Techlife News #374

We are in a new era of car safety: The focus has shifted from reducing death and injury in a vehicle collision to preventing a crash from happening in the first place. Safety features designed to avoid accidents are becoming increasingly common in new cars. Here is an overview of the advanced safety features you’re likely to encounter when shopping for a new car, along with examples of what carmakers call their versions of the features. FORWARD COLLISION WARNING If you come up behind a slower or stopped vehicle and don’t show signs of braking, the forward collision warning system will alert you that an impact is imminent. Some carmaker names for this feature include Predictive Forward Collision Warning (Infiniti), Forward Collision Alert (Chevrolet) and Forward Obstruction Warning (Mazda). SHOULD YOU GET IT? Yes. Distracted…

Many of our readers likely fondly remember when, in early 2016, Apple debuted an iPhone 6s screen commercial in which that Sesame Street favorite, Cookie Monster, used the device in his attempt to bake a batch of succulent cookies. Particularly highlighted was the ability to activate Siri in a hands-free manner simply by uttering “Hey Siri”, with Cookie Monster using this feature to set a timer. Still, this is hardly even a hint of the true extent to which Apple devices can help us in our culinary efforts. YUM’S THE WORD WITH THESE RECIPE APPS Much of the valuable functionality of an iPhone for chefs - novice and veteran alike - is, of course, in its apps. The mobile app revolution certainly hasn’t left the kitchen untouched; download the right apps and…

As comedian Ellen DeGeneres explained last week on her television show: “Everybody is talking about bitcoin, nobody understands it.” Students, business professionals and investors tackled that question as they came together last Friday at Brigham Young University for its first-ever Blockchain Summit. The summit, organized by BYU law student Ryan Lewis, pulled in an impressive array of experts working in this very new field. But what is blockchain, how does it relate to bitcoin and how will it affect the layperson? As Chad Bennett, founder and CEO of Heroic Cybersecurity in Provo, explained, the “internet is the information exchange protocol,” and “blockchain is the value exchange protocol.” Just as the internet changed the way society, at a very basic level, exchanges information, blockchain advocates say this new technology will change the way society…

12 MONTHS OF TRIUMPH FOR THE CUPERTINO GIANT With just several short laps of the clock-face to go in 2018, we can finally draw a little breath and reflect on the last 12 months of incredible innovation in consumer tech by Apple. We’ve had new products, revolutionary upgrades and another year of record-breaking sales and mind-blowing ideas coming to life. It’s impossible to cram in-depth coverage of all of these developments into one article, of course, so we’ve instead put together a two-part piece containing this year’s highlights in high-impact Apple tech and notable news. JANUARY – FEBRUARY It really doesn’t seem long since last year’s holiday season, does it? As always seems to be the case as one year passes into the next, the end of 2017 and the start of 2018 was…

WWDC 2018 EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2018) is taking place in San Jose, CA, from June 4 to June 8. Attendees can enjoy valuable sessions, labs, consultations, gettogethers, guest speakers and more. Over 1,000 Apple engineers typically attend. Tickets are offered on a lottery system, and registration opened on March 13 2018. Most importantly, it is a platform for Apple to unveil their most exciting developments, technology, and products coming this year. The event’s first-day keynote allows Apple to introduce upcoming software and hardware. This keynote not only sets the stage for the rest of the week, but it sets the precedent for technology to come in the next year. Apple officially announced the event this week and designer Martin Hajek created a set of 16 wallpapers, inspired by…

In Ernest Cline’s novel “Ready Player One,” the main character drives a DeLorean because of “Back to the Future,” and uses a grail diary because of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” The films of Steven Spielberg loom large in the story littered with pop culture references. That the legendary filmmaker then ended up being the one to take Cline’s futuristic-nostalgic vision to the big screen is a small Spielbergian miracle. “I hadn’t read anything that had triggered my own imagination so vividly where I couldn’t really shut it off,” said Spielberg, who, with “Ready Player One,” out Thursday, returns to the wide-eyed grand-scale blockbuster filmmaking that he made his name with. At the London premiere of new Steven Spielberg film “Ready Player One,” the director and stars - including Tye Sheridan,…