english to a beat

Fisker's luxury electric car hits Tesla where it hurts.
Picture the Distracted Boyfriend internet meme, where the boyfriend is a Tesla owner and the girlfriend is the Model S.

The other woman? That's gotta be the Fisker EMotion.

SEE ALSO: 7 tech trends that will rule CES 2018

The all-new Fisker Inc. debuted its luxury electric car, the EMotion, at CES 2018, and it's a beauty. Fisker's sporty sedan would look completely in its element pulling up next to a Corvette or Porsche. But this a car made for the future, with equal attention paid to brains as well as looks: The EMotion will ship with an advanced autonomous driving system, and the battery — planned for a 400-mile range — will allow ultra-fast charging.

How Facebook and TV companies are winning the f.ight against illegal pay-per-view ing.
Livestreaming is increasingly mainstream. Social behemoths like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook all come with the feature baked-in and prominently displayed. With just a flick of a button, anyone anywhere can broadcast anything to hundreds of thousands of people.

Anything. Literally anything. Like, er, a boxing match only available through pay-per-view (PPV).

A Scarborough man is currently in hot water after a friend purportedly streamed a high-profile PPV boxing match to over 4,000 people. According to the Teeside Gazette, 34 year old Craig Foster paid £19.95 to watch Anthony Joshua’s fight with Wladimir Klitshko from his satellite TV provider, Sky.

Foster says that at some point during the night, a friend picked up his iPad and used it to stream the bout to an audience of 4,250 cheapskates.

Asus ZenFone Max Plus Packs Monster 4,130 mAh Battery.
Asus took the wraps off its ZenFone Max Plus late last year, but so far, the phone has only gone on sale in Europe and Asia. U.S. shoppers will get the chance to see if the phone is worth its $329 asking price next month, when the phone whose battery life is as expansive as its display arrives in this country.Credit: AsusAt CES 2018, Asus announced that the ZenFone Max Plus (M1) will hit the U.S. in early February. We haven't had a chance to go hands on with the 5.7-inch phone just yet, but we're expecting a device capable of giving the longest-lasting smartphones we've tested a run for their money.The ZenFone Max Plus packs a 4,130 mAh battery. That's not quite as large as the 5,000 mAh power pack found in other long-lasting Asus smartphones like the ZenFone 3 Zoom and ZenFone 4 Max, both of which lasted longer than 15 hours on the Tom's Guide battery test. But it is the kind of battery that promises to go all day on a single charge.

MORE: Most Anticipated Phones

It's not just about battery size, though. Asus says the new ZenFone boasts power management technologies aimed at optimizing battery life over the long-term as well, in order to curb the loss of battery capacity as the phone ages. The ZenFone Max Plus also features reverse-charging capabilities, so you can use it to power your other mobile devices in a pinch.

Other features help the ZenFone Max Plus stand out from the smartphone crowd. Asus uses a full-view display and an ultraslim bezel on the sides of the phone to squeeze that 5.7-inch screen into a 6 x 2.9 x 0.35-inch body, which would normally house a 5.2-inch panel. Unlike higher-end phones, like the Note 8 and iPhone X, you'll still see some bezel on the top and bottom of the screen, but it's still a pretty expansive display.Dual rear cameras include a 16-megapixel lens and a 8-MP wide-angle shooter with a 120-degree field of view. The setup aims to capture more of the scenery on landscape shots, or pack more people in when you're taking a group photo. Up front, a 16-megapixel camera with an f/2.0 aperture is designed to help you up your selfie game.Asus is counting on those features, plus a rear fingerprint sensor, to convince U.S. shoppers that the ZenFone Max Plus justifies its $329 asking price. Some of the specs feel underwhelming, though: The ZenFone Max Plus will ship with Android Nougat, for example.We hope to get a chance to go hands on with the ZenFone Max Plus to see just how well those cameras perform, and whether the full-view display looks as impressive as Asus claims. We're also eager to test out the battery life on the Max Plus to see how it measures up to the standards set by other ZenFones.

Ozobot uses rew.ards to keep kids engaged with Evo robots.
Ozobot designed its tiny Evo robots to get kids excited about robotics and programming. It debuted in 2015, and now the company is returning to CES 2018 with a way to reward players who share their creations.

The Redondo Beach, California-based company has created a leveling system that tracks users’ progress and rewards for Evo, which students are using in more than 10,000 classrooms.

“We designed Evo to be the best robot on the market, one that revolutionizes learning through creativity and social connection,” said Ozobot CEO and founder Nader Hamda. “Evo bridges entertainment and education, and grows with a child as they advance from coding with colors to block programming. Evo is the updatable robot that is constantly evolving to deliver an ever-expanding experience that’s fun and challenging.”

Ozobot users share their creations every day, and the updated Evo app will reward that activity with a new leveling system for playing tricks with their Evos, such as choreographing music and lights. As people do these tasks, they learn more about programming concepts.

3 companies helping make China a global hub for IoT technology.
To talk about the Internet of Things in China is to talk about manufacturing. 

Manufacturing spending on IoT technologies in China is estimated to rise to $127.5 billion by 2020. Since China currently produces a large chunk of the world's electronics (including technologies like sensors and microchips that are fundamental to the IoT), the country is well positioned to shape the backbone of connected homes, IoT-integrated infrastructure, and smart cities around the world.

The Made in China 2025 initiative, for example, focuses on comprehensively upgrading the country's industries and IoT infrastructure. In addition to country-wide initiatives like this, several China-based startups are helping shape the rapidly growing IoT industry in this region of the world and beyond. Their efforts are being fueled largely by advancements in AI and big data. 

"AI is the engine of the rocket that takes us to the next frontier, but data is the fuel that powers the engine," says Sundeep Gantori, UBS Equity Analyst at UBS Wealth Management. "That’s something the Chinese AI-based engines have much more of than what we see in Western societies. We think that today China is in a far better position than in any of the previous industrial revolutions."

Baidu updates Apollo project to help developers make self-driving cars.
Baidu made a set of announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show today that are all aimed at expanding the reach of its Apollo self-driving car software to better serve developers around the globe. The project has now reached its second major iteration, with support out of the box for creating cars that can drive themselves around basic urban roads.

What’s more, Baidu inked partnerships with Udacity and Microsoft to expand Apollo’s relevance. Microsoft will provide cloud services for autonomous vehicles outside of China, while e-learning platform Udacity will offer courses for creating self-driving cars using Baidu’s software.

These announcements are aimed at making Baidu more of a global powerhouse in the self-driving car market, reaching beyond its dominant position in China. The autonomous vehicle market is shaping up to be one of the key opportunities for artificial intelligence in the future, and Baidu’s ambitions span beyond its home country.

Apollo 2.0, the software update unveiled today, is an open source project that Baidu released last year. The new software now includes a full security system, to make it easier for developers to securely update vehicles over the air. Other added modules include support for smoother rides, improved vision, and a system that can better determine where a vehicle is on the road.
Baidu,updates,Apollo,project,to,help,developers,make,self-driving,cars,Baidu updates Apollo project to help developers make self-driving cars

TRAI’s views on ICT solutions for differently-abled by June.
Regulator TRAI will by the middle of this year recommend measures to make telecom and broadcasting services more accessible for the differently-abled, its Chairman R S Sharma has said. Sharma said service providers and other stakeholders must respond to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recent discussion paper on the issue with constructive suggestions to brainstorm solutions, aids and assistive devices that would make telecom and broadcasting services more ‘inclusive’.

“We should be able to come out with the recommendations on this consultation paper by May or June this year. By March, hopefully, we will have an open house discussion with stakeholders,” Sharma told PTI. Sharma said finding solutions that would make information and communications technology (ICT) accessible for the differently-abled was of utmost importance given the fact that mobile phones and devices have become ‘ubiquitous and universal’.

“The percentage of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in the total population has grown to 2.21 per cent in 2011, with 2.68 crore PwDs in the country,” the TRAI chief said. Last month, the regulator, through a new consultation paper began a dialogue on making ICT accessible for the differently-abled, saying more policy interventions were needed in this area where benefits of technology have not been fully realised.

It has sought industry views on whether handset makers should be mandated to manufacture at least one model for such individuals with assistive technology features such as hearing, visual aids and emergency buttons. TRAI had also asked if information on billing and pricing needs to be provided in a more accessible form for them. The consultation paper has also sought the industry’s comments on disabilities that need to be included in the enabling framework, reasons for benefits not reaching PwDs and corrective measures that need to be undertaken.

Acer stakes out premium business laptop turf with Swift 7, hits budget buyers with Chromebook 11 at $249.
Acer is staking out the premium business and budget ends of the laptop market with the Swift 7, billed as the world's thinnest laptop, and Acer Chromebook 11, respectively. The Big Trends for Business




Acer,stakes,out,premium,business,laptop,turf,with,Swift,7,,hits,budget,buyers,with,Chromebook,Acer stakes out premium business laptop turf with Swift 7, hits budget buyers with Chromebook

Long-awaited Nest x Yale smart lock arrives in March, pre-orders begin in February.
Traditional lock-maker Yale initially partnered with Nest back in late 2016 to create a new smart lock, dubbed the "Nest x Yale." Despite a few delays since the device's initial announcement, the two companies have finally announced a firm release window at CES 2018 - the device will officially be available in March with pre-orders opening up sometime in February. Pricing still hasn't been announced.

The Nest x Yale smart lock is a touchscreen lock that eliminates the need for a key or key fob entirely. Device owners can enter their home by entering one of up to 250 configurable passcodes or by using their smartphone to unlock the device remotely.

Passcodes can also be configured to work only during certain times of the day, a particularly useful feature if you're on vacation and hired somebody to look after your pets, for example.

All of that said, the ability to unlock your front door remotely is nothing special by itself. Plenty of other smart lock makers already have similar devices in their line-ups (though not all of them were successful). However, the Nest x Yale's unique appeal comes from its ability to connect with Nest's full home security system.
Long-awaited,Nest,x,Yale,smart,lock,arrives,in,March,,pre-orders,begin,in,February,Long-awaited Nest x Yale smart lock arrives in March, pre-orders begin in February

What it's like to ride in a self-driving Lyft.
Riding in a self-driving Lyft car is way more boring than you'd expect. But that's really the point.

The ride, which I took on the streets of Las Vegas at the outset of CES 2018, was only remarkable in how mundane it was. Turns, lane changes, braking for red lights, accelerating for green — it was all pretty much the same as if a human were doing the driving. Well, if it weren't for the display on the dash showing a LiDAR-constructed view of the streets around us, and the robotic female voice that would occasionally chime in with a "lane change checking" or some other status update.

SEE ALSO: Toyota tries to make its most advanced autonomous car look slightly normal

And this is why the self-driving experience Lyft showed off — developed by its platform partner, Aptiv (formerly Delphi) — is so impressive: The drive felt just like an attentive chauffeur. The driving style was very focused on the passenger, certainly: There were no sudden accelerations to make a stale green light or catch up to traffic, for example.

This stunning Japanese island you've probably never heard of is the top trending travel destination for 2018. The island of Ishigaki is famous for its white sandy
beaches and speciality Yaeyama soba noodles, ac

Galaxy Note 9 rumored to have one feature the iPhone X lacks.
It’s too early to get excited about Samsung’s second flagship of the year, but a new Galaxy Note 9 rumor says the phone may offer users the kind of feature the iPhone X — and any other all-screen phone out there — lacks: a fingerprint sensor under the display.

This isn’t the first time we have heard about Samsung working on such screen technology. But Samsung won’t be the only smartphone maker to launch such devices this year, or the first, assuming the report is accurate.



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Tech firms should care about your kids getting addicted to their phones.
While tech companies are increasingly focused on making their products faster, cheaper, and easier to use, they’re also making them more addictive than ever before. That’s a problem for adults and children alike – but the latter are perhaps in more danger of feeling the ill effects of being hooked on technology.

An open letter to Apple, penned by two investors who have a combined stake of $2 billion in the company, urges the Cupertino-based firm to expand its efforts in creating parental control functions for its mobile devices.

Investment firm JANA Partners and The California State Teachers’ Retirement System cited a survey of about 2,300 teachers, which pointed to children facing increased distraction by digital technologies, as well as larger numbers of students facing emotional and social challenges since personal devices have become prevalent in classrooms.

Those shareholders aren’t alone in growing concerned about kids overdosing on tech: France recently opted to ban the use of phones in schools starting this September.
Tech,firms,should,care,about,your,kids,getting,addicted,to,their,phones,Tech firms should care about your kids getting addicted to their phones

LG wants robots to take over, but it needs them to work first.
If LG has its way, the company's robots will soon be serving you breakfast, carrying your luggage, and cleaning your floors. Well, assuming they can overcome some pretty basic problems like not working, that is. 

The promise of a connected-robot future was made repeatedly Monday morning at CES in Las Vegas, with LG's Vice President of US Marketing, David VanderWaal, taking the stage to show off a line of AI-powered robots that are intended to both integrate with a smart home and work in commercial settings. 

SEE ALSO: LG wants these large robots to follow you around airports and hotels

Unfortunately for all The Jetsons fanboys out there, the biggest impression was made by what was left unsaid.

Ex-Tinder employees launch professional networking app Ripple.
A team of former Tinder employees has launched a new professional networking app in a bid to make waves in the LinkedIn-dominated market.

Dubbed Ripple (nope, not the cryptocurrency), the mobile app was launched by a team of ex-Tinder folks, including former CTO Ryan Ogle.

SEE ALSO: Which dating app is right for you? Use this guide to figure it out.

According to TechCrunch, the iOS and Android app was backed by IAC’s Match Group, which owns Tinder, for an undisclosed sum — there are no other investors, apart from the founders.