Skip to main content

Weekly Rewind: Self-tying shoes, March Madness apps, a cloak to keep you off radar

top tech stories 3 20 2016 iowa st cloak
In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on, in fact, that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from the second week of March. Everything from the the best way to follow March Madness to a real life invisibility cloak — it’s all here.

Stories: 1-5

Apple picks apart FBI’s ‘reckless’ and ‘uninformed’ argument in scathing new brief

tim-cook-apple

Apple’s kerfuffle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department appears far from over. In the company’s final brief filed on Tuesday ahead of its March 22 court appearance, lawyers for Apple argued that the government’s demands regarding the San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s encrypted iPhone would “appall” the Founders of our nation. Apple’s lawyers deconstructed the FBI’s and DOJ’s arguments from start to finish.

Read the full story here.

Google reflects on ‘man vs. machine’ Go series

alphago-go-board

In the wake of AlphaGo’s 4-1 victory over internationally renowned Go player Lee Sedol, Google has published a blog post ruminating on the win and what it means for the company going forward. The post was written by Demis Habassis, the CEO and co-founder of DeepMind, which Google acquired back in 2014.


Read the full story here.

See how fast these criminals install a machine ready to steal your credit card details

Raw Video: Men Place Card Skimmer on ATM Store Machine!

The threat of using an ATM with a so-called card skimmer attached is very real, and if it happens to you, it’s possible your card details could be used fraudulently, imprinted on a blank card to run up a huge bill, or worse, empty your bank account. Certainly not a situation any of us would want to encounter, but these skimmers must be difficult to install and setup right? Wrong, as shown by this shocking video.

Read the full story here.

Celebgate: Pennsylvania man to plead guilty for hacking stars’ nude photos

icloud
GilC/Shutterstock

You all remember it. The people who had nude images of themselves posted online certainly do. We’re talking about the so-called “Celebgate” hack of 2014 where naked pictures and videos of Hollywood stars were stolen from their Apple and Google accounts and posted online. A Pennsylvania man plead guilty to the crime.

Read the full story here.

Siri will say that she doesn’t know what you mean by ‘raped’

Siri-Google-Now
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

If you tell Siri, “I was raped,” she’ll say “I don’t know what you mean by ‘I was raped.’ How about a Web search for it?” And the digital voice assistant’s competitors aren’t any better. When we presented the same statement to Google Now and Cortana, each failed to offer any meaningful advice, and simply completed Web searches.

Read the full story here.

Recommended Videos

Stories: 6-10

Great Scott! Nike debuts the world’s first pair of self-tying shoes

Nike_EARL_Profile_original

Shoelaces are a pain. Their tendency to become impossibly tangled has led many a kid (and adult) to lust longingly after Marty McFly’s labor-saving MAG sneakers in Back to the Future Part II, but a real-world equivalent has so far proven elusive … until now. At a press event in New York yesterday, sportswear behemoth Nike announced it’ll bring the world’s first self-tying shoe to market.

Read the full story here.

Scientists have developed a flexible, stretchable ‘invisibility cloak’ that hides objects from radar

radar-cloak

You might not be able to attend Hogwarts, but technology is bringing us closer to magic every day. Thanks to new research from Iowa State University, we may soon be able to take the notion of invisibility cloaks out of the realm of fiction and into our reality. Engineers from the midwest university have developed an innovative “flexible, stretchable, and tunable ‘meta-skin’ that uses rows of small, liquid-metal devices to cloak an object from the sharp eyes of radar.”

Read the full story here.

11 March Madness apps to bring the game with you everywhere

Best-March-Madness-apps

All season leads up to this: The NCAA Tournament, better known as March Madness. Sixty eight teams have been playing for the past five months to get to this tournament – to have a chance at glory. It’s the same opportunity you have thanks to office pools, and you don’t even have to play the games.

Read the full story here.

First drive: Toyota i-Road

Toyota i-Road
Albert Khoury/Digital Trends

The major cities of the world are invariably the center of their regions’ commerce and industry. They offer the best in food, culture, and art, which is great for business. However, this leads to crowding and congestion. Traffic comes to a dead stop during rush hour and parking is a nightmare.

Read the full story here.

The Roccbox portable oven can cook a pizza in 90 seconds

Roccbox-portable-grill-1-green

If you’ve been on the hunt for the perfect oven, Roccbox may be just the appliance you need for your home. Not only does it cook with wood or gas, but it’s completely portable, which makes it versatile enough to go beyond what it was designed to do: make pizza.

Read the full story here.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
I record interviews for work. These are my favorite free recorder apps
The iPhone 14 Pro and Google Pixel 7 Pro's voice recording apps running together.

The Voice Recorder app on a phone (left) and the Voice Memos on another phone Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Before you head to the app store on your phone to buy a voice-recording app, take a moment to consider the apps that may already be installed on your phone. Why? In my experience, they're likely all you really need. I’ve recorded interviews and voice-overs for work for years, and I’ve found the two best examples come preinstalled on your phone already, so they’re entirely free to use.

Read more
The best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 cases: 10 best ones so far
Two Galaxy Z Fold 5 phones next to each other -- one is open and one is closed.

Samsung’s next-generation foldable is here with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. This iteration has some notable improvements, including a new hinge design that eliminates the gap from previous generations when the device was folded. You also get a 6.2-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display on the outside while having a 6.7-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display on the inside, with both screens having a 120Hz refresh rate. In other words, they're about as nice as you could ask for.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is made with premium materials, and the triple-lens camera system packs in a 50MP main shooter, 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP ultrawide lens. There’s a 10MP selfie camera on the front cover, and a 4MP camera on the inner display. You also get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip inside for the best performance and power efficiency.

Read more
Google Pixel Tablet just got its first big discount and it’s worth a look
Google Pixel Tablet on its charging dock.

Tablets are a dime-a-dozen these days, with offerings from all the great brands including Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, and more. So, if you really want to stand out in a sea of similar tech, you need to do things a little differently. That's what Google's Pixel Tablet offers. How? It comes with a unique speaker dock that can be used to both charge the device and offer room-filling sound -- almost like a smart speaker add-on. Better yet, when your Pixel Tablet is docked it benefits from the Hub Mode, turning the device into a smart display, with digital photo frame support, smart home controls, and hands-free Google functionality. Of course, it could set you back at full price, normally $499 unless you find it included in a roundup of the best Google Pixel deals. Well, guess what? Thanks to a Best Buy Google Pixel Tablet deal, you can get it today for $439 and save $60. Hurry, though, it's part of Best Buy's recent 48-hour sale so it won't stick around for long.

Why you should buy the Google Pixel Tablet
Okay, okay, so in our Google Pixel Tablet review, Joe Maring did give it less than stellar remarks, but he called out its reliable fingerprint sensor, comfortability during use and excellent speaker dock. Honestly, how many tablets come with a matching speaker dock that transforms the entire experience? This tablet also marks a "lot of firsts" for Google, as it's the first tablet from the company in nearly five years, the first Android tablet in eight years, and can be converted into a smart home display with the speaker dock. All of which are notable milestones.

Read more