Life & Technology – 2GB 16th August, 2015

Google has a new owner – a company called Alphabet. It’s a little bit complicated, by Alphabet is a new umbrella company started by Google’s founders, and Google is just one of the companies on its portfolio.

 

While the Google products many of use every day – Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, YouTube – will all stay under the Google brand name, it’s zanier, future-facing projects or “moonshots” will be spun off as separate companies under the Alphabet strategy.

 

Windows Hello is one of Windows 10's more interesting features, but not everyone can use it just yet. To sign into Windows 10 with your face, your computer needs to have an Intel RealSense webcam in it, which it might do if you've bought a computer that was released after march this year. To learn a bit more about RealSense and where the technology is going, I had a chat to Graham Tucker, one of Intel's Technical Managers. Be sure to listen to the podcast for the full interview!

 

Haven’t had a chance to check out the Apple Watch yet? Well as of yesterday, it’s available in select Harvey Norman and Domayne stores. Correction, very select; it’s only in two stores so far, Harvey Norman Auburn in NSW, and Domayne, Bundall in Queensland.

 

Vacuum cleaners aren't normally the kind of gadgets we talk about on Life & Technology, but Bosch's new range are the quietest vacuum's I've heard in my life. Listen to the podcast for my chat with Jacqui Howard, Bosch's marketing manager for consumer products.

 

How would you like a portable battery that can charge your smartphones and tablets, but also jumpstart your car? Well Chris Lau from Laser has brought just that to market. Click here for more information.

 

Last week we talked about an Android vulnerability called Stagefright, one of biggest holes in Android’s security we’ve seen in the operating system’s life.

 

After my chat with Adrian last weekend, we touched base with Vodafone, Telstra and Optus to see how updates were progressing on their end. There’s some good news and bad news: all three have to committed to getting updates out quickly, but only Telstra have any concrete days – and even then, many are over a month away. Click here for more information.