It’s that time of year: Sony is letting you look back at your 2019, and contemplate all the time you’ve spent playing games. Yep, PlayStation Wrap-Up is out (for those unfamiliar, it’s like Spotify Wrapped, but for games). Wrap-Up tallies the total number of games you’ve played, the hours you’ve wasted, the genres you prefer, and all the trophies you’ve won. The service is available starting from today, and you’ll have until February 14 to check it out. For this edition, Sony is also giving out free PlayStation themes, along with seven avatars that supposedly reflect your gaming personality.
While most Dutch trains arrive on time — 92.6 percent, to be exact — some delay is inevitable. Falling leaves can make the railway slippery. Snow sometimes causes the railroad switches to freeze up. Machinal issues, on the other hand, such as broken doors or overheated brakes, can increasingly be fixed before they cause severe delays. Thanks to thousands of sensors and big data analytics, train maintenance has become much more efficient. It’s a development that took a flight since 4G became available in the Netherlands, allowing data to be processed at a much higher speed. This includes check-in data, status measurement points on tracks, and information sent by sensors in the trains.
The Dutch railway system is among the most efficient in the world, with only Japan and Switzerland scoring higher when it comes to punctuality. Currently, an average working day in the Netherlands sees about a million commuters traveling by train. The company Dutch Railways (also known as NS) is constantly innovating to keep its spot in the global top three. By providing digital services such as mobile check-in, seat search, and fixed reservations ‘public transport bicycles,’ the company hopes to welcome an even higher number of Dutch train travelers in the future. Mobile and API first To bring these apps and systems to life, NS follows a mobile and API first philosophy.
Something’s been missing in my life lately. Cash? No. I work in media, I’m rich. Power? Sure, I could always use more of that. But that’s not it. Beauty? Fuck no, I’m gorgeous. Yet I still feel like a loser. Because my house lacks a certain… Instagrammableness. (Disclaimer: this review is a piece of satire, but the opinions expressed about the product are still genuine.) It’s a huge problem, really — and it’s been a tremendous blow to my self-esteem. Having a trendy-looking house is an essential part of being cool these days, and I have always struggled to achieve decent Feng Shui at my place.
The Selpic S1 is a bit of a niche gadget. It’s a handheld quick-drying smart printer that works a lot like a label maker. Instead of creating stickers that you can adhere to objects, the S1 prints directly on most surfaces. It’s surprisingly fun and easy to use, but there’s a few pain points to consider before purchasing. First off, the S1 is a bit of an uproven commodity. As far as we can tell its Selpic’s first product – the company has another, the slightly larger S1+ on Kickstarter right now – but so far, there’s a lot to like.
South Korea and its capital Seoul are best known for cutting-edge tech giants like Samsung and LG, but now there’s a big push to put its startups in the spotlight. One way the country is doing this is through events, specifically Start-Up Seoul: Tech-Rise 2019 — Seoul city government’s flagship event. TNW flew to Seoul to attend the buzzing conference where over 40,000 attendees, 300 startups, and a 100 investors from all over the world got together to share ideas and experiences. Watch the video at the top of the page to get feeling for the vibe of the conference, and check out the rest of our video series below to dive deeper into Seoul’s tech scene.
When Motorola announced the G8 Play and Plus last month, we were a bit surprised to hear there were no plans to bring the devices to the US. Now we may know why: ever-reliable leaker Evan Blass showed off photos of a triple-camera, plain G8 today, indicating Motorola still has another budget option on the way. Motorola’s G series has long been champion of the budget phone market, and produced some of Motorola’s best selling phones. The G8 will presumably slot in between the Play and Plus models in terms of specs, and though the leak makes no mention of price, we imagine it will be somewhere along the $300-$350 mark.
One of the hottest new topics in tech is 5G, the next generation of cellular network technology. When 4G came along, it was a massive breakthrough and gave birth to services like Instagram and Snapchat, which had been completely unthinkable only a couple of years earlier. Now it’s time for the next generation of innovations. 5G is much faster, more responsive, and more customizable than 4G and is expected to be fundamental to the advancement of new technologies such as IoT, AI, VR, and self-driving cars. To match human-like reflexes, autonomous vehicles need to be able to read their environment and sift through enormous amount of sensor data in real-time — which 5G makes possible with its reduced latency and ultra-fast network speed.
I’d never heard of Ghost Vapes when I agreed to review the MV1. Now, after using a unit for a few weeks, I’m sure I won’t forget it. Hands down, this is my favorite dry-herb vaporizer. There’s a certain level of convenience that comes with using a high-end herb vaporizer. Rather than dealing with ashes and smoke, or sticky concentrates and leaky cartridges, you simply vaporize fresh, ground herb and discard the desiccated plant bits. It’s the tastiest way to enjoy your cannabis, especially if you prefer potent, flavorful strains. Unfortunately dry-herb vapes usually fall short when it comes to the act of actually consuming cannabis.
