As Samsung struggles to bring the Galaxy Fold to market, the company is reportedly already working on a new foldable phone with a familiar form factor. , Samsung plans to launch a clamshell phone with a more durable flexible OLED. This phone should cost less than the nearly $2,000 Fold, and it will offer a compact square form factor when closed. Clearly, Samsung is counting on the nostalgia factor. So, why leave the Fold in the dust already? Clearly, the price is the main stumbling block for the Fold, guaranteeing it won’t sell many units. Even the best flat phones are barely half as expensive, and the Fold got plenty of negative press after several early review units failed after several days of use.
The USB-IF has apparently decided to extend the already-confusing naming scheme it used for USB 3.X in new and exciting ways. To briefly recap: Up to USB 3.0, USB branding was sane. With the introduction of USB 3.1, the USB-IF decided to create a new naming convention. USB 3.1 capability would be known as “USB 3.1 Gen 2,” while USB 3.0 would be rebranded as “USB 3.1 Gen 1.” This was confusing enough. Then, earlier this year, the USB-IF made it worse. When it introduced USB 3.2, it rebranded every previous product generation again. Now we had three standards: USB 3.2 Gen 1 (aka, USB 3.0), USB 3.2 Gen 2 (aka, USB 3.1 Gen 2), and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2.
Today is a big day for Google’s Android platform. is rolling out to Pixel phones today, marking the first time since 2008 Google has released a version of Android without a dessert name. Android 10 also brings several long-overdue features to phones, and it promises better update support going forward. Unfortunately, it’ll take time for phones outside of Google’s Pixel lineup to get the OTA. Google began testing Android 10 (AKA ) earlier this year with an open beta for Pixel devices, and a few OEMs like OnePlus and Huawei followed with their own test builds. Google has made some adjustments over the months, but there are no major surprises in this release.
Legend had it that cool, rainy weather made dad’s carbureted car run smoother. In 2019, there is one automotive advantage to rainy, stormy weather: Automakers are unlocking or freeing up features to customers affected by Hurricane Dorian. Tesla will unlock free Supercharger access, unlock the software-limited range ceiling on some cars, and force-charge PowerWall batteries to full power. General Motors will provide enhanced OnStar services for anyone with a digital-technology OnStar system (2006-present), and give lapsed OnStar customers free service for the duration of the storm. And now that OnStar is no longer the only telematics game in town, others will probably match GM and OnStar crisis assistance programs.
Labor Day weekend is over and it’s time for us all to get back to work. But you can make getting back to work fun, too, by picking up a new computer with a sizable discount. Dell’s XPS 8930 desktop comes with an Intel Core i7-9700 processor with eight CPU cores that can operate at clock speeds as high as 4.7GHz. The system also comes with 16GB of DDR4 memory and one of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards that can run games with medium graphics settings. You can get this system marked down from $1,399.99 to a more affordable $949.99 from Dell with promo code DTXPSAFF1.
Federal mandates require one camera for backing up in all vehicles. The 2020 GMC Sierra full-size pickup truck matches and raises the feds. You can have cameras on all four sides, looking down into the pickup bed, another inside your trailer, another looking behind the trailer — as many as fifteen camera views of the trailer alone. The most fascinating is an X-ray view that effectively sees through your trailer and shows the view. GMC has finally solved the blind-spot problem with trailers. Add in the carbon fiber bed liner and six-way MultiPro folding tailgate introduced last year, more efficient and more powerful gas and diesel engines, and the ability for a pair of the heaviest-duty Sierras to carry the payload of an 80,000-pound 18-wheeler, and it shows GMC more than matches the competition in new features.
It turns out that video games may be an excellent method of teaching skills to artificial intelligence assistants. That’s the theory of a group of researchers working for Facebook, who have focused on Minecraft as a potential teaching tool for building generalist AI — a so-called ‘virtual assistant.’ The research team isn’t trying to build an artificial intelligence that’s super-good at classifying images or other content — it wants to build a generalist AI that can perform a much larger number of tasks reasonably well. This is, to-date, an under-studied area of research. The : There has been measured progress in this setting as well, with the mainstreaming of virtual personal assistants.
Acer’s Predator Helios gaming laptops have been highly competitive in recent years, offering a strong balance between performance and affordability. The new systems come equipped with the latest processing technology from Intel and Nvidia, giving these new systems a clear edge over last year models. Design and Hardware Along with the upgraded hardware comes an updated appearance that helps the new 2019 systems stand apart from their . Instead of the overplayed red-and-black color scheme, these new systems are predominantly black with teal highlights.
The Tesla Model 3 is the budget offering in Tesla’s lineup, but it’s still jam-packed with fancy technology like custom driver profiles, autonomous driving, and a top speed of 162 miles per hour. You can even control the car from the smartphone app. That app support is usually a selling point, but it was a big problem for some Tesla owners over the weekend. The company experienced an app outage that left some Model 3 owners . Unlike most cars, the Model 3 doesn’t have a key. In fact, you don’t even get a key fob with the car like other Teslas.
