Tesla is suing Michigan state officials for the right to sell cars directly to customers. It’s the first time it’s explicitly challenged existing laws that mandate third-party dealers, something Tesla says is outdated. Many states have laws which ban manufacturers selling directly to customers rather than through franchised dealers. The most common argument for such […]
In 1977, earthlings launched a “message in the bottle” for extra-terrestrial life. Now a Kickstarter project is well on the way to issuing the Voyager Golden Record on vinyl. The record – one copy of which is on each of the two Voyager craft – includes audio recordings of spoken greetings in 55 languages, natural […]
Michael J Fox already got a pair from Nike last year to celebrate us reaching 2015 (aka The Future) but the HyperAdapt 1.0 shoes will finally be ready for public sale on November 28. The laces don’t actually tie as such, but rather tighten. Also, the traditional thick flat laces you see at the top […]
The latest public edition of Opera includes a free one-click VPN. It offers both privacy and an attempt to get around region-blocking websites. The VPN has previously been trialed in developer editions of Opera but is now available to all users. It needs to initially be enabled from the settings menu (under privacy and security) […]
New Yorkers will no longer be able to browse the web on screens in former phone booths. The change came after reports of “lewd acts” by some users taking advantage of the free facility. The free-to-use LinkNYC program was announced at the start of this year and 400 booths have been converted already, with an […]
Amazon has dropped the price of its Echo Dot – already a budget version of the Echo voice control system – from $90 to $50. It’s also offering bulk discounts with the idea of people filling their homes. The full-sized Echo device appears to have become established despite being somewhat awkward to describe and promote. […]
A company has raised nearly $4 million for a small cube aimed at fidgety people. With more than a month to go in a Kickstarter campaign, more than 200,000 Fidget Cubes have been sold. The cube is being marketed on the idea that having something to fiddle with helps focus attention on more important tasks. […]
A variant on X-rays could scan the pages of a closed book according to MIT researchers. Tests already show the technique working on a bundle of nine sheets of paper. The research is detailed in the snappily-titled Nature Communications article “Terahertz time-gated spectral imaging for content extraction through layered structures.” It’s based around using T-rays, […]
The Chrome browser will soon start flagging sites with password or card number fields that don’t use encryption. The change in January will be the first of a multi-step process. Until now Chrome has worked like most browsers by putting the emphasis on positively identifying secure sites with the familiar padlock icon in the address […]
Starch could be a taste in its own right, newly-published research suggests. Tests found subjects could detect the taste as separate from sweetness in carbohydrate-rich foods. While we can detect countless flavors — each a combination of taste and aroma –, the standard explanation at the moment is that we can only detect five distinct […]