Uber is banned in Germany

“A court in Frankfurt has ruled that Uber cannot operate in Germany due to a lack of adequate insurance for these types of private drivers, as well as expensive licensing.

Low-cost UberPop drivers found to continue operating could face fines up to 250,000 euros per trip, though Uber says they intend to keep them running through the ban.

Uber has remained confident that their insurance applies to drivers, and fully intends to appeal this preliminary injunction.” 

Uber is challenging the norm and is causing great upset with traditional taxi services. But it is a clever idea and will succeed.

Source – androidcentral.com

Samsung announces upgraded Samsung Home Experience

Samsung has announced an expansion to Smart Home Experience. This has an ability to work with third-party devices such as digital door locks and IP cameras.

No clear details as to the brands that will integrate into their home automation platform but Samsung should release a SDK later this year during Samsung Developer Conference.

Personally, the announcement seemed pie in the sky and perhaps trying to steal the thunder from Apple announced HomeKit which comes with iOS 8.

Of course, if you want home automation now, just buy the app Imperihome Pro. It’s what I use!

More info and Source – http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=40299

More details on the Asus ZenWatch

Via cultofandroid.com –

“Asus CEO Jerry Shen has confirmed that the company’s new ZenWatch, which will get its official unveiling at IFA 2014 in Berlin this week, will cost under $199 when it goes on sale in October. Asus has also promised that the device will be the most attractive Android Wear watch to date, and that it will have built-in voice controls.”

The most attractive Android Wear watch is a bold claim. Let’s hope this is the case.

Motorola Moto X+1 – new photos – what are those sensors?

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TKTechNews.com managed to grap a photo of the new Moto X+1. And from the photos it shows it has four sensors. These could be used to provide 3D effects or the sensors will work with Moto Alert and the Moto 360 watch. The rear Moto logo is the power button that can be customisable by the user. The device is an aluminium frame with changeable backs in wood, plastic, leather and denim. Verizon will have a carbon fibre finish.

This looks really interesting. Hopefully it won’t be long before Motorola reveals all.

Apple’s iCloud is Hacked – or is it?

Yesterday there was nude photos from about 100 celebrities. The photos had come from their iCloud photostream.

According to Apple, they are actively investigating. Not only is this bad timing with their new product launches around the corner, it is terrible PR and it’s the accounts of celebrities.

Hopefully, Apple will release more info, but if this is anything like an earlier hack, it could simply be another online service that got hacked, and the iCloud passwords were similar, identical or weak.

Either way, its not good news.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – leaked photos

Talkandroid.com obtained photos of Huawei’s monster phablet, the new Ascend Mate 7.

It has a finger scanner, 1080p display, 13/5 MP camera (back and front, respectively), 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM, and a whopping 4,000 mAh battery. The processor running the beast is a HiSilicon Kirin 920, which has four more powerful Cortex-A15 cores, and four less battery-intensive Cortex-A7 cores.

Clearly a mid range phone and will be priced accordingly.

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