In a perfect world every stain and spill would come out of your clothes after just a single wash. But the same way a dish washer works best after you've scraped the plates clean, pre-treating your clothes is the only way to help guarantee a stain comes out. And for homes that are lacking a sink in the laundry room, Samsung's gone and built one right in to its new activewash washing machine.
...
-- For more information read the original article here.
Tesla made news in 2014 when it gave away all its patents, an unheard of move for what is after all still in many ways a scrappy startup car company.
CEO Elon Musk, from my perspective, was trying to avoid a total collapse of the nascent electric car market. A number of new car companies that emerged around the same time as Tesla have failed. Musk doesn't want to be operating in a market of one.
Now Toyota has followed suit, but with a different propulsion system: hydrogen fuel cells. The company made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Monday.
“At Toyota, we believe that when good ideas are shared, great things can happen,” said Bob Carter, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations at Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc., in a statement.
He added:
The first generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, launched between 2015 and 2020, will be critical, requiring a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration between automakers, government regulators, academia and energy providers. By eliminating traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the development of new technologies and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically.
However, according to the company, "[T]oday's announcement represents the first time that Toyota has made its patents available free of charge and reflects the company's aggressive support for developing a hydrogen-based society."
Toyota partnered with Tesla on electric-car technology development and until recently owned a stake in Musk's firm.
Toyota's motives are probably similar to Tesla's: the Japanese automotive giant wants to turbocharge hydrogen fuel-cell development and doesn't want to be the only company striving to innovate in the space.
Interestingly, of course, if fuel-cells take off in a big way they could pose a meaningful threat to the ascent of electric cars. So there's a battle of sorts brewing, with bets being placed on differing technologies while companies takes pages from each other's strategic playbooks.
SEE ALSO: 2014 Was One Of The Most Important Years Ever For The Auto Industry
Join the conversation about this story »
Samsung unveiled the latest TV sets in its line of Ultra HD TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show Monday. Those are the TVs with a super-crisp resolution about twice as sharp as a normal HD TV.
But while everyone was gawking at the display (and it really does look amazing!), Samsung dropped an even bigger bit of news about the "smart" element to its new TVs.
Moving forward, these TVs will run on Tizen, an open source operating system Samsung was originally developing for smartphones.
Tizen was one of the ways Samsung planned to wean itself off of Android. Right now, most of Samsung's phones run Android, but that adds a heavy dependence on Google and its software and services.
Meanwhile, Samsung has been having trouble selling its phones against competitors like Xiaomi, which also makes Android devices as good as Samsung's phones, but cost half as much.
Tizen was one way Samsung wanted to differentiate its devices from other Android phones out there, but the project has hit a snag. At least one Tizen phone from Samsung was supposed to launch last year, but it's either been delayed or totally scrapped.
Now, Tizen has found new life in Samsung's other gadgets, including the new line of smart TVs the company unveiled on Monday. Tizen will be used to manage your favorite shows, stream content from your Samsung phone or tablet, and watch stuff on services like Netflix. (We'll have more photos and demos of the TVs this week once we check them out on the CES show floor.)
The bad news: none of Samsung's Tizen gadgets are big profit drivers for the company. For example, Tizen also powers most of Samsung's smartwatches and will soon power everyday appliances.
Instead of crushing Android, it seems like Samsung is shifting its Tizen strategy for what it thinks will be the next big thing after smartphones, the so-called "Internet of Things" (IoT) trend.
Join the conversation about this story »
Historian Michael Beschloss reminds us that construction on San Francisco's famous Golden Gate Bridge began today in 1933, in the depths of the Depression.
Beschloss also tweeted Ansel Adams' photo of what the Gate looked like before the bridge:
The Golden Gate Bridge took four years to build. Eleven men fell to their deaths while building it. In one accident, a scaffold net collapsed, sending a dozen men hurtling into the water. Two of the men survived the 200-foot fall. (Wikipedia)
The bridge cost $35 million to build and came in $1.5 million under budget.
Join the conversation about this story »