When Tesla's Autopilot semi-self-driving features came online about week ago, Elon Musk told reporters that the technology would arrive first in North America and roll out in Europe and Asia later, as regulatory approvals came through.
That's now happened, and the Tesla CEO has taken to Twitter to deliver the news.
Just about the only place where your Tesla Model S can't sort of drive itself — Autopilot is a driver-assist technology, not a fully autonomous system — under the right conditions (highways, mostly) is Japan.
Autopilot is still under review there by the government.
Autopilot has enjoyed an impressive debut. Tesla teased it a while back, when the company announced an upcoming Version 7 vehicle-software boost. When the update arrived, many Tesla owners awoke to find that their cars could drive themselves, thanks to over-the-air updates.
And within a week, a team of three drivers had taken an Autopilot across the US in 58 hours, setting the record for an autonomous coast-to-coast run.
Also on Twitter, Musk said that Autopilot will be getting an upgrade to what he called Autopilot 1.01. The improved Autopilot will have "curve speed adaption, controller smoothness, better lane holding on poor roads, improved fleet learning!" Musk tweeted.
Imagine how much better rush hour would be if only you could kick back in the driver's seat and watch TV while your car did the driving. Two corporate giants say they'll make it happen.
In a concept car unveiled Monday, Sweden's Volvo Cars and Ericsson communications technologies exhibited a jointly-produced system for streaming video to dash-mounted screens during a highway drive.Self-driving cars are the way of the future, many tech pundits have declared.
Since 2012, Google has experimented with self-driving cars on closed tracks. German freight liner Daimler tested the first autonomous vehicle on U.S. public roads in 2015 and Google followed soon after. An Audi SUV drove itself cross country, and Tesla released refined autopilot software for its electric cars. Ford plans its first tests for 2016.
But amid all the hubbub of advancement, no developer has stepped in to answer the important question of what ex-drivers will do with all the idle time afforded by their digital chauffer.
"If you want to watch the latest episode of your favorite series, the car will know how long the journey needs to take and can optimize the route and driving control accordingly," said Anders Tylman, general manager of the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Car Center, in a press release. "With autonomous drive it is no longer just a question of getting from A to B quickly—it's about the experience you with to have in the car—how you wish to spend the time you are saving."
A promotional video release in conjunction with the concept unveiling shows a driver switch on the Volvo autopilot. His seat slides back, he crosses his legs in relaxation and a wide screen flips out of the passenger dashboard.
Highway video streaming will require high-bandwidth coverage beyond densely populated areas. Ericsson said it aimed to develop an interruption-free experience with software that would look ahead to network conditions along a chosen route and "intelligently buffer" content along the way.
Of all the forecasts made here at CES, the smart home feels like one of the nearest to coming true. Nearly every big-name technology brand, from Google to Samsung to LG, is in the process of trying to own the way we interact with our appliances and our appliances interact with each other. But the most important name in the smart home is the one you’re least likely to find plastered inside the cavernous halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center: Alexa.
The name corresponds to Amazon’s cloud-based voice assistant, which began as the personal assistant inside the online shopping company’s Echo speaker that went on sale to the public in June. Over the course of a few months, however, Alexa has moved beyond Echo and into a host of third-party devices, in part thanks to Amazon’s $100 million Alexa Fund, which helps other companies incorporate the software into their products.
Now those investments are bearing fruit. At CES 2016, Amazon is a stealth attendee. Without a booth or logo in sight, Alexa is weaving its way into third-party products here as varied as home security cameras, lighting systems, and Ford vehicles. By creating a voice interface for asking about the weather, playing music, and the mundane resupplying of paper towels and snacks, Amazon has emerged as the go-to partner for industries in need of powerful natural language processing and fast access to information from the internet. The benefit for Amazon is obvious: voice software tied directly to the Everything Store is a great way to keep people spending money on Amazon. But for an industry bedeviled by interface and compatibility issues, Alexa is an attractive way forward.
"We thought, ‘Okay, this is now a best-in-class product,’" says Jeremy Warren, the chief technology officer for home security company Vivint, which announced at CES that it has integrated the Echo and Alexa into its entire smart appliance lineup. Owners of an Echo speaker can now ask Alexa to lock their doors, turn off their lights, or adjust their Nest thermostat. Because Vivint has brokered a partnership with the Google-owned appliance maker, Amazon’s Alexa gets access to Nest products by proxy.
Gaining access to Amazon’s powerful cloud computing capabilities has its perks. But the true appeal of Alexa is a simple one: it’s voice control and nothing more. "The default way to interact with devices so far has been apps," says Sebastien de la Bastie, the managing director of French startup Invoxia. "But we believe the voice is the best interface."
Invoxia, one of the recipients of an Alexa Fund investment from Amazon last September, announced this week at CES that it’s the first third-party hardware maker to incorporate all the power of Alexa into a product other than the Echo. The company’s Triby, as it’s called, is a colorful, magnet-backed Bluetooth speaker resembling an old-school radio. It’s designed to let family members, including young children, make internet-based phone calls with one another, draw doodles and leave messages, and play music in the kitchen.
Prior to the Alexa integration, which goes out as a software update to Triby owners this spring, the company’s speaker could only be controlled with a smartphone app and its physical buttons. Soon you’ll talk to it — to Alexa, to be more precise. Invoxia is currently working on a software feature that, when combined with Alexa, will let the Triby identify every member of a household and prevent certain users, like an eight-year-old child, from ordering a truckload of candy on Amazon.
Amazon’s success in the smart home can also be attributed to its disinterest in becoming a holistic ecosystem. Google is currently trying to pioneer a platform for the Internet of Things called Brillo, with a common language for low-power connected devices called Weave. Samsung now owns SmartThings, which makes a hub for routing gadgets from multiple different manufacturers, including Samsung of course, through a single app. Walk around here at CES, and you’ll find countless companies hawking the next great smart home ecosystem, with no solution providing any more clarity of vision than the next.
Alexa is not designed to rule the smart home. But it’s becoming the easiest and most accessible way to talk to everything in your home with a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth chip — and for aspiring smart appliance makers to get a voice interface. All the while, Amazon remains a silent but powerful force, building a presence in the home with seemingly open arms. "For the next few years, your enemies are not the other folk [companies]," says Vivint’s Warren. "It’s ignorance and indifference."
That creates what Warren calls "coopetition" — or "frenemies" if you prefer — among startups like Vivint and tech giants like Google, Samsung, and Amazon. But at this point, partnering with Amazon is a logical choice, part of an inevitability. "Vivint not working with Amazon is not going to stop them from succeeding."
Building in pioneer internet ecosystem across content, devices, applications and platforms, Letv, a leading internet conglomerate and technology company, today launched its innovative Le 3D Helmet, LeMe Bluetooth Headphones and Super Cycle, which unfolded a new era of innovation here today.
Introducing the Letv comprehensive ecosystem, the company launched the Le 3D Helmet and Super Cycle along with the LeMe Bluetooth Headphones, offering consumers a breakthrough technology at sustainable pricing.
Offering great designs and strong ecosystem, the products are intended to enhance users’ entertainment experience. The Le 3D Helmet and LeMe Bluetooth Headphones will offer a unique video and audio experience to consumers. The Super Cycle is not just a cycle, it’s an Internet-enabled self-powered transport system, which will take fitness to newer levels. Re-defining the cycling experience and creating dynamic visual effect, the Super Cycle will be a game changer, making life easier and more fun.
The devices were launched by Dickson Lee, General Manager, APAC Smart Device of Letv. Addressing the media during the brief, he said, “Letv is committed to providing end-users with devices which have superior performance at disruptive pricing.”
“At Letv, it is our constant endeavor to provide our consumers with the most innovative products and best in class experiences. With the new devices, we aim to offer a unique combination of amazing features, and top performance supported with good battery life packed in a sleek design,” added Lee.
Letv is likely to launch its globally successful flagship Superphones in India soon. It entered the smartphone industry in April 2015, having sold one million Le Superphones in November alone, making it the best-selling new product across the Internet.
Dedicated to offering Indian customers lifestyle enabling products, Letv launched Le 3D Helmet, which offers a sharp and customized user experience. The helmet is equipped with a 5.5″ SHARP 2K LCD screen and a resolution of 2560*1440 with 70° field of view. The 3D Helmet is the optimal device for viewing videos and playing enhanced games, anytime, anywhere.
Also, it showcased, LeMe Bluetooth Headphones, which feature a dimension of 180*176.8*62.8MM, and a speaker frequency response of 20Hz- 20,000Hz, for the ultimate wireless audio experience. The device also sports a powerful 195 mAH Li-ion polymer battery for on the go usage enabling music playback time and talking time of 10 hours and standby time of 26.5 days with charging time of 2 hours.
Redefining the cycling experience with an extra effort of dynamic visual effect, it introduced the Super Cycle, which is the first of its kind smart urban Cycle with an Internet-enabled self-powered transport system.
The keyless and chain-less anti-theft technology installed Super cycle will enable fingerprint identification for a smarter and cooler youth. Via mobile App controls, real-time positioning and remote locking and unlocking is possible on the Super Cycle.
It will also offer a built-in digital PTT walkie-talkie, Bluetooth technology and a 3G WCDMA telecommunication module, that makes the Super Cycle more fun as it allows users to share cycling experience with friends in real time. It has miraculous cross-device interconnectivity, automatic power generation and precise positioning with real-time navigation.
Last year was a big one for Fitbit. In April, Apple threw down
the gantlet to wearables and fitness- tracker makers with the Apple Watch, and
in June Fitbit went public in a larger-than-expected initial public offering.
With its first major release since these milestones, Fitbit has come out
swinging by introducing the Blaze, the company's
first smartwatch with some fashion sense.
Strictly
speaking, the Blaze isn't Fitbit's first smartwatch. That honor goes to the
Surge, famously worn by President Obama when cruising around with Jerry
Seinfeld or walking the First Dogs. Still, the Blaze is Fitbit's first watch
that doesn't look like something you might use for help in scaling Everest. The
silver and black watch definitely looks a little like its fruit-branded
competitor, but it sports an open lug design that makes it appear a little
lighter on the wrist. The face still looks like a screen, but at least it's one
that wants to make a good impression.
A
bunch of band options let you customize the Blaze. It comes with one of the
textured rubber bands familiar to Fitbit customers, in black, plum,
or blue, and you can purchase additional rubber straps, real leather bands, and
a metal bracelet to swap in if those are more your speed. The tracker itself (the
black square unit) swaps in and out, and the bands are integrated on the
silvery frame around it. At least at launch, you won't be able to buy the Blaze
in its native state on any band other than the active rubber, emphasizing that,
at its core, this is a smartwatch meant for fitness.
This
brings us to an important point: The Blaze isn't a smartwatch that you can
weight down with apps or customize to organize your entire digital life. It is
primarily meant to be a detailed fitness tracker that can be worn all the time,
offering a few additional features for convenience. Apart from interacting with
Fitbit's own fitness app, the Blaze can push calendar appointments, calls, and
texts, but it doesn't get into the weeds with such things as e-mail or Twitter
notifications.
The
screen is a full-color display, with a soft (but not dull) appearance. You can
navigate menus with the push buttons on the frame or use the touchscreen
itself. Workouts and sleep are automatically detected and the heart rate
monitor functions continuously, minimizing the number of times you have to
fiddle with it when you're merely doing daily activities. The Blaze does need
your phone to get GPS data, but this helps with the multi-day battery life that
Fitbit believes is crucial for a product like this.
The
Fitbit Blaze will set you back $200 (roughly Rs. 13,350) for the tracker and
the rubber strap that's included. Additional rubber straps will cost $30
(roughly Rs. 2,000), leather options are $100 (roughly Rs. 6,680), and the
steel bracelet is the most expensive, at $130 (roughly Rs. 8,676). Fitbit plans
in the coming months to offer additional options made with fashion partners
such as Tory Burch.
While
the base model is less expensive than Fitbit's Surge, adding the leather or
metal band places it squarely in price competition with the likes of
the Apple Watch Sport and the Moto 360.
"It's
important to understand that Fitbit has a singular focus on health and
fitness," said Fitbit CEO and Co-Founder James Park in an email when asked
about competing with other smartwatches. "With the introduction of the
Fitbit Blaze, we have developed a smart fitness watch that is fitness first,
has the most relevant smart features that won't overwhelm users ... This focus
is our competitive advantage."
The
Fitbit Blaze goes on sale Wednesday via Fitbit's larger retailers such at
Amazon, Best Buy, and Target in the United States.
Taiwanese tech giant Asus has launched launched two variants of its ZenWatch 2 in India. Both the watches are available on Flipkart.
The ZenWatch 2 is available in two sizes -- 1.63 (WI501Q) and 1.45 (WI502Q) and has been priced at Rs 14,999 and Rs 11,999 respectively.
The device comes with an option to mute an incoming call on the smartphone by covering it with your hand. It also features "Find My Phone" for identifying your phone`s location.
Ideal for businesspersons, it has "Business Helper" to quickly access upcoming agendas, mails, and call log right from your wrist. It also doubles up as the user`s health companion by tracking fitness activities with industry-leading accuracy.
The ZenWatch 2 works on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with a 512MB RAM and has a 4 GB internal memory.
Available in interesting colours -- Silver and Gunmetal for WI501Q and Silver for W1502Q -- the watches come in two strap variants - rubber and leather.
Another rumour is pointing to the demise of 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7.
A report coming out of iPhone supply chain with allegedly "confirmed" information added
that Apple will release wireless earphones alongside.
Citing people in the iPhone supply chain, Andrews Forum reports that the iPhone 7 will not
have a 3.5mm jack. This, however, doesn't mean that your existing EarPods won't be
compatible with the iPhone 7. The report adds that Apple will make available a
Lightning "convert up" to allow headphones with a 3.5mm outlet to be used with
the Lightning connector.
Last year, a report claimed that Apple was planning to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack in
an attempt to make the iPhone thinner by 1mm. The new report has corroborated he
reasoning, adding that Apple also plans to promote its wireless headset. The previous
report also claimed that the Lightning connector will retain the same size, and will also
come with a digital-to-analogue converter for backwards compatibility with wired headphones.
The removal of headphone jack might not sit well with users. Almost every smartphone,
tablet, desktop, laptop currently ships with this audio port. But considering Apple's past
record, removal of the 3.5mm port doesn't seem unlikely. The company ditched the
compact disk drive from its computer lineup with the MacBook Air, and soon many rival
manufacturers were doing the same. Last year, the company launched the MacBook
which has just one USB Type-C port for data transfer and power input.
Besides, the Cupertino-based company has been hinting at its dislike towards the 3.5mm jack for a while now. In 2014, the company introduced the MFi (Made for iPhone) program specifications
to allow third-party manufacturers to make earphones that could be connected to the iPhone
or iPad via a Lightning cable. Philips Fidelio NC1L, which features battery-free active
noise cancelling technology,connects to an iPhone via a Lightning cable.
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