In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from this week. Everything from Google I/O’s dates to a head transplant, it’s all here.
The official Google I/O app has been updated to reflect the upcoming developer conference at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California from May 18 to May 20. The annual event is a place for Google to unleash all of its software and service announcements, but it also allows developers to get in touch with the creator of the biggest search engine and mobile operating system. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the dates on Twitter in January, and the Web page went live in March.
Game of Thrones features a lot of characters (dozens of them are dead, but even more remain living) and those characters travel to a lot of different places across a vast and expansive world. Keeping track of all that can be quite difficult, so an interactive map showing you what everyone is doing and where they are at various points in the story would be very useful.
“Don’t text and drive” has become so common a message in our smartphone-obsessed era that too often, it seems to go ignored. But now, there may be a new way to stop drivers from pursuing their distractions — at least, the palm-sized ones. A new app from Romex employs a smartphone’s GPS system to detect the speed at which it’s moving, and if that speed is faster than four miles per hour, it locks the device.
As anyone who’s ever rented a studio apartment can attest, a 400-square-foot living space leaves much to be desired. For one such studio apartment located in the Hong Kong business district of Central, utilizing a well-known local interior design firm was all that was required to turn 400 square feet of living space into a spacious, luxury smart home.Facebook pays 10-year-old $10,000 for finding Instagram security flaw
If you think the GoPro footage you shot on your last skiing trip rocked, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Don’t believe us? Then check out this stunning video of an UP Aerospace rocket launch shot with a bunch of on-board Hero4 cameras. The mission was to deploy the 11-pound Maraia capsule into space, at the same time testing the capsule’s aerodynamics and stability on its high-speed return to Earth.
Lost your mind? You can get a new one. Literally. Actually, you can get more than a new mind — a doctor is now preparing to prepare the very first ever whole head transplant. No, DT hasn’t turned into a science fiction publication — this is the latest in scientific advancement. t’s a plan that Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has been concocting for years, first introducing the notion to the public in 2013.
Plenty of tech companies are offering very generous rewards to those who manage to find security loopholes in their networks — just ask 10-year-old Jani, who isn’t even old enough to have an Instagram account but still managed to hack the social media network. His reward for doing so? A cool $10,000. The Finnish boy uncovered a flaw in the network that essentially allowed him to delete any comment on Instagram.
The United States Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it would begin regulating all tobacco-related products, including cigars, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco, and even e-cigarettes. This new rule will have a profound effect on the e-cigarette industry and the culture of vaping, which has exploded in popularity in recent years.
The Donald won’t be getting any satisfaction from the Rolling Stones’ recent comments. The British rockers have told the Republican’s presumptive presidential nominee to stop using their music at his campaign rallies across the U.S. “The Rolling Stones have never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately,” a spokesperson for the Stones told the BBC this week.
There’s nothing worse than getting a giant stain on your dress when you’re at work. Luckily, fashion companies are getting into tech that’ll keep your clothes pristine through even the busiest workdays. Elizabeth and Clarke launched a Kickastarter campaign this week for a collection of women’s workwear that’s stain, spill, and sweat resistant.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.