News: Chinese VCs Spent Over $900 Million on Driverless in Q1
Millions of dollars continue to pour into the Chinese driverless market. Now, according to research firm CB Insights, $929 million have been invested in the first quarter of this year.
Millions of dollars continue to pour into the Chinese driverless market. Now, according to research firm CB Insights, $929 million have been invested in the first quarter of this year.
Ok, I have to admit, I drop my phone around 2–4 times a week. I'm horrible at protecting it and I've gone through my fair share of cracked phones. Most of the time, once the phone is cracked it's just easier to get an entirely new phone, rather than have to fight your phone provider for a fix.
You can pinch yourself, but you're not dreaming. Sprint is actually offering a year of (mostly) free, unlimited service for anyone who switches to the carrier. The only stipulation is that you must bring your phone with you, and it has to be one of the 27 eligible devices.
Anticipation is building for the release of the Essential Phone. Andy Rubin's newest creation is expected to be loaded with features like a rear fingerprint reader, attachable 360-degree camera, and an edge-to-edge display. However, a news release from Sprint has just revealed that it may take more than $700 to get your hands on the Essential Phone. The release revealed that the Essential Phone will be exclusively carried by Sprint, so it might be time to switch your wireless carrier.
Beijing- and Seattle-based DataMesh have announced the release of a new enterprise geared mixed reality middleware — MeshExpert. This solution for collaborative interaction with dynamic data is made up of two primary components: MeshExpert Live!, a 4K mixed reality capture system built off of the Microsoft Spectator View, and MeshExpert DataMix, which offers the ability to blend different types of data with XR and mobile hardware.
The common thread between this week's Brief Reality stories is that augmented reality is beginning to prove its worth as a technology that improves workflows and processes. From customer service to healthcare to manufacturing, augmented reality is helping companies improve productivity.
We're all passionate about something. Maybe it's the environment. Stopping poverty. Finding the best taco joint ... Whatever your cause, the last thing we want is to support companies whose practices go against what we believe. After all, you can't trust someone who doesn't like tacos. So it can be difficult to know which companies to avoid; there are just too many doing too many shady things to keep track of. Until ...
While the numbers may not always seem to agree, the message remains the same: augmented reality is a growth segment. This week's edition of Market Reality starts with two new reports outlining the expected good fortunes for the industry and concludes with an example of a company capitalizing on their own growth.
Uber has been in the hot seat for awhile now, for many reasons, especially for being sued by Waymo over stolen LiDAR designs. But now, perhaps the attention will be taken off both Uber and Waymo as a new contender enters the LiDAR arena; A small, independent company called Luminar has finally let the world in on what it has been cooking up.
It may seem strange to find the director of engineering at a question-and-answer site all of a sudden pick up and lead a new driverless startup, but to Kah Seng Tay, both engineering tasks require building the right infrastructure to handle large amounts of AI data.
Every time Donald Trump tweets about a stock you own, Trigger Finance, or just Trigger—the app founded on the "if this, then that" rule to track and invest in the stock market—alerts you with a notification for real-time analysis of financial data.
Sony offers a set of free games to its PlayStation Plus subscribers every month, but it's easy to miss out if you're not constantly around your console. Perhaps you're traveling, or maybe you've stayed up one too many nights playing Uncharted, leading to a period of PlayStation detox. No matter what the case is, the good news is that you can use the PlayStation app for Android or iOS to claim these monthly free games without getting up from your seat.
The Washington Post believes augmented reality adds an extra layer to stories, and they're doubling down on that belief by adding in new AR features into their already popular "rainbow" news (iOS and Android) and Classic (iOS and Android) news apps.
The company that pioneered music scanning for mobile devices is moving into the augmented reality advertising arena. Included in an update of their iOS and Android apps last week, Shazam can now scan special codes to immerse users in 3D animations, 360-degree videos, mini-games, and other AR content.
Earlier this week, a mysterious tweet appeared on the HTC Twitter account of a picture containing the letter "U" topped with a tiny "for" and the date "01.12.2017" at the bottom. It is a pretty solid teaser, but for a company that has had a solid year with their Vive virtual reality headset, and all of the other technological appendages they have, it seems a bit ominous for them.
Pretty much every note you save on your computer, phone, or tablet can be uploaded to your cloud and viewed on any of your devices. But what about those notes you write down on actual paper? Well, those notes can also be cloud-friendly, thanks to the Rocketbook Wave.
If you already have speakers that you love, you don't need to ditch them for an expensive wireless set for convenience's sake. With products like Chromecast Audio, you can turn any set of wired headphones or speakers into wireless versions for much less, and stream music or audio to them from pretty much any device connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Google dropped its opposition to T-Mobile's Binge On service due to some favorable policy changes at the magenta carrier. From now on, YouTube and Google Play Movies will happily work with the feature. Binge On rolled out late last year, allowing many customers to receive unlimited video streaming at 480p. That's not a great offer if you care about video quality, but it's nice if you want to save money.
The Stagefright exploit, which allowed for malicious code to be embedded in files on your device, is now very real in the form of Metaphor. Developed by software research company NorthBit, Metaphor is their implementation of exploits to the Stagefright library, and when executed, can access and control data on your device.
Starting in Android 4.3, Google added some code to AOSP that tagged your internet traffic when you were running a mobile hotspot, which made it incredibly easy for carriers to block tethering if you didn't have it included in your plan. But as of Android 6.0, this "tether_dun_required" tag has been removed, which means you no longer have to edit a database file to get tethering up and running.
If you exceed your monthly mobile data limit, your cell phone bill can skyrocket pretty quickly. This is why a lot of people vigilantly monitor internet usage and even uninstall apps that use too much background data.
When security firm Zimperium discovered Android's biggest security risk in years, it sent shock waves through the ecosystem. As a result, Google, LG, and even Samsung decided to change the way they issue updates to their devices, by pledging to release monthly security patches to plug up loopholes exactly like this one. Yeah, it's that big of a deal.
Recently, a group of Duke University students got together to tackle an age-old problem with mobile devices. You see, mobile data coverage isn't exactly ubiquitous, and many folks have restrictive mobile data plans, which means internet connectivity is not always an option.
Magic Leap, the virtual-reality software group backed by Google, just released a teaser video on their YouTube channel. In a word, it's amazing.
3D printing is getting closer and closer to becoming an everyday reality—which means revolutionary things are going to start happening for the home cook. Already there's a 3D printer that can produce edible tailored fruit and the Foodini, which can print full meals, including spaghetti and burgers. However, neither are available for purchase, and most likely won't be within reach of the average cook for years.
Google debuted YouTube Music Key in November, and for $10 a month, this essentially turned YouTube into a music streaming service. With ad-free music videos and background audio playback, YouTube serves as a viable alternative to Spotify or Pandora for Music Key subscribers.
You can find hundreds, if not thousands, of complaints about Wi-Fi performance issues with iOS 8 across all Apple devices. Even I had the issue on my iPhone 5S. The Wi-Fi connection on my router was strong, but I was getting extremely slow speeds. So slow, that I would resort to using LTE instead of Wi-Fi, which in turn led to going over my monthly data allotment.
With over 2 million uploaded videos and over 28 million people who had talked about it online by the end of August, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was the most viral social media event of 2014. Its popularity provided the ALS Association with $115 million in donations to date, with everyone from students to veterans to celebrities contributing.
Ever use an open hotspot on your Note 3, only to find out that it's severely restricted to what sites you can access? While getting online with free Wi-Fi is great for those who have a limited data plan, when that one site you absolutely need to visit is blocked, you're left frustrated and sent back into the Wi-Fi menu for another access point.
Netflix releases monthly reports on major ISPs relating to how well their service works on each provider. The purpose is to educate the public on their choice of service provider, but since many of us hardly have any choice at all when is comes to an ISP, it backhandedly works to shame them (if they're even capable of feeling shame under all those millions of dollars).
With rumors of the Active and Prime versions on the immensely popular Galaxy S5 circling the web for the past few weeks, today, we've got some clear proof of the upcoming Active variant.
Privacy features have become quite the hot commodity, emerging from the aftermath of the NSA scandals that rocked the United States this past year. While the NSA has the means to gather information on all of us (regardless of any security software we implement), it doesn't mean that they're the only ones looking.
Streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video have been available on game consoles for a while, but if you're in a country where they're blocked, it can be hard to find a way around. There are apps and extensions like Hola Unblocker and Media Hint and that to bypass location restrictions on your computer, but what about your Xbox?
A free Wi-Fi hotspot can be a lifesaver. Whether it's because you have shitty reception, need faster connectivity, or just don't want to go over your monthly data plan, free Wi-Fi in public areas is greatly appreciated. While connecting to these free hotspots is fairly easy, finding them can become a whole nother issue. I've been in plenty of situations where I wasted my data plan instead of taking a few steps to the right, where free Wi-Fi would have been waiting for me and my Samsung Galaxy...
Written news was first delivered by an elaborate courier service used by the Pharaohs nearly 4,500 years ago. About 2,300 years later, Romans would post public announcements via bulletins carved in metal or stone. Fast forward 1,600 years to the first monthly handwritten gazette published in Venice, the forefather of modern newspapers, which didn't become commonplace until the early 17th century.
For the most part, nobody makes money off of Facebook. Sure, some people make a living by updating pages for businesses and celebrities, but hardly anyone gets a dime from the site itself.
What's the meaning of life? That's the age-old question; but can it ever really be answered? I mean, isn't life just a big game anyway? Perhaps, a game of inches?
Free stuff is pretty cool. Free internet is even cooler—and free internet that is actually free is the coolest. If you would rather avoid sitting in a Starbucks and having to listen to hipsters discuss the proper length of cropped jeans, then this should be of interest.
The Internet has had a huge influence on many areas of our lives, but, in particular, has resulted in nothing short of a revolution in the way we work. The web has offered the sort of flexibility to the individual that few people would have dreamed of just a couple of decades ago. And where once a global marketplace was available only to a handful of multinational corporations, today thanks to the Internet, we can all access it.
Spammers are the bane of every email user. No matter what you do, junk mail always breaks through the spam filters. And some of the best ones seem to come from legit companies, and that's because they aren't legit companies— they're spammers masquerading as legit companies.