Technology

Agricultural equipment maker John Deere has announced its latest piece of autonomous farming kit: a package of hardware and software that combines machine learning with the company’s GPS-powered auto-steer features to create a “fully autonomous tractor.” The technology to support autonomous farming has been developing rapidly in recent years, but John Deere claims this is a significant step forward. With this technology, farmers will not only be able to take their hands off the wheel of their tractor or leave the cab — they’ll be able to leave the field altogether, letting the equipment do the work without them while monitoring things remotely using their smartphone. “This is not a demo. It’s not a concept machine. It’s something we’ve had in the field with farmers for years and will be ta...

In addition to designing several new products for people trying to keep germ-free during a pandemic, Targus is targeting iPhone users with this new Cypress Hero EcoSmart Backpack that has built-in Apple Find My technology. The Cypress Hero EcoSmart backpack includes Apple’s Find My technology.Image: Targus In turn, users can also use their backpack to track a lost iPhone by pressing a button in the backpack. The backpack has an integrated battery that’s replaceable and can be recharged via USB, which Targus claims will provide better protection from thieves than a simple tag. Like the other bags in the Cypress Hero EcoSmart line, Targus says this one is built using approximately 26 recycled water bottles. Currently, there is no specific release date for the backpack, but Targus says that t...

Nvidia has a new budget GPU king, announced at CES 2022: the RTX 3050, which starts at $249 and undercuts the company’s previous entry-level RTX graphics card, the $329 RTX 3060, by a solid $80. As with the other RTX GPUs, the RTX 3050 is built on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture and promises to offer the company’s most affordable entry to ray-traced gaming at 60fps (albeit at 1080p), along with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The RTX 3050 also offers Nvidia’s third-generation Tensor cores to enable things like its AI-based DLSS upscaling, despite the lower price. A new entry-level GPU from Nvidia… if you can find one According to Matt Wuebbling, Nvidia’s VP of global GeForce marketing, 75 percent of customers are still using the company’s old GTX platform. Adding an even cheaper entry-level option...

AT&T has announced the Fusion 5G, a budget phone with a couple of features previously reserved for much more expensive devices: mmWave 5G and wireless charging. It will cost $219 (or $6.12 per month if you’d rather go that route) when it goes on sale this Friday, January 7th. Support for mmWave is a bit rare in the under-$300 class — many budget phones only offer the more common but (currently) mediocre sub-6GHz 5G rather than faster but hard-to-find mmWave. In fact, back in the heady, early days of 5G in the US, phones like the Google Pixel 4A were sold in two variants: a cheaper version with sub-6GHz only and a more expensive one with mmWave. A couple of years later, it’s still tough to find a mmWave signal, but at least you don’t have to pay more for a phone that supports it. Wirele...

Nvidia’s virtual CES 2022 keynote is underway, and the company’s just announced a new slate of gaming laptop chips there — including mobile versions of the RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti that’ll appear in laptops starting at $1,499 and $2,499, respectively. They’ll be out February 1st from the typical array of partners including Alienware and Razer. While the company isn’t sharing a lot of specs just yet — only that they’ll offer Ultra-spec 1440p gaming at 100 and 120 frames per second, respectively, and that the 3080 Ti is faster than a desktop Titan RTX — Nvidia has something up its sleeves that might make this latest slate a little different than previous laptop gens. The company claims its fourth-gen Max-Q platform comes with the ability to control your laptop’s CPU, changing its performa...

HP has announced a redesign of its Elitebook 805 laptops, which will soon include AMD’s Ryzen Pro 6000 processors and screens with the taller-than-standard 16:10 aspect ratio appreciated by businesspeople who spend their days scrolling through documents. HP has also announced a new Elitebook 605 series, which comes equipped with more mundane processors and screens (though for IT departments buying dozens at a time, that’s probably not such a bad thing). This year’s Elitebook 805 G9 laptops come in three variations: the 835, 845, and 865. The middle number refers to the laptop’s screen size: the 835 has a 13.3-inch screen, the 845 has a 14-inch screen, and the 865 has a 16-inch screen, which is a new option for the series. Specs-wise, the 805 G9s can be configured with similar options regar...

There’s never been a better time to make the move to a top-of-the-line laptop as the line between work and play become increasingly blurred in our new normal. With more powerful processors and a portable form factor, they’re perfect for seamlessly transitioning between intensive tasks from video-editing or creating animations to jumping into the burgeoning metaverse, whenever and wherever inspiration hits. Leading in the field of contenders is GIGABYTE’s latest models in a long line of laptops designed just for creative visionaries, the AERO Creator Laptop Series. Featuring an ultraportable design for those who are constantly on the move, the flagship AERO 16 manages to pack a bigger 16:10 4K OLED screen into an aerospace-grade aluminum alloy chassis that would usually only carry a 15-inch...

Ford says its planning to double production of its upcoming electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning, to 150,000 vehicles per year by 2023. The news comes as the automaker prepares to start making and shipping its new EV in the first half of 2022. Production of both the F-150 Lightning and F-150 Lightning Pro for commercial customers has entered its final pre-build stage this week at the company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Deliveries of the first trucks are expected to start in the spring. The number of electric F-150s Ford planned on making in its first few years of production has been a bit of a shifting target. At first, the company was only targeting 40,000 vehicles annually, eventually telling suppliers it expected that capacity to rise to 80,000 by early ...

Door manufacturer Masonite is showcasing the first residential smart door at CES 2022, highlighting the home building industry’s shift toward embracing connected technology. The concept was announced earlier in 2021, but CES is the first chance most will have to see the door in action. A collaboration between Masonite, Ring, and Yale, the M-Pwr Smart Door is the first residential exterior door to integrate power, lights, sensors, a video doorbell, and a smart lock into the door system. The Masonite smart door features strategically situated motion-activated lighting alongside a Yale door lock and Ring video doorbell.Image: Masonite The door, a premium fiberglass model available in a variety of styles, colors, and finishes, needs to be professionally installed and connects to a home’s elect...

Ahead of their press conferences at this year’s truncated and part-virtual CES, AMD and Intel are teasing big CPU announcements for the show. AMD’s “product premiere” is due to take place at 10am ET today, while Intel has a “digital-first live experience” scheduled for slightly later at 1pm ET. Intel’s CES tease is focused on one key spec, 5.5GHz, which is expected to be the maximum boost clock speed its upcoming CPU will be able to reach. That’s a 300MHz improvement over the company’s current flagship, the Core i9-12900K, which was announced late last year and can reach a top boost clock speed of 5.2GHz. VideoCardz reports that the new processor could be called the Core i9-12900KS, and may release in late Q1 2022. Meanwhile, AMD CEO Lisa Su hasn’t revealed much in the way of specifics in ...

When you think of Garmin wearables, you’re probably thinking of its running smartwatches — durable and a little bulky, but with excellent GPS, detailed metrics, and long battery life. The company has made strides in recent years to expand beyond its fitness niche, but it seems to have finally hit its stride at CES 2022 with the Venu 2 Plus and the entry-level Vivomove Sport. It might seem a bit soon for a Venu 2 Plus, given that the Venu 2 just launched last April. However, the device fixes one of the more glaring omissions from the Venu 2: voice capabilities. The Venu 2 Plus adds both a speaker and microphone, meaning the smartwatch is now capable of taking and making calls directly from the wrist, as well as adding voice assistant support. The watch works with whatever assistant is on yo...

Following the 2022 New Years celebrations, the Lunar New Year festivities are set to begin next month on February 1. Similar to the previous Year of the Ox offering, Apple is releasing a special-edition Year of the Tiger Airpods Pro. The MagSafe charging case displays a special tiger emoji wearing a tiger hood with fireworks in the background. Other than the case, the special-edition product has no noticeable difference other than the same emoji engraved in bright red on the sides of the packaging box. Buyers will also receive a set of exclusive red packets embossed with the tiger emoji inside the Apple logo and “2022’ text. The Special Edition AirPods Pro – Tiger is now available in-store and online at select Asian markets including Hong Kong. and currently retail for the same price ...