Google Maps is about to get one of Waze’s best features

Google Maps may be Google’s most popular navigation app out there, but the company has a second similar app that’s even better for some people, especially frequent drivers. That’s Waze, an app that Google purchased a few years ago, which does navigation a little differently than Google Maps and other rivals. Waze packs crowd-sourced incident reports that’ll tell drivers about the state of the road ahead. Whether it’s accidents, heavy traffic, or police, the app will notify you while you’re driving to your destination, and even suggest better routes based on this information. Google, we’ve heard a few times already, is working on bringing incidents reports to Google Maps. And one Waze’s best features may be already available to some Google Maps users. Not only will Google Maps display speed limits on the navigation screen, per Android Police, as it’s the case for Waze and other navigation apps, but it’ll also show speed traps. The following screenshots show the new speed limit icon appearing in the lower left corner of the navigation screen: Waze users are already familiar with speed trap reports, so they’ll know what to expect on Google Maps. The same Android Policereports that speed trap icons have already been spotted inside Google Maps, right alongside voice warnings. As you can see in the screenshot above, speed cameras are identified on the screen, and an audio notification will remind drivers of their existence while they’re on the road. There’s no telling when the feature will roll out to all Google Maps users. For the time being, it’s only available in specific locations in the US. While you wait for it to arrive, you can always get the Waze app from App Store or Google Play.

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Google Pixel 4 May Be Completely Notchless, Patents Show

It seems that Google may be stepping up its Pixel design game and ditching that giant ugly notch. A new patent filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization shows a clean display devoid of notches, holes, foreheads or chins. t’s actually the second patent that describes a notchless, almost bezelless Pixel. Phone site 91mobiles reported on that one yesterday. That one also shows two speakers, one one the top and another on the bottom, which would offer stereo sound while playing movies and games. The latest patent also has clean illustrations of the back of the device, which will still have one single camera sensor and a fingerprint reader. Unfortunately, this patent doesn’t show a headphone jack on the bottom or the top, unlike the new Pixel 3 Lite. Usually, patents that introduce methods or inventions include very vague illustrations. The drawing included in these two patents seem to be very accurate technical illustrations, perhaps derived from CAD models. Patents don’t always have to result in actual products, but if you couple the illustration detail with the fact that every phone is going bezelless and notchless, it seems only logical that the 2019 or 2020 Pixel will finally get rid of the notch. That will be in line with the deployment of panels that include both camera and depth sensors under the display, as foretold by both reliable leaker Ice Universe and Samsung itself. I can’t wait for a phone with no distractions whatsoever, one that finally fulfills the holy grail of mobile technology in which the interface fully takes over a completely clean slab.

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Kombat Kast For Mortal Kombat 11 Takes Place On 30th January

During the Mortal Kombat 11 live stream, fans of the long-running fighting series got their first proper look at the game. This included the gameplay reveal, a fatalities trailer, the story prologue, the reveal of Ronda Rousey as Sonya Blade, the Geras character reveal and a behind-the-scenes look at the development. You can watch all of this footage right here. In addition to this, the Community Manager for NetherRealm Tyler Lansdown appeared on stage to announce the first Kombat Kast for MK11 will be taking place at the end of this month on 30th January. This first one is going to be "pretty big" according to Lansdown and will be live across all Kombat social channels. During this announcement, the character Kabal was shown running across the screen. The Kombat Kast on the 30th is likely to show this character and other content coming to the game. Unfortunately, much like the pre-release beta, it looks like Nintendo fans will miss out on the game's Collector's Edition. During his appearance on stage, Lansdown revealed this edition contains a copy of the game, an exclusive steel case and magnet, a Scorpion mask and a kollector box. He also re-confirmed if you pre-order any version of the game, you will receive the character Shao Kahn.

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LG G8 looks near identical to its predecessor, new leak suggests

Ken Hong, Head of LG Electronics' global corporate communications, has taken to Twitter to dismiss the below renders as "speculative" and "not real". Original article continues below. It would appear that LG didn't get the memo about notches being out this year, if these new leaked renders and 360-degree video from 91Mobiles and @OnLeaks are to be believed. The renders, said to be of the upcoming LG G8, show a handset that looks almost identical to last year's LG G7 ThinQ, though keen observers will notice some very subtle differences between the two phones. Firstly, it looks as though the LG G8 has slightly reduced the size of its chin bezel. Before you rush off to preorder, it's also worth noting that its aforementioned notch now seems to house a dual camera setup, which will either provide depth-of-field selfies or better face unlock functionality. On the rear of the phone, you'll notice the cameras are now horizontally aligned, as opposed to the G7 ThinQ's vertical implementation. Like last year's model, LG will reportedly stick to a dual-lens primary camera setup, bringing the total up to four cameras on the G8. Elsewhere on the device, the 3.5mm headphone jack makes its triumphant return, likely bringing Quad DAC audio along with it, as does the dedicated Google Assistant button, which made its debut on the G7 ThinQ. The LG G8 is expected to be announced at MWC 2019 with an assumed late-February launch date. You can check out the 360-degree render video from 91Mobiles below.

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773 million email addresses exposed in ‘mega data breach’ — here’s how to see if yours is one of the

If you haven’t changed your password after one of the countless data breaches over the past few years, the time is now. Nearly 773 million records, including email addresses and passwords were exposed in a data breach publicized by security researcher Troy Hunt this week. Hunt said this large collection of files, which could be the largest breach yet to be made public, were collected from a number of breaches and uploaded to popular cloud service MEGA. That platform has since removed the data, which was promoted on popular hacking forums. It’s not clear how long the sensitive records have been public, but the breach is wide-reaching. The list includes log-in credentials from more than 2,000 websites. The records were viewable to anyone with an internet connection. Troy Hunt, a web security expert and Australian regional director for Microsoft security MSFT, -0.16% was alerted to the breach this week and independently verified the data. “The unique email addresses totalled 772,904,991,” Hunt wrote on his website. “This is the headline you’re seeing as this is the volume of data that has now been loaded into Have I Been Pwned (HIBP). It’s after as much clean-up as I could reasonably do and per the previous paragraph, the source data was presented in a variety of different formats and levels of ‘cleanliness.’ This number makes it the single largest breach ever to be loaded into HIBP.” You can check if your email, password, or other data appears on the list for free through his site. Hunt said even his own data appeared in the giant trove of stolen emails and passwords, despite his intensive security practices as a privacy professional. “In terms of scale, this enormous trove of email addresses and unique passwords is monumental. Hackers could have accessed this data at any point,” said Ruchika Mishra, director of products and solutions at Balbix, a security firm in San Jose, Calif. Large breaches like these are often used for “data-stuffing attacks,” in which hackers use bots to automatically test millions of emails and password combinations across many website login pages until they gain access. This means if you use the same password across different websites, you could be at risk of being compromised, even at sites that weren’t hacked. “Password dumps create a ripple effect of organizations spending precious time and resources on damage control,” said Rami Essaid, co-founder of the bot mitigation company Distil Networks. “While it’s important that individual web users have strong, secure logins, the onus is on the businesses to detect and block malicious bot traffic before large-scale password hacks can occur.” The breach is yet another reminder that the best way to protect your privacy is to use a password manager and two-factor authentication, said Bill Evans, a vice president at California security firm One Identity. ...

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Verizon to offer free spam and robocalling protection to all customers, starting in March

Following on the heels of T-Mobile's similar announcement last week, Verizon is set to roll out robocall and spam call protection to all of its customers starting in March. It will be available to all users who have "smartphones [that] support these features," including iPhones and Android devices. Much like Tmo and its Caller Verified, Verizon claims that it's committed to supporting the FCC's STIR/SHAKEN protocols. The company also notes that it will have more information on how to sign up for the free service closer to launch, so we'll be looking for that. Whether carriers adopting these initiatives does any good remains to be seen, but I, for one, welcome attempts to curb the problem. I expect that we'll see AT&T and Sprint announce similar STIR/SHAKEN implementations in the coming weeks.

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Was The Facebook '10 Year Challenge' A Way To Mine Data For Facial Recognition AI?

Last week a new Facebook challenge went viral asking users to post a photo from 10 years ago and one from today captioning “how did aging effect you?” Now being called the “10-Year Challenge.” Over 5.2 million, including many celebrities, participating in this challenge. It follows closely after the “Bird Box Challenge” and the “Top Nine Photos of the Year Challenge” but this one has caused quite a stir and some concern from users. Speculation arose about the motive behind this viral challenge and had users questioning if this was a ploy by Facebook to use for facial recognition data. Kate O’Neill, a writer for Wired, wrote an op-ed exploring the possibility that this was more than just a fun challenge to share with friends. “Imagine that you wanted to train a facial recognition algorithm on age-related characteristics and, more specifically, on age progression (e.g., how people are likely to look as they get older). Ideally, you'd want a broad and rigorous dataset with lots of people's pictures. It would help if you knew they were taken a fixed number of years apart—say, 10 years,” said O’Neill. However, many people have argued that Facebook already has access to these photos since the challenge often asked people to share their first profile picture to their current. O’Neill argued that people don’t always upload in chronological order and many people have profile pictures other than themselves like cartoons, family members, animals, political statements, etc. This challenge gives Facebook the opportunity to have a “clean” version of who you are by the context you add such as telling your age in the photo, year or other given information that you share in the post. According to NYU Professor Amy Webb, this photo challenge is a “perfect storm for machine learning.” Webb is currently working on an upcoming book on how AI can manipulate humans. Facebook insists that they were not involved in the start of this challenge and had no “benefit” from it going viral. "This is a user-generated meme that went viral on its own. Facebook did not start this trend, and the meme uses photos that already exist on Facebook," the company said. "Facebook gains nothing from this meme (besides reminding us of the questionable fashion trends of 2009). As a reminder, Facebook users can choose to turn facial recognition on or off at any time."

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2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500: All the Engineering Details

The last iteration of the Shelby GT500 impressed with its 662 horsepower, but—and I hope you’ll excuse the pun—it was a bit of a one trick pony. Absurdly quick in a straight line, but its handling was compromised by the limitations of the previous Mustang platform, which still used a solid rear axle. It wasn’t the Mustang you’d take on a road course. The new GT500 still has big horsepower from a supercharged V8—over 700 hp, Ford promises—but it’s designed to handle, too. Put another way, Ford wants this to go up to a Challenger Hellcat on the drag strip and against a Camaro ZL1 1LE on the track. “If we were going to make the GT500 the pinnacle of the Mustang now, it has to do both. There's just no question,” Carl Widmann, chief engineer at Ford Performance told me. “We have so much capability out of the GT350 and all the Performance Packs and the base Mustang lineup. To be that pinnacle or the halo for any Mustang, it had to have that capability.” Widmann gave us lots of the engineering details on this seemingly remarkable machine just after the cover was pulled off at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week. The engine shares its 5.2-liter displacement with the naturally aspirated Voodoo engine in the GT350, but there are quite a few differences. “We knew we wanted the 5.2-liter block out of the GT350,” Widmann said. “The trick was we had to really modify it to take all the boost that comes off that 2.6-liter Eaton supercharger.” Consequently, the Voodoo block got new, longer bolts for the cylinder heads, new gaskets, additional cooling passages, and different seals. The cylinder heads themselves are modified to deal with the additional heat and pressure, too. What makes the Voodoo unique (and beloved) is its flat-plane crankshaft. Flat-plane V8s have a different firing order than traditional cross-planes, giving them a unique sound, and they generally tend to rev higher, since the crankshaft itself is lighter. The Voodoo spins up to 8250 rpm and sounds downright evil. The GT500 engine gets a more-traditional cross-plane crankshaft. “You don't really need it,” Widmann said. “Because you’ve got such a short runner off the supercharger. . . you don’t get a benefit going to a flat plane.” That Eaton supercharger pumps out 12psi of boost, and its intercooler is tucked into the valley between the cylinder banks to help keep the center of gravity low. So, while Ford used the Voodoo as a starting point for this engine design, it’s ended up quite a bit different. Widmann did, however, tell us that the GT500’s block will actually make it into the GT350 once it’s in production. ...

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Cohen says Trump directed him to pay for poll rigging

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's former "fixer" Michael Cohen said Thursday that he paid the head of a small technology company thousands in 2015 to rig online polls at "the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump. Cohen was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal that he paid John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC, between $12,000 and $13,000 for activities related to Trump's campaign, including "trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump's favor" and creating a Twitter account called "@WomenForCohen" that "praised (Cohen's) looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting" Trump's candidacy. In making the claim, Gauger told the paper he wasn't fully paid for the work, though the Journal said Cohen was reimbursed $50,000 -- the amount the two originally agreed on for Gauger's services -- by the Trump Organization. Gauger, according to the paper, also received a boxing glove "worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter" along with the cash payment. The paper said that Cohen denied paying Gauger in cash, instead telling the Journal that "all monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check" and declining to comment further. The Trump Organization did not comment to the Journal. Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for Trump, told the paper that the allegation that Cohen received more money than what he paid to Gauger shows he's a "thief." Later Thursday morning in a statement to CNN, Cohen said his actions were "at the direction of and for the sole benefit of Donald J. Trump. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it." CNN has reached out to the Trump Organization for response to Cohen's claim. An attorney for Gauger said they would not comment further on the Journal's story. The Journal said that Cohen's reimbursement was made around the same time that he received a $130,000 reimbursement from Trump for expenses incurred during the 2016 election. CNN has previously reported that Cohen used the $130,000 as a hush money payment to a woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump, which Trump denies. Gauger told the paper that Cohen asked him in early 2014 to help Trump score well in a CNBC online poll of business leaders and a 2015 Drudge Report poll of potential Republican candidates. Gauger's efforts for the CNBC poll were unsuccessful, according to the paper, and Trump ranked low in the Drudge Report poll. Cohen has publicly broken with Trump since cooperating with the Mueller investigation. He is expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee next month and is prepared to discuss topics related to hush money payments and aspects of the Trump Organization, including the roles of the President and his children, a source familiar with the matter has said.

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Google Is Ditching Apps Requiring Call And SMS Permissions

In a move to implement tighter security measures, Google announced last year that it will be removing apps requiring access to a user's call and text logs from the Play Store. Android is a very open platform for developers — and hackers too — and that means it's also vulnerable to abuse. Android has since experienced a lot of security issues, and now Google is trying to patch things up by purging the Play Store of some apps that require unnecessary permissions. Keeping Users Safe Google announced in October that it is updating Google Play's developer policies to cut down apps that may possibly invade a user's privacy through accessing call and text logs. Once the policy rolls out, Google will limit which apps can have permission to access sensitive data. Only apps that act as default for calls and messages will have access to a user's call and text records. "Our new policy is designed to ensure that apps asking for these permissions need full and ongoing access to the sensitive data in order to accomplish the app's primary use case, and that users will understand why this data would be required for the app to function," Google said in a new blogpost. In short, if an app doesn't really function as a dialer or messaging app but still wants access to a user's call and texts logs, Google will kick it out of the Play Store. What Should Developers Do? If in case a developer still wants to push through with publishing an app that can access a user's phone data, they will have to submit permissions declaration form to Google. The Mountain View company will then review the app and decide if the permission it asks are reasonable. Google will consider the following factors in the review process: how it benefits the user, if an app can completely function without having to access call and text logs, if there are any alternatives to this permission, or if a user completely understands why an app needs access to sensitive data. If an app in check passes the review, it will be published on Google Play Store. Otherwise, the developer needs to create a version that doesn't ask for a user's phone data. After this policy was announced last year, Google gave developers 90 days to fix their apps or submit the declaration form for review. Any apps that failed to do so will be automatically taken down from the Play Store in the coming weeks.

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How and When You Can Access The Biggest Upcoming Google Assistant Features

Google’s aptly named AI helper, Google Assistant, is poised to have a great year in 2019. Not only will the digital assistant be spreading to numerous devices old and new, but there are a host of new features coming, too, several of which were shown off at CES 2019 last week. This list of upcoming Google Assistant updates is long, and it can be overwhelming trying to parse out all the different announcements and keep track of when these new features will finally be available. To help, we’ve curated a rundown detailing the best and most important updates coming for Google Assistant in the next few months, including what devices these new features have been announced for, their expected release dates, and how to enable them (when available). Interpreter Mode By far, the most hyped new Assistant feature at CES was the Interpreter Mode. Interpreter mode will expand Google Assistant’s already existent bilingual functionality by offering real-time translation from one language to another on the Google Home Hub smart display, acting as an interpreter between two parties who otherwise don’t speak the same language(s). This might sound similar to Google’s previous attempt at real-time translation on the Pixel Bud wireless earbuds, but Interpreter Mode is a much more elegant execution on the concept. Voice commands like, “Hey Google, help me translate” will activate Interpreter mode on the Google Home Hub. As long as the language is supported, Google Assistant will automatically recognize the language being spoken. Any speech it hears will then be translated through the Google Home Hub’s speakers and transcribed on the device’s screen. The feature will launch with 27 supported languages: Arabic Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) Czech Danish Dutch English Finnish French German Greek Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Slovak Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Hands-on reports of Interpreter Mode have been mostly positive, but it’s not perfect. The delay between the participants speaking and the device translating is just long enough at this point that it makes the interactions slow and slightly awkward. And depending on ambient noise level and clarity of speech, sometimes Google Assistant will mishear a word or two. Thankfully, Google has some time to fine-tune things before the full roll out.

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Galaxy S10’s most sophisticated feature might be a good reason not to buy the phone

With the Galaxy S10 about one month away, we thought we knew everything there was to know about Samsung’s next flagship. But a brand new leak has us worried. If it’s accurate, then it might be a reason to avoid the Galaxy S10. It took me about a minute to ruin my iPhone X, and all I had to do was to place the phone in a protective case and slap a screen protector on it. That’s because the handset packs a glass sandwich design that’s susceptible to both front and rear damage after accidental drops. More than a year later, I still have protective gear around the device. The Galaxy S10 phones will also rock glass sandwich designs — that means they’ll have glass front and rear panels and a metal frame in between them. So you’ll probably want to protect both the rear and front glass with the help of whatever new accessories Samsung and its partners launch. Accessory makers have already created screen protectors for the phones, which have been featured in several leaks so far.

We have tested our cases on real #GalaxyS10 phones. The in-screen fingerprint does not support screen protector. So our vanguard will have no built in screen protector

— Armadillotek (@armadillotek) 16 de enero de 2019

It’s a tweet from an accessory maker that delivers today’s bad news. “We have tested our cases on real #GalaxyS10 phones,” Armadillotek wrote. “The in-screen fingerprint does not support screen protector. So our vanguard will have no built-in screen protector.” If this is accurate, then you’ll either have to use a screen protector on the S10 and forget about using the sophisticated in-screen fingerprint sensor, or ditch the protector and hope for the best. The Galaxy S10 will be the first Android phone to debut a brand new type of fingerprint sensor for displays, many reports have claimed. Developed by Qualcomm, the in-display sensor uses ultrasound to read fingerprints. Competing phones use optical sensors to get the job done, but the ultrasound sensor should be faster and more secure. This could explain why screen protectors might not work with the Galaxy S10. The ultrasound technology may require the user’s finger to be in contact with the phone’s display directly, rather than through a screen protector. ...

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Ford just revealed 2020 Explorer ahead of Detroit auto show: What's different?

The redesigned 2020 Ford Explorer, America's best-selling SUV in history, made its public debut Wednesday evening at a huge company celebration in Detroit. Car buyers will see the popular vehicle in showrooms later this year. It is the Explorer's first complete redesign since the 2011 model year. Ford engineers described it as lighter, leaner and stronger — but, most importantly, designed with the consumer at the center. “We reinvented the Explore.r from the ground up,” said Bill Gubing, global chief engineer of the Ford Explorer program. “Over the last eight years, our team has been together, living this customer, breathing this customer — studying, learning, understanding this customer.” He added, “We went to observe them in the wild” to get candid, unscripted feedback. Engineers and designers observed every major and minor detail, adding storage space to the interior, “a landing pad for the foot” just inside the rear doors to stand and load things onto the roof. It has square cup holders for juice boxes “so the Cheerios won’t stick,” said Gubing, himself a father of young kids. When Ford employees participated in a day to bring children to work, youngsters were set loose in the Explorer for observation, and engineers watched the children climb the center console and realized that a component not usually designed to handle weight needed reinforcement. The company touted the fact that the vehicle has a reversible cargo floor in the rear, with rubber covering one side for easy cleaning after a muddy soccer practice. Identifying “pain points” and eliminating them was crucial, the team said. “The second row has more head and hip room. Space for the occupants seems to matter most,” Gubing said. "And this is the fastest Explorer we've ever designed and built." During consumer research interviews, customers said towing capacity was “very, very, very, very important,” said Craig Patterson, SUV marketing manager at Ford. But when asked what they tow — boats, horse trailers, equipment — folks answered again and again, "Nothing.” 'Adventure enabler' “What that told me is that the customer wants the vehicle to enable whatever that adventure might be,” Patterson said. “They might want to go buy a boat or someday get a Jet Ski. This is an adventure enabler.’” Company Chairman Bill Ford, at the Wednesday evening event, said, "At Ford, we believe in the freedom of movement and the power of the outdoors to remind us of our humanity." With more than 7.8 million sold, more Explorers have been purchased since the original model debuted as a 1991 model than any other SUV. This latest endeavor involved in-home visits to families that agreed to an offer of $250 for two-hour observation of use of space in garages, basements and closets. “We wanted to see how customers live and interact day to day,”

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Trump's border address sparks extraordinary debate inside and outside TV networks

(CNN)President Trump is tapping into one of the powers of the presidency, a televised Oval Office address, for his first time. He will receive wall-to-wall coverage for his pro-wall speech on Tuesday night. And to say that there are mixed feelings about that is an understatement. While the address may not change anyone's mind, there are very strong feelings both for and against the television networks' decisions to televise it in the first place. The debate isn't just raging on social media -- it is happening inside the networks as well. At issue: How should a uniquely deceptive president be treated by TV networks that value the truth? For some, it's a no-brainer: A presidential address from the Oval Office merits live coverage. Period. For others, it's a no-brainer in the other direction: This particular president is so prone to falsehoods and fear-mongering that his speeches shouldn't be shown live. The major networks "should refuse to turn over the airwaves to Donald Trump tonight for what they know objectively to be a steady stream of lies," MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said Tuesday morning. But MSNBC and its broadcast network brother, NBC, will carry the address, just like its rivals. Stephen Colbert, the host of "The Late Show," alluded to the internal tensions in a tweet on Monday night. "My network will be carrying Trump's Wall speech live. So at 9pm Tuesday, tune into CBS to See B.S.," he wrote. This issue is reflective of all the ongoing arguments about Trump and the media. People who believe Trump is a dire threat to the country think that TV networks should not help spread his propaganda. People who believe Trump is saving the country think this debate is indicative of liberal media bias, and that "anti-Trump" media outlets are the true propagandists. For network executives, tradition and news judgment — the simple idea that this is "a presidential address from the Oval Office" — outweighed concerns about the content. There is widespread agreement that anchors and reporters will be under pressure to fact-check and contextualize whatever Trump says. When the White House officially requested airtime on Monday from the broadcast networks, as is customary in these cases, network executives deliberated about it for a few hours. A TV executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, observed: "He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves and cable pipes to deliver his false narrative." ...

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ASUS rethinks gaming laptop design with its inventive new ROG Mothership

I can’t help but rag on gaming laptops that feature loud design elements and over-the-top RGB lighting, but I can certainly get behind ASUS‘ bonkers new ROG Mothership, which features a radical approach to cramming plenty of powerful hardware into a portable system. This 17-inch machine is kind of like a cross between an all-in-one desktop and a full-blown gaming laptop: place it vertically on a flat surface, and a kickstand behind the screen pops out to prop up the display. The company says this helps with heat dissipation, and negates the need for a liquid cooling system for its powerful internals. Next, the wireless keyboard flips down at an angle in front of the display, with the keys near the bottom of the panel. You can use it this way, or detach the panel from the laptop‘s magnetic connectors and fold it, so the keys are angled to your liking. You can also fold it flat in half, so only the keys and trackpad-numpad combo are visible, and place it wherever you like. If the 17-inch screen isn’t big enough for you, ASUS has you covered. The Intel Core i9 chip, paired with Nvidia’s new RTX 2080 GPU with 8GB VRAM, can drive up to three external displays via HDMI, Thunderblot 3 and USB-C ports. There’s plenty more under the hood: room for up to 64GB RAM, three 512GB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration for speed, three USB 3.1 ports, 3.5mm audio jacks, an ethernet port, and four 4W speakers. Oh, and the display is a 144Hz affair with a fast response time of 3ms, which means graphics should look buttery smooth. All that adds up to a hefty 4.7kg in a 29.9mm-thick package. But if you’re the sort of gamer who demands the best possible performance from their machine, you probably won’t mind the Mothership’s size and weight too much. While this isn’t really made for a casual gamer like me, I’m excited to see hardware brands trying to make their laptops more interesting than just a slab of metal with rainbow-colored keys. You’ll need to wait until Q2 of this year to get your hands on one; ASUS hasn’t announced pricing yet, but we’ll update this post when we know more.

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An Engineering Wunderkind's Ocean Plastics Cleanup Device Hits A Setback

The path to innovation is not always a smooth, straight line. In some cases, it's U-shaped. In September, a 2,000-foot-long floating barrier, shaped like a U, was dispatched to the Great Pacific garbage patch between Hawaii and California, where roughly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic have formed a floating field of debris roughly twice the size of Texas. Made of connected plastic pipes, the barrier was meant to catch and clean-up the plastic. Invented by Boyan Slat when he was just 17, the barrier has so far done some of what it was designed to accomplish. It travels with wind and wave propulsion, like a U-shaped Pac-Man hungry for plastic. It orients itself in the wind and it catches and concentrates plastic, sort of. But as Slat, now 24, recently discovered with the beta tester for his design, plastic occasionally drifts out of its U-shaped funnel. The other issue with the beta tester, called System 001, is that last week, a 60-feet-long end section broke off. The first issue, Slat said, was likely due to the device's speed. In a September interview with NPR, he said the device averages about four inches per second, which his team has now concluded is too slow. The break in the barrier was due to an issue with the material used to build it. "In principle, I think we are relatively close to getting it working," Slat said in an interview Saturday with NPR's Michel Martin. "It's just that sometimes the plastic is also escaping again. Likely what we have to do is we have to speed up the system so that it constantly moves faster than the plastic." For the material failure, Slat said his team will probably try to locally reinforce the system to combat the problem of material fatigue. ...

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