Geek News

After a few years away (at least in the US) Ford's midsize truck, the Ranger, will return for the 2019 model year. Just unveiled ahead of the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it's one of two new models that Ford is releasing that includes automatic emergency braking. Other driver assists like lane keeping and adaptive cruise control are also available, but the one we haven't seen before is a sort of "cruise control for off-road" called Trail Control. Between 1-20 MPH on rugged terrain, it takes over acceleration and braking individually on each wheel while the driver just steers. This edition of the "T6" Ranger has been on sale elsewhere in the world since 2011 , and arrives with the company's latest technology inside, like Sync 3 with links to Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Amazon Alexa, plus the FordPass Connect WiFi hotspot. Source: Ford via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2AYIR09"

Many hybrid watches only resemble classic timepieces on a superficial level. If you want a watch with a true mechanical movement, you have to forego modern conveniences. Ressence wants to fix that with its newly unveiled Type 2 e-Crown Concept . The watch, designed with the help of Nest co-founder Tony Fadell , only requires conventional setup when you initially set the time. From then on, a paired iPhone app can automatically set the watch to one of two time zones using its namesake e-Crown. If the power reserve runs out or Daylight Savings Time kicks in, you don't have to use the old-fashioned setting mechanism unless you want to -- you just have to tap on the watch face. The design uses both kinetic and solar power to keep running, and it'll even automatically open shutters to reveal the solar cells when the battery runs below 50 percent. You can't buy this exact watch. As the "concept" name indicates, it's a technology demonstrator. Ressence does plan...

X-rays aren't just for investigating artworks or photographing black holes. NASA scientists just used them to demonstrate a new technique: Navigating the stars. In an experiment, equipment mounted on the International Space Station measured radiation beamed out from distant neutron stars in millisecond pulses -- and by timing their arrival, future spacecraft could find their location from deep space. Source: NASA via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2EEpPyh"

We hope you weren't depending on Project Fi to stay in touch while abroad this weekend. Subscribers to Google's wireless carrier have reported that international data hasn't been working in many places around the world, including Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India and Japan. Some users have reported temporary success by switching into and out of airplane mode or rebooting their phones, but it hasn't lasted for longer than 2 minutes. We've asked Google for comment, although its team is already aware of the problem. The outage has lasted for roughly a day as of this writing. This kind of downtime would be frustrating for anyone, but it's particularly irksome for Project Fi subscribers. One of the perks of the service is its straightforward, affordable approach to data: you pay the same $10 per 1GB as you do in the US, so you're not shelling out a small fortune just to share your winter vacation on Instagram. Outages on this scale appear to be few and far...

You won't have to wait nearly as long for the third season of Cosmos as you did for the second . Fox has announced that Cosmos: Possible Worlds will premiere worldwide in spring 2019, with Fox itself airing the show in the US and National Geographic broadcasting it elsewhere. And yes, the familiar gang from the 2014 series is back. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will host, with Ann Druyan taking charge. Seth MacFarlane, Brannon Braga and Jason Clark will return as executive producers. The team isn't saying much about the overall focus of Possible Worlds , but they're promising to cover "previously uncharted territories" and hint about a "virtually infinite" number of worlds and stories to explore. Don't expect a carbon copy of A SpaceTime Odyssey , then. With that said, we'd expect some familiar themes to return. Both previous seasons covered the universe at virtually every possible scale, drew attention to influential (if sometimes u...

The man who was arrested last month in conjunction with the Kansas swatting incident that resulted in a fatality has now been charged. Tyler Barriss was arraigned in a Kansas court today and hit with three charges -- giving a false alarm, interference with law enforcement and involuntary manslaughter -- the latter of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 36 months and a fine of up to $300,000. The swatting hoax that Barriss was allegedly behind occurred last month and is believed to have been instigated by an argument over a Call of Duty game. One player, who is believed to have been Barriss, threatened to swat another. That person then provided an address that wasn't his own. Barriss has been accused of making a call to police saying that someone had been shot at that address and a hostage situation was ongoing. When police arrived, Andrew Finch, who was not involved with the Call of Duty game, was shot by an officer. Barriss was arrested a couple of days later in Los ...

There's so much news at CES, it can be hard to filter out the noise and find what matters. Thankfully, Engadget is here to help. A collection of your favorite editors got together toward the end of the show to have a conversation about the big trends and the announcements that excited them most. And, of course, Richard Lawler talked about TVs. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2FBtSgi"

Netflix isn't the only streaming service getting some George Clooney-produced goodness. The popular actor/producer is also bringing Joseph Heller's satirical novel Catch-22 to the small screen, this time via Hulu . According to Deadline , the six-episode series will be written by Luke Davies ( Lion ) and David Michôd ( War Machine ) and star Clooney, who will also direct along with frequent collaborator Grant Heslov ( Argo ). According to Deadline , Clooney will take on the role of antagonist Colonel Cathcart in the show, who keeps raising the number of missions men like protagonist Captain John Yossarian must go on in order to finish their tour of duty and go home: the un-winnable situation the title has become synonymous with. Deadline notes that Clooney and Heslov's Smokehouse Pictures will executive produce, as well, along with Anonymous Content. This will be the first full television series based on the novel, which had a 1970 movie starring Alan Arkin and a tel...

A few minutes ago, phones across Hawaii received the above alert claiming a "ballistic missile threat inbound," but according to state officials it isn't true. It's unclear what caused the message to go out, but we'll have more information as it becomes available. Developing... NO missile threat to Hawaii. — Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) January 13, 2018 HAWAII - THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE. http://pic.twitter.com/DxfTXIDOQs — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 13, 2018 There is NO missile threat. https://t.co/qR2MlYAYxL — Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) January 13, 2018 Source: Hawaii Emergency Management Agency via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2mzbZ9I"

Squirt some conductive gel on your skin, place a lightweight headset on your noggin and, according to a number of companies at CES, there's barely a limit to the types of self-improvement you can achieve. You can improve your sleep or your athletic performance, or lose weight. You might relieve nausea or even aid depression. And with almost no effort on your part. Many of these gadgets use tDCS -- transcranial direct current stimulation -- to mildly stimulate or suppress neurons firing in certain areas of the brain. It's a straightforward mechanism that has been heavily studied in connection with everything from math skills to post-stroke rehabilitation. There is much we still don't know about how the brain functions, and tDCS research is not conclusive -- it merely correlates electric shocks with improvements in conditions without our understanding why. Yet when it works, it's a noninvasive, relatively cheap clinical treatment that's fairly safe, beyond potenti...

If you're part of the Windows Insiders Fast Ring (or have opted to skip ahead), you'll find the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17074 available to download. Of note is the addition of Quiet Hours, which functions similarly to the Mac Do Not Disturb feature. You can set your own schedule, during which you will only receive notifications from people and apps in your priority list. The feature will also automatically switch on when you're playing full screen DirectX game and when you're duplicating your display. There are quite a few other improvements included in this build; many focus on the reading experience within Windows 10. There are new grammar tools for both EPUB books and Reading View on websites. Additionally, Microsoft Edge has a new look for reading across EPUBs, PDFs and other documents, as well as syncing reading progress and notes across devices. The build also includes support for custom audio in EPUB. The build adds an option to never save passwords...

Amazon devices have taken root in our homes with almost alarming speed, but the tech giant hasn't gotten everything right. Back in 2014, Amazon released the Fire Phone , an ambitious smartphone that remains the company's biggest hardware flop to date. The comapany has never confirmed how many Fire Phones it sold, but considering Amazon took a $170 million write-down in October of that year, it's fair to say the device bombed. While the Fire Phone was a punchline and a commercial failure, it did lead to good things — eventually. In a conversation with Engadget at CES, Sandeep Gupta, Amazon's Technical Program Manager for Fire TV, suggested that the teams and processes built to make the Fire Phone reality also made possible the impressive hardware ecosystem we now see. "Building the phone was sort of a trial by fire," Gupta said before groaning at his pun. "It was a very intense product, and we learned so much. And the teams we built from the Fire Phon...

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. CES 2018 is over, and the Engadget team is heading home. Keep an eye out for wrap-up coverage this weekend, but first, take a look at some of Friday's highlights and other prominent stories from last week. Ok, Google. Google won the voice assistant popularity contest at CES Google's CES 2018 booth isn't for a guy that's been working tech shows for over six years: it was to demonstrate exactly what's possible with voice assistants for people that didn't realize they probably already had one on their smartphone. Congratulations. Presenting the Best of CES 2018 winners! Relive the big wins -- and stunning upsets -- from Engadget's Best of CES awards. Now with USB-C This might be the Game Boy's ultimate form The aluminum-hewn Project Ultra GB might be the hardware you need to break out your old Game Boy hits. It accepts the original cartridge while keeping the dimensions of the Game Boy Pocket and those i...

The rise of the electric car promises a cleaner future. Arcimoto CEO Mark Frohnmayer believes that we can do more to reduce our footprint by not just removing trash from our air but also using smaller vehicles built using fewer materials. The $11,900 Arcimoto three-wheeled EV is the result of his desire to lower his co2 emissions and the cut down on the space a daily driver takes in the world. At CES, I had the opportunity to get behind the... well, not the wheel. I sat behind the handlebars and whipped the tiny EV around a Las Vegas parking lot. Meant for quick jaunts around town, the two-seater Arcimoto won't be much help on a trip to Costco. But for the majority of the single person trips around a neighborhood for the truly adventurous, it could replace a second car. Arcimoto calls their car the FUV (fun utility vehicle). On the road, the Arcimoto, even at slow speeds is exactly that. It's peppy acceleration and quasi-motorcycle feel without the worry of tipping over, cr...

Getting up from the toilet after a satisfying bowel movement, you walk right over to the sink and start washing your hands. "Alexa, flush my toilet," you say while reaching for your toothbrush. Your mirror starts displaying your schedule for the day, the weather update and latest news. Suddenly, there's a ping -- your toilet has detected an anomaly in your stool and recommends you increase your fiber intake. A dispenser built into your medicine cabinet whirs and spits out a fiber supplement. The futuristic bathroom I just described isn't that far away from becoming reality. In fact, at CES 2018, Kohler unveiled a new addition to its toilets and shower devices that let you ask Amazon's Alexa to assist you. Moen also added Alexa support to its smart shower line , promising Siri compatibility is on its way. Smart mirrors that tell you your daily agenda while assessing your complexion have already been available for months, too. It's a little strange to te...

Mere days since Huawei lost a deal with AT&T to sell its flagship phones in the US due to security concerns , the Chinese tech company faces a new challenge to its US expansion plans. Congress has just proposed a bill that prohibits any government agency from working with Huawei (and another Chinese tech firm, ZTE). The bill , titled H. R. 4747: "Defending U.S. Government Communications Act," cites several intelligence reports that these telecommunications companies are "subject to state influence." The bill references a 2011 report from the United States China Commission alleging Chinese governmental influence upon Huawei and other companies, a 2013 statement by General Michael Hayden of the CIA and NSA that the telecom company had shared sensitive information with the Chinese state and a 2015 FBI report that reiterated a concern that the Chinese government would be able to access US business communications via Huawei technology. In 2017, says the bill, ZTE...

Say what you will about its heart-stoppingly tasty chicken -- KFC is willing to get weird. Whether it's a zany VR cooking experience , suggesting orders based on your face or chicken-flavored nail polish , the chain has pulled its share of stunts over the years. Now it's letting customers in Canada pay with bitcoin for a limited time...so long as they only order a new crypto-themed meal bucket. The Bitcoin Bucket, which includes 10 tenders, waffle fries, a side, some gravy and a pair of dips, costs however much of the cryptocurrency you can get for $20 Canadian. As the joke goes, that's equivalent to 0.001167 bitcoin at the time I type this, but that could swing wildly by the time this post is published -- and again by the time you read it. Given bitcoin's meteoric rise, however, buying chicken with that fraction of currency now could mean forfeiting value if the cryptocurrency's value skyrockets higher. The point might be moot since the Bitcoin Bucket is sold...