A team of Chinese designers has taken to Kickstarter to fund a nifty little idea called Air Umbrella. It’s an umbrella that’s powered by a “force field” of air. It uses this to replace the fabric in a normal umbrella, with the air flow deflecting the rain drops from you.

The inventors have already received more pledges than they asked for – right now around $17,000 have been pledged by people eager to replace their umbrellas with something more high-tech, and the goal was just $10,000. There are 9 days to go in the Kickstarter campaign, but since the goal has been surpassed this thing should become reality. Read more »

If you haven’t heard of it, the August Smart Lock uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE and a smartphone in place of old-fashioned keys. It works with iPhones 4s and up (iOS 7 and later) and certain Androids (KitKat and later). The lock replaces a deadbolt and can be opened with a key in case you forget your phone or something goes amiss.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because starting this week you can grab one from an Apple retail store. Read more »

Wi-Fi 802.11ac is just starting to gain traction, but Samsung is already looking ahead. The company has announced that it has managed to complete the development of the Wi-Fi 802.11ad standard and is ready to commercialize it.

The new standard operates at a 60GHz frequency and enables high transmission speeds of up to 4.6Gbps, which is 575MB/s. That’s an increase of five times compared to the 802.11ac standard, which is capable of 866Mbps, or 108MB/s. Read more »

Brand consultancy firm Interbrand has released its report on the most valuable brands in the world and has placed Apple in first place. The brand of the Cupertino based tops the list containing 100 companies and is valued at $118.9 billion.

It is followed by Google, which isn’t too far off with a brand price of $107 billion. Interestingly, out of the 100 companies, 13 are technology oriented. IBM, Microsoft and Samsung are fourth, fifth and sevenths, respectively. Read more »

The long-standing patent fee dispute between Samsung and Microsoft, which first made headlines this summer, apparently continues to be an issue as still neither can come to an agreement.

In an attempt to put the issue at rest, Samsung has filed for arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Read more »

HP has officially announced that it is splitting into two companies. Hewlett-Packard is going to spin off its PC and printer division leaving its Enterprise and services unit as separate business.

Dion Weisler will take the wheel of the HP’s new PC and printer business. Sadly, however, the company is going to rise the planned layoffs from 45,000 to 55,000. Read more »

Just when we thought that the whole #bendage thing was behind us, here comes Apple to reignite it all over again. The company has revoked the press accreditation of German magazine Computer Bild after it published a video of its editor-in-chief bending iPhone 6 Plus and then failing to do so with the Galaxy Note 3.

Now whether or not an €800 phone should bend like that or if you should apply such force to it is beyond the point here. What’s important is Apple’s reaction to the case. Read more »

eBay is spinning off PayPal into a separate company as it believes there are a lot more opportunities to seize that way. The PayPal spinoff will allow it to refocus and grasp new possibilities in the online payment sector.

Former American Express CEO is going to be in charge of PayPal and he’s joining eBay starting today as President and CEO-designee. According to eBay stats, PayPal is responsible for the transfer of 1 out of every 6 dollars spent online. Read more »

It seems the whole Bendgate affair isn’t over as everyone is keen to strike the iPhone 6 Plus where it hurts yet again. A clever ad of the Galaxy Note 3 has popped up, showing the bent iPhone 6 Plus bowing to the Android phablet.

Update:It turns out the image above was created by an independent marketing agency, rather than Samsung itself.

The Galaxy Note 4 would be more relevant, though. In addition, HTC and KitKat have also jumped on the Bendgate bandwagon on Twitter. Read more »

Everyone knows that once a potential flaw is discovered in the new iPhone then all phones in existence must be tested for the same flaw. It happened with Antennagate and now it’s happening with Bendgate.

The Apple iPhone 6 Plus proved easy to deform under pressure so the smaller iPhone 6 was put under the same test along with the iPhone 5s, the HTC One (M8), another aluminum phone, the Motorola Moto X (2014) and the Nokia Lumia 1020. Read more »

Destroying stuff is cool, especially when done with a creative flair. Too bad for the iPhone 6 Plus that it gets to star in most of them nowadays. The latest batch of videos is done by a popular YouTuber, who specializes in obliterating most of the hot tech to have come in the past couple of years.

The latest efforts of RatedRR focus on the iPhone 6 Plus and include five videos (one more is on the way) showcasing how Apple’s biggest smartphone to date can take a beating. Our personal favorite stars liquid nitrogen and a sledgehammer. Read more »

When it comes to Apple, phone manufacturers act as predators waiting for any hint of weakness from its latest smartphones and today it’s open season. LG has taken a jab at the latest report of the bending issues, which the iPhone 6 Plus is experiencing.

The company’s UK branch posted on Twitter a hashtag #bentgate, referring to the video showing how the iPhone 6 Plus bends. Naturally, this is the perfect opportunity for LG to plug in its deliberately bent G Flex smartphone. Read more »

Sony announced that it has its own Google Glass competitor in the works called SmartEyeglass. A software development kit for the gadget is already available to interested developers.

Sony SmartEyeglass packs a number of sensors that include CMOS image solution, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, microphone, and brightness sensor. Read more »

LG has decided to take its marketing game to the next level. So much so that it has set a new Guinnes World Record for the largest outdoor advertising structure ever.

The advertising campaign in question is for the LG G3 and the billboard the company has built is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is 240 meters wide and 12 meters high taking a total space of 3,000 square meters. Read more »

With iOS 8 rolling out to devices worldwide, Apple TV also received to a major update today. Firmware version 6.2.1 brings new features to the tiny box, wrapped into a brand new user interface.

The updated user interface features flat look, which brings its appearance in line with Apple iOS and OS X Yosemite. Read more »