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 TIME - Tech


The 3 Most Interesting Revelations in Tesla's New 'Master Plan'

TIME - Tech

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday published his second "master plan," pulling back the curtain on his long-term plans for the electric automaker. The document comes as Tesla is being criticized over its reaction to a high-profile fatality as well as its plan to merge with residential solar firm SolarCity. Here are the three most interesting revelations in Musk's plan. Tesla currently sells two vehicles: The Model S luxury sedan and the Model X luxury SUV, with the cheaper Model 3 sedan on the way. Now, Musk says at least three more are on the way, including "a compact SUV," "a new kind of pickup truck," a semi truck and a city bus.



6 Gadgets to Keep Your Home Safe From Intruders

TIME - Tech

Web security cameras are getting smarter all the time, and the Netatmo Welcome is on its way to becoming brilliant. About the size of a pepper mill, this cylindrical camera has subtle styling, so it looks at home on an entryway table. And that's the ideal placement for it, because its facial recognition technology can tell you when the kids are home from school or when a stranger has entered your home. But the 199 device is more than just a camera. It also works as a hub for the optional 99 Netatmo Tags, sensors that send your smartphone alerts when windows, doors, or gates (yes, they work outside) open and close.


Elon Musk's Tesla 'Master Plan' Involves Trucks, Buses and a Compact SUV

TIME - Tech

Electric car maker Tesla Motors is working on multiple new vehicles, including heavy trucks and buses that could be unveiled as early as next year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company also plans a compact SUV and "a new kind of pickup truck" to complement its existing fleet. Tesla currently makes a luxury sedan, the Model S, and a luxury crossover, the Model X. It plans to release a lower-priced car, the Model 3, next year. Musk discussed the products in his much-anticipated "master plan" for the company, which was posted on Tesla's website Wednesday night.


There's Now a Dating Service for Pokรฉmon Go Players

TIME - Tech

For those who are more adept at catching Squirtles than they are significant others, there's now an online dating service able to match potential mates over their shared love Pokรฉmon Go. The website, appropriately called PokรฉDates, launched Wednesday. It prompts its users to answer a few questions and provide times when they might be available for date (or just a Pokรฉmon battle), and quickly gets to work to match users with someone they might like -- emailing both parties with a convenient time and meeting location. If the users both agree to the date, the user is charged 20, though there are no subscription fees. The first PokรฉDate is free.


This Is What Combat in 'No Man's Sky' Looks Like

TIME - Tech

Sony is doing its part to hype studio Hello Games' upcoming sandbox sci-fi extravaganza No Man's Sky with a series of videos highlighting gameplay pillars like "explore," "fight," "trade" and "survive." The game, which lets players explore a fully generated universe harboring over 18 quintillion planets (most of which you'll never see), arrives on August 9 for PC and PlayStation 4. The video above is the second of four, drilling on combat. It starts in space, where battles look as most space battles do. Energy bolts issue from your vessel into the void as you zip and barrel roll your way through cosmic dogfights. You're incentivized to poke your nose into the game's autonomous economic systems, which include trade ships and freighters and the option to assault these ships and scavenge them for resources.


Automated Vehicle Experts Say Future Could Be Bright--Or Dystopian

TIME - Tech

At the annual Automated Vehicles Symposium on Tuesday, speakers in San Francisco emphasized that the decisions of human beings--as regulators, executives and consumers--are going to determine how bright, or how dark, the future of self-driving cars will be. If regulators make too many laws now, warned the head of policy from X (formerly GoogleX), "the cold, dry text" will stymie the most cutting edge technology. If business leaders aren't uber-transparent about why they believe their self-driving vehicles are safe, cautioned a law professor, the crucial element of public opinion won't be on their side. And if we're not realistic about human habits, predicted a Berkeley transportation expert, automated vehicles could lead us to waste more gas and cause more congestion instead of leading to a traffic and accident-free utopia on the road. That Berkeley expert, professor Joan Walker, highlighted the example of "zero-occupancy" vehicles that could be clogging up residential streets as people summon them for on-demand home deliveries.


'Rise of the Tomb Raider' Coming to PlayStation 4 Brimming With New Stuff

TIME - Tech

The other shoe's finally dropped: Rise of the Tomb Raider, one of 2015's finest games, is finally coming to PlayStation 4 on October 11, and bristling with new content in the bargain. It's been all quiet on Rise of the Tomb Raider for PlayStation 4's front after the snowy action-adventure arrived last November as a timed-exclusive for Xbox One, clinching scads of 2015 year's best lists--including TIME's own. Pitched as Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (the original Tomb Raider first launched in Europe for Sega's Saturn on October 25, 1996), the PlayStation 4 version has a new story chapter and zombie-killing mode, a new survival-oriented cooperative expansion to Endurance mode, and a new "Extreme Survivor" difficulty setting (play without checkpoints). The game includes all the prior downloadable content and a bunch of new in-game material (new Expedition Cards, outfits and weapons), and support for Sony's PlayStation VR headset (out October 13). Where PlayStation 4 buyers get all of that inclusive of the game, Xbox One and PC owners can download everything above (sans PlayStation VR support) if they've purchased the 29.99 season pass.


Apple's Next Software Update Makes the iPhone Feel New Again

TIME - Tech

Every year, Apple fans around the world line up to buy the newest iPhone the minute it goes on sale. But Apple's software updates for the iPhone, which the company usually reveals during its annual developer's conference, are met with far less fanfare. This is largely because Apple's new software releases, as important as they may be for keeping your iPhone fast and secure, have recently been minor upgrades. Apple's iOS 8 introduced iCloud Drive for accessing files across multiple devices and a new Health app to house fitness data from several fitness apps; iOS 9 brought Apple's streaming music service and a slightly improved version of Siri. While helpful, these additions didn't alter the overall iPhone experience in a significant way.


'Soft Robots' Look Nothing Like the Machines You Know

TIME - Tech

What happens when you imagine a robot? Most likely, you're picturing something with lots of nuts, bolts, gears and exposed metal. But an emerging field of robotics stands to change the way you think about these automated marvels. Experts in so-called "soft robotics" are designing new highly flexible robots that, in many cases, look more like sea creatures. The goal? Building machines that can accomplish tasks impossible with more rigid, traditionally-designed robots.