Hasta La Gadget!

The problem with Android is timely updates, where unless you own a Pixel handset, chances are you’ll have to wait months before the next major update finds its way onto your phone, and for those who own devices that are 2-3 years old, there might even be a chance that your OEM could skip on updating your device to the latest version of Android.

This is where Google’s Project Treble comes in, where it is an effort by Google at trying to minimize the delays when it comes to updates. You would think that this is something that many OEMs would be jumping on to, but unfortunately for OnePlus users, that is not the case for the company. During a recent AMA held by the company, OnePlus has confirmed that they are currently not supporting Project Treble on any of their devices, and it doesn’t seem like they plan to.

OnePlus does not provide a reason why they aren’t supporting Project Treble, but it is rather unfortunate. For those unfamiliar with how the update process works, basically Google releases the source code, and from there chipmakers like Qualcomm will then release updated drivers for their hardware and passes that onto the hardware makers, like LG, HTC, Samsung, and so on.

Those companies will then add their own tweaks to the software to customize the UI to their own brand, and sometimes it is then passed onto carriers who then add their own changes, before it is released to users. Safe to say that these are a lot of steps which is why sometimes it takes so long for an update to find its way to users.

With Project Treble, Google wants to cut down on complications when it comes to updating, such as working with chipmakers to ensure their hardware is forwards compatible, thus removing the additional step of waiting for driver updates. Of course this doesn’t necessarily guarantee that updates will be released timely, it does reduce the complications which should in theory make it faster.

That being said, it is rather unfortunate that the current OnePlus phones will not support Project Treble, but who knows, maybe the OnePlus 6 will.

Current OnePlus Devices Won’t Support Google’s Project Treble , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

When Apple announced the HomePod at WWDC earlier this year, it felt like a “me too” moment in response to Amazon launching the Echo series of speakers, and Google launching the Google Home. However a recent report from Bloomberg has suggested that the HomePod is actually something that Apple has been working on since 2012.

According to the report, the HomePod started out as a side project at Apple in an attempt to create a set of speakers that sounded better than what was available on the market. However perhaps the project wasn’t really given a priority as apparently it was treated more as an accessory, like the AirPods. The report has suggested that because of this approach, Apple might have missed the boat and allowed Amazon and Google to get in front of them.

Bloomberg’s report also claims that the project had been shelved and revived several times, adding to its delay, and had gone through multiple iterations as Apple tried to figure out how to fit it into their ecosystem of products and services. The report also highlights some shortcomings of the device, such as how certain requests sent to it will be parsed on the iPhone instead of the cloud, meaning that developers cannot create apps specifically for it.

All of this suggests that the HomePod will be more of a speaker with support for Siri, rather than a hub like what Amazon and Google have done with the Echo and Home respectively. Whether or not this will work out for Apple remains to be seen, but unfortunately with the recent delay, we’ll have to wait until 2018 to find out.

Apple’s HomePod Has Been In Development Since 2012 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

With self-driving cars looking to become the future in which how we are ferried from one location to another, it also means a potential boost in productivity, where instead of focusing on driving, people can focus on work, replying to emails, finishing up a presentation, all while being driven to their destination.

However Uber believes that these activities could lead to motion sickness, and in a recently discovered patent (via The Guardian), Uber has come up with an idea on how to combat that. The patent reads, “With the advent of autonomous vehicle technology, rider attention may be focused on alternative activities, such as work, socialising, reading, writing, task-based activities and the like. As the autonomous vehicle travels along an inputted route, kinetosis (motion sickness) can result from the perception of motion by a rider not corresponding to the rider’s vestibular [balance and spatial orientation] senses.”

Uber’s plan includes stimulating the rider of the vehicle through a variety of methods, such as having the seats vibrate when the car brakes, or the seats in the car could turn and spin according to the car turning, or there could even be light bars or scenes shown inside the car to give the occupant an idea of what the car plans to do, such as turn, accelerate, brake, and so on.

Whether or not this method will work remains to be seen, but there is a lot about self-driving cars that have yet to be explored/discovered, but with Uber ordering 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, the company is definitely interested in exploring it further.

Uber Wants To Fix Motion Sickness In Self-Driving Cars , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

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