Walking around Amsterdam, at times, feels like strolling through the city of the future. Solar panels abound. Electric vehicles fill the roads, and everybody else is on a bike. Meanwhile, tucked away in the western part of town, some 50 families have agreed to turn their houses into living laboratories to figure out a better way to share energy. Read More >>
Despite many tries, no company has nailed truly wireless earbuds. Apple’s AirPods come close, but the lack of sports-friendly features has always been a problem. That’s why I was so excited to see Sony release a set of truly wireless earbuds that are not only tight-fitting and water resistant, they also come with noise-cancelling. After two weeks of testing, I have to admit that the new Sony buds aren’t perfect, but they’re seductively good. Read More >>
Amazon Fire TV has always been one of my favorite gadgets. The Amazon Echo, as I’ve previously explained, gives me pause. So when I heard that Amazon was combining Fire TV with Alexa capabilities to create a whole new device called the Amazon Fire TV Cube, my first thought seemed peculiar: Uh oh, people are gonna love this. Read More >>
If you hoped that Tim Cook would surprise the world and introduce some new Apple hardware at this year’s WWDC keynote, you must feel sorely disappointed. But if you get all hot and bothered by attractive and useful macOS upgrades, you are in luck. The annual developer conference introduced a long list of little things that will make using Apple products a lot better. Read More >>
What’s the most terrifying thing you can imagine an Amazon Echo doing? Think realistically. Would it be something simple but sinister, like artificially intelligent speaker recording a conversation between you and a loved one and then sending that recording to an acquaintance? That seems pretty bad to me. And guess what: it’s happening. Read More >>
Ever find yourself in the position where you need something but can’t afford it? Lucus Landers did, when he needed a large-format camera for class so he found a laser-cutter and built a pretty janky-looking one out of wood. Now, the Louisiana, US native has just finished building another camera from scratch. It is a beauty. Read More >>
Lego just announced a new batch of smart systems that you can control with your phone. The so-called Powered Up Platform works with smartphones to turn classic brick-based creations into fun, animated sets. And right out of the gate, Lego is offering up a new app-controlled Batmobile. It looks awesome. Read More >>
Electric skateboards have always seemed to me like an 80s fever dream come true. What if, instead of using your foot, you could push a button and make a skateboard go as fast as a car? The idea would have sounded absurd 30 years ago, but today it’s true in the form of Boosted Boards.And now, the company has a smaller model with a rad form factor. It’s a different ride, too. Read More >>
Yesterday, Google hosted the keynote address at its annual I/O developer conference. It was kind of short compared to some of the marathons we’ve been subjected to in the past! But there’s still plenty for us to praise — and pan. Read More >>
It’s been six months since the iPhone X release, and one thing holds true: It’s still expensive. However, as much as I hated myself for buying a £1,000 phone, and as much as I hated myself for loving it, spending half a year with the iPhone X has revealed some new truths. One, Jony Ive is right when he says Face ID is more important than it seems. Two, Apple’s grasp on excellent quality control is slipping. Three, once you’ve fallen in love with the iPhone X, there’s no turning back. Read More >>
Just when you thought all data breaches amounted to hacker shenanigans, the largest bank in Australia has belatedly confirmed a different sort of breach story. BuzzFeed reports that the Commonwealth Bank lost 12 million customers’ data after magnetic tape backups containing their personal financial history from 2004 to 2014 went missing. It just lost them. They may have literally fallen off a lorry. And the bank didn’t even bother telling its customers about the incident. Read More >>
You know how annoying it is when people take out their phones in the cinema while you’re just trying to enjoy seeing the Avengers fight Thanos or whatever? Well, Fox wants to make that a feature with a new film based on the Choose Your Own Adventure books. There is an app involved. Read More >>
In its latest attempt to please anxious parents, YouTube is finally offering an option to (slightly) favour human moderators over algorithms in its app for kids. The YouTube Kids app now lets parents limit the selection of channels kids can watch to those that are human-curated. Along with some other changes, this should make it less likely that junior sees a video of Peppa the Pig drinking bleach during screen time. Read More >>
People love Google. It’s so useful! You can just type a few words into the search engine and then find loads of relevant websites—all for free. It’s not exactly free, of course. Google, like Facebook, offers free online services in exchange for the privilege to serve its users targeted ads. So, unless you’re using some anonymity tool or tweaking your settings, Google logs the data from every search you make and links it to you. The company is perhaps a few keystrokes away from a privacy scandal of its own. Why aren’t we freaking out about this? Read More >>
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