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You can officially add Toyota to the list of manufacturers dropping diesel from their passenger car lineups. The brand has confirmed that it's phasing out diesel passenger vehicles in Europe over the course of 2018, starting with cars like the Auris you see above -- your only choices for the hatchback are a modest 1.2L turbo 4-cylinder or 1.8L and 2.0L hybrid solutions. The company will keep diesel commercial vehicles like the Hilux truck, Land Cruiser SUV and Proace van to "meet customer needs," but that's as far as it goes. Toyota said the death of diesel was due to "strong customer demand" for hybrid versions of its cars. About 41 percent of cars sold through its European branch were hybrid models, while diesel represented "less than" 10 percent. This isn't so much a bold move as it is a pragmatic one: if hybrids are on the rise (sales jumped 38 percent year-on-year) while diesel is almost a rounding error, why keep diesel around? The ...

It’s a glorious start to the week here in New York City. The sun is shining, the air is deceptively cold, and everyone is waiting around for an impending snowstorm. Here, inside, at The Verge HQ, we’re prepping for our usual Tuesday thing: Circuit Breaker Live on YouTube. You know the drill by now. We’ll be live here (and above) at 4PM ET today. After that, the archived version will live on our YouTube page until the end of time. Today’s show features an assortment of gadgets, like Samsung’s newly announced S9 phone, a wearable keyboard , and many strange instruments. I don’t want to tell you about the instruments just yet; you have to watch! Okay, see you on YouTube. Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FZrrEH"

If you're an Xfinity internet customer in the northeast, it might be worth running a speed test. Comcast just announced that it's bumping download speeds for internet users in a total of 14 northeastern states, from Maine down through Virginia. Each of the four internet tiers Xfinity offers will increase, though by how much will vary. The two higher-speed "Blast" and "Performance Pro" options increase from 200 and 150 Mbps to 250 and 150 Mbps, respectively. The basic "Performance" tier, meanwhile, jumps from 25 to 60 Mbps, and the modest "Starter" tier moves from 10 to 15 Mbps. Comcast says that customers' bills won't change after these increases go into effect, and with this increase, 80 percent of Xfinity internet customers have speeds of 150 Mbps or more. We may not have affordable gigabit internet in the US yet, but that's not bad, and it's hard to complain about getting more download bandwidth for free. Unfortunate...

Hoverboards are ridiculous. They serve no purpose other than signaling that your laziness is only outpaced by your willingness to spend disposable income on fad gadgets. But if you insist on being piggybacked atop a rolling pedestal like a discount Paul Blart, you do you. Just know that it might as well be on one that also transforms into a robotic sidekick and carries your bags for you. First revealed at CES 2016 , the Segway Loomo is a $1,700 hoverboard. It operates much like those that came before it. You step onto the self-balancing platform, lean forward to accelerate, lean back to slow and reverse. But unlike its predecessors, turning the Loomo is done by pressing the knees against the unit's center, leaning left and right, which I found to be a far more intuitive method than lifting and pressing the footpads. The Loomo is surprisingly stable, even when leaning back to stop quickly, though the company does insist that users wear a helmet while riding. It took me only aro...

Gboard, which lets you do everything from searching Maps and YouTube directly from the keyboard, to making quick looping selfie GIFs , is finally adding Chinese (both traditional and simplified) and Korean, to its Android app today. China and Korea are two of the largest Android markets, and the languages were the top two most requested by users, Google says. Considering that Swype has offered Korean support since 2010, and Chinese since 2012, Google is pretty late to the game. In addition to Korean and Chinese, Google is also adding 20 new languages, including lesser-known languages like Manx and Maori, to Gboard. With today’s update, Gboard for Android now supports over 300 languages, which you can see the full list of here . Google did... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2Hc512x"

Washington has become the first state to pass a law that protects net neutrality, preventing internet service providers (ISPs) from slowing down or blocking online content. Democrat Governor Jay Inslee signed the bill ( House Bill 2282 ) this morning, which prohibits ISPs from blocking legal content, apps, and services. It will also prevent the slowing down of connection speeds, also known as throttling, as well as paid prioritization, where ISPs favor certain traffic that’s beneficial to them. “At the core of our action today is consumer protection,” Inslee told The New York Times . “States need to act because under the Trump administration, we have seen citizens, including seven million in Washington, stripped of core protections like the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FZCKNd"

Health Hell hath no fury like a virus scorned. The Flu feels like one big thing. You get your Flu Shot to protect against The Flu during Flu Season. But it’s an astonishingly diverse virus. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2FjURfI"

Satellites could soon remain in orbit for years on end thanks to new technology that turns air molecules into propellant. A European Space Agency ( ESA ) team has developed an electric thruster that collects molecules from the top of the atmosphere and gives them electric charges so they can be accelerated and ejected to provide thrust. This could create a new class of satellites able to operate in orbit for long stretches. Current technology means that satellite missions are limited by the need for on-board propellant. ESA's GOCE gravity mapper, for example, managed to operate for five years thanks to an electric thruster that minimised air drag, but it still relied on 40kg of xenon -- once that was depleted the mission ended. A host of companies, including NASA , ViviSat and The China National Space Administration have already demonstrated some in-space refuelling capabilities, but this is obviously a much more elegant solution. The new electric thruster, developed for test...

Microsoft started selling its Surface Pro with LTE to business customers back in December , and now the company is opening up sales to consumers today. Two models will be available, both with the latest Intel Core i5 7300U processor (and fanless design). A model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will be priced at $1,149, and 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage will cost $1,449. Preorders begin today at Microsoft’s online store , although it appears only the 8GB of RAM model is available to order right now. Devices should ship by May 1st and will also be available in Best Buy retail stores. Neither model ships with the necessary Type Cover ($129) or optional Surface Pen ($99), as both are sold separately so you’ll need to consider that... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2D2RM1C"

Trapper's Delight is Now Available on Steam and is 15% off!* In Trapper's Delight players compete to construct deadly labyrinths and then try to escape in one piece. Lure your friends into your deadly trap in local and online multiplayer or test your skills in singleplayer challenges. *Offer ends March 13 at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2Fii8i8"

Like every other major tech company, Google has designs on being the first to achieve quantum supremacy -- the point where a quantum computer could run particular algorithms faster than a classical computer. Today it's announced that it believes its latest research, Bristlecone, is going to be the processor to help it achieve that. According to the Google Quantum AI Lab, it could provide "a compelling proof-of-principle for building larger scale quantum computers." One of the biggest obstacles to quantum supremacy is error rates and subsequent scalability. Qubits (the quantum version of traditional bits) are very unstable and can be adversely affected by noise, and most of these systems can only hold a state for less than 100 microseconds. Google believes that quantum supremacy can be "comfortably demonstrated" with 49 qubits and a two-qubit error below 0.5 percent. Previous quantum systems by Google have given two-qubit errors of 0.6 percent, which in theor...

If you’ve always wanted to visit Walt Disney World in Orlando, but don’t like the idea of long lines, humid weather, and thousands of people then there’s good news today. Google is bringing 11 Disney parks to Google Maps Street View, allowing you to virtually visit the tourist destinations from the comfort of your home. There are a variety of parks to choose from, including Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios, and you can cruise around them freely to look at all the attractions and imagine you’d paid the entry fee and secured your special Fastpass tickets for all the rides. While it’s all make believe, the Street View experience of Disney parks could come in useful if you’re a particularly meticulous planner and boss of the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FXtt8m"

Last year Google revamped its Street View cameras to help us better map the real world, now it's taken the technology to a much more magical land. From today, you'll be able to explore inside 11 Disney Parks, getting an on-the-ground glimpse of all its castles, rides and attractions, including the captivating Avatar- themed world of Pandora . It'll also definitely prove popular when the Star Wars area opens up next year. Now if only the imagery was available in real time, so we'd know whether to bother lining up for Splash Mountain or not. Source: Google via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2Fl9RtE"

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Welcome to Tuesday! Is the future of transportation a front-loading car that drives itself? Renault hopes so, and that's just the start of the (actual) excitement coming from Geneva's big auto show . Also: a different House of Cards and a Roland's new drum-beat machine that tries to capture the musical magic of machines past. It's part ride service, part mass transportation and fully crazy. Renault's EZ-GO electric car is ridesharing for the masses The Geneva Motor Show starts today and kicks off with a mass of crazy concepts and high-end vehicles not meant for the suburbs or the cities. At least, not this decade. Renault's driverless concept electric car, the EZ-GO, is a Level 4 autonomous urban EV with a top speed of just 30MPH. Six passengers enter through the massive front door and can see everything (and be seen) thanks to huge swathes of glass on the sides and roof. We took an early tour. The EV racer will d...

The art of burning fuel seems like it would be infra dig, or beneath the upper-class folks who regularly tool around in an Aston Martin . That's why the maker turned up to the Geneva Motor Show with the Lagonda Vision, an emission-free electric concept car of the future. Aston has decided to revive the Lagonda marque, with the bold claim that it will become the world's "first zero-emission luxury brand." Although that's easier said and done if the only vehicle you produce is a brand new electric supercar. Because there's no whacking great V6-or-8 engine taking up space, the car has been redesigned to be shorter and lower than other rides. With the batteries and drivetrain built into the floor, the company claims that four adults, each one two meters tall, can luxuriate inside the well-appointed cabin. Lagonda's concept interior, meanwhile, was designed in partnership with David Snowdon and uses cutting-edge composites. But the carbon fiber and ceramic...