Новости за 05.02.2018

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S9 in a few weeks at Mobile World Congress on February 25th, and the latest leak from Evan Blass on Twitter is giving us our best look at the phone yet. Along with a first glimpse at a new Lilac Purple color, the images give us a good look at the redesigned fingerprint reader that places it below the camera sensor, one of the major flaws of the S8.

About 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, four, tiny spider-like creatures became trapped in amber. Today, scientists announced they belong to an entirely new species. But experts disagree about how these fossils relate to modern-day spiders, because there’s something strange about their crumpled corpses: all four of them have tails.

Of all the things Super Mario Odyssey will be remembered for, its most outlandish legacy is undoubtedly the debut of Mario’s nipples. After the initial screenshots of the bare-chested, mustachioed hero sparked a meme frenzy and a speed-running competition, more questions soon emerged: why does Mario have nipples, but no belly button?

Two years ago, Chinese drone maker Ehang came to CES in Las Vegas and promised to build a completely autonomous, passenger-carrying quadcopter that would revolutionize mobility. Many of us in the tech community chortled under our breath, wondering if such a thing was even possible, let alone advisable. Today, the company released footage of its first piloted test flights in China — and color us impressed: this thing is no joke.

The iPhone X knockoffs keep coming. Chinese company Oukitel has unveiled the U18, which features a similar silhouette to Apple’s newest phone, complete with a notch. The back of the device looks nothing like Apple’s phone, although it does have dual, vertically-stacked cameras. It also includes gesture controls (so congrats to Dan), and face unlocking.

The Federal Trade Commission has extended the claim filing deadline for its $586 million settlement with Western Union. Consumers who’ve previously lost money to a scammer that took payment through Western Union now have until May 31st to file a claim and recoup those funds.

Sony today announced a new Gold Wireless Headset for its PlayStation 4 consoles. The main new feature seems to be a slightly updated design, and a giant “NEW” on the front of the box, lest you forget for a few minutes that this was in fact an item fresh off the production line.

A week after the fitness app Strava came under fire for exposing sensitive military locations through heat maps, some Strava users are complaining that one of the app’s popular features has been temporarily disabled.

Roughly 24 hours before SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is supposed to blast off for the first time ever, CEO Elon Musk just shared an animated video of what it will look like when the giant new rocket releases a Tesla Roadster into space.

Huawei’s new flagship phone, the Mate 10 Pro, is available for preorder starting today in the US, but its launch is already off to a rough start. The Chinese company took a hit in January when AT&T and Verizon pulled out of deals to carry the Mate 10 Pro in their stores, reportedly due to US government pressure. Major retailers and a crowd-shopping site are offering discounts on the flagship already.

Last week, Apple mysteriously removed secure messaging app Telegram and its more efficient counterpart, Telegram X, from the App Store for “inappropriate content,” a move that many users found curious as it came without any concrete explanation. Now, thanks to confirmation of the authenticity of an email exchange between a Telegram user and Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller courtesy of 9to5Mac, we know the “inappropriate content” was in fact child pornography being distributed via Telegram’s mobile apps. Читать дальше...

You told us, and we listened: we’re taking Circuit Breaker Live, everyone’s favorite live gadget show, to YouTube. It’ll be live on Tuesdays at 4PM ET, starting tomorrow. This week, we’ll be playing with the DJI Mavic Air, the Polaroid POP camera, and... something else. I can’t tell you yet, but it’ll be cool. I promise.

Engineer Ari Vaniderstine tweeted a link to a Glitch project called Nelson this morning, which is a browser application that lets Spotify users fiddle with various inputs in the recommendation API and make their own algorithmically generated playlists.

Google’s Pixel Visual Core, the hidden image-processing chip inside the Pixel 2 family of phones, is getting an update today that lets it work its machine learning magic in third-party apps. Already enabled via Android 8.1 for the Pixel 2’s main camera app, the Visual Core is now going to be operational within any other camera app that employs the relevant Google APIs. That means your Instagram photography and Snapchat Stories will get the benefit of the same improvements in processing speed and efficiency. Читать дальше...

You might think the biggest challenges that stand in the way of setting a record like “greatest distance vehicle drift in eight hours” are the obvious ones: What if you get bored, or lose your concentration? What happens when you have to pee? And when the record-setting attempt involves the crazy idea of refueling the car mid-drift, multiple times, others abound. What if there’s a fire? What if someone gets hurt? Is this even possible?

Lyft announced today that it would expand its commuter benefits program to all US cities where it operates its carpool service. Now, people who use Lyft Line to commute to and from work every day can save up to 40 percent by using pre-tax dollars through their employee benefits programs, the company says.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and what better way to show your undying affection for your significant other than with a midrange Android smartphone? That’s what Motorola thinks, at any rate: it’s holding a “Hello Love” Valentine’s Day sale, which discounts the Moto Z2 Play by $150 to $349.99 from now until February 17th, via SlashGear.

The first full trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story is finally here, and it’s a long-overdue look at the next Star Wars film. We’ve been a bit worried about this one. The film lost its directing pair midway through shooting, and we’ve been wary of the premise. Do we really need a story about the origins of Han Solo?

I don’t care much for sports or superb owls, but in between men running into each other while fighting for a ball last night, advertisers put extra effort into pummeling their products into our brains. It’s the one time a year when people actually care about watching commercials (or so I’m told).

The first teaser trailer for Dwayne Johnson’s China-set disaster movie Skyscraper aired during the Super Bowl tonight.

I’m one of those people who falls asleep a little easier if there’s quiet, steady noise around me. Cracking a window open isn’t really an option in February here in New York, so typically I just turn on a small fan in my room to get that fix of white noise. But a couple weeks ago, I learned that Google Home speakers can play white noise audio on demand. And I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds — even on my tiny Google Home Mini, which has slightly improved bass compared the Amazon Echo Dot in my living room. Читать дальше...

As much as I love smartphones, I wouldn’t consider gifting one to be the most romantic gesture ever, though that isn’t stopping phone companies from pumping out special red editions for this year’s Valentine’s Day. After Huawei revealed a lush red Honor 7X earlier today, OnePlus is now unveiling a Lava Red OnePlus 5T. This is the same device that made its debut in China and India late last year, but now it’s coming to Europe and North America while supplies last.

Seven years in the making

Continue reading…

A biohacker known for live experiments injected himself with a DIY herpes treatment in front of an audience at Body Hacking Con in Austin last night.

The year’s most unlikely and hilarious trial is about to begin

Continue reading…