Telegram's version 8.0 update brings new features, but drops Wear OS app

Telegram's latest update brings some new features, but it looks like it also got rid of a feature. The version 8.0 update doesn't include the Wear OS app. 9to5Google noted that the app has vanished from the Play Store on Wear OS. When you search for it, it no longer appears. But if you have the app already, it should stay put.

The update brings features like unlocking the limits on the size of a live stream's audience. You can now hide captions or the sender's name with messaging forwarding. Telegram will also now show trending stickers, and it improved sticker selection on the Android app. If you send emojis as a single message, these will be animated.

Source: 9to5Google

You can now buy Snap's Spectacles via Amazon

After a gimmicky release through pop-up vending machines and direct orders online, Snap is now ready to sell Spectacles to a lot more users. The wearables are now available through Amazon. Its three colors—black, teal, and coral—are available. Snap is selling them directly for the usual US$129.99 price tag and Amazon fulfills the order. The glasses are eligible for next-day delivery. 

Spectacles is Snap's first foray into hardware manufacturing and it lets users record 10- to 30-second clips, which can be uploaded to your Snapchat account, another social media app, or be exported to your camera roll. 

Source: The Verge 

Kangaroos are confusing Volvo’s self-driving cars

Volvo seems to have run into trouble with a certain marsupial as they test their self-driving cars in Australia. The car maker has discovered that kangaroos are both a nuisance and a source of confusion for its self-driving vehicles. This isn’t the first time Volvo’s detection system has been exposed to large animals. In Sweden, it’s responded to deer, caribou, and elk. But the unusual pattern that kangaroos move seems to have thrown these machines into a loop.

“When it’s in the air it actually looks like it’s further away, then it lands and it looks closer,” Volvo Australia’s Technical Manager David Pickett explains to ABC. Kangaroos aren’t just wreaking havoc with Volvo’s cars, these marsupials have been the cause of vehicle collisions in Australia. But it’s a good thing that this was detected early on to avoid any catastrophic run-ins with the creature somewhere down the line. But it does seem to delay Volvo’s plans a bit. Or at least make things a bit more challenging as they aim to sell autonomous driving vehicles by 2021.

Source: Engadget + The Verge

Volvo to co-develop and sell autonomous driving tech

It’s a more common occurrence for car manufacturers to keep their autonomous driving technology to themselves. But Volvo is breaking away from that and is looking to sell the technology it develops with Swedish automotive safety supplier Autoliv. The two companies will move all their autonomous vehicle software development and intellectual property into this new joint venture. The venture will start off with 200 employees, which is split between existing staff of both companies, and will eventually grow to over 600 people. The company is expected to begin operations at the start of 2017. And they hope to sell the first of its products by 2019 with technologies becoming available by 2021. The joint venture’s headquarters will be in Gothenburg, Sweden a.k.a. Volvo’s hometown.

Source: The Verge