LockSmart Travel is a smart padlock with location tracking services

Dog & Bone, a leading brand in smart technology for mobile devices, today announced that the patented LockSmart Travel is now shipping. The LockSmart Travel is a TSA accepted, keyless, Bluetooth luggage padlock controlled by an iOS or Android app. It is equipped with a location tracking feature that allows users to track their luggage through the app when in Bluetooth range. Additionally, the location feature is designed to allow users to crowdsource through the growing LockSmart community in case luggage is lost or stolen.

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The 1,000-horsepower EV from Lucid Motors is up for preorder

California-based luxury automotive company Lucid Motors is gearing up to release its new 1,000-horsepower, 400-mile range electric vehicle and it wants interested buyers to know the car is now up for preorder. The Lucid Air, which is seen as a direct competitor to the Tesla Model S P100DL, has 100kWh and 130kWh battery packs and have long-range radar, cameras, LIDAR, and even an app and over-the-air updates. Pricing is expected to run over US$100,000 but no specific amount has been announced yet.

If getting a Lucid Air is something that interests you, you can hand over a US$2,500 deposit to reserve a “standard” production model. If you want something special, prepare to shell out US$25,500 for a “launch edition” that will be one of the first 255 cars of the production line. It might not be the best idea to buy one of the first cars off a production line, if you think about reliability. But Lucid Motors seems to be confident enough that the deposits on the car are refundable. If you’re curious about who’s behind the company. Its CTO is Peter Rawlinson, the former lead engineer for the Tesla Model S, and its chief designer is Derek Jenkins, who used to be the design head at Mazda.

Source: The Verge

Former head of Google’s self-driving car initiative looks to start his own autonomous vehicle company

The autonomous vehicle market is growing quiet quickly and hoping to join in on the fun is a former Googler. Chris Urmson, the ex-chief technology officer for Google’s self-driving car program, is said to be preparing to launch his own company that will compete not just with its former employer but with the many others working on autonomous vehicles. Urmson was approached by a lot of self-driving startups and Silicon Valley companies when he left Google back in August but he’s decided to strike out on his own.

He’s reportedly in talks for the past month with engineers from the likes of Uber, Tesla, and Apple in hopes of having them work with him. What Urmson wants to bring to the market is a complete self-driving package, including everything from software, data, to hardware. He’d allow the package to be licensed and altered by automakers, much like what Microsoft does with Windows.

Source: ReadWrite

Yahoo discloses a second major hack that affected over 1 billion accounts

Looks like the late 2014 hack of over 500 million Yahoo user accounts isn’t the only big security issue the company has to deal with. Yahoo just disclosed that more than one billion accounts might have been compromised by a hack of an unauthorized third party back in August 2013. The information stolen from the affected accounts include names, email addresses, birth dates, hashed passwords, encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers, as well as telephone numbers. The only information believed to not have been accessed by the hackers include clear text passwords, bank account information, and credit/debit card details.

The hack was discovered after law enforcement officials gave the company what looked like user data from an unknown source. Yahoo hasn’t been able to identify the specific breach yet but says it’s “likely” distinct from the 2014 hack. If you’re affected by this hack, Yahoo will be reaching out to you to help secure your account, including implementing mandatory password changes and invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers. Now, is probably the best time for you to change those passwords and use two-factor authentication when you can—not just with your Yahoo accounts but also double up on your other online accounts.

Source: MacRumors