like CES. At this year’s CES Unveiled, two of them stood out.First, the UJet. It’s another take on the idea of a smart, foldable, electric scooter, though it’s closer to something like a Vespa than a Razor. The UJet has a (limited) top speed of around 30 miles per hour thanks to a 4kW motor, and will come in two range variants — 43 or 93 miles. Aimed at the Europea

CES 2018’s first wave of innovative new tech is hitting the shore early, before the show officially starts tomorrow. Among them is the LooxidVR headset, an all-in-one package which shows off some of VR’s promise. What is it? LooxidVR is a phone-based headset created by Looxid Labs with EEG censors and eye-tracking cameras which can offer insights into how VR users interact with their environments. It was named CES 2018’s most innovative VR product. Why does it matter? Looxid s

Segway-Ninebot, which owns Segway Robotics, first showed off its Segway Advanced Personal Robot back in 2016, and the product has slowly evolved since then. The Lego-style arms are gone, the bot is now known as Loomo, and there’s a version for developers that’s already shipping. Now the consumer version of Loomo is about ready to ship (“in the weeks following CES”) and it still sounds fun after two years of incubation — although price is still a big question mark.

Ring started out with video doorbells and lots and lots of security cameras, but now the company is expanding into a related but less obviously security-focused field: lighting.
The smart camera maker is announcing today that it has acquired Mr Beams, a small company that’s been making wireless LED lights for about a decade. As Ring begins to fold in Mr Beams, it’ll be able to add the company’s lineup of wireless lights, like ceiling lights and lanterns, into its connected por