Google hires auto industry veteran to run self-driving car project
Google already has someone running the technical side of its self-driving car project, but what about making sure the spreadsheets and such match up? That’s a job for a serious business type, which is why the firm has hired auto industry veteran John Krafcik to become CEO of its autonomous vehicles division. Krafcik comes with some pedigree, having previously worked at Ford and ran Hyundai’s US car business for five years. Those with long memories will recall that Krafcik was responsible for replacing owners manuals with a tablet in the Hyundai Equus, before reversing that decision a year later.
Yes, true: I’m joining the Google Self-Driving Car project in late September.
— John Krafcik (@johnkrafcik) September 14, 2015
When Krafcik left Hyundai, he went to run TrueCar, an online shopping site that helps buyers find deals when buying a new car. As Re/code reports, while the self-driving car project now has its own CEO, it’s not yet ready to become its own company, away from Google’s X Lab. A spokesperson told the site that it’s “not becoming an Alphabet company at this stage,” cheekily adding that “it’s certainly a good candidate to become one” in the future.
[Image Credit: Getty]
Filed under:
Transportation, Google
Via:
WSJ
Source:
John Krafcik (Twitter)
Tags: Alphabet, Autonomous, ChrisUrmson, google, JohnKrafcik, SelfDrivingCar
Apple Watch is coming to John Lewis
If you live in the UK and want to play with an Apple Watch, you have two options at the moment: Walk into an Apple Store, or find someone that already owns one. For many, the latter isn’t an option, and the former can be an unpleasant experience after a couple of new iPhones have gone on sale. Luckily, you’ll soon have an alternative in the form of John Lewis. A “curated selection” will be available in 37 of its 44 department stores from September 18th — a further four shops will be added before the end of the year, the company claims. Apple offers a wide variety of Watch combinations, so while the limited collection might sound disappointing, it’s also not surprising. John Lewis will presumably focus on the more popular combos, so if you want something unusual, you’ll probably still need to order online. Otherwise, you can wait and try your luck in Currys PC World.
[Image Credit: Lynne Cameron/PA Wire]
Via:
Wareable
Tags: apple
Motorola launches the Moto X Play in India for INR 18,499
Motorola has just launched the Moto X Play in India. The handset is available to purchase exclusively through Flipkart and comes with a INR 18,499 ($278) price tag for the 16GB model and INR 19,999 ($301) for the 32GB variant. To celebrate the release, Flipkart will be giving away 100% cashback codes to one-hundred lucky random Ping users, along with e-gift vouchers worth INR 1,000 ($15).
The Moto X Play sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display, an octa-core Snapdragon 615 System-on-Chip (SoC), 2GB of RAM, a 21-megapixel rear-facing camera with f2.0 aperture and dual-LED flash, a 5-megapixel selfie shooter, dual-SIM support, water-repellant coating and a 3,630mAh non-removable battery.
With regards to connectivity, the Play bundles compatibility for 4G LTE, GSM, WCDMA, Bluetooth Class 1 (Version 4.0, LE+EDR), 802.11b/802.11g/802.11n Wi-Fi, NFC and GPS. The device also ships running the latest build of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, which will enable users of the handset to take full advantage of Android Pay.
The Lenovo-owned company’s latest offering looks to be a pretty solid smartphone with a sturdy build, but if your sitting on the fence and are prepared to wait a little while longer, check back for our full review. However, if your heart’s already set on this phone and you’d like to find out more about picking one up — hit the source link below.
Source: Flipkart
Come comment on this article: Motorola launches the Moto X Play in India for INR 18,499
Lenovo will launch the A7000 Plus in the Philippines tomorrow
Earlier today, Lenovo unveiled its latest smartphone, the A7000 Plus, in the Philippines. The handset will be up for grabs in the region starting tomorrow, Tuesday, September 15 from online retailer Lazada for ₱7,499(Pesos), which equates to roughly $160.
As you’ve probably guessed, the A7000 Plus is an upscaled model of the A7000 that launched back in April. The new variant packs a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a 13MP rear-facing camera, 16GB of expandable memory and a 3,000mAh battery.
All other specifications remain identical to the standard device, meaning the Plus will pack a 64-bit MediaTek MTK MT6752 octa-core chipset, a Mali-T760MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM, Cat. 4 LTE and Wi-FI 802.11 b/g/n.
If you reside in the Philippines and would like to bag an A7000 Plus, be sure to head over to Lazada’s website to register your interest so that you can be notified the second the handset is listed for order.
Source: Lazada
Come comment on this article: Lenovo will launch the A7000 Plus in the Philippines tomorrow
Verizon is now rolling out the Lollipop update for the first-generation Moto X
Contrary to popular belief, Verizon is currently in the process of rolling out the long-awaited Lollipop update to the first-generation Moto X. In terms of added functionality, this upgrade transports the latest build of the Android operating system, together with a much-needed patch for the Stagefright vulnerability.
Hit the break for the full changelog.
- Material Design: You will quickly notice a whole new colorful look and feel to your device – from fluid animations to new application and system themes, colors and widgets.
- Notifications UI & Priorities: In order to alert you to the mosttimely and relevant information, the format and behavior of notifications have evolved:
- notifications will appear on the lock screen and are intelligently ranked by type and who sent them.
- you double-tap to open one, swipe left or right to clear one, or clear all notifications from the bottom of the list.
- you can set the priority and privacy of notifications for each application.
- very high priority notifications will pop up briefly over other applications so that you can take action.
- when you dismiss a notification on one device it will be dismissed on your other Android devices, if they are connected to the Internet.
- you can further tailor how notifications behave with the new Downtime and Ambient Display settings (see below).
- New Interruptions & Downtime Settings: You can tailor how interruptions behave, choosing to allow all, none, or only priority interruptions. You can personalize what counts as a priority interruption (reminders, events, calls, messages) and even tailor them to be from only contacts you specify. The Downtime setting will allow only priority interruptions during the times and days that you specify. e.g. allow only priority interruptions on the weekend.
- Recent Apps (Multi-tasking): The redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) will include both applications and separate activities within those applications. For instance, each open tab in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail Inbox and a draft email message will appear as separate cards. This provides a consistent way to switch amongst tasks.
- Flashlight: Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of Quick settings (swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it).
- Pin a view/app: Screen pinning allows you to keep a specific app or screen in view. For example, you can ‘pin’ a game and your child will not be able to navigate anywhere else on your phone.
- Battery: The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left while discharging or charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life.
- Smarter Internet Connections: With Android Lollipop, your phone will not connect to a Wi-Fi access point unless there is a verified Internet connection. This feature improves hand-offs between Wi-Fi and cellular connections, helping to maintain your video chat or voice-over-IP (VoIP) call as you switch.
- Performance: Your phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After upgrading to Lollipop, your applications will undergo a one-time optimization process. Note that the optimization for ART requires more space.
- Security: Encryption can now use a stronger 256-bit key to help protect your data. Note that the stronger key willonly be used after you perform a factory reset on Android Lollipop. Otherwise encryption will continue to use 128-bit key. You can turn on encryption in the Security settings menu.
If you don’t feel like waiting for a notification confirming that the update is ready for your device, you could always search for the upgrade manually. To do so simply follow the four steps below:
- Open the Settings app
- Scroll to the bottom and tap on “About Device”
- Hit “System Updates”
- Tap on “Check for update”
Come comment on this article: Verizon is now rolling out the Lollipop update for the first-generation Moto X
Ex-Hyundai CEO to steer Google’s self-driving car project
Google has hired its first chief executive for its self-driving car project. The division will be under the supervision of ex-Hyundai CEO John Krafcik, a 25 year industry veteran. Krafcik takes over the lead role from Chris Urmson, who is moving over to a technical director on the project.
Krafcik has plenty of experience in the automotive industry. He us currently president of TrueCar, an online platform for automobile purchases, was CEO of Hyundai Motor America for five years, and worked in product development at Ford for 14 years before that.
“This is a great opportunity to help Google develop the enormous potential of self-driving cars … This technology can save thousands of lives, give millions of people greater mobility, and free us from a lot of the things we find frustrating about driving today. I can’t wait to get started.” – John Krafcik
Google appears to be stepping up its self-driving car and Android Auto initiative. However, it is interesting to note that, despite now having its own CEO, the self-driving car project will remain under Google’s X labs for now, rather than becoming its own company under the new Alphabet umbrella. Although Google says that it is “a good candidate to become one at some point in the future.”
See also: Google’s driverless car prototypes are now cruising the streets of Mountain View
Google has been testing its self-driving cars in a few locations across the US over the past few months. The company also ordered additional prototypes just last week, suggesting that it is preparing to ramp up testing next year. Google has previously stated that it won’t be producing any vehicles itself, but will instead be looking to partner up with other manufacturers.
Motorola Moto X Play launches in India
The Moto X Play has just launched in India, that’s the latest reasonably price smartphone from Motorola which was unveiled alongside the more expensive Moto X Style back in July. The phone comes with a budget friendly price tag starting at Rs.18,499 ($278).
For a quick recap, the Moto X Play is equipped with a 5.5-inch Full HD display, octa-core Snapdragon 615 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage with 128GB microSD card support, a 21 megapixel rear camera and 5 megapixel front camera, along with a huge 3,630mAh battery. The phone also comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, dual-SIM support and a water repellent coating, just in case it gets a little wet.
See also: Moto X Play announced: great specs, budget-friendly pricing
The Indian launch was teased by FlipKart last week with a dedicated page and a countdown timer. As you would expect then, the Moto X Play is available exclusively through FlipKart. The retailer is also throwing in a variety of launch day offers, including 100% cash back for 100 random Flipkart Ping users, Flipkart e-gift vouchers worth Rs. 1,000, and movie vouchers from BookMyShow worth Rs. 500. These offers will be available until September 20th.
FlipKart will be selling the 16GB Moto X Play for Rs. 18,499 ($278), while the 32GB model costs Rs. 19,999 ($301), both in your choice of black or white colors. The sale begins at midnight tonight.
NVIDIA apparently working through small recall of the NVIDIA Shield Pro
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It looks like NVIDIA is having a bit of a bad year. After having to recall some NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet units due to the risk of the battery overheating, it appears NVIDIA is having another, smaller recall of the NVIDIA SHIELD Pro, NVIDIA’s Android TV device. Specifically, the recall relates to the 500GB version of the SHIELD Pro which has experienced hard drive failures in less than 1% of the units that have gone out – that’s not a particularly big number, but it’s never good to have a known issue with devices in the wild. And the symptoms you should be looking for? Here are the two things NVIDIA has pointed out:
- Fastboot menu appears during Upgrade 1.4 (even if system recovers after a system reboot you should get a replacement).
- Severe and persistent pixilation in all tiles of the top row of the Android TV home screen (text in tiles will be unreadable and does not become clear after a few seconds).
If that’s you, you’ll need to contact NVIDIA here to arrange for your unit to be shipped back. Luckily, it appears NVIDIA is quite eager to make the transition for you as easy as possible, so they’ll be shipping out a replacement as soon as your RMA is approved.
What do you think of NVIDIA’s handling of these recalls?
Source: NVIDIA via TalkAndroid
The post NVIDIA apparently working through small recall of the NVIDIA Shield Pro appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Citizen Mars, Episode 3: the lives they leave behind
It everything goes to plan, the first Mars One probe will touch down on the Red Planet in 2018. Two years later, it’ll then start scouting for potential colony sites. In 2022, life support systems and other essential equipment will be sent to Mars ahead of the first manned mission. Sue Ann, Mido, Adriana, Shradha and Pietro are doing what they can to be ready for blast-off, knowing full well that they won’t return.
The most difficult thing about going away forever is leaving behind the world they know: a dinner party with friends, a game of soccer, a hike through Griffith Park.
The Citizen Mars series takes an in-depth look at five of the 100 finalists for the Mars One mission. In each episode we chart progress of everyday people determined to be the first to colonise the Red Planet.
Through interviews and extensive vérité that spans Europe, Africa, Asia and the US, discover the obsession with the future, adventure, and space that’s propelling them to leave everything — and everyone — behind.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, Transportation, Science, HD
Source:
Citizen Mars
Tags: citizen mars, citizenmars, exclusive, hdpostcross, mars one, marsone, space, uk-feature
‘Sleepy Hollow’ for Oculus wins first virtual reality Emmy
Virtual reality has officially become mainstream, as an Emmy has been awarded to a work created for an VR headset (the Oculus Rift DK2) for the first time. The Sleepy Hollow Virtual Reality Experience (below), co-produced by Fox and Toronto-based Secret Location, won in the “Interactive Media, User Experience and Visual Design” category. It first debuted at Comic-Con, and gave thousands of Oculus Rift users the unique gift of seeing what it would be like to have their heads cut off and waved in front of them by the Headless Horseman. You can view it for yourself on Oculus Share if you have a Rift DK2.
Another Emmy was handed to the team behind the AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience app, a 360-degree video centered around the singer’s Blank Space music video, which has been viewed over a billion times. It let users to look around the entire scene, follow Swift around and look for hidden clues. However, it was designed for a smartphone or tablet and not a headset, so falls outside what most folks would call virtual reality. Nevertheless, Swift was clearly well pleased, and the awards will no doubt motivate producers and artists to create similar side projects and keep the VR snowball rolling.
[Thanks, Felipe!]
Filed under:
Wearables, Facebook
Source:
Fox
Tags: Emmy, facebook, OculusRift, SecretLocation, SleepyHollow, video, VR, VRExperience
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