NEWS
Lenovo’s Moto Z & Project Tango smartphone Lenovo did a thing in San Francisco overnight and announced a few new products. The Moto Z is a smartphone with "Moto Mods" that connect to the back of the phone via some magnets and communicate with the phone with a proprietary connector. On launch there'll be a speaker, a battery and a DLP-based projector Moto Mods available. Alongside the Moto Z is the PhabPro2, a 6.4" smartphone with "Tango" built in. Remember Google's 3D scanning thingy called Project Tango? This phone has the 3D scanning cameras built in to make Tango enabled apps work. There was also a stupid smart shoe and some prototype bendy screen devices. Discuss
Don't stress about your Twitter password That Twitter user account breach I mentioned yesterday? Twitter reckons its no big deal. They have no evidence of someone pilfering data from their servers and said that they salt and hash passwords (wtf does that mean? look here) and use a more modern hashing method in bcrypt, as opposed to pissweak MD5. Just to play it safe though, Twitter is making "millions" of accounts reset their passwords. Discuss
A movie about Theranos is gonna be made and Jennifer Lawrence will be in it The rise and fall of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes is gonna be turned into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, who will play the role of Elizabeth. The writer of The Big Short (quite a good movie actually), Adam McKay, is gonna be writing the Theranos story too. Can't wait to see how they make something starring Jennifer Lawrence, with the FDA and medical regulators involved, into an interesting film. I hope it's better than the two Steve Jobs cinematic garbage fires. Discuss
There's a cheaper Model S, but you still can't afford it Tesla has announced a cheaper Model S, packing a 60kWh battery. It's still over $100,000 in Australia, so I still can't afford one, but the barrier to entry on a Model S is lower today than it was yesterday. The battery inside is actually a 75kWh battery, software locked to 60kWh. I wonder why you'd do that instead of just making the entry level car 75kWh and reducing the price to match? That price also doesn't include Autopilot enabled either (the hardware is there, but it isn't turned on). I don't see the point in buying a Model S without Autopilot turned on. Discuss
Tinder no longer allows kids (wait, what, kids were allowed?) File this under things I didn't know: people under the age of 18 were allowed to use Tinder. But now they aren't. That's it really. These last two stories are just filler to make up five stories are there's genuinely fuck all news today that you need to concern yourself with. Enjoy the weekend! Go the Roos! Discuss
COOL SHIT
Silicon Valley is a good show and this is why it is good Great article in the New Yorker about the creation of the Silicon Valley TV show (which I am really enjoying) and how it so accurately portrays the Bay area culture. There's some brilliant quotes in it, but this one is my favourite small one that fits within a paragraph: Before writing the episode, Judge and Berg spent a weekend at TechCrunch Disrupt, in San Francisco. “That’s the first thing you notice,” Judge said. “It’s capitalism shrouded in the fake hippie rhetoric of ‘We’re making the world a better place,’ because it’s uncool to just say ‘Hey, we’re crushing it and making money.’” There's an interview with some of the cast on NPR's Fresh Air too. (P.S: if you haven't watched the show and don't like pirating your media, use this free 6 month trial of Presto, where you can watch season 1) Discuss
"Tesla is cool, but Toyota make better cars" - some guy Tesla make the car we all love and want and can't afford, but analyst Edward Niedermeyer reckons they're gonna have a hard time selling a reliable car, at least initially. The Roadster, Model S and X are expensive cars and people kinda expect shit to go wrong with fancy exotic cars. If it breaks, just get your other car out of the driveway and use it. But when you buy a $30,000 car, you expect it to be reliable like a Toyota or a Honda. Basically, Tesla don't have the right mindset to make a car people can depend on. An interesting theory, that hasn't dissuaded me from buying a Tesla if I could afford it (even though I am in awe of Toyota's manufacturing skills). Neidermeyer makes another interesting comparison of Detroit in the first half of the 20th century being the Silicon Valley of today. Discuss
A Bluetooth toothbrush Check out the Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected, a Bluetooth enabled toothbrush. It builds a 3D map of your mouth and teeth and sends that to the companion app on your smartphone. The app will tell you if you missed anywhere and even sends you notifications to keep brushing if you haven't used the toothbrush long enough. If your dentist is a nerd too, you can send this info to your dentist and they can use it to look after your teeth better, or something. What a time to be alive. Discuss
Here endeth the sizzle (until Tuesday!) --Anthony
Sign up for a free two-week trial today and find out for yourself. You don’t need to provide any credit card details.
Hear from me daily by signing up for a free two-week trial today.
