Samsung Creates First All In One With a Curved Screen

Samsung has created the worlds first curved display. The curvaceous computer also known as the ATIV One 7 will include a Core i5-processor with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD spinning at 5400 RPM. It will unfortunately not pack a 4k screen, but it will be have a full-HD 27-inch display. Samsung has mentioned that one of the advantages of its curved display is to improve viewing angels. It will be available in the first quarter of 2015 for $1300.

 

Source: CNET

Singapore Tests Driverless Taxis

On the heals of Googles announcement of its completed driverless car, MIT has unveiled its plans to test a driverless Uber type service in a busy Singapore neighborhood. The goal is to see what real world benefits or drawbacks a driverless taxi will have. It will also allow for the correction of any problems with the driverless technology being used. This project is set to start getting underway in 2015.

Source: MIT Technology Reviews

Sony Will be Releasing 'The Interview' on Christmas Day

According to The Hollywood Reporter Sony has announced a limited Christmas day release of it's highly controversial movie, The Interview. The Sony hack that was allegedly done by North Korea in an attempt to prevent The Interview from hitting theaters, has only caused movie goers to crave its' release that much more.  It makes you wonder if putting the blame on North Korea after being hacked was just a brilliant PR move performed by Sony in order to turn a negative situation into a marketing scheme which launches its' latest movie into the forefront of all entertainment headlines.

You can click here for a list of the Theaters that will show The Interview.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Google Rolling Out Completed Driverless Cars in 2015

Several videos and articles of Googles' driverless car prototypes have been floating around online for quite sometime now. But the Internet giant who once made its' living solely from providing search services has revealed the finished version of  its' driverless car. Because of the driverless car law signed in California last March, Googles' autonomous vehicle will be making its' debut on California roads in 2015.

Source: Google Self Driver Car Project

Volvo's Smart Bike Helmet Concept Vibrates to Warn You of Cars You Can't See

If Volvo has its way cyclists will receive a vibration and a red flash on their Volvo bike helmets to alert them of incoming motorists. They plan on accomplishing this by syncing the location of the cyclists and the motorists to the Volvo managed cloud. Once this is done Volvo keeps track of each vehicles proximity and send out alerts when they are too close to each other. The location of the driver will be obtained using Volvos in-dash system. But the cyclists will need to download an app such as Strava and link it to the Helmet to do the same. The only foreseeable flaw with this idea would be the fact that this will only be truly effective if all drivers own a Volvo vehicle and all cyclists own a Volvo helmet.

You Can Now Say 'OK Google'o on Chromebooks Without Going Into App Launcher

Other than a super low price tag PC's and Macs have nothing to be jealous of when compared to Google Chromebooks, until now. In a Google Plus update published by Francois Beaufort, we find out that the 'OK Google' command can now be used from anywhere on the Chromebook, as long as it's unlocked. You no longer have to go through the app launcher first. The only catch is you will have to be running on the dev channel and have the appropriate flags enabled. If you are the proud owner of a Chromebook and are also on the dev channel then follow the instructions given by Francois in the source below.

Source: Francois Beaufort

Navy Creates Drone Shark to Spy on Enemies

US Navy has unveiled what it's calling the GhostSwimmer drone. It looks just like a shark, and even mimics the swimming movements of said fish to spy on enemies without being noticed. It can dive as deep as 300 feet and can also operate unmanned, but will need to surface to transmit it's findings to the command center. If one does need to get control of this spying shark, they  need to be connected with a 500-foot tether. The machine is still in testing, you can check out the below video to see the drone in action.

Facebook Gives iOS User's Ability To Auto Enhance Photos

Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram has taught Zuckerberg and friends a few photo tweaking tricks apparently. If you have the latest version of the Facebook app on your iOS device, you now have the ability to automatically enhance pictures once they are uploaded. This is not unlike the feature that Google+ has been using for over a year now, which also automatically adjusts pictures to give them a sharper look. This feature will soon be available to Android devices as well, and maybe even Windows Phone devices if Microsoft is lucky enough.

Source: TechCrunch

T-Mobile Letting Customers Roll Over Unused Data

T-Mobile is allowing users to roll over their unused data for up to a year. Customers will need to be on a 3GB 4G LTE post paid phone plan or a 1GB post paid tablet plan in order to take advantage of this new feature. Qualifying users will receive what T-Mobile is calling a data stash. Customers will receive 10GB in their stash to start them off, and there will be no limit to the amount of data they can stock it up with. According to T-Mobile's CEO John Legere, this feature will be available on January 2015.


Source: T-Mobile

Jaguar Shows off Augmented Reality Windshield Concept

Photo: Jaguar

If Jaguar has it's way it will have its augmented reality windshields be used to eliminate blind spots and provide distraction free navigation assistants. It will place screens in the pillars of its cars that will stream a feed from an outside camera to identify things such as pedestrians being hidden by your cars pillars. It will also display a ghost car in front of you, which will guide you and notify you of upcoming turns. Check out Jaguars concept video below.

Source: Jaguar

Printer Made Out of Lego and littleBits

Photo: Gizmodo

littleBits is a lego like product who's pieces connect with one other to create fully functional electronic devices. Imaginative innovator, Arthur Sacek, combined a Roller switch, Brick adapter, light sensor and other littlebits modules in order to create a device that duplicates an image rather accurately.

See the video below for yourself.

Source: psfk.com

Leaked Specs Shows Samsung Galaxy S6 has Octa-Core CPU

The folks at Mobifo reportedly got there hands on a screenshot of an AnTuTu benchmark being performed on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6.

The Galaxy S5 successor will sport an ARM CPU with 8 cores, QHD display, a 16MP camera, Mali-T7600 GPU and will be loaded with Android 5.0, according to the above screenshot. Rumors from other sources have also claimed that the device will have 3GB of RAM and be coupled with an Exynos 7420 processor based on a 64-bit architecture.

Source: Mobifo

Hover board is Now a Reality...Kinda

An innovated Texas based man by the name of Ryan Craven has ambitiously created his own personal hoverboard. Even though this device doesn't work quite like the one Marty McFly had, the idea of a real life skateboard with no wheels that hovers off the ground is pretty cool.

Ryan uses 4 leaf blowers and connects them in a way that allows them to blow air that gets funnelled across a number of small holes on the board, which then causes it to hover. It is practically just a miniature hovercraft. For those interested in duplicating Ryan Craven's DIY hoverboard, the instructions for it can be found here. But if you are patient enough a company called Hendo is working on a production hoverboard that looks a little more sleek and approachable. It will go for around $10, 000 once released.

Source: Mr Hoverboared

Nokia's Here Maps is Here on Android

The tried and tested Nokia Here Maps has finally made its way to Google's Android Playstore. Here Maps has been used on Windows Phones and on Symbian, under the name Nokia Maps, for years. It has also been an exclusive on the Samsung App Store since October. It is a very reliable and easy to use turn by turn navigation system, but what makes it really stand out is its ability to download maps when connected to wifi and then navigate you to your destination without using your cellular data. Android users can visit the Playstore now to reap the benefits of Here's offline maps, but IOS users will have to wait until 2015 to be able to download it from the Appstore.

Photo: Engadget

Source: Google Play

T-Mobile's $100 Shared Data Plan Comparable to Wind Mobile

Most Canadians already know that T-mobile is basically the U.S version of Wind Mobile, who is also known to be a bit of unconventional carrier compared to the big three phone companies it competes with. Other than broadcasting on the same frequency T-Mobile now shares another commonality with Wind, which is the willingness to give its customers unlimited data. Wind is famous in Canada for its $35, $40, $44, $50 and $60 a month unlimited data plans. T-mobile has now joined its' Canadian dopple ganger and has introduced a $100, 2 line shared unlimited data plan. This plan also gives you unlimited talk, text and 5GB of tethering. To find out more details about this plan visit t-mobiles' news room.

Source: T-Mobile

NFC Chips Can Be Used to Wirelessly Detect Gas Leaks

MIT chemists found a way to modify an NFC chip and gave it the ability to work with carbon nanotubes to sniff out certain types of gases. This technology can be used for detecting things like carbon monoxide leaks, bombs and whether or not food has gone bad. Because an NFC chip is used, this tech would work great in smartphones.There is no set function for these modified chips, but it seems like it has many possibilities. The team that invented this sensor would also like to find a way to incorporate bluetooth in the mix in order to extend their range.

Photo: MIT

Source: MIT

Uncharted 4 Gameplay Preview

Naughty Dog has brought back their male tomb raider, Nathan Drake, for another uncharted squeal. During today's PlayStation Experience, Naughty Dog decided to debut the games amazing graphics and smooth game play mechanics. Even though you'll have to wait until 2015 to play the real thing, you can watch the preview posted on PlayStations' youtube channel.

Cheaper and Slimmer Version of Google Glass Releasing Next year

According to Quartz Google is working on a thinner, more stylish and cheaper version of the Google Glass. The sketch below shows the more sleek looking Glass that Google plans to bring to market next year. The back part which hangs over the ears are significantly smaller, looking more like something you would see on a standard pare of glasses. Even the glass over in front of the eye has been reduced in size. Google may drop the price to assist in making this device more of a consumer product than its' Glass Explorer counter part, which sells for $1500 and up. There is no specific release date for the New Google Glass, but expect it sometime in 2015.

Unbreakable iPhone Screen Method Patent

If Apple gets its way the next iPhone may be able to re-orient itself in the middle of a drop to prevent it from landing on fragile parts like the screen. A patent has been filed by apple which allows an Apple phone to do just that.

The schematics inform us that the gyroscope, accelerometer and GPS will work together to determine when the phone is falling, and the speed of the fall. Once it has been determined that the device is plummeting downward a motor will then work to re-position the phone in midair so that it lands in a way that wont leave it shattered from the impact. The patent also details several other impact absorbing methods. One method being deploying gas canisters to soften the landing.

A great deal of patents are just created by companies to prevent other organizations from making the same product and capitalizing on it before they can. This may just be a chess move by Apple and not an actual intended product, but this would definitely make for a very interesting keynote demonstration.




Images via Flickr / USPTO

Google's Project Ara Gains a Competitor With Puzzlephone

 It looks like Google's Project Ara will have some competition. A manufacturer by the name of Circular Devices has decided to put a simplistic spin on Google's yet to be released modular phone. Unlike Project Ara, the ironically dubbed Puzzlephone only allows you to replace 3 major components of the phone, which are "the Heart" (Battery and Secondary Electronics), "the Spine" (LCD and Speakers) and "the Brain" (Core electronics and camera).Circular Devices may be planning to market this sleek and approachable device to novice phone users who like the idea of having a phone that lasts over a year, but without the intimidation of trying to figure out which parts to purchase and swap out.

Source: Gizmodo