Google has been trying to tackle the challenge of a driverless car for quite some time now. Now, the latest prototypes seem to be closer than ever and with tests already on their way to real-world environments outside Google campus, we should start getting used to the notion of a self-piloting car. Of course, there is still a long road ahead, not only in technological challenges, but also legal issues and public acceptance.

Still, from what we have already seen demoed, Google’s little smart car is driving like a champ and is well on the road to being truly independent. The amount of technology and innovation that makes an act that we perceive as relatively simple, fully automated is staggering, but, as in turns out, not as new and outlandish as some would think. A newly compiled infographic helps shed some light on everything going on under (and over) the hood. Read more »

Continuity is undoubtedly on of Apple’s coolest features of late. For anyone not familiar with the technology, it lets you handle your calls and text messages on your Mac, iPad or Apple Watch. Up until now, however, this was only possible if the two devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

This is definitely cool, but kind of limiting. With iOS 9, Apple has extended the feature and your iPhone no longer needs to be connected to the same network as your other Apple tech for Continuity to work. In fact, your handset doesn’t even have to maintain a Wi-Fi connection, as the system now works over any stable data connection. Read more »

Xiaomi held a press conference in Beijing today at 14:00 local time. The trendy Chinese manufacturer had little to announce in terms of smartphone tech, except a new paint job for the Xiaomi Mi 4i, but the presentation still had a few interesting gadgets to show off.

First, there is the all new Mi Wi-Fi. It aims to build on the success of the original Mi router, which sold over two million units, not counting its later mini version. With the new generation, Xiaomi is upping the stakes. The unit promises faster and more-stable dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac support. It employs an “enterprise-class” PBC antenna array and a powerful Broadcom 4709C dual-core 1.4GHz processor and 512MB of flash storage. It also offers onboard storage, courtesy on Seagate or Toshiba surveillance. It can be used as a simple NAS or in tandem with Xiaomi’s proprietary tools for remote downloads, automatic backups, remote access to files and many more features, users have come to love from the current generation of Xiaomi smarty routers. Read more »

Netflix is a true movie-style American success story. In its 18 year history, it has managed to overcome a lot of adversities, market fluctuations and ultimately adapt into one of the most influential media services in the US. But the company has already transcended way beyond its home market. Its services are now available in over 50 counties worldwide, with intent to grow the number to a whopping 200 in the next couple of years.

That’s quite a bar to cover and Netflix seems to be wasting no time in doing so. Starting this October, the service will also launch in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Users there will be able to enjoy the platform’s rich selection of content, including a lot of original series and even take advantage of a one-moth free trial offer. Read more »

It is no secret that Sony takes great pride in its gaming console and frankly it should, as, it has the PlayStation to thank for a large chunk of its current revenue. The PlayStation Network has always been an integral part of Sony’s sprawling ecosystem and as such, it has naturally found a home on a lot of Xperia devices in one way or another.

Most-recently the Sony Xperia Z3+ featured a new application for integrating with PSN in a clean and centralized manner. It is dubbed simply “PlayStation Network” and acts like a central hub for all other PS-centric apps, like PlayStation, Remote Play, PS Video and PS Music. It offers little added value in itself, but definitely keeps things tidier. Read more »

The LG G4 is a truly impressive device and in a lot of ways, more traditional than other current flagships. An interesting YouTube video reveals that LG’s latest creation is not just good looking, but also quite tough.

The video itself follows the LG G4 as it spends over two hours submerged in water and manages to stay on in the process. This is quite an impressive feat, especially from a device that has no official IP rating. Still, the internals seem to be sealed off quite efficiently and the only real concern is shorting the battery. Read more »

Just a few days ago, information surfaced about a strange string that can crash the iOS Messages app. The bug became pretty viral, caused a lot of controversy and apparently sparked an interest in such exploits. So much so, that a similar hack has now been found for Skype.

The Microsoft-owned messenger also appears to be susceptible to malicious messages and it turns out that it requires a lot less effort than the complicated spell-like message that plagued Apple’s messenger. If you send any message containing the string “http://:” to a Skype contact their client will most-likely crash and keep on crashing after a restart. Read more »

Imgur is one of those services you never really pay too much attention to when using on and off. Once you get into it, however, you will quickly discover that, just like reddit, the image platforms has grown into somewhat of an internet sensation and has an amazing ecosystem of its own.

There is tons of content to discover, trends to follow and all the viral memes and jokes you can handle. After only have a web app on Android for a while, Imgur now finally has a proper native app. Its interface is quite intuitive and user friendly. It is almost entirely card-based and swiping left and right navigates the endless stream of content. A tap brings out additional options like commenting, voting and adding to favorites. Read more »

Intel has managed to maintain supremacy on the CPU front for quite some time now. The company has built such a formidable reputation for itself, that it is truly a household name. Few people, however, tend to associate the chip maker with graphics and beastly GPU performance.

With its fifth generation Broadwell architecture, Intel pushed the envelope even further in terms of power to performance ratios. Yet, if you want a truly capable onboard graphics solution, Intel chips typically get outshined by what AMD’s APUs have to offer. The California company has been trying hard to bridge this gap in performance and its latest additions to the Broadwell lineup are a testament to this effort. Read more »

Sony’s custom Android keyboard is now up to version 6.6.A.0.30. The update brings about quite a few improvements and features. For one, the app should now be a lot more-responsive and fluid.

The Xperia keyboard now has a more-versatile theming engine too. Keyboard layouts can be selected per language for extra convenience. Also, word suggestion can now work for one language at a time, if you turn off Smart language detection first. Read more »

Most of you surely remember the YotaPhone – that quirky Russian handset, equipped with a second e-ink display. Well, as it turns out, the dual-screen setup might not be the most interesting thing in the smartphone after all.

Some new official information reveals that the Russian smartphone, produced by the government-sponsored Rostech corporation, comes with a backdoor, which allows tapping into the device for surveillance purposes. This was revealed by Sergey Chemezov, head of Rostech and former KGB agent. Read more »

Amazon has just launched a new discovery-style shopping experience. Stream is quite reminiscent of a Pinterest board, featuring an endless list of Amazon products. They can be filtered according to sex, which doesn’t sound very concrete and it really isn’t. But, seeing how the idea behind the service is to give eager users the ability to browse through new products, it is perfectly adequate.

The offers that make it into the service, however, aren’t picked at random – instead they are all sponsored. This is an important note to make and means that things you pick out within the interface might not always be competitively priced. Still, if you really like something, you can always dig around in the conventional search interface to see if you can get a better deal. And if you are an Amazon seller, you might want to consider promoting some items in the new service. Read more »

The Google I/O keynote didn’t miss its chance to update us on the progress of Android Wear. The dedicated wearable platform has really come a long way for its relatively short life and third-party developers have played a major part in this success.

During the presentation the popularity of Android Wear was put into numbers and, it appears that Google-powered smartwatches now have a flourishing ecosystem with over 4000 dedicated apps at their disposal. Read more »

Lenovo surprised the tech world with yet another peculiar announcement today. After showing off an interesting and slightly quirky smartwatch with a second private screen, the Chinese tech giant decided to move into other unfamiliar territories – virtual reality.

The Lenovo VR Goggles are the company’s response to Samsung, Oculus Rift and the Gear VR. Just like the aforementioned Korean-made headset, the Lenovo VR Goggles are more or less a shell that only works with a compatible phone as a display. At the presentation, the set was used with the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro, but, the manufacturer has loosely stated that it works with compatible Lenovo phones. This sounds encouraging, but, we are yet to learn which models the VR Goggles support and whether or not the compatibility will extend this to include Lenovo-owned Motorola devices as well. Read more »

Smart wearables have definitely gotten a long way in the last year or so, but, the new class of devices is still frantically searching for an identity and comfy place in the consumer’s lives. A definite testament to this fact is the numerous and sometimes strange concepts that have appeared in some smartwatches of late. Like the integrated camera on the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 or cellular connectivity and sometimes even LTE.

But, this all seems to fade in comparison to what Lenovo showcased at the Tech World show in Beijing. The company’s latest smartwatch concept is dubbed Magic View and, at first glance bears a striking resemblance to the Moto 360, which is only natural. It does, however, have one quite distinctive feature – a second display on the bezel facing the user. Read more »