We’re updating the firmware on cars now – Tesla shows how it’s done

We’ve updated the firmware on many things: game consoles, Blu-ray and DVD players, MP3 players and even, on on occasion, a computer mouse. But updating the firmware on a car isn’t something we’ve had much experience with. What if we brick it? That’s the way that the world is heading though, with Tesla’s 7.1 firmware launching for the company’s vehicles. This one predominately tweaks and adds new features to Tesla’s range, improving on adaptive cruise console and autosteer to make these functions safer. It also adds something called Summon, which sounds like a Harry Potter spell of sorts (minus the dodgy Latin conversion) that we’ll have a video of later today. Long story short, it’s kinda like self parking but it’s not legal on America roads just yet. Hit the link for a full list of Tesla firmware changes.

Source: Tesla

Xiaomi knows how to do budget right with the Redmi 3

We’ve been singing the praises of of Xiaomi like we were being paid from a government bank account to do so. We’re not, obviously, or else we’d be driving much more expensive cars. As it happens, great build, good specs and cheap prices are a winning combination. And Xiaomi’s newly announced Redmi 3 budget handset is set to continue that trend. How so? An all-metal body, 5-inch 720p screen, Snapdragon 616 octa-core chipset, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, to start with. Space for a microSD (up to 128GB), a 13MP/5MP camera combo and a massive 4,100mAh battery are the other highlights for this $250 (R4,000) budget handset. Yeah, we’d pay that for Xiaomi’s latest budget effort.

Source: The Next Web

Before eating that burger, check out how long it’ll take to burn off with Movesum

You’re still sticking to that New Year’s resolution, right? Maybe Movesum, an app which is a fitness tracker of sorts. But there’s a slight difference, one that sets it apart. Movesum gives you information on the food you’re eating. Not in calories but in steps rather. That burger, or donut, or pile of bananas, will require around 12,000 steps to get rid of, based on Movesum’s info. It’s another way to look at your movement data and might act as a motivator when you’re eyeing out the junk food instead of those veggies that you know you should be eating. Movesum is available on the US iTunes store for the moment and it’s er… free.

Source: Movesum

Modular robotics is now a thing with the Cellrobot

How many balls can a robot have? That question’s not as disgusting as it might seem on the surface if you’ve seen the Cellrobot, a modular robotics platform that was on show at CES 2016. It consists of up to 100 orbs connected together to make some sort of Franken-robot. At the moment the modular robot isn’t as useful as you’d think but it’s a very interesting concept. For example, a nano-scaled version of this same tech could lead to… well, a nanobot apocalypse but that’s just our overactive imaginations talking. For now the fledgling app-controlled robots, which consist of movement, lighting, camera and clamp modules is just the beginning of a good idea. Well, they all have to start somewhere, right?