Let's Talk Tech
Toast is back with another slick cover! This quirky Portland based company cuts all their cases here in the USA using renewable energy, and delivering on a unique, organic experience for our favorite gadgets.
Let’s take a look at their newest cover the Galaxy S5!
Ok, so wireless charging isn’t that confusing a concept. You take a device, slap it down on a pad, and it charges the battery. What IS confusing is having to deal with two different standards for wireless charging which aren’t cross compatible.
There are two different versions of chargers Qi and PMA, and each has carved out a niche of the market. It gets even more confusing with companies like Nokia. International Lumias support Qi, but AT&T is partnered with PMA, so their phones wont support Qi chargers anymore. It’s a tricky roadmap to navigate for consumers who want to know which accessories will work with their phones.
Broadcom has announced a new SoC which should eventually ease that confusion as it’ll work with both standards. It’s an exciting innovation. Having competing “standards” is a sure fire way to halt progress of a new technology. Anyone remember the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war for HD content? Of course you don’t we all moved over to Netflix.
Broadcom’s full pr below for all the technical details.
Continue reading “Wireless Charging to Get Less Confusing Thanks to New Broadcom SoC”
Til now, Google’s prototype driverless cars have been actual production vehicles, often Toyotas, retrofitted with sensors and cameras.
Well Google is following in Tesla footsteps by building their own vehicle designed from the ground up to be a self driving people mover. It looks like a toy version of a Fiat or Smart, but it carries two people in comfort. It’s basically a rolling couch with seatbelts and some navigation equipment.
As  this is very much a prototype, the initial run of vehicles will be capped to 25mph, but they have enough faith in the platform to build out 100 of these little cars to push the driverless program forward. Google is hoping to bring cars like these to market in the next couple years, and it’s no small stretch to think we might see them start filtering into taxi fleets or partnering with services like Uber.
You can see the little prototype in action below.
The open road. The freedom. The romance of wide open throttle on a long stretch of asphalt.
None of that exists in Los Angeles anymore.
Sure, on a holiday weekend at three in the morning you can let loose a little, but the normal condition for Los Angelinos is a bumper to bumper, stop and go, passive-aggressively, road ragey experience. You can’t live in the state for any length of time without witnessing the most common stories we all share. The jerks who skip the line of cars to merge at the last possible second. The jerks who cut you off while driving ten miles an hour slower than you were going. The INSANE number of people doing anything else instead of focusing on driving, even watching videos on tablets (actual pic from one of my commutes)… Continue reading “Sign Me Up. I’m Ready For Driverless Cars In California.”
Today LG took the wraps off of their long awaited follow up to the popular G2 Android phone. The LG G3 continues in the design language of the G2 and G Flex, while taking the brand upscale and including some bleeding edge specs.
The G3 retains the power button placement on the back of the phone under the camera, but now the build material of that backplate has a metallic finish which LG claims is fingerprint resistant.
The screen has also increased over the G2’s 5.2″ diagonal to a 5.5″ diagonal, placing the G3 screen firmly in the territory of last year’s phablets. The major talking point however is the bump to screen resolution. Called “Quad HD” the G3 display contains 2560×1440 dots, or four times the resolution of a 720p display. This delivers and insane pixel pitch (538ppi), which should make text and fine photo detail crisp. Continue reading “LG Announces G3 Flagship Phone with Quad HD Screen”
Samsung is doing something a little different with the electronic image stabilization on the Galaxy S5 Camera. Does it really result in better pics with less noise?
Let’s take a look!
With 5 days to go on their IndieGoGo, Solar Roadways has shattered their $1 million funding goal by a solid $300,000.
The crowdfunding campaign was to help kick start manufacturing for the first round of this new roadway construction process which incorporates solar cells and LED lights into hexagonal tiles that can be used to replace sidewalks, driveways, and streets. The cells are protected by a tempered glass which is durable enough to handle vehicles up to 15 tons.
The main benefit of this kind of retrofit is it takes ground that’s already dedicated for one purpose to generate electricity. Â It’s a futuristic idea, that every piece of passive asphalt and cement could instead be generating power. Other solar farm proposals might need large areas of land, which means pushing them farther away from populated areas.
There’s still time left to contribute to the campaign, with some fun perks for donating. If you’d like more info on the Solar Roadways project, we’ve got their pitch video below.
What time is it? Time to unbox a new Loot Crate!
This month’s theme is “ADVENTURE”, so let’s see what adventures we have in store…
Sign up for Loot Crate and save 10% on a Loot Crate by using promo code “SGLOOT” at checkout!