Author Archives: Chris Davies

The Essential Phone may have missed Andy Rubin's first ship date promise, but the "Father of Android" now insists the smartphone is just a few weeks away. Essential made headlines back in May with its unusually notched OLED display, modular accessory connectivity, and the promise of near-unmodified Android. However, it then made a second splash - and not one the company was presumably hoping for - when it failed to arrive according to the original schedule.

Continue Reading

Hulu's Live TV service is being added to the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, spreading availability of the company's latest beta, and its new interface. The update, which is rolling out today, will include more personalization and, the company claims, better content recommendations. Amazon's set-top boxes join gadgets from Apple, Microsoft, and others in having support for the new Hulu.

Continue Reading

Ford's F-150 may be the US' best selling vehicle, but now the pickup has been drafted into police service. The 2018 F-150 Police Responder is the first pickup to be pursuit-rated, good for chases at sustained speeds of 100 mph. Meanwhile, Ford has sent the truck back to the engineering lab to get a full makeover for active duty.

Continue Reading

Microsoft knows how to make sleek hardware. If the Surface Book is handsome but bulky, and the Surface Pro is more minimalistic but suffers a less-compelling keyboard, then the Surface Laptop falls happily in-between. You don't get a fancy detachable display, no, or even a 360-degree hinge. Instead, it's a neatly finished, beguiling traditional laptop form-factor with some eminently pleasing material decisions.

Continue Reading

Google Play Music users can now access the app through Apple's CarPlay, with a new update quietly adding it to the short list of third-party services. The new version of Google's music app joins Amazon, Spotify, and a select few others with CarPlay support, with a much simplified interface promising to be easier and safer to access while on the move. You will, of course, need a CarPlay-compatible vehicle in order to actually use it, mind.

Continue Reading

Samsung's Bixby Voice may have taken longer than expected to reach the Galaxy S8, but now the company is wasting no time explaining just why it thinks its Assistant is better than Google or Apple's. In a new series of videos, Samsung has started digging through the functionality Bixby offers on the smartphone - and will also support on upcoming devices like the Galaxy Note 8 due to be released later in the year. Who knows, you might even resent the dedicated Bixby button a little less along the way.

Continue Reading

Apple may have been fairly quiet about its Clips app since the iPhone video editing tool went live in April, but it's getting a big update today. Clips 1.1 is available to download in the App Store, but if you bought an iOS device recently you well already have it. Launched alongside, rather than replacing iMovie for iOS, Clips was intended to address the concern that its existing video editing tool was a little too serious and fairly complex.

Continue Reading

When it comes to making the beating heart of the iPhone, competition between chip-makers is fierce, and 2018 looks set to be no different. Despite reports that Samsung will sneak back into the 2018 iPhone as the manufacturer of the Apple A12, there are now conflicting claims that, in reality, another Apple partner will get the coveted - and lucrative - spot. Chatter from Taipei suggests that it's in fact TSMC that will seal the deal.

Continue Reading

Two huge Dark Web marketplaces, peddling illegal drugs, fake documents, firearms, and more, have been shut down in a clandestine sting. US and European investigators collaborated for months on the takedown, which saw AlphaBay and Hansa - together responsible for more than 350,000 "illicit commodities" - first infiltrated and then taken offline. Indeed, police in the Netherlands were able to secretly take control of Hansa and then track what its users were doing.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk's ambitious Hyperloop tunnel digging plan has been given the green light to go digging on the East Coast, potentially cutting the trip from New York to Washington D.C. to under half an hour. The news, described by Musk this morning as "verbal government approval" on Twitter, is yet to be confirmed by transport regulators. However, it's a considerable step forward in what initially seemed like a joke by the eccentric billionaire.

Continue Reading

Google Street View has escaped Earth and made it to the International Space Station, with the first-person Google Maps add-on venturing out into zero gravity. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet spent half a year on the ISS, returning to Earth last month. While on the orbiting research platform he captured numerous Street View images which Google has now released publicly.

Continue Reading

Kenmore's Smart home appliances are getting Amazon Alexa integration, with the Sears-brand home tech also headed to the online retail behemoth's virtual shelves. The deal, announced today, is the biggest shift in availability for Kenmore appliances to-date, Sears said. However, even if you buy an appliance through Amazon rather than at a Sears location, the company will still offer its own delivery and installation services.

Continue Reading