Sale of Nest Protect smoke alarms halted while flaw is resolved

Nest CEO Tony Fadell released a letter announcing that due to a discovered flaw in a feature that allows consumers to wave their hands to turn off the alarm. This "Nest Wave'  feature could be turned on unintentionally which would compromise the device's effectivity.

"We feel that the best and safest thing to do is to immediately disable the Nest Wave feature to resolve the issue and remove any safety concerns.," Fadell notes. "While we fix Nest Wave, we have also halted sales of all new Nest Protect alarms to ensure no one buys an alarm that needs an immediate update." To this end, sales of Nest Protect smoke alarms have been halted until a solution is found.

"Once we have a solution that ensures Nest Wave works as intended, we will update our software to turn this feature back on. This will only happen after extensive testing and once we have received approval from safety agencies in the US, Canada and UK. We expect this to take at least two or three months and we’ll continue to update you as we have more information."

Janelle Monáe and M.I.A. will use holograms to perform together live at Audi launch

After 2Pac’s holographic resurrection at Coachella in 2012, we know the definition of live performances have been changed forever. Audi wants to carry on the tradition at the launch of the new A3 on April 3. M.I.A. and Janelle Monáe will be performing a cross-country duet of two new songs with the help of holograms. Monáe will be playing her set in Los Angeles, while M.I.A. will perform in New York. They will close the show together with the two songs.

According to the press release, "The set utilizes 3D projection mapping to add layered depth of field perception with animated graphic content, the result of which will be an electric never-before-seen 3D bi-coastal performance." We’d have to see for ourselves how they’re going to pull this off though.

Source: Spin

Nokia debuts MD-12 Bluetooth speaker alongside new Lumias

Nokia has also unveiled a new accessory to match its new Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones.  The MD-12 is a Bluetooth speaker that is available in the same color palette as the new devices. Nokia claims this speaker has better bass than those similar in size (it’s about the size of a hockey puck, in case you were wondering). And it will supposedly run for 15 hours on a single charge. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said the MD-12 will cost US$55 but did not mention when it will go on sale.

Source: Engadget

Apple looks to boost Siri's speech recognition with Novauris acquisition

With the competition scrambling to get in on the intelligent personal assistant game, Apple is looking to add some speech recognition props to Siri's already expansive skillset. Apple purchased eminent automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology company Novauris Technologies which was a subsidiary of Dragon Systems, a well known voice and dictation technology pioneer behind DragonDictate and Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

According to Techcrunch, the acquisition, "apparently took place last year, but had not been announced. At Apple as of last fall, the team is now working on improving Siri, the speech-based virtual assistant technology that comes pre-installed on Apple’s mobile devices."

Novauris's technology spans both device and server-side as well as cloud solutions for automatic speech recognition and it will be interesting to see how this technology matures and makes it to Apple's products.

Source: TechCrunch