Hasta La Gadget!

When you think of Apple’s CarPlay, there’s a good chance you’re thinking about those infotainment units found on the dashboards of cars, but hey, why should car owners have all the fun, right? The good news for our readers who love riding their motorcycles is that it looks like CarPlay will be arriving on bikes, with the first model being the 2018 Honda Gold Wing.

In a report from CNET’s Road Show, “Yes, the (now inaccurately named) feature is available for the first time on two wheels courtesy of the 7-inch LCD in the center of the new Gold Wing’s dashboard. Connect your phone via USB (either in the trunk or the storage cubby in the tank), then pair your Bluetooth headset to the bike and the familiar CarPlay interface shows up right there on the dash.”

Users will have to pair a Bluetooth headset which is apparently a rule set by Apple. There will be a four-way controller on the left grip of the bike and a rotary controller on the tank of the bike, so how you want to access or control the system will be entirely up to you. As for Android users wondering about Android Auto, CNET reports that the decision to go with CarPlay was due to Google focusing on cars for now, not so much an unwillingness on Honda’s part, although if this does take off successfully you can be sure that Google will want to look into this next.

For those who are interested in a new bike that supports CarPlay, the 2018 Honda Gold Wing will be made available come February 2018 where it will be priced starting at $23,500.

Honda Unveils The World’s First Bike With Apple’s CarPlay , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

While fake news isn’t exactly a new problem, it’s starting to become a serious problem due to how quickly information spreads in this day and age, leading to various tech companies such as Google and Microsoft to roll out features to help users identify what websites/articles in search results might be real or fake.

For Google’s part, they’ve added tags that identify whether an article has been fact-checked, and it looks like recently the company has decided to further combat fake news by announcing a partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). According to Google, “As a nonpartisan organization, IFCN is committed to promoting excellence in fact checking and building a community of fact checkers around the world.”

The company adds that with this new partnership, it should expand on their ability to fact-check articles. “Increasing the number of verified fact checkers through a combination of efforts, ranging from holding global fact check workshops to offering coaching and stipends for new fact checking organizations. Ultimately, these partners can help make sure that the content on Google Search and Google News has been accurately fact checked.”

That being said this fight against fake news is probably something that will continue to grow and evolve over time, but hopefully with these new tools and features, Google is making it easier for users to identify content that might be faked or partially inaccurate to help users make more informed decisions.

Google Further Combats Fake News With Fact-Checking Network , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Sometimes when you install/launch certain apps for the first time, you are usually asked for permission on what it can or cannot do, such as whether it can be allowed access to your smartphone’s camera. Usually if you are using some kind of communications or photo app, it makes sense, but it seems that for iOS apps that allow this permission, it might not be as secure as you think.

According to Google engineer Felix Krause (via TNW), he has made a bit of an alarming discovery in which he found that apparently once you give an app permission to access your camera, it will be able to record you anytime without your permission/knowledge, although the catch is that the app will have to be open at that time.

For example say you use a chat app that also has video calling whose permission you’ve granted, and basically Krause’s findings suggest that even if you open the app to send messages and not video chat, the app (or a hacker) can actually record you in that moment. Krause demonstrates this issue in a video that you can check out above.

As to what one can do about it, Krause has suggested a number of methods, such as revoking camera access, although that could hamper or prevent certain apps from working. You could use camera covers which aren’t always a very elegant solution, but unfortunately those appear to be some of the options available at least until Apple decides to address it (if they address it).

iOS Apps With Camera Permission Can Record You At Any Time , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Has the iPhone gotten a bit boring after keeping to the same design for three generations? That’s what Apple is trying to fix with the iPhone X which is supposed to represent a new direction that they will be heading in, and so far it seems to be paying off, or at least that’s what Apple wants us to believe.

In a statement provided to Reuters by an Apple spokeswoman, the company is claiming that pre-orders for the iPhone X are “off the charts”. “We can see from the initial response, customer demand is off the charts. We’re working hard to get this revolutionary new product into the hands of every customer who wants one, as quickly as possible.”

However we should point out that we don’t know how many units have been pre-ordered, or how many units Apple has produced for that matter. A couple of weeks ago we heard that Foxconn had managed to ship out the first batch of units to Apple which numbered a little under 50,000 units. Presumably those numbers are higher now, but until Apple officially reveals their sales figures, it’s hard to tell how many units have been sold.

That being said, this seems to be a stark contrast to news about the iPhone 8 handsets, which appear to be somewhat lukewarm and with carriers claiming that demand for the phone has been “anemic” We suppose that can’t really be blamed, but once the reviews for the iPhone X are in, that could change if customers decide then that maybe spending that much for the iPhone X might not be worth it.

Apple: iPhone X Pre-Orders Are ‘Off The Charts’ , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The iPhone X officially went up for pre-order on the 27th of October and is expected to ship out on the 3rd of November. Given how much anticipation there is surrounding the phone, it didn’t really come as a surprise to find that the phones were snapped up more or less in an instant, with customers seeing shipping times as long as 5-6 weeks.

However it seems that for some reason, some customers who pre-ordered their iPhone X handsets with a 1-2 week shipping estimate, they are seeing improvements in the estimated date. This was noticed by users on Reddit and MacRumors (via 9to5Mac) where previously their estimated dates said 10-17th November, which has since been improved to 3rd November.

Like we said it is unclear as to what changed that prompted this improvement in shipping. It is possible that maybe some customers cancelled their orders, or maybe Apple managed to get in more stock than previously thought, but either way this is a good thing. As for other customers who are facing longer shipping times, there is a chance it could improve as well, but we guess you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up just yet.

Recently there was a report out of Bloomberg that suggested that Apple had reduced the accuracy of Face ID in order to ramp up production. Apple has since refuted those claims as “completely false”, but whatever it is that Apple is doing to improve on production, hopefully quality will not be sacrificed as a result.

Some iPhone X Pre-Orders Are Seeing Shipping Date Improvements , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.