August is adding a shiny, new satin nickel finish to its starter smart lock.
Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL review: the best camera gets a better phone
Taking it up a notch
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Review: Software Is Eating Your Phone
Our favorite Android phone is back, and this time it’s loaded with even more AI smarts.
Hyundai, Kia want to make A-pillars ‘invisible’ in new patent application – Roadshow
This is not the first patent application of its kind, surprisingly.
how climate change could cause global beer shortages
Severe climate events could cause shortages in the global beer supply, according to new research. The study warns that increasingly widespread and severe drought and heat may cause substantial decreases in barley yields worldwide, affecting the supply used to make beer, and ultimately resulting in ‘dramatic’ falls in beer consumption and rises in beer prices.
New interactive scenario explorer for 1.5 degrees C pathways
IIASA and the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC) have made the scenarios underlying last week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1.5 degrees C Special Report publicly available, in an interactive online resource. The resource provides scenarios and a suite of visualization and analysis tools, making the assessment more transparent to researchers, policymakers, and the public.
A new snakebot proves that climbing ladders won’t save you from killer robots
If you thought you could leave a killer robot behind by climbing to higher ground, it turns out, the robot might soon be able to climb right up beside you. Kyoto University teamed up with the University of Electro-Communications in Japan to build a robot snake that can contort its body repeatedly in order to reach the top of a ladder.
The researchers unveiled the terrifying robosnake at an annual international conference on intelligent robots this month. So far, it only knows how to climb up a ladder in a grotesque yet mesmerizing fashion.
The report on the robot snake doesn’t specify any uses for it, but imagine using it to help you climb a ladder (then running away from it in fear as its mechanical jaws snap at you). Currently, the…
Houseparty adds Facemail, a way to send recorded video chats to friends
Houseparty, which makes an app for hosting live video chats with your friends and family, is taking a step toward video voicemail. Today, the company introduced Facemail, a way to record and share 15-second snippets of chats to your friends within the app. The company hopes it will extend Houseparty into more facets of its users’ lives by moving away from communication focused strictly on presence to include more traditional, asynchronous messaging.
Facemail, which is rolling out today on Houseparty’s apps for iOS and Android, is designed to let you know you’re thinking of people who aren’t currently in the chat, says Ben Rubin, Houseparty’s CEO. The company found that 40 percent of the time a user went to interact with one of their…
Climate Change Might Double the Cost of a Beer
More extreme droughts and heat waves will hit barley especially hard, so growers are trying to hack the grain to make it more resistant.
The Pixel Buds’ translation feature is coming to all headphones with Google Assistant
The Pixel Buds’ flagship feature, its ability to translate languages at the press of a button, appears to be coming to every pair of headphones that have Google Assistant built in, reports Droid-Life. The functionality was quietly announced via a change in the text of Google’s support page for the Pixel Buds, which now reads: “Google Translate is available on all Assistant-optimized headphones and Android phones.”
The feature, which was previously exclusive to Google’s own Pixel Buds, allows you to translate between 40 different languages. You can then use an Android handset as a speaker to translate your responses.
The update means that an increasing number of Google Assistant-enabled headphones, including the Bose QC35 II and Sony…