ZTE threw a fairly intimate party for itself today in Manhattan to announce the launch of its latest budget handset, a little under two months after announcing the $200 Grand X Max 2. Once again, the killer spec here is the price — the six-inch ZMAX PRO phablet runs an attractive $99, after rebate. The sub-$100 price tag actually brings with it some decent-looking specs, including a… Read More
Finally there’s a better way to gain followers on Snapchat. The app refuses to tell you who to watch. There are no suggested user lists, no leaderboards, no little buttons everywhere begging you to add someone new. You’ve had to go out and find your own people to follow. Until now. Alongside the recent launch of Memories, Snapchat quietly added a new feature it didn’t… Read More
Welcome to rumorland, where we look at smoke from afar to figur out if there’s any fire. This time, signs point to a new iPhone 7 Pro. In addition to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the Pro model would feature a dual-camera system as well as a smart connector at the back. Two photos spotted by Nowhere Else shows the three models side by side. The iPhone 7 Plus looks like a bigger version… Read More
As of 2018, all new passenger vehicles will be required by NHTSA to have rear visibility technology. This only applies to shiny new cars rolling off the assembly line, but that doesn’t mean vehicles made before the mandate are doomed to run over forgotten bikes and recycle bins. There are plenty of aftermarket rearview cameras available, including one from the guys who brought you… Read More
If you’re into building stuff and making things and live near a major city, you might’ve heard of TechShop. Like a gym for DIY-geeks, the idea is that they buy and maintain all sorts of crazy expensive machinery — laser cutters, CNC mills, 3D printers, etc — and you pay them a monthly fee to access it. According to an email sent out to members and investors by… Read More
A computational design tool created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology lets you fold a piece of metal or plastic into a “complex 3D shape” like a mask or even a shoe. “We’re taking a flat piece of material and giving it the tendency, or even the desire, to bend into a certain 3-D shape,” said Keenan Crane, part of… Read More
CityPilot has taken a key early step towards fully autonomous public transportation: The Mercedes-Benz self-driving bus program saw one of its Future Bus vehicles drive 20 km (or around 12.4 miles) in the Netherlands, on a route that connected Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport with the nearby town of Haarlem. To make the trip, the bus had to stop at traffic lights, pass through tunnels,… Read More
If a company is going to out-compete others long-term using AI/ML, it better have the best data to solve a specific problem or be playing a different game from its competitors. Unfortunately for startups, big technology companies typically have huge, proprietary data sets that span many industries. Rather than fighting hand-to-hand with technology Goliaths, AI/ML Davids need to find their… Read More
Dear developers, today is update day. Apple just released the third beta for the next major iteration of iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS — that’s a lot of megabytes. The third developer betas squash bugs and tweak new features as the final versions of these operating system updates will be released in the fall.
If you’re currently testing iOS or macOS through the public beta… Read More
The Republican National Convention kicks off today in Cleveland and the event promises to be unusual. Donald Trump’s campaign has, of course, been controversial, and he’s putting his own strange spin on the event. Major GOP figures have declined to attend, so Trump has replaced them with the likes of Scott Baio and Peter Thiel. Read More
Hello and welcome to the Internet. Those metal doors to your left and right are where they keep all the serious stuff like Amazon.com and Pinterest but right over here I think you will be delighted to find PointerPointer, a website that shows pictures of people pointing to your pointer. Created by Studio Moniker in Amsterdam the site offers no redeeming value except for a bit of pure… Read More
It took Uber six years to complete a billion rides around Christmas 2015. Now, just six months later, the company has announced that they have completed their two-billionth ride. Six months is 180 days, meaning the company was providing an average of 5.5 million rides a day, or 230,000 an hour to hit a billion rides in six months. Even crazier – instead of one person completing the… Read More
About 5,000 people showed up at Millennium Park on Sunday for probably one of the first massive Pokémon Go player gatherings since the game was released in the US a couple of weeks ago. Teenagers, artists, cosplayers, young adults and families with children spent a couple of hours or more chasing Pokémon near Cloud Gate, the silver sculpture — nicknamed “The Bean” —… Read More
Facebook seems to want to replicate some the success of its established platforms with its more emerging ones: The FB job board has a listing for a “News & Media Content Lead,” for VR subsidiary Oculus states right upfront that “effective content aggregation” is “key” to Oculus’ long-term success as a platform. Facebook’s role as a vector… Read More
Getting people to download apps on their phone is hard enough. Getting to use them and return is even harder. And getting valuable users who spend money in the app or take other actions that the developer wants to encourage, is the most difficult task of all. Today, Facebook announced plans to attack that latter problem with the debut of more advanced ad targeting options for mobile app… Read More
Brazil’s biggest app developer, Movile, is taking its on-demand delivery service into the Mexican market through a joint venture with Grupo ampm. The deal will cement Rappido’s position as the largest on-demand delivery service in Latin America. Read More
Microsoft today launched Stream, a new business video service that aims to give businesses that want to share video internally the same kind of tools and flexibility that YouTube offers to consumers — but with the added benefits of the security tools enterprises expect from their document management services. The service is now available as a free preview.
As James Phillips… Read More
How about some mobile games news that isn’t about Pokemon Go?
Lima Sky has committed to launching an e-sports league and new edition of their wildly popular Doodle Jump mobile game, according to the company’s Chief Operating Officer Matt Turetzky.
Lima Sky, which was founded seven years ago, has amassed 200 million unique downloads for its Doodle Jump games across every platform. Read More
A year and change after first showing off ResearchKit, Apple has finally found a big name drug company partner for its medical research platform. GlaxoSmithKline, the camel-cased conglomerate behind such pharmaceutical hits as Wellbutrin and Levitra, has signed on with the service to conduct rheumatoid arthritis research. The firm is looking to study 300 participants over the course of… Read More
A Princeton, New Jersey startup called Arable Labs Inc. recently unveiled a professional-grade crop and weather sensor that’s solar powered, rugged and was designed by Fred Bould, the creative talent behind the Nest thermostat, smoke and carbon monoxide detector, as well as Fitbit, GoPro and Roku products. The Pulsepod, which looks something like the head of a small drum or a… Read More
