Millennials are the fascination and frustration of the auto industry, and now Toyota has a new scheme to try to encourage young drivers into its dealerships. Having killed off Scion last year, arguing that the sub brand had lost its relevance as Toyota's own line-up was more encompassing, now it's time for a new sub brand. This one, though, focuses even more explicitly on motorsports.
Tim Cook was put on the spot about iPhone X pricing, with Apple's CEO questioned as to whether the new flagship smartphone was too costly for the typical American user. It's the culmination of several months of iPhone pricing controversy, after wide speculation about just how much Apple could afford to charge for the iPhone X. The worst fears of many came true last week, with Apple confirming that the new handset would start at $999, but according to Cook we're thinking about it all wrong.
You're nobody in tech if you don't have a smart speaker, and it seems Roku may be planning to enter the fray with a home companion of its own. The company is best known for its streaming media sticks and set-top boxes, easy ways to add services like Netflix, Amazon, and Showtime straight to your dumb TV. Now, though, it's looking like Roku wants to take on Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and the upcoming Apple HomePod.
The tablet segment may have stalled, but Amazon believes there's still room for an impressively potent, surprisingly affordable Android model. Welcome, then, the Amazon Fire HD 10, the newest update of its 10.1-inch slate, with a 1080p Full HD display and quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. The headline specs might be speed, but the price is just $149.99.
When it comes to connected locks, August is rightly one of the first names that comes to mind, and now there's a new flagship aiming for a spot on your door frame. The August Smart Lock Pro may look like its predecessor, but inside it's all-change with faster components, along with Z-Wave Plus support for pro-installation alarm systems. It'll even tell you whether you've left the door ajar. Question is, does that make it worth $279?
August has rolled out a trio of new devices, including a pair of connected locks that can tell whether your door is actually closed or not, and a smarter doorbell camera. Offering features like Apple HomeKit support, integration with Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant, and Apple's Siri, and the same straightforward installation that made their predecessors so popular, the new IoT gadgets also offer more usable remote security monitoring.
Some European car brands long absent from the US could make an unexpected return to North America, it's been revealed, with PSA Group confirming it's considering taking on homegrown stalwarts like GM and Ford. The automaker, which counts Peugeot and Citroen among its brands, has long been the subject of speculation about a renewed attempt on the competitive US market. Now, it seems that some actual work has gone into making it a possibility.
Parrot's newest drone promises to be its smartest, with the Bebop 2 Power packing longer flight time, easier photo and video capture, and more straightforward flying. Based on the Bebop 2, the new Power version can run for up to 30 minutes on a full charge, Parrot says. With the two batteries included in the box, that means an hour of droning per session.
In the grand annuls of software irony, apps that explicitly promise to make your computer more stable being used to secretly distribute malware are top of the list, especially when they happen to be owned by anti-virus specialists. It's a cluster of coincidences that makes news that CCleaner, the free system tune-up tool offered by Avast, was unwittingly used to load a backdoor in users' PCs. During the period it was compromised, 2.27m people installed the infected app.
As games get bigger, Microsoft has cooked up a sly way to keep Xbox One and Xbox One X download times down, not to mention save on hard drive space. Dubbed Intelligent Delivery, the system reportedly prioritizes only what each gamer actively needs, rather than forcing them to download the entire title. It'll mean potentially huge savings for Xbox One owners as Xbox One X games proliferate.
Once upon a time, if you wanted a luxury car you'd head straight for the Germans. Now, upstarts from elsewhere in the globe are proving they have just as much talent. Genesis has taken the wraps off the 2019 Genesis G70, a sleek sedan that slots in as the entry-level option in the automaker's increasingly well-esteemed line-up. As you might expect, the equation is fairly straightforward.
Of all the new features on the iPhone X, one of the most discussed - and potentially misunderstood - is Face ID. Apple's new biometric security system had a rocky start, with exec Craig Federighi finding his demo handset had locked itself down after backstage staff inadvertently sent the face recognition into a panic when he tried to demo it at the launch event on Tuesday this week. However, despite some concerns, it seems Apple has put no small amount of thought into how Face ID will hold up in the wild.
