Category: Tech news

Left: Apex Swing 4 Bike Rack. Right: SkyBox Pro 16 Titanium

Much like the Canon-vs.-Nikon world of pro cameras, the car rack and roof box arena is dominated by Sweden’s Thule and Washington’s Yakima. And just as with camera gear, once you choose a system, the accessories work best if you stick with that brand. Here’s some guidance for making a decision.

• 

  AeroBlade Load Bar and Rapid Traverse Foot Pack

  WIRED Vehicle-specific feet ensure seamless roof fit and grab load bars securely—solid foundation for mounting your cargo box or ski rack. Teardrop-shaped bars reduce wind noise.

  TIRED Tall profile looks blocky. $340 for both

  Rating: 7 out of 10

• Whispbar Flush Mounting Bars and Fit Kit

  WIRED Sharp, low-profile looks. All repair/adjustment tools are integrated into the foot endcaps.

  TIRED Noticeable wind noise from 25 to 30 mph. $449 for both

  Rating: 7 out of 10

• 611 Boxter Cargo Box

  WIRED Aerodynamic. Opens on both sides for convenient access. Lid doesn’t flex when opening and closing. Solid interior handles.

  TIRED Expensive. Doesn’t mount directly onto some larger factory-installed racks. $940

  Rating: 8 out of 10

• SkyBox Pro 16 Titanium

  WIRED Cargo pad protects gear. Easy install. Fits directly on wide range of factory bars.

  TIRED Lid flexes when opening and closing. Stretchy cord handles may not last long. $589

  Rating: 7 out of 10

• Universal Pull Top Snowsport Rack

  WIRED Slide-out feature lets you access boards without climbing on roof. Simple installation.

  TIRED Noticeable wind noise at speeds over 20 mph. $230

  Rating: 7 out of 10

• Whispbar WB300 Snowsport Rack

  WIRED Sits low on roof. Integrated locks protect your gear from evildoers. Aerodynamic. 10-minute installation.

  TIRED Mild wind noise from 30 to 35 mph. $250

  Rating: 9 out of 10

• Apex Swing 4 Bike Rack

  WIRED Pivots to the side for obstruction-free trunk/hatch access. Integrated cable lock. Gel-dampened cradles for a less rigid ride.

  TIRED Complicated install. Minor bike sway. $500

  Rating: 9 out of 10

• DoubleDown Ace Boke Rack

  WIRED Tool-free installation. Minimal bike sway. Integrated bottle openers in the arms.

  TIRED Tilt-down design not as convenient for loading car as Thule’s swing-out. No built-in bike lock. $269

  Rating: 7 out of 10

MotionX GPS Drive

Nothing has done more to ease the journey between point A and point B than GPS voice navigation. MotionX is a perfect example, providing clear verbal and visual directions, and sporting a number of useful features—an easy-to-hit mute button, quick search for nearby services like hospitals and coffee shops, and the ability to cut-and-paste addresses from other apps. Live guidance takes into account traffic conditions to get you to your destination more quickly, and it even has an option to remember your parking spot.

WIRED Alternate voices ($0.99 each) range from the calming “Graham” to the bizarrely sultry “the Cougar.”

TIRED Live voice guidance costs $3 a month or $9.99 a year.

$0.99 (iOS) Android user? Try out Sygic. | MotionX GPS Drive

Expedia Hotels

Expedia’s app is designed to help you book a room in a hurry and on the go. Upon launch, it immediately brings up a list of nearby hotels and displays the average per-night price for one person—no taps necessary. Changing dates and numbers is a breeze, requiring neither squinting nor typing.

WIRED Positive and negative reviews in separate lists for easy comparison.

TIRED Selection is a bit thin. Can’t filter by amenities like free Wi-Fi or an onsite gym.

Free (iOS, Android) | Expedia Hotels

iExit

On the interstate, sometimes knowing what’s nearby isn’t as helpful as knowing what’s down the road. iExit displays an easy-to-read list of upcoming exits and rest areas, with colored icons indicating available services, from the standard food, gas, and lodging to camping sites and big-box stores. You can filter the list by category—say, if you need diesel or crave Taco Bell—and by distance from the freeway.

WIRED Push alerts for favorite restaurants.

TIRED Not much help off the interstate.

$0.99 (iOS, Android) | iExit

GasBuddy

Much of your road trip budget goes directly into your gas tank. This app helps you find the cheapest and/or nearest gas. The large Find Gas Near Me button brings up a list of stations within about 15 miles, showing brand, price, and distance. Crowdsourcing enthusiasts can sign up to add more prices to the database.

WIRED Map View displays prices, plus where you are.

TIRED Crowdsourced prices scarce in some areas.

Free (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) | GasBuddy

Yelp

Hungry and on a budget? Ask this local review app to find only cheap restaurants within a mile. Need to pee now while driving in Sketchville at 1 am? Just select Everything and “Open Now” to locate a 24-hour Walmart or dive bar for a pit stop.

WIRED So many categories and filters. Check-ins make you a social nomad.

TIRED A search for the highest-rated bar within 20 miles returned a vegan restaurant with no spirits on the premises.

Free (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) | Yelp

Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

When the license plate game has lost its charm and the little darlings have switched to punching, fire up this lifesaver. It gives everyone something to look for—”a horse” or “the word waffle” or “something striped.” When someone spots their target, tap the player’s name and another challenge pops up.

WIRED Up to six players. Look for words, objects, or both.

TIRED Same challenges show up multiple times per game.

$0.99 (iOS) Android user? Try out Road Trip Travel Games. | Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

Stitcher

This app makes finding verbal company for a late-night drive as easy as spotting Skynyrd on an Alabama jukebox. Browse On-Demand Shows—aka podcasts—and pick something funny, educational, or entertainingly infuriating in just a few taps. Or add shows to Favorites, then set the app to stream the newest episodes.

WIRED Streams live radio, both broadcast and Internet.

TIRED No offline mode for Android—no data connection, no podcasts.

Free (iOS, Android) | Stitcher

Photo: Gary Mcleod

1. Escort Passport 9500ix With Escort Live

Radar detectors alert you when they pick up stray microwaves—usually indicating a cop with a speed gun. Unfortunately, some models go berserk when passing an automatic door at Walgreens. Fortunately, Escort has a clever fix: The 9500ix memorizes the coordinates of false alarms and automatically mutes them.

WIRED Red-light-camera detection. Share speed-trap locations with others who use the Escort Live smartphone app.

TIRED App drains phone batteries quickly.

$540 | Escort

2. Serengeti Volterra Drivers Gold Polarized Sunglasses

Save yourself from eye strain by investing in a quality pair of shades, especially if you’re driving off into the sunset. Serengeti’s amber lenses ramp up the color contrast, and a mirror coating blocks infrared wavelengths. The lenses also transition from 10 percent light transmittance in bright sun to 18 percent at dusk or when overcast.

WIRED Wire frame is light on the nose and ears. Hyperextension springs on the temples make them easy to remove.

TIRED Polarization can make device screens look wonky.

$255 | Serengeti Eyewear

4. Clore JNCAIR

After charging this jump starter overnight, its 1,700 peak amps of power can be unleashed to reanimate dozens of dead car batteries. We brought a deceased battery back to life within 30 seconds of connecting the jumpers. And if your tires are sagging, the built-in air compressor can fill ‘em as quickly as a gas-station hose.

WIRED Idiot-proof instructions stickered on the back. Built-in PSI gauge.

TIRED Almost 30 pounds. Full charge for the jumper and air compressor requires 24-plus hours.

$275 | Clore Automotive

5. Arkon SuperCharge Windshield Docking Mount for iPhone

Navigation apps are useless—and dangerous—without a mount. The Arkon suctions to the windshield and grips an iPhone between a spring-loaded clamp and a 30-pin dock that draws power from a 12-volt micro-USB charger (an iPhone 5 version is in the works). It charged our nearly dead iPhone almost as quickly as a wall socket.

WIRED Suction cup stays put, even on hot days. Swivels easily into landscape mode.

TIRED Incompatible with some iPhone cases. Ball-and-socket joint limits angle variability.

$45 | Arkon

6. PLX Kiwi 2 Wifi

Plug this into the onboard diagnostics port (bottom left of dashboard) on any modern US-market car, then fire up a compatible smartphone app like Rev or DashCommand. With the resulting data, you can do everything from track your 0-to-60 time to diagnose a check-engine light.

WIRED Pulls heaps of data right from the source—turns maximizing fuel economy into a game.

TIRED Setup requires some network tinkering. Dongle dangles annoyingly on your left leg. Compatible apps are spendy.

$120 | PLX devices

Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired

Even though it’s burdened by an unnecessarily silly name, the HTC Windows Phone 8X makes Microsoft’s brand new operating system look spectacular.

Software and hardware coalesce beautifully within the 8X, and it’s easy to see how this smartphone will draw attention not just to itself, but to the fledgling Windows Phone 8 operating system, when it’s displayed on retail shelves.

Microsoft has made several hardware support improvements in Windows Phone 8 to ensure that the operating system could run on more competitive, higher-end devices. So HTC’s flagship device, timed to hit stores when Windows Phone 8 becomes publicly available Monday, arrives packed with all that newly supported hardware. The Taiwanese company has delivered something Windows Phone has needed for a while: a phone you’d actually want.

First, the hardware design. When you look at the 4.3-inch 8X, it’s hard to deny the similarities between Lumia’s phones, the 900 and the forthcoming 920. The 8X has the same curved Gorilla Glass display surrounded by a thin frame of color. The phones have similar shapes: rectangular with fairly sharp corners and rounded edges. The Lumia-esque bezel design only adds to the familiarity.

But once you actually hold the HTC 8X, you’ll notice the difference: It’s incredibly thin, yet it doesn’t feel at all flimsy. The company’s designers said they developed the 8X body by imagining a Windows Phone Live Tile puffed with air. I believe it, given the 8X’s distinctly pillow-shaped contoured back.

The thickest part of the phone measures 10.12 millimeters. Compare this to the HTC One X’s 8.9mm and the iPhone 5′s 7.6mm. Remarkably, however, the 8X feels around the same thinness as the iPhone 5, and even thinner than the iPhone 4, which is 9.3mm. I realize those numbers say otherwise, but this feels like a very thin phone, and design doesn’t look bulky at all. The buttons — a top-right lock button, a volume rocker, and a dedicated camera shutter — all rest flush along the edge of the phone so everything is seamlessly smooth. Finally, with the soft finish of the matte polycarbonate body, all of this adds up to a handset that’s enjoyable to hold. I couldn’t help absentmindedly turning the phone over and over in my hand.

Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired

And of course the colors are eye-catching. I got the blue global model (named “California Blue” by the company), which will be available through all carriers. The 8X also comes in a very bright highlighter yellow, an orangey-red, and the standard black.

The 8X is also totally spec’d out. This is the company’s high-end, flagship Windows Phone offering, so it competes with some of the best phones on the market in terms of raw numbers. You get a gorgeous 4.3-inch super LCD 2 display with 1280 x 720 resolution and 341 ppi. Colors are incredibly bright and blacks are super black. I couldn’t see any notable differences between this screen and the Retina Display on my iPhone.

Inside there’s a Qualcomm S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor, the same chip that powers the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X, so speed was never an issue. The phone has 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM, which might be a bit low for power users who store a lot on their phone, but is totally fine for me and most users. The device supports 4G LTE, along with all the other standard cellular frequencies. Like its Android One series, HTC has outfitted the 8X with Beats Audio.

Sporting a 1800 mAh battery, the 8X has respectable battery life. It lasted me all day with average use, and only drained toward the end of the day when I spent several hours browsing the web, calling people, and playing around with it non-stop while stranded inside a plane that was stuck on the tarmac at JFK. If you’re worried about battery life, there is a battery-saving mode in Windows Phone 8. Just turn it on and specify that you want it to kick in when battery life is low and your phone will only run your apps when you’re actively using them (no multitasking or updating Live Tiles).

One slightly annoying feature: When the battery gets low, I noticed at around 7 percent battery life, a small red light behind the earpiece will start to blink. It’s distracting. If there’s a way to turn it off, I couldn’t easily find it.

As we brought to your attention last night, Google set up what it calls a “Crisis Map” as we waited for Hurricane Sandy to make land-fall. It has, and damage has been done, including massive power outages in all affected areas.

Tonight, the company has updated this map to include that information. Here’s what the Maps team had to say:

New on our #Sandy map: Power outage maps. On a mobile device? Click the “layers” button to see more, including shelter information, storm tracking and public alerts.

Visit the map here:
http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy

And if you’re in the New York City area, see our NYC-specific map:
http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy-nyc

The addition of information about shelters is fantastic, especially for mobile devices. I’ve been speaking to friends on the East Coast who have lost power and are quickly losing battery life, but are scrambling to find every last piece of helpful information that they can before that happens.

Additionally, you can simply Google “Hurricane Sandy” and get a nice bit of information based on where you live:

Stay safe, the storm isn’t done yet. In fact, the damage that has been done is more dangerous than all of the wind and flooding. Stay indoors until you’re told otherwise!

Apple introduced the iPad mini last week, which hits shelves this Friday. In a video airing later tonight on his show, Conan O’Brien takes a look at Apple’s ever-expanding range of tablet iOS devices, and provides some suggestions for where we might be headed next. Best part? The slogan at the end, which Cupertino might want to consider officially adopting.

The Wall Street Journal has released a report with updated information about why Apple decided to part ways with two senior executives, including former iOS SVP Scott Forstall and former SVP of Retail John Browett. The WSJ says that both executives were in fact asked to leave by Apple, following “missteps and management tensions” in their roles at Apple.

Forstall, according to the report, refused to personally sign his name to a letter of apology for Apple’s Maps in iOS 6, which is likely the same letter the company issued from CEO Tim Cook. Forstall reportedly wanted to take a different approach, without an apology, in the same way that Apple tackled the issue a few years ago with the iPhone 4′s antenna.

As for Browett, the WSJ says that one of the crucial incidents around his departure was that he oversaw the staffing formula earlier this year that led to early reports that Apple was firing a number of retail employees due to cut hours, action misinterpreted as a sign of retail weakness by some in the media.

Other sources cite similar causes for the departure of the two executives, including Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky who added that Apple’s slow growth of retail operations in China, as well as issues with initial public reception of Siri and its “beta” label, likely caused a lot of tension. Lashinsky also claims to have heard that Forstall refused to sign the apology letter for maps, something the WSJ later reported as coming from “people familiar with the matter.”

Daring Fireball’s well-connected John Gruber also noted in his analysis of the change that “the whole iOS 6 Maps thing” was a “potential factor” working against Forstall, adding also that his taste in design (the famous skeuomorphic apps are reportedly Forstall’s doing), as well as his management style, were additional factors.

The WSJ report goes into more detail on that score, too, saying that Forstall recently sent iOS software team members an email suggesting the group wasn’t tackling big-picture issues lately. He’s also said to have expressed negative sentiment about the change in leadership direction following Cook’s ascension to the CEO role.

Clearly, both departures were caused by a number of factors, and not any single misstep, but these new late-breaking reports at least add some basis from which to understand one of the most significant shakeups in the history of Apple corporate management.

After having seen its mug plastered all over the internet in the days leading up to its release, actually playing with LG and Google’s new Nexus 4 seemed a bit anti-climactic. I mean, when you’ve seen a device like that cracked open and posed for your pleasure, it felt like there wasn’t much I didn’t already know about the thing.

Oh how wrong I was.

The first thing I noticed when I picked up the Nexus 4 is how remarkably sturdy it feels. Despite being an LG device, the Nexus 4 doesn’t really feel like one — it’s far more solid and slab-like than the plasticky handsets that the company has churned out in the past. This may sound weird, but I once I picked it up and got a feeling for its heft, I couldn’t resist the urge to tap the thing on the table a few times just to see how it held up (the answer: quite nicely).

Turning the thing over reveals the funky patterned finish that we’ve seen before, and it catches and reflects light in some interesting ways. To be honest, it seems a bit too flashy for a Nexus device (previous Nexus phones were largely free of visual flair), but that’s just me picking nits. I get the feeling that Nexus aficionados will either love or hate the way the Nexus 4 looks, and for now I’m caught right in the middle.

Speaking of looks, the Nexus 4 (as you’ve probably already heard) runs Android 4.2, which doesn’t stray too far from the aesthetic seen in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. You can check out a more detailed list of tweaks and additions here, but one change in particular threw me for a bit of a loop — the app launcher now sports five columns of apps instead of the customary four.

Meanwhile, the Nexus 4’s display represents a big step forward from the one seen in its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Galaxy Nexus to bits, but the Pentile sub-pixel configuration meant icons and text didn’t appear as smooth as I would’ve liked. Thankfully, the Nexus 4’s 4.7-inch 720p IPS panel rendered colors brightly and accurately, but I think my eyes have grown accustomed to the way colors pop on AMOLED panels.

That’s all well and good, but how does the thing run? Well, it’s always tough to judge a phone’s performance after only playing with it for a few moments, but the whole thing — from swiping through pages of widgets and apps to scrolling through long lists of emails — was as snappy as you would expect from a top-tier Nexus handset. Of course, we’ve got LG’s Optimus G to thank for that since both devices share the same 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. To trot out a well-worn Android cliche, the experience was downright buttery, and I’m looking forward to really putting this thing through its paces.

I’ll refrain from making sweeping judgments for now, but the Nexus 4 managed to make a strong impression during the few brief moments we shared together. Expect a deeper dive into Google’s newest Nexus phone later this week after I’ve had some serious playtime, but in the meantime enjoy the rest of these photos.

UPDATE: Everything appears to be back up, here’s a statement from BuzzFeed explaining the situation:

Major Media ISP Goes Down

Datagram, the ISP whose Manhattan servers host BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Gawker, and other sites, has lost power, an official there told us via text this evening.

“Basement flooded, fuel pump off line – we got people working on it now. 5 feet of water now,” the official wrote.

BuzzFeed’s site and story page are back online, thanks to a Content Delivery Network, Akamai, which hosts the content at servers distributed around the world.

If Hurricane Sandy wasn’t scary enough, it’s newest victims are in the blogosphere. We’ve just learned that Gawker’s fleet of sites, including Gizmodo are down. Also Hurricane Sandy victims? The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed.

As you know, New Jersey and New York City is in the storm’s path, and any data centers that are stationed there are surely going to be affected. Big data warehouses usually have multiple failsafe systems in place, but it looks like they were no match for the fury that Hurricane Sandy brings.

We'll be back soon! There was a data center battery failure after the power went down in Lower Manhattan. Generators powering up. #sandy

—
  (@Gizmodo) October 29, 2012

Gawker is temporarily down because the 57th Street Crane just flooded our servers with sea foam, or something. Back with you shortly.

—
  (@Gawker) October 29, 2012

"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." -Willa Cather

—
Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) October 29, 2012

Few big data centers in NJ…. RT @michaelroston: So HuffPost and Gawker both having connectivity problems. Anyone else?

—
Megan McCarthy (@Megan) October 29, 2012

Our site is down. Problems with NY-area servers due to Sandy. Be back ASAP.

—
  (@BuzzFeed) October 29, 2012

Earlier, we reported that FEMA has told residents in the path of the storm to use text messaging and social networks to communicate with family members and friends, as to keep phone lines open. A bigger deal than that? The NYSE and NASDAQ closed down for the day as well.

The Huffington Post has been serving up important resources and links for those affected by the storms, and BuzzFeed has brought us a few laughs to keep us loose. It’s sad to see both sites down. Luckily, Twitter itself posted some great accounts to follow to get updates about the weather.

A BuzzFeed spokeswoman, Ashley McCollum, issued this statement to us:

We’re having hurricane related issues both with our servers and our CDN, and are working on it. The social web is alive and well and our staff will continue to create shareable content for Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

As stated, the show must go on and BuzzFeed is keeping the LOLZ coming:

Pushing out stuff through Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr while we resolve our site issues, you guys! Follow and like us.

—
  (@BuzzFeed) October 30, 2012

We’ve reached out to the rest of sites who are affected for comment and we’ll let you know once we hear back. Good luck, folks! :/ This really doesn’t look pretty:

BuzzFeed creeping back, but we'll be posting great new stuff here, buzzfeed.tumblr.com & facebook.com/buzzfeed all night.

—
  (@BuzzFeed) October 30, 2012

UPDATE: We’ve learned from a source that a NYC datacenter was lost because of a power outage, and its failover to Newark was unsuccessful. Servers are rebooting and the situation is being worked on.

[photo credit: flickr]

Amazon has revealed a bit of detail for how it views Google’s cloud efforts in a lawsuit filed against a former employee on grounds he violated a  non-compete clause.

Amazon filed the lawsuit on behalf of Amazon Web Services, claiming Daniel Powers, its former vice president of sales, has violated a severance agreement by taking a new job at Google as a director of cloud platform sales.  In June, AWS offered Powers the severance agreement in lieu of termination. In September, Google hired Powers as director of Cloud Platform Sales.

In the suit, Amazon explains how it views Google as a competitor and interestingly, how it views its own business.  The company boils its work down to how it “rents,” computing resources. But it’s what Amazon says about Google that is noteworthy and points to why Amazon is trying to keep Powers from working at Google:

In the suit, Amazon says AWS  hired Daniel Powers from IBM and taught him the business from “top to bottom.” He learned about the company’s strategic road map, pricing strategies and all that goes with working as a high ranking sales executive. He had access to overall sales information and participated in high level, weekly meetings. He knows what customers are prospects and which ones are not. He has knowledge of what parts of the world AWS plans to expand. Powers, AWS charges, is the one person who can inflict the most damage on AWS due to his intimate knowledge of the company.

The suit, first reported by GeekWire, speaks to the challenge AWS sees in Google ands its new cloud computing venture.  Google Compute Engine  (GCE) was  announced earlier this year at Google I/O. Krishnan Subramanian did a recent analysis of  GCE  on Cloud Ave– a worthy read for getting up to speed about what Google is offering and why it will have a significant impact on the cloud computing landscape.

This lawsuit points to how seriously Amazon sees Google as a competitor in the cloud space.

Here are the papers Amazon filed.

CaseMate, along with every other case maker out there, is launching a new wave of products alongside the iPhone 5, for both the new phone and the iPhone 4/4S. In (what I can only assume is) an attempt to differentiate creatively, CaseMate has blended a normal rubber case with a snap bracelet.

You know, the kind from when you were a kid that you won at some sort of school fair for not sinking your English teacher in the dunk tank.

Oh, snap.

At face value (as in, looking at it from the front), the Snap looks like your typical iPhone case. It seems to be made of silicone and slips on the iPhone.

On the back, however, there’s a slab of extra rubber with a button on one side. When you press the button, the rubber snaps out into a multi-directional kickstand.

Just check out the video:

It’s a cute take on a kickstand case, if nothing more.

The case comes in five different color flavors and is available for the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4/4S. Grab it at CaseMate for $35.