Vanhawks’ connected bike helps you avoid traffic and potholes

Vanhawks’ Valour is a connected commuter bicycle that hopes to make your travels both smarter and safer. The 16-pound carbon fiber bike can help you find a route to the office that avoids heavy traffic, and gives you turn-by-turn bike-specific directions to your destination along with blind spot detection while you’re on the road. It’s a combination of features that’s likely to have you traveling on two wheels a lot more often.

Unlike other solutions that use add-on computers, information you get from Valour comes through its handlebars. In the case of directions, the bike communicates with your smartphone using Bluetooth LE and lights up small LEDs at the center of the bars when it’s time to turn. Rather than just regurgitate Google Maps, the bike determines the “best” route for you through its app based on its own experience with your commute and other Valour owner’s travels. For instance, if you hit a pothole on your way to the office several times, it might start suggesting you take a detour around it rather than risk an early-morning faceplant. Likewise, if several riders find a road closure at 6AM, the bike will make sure you’re on time for work by guiding you around the issue at 8AM. When you’re checking out the sights on your new route and get a little too close to traffic, the handlebars will even vibrate to let you know there’s something in your blind spot.

The high-tech bicycle is currently raising money on Kickstarter for its first production run, with units going for around $1000. After 15 days of being live, the project has already raised more than four times its original goal. The extra cash means that Vanhawks is now offering the bike in several different frame and rim colors, and units will also include Avid BB5 road disc brakes and a Cardom Gates belt drive. If you want to snag a set of wheels for yourself, you still have 16 days to get in on the Kickstarter. The first shipments of the bike will hit the streets in October.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Kickstarter

Here’s an electric bike that’s easy on your eyes, not just the road

With certain exceptions, many electric bicycles make it all too clear that there’s some technology involved: they’re big, heavy and otherwise ungainly. You won’t have those gripes with the new Vanmoof 10 Electrified. It hides a 250W pedelec (that is, pedal-dependent) motor and batteries in a frame which isn’t much bigger than that of a regular bike, and is actually a bit charming with its minimalist (if very PVC pipe-like) design. It’s a relative featherweight at 42 pounds, too, and it includes GPS tracking to help catch thieves. The Electrified isn’t going to outrace the Specialized Turbo with its almost pedestrian 18MPH top speed, but it also costs nearly half as much at $2,998. That’s just low enough that it could be the right e-bike for your daily commute — especially if you’d rather not give up some style just to get a performance boost.

Filed under: Transportation

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Via: Wired

Source: Vanmoof

Engadget HD Podcast 398 – 5.15.14

Yep, there’s more net neutrality talk this week, but look on the bright side: at least Eastbound & Down has arrived on Blu-ray. But it doesn’t take a major leaguer to throw a curveball, as exemplified by Netflix’s one dollar price hike for all its subscribers. The upside? If you’re an existing customer, you get a two-year grace period on that increase. NBC is also upping the ante, but its all about locking in Olympics broadcast coverage until 2032 to the tune of $7.65 billion. While some things are looking to the future, this week also brought about a slew of TV finales, including the less-than-triumphant return of Cleveland Brown to Family Guy after his own show got canned. All this and more can be found amongst the informed chatter on this week’s Engadget HD Podcast, conveniently served up at the streaming links below.

Hosts: Richard Lawler, Ben Drawbaugh

Producer: Jon Turi

Hear the podcast:

13:20 – Microsoft lowers Xbox One price to $400 without Kinect
18:53 – Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and other services will be open to all on Xbox One, Xbox 360
26:46 – The hidden value of Amazon’s Fire TV
36:39 – Netflix begins raising prices, but current users get a two-year freeze
39:08 – FCC’s new net neutrality rules opposed by 100+ internet companies
42:12 – FCC may revise the new net neutrality rules, but it’s unlikely to satisfy critics
50:52 – NBC’s $7 billion Olympics deal will keep the games tied to cable TV until you’re old
52:54 – Major League Soccer to stream out-of-market games on ESPN3
56:13 – Rumors say AT&T is close to a $50 billion deal for DirecTV, unless it isn’t
58:28 – Sony reportedly puts its OLED TV efforts on hold
01:00:56 – PBS gives parents a way to monitor what kids are watching on its site
01:06:22 – Breaking Bad in 4K coming to Netflix in June
01:09:46 – Vudu’s ‘Share My Movies’ lets up to five friends peek into your library
01:11:54 – Must See HDTV for the week of May 12th: Her, Crocodile Dundee and so many finales

Get the podcast:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS – AAC] Enhanced feed, subscribe to this with iTunes.
[RSS – MP3] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator.

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Contact the podcast:

Connect with the hosts on Twitter: @rjcc, @bjdraw

Filed under: Podcasts, HD

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Shocker: The telcos are not pleased about today’s net neutrality vote

Earlier today, the FCC voted in a 3-2 split to move ahead with plans for fresh net neutrality rules. All told, this new set of proposed regulations differs somewhat from the commission’s first proposal, which was shot down by a federal court earlier this year. In brief, the FCC wants to impose a “no blocking” rule, and is calling for a “fast and robust” performance baseline. Meaning, even if a company like Comcast wanted to charge Netflix for faster service, it would still have to deliver adequate speeds even for websites that weren’t in the fast lane. Speaking of, these new rules do indeed allow for so-called fast lanes, though again, it’s unclear how slow the “slow lane” will be. Finally, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is also calling for an ombudsman to investigate complaints of abuse on the part of ISPs. As you can imagine, internet service providers aren’t happy about that last one. Or any of it, really.

In a statement, AT&T said:

Going backwards 80 years to the world of utility regulation would represent a tragic step in the wrong direction. Utility regulation would strangle investment, hobble innovation, and put government regulators in charge of nearly every aspect of Internet-based services. It would deprive America of the world’s most robust broadband infrastructure, and place a cloud over every application or website that delivers products and content to consumers. In short, it would place government in control of the Internet at the expense of private companies, inventors and entrepreneurs, and ultimately at the expense of the American people.

“Such an approach would also send an alarming message to the rest of the world-a message that says the United States believes it is appropriate for governments to place onerous regulations on the Internet. This could encourage other countries to pursue their own goals, whether to suppress ‘dangerous’ speech or extract economic value from American Internet and content companies.

Tragic. Strangle. Hobble. Deprive. Alarming. Onerous. Got it: Ma Bell ain’t pleased.

Verizon’s reaction, meanwhile, was a little more tempered. In a much briefer statement, the company said it “looks to reviewing the FCC’s proposal, and we will be constructively engaged in the months to come” but that it, too, is generally opposed to regulation:

But one thing is clear: For the FCC to impose 1930s utility regulation on the Internet would lead to years of legal and regulatory uncertainty and would jeopardize investment and innovation in broadband.

Ditto for Comcast, which even went with a kinda-approving blog post headline:

As strongly as we believe in the propriety of legally enforceable open Internet rules, however, we have an equally strong belief that any proposal to reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecommunications service subject to Title II of the Communications Act would spark massive instability, create investor and marketplace uncertainty, derail planned investments, slow broadband adoption, and kill jobs in America.

We, too, look forward to seeing what the FCC comes up with, though as a warning, it’s not likely to deliver a final net neutrality proposal until later this year. In the meantime, we expect the ISPs are suiting up (with lobbyists, that is). We’re reaching out to some of the other major providers, and will update this post as they weigh in.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: AT&T, Verizon, Comcast

Tires with built-in sensors keep a watchful eye on tread wear

Continental is bolstering its Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS ) to not only monitor your tire pressure but its tread depth, too. As your tires age and change shape, so does the way they roll and interact with the road surface. Continental’s clever system keeps track of these differences and compares them over time with model-specific stored data. When your tires eventually hit some pre-determined threshold, the car will notify you that your boots have reached their end of life. Continental expects this to roll into retail for the 2017 season in cars equipped with its TPMS systems. But fret not, you can always use that old standby — your eyes — to actually look and see if the tread wear indicators are flush with the tire surface. If they are, remember it’s safety first, so go get yourself a new set.

[Image credit: Continental]

Filed under: Transportation

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Via: Autoblog

Source: Continental

AT&T’s high-quality LTE calls arrive on May 23rd, but only on one phone

Right in sync with rumors, AT&T has launched its high-quality LTE voice calling in a handful of places across the US. If you live in the right parts of Illinois, Indiana, Minneapolis and Wisconsin, you’ll get pristine-sounding phone conversations starting on May 23rd. There’s no public roadmap for other regions, but AT&T is promising news on a “market-to-market” basis. Just don’t expect a wide selection of phones at first. The only phone that will support voice over LTE from day one is the fairly ho-hum Galaxy S4 Mini — if you just bought a Galaxy S5 or some other hot new device, you’ll still have to wait patiently for word of an update. Many smartphones are capable of handling the technology, however, so don’t be surprised if your next heart-to-heart chat sounds much clearer than usual.

[Image credit: Getty Images]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T

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Source: AT&T (1), (2)