Amazon Alexa-enabled CoWatch smartwatch now available

While Amazon hasn’t ventured into smartwatch production just yet, the company has partnered with iMCO to create the CoWatch. This Android-powered wearable comes equipped with Amazon’s Alexa as your personal assistant. It’s not running Android Wear per se but an Android-based operating system called Cronologics OS. It was designed by former Google and Android engineers and works with both Android (version 5.0 and up) and iOS (iOS 9 and up). The OS is supposed to handle Alexa-heavy interactions The CoWatch is a 42mm watch that’s 12mm thick and comes with a 1.39-inch Super AMOLED display (400 x 400 resolution), 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and 32 hours battery life. It’s water resistant and has an accelerometer and heart rate sensor as well.

The smartwatch was first expected to ship after its Indiegogo campaign ended in June but following delays, the release got pushed back. Now, it’s available on Amazon US for US$279 (around CA$360) and it comes in silver or black. The black version, for some reason, costs $20 more than the silver one.

Source: TechRadar

Yahoo finally confirms 2014 breach that affected over 500 million users

The Yahoo breach first broke in August when a hacker called Peace was promising to sell 200 million usernames, passwords, birthdates, and email addresses for less than US$2,000. Yahoo wouldn’t confirm the legitimacy of the attack but now we finally get confirmation that the company was victim of a “state-sponsored” attack back in 2014. Yahoo elaborated on a statement on its investor relations site the types of data the hackers might have had access to. "The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers," the statement reads. This doesn’t include sensitive payment information but the hack is considered large enough that Yahoo is working with law enforcement to see what happens.

There is no word yet if there will be a government investigation brought about by this incident. Yahoo hasn’t also said why it took so long to publicly confirm the report. It could do with the fact that the beleaguered company is selling itself to Verizon and the news could cause harm to the deal before it officially closes in early 2017.

Source: Engadget

Elon Musk announces Oct. 28 release date for SolarCity solar roof

We’ll most likely be seeing for the first time Tesla and SolarCity’s new solar roof product on October 28, if Elon Musk’s tweet is anything to go by. The Tesla founder and CEO just announced on social media that this solar roof will be working with version 2.0 of Tesla’s PowerWall solar storage and battery for the home as well as with the Tesla car charger. This integration is seen as moving beyond showing off how these companies can seamlessly work together to showing Musk’s “Master Plan: Part Deux,” where he aims to create a fully self-sustaining solar-powered energy ecosystem that is linked to his zero emission goals between home and transportation.

Tesla is in the process of acquiring SolarCity but it has been facing opposition from shareholders that could cause a delay in the deal. The demo, which could show the value of the system and the partnership, might further Musk’s plans and help soften any opposition to his plans to join Tesla and SolarCity together.

Aiming for Oct 28 unveil in SF Bay Area of new Tesla/SolarCity solar roof with integrated Powerwall 2.0 battery and Tesla charger.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2016

Source: TechCrunch

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to pledge $3 billion to help fight disease

Aside from being the CEO of the biggest social media site, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are working on a bigger cause: helping cure all diseases. Through the couple’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, they plan to invest over US$3 billion over the next decade with an aim of curing all diseases by the end of the century. The three goals the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has include bringing scientists and engineers together, develop new tools and tech, as well as boost the movement to fund science needed to treat diseases. They plan to work with the top scientists from around the world to work on this

Chan, a pediatrician by profession, talked about this plan at an event hosted at the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay campus, which houses the school’s state-of-the-art hospital. Present at the event were well-known scientists, investors, and politicians like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (who is a partner of the Initiative), former US Secretary Janel Napolitano, and investor Ron Conway. The first investment by the initiative will be $600 million to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an independent research center at Mission Bay where engineers, biologists, computer scientists, and the like can collaborate.

Source: CNET