Rob has returned from his time overseas, just in time to record a new episode of MacMen!

An eagle-eyed resident of California has spotted one of Apple’s Lexus SUVs recently, sporting a brand new LIDAR set up. The  LIDAR systems on the car are designed to send out laser beams to allow the car to accurately detect its surroundings, essentially creating a 3D map of the environment around the vehicle. GPS, wheel sensors, and cameras are all used to assist in the self-driving functionality. 

Samsung mobile president, DJ Koh, has told CNBC last week that Samsung is working on a smart speaker. "Maybe soon we will announce it. I am already working on it," Koh said. He went on to say, "As I mentioned I wanted to provide a fruitful user experience at home with Samsung devices, and I want to be moving quite heavily on it." Google Assistant has been launched on iOS in Australia, Germany, France and the UK. The Google Assistant is 137 megabytes in size and requires iOS 9.1 or later. It is compatible with iPad, along with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Samsung has announced its Galaxy Note 8 at an event in New York last week. It features a 6.3” AMOLED display, with no side bezels, though it does have small bezels at the top and bottom. It features a dual-12MP camera set up, with one wide angle and one telephoto lens. Like the S8, it will have facial recognition, and Iris Scanning as ways to unlock the phone. A fingerprint scanner remains on the back of the phone.