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Google extends update support on some Chromebooks until 2025

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The company has pledged to support a number of models through to June 2025, rather than the standard 6.5 years that starts when Google has finished certifying a model’s base hardware design. The existing policy means a brand new Chromebook could well have significantly less than 6.5 years of support, but the Lenovo revision now guarantees up to another three years. The full list of devices with extended AUE dates:

  • Flex 11 Chromebook
  • 100e Chromebook 2nd Gen MTK
  • N23 Yoga Chromebook
  • 300e Chromebook
  • 300e Chromebook 2nd Gen MTK
  • Ideapad S330 Chromebook
  • Ideapad C330 Chromebook
  • Poin2 Chromebook 14

With many of Google’s devices costing hundreds of dollars it’s not unreasonable to expect a longer support cycle, especially since many models are powerful enough to withstand years and years of reliable use should they be kept updated. Could this move be indicative of Google’s change in attitude towards its AUE policy?

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San Francisco grants Jump, Lime, Scoot and Spin e-scooter licenses

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San Francisco was the birthplace of the electric scooter, with Bird, Spin and Lime starting operations there last March. However, there were many objections to the scourge of scooters, including that discarded scooters blocked access for pedestrians and that people frequently rode them on pavements.

In response to these complaints, the city vowed to bring in rules for scooter companies and to limit the number of companies granted licenses to operate e-scooter programs to five. The scooters then had to be removed from the streets while companies obtained permits, with 12 companies submitting applications for scooter programs including Uber and Lyft.

In the end, only two smaller companies, Skip and Scoot, were granted permits to operate last year, although Lime did try to block the two services with a court case that was eventually denied.

In the latest round of 11 permit applications, Skip has been kicked to the curb and Jump, Lime and Spin have been accepted. Each company can deploy up to 1,000 scooters to begin with, with up to 2,5000 scooters each possible in the future. The 12-month permits will go into effect on October 15th this year.

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Amazon put Alexa in everything

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It’d be easier to list the things Alexa isn’t in.These are all of the Alexa devices Amazon unveiled

Amazon’s annual hardware deluge enveloped us Wednesday, as it revealed a slew of Echo devices, Alexa-powered wearables, Ring’s first indoor security cam and a new smart oven. Oh, and that’s not all — now Alexa can speak to you using a celebrity’s voice, and Samuel L. Jackson is first on the list. This is the quick and thorough roundup you’ve been looking for.

Seriously, Amazon’s AI is everywhere now.The Amazon Echo experience

Did Nicole Lee ever actually escape Amazon’s hardware showcase, or has she, like Samuel L., been synthesized and replaced by Alexa? If so, you can honor her sacrifice by checking out these first-hand impressions of new Alexa-connected rings (Echo Loop), Alexa-connected glasses (Echo Frames), Alexa-connected earbuds (Echo Buds) and Amazon’s biggest Alexa-connected speaker (Echo Studio).

You’ll need a $5 subscription to unlock the fastest racing in this ‘free’ game.‘Mario Kart Tour’ is a simple racer surrounded by free-to-play complexity

Despite crisp visuals and simple controls, Nick Summers found Nintendo’s mobile Mario Kart game mired in “a joyless web of free-to-play systems.” Pity.

Uh…..Facebook lays out its vision of our communal VR future

Amazon wasn’t the only company with an event on Wednesday. Facebook’s Oculus Connect 6 served as a preview of new VR headset capabilities, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate the new forms of social interaction made possible by photo-realistic avatars and virtual spaces. We could be living in an entirely new reality soon, and Facebook wants to own all of it.

Just do it.How and why to buy a projector in 2019

You may think of projectors as either expensive, dim or janky, but with the latest technology, that’s all changed. It’s possible nowadays to find reasonably bright 4K HDR projectors with near theater-quality images for $1,500 or less. Before you start running to the store for popcorn, it’s important to learn a few things and beware of the pitfalls, so we’re here to help.

But wait, there’s more…

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Uber reportedly tells its staff not to disclose potential crimes

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According to The Washington Post, a number of Uber’s Special Investigations employees have come forward to reveal that they are forbidden from contacting the police or advising victims to pursue legal advice following an instance of assault. Meanwhile, the company has a generous three-strikes system which keeps drivers on the road long after they’ve been accused of a serious offence. One New York driver allegedly made three separate sexual advances on riders but was allowed to continue working until a fourth incident, when a rider claimed she was raped, the investigators say.

Further, in the event that a driver is blocked from the platform, Uber doesn’t share its information with police, background check firms or other rideshare companies, leaving the driver open to employment with other companies where passengers may be at risk. According to Tracey Breeden, Uber’s global heal of women’s safety, this particular policy is designed to be “survivor-centric,” allowing the complainant to “own their story” and make their own decision about contacting the police.

“At the end of the day, we’re not the judge and jury to determine whether a crime has occurred,” she continued. “We’re here to gather information, make a business decision. We’re not law enforcement.”

Uber has repeatedly tried to distance itself from the legal concerns of both its drivers and riders, asserting that as a technology platform — a middleman — it can’t be held accountable for what happens during a ride, and that as drivers are independent contractors and not employees it’s not responsible for their actions. These questionable policies are not exclusive to Uber, however. Lyft has also faced multiple lawsuits over conduct during rides, and as The Washington Post reports, interviews with Lyft employees also indicate that the company wants to limit its liability for rider and driver interactions.

Uber has implemented a number of safety measures in recent times, but if these fresh reports are true, it appears the company’s controversial approach to passenger safety is very much ingrained in its ethos, and its safety features only pay lip service to concerned customers and stakeholders. Indeed, cities around the world are revisiting their attitudes to the company in light of the many allegations it faces. In London, for example, the firm has been granted a two-month extension on its right to operate while Transport for London ultimately decides whether to grant them another five-year license, or ban them from their most important European market altogether.

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Google removes news previews in France to avoid paying publishers

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The “Copyright Directive” law makes large platforms like Google, Facebook and YouTube liable for content uploaded to their sites. They’ll be required to check for violations, and news aggregators must pay for snippets that go beyond “individual words or very short extracts,” according to the law. Google in many cases may not be able to include images in results, either.

Google eliminated News completely in Spain after the nation passed a similar law, and previewed the potential bare bones search results after the EU rules went into effect. Showing reduced results may hurt publishers, because readers are more likely to click on results with excerpts or images.

This was predictable. We could have expected this sort of blackmail. We’re going to have to look at all the legal aspects.

France was among the EU nations that pushed strongly for the the new rules and is the first country to implement them. Publishers there believe that Google is profiting at their expense by showing portions of content for free, causing them to lose €250 million and €320 million euros per year.

However, Google’s VP of News, Richard Gingras, said in a separate blog that the its snippets help, rather than harm publishers, and that it sends eight billion website visits to news sites in Europe alone. “We don’t accept payment from anyone to be included in search results,” he said. “We sell ads, not search results, and every ad on Google is clearly marked. That’s also why we don’t pay publishers when people click on their links in a search result.”

Google also noted that it provides value to the news industry in other ways. “Google’s advertising technologies are used by many websites, including news publishers, where publishers retain the vast majority of the ad revenue,” said Gingras. “In 2018, Google sent $14.5 billion to publishers around the world.”

European news publishers, which are trying to cope with falling revenues, condemned Google’s actions. “This was predictable,” Joy de Looz-Corswarem of the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association told the AFP. “We could have expected this sort of blackmail. We’re going to have to look at all the legal aspects.”

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Snap reveals new Originals and renews ‘Bringing Up Bhabie’

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Nikita Unfiltered will follow transgender beauty guru Nikita Dragun as she dates as a woman for the first time and will stream in winter 2020. Another Original streaming in the winter of 2020 is The Honeybeez — a docuseries that’ll follow Alabama State’s titular plus-size dance squad, which is out to prove that dance is for everyone. Driven is about the young entrepreneurs of an automotive company called PTG365 and the exotic cars they customize for rich clients, while Mind Yourself is anthology about mental health. Both of them will also premiere in winter 2020.

The last three Originals in the latest line-up make up Snap’s new scripted offerings. Players, which will premiere sometime this fall, is about a young basketball player named Nash Brooks who needs to prove himself when he transfers to a private school. Save Me, debuting in winter 2020, is about an isolated homeschooler who sets out to find an online classmate who disappeared one day. Finally, Everything’s Fine is a comedy about a college junior who wants to make it big in the music industry while dealing with her new bipolar diagnosis. It will premiere in spring 2020.

In addition to launching new shows, Snap has also renewed scripted Originals Two Sides and Kappa Crypto, as well as the docuseries Bringing Up Bhabie, which became its biggest premiere when it debuted in January. Snap’s Originals come in 5-minute bite-sized episodes with unskippable ads, and it looks like its audience has been eating them up. The docuseries that follows Bhad Bhabie — she’s the “cash me outside” girl, for those who can’t keep up what the kids are into these days — racked up 10 million viewers in 24 hours when it first became available for streaming.

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Amazon’s ‘X-Ray’ feature is coming to Thursday Night Football

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X-Ray is available for TNF viewers using Android, iOS and Fire TV. Those using their phones can activate it by tapping the “Stats by X-Ray” button, while Fire TV users only have to click “up” on their remote during the game. In addition to debuting X-Ray for TNF, Amazon is also launching a 30-minute pre-game live show for Prime Video called NFL Next hosted by former player and Super Bowl Champion Chris Long, NFL Network sportscaster Kay Adams and Next Gen Stats expert James Koh.

Finally, Amazon will continue making multiple audio options available for fans. While the default is the Fox broadcast commentary by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, Prime subscribers can also choose to listen to Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer instead. They became the first all-female commentary team for the NFL in 2018. The third and final voiceover option is by UK English language broadcasters Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth.

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Gogoro’s smaller scooter is built for international expansion

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Gogoro says the Viva is an alternative to 50-100cc gas scooters. Those smaller bikes typically don’t require a motorcycle license to ride on the road, just a driver’s license. Its ability to appeal to a larger audience is what makes it ideal as something that helps the company expand.

Gogoro Viva

The Viva is smaller than the Gogoro 2 and 3 models and has a shorter range (85km / 53 miles) because it only has a single swappable battery pack instead of two. But, it’s also cheaper starting at $1,800 and unlike those other two bikes, it can be charged at home via a wall socket.

Gogoro CEO Horace Luke said that the Viva is meant to be less intimidating than other bikes on the market including its own. “We are always looking for opportunities to create solutions that enable broader access to sustainable urban transportation and this smaller lightweight category of polluting 50-100cc gas scooters was a natural segment to introduce a Gogoro Smartscooter,” Luke said.

In addition to being electric, the Viva uses recyclable polypropylene plastic in an effort to be greener. “We look at the entire manufacturing line to make sure the vehicle is manufactured responsibly,” Luke told Engadget.

The Viva will be available in Taipei in October and will roll out to other regions internationally in 2020. Luke couldn’t specify where it’ll land outside of Taiwan. Placing the bike in other countries takes a bit more work than just dropping the Viva in showrooms. Gogoro’s charging infrastructure is what makes it unique and getting those stations (including the recently announced GoStation 3) up and running is part of the expansion process.

Gogoro Viva

But even if Gogoro doesn’t make it to your city, companies like Yamaha–that is using Gogoro’s technology and infrastructure in its own upcoming EC-05 bikes–might bring the ability to have a battery-swapping bike into your area if they feel so compelled.

So if the Viva and Gogoro’s battery network doesn’t land in your city as the company expands, there’s still a chance one of the company’s partners could bring swappable batteries to your home in the future.

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Hennessey Performance’s first EV mods will go on the Porsche Taycan

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While he also said they will “see” about adding more power, it’s difficult to see how they’ll accomplish that since it’s not like an internal combustion engine where you can change the air intake or adjust timing. The company will take delivery of its first Taycan after they start shipping to the US next year, when we should learn more about which parts are available.

As Autoblog notes, the renders distributed already show off some subtle changes, like a Porsche GT-style air vent in the front, modified front splitter and different side skirts. Just the kind of things you’d like to change before showing up to the Nurburgring to lay down a lap time around all those other stock Taycans and Plaid Model S sedans.

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Volvo’s electric XC40 will be one of its safest vehicles yet

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Volvo has also reinforced the front and back to both adapt to the lack of a gas engine (a given, really) and to distribute collision forces away from the cabin.

There’s also some tech that’s new to any Volvo — this is its first car with an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems array of cameras, radars and ultrasonic sensors. The company hasn’t gone into detail about how this will work, but it’s apparent the electric XC40 will be more aware of its surroundings.

You’ll have to wait a while if you want more tidbits. Volvo is planning to tease more details in the run-up to a public reveal on October 16th. Even at this stage, though, it’s evident that Volvo didn’t just slap a battery into the existing XC40. It’s treating this as a distinct model, even if there will be some obvious similarities.

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