Geek News

Casio's G-Shock watch line is enjoying a bit of a renaissance on its 35th anniversary (you can even get a full metal model if you like), and the company is making the most of it with some particularly eye-catching wristwear. It just introduced a Glacier Gold collection of G-Shocks that are virtually guaranteed to stand out while scratching that nostalgic itch. Each model has a semi-transparent resin casing and band, with a gold-colored watch sitting at their heart, recreating both the look of classic G-Shock models and the clear s tyle of 1996's stand-out DW-6900K. As you might imagine, the designs will cost decidedly more than they did in G-Shock's early days. If you want to go for the purest retro look, the squarish DW-5035E (based on 1983's DW-5000) and slightly more circular DW-5735E (derived from 1985's DW-5400) will feature prominent al...

Rover 1A Hops on Asteroid Ryugu Two small robots have begun hopping around the surface of asteroid Ryugu. The rovers, each the size of a small frying pan , move around the low gravity of kilometer-sized 162173 Ryugu by hopping, staying aloft for about 15 minutes and typically landing again several meters away. On Saturday, Rover 1A returned an early picture of its new home world , on the left, during one of its first hops. On Friday, lander MINERVA-II-1 detached from its mothership Hayabusa2 , dropped Rovers 1A and 1B, and then landed on Ryugu. Studying Ryugu could tell humanity not only about Ryugu's surface and interior, but about what materials were available in the early Solar System for the development of life . Two more hopping rovers are planned for release, and Hayabusa2 itself is scheduled to collect a surface sample from Ryugu and return it to Earth for detailed a...

Astute listeners know that you can't gauge a song's mood solely through the instrumentation or the lyrics, but that's often what AI has been asked to do -- and that's not much help if you're trying to sift through millions of songs to find something melancholic or upbeat Thankfully, Deezer's researchers have found a way to make that AI consider the totality of a song before passing judgment. They've developed a deep learning system that gauges the emotion and intensity of a track by relying on a wide variety of data, not just a single fa ctor like the lyrics. Deezer trained the AI using raw audio signals, linguistic context reconstruction models and a Million Song Dataset that aggregates Last.fm tags describing tunes (such as "calm" or "sad"). The researchers mapped the MSD to Deezer's library using song metadat...

Tesla is determined to move as many EVs as it can before its summer quarter is over, and that includes saving you from even a short trip to get your vehicle. Electrek has learned that the company just launched a "door-to-door" Tesla Direct service bringing the Model 3 d irectly to customers, and not just those near the automaker's Fremont factory. Customers in Los Angeles (and possibly other areas) are receiving emails offering to deliver cars directly to their homes and offices for free -- helpful if you'd rather not take time off or plan a trip to get your new ride. The service is billed as operating on a "first come, first serve basis." While emails talk about the service running through the weekend, it's poised to stay through at least the next week. Whether or not it continues beyond that isn't certain, although Elon Musk...

If Airbnb has its way, hosting travelers won't just get you some spending money -- it'll get you a stake in the company's future. Axios has discovered that Airbnb sent a letter to the SEC asking for the regulator to permit offering equity to hosts. Airbnb primarily supported changes to Securities Act Rule 701 that would allow offering shares to gig economy workers , not just investors and staff. CEO Brian Chesky characterized it as vital to rewarding the company's supporters. "We would be nothing without our hosts," he said in a statement to Axios . "We would like our most loyal hosts to be shareholders, but need these policies to change in order to make that happen." This isn't the first time a gig-oriented online service has petitioned the SEC. Uber met with the Commission more than once to ask about the possibility. Airbn...

Phoenix Wright , Maya Fey and their gang of falsely accused clients are making their way to more platforms in the West. At the 2018 Tokyo Game Show, Capcom has announced that the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy -- the first Ace Attorney game, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations -- will head to the PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch in 2019. Those three games were originally released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan in the early 2000s and for the Nintendo DS in the West. After an HD makeover, Capcom also brought them to the 3DS as a digital download and to iOS devices. It sounds like the games are getting even better HD visuals for the PC and the other consoles, which is a necessary upgrade, since people will now be playing them on a bigger screen. Unfortunately, Capcom didn't announce a more specific release date and pricing for the trilogy, but we'll...

Toyota joined the modern era when it started adding CarPlay to its vehicles early in 2018, but that hasn't done you much good if you're an Android user. You might get some relief soon, though. Bloomberg sources said that Toyota has agreed to put direct Android Auto support in its cars, with an announcement as soon as October. You could use the feature through Ford's SmartDeviceLink before, but that limited both their appearance on the center screen and limited their data access. Toyota wouldn't confirm or deny the apparent leak in a comment, saying that it recognized the demand for Android Auto and was considering direct support. The company would be late to the party, to put it mildly. Most major car brands have at least some kind of Android Auto support, and you'll even find it in niche makes like Koenigsegg. While it's unclear whet...

By Michael Sullivan, Tim Heffernan, Ganda Suthivarakom and Jessie Kissinger This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full microwave guide here . After more than 100 hours of research and testing—"baking" potatoes, cooking frozen mac and cheese, popping popcorn, and reheating beverages—we think that the Toshiba EM925A5A-BS is the best microwave for most kitchen counters. It's easy to operate, has a number of express cooking options that heat food quickly and evenly, and even has a mute button so you can cook in silence. The affordable Toshiba EM925A5A-BS microwave is simple to use, with a plainly labeled keypad and intuitive controls. It cooked popcorn, baked potatoes, and frozen mac and cheese perf...