final week in tech: New Bose headphones, more 5G cyber web, and Uber's new rating policy

every day, expertise forces us to navigate a swath of advanced social situations. The grand champion of awkward, tech-primarily based interactions, besides the fact that children, is the score dance we do with Lyft and Uber drivers. This week, we found that Uber riders with low rankings (rumors suggest the cutoff is someplace around four.6) can also soon find themselves unable to request a automobile. It's the sort of element that sounds so convoluted and vexing that it might have been a Seinfeld subplot if the display changed into nonetheless on the air.

but, that wasn't the most effective news within the tech world this week. here's a easy breakdown of the biggest reviews you may have overlooked if you were writing fan-fic through which Kramer battles Uber after it bans him for trying to bring a are living cougar he won in a card video game into his driver's GMC Yukon.

listen to the newest episode of Techathlon

This week's episode of the choicest tech-based video game reveal podcast around is brief and candy. a brand new player joins the squad to take on a battery of trivialities questions about all things digital. There's also a hot dog toaster examine. We'll be returned with a full episode on Monday, so be sure to subscribe on iTunes, add us on Stitcher, be part of us on Spotify, or check us out on Anchor. that you can additionally submit your ratings, ideas, or unsolicited Seinfeld rantings by following us on Twitter.

Amazon announced a brand new Echo with a display (and digicam)

The $ninety Echo show 5 has a 5.5-inch display and a developed-in, Alexa-powered speaker. It facets a sliding cowl to dam the digital camera in case you're involved about Amazon spying on you as you stand in front of the refrigerator at 3:45a.m for your underpants, eating shredded cheese straight out of the bag. This aspect will be extremely affordable when best Day and Black Friday roll around.

Alexa will now delete your requests from its historical past if you ask nicely

in addition to its new hardware, Amazon also gave Alexa a new feature. you can now ask the virtual assistant to delete your requests from the previous day. sooner or later, you may be capable of ask it to delete all your requests. in case you need this feature, besides the fact that children, you'll have to decide into it, which isn't the simplest technique on earth.

Motorola announced a brand new modular cellphone

The Motorola Z4 is the latest in the business's line of gadgets that use Moto Mods: interchangeable backs that add points, like additional battery storage or a beefed-up camera, to the mobile. It's ultimately nonetheless mostly a mid-latitude machine, but it surely's in the main appropriate with the legacy mods, so it does indicate Motorola is sticking with this snap-on kind factor for the foreseeable future.

sprint received into the 5G video game

Slowly however most likely, the next-technology cell information community is rolling out across the U.S. Now, dash has became on its 5G community in a handful of cities including Dallas-citadel worth, Atlanta, Kansas city, and Houston. initial impressions show that the community is quick—assuming you have a telephone that may hook up with it (just like the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G) and you dwell precisely the place the coverage exists.

Bose announced up-to-date noise-canceling headphones

The Bose QuietComfort headphones were among the many ultimate in terms of noise canceling for years, however now the enterprise has delivered its new $399 seven hundred-sequence instant headphones that promise some enormous upgrades. Bose claims that it be optimized the new 'phones for taking mobile calls and combatting historical past noise that can make conversations difficult. that would have been reasonably handy this morning within the coffee store next to a very loud (and failing) job interview. The headphones also have a a great deal extra-modern design than the flagship QCs, which always make you appear to be you're headed to the airport.

Apple showed off a brand new iPod (sure, an iPod)

in case you thought the noble iPod changed into dead, you'd be justified, however subsequently wrong. This week, Apple brought an up-to-date edition of the iPod contact with an A10 chip internal. The upgrade makes the participant powerful satisfactory to address augmented truth apps and different processor-intensive utility. The machine starts at $199 and possibly makes greater feel than some snarky feedback on the web would suggest.