Skip to main content

Weekly Rewind: How to become a cyborg, super strong iPhones, and more

top tech stories 08 14 2016 wr 8 head
Image used with permission by copyright holder
In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on 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 this week. Everything from the cell phone service with the fastest download speeds to the latest, modern takes on home lighting, it’s all here.

T-Mobile now has fastest LTE download speeds of four big carriers, study shows

WR_8_14_01
Image used with permission by copyright holder

For a long time, T-Mobile has been on the lower end of the big four carriers in terms of connectivity and speed. The Un-carrier has come a long way — it now rates the second highest in customer satisfaction, and offers the fastest LTE downloads in the U.S., according to a new study by OpenSignal.

Read the full story here.

Solar panels? Not good enough for Elon Musk — he wants to create a solar roof

WR_8_14_02
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Millions of homes around the world protect us from the hot and brutal sun, so it only makes sense that having a solar roof would be the logical next step in harnessing that power. Sure, many can afford to install solar panels on their roofs, but Musk’s plan is different. He wants to make a roof entirely out of solar cells.

Read the full story here.

British Columbia woman’s iPhone survives a 2,500-foot fall nearly unscathed

WR_8_14_03
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This iPhone must be part Apple device, part cat. That’s the only explanation for its surviving a 2,500-foot drop out of an airplane, right? Call it fantastic engineering or just blind luck, but Jeannine Buck says her smartphone lived to tell the tale of plummeting around half a mile out of the sky.

Read the full story here.

Forget your bank, hackers say we should worry about smart sex toy privacy

WR_8_14_04
Image used with permission by copyright holder

No one wants to share their data with just any old app developer and even less so when it could reveal when, and how often, a smart sex toy is used. That’s the accusation against Standard Innovation Corporation, makers of the We-Vibe 4 Plus vibrator, by two hackers at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas. The pair, who go by the names Follower and Goldfisk, presented their findings in a talk called Hacking the Internet of Vibrating Things. Sure, the name is quite amusing, but the implications are less so.

Read the full story here.

You can pre-order the Blocks modular smartwatch for $60 off right now

WR_8_14_05
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gadgets like the Blocks Smartwatch have the potential to revolutionize how we buy products. That’s because, instead of being replaced, the modular smartwatch is designed to be upgraded and tweaked with the passage of time. (No pun intended!) At $100 off its $320 pre-order price on new.chooseblocks.com and $60 off its regular price on our store, the DT Shop is offering a solid deal on the smartwatch.

Read the full story here.

China is developing a hypersonic space plane that makes the Space Shuttle look primitive

WR_8_14_06
Image used with permission by copyright holder

China is developing a space plane that’ll go from runway to orbit and back down again at hypersonic speeds, reports Popular Science. When it is completed, the hypersonic space plane will boost the Asian country to the forefront of the aerospace industry — eclipsing the capabilities of the now retired Space Shuttle and competing with the cutting-edge British Skylon.

Read the full story here.

Apple’s push into education has helped more than 32,000 U.S. students

WR_8_14_07
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Apple joined President Barack Obama’s ConnectED program in 2014, promising to issue grants to 114 schools in 29 states — including a MacBook and iPad for teachers, an Apple TV for each classroom, and an iPad for each student. Fast forward two years, and it seems as if Apple’s decision to join the initiative is paying off quite well.

Read the full story here.

100 million Volkswagen vehicles can be unlocked wirelessly by hacker thieves

WR_8_14_08
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Is your keyless remote safe? Connected cars face increasing threats as new technologies present hackers and thieves with additional ways to access vehicles. One vulnerability, though, involves older tech — remote key fobs used to unlock cars. Researchers at the Usenix security conference in Austin will soon present a paper outlining two remote unlocking vulnerabilities, one of which puts nearly every Volkswagen Group vehicle manufactured since 1995 in jeopardy, as reported in Wired.

Read the full story here.

Nanoleaf’s triangular panels offer a new, modular take on lighting

WR_8_14_09
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you can say one thing about Toronto-based Nanoleaf, it’s that its light bulbs don’t look boring. From the dimmable Bloom to the smart Ivy, the folded circuit board bulbs are eye-catching. The same can be said for the company’s newest product, the Aurora, debuting at CES 2016. The Aurora isn’t something you’ll stick under a lamp shade. In fact, it moves home lighting onto the wall (though you could also put them on the ceiling or a table, too). It’s a series of triangle-shaped LED panels that fit together in various shapes.

Read the full story here.

Ready to become a cyborg? This dermal implant will give you a sixth sense

WR_8_14_10
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The international team of activists, technologists, and body-hackers known as Cyborg Nest want to give you a sixth sense — and, with apologies to M. Night Shyamalan, it’s got nothing to do with seeing dead people. Instead, Cyborg Nest’s upcoming first product is a device called the North Sense: a miniature, Bluetooth-enabled wearable chip-like device users attach by way of body piercings. Its purpose? Firstly, to vibrate each and every time you face in a magnetic northward direction. Secondly, to aid your transition in becoming a real-life cyborg.

Read the full story here.

Editors' Recommendations

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…
Arc Search is one of the best iPhone apps I’ve ever used
Using Browse for Me feature in Arc Search browser.

It’s 2024, a year when generative AI chatbots are browsing the web for us and presenting answers that are essentially a summarized version of the information hosted on different websites. The approach is convenient and saves us the hassle of visiting multiple ad-ridden, tracker-happy websites to find the required details.

Yes, a wall of information isn’t the most pleasing way to find answers, especially when these AI-generated summaries could result from hallucinated misinformation or sourced from garbage content-farm websites. Thankfully, the likes of Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Copilot now provide citations, but tests have proved that these summarized answers are still not perfect.

Read more
How bad is a 2012 iPhone camera in 2023? Take a look for yourself
A person holding the iPhone 5.

I really like the iPhone 15 Pro Max's camera, which performed well in both our review and a recent camera test.

But after discovering an old, long-forgotten Apple iPhone 5 in a drawer at home and finding it was still in perfect working order, I wondered just how different photos taken with it would be compared to those taken by its current equivalents. I decided to find out in one of the more unusual camera tests I’ve ever performed.
Context and cameras
The iPhone 5, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Galaxy S23 Ultra, and OnePlus 11 cameras Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Read more
How I use my Apple Watch and iPhone to manage my diabetes
iPhone 15 Pro showing One Drop app and kit.

It’s November, which means it’s Diabetes Awareness Month, with World Diabetes Day recently happening on November 14. According to data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study (AHMS) and Apple Women’s Health Study (AWHS), there are about 537 million adults worldwide who are currently living with diabetes, with that number potentially reaching 643 million by 2030. In the U.S. alone, about two out of five people will develop diabetes in their lifetime, and more than one in three adults have elevated glucose levels that put them in the pre-diabetes zone.

I was pre-diabetic since my college years (it runs in both sides of my family), but then my doctor officially diagnosed me with Type 2 diabetes around early 2018. However, I was told that my case was more “mild” than others and that taking some medication — while also cutting out carbs and sweets, plus daily exercise — can help me keep it under control.

Read more