Self-driving cars involved minor accidents, but don’t blame the tech
Since California began issuing permits for self-driving car tests on public roads last fall, four out of nearly 50 vehicles had minor accidents. According to an Associated Press report, three of the four were Google’s Lexus SUVs outfitted with Delphi’s autonomous technology. The fourth was a test vehicle owned by Delphi. In half of the fender benders, the cars were in control when the accident occurred, and all of them happened at speeds of under 10 MPH. Most importantly, all four cases resulted in minor damage and no injuries. Due to the state’s privacy laws, the report doesn’t indicate any further details — like if they happened while backing out of a parking space, for example.
In a blog post today, Google’s self-driving project head Chris Urmson explained that in its six years, the project has seen 11 accidents — all of them with light damage and no injuries. What’s more, Urmson notes none of the accidents were caused by the self-driving technology that has piloted nearly a million miles. “If you spend enough time on the road, accidents will happen whether you’re in a car or a self-driving car,” Urmson said. As you may recall, Florida, Michigan and Nevada also license companies to test self-driving cars on publish highways. Thus far, no accidents have been reported in those states.
[Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images]
Filed under: Transportation, Google
Via: Autoblog
Source: CNBC
Hunt dinosaurs and craft tools while stranded naked on ‘ARK’ island
ARK: Survival Evolved begins with a simple premise: You’re stranded on an island, naked, cold and hungry, and you must survive. Also, there are dinosaurs. And other survivors. And… dragons? (Maybe it’s not so simple after all). ARK is an open-world, first-person survival game, where players roam around an island occupied by dinosaurs and other legendary creatures, building tools out of natural resources, growing crops, researching technology and hunting for food — or for sport. Every creature in the game is able to be “tamed” and the first screenshots show people riding around on the backs of dinosaurs. Awesome. Once it launches, play with friends in the same room or with hundreds of people online on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (with full Morpheus VR support!) or Steam — ARK goes live on Steam Early Access on June 2. Check out the game’s announcement trailer below.
Source: ARK
AT&T’s first self-branded tablet is built for the budget crowd
Hey, Verizon: you’re not the only US carrier that can play the in-house tablet game. AT&T has unveiled the Trek HD, the network’s first self-branded slate. The 8-inch Android design isn’t exactly flagship-class, but it might hit the spot if you want LTE data on the cheap. You’re getting a modest 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 5-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front cameras, 16GB of expandable storage and an 8-hour battery. It does ship with Lollipop out of the box, though, and the price is certainly right — you’re looking at $50 on contract, or $200 over a 20-month installment plan. If all you want is a way to check Facebook when you’re on vacation, you’ll probably be fine.
Filed under: Tablets, Mobile, AT&T
Source: AT&T
How I nearly became hooked on a $335 laptop bag
When I was first approached about checking out the WaterField Designs $335 Rough Rider messenger bag, it occurred to me that I’ve never written about something as decidedly non-technical before. Let’s face it: When I plop down my case and begin unloading my work stuff, my focus has always been on the contents, not the vessel. But once the bag arrived, I realized this San Francisco outfit doesn’t just peddle any old type of gear; its handmade leather goods (crafted in the US, to boot) are something truly special. Still, coming from a world of ultra-padded messengers, I was worried if it would be quite good enough to do the job. So I broke up with my cushy day-to-day bag and switched to this all-leather interloper to see how I’d fare.
The bag’s sides, back and front flap are made entirely from heavy-grade distressed leather. In fact, the monstrous Campbell Lockstitch sewing machine that zips the bags together is what first caught my eye. I’d heard that it was serious enough to pound through the bag’s multilayer seams and even a hapless penny that dared get in the way. As it turns out, I received a sample of its stitching prowess that proved just that — which now dangles proudly from my bag’s shoulder strap. Speaking of, the strap is fashioned out of a woven, extendable seatbelt-like mesh with a soft leather floating pad to keep you comfy. Under the two-position, front button-down flap are two stretchy neoprene pockets and a couple more waxed canvas pockets on the inside of the bag. Finishing the outside is a thick leather handle that’s riveted to the upper portion of the bag through a thick piece of stiffening material to prevent it from sagging when carried from the top.
What’s immediately apparent about the WaterField bags are the little design touches that make them both useful and all kinds of beautiful. For example, you can customize the fabric color of the front pockets during the ordering process, and with the bag closed, they’re almost completely hidden except for a small sliver popping out below the front panel. The straps are anchored at an angle and are connected to the front of the satchel, so that while wearing it, it tends to hold the bag against your hip rather than dangling in space. The leather’s finish marks up really easily, but only serves to make the bag look even better as it wears in. It’s also the only bag I’ve worn that’s gotten me multiple compliments in a day.
It’s not an enormous catchall bag, though, but that’s not to say it’s tiny and can’t hold most everything I need in the average day. A tablet, laptop, charging gear, a paper notebook, snack and a paperback all fit snugly, but perfectly well. WaterField produces both 13-inch and 15-inch versions. I’m using the former, and while it can fit a 15-inch MacBook in a pinch, it’s definitely a cramped fit. The 15-inch model, by the way, is slightly more expensive at $355.
If I have any complaints (other than the price), it’s that the bag could do with a softened pocket for laptops and some type of cinching mechanism to close up the inside. I carry my laptop in a sleeve to keep it from getting beaten up during my typical workday, and the bag accommodates that sleeve with ease. That said, having this built in would be a definite plus. Also, typical of any narrow messenger bag, it doesn’t stand up on its own very well at all. I tend to lay it down when using it if there’s nothing handy to lean it up against. A couple times, I’ve had coins trickle out the side and onto the floor when I wasn’t particularly careful putting it down. A zipper or Velcro or something would be useful to keep your gear in the bag.
The Rough Rider is functional, wonderful to look at and built to last forever. It’s the nicest bag I’ve ever had; I can say that without any hesitation. It could pass as my grandfather’s wartime satchel, but on the flip side, with its modern touches, it’s perfectly suited to toting your equally high-end gear. Yes, it’s expensive, but if you’re in the market for a bag of this caliber — one that could well last the rest of your natural life — the price isn’t too far out there.
Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables
Motorola Droid Turbo now available for just $499 off contract [Deal]
The Motorola Droid Turbo from Verizon is a remarkable device. However, this handset was also slightly heavy on the users’ wallets. But that changes today with the smartphone getting its largest price reduction ever.
The 32GB base model of the Verizon Droid Turbo can now be yours for just $499.99. And if you’re looking to get the 64GB variant of the device in the Ballistic Nylon skin, you will have to shell out $549.99, which is still a pretty good deal for a device with a 2K resolution display and a 3,900 mAh battery on the inside.
Motorola announced yesterday that the handset would be directly upgraded to Android 5.1, with the handset currently running Android 5.0 Lollipop, so the fact that it’s running Android 4.4 out of the box shouldn’t be concerning for the users.
Source: Verizon (Black or Red) (Ballistic Nylon)
Via: Droid Life
Come comment on this article: Motorola Droid Turbo now available for just $499 off contract [Deal]
Best photo editing apps for Android [May 2015]
Photo editing apps on smartphones as a necessity to deal with early low-resolution cameras. Instagram even built up a social network off of the idea of filters and editing to make low megapixel shots look decent. Today, smartphone cameras have gotten significantly better, even replacing smaller point and shoot cameras for many people, but many of the editing apps have managed to evolve and stay relevant alongside the new, better cameras.
We went through some of the best available apps for tweaking your camera shots a couple years ago, but over the past few years the landscape of the best apps has changed. In this guide, we’ll go over the top apps for fine-tuning your shots to look perfect on whatever social media site you plan on uploading them to.
Snapseed is a fantastic photo editing option that’s currently operating under Google’s wing. It recently saw an interface update bringing it in line with Google’s material design standards, too.
The app isn’t flashy, but offers a simple, efficient way to start editing and tweaking your photos. The first screen of the app allows you to pick a photo to begin editing, and links into Android’s default file selector. You can grab stuff off of your phone, including camera photos and anything else saved to your device, but it also hooks into cloud storage options like Box, Google Drive, and Microsoft’s OneDrive. No support for Dropbox, which might be a deal breaker for some, but you can always manually download your Dropbox photos to edit them.
Snapseed has enough tools to get very fine control over your images. You’ll get your standard tweaks for adjusting brightness, sharpness, contrast and other image qualities, but it also allows some smaller things like spot repair for specific blemishes on a photo. Once you start digging into effects, you’ll find plenty of things to apply to your shots, including several different filters, tones, and tweaks, the option to add vignettes and borders, and a tool to draw on your photos. Many of those filters and modes also have different presets, giving you a quick way to add some flair to your photos without putting in too much work.
The interface in Snapseed relies heavily on Google’s love for swipe motions. When you’re playing with a filter, for example, swiping up and down changes which part of the effect you’re altering, and swiping left and right adjusts the strength of that detail. This approach means you’ll always have a very clean screen to work with, which is good, but it can also make things a little more difficult when you’re looking for that one specific menu item but it’s constantly tucked away.
Overall, Snapseed offers one of the more simple, cleanly designed approaches to editing your photos. It’s completely free, there are no ads, and since Google’s running the show you’ll get an app that sticks to their design standards. This one should definitely be at the top of your list to check out.
Spinly offers a slimmed down version of photo editing, which is perfect for someone that wants access to some of the fancy filters and effects that other apps have without all of the fluff. It’s slightly less cluttered than some of the other apps on this list, and is a relatively small app to boot.
While Spinly doesn’t have all of the tools that other apps do, it handles basic filters and editing perfectly. Filters are divided into four main groups, including Main, Urban, Vintage, Soft, and Mono, each with their own distinct looks. Each of these filters break down into sub-filters with minor differences, and once you’ve selected the perfect effect to put on your photo, you can adjust the strength of the effect, making it very easy to get the perfect tone out of your shots.
Aside from the main filters, Spinly offers all of the normal photo corrections and edits you’d expect, like exposure and contrast control, plus color warmth, sharpness, and saturation. There’s a vignette filter included, too. You’ll also find a light leak feature that’s unique to Spinly with a ton of different angles to give your photo that professional-amateur look. It might not be for everyone, but it’s cool to have the feature regardless.
Another nice feature that Spinly offers is quick cropping, so instead of doing everything freehand you can pick certain aspect ratios to fit whatever screen or app you’re planning on exporting the photo too. Once you’ve saved your edits, Spinly gives you quick button to share your photo to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr, plus a button to jump into Android’s share menu.
Spinly is completely free, and very simple to jump right into to, so this might be worth checking out if you need something lightweight, The app is ad-supported with no method of removing ads, though, so if that’s a deal breaker for you, look elsewhere.
Afterlight is one of the best apps for users that need extensive filters and effects to put on their photos and quick social sharing. It offers a simple, effective interface, tons of different tools, and even a built-up Instagram social following. It’s perfect for smartphone photographers that rely on social media sites to share their photos.
The different effects is really where Afterlight shines. There are a whopping 59 filters, 14 of which were created by guest Instagram users, 66 different film textures, and 77 adjustable frames to tweak your images to perfection. That gives you roughly 300,000 combinations of filters, frames, and textures to apply to your photos, and that’s not even counting the strength effects you can apply to the filters and frames.
Outside of the filters, Afterlight still handles all of your traditional photo editing just like you’d expect. There are the standard brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, etc. controls that you’ll need, plus cropping and transforming tools. Once you’re done editing your photos, sending photos to different social media sites is extremely easy. And if you use Instagram, tagging your photos with #Afterlight offers you a quick way to get a ton of exposure from the app’s massive social following.
Afterlight isn’t free like most of the other photo editing apps here, but it makes up for that with the sheer number of effects and fantastic interface that it offers. Plus, you won’t have to worry about any ads interrupting your photo tweaking sessions. If you don’t mind spending a buck on an app that’s as high quality as this (and really, it’s more than worth the asking price) then give this one a spin.
Autodesk Pixlr is made by the same developers that offer several other fantastic productivity programs, including Autodesk SketchBook. It’s definitely more productivity-oriented and less focused on touching up pictures for social media sites, but it handles both tasks exceptionally well.
Pixlr is probably one of the closest apps you’ll find that can replace a traditional desktop photo editor thanks to it’s powerful editing tools. The app has some very useful tricks, including a focal blur tool, a color pop tool, and tons of filters, effects, and tweaks.
The focal blur tool helps to simulate a focused subject in your photos, allowing you to select a specific point in an image and create a soft de-focus on everything outside of a certain range. This helps to draw attention to specific details, and gives a very professional look to your photos without much work. The color pop tool works similarly, letting you pick a certain area to colorize while making everything else black and white. It’s a great trick for making one specific detail the focal point of an image, and it’s incredibly easy to set up, especially compared to the work you’d have to put in on a desktop photo editor.
If you’re looking for the other effects and filters, Pixlr has that covered, too. It can’t compete with other apps on the sheer volume of effects, but it has enough to make it worthwhile. You’ll still get your standard tweaking tools, too, and there are tons and tons of collage options so you can quickly set up multiple photos arranged in different ways. That definitely appeals more to social media users, but hey, more features never hurt.
Pixlr offers a free experience with a few in-app purchases, so it’s worth test driving to see if it fits what you’re looking for. If you’ve ever used SketchBook, you’ll probably be very familiar with Pixlr, so this app would be worth adding to your productivity toolbox.
Adobe makes some of the best desktop photo editing software available, so naturally they’ve tried their hand at tackling the mobile market too. Adobe Lightroom is their mobile solution to picture editing, and it offers a more professional way to get things done compared to most other apps.
A big standout feature of Lightroom is its support for RAW (DNG) files. For those of you with newer phones that have the ability to capture RAW images (ie HTC One M9 and LG G4), you will be able to edit and apply effects to those photos right from your phone or tablet. I know that’s only a limited audience, but Lightroom can also edit RAW images captured from a DSLR via the cloud.
The app also has Adobe’s fantastic history feature, meaning you can make as many edits and changes as you’d like while still being able to undo every one of them back to the original image. Most other apps permanently apply filters and effects, so it’s much harder to go back to previous versions of the image.
On the feature front, Lightroom has tons of preset effects and filters to make things quicker and easier for you, plus as many manual editing tools that you could ask for. Sharing photos is easy, and Lightroom will sync your photos, edits and metadata included, across all of your Lightroom-enabled devices. This is especially handy if you’re dealing with anything like editing RAW files, as you probably won’t be connecting your DSLR directly to your smartphone. But you can, however, upload the files to your computer, begin making edits, and then pick up where you left off on your tablet or smartphone later without any extra work on your part.
The only drawback to Lightroom is that you’re going to need an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription to take advantage of it. It’s hard to justify spending money every month if you only need an app to do some quick edits on your Instagram photos, but if you’re invested in serious photography and you’d use all of the other perks that Creative Cloud offers, Lightroom is likely going to be a better fit for you than any of the other apps available.
These apps cover most photo editing cases you might need, including different effects perfect for sharing photos on social media, making a few quick touch-ups on vacation pictures, and just about as close as you can get to professional editing on a mobile device.
Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.
Come comment on this article: Best photo editing apps for Android [May 2015]
Some Nexus 6 users complaining of mobile data issues
The Nexus 6 has been one of the least controversial devices to launch in quite a while. Although its size might not be for everybody, one would say that the device has been less prone to issues or bugs compared to older Nexus devices.
That however could be changing with some users complaining about the handset’s mobile data connectivity. It is being said that some users are seeing a ‘!’ mark next to the signal bar, with no mobile network available. This usually happens when there’s not enough network coverage in your area, but this seems to be happening even when there’s plenty of coverage, thus causing concern among users.
The XDA forums are currently piling up with complaints about this issue, but we haven’t heard anything from Google as of yet. Some users apparently tried to soft-reset their device which seemed to have fixed the issue for a while, but unfortunately, it didn’t last long. When the users contacted T-Mobile and Sprint customer support, they were told to reset APN settings to default and/or to reset the APN protocols to iPv4/iPv6.
Are you facing any of the aforementioned issues? Sound off below.
Source: XDA
Via: Android Authority
Come comment on this article: Some Nexus 6 users complaining of mobile data issues
Google is temporarily shutting down Map Maker
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about a discovery on Google Maps that many believed was an Easter Egg hidden and planted by the search engine giant. Just in case you missed it, Facebook user Ahmad Babar posted a picture from a location just north of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in which a Droid could be seen urinating on the Apple logo.
As soon as Google became aware of the uncouth artwork, it removed it from the Map. In an exclusive statement sent to The Washington Post, Google blamed the appearance of the graphic on an unidentified individual who was manipulating Map Maker to create audacious designs.
It would appear that Google is still having a bit of trouble filtering all of the bad edits, though, as earlier today it announced that it would be temporarily shutting down the Map Maker service until a more reliable moderation system could be created.
The full statement can be seen below:
As some of you know already, we have been experiencing escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months. The most recent incident was particularly troubling and unfortunate – a strong user in our community chose to go and create a large scale prank on the Map. As a consequence, we suspended auto-approval and user moderation across the globe, till we figured out ways to add more intelligent mechanisms to prevent such incidents.
All of our edits are currently going through a manual review process.
We have been analyzing the problem and have made several changes. However, it is becoming clear that fixing some of this is actually going to take longer than a few days. As you can imagine, turning automated and user moderation off has the direct implication of very large backlogs of edits requiring manual review. This in turn means your edits will take a long time to get published.
Given the current state of the system, we have come to the conclusion that it is not fair to any of our users to let them continue to spend time editing. Every edit you make is essentially going to a backlog that is growing very fast. We believe that it is more fair to only say that if we do not have the capacity to review edits at roughly the rate they come in, we have to take a pause.
We have hence decided to temporarily disable editing across all countries starting Tuesday, May 12, 2015, till we have our moderation system back in action. This will be a temporary situation and one that we hope to come out of as soon as possible.
While this is a very difficult, short term decision, we think this will help us get to a better state faster. More importantly, we believe it is simply the right thing to do to all of you, our valued users who continue to edit with the hope that your changes might go live as fast as you’ve been used to.
Come comment on this article: Google is temporarily shutting down Map Maker
The LG G4 does in fact support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0
When LG launched the G4 a few weeks ago, support for Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology was surprisingly absent from the handset. LG claimed that quick charging technology was “not a must-have feature” on a device with a removable battery, so the company ultimately opted to pass on the battery tech. However, despite initial claims, LG and Qualcomm have just officially confirmed that the G4 does in fact support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0.
Read more: Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology explained
As it turns out, the company didn’t initially manufacturer the G4 with the intention of supporting the tech, but it will be available on consumer-ready units when the phone is released to the masses. The pre-production units charge slightly faster than other handsets thanks to the included 1.8A wall charger, though not nearly as fast as other handsets with the technology built in.
Related Videos
.rvs_wrapper
width: 335px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left
float: left;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none
width: 100%;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center
text-align: center;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: none;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos:not(.align_none) ul li:nth-child(2n+1)
clear: both;
.rvs_title
font-weight: 600 !important;
margin: 0 !important;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right .rvs_title
padding-left: 20px;
.rvs_title a
font-family: ‘Roboto Condensed’;
color: #3a3a3a;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
padding-top: 10px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left.cbc-latest-videos ul li,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 15px 0 0;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 0 0 15px;
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a
font-weight: 400;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a .yt-thumbnail
margin-bottom: 0;
@media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
.rvs_wrapper
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
#page .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
display: inline-block;
float: none;
vertical-align: top;
Although LG is correct in saying that Quick Charge 2.0 isn’t as necessary on a device with a removable battery, this will likely be welcome news to many users hoping to get their hands on the device.
Huawei MediaPad M2 unveiled, 64-bit octa-core SoC in tow
If you’ve been trying to get your hands on an 8-inch Android-powered tablet over the past few months, you probably already know that your options are a little scarce. Perhaps that’s where Huawei hopes to come in, with the newest addition to the company’s tablet lineup – the MediaPad M2.
Measuring 7.8mm thick and weighing in at 310g, this certainly isn’t the slimmest tablet on the market, but that just leaves room for all of the device’s beefy internals. It has a 2GHz 64-bit octa-core Kirin 930 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of on-board storage, microSD expansion and a big 4800mAh battery. It also has an 8MP rear-facing camera with an LED flash and a 2MP front-facing camera. And while the tablet’s 8-inch display with 1200 x 1920 resolution won’t satisfy everyone’s pixel needs, this will definitely suffice for most users.
The MediaPad M2 is running Android 5.0 Lollipop, complete with Huawei’s Emotion UI 3.1 software overlay. Sales will likely start sometime in June with the Wi-Fi model starting at around $310, while the LTE-compatible model will go for somewhere around $390.
What are your thoughts? Are you interested in Huawei’s new tablet offering?
AIVAnet 