Now that the second-quarter “earnings season” — when all of the biggest public tech companies spill their financial guts to the public — is over, and it was filled with a lot of weird stories that seemed a little outside of the mold that we normally see. There weren’t any blockbuster product launches, huge advertising beats, wildly surprising numbers (outside… Read More
By Marguerite Preston and Lesley Stockton
This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions…
The Volkswagen Microbus is undoubtedly an icon of the automotive industry. Its distinctive shape and character make it one of the most recognizable vehicles ever made. Decades after Volkswagen stopped making them, it’s going to enter production again. Volkswagen has confirmed that it’s bringing back the Microbus but the new version is going to be quite different from the original Microbus.
Volkswagen showed off its I.D. Buzz concept bus recently. It’s a version of the Microbus that’s all-electric and wired up with modern electronics. Volkswagen has said that it’s going to manufacture a version of its I.D. Buzz concept bus.
The production version of Volkswagen’s I.D. Buzz concept is going to be a bit different from the original vehicle as all of the batteries for the electric car will be mounted under the floor. It’s not going to be a rear-engined, gasoline-powered vehicle like the original Microbus.
Volkswagen confirms that like the original Microbus, the new car is also going to be sold as a cargo van. The company is yet to confirm precisely what it’s going to name this vehicle. The only confirmation is that the car will be made under VW’s I.D. label which will signify that it’s an all-electric car.
VW Microbus fans will have to wait for several years before they can take this bus out on the roads. The production version isn’t expected to hit the roads before 2022.
Volkswagen Is Making Its Electric Microbus , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
It appears that Microsoft is soon going to launch a special edition version of the Xbox One S. This particular version of the console will be a Minecraft edition and if the leaked images are any indication, the console’s paint job will make it seem like it came right out of Minecraft itself. This special edition of the console will have Minecraft blocks etched into the Xbox One S.
This upcoming special edition of the Xbox One S was spotted by an Italian blog that found a video promo for the console on an official Minecraft Facebook page. It’s likely that Microsoft is going to announce this edition officially later today at its Gamescom event.
No further information is available about the Minecraft special edition version of the Xbox One S. However, it’s safe to assume that the changes are only going to be cosmetic, it’s not like this version will be more powerful or will have more features than the ones before it.
Information about pricing and availability will likely be revealed by Microsoft during its Gamescom event in Germany today. This may not be the only limited edition Xbox console it launches today. Previous reports suggest that it’s also going to announce a “Project Scorpio Edition” of the Xbox One X.
Microsoft Likely To Unveil Xbox One S Minecraft Edition , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Google Home has had Bluetooth support ever since it was released but the device didn’t allow users to use that connectivity option for streaming audio over Bluetooth. It made no sense given that Google Home is a smart speaker and one of the basic features of a smart speaker is to enable users to stream music from their own devices over Bluetooth. Google briefly enabled this feature accidentally in June and then took it away. According to a new report, the Google Home Bluetooth streaming feature has now been finally released.
The company promised to enable Bluetooth streaming for the speaker at its Google I/O developer conference earlier this year. The feature went live briefly in June and then pulled.
Google Home users are now reporting that this feature is available once again and that it’s working as it should be. The feature can be located under the Home’s settings in the “Paired Bluetooth devices” option.
They can pair their Home with their smartphone and start streaming local music. The users who have found this feature to be working are on firmware version 93937.
This appears to be a server-side change that’s rolling out gradually so it may be a while before all Google Home owners are able to stream local music from their smartphones to the smart speaker.
Google Home Bluetooth Audio Streaming Feature Goes Live , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Movie studios have been toying with the idea of offering digital rentals of new films just weeks after they hit theaters. Cinema chains have obviously objected to these plans but the studios are not shelving them just yet. Apple is said to be one of the major companies that studios like Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures are in talks with on ways to move ahead on this without theater chains.
Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that even though Apple and the studios have been negotiating on this for months, they have been unable to reach a mutually beneficial way to create a premium movie-download project that costs between $30 to $50.
The leading Hollywood movie studios, with the exception of Disney, are reportedly willing to launch a new digital rental product to counter the declining DVD sales. Proposals under review include splitting revenue from the new premium video on demand product with the cinema chains if they sign off on the concept.
Cinema chains are said to be pushing for a long-term commitment of up to ten years in exchange for an agreement to the revenue split proposal but as per the people cited in the report, the studios have rejected this proposal.
As far as deals with potential distributors like Apple are concerned, it’s expected that the deals could be reached as soon as early 2018. This will enable companies like Apple to sell digital downloads of major movies merely two weeks after they’re released in theaters.
Apple In Talks With Hollywood Studios For Early Movie Rentals , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Google continues to make changes to its core search product in order to enable users to find the information they are looking for faster and easier. It introduced text snippets a long time back, the snippets give a snapshot of the site’s content so that it’s easier for users to decide if they want to click through or not. Google Search has traditionally shown a static image thumbnail in search results but that’s changing now. Video previews will now be displayed for videos that surfaced in search results.
When video results show up in the video carousel on the Google app for Android and Chrome on Android, users will now get to see video previews.
They serve the same purpose as the text snippets for webpages. The previews provide a glimpse of the video so users can easily decide if they want to click through to see the video or keep on searching.
Google says that by default, the previews are only going to play when users are on a Wi-Fi connection. Users will have the option to enable previews on mobile networks by visiting the settings menu inside the Google app or settings for Android Chrome.
Video previews in Google Search on Android will be rolling out more widely starting next week.
Google Search On Android Gets Video Previews , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
If they think about resigning from the administration, “I’d say, ‘absolutely not, you have to stay,’” said Jeh Johnson.
If there’s one feature that Google Home owners have been missing since the device’s launch, it’s Bluetooth audio streaming. The Home speaker was said to feature Bluetooth streaming when it was first announced in May, and even shipped with a Bluetooth chip inside. Well, good news is here, as Google has finally enabled the feature on its smart home speaker … Continue reading
Uber‘s many, many problems are widely known at this point, but the biggest question the ride-sharing company faces right now is who will take the place of recently ousted Travis Kalanick as CEO. A new report indicates that Uber has narrowed things down to three candidates, with the board of directors viewing former General Electric chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt … Continue reading
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