VW recalling more than 670,000 vehicles in North America due to faulty airbags

VW AG has issued a recall for over 670,000 vehicles in North America including 250,000 in Canada due to potentially faulty airbags. The recall includes the 2010-14 CC, 2011-13 EOS, 2011-14 Golf and GTI, 2010-14 Passat and Tiguan plus the 2010-13 Jetta models.

VW says the issue is that debris may contaminate the air bag clock spring — a spiral cable that keeps the air bag powered while the steering wheel is being turned. It may tear the cable and result in a loss of power.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation in March into the 2012 Passat and CC after receiving reports of nine air bag failures from clock springs in VW vehicles.

Source: DetroitNews.com

Canadian-made ONE Messenger app for iPhone teases capabilities on video

ONE Messgenger app is an iPhone exclusive messsaging applications that it's creators say, "allows you to stay in touch with everyone you know without paying for SMS. It’s all free. Now you can send and receive anything from photos, videos, voice, news articles, postcards, YouTube, stickers and more – all within the app." The interface and scale of communication tools seems pretty dynamic, like a mashup of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, BBM and Snapchat.

The above video gives a glimpse of what the app can do while a sign-up page here, ensures you get notified when the app is available.

Samsung tries to bring back physical keyboards with new accessory

You have to give it to Samsung for trying. The company this time takes its cues from the Typo keyboard accessory for the iPhone with a new accessory for its new devices. The physical keyboard case from Samsung snaps on top of the phone's display and takes up half of the screen. The screen will sense that you placed the keyboard on top of it and adjust the icons accordingly. Your key presses on the tactile keys will be sensed by the screen underneath so you don't even need to pair with via Bluetooth or need batteries to have it up and running. If you want to use the full screen, you can just snap it onto the back of the device, which makes for a rather bizarre look. There isn't any price for it yet and there's no way of telling yet if this will start a new trend of smartphone accessories. 

Source: The Verge 

Samsung goes big with new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+

Image credit to Gordon Kelly, Forbes

It seems the South Korean company takes the adage "Go big or go home" quiet literally with the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+. The former is the latest iteration of the pioneering phablet and the latter is the souped up version of one of its latest flagships. Both devices feature 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED displays with 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. The S6 Edge+ differs with its screen tapering off, well, the edges. It adds more functionality to take advantage of the edge design. One of the new features is being able to send photos and emoticons through the People Edge feature. The Galaxy Note 5, of course, comes with the built-in S Pen stylus, which is a trademark for this line of devices and can be said to be the more productivity-centered device. Both come equipped with 16-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera. Both can be accessed by double tapping on the home button and these come equipped with optical image stabilization and low-light sensor. 

The new devices run on Android 5.1 and Samsung Exynos 7420 64-bit processor with 4GB of RAM. The devices offer either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. They also come with 3,000mAh battery with embedded wireless charging technology that is said to work with most wireless chargers available on the market. 

Source: Forbes